Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for January, 2012

The Secret Place

           The Ninety-first Psalm is one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. Like the rest of Scripture, the underlying thought is developed through a series of symbols, and it is by the appreciation of the values lying behind these symbols that the power of this prayer is appropriated.
The way to get the most out of this psalm is to read it through quietly; pausing after each clause to consider the meaning and assenting to this mentally. If you are fearful you will find, after working through the prayer two or three times, that your fear will have gone and that you are now looking at things from a different point of view.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. (Psalm 91:1).
The Secret Place of the most High is your own consciousness, and this fact is the most important practical discovery in the science of religion. The error usually made is to suppose the Secret Place of the most High to be somewhere outside of yourself, an error fatal to our hopes, because our success in prayer depends upon getting some degree of contact with God; and since He is only to be contacted within, as long as we are looking without we must fail in our objective. Jesus emphasized this truth, The kingdom of God is within you. Again, he said that when we pray we are to enter into the closet and shut the door, meaning, to retire in thought within our own consciousness. In fact, this doctrine of the Secret Place and the wonders that can happen therein is taught throughout the Bible.
What a glorious truth is contained in today’s message. God is within us and, God’s Kingdom is within us. God is not somewhere else; he is present within us. When we look inside for God’s Kingdom, for God’s presence and God’s consciousness, we are on the true path to oneness with God.
It is when we overcome the idea that self is separate from God, that we become one with God’s consciousness (the Holy Spirit) within us. When we realize we are one with God, then we can live in the Eden created for us.
Seeking God within,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

I Am That I Am

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.
What is “I am”, that God would say to Moses that this is what Moses should call God. Could it be that conscioussness itself is what we truly are as children of God? When as a physical human, one says “I am”, we can only know that because we are conscious of our own selves and our existence.
So, if we are children of God, we are so because God’s consciousness and ours are one. When we rise above self-consciousness and become God-conscious, then God’s full promises manifest themselvesf through us.
Let us today manifest God’s consciousness in all we do, so that we may be one with God and the Holy Spirit, which is God’s consciousness:  the “I Am” in us.
Being all that I Am,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

God’s Abundance for Your Need

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.
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.
Herein lies one of the great truths. Everything we could ever need for our best good is already ours. To access this abundance, peace and joy, we must commune with the source of all good; God.
To find and commune with God, we must look inside ourselves first. Anything that blocks us from God or separates us from God is sinful and prevents us from our “God granted “abundance in the spiritual and physical plane. When we overcome our internal obstacles to life with God, then we can expect our outer conditions to follow course.
Then we can live in joy and gladness each day; supplied with all we need to live each day in the Eden God created for us.
With God’s abundance,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

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 permanently 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.
In this season of the Epiphany, let us all see and recognize the true light that is our relationship with God. And let us commit to being a true witness to and for God. First within; then without.
Regenerating,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

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. Your consciousness of the presence of God in other people would have been so strong that no one can take 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 when we get that, liberation will not be very far off.
There is nothing we could steal that is more precious than what God gives us freely. Also, we can never gain more from taking something that is not ours, than it will cost. Just as giving sews exponential returns of love; taking that which is not ours  creates multiplied negative returns and loss.
Let us be about the business of giving, so that the fruits we harvest from our gardens yield multiple returns of love, peace and hope.
Giving for living,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

False Allegiance

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.
There are many temptations and false idols that seek to separate us from God. Among the greatest of these is adultery. Our bond and communion with our spouses is just below that with God. Our earthly family is the physical equivalent of our heavenly family.
To place someone or something above our spouse is the earthly equivalent of placing someone or something above God. It is the  idolatry of self in which  the personal gratification of lust, vanity, pride, ego, unrestrained emotion or all of the above, cause us to put our desires above our love of God and our spouse.
To walk with God, we must put God first. To walk with our spouse. we must put them above everyhting but God. That does not mean we worship our spouse. It does mean that worship God by respecting our spouse and living with them according to God’s will. Then we and our spouse and familieis may walk together with God in the gardens God created for us.
Walking with God,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

Expressing What You Are
 
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 that you 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.
 
Nothing ever dies from the outside. 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. No man or woman was ever yet destroyed from the outside.
 
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.
 
Let us spend our time this year nurturing life and light. First we must accept these things for ourselves, so we can live in peace and success with character. Then we can share them with and shine them on those around us.
 
As we turn our backs on old mistakes and hurtful ways of thinking, let us look to God for a new way of expressing what we are; God’s children! Then we can rise above all challenges while walking with God each day in our gardens. May each of our Edens be filled with life, love and joy this year.
 
Expressing God,
  1. Z gardener

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts