Tag : POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Journey to a Successful Life

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Journey to a Successful Life

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“Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.”
Acts 5:20

A minister and author, Carol Ruth Knox came up with the different phases of a life quest that we all go through. I want to share this important message with you, as we go into the new year of 2011. Hopefully, it will be as meaningful to your life as it was to mine.

I have asked an incredibly special person to be with us this morning. This is (introduce a small child from Sunday School). The reason I want (Name) to come and share this moment with us is because (Name) represents all of us. At one time or another, (Name), all of us were just like you. We were little boys and little girls, just like you. We call this our first phase of our life.

It is our INNOCENCE phase of life.

I remember when I was about (Name’s) age; I was going to Sunday School. I was fortunate to be raised in a Christian home.

Can you relate to (Name)? Can you relate to that young, innocent age? In your memory, you can still see what you saw as a little child, can’t you? You might remember your own Sunday School, hearing for the first time, the stories of Jesus and all the wonderful things about God and creation. You can still probably remember some of the songs you sang.

This was so meaningful. Do you remember one Sunday when your parents said, “It is time for you to go to the big church.” You were excited about going to the big church because that was the room where all those beautiful, stained glass windows were and where that big pipe organ was.

The sun’s rays were coming through those stained-glass windows. All the adults, who were friends of your parents, gave you a smile of approval for being there. It was a joy-filled experience – – a journey in your own spirituality. We are on that journey again, now, as we venture together into our new year experience.

As you grew, you had wonderful things happen in your life, AND SOME not so good THINGS. Some people questioned what this had to do with the Sunday School teaching of an all-good loving God. This God of love was now, falsely, becoming a God of wrath and judgment and punishment in their own minds. You see, at that moment, some have the death of this innocent phase, because this good God that they felt so close to, who was a friend of theirs, was now a God that they did not want to have anything to do with.

VICTIM STAGE

We sometimes go from this faith of innocence into the second phase of life which is our VICTIM stage.

Beloved, many hundreds of people are walking the streets, today, that are locked into this VICTIM stage of their lives. You see, there are several things that go on during this victim stage of life. Where God was their friend as a child, now there was a separation from God. God was not close to them anymore. God was separate, way up in the sky. They did not know where this God was, but they thought of God like the giant in “Jack in the Beanstalk.” God was some big giant looking down. Adults always talked about the man upstairs. God was looking at everything that you did bad or did wrong.

When you are in the victim stage of life, you do not give because you want to give. You give out of fear. You try to live up to all these expectations, all these rules and regulations. As Paul said, as hard as I tried, it seemed as if I was always missing the mark. I was not quite living this God standard that was placed on me.

One man told this story, “I will never forget that in my church you were not supposed to dance or play cards or go to movies (especially on Sunday). During World War II, I was sitting in a movie theater eating popcorn, watching a John Wayne war movie. All of a sudden, I realized that it was Sunday and I was at a movie. I can remember sitting in the theater thinking, ‘I sure hope Jesus doesn’t come this Sunday afternoon.’ If He did, I was sure I was going to Hell instead of Heaven, because I was at the movies at the wrong time.”

When we are in this VICTIM stage, we have a life of punishment. We have a life that is unfulfilling. Not only do we search and yearn for this oneness or closeness with God, but we find ourselves at a loss because of trying to fulfill all the expectations of other people.

A woman said, “I was in this stage when, one day, I told a friend of mine, ‘I am going to stop going to that church because I go in with ten pounds of weight on my shoulders, and when I leave I have 100 pounds. I can hardly get out of there because of the weight of guilt.'”

Jesus Christ said, “For my yoke (weight upon you) is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:30

God is love, and the true Christian message is loving, and makes you feel better when you leave, than when you entered.

VICTORY STAGE

John 14:20 reads like this: “On that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me and I am in you.” To me, this is the moment that you leave the VICTIM stage of your life and enter the VICTORY stage of life. I hope everybody here this morning is in the victory stage of life, because I hope you know that God is within you, helping you right here, right now. The power of God is with you. We can have it all – – because, with God, you are a VICTOR. God and you become friends for life. You become partners in life with God.

Your mind is the connecting link with God in prayer, through thoughts, and feelings. We have the conscious awareness where we find spiritual truths with all our senses.

Jesus said to be in the world but not of it. We cannot help being on this life plane that we are on today, but through our spiritual connection with God we can be less affected by our world in a negative way. We can be empowered by God. Sod is not affected to situations and circumstances outside of us.

The VICTOR phase utilizes our memory mind in the proper way. This is that reservoir that holds all our thoughts and feelings through our lifetime. It is a wonderful part of our mind. In fact, it is our computer. It is that phase of our mind that enabled the men to tie our ties this morning. We did not have to learn how to tie a tie again. This morning, you automatically put on your shoes or made a pot of coffee. You did not have to sit down and get a cookbook out to see how to make a pot of coffee. It comes instantly because you know how to do it. When you got in your automobile this morning, you put the key in, backed it up, and drove here. You see, the memory will take anything we give it, and it will hold it for a very long time. But also the memory mind does not understand jokes. If you say, “I am sick,” it registers that you are sick, and the body responds with the effects of your thoughts.

These negative things are stored in our memory, as well as the positive things we pray. In the memory phase of our mind, the history of all our thoughts and feelings are stored. It is a wonderful part of our mind, because God is within it as much as in our conscious mind. God is the Creator that made all our minds.

What you are today – is the sum total of your thoughts of yesteryear. What you are going to be in the future -will be the sum total of your thoughts of today. It is just that simple.

Life is consciousness. In other words, if you project love and spiritual thoughts in your mind, you are projecting a wonderful life ahead of you, where all your needs are met in 2011 and beyond.

In a restaurant, I overheard a woman, who was close to retirement, talking. She said, “I hope I die before I get broke. I hope I do not outlive my money.” When we know that God is our Source, we do not have to worry. Some way, we know that all our needs will be taken care of. God has told us this. God looks after lilies of the field and the birds of the air. We are the most beautiful part of God nature because our souls are created in God’s image and after God’s likeness. Therefore, we can create our own life experience with God’s wonderful help, the same way as God as created us in the beginning.

The conscious level of our minds is the present. Our memory level is our past. And the future is in the level of our minds that consents to an infilling of God’s Divine ideas and help.

Looking to our past constantly to predict our future would be like trying to drive our cars forward, but only looking through the rearview mirror. The choice is ours. Isn’t it wonderful that we are free to choose? God is no respecter of persons. Love and Divine help have equal access to all, everywhere.

No one is exempt from the good laws of God. God loves us all the same, with an unconditional love that Jesus told us about.

As we get older and see that life is unfolding, we see that we all had the Innocent phase of life, the VICTIM stage, and the VICTORY stage. After we accumulate all these possessions and nice things, we find that there is something missing. Now we are ready for that final phase of life. We move from that victory stage of life, from our head to our heart.

VESSEL STAGE

This final phase of life is the VESSEL phase. It is a wonderful phase. In this phase, we know that oneness that Jesus urged us to feel – God and I are one. You see, in the VICTIM stage of life, we gave out of fear. In the VICTORY stage of life, we give because we will receive. But when we get into the VESSEL stage of life, we give because we cannot help ourselves. In the VICTORY stage of life, we give because we think we will receive. But when we get into the VESSEL stage of life, we love because it is our nature to love. We give because we cannot help ourselves from giving. WE WANT TO GIVE SOMETHING BACK!

There was once an elderly man who had just turned 100 years of age. He was seen the day after his birthday in his front yard with a shovel in his hand. He was outside planting a row of young seedling peach trees.

A 30-year-old neighbor could not contain himself any longer, asked the question, “Do you really expect to eat the peaches, years from now, from those young trees?

The old man leaned on a shovel and smiled. He said, “All my life I have been eating peaches from trees that other people planted. Now, I am planting these trees so that someday, someone else will enjoy the benefits of what I have done this day.”

You see, when we get into this vessel stage of life, it is that “Let go and let God” phase.

Why do you suppose we spend so much of our lives thinking we know better than God does for our lives? I think it must be something about control. You see, when we are in the VICTORY stage, we are in our head so much and that is where we have our ego. In the VICTIM stage, there is no ego, just suppression. But now, we let go of our ego. “It is not my will but thine be done. God, my will is Thy will.”

When we know that we and the Creator are working in unison, we are co-creators. We let go and let God be God through us. We do not worry about possessions. We know that if the “thing” is destroyed, God will give us an even better “thing.” Or if our house burns up, we will get a better house. Or if our relationship falls apart, there will be a better relationship coming our way. We even have no problem with death, because we know there is a better life ahead. I am saying that with this knowing, dear friends, that we can live a life of joy and freedom and love, and not worry about the future, because it is God ordained to be absolutely good. God is going ahead of us preparing the way of good in 2011.

I do not know where you are in your life. I hope no one here is a VICTIM. This morning, I hope there are VICTORS in each of us, and I hope it is the VESSEL where we are looking to go. It is wonderful knowing that we are looking toward that perfection of God.

Do you remember the ancient proverb? You give a man a fish and he will feed himself for one meal, but if you teach him to fish, he can feed himself forever. Christianity is showing people how to fish. It is a wonderful business to be in. And, it is wonderful to be with the likes of you this morning, marching into a freer life for all concerned.

Actually this is not like climbing a ladder, spiritual growth cycles through these stages many times in a lifetime because of various events that happened. Our purpose in life is to rise higher, and to stay there, instead of being tossed and turned by the winds of adversity.

Let us just close our eyes for a moment for prayer.

As we let go in prayer, we find ourselves on this eternal quest, we rise from the innocent to the VICTIM, letting go of that with God’s help, we rise above the VICTIM to the VICTOR. We look for being the VESSEL, with our body and mind, actively, THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD, the vessel that God will fill, and will never run dry. Thank you God for being within us, for being our Source of all good.

We pray in the name and through the power of Jesus Christ … Amen.

PRAYER / MEDITATION___________________________

In preparing for prayer, I invite you to become still. If you have anything in your hand that might be a discomfort, please put it aside. I invite you to become still and relaxed. Relax in the seat you are sitting in. As we come to this special time of the day, realize that this is your time:

A gift from God.

This is the time that we put aside all our cares of life – the business of getting here, the anxiety of driving through the snow and ice–and we become centered in that spiritual oneness with God.

God is the precious, powerful, imminent Source that is always with you. That love of God is a refuge to which we can go to regain our strength in a time of need. As we come to this new time of the year where new beginnings are made, we renew ourselves in the knowing that we are one with the One, that one Presence and that one Power of God.

In the silence of prayer …

Jesus said, “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” So, today, we rejoice in that oneness with the Christ presence. That presence that was in Jesus Christ is also the same presence that is active in our lives, this morning, in the depths of our hearts and souls.

Now, as you relax further in a deeper state of consciousness, I invite you to let go and let that Presence be your counselor, your physician, and your helper. As we go through our quest of life, this timeless advancing of our souls, we are free. We are unlimited. Through God, with us RIGHT NOW, we have the strength to overcome any challenges of the appearances of the outside world.

So now, let us take a moment to be in the silence of prayer with God …

Dear God, we give thanks that we can come to You, anytime of the day or night. We like to go to the top. We are thankful, dear God, that You have an open door policy and that Your door is always open to us, day or night. We give thanks that we can come to You at any moment, at any time of need. We pray this knowing our oneness with You.

In the name and through the power of Jesus Christ … Amen.

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POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Imagine

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Imagine

Time Sensitivity: none

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

Also, great lesson material available free daily – get Positive Daily Inspiration direct in your email inbox every morning.

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“Dreams are extremely important. You can’t do it unless you imagine it.”
George Lucas

Never Let Your Dreams Die.

You know what that dream is, and you know how big your dream is. I’m talking about more than goals. Goals are dreams with deadlines. Beyond deadlines your dreams define your lifeline.

God can help you, and guide you towards the fulfillment of your dreams.

T.S. Eliot said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

A teacher at a teaching workshop, asked participants to state their personal dreams. One teacher vowed to update photo albums, another to lose weight. The goal that got the most response, however, was given by a kindergarten teacher. “I resolve to exercise until I can complete a 20-minute workout in less than an hour,” she said.

Father: How do you like going to school?
Son: The going bit is fine, as is the coming home bit too, but I’m not too keen on the time in-between!

It is the same with our dreams. How exciting it is to start dreaming of tomorrow. It is thrilling beyond words to realize our dreams. It is the in-between time between start and finish that is difficult, and we often give up during that critical time.

I call that time, “in the oven time.” When you are baking cookies, your recipe can be perfect, but it still needs that in the oven time and patience. Only then can the mixture rise and become ready.

The most important thing about DREAMS is having ONE.

I will ask you a question that you do not have to answer out loud. Has your dream been lost? Have you given up on it, for some reason, sometime, somewhere?

What would it take to get that fire burning in you, again? What would it take to make that dream come alive, and most of all, to make you believe that it could come true?

Mary Kay cosmetics were founded upon dreams fueled with enthusiasm. Mary Kay Ash said, “A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.”

Not only pray for dreams but pray for the enthusiasm to manifest them.

There will always be people who tell you why you can’t realize your dreams. But with you, there is always ONE that will help you realize your dreams, that ONE is God.

Walt Disney once said, “All of our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.”

What gives you courage? It is God. Your awareness of the Divine power may be dormant, but I tell you, it is with you RIGHT NOW. God wants you to realize your dreams. God wants you to dream big, dream many dreams, and have the courage to go after those dreams.

Steven Spielberg says, “I don’t dream at night, I dream all day; I dream for a living.”

Free yourself from prison of excuses. Go to God and have a serious talk, and ask God’s help for empowering your dreams. And don’t forget to pray for the stamina, faith and courage during the in-between times.

Never let seeming barriers stop you from realizing your dreams. God is bigger than any barriers.

Let me tell you a story about a Vietnamese fellow. His name was Le Van Vu. During the day, Le worked in a bakery, and at night, he, and his wife listened to audiotapes to learn English. They slept on sacks full of sawdust on the floor in the back room of the bakery.

Going back a few years in Vietnam, the Van Vu family was one of the wealthiest in Southeast Asia. They owned almost one-third of North Vietnam, including large holdings in industry and real estate. However, after his father was brutally murdered, Le moved to South Vietnam with his mother, where he went to school and eventually became a lawyer.

Like his father before him, Le prospered. He saw an opportunity to construct buildings to accommodate the ever-expanding American presence in South Vietnam and soon became one of the most successful builders in the country.

On a trip to the North, however, Le was captured by the North Vietnamese and thrown into prison for three years, with practically no food, whatsoever. He escaped by fighting with his bare hands an entire regiment of soldiers. He made his way from the North lines back to South Vietnam, where he was arrested coming across the border. The South Vietnamese government assumed he was a “plant” from the North. After serving time in prison, Le got out and started a fishing company, eventually building the largest cannery in South Vietnam.

When Le learned that the U.S. troops were about to pull out of Vietnam, he made a life-changing decision. He took all of the gold he had; he loaded it aboard one of his fishing boats; and he sailed with his wife out to the American ships in the harbor. He then exchanged all his riches for safe passage out of Vietnam to the Philippines, where he and his wife were taken to a refugee camp.

After several years, they gained access to the president of the Philippines. Le convinced him to make one of his boats available for fishing and Le was back in business again. Before he left the Philippines, two years later, in route to America [his ultimate dream], Le had successfully developed the entire fishing industry in the Philippines.

In route to America, he thought of all the time he had had success, and all of the times terrible things had happened to him and he had lost everything. He became distraught and depressed. He walked over to the railing of the ship and it was obvious to his wife, who saw him from the front of the ship that he was going to jump.

He thought to himself, “I have lost my dream; I am tired. I have had so many dreams manifest and then all of a sudden, they have left. What am I to do? I just do not have it in me to do it, anymore. Even though I wanted to go to America and I wanted to start again, I just don’t have any energy left and I have lost my dream. It is dead in me and I am dead.”

He started to climb up the railing to jump off the side of the ship, and his wife ran up and said, “Le, if you do jump what is going to happen to me? You have got to think about me. You know, together, we have gotten through everything and we are going to do it again.”

Le said, “I just do not have it in me, anymore. I have lost the dream.”

They stood there by the railing of the ship and they prayed. They prayed in their own way, probably not the way we pray, but it is to the same God. All of a sudden, something was rekindled. It was just a spark, but it was rekindled. He walked away from the railing holding his wife. They said, “With God, we can do this. We can try one more time.”

They got to America and landed in Houston in 1972, where they had some distant cousins. In Vietnam, family takes care of family; it was the same in this country. Le and his wife soon found themselves with family, in the back room of his cousin’s bakery. Le’s cousin offered both Le and his wife jobs in the bakery. After taxes, Le would take home $175 a week and his wife would take home $125. Their total income was $15,600 a year. In a short time, his cousin offered to sell them the bakery. He said whenever they could come up with the $30,000 down payment, he would draw up the papers. The cousin would finance the remainder of the note for $90,000.

Here is what Le and his wife did. First, they prayed. Then with a weekly income of $300, they decided to continue living on the sacks in the back room. They kept clean by taking sponge baths for two years in the mall’s restrooms. Their diet, for two years, consisted mainly of baked goods. For two years, they lived on a total of $600 a year, saving $30,000 in two years for the down payment. Le later explained that if they had moved into an apartment, they would have had to spend most of the money on rent. Then they would have needed a car and insurance to drive back and forth from the apartment to work. They would also have had to buy furniture and they never would have been able to save anything.

After they paid the $30,000 down payment and received ownership of the bakery, they were given a $90,000 note. Le had a chat with his wife and said, “Sweetheart, I know it has been hard these past two years, but we have to live in this back room on the floor for one more year, so we can work toward paying off this debt.” For the next year, they continued to take sponge baths; they continued to hold onto their dream; and they continued to pray. Yes, it was hard, but every day, God gave them the will to do it. In one year, they took almost every penny of the profits and paid off the $90,000 debt.

In 1996, Le Van Vu, 24 years later, became a multimillionaire. A real change occurred that night on the ship as Le was climbing up that railing. He found God. Change happens in us when we find God. God can rekindle your dreams. More than that, God can give you guidance, every step of the way, to guide you to your dreams. Nothing is impossible with God, and with God working by your side, empowering you to do the work.

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. You are working, wisely, toward your dreams because you are guided wisely toward your dreams. Before success and work, in the dictionary and in life, comes the word God. God will never let you down and God will never let your dream die.

One of the keys is to again believe in yourself. God created you, you are God’s creation. God can co-create your life.

A few years ago a man bought a 21-speed bicycle. He had grand dreams of using that bicycle.

But do you know what he has noticed recently on a ride? He used the first gear and then he used the high gear, missing 19 speeds in between. He thought to himself that life is a lot like a 21-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we have never even dreamed of and we have never put into use.

No dream comes true until you wake up and go to work. Keep your heart open to dreams. For as long as there’s a dream, there is hope, and as long as there is hope, there is joy in living.

The comic Jerry Seinfeld when he was first starting out was having a hard time writing, he had a dream to become a great comic writer, but he couldn’t make himself write until he discovered a system to get in through the in-between time. He said to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You will like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

“Don’t break the chain,” he said again for emphasis.

Let me tell you a story about a young man – Monty Roberts. He was the son of an itinerant horse trainer who went from stable to stable, racetrack to racetrack, farm to farm, and ranch to ranch. They had truly little money. One day, in school, Monty was asked to write a paper about his dreams. The teacher instructed each of the students to tell her their dreams. What were they going to do with their lives?

Monty went home and worked on his paper for two full weeks, thinking about what he wanted. He wrote it down in a paper that was seven pages, single-spaced, in length. In the tale, he wrote about a 200-acre ranch he wanted to own. He drew a diagram showing the location of each of the buildings; and in the middle of the property, was a four thousand-square-foot house, where he could invite kids to come in and experience what life was like on a ranch.

As he finished the paper, he felt good. He said, “This is it; this is what I am going to do with my life. This is my blueprint.” He handed it in and waited with great pride for a good grade from the teacher.

The teacher handed back the paper in about five days, and on top of his paper, there was a large red “F,” and a note at the bottom that read, “See me after class.”

The boy with the dream went to see the teacher. He said, “Why did I receive an “F” on my paper?”

The teacher grabbed the paper and said, “This is an unrealistic dream for a boy like you. You have no money; you come from an itinerant family; and you have no resources. Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for the original breeding stock and then, you have to pay large sums of money for stud fees. There is no way you could ever do it.” Then the teacher added, “Listen son, if you rewrite this paper with a more realistic approach, I will reconsider your grade.”

The boy went home with tears in his eyes. He thought about it for a long time. He asked his father what he should do. His father said, “Look son, you have to make up your own mind on this one. However, I think it is probably the most important decision of your life.” Finally, after thinking about the paper for over a week, the boy turned in the same paper with this written at the top. “You can keep the ‘F,’ but I’m going to keep my dream.”

Years later, the man sat reflecting on this in his 8000 square-foot house in the middle of a 200-acre horse ranch. Over the fireplace in his house, he has the original school paper framed for everyone to see. Every summer, he invites students into that 8000 square-foot house. Recently, the same schoolteacher came with 30 children for summer camp. When the teacher was leaving, he said, “Monty, I can tell you this now. When I was your teacher, I was a dream stealer. During those years, I stole a lot of kids’ dreams, but fortunately, you had enough gumption NOT to give up on yours.”

Every one of us has had dream stealers who have robbed us blind, but we have to take personal responsibility because we were the ones that let them do it. We let them be the authority figure in our life. We took on their opinions and we believed them. It can be repaired, today. Do not let anyone steal your dreams. Never let the negative thought people in your own mind steal your dreams. Follow your dreams with God’s help.

No dreamer is ever too small; no dream is ever too big.

What do we do with critics? With God, you are strong enough to handle your critics.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat, and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short, again and again, because there is no effort without effort and shortcomings, who knows the great devotion, who spends himself or herself in a worthy cause, who, at best, knows in the end the high achievement of triumph, and who, at worst, if he or she fails while daring greatly, knows their place shall never be with those timid and cold souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Life begets life; energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes a success. Thinking about all the criticism in the world, agree with me to do two things:

1) Accept your dream again.
2) Don’t criticize your dreams yourself.
3) Never be a critic of another person’s dream.

With God, who is to say it is not possible,
because WITH God, all things are possible.

I want to tell you the story of a wife who used encouragement. The woman’s name was Sophia. She encouraged her husband. He came home, one day, and said, “I quit. That is it. I give up on my dreams. I have tried, struggled, and sweated in life and nothing has ever come to me. I have never realized my dreams. Sweetheart, I am a failure; I have just been fired from my job in the customs house.”

Instead of getting down in the deep rut with him, Sophia exclaimed with joy, “Praise God you have been fired. Now you can go after your dream. You are a genius of a writer, and I know you can write and do great things. Now, you will have the time to do it and there will be no excuses.”

The man said, “Oh, you think so? What are we going to live on this year?” His wife opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial sum of money. He said, “Where on earth did you get that?”

She said, “Every week, when you gave me household money, I believed in your writing ability so much that I held back a great deal of it. Now we can live on this an entire year, while you write your great work.”

So, from her trust and confidence came one of the greatest novels of American literature, “The Scarlet Letter.” The man was Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Had he followed his own doubting human limited mind, he would have lived in his excuses, and we would live without the talent God manifested through him. We would have lived without his great book.

We constantly say we do not have it in us to realize our dreams. I want to
share with you a little bit about the potter and the clay.

We say, sometimes, we are a child of God, and then in those times when we need it the most, we say we don’t have it. We just can’t do it.

In Isaiah 64:8, it says, ” … Father, we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of Your hand.” It means that each one of us has been formed and fashioned, uniquely, by God, to do wondrous things.

In Isaiah 29:15-16, it says, “Ha! You who hide a plan too deep for the Lord … ” What does that mean in your life? It means you hold and hide dreams, but you hold them down too deeply for God. You forget about them, and you think that God forgets about them. God who made you, ” … whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, ‘Who sees us? … ” [Isaiah 29:15]

Can you imagine the potter and this piece of clay? The clay says of the potter, “Well, God, the potter doesn’t care about me. He didn’t really make me. I am not really God’s child. I don’t really have any ability inside of myself.” The Bible says, “You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay? Shall the thing be made say of its maker, ‘He did not make me;’ or the thing formed say of the one who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?” [Isaiah 29:16]

I turn to Isaiah 45:9-10: “Woe to you who strive with your Maker, earthen vessels with the potter! Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles?’ Woe to anyone who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’ Does God punish you for that or is the punishment in the moment when you say, ‘Woe to me because I am the way I am?'”

Now we go to Jeremiah 18:1-6: “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ‘Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.’ So, I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand … ‘”

So many times, we think that because we have lived through the failures we have lived through, and various things that have happened, well that’s it. That is the way it will always be; I am condemned like a prisoner.

Yet, God can rework our lives in the moment, if we are willing.

We are not dry clay. We are in the process of a human becoming. We become by giving ourselves to God. When we are willing, our real purpose and our dreams come through.

Romans 9:20-21 says, ” … what is molded say to the one who molds it, ‘Why have you made me like this’? Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one object for special use and another for ordinary use?” God can come through you and can rekindle in you great things.

I want to share with you a story about Virginia Satir. She did an experiment, several years ago, with a group on public welfare in the South. She wanted to bring people from different racial groups and different family constellations together as a group. When she brought them together, the first thing she did was shake hands with everyone in the group. Then she stood up and said, “Now, tell me your dreams.” There was silence. Everyone looked at her as if she were some kind of wacko or something.

“Dreams? We don’t have any dreams,” they said. “We are just trying to make it from day to day.”

Virginia said, “Well, what happened? When you were in school did you not have dreams?”

“Oh yes,” they said, “We lost those a long time ago. Reality and life hit us.”

One woman said, “I do not know what I can do with dreams. I am just trying to keep the rats from eating up my children.”

Virginia said, “Oh, that is terrible. No, of course, you are very much involved with the rats and your kids. How can that be helped?”

They brainstormed around the group and the woman said, “If I had a new screen for my screen door that would keep the rats out.”

Virginia asked, “Is there anyone in the group who knows anything about that?”

One man said, “I used to be handy, but I have a terrible back, now and I am not sure I can do that type of thing.” But in talking with the group, he said, “I’ll try.” He was given a little bit of money; he went out and bought the screen and repaired the screen door.

The next week, when they came back, the woman said, “My door is fixed.”

Virginia asked the man who fixed the door, “How do you feel?”

He said, “Well, it is a funny thing; I feel a lot better.”

Then the entire group got on fire. One woman said, “I wish I could be a secretary, but I have no way. I have six kids and I have to stay home with them. If I could only go to school … but who will take care of my kids?” The group brainstormed again and they realized there was another woman in the group with children who was willing to watch her children two days a week so the woman could go to community college.

Within 12 weeks, everyone in the group had a job. The man who put in the screen door became a handyman, a highly successful handyman. The woman who took in the children became a licensed foster care worker. The woman who went to secretarial school became a successful, highly paid secretary.

In 12 weeks, all of these people were off welfare, and in 12 weeks, all of them rekindled dreams of what they wanted to do with their lives.

Your most prized possession as a human being is your dreams. It makes you rich to have a dream.

In Ephesians 4:23-24, it says: ” … be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God … ” Do you know what God wants of you? God wants you to dream big dreams and to dream many dreams.

What I would like said of me, more than anything else, is that I am a person with a thousand dreams. I always will be. I like living life that way, and I encourage you to do the same.

Rev. Norman Vincent Peale once said, “A person with 100 interests is twice as alive as one with only 50, and 4 times as alive as the one who has only 25.” Friends, what God can do through you is amazing. What God can realize in your life by working in you will create a brand-new life for you.

Let us talk about those obstacles that will appear in the imaginations of your mind. There may be many obstacles during the in-between times. Bring your dream to God and also bring yourself, your human mind, all your excuses on why you haven’t done it so far, and why you can’t do it.

God will renew you and empower you.

Henry Ford once said that obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal. Even if you are on the right track, you are going to get run over if you just sit there. You have to get up.

Here is what I am going to ask you to do, today. I ask you to take pieces of paper, and at the top of each page, I want you to put a goal. I don’t want one goal. I want as many goals as you can dream. Maybe, right now, it is only ten, maybe it is 25, but hopefully, soon it will be 1,000. Then I want you to put a line down the center of the page and on one side, list “Why I can’t do this.” On the other side of the page put, “How I can do this.” This next step is important. Over on the “Why I can’t” side, I want you to put a big red X, because that side has no value to your life. It is excuses. It is the doubting weak human mind. It is not the truth. It has no power. On the “How I can” side, begin to dream ideas.

Some ideas you have will seem strange, or you think they will never work. Keep in mind that if God gives you an idea, it is not from your mind. It may seem very foreign to you and that is good, because it is not from your mind. It is not the problem solved within the recesses of the human brain, but it is from the larger arena of God-mind.

This was once said, and I think it has great power: Let your hook be always cast in the pool where you least expect a fish and you will catch a lot of fish. I have noticed a particular trait about humans. We find something that doesn’t work, and we do it again and again. We become great successes in our non-successes. We use mistakes as a starting point, not as an ending point when we are going to God. Mistakes are going to happen to each one of us. They are part of the dues one pays for a full life.

Margaret Thatcher, (The Iron Lady) former Prime Minister of England said, “You may have to fight a battle more than once to succeed.”

You will succeed if you keep on fighting. I ask you to dedicate yourself to God and to yourself in a transformation process. Make a commitment to yourself and to God. Don’t have the ultimate denial of what you can do in your life – that “Moses thing” that says, “Well, this would work for other people, but not for me, because after all, we all know and God knows I am not good enough. God didn’t create me with all of the equipment I need to be successful.”

I am going to ask you to write something on the bottom of your sheets.

Here is what you write on the bottom of the paper:

“If not me, who? If not now, when?”

Yesterday is but a vision, and tomorrow is only a dream. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a dream of hope. Wind to thy wings. Light to thy path. Dreams to thy heart!

Please join me in prayer.

We believe God is the source of all we ever need. We believe as God’s child, we are heir to all that God is. We believe this is true for all God’s children, everywhere. We believe we are meant to live life in peace, joy, and plenty. God’s will for us is happiness and the richest of blessings from the dreams we hold.

We believe our good comes through us, through our use of the Divine ideas, ever-present and ever available to us. We believe there is no lack. God’s universe is rich with potential and possibility. We believe when one door closes, another always opens. We believe resources are right now at hand to fill any and every need of our dreams.

We act on our belief. We speak words of faith and trust in God for ourselves and for others to help them realize their dreams. We hold positive, uplifting thoughts about others and ourselves. We give what is ours to give. We use the talents and the abilities with which we have been blessed. We anticipate well.

With God’s help, today, we begin to dream.

In Jesus Christ’s name, we give thanks. Amen.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION____________________

I trust You, God. I trust You to take care of me. I trust You to take from my life that which does not belong, and to bring to me that which belongs. I trust You.

I am dignified, sophisticated, and poised, because I am relaxed. I am not hyper, tense, or frantic. I am an elegant, serene person. I have a dream and I ask You, God, to give me the gift of the power to see that dream through.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

I do not join another’s dream unless guided by You, dear God – I keep my own dreams. I am a leader because I am God-empowered. They may join me or not, but I do not lose my vision of the dream. I am as I am. I like me as I am. I do not defend myself. I exist and I become love, peace, and high self-esteem. I am a child of God.

It does not matter what is happening to me. I maintain my joy. It is not what happens that counts, only my reaction counts. I stay positive and happy. Great good always comes. I am an heir to God’s good.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

I march through each day victorious. I am persistent. Each hour, I am aware of my thinking and my feeling. My keen mind and my sensitive feelings keep me close to You, dear God, and filled with love. I am free from judgment. I am free from criticism under the guise of helping to fix. I love, inspire, and encourage. Mine is not to change anyone or anything except myself. I love myself because I love the Creator. I am my own best friend. I love the creation and my dreams. I believe in me because I believe in God. I am consistent in my love and self-acceptance.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

There is a positive sameness about me, a core that never changes – a beautiful disposition, happy, loving, and awake. I am anchored to the positive in life. I never point out mistakes. I encourage and uplift. Everyone loves to be with me because I radiate God’s goodness. I live my life with a light touch. I take the drama out. I do not get serious. Dear God, You will work through my lightness, my fun, and my serenity.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Thank You, God, for peace in every area of my life, and for peace on my quest of the realization of my dreams.

In Jesus Christ’s name, it IS so … Amen.

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POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Bondage or Liberty

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Bondage or Liberty

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One woman finds soul freedom in gardening. Another woman finds soul freedom on her bicycle.

One man says that he finds soul freedom riding his motorcycle on backcountry roads.

What is your way to find soul freedom.

How can you make it more lasting, beyond the freeing short-term activity?

While proudly showing off his new apartment to friends, a college student led the way into the den.

“What is the big brass gong and hammer for?” one of his friends asked.

“That is the talking clock”, the man replied.

“How’s it work?” the friend asked.

“Watch”, the man said then proceeded to give the gong an ear shattering pound with the hammer.

Suddenly someone screamed from the other side of the wall “Knock it off! It’s 2 AM in the morning!”

The road to freedom does not mean infringing the rights of others; it is finding that personal inner road that leads to a freeing sense of self.

Songwriter and singer Charlie Daniels wrote:

A brief candle; both ends burning
An endless mile; a bus wheel turning
A friend to share the lonesome times
A handshake and a sip of wine
So say it loud and let it ring
We are all a part of everything
The future, present and the past
Fly on proud bird
You’re free at last.

Do you feel free right now? This is a great day for beginning the road to personal freedom. Right now, this very moment, is an exciting moment in the history of our lives IF we choose to make it so.

H. L. Mencken once said, “The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.”

I believe that the people in this room are here to learn first, to be spiritually free, and second to have a sense of freedom creating positive feelings about their life.

Bondage or liberty?

We choose liberty. We choose to walk with God and not be held down captive and enslaved by our problems.

Just relax, for a moment, and let me prepare with a prayer that I often prayerfully affirm before I speak. Have Thy way in me, Lord. Have Thy way in me.

Have Thy way in my thoughts, my actions, my feelings, and in my decisions. Have Thy way in me, Lord. Have Thy way in me. Dear God, we are ready, excited, and non-resistant to this healing, loving experience. We go forward in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And so it is … Amen.

H. L. Mencken also said, “I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that humans have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of a human can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman’s club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any human who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any human who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.

So we celebrate our inner freedom today from oppression and limitations, so we can grow and change and develop as a spiritual people.

We love to experience all the things God has already provided for us.

We cannot do that if we are not thinking freely – if we find ourselves in bondage, if we are holding ourselves back or limiting ourselves.

In John 8:31, Jesus said, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

The spiritual truth is that you have God, with you every moment of the day and night, that knowledge and awareness will make you free.

Let us define freedom. Do we think freedom means we can do anything we want to do? We have heard people say, “This is my life and I’ll live it as I please! You cannot tell me what to do with my life. I’m a free person. How dare you try to limit me?” I can remember hearing teenagers say something similar.

What is a recipe for adolescent salad? Lettuce alone!

Frederick Douglass wisely said, “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without plowing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has, and it never will.”

Think of the story of the prodigal son. The son said, “I want to be free. Give me my inheritance so I can go about my own business and do what I want to do.” [paraphrased]

As the biblical story goes on we read about all the mistakes that this son made, UNTIL he came to realize the truth.

Gandhi spoke these words, “Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.”

Human life does make mistakes, and that is okay as long as we learn from those mistakes, correct our course direction, and rise higher.

Many times, we see freedom as the opportunity to spread our wings and express our own individual, personal self, irrespective of where it takes us, and no matter what it means to us.

A person, being paroled from prison, might say that he or she is now free. Of course he/she is free; he/she is no longer incarcerated and can move about the nation, and do the things he/she could not do while in prison.

Adolescents, leaving home for the first time, surely, could say they are free. Can you identify with that? I could. When I was young, I knew I was ready to go and I said, “I’m free.” My father and mother didn’t know nearly as much as I wanted them to know.

(It’s amazing that, as I became older, they became wiser.)

There are times in our lives, especially in our early years, when we want to do our own thing, so we say, “I want freedom. I want to get out of this house. I want to do my own thing. I want to make my own mistakes.”

As the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, surely, they must have felt free from the bondage they experienced in Egypt. Truly, they felt free.

I want to give you a working definition of freedom.

Freedom is what you do with what has been done to you. Freedom is a quality or state of being without thought or restraint, bondage, limitation, or repression, having a sense of complete well-being. It is the result of regulating one’s life according to Divine principle – not according to what anyone else may think or say. Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.

Does this mean I do not have to listen to other people? That I can follow a principle and let it work for me? I can do the opposite of what other people might think I should do? Has anyone ever tried to advise you and you did just the opposite thing? Has this ever happened to you? I know it has. You made your greatest progress when you followed your guidance from God, not that outer prompting that often comes to us.

Jesse Jackson has said, “No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to flee and fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams.”

We can be free from bondage, and we can be free from what is known as slavery. Let me give you a working definition of bondage: Undue attachments to thoughts in lower personal consciousness.

“Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever shall be loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:19, KJV

Now let me give you a definition of God’s Truth: That which is, has been, and always will be. The straight and narrow path on which Spirit directs. That which accords with God’s Divine standard.

“You shall know the truth and that truth shall make you free.” John 8:32

Why can’t we have it both ways? Why can’t we enjoy life and do all the things we want to do without changing? Why can’t we? Why cannot we just read a book on spirituality and say, “All right. I have read the book. Now I am God’s Truth in action!? Why do I have to pay a price for change? Why can’t I have my cake and eat it too? Why do I have to take a different approach to life?”

In the past, we have found ourselves in bondage. You can be in bondage for so long that you get used to it. You’ve always acted a certain way. You’ve been limited, so you get accustomed to being limited. It is like being in a prison cell and not knowing that you are in a cell, and not knowing that the door to that cell is unlocked. We stay there, exist there, and function there, not knowing we can change and do wonderful things with our lives.

Often the one thing that is missing is wonderful personal relationship with God.

There is an innate desire in each of us. It is like God knocking at our door saying, “Listen, My child. I am here! You think you have it made now. If you put your hand in My hand, I will show you things you haven’t even dreamed of. Prove me now. I will open up the windows of heaven and pour you out blessings.

Life is about soul growth. There are easy classrooms, and the school of hard knocks and we decide which we will enroll in. Sooner or later, life will bring what I call a “cattle-prod” that will nudge you the way you need to be nudged. It comes as an experience and nudges you as no human could. It nudges you toward your God given good. It makes all the difference in the world. How much easier life is when we go to God first to pray about our direction, our action, and reaction to life.

Freedom is not being free to do the things you should not do. Freedom is doing the things that are in your best interest, and the best interest of others. You are free to actually live, move, and express yourself as a child of God. That is the freedom we have!

The life you thought was so great is nothing compared to the life you have available to you now. You can have a wonderful relationship with God. You can feel the whole Spirit of God active in your life. Nothing in the past has ever been greater, and nothing ever can be. This is it.

“None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free.” Pearl S. Buck

When a human decides to exercise his or her freedom to break God’s laws … [when I say, “break God’s laws,” I mean just not doing to others as you would have them do unto you. In His teachings, Jesus said to love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Those are the greatest laws we could break.] When a person decides to exercise his/her freedom to break God’s laws, he/she is like a person who ascends to the top of a tall building and jumps off. For the first several stories he/she feels great. “So what? I’m free!” There are no restraints, no restrictions, no hang-ups. But suppose, ten stories from the ground, he/she realizes that a sudden stop awaits, and he/she doesn’t want to endure his/her consequences.

It’s like we are doing something that we know is not in our highest good, but we think, “Just one more day – THEN I’ll change.” We put it off and put it off. Finally, we start to see the consequences of our decisions. Have you noticed that?

Can he or she reverse the fall in process? Can you stop the fall? In spiritual life this is what Grace is defined as. But often in ordinary life, in the final ten stories, our tragic character will examine its definition of freedom and realize, too late, that his or her line of thought or the decision he or she was making was not in their best interest.

We can change NOW. Freedom lies in being bold. We can redirect our thoughts and actions, right now, at this moment. Would you like to do that? Would you like to look at a new approach to your life and experience more freedom? Would you?

Pray and ask for guidance and strength. When we want to redirect our lives, when we really want to move beyond the status quo, when we want to make a drastic, dramatic, definite change in our lives, we need help. We, definitely, need God’s perfect help.

I’ve tried to do quite a few things in my life using my own actions and my intellect alone, without Divine help. I’ve made a little progress, but the price I paid to get there … So, I must have help. I ask God, “Have Thy way in me.”

When I say God and I are one, I want it to be a real experience. So, I ask God to have God’s way in me now. We need strength and courage to break any habit or any pattern.

Only you, can say, what you are imprisoned and chained to.

The bold step is to take the change one day at a time. Persistent constant progress is what we are looking for instead of many starts and stops. With God’s help even the turtle crosses the finish line, and many times wins the race.

If we want to be free, we have to be patient with ourselves and take it one step at a time. Look at the Israelites. They took forty years and moved ahead patiently. I am not saying it’s going to take us forty years – it could be much sooner. The forty years actually means: 4 equals four square, complete, and the 0 is a multiplier, more than enough time. The less we resist, the quicker will be the results. We must take it one day at a time, and sometimes, we must take it one moment at a time, or one hour at a time.

Associate with people who are free or who are working toward becoming free. You know those who are free because of their conversation. They will talk like they are free. They will not always complain about how bad things are. Their conversations will not be limited, and they will not limit you with what they say. You know the people who are free. You want to interact with them, talk with them, and experience with them. Enjoy life with them. Be careful about those who wish to stay in bondage. Do not think it will not rub off on you, because it will. It may have, already. If you want to be free, make sure you find people who are already free or who are moving towards freedom so you can come together and support each other toward the change.

It probably won’t happen overnight. Be patient. We berate ourselves all the time. “I don’t know what’s taking so long. I see someone else demonstrating their good. Why can’t I demonstrate like him? I want to be free, but it’s taking so long.”

Sometimes, it takes a long time to change a habit, but the process of it is done, one day at a time. It takes time to break a habit, to make a change; to be free BUT with God’s active ever-present help it will be done.

A woman told me, “It was a process for me to stop smoking. I replaced smoking with toothpicks. I use toothpicks now. They are a lot less damaging to my body. I am free of smoking forever.”

A man told me, “I had to free myself from my daughter. She always saw me as her inexhaustible financial supply. I had to let her know that God is the inexhaustible supply – not me. It took a while to free myself of that, because I was holding myself back, and her back, by thinking I had to provide for her, even though she was a 37 year old adult.”

There are people in your life, also, who you can have a wonderful relationship with, but you don’t have to be bound to them in the sense that you are the source. You are not the source; you are the channel.

Start learning about God’s Truth and the fact that we are all children of God. We are all free, and God is the Source, and everyone else in our lives are channels.

A man named Ken said, “I felt as if I was carrying the whole load. I will never forget the time I told my employees, ‘I’m not your source. I’m a channel.’ I want to empower you with the Source just like I am empowered.'”

If you persist, victory will be yours and your relationships will be upgraded. You will not be leaning on each other like a teepee; you’ll lean on each other as the Christ beholds the God creation in her/him. It is a different relationship. Unless the Christ is being activated in that relationship, the personalities are at work. And when there are personalities at work, there is change. Have people ever changed in your life? Yes. When one personality meets another, you never know what is going to happen. It is sometimes like a lightning storm. But if you behold the Christ in each other (the best in each other), it upgrades the relationship.

Give thanks for your overcoming, even before you experience it. Give thanks. Thank You, God, that I am free and unlimited now.

I like the word “unlimited.”
Life experiences – Don’t put chains around me!
Life experiences – Don’t put your self-imposed limitations on me!
I am free – I am unlimited!

The first step is to pray and ask for direction. Any time you want to make a change in your life, always ask for direction and ask God to give you the strength and courage to succeed.

Second, take the change one day at a time. In retrospect, you will see that God was in the plan all along and there was a necessary process unfolding. You are changing your consciousness, and when your change consciousness, you must take it one step at a time, or one hour at a time.

Third, associate with people of like mind. Associate with people who are moving toward the Promised Land, who have an upbeat attitude about their lives. They can lift you up. It is pretty difficult if you are trying to climb a mountain and you have to drag someone along, who is going reluctantly. Let go and let God, and then go on. The mere fact that you are moving ahead in your life will be a great asset to them as they see you change and unfold. It could inspire them to do the same.

Fourth, be patient with yourself. Never say, “I do not know if I’ll ever succeed,” or “I don’t know if I will ever be free.”

And fifth, give thanks. Always give thanks before the answer to prayer. Give thanks every single day of your life.

I am free and unlimited now.

Let’s have a moment of prayer.

Thank You, God, for the Truth. We know the Truth, and the Truth is that we were not created to be limited. We were not created to experience sickness, poverty, habits, or addictions that hold us back. We are free, God, to see the God-given good in ourselves and to see and experience the God-given good in others in our world. We are free to be optimistic. As this day continues and as our lives unfold, our commitment to You and to ourselves is to rise to that higher level of understanding, action, and interaction, whereby this freedom that we are will become an everyday experience.

Thank You, God.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

Prayer / Meditation_______________________________

Let us pray,

Dear God, no matter to what extent some person may seem to be in bondage to stimulants and habits not conducive to peaceful, satisfying living, there is freedom available NOW from You.

Help those that have not yet found an avenue of expression that absorbs their attention and gives them the inner spiritual joy, inner spiritual center that they seek.

May we each rediscover the God-given gift and choose to reopen and examine it at spiritual depth.

Within all people, within you, there is every power and capacity needed for full and interesting living. We discover this and set about developing and calling forth these God-given powers, we have no further desire for any of the more superficial things of life.

Through prayer, we discover this new and satisfying way of life. Through prayer, we find such a way. Prayer reaches to the depth of the mind and heart and reveals the truth of what fulfillment is.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

I am free and unlimited, now. Through God’s help I am free. Through God’s help I am unlimited now. Let us allow this truth of God to activate every aspect of our being – every cell, muscle, organ, and tissue. Let it activate our minds as never before to help us awaken to the truth, to the reality, that we are free and unlimited, now.

Think on this Truth of God in the silence of prayer …

Enjoy this spiritual upliftment. Experience it for yourself, and your dear ones.

Softly and gently, we move into that secret place where all healing takes place and where change is activated, that place where only the Christ can dwell.

Let’s turn over every problem and challenge to the Christ – this freedom we seek – that enables us to rise to a higher level of understanding and activity.

With God’s help I am free and unlimited, now. Softly and personally, whisper this to yourself. With God’s help I am free and unlimited, now. What a testimony! What an acceptance! What a joy it is to be free, so we can do the things that are there for us to do, without any limitations or restraints.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

As we continue to relax in this spiritual awareness, we have new acceptance of our freedom from old ways that have held us back and down, we know this not only for ourselves but for all those in our lives. In truth through God’s help we are ALL free and unlimited now.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

We go forward, today we each pray, we remain in this open and receptive Spiritual state of mind, freely opening ourselves to spiritual truth, understanding, experiences, healing, and illumination.

Thank You, God. And so, it is …

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

Since 1999 – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 1,000,000 every day. Welcoming all faiths, excluding no one. Reaching the ends of the earth with the positive message of God. Not connected to any church, Positive Christianity is a Prayer Ministry without walls, physical or denominational, that the world can instantly access and use without cost.

ARCHIVES of recent Positive Daily Inspiration is available on our homepage; use anything you wish.

FREE Encyclopedia of Prayers: http://www.positivechristianity.org/prayersearch.php

NEED PRAYER? Click https://positivechristianity.net/request-htm/
if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month.
There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

DONATIONS Thank You for helping us with this great free work for ministers of every faith:
Instant online donation:
http://www.positivechristianity.net/donation-tithe/
By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – ADD REAL PRAYER POWER TO YOUR LIFE

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - ADD REAL PRAYER POWER TO YOUR LIFE

Time Sensitivity: none

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

_____________________________________

A newly ordained minister decided to hold a garden party for selected members of his congregation whom he wanted to get to know better. The night before the party he realized that he had forgotten to invite Mrs. Brown. Mrs. Brown was an elderly charter member who also happened to be a large financial contributor to the church.

Quickly, he picked up the phone to deliver the invitation personally to her. On the other end of the line, an angry Mrs. Brown said, “I’m sorry, Reverend, you’re too late. I’ve already prayed for it to rain on your party.”

When we’re talking about prayer, it’s interesting to see what we think that prayer can do, and the way we use prayer. We often try to use prayer to rain on somebody else’s parade.

How do we pray, and how do we meditate? What should we expect to happen? How do we quiet our minds for meditation? Exactly, how does prayer work?

How can I make it work for me?

We have to be able to use prayer and use meditation; use it in a higher way than we have every used it before.

Do you think your purpose is to be an architect, a writer, a schoolteacher, a plumber, or a computer programmer?

Do you think your purpose is to be a good mother, father, son or daughter?

These are important roles you may play, or areas of service to others. You can make a marvelous contribution to our society, or even the world at large.

They are secondary to your TRUE PURPOSE in life.

If you consider your purpose to be centered in any of these areas, the time will come when you have no sense of purpose at all. You may retire, the kids grow up, parents pass on; any number of things can happen to remove the supposed object of your purpose. And with this removal comes the removal of a reason to live a creatively happy life OR DOES IT?

Your purpose has to be based on a factor that will always be relevant, your spirituality. You have intelligence and you are clothed in a body, but you are primarily a spiritual being.

As a spiritual being, you have a purpose. And when that purpose begins to dawn on you, you will carry it into your chosen fields of expression, whatever they may be, bringing a depth of meaning that will make your life worth living, whatever you are doing at the moment.

Often the turning points in our spirituality come during times of deep human frustration.

When you say to God “If You want me to learn all this stuff, then You’re going to have to show me because I’m tired of trying to do it all myself!”

Each one of us has felt that way, sometime in our life.

We want so much to be infilled with God’s awareness.

The word ‘holy’ is derived from an Old English word meaning, ‘halig,’ which is a kin to the Old English word, ‘hal’ meaning whole. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the immersion of the individual in God.

Have a total immersion with the presence of God.

The Mind of God can offer a higher solution to any problem that you have that you cannot solve alone with your human mind. The Mind of God is wholeness and perfection. As you dwell in that Mind of God, there is a higher energy that is coming through your physical body.

Do you feel fatigued? Do you feel run-down? Do you feel-burnt-out? The God will cleanse you. God is your Creator. God can re-create through you. It is a silent but all-powerful activity.

The way you feel after you realize you’ve been touched by God is beyond description by human words.

You feel spiritually nourished.

Your soul needs nourishment that cannot be gained in sleep. The human mind often finds itself exhausted all of its possibilities. It has gone from this side of its mind to that side and up and down and it cannot solve its problems. That is the time for the baptism of the Holy Spirit; the immersion in God. A fusion of human mind and the Mind that was in Christ Jesus, God Mind, is now in you.

When that happens to you, that spiritual activity is going to solve your human problems. That activity is going to cleanse your human body: That activity is going to go through your mind.

Because you are holding higher thoughts in your mind, you will have high expressions in your life. That is the activity of God. Is it supernatural? No. It is natural. Is it just for holy men and women? No. It is for you. This was Jesus Christ’s message to you, that you too are a child of God.

Colossians 1:26-27 “The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The total immersion comes when you exchange your human self for your Christ self: when you sit in the silence of prayer, when you say, “Okay, Dear God, here I am – use me.”

Practice the Presence of God and allow that Presence to infill you. Will it take time? Yes. It may take some time because we are so busy with our little human thoughts within our human minds.

We have all some problems to solve; these can be great weights on our shoulders. We must empty out our consciousness and allow the silent spiritual activity of God to work through us.

As we allow the activity of the silence of prayer to work inside of us, we are working, with a new purpose of putting our human mind in touch with the Divine, so that our soul can listen to the language that it understands, and that language is the still, small voice of its creator.

When we are connected, we are not the battery on its own, constantly running down. We are a battery connected with its continuous charger. We are a battery that will never run out of power or experience physical fatigue. We are a battery that will never get dismayed with things happening outside of itself. We are a battery with ever-increasing power. We are connected.

We’re not limited. We are not running on low power. We are ever-expanding in our consciousness, in our energy, in our vitality and in our youthful, even playful, outlook. We are children of God. And our consciousness draws to us like a magnet.

Lower human consciousness, such as worry, and fear draws to itself like a magnet the same.

Higher spiritual consciousness draws to itself like a magnet all the good things of life.

Meditation, the silent free-flowing activity of God through us, is always accessible to those that consent to its activity.

How do you begin?

Make time.

Make time before other activities, so that you do not run out of time for this spiritual priority.

Make an appointment with God.

One man sat down, and for weeks and months, nothing happened, because he was unable to quiet his human mind sufficiently. Human concerns occupied his mind.

Then, a strange thing happened.

As he kept on keeping the appointment with God, at a set time every day, he found that he could quiet his mind more and more every day. And that activity, that Presence that was there from the very beginning, started to flow through him.

Wondrous spiritual feelings and empowerment followed.

The man said that at the very beginning if he had trouble concentrating, he would close his eyes and get up and move around the room, decreeing positive prayer affirmations about the peace of God. When he felt peaceful, he would then sit down and try again.

Sometimes the most difficult activity is to quiet our own human minds. Our human minds are like having noisy neighbors living inside of our heads. Thousands of voices are constantly talking. We have to learn to quiet those voices. When we do, we find more spiritual power than we could even conceive of earlier.

It is an activity that is available to each of us. As Jesus said, “You are heir to all that is of the Divine kingdom.”

In the beginning pick the same time every day to pray and meditate. Make an appointment with God and keep that appointment. God will be there, God will keep the appointment. It’s not that God is ONLY available at certain particular times. God is available ANY time. But it helps to train us, in a regular practice that we can easily remember to inner the secret place of the Most High.

Walt Whitman said, “I lie abstracted, and I hear beautiful tales of things and reasons of things. They are so beautiful; I nudge myself to listen. I can’t say to any person what I hear. I can’t say it to myself. But it is very, very wonderful, indeed.”

What will happen as a result of entering the secret place? The most profound result is that you will begin to understand your true purpose in life. You will have answers to questions that have plagued you and others for a lifetime.

You will know the Truth of God is not 1,000,000 miles away but can be found as close as – within you. You hear the still small voice, and you will know how to find answers and solutions even when it’s not apparent to your human mind alone. You will rise up and be a great leader in your chosen field, because that which is coming through you is always the Great Leader. You will feel empowered and equipped from the secret place of the Most High.

You will know that there is something happening in you that can never be taken away from you, no matter what happens in the world. You will know that there is an activity in the inner realms of your awareness that will allow you to continuously grow in your spiritual unfoldment.

The purpose of prayer is to integrate the attributes of God into your human awareness, which in turn will manifest as a corresponding condition. We look at prayer as a conscious-raising tool, not as a method of begging favors from God, but rather convincing ourselves of the good that is already prepared for us from God.

We don’t even look at prayer as just a problem-solving device. God is not a for-maintenance-only God. God is not ‘Mr. Goodwrench’ coming into your life with a tool to tighten something up. God is perfection itself bringing perfection into you and every aspect of your life.

As we allow that flow of perfection to come, it doesn’t do maintenance to our troubled situation. It brings a whole new, higher spiritual situation into our lives.

Prayer is an activity of blending our own mind, in every situation facing us, to the higher spiritual standard of God unfolding in you as a result of your spiritual development.

Prayer is a conscious effort to harmonize our own human mind with God.

It is putting on the Christ, instead of dressing ourselves in the consciousness of worry, and dread, and fear.

If God’s world is perfect, and yours is not, and if your world is a projection of your own consciousness, then the raising of your consciousness will naturally lift you above the level of your problems.

When we ask God to straighten out situations, our focus is usually on getting God to change the condition, not us. In our eyes, we are never the problem. The problem is out there somewhere. We won’t change as long as we do not have to change.

But problem areas in our experience have a direct correlation to the level on which our human consciousness is operating. When the cause in our own consciousness is removed, the outer condition responds instantly to the higher spiritual power.

Our problems are solved, not outside in, but inside out.

From the center of each of us, to the circumference and beyond, is the path of permanent solution of our challenges. To understand that the only place that we can deal effectively with life, and our challenges, is within the realm of our own thinking and feeling is one of the great secrets of spiritual life. When this understanding begins to dawn, the world becomes our footstool rather than our taskmaster.

We have hinted of some of the power that is available to you in prayer and in meditation. And, we have also said that it is available to you NOW.

I invite you to begin to practice the Presence of God immediately.

Do not wait. This afternoon quietly sit by yourself and say, “Dear God, I’m ready to be a better human. Dear God, I consent to You. My dear God, I consent to change within myself. Help me to rise up to meet my God-given potential.”

And thus, it will begin a spiritual transformation in you, affecting every area of your life with God’s good.

God Bless You!

Prayer / Meditation__________________________

God is our help in every need.

We know that God is here.

We know from the core of our being that God is with us. Through God, and only through God, we can overcome any obstacle to peace of mind. We can overcome any limitation. We can live in freedom and in self-mastery.

Through the activity of God, we can feel a comfort and a tranquility that passes human understanding. “You will know the Truth,” Jesus promised, “And the Truth will make you free.”

Now it is time to let go of our lists of human weaknesses and limitations. God frees us now to live a fuller, happier, more useful, and more satisfying life.

Now it is time to let go of your human sense of trouble and difficulties. Let go of everything not to the level of Christ consciousness. Center your full attention, your whole being, on God’s spiritual help with you and all around you.

Give God your full attention in this moment. See the result. Get your personal self out of the way so that the Divine may emerge.

In the silence of prayer …

In your own awareness, you feel a harmonizing calm, a complete confidence and the victorious blessedness that always emanates from the close Presence and the quiet, steady purposeful activity of God.

Harmony and wholeness, vitality, power, and plenty; God becomes that to you AND MORE. God is with you, right now. And you give the Almighty Presence your full human attention going straight to God every day, by abiding in God every moment and by consciously letting God perform God works.

When you consciously let God live in you, and through you, and all around you, you will be aided, strengthened, and guided in ways that you have not yet dreamed of in human mind. You become thoroughly aware of the Presence of the Supreme, (the ever-active Presence), and you feel it spiritually at all times.

In the silence of prayer …

You know that every battle in life, and every victory, is not yours, not the troops’, but it is the Lord’s. We pray for Divine help and order in every difficultly.

We know that we are an instrument to express more and more of God life and harmony and unlimited goodness and power, which is Divine. We consciously place ourselves right in the midst of God and right in the path of God’s action of love.

In this moment of silence, we feel God. We know that God is here in our lives now.

(Silence)

There is nothing mysterious about this Presence of God that we are feeling. This is as natural as anything can get. God is here. God’s Presence is here. It is a normal, every minute of our lives if we are willing to become aware of God’s Presence.

There is power in God. We immerse ourselves in that power steadfastly and we acknowledge God’s power continuously in our thinking. We credit all our gains to God. We keep our minds upon God’s Omnipresence as we go about our daily tasks and as we undertake new ventures. We submit to God’s wisdom.

God goes with us everywhere. There is not place where God is not. God is our guide. God sustains us in all of our thoughts, actions, and emotions.

At times, when we are gripped with uncertainty or fear, we keep our minds on the constant Presence, and then we courageously proceed with whatever is at hand for us to do. God is here.

The power of God is in our awareness. It is in every cell of our body and in every area of our outer life. We keep our minds and hearts on the power of God. Gradually, positively, this power will take possession of our whole human consciousness.

Our whole consciousness will become God-conscious; consciousness that is filled with God’s vitality, God’s peace, God’s overcoming, and God’s calm. The Divine Presence and power will become alive in us. Divine action will solve, harmonize, and eradicate all problems in our lives and all ills in our physical bodies.

Our human sense of trouble will disappear. It is disappearing right now in this prayer time. And then, under the law of Divine actions, the troubles themselves will disappear. It is God who will do the work, not us. We merely consent as we are consenting now to be immersed in the Presence.

God is working inside of you now … in the silence of prayer …

(Silence)

You have brought your problems, concerns, and cares to this place. Consent to God and God will take care of them. Consent to God now. Let go, and let God.

(Silence)

Consent to God’s power and God’s work happening inside of your life, through you, into every aspect of living and into the life of our earth. Consent to the perfection of God and that perfection will be made manifest in your world.

God is with you. God is around you. God is everywhere present. Give the Almighty Presence a chance by going straight to God this moment and every moment.

We pray constantly, realizing that as we let go and let You, God, that there will be a high path that we will be walking on, a high path not weighted down by our human cares and concerns. We realize that you will bring ultimate good to every situation.

Blessed by our thoughts, we consciously go forward to do Your works with our actions in our world.

Rest once again in the silence of prayer …

God is with you. God is our help in every need. Through God, we overcome any limitation. We live in freedom, and we live in self-mastery.

I pray that the Divine Presence and power has come alive inside of you. I pray that that Presence and that power of God increases in your awareness as this day goes forward.

Nothing outside of you can disturb you; or upset the calm peace of your soul.

You are dwelling in the calm peace of God.

In Jesus Christ’s name, we say, thank you, God.

Since 1999 – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 2 million every day. Welcoming all faiths, excluding no one. Reaching the ends of the earth with the positive message of God. Not connected to any church, Positive Christianity is a Prayer Ministry without walls, physical or denominational, that the world can instantly access and use without cost.

ARCHIVES of recent Positive Daily Inspiration is available on our homepage; use anything you wish.

FREE Encyclopedia of Prayers: http://www.positivechristianity.org/prayersearch.php

NEED PRAYER? Click https://positivechristianity.net/request-htm/ – if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

DONATIONS Thank You for helping us with this great free work for ministers of every faith:
Instant online donation:
https://positivechristianity.net/donation-tithe/
By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

Read More

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Rebuild Your Life

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Rebuild Your Life

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

_____________________________________

“For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal.”
Jeremiah 30:17

In Independence Missouri, you can spend the day going through the Harry S. Truman Presidential Museum and Library. On his desk, Harry Truman had a plaque that said “The Buck Stops Here.”

Where does the buck stop concerning your healing? You’ve heard of the saying, “Passing the buck,” haven’t you? You say, “Well, it’s not my responsibility,” and you pass the buck to someone else. Where does the buck stop? With your healing – it stops, where it always begins, with God.

I want to be healed, we say. “I’m tired of feeling this way.”

If we are not sick – how do, we stay well?

How do we stay filled with vim and vigor and vitality?

How do we live a life without expected sickness?

It is possible for us to have so much God-life inside of our being that every cell glows with power and vitality.

That’s the way of our Creator.

The Creator never stops creating.

Before the advances that we have today in medical science that can so aid in person’s healing, people would turn to God in faith. Many times, they were healed in what would be called miracle ways. In the mid-1800’s medical science was still in its infancy. Doctors of that time diagnosed this young mother who was wasting away from the common disease of the day tuberculosis. She was dying, and had little time left.

In prayer, daily, she would sit for hours with an empty chair in front of her, in which she imagined the presence of Jesus Christ. She cooperated with this healing presence by believing that she could be healed. Gradually she became stronger and stronger and was never sick another day in her life.

Her husband, who was quite sick himself, wondered about the healing. He wondered what the source of the healing was. His wife did not die as everyone expected she would. She came back to life, stronger than ever. He watched all this happening from his own crippled body that was in severe pain. He had known pain all his life.

I would like to read his exact words about what he was going through in his life from his personal letters.

“When I was a boy of ten, I was taken with what was as first diagnosed as rheumatism but developed into a very serious case of hip disease. I was in bed for over a year.”

Can you imagine a ten-year-old being in bed for a year, and not only in bed, but in constant, and severe pain? In those days, they believed that to get the disease out of the body they had to use a device that was like a razor blade, except there were five in a row, and cut into the most diseased area to allow the disease to drain out of the body. They had performed this inhumane procedure to his leg in over 150 locations during that year. It’s a wonder he even lived through that year.

He continued: “From that time, I was an invalid, in constant pain, for twenty-five years, until I began the application of spiritual healing through prayer.”

Now, he wrote this when he was very positive. You’ve heard about a person’s pain threshold, haven’t you? You learn to live with pain. You can learn to live with a great deal of pain. That is what this young man did. He was in constant torture from his handicapped physical body.

“Two very large abscesses developed at the head of the hip bone, which the doctors said would finally drain away my life. But I managed to get about on crutches with a four-inch extension of steel and cork [which made his one leg the same length as the other.] The hip bone was out of the socket and stiff.

“The leg shriveled and ceased to grow. From the hip to the knee, the flesh was a glassy adhesion with little feeling.”

His leg was about four inches in diameter and very sickly looking. It was much shorter than the other leg and was extremely abscessed. His whole right side then became involved. His right ear became deaf, and his right eye became so weak that he would now be called legally blind.

He was in constant and sometimes severe pain for twenty-five years. To have this condition in your life – practically blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, a shriveled leg – for twenty-five years is impressed on your mind, and your self-identity. After twenty-five years, wouldn’t you believe that you’d have it for the rest of your life? Especially if you’re in constant pain, you would think it would only get worse. You might even dread the future.

He said, “I began to apply spiritual prayer, in addition to medical treatment. There was, for a long time, little response in the leg.”

So often we pray – we think nothing is happening. But beneath the surface, beyond what our physical eyes can see, the Creator is working. He didn’t give up; he kept praying, and more important believing in the power of God. It took what seemed like a long, long time to be totally healed, but he was healed.

He would sit for long periods every day in the silence of prayer, knowing the healing presence of Jesus Christ was there with him.

Now in his words: “There was little response in the leg, BUT I felt better. And I found that I started to hear with my right ear. [This was the first indication to him that something miraculous was happening.] Then, gradually, I noticed that I had more feeling in my leg. Then, as the years went by, the joint began to become limber in the leg, and the shrunken flesh filled out until the right leg was almost equal to the other. Then, I discarded the cork and steel extension and wore an ordinary shoe with a double heel about an inch in height. The leg became almost as large as the other, and the muscles were restored.

“I’m giving the smallest details of my healing because it would be considered a medical impossibility, and a miracle from a religious standpoint. However, I have watched the restoration year after year as I applied the power of prayer. I know it is under God’s Divine law of creation, so I am satisfied that here is proof of the law that the mind centered in prayer cooperates with God and can rebuild the body and can restore it.”

He had the most amazing growth in the healing of his leg when he was past the age of 75. We think that at age 75, it’s pretty much over. Your Creator is NEVER FINISHED WITH YOU. We may think at a certain point in life we can’t heal ourselves any more. We think we can’t regenerate new cells. But God through the Creator’s regeneration is constantly replacing old worn out body parts.

If you have a 1929 Ford out in the parking lot, but every moment you have replaced the parts of the car, is it really a 1929 Ford, or is it a brand new Ford?

You are not your age. You are constantly made new. Your body is God’s and it is constantly rebuilding itself. But every cell listens to your direction in prayer and positive thought.

When we speak, we have the largest listening audience in the world. We have 100 trillion cells listening to our prayers, thoughts, and words. These cells are awake inside of us. They are saying, “What do you want me to do today?” And we tell them. If we tell them we want them to regenerate and go ahead with their healing, they will do it. It will be as you spiritually desire.”

The majority of cases that come for prayer belong to the class of the discouraged. They come to God as a last resort. They come saying, “I have been to the doctor, but I’m turning to you because you’re my last hope.” From now on LET GOD BE THE BEGINNING of all your healings, then go for healing as God directs.

In Luke 8:43, there is a story about a discouraged woman who spent all her money on physicians but who could not be healed. Physicians are very good. They work with the mind of God. They work with God in promoting our healing. But are we putting all the power into one physician, or are we placing the power for healing in the One Master Physician? Are must accept the healing, from the source that really heals, and from God direction to medical helpers.

When Jesus healed, how did He heal?

If you’re coming to Jesus this morning and talking to Him about your illness, what would Jesus do? Jesus would not see your illness. What did He see? He sees your perfection. He sees absolutely perfect God-health flowing through you, no matter what your body is saying in the temporary moment.

Let’s say that today I am wearing this coat. You might say this coat is me. But there is a life inside of this coat. And I can take off this coat if I desire. But the perfection is God given IN me. Tomorrow I might have on a red coat. The body may be wearing something it shouldn’t be wearing. But I tell you, there is God’s perfection that can manifest out if I accept and if I am willing to have it happen.

Jesus never saw anything less than God. We hear the story of the woman just wanting to get close to Jesus, touching the hem of the garment. We take a pill and we expect that to make us feel better, and often it does. In the same way we have to take our faith and expect that to make us better.

Jesus Christ turns around and says, “YOUR faith has made you well.”

He didn’t say faith was going to make you well in time. He says faith HAS made you well, because at that point you have gone back to the cause, and you have created a portal of entry for the purified health of God to flow through and feed every cell of your physical body temple. This is true causation healing instead of just temporal effect healing.

A lot of people who pray are begging and pleading to be healed, and that can be the wrong way to pray. God has never changed God’s mind toward you. God is always loving, perfect perfection, ready to flow through. We just have to consent in every thought inside our physical body temple through our non-doubting faith.

The first step to healing is to cooperate with God by visualizing our perfection, instead of constantly focusing on what is wrong. Begin to know that you can be healed. Know that no matter how young or old you are, God is re-creating inside of you. Accept that every cell of your body temple is now connected spiritually with God life.

How would you act if you were healed right now? Well, begin to accept it. Are you accepting it? Are you feeling it in all your thoughts? Do you really believe? What would it take for you to believe? What would it take for you to fully accept it?

What’s going to happen then? Many of us think a thunderbolt is going to come down and zap us and everything is going to change. But it doesn’t work that way. God is a silent magnificent God. God is a progressive God. God is an unfolding God.

It is a silent energy. You begin to feel better over time. You have been praying every day and you have more energy.

You are feeling better and better and it’s unfolding–it must be God.

With every thought there is a radiation of energy. You hear about people with cancer who go and have radiation treatment. You spiritually take on that God power yourself. Radiate with your belief and faith energy. Whatever you are thinking about radiates through the body.

If you are thinking negative thoughts, all of a sudden you will feel worn out. Your vital energy has been depleted and you don’t know why. But then, you change it and begin to talk to your body as you would a close friend. Honor your body as you do close family members. You begin to even apologize to your body for some of the thoughts you’ve had about it in the past. Then you apply Divine energy spiritually to every part of that body temple.

Your body is made up of individual cells. And those individual cells are not as old as you think they are. They are not as sick as you think you might be. They are new cells. They are healthy cells. They are young cells. They are vital cells. They are also obedient cells. They will listen to any spiritual call you make for them to be. You speak to them with the faith of Jesus Christ and they will obey. Doctors, nurses, hospitals, and medicine must have spiritual help to be permanently effective.

The presiding self-identity in each organism determines the particular kind of impulse that the cells shall radiate.

When we begin to think of ourselves as children of God, we believe and then we are open and receptive, an heir, to the stream of God’s healing life.

A spiritual mental cleansing occurs in us, when focused on prayer upon God’s ever-renewing perfection. When the mind is free of error thought, harmony in the body begins.

Begin to use the words you think and the words you speak in a spiritual faith-based way. Begin to talk to your body in faith, instead of telling it how sick it is. You have a power in your words, a prayer energy behind your words that cause every cell inside of your physical body temple to stand up, listen, and do what you say. If we talk wrong about our body, this in the end can shatter the strongest organism. If we talk right about our body, we will change whatever is going on in our organism and change our body temple for an entire manifestation of a lifetime.

This is something you can do beginning today.

If we were talking negatively to another person, they would cease being our friend and the relationship would be destroyed, and yet often we think nothing about doing that to ourselves, and to our body. You can cure a cold, or you can cure an ache in your elbow. You can also cure anything else with God’s ever-present spiritual healing help.

Nothing is impossible to you because the Creator wills re-creation in you.

God Bless You!

PRAYER / MEDITATION_________________________

The uplifting, strength, and courage you seek are at hand. God is your ever-present help. Everything needed is ready to work with you, and in you, for a blessing of mind, body and circumstances in your life. Regardless of where you are physically, or how far you seem emotionally from the peace you desire, your good, your healing, your well-being, your fulfillment is at hand in this prayer now.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Healing of fears of anxieties, tension and emotional upsets is now at hand because God’s help is at hand. Release and freedom from concern over any traumatic happening or feeling of insecurity or defeat is at hand. Right where you are, this moment, you are in the Presence of answers. You are in the Presence of the solutions you have sought.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Your good is tangible. It is touchable. It is available to you now. God awaits and is willing to help you.

Take a few moments to spiritually prepare. Accept these Divine ideas that your healing is at hand. Prayer knows no boundaries of time or space. The healing you seek is in the air you breathe and the surroundings you see. It fills this place. It lives within your heart. It is in the light of day and the darkness of night. It is in the clouds and in the sunshine. It is in the cells and atoms of your body temple. It is in the movement of your mind and the activity all about you.

Your healing is at hand. You accept it. With praise and thanksgiving, we accept our healing. We are ready for something miraculous to happen inside our mind and body temple. The idea of healing penetrates every thought you have about yourself and all that appears to be occurring in your life. Acquaint yourself with the reality that healing is everywhere present always.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Now you practice faithfully. You see health in your mind’s eye for yourself and everything that comes across your path. In this moment, in this experience of life, you realize that God is working dynamically inside of you. You turn your attention to thoughts of healing in your body–healing of feelings, healing of events, healing of conditions. You saturate your thinking with a contemplation of healing with thoughts that promote healing and words that show belief in healing.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

“Dear God, I believe right now in healing. I know it is possible for me. I know that I am in agreement, right now, in mind with what is being said.” From this moment forward, you refuse to entertain even the slightest thoughts of lack of faith about yourself or your healing. You refuse to give attention to experiences or negative suggestions that are going on in your mind. Instead, you know that the healing is at hand. You accept it with praise for God.

You know that God is with you. You are God’s child. The Creator is within every cell of your body temple. God is in your mind and every thought in your mind. God’s healing will never fail. And God’s healing enfolds and protects you, lifts and encourages you. God’s love is never going to fail to show you the solutions to the problems of healing, the answers to the dilemmas of healing or the confusions about healing.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God’s healing is everywhere you go. And God’s healing is in everything. It fills your universe. You dwell in the kingdom of God. Wherever you sit or walk or work or live, that healing activity is constantly working on you.

You believe when Jesus says to you that you are meant to express healing in every facet of your life and being. You are an offspring of the Creator. You are an offspring of wholeness and well-being. You inherit the right to claim and accept every kind of healing. You were created with wholeness as a reality of your identity. You have it within your soul and mind.

In the midst of any challenge, disease or a disastrous happening, healing is there. You are now connected with a greater healing than you have been connected with thus far. The Spirit of God is in this place, and it is moving right now. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is here, and it is moving. There is a healing activity that is taking place. Your job is to accept that.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

You let the words “God’s healing” run as a golden thread of prayer, extending to every distressing ache or pain in your mind and body. “God’s Healing. God’s Healing.”

You use the faith you have right now to sew this golden thread into every cell of your physical body temple. Your heart is alive with new life. The life of God is behind your heart, causing your heart to beat. There is a Divine order working in your heart, lungs, muscles and the very regeneration of the bones.

You are immersed in God’s healing right now. You immerse yourself in the
thoughts of healing. You saturate yourself with thinking of healing. There is a great light surrounding you that is transmuting any negative aspect of your being. This healing is available to you now. You are God’s child, contemplating healing right now.

You are imagining healing, visualizing healing.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

You agree to work diligently with every manner and method of healing that encourages your conviction. You give praise and thanks to God working in every cell of your being, regenerating your physical body temple. You have faith in the idea of healing inside of you. You have cooperation with God’s perfection in your mind. You are working with God’s blueprint of perfection.

It is the time to think as Jesus thinks. If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain move to here to there and it will move, and nothing will be impossible to you with God.

The mustard seed evolves. It unfolds to become the plant. And so, this happens inside of you. You are unfolding perfection. You are going to the Cause of all health and allowing the Cause to flood your being. Your faith is causing an opening inside of you that is productive and significant. It is an opening that is a beginning to a new, wonderfully developed you.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God is working inside of you to bring about wholeness you seek. As you pray, God is working. You are staying open and receptive to this healing idea and its possibilities. Nothing will be impossible to you with God’s healing help. You hold close to God in your thoughts, in your consciousness that goes beyond your physical brain, to every cell inside of your body that is listening to your words.

You hold close to the wonders of God’s wholeness.

You contemplate yourself as being perfectly healed. You see yourself dissolving every old habit of doubt and disbelief. The Lord of healing has come. God is working now inside of you, living, and demonstrating healing. Nothing is impossible. You grasp the thought of healing. You cradle that in your heart. No matter how much struggle it takes to return again and again to faith in healing, you keep on returning.

As you rest in the silence of prayer, you are actively talking to your physical body temple. Starting with your feet and going to your head, praise God for the new life and energy that is occurring within you.

God’s light is running throughout you. There is an inner peace felt within your muscles, bones, and entire system. You have a system of God. Every part of you, every cell, is now dedicated to Christ life.

Say aloud, “I DEDICATE EVERY CELL OF MY BODY TEMPLE TO CHRIST LIFE, PERFECTION AND WHOLENESS. I CAST OUT SICKNESS IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST.

The Creator re-creates me. I am made whole.”

I give thanks for the Christ way and Truth and the gift of healing that rests within me. I give thanks for the Christ healing that is happening now in the deepest recesses of my soul. I know that there is even more of God awaiting release and expression inside of my body temple. I know that this healing is nearer than breathing, closer than hands and feet. It is all present and ever-available, abundant, and plentiful.

My personal healing is here right now. It is mine. It is mine. I quietly accept it. I have peace, assurance, and blessings beyond measure. God is my source. And that source never runs dry. It is never lacking. It never withholds. It never denies. The Source is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever. I will live in wholeness for all the days of my life. I do not have to be sick. I throw that idea out of my physical mind.

I praise and give thanks in the name and through the healing power of Jesus Christ, with an accepting consciousness, the same that was in His mind …

Amen

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POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Success Through God’s Help

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Success Through God's Help

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A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

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In all circumstances, you are comforted and reassured by the tender, loving presence of God. God’s love for you is unfailing and eternal. Nothing can separate you from the love of God.

A man went into a tailor shop to buy a new suit. The tailor thought, “Aha! I’ve got an easy mark here! I’ve got a suit in the back room I’ve been wanting to get rid of for a long time.” He went back, got the suit, and asked the man to try it on.

The man put it on, looked at himself in the mirror and said, “I like the suit, but it hangs down a little too far.”

The tailor said, “That’s no problem. What you do is you scoot it up like this and put your chin over here.”

The man said, “Well, there’s another problem. One of the pant legs is about three inches shorter than the other.”

The tailor said, “That’s no problem. Just pull it up here and put your knees together.”

The man looked in the mirror and said, “Wow! What a great looking suit.” He bought the suit, walked out and headed down the road.

People said of the man, “What a great looking suit, but what a shame he has so many physical difficulties.”

That is the way it is with many of us. We may think we are fooling people. We may think we are dressing up. We think we’re putting on a show, but there is no way, not really, we can hide our challenges.

As Emerson said, “What we are speaks so loudly that others can hardly hear our words.”

Sometimes, our past failures affect us at the core of our being. We don’t know how to go forward. We use the power of the mind in the wrong way. We give over all of our God-given gifts of mind to human pessimism. We might say to ourselves, “Oh well, I’ve done that before. I didn’t have any success at it, and I would never ever do that again. I’m too smart for that.”

Helen Keller had every reason in the world to be a pessimist. Deaf and blind from infancy, Helen Keller played a leading role in most of the significant political, social, and cultural movements of the 20th century. Throughout her lifetime (1880-1968) she worked unceasingly to improve the lives of people who were blind and deaf. Helen’s own approach to life can be summed up by her advice to a five-year-old blind child in 1932: “Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the face.” Here’s what she said about pessimism: “No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened the new heaven to the human spirit.”

Today, we are asking God’s blessing for successful living. This is not a generic teaching. This is a success truth about God working in our lives, giving us new success.

I’m going to give you a definition of success that may somewhat surprise you: Success may elude you because you haven’t failed enough. People who are willing to risk failure and learn from the loss have the best chance at succeeding. The people who are a success today if you were to read their whole story, you would find that they failed, time and time again, and that they were able to make course corrections and then go forward into their success. Failure sometimes humbles us enough to ask God for help, leading us to our greatest lifelong success.

Failure is merely the cost of succeeding. It is the cost of seeking new challenges in our lives. I’m going to give you ten steps to overcome the failure you have had in your life. I am talking to you directly on this. You know we have all had failures because we are alive. We are in this church because we have overcome that failure. We are breathing in and out, we are thinking positively again, we are holding on to God, and we are here for a reason, seeking God’s blessing, because we do not want to remain the same, not even the same as yesterday. We want to become new, and better than yesterday.

There are steps to climb over that hill of past failure. Sometimes, even though we continue to breathe, we remain in consciousness of that failure from the past.

We must stop using the word failure. In my study of people over the years, I have found that successful people never talk about their failures. They say, “Well, I had a glitch back then … ” or “I had a bump in the road back then … ” Now, these glitches, these bumps in the road, might have destroyed an ordinary man or woman, but they had something else. They had a drive that said, “You know, I’ve got the power with me and within me from God. I’m going to go on. I’m going to make something out of myself.” And they do. Anybody who had that ingrained in the very fiber of their belief system can go on and become all that they want to become.

I want to tell you the story of the man you saw on TV years ago in countless commercials, holding up the Remington shaver, saying, “I like this so much I bought the company.” Well, here is what you don’t know about him. Forty-six years ago, Victor Kiam had a friend come to him with an idea. Victor wavered on the idea. He didn’t know if he really had it in him to take the idea, run with it and make it a big success. So, he told his friend to find someone else. That new product that Victor turned down was Velcro. It has become a billion dollar industry – bigger than Remington.

In his book “Live To Win”, Victor said, “I just look at that as another bump on the road.” But he also said, “If I would have allowed it, it would have destroyed me and my life. I had a choice. I had to make that choice. I realized this for several weeks, even months. I allowed it to depress me deeply. I couldn’t even get out of bed. Then I decided to use the wisdom from that to make a course correction in my life. I decided to look at it seriously, and ask myself the question, ‘Why?'” you ask this question, not as a victim, but instead as a person that is truly ready for self-examination. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond to it.

Number #1. Have confidence in yourself. Next time – and friends there is always a next time – have the confidence to take the action that you need at the given time. When Remington came along, Victor had the confidence to buy the company and make it a success. If you want to stand out, don’t be different; be outstanding.

Number #2. Don’t take failure personally.

This is probably the most important step of all because we usually do take failure personally. One person had a failure in his life and he said, “Well, that’s it. I’m a loser. I’m just no good. I’ve had this failure and, if the truth were known, I’ve had 16,000 failures, one after another, after another. I’m just a loser. I’ll never be anything but a loser.”

A loser connected to a winner can be a loser for long. That’s precisely the time to reconnect with the ultimate winner – God.

Do not take failure in a personal way. For instance, if you are unemployed, do you think about it all the time? Do you think that because you went out to look for a job, today, without success, that you will never find a job. Do you label yourself as unemployed? What you call yourself will become a powerful reality in your life. I like to share with people that they are people with lots of open options, lots of ways to go. Always, God, has an open door for you waiting for you to find and accept its new way.

Isaiah 60:11 states, “Your gates shall be open continually … they shall not be shut.”

New doors of opportunity are always open – a door somewhere is always opening. God is holding the door for you.

Ask yourself every day: “What if I had to buy my thoughts?” Imagine if we had to actually go down to the convenience store, reach into our pocket and say, “Well, I’ll take a little worry, about sixty-five cents of depression, and I would like to have $1.30 of crippling anxiety.”

We wouldn’t do that; you know we wouldn’t. We would go in there and ask for the good stuff. We would decide to do that, even if the thoughts were very cheap, because we were actually making the purchase.

Well, we are making the purchase. Every day, we go to the “convenience mind” inside of us, and we decide what we’re going to purchase and what we’re not going to purchase. My goodness, thoughts can become very, very expensive. Our attitude towards life determines life’s attitude towards us.

Once, when he was a little boy, the famous American Ben Franklin had a birthday party. His family and friends gave him six pennies. Well, the pennies just burned a hole in his pocket. He had to go and spend the pennies, so he went to the store and saw a toy whistle. Of course, the clerk sold it to him for the six pennies – much more than it was worth. He went home and made so much noise with his toy whistle that he drove everyone crazy. His parents, friends, and family asked what he paid for the toy whistle. He said, “I paid six pennies.”

They said, “You paid four times too much!”

As a little boy, that changed his life. Through that course correction, he remembered that lesson all through his days. Even into his old age, when men and women were spouting different philosophies and talking about anxiety and fear, Ben Franklin would say of them, “They paid too much for their whistle.”

I have a question to ask you: What is the one thing you want to achieve?

Now, I have a second question for you: What has been your greatest disappointment, or discouragement toward that goal?

Now I have a truth for you. You are not that discouragement. Even if you were, even if it was totally your fault, you are brand new, today. Every day, you are new. It is part of the Grace of God that we do not have to remain the same. We become better human beings because we become better receivers of God. That is true of everyone; it is especially true of you who are sitting in this room.

Number #3. Use your defects. You say, “I am just laden with defects. This is the reason I cannot get past failure.” Listen to this: we succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess; but we excel in those in which we also make use of our defects.

A very famous radio announcer, who is now a minister, once admitted, “I have something called a lazy larynx. It is very difficult for me to speak. I found this out when I was in broadcasting. I would slur certain words then, and I still do to this day if I do not have enough air behind each word. The funny thing about what happened in Nashville was that once I learned that, I started to suck in air and put power behind each word. At first my style was a bit choppy. Then the strangest thing happened – advertisers started to seek this man out because people could hear every word.”

Use your defects. Use everything because what seems like a defect to you may be the answer to your whole career. It may be uniqueness that comes out. It may be the specialness that is you. You are a fingerprint on the universe – individual, special, and unique. People love you for your defects more than they do for your perfection. They love your little quirks, the little special things you do. Use them to your advantage.

Number #4. You will get another chance. If there were a tattoo artist in this room, right now, I would have this tattooed on everyone who was willing: I WILL GET ANOTHER CHANCE!

You will get another chance if you can accept it. You have to accept the chance. You have to be willing to see the chance, go after it, and accept new ideas.

Listen to this: God is continually on the birthing bed. God never rests. God is continually birthing in you new ideas – for you, your life, and your career that can transform your life and everything you’re doing in your life.

Number #5. God is with you, not to commiserate, but to co-create. God is your help in every need.

There was a man on Long Island who bought a barometer around the turn of the century. He had wanted this barometer for a long, long time and paid good money for it, from a mail order house in New York City. When the barometer was delivered to his home on the east coast, he noticed the needle was pointing toward “hurricane.” He looked outside and it looked fine. He shook the barometer, and the needle appeared to be stuck pointing to hurricane. Well, the man went into a tirade. He paced up and down. He wrote a scorching letter to the company saying, “Everything I buy is defective … ” The next day when he traveled into town, he mailed the letter to the company. (That’s why we know this story.) Later on that afternoon, the barometer was missing, and so was his house. The hurricane had hit.

You have a “barometer” inside of you, too. The needle is stuck and here is what the needle is stuck on: God is with you.

A lot of times you will shake it and say, “My life is so out of order. I can’t believe God could possibly be with me.” You are shaking it but the needle stays right there and will not move. It never will because God is with you every moment of every day.

Number #6. With God at your side, be brave. Take an honest new look at an old problem. Here is how you do this. First of all you might say, as one man did, “It’s not easy taking my problems one at a time, because they refuse to stand in line.” Whatever position they are in, look at them, one at a time, and examine them, not with human consciousness, but with God’s eyes. Ask God for illumination, guidance, inspiration, and understanding in solving the individual problem. Then, on one piece of paper, write down exactly what the problem is. Define it. On another piece of paper, write down, “What do I think about this problem? What is its cause?” On a third sheet of paper, write down, “What are my feelings about this problem?” Then, on the fourth sheet of paper, go into the following steps you will take to solve the problem:

With God at your side agree to stop worrying, fretting, blaming, or feeling guilty, angry, or afraid.

With God at your side re-establish joy, excitement, and faith in your life.

With God at your side discuss a plan of action with positive people who support you.

With God at your side, you are a positive person for others. If you want to be a friend to somebody, support somebody, unconditionally. Be with them. Listen. Pray with them. If you don’t have someone like this, find someone and make that person very valuable in your life. You will become very valuable in their life, too.

With God at your side: Write: “I will go into action in the following ways,” and then wait in the silence of prayer for God to give you ideas.

God will never let you down – ever. God will give you ideas. They will pour forth. You will be blessed by God. You won’t be able to contain the ideas on the page.

Then, give thanks to God for the perfect answer that is already there. Tell yourself, That’s no hill for a climber; that’s no step for a stepper because I am blessed by God.

Number #7. Don’t just wonder what your purpose in life is. Ask yourself, “What do I love in life.”

What do you love in life? What do you have a passion for in life? There’s a huge difference between just living and having the passion for life. Here is the difference. It is like a song that makes you dance in comparison to a song you dance to. Do you see the difference? So often we are compelled to do things, and then if we find our passion and our love, we just flow. We can’t contain ourselves because so much good is happening through us.

God can only give to you what God can get through you. Don’t quit on God. A man and his wife said they used to get into the back seat of their car, sit back, relax, cross their legs, and say, “Okay, God, if you love us you will drive me to California.” Here they are, in the back seat of their car, waiting for God to get into the car, take the wheel, and drive them to California.

God, who is waiting to give, who is so willing to inspire, just shrugs. God finally says to the back seat drivers, “I can only give to you what I can get through you. If you’ll get in the front seat, if you’ll take the wheel in faith, I will give you the ways to go to California. I will give you the motivation to go to California. I will give you the means to go to California. If you start to move, I will tell you where to turn, how fast to go, and when to stop.” We have to get out of the back seat.

In faith, we must take the wheel.

Number #8. Have lasting power. Some of you who are fans of auto racing remember the name Mickey Thompson. He created the fastest cars ever created. In the twenty-nine races he started, he had the fastest car. The car immediately went to the front of the line, but he never finished a race. The cars always broke down. Something always happened to the cars. The fastest car did not have the lasting power. You have to be willing to finish the race. God will inspire, through you, if you do not quit on God. You see, we say all the time, “Oh God, why did You quit on me?” when, if the truth were known, it is the reverse. We have to finish our course, finish our race and believe.

Number #9. You have only one product to sell, one product to improve, and that product is yourself. Always market a new self. I’ve said many times that what you are looking at today is the best (your name) that has ever been, but it’s nothing like what is coming out in this fall. The 2014 model is coming out. It’s going to have a new grill, a new dashboard, etc. It’s not even going to look like the old (your name).

In every part of your life, become that which you want to be. You have to believe it. You have to become that which you are seeking. Then, like a magnet, it is already drawn to you. It is going from the back seat to the front seat, taking the wheel, and saying, “Okay, God. I believe in You and I know You ARE with me in my life.”

Number #10. Become the success.

We live according to our self-image, the pattern we create daily, and we project it into tomorrow. Most of us imagine ourselves to be less than we are. The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge – but imagination. Imagine yourself as successful and become that – and it will become you. You have the blessing of God.

Remember:

#1. Stop using the word failure.
#2. Don’t take failure personally.
#3. Use your defects.
#4. Accept new ideas.
#5. Accept the fact that God is with you, your help in every need.
#6. Be brave; really brave. With God, take a new look at the old problem.
#7. Do what you have a passion for doing.
#8. Have a lasting power in doing it.
#9. Market a brand-new you.
#10. Be the success you seek.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION_______________________

What an opportunity we share, to go to God and to know God on a personal basis. Right now, you are drifting away from past thoughts and opinions of who you think you are. You are drifting in spiritual consciousness into the light of truth, the truth that God speaks to you about you and for you. You are drifting away from past limitations that you have placed upon yourself.

You are directly blessed by God.

Jesus Christ is here in our midst, raising us up.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

With God, you are going beyond the failures you have had in your lifetime, and you are receiving a spiritual course correction. In prayer, you receive the illumination and the guidance, along with the incredible comfort of God.

In reassurance of resting in the power of God in the silence of prayer …

Jesus said, “You are a child of the living God. You have, within you, the all-creating power of the Christ. This power of the Christ radiates from you and blesses all you contact. We are connected in prayer. And in that connection, we are both agreeing to God’s will and God’s good.

Your life is God-given life and abundant living. Your life is made up of God’s strength. And your life is made up of new God-given courage because you know, without a doubt, that God is with you. You are patient. As you pray this day, you rest in God. You are not anxious about anything. You realize that God is working; you let go and you let God. God is magnificent. “How great Thou art!”

You are blessed by God.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

There is a peace inside of you that passes human understanding. It is at the core of your being. It is a well-being. You decree in prayer, in Jesus Christ’s name, that this feeling of well-being will stay with you, all the hours and minutes of this week.

You have a power inside of you to rise above past failures, to realize that it is nothing at all for a God connected spiritual person. And you are a spiritual victor because there is that within you that is helping you now and going higher.

In the silence of prayer you are agreeing with God …

Dear God, I wish to go up higher than I have ever gone before. I have realized Your presence, many times, in my life. I consent now to realizing it more. Dear God, I consent this day to realizing God in a new profound way. I know, dear God, that You are always fresh, new, and exciting. I pray that You are all those and more inside of me, this morning. I give thanks for Your presence.

Rest now, once more, for a holy moment, in the silence of prayer …

The grace of God is working in your life. The grace of God is alive. The grace of God is your assurance of all good things.

You are blessed by God.

In Jesus Christ’s name, we give thanks … Amen.

Television channels (Free Service):
NEW Inspiration http://www.youtube.com/PositiveChristianity
Prayer http://www.youtube.com/prayerAmerica
Meditation http://www.youtube.com/PositiveChurch

Since 1999 – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 2 million every day. Welcoming all faiths, excluding no one. Reaching the ends of the earth with the positive message of God. Not connected to any church, Positive Christianity is a Prayer Ministry without walls, physical or denominational, that the world can instantly access and use without cost.

ARCHIVES of recent Positive Daily Inspiration is available on our homepage; use anything you wish.

FREE Encyclopedia of Prayers: http://www.positivechristianity.org/prayersearch.php

NEED PRAYER? Click here – if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

DONATIONS Thank You for helping us with this great free work for ministers of every faith:
Instant online donation:
https://positivechristianity.net/donation-tithe/
By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Renewed Rest

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Renewed Rest

Time Sensitivity: none

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

_____________________________________

NEW VIDEO TODAY – see below

(Have a candle – hold sideways – have wick uncovered on both ends.)

Right now, I am lighting a candle with wicks on both ends. The problem is that this candle is very representative of a lot of our lives. We are burning the candle at both ends. We are working, night and day. Many of us are exhausted.

A lot of people are experiencing overwhelming stress and burn-out in their physical body. Are you?

We are designed by God to work then rest. God wants us to renew.

A great number of women are experiencing a juggling of their careers, their homes, and their children. Men also, who sometimes are working two and three jobs in this economy, and retired people who find they are giving more and more to family and they do not have anything left for themselves. Over time, these people find they are like an empty cup, and people are still asking them to give more, but they do not have anything to give. They are drained and depleted, and they do not have anything left to give to themselves or to anyone else.

When you have the candle burning on both ends, burn-out can come very quickly.

However, it is very interesting — if you blow out one side, the candle will last much longer. You do not have human energy to keep it burning on both sides for long. With God’s light of God’s full help you are burning with a full flame, a higher flame, a brighter flame. But you are being recharged at the same time, and you are continually causing the flame to glow and grow.

It never burns out. God creates the perpetual flame.

We have to ask the question when we are going through the stress in our lives, “Who am I? Why am I here? Here I am, a human body, but exactly what am I?” If I am in burnout, or if I have stress that is overwhelming in my life, I look into the mirror, and I am just a bundle of negative energy working against myself. I dread each morning because I know I am not at my best anymore. I wonder how in the world I am ever going to get my full power back again.

God gives full power again.

You may wonder when you look into the mirror, who exactly am I? Am I more than hair, eyes, nose, and mouth? Am I just a bundle of things inside of myself that I do not know? Am I fear, anger, and distress? Am I feeling old? Am I feeling depleted? Every time someone asks you to do something for them, do you feel you hardly have anything to give because you are empty?

We have all felt this way. When you go to school, sometimes you work so much (night and day) that you feel depleted. You wonder, “How am I going to go through another day? How am I going to have the wisdom in me to pass that test?”

God knows of your emptiness.

God CAN turn it around.

Everyone knows someone that is going through this right now. Even though this lesson might not be for you personally, it will help to equip you to understand what family members or friends may be facing.

What do you live for? Do you remember when we were teenagers what we lived for? We lived for joy. Every second of every day was for joy. We know this. We see this again when we watch our children or grandchildren. The major thing in their lives, everything they do in every moment, is for joy. They are constantly searching and looking with their eyes and their whole being for things to do to infill their lives with joy.

But something happens to us over time.

We become a young man or young woman, and we go to work. We go to work with great excitement because we say to ourselves, “You know, this is going to give me more money so I can have more fun with my life. I will be able to do those things that I have always wanted to do. I can take those trips. I can buy all those things. I can do all the things I have dreamed of.”

Early on, we choose our work to improve the quality of our lives. Early on, we work so we can have more joy. But then something happens; we work so we can have more work. Our work becomes an all-encompassing thing in our lives. We work so we will receive our rewards from others at work, so we might be promoted. And if we work hard, we get the reward – and of more work. Suddenly, we see that the joy we once had is gone. We are just working.

God can give you profound renewal.

If we notice that the candle is burning at both ends, and we are tired. Suddenly, we wonder: “What in the world is going on? Where did the fun of life go? What happened to the joy I used to feel? Why am I feeling so depleted?”

Again, I repeat, this can happen at any stage in life. Sometimes, we feel more tired in retirement, or when we become a caregiver for another adult. We just wonder where more needed energy is going to come from.

We notice other people. Some people seem invigorated by life. They seem directed by God, daily. Some people live life with so much fun and their lives seem to be a continuous playground in God’s kingdom. They are invigorated and become more productive as the years go by. They are not working alone, God is working through them, and God is doing most of the work. God brings Divine ideas into the human mind, Divine direction into career path and constant inspiration. God is the creator of energy and life.

Yet, we see people who wander aimlessly; drained like a discharged battery, almost out of energy. We wonder why? If we are wondering about ourselves, if that other person staring at us in the mirror – is us, we ask “How can I turn it around?”

There is no better time or place to do this than on Labor Day weekend. This is the whole reason for this holiday – to rest from our labors and to renew; to reflect on God and to have that cleansing and renewing of the Divine come through us in a very special and holy way.

Everything can change with prayer. We can find new energy, we can find new hope, and we can find a new career path if we need one.

There are three stages to the discharge of the battery that is called you – stress, brownout, and burnout. I want to share with you these three stages.

Stage #1 burnout – Stress: You feel physical and emotional exhaustion. You sleep all night long, but you wake up feeling exhausted. You do not know why, but you do.

This may also involve the development of a negative self-attitude. You begin to look in the mirror, and you do not think you are as special as you used to be. You do not know why, but something has changed.

This carries over into every aspect of your life. You may have a negative job attitude. You may have a loss of concern for others. You may have a feeling of being locked-in by your job routine. And you may have a growing state of fatigue.

Inside of yourself, you may have a churning anger and increased irritability. You may have a loss of enthusiasm and zest for living. Your need for a ten-minute nap after work may have turned into a need for a two-hour sleep.

If and when you fall asleep at night, you may toss and turn. Getting up in the morning is exhausting. Even choosing clothes for the day becomes a major, problem-solving situation.

Those that are in this stage, look into the mirror, the cycle seems unbreakable. They do not know how to get out of this feeling. In time, there is this attitude: “So, who cares anyway? I am going to be this way, and that is just the way it is. Who cares?”

Physically, they may have persistent headaches, stomach upsets, body aches, even skin disorders. They have a growing feeling of incompetence, fragmentation, and alienation. They try to overcome by pushing harder and longer.

At this time, this is all they know. All they know is the rewards of work. They have forgotten the rewards of joy. Therefore, they push harder and longer, depleting whatever energy they have left. If you relate to stage I, ask for God’s help.

Stage #2 burnout (brownout): This is the time we may become silent. Even when our opinions are sought by others, we appear sullen and angry, at all times. We use all our energies to resist the psychological and emotional overloads. The feelings inside of us are of overwhelming fear, but we do not know what we are afraid of. We have anxiety. We feel helpless.

Many find when they are in stage #2 burnout that it is hard or impossible to ask for help. They do not want to admit to anyone else that they are feeling this way.

Our feelings lead to doubt, paranoia, and inadequacy. Giving the best to the work now almost seems like a joke. Your original motives for entering your career cannot be remembered. They become very hazy or even questionable.

If you relate to stage II, ask for God’s help.

Stage #3 burnout: The energy to deal with the demands of a job and home life has been depleted. A person in this stage has a great cynicism about their work, their career, and everything else about their lives. They experience alienation, withdrawal, and defeat.

Social contacts take an exorbitant amount of energy which is also not available on the job or at home. They feel resigned to the fact that they are just not good enough anymore. Something has happened, and they want to escape.

Have you ever heard about people who just come into work one day and quit? They do not tell anybody about it.

They leave a good job and a good career. They have been in a decline for a while, and they do not know why. They do not talk to anybody about it, and when you least expect it, they are gone.

This also happens in relationships, family and friendships. Have you ever heard about marriages where all of a sudden, he or she comes home and the spouse is gone? Stage #3 burnout is a very possible reason for this occurrence.

Our human minds and bodies are like batteries. If we give and give and give, and then find we do not have any power left, we are like the person who is being held under water, fighting for air. Or we are like the cornered animal which has to fight its way out for its life. Reasoning does not come in at the point of stage #3 burnout. The person is going to run and do anything he or she can (without consideration of others) to find his or her life again.

When we are in this situation, (and, hopefully, before we reach stage #3), how do we turn it around? What can we do? Stress, brownout, and burnout are preventable in the first place. You can prevent this.

Stress is caused by resistance.

Let’s imagine that this lectern is some event in our lives. The first thing we do when we see the event is view the event within our minds and decide about it. We call the event good, or we call it bad.

If we call it bad, immediately there is a response that comes inside of us that mentally builds stress. Stress has its source in how we interpret the event. If we interpret it as bad, then our response will be resistance, and stress will be produced.

If Jesus was here, what would He say? He would say, “If you want to get out of burnout, resist not evil. Turn the other cheek. Go the second mile. Love your enemies.”

He told us to love, forgive, bless, and pray. We thought He was just talking about people, but He was also talking about the event or whatever causes us stress in our lives.

If something causes us stress, we have allowed that inside of ourselves. How much better to resist NOT the evil or the error, mentally? How much better to love it where it is and let it be? How much better it is to go into our situations, whatever they may be, with love inside of us instead of a resistance that is tearing us apart at the core of our beings.

When I tell you to love, forgive, bless, and pray, I am not teaching you to become a doormat, and I am not teaching peace at any price. I am simply saying to not mentally fight something.

If you go into a situation that you do not like, or something is happening that you do not like, the main thing is that it is going to stay there. The important thing is how you handle it in your mind.

Do not allow it to affect you, or it will have total power over you.

How much better it is to go to God and say, “God, help me to flow with this situation. God, help me to have power over this situation, and help me to flow with the event.”

You have heard this before – Here are two rules to follow:
#1. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
#2. It’s all small stuff.

When an event enters our lives, we can choose how we relate to it.

Allow me to share a story with you.

This is a true story about a couple who was driving in the high mountains. They were driving, talking to one another, and all of a sudden, the driver missed the curve. They went over the side of a cliff at 55 miles per hour.

When you go over a cliff at 55 miles per hour, that is about as bad as life can get. You know, in your rational thinking, that this is the end – you are not going to get through this.

As their car was sailing down, the woman said that as they silently said their prayers, a great peace overcame them. They decided they were going to enjoy this – what a view there is from there! They were sailing down at hundreds of miles per hour and they were at peace. They just knew that everything was going to come out okay.

As the car approached the ground, it landed on a beaver’s dam which broke the fall. After the car had come to a stop, the couple looked at each other and realized they did not have a bruise or a scratch on them. The opened the doors of the car (which was slowly sinking as the beaver’s dam was sinking) and climbed onto the roof of the car. They smiled and laughed with each other.

At that point, someone was driving by and noticed the skid marks going off the cliff. They parked their car, looked down, and saw the couple laughing and smiling, sitting on top of their car. This person called a tow truck which came and towed the car out of the beaver pond. The car did not have a scratch on it, and it started up immediately. Locals who had been by that way hundreds of times said, “The interesting thing is that we have never seen a beaver pond here before.”

Flow with life. Here are some suggestions you may want to consider if you are in this type of a situation.

1. Make a list of things that are stressing you. What are the stressors in your life? Make a list, and then put it in two columns. Be very honest with yourself.

Title column #1: The Changeable Things and list the stresses you can change with God’s help.

Title column #2: Unchangeable Things. Under this heading list the things you cannot change.

If you look up in the sky, tonight and say, “I cannot stand that moon; it stresses me,” realize that for things you put in the unchangeable column you are going to have to change your opinion about them. The moon is not going to change. But there are changes you could make.

Make a contract with yourself to change at least one thing a month from your “Changeable” column with God’s help.

Make a contract with yourself to change your opinion of about one thing per month in your unchangeable column with God’s help.

2. Physical exercise releases the energy that is held within you so tightly. Unless the energy is released, it will remain, and it will work against you.

3. Remember, if you are in Stage #3 burnout, you may be like a caged animal. You are going to react to everything. You are fighting for air. Instead of a react, have a “me-act.” This is something you do for yourself. Give yourself permission to play again. This is not as easy as it sounds, because the last thing you will want to do is play and relax. One woman gave herself permission to go to the movies once a week; a man started to play golf again. Both people had to pray to God for the energy to play again.

Jesus said, did He not, to become like a little child again? Say to yourself, “God, I value myself highly enough to play.” Second, do not make any goals for yourself during a me-act. This is not a time to be driven; rather it is a time to relax.

A man said that for his me-act, he was going to play more by jogging. He never had time to jog, but he loved to jog. Within a week or so, he was saying, “Today, I am going to jog 2 1/2 miles. Next week, I am going to jog four miles. Then, when he did not meet his goals, it caused more building of stress within him. Make sure you do not turn play into work.

Third, do only what you want to do. A me-act is not going over to your sister’s house and fixing her door because you have not had time to do it. This is something done by you and for you. Give yourself permission to play.

Take God home with you from church; take God to your work. If you have a watch with a timer or a cell phone, set it so that it will silently vibrate on the hour every hour. This is your signal to pray silently for one minute to increase your awareness of your help in every need. The more aware you are that God is working by your side, and God is working in and through you, the more you will dissipate human stress.

It is all about spiritual balance in our lives. When we are looking at our lives, we must put them back in balance again if something is out of kilter. Putting all your eggs in one basket and expecting to come out whole and healthy is irrational, and it is dangerous thinking that leads to an unbalanced, unhappy human.

We all need to perceive a world larger than the small world of our work. We must nurture our private selves, as well as our professional selves.

And last, we have to increase (ten-fold) our prayer time.

Prayer is the ultimate labor-saving device.

We have to give ourselves permission to continuously tap our every accessible energy source.

Doing this, you will speed out of burnout. You will release stress and you will become a new person–made whole again in the image of God.

The most misunderstood animal in the world is the ostrich. People think the ostrich puts his head in the sand to hide. But actually, the ostrich is hard of hearing and puts his head in the sand to tune into the vibrations of what is happening around him.

When we go apart for a while to pray, we are not putting our heads in the sand to hide. We are tuning into the vibratory force of God that will come through us, renew us, and recharge us, giving us ideas and helping us to go about our daily living, fully alive.

Let us pray:

Dear God, I have been running on my own energy way too long. I have been, at times, drained, I have been depleted. God, I ask for a Divine intervention in my life this moment, believing and knowing that as You come through me, there will be a Divine recharge. You will help me to regroup and renew.

God, I give you my mind and my body. I ask that You cleanse it of all fear, anger, and hidden anxiety within me. I pray that I will be made new this weekend. I pray that I will have the motivation and give myself the permission to play. I pray You will show me how to bring permanent lasting balance into my life again.

I agree that I will go toward the goal of 50% work and 50% play. I will, again, live for joy, happiness, and gladness. And I will rediscover You, moment-by-moment, as You live me living my new life.

In Jesus Christ’s name I give thanks for this … Amen.

PRAYER / MEDITATION________________________________

In this moment we pray with and become a part of God’s renewing life and energy.

This moment I ask you to give your prayer consciousness wholly and completely to consenting to the power of God working through you. We know that God is our help in every need–not just the big things, but everything.

Rest for a moment in the silence of prayer …

Dear God, we consent to You, right now. I pause from the outer activities of the day and concentrate on the inner, restful activity of God. There is, within me, a power greater than any problem or situation I may be facing. It is the power of God – all-knowing, all-providing, all-encompassing. The power of God is helping me meet each challenge with confidence, assurance, and peace.

In the stillness of prayer, I feel close to God, for I am aware only of Divine light, life, and love. I open my mind and heart to God. I let go of any anxiety and feel the inner peace that comes from knowing that I am Divinely empowered. This peace, strong and sure within me, stays with me through every moment.

Rest for a moment in the silence of prayer …

With a peaceful heart, I think only of God. God is always with me as my peace, my poise, my quiet power. In this peaceful awareness of God and the good that is mine, I silently affirm: Divine peaceful power permeates my life. I live in serenity.

My heart is peacefully centered in God. In this blessed state of awareness, I recognize the many wonderful ways in which I am guided through the challenges and decisions of life.

I am free from the darkness of doubt or indecision, for I have an inner light that shows me the illumined path. God is the light that shines through me. I allow this light to shine. I feel its radiance, its special glow within me and within the situations of my life.

Rest for a moment in the silence of prayer …

If you have a decision to make, you stop for a moment and turn your full attention to the light of God. This illumining power guides you and inspires you with ideas that you use to help yourself and others. You have a warm feeling of being loved, for you know that the light of God is always shining brightly within, helping you to do what is right.

Through the power of the spoken word, I decree: God’s Divine light shines through me right now. I make wise choices with God’s help.

Dear God, I am one with Your Divine life. This life flows within my mind and body as a steady stream of healing energy and strengthening power.

Your Divine life is doing its perfect work within my body. I know that there is no condition which Your Divine life cannot heal. There is now an abundant flow of healing life and energy within every atom, cell, tissue, and organ of my body.

Right now, dear God, I give thanks for healing life that flows within me. I know that it is greater than any illness I may be concerned about. I have thoughts inside my human mind of strength and wholeness. These thoughts help the healing process by enabling me to be positive and to think of life and only life. The healing life of You, God, is always at work within me. I bless my body with prayer affirmations of health and strength.

Rest for a moment in the silence of prayer …

With a positive faith that healing is taking place in me now, in prayer I silently affirm: The life of God flows through me, right now. I radiate God’s health and energy.

God, I give thanks for peace, wisdom, and health that are mine through You. Clothed in Your Divine ideas, I feel very prosperous. Your bountiful goodness comes to me as love. It is always with me, surrounding me and filling my life with abundance for every need. I recognize it; I accept it; I give thanks for it.

With joy and appreciation, I open my mind and heart, completely, to Your Divine love and the power it has to bless me. I am centered in Your presence, God. I see the prospering power at work in my life. I no longer worry about the daily supply for my needs. Your love is my security, my prosperity, my success.

I affirm that abundant supply is now mine through Your prospering love. I am grateful. I trust You, God, to continually meet my needs. Divine love enriches me. My life is teeming with abundance.

Rest in the silence of prayer and accept the good that God has already prepared for you …

During this precious time of prayer, we have released our concerns and have felt the presence of God’s Divine peace, life, light, and love. As you move on to the activities of this day, we keep our thoughts centered on You, God, in the faith that unlimited good is now coming forth.

In Jesus Christ’s name we pray … Amen.

Television channels (Free Service):
NEW Inspiration http://www.youtube.com/PositiveChristianity
Prayer http://www.youtube.com/prayerAmerica
Meditation http://www.youtube.com/PositiveChurch

Since 1999 – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 2 million every day. Welcoming all faiths, excluding no one. Reaching the ends of the earth with the positive message of God. Not connected to any church, Positive Christianity is a Prayer Ministry without walls, physical or denominational, that the world can instantly access and use without cost.

ARCHIVES of recent Positive Daily Inspiration is available on our homepage; use anything you wish.

FREE Encyclopedia of Prayers: http://www.positivechristianity.org/prayersearch.php

NEED PRAYER? Click here – if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

DONATIONS Thank You for helping us with this great free work for ministers of every faith:
Instant online donation:
https://positivechristianity.net/donation-tithe/
By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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Positive Christianity Pet Blessing – God created . . . every living creature that moves

Positive Christianity Pet Blessing

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of ones soul remains unawakened”

Gen 1:1 In the beginning … God created the heavens and the earth,

(Gen 1:20-28 NRSV) And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.”

{21} . . . God created . . . every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good.

{24} And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind” . . . And it was so.

{26} Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth . . . {27} So God created humankind in his image . . . {28} God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

The animals God created inhabit the earth with us. They share in the fortunes of human existence and have a part in human life. We read about them in the Bible: Animals were saved from the flood and afterwards made a part of the covenant with Noah (Gen 9:9-10). A giant fish saved Jonah (Jonah 2:1-11).Ravens brought bread to Elijah (1 Kings 17:6).

We recognize the divine connection we share with our pets. We came into each other’s lives for a purpose; for companionship, for help, for affection. We thank you, God, for the opportunity to share our love with our pets, and for our ability to care and provide for them.

In the name of God we bless this animal, this pet, this friend, and we bless those who care for it. We see them richly rewarded by each other’s company. We see each pet and each person guided clearly and safely by that higher power that brought them together.

And we accept this blessing in the name of Jesus Christ. And so it is. Amen

Apprehend God in all things,

for God is in all things.

Every single creature is full of God

and is a book about God.

Every creature is a word of God.

If I spent enough time with the tiniest creature —

even a caterpillar —

I would never have to prepare a sermon.

So full of God is every creature.

— Meister Eckhardt

Blessing for a Pet

Blessed are the animals we call our friends.

We nurture and care for them, and, in their special way,

they nurture and care for us.

They belong to us. We belong to them.

A bond is formed.

Not so much physical as spiritual.

Our pets know when we feel tired or sorrowful,

and they lend their loving support through unconditional love.

Our pets know when we are filled with happiness,

and they become part of that happiness.

Our friends, these animals, demonstrate for us an intuitive knowing

that often surpasses our own intuition;

a knowing without words, revealed in actions.

We consider them family.

They become little reflections of our very souls.

We gratefully accept their presence in our lives.

We honor the bond of mutual commitment we have,

one to another.

With true appreciation, we bless our pets,

the loving animals we call our friends.

(Original author: Rev. Dan Holloway)

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Infant / Child Baptizing / Christening Service

Positive Christianity Infant / Child Baptizing / Christening Service

Prelude: Brahms Lullaby’ may be played as the christening party* approaches the minister.
*Parents, Godparents, Children

Dear God, bless these words, and bless this holy moment of christening…Amen

There is great truth, and guidance in the following, entitled, “Children Learn What They Live” by Dorothy L. Nolte

If children live with criticism,
   they learn to condemn.

If children live with hostility,
   they learn to fight.

If children live with fear,
   they learn to be apprehensive.

If children live with pity,
   they learn to feel sorry for themselves.

If children live with ridicule,
   they learn to be shy.

If children live with jealousy,
   they learn what envy is.

If children live with shame,
   they learn to feel guilty.

BUT…

If children live with tolerance,
   they learn to be patient.

If children live with encouragement,
   they learn to be confident.

If children live with praise,
   they learn to appreciate.

If children live with approval,
   they learn to like themselves.

If children live with acceptance,
   they learn to find love in the world.

If children live with recognition,
   they learn to have a goal.

If children live with sharing,
   they learn to be generous.

If children live with honesty and fairness,
   they learn what truth and justice are.

If children live with security,
   they learn to have faith in themselves
a   nd in those around them.

If children live with friendliness,
   they learn that the world is a nice place in which to live.

If children live with serenity,
   they learn to have peace of mind

With what are the children around us living?

Your child(ren) will live in an environment that teaches acceptance and love.

Let us pray:

Dear loving God, we ask that You bless and consecrate this place

For this event of christening is holy.

Surround us all as our thoughts and prayers go forth to bless these willing people who now become parents, both physically and spiritually.

Recreate and purify their hearts,
Cleanse and renew their minds
Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the child(ren).

May the child(ren) always live in the awareness of the Christ present with a deep inner knowing that God is (his/her) help in every need.

Thank You, dear God

Unto you we give all praise and thanks through Jesus Christ. Amen

It has been said a child is only in our care for a short while. Every minute must be made as worthwhile for the child as we can make it.

Kahlil Gibran has wisely written “Our Children,” allow me to share it with you now, and let its words inspire you.

   Your children are not your children.
   They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.
   They come through you but not from you.

   And though they are with you—yet they belong not to you.

   You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
   For they have their own thoughts.
   You may house their bodies but not their souls,
   For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
      which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
   You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

   For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
   You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
   The Archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
   Let your bending in the Archer’s hand be for gladness;

   For even as He loves the arrow that flies—so He loves also—the bow that is stable.

Dear Friends, we come together at this time to baptize this child. It is written:

They were bringing unto Jesus little children, that He should touch them: and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, He was moved with indignation, and said unto them, Allow the little children to come unto me; forbid them not: for to such belongeth the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. And He took them in His arms, and blessed them, laying His hands upon them (Mark 10:13-16).

When Jesus said to His disciples, “Suffer the little children to come unto me,” He was showing the right attitude toward children. They are to be received in the love of God. They are not to be kept apart from the things of God. They have their rightful place in God’s Divine plan.

Let us keep in mind the right thought about children, which is: For to such belongeth the kingdom of God.

Let us receive little children as equal with ourselves, as children of God. As we do so, we shall frequently see the light of God shining through them to lead us into right paths.

Well-beloved, you have brought here (this / these) little one(s) remembering that before this one was yours, this child was a child of our God in heaven. It is your privilege to stand sponsor for them.

Guard well this trust.

And now, realizing the love of our heavenly God toward these God’s children,

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we give thanks that Your love is ever-present and that You remember little children and do take them to Your great heart of love.

Increase in us our awareness of Your love and of a childlike spirit of faith and trust.

And these little ones quicken them. 0 Holy Spirit. Cleanse their human nature with the effluence of Your Divine nature, that they may be wholly consecrated to Your love.

Bless us with the grace of spiritual perception that we, as their sponsors in Your name, may worthily minister to and instruct them so that they may grow in wisdom and stature.

In knowledge of Your loving presence, and in the favor of human and in Your sight.

This we ask in the name of Your most gracious and Holy Son, Jesus Christ… Amen.

This child comes to you endowed with infinite possibilities of good. He/she comes to teach you as well as to learn from you.

Today you seek God’s gracious approval of the trust God has placed in you, and of your acceptance of it.

(Look at audience) We are here as witnesses, and by our presence, we testify that we believe you are worthy, and well-qualified to fulfill the obligations of your sponsorship to rear in grace, and God’s Truth this/these child(ren) committed for a time to your care.

There are many religions represented by the people that stand here in this room. I now ask each to pray in his or her own way blessing the parents and the child in a moment of silent prayer.

In silence let us pray.

(The silence is accompanied by a pause or instrumental solo.)

MINISTER. (to parents). Then, beloved, as you say aloud the name of this child, may your words be a prayer for wisdom and guidance.

Will you name this child—Speak the name at the same time.

PARENTS: (Both speak child’s name)

MINISTER (speaks child’s name). Baptism is done with water that has been blessed and prayed over, or with a rose (that has been blessed and prayed over) touching the forehead three times: alternative: rose petals. The minister may use flower petals symbolizing the innate beauty of the soul, and calling forth its expression. Flower petals may be presented in a silver bowl by an attendant, usually a Sunday-school boy or girl chosen for the service.

I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

Minister to the parents: “And now speak aloud the name of the Godparents.”

All rise for the Prayer of Protection.

The light of God surrounds this child,
The love of God enfolds this child,
The power of God protects this child
The presence of God watches over this child and his/her parents.
Wherever you are as a family, God will be there also
Bringing…
continual love,
health,
strength,
guidance,
and inspiration..

Amen

The benediction: (Minister touching child)

Dear God, endow this child with a life of countless blessings of happiness, wisdom, and health. Empower and equip this little one to grow strong and make a real difference in our world through living its life, by using the God-given talents bestowed upon him/her this holy day.

In Jesus Christ name…Amen

(If a Rose was used during the service it is presented to the parents with the instructions to put it within the folds of the pages of the family Bible. A certificate printed on parchment paper is also presented containing the full child’s name, date and time of the christening, location, along with the minister’s signature.)

This now concludes the service.

Postlude: Brahms Lullaby’ may be played as the christening party leaves.

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POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – The Tap In To Real Spiritual Power

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - The Tap In To Real Spiritual Power

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Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

_____________________________________

Personal important note: Many (hundreds) have been asking about our retreat center in Ellijay Georgia – Hope Hill.

People have wanted to book it, read about it, etc. and it’s now off-line.

About six months ago as I faced my own storm of life with my health challenge. My financial advisor strongly advised that I sell Hope Hill. He said because of Texas and Georgia law it would definitely go into probate which could last years. But I said, “I love Hope Hill,” and when I’m not using it is rented 90% of the time making it very profitable for the ministry. He said, during probate it would sit vacant you would not be allowed to rent it and that being the case it would go into disrepair.

I put Hope Hill on the market and sold it within days for a high amount which went to help the trust to support this ministry ongoing.

By the way, I’m doing fine, feel-good, and in a great mood. God is with me. Please don’t write asking me how I’m doing because I just can’t keep up with that kind of correspondence. I dislike being the focus instead of God being the focus. Plus, such correspondence in large numbers really brings me down temporarily.

_______

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” John 10:10

Tennyson once said that more things are brought about in this world by prayer than we can ever dream about.

Let me tell you a story.

There has been a great deal in the news in the last few years about mining accidents in the United States. Years ago, in a Salem, Kentucky zinc mine there were five miners in the mine together there was a rockfall in the mine – a collision of the ceiling. They were trapped. There was no light. There was no food. There was no water. They were there in the darkness.

Now, these five men were non-religious. But at a time like that … You think your life is passing in front of your eyes, and indeed it was for these five miners. So one miner suggested that they pray and sing. Ordinarily if he would have done that, he would have been beaten up. But not today, not in this mine after the collapse.

So, they sat there on the floor, gasping for air, and they started to sing and pray. They sang old gospel songs. One would lead and then another. And they prayed for a total of fifty-three hours. They never slept. They continued to pray. They got into such a feeling of oneness with God that after a while it didn’t even matter to them if they were found or not. They knew there was something more to life than that zinc mine and their daily hum-drum existence. Through personal spiritual experience each miner knew God. And they knew God was present with them there in that mine.

They continued to pray. Finally, they heard axes chipping through the rock. They heard people moving the rock and they heard people coming in, but they didn’t stop praying. They continued to pray and sing as they were lifted up out of the mine. On their miner’s helmets they had scrawled with a rock, “If we’re dead when you find us, we are all saved.”

What does it mean to be saved? It’s not a one-time event. When things happen in your life that knock you down, how do you get through it? Do you go the old, human way, or are you going to be spiritually saved in that moment? Every miner went on to have a profound religious life. All the miners said the collapse was the finest thing that had ever happened in their lives. They said, “Thank God we were trapped in that mine for fifty-three hours, for the experience gave us new life.”

When the outlook is bad in your life, try the up look. Try looking to God – instead of the situation. Try it and see what happens. You are going to make the discovery of discoveries that everybody can make, regardless of religious ties. You are going to find God because God is with you right now. Prayer is a feeding time for your soul. Sometimes our souls are starved, especially when bad things had been happening to us. It is a communion with God.

Prayer is a homecoming!

It’s easy to pray. Often in our lives, we have been given the message that it is hard to pray. No. That’s a human message of your human mind. It’s easy to pray. Our minds were created to pray, just as our lungs were created to breathe.

In prayer, we are consenting. We are permitting God to work through us. God does work through us when we permit God to do so. If we permit God to work through us for even a brief couple of minutes, God will do it. If we want it all day long or for fifty-three hours continuously, God will do that too. And it’s ever expansive. The more we permit God to work through us, the greater it is and the greater we are.

Frank B. Whitney once said, “To get out of personal, difficult situations, you must get out of personal consciousness.” You must lift yourself above the things that you have been thinking about. What do you lift yourself into? Into Power. There is a power in prayer that this talk cannot do justice to. There is a power in God that no human can tell you about fully with human words. You have to experience it, through a personal spiritual experience.

In the Bible, it says, “It is done unto you as you believe.” That is because prayer, like electricity, travels in a circle. When you pray, it is like a boomerang. It’s going to come back into your life. Prayer produces after the pattern is set.

The famous Mayo Clinic is in Rochester Minnesota. The Mayo brothers (Will and Charles Mayo) had a dream of better healing. Will Mayo once said this:

“I have seen patients who were dead by all standards. Everyone knew they could not live. We knew they were going to die. But I have seen a minister come to the bedside of one of these patients and do something that I could not do. I have seen that patient’s life touched in some way that I can’t explain as a medical doctor, with some immortal spark that defied medical knowledge and materialistic common sense. Believe it or not, that patient lived.”

We see this every day in ministry. Through this ministry, we see people who aren’t supposed to live, live; people who aren’t supposed to be able to pull their business out of where it is, pull it out and prosper. People have changed their lives around. People who are destroying themselves with their habits and various things just turn their lives around because of a power they connect with–a power which does not have those problems, a power that is readily accessible to us all.

Prayer, as Jesus Christ understood and used it, is communion with God. For communion of a child with God is a splendid, confidential talk of the child with the Parent. Communion means – common – union.

There is a locked, hidden pattern of prayer that works within the Bible that Jesus Christ used. I’m going to give you an example of how to unlock some of this prayer potential that is within you. I’m going to tell the story of the raising of Lazarus. In that, there is a locked, hidden pattern that can help you unlock your life.

Let me give you the setting for what was going on. Lazarus had been dead for four days when Jesus arrived at the tomb. Now, I would like you to picture the scene. There are hundreds of wailing women crying their eyes out. Then we see the curious crowd–not so much a faith-believing crowd, but a doubting crowd. They doubt with everything inside of them that a miracle could possibly take place. Then we see the grim, gray, rock-hewn cave with a large, circular stone rolled in front of the opening. [John 11:39-44].

“Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to Him, ‘Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. I knew that Thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by that they may believe that Thou didst send Me.’ When He said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’ The dead man came out, his hand and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.'”

First of all, how does Jesus address God? Jesus addresses God in a different way than we sometimes address God. He addresses God as if He were an immediate, close, available, mighty and loving Presence.

The basic pattern for prayer is in six steps.

1. “Take away the stone.” The very first step is to take away whatever barrier exists in your life, your mind and your heart. Open your eyes and your mind and your heart to betterment. Agree with God that improvement is possible and consent to whatever changes this may demand of you. Prayer, you see, does not change God. It changes us.

2. “Jesus lifted up His eyes.” This means He lifted up his vision, and His perspective, as well as His sight. What a thing to do in prayer. Sometimes the people praying never get to this point. They are so locked into the problem that they just beg God to save them from their problems. Their eyes are centered on the problem. Never once do they give God the credit for possibly being able to bring something higher into their lives. Jesus saw that with God working through Him, something more was possible.

In the highest form of prayer, we do not ask that God lower God’s sight to ours, but rather we seek to raise our sight to God’s. Raise your sights, to see through God’s eyes, to think through God’s thought, to hear God’s words.

3. “Father, I thank Thee.” Now Jesus had a Bible just like we do, but His Bible was the Old Testament. Jesus read the Old Testament. He was familiar with it. The Old Testament teaches to thank God. The Jewish people thank God as a matter of habit. The difference here, (and it’s a big difference), is that He didn’t thank God after Lazarus came out, but through his faith, and vision, thanked God in advance. There is a world of difference in that kind of faith.

Have enough faith in your life to know that when you pray, you’re not wondering, “Gee, I wonder if God heard that? Did God hear me that time?” Have faith to permit God to work through you. Have faith enough to give thanks in advance. The ultimate prayer is giving thanks continuously.

4. “He cried out with a loud voice.” This is the voice of unquestioning assurance. This is the voice in you that knows. I often ask people, “How would you act if your prayer was already answered?” They have answered, “Well, I would be exuberant. I would be on fire with God.” I would then tell them to act that way right now because it has been answered. It has to come through you – YOUR FAITH.

5. “The dead man came out.” The things that are impossible to you and me as mortal women and men are possible to God. And anything IS possible for you with God working through you if you are God-filled. The Bible says, “Where one thing I know: where I was blind, I now see, whereas I was once dead, I have come alive again; whereas I was impoverished, I am enriched. whereas I was abandoned, I am loved and accepted. Old thoughts and old things are become as waters that have passed away. Behold, all things are made new.”

6. “Unbind him and let him go.” Even though this dead man lives and has walked forth, he is still bound to the old thinking that got him there in the first place. He still has it wound in his consciousness and all that has been healed is the effect. Go beyond just healing the effect to – healing the cause. To heal the cause, we have to unbind ourselves, and loose ourselves from that type of thinking. So many times, we see a person healed of some disease and then a couple of years later they get it again in a different place. You have to go inside, and, if necessary, turn yourself inside-out, and unbind yourself. Completely become new, where the old things have passed away once and for all.

Every morning there are two trains departing. You determine which train you are going to get on. One train is God-faith. It is a happy, exhilarating type of life. The other train is limited human thought. All your baggage is on that train. You feel comfortable on that train because it is what you know. There are many people you know and love on that train. But on that train, you begin to lose your energy. You begin to worry and fret. You have pain in your physical body. Then we shout out and accuse God of gross inefficiency. We pray, but our tone is loud and angry like that of a dissatisfied guest in a mismanaged motel.

Sig Paulson once said, “When we pray, things work out great. But when we don’t pray, our troubles prey on us.”

Emerson once said, “Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of your life from the highest point of view.”

And so, it is.

You see, prayer must become a way of life rather than a series of isolated acts. In his wonderful book, Prayer the Master Key, James Dillet Freeman said, “The great purpose of prayer is this: to turn wordless longing into words of faith; to turn words of faith into life-supporting attitudes; to turn life-supporting attitudes into brave, wise, loving acts; and to turn the brave, wise, loving acts into a full life.”

Prayer is spiritual. It is mental only in the sense that the mind is the necessary agent of it. It is mental to the spiritual, and then the spiritual becomes translated in the mental of you. But prayer unifies us with a realm where discord and imperfection do not exist. Problems are solved through prayer, but this is secondary. The main thing prayer does is lift us up.

(Show newspaper) This morning I cut an article out of the newspaper. In it they give the annual percentage rate of a new car. The only problem with this is it is called a “Pay As You Go Plan.” If the car breaks down, you still pay as you go. If it gets wrecked, you still pay as you go. If it rusts out, you still pay as you go.

What I’m asking you to do is to have a “Pray As You Go Plan.” It’s an investment in yourself. It builds you up. It’s where everything is gained continuously. Nobody, especially not myself, can teach you to be a good Christian. You have to get it through on the job training. And on the job training is prayer. The trouble with some of us is that we have been inoculated with small doses of Christianity which keep us from catching the real thing.

I’m going to ask you not just to pray about it, but to pray it through, to believe as you have never believed before. Many people keep God as we keep a spare tire on a car. We keep it in the trunk. We want it to be in good shape for emergencies, but we never look at it. We know that it’s there, but we don’t use it unless there is an emergency. Well, I tell you, my friend, there is a higher way to live.

Prayer without ceasing is a persistent effort to educate our minds and hearts to the qualities of God’s nature. When we read of Jesus spending whole nights in prayer, our first thought is He was asking and begging God for something. But we find that prayer is many-sided. He was not only asking, but He was receiving. The Son of man must be lifted up. And there is no way to do this except through prayer.

Many of us just pray for five minutes a day or less. The only problem with that is that it leaves 1,335 minutes for limited, human thinking. If you’re going toward the spiritual life, you need to pray more. Martin Luther King, Jr. used to take his three best hours of the day and save that for prayer. Jesus’ spiritual cycle was continuous prayer, but He did it in this way – taking prayer into everything He did. He prayed. He worked. He rested. Then he repeated the cycle.

In prayer, you are told how to act. You need to take action – not ending your prayer but continuing it through your actions.

A hungry man had prayed to the Lord many times to send him a chicken. Finally, he got the chicken when he prayed for the Lord to send him TO a chicken.

We have to put feet and arms onto our prayers and continue praying when we’re doing our work.

The first thing in the morning when you wake up, you say, “Dear God … ” and you begin my prayer. You keep in mind that everything you do that day, every word you speak, will continue your prayer. And then, the last thing at night before you close your eyes, you say, “Amen.”

I was telling this to a wonderful friend of mine the other day at McDonalds. He said, “If continuous prayer is so important and if it is to be a way of life, why is church necessary?” I loved this. I had French fries in front of me. I took one French fry out of the pack and laid it aside. Now the French fries were piping hot. But in thirty seconds or less, the French fry I laid aside was stone cold. I said, “Feel that French fry. Now feel these other French fries.” They were still piping hot because they were together. They were keeping each other warm. I suppose that is what church is about.

Let me tell you one more story. The earliest African converts to Christianity were earnest and regular in their prayer and devotions. They would walk down separate paths through a field into the thicket for a private prayer area. When the tribe would see the grass growing on someone’s path, they would say to the person, “Brother, the grass grows on your path yonder.” They would know that he wasn’t praying. So, they would watch the paths every morning to see if the converts were praying.

Well, we don’t have a path. We have to police ourselves. That is a big opportunity for us because we have the access to God’s power. We realize, perhaps better than most people, that we are children of God. Perhaps we realize better than most how connected we are to God.

True prayer is the greatest act of power in the world that you can ever take part in. it changes you. It changes your attitudes. It changes your conditions, your life, your thoughts, your feelings, your words and your actions. When you pray, you are the miracle that happens. The true end of prayer is not to develop a power to perform miracles, but to develop yourself so in faith you will be able to accept miracles. You, yourself, are the miracle. If you let yourself develop into what you were made to be by God, you’re going to find yourself with innate God-given powers and extraordinary capabilities.

There’s a song that has some wonderful words. I’d like to share them with you. It is the melody of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, but with new words. It talks about continuous prayer and having that attitude of faith.

“Mine eyes have seen the coming of an age that is to be. When from every limitation, I shall know that I am free. For the age is rich in promise and my soul has eyes to see. God’s Truth is marching on.”

(Adlib prayer close)

God Bless You!

PRAYER / MEDITATION_______________________________

In your awareness, I ask you to become one with that wondrous Presence of God.

God is with you now.

Surrounding you and within you. You and God are one.

I would like you to meditate on that Truth. YOU AND GOD ARE ONE. You are not separate. You are one with all Power, one with the Perfect one who does not know imperfection of any kind. You and God are one.

I ask you to bathe your human sorrows in this awareness of God. Bathe your worries and bathe your lost hope. God is with you, cleansing, renewing, bringing a Grace to your life. God is here to help you–an immediate God for an immediate solution.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God is love. And you feel God’s mighty love working within you, bathing your mind, soothing it. You feel God’s love in the very core of your being. God is a giving God. God is giving to you constantly. During this meditation, you open your mind and heart and say, “Dear God, I accept. I consent to You. I consent to oneness. I consent to an infilling in my awareness.” You and God are one.

Meditate on this idea in the silence of prayer …

Sweet, continuous communion with God is happening here. A common-union with God is happening here. This prayer time is going to continue far beyond this prayer time.

This is just the beginning for your day. It is the starting point. As a great horse leaves the starting gate, you leave, gaining speed in your prayer awareness. You will not know sorrow today. You will pray instead. You will not know depression today. You will pray instead.

Human worry is cast out in Jesus Christ’s name.

You pray instead.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

We have a common-union with God who does not know worry or sorrow. We do not fret today. We pray.

You and God are one. God and you are one. God has great need of you. But God can only use you if you consent to the Divine in your free-will.

Dear God, Now, we consent.

God is renewing us today. God is renewing our old dreams and hopes, the vision we used to have of our perception, the thoughts that we have had in our minds when we have prayed and hoped and believed a lot.

That hope is found in you now. It has been lost in you for some time, and your dreams are fulfilled in your prayer times. The healing which has not been at hand is at hand in prayer.

You and God are one. God is closer than your breath, as near as your thought. This activity is happening now. Allow it to happen. Ask for it to happen.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God and you are one strong, indivisible unit. You cannot be divided from God. God and you are inseparable. You are bonded together. You are fused with new strength. You are fused with that portion of yourself that never doubts. It does not have a concept of doubt. You are no longer alone. God is with you. And you are so aware in your mind that you are working as a pair. You turn your attention away from limited human thought. Continuously you are turning your attention toward abundance, illumination and healing now and forevermore.

In Jesus Christ’s name, we pray … Amen.

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GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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