Month: November 2014

November 16, 2014 – Put It To The Test

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11/16/14 Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
Put It To The Test

This month, November, offers us a prime opportunity. For Thanksgiving Day, families come together to feast—and deal with their issues. But as they come together, they are of one heart, being grateful and giving thanks. The energy of gratitude is high this time of year. But what about the rest of the year? We get caught up in our activities and tend to forget the core appreciation we do have.

Science now shows us the power of the heart when it’s in gratitude, which goes forth from our hearts to draw to us more of what we appreciate. So let’s see what we might develop in this time when millions share this energy.

Everything Jesus did was a teaching point. He never made us feel he was more than us. That came from others later. But even when he raised up Lazarus he first gave thanks. He never did ask God for anything! He always claimed it or gave thanks for it. And science shows us that what we appreciate appreciates.

But there are things in our lives that don’t appear to be good. What if we use our elder brother’s method? What if, when our challenges arise, we have gratefulness for them? I haven’t asked for anything in ten years! But I have clothes and food and I came here to be assistant minister. Challenges happen for us (not to us). If we find the blessing in the challenge, the solution is there. What if we can hit a home run with the challenge? What if we prove God in the laboratory of our lives?

When you make your list, list everything, including the not-so-good stuff. All you need to do is be willing to be willing. The Holy Spirit will do the rest. Let’s see what God can do! Let’s check it out! Put God to the test: “Show me. I want to see.” Affirm, I Am Grateful for Everything! I Am Grateful for Everything! I Am Grateful for Everything! Yes, that’s what I’m talking about! Check it out!



November 9, 2014 – Teddy Bear Feeling – A Positive Path

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11/9/14 Rev. David McArthur
Teddy Bear Feeling – A Positive Path

The Divine Presence is absolute good. In Unity, we’re obsessive about this “positive”. We never get to the heaven/hell/sin stuff. There’s pure love, and it is not found in the intellect. One good way to find it is hugging a teddy bear! It opens our feelings to experience the pure love which God is and let it touch us. Hugging a teddy bear is a God experience, because it always feels good. If love is there God is there; if God is there love is there. As we open to this, we connect deeper and deeper with who we really are.

Medics were called into a village in Viet Nam after an attack. A little girl badly needed blood. With difficulty they explained they needed blood donors. A little boy raised his hand to volunteer. He was a match, and as they began drawing blood he began to cry. He sobbed deeply. A translator told the medics that the little boy thought he was giving all his blood, that he would die. They asked why then did he volunteer, and he replied that she was his friend.

That’s who we really are. We do love. That’s why we’re here. The more we connect the easier it is to see. We get distracted and caught up with things but that’s not who we are. Pain, loss, ill health, or lack means that of the greater potential there, only a part of what is greater has been manifest. This love, this presence constantly guides us back to who we really are.

It is pure love without opposite. That’s the reality. It’s a beautiful thing to realize. In the Upanishads, Hinduism says, “The Lord is one without a second.” In the beautiful Jewish teachings, “The Lord is one.” The Koran says, “There is only one God.” Not two, just one. Jesus said, “If … thine eye [lamp] be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” There is just one. It is pure. It is real. It is God, life; it is everywhere. A great way to touch it is the teddy bear.

In 19th century London a young street urchin survived by putting on labels in a workhouse. In his ten years he had gotten 4 years of reading and writing. He secretly wrote stories, and after many attempts, he finally got a publisher, but wasn’t paid anything. But he learned how to get published! It was Charles Dickens. His written stories and his own story show us the amazing potential in all of us. God is there—the potential, the intelligence, the love. If God is there, love is there. Right at this moment an amazing potential is here. Love is here. Love is here. Love is here. In every situation in everyone of us. When you know that, it is hard to be anything less than positive. And what I know is that because you are here, love is here!

November 9, 2014 – Teddy Bear Feeling – A Positive Path

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11/9/14 Rev. David McArthur
Teddy Bear Feeling – A Positive Path

The Divine Presence is absolute good. In Unity, we’re obsessive about this “positive”. We never get to the heaven/hell/sin stuff. There’s pure love, and it is not found in the intellect. One good way to find it is hugging a teddy bear! It opens our feelings to experience the pure love which God is and let it touch us. Hugging a teddy bear is a God experience, because it always feels good. If love is there God is there; if God is there love is there. As we open to this, we connect deeper and deeper with who we really are.

Medics were called into a village in Viet Nam after an attack. A little girl badly needed blood. With difficulty they explained they needed blood donors. A little boy raised his hand to volunteer. He was a match, and as they began drawing blood he began to cry. He sobbed deeply. A translator told the medics that the little boy thought he was giving all his blood, that he would die. They asked why then did he volunteer, and he replied that she was his friend.

That’s who we really are. We do love. That’s why we’re here. The more we connect the easier it is to see. We get distracted and caught up with things but that’s not who we are. Pain, loss, ill health, or lack means that of the greater potential there, only a part of what is greater has been manifest. This love, this presence constantly guides us back to who we really are.

It is pure love without opposite. That’s the reality. It’s a beautiful thing to realize. In the Upanishads, Hinduism says, “The Lord is one without a second.” In the beautiful Jewish teachings, “The Lord is one.” The Koran says, “There is only one God.” Not two, just one. Jesus said, “If … thine eye [lamp] be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” There is just one. It is pure. It is real. It is God, life; it is everywhere. A great way to touch it is the teddy bear.

In 19th century London a young street urchin survived by putting on labels in a workhouse. In his ten years he had gotten 4 years of reading and writing. He secretly wrote stories, and after many attempts, he finally got a publisher, but wasn’t paid anything. But he learned how to get published! It was Charles Dickens. His written stories and his own story show us the amazing potential in all of us. God is there—the potential, the intelligence, the love. If God is there, love is there. Right at this moment an amazing potential is here. Love is here. Love is here. Love is here. In every situation in everyone of us. When you know that, it is hard to be anything less than positive. And what I know is that because you are here, love is here!

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November 2, 2014 – Beauty and the Beast – Loving Ourselves

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11/2/14 Rev. David McArthur
Beauty and the Beast – Loving Ourselves

When we look at this experience of love we call God, how hard it is to let it be directed at ourselves!
 
Once very successful, but now in poverty, a merchant was riding home one night but got lost in a terrible storm. He rode toward a distant light, which grew brighter. The air got warmer and the forest, green. There was a large manor with beautiful gardens. The front door was standing open. No one ever appeared, but his every need was met. In the morning he left to return home, but first he picked a rose for his daughter, Beauty. Then the Beast did appear, “I have warmed, fed and housed you and have asked nothing in return, yet you steal from me. Your life is forfeit!” The merchant pleaded for his life, explaining he took the rose for his daughter, Beauty. The Beast relents, but only if Beauty comes to live with him. When she arrives, the Beast asks Beauty if she is there of her free will, and she answers that she is (to save her father). 
 
We are all these people, including the Beast. The criminal, angry, animal things we do to others! The difficulty is we still carry the Beast inside and must deal with it in order to expand into the spiritual awakening. We can feel lost in the storm and seek the light. There it is warm and comfortable with all that we need. It is another state of consciousness. But there too is forfeiting of life. To go back to what is not real is the death. We try to deny and control our beast, but love transforms. We must bring beauty (the developing feminine self, our feeling nature) into our experience with the Divine to fully experience it.
 
Beauty declined the Beast’s many offers of marriage. She remained true to her integrity, as she saw the Beast as an angry, violent being. In time, she began to see and appreciate his caring way. She began to see his heart. However, she wanted to marry the handsome Prince (the mind) in her dreams, so how could she marry the Beast? She goes home for a while (a spiritual vacation), where she wakes up to her appreciation and love for the Beast. So she returns only to find he is dying. She holds him in her arms, and her tears bring life back to him.
 
The Beast again asks her to wed, and this time she says “Yes!” because now she knows she loves him. His beastly facade fades away. He is the handsome Prince she had dreamed of. It is by love that we create true harmony. It’s about loving ourselves—not about anything else but letting ourselves have the feeling of loving. Give yourself the hug that lets the Divine fill you and bring you into fulfillment. Beauty’s dreams told her that beauty is within all the time because God is good all the time! God is good all the time! All the time God is good!
 
Let this lead you to the consciousness of Happily Ever After!