Peter

Reverend David McArthur

This is a beautiful new year when Spirit is focused on supporting you in being what you came here to be – your purpose, your growth, that desire in your heart, your “heart’s desire”. What is in your heart? You might say, “Give me a hint!” Jesus said it’s not your duty or station – “What is that to you? Follow me.” He said “me” as the Christ self rather than as “Jesus”. As humankind has awakened to the divine within, we are called by the higher self, the Divine Presence, the Buddha Nature. We experience it in ourselves as our purpose at this point in life. We experience it as our heart’s desire.

Look at your heart’s desire. Take a hold of what you want to put your energy into. As it unfolds it empowers you. Meet the needs in life without struggle. When you touch your heart’s desire you touch Oneness. One mind, one heart – which beats in all of us! When you’re at a point of choice and you find it’s time to take a step, touch your heart’s desire. At this point, maybe it’s just to heal. Whatever it is, every experience of your heart’s desire calls you into something greater. Thank goodness we don’t know the full extent of our choices. Say yes. It will show you oneness. It will remove the illusion of separation.

Take the time and go to your heart. “What has meaning to me?” “What has value?” “What is important to me? What do I really want to say “yes” to?” Ask your heart. It will take you far beyond your mind. When you say “yes”, you don’t know ­where it will eventually lead. Say “yes” anyway! This is a beautiful new year when our “yes” is part of many yesses. That is what we all will step into this year.

Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.

This is the season of hope. The season of energy, hope, and possibility is at its height. Even in the face of violence and fear there is hope– you cannot destroy the human spirit. It will rise up and more than survive, it will thrive. Hope is not a weak energy. Hope is to “expect”, to know that something is coming. You have a “confident desire”. You are certain and you will persevere until it happens. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not seen.” Hope is the match that lights the fuse of faith. They go hand in hand. Hope is having our power engaged, knowing our good is already given, manifested. You can’t help yourself from moving toward it. Hang on to possibilities enthusiastically. There’s hope!!!

Hope is having your past erased. It doesn’t matter what you did. Who you are is a child of God. Congress and unemployment are not your source. Hope is holding your possibilities, your power, engaged enthusiastically. Hope might be a teeny tiny small flicker. Hold on. It expands, gets larger, until the faith is engaged and nothing can stop you. Here are the steps to do this–

Step 1) H Heal past core negative beliefs, forgive those whose negativity you learned.
Step 2) O Open the channel for the flow of good by loving/giving/serving – not martyrdom. Giving and receiving are the same energy– and it comes back multiplied. Know it is not about them– it’s about you.
Step 3) P Perceive perfection in everything. Be willing to. Be willing to be willing to. Holy Spirit will do the rest. See it;believe it. It will rise up and show itself to you. When something goes badly, know it didn’t happen to you, but it happened for you.
Step 4) E Energize. Move forward eagerly. Everything awaits you. Expect. Express. Engage. It will happen if your expectation is based on the expectation of perfection and you have healed your past. “It doesn’t cost a thing to smile. You don’t have to pay to laugh.”

HOPE – Heal – Open – Perceive – Energize. No matter what is going on with you now, there’s hope. Light the flame! The God we serve can bring anything back 100%!

Reverend David McArthur

Music calls us to a place where we see differently.  A soul awakens when it is touched by that which is seen differently.

Emmett Fox said, “Mary is really the soul itself.”  Mary, trusting in Spirit, accepted the role of birthing the One, the Consciousness that would change the world. When we, as Mary did, open our souls in faith to Spirit, we each give birth to something so new, so beautiful, it lifts us to a whole new consciousness that will change the world. We see the people in our life differently when we see and touch the Presence and Power that lifts us to a place we have not been before. An amazing awakening happens within us.

Christmas is a call to awaken. The music of Christmas is a call to awaken. Allow yourself the full experience of Christmas and see what the heart feels when it awakens!

Reverend David McArthur

Every religious group has a myth about the birth of the divine in human form. The Incarnation; the truth of the divine presence expressing in and thru us. They have added onto the story, but use what works and let go of what doesn’t.  Edgar Cayce told how the prophet Elijah, knowing a higher consciousness, taught his awareness to a group that eventually became the Essenes. As a collective instrument, they brought in the greater consciousness. The Essenes were aware they were coming to a time when a Soul would enter That would raise the consciousness of all. There was this intention to prepare for the Soul and the consciousness of change. They began to train girls in their group so one could become the mother of that Soul. What love of that Soul to give up the greater consciousness and enter into the sleep of this earthly life, to awaken in the density of the human experience! In Unity, we speak of Jesus as the Elder Brother who broke through first, who broke the way for us.

We are in the birth of a new consciousness– a new paradigm. What we do allows a greater consciousness to unfold. The story of the selection of Mary to be the mother shows that, even when we are “prepared”, we reach a point where we have to face something and we don’t have it all figured out. Know there are levels of support far beyond our ability to understand. Shakespeare’s Hamlet proclaims, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

We always have support to live in the new consciousness. We are always about things which bring forth a new consciousness. That’s why we’re here. However, open any great scripture, you will find many wonderful beings inviting us to follow into the pure radiant love that God is. What Christmas is about is that consciousness of love which more than circles back, it spirals. Each year we have greater knowledge, greater understanding. We have touched more beauty, goodness, wholeness of the people around us– the presence of that love. The greatest part of the story is that we are never alone. Whether we see angels, or Jesus, or the greater consciousness. We can only see a few, but there are many with us and among us! We are so loved! We are so supported! At Christmas we get to open up and receive the light like never before!

Reverend David McArthur

The commercialization of Christmas is one of the most sacred parts! Thank goodness Spirit doesn’t confine itself to just the religious community. Perhaps you do not like God at all. Yet, Santa gets to you. Metaphysically, Santa shows up Christmas Eve when we celebrate the birth of a new baby, which represents the birth of a new consciousness. Santa comes from the sky– from that greater consciousness. And it doesn’t seem possible that Santa can come to every house in just one night, but, metaphysically, the higher consciousness is omnipresent, and Santa (the God figure) responds to every one of us. Within the house (your state of consciousness) Santa enters through the place of light and warmth. That is the greater consciousness coming through the heart– that child place of fulfilling dreams and desires. And you don’t get to see Santa, you just get to see the gifts he leaves.

How God – Santa – shows up in an even greater way is the experience of the amazing consciousness of Christmas. It is one of the deepest and most important parts of Christmas. It happens through us. We are the love that happens, that touches, uplifts, and blesses. We are Santa. We understand that Jesus came to give us the awareness of the love that flows through us. Now we get an opportunity to bless. You can be Santa. You are invited to give to a Santa fund in the sanctuary or in the book center. The second way you can experience the amazing consciousness of Christmas is to open and accept that which blesses you. Express your need or the need of someone you know. Make out your Christmas list. Email Unity Walnut Creek or call the office with you request. Who has the greater joy– the giver or the receiver? Give and receive. Allow the flow. Budgets are not as important. Let the love be your only guide. Because of you, “Santa Claus is coming to town!”

Reverend David McArthur

Ceremonies will undoubtedly last as long as the Earth herself lasts. We use ceremony to acknowledge our unity, that all humans are related. We use ceremony to honor and acknowledge our unity with everything to the four points of the Earth –East, South, West, and North. And we seek guidance in ceremony. In a very critical time, the ancient Ojibwa elders sought guidance from Spirit, and the Ojibwa moved into the reality of the vision of their elders by following the Megis. It appeared daily and led them on a journey to a land of food and water, health and happiness.

The wisdom of the elders also guides each of us to seek answers by undertaking our own individual journey, no matter how arduous. We might slip and slide backward, climb seemingly vertical obstacles, go up, down, and around. We might feel tired, wet, and scratched, as if our emotional “clothes” are torn. Yet the wisdom of our elders will guide us to a place where there is a connection to Spirit, and we find our answers are right in front of us, that they are inside of us all the time!

A favorite wisdom story from our elders tells that the first humans were confused. They didn’t know their purpose. When they looked around they saw that the animals didn’t ask their purpose. They just did the things they knew to do. The humans decided their job, then, was to learn from the animals and every other thing that’s here. That’s our job – we are learning.

And when we look around, we learn that people everywhere honor Spirit in what ever way they understand Spirit. And they have learned that they should be grateful. Many of us, too, are grateful, and say thank you every morning and every evening. But during the day we are busy and we forget. So stop even with the simplest things and give thanks. Stop and look. Say, “God, that’s nice!” Our first Americans would even stop on a journey or a hunt to look at the beauty around them. They would give thanks, and then go on their way. When you notice something nice, think of God dropping bombs that hit you so that you can stop and say “Thank You!”
And remember, we are all one!

Reverend Lacy Atkinson

Reverend David McArthur

Many of us no longer use the name we were called in childhood. We have experienced a shift in our consciousness, and so have changed the name we use. A name is an acknowledgment of a state of consciousness. As the soul evolves, our focus shifts from the physical 3D world to that of the mental, the intellect. It was good to live in the 3D world and supply the needs of the body. But the intuitive self recognizes when it is time to shift the authority to the mind, the intellect. When we focus and develop mind we gain ability to direct the 3D world. In the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel, Jacob, representing the mental aspects, has developed his intellectual abilities and prospered. However, when he wants to return to the land of his brother Esau, who represents the aspects of the 3D world, Jacob must first wrestle with the natural self, with his deep commitment to the physical world. He wrestles all night long, and learns that the mind is not greater than the body. They are spiritually equal parts of the whole. In the morning he is at a point of integrating the mental and physical, a point at which what is gained in mind needs to become firm. He has had a change in consciousness. He demands a blessing before he leaves. His name is changed from Jacob to Israel.

In our wrestling, how do we get the blessing? Open to this growth, this blessing. Spirit brought it to you because there is some part in you that your soul wants to grow. There is always something to appreciate. Gift giving is an expression of appreciation. Give yourself the gift of stepping into a greater consciousness. Think about just one thing you appreciate about your struggles. Now feel it! There is a huge difference between thinking appreciation and feeling it. Feeling is power. Feeling takes appreciation into reality. That’s where the power is. In your wrestling, affirm, “God is blessing me now!” That’s when the light you are blesses the world, that’s what you came here to do.
“God is blessing me now!”

Reverend David McArthur

Stories of magic catch us deeply because we are magical beings. They invited us into “I can do that.” Symbolically, the magic wand is to focus your attention on your intention. And you have to have the words of your incantation. Not all words are equal. Prayer isn’t to convince a power outside of yourself to change something for you. We at Unity focus our attention on the power we have within. Charles Fillmore said, “The Spiritual substance from which comes all wealth is never depleted. It is right with you all the time and responds to your faith in it and your demands upon it… Pour your faith upon it and you will be prospered though all the banks in the world close their doors.” It’s got to be a combined energy. Focus your attention and use words of prayer to bring forth greater manifestation to serve your life better.

Speaking thought into words gives it vibration, brings it into the material realm. The most powerful words are those which are aligned to that which is true. How do we pick up and align to those words? Our God is divine pure love with nothing but desire to bring the best to each of us. Our God isn’t limited. You are loved and you can’t do anything about that. When we pick up that love we pick up power.

Priests and ministers don’t know your words. How do you find them? Emily Cady told us how to move intention into manifestation. In her silence she heard the words: “Stretch forth your hand…and I will establish it.” She heard that our hands are God’s hands. We are co-creators. It’s our power. Own your power, it’s your spiritual nature. The words are in your heart. That infinite intelligence which is there for you knows them for you.

When desiring to speak the word, “wait thou in silence only.” Then the right word will be given and power with it. When something needs to change the real answer comes from the silence within you. Call forth that which is to be called forth. Give what is to be given. Affirm, “Divine love goes before me making easy, joyous, and successful my way.” We can have life easy, joyous, and successful because God would have it no other way!

Reverend David McArthur

Prosperity is to open up and allow Spirit to bring forth through you a greater wholeness (that divine intention) into your life. As taught by Edwene Gaines, the second principle of prosperity is Forgiveness.

The hardest part of forgiveness is self forgiveness. The vision we have goes beyond the consciousness we have—we can see beyond where we are– and that vision will carry us forward. However, without self forgiveness, we experience guilt and get down on ourselves. Since the world we experience is a creation of our thoughts, feelings, and attitudes, when we think things like “I am not that good” or “Life’s not that good. I can’t really trust God.” we choke down our spiritual pipeline. We are no longer open. We get defensive and strive to protect ourselves.

In Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert writes of how we are disappointed in ourselves for lacking the discipline to accomplish our dreams. However, after such disappointment, we can open to our greater wholeness if we forgive ourselves. She likens self forgiveness to kindly and encouraging motherly love. Like a mother holding you saying,”That’s ok. I love you just the way you are.” Such self forgiveness frees us from the judgment of how we view ourselves.

There are times in our lives when we have caused pain to others. What we manifested then was very limiting. We can move beyond the guilt and its limitations with self forgiveness, self compassion. Say “I am willing to forgive myself and stop beating myself up for it.” It’s the self compassion that heals. This is a most important step and it will free your heart. It will free you for facing you tasks at hand.

So open up and let the love of God in. Begin to deliberately give yourself forgiveness and compassion, and that spirit of divine creativity can begin to flow. Affirm “I am loved, special, and important. God loves me and so do I.”