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Only Your Own Thoughts

August 8, 2008 by zgardener

No matter what problem you may have to face today, there is a solution, because you have nothing to deal with but your own thoughts. As you know, you have the power to select and control your thoughts, difficult though it may be at times to do so. As long as you think that your destiny is in the hands of other people, the situation is hopeless.

Remind yourself constantly that you have nothing to deal with but your own thoughts. Write it down where you will see it often. Have it on your desk. Hang it in your bedroom. Write it in your pocketbook. Write it on your soul. It will transform your life. It will lead you out of the land of Egypt and out of the House of Bondage. It will bring you to God.
 
I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies (Psalm 119:59).

The only thing we can truly control in this universe is our own thoughts. The good news is that the entire universe will yield to those same thoughts. In fact, our universe is our thoughts. As upside down as that seems, think of this. Two people are sitting side by side in their cars going to work. Both see exactly the same thing. One thinks what a beautiful day it is and how blessed he is to be alive and riding in the sunshine. The other thinks its a rotten day and what a drag it is to be stuck in traffic staring into the blaring sun. One’s universe is heavenly, while the other’s is hellish. Well, one may say that’ s just their attitude, not the universe. The fact is they are one and the same. We are what we think, and our world is what we think about it.

One more point to consider. Two guys are admiring a fine sports car one sees and blue car, the other sees a green one. There are not two cars. One of the gentlemen is simply color blind. What are we being blind about in how we see the world around us?

Choosing my thoughts,
Z Gardener

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Seeking and Finding

August 7, 2008 by zgardener

People are very apt to find what they seek. You have noticed that people who go about looking for trouble, practically always find it. The popular proverb, “Listeners seldom hear good of themselves,” is an example. We also know people who love to say that they never have any luck. When things seem to go against them, they exclaim triumphantly, “Wouldn’t you know it?—that is what always happens to me!”

 
Now, such a mistaken person needs only to alter this habit and he will automatically alter his life. It is often difficult to20get such people to make this alteration, but if they do the result is never in doubt. Spiritual law says that it is never too late to mend, and that when we seek God’s help we find it.
 
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth;for I am God, and there is none else (Isaiah 45:22).

While I have no idea what this proverb means, I do know that when we expect trouble we draw it to ourselves. God instructs us to live with hope and confidence that he will provide everything we need if we live according to his will. This philosophy of negative expectation supplants our will for his and defies his instruction. Fatalism and defeatism are often used to rationalize or cloak the fear of taking a risk, self doubt, the unwillingness to accept God’s will or simple laziness. Expect and seek good in all things and it will be found.

In hope, confidence and expectation,
Z Gardener

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What Is Your Act?

August 6, 2008 by zgardener

People are to be judged by their actions. We sometimes hear it said, “His conduct is bad but at heart he means well”; but this is nonsense. In the old-fashioned phrase, “handsome is as handsome does.”

 
The bad-tempered person cannot possibly have a “heart of gold” as is sometimes charitably sa id. A bad-tempered person has a mean, selfish heart and should get busy and change it without delay.
 
One who loves does not seek his own advantage. Love acts the part, and anything else is hypocrisy.
 
…be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32).

While we are not to judge and condemn others, we do have to make judgements daily about others motives. We are instructed not to cast our pearls before the swine and not to give that which is holy unto to dogs. That does not relieve us of the responsibility to love and forgive even the most mean-spirited or selfish among us. It is simply to help inform our decisions in order to shape our actio ns. If we are to surround ourselves with holy, loving and selfless people that lift us up and to avoid those which bring us down, we must first know the difference.
 
Choosing holiness,
Z Gardener

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Your Daily Visit With God

August 5, 2008 by zgardener

We all know that it is God alone who is our peace—although nearly all of us tend to forget it from time to time. We forget it when we begin to neglect our daily visit with God.

Now, when you think that you are too busy for your daily visit, let me ask you frankly, what wonderful thing are you doing that is more important? There is nothing that you could possibly do with that time that would bring you greater benefit than perfect peace. As a matter of fact, if you have something very important and urgent to do, your visit will make that very important thing go through much more easily and successfully.
 
Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace… (Job 22:21).
 
There is nothing we can do for ourselves that will be better for us than to start each day in communion with God. There is nothing we can do for others that will be better for them than to start our day in prayer. Each day we do this, it will create in us a grateful spirit, which a wise man once said is the perfect prism through which to view our lives. Through that prism we correctly see life in a joyful and peaceful way, full of blessings and filled with opportunity. Without that prism, we dimly see and faintly experience a false reality as though peering through a veil.

In prism vision,
Z Gardener

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Rough Road

August 4, 2008 by zgardener

Everyone on the spiritual path has found that it happens occasionally in the early years—and not often then—that he suddenly finds himself almost or quite unable to pray. Often it seems that he cannot get any sense of contact with God. This naturally depresses him and sometimes leads to greater fear and almost to despair.
 
Now, these severe reactions are not necessary, once you know that everyone goes through them.
 
This trouble is caused by overdoing. You have been praying too long or too hard, or you have been giving too much time to spiritua l work exclusively, instead of having other interests in your life too. It is really a condition of staleness and psychological congestion. The medieval mystics called these times “seasons of dryness” and suffered severely because they believed them to be sinful.
 
The remedy is not to struggle, but to know that this dryness will surely pass, and your spiritual joy return. If you cannot pray, do not try, but think, “God is so good that I need not pray; he will take care of me anyway.” (Of course, this itself is a wonderful prayer.) On a long motor tour, it sometimes happens that you come upon a piece of rough, bad road. For hundreds of miles the going has been perfect, but now you are shaken and bumped badly, but you do not worry, because you know for certain that it will only last for a few miles. Indeed, there is probably a notice saying “Pavement ahead.”
 
…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning (Psalms 30:5)

To every day there is a season. In our striving to be faithful and righteous, let us each day make time to express and enjoy the fruits of God’s love. Just as we must spend time each day preparing our soil and seeking God’s will, we must also spend time each day enjoying God’s bounty and demonstrating gladness. It is when we have achieved a balance in these things that are prayers are rich, our soil is well prepared and our Garden is blooming.

In gladness,

Z Gardener

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The Middle Wall of Partition

July 29, 2008 by zgardener

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall or partition between us (Ephesians 2:14).
 
This is not only one of the most beautiful texts in the Bible, but one of the most important. Consider what it says. First, that God is our peace; next, that not only are we and God one (all spiritual teachers say that) but that it is He who has made us one. We are one because that is the nature of being since He has made us that way. Then the inspired writer uses a figure of s peech. He reminds us that when we lost our sense of unity with God, it is exactly as though a wall was built between God and ourselves. When that happens communication is broken and we are no longer one in consciousness, until, of course, the wall is pulled down.
 
In any difficulty the one important thing is to have the temporary wall of partition pulled down, and to let God do it—for only He can.

It is primarily our false sense of self that separates us from God. When we see ourselves in terms of a small, self-contained individual, defined by our body and thoughts, we lose our communication with God. Then vanity, pride and ego take root in our consciousness and raise barriers to our true self-awareness as part of God. When we view ourselves truly as being one with God, then he will remove all partitions. Then we will live in peace within the Garden he gave us instead of struggling through the world we have created.

Peace,
Z Gardener

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Live in the Presence of God

July 28, 2008 by zgardener

    We live in the Presence of God. The Bible says, In him we live, and move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). This limitless Power, which is Intelligence and Love—God—can be contacted at any time by turning to Him in thought, and allowing Him to fill our hearts. Whenever we do this He at once begins to influence our lives for peace and harmony and freedom.

 
Closer is he than breathing; nearer than hands and feet. —Tennyson

If we knew that Superman was our best friend, and that he was on twenty four hour call, and that he was always watching us, and that he promised nothing would hurt us, it would be easy to live without fear and with confidence and hope that all is well.

That’s exactly what we have when we walk with God and follow his will. The creator, maintainer and director of the universe is our father, our friend and our protector. And, by the way, he is immune to kryptonite.

Walking with God,
Z Gardener

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Your Heart Follows Your Treasure

July 25, 2008 by zgardener

 Read Matthew 6:16-23.

        If your consciousness is right, that is, if you have a good understanding of God as the loving Source of your boundless supply, you will always be able to demonstrate whatever money or goods you may require. You cannot want for anything when once you truly realize that in divine Mind demand and supply are one. And, on the contrary, until you do realize this, you never will be really safe from want. In the long run, no one can retain what does not belong to him by right of consciousness, nor be deprived of that which is truly his by the same supreme title.
 
        If you are looking to outer, passing, mutable things for either happiness or security, you are not putting God first. If you are putting God first in your life, you will not find yourself labouring under undue anxiety about anything, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:21).

Our greatest treasures lie within us. When we properly express them in our outer selves, our world will be filled with them to overflowing. Press out your love and demonstrate your joy today so that the world will be filled with peace and gladness in all things. The world needs it and you deserve it.

Pressing on,
Z Gardener

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Worship Means Victory

July 24, 2008 by zgardener

 
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness (Psalm 29:2).
 
God is bigger than any problem.
God in you is greater than any difficulty that you have to meet.
God cares for you more than it is possible for any human being to realize.
God can help you in proportion to the degree in which you worship Him. You worship God by really putting your trust in Him instead of in outer conditions, or in fear, or in depression, or in seeming dangers, and so forth.
You worship God by recognizing His presence everywhere, in all people and conditions that you meet; and by praying regularly.
You pray well when you pray with joy.
 

Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord (Psalm 105:3).

When we truly worship God, joy and gladness rule our days while peace is sovereign of our nights. When we truly worship God, challenges become opportunities and difficulties become blessings. When we trust him, when we see him in all things, when we exist in his consciousness and when we pray we are truly worshipping him. When we praise and glorify him, when we trust him and put all our faith in him all good things become available to us.

In worship,
Z Gardener

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From Within Out

July 23, 2008 by zgardener

            But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

 
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking (Matthew 6:6-7).
 
The sixth chapter of Matthew presents the doctrine of the Secret Place and its importance as the controlling center of the “Kingdom.” It is the essential factor of the teaching of Jesus Christ. You are a king, Jesus says, the ruler of your own kingdom. When you know the truth of being, you are the absolute monarch of your own life.
 
It is very significant that Jesus should call your consciousness the Secret Place. It is obvious that nothing has any real significance but a change of policy in the Secret Place.
 
A distinguished Quaker some years ago said: “In my youth we discontinued the distinctive Quaker costume and certain other usages because we realized that people who were far from really caring for our Quaker ideas were joining us, nevertheless, for the sake of the educational facilities they could obtain so inexpensively for their children, as well as other advantages of our membership. It was so easy to style oneself a ‘Friend,’ to purchase and wear a coat without buttons or collar, and to interlard the conversation with a grammatical peculiarity, while leaving the character completely untouched. It is so easy to buy and wear ceremonial garments, to repeat set prayers by rote at certain times, to use stereotyped forms of devotion, to attend religious services at prescribed periods—and to leave the heart unchanged.”

Unless our hearts be changed, all is vain. It is not enough to simply talk and believe. We must also feel and act. The start is in the heart.

Heartfelt,
Z Gardener

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