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Archive for the ‘Good Morning’ Category

Bulb and Flower

 
 
Who has not at some time or other planted a bulb and enjoyed the pleasure of waiting for the plant to appear and develop, and ultimately produce the glorious flower itself?  Notice here that you naturally plant the bulb and expect the flower – the hyacinth or the crocus – to follow.
 
No sane person would dream of planting the flower and expecting a bulb to come up; yet in our general life many of us do just that!  We expect to begin with the flower. We think that we shall have desirable states of mind or body – happiness, freedom, health – if only we can change outer conditions in some way.  Yet this is really trying to plant a flower, because we are trying to put effect before cause.
 
The law of the universe is thought first, and then expression; and never can this law be reversed.
 
Let all thing s be done decently and in order (Corinthians 14:40).
 
Father, guide direct and control the planting of our thoughts, so that our words and deeds flower with your love in every way; especially when we face tribulation and heartbreak. This, so that we may be your disciples and live in the Eden you created for us.
 
Being guided,
Z gardener

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No Buts

 
When the devil has been unmasked a number of times, his final refuge seems to be the harmless-looking word but. Students of the teaching of Jesus Christ who would not be deceived by any of the familiar devices, constantly surrender their principles, and therefore their demonstration, to the little word but.
 
“Of course I know that God in the only power – but—.”
“Of course I know that God in omnipresent – but.”
“Of course I know that God is love – but.”
“Of course I know that there is no hurry because I am in eternity – but.”
“Of course I know that John or Mary must be the living expression of God, just as I am – but.”
If truth is true, there are no buts.
 
And they all with one consent began to make excuse (Luke 14:18).
Father, let us not all with one consent begin to make excuses. The truth is the truth. Stand for it, or fall without it.
Standing,
Z gardener

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The Goodness of God

Read Psalm 18.
 
In verse 29 the Psalmist, thinking of some of the times in the past when he has been given power to overcome difficulties and to advance on the path, says, For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall. Everyone has found himself at some time confronted with a difficulty that seemed like a high and insurmountable wall, but faith in God enables one to clear the obstacle notwithstanding.
 
Next the Psalmist reminds us that the way of God is perfect. God will put you upon your high place. In other words, he will raise you consciousness so that you will automatically demonstrate. Then the author praises God and thanks Him for His goodness. Thanksgiving, as you know, is one of he most powerful forms of prayer.
 
Finally he says that God gives great deliverance to his King; and that He sheweth mercy to His anointed, to David and to his seed forevermore. God intends us all to be kings through the exercise of spiritual power, and our power to go on increasing – like the seed of David – through all eternity.
Today Lord, let us give thanks for all our blessings and for those to come. Then, let us ask God to lift our consciousness to that place where we can live in harmony with God and each other. That is how God created us to be; and how we can be with God’s help.
Thankfully,
Z gardener
 

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The Kindling of God

 
Read Psalm 18.
 
In verse 28 the Psalmist moves to another phase of the teaching. Thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.
 
Many similes have been offered by religious teachers to illustrate the relationship between God and man. One of the best known and most helpful is to think of man as a spark from a great fire, which is God. The spark is not the whole of the fire but is part of it, and therefore of the same nature, and possesses, potentially, all the characteristics of the parent fire. It can ignite many things upon which it falls, thus producing another fire essentially of the same nature as the original fire.
Father, may your light shine from us and your fire quicken us. Then, no darkness can prevail against us and no flood can extinguish our light.
Being a spark,
Z gardener

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The Hidden Studio

We are all engaged in building our consciousness during every waking hour. This work is invisible, silent, and consequently overlooked by the bulk of mankind. Nevertheless, it is the most fundamental and the most far-reaching activity in life. Hour by hour, and moment by moment, we are building good or evil, failure or success, happiness or suffering into our life by the ideas that we harbor, the beliefs that we accept, the scenes and events that we rehearse in the hidden studio of the mind. This fateful edifice, upon the construction of which we are perpetually engaged, is nothing less that our self – our personality, our identity on this earth, our very life story as a human being.

 

That wondrous building, the spiritual consciousness, is called in the Bible the Temple of Solomon, and we are told two wonderful things about that building. It was built without any noise (and we know that thought is soundless), and it was built upon a rock.

 

And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither; so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building (1 Kings 6:7).

 

be thou my strong rock, for a house of defense to save me (Psalm 31:2).

 

    This bears repeating.

Hour by hour, and moment by moment, we are building good or evil, failure or success, happiness or suffering into our life by the ideas that we harbor, the beliefs that we accept, the scenes and events that we rehearse in the hidden studio of the mind. .”

Nuff said,
Z gardener

 

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Living to His Glory

 
            If you seem to yourself to be lacking in certain necessary qualities, seek that aspect of God which will meet your lack. If you seem to lack strength, ask God to give you what you need. Remember you can build any quality into your mentality by meditating upon that quality every day. You have created your limited self by thinking and you can destroy it at any moment by thinking a new pattern.
 
Why do we not change from day to day, and week to week, from glory to glory, until our friends can scarcely recognize us for the same man or woman? Why should we not march around the world looking like gods, and feeling it; healing instantaneously all who come to us; reforming the sinner; setting captives free?
 
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound (Isaiah 61:1).
Lord, unbind us from those thoughts and feelings that accept any perception of limitation. Fill us with you spirit of limitless love and potential, so we may bind up the broken-hearted, proclaim liberty to those held captive by their perception and free them from their prisons.
Thinking anew,
Z gardener
 

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            Instead of using exercises to develop concentration, concentrate on what you are doing at any time. That is the best exercise I know.
 
I remember when I was a boy about twelve years old somebody gave me a perfect peach of a jackknife. It probably weighed a quarter of a pound and there was a little saw in it, a little screwdriver, a corkscrew, a thing for getting stones out of horses’ hoofs, and several blades. I carried it for about a year thinking how handy it would be for certain cases that never came up, but it never lost its interest. I could always find, when I was bored, new interest when I took out the jackknife. If you make your search for God your jackknife in that sense, you will get you concentration and you will get your success.
 
Thus will I bless thee while I live … and meditate on thee in the night watches
(Psalm 63: 4, 6).
 
Looking for all the ways God is manifest in your world, will lead you to see God everywhere in your world. This is the Eden that God created for us. God is in every fiber, stalk and flower therein. And when we concentrate on God’s presence in any situation, his presence will manifest itself there and then for his children.
Focused on God,
Z gardener

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After Your Healing

Healing is only the beginning. When you are completely healed of everything wrong in your life, your body, your business, difficulties in personal relationships, obvious faults in your own character, you will not have finished your work. Your real work will only be commencing. Your real work is to show and experience the glory of God, to build that spiritual consciousness, “ the house Magnifico.” Conscious fears will have gone, and your whole world will be different. The physical world will be different because it will be clothed in a new glory. “The light that never was on sea or land.” People will be different because you will be beginning to know their real self instead of merely the outer shell, and, of course, everyone else will notice that you are different, too.
 
This is not to say that healing is unimportant. It has to precede the building. Let us endeavor to get our own healing completed as soon as possible in order to help the world that is needing it so much.
 
Bless the Lord … who healeth all thy diseases … who crowneth thee with loving kindness… (Psalm 103:2-4)
Lord, grant that all those who need your healing will receive it, and that, once healed, will help heal the rest of the world they touch.
In need of healing,
Z gardener
 

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No Grave Robbing

 
Don’t be a grave robber. Let corpses alone. In due course nature disposes of such remains, if they are left undisturbed. Every time you dig up an old grievance or an old mistake by rehearsing it in your mind or, still worse, by telling someone else about it, you are simply ripping open a grave – and you know what you may expect to find.
 
Live the present. Prepare intelligently for the future – and let the past alone. This is what Jesus meant when he said,… “ let the dead bury the dead. (Matthew 8:22).
 
Make a law for yourself today that you are not going to touch mentally any negative thing that has happened up to the present moment – and keep that law. Life is too precious for grave robbing. The past is past – liquidate it. If a negative memory comes into your mind, cremate it with the right thought (the fire of Love) and forget it.
As a wise person once said, “The past is gone and the future has not arrived, so live in the now.”  If the live the present according to God’s will, then the past will not haunt us and the future will not scare us. We will take the full measure of joy in the present and all else will reflect that joy.
Living now,
Z gardener

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The world is not going to the dogs. The human race is not doomed. Civilization is not going to crash. The captain is on the bridge. Humanity is going through a difficult time, but humanity has gone through difficulties many times before in its long history and has always come through, strengthened and purified.
 
Do not worry yourself about the universe collapsing. It is not going to collapse, and anyway that question is none of your business. The captain is on the bridge. If the survival of humanity depended upon you or me, it would be a poor lookout for the Great Enterprise, would it not?
 
The captain is on the bridge. God is still in business. All that you have to do is torealize the Presence of God where the trouble seems to be, to do your nearest duty to the very best of your ability; and to keep an even mind until the storm is over.
 
Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. (Psalm 119:165).
 
Father, help me today to see you where trouble seems to be, to do my nearest duty to the best of my ability; and to keep an even mind in all things. Amen.

 

Trusting the Captain,
Z gardener

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