Love

June 10, 2012 – Lighting the Torch of the Soul

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6/10/12 Rev. Susan Galvan

Lighting the Torch of the Soul is bringing the heart’s core out into the open. So often, because of our busy-ness, we put it on the back burner until, late in life, it’s still “in the closet” and we are filled with regret. What brings us power to live in the light—in the Christ consciousness?

To do it, stop. At a mosque, each person upon entering, stops and washes off the outside life and leaves their shoes inside the door, so as not to bring the world with them into the holy space. So stop, and leave your world and go into your empty space.

Then get quiet. Come into the moment—no past; no future—step out of your exhausting story into where you are clear and still. Where your heart knows no limits. Experience that warmth of love. It is always there within, whether we are in it or not. It is where nothing is missing or needs fixing or re-arranging. Experience the lightness of being and gratitude which lifts the heart. Where you are at peace.

Next, appreciate your abundance, even the traumas you had which are part of what got you to this point. And appreciate each other. We each need an ally, a friend to point out our blind spots, to bring us back. This is not a solo journey. Together we move to where we want to be. Support each other’s dreams. Do not practice “dream-icide” upon yourself or others.

Finally we each need a plan. It might change, but follow. How do we recognize our plan—that we are manifesting the Christ consciousness? It’s when we light up. It’s doing things for which we are enthusiastic (en-theos, which is Greek for “filled with God”). It’s doing things that energize us. Remember you don’t have to know how, just what. In expressing your heart’s core values wonderful things do happen in ways never expected. Keep listening, opening, following. Affirm, “I am open and willing to allow the Christ to express in me, through me, as me!” “I am open and willing to allow the Christ to express in me, through me, as me!”

June 3, 2012 – From Pet Peeves to Peace

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6/3/12 Rev. David McArthur

There’s a down-side to our spiritual growth, which is knowing we can and need to transform our feelings of frustration, irritation, even rage; our Pet Peeves.

We spend so much time in non-peace—hostility, anger, upset, Righteous Indignation!—but it’s lying to ourselves. It’s not harmony; we don’t feel our spiritual truth. We need to shift, to get to the heart. We know how. And we now know we can extend that shift to those around us so that we are in harmony together.

But when we do shift, we ask ourselves, “Why did I wait all that time?” It’s because when we indulge in our pet peeves, it feels good! But we stay out of our peace. And by practicing our little peeves that don’t matter we build up our non-peace pettiness to have when it does matter. So ask yourself, “What am I here for?”

There is something within each of us that, the longer we are on our spiritual journey, the more loudly it calls to us. Jesus taught that the Christ peace is from within, from the being that you really are. Look at the little things. When you move in peace you are that presence which moves through you.

When the Roman soldiers arrested Jesus, and one had an ear cut off, Jesus healed it, saying, “No more of this.” No more hostility, it was time to heal. Because of that beautiful peace in all of us, we hear, “no more of this; time to heal.” It is time we go about this. Get out of your irritation and into peace. Focus on your heart and go to that love and compassion there. You can have compassion for someone who doesn’t know any better. Gandhi quickly forgave the ruffians who beat him up, realizing they did not know any better. They did not know, either, the feeling of seeing the beauty in another.

Am I here to add to the tensions of this world or to add peace? It’s my choice.

For this week shift from irritation to peace at every opportunity because you are the peace. It is not the peace which you are finding, but the real YOU. “I am the presence of peace here and now.” Because it is who you really are. Yes you are, and you are magnificent!

May 27, 2012 – Celebrating the Gifts and the Source

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5/27/12 Rev. David McArthur

We are spiritual beings, working on expanding our awareness, but our minds focus on the concrete. If you really want to know, you have to give up your judgment of how things look. Jesus said, “Do not work for food which spoils, but food which does not spoil.” It starts by a shift to awareness of the Source, from which the goodness flows. A shift to the awareness of your connection to the presence of the divine. When you focus on the giver, the Source, the true gifts are known.

Even in great pain from losing a loved one or from suffering tremendous guilt, value the beautiful life there. See the gift that was given. See the gift in the willingness of an addict to say, “I need help.” See the gift of those who can provide the skills for recovery and healing. God is good all the time. When we see the real gifts, we recognize the source and can touch it with our hearts.

You might ask, is there goodness when a wonderful being dies young? A life whose promise would never be fulfilled? You hear the answer, “It’s only God, and God is absolute goodness, so it’s all good.” That’s a hard teaching. But would you rather not have had the wonderful time with this person just to avoid your sorrow? What was there was the gift of goodness. It doesn’t mean we don’t travel through pain, through loss. But when we see the real gift, we touch the soul. Look for the real gift, even if the part of the journey you are on is difficult now. Look for the Giver, the Source, always there caring for you throughout your life.

Enjoy the gift; enjoy the giver!

May 20, 2012 – Pinocchio – The Choice That Leads to Mastery

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5/20/12 Rev. David McArthur

We desire to master the material realm to draw forth all we need so we can accomplish what we came for, and to master our spiritual being to bring forth our very highest. In a marvelous story, “Pinocchio”, Geppetto, a creator symbol, brings forth this limited being, Pinocchio. Given life, he first has to master the experience of growth. He joyfully goes to school, but this is a world of choice and, like we do, Pinocchio gets sidetracked by fame and fortune. When he wants to go back home, he isn’t allowed to leave; he is caged. There is something which happens when we give our power to something outside of ourselves– we can’t go home.

Jesus said, “You cannot serve two masters.” Not both faith and things. Pinocchio goes back to school—but then, again, leaves for Pleasure Island. He joins a group which tells him what to want. When our validation comes from outside, we lie to ourselves. What will fulfill you? Out there, “they” tell you, expressing their ideas. We want to cover up our fears by getting “their” approval. We need to learn self awareness, become aware that we had been experiencing “fact”, not cause.

We are not our animal body. We were on our journey long before developing that. Pinocchio, expressing his animal awareness, becomes a donkey and has to go down into the mine to work, out of the light. It wasn’t easy, but he ran from the island. He returns home, but it is empty, Geppetto is not there. This is one of the most difficult parts of our journey. It is the dark night of the soul, when you look within and do not find a presence there. It is when we have entered into the density, the belief that we find validation without. We have looked outward because the fear of lack and separation is greater than awareness of our God. You have to look deep into your fears in your subconscious, the ocean, and Monstro, the whale dives deep. Pinocchio, swallowed by the whale, finds Creator—Geppetto—who doesn’t become powerful and make everything better—no, he just loves Pinocchio, just the way he is. Love transforms Pinocchio, and the presence flows through him. He builds a fire, the transformative power, which provides the way out. Pinocchio dies (to the belief he is the physical) but is brought back to life by the Blue fairy, who brings awareness of his spiritual power. From choosing love, he becomes a real live boy, as we become real live spiritual beings able to allow the flow of love within, of overcoming fear of lack and separation.  We came to take the part of real live spiritual beings, and live “happily ever after”.

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 22, 2012 – Giving and Receiving Love

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4/22/12 Barry and Joyce Vissell
Giving & Receiving Love

“Surely Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life.” (23rd Psalm)  God loves us so much! It is something that is with us throughout our lives. Death is our final adventure. In it, God has planned for us the very best. But we live in DOD– denial of death. Death, however, is an experience in holiness.

Many years ago Joyce’s mother came to her and said, “When it’s my turn to die, I want you to be excited for me. I know you will find a way.” She said it would be the greatest gift her Creator would give her. Recently, it happened. Over the weeks, the Vissells learned death is nothing to be afraid of. It is a beautiful time of life. It is not the enemy, but to be embraced as an adventure. Louise, Joyce’s mother, told them, “I love my dying process so much!” Amidst all the pain, she focused on receiving God’s love. “I didn’t know I could love so much!” She was overjoyed to see and talk with Joyce’s father, who had passed years before.

It’s about love; living in love; giving and receiving love. Even a lifelong outspoken atheist is known to have declared with her dying breath, “Love is the answer!” Whoever has loved you in your lifetime– they still love you! –without the body, even more. They are there. People we’ve known are all helping us. Take time to talk to them. Ask them for help.

We live in denial of death. Rather than dread death, live knowing your loved one could pass suddenly. Live each day with this “knowing” and love and appreciate them when you are together. Expect the unexpected all the time. Don’t be surprised.

When the moment of Louise’s passing finally arrived, Barry said he felt it. He let go of his “office consciousness” and sank into the heart. He said entering her room was like “entering a cathedral, a most holy place.” He entered with reverence and thought she was already dead. Suddenly she shouted “Merry Christmas!” (it was the middle of summer), “Look at all the lights!” Louise had received her greatest gift. The Vissell family had found a way to be excited for her. Dying is as holy as birth.

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!