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December 20, 2015 – Creative Higher Consciousness

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12/20/15  Rev. David McArthur
Creative Higher Consciousness

In this time we are consciously growing from the “eye for an eye” consciousness to a greater consciousness. I have studied the Edgar Cayce information on the Christmas story. I have no idea what really happened then and I do not say this is the way it was. Cayce said the Essenes had intentionally created a state of consciousness to bring in a soul capable of the change to the greater consciousness. They focused mind and body on a process of spiritual attunement. They trained their young women to be able to be the mother of the expected one. Mary started training at age 4, and by age 13 she was the most promising of the group.

One morning when Mary reached the top step of their temple, there was thunder and lightning and a halo of light illuminated her. Also in the halo was the Archangel Gabriel. He led Mary to the altar. I believe this is when she accepted God’s will, but it would be 4 more years until Mary fulfilled it. So Mary’s training intensified. She not only would be the mother but the first teacher of the one who would become the Christ.

Later, when Mary and Joseph were turned away from the inn, it was because the innkeeper felt they would not have any privacy there or be safe, as Essenes drew more attention from the officials. This shows me the story unfolded because of people’s choices and intentions, not because of intervention from a descending cloud. It is my experience that’s how consciousness enters the Earth.

Rick, at the young age of 38, passed just a few weeks before Christmas. The family made a small altar with his photo to keep his presence alive through the season he had so loved. Christmas Day was hard on the family. His mother was on the edge and she asked her husband to turn off the radio. But it wasn’t on! They couldn’t find anything playing in or outside the house. They traced it to his altar. It wasn’t traditional recordings, but Christmas-like beautiful, ethereal music. Then Rick’s Mom said, “We have to turn on the radio!” It was playing “I’ll be home for Christmas.” They realized there was a connection where they had felt only great separation, a connection created by their choices and desire to be connected. We create connection by the choices we make.

That’s why this Christmas is important. Every time we make a connection in the greater consciousness we contribute to the greater consciousness of all mankind. What we are creating is already in the hearts of everyone. It was best expressed when the angels sang, “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” It’s the peace we want to touch. Wouldn’t you like that? “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” When I think of the more than 1000 Unity churches around the world, and Silent Unity all wanting “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” Many millions of people all over the world are saying they want it. “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” In homes and synagogues and mosques (where they recite the 157 verses of the Koran which honor peace because they want it!)

It is time not to bring forth a being, but to bring forth a humanity that teaches and practices “On Earth, peace and good will to all!”

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December 13, 2015 – Mary in You

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12/13/15  Rev. David McArthur
Mary in You

Our beautiful Christmas music and decorations take us back to amazing feelings which children experience as magic. My love of the spiritual Christmas has grown. I see a very powerful evolution of mankind. I see something crucial in the story that is the cause of the story‚–the awakening of consciousness, captured in the person of Mary– willingness of the soul to receive.

In the Book of Luke the angel tells Mary what is to come. She answers, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your words be fulfilled in me.” There is a place so pure and deep within us we can describe it as “virgin”. It is beyond the mind. A place where there is a receptivity of higher purpose, a powerful movement within us. Open; open to this simple idea: within you is a receptivity. You receive from higher being direction which brings higher consciousness into the Earth.

Gloria had known a guy in high school only a few years back. About nine months after he had been murdered, she felt she should visit his family. They were decorating for Christmas when she knocked on their door. The last year of Gregg’s life he had spent hanging with the wrong crowd, a lifestyle where murder was not uncommon. His mother didn’t know if Gloria was one of them. But Gloria talked of how she and Gregg had their “first date” back in high school. How kind and attentive he was; how comfortable she felt in his company. Gradually, his mother remembered what a good kid he had been before his downward spiral into crime. She had a lot of guilt for not being able to keep him on the straight and narrow. As she and Gloria celebrated the memory of Gregg, her guilt healed. Why did Gloria go there? She hadn’t known Gregg all that well and certainly didn’t know his family. It took place because that young woman had been willing. She said yes. Something inside her told her to go. And a greater consciousness came to them all.

Lao Tzu asked, “Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles to the bottom and the water is clear (that’s the “virgin”, the place of purity)? Can you remain still until the right action (the higher consciousness, the greater wholeness seeking expression) arises of itself?” When we are in that receptive place, we don’t know what will happen, but it feels right. Our role is to be willing. Yes I am willing. Yes I am willing. Yes I am willing.

We are opening to a greater consciousness. The beautiful images of other Christmases do help, but this year is different. There is now great pain and conflict coming into consciousness. Each time we say yes I am willing, no matter how small the request of us, we bring in a greater consciousness. This Christmas let us hold that greater receptivity. I know you will because I know it is important!

December 13, 2015 – Mary in You

by

12/13/15  Rev. David McArthur
Mary in You

Our beautiful Christmas music and decorations take us back to amazing feelings which children experience as magic. My love of the spiritual Christmas has grown. I see a very powerful evolution of mankind. I see something crucial in the story that is the cause of the story—the awakening of consciousness, captured in the person of Mary—the willingness of the soul to receive.

In the Book of Luke the angel tells Mary what is to come. She answers, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your words be fulfilled in me.” There is a place so pure and deep within us we can describe it as “virgin”. It is beyond the mind. A place where there is a receptivity of higher purpose, a powerful movement within us. Open; open to this simple idea: within you is a receptivity. You receive from higher being direction which brings higher consciousness into the Earth.

Gloria had known a guy in high school only a few years back. About nine months after he had been murdered, she felt she should visit his family. They were decorating for Christmas when she knocked on their door. The last year of Gregg’s life he had spent hanging with the wrong crowd, a lifestyle where murder was not uncommon. His mother didn’t know if Gloria was one of them. But Gloria talked of how she and Gregg had their “first date” back in high school. How kind and attentive he was; how comfortable she felt in his company. Gradually, his mother remembered what a good kid he had been before his downward spiral into crime. She had a lot of guilt for not being able to keep him on the straight and narrow. As she and Gloria celebrated the memory of Gregg, her guilt healed. Why did Gloria go there? She hadn’t known Gregg all that well and certainly didn’t know his family. It took place because that young woman had been willing. She said yes. Something inside her told her to go. And a greater consciousness came to them all.

Lao Tzu asked, “Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles to the bottom and the water is clear (that’s the “virgin”, the place of purity)? Can you remain still until the right action (the higher consciousness, the greater wholeness seeking expression) arises of itself?” When we are in that receptive place, we don’t know what will happen, but it feels right. Our role is to be willing. Yes I am willing. Yes I am willing. Yes I am willing.

We are opening to a greater consciousness. The beautiful images of other Christmases do help, but this year is different. There is now great pain and conflict coming into consciousness. Each time we say yes I am willing, no matter how small the request of us, we bring in a greater consciousness. This Christmas let us hold that greater receptivity. I know you will because I know it is important!

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December 6, 2015 – How Adored You Are

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12/06/15  Stowe Dailey & Karen Taylor Good
How Adored You Are

 
From the original Aramaic, “Our father from whom the breath of life comes, who is not separate from us, may we feel you in our hearts. Thanks for your forgiveness. May we forgive ourselves and others, too. May we walk in love, not fear. The kingdom of heaven is here.”

Peace is all I know. What if prayer is not a tearful plea of desperation, but breathing in and out God? What if your life is a prayer that God is praying? What if your thoughts are words that God is saying? What if you knew without a doubt that God is within and without?

Stowe Dailey: A few years ago, near death with cancer, I was advised to move into hospice! With my body, my spirit also needed healing. I visited a friend, a spiritual healer. She asked, “Do you love yourself Stowe? Your mother died when you were 9. You were abused emotionally and sexually. You must have felt abandoned and unloved, maybe that you didn’t deserve to be loved? Picture your beautiful daughter; imagine that she experienced the abuse you experienced.” I was horrified. My friend continued, “Now picture the beautiful child you are. Love her like you love your daughter.”

With my healing, I got a second chance to live, a second chance to laugh, to love, to sing, to dance. A sweet and precious gift. I had allowed my fear to sabotage my dreams, but I learned fear doesn’t stop you from dying, it stops you from living.

Everything happens for a reason; there is perfection in everything! Karen Taylor Good: My mother always had the answer. She was a Leo and a member of Mensa. But the last 8 years of her life she faded away with dementia. The woman that never forgot a grandchild’s birthday couldn’t remember my name. I went to some very dark places, very angry places. “If there is perfection in this, God, then show me! Why would you play such a cold-hearted trick? I thought your job was to love! It’s not fair!” But I got an answer, “she’s going to fly. She’ll have to let go of the things she can’t use. Memories and faces, people and places are just too heavy to carry on angel’s wings. When her time here is through, she’s going to fly.” It’s not easy, but it’s perfect.

Know you are a gift, God’s precious child, perfect, whole, and enough. “I am a gift!” Take a breath. Hear the voice of God, “Child of mine, do you know how adored you are? You’ve never been alone. In my heart you’re always home. I’m you’re greatest fan. You are enough. Do you know how adored you are?! Because you are! You are loved; all is well. So be it.

December 6, 2015 – How Adored You Are

by

12/06/15  Stowe Dailey & Karen Taylor Good
How Adored You Are

From the original Aramaic, “Our father from whom the breath of life comes, who is not separate from us, may we feel you in our hearts. Thanks for your forgiveness. May we forgive ourselves and others, too. May we walk in love, not fear. The kingdom of heaven is here.”

Peace is all I know. What if prayer is not a tearful plea of desperation, but breathing in and out God? What if your life is a prayer that God is praying? What if your thoughts are words that God is saying? What if you knew without a doubt that God is within and without?

Stowe Dailey: A few years ago, near death with cancer, I was advised to move into hospice! With my body, my spirit also needed healing. I visited a friend, a spiritual healer. She asked, “Do you love yourself Stowe? Your mother died when you were 9. You were abused emotionally and sexually. You must have felt abandoned and unloved, maybe that you didn’t deserve to be loved? Picture your beautiful daughter; imagine that she experienced the abuse you experienced.” I was horrified. My friend continued, “Now picture the beautiful child you are. Love her like you love your daughter.”

With my healing, I got a second chance to live, a second chance to laugh, to love, to sing, to dance. A sweet and precious gift. I had allowed my fear to sabotage my dreams, but I learned fear doesn’t stop you from dying, it stops you from living.

Everything happens for a reason; there is perfection in everything! Karen Taylor Good: My mother always had the answer. She was a Leo and a member of Mensa. But the last 8 years of her life she faded away with dementia. The woman that never forgot a grandchild’s birthday couldn’t remember my name. I went to some very dark places, very angry places. “If there is perfection in this, God, then show me! Why would you play such a cold-hearted trick? I thought your job was to love! It’s not fair!” But I got an answer, “she’s going to fly. She’ll have to let go of the things she can’t use. Memories and faces, people and places are just too heavy to carry on angel’s wings. When her time here is through, she’s going to fly.” It’s not easy, but it’s perfect.

Know you are a gift, God’s precious child, perfect, whole, and enough. “I am a gift!” Take a breath. Hear the voice of God, “Child of mine, do you know how adored you are? You’ve never been alone. In my heart you’re always home. I’m you’re greatest fan. You are enough. Do you know how adored you are?! Because you are! You are loved; all is well. So be it.

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November 22, 2015 – Flowers Protect Us

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11/22/15  Rev. David McArthur
Flowers Protect Us

For several days recently I was out of touch with the world, didn’t even have wi-fi! When I got back I learned about the Paris bombings. The news kept focusing on command and control; the focus was on fear. I felt that I was alone. When I feel that way I pray, “Please help me see what is going on here.”

As an answer, I saw that video clip where Parisians laid flowers and lit candles, and a little boy talked about the terrorists. “Those people are really bad. They’re so mean. Daddy, we have to move.” Beside him, his father said, “No. France is our home. There are bad people everywhere.” The boy: “They are so mean and they have guns!” “But,” his father replied, “we have flowers”—a beautiful response of compassion and love by so many. The flowers and candles were brought to heal. “Will the flowers protect us?” the boy asked his father. “Yes!” his father said. Millions and millions of people have gone to that video. They understand that’s what heals us. That’s the ONLY answer—not bigger guns. What heals us is when we reach out to that greater consciousness of connection.

I had waited in the Albuquerque airport for my flight home. I saw a young woman dressed like a Muslim. She walked with such confidence and centeredness in a time when the world was being judgmental and critical and all such people are feeling blamed. My heart was opened by this young woman. Peace was the way of her. It triggered lots of feelings of how women are treated in the Muslim world. Then I remembered one smart man at the Conference of World Religions last month saying it has nothing to do with “Muslim”, that everywhere there is a militaristic patriarchal society they must suppress the feeling, feminine part. It came to me, then, what will end all this need to command and control others—GIRLS READING BOOKS!

And I recalled Mahatma Gandhi, who said, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” They ALWAYS fall. Flowers are ALWAYS more powerful than guns.

At holiday time families come together. We return to relationships where we have judgments we have practiced for many years. But it is our chance to heal, to feel the gratitude that they cared enough to show up and give us the chance to bring a flower. We are at a time when the question is no longer “Will we make it?” We will—there are so many millions and millions of people who go to their hearts, go to compassion. The news won’t tell us about it much, but it is there. At this time join with me. The people of Paris, when they gave flowers, gave them to all of us throughout the world. They care. Send them that beautiful thought. Thank you for caring! What a beautiful thought to send the world! Thank you for caring! Give that Thanksgiving to the world, to all those beautiful beings! Thank you for caring! Truth and love ALWAYS, ALWAYS wins!

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November 22, 2015 – Flowers Protect Us

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11/22/15  Rev. David McArthur
Flowers Protect Us

For several days recently I was out of touch with the world, didn’t even have wi-fi! When I got back I learned about the Paris bombings. The news kept focusing on command and control; the focus was on fear. I felt that I was alone. When I feel that way I pray, “Please help me see what is going on here.”

As an answer, I saw that video clip where Parisians laid flowers and lit candles, and a little boy talked about the terrorists. “Those people are really bad. They’re so mean. Daddy, we have to move.” Beside him, his father said, “No. France is our home. There are bad people everywhere.” The boy: “They are so mean and they have guns!” “But,” his father replied, “we have flowers”—a beautiful response of compassion and love by so many. The flowers and candles were brought to heal. “Will the flowers protect us?” the boy asked his father. “Yes!” his father said. Millions and millions of people have gone to that video. They understand that’s what heals us. That’s the ONLY answer—not bigger guns. What heals us is when we reach out to that greater consciousness of connection.

I had waited in the Albuquerque airport for my flight home. I saw a young woman dressed like a Muslim. She walked with such confidence and centeredness in a time when the world was being judgmental and critical and all such people are feeling blamed. My heart was opened by this young woman. Peace was the way of her. It triggered lots of feelings of how women are treated in the Muslim world. Then I remembered one smart man at the Conference of World Religions last month saying it has nothing to do with “Muslim”, that everywhere there is a militaristic patriarchal society they must suppress the feeling, feminine part. It came to me, then, what will end all this need to command and control others—GIRLS READING BOOKS!

And I recalled Mahatma Gandhi, who said, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” They ALWAYs fall. Flowers are ALWAYS more powerful than guns.

At holiday time families come together. We return to relationships where we have judgments we have practiced for many years. But it is our chance to heal, to feel the gratitude that they cared enough to show up and give us the chance to bring a flower. We are at a time when the question is no longer “Will we make it?” We will—there are so many millions and millions of people who go to their hearts, go to compassion. The news won’t tell us about it much, but it is there. At this time join with me. The people of Paris, when they gave flowers, gave them to all of us throughout the world. They care. Send them that beautiful thought. Thank you for caring! What a beautiful thought to send the world! Thank you for caring! Give that Thanksgiving to the world, to all those beautiful beings! Thank you for caring! Truth and love ALWAYS, ALWAYS wins!

November 15, 2015 – Saving the Bride and Groom

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11/15/15  Rev. Larry Schneider
Saving the Bride and Groom

In good literature there is always a story within a story within a story, and the last one to be told is always about you. The greatest story ever told is one about us. I have two stories for you today. The first is about two beautiful sisters living just beyond town. As siblings often do, they argued one day. Which one was most beautiful? They decided that each would walk through town, and the sister who attracted the most people would be the most beautiful. The first sister, Truth, walked through town naked. People retreated inside their homes, shutting their doors and windows. They were afraid of the Truth, especially the naked Truth. But when her sister “Story” joined her, people came out of their homes to join them both. You always have to accompany truth with story.

My next story is called the Bride and Groom. It is from the Jewish tradition. It refers to the 36 righteous people placed on the Earth by God. A very famous rabbi known for his compassion and “gift of sight” (he could see into a person’s soul) was called to a dying man’s bedside. As he entered he got weak and turned white. Quickly recovering, he went to the man’s side. The old man said he was afraid of dying; he was afraid the scales of judgment would be too light on the side of good deeds. The rabbi asked him to remember a good deed from his past. The man did recall when he was walking into town one day, there was a team of horses running wildly with a bride and groom in the wagon. He slowed the horses and shouted “Jump!” to the bride and groom. They did but the team was out of control and the wagon crashed; the horses perished. But the bride and groom were saved. Then the old man recalled other good deeds he had done in his life. Then the rabbi asked that after he got to heaven, would the old man come back and tell him about it.

A few days after the man passed, the rabbi was again seen to blanch then regain his color. He explained that the first time he had seen into the old man’s soul and saw that he was one of the 36 righteous, so pure that even the old man himself did not know he was one of the 36. This time the old man returned to tell the rabbi that when he got to the gates of heaven, they were closed. Angels brought the scale of justice, but then he heard a team of horses with a wagon coming. As they passed he jumped up on one and rode it right through the gates into heaven!

There are moments when we get a glimpse of heaven, like when we are honest on our tax returns or with the spouse. So when you do the right and loving thing this week, in that moment you will have just saved the bride and groom!