Love

February 22, 2015 – Pinocchio – Through Fear to God

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02/22/15 Rev. David McArthur
Pinocchio – Through Fear to God

Pinocchio begins with a glorious story of our creation myth. Geppetto (the Creator) makes Pinocchio. The Blue Fairy gives him life. A living puppet without strings, Pinocchio becomes famous, but ends up caged. (As we look to the outer for fulfillment, there are limitations.) To be free of the cage, Pinocchio had to quit lying to himself.

He went to Pleasure Island where there are no rules. Soon he and the other pleasure-seeking boys turn into donkeys, showing addiction to the Earth experience; it’s falling asleep into the density of the animal consciousness. It doesn’t work. But he listens to Jiminy Cricket, his consciousness, and gets off Pleasure Island by diving into the ocean (his consciousness).

He has to find Geppetto, his creator. (The focus is now on the divine.) Entering into his subconscious, the ocean, he finds Monstro the whale (the greatest fear). It isn’t easy for him to get into the whale. Here Jesus tells us how: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. “ (Matthew 7:7)

My own personal journey into the “whale” will perhaps encourage some to enter into their fear. It began when my wife was murdered. I felt if God is a lie I wanted to know. So I entered into my fear. When the murderer’s family was interviewed I got to be a part of it, and I got to see how their Pleasure Island was taken from them, how the pain took it all. I did not see evil anywhere. I saw how our choices affect others. I saw that Geppetto, the Divine Presence/Law, was a gift with no strings. A gift of power and choice. Goodness was there.

Pinocchio burns the boat inside the whale (fire is a symbol of transformation) so that the whale would spit them out. The whale (the fear) is gone. In my journey into my whale, I asked if the love was real. I went back through every moment—the act, the choices, the pain, what was said, what happened to the family. Everywhere I touched there was love. Love so powerful it brought something even greater—a love which allowed choices, consciousness, actions. There was not anything else. No second power. An amazing gift of love to every single person there. It’s not just that God is good. That’s not enough. God is love all the time. And All the time God is love. No more whale. I could see the reality we live in, the most amazing choices. I could see we can place our attention on anything we want. And when we put it on this powerful love we see that God Is All Love All The Time.

February 15, 2015 – Romance – I Love You

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02/15/15 Rev. David McArthur
Romance – I Love You

Today we’re talking about a sacred experience between 2 people, that beautiful relationship which happens with couples. It comes from that simplest understanding that God is love, and when we experience it we experience God. It changes us and the way we perceive. We see the other through divine eyes. It is a unifying power.

Told that if he’d survive at all he’d be a quadriplegic, a young man fixed his eyes on his wife and mouthed the words, “Maybe we should let me go.” She replied, “I will support whatever you decide, but I am in it for the long run.” The next words she spoke gave him his life back. “You’re still you. I love you.” He mouthed, “This is way beyond ‘in sickness and in health’”. It was Christopher Reeve—Superman! Their love went beyond their vows. She saw him and he saw her as they really are.

Perhaps the most profound statement found in the Bible is “He who is without love is without God.” Love is greater than even marriage. In the most hostile climate of northern Scotland Peter and Eileen Caddy were known for their beautiful gardens. Years later I contacted Peter. He had a new wife and child in Hawaii! He explained that Eileen’s purpose and his had changed. Love doesn’t own. It releases when the connection doesn’t serve the soul’s growth. It doesn’t mean that love is not there and vibrant. It is part of love—letting go.

An ice skater from the age of four, Ekaterina Gordeeva was partnered with Sergei when she was 11, he 15. They skated as a pair for the Soviet Union and in 1988 took Olympic gold in Calgary. Their partnership blossomed into love, and soon into marriage and a beautiful baby girl. In Lillehammer in ’94 they again took the gold. The next year, while they trained in Lake Placid, Sergei collapsed onto the ice dead from a heart attack. He was 28.

Ekaterina was not sure she could skate without Sergei. But at the stadium for his memorial service she felt Sergei’s presence right there beside her. Hearing her coach say, “just trust Sergei” she skated to the music they had used to win the gold. She said she never felt so much power. “I didn’t have a thought in my head. It was all in my heart—my soul.” She later spoke of how they had agreed to smile at each other every day, and every day to say one extra time, “I love you.”

God is love and goes beyond time. Remember feeling that love for your special person and say, “I love you.” So one extra time each day this week say, “I love you.”

February 15, 2015 – Romance – I Love You

by

02/15/15 Rev. David McArthur
Romance – I Love You

Today we’re talking about a sacred experience between 2 people, that beautiful relationship which happens with couples. It comes from that simplest understanding that God is love, and when we experience it we experience God. It changes us and the way we perceive. We see the other through divine eyes. It is a unifying power.

Told that if he’d survive at all he’d be a quadriplegic, a young man fixed his eyes on his wife and mouthed the words, “Maybe we should let me go.” She replied, “I will support whatever you decide, but I am in it for the long run.” The next words she spoke gave him his life back. “You’re still you. I love you.” He mouthed, “This is way beyond ‘in sickness and in health’”. It was Christopher Reeve—Superman! Their love went beyond their vows. She saw him and he saw her as they really are.

Perhaps the most profound statement found in the Bible is “He who is without love is without God.” Love is greater than even marriage. In the most hostile climate of northern Scotland Peter and Eileen Caddy were known for their beautiful gardens. Years later I contacted Peter. He had a new wife and child in Hawaii! He explained that Eileen’s purpose and his had changed. Love doesn’t own. It releases when the connection doesn’t serve the soul’s growth. It doesn’t mean that love is not there and vibrant. It is part of love—letting go.

An ice skater from the age of four, Ekaterina Gordeeva was partnered with Sergei when she was 11, he 15. They skated as a pair for the Soviet Union and in 1988 took Olympic gold in Calgary. Their partnership blossomed into love, and soon into marriage and a beautiful baby girl. In Lillehammer in ’94 they again took the gold. The next year, while they trained in Lake Placid, Sergei collapsed onto the ice dead from a heart attack. He was 28.

Ekaterina was not sure she could skate without Sergei. But at the stadium for his memorial service she felt Sergei’s presence right there beside her. Hearing her coach say, “just trust Sergei” she skated to the music they had used to win the gold. She said she never felt so much power. “I didn’t have a thought in my head. It was all in my heart—my soul.” She later spoke of how they had agreed to smile at each other every day, and every day to say one extra time, “I love you.”

God is love and goes beyond time. Remember feeling that love for your special person and say, “I love you.” So one extra time each day this week say, “I love you.”

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January 18, 2015 – The Beloved Community

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01/18/15 Rev. James Trapp
The Beloved Communty

Today’s headlines are the world’s prayer requests—what we need to pray for. They are evolutionary spiritual triggers to move us from where we are to where we want to be. “Invading armies can be resisted,” according to Victor Hugo, “but not an idea whose time has come.” Then, one person can have an idea that changes the world.

Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat and was arrested. So Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. led a 381 day peaceful boycott of the bus company. It sparked a movement that spread around the world. We each have a compelling mission. We all pray for relief from our nagging problems. And then, we say, will we be able to live a better life of giving and love. But we have it backwards. Our mission is to expand our world, our vision, and then our problems will fade to the nothingness from which they came.

Dr. King’s vision was of all people living and working together. Activist Reverend James Lawson called this the Beloved Community. All the great spiritual teachers have taught that this Beloved Community is in the eye of Spirit and we must live it in our hearts. Astronauts tell us they have an epiphany when they see the earth from above: without any map lines, separations among us are false.

It’s easy to love all of humanity, but it’s not so easy loving that particular one that’s on your last nerve. Jesus said we are to love the one “in front of us”. We need to see with new eyes. We must use our imagination to put ourselves in the shoes of another and put our loving into practice, not just intend to. Toleration is a start, but move to appreciation and embracing. Move beyond your barriers. “Turn the other cheek”, which means that when someone gives us one form of energy, we are to return a different form of energy, like forgiveness, love, and compassion. That takes strength. Returning the same energy does not take strength.

A lady, returning to her airplane seat, found the man beside her eating her cookies. She was angry and helped herself to “her own cookies”. Then she realized she was in the wrong seat! She apologized for her behavior, but the man said that he has learned that “when in doubt, share!” Our true theology is what we do, what we put into practice. To forgive “someday” is just a delaying tactic of the mind. Go within; pray. Bring in a higher energy. It affects all people. We are all connected. Stop seeing differences; see the beauty in others. See the many variations of infinite Spirit, which needs variety to express Its infinitude. See the wholeness and unity. Bring in the brotherhood, the Blessed Community. The time is now; the place is where you are. Peace. God bless you!

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January 18, 2015 – The Beloved Community

by


01/18/15 Rev. James Trapp
The Beloved Communty

Today’s headlines are the world’s prayer requests—what we need to pray for. They are evolutionary spiritual triggers to move us from where we are to where we want to be. “Invading armies can be resisted,” according to Victor Hugo, “but not an idea whose time has come.” Then, one person can have an idea that changes the world.

Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat and was arrested. So Dr. Martin Luther King, jr. led a 381 day peaceful boycott of the bus company. It sparked a movement that spread around the world. We each have a compelling mission. We all pray for relief from our nagging problems. And then, we say, will we be able to live a better life of giving and love. But we have it backwards. Our mission is to expand our world, our vision, and then our problems will fade to the nothingness from which they came.

Dr. King’s vision was of all people living and working together. Activist Reverend James Lawson called this the Beloved Community. All the great spiritual teachers have taught that this Beloved Community is in the eye of Spirit and we must live it in our hearts. Astronauts tell us they have an epiphany when they see the earth from above: without any map lines, separations among us are false.

It’s easy to love all of humanity, but it’s not so easy loving that particular one that’s on your last nerve. Jesus said we are to love the one “in front of us”. We need to see with new eyes. We must use our imagination to put ourselves in the shoes of another and put our loving into practice, not just intend to. Toleration is a start, but move to appreciation and embracing. Move beyond your barriers. “Turn the other cheek”, which means that when someone gives us one form of energy, we are to return a different form of energy, like forgiveness, love, and compassion. That takes strength. Returning the same energy does not take strength.

A lady, returning to her airplane seat, found the man beside her eating her cookies. She was angry and helped herself to “her own cookies”. Then she realized she was in the wrong seat! She apologized for her behavior, but the man said that he has learned that “when in doubt, share!” Our true theology is what we do, what we put into practice. To forgive “someday” is just a delaying tactic of the mind. Go within; pray. Bring in a higher energy. It affects all people. We are all connected. Stop seeing differences; see the beauty in others. See the many variations of infinite Spirit, which needs variety to express Its infinitude. See the wholeness and unity. Bring in the brotherhood, the Blessed Community. The time is now; the place is where you are. Peace. God bless you!

December 21, 2014 – The Christmas Awakening

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12/14/14 Rev. David McArthur
The Christmas Awakening

This year my granddaughter explained our nativity scene to me. It was made in Montana with figures based on ranchers, native Americans and oilmen. I learned that they wore heavy clothing because the baby Jesus was born at the North Pole! Christmas is a little different each year as our awareness grows. As a child it’s the first time there is something beyond our parents we could ask directly and it would respond to us. What a wonderful beginning of the God thought for a child!

11 year old Susie’s letter to Santa spoke of her younger siblings and that her father had died that year and how her mother was sick. But all she asked was could Santa bring a blanket for her mother who was very cold at night. It was not what you’d expect. A member here told how she had moved to a new town and didn’t know anyone. She had 2 daughters but no money for Christmas or even for food. No one to go to. Nobody even knew her plight. Yet there was a knock on the door. A big box had come. There was food. There were toys, and clothes. Whenever you think no one knows, there is always an awareness. A change of awareness is all it’s about. An awakening of consciousness.

The Christmas story in the gospel of John speaks of the light of each one of us, the very life in us, which brings forth the consciousness in each one of us. In our 3-D state we have to grow in awareness. John speaks of belief, but it is not “I think so” or “I’m convinced” belief. It is the embodiment of what you are, the reality you live. And “name” here isn’t what you are called, it is the nature of your being. So “to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. It is the awakening to the awareness that we are children of God. It is not a religious thing, it is our nature.

As a Jewish boy, Jay Frankston, didn’t get to do Christmas. But when he had kids of his own, he did it big! One day he watched a mother help her little girl mail a letter to Santa. He wondered where those letters went. At the central post office he was given many, most of which were just lists of toys wanted. But he found Susie’s! And 7 others like hers from children who were afraid, or lonely, or felt forgotten. On Christmas Day he dressed as Santa and took Susie’s mom a blanket, and toys for Susie and her brothers and sister. He went to each of the 8 homes with presents for all. How the Santa experience changes when you become a parent! The next year he went to 20 homes, the year after that it was 120 homes. He did this for 12 years, the embodiment of love. It wasn’t religious.

It’s what it’s all about and it is not difficult. It is who we are. It is our nature. We’re the embodiment of love. I invite you to love the season and to give love this season. The gifts are just an excuse to give love. Give love without gifts. To people you don’t know give love. This special week the whole world is in the consciousness of love. I give love this Christmas. Say it again, I give love this Christmas. I give love this Christmas. And stop and be aware of all the love given you. Bless you!

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

by

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!

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

by

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!

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