Advent Season: Peace

Peace on Earth

The shepherd as a symbol of God's loving care and protection is a constant through Old and New Testament  alike.  In Ezekiel 34, paralleling David and Jesus, God berates the shepherds (leaders) of Israel for their self-serving behavior.

Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed the sick, nor bound up the broken. I will save my flock. I will establish one shepherd over them.  He shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I their Lord, will be their God.  I will make a covenant of peace with them and they will dwell safely.  http://wp.me/pAxFP-8Y

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Spiritual Economics

Prove Me Now!     
                                                                                                      
How many times have we heard Prove Me Now! both as an invitation and as a challenge to come up higher?  Is it a call to higher service or a demand that we put the church first as an obligation rather than a blessing?  The original tithe was a temple tax, not unlike our modern income tax and most of us would be delighted to pay just 10% of our taxable income.  http://wp.me/pAxFP-89
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Spiritual Economics

Rise and Look Around You!
A true prosperity consciousness is one built upon a wholistic approach to life and living, celebrating the harmony of body, mind and spirit with the natural world.  There is no you, there is no me, there is no it --no separation in Spirit.  It is in this consciousness  of oneness that we find wholeness.  And it is in this conscious that we begin to create opportunities for right outcomes in our lives and in our world.  http://wp.me/pAxFP-7n
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My Heart is a Chapel

Myrtle Fillmore’s Healing Letters and Prayer

The difference between blind faith and understanding faith is significant because choosing one over the other directly impacts the way in which we relate to God.  A Unity minister once explained it this way:  In Unity we don’t teach you what to think,  but how to think. Rather than an unknowable God out there, we believe in the power and presence of God indwelling.

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Retreat: Monastery of the Holy Spirit

Wisdom of the Christian Mystics

This past weekend I attended a retreat at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers,  GA.   A friend of mine attended a retreat there  this past spring and absolutely loved it. The grounds are lovely, the rooms and food are simple and the monks' choir is out of   this world.  Because of the heat,  I only explored the grounds during the first hour after sunrise.  I would love to return again for the Contemplative Prayer Retreat. 

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Leave Your Nets

A New Dimension

We have now come full circle in our series on spiritual wholeness, reviewing and re- newing our sense of connectedness to our own indwelling Lord and all of creation.  We are not alone in the universe.  We are the universe.  And by grace we fulfill our destiny as the sons and daughters of God. 

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Leave Your Nets

Thy Grace is Sufficient Unto Me

This week a local pundit connected the dots between  BP's Gulf Disaster and Pogo, who once observed:  We have met the enemy and he is us. BP's management is driven by its stockholders' focus on the bottom line and the need to be number one in the industry, with disastrous results, and this isn't the first time, either.  But we, as stakeholders in the health and viability of our land and our planet, are also responsible.  It is common wisdom that the drug wars along the border with Mexico would dry up if there were no market for drugs in this country.  The same logic applies to the drilling in the Gulf of Mexico or fighting wars to secure a pipeline--supply and demand. 

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Unity and the Son of God

Who am I and Why am I Here?                                                                                                                                                    

We began  Sunday's forum with these two questions and moved on to Unity's take on Jesus Christ, among other topics.  If we keep in mind the statement that "I am a spiritual being having a human experience", then we know that the answer to the question "Who am I?" is not our earthly name at all nor is the correct answer to "Why am I here?" a description of the 9 to 5 job which pays the bills.

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."  Ro.8:15-17

We, as the children of God, were created in the image of God with the potential to be like God.  That is the promise of the creation story in Genesis.  Yet, over the ages, it became clear that the Chosen, the Children of Israel, didn't get it.  And as time passed, the Law and the Prophets  became a barrier to the direct experience of God.  Early on in Matthew, Jesus said:

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

Jesus was the first born of God in that He was the first to fulfill the promise:  He was Man and Christ in one being.  And this is what we are called to do--to know God and to express more of God in all that we do.  Jesus is our teacher by Word and by example.  He came to teach our true relationship to God as Father, in our midst, wholly present in His creation.  He did not come to create another church to set up barriers between God and man.

If we would be more like Jesus, then we must follow His example, as Charles Fillmore wrote in Talks on Truth:

The way to do this is the way Jesus did it. He acknowledged Himself to be the Son of God.  The attainment of the Christ consciousness calls for nothing less on our part than a definite recognition of ourselves as sons of God right here and now, regardless of appearances to the contrary.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

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Spiritually Empowered Wholeness

Help Wanted: Apply Within                                                                                                                                                             

I love having online access to so many beautiful images!  One of my favorite is the radiant lotus blossom to the right.  This image has become my visual mantra, symbolizing for me not just the Christ in me,  but the awareness and experience of that presence in me.   I focus upon it as I begin to pray or meditate and I feel an actual warmth spreading out from my heart center.  And in moments of stress or too much busyness, just a moment's focus allows me to re-center on that image.

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Spiritually Empowered Wholeness

Connecting the Dots                                                                                             

The battle lines drawn between cats and dogs are not set in stone nor demanded
by nature.  And though I have had dogs with cat buddies, my Petey isn't one of them.  When he sees a cat, he sees an enemy.  Is there any hope for true wholeness and freedom as long as I define the 'other' as an enemy?

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Creative Intentionality                                            
                                                                                                                        

Charles Fillmore often used the phrase "seed thoughts" and wrote in  Jesus Christ Heals that  All things are in God as potentialities. I believe creative intentionality can be defined by weighing the difference between creative passion and technical perfection in musical performances.  When Michael Turner, one of our musicians, plays his sax, his whole body sings with the music.  By contrast, a pianist I once knew could perform beautifully on the baby grand piano at Unity Village.  His performance was technically perfect, but there was no corresponding passion uniting him with the music and none of us would have dreamed of approaching him.

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Spiritually Empowered Wholeness

A Talent for Growing    
A Talent for Growing                                                                                    

Spiritual growth is the movement from an ego-centric view of the world and "what's in it for me" to an open and loving acceptance of one's self and others as children of God;   created by a loving Father to learn and grow in understanding and compassion and to become good stewards of the natural world.   When we develop healthy, creative interdependent relationships and begin consciously living in the now, we discover a deep and abiding joy welling up from within us. 

Happiness has been defined as an emotional response to a positive event,  such as getting a raise or receiving an unexpected gift--a temporary event dependent upon external events. Joy is often defined as the product of  happiness, but true joy comes from deep within one's own being and is not bound or limited by people,  places or events.   And therein lies its power.

I can still experience true joy, even when the world around me appears to be spinning out of control.  Instead of trying to fix everything and everyone,  I turn my attention to the inward journey of spiritual growth.  My personal growth has a ripple effect in my world.

When my inner life is lively and well nurtured my relationships improve dramatically. 

We need to learn how to value and care for ourselves, to enrich our "centers" in order to make them safe, strong, renewing places to be.  We need to relate to other people and to the world out of this center, out of inner wholeness.

Jesus used parables, earthly stories with a heavenly meaning, to teach the multitudes and His disciples.  The Parable of the Talents appears with slightly different details in both Matthew and Luke.   It is set in conjunction with other stories teaching that we know not when He (the Master) shall return and must be ever ready.  In Matthew, the Master gives His servants 1, 2 or 5 talents, each according to his ability, to be invested during the Master's absence.  Both the servants with 2 talents and 5 talents invested wisely and doubled the Master's return. But the servant with 1 talent hid his for safekeeping rather than risking loss.

Those who invested (used) their talents and multiplied their good were blessed and rewarded by the Master, but the one who hid his talent lost that which he had as punishment for not using it.  And then, Jesus states what appears to be an inexplicably hard teaching:

For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.

If we develop the spiritual gifts (talents) which God has given us, then our lives will be blessed with the riches of the Kingdom of Heaven.  But if we deny our spiritual gifts and hide away for fear of loosing that which we have been given, then even that which we have received will be lost in our fears and doubts.  Job stated it best, I think: That which I have feared has come upon me. 

I believe that the greatest reward of spiritually empowered wholeness in my life is the feeling of a deep and abiding sense of peace and joy.  Oprah offered this definition:

I define joy as a sustained sense of well-being and internal peace - a connection to what matters.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

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Spiritually Empowered Wholeness

Life Is More Than Occupying Space                                                                                 

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is a clear demonstration that death is not final, nor is it the ultimate failure.  The refusal to live to our fullest potential is the only real failure.   Death signifies the transformation from the purely physical to the purely spiritual.  Though our eyes no longer behold the human being we have treasured, our loved one has not ceased to exist but has translated into pure being, pure energy.

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Spiritually Empowered Wholeness

Moving Mountains                                                                                               

A first rate teacher seems irreplaceable, but a truly great teacher sets His students free to grow into their full potential.  Jesus was such a teacher.  He taught parables,  precepts and by example.  He sent them out to teach and to heal, to practice the principles He taught them.  But more was required.

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Where We Live

Ask someone where they live and you'll receive answers ranging from the name of their hometown to their street address to a description of their neighbor and their home.  Take a step back from the personal point of view and we claim planet Earth as our home, a home shared with all living beings, irrespective of creed, culture or degree of sentience.

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A Light Shining in the Dark           
                                                                            

One of our primary goals during Lent is the release of mental, emotional and spiritual baggage.  An inexplicable sense of exhaustion or lack of meaning and purpose in life may be the warning signs of     an over burdened spirit.  Unexpected and irrational anger is also a warning signal we should never  ignore.  In Matthew 11:30, Jesus said: 

"Come unto Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  For my yoke is        easy and my burden is light."

It's easy to go through a whole cleansing process and feel a tremendous sense of relief and lightness of spirit.  And then, one day, you realize you've begun imitating a mini volcano, spewing angry fire works at random intervals.  And when you begin to pay attention to the running dialog just beneath the surface of awareness,  you discover an 'old tape' bubbling up and disrupting your peace of mind.

The first response is No way, I already dealt with that!  It's finished!  Not. Obviously, the first step must be to release and let it go, again, and feel the vacancy with a wonderful new energy immediately.  Then,  schedule regular maintenance.  Think of it as Spring Cleaning, also known as Lent. Think about the windows on your house--if they're smudged or cloudy, your view of the world becomes distorted.  And just because you gave them a really good cleaning back in 1998 doesn't mean that something else must be at fault this time.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

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Lent Season

Take Up Your Bed & Walk

Lent is a time of seeking personal transformation.  Easter is a celebration of that transformation.  The story told in John 5:1-15 about the man healed at the Pool of Bethesda represents far more than a simple physical healing.  This story demonstrates a transformation in consciousness which then manifests as a physical healing.

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Lenten Season

The Metaphysics of Hope

Life without hope is no life at all!  When disappointments come, it is all too easy the give up and lose our way in the world.  This week,  I felt a great surge of hope and expectation as we explored the possibilities for a new church home in Decatur.  That hope suffered a set-back yesterday.  Even so,   I know that there is a right and perfect place in which  this ministry can thrive and serve an ever growing community.

This morning’s Lenten Study Guide by Sue Sikking reminded me of the power of hope linked with vision:

The new world will be brought forth by men and women who have the courage to look through appearances to the impossible dream, by those who will know that the dream is possible.

Learning to say “Yes I Can!” in the face of obstacles, refusing to doubt my God-self and stretching beyond that which I thought was possible to that which is infinitely possible sets me on the road to Easter morn and my own personal resurrection experience.   Hope is a seed which springs up into the light when the perfect conditions for that seed are met.   Just because the desert appears barren, does not mean that it is barren.   Let the rains fall and watch what happens!

My personal affirmation for this Lenten Season is:

I center my attention and the deepest desires of my heart in God, the good, and manifest only good   in my life!

Rev. Claudia Naylor

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Lenten Season

The Metaphysics of Fasting

Fat Tuesday has come and gone as has Ash Wednesday.  Christians around the world commit themselves to a period of self-denial lasting 40 days in preparation for the resurrection experience.  Many will give up meat or chocolate or television or partying (hence Fat Tuesday)--whatever they deem as sufficient sacrifice.   Eric Butterworth suggests a different approach to Lent:

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Praying Our Way to Wholeness

"To Live Until We Die"  --Kubler-Ross

God is the Source of all Being, all substance and an unfolding universe of infinite possibilities.    Learning to express more  of our true nature, our God self, leads us out of limiting thought patterns and into an understanding Faith in God as our Father.  When challenges arise in our lives, we are better able to seek underlying meaning in what is happening and to grow through those events.

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Jesus Prays

Give God the Glory: John 17

Last Sunday I briefly mentioned the method of prayer which Jesus used in John 17 and the way in which I have applied that method to this ministry. Now, I want to expand that discussion and the ways in which each of us can make use of His method.

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Positive Expectations

The Law of Mind Action

Charles Fillmore was a thinker ahead of his time, especially in the area of what would come to be called "self-fulfilling prophecy" in modern educational theory--the idea that students would perform up to or down to their teacher's expectations. Unity students are quick to affirm: Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind. Those thoughts and expectations in which we vest our attention and energy will bear fruit, so dwelling upon that which we do not want is self-destructive behavior at best.

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Prayer: Metaphysically Speaking

Joyfully We Pray

The Ellsworths write in Come Apart For Awhile that when we lift our thoughts and words in praise and gratitude, allowing love to flow freely through us, we enter a higher state of consciousness. This state of being is what we call Christ Consciousness in Unity and prayer is the path to understanding our inner oneness with God in Christ.

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Prayer: Metaphysically Speaking

The God to Whom We Pray

A question common to many is: "If God is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent, why should I pray?" I pray because not because God needs to hear from me, needs my acknowledgment and adoration. I pray because I need to recognize and acknowledge the presence and power of God active in me when I remember who I am:

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Prayer: Metaphysically Speaking

Why We Pray

Unity began with the prayers of Myrtle Fillmore. In her search for healing and wholeness, she discovered a deeper connection to God and a new understanding of prayer. Seeing the transformation in her, Charles Fillmore began what he called the scientific study of prayer, of world religions and Bible metaphysics.

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