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Archive for October, 2008

By Right of Consciousness

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT

 
Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:15).
 
Many people will say, “We always knew that we must not steal. If  we do we shall have trouble and probably wind up in prison.” All through the ages it is only the smallest percentage of human beings who have stolen. Respect for other people’s property was learned early in the history of civilization. However, this most fundamental law of life means that actually we cannot steal. You may say you know someone who broke into your house and took your silver. The burgl ar who took your silver actually transferred some silver from your house to someone else’s house, but did he get away with it? If that silver belonged to you by right of conciousness, all the burglars in the world could not have taken it away. In fact, if you had this understanding, you could take a ten dollar bill, put it on the sidewalk in Times Square, and return the next day and it would still be there. Your consciousness of the presence of God in other people would have been so strong that no one could have taken from you what belonged to you by right of that consciousness.
 
These ten laws of life are things that cannot be done, and so, says the great prophet in effect, do not waste yourself or your life trying to do these things. They cannot be done. They conflict with the fundamental Law of Being.
 
When we give up trying to steal, then we shall begin to have our own. We shall come into our own rights, and when20we get that, liberation will not be very far off.

This says we cannot take anything that does not belong to us. In fact, one can take something but we cannot get away with it. Just as we receive more than we give, we lose more than we take of that which belongs to someone else. Tithing is a perfect example of taking what is not ours. Failing to give away that which is not ours is a way of stealing. If someone needs our attention, love, concern or sympathy, we are stealing when we deny them. It is our duty as children of God to give to Him that which is his and to respect that which belongs to another and to give and share freely that which is ours.
 
Giving today,
Z gardener

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A Time To Rest

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 9, 2008| Leave a Comment »

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT
 
Read Exodus 20:8-11.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (Exodus 20:8).
 
This commandment about the Sabbath Day was given to the people at the time of their leaving Egypt and going into the desert, and on the surface it meant what it said for that age. It was a wonderful thing in Moses’day to insist that everyone set aside one day a week to think about God or at least to oblige him to stop his20secular activities. No rule can make a man religious, or give him faith, but it can help.
 
Like all the other commandments, this one is instruction in seeking the presence of God everywhere, particularly where the trouble seems to be. Where there is fear and doubt He brings faith, where there is lack He brings abundance.
 
But here in this commandment about the Sabbath Day there is a still deeper meaning. When you are praying every day and recognizing that God is working in you and in all your affairs, there will be a sense in which every day will be a Sabbath, because for you every day will be a holy day. One of the most wonderful things about the Bible teaching is that we get rid of the distinction between the sacred and the secular. That is one of the most important steps in the whole history of the soul.
 
God is present everywhere. For those who understand Jesus’ teaching, it is always the Sabbath Day, and the place whereon they stand is holy ground.

There is a great benefit to setting aside time to rest, reflect and remove ourselves from our daily duties. Just as morning prayers set the tone for the day and remind us of the true nature of our existence, the Sabbath Day does the same for our week. God himself set aside a day after creation to reflect on his work and determine it was “very good”. When we charge through life without taking time to enjoy our accomplishments and analyze our shortcomings, we lose perspective and where we are in life. In short, we can lose our way. Let us start each day with Sabbath time and then take one day a week to revel in God’s love and our relationship with him. Then we will understand fully this commandment.

Keeping the day,
Z gardener

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Thoughts Are Things

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 8, 2008| Leave a Comment »

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT
 
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain (Exodus 20:7).
 
Now this law of life really means you cannot take the name of the Lord in vain. If you try to do so you will fail because when you take the name of God unto yourself and implement it, then consequences will follow. It i s a pity more of us do not realize that fact because constantly we are trying to take the name of the Lord in vain. The name of God is your conviction concerning God. Your idea of God will determine your whole life. If you believe that God is good, God is love, God has all power, God is intelligence, all the conditions of your life will steadily improve. If you believe God is intelligent but not good—I know people would not dare to say that, but people who think that God sends sickness and trouble really believe in a God who is not good—if you believe in a God who has all intelligence, but is not loving, then your idea of the nature of God must work out. Troubles will come to you, and you will not overcome them because you are saying, “God sent this trouble for a good purpose, and I must put up with it.” You will put up with it. Your idea of God cannot be in vain. It will work out for you in accordance with your belief.
 
There is no one of us who is not limiting God in some respect in his thought and because of that we are going to suffer limitation in some way, for we cannot take the name of God in vain.

Our thoughts and wor ds truly do drive our reality. Whether we actually profane the name of God by using it in negative words and thoughts, or we limit God in the way we believe in Him or think about him, we are manifesting these actions in our lives. We should always assign only the highest and purest thoughts and words to God. We should not use his name to curse others or to wish them ill. Neither should we judge or condemn others using God’s name. Lastly, we should not blame God for our negative conditions or those in the world. He is only and always love, intelligence, goodness, fullness and joy. It is we that are responsible for the rest.

Taking responsibility,
Z Gardener

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Polarity

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

 THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT
 
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee (Exodus 20:12).
 
We should respect our parents just because they are our parents, but that teaching is just the very outer layer of this commandment. Underneath it is instruction in divine metaphysics because your real father and mother is God. When this commandment says, “Honour thy father and thy mother,” it brings in the two poles, the male and th e female, and, of course, polarity is the motive power of the universe. In the bible, mother means the feeling nature, and the father is the knowledge nature. Most people have one side or the other more developed. When our prayers fail and we do not demonstrate, we fail because we are not honoring our father and our mother.

Whether honoring our earthly parents or our heavenly father, we are bound forever to them and our lives will reflect how we treat them. God created us and this world while our earthly parents are the means by which God brought us here. There is nothing in this world more important than our relationships with our parents until our relationship with God and our spouse becomes fully mature. We should treasure our time with our parents, be patient , respectful and loving with them. We should care for them. Regardless of their weaknesses or mistakes, we owe them our respect and love. Even if this means acting in ways that cause us pain in order to do the right thing by them. We only have two parents in this world.

Honoring them today,
Z Gardener

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Pocket Gods and Graven Images

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT
 
Read Exodus 20:4-6.
 
Thou shalt not take unto thee any graven image…(exodus 20:4).
 
A primitive people needed to be thus instructed because they were much given to making idols of a palpable sort. We do not do these things, but whenever we give power to anything but God, we are making that thing into a graven image. For example, we give power to ailments, particularly if it is a favorite ailment. We all know people who say, “My rheumatism,” and they say it quite lovingly. Been with them a long time! Has become a conversation piece! Others say, “My indigestion.” We are making a graven image of these things. It is only when we take power away from them that we can heal them.
 
If you forget God and worship graven images of any kind, you are going to suffer. You can demolish a stone statue; you can burn a wooden one. The way to destroy mental images is to stop thinking of them and giving them power.
 
This commandment goes on to say, “For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God.” Moses does not mean that God is jealous like a man, but that God must have first place. The trouble with many pious people is that they want God to be vice-president, keeping the presidency for themselves. So the Bible uses the word “jealous” in the sense that if you give power to anything but God, you have lost God altogether. You cannot have a percentage of God. Either God is the only power or nothing at all.

It is really about who and what we are putting first in our lives. When we put God first instead of ourselves, we open the floodgates of his power and blessings in our lives. Those miraculous healing waters are always there, but putting ourselves first shuts off the flow. When we put ourselves first we live in the world we created and make ourselves into imperfect Gods. With that, we become exposed to all the human weaknesses of attitude, spirit and behavior. This subjects us to all the negative experiences in life. Let go of all the graven images and all things we put before God and let God be the master of our universe. Then we will live in the universe God created for us and will spend all our days in the garden named Eden.

Putting God first,
Z Gardener

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The Ten Commandments

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 6, 2008| Leave a Comment »

The Ten Commandments

 
And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant…and had respect unto them (Exodus 2:24-25).
 
Moses grew up as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter with all the privileges and training of royalty. As the years went by and he witnessed the oppression of his people, he determined to lead them out of their bondage into a better life—their Promised Land. We are told “that their cry went up to God” (Exodus 2:24) and God Himself led them safely through their wilderness. Then at the time of their uncertainty, their moral laxness and emotional confusion, He gave Moses certain basic rules of life, which we still know as the Ten Commandments.
 
The Ten Commandments at their face value are true and valid, but that is only the beginning. If people are going to escape from the continuous strife and struggle of life, they must have something more. So within these commandments he concealed the deeper laws for those who were ready for them. And within those again, he concealed the deepest and highest spiritual teaching for those who were ready for that.
 
In other words, Moses designed these laws of life so that the higher we go spiritually, or the deeper we go intellectually, the more we can get out of them.
“For he who as eyes to see and ears to hear…”. God’s truth is revealed to us as we are prepared to receive it. As we search for truth and higher consciousness (closeness to God), we gain greater understanding of God’s laws. As we gain understanding, more is given to us. It is only through sincere seeking that we find deeper truth and spiritual growth.”Seek, and ye shall find”.

Still seeking,
Z Gardener

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False Allegiance

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 2, 2008| Leave a Comment »

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

 
Thou shalt not commit adultery (Exodus 20:14).
 
Naturally, this commandment means what it says. The Christian standard of conduct with regard to personal purity will never be improved on. Not to commit adultery is fundamentally important because on it is founded the sanctity of the family. But, of course, there is a great deal more in it than that.
 
One of the most common Hebrew synonyms was adultery for idolatry. In the Old Testament these two words are almost always interchangeable. The worship of false gods was described as adultery. The fundamental idea behind this commandment is to have one God. As you read through the Old Testament, you will find that the idea of the adulterous woman who is unfaithful to her husband constantly means the human soul that is turning away to some other god.


Part of living in the Eden given to us by God entails caring for the garden and nurturing all that is in it. That includes our wives and husbands. Human relationships, like plants and animals require nourishment and attention. If that attention and nourishment is focused one someone or something else, our plants and our relationships suffer. Failure to provide essential care and love causes weakness, sickness and death. Toxic substances kill life and toxic behavior such as adultery kills relationships. it is the emotional equivalent of poison. When we put God first in our lives by following his will, we are immune to such things as adultery. Then the false idols of lust, pride, vanity and ego are put in check and our attention is focused on our Garden and our families.

Focusing in Eden,
Z Gardener

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Expressing What You Are

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

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
 
Thou shalt not kill (Exodus 20:13).
 
As rules of conduct, the commandments are just such “thou shalt nots” as you see written up, “No smoking” or “No thoroughfare.” But when you get behind the surface meaning, then “Thou shalt not” becomes “Thou Canst not.”
 
So this commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” is fundamentally an expression of the cosmic law that20you cannot kill, and the sooner you find that out the better. We are always trying to kill. However, this commandment is here to tell us that to think we can kill anything is to lay up trouble for ourselves that will have to be met and wiped out some time or other.
 
No one can kill your character. No one can kill your peace of mind. No one can kill your business, or your reputation, or anything that is yours. You can, but nobody else can. 
 
Many people waste their lives in thinking how they are being hurt, or damaged, or injured by other people; how good they could be, what marvelous things they could do, if it were not for others. So long as you believe that, you cannot progress. As soon as you know that nobody can hurt you, then you are free to overtake any mistakes, and to be and do the thing you want.
Anytime one attempts to violate this cosmic law, they inflict the result on themselves more than the target of their actions.  We must act in harmony with these laws or pay an incalculable price for violating them. He who has ears to hear…

Listening,
Z Gardener

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