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Reciprocal Judgment

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on July 11, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Read Matthew 7:1-5.
 
These few verses consist of only about one hundred words, and yet it is hardly too much to say that at their simple face value they comprise the most staggering document ever presented to mankind. In these five verses we are told more about the nature of man and the meaning of life, and the importance of conduct, and the art of living, and the secret of happiness and success, and the way out of trouble, and the approach of God, and the emancipation of the soul, and the salvation of the world, than all the philosophers and the theologians and the savants put together have told us—for it explains the Great Law. “Burn the rest of the books, for it is all in this one,” would hold in reference to those words.
 
People are very apt to think, especially when they are strongly tempted, that they can probably escape the clutches of authority in some other way. If, however, they understood that the law of retribution is a cosmic law, impersonal and unchanging as the law of gravity, they would think twice before they treated other people unjustly. The law of gravity is never off duty, and no one would ever dream of trying to evade it, or coax it, or bribe it, or intimidate it. People accept it as being inevitable and shape their conduct accordingly—and the law of retribution is even as the law of gravity.
 
You may like or dislike the law, and if you wish, you may try to ignore it; but you cannot deny that Jesus Christ taught it, and in the most direct and emphatic way when he said:
 
Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged (Matthew 7:1-2).

If we are to be treated fairly, lovingly and leniently by the world, all we must do is treat the world that way. We are the masters of our own judgement.

In kindness,
Z Gardener

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Dissipating Evil

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on July 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »

            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).

There are many ways to do this but one of the best is to bring God into the equation by referencing his name. a simple phrase such as “now we are all God’s children” or “my faith instructs me to treat you with respect and love” or  even the over marketed  “what would Jesus have us do to resolve this?”.  But to bring God into the formula we must first bring him into our thoughts. When facing hostility think God.

In peace,
Z Gardener

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Resist Not Evil

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on July 9, 2008| Leave a Comment »

 

            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.

We are the ones who are bound by our failure to forgive those who hurt us. Let go and let God even all scores and be freed from the heavy yoke of anger. Remember, his “yoke is easy and the burden is light”.

Freed,
Z Gardener

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Disciplined Speech

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on July 8, 2008| Leave a Comment »

            Read Matthew 5:33-37.

 
Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths.
 
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.

If we are open to God each day and not fixed in our desires and understandings, he will reveal to us our best path for each day. While it may create comfort and security to map out our future in great detail, if it blocks us from God’s daily direction, that comfort will come at the price of our ultimate arrival.

On the path,
Z Gardener

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Dealing with Disharmony

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on July 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

            It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a miting of divorcement: But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeh adultery (Matthew 5:31-32).

 
We are told that in those days divorces were granted by the rabbinical law on the most trifling grounds. Married people who were not getting on together as well as they would have liked, were prone to run away from that problem by obtaining an easy dissolution. Now we understand that no permanent happiness can be obtained in this way. As long as you are running away from your problem, you will continue to meet it in a new guise at every turn in the road.
 
Just as in running from one business position to another, without first having brought about a charge in consciousness, we find ourselves but repeating the old conditions in a slightly different form, so, as a rule, people who divorce freely are apt to finish up as dissatisfied as they began. The general rule in Truth is, fight out your problem where you are, with prayer.
 
The general rule is still good for all conditions in life: Do not try to divorce or amputate the inharmony, but let it dissolve away of itself under God’s guidance.

The human will is a powerful thing, yet of itself, it is incapable of transforming us into children of God. It is only through God’s will that we will be able to bury our old selves and be reborn as new creatures. Disharmony will be overcome when we face it and through prayer, change the behavior that feeds it.

Facing it,
Z Gardener

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No Price Too Great

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on July 4, 2008| Leave a Comment »

No Price Too Great

            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—a 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.

The truth is that we are incapable of overcoming these things without God’s help. Whether subtle or obvious, they will be conquered only when we seek God’s will for our lives and submit our will, spirit and consciousness to him. When we manifest his divine will, universal consciousness and holy spirit we will be enabled to overcome all human weakness and limitation.

In submission,
Z Gardener

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As A Man Thinketh

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on July 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »

            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 truth is the one thing that we must understand if we are to live as God instructs and if we are to operate in harmony with his will. It is our thoughts that shape us and our world. Any other way of thinking will cause us to exist in a false reality.

Happy thinking,
Z gardener

 

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As A Man Thinketh

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on July 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »

            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 truth is the  one thing that we must understand to if we are to live as God instructs and if we are to operate in harmony with his will. It is our thoughts that shape us and our world. Any other way of thinking will cause us to exist in a false reality.

Happy thinking,
Z Gardener

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Making Terms with the Adversary

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on July 2, 2008| Leave a Comment »

            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).

The real point here is to replace negative thoughts words and deeds with positive affirmations in the total power of God. Each of us will have these negative thoughts, the key is refusing to let them take hold. Reject them and replace them just as you would change the oil in your car. The quicker, the better.

Tuning up
Z Gardener

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Agree Quickly

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on July 1, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Agree Quickly

            Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

 
Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing (Matthew 5:25-26).
 
Jesus is stressing here the instruction contained in his injunction to “watch and pray.” It is ever so much easier to overcome a difficulty if you tackle it at its first appearance than it will be after the trouble has had time to establish itself in your mentality—to dig itself in, as the soldiers say. The moment a difficulty presents itself to your attention, quietly affirm the Truth, giving it no chance to dig itself in.
 
On the other hand, by thinking about your difficulty, you incorporate it into your mentality, and if you go on doing this long enough, it may be exceedingly difficult to get rid of it.
 
Jesus, when he wished to drive home a particularly important point, employed a graphic illustration from everyday life. In those times the law governing debtors was extremely severe. When a man found himself in debt, it behooved him to come to terms with his creditors as quickly as possible. Even at the present day it is important for the debtor to keep his case from coming into court, for the longer the case drags on the more lawyers’ fees, court dues, and expenses of various kinds accumulate, all piled on top of the debt proper. So it is with the various difficulties that present themselves to us in our daily lives.

It seems so counter-intuitive too say “do not think about a problem”. That is because we confuse thinking about the problem with thinking about the solution. Thinking about the problem takes us down and locks us into the situation. Thinking about the solution brings us up and frees us from it. If we are thinking “this is terrible, how did this happen or what can I do”, we are not thinking, “God is in charge, their is a good outcome in this and he will guide us through it”. If we are stuck in the problem, we are not driving to the solution.

Driving,
Z Gardener

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