Good Morning Garden

When you fight a thing you antagonize it and it hits back. The harder you fight it the harder it hits. When you give your attention to anything, you are building that thing into your consciousness, for good or evil.

A story is told about William Penn. He had been accustomed from boyhood to carrying a sword because it was part of the dress of a gentleman at that period. One day it occurred to him that this was inconsistent with his Quakerism; but on the other hand he knew that he would feel extremely embarrassed without it. So he consulted George Fox, never doubting that his leader would say, “You must stop wearing it.” George Fox was silent for a few moments, and then said, “Carry thy sword until thou canst no longer carry it.” A year or so later Penn discontinued the practice quite easily.

When you are faced with some negative condition, withdraw your attention from it by building the opposite into your subconscious. Then the undesirable thing falls away like an overripe fruit.

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Philippians 4:8).

There is a great and simple truth in these words. If we fill our minds with all that is good, there will be no room left for that which is undesirable. Nonresistance does not mean quitting or giving in to a negative condition. It does mean that God’s way of solving that which is negative is the only true way to conquer it.

Thinking on love,
Z gardener
Author’s note: This will be the last message for this week. The author will be walking with God and the Boy Scouts in the wondrous creation God gave us. Have a great week.

Z

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Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48).

Consider carefully what Jesus is saying. He is commanding us to be perfect, even as God Himself is perfect; and, as we know that Jesus will not command the impossible, he has here given his authority to the doctrine that it is possible for man to become divinely perfect. And more than this, he is putting it forward as a thing that will have to be actually done.

Now, if we really are the children of God, capable of eternal and flawless perfection, there can be no real power in evil, not even in sin, to keep us permanently in bondage. So now let us lose no further time before commencing our upward march. Let us now, at this very moment, if we have not already done so, rise up, like the prodigal son amid the husks of materiality and limitation, and cry, with all confidence in the teachings and promises of Jesus:

I will arise and go to my father (Luke 15:18).

This writer has said many times that we are incapable of living according to God’s will without divine intervention. Yet here, we are being told to be perfect. As impossible as this sounds, with God’s help, we can become perfect in love. This does not mean we will be mistake free. It does mean that we can overcome our mistakes and turn them into blessings if we think, speak and act with love. It means we can rise up and go to our Father through obedience and perseverance in love.

Perfect in love,
Z gardener

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Read Matthew 5:43-47.

But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:44-45).

Right reaction is the supreme art of life, and Jesus compressed the secret of that art into a sentence when he said: Resist not evil. A correct understanding of this commandment will regenerate your body, liberate your soul, and remake your life.

Love is God and is therefore absolutely all-powerful. Meeting hatred with love is the perfect method of self-defense in all circumstances. It renders you absolutely invulnerable to any kind of attack.

If you receive bad news, if you are unhappy in your work, or in your home, feel out mentally for the Presence of divine Spirit, all around you; affirm its actuality; and claim that God has dominion over all conditions, and you will soon be free.

And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God loves his brother also (1 John 4:21).

We have now gone from tough to nearly impossible. It is only with God’s help that we can love and bless those who hate, use or persecute us. God’s Holy Spirit and the power of God/Love are the only things that can fortify the human spirit enough to meet the standard set by Jesus’ example and his last commandment. However, with God’s help we can rise above our human spirit and return love for hate.

Z gardener

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If somebody comes into the room at home, or into the office or shop, looking as if he meant to make trouble, just try switching your attention straight to the Divine, instead of squaring up aggressively to meet the difficulty or shrinking away to avoid it, according to your temperament. You will be amused and gratified to see the anger fade from the subject’s face (which will mean that it has faded from his heart too) and quite a different expression take its place.

I have myself seen several cases where men, and on two occasions, children, were actually fighting, and upon a spectator’s “turning the cheek” the strife ceased like magic. Animals respond even more easily to this treatment than do human beings. I have seen two instances where dogs were fighting savagely and all efforts to separate them had failed, when the realization of the Presence of God’s love in all His creatures restored peace. In one case it took several minutes’ work; in the other it was practically instantaneous.

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).

This is a tough one! It is a real challenge for one to realize the presence of God when someone is trying to start an argument with them. However, doing so has two major benefits. It stops the offense from escalating further into a confrontation and it usually eliminates the existing conflict. The natural human response is to fight or run. Neither response solves the problem or returns the environment to a positive state.

Heaping love,
Z gardener

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Read Matthew 5:38-42.

But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil. (Matthew 5:39).

Jesus is a revolutionary teacher. He turns the world upside down for those who accept his teaching. When once you have accepted the Jesus Christ message, all values change radically.

The old law was that whatever man did to man, he should himself be made to suffer by way of punishment. If he put out another man’s eye, his own was put out by the officers of justice; if he killed, he was killed.

The desire to “get even,” to get one’s own back, to level things up somehow or other, when we have been hurt or have suffered injustice, or witnessed things of which we did not approve, will remain with us until the time when we definitely take ourselves in hand and destroy it. “Revenge,” said Bacon, “is a kind of wild justice.”

Now Jesus reverses this and says that when someone injures you, you are to forgive him. No matter what the provocation may be, and no matter how many times it is repeated, you are to loose him and let him go, for thus only can you be freed yourself.

The best ways to compound the damage done by a hurt or an injustice is to hold a grudge, try to get even or strike back. As much as we may want to judge, exact revenge or “make things right”; the simple fact is that these actions will make things worse for the aggrieved.

Rising above resistance,
Z gardener

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Read Matthew 5:33-37.

But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, Nay; for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil (Matthew 5:33,37).

Swear not at all, is one of the cardinal points in the teaching of Jesus. It means, briefly, that you are not to mortgage your future conduct in advance; to seek to fix your conduct or your belief for tomorrow while it is yet today. Rather you are constantly to keep yourself an open channel for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit into manifestation through you.

Of course, Jesus does not mean that you are not to enter into ordinary business engagements. Nor does he mean that the ordinary oath administered in a court of law is inadmissible. These things are matters of legal convenience. The Sermon on the Mount is a treatise on the spiritual life, for the spiritual life controls all the rest.

This writer has often commented that words are more powerful than bullets. Here the scripture is reminding us not to use words that can trap us into a rigid, self-ascribed behavior instead of being open to God’s will. It is self-elevation and denies that change is the nature of the universe. Most of the time their is a strong element of pride and ego involved as well.

Obediently,
Z gardener

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And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell (Matthew 5:29-30).

The soul’s integrity is the one and only thing that matters. And so Jesus insists that positively no sacrifice can be too great to insure the integrity of one’s soul. Anything that stands in the way of that, must be given up.

Whatever is standing between us and our true contact with God; sin, an old grudge left unforgiven, stark greed for the things of this world, must go. Such things, however, are so obvious that at least the transgressor is aware of them; it is the subtle things like self-love, self-righteousness, and spiritual pride that are most difficult for the self to exercise.

There is nothing we can give up; no price we can pay that is greater that that which we receive by following God’s will. For when we overcome the “selfs” (self-love, self-righteousness, etc.); we open our spirits, consciousness and will to God’s Holy Spirit, Divine Will and Universal Consciousness. This opens the path for God to manifest His will through us and express God’s will into the physical world through us.

Z gardener

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Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart (Matthew 5:27-28).

In this unforgettable paragraph, Jesus stresses the master truth, so utterly fundamental, yet so unsuspected by the world at large, that what really matters is thought. People have always been accustomed to suppose that as long as their deeds conformed to the law, they have done all that can be reasonably expected of them, and that their thoughts and feelings are their own business. But the type of thought that we allow to become habitual will sooner or later find expression on the plane of action.

The logical consequence of this fact is very startling. It means that if you entertain covetous thoughts for your neighbor’s money, you are a thief, even though you may not yet have put your hand in the till. The adulterer at heart is corrupting his soul even though his impure thought is never expressed on the physical plane. Lusts, jealousy, vengeance, mentally entertained, carry the soul’s consent, and this soul-consent is the malice of sin.

Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23).

This is the core truth at the center of the philosophy and theology of the Good Morning Garden. The simple fact is that we become what we think about, and that our attitude and point of view shapes our reality . The only thing we can truly control in this world is what we think. When faced with this truth, we might ask, “how can I keep every thought pure”? The answer is that we can’t and we are not expected to have all good thoughts. However, with God’s help we can limit bad thoughts and overcome the ones that do get in.

Keeping the heart with diligence,
Z gardener

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There Is …
By Emmet Fox

There is
no difficulty that enough love will not conquer;
no disease that enough love will not heal;
no door that enough love will not open;
no gulf that enough love will not bridge;
no wall that enough love will not throw down;
no sin that enough love will not redeem…
It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble;
how hopeless the outlook;
how muddled the tangle;
how great the mistake.
A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all.
If only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most powerful being in the world.

This poem from the author of the first part of the God Morning Garden messages. It sums up the philosophy of our daily messages succinctly.

Peace,
Z gardener

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By coming to terms with the adversary in the first place, that is to say, by getting our thought right immediately concerning any difficulty, we incur no “costs” and the transaction remains a simple one.

Suppose that you find yourself sneezing. If you say: “There, now, I have caught cold again; I am in for it!” and then proceed to dwell upon the thought that you have caught cold, you are giving the trouble the opportunity to dig itself into your mentality. People often indulge in quite a meditation upon colds. Instead, if at the first moment that the possibility of catching cold occurs to you, you immediately reject it and affirm the Truth, the whole thing will be over in a short time.

Or perhaps upon opening your morning mail you find a notice informing you that your bank has failed. Many people in such a case would saturate themselves with the thought of ruin by rehearsing every kind of difficulty that might come. However, the proper thing to do, immediately upon becoming aware of the news, is to turn to God “your real support” and refuse to accept the suggestion of trouble as binding; literally drive the thought of loss, fear, and resentment out of consciousness. If you do this, working steadily until peace of mind is restored, you will presently find that in some way or other the trouble will disappear. Either the bank will speedily recover itself; and there is no reason at all why one person’s prayer should not save the bank and the fortunes of thousands;or, if this is not possible, you will find your loss equalized in some other way.

…whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13).

This is not to say that we should ignore sickness or other serious circumstances. The real lesson here is the benefit of refusing to project catastrophe on ourselves when faced with negative indications. Further, if we refuse to be fearful and anxious, we can open our thoughts to potentially positive outcomes; thereby converting a potentially negative circumstance into a positive outcome.

Calling on the Lord,
Z gardener

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