The Spiritual and the material

In her revelatory work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "A 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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.