Peter

October 30, 2011 – A Journey Through Our God Thought

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10/30/11 Rev. David McArthur

Our God-thought, what we as humankind have perceived as the Divine, has unfolded over time. Worship of nature – the sun, a volcano, a river, or animals – touched the human capacity to ask the divine to respond to us. Then when humankind had become more confident in itself, the gods were beautiful human figures greater than life – magnificent beings out there controlling our lives. Once Constantine spread the new God thought – there is only one God – Jesus had become the sacrifice to get to God. The Roman and Orthodox Churches took over with the fall of the empire, and taught with pictures. For a thousand years it was taught that God was up there in Heaven and it was dark and dirty down here. With the Renaissance, the God pictures took on images of people down here where we live. The Divine began to touch us as people.

All through this time, in every time and in every culture, there were mystics which taught that it is all one, all God. The view of mystics like Charles and Mildred Fillmore no longer was that the Church was an institution which helped people reach the Divine, but that it’s all God – everything to the center of the universe is all God. There is a tale which says God was asked how to make this information available, and He decided, “I’ll hide it in the heart, where everyone can find it if they are sincere and look deep enough.”

All the way back, even the ones who worshiped God as animals were just asking to know the presence of God in their lives, to find connection and comfort. What did it matter as long as their intention and purpose would expand in their lives. The form does not matter – whether a statue of Apollo, Jesus, or Krishna, rites of a priest or words of Moses – what matters is what’s in the heart. What makes the difference is God is love in your heart. That’s where the love and sincerity are. There is nothing out there to give it to you. The connection is in your heart. Let your understanding unfold from your heart. It is beautiful. Feel the love – not the building, painting, or statues – but the love poured into the form – the form doesn’t matter. The bottom line is the love. It is what matters; it is what’s growing. What we are building now is a spirituality that does not know division, but unity. It starts in your heart. Ciao!

October 23, 2011 – Decision Making or Discernment?

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10/2311 Rev. Eileen Goor

There are many ways people make decisions– rock/paper/scissors (which, by the way, goes back to 200 B.C. in China), flipping a coin, or casting lots (which was mentioned many many times in the Bible), drawing straws, even listing pros and cons on a sheet of paper. In the end, you probably decide by what you really feel anyway.

True spiritual discernment is that knowing within your very being what is right for you. It is wisdom which you discover deep in the core of your being. When we complete a process and we feel led to do something, it often feels like a great risk. Indiana Jones was led by a guidebook to a huge abyss. It said for him to step out in faith. The question is “How?” The answer is “Follow your heart.” Then we ask, “How do we do that?” Then the answer is “None of your business!” The deep wisdom within you knows. Allow yourself to be guided, because there is just one mind.

Ask, “What is mine to do?” It is a process of peeling off the old layers of stuff. The bridge does appear across the chasm when you do that which you have truly chosen to discern deep in your heart. It’s an individualized expression of God. If you don’t, the world is missing that piece.

So we become responsible– able to respond. Guided from your heart and the depth of your being, you have access to total wisdom. And you will have the support on the path to be the expression of who you are here to be. Take the step in faith. You will be supported!

October 9, 2011 – Still Points in a Turning World

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10/9/11 Rev. David McArthur

How can we use spiritual power when we are reaching for that greater goodness but run into blocks? Then the busier we get the easier it is to forget that power, but we need it twice as much. We find the power in that still spot in which we experience the connection, just being at One. It is nothing and it is nowhere – the quiet, still point in the middle of our always-turning world.

How do we make the connection? Jesus said, “Peace. Be still.” “Be still and know that I am God,” comes from the psalms. The journey to the stillness has a path – meditation. But recognize that when we try to meditate, the mind wants to focus on random thoughts, forgetting to be still. Many use a mantra, mandalas, and so on, but still fall between the words. It is in the deep thought, the deep feelings where we experience the divine silence itself. In that stillness, that quiet, focus on the deep feeling of love until it goes into what is just “presence”, where you are resting deeper than thought or feeling. You are resting with the one that is God.

Then when you finish you go from deep peacefulness into the energy of the world which hasn’t been in the peacefulness, and the beautiful peace is lost to irritation and frustration with the world and negativity. Instead, come out through the heart. You went in through the heart. Come out sending the peace out to the world, the things you face in the world. Say, “Divine Love goes before me making easy, joyous and successful my way.” This way you are connected with Spirit as It is working through the activity before you– even if It seems well hidden. You know God is good all the time– in the stillness and also in all the busyness before you. And everything before you is the pure divine love of God!

October 2, 2011 – Blessing, Giving & Faith

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10/2/11 Rev. David McArthur

In the process of spiritual growth, there are two spiritual practices that make a practical difference: blessing and giving. It’s part of a greater depth and growth of your spiritual consciousness. A “problem” is of your own consciousness. Bring it into wholeness by blessing it. God only knows wholeness, not “part” of anything. If we are not experiencing wholeness then there is work to be done. Blessing reaches into the wholeness. Blessing brings the wholeness through you, and not just in the solution to the problem, but in other areas of your life as well. Open to a greater flow of spiritual energy, directing it with intention.

Jesus combined blessing with giving. Twice, He fed crowds of thousands with about half a dozen loaves of bread and a few fish. (Matthew 14) He blessed what He had and then gave it to the disciples to give to the people. Another time the disciples had only 5 loaves of bread for themselves, and feared it was not enough. He again fed all of them, admonishing them that “they didn’t get it” – that it was divine substance that He brought into manifestation. It was the blessing of what they had and the giving of it that brought forth from the divine substance the solution to their problem. It was a demonstration for us how we use spiritual energy consciously with intention.

In the perception of a “problem”, you aren’t perceiving the goodness there. Call it forth. It responds to your need when you bless it and give from what you have. You are empowered to bring forth what you need. And we do this together – we call forth the demonstration, the manifestation – as with our renewed building and grounds we returned to just a year ago. And when it is time to go to the next step we gather to bless what we have, what we have done.

To experience the flow of abundance, give. You have something to give. Find it. Give freely with joy. Set the table as an experience of blessing. Make a list of what you need, affirming the good that is coming. The “change” is within one’s self. And then the world changes. Change comes from the center out to the circumference. The goodness is out there just waiting for you to get your act together. God is good all the time! Give. Bless. Do this for yourself and hold this truth for others.

September 25, 2011 – Steps of Manifestation

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9/25/11 Rev. David McArthur

“The inexhaustible resource of Spirit is equal to every demand. There is no reality in lack. Abundance is here and now manifest.” –Charles Fillmore. God is good all the time, even when what we worked to manifest doesn’t show up, God is still good all the time. The question isn’t about God, but, “Are you willing to commit?” 

From Matthew, chapter 17, verses 24 through 27, “Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”  “Yes, he does,” he replied. When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. “What do you think, Simon?” he asked. “From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or from others?”  “From others,” Peter answered.  “Then the children are exempt,” Jesus said to him. “But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
The medium of exchange is not the true picture. Divine love is the source. The abundance of divine presence is the goal for you. You are one with God. In truth, you never owe or are owed as a spiritual being. Ask of Spiritual Presence for direction. Go to the realm of energy, of Spirit represented by the lake. It is deep, but look in and “fish” out an idea. Act on the first “fish” (idea). Use it to pay the “tax”, and meet your needs in the 3D world.

We create our experiences. Let’s have joyful experiences. Open to the flow. Call the flow of God into your life. Awaken to the abundance. Act upon it. You can call it forth; you have the power. “The inexhaustible resource of Spirit is equal to every demand. There is no reality in lack.” Pull out the instruction from within and act on it. “Abundance is here and now manifest.” Nothing has any power over you but that which is true love and supports you without limitation, for you are the beloved child of God!

September 18, 2011 – Love the Worrier

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9/18/11 Rev. David McArthur

“Love the Worrier” We love to celebrate and party, and sing “Don’t worry; be happy!” Jesus said, in Matthew 6; 26, 27, that the Father feeds the birds of the air even though they do not store food, and we are even more important. He said that worry will not add one year to your life. So what are you worrying about? We learn from HeartMath that worry actually shortens your life. And you can always find someone to worry with you. You know not to do it, but you do it anyway, thinking, “If I didn’t worry about you I wouldn’t be loving you.” That is not true. Worry comes from the head. We think it comes from caring. But care gives you energy and lifts you up. Worry takes you down. The joy begins to drain away. You think, “What if this or that happens… Oh, no, I’d be powerless.” That’s not part of love– it’s from fear and anxiety.

As a spiritual being you have the power to not go there. How do we do it? Besides Freeze Frame, you have power to connect to that pure being where all love and intelligence flows, where you heal the fears behind the worry. Step into a greater wholeness. We are no longer at a level where we let fear and insecurity run our lives. They come up to be healed. So ask, “What needs to be loved?” Answer, “my worrier!” The first thing to be healed is me. And because my life is the mirror [expression] of me, then the expression of me [my life] will change. Know the only thing out there is the goodness of God. Bring that love, that compassion, to the part of yourself that didn’t know that. The beautiful power of compassion sends the power to heal the worrier. Love the worrier part of you; it responds. Hold it in your love. The feeling begins to change. The energy drain stops. It lifts you up. Thank God we get to heal our self and look at the world through Truth. God is our source. “God is my instant, constant, abundant supply.”

When our consciousness is ready, love will show up. It is always there. The only limit on God’s abundance is what we let in. You have to know the truth. Infinite wisdom, infinite power, infinite intelligence can take care of it and will if you let it. God is our source, our power. When you come to worry, treat it with compassion. Say, “I’d rather not worry and be happy!”

September 11, 2011 – An Experience of God

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9/11/11 Rev. David McArthur

When a broad survey asked, “What is it that you are looking for (in your church)?”, a large proportion answered that it was the personal experience of the presence of God. On a trip to the ancient section of the city of Jerusalem, I saw a group of obviously devout women. One smiled directly at me, and I felt waves of love. It was a gift. It awakened my feelings of love, and that it was “feeling” that was the way I was touching the presence of divine love. Through our feeling nature we are able to expand our awareness– to realize what is giving the feeling is the movement of divine spirit through us.
Remember someone you really appreciate. What is it that you appreciate about this person? Next, feel the appreciation, not just think of it. Move from thought to feeling. Feel how the energy comes up in you, a movement, a flow of Spirit through you. Appreciation is part of love. There is a delight in appreciating another, and the energy that comes up in you. Your ability to feel love is the movement of the presence of God through you. Anytime you touch that love you feel the goodness, the awareness, the experience of the presence of God in you.
Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father…I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.” You are one with the divine. It is seamless from there to the presence of the divine when you see the light that you are– that energy– flow. How do we sense it? Through feelings.
Remember, God is good all the time! So what about the sad or negative feelings that drain us? They are the grief that we are not seeing the goodness, when we don’t feel the presence. But we know we are spiritual beings living in a spiritual world governed by spiritual law. And we know through feelings we touch the presence, and through appreciation we touch our feelings, and that it is easy to get to appreciation.
Feel the presence. You can’t get away from it. Everything is God. It is the wisdom, the light, the power that flows through you. Sad feelings are you ignoring that. So once a day this week, stop and go to appreciation. Feel the presence– that goodness. You are that love. Because we’ve seen you, we seen the Father! Bless you!

September 4, 2011 – For This I’ve Come, Lord Let Me…

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9/4/11 Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.

Everyone has challenges. When you are thinking, “Why me?”, why not you? Recall the story of Jesus in the desert (Matthew 4, 1-11). Metaphysically, the wilderness is the subconscious with all the erroneous beliefs– the things we think we’ve learned or have been told about ourselves. Jesus’ fasting shows we are to deny these erroneous human beliefs. And even for Him, when He needed to be cleansed of them, they came on harder than ever. So we must “fast” from them whenever they come up. The forty days signifies completion, which was then followed by hunger. That’s when those ideas tiptoe back. But we hunger for truth – to have it so badly– we will give those ideas up. We must listen to them to know them, but have a “comeback”– your truth that you have the power within you to overcome whatever challenges you. The word “Lord” in the Bible means the universal “law”. You cannot tempt the law, nor manipulate the universal law. If you align with it, everything works out. “Get behind me.” means “I no longer listen to you.”

Come into your self. Find where you are out of alignment with the law. Ask, “What am I not seeing?” OMG! A challenge can shift quickly when you find where you are out of alignment with the law. Everything is preparing you. What has happened to you really happens for you. You are being forged. Take your eye off the challenge. You are about to be called upon for something much grander than before. You are being prepared. Be grateful.

Five things to do when there is a challenge.

1. Tell your story. Pour your story out.
2. Feel it. Behind the feeling is the healing.
3. Look up. Above the condition. See the perfection in it as it plays out.
4. Reach up for your higher truth. Pray. Meditate. Read. Join a group.
5. Get up. Stand. Know God is there and will not leave you comfortless and is always with you.

And smile. Pray, “For this I have come. Let me do and say all you have put me here for. Thank you God. I am grateful. Even for the challenges which make me to be who I came here to be. Amen and Awomen!”

August 28, 2011 – Spiritual Gifts and Love Through Compassion

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8/28/11 Rev. David McArthur

We have spoken of near death experiences, life after death, reincarnation; of healing and healers like John of God and the healers that are here every first Wednesday. And there are other gifts. But 1 Corinthians 13 says, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

As with any gift, people fall into a bell curve. There are a few as gifted as Edgar Cayce or John of God. The other end is people who think they are more gifted than they really are. Most of us have some gift that with some development can be used rightly. But without love it is not of value. This is tremendously important and a challenge. As you work with your gift, what comes is the truth within yourself. Do not give away your power that is within you. The answers aren’t out there. They are within you – your connection with spirit within your own heart.

Every time you can’t break through, the teacher does come, but the power and responsibility are within you. At times when you feel you are under attack, it is very difficult to respond with love. Respond first with feelings of compassion for yourself as if for a good friend. From that experience, respond with compassion for that one attacking you. Choose to respond with understanding, with what is fair, with care for that person. Respond with love.

“As a child…” When we go through the maturing of our spirituality, we shift from the brain as the instrument of interpreting, to the heart being the main way of interpreting life. “The three remain– faith, hope, and love. The greatest is love.” What is there to respond with? Choose love! There is that which guides, supports, heals. The greatest is love. Choose love. Create that which you seek!