02/08/15 Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
Forgiveness – Path to Perfection
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February 8, 2015 – Forgiveness – Path to Perfection
Peter
February 1, 2015 – Snow White – God is Good
02/01/15 Rev. David McArthur
Snow White – God is Good
Each archetypal symbol in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” is some aspect of ourselves on our spiritual journey. When the soul enters the Earth it loses sight of its identity as a child of God, taking on a false idea outpictured by the stepmother, the Queen. She goes to the mirror. That outpictures our insecurity. We are concerned how people see us. We need the world to like us.
The Huntsman cannot kill Snow White (the feminine, our feeling side). He thinks he can hide her like we think we can hide our feelings. The 7 Dwarfs (the 7 chakras) can be seen as not fully grown, an early picture of our spiritual development. The mirror tells the Queen that there is something more powerful, more beautiful than she. So the poison apple.
The Dwarfs are so dualistic. Full of fear that Snow White is dead. But it is a false fear. Our journey is to know fear but learn there is nothing but God. Snow White is taken up the mountain by the 7 Dwarfs, the 7 centers of knowledge. It is the rise of awareness that there is no duality. But they cannot put her in the ground because they are still touched by her presence. The Prince just has to come riding by. He is also us, the thought part of us that knows but cannot feel. He finds the feeling self (Snow White) deep asleep. So we open to our feeling world and find incredible beauty with Love’s First Kiss.
A young 20-something guy lost his very closest companion, his dog, and plummeted into a deep depression. His friends wanted to help, so held a memorial. The young man wrote a eulogy, but found it difficult to deliver. “I could barely continue, but right at the point where I released myself into my feelings there was a pinpoint of light through my grief, and a smile. This point of happiness expanded rapidly, vastly, and immensely into a paradoxical experience of grief and happiness, into a greater sense of well being than I had ever had.”
Give into that where the soul is awakened. It is not loss because there is only one power—the goodness of God. There is no fear. It is beautiful. Once we touch it there is no more evil Queen. She holds no power over us. This is what Jesus and Lao Tzu taught. God is good all the time. Yes, there is strain when things all come apart, but God is good all the time. This week there will be someone to challenge you, but check it out: God is good all the time.
I Am There
By James Dillet Freeman
Do you need Me?
I am there.
You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by.
You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice.
You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands.
I am at work, though you do not understand My ways.
I am at work, though you do not recognize My works.
I am not strange visions. I am not mysteries.
Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know Me as I am, and then but as a feeling and a faith.
Yet I am there. Yet I hear. Yet I answer.
When you need Me, I am there.
Even if you deny Me, I am there.
Even when you feel most alone, I am there.
Even in your fears, I am there.
Even in your pain, I am there.
I am there when you pray and when you do not pray.
I am in you, and you are in Me…
When you get yourself out of the way, I am there.
You can of yourself do nothing, but I can do all.
And I am in all.
Though you may not see the good, good is there, for I am there.
I am there because I have to be, because I am…
February 1, 2015 – Snow White – God is Good
02/01/15 Rev. David McArthur
Snow White – God is Good
Each archetypal symbol in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” is some aspect of ourselves on our spiritual journey. When the soul enters the Earth it loses sight of its identity as a child of God, taking on a false idea outpictured by the stepmother, the Queen. She goes to the mirror. That outpictures our insecurity. We are concerned how people see us. We need the world to like us.
The Huntsman cannot kill Snow White (the feminine, our feeling side). He thinks he can hide her like we think we can hide our feelings. The 7 Dwarfs (the 7 chakras) can be seen as not fully grown, an early picture of our spiritual development. The mirror tells the Queen that there is something more powerful, more beautiful than she. So the poison apple.
The Dwarfs are so dualistic. Full of fear that Snow White is dead. But it is a false fear. Our journey is to know fear but learn there is nothing but God. Snow White is taken up the mountain by the 7 Dwarfs, the 7 centers of knowledge. It is the rise of awareness that there is no duality. But they cannot put her in the ground because they are still touched by her presence. The Prince just has to come riding by. He is also us, the thought part of us that knows but cannot feel. He finds the feeling self (Snow White) deep asleep. So we open to our feeling world and find incredible beauty with Love’s First Kiss.
A young 20-something guy lost his very closest companion, his dog, and plummeted into a deep depression. His friends wanted to help, so held a memorial. The young man wrote a eulogy, but found it difficult to deliver. “I could barely continue, but right at the point where I released myself into my feelings there was a pinpoint of light through my grief, and a smile. This point of happiness expanded rapidly, vastly, and immensely into a paradoxical experience of grief and happiness, into a greater sense of well being than I had ever had.”
Give into that where the soul is awakened. It is not loss because there is only one power—the goodness of God. There is no fear. It is beautiful. Once we touch it there is no more evil Queen. She holds no power over us. This is what Jesus and Lao Tzu taught. God is good all the time. Yes, there is strain when things all come apart, but God is good all the time. This week there will be someone to challenge you, but check it out: God is good all the time.
I Am There
By James Dillet Freeman
Do you need Me?
I am there.
You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by.
You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice.
You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands.
I am at work, though you do not understand My ways.
I am at work, though you do not recognize My works.
I am not strange visions. I am not mysteries.
Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know Me as I am, and then but as a feeling and a faith.
Yet I am there. Yet I hear. Yet I answer.
When you need Me, I am there.
Even if you deny Me, I am there.
Even when you feel most alone, I am there.
Even in your fears, I am there.
Even in your pain, I am there.
I am there when you pray and when you do not pray.
I am in you, and you are in Me…
When you get yourself out of the way, I am there.
You can of yourself do nothing, but I can do all.
And I am in all.
Though you may not see the good, good is there, for I am there.
I am there because I have to be, because I am…
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January 25, 2015 – Year of Forgiveness
01/25/15 Rev. David McArthur with Robert Plath & Takashi Tanemori
Year of Forgiveness
Ghandi said, “Forgiveness is not a weakness, it is a strength.” A Course In Miracles says, “All illness comes from unforgiveness.” A survivor of Auschwitz, Eva Kor, learned that the greatest gift, one no one—even Dr. Mengele—could take away from her, was forgiveness. “It’s for me, not for him” she said. “I want to be free of the darkness, not suffer in unforgiveness.” Forgiveness is the greatest miracle of all. When Robert Plath was 13 his father died and he became head of the family, and life was a fight. “It took years for me to get over it.” You want to heal and have your heart open up. Take the cover off your light. It is most heroic to get over all that revenge and live open and free.
From 1900 to the year 2000, 100 million people died at the hands of fellow human beings. Takashi Tanemori was 8 when the American bombing of Hiroshima took his entire family, from his baby sister to his grandparents. He had no one and nowhere to go. He ate at the dump with the rats. His father had schooled him, regardless of the cultural pressures, to “live your life for the benefit of others… This is the simplest way to make the world a safer and peaceful place.” But he vowed to avenge his family, and in ten years he was able to go to America to do that.
He was not welcomed with open arms in America, and felt betrayed again by the “Christian nation”. He went to an immigrant work camp. A nurse told him of the One of endless love, but “I worried I hadn’t avenged my father, that I hadn’t kept my word to him.”. It took forty years, but he did learn about true love and forgiveness. Now he is free as a bird. He turned from revenge to forgiveness. I learned to avenge my father by learning forgiveness. “The greatest way to have revenge upon your enemy is to learn to forgive. And now I fly in the blue sky! It is the ultimate demonstration of love.”
We carry with us what no longer serves the beings we really are. Robert Plath and Takashi Tanemori have opened a door for us to let us know there is a beautiful way for us. We can forgive and release; it’ll bring us to peace. Take this moment. I commit to forgiveness. I commit to forgiveness. I commit to forgiveness.
It is said that time has the power to heal. But forgiveness is beyond time. You have the power to move that rock by forgiveness. The whole world can change and the peace cannot be contained.
January 25, 2015 – Year of Forgiveness
01/25/15 Rev. David McArthur with Robert Plath & Takashi Tanemori
Year of Forgiveness
Ghandi said, “Forgiveness is not a weakness, it is a strength.” A Course In Miracles says, “All illness comes from unforgiveness.” A survivor of Auschwitz, Eva Kor, learned that the greatest gift, one no one—even Dr. Mengele—could take away from her, was forgiveness. “It’s for me, not for him” she said. “I want to be free of the darkness, not suffer in unforgiveness.” Forgiveness is the greatest miracle of all. When Robert Plath was 13 his father died and he became head of the family, and life was a fight. “It took years for me to get over it.” You want to heal and have your heart open up. Take the cover off your light. It is most heroic to get over all that revenge and live open and free.
From 1900 to the year 2000, 100 million people died at the hands of fellow human beings. Takashi Tanemori was 8 when the American bombing of Hiroshima took his entire family, from his baby sister to his grandparents. He had no one and nowhere to go. He ate at the dump with the rats. His father had schooled him, regardless of the cultural pressures, to “live your life for the benefit of others… This is the simplest way to make the world a safer and peaceful place.” But he vowed to avenge his family, and in ten years he was able to go to America to do that.
He was not welcomed with open arms in America, and felt betrayed again by the “Christian nation”. He went to an immigrant work camp. A nurse told him of the One of endless love, but “I worried I hadn’t avenged my father, that I hadn’t kept my word to him.”. It took forty years, but he did learn about true love and forgiveness. Now he is free as a bird. He turned from revenge to forgiveness. I learned to avenge my father by learning forgiveness. “The greatest way to have revenge upon your enemy is to learn to forgive. And now I fly in the blue sky! It is the ultimate demonstration of love.”
We carry with us what no longer serves the beings we really are. Robert Plath and Takashi Tanemori have opened a door for us to let us know there is a beautiful way for us. We can forgive and release; it’ll bring us to peace. Take this moment. I commit to forgiveness. I commit to forgiveness. I commit to forgiveness.
It is said that time has the power to heal. But forgiveness is beyond time. You have the power to move that rock by forgiveness. The whole world can change and the peace cannot be contained.
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January 18, 2015 – The Beloved Community
01/18/15 Rev. James Trapp
The Beloved Communty
Today’s headlines are the world’s prayer requests—what we need to pray for. They are evolutionary spiritual triggers to move us from where we are to where we want to be. “Invading armies can be resisted,” according to Victor Hugo, “but not an idea whose time has come.” Then, one person can have an idea that changes the world.
Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat and was arrested. So Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. led a 381 day peaceful boycott of the bus company. It sparked a movement that spread around the world. We each have a compelling mission. We all pray for relief from our nagging problems. And then, we say, will we be able to live a better life of giving and love. But we have it backwards. Our mission is to expand our world, our vision, and then our problems will fade to the nothingness from which they came.
Dr. King’s vision was of all people living and working together. Activist Reverend James Lawson called this the Beloved Community. All the great spiritual teachers have taught that this Beloved Community is in the eye of Spirit and we must live it in our hearts. Astronauts tell us they have an epiphany when they see the earth from above: without any map lines, separations among us are false.
It’s easy to love all of humanity, but it’s not so easy loving that particular one that’s on your last nerve. Jesus said we are to love the one “in front of us”. We need to see with new eyes. We must use our imagination to put ourselves in the shoes of another and put our loving into practice, not just intend to. Toleration is a start, but move to appreciation and embracing. Move beyond your barriers. “Turn the other cheek”, which means that when someone gives us one form of energy, we are to return a different form of energy, like forgiveness, love, and compassion. That takes strength. Returning the same energy does not take strength.
A lady, returning to her airplane seat, found the man beside her eating her cookies. She was angry and helped herself to “her own cookies”. Then she realized she was in the wrong seat! She apologized for her behavior, but the man said that he has learned that “when in doubt, share!” Our true theology is what we do, what we put into practice. To forgive “someday” is just a delaying tactic of the mind. Go within; pray. Bring in a higher energy. It affects all people. We are all connected. Stop seeing differences; see the beauty in others. See the many variations of infinite Spirit, which needs variety to express Its infinitude. See the wholeness and unity. Bring in the brotherhood, the Blessed Community. The time is now; the place is where you are. Peace. God bless you!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
January 18, 2015 – The Beloved Community
01/18/15 Rev. James Trapp
The Beloved Communty
Today’s headlines are the world’s prayer requests—what we need to pray for. They are evolutionary spiritual triggers to move us from where we are to where we want to be. “Invading armies can be resisted,” according to Victor Hugo, “but not an idea whose time has come.” Then, one person can have an idea that changes the world.
Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat and was arrested. So Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. led a 381 day peaceful boycott of the bus company. It sparked a movement that spread around the world. We each have a compelling mission. We all pray for relief from our nagging problems. And then, we say, will we be able to live a better life of giving and love. But we have it backwards. Our mission is to expand our world, our vision, and then our problems will fade to the nothingness from which they came.
Dr. King’s vision was of all people living and working together. Activist Reverend James Lawson called this the Beloved Community. All the great spiritual teachers have taught that this Beloved Community is in the eye of Spirit and we must live it in our hearts. Astronauts tell us they have an epiphany when they see the earth from above: without any map lines, separations among us are false.
It’s easy to love all of humanity, but it’s not so easy loving that particular one that’s on your last nerve. Jesus said we are to love the one “in front of us”. We need to see with new eyes. We must use our imagination to put ourselves in the shoes of another and put our loving into practice, not just intend to. Toleration is a start, but move to appreciation and embracing. Move beyond your barriers. “Turn the other cheek”, which means that when someone gives us one form of energy, we are to return a different form of energy, like forgiveness, love, and compassion. That takes strength. Returning the same energy does not take strength.
A lady, returning to her airplane seat, found the man beside her eating her cookies. She was angry and helped herself to “her own cookies”. Then she realized she was in the wrong seat! She apologized for her behavior, but the man said that he has learned that “when in doubt, share!” Our true theology is what we do, what we put into practice. To forgive “someday” is just a delaying tactic of the mind. Go within; pray. Bring in a higher energy. It affects all people. We are all connected. Stop seeing differences; see the beauty in others. See the many variations of infinite Spirit, which needs variety to express Its infinitude. See the wholeness and unity. Bring in the brotherhood, the Blessed Community. The time is now; the place is where you are. Peace. God bless you!
January 11, 2015 – Steps of Prosperity
01/11/15 Rev. David McArthur
Steps of Prosperity
We are going to create a wonderful world this year! A prosperous year! This Infinite Presence we are connected with wants to pour abundance into our lives. It is the only power; it’s not God and materiality. See God in all things. It’s how we connect with Spirit. In the story of the loaves and fishes (Matthew) are step by step instructions for manifesting into physical being what we want. The steps are:
1 (awareness) Jesus said, “Bring them (5 loaves and 2 fish) to me.” Be aware of what is provided, not what is not there. What is wanted is already present in the spiritual.
2 (serenity) “He directed the people to sit down on the grass.” Make the people in your head, your critics, sit down. You can’t get rid of them, but it brings you into balance within.
3 (acceptance) “Taking the 5 loaves, 2 fish…” Accept what is there; it is the way it is. Acceptance is a beautiful thing. You know you’re not in acceptance when you’re complaining.
4 (love) “…and looking up to heaven…” Shift. Raise your awareness to a greater level. Thoughts don’t do it. It takes feeling, a different consciousness. God works through feeling. There is amazing power here. It’s amazing growth to know that everything is love.
5 (gratitude) “he gave thanks…” I am grateful! I am grateful! I am grateful! The new creation is happening in our spiritual world and flowing into this one by way of our hearts.
6 (release all limits) “…broke the loaves” Break the old patterns. Pure spiritual love flows through our hearts and heals us. The hurt we carry is healed by that love. It removes those limiting ideas.
7 (active giving) “then he gave them to the disciples…” Send it on. In the physical world if you want more of something you take more. The spiritual world looks opposite to the physical world; if you want more you give more. Tithing focuses us on the giving, that it’s all God’s. And it brings it into the physical world.
8 (openness) “and disciples gave them to the people.” It is given to that part of us that is busy with the outer. We become open to both giving and receiving. It invites us into open receptivity. It fills us and satisfies the “yeah, but” people in our head. We experience the love, the divine.
Recalling step 4 (love), we enter into this with and through the feeling of love. The feelings of love and gratitude move to the places within us where we carry pain and we heal. I am grateful! I am grateful! I am grateful! And there was more than enough! “…and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.” 12 is the number of fulfillment.
Affirm God is my instant, constant, abundant Supply! God is my instant, constant, abundant Supply! God is my instant, constant, abundant Supply! Live long and prosper!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
January 11, 2015 – Steps of Prosperity
01/11/15 Rev. David McArthur
Steps of Prosperity
We are going to create a wonderful world this year! A prosperous year! This Infinite Presence we are connected with wants to pour abundance into our lives. It is the only power; it’s not God and materiality. See God in all things. It’s how we connect with Spirit. In the story of the loaves and fishes (Matthew) are step by step instructions for manifesting into physical being what we want. The steps are:
1 (awareness) Jesus said, “Bring them (5 loaves and 2 fish) to me.” Be aware of what is provided, not what is not there. What is wanted is already present in the spiritual.
2 (serenity) “He directed the people to sit down on the grass.” Make the people in your head, your critics, sit down. You can’t get rid of them, but it brings you into balance within.
3 (acceptance) “Taking the 5 loaves, 2 fish…” Accept what is there; it is the way it is. Acceptance is a beautiful thing. You know you’re not in acceptance when you’re complaining.
4 (love) “…and looking up to heaven…” Shift. Raise your awareness to a greater level. Thoughts don’t do it. It takes feeling, a different consciousness. God works through feeling. There is amazing power here. It’s amazing growth to know that everything is love.
5 (gratitude) “he gave thanks…” I am grateful! I am grateful! I am grateful! The new creation is happening in our spiritual world and flowing into this one by way of our hearts.
6 (release all limits) “…broke the loaves” Break the old patterns. Pure spiritual love flows through our hearts and heals us. The hurt we carry is healed by that love. It removes those limiting ideas.
7 (active giving) “then he gave them to the disciples…” Send it on. In the physical world if you want more of something you take more. The spiritual world looks opposite to the physical world; if you want more you give more. Tithing focuses us on the giving, that it’s all God’s. And it brings it into the physical world.
8 (openness) “and disciples gave them to the people.” It is given to that part of us that is busy with the outer. We become open to both giving and receiving. It invites us into open receptivity. It fills us and satisfies the “yeah, but” people in our head. We experience the love, the divine.
Recalling step 4 (love), we enter into this with and through the feeling of love. The feelings of love and gratitude move to the places within us where we carry pain and we heal. I am grateful! I am grateful! I am grateful! And there was more than enough! “…and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.” 12 is the number of fulfillment.
Affirm God is my instant, constant, abundant Supply! God is my instant, constant, abundant Supply! God is my instant, constant, abundant Supply! Live long and prosper!
January 4, 2015 – Creating With Our Hearts
01/04/15 Rev. David McArthur
Creating With Our Heart
It’s an amazing and powerful thing when a whole society is of a single mind, as with New Year’s resolutions. Our heads give us long lists of resolutions. We fail to keep them and in a few weeks we’re filled with guilt. The problem is the list is not from the heart. I thought I’d like to change some things this year. The usual—lose some weight, exercise, and so on. But I knew I really didn’t care! But in my heart I wanted the energy and agility to go rafting with my grandkids. So I have no problem getting out and becoming active.
Emily Cady said we are of two parts. The first is our personality. That’s how we identify ourselves in our mind. The other is “our individuality” which expresses the being we were before this human experience. It is creative in expressing itself, and says, “Yes! I want to enjoy this creation that I am.” It is the divine creative power within us. It wants to express this year.
The mind has to compare and compete. It has made marvelous things. But it grasps with a closed hand; the heart with an open one. It is time to create with the heart. Lao Tzu wrote “Therefore the master has but does not own…when her work is done she forgets it and it lasts forever.” Do not become attached to the outcome. Do what you like to do and you will be in harmony. Use the energy of the heart to energize and activate that which you really want. Once that consciousness is created it is a part of who you are.
What is your heart’s desire? I thought I should publish a book this year. I’ve done it before and did not care for all the details of publishing. But I asked my heart, “What is this about?” I got, “To share it with someone else is sacred. This information has touched you—what an opportunity to share the blessing with someone else!” Now, that I can do. That will get me to the computer.
What fulfills your heart? A young lady graduated college as had her parents and grandparents before her. She had been taught to fear failure, and was confident of her future. But by 28 she was a single mother who couldn’t even feed her child without government assistance. When she realized she was a total failure, her fear of failure went away—there was nothing else to fear. She asked herself what did she really want to do? She wanted to write children’s stories, even if that didn’t pay much at all. It was J. K. Rowling. Now a billionaire, but money was never on her mind. She let herself do what her heart was calling her to do. She let her heart create what was hers to bring.
Do we just want to finish a list this time or do we want to say Yes! to our hearts this year? I say YES! to my heart. I say YES! to my heart. I say YES! to my heart. As you bring forth that commitment, what is created will be a huge blessing for everyone. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!