Rev. Denese Schellink
peace
July 10, 2016 – Times Of Turmoil Need Love
07/10/16 Rev. David McArthur
“Times Of Turmoil Need Love”
We witness violence to others. We feel pain. We wonder how much is ours and how to respond. We’re all spiritual beings hanging out in this physical thing. So we look to our spirituality to see how to read this week’s events.
Day after day, year after year, the actions of millions of people have been calling to our desire to wake up. As we struggle to learn this personally it moves out of our unconsciousness into our consciousness. Love brings up patterns of our collective unconsciousness for us so that we can choose. “Stuff” shows up in our unconsciousness that is not consistent with the love we seek to have as human beings. What do we do with that?
What transforms it is love. But I was disturbed because my first response was anger and hate. Our mind polarizes things with “I’m for this and against them”, even though there is only “us”. There are many things to work out: questions and ideas. Within us we place our power in other places. It’s painful to see but gives us choices of what we have in our lives. Embrace that with love. It brings forth wisdom and guides us to healthy boundaries without rejecting the soul which was struggling but expressing in a way that is not ok. If you have been abused you’ve come to a point where you loved yourself enough to say no, to set a boundary. When you set boundaries with wisdom there is growth. When boundaries are set by your reactions it reinforces the abuse. We choose our manifestation.
We’re afraid love makes us vulnerable. We think to love is to accept all of a person without setting boundaries, that if we love enough we’ll heal them. Even Jesus said it was not he who healed the woman who touched the hem of his garment, but he put the healing on her, that it was she, her faith, that healed her. (He was in support of her reaching her wholeness.)
A family I know had a son who had become a drug dealer. They had to say, “We love you but we cannot have that destruction in our world.” They could love but couldn’t heal him; he had to make that change himself. He died violently.
Evelyn’s parents emigrated to America and she was first generation Chinese-American in an environment totally foreign to them. Her father was an alcoholic, and so she lived a life of turmoil. When she was sixteen, her mother passed away and so she was, in effect, an orphan. “What carried me through was my insistence that my mother loved me, and in my mind I was trying to fulfill my mother’s final wish, that I live my soul’s purpose.” It carried her through her biggest failures. As she turned to her mother’s love, she was turning towards that divine love that comes from within the being.
Spiritual power is INFLUENCE, not control over another or over the world. When we choose love we change the consciousness of ourselves and of the whole, so what was unlike love heals. Choose love. I choose love. I choose love. I choose love. The choice is love. Love is the answer. I choose love. It brings transformation for all!
July 10, 2016 – Times Of Turmoil Need Love
07/10/16 Rev. David McArthur
“Times Of Turmoil Need Love”
We witness violence to others. We feel pain. We wonder how much is ours and how to respond. We’re all spiritual beings hanging out in this physical thing. So we look to our spirituality to see how to read this week’s events.
Day after day, year after year, the actions of millions of people have been calling to our desire to wake up. As we struggle to learn this personally it moves out of our unconsciousness into our consciousness. Love brings up patterns of our collective unconsciousness for us so that we can choose. “Stuff” shows up in our unconsciousness that is not consistent with the love we seek to have as human beings. What do we do with that?
What transforms it is love. But I was disturbed because my first response was anger and hate. Our mind polarizes things with “I’m for this and against them”, even though there is only “us”. There are many things to work out: questions and ideas. Within us we place our power in other places. It’s painful to see but gives us choices of what we have in our lives. Embrace that with love. It brings forth wisdom and guides us to healthy boundaries without rejecting the soul which was struggling but expressing in a way that is not ok. If you have been abused you’ve come to a point where you loved yourself enough to say no, to set a boundary. When you set boundaries with wisdom there is growth. When boundaries are set by your reactions it reinforces the abuse. We choose our manifestation.
We’re afraid love makes us vulnerable. We think to love is to accept all of a person without setting boundaries, that if we love enough we’ll heal them. Even Jesus said it was not he who healed the woman who touched the hem of his garment, but he put the healing on her, that it was she, her faith, that healed her. (He was in support of her reaching her wholeness.)
A family I know had a son who had become a drug dealer. They had to say, “We love you but we cannot have that destruction in our world.” They could love but couldn’t heal him; he had to make that change himself. He died violently.
Evelyn’s parents emigrated to America and she was first generation Chinese-American in an environment totally foreign to them. Her father was an alcoholic, and so she lived a life of turmoil. When she was sixteen, her mother passed away and so she was, in effect, an orphan. “What carried me through was my insistence that my mother loved me, and in my mind I was trying to fulfill my mother’s final wish, that I live my soul’s purpose.” It carried her through her biggest failures. As she turned to her mother’s love, she was turning towards that divine love that comes from within the being.
Spiritual power is INFLUENCE, not control over another or over the world. When we choose love we change the consciousness of ourselves and of the whole, so what was unlike love heals. Choose love. I choose love. I choose love. I choose love. The choice is love. Love is the answer. I choose love. It brings transformation for all!
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July 3, 2016 – Celebrating Our Interdependence
Rev. Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
“Celebrating Our Interdependence”
One Nation/One World Under God
Fourth of July! The day we celebrate our independence. But have we strayed from the path of our INTERdependence with God? We say, “I can take care of myself.” “I don’t need anyone else.” “I am beholden to nobody.” It worked in the Revolution when we needed to separate from oppression. But it could not have been done without the interdependence of the colonists. Look at our world today. It’s a reflection of “I don’t need nobody.”
I was very independent and proud of it. One morning I awakened without half my eyesight. I learned to become more independent by learning to be interdependent with others. As a nation we don’t know how to be interdependent with others.
Jesus said, “Where two or… more gather in my name, there I am …” meaning there is a groundwork of interdependence. Interdependence is a heart-sharing of co-operative effort to complete what we want to do. When we come together in his “name” (the manner/nature of God) with joined hearts, the divine energy comes in. It carries us through in a way that is good for everyone. It’s not too late to turn this ship around. The choices we make at this point determine whether we turn around or are dead in the water. Our thoughts, the way we hold ourselves and speak of each other goes out and we get something like ISIS.
Go inside. Is there a straggly word used casually? These choices go out and invite in the “locusts that eat our crop”. When we choose interdependence, joining together our hearts and ideas, creating community, the divine energy will restore that which was lost. I’m talking about consciously speaking, thinking, actively choosing interdependence.
In an interdependent family there are no electronic devices at the dinner table. They gather together to learn what is going on with each other, supporting whoever needs it.
If we rise above the negativity we draw to us the people of the world without seeing race, height, size, shape, we are free.
If I look at you as God sees you I will recognize we are one and I am free. Today I celebrate my Interdependence and I am truly FREE! Today I celebrate my Interdependence and I am truly FREE! Today I celebrate my Interdependence and I am truly FREE!
This week as you bar-b-cue, join your friends, watch the fireworks, take Interdependence Day with you all week, and every day. “No man is an island. No one stands alone. Each one’s joy is joy to me…”
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July 3, 2016 – Celebrating Our Interdependence
Rev. Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
“Celebrating Our Interdependence”
One Nation/One World Under God
Fourth of July! The day we celebrate our independence. But have we strayed from the path of our INTERdependence with God? We say, “I can take care of myself.” “I don’t need anyone else.” “I am beholden to nobody.” It worked in the Revolution when we needed to separate from oppression. But it could not have been done without the interdependence of the colonists. Look at our world today. It’s a reflection of “I don’t need nobody.”
I was very independent and proud of it. One morning I awakened without half my eyesight. I learned to become more independent by learning to be interdependent with others. As a nation we don’t know how to be interdependent with others.
Jesus said, “Where two or… more gather in my name, there I am …” meaning there is a groundwork of interdependence. Interdependence is a heart-sharing of co-operative effort to complete what we want to do. When we come together in his “name” (the manner/nature of God) with joined hearts, the divine energy comes in. It carries us through in a way that is good for everyone. It’s not too late to turn this ship around. The choices we make at this point determine whether we turn around or are dead in the water. Our thoughts, the way we hold ourselves and speak of each other goes out and we get something like ISIS.
Go inside. Is there a straggly word used casually? These choices go out and invite in the “locusts that eat our crop”. When we choose interdependence, joining together our hearts and ideas, creating community, the divine energy will restore that which was lost. I’m talking about consciously speaking, thinking, actively choosing interdependence.
In an interdependent family there are no electronic devices at the dinner table. They gather together to learn what is going on with each other, supporting whoever needs it.
If we rise above the negativity we draw to us the people of the world without seeing race, height, size, shape, we are free.
If I look at you as God sees you I will recognize we are one and I am free. Today I celebrate my Interdependence and I am truly FREE! Today I celebrate my Interdependence and I am truly FREE! Today I celebrate my Interdependence and I am truly FREE!
This week as you bar-b-cue, join your friends, watch the fireworks, take Interdependence Day with you all week, and every day. “No man is an island. No one stands alone. Each one’s joy is joy to me…”
December 20, 2015 – Creative Higher Consciousness
12/20/15 Rev. David McArthur
Creative Higher Consciousness
In this time we are consciously growing from the “eye for an eye” consciousness to a greater consciousness. I have studied the Edgar Cayce information on the Christmas story. I have no idea what really happened then and I do not say this is the way it was. Cayce said the Essenes had intentionally created a state of consciousness to bring in a soul capable of the change to the greater consciousness. They focused mind and body on a process of spiritual attunement. They trained their young women to be able to be the mother of the expected one. Mary started training at age 4, and by age 13 she was the most promising of the group.
One morning when Mary reached the top step of their temple, there was thunder and lightning and a halo of light illuminated her. Also in the halo was the Archangel Gabriel. He led Mary to the altar. I believe this is when she accepted God’s will, but it would be 4 more years until Mary fulfilled it. So Mary’s training intensified. She not only would be the mother but the first teacher of the one who would become the Christ.
Later, when Mary and Joseph were turned away from the inn, it was because the innkeeper felt they would not have any privacy there or be safe, as Essenes drew more attention from the officials. This shows me the story unfolded because of people’s choices and intentions, not because of intervention from a descending cloud. It is my experience that’s how consciousness enters the Earth.
Rick, at the young age of 38, passed just a few weeks before Christmas. The family made a small altar with his photo to keep his presence alive through the season he had so loved. Christmas Day was hard on the family. His mother was on the edge and she asked her husband to turn off the radio. But it wasn’t on! They couldn’t find anything playing in or outside the house. They traced it to his altar. It wasn’t traditional recordings, but Christmas-like beautiful, ethereal music. Then Rick’s Mom said, “We have to turn on the radio!” It was playing “I’ll be home for Christmas.” They realized there was a connection where they had felt only great separation, a connection created by their choices and desire to be connected. We create connection by the choices we make.
That’s why this Christmas is important. Every time we make a connection in the greater consciousness we contribute to the greater consciousness of all mankind. What we are creating is already in the hearts of everyone. It was best expressed when the angels sang, “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” It’s the peace we want to touch. Wouldn’t you like that? “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” When I think of the more than 1000 Unity churches around the world, and Silent Unity all wanting “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” Many millions of people all over the world are saying they want it. “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” In homes and synagogues and mosques (where they recite the 157 verses of the Koran which honor peace because they want it!)
It is time not to bring forth a being, but to bring forth a humanity that teaches and practices “On Earth, peace and good will to all!”
December 20, 2015 – Creative Higher Consciousness
12/20/15 Rev. David McArthur
Creative Higher Consciousness
In this time we are consciously growing from the “eye for an eye” consciousness to a greater consciousness. I have studied the Edgar Cayce information on the Christmas story. I have no idea what really happened then and I do not say this is the way it was. Cayce said the Essenes had intentionally created a state of consciousness to bring in a soul capable of the change to the greater consciousness. They focused mind and body on a process of spiritual attunement. They trained their young women to be able to be the mother of the expected one. Mary started training at age 4, and by age 13 she was the most promising of the group.
One morning when Mary reached the top step of their temple, there was thunder and lightning and a halo of light illuminated her. Also in the halo was the Archangel Gabriel. He led Mary to the altar. I believe this is when she accepted God’s will, but it would be 4 more years until Mary fulfilled it. So Mary’s training intensified. She not only would be the mother but the first teacher of the one who would become the Christ.
Later, when Mary and Joseph were turned away from the inn, it was because the innkeeper felt they would not have any privacy there or be safe, as Essenes drew more attention from the officials. This shows me the story unfolded because of people’s choices and intentions, not because of intervention from a descending cloud. It is my experience that’s how consciousness enters the Earth.
Rick, at the young age of 38, passed just a few weeks before Christmas. The family made a small altar with his photo to keep his presence alive through the season he had so loved. Christmas Day was hard on the family. His mother was on the edge and she asked her husband to turn off the radio. But it wasn’t on! They couldn’t find anything playing in or outside the house. They traced it to his altar. It wasn’t traditional recordings, but Christmas-like beautiful, ethereal music. Then Rick’s Mom said, “We have to turn on the radio!” It was playing “I’ll be home for Christmas.” They realized there was a connection where they had felt only great separation, a connection created by their choices and desire to be connected. We create connection by the choices we make.
That’s why this Christmas is important. Every time we make a connection in the greater consciousness we contribute to the greater consciousness of all mankind. What we are creating is already in the hearts of everyone. It was best expressed when the angels sang, “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” It’s the peace we want to touch. Wouldn’t you like that? “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” When I think of the more than 1000 Unity churches around the world, and Silent Unity all wanting “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” Many millions of people all over the world are saying they want it. “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” In homes and synagogues and mosques (where they recite the 157 verses of the Koran which honor peace because they want it!)
It is time not to bring forth a being, but to bring forth a humanity that teaches and practices “On Earth, peace and good will to all!”
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December 6, 2015 – How Adored You Are
12/06/15 Stowe Dailey & Karen Taylor Good
How Adored You Are
From the original Aramaic, “Our father from whom the breath of life comes, who is not separate from us, may we feel you in our hearts. Thanks for your forgiveness. May we forgive ourselves and others, too. May we walk in love, not fear. The kingdom of heaven is here.”
Peace is all I know. What if prayer is not a tearful plea of desperation, but breathing in and out God? What if your life is a prayer that God is praying? What if your thoughts are words that God is saying? What if you knew without a doubt that God is within and without?
Stowe Dailey: A few years ago, near death with cancer, I was advised to move into hospice! With my body, my spirit also needed healing. I visited a friend, a spiritual healer. She asked, “Do you love yourself Stowe? Your mother died when you were 9. You were abused emotionally and sexually. You must have felt abandoned and unloved, maybe that you didn’t deserve to be loved? Picture your beautiful daughter; imagine that she experienced the abuse you experienced.” I was horrified. My friend continued, “Now picture the beautiful child you are. Love her like you love your daughter.”
With my healing, I got a second chance to live, a second chance to laugh, to love, to sing, to dance. A sweet and precious gift. I had allowed my fear to sabotage my dreams, but I learned fear doesn’t stop you from dying, it stops you from living.
Everything happens for a reason; there is perfection in everything! Karen Taylor Good: My mother always had the answer. She was a Leo and a member of Mensa. But the last 8 years of her life she faded away with dementia. The woman that never forgot a grandchild’s birthday couldn’t remember my name. I went to some very dark places, very angry places. “If there is perfection in this, God, then show me! Why would you play such a cold-hearted trick? I thought your job was to love! It’s not fair!” But I got an answer, “she’s going to fly. She’ll have to let go of the things she can’t use. Memories and faces, people and places are just too heavy to carry on angel’s wings. When her time here is through, she’s going to fly.” It’s not easy, but it’s perfect.
Know you are a gift, God’s precious child, perfect, whole, and enough. “I am a gift!” Take a breath. Hear the voice of God, “Child of mine, do you know how adored you are? You’ve never been alone. In my heart you’re always home. I’m you’re greatest fan. You are enough. Do you know how adored you are?! Because you are! You are loved; all is well. So be it.
December 6, 2015 – How Adored You Are
12/06/15 Stowe Dailey & Karen Taylor Good
How Adored You Are
From the original Aramaic, “Our father from whom the breath of life comes, who is not separate from us, may we feel you in our hearts. Thanks for your forgiveness. May we forgive ourselves and others, too. May we walk in love, not fear. The kingdom of heaven is here.”
Peace is all I know. What if prayer is not a tearful plea of desperation, but breathing in and out God? What if your life is a prayer that God is praying? What if your thoughts are words that God is saying? What if you knew without a doubt that God is within and without?
Stowe Dailey: A few years ago, near death with cancer, I was advised to move into hospice! With my body, my spirit also needed healing. I visited a friend, a spiritual healer. She asked, “Do you love yourself Stowe? Your mother died when you were 9. You were abused emotionally and sexually. You must have felt abandoned and unloved, maybe that you didn’t deserve to be loved? Picture your beautiful daughter; imagine that she experienced the abuse you experienced.” I was horrified. My friend continued, “Now picture the beautiful child you are. Love her like you love your daughter.”
With my healing, I got a second chance to live, a second chance to laugh, to love, to sing, to dance. A sweet and precious gift. I had allowed my fear to sabotage my dreams, but I learned fear doesn’t stop you from dying, it stops you from living.
Everything happens for a reason; there is perfection in everything! Karen Taylor Good: My mother always had the answer. She was a Leo and a member of Mensa. But the last 8 years of her life she faded away with dementia. The woman that never forgot a grandchild’s birthday couldn’t remember my name. I went to some very dark places, very angry places. “If there is perfection in this, God, then show me! Why would you play such a cold-hearted trick? I thought your job was to love! It’s not fair!” But I got an answer, “she’s going to fly. She’ll have to let go of the things she can’t use. Memories and faces, people and places are just too heavy to carry on angel’s wings. When her time here is through, she’s going to fly.” It’s not easy, but it’s perfect.
Know you are a gift, God’s precious child, perfect, whole, and enough. “I am a gift!” Take a breath. Hear the voice of God, “Child of mine, do you know how adored you are? You’ve never been alone. In my heart you’re always home. I’m you’re greatest fan. You are enough. Do you know how adored you are?! Because you are! You are loved; all is well. So be it.
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November 22, 2015 – Flowers Protect Us
11/22/15 Rev. David McArthur
Flowers Protect Us
For several days recently I was out of touch with the world, didn’t even have wi-fi! When I got back I learned about the Paris bombings. The news kept focusing on command and control; the focus was on fear. I felt that I was alone. When I feel that way I pray, “Please help me see what is going on here.”
As an answer, I saw that video clip where Parisians laid flowers and lit candles, and a little boy talked about the terrorists. “Those people are really bad. They’re so mean. Daddy, we have to move.” Beside him, his father said, “No. France is our home. There are bad people everywhere.” The boy: “They are so mean and they have guns!” “But,” his father replied, “we have flowers”—a beautiful response of compassion and love by so many. The flowers and candles were brought to heal. “Will the flowers protect us?” the boy asked his father. “Yes!” his father said. Millions and millions of people have gone to that video. They understand that’s what heals us. That’s the ONLY answer—not bigger guns. What heals us is when we reach out to that greater consciousness of connection.
I had waited in the Albuquerque airport for my flight home. I saw a young woman dressed like a Muslim. She walked with such confidence and centeredness in a time when the world was being judgmental and critical and all such people are feeling blamed. My heart was opened by this young woman. Peace was the way of her. It triggered lots of feelings of how women are treated in the Muslim world. Then I remembered one smart man at the Conference of World Religions last month saying it has nothing to do with “Muslim”, that everywhere there is a militaristic patriarchal society they must suppress the feeling, feminine part. It came to me, then, what will end all this need to command and control others—GIRLS READING BOOKS!
And I recalled Mahatma Gandhi, who said, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” They ALWAYS fall. Flowers are ALWAYS more powerful than guns.
At holiday time families come together. We return to relationships where we have judgments we have practiced for many years. But it is our chance to heal, to feel the gratitude that they cared enough to show up and give us the chance to bring a flower. We are at a time when the question is no longer “Will we make it?” We will—there are so many millions and millions of people who go to their hearts, go to compassion. The news won’t tell us about it much, but it is there. At this time join with me. The people of Paris, when they gave flowers, gave them to all of us throughout the world. They care. Send them that beautiful thought. Thank you for caring! What a beautiful thought to send the world! Thank you for caring! Give that Thanksgiving to the world, to all those beautiful beings! Thank you for caring! Truth and love ALWAYS, ALWAYS wins!
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