Study of Matthew 6:13 from the original
5 weeks ago
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Saturday, November 29, 2008
The Gratitude Diet - The Secret To The Law of Attraction
www.gratitudediet.com Here is a full 10 minutes. Well 9 minutes 44 seconds but who's counting? - Try it, enjoy it, hope you love it!!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Love & Gratitude - Visualization with Mind Movies
Slideshow created with MemoriesOnWeb, I love you all, You've given me the Kiss of Life. There are no need for words, just listen to the lyrics. Love Barbie
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Showing Gratitude: www.law-of-abundance-living.com
Showing gratitude and giving thanks for the blessing in our lives.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
My 'Daily Affirmation' Video
I put this together as my daily affirmations video. I watch it every morning and every night, and whenever else I have the chance to watch it. When you say things like the statements in this clip, your subconcious mind will begin to believe it (that's what "second nature" means) and you won't have to conciously think these things anymore! How wonderful!
-NothingShortofAmazing
Monday, November 24, 2008
The Secret - Everything In The Universe is Energy
Everything in the universe is energy. This is the eternal law of the univers since the beginning of time. Everything is made of exactly the same thing, nothing is different, nothing is unique. Everything in the universe vibrates.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Thanks Everybody
Thanks Everybody
"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice."
-Meister Eckhart
Thanksgiving Day is a major holiday in the United States. What a lucky thing for the US. It is not a religious holiday, but it carries as much spiritual significance as a secular holiday can. It is about being thankful. Nobody says what you have to be thankful for. The holiday tradition just suggests that you get together with some people you care about, eat some food and be grateful.
Gratitude is a primary emotion and one that is tied to the experience of joy. A person can’t be grateful and not have some level of pleasant emotion in the process. People who make a habit of counting their blessings tend to be happier than those who don’t.* It is right to give thanks. It is also a good idea.If one were to make a list of one’s blessings, it could be endless. The list of things to be grateful for is only limited by our imaginations. There are innumerable sentient beings, physical objects, social systems, and natural phenomena that support us. In the spiritual realm, one can only try to imagine what benefits we reap beyond the reach of our senses.
We are not in this life alone. We may be lonely, but we do not stand on your own. We are in this with a lot of other people who give their labor and their caring in ways that make our lives possible. Some people, relatives and friends perhaps, contribute directly to our well-being. Millions of others unknown to us contribute to the web of life that supports us. It is good to recall that we can’t do it all alone. We are connected, even if we tend to forget that. We are each being assisted in ways we don’t know and can’t imagine. Recognizing our interdependence is a key to enlightenment, according to many of those who have attained it.Thanksgiving can be an opportunity to loosen our grip on ego. It places us in relationship to the mysterious collection of happy accidents that led to us being at this place at this moment. It invites us to marvel at what is good in life.
Practice:
Take time this week to contemplate all that you have to be grateful for and give thanks.
Be thankful for all the blessings you have received and will receive.
Consider writing a list of things you are grateful for. Consider doing this on a regular basis. Maybe every day.Thank people who have helped you or have somehow made your life better. Do it verbally or in writing or by action.Pray as an act of giving thanks.
"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice."
-Meister Eckhart
Thanksgiving Day is a major holiday in the United States. What a lucky thing for the US. It is not a religious holiday, but it carries as much spiritual significance as a secular holiday can. It is about being thankful. Nobody says what you have to be thankful for. The holiday tradition just suggests that you get together with some people you care about, eat some food and be grateful.
Gratitude is a primary emotion and one that is tied to the experience of joy. A person can’t be grateful and not have some level of pleasant emotion in the process. People who make a habit of counting their blessings tend to be happier than those who don’t.* It is right to give thanks. It is also a good idea.If one were to make a list of one’s blessings, it could be endless. The list of things to be grateful for is only limited by our imaginations. There are innumerable sentient beings, physical objects, social systems, and natural phenomena that support us. In the spiritual realm, one can only try to imagine what benefits we reap beyond the reach of our senses.
We are not in this life alone. We may be lonely, but we do not stand on your own. We are in this with a lot of other people who give their labor and their caring in ways that make our lives possible. Some people, relatives and friends perhaps, contribute directly to our well-being. Millions of others unknown to us contribute to the web of life that supports us. It is good to recall that we can’t do it all alone. We are connected, even if we tend to forget that. We are each being assisted in ways we don’t know and can’t imagine. Recognizing our interdependence is a key to enlightenment, according to many of those who have attained it.Thanksgiving can be an opportunity to loosen our grip on ego. It places us in relationship to the mysterious collection of happy accidents that led to us being at this place at this moment. It invites us to marvel at what is good in life.
Practice:
Take time this week to contemplate all that you have to be grateful for and give thanks.
Be thankful for all the blessings you have received and will receive.
Consider writing a list of things you are grateful for. Consider doing this on a regular basis. Maybe every day.Thank people who have helped you or have somehow made your life better. Do it verbally or in writing or by action.Pray as an act of giving thanks.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Enhance Hapiness and Health by Cultivating Gratitude
Prof. Robert Emmons studies gratitude for a living as Professor of Psychology at UC Davis and is Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Positive Psychology. He has just published Thanks: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier, an interdisciplinary book that provides a research-based synthesis of the topic as well as practical suggestions.
Alvaro Fernandez: Welcome. Prof. Emmons, could you please provide us an overview of the Positive Psychology field so we understand the context for your research?
Robert Emmons: Sure. Martin Seligman and colleagues launched what was called “positive psychology” in the late 90s as an antidote to the traditional nearly exclusive emphasis of “negative psychology” focused on fixing problems like trauma, addiction, and stress. We want to balance our focus and be able to help everyone, including high-functioning individuals. A number of researchers were investigating the field since the late 80s, but Seligman provided a new umbrella, a new category, with credibility, organized networks and funding opportunities for the whole field.
And where does your own research fit into this overall picture?
I have been researching gratitude for almost 10 years. Gratitude is a positive emotion that has traditionally been the realm of humanists and philosophers, and only recently the subject of a more scientific approach. We study gratitude not as a merely academic discipline, but as a practical framework to better functioning in life by taking control of happiness levels and practicing the skill of emotional self-regulation.
What are the 3 key messages that you would like readers to take away from your book?
First, the practice of gratitude can increase happiness levels by around 25%. Second, this is not hard to achieve - a few hours writing a gratitude journal over 3 weeks can create an effect that lasts 6 months if not more. Third, that cultivating gratitude brings other health effects, such as longer and better quality sleep time.
What are some ways to practice gratitude, and what benefits could we expect? Please refer to your 2003 paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, where I found fascinating quotes such as that “The ability to notice, appreciate, and savior the elements of one’s life has been viewed as a crucial element of well-being.”
The most common method we use in our research is to ask people to keep a “Gratitude Journal” where you write something you feel grateful for. Doing so 4 times a week, for as little as 3 weeks, is often enough to create a meaningful difference in one’s level of happiness. Another exercise is to write a “Gratitude Letter” to a person who has exerted a positive influence on one’s life but whom we have not properly thanked in the past, and then to meet that person and read the letter to them face to face.
The benefits seem to be very similar using both methods in terms of enhanced happiness, health and wellbeing. Most of the outcomes are self-reported, but there is an increasing emphasis on measuring objective data such as cortisol and stress levels, heart rate variability, and even brain activation patterns. The work of Richard Davidson is exemplary in that respect, showing how mindfulness practice can rewire some activation patterns in the frontal lobes.
Now, let me give an overview of the paper you mention, titled Counting Blessings versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life (note: reference below). The paper includes 3 separate studies, so I will just be able to provide a quick glimpse. More than a hundred adults were all asked to keep a journal, and were randomly assigned to 3 different groups. Group A had to write about things they felt grateful about. Group B about things they found annoying, irritating. Group C about things that had had a major impact on them. 2 out of the 3 different experiments were relatively intense and short term (keeping a daily journal for 2-3 weeks), while one required a weekly entry during 10 weeks.
Across the 3 different studies we found that people in the gratitude group generally evidenced higher-levels of well-being than those in the comparison conditions, especially when compared to Group B (the one journaling about hassles), but also compared to the “neutral” group.
In the longer study, which ran for 10 weeks, we also saw a positive effect on hours of sleep and on time spent exercising, on more optimistic expectations for the coming week, and fewer reported physical symptoms, such as pain. Additionally, we observed an increase in reported connectedness to other people and in likelihood of helping another person deal with a personal problem.
We could then say that we can train ourselves to develop a more grateful attitude and optimistic outlook in life, resulting in well-being and health improvements, and even in becoming better-not just happier- citizens. And probably one can expect few negative side effects from keeping a gratitude journal. What do you think prevents more people from benefiting from these research findings?
Great question, I reflect often on that. My sense is that some people feel uncomfortable talking about these topics, since they may sound too spiritual, or religious. Others simply don’t want to feel obligated to the person who helped them, and never come to realize the boost in energy, enthusiasm, and social benefits that come from a more grateful, connected life.
Judith Beck talked to us recently (interview notes here) about her work helping dieters learn important mental skills through cognitive therapy techniques. You talk about gratitude. Other positive psychologists focus on Forgiveness. How can we know which of these techniques may be helpful for us?
The key is to reflect on one’s goal and current situation. For example, the practice of forgiveness can be most appropriate for people who have high levels of anger and resentment. Cognitive therapy has been shown to be very effective against depression. In a sense both groups are trying to eliminate the negative. Gratitude is different in that it is better suited for highly functioning individuals who simply want to feel better - enhancing the positive.
Prof. Emmons, thank you for your time, and research.
You are welcome.
Alvaro Fernandez: Welcome. Prof. Emmons, could you please provide us an overview of the Positive Psychology field so we understand the context for your research?
Robert Emmons: Sure. Martin Seligman and colleagues launched what was called “positive psychology” in the late 90s as an antidote to the traditional nearly exclusive emphasis of “negative psychology” focused on fixing problems like trauma, addiction, and stress. We want to balance our focus and be able to help everyone, including high-functioning individuals. A number of researchers were investigating the field since the late 80s, but Seligman provided a new umbrella, a new category, with credibility, organized networks and funding opportunities for the whole field.
And where does your own research fit into this overall picture?
I have been researching gratitude for almost 10 years. Gratitude is a positive emotion that has traditionally been the realm of humanists and philosophers, and only recently the subject of a more scientific approach. We study gratitude not as a merely academic discipline, but as a practical framework to better functioning in life by taking control of happiness levels and practicing the skill of emotional self-regulation.
What are the 3 key messages that you would like readers to take away from your book?
First, the practice of gratitude can increase happiness levels by around 25%. Second, this is not hard to achieve - a few hours writing a gratitude journal over 3 weeks can create an effect that lasts 6 months if not more. Third, that cultivating gratitude brings other health effects, such as longer and better quality sleep time.
What are some ways to practice gratitude, and what benefits could we expect? Please refer to your 2003 paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, where I found fascinating quotes such as that “The ability to notice, appreciate, and savior the elements of one’s life has been viewed as a crucial element of well-being.”
The most common method we use in our research is to ask people to keep a “Gratitude Journal” where you write something you feel grateful for. Doing so 4 times a week, for as little as 3 weeks, is often enough to create a meaningful difference in one’s level of happiness. Another exercise is to write a “Gratitude Letter” to a person who has exerted a positive influence on one’s life but whom we have not properly thanked in the past, and then to meet that person and read the letter to them face to face.
The benefits seem to be very similar using both methods in terms of enhanced happiness, health and wellbeing. Most of the outcomes are self-reported, but there is an increasing emphasis on measuring objective data such as cortisol and stress levels, heart rate variability, and even brain activation patterns. The work of Richard Davidson is exemplary in that respect, showing how mindfulness practice can rewire some activation patterns in the frontal lobes.
Now, let me give an overview of the paper you mention, titled Counting Blessings versus Burdens: An Experimental Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life (note: reference below). The paper includes 3 separate studies, so I will just be able to provide a quick glimpse. More than a hundred adults were all asked to keep a journal, and were randomly assigned to 3 different groups. Group A had to write about things they felt grateful about. Group B about things they found annoying, irritating. Group C about things that had had a major impact on them. 2 out of the 3 different experiments were relatively intense and short term (keeping a daily journal for 2-3 weeks), while one required a weekly entry during 10 weeks.
Across the 3 different studies we found that people in the gratitude group generally evidenced higher-levels of well-being than those in the comparison conditions, especially when compared to Group B (the one journaling about hassles), but also compared to the “neutral” group.
In the longer study, which ran for 10 weeks, we also saw a positive effect on hours of sleep and on time spent exercising, on more optimistic expectations for the coming week, and fewer reported physical symptoms, such as pain. Additionally, we observed an increase in reported connectedness to other people and in likelihood of helping another person deal with a personal problem.
We could then say that we can train ourselves to develop a more grateful attitude and optimistic outlook in life, resulting in well-being and health improvements, and even in becoming better-not just happier- citizens. And probably one can expect few negative side effects from keeping a gratitude journal. What do you think prevents more people from benefiting from these research findings?
Great question, I reflect often on that. My sense is that some people feel uncomfortable talking about these topics, since they may sound too spiritual, or religious. Others simply don’t want to feel obligated to the person who helped them, and never come to realize the boost in energy, enthusiasm, and social benefits that come from a more grateful, connected life.
Judith Beck talked to us recently (interview notes here) about her work helping dieters learn important mental skills through cognitive therapy techniques. You talk about gratitude. Other positive psychologists focus on Forgiveness. How can we know which of these techniques may be helpful for us?
The key is to reflect on one’s goal and current situation. For example, the practice of forgiveness can be most appropriate for people who have high levels of anger and resentment. Cognitive therapy has been shown to be very effective against depression. In a sense both groups are trying to eliminate the negative. Gratitude is different in that it is better suited for highly functioning individuals who simply want to feel better - enhancing the positive.
Prof. Emmons, thank you for your time, and research.
You are welcome.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Dr Wayne Dyer - Behind Every Thought Is An Energy
Behind every thought is an energy. Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake. The ancestor to every action is a thought. The energy that you have for creating everything that you want is in your thoughts.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Gregg Braden "Louise Hay Film" Interview 1 of 6
Gregg Braden full interview on "Louise Hay - You Can Heal Your Life" the movie, expanded version.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Monday, November 17, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
Louise L. Hay - Loving Yourself
Learning to love and accept yourself is the first step in bringing an abundance of Love, Peace and Joy into your life. Only by loving and accepting yourself first can you begin to love and accept others.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Bob Proctor & John Assaraf on Ellen DeGeneres
Bob Proctor and John Assaraf featured on the Ellen DeGeneres show on the Secret law of attraction.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Walter Starcke: Your Humanity and Divinity
Walter Starcke: A thought-provoking modern mystic. One of the most stimulating and best-known metaphysical teachers of our time. Broadway producer, successful businessman, powerful keynote speaker and author of numerous best-selling New Thought books. www.walterstarcke.com
Monday, November 10, 2008
Walter Starcke: Made in the Image of God
Walter Starcke: A thought-provoking modern mystic. One of the most stimulating and best-known metaphysical teachers of our time. Broadway producer, successful businessman, powerful keynote speaker and author of numerous best-selling New Thought books. www.walterstarcke.com
Sunday, November 9, 2008
November 9, 2008 - Twenty-Sixth Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 27 - Year A
Scriptures: Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25; Wisdom of Solomon 6:12-16; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Matthew 25:1-13
____________
What are we to do with Jesus’ parable of wise and foolish bridesmaids? It’s not easy to be sympathetic with any of the characters here. The bridegroom sends out invitations, but shows up hours late himself and then shuts the door on half of the bridesmaids. Those maidens who get shut out are off trying to buy oil in the middle of the night, when the wedding is about to begin. Meanwhile, the bridesmaids who did bring extra oil won’t share it, and come off looking selfish and snotty.
And what shall we do with a parable that speaks about God closing the door to heaven? That much seems clear – the wedding banquet represents the joy of being in the presence of God. A month ago we heard another parable about a wedding feast, in which the king sends out invitations to his son’s wedding feast, only to have the invitations refused. Not to be deterred, he invites in whoever is standing at the street corners, and has a huge party anyway.
Once again in today’s parable, everyone is invited to the banquet. So why does anyone get shut out? They all do show up; they all do bring their lamps; they all are ready. Could the problem be their lack of watchfulness? True, the bridesmaids do fall asleep while they’re waiting; and Jesus admonishes us at the end of the parable to “Keep awake … for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
But let’s be fair – all the bridesmaids fall asleep, the wise and the foolish alike, yet half of them end up enjoying the wedding anyhow.
That leaves us with the oil. We’re told the wise maidens bring extra oil, and the foolish ones don’t. That sounds simple enough, but we’re on pretty shaky ground if we look for the easy answers, and decide that the oil represents Goodness, or Piety, or Works, or even Faith. If we do, then it starts to sound as though what’s important is the amount of oil we’re carrying around – as though we all ought to be doing extra good deeds, or praying extra hard, or living a perfect life, so that we can store up a spare flask full of midnight oil, ready to burn if the Messiah decides to pull a pop quiz at the end of days.
The pattern of Jesus’ teaching throughout the gospels simply doesn’t support that viewpoint. Instead, in his parables the invitations always go out to everyone, the pay is the same for those who start work early or late, and everyone is considered a faithful servant so long as they don’t bury their gifts.
No, it’s not that the foolish bridesmaids are shut out because they don’t have enough oil – after all, their lamps are trimmed and still burning when the bridegroom’s arrival is announced. They get excluded because they’re so worried their lamps might go out that they run off in search of extra oil, and wind up missing their grand entrance.
What they seem to forget is that God hasn’t retired from the miracle business; that in fact, God seems particularly fond of weddings, of making a little go a long way, and of keeping oil burning when it really matters. Jesus turned an ordinary wedding into a foretaste of the banquet to come when he turned water into wine. He defied scarcity with the abundance of the kingdom of God, and fed thousands from a small boy’s lunch.
According to rabbinic tradition, when the Maccabees liberated Jerusalem from the Seleucid Empire, only a single night’s worth of oil remained undefiled in the Temple. Nevertheless, the sanctuary lamps remained lit for eight days until fresh oil could be prepared. Next month Jews around the world will commemorate this unquenchable abundance as they light candles in celebration of Hanukkah.
Mindful of God’s abundance, consider the passage from the book of Wisdom that was offered today as an alternate reading in place of a psalm:
Wisdom is radiant and unfading,
and she is easily discerned by those who love her,
and is found by those who seek her.
She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her.
One who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty,
for she will be found sitting at the gate.
To fix one’s thought on her is perfect understanding,
And one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care,
because she goes about seeking those worthy of her,
and she graciously appears to them in their paths,
and meets them in every thought.
We don’t need to chase after Wisdom – just seeking her is enough. In fact, Wisdom herself is seeking us.
Now we can see how the foolish bridesmaids have gone astray. Instead of trusting that they can find Wisdom sitting alongside them at the gate, they run off to the marketplace of ideas in search of illumination. Instead of trusting that Wisdom is radiant and unfading, they worry that their own little lamps won’t be enough for the bridegroom’s party. So they hurry off, hoping to find someone who can sell them some security, who can take their money and hand them a nicely packaged flask of enlightenment that will be sufficient to please the bridegroom.
Perhaps if the foolish bridesmaids had trusted that wisdom is unfading, they would have stayed and greeted the bridegroom and would have been welcomed into the feast. Perhaps the wise maidens never even needed to open their extra flasks, because the banquet hall itself was so brilliantly lit.
You see, God doesn’t only perform miracles with oil and with water – the sorts of miracles that defy the physical laws of nature. God’s greatest miracles are those that defy the laws of human nature, our ingrained expectations of work and reward. We’re used to thinking that doing more gets us more, that by and large we are rewarded in proportion to our effort.
But the Bridegroom does not open the door to us because of more work, or even more faith. He opens the door to us so long as so long as we keep our lamps burning for him; so long as our faith allows us wisdom enough – a gallon of wisdom or one radiant drop – to answer his gracious invitation and await his arrival at the feast.
Rev. Cole Gruberth is an associate rector at St. Bartholomew's Church in Poway, California.
____________
What are we to do with Jesus’ parable of wise and foolish bridesmaids? It’s not easy to be sympathetic with any of the characters here. The bridegroom sends out invitations, but shows up hours late himself and then shuts the door on half of the bridesmaids. Those maidens who get shut out are off trying to buy oil in the middle of the night, when the wedding is about to begin. Meanwhile, the bridesmaids who did bring extra oil won’t share it, and come off looking selfish and snotty.
And what shall we do with a parable that speaks about God closing the door to heaven? That much seems clear – the wedding banquet represents the joy of being in the presence of God. A month ago we heard another parable about a wedding feast, in which the king sends out invitations to his son’s wedding feast, only to have the invitations refused. Not to be deterred, he invites in whoever is standing at the street corners, and has a huge party anyway.
Once again in today’s parable, everyone is invited to the banquet. So why does anyone get shut out? They all do show up; they all do bring their lamps; they all are ready. Could the problem be their lack of watchfulness? True, the bridesmaids do fall asleep while they’re waiting; and Jesus admonishes us at the end of the parable to “Keep awake … for you know neither the day nor the hour.”
But let’s be fair – all the bridesmaids fall asleep, the wise and the foolish alike, yet half of them end up enjoying the wedding anyhow.
That leaves us with the oil. We’re told the wise maidens bring extra oil, and the foolish ones don’t. That sounds simple enough, but we’re on pretty shaky ground if we look for the easy answers, and decide that the oil represents Goodness, or Piety, or Works, or even Faith. If we do, then it starts to sound as though what’s important is the amount of oil we’re carrying around – as though we all ought to be doing extra good deeds, or praying extra hard, or living a perfect life, so that we can store up a spare flask full of midnight oil, ready to burn if the Messiah decides to pull a pop quiz at the end of days.
The pattern of Jesus’ teaching throughout the gospels simply doesn’t support that viewpoint. Instead, in his parables the invitations always go out to everyone, the pay is the same for those who start work early or late, and everyone is considered a faithful servant so long as they don’t bury their gifts.
No, it’s not that the foolish bridesmaids are shut out because they don’t have enough oil – after all, their lamps are trimmed and still burning when the bridegroom’s arrival is announced. They get excluded because they’re so worried their lamps might go out that they run off in search of extra oil, and wind up missing their grand entrance.
What they seem to forget is that God hasn’t retired from the miracle business; that in fact, God seems particularly fond of weddings, of making a little go a long way, and of keeping oil burning when it really matters. Jesus turned an ordinary wedding into a foretaste of the banquet to come when he turned water into wine. He defied scarcity with the abundance of the kingdom of God, and fed thousands from a small boy’s lunch.
According to rabbinic tradition, when the Maccabees liberated Jerusalem from the Seleucid Empire, only a single night’s worth of oil remained undefiled in the Temple. Nevertheless, the sanctuary lamps remained lit for eight days until fresh oil could be prepared. Next month Jews around the world will commemorate this unquenchable abundance as they light candles in celebration of Hanukkah.
Mindful of God’s abundance, consider the passage from the book of Wisdom that was offered today as an alternate reading in place of a psalm:
Wisdom is radiant and unfading,
and she is easily discerned by those who love her,
and is found by those who seek her.
She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her.
One who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty,
for she will be found sitting at the gate.
To fix one’s thought on her is perfect understanding,
And one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care,
because she goes about seeking those worthy of her,
and she graciously appears to them in their paths,
and meets them in every thought.
We don’t need to chase after Wisdom – just seeking her is enough. In fact, Wisdom herself is seeking us.
Now we can see how the foolish bridesmaids have gone astray. Instead of trusting that they can find Wisdom sitting alongside them at the gate, they run off to the marketplace of ideas in search of illumination. Instead of trusting that Wisdom is radiant and unfading, they worry that their own little lamps won’t be enough for the bridegroom’s party. So they hurry off, hoping to find someone who can sell them some security, who can take their money and hand them a nicely packaged flask of enlightenment that will be sufficient to please the bridegroom.
Perhaps if the foolish bridesmaids had trusted that wisdom is unfading, they would have stayed and greeted the bridegroom and would have been welcomed into the feast. Perhaps the wise maidens never even needed to open their extra flasks, because the banquet hall itself was so brilliantly lit.
You see, God doesn’t only perform miracles with oil and with water – the sorts of miracles that defy the physical laws of nature. God’s greatest miracles are those that defy the laws of human nature, our ingrained expectations of work and reward. We’re used to thinking that doing more gets us more, that by and large we are rewarded in proportion to our effort.
But the Bridegroom does not open the door to us because of more work, or even more faith. He opens the door to us so long as so long as we keep our lamps burning for him; so long as our faith allows us wisdom enough – a gallon of wisdom or one radiant drop – to answer his gracious invitation and await his arrival at the feast.
Rev. Cole Gruberth is an associate rector at St. Bartholomew's Church in Poway, California.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Rev. Mary, The Power of Belief, 1 of 2, 1/13/08
Why beliefs matter, remapping the brain, how creation takes place.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Molten Meditation - God is Love
A visual and aural meditation on 1John 4: 9,10, 16, 17
1 John 4:16 And we know and have believed the love which God hath in us. God is love; and he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Dr Steven Chu: What Can Physics Say About Life?
A Nobel Laureate and distinguished physicist, Chu is credited with developing new methods to cool and trap atoms with laser lights. This groundbreaking scientific research uses advanced optical technology and has implications not only for physics, but also for biology. Presented as part of the Hitchcock Lecture series at UC Berkeley.
Series: "UC Berkeley Graduate Council Lectures" [5/2004] [Science] [Show ID: 8592]
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Los Angeles Center of Religious Science
Dr. David Walker pastors this science of mind learning center, teaching principles for a happier, healthier life. Science of mind has been proven reliable, and can be used by anyone.
This Is America - 1006 - Deepak Chopra, Life After Death
Join host Dennis Wholey for a personal conversation with Deepak Chopra, author of the book "Life After Death".
Monday, November 3, 2008
I BELIEVE - Program 117 - Church of Christ, Scientist
"
Join host Dennis Wholey for a conversation about Christian Science - beliefs and practices - with Phil Davis of The First Church of Christ, Scientist.
Join host Dennis Wholey for a conversation about Christian Science - beliefs and practices - with Phil Davis of The First Church of Christ, Scientist.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
The One - Poem by Robert Brzenski
Inspired by BEAT POETRY this prayer speaks to the unity of community.
(6m 19s)
New Thought Lectionary: 4th Sunday before Advent (Proper 26)
Date: November 2nd, 2008
Theme: Growing together as the body of Christ
Topic: Christ, Mankind's Indwelling Interpreter Of Scripture
Key verse: Jesus said, ‘Nor are you to be called 'teacher', for you have one teacher, the Christ [Matthew 23:10].
Reference Scriptures: Matthew 23:1-12 ‘Jesus asserts that Christ is the only reliable interpreter of scripture’.
Other Reference Scriptures: Joshua 3:7-17 ‘Israel crosses the Jordan’.
Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37 ‘Thanksgiving for deliverance’.
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 ‘Paul’s faith and example’.
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In today’s Gospel reading Matthew 23:1-4, Jesus of Nazareth uses rhetoric, reasoning and political language to condemn a specific group of spiritually blind religious leaders, in his own faith. They rejected the eternal, indwelling Christ, who Jesus proclaimed as mankind's only indwelling Lord, and true interpreter of scripture [Genesis 1:26-27, Matthew 22:41-44, John 14:6]. They refuted Jesus' assertion that all humankind have direct, eternal, Spirit-based relationship with Abba Father, through the indwelling Christ and the Holy Spirit, as revealed in scripture [John 1:1-5, 17:20-21].
Jesus teaches that his followers must proclaim the Gospel of Christ. However in interpreting scripture, he makes it clear that all human beings have only one true interpreter of scripture – and that interpreter is Christ, the Word, in the spiritual core of all persons [Matthew 23:10, John 1:1-5]. The Bible confirm this also by declaring that the Law was given by Moses but that grace and truth were revealed through Jesus of Nazareth [John 1:17-18; John 14:6, Romans 1:16-17].
Jesus' radical teachings in today’s texts are Christ-centered and Spirit-based. They do not focus on Jesus' physical person and personality. Jesus probably centered his gaze on the close relationship the community of Israel had with God through Christ, I AM THAT I AM, before they chose to proclaim Moses as their human intermediary between God and them [Exodus 3:14; 24:9-11]. This eternal, intimate, Spirit-based relationship with Abba Father was the center of Jesus' prayer life for those who choose to follow him [John 17:20-26].
In Matthew 23:8-12, Jesus advised his disciples to call no man, including himself, Father, instructor or teacher. These radical statements by Jesus suggest the urgent need for mankind to again contemplate and appropriate this Christ-centered, Spirit-based foundation of the Good News of the Gospel of Christ. Jesus teachings bring new inner spiritual meaning and symbolism to his life, cross, death, resurrection, ascension, second coming and the body of Christ. They shed new light on the human experience of kingdom living in the spiritual kingdom of heaven within us and in our midst [Matthew 6:33, Luke 11:1-13; 17:20-21].
The Bible declares that Jesus of Nazareth was the full visible manifestation of the Godhead [Trinity] bodily [Colossians 2:9]. Jesus demonstrated first hand knowledge of God's grace, wisdom, love and truth, and mankind's eternal relationships of communion with indwelling Abba Father, Christ and the Holy Spirit, through our spiritual cores [Colossians 2:10-11]. With God's help, all human beings can potentially express the fullness of the Deity through the indwelling Christ, within oneself and within all people [John 1:17, 17:20-26].
Jesus saw his physical person and personality as our elder brother, the visible Messiah. He saw his incarnate Spirit, the Christ, within himself and within all humans, as the Way, the Truth and the Life, the only true interpreter of the written or spoken Word [Genesis 1:26-27, John 1:1-5; 14:6]. Jesus of Nazareth modeled this breakthrough in mankind’s individual and collective consciousness as repentance, salvation, healing, wholeness and faithful interpretation and response to God's Word through the Christ, in human souls, hearts, minds and affairs [Matthew 23:8-10, Luke 4:18-19, John 5:19, 30].
Many people believe that Jesus revealed and modeled God's Reign and mankind’s divine heritage as the body of Christ [Genesis 1:28-31]. Many proclaim that Jesus brought to light God’s eternal plan of salvation and deliverance from the bondage of sin, sickness and death, through Christ. Many teach that Jesus modeled God's eternal plan for healing broken human and divine relationships between God and each other through Christ.
Jesus’ ministry flourished because he willingly emptied himself of the carnal, mortal and worldly mind of the flesh. Jesus was not on an ego trip. Under the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, Jesus raised in human consciousness, the knowledge and role of the invisible, eternal, indwelling Christ, to the glory of our Father, within himself in and all persons [John 3:13-17]. Jesus always made it clear that his ego personality, the Son of Man, must suffer many things. He will die and be raised on the third day [Matthew 16:21]. He always stress the exaltation of Christ as Savior, Lord, Teacher and Interpreter of Scripture [Matthew 23:10].
Like Peter, many people view the death of the Son of Man with great fear, anxiety and distress [Matthew 16:22]. Is it possible that the life, passion, death and resurrection, ascension and second coming of Jesus of Nazareth could be metaphors and symbols for the death of the mind of the flesh, which must take place within the human heart, before mankind could put on the mind of Spirit [Matthew 24:23-36, Romans 8:1-11, Colossians 1:26-27]? In today’s Gospel reading, is Jesus not summonsing seekers in all the world religions, to turn away from the mind of the flesh and turn within to the indwelling and incarnate Christ, as the only true interpreter of the spoken and written Word?
Carnal, mortal and worldly belief systems create false impressions of human separation from God and each other, through all religions. They distort, confuse and misinterpret the spoken and written Word. As eternal spiritual beings, now going through temporary human experiences, Jesus admonishes all mankind to discern and steadfastly lift up the indwelling Christ as the true instructor and interpreter of Holy Scriptures [Matthew 23:8-10, John 12:31-36].
Jesus encourages all mankind to fully re-claim our divine heritage, in and through Christ. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. Now is the day of Christ's coming as Lord, Master, Teacher and Interpreter of the Word [2 Corinthians 6:2, 1 Thessalonians 2:13].
Saturday, November 1, 2008
New visitor to science of mind religious science
I explain how science of mind fills my needs and understanding to have a connection to God. The church is also known as religious science. (8m 11s) - Jim
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