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Archive for June, 2008

Danger of Anger

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on June 30, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Danger of Anger

            Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee;

Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift (Matthew 5:23-24).
 
Indignation, resentment, the desire to punish other people, the desire to “get even,” the feeling “it serves him right”; all these things form a quite impenetrable barrier to spiritual power. Jesus says that if you are bringing a gift to the altar, and you remember that your brother has anything against you, you must put down your gift and go make peace with your brother; when you have done that, your offering will be acceptable.
 
Jesus builds up this tremendous lesson in the Oriental tradition. He says first that whoever is angry with his brother shall be in danger; second that to be hostile to another, is to be in grave danger; and finally that to hold so low an opinion about a fellow creature as to consider him outside the pale, is to shut ourselves off from any hope of spiritual fruit while we remain in this state of mind.
 
Note carefully that the King James version of the Bible here makes a serious error, which has been corrected in the revised version. It interpolates a phrase not in the earliest manuscripts and makes Jesus say, “Whoever is angry without a cause”; which is a manifest absurdity. No sane person gets angry without what he deems to be a cause. What Jesus said was that whoever is angry with his brother under any circumstances is in danger.

Anger, condemnation and resentment inject more harmful chemicals in to our bodies than most of the toxins we encounter in daily life. Such emotions inject the same sort of poisons into our spiritual lives. They hurt us and block the therapeutic healing aspects of love, tolerance and reconciliation. They create danger and block security.

Z Gardener

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Necessity for Self Control

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on June 26, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Necessity for Self Control

            Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:

But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire (Matthew 5:21-22).
 
The Old Law said “Thou shalt not kill,” but Jesus says that even to want to kill, nay, event to be angry with your brother, is sufficient to keep you out of the Kingdom of Heaven. It was a distinct gain when primitive people could be persuaded not to murder but to develop sufficient self-control to master their anger. Spiritual demonstration demands that anger itself be overcome. It is simply not possible to get any experience of God worth talking about, or to exercise spiritual power until you have gotten rid of resentment and condemnation. You can have either your demonstration or your indignation, but you cannot have both.

Once we accept the weaknesses and shortcomings in our own behavior, confess them to God and ask forgiveness, we can then rise above condemnation and resentment of others. For it is in harboring and denying those weaknesses that we give indignation a place to take root in our feelings about others. If we look closely, we will usually find that what angers us about others is what we are most anxious about in ourselves.

In confession,
Z Gardener

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Striving for Perfection

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on June 25, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Striving for Perfection

            What of the man who is conscious of considerable moral imperfection, perhaps of the habit of grave sin, and is at the same time sincerely desirous of spiritual growth? Is he to relinquish the quest for spiritual knowledge until he has first reformed his conduct? By no means. As a matter of fact any attempt to improve himself morally without spiritual aid is foredoomed to failure. The thing to do is to pray regularly and to throw the responsibility for success upon God. The man must carry on, no matter how many times he may fail. Let him keep affirming that God is helping him, and that his own real nature is spiritual and perfect. In this way moral regeneration and spiritual unfoldment will go hand in hand. The Christian life does not require that we possess perfection of character, or else, which of us would be able to live it? What it does require is honest, genuine striving for that perfection.

 
…he that is perfect in knowledge is with thee (Job 36:4).

Honest and genuine striving for perfection is not accepting imperfection and deciding to live with it. It is much harder because each day requires the identification and evaluation of mistakes, weaknesses and wrongdoing. It is like looking in a mirror that reflects intent, motivation and purpose stripped of rationalization, reason and pride. One that reflects truth instead of an image. As difficult as that may be, it is the first step to truly striving for perfection. Once accomplished, that day can proceed in harmony with and attuned to God’s unlimited power.

Surely striving,

Z Gardener

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The Single Eye

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on June 25, 2008| Leave a Comment »

The Single Eye

If you pray for yourself in the right way every day, you will find that the minor things of life will gradually fall correctly into place of their own accord without any trouble on your part. Contrast this with the usual method of trying to get everything right by separately organizing a thousand petty details, and you will appreciate how wonderfully the new spiritual basis sets you free.

If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light (Matthew 6:22).

The eye symbolizes spiritual perception. Whatever you give your attention to, is the thing that governs your life. Attention is the key. Your free will lies in the directing of your attention. Whatever you steadfastly direct your attention to, will come into your life and dominate it. If you do not direct your attention consistently to anything in particular— and many people do not— then nothing in particular will come into your life except uncertainty and suspense.

If the Glory of God comes first with you, and to express His Will becomes the rule of your life, then your eye is single and your whole body, or embodiment, will be full of light.

What could be more delightful, fulfilling and rewarding than living every day as a creature of light. To exist as a singly focused being, exerting free will to chose what is going to come into this life each day. Putting God first puts You in the place where that life is possible.

Seeing eye,,
Z Gardener

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Coming of Age

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on June 23, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Coming of Age
            As you grow in spiritual power and understanding you will find that many outer regulations will become unnecessary; but this will be because you have really risen above them. This point in your development, where your understanding of Truth enables you to dispense with certain outer props and regulations, is the spiritual coming of age.

 
However, this spiritual coming of age cannot be hurried or forced, but must appear when the consciousness is ready, exactly as the flowering of a bulb can only be the result of natural growth. You have to demonstrate where you are. To seek to demonstrate beyond your understanding is not spiritual. Fix your attention upon spiritual things, and without consciously trying to make haste you will be amazed to discover the pace at which your soul has hastened.
 
To take a simple example: Suppose that in a street accident you find that a man has severed an artery and the blood is spurting out. The normal course is that unless this bleeding is stopped the victim will die. Now, what is the spiritual attitude to take in such a case? Claim the ability of God to heal. If your faith is strong enough the severed artery will immediately be healed. But if your faith fails, you must take the usual steps to save the man’s life by immediately improvising a tourniquet, or whatever the proper procedure may be, still claiming divine aid.
 
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised) …(Hebrews 10:23).

With great freedom comes great responsibility. As we mature spiritually we must be ever conscious that as our spiritual power grows, we must use it more to serve God every day. If we let it start serving ourselves, then we turn on to a very unsafe path that will deny us further spiritual growth.  If we proceed down that path, it will lead us to a loss of spiritual power and ultimately to our downfall. 

Staying on the path,
Z Gardener

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As A Man Thinketh

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on June 20, 2008| Leave a Comment »

            Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

 
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled (Matthew 5:17-18).
 
A “jot” or yod was the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, like the Greek “iota.” A “tittle” (really “little horn”) is one of those tiny spurs or projections that distinguish certain Hebrew letters.
 
The scribes and the Pharisees were for the most part worthy men leading strictly moral lives according to appearances. Their faults were the weaknesses of the religious formalist everywhere—spiritual pride and self-righteousness. Of these faults they were unconscious—that is the deadly malice of these diseases of the soul—but they did strive to fulfil the law, as they understood it. Jesus knew this, and he gave them credit for it. Here he warns his followers that unless their practical conduct is better than that of these people, they need not suppose that they are engaged on the spiritual path.

The most dangerous traps are the ones we can not see. This is especially true of spiritual pride more commonly referred to as the “holier than thou” syndrome. When we say in the Lord’s Prayer “lead us not into temptation” it is referring to this form of spiritual corruption. After we have been led to God, the unseen sin that traps many of us is self righteousness. When we are thinking “We are good, therefore we must be right or better than someone else” we are on truly dangerous ground. What we should be thinking is “God is good and it is only through his grace and mercy that we are redeemed from sin.” We are no better than the least among us. If we lose sight of that we are in more peril than the least among us.

Z Gardener

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Peace, the Miracle Worker

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on June 19, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Regeneration means building a new mentality; that is, creating a new soul in place of your present one. It does not mean merely improving your present self—it means producing (through the power of God, of course), a new self.

 
If you do this, everything else in your life will rapidly change for the better. Other people will become much more friendly to you. Because your soul will be filled with peace, you will radiate peace, and other people will get it intuitively. Everybody likes peace and harmony and they are attracted to any source from which it comes.
 
Naturally you cannot radiate peace if you do not first possess it within yourself. You cannot radiate anything from the outside. To radiate any quality, that quality must be within yourself.
 
True peace of mind is the short cut to regeneration. The Master said,
 
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you (John 14:27).

Peace is being free from doubt, fear, worry, anxiety and all the other negative responses to our environment. It does not come from eliminating all the problems and troubles in our worlds. It does come from burying our human selves and being reborn as the spiritual selves that God created us to be. It is not achieved through exerting our will, but by accepting God’s will. Peace of mind flows from a godly spirit.

Peace be with you,

Z Gardener

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Exceeding Righteousness

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on June 18, 2008| Leave a Comment »

             Read Matthew 5:17-20.

 
If anyone were so insane as to suppose that the knowledge of the Truth of Being could put him “above” the moral law, in the sense of authorizing him to break it, he would speedily discover that he had made a tragic mistake. The more spiritual knowledge that one possesses, the more severe is the punishment which one brings upon oneself by any infraction of the moral law. The Christian has to be very much more careful than other people. Indeed, all real spiritual understanding must necessarily be accompanied by definite moral improvement. A theoretical acceptance of the letter of Truth might go with moral carelessness (greatly to the peril of the delinquent), but it is impossible to make any real spiritual progress unless you are trying your very best to live the life. It is impossible to divorce true spiritual knowledge from right conduct.
 
For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20).

The truth shall set us free from everything except the requirement that our words, thoughts and deeds reflect God’s shining love in every way. True freedom comes from accepting God’s will freely and living it fully. The real yoke that fetters us to darkness is the denial of this truth.

Free to do right,

Z Gardener

 

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CITY OF LIGHT

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on June 17, 2008| Leave a Comment »

CITY OF LIGHT
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me (John 12:32).

 
Never try to force other people to accept spiritual truth. Instead, see to it that they are so favorably impressed by your own life and conduct, and by the peace and joy that radiate from you, that they will come running to you of their own accord, begging you to give them the wonderful thing that you have. To do this is to make your soul truly the city upon a hill that cannot be hidden because it is the City of God. This is to let your light shine to the glorifying of your Father which is in Heaven.
The light we radiate is a reflection of  God’s light that we let into in our lives. The more of God’s light we let in, the more brightly we shine.  Its like we are God’s diamonds. Starting as a lump of coal enduring life’s heat and pressure we become spiritual diamonds in the rough (no heat + no pressure = no diamond). God, wielding the stone cutter’s chisel to our human nature, chips away the rough edges of self, ego, pride and vanity to create a brilliant and enduring gem. Today, let us reflect all the brilliance God shines on us.

Reflecting,

Z Gardener

 

Gardener’s note: Starting today, the order of these daily thoughts will change slightly. The thought will be first and the gardener’s observations will be at the end. Also, today, two new families begin to share this time with us. Both families radiate much light for those around them. Both are encountering some passing darkness in their lives today. Please take a moment today to claim God’s presence with them and shine some of your light in their directions. God will make sure it gets to the right place. Thank you. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Uncategorized on June 16, 2008| Leave a Comment »

THE SHINING LIGHT

            Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

 
The state of your soul is always expressed in your outer conditions and in the intangible influence that you radiate at large. There is a cosmic law that nothing can permanently deny its own nature. Emerson said: “what you are shouts so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” The soul that is built upon prayer cannot be hidden, it shines out brightly through the life that it lives. It speaks for itself, but in utter silence, and does much of its best work unconsciously. Its mere presence heals and blesses all around it.

When our lives are filled with darkness, our spirits drained and seemingly lifeless and our burdens crushing us beneath their weight, it seems impossible that our light could shine forth as a beacon to others. Yet, in precisely those times others are watching to see if our faith and relationship with God will lift us up on eagles wings. It is also in those times that we must turn to God for the strength and courage to persevere. Let us today use our challenges to draw closer to God and enlighten others to the hope and faith that come from being close to Him. As Robert Service said in his poem, The Quitter, “It’s dead easy to quit, it’s the keeping your chin up that’s hard”.  So let’s keep our chins up, and remember that someone in a dark place needs our light.

Shine on,

Z Gardener

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