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Archive for October, 2008

Our Promise

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

Read Psalm 91.

 
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. This clause has been taken to indicate some kind of favoritism on the part of God, whereas, of course, such a thing is impossible. It means simply that those who pray are saved from trouble that would otherwise overtake them, and that does, in fact, overtake those who do not pray.
 
Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. In the Bible, the word promise is the name given to a statement of some spiritual law. So, a Bible promise is a statement of the consequences that naturally follow from certain states of consciousness. If Boyle’s law were written in the Bible idiom, it would read something like this: “As I live, saith the Lord, whenever thou shalt double the pressure of a gas, thou shalt halve the volume, temperature remaining constant.” In the language of natural science, our Bible promise would run: “ By meditating regularly on the Presence of God with you, and directing your life in accordance with that fact, you become immune from any kind of danger.”

Being immune from danger is based upon “directing your life” in accordance with God’s presence. Frankly, that is a tall order. And honestly, we will never do this perfectly. However, the more successful we are at putting God in charge of our lives, the less danger and hurt we will experience. The good news is, with mental and spiritual discipline, we can become so proficient at directing our lives by God’s will that we can become virtually immune to danger. How much immunity we have depends upon how much we live with God in our lives and spirits. How safe do we really want to be?

Seeking more shelter,
Z gardener

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Our Deliverance

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 29, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Read Psalm 91.
 
And now the Word of Truth is represented as addressing you with an authoritative assurance that your prayer will be answered, that is some way or other – not necessarily in the way that you expect – you will be rescued from your difficulty.
 
Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wing shalt thou trust: His Truth shall be thy shield and buckler. You are to have no apprehension, for your protection is now assured in one of those illustrations from everyday life, in which the Bible abounds. The mother hen, at the slightest threat of danger, gathers the little chicks under her wings, covering them “with her feathers”; thus does God shield you from all danger once you have elected to trust Him. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. It is the knowledge of the Truth about God and man that makes the demonstration.
 
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. The arrow that flieth by day and the destruction that wasteth at noon refer to any difficulty of which you are consciously aware. It is, so to say, a daytime problem. The terror by night and the pestilence that walketh in darkness, on the contrary, imply something that, unknown to you, is working in your subconscious mind. Modern psychology has shown that most of our difficulties have their roots in the depth of the subconscious. These are indeed terrors of the mental night and pestilences of the darkness.

To know and understand this is one of the great keys to peace. To have the confidence that God Almighty will deliver, cover and shield us gives us the authoritative sureness that we shall not be afraid of anything. If we continue to be afraid of anything, then we are not truly acknowledging this truth and are not dwelling in the secret place of the most high. In other words, we are not doing our part. When we do our part, God will most assuredly do His.

Under the wings,
Z gardener

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Our Fortress

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 28, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Our Fortress

Read Psalm 91.
 
          He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.Observe that the poem opens by announcing the irresistible power of prayer. Then in order to bring home the fact that this law applies to us, and that by no possibility could we be an exception, it now changes over to the first person and makes us say “I.” It compels us to voice the I AM.
 
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress:  The Lord means God. How can this knowledge become a presence and refuge? Secular knowledge, which is intellectual, cannot; but the true knowledge of God is an actual experience – not a thing of the head, but of the heart – and this is indeed a Presence and a place. As a general rule, people contact this Real Self only vaguely and occasionally. Then, if they pray regularly, the gleams of intuition gradually strengthen into a definite sense of the Presence of God.
 
My God; in Him will I trust. However worried or depressed you may be, however full of doubts and misgivings, still the fact that you are praying means that you have at least enough faith for that. The faith to go on praying in the midst of doubts about results is the tiny grain of mustard seed that Jesus says is sufficient for practical purposes. Declaring in Him will I trust means that you have now determined to trust by ceasing to worry and fear. This is the legitimate and spiritual use of the will.

When we turn to God for our safety and protection, we are empowered to release our anxiety and earthly concerns about problems we face. It does not allow us to ignore the things we must do to address those issues. It simply frees us from the negative emotions which plague our spirits and our minds and replaces them with hope and confidence that “we will be delivered”.

From the fortress,

Z gardener

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The Shadow of the Almighty

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 27, 2008| Leave a Comment »

To abide under the shadow of the Almighty means to live under the protection of God Himself. Eastern people, and especially those with a desert background, such as the people of Palestine, look upon the sun as a danger, even an enemy, from which they need to be safeguarded. Shade is sanctuary, or safety – “the shadow of a mighty rock in a weary land.” The exhausted traveler sinks down in the shade for his long-sought rest.
 
God is called “The Almighty” in order to impress us with the fact that He really is All-mighty, and can therefore overcome our present difficulty, no matter how big it may seem.
 
…for with God all things are possible (Mark 10:27).
 
Consider, however, that the promise is made to “him that dwelleth.” If we only run into the Secret Place now and again, we can scarcely be said to dwell there. God will come to our rescue whenever we pray, but if we seldom think of Him, we may experience difficulty in making our contact in an emergency. By means of daily meditation we dwell in the Secret Place.

Where we “dwell” is not the physical address where we live. It is where our thoughts, feelings and priorities reside. When out thoughts are focused on spiritual reality, our feelings are shaped by our love of God and his creation and our priorities are driven by God’s will, we dwell in the “shadow of the almighty”. It is there that we find refuge,rest and safety. It is there that “all things are possible”. May each of us reside there this day.

Made in the shade,

Z gardener

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Take God As Your Partner

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

Why not organize the business of living in a big way? Why creep along, as some people do, from one tiny stepping stone to another, instead of striding out boldly? Why be content with poor health, uninteresting work, or restricted conditions, when many other people have already risen above these things?
 
There is a way out of limitation that never fails. It is this, take God for your partner. If you will really make God your business partner in every department of your life, you will be amazed at the quick and striking results that you will obtain. Of course, if you want God to be your partner, you will have to include Him in every corner and every phase of your life.
 
Most people would be thrilled to be able to go into partnership with some great industrial or financial magnate; they would feel that their future was assured. But here is a partnership with Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Power awaiting you.
 
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing (John 15:5).

Including God in all our decisions really means subordinating our will and our desires to allow another to assume significant influence and ownership. When we are willing to do this with God, we have closed a deal with He who has unlimited spiritual and material capital. Sort of like going into to business with the spiritual equivalent of Warren Buffett. 

Spiritually capitalized,
Z gardener

 

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Easy Does It

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on October 22, 2008| Leave a Comment »

What you concentrate upon you bring into your life. Many people fail to concentrate successfully because they think that concentration means will power. They suppose that the harder they press the faster they get through. But that is quite wrong.
 
Think of the photographic process. The secret of a clear picture lies in focus. You focus your camera lens steadily for the necessary length of time. Suppose I want to photograph a vase of flowers. I place them in front of the camera and keep them there. But suppose that after a few moments I snatch away the vase and hold a book in front of the camera, and then snatch that away, and hold up a chair, and then put the flowers back for a few moments. You know what will happen to my photograph. It will be a crazy blur. Is not that what p eople do to their minds when they cannot keep their thoughts concentrated for any length of time? They think health for a few minutes and then they think sickness or fear. They think prosperity and then they think depression. Is it any wonder that man is so apt to demonstrate the “marred image”?
 
It is always good to make a practical experiment, so I advise you to take a single problem in your life—and just change your mind concerning your problem and keep it changed for a month, and you will be astonished at the results. If you really do keep your thought changed you will not have to wait a month for results.
 
…He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved (Matthew 24:13).

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to stay focused on the goal. Life rushes by so fact and we are bombarded by so much activity, that we seem to barely keep up. That is why daily prayer is so20important. It is the time we STOP, FOCUS and RECHARGE. When we do this, it creates the opportunity to change our minds and renew our spirits. When we do this, we will see the changes in our lives that we seek.

 
In focus,
Z gardener

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I Am That I Am

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , on October 21, 2008| Leave a Comment »

And… there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud…(Exodus 19:16).
 
These are dramatic expressions of the change of consciousness as we move away from the common things of life to the higher things.
 
In these days of the Exodus, the conditions of the outer world answered very quickly to man’s thoughts because people believed it was possible. Moses took his people across the Red Sea by the power of thought, and he was able to do that because in those days people believed in the power of thought. They believed that God could take them across the Red Sea dry shod, and He did.
 
Moses had the true knowledge of God from his father’s people, the Hebrews. It was the historical mission of the Hebrews to teach that God is not a limited, corporeal being, but incorporeal, infinite, divine mind.
 
Moses saw clearly the unity of God and man, and the unity of man and man. He got more than a flash of what we call the cosmic consciousness. That was his illumination. Then he realized that he must give this to humanity.

If, as we believe, that God is infinite, omniscient and omni-present, how would he manifest himself in the physical plane? Wouldn’t it be through those he created with his divine spirit and unlimited consciousness. If that is so, th en shouldn’t we be able to demonstrate His unlimited capabilities in the limited physical plane? The answer is yes, but only when we are manifesting his consciousness and will. When we remove the self from our consciousness, accept our true nature as part of God and become one with Him, we become his vehicle here below and can truly say, “I Am”. Then all things are possible.

I Am that I Am,

Z gardener

 

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Clarity and Interest

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 20, 2008| 1 Comment »

The key to life is to build in the mental equivalents of what you want, and to expunge the equivalents of what you do not want. You build in the mental equivalents by thinking with clearness or definiteness, and interest. Remember clarity and interest; those are the two poles. If you want to be healthy, happy, prosperous, doing a constructive work, having a continuous understanding of God, you think, feel, and get interested in these ends. What we call “feeling” in connection with thought is really interest. Ninety-nine times in a hundred the reason why Christians do not demonstrate is that they lack feeling in their desires or prayers.
 
How are you going to expunge the wrong mental equivalents? Suppose you have a mental equivalent of resentment, or of unemployment, or of criticism, o r of not understanding God. The only way to expunge a wrong mental equivalent is to supply the opposite. The right thought automatically expunges the wrong thought. If you say: “I am not going to think resentment any more,” what are you thinking about except resentment? The key to the management of your thinking, and therefore, the key to the management of your destiny, is to substitute an affirmative thought for a negative thought.
 
The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me….(Psalm 138:8).

This sounds so easy, but in many cases is very hard. It is most difficult when we don’t want to let go of a resentment. or negative thought/action. The other difficulty is to think about the solution instead of the problem.
 
Thinking the solution,
 Z gardener

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God’s Abundance for Your Need

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 14, 2008| 1 Comment »

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

 
Thou shalt not covet…any thing that is thy neighbour’s (Exodus 20:17).
 
There are several phrases concerning coveting. You are not to covet your neighbor’s house, nor his wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is his. Much of the evil in the world is caused by wanting something to which one is not entitled. Moses knew what covetousness does to us in what we call today the unconscious or the subconscious.

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Coveting affects the soul of man. Even if your coveting never leads you to take anything that does not belong to you, it undermines and ultimately rots your soul. It shuts you off from God. Why? Because to covet something means that you do not understand the Law of Being. You do not understand that whatever you are getting or lacking is the outpicturing and expression of your consciousness. Until you understand that you cannot be saved.
 
There is not anything in the world that you ever conceived of that God has not got in abundance. God’s supply is infinite, and to envy someone else because he seems to have more is to deny your own contact with God.

 
When we are grateful for all the blessings we have, their is no room for covetousness. When we truly express our bounty in our own consciousness, we will not lack for anything. When we are happy for the blessings of others, we will not be unhappy if we do not have those blessings. When we truly understand that God wants for us all the things that are good for us, we will be at peace with the blessings we have. When we have true faith in God  we will look with hope and confidence to a future that is filled with all those things for which we pray. When we believe, all good things become available to us.

In gratitude,
Z gardener

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The True Witness

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 13, 2008| Leave a Comment »

THE NINTH COMMANDMENT

 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor (Exodus 20:16).
 
First, the obvious meaning is very important although it is only the beginning—do not tell lies about people
 
We have to apply this principle of not bearing false witness right throughout our lives. It is very important to practice because whatever you say about another person will happen to you, yourself. If you lie about another person— that is an unpleasant word but I am using it because is the right word—someone will lie about you. Jesus says so in the seventh chapter of Matthew, verses one and two:
 
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
 
However, the fundamental meaning of this commandment, “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” Is that you always express what you are. You cannot be one thing and express another. Emerson says, “What you are shouts so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” We are always witnessing to what we are. So again, “Thou shalt not” really means “You cannot”—you cannot permanentl y bear false witness.
 
The true witness is the full expression of God’s man. You will be bearing true witness to your neighbor when you are regenerated in soul. What does regeneration mean? It means the building of a new soul, not correcting the old one. When you change the soul, automatically the flesh changes, the skin changes, the blood vessels and the nerves and the bones change. But regeneration must begin with a change in the soul, not with anything in the outer world.
 
When we really know these things, we shall be bearing true witness.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a fully regenerated soul today? It is possible to go to sleep tonight with a brand new soul. Try this. Just for today, think and act in accordance with the ten commandments. Accept that God can, and is, sending you all you need to be happy and joyful. Release all your doubt and fear just for today. (You can come back fo r them later if you still want them). Finally, face the truth about yourself, ask for forgiveness, let go of all your guilt and self-recrimination because God does not want you to have them. Now this can be done in one day, or you can take a life time to do it or you can never do it. Which sounds best to you? 

Living new,
 Z gardener

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