Decatur Unity Church for Transformational Living

Advent Season: Peace

2010-12-07T10:28:00.002-05:00

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

Spiritual Economics

2010-11-16T11:28:00.000-05:00

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

Spiritual Economics

2010-09-21T11:29:00.000-04:00

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

My Heart is a Chapel

2010-08-17T10:46:00.000-04:00

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.

Paul said in I Corinthians:

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? …therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit.

He does not say that we should glorify our body, but that we should glorify God in our body and in our spirit. We are not to worship the physical body but to celebrate the presence and power of God within us and all around us, for God is in His creation and working still. In speaking of prayer, Myrtle Fillmore wrote that:

With our eye of faith we must see God in our flesh, see that wholeness for which we are praying in every part of the body temple.

We affirm regularly in Unity I am a child of God, made in the image and likeness of God! This concept is essential to understanding the teachings of Unity, but what does it really mean? Michelangelo made God in the image of man when he depicted God as a large and glorious man-like being reaching out to Adam in the moment of creation. Yet, how could we expect the creator of the universe and all of life to fit into a human body? Why would we want such a limited god?

Jesus said that God is Spirit, that the kingdom of God is within you and that we are one with God. I believe that we are spiritual beings expressing through a physical body and that it is this spiritual self which is made in the image of God. Further, I believe that Christ-like behavior defines the likeness of God, because it is in learning to live from our spiritual center and in choosing to live in accord with His teachings that we fulfill this affirmation.

Myrtle Fillmore said that:

We need to harmonize our thinking and our prayers with actual living experiences.

If I want to experience healing and the fullness of being, then I must be willing to put my feet upon the path and walk in faith and positive expectation. Answered prayer requires a transformation of every thought, word and action in my life, not just a juggling of what little I might be willing to give up in order to feel better, for now. Fillmore continued:

As we pray, the word of life is going down into us, breaking up old fixed beliefs and reorganizing our life. Working in the consciousness of freedom, we will be happy and well and busy and prosperous. But our attention will be upon what we are doing rather than upon outer results. The results will take care of themselves once we have started our foundation in Truth.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

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.Paul said in I Corinthians:

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? …therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit.

With our eye of faith we must see God in our flesh, see that wholeness for which we are praying in every part of the body temple.

Myrtle Fillmore said that:

We need to harmonize our thinking and our prayers with actual living experiences.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Retreat: Monastery of the Holy Spirit

2010-07-27T10:06:00.000-04:00

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.

The lesson series Spiritually Empowered Wholeness, which I taught this spring, set me upon the path of the mystical traditions and contemplative prayer. Over the past several months, I have found my life enriched and overflowing with joy. Consequently, when I found this retreat theme, my heart leaped up.

Wisdom of the Christian Mystics
(Fr. Tom Francis & Carl McColman)

From the Desert Fathers to Julian of Norwich to Thomas Merton, Christian history is filled with stories of men and women who experienced a profound sense of God’s presence in their lives. Can the teachings of the mystics still speak to us today? The mystics themselves would say “yes,” and furthermore, that their message is not just for priests, monks, or nuns, but is indeed meant for the entire people of God. With this in mind, during this weekend we will look at several ways that the wisdom of the Christian mystics can provide insight and inspiration for our age, including the universal call to holiness; St. Paul’s directive to “pray without ceasing”; and the promise from the Psalms to “be still and know that I am God.”

Carl McColman, one of the presenters, is a delightful teacher whose book, The Big Book of Christian Mysticism, was released just before our retreat. I read a number of books prior to this retreat, including Thomas Merton and Teilhard de Chardin, but was delighted to find Carl's book. I haven't finished it because it isn't the sort one races through, but I am well pleased.

The path of mysticism is one of falling in love with God and experiencing the fullness of being. It is a journey, not a destination. As Carl indicated during the opening session, the mystic seeks to develop a more intimate relationship with God in the Silence.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Leave Your Nets

2010-07-21T09:49:00.000-04:00

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.

"Thy Grace is sufficient Unto Me" is a truly comforting affirmation and easy to say. But as we've learned, speaking the words and living the words seem miles apart. Many have come from traditions which taught that we must struggle to attain the kingdom of God, knowing all the while that we would fall short of the goal. Not! Joel Goldsmith writes in Leave Your Nets:

Rest from the mental and physical struggle to achieve and to attain, and let the kingdom of God flow forth from you.

Spiritual discipline is the one sure path to feeling and believing that we are one with God. In Matthew, Jesus said that we should "love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind..." But how can we function in the world with all our attention upon God? Can we wander through the world with our feet upon the pavement and our heads in the clouds without tripping over our own feet? Or do we withdraw completely from the world to fulfill this commandment?

Jesus also said that we "you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Come on now, doesn't this sound a bit like 'pie in the sky' talk? Deepak Chopra says otherwise in The Third Jesus when he explains that Jesus wasn't talking about committing all our time and thought to God, but about wholeness.

If your whole mind is given to loving God, a change occurs. The mind is no longer fragmented and distracted. It has found its source in God and loving God becomes completely natural.

There is no longer a struggle to find God or experience God or love God. There is only God. There is no separation between spirit, soul and body. In this consciousness of oneness, we love God with our whole being and our neighbor as our self.

Howard Clinebell writes in Spiritually Empowered Wholeness that we must come to that place of being totally alive and aware of our place in God's creation.

To live at only a fraction of our potential aliveness and creativity is to waste much of our most valuable asset—life itself. Health is the presence of positive, developing wholeness, the ongoing process of fulfilling one’s potentialities.

Spiritual discipline is the key to fulfilling our potential. We build our consciousness upon one thought, one word, one action at a time like a brick layer building the foundation of a cathedral.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Leave Your Nets

2010-07-13T11:32:00.000-04:00

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.

The concept of stakeholders is founded upon the belief that people are key to the sustainability of a community, be it a large city, a community library or a church. When we, as individuals, come together as a community of believers, we have the power and the responsibility to make a difference. And by the grace of God we can transform our lives and our world.

God does not take sides--His Grace "sends rain on the just and on the unjust." Our goal in prayer is not to ask for more stuff, but to open ourselves to the Grace of God, to all good. Pray not for victory, but for peace. Charles Fillmore wrote in Keep a True Lent that

"The Grace of God extends to all people everywhere and the Grace of God is greater than the laws of man."

Joel Goldsmith asked the same question which we all struggle with. If God's will is absolute good for all of His children and there is no lack in the Kingdom of Heaven, then why is there so much apparent lack and misery in the world? His answer in Contemplative Prayer is that

"only through our conscious awareness and acceptance of God's grace, through consciously living in the realization of God's presence could those things that do not belong in our experience be eliminated and be replaced by those things that are ours by divine right."

If we affirm daily that Thy Grace is sufficient unto me as my grandmother did throughout her life, but then turn and say, in effect: Oh, by the way while I have your attention, I need..., then we have just contradicted our affirmation. Call it habit or instinct, it is self-defeating.

Saul of Taurus, who became Paul the Apostle, is a perfect example of the activity of grace. This was a man who pursued and persecuted early Christians. Yet once Jesus opened his eyes to the truth, Paul was not only forgiven but set upon the mission of spreading the Word. He was transformed by grace. In Ephesians 2:8 he wrote

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God."

It is by the activity of Grace that we are healed and it is by our own conscious choice that we open our- selves to the gift of God's grace. Goldsmith describes three elements essential to grace:

Love--of God, of oneself and for others
Forgiveness--"under this life of grace, there is forgiveness without any consideration for whether one has deserved, earned or been worthy of it."
Gratitude--"The moment we begin to be grateful just for the fact that God is in His heaven, our lives begin to change."

We, as stakeholders, have a vested interest in bringing forth a new heaven and a new earth and we have the ability, through the Grace of God, to do it together.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Unity and the Son of God

2010-06-02T16:06:00.000-04:00

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

Spiritually Empowered Wholeness

2010-05-12T09:38:00.000-04:00

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.

"Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27) is not a goal to be obtained in the future, but truth right here and right now! "Finding" God is an inside job and we already have all the tools we need. Charles Fillmore wrote in Jesus Christ Heals that

when man lays hold of the principle of wholeness, he finds that he is automatically working with God and that much new power is added.

Spiritually Empowered Wholeness has as its goal the realization and application of the full potential of our aliveness and creativity. Clinebell wrote that

"Wholeness is a growth journey, not a fixed goal."

We do not search for that which is lost, but for that which is forgotten. We need neither map nor compass on our journey. Faith in God is our only requirement plus a willingness to remember who we are. Love, peace, joy, healing and prosperity will only come to us through our realization of in faith in God.

Matthew 9:20-21 tells the story of a woman who seeks healing for a 12 year affliction. In it she tells herself that she will be healed if she can just touch the hem of His garment. Even though surrounded by and jostled by a large crowd, Jesus fills the flow of power and says to her

"Be of good cheer, daughter, for your faith has made you well."

The activity of faith within us allows us to realize and manifest our inner wholeness. Over the course of this series I have felt an ever increasing sense of joy and well-being. I no longer pray for specific needs, but for a greater awareness of the Presence and Power of God in me, knowing all the help I need resides within me. Thank you, Father!

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Spiritually Empowered Wholeness

2010-05-05T13:25:00.002-04:00

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?

Howard Clinebell wrote in Spiritually Empowered Wholeness, that

Growth toward mind-body wholeness feeds and is fed by growth toward interpersonal wholeness.

If I choose to be fully alive in the now moment and open to spiritual growth, then I also choose to live conscious of every living being, no matter their politics or religion. Jesus said in Matthew 5 that if we go to the altar and remember a disagreement with our brother, we must first go and settle it before returning to God. In verses 43 to 48, He says we must love our enemies and bless them if we would be the sons of God and

Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Is He telling us that we can be perfect like the Father when we learn to love even our enemies? The greater our realization of our inner oneness with God, the greater our ability to love ourselves and then we can love the whole family of God. Yehuda Berg wrote in The Power to Change Everything that

Religion was intended to be a system of empowerment, a system that would allow each person to connect to God through whatever path they chose. It occurs when we recognize the love within us, and therefore can reach out to bring peace and love to others.

If we allow anger, envy, jealousy or fear to flourish in our souls, then we are polluting the environment. The oil spill in the Gulf has poured a toxic sludge into that body of water threatening multiple habitats and the local economy. Yet, toxic emotions and fears pouring out of any one individual mind can pollute the very life stream of all of us. When I clean up my act, I clean up my world. Accepting the love in me as the love of God in me, I open up my spirit to a loving and spiritually fulfilled life.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

2010-04-28T10:28:00.001-04:00

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.

The Parable of the Sower appears in Matthew 13:1-9; the explanation of the parable appears in Matthew 13:18-23. In this story, Jesus is demonstrating the creative power of the Word in action. God is the sower and the seed represents the Word of God from the beginning. Seed falling by the wayside lands in the heart of one who is inattentive to the Word and is quickly devoured.

The seed which falls upon the stony places is received with great joy and springs up with newness of spirit. But lacking a foundation in the Word, at the first sign of trouble the plant withers and dies. Many come seeking the Truth and put it on like a new hat which is proudly worn until blown away by the first contentious breeze.

The seed cast among the thorns is like a political debate where a divine idea is torn apart by personal agendas focused upon winning rather than growing in truth and in wisdom. Even though there is a deep longing for the Word, the life is choked out because there is no commitment to it.

The seed which falls upon the good ground is received into an open and receptive heart, one who hears the Word and understands. Because this one chooses to live the Truth and bear fruit richly, his life is greatly prospered and no challenge shall overcome the abiding faith in the Word of God.

Howard Clinebell writes in Spiritually Empowered Wholeness that

Human growth is maximized through decision, action, and self-discipline.

Intentionality is using one's freedom and power, however limited or great these may be, to take responsibility for one's life.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Spiritually Empowered Wholeness

2010-04-21T10:58:00.000-04:00

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

Spiritually Empowered Wholeness

2010-04-15T10:30:00.001-04:00

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.

Jesus taught through the use of parables, precepts, miracles and actions--creating a living body of teachings. The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree in Luke 13:6 is a perfect example. This parable was framed by a discussion of the absolute necessity for individuals to cease the pointing of fingers at others and see to their own repentance less the suffer a far worse punishment.

A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?'

But he answered him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.'

Israel, like the fig tree, was planted in a rich and well tended garden, protected by the Gardener as the chosen people of God. Yet they flourished not at all, squabbling and falling out with one another, unless forced to unite against the threat of invasion. Failure to bear the fruit of the Kingdom of God would mean the destruction of the House of Israel.

The gardener requests one more year of special care to encourage growth and the bearing of fruit. If it failed to mature, then it would no longer be allowed to occupy space that could be better utilized. A lemon tree in the yard of my parents' home bore no fruit until Hurricane Donna knocked it over one summer. My Dad straightened it up and staked it and from that year onward it bore fruit.

Crises spur sudden change and growth we might not otherwise seek. The challenge of the fig tree is the challenge of personal growth because life must be more than occupying space, more than settling for what is rather than what ought to be--demanding more of ourselves and our true potential!

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Spiritually Empowered Wholeness

2010-04-15T10:27:00.000-04:00

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.

In Matthew 17:14-21, a man brings his son to Jesus to be healed, because the disciples have tried and failed to heal him. His response in this particular story borders on the bizarre when He answers His disciples' failure with this:

Because of your unbelief, ...for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

Can you imagine what would happen if each one of us suddenly began moving things around to suit themselves? We could send Stone Mountain to Manhattan and move the diamond mines of Africa to Atlanta. Or perhaps someone in Manitoba got tired of winter and decided to change the tilt of the axis to move Canada toward a warmer climate zone.

Obviously, this isn't about the mountain itself. It's about the idea of the mountain, of seemingly immovable objects or blocks in our physical, mental and spiritual lives. Think of the concept of the "self-fulfilling prophecy;" if I have no concept of success, I will only demonstrate failure because that's all I know. The only role model a child born into poverty has is lack and hopelessness. If I believe that poor health or disease "run in my family", how can I possibly demonstrate wholeness?

The Teacher's job is to teach the Truth, but the teacher cannot move the mountain of unbelief for the student. We must move our own mountains and free ourselves from a belief system anchored in negative thinking and un-worthiness. Jesus taught the Truth. It is ours to practice the principles of transformational living. The closing quote is from the Lenten Study Guide for Easter Sunday, April 1987:

Every time I let go of old ways and enter into the new, I have taken part in a resurrecting process. Every time I have prayed for light and have been lifted into joy, into a feeling of oneness with God, I have experienced resurrection.

Every time I have made a new beginning, every time I have said to myself, "With God's help I will rise up; with His help I will begin again," I have been resurrected. Every time I have rise in thought to a new concept of life and healing, every time I have conquered pain, I have been resurrected.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

2010-03-24T10:45:00.000-04:00

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.
Take a metaphysical view of the question and we recognize that our true home is "the house not built with hands" in IICo.5:1. We are so much more than this physical body because we are "the temple of the Living God." Our spiritual home is not defined by space or time nor is it limited to the physical body. Jesus used the word house in several examples and often used the phrase "he who has ears to hear, let him hear!" as a sign post to deeper meaning.

Jesus said that "a house divided against itself will not stand" when the Pharisees accused Him of casting out demons and healing by Beelzebub. Our house is divided when we hold onto old beliefs while trying to believe "the Kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21 Our house is divided when pray for forgiveness while still holding a smoldering grudge against another. Our house is divided when we declare "peace on earth, good will to all" while planning for war.

Jesus used the word house to represent the receptive consciousness of a man in Mt. 7:24-25

Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

Paralleling the awakening consciousness of Peter when he recognized that Jesus was "the son of the Living God" with the quote above, we come to understand that a life built upon the foundation of faith and the application of the teachings of Jesus is our purpose in life. We have creative control over the house we build in consciousness one thought, one word at a time.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

2010-03-18T15:03:00.000-04:00

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

Lent Season

2010-03-10T11:52:00.000-05:00

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.

The sick, the lame, the blind, the hopeless surround the Pool of Bethesda waiting for an angel to stir the healing waters of the pool. The first one into the water is healed. The waiting multitudes lay in the five porches surrounding the pool. The story is rich in metaphysical symbolism.

Water can be seen as a healing, cleansing agent. Water is essential to all living beings. Jesus was baptized with water and transformed water into wine. Water not only cleanses the physical body in the shower, but can be used symbolically at the end of the day to wash away mental and emotional baggage.

The five porches represent the five senses which can only report the facts, not the Truth. We could just as easily call them the five distractors. Race consciousness, the surrounding multitude, sees the helpless waiting for a miracle healing and gets in line. Since some are clearly worse off than we, perhaps we begin to feel a little guilty because we can jump ahead of those unable to move as quickly. Then guilt turns to anger and a self-destructive cycle.

One man has been there for thirty-eight years. This is the man to whom Jesus speaks. Jesus does not ask him what is wrong with him or what he did to deserve it. He asks:

Do you want to be made well?

Instead of answering the question, the man explains why he can't be healed, expressing all his frustration in a litany of excuses. Because he's hooked into being a victim, he can't see the possibilities. The evidence of the senses supports his belief--he can see and hear the multitudes of negative thought forms surrounding him. Jesus commands the man to:

Rise, take up your bed and walk.

The man immediately did as directed. Jesus did not touch him, worked no magic, gave no elaborate rituals for healing. Instead, Jesus used the power of the Word to break through the barriers of false beliefs, of race consciousness, and transformed the man's consciousness. The physical healing was a by-product mental healing. Finally, Jesus tells the man to:

See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.

Wholeness does not come through a one-time shift in conscious. Wholeness is a way of life, a way of being. If we fall back into old habits of negative thinking and behaving, we'll find ourselves right back where we were with the added knowledge that we could choose a better path.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Lenten Season

2010-02-25T18:41:00.000-05:00

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

Lenten Season

2010-02-19T19:05:00.001-05:00

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:

Whether or not you follow the ecclesiastical observance of Lent, consider its metaphysical application. Turn from the simple act of giving up things to a more positive commitment to take up the practice of high-level thinking.

When we commit to a daily study of books such as Charles Fillmore's Keep A True Lent or Ernest Wilson's The Week That Changed the World or a Lenten study guide, the Bible or any spiritually inspiring literature a shift occurs within consciousness. The inner seeker comes to the fore, afire with excitement and anticipation of things to come. Our entire Being hums with the energy of "Yes!

A beautiful, if cold, blue-skied sunny day such as this makes it possible to believe in Spring. The Earth is preparing herself to break forth in the glory of new life, new possibility. Everything exists in potential right here and right now! In Springtime, more than any other season of life, nothing seems impossible. If I am willing to surrender the little self to the Spiritual, then nothing is impossible for me for God in me doeth the work through me.

Wonderful opportunities are opening up for each one of us and for Decatur Unity Church. We must begin now the activity of planting seeds of possibility and stepping out in faith to a brighter, more exciting tomorrow. Allow life to unfold like the petals of a lily, opening wide to the glories and infinite possibilities of God within.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Praying Our Way to Wholeness

2010-02-10T14:33:00.002-05:00

"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.

I grew up in Unity and was taught early on that "I am a child of God. Nothing can hurt me or make me sick". Freeing words of wholeness, yet a heavy burden when I stumble and fall. Feeling guilty about getting sick just adds insult to injury! Life is hard enough without beating up on myself.

I believe that our purpose is to learn and grow in wisdom and understanding and to express more and more of God everyday in every way. Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, wrote in Teach Us to Pray,

God's life is my life, and I vibrate with harmony and wholeness.

It is vitally important to remember that in all of nature, wherever we look, life has a beginning and an ending. As Rev. Mary Storm once pointed out, we all have to die of something. This should be a no-brainer, but our teaching can lead one to believe that dying is the ultimate failure to demonstrate the Truth.

Bernie Siegel, MD wrote in Love, Medicine and Miracles that

No one lives forever; therefore, death is not the issue. Life is. Death is not a failure. Not choosing to take on the challenge of Life is.

The ability to love oneself, combined with the ability to love life, fully accepting that it won't last forever, enables one to improve the quality of life.

Dr. Siegel, an oncology surgeon, found that all too often, a patient who should survive his illness died, while the patient whose case appeared hopeless recovered! He also realized that his profession only studied the "failures" and developed statistics and procedures based upon those who died, explaining away those who survived. He came to the conclusion that

Getting well is not the only goal (in healing). Even more important is learning to live without fear, to be at peace with life, and ultimately death.

Kubler-Ross' mantra was that we should Live until we Die! Dying is not a failure--giving up is. Whatever life we have is a gift of God and learning to honor that gift by the way in which we live is a statement of faith in God. Fear and self doubt blind us to the love of God, but prayer reconnects us to our Source. When we praise the love of God indwelling us richly, we are investing our attention and energy right where it is needed. Charles Fillmore said it this way:

When we direct the mental powers upon a definite idea, faith plays its part; we break into a realm of finer mind activity, called faith or the fire of Spirit.

We Pray Our Way to Wholeness with every God centered thought, with every word of praise in the name of God directed into the very core of our being. We begin by accepting and affirming that we are a child of God, made in the image and likeness of God. Through prayer, we seek a deeper understanding of God in our lives and the promise in Psalm 16:11 that

"You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy, At Your right hand are pleasures for evermore."

And, finally, we come to know in our hearts and minds that in God we have the power to transform our lives, to live the best possible life, one day at a time. With no regrets.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Jesus Prays

2010-02-03T14:28:00.002-05:00

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.

Three stages define Jesus’ ministry: teaching, transition and transformation of His disciples into teachers, thereby, beginning the cycle of ministry over again. Jesus created a self-renewing method for spreading the Word down through the ages. Jesus said in Mt. 28:20 “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” He is with us through His Teachings and as the spark of divinity within each one of us.

John 17 also has three stages: Jesus prays for Himself, He prays for His disciples and He prays for all Believers. Let’s visualize this as a triangle:

Jesus

Disciples Believers

Jesus the Teacher prepares the Disciples to become Teachers and reach out to potential Believers who will come after His crucifixion and resurrection. In ministry, we replicate this process as licensed teachers and ministers teach the congregation, thereby spreading the Word into the larger community. This blog provides an additional platform to spread the His teachings.

Jesus first prays for Himself because “the hour has come” to leave behind the work He has completed and prepare for His transition. In essence, He is asking God for the strength to go through the crucifixion and resurrection, with grace, to glorify God. Jesus has taught that

“this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

Jesus then prays for His disciples because they “they have kept your Word” and received His teachings. He knows what they will face in the world and they must be strong in His name. How often have we felt sorely challenged to hold to the Truth in the face of loss, knowing that so much more was expected of the Disciples?

“Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.

“As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.”

Jesus prays for those who come to believe through the teaching of His disciples. It is through this teaching that the world learns that eternal life comes of knowing God as He truly is. And, further, that the Only Begotten Son of God is not Jesus the Man, but the Christ in every man.

Each one of us is both teacher and student and it is up to us as the sons and daughters of God to let His Truth shine through us brightly, thereby building a better world for all.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Positive Expectations

2010-01-28T20:23:00.004-05:00

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.

Leonard Pitts' column in today's Atlanta Journal Constitution put an interesting spin on this concept. He wrote, in part, that because of the dominance of black athletes in professional sports, potential white athletes in this country were less likely to even try out for the teams. Yet international athletes have no such bias.

"They grew up in places where they didn't get the memo that white men can't jump and grew up unburdened by their supposed athletic impotence.

"But success in any field is not some birthright of skin color, but rather, a function of ...what you deem possible."

It is all too easy to sell ourselves short if we buy into the expectations of others, including teachers, family and peers. Transformational living requires that we set aside negative self-talk anchored in past failure or perceived limitations. Affirming the vision we hold for ourselves is a commitment toward fulfilling God's purpose in our lives. One pundit paraphrased a familiar quote:

"I'll see it when I believe it!"

The first and most important question I can ask myself is: What do I really want my life to look like and how would that feel? The second is, of course: What am I willing to do to grow from here to there? God isn't going to wave a magic wand to make me feel better. It's totally up to me to take the first step, opening out a way for God to express through me.

Leonard Pitts concluded his column with this question:

"What if you expected to succeed?"

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Prayer: Metaphysically Speaking

2010-01-19T10:44:00.001-05:00

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.

"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" ICo. 3:16

Eric Butterworth, Unity minister and author of Discover the Power Within You, wrote about finding and living up to the divine potential in each one of us.

"Our humanity is but the degree to which we have given expression to our divinity. We are human in expression but divine in creation and limitless potential."

and

"The difference between Jesus and each of us is not one of inherent spiritual capacity, but a difference in the demonstration of it."

Self-talk is a key factor in our emotional and spiritual life. It reflects and colors our outlook, our expectations and our experience. Our perception of people and events creates our experience of reality. When we criticize ourselves or others, we are criticizing the Creator's work.

Am I praising God in my body and in my world or am I running a constant litany of criticism and condemnation of myself and others? At the first sign of trouble do I shift into disaster mode or acknowledge God as my source of strength and begin talking myself through the crisis? Even when I cannot change the facts or events, I can choose how I hold it and where I go from here.

William James, a philosopher and psychologist, wrote that "positive self-talk and uplifting prayer changed people's lives"...bringing about what he called"a religion of healthy mindedness." As we draw from the inner well-springs of Christ Consciousness through affirmative prayer and praise, we transform our lives and relationships.

When I learn to set aside criticism and begin to love myself and my neighbor, then, and only then do I learn how to love God. The Prayer of Self-Acceptance is a good place to begin:

I love you, no matter what!

I love you even when you stumble and fall.

I love you even when you make mistakes.

I love you, no matter what!

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Prayer: Metaphysically Speaking

2010-01-14T11:17:00.003-05:00

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:

"The Spirit of 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. 8:16-17

Some cry out in pain and anger, asking "Why should I believe in God, why should I pray to a God who would let this happen to me?! He doesn't listen, doesn't care--why should I?" I have walked that path and never have I felt so empty and alone in my life. My world was ashes, empty of color, of hope. Gradually, I came to the understanding that life without faith in God is no life at all. That no matter how bad things seem in the moment, trying to live without God is like trying to walk uphill on black ice.

I believe that God's will for me is absolute good, but He has given me free will, the right to make choices--whether consciously or by default. Following the herd mentality is the path of least resistance, but rarely the path to spiritual transformation. Prayer is a choice. Living a prayerful, God-aware life is a choice. My choices are the building blocks of my consciousness. In prayer, I drink deeply from the fountain of life.

"Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life." John 4:13-14

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Prayer: Metaphysically Speaking

2010-01-07T15:18:00.004-05:00

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.

Many of us pray for healing, for freedom from fear, anger, and anxiety. Sometimes we pray because we desire to change and grow, perhaps to know more of God and our relationship to Him. Even as we affirm that God is everywhere equally present, we lift our eyes to pray to a God out there. Charles Fillmore wrote in Teach Us to Pray, that

It is man's exalted ideas of God and his disparaging ideas of himself that have built the mental wall that separates them.

It is our very own belief in Michelangelo's glorious God in the clouds which precludes a real relationship with our Creator. But just as important to this disconnect is the question: Do We Really Pray or do we just give lip service to the prayers we learned along the way. Or, worse yet, do we leave the praying to the professionals, only making a desperate plea for help in emergencies?

Rabbi Abraham Heschel raised this question in "Praying by Proxy" from the book Man's Quest for God: Studies in Prayer and Symbolism (p.100) referring to religious services in the Temple, but he could just as easily have been referring to any modern church. He writes that

Services are conducted with dignity and precision. But one thing is missing: Life.

There will be no surprise, no adventure of the soul... He will attain no insight into the words he reads; he will attain no new perspective for the life he lives.

Each Sunday I strive to bring a powerful sense of God right here, right now! Dancing a fine line between wit and wisdom, I want to strike a spark to dry, lazy thinking and ignite a fiery passion to know God, to feel His presence and power in everyone present. We must not get too comfortable with the way things have always been! That's not good enough!

Think and pray and question! S t r e t c h your wings and grow!

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Transformational Living

2009-12-31T16:55:00.003-05:00

Forgiveness: Part II

I’ve just finished reading “The Shock of Conscience” by Rob Baker in Parabola Magazine in the issue on Forgiveness. He begins his essay by noting that we seldom equate Broadway musicals such as Les Miserables with “serious ideas of a spiritual nature. The musical glossed over the inner struggles of Valjean and Javert in spite of several powerful songs. Baker wrote:

“The miserable ones are not so much the starving masses or the politically oppressed as they are the spiritually bankrupt, those individuals who cannot forgive others or themselves.”

Both men came from impoverished backgrounds, Valjean serving 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread and Javert becoming a “self-appointed prosecutor of the Law”. Valjean, the thief, is saved and redeemed through the power of loving forgiveness. Javert, the policeman, is driven to extremes of vengeance because of his complete inability to forgive.

Valjean sought to transform his life in the midst of social and political chaos, learning from and growing through his suffering. Javert, driven by hatred and the turmoil of an inner rage, denied even the possibility of hope and redemption. Valjean ‘won’ through acts of compassion for and surrender to Javert.

“…the real revolution remains an inner struggle for clarity and wholeness…an acceptance of his suffering and something higher that has come to rule his life.”

Is it possible that Valjean and Javert are the opposite sides of the same coin? Is it possible that our inner conflict comes not from the world around us, but from the unforgiven/unforgivable within us? We teach, preach and practice forgiveness of others, but have we learned to forgive ourselves as well?

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Transformational Living

2009-12-31T09:29:00.005-05:00

Keys to Wholeness: Forgiveness

The Burning Bowl is a powerful symbol of forgiveness and letting go to grow. We can hold on to anger and resentment and warm ourselves by the burning fires of turmoil in our stomach. Or not.

It sounds like a ridiculously simple and logical choice: forgive or suffer. Yet, consciously or unconsciously, we slide into “instant replay” mode and allow the perfect storm of ricocheting emotions to build up into an overwhelming wall of doom. Jesus said in Mt. 5:44-45:

“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.”

In Mt.22:37 He said:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And, You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Fr. Thomas Hopko addressed the issue of forgiveness in “Living in Communion”. He writes that we are created in the image and likeness of God and that forgiveness is essential if we are to ”carry on in a spirit of love without letting the evil poison the future.”

We must acknowledge the facts--the pain, allow ourselves to grieve and then we must forgive because:

“The only way you can prove you love God is by loving your neighbor, and the only way you can love your neighbor in this world is by endless forgiveness.”

Transformational living requires that we make conscious choices, daily, to come up higher. Cast off the mental and emotional burdens of the past and begin the New Year lighter and brighter, freer than ever before. As Fr. Hopko wrote:

“Forgiveness is not just the healing of the other, it is the healing of yourself, too. If you don’t forgive, you allow yourself to be poisoned.”

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Advent: Metaphysically Speaking

2009-12-17T09:22:00.004-05:00

Love Came Down at Christmas

Christ is born anew in hearts and minds around the world at Christmas time. And for those with eyes to see and ears to hear, His love fills the earth with glory, the theme for the fourth Sunday of Advent. We come to the Nativity with minds and hearts open and receptive to the Word of God.

The infant Jesus was born to Mary in Bethlehem. Charles Fillmore responded to questions about the Virgin Birth in this way:

Unity accepts the virgin birth of Jesus,
and finds in it a deep metaphysical significance.
Tradition tells us that Mary was not only
virgin by reason of her unmarried state, but she was
also virgin in mind and heart.
Just as Jesus was born to one whose mind and heart were
pure and uncorrupted,
so too is the Spirit of Christ born into individual consciousness
as the mind and heart are made pure and clean.

Awakening consciousness surrounds itself with star light and candle light symbolizing spiritual enlightenment. The angels are messengers of God pointing the way to the Christ. The shepherds keeping watch over their sheep will come to symbolize Jesus as the Good Shepherd—one who protects and guides. The Wise Men from the East represent the inner resources of Spirit giving birth to the One who would be called Teacher. His birth in a stable with a manger for His bed signifies the humble beginnings of all people everywhere.

When we follow His star and let love shine through every thought, word and action, we too shall grow beyond the humble to the glorious.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Advent: Metaphysically Speaking

2009-12-09T09:56:00.001-05:00

Joy to the World!

Like the Wisemen, we seek the Star in the East. During Advent we journey from that place in consciousness we now inhabit to the birth place of wisdom and love, deep within our soul. Our journey can last a mere heart beat or a life time.

Jesus, the teacher, was born 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem. The Christ is born anew in Man with every prayer, with every awakening soul. No matter who we are, where we are or what we have done along the way, the Christ affirms: "and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age." (Mt.28:20)

The Children of Israel were notoriously bad about going astray on their journey of awakening. During the time of Isaiah, God finally resorted to what we would call tough love because the people failed to heed His Word and ignored punishment. But even as He condemned them to paying the consequences of their actions, He reaffirmed His love for them with the promise of a redemption. Isaiah prophesied the return of the people to the House of the Lord:

Many people shall come and say,
"Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths."
He shall judge between the nations,
And rebuke many people;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore.
Is. 2:3-4

If we are to live with hope, in peace, and celebrate the birth of our own indwelling Lord, then we must set aside all warring thoughts and feelings. And if we would feel the joy of Advent, then let us join together to Behold the Christ in all who would war against us. Not to fix them, but to hold them in the Circle of God’s Love.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Advent: Metaphysically Speaking

2009-12-02T10:45:00.006-05:00

His Peace Be Upon You!

Advent is a spiritual journey into the birth of Christ consciousness. If we set aside time from the holiday rush to meditate upon the true meaning and purpose of Christmas, then we feel the rush of joy and anticipation which come from seeking and finding God in the very inmost parts of our being.

Jesus was not born to die for us, but to teach us how to live! To know the love of God and to seek a deeper understanding of His law. Advent and the birth of Jesus symbolize the coming of light into the world at the darkest time of the year. The teachings of Jesus are a shining light amidst the confusions and temptations of the world.

Let us pray for peace of mind and heart for all people, everywhere--and mean it! We pray not just for those we know and approve of, but for those who's actions and beliefs are contrary to all we hold dear. When we behold the Christ in everyone, our light shines brightly unto all the world and we are made new again, free again, in Christ.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

The Metaphysics of Thanksgiving

2009-11-21T09:45:00.003-05:00

Thanksgiving Day traditionally is a time for families and friends to get together to overeat and overdose on football. But for many, it is a day of service to others through food banks, feed the hungry programs, visits and calls. We at Decatur Unity Church will be delivering food and cold weather clothing to a local shelter this week.

Thanks-giving is an opportunity for each of us to consciously, and with purpose, give thanks by giving back to the family of God. As Joel Goldsmith wrote in Leave Your Nets:

There is no kingdom of heaven
except on earth,
so there is no way to achieve heaven
except through achieving it on earth;
and the only way to achieve heaven on earth
is to serve God on earth,
and the only way to serve God on earth
is to serve man in the realization
of God as man's real being.

Unity uses the metaphysical approach to understanding the deeper meanings in life and living through study and prayer. Jesus taught by word and by example often using phrases such as he who has ears to here, let him hear. Jesus sought God's presence through prayer and always gave thanks.

Thanksgiving is a state of consciousness and the more open we are to giving thanks, the more receptive we are to the Kingdom of God and all it's blessings. Every blessing we give, flows through our hearts and minds and then into the world--it isn't possible to give a blessing without being the blessing.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Surrender in Faith

2009-11-11T07:29:00.007-05:00

Charles and Myrtle Fillmore founded Unity upon the power of prayer--to heal, to prosper, to change lives. We who follow in their foot steps often find ourselves struggling with the concept of surrender. To say Let Go and Let God! is easy to say, but to do it requires a large measure of faith in God. Jesus said:

Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me;
nevertheless, not as I will but as You will.

(Mt.26:38)

We have all faced tremendous challenges at times in our lives and have cried out to God to spare us the pain, to ease our fears and doubts. We long for understanding and comfort. Well meaning friends urge say: just have faith or God never gives us more than we can handle....

Surrender to God is not about giving up, but about getting out of the way! We are told that good can come out of bad, that the ill will of Joseph's brothers put him in the right place at the right time. When we are hurting, that's not all that comforting. It has been said that God can do no more for us, than he can do through us. When faced with loss, I can choose to act as I feel or as I believe.

The search for answers can lead us into a closer, more conscious awareness of God. Robert and Janet Ellsworth wrote in Come Apart for Awhile,

"God, I don't understand what is happening here.

I don't like it. But I know that Your will for me is good.
I trust in You. I surrender."

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Claiming the Future

2009-10-29T11:02:00.004-04:00

Many of us have been faced with almost overwhelming changes over the past year. Some of us have sailed through the seeming chaos and found our way to a better life. For those who feel stuck or unable to find the way out, these words from Roy Eugene Davis are right on!

"A time of decision can be the turning point in a person's life. One can take the line of least resistance and fail to grow; he can give in to despondency and withdraw into his private psychological world and become uncaring, neurotic or even psychotic; or he can use his faculties of discrimination and intuition to make the correct decisions and follow through with intelligent and responsible action. The decision is man's alone to make. And how he makes it determines his future experience. "

Light on the Spiritual Path by Roy E. Davis

Unity's message is one of hope and promise in a changing world. We are not bound to the past, nor limited by false expectations. We are the sons and daughters of the Most High, heir to unlimited possibilities! But we must keep faith with God and the promises of the Son if we are to grow into our full potential.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Breaking Out!

2009-10-20T14:09:00.004-04:00

Spiritual growth, stretching mind and spirit, is a keynote to every self help message in the marketplace. But what does that mean and how do we do it? Stripped down to its basics, spiritual growth means coming to a place of knowing God more deeply and learning to express more of God in everyday living.

A root bound plant is an excellent example for being stuck spiritually. A plant that is root bound sends its roots in search of room to grow and nourishment. When those roots hit the walls of the pot, they begin circling and climbing up toward the light and the source of water. In the process, they begin to strangle the plant quite literally so that water actually flows almost straight through the pot. The plant fails to thrive and will ultimately die.

We suffer a similar condition which manifests physically, mentally and spiritually when we hit the walls called "lack and limitation". We can get bound up by resentment and an unwillingness to forgive and let go. We can be bound up in a grasping, hoarding mentality, constantly on guard against theft and envy. We get stuck and caught up in the everyday "struggle to survive", to "make a living" and never lift up our eyes and see God's creation.

Where there is no vision,
the people perish.
Proverbs 29:18

If we would thrive and flourish like the beautiful creation we were meant to be, we must have a vision, a goal which inspires us with a sense of passion. It is the deepest longing of our souls to find meaning and purpose in our lives. Breaking out of stagnation and inertia will open up a whole new world of infinite possibilities!

Rev. Claudia Naylor

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

2009-10-16T13:50:00.004-04:00

The Discovery of Inner Space

The sense of balance and perfect peace which comes with finding one's center is pure joy. Eckhart Tolle quotes the phrase This, too, will pass to point the way through adversity and unanticipated changes. My Mother's preferred version was And it came to pass. The key, here, is in not getting hooked into roller coaster emotions, but maintaining a sense of perspective. In A New Earth, Tolle wrote:

Once you see and accept the transcience

of all things and the inevitability of change,

you can enjoy the pleasures of the world while they last

without fear of loss or anxiety about the future.

He went on to say that it is through detachment that we gain a higher point of view which allows us to see and experience the wholeness of life as a journey rather than as a specific event. Last Sunday I talked about making choices without expecting or demanding the cooperation of others. If I choose to arrive at work early and get organized for opening, co-workers may choose to let me do all of it. I can get angry and self-righteous at being "used". Or I can acknowledge that my choice is just that--my choice.

Tolle defines nonresistance, nonjudgment and nonattachment as the path of true freedom and enlightenment. And in a helter skelter world, it is also the path of peace, a life focused on the journey rather than the destination.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE

2009-10-07T12:54:00.003-04:00

Finding Who You Truly Are

Know Thyself! is one of those well known precepts to which most of us rarely give due consideration. When we cease defining ourselves by the roles we play and the image we see in the mirror, we begin to see truly.

For now we see in a mirror, dimly,
but then, face to face.
Now I know in part, but then I shall
know just as I also am known.
ICo.13:12

Who am I? and Why am I here? are questions which echo across the ages and are just as important today as they were in the beginning. I answer the questions with every thought, every word spoken, every action taken. My heart's desire is that which truly defines me and creates my sense of self, which is not to be confused with those things which I believe I ought to do and be.

If peace is really what you want,
then you will choose peace.

Eckhart Tolle says that if we truly desire a deep abiding peace, we will be that peace even in the midst of chaos or attack upon our person. Sitting alone in quiet prayer, finding peace was a piece of cake, but I remember all too well just how challenging I found true non-resistance in the face of confrontation. And I know that he is correct when he writes that:

When you realize that what
you react to in others is also in you
(and sometimes only in you),
you begin to become aware of your
on ego.

When I cast off the false images and projections of a negative mind set, I free myself to peel away the layers of limitations I've acquired over years of sloppy thinking. If I shift my focus to the good in my life, praising it daily, and begin to send my assurance of good into the world, I open the way for more good to circulate through my life and the world.

Whatever you think people are withholding from
you--praise, appreciation, assistance, love--give it to them.
You cannot receive what you don't give.

My answer to the opening questions: I am a child of God and my purpose here and now is to know more of God, to love God more and to express more of God in my life.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE

2009-09-30T13:56:00.003-04:00

The Pain-Body

Eckhart Tolle defines the pain-body as the stored memories and emotions of people and events in the past. Logically, we know that it is our perception of people and events which creates our experience of reality. As we create a cache of negative memories and attached emotions, we store toxic energy in the very cells of our body.

Each time a new event triggers the stored memory, that event is interpreted in relation to the memory and added to the cache. Is it any wonder that our energy drags and our immune system gives way to disease? Have you ever blurted out in sheer frustration: You make me sick! Ummm, how does that make your stomach feel, your heart?

Our bodies do not interpret incoming data from the mind and emotions--it reacts! If I have a nightmare in which I perceive myself as being attacked, my body jerks me awake in total panic with elevated heart rate and gasping breath. If I see a frightening image on-screen, my body reacts to my perceptions as if I am the one in danger. Real or imagined, my body reacts.

An instinctive response is the body's
direct response to some external situation.
An emotion, on the other hand is the
body's response to a thought.

Self-image and unconscious assumptions are anchored in the pain-body according to Tolle. If I see myself as inadequate, unloved and undeserving of any good, my body and my life will reflect that belief. If I look for trouble, I will find it, trigger it or attract it.

The good news is that we don't have to feed and preserve the negative baggage. When we awaken to the true self and the Presence and Power of God indwelling, we can do a mental and emotional house cleaning to eliminate the stored pain. Tolle says that when we do this,

Our very Presence the becomes
our identity, rather than our thoughts
and emotions.

Leave the past behind and shake off the very dust from your feet...

Rev. Claudia Naylor

A NEW EARTH: AWAKENING TO YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE

2009-09-25T12:45:00.004-04:00

Role Playing

Most of us actually play multiple roles: parent, child, brother, sister or spouse. Added to our familial roles are those of employment and those in community. The roles we play set the parameters by which we define our relationships--friendly, adversarial, loving, defensive, etc. Each role carries its own personal baggage. Eckhart Tolle wrote that

Authentic human interactions
become impossible when you lose
yourself in a role.

One of the most common ways group sessions/meetings begin is with a 'warm-up'--tell us your name and what you do. As we listen, we use the information provided by each individual to 'fit' them into our world. We understand them in the context of their perceived role and how it relates to our role(s). The way in which I present myself to the group reflects my own sense of self.

What really matters is not what
function you fulfill in this world, but whether
you identify with your function to such an extent that
it takes over and becomes a role
that you play.

If I want to experience life without being locked into a role set in concrete, then I must be willing to step back from the known and allow myself to Be fully in the Now moment. Not by resisting or denying, but by recognizing the extent to which I let people and events dictate my experience through emotional and/or self-image triggers.

Then there is Being.
It is found in the still, alert presence of
Consciousness itself, the Consciousness that you are.
Human and Being are not separate
but interwoven.

Try an experiment while walking alone: Feel yourself inside your body, walking. Be aware of looking outward through your eyes. What you see is less important right now than that you are totally aware of yourself present in yourself in the moment

Rev. Claudia Naylor.

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

2009-09-16T12:41:00.003-04:00

Core of Ego

Eckhart Tolle emphasizes the role of what he calls the voice in the head in controlling and directing our lives and the choices we make. In other words, our current choices are dictated by past experiences and memories, rather than the opportunities of the moment.

The central core of all your mind activity consists

of certain repetitive and persistent thoughts, emotions,

and reactive patterns that you identify with

most strongly.

When I play the blame game, I get hooked into a role which places the responsibility for misadventure and suffering on someone else, then I get to dodge my own responsibility and/or guilt for the outcomes in my life. Instead of learning and growing, I get to play the righteous victim.

Non-resistance is the path of peace, of strength. When I refuse to take another's aggressive behavior personally, I go beyond the ego, freeing myself from the collective dysfunctionality as well. I can then respond to inappropriate behavior in a more appropriate manner if a response is needed.

There is the situation and here is

the anger I feel about it, and then I realize

there are other ways of approaching the situation,

other ways of seeing it and dealing

with it.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

2009-09-09T09:07:00.007-04:00

Ego: The Current State of Humanity

Eckhart Tolle defines the ego as a false sense of self, based on mental concepts, which identifies itself with forms, ie, that which is seen. The ego is ever looking back, placing blame, and looking forward toward the acquisition of those things which will 'fulfill' it's desires. Because current possessions fail to provide the lasting happiness ego demands, it has no interest in being present in the Now moment.

The true self, the I Am of Christ Consciousness, has a free playing field in the Now and is free to experience the essential self without labels and pre-judgements. Instead of greeting friends and acquaintances with a lot of mental baggage, we meet them in the Now, free to discover what each of us has become. Tolle wrote:

When you don't cover up the world

with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous

returns to your life that was lost a long

time ago.

Tolle related judging a fellow commuter as crazy because she always talked out loud to herself, complaining and fussing as she went along her way. He, of course, was running a silent commentary about her insanity when he suddenly realized that the only difference between them was that he kept his thoughts to himself instead of talking out loud to himself as she did. I know I have done the same thing all too often--even though I am not verbally venting on the world, those same trash thoughts are chasing themselves around inside my head.

When we shift our attention from what is wrong when we are ill or injured to an external object, such as a flower, we can find and feel the wholeness and beauty in that flower and allow that feeling to wash over us. By connecting to and contemplating the aliveness of the flower, we can shift our awareness into the Now and draw strength and hope into ourselves. This 'transfusion' of aliveness helps us to reconnect with our true self, the eternal I.

Life will give you whatever experience

is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.

How do you know this is the experience you need?

Because this is the experience you are having

at this moment.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

2009-09-01T15:10:00.006-04:00

The Flowering of Human Consciousness

In A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle opens with a section called Evocation. Using the imagery of an unfolding flower as the awakening in consciousness of beauty and enlightenment, he sets the stage for a new understanding of life and living. This first chapter is highly conceptual in nature and lays the foundations for inner exploration.

Most of us have felt that stirring of deep inner joy when we allow ourselves to open up to the glory of the mountains and oceans, streams and forests. I can remember my Dad referring to Sugar Loaf Mountain in North Carolina as "God's country" when I was a child. For me, the ocean brings that same sense of awe he felt then.

Tolle believes that we must get the ego out of the driver's seat in consciousness and find the place of stillness and no-mind within us. In quoting the Bible,

Be still and know that I am God
Ps 46:10

he equates the stillness with no-mind or the formless, and God with the essence of Being which we find within when we stop dashing about, seeking God everywhere else.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Jesus Christ Heals

2009-08-25T15:42:00.006-04:00

Holy Spirit Fulfills the Law

Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. I Co. 6:19-20

The Holy Spirit is the whole Spirit of God , according to Charles Fillmore. And that Spirit fills each and everyone of us, just as Jesus promised in John 14. For too many years we have seen ourselves separate and apart from the Father and the promises of Jesus!

Elohim God created man in His image and likeness and set him upon the earth to grow and prosper in the Garden of Eden. Metaphysically, the Garden represents that perfect state of being when we consciously dwell in oneness with God. Man's desire for more sent him into the world seeking that which he thought left behind in the Garden.

There is in man a natural body and a spiritual body, the natural brought forth from the earth, the spiritual from the breath of God. As Fillmore wrote:

When in the course of our evolution we discern that an allwise Creator must have designed perfection for all, then the transformation from the natural to the spiritual body begins.

The Tree of Life is God-consciousness in man and it is only our preoccupation with the world, with the getting and keeping of knowledge and power and the trinkets of the world which keeps us from the Garden of Eden.

My body is the temple of the living Lord, holy unto God. I praise and nurture it daily, affirming God life in every cell of my being.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

JESUS CHRIST HEALS

2009-08-04T11:04:00.004-04:00

I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life

Many of us were taught that we could only be saved through the personal petition and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus said,

I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:6

We in Unity do not believe that He was speaking as an individual, but as the Christ consciousness indwelling all of creation. That to know the Father was to follow the path of the Son and the teachings on the Kingdom of Heaven.

"I Am" is the name of God in Jesus and in man; through the power of the spoken word we declare the Truth in our lives. No careless word should be turned loose upon the world or any individual consciousness in it. In Jesus Christ Heals, Charles Fillmore wrote that

When man thinks or says "I am"

he is potentially giving freedom to the seed idea

that contains in its spiritual capacity

all of Being

When we learn to energize and expand our understanding of the Christ indwelling, we give birth to a newness of Spirit and heightened creativity. We are heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of Heaven! Nothing must be allowed to 'stand' between us and our good.

Salvation through Jesus Christ

is not accomplished by looking forward

to freedom but by realizing that

we are free in Christ.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Jesus Christ Heals

2009-07-22T11:23:00.003-04:00

Healing Through Praise and Thanksgiving

Living with an attitude of gratitude consciousness is essential to fulfilling our purpose on Earth as the sons and daughters of God. We co-create the world we believe in by seeing it to fulfillment, not by dent of hard labor and suffering. And we know that it is so much easier to give praise and thanksgiving for that which we have already demonstrated in our lives.

Yet it is by praising the good which we desire in our lives which "releases the pent up energies of Spirit within man" according to Charles Fillmore in Jesus Christ Heals. God does not withhold our good from us, but awaits the seeker's understanding to reveal that which is. Our healing, our wholeness is not external to we ourselves, but intrinsic to our true nature.

Instead of a heaven after death,
the new Christianity teaches a kingdom of
the heavens existing now as a righteous state of mind.
It teaches that man makes his heaven here and now
by the formative power of his thought.

Every story in the Bible is about more than the simple facts of the story. In the story of the loaves and the fishes in Matthew 14:13, Jesus gives thanks for what is already evident (the 5 loaves and 2 fish) and blesses the potential for that which is needed. The miracle isn't an event frozen in time, but the teaching and the demonstration of the riches of the Father as our instant, constant and abundant supply.

When it dawns upon man that he has
within him the primal spiritual spark of God,
the living Word or Logos,
and that through the Word he is (linked) with the
original Mind, he has the key to infinite soul unfoldment.

Nothing is impossible with God! When I begin first by praising and giving thanks for all the good I feel and see all around me, my soul leaps up with joy and I begin calling forth all the good I desire!

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Jesus Christ Heals

2009-07-15T11:04:00.005-04:00

The Fullness of Time

Divine Order is a key concept in personal growth which is often overlooked in the journey to inner and outer wholeness. When we set out to transform our lives through study, meditation and the practical application of spiritual law, we need a comprehensive focus if we are to fulfill our personal goals. All too often, personal crisis precipitates our spiritual journey with a very narrow focus: healing, prosperity, personal relationships, etc.

Divine Order is the demonstration of perfect balance in our lives and in our world. Denial and affirmation have equal roles in the healing journey, but they are most effective when they are applied across the board. I cannot expect to demonstrate prosperity in my personal finances while maintaining an aggressively negative attitude toward either the "fat cats of Wall Street" or the homeless in my own town.

Neither can I expect to demonstrate wholeness in any part of my life so long as I am unprepared to apply spiritual laws to all of my life. Eating right and thinking right are just as important to my physical well-being as to my spiritual life. If I cling to beliefs in financial or educational limitations, then will not I, cannot be successful in casting off limiting thoughts about my health and personal relationships.

Charles Fillmore said it this way in Jesus Christ Heals:

Before you can realize the mighty power of ideas
you must unify them. All must pull together.
Get you ideas in divine order, and a mighty mind force
will begin to work for you.
This divine order is necessary to the upbuilding
of both mind and body.

If I pray daily for peace of mind and heart, but focus upon news reports of wars and famines, how can I hope to demonstrate the peace I pray for? If I pray for healing even as I continue to abuse and misuse my body, how can I ever demonstrate improvement in my health? Healing, of any sort, requires perfect balance in body, mind and spirit and a willingness to grow in the fullness of Being.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Jesus Christ Heals

2009-07-08T11:58:00.004-04:00

Indispensable Assurance

The teachings of Unity emphasize the power of faith in choosing the life we want to live and our willingness to act upon the inner call to come up higher. Charles Fillmore wrote in Jesus Christ Heals that:

A man without ambition is like a ship afloat on the waves without
sails or power. Such a man simply drifts; if he reaches port
safely it is by chance.
But a ship under full sail or power needs one other important thing
and that is a rudder (which) needs a man to handle that
rudder, and that man needs faith.

Anyone can read about truth and talk about truth, but living the truth requires a deep and abiding faith in God as our own indwelling Lord. It is through the activity of faith that we find the courage to speak the truth and to live that truth with confidence.

Most of us get to the sound of an alarm clock, turn on the lights and put on the coffee/tea without a second thought--more by rote than anything else. Yet how many of us 'turn on/tune into' Spirit just as promptly as we turn on the 'real' electricity? No man-made current can hold a candle to the illumination of Spirit!

That spark of inner illumination that is God within, reveals a world of infinite possibilities and promise! We can literally see more clearly the ideas and choices stretching out before us. Faith will open a way to reveal and express more good in our lives than we could ever hope to imagine or realize without first acknowledging that:

God is our instant, constant and abundant source of all good!

No power or principality on earth can deny us or keep us from our good, for truly, we are the sons and daughters of the Most High, heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ! That is the Truth and the key is Faith.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Jesus Christ Heals

2009-07-01T11:56:00.004-04:00

God Said, and It Was So

The power of the spoken word of Truth transforms darkness into light, defeat into hope and lifts up the weary spirit. Feeling and knowing the power and the presence of God within opens out a way for our true potential to express freely.

Charles Fillmore wrote in Jesus Christ Heals:

When Jesus said:
The words that I have spoken unto you
are spirit, and are life.

He was speaking in terms of that inner Word
which creates all things.
The word... grows in the minds of all who give them
place, just as a beautiful flower or a great tree
grows from the seed germ planted in the
ground.

Jesus wrote no books; neither did He build monuments to Himself, yet His words live on in the minds and hearts of people around the world. His teachings were clear and simple with the power to change lives. Easy to study and to talk about, but powerless to transform until and unless they are put into practice in daily living.

The words that I speak have the power to heal or to harm. If I am to be that place where God shines through, then my life must be lived from within out--a celebration of the Truth in the here and now.

So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11

Jesus Christ Heals

2009-06-25T08:47:00.004-04:00

The Omnipotence of Prayer

Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, wrote in Jesus Christ Heals that:

Prayer is not supplication or begging
but a simple asking for that which we know is
waiting for us at the hands of the Father
and an affirmation of its existence.

Prayer allows us to release the burden of doubt and fear and find that still center within our own consciousness. Joel Goldsmith wrote in Leave Your Nets that "in the presence of God, there is nothing left for which to pray".

I don't need to beg or barter with God for the good I seek. Instead, I need to open myself up to the power and presence of Christ indwelling and allow God to reveal my path to fulfillment. My path will be clear when I am, and not a moment before. To pray without ceasing does not mean pounding on the 'door' of God consciousness, but to replace the chaotic 'background noise' of my mind with a steady awareness of God.

Such a concept of God gives man
a point of contact that is never absent;
in all places and under all conditions he has the
assurance of the attention and help of God
when he realizes the Father's presence.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Jesus Christ Heals

2009-06-17T09:32:00.006-04:00

"Producing Results"

Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, co-founders of Unity, demonstrated the healing power of faith in God through transformative thinking. Believing in and affirming that "I am a child of God and therefore do not inherit sickness!" allowed Charles and Myrtle to overcome their own health challenges and lay the foundation for a world-wide prayer ministry.

Charles Fillmore wrote in Jesus Christ Heals that healing must follow the inner realization of our own true nature.

"I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly."
Jn. 10:10

When we recognize it and open our
consciousness to it, it comes flowing into mind
and body with its mighty quickening, healing power,
and they are renewed and transformed.

If I truly believe that the perfect life of God dwells in me, then I ought to demonstrate perfect health in mind and body. Yet, I do not. Last Friday I had meals on wheels to deliver and a long list of new mothers and their infants to visit at Southern Regional. When I got up that morning, my left knee was giving me fits and I informed it that I didn't have time for pain. For the next three hours, "it" was a non-issue. But the minute I finished the last visit, the pain came charging back!

Now, clearly, my mind was fully capable of setting aside pain and the limping it would trigger for three hours but then allow it to return without a conscious decision to do so. Even though it really hurt, I had to laugh at myself for "playing" such a stupid game with mind and body. The glimmer of belief begins in the mind, but must be irrevocably linked to inner faith and conviction before the outer demonstration of wholeness can manifest.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Jesus Christ Heals

2009-06-11T07:59:00.006-04:00

"Realization Precedes Manifestation"

It seems to me that we are often so focused on seeing the demonstration or manifestation of Truth, that we "put the cart before the horse" in our prayer work. And because we don't see the results we seek, we virtually beat on the door of God-consciousness demanding results, repeating our prayer request ad nauseam. Or worse yet, perhaps we lose faith in God.

In Truth, God never fails! Sometimes we don't recognize the answer because it doesn't look like or sound like the answer we seek. Sometimes the answer is no. But often, the problem lies in our failure to "seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Mt 6:33)

Realization is the foundation principle of manifestation and "the supreme realization of man is his unity with God". (Charles Fillmore) Whether I pray for myself or others, I must first abide in the power and the presence of God, allowing myself to feel His love, lifting up my mind and heart into His care and keeping. With a deep sense of gratitude, I release any concerns, any requests in the sure knowledge that they are answered in God's own time. Fillmore stated it this way:

"When man becomes so much at one with
God-Mind that he abides in the consciousness
of health he enters the eternal peace in which
he knows that 'it is finished'."

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Jesus Christ Heals

2009-06-04T13:43:00.003-04:00

"God Presence"

The greatest joy in living with an abiding faith that God is everywhere equally present is that no matter how much time I spend by myself, I am never lonely. I find that I am easy with myself and confident in a new found freedom. Whatever God calls me to, I know that He will provide me with the means for fulfilling His purpose.

When I retired from Clayton County last fall, I was ecstatic! Yes, the economy was in free fall and directly impacting carefully laid plans, but I was looking forward to planning my days and hours around a richer life of faith. I believe that the search for an abiding faith in and richer experience of the Spiritual Life is the very thing which sends most of us in search of a church family. Not dogma or ritualistic trappings, but the desire to know God, to experience His love in fellowship with others of like mind.

The second chapter of Jesus Christ Heals delves into our God-concept and how we form our lives around that core belief. Charles Fillmore wrote:

I am now in the presence of pure Being and immersed in the Holy Spirit of
life, love and wisdom. I acknowledge Thy presence and power, O blessed Spirit.
In Thy divine wisdom now erase my mortal limitations, and from Thy pure
substance of love bring into manifestation my world, according
to Thy perfect law.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Jesus Christ Heals

2009-05-27T12:24:00.009-04:00

"Be Thou Made Whole"

Modern medicine 'creates' miracle upon miracle, yet all too often it feels as if our lives are overrun by disease, dis-ease and discomfort. The disease of the moment seems to be 'swine flu' because of the current media frenzy. Is it just me, or do you find yourself wondering why we find ourselves suffering from, if not dying from, diseases our grandparents never even heard of or never worried about if they had?

Has our dependence upon modern conveniences and modern science turned us away from our Source? The first chapter of Jesus Christ Heals by Charles Fillmore suggests a less 'modern' approach to life and living:

"Jesus saw in Himself the perfect pattern of God. He lived so close to
that pattern that He became its perfect expression. As He continued
to live closer and ever closer to God, He beheld all men as living
inventions of God, and through His spiritualized mentality, awakened
the image of the perfect pattern of God in those who came to Him
for help. Thus, by arousing their souls' energy to such an extent
that the physical became immersed in the healing life, He enabled
the perfect man to come into manifestation."

I believe that we have become so rushed and distracted by the pace of modern life, that we often lose sight of our own true nature as the Children of God, made in the image and likeness of God. I know how easy it is to stumble out of bed and stagger into a day which seems to spread endlessly before us, a continuation of all the days before and the days yet to be. And that's just not right!

We've all felt that inner longing for something more, a sense of hope and connection to something greater than we ourselves. We want to feel the breath of God stirring our souls and calling us to a new purpose, the possibility of living the life for which we were created. We want to feel whole again physically, mentally and spirituality. Reconnecting to our God-self through prayer and meditation is the first step.

Transforming our lives begins with changing our minds. "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." We must harmonize our thoughts and actions with our desires for a healthier and more meaningful life.

If I always think what I always thought,
I'll always be what I've always been,
I'll always get what I always got!

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Daily Word May 17 2009

2009-05-19T17:52:00.004-04:00

Transformational Living/video

2009-05-08T06:07:00.003-04:00

Reach Out/video

2009-04-29T19:31:00.004-04:00

Follow Me/video

2009-04-23T17:15:00.005-04:00

What One Man Can Do!

2009-04-14T11:09:00.009-04:00

Last Sunday we took a closer look at the concept of Passover as it relates to the Passion Week in Christianity. In Judaism, the Passover calls to remembrance the escape from slavery in Egypt to freedom as the Children of God. Jesus called us to come up higher and experience a new relationship with God, to let go into God, into wholeness. The symbolism of the wine and the bread, representing the lifeforce (blood) and the very substance (flesh) of our being represents the very living presence of the Christ within each of us. Jesus planted the seeds of understanding in the disciples which would bear fruit after the resurrection.

Good Friday represents the final rejection of Jesus by those who refused to accept Him as the Son of God. The Sanhedrin, bound by its rigid adherence to the Law and the temporal power they held, refused to even open up to the possibility of change, to receiving the Living Word of God. The chief priests and Pharisees tried to destroy the message by crucifying the man, thereby maintaining their control over the religious and secular lives of the Jews

The disciples, frightened and confused, scattered like leaves driven before the winds of a storm they did not understand. These were men who were dedicated to the man and to the Son of God, men who had given up all that they had to follow him with a deep and abiding love for their teacher. When Jesus breathed His last, the Temple veil was torn apart and earthquakes split the very rocks around them, the Centurion proclaimed: "Truly, this was the Son of God!" I believe that the broken rocks and the torn veil in the Temple represent the breaking up of the rigid power and mindset which had rejected Jesus.

The body of Jesus was hastily moved to a burial tomb and a large stone was rolled across the stone in preparation for the Sabbath. The chief priests and Pharisees went to Pilate to demand that the tomb be sealed and guards placed before it so that the disciples couldn't steal the body of Jesus and then claim that He had fulfilled His promise: After three days I will rise.

The two Mary's returned to the tomb on the morning of the third day to perform the ritual preparation of the body. When they arrived at the tomb, the stone had been rolled away and an angel proclaimed the Resurrection to them and sent them away to tell the others. Joy and hope flew into the hearts and minds of all those left bereft by His death! His disciples had vested all their faith and hope in Jesus even though He had repeatedly told them that they had the same Spirit in them and could do all that He could do. But they could not even conceive of such a possibility while He remained with them. With the Resurrection, they finally understood the wine and the bread of the Last Supper--understood that Jesus was now and always would be with them as the very essence of their being.

His final command to them set them on the path of life:

All authority has been given to Me

in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and

make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the

Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things

that I have commanded you; and lo,

I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Matthew 28:18

Today and everyday, let us remember that the Teachings of the Master are with us always and that our very lives will be transformed by His Word. Carol's solo today carries the power of His message and His life.

What one man can do is dream...

dream a life open to the Word

What one man can do is Love...

the world enough to heal it

What one man can do is Speak

the Truth into being

What one man can do is change the world

and make it new again!

No matter how dark and hopeless it seems before the dawn, remember we were called to come up higher, called to make a difference in the world. Remember, what one man can do, we can do also!

Betrayal & Redemption/video

2009-04-10T07:51:00.007-04:00

Teachable Moments

2009-03-31T16:51:00.009-04:00

The Spiritual Journey we take during Lent is just as important as Easter Sunday itself because the process of preparation that we go through during the Lenten Season provides us with everything we need to fulfill our true nature and to allow us to experience and express more of God. So while we celebrate Easter Sunday, the spiritual journey just as important, if not more so. Because without the preparation, there is no resurrection. So we prepare ourselves for a new life, a deeper understanding of and a new relationship with God.
Prepare

Jesus did not come to die for us. He came to teach us how to live--how to live as the sons and daughters of God, to grow in understanding and in the ability to demonstrate the Truth in our lives. He used precepts and parables to teach us, to open our eyes. And it's interesting, I believe, that He used simple, everyday examples and symbolism to point the way to understanding. He would tell us a story and then say "but this is what it means," which gives us a Bible which is the Living Word of God.

The Bible is not words and rules cast in stone, but words with meaning just as relevant today as when they were written down. The underlying principle is eternal, yet applicable to our everyday lives--the Living Word of God. The Bible has layers of meaning and the more we commit ourselves to personal growth with a willingness to work through the layers, the more we recognize what is really there. The more we long to find a way to apply His teaching to our lives the more we open up to our full potential in the here and now.

During the period when Jesus was born, Israel was so hooked into the letter of the law and a whole system of rules under which the people lived, that they had lost the meaning and message that God is our Father, that He created us in His image and likeness. And that continues to happen today when churches get so lost in the structure of religion, that they forget the teaching and the Teacher.

Jesus came to shift our focus from the letter of the law to the spirit of the law. To shift our focus from a vengeful, tyrant God to a Father who loves us and wants to lead us back to a clear, pure experience of joy. When we long for understanding, our lives become filled with a richness and a love that nothing in the outer can ever take away from us. We can go on working in the world, but we are working from the center, the Presence of God. As Gandhi said: My life is my message. The life that we choose is the life of Truth, a life based upon the Teachings of Jesus and the Father who loves us--not a Father who controls us and dictates our actions, not a Father pulling a puppet's strings, but a Father who has given us free will and the right to choose. When we come to a place where we can live our lives from an understanding of God in our lives, we live a life where love shines through and attracts others to His Word. When we have that inner peace and purpose, people are drawn to it.

The first story this Sunday is the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12, not the Rich Young Man--that's another story.

The ground of a certain rich man yielded
plentifully. And he thought to himself, saying,
'What shall I do, since I have no room to
store my crops?
I will do this: I will pull down my barns
and build greater, and there will I store all
my crops and my goods.'

And then I will say to my soul,
'Soul, you have many goods laid up for many
years; take your ease; eat, drink and be merry!'

But God said to him,
'Fool! This night your soul will be required of you;
then whose will those things be which you have provided?'
Luke 12:16-20

Again, Jesus is reminding us that possessions can possess us, because we need places to keep our possessions safe, we focus energy on guarding them and counting them. But, when it's time to go, they're just stuff! Some of our things may have value to someone else, but in the end, it's just stuff, stuff we've used to build walls around us, to insulate us from the Kingdom.

One of the things I've learned is that there is no free ride, no coasting--just because I've done good in the world in the past is not enough. In the first lesson of the Lenten Series, John the Baptist challenged the Pharisees for believing that their heritage from David and strict adherence to the Mosaic Law was all that was required of them. But yesterday's good work's only count for yesterday. What you are doing now, today, is what counts. If you're not growing and learning and giving, you're dead on arrival. And that feels pretty harsh.

Ironically, or not, I planned for my retirement by setting aside a separate retirement fund, apart from my pension. I made plans for a second career which required a lot of study and preparation, including start-up expenses. But guess what happened to those investments last fall when the markets came tumbling down? And that second career? Okay, the best laid plans.... When my Mother asked me what I planned to do now, I said: "Mom, I'm not planning anything anymore!" Lord have mercy on me! Show me the way, teach me the way you want me to go and I'll do it!

I certainly had not planned for nor anticipated taking on this ministry last year, and yet, here I am! Obviously, God had plans which took priority over mine and what I thought I ought to be doing. So now I'm doing Meals on Wheels and Volunteer Chaplaincy at the hospital and I'm working on quilts for a hospice and I'm enjoying myself while I wait to see what God has planned for me. Now maybe this doesn't sound like responsible behavior, but I've already tried responsible and I didn't like the results I got!

Now that brings us to a series of verses in Luke 12:22-34 which are among some of the most well know and oft quoted in the Bible. The title of this section in my Bible is 'Do Not Worry' and I'm going to break it into sections to make it a little easier to handle.

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about
your life, what you will eat;
nor about the body, what you will put on.
Life is more than food, and the body is
more than clothing.
Luke 12:22-24

Now think about it--the Rich Fool built bigger barns to store all his stuff. All it would have taken was a fire or a flood and all he had would be lost. People in other parts of our country are experiencing precisely that right now. If we think about the manna in the Wilderness in symbolic terms, then the rule allowing the Children of Israel to gather just enough for one day at a time makes sense. They were on the move with no storage and no way to preserve more than a day's worth of food--more would have created problems.

God provides! But not until we get ourselves, our lives in harmony with God do we experience that abundance. This is not an easy understanding to come to, but I think Myrtle Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, expressed it well in Myrtle Fillmore's Healing Letters:

When we develop our soul and express its
talents and capabilities in loving service to God
and mankind, all of our temporal needs will be supplied
in bountiful measure.

Life is not about accumulating stuff, it's about understanding our spiritual resources in God and putting that to work in our world. Life is about finding ways to make a difference, and finding ways to give and to express more of God. That gift, flowing through us, energizing and healing us and giving us that extra little spark, keeps us going and growing.

And which of you by worrying can add

one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able
to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow; they
neither toil nor spin;
and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.
Luke 12:25-27

Again, we're looking at physical appearances versus the spiritual, the outer life versus the inner life. It is so easy to stand on the corner, praying to be seen rather than going alone into the Silence with the Father. For children in school, everything is about what they're wearing rather than what they are supposed to be learning. Adults are no different; we're just old enough to know better. When we lose ourselves in worrying about how others see us, we lose the connection with our inner being, our true self.

And do not seek what you should eat or what
you should drink, nor have an anxious
mind. But seek the kingdom of God,
and all these things shall be
added to you.
Luke 12:29-31

This is probably easier to believe on Sunday morning here together than during the rest of the week. But if we seek God within first, before we go out and take on the world, we can hold to what we know to be true. The Kingdom of Heaven is a feeling, a Presence, within us and when we acknowledge that Presence we can take ourselves into life and do what we need to do without getting hooked into the craziness. We can access the Power and Presence of God within to find strength, to find joy and meaning in life.

Do not fear, little flock, for it is your
Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Sell what you have and give alms;
provide yourselves money bags which do not
grow old, a treasure in the heavens
that does not fail, where no thief
approaches nor moth destroys.
For where your treasure is, there
your heart will be also.
Luke 12:32-34

Remember what if feels like to fall in love and lose your mind and all sense of limitation and lack? Fall in love with God and feel that same overpowering feeling of joy! Let the love of God be the treasure of your heart and live again!

Excerpt from Sunday Lesson
Rev. Claudia Naylor

Chrysalis

2009-03-24T09:51:00.005-04:00

We understand that the Lenten Season is more than simple fasting and releasing. At a much deeper level, Lent is about cleansing mind, body and spirit. We would not dream of putting a beautiful Easter outfit on a filthy body. Neither should we even consider the idea of trying to fill mind and body with the essence of His teachings before flushing out the negative constructs of the past. Unity's Spiritual Preparation for Easter 2009 for today is, in part:

You are filled with wisdom, the wisdom of the ages.
Let your mind be filled with faith and understanding
and your heart with peace and compassion.

Turn within to Me, and you will see your way clearly.
Walk in the light of My love. Live in the way I created
you to live--in peace and harmony with others

Open your heart to Me, My Beloved,
and you will be guided to make wise decisions and
good choices that bless others as well as yourself.

Let's take a moment to fill in a bit of background on the relationship between Jesus, the scribes and the Pharisees. While His message to His followers is of love, repentance and forgiveness, He seems terribly critical and unforgiving of the religious leaders of Israel. Understanding why "Woe to you Pharisees!" or "Woe unto you!" seems to be His standard greeting to them will help us place His ministry in a larger context.

The Pharisees set themselves apart not only from the Romans and Gentiles, but from other Jews whom they considered unclean, thereby creating a kind of caste system. The Pharisees and scribes believed that if they observed all of the laws of Moses and the oral traditions that God would protect them. There was even a belief that if every Jew observed all the laws and all the traditions on one day that the Jewish Kingdom would be restored! The scribes, also called rabbis, were those responsible for teaching and interpreting the laws and rendering judgments to the people.

The scribes and Pharisees saw Him sitting down to dinner with tax collectors and sinners or coming to their table without ritual washing before the meal and could not accept even the possibility that this man could be the Messiah, the Son of God. He allowed His disciples to gather food on the Sabbath and He healed on the Sabbath! The Messiah they expected would never break the laws of Moses, but would bring all peoples to the God of Israel and the trappings of Judaism.

What Jesus criticized in these leaders was the rigid mindset and self-righteous 'look at me and see how holy I am' stance which put them apart from and above those whom they ought to teach and lead. And He was also warning each of us to be wary of that same condition within ourselves, for none of us is immune to such thinking. If we pray to be seen by others, if we claim the best seat in the sanctuary to be seen by others, then we have forgotten the true purpose of prayer and worship. He challenged the Pharisees and scribes to come up higher and find a new relationship with God.

Jesus came to fulfill the Law, to cast aside the barriers to understanding and connection to God which the Pharisees and scribes had erected with their laws and traditions. He came to open a way for all people to praise, to love and to worship God. Last week, in the story of the Prodigal Son, we saw the Elder Son rigid in his adherence to the letter of the law, while his brother , who went into the world, awakened to a deeper understanding of and a new relationship with his Father. When we cast aside what we 'know' and seek a deeper understanding of God and the teachings of Jesus, we open ourselves to personal transformation and a life richly blessed by the love of the Father.

Now, let's take a look at The Lamp of the Body as an example of what Jesus wanted them to understand.

No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a secret
place or under a basket, but on a lampstand,
that those who come in may see the light.

The lamp of the body is the eye.
Therefore, when your eye is good, your
whole body also is full of light.
Luke 11:33-34

The first verse above can be likened to the way in which the Pharisees did precisely the opposite in focusing on their own personal holiness rather than teaching and opening up the wisdom and laws of God to the people. Because we want more than just external illumination, we seek to open ourselves to the light of God, to see as God would have us see. And when we do, we often say, "Oh, I see now!" referring not to external vision but to understanding. If we are filled with light, there is no inner darkness, no doubt, because we have come to know God.

A certain Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner, setting up the next lesson when Jesus failed to perform the ritual cleansing required before eating.

Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup
and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed
and wickedness. Foolish ones! Did not He who made
the outside make the inside also?

But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue
and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the
love of God.
Luke 11:39-40,42

Jesus accuses them of performing the outer ritual, the letter of the law and tradition, while ignoring the very task to which they have been called. They have failed to seek inner purity and the love of God and see nothing wrong with that! This is what Jesus illuminates for all of us through the use of this example with the Pharisees. We must not perform for the praise of others, but truly seek to know God. to love God and to live God-conscious lives.

The final section today deals with the scribes, the lawyers, whom He also accuses.

Woe to you also, lawyers!
For you load men with burdens hard to bear,
and you yourselves do not touch the burdens
with one of your fingers.

Woe to you lawyers!

For you have taken away the key of knowledge.
You did not enter in yourselves,
and those who were entering in you hindered.
Luke 11:46,52

What worse condemnation could be made against those who were called to be teachers? The burden of so many laws and traditions and the guilt for failing to fulfill the full law denied the people any hope for the love of God, the kingdom of God. And because the scribes and Pharisees never sought to understand the spirit of the law, they denied access to those who wanted to know and to understand.

Jesus came into the world as the light of the world, to fulfill the law and bring all people to the love of God and the knowledge that each one of us is a child of God, heirs and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. Eric Butterworth explained it this way in his book, Discover the Power Within You.

The Christ in you is you
at the point of God... you must make the
decision to act as though you are a spiritual being.

I'm sure that all of us are familiar with the idea of the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly. One caterpillar says to another,

"Look up there at that butterfly.
You'd never get me up in one of those things!"

And he's right! As long as we are stuck in the mindset of the caterpillar, we can't see ourselves as anything more than we appear to be. As Butterworth writes:

It is self-evident that the caterpillar and the butterfly
live in entirely different worlds...yet we know that they
are simply different levels of expression of one entity.

Jesus wanted us to grow into the fullness of being, which would allow us a deeper understanding of God and the wisdom to express our true selves. Imagine the joy of awakening to your true self, unfurling the shimmering wings of light and experiencing the Kingdom of God!

Coming Home

2009-03-16T19:15:00.008-04:00

The Lenten Season is a bit like old fashioned Spring cleaning, though in this case you're not only cleaning out your physical home, but your spiritual home as well. Now, while I'll readily admit I'm not all that fond of cleaning house, it makes a lot of sense in this instance. We want to rid ourselves of all the clutter, inside and out, getting rid of the dust bunnies under the sofa and the cob webs in our heads.

Jesus used parables as one of His teaching tools--a familiar kind of story with multiple levels of meaning. He used the fifteenth chapter of Luke to present three different stories about repentance and redemption in response to another challenge by the Pharisees and scribes.

The Pharisees, who were too uptight and rigid in their self-righteousness and ritual stunted mentality, objected to Jesus ministering to tax collectors and sinners, even breaking bread with them! They were too full of themselves to become empty vessels receptive to the Word of God.

In these three parables, the shepherd lost one sheep out of one hundred, the woman lost one coin out of ten and the Father 'lost' the youngest of two sons. Jesus used these parables to show that God loves and values every single one of us equally. While the sheep mindlessly wandered off as they will do and the woman lost her coin through carelessness, the Prodigal Son left the Father's house by choice not chance.

How many times have we set out on our own, claiming "I can do it myself!", only to find ourselves up against a hard place, singing a different tune? "Ok, God, I messed up again. What are we going to do to fix it?" Sound familiar? Or maybe we try playing the blame game again, you know the one: "I didn't do this to myself, no way! It was ......" Just fill in the blank. Of course, we can't grow through the lesson and the pain until we accept responsibility for the choices we've made--just like the Prodigal Son.

A certain man had two sons. And the
younger of them said to his father,
"Father, give me the portion of goods that
falls to me." So he divided to them his livelihood.
And not many days after, the younger son gathered
all together, journeyed to a far country, and there
wasted his possessions with prodigal living.
Luke 15:11-13

Perhaps the son set out with the intent and expectation of succeeding on his own terms, a real desire to know and to learn more than he might in his own home. Of course, he may well have just wanted a chance to get away from his Father's rules and restrictions and see the world. Clearly, once he reached the far country, he lost sight of his true self and any good he might have accomplished on his own. It's easy enough to be distracted by bright lights and city ways, even when we know better.

But when he had spent all,
there arose a severe famine in that land,
and he began to be in want.
Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of
that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the
pods that the swine ate, and no one gave
him anything.
Luke 15:14-16

Not only did the son waste all that he had in loose living, but the land where he lived was faced with serious famine of its own. Which meant, of course, that jobs and food were hard to come by during that time, forcing him to do what no Jew of that time would dream of doing--tending to a herd of swine. He had hit bottom and, worst of all, the very swine he fed ate better than he. Sometimes, we don't switch off the auto pilot until we slam into a wall or find ourselves at the bottom of a pit.

But when he came to himself, he said,
How many of my father's hired servants have
bread enough and to spare, and I
perish with hunger!

When he came to himself, when he remembered who he was, his first thought was of his Father and the way home. There are times in our lives when we lose ourselves in other people, in other places, and find ourselves someplace where we never meant to go. When we finally return to our senses, we remember who we are--the sons and daughters of God, made in the image and likeness of God. Eric Butterworth put it this way in Discover the Power Within You:

The "image" is man as God sees him.
The "likeness" is that which must be worked out
in man's own mind and made manifest in his body
and affairs. It is man's destiny to produce a
likeness in the without of the image
within himself.

The son not only came to himself and remembered who he was, but he acknowledged his mistake to himself and to the Father.

I will arise and go to my father,
and I will say to him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven and before
you, and I am no longer worthy to be
called your son. Make me like
one of your hired servants.

Luke 15:18-19

All too often, the temptation is to say "Whoops, help me!" and never truly come face to face with the error thinking which brought us to this state. Until we peel away the layers of denial and accept responsibility for our choices, we will not be ready to grow through it. Repentance and redemption.

The Prodigal Son returned home to a joyful welcome and the healing balm of his Father's love. He was quickly enfolded in his Father's robe and shoes placed upon his feet, for only slaves went barefoot in those days. And his Father placed a ring upon his finger, symbolizing his place in the Father's house.

The Elder Brother, not unlike the Pharisees, saw the Younger Brother as a sinner who should not be welcomed into the Father's House. The Elder risked nothing and gained nothing. The Younger risked everything and gained a new understanding of and a new relationship with his Father.

God's Spirit in Music

2009-03-11T16:06:00.002-04:00

I have been a musician since I was five years old. I confess that I did not experience the presence of God in music until I was in my thirties. Since I am a vocalist as well as a keyboardist, I can experience God both through the sound of the music and through the verbage. When the two come together I actually feel a shiver run over me and if I'm singing I will choke up, almost to tears. There have been many times in my life when I was seeking guidance from God and found it through a song that came on the radio, or one I stumbled across in the store. I encourage everyone to use music as a background for their time of meditation. It really helps you settle into the meditative state and can help you connect with God's spirit. Whatever you do, keep some music playing during your day. I gravitate towards classical, new age, and smooth jazz, but I'm sure that God's voice can be found in whatever type of music you like. Just listen!

Carol T.
Music Director - Decatur Unity Church

COME YE APART

2009-03-10T12:08:00.009-04:00

Unity teaches that Lent is about fasting from the negative and feasting on the positive. We fast from living in the past and repeating the behaviors which produced the unsatisfactory conditions in which we find ourselves. Best of all, we are in charge of changing our own behavior, our own words and, therefore, our very lives.

Think of life as if it were a satellite receiver--if the sports channels don't interest you, delete them from your viewing list. If you don't enjoy the 'talking-heads', delete them. Don't tune into those 'disease of the week' or 'my boyfriend dumped me for my grandma' shows.

If I don't take charge of my programming, then I'll continue to be on wide receiver. But if I take control of my life and delete everything which has held me back, choosing a brand new outlook, I can transform my life. And that's what the Lenten Season is really about and that's what Paul was talking about:

And do not be conformed to this
world, but be transformed by the
the renewing of your mind.
Romans 12:2

Spirit came to Him in the form of a dove and a voice from Heaven declared: You are my beloved Son; in You I am well pleased. The baptism with water represents the cleansing or purifying of the physical body. Through prayer and meditation we cleanse and purify the inner self. Baptism by the Spirit purifies our soul and transforms us into the Child of God.

Jesus was then led into the Wilderness by the Spirit where He fasted for forty days. Metaphysically, the wilderness represents undisciplined or unfocused thinking. Here, Jesus would have time to clarify His thinking and free Himself from personal ties and responsibilities, which would be essential to taking on the mantle of Christ and the family of God.

Jesus struggled to understand and accept God's call--not a journey to be take on lightly. Through prayer, meditation and fasting He would come to a place of oneness with the Father and willingly set aside His needs and desires. The number forty is usually seen as a number of completion, a four-square number laying the foundation for His ministry. Completing His fast, Jesus was hungry.

The Devil, Satan, the Adversary--all names for the ego-centric consciousness which must be cast out before going forward. Temptation challenges us to falter, to surrender to the old ways or to take the easy way out.

If You are the Son of God, command this stone
to become bread.

But Jesus answered him, saying,
It is written, Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word of God.
Luke 4:3-4

Jesus could easily have eliminated hunger by turning stones into bread, but it would have been a short-term, quick fix rather than teaching them to hunger for God and the Kingdom of Heaven. Fulfilling the economic needs of the people would have made Him popular and well known.

Then the devil, taking Him upon a high mountain,
showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a
moment of time. And the devil said to Him, All
this authority I will give You. Therefore, if You
will worship before me, all will be Yours.

And Jesus answered and said to him: Get behind me
Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord
your God, and Him only shall you serve.
Luke 4:5-8

The people wanted, expected a Warrior Messiah, on who would throw off the shackles of Rome and stand astride the world. The devil's offer to Jesus could free His people of political oppression. Yet Jesus had come not as the Warrior Messiah, but as the Prince of Peace to all the world, not just to the Children of Israel. He would teach all the Children of God to seek the will of God and to follow it with mind, heart and soul.

If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from
here. For it is written: He shall give His angels
charge over you, to keep you, and in their hands they
shall bear you up, lest you dash Your foot against
the stone.

And Jesus answered and said to him, It has been
said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.
Luke 4:9-12

How many times have we longed for a sign from God that we were, in fact, following His path rather than seeking our own personal agenda? What grand goals might we attempt if we were sure of His protection and approval? Had Jesus leaped from the pinnacle of the Temple into the arms of the angels, He would have captured the hearts and minds of the people. And it would have assured Him of an easier path, knowing He was following the will of God and that no harm could come to Him.

The real temptation we all face is that of taking short cuts to win the approval we so desire--to appear benevolent to the suffering of the lowly and to receive the praise and admiration of the world. Such a path requires no personal growth, no spiritual awakening, no transformation from the son of man to the child of God.

Excerpt from Sunday Lesson

Rev. Claudia Naylor

"PREPARE YE THE WAY"

2009-03-05T10:05:00.016-05:00

The Lenten Season is a time of cleansing and releasing as we prepare ourselves to be open and receptive to the teachings of Jesus. It is a time for casting off the chains, the pains and the games of the past. It is a time for shrugging off the burden of old memories and thought patterns, what we often refer to as "old tapes".

Disappointments and failures of the past must be left behind--"let the dead bury the dead." We must release the negative energy of toxic emotions, flush them out of our system and return them to the purifying fires of Spirit. It's a bit like transforming debris into natural mulch and amendments--the more we work into the garden, the richer the soil becomes as we create a foundation for a beautiful garden to nurture mind, body and soul.

The Lenten Season is also about purifying the body and the mind. We fast from those things which do not nurture our bodies and focus upon that which strengthens and heals us. Good food, good friends and physical exercise improve the quality of life and encourage positive attitudes and a desire for spiritual growth. We nurture our soul through prayer, meditation and study.

The biblical tradition of a unique or special birth applied to both Jesus and John the Baptist. While Jesus grew up in a more traditional family setting, John followed the path of the ascetic, living in solitude as he prepared himself for God's calling. In a sense, he served as the 'opening act' for Jesus, calling people to a conscious awareness of the Presence and Power of God and the coming of the Messiah.

Anchored in the traditions of the Prophets, John the Baptist set out to transform the Chosen People. His was a fiery vision and passion for the Kingdom of Heaven which demanded repentance with fear and trembling among the people. He insisted that being descendants of Abraham wasn't enough--the Chosen People must choose the path of righteousness and justify their lives by giving of themselves in service to God.

John the Baptist saw the coming of the Messiah and the Kingdom of Heaven as an imminent Judgment Day. Where John taught the fear of God, Jesus proclaimed the love of God for His creation. He envisioned a gradual transformation and spiritual growth within His followers, leading to the Kingdom of Heaven consciousness, drawing all people to His Father.

The author of Luke 3:4-6 saw John as a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy:

The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
Prepare ye the way of the Lord;
Make His paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
And the rough ways smooth;
And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

If we study this verse from a metaphysical view point, we find the inner path to change and personal transformation. We are called to clear the paths of the Lord, becoming open and receptive to His message. As we fill the valleys and level the playing field, we are lifted up from ignorance and poverty of Spirit. Bringing the mountains and hills of pride and prejudice low opens us up to a more teachable mind set. Straightening the crooked places, again, clears the mind of the twists and turns of duplicitous thinking and bargaining with God. Smoothing out the rough places clears away resistance to change and brings us back to God consciousness.

We must eliminate every physical, mental and spiritual block--anything which stands in the way of our personal growth--and become more attuned to the teachings of Jesus. The good we performed yesterday belongs to yesterday. Each day we must choose again to reach out to learn, to serve and to grow into our full potential as the children of God.

John the Baptist focused on the Baptism of Repentance as the key to salvation. During the Lenten Season, we focus on changing our mind and behavior, fasting from negative thoughts, words and actions. We must let go the belief in lack and limitation in preparation for Easter.

John created a fiery expectation in the minds and hearts of those he baptized, building to a crescendo of anticipation for the coming Messiah and the Kingdom of Heaven. Many have questioned why Jesus, who was without sin, should be baptized by John for remission of sins. The baptism with water preceded the baptism of Spirit and the recognition of Jesus as the Messiah and proclaimed the beginning of the His ministry.

Unity's Spiritual Preparation for Easter 2009 has this message for the first Sunday of Lent:

Listen, My Beloved,
I am the wisdom of your heart.

You are wise beyond measure. You are so wise
that only loving, helpful, kind words are written
in your heart.

Your mind writes only the melodies of harmony
and understanding.

Your life is like a book, filled with stories that
inspire others to be their best selves.

Let the wisdom of your heart flow through your
thoughts, words and actions to bless
each life you touch.

Look within for peace. Look for My presence always.
Look for My love in every expression.

Live each day knowing that I love you, My Beloved.
Give yourself completely to Me in this moment of
sweet silent communion, and let Me show you
the way.

Excerpt from Sunday Lesson

Rev. Claudia Naylor