My final post for this blog

My dear friends and readers,

I started blogging the inspiration I'd been gaining from studying and praying the Lord's Prayer - and the spiritual sense of it as understood by Mary Baker Eddy - over 3 years ago. It has been an amazing voyage of discovery and inspiration.

But it is time for me to stop blogging and focus more on living the truth of the Lord's Prayer. Not that I haven't already been doing that as best I can. But it feels natural for me to stop now and talk less and live more.

My study has been so wonderfully life-changing for me! I have learned so much about Jesus' prayer and it's power. And even though I've been praying this prayer all my life, these last 3 and a half years have been so revelatory! There is just SO MUCH in the Lord's Prayer to listen to and practice. Just 62 words, but such powerful words! Mrs. Eddy stated that, understood in its true spiritual sense, the Lord's Prayer can heal anything.

It has been a complete joy for me to companion with this prayer and share the inspirations I've gained from studying it and praying it with you all. I have tried to be as clear and sincere in doing that as I possibly can.

So I hope you also have enjoyed the journey. And may the Lord's Prayer continue to help you, and heal you, and bring you closer to God.

With great gratitude,

- Mark

Give us this day our daily Communion

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.

"And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

Give us this day our daily experience of the Christ, of God-with-us. This is our Bread of Life - our true communion!

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, because it is the life-changing inspiration of that all-forgiving Love that is God, being lived as love in our daily lives - that is our communion Wine. This is the blood of Jesus, the blood of the Lamb.

Jesus reflected the forgiving love of Love of the Christ so completely that it pays all debts, heals all wounds, awakens and saves all sinners that accept Him - and follow Him.

While Jesus literally gave his life blood on the cross, it was his complete and utter sacrifice that exposed that crime - and all evil - for what it is: powerless. His resurrection proved that. The heavy stone of hate that the world rolled over his tomb, still could not keep Love from rising Him in triumph.

His body - His all-healing Truth - is our Communion Bread of Life.
His blood - His all-forgiving Love - and is our Communion Wine.

"Take, eat." and "Drink ye all of it."

Let the Hallowed Name and Nature of God shine as you!

"Hallowed be Thy name."
Adorable One.

Nothing can silence the gifts that God gives each of us. Why? Because we are not "personal authors" or "priveleged originators" as much as we might like to think so. No. We are His reflection. Can you imagine standing in front of a mirror and ever seeing your reflection do something you're not doing? No. But way too often we (or at least I) seem to be doing what *I* want to do and what *I* think is right or important or better or whatever. When that ego shows up, you can be sure you're falling for the Adam dream.

Mrs. Eddy puts it this way: "Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of God or God's absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the Father. The rule of inversion infers from error its opposite, Truth; but Truth is the light which dispels error. As mortals begin to understand Spirit, they give up the belief that there is any true existence apart from God."

"...give up the belief that there is any true existence apart from God." Can you do that? Are you willing to do that? Is it a little scary? That's OK. Just be open to the idea. That's the first step. And remember that God is Love itself and so very approachable. He moves you with intuitions of good. He nudges you with whole and healthy and holy inspiration. He draws you with the warmth of His Light. He awakens you with His Truth. He guides you with His Word. He heals you with His Love. And He is everpresent. As close as your own thought. As Jesus said, "...the kingdom of God is within you."

Do you realize this? Do you know what it means? Have you accepted this? The kingdom of God is within you - right now! You are His spiritual image and likeness, right now! He is moving in your heart, soul, mind with intuitions of peace, with inspirations of joy, with feelings of spiritual power.

Are you listening?

He is always moving within us to act and do and make and create and to manifest His Light. He is always inspiring us to make His presence felt, to make His power known, to reflect His warm and beautiful glory. And this feeling comes from the very core of our being, from Soul, the source of all art and beauty and music and form and outline and color. These are ways His Light is made manifest. Your so-called "personal ego" has nothing to do with this manifestation. You are His perfect reflection made manifest.

Let it shine!

Hallowed be the Name of God, of Life, Truth, Love!
Adorable infinite One!

Forgive us our debts...

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

The need for forgiveness is eliminated when you accept, understand, and (most importantly) live the meaning of "Love is reflected in love."

The Love that is God has no sense of debt, and no sense of being a debtor. In Love's infinite grace, there is only an awakening to the debt-free atmosphere of Love! Love that holds no grudges. Love that doesn't keep score. Love that never says "you owe me!" Love that sees only love in everyone and everything in the universe.

And this Love is not a state of oblivious weakness, covering a multitude of sins. No. It is a "law of annihilation" to everything unlike itself. Like Light eliminating darkness, it is unopposably powerful.

And this is the way God forgives: the Light of His Love annihilates all sense of debt or thought of tresspass or any kind of owing or owning. Love sees only its own perfect reflection - love. Divine Love is abundant, free, unconditional, universal, all-embracing, without judgement, without measure, without price.

So imagine that. Live love like that. Like the old Persian mystic Hafiz once wrote:

"Not once has the sun ever said to the earth: You owe me.
Imagine a Love like that!
It lights up the entire world!"

All there really is...

"For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever."
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.

All that is really here is the presence of Mind.
Hallelujah!

All that is really here is the depth of Soul.
Hallelujah!

All that is really here is the breath of Spirit.
Hallelujah!

All that is really here is the joy of Life.
Hallelujah!

All that is really here is the power of Truth.
Hallelujah!

All that is really here is the warmth of Love.
Hallelujah!

All that is really here, right now, is the light of God.
Hallelujah! and Amen!

Forgive us as we forgive others...

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

When you pray this verse, have you ever thought about this little word "as" before?

"As."

In this verse, I think it can mean two different things:

As = at the same time
As = in the same way

So, to take the first meaning: if you forgive someone now, you are also forgiven now.

And if you take the second meaning: if you forgive someone completely, you are also forgiven completely.

It can also mean that if you only "kind of" forgive someone now, then you are also only "kind of" forgiven now. And if you forgive someone only partially, then you are also only forgiven partially.

Think about it.

And consider how important then it is to forgive as God does: completely now. Only then are you truly living in your natural state. Because as His likeness, His Love forgiving you is always reflected in your love forgiving another.

And Love insists on being reflected!

See what Love has prepared for you

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.

How many powers are there? How many do you think are governing you? Is there a power called hunger? Is there a power called thirst? Is there a power called lust? anger? sorrow? or digestion, circulation, sleep, breath? or how about politics, the economy, or even the weather?

It sounds crazy, but in spiritual reality there really is only one power. And that is God.

And Christ Jesus proved this repeatedly, by stilling storms, feeding the multitudes, redeeming sinners, healing the sick and raising the dead. He even paid his taxes - courtesy of a fish!

One of the most beautiful things about Jesus' life is how vividly he shows us the all-encompassing unconditional Love that is God. He embodied that so completely that he changed the lives of everyone he encountered. He proved repeatedly that sin is not desirable, that sickness is not inevitable, and that death is not final!

So what if you just stopped for a moment. Just stopped worrying and fretting and wondering about what's next. What if you just occupied this very moment right now and just asked God, Divine Love itself, to show you what He has prepared for you. No arguing, no whining, no stressing, no fretting, no doubting. Just that childlike expectancy that looks up to its Parent with a complete openness to Love.

Spend today practicing that expectancy. If you are worrying about something difficult, offer it up to your Father-Mother God and just listen for the intuitions of good that come back to you. Persist in your expectancy and your listening! And then, be sure to be open - completely open - and you will see what Love has prepared for you.

Today.

"For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever."
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.

Feel the Spirit

"Hallowed be Thy name."
Adorable One.

Feeling the Holy Spirit is the most natural thing you can do. Spirit is as close to you as your breath and is equally as natural - and as necessary!

To be inspired is to feel the breath of God. To live your inspiration is to be His perfect likeness.

"Therefore we are always confident, knowing that whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confdient, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."

Amen!

Sometimes what you're looking for is standing right in front of you!

"And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

God does not lead us into temptation. God leads us into Love. Real Love.

And isn't temptation just a way of thinking that what you really need is "out there" somewhere - like something you have to get, like maybe something that's better than what you already have, like maybe something more exciting or alluring or fun?

But isn't this just the expectation that God - Divine Love itself - is absent, boring, distant, uncaring? or maybe too churchy, or too hard, or even "too airy-fairy"? And that really we're all left to just figure this all out on our own anyway? And maybe even that even if there is a God, there is actually something out there that's better and more real and tangible for us than Divine Love?

It sure can seem like it.

But God never leads us into thinking this way. He does not lead us into the temptation to believe that we're on our own and have to fend for ourselves and somehow just find the love we need "out there" somewhere.

And temptation is just exactly that: thinking Love, God, is absent. But Love, Divine Love, is never absent. "God is Love" and so Love is actually always everpresent! Where? In consciousness, where everything Divine is reflected.

So wake up! and feel for His intuitions of expectancy that He is constantly stirring within you. He is constantly stirring your thought to look for - and find - what His divine Love has already prepared for you. He does not leave any of us out on our own, but always embraces us if we but learn to recognize and accept it.

So look for it.

Love is standing right in front of you!

Ain't got no satisfaction??

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.

And what is it that really feeds and satisfies us anyway?

Grace.

The peace and joy and power of God's unconditional Love - accepted and embodied in your own thought and heart and life. That's what fills every void, satifies every need, and feeds every famished affection! It is in giving that we receive, so it is in giving - reflecting - Divine Love that we finally feel loved.

And no matter how great your need is for love, His Love is infinite, His Grace is completely sufficient, to deliver you from any sense of the absence of love in your life. Just move your thought off what you think you need and instead try living His love to everyone you encounter and see what happens! It may take some practice. And it may not be obvious immediately. But you will discover for yourself that Love, God's Love - when you live it - is always reflected (sometimes in unexpected ways) in love for you.

Forgive us our debts...

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

We're forgiven as we forgive - because where is the real debt?

In us.

All sense of debt or lack or attack is within our own thought. It is how we perceive the world and those within in it.

When we learn that only Love is reflected in love, there ceases to be any debt or debtor because lack - or attack - do not exist in divine Love. The darkness of debt or lack or attack does not survive the Light of Divine Love.

All really already is here and now "infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation" because God really is All-in-all.

So where's the debt - or the debtor - in that?

Beautiful Saviour - a song

Beautiful Saviour

Deep from His Spirit,
Pure from His Soul,
Our beautiful Saviour
Is making us whole.

He loves us completely.
He cures us of shame.
He sees His reflection.
He knows us by name.

Oh beautiful Saviour
So pure and so bright!
You make us Your likeness
We live as Your Light.

Freed and forgiven
You’ve paid all our debts
You’ve cured us of sorrow
Healed fear and regret.

Oh beautiful Saviour
We live through Your Life
We’re safe in Your Love
We’re free from all strife.

So stir us to action!
And teach us to heal.
Your Light must be lived!
Your Love be revealed!

Oh beautiful Saviour
Adorable One
You’re everpresent
You’re Kingdom is come.

We love and we thank You!
We stand in Your might.
Made whole in Your likeness
We shine as your Light!

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
And God leadeth us, not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

God delivers us from that "suggestion of the serpent" that there is either something God is not giving us, that He is giving us what we don't want - or even that there is some other "god" ruling our lives called sin, disease, death.

But what about when maybe we're believing that God is holding out on something we not only want, but really need?

Or maybe that we don't need God, or that there's no such thing as God?

Or that we can find the goodness we need on our own? In fact, that we are completely on our own, wandering, naked, vulnerable, needing to be as sneaky as a snake to survive, fending for ourselves in a confusing sometimes-good/sometimes- evil world?

Or maybe that essentially, we can even find something even better than God?

But no matter how far we roam in our thoughts about God, God never abandons us. He speaks to us continuously. His voice is heard when we shut up! or when we cry out! But we can also learn to hear His voice in every intuition of goodness that we feel, every effort to love, every selfless act.

These are points of awakening. If we notice them, listen to their meaning, pay attention to them, begin to embody them, these intuitions of Good wake us up to what is actually real and valuable. We begin to see that "things" are less important than thoughts - than what is in our heart of hearts. And when we come face to face with what is in our heart, we might feel some very strong feelings, sometimes with a flood of tears. But these intutions of Good always work in our favor. They serve to wake us up. If listened to and acted on, they deliver us from the "forbidden fruit" sin, disease, and yes, even death.

That's because God wants you to live! God, Divine Love wants you to wake up! and see yourself the way He sees you: as His image and likeness! not the image and likeness of your human history! God wants you to feel His love for you so strongly that it will overflow your life and spill out to every one you meet.

There is, in fact, nothing "better" than God. In actual reality, there isn't anything other than God and His reflection, Christ and the universe. There is no "other" called sin, disease, death. These are the dark shadows of mortal thought which evaporate in the presence of the Divine Thought: that there is only ONE God and He has made you in His likeness - Good!

And God supplies all your need with everything that is spiritually real and permanent as well as humanly necessary. You are already complete in Him right here, right now. The Truth of spiritual being, the Truth of your status as His image and likeness, and the complete understanding of the fullness of the Christ, are already our actual reality.

And in the beauty of this spiritual wholeness, healthiness, holiness, we discover something wonderful:

"Truth is God's remedy for error of every kind, and Truth destroys only what is untrue."

And "God leadeth us not into temptation [to believe that wily lie] but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death"!

Why?

Because, in absolute reality: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual."

Amen!

God is my All

"For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever."
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love; over all, and All.

"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all."

God is my wealth, my health, my relationship, my purpose, my substance, my being, my All. "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." And the nature of God is Good! is Life, Truth, Love.

How wonderful it is to know that "...His arm encircles me, and mine, and all." *

So let me see what Love is being and then let me be what Love is doing! Amen!



* from "Mother's Evening Prayer" - a poem by Mary Baker Eddy

"Our Father..."

"Our Father..."

If only these two words of Jesus' prayer had survived the centuries, they still - if deeply and honestly lived and understood - would be enough to heal the world.

Think about it.

Fed and saved and satisfied!

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today, feed the famished affections.

Give us this day our daily Bread of Life, our daily inspiration, daily ideas from Divine Mind. And give us the grace to "eat" them - consume them, embody them, live them and so be strong enough in the Spirit to feed all need, all that world of famished affections! Bless us with this communion Bread of Life!

"And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

And forgiveness is our communion wine that washes away all sense of debt and debtor, of "other-than-Love". And this wine-blood washes us clean - wakens us in His likeness - saves us as untouched by lack, by debt, by tresspassers or by tresspassing or any belief that we have ever been anywhere outside our sacred communion, our sacred oneness with Divine Love being eternally reflected as love - as Love made manifest as us!

So, in the greatest humility, let us sit down with God. Let us take His cup, receive His Bread of Life, His Wine of Soul and so embody all that Divine Love has prepared for us. In this meal, we are completely satisfied!

Debts?

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

To see a debt is to be in debt!

Have you ever stopped to think about that?

But in debt how? in debt to what?

Maybe think about it this way: to see a debt is to be in need of Love. And the bigger the debt you see, the deeper the need of Love, divine Love, the Love that is actually God Himself.

"Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness." 1 Chronicles 16:29

And isn't this need cured by the "beauty of holiness"? to love God so deeply that you pay your "debt" first to Him? bring your offering to Him? your offering of your broken heart, your fear, your repentance? and offer these up - let these go - so you can awake in His likeness? whole, complete, divinely fair?

When you think that someone else needs forgiveness, it is really you that needs forgiveness! For what? For accepting evil for your neighbor: seeing your neighbor as a sinner, seing your neighbor as lacking, seeing your neighbor as evil.

"Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."

So pure was Jesus' correct view that it also healed the sinner and raised the dead!

Be sure then to follow Jesus' example as best you can and witness correctly - see God's own likeness where everyone else sees debtors. This includes seeing yourself - loving yourself - this same way!

Forgiveness is always Love being reflected - acted on, lived, made manifest - in love: love for God, love for our neighbor, and (don't forget!) love for yourself.

Being the light of God

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."
Genesis 1:3

"The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory."
Isaiah 60:19

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
2 Corinthians 4:6

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."
1 John 1:5

"The manifestation of God through mortals is as light passing through the window-pane. The light and the glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality--much error--in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides the sun."
http://www.spirituality.com/dt/book_lookup.jhtml?reference=SH+295:16#jumpto


You - yes you - are the Light of God made manifest!

So don't be surprised when others find you spiritually attractive. Instead, pass your gratitude back to God, gratitude that you are becoming a transparency for His likeness, His Light. And notice now too how you see that same Light being reflected to you in everyone you see and and everyone you meet! Receive the Love that comes with that. And be ready to live that Love, to reflect the blessing God gives you to share with those around you in those moments.

Don't be afraid to be spiritually attractive! It just means you are about your Father's business. It just means you have an opportunity to be a blessing to everyone you see and everyone you meet. Just be sure to get ego out of the way. Then you'll truly be God's reflection and let Him do the shining!

At-One-Ment with the Adorable One

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.


"If Truth is overcoming error in your daily walk and conversation, you can finally say, "I have fought a good fight . . . I have kept the faith," because you are a better man. This is having our part in the at-one-ment with Truth and Love." http://www.spirituality.com/dt/book_lookup.jhtml?reference=SH+21:1-5#jumpto

Our at-one-ment with God, the Adorable One, is ever possible, because God, the Adorable One, is ever present with you.

Divine Love is here now.

And you are the pen in the hand of God, writing His love letters to everyone in the Universe!

Divine Love WILL be made manifest!

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

So God enables us to know, as in heaven, so right here where we are, Divine Love actually is omnipotent, supreme!

Are you then sitting on the couch with your feet up on the coffee table waiting for Divine Love to show up on your doorstep?

Well, that certainly could happen if (while you're sitting there on the couch) you are understanding - and living - that omnipotent supreme Love that is God!

But otherwise, you need to get up off that couch and live that Love! Why? Because you are God's - Love's - manifestation! So get out there and manifest!!

How? Listen for those intuitions of good that will guide you and motivate you to do more than you are already doing, to live more than you're already living, and love more than you're already loving!

Because if Divine Love is demanding to be expressed, then Divine Love will create an opportunity for that expression to be made manifest! And you - right where you are - are always Love's choice to be that minifestation!

So be ready! See what Divine Love has prepared for you! You are being called to live His Love right now, right where you are!

Sing a new song!

Why are you walking down that same old road?
Why are you carrying that heavy load?

See, see, see the Light of God!
Yes, see the Light of God.

Drop your burden and see like Him
Pick up your peace and see like Him
Yes see like Him,
Yes pick up your peace and see like Him.

What do you do when your life is hard?
When you feel your life is torn and marred?

Be, be, be the Light of God!
Yes, be the Light of God.

Drop your sadness and be like Him
Pick up your joy and be like Him
Yes be like Him
Yes pick up your joy and be like Him

What do you do when you’re out of control?
What do you do just to feel your soul?

Feel, feel, feel the Light of God!
Yes, feel the Light of God!

Drop your failures and feel His wholeness
Pick up your power and feel His wholeness
Yes feel His wholeness
Yes pick up your power and feel His wholeness.

Yes, see like Him
And see His peace.

Yes, be like Him
And be His joy.

Yes, feel like Him
And feel His power.

And every day will dawn brand new
His peace and joy and power are you.

Feeding all need

God: the Great I Am.
"Hallowed be Thy name."

The name of God, the nature of God:

• is Light
• is adorable (able to be adored)
• is gloriously real
• is tangible intuitive presence
• is complete and supreme
• is full of grace - of peace, and joy, and power
• is able to feed all need
• is the "still, small voice" of intuitive goodness
• is reflected in every face and ever flower every moment of every hour

here and now.

"Our Father..."

"Our Father...."

This is how Jesus starts his prayer.

Think about the implications of these two words. Even if these were the only two words of the Lord's Prayer that survived, Jesus is saying that we all have the same Father. No. More than that.

That his Father is also our Father. Not theoretically, and not metaphorically. He is including us as his family.

Rest in that.

The spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer

"Our Father which art in heaven."
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious.


When Jesus gave his disciples his prayer, do you think he intended it to become some thoughtless ritual? Do you think he expected us to pray it without thinking? without caring? without understanding?

No.

In fact, all you have to do is read his powerful verbal rebukes to those who used "vain repetitions as the heathen use" and who paraded around as righteous without any sincerity in their heart.

No. He did not intend us to simply repeat the words like a bad habit. He expected his disciples - and therefore, us - to have a spiritual sense of the words, to intuitively listen "out loud" to his prayer - or better yet, listen to it - pray it - silently in the sanctuary of our heart. Just between us and God.

And why? Could it be that he knew if we prayed his prayer - and really spiritually sensed its meaning, really pondered, and comprehended it - that it would have an immense impact on our thoughts? on our actions? on our lives?

Jesus knew so intimately the spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer. It was how he understood his Father, our Father. And so that is also how we should approach his prayer.

And when we do, it will be less about the words and the bended knee and more - much more - about the humble and contrite heart with which we pray it.

"For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever."
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.

The Lord's Prayer and the two great commandments

From Matthew 22: 35 - 40:

35Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38This is the first and great commandment.
39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Have you ever stopped to consider that The Lord's Prayer includes these two great commandments?

Think of the Prayer like this:

The first half of the prayer shows us how to love God.
The second half of the prayer shows us how to truly love ourselves and therefore also be able to truly love our neighbor.

Here's what I mean:

"Our Father, which are in heaven."
In this verse we acknowledge the loving relationship we have with God - we love Him because He first loved us! He is "Our Father" - and we give our attention to Him as our divine Parent. Think about it: God is the best Father there is! And he loves us! How heavenly is that!

Praying with Heart:

"Hallowed be Thy name."
As we hallow - revere, esteem, love - the name of God, the loving nature of God, we give our heart to Him. How blessed is that!

Praying with Soul:

"Thy kingdom come."
His kingdom - His presence - is here with us right now. Where? in our soul. And we find that our soul is His, is His kingdom, the place of His sovereign presence. How safe is that!

Praying with Mind:

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
We love God by acknowledging His will being done in us, strengthening us in our mind here on earth, as His Mind is in heaven! How glorious is that!

Being with Heart:

"Give us this day our daily bread."
God feeds us with the Bread of Life, companioning with us, bringing us into communion with Him. "Oh taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him." We are safe with Him in our heart!

Being with Soul:

"And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
Being fed with the Divine Soul - the Bread of Life - enables us to accept forgiveness as well as to forgive others. And when that perfect forgiveness is learned, we just naturally love our neighbor as ourselves. Then we can accept forgiveness - both for ourselves and our neighbor. We then are living the unconditional Love that is God. Being present with Soul, we awake to forgiveness that is both natural and complete.

Being with Mind:

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."
How does this work? How do we avoid temptation as well as evil? Temptation is the lie that Love is absent. If we believe that temptation, we end up with the bitter taste of evil. But Love is actually always ever present. Where? in our consciousness! And divine Mind's intutions of good will always guide us into fulfillment and awaken us in completeness.

How is this possible?

Because at the end of the day, God is the only real presence. God is the only real power. And - fortunately - God is the only the glory, forever!

That's why.

Amen!

Put some skin on it!

"Thy kingdom come."
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art everpresent.

What does this everpresence of God look like?

It looks like you.

Does that surprise you? Then you're likely taking a limited view of not only yourself, but also of God.

God's goodness is actually here. His joy is actually right now. And, no matter what your circumstances right now look like, His Love is actually inevitable.

Why?

Because these qualities of His are yours to live.

They are already present in your heart, in your consciousness - and always yours to demonstrate - yours to live out loud, no matter what your human circumstances.

In fact, you could truly say that the reason you are here is simply to live His love. Everything else is secondary.

Jesus so clearly understood that God is Love itself. Everything he said and did made that so abundantly clear. And as we baby-step approach this understanding ourselves, working, praying, failing and succeeding at living as His loving image and likeness, we start to realize this is why we're here. Each of us is here to make His love alive in the world.

As an old preacher friend of mine once said, "Don't just talk about the love of God. Put some skin on it!"

Get busy!

Being with God

"Hallowed be Thy name."
Adorable One.

If you actually adore someone, aren't you be quick to listen to what they have to say? In fact, wouldn't you hang on their every word? Wouldn't you give them 100% of your attention because you just love to be around them? And if they were to ask you to do something, wouldn't you be joyful to do it? And wouldn't you just be content to be together no matter what else is going on?

Well, isn't this then exactly what this verse of the Lord's Prayer is describing?

• An attitude of complete and joyful attention to the Divine.

This is your model for being with God, because He is the Adorable One. Pay attention!

Hallowed be Thy name, Father-Mother. Let us not just revere You, but hear You, and feel Your presence, and live as Your likeness.

Children of Light

"Hallowed be Thy name."
Adorable One.

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."

"Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness."

Hallowed be Thy name of Light, Thy nature of Light, Thy Adorable One Light!

If you feel you're sometimes more like darkness, you have a choice: you can choose to walk in the Light of God.

Do you think you're unworthy of walking in His Light? unable to walk in it? too tainted to be His Light-made-manifest right here and now? Do you think you are somehow broken, lost, or strayed from God and His Living Light?

Can you imagine a ray of Light coming from the Sun getting lost? or disconnected from it's source? or somehow not shining for all to see?

It is just as impossible for you to really be separated from God.

Do you know what that "I'm separate" or "I'm alone" or "I'm a failure" or "I'm not worthy" thinking is?

It's your ego talking.

It is not God talking.

So - and this may not be as easy as it sounds - let go of that ego-attitude! What that ego-voice is telling you is irrelevant!

What matters is your response to God, and what He is telling you, what He's showing you, how He's making you in His image and likeness! This is your response-ability!

And God is here, right here in consciousness now. He is here - everpresent in your heart. You need only turn your thought and your heart to Him. Listen with your intuition for His Goodness instructing you, inspiring you, leading you, creating you in His likeness!

You are His beam of living Light!

OK, Child of Light - now, the hard part!

Go prove it.

God is working with you, but you it is your task - your practice - to live His Light! to walk and talk and think and act and shine like Him.

"Hallowed be Thy name."
Thou Adorable One unconditional Light of Love!

A poem

Map

Begin Here.
Not there in the mirey clay of "where you came from"
Not there in the cloudy doubt of "where you are going"
but Here
Here on solid ground.

Begin Now.
Let go of that ancient millstone history;
Let go of that phoney lodestone future.
Begin Now
Now is solid ground.

"This is the way, walk ye in it"
says the voice of God.
"That was the way, too bad you missed it"
says the Liar.

"Now is the day of salvation"
says the voice of God.
"Someday, if you get lucky, maybe you'll be happy"
says the Liar.

The Liar is future tense anxiety past tense anguish
God speaks present tense "I love you"

But how do you know you are here?
Be still, and feel:
Here
is where Love loves you
Here
is where Truth speaks your name
Here
is where Spirit sings you a lullaby.
Right here is where you always are

How do you find now?
Be still, and listen:
Now
is when Mind accepts you
Now
is when Soul sings YES to you
Now
is when Life's arms hold you
Right now is when you always be

And being, suddenly you find your feet
on the holy ground of Principle.
And you know:
This -- right now! -- is the best time of your life.
This -- right here! -- is the best place to be.
There is no lie to fight
There is no lie to change
Because God is with you *here*
because God loves you *now*
Right where you are.

So take off those stiff shoes
and toss those cursed fig leaves
of cheated past and incurable future.

And, having nothing between
you and your Father-Mother God,

Look up!
Up there!
There's a Rainbow smiling over your head

Look down!
Right there!
There's solid Rock under your feet

And look around!
All around!
You actually are God's perfect child!

-- Here
and Now.

Shadows?

"Thy kingdom come."
Thy kingdom is come; Thou are everpresent.

A shadow can move across a face, a garden, a whole city, causing them to appear dark. But the shadow never actually changes the substance of the face, garden, or city.

So it is with the "dark images of mortal thought" called sin, disease, death. They seem to be dark and powerful, but in God's reality they are shadows, just shadows of mortal thought which vanish in the Light of Christ, Truth.

So yes! Let us see and understand that Thy kingdom is come, that Thy sovereign presence is here with us right this very moment! That You are the Light in whom "... is no darkness at all" and that You are ever-present no matter what else seems to be going on. And Your Light is a law of instant annihilation to all dark shadows of mortal thought.

Let Your kingdom of Light come! And let it shine in us - as us - right here, right now.

Amen!

God's government is complete

"For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever."
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.

"…the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us."

Have you ever thought about how complete God’s government is of the universe (including you)?

God is our Judge, our Lawgiver, and our King.

He owns all three of the branches of government: the judicial, legislative, and executive. And as an effect of His complete government of the Universe:

· He inspires us to act – as reflections of His Life!
· He guides us to act – as reflections of His Truth.
· And He impells to be – living reflections of His Love.

God always inspires us and motivates us with intuitions of Good - to love what is good as well as to be and to do good.

And as we listen to those intuitions of Good - and act on them - we find ourselves living more and more in alignment with His will, His government! And we find ourselves inspired to do more and to live more and to mature more as His active ideas of Life, Truth, and Love - as His active disciples, spiritual warriors, and yes, His Christian healers!

God is our Judge.

He overrules all suggestions of other minds, other attractions, other negative attitudes or excuses that would claim to rule and detour or distract or tempt us into evil, into refusing to be His disciples.

God is our Lawgiver.

His Law is a Law of Goodness, a Law that obliterates evil and attracts and awakens us to become His spiritual warriors for Good!

God is our King.

He is the final authority, and it is His Word that enables us to be His Christian healers, seeing the Light of God - the “spiritual idea of Truth and Love" - everywhere the darkness of sin, disease, and death seem to be.

And God's Light and Love always draw us to be present with Him. And His Light and Love always enables all of us to understand the peace and joy and power of what He is maturing in us. The increasing sense of Love that is touching us, helps us in turn to reach the hearts of all those around us who may just need to feel His love, who maybe are searching, striving to find Him, who are yearning to awake in His likeness.

God’s Light and Love inspires that seeking, moves us to listen for His Voice, to live the wholeness and holiness that He awakens in us, to live that and give that and reflect that Love to every receptive heart we encounter, and always to rest safely under His perfect authority.

“Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the mental molecule to infinity. … Mind is Life, Truth, and Love which governs all."

Amen!

God is all-harmonious

"Our Father which art in heaven."
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious.

God is all-harmonious!

Think of this for a moment:

God has infinite ideas. And every idea of God's is in perfect harmony with every other idea of His. Yet every idea of His is distinct, individual. Every idea has its own character and quality and identity.

Every idea of God's has it's own voice.

And every voice is in complete harmony with all the others, blending perfectly but distinctly with every other voice - a massive chorus of Light and Love resounding as the universe of Mind. Each voice unique. Each voice needed. Each voice adding its individual volume, tone, and color that makes the whole magnificent!

And the Adorable One God, all-harmonious, conducts every note, every idea, every identity together perfectly.

Listen! and hear your voice in this sonic wave of joy!

"We are God's song, finely sung..." (Alex Cook)

Let God love you!

"Give us this day our daily bread."
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.

Open yourself up to God. Let Him love you. Open your hands and your heart. Receive His daily Bread of Life. Receive the gift of it. Receive the grace of it. Receive the peace and joy and power of it. Receive the unconditional Love of it!

Let His Bread of Life fulfill all grace and awake you from all dreams of "not enough," feeding your every need, filling you with Love, satisfying all famished affections.

Let God love you. Because no matter what your story is, God's Love is big enough to do it!

God is everpresent - God is here, now!

"Thy kingdom come."
Thy kindom is come. Thou art everpresent.

“…beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 2 Peter 3:8

“Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite; eternity is forever infinite."

Right now, right this moment, we are perfectly at one with God. Right here, right in this place, we are completely perfect, and completely loved by God. Right now, right this moment, God is seeing us as His complete and utterly perfect reflection. Right here, right in this place, God holds us in His arms, holds us and sees us as His perfect child.

We may think we see everything “in a glass, darkly” – dark shadows of mortal thoughts that time has power for good or evil. But a ticking clock, a setting sun, a calendar page, a turning year have no power to ever change that Love of God. “Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity.” Time therefore has no power whatsoever. It is not a friend or a foe. It has no power to help or harm, to kill or cure. It is simply a mortal concept. It is completely erroneous. And it is completely powerless.

God measures Life – not by time – but by eternity! By unlimited progress and growth and expanding expressions of Mind, and by awakening to Principle and seeing ever-brightening views of Truth! And God measures Life – not by physical time and place – but by our spiritual here and now, by awakening thought here where we are, by intuitions of Soul, inspirations of Spirit, dwelling with Love now.

God's kingdom - His sovereign presence - is come. God is omni-present – always present. Here. Now. Right in this divine moment the Light of God is shining, revealing the perfection of His idea in us, as us, seeing us now – right this very moment – as His complete and perfect creation: whole, healthy, holy.

And since God is here now, there is nothing missing! There is nothing else we need, there is nothing that we lack, there is no ability we don’t have, and there is no or loss of any kind, because He is the source of all Good, right here, right now, right where we are. He is our Source and our Supply. His everpresence gives us all the ability to know this, to receive this Truth, our perfect daily Bread of Life!

No one is left out of God’s Kingdom - His everpresent embrace. And His Light is a law of annihilation to everything unlike Him: to all darkness, dark images of mortal time-based thought, of being in the dark, fearing the dark, fears of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, fears of being misplaced, displaced, or replaced, fears of being out of time, never on time, ruled by time. His Light exposes all these fears as baseless misconceptions. His Light shines in us! His Light shines as us!

We are His eternal peaceful children of Light!

Amen!

Loving another as yourself

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

"You will learn that in Christian Science the first duty is to obey God, to have one Mind, and to love another as yourself."

How do you love another like this?

It is to recognize, cherish, embrace the qualities of God that you see in another. It is to create a profound connection of at-one-ment with God's manifestation. It is to awake to His likeness-made-manifest and to hold that vision, that connection, that awakening in your heart - and in your arms.

It is to be the Light of Love and to see that Light of Love in another. It is to love another as yourself. It is to create - discover - Oneness with God-made-manifest, made tangible, made real in your experience with such clarity and profound connection and intimacy as to reveal Oneness, tangible Oneness.

It is not making love to "a material form with a mind inside" - though that may appear as an important step. But it is actually seeing another as God's own likeness, "beloved, complete, divinely fair" with such clarity as to experience Oneness - the love of Love.

A simple sensual experience focuses primarily on a body, the shadow.

Love, real Love, is making love - awakening to the Love of God - made manifest as another.

Therein lies the treasure of Love.

Love is always reflected in love (Part 4)

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

What is this "debt" of love that you owe, other than to fulfill the two great commandments that Jesus said fulfill "all the law and the prophets"?

And what are these two great commandments?

To love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.
And, to love your neighbor as yourself.

This is your debt. This is what you owe to God: You must love.

And if you love enough to forgive, then you will understand that you are also so wonderfully loved by God as to actually be forgiven.

The unconditional love of God is never "earned" - it is always freely pouring out on us. Jesus said God makes His "sun to rise on the evil and on the good" and sends His "rain on the just and on the unjust." God's love is completely unconditional. But when we hate, dispise, ignore, we are certainly not in a position to even recognize - let alon receive - that free gift of God's unconditional love! With our heart closed in a knot of self-ishness, how can we possibly be open to love?

But if you open your thought - and your heart - to even the possibility of love, then be ready!

His Love will do its perfect work in you, as you. And you intuitively know that Love is the most natural thing in the world.

In fact, living His Love is your purpose.

Living His Love is why you're here.

Get busy!

How does God see you?

"Our Father, which art in heaven."
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious

Have you ever stopped to think about how God sees you? How God thinks about you?

He sees you as His image and likeness.

So if this is how God sees you, then how do you see yourself? As something else? What if you lived from God's point of view? What would change? What would you do differently if you actually understood that you are His image and likeness? How would you feel? Wouldn't it be amazingly good? Better than anything you could come up with yourself?

Yes.

And this is how God sees you: as His image, as His likeness. And Jesus proved this time and again that being His likeness involves health, wholeness, and holiness.

This is your starting point.

Think about yourself from God's perspective - not your own personal perspective, not your educational perspective, not your medical history's perspective, not your psychological profile's perspective. Think about yourself as God's own likeness made manifest, your spiritual qualities of intelligence, affection, creativity, strength, being reflections of His nature. God's view of you is limitless, pure, - real! God's perspective is perfectly suited to draw out your most perfect likeness to Him, your unique expression of Him.

So wake up with this thought:

What does God, Divine Love, have in store for you today?

Listen in your heart for that. And know that He will fulfill in you all the life and love that He has prepared for you.

And He adds "no sorrow with it."

The Christ is here - are you paying attention?

"Thy kingdom come."
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art everpresent.

The Christ is already here. With you. Where? In your thought, in your consciousness, in every intuition you have of love and goodness and grace.

Make room then! Clear out the clutter of distractions and invite Christ in. Listen to His intuitions of goodness. Be still. Sit at His feet. And listen:

Let Him feed your every need with the Bread of Life.
Let Him heal your pain with His pure touch of Truth.
Let Him fire up your heart with His unconditional Love.

He is here. Right here. Right now, with you in your heart and in your consciousness. Are you listening? Do you feel the intuition that there is something better, higher, holier stirring within you?

Then "take off your shoes" - all that would separate you from Him - because you stand on holy ground.

As the old hymn says:

O dreamer, leave thy dreams for joyful waking,
O captive, rise and sing, for thou art free;
The Christ is here, all dreams of error breaking,
Unloosing bonds of all captivity.

He comes to bless thee on his wings of healing;
To banish pain, and wipe all tears away;
He comes anew, to humble hearts revealing
The mounting footsteps of the upward way.

He comes to give thee joy for desolation,
Beauty for ashes of the vanished years;
For every tear to bring full compensation,
To give thee confidence for all thy fears.

He comes to call the dumb to joyful singing;
The deaf to hear; the blinded eyes to see;
The glorious tidings of salvation bringing.
O captive, rise, thy Saviour comes to thee.

Right now, Christ is standing at the door of your heart, knocking, calling to you. He is your Saviour! He is always knocking at the door of your heart. Open it. Let Him in and let Him awaken you to who you already really are as His spiritual likeness.

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme!

You live in Spirit

"Thy kingdom come."
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art everpresent.

Thy Holy Spirit is come, Spirit is everpresent.

Spirit is - right now - inspiring you to awake in His likeness.

Spirit moves your thought as much as inspiration moves your heart. Be open to Spirit's blessing. Don't be afraid. Don't let fear blind you to Spirit as the Adorable One already with you, right here.

As you awake to Spirit's everpresence, you lose nothing - nothing except a mistaken view of yourself. And you gain everything as you open your heart and thought to Spirit.

"Question.--What is the scientific statement of being?
"Answer.--There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual."

This is who you are right this moment - whether you know it yet or not.

But you do know it. Intuitively.

You don't live in sin, disease, death.

You live in Spirit.

You don't live in limitation, lack, loss.

You live in Spirit.

You don't live in fear or sorrow or confusion.

You live in Spirit.

You don't live in loneliness, pain, frustration.

You live in Spirit!

The world your physical senses tell you about is not all there is. To you - or anyone else, for that matter! It seems like that is all there is, but the physical senses can't tell you the whole story.

What can tell you then?

Your spiritual sense.

"Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality."

So try listening to your spiritual sense. Try it. Test it. It takes some practice. But make the effort to actually listen to your intuitions from Spirit.

How do you know if you're listening to Spirit? You'll be inspired! And when you feel that inspiration, give it some hope. Give it some expectancy. Let that inspiration light you up!

And then: practice. Yes, just like anything worth learning, it takes practice. Be faithful to your inspiration by feeling it, testing it, living it! Then you'll begin to see - and understand - how close Spirit is to you, how much the Holy Spirit loves you.

And feeling that love that God has for you in turn inspires you to live God's Love out loud in your own life. This then is a glimpse of reality: the Holy Spirit holding you and the universe in His loving embrace.

Spirit reflected in an inspired life! your inspired life!

"Thy kingdom is come." The Holy Spirit really is everpresent with you, right here, right now.

Live it!

It's always possible

The Lord's Prayer awakens us to what's really always possible:

It's always possible for you to acknowledge God, to acknowledge Him as your all-harmonious Father-Mother.

It's always possible for you to recognize, hallow, honor, worship the name - and the nature - of God, the Adorable One.

It is always possible to accept that His kingdom is here within, that He is everpresent in consciousness.

It is always possible to accept His will being done in you, impelling you to be as He really is.

It is always possible to uncleanch your heart and your hands and accept His daily Bread of Life, His grace - even if just for today - and letting that grace feed all famished affections.

It is always possible to open up to forgiveness, first for yourself, then for your neighbor, living the unconditional Love that is God.

It is always possible to let God lead you out of the temptation to think that you, His actual reflection, are somehow separate from Him and His infinite goodness; to be delivered from all the lies of separation: sin, disease, even death.

And it is always always always possible to acknowledge God as the "author and finisher of our faith," His the only presence right here, His the only power right now, and His the only dazzling Light of Glory for ever.

"All things are possible to God."

Love and Forgiveness

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

And the Adorable One is reflected in you - in you being adore-able, able to adore "the perfect man where sinning mortal man appears to mortals," as well as - able to adore - who else? yourself! And not egotistically, but from a position of profound humility, acknowledging that all that you are - all your beautiful being and qualities - all are gifts, the gift of being the reflection of the Adorable One God.

Such an awakening forgives - releases - all dreams of wrong/being wronged, debt/being in debt, trespassing/being trespassed.

And all that is left is... what?

God and you: Love reflecting love.

Hallelujah!

Rest in God's arms

"Thy kingdom come."
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art everpresent.

What a blessing to know that our Divine Parent, our loving Father-Mother God, is ever present!

Feel what this means:

* Right here, right now, right where you are, God, Divine Mind, is present with you.

Let that sink in. Let that comfort you. Let that awaken you to how profoundly loved you already are. How incredibly safe you are. How dearly cared for you are!

You don't have a private little mind that is stuck trying to get everything done and to get everything right. You are image. You are likeness. That's how God, Divine Mind makes you and that is how He sees you: as His image and likeness.

And He inspires you to move and moves you think and act in ways that reflect His purpose and His glory. He makes you His "light emitting light without effort."

And this does not mean that Divine Mind is present with you in addition to all that achingly painful mortal story that's playing as your life!

No.

God enables you to know and to feel and to be conscious of His presence, His power, and His supremacy. To know He is always with you, always as close to you as your thought, always present in your heart, always speaking to you with intuitions of goodness, always available to turn to, always telling you - in so many ways - "I love you."

Think about it. You really don't have a private little life that you're stuck trying to live, to get right, to make work. God is your Life and you are already His image and likeness. And your spiritual sense - your intuition - knows this. Your spiritual sense - your intuition, your hope, your faithfulness - awakens you to see Divine Love at work in your life, moves you to think and act and to live.

In fact, He inspires you to live on purpose, live His purpose for you.

"Job said: 'I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee.' Mortals will echo Job's thought, when the supposed pain and pleasure of matter cease to predominate. They will then drop the false estimate of life and happiness, of joy and sorrow, and attain the bliss of loving unselfishly, working patiently, and conquering all that is unlike God. Starting from a higher standpoint, one rises spontaneously, even as light emits light without effort; for 'where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.'"

You are already right here and now His effortless light. Let it shine! It is your treasure. It is your "expression, form, outline, and color" without a single material element: no stress, no pain, no loneliness, no sorrow.

God is with your right this minute, holding you in His arms. You are His dearly loved child. Beloved. Complete. Divinely fair.

Right here. Right now.

Decision time!

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

Are you God's likeness or not?

Are you a spiritual idea of God or not?

Are you a sucker for the hypnotic dream of "life in matter"? or are you willing to risk everything and understand Life as Spirit? Life as completely spiritually whole, healthy, holy right now? completely revealed by spiritual sense? completely contradicting the material sense of things?

Is there a God or not?

Do you trust Him or not?

Are you willing to go through the fire and be refined in His likeness or not?

You can just keep taking the lazy half-way approach, but God will burn off all of "you" that is unlike Him....

"...by suffering or by Science."

Which will it be?

Father, who do you want me to love today?

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

So Father, who do You want me to love today? Who needs that hug from You that I can pass along? Who needs that kind word, that smile, that invitation to the dance?

Who needs Your love today? Let me see it, be it, deliver it, and then step out of Your way.

Hallowed be Thy Love, Adorable One!
Let Thy loving will be mine!

And let it be done!

Let God deliver you today

"And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

God delivers you from all evil, from anything that makes you hurt, be unhappy, uneasy, distraught, anxious, nervous, fearful. God delivers you, not only from evil, but from anything that even makes you anticipate evil, and from all the feelings that that negative anticipation brings.

Instead God leads you into confidence in His will for you, His loving plan for you. So when fear comes calling, let yourself lean on God. Lean on His ability to help you and heal you, to guide you to do the work you need to do, to love the people you need to love, and - maybe the hardest thing of all- to let yourself really love you.

God reflects in you every good thought and quality that you need to meet your day today. He stirs you to hear His intuitions, His guidance. Listen for it. He has already given you the perfect qualities you need to meet the challenges you face today, to help and heal and perform the work that is set before you today.

So relax. Rest in God's love - and in His guidance. And be alert! Watch for what He is doing. Look for it. Witness what God, Divine Love, has prepared for you and for those around you. Yes, really look for it! And you will see it! And it is always always always better than you could have ever imagined.

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

"The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it."

The government of God - in you!

"Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven."
Enable us to know, as in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.

The government of God is the Light of God in action - exposing what needs to be exposed, informing what needs to be informed, revealing what needs to be revealed, strengthening what needs to be strengthend, humbling what needs to be humbled.

God's government is all-powerful. Nothing can work against it, interfere with it, hinder it, or stop it, because God is the only real power there is. And God's power is Life. God's power is Truth. God's power is Love. And God's power has a purpose, and that purpose is Good and its effect is Life, Truth, and Love made manifest in a way that everyone can comprehend and experience.

All authentic sensation is spiritual - a revelation of Spirit-in-action. Jesus said of our true nature: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." To be "born of the Spirit" is to be "born again" - or actually, to awake to who you really already are as the image and likeness of God, Spirit.

Without this awakening, we think the material senses are the only source of information about the status of our existence. Accept this suggestion, and the hypnosis begins. Act on this suggestion, or react to it, and you put yourself to sleep about God and your already spiritually perfect likeness to Him. You think that all you are is a body with a mind inside, living a life which might be pleasant at times, but too often ends up suckered by sin, subjected to disease, and all too inevitably heading downhill towards death.

But "sweet are the uses of adversity" because that suffering we all encounter pushes us to start "...craving for something better, higher, holier, than is afforded by a material belief in a physical God and man." This longing is God stirring us, His everpresence moving in us, reminding us that there is so much more to who we are, so much more to being His likeness, so much more to life than meets the eye. Or the ear, nose, tongue, touch.

And that "so much more" is the universe of Spirit, the Kingdom of God!

And His Kingdom is your native land. This is where God's will is being done in you, just as it is in heaven - because the Kingdom of God is always already within you, is already within the grasp of your understanding. You already know this intuitively.

And this is how God knows you: as His perfection-in-action, as His Life-made-manifest, as His Light shining with the warmth of impartial universal Love. And "there shall be no night there" - no sleepy laziness, no dreaming away the hours, no hypnotic UN-consciousness neglecting God's perfect purpose for you.

God makes this Truth true. Your job is simply to accept it, reflect it, and act on it! Rest in that. Because God's will will be done in earth (and in you) just as it is in heaven. And with God, there is always a way for you to move forward.

Amen.

Thoughts on the Tri-Unity of God

"Our Father which art in heaven."
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious.

"Hallowed be Thy name."
Adorable One.

"The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe. The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor does it imply three persons in one. It relates to the oneness, the tri-unity of Life, Truth, and Love." Science & Health, Page 515, Line 16-20

Please let me share some personal thoughts I have had about this tri-unity of Life, Truth, and Love. I have found it helpful to think about the tri-une nature of God like this:

Life, Truth, Love

God, Christ, Holy Spirit

Father, Son, Mother

Cause, Action, Creator

Word, Voice, Meaning

Water, Bread, Wine

Sun, Light, Warmth

Rod, Cup, Staff

King, Lawgiver, Judge

Rock, Tower, Shield

Commander, Healer, Comforter

Kingdom, Power, Glory

Life the sovereign Presence, Truth the Power-made-manifest, Love the Glory of the Great I Am, the Adorable One, God, the All-in-all.

Amen!

Learning to forgive ourselves

"Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."
And Love is reflected in love.

Forgiving our debtors helps us learn how to accept forgiveness for ourselves, how to truly repent -- re-think about who we are and what we do and how we live and interact with others.

And this acceptance of forgiveness demands humility. Divine Love, God, humbles us to learn to love unconditionally, like He does. His Love is a "law of annihilation" to every hate and fear that makes us believe in separation - separation from Him, as well as separation from our "debtors."

Think about the two great commandments that Jesus spoke of:

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself."

In this particular passage Jesus also answered the question of who your neighbor is by giving us the parable of the Good Samaritan: it is anyone in need of your help.

Is it too much of a stretch to think that Jesus would have approved the idea that your "neighbor" is also anyone who is even in your debt?

Could we also then pray "thou shalt love thy debtor as thyself?"

The parable of the Good Samaritan would suggest the answer to that question is YES.

Jesus' parable urges us to go out of our way to be a blessing to everyone we encounter, to those who need us, need God's Love to be made real for them by us being His - Divine Love's - action and example.

And the spiritual sense of this verse is not "Love is reflected in like" - it is "Love is reflected in love," in full-on all-embracing completely giving LOVE.

Divine Love forgives us our debts as we forgive - love - those we think are somehow in debt to us.

Forgiving is always reflected in forgiveness because Love is always reflected in love.

Can anyone else tell?

"Thy kingdom come."
Thy kingdom is come; Thou are everpresent.

Divine Love is already "living" you.

Do you know that? Do you feel that? Can anyone else tell?

If not, then it's time to start living Divine Love out loud!

God's - Love's - kingdom is come. Love is everpresent. Where? In your consciousness. How can you tell? Look for it intuitively. Recognize it with your intuition, your spiritual sense - your inate ability to feel inspiration, to discern goodness, to perceive gentleness.

So be expectant - watchful for these signs of Love moving in you, as you. Be faithful to them by listening to them and living them. And by doing that, you'll be living God's will-being-done-in-earth just as it is in heaven. And that Bread of Love will feed, forgive, lead, and deliver you and everyone in your conscious embrace.

And, yes, you will find that this takes practice. But the more you exercise your love, the more you will be freed from thinking that Love is absent, illusive, hard to find, or there for others but not you. And your practice of blatantly living God's love will deliver you from the sin of selfishness (inward love), the sickness of loneliness (absence of love), the death of liveliness (the failure of love), because Love's kingdom is everpresent, is always within you, within your ability to sense and appreciate, to live, give, and receive.

In fact, Love is your very being. Love's glory shines in you right this minute! It shines in your heart, your eyes, your face, your acts, your words, your embrace - because you are God's - Love's - perfect brilliant reflection, His image and likeness. Right here. Right now.

• No matter what else seems to be going on.

Why?

Because "Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory - of Love - forever."

Be in the Kingdom

"Thy kingdom come."
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art everpresent.

Think about what the kingdom of God - the Adorable One - is like. Think about its completeness, its harmony, its "lack of lack." Now think about how Christ Jesus proved God's kingdom - His sovereignty - to be always present.

Where?

Within you.

God's kingdom is come, His will is being done, in you.

What if you understood this to be true? How would you think? How would you act? How would you change your life?

Maybe you'd start by being grateful that this is already true for you even if you find it hard to accept. Maybe you'd start listening to your intuition more carefully, listen with your spiritual sense for those ideas and inspiration that make your heart burn within you. Maybe you'd rejoice to know that Spirit is stirring you - and everyone in the universe! - to wake up, to grow up, and show up.

And if you do, then you can be guaranteed that you'll feel your heart opening to God's powerful presence. And you'll be awakening to living His will, being His will made manifest - "on earth just as it is in heaven."

So yes! Give us this day our daily experience of Your kingdom and Your will and Your grace dear Father! Let us yield to it, love it, and live it! Let us be Divine Love made manifest here and now. Let us witness Your presence awakening in everyone we meet. Let us be Your power helping bring home the homeless, humble the selfish, heal the sick, feed all need, even all famished affections.

Thy kingdom is come and Thy will is done in earth as it is in heaven as we live Your presence and witness Your power. Amen.