Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Good Morning’ Category

The Pure in Heart

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on December 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).
This is one of those wonderful gnomic sayings in which the Bible is so rich. It is a summing up in a few words of a whole philosophy of religion.
Let us begin by considering what the promise in this Beatitude is. It is nothing less than to see God. To “see” in the sense referred to here, signifies spiritual perception, and spiritual perception is just that capacity to apprehend the true nature of Being that we all so sadly lack.
We live in God’s world, but we do not in the least know it as it is. Heaven, lies all about us—but because we are lacking in spiritual perception, we are unable to recognize it, to experience it, and, therefore, so far as we are concerned, we may be said to be shut out of Heaven.
We are very much in the position of a color-blind man in a beautiful flower garden. All around him are glorious colors; but he sees only blacks, whites, and grays. If we suppose him to be also devoid of the sense of smell, we shall see what a very small part of the glory of the garden exists for him. Yet it is all there, if he could but sense it.
Our task is to surmount these limitations as rapidly as may be, until we reach the point where we can know things as they really are—experience Heaven as it really is. That is what is meant by “seeing God.” To see God is to apprehend Truth as it really is, and this is infinite freedom and perfect bliss.
Understanding this truth opens the gates to the Eden God created for us. The only thing keeping us out…is us.
In the garden,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

Hunger for Righteousness

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on December 6, 2012| Leave a Comment »

            Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled (Matthew 5:6).
Righteousness is another of the key words of the Bible, one of those keys that the reader must have in his possession if he is to get at the true meaning of the book. Like earth and meek and comfort,it is used in a special and definite sense. Righteousness means not merely right conduct, but right thinking. In the Sermon on the Mount, every clause reiterates the truth that outer things are but consequences. As within, so without.
When people awaken to a knowledge of these truths, they naturally begin to apply them in their own lives. Realizing at last the vital importance of “righteousness”they begin immediately to try to put their house in order. The principle involved is simple, but unfortunately the exemplifying of it is anything but easy. Now, why should this be so?  The answer lies in the potency of habit; and habits of thinking are at once the most subtle and the most difficult to break.
Perhaps failure to achieve righteousness is the failure of half-heartedness; you long but not too deeply. Your hunger and thirst do not rise from a sense of total need. Have a mental stocktaking or a review of your life. It could not happen that a wholehearted search for truth and righteousness, if persevered in, should not be crowned with success. God is not mocked, nor does He mock His children.
Once we have accepted these truths, then we must decide to live our lives according to them. Oddly enough, the decision is the hardest part. That is not to minimize the difficulty of breaking old habits of thinking and imbedded perceptions. However, making a decision to change is the key, and it is usually a hard decision to make because it means changing our most basic concepts and our life view.
The good news is that when do make the decision and follow through on it, our lives change remarkably for the better. Not that anything will be perfect, but that everything will be for our best good. Once we change our minds…our lives will change.
Stay hungry my friend,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on December 5, 2012| Leave a Comment »

As Meek As Moses
Moses—who overcame the old age belief to the extent of manifesting the physical body of a young man in the prime of life when, according to the calendar, he was one hundred and twenty years old, and then transcended matter altogether, or “dematerialized” without dying—was known preeminently for this quality; “as meek as Moses.” Apart from his own personal demonstration, Moses also did a marvelous work for his whole nation, getting it out of Egyptian bondage in the face of incredible difficulties. Moses had an open mind, ready to be taught new things and new ways of thinking and working. He was not, in the beginning at least, free from serious faults of character, but he gradually rose above these defects as the new truth worked in his soul.
Moses thoroughly understood that to conform oneself rigorously to the will of God, far from involving the loss of any good, could only mean a better and more splendid life. He did not, therefore, think of his task as self-sacrifice, for he knew it to be the highest form of self-glorification—the glorification of God.
…the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works…I am in the Father, and the Father is in me (John 14:10-11).
There is a marvelous Oriental saying that “meekness compels God himself.”
Conforming ourselves to God’s will (meekness) should not be confused with weakness or passivity. Moses was neither weak nor passive, but he was meek, and he had faith in God’s will.
We all have some form of bondage gripping us today; imprisoning us with our own thoughts, words and deeds. Throw of those shackles today by turning away from self-will and embracing God’s will. Far from a sacrifice, it will ensure our very best good and our dominion over our lives.
Be meek and walk with God in your garden today…and every day.
In the garden,
    Z gardener

Read Full Post »

Inheriting the Earth

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on December 4, 2012| 1 Comment »

Let us see how we are to go about inheriting the earth. This Beautitude says that dominion, that is, power over the conditions of our lives, is to be obtained in a certain way, by nothing less than meekness.
The word meek in the Bible connotes a mental attitude for which there is no other single word available. It is a combination of open-mindedness, faith in God, and the realization that the will of God for us is always something joyous and interesting and vital. This state of mind also includes a perfect willingness to allow this will of God to come about in whatever way divine Wisdom considers to be best, rather than in some particular way that we have chosen for ourselves.
This mental attitude of teachableness, willingness to be led, is the key to dominion, or success in demonstration. There is no word for it in common speech, because the thing does not exist except for those who are up on the spiritual basis of the teaching of Jesus Christ. If we desire to inherit the earth we must absolutely acquire this “meekness.”
The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice…(Psalm 97:1). 
In order to inherit the earth (exert dominion over the conditions in our lives), we must first exert control over the self. Meekness is the manifestation of dominion over the self. When we put God’s will first and join with God to implement his will in our lives, we are demonstrating meekness and will have dominion over the conditions of our lives.
This concept of dominion is the opposite of that held by most in modern culture. Modern culture’s concept is the primary cause of separation from God (Sin), and the accompanying loss of  dominion. When we separate ourselves from God, we then have to live in the world as we created it, instead of the Eden God created for us. That world we create has dominion over us instead of the other way around.
To walk daily in the garden God created for us in dominion over the conditions in our lives, we must walk in meekness. There is no other way to inherit the earth in the biblical sense of this verse.
Seeking meekness,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

The Blessed Meek (1 in series of three on Meekness)

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on December 3, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).
On the surface, this Beatitude seems to be contradicted by the facts of everyday life. But either Jesus knew what he was talking about, and is to be taken seriously, or his teaching should be dropped altogether. If he is to be relied upon, then let us pay him the compliment of assuming that he knew best about the art of living.
The fact is that when correctly understood, the teaching of Jesus is found to be the most practicable of all doctrines; and the whole essence of his teaching and of its application is summed up in this text. When you possess the spiritual meaning of this text you have the secret of dominion—the secret of overcoming every kind of difficulty.
We notice that there are two polar words in the text—meekand earth. First of all, the wordearth in the Bible really means the whole of your outer experience, and to “inherit the earth”means to have dominion over that outer experience. So we see that when the Bible talks about possessing the earth, governing the earth, making the earth glorious, it is referring to the conditions of our lives, from our bodily health outward to the farthest point in our affairs. So this text undertakes to tell us how we may possess, or govern, or be masters of our environment.
Thus our understanding of meekness begins. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, this is the path to dominion over our environment. That path also leads to our Edens.
Seeking meekness,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

Comfort for Mourning

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on November 30, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4).
Mourning or sorrow is not in itself a good thing, for the will of God is that everyone should experience happiness and joyous success. Jesus says:
…I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly(John 10:10).
Nevertheless, trouble and suffering are often extremely useful, because many people will not bother to learn the Truth until driven to do so by sorrow and failure. Sorrow then becomes relatively a good thing. Sooner or later every human being will have to discover the truth about God, and make his own contact with Him at first hand. He will have to acquire the understanding of Truth, which will set him free, once and for all, from our three-dimensional limitations and their concomitants—sin, sickness, and death.
There is really no need for man to have trouble, because if he will only seek God first, the trouble need never come. He always has the choice of learning by spiritual unfoldment or of learning by painful experience. Family troubles, quarrels and estrangements, sin and remorse, need never come at all if we seek first the Kingdom of God and Right Understanding; but if we will not do so, then come they must, and for us this mourning will be a blessing in disguise, for through it we shall be“comforted.” And by comfort the Bible means the experience of the Presence of God, which is the end of all mourning.
It is through understanding this truth, that we comprehend the Bible’s admonition to be thankful for “all things”. If we fail to accept God’s truth voluntarily and from the beginning, then it will come to us through trouble, sin and sorrow. These are not sent to hurt or punish us, but occur to warn us and turn us away from harm or danger ahead.
And as always, God is there to comfort us and suffer with us until we see the truth and yield to his will. Then we can find the gardens God created for us.
Being thankful,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

Great Possessions

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on November 29, 2012| Leave a Comment »

One of the saddest passages in all literature is the story of the Rich Young Man who missed one of the great opportunities of history, and
…went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions (Matthew 19:22).
This is really the story of mankind in general. We reject the salvation that Jesus offers us—our chance of finding God—because we “have great possessions,”; not so much that we are very rich in terms of money, for indeed most people are not, but because we have great possessions in the way of preconceived ideas—confidence in our own judgment, and in the ideas with which we happen to be familiar. We have pride, born of academic distinction; sentimental or material attachment to institutions and organizations; habits of life that we have no desire to renounce; concern for human respect; or perhaps fear of public ridicule. And these possessions keep us chained to the rock of suffering that is our exile from God.
The poor in spirit suffer from none of these embarrassments, either because they never had them, or because they have risen above them on the tide of spiritual understanding.
Rich in God,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

The Poor In Spirit

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on November 27, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:3).
To be poor in spirit does not in the least mean the thing we call “poor spirited.” To be poor in spirit means to have emptied yourself of all desire to exercise personal self-will, and, what is just as important, to have renounced all preconceived opinions in the whole-hearted search for God. It means to be willing to set aside your present habits of thought, your present views and prejudices, your present way of life if necessary; to jettison, in fact anything and everything that can stand in the way of your finding God.
Are we willing to empty ourselves of all desire to exercise personal self-will; renounce all preconceived opinions; set aside our present habits of thought, present views and prejudices; even our present way of life? This is what is meant by emptying our selves so we can be filled with God’s will and grace.
When we are willing to do all these things, we will be “poor in spirit” and living in the Kingdom God created for us in our gardens.
Running on empty,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

The Sermon on ther Mount – The Beatitudes

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on November 26, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The sermon on the Mount opens with the eight Beatitudes. They are actually a prose poem in eight verses and constitute a general summary of the Christian teaching. A general summing up, such as this, is highly characteristic of the old Oriental mode of approach to a religious and philosophical teaching, and it naturally recalls the Eightfold Path of Buddhism, the Ten Commandments of Moses, and other such compact groupings of ideas.
Jesus concerned himself exclusively with the teaching of general principles, and these general principles always had to do with mental states, for he knew that if one’s mental states are right, everything else might be right too. Unlike the other great religious teachers, he gives us no detailed instructions about what we are to do or not to do.
…the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
…the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth
(John 4:21, 23-24).
Are we living our lives in spirit and truth? Are we worshipping God this way. In spirit means that which is in our hearts, our intentions and our minds. In truth means according to God’s teachings. Many of us worship and live in physicality and sensory perception. This will not lead us to the Eden God created for us.
When our perception and reality is based on spirituality and God’s truth, we are on the path to our gardens.
In spirit and truth,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

Thankful for you

Posted in Good Morning, tagged on November 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Many thanks to the Good Morning Gardeners who share this Eden God created for us. Each of you have blessed this writer in receiving the thoughts generated each day. May all of God ‘s blessings be manifested in your hearts, minds, spirits and will.
Thank you,
Z gardener

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »