AWAKEN FROM THY DEEP SLEEP    
 
Perhaps you did not know that President Lincoln prayed as much as he did, but our story about Joshua tells us of how Mr. Lincoln prayed for guidance.
 
Prayer is simply recognizing a Power greater than yourself, which is all that prayer is.  It is not saying that the Power that I pray to is greater than the one you pray to, therefore you must pray to my God.  When we are asked to bow our heads in silence, it is simply saying to recognize the God you understand, for that is the only Power to which anyone can pray and not the one that I understand.
 
When wealth enters, the need for a Power greater than oneself becomes less and less.  Money appears to replace this need for a Power greater than oneself because it is believed that money can buy whatever is needed.
 
The physical war that we fight today would end soon if prayer were used to end it, but we as Americans are loosing our understanding about prayer and we are abandoning it in many places.
 
This story about Joshua, in fact every story in the Scriptures is about you and I trying to make a reunion with Our Father.  The battles are within us and sometimes these battles explode and include the physical land outside ourselves.
 
The words land, city, town or country all represent states of consciousness.  Wealthy America is coming to believe they do not need a Power greater than themselves.  If this were not true we would not try to stop prayer at different functions, yet it appears we have no problems praying when trouble arises. 
 
Our teachers taught us against using God as an "errand boy."
 
We are encouraged in our Scriptures that when we pray to go in our closets and pray.  That simply means that we are to go within ourselves and pray to that Power that is greater than we are, the Power we believe in, and talk to that Power, get guidance, get understanding, find equity or get instruction.  It is said that the one who does this is "a wise man" and will increase in learning and that "a wise man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels." 
 
The word "man" is generic and means male or female, man, woman, boy or girl.
 
Most of us shun the Scriptures because we believe that the words there are about what happened years and years ago, but do we not say that Infinite Intelligence, God is about the Present ONLY? 
 
If that is true, then the Scriptures are about every age, every people, every place and it is more than what happens OUTSIDE us.  It evidently must be something that includes the more of us.
 
Yet, God does not force Himself upon us and neither do we at Universal Wisdom Fellowship.  This great Power allows us to discover this for ourselves so we simply present the material to you and allow you to discover this Power for yourself.
 
Many years ago, I sat for two services in a Religious Science Choir beside a person who along with me listened to the Minister for eleven months each year.  This person had taken Science of Mind 1, 2, 3, Consciousness Course, many Seminars and Workshops and heard much about the teachings of Jesus.  One Sunday while the Minister was speaking, she whispered to me, "I've got to have my Jesus."
 
Between the services we had coffee and donuts and I had a chance to answer her.  I said to her that if this was not enough, if something felt missing about the Jesus she heard here and the Jesus she believed in, that she needed to find the place that would fill that void within her.  She left the Religious Science Church.  Months after she left, I heard from her and she told me she was finally happy.  I was very happy for her.  

 

Everything that we do is never in vain.  There is always something that is gained.  We simply have to be strong and courageous enough to test, try, seek and find that which enhances our spirituality.
 
I say to you today wake up and allow yourself to realize the Truth of you.  The story about Joshua can help you to understand what is going on within yourself.  Are you happy with the life you live or is there a void?  Join us and let the story unfold within you.
 
In Love and Light,
Rev. Pat