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Posts Tagged ‘Faith’

Key Words In The Bible – Repentance

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on February 10, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
To repent means, really, to change one’s mind concerning something. When a person realizes that a particular action, or a certain line of conduct, or perhaps the whole direction of his life, has been wrong, and honestly resolves to change his conduct, he has repented. The Bible makes true repentance an essential condition for any spiritual progress, and for the forgiveness of sin. Jesus said, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. (Luke 13:3).
 
Repentance does not mean grieving for past mistakes, because this is dwelling in the past, and our duty is to dwell in the present and make this moment right. Worrying over past mistakes is remorse, and remorse is a sin, for it is a refusal to accept God’s forgiveness.
 
John the Baptist said, Repent ye: for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2). This means that you should change your thought and know that the Presence of God is where you are.
 
There are few experiences as liberating to the soul as repentance. At once we are freed from that which harms and imprisons us while being freed from the guilt, remorse and anger that accompanies unrepentant behavior. Once we accept the right course, change ours path and commit to right living, all the baggage that has weighed us down and hurt us is lifted from us. Then, we must turn away from our wrong ways and refuse to be remorsful or guilty.
 
This allows us to live in our present moment forgiven, freed and sure of our path. We no longer need to hide from God, but are empowered to walk openly with God in the garden he created for us.
 
Turning to God,
Z gardener

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Key Words In the Bible – Fear

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on February 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the beginning of knowledge. This has misled many people, because the truth is that fear is entirely evil and is indeed the only enemy we have. You can heal any condition if you can get rid of the fear attaching to it. It is true at all times that “we have nothing to fear but fear.”
                                                                                                                       
How then do we account for the texts quoted? The answer is that in the Bible the fear of God means reverence for God, not fear in the usual sense of the word. Reverence for God is the beginning of wisdom. How do we show reverence for God? By seeing God everywhere, refusing to recognize anything unlike Him, and by living the Christ life.
 
Confidence is worship. You worship whatever you trust. Are you trusting more in fear or in God? What are you worshipping? That is the test.
 
Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace. (Job 22:21).
 
The antidote to fear is trust and faith in God. All of us will experience fear. However, we do not have to embrace it, endure it or be shaped by it. If we trust in God, put him first and follow God’s, will we can overcome fear and virtually eliminate it from our lives. We can not do it alone, but with God’s help we can live fearlessly.
 
The frist step is to admit fear and face it directly. Then we must ask God for courage and remind ourselves that God does not want us to be afraid. It also helps greatly to know that fear itself is evil, that it eats at our faith and shackles our mind so we can not think or act in our own interest. Whatever we face, fear is a harmful response that will rob us of our joy and of the blessings hidden in our challenges.
 
Lastly, fear blocks us from joy and gladness and blinds us to our blessings. A grateful spirit is much harder to nurture in an atmosphere of  fear. So today, let us rejoice and be glad, and ask God to strengthen us so that we walk fearlessly in our gardens.
 
With courage through faith,
 
Z gardener

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No Grave Robbing

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on February 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 
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.
 
How much happier and productive would we be if we could let sleeping dogs lie? Even so, we all have unpleasant past experiences that just seem to keep coming back no matter how hard we try to keep them in the past. The key is to replace those thoughts with another positive thought and move on. Even if we have to do this every day for the rest of our lives. It is better than dwelling on past wrongs.
 
One thing we should remember is that old hurts that keep coming back have never been resolved. We need to dig into such recurring negatives and critically analyze why it keeps coming back. Then we must forgive ourselves or others who caused the hurt. If we truly let go of this problem and give it to God, we should see it intruding on our present less and less.
 
Moving on,
Z gardener

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The Captain is on the Bridge

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

 
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 to realize 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).
 
How comforting it is to know that our creator sits at the control panel for the universe. If we can but manage our part in the universe, then God assures us that all will be well. This does mean it will all be easy or even pleasant. It does mean that we can be at peace knowing that whatever comes our way will leave us strengthened and purified if we abide by God’s will.
 
So today, let us take control of ourselves and thereby our part in the world. Let us, with grateful heart say and believe that, “this is the day God has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
 
Being glad,
Z gardener

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What Does God Expect?

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

 
As children of the Most High we have a divine heritage and therefore a right to expect that God will take care of us in every way. The Bible is full of promises as to what God will do for His children, but perhaps Jesus put it the most plainly when he said,
 
What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
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 7:9-11).
 
So you have a divine right to expect all these good things from God. But what does God expect of us? Well, God has a right to expect that we will put Him first in our hearts. Then God expects us to have a lively faith. Faith in itself is a reliance upon the goodness of God.
 
And lastly, God expects us to go to Him in prayer — as a son who knows that even before he has asked, the loving Father has answered.
 
So. here we have it. We must put God first in our hearts, rely on God through our faith and commune with God in prayer. By far, the hardest of these is putting God first in our hearts. It requires us to reverse the priorities the world puts first.
 
When our hearts truly change, we will put our faith in God and commune with God daily. Let us begin today to ask ourselves, “What is our hearts greatest desire..that which we could not live without”.  If the answer is anything but to have faith in and commune with God, then we still have a ways to go.
 
If, on the other hand, we have put God first in our hearts, then we are relying on the goodness of God and can expect God has answered all our prayers, even before we asked. Just as God created an Eden for us before we were created. The heart that loves God and puts God first can walk in that garden every day.
 
Wholeheartedly,
Stan

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Accept No Second-Bests

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on February 2, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Accept No Second-Bests
 
In the depths of his being man always feels intuitively that there is a way out of his difficulties if only he can find it. The infant, as yet uncontaminated by the defeatism of his elders, simply refuses to tolerate inharmony on any terms, and therefore he demonstrates over it. When he is hungry he tells the world while many a sophisticated adult goes without. Does he find a pin sticking in some part of his anatomy? Not for him a sigh of resignation to the supposed “will of God,” or a whine about never having any luck, or a sigh that what cannot be cured must be endured. His instincts tell him that life and harmony are inseparable.
 
Refuse to tolerate anything less than harmony. You can have a happy and joyous life. But to do so you must seize the rudder of your own destiny and steer boldly for the port that you intend to make. What are you doing about your future?
 
For not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified (Romans 2:13).
 
Who holds the rudder in our lives and what is our intended port. When we give the tiller to God and plot a course for God’s kingdom, we are seizing our rudders and giving them to our creator. By setting our course on the garden God gave, we surrender our ship and our destiny to God.
 
There is nothing more important to our successful future than to give our will, our direction, yes our entire ship to God’s will. Then we will sail safely to our port, to be welcomed in our Eden by God and all those who have chosen the same destination.
 
Accepting the best,
Z gardener

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Alter Your Life

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

There is no need to be unhappy. There is no need to be disappointed, or oppressed, or aggrieved. There is no need for illness or failure or discouragement. There is no necessity for anything but an abounding interest and joy in life.
As long as you accept a negative condition at its own valuation, so long will you remain in bondage to it; but you have only to assert your birthright as a free man or woman and you will be free.
Success and happiness are the natural conditions of mankind. It is actually easier to demonstrate these things than the reverse. Bad habits of thinking and acting may obscure this fact for a time, just as a wrong way of walking or sitting, or holding a pen, or musical instrument may seem to be easier than the proper way, because we have accustomed ourselves to it; but the proper way is the easier nevertheless.
Unhappiness, frustration, poverty, loneliness are really bad habits that their victims have become accustomed to bear, believing that there is no way out, whereas there is a way; and that way is simply to acquire good habits of working with the Law instead of against it.
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law (Psalm 119:18).
Today can be the first day of the rest of our altered lives, or it can be just another day. It is up to us. May the creator of the universe open our eyes to the miracle, majesty and magnificence of living in the Eden God created for us. It can start today if we but open our eyes.
Unblinking,
Z gardener

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Your Invisible Dictaphone

Posted in Good Morning, tagged , on January 31, 2012| 1 Comment »

 
Your destiny depends entirely upon your own mental conduct. You may think that you know this already, but if you do not act upon it, it is certain that you do not really know it. Most people would be amazed to discover how much negative thinking they indulge in. Thought is so swift and habit is so strong that unless you are very careful you will constantly transgress.
 
Suppose that, quite without your knowledge, an invisible dictaphone were strapped on your shoulders the first thing tomorrow morning, and that you carried it about all day until the last thing tomorrow night. Then suppose that this record were played over to you so that every word you had uttered for a whole day was repeated to you. Well, if you are an average human being you would probably be embarrassed. Yet it really does happen that everything we say, and think and do, is recorded – in the subconscious mind – and our daily experience is simply that record being played over to us by the Law of Being.
 
Never forget that the circumstances of your life tomorrow are molded by your mental conduct of today.
 
I have chosen the way of truth…(Psalm 119:30).
 
Now imagine that Dictaphone has a loudspeaker connected and everyone heard every word and thought you had. That would definitely change our behavior, right? Well, we do have a speaker connected to our thoughts and words. Our conduct, facial expressions and body language work in the same way. Yes, it is more subtle, but it still broadcasts what’s inside our heads and hearts; or whispered to ourselves. These “secret” acts also programs our subconscious to accept them as reality. So our future is being set by our thoughts, words and deeds of today.
 
Let us know that our invisible Dictaphones a speaker phones are recording and broadcasting our secrets loud and clear. And may each of us think, feel and say that which is pleasing to God, so that also is being broadcast to those around us. When we do this, our lives will reflect the love of God on our future and and on those around us in our present.
Testing, testing, 1,2,3 testing,
Z gardener

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You Are Always Treating

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

You are continually treating your conditions with the thoughts that you hold concerning them. What you really think about anything, is your “treatment” of that thing. Many people have the idea that they are only “treating” when they call it “treating.” But no matter what you call it, your thought concerning any subject is a treatment. This is the reason visible conditions are always the expression of invisible thought.
If you will begin systematically to treat every side of your life with a series of positive, correct thoughts, and keep to this practice for even a few weeks, you will be amazed to find how much everything will change for the better.
…be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…(Romans 12:2).
Prayer is the highest form of “treatment”. It is focused thought of, communion with and realization of the presence of God. Yet it is, at its core, thoughts, feelings and perceptions of oneness with God. So it is with every thought, word and deed. Each of our reactions to our experience is prayer or “treatment” in that it creates the basis of our reality. Therefore, everything we think, feel and do becomes our prayer.
The truth here is that we determine our prayer and our reality by everything we do. Let us start today with a new outlook on our inlook. Let us think, feel and do that which we would demonstrate in our lives. Then we will see, experience and live in the heaven God created for us. It is up to us.
Treating true,
Z gardener

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God Says Now

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

 

 
God’s time for your demonstration in now. The time God wants you to be healed is now. The time God wants you to be in your true place is now. The Bible says that the day of salvation is now.
 
God is ready the moment you are. There is nothing to wait for except the changing of your own consciousness. People often make the mistake of saying, “I know my demonstration will come at the right time.” But the only time to be harmonious and satisfied is now. The time to be happy is now and the place is here. Did not Jesus say, The kingdom of heaven is at hand, and by this he meant close by.
 
Do not keep yourself out of the Kingdom of Heaven by inventing postponements, but change your consciousness now, for it can all happen in a moment.
 
…that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed (Romans 13:11).
 
 What better news could we hear? We can be happy now. In the midst of our challenges, concerns and obstacle, we can live in the Kingdom of God now.
 
So today, may God grant to each of us the power to change our consciousness from the dark to the light. Then we can claim our healing, our happiness and our birthright as children of God. Then we will see our lives as the Eden God created for us; NOW!
 
In the Kingdom,
Z gardener

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