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July 7, 2013 – Freedom From Not Enough

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7/7/13 Rev. David McArthur
Freedom From Not Enough

As spiritual beings we have access to an experience which can completely free us. Jesus said it this way, “Know the truth and the truth will set you free,” and “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and …all these things will be given unto you.” Viktor Frankl said it in Man’s Search For Meaning, “…Love is the ultimate and highest goal… The salvation of man is through love and in love… Man can, through loving contemplation… achieve fulfillment… ‘The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.’ ” To be in that state of appreciation!

That is your capacity to be free, to touch that love regardless of what’s happening on the outside. Knowing this is experiencing the reality within that God is love; your love is God. Seeing transcendence of limitations within helps us see the amazing power we have.

Outward conditions are reflections of our own limitations. We are caught in a world of emotions and judgments that sometimes what we have is not enough—not enough harmony, vitality, or money. In our spiritual community now we have the state of consciousness that there is not enough money. But we can bring wholeness into expression; we can transform these things together. And in our personal lives as well. Change your consciousness first. Go into prayer. In Unity we don’t ask a God “out there” to intervene in a situation we think He didn’t know anything about. It is not as if our abundance is not here; we know everything needed already exists in the spiritual realm. We pray to open ourselves to it. “God is our instant, constant, abundant supply.” Otherwise you focus on something which is not the truth.

Considering the hours spent by our generous congregants in preparing the beautiful music we enjoy, the systems which let us hear it, and see it online, and considering those whose financial commitments renewed and continue to support our beautiful facilities, where’s the lack? Move from “not enough” to “more than enough”! Don’t even consider “just enough”. There is always more of the divine which wants to move through you! (Abundance does not come to you but through you!) Because we are one, what comes to one of us comes to all. Repeat, I am grateful for more than enough! I am grateful for more than enough! I am grateful for more than enough! There is an infinite power setting you free now. Freedom is a good thing. Enjoy more than enough!

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June 30, 2013 – I See The Love

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6/30/13 Rev. David McArthur
I See The Love

Does the traditional god thought lift you to the next level of your spiritual journey? It does not support or nurture me. Yet, I still experience an amazing love.

An old mission church in remote New Mexico has a very plain room with a hole in the middle of the floor. Out of it I’ve seen people take the dirt and rub it on themselves, seeking healing which others have found there. The walls are lined with crutches and in the hallway outside there are many many pictures and letters about those healings.  In Rome I have seen magnificent churches. They illustrate so fully the primitive god thought that was so prevalent at the time, that God is way up there and we’re down here. In one, people were singing with great beauty and love, their voices expressing a complete and total love for God. How these people understood God is not how I do, but their love of God touched me at depth!

In the walled city of ancient Jerusalem I passed a woman dressed in religious robes. When she looked at me, she sent such a great flow of love that it took my breath away and stopped me in my tracks. She chose to know love and it grew in her, around her, and was her. We shared God together. I was powerfully blessed—even now! Whether she was Muslim, Jewish, or Christian, I was certain she was deeply devout in her perception of God, which was probably as alien from mine as you can get, yet I experienced the love of God!

(From the gospel of John), Jesus said, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?” In New Mexico, I saw the people in the love of the Father and the love of the Father in them—a beautiful love, visceral, so real I could step in and feel it. The people brought it there. It was there for me and from me. When we felt the love of the singers in Rome, we felt the one unifying, harmonious power that keeps our universe in order. We were in that love and it was in us. It didn’t matter that they wouldn’t explain it that way. When I saw the woman in Jerusalem, she was in that love and it was in her. As my heart opened to receive it I was in that love.

Will we let ourselves experience that love, be one with it? I wish to be able to walk into any church and feel the love. Choose to see their love. Affirm with me, I am love; I behold the love in you. I am love; I behold the love in you. I am love; I behold the love in you. Can you do it in your family, where they do not understand your path, where words do not serve? Can you see their god thought and their love there? Can you see the world this way—where there is only love? There is only love!

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June 23, 2013 – What Is Your God Thought?

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6/23/13 Rev. David McArthur
What Is Your God Thought?

We have grown in the way we think of God. Imagine you were a shepherd 3000 years ago and the night sky filled you with incredible awe. You wondered about the power that created it. You sensed how much greater than us that power must be, and how insignificant we are. With the light of dawn the fears of the night faded as the sun revealed the familiar world. In the dark what we didn’t know, what we couldn’t see, we feared must be evil. All cultures have had these natural thoughts.

So we developed stories explaining our understanding of God, and passed them down, like the pillar of fire. We thought that if we follow the rules, God will give us the goodies; if we don’t, we’ll lose them. The God thought handed down to us is probably as wrong as it is right. We tend to use the God thought that lets us feel close to the power, the I Am, Atman, the Buddha Mind. What works for you?

There are beings who see this relationship more clearly than others. Over time these people were written about. “The light that shines above all others is within you.” is from Hindu scripture. Jesus taught “The Father and I are one.” (Not out “there” and separate, like a pillar of fire.) He taught to move our consciousness to the divine part within, as in “The kingdom of heaven is within.” (And that it is not possible to be lost.)

In Unity we say we are spiritual rather than religious because we feel we have no need to defend the God thought of others who went before. Our God thought is expressed in “God Is Good All The Time.” What if we replace “God” with “Goodness”? “I AM Goodness All The Time.” “I AM Goodness All The Time.” “I AM Goodness All The Time.” Which God thought is most helpful to your journey?

Do you know you are more aware of the different God thoughts around the world than any of the people who wrote the Bible? You can look at the world with a new God thought! Again, imagine you are on the hillside 3000 years ago looking up at that sky in the night. But look with awareness that you are a part of the creation you are observing. Be aware that you are One with the creative force that set those heavens in motion. As you observe, you are aware of the life you have created—with love and loss, with tremendous joy and tremendous pain. You are observing the Created and the Creator, observing the Divine unfolding. What God thought works for you?

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June 16, 2013 – Who’s Yo Daddy?

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6/16/13 Rev. Sheila Gautreaux
Who’s Yo Daddy?

The word “father” has many aspects, and invokes many things in us. Some warm and loving, some not so warm and loving. Metaphysically, the Bible uses “Father” as the Divine Masculine; the Intellect; the Masculine aspect of Creative Principle. It uses “Son” to mean the Soul; the Image and Likeness of God; the Perfect Self; the Student on the Journey.

So in Luke 10:22, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal to him” means only the divine masculine knows the soul and only the soul (Son) knows the divine masculine. The Son is that truth of our being that has the relationship with the divine masculine.

Regardless of how you might feel about him, what if you had the perfect human father for the development of your purpose for being here, for what your soul intended by coming into this world? If you had known this would you have experienced the pain which caused you to seek the relief and the benefits then gained? To the personality judgment is the result of suffering. To the soul suffering is the result of judgment. Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional. The soul sees there is a reason, a blessing to be found. What if the person gave you exactly the experience you need to fulfill your purpose? What if the father was perfect for you? The people who cause us the most suffering are the souls who love us the most, to lower themselves to bring you just what your soul desired.

Breathe into possibility around that person called father. You cannot be a victim and creator at the same time. There are no victims. You are a creator. Affirm: I honor myself. I honor my father. I honor my experience of my father. I am willing to see the perfection in what happened. I choose peace. I am at peace. I am at peace. I am at peace.

So who’s your daddy?

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June 9, 2013 – The Lazarus Blueprint

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6/9/13 Rev. Suzanne Leonard
The Lazarus Blueprint

The story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the tomb teaches us to bring back to life a state within us that has been dead. Use the power of your voice. There are 100 trillion cells excited about what you’re going to say. A hundred trillion cells wait the direction of your voice.

Your own voice is the most important voice for you to hear. Recently I broke my foot. The x-rays showed the foot, which is God’s although I am using it, was broken in 3 places. I did not claim this as mine. Aloud, I gave thanks and claimed health. I used the “G” force—I claimed my Good, my Glory, my Growth, and my Guidance. As givers we miss the receiving part. (Just try to breath out without breathing in.) Your heart has to open and close. You have to be “in circulation”. As the medical professionals tended to me, I spoke to myself, “I’ll co-operate with your healing while instituting mine.” There was hardly any pain. Today I am walking in high-heels!

Lazarus was already dead when Jesus arrived at his home. But Jesus is the perfect presence, and had taken the time to prepare. So He had arrived at the point in time in which the miracle needed to happen. The Lazarus in you is the unhealed part, the pain entombed in a dark corner of you. Arrive at the point in the time that healing needs to happen. Roll away the stone of believing in your problem and let the “stink” come out, and with it the possibility of healing. Mary and Martha are the hope, the knowing that something else can be done. Explore and then expect healing. Jesus spoke with laser-like expectancy, “Lazarus, come out!” Not someday. Now is the time.

Then give thanks before receiving! Write a pre-thank-you card. Pre-pray the situation, put your light out there. “Come out!” Heal what is entombed in you. What are you waiting for?

Then “Unbind him and let him go!” Pray the prayers and walk the steps. Use affirmations and evict those negative people in your head. “Open sesame!” It’s the power with which you say it—the conviction. I invite you to roll away the stones in your life today. Unbind what you were told you are and be the person you truly are. You are precious to your family, your community, the world. Step forth and be who you are! God bless you!

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June 2, 2013 – Ease Into The Now

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6/2/13 Rev. David McArthur
Ease Into The Now

We have been on an adventure lately, looking at things in a different way. One of the best parts of an adventure, though, is coming home. Right here, right now It is exactly who you are. Here and now, time and space is where you are and where the divine Presence is. Often we’re preparing for what’s coming up, or going over what’s past. But focusing on the now is what I’m reaching for. In the gospels, the term that is translated as “now” likely had more meaning, as in John, when it was written that Jesus said, “as the Father has loved me so how I have loved you. Now, remain in my love.”

It’s a state of consciousness. Being aware of the Presence in the present. How do I get there? I enter the moment not through the head, but through the heart, because in the heart I can have a sense of the Presence. So breathe ease [into your heart]. It’s a natural feeling. It has a sense of flow. You can go from there to other places, such as peace. It has no tension. An awareness comes to you of the loving people around you, of a greater wisdom unfolding—a connectedness with people rather than with stuff—being in the present moment aware of the Presence, of the beautiful people they are, that you are. Breathe the feeling. The feeling builds—a sense of greater order and of flow. Its like slowly floating down a river on a raft and drifting around the bend.

Breathe ease and be aware of the feelings in your body. Be aware of the presence of hope, of those in pain and stress who come in hope and amazing love. They breathe ease, as do you, bringing love and care into this moment. Bringing wisdom; being present with the Presence. Breathe ease. Be aware of the all-loving goodness around you without limit. We are together in a magnificent spiritual moment. That moment is here, now. Welcome home!

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May 26, 2013 – My Jesus, Part II – The Soul

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Rev. David McArthur

My Jesus, Part II — The Soul

Asking questions is a valuable part of the spiritual path. Our God-thought grows as we grow. Underneath the miracles and stories of Jesus, there is a person who so impacted the people with him that they wrote that the experience was something divine (in the God-thought of the time). Still it was a new God-thought—the indwelling God that is not separate from us.

Edgar Cayce told of Jesus’ prior incarnations (a fascinating way to look at things). In one, as Joshua, Jesus/Joshua understood his God-thought as telling him to use military might to slay all the native people of the promised land. He saw the divine hand in his making the promised land safe for the Israelites. But this wasn’t expressing the divine in the highest manner. Fascinating to know that the same man [soul] later walked through that land teaching peace, non-violence, love. That’s a tremendous step—for a person to step into the consciousness that we call the Christ, the Atman, etc. Then he responded to violence with love, inclusion instead of superiority. Was it an expression of karmic law that he was publicly ridiculed and hung on a tree like, as Joshua, he did to many of the kings in the Holy Land? As Jesus, he said he did not come to take away the law, but to fulfill it (meeting his life but responding with love?). Is that how it happened? I don’t know. For me, it’s not that it did or didn’t happen but the response to it.

When I look at that story it has meaning for my life. But this is not a “one size fits all” spirituality. There is so much variety in our paths. Part of our assignment is to find what works for us.

A skilled artist actually had the experience that Jesus appeared and posed for her. She wrote that he bore no witness to duality or opposition. He told her that Spirit is the ultimate because it is indivisible love—the source of your love, your beingness. You are created in that image. Holy will pours through, generation after generation. It is love. It is the common essence. Love is who you are. Affirm, I am love. I am love. I am love. His gift and chosen task was to come and restore the heart to its true power. The heart is your source of all higher knowledge. When the inside and the outside are the same, it is the gateway to the soul and to eternity.

What is there helps me to make the choice today, when I see our oneness and connection. In the consciousness of love separation fades away and harmony comes forth. If HE is there helping me to do that, then HE is my Jesus, and I’m ok with that!

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May 19, 2013 – My Jesus, Part I

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Rev. David McArthur

My Jesus, Part I

It’s ok to ask questions regarding the Bible. That “take it on faith” stuff makes me feel like they just didn’t know. Let’s start with the God thought. A very primitive people tried to make sense of their world. (This isn’t necessarily Unity.) They told stories about their questions and discoveries. They put God “out there” in the biggest thing they could see—the heavens. With Jesus, they had to figure a way for God to be down here—the virgin birth! It’s not a new idea (Horace, Dionysus, Krishna, Buddha, Quetzalcoatl). And then they had to get God back “up there”. (The resurrection and ascension.)

Let’s throw out everything that doesn’t make sense. Let’s pretend that Jesus is not God coming to Earth, but just a guy, a precocious Jewish boy. When people experienced him, they were touched and changed and talked of something “greater”. He didn’t see Jew/Gentile, but taught all people (even the Samaritan) inclusion, not exclusion; love, not rejection. He treated women as intelligent beings of value. But even without a single miracle, He touched the God thought.

Episcopalian Bishop Spong says how foolish we are to take the Bible literally. When we can see who we really are, we see the meaning of all life, the source of being, the God thought, seen when one has the courage to be, and not seen as separate. Jesus revealed God, and whenever God is seen in life, it is called Christ. He never said, “I healed you.” He said, “Your faith has healed you.” The magnificent law. No divine intervention. But through the beautiful laws we can be freed from where we are to be where we can be.

Walk on water? What really happened there nobody knows. Resurrection? It has nothing to do with the body. That primitive culture told stories of symbol and meaning. They were a context oriented culture. Our culture is content oriented. In the story of Lazarus they talked of life instead of death. Jesus arrived after four days and the stories they shared brought Lazarus alive in their hearts. In Jesus’ resurrection the disciples shared what He meant to them and the change He brought alive in them—an understanding of love that even today touches me. Unwilling to speak of a God “up there”, I speak of something that was so full of life it is alive today. It helps me to know the God in what I see in front of me. I put all else away except the God I see alive in front of me!

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May 12, 2013 – Mom As Divine Mother

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5/12/13 Rev. David McArthur
Mom As Divine Mother

One way we touch the love of God is the role of the mother. When there is a need for healing, for a healing presence, we connect with the figure of the Madonna and Child, of Mother Mary. At that point of pain, of overwhelm, when we feel we are asked to deliver far beyond our perception of our capacity, but we are asked anyway to show up for another, the divine presence shows up in the symbol of motherhood itself. Let that divine connection heal and nurture in that way mothers have of knowing we can step up to what is asked of us. Open that divine connection. It is not some God of power and authority, but of tenderness and caring. We know God is not male or female, yet we open to those divine feminine qualities that mothers embody for us.

All the greatest teachers the world has ever known have brought us awareness of awesome divine love. And every bit of that love and consciousness is seen in the mothers we know. Awaken to that. We know this divine is in us, works as us and through us, and that mothers embody this. In the times they didn’t, when their pain got in their way, when they were limited by their trauma, addiction, or struggle to awaken from their own sleep, remember that forgiveness is significant work, because it is in this relationship that we get to know, to glimpse that divine love.

Severely wounded, a young soldier in Viet Nam called to his momma. Back home, she heard him. “Super Mom” is that absolute divine intervention. We reach for that presence and know it as “momma”!

As her boy reached the difficult years of his early teens, a mother began leaving letters under his pillow “to be read when ever you are alone”. In the first she confided, “I know life is hard now. You are frustrated and nothing is right. I love you more than I can say. I am here if you want to talk. No matter where you go or want ever you do I will always be proud of you and love you.” Their connection deepened. What are you connected with? What are you going home to? Mother is that connection to “I am here for you and will always love you; that will never change” (which is God’s love). Mothers, you are the expression of divine connection. Thank you God, for loving me as “Mom”. And thank you, all moms, for loving us! Thank you!

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