POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Individual Perceptions
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Mrs. Toplov was complaining to Mrs. Weinstein about her new daughter-in-law. “My poor son,” she moaned, “his new wife is a leech. All she does is sit around all day. She has maids to do her cooking and cleaning. My son is going broke buying her expensive gifts. She sleeps late every morning. He even brings her breakfast in bed!”
“A blessing, she isn’t,” Mrs. Weinstein concurred. Both ladies talked and said that is terrible. Mrs. Weinstein said, “So, how is your daughter?”
“My daughter – she is a lucky girl. She married a man who treats her like a princess. He buys her anything she wants; he hires people to take care of the house. She doesn’t have to dirty a finger. Every morning, he brings her breakfast in bed.”
Both ladies concurred, “Isn’t that wonderful?”
It is perspective. It is how we view life. It is how we decide, each morning, to view life. What do you commonly see in your life? Are you constantly witnessing error and negative things? Or do you bear testimony of the inherent goodness of God and God’s creation? These are important questions, because by your answers, you can get a better understanding of yourself.
Let me tell you a story about Mr. Wittlemeyer. He lived in Madison, Wisconsin. He invited his grandchildren to spend the summer with him, and every morning, they would go into his bedroom and watch him sleep. As Mr. Wittlemeyer breathed in and breathed out in his sleep, his mustache would move up and down. His grandchildren thought this was the funniest thing they had ever seen.
One morning, they got the idea they were going to play a joke on Grandpa. They went to the kitchen, opened up the refrigerator, got into the cheese bin, and brought out some limburger cheese. They crept into the bedroom and they wiped limburger cheese over his mustache.
He woke up in a few minutes. He sniffed and said, “This bed smells.” He got up, put on his bathrobe, looked around his bedroom and said, “This whole bedroom smells.” He opened the door, walked down the hallway and noticed the hallway smelled, too. He went downstairs and looked into the living room and said, “This living room smells.” The dining room and kitchen smelled, too. Finally, he went outside and said, “The whole world smells.”
Isn’t that the way it is? We think IT is not in us; IT is out there, in the world. Depending upon our perception, everything we see is bad, or good.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could go to the eye doctor and ask for a new set of glasses, when we have a negative perception – Glasses that would be God-view glasses, the positive view? When we put them on, we would see anew. What was bad before would be positive now. We would see God’s good that to our old eyes was invisible before.
There is an American saying, “I’m all eyes.” That means I am paying FULL attention.
Jesus teaches in Matthew 6:22, “The eye is the lamp of the body … ” What is Jesus saying here? Is this eyeball in your head a lamp or a light? More than just not seeing with the eyeball, Jesus talks of having spiritual sight. Jesus is referring not to the physical eyeball, the lens, or the optic nerve, but to PERCEPTION. The way you view life is what creates the light inside of you.
Jesus goes on, ” … if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.” (Matt 6:22) That means you must look to God; then you are looking to the good. Jesus continues, “But if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matt 6:23)
We have all known people who get up in the morning and everything they see is dark and wrong. They view life and they say, “Oh, my life isn’t any good.” Many others on their life path will see positive and good, but they will say, “Oh my life isn’t any good; look at that problem there.” They will focus on the darkness instead of the light, and how great the darkness is inside of them.
We must strive to perceive the good in everything we view. We have to look in a loving way. We have perception praise. When you look at another, even if it is for the first time, use your eye to perceive praise, blessings, and see God working in others’ lives. May we always see the God-view.
In Luke 17:20-21, Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God IS among you.” Jesus does not say “maybe;” He said it is a fact. This is a certain truth in your life. If this is so, how do we increase our awareness of it? In today’s language, heaven means expansion. How do we expand the awareness of God working in of us? You use your eyes, and you use them in Godly ways.
In Mark 9:47, Jesus says, “And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out … ” Of course, this is not saying to tear out your eyeball. The eye Jesus talks about is your perception. If your perception is wrong, then remove that and change it.
Jesus continues: “It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell.” (Mark 9:47) Jesus is saying that if you have both of your eyes focused on what’s wrong in your life, your life will become a literal hell. Of course it is better to have both sides focused with the perception of God, but if you must, through your own free-will, keep one eye focused on the appearance of your problem, you are at least 50% ahead and even more if you learn to shut the eye that is perceiving ONLY the bad.
Jesus goes on to talk about the unquenchable fire, “where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.” (Mark 9:48) In the Bible, look at the word “hell.” Look to the letter after the word or the number, then look down at the bottom of the page and you will see where it says “Gehenna.” He is saying, “Look, either you have the right perception or you will go to the valley of Gehenna.” Gehenna was a trash dump outside of Jerusalem. The stench was strong, and the fires to burn the refuge – including the dead bodies of the castoffs of society – burned night and day, for hundreds of years. In Jesus’ day, that was what the literal hell was. Where we live is often caused and fueled by your perceptions of your life. You must have the God-view perception. Otherwise, your views and your life are not going to mean any more than to go to the trash dump where the worm never dies and where the fires have been burning almost forever.
Practice having gratitude sight, looking around on a beautiful day or a terrible day, and seeing God in the ordinary, or the extraordinary, and finding that special, wonderful thing. All of us want to be happy and all of us want to be content. We want to give the highest and best of which we are capable to life. We want to make our special contribution. Let us take God as our partner in sight in everything we see. Then we have true in-sight!
We will have the gift of joy and insight; we see beyond appearances to things that the human alone would be blind to see. We will see anew again in a brand-new way.
We may have been blinded by the appearances we follow the Jesus Christ way by agreeing to see beyond appearances to see the positive, and best at all times.
What we see in the outer world is but a reflection of the inner world, because we surround ourselves with a picture of our own beliefs. In other words, we manifest, in general, what we seriously think and believe. So, if we want to find out what our thinking is, all we have to do is look around us and ask ourselves the question, “How’s life?”
The Bible says we shall not bear false witness, but that is just what we are doing, for example, when we do not see the presence of God in every situation or when we accept “the appearance” as the only reality.
On the other hand, we are a witness for God when we see the whole human where a sick one seems to be in appearances only; when we forgive someone who has injured us and then see the God’s love for him or her; when we see prosperity instead of the appearance of lack, knowing God supplies our every need; or when we see harmony and peace, regardless of the seeming appearances.
Perhaps you recall the lines of William Shakespeare. He said, “There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
Are we seeing good everywhere we look?
Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7:24-25 says: “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rains fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.”
We pray your life is founded on firm ground because things happen in life that can easily throw us off kilter. Jesus said the rains fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house. He did not say the rains may come, the floods may come, and the winds may blow and may beat on the house. We must have firm footing in our perceptions, and we will not be throwing down permanently by what happens. Our perception will be founded on the rock of faith.
Jesus goes on to say: “And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall!” (Matt 7:26-27)
Let me tell you a story. A man spent some time walking on a beach.
It exhausted him because he was walking on the sandy part. He was taking about a two-mile walk in the morning, just as the sun was coming up. It was not like walking on firm ground.
It was like walking ten or fifteen miles, because he sank and then had to lift up one foot and then the other. It was a lot of work. When you are on firm ground, when you are perceiving God in all things, you are empowered to do what you need to do in life, because God is with you, constantly, every moment.
Have your error cataracts removed, once and for all, to stare until you see the God-view. Know when you see something bad there is always another view you are not seeing. Stare at the black cloud long enough until you see God-given opportunity.
There is a story about Jake and Willy. Jake was teaching Willy to fly.
Taking off from a country pasture airstrip, they headed off to the airport of a nearby town. Jake told Willy, “Whatever you do, when we land, put down those flaps.”
Willy says, “Yup.”
A mile from the airport, Jake says, “Willy, this is a short runway. When we hit the strip, you step on the brake.”
Willy says, “Yup.”
With the airport in sight, Jake shouts, “Now, Willy, put down the flaps!” A few seconds later, he screams, “the brakes, Willy! Step on the brake!”
The plane stops with its nose tight against the doors of the hanger.
Jake says, “See, Willy? I told you the runway was short.”
And Willy replies, staring to the right and to the left, “But look how wide the runway is!”
There is a true story of a Catholic nun. She would visit with at least twice a week in the minister’s church. She was about 80 years old and always had a smile on her face. She was a truly holy woman. They would talk about life and about the teachings of Jesus. One day, they walked out of the back door of the church and she stopped in her tracks and said, “Oh isn’t that beautiful?” The minister looked around. All he saw was the parking lot.
Finally, the clergyman said, “What are you looking at?” She said, “That red thing over there. I don’t know what it is, but isn’t it beautiful? It is so beautiful, it just makes my day.”
He said to her, hesitantly, “Sister, that is the new dumpster. That is what we put trash into.”
She said, “Oh, it is so pretty.” They stood there and looked at it with holy sight. It was pretty. It was the prettiest dumpster they had ever seen.
Right now, am I putting God first with my eyesight? Let us promise never to put my human mind first, churning up worry, anger, or fear. I seek God-sight and all its perspective in all I see and think.
The Bible teaches about taking the high watch. When circumstances seem less than ideal, it can be difficult to maintain a clear perspective. In such times, it is helpful to remember that things will appear differently when viewed from a different perspective. Approaching difficulties may appear ominous, but they will seem much different once they have passed.
It is easy to have a spiritual experience when you are in the rose garden looking at the roses. I am going to ask you to have a spiritual experience looking at the ordinary things in your life by changing your perspective – with the God-view and seeing them … perhaps for the first time.
Many people become frozen and fearful of the future. They whine and complain about their daily activities and responsibilities. We have all known people who have become psychologically drunk from whining.
There is a story about a philosophical clock. One hundred years ago, a clockmaker built a magnificent grandfather clock that not only kept time, but could think as well. Soon after the clock was delivered to its owner, it began to think. The clock thought, “I’m to tick twice every second. This means I must tick 120 times a minute – seventy-two hundred times an hour and 172,800 times, each day. It also means I will tick 63,720,000 times, every year.” After making these calculations, the clock collapsed in a nervous breakdown.
Let us put our lives into perspective with the Divine order of God.
The moon is approximately 240,000 miles from earth (238,852 miles). The sun is 93 million miles from earth (92,960,000 miles). Scientists have concluded that if either one of these astronomical bodies was 100 miles closer or further away from the earth, life on this planet would not be possible. Likewise, the earth spins at 1,000 miles per hour, while orbiting the sun at 60,700 miles per hour. Just a two-mile-per-hour difference would prevent life on earth. The amazing handiwork of God is not only perfect but perfectly balanced.
I am going to ask you to join me in a commitment for the next seven days – dedicating your eyes to God’s will and work seeing ONLY good.
Please join me in prayer:
Listen to these words of truth about who you are as a child of God. You are, in truth, inherently good. Goodness is welling up in your soul seeking to find expression in your seeing the good, in your actions, and doing everything to make you radiant and happy.
You have a true-life change. Your eyes are renewed; your perception is brand new. As a child, you see wonder everywhere; you see the good everywhere; you see God everywhere.
The real you is a loving, joyous being. You are also truthful and honest with your eyesight. You are dependable in seeing beyond appearances; you are able to spread blessings everywhere and make people happy wherever you go. Because the Spirit of God in your perception and sight is the source of your life, you are privileged to see God’s good everywhere.
This week, with God’s help, you begin to realize you have the power to perceive in a new way. May the unfoldment and expression of this God-given vision bring you great satisfaction of perception. May it stimulate your life and improve your health. You dedicate your human eyes to see the God-view.
So it will be this hour.
In Jesus Christ’s name, we so dedicate. Thank you, God. Amen.
God bless you!
PRAYER / MEDITATION____________________
I make a commitment now to see with God eyes. I will lift up my human eyes to the heights of my soul from whence cometh my help and healing.
My sight cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth. My eyes are filled with this light of living love. This view blessed by the light of Truth displaces darkness, dimness, and doubt. I bless my eyes and my eyes bless me. I am given in this moment of time a perception from on high.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
Lovingly, gratefully, I make it my practice to see God’s good everywhere. The optic nerve is a channel for God to work in, on, and through. Thought focused on God’s ideas is neither far-sighted nor near-sighted; it is now-sighted, God-sighted. The essence of the healing Christ impregnates, bathes, and dissolves looking to the negative. There is no seeing bad in the eyes of Christ, and none in me.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
My sight is one with Thee, O Light of the world. This living light of spiritual discernment includes all human eyesight. The spirit of oneness flows through me, feeding, nourishing the neglected good, the beauty I may have been blind to, before. The searching rays of righteousness uncover and expose the best of every person, place, and thing that I view, be myself within the glass image of the mirror.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
Steadfastly facing thee, O Christ of my being, there is not a single thing I am afraid to look upon. I face life. I face love. I look out from the eyes of the eternal and behold, it is VERY good. There is no impatience or resistance in me caused by what I see.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
In this moment of time, I let God rule, regulate, and adjust the miraculous membranes of my organs of sight. There is one sight, one universal and eternal vision. This sight is my sight now. My whole body glows with the glory of gratitude and praise. My eye will be single. My body will be filled with light. I give my eyes entirely over to the blessed healing presence. I see with the eyes of God, to perceive beyond appearance forevermore.
In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.
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