David McArthur

May 13, 2012 – The Divine Mother Feeling

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5/13/12 Rev. David McArthur

There are many paths of spiritual growth. Motherhood is one of them. Fondly, we recall our mothers’ counsel and comfort. “If this is the worst thing that happens to us today, then we’ll be ok.” “If you ever want something, come and talk to me.” And even on her deathbed, one mother rallied herself to open her eyes and tell her daughter, “Everything is just fine.”

Author Patricia Grabow, recounting some of the most difficult times in her life, stated, “There’s something about hugging your mother after you’ve come through a bad time yourself.” When you hug your mother, you are stepping into the energy, the aura, that is Mother—the expression of divine mother. You are in the arms of the one who has said, “Yes, I’ll be mother to you.” No matter the journey and mistakes you’ve made. It is tangible. You can feel the love.

Your mother is that expression. It is an amazing gift to you that she allows the divine presence of love to flow through her in spite of her difficulties. Sometimes, struggling through difficult patterns herself, her ability to allow the flow was severely limited; sometimes she was just not able to allow the flow at all. As you recall those moments, hold yourself in compassion; hold your mother in compassion. Open to that divine mother who gave birth to your divine, infinite being. Allow that love to heal you and to heal your mother.

And there is always mother’s wisdom. No mother would put their child to bed on the top bunk in Super man jammies. Even as the family around the dinner table complains of their many failures that day, she declares “Let’s celebrate! If it’s true that from our biggest failures we learn the most, then today was great—we learned a lot!” It is that you were loved by Mom just because you are. She lets that divine love flow through to you.

We all have this divine mother in us. Affirm, “The divine mother’s love fills my heart and flows through my life!” That makes this a very happy and blessed Mother’s Day. Bless you!

May 6, 2012 – Tithing – Tool of Abundance

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5/6/12 Rev. David McArthur

There’s more than just meditation. There are other tools. Chas. Fillmore, in Prosperity, said “It is perfectly logical to assume that a wise and competent Creator would provide for the needs of His creatures in their various stages of growth… Temporal needs would be met by temporal things, mental needs by things of like character, and spiritual needs by spiritual elements.” In the physical, the spiritual tool is giving. The primary, central tool is tithing to open to and touch that level of vibration, but the teaching of tithing has been much abused.

Tithing is protective in nature, not allowing us to get involved with lack. When you start, you shift your relationship with God. You’re saying, “I know I’ll be taken care of, so I can give this back to God.” It affects all aspects. Finances stabilize. You shift from a frightened child asking for protection, to that of an adult partnering with God. It’s not about winning the lottery, but of getting on with your life. There is nothing that isn’t already given you. You are loved whether you tithe or not. The question is, are you going to let it flow through you or will you “get and hold”? It’s about “attunement”. There is only one mind.

A Quaker church in the 1940’s experimented with the law, and planted one cubic inch of wheat. After tithing it’s yield they planted the remaining 9/10’s. They continued for six years. The tithe alone at the end exceeded what would have normally been the whole amount gained without tithing! A mathematician among them projected that if the process continued for 6 more years, there was not enough land on earth to plant the twelfth year’s 9/10 of wheat.

Are you willing to have an expanded flow in your life? Malachi 3:10, “ ‘Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.’ ”

April 29, 2012 – Snow White & the Codependent Queen

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4/29/12 Rev. David McArthur

Snow White symbolizes a part of our spiritual growth. She loses her parents (the knowledge of who we really are). We lose this as we grow up and our feminine (feeling) side follows false outside values. “Mirror, mirror…” The Snow White part of ourselves is the beautiful, pure experience of touching the divine in our soul, and the harmony of recognizing the beautiful qualities of those around us. If we look without for the world to tell us we are right, then we have conflict when we find out we are not “the fairest”.

But you cannot kill the soul. So Snow White is sent into the forest (our subconsciousness); we cannot see what’s in there So we stay with what we see “out there”. When we feel we are “not good enough”, we send our Snow White part into the subconscious (the forest). We give over our authority to the wicked Queen. That which we value most highly in ourselves, the ability to touch the beauty—the divine—is suppressed.

When you choose that which is right for you, you come into conflict with your culture, your outside values, and “the wicked Queen” brings a poison apple. Not everyone’s poison apple is the same. Anita Moorjani, was born in India into a society which devalued women. To survive she became a people pleaser. She wrote, “I…feared this approval. Everything I did was for others’ approval, not my own. I lost myself. The fears were the poison.” When, literally, her poison (cancer) was killing her, she had a near death experience. Transformed, she was cancer free in days. What was found, she said, was that “I am magnificent!…Love, joy, ecstasy, and awe poured through me. I was swallowed up and enveloped in more love than I ever knew existed.” What frees the Snow White in us from the forest is the love. The Prince is our ability to focus, which, as the Prince, you command. And as the Prince, you give permission by acknowledging your need to be lovable and to be loved, and we discover we are loved!

Repeat, “I am lovable. I am loved. I am love.” Yes you are! And when you know that, you create that state of consciousness known as “happily ever after!”

April 15, 2012 – Happiness Through Service

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4/15/12 Rev. David McArthur

There are cycles in our spiritual growth where we need to be filled up, to be healed. We open to Spirit and let that divine love flow to us, in us. The next part to know is it keeps on flowing when we give it away. Albert Schweitzer said, “The ones among you who will be truly happy are the ones among you who have sought and found how to serve.”

Grace was a vibrant young co-ed when she came down with polio. But she met and married a wonderful man, a delightful being, David. The polio kept them from having children but they felt the need to give. They opened themselves to adopting an “unadoptable” child. Eventually they had seven children of all colors and special needs and made a wonderful family. Unable to personally care for more, they created an adoption agency for other such children.

Grace is a paraplegic. David lovingly gets her up every morning and places her gently in her wheelchair. She is unable to do anything from the shoulders down, but she said, “Yes, I can care for a child.” Surely she had no plans to raise seven, each with special needs, but they brought them into a home where they’d be loved. She wrote, “I was overwhelmed by the wealth that was ours.”

Through service we experience the fulfillment of joy and happiness when we open to divine love. Mahatma Ghandi said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself through service to others.” We each reach a point where we are ready to expand. The way to expand that life and energy that flows through us is to give.

Jesus said, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

That tremendous gift you have to let the light which you are flow not just to you, but through you, means everyone of us can experience that deep fulfillment and joy simply by letting it flow through us in service to others.

April 8, 2012 – Awakening

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4/8/12 Rev. David McArthur

“Awakening”

Spring! New life! —then there’s the resurrection thing. Some of us are skeptical; some need to know how it happened. Well, He did it as the Son of God—and so are you Sons and Daughters of God, as He is “The Elder Brother”. In Unity we recognize He went before. That means there is something in there that you can do.

Anita Moorjani, born to a Hindu family in India, was raised in Hong Kong. She went to Catholic school and was exposed to many cultures in Hong Kong, and grew up to become a professional. Then she developed cancer. Not wanting chemo, she looked elsewhere for healing. But the deterioration continued to advance until she went into a coma. Her doctor was shocked how close to death she was. She had only a few hours to live. Anita “awakened”, feeling no pain, but could not communicate. Bt she felt finally awakened, her soul finally realizing its true magnificence, expanding/awakening to a greater awareness of total love greater than anything imagined. She knew she could go further into this experience of radiant love and freedom, or she could return to her body, sick and full of pain. Then she knew there was a purpose to her return. “I learned who I really was and recognized the true magnificence of who I really was.”

She is not an exception—you too are that magnificence. You are holy, like Jesus. That’s who you really are! Affirm, “I am magnificent!” Take a hold of that amazing power! Anita went back to heal in not months or weeks, but days to be cancer free. “I understood my body was only a reflection of my internal state.”

Is that what went on for Jesus? He might have realized how magnificent He was and how that power was His and He could step back into that body knowing that magnificence! Anita was cancer free in four days! That’s resurrection! It comes from knowing who you are. When you know that—your body, your relationships, your finances, your creativity reflect that magnificence. “I am magnificent!” You truly are! Happy Easter!

April 1, 2012 – Street Spiritual…I Am Love

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4/1/12 Rev. David McArthur

It is our connection with God which takes care of us—that love that is God, that love that you are. However, you do have to deal with things and people who don’t seem to know you are spiritual. But since God is good all the time, even those things are good. Still, the mind wants to sort through things, so we do blame and guilt; we feel shame and failure, no matter how spiritual we are. So when you don’t feel good about something, it’s the “me” that needs the help. Deal with yourself instead of the situation.

Focus on divine love. You can go from anguish to overwhelming peace when you connect with that spiritual presence and power. Emma Curtis Hopkins said, “Everything is really full of love for you. The good that is for you loves you as much as you love it. The good that is for you seeks you and will come flying to you if you see that what you love is love itself. All people will change when you know that they are love. We shall change toward all people when we know that we ourselves are formed out of love. All is love. There is nothing in this universe but love.”

When we are in the place where we are not experiencing our connection with God, when we are really attracted to who’s responsible, who’s guilty, who’s to blame, who’s right, it takes a few steps to get that connection. First remember “I am lovable!” Even when you’ve done your best to mess it all up! Second, acknowledge “I am loved!” You cannot do anything to not be loved. That’s the only power you don’t get! You are a beautiful, radiant child of God!

Third, there’s just the love. You are the love. All that you are is love. It’s what you are. And you are the creator of love. That’s what we’re here to learn. That’s our journey—to find out there’s just love. That’s all that’s real.

Say, “I am lovable. I am loved. I am love.”

Yes you are!

March 18, 2012 – Oneness Through All Paths

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3/18/12 Rev. David McArthur

Oneness — It’s at the root of our spiritual journey. Emilie Cady wrote that man is at first living in the selfish, animal part of himself and will grow up into Divine or Spiritual Understanding to know his oneness with the Father, like Jesus when he said, “The Father and I are one.”

But there’s another thing, how do we do it?  Where is the oneness? When the Spiritual Self awakens, we experience a deep desire for connection with what has been expressed as the Divine.  Man’s limited understanding has tried to explain it in the terms of our various cultures.  Throughout the Ages, great teachers or guides have come to the people to explain this longing for connection with the Divine in the terms of each of our various cultures. They all taught on a level that was not fully apparent to ordinary people and so people have spent millennia trying to figure out what they said, which of course led to differences of opinion about what they meant and that led to most of the wars humanity has fought.

In the “Bhagavad Gita” from the Hindu tradition, we see Prince Arjuna just before his army goes to battle. He has family and friends on both sides, and expresses anguish over the coming slaughter.  God, in the form of Lord Krishna, his Charioteer, loses no time to use this “teaching moment”.  He tells Arjuna to not worry, that he must do his duty in the battle, and that all those who will die that day have chosen death and will return again (reincarnate), as they must.

WHAT??  Did he just tell Arjuna to just go ahead and slaughter his family and friends? Gandhi’s great teachings state that the “Bhagavad Gita” was the world’s greatest teaching of non-violence.  In his metaphysical interpretation, the conflict between the “armies” is actually within ourselves.  How can we harm another when it is really ourselves?

All religions teach the same things: prayer, meditation, spiritual service, love. There is only division if we choose to see division.  If we are aware of oneness, we see oneness. There is no separation, no difference.  There is only One.  As we always recite at the beginning of our services; “There is only One Presence and One Power in the Universe and in my life.  The All-Loving Goodness of God.”

March 4, 2012 – Oneness Through Prayer

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3/4/12 Rev. David McArthur

The second tool in this journey into oneness with the divine is one we all use. It’s a connector. It’s the tool of prayer. If there were no connection, prayer would be really stupid—we’d be talking to ourselves. There was a two month old baby being kept alive by extreme measures, who had known only pain in its short life. Surgery was necessary, but did not go well. In fact, the surgeon announced the baby would not live beyond the operation. So a nurse closed herself in a closet and prayed that the child would know a pain free life with its parents. After removing the life-sustaining devices, the surgeon said the baby would die. There was no way it could live. But its vital signs became strong and it did live. The doctor called it a miracle.

Healing is the experience of greater wholeness. So who is healed? A man asking for prayer?  His friends who prayed? The doctor and nurse who witnessed a miracle? We experience a connection we cannot explain any other way. If it touches one, it touches all. It changes the very fabric of consciousness itself. In prayer we’re able to take a hold of something that completely defies what we know of the world. But With God all things are possible.

When you pray you take a hold of that, otherwise you wouldn’t pray. It is a level where we know and understand each other. We understand we’re one. Whenever we reach for that presence and power and reach for the knowledge that with God, all things are possible, we invite hope. Whenever we reach for it, it is easier for anyone else in the world to touch it—a possibility of connection that wasn’t there before. When one of us heals, we all heal. You can’t explain it, but you know it’s true. Every prayer you say lifts everyone here. For that we thank you!

February 26, 2012 – Journey to Oneness

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2/26/12 Rev. David McArthur

You’re late and there’s only one check-out line at the store. The customer at the checker holds up the line. Full of judgment, you feel far from free, and wonder, “What am I doing here?”

Emilie Cady likened the Israelites’ slavery in Egypt to a state of selfish animal consciousness, where we see no value in others (or ourselves). Through the intervention of an outside God, we are freed to wander through the desert of separation. We feel we have some value because the outside God values us. “My God (Grandpa with a sword) gives me value.” Then Jesus showed us the state of consciousness in which the “Father and I are one”—but so is everyone else!

We have gone through that the past 200 years. In a war with ourselves we rejected the slavery consciousness. But because our sense of value was still so low we remained in a state of consciousness of separation, or Segregation. Feeling, “I have to be better than others to have value”, we still did not see the value in ourselves.

The African American church took us out of that state. The 100 years from Emancipation to the end of Segregation was where we journeyed through the consciousness of separation toward the Oneness. But still we held onto Discrimination, still standing in the judgmental line, finding differences which we might need to protect against. But the heart is a higher intelligence which tells us we are all children of God, we are one. So we are done with Discrimination. Now we are working it out, from Segregation to Discrimination to acceptance of homosexuals to accepting those of the Muslim faith.

How do we get there? Through love—the choice of compassion that the Master taught. Caring for others is caring for “me”. Patience for another is patience for “me”. So we give up that God “out there”. It is within. Emilie Cady said that all goodness that springs up is the God in us, and nothing anyone can do can take away that freedom!

It’s so simple—just standing in line feeling compassion. We already have everything—all that we need. So the only thing that we can get from standing in line is the love we need, the love that we are!

February 19, 2012 – Enjoy Worry With Compassion

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2/19/12 Rev. David McArthur

God is good all the time! And yet we worry.

Lucy appreciated her good life, but she always became anxious and worried for her husband’s safety every day before he got home from work. A friend suggested she spend that time in self-compassion, which she did. Gradually, the worry and anxiety was released. Later she found out that her grandfather once had an accident on his way home and after that her grandmother always worried about his returning home. Her mother learned that habit and passed it to her daughter. 3 generations of worry!

What does the worry do for us? Well, when we’re worrying, we’re not loving. It takes us out of the experience of knowing that God is there loving us all the time. Worry affirms “the goodness of God is not here”. It stops us from seeing the goodness of God in all and everyone.

Love is experiencing the presence of God with which we are one. That form of compassion heals us from believing there is something else. Hold yourself in that compassion. Let it move through you. You’d feel that for a friend. Let it happen for you– that self-compassion. Let yourself be aware of the presence of God and let God be responsible for that other being! The peace will come.

Stress and worry do come from love. But first feel self-compassion. Second let God be responsible for them just as God has been for you. Healing and learning has been brought forth in you, and God will bring that forth in the other being. For those you love that you worry for, say, “I place you in God’s care, knowing the very highest is coming forth.” It has to be because God is good all the time! God is good all the time! And all the time God is good! God is caring for them just as She is doing for you!