Good Morning Garden

Having clearly established the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, Jesus next goes on to describe the fundamental facts of existence. It is the nature of God to be in heaven, and of man to be on earth because God is Cause, and man is manifestation. Here heaven stands for God or Cause, because in religious phraseology heaven is the term for the Presence of God. The word earth signifies manifestation, and man’s function is to manifest or express God as Cause. In other words, God is the Infinite and Perfect Cause of all things; but Cause has to be expressed, and God expresses Himself by means of man. Man’s destiny is to express God in all sorts of glorious ways. To express means to press outward, or bring into sight. Every feature of your life is really a manifestation or expression of something in your soul.

Since it is misunderstandings about the relationship of God and man that lead to all our difficulties, it is worth any amount of trouble to correctly understand that relationship. Trying to have manifestation without Cause is atheism and materialism, and we know where they lead. “Our Father which art in heaven.”

“as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them”(2 Corinthians 6:16).

What a glorious realization it is for us to know that God presses himself out into the physical world through us! Every child born into this world is a part of His consciousness and will, poking into our world. Like a thumb on the hand of God’s consciousness, it pushes through the veil of our sensory separation to manifest itself here below. How precious is each and every human being ever born!

Thumbs Up,
Z gardener

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Father of All

He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast;
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small:
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
Coleridge

But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee: Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the Fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee; that the hand of the Lord hath wrought this (Job 12:7-9).

The Father of all who loves us all calls us to love all. We are instructed to love not only all people, but also the animals and the earth. And, we are promised that if we do love all, we will be instructed by the people, the animals and the earth on how to live in our gardens in harmony with all.

Z gardener

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Now the Prayer says, not “My Father,” but “Our Father,” and this indicates beyond the possibility of mistake, the truth of the brotherhood of man. If forces upon our attention at the very beginning the fact that all men are the children of one Father; and that

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28).

Here Jesus cuts away the illusion that the members of any nation, or race, or territory, or group, or class, or color, are, in the sight of God, superior to any other group.

The final point is the implied command that we are to pray not only for ourselves but for all mankind. None of us lives to himself, however we may try. In a much more literal sense than people are aware we are limbs of one Body.

“Our Father”, a spiritual explosive, that will ultimately destroy every kind of human bondage.

This means all that divides us, all that separates us from each other or pits us against each other is against God’s created order, his will and our very nature as children of God. Further, separation is the illusion, created by Satan and used by some humans to manipulate, exploit and control humankind. The original sin committed by Adam and Eve was to separate themselves from God in order to follow their own will and to expropriate to themselves the role of God. What a long, hard road that decision to accept the illusion and follow that lie has been! What a cost it has exacted on mankind! And it is still the cause of most of our human misery and the vehicle to inflict fear, pain and injustice on our brothers and sisters today all around this tiny globe on which we live.

Peace,
Z gardener

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Note that this clause that fixes the nature of God, at the same time fixes the nature of man. It is a cosmic law that like begets like. It is not possible that a rosebush should produce lilies, or that a cow should give birth to a colt. The offspring must be of the same nature as the parent; and so, since God is divine Spirit, man must essentially be divine Spirit too, whatever appearance may say to the contrary.

At a single blow this teaching of Jesus swept away 99 percent of all the old theology, with its avenging God, its chosen and favored individuals, its eternal hell fire, and all the other horrible paraphernalia of man’s diseased and terrified imagination. God exists; and the Eternal, All-Powerful, All-Present God is the loving Father of mankind.

If you would meditate upon this fact, until you had some degree of understanding of what it really means, most of your difficulties and physical ailments would disappear, for they are rooted in fear. If only you could realize to some extent that Omnipotent Wisdom is your living, loving Father, most of your fears would go. If you could realize it completely, every negative thing in your life would vanish away. Now you see the object that Jesus had in mind when he placed this clause first.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him (Genesis 1:27).

We can all think back to a time as a child when we were afraid and the mere presence of our Father caused the fear to melt away. We knew then, that the monster under the bed could not get us because Daddy was in the room. While our grown up fears may not all be imaginary like the monster under the bed, many if not most are imagined fears of things that may come to pass.

Regardless if our fears are as real as a mortgage payment we can’t make or as imaginary as the fear of failure, all our fears, real and imagined would melt away if we can have the childlike faith in our heavenly father that we had in our earthly father.

Courage is not the lack of fear, it is the ability to go forward even in fear. But courage is not the antidote to fear; faith in our heavenly Father is, and he is always in the room.

Today, let us realize Father, that you are always in our garden, and that our garden was created by you as a safe place where we can be free of fear and live in peace.

Faithfully yours,
Z gardener

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This simple statement fixes clearly the nature and character of God. It tells all that man needs to know about God, and about himself, and about his neighbor. Oliver Wendell Holmes said: “My religion is summed up in the first two words of the Lord’s Prayer.”

“Our Father.” In this clause Jesus lays down once and for all that relationship between God and man is that of father and child. This eliminates any possibility that the Deity could be the relentless and cruel tyrant. The majority of men and women are at their best in dealing with their children. Speaking of the same truth elsewhere, Jesus said:

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him? (Matthew 7:11).

In the physical plane, we all have fathers. Our father is usually the person (along with our mother) who have the greatest impact in our lives for good or ill. Those who have loving, attentive and dedicated fathers benefit from the greatest opportunity for success in all areas of their lives. Of course, anyone can waste that opportunity, turn away from their father and go their own way. In most cases, that turns out to be a very bad decision.

In obedience,
Z gardener

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Prayer is the one thing that can make a change in your life. If you will go direct to God in simple, affirmative prayer, you can heal your body, bring peace and harmony into your life, and make well-being a reality.

Sometimes discouragement sets in when the answer does not come immediately but God is working on the unseen plane and our part is to be persistent. Persistence in prayer is an expression of our faith, for by our persistence we are affirming our belief that God will make his answer plain.

Men ought always to pray, and not to faint. (Luke 18:1).

How many times would we have missed that which we sought had we quit the first time it did not happen? And what would be the cost of those losses we would have sustained for failure to persevere? All that is truly worthwhile is worth our best effort. Only when we commit to our endeavor and keep up our efforts until fruition will we see our efforts fully rewarded.

Keeping on,
Z gardener

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There is only one way to make spiritual progress, and that is to practice the Presence of God. Mankind is continually seeking to discover a shortcut but as usual the lazy man takes the most pains in the long run, and having wasted his time in wandering up bypaths, he is ultimately driven by failure and suffering to the realization of the grand truth that there is no substitute for prayer; that is, the conscious dwelling upon the Being of God.

If your intuitive nature is well developed, you will seldom need to use formal statements at all. This is excellent; for who will trouble to climb a ladder when he is strong enough to leap over the wall?

But it must not be overlooked that very many people do all their work with formal statements of Truth, and get consistently good results by working in this way. Not through repeating affirmations like a parrot. Those who work like a parrot inevitably make the parrot’s demonstration; they remain in the cage. Of a good worker who used the same phrases many times it was said by a friend: “He constantly uses the old affirmations, but he stuffs them with fresh feeling every time.”

The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth (Psalm 145:18).

In this modern day of instant communications we often hear the suggestion to just “Google it” when someone is seeking help, information or affirmation. Stop to think how much more effective it would be if we used the phrase “Pray it” when seeking spiritual guidance, direction or faith. In the small or large questions and challenges of our lives, we have available to us an infinite and loving source that can answer all questions, provide all guidance and reveal any truth. And in fact, it requires no Internet, Blackberrys or IPods. It does require that we turn our thoughts and feeling toward God and ask.

Just “Pray It”,
Z gardener

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What is meant by negative thinking? A negative thought is any thought of failure, disappointment, or trouble; any thought of criticism, or spite, or jealousy, or condemnation of others, or self-condemnation; any thought of sickness or accident; or, in short, any kind of limitation. In practice you will never have any trouble in knowing whether a given thought is positive or negative. Even if your brain tries to deceive you, your heart will whisper the truth.

Second, you must be quite clear that what this scheme calls for is that you shall not dwell upon negative things. It is not the thoughts that come to you that matter, but only such of them as you choose to entertain and dwell upon. Many negative thoughts will come to you all day long. Some will be given to you by other people, or you will hear disagreeable news. These things, however, do not matter so long as you do not entertain them. An analogy is furnished by the case of a man who is sitting by an open fire when a red-hot cinder flies out and falls on his sleeve. If he blows that cinder off at once, without a moment’s delay to think about it, no harm is done. But if he allows it to rest on him for a single moment, under any pretense, the mischief is done, and it will be a troublesome task to repair that sleeve. So it is with a negative thought.

Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. (Acts 8:22).

People often find that the starting of this seven-day mental diet seems to stir up difficulties. It seems as though everything begins to go wrong at once. This may be disconcerting, but it is really a good sign. Suppose your whole world seems to rock on its foundations. Hold on steadily, let it rock, and when the rocking is over, the picture will have reassembled itself into something much nearer to your heart’s desire.

Do not tell anyone else that you are on a diet. Remember that your soul should be the Secret Place of the Most High. When you have secured your new mentality, then tell the story to anyone else whom you think is likely to be helped by it.

Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation (Joel 1:3).

The negative thoughts most difficult to flick off are the ones that keep coming back time after time or that come so fast and furious that we can’t flick them off. In both cases, the wise man sitting by the fire might consider moving his chair. Sitting too close to the fire or downwind from it exposes us to much smoke and many cinders. When we are in the wrong place, or doing the wrong thing we expose ourselves unnecessarily to negative thoughts and environments. When we find ourselves overwhelmed with negative thoughts, the problem likely lies in our own words thoughts and deeds. Some examples of attitudinal mis-positioning are self-righteousness, self-pity and self-recrimination. When we are choking on the smoke of ingratitude, condemnation or feeling sorry for ourselves, we can expect the embers of negativity to fall on us without relief.

Peace,
Z gardener

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To train yourself in the habit of thought selection will be difficult for the first few days, but it is the most interesting experiment that you could possibly make. You will be amazed at the things that you will learn about yourself. This week may be the most significant week in your whole life; not only will you be able to face your present difficulties in a better spirit, but the difficulties will go. You cannot change conditions directly, you have often tried to do so and failed, but go on the seven-day mental diet and conditions must change for you.

This then is your prescription. For seven days you must not allow yourself to dwell for a moment on any kind of negative thought. You must watch yourself for a week and must not under any pretense allow your mind to dwell on any thought that is not positive, constructive, optimistic, kind. This discipline will be so strenuous that you could not maintain it consciously for much more than a week, but a week will be enough, because by that time the habit of positive thinking will begin to be established. Some changes for the better will have come into your life, encouraging you enormously, and then the new way of life will be so attractive that you will find your mentality aligning itself almost automatically.

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41).

Thus begins the very hard work of mental self-disciple. Just as exercising unused muscles will challenge us and make us sore, so too will exercising attitudinal muscles left alone too long. So buck up, focus and spend some time each day stretching those sore and unused mental states. If we relax our attitudes with some constructive or creative day dreaming at the end of each day this week, it will make it easier to exercise and direct our aching mindsets the next day.

Carpe Diem,
Z gardener

Author’s note: Today we are pleased to have two new visitors to the garden. Both have dedicated much time, love and energy to bringing fuller spiritual lives to those around them. From children to prisoners and others seeking spiritual discernment, their contributions have been and continue to be a blessing to those they touch. Their presence among us continues those blessings today.

Z

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