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Archive for October, 2010

You Can’t Have It Both ways

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 7, 2010| Leave a Comment »

 

 
You cannot have your cake, and eat it too.

You cannot have peace of mind, and have your ailment too.
You cannot have a sense of divine Love, and have your jittery nervousness too.
You cannot have a feeling of toleration and kindliness and faith, and have your digestive troubles too.
You cannot have harmony continually unfolding in your life, and enjoy gossip and criticism too.
You cannot have power in prayer, and the luxury of resentment and condemnation too.
You cannot build a new consciousness and a new body, and live mentally in the dead past too.
 
…Choose you this day whom ye will serve… but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. (Joshua 24:15).
Each day we face many opportunities to decide who and what we will serve. The totality of those choices determine our state of mind, spiritual status and progress as well as the environment around us. We make those choices either by actively deciding or by passively refusing to decide. Either way we make the choice and the result of those choices, active and passive, impact everything else we do, think and say.
 
So, if we want to have peace of mind, joy, a sense of divine love, harmony, faith, tolerance, kindliness, power in prayer, a new consciousness and a new body, then we must choose to serve the Lord. Many times it is not an easy choice and often it the the hardest choice. But, oh the blessings unbounded that we receive when we choose God’s way for us. Those blessings are worth infinitely more than that which we sacrificed to make them and live by them.
 
For there is no price to high and no sacrifice to great, that they will not be worth God’s blessings. Without them we are destined to search in vain for our true rewards. With them we are assured of a life in the garden God created for us. There to abide in peace, joy and love, now and forever.
 
Serving God,
Z gardener

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Is that your hat?

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Why has not your prayer been answered? Perhaps it has. Strangely enough, it often happens that we receive an answer to our prayer and do not recognize it. Some of us have had demonstrations in our possession for weeks or months and have not known it. This mistake is caused by outlining. We have unconsciously decided that the demonstration must take a particular form, and because that form does not appear, we think we have failed. Actually we probably have an even better demonstration than we expected, but for the moment we are blind to it.  

If a boy prayed for a man’s hat (because he thought it would look well on him or make him grown up) he would not get it; since divine Wisdom knows that he could not wear it. He would get a good hat of the sort that would be useful to him. We often pray for things for which we are not really prepared; but if we pray scientifically this will not matter, since Creative Intelligence will send us the thing that we really need.   Seek God for his own sake, for the joy of being with Him and demonstrations will take care of themselves.  

I will be glad in the Lord (Psalm 104:34)

 

We often think we know what we need and ask God for it. Sometimes we are praying for that which will result in our best good. Sometimes we are not. God will not grant to us that which will harm us unless there is a greater good to come from it. We should always pray for what we think we need, but we should also submit it to God by asking that God’s will be done. And we should ask that God help us understand the answer.   God knows what we need before we ask and and even knows what we need when we don’t know. So we should always expect that our prayers will be answered, and understand that sometimes the answer is no. When we are at ease with God’s answers, we will be glad in the Lord while our prayers, those answered in the affirmative and negative, will lead to the peace that surpasses all understanding. It is then that our gardens will be places where our hats fit and so do our prayers.  

Wearing the hat,

Z gardener

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Practice Makes Real

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The only part of our religion that is real is the part we express in our daily lives. Ideals that we do not act out in practice are mere abstract theories. Actually, such pretended ideals are a serious detriment, because they drug the soul.

If you want to receive any benefit from your religion you must practice it; and the place to practice it is right here, where you are; and the time to do it is now.

A writer on prayer has said: “Knead love into the bread you bake; wrap strength and courage in the parcel you tie for the woman with the weary face; hand trust and candor with your coin you pay to the man with the suspicious eyes.” This sums up the Practice of the Presence of God.

Give to him that asketh thee…(Matthew 5:42).

How do we practice our faith in our daily actions? Do we let the driver in to a busy lane of traffic ahead of us or do we look away, too rushed to let them in? Do we find a way to help those who call on us or do we find an excuse to turn away? Do we return love to those who serve us anger? Do we seek to understand those who frighten us, or do we give them scorn and judgement? Do we forgive those who hurt us or do we resent and punish them? The answer to these and similar questions determine whether we are truly practicing the presence of God or mouthing platitudes to make ourselves feel better for awhile.

When we love, forgive, understand, tolerate, help, lift up and accept those we contact, then we are practicing the presence of God. It is then that the joy and gladness of our gardens come into full bloom. It is then that we are freed from mere theories and are immersed in the power and peace of God’s will. Then God’s love and grace become the real and practical daily experience of our lives instead of mere platitudes.

Practicing,
Z gardener

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The Unforgivable Sin

Posted in Good Morning, tagged on October 4, 2010| 3 Comments »

The Bible mentions the existence of an unforgivable sin, and this has greatly frightened innumerable Christians.

Let us be absolutely clear upon one point. There is no sin that a human being can commit that God will not forgive but there is one sin that he cannot forgive until we make it possible. This sin consists in shutting ourselves off from fresh inspiration or guidance from God. If your mind is already made up about everything appertaining to God; if you decide that you now know all the truth, and that you could not be mistaken; then it will not be possible for the Holy Ghost to open your eyes to error and lead you into higher truth. Naturally, as long as this is your state of mind, no help or improvement can come to you; and in that sense only is your sin unforgivable – unforgivable while it lasts. When you do change your attitude, enlightenment will come, and the sin will be destroyed.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with me (Revelation 3:20).

The most common way of shutting off God’s ongoing revelation is to deny that we have acted wrongly and our inability thereby to seek forgiveness. This is not the same as being ignorant that our actions are wrong. Willful actions that violate our spiritual values, yet are denied by us as wrongdoing can not be forgiven. The reason why is simple. God can not forgive us until we admit we have done something wrong?

A child raised in a culture that celebrates wrong behavior may not know that such activity is wrong. God can forgive them just as he can answer the prayers that we do not know enough to pray ourselves. God can and will give us that which we need even when we don’t know what that is.

However, neither will God forgive, nor can he forgive, willfully wrong behavior that we justify because of circumstances. “He hurt me”, or “She needed to be taught a lesson”, are rationalizations that do not justify our violation of spiritual laws. And until we admit their wrongness, repent of the wrong and ask forgiveness, God can not and would not forgive us for it.

The good news is all we have to do is face the truth, accept responsibly and ask forgiveness. Then we open the door and God will come in and sup in our gardens with us. And all will be well.

In truth,
Z gardener

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Give It Time

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on October 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

People sometimes accept the idea that a change of thought, plus turning to God in prayer, will transform their lives into harmony and freedom. The logic of this principle appeals to them, and they set to work upon it in earnest. Then, after a few days, they say, “Nothing has happened after all,” and they drop back into their old negative thinking.

That is extremely foolish. The results of many years of general negative thinking are seldom corrected in a few days. No one who goes upon a new physical diet or medical regimen expects to reap the advantages in so short a time. You must keep up the new way of thinking and refuse to be discouraged by seeming failures at first.

The right motive for adopting right thinking is that it is right, and that wrong thinking is wrong; and we should do right whether it seems to pay dividends or not. Of course, it does pay dividends – fabulous dividends – but it usually takes a little perseverance in the face of preliminary slowness.

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13).

Be assured that when we do adopt a change of thought and turn to God in prayer that many things will happen to discourage us. in fact, things will likely appear to get worse before they get better. Just as a first time jogger or weight lifter has to tear down some muscle tissue, we will experience spiritual soreness and even setbacks. This is not accidental. I

t is because the Adversary does not want us to make these changes. Satan is like a loan shark that does want want a debtor to pay off his debt because the loan shark will no longer receive their obscene interest payments. Similarly, the devil knows he is losing his grip on us when we turn to God in thought, word and deed. So, our turning to God will be made difficult and our backsliding will be made easier so we will remain shackled to our fear and despair.

Let us break these shackles and be prepared to flee the evil one and continue fighting against and fleeing form our oppressor until we arrive in the gardens that God created for us. There our challenges and obstacles will be met by humans fortified with God’s power and might. There, we will overcome the Adversary through God’s power by seeking God with all our hearts.

Fleeing fear,
Z gardener

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