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November 17, 2013 – Ignite Your Life

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11/17/13 Rev. Jim Lee
Ignite Your Life

The kingdom of Heaven is right here, right now! The truth of our reality is abundance and prosperity and we need to manifest it. If you know and experience and demonstrate the complete experience of God Almighty as our source, you will create wealth and health. Charles Fillmore said that this is not a theory, but a demonstrated fact. Now is the time to open your mind and see. It’s like air—you need to breath it in to get it. Your prosperity is yours alone and you alone must get it. It’s not about money, but God, about being in the presence of divine flow, including financial prosperity. Some don’t want money because of some things in the Bible, as “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” But this is a misrepresentation. Jesus was pointing out that the rich man wasn’t into God as much as he was into money.

Yes, God Is Good All The Time. Do you trust in it—like when you are cut off in traffic? Do you pause and say to yourself, “God has got this, really!” Trust the process! Focus in on the truth: the magnificence of God. Keep you eye on God more than the condition or situation. I put a bowl of my dog’s favorite food on the floor but told him to wait. His eyes stayed focused on mine and he never broke his gaze until I told him it was ok to eat. We have to stay focused on God, not the manifestation of our fears that we project into our world. Will Smith, in “Beyond Earth”, tells his son that danger is real, but fear is optional. He told his son that in the midst of danger, get grounded and take yourself out of the moment and focus on truth. You can choose not to fear by staying focused.

We have mis-programmed our subconscious, which is where the power is. The ‘chemicalization” in the subconscious is then projected into our world. When we introduce a positive thought into a sea of mis-belief and negative programming, it seems all Hell breaks loose. This is called the 2nd force. The bubbling up of the 2nd force shows what needs to be healed. It is actually a good thing because it reveals the stuff we need to heal! So say “Oh goodie! Make my day!” It’s an opportunity to grow! On the other side is healing, prosperity. Life like never before! Tap into your divine birthright. You can have Heaven on Earth right now. Say, “Oh goodie! Make my day!”

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November 10, 2013 – A Step Towards Wholeness

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11/10/13 Rev. David McArthur
A Step Toward Wholeness

When a question comes up one, two, three times, it’s Spirit saying, “Okay, I’ve got something for you to look at.” Here’s one: there’s something going on in your life, but “God is good all the time”—except this time? When facing a serious challenge, you have a choice: where do you place your attention?

A four year old girl is diagnosed with polio. “She’ll never walk again.” Her mother says, “YES SHE WILL!” This was not easy—rural Tennessee, deep poverty, big family, many children. With her mother’s support, the family kept focused and took what steps they could. At six the girl got metal braces; she stood and took her first step. 10 years later, at 16, she ran to a bronze medal in the Olympics! 4 years after that she won 3 gold medals. Fastest woman in the world! Her name is Wilma Rudolph.

The nature of God’s presence is wholeness. But when it isn’t there, it doesn’t mean God isn’t there. Divine goodness is there—as the potential within the experience. Take a step towards the wholeness. Every time the divine IS there. This is the force that we are one with, that is within us. It is what we create with. When it looks the worst is the time to remember “God is good all the time.” Because it is there—it is always there.

Gandhi, so insecure he could not talk to people, ran into a system of brutal subjugation. People wanted to deal with it using violence, but to him that wasn’t wholeness. Knowing he would likely be beaten, imprisoned, or killed, he took his step. He had no idea that it would eventually lead an entire nation of millions to freedom without violence. He just knew that was his next step. And it came from the step before. And that came from the step before. Those things in our world where we don’t express wholeness (relationships, health challenge, “not enough”—money, support, acceptance, whatever)—one step towards wholeness is all it takes.

God IS good all the time. At any time it is potential. What makes the difference between potential and manifestation? We’re what makes the difference. Commit: I am going to do that which I can do—a step toward wholeness. I will take a step toward wholeness. I will take a step toward wholeness. I will take a step toward wholeness.

When you do you will discover that God Is Good All The Time!

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November 3, 2013 – Creating Spiritual Partnerships

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11/3/13 Mike & Michelle Robbins
Creating Spiritual Relationships

AUTHENTICITY is the first tool for developing spiritual relationships which deepen our own spirituality. It can’t be rehearsed. It’s a phenomenon; it’s right now. It’s not authentic to be afraid to ask for what we need or want and expect others to know. Gay Hendricks, Conscious Loving: most conflict is 2 people or groups arguing for the victim position. In any argument or conflict it only takes one person to say something that is undeniably vulnerable, and it is always something emotional and authentic, like what they feel right now or why. So most conflict can be resolved with only one ten minute “sweaty palms conversation”, when you use your Emotional Intelligence—how do I feel, what do I need? —and your Relationship Intelligence, which is learning how state what you need, and ask what you need to do. It’s like you were learning to dance with a partner.

The second tool is APPRECIATION. Ask “How can I support you?” “What do you need?” “Is there something I missed?” It’s also about the spiritual relationship we have with ourselves. Would you appreciate a little more appreciation? Ask for more. “I would like to be acknowledged.” Sometimes it’s, “I need some space.” And when someone expresses appreciation for you, say, “Thank you.” Really receive it. It’s a gift. Any other reply, even countering with another compliment, does not allow appreciation, nor is it authentic.

In the moment, things often don’t look the way we thought. It isn’t so easy. But to never have conflict means someone is lying. That’s the challenge. However. the more authenticity and appreciation in spiritual relationships with others, the deeper is our own spirituality. Mike was explaining to his young daughter about when, as a young man, he had started a very promising professional baseball career but lost it when he broke his arm. Answering her innocent question as honestly as he could, he said that now he wasn’t sad about it, because then he would never have met her mom and they wouldn’t have her. He said he was actually grateful for it. Realizing it all had led him to his beautiful wife and daughters, he was overwhelmed and moved to tears of deep appreciation. Truth, honesty, vulnerability. Authenticity. Appreciation. Trust that there is a greater intelligence and that things work out the way they should!

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October 27, 2013 – God Touches

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10/27/13 Rev. David McArthur
God Touches

I remember hearing something that at once I knew was true, yet I did not understand. It was from Emily Cady. “God is the name we give to that unchangeable, inexorable principle… the creative underlying cause of all things… In each individual, He becomes…a personal, loving, all-forgiving Mother-Father…[but] God is not a being having qualities, it is the very good itself…All love in the universe is God. [When you love, that’s God.] All the wisdom and intelligence…is God.” From Charles Fillmore, “I am now in the presence of pure Being and immersed in the Holy Spirit of life, love, and wisdom.” Like experiencing the night sky full of an infinite number of stars, we sense we are part of something greater that moves through us all, as a wave is but a part of the whole ocean. We don’t get to live there, but we touch it and we know it is real.

Having fled a raging forest fire which swept down upon her home, Sandra McFall asked her friend Paul to go back with her that first time. Her greatest fears were realized as she saw the total ruin of her home. She was a professional artist, and had not only lost her home, but her workplace and much of her work as well. Paul did find in the ashes a picture of Sandra’s father that had survived relatively intact. She remembered how she and her parents, as missionaries in Africa, had lost that home too to fire when soldiers swept through destroying everything. She remembered how her father had told her then that everything she needed was inside her. Back at the diner, Paul produced a book he had retrieved from the ruins. It was her mother’s Bible. It was still full of the many notes her mother had made whenever she had seen the touch of God in their recovery from that earlier loss. Sandra resolved that from then on she would count her “God touches” every day.

So everyday I count 5 “God touches”. #1 is that I open my eyes each morning. My thoughts go right to #2—coffee! How it’s so carefully grown and processed and delivered to me. What about that first smile of the day? All that love—that is God. And then stepping out into the fall breeze and sunshine! And when I turn the key and the car starts right up, that’s God—all those parts put together and delivered to me at my fingertips. Emilie Cady said, “It’s not that God has power; God IS power.”

Are you willing to do five a day? It can be the smile you see, the food you eat. The more you are aware of, the deeper is your experience. “Divine love touches me right now!” “Divine love touches me right now!”

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October 20, 2013 – The Evolutionary Impulse

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10/20/13 Rev. Robert Brumet
Let Go of the Past, and Stand Up to Who You Really Are

Your own heart beat is the same impulse which created the universe 14 billion years ago. Until about 100,000 years ago it was simply a biological impulse, evolving the animal forms. Then consciousness was born as the cutting edge of evolution. Now we are at another time of transition, but we have over developed knowledge and under developed wisdom; over developed power and under developed love. Some would say the greatest threat to human existence is human existence.

We have not created balance. We have taken over the course of our evolution but have done so blindly. The human mind which has created our survival has become our master. We rely on our human intelligence for our (mis)understanding of reality. We have evolved from instinct to intellect. We need to move to intuition. We have become addicted to our way and it’s all we know. We are afraid to move on.

From Nikos Kazantzakis, author of Zorba the Greek: “Blowing through the heaven and earth, and in our hearts and the heart of every living thing, is a gigantic breath–a great Cry–which we call God. Plant life wished to continue its motionless sleep next to stagnant waters, but …the Cry, without pity, kept shaking its roots and shouting, “Away, let go of the earth, Walk!”…Animals appeared–worms–making themselves at home in water and mud. “We’re just fine here,” they said… But the terrible Cry hammered itself pitilessly into their loins. “Leave the mud, stand up, give birth to your betters!”… And lo! after thousands of eons, man emerged, trembling on his still unsolid legs… He has been fighting, again for thousands of eons, to draw himself, like a sword, out of his animalistic scabbard. He is also fighting–this is his new struggle–to draw himself out of his human scabbard. Man calls in despair, “Where can I go? I have reached the pinnacle, beyond is the abyss.” And the Cry answers, “I am beyond. Stand up!”

It is important to let go of the past and stand up into who we really are. We can’t make it happen but we can be willing. And so it is! God bless you!

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October 13, 2013 – A Consciousness of Generosity

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10/13/13 Rev. David McArthur
Daily Generosity, and One Outrageous Generosity

After straightening out an order she had screwed up, a waitress continued to serve a large group cheerfully, but their “tip” was a note with a big zero and the words, “maybe you’ll get it right the next time.” What consciousness is that?! The next table had heard them preparing the “tip”, and left her a note, “Don’t let anyone take away your smile,” and a $100.00 bill! Now that was a consciousness of inclusion and creativity. The mind tells us what we get out of an experience. But the heart sees that what we give is ours.

Walking to school, a mother and her small son were reading signs. A homeless woman had a sign saying, “I am hungry and need food.” Taking half half of his sandwich from his lunchbox the boy gave it to her. Then he took his mother’s hand again and continued to school without commenting. A consciousness of generosity.

I have remembered “past lives”, if that’s what they were. I gained much from those memories. From being a war leader instrumental in spreading much human suffering to an obedient foot soldier on the front line, facing certain death. As a woman, I was abused, beaten, and raped; and as a child abandoned and starved to death. But I never experienced anything that I had not given previously. In each of those experiences there was always someone of loving generosity. These people were experiencing their spiritual selves. The more I learned of generosity from them, the more wholeness I began to experience life after life. Consciousness grows over time. Through the generosity of others I began to change. To the saying, “If you give a man a fish…” add, “If you teach a man to LOVE you feed a village for a lifetime, and they will feed the world.”

It’s like there’s a great energy that flows into the people and their lives. If there is a lack in our lives it is a reflection of a lack within ourselves. So we need to increase our generosity and be aware that we are opening our consciousness to this great energy. This week, each day, experience giving a little more, and once this week, give with outrageous generosity. Affirm with me, “Joyously and generously God’s abundance flows through me!” “Joyously and generously God’s abundance flows through me!” “Joyously and generously God’s abundance flows through me!” It does, through you!–and it’s a kick! Bless you!

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October 6, 2013 – Healing the Country’s Consciousness

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10/6/13 Rev. David McArthur
Healing the Country’s Consciousness

Our scientific understanding of intuition is growing. In work on the electromagnetic field of the heart, 4 subjects were wired up. 3 sent expressions of love (appreciation, care, and compassion) to the 4th, who had no clue about heart coherence. Yet his coherence response was very high. He even found it more difficult than usual to get into incoherence and feelings of discord and separation.
Jesus taught, “Love one another.” Were His teachings actually instructions on the work of transforming human kind? His instructions that we are beginning to learn not only lift us each up individually, but change the very fabric of humankind. Love heals the collective unconscious.
When I saw all the violence on the news, I went into judgment. It does feel good to know when I am right. But I had to ask, “What is the contribution we make to that experience of violence? What is needing healing?” Physical violence is an expression of pain, and thus a call for healing. Emotional violence is a call for healing emotional pain. Where we use our control of finances to hurt others financially is financial violence. In Congress, it is an out-picturing of the government’s consciousness, and since it is our government, of our consciousness.

I choose to send love when I see violence. It is our work. We can’t play the blame game anymore. Here we have made a conscious commitment to change violence in the world. Every Sunday we attune ourselves to love and radiate it out to others because it is part of our work. The experience of financial violence is our opportunity to heal the pain deep in our society experienced as financial loss.

What energy of love would heal that? The energy of unconditional love. Feel it go out from your heart. I noticed, however, I didn’t feel it for “them”, but I could feel it for any number of special people in my life. So I just let myself feel unconditional love for a loved one and then I can send that out to anyone! “I enfold you in unconditional love!” Send it to our congressmen, regardless of party, “I enfold you in unconditional love!” —to those doing financial violence in our society, and to those afraid in their own homes of financial violence. “I enfold you in unconditional love!” Send it to members of your own family, too. There is a world seeking to heal. You are here because you are a part of the Presence. You are unconditional love!

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September 29, 2013 – Handle What Is Important With Prayer

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9/29/13 Rev. David McArthur
Handle What Is Important With Prayer

Usually when we go into prayer we don’t know what’s really going on. Melissa’s mother had a stroke. The only thing to do was a surgical procedure with only a 1% chance of success, likely leaving her a vegetable. With a tradition of prayer, the family asked their spiritual community to join them in prayer during surgery. It was an 8 hour ordeal. That night, exhausted, Melissa prayed before falling asleep. She dreamed she was in a courtroom, and her mother was asking the judge, God, to let her return to health so that she could continue to aid her family. Upon awakening, Melissa felt a deep sense of peace. At the hospital Melissa found her mother conscious and lucid! Some of the equipment had already been removed because of her mother’s returning vitality. We have a difficult time understanding the spiritual experience, and so we use symbols. I believe that dream was an expression of a real spiritual experience. Melissa witnessed her mom having the experience of choosing to return to her family. I do not imply that every time we pray for someone that they get well. Sometimes they choose to let go of the body.

My belief is different from tradition. I do not try to remind an infinite being out there that they forgot something. Instead I believe we connect in our spirit to the spirit of the other person to support them in their spiritual choice. We never get spiritual control, but we do link to them. Our day to day experience of prayer is not as intense, but as our experience grows, our view of how we see others changes. We begin to see how beautiful and powerful others are spiritually—even our loved ones when they are lost in their pain or how weak they think they are. That’s prayer and it happens every day all the time. Those beings most dear in our lives are important because they keep growing our awareness. See the truth; tell them You are a magnificent spiritual being! You are a magnificent spiritual being! You are a magnificent spiritual being! What a joy to know that! And do you notice how it grows? One or two beings show up at the office—and one over there in line. And even yourself—I am a magnificent spiritual being! –no matter how hard you try to cover it up! I am a magnificent spiritual being! Yes you are!

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September 22, 2013 – Evolving the Consciousness of Peace

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9/22/13 Rev. David McArthur
Evolving the Consciousness of Peace
 
                                          
This moment has the lowest level of violence, war and destruction that humankind has ever had! In other times, we burned women as witches and maintained slavery by constant violence. Repulsive! What kind of people can do that?! But human consciousness has been evolving.

In our lifetime there were many peaceful transitions: the dissolution of the Soviet Union, new democracies, the destruction of the Iron Curtain, and the Berlin Wall was hacked to pieces by students. The cold war ended without a shot, and China went from threat to economic partner. Look at the Arab Spring. In 1989 and 1990 there were 14 nonviolent peaceful revolutions. We are living at a time when peace is present on our Earth as never before! What has happened?

2000 years ago, Jesus said to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. From this consciousness began a transformation of humankind and great teachers have called others to join them. Like Mahatma Gandhi. He threw off his country’s oppressors without killing a single Englishman. He didn’t really teach non-violence, but love. You have to care more for the other person’s safety than your own. The ensuing partitioning of India caused great violence, so Gandhi went into fasting—not a practice of starvation, but a spiritual practice of prayer. It involved accepting 100% of the responsibility for what was happening. In 3 days the violence in Calcutta stopped. In Delhi, the violence stopped in 5 days.

We are changing, beginning to find other ways. It happens with the power of prayer and it comes from forgiveness. It happens every Friday in the Muslim community, every Saturday in the Jewish community, and every Sunday for the Christians who meet and pray for peace. We do it here every week. The work is to send out our love to all people. It starts here. Send out that love. Send healing to all those in pain. “Divine love flows through my heart, enfolding and blessing the world!” In the morning. In the middle of the day when someone really pisses you off. “Divine love flows through my heart, enfolding and blessing the world!” At night, “Divine love flows through my heart, enfolding and blessing the world!” You are not just sending it out, you are the divine presence of peace in the world!

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September 15, 2013 – Peace Through Compassion

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9/15/13 Rev. David McArthur
Peace Through Compassion

In the story of the Tower of Babel, mankind built a great tower to get “up there” close to God. This is a symbol of seeking vertical transformation, or higher understanding. Cinderella is another symbol of our vertical transformation, of acknowledging the presence of God within. With compassion, we can heal and go through transformation. More recently we talked of the Now Moment. It is another vertical experience of connection with the divine.

But in the story of the Tower of Babel, God sent the people out [horizontally]. In the second chapter of Isaiah it is written that in the last days (days when we near completion) the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be chief of all the mountains and all peoples will stream to it. They will beat their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks, and they won’t train for war anymore. It is the mountain (the Earth) which is lifted up. The work we have been doing with each other lifts our consciousness and we are brought to the house of God (your heart) where we experience the direct connection, divine intelligence, love and understanding. From there flows out harmony among nations and heals our feelings. No need for war, but understanding for each other. All traditions teach that loves flows out from the heart.

Lately when I turn on the TV, I identify with the people who are being wronged by others. But to feel compassion is to feel for the ones who are wrong, too. And feel it for the decision makers, and for the ones fleeing their homes. I even felt compassion for the Russians. It was harder to feel compassion for the people who were bringing the pain. But I remember times when I was out of control in my world, when I was not compassionate.

The people who are figuring out what to do—that’s their job. Our job is to feel the compassion and to send it out to all of them. You can see them in your compassion, even in their lowest times. My belief is that the time is coming when conflict is resolved with compassion. We can start now, when we turn on our TVs, to watch the world with the compassion of our hearts. Affirm, I will watch the world with the compassion of my heart. I will watch the world with the compassion of my heart. I will watch the world with the compassion of my heart. This is the time!

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