Tag : POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON

15Mar

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Palm Sunday

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Palm Sunday

Time Sensitivity: Palm Sunday

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“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows God’s handywork.” Psalms 19:1

(Find picture of Albrecht Deuer’s “Praying Hands” on the Internet. Ideally place picture on PowerPoint to project or copy for front of Sunday bulletin.)

Today I share a beautiful piece of art with you. You have seen this before. It is one of the most famous pieces of art that exists to inspire humankind. This is Albrecht Deuer’s “Praying Hands.” In churches of all religions around the world, there are hundreds of thousands of these.

It’s a beautiful piece. He was a genius. Many of his paintings are so great that they hang in the great galleries of the world. Of all the great art pieces, this is one of the very best. Years after it was painted, this was sculpted from one of the paintings. This is a copy of what is in the prayer chapel at Northwestern University. Let me share the story with you of this great work.

There were two struggling artists. It is believed they lived in France. They were trying to make it financially, but it was obvious that they both couldn’t go to art school because they didn’t have the money. They both wanted to go. Albrecht wanted to go and his friend, Hans, (who lived with him), also wanted to go. But the problem was, they had to make the decision as to who went first. Hans said to Albrecht, “Please you go on. I’ll stay back here and work. I’ll send you the money. You start to work and get paid for your work, and then I’ll get to go to school. I’ll then learn to be a great painter also.”

Albrecht said, “All right. But why don’t you go first?” They argued back and forth, and finally Hans won the argument so his friend, Albrecht would be the one to go first.

So Albrecht went to Paris and learned all the creative things needed to be a great artist. Three years later, he went back to the small town in France to see his friend, Hans. He knew right away that there had been a great price paid by Hans. He looked at Hans’ hands which had been doing manual labor during these years. They were stiff and gnarled. They could no longer hold a delicate brush. His friend had given his all–his love–so that Albrecht could go and give his life to creating things of beauty.

Albrecht looked at Hans and said, “May I do something for you? May I paint those hands that I love?”

Hans said, “How could anyone love these hands? They are so twisted and calloused.”

Albrecht held his hands and said, “No. I love these hands.” He painted these hands in the praying fashion that we know so well, because he had seen his friend pray many, many times before.

Legend says Albrecht gave this painting to Hans around 1342. The rest became history. But listen to the complete story. The complete story tells a lot about friendship, about giving ourselves to God, and about helping someone else to obtain something great. Probably because of his doing manual labor, Hans gave the world something greater than he could have ever done himself. God always has a plan. In a way, Hans was much more of a genius and gave the world much more than Albrecht did. He gave his all, that the artistic beauty of the genius could be seen. It’s like Jesus Christ gave us His all.

It is spiritual to care for others more than you care for yourself. You will also find through God’s love that you cannot give more away than you receive.

All good spiritual work is prayer. You too can make wondrous prayers. You don’t necessarily have to have your hands in this fashion. You can pray at any time. Archbishop Trench once said this about prayer: “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of God’s highest willingness.” So often, when we are like this in prayer, we wrongly think that God is reluctant to answer our prayers. We think we have to somehow speak in a certain way, and somehow, we have to convince God to help us. But God is a willing God – if we are willing to make that triumphant spiritual entry like Jesus Christ did.

I pray that you, yourself, can obtain a spiritual connection in your own life. This is something that each person needs in his or her own individual life.

That’s the reason we’re here.

We come together in our humanness to discover the presence of God; God is ever willing to work with us, in us, and around us.

“One day Jesus had a blind man come up to him. The blind man said to Him, ‘Lord, let me receive my sight.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight. Your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Him, glorifying God. “(Luke 18:41-43).

The story is not clear on how many were with Jesus when these events were taking place, but you had one incredibly grateful blind man who was seeing, possibly for the first time in his life. The events he was going to see had great significance.

Let’s pretend that up to this moment we were blind, and we have just received our sight. When you get into church you are going to hear a message you have NEVER heard before. Your awareness of God is so great that even the messages that you know well, become new. It has to become new IN you. It has to be seen and heard in a new way, a deeper, more profound way.

In Mark 11:1 it says: “And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives … “

Let me explain, first, what the names of these cities meant. Names, in Biblical times, had great spiritual significance to the people. Jerusalem meant a habitation of peace. Imagine in your life if you were drawing near to a habitation of peace. Jesus spiritually knew what was going to happen. You wonder how could this Man, headed toward a crucifixion, have peace? How can you, head toward a crucifixion, or tremendous difficulty, in some area of your life, and still have peace? You can, if you have a high awareness of the Presence of God with you, helping you.

Bethphage is a place of unripe fruit. It is a place in our awareness where grace is realized, but it is just coming into realization. The fruit is there, but it is not quite ready yet; it is not ripe. There is still more to be done. You have had times like that. You have had an idea, but it is not ready yet. You have got it, but you don’t have all the details. You have been guided by God to do something, but you do not know yet where your next step is going to take you.

Bethany means wailing, limitations and affliction. But it also spiritually signifies the demonstration OVER these conditions.

You have a wonderful realization that God’s good is coming. And then you have a town (or a place in your awareness) you are drawing near to which is trouble or difficulty. That is normal in life. Just realize that God is with you. God will get you through this difficult time.

He said to two of His disciples, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.”

I think that is the greatest miracle of this whole lesson. If I bring a colt in this church and ask you to sit on this colt – but I add, “By the way, no one has ever sat on this colt.” I’ll tell you; you might want to do it, but you would be foolish if you sat on it. This colt would throw you, and you would be airborne for some time.

It never happened to Jesus. He sat on that animal, what some consider the lowest of animals, and He tamed it immediately. It didn’t buck or throw Him off because of His consciousness and His awareness of His divinity. This was the highest moment in the animal’s life as well as for the people who had the colt. In Eastern places, when a holy man wanted to borrow a colt, it was a high honor for the family to give that colt over to him. And Jesus knew exactly where the colt would be. He told his disciples:

“Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ And they went away, and found a colt tied at the door out in the open street; and they said to them, ‘What are you doing untying the colt?’ And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go.

“And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it and He sat upon it. And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread branches which they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed cried out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'”

“In the name of” … means “in the nature of.”

They will say that TO YOU every time you come into a situation in the name of the Lord. If you come into your home and your family is quite dysfunctional and fighting, and you come in – in the name and nature of the Lord, (which is love), and bring harmony and peace to that situation, they will call you blessed. If you do this in your workplace, or wherever you are, you can come in the name of the Lord and make others feel God’s presence.

Hosanna means “save now.” There are many times when you want to be saved from the situation you are approaching. Many people here have high anxiety because of something that is facing them. We are yelling out Hosanna. God is a bigger God than any problem you face in your life. If you have this attitude, if you have this trust in God, you too will ride on the colt inside of you. This colt is your human nature, your lower nature that can buck with worry, and throw you off. You WILL ride and it will not buck or throw you off even though you have been thrown many times before, when you did not approach in a spiritual way.

Have you ever been so nervous that you actually shake? It’s like a bucking bronco. We do it to ourselves through worry and anxiety. If Jesus would have done it, we would not have blamed Him. He could have been in a real anxiety state. But He was not, He was calm. The animal was calm. He rode the animal, and He was not bucked off.

“Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!”

Hosanna in the highest; save now in the highest. Every time you need saving from something in your life, you can be saved in the highest by God. God is the highest. If you want to go to someplace that will never turn you away, that will always be willing, that will always accept you and love you, it is the Lord God Almighty. God will never forsake you. God will never fail you.

“And He entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when He had looked at everything, as it was already late, He left and went out to Bethany with the twelve.”

When He looked around the temple, He saw many things that were wrong. He saw some things that needed to be changed. He saw a lot of people were not praying aright. He was quite disturbed by this into that evening. The proof of this is His actions the next day.

“On the following day, when they came from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if He could find anything on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And He said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.'”

This means, in our own life, we have to be ready to produce fruit. We have to be ready so that we may be known by our fruit. Our big moment comes daily. Maybe it is a family situation where everyone is fighting, or an office situation where there is in-harmony, or maybe you’ve been laid off from work. Instead of riding that bucking bronco of worry and fear, know that God is with you, and you are going to be okay. That is what produces spiritual fruit of the harvest in our lives.

You become the light of the world. It doesn’t stay within you. It goes forth and blesses everyone around you.

We will never know how many people we bless when we are holding to trust in God. Others see it. They will look at you and say, “You have something I want. How do I get some?”

“And they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold pigeons; and He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.”

What does it mean that He wouldn’t allow anyone to carry anything through the temple? We often carry our fears into our places of worship, and we forget to let go of them there; we continue to carry them. Do you know what will really make you more religious? Prayer. You can fold your hands or sit or stand … however you choose, as long as your thoughts are on God Almighty. That is what makes you religious whether you’re inside the temple or wherever you are. You are the religious symbol of the church.

“And He taught and said to them, ‘It is not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ You have made this a den of robbers.'”

We ARE a house of prayer. We are here to help. And we know all help comes through us from God. It is our willingness working, our human willingness to allow the Divine to come through. We have to watch that we may never make our churches places of robbers. We have to take the focus off the humanness and put it on God.

“And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and sought a way to destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the multitude was astonished at His teaching. And when evening came, they went out of the city. And they passed by in the morning, and they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.”

That will happen to us if we do not let our spiritual fruits shine forth. If we do not allow that nature of God to come through us instead of our lower, human, animal nature, we’ll wither away also. It says so many places in the Bible. But that is not going to happen to you. Truly, if you are in a place where you have been withered, if you turn to God, you will experience the resurrection again. That is the message of Christianity – eternal life out of death. There are many areas of our lives that can be dead in the moment. They can come back to life again because God is a God of new life.

“And Peter remembered and said to Him, ‘Master, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered.’ And Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.'”

When you pray, believe. Have your willingness allow God’s willingness to come through.

Jesus on prayer, “Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11:24, 25

In other words, replace the lower, human, animal nature of resentment, hate, and envy with love. Allow that Divine love to shine in you and through every part of you. To make this a house of prayer for all nations, prepare for the experience.

You are going to make a triumphant entry into spiritual power and answered prayer. You are going to prepare by being willing for God to work in your life.

Second, you are going to rely completely upon God’s guidance. That is important. If you are filled with worry and fear, and you’re all tense, let go and let God.

Third, you need to concentrate on God and God’s power. You enter into the time of the silence of prayer. In due time, in the silence of prayer, you hear the message.

In hearing the message, you usually don’t hear a knock and God’s voice out loud. You often get an idea. The idea is like unripe fruit at that point. It is a new grace coming into your life. But if you act on the idea, something is going to happen. That is the message. And then, you live the blessed life. You have to walk the way Jesus walked and think the way Jesus thought and act the way Jesus acted. You cannot resort back to the way you were.

Constance Foster said, “I am convinced that every prayer we make is answered. Actually, our wishes and prayers bring the most inescapable results in the world. They are coming through constantly to our lives and our affairs. If you want to know what you have been praying for, just take a good look at the situation in which you find yourself as of this moment. It is the answer to your real prayer.”

Ernest Wilson wrote a book called The Week That Changed the World. He said, “Come with me God’s way. This is the invitation of the Christ.

Trust God. He is telling us in many ways. He entered Jerusalem not to fulfill His human will as Jesus, but His Divine purpose as Christ. His nature in us today is the same. It calls us to new heights of daring. It seems at times many problems put things at risk. It points to unchartered ways, sometimes at variance with the worldly security or acclaim.”

Let us pray. Dear God, as I would receive the blessings and promises of the kingdom, so I would also accept the discipline. Let my will and persistence claim higher goals than worldly gain alone. Like one who was to follow You, I would not be found unfaithful to that heavenly vision. I would keep the faith, run the course, and follow the light as Your nature grants me to see the light.

Thank You, God, for helping me begin to obtain a triumphant spiritual entry in my own life.

In Jesus Christ’s name we pray.

Amen.

PRAYER / MEDITATION_____________________________

What a holy time this moment is! This is a moment when you are turning to God, closing your eyes to the outside world and to its cares and concerns. This is a moment when you turn to the All-powerful Presence of God. And it is a moment when you spiritually hear. You hear that your problems are not really so big. And you learn how big God really is.

We do not really know God until we know God as love. We may have an intellectual understanding of God. We may have faith in God as Creator. But we do not know God until we feel love in our hearts and express love in our daily lives. Even when we think, speak and act from our highest understanding, we find that occasions arise which can only be met by the special calling upon the power of Divine love.

When wisdom is there, a problem cannot overpower us. When wisdom to solve a problem in our human self may fail us, love clarifies it and provides the answer. When there is discord and alienation to be overcome, God’s love works to restore understanding and harmony.

Now, during our prayer time, listen to these words from the Holy Bible (1 Corinthians 13:4-7):

“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Allow God’s love to become part of your nature, your mind, your body, your awareness. Allow the love of God to flow through you in this time of silent prayer …

Dear God, I pray that I love more. I pray that I walk away from human judgment and that I see with the eyes of love. I pray that I see all men and women in love. With God’s love, I do not judge. With love, I accept others. I pray that I am able to love You more. Dear God, I know that love compensates for every deficiency in my life. And it removes all barriers to complete and happy living. If I take offense or if I give offense, love erases the wrong and transmutes the experience into something good. If our spirits are down, Divine love is mighty to uplift us.

I pray this hour that love is the wonder working power of God in my life. I pray that it will take the least desirable things in my life and transform them into objects to be supremely desired. An environment ever so unpleasing – can be transformed as love puts God’s enhancements into unhappy conditions. Joy and peace come in to refashion along me lines of harmony and grace.

Many of us have problems at the workplace. I pray that God’s love comes in. I pray that unhappy conditions in our homes are transmuted this hour into joy and peace. I pray that God manifests as love in many forms and in many ways in every area of your life. I pray that unselfishness is part of my being from this moment on. I pray that I give of myself more. And I pray that I fulfill the law which never fails, which casts out fear, which gives peace of absolute union with God.

In the silence of prayer …

I pray that we know God as unconditional, perfect love. I pray that we may experience the joy of rebirth in God’s love. And I pray that we yield ourselves to its wonderworking power and direct its creative energy towards all that needs to be adjusted, removed, harmonized, or healed in our lives this day.

Prepare yourself, now, for this to occur in the silence of prayer …

In Jesus Christ’s name I decree that you live in God and God lives with you. I pray that your heart overflows with an understanding love and your life is filled with harmony. And I pray that you make that triumphant entry into a new level of Thinking, into a new awareness, into a new life.

In the nature of Jesus Christ we pray, and we act …

Amen and Amen.

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Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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08Mar

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Asking For and Using God’s Help

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Asking For and Using God's Help

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. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

_____________________________________

“Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.” Philippians 4:6

Is Life Overwhelming? I have heard some people say in the past, they do not want to bother God unless it is a crisis emergency situation. Some have said that God’s help is not to be used for small things.

Sometimes, life can become overwhelming. No matter how much we plan, or how much we prepare for it, sometimes things happen, and we feel out of control. We feel as if we do not have the power that we had before. Something has happened, but we don’t know exactly what.

Do you remember the story of the giant in “Gulliver’s Travels?” Here was a person, like us, who was all-powerful. Here was a person who could walk above problems. Here was a person who could seem undefeatable but the giant’s thoughts were working against him.

The giant in “Gulliver’s Travels” falls asleep on the beach. While he is sleeping, all these tiny, little people come, put strings over him, and then stake down the strings.

A few strings would be no problem at all. He could easily pull those up, sit up, and go about his way. But these little people worked all night long. Each tiny, little person came up to the giant and placed strings across him.

The giant wakes up and finds that he cannot move his arms or legs, and he cannot sit up, no matter how hard he tries because he is all tied down.

You and I have been the same experience, haven’t we of being all tied up in the thoughts and worries about momentary circumstances of our lives.

These little people are those little worries, those human thoughts, those little things that scramble around inside of your mind and that seem so uncontrollable. Every time they move across, they take a string with them. Soon you are tied down. Soon you are weak in thought and you don’t feel like you can get up again. Soon you think the weight of life is pulling you down.

You might say, “God, can I ever stand again? Can I walk tall and free? Can I ever be all I once was?”

You can! You can! With God’s help you can.

Sometimes, the things that happen to us can seem so overwhelming. But whatever they are, you can! You have the power – because God has the power and the know-how.

We have the ability to have a transfusion of thought where we totally change our mind; where we have a fusion (if you will) with a Mind that is greater than our mind, God’s Mind that knows how to lift us up and out of our problems. When we are free from selfishness, limitation, greed, fear, anxiety, hatred, and inferior feelings we can stand up to anything.

Revelation 21:4-5: “The former things are passed away … Behold, I make all things new. “

Who is “I?” The “I” is God. Imagine if God came up to you, tapped you on the shoulder, stood right by your side, looked into your eyes, smiled at you and said, “Don’t let the past burden you. Don’t let it tie you down on the beach of life anymore. Don’t worry about those waves. The past is no more. It has passed away and you have a brand-new life in Me.”

To truly follow Jesus Christ, we have to do this in our prayers, inside our own thinking.

There are four biblical keys to Jesus unfoldment, and four biblical keys to our own unfoldment.

Let me go through the biblical keys. In many original texts of the Bible Jesus is referred to four different ways. These four ways have real keys of mystery.

The first degree of unfoldment: Jesus.
The second degree of unfoldment: Jesus Christ.
The third degree of unfoldment: Christ Jesus.
The fourth degree of unfoldment: Christ.

I’m going to relate this to you because everyone goes through the same experiences as those people in our beloved Bible. In our own spiritual growth, if we are following Jesus, we must go through the same experiences Jesus did.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” John 14:12

The first degree is Human/Jesus. This is the outward-directed human with aspirations of more spiritual consciousness. The outer child, in spirituality, that questions his powers and abilities. This is when you are totally outward directed. You wake up in the morning, you wonder, “What kind of day am I going to have?” You turn on the television and listen to the weatherman to help you determine what kind of day you are going to have. You go to work and see how others treat you. That determines what kind of day you’re going to have.

Outer events totally determine how you feel inside of yourself.

You are outward directed, but somewhere inside of you, you know that there is more. The thoughts you have that are not outward-directed are just “toy” thoughts.

Let me explain what I mean by “toy” thoughts.

Toy thoughts are the young person playing with dreams of the future or the old person playing with memories of the past.

Let’s suppose one day you get fed up with being tied on the beach and you say to yourself: “Isn’t this interesting? I’m tied down. I can’t move my arms or legs. I can’t go where I want to go or do what I want to do.”

Perhaps you feel tied down in your career. You know in that moment that there is more. You say: “Wait a minute! I can have more. With God’s help, I CAN be a success. I can do what I dream of doing. I don’t just have to play with these thoughts anymore. I CAN do it!”

There was a point sometime in the past, in your life, when you were seemingly tied down. Sometime, somewhere, when you dreamed about it, but you went BEYOND the dream.

You have to go through this again, and again, and again, to get beyond where you are, to go beyond the imagined potential.

If Jesus would have just imagined and daydreamed, He would not have lived up to his potential and His mission.

The second degree is Jesus Christ. This is the human consciousness merging with Christ consciousness. This is when you are merging your mind with God’s Mind, but you are still putting worldly things first. That is when you are still putting the weight of the world first, but you have a strong anchor of God consciousness somewhere inside of you. The Jesus Christ consciousness is growing, evolving, and becoming more in you.

The third degree is Christ Jesus. This is when the spiritual now comes first in your life. You have a Divine indifference to outside appearances.

That is like when you go into the doctor’s office and the doctor says, “I have a dying-nosis for you, it doesn’t look good.”

You say: “Wait a minute.” That’s not true, and through prayer you give yourself a living-nosis. It is a spiritual knowing about the healing power of God with you. You are more than you see within the image of the mirror.

Or it is like when someone says to you, “You really think you can build this business?”

There are always people in your life to give you a negative message. They do not know any better. They are looking just to outer appearances, not knowing about the spiritual help that is available behind the appearances. God is the great untier of your life, God is the great unbinder of all that has held you down.

You will have a Divine indifference to a negative message. You know you can do more because you are not alone. You know you can go beyond – be more, do more – because you have a knowledge of God who is bigger than any appearance that you, and others may see with their human eyes.

The fourth degree on our quest is the Christ. This is when we are in the world but not of it. This is when we no longer MAKE TIME for our faith, we now place God first; our faith comes first, and we have to make time for all other things. This is a HUGE difference.

Previously, we might have said: “Oh, God, I don’t have time to pray today because I’m so busy. I’d feel better if I had time to meditate, but you don’t know the pressure and deadlines I’m under.” How much better it is to allow faith to come first, to pray, and to meditate.

When you do this, you are recharging; you are getting ready; you are going apart for a while like Jesus did, and then you are coming back into the world fully powered, super-charged, ready to perform miracles. Nothing can stand in the way of the Divine power coming in and through you. You are then FULLY working with God. You are so much of God in action and God’s love in demonstration that people cease sensing you and they sense God. That is the Christ.

We have seen, or sensed those in life that manifest this degree. Mother Teresa is an example that comes to mind.

Is this a one-time experience? It’s not even a one-time daily experience. It is something we have to constantly decide upon, choose, and do. When we do, we truly follow Jesus, we live up to our potential of all we can do and be.

Jesus told us: “Leave your nets.” These are nets of personal involvement. What do your nets pick up? If you are putting down your nets in your human mind and catching things, your nets are picking up thoughts of people who are telling you that you can’t build your future, you can’t prosper, or the dying-nosis that says you can’t rebuild the cells in your body with God’s help to produce new wholeness and life.

Jesus said, “Leave your nets – and follow me.” What does that mean?

It does not mean to follow Him with just your feet. It means to follow Him with your head and heart.

There are a million miles between the two. We can run to every church and religious service and still never “get it.”

But we can close our eyes wherever we are in prayer and “get it” right where we are – in an instant. You have it within you to rely upon.

It is discipleship.

Discipleship means to perfect who I am, and to fully expect to perfect myself. Now, this is quite a difference. I can stand here and talk about perfecting, but I am not talking theory. This is practical, useful, life-changing practice.

We are taking it from theory, putting it inside of ourselves, and agreeing right now, in this time: “I will walk the talk. I will act in this way.”

When everyone around you is being unloving, you stand up and say: “This is it! Right now, if I really believe, if I am really going to follow Jesus Christ, I’m going to be loving RIGHT NOW.” Whatever it takes, make the spiritual decision, and live by it. No longer live in the means and ways of small mind.

Walt Whitman said, “I am not contained between my hat and my shoes, and neither are you.” You are much more.

Any time you think you are contained, you are like that giant tied down.

Any time you sit in a chair and think this is all there is to your life, you are like that giant tied down.

If something is going wrong and you’re depressed and you think this is all there is, you are like that giant tied down.

You need to go to a higher Mind than the mind that caused your problems, in order to heal your problems.

When you do, the strings just melt away. The burdens are no longer burdens because you have 1000 times the power. You follow Christ to your potential.

Christ IN YOU – the hope of glory!

We are not just to stand at the foot of the Cross and look up. We are to take Jesus down and follow Him by becoming what He said to become; by becoming an active student on the quest; by becoming that inside of ourselves, which will cause people outside of us to say, “Now there is an example – a sample of the great example – of Jesus.” We are active examples of our faith, OR not.

There is a story of a man watching a woman yelling at someone. He sees her open her car door which has bumper stickers of the church she attends on it. The man decides never to attend that church because obviously it’s not working.

Following Jesus, we become living examples of our faith. We sense it working in us, and so does everybody else.

We realize that Jesus did not have a sick, unhappy, vengeful, or judgmental God. We realize that He did not have a poor, limited God. We realize that my God is big enough to be your God, and bigger than any problem we both may EVER face.

We are not tied down to anything on earth, but instead tethered to heaven itself.

How do we do this?

There are three “D’s” to discipleship.

The first D – Discipline. This is renunciation and control over the little people who live inside of our minds, or those outside of us (the little people) who are shouting negativity that we have listened to for so long. Or maybe it is our own voice, which is saying: “I know how to get you. I know how to push your buttons. You have an inferior feeling right here, and this button is easy for me to push. This self-condemning voice can put you down for days.

Discipleship is standing up, inside of you, in the moment, becoming the giant you are, and not letting the little people tie you down any more. It is ending, once and for all, the tyranny of the unwanted in your life.

The second D – Dedication. It is a single-pointed focus. Matthew 6:22 Jesus states, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light.”

In John 18:37 Jesus says, “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” [RSV]

How would you bear witness to the truth if you decided to witness? IS IT to go to someone else to convince him or her to think the way we do? No. It is to live it. It’s to be a sample of the great example.

The only way you can ever really change a person is by him or her seeing something exhibited by you that he or she wants to become. This person will want it so badly that he will go after it himself, which means he will have to go in the same direction you did and in the same direction Jesus did.

The third D – Devotion. “Draw near to God and God will draw near to you.” [James 4:8]

This is an all-embracing attitude of devotion.

We have to change our self-image. One reason we often block off our good is we do not have an adequate self-image. We live in human mind and human body only, and we realize we are frail. We realize we can’t do all the things we want to do. We’ve hit our walls of life and it has hurt. We’ve learned our lessons well, and we won’t do it again.

When we are tied down and locked into that pattern of thinking, we have an inadequate self-image. We need to change our self-image, realizing that we are a partner with the larger spiritual Self.

We do not think of ourselves in wrong terms. In truth we are children of God. In truth, we are native citizens of the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God is your house. God’s house is a mansion of love, joy, happiness, and a thousand other individual gifts awaiting your spiritual discovery.

The little thought people with the strings are always trying to tie us down.

Whenever anything in life gets you down, God can get you out of it. God can cut the rope that is tying you down. Nothing has to be an overpowering weighty experience.

You have a transcendent Christ who lifts you above everything you are facing in life. You have to change, in your mind, some of the things that human mind has locked you into. We have to change the human mind thought of criticism to the Christ Mind thought of praise and gratitude. We have to change the human mind thought of condemnation into Christ recognition. We have to change false belief into the truth of Christ. We have to change human mind sickness into the Christ Mind truth of wholeness.

We have to turn weakness into strength, limitation into fulfillment, fear into an all-knowing faith, hate into love, and prejudice into open-mindedness, compromise into integrity, falsity into honesty, ugliness into beauty.

I believe that with God as the center of your universe you can accomplish anything, and be happy doing it.

As we look at these words that are concepts of human mind and concepts of Christ Mind, we have to realize that, as native citizens of the kingdom of God, we have a free will choice – we can choose. I suppose that is the whole lesson and the destiny of each one of us. In this moment, tomorrow, and the next day we have the choice.

In the moment, do we follow the little people who are scurrying around on the beach trying to tie us down, or do we follow the Christ? If we follow the Christ, we have to get up.

At first, it may appear a struggle.

We may begin on our knees. We may have to struggle up the rest of the way until we stand.

BUT when we stand on the firm foundation of faith in God, we are the free soul.

We are flying high above our problems, looking down and saying: “My, don’t they look small and insignificant? I can’t believe that I allowed that to bother me so much.”

Let us pray.

Dear God, I know that I am more, I can do more, be more, and manifest more in my life. I agree to follow You, dear God in my spirituality. God, I totally consent to You NOW. Manifest Divine ideas through my human brain, words, through the words I speak, and the sounds I hear and perceive when I am hearing. Help me to keep my focus single, manifest through my eyes so that I am no longer blind – so I can see beauty everywhere in a new degree, higher, better and deeper than I ever have before. Manifest in my physical body temple so I can express radiant health. Manifest in my beingness so wherever I go I will radiate spiritual love to everyone without saying a word or making one action.

I give myself totally and completely today. I leave my nets, I follow, and I become.

In Jesus Christ’s name we so dedicate ourselves – each one of us – to this lasting truth of us.

Amen.

PRAYER / MEDITATION______________

I ask you now to relax and give up all the personal, heavy thoughts, and go within yourself, in prayer, on a quest to find God.

The same Christ spirit that was in Jesus is with you and within you. Jesus said that you are a child of God.

You find the Christ in your life and within yourself. And during this prayer time, perhaps in one of the periods of the silence, you realize that you are one with living presence of Jesus Christ.

In the silence of prayer …

Your soul now takes deep root in God. You are growing and unfolding, drawing upon the invisible and making God manifest in your life.

The power of the Divine presence of God is irresistible in you. Your part is to have faith in God, and to make God’s good things manifest in your life and affairs.

The Christ Spirit in you is a magnet to attract the Christ love. You are a true follower of Christ Jesus. You find that as you discipline yourself and your thinking to bring it in line with God’s Truth, your thoughts are formative. They are like seeds that produce after their kind.

In this prayer, you are cooperating with your Maker. You are training yourself to think life-giving, health-producing thoughts. You are in communion with God in prayer. You are praying for wisdom and guidance. You are open and receptive to the leading of Spirit, and it is revealed to you just what steps to take in order to do your part to establish Divine order.

Psalms 50:23 says, “To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.”

In the silence of prayer …

There is no limit to spiritual unfoldment in you. The spirit of God’s Truth within your soul is giving you a right understanding of every experience that comes to you.

You are calling some of your inactive, unused soul powers into expression during this prayer. You are developing your soul. This is an important step. You are exercising your powers, and how much stronger they spiritually grow.

The assurance and satisfaction of knowing that your faith and all the rest of your spiritual faculties are being developed towards the Christ degree of unfoldment comforts you.

God has created your earth; God has created you. Instead of your own thoughts, you go to Christ Mind and you receive whatever you need; you heed the instruction.

In the silence of prayer …

Dear God, I thank You that the solution to every problem lays within us and within You, dear God, I find what I have been searching for my whole life long.

In Jesus Christ’s name, on our quest to that degree of unfoldment, we pray … 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 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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01Mar

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Live in God’s Joy

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Live in God's Joy

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. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

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Psalm 100:1 “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all you lands.” For a lot of people, joy is a far-off memory. I am suggesting to you, that joy can be a daily, hourly, moment-by-moment experience.

You can experience the joy of being alive again.

Jesus was the best teacher of joy.

There was a man that had great hardship in his life. For years he lived with a great sadness.

One day, an ordinary day like today, he decided to give up sadness for joy. He said life is too short to be wasted, and he made a conscious decision to live in joy. It was as easy as that. He reported later, he never felt so alive, since childhood.

People realize that Jesus knew about joy. They knew that whenever they heard Jesus speaking, they would experience joy; that He would share techniques, strategies, and methods they could use to experience the joy of being alive.

Those people realized that Jesus would share with them simple, clear, understandable, easy ideas as to how they could experience more joy in their lives. They were just like us today – they wanted to experience the total joy of being alive.

They knew that not only would He share techniques and strategies they could use that would be simple and easy to understand, but He would be interesting and entertaining.

For our scripture, we will look at a situation that takes place in the ministry of Jesus where He was sharing ideas, they could use to experience the joy of being alive. The beauty of it is that He was sharing it in an interesting and entertaining way. He would put the information in story form. If you want to get people’s attention and hold it, He knew, story form is probably the best form you could possibly use.

Luke 15:11-13, Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So, he divided his property between them. A few days later, the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country.”

The story speaks to us out of the past with many levels of truth. The first level truth of the complete story is that you can search everywhere for joy, but it is found right where you are in your own backyard.

This morning we will be looking at these few verses. In those few verses are some ideas, some techniques, and some strategies you can use to experience the joy of being alive.

The first idea that comes out in this story is: Look at your rules.

For a lot of us, very simply and easily put, if we are not experiencing very much joy in our lives, if we are not experiencing the joy of being alive, it’s probably because of our rules.

Look at your rules: What are the rules? What needs to happen in order for you to allow yourself to experience the joy of being alive?

One man admitted, honestly, “There was a time in my life when I had to be wearing a $1,500 suit, have $1000 dollars in my pocket, live in an expensive home, drive an expensive car – and the list went on and on – for me to be happy.

Needless to say, I had set it up so it was difficult for me to experience joy on a regular basis. Not only was it difficult – if I’m honest – it was probably impossible.”

Another person, a woman, an admitted workaholic, said that she could only experience joy when all of her work was done. The problem was the work was NEVER done.

A married couple admitted that they could only experience joy when they were away from home; the only problem with that rule, with two people working, they could barely ever get away and it started to affect their relationship.

One man had a rule of looking to retirement for his joy, in an imaginary future, instead of living in the joy of the moment. He put it off until some future time. The problem with this is – joy is a learned response to life; unless it is practiced, it is lost.

Maybe you, or someone you know, are doing that. Maybe you have life’s self-imposed rules set up in such a way that you have made it difficult, if not impossible, for you to experience joy on a regular basis.

I suggest that you have the power to change all of that for yourself. If you do wish to experience the joy of being alive on a regular basis, not just on rare occasions – you can change the rules.

One woman laughed saying: “I have only one rule now: Any day above ground is a good day.”

Spiritual people find joy in the ordinary, and even in the mundane.

I suggest to you that this is, indeed, a great joyous day. This is a great day filled with a great opportunity for you to experience the joy of being alive.

A spiritual person finds great joy in the ordinary days, when nothing special is happening.

If you are not experiencing the joy of being alive, look at your rules. Maybe you have made it too complex, too difficult, or too complicated; maybe you have set the game up where it is impossible for you to experience joy on a regular basis.

The younger son in this parable had done that. His rule for experiencing joy and happiness was to leave home and the relationship with his family. In his mind, he had to leave his father, and his family in order for him to experience the joy and happiness in being alive.

How many of you are parents? At one time or another, you have either been the parent figure or you have been the younger child. Let’s break it down and see if we can clothe it in modern language and put it in a modern context.

What was going on? Just imagine when you leave the service, this morning, your younger son or daughter is waiting for you. He/she comes up to you and says, “Listen, I’m ready to leave and I’d like a little traveling money. You told me you were going to leave me some money when you die, right? I have an inheritance coming, right? Well, I’ll take my inheritance right now.”

Would that create a problem in your life? If you have children or grandchildren, you might plan to leave all of them some money. But if even one of them should come to you, after this service, and tell you that he/she wants their inheritance right now, you would have a problem.

Your assets are probably not that liquid. You would have to sell several things in order to give him/her the inheritance you would like to leave.

So, this younger son has created a problem for his father in demanding his inheritance. In a very real sense, this younger son is really saying that he does not want to have any reason to have to come back here. He is saying, “I’m breaking the relationship between you and me. It’s over. Give me the money and I’m gone.”

By demanding his inheritance in advance, before his father passes away, he is actually breaking the relationship. That is the second idea for joy I’d like to share with you.

The second idea is: Look at your relationships.

In our lives, there are some relationships we do need to break; maybe even run away from. But those relationships, friends, that have nurtured, nourished, and encouraged you – supportive positive relationships – are those you want to keep.

You do not want to break off from those relationships that are good and supportive, and that have proven over time that they are in your best interests.

This father has proven that he loves his son, yet the son wants to break this good relationship.

Do not break good relationships.

The joy in being alive will not come through things, but through love.

The joy of being alive comes from the relationships we have with one another, and the relationship we have with God.

You want to nourish and encourage the good, positive relationships. And you want to go out and make new relationships with other individuals who are positive and willing to support and encourage you.

This boy, in his youth, inexperience, and desire to chase after illusive, imaginary joy and happiness, broke the relationship with his father. That is joy based on the false belief that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

That is why he was demanding the money up front.

Next, let us consider the father. What a man he must have been. He did not beg, barter, or bargain with his younger son. He just produced the money. He knew what was going to happen with that money. He knew his son was going to put it in sack, throw it across his back, head out toward the far country, and he would never see that cash again. His main worry was probably that he would never see his son again, but he knew the money would be gone.

He was willing to allow this boy to do what he needed to do. Maybe this was a sign of love. He produced the money, gave it to him without any argument, and let him go.

Human beings have a natural fight or flight response in them. For people that have not experienced joy in a while, they are too tired for fight, and they tend to daydream about flight to some imaginary place that will bring them seeming happiness. No place outside of yourself will bring you happiness and joy – it must come spiritually from within you – and not be dependent on imagining destinations.

Many people do not have a good relationship with themselves, and the fight or flight response is against themselves. They fight themselves, all the time, with inner anger and turmoil, and have flight through substance abuse, or addictions of other kinds.

This does not ever work because you cannot escape yourself.

What is needed for joy is a new, higher kind of relationship with themselves.

The third major area to experience joy is: be intentional about your growth.

I want to say something good about this son. This boy, in Jesus’ story, represents growth. Don’t you admire a person who is willing to grow? Well, this boy is about growth. Sometimes, in order to grow, you have to actively seek change.

The boy thought as long as he was at home with his father, no matter how good the father was, he could not grow. He needed to leave.

I think, though, that you can leave without breaking off the relationship. The way he left was not good, but the fact that he was seeking growth was good.

One of the best ways to reinvent life is to reinvent yourself right where you are to change from center to circumference of you. In the end it is the only thing that will lastingly work, because no matter where you go you take yourself with you.

If you want to experience the joy of being alive, look at your rules, look at your relationships, and intentionally be about growth. Put yourself in situations and dynamics where you can grow. . Pray to God that you are willing to grow to find lasting joy in your life

There have been times in your life when you had to go. School, a new job, getting married – these are all transitions of movement in the quest to experience more joy in your life.

Many times, you have had to push the envelope of what you thought was possible to get to the growing edge of life.

For this young boy, his growing edge was he had to go. In order to grow, he felt like he had to go.

You are the expert on you. Never pretend to be an expert on someone else. You know where your growing edge is.

If you want to find your growing edge, check your feelings. When you are face-to-face with your growing edge, you’ll experience a certain emotion – fear.

One man, who had a lot of fear, spoke aloud this positive prayer affirmation: “If I can’t, then I must, with God’s help.”

If there is an obstacle in your life, a growing edge in your life, that you are frightened of and can’t face, just maybe … you must.

His second prayer affirmation that has stuck with me was: “Once I take the first step, God will do whatever God needs to do to protect me.”

Once we take the first step toward my growing edge, God will do whatever God needs to do to protect us.

Often, a lack of joy in life can be traced to the fact that the soul is no longer seeking growth but has accepted the status quo.

There is a presence and a power with you that is mightier than any circumstance. Once you take that first step toward confronting your growing edge, you experience it. Once you take the first step, God will be with you every step of the way. Take the first step in faith.

Take the first step towards the experience of the joy of being alive. Look at your growth put yourself in a dynamic situation. Be intentional about it so you can face your growing edge.

You know what it is, because when you go to walk through it, it will feel like walking on air. But when you get to the other side, you will experience the joy of being alive.

That is my prayer for you this morning.

I want to suggest to you that you deserve to experience the joy of being REALLY alive.

Look at your rules.

Look at your relationships.

Look at your growth. Look to God.

Let us pray,

Dear God, help me to honestly examine my life. Have I set up rules that are truly barriers to me experiencing joy? Help me to reevaluate my self-imposed rules and tear down the self-imposed barriers, so that I can experience real joy, right now. Just for today, I will eliminate all rules, and conditions, that I have placed upon myself, and allow myself to experience Your joy.

Dear God, help me to honestly examine my relationships savoring the ones that I need to savor, and severing the negative associations that I need to sever, so that I am lifted up. Help me, also, to re-examine, with an honest look, at the relationship that I have with myself. I promise to treat myself better, and to be good myself, just like I promise to be good to those that I love.

Dear God, help me to grow, help me to seek, help me to get past my fears so that I can feel totally alive again.

God, I consent now to new, positive rules, relationships, and growth.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

God bless all of you!!

PRAYER / MEDITATION________________________

In the silence of prayer,

God’s Truth is here; love is here; God is here; and joy is here.

In the silence of prayer, we have the opportunity to experience the joy of being alive.

Dear God, we open ourselves this morning to experience the joy of being alive. This wonderful gift You have placed within our hearts, our minds, and our spirits is the joy of being alive.

We cannot ask for more than that. We cannot ask for more than joy. And it is a gift You have already given us. Within us is the joy of being alive.

In the silence of prayer, accept the joy of the Christ …

(Silence)

This morning, we are willing to open our hearts and minds, to take off the shackles and the fetters, to free ourselves to experience the joy of being alive.

And so, with a sense of expectation, with a feeling of gratitude, perhaps even with awe and wonder, we step into this experience of joy – the joy of being alive.

In the silence of prayer we humbly ask for more life …

(Silence)

I am willing to experience the joy of being alive.

Dear God, I am willing to accept and embrace the joy of living.

I am willing to experience the joy of being alive.

That is God’s Truth in action, and You have made it so, dear God.

We accept it …

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 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

Read More
15Feb

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – The Final Mission of Jesus

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - The Final Mission of Jesus

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. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

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This message is for people of all religions. It is a powerful message. It is a message of Jesus Christ.

The final mission of Jesus was to introduce the Holy Spirit into your mind, into your body, and into your life.

Let me share with you John 14:15-21, 23-26. It is the promise of the Holy Spirit to you.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another [Counselor], to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him, nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. I will not leave you orphaned; … “

I will not leave you orphaned. Many times, we have felt orphaned.

The Bible says that we are children of God, but many have felt orphaned before?

The promise of God is, “I will not leave you orphaned.” I am with you at all times.

“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.

In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

“Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.”

Jesus says, “Listen, I am not the one talking here. Something is talking through me. I am hearing it for the first time also.”

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the [Counselor], the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name (nature), will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

Jesus told His followers that after the ascension they were to go to the upper room in Jerusalem. He says the same thing to you. The upper room is a high, peaceful place of consciousness inside of you. Think of yourself – you are the temple of the living God.

Where is the upper room today? It is inside of you. You can visit the upper room at any time, and have that experience with God.

This is where the Holy Spirit comes, where the Holy Spirit descends upon you and you find new power.

We possess a dynamic power beyond anything we can imagine.

A few years ago, Sir Oliver Lodge was quoted as saying this: “There is energy enough in one cubic inch of ether to run a forty-horsepower engine for 40 million years.”

I like that. The power that is available to us in God is beyond all human conception.

It is beyond our comprehension, even for those who are in the ministry because as much as we know, there is so much more to God. There is more to our realization of this Power that can come to us at any time.

Jesus says to you, (this is Jesus talking directly to you this morning), that all power should be given to you. This carries with it the idea in your life of unlimited capacity. For mastery and dominion on over all the circumstances in your life, you need the power of the Holy Spirit.

There is a tremendous, unused, yet undeveloped power available to you at all times.

This is the power of the Holy Spirit.

It does not come into expression, though, until you call upon it. Now, anyone who has felt the baptism of the Holy Spirit can tell you that it is a beautiful and extra-ordinary experience. Jesus knew you needed a personal helper, a very individual helper. This individual helper is yours this day. It is the power of the Holy Spirit.

People often ask, “Who is this Holy Spirit? What is this power that has been given to us by Jesus Christ?”

The apostles knew the Holy Spirit as the third person in the trinity. The Father is always the first, the Son is second, and the Holy Spirit is third. God is everywhere present. You have God’s Word speaking in you right now. It has spoken in you in the past. This Word says to you, “My child, with me you can get through this. With me, you can be healed.”

You have heard that Word. Now, your human mind might have taken over, and said, “Oh, that’s nonsense. I won’t have any part of that!” And that’s your free-will do that. But you have heard the Word that was given birth by the Mind of God. You can work with the Word. You can also speak to yourself the Word of God through the power of your own spoken word.

The Holy Spirit is the movement of that Holy/Whole activity of God inside of you, outside of you, into manifestation and demonstration. The terms Father and Son express an eternal relationship. The Holy Spirit is the infinite “breath” of God, as the Son is the infinite “Word.” God is located anywhere you recognize God. If you, this morning, recognize that you are not alone, that you are not orphaned, that you have a power that is with you, you are recognizing, not this church or this sermon, but you are recognizing God and God’s power directly. It seals you to an identification that forever changes you, and who you think you are. It seals within you an idea that you are more than flesh and bones, that you are not out there alone trying to recreate everything, and rebuild the wheel. You are immersed in God’s help that is ever-present and available to you right now.

To the extent that you and I identify ourselves with this Mind of God, the only source of existence, we become Spirit in expression, until finally the union is so perfect that it attains a perfection. That is the time we can say with Jesus Christ, “I and the Father are one.” In making your demonstrations, you work with the conviction in your heart that you are one with God. In the times of silence, you know that you are one with God, and you know that all will be revealed to you.

In the Bible, ideas are symbolized by fish. An idea is an original, a primary,
or an unlimited thought of being. In God Mind, it is the eternal word, or the logos. In the idea – are involved all the potentialities that are and can be evolved through you. Ideas are catching. We are all heavily charged with ideas. You are charged with ideas right now that could change your life; ideas that can revolutionize your existence.

You are charged with them. When these ideas are released, they spring forth and pass from mind to mind, being recorded as they fly. When they are expressed, the whole of humankind is lifted up.

You cannot find God without lifting up everyone around you because of what you are radiating in your consciousness. These true ideas are charged with an uplifting Spirit. You are bringing Divine ideas into manifestation just by your willingness to sit here this morning and accept some of these ideas for yourself, as yourself, and for others through yourself.

Jesus said that we are co-existing with God. Jesus said that we are interacting, inter-communicating with God at all times. He also said that there is a highness to this experience.

The highness is to receive the Holy Spirit. “He breathed on them and said unto them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.'” Listen to the power of the spoken word for you this morning.

In the presence and the power of the Christ, you proclaim your perfection. Through Jesus Christ, you are the master of every realm of consciousness in your being. Through Jesus Christ, you enter into a full and complete understanding of how to handle all states of consciousness inside of you to the glory of God. You are illumined with the light of Spirit.

You bring every thought into captivity, to the obedience of the Christ. You commit all your works unto God’s good, and your purposes are established. Every plane of consciousness in you is transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And so it is. Amen.

The power of the spoken word lies within every one of us. We can begin by freeing the little, small ideas we have, and fill our minds with thoughts of God’s plenty. We must realize that all power is given to us in heaven and on earth, as Jesus said. He told His apostles that they should receive power when the Holy Spirit had come upon them. They were told to go to that upper room, within us we find the upper consciousness where spiritual forces begin the formation of new ideas.

After you get into the spiritual consciousness and receive the quickening, speak the word with authority and with power, concentrating the attention on the power center in the throat. When the soul makes complete union with God Mind, there is always an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is the true glorification, which comes by the acknowledgment that God is with me; true glorification, the acknowledgment by the God that the Child is indeed lifted up and glorified.

Thus you can be assured of an inner guide that is willing to direct you. We are talking about you individually; you, the individual sitting here this morning, not the disciples 2,000 years ago. This is more than a possible possibility.

This is an assurance given to you. There is an inner guide with you, that is willing to direct you, and speak through you. But you must be open and receptive in your mind and listen to this wonderful helper.

When you let the Holy Spirit come into your full awareness, God’s perfect plan will unfold in your life. All the good thoughts, words, and prayers are put into action with power and authority. The Holy Spirit is important to anyone who has a need of healing. We all need to be filled, and refilled, with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

As we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, we are renewed, healed, and restored in mind, body, and soul.

The Holy Spirit will take over when you let it speak through you, lead you, heal you, and fill your heart with love, compassion, and understanding. Since the Holy Spirit represents God in action, we need to use this power to act through us, to heal us, and to speak through us. When we have prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to take over, it’s going to flood our whole being, not so much with excessive emotional feeling, but as a warm, loving presence that literally speaks and acts through us.

Act as if you already have the Holy Spirit.

The person who would have fruit from the tree of life, must reach up and get it. He, or she must aspire to it first, and then in prayer, and true word, act as if he had already received it; he must go right ahead living the Gospel, healing the sick [basically in today’s life, most of the healing of the sick is healing yourself] and doing other commandments of the Master, exactly as if he were already filled with the Holy Spirit. When the disciples of Jesus wanted to forbid those, who were doing works in his name, he said, ‘Forbid them not.’ So everyone who goes ahead and does the very best he knows in the name of the Most High Good, will be by virtue of their works draw down upon himself the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

What is this going to give you? It is going to give you an inner “revelation of your power and the possibilities of your own being. It is the light that is going to bring to your notice the inner mechanism of your soul and body. Where your eyes have seen only flesh, blood, and bones, the searchlight of the Holy Spirit discloses the presence of secret springs and living streams of energy and life. You will awaken from your dream of only 5 senses consciousness and begin to visit the different rooms in the temple in which you live, but you know so little about with a whole new eye of realization of what this temple is. You are permitted to do so through the light which lighteth every human, coming into the world.

Let us pray. Listen to these words, because I am talking directly to your spiritual consciousness.

I am talking directly to you, your mind, and your body. The word of Truth in you is not idle, but it is quietly spreading from point to point and the process will continue until your whole consciousness is vitalized by the Holy Spirit. The rejuvenating power of the Holy Spirit is now at work inside of you, in every atom and function of your body. It is making you alive. You are radiant with life and wholeness. There is an inspiration of the Holy Spirit that is right now reaching to the individual depth of your soul, and it satisfies your every need.

We pray, this morning, in the Holy Spirit, the whole spirit of God. We turn problems over to the Holy Spirit.

We are able to relax and let the Holy Spirit direct the outworking. The comforting, sustaining presence of the Holy Spirit is now uplifting you. It is strengthening you. You are feeling a power, you are feeling a strengthening now, in this place, and it’s nothing I am doing, or you are doing; it is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is expressing itself through you. It is touching you and all that concerns you. It is bringing order and harmony into your life and work. The Holy Spirit is taking command of your affairs, and you are prospered through new avenues of supply. This loving, powerful action of the Holy Spirit is taking command in your body, and you are renewed and restored.

In this acceptance this morning, you accept this power. I pray that it only accelerates and expands in you as this day goes on. As this service ends, nothing is going to end in you. The experience and the religious service is continuing in the true church of Christ which is the temple of the living Lord, your physical body temple.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

Prayer/Meditation____________________________________

As you rest in the presence of God, listen to these words of the Psalmist.

“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me” Psalms 139:7-10.

Feel, now, a special leading of the Spirit. These words of the Psalmist express his faith in the guiding, protecting presence of God. They inspire us even more when we realize that the author was writing during a time of conflict and great danger.

God is your help, right now.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God is with you no matter what your facing.
You do not face it alone.
God’s help is ever-present.
God is your inspiration.
Place yourself, your loved ones, and your friends in God’s loving care.
Entrust the day to God’s keeping and acknowledge God’s protecting Spirit from this attitude of calm, poise and prayer.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

This minute you are gaining new strength and power.
You are having the realization of the assurance, a conviction, and a realization that you, your life, and all you hold dear are safe and secure in God’s loving presence.
Realize that you live, move, and have your being in God.
This brings you to a sense of peace and security.
If you have thoughts of fear or pain this day, realize that you abide eternally in the protecting presence of God.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Dear God, this minute as never before, I am giving myself to You. I am putting my whole trust in You, not only for myself, but for my loved ones and friends. I know that everyone, including myself, is safe and secure. I know, God, that You are watching over us, shielding us, and guiding us. Fill me now with wisdom to know this, and good judgment to always choose this way. Fill me with the guidance to bring me safely through every experience.

“Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy Presence.”

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God’s presence is instantly available to you right now.
The presence of God, Divine intelligence within your mind, gives an instant answer to every thought.
Your mind is poised in God.
It is established in a citadel of strength against which nothing can prevail.
God’s promise of protection is standing in you.
God is answering your prayer.
There is faith and trust inside of you.
The eternal God is your dwelling place.
Underneath are the everlasting arms.

Rest, now, for a moment in the silence and feel the presence of God …

You feel a sense of peace that comes from power, the power of God within you blessing you, protecting you, radiating from you to bless and protect others.
You are in God’s loving care.
Your family and your friends are in the same care.

You are all safe in God’s loving care, and you are blessed and secure.
The light of God surrounds you.
The love of God enfolds you.
The power of God protects you.
The presence of God watches over you.
Wherever you are, God is!
In this moment, we pray.
In this moment, we know.

Through the power of Jesus Christ … 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 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

Read More
08Feb

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – A Pearl of Great Price

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - A Pearl of Great Price

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. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

_____________________________________

[Drink a glass of water] Ah … the nectar of life. Just think of it. It is something that is readily available to us. As we drink it, it pours into our being and gives us life. God is even more readily available to us and gives us life. God gives us so much to be grateful for, so much to pour into our being and to remind us of what life is and what it is all about.

When I was a child I used to love stories of buried treasure. Grown men have spent their whole lives looking for treasures, but few find them.

Christ told the parable of a merchant in search of fine pearls, who when he had found one truly great one, sold all that he had and bought the pearl – ever since known as the “pearl of great price.” What Christ refers to in the parable, of course, is the Kingdom of God. And lest we confuse anyone – the Kingdom means everything – God and all that you could possibly desire.

Of course the problem about searching for Great Pearls is that they are only found among many false pearls, and many pearls of far lesser value. More than the “needle in the haystack” – it is finding a pearl among pearls – even if all pearls are not alike.

It is easy at some point to say, “Well, after all, a pearl is a pearl, and even if this pearl is not THAT pearl, it’s still a pearl.” Which, of course, is all true, but beside the point. You wouldn’t sell all that you have in order to buy just ANY pearl. And, in truth, as the parable is structured, no other pearl will do.

Some say that there are no Great Pearls to be found among us, just lots of lesser pearls. And the point is to pick the best and know that when everything is said and done, God will turn your poor pearl into the Great Pearl and everything will be fine in the end.

Why speak of a pearl of great price if there was no pearl to be found? Why speak of selling everything in order to possess it, if it is actually as common as gravel along the side of the road?

The pearl of great price exists and is worth all that a human has.

Jesus tells the story in Matthew 13:44-46:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, buried in the field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl he went and sold everything he had, and bought it.”

In the First Century Mediterranean world, pearls were highly prized and sought after in such far away seas as the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. The merchant in the story is portrayed as traveling around to such places in search of pearls.

In the parable, the pearl discussed symbolizes the kingdom of God. This symbolism is well placed considering the value pearls held throughout antiquity. In the first century Mediterranean world, pearls often symbolized the highest good. According to Pliny the Elder (first century A.D.) pearls were considered the most valuable of goods, having ‘the first place’ and ‘topmost rank among all things of price’. Therefore, at the time this parable was spoken people would have better appreciated the magnificence of the Kingdom of God due to Jesus’ use of the imagery implicated in comparing the kingdom to a pearl of great value. It would be like referring to something valuable today as pure gold.

To His followers, the merchant served to describe themselves as disciples, and the pearl so earnestly sought represented the kingdom. Therefore, the parable operated to teach the people their relationship to the Kingdom of God. Today, this parable talks directly to you.

Once the pearl, or the kingdom, was found, “the [merchant’s] only proper response was to sell all else in possession for the sake of the greater worth of possessing the kingdom”

Therefore, “the kingdom is like a small, inconspicuous pearl – but one of incalculable value that, once discovered, calls for unrestrained response in the form of absolute discipleship”.

Through this parable, Jesus not only reveals the paramount worth of the kingdom of God, but also the idea that “a true disciple makes an immense commitment to the Kingdom” in face of this worth. All else seems valueless compared with that surpassing worth. No price is too great to pay … . Thus it is with the kingdom of God. The effect of the joyful news is overpowering; it fills the heart with gladness; it makes life’s whole aim the oneness with God.

Let me tell you a true story about a woman who had a dream one night:

In that dream, she found herself in what looked to be a large church building in a long line of people. As she approached the front of the line, she saw people going before an altar or a table of some kind, kneeling and receiving communion. A wafer was placed on the tip of the tongue and a sip of wine was given to each by a man standing behind the table in a long, white robe. As she looked at those people, they had a bit of a blank look on their faces, as if they were going through the motion of getting in touch with God, and then they blankly walked back out into their mundane world and existence.

As she got to the front of the line, she got ready to do what needed to be done to receive her communion. As she began to kneel before the table, the man behind the table said, “No, no, stand up.” She stood up. He looked at her and said, “You know what life is all about, don’t you?” The words just came pouring out of her mouth as she said, “Oh, yes, I know what life is all about. I know that we are born into this world for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to know and to experience God. I know that whatever happens to us in life, whatever we experience, is meant to bring us closer to that knowing and that experience of God.”

He smiled. As she opened her mouth to receive communion, (because now she thought she was ready), he handed her a pearl. He placed that pearl ever so gently in the palm of her hand.

He said, “You are ready. Now go and choose.”

Choose what?

It occurred to her as she contemplated this dream a little further, that life is filled with cycles of getting in touch with God, cycles of knowing all that we can be, and then going back out into our mundane existence and getting overcome with life, cycles of making new choices and then falling back into the very patterns that will not allow us to live up to those choices, cycles of coming to church or retreats or going on vacation, and touching that inner inspiration that tells us what we are, and then going back into the world and hearing of earthquakes and illness and war and poverty, and dealing with family squabbles and taxes and career and financial pressures, and getting weighed back down.

What is my pearl of great price? She asked herself.

We must ask ourselves this too.

I tend to hold with these words of Paul (from the book of II Corinthians):

“Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.” [II Corinthians 3:17-18]

Life is a progressive movement from one degree of glory to the next, so with each event (as similar as it may be to others that occur in our lives), we get an even greater glimpse, an even clearer look, into that mirror which images the Spirit of God.

The key is knowing that that is what is going on. How do we know this?

Rather than going blindly with that veil over our faces, through the rituals of life and existence, we can remove the veil and reach for that pearl.

Jesus taught about a pearl in a beautiful and wonderful parable, which we’ve heard over and over again. There is a reason for this – because it is a pearl of great price. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. On finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all he had and bought it. Short, succinct, to the point.

In the realm of the absolute, the pearl of great price is our oneness with God, our complete and whole communion (common-union with God, as the Creators children), who we are, the truth of who we are – our complete, joyful, oneness with God.

And, to sell all we have in order to buy (take possession of it). First in mind we have to sell off ALL our worries, our doubts, fears and our anxieties. We must release it all so we can take possession of that that is holy and perfect.

It speaks to our spiritual conscious awareness. The pearl of great price reflects the Holy truth of our oneness with God.

Now, we have available to us a multitude of Divine ideas. All we have to do is choose one – just one. We must incorporate this into our life and become it.

One Divine idea to take, as an active theme to your whole life, for example, “Serenity.”

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

This, as many of you know, is the Serenity Prayer.

The pearl of great price has to be uncovered and rediscovered DAILY not just once.

A man used this idea and even found peace in 25F. Twenty-five F was the Delta airplane seat he sat in all the way from Boston back to Dallas, after going to a friend’s wedding. In a 757, there are not any rows behind 25F. It is right up there against the bulkhead, next to the rattling engine. This 25F was something special. It came complete with a crooked seat cushion, and a bent tray table. When the person in front of the man, who had the luxury of leaning back, leaned back, the table went right into the man’s stomach, in 25F. And the window was so dirty that you could only see though a third of it.

Well, he was angry. “How dare they do this to me? After all, I’m a Frequent Flyer.” He was ready to call the stewardess and pull out his Frequent Flyer card and ask for first class. But he could see the plane filling up. As the curtain remained open to first class, he saw every seat in front of him filling up.

Then the Serenity Prayer came to the man’s mind.

God, grant me the ability to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. He saw every seat full and he knew he could not change it, so he accepted it. He decided to relax for the rest of the flight. Then, the plane took off.

He said, to put it in the words of an anonymous poet, the plane lifted and it seemed for a great instant that earth and sky parted. As we rose into that cloudless expanse, he gained a new perception of the world. It may have been out of one-third of a window, but he gained a new perception – one idea, the pearl of great price.

What is the pearl? It is action, which calls us to express our oneness with God in THAT moment.

I heard a psychologist once say that we often make wish to make changes in our life we often focus on what is missing in us, of what we lack and how we’re lacking. We’re lacking thinness; we’re lacking companionship; we’re lacking money; we’re lacking things; we’re lacking jobs; we’re lacking this, or that, or the other thing.

We will never obtain something, if our main focus is the lack of it.

However, if we choose one thing, just one pearl, one special spiritual gift to give ourselves, seeking God’s help, then everything else will fall into place.

This is what it means to sell ALL that you have and go for that pearl of great price. You see, the realm of spiritual awareness means to focus your mind, your heart, and all your thoughts, consciously, on the idea of your oneness of God. The realm of expression means to give your life to the fulfillment of the gift you are giving yourself.

One pearl, and all else falls beautifully into place.

Jesus said it another way. It is another saying we know so well. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all things shall be added unto you.”

There that woman was, in a dream, the pearl in her hand. The man had said, “You are ready. Go now and choose.” As he said that, she realized that the church she was in was more than just a building; it was a realm where many souls come when they have had enough of the world to close themselves in and work to get back in touch with God.

The veil was lifted as she became consciously aware of God’s truth of life that had spoken of itself in that dream. Life is about knowing and experiencing God. We can do this. We can break those endless cycles in which we feel stuck by knowing our oneness with God, by choosing just one single idea that reflects that oneness. No matter what comes up, no matter what happens to us or when, we bring ourselves gently back into focus with that idea.

By choosing our pearl of great price, and as we reach for that pearl and watch it being placed in our hand, it will begin to radiate and glow with a wonderful spiritual light that will light up our world.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION_____________________________

Let us pray,

As we rest in the presence of God, let us spiritually continue our inner walk with the Lord. We follow Christ. You fill your soul, as you see yourself walking in the presence of the Christ.

It is a beautiful setting – one that calls uniquely to your soul, one of your choosing. As you look out over this setting, a new day is breaking spiritually in your life.

With the eye of the mind, you see the sun as it lifts itself over the horizon. You feel its warmth fill your being. In the glory of this moment, you close your eyes and let the light enfold you.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Something begins to stir and rise within your own soul. A small point of light rising out of the darkness of fear and doubt, his growing ever larger, growing ever-more radiant as its rays reach into every part of your soul.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

This precious light of the Christ is filled with life. This precious light of the Christ is filled with love. This precious light of the Christ is filled with peace. It now fills your soul, your body, and your being.

For a moment of silent gratitude, you meditate on Serenity … Serenity … Serenity

Feel the Serenity of God as you rest. Let go and let God in the silence of prayer …

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Take a deep breath. Know that something has awakened in you. A dawn has broken in you that has never been there before. It calls you forth to know who you are. Jesus said you too are a child of the living God.

Allow the state to be a day of great celebration. It is right and good to celebrate in prayer for your awareness is on the complete possibilities of God.

Rejoice! Feel great joy as you acknowledge an awareness of God. Feel the spirit of life that is always with you, filling you with the promise of new and better things to come. Thank God because we have so much to look forward to, many new joys to experience. Through a new birth in your awareness, like Jesus you know your Divine connection and oneness with God.

The Spirit of Christ is reborn in us, and every cell of our being sings with new life and new awareness.

Know this truth of God is with you, now and always, as God’s light shines through you and as you. In your heart, in that quiet space, say to yourself,

“Thank You, God!”

Rest in the silence of prayer …

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 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

Read More
01Feb

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Prayer should be An Exciting Adventure

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Prayer should be An Exciting Adventure

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. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

_____________________________________

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dorothy Bernard said, “Courage is fear that has said its prayers.” Prayer changes you. Like Martin Luther said, “Pray, and let God worry.”

Jesus said in Mark 11:23-24, “Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” and if you do not doubt in your heart but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

A man tells a story of his grandmother. When Grandma was much younger than she is now, she lived on a small farm hundreds of miles from a big city. Her nearest neighbors were so far away she scarcely ever saw them.

Sometimes she would feel very lonely, especially when her husband was working far from home and she was left alone with the children for weeks on end.

Sometimes food would get scarce, and the children would have to go on short rations until their daddy got back with fresh supplies.

One bad winter he didn’t get back when he said he would, and the food ran out.

Grandma was worried. She hated to see the children suffer. Gladly would she have driven to the nearest village to buy food, but there was no way for her to get there. Her husband had the horse and cart.

She could not telephone for help, because farmhouses didn’t have telephones in those days. So, the last little bit of food was eaten, and Grandma wondered what would happen if her husband did not return soon. Next morning she went to the flour barrel and looked in. It was empty. This meant there would be nothing to eat for breakfast.

At this moment Grandma remembered another barrel that belonged to a woman like her, and how the prophet Elijah promised that if she would put God first, the barrel would never be empty.

She knelt by the barrel and prayed.

“I’ve always tried to put You first, dear God. I have paid my tithe and brought up my children to love You. Now we are in great need, and I claim the same promise.”

As she prayed a voice seemed to say to her, “Bang the barrel!” So, she stood up and banged it, good and hard, with the flour dipper. Then she looked inside. There was flour at the bottom. Quite a lot, in fact; at least enough to make a nice little breakfast for everybody. Next day Grandma banged the barrel again, and once more found flour at the bottom of it, this time enough to make a pan of biscuits. The third day she banged it again, and still more flour came.

The day after that she banged it again.

Believe it or not, she kept on banging that barrel for a whole month, and without fail always found enough flour at the bottom to give them something to eat. She was still banging it when her husband arrived home with fresh supplies of food. He laughed when he heard the story, but she did not.

To her it was something very precious. Ever after she would remember 1 Kings 17:14, “The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”

She had claimed God’s promise, and God had kept it, as God always does.

Would it happen? What do you think? Do you believe what Jesus said about mountain moving faith? Or are you like some people in the world who think that in order to have great things happen in life through prayer, you have to have an “in” with God? That somehow, you have to be just a little bit better than what you are right now?

After all, most of us tend to think that big prayers are the privilege of those who are just a little bit holier than us.

The criterion for answered prayer has to do with your attitude toward your oneness with God.

What we ask (as Jesus spoke of) with faith in our hearts, we will receive. Having faith is not really that difficult. Stop and think about it for a minute. We all have faith IN SOMETHING, even though sometimes we do not call it faith because we misuse it. We may have our greatest faith in the worst possible outcome that we worry about.

Jesus told us we must have faith. Jesus tells us to have faith in God, and that which you desire will be yours. Wherever you focus your attention, that is what you begin to draw to you.

So, if we have that kind of enthusiastic attention-drawing ability toward God instead of focusing on the potential negative events, we are on our way to a truly faith-filled God blessed life.

Mark 11:23, Jesus said, “If you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. “When you pray, do you doubt in your heart? Most of us have doubted.

The Truth of God is we cannot get away from God’s support and love. We are a living part of it. We all have the support and love of God every minute of every day. The spiritual quest is to act like it, to believe it.

Free-will is a spiritual law of life. We are free to accept our good or to reject it. It is up to us to accept it. You see, even God will not break that gift, it is one of our purposes in life to learn to use our free-will in oneness with God’s will.

If you choose to believe in God, God will give. If you choose to believe that God is eager, willing, and wanting to give you your good in life, then you are open and receptive to God’s good.

But if we choose to believe that God will not, then we are creating that circumstance for our life.

Only you can assure your good, and only you can stop it – you will block yourself off from your source of new creative life, inspiration, and help.

Prayer is an inside job. Your faith in God and belief in yourself as a child of God make the connection between your life and God. The connection makes the completeness.

Jesus said in Mark 11:24, “So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe you have received it, and it will be yours.” I want you to listen to these words, carefully, because Jesus did NOT say, “You have to believe that you will receive it;” He said, “Believe that you HAVE received it.” Do you see the difference?

Most of us believe (at the best) THAT SOMEDAY we will have our prayers answered. Jesus is saying to us: “Stop it! Believe that your prayers have been answered already.” Take that step out on faith. Make your prayer an adventure. Believe that you already have it, and it will be yours.

Let me tell you a true story, There was once a woman who lived a life of sickness. When she was young woman growing up, she had this belief because she had been told by her parents and her doctors that she had an inherited tendency toward consumption, and that consumption would, ultimately, shorten her life. She experienced illness, difficulty breathing, and problems with her health for many years.

It was her prayer that she would be healed. But it was not until she understood this spiritual law and claimed that she was already healed and thanked God for it in gratitude – without having to see it in her body, without having to see the results of it up front, that she KNEW she was healed.

She said it took her body a couple of years to catch up, but when it did, she was not sick again.

A wonderful positive affirmative prayer! I am healed NOW – it will just take my body a little time to catch up.

Healing is not just about what is happening in the body; perhaps more important, it is about what is happening in the mind and the heart in our active positive faith. It is about what we accept as the Truth of God about our own being. Once we accept that wholeness, the body must naturally respond. The body will follow because the body follows what we believe and what we know is the truth of our being.

When you pray, remember to accept with absolute assurance that the highest and best answer to your prayer is already yours. Asking in faith is the act of plugging yourself into God’s Divine Source, immediately and instantly (like plugging a lamp into the electric socket in the wall) provides you with the power and God goodness necessary to fulfill that desire.

But we must make the choice to believe in our prayers, to believe in God, to believe in what Jesus has told us – ask believing and it shall be yours – believe that what you have asked for has already happened, and it will be yours.

It is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. All you have to do is ask and accept the answer ahead of time.

Like the woman in the story, accept the healing, and then allow the body to catch up.

Every prayer we utter should be the beginning of an exciting adventure.

We cannot fathom what wonders God has in store for us, but can accept and give thanks for those wonders.

I would say to you this morning, as you pray may God bless you. May you let go and let God be God in your life. Then hang on, friends, because you are in for the God blessed adventure of a lifetime.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION__________________________

In the silence of prayer … God is here.

Let us each one, gently, quietly, move into that secret place Jesus spoke of, into the closet of our minds and hearts, into that place where there is nothing and no one, except yourself, and God.

Nothing can disturb the calm peace of your soul here in this secret place. Nothing can distract your attention. Nothing can take your attention away, for here is the place from whence all good of God comes. Here is the place your healing awaits. Here is the place of pure prayer – nothing less – oneness with God, a total and complete spiritual awareness of my oneness with God.

And in this secret, silent place of prayer, the deepest desires of your heart and mind are laid on the altar and given to God, in the total realization that it is not I but God who does the work – God who brings you new realization of your God-given good.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

That which you have been desiring, the gift of God, is wanting to express through you. Acknowledge it and accept it, in faith into the care and keeping of God you place this now. If there is a healing waiting to manifest in your life, acknowledge that healing now and know it is already yours for you are a child of God, a child of the Infinite, an expression of the Creator.

Acknowledge this, give thanks for it, and release any care or concern now and forever more.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

It is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, dear one. It is God’s good pleasure to give you the gifts of God. Though you may not know how these gifts will manifest in your life, know within your heart of hearts without question that this manifestation IS coming right now. That gift is coming into your life even as we pray, for it is God’s good pleasure.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

We thank God that this is so.

We rejoice and know this in the name and through the power of Jesus Christ … 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 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

Read More
25Jan

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Nothing to Fear

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Nothing to Fear

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. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

_____________________________________

It is good to know as spiritual people that God never tricks us, but instead always treats us to better than expected results. Better than anticipated answers to prayer.

With an awareness of God with us, there is never anything to fear.

Most fears in life are pretend fears.

Fear in life is the darkroom where negatives are developed.

Marie Curie said, rightly, “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”

An elementary school teacher, in California, was trying to help her children deal with their fears after a big earthquake. She had them draw pictures portraying their impressions or feelings. Most showed scenes of destruction. But one youngster’s picture was puzzling. It showed pointed objects sticking up above blue water. Asked to explain, the little girl said, “Oh, those are the after-sharks.” When you are afraid, the water is filled with “after-sharks.”

One woman said, “I dread going to the dentist. Once, to ease my tension, I listed my middle name as ‘Wimp.'” The receptionist read it, laughed and assured me that many patients felt the same way.

Half an hour later, the receptionist came into the waiting room. Looking directly at me, she said, smiling, “The doctor will now see the wimp.” Three other people got up with me.

Do you remember yourself as a child around this time of year?

Many people in this room are baby boomers.

There are many wonderful childhood memories we all have.

One 65-year-old man said*, “I will never forget my childhood bedtime ritual in the 1950’s.”

“Every night I would climb the stairs and go down the hallway to my bedroom.

Now, usually, I had to do this with my parents, because I just knew something lived under the bed; something lived in the closet. And it was there, waiting to get me. I was an only child, so every night, we’d go through the same thing. We would check all the rooms and make sure this monster did not come and attack me at night. We would check under the bed and in the closet. And after we had gone through this ritual that lasted as long as it possibly could, I asked my parents to leave the light on in the hallway. Eventually, after calling downstairs several more times for some excuse to get my parents up to my room again, I would finally fall asleep.

“Morning would come and it was like a victory, because I had made it through the night. The monster did not get me. I ran down those stairs, stepped on the old brown carpeting with my pajamas that had feet in them. My pajamas would always have some sort of animal on the feet, so when I walked, it looked like two animals were going along in my old cotton pajamas. This is the way it was in Ohio, at that time, with children.

“I would go downstairs and sit in front of this big, blonde-wood Motorola television set. It was about as big as this lectern, and it had a screen about as big as one of your hymnals. It would flicker while I would watch whatever there was to watch on television, during those early days of black and white TV.

“I was proud BECAUSE I MADE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT.”

In our Bible:

“A community leader came to see Zachariah, hoping to find peace of mind, and ease for his burden. The man was troubled by a repetitive dream that he did not understand.

“Zachariah, in my dream, I have traveled a long distance and am finally arriving at a great city. But, at the entrance to the city, I am met by a tall soldier who says that I must answer two questions before I am admitted. Will you help me?”

Zachariah nodded.

“The first question the soldier asks is, ‘What supports the walls of the city?'”

“That is easy,” said Jacob. “Fear supports the walls of the city.”

“But what supports the fear?” asked the man in his second question.

“The walls,” answered Jacob. “The fears we cannot climb become our walls.”

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

Many times, we have gotten into situations where we would like to hide, in order TO NOT FACE OUR FEARS. Many times, we have gotten ourselves into a corner and we do not know how to get out. We, seriously, do not know, in human mind, how to get ourselves out of a fearful problem. Many times, we have gotten into situations in our personal lives, our homes, our work, our business, our career, where it appears in our eyes, like a ghost house.

It is good, that we, as humans, can have a time of conquering our base fears.

First, we can have an event in your life that scares you.

What is that? It could be a change. There is an unknown ahead of you and you do not know how to get across the bridge to where you want to go. Or it could be that you are alone? You feel alone. You feel separated from God and from other people, and you do not know how to get back into the flow again, you are in a experience and you’re filled with fear.

GOD IS WITH YOU, HELPING YOU TO GET THROUGH YOUR YOUR NIGHT!

Second, fear goes into Thanksgiving. That is when we realize, again, that God is here and God is with us.

Then, third, we go to a new birth.

Never walk alone, accept the help that is available directly to you from God and Jesus Christ.

If the fear you are dealing with today is allowed to proceed to the realization of God in your own spiritual thanksgiving, you will have new birth. You will have a new life. You will get beyond your fear. You will get beyond where you are today, and you will have a whole new experience of being, that will be better than anything you have ever dealt with.

You may wonder how you are going to get past your fear. Well, let us talk about that.

Go to God in prayer, and ask for the help. Realize you are not doing it alone. Then, while you are in the experience, you will be so thankful because you will realize you are not doing it alone, then, you have a new spiritual birth.

In that new birth, you can go beyond anywhere you thought you could go every time with God’s help.

Some people prefer to stay in the fear experience of their lives. You may know people who stayed in their fears. They opt for that; it is their choice. They opt to stay in a fearful situation inside of themselves and never go beyond that. And some people even stay in the thanksgiving of the past, where they are thankful ONLY for things of the past. They can see that clearly, but they cannot seem to be thankful for today, the present.

It is those people who go beyond, who go from the fear, to God, to the new birth of awareness of God protection who are TOTALLY ALIVE.

For many people, if they see two holes in the ground and one hole is filled with snakes and the other hole is dark, they will jump in the hole that is filled with snakes, because, at least, they know what to expect. It’s true. It is sad. It is human nature. If you are this way in ANY area of your life, realize this is time to ask God for help.

You can go beyond fears with God’s help, to courage, strength, and protection. You can jump in the other hole called unknown and you can know it’s going to be okay because God is with you.

As we move, we are all moving into the unknown future. We will not have fear of the unknown if we know that God is going ahead of us, and preparing the good that will await us there. No longer will we build the bridge before we see the creek. We won’t try to say, “Oh, I’m going to hit this obstacle and I need this kind of bridge,” and all of a sudden, we’ve constructed a bridge in our minds, that is like the Golden Gate Bridge – over a creek. We have no need for a bridge of that type or magnitude. Possibly, we could just wade across the creek.

My scripture today is from Luke 11:14. I want to share it with you because it talks about getting rid of the scary things that are inside of you and me.

“Now Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute.”

Imagine, for a minute, that I am Jesus and you have a demon inside of you. That demon could be a lot of things, MAYBE a bad habit, a sickness, a feeling that you cannot accomplish what you need to do, a feeling that nobody loves you.

“When the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute, spoke, and the crowds were amazed.

But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.’ Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, ‘every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?'”

The word Satan, in first century Christianity means “inner tester.” Let us say someone has a serious alcohol problem. It is tearing his life apart. What Jesus is saying is this person can’t go into a bar, get a drink with a friend of his, who has a problem just as bad as his, and talk together and get rid of their habit? No. Satan cannot cast out Satan. It can’t happen.

Jesus said, “Now, if I cast out the demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

What Jesus is saying here is that we need to go from our personal Halloweens to an experience of God and have true new birth in awareness.

If I have a fear inside of me, I can’t get rid of that fear with another fear.

I have to get rid of it WITH God.

I can say, “By the authority of God with me, RIGHT NOW, through the power of the spoken word, I’m NOT going to have this fear in my life, anymore. I refuse it. I evict you from my thinking by the authority of God.”

I then solve my problem from a higher level of mind than I created it. I wipe out the fear that is inside of me by a higher level of spiritual faith than that which was in me when I created the fear. It works every time. I go from my inner, imagined fears to safety of the real God in thanksgiving. I realize something has happened and I have new birth of conscious awareness.

All of us have been, or are right now, or will someday be, in something that we consider “a hellish experience.”

But it is how we deal with an experience more than the experience itself that is important.

Acknowledge in that moment, while you’re there, or as soon as possible, you can gather in all your thoughts and acknowledge God. Otherwise, you are scattered to the winds and are defenseless.

We accept the leading of God to the NEW life in God.

We Overcome.

Daily worship in the spiritual cathedral inside of you.

There comes a time when I have to empty out myself and all that baggage I have packed for so many years, and accept a new infilling of God-strength.

I enter into a new consciousness. I jump into new belief with great vigor.

It is natural for you to be healthy. It is natural for you to have well-being. It is natural for you to have a foundation of spirituality when you are going through the scary things of life. It is natural for you to have joy and a smile on your face. This he is your own personal gift of God given to you as your birthright. Anything else is unnatural.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION____________________________

I invite you to join me in a special prayer time, that all of the world’s populations will have the privilege of joining in – a prayer that knows God IS WITH US right now.

Join me in a prayer that realizes that God is not far off, but right here, present, with us, and inside of us.

Prepare with a moment of silence in prayer …

Dear God, You are with me, surrounding me this moment. I come to You, and lay before You, on the altar of my being, the fears that are present in my mind; my beliefs that are in error about myself – about who I am, and about what I can become.

I come today to realize, with Your mind, working through mine, that I am more than just flesh and bones. God, today I consent to a spiritual infilling of Your Whole Spirit.

I consent to a feeling of well-being.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Dear God, I know I have the potential to become more than my present human fears.

But in order to do so, I have to empty myself. Therefore, in this moment, I am here to empty myself. I am emptying myself now of all fear and all anger inside of me. I ask that any anger that may have been held for years, stored in compartments of my mind, that I am not even aware of, can be emptied now – spiritually cleaned out, refreshed, renewed, revitalized, and regenerated by You, dear, wonderful God.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

The presence of God is with me NOW. The presence of God is causing a quickening in my mind and body. The presence of God is working gently, evenly, continuously, effortlessly throughout my being and my life.

Dear God, I give you – me, my life, all the little details I am involved in. I have been in a maze, but now I see.

Now, in the silence of prayer, I straighten out that maze and make my crooked ways straight.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

There is a peace inside of me. It’s only the beginning, but it is growing; it is inside of me.

There is a well-being that is created by God, the Creator, inside of me. There is a harmony that is in perfect balance inside of me and through me, touching my life. It is happening now. Every thought inside of my mind is under the dominion of God’s perfect Divine mind.

I say, thank You God.

In the name and through the power of Jesus Christ.

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 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

Read More
18Jan

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – God is Your Help in Every Need

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - God is Your Help in Every Need

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. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

_____________________________________

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and it will be yours.”
Mark 11:22, 24

There was an American who was visiting in England in a small British town. While there, he lost a valuable dog. He went to the local newspaper to put in an advertisement about the lost dog, and offered 100 pounds for its return. The newspaper came out that afternoon. Later in the afternoon, he went out to his mailbox to look for the paper, but it was not there. He went down to the corner to look for the newspaper, but he found, to his dismay, that there was no paper. He went to the newspaper office and he saw a small sign that read: There will be no afternoon edition today. We are all out looking for a lost dog.

We should grasp the opportunity when it comes and go for it. We should know that, as we go for the opportunity, we are not going alone; God is going with us.

Here is a story from a newspaper about God’s wonderworking power.

One day in the city of London in November 1971. A young man, a talented architect, became depressed and decided to take his own life.

He was going to jump in front of the next train that rolled into the station. In a few minutes, the young man heard the faint rumble of an approaching train. He inched up to the edge of the platform where he watched the subway headlights reflecting off the tracks. As it got closer, he took one last, deep breath to calm himself. As it rounded the curve, he jumped.

The engineer saw the young man jump, and he instinctively reached for the brake. Even as he did so, he knew it would be too late, for there was no way he could stop that train in time to save the young man. The front car had already begun to roll over the man lying there on the tracks. Just when it seemed as though they were going to crush him completely, the train screeched to a stop. The engineer stood there, amazed. He knew that his brake had not stopped that train. But what did? Firemen and ambulance attendants scrambled to the scene. They could not believe how close the man had come to getting killed. He was squeezed so tightly under the first car that they had to get special equipment to jack up the train and free him. But the man was alive, and he was unhurt.

In the meantime, subway officials had arrested a man who was on the same train. They charged him with pulling the emergency brake (which locks all the brakes on the train) for no reason. They had planned to take him to court, when they discovered that it was the emergency brake, and not the engineer’s brake, that had stopped the train and saved the young architect’s life. Once they heard this, they quickly dropped all the charges. Now, here is the strange thing about the incident. The man who pulled the emergency brake was much too far back in the train to see anyone jumping off the subway platform. Yet, he managed to pull the brake at just the right time. If he had waited a second or two longer, it would have been too late. If he could not see anyone, why did he pull the brake? When subway officials asked him, he couldn’t give them a satisfactory explanation. He said that all he knew was that he had an uncontrollable urge to get up, walk over to the side of the railway car, and pull the brake. He did not find out until months later that his uncontrollable urge had saved someone’s life.

God has great power. God has much more power than just working through your mind. God is working through everyone’s mind, even when we are not aware of it.

In New York, in the subway station, a young man had an epileptic seizure and fell onto the tracks of an approaching train. A man standing nearby witnessing what was happening jumped onto the tracks to pin the man down, between the two tracks, and protect him. This true hero did not have time to assess the situation, or even think about his own safety, he just followed his overwhelming urge to be of help to a fellow human. Both men miraculously were all right.

We need to realize that when we have the courage to stand up and take action and go the way we need to go, to follow that uncontrollable urge within us to do what we need to do to follow our dreams, that we’re not doing it alone. God IS with us!

There will be other people along the way to help us. There will be thoughts that come inside of us to help us. We need, from our adult minds, to find again that innocence of a child that knows we can accomplish what we wish to accomplish.

Recently the movie “Sister Act II” replayed on late-night TV.

This movie takes place in a school.

Teachers are some of the great unsung heroes in our society. The movie shows the power of one human and the effect they have on a group, who had forgotten their dreams and had given up at an early age.

Second, it shows kids they can dream and they can accomplish. This is what we do here in this ministry. We urge people–to follow their dreams.

We urge people not to listen to any of the negative talk outside of them (or inside of them), and to go for their dreams believing they can be accomplished with God’s help.

God inspired spiritual maturity is:
– The ability to stick with a dream until it’s finished.
– The ability to do a job without being supervised.
– The ability to carry money without spending it.
– The ability to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.

Spiritual people dare to dream for themselves and others. We do not have one dream in a lifetime – we have many. I was talking with a friend recently, and he was talking about his different dreams and the different opportunities and careers he had taken. This is what life is. When we live our dreams and manifest them in positive ways it influences many others to do the same.

Too many times in life we look only at the disappointments and failures when we need to focus on the success.

All of us have had disappointments. All of us have had closures. The whole point of the matter is to get up again and with God’s ever present help, go after another dream, knowing that when one door closes, God opens others. God has many open doors in our future for us to go through.

Say yes to life through courage and faith. There is a new opportunity of God’s good ahead of you. The past is the past; it is gone. Don’t sigh. Go forward and accept new, wonderful things.

Genesis 32:22. This is the story where Jacob wrestles with the angel.

The same night, he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise, everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.”

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”

So he said to him, “What is your name?”

And he said, “Jacob.”

Then the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.”

Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So, Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God, face to face, and yet my life is preserved.”

Jacob was left alone. There are many times when feel we are left alone, even when we’re in a crowd. Whenever we are facing a crisis in our lives, whenever we stand before the door of opportunity that we’re about to go through, we feel alone because no one can walk through that door but us.

But Jacob had the right idea. Jacob would not let the fear be just a fear, or the past just be the past, or the limitations he had inside of his mind remain as limitations. He wrestled with it. He held on to it and said,

“Listen, I’m not going to let you go until you give me a blessing; until you allow me to understand through my human eyes and my human mind, the blessing this has brought in my life. Help me to see the good so I can go on from here.”

He kept asking the angel’s name, but the angel said, “Why is it that you ask my name?”

This means “Why are you asking my nature? What’s important is your nature.” He changed his name (or his nature) to Israel. At this point Jacob called the place “Peniel” which means “to turn toward God in recognition.” It’s one of the most important things we can do.

The novelist Paul Bourget has said, “One must live the way one thinks, or end up thinking the way one has lived.”

We cannot move ahead with great effectiveness, if we are locked into the past.

To truly believe in God, we have to realize that we are not locked to the limitations of yesterday. We have the ability and the power to go forward. For example, you will become greater than you are now, in a short time. It has nothing to do with your past. It has everything to do with your future and your commitment, right now in courage and faith. God created you with forward movement in Mind. There is a reason that we do not have a rearview mirror on our forehead.

God does not want you to be a puppet on a string. Spiritually you have the power of choice.

You have free will. In that free will there is a part that is pre-destined, and that is the will of God for you and your life – God’s will OF GOOD. If something bad happens to a family member, he or she might throw up his or her hands and say, “This is God’s will.” Here is a way to see if it’s God’s will. If it’s bad, it’s not God’s will.

If it’s wonderful, if it blesses you, if it excites you at the core of your being, if it brings love into your life, if it brings health, if the spiritual thoughts renew you and bring you peace of mind, if it brings your family together again, that is God’s will.

It is God’s will that we accept Divine help and goodness AND help each other on our path.

As spiritual people, eventually we will have an inner goal leading our own thoughts to the glory of God – to bring forth God’s perfect pattern. We will eventually reach this supreme goal. A human’s destiny is to go from God’s glory to glory.

As you reach the high spiritual heights, you will reach out to help others that are struggling. God is with you to help make it so.

One of the hardest things that can happen to a person is having to leave their job, for one reason, or another. Yet, we always see that if they hold on to the fact that there is another glory that’s coming, it works out for absolute good.

A famous museum in the Midwest city has an interesting exhibit. On one side of the exhibit, there is a rolling pin from the year 1850.

It looks like a rolling pin you would have in your kitchen. On the other side of the exhibit, there is a small piece of deformed wood. They say it is the same, exact rolling pin, but that one has been stored and unused, while the other remains in use and is well-preserved. The old saying is true, “use it or lose it.”

There’s an old story of a master who was a great star in the early 1800’s. When this man was on stage, they said there were really two stars on the stage – this great man, Pagannini, and his Stradivarius violin. When he played, it was so magnificent that everyone remembered it for the rest of their lives. When he died in 1840, he requested that his Stradivarius be put on display, never to be played by another human being. They did as he requested. It was put on display in its diamond-studded case, never to be touched by a human being. Today the same violin remains on display, except you can’t see the violin anymore. You see a diamond-studded case and a pile of dust in the middle of the case. Wood, even handled just briefly, will remain strong. But if it is allowed to just sit and not do what it was intended to do, it will go to dust. There are Stradivarius violins from 1810 and 1820 that can be played today and sound just as wonderful as they did when they were first made. Do you know why? They have been used as they were intended to be used.

We have to do the same. We have to use ourselves as we are intended to be spiritually used.

Sometimes the easy life that we all dream of could be the worst thing for the development of our soul. We must be active, otherwise we atrophy.

A frog in a well might have a wonderful life in the well, but he can’t even dream of the ocean which is so vast. A butterfly with all the joys of being in the summer, cannot even talk about the winter ice. They cannot because they have boundaries.

The frog would not last in the ocean and the butterfly would not last in the winter ice.

But WE HAVE NOT yet reached our spiritual boundaries.

We are meant, as human beings, to be used and reused, continually striving anew. We are always regenerated in our mind power, we believe in an ever-fresh God inside of us, giving us fresh motivation and power.

We are no longer the mask of who we think we have been, but we constantly go from glory to glory, teaming up in a partnership with God’s to make our world a better place.

Life is be stimulating with God’s companionship. The worst thing we can do as human beings is to live a mediocre existence accepting the fate of yesterday as the only promise of tomorrow.

In this new day, agree with me that you will do something with God’s help, you will dare to dream through courage and faith, and therefore, continually stretch your mind and your life to do something bigger. With God, you can do it.

May God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION_____________________________

In this moment, we enter into a togetherness of prayer. There is a prayer awareness that can be physically and mentally felt. We pray that, during this prayer time, we feel this collective spiritual consciousness.

People, everywhere, are praying with us in this ministry. Together in prayer, we join together by knowing that God and we are one. We are one with God.

Rest in this knowledge in the silence of prayer …

This is a prayer time of grateful acceptance, and we give thanks for the glorious truth of God.

We are one with the love of God. In the quiet of this moment, we set aside our concerns. We open our minds and hearts to the pure love of God, out of which we are created and in which we live, eternally.

In God’s love, now, we begin to feel the peace of God settling upon us, and dwelling within us.

The love of God fills our hearts with peace, in the silence of prayer …

We are one with the light of God. The light of God shines brightly within us and floods our minds with Divine wisdom. We trust our inner knowing, guided by this inner spiritual light of God which makes our way clear and smooth.

In the light of God, we see new doors of opportunity and understanding opening before us. We release all sense of limitation and proceed through each new door with courage and conviction.

Immersed in the light of God we pray: The light of God directs me to new beginnings. I go forward with confidence.

Pray this, in the silence of prayer, now …

Accept this truth for you now:

You are one with the life of God. The life of God within you renews the spiritual connection, as it moves through every cell, organ, and system to bring you wholeness. In your heart, you envision everyone for whom you pray as strengthened and renewed both in mind and body. In the stillness of prayer, you see all physical and mental tension dissolve and the way to good health open before you.

You rejoice in the transforming energy of God, moving to bring forth strength of body and peace of mind. The life of God renews your mind and body. You are well: rest in the God-given courage and faith.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

You are one with the good of God. Affirming in prayer abundance in all things, you turn your thoughts now to God’s prosperity – to the one true source of your good – God. God has richly supplied all creation with bountiful good.

You know this in your heart. You see, in prayer, the opulence around you, and give thanks for the teeming abundance available to you, in this new time of God-given opportunity your life.

You open your mind to the wellspring of Divine ideas that flows from deep within, and receive them to use for the blessing of all. The Divine ideas of God reveal new avenues of good to you.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Your every need is met in prayer. During this sweet time of prayer and reflection, we have fully felt our oneness with the light, life, love, and goodness of God. Filled with this sense of completeness, we go forth from this sacred moment together with a grateful heart. We are renewed and ready to live more fully in the awareness of our oneness with God.

I decree in this moment of your life, that the light of God surrounds you; the love of God enfolds you; the power of God protects you; the presence of God watches over you. Wherever you are, God 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 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

Read More
11Jan

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – ACTION Prayer for Answers

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - ACTION Prayer for Answers

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. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

_____________________________________

“Work, work, work. That is all I ever do. I work and slave to keep the house clean. I work my fingers to the very bones to put good meals on the table. I work to keep everything straightened up around here, and nobody notices!”

Does this sound familiar?

These words are spoken ALL the time. If in this week, you are feeling downtrodden, over-worked, over-burdened, and unappreciated, I have some heartening news for you. You are not alone.

Luke 10:38-42: “Now it happened as they went that he entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.’ And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.’

Ever since that time, theologians and Bible scholars have tended to downplay Martha’s work and to elevate Mary’s spiritual focus. Some have even insisted that this is the Biblical support necessary to have women ordained in the clergy. We understand that sitting at the feet of Jesus is understanding our own spiritual awareness by learning from the Master.

But, I want to take up Martha’s case.

Many of Martha’s struggles are mirrored in that comic strip called “Peanuts.” Charlie Brown is talking with Linus and he says, “You know, Linus, it goes all the way back to the beginning. The moment I set foot on the stage of life, they took one look at me and said, ‘Not right for the part.'”

How many of us, like Charlie Brown, stand looking into life’s mirror on a daily basis, and come up with the feeling “Not right for the part”?

For example, the role of being a parent to teenagers, or being a business mover or shaker, or a parent with multiple responsibilities, makes you feel “not right for the part.”

It’s also Charlie Brown who complains to Linus about his publisher, saying that the publisher sent him a rejection slip. Linus says, “That’s all right Charlie Brown. Lots of people get rejection slips.” Charlie Brown replied, “But I hadn’t even submitted a manuscript.”

Many theologians have said Martha represents experience or practice, while Mary stands for protection or conservation of that which already is.

Jesus tells another interesting parable about the businessman who goes away on a trip and leaves his three servants in charge. He gives them some money to care for when he has gone and he says, “When I come back, we’re going to have an accounting.” When he returns, he says to the first servant, “What have you done with the five talents I gave you?” He replied, “I went out and doubled them.” The man said, “Fantastic.”

Let me assure you that a talent was an enormous sum of money in those days.

It was equal to about 75 pounds of pure silver, or 6,000 drachmas, or 3,000 shekels depending on how you wanted to count it out. It was a tremendous sum, by any standard.

He says to the servant who had the two talents, “What did you do with the two talents I gave you?” The servant replied, “I made 100% improvement.”

He said, “That’s fantastic.” He then looked at the third servant and asked, “What did you do with the one talent I gave you?” The servant said, “I wasn’t sure what to do with it, so I buried it.”

According to the standards of the day, what do you think the hearers of this parable would hear as far as Jesus’ words were concerned?

How many opt for the servant who had the 100% increase? How many opt for the servant who doubled the talents? And how many opt for the one who wasn’t quite sure what to do, so he buried it?

Many respect the MBAs and the wizards of Wall Street who dabble in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and euphemistic things called securities. But in those days, there were no savings and loans institutions. There were no banks. But there were crises and there were wars that could pop up at any time. So, it’s possible that the people who were listening to this parable of Jesus were very influenced by that third servant.

They might think the first two servants as being extremely reckless, especially doing this with someone else’s money. They might think that the third servant was more prudent than the other two.

Dabbling around with money, even by today’s standards, can be a rather risky business.

There is always the possibility (of course) that Jesus was referring to Israel’s religious heritage as well in this parable. This raises the question, “What do you do with religion?” Do you preserve it, or do you practice it?

For years, the followers of the Torah had to protect their faith from invasion from all sides – first the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Greeks and the Romans. The Greeks, in particular, were defilers of the temple in their attempt to Helenize that part of the mid-east.

It is no wonder the Rabbis taught that to be religiously faithful, one had to defend the faith; one had to hold onto it and protect it, even by hiding it.

Do you remember that wonderful story of Anne Frank during World War II and the Holocaust? In a higher and more spiritual sense, religion (as seen through the eyes of Jesus in this parable) could also refer to something more than just something to talk about, more than something between me and God.

Religion seen in His eyes is to invest, to use, to practice, to share, to splurge, and even to risk. It is definitely not something to sit on, bury, shelve, can, preserve, freeze, or even pass along to somebody else in the next generation. Jesus also said, “By their fruit ye shall know them” – BY what is produced – not by what is promised.

So the only question Jesus is going to ask us is “What have we done with what we have been given to invest and to share to make this world a little better place for humanity?” What are we doing with this? What are we going to do with this? Or what have we done with this?

There was a recent headline from the newspaper that caught my eye. It said: He Finally Gets What He Gave Up. The sub-heading is: Teen Who Bought Van For Stranger Buys His Car With Help From Others. There is a picture of 16-year-old boy standing next to his new Honda Accord.

In July, he attended an American Cancer Society auto auction. He had $1,500 in his pocket to get a used car. What he found was a woman with Lou Gehrig’s disease weeping because she could not afford the $3,700 price tag for the van she wanted and needed to get around. So the boy put down the $1,500, and his mother put down the difference. Then he bought the van and gave it to this woman.

The people who saw this were touched. They applauded; some cried.

After the story appeared in the newspaper, funds rolled in from everywhere – enough to more than purchase a vehicle. Radio talk shows interviewed him, and more than 600 cards and letters came to him, and donations to the boy’s trust fund built up, all he said he was trying to do was to help someone, which is the basic ingredient of service – Martha’s work.

BOTH Martha and Mary had valuable spiritual work to do. Martha had a purpose, just as Mary had a purpose that evening.

This planet of ours is starved for kindness. This earth of ours is virtually crying out for compassion. Yes, I know that Martha represents that part of us that is so easily distracted and frustrated that it’s almost impossible for us to not complain about something for any length of time. I also know that Biblically speaking, Mary has chosen what one translation calls the “right portion.” But that doesn’t downplay Martha’s work at all.

She and Mary are sisters. What they represent must have equal importance because of this inter-relationship. Martha, then, gives her service externally, while Mary’s devotion is internal.

The point is that both are important ingredients that are absolutely necessary for our own spiritual growth and development in consciousness. They are part and parcel of our spiritual make-up and composition in the soul. Doing spiritual work (that is, applying what we know spiritually and serving) is so much more important than just talking about it or discussing it.

We’ve always been confronted with that age-old question: Which is more important? Being or doing? You have to be a human being first before you can be a human doing. You have to know the Truth before you can apply it.

Jesus said this in so many words: It isn’t the Truth that sets us up free; it is knowing the truth that sets us free.

I believe the essential “to do” ingredient, here, is what I call choice. My life, up to this very point, is based upon what I have said “Yes” to and what I have said “No” to. The definite maybes cannot be counted.

They are disqualified.

Choosing can be a rather tedious and sometimes difficult task.

Years ago, when Charlie Grimm was managing the Chicago Cubs, he got a telephone call from one of his scouts in the field. The scout said, “Charlie, this is George down here in the minor leagues, and I’ve just seen the most stupendous thing.”

Charlie said, “Tell me about it.”

The scout said, “Well, I just saw a pitcher throw a perfect game. He retired 27 straight batters without even getting a base hit. It was wonderful! He struck out the side, except for the last batter who got two foul balls, and then he struck out as well. What do you want me to do?”

Charlie replied, “Go find the man who hit the two foul balls. We’re looking for hitters this year.”

The power of choice is the executive power of mind, the will in a human. How do we know whether we are on target with this? How do we know whether we are being willing or willful?

What if we lived life backwards? Sometimes we TRY to do that.

Maybe we can think about what it would be like if we should die first and get it out of the way. Then you live Since 1999 at an old age home, and you get kicked out when you’re too young. You get a gold watch, and then you go to work.

You work Since 1999 until you are young enough to enjoy your retirement. Then you go to college until you are ready for high school. Then you go to grade school. You become a little kid and play.

You have no responsibilities. You become a little baby. You go back into the womb, and you spend your last nine months floating. You finish off as a gleam in somebody’s eye.

There is another subtle, but incredibly important, point here in this situation with Martha. What the world needs more of now is shakers and movers – doers. That is one of the key reasons why I feel Martha has been short-changed.

Didn’t Jesus also say: “Those who are going to get into the kingdom of heaven are those who DO the will of My Father, and everyone who hears these sayings of mine and who does NOT DO them shall be likened unto a foolish man who built his house upon the sand,” which is the concluding parable in the Sermon On The Mount (Matthew 7). The epistle of James adds: “But BE YE DOERS OF THE WORD and not hearers only, deceiving and your own selves.”

This, again, is conscious choice. No one can do this for us. Sooner or later, we have to do it ourselves for us and allow God’s loving actions through us.

In another story, Martha becomes the central figure. That story has to do with the raising of her brother, Lazarus, from the dead. She is the one Jesus encounters as He is coming into Bethany. It is she who is asked the provocative question by Jesus? “Do you believe that I am the resurrection and the life?” There is no doubt in her mind whatsoever and she says, “Yea, Lord, I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God which should come into the world” [from the gospel according to John].

It is she who leads the way to the tomb cave where Lazarus is buried. She just may have been instrumental in helping to roll away that guardian stone. The scripture only says they took away the stone, without identifying, specifically, who the “they” is. So not only does Martha express faith, but it is a working faith. Yes, I believe, and I’m going to help roll that stone away.

That’s what Steven Covey in “The Seven Habits of Effective People” says to begin with. Any overcoming, any personal or private triumph, begins with being proactive. Pro-activity is much more than just the taking of initiative. It is also the responsibility to do this as well.

We choose to look forward not backward. We ask ourselves the question:

Are we going to be proactive or reactive?

Are we going to cause things to happen or are we going to be on the receiving end of the happening? Are we going to be affected by the weather, or are we going to take the weather along with us? Are we going to be affected by the social weather of others who have been empowered to control us, or are we going to be driven by carefully thought-out and selected internalized values?

Covey even goes so far as to suggest a 30-day litmus test of faith – the Martha factor – by making small commitments, one at a time, and then keeping them; of being judge but being a light, being a model and not a critic, being part of the solution and not the problem.

People who exercise their embryonic freedom, day after day, little by little, expand upon this freedom. People who do not, find that it withers away, until they are literally being lived, since they are acting out scripts written by another person such as parents, associates, or society.

We have come to a place, now, where our search for God must no longer be just for the rewards. It must no longer be for seeking other people to follow, but it must be living a full life ourselves.

So let us get Martha and Mary together, in our prayer times. Let us begin by praying with our feet moving.

Love to serve and show it.

God bless you.

PRAYER / MEDITATION______________________________

As we prepare for this time of coming together, in prayer, let’s take a deep breath and know the infilling of God’s love, power, and peace.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

As we relax, and become more comfortable in our seat, we know that we are surrounded and infilled with God’s love. Whenever we take the time to turn to God in prayer, we experience the presence.

This is a labor of love. It makes all of our work much easier, more fluidly, and more understandable.

We ask in prayer for God to empower us to make a difference. Together we can make a spiritual difference! We resonate with the idea of working for God in our prayer time.

The power of one, multiplied by many – a spiritual combination! What an ingredient to remember always in our everyday lives, when we get caught up in our busyness running here and there and doing this and that.

God we ask that You will direct our ways, guide us in our prayers, empower us in our actions.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Let us relax and become still for a few moments. Know that the still, small voice that speaks to us in this spiritual meditative process is always our inner guidance. For just a few minutes, hear what that inner guidance has to say to you this day.

Let us get in touch with who and what we are.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

In Christianity, we make an emphasis of going into the silence of prayer because we know that is where ALL the power is found.

As we move from center to circumference in our everyday experience of life, we know that all good things are waiting for us in that secret place of the most high (as described in the Old Testament).

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Together we can make a difference! What tremendous words of reassurance.

As we are willing to give of ourselves, our time, our energy, our treasure, we do the true labors of Jesus Christ. That is the fulfillment of the law.

Regardless of the degree of the service, regardless of how many times it is done and offered in love, it returns to us bountiful blessings.

This is often difficult for human mind to comprehend, but heartwarming, nevertheless.

So, this day, we send a special blessing to all those who labor in God’s love, all those who are seeking God’s Truth as they know and understand it, all those who are in service in some way, manner, or form to You, dear God.

We are grateful for this, and we are appreciative of this.

In the name and through the nature of Jesus Christ … 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 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

Read More
04Jan

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – New Year – New Life

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - New Year - New 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.

Also, great lesson material available free daily – get Positive Daily Inspiration direct in your email inbox every morning. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

_____________________________________

It seems like a good place to start a new way of thinking – an ending for a beginning. I’m going to read from the end of our Bible, Revelation 21:1-7, but I’m only going to read to you the first two verses to begin.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

The writer of Revelation speaks of a new heaven and a new earth for us. I can’t think of a better way to begin a new way of thinking than to think about the new heaven and the new earth, and what it means for each of us; whether it means a new heaven and a new earth in the literal sense, or whether it means a new heaven and a new earth within us – new thoughts, new feelings, a new past, a new present.

The old life CAN pass away. There can be a new past, a new present, and a new future. I believe that the words that the writer of Revelation was speaking to us are words for us – each one, individually – a new heaven and a new earth; not just figures of speech, but a reality for you and for me.

As I mentioned earlier, I know that there are people in this church who have things in their past that they hope they never remember. Yet, they are constantly remembering things that are tugging at them and holding them and making their lives more difficult to live. These are things they wish had never happened, or that somehow they could eliminate from their thinking.

I know there are others, when they look into the future, that picture made them not want to get up in the morning; it made them not want to go to bed at night because they knew that the next morning they were going to have to get up and face whatever it is that they have to face, but don’t want to.

Listen because there is a new heaven and a new earth for you.

We all can live a better, more full, more complete, happier, more peaceful life in which we can have memories that don’t hold us captive; a life in which we look forward to the future. The key to that life is within us, new life is a continuous gift from God.

I’ve never met a person, that I could not see God-given possibilities in them. I do not care how much a person may consider himself or herself a failure, I believe in them for they can change the thing that is wrong in their lives any time they are ready and prepared to do so with God’s help. Whenever they develop the desire, they can take away from their lives the thing that is defeating it. The capacity for reformation and change lies within, it is in each one of us from the Creator.

Where does this new Jerusalem, this new heaven, this new earth come from? According to the writer of Revelation, it comes down from heaven which means it comes from within. Where is heaven? Is it a place in the sky? Jesus Christ said the kingdom of heaven is within you. Heaven is a state of consciousness in which God resides. And the new Jerusalem comes from that state of awareness.

It is a special state of spiritual consciousness. It has to be prepared like a bride for her wedding day, which means that our thoughts must be pure and committed to one idea, to one bridegroom – the Christ. We must be committed to God.

The key is this: “Take my life and let it be consecrated wholly to Thee.” Give your life, your mind, your heart to God.

Revelation 21:3 says: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his people, and God himself will be with them.”

It’s not about God coming to us. It’s not about God somehow coming out of the heavens and coming into our lives. It is about us giving our minds and our hearts into an attitude, a place, where God is already. It is aligning our hearts and minds with God – the Christ within, that which is already within us, that which is already a part of us.

It is about focusing on an idea: the Truth that God is with us right now, to help us in our every need.

God is not only with us, but is in every cell of our bodies, within our positive thoughts, within our faith, our hopes.

God is there in all of it.

Think about it. If God is good, and the movement of God is toward good and growth for all of us in the world, and if God is in both the good and the seemingly bad experiences in life, then might there not be something good to be taken from even the worst of times?

Even in the midst of tragedy we can find God, and therefore we can ultimately find some meaningful purpose for our lives.

I want to tell you a story about a wonderful, successful man I know who lost everything. He has never forgotten that he lost everything, but his world today is a wonderful place. His world today has more meaning and more purpose even after a list of seeming tragedies.

I am going to call my friend Mark. I am going to say he lives in Texas. By most people’s standards, Mark had a very rough life, especially as a young married man, an entrepreneur, a businessman. He seeming had everything going for him, and then one day he got the news that his 8-year-old son, the light of his life, had died.

Mark felt as if his life was over. His son was his everything. All of a sudden, everything he lived for was gone.

In the midst of this all-consuming tragedy, his marriage dissolved. It could not stand the weight of this tragedy. And in the midst of that tragedy, his business came apart because it needed his attention, and he could not give his attention to anything but the problems and the sorrows of his life.

He was about as far down as any person could be – mentally and emotionally. He wasn’t just hurting; he could not stand the thought of getting up in the morning knowing that he had to face the memories that affected both his past and future.

It was about that time that a friend of his, trying to help and console him, invited him to come to church. What he heard that day, many years ago, changed his life. What he heard was at first foreign to him as a message of hope and Truth, and yet it made sense.

What he heard was this: His future, would be a product of his own thinking. And so together, he and God, were co-creating his life. He heard of positive message, only God could heal his life now – but only if he were willing to begin anew. It was God who was helping him to live whatever he chose. Mark was in charge of the process. He was the one who was choosing what he would think, how he would respond, and what his reactions would be to the events of life.

Over time, he began to put the principles that Jesus taught to work in his life. He has done this so successfully that he is now an extremely happy man with a lovely wife, three beautiful children, a highly successful business and ample money.

With God’s help, Mark reinvented himself, and started the new life.

Mark decided to look for the gift in every event of the past, and he decided to look for the positive potential in the future.

What he found was that he started finding what he was looking for. He started finding the gifts from the past. He started finding the positive potential in the future. It was from that that he started the trek out of the negative and into the positive.

He got to the point that he could think about his son and smile thankful for the experience that he had during the good times.

Now he has devoted a part of his life to helping others with children in crisis. He’s been instrumental in helping to found an organization for that purpose. He decided to use his failed marriage as a learning tool to become better, stronger, and a more compassionate and understanding husband and father. He has taken the seeming failures of the past and turned them into the steppingstones of success. He says that his past has made him a better man in the present.

He looks to the future with a sense of hope and promise, knowing that life cannot present anything to him that he and God working together cannot turn into something positive; an opportunity for growth, good, and success. He did all of this from a single thought – the recognition that God is in every aspect of his life; he is never, ever alone.

I want to read the rest of the passage from Revelation [21:4-5, 7]: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also, he said, “Know this, for these words are trustworthy and true … . Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children.”

One simple, yet profound turn in spiritual consciousness can mean the difference between the old Jerusalem and the new, being stuck in fear, hurt and anger or being free to be all you are created to be.

This is a wonderful moment; a moment to decide for God and for good in our lives. This is a time of changing the past and changing the future by changing our thinking and our focus to God and good and a positive approach to life right now.

What an incredible change that would make for every one of us. It is worth thinking about. It is worth doing. You, too, can change your past and change your future to something beautiful, meaningful, and positive now and forever.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION________________________________

Relax now, totally, and completely. Release everything into God’s care. God is there. Let us begin this day by saying to God: “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord, to Thee. Take my all.”

In the silence of prayer, God is there … .

(Silence)

Right here, right now, right where you are, God is with you. Wherever you are, whatever the circumstances, God is there. There is nowhere you can go, where God is not.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Say this out loud with me in prayer, TOGETHER- “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord, to Thee. Take my all.”

Let the Spirit of God move freely through you, your thoughts, your feelings, your angers, your hurts, your fears, and your doubts. Let God move freely, taking it all away, and let go and let God be God in your life. Let God heal you.

The warmth of God’s joy shines in and through you. You radiate happiness and good cheer wherever you are, wherever you go.

No situation or person has the power to take away your joy or hinder its expression. In God, you have a legacy of joy, for it brightens all your days and lightens all your tasks. The joy you feel comes from the Spirit of God within you. Joy wells up from within, filling your heart with good cheer and flooding your soul with perpetual light. Thank You God, for filling me with the joy in this hour. Thank You for the realization that Your spirit within me is unabated and the eternal source of help. Thank You, God, for showing me ways to let your presence overflow into every area of my life.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Hold nothing back. Be not afraid, for there is new life, new light, new peace, new joy, a new heaven and a new earth awaiting you right now in the silence of your heart and mind. As you let go and let God, you are free to be that which you are created to be free to live the unencumbered life that is yours to live.

Feel the freedom that comes from within, that comes from the Christ as you let go and let God be God in and through you now and forever more.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Dear God, You have my life, it is consecrated to you. You have my faith and total commitment.

And so it is, in the name and nature of Jesus Christ … Amen.

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Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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