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 The Healing Process
(1/22/2016)
Don't ever feel guilty for admitting that you are still in the process of being healed. And don't let the negative emotions of guilt and shame because you sometimes experience doubt sabotage you. Learn to practice the constant prayer: "I am healed, but I still see men like trees. Lord, I do believe, but help my unbelief."
Quote of the week: "Nourishing myself is a joyful experience and I am worth the time spent on my healing." ~Louise Hay Read more
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 Awake and Committed in 2016
(1/7/2016)
The fulfillment of peace and joy you desire to experience can only be realized when you wake to your purpose, deliver it, and remain committed to the continued delivering of your gift to both yourself and those around you. Make 2016 the year of your deliverance - Awake and Committed!
Quote of the week: "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you." ~The Gospel of Thomas Read more
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 The Lesson of the Earthworm
(8/25/2015)
The lesson of the earthworm is this: So often we find ourselves in places where we don't belong, where we are not receiving what we need to evolve and grow. We are like the earthworm, going in the wrong direction and then stalling out completely, just twisting and turning over and over, going nowhere. The first thing that needs to happen is getting ourselves turned around and traveling in the right direction - toward the people and places where personal growth can occur and where we can be spiritually fed.
Quote of the week: "Nature always wears the colors of the Spirit."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson Read more
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 So Close, Yet So Far Away
(7/31/2015)
In every culture on earth there lies at its core an innate desire to worship something. Whether it is the worship of the Sun in ancient Egypt; the worship of the Amazon River in Peru; or the worship of a pair of new shoes in New York City, all of humanity is united by its desire to worship. What divides us are the arguments over the WAY in which we worship... how we worship... who we worship... what we worship... when we worship... where we worship. The desire is the same. The methods by which we facilitate this desire may be different. Or are they?
Quote of the week: "I am a stranger to no one; and no one is a stranger to me. Indeed, I am a friend to all." ~Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh) Read more
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 Jesus Was A Stone Roller
(5/9/2014)
Yes, the true beauty of the resurrection story is that the same power that raised Christ from the dead and rolled away the stone, delivered the man Jesus from the death of religion, resides in you and me. The stone has indeed been rolled away and you ARE the Spirit of the living God.
Quote of the week: "For whom the Son sets free is free indeed." ~John 8:35 Read more
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 Re-creating Your Life
(5/1/2014)
Looking at your life and saying to yourself, "Wherever I am, I am the reason I am here" is the first step to rebirth. Once you have taken a step back and looked at your creation and have owned that you alone are responsible for it, how do you change or re-create it?
Quote of the week: "Man is the sum total of his thoughts." ~Buddha Read more
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 Always Creating
(1/30/2014)
Let us make it our goal to begin to create our reality consciously. It all begins in our thought process. God honors what we label the things in our lives just as surely as He honored the names Adam gave the animals. It is truly all in our own hands.
Quote of the week: "We are human in expression but divine in creation and limitless in potentiality." ~Eric Butterworth Read more
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 The All Inclusive Love of God
(1/21/2014)
It is a characteristic of human nature that we think in terms of
duality. Much of the time we understand and define things by their
opposite, for example, light/darkness, good/bad, short/tall,
wide/narrow, shiny/dull, etc. Because of this, we have come to live in a
world dominated by the choice of either this or that, and we know that
choosing one thing or option necessarily means NOT choosing, or
excluding all the other options. God is ALL and does not live in the world of duality that we do. There
is enough of His love and favor to reach out to all who are in need,
even when those needs are very different in nature. God's love includes
all and excludes none.
Quote of the week: "The God who existed before any religion counts on you to make the oneness of the human family known and celebrated." ~Desmond Tutu Read more
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 The Enemies in Our Mind
(11/5/2013)
When we let go and surrender to the power of love - the source of all that is good that we know as God - then we gain the ability to walk through even the most troubling of situations without losing our hope, our joy, our faith...and most of all...our praise.
uote of the week: "It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways. We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves." ~Buddha Read more
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 Sound Doctrine?
(10/29/2013)
When we stop trying to use the Bible as a textbook and start allowing it to be a mirror, showing us who we are and what we think, our doctrine will be sound!
Quote of the week: "The pattern, promotion, preaching and practice of magnifying a finished work of Adam over the perverse idea of an unfinished work of Christ must be retracted, re-thought and re-presented." ~D.E. Paulk Read more
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 An Affirmation
(10/23/2013)
The prayer of faith is not so much about asking God for something as it is about acknowledging what already is...God's will. Let our daily prayers then, not be petitions, but rather statements of truth.
Quote of the week: "Every day declare for yourself what you want in life. Declare it as though you have it!" ~Louise Hay Read more
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 The Mines We've Laid (2/13/2009)
(10/9/2013)
If we make a habit out of laying mines for others, and then choose to walk across them ourselves, we must endure the explosion of self-mutilation without exception or justification.
Quote of the week: "As I returned across the fields I'd known, I recognized the walls that I'd once made. Had to stop in my tracks for fear of walking on the mines I'd laid... And if I built this fortress around your heart - encircled you in trenches and barbed wire - then let me build a bridge, for I cannot fill the chasm. And let me set the battlements on fire." ~Sting Read more
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 Salvation: Not One Size Fits All
(10/2/2013)
I love the fact that Jesus is enlightened enough, and in touch with the Christ Spirit within Him so deeply, that He knows "salvation" is different for every person. It is not a one size fits all proposition.
Quote of the week: "Christianity is not an end in itself. You cannot complete the work of salvation or enter the Kingdom of Heaven merely by joining a church or professing a creed. What is called "conversion" is not the end of the road. Maybe it is simply finding a road on which to travel. To Jesus, religion was not simply a way of believing or worshipping - it was a way of living." ~Eric Butterworth Read more
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 No Smoking
(9/25/2013)
From time to time, the circumstances of life throw us all into the fiery furnace of trials and tribulation. This is unavoidable. However, it is possible to come through the ordeal unscathed and even with "no smell of smoke" on your clothes.
Quote of the week: "The gift is simple: give up the body to the fire; herein you reach the goal, simply by dying." ~Kashi Khanda Read more
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 The God of Calamity
(9/17/2013)
The "I Am" (Christ Spirit) within us is bigger than any human system of religion or government or anything else. But sometimes, calamity is necessary to get us to see beyond the labels; to transcend our differences and connect to that which is holy in each of us.
Quote of the week: "The names we use to refer to God reflect what we hold in esteem and what we consider to be all powerful... However, to see God in some things to the exclusion of others is not to see Him at all. It is good that we see Him in the opulent, but do we see Him in the humble? It is fine that we see Him in His majesty, but do you see Him in His simplicity? He has no qualms about our referring to Him as Lord, as long as it does not preclude us from seeing Him in our mirror and in the face of our brother... God transcends our words for Him. He is more than eyes can see and words can tell. "
~Rev. Deborah Johnson Read more
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 Who Told You You Were Naked?
(9/10/2013)
Two philosophical paradigms exist in scripture that seem to be exact opposites. This entire consciousness of duality began in the Garden of Eden, which is also a metaphor for what goes on in our minds each and every day.
Quote of the week: "So long as you believe in a Two-Faced God, you will create ecstasy and terror side by side. You have imagined a God who is the epitome of both, and by telling yourself that you are created in the image and likeness of God, you have given yourself the moral authority to demonstrate both. You love and hate in the name of God. You create and destroy in the name of God. You accept and reject, you reward and punish in the name of God. It would benefit you to see the contradiction in that. If you truly seek a world where peace prevails, you would stop that. God destroys nothing. God rejects nothing. And God punishes nothing." ~Neale Donald Walsch Read more
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 The Road to Oneness
(8/27/2013)
Once you master something, you must surrender, go back to ground zero, in order to learn something new and move up a level. In my personal life, I feel I have experienced four distinct levels, and continue to journey further into truth every day. Several spiritual practices outline these stages in different ways, but the goal, Oneness, is the same.
Quote of the week: "There is absolutely nothing missing within us; we have been equipped with everything we need to evolve and flourish. Just as a seed needs the proper soil, water, and nutrients to grown into its perfect expression, so are we to nourish the soil of our consciousness in order to evolve into our soul's ever-expanding potential." ~Michael Beckwith Read more
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 The Veil of Religion
(8/16/2013)
When we release the religious mind and all its conditioning and surrender to the Christ Mind, we will understand that instead of coming to save us from sin/hell/an angry God, Jesus came to reconnect us to the idea of who we were always created to be. He came to tear down the veil of religion and let us see the divinity that has always been inside of us. God is waiting for you to look with unveiled face and see the Christ within yourself.
Quote of the week: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." ~II Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV) Read more
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 The Breaks in Breakthrough
(7/12/2013)
Once you've had a Break Up that's become permanent by Breaking Away, you've moved away from old concepts by Breaking Out, which has led to a Break Down, you're finally ready to Break In. The only way to truly experience the Kingdom of God is to go within.
Quote of the week: "No matter how blank the void gets, it still exists, and that is enough to give birth to the universe." ~Deepak Chopra Read more
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 Corresponding Action
(3/12/2013)
The Bible says in the book of James, faith without works is dead. Similarly, belief without corresponding action is dead. Spirit is bringing us out of the consciousness of religion - ALL religion, even Christianity - and leading us into the Christ Mind.
Quote of the week: "Now more than ever we need to show our children that distinctions between 'my country' and 'your country' ... 'my religion' and 'your religion' are secondary considerations ... In today's increasingly complex and interdependent world, we are compelled to acknowledge the existence of other cultures ... other faiths." ~Dalai Lama
Read more
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 Quantum Revelation Part III
(3/5/2013)
We know from recorded history that it was a very long time from the time man discovered fire to the time he invented the candle. However it was a much shorter period of time between then and the invention of the light bulb. I believe there are times in history when God intervenes, largely because someone is open and listening to Him, and there is a giant leap in knowledge as opposed to the usual slow progression of "line upon line" style learning.
Quote of the week: "Doing is a quantum leap from imagining." ~Barbara Sher
Read more
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 I Am
(2/26/2013)
God had to make it clear to the Hebrew children and is still having to make it clear to His children today that we don't have Him all figured out. All we have is our piece of who He has been revealed to us. But in reality, the only true name we should have for Him is "I Am that I Am" - nothing more; nothing less.
Quote of the week: "No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive." ~Gandhi
Read more
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 Why Does Religion Need Enemies?
(11/16/2009)
(2/19/2013)
If the greatest command from the Christ is for us to love God, ourselves and our neighbor, how do we justify having enemies and feeling the need to fight? Terms like my God arise out of doctrine and individual human interpretations of God and are then sustained by the ego of the I know. Why is it that we feel a sense of synergy when we feel we must defend ourselves, our faith, our religion, our know? Why do we find it easier to rally together against an outsider or perceived enemy than around a greater mandate like loving our neighbor as ourselves?
Quote of the week: "Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death."
~Author Unknown Read more
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 10 Tips for a Happy and Enduring Relationship
(2/12/2013)
Quote of the week: "Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not want what belongs to others. It does not brag. It is not proud. It is not rude. It does not look out for its own interests. It does not easily become angry. It does not keep track of other people's wrongs. Love is not happy with evil. But it is full of joy when the truth is spoken. It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It never gives up."
~I Corinthians 13:4-7 Read more
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 Slow and Steady Wins The Race
(2/5/2013)
Just as there is a vast difference between how sprinters and long distance runners run races, there is a difference between how different people live their lives. All of us have had the experience of having that friend who is exceptionally fun to be with when he is on top of the world and everything is going well for him. But you never know from day to day if he will be on the mountaintop of life or in the cellar of depression. If we are honest with ourselves, we would all rather have a relationship with that friend who might not have quite as high a level of energy, but who we can count on to be a steady and reliable presence in our lives.
Quote of the week: "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things."
~1 Corinthians 9:24,25 Read more
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 Quantum Revelation Part II
(1/29/2013)
Light and sound travel at different speeds; light being the faster of the two. We must always remember that while we live in time and space dimension, God does not. God lives in eternity and His time is not ours. Because of this, it is possible, and often is the case, that we feel the light of God before we hear the sound. This is why sometimes when we hear a clear word that we know we have never heard before we still have the feeling, "I already know this to be true." Hearing it is only a confirmation of what we have already felt in our hearts. Inclusion is not a new message. It has just taken a long time for the sound to get to our ears.
Quote of the week: "When time and space and change converge, we find Place. We arrive in Place when we resolve things. Place is peace of mind and understanding. Place is knowledge of self. Place is resolution." ~Abdullah Ibrahim Read more
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 Quantum Revelation Part I
(1/22/2013)
Have you ever wondered why it is that it has become the norm for most churches to evolve in a painfully slow progression of truth? Are you tired of the slow progression of truth in your life? Are you ready for a quantum leap in your thinking? When you reach the point where you are no longer satisfied with the "milk" of the word and graduate enough to admit that you don't "know" - that is the moment you show God you have cleared enough space out for Him to give you something new.
Quote of the week: "Emptied of all knowledge, man is joined in the highest part of himself, not with any created thing, nor with himself, nor with another, but with the One who is altogether unknowable; and in knowing nothing, he knows in a manner that surpasses understanding." ~Andrew Harvey Read more
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 The Language of the Crucifixion
(1/15/2013)
When communicating with someone, it is important that you speak the same language. Otherwise, they will not understand you. The Scripture in Hebrews 9 that says "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins" has always bothered me because I have always wondered why God would demand that. It seemed petty to me and not in keeping with God's character. But now I realize it was a communication issue.
Quote of the week: "The limits of my language define the limits of my world."
~Ludwig Wittgenstein Read more
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 Radical Forgiveness
(8/28/2012)
One thing that we need to understand is that the world we are living in right now - this human experience we are having - is temporary. Therefore, things are necessary here that are not necessary in the eternal realm...for instance, forgiveness. Because God sees things and people only in their complete and perfected form, he does not even recognize our sin. This is why forgiveness is inconceivable in heaven (eternity). But here, where we are living now, it is a necessary correction for mistakes we have made and misperceptions we continue to hold on to as truth and reality.
Quote of the week: "Christ's vision is the Holy Spirit's gift, God's alternative to the illusion of separation and to the belief in the reality of sin, guilt and death. It is the one correction for all errors of perception; the reconciliation of the seeming opposites on which this world is based. Its kindly light shows all things from another point of view, reflecting the thought system that arises from knowledge and making return to God not only possible, but inevitable. What was regarded as injustice done to one by someone else now becomes a call for help and for union. Sin, sickness and attack are seen as misperceptions calling for remedy through gentleness and love."
~From: A Course in Miracles Read more
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 Love and Basketball
(8/16/2012)
I like to compare the various religions to people standing around a basketball. No one religion contains all of God's truth. Each has its own truths. In order to get a more complete vision of who God really is, we all need each other. I need to share with you what I see on my portion of the sphere and you need to share with me the part of God that is in front of your eyes. We all have a piece of the truth, but in order to put the pieces together, we must share with each other. And sharing is what love is all about.
Quote of the week: "It is my belief that in the presence of Almighty God all labels fall off."
~Howard Thurman Read more
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 The Middle Way
(8/10/2012)
I don't think it is a coincidence the building that now houses our sanctuary sits on Midway Road. It was one of the first confirmations I had concerning the purchase of this property. Our congregation is not all black, nor all white. We are not all gay, nor all straight. We are not all old, nor all young. We are and represent a multitude of cultures and religious backgrounds. The most important thing, and the thing I am most proud of as a pastor, is that we do not allow our various labels to separate us.
Quote of the week: "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."
~John 10:16 Read more
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 Why You Shouldn't Go It Alone
(8/1/2012)
When a diverse group of people, from different religions come together to create something, it will eventually touch the world, because the highest form of creativity comes from corporate unity. This is the time to create something... together.
Quote of the week: "When all think alike, then no one is thinking." ~Walter Lippman Read more
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 Trusting God
(7/26/2012)
Trusting God is trusting the godly intention that's working in your heart; the Christ Consciousness that is trying to win over your mind; the energy that's happening around you; the natural flow of the universe...and most of all...continuing to walk.
Quote of the week: "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths." ~Proverbs 3:5,6 Read more
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 A Prosperous Soul
(5/2/2012)
Although closely related, your spirit and your soul are not the same thing. Before our birth, our spirit was with God. Therefore we were neutral as He is and we arrived here on this earthly plane understanding and knowing only love and neutrality. All our prejudices, hatred, fear, anger, distrust and other forms of conditioning were learned once we became part of the physical realm. Because of this, it is from our soul that we assign labels such as "good" and "bad" to experiences and to people.
Quote of the week: "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." ~Hebrews 4:12 Read more
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 Journey Into The Deep (1/9/2009)
(4/25/2012)
Christ told the religious "know it alls" of His day, I am the Way, the truth and the life. The Way and the Life are not destinations. The Way and the Life are processes of journeying toward truth. If we want to know the Christ we must admit that we do not know Him, and even in our knowing, always reserve room for more knowing.
Quote of the week: "For precept must be upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little." ~Isaiah 28:10 Read more
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 Let Spirit Carry You to Truth
(4/18/2012)
Our theme for the year 2012 here at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit is "Let Spirit Carry You to Truth." Here it is, deconstructed a bit, to help you remember its meaning throughout the year.
Quote of the week: "I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit." ~ Kahlil Gibran Read more
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 Stay Awake With Me
(4/11/2012)
The 26th chapter of the gospel of Matthew tells the story of Jesus and His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me." ...Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?"
Many times in scripture, sleep is used as a metaphor for mental, emotional or spiritual "lack of awareness." Jesus' directive to "stay awake with Me" was more than a command to not physically fall asleep. It was a call to consciousness. He was asking, imploring even, His disciples to be conscious, be perceptive and be objective.
Quote of the week: "Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness." ~ James Thurber Read more
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 Faith and Free Will
(3/20/2012)
Whether or not we must "choose" of our own free will to be saved or not has become a huge subject of controversy of late among Christians. Those who argue that we must use our free will to make a decision would say that each of us is saved by our own faith in Jesus and the work He did on the cross.
Quote of the week: "I didn't get saved; I found the salvation that was already inside me." ~ Anonymous Read more
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 The Law of Change (11/28/2008)
(2/28/2012)
Life on our planet survives by its willingness to rotate alternately into and out of the sun's light during each twenty-four hour period. Our planet's temperature is regulated as it embraces both the light and the darkness. Life becomes sparse in the areas that remain too hot or too cold. If we refuse to change - to embrace both the light and the darkness, the known and the unknown of God - we inevitably become either a spiritual desert or a lifeless frozen tundra.
Quote of the week: "The most rigid structures (religious ideologies), the most impervious to change, will collapse first." ~ Eckhart Tolle Read more
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 Handling Success
(2/22/2012)
There are thousands of books devoted to the subject "How to Handle Failure," but very few discussions about how to handle success. Here are a few suggestions for maintaining your equilibrium in the face of success. 1) Learn to wear both people's praise and criticism like a loose garment. 2) Be spiritual, but never forget your humanity. 3) Never forget where you've come from.
Quote of the week: "Pride makes us artificial, but humility makes us real."
~ Thomas Merton Read more
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 The Struggle to Surrender (12/15/2008)
(2/14/2012)
There is a secret, sacred place where man enters into communion with the Ultimate Mystery. This secret place is discovered only by those who are willing to surrender their personal possession of power to the Greater Power. However, to surrender does not mean to quit or to stop; to cease or to discontinue. To surrender is to deliver up the I Know in order to find the Way of Knowing. Read more
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 Let Spirit Carry You to You
(2/8/2012)
He has been trying to tell us all along that it is Christ WITHIN us that is the hope of glory. I challenge you this year to take inventory of yourself and let Spirit carry you to you. I can guarantee you that there you will find the source of all your perceived "problems" - however, it is also there that you will find the solutions to those problems. When we find the Kingdom of God within ourselves, we can then look in the mirror and "behold the glory of God" in our own face. Read more
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 What is Your Motivation?
(12/14/2011)
There are really only two motivations in the world - love and fear - and everything we do is driven either by one or the other. When we live our lives afraid that God is going to curse us and send us to hell if we don't do certain things, that fear will produce nothing but negativity in our lives. If fear is our motivation, we will never be "right" with God. It's not so much that we need to change the things we do, but rather why we do them. "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
~ I Corinthians 13:13 Read more
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 What is Being a Christian? Part III
(12/2/2011)
"What made Jesus the Son of God was the fact that he had achieved God-consciousness." ~ Deepak Chopra
Read more
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 What Is "Being" a Christian? Part II
What's In A Name?
(11/1/2011)
The name Jesus, or "Joshua" in Hebrew, is a common enough name given to millions of children. So, in actuality, it's not the name, in and of itself, that is being described in Philippians 2:10, 11: That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow...and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. This is a verse that is used frequently by Christians to set "Jesus of Nazareth", the person, apart from and above all other human beings. But let's back up a bit, to verse 5 specifically, and see how this "name" came about. Read more
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 What Is "Being" a Christian? Part I
The Difference Between Believing and Becoming
(10/11/2011)
Every Sunday morning, many people in this nation get up, drink their coffee, drive to their church of choice, quote John 3:16 and Romans 10:9 and believe that's all there is to "being" a Christian. But what does this really mean and is there a difference between believing and becoming? ......The KKK has the name "Jesus" in its by-laws. So where does that leave us? Apparently, there are a whole lot of people, both in the past and at present, "believing" and confessing the name of Jesus without really "becoming" like the Christ. Read more
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 Separation Anxiety
(10/5/2011)
If you see every human being as a part of who you are, then it is very difficult to harm them. But the moment you begin to think separation in any form is acceptable, you are on the road to separating yourself from everyone and everything. It is a vicious cycle that ends in complete and total isolation. Read more
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 Coming Around Again
(9/27/2011)
God has done the same in modern times to show us His existence and presence is not limited to Christianity, but many still refuse to see. How many Dalai Lama's will it take for us to know that God can speak through a Buddhist? How many Gandhi's before we realize God works through Hindus? Let us always remember that our religion is not God, only a "piece" of God.
Image: The historic Buddhist and ancient Hindu shrines, towers, temples and stupas of Durbar Square, UNESCO World Heritage Site at Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, Nepal. Read more
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 God is a River, Not a Lake
(9/21/2011)
Unfortunately, some Christians today are not so quick to lay aside their "religion" in order to follow where God is leading them. I challenge you today not to honor your "religion" above your honor for God and for the places His Spirit is leading you. Be a river, not a lake. Don't let the universe grow past you. Learn to move with it. Read more
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