peace

May 24, 2015 – Out Breath of God –– Silence & Pooh

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05/24/15 Rev. David McArthur
Out Breath of God –– Silence & Pooh

Last week we talked about the in breath of God—breathing in powerful presence and connection with who and what we really are: divine love on this journey of human experience. “Love fills me now. I am love.” The out breath, the other part, is the complete letting go, the entry into silence, stillness, the void, the empty.

Lao Tzu wrote, “Look, and it can’t be seen. Listen, and it can’t be heard… You can’t know it, but you can be it…” From the Koran: “Unable to find answers… [Muhammad] betook himself to the stillness of the desert…” For part of his awakening, Jesus, too, took himself to the desert, where there is nothing. That’s a symbol for meditation.

In the story of Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee, the wind is our thoughts that come up; the waves our emotions. The crossing of the sea is movement into the subconscious. The disciples represent our growing turmoil as fear comes up. Jesus awakening represents the conscious connection to the divine. Jesus rebuked the wind (the thoughts ceased) and the water (emotions) calmed. Jesus was in the moment, the stillness, holding the divine consciousness.

I really like how the book of Pooh tells it. Pooh, humming, is walking along on a beautiful morning. He joins Rabbit and finds good food and company, but is a good bit rounder afterward and he got stuck in the hole to Rabbit’s place as he was leaving. Just like Pooh and the disciples on the Sea of Galilee, we get full of our own stuff. We get stuffed. We get stuck!

After much unsuccessful effort, Pooh and Rabbit decide to summon Christopher Robin (who is the Christ bearer; he’s a symbol of that spiritual nature within us which is connected, of that flow of divine power within us). Christopher Robin decided to read to Pooh for a week. Then he’d be thin enough to get unstuck. Pooh concentrated only on Christopher Robin. The story doesn’t tell us the content of the book. When you meditate it isn’t about content; it’s about being there. It’s about letting go little by little of all the stuff. Just Pooh and Christopher Robin being there together. No thought.

At the end of the week Pooh was freed! That’s what we want—to be free of all that stuff we don’t need. To be free and go through our lives humming. We spend a lot of time here preparing in mindful study and I find that for those who reach for silence it is easier.

Through this week put the in breath of God together with the out breath: I am love. Peace, be still. Even if it’s just a minute or five minutes, or an hour. I am love. Peace, be still. I am love. Peace, be still. I am love. Peace, be still. And as he so often does, Christopher Robin left Pooh thinking, “silly old bear!” I wonder if the divine ever thinks that of us!

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January 25, 2015 – Year of Forgiveness

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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

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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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October 12, 2014 – From Fear to Wisdom

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10/12/14 Rev. David McArthur
From Fear to Wisdom

We talked about letting go of the fear by saying I gently cherish God’s Presence in you. We have many chances to gently cherish God’s Presence in those who bring out our fear.

In the gospel of John, “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them… If we love each other, God lives in us… There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” When seeing from the heart, there is intuitive, spiritual intelligence. It sees the Presence, the goodness, the love of God. There is no fear.

In Matthew, “For this people’s heart has become callous [we shut ourselves off from our heart with fear and hurt] and they hardly hear with their ears [we do not hear our guidance] and they do not see with their eyes [we do not see the presence of God]. Otherwise they might see with their eyes [see the beautiful abundance and caring which is the nature of the divine, and on a deeper level see the differences among us fall away]. If they turn I will heal them.”

Turn within, where the power, the wholeness, the wisdom, the Divine is. You’ve had that guidance that bears wisdom and direction again and again.

Lao Tzu said, “There is no greater illusion than fear, no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself, no greater misfortune than having an enemy. Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe.” It’s amazing to have no fear. What a way to live!

We are beginning to know this. This is Breast Cancer Awareness month. The campaign has become a vision of wholeness and wellness. At first based on fear, the attitude changed, and that is what creates. They saw that this was something to be created on a higher level. Years ago a member of our community told me her doctors had given her a very short time to live. There was nothing more they could do. But she moved beyond her fear. She asked her internal guidance and got a clear message to go to another health care system, and now such an appreciation for God’s love and support flows through her! But first she got rid of the fear. So this week, focus on I gently cherish God’s Presence in me. Whether we’re afraid or not, it is there. It’s just sometimes it’s hard to hear it. We have open hearts that love is holding and unfolding. I am lovingly guided every moment. It is there. You are the presence and power of that wisdom. Fear is the illusion. We’re all here to transform the world and the whole world is set up to let us do it! So Have fun!

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October 12, 2014 – From Fear to Wisdom

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10/12/14 Rev. David McArthur
From Fear to Wisdom

We talked about letting go of the fear by saying I gently cherish God’s Presence in you. We have many chances to gently cherish God’s Presence in those who bring out our fear.

In the gospel of John, “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them… If we love each other, God lives in us… There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.” When seeing from the heart, there is intuitive, spiritual intelligence. It sees the Presence, the goodness, the love of God. There is no fear.

In Matthew, “For this people’s heart has become callous [we shut ourselves off from our heart with fear and hurt] and they hardly hear with their ears [we do not hear our guidance] and they do not see with their eyes [we do not see the presence of God]. Otherwise they might see with their eyes [see the beautiful abundance and caring which is the nature of the divine, and on a deeper level see the differences among us fall away]. If they turn I will heal them.”

Turn within, where the power, the wholeness, the wisdom, the Divine is. You’ve had that guidance that bears wisdom and direction again and again.

Lao Tzu said, “There is no greater illusion than fear, no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself, no greater misfortune than having an enemy. Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe.” It’s amazing to have no fear. What a way to live!

We are beginning to know this. This is Breast Cancer Awareness month. The campaign has become a vision of wholeness and wellness. At first based on fear, the attitude changed, and that is what creates. They saw that this was something to be created on a higher level. Years ago a member of our community told me her doctors had given her a very short time to live. There was nothing more they could do. But she moved beyond her fear. She asked her internal guidance and got a clear message to go to another health care system, and now such an appreciation for God’s love and support flows through her! But first she got rid of the fear. So this week, focus on I gently cherish God’s Presence in me. Whether we’re afraid or not, it is there. It’s just sometimes it’s hard to hear it. We have open hearts that love is holding and unfolding. I am lovingly guided every moment. It is there. You are the presence and power of that wisdom. Fear is the illusion. We’re all here to transform the world and the whole world is set up to let us do it! So Have fun!

September 21, 2014 – Send Healing Love

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9/21/14 Rev. David McArthur
Send Healing Love

Today is the UN’s International Day of Peace and is our chance to join in prayers for peace with others of all religions around the world. All people share an understanding, a consciousness, like an energy grid. The more we fill it with the consciousness of peace, the more we will see a greater consciousness of peace in the world. Our prayers and intentions are a part of that. However, I was watching the news about ISIS and the beheadings, and when I asked myself then what I was contributing to the grid, peace was not a part of my contribution.

One of those wonderful mystics we have been gifted with, Black Elk, wrote,“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and … [that] at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.” I was forced to admit it is there in those people in the news. And in me. How can I get there?

I can start by being aware that I contribute to the lack of peace, but also that I have choice. I can focus my awareness, and respond with a state of peace within myself. But then I remembered my favorite spiritual leader didn’t say “Send peace to your enemies”; He said “Love your enemies”. Wow! That’s bigger than peace. How do I do that? I looked at how I perceived the people in that violence. I could find nothing to love. I knew that conflict comes out of pain, and I saw great pain and fear in these people with swords and guns. I also saw that peace does not heal pain. But when we step into the flow of love there is power there that changes us all.

I’d like to send love to those people in violence, in pain. Let’s go to the tremendous love in our own hearts. Now turn your attention to those people on TV with the swords and guns. Black Elk said the presence of the Great Spirit is within each of those. To them say, “I do not know your world, your pain, your fear, but I know that within you is the presence of Divine Love which loves you just as you are, without limit or condition. It can flow through you and heal your pain. We ask that for you. Mother Father God, we ask that their fear dissolves and they discover Your Divine Love and that it flows through them.

“We do not wish you suffering. We do not ask for justice. We ask the grace of God flow through your lives and that you are healed and free. We know this Divine Love can heal your hearts and we ask it be so here and now. Amen.”

There might be others at home, at work, who do not find peace in their worlds. When you see them with pain, send them God’s love. I send you God’s love. I send you God’s love. I send you God’s love. That is the moment when peace is created!

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September 21, 2014 – Send Healing Love

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9/21/14 Rev. David McArthur
I Send You God’s Healing Love

Today is the UN’s International Day of Peace and is our chance to join in prayers for peace with others of all religions around the world. All people share an understanding, a consciousness, like an energy grid. The more we fill it with the consciousness of peace, the more we will see a greater consciousness of peace in the world. Our prayers and intentions are a part of that. However, I was watching the news about ISIS and the beheadings, and when I asked myself then what I was contributing to the grid, peace was not a part of my contribution.

One of those wonderful mystics we have been gifted with, Black Elk, wrote,“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and … [that] at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that its center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.” I was forced to admit it is there in those people in the news. And in me. How can I get there?

I can start by being aware that I contribute to the lack of peace, but also that I have choice. I can focus my awareness, and respond with a state of peace within myself. But then I remembered my favorite spiritual leader didn’t say “Send peace to your enemies”; He said “Love your enemies”. Wow! That’s bigger than peace. How do I do that? I looked at how I perceived the people in that violence. I could find nothing to love. I knew that conflict comes out of pain, and I saw great pain and fear in these people with swords and guns. I also saw that peace does not heal pain. But when we step into the flow of love there is power there that changes us all.

I’d like to send love to those people in violence, in pain. Let’s go to the tremendous love in our own hearts. Now turn your attention to those people on TV with the swords and guns. Black Elk said the presence of the Great Spirit is within each of those. To them say, “I do not know your world, your pain, your fear, but I know that within you is the presence of Divine Love which loves you just as you are, without limit or condition. It can flow through you and heal your pain. We ask that for you. Mother Father God, we ask that their fear dissolves and they discover Your Divine Love and that it flows through them.

“We do not wish you suffering. We do not ask for justice. We ask the grace of God flow through your lives and that you are healed and free. We know this Divine Love can heal your hearts and we ask it be so here and now. Amen.”

There might be others at home, at work, who do not find peace in their worlds. When you see them with pain, send them God’s love. I send you God’s love. I send you God’s love. I send you God’s love. That is the moment when peace is created!

June 29, 2014 – Journey Through the Heart to Stillness

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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 29, 2014 – Journey Through the Heart to Stillness

by


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!

April 27, 2014 – Free At Last!

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4/27/14 Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
FREE AT LAST! Breaking the Chains Through the Heart’s Ascension

After his resurrection, Jesus took several steps leading to his ascension. They are the same steps of the CutThru technique from HeartMath! Jesus had done his work to be able to ascend to the highest state of consciousness, heaven. So He led the Disciples out of Bethany, their place (consciousness) of grief and sorrow. He blessed them and gave them what they needed most: love. And he was taken up.

The stages of ascension are three—1) physical. Our experiences are not to destroy us or harm us, but are opportunities for us to do our lab work and so be able to do all we came to do. 2) mental. When we begin to think, “There’s gotta be something better” we begin to anticipate something better. We send out that energy. 3) spiritual. We align with the mind, the truth, of God. It takes you above when you know the truth is you will not be torn apart, that there is more and you can create it in your life.

The Disciples went to Jerusalem, the place of peace. We go to the consciousness of peace. They continued to pray in the Temple, as do we when we go to that higher chamber within where truth is always present. We withdraw to the heart, our place of connection to God.

We have all felt sometime we have been nailed to a cross. Over time we build a stack of emotions on a core negative belief like “I’m not good enough” or “I’ll never do it right.” Life sends us experiences matching that energy. We build a big stack and have a “stack attack” when it all tumbles down on us. So we breathe love, and go to the heart. Then we shine a light on the emotions. The core belief loses it’s power. Next we remove all the judgment around it. All that’s left is that belief. The illusion disappears. It no longer has a hold on us when we know who we really are. Then we re-frame the story with love, “I am worthy. I am lovable.” Next ask the heart to give its guidance. “How can I use this?” “I’m not a victim anymore.” “What is mine to do?” The answer might not come immediately. It happens in God Within’s time. When you are ready, you will hear it. You will know it. Then find yourself something which will remind you everyday that you are an amazing being. Dance. Sing. “I’m all that and a bag of chips!” “I’m bad!” It is, according to Charles Fillmore, “the upwardly progression of Spirit.”

Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty I’m free at last!

I align with the pathways of my heart and I ascend above my life conditions. I align with the pathways of my heart and I ascend above my life conditions. I align with the pathways of my heart and I ascend above my life conditions.

It is your choice, your infinite possibility. You have the tools and wisdom to be free at last!