Saturday, September 11, 2010

Why you should rejoice in whatever problems you may be going through...

It seems counterintuitive to say that we should "rejoice" in hard times and with painful problems.  And if viewed from a strictly human perspective, rejoicing would be the least likely outcome.  But there is a reason, even in pain and suffering, to rejoice, to see and acknowledge the presence of good in our lives even when it seems to be missing.
If life was truly mortal and material and if human circumstances were the truth of being, then judging our lives and our sufferings from a mortal basis would be reasonable.  And this certainly is the way most of us view existence.  But the Bible offers a different perspective, a spiritual view of life and reality, that totally changes what we think and see.  According to the Bible, God is Spirit, and we are made in His image and likeness.  The likeness of Spirit cannot be material.  So that which we see as real, that which we universally accept as our substance and life in matter is actually false, unreal.  And if it is unreal, then all the manifestations we see in matter are equally unreal although they surely seem to be real.
So what then do dire and troubling material circumstances really mean to us?  When we have human problems, be they related to health, wealth, or anything else, their only reality is as a spur to prick our mortal sense of existence with a jolt so painful as to awaken within us the need to seek a higher reality.  In times of pain and suffering, the common response is to turn to God for relief.  "There are no atheists in a foxhole."  But when we turn to God, how we do it is vital to our finding relief.
If our prayers are merely human, fearful pleas to an unknown deity somewhere vastly far away and above our situation, then they have only limited benefit.  True prayer, the prayer that does bring us healing and relief, is always declaratory.  Our need in times of trouble is not to look outward from the pain and suffering and beg for intervention, but to silently and confidently declare that we are not in the pain and suffering at all, but held in the arms of divine Love, the one and almighty God.  If we back up this acknowledgement with a certain faith and clear understanding of this holy Truth, then we will experience what Jesus described when he said, "And ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free."  Free from the pain, free from the suffering, free from all mortal claims on our being.
So, today, as we think of all the suffering that mankind has gone through, from the 9/11 tragedy to the floods in Pakistan, to the suffering of people from war and poverty and disease around the globe, it's time to change our outlook and our prayerful attempts to find relief.  It's time to know God more as a precious, loving Father-Mother than as an elevated and distant figurehead in the clouds or as another inspired mortal named Jesus who walked the earth over 2,000 years ago.  It's time to understand heaven as a state of mind entirely connected to God, divine Mind, and not as a big city in the clouds with streets of gold.  It's time to begin to see and understand the spiritual reality of all life and being and to know that suffering is simply a call to look deeper into Truth to find whatever it is that the pain and suffering are there to lead us to find.  There are lessons in all suffering.  There are gains to be made whenever we endure the pain and learn more of the Truth by holding steadfastly to God and turning away from matter, mortality, and error.  Jesus is our savior not merely because he suffered on the cross and died for us, but more because he revealed through his life and teachings and resurrection that life is not mortal at all, but spiritual.
Let us begin today to find the spiritual call in all the times we find ourselves suffering or in need.  Let us respond to that call by delving deeper into our understanding of divine Mind, perfect Love, the All-in-all, God and in Christ Jesus who showed us the Father in deed and in truth.  In this way we will not only find relief from suffering and pain, but we will begin to find more and more of heaven in our daily lives.  We are in heaven already, all the time.  We just need to turn away from the mortal, human sense of reality and stay in the spiritual every moment.  Never let mortal, material seeming, as real as it may claim to be, persuade you to believe that God is not right with you giving you safety and peace and joy.
Have a blessed day, and by all means, seek ye the Lord.   CM

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Planning ahead vs. living in the now

One of the most common words used in the Bible is faith.  The ancient Hebrews as they wandered in the desert and were fed by manna from heaven were told not to gather more than they needed for one day.  Jesus advised his followers that they should: "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."
And yet, with all this wisdom advising against it, how many of us truly don't try to plan ahead?  Whether our planning is for a day or week or a month or longer, it is all too common for men and women to feel compelled to figure out what they should do and plan for future eventualities.  Most of us don't feel we could move forward safely without lots of planning ahead.  How could we live any other way?
Well, if the Bible and Christ Jesus are correct, there is no need for us to spend out time in an effort to plan out our future.  If we live with faith in a divine, loving creator who always cares for us, we can live safely one moment at a time.  A wise spiritual teacher, Mary Baker Eddy, in her book Science and Health, advises us that: "When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path."  
Human logic and mortal reasoning rebel against such a notion.  The mortal dream of life seems to be infinitely complex and dangerous, and most of us wouldn't dare release control of our futures to an invisible power outside our personal senses.  But could we?  Do we have the spiritual faith and discipline to truly "Let go and let God?"  What would a life lived on this basis be like?  Certainly we would have to devote time to consciously remembering that we are being guided, guarded, and governed by God.  We are going to be faced with decisions that we must act on.  So, how do we turn it all over to God?
I think that if we live "in the moment," we are not asked not to take human actions, we are just asked to act when the moment demands it, and not before.  For instance, if seeking employment, it would be reasonable to feel that we should do research and make applications.  We are led to the moment for doing this, and there is no contradiction to following the impulse to take those actions.  But once we have taken the human footsteps, we shouldn't then spend days, weeks, or months fretting over what the results will be.  Living in the now demands that we release the issue into the hands of divine Love, our Father-Mother, God.  If another human step is necessary, divine Mind is surely capable of putting it before us so we can act accordingly and in the proper way.  We thus live each day focused only on being the most faithful follower of God we can possibly be, and we let our human lives and the paths we take be shown to us spiritually.  We thus release what we believe is our control of the situation into the only hands truly able to bring us safely home.
And what a relief it is to not feel humanly responsible and burdened for the choices we face in life!  To be sure, we are not shirking our  responsibilities by acting in this way, for the only true responsibility we ever have is to listen for God's guidance and follow it faithfully.  So if you are ready, it's never too soon to begin the glorious process of turning your life over to divine Spirit, the only God, who loves and cares for you and me and all.  Just let go and trust yourself to Almighty God, Love.  Peace to all.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Popular religion and the Wizard of Oz

Thanks to its yearly rebroadcast, the film, The Wizard of Oz, is familiar to generations of TV viewers.  Its popularity may also stem from the message it conveys.  The heroine is lost and afraid and is told that all her questions can be answered by the wonderful wizard.  She must "follow the yellow brick road" facing trials and dangers to reach this wizard and his wisdom, and she must persevere if she wants to get back to her home.  When she finally reaches the wizard's castle, rather than provide her with what she needs, he sends her forth on yet another seemingly impossible quest.  Viewers, as well as the heroine, Dorothy, pretty soon clearly see that the wizard is really only a charlatan.  The one piece of truth he has is that the salvation she seeks is within her grasp all the time.  She has only to think about her home, and she is transported back there.
Too often, the dictates of popular religion are like this movie.  We are told that if we do certain things, we will find our heavenly home. We are constantly advised that we must follow all sorts of twisted paths and accomplish all sorts of miraculous feats to find what we seek.  And too often, even after we have faithfully followed these dictates, we find that we are still in the hellish world of mortality.  Such unfulfilling results "...try men's souls" and lead many to turn from religion as false.  Unfortunately, much that is associated with popular religious practice is just that - completely false.  In an age where science has revealed more and more material facts that seem to contradict popular religious teachings, many are driven to agnosticism or atheism, abandoning popular religion altogether.  Others turn to Eastern religions like Buddhism in hopes of finding some answers that make sense.
The real solution to this desperate need is to find "true religion" - the religion that Jesus would recognize and embrace.  And unlike the fake power of the wizard in our movie, that religion does not spring from a wizard or a religious potentate or even a local preacher.  As Jesus would say, true religion "...is within you."
So when we seek to find this vital Truth that will "...make us free," we need to turn away from religions which spout a worship of personalities outside our own souls.  We need to listen to what Jesus taught and try to follow his teachings rather than worship his personality or his bodily presence.  We need to look for the Truth of God within our hearts and our souls and cease to expect some modern-day wizard or preacher or guru to give us the answers we seek.  This inner search for the Truth is possible because the answers are already within our souls.  We know our connection to God and our place in his heavenly kingdom, now.  We know it beyond the cellular level; we know it in the very core of our being.  And when we are still and our mortal senses are silenced, we can hear the answers we need.  Jesus taught us that we should "...enter into our closet(s) and shut the door."  We must take him at his word.  We must stop trying to find a wizard to guide us and rely on the very voice of God.  We must have faith that Jesus told us the Truth - all that we need to find our heavenly home.  And as we patiently and prayerfully hold his words and his example in our thoughts, we will surely find that we are back in Kansas or wherever heaven happens to be for us.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Progress is the law of God

In her revelatory book, Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy wrote the following:
       Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. These proofs consist solely in the destruction of sin, sickness, and death by the power of Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfill.


How often have I found myself believing that I was stuck in a state of limbo, unable to move forward with my life!  And yet, in each of those cases, God opened a door for me to step through.  A door that brought sure progress to my life and my spirit.  Perhaps more amazingly, the door never led where I was expecting to go.  I would endlessly research human options open to me and analyze each one from multiple angles.  Occasionally I would follow one of those options for a short time only to discover that, for all my careful planning, the end result was not right for me.  
But whenever I've completely released my human sense of logic and planning and turned my life over to divine Mind, perfect Love, I've always found peace and joy and fulfillment.  The important thing is to have an unyielding faith that your life is not your own, but is truly a manifestation of God's eternal Life, and to hold deep within your soul the eternal truth that releases you from human fears and doubts.  Jesus showed us how to live a life so free and conscious of God's power that he could face anything with the certainty that his Father-Mother, God, would bring him safely through.
So whatever your life is like now, just remember that progress is what God has in store for you.  No matter how long suffering has followed your footsteps, uplifting life and love are your destiny.  Expect omnipotent Love to reach you, wherever you are, and lift your life to joy and goodness.  Peace.



   

Monday, May 17, 2010

If you don't like something, let go of it.

A Sunday School teacher once told me a story I've never forgotten.  It was about how hunters captured monkeys in the jungle.  The trappers would simply put a banana in a jar with a narrow mouth.  They would then tie the jar to a tree and wait.  Soon enough, a monkey would come along and see the banana in the jar.  The monkey could squeeze his hand into the jar to grab the banana, but as he gripped the banana with his fist, his hand could not fit through the mouth of the jar, leaving him trapped to the jar and the tree.  It was a simple matter for the trappers to come and scoop him up.
The obvious moral of the story is that if the monkey had enough sense to just let go of the banana, he could have easily withdrawn his hand and escaped.  It was only his own stupidity and stubborn attitude that left him trapped.
Sadly, people are often guilty of the same type behavior.  No, we may not realize that it is within our power to let go of something and be free, but we are.  Whether we are clutching sickness, poverty, depression, or hopelessness, the story applies.  Mortal mind, aka. human reasoning, would argue that these things are imposed on us by forces and circumstances beyond our control - a weak body, bad genes, an economic downturn, failure in a relationship, and on and on.  We are educated from birth to believe that we live in an objective state of being and that there is scientific proof that something outside our control has had a negative effect on our well-being.  If you believe this, you are certainly in the majority.  But is it really true?
The science of physics has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, that, in fact, we do not live in an objective state, but a subjective one.  The experimenter's thoughts and attitudes directly affect the results of his experiments.  Google the terms placebo and nocebo and read what you find there.
So, what if our attitudes and beliefs are truly a part, maybe even the whole, of our experience?  That means that if we are suffering humanly, that suffering is in fact a product of our thoughts, our attitudes, our beliefs.  And if we can change those thoughts, we can change our experience.  Too often, though, just like our friends the monkeys, we are so fixated on having that banana, that we are not about to let it go, even if that simple action would free us.
Ask yourself, do I wholeheartedly believe that some problem is real and truly a part of my life?  Do I refer to "my cancer" or "my evil boss" or even "my horrible life?"  If you do, then stop and consider how much you want those negative things.  Are you tired enough of them to let them go?  Could you begin to think differently about yourself if you knew it would bring healing to your life?  Even if you're not convinced and certain of this, would it not be worth a little effort to try?  In speaking of healing, the Master Christian, Jesus Christ, tells us that we should, "...know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  If this Truth is that we are always held in God's loving arms - never hurt, never sick, never threatened - and if knowing this will free us from the human circumstances that say we are, shouldn't we listen to him?
Whether you believe this premise or not, surely we can all agree that thinking positively and expecting goodness is a better way to live than thinking negatively and expecting evil.  So, start each day by reminding yourself that you are Love's expression.  Remember that all through the day.  Fight any suggestion to see and believe in sin, sickness, or death.  You will find comfort and healing in proportion to how sincerely you hold onto these loving thoughts.  Healing in this way happens every day.  Don't be a silly monkey and refuse to let go of that mortal banana.  Peace.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Understanding what matters and what doesn't

In the Ten Commandments, we find a prohibition against murder and another against bearing false witness.  Hmm...quite a broad spectrum there.  What can we learn from such widely varied commandments?
Again, in Isaiah 55:8-9, we read, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."
The angel message in these passages is that mortal, material thoughts and actions and all the laws relating to them reflect their source - mortality, materiality, nothingness.  The Creator of the universe is divine, infinite Spirit and that which is the only truth of creation must likewise be completely Spirit, Mind, Love.  So when we think of human life and death, good and evil, morality and immorality, we are simply entertaining vacant unreality - nothing claiming to be something.  The sad thing is how many good and loving ideas of God have been condemned to misery and even death on the basis of vacuous mortal dictates.  The preacher who believes in the power of sin is just as guilty as the simple sinner who believes that there is pleasure in debauched mortal existence.
Does this mean that we have the freedom to completely disregard human morals and rules of righteousness?  Only if we never want to discover our true, eternally loving state of being.  A wise teacher once said that sin is anything that separates us from God, Love, Truth.  Since the ultimate reality of creation is that we can never truly be separated from our Father-Mother, God, sin cannot exist in the kingdom of heaven - our eternal, spiritual home.  
So what and where and why is sin?  Sin is simply a mistake about what is real - an illusion about life that, if believed and practiced will hide our true spiritual, perfect natures from us.  The only reality of sin is that it serves to reveal to us the suffering separation from divine Love brings.  Our Father-Mother, Love doesn't create sin or make us prone to it.  But divine Love does remind us through a still, small voice within our hearts that we are loving, pure ideas.  This voice triggers within us a repulsion to all that is sinful, impure, and mortal.  If we wish to uplift our lives, we listen to that voice and turn away from all that is unlike God, good.  The true meaning of "free will" is that we can choose to embrace sin, conclude its seeming pleasures are what we want, and live lives separated from heavenly good.  But those sin-filled lives are never real.  They are always delusional.  And we may choose to live in this way time and time again, but all that is really happening is that we are wasting eons in false dreaming, never aware that there is true happiness, peace, and everlasting joy at our very fingertips.  All we have to do is to turn away wholeheartedly from anything that makes us bow down to matter, sin, disease, and death. and steadfastly listen to that inner voice of Truth that is always with us - always guiding, guarding, and governing us.
To escape from evil, we must be steadfast in our focus on the Truth of being - in spiritual living and blessedness.  We must stand up against the subtle lies that delusional error tries to impress upon us as our own thoughts.  Humanly when we dream at night, we are convinced that we are living a real existence - traveling to foreign lands and doing wondrous things - when all the while we are simply lying motionless, asleep in a bed.  Likewise, when we look at our daily human existence as reality, all we are truly seeing is a waking dream - sometimes exciting or beautiful, but always false.  We are so acclimated to this pseudo-reality that we think it represents true being.  This is where we must listen to our inner voice - the voice of an angel - if we are going to awake and begin to seek what truly constitutes life and being - divine Spirit.
So, dear friends, do not despair, no matter how deeply mired in mortal delusion you may seem to be.  Your true being has never sinned.  Your true identity is "...hid with Christ in God."  And all the years of hopeless slavery to matter that you may believe you have spent are less than nothing.  It only takes a moment to awaken from this mortal dream and reach out with your heart to divine Love.  Your Father-Mother, God is always there to lift you up as we read in the book of James (4:8): "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded."  Keep your hearts and minds so focused on perfect Love that you listen to and claim no other mind but the divine Mind as your own.  Peace. 

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Faith during trying times - sometimes difficult, always rewarding.

A wise teacher once wrote: "Trials are proofs of God's care." In the midst of challenging periods in our lives, most of us have a tough time believing that the pain and suffering we are going through could possibly be evidence of a caring Father-Mother, God.  So, what does this quote mean?
Well, it comes down to how much do we need to grow spiritually in our lives to truly know Love's heavenly kingdom.  The true saints among us live their lives facing the same kinds of trials that we do, but their faith in omnipotent Love is so great that they see beyond the pain to the true reality of being.  They have gained such faith by years of devoted prayer and communion with God.  The suffering they endured early in life taught them a most valuable lesson of faith and trust in Almighty God.  We suffer because we need to grow in our perception and understanding of spiritual, perfect reality.  Our inner spiritual voice reminds us that Love is more potent than hate, Life is more real than death, and Good is more powerful than evil.  When we confront the illusory forces of evil or human error, our human sense of being is troubled.  Much like trying to read a book while riding in the back seat of a car on a hilly, curvy road, the human brain is receiving mixed signals.  The eyes say we are sitting still reading a stationary book while the inner ear testifies that we are moving up and down, right and left.  The end result of these mixed signals is we feel carsick.  Likewise, when our spiritual sense is telling us that divine Love is our life and that we are safe and protected, sometimes our mortal sense tells us otherwise, and we suffer.
Our response to this suffering is key.  Do we accept the suffering as real?  Do we allow the suffering to overcome our sense of God's care?  Do we look elsewhere than Spirit for relief?  If we do any of the preceding, we allow ourselves to lose the lesson we could learn.  If we wallow in the suffering and believe it is reality, we suffer more and defeat the only real purpose suffering has - to prod us into a greater faith, a more steadfast turning to divine Mind.  The result is that we must continue to suffer until we reach that point where we awaken and allow suffering to refocus our minds.  When we finally begin to reject the suffering for its unreality, we will see the true purpose for its seeming presence in our lives.  That truth is telling us that we need to turn more to Spirit and Love and look away from matter and error.
The old adage about suffering, "That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger" applies.  If we turn our thoughts and lives to spiritual being and goodness and find that the trial we were facing is behind us, we can rejoice because we have risen up higher in the scale of existence.  We have added a new piece of evidence to our mental file folder declaring that Spirit can be trusted to overcome matter, and we are blessed by this addition.
So, since divine Love cares dearly for each and every one of us, that Love continues to remind us that we should look away from error, evil, and matter and turn wholeheartedly to Spirit.  Those reminders that we get look a lot like trials and suffering, but they are really just heavenly wake-up calls.  The Bible says: "Rejoice in all things!"  Even suffering can be a call to rejoice when we let it teach us to look to God.  Divine Love is faithful and will deliver us from the lions' den or the fiery furnace.  Likewise, Love will meet any human need we have, including the need for relief from a suffering human sense of pain in life.  So, after the first blush of fear that may accompany a trial or test of our faith, resolve to look heavenward.  As Jesus advises us, "...know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."(John 8:32)


Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff,-- a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not half remember this in the sunshine of joy and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are proofs of God's care. Spiritual development germinates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes, but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.  (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, 66:6)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Spiritual and the material

In her revelatory work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "straight line finds no abiding-place in a curve, and a curve finds no adjustment to a straight line. Similarly, matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has no place in matter. Truth has no home in error, and error has no foothold in Truth." (S&H 282: 14-16)
Math often serves as a useful translator between the two polar opposite worlds of spirit and matter.  We all appreciate the concept of the number 5 as an inantimate idea, but we deal with that number in the real world as a concrete identity.  So too the analogy of spirit as a curve or sphere while matter is compared to a straight line segment gives a sense of the vast and unbridgeable gap between the two.
And if Spirit and matter are irreconcilably separate, then shouldn't we begin to examine our lives on the basis of where our focus is held?  How many years, decades, yea, centuries have men endlessly struggled over material possesions, conditions, even sematics?  But if the true reality of the universe is in divine Spirit, then all these struggles are completely senseless and useless.
Take the current stuggle mankind faces over sexuality and marriage.  True, the Bible does instruct that men should "Be fruitful and multiply." (Gen 1:22)  But in another passage, that same Bible says , "But they which shall be accounted worthy . . . neither marry, nor are given in marriage."  (Luke 20:35).  The deeper Truth is that neither sexuality nor mortal marriage are spiritual.  They are, like all material things, part of that straight line universe wherein the heavenly kingdom of Love has no abiding place.  And yet just as mortals have done for milennia, men stand ready to torture and kill one another to prove some completely inconsequential point made by dogmatic, counterfeit, self-ordained religion.  Hear the crystal clear words of Christ Jesus: "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him."
So, where does human sexuality fit into this command to spiritualize our lives?  It could be argued  that sexuality by its material nature is not spiritual and thus not truly a part of Love's heavenly kingdom.  Does that mean the we should eliminate sexuality from our thoughta and our lives?  Well, acutally, at some point in our spiritual evolution away from matter, that should be a natural progression.  Should we force a premature denial of human nature by strength of will?  The ongoing troubles seen in the Catholic priesthood and among sex offenders in society seem to indicate that forced denial humanly leads to repression and eventually unhealthy expression.  Perhaps the wisest approach is to understand human sexuality for what it truly is - a deeply felt part of human expression of selfhood, not completely understood or understandable, but something that must be accepted for at least a little while longer.  
And if it is conceded that this sexuality can never be a true part of man's perfect spiritual being, then what good can we ascribe to it?  Certainly deep human love and the bonding which occurs between two loving individuals has value.  A beautiful sunset is not spiritual, but it can certainly lift up our thoughts and thus our lives .  In like manner so do human sexual bonds within committed loving relatiohships, specifically, marriage.  The key point that needs to be understood spiritually is whether loving human relationships should be limited or judged by a mortal code.  Insofar as moral codes are temporal and mortal, it seems more in live with the God who is Love to err on the side of honoring love and commitment over human rules and constructs.  Any rational human being who has witnessed the deep and abidig love between a couple, be they heterosexual or homosexual, must realize that such emotional bonding cannot be coerced or forced.  Who would choose the stigma most of the world assigns to LGBTQ men and women unless they were obeying an imperative inner voice from their indwelling soul?  And if one is truly obeying such a voice, how can we possibly declare that such love cannot be allowed in our society or our churches?  I believe the appropriate quote from Jesus Christ would be, "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged."(Luke 6:37) 
The time has come for all loving people, of all religions (or no even no religion), to try harder to remember their true spiritual identity and cease from all effots to believe in or construct reality from mortality and human imagination.  As expressions of a divine Creator, perfect Mind, we are always able to hear the voice of Truth when we listen.  We should all be striving daily to uplift our thoughts and thus our lives to Spirit.  And we should honor God as Love by extending our love to all our brothers and sisters wherever they are on their individual journeys spiritward.  Rather than cast stones or hurt our brothers and sisters, we should realize that no mortal, material construct, even marriage, is spiritual.  And we should extend to   all our fellow beings the respect and love that allows them to live their lives as they feel led by the divine Creator.  As long as we do not hinder our brothers and sisters, and we try keep our thoughts uplifted, we never need to fear that Almighty God will direct our paths and lead us safely home.  Blessings to all my brothers and sisters.  Amen.











Sunday, April 18, 2010

Judgment, justice, and reality


In everyday life, we often seem to be asked to make judgments of people, of places, and of things.  We have learned to accept this as reasonable, maybe even necessary, and sometimes we probably fail to give the process due consideration.  We just judge and move on.  And how sure are we that in judging we are being fair or righteous?  After all, our judgments are based on what - our own education, our prejudices, sometimes our lack of understanding?  So, what if we discovered that we were indoctrinated into bigotry as we grew up?  How often do we seek spiritual perspectives and inspiration before we make our judgments?  
Perhaps if we wish to live more righteous lives, we should seek to determine what the wisdom of the ages tell us about judgment.  Search whatever spiritual teachings you feel best touch your soul, but for me, there is ample wisdom in the Bible to help me direct my thoughts.  In the New Testament, Jesus said, "Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man." (John 8:15)  He is also quoted as saying, 
     "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and      
       ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be 
       forgiven:
      Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure,   
      pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, 
      shall men give into your bosom. For with the same 
      measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you 
      again.
      And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the 
      blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?"
      (Luke 6:37-39)
Jesus' comment refering to when "...the blind lead the blind", sums up for me unrighteous judgment.  How can we possibly judge others unless we know our own wisdom, inspiration, and vision are perfectly aligned with the divine, spiritual source of life?  Do we know this because a denomination or a local preacher has drilled it into our heads that we must believe in a particular human version of  Truth?  When was the last time that church or that preacher raised someone from the dead, walked on water, or ascended into heaven?
Maybe, before we mindlessly condemn our brothers and sisters in Christ, we should stop and seek an inner inspiration before we pass judgment.  Beware leaping to false judgments of others if you heed Jesus' words, "...with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."  Do you really want to assume the wisdom of the Almighty based soley on human teachings and understanding?  Are you willing to suffer the same condemnation that you mete out if you are wrong?
Surely there's a better way to approach the whole matter of judgment.  Again, I like to start with Jesus' simple words: "Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man."  And so, if Jesus judged no man, who are we do presume to know enough more than he did?  I think that the reason Jesus could declare that he didn't judge men was that he was aware of a Truth that completely separated him from most preaching, theology, and human reasoning.  This Truth was that mortal, material, sinful men were not real - were not ever part of his Heavenly Father-Mother's creating.  Mortals are by definition not spiritual beings.  Their existence is at best a temporal human illusion.  So all that they say or do is unreal, vacuous.  Yes, humanly it appears that they commit evil deeds worthy of condemnation and judgment, but if what we are seeing of these deeds is part and parcel our own illusory view or a false sense of reality, then it is simply an exercise in futility to condemn that which is unreal.  When Jesus declared that we “… judge after the flesh;” was he not pointing to this discrepancy in our vision? 
Until we ascend into heavenly wisdom and peace, we are going to continue our daily material existence including the human demand to see evil and judge people, places, and things based on whatever human code we have adopted as our own.  Would we not be more faithful to Jesus’ teachings if we resisted this temptation?  If we could strive each moment to see our brothers and sisters as God’s children - pure, unfallen, and eternally good, would we not be more in line with the gospels?  Just as Jesus told those wanting to stone the woman they believed to be a sinner, should we not also practice his wisdom that said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”  In other words, should we not realize that our entire vision of reality is flawed and that just as she may have appeared to be in violation of human codes of behavior, are we not all violating another of Jesus’ admonitions to:  “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”? (Matt 5:48)
So, when you know you have truly reached perfection, then judge all you want to, cast the first stone, and condemn away.  But be cautious, since if Christ Jesus didn’t feel that he could take such actions, perhaps you are mistaken as to your state of heavenly wisdom.  The better path, it seems to me, is to try instead to see the goodness and love in all our brothers and sisters, tolerate their human imperfections as best we can, and try always to live more Christly lives ourselves. 
Blessings and peace to you all.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

A new day, a new week, and new opportunities...

As we move forward in life, each new day has its own story to tell, and according to the laws of physics, we all play our part in the telling.  Our expectations, our fears, our doubts, our optimism or pessimism, all affect the day we experience.  So, if we would rather have joy instead of sorrow, health instead of sickness, peace instead of conflict, love instead of hate, then we must do our part to fortify our hearts and minds with God's Truth and remember Love's omnipotence.  As we face each day, a great Bible verse to remember is found in Isaiah: "And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left." 
We need to remember that the voice we should be listening to is everlasting Mind - divine Love that will never lead us away from our heavenly home.  We should beware of the voices of discord, whether they come from the media, our friends, our families, or even when they seem to be coming from our own consciousness.  It is up to us to judge these voices, as the Bible says in 1 John: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."  It may fly in the face of logic to declare that there is no sin, disease, or death, when the world is screaming at us that these troubles are all around.   But if we want to find true and lasting peace in the midst of peril, we should strive to follow the Biblical wisdom and lift up our thoughts and our lives - today and every day. God bless you and keep you all.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

You are already in the kingdom of heaven.

How many times have you used or heard someone else use the expression, "Yes, but if only...?"  How often do we find ourselves looking at life and wishing to change things?  How many times do we think that we could be happy 'if only' we had something that we lack but others have?  Well, the truly good news is we never really have to make any changes to our real, true being to find perfect happiness and peace.  You see, we are already in the kingdom of heaven - here and now, wherever we are.  Jesus taught us this lesson when he told his followers that they shouldn't look here or there for heaven but, in his words, "...the kingdom of heaven is within you."
And if it's within you, then you don't need to go anywhere or do anything or change any part of your being to get there.  Yes, you may well find it hard to accept your current situation as heavenly.  You may be dealing with pain, death, betrayal, sickness, sin, etc., but it is so vital that we separate this sometimes painful physical reality from our true, ideal, spiritual being.  In Genesis, the Bible tells us "...and God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good."  The Bible and countless other spiritual teachers also stress that God is infinite, omnipotent, omnipresent Love, providing us with our lives and the lives of all those around us.  So, what could be a more accurate description of heaven than to be the image and likeness of perfect Love, surrounded by an infinite company of heavenly angels?
If this is the true reality of life, why then does there seem to be so much discord, hate, pain, war, poverty, and suffering in the world?  Evils only exist in the human realm, the domain of the earthbound mortals who are living lives "...of quiet desperation."  We live in desperation because deep within our souls we know we are in heaven, and we are so devastated to see that we have lost our vision of that kingdom of Love and see instead a world that seems increasingly to be filled with hate.  That picture so agonizes us that we suffer.
But the Truth is that we have within our power a way to end that suffering.  We can learn to turn wholeheartedly away from the mortal, material, hellish picture the human world puts before us.  We can discipline ourselves to stand guard over our thoughts and forbid entrance to mortal, erroneous ideas.  Yes, such discipline is work.  Yes, the temptation to believe the news headlines about thousands dying in an earthquake or scores being killed by a terrorist bomb is strong.  Yes, we have been taught our whole lives to think that what we see around us is objective reality with a mind and a cause of its own, outside of God's control.  But if we were taught that 2 + 2 = 7 from kindergarten on and everyone we knew thought it was true too, does that make it so?  Of course not - it just makes it an aggressive and persistent belief that often seems impossible to shake.  But if Christ Jesus tells you that 2 + 2 = 4, would you doubt him?  And if he told us that "...the kingdom of heaven is within you." why would you doubt that?
The trick is to trust the Christ, Truth.  Have that mustard grain-sized faith that allows us to trust in Jesus' words.  In this present material world, such faith may rarely be easy.  We are receiving too many signals from matter to the contrary.  This doesn't mean it's not true; it just means we have to persist in our faith and our trust that Jesus meant what he said.  It doesn't mean that suddenly the evening news is going to be filled with nothing but stories of heavenly bliss, but it does mean that we will slowly and surely begin to see more of heaven around us.  Practice makes perfect, and the longer we insist on abiding in faith and trusting in God, the closer we'll be to truly seeing heaven here and now.  God, Love, bless you all.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Never fear

Throughout the Bible from Moses to Jesus, one of the most common recurring phrases is: "Fear not."  There are different versions, but the message is always one of comfort and support, letting us know that God is at hand to save and heal.
So what are we to think when confronted with threatening conditions?  Obviously, the most effective method would be to stay so uplifted in our thoughts that we prevent the threat from ever occurring.  But in times of stress when we let ourselves forget our true identity and mortality comes knocking, there is a secret place we can go.  We can quietly and insistently declare in our thoughts that we are truly spiritual ideas living in Love's kingdom of heaven - right here, right now.  We can let go of the urge to react to error and instead turn wholeheartedly to Truth and Love.  As we grow in grace, uplifting our understanding so we begin to feel divine Mind guiding, guarding, and governing us every step of the way, first, we will be spared from evil's entry into our lives, and second, even if evil seems to be present, we will be able to trust Almighty God, perfect Life, to overrule any claims of harm that evil might try to fool us into believing.  Growing in grace is growing in trust that grace is ever-present to save.  Holding the Truth that life is eternal close to our hearts, we can quickly respond to threats, knowing that they can never destroy our eternal life in God.  And if we know that even death cannot touch us, other, lesser threats will seem even less ominous.
So face each moment with a calm, strong trust that you are held in the everlasting arms of Love.  Love never drops you or leaves you.  Love protects every hair on your head and turns to dust any error that tries to enter your life.  Let go, and let God!  Fear not!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

New beginnings led by faith

In the night before the crucifixion, Jesus prayed to know what his Father, divine Love, would have him do.  He had preached to the people, healed the sick, raised the dead, and now was faced with betrayal and what seemed like certain death.  Knowing the good he had done and could still do, he was torn by his wish to still serve God in the healing work but willing accepted death if that was to be his fate.  He would not shrink from his faith in God's provision for him.  Understand this, God, divine Love, did not mandate nor create the evil, envy, and hate that inspired those who would kill the Christ.  Divine Love knows no evil, no sin, disease, or death.  God is Life and knows only perfect, loving life for all his creation.
So, where did the plot to crucify Jesus come from?  It came from the hatred that mortality has for spirituality.  Mortality does not, cannot, perceive or understand spirit, and just as we see in the behavior of dumb animals, mortality lashes out to kill whatever it doesn't understand.  Not that mortality is a real evil.  No, mortality is just illusion, ignorance, blindness, swinging blindly in the darkness at whatever it can't understand or appreciate.  So mortality felt that whatever it was that Jesus demonstrated and taught was a threat to its self-absorbed dreaming, and it tried to slay this messenger of Truth.  No, God didn't ordain that Jesus should suffer and die.  God only ordained that Jesus' faith and understanding of Truth would sustain him in whatever he had to face.  Love never left Jesus.  He was attuned to the Christ, Truth, in every step toward Calvary he took.  In the Garden of Gesthemene, he didn't know how his life would be preserved with so many mortal minds trying to take it away, but his faith allowed him to go forward anyway.  Mortal mind tried to convince him that his God had forsaken him; tried to impress him with its power over his life. He faced that temptation as he had faced all others - with an understanding of the nature of spiritual reality and a faith borne of experience, that divine Love would always meet his needs and make things come out right.  Jesus knew that no matter how dark the human picture seemed, there are no mistakes in divine Mind's kingdom of heaven - his eternal home.  He knew that he could not die and that whatever happened, he would continue to express the laws of Truth, Life, and Love that his heavenly Father shared through him.
So, he suffered from seeing how lost in darkness his brothers and sisters were.  He suffered from seeing how tightly bound to blind ignorance those who were crucifying him were.  But divine Love sustained him through all his suffering and led him as he lay in the tomb to realize that his life was still intact.  Mind showed him that life was not at the mercy of hate or death.  This lesson learned, he arose to share this incredible good news, this gospel, with his followers and ultimately with all mankind.
How does this resurrection story apply to your daily life, you ask?  Which of us doesn't feel lost and be uncertain of our way?  Which of us can claim never to be afraid?  The lesson for us on Easter is that if we know the Truth, the Truth will make us free.  No matter what mountain we must climb, if we prepare our hearts by consciously communing with divine Love as we move forward, we can advance calmly and confidently, knowing that Love leads us and guards, guides, and governs every step of the way.  Practicing this sort of faith is the goal we should strive to reach.  A teacher once explained it to me this way: "Faith is like sitting down, even when you KNOW there's not a chair there."  Yes, maybe subconscious doubts will have you hit the floor once in awhile at first as you begin to learn this lesson, but with practice and increasing faith, the chair will appear often enough to ingrain in your thinking that there is a higher power you can absolutely rely on, a power that will NEVER let you fall.
So, on this Easter Day, by all means remember Jesus and be grateful for his great love shown by his suffering and sacrifice.  But also remember the lesson he was teaching - the triumph over death that extends throughout time to universal humanity.  Face this coming day with the same kind of faith Jesus had in Love's power to save.   Whether your cross is facing down a bully or dealing with financial disaster or turning away from drugs and crime, know that just as Jesus stood in faith and arose, so can you.  What cannot God, divine Love, do?  Blessings to one and all.













Saturday, April 3, 2010

Why Easter and the Resurrection mean so much to all our lives.

For millennia, blood sacrifices abounded in pagan religions, and they still played a major role in Jewish theology at the dawn of the Christian era.  So it is natural that many people who hear the story of Jesus dying on the cross identify his death with such religious sacrifice.  But the true significance of Jesus' death and resurrection have no place in such a category.  In the Garden of Gethsemene, Jesus prayed to know what God would have him do.  He could have escaped and gone on with his ministry, but he was led by his heavenly Father, divine Mind, to stay and allow men to kill his body. He understood that Love makes no mistakes and that his suffering would, in the end, bless all mankind.  And truly, all mankind has been eternally blessed by the proof he thus gave of the power of his Father-Mother, God, divine, infinite Love.
Jesus' death and resurrection proved forever that matter and mortality did not have any power over the spiritual reality of his being.  Jesus' life was never at the mercy of evil men or bodily torture.  He continued to commune with divine Truth, Life, and Love both on the cross and in the tomb.  The result of this heavenly communion was that he proved that love is the master of hate and life triumphs over death.  He arose to testify to eternal life and to show his followers the omnipotent power of God, good - even over death and the grave.
So today as we bear our own crosses - our own needs to uplift our thoughts and lives above mortality and error - we can remember Jesus' great gift to us.  How could we possibly grumble over the incomparably tiny pains and problems we must face and overcome when we remember Jesus' time on the cross of Calvary.
The idea that God, who the Bible declares to be Love, would ever demand a blood sacrifice to appease his anger over the behavior of his children on earth defies all reason.  Even more impossible is the idea that he would send his precious Son to suffer torture to fulfill some sacrificial need.  If you told a little child such a story, they would look at you like you had lost your mind.  Truly, the whole idea that God sent Jesus to die so he, God, could forgive mankind is contradictory to the entire Truth of Christ's life and teachings.  Divine Love created a perfect idea, a perfect man named Jesus, not to die for our sins, but to show us that sin, disease, and death have no power over us and to teach us how to overcome these errors of thought and action.
So on this Easter, remember, along with his loving sacrifice, the divinely inspired lesson Jesus died to reveal to us.  His proof of life beyond the grave helps us to face our own lives - and our deaths - from an entirely different perspective.  The Easter message is one of redemption and resurrection, not just for the man, Jesus, but for all of us throughout all ages.  Be glad, give thanks, and REJOICE!







Thursday, April 1, 2010

God is Love, and this divine Love guides, guards, and governs all.

We should all examine our understanding of God.  Too often we have only the dimly remembered lessons we were taught as children or dogmatic declarations we have heard so often that we may think they are true.  The truth of such lessons depends on the true spirituality of the teacher, and the validity of those dogmas likewise hinges on whether they were truly based on God's eternal, spiritual Truth.  It is so sad to hear obviously intelligent, caring men and women declare themselves agnostics or atheists in a world where a belief in God could be such a comfort.  Each time I hear such declarations I want to reach out to the individual and share the healing reality of Love.  How many agnostics or atheists would deny that they believe in Love?  How many could deny the sanctity of Life?  How many would turn from the power of Mind?  Or doubt the powerful realities of Truth, Spirit, Soul, and Principle?
Too often those who declare for atheism cite their inability to believe in a God who allows wars, famine, disaster, disease, etc.  They simply cannot square their early teachings and the dogmatic views of those who mistakenly say they believe in God with a world seemingly filled with sin, disease, and death - a world where their misinformed sense makes God seem either powerless or uncaring.  Looking at all the evil that seems to exist around us today and considering the foolish, anthropomorphic images popular religion foists upon simple seekers for God, doubt or even disbelief seems pretty reasonable.
But thankfully, throughout history there have been wise teachers who have maintained faith in the true God, eternal Love.  The Bible is filled with verses declaring that "God is Love."  Love is not a manlike, limited entity.  Love is universal, everlasting, omnipresent, omniscient, as well as omniactive and omnipotent.  Throughout the ages, the truly wise among us have known this and kept this vision alive for us to find.
So how then, you may ask, if God, Love, is omnipotent and omniactive, can evil, sin, disease, death, war, hate, etc. seem to be so prevalent in the world around us?  Your ability humanly to accept the true answer depends upon faith, trust, and prayerful revelation, but it is actually also supported by, of all things, the science of modern physics.
You see, the answer is that all the evil, sin, disease, and death we see around us is pure illusion - it is completely unreal with no basis in fact. Physicists have long realized and taught the ultimate insubstantiality of what we humans call matter - atoms, molecules, rocks, trees, human beings, the whole nine yards - just doesn't exist as we think we know it to exist.  And if matter doesn't exist, then neither do mortal bodies or earthquakes or tidal waves or any of the myriad manifestations of material evil that claim to be real when they're not.  Hear the explicit words Christ Jesus had for the devil, the embodiment of evil: "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44)  
If we can begin to realize the unreality of evil, even while it shouts loudly to claim its presence and power in our lives, we can begin to glimpse the true, spiritual universe where God is Love, and there truly is no sin, disease, or death.  The miracles of Jesus, his apostles, and other wise teachers from Biblical times through today, happened because these healings were simply visible manifestation of their ability to see through the illusion of material pain and suffering and show us the underlying spiritual perfection of the universe.  Jesus insisted that his followers should heal as he did because he taught them to see spiritual reality as he saw it.  Divine Mind revealed to the Master the Truth of spiritual being, perfect good, everlasting life, and his true life's purpose was not to serve as a pagan blood sacrifice intended to pacify a vengeful god but to teach all who would listen to his words and understand his meanings throughout all time the eternal Truth of the God we know as divine Love.
So, my dear brothers and sisters, do not give up on God.  Do not miss the revelation of spiritual being that so many have worked and suffered to keep alive for you.  Begin to think of God as Love.  Begin to realize the infinite spiritual nature of all reality including your being, your life, and the lives of all those around you.  When you call on God, do not beg for blessings as you might to a capricious parent who may not listen or care. Instead, let your prayer be an affirmation of the presence, the reality, the power, and the protection of infinite Love all around you.  Let go, and let God - the true God, divine Love.  Amen.









Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Start each day by knowing and listening. End each day with gratitude.

In 1st John 4:16 in the King James Bible we find this all-important fact: "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him."  It is as simple as that.  We don't need to do anything more to surround ourselves with goodness than to choose to live our lives in a state of love and peace.  But such choosing must be active, not passive.  We must consciously choose to start each morning with a prayer of acknowledgement.  We must acknowledge the present reality of perfect Love all around us, even when to the material senses there may seem to be sorrow and pain.  Just because our habituated human reasoning may try to tell us we are not held in Love's comforting arms, we don't have to listen.  If we were told every minute of every day for decades that 2 + 2 = 7, would it ever be so?   Even if every person we ever knew or trusted told us that 2 + 2 = 7, would that ever make it so?  
Angel thoughts of perfect Love come to us to erase the error that seems to exist in our lives; to erase the false learning and believing that we have allowed to stay in our thoughts so long that we have begun to believe and accept them as our own.  But Christ Jesus, over 2,000 years ago, taught us that, "Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free."  Just as the truth that 2 + 2 = 4 removes the mistaken addition, so too does quietly knowing and watchfully remembering that we are always living in love remove the pain and the sorrow from our days.  We must remember that this perfect Love in which we "...live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28) extends to every corner of creation - every man, woman, child, animal, plant, rock, and star.  And we must hold this everlasting Truth close to our hearts throughout each day and night.  We must be conscious of our thoughts and be vigilant to prevent the old lie of 2 + 2 = 7 from creeping back in.  
No one wants to feel alone and cast out, and no one who dwells in love will ever have to.  Living each moment to see and express pure love will lift our lives into the sense of peace we yearn for.  Just as a smoker trying to quit may constantly crave another cigarette or the recovering alcoholic may continually be tempted to take another drink, so too our human thoughts, habituated by decades of hearing, seeing, and thinking that pain and suffering are our normal state, may strive to hold the tatters of error close, finding endless excuses to "prove" that love is not all.  But thanks to the testimony of Christ Jesus, his apostles, the prophets, and all modern saints, we can refute this lie of the tempter and trust that divine Love will meet our needs.  
And as we end each day, we should always remember to be grateful -  even if our gratitude is for nothing more than surviving another day.    But if we truly have held onto a sense of abiding Love during our day, then we can remember the goodness we felt in our hearts and look forward to more of that Love in the days ahead.  Our attitude is important.  In Hebrews 10:35-36 we read:  "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise."  So remember  the everlasting presence of Love each night as you close your eyes to sleep, and wake to declare: "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." (Ps. 118:24)  
Live in perfect Love.  Know the great joy of goodness and peace.  Sleep well my brothers and sisters.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

A loving welcome to all who visit here. Come and go in peace and love.

A very wise teacher once defined Angels as "God's thoughts passing to man;" And Wiktionary defines an outcast as "One that has been excluded from a society or system; a pariah."  Thus this blog is begun as a forum for sharing uplifted, loving thoughts with all who visit here but most especially with those in this world who feel excluded - from God, from their fellow men and women, from society, from health and happiness, from hope itself.  We make only one request of those who would add their comments: Consider your motivation, and if it is not completely loving and positive, then share what you have elsewhere.



ANGELS: God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality.(Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health: 581:4)