My 2018 Easter Message

It was significant that the first believers placed the time of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection at the time they had previously celebrated Passover. They saw a connection between the deliverance that God gave when the Hebrews were taken safely through the waters of the Red Sea and the liberation that they experienced as they connected with the risen Christ.

The First Easter Sunday

Let’s look again at the story of that first Easter Sunday and see if we can recover the message from that story of the empty vault.

Sometime early in the morning, on the first day of the week, just as the Sabbath was ending, some women went to see the vault.

We have the women going to the vault when an unexpected event happened — a great earthquake and an angel descends and rolled the stone away from the vault. It was such a sight that it caused the big burley guards to be so shook up that they looked like corpses.

But the angel spoke to the women and told them, “don’t ya’ll be scared one bit.” He knew they were looking for Jesus but he is not there but he has been risen. The angel them gave them a mission to go and tell the disciples about this and to instruct the others to go to Jerusalem where Jesus would meet them.

Well they were so excited that they ran from the vault and started on their way. But as they are going, Jesus suddenly appears to them and says “Howdy.” This excites the women so that they ran and hugged his feet and worshiped him and he tells them, “ya’ll quit being so scared. Run along and tell the others to go over into Jerusalem and they’ll see me there.”

Our Easter Sunday Experience

Many of us grew up hearing this story every year on Easter Sunday. But what does this story really mean for us today in the 21st century? Does it mean that a dead body was put in a vault and by some interventions, it came back to life? That is what we have usually been taught but is that the only way to understand Easter? Well, I think not.

I believe that we need to look at the first Christian’s experience with the risen Christ. You see, for them these stories that they told and retold were not looked upon in the same way that we do stories on the evening news. These were reflections back on how their community of faith had interacted with the presence of the risen Christ.

Paul offers a look at what these first believers thought of resurrection. His writing are some of the oldest in the New Testament, since they were probably written from 10 to 50 years before the first of the gospels.

He asks the question in 1st Corinthians 15 — “With what kind of body are the dead raised?” He then talks about the relationships between the physical body and the spiritual resurrected body. And the answer he gives is that it is sown, or put in the grave, as a physical body but it is raised a spiritual body — not a body of flesh and blood. It is also interesting that even though Paul says that Christ was resurrected from the dead, he does not mention an empty vault.

You see, resurrection does not mean resumption of previous existence but entry into a different kind of existence. It could involve something happening to a corpse but it need not. Resurrection, in fact, is like what happens when a seed is planted or a caterpillar makes a cocoon.

The seed goes into the ground and dies, and from its death, new life comes forth and fruit is produced. The plant bears no resemblance to the seed. The seed becomes the plant but the seed and the plant are radically different.

With a caterpillar, what happens when it makes a cocoon is something marvelous. While it is sealed away from watching eyes, and when it emerges, there is no resemblance to what went into that cocoon. And here again, the caterpillar becomes the butterfly but the butterfly is radically different from the caterpillar.

In the same way, Easter does not necessarily mean that God supernaturally intervened to raise the corpse of Jesus from the dead. Rather, the core meaning of Easter is that Jesus continued to be experienced after his death, but in a radically new way — as a spiritual and divine reality.

He was known in non-ordinary experiences, as well as in the community’s life together. The truth of Easter is grounded in such experiences of the risen Christ as a living presence, not in physically observable events restricted to a particular day or a few weeks in the first century.

Because Christ lives, we too have the assurance of new life — not only after death but everyday we live.

Today, we can be raised from the tombs of fear and hatred that seek to hold us today.

Because Christ lives, we can be experience
— life that transcends every human limit
— love that triumphs over hatred
— being which overcomes nonbeing.

As we each experience the presence of the risen Christ in our own lives we too feel our connection with those first Christians and Christians throughout the centuries.

And we experience the presence of the risen Christ that empowers us to continue the work and ministry begun by Jesus — to bring the message of God’s love, acceptance, and liberation to all people. And as we do, we seek ways to work for justice, not just for a select group but for all of humanity and ultimately for all of creation.

In this way, we experience the liberation from that which enslaves us, that which entombs us. And we find the empowerment to rise from those places of exile and estrangement to places of acceptance and transformation.

This experience of Christ’s presence each and every day of our lives is the core meaning of Easter for us today.

Have a happy and blessed Easter!

A Vision For You

Here is a Vision for You, although it could just as easily be an Intention. Feel free to copy, paste and print it out. Then, all you have to do is say it as often as you like – and be ready for good things to come your way!

I see a world where / I intend that . . .
~ I am happy and glad to be alive;
~ I have friends aplenty;
~ I have found my highest calling in life;
~ I enjoy my work and it helps many;
~ I am healthy and abundant in every way imaginable;
~ I am strong of heart, yet kind and tolerant of others;
~ I am loved by all I meet and loving to all I meet;
~ I know that I am perfect just as I am;
~ I am balanced and bold in the face of my fears;
~ I am free to live my life as I choose;
~ I am caring for the Earth and all her beautiful creations, and She is caring for me in return;
~ I have a place inside where I can go to find comfort when all around me is swirling;
~ I feel my Oneness with God:
~ I know who I truly am;
~ I am blessed beyond measure;
~ I have peace now and for always;
~ I am serene.

Happy New Year 2018

I wanted to say Happy New Year to all of my friends reading my blog. This year I’m focussing on gratitude and thanksgiving. I believe this is a major factor in creating the life we desire. As we look for and give thanks for the good things already present in our lives we make room and attract more things to be thankful for.

Blessings on your life in 2018 and watch for my next post on Wednesday.

2018 Thanks and Blessings

As part of my spiritual practices and discipline this year, I am revisiting the subject of gratitude using the wonderful book by Pam Grout titled Thank and Grow Rich. The following  post is a rerun from last year that offers an introduction to this wonderful subject and how i will proceed this year.

I hope that you will follow my journey this year as I explore gratitude and thanksgiving.

Also, please feel free to share with us your spiritual practices and disciplines as well as your intentions and goals for 2018.

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I am reading the most amazing book by one of my favorite spiritual writers, Pam Grout. The book is Thank and Grow Rich. The title is an update on the title of Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich.
Too often we think but not about the right things. We think from our old limited beliefs in lack and want and we wonder why we don’t increase in life. Maybe it’s time to try something new — upping our thinking to thankfulness.
There are lots of places in the various scriptures of world faiths that encourage being thankful as the best way to think. Here are just a couple of my favorite ones:
1. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
2. Ephesians 5:20 Always giving thanks to God for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To help us get started in our new thanks living way of thinking I want to share the following post from Pam’s website where she describes her new A.A. 2.0 program of creating a new life by giving thanks.
“My name is Pam G. and, as of today, I am launching a brand new chapter of A.A. Unlike Version 1.0, my A.A. stands for Amazing Awesomeness and it only has two steps.
“Step #1: Admit that…..”Something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today.”  First thing every morning, before throwing off your covers, before leaping out of bed (and it doesn’t take long in this program before participants do leap out of bed with joy and expectation), before firing up the old Mr. Coffee, proclaim to the world that something unexpected, exciting and amazingly awesome is going to happen to you today. It takes what, three, four seconds? Yet it’s one of the most important things you will ever do. The first few minutes of every morning pre-paves the next 24 hours with positive expectations. It sets up a powerful intention, a forecast on which you can focus.
“And it never fails to come true.”
Step #2: Come to believe…..in blessings and miracles. Pretend you’re a private investigator assigned the task of finding all the beauty and largesse in the world. The dominant paradigm might suggest otherwise, but practiced with regularity, this ritual will force you to see things in a whole different way. Instead of looking for problems, be on the hunt for new blessings. Take on the mission each day of reporting back with at least three pieces of amazing awesomeness, three blessings that are different than the day before. I often liken myself to Lewis or Clark, scouting important new territory.
“Because we get out of life whatever we focus on, practicing these simple two steps has the power to override and overturn the accepted paradigm.
“Like Bill W.’s A.A, that has reformed the lives of millions, this new program (A.A. 2.0) can transform a “nameless squad of empty glass thinkers.”

Now It’s Our Turn
I invite others to join me in posting their blessings daily. Be sure to share different things you are thankful for each day. By expecting and looking for a different, more kinder reality, we can, together in one jubilantly mighty whoop, uplift and lighten this tired old world.

I am posting this to my blog and I will begin that day doing step 1 which is posting my first sharing of 3 blessings to Facebook on Monday, January 8th. I hope my list will inspire you to share 3 things each day that you are thankful for.

Available

Several years ago, I went to a White Stone service at church. I hadn’t ever been to one before and was excited to see what might happen. (This is based on the scripture in Revelations 2:17 where God gives to us a white stone with a new name written on it. )

Click here to read my post describing the service and here to read my blog post of my reaction after the service.)

After I received my stone, I heard the following word in my heart — available.
I’ve had this stone sitting by my computer ever since. But unfortunately that’s all it is — just a stone with a word written on it sitting by my computer.

But now, in this year 2017, I’m making an intention to allow the word I was given — available — to enter into my heart and life.

  • I intend to make myself available to God, Spirit, the Universe or whatever name we want to call it.
  • I intend to be available to gratitude and thanksgiving.I intend to be available to give and receive all the blessings that life has to offer both to and through me.
  • I intend to discover new ways to minister. I went to seminary and then began the Fort Worth Church Project. This means of ministry ended in 2012. Since then I’ve been floundering — but NOW I want to be available and open to new ways to reach out and share the message of my heart.

Available — I think it’s frightening to me to really be available. Afraid that it might have made me something I didn’t want to be. Or it might have taken away something I didn’t want to lose.

But now I believe that it’s going to take me and expand everything wonderful about myself and my life. Maybe things will leave, or be sifted out. But now I think I’m ready because if they can be sifted out then maybe they don’t need to be a part of my life anymore.

Maybe you’re ready now to make a new beginning in your life too.You don’t need a physical white stone to do this. Just hold out your hands and imagine Life placing a beautiful white stone in your hands with a wonderful new name or word written on it. Allow Spirit to whisper in your heart this wonderful word that’s to guide your life now. (If you want you can share this word with us and we can hold your intention with you.)

I’ll be sharing with you my intentions, my messages and my blessings this year through this blog. Feel free to share yours also.

Thanks Living

I am reading the most amazing book by one of my favorite spiritual writers, Pam Grout. The book is Thank and Grow Rich. The title is an update on the title of Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich.
Too often we think but not about the right things. We think from our old limited beliefs in lack and want and we wonder why we don’t increase in life. Maybe it’s time to try something new — upping our thinking to thankfulness.
There are lots of places in the various scriptures of world faiths that encourage being thankful as the best way to think. Here are just a couple of my favorite ones:
1 Thessalonians 5:18 Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 5:20 Always giving thanks to God for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To help us get started in our new thanks living way of thinking I want to share the following post from Pam’s website where she describes her new A.A. 2.0 program of creating a new life by giving thanks.
“My name is Pam G. and, as of today, I am launching a brand new chapter of A.A. Unlike Version 1.0, my A.A. stands for Amazing Awesomeness and it only has two steps.
“Step #1: Admit that…..”Something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today.”  First thing every morning, before throwing off your covers, before leaping out of bed (and it doesn’t take long in this program before participants do leap out of bed with joy and expectation), before firing up the old Mr. Coffee, proclaim to the world that something unexpected, exciting and amazingly awesome is going to happen to you today. It takes what, three, four seconds? Yet it’s one of the most important things you will ever do. The first few minutes of every morning pre-paves the next 24 hours with positive expectations. It sets up a powerful intention, a forecast on which you can focus.
“And it never fails to come true.”
Step #2: Come to believe…..in blessings and miracles. Pretend you’re a private investigator assigned the task of finding all the beauty and largesse in the world. The dominant paradigm might suggest otherwise, but practiced with regularity, this ritual will force you to see things in a whole different way. Instead of looking for problems, be on the hunt for new blessings. Take on the mission each day of reporting back with at least three pieces of amazing awesomeness, three blessings that are different than the day before. I often liken myself to Lewis or Clark, scouting important new territory.
“Because we get out of life whatever we focus on, practicing these simple two steps has the power to override and overturn the accepted paradigm.
“Like Bill W.’s A.A, that has reformed the lives of millions, this new program (A.A. 2.0) can transform a “nameless squad of empty glass thinkers.”

Now It’s Our Turn
I invite others to join me in posting their blessings daily. Be sure to share different things you are thankful for each day. By expecting and looking for a different, more kinder reality, we can, together in one jubilantly mighty whoop, uplift and lighten this tired old world.
I am posting this to my blog and I will begin that day doing step 1. I will post my first sharing of 3  blessings to Facebook on Monday, June 11th. I hope my list will inspire you to share 3 things each day that you are thankful for.

Want A Richer Life? Try Giving Thanks

I am reading the most amazing book by one of my favorite spiritual writers, Pam Grout. The book is Thank and Grow Rich. The title is an update on the title of Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich.

Too often we think but not about the right things. We think from our old limited beliefs in lack and want and we wonder why we don’t increase in life. Maybe it’s time to try something new — upping our thinking to thankfulness.
There are lots of places in the various scriptures of world faiths that encourage being thankful as the best way to think. Here are just a couple of my favorite ones:
1 Thessalonians 5:18 Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 5:20 Always giving thanks to God for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To help us get started in our new thanks living way of thinking I want to share the following post from Pam’s website where she describes her new A.A. 2.0 program of creating a new life by giving thanks.

“My name is Pam G. and, as of today, I am launching a brand new chapter of A.A. Unlike Version 1.0, my A.A. stands for Amazing Awesomeness and it only has two steps.

“Step #1: Admit that…..”Something amazingly awesome is going to happen to me today.”  First thing every morning, before throwing off your covers, before leaping out of bed (and it doesn’t take long in this program before participants do leap out of bed with joy and expectation), before firing up the old Mr. Coffee, proclaim to the world that something unexpected, exciting and amazingly awesome is going to happen to you today. It takes what, three, four seconds? Yet it’s one of the most important things you will ever do. The first few minutes of every morning pre-paves the next 24 hours with positive expectations. It sets up a powerful intention, a forecast on which you can focus.
“And it never fails to come true.
“Step #2: Come to believe…..in blessings and miracles. Pretend you’re a private investigator assigned the task of finding all the beauty and largesse in the world. The dominant paradigm might suggest otherwise, but practiced with regularity, this ritual will force you to see things in a whole different way. Instead of looking for problems, be on the hunt for new blessings. Take on the mission each day of reporting back with at least three pieces of amazing awesomeness, three blessings that are different than the day before. I often liken myself to Lewis or Clark, scouting important new territory.
“Because we get out of life whatever we focus on, practicing these simple two steps has the power to override and overturn the accepted paradigm.
“Like Bill W.’s A.A, that has reformed the lives of millions, this new program (A.A. 2.0) can transform a “nameless squad of empty glass thinkers.”

Now It’s Our Turn

I invite others to join me in posting their blessings daily. Be sure to share different things you are thankful for each day. By expecting and looking for a different, more kinder reality, we can, together in one jubilantly mighty whoop, uplift and lighten this tired old world.

I am posting this to my blog on November 22. Thanksgiving Day is November 24 and I will begin that day doing step 1. I will post my first sharing of 3  blessings to Facebook on Friday,November 25. I hope my list will inspire you to share 3 things each day that you are thankful for.

Faith — The First Spiritual Power

The first spiritual power that Charles Fillmore discusses in his book The Twelve Powers is faith. Faith is our ability to believe and it is our beliefs that decide how we think, feel and act in any situation. It is our ability to Intuit and perceive.

Cora Fillmore, in her companion book Christ Enthroned in Man says that faith is “the quality of the mind that moves and molds ideas and brings them to concrete expression. Faith is the assurance or confidence of the mind that invisible substance is the source of visible material things.”

Jesus says over and over when people came to him for healing or solutions to life’s problems, “according to your faith let it be done to you.” This was always his reply!

Peter — The Faith Disciple

For Fillmore, faith is represented by the disciple Peter, the first and greatest of the disciples. But in the beginning Peter was known as Simon who was just a crude fisherman. (Simon means “hearing.”) Paul, in Romans, tells us that “faith comes by hearing.” We listen receptively to truth, receive it into our minds and consciousness and this opens the way for receiving the next degree in divine order, faith.

The more Simon listened to the words of Spirit that Jesus spoke and allowed them to become real and alive to him, the more he became Peter — the Rock, Faith!

The ability to trust God grew in his life as it does in ours.

Faith is our ability to spiritually know. It is our ability to say “Yes” to our good. Faith draws our good from the invisible realm and causes it to manifest in the visible world. “As you believe, it will be done to you.”

One of the most memorable times in Peter’s life was when he accompanied the disciples out in a boat one night and a storm arose that threatened to sink the boat.

The disciples looked out and saw what they thought was a figure — a ghost and they were very afraid. But the figure cried out, “Take Courage (or have faith), it is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Peter thought it was Jesus and so he said, “If it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” And Jesus said, “come.”

And so Peter stepped out of the boat and started walking.

He did ok as long as his gaze was up — looking toward Jesus — toward the Truth. But as soon as he lowered his vision and allowed himself to think about and believe all that he had been taught all his life (people can’t walk on water) he began to sink!

When he allowed himself to regain his contact with his real Truth then he walked tall on the water.

What Do You Put Your Attention On?

Too often we are like a friend of mine who loves to watch crime dramas like CSI and NCIS. These types of shows just keep her reminded of all the evil, bad people who are out there just waiting to harm, abuse and deceive us. This dominates her thoughts and words and ultimately her life.

Others watch the news and read newspapers which are all filled with accounts of the latest catastrophes or terrorist threats. And we watch our faith in these things begin to increase as our lives begin to sink under the waves of fear and worry.

Like Peter, we need to pay attention to where we put our attention!

Faith Center — The Pineal Gland

Charles Fillmore located the faith center in the center of the head in the pineal gland which is often called the master gland. It is located between the ears and the eyes. These are the avenues through which most of us get our information about life. This information is always limited to what has happened before — information which is also known as precedents.And so as we live according to what we see or hear then our life is characterized by fear, anger, hatred and worry.

We need to center on our faculty of faith and our inner vision and hearing. As we do, our results will express the highest realizations of our spiritual nature. We can develop our faith through prayer and meditation and at its highest level, our faith will be directed by our spiritual nature from the Christ center at the crown of our head.

We start like Peter — being receptive to Truth ideas and then we let them grow until we feel our absolute oneness with the quality of faith — feeling it in such a way that we no longer think about having faith, but expressing it automatically, as Jesus did.

Now I am going to share with you a way to help your faith center to increase.

A Meditation Technique for Increasing Faith

Try using these affirmations daily and see what effect they have on your own faith.

Say: The Christ of God is quickened in me.

I AM aware that the Christ of God is quickened within me.

I AM grateful that the Christ of God is quickened with me.

The Christ in me calls forth Peter, my disciple-faculty of faith.

As you do this, visualize Jesus speaking these words, “According to your faith be it done unto you.”

Sit with this for few moments and when you feel ready affirm, “I AM grateful” as you close this meditation moment.

Repeat this meditation daily and watch as your faith center increases.

Greetings In This New Year

 

It’s been awhile since my last post and we are beginning a new year, a time of introspection and preparation. So I’ve decided to share a few books I’ve been reading lately.

Then I’ll share a link to my earlier post discussing the book, The Twelve Powers by Charles Fillmore. I’ll get back to discussing this wonderful book again in February but until then you should get a copy of the book and read or just reread my comments so far.

Lately I’ve been reading the following books:
The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes
How to Pray Without Talking to God by Linda Martella-Whitsett
God is Not a Christian, nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu by Bishop Carlton Pearson

These books have all contributed to changes in my theology that we all live and move and experience our very being in and as God. There’s nothing, Paul says, that can separate us from God — but we can experience a sense of separation if we choose.

This is also the message of the wonderful book by Charles Fillmore. I will begin again in a few weeks discussing the 12 spiritual powers or qualities. We all have these qualities but at time fail to engage or develop them. But when we do, we can feel and experience our oneness with and as God.

Ernest Holmes, the author of The Science of Mind, says “the evolution of [humans’] consciousness brings with it the acquisition of new powers and higher possibilities.” He then states that “evolution is an eternal unfoldment of the more yet to be.”

Until then, check out the post for my previous discussions of this book:
A New Humanity

As we prepare to experience the Christ principle in our lives may these books and post give you new ideas to ponder.

Christ In You — Your Hope And your Glory

I’m writing this post on the 4th Day of the 12 days of Christmas. It’s still the Christmas season. And as I am writing I’m thinking back on those days leading up to Christmas, the days we call the Advent Season.

Advents Past

As a child, I didn’t know much about Advent since the church I attended didn’t celebrate it. We just went right to our Christmas celebration…

But when we finally added it to our church year, I realized that it’s a very important and necessary part of life. You see, if you’re having a baby it takes time for the baby to be conceived, then developed and finally born. There’s a long 9 month period of preparation.

This is also true of the spiritual life.

Advents Present

When our church finally started celebrating Advent and had an Advent wreath, we always lit the 4 outer candles first and then on Christmas Eve we lit the middle Christ candle. And that’s how my spiritual life seemed to go at that time. I was always preparing and waiting for something — new birth — to happen sometime in the future.

But now, we’re going to Unity and I’ve realized something different that really makes sense to me and feels right in my heart. At Unity, we light the Christ candle on the 1st Sunday of Advent along with the usual 1st candle.

So why’s this important?

Too often we believe that spiritual awakening or new birth is something that either happens only once or that it’s something that’ll happen sometime in the future. And really both are true, just not the whole truth.

The Christ Spirit, that’s represented by the Christ candle is always in each of us. It never leaves us nor forsakes us. But too often, we just choose to forget who we really are as a child of God. But each time that we make the choice to remember that wonderful presence, it comes alive within our lives and we’re reborn.

So whenever you’re reading this post remember that this is the day and now’s the time that you can remember and experience the wonderful birthing of the Christ Spirit in your life. Remember Christ is here NOW both with us and in us.

Christ in you, Your Hope and Your Glory!!!

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this post and all the previous ones. And if you’re new to this blog, be sure and to read back through the past ones. If you’ve been reading them along then invite a friends to subscribe and read them.

And be sure and watch for posts this year as I explore a wonderful book by Charles Fillmore on the twelve spiritual powers in each of us called The Twelve Powers.
You might want to get a copy of this book by clicking the link so that you can read along and join in our discussion.

Have a blessed New Year. Namaste!!

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