June 29, 2014 – Journey Through the Heart to Stillness

6/29/14 Rev. David McArthur
Journey Through The Heart To Stillness

We come here to learn the steps to gain all the fabulous things Spirit has for us. But today I suggest that when we are faced with our challenges we do nothing. Absolutely nothing. It’s not as easy as it sounds.

So why meditate? In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tsu says, “We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move. We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want…We work with being, but non-being is what we use.” But who were we before coming into this human experience? What is that which is behind the being? The non being is always there. It’s the spiritual being experiencing through us.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says one should “focus on Me (God) in the heart.” The psalms teach us the stillness is the path to the heart. Jesus said to “Enter into your closet. Pray to your Father who is in secret.” The secret is that which is below our awareness, below the things we know, deeper than thought or feeling.

As when Jesus calmed the stormy sea with “Peace, Be still”, we enter into stillness and calm our storm. It has nothing to do with our issues; yet it has everything to do with our issues. It is the relationship to the divine. What do we find below our knowing? Nothing.

We do it every Sunday. These are the steps we take to connect with this stillness.
1. Breath deeply through the heart. Pull energy from the monkey mind down to the heart.
2. Open the heart to connect to that divine intelligence by feeling the love. Feel its beauty; recall when you felt your heart going out and you received. In every moment your are loved with that infinite love by the entire universe.
3. “Peace. Be still.” Within the center of love is a still point at the very center of your heart. Be in stillness doing absolutely nothing. Thoughts come in. They’re just thoughts. Just go right back to the love. Find out who you truly are.
4. Then send the love. Radiate the love. When you go out, take that love with you.

Try it this week. Beginners to meditation, do this for 10 minutes every day this week. The experienced can do it for 15 minutes a day. Most meditation techniques are mind-on-mind. This is through the heart, which is 40 times more powerful than the mind. The mind tends to listen to the heart.

“Peace. Be still.” You can do it while standing in line—for 20 seconds. That would be fantastic. Maybe for a minute when you pull into your parking space—that would be wonderful. And at home, you can do a lot of nothing! Bless you!

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June 22, 2014 – Location, Location, Location!

6/22/14 Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
Location, Location, Location! 

After rapidly outgrowing their old location a highly successful business celebrated opening day at their new location. A large floral bouquet arrived with a card that read, “Rest in Peace.” The owner immediately called the florist who apologized profusely. Hoping to shift the business owner’s attention, the florist pointed out, “Imagine how the mourners at the funeral home on the other side of town are feeling about the card on the bouquet they got that says, ‘Congratulations on your new location!’”

The parable about the farmer sowing seed is all about hearing and listening. The four locations where the seeds fell represent the four types of listening (hearers) and the reception we give the seeds (words of Truth). Hearing is automatic, and for those without any impairment it requires no effort. However, listening is a conscious choice, a process that requires focus, concentration, and intention to open and receive. From those that listen to words without “getting it” (location 1) to those that have done their inner work and are ready to listen to the words of Truth, guidance, and direction (location 4), God’s Guidance/Truth will either be inconsequential or powerful and life-transforming. The fourth place where the seeds fell—the fertile ground—represents the people that have begun to heal the inner challenges within before applying the principles to their outer lives. We give it to ourselves first before we seek an outer effect. It requires that we listen with authenticity—beyond the chaos and noise. The still small voice within continues to speak, and give us all the tools we need to deal with the world and our lives. It is a key to the Kingdom. Bring out the Kingdom in your life. Take the Words of Truth into your heart, and then to the outer. Affirm, “I listen with my heart and the Kingdom of Heaven is revealed for me.” “I listen with my heart and the Kingdom of Heaven is revealed for me.” “I listen with my heart and the Kingdom of Heaven is revealed for me.”

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June 15, 2014 – Love to the Millionth Power

6/15/14 Patricia Grabow with Rev. David McArthur
Love to the Millionth Power 

Some of us get to look beyond the experience we call death. Patricia was killed in an auto accident in 1980 in London. In that near-death experience, “I experienced Love to the Millionth Power. You cannot put words to it. It is something beyond any imagining. I was love and it was me. It was everything I ever wanted in life. Then I found myself in a hospital bed with a tremendous gravity pushing me down.” She then had to return home to Seattle alone. “I was suicidal and barely made it through the night. At that point I’d try anything that might help.” It was suggested she try meditation and automatic writing. It did help and she found she also was getting guidance. “It is guidance that is here and present with all of us. So I just did what my guidance said. I had nothing else to hold onto.”

This is about getting beyond the body to your consciousness as a spiritual being, to the reality that is greater than this one. It is pure love. It is the nature of that reality. It is an awareness of Divine Intelligence that is there for us all. And it’s ok that we aren’t always aware of that reality because it is so much more than this one and so difficult to have to return to this (3D) reality.

“Over the next 30 to 100 years, we’ll move from a fear-based, sin-based paradigm, to a paradigm based on love. It is a huge shift within the heart to adjust to these changes, to the understanding that everything comes from within the heart. Dr. Eben Alexander, neurosurgeon and near-death survivor says consciousness does not reside in the brain; the brain is a filter of consciousness. There is no death! It is so important that we remove ourselves from that paradigm.” There is a presence—a presence in the present. There is only love in the present time. Love to the millionth power! That’s it!

To really make that transition, let the heart do it. You’ll find two things: First, imagine what this can do in the world. People can do so many things just because they are afraid of dying. Second, the solutions to the problems we have are in love in the present time. Solutions are found in love. They are not found in fear or pain or sorrow, but in love—that state of consciousness that connects us all. Just continue to do what you are doing. This [UWC] is such an important place! Make the commitment this week to look at love in the present time. Stop. Be aware of the life you are experiencing in the moment, the love that is there in you.

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June 8, 2014 – Kindness for Piglet

6/08/14 Rev. David McArthur
Kindness for Piglet 

One of the very powerful energies now coming into our 3D experience is the powerful attitude of kindness, to choose love instead of fear. We know what to do. The problem isn’t knowing what to do, the problem is remembering to do it.

Often when I want to move from fear to love, an image pops up from the gospel of Pooh which eases this for me: It had rained for some time. Piglet was afraid that he needed to be rescued. Pooh and Christopher Robin felt he needed to be rescued too. So they turned Christopher’s umbrella upside down to use as a boat. It worked. Can you imagine Piglet’s joy when he spied them coming into view, to his rescue?! This is the image that pops into my mind when someone needs reminding that things will be ok. It’s an extending of kindness.

When there is a fearful experience, what is asked of us? Could we choose to send kindness? Send, “You are a child of God. You are loved,” gently holding that connection for someone in their struggle. We aren’t their answer, but we are a presence in their world.

I went to a refugee camp on the West Bank. I went into a house with a family who had lost the father, the husband, because of the struggle there. Aware that we lived in two different worlds, I shared with the mother in the house that I had also experienced the death of a spouse. Almost as a challenge, the woman asked, “Was it by a gun?” I said, yes. When she heard that, she looked into my eyes—women do not normally look into a man’s eyes in that culture. I saw into her soul—the pain, the fear, struggle, loneliness, the fear she had for her 16 year old son who was slipping from her control. I saw the exhaustion, but also the beauty and the strength of that amazing woman. And she saw into me. Later I realized that we had been surrounded by a love which cared for both of us. What had happened was that we had given up separation, that feeling of difference. We were just two people. It touched us both. Somewhere in that connection there was a care and an acknowledgment of who we were.
That’s what we send when we send out kindness to another. It doesn’t change the outer, but the more we do it, the more we invite change. “Child of God, you are loved.”

Hold that awareness of kindness, of love, for three people and for their peoples. Today, President Peres of Israel; and President of the Palestinian Authority, Abbas; and Pope Francis meet to pray in a garden at the Vatican. Send your heart to them. It is a power greater than fear. It dissolves the feeling of difference. Breath that kindness for the people of the world. “Children of God, you are loved!” So when you’re driving down a California freeway, breathe kindness! Enjoy the journey!

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June 1, 2014 – Create a Sacred Relationship

6/01/14 Rev. David McArthur
Create a Sacred Relationship 

Our sacred relationships are those in which we see the magnificence in that other person. We see the one closest to us differently from how others see this person. Some of the most meaningful awakening in our lives comes from a relationship with another.

To create this perception even of “ordinary people” in us is simple. (I didn’t say easy.) It is giving. From giving comes receiving, and in between is appreciation. How we open to more is to give. Giving moves a special energy. We expand. The simplest way is “blessing”. When the head is processing life, the locus of our attention is us. When we bless the other person, the locus changes to them. It causes a beautiful movement from the head to the heart. Say, “Divine Love goes before you, making easy, joyous, and successful you way.” To expand it, draw more special energy by appreciation. Maybe that person holding up the line has just been holding the hand of a friend dying of cancer, or maybe she just came home from the front lines. When you are in your heart, it doesn’t have to be accurate, as the head would insist. Whatever, they are trying to deal with life. Appreciating that expands our heart consciousness and then we see their beauty and magnificence. Maybe your blessing is just a smile or a kind word. What we give is thoughtfulness, kindness. It changes what we perceive. It’s a soul to soul connection.

The hardest part is the part we avoid: the last step, receiving. The head will interfere, because if we really acknowledge the beauty which flows through us, it changes us, and the head doesn’t like change. When the beauty and love flow through you, you are a spiritual presence. You change. Even “the benefit of the doubt” starts the flow. Giving is giving. A sacred relationship is established. Instead of seeing the person with all their “person” stuff, see the beautiful soul. Even the really difficult people in your life. It can let us see who we really are. In it is wisdom and amazing intelligence. The Divine Love loves you as much as any soul in the universe. Just do one a day. Can you make a beautiful, holy relationship out of this?

Give, appreciate, receive. What makes it easy is blessing. Repeat 3 times, “Divine Love goes before you, making easy, joyous, and successful you way.” Your blessing will open that door for them, and when you receive you will get a chance to see the amazing spiritual being that you are!

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May 25, 2014 – HeartMath and the Planetary Shift

5/25/14 Deborah Rozman, Ph.D
HeartMath and the Planetary Shift

There’s something going on. In every country, people feel it. While our global media presents fairly standard world views, on a higher dimensional level, people in touch with their hearts are tuning into different energies. There is a wonderful global shift going on where planetary energies are infused by Universal Source.

If we resist these energies, we create more stress and backlash in our lives. If we align mentally, emotionally, and physically with them, we experience more flow. These energies pulse in. They are gifts, though we have to integrate them into our hearts, minds, and bodies to lift the vibration of the planet and reduce the density. This calls for extra compassion and kindness to ourselves and others. Kindness is a power frequency in this shift.

And the shift is speeding up. Our energy bodies are adjusting, and at times this may feel disconcerting. But there is nothing wrong with us. The heart can guide us if we listen to the rhythm. Real security comes when we flow in the heart and follow our inner guidance. The heart is affirming, ‘Yes!’

If we practice, the voice of the heart gets louder and louder. When we fail to listen, we do not need to feel guilty or beat ourselves up. Simply replace the feeling with compassion. Reboot. Get back in the heart and back on track. In this way we rebuild our reservoir of these energies.

HeartMath is an effective means for connecting with our heart intelligence and aligning with the energies of the planetary shift.

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May 25, 2014 – I Pray YES!

NOTE: Owing to technical difficulties, there are audio drop outs during the first 5 minutes of this message.

5/25/14 Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
I Pray YES! 

In Unity, we use affirmative prayer. In fact, Unity was co-founded by Myrtle Fillmore, who healed her tuberculosis with affirmative prayer. She had heard that “God is never sick.” That as children of God, we are made in the image and likeness of God, and inherit the characteristics of God. Therefore we can never be sick.

“Affirmative prayer is a form of prayer or metaphysical technique that is focused on a positive outcome rather than a negative situation.” (Wikipedia) It is understanding the nature of God and our relationship to God.

Affirmative prayer is a combination of affirmations and denials. Denials are a positive way to address the situation; a disavowal that the negative situation has any power to diminish or weaken us, that it has no power over us. The negative situation is true, but it is not the Truth of our being. Affirmations are statements of Truth of the life we want to live into.

Suppose I got fired. Denial doesn’t mean I can go back to work tomorrow. It means that being fired doesn’t diminish me or keep me down. Affirm your Truth and move from your head to your heart.

If you are so low that all you’ve got is begging and pleading with God, go for it until you get to a place of healing and you can go forward, until you can affirm the Truth and the possibilities. Then, disavow the possibility that it can bring you down, and affirm your Truth and power. But what about when you do it and it isn’t working? If it is not working, go back and see what’s within you that might be holding this up. Is it fear or doubt, or even old beliefs learned in childhood?

The steps are:

1.  Affirm your Truth! Write your affirmation. Make copies and post them on your bathroom mirror, your refrigerator, in your car, and at the office. Each day you will see these positive truths and they will sink in. Or you can say an affirmation 7 times a day for 21 continuous days. You are bringing the negative from the head to the heart, and “God hears the prayers of the heart.”  

2. Believe your affirmative prayer! Say, “I no longer believe (that); I believe (this)!”

3. And remember, gratitude is the most powerful prayer!

4. Release it to God. You don’t have to tell God over and over and over!

Now look around—see what we have created! Everything you see was at one time a divine idea that then appeared in the mind of man.

Affirmative prayer is to say, “Yes!” to the Truth of God and your being. Declare, I say YES! I say YES! I say YES! And I promise you, beloved, that “goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life!” God bless you!

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May 18, 2014 – Heart to Heart Connection

5/18/14 Rev. David McArthur
Heart to Heart Connection 

“Life is really one fool thing after another. Love is two fool things after each other.” A local “philosopher” told me that. But our primary relationship with the spouse is where most of our deepest spiritual learning comes from. Song writers have written “I can’t live if living is without you.” Or “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?” The attention is on “me”, on what is done for “me”. There are two levels of attention: in the intellectual, the flow is through the brain. In the spiritual, the flow is in the heart. When the head is significantly present it is in charge. When the heart intelligence is the predominant presence you are secure enough to focus on the other person. That’s why the couple experience is so powerful. It is the heart to heart connection.

Is your locus of intention on “me”, or in the heart where the connection happens? When there is no “me”, the heart is open to the God perception. That’s why we fall in love. It is opening to our oneness. Then we write verse like “You make the sun want to shine.” “Her hand in mine calms my soul.”

We can move from reaction to love, from head to heart, in four breaths. Breath #1, go to “neutral” when love is not your first response because the head is protecting you. It’s not good or bad; they are not for or against you. Breath #2 is go to “NEUTRAL”. The first was the intention of getting to neutral. The second is to get you there. Now you are in a place where you can choose. The third breath is “I CARE for you.” Focus on your feeling of care for that person. 4th breath is “I care for YOU.” Something new happens. Instead of the locus of your attention on your feelings of defense or “fixing it”, they are on the other person. Say to them, “tell me more”.

Anchor this. Affirm Divine Love flows from my heart blessing you! Divine Love flows from my heart blessing you! Divine Love flows from my heart blessing you!
Then Divine Love flows from my heart loving you! Divine Love flows from my heart loving you! Divine Love flows from my heart loving you!

Heart to heart connection. Soul to soul understanding. It’s a beautiful experience. It’s why we spiritual beings came here. We know what beautiful spiritual beings we are, heart to heart!

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May 11, 2014 – Mother as Spiritual Teacher

5/11/14 Rev. David McArthur
Mother As Spiritual Teacher 

From all the things we might feel about mothers—some gave up a child or a pregnancy, and some faced great pain in their lives because of addiction, and the child in their journey felt much of that pain—let’s go to a place in our hearts that is compassion and surround them with it. Know there is a love that holds them dear.

There is so little in the Bible about Mary as mother. The American psychic Edgar Cayse suggests that Mary was an Essene, who were committed to bringing into the world a being of greater consciousness, and so trained their girls in attunement for that birth. So Mary was carefully prepared to support this child physically and spiritually and to teach Him to listen to the highest guidance. I do not know if this is true, but I have lived long enough to say it could be. Now see your own mother as your first spiritual teacher, who showed you how to care, and how to interact with family and friends.

When Edith was 9 years old she lived at the end of the power grid in Arkansas. A great thunder storm was moving through. Father was far away for work; it was just little Edie and her mother. Needing comfort, she talked with her mother, asking about her mother’s need soon for a warm winter coat. Mom replied that she wasn’t worried, that God would provide. Before going to bed, she asked her mom to lock the front door, but her mom said that in their area they needed to leave the front door unlocked, in case someone might need shelter. Sure enough they heard someone come in and they peeked into the room and saw Mr. Hill sitting in the arm chair. He was drunk and Edie asked what others were going to think when they heard about this. Her mom said they wouldn’t tell anyone. He was their guest and they would protect him, that when Spirit brings someone into your care it is a blessing. Soon he left and a couple days after, Edie and her mom came home to find a big bag on the porch. Inside was a beautiful new winter coat for Mom. Edie learned from her mother about giving and receiving, about non-judgment and the beauty of opening to care for others and so much more.

The core to the awakening of ourselves is when we were embraced and held by mother’s arms after skinning a knee or another childhood mishap. We were taught about Divine Love. That is when we began to learn the truth. Remember feeling that? It might have been someone else, but mostly it was Mother who taught us, “I Am Loved with an Infinite Love.” “I Am Loved with an Infinite Love.” “I Am Loved with an Infinite Love.” How mother brought us the experience of that and awakened us to know infinite love! We are loved, and what a joy it is!

And to Mom for awakening us to that love, Thank You!

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May 4, 2014 – Don’t Worry, Be Happy

5/4/14 Rev. David McArthur
Don’t Worry. Be Happy. 

One of our greatest challenges is to shift our consciousness to a place of joy even when we have problems. Worry doesn’t resolve anything, but it is so natural. There is a reality to it. Did you worry well this week?

We also worry about imagined calamities! The University of Cincinnati found that 85% of what we worry about doesn’t ever take place. And the other 15% is resolved more easily and quickly than we imagine. And we worry when something nice happens—we “wait for the other shoe to drop” or think “it’s too good to be true”.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, “One who works in devotion… and who controls his mind and senses [aware of the Spiritual Presence] …Though always working… is never entangled.” Jesus said, “…do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink… what you will wear… Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap… and yet your heavenly Father feeds them… Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? …But seek first his kingdom…”

There is a simple way out of worry. It starts with Heart Breathing, the most direct spiritual connection. Then remember a happy moment and experience it. Then choose—the worry or the happy feeling. Sometimes on our journey the worry is so strong that we choose it. But there is a way through—speak the truth: “Divine Love blesses me. I am happy. Divine Love blesses me. I am happy. Divine Love blesses me. I am happy.” Feel it! Take a hold of it!

As the song says, your frown will “bring everybody down”. It is the most common, the lowest denominator. It limits us. Is there someone like that in your life? Do you want to draw those of the lowest denominator to you when you are in pain, in a challenge?
At fifteen years of age, Ben was hit by an 18 wheeler. He lost all use of his body below the neck. One day he couldn’t control his rage any longer, and yelled and screamed for 6 hours, until he fell asleep exhausted. Upon awakening, he looked at what he had done. He saw that he could choose the character of his life from then on. He chose happiness. He was soon an inspiration to those around him, lifting them up to happiness, beauty, and power. People came just to be with him. Remember, it’s so easy: 1) heart breathing, 2) happy thought. When you touch it within, it opens others. Feel it; it’s real. When you feel up-liftment, it’s because you’ve opened to a new spiritual flow.

Divine Love blesses me. I am happy. Divine Love blesses me. I am happy. Divine Love blesses me. I am happy. Don’t worry! Be happy!

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