Tag : POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON

21Dec

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – A NEW YEAR – A NEW TIME

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - A NEW YEAR - A NEW TIME

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.

Take note: On Positive Daily Inspiration we are sharing daily the spiritual meanings on The 12 days of Christmas along with A LOT of good Christmas stories you could use. Subscribe or we will post daily in our archives:
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(For donations to be credited to the calendar year – see below)

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“A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you.” Ezekiel 36:26

I’d begin this morning by reading from the 40th Psalm: “I waited patiently for the Lord, he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God … You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you … Then I said, ‘Here I am in the scroll of the book it is written of me, I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart'” [Psalm 40:1-3, 5, 7-8].

I seek to encourage you, this new year, to live more from your heart. I understand that some people have a misunderstanding about what it means to live more from the heart. Just the other day a man came to me and said, “That has been the cause of all my trouble, all my life. I have been following my heart and it’s gotten me into all sorts of problems.”

I want to dispel some confusing thoughts about living from the heart.

Living from the heart does not mean blind emotionalism. It does not mean in every instance, “If it feels good, do it.” It does not mean to throw your intelligence and common sense overboard. Living from the heart means following God-given Christ intelligence.

Living more from the heart does not mean that you become more emotional.

The emotions grow out of our predominately held thoughts and beliefs – our persistently held attitudes. The emotions are actually seated lower than the heart – in the pit of the stomach.

You have to deal with your emotions in two ways. First, when you have them, you have to admit it. Have you ever seen anyone who you know is furious, who angrily says, “I am not angry!”?

You think, “Oh yeah? Then why is your face red and steam coming off of your scalp?”

You have to acknowledge your emotions and deal with them appropriately when they come up.

Then, if you find that these emotions have been destructive, you need to take some time looking at the thoughts and beliefs and attitudes that spawned them in the first place. Maybe you are going to have to make a correction in that area.

Our scripture referred to a new song. It concluded with the words, “I delight to do your will, O my God, your law is within my heart.” Each of us has a song of the heart. It is what we are about. We need to discover it, sing it, and live it, with all our being.

This is not about singing somebody else’s song, no matter how wonderful it might be. It is not about dancing to someone else’s tune. It is about finding and singing your own song, telling your own story, and dancing your own dance.

Your song, your message, your story, the meaning for your life was hidden within your heart, from God on high, the moment you were first conceived in the mind of the Almighty. I am sure many of you remember Thoreau’s words: “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”

Whatever beat you march to, or tune you dance to, or song you sing, let it be yours. Let the music of your life be from your heart – the higher heart, the Christ within you.

And allow others the freedom to sing their songs, no matter how out of tune with your ear or syncopated in rhythm.

We are each created by God. Love others and appreciate them without exception, without trying to make them be like you, or sing your song, or play in your band, under your direction.

Ross Snyder wrote a wonderful piece entitled, “The Person Next To You.” His words have helped many to be more tolerant of the songs of the heart of brothers and sisters who are different from them.

I want you to take a moment right now and look at the people around you.

I want you now to close your eyes and listen to these words from Mr. Snyder that I have modified somewhat. With your eyes closed, meditatively think about the people around you as you hear these words.

A person has invisible activities. The person nearest you is an exhaustible sort of existence. Nine-tenths of his or her possibility has not yet been touched on. Deep within this person is a great toughness, a great tenacity, in the face of adversity.

A person has an overpowering will to survive, to arrive at destinations, to blossom with the spontaneity of a rose at 7 o’clock on a June morning.

The person sitting next to you is an urge to become manifest, to become something in particular, to emerge as a dependable structure, from out of a hazy, undefined cloud of being, and then to make clear and vivid this pattern until he or she is significant life.

This person is in pain to be authentic, to experience a moment of truth, to have a story and a song. This one needs to be known even as he or she knows oneself – at a level deeper than words.

Each person needs to know his or her own song of the heart, and needs to sing it, proudly. Most people either do not know their song or are afraid to sing it, so most people are suffering. We seek to be authentic, to be real, not just a copy of somebody else, not just standing on the stage singing somebody else’s song. It may be a great song, but if it is not ours, we are not being authentic. We need to be heard, acknowledged, and appreciated for singing our song, our way.

We are not isolated cave dwelling hermits or some kind of individual, self-contained creatures. We live in community with other human spiritual beings. We need to be heard. We need to be acknowledged, appreciated, and loved. And we need to actively listen to others and hear and appreciate and acknowledge and love those who are around us.

I believe these acts of listening, hearing, acknowledging, appreciating, and loving others and ourselves are vital to our world. These acts are needed for us to be whole and well and strong, and for our planet to be healthy and prosperous.

I believe that this is the message that Jesus Christ brought to this world.

I have three extremely important ideas about living your vision that I want to share this morning. I want you to take your Sunday bulletin and a pencil or a pen because I want you to participate with me this morning.

Somewhere on that bulletin I want you to write four key thoughts. I want you to take them home with you.

The first thought is “My song of the heart.” Put a colon after it and draw a line under it. Beneath “My song of the heart,” write the word “clarity;” beneath that word write “commitment;” and beneath that word write “cooperation.”

My song of the heart:

Clarity

Commitment

Cooperation

If you have these four items working in your life, you will have a magnificent life. And if any of these is missing, something is missing from your life and you are not living up to your full potential as an authentic, actualized, loving, whole person within the community of humankind.

What is your song of the heart? It is something more than you have right now. It is that which defines you as a person. Your song of the heart is what your life is all about. If you do not know your song of the heart, how can you stand straight and tall and sing it unashamedly on the stage of your life? If you do not know your story, then how are you going to know if you have lived it when you come to the end of your life?

Ninety-nine percent of the people on this planet consider themselves unsuccessful or have some degree of frustration and unhappiness precisely because they do not know, or they do not sing their own song. They get by; they exist; they breathe; they eat; they sleep; they go to work; they have children and grandchildren. And they live unfulfilled because they never sang their own song in their own way. This is a great tragedy and a tremendous waste of human life. And it is totally unnecessary. Most people are not living their own lives, they are living a life that someone else wanted them to live.

Let me share two true stories with you. One man sang his own unique song and the other did not. First is the one who did not sing. Tim wanted to be an architect. He took mechanical drawing in high school. He was good at it.

During his senior year in high school, he studied architecture. He was one of the best in the class. He wanted to go to Georgetown University, which has a very fine engineering school with pretty high academic standards.

His high school guidance counselor told him he was too weak in mathematics to go there. This young man’s parents had never been to college, but they wanted him to have the opportunity, so they saved money for him and gave him a choice. He could go to college or he could have a brand new car. Because that guidance counselor told him he couldn’t make it at Georgetown University, he decided not to sing his song. The day after graduation, he had a brand new shiny car. He was proud of that.

Today, twenty-five years after graduation, that car sits rusting and decaying in a scrap heap, and so does his vision.

Brian is another story. His family was dirt poor. Brian’s father died when Brian was young. His mother did the best she could. Brian’s song was to be a lawyer, but there was no money to go to college, not even a state school. So, he went into the service and served in Vietnam. Four years later, he got a part-time job working in the inner city, and he went to college on a GI bill. He was a “C” student. His grades weren’t really good enough for law school, but he wanted to live his vision with all his heart, and he did.

He applied to dozens of law schools at considerable expense, and everyone of them turned him down, except for one. They said to him, “You don’t really have the grades to get into law school, but because you worked your way through college and you helped kids in the inner city, we think there is something about you that deserves a second look. We have a summer remedial program. If you take the program and successfully complete it, we’ll let you into law school in the fall.”

He did it. He struggled. He made it into law school by the skin of his teeth. When he graduated from law school, he did so with honors.

Today, he is married with a great wife and two gorgeous children. He put his wife through college (nobody in her family had ever been through college); he put his younger brother through college. He’s in his mid-forties now.

He only has to work when he wants to – as much or as little as he likes.

He lives in a beautiful home and is happy and satisfied.

He once confessed that he knew he had just average intelligence, but he was committed to living his vision. He did that, and to this day, he reads at least one chapter in some kind of positive thinking, self-development book, every night.

He sings his own song of the heart and you can sing yours too. But first you have to have clarity. You need to discover your song, if you don’t already know it. You must tune into your own heart’s music. That is not always easy to do because everyone else’s music is blaring around you.

Right now, as I am speaking, there are other noises. There may be people scraping ice, heaters blowing, people rustling papers, or doors opening and closing. You can tune them out if you want to.

What is your song of your heart? Is it what your parents said? Or your teachers? Or television? Or movies? Or your school guidance counselor?

Or your minister? Or your friends? Or society? Or family? Or the ego?

Or is it what the higher heart tells you?

You and God are the only ones who know what your song is. You might have known when you were a child, but you put it aside because someone said it was dumb, or it embarrassed him or her, and they didn’t want you to do it. A parent might have said to you something like one man’s father said to him when he told him he was going to be a minister. He said, “Why do you want to be a minister? You will never make a living at that! Be a lawyer, like me, or a doctor.”

If you are not clear, you cannot sing your song; you can’t live your life fully, you can’t find your way. Take the time to be clear, concise, and straightforward in your song of the heart. Work at it, diligently.

Don’t rush it; don’t be impatient.

Decide to keep an appointment with God every day. Give your time back to God.

I encourage you to make an appointment with God. Sit in the silence of prayer.

Pray. Meditate. Do a heart lock-in. Do it regularly, until you hear your song again. If it takes two years, or five, or ten? So, what! The important thing is that before you exit this stage of life, you have stood tall and proud and clearly lived your vision in front of God and everybody.

The second idea is commitment. You must be totally committed to your clear, concise vision of your heart. Jesus knew His song of the heart and had total commitment to it. On the Cross, as He was taking His last breaths, He was teaching us some of His most powerful lessons in life.

He was sharing with His very last ounce of energy.

Do you remember His last recorded words from the Cross? “Father, into Thy hands I commit my spirit.” His purpose was to be our spiritual leader and example. He was so committed to that purpose that he could look death in the eye and not back up. No one ever lived there vision well, without commitment.

In Proverbs 16:3, we read, “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”

Does one who never really lived ever really die? If you want to really live, you have to have a heart, a theme, a story, a vision, to which you are committed.

If you are at a place in your life where you are frustrated because you don’t really know your song of your heart, then now is the time to make a commitment to discover it again. Now is the time, no matter what your age, to discover your song.

Go to God. It is not God’s reluctance that keeps you from getting God’s message. It might be your own resistance. It is our own resistance if we are not getting our guidance right away. Some people are afraid, for some reason or another, about living their vision.

The point is, if you have a song of your heart and you are committed to it, then you will have the sweetest, most precious, most wonderful experience known to man or woman.

The last idea is cooperation. In the 133rd Psalm, we read: “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head … it is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord ordained His blessing, life forevermore.” [Psalm 133:1-3]

You should not sing your song alone. You need harmony and accompaniment.

How wonderful it is that there are kindred spirits to sing with you, to support you, to lift you up.

Human life is not meant to be an A cappella solo. There are beautiful arrangements with orchestra, your own percussion section, and voices to support you and lift you up.

You sing the song of your heart and invite others to sing and support you, and then, in turn, you support them and help them sing theirs. That is dwelling together in God’s love, cooperating with our fellow human beings.

When we do that, we find that we are truly living in the place where the Lord ordained God’s blessing, life forevermore.

One of the reasons we have churches is for kindred to live together in love.

What one heart cannot bear alone, 100 hearts beating together can.

I would hope that when you find your heart cannot bear its burden alone, you come and be part of this church or any church, that you will find a class, a minister, a counselor, or a retreat. Cooperation is a key to singing your song.

Today, we touched upon the most important topic I know of: the song of your heart. There were three key ideas:

Clarity – be clear and concise in your song.

Commitment – be committed to your song and if you don’t know it, be committed to finding it.

Cooperation – cooperate with others in singing your song and in helping them sing theirs.

Do you remember that attorney named Brian I talked about? I said he was a “C” student. It dawned on me as I was writing this that he was, indeed, a “C” student where it counted.

He had the three C’s – clarity, commitment, and cooperation.

That has made the difference in his life and it can make a difference in your life. That is the way to way to fulfillment – to sing the song of your heart and live your vision.

Happy New Year!

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION__________________________

This is the time when we experience the presence and the power of God. Meditation is the time when we go in prayer and feel and know that we are one with God, that we always have been and always will be.
We have prepared for this time. I would like you to find a comfortable position: maybe put your feet flat on the floor and take anything that might be in your hands and put it aside. Breathe deeply at your own pace, several times.

With each inhalation, know that you are drawing in faith, as well as fresh oxygen. With each exhalation, know that you are letting go of tensions, stress, and strain. You breathe in faith and you let go of any thoughts or feelings or frustrations that have made you feel separate from God.

Breathe deeply and release slowly and gently. Know with me, silently in prayer: I am relaxed; I am poised; I am at peace; I am one with God; I always have been and always will be. For the next few moments, I stop worrying about what might be and I stop fretting over what has been.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

I am still, centered in my heart, and there I meet with God. There in the quiet, in the peace and love-filled space of my heart, I remember what my life is about, what my dream is, what my heart-song is.

I remember something I may have let go of many years ago, believing it was impractical, or I was incapable of accomplishing it, or that it just would not make any difference to anyone. I surround that dream, that vision, with my belief.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

This day, many of us have dreams for 2021.

God will help us to make this world a better place. One of the best ways to live our own dreams, is to be free and not encumbered by lack of faith.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God helps you to be capable of accomplishing your dream. Believe that. God is helping me, making me capable of accomplishing my dream. If I give myself over to that dream, totally, if I am clear in what it is that my heart longs to sing, if I am committed, if I cooperate with God and my fellow human beings, it is achievable.

This day, dare to believe there is a song in you that will lift you above frustration, feelings of failure, doubt, insecurity, or fear. It will lift you to a new life, greater happiness, fulfillment, peace of mind, prosperity, and health. By going in prayer and finding the song of your heart, giving yourself over to it, and working in partnership with God, you are unstoppable.

Dream your dream. Live your life as you have always wanted to, and trust God in the universe to stream into you and provide you with all the resources and energy and wisdom you need to stand tall and to proudly sing your song. You can do it. It is the truth about you. It is the truth about God with you, right now.

Now, gently, peacefully, serenely, draw your attention back to this place and time. Take another deep breath and know that you are prepared for the truth that is your truth, this day, from God.

May God bless this year for us all.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

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GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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14Dec

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Do not Let ANYTHING Steal Your Christmas Spirit

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Do not Let ANYTHING Steal Your Christmas Spirit

Time Sensitivity: Sunday Before, or Wednesday Before, Christmas

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.

Take note: On Positive Daily Inspiration we are sharing daily the spiritual meanings on The 12 days of Christmas along with A LOT of good Christmas stories you could use. Subscribe or we will post daily in our archives:
http://positivechristianity.org/archivedir.php

(For donations to be credited to the calendar year – see below)
_____________________________________

Have you ever seen the cartoon movie “How The Grinch Stole Christmas?” The Grinch had an idea as to how to keep Christmas from coming. Do you what that idea was? He tried to turn his little dog into a reindeer (by putting some antlers on his head) and made him pull a big sled down to Whoville. Then the Grinch took all the Christmas trees, all the presents, and all the decorations from Whoville, loaded them into the sled, and took them out of Whoville.

The Grinch just didn’t like Christmas; he had a problem. His heart was too small, so he wasn’t able to find the joy in Christmas.

Did he succeed? Did he take Christmas away from the Whos in Whoville? No. Even though he tried to take Christmas away, he could not because he couldn’t take away their love. And that is what Christmas is all about.

What happened when the Whos woke up on Christmas morning and noticed all their Christmas presents, Christmas trees, and decorations were gone? They formed a circle, held hands, and sang a song. So, nothing was able to keep Christmas from coming in Whoville. And at the very end, we found out that the Grinch was not a bad guy; he just needed love.

Christmas is all about love. As I thought about what I wanted to say, speaking so close to Christmas, the message kept coming to me — love and joy. I saw it so beautifully illustrated in this Christmas classic that I wanted to share pieces of it with you and talk a little of how I see the Grinch story unfolding.

The Grinch’s real problem was that his heart was too small. I believe that one of the things we often find ourselves experiencing in life a sense of ourselves as being somehow unworthy (which sometimes comes in the form of anger, jealously, possessiveness, shame, or guilt).

I have even come to the place of believing that whenever we are experiencing a negative state of mind, it really has to do with our own sense of unworthiness in life.

We have a God-given right to be here. What represents a Grinch state of consciousness? He was really loving all along. Though he appeared to be trying to take Christmas away from everybody else, what he really wanted was to have his own Christmas experience.

But it did not look that way. Oftentimes, as we approach the Grinch’s in our own lives, it doesn’t seem as though they are there to bring us a gift of something good.

All of the Whos down in Whoville, on the other hand, represent those parts of ourselves that are loving, and that truly want to experience Christmas as an opportunity to be filled with love and joy.

No matter what we are encountering in life, we have the opportunity to adopt either a Grinch state of mind or a Who state of mind.

Oftentimes, we may feel as though these characters are imposed upon us from somewhere outside of us, but the truth is we know life is a spiritual within, and so without, experience. So, if we encounter a Grinch somewhere in our world outside of us, where does that Grinch really live? Nowhere but in our own thoughts and awareness.

This makes the decision to be a Who or a Grinch very much our own choice. We really are not victims of circumstances or the actions or activities of other people outside of us. We are always – moment-by-moment throughout our lives – making the choice to either view the experiences that come to us from the perspective of the Grinch or that sense of learned unworthiness that we accumulate through life. Or we can choose to see opportunities in our lives as chances to love, as chances to affirm our natural worthiness and live – in joy.

You see, our natural state is one of worthiness. It is one that knows, as Jesus said of us, that we are children of God. What could possibly be more worthy than a child of God?

But oftentimes, we are not very convincing with ourselves because, since we were little children, there have been so many aspects of ourselves that we were taught not to appreciate. I think of this as the difference between the recognized spirituality of us and the unrecognized spirituality of us.

The truth is, my friends, that we are, right now, living in the kingdom of God, but we do not always choose to perceive our lives as kingdom experiences. We always have that opportunity, but it is not always easy to choose it, because of the aspects of ourselves that we have learned to deny, those aspects that make us feel so unworthy.

What happens when we are in a great Grinch consciousness? Just like the Grinch in the movie, we tend to want to persecute and, yes, even to be persecuted. So, the unpleasant episodes we have in our lives are oftentimes experiences in which we are trying to inflict a certain sort of punishment or torture on ourselves.

It is not necessary for us to go on living that way any longer. It is possible for us to live in a world of love. This means that the Christmas experience can become incredibly real to us if we will take an adventure from right this moment through Christmas and begin to view the opportunities or experiences in our lives as the chances in which we can bring forth this Who consciousness, this consciousness of love, this consciousness of worthiness, this consciousness of joy. If we are to truly follow Jesus Christ, we have to realize “WHO” we are.

We can begin to see that everything in life is sacred – one Presence and one Power of God. Everything is sacred. Our relationships with our families, friends, and co-workers are sacred. When we encounter unpleasant experiences with them, it is an opportunity to see the Grinch part of ourselves that still needs healing, that still needs prayer, that still needs to move from the unrecognized spiritual to the recognized spiritual human.

Everything in life is sacred. The time we have between now and Christmas is a great opportunity. It could not be a greater time of year with the gathering of friends, with the stresses of buying that last gift, or whatever might be on your list to complete. The tendency is to let that Grinch rise forth from within us. What we need to do is love the Grinch.

When the Whos in Whoville loved the Grinch, what happened? He became loving also. He wanted to share. And so, the neglected parts of ourselves want to share in the Christmas experience, too.

We are at a critical time in human history. We are at a time in human evolution where we can begin to make choices. We do not have to live as unconscious victims any longer. So, when we encounter friction in our lives, difficulty in a relationship, or when things appear not to be going the way we want them to go, we can make a choice.

The first thing that is necessary to move from a Grinch into a Who is to develop a part of yourself that can become a gentle, non-judgmental observer of your own activities. It’s hard for us to move out of the Grinch state of consciousness if we don’t even realize we are in it, or if we’re always seeing that Grinch in other people and never recognizing that it resides in us.

We can go on living like that for decades, but we will live a life of unhappiness because we are making unhappy choices. We are not pulling far enough away from our own behavior in life to be able to observe it non-judgmentally and gently, and to be able to say, “If I’m experiencing a Grinch out here, there must be some Grinch within me that has been activated. This is an opportunity for me to find and claim my own worthiness as a child of God, and to choose joy and happiness, instead of fear and unhappiness.”

This is a choice that you make many, many times, every day of your life. From the simplest gesture you may make to another person when you are Christmas shopping, be aware of your relationships. Be aware of how you feel inside. Do not necessarily try to change it, but just be aware. “I must be in a Grinch state of consciousness,” or “I must be in a Who state of consciousness.”

Give thanks when you are experiencing that Who state of consciousness, the loving state of consciousness. But when you find yourself experiencing the Grinch–and you will, because we all do, because we’re all in this human drama together–take just a moment to remember that everything in life is sacred, including the Grinch’s. They bring you the greatest Christmas gifts of all.

Oftentimes the relationships in our lives that are the most difficult have the greatest gold within them, if we will only be persistent in seeking and finding the goodness that is there. How many opportunities we will have ahead of us.

I think that as we move into this new time, in human consciousness and evolution, we will find that this tradition of celebrating Jesus birth, is actually a living process that takes place day-by-day within us as we choose love, as we choose not to allow our perceived unworthiness to keep that Christ essence from being born, from being realized inside of us.

This takes tremendous commitment. It is much easier to blame the challenges in our lives on society, our work, or even on our religion. But the truth is, we are free agents. We are free to make the choice. We are free to develop that observer within us, and then to become particularly good decision-makers and make a choice to love.

That is the opportunity that is before us this Christmas. I believe that is the opportunity that lies before us in the New Year we are moving into. I believe that, within the next few months, we will begin to see the Christmas experience move from one of trees, and decorations, and gifts, to a Christmas experience that happens every day of our lives, because we are going to be choosing to love. God is love and worship God every day we too must become love

It is a decision, a commitment that takes place inside of us. It is a commitment that I believe you are capable in joining me in pursuing because you are here, because the circumstances in all of your lives have lead you to this place, this time, and this God Truth. It is the recognition that you can take responsibility for your life, that you are not a victim of the whims or the negative states of mind of other people. No matter what situation you are in, you can choose the Jesus Christ way of love.

It is time to redefine Christmas in Webster’s New 21st Century Dictionary. Would you like to write it with me this morning? Let’s redefine Christmas. Let’s take it from a date on a calendar or an experience that happened 2,000 years ago and redefine it as an experience of love and joy, in our lives today. What better way to follow Jesus Christ than to have rebirth of spiritual consciousness in us.

Two-thousand years ago, Mary and Joseph made a difficult, arduous journey to the city of Bethlehem. Mary was with Child. You can imagine how difficult and challenging that journey was.

Well, my friends, we are on that same journey today – the journey from being a Grinch to being a Who; the journey from being unworthy to being worthy.

You can do it this Christmas. In fact, you are destined to do it – to give birth to that Christ Child in your daily actions and re-actions. Today, we are taking the same journey Mary and Joseph took. It is difficult. It is challenging. It is not always easy to be human, but we can do it. That is why we are here. We can endure that journey and give birth to a pure form of Christ love in our hearts.

I think we can do it this Christmas. I know we will do it as a human family and a human race in the future. It is our destiny. It is the way we are destined to travel.

So, why not start now? Why not make a commitment this morning, right here in this room, that you will experience the essence of Christmas love and joy no matter what is happening outside of you. Why not make a commitment his morning, right here in this room, that you will experience the essence of Christmas love and joy no matter “who” is happening outside of you. No matter where you may encounter those Grinch’s – love them. They cannot take away the spirit of Christmas from you. They cannot take away the spirit of joy you feel in your heart when you listen to a Christmas carol or you gaze at the beautiful shining lights on you Christmas tree. Don’t let them.

We do not need to live that way anymore, friends. We are moving out of that way into a new way – a way in which peace on earth is going to be more than words in a Christmas carol. It is going to be carved across our hearts.

My friends, we are beings of love. This Christmas, may we all recognize that love in a new and powerful way, and let it move our lives and the life of all humanity to a height beyond anything we have imagined.

God bless you and Merry Christmas.

PRAYER / MEDITATION___________________________

I would like to share with you the following words which were found in old St. Paul’s Church in Baltimore, dated 1692: Desiderata.

“Go placidly amid the noise the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

“Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they, too, have their story.

“Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

“Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career; however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

“Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism.

“Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass.

“Take kindly to counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

“Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars, … … YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO BE HERE. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding just as it should.

“Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive God to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.

“With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.”

Let us rest, reflect, in the silence of prayer … …

In the name of the Babe born in Bethlehem, 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.
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DONATION: To donate credited to this calendar year, do so by midnight on the 31st or send us a check dated before year’s end. Your thank you letter will reflect the 2020 offering date, even if we receive it at the post office after the first.
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GOD BLESS YOU,
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

Read More
07Dec

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Not Living Split in Two

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Not Living Split in Two

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.

_____________________________________

First Sunday in December – Celebrating our anniversary of free spiritual serve to our world.

First some fun:

These are actual letters to God from children

(Note, it is good to open with humor, you can pick and choose as you want, use as many or as few as your congregation is enjoying. I’ve been to some churches where you could use them all – you will know if they are working.)

Dear God, Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident? Norma

Dear God, Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t You just keep the ones you have now? Jane

Dear God, Who draws the lines around the countries? Nan

Dear God, I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that okay? Neil

Dear God, Thank you for my baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy. Joyce

Dear God, It rained for our whole vacation and is my father mad! He said some things about you that people are not supposed to say, but I hope you will not hurt him anyway. Your friend (but I am not going to tell you who I am)

Dear God, Please send me a pony. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up. Bruce

Dear God, If we come back as something, please don’t let me be Jennifer Horton, because I hate her. Denise

Dear God, I want to be just like my daddy when I get big, but not with so much hair all over. Sam

Dear God, I think the stapler is one of your greatest inventions. Ruth

Dear God, I think about you sometimes, even when I’m not praying. Elliott

Dear God, I bet it is extremely hard for you to love all the people in the world. There are only four people in our family, and I can never do it. Nan

Dear God, Of all the people who worked for you, I like Noah and David the best. Rob

Dear God, My brother told me about being born, but it doesn’t sound right.

Dear God, If you watch me in church Sunday, I’ll show you my new shoes. Mickey

Dear God, We read Thomas Edison made light. But in Sunday School, we learned that you did it. So, I bet he stole your idea. Sincerely, Donna

Dear God, I do not think anybody could be a better God. Well, I just want you to know that I am not just saying this because you are God already. Charles

Dear God, I didn’t think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on Tuesday. That was cool! Eugene

Dear God, Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother. Larry

(PAUSE)

As you are beginning this week, are you filled with enthusiasm? Can you sense the God-given potential that is in front of you?

We have a God-given opportunity to take a look at our life, to see where we have been, and what we have accomplished in the past, and to take a real honest look at where our life is now.

In other words, we have a reality check. We take a look to see if we are on track and doing what we want to do. How many of us take the time to check to see where we have been, and perhaps release a few things from the past?

Every single day we have the opportunity to begin, again, and to create a whole new pattern for our lives if we desire.

Shel Silverstein, in his writings speaks of the opportunity that is at hand in a little quip entitled “Magic Carpet.” He said:

You have a magic carpet
that will whiz you through the air
To Spain or Maine or Africa
if you’ll just tell it where.
So will you let it take you
where you’ve never been before?
Or will you buy it drapes to match,
and use it on the floor?

Are you on that magic carpet of life now? Are we ready to take off this week?

Within each one of us lies that beautiful God-given potential, as children of God.

The keys to the God-given kingdom are within us now. That perfect pattern each of us needs, and the tools with which to open the opportunity doors are within, if we would just take a little time to look and seek what we desire.

Your Divine purpose is to grow spiritually and to uplift those around you, to be able to fully express whatever God-given talents that have been given. God’s will is not necessarily that you should do this, or that, but that you will just allow God to express through you in whatever way is yours, uniquely, to express.

Are we are handling challenges, efficiently?

How is the challenge-handling going in your life? Are you still try to handle challenges alone, or are you relying more on God’s help daily?

I have found that dealing with challenges is a little like white water rafting.

When you are in the midst of the rapids, you know what to do as you are paddling that rubber raft through the rapids. You stay in the moment and are highly alert to challenges.

But then, do you know what happens? In the moments after we get through that tough time, we take a deep breath and say, “Everything is fine now,” and then we often forget about what we need to do.

We sometimes find we are whirling around in an eddy, just on the other side of the rapids. We laugh and say, “Whoops. I let go and I didn’t stay in the flow, in the current.”

You found you would have to do a little bit of retracing of your steps, get back in the flow again, and then your experience would be off and going again.

That is what challenges are for each one of us. Every time we are facing a challenge, we often get up and get going, and then we forget who and what we are. Shortly, we find ourselves whirling around in that eddy.

Maybe some of you sitting here are whirling around, today. But as soon as you do a little back-tracking – spiritually that is getting in touch with God again – you will find yourself back in the current, in the flow of life again, with God’s ever present help.

One of the beautiful keys to the kingdom is we can set our sights on target for the life each one of us should be living, make that spiritual and mental adjustment, and get back on track.

John the Baptist was speaking about mental adjustments when he said, “Repent, repent.” Change your thinking.

The word “repent” comes from the Greek word, Metanoia, meaning “change your direction of attitude.” Take a look at what you are experiencing right now with the eyes of God, with the eyes of that perfect pattern, God-given within you. As you ask, the guidance and direction will come directly to you from God.

A family had the father’s boss over for dinner. As the evening wore on, little Ryan persisted at staring at the boss. Finally, the man was becoming a little uncomfortable and he said, “What are you looking at?”

Little Ryan said, “Daddy said you were a self-made man.”

He beamed and said, “Of course I’m a self-made man.”

Little Ryan said, “Why did you make yourself like that?”

We are co-creators with God. God has given each one of us the beautiful, perfect way to go – all the skills and tools needed to achieve that desire in our hearts, which is intended to be expressed by us. But we need to take a step forward in our lives by making goals and allowing God to express through us, to create the life we really want.

Jesus tells us about the keys to the kingdom, in Matthew 6:24-36. Hear these beautiful words for you, particularly, if there is a thought in your mind today of anything that is out of order, or if you have a concern about your life. Jesus was specific when it came to giving us clear guidance as to what we can do and how our lives can be.

Jesus said: “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

We cannot focus on the life we desire to live – the success, happiness, joy, and beauty – and also serve other things; we cannot live a split life. We need to turn to one or the other. Jesus continued by saying:

“Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your span of life?

“And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you – you of little faith? Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself.”

“Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

As I looked at that word kingdom and began to meditate on it, I found that, to me, the kingdom was not necessarily a place off somewhere else. I discovered that the kingdom of God is a continuous spiritual journey. Daily we take the kingdom with us wherever we are.

Luke 17:21, “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

It is an inner journey through prayer and meditation in which you make that conscious contact and really find that kingdom of God within.

That is where the kingdom truly is. That is what seeking the kingdom of God is about – looking within through prayer.

” … and his righteousness.” This is the right use, the full expression of God in every area of our lives – placing God first in your life. How many of us take the time every morning to turn our attention, our heart, and our love to God through prayer and meditation and action? Even just to say, Good morning, God. I am ready to go.” As we begin to take those steps forward, a beautiful response is found.

The kingdom of God is a spiritual journey that we can experience within every single day. Put your life on this continuous spiritual journey as you walk into the office each morning, and the phone will ring before you can even dial the number for the person you need to contact, or somebody will walk into your office and the answers will be there for you. That is putting God first and living in the kingdom.

In the kingdom of God, there are no religions. This is above the four walls of any church or the ways that we choose to separate ourselves as human beings. The kingdom is an umbrella that covers all people everywhere in God’s love. What people don’t realize is that we are living in the kingdom of God.

A great verbal prayer you can use is, “My heart is filled with God’s love and my body responds in health and wholeness.” I am going to say that again, because I want you to get a picture of the process. My heart is filled with God’s love … that comes first, and then my body responds in health and wholeness.

Jesus did not say to seek first to heal the body, or the emotional hurts, or to gain riches, and THEN seek God. He said, “Seek FIRST the kingdom of God.” Turn first to God, and then all else shall be added for each one of us.

The degree in which we place God first in our lives is directly proportional to the amount of ease, joy, and success we are seeking in our lives, to the degree that we allow our lives to flow out of God and our relationship to God, rather than trying to use God to “fix” our lives after we have done it our way. As we begin to turn to God and just ask, that radiant process is there to respond.

Finding God is easy; serving God is the challenge. Each one of us probably knows more about the Bible and God, intellectually, to keep us busy for an entire lifetime. However, if we have not placed God first in all areas of our lives, we are not serving God’s truth, and there is little joy in it.

Try to be how God would want you to be.

Open your hearts. Feel that presence and power of God. It is here right now in this precious moment. Live within the kingdom.

A minister tells a story, “A while ago I had an experience with some keys at an ocean resort. As we were fishing, casting out into the water, we were talking about how excited we were about life. We were having a wonderful day! The sun was shining, and the tide was way out. All the while I had my keys in my pocket.

All of a sudden, I looked down and the keys were gone. I want you to know, for a few moments, my joy was also gone because on that key ring were all of the keys of my life.

He said, I went home and ended up having to break a window to get into the house. Yet, a little voice, within me, kept saying, “Nothing is ever lost in God. The keys to kingdom are at hand.” Do you know what it is like to lose the keys in the ocean with the tide coming and going?

For the next few days as I was walking that beach, the message kept going around and around my head. You are in the kingdom of God.

As I was walking down the beach, quite some distance from where I had lost those keys, and as I was in awe of the beauty of the day, I saw the tide was way out. The beach was the most beautiful I had ever seen it. I was in the kingdom of God.

I was just rejoicing again and thanking God, when, all of a sudden, as one of the waves receded, I looked down and saw what looked like it might be the tip of a car key. I made a dash like you would not believe and grabbed (because the waves come in faster than you would believe); and there were my keys.

The keys to the kingdom are never lost! They are right there within you. As we let go and let God, they will be there for you in the moment you ask.

Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom of God.” To know God and the operation of spiritual principles, take time for prayer and meditation.

Acknowledge God every morning when you awake. In fact, as we are starting this new week, you might even make a little mini checklist of where you are. Are you on track with your life purpose of letting God express through you and show you and guide you into that next arena for you to live and express in your life?

God relies the most on the ones who rely the most on God.

Take time to do that in your prayer and meditation. Then, develop a willingness to let go of those things, people, or situations that really are not productive in helping you accomplish that which you are seeking.

In John 4:35, Jesus said: “Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest?’ But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. Your field, your life, is already ripe for the harvest.” Right now, today, God’s good is yours. Are you ready to receive it? Can you see it clearly? Can you feel the energy, the presence of the Lord ready to guide you and lift you up?

The keys of the kingdom are at hand, and they are ready, right now, for you to open that spiritual door and live in a new realm of opportunities and possibilities.

No longer split your attention between worry and God. Give all attention to God, and you will find the true kingdom of heaven here on earth.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION_______________________

I invite you to take a deep breath, relax, and feel the spiritual beauty in the silence of prayer.

Surely, the presence of the Lord is in this place.

Dear God, we open our minds and hearts to you this day like little children, so eager to step out and see the world. Yet, as we enter into this new day, this new week, this land of opportunity, we are looking in a new direction – to see Your kingdom.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Like a little child, we, perhaps for a moment, think of our favorite fairy tales and what we had envisioned a kingdom to be – the knights in shining armor, the perfect, beautiful castle.

God, now in our wisdom, we know that God’s kingdom is spiritually within us; that perfect pattern, all the strength and all we have need of is right here, within us, within the temple of the living God. We feel the joy and the excitement as we think of our lives at the beginning of this new week the gateway to all possibility and opportunity given by God to us.

For a moment, I invite you to pray your deeply held desire. It might be in the area of healing – to be able to fully express the health and wholeness of God. Get in touch with that wonder and joy as you say, “Yes! I am a beloved, perfect, beautiful child of God. The fullness and allness of God expresses now, through me as the kingdom unfolds. Thank You, God.”

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Perhaps there is a dream, a vision that you are holding in prayer – that opportunity to fully express those talents and gifts given to you directly by God. Can you believe? Can you spiritually open the gift? God is here and that perfect pattern is now unfolding. For a moment, hold that vision, that heart’s desire. Surely, the presence of the Lord is in this place. Feel that energy. Right now in this moment, the key is unlocking the door to that wonderful possibility.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God, how grateful we are as we open our minds and hearts to Your radiant goodness. We are filled with Your perfect love with which we can give and fully express, to share the essence of what You are, with others. We have all the faith we need to shape and mold the lives we are intended to live, the strength we are seeking in this moment, as we are moving in new directions, and the wisdom with which to create goals toward the lives we would express, as Your beautiful children.

God, on this beautiful day, how grateful we are!

For a moment, again, we rest in the silence of prayer and feel Your presence and power responding to us in a very personal way, in the silence within, as we let go and let God …

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God, how grateful we are, for we know that, as Your beloved children, there is never a time when You are not there guiding and directing us. The keys to the kingdom are at hand, and God, we are ready to open that door today.

We are so grateful. We rejoice and say, “Thank You, God!”

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
30Nov

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Accepting the Good of God

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Accepting the Good of God

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. Featuring the 12 days of Christmas beginning Monday December 14th.

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.

_____________________________________

I would like to share a story with you that is from PositiveChristianity.org written by its minister.

These are his words –

“In 1991 I went into to the Post Office. I put my key in my Post Office box (and I always pause for a minute because one of my favorite things to do is to receive mail), turned the key, and stuck my hand in.

“There was just one envelope inside. I pulled it out and looked at it. It looked official. On it was printed, ‘Official Notification. You are a major prize recipient!’

“I said, ‘Thank You, God. Publisher’s Clearing House is finally noticing me, after ALL this time!’

“I opened up the envelope and pulled out a letter from a resort property in southern Missouri. They said, ‘You have won! You have won a high-tech color television set.’

“I said to myself, ‘A high-tech color television set?’ I read on.

“It said, ‘Reverend, if you come down and visit our resort property and take a tour for ninety minutes, you can pick up your high-tech color TV.’

“I looked on the calendar and found a day; my day off, on Friday.”

“As I was thinking about going down to pick up my high-tech color TV, I thought perhaps I would need a pickup truck because it would be a big box. Then I thought, ‘Well, what if it rains?’ If it rains the box would get all wet in the back of the pickup truck and possibly ruin the TV inside. I thought if it might rain, I have a friend with a full-size station wagon. The station wagon was a Chevrolet Caprice; it came from the age before gas prices mandated downsizing. It was literally about 19 feet long and about 6 feet wide. With the seats down in back it looked like the interior of one of the jumbo cargo planes. I would ask this friend to go along with me. I thought we could put quite a big box in there, and if it were bigger, I could rent a U-Haul trailer. I’m open to possibilities.

“I went down in his full-sized station wagon (about a two-hour trip), and I toured the property. They were genuinely nice to me. At the end, the man said, ‘Now it is time. What have you won?’

“I said, ‘I’ve won a high-tech color television set.’

“He said, ‘Well, you can pick it up right over there,’ and he pointed to a small shed-like building with a small door. I’m wondering how in the world they got the high-tech color television set in there.

“Well, I shake the nice man’s hand, leave his car and go get the station wagon. I waited for about 20 minutes until all the cars had left the front of the small building so that I would have room for the mammoth Chevrolet Caprice station wagon to back up to the door. I backed it up to the door because I did not want to carry the television set box far. I open the lift gate and I think I can get it through the doorway if I tilt it just a certain way, and then I can slide most of the box right inside the station wagon. I go in, and the first thing I do is look for a high-tech color television set. I’m looking all around and I don’t see any big boxes.

“The nice lady behind the counter said to me, ‘Do you have your certificate?’

“I said, ‘Yes, I do, I said proudly. I have won a high-tech color television set.’

“She said, ‘Yes, you have! And because you’re here on Friday you’ve also won a bonus prize!’

“I said, ‘Great! Thank You God!’ I took several deep breaths, bringing the strength of God into me, because the excitement was almost too much for me to bear.

“Several others were coming in at that time and had to squeeze around, the Chevrolet Caprice to get through the open door. I apologized saying ‘I was there to help a large console color television set, and knew that I couldn’t carry it very far.’

“They all worked for the company, and they gave me the strangest stare!

“The lady took a small key and put it into a lock on a small drawer. She turned the key, opened the drawer, reached in and pulled out a box. She handed me a little box and I said, ‘What is this?’

“She said, ‘This is your high-tech color television set.’ No exaggeration, the box was four inches by seven inches and about an inch deep.

“I said in total shock, ‘That’s my color television set?’ In the meantime, I have the station wagon backed so close to the door that nobody can get into this place. Several people are looking through the door from the other side of the Chevrolet Caprice, trying to see what is happening.

“I’m holding this in the palm of my hand and she says, ‘Yes, there’s a color television in there.’ I thought when I opened it up that perhaps the directions to the warehouse would be in there to where I would go and pick up the huge box as big as this station wagon demanded.

“I open up the box and here is what was in it.

“A Casio television the size of a small transistor radio. It had a two-inch screen.

“I felt a little embarrassed. I moved that station wagon faster than anyone has ever moved a station wagon, and I acted cool, like I knew all along, it would be in a small box like this.

“She gave me a diamond watch, too. (That’s what it says. There is something in there that sparkles, so I guess it must be a diamond.) That was my bonus gift.

“I had to drive all the way home because my friend, the owner of the station wagon, was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down his face to a point that he couldn’t see.”

When it brings a smile to the face, that is one of the best gifts won in life.

“Behold, I am doing something new! It is already happening; don’t you recognize it? I will clear a way in the desert. I will make rivers on dry land.” Isaiah 43:19

During the Depression, there was a gentleman who had been accustomed to great wealth. He lost everything in the Depression. He walked around in shock and kept saying over and over again, “I know there’s a way out of this. I know there’s a way.” He would even wake up at night and say, “I know there’s a way out of this.” He did not realize it, but he was saying a positive prayer affirmation. He was preparing his thinking in a spiritual way. He was giving of himself to God. He was not buying into what was happening in the world. He was buying into what could happen to him with God’s direction and help.

He was reading a newspaper one day, and noticed an article about millions of pounds of coffee being available in Brazil, but there was no market for it. There was no money to bring it over here, and over here, they wanted the coffee, but there was no money to get it here. He thought for a minute, “Well, there are millions of bushels of American wheat over here.” He realized that if he could get the two together in a trade, we would have coffee and they would have wheat. Through a couple of simple telephone calls, he started on his way back to making a fortune.

The key to life is circulation. The key to life is keeping things moving. You’ve heard the saying, “When things are tight, something has to give.” I change that to say, “When things are tight, someone has to give.”

In Luke 6:38, Jesus says, “Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

As humans, we have an incompleteness of vision. The clear vision is disclosed to you and me that in God, supply for any need you face, this morning, is instantaneous. No matter what your need, God is here to fulfill that need. But, to our human thinking, supply is progressive. We think we have to go through a series of events, from here to there, from point A to point Z, waiting for our supply to come.

We have a tremendous opportunity to realize, first of all, that in God, supply is instantaneous. In God, supply is infinite and instantaneous. To human thinking, it is progressive. Your available supply, in a practical sense, is measured by your spiritual lung capacity. It is measured by your ability to use it. We know that air is everywhere present, but we can only use that amount of air in front of us that we have the lung capacity to use. It is the same with supply.

In Matthew 13:12, Jesus says, “For those who have [a consciousness of supply] more will be given. They will have abundance. But those who have nothing [those who do not have a consciousness of the supply from God] even what they have will be taken away.”

Where does the demonstration of abundance begin? In demonstrating supply, the demonstration begins with the spiritual consciousness of supply. Do we really believe in God? Is our God big enough to handle our challenge?

What do you wish for in your life? What successes do you wish for? What kind of supply do you need? Is your God big enough to meet the need? Can you believe, in your spiritual consciousness, that it could be instantaneous?

In many places in our world today, there is apparent lack. But we know that this is just in that particular place. Somewhere else, there is all anyone could ever want. The problem with lack in the world is circulation – how to get those needs to those people, how to get that supply to the people who need it most.

The problem in our individual lives is always circulation.

Years ago, there was a man who owed many, many debts. He was frozen in his fears. He had some money, but he did not have enough to pay everybody. Therefore, he just sat frozen, filled with fear, because he did not know how to move.

What was said to him by the minister is that he was not living the law of circulation – giving and receiving. He had to get into a new relationship with supply. He was urged to go to his creditors, explain the situation, and offer to pay them a little, what he could, to start the payback, to get into the movement of circulation. Every one of those creditors was impressed with his integrity, and they helped him remain in business. He, ultimately, fulfilled his obligations and was on his way back in a big, big way to success.

So often, when the human mind cannot see its way completely through a problem, it is tempted not to act even upon what it can see because we can’t do all that we desire to do. Too often, we delay in doing anything at all.

Give what you can, and you can always give something. If you have no money, offer your services. Find some way to keep yourself in circulation.

The poor human is the shut-off human. It is the person who isolates himself or herself from life. Keep your contacts open with activity and circulation and supply, and never harp on your losses.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6

In the Bible, the prophet asked a poor widow what she had in her house. She did not answer him directly; she told him what she lacked. She said, “Thy handmaiden hath not anything in the house save a pot of oil.”

When the disciples were asked what they had, they said, “Oh, Jesus, we don’t have anything. We just have five loaves and two fishes.” This is the consciousness of lack. It is the awareness of postponement. It is the awareness of delay.

Agree with God now. Do not say, “I will prosper when … ,” or “I will give when … “

Thank God for present supply, for what you can do now, for what you can give now. Now is the acceptable time. All things must begin when you begin.

Let me give you some guidelines to power-giving to jumpstart the law of circulation in your life.

#1. Attach no strings to your gifts.

So often, we receive a gift with a string attached to it. How did you like that gift when you received it? That is not a gift at all. Attach no strings to your gifts. Do not try to bargain or barter with God, because that is attaching a string to your gift with God. Give your gift of your services, your time, your money, with no strings attached. Here is an excellent motto: “I give as to the Lord.”

Emerson once said, “Have the courage to withhold what you can’t give without a blessing.”

#2. What is given in a grudging way, blesses neither the giver nor the receiver. As you give, you shall receive.

Here is what I’m talking about. You are paying a bill and saying, “That Electric Company is really, really robbing me this month.” What we link with our gift or payment becomes as real to our minds as something tangible in front of us, and it goes forth like an unseen messenger to represent us and to become identified with us. Unless we wish to attract lack, we should never stamp the thought of lack on any one of our disbursements.

#3. If a person says: “Sooner or later, my good always becomes manifest for me, but I’m tortured by many ‘eleventh hour’ deliverances of apparent want and anxious waiting,” what’s wrong?

God answers our prayers even before we ask. But if we are having interruptions, we need to give more regularly. We need to get into circulation in a more regular way. You wish, as I wish, that God will continuously give to us. Well, we must be about the Father’s business.

What is the Father’s business? The Father’s business is giving, sharing, and serving. Let us be as regular in our giving as we wish God to be in giving to us.

#4. How should we measure our giving? With what standards shall we compare our gifts?

Shall we give an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Or should we give full measure, heaped up, pressed down, and running over?

Years ago there was a company that many of you are familiar with – A & P grocery stores. They were a major concern in the grocery industry because when you went in for a pound of coffee, instead of giving you sixteen ounces, they gave you seventeen ounces, on the Biblical principle of giving you more than you paid for. They stopped doing that and now the business is barely alive. Always go the extra mile, surprise people by giving more than they expected, and you will be rewarded with continuous, ever-expanding success.

The Biblical principles work in our lives. When we are paid our salaries, do we give more than we were paid for? We should. We should constantly give more and surprise the person on the other end. That is the law of success. It is a joy. It is the first half of manifest prosperity.

Let me quickly share with you the second half – receiving. Some of us are poor receivers.

I would like you to think of receiving in a new way. It is a joy to give. You all know that because you are giving people. But you also share the joy of giving when you receive. You must receive.

“Faith without works is dead.” James 2:26

There was an elderly lady who hardly had any money at all. A minister helped that elderly lady by giving her a ride to church several times. The elderly lady got together her nickels and dimes and quarters and put together a love offering gift of $2.00 to the minister. She had great joy. She stumbled over her words and said, “Here. I want you to have this.”

The minister said, “No! What I did for you was a joy. I wanted to do it.”

The lady was crushed. She said, “Wait just a minute. You must not deny a like joy to me. I want you to allow me to give to you.”

The minister refused the poor woman’s gift, and within weeks the woman quit the church, refusing to ever come back.

The minister thought a lot about this realize that he robbed this woman the joy of being in circulation. The minister decided that he would never refuse another gift.

Here are the guidelines for receiving.

#1. We must not rob the giver in their joy of giving.

#2. We must prepare ourselves to receive by being receptive and appreciative.

#3. We must be grateful for little things to prepare for big things.

#4. God’s bounty and blessing will come to us through God’s messengers.

Friends, if you are praying for an answer to a problem, there will probably be someone new come into your life with the exact solution.

#5. We must be open to new people who bring us new ideas.

#6. Jesus said, “No one cometh unto God but by Me.” I say, “No one cometh unto me except by God.”

When a new person comes to you, expect good. Say, “God, thank You. I am so open to this new person coming to me.”

#7. We must be unselfish and let others have the more blessed joy of giving when it is their turn.

#8. We will accept the best.

Too often, especially those who are giving their lives to God, say, “Well, we don’t need the best. Second best will be fine.” The problem with this is that we put this out as a spiritual identity. Jesus constantly said to you, “Can you believe?”

In modern-day language that means, “Can you accept?” I am going to give you this idea on how to get this car, or home, or furniture, or a new career. If I give you the idea, can you accept it? Are you a good receiver of new and delightful ideas?

The last part is accepting God in a new and profound way, every moment of every day – being a receiver of God, realizing that we are not alone; we don’t have to do it alone; human mind does not have to do it alone. God is going to work through me when I work. God is going to bring talent to me. God is going to work in my body, and I am a perfect receiver of God.

Let us pray –

Today, in this moment, I give of myself, totally to God. I give of myself, totally to life, and I get into circulation. I am excited about receiving. I am complete because I give, and I receive. I will do so every moment of this day.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

God bless everyone!

PRAYER / MEDITATION_________________________________

This ministry is for and about prayer. This ministry is for and about God’s love. This ministry is for and about personal power, power in the individual, by empowerment from God.

This is an appointed time of prayer that we are sharing together. In this moment we begin a spiritual journey that will lead us into new realms of life.

This life journey we are on is a sacred voyage.

Let us still our thoughts and open the portholes of our minds and hearts. We are here to praise God and praise the good in our lives.

In the calming presence of God, we enter into a time of perfect peace. We drift in a sea of tranquility, knowing that nothing can disturb us, for God is here. We relax and let go. We feel God’s love enfolding and uplifting us.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

We dwell in this peaceful, secure presence. Our hearts overflow with the peace and love of God. We find we are content knowing that all is well in our world. Before allowing our thoughts to move on, we pause in the end and give thanks for this serene, peaceful feeling.

Praise God for the love that sustains me! My heart is filled with peace.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Proverbs 4:18 states, “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn.” As our journey continues, we thank God for the light that shines in and through us, to illumine our path. The wisdom and guidance of God lead us in ways of goodness. Our path becomes clear. We move forward with confidence in all that we do.

Our thoughts are clear, our actions wise, our judgment right in every situation we encounter. We give praise and thanksgiving for the Divine presence of God that leads us and directs us in perfect ways.

Praise God for the light that shines in me! I use good judgment.

Praise God with me for the light that shines in us. We use good judgment.

In our spiritual travels, we come to a place of wholeness – the realization of the human body as God created it to be. We feel an energizing power, rejuvenating every cell of our minds and bodies. A powerful, healing presence envelops us, and we know in our hearts, our minds, and our bodies that nothing can prevent us from experiencing the healing life of God.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

In this attitude of thanksgiving, we give thanks for miracles of God, we will see miracle upon miracle. God is in this place. God is working in this place. God is working in and through you, to heal you now.

Praise God for the life that invigorates you! You experience good health.

And now, in the silence of prayer, thank God for what is happening within your mind and body …

Our spiritual journey has blessed us with peaceful, guiding, healing thoughts that remind us of how prosperous we truly are! We hold thoughts of abundance, and we praise God for the answer to all our needs. Our hearts are filled with thanks for the many gifts God has given us, and we pray expecting continuing prosperity:

Praise God for the abundance that fills me! My needs are met.

Praise God for the abundance that fills me! My needs are met.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Our journey has been filled with joy, praise, and satisfaction, and we are ready to face our daily activities with renewed strength and enthusiasm. We praise God for this special spiritual time, and looking forward to future times of prayer and fellowship in complete faith we say thank You, dear God.

In Jesus Christ’s name 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.

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GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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16Nov

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – You Have Something To Hope For

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - You Have Something To Hope For

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As adults often, we do not feel the spiritual mystery. The busyness of life often makes us blind to the wonder. If it is missing, even just a little bit, you need to spiritually fill yourself back up again. The way you do that is not by looking at the life through tired eyes – you look from within, spiritually. Then, from within, when you again perceive the hope and wonder – all the rest that you see becomes wonder and magic.

We can have areas of our thinking that are a bit dark, that are just a bit numb because of some of the stress of life. But when we get into the spirit and allow the wonder of the Christ to work again inside of us, it is mighty and powerful!

As a child we had great anticipation and great hope because we knew that everything was taken care of. As an adult, we need to have that same spirit inside of us.

The problem is that we are often fighting a cynical adult mind. We know the pressures of life well. We know the financial pressures of trying to make ends meet.

We know how short our days are. Life seems to move quicker every year. But when we allow that majesty of hope to take place inside of us, something very, very special occurs.

Do you remember the play, “Annie”, where she sang in the middle of the Depression, “The sun will come out tomorrow”?

That play was supposed to take place during the Great Depression. Some, this very day, are totally consumed by depression. They want life to be right again. They want to find that ingredient that is somehow missing, the spiritual recipe, to make everything good again, but they don’t know how. It seems like over the years they lost the ability.

In Ephesians 3:11-12 it says, ” … Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confidence of access through faith … “

Confidence of Access.

Those are some of my favorite three words in the Bible – “confidence of access”. Let us suppose you work for a company. You are on a special project in which you have to step out in faith and take risks, but you have “confidence of access” because you have an open-door policy with the president of that corporation. You know that no matter how much you have to step out on faith, you can go to the president and say, “Hey, is this all right? Am I taking the right action? Am I doing the right thing?”

Think about this in your life. This is why we are here. We are to think and rethink, and rethink spiritually, and make God real; to make hope real inside of us. Today as you build the hope inside of you, as you put one block on this brand new house you’re building in the faith scene inside of you, you are going to have real God ordained hope.

Nothing in your life right now is going to drag you down so much that you can’t have hope. Why? Because you have “confidence of access” to God.

Now there’s REAL power – if we really know that at any moment, no matter how tough the day is or how overwhelming it is to the human, we have a greater power than ourselves to call upon and to allow it to work through us.

The apostle Paul wrote letters to the churches. The reason he did this was because the churches were feeling great fear. It is no different today. Churches are people, and people do feel fear. It is a natural feeling because there are a lot of things that happen in life that we need to overcome. But in these letters, Paul continually told them to hope in Christ and to step out on faith. He said that this is the type of hope that transcends mere wishful thinking. It is a hope that springs eternal, just like our faith in God.

Imagine if you have this at the foundation of your being – at the foundation of your life. To really celebrate this day that God has given us, we have to be reborn.

We have to experience anew. We have to be reborn and know that God is with us.

We are not just repeating yesterday – with God’s help we have new day to experience – because we are new. We have to know that everything is all right.

We have a hope that springs eternal inside of us.

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4

We know that you do not have to die a physical death to feel dead. God created you in nine months’ time, and God is not done re-creating you. If you consent and accept you can have new hope, and walk in the newness of life.

“Christ in you the HOPE of glory.” Colossians 1:27

So, on the foundation of your life, give yourself the ultimate gift of the Christ awareness. You know, today, that no matter what you are facing, NOTHING is impossible to you.

It is the message of God working inside of each of our lives, no matter what our religion. As we go to God, as we hope, and as we bring forth that power inside of us and through us, we’ll know that spiritually nothing is impossible to us.

We have confidence of access!

We say, at this point, that we allow our hearts to be lifted up into new hope, great expectancy, wonder and mystery. We can testify through our lives that it does work. I can testify that we have a choice. This is the best time to have that choice.

Discover the power of taking a spiritual inventory, making a list of all the good in our lives, past and present, and giving thanks; how this opens us up to God. If we are opened up to God’s good, more good flows to us. If we know what God has done in the past, that gives us a foundation to stand on for new hope in the future.

Do you know that people in this world are not born happy? They are not born with a silver spoon in their mouth, so to say, spiritually. They are not born with an attitude that makes them hopeful all their lives. They must create it within themselves.

One person shared, “At one time in my life, I was the most negative person you would ever want to meet. Everything was based in Disaster, and drama. I knew I had to change that, but how? Sure, I had started to read books about positive thinking, but I still didn’t know how to change. It is so easy to slip back, and you do not even know you have slipped back until you’ve slipped. Then you say, “Oh boy, here’s another week when I was going to be positive, and now I’ve slipped back.”

He said, “I had a calendar. I started to keep track of my good days and my bad days with just an arrow. An arrow pointing down meant it was a bad day and an arrow pointing up meant it was a good day. I started to watch and examine myself. What I saw was not so good. Then, as I looked at each week and each month, I started to see a change. I noticed that I started remembering earlier in the day that I wanted to have an “up arrow” on my calendar.” He said he realized that “I have a choice here.”

A life is not built on material possessions and things outside of yourself. It is built by the thoughts you hold in mind.

Start to realize that your life is: Thoughts X 365 days = a positive, happy person, or a negative person. Realize that you have the power and you can change your day. And when you change your day and realize with hope that God is working with you, you know you have the power.

You have confidence of access.

When we read books about people, especially famous people, do we realize they are just ordinary people who have in some way gone beyond the ordinary? How have they gone beyond the ordinary? They have gone beyond the ordinary in their thoughts; in deciding that they can take the reins of their life and change it.

So with a simple calendar, you can make the decision for yourself. You begin to map out your life and retrain yourself. Each day write down one word, attribute, or action where you will exhibit the Christ – and then that day live to do that.

At the end of the year, you will have 365 X positive thoughts. What is going to happen to you? You’re going to find that your positive thoughts and your hope align with the Christ Mind and have become the living part of who you are.

You cannot have access to something unless you become like it. Let me repeat that. You cannot have access to something with full power and full majesty unless you become like it.

“Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” 1 John 2:6

As you have hope, even as a grain of mustard seed, you are providing an opportunity for the floodgates of God good to be opened and for all the wonder of God to work through your life. When that happens, you can put that day as an “up day” in your life.

You’re already your own story, and so am I. We are all writing biographies right now. Every day is a mini lifetime. Are we happy today? Do we feel the hope of God today? If your story could only be told in this 24-hour period, what would you want people to say of you? You would want people to say the best. You would want people to say how loving you were and how hopeful.

If you go into a situation that’s negative, you want to BE THE ONE to spread hope – and not false hope, but hope that you really believe; not wishful thinking, but God’s truth. You know that you have access to God, and having access to God, you have incredible power to bring forth in and through your life what you wish to bring forth. The way you convert others to a higher way of life than they are presently living, is for them to see something in you – that they want badly in their life.

Let me share with you Job 11:18. “And you will have confidence, because there is hope; you will be protected and take your rest in safety.”

I like that – “Take your rest in safety.”

If God is everywhere present and all good, and the only power in the universe, what do we need to be protected from?” That’s a good question. Think about that for a minute.

What do we need to be protected from?

We need to be protected FROM OURSELVES.

We need to constantly remind ourselves that we are not alone. The minute we think we’re alone, we cut off a great access inside of us and we feel we are powerless. We feel that we are all by ourselves and that God is far off. When we think that way, we need to be protected from those sorts of thoughts, because they are self-delusional lies that distort our own thinking.

The Bible urges – Have this mind in you – that was also in Christ Jesus!

One of the greatest gifts that God has given us is an abiding hope. There is not one mind inside of you; there are two. There is a human mind in you, but there is also a Christ Mind. This Christ Mind has great power. It has built-in powers that come with it – as standard equipment from the Creator.

The minute we become silent, as we do in our prayers, we have this other mind enter in; this mind has a vision that is higher than that we hold of ourselves; this mind has guidance, and this mind has a built-in hope because it knows the power it has.

Thoughts held in mind produce after their kind – hold the right thoughts inside of you.

What if you could go in for a mind transplant and have an organ donor give you the brain of the most powerful, Christian person on the earth who had faith in God, a person who knew the complete confidence of access to God and the hope of God? Well, you can. It’s not surgical; it’s spiritual.

When we become quiet and say, “God, I consent to You, Your power and Your majesty,” a new mind begins its spiritual thought process.

Regeneration comes into the picture, life is without beginning and without end. It is eternal. There is an ageless power that comes in. Our human mind holds an idea about our own abilities and our limitations. But God is perfection and God is incredible spiritual power working inside of you.

Life can be tough unless you plug yourself in and connect. The Christ Mind inside of you is always relaxed. It is never nervous. It is not sick, or over stressed.

This is not theory. It has been proven; everyone in existence can prove it. They can know God, personally, one-on-one, and they can be full hope, full access, charged up. They can fill their calendars with “up” arrows and know the God-given power and majesty that is with them.

There is a Divine plan for your life.

Many say, “I feel like I’m a boat and I’m drifting. I want to know the plan.”

We need to relax and allow God’s inspiration to come through.

Here is what is NOT going to happen. God’s not going to come to you and hit you over the head with a cosmic two-by-four and say, “Hey, you have messed up again. God is always gentle. God never criticizes. God is loving. You might feel your human mind being hugged. You might feel a giant, wonderful, soft voice say, “I love you and I care for you. Stop struggling so much. Stop hating yourself. Stop criticizing and being so cynical of everything in your life.” God says, “Look with My eyes and perceive with My love. Give yourself a break and let Me take over. Let Me work on it for a while.”

When we do, it’s so wonderful. We go forward with a great recharge. We feel a great renewal and a great sense of peace.

Psalms 39:7 says, “And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in Thee.”

We wait. We say, “God, if You can fix this and take care of my bills and my financial burdens, then I will go from here where I am and I’ll be happy and hopeful.” As God’s hugging your mind God says, “Why wait? When you are feeling pain, when you are feeling great problems fall around your life, why wait? Give yourself a break and allow God’s power to take over and ease your burden.” God says, “My hope is in you!” Everyone here has it equally because it is part of God’s basic gift to you. You are not far away from it. You have it with you now.

The Bible says something that is somewhat mysterious. It says, “Hope is the anchor of the soul.” We have an anchor inside of us, just like a boat. Wherever we put our anchor down, we stay. We can put our anchor into gloom, misery and despair or we can put our anchor down in great power and great relief. We can put our anchor down in hope.

When you hope from your human mind, it feeds your belief. We need spiritual nourishment.

We have to ask the question whether or not we are feeding ourselves. How do we feed ourselves? By rising in mind to the high plain of thoughts; by hoping. This feeds our soul. We have that opening inside of us that allows the floodgates to open and allows all the majesty of God to come forth. It does so with great power.

Many people have changed their lives. They have gone from depression to being very hopeful people. If we had one gift to give the world, we would give the world hope. We wish, we pray, that we could give each one of you a real awareness of hope that would immediately manifest inside of you; hope that would never leave you, that you couldn’t get away from. We give you, God’s truth. This IS real. You can take it on and wear it as your own.

I am asking you to do this: to make a commitment to take your calendar and begin to monitor yourself. Retrain yourself spiritually. It will happen. You will be new. And you will feel good again in every aspect of your life.

Let us pray. God, I come to You today with an open mind and an open heart. I come to You today with a great belief in You and my access to You. I come today realizing that I can have hope again in my life, and that I can have it so it never leaves. I’m tired of living life on a roller coaster where sometimes I feel good and other times, I feel bad. I want to have the consistency of the omnipresence of Your hope. I want to feel that power inside of me. So, I open up my mind today and I begin, one step at a time, one day at a time, to rebuild my life. I will feel hope. I will be hopeful. And I will manifest it and demonstrate it to all around me.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION___________________________

In spiritual celebration we meet – in celebration of God, and in celebration of the spiritual wonder that is working all around us. We close our eyes and allow our awareness to be directed to the secret place of the most High inside of us. We allow God’s power to happen in, and through us – not just in our minds, but behind every organ, tissue, and cell of our physical body temple. We allow and consent to the power of the Creator, God, to be manifest in our lives.

In Psalms 62:5 it says: “For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from God.”

Rest for a moment in the silence and wait on God, because God is there waiting for you …

In the sanctuary of stillness in our own soul, we remember the presence and power of God. This is a place where we can feel and know the Presence.

This moment, in this place of stillness and silence, feel the presence of God filling you with strength. The presence of God renews your energy and brings peace to any troubled thoughts you may have.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Right now in this prayer, you turn your thoughts away from any trouble, and think about God instead.

You turn your attention away from outer things and you bring whatever might be troubling you to God. You say, “God, I have this trouble, this feeling, and it’s keeping me from feeling Your hope. It is standing between me and You. I ask that You take this challenge I’m facing, lift it up off my shoulders, and take it away from me so that my burden will be light.”

Now, in this prayer time, with all the power of God with you, I ask that you give your challenge to God.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Through the power of Jesus Christ, I decree that you are filled with new hope and new vision. I pray that in the silence of prayer, God is reassuring you that you are not alone. You allow this new hope and new vision to fill you. You begin anew to do what is yours to do this glorious week of God. You let the power of God uplift you and sustain you in whatever lies before you. You abide in the stillness of your own being.

You feel a new hope inside of your heart.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Dear God, we pray that today and every day that we will go forth in the assurance of Your presence and we will know that power is ever active in and through us and in our lives. We are nurtured by You. We are protected by You. And we live our lives with a renewed hope.

We pray, this day, with great belief in today and hope in the future,

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

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09Nov

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Thanksgiving

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Thanksgiving

Time Sensitivity: In America, Sunday before Thanksgiving

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The preacher placed two identical jars on the table next to the pulpit. He quoted 1 Samuel 16:7, “The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. A human looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

“These jars came from the same factory, were made of the same materials, and can hold the same amount, but they are different,” he explained.

Then he upset one and it oozed out honey. He turned over the other, and vinegar spilled out. “When a jar is upset, whatever is in it comes out. Until the jars were upset, they looked alike. The difference was within, and could not be seen. When they were upset, their contents were revealed.

“Until we are upset, we put on a good front. But when we are upset, we reveal our innermost thoughts and attitudes for ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.’ Luke 6:45”

What if someone “tipped you over” today? What would flow out? Would you reveal the “honey” of grace and patience and overwhelming gratitude to God, or the “vinegar” of anger and sarcasm? Above all, love each other deeply, because “love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 This week, through Thanksgiving and gratitude, we will restore the interior of each of us, from bitterness to sweetness.

Allow me to share this inscription that appears on the Plymouth Rock Monument in Massachusetts: “This monument marks the first burying ground in Plymouth of the passengers of the Mayflower. Here, under cover of darkness, the fast dwindling company laid their dead, leveling the earth above them lest the Indians should learn how many were in the graves. History records no nobler venture for faith and freedom than of this Pilgrim band. In weariness and painfulness, in watching often in hunger and cold, they laid the foundation of a state wherein every human through countless ages should have liberty to worship God in his or her own way. May their example inspire thee to do thy part in perpetuating and spreading the lofty ideals of our republic throughout the world.”

This Thursday, we are going to celebrate the greatness of God’s good. It will begin Thursday morning, as we notice the wonderful smell of a turkey in the oven, wafting out from the kitchen. There is no smell like that in the world. Right now, we can smell it – the aroma of the turkey browning and the spices cooking through it seems to fill the air. Some of you will have a mother, a grandmother, a wife, or a husband who will be in the kitchen. This wonderful aroma, floating through the air, seems to lift everyone in the household.

There are other smells too. I love the smell of cooking candied yams. Often, everyone is in such a good mood because of the smells, that there is singing going on in the kitchen. It seems like no matter how small the kitchen is, everyone is gathering there. Other large rooms are standing empty, but everyone is in the kitchen because they want to breathe in all this good that God has created.

As you are celebrating and smelling all these wonderful smells on Thursday, will you stop to think why Thanksgiving is on Thursday? What an odd day of the week on which to celebrate Thanksgiving. Why not celebrate Thanksgiving on a Sunday? Why would it be in the middle of the week? Who would have picked Thursday? If you are going to have it on a weekday, maybe Monday or Friday would be better? Why not celebrate on Saturday, when the majority of people are off of work for the weekend?

I want you to think about something else, also. Not only is it on a Thursday, but it is in November. Why is it in November? If we are celebrating the harvest, it was months ago. Why do we have this one day in November when we are celebrate and give thanks to God for all that God has done?

Let me share with you the story. In recent history, Christmas is always on December 25th. Valentine’s Day is always on February 14th. The Fourth of July is always on July 4th. So why cannot Thanksgiving just choose a specific date and stop roving up and down the calendar?

Why is Thanksgiving on a Thursday, and why is it in late November? The answer to these questions revolves around fish–something that we never eat for Thanksgiving – says James Baker, the historian at a museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Elizabeth 1, who was the Queen of England, wanted to bolster the fishing industry in England, so she decreed that people could not eat meat on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays. The market day, when everyone seemed to come alive, was on Thursday. Many people would go to the market half-starved because they would have fasted the other days. At the market, they would get turkeys, the fatted goose, and all sorts of delectable things to eat; things that, when cooked, would fill the house with wonderful smells. That is why a day of thanksgiving was declared to be on a Thursday.

Did you know that Thanksgiving Day was not always in November? For a long time it was held on December 18th. The reason it was held on December 18th, in this country, was because it was towards the end of the year, but it was a little ahead of Christmas. It was a celebration of all God had done during the year.

Thanksgiving was not officially declared to be held in November until Franklin Delano Roosevelt decreed that it would be. Why did he move it back to the third Thursday in November? He moved it back during the Depression, so there would be a longer Christmas shopping season. We all know that will begin with the biggest shopping day of the year – the Friday after Thanksgiving.

The symbol of Thanksgiving is the fatted bird – the turkey.

“Birds of a Feather.” That is a saying in this country. I do not know how old the saying is, but “birds of a feather” means things, or people, of like mind or like activities. We are all going to do basically the same thing on Thanksgiving. We may eat turkey or we may not, but we will all be doing the same thing – at some point, during that day, we will take a moment and realize (more than we do ordinarily) how good God has been to us, and how wonderful it is to be healthy and alive.

Thanksgiving is a day to recognize God in our lives, and we will feel good. We will express our gratitude to God through praise, and we are going to see the good everywhere. We will know that God will provide, and everything will be fine.

I share a story with you that takes place in Bethany. This particular day was hot, dry, and dusty, with a hot wind blowing. I do not know of anything more miserable to the human spirit than a hot, dusty wind. You are all clean, you go outside, and a hot, dusty wind hits you in the face. The air seems so thick with dust that it is difficult to breathe. You feel down because of the environment.

A group of people were really feeling down. They were grieving. They were clinging together as grieving people often do. They were weeping and mourning outside a cave in Bethany that was serving as a tomb for Lazarus (the brother of Martha and Mary). He had been dead for four days. Those in the grieving group were talking as Jesus approached. They were saying things like, “If He had come earlier, this might not have happened. He could have healed our brother, and everything would have been okay. But look, He comes now when Lazarus has been dead for four days.”

Then the group is absolutely dumbfounded as they see Jesus kneel down, and with a smile on His face He begins to give thanks to God. Can you imagine? Imagine if I was performing a funeral service for someone you loved, and instead of grieving with you, I had a huge smile on my face and gave thanks to God. Can you imagine how dumbfounded, and possibly angry you would be?

I want to share this story with you from John 11:38-44: “Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.'”

I imagine the people standing around were no longer a crowd, but were now a mob. I imagine they were getting more and more angry at Jesus.

When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

A man is lying dead, and his friend is giving thanks. Everybody just looked at Jesus. Then, with His next breath, Jesus called out, “Lazarus, come out!” At this point, you can imagine how the atmosphere is electric. I am sure time was such that a few seconds seemed like an hour.

The “dead” man came out to them. What did that crowd feel? There was joy, shock, fear, and disbelief. But He gave thanks, and that set the miracle into motion.

A man was telling about an Alcoholics Anonymous group he attended where a man told his story. The man said, “God caused me to be raised from the dead.” This meant he had the power to give up drinking. Then he looked at all his friends – birds of a feather, people of like mind – and then with tears in his eyes he said to them, “You are unbinding me. Do not leave bound what God has unbound.”

God is constantly unbinding us. God is constantly telling us to come forth. If, after looking back at the past and what God has done in our lives, we hold that in our minds, we will have the incredible intelligence in human mind to give thanks in advance. We know, no matter what we face today, that God is with us. No matter how difficult it is in the moment, we can say, “Thank You, God. I know I am connected with You. I am not separate. I know that when I work with You as a partner, everything will work out all right.”

And I ask God to give me the power to unbind myself – not holding myself bound by the thoughts of the past – and I ask that my family and my friends will not bind me, either, and I will have the power to go on.

During this Thanksgiving week, we need to ignite that feeling. Yes, we are thankful for the harvest, and we are thankful for what God has done in our lives in the past. But we are also thankful for the things that we have not seen as of yet. We are thankful because we know we have a God who responds. We know that everything will be fine. No matter how great our mountain, or how great our difficulty, God is a God who answers our present challenges, instantly, in a way that is beyond anything we can imagine.

Because this is Jesus’ way of prayer, a woman in need of her own healing placed a chair opposite her with a picture of Jesus Christ on it. Then she started to give thanks to God and to every part of her God-created body, starting at the top of her head.

She was in pain. Things were not going well. Our human reaction is to curse the things that are not quite right. Instead, this lady gave thanks to the body parts, for God working in the body parts, and brought them into new life, regenerated in the God-Truth that was already prepared for her. We can do the same with any situation in our lives. She gave thanks and unbound herself.

I want to give you a practical technique to use this week. I am going to ask that you get seven 3″x5″ index cards, or take seven sheets of paper. On them you are going to write what you are thankful for as if it were ALREADY true. Take seven different areas in your life that you care about, and each day this week give thanks in advance for and dwell on that one particular thing for which you are thankful. Of course, you will do the usual things at Thanksgiving. As you do this, realize that a thankful mind draws thankfulness to it. You are going to think of the past and how good God has been to you, but you are also going to go beyond with your faith in the Jesus Christ way – telling the things that are within the tomb to come forth. You are going to unbind yourself and others. You are going to know that, through God, working through you, you have a new, wonderful life.

Remember the seven index cards. Here is an example: “I GIVE THANKS TO GOD FOR PERFECT HEALTH MANIFESTED RIGHT NOW IN MY VITALLY ALIVE BODY.”

I may not feel good in that moment, but I am thanking God because I know God is with me, so I will feel good again. And in that day, I am going to give thanks for the individual body centers and organs that are working perfectly under God’s divine plan.

Another day you might say:

“I GIVE THANKS FOR THE FULL, UNRESTRAINED LOVE OF GOD NOW PRESENT IN ALL MY RELATIONSHIPS.”

That may not be true in your home right now, but you are thanking God and unbinding yourself and your spouse of what might have happened before.

“THANK YOU GOD THAT MY EVERY NEED IS MET. I AM NOW UNBOUND AND FREE.”

Right now, you are thanking God, in advance, holding to that, all day, and giving thanks for the blessings that are going to come from God. You will be a magnet for your good to come to you.

Remember, one card a day for seven days – seven cards. And work with it all that day with great faith.

I have a piece of poetry I want to read to you. I know it will bring back memories of your childhood, too. It is called “Thanksgiving Day.”

THANKSGIVING DAY
by Lydia Child
1802 – 1880

Over the river and through the wood,
To Grandfather’s house we go;
The horse knows the way
To carry the sleigh
Through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river and through the wood –
Oh how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes
Bites the nose
As over the ground we go.

Over the river and through the wood,
To have a first-rate play
Hear the bells ring,
“Ting-a-ling ding!”
Hooray for Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river and through the wood,
Trot fast my dapple gray!
Spring over the ground,
Like a hunting hound!
For this is Thanksgiving Day.

Over the river and through the wood,
And straight through the barnyard gate.
We seem to go
Extremely slow –
It’s so hard to wait!

Over the river and through the wood–
Now Grandmother’s cap I spy!
Hooray for the fun!
Is the pudding done?
Hooray for the pumpkin pie!

I am going to close with scripture from Romans. As you read your cards this week, I ask you to remember this:

“In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Romans 8:37-38].

Let us pray:

Thank You, dear, wonderful God, for my week of thanksgiving. Thank You for bringing joy to my heart and helping me to recall all the things to be thankful for. And thank You, in advance, for all the things I cannot yet see with my physical eyes, but that I know, through faith, Your blessings will come forth. I thank You in advance and will do so all week.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

PRAYER / MEDITATION_____________________________

I ask you to rest in the glorious presence of God. Close your eyes, and enter into a time of deep rest. Prepare for this week of thanksgiving inside yourself.

We give thanks for this day.

Dear God, we give thanks for the past, for even the difficult things the past has brought us to in this moment in time. Thank You, dear God, for our many blessings.

Thank You for the good in our lives and the good in the lives of others around us. Thank You for a human mind that has the power to explore; therefore, we have the power to get to know You better, dear God. Thank You for your never-ending, unjudging, and unfailing love. Thank You for watching over us, and through us; walking ahead of us on life’s path.

Thank You for Your light that surrounds us. Thank You for Your love that enfolds us. Thank You for Your power that constantly protects us. Thank You for Your presence that watches over us. Thank You for Your presence, that wherever we are, You are. Thank You for walking ahead of us on life’s path, and being everywhere present in our lives, and in the lives of our dear ones.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Thank You, God, for this nation in which we all live, freely. Our Pilgrim fathers sought to be free, and we enjoy that freedom today. We thank You for them.

Thank You, God, for the opportunities that every man, woman, and child has in this great land. God may our flag always fly free, and may we always be able to worship in our own way at the church of our choice. May the values continue that made this nation great.

Thank You for Your all-powerfulness that works for good and only good. Thank you for leading us to people who will be our teachers along life’s path. Thank You, God, for life’s path. Thank You for the ups, as well as the downs, for each has molded our character and created a more God-like human.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Thank You for the ability to communicate ideas. Thank You for the many hours we spend together in glorious prayer and meditation, when our awareness grows and we feel even closer to you. We know that we are always close to You.

Thank You for this week in which we dedicate ourselves to praise and thanksgiving. Dear God, I make a covenant with You, now. I will not say one, idle word of criticism or condemnation. I will not allow my words to be wasted. I will make the words and thoughts, within my own head, thoughts of thankfulness and praise.

I uplift everyone I am with this week. And God, I will continually thank You. I will continue to look around, and with my human eyes, I will perceive good; I will give thanks for that good. Now, in this moment of silence, I invite everyone to have a personal moment with God, and give thanks for your life and all the good in your life …

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God is in every cell of your body and mind. You are not separate from God, but one. God is with you, this very minute. Every part of you–every atom – is filled with the presence of God. Through the power of the spoken word, I decree, in Jesus Christ’s name, that this feeling will stay with you all week long.

Your spiritual experience will be moment-by-moment, as you touch more of the Divine, as you feel more awareness of God in your human mind. This is the week where the Divine infills your awareness. You are filled with thankfulness.

In Jesus Christ’s name, Thank You, God … Amen.

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Christopher Ian Chenoweth

Read More
05Jan

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Renewing and empowering failed resolutions

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Renewing and empowering failed resolutions

Time Sensitivity: 4-5 weeks after the new year

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.

______________________________

CALL UPON YOUR RESOURCES

(Molly) (or a name that is not common within your congregation) made a New Year’s Resolution towards midnight on December 31st, 2000. She resolved to stop smoking. She decided this would be the year. Molly has already failed to keep her resolution.

Did you make a resolution on New Year’s Eve? Did you keep that resolution, or did you fail in keeping it? The experts say, that most human beings forget, or fail, at their New Year’s resolutions within the first three weeks after making the resolution. The reason for this is because they were not changed at the core of their being. The New Year’s resolution didn’t become a part of them.

Most of us are in a constant state of recovery. We are always recovering from something. Maybe we’re recovering from that bad cold, or maybe it is a business or career situation in which we are experiencing a low point. We are dreaming of the day when we can return to the height that we once were.

But if we keep on living this way, on the roller-coaster of life, even when we are at the high point we fear it because we just know it won’t last. We say, “Dear God, this can’t last. Something will go wrong.” The minute we do, we begin recovery again.

The economy is in a constant state of recovery. Alan Greenspan is making weekly adjustments. What happens when you go to God and you say, “God, here I am. I bring You my physical body and my mind. I’m tired of the up and down roller-coaster living I have been experiencing, and I want to be changed. God, I’ve read the Bible and Jesus says it’s possible for me. He did it. He said I could do it. Now is the time.” “I’ve tried to keep my New Year’s resolution. Some days I’ve done well, but other days I have not done so well. I want to be changed at the core of my being. When will this happen, God? How does it happen? Can it happen to me?”

On the computers we use, we have a feature called “system restore”, God I need your help to restore my system. “God, it seems I just don’t have the power in me to do what I want to do, and really want to do it. I think I do, but then I keep on going back to old ways of thinking. Why? Why can’t I have the power within myself to be changed once and for all? I want it, and I want it desperately.”

You ask, “how do I renew and empower a failed New Years Eve resolution?”

There is a realm of discovery within each of us. That discovery can come at a low point in our lives. We do not need a spiritual experience only when we’re at the very top peak of the life’s mountain and everything is going well. It’s easy to have a spiritual experience when that happens because we feel so good. We feel empowered and we feel as if we could do anything, and God could do anything through us.

A spiritual experience is also possible when you are going through what Jesus called a crucifixion. When people at work are not very nice to you, or something in your home environment is not going very well, or a habit that you want to give up is crucifying you, that may be the best time to realize the power of God. Spirituality is the depth of your bliss in the middle of your problem.

When things are not going right, you can go within yourself in the “now” moment, and change your whole world–change your whole mind and body and go through a transfiguration. You know the power of God without a doubt. You know God can be relied upon in the bad times as well as the good.

In Matthew 16:22 Jesus was talking to the disciples. Imagine you are one of the disciples. We are sitting around a campfire and Jesus is talking. He says, “I face some hard times ahead of me. I’m going to be crucified, and then I’m going to go through a resurrection.”

As you sit there, you can’t believe that this Man you have followed, who has talked to you about living the Christ life, is talking about bad things happening to Him and how He will deal with these bad things. You don’t want to hear it.

Think about this: What if the one you loved most in life came to you and said, “I need to talk. Something is going to happen to me, and we need to face this together.” Wouldn’t you just want to close your ears, not listen, and say, “This can’t be true? Things need to remain the same?”

In human mind, more than anything else, we may want the normal to stay the norm; for things to remain the same. Sometimes we DO NOT want change. This is what the disciples wanted.

After Jesus had said this, Peter took Him aside and rebelled Him saying, “God, forbid it. Lord, this must never happen to You.” But He turned away from Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan!”

Isn’t that a strange thing for Jesus to say? Isn’t it strange for Jesus to call Peter “Satan”? It is, unless you realize what “Satan” means. Satan means tester. He was saying, “Peter, don’t test me. Don’t even try to sway me. This is what must happen. In human mind, this does not sound very good, but this is Divine and it is going to prove the Divine.”

[Matthew 16:24]. Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers … “Who here does not want to become a follower of Jesus Christ? You want to hold the ideals of what was taught because these are universal ideals.

How do we become a follower? Many believe that becoming a follower means that somehow we will follow the man Jesus; or if Jesus came back in body we would follow Him down the path He was walking. Wherever Jesus wanted to go, we will go too. We will leave behind everything without question and follow Him.

But this is not what Jesus said. He said: If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me [daily]. This is before the crucifixion, and yet He is talking about a cross.

“I have a cross to bear,” you say, “and it’s a heavy one.” This is a saying we’ve all heard, and I think it was a saying in that day too. People were crucified daily. Often they would carry their own cross to the crucifixion site.

But is Jesus saying that I must deny my lower human mind, my lower thoughts, and my lowest habits and carry a cross daily. The cross Jesus referred to often meant crossing out error beliefs inside of us. If we are truly following Jesus, we have to think about how we follow Jesus in our minds and hearts, and then in the outer world.

What does it mean to deny ourselves? In some places in the world it means that you would take a chain and hit the body because the body is no good. But Jesus said the body is the temple of the living God. Your body, where you are, is a cathedral, a church, and a place where all the cells in your body temple are holding a worship service. They are singing in joy and having a wonderful time in worship.

But you have burdens. You are living life, and you have challenges and problems. This is a normal activity of the human being. But how do we deal with these challenges?

We deny human thinking and produce Divine thinking. Our problems cannot be solved at the same level of thought in which we created them. We have to lift ourselves higher. We have to go to Divine Mind.

Imagine you were hiking with a backpack on your back. In that backpack you had a million dollars, but in your pockets you didn’t have any money all. If you went into McDonald’s and they wanted you to pay, and you said, “I can’t pay. I don’t have any money in my pockets. I guess I’ll just have to starve. I guess I’ll have to go without. I guess I cannot solve this problem.”

Yet, if you simply call on your resources–what you have with you already–and go within, you can have whatever you want.

But sometimes we have to deny ourselves. Our human mind is saying over and over again in loud chattering voices, “You don’t have any money. You don’t have the ability. You don’t have the ways to carry this off. There is no way you can save this business, or this relationship, or do what you need to do. It’s hopeless.” Human mind continually chatters, while Divine Mind is with you every step of the way saying, “Wait. Deny that thought of your lower human self and come to Me. I have already prepared the solution for you.”

Jesus goes on and says [Matthew 16:25]: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” As I said earlier, we want to have the norm. We want to stay in what we know. We want to find solutions in our own human mind. We don’t want to go into a mode of discovery of new, wondrous good in our lives. We just want to, somehow using the power of thought we have already, get back to where we were before. Then we’ll be happy.

But you are not meant to do that. You are here to explore and discover. You are Christ-o-nauts, and your mission is to explore a new frontier. You are to explore something that you cannot even imagine in your mind–a whole new world, a whole new environment–that can be yours. Unlike an astronaut exploring outer space, you are an explorer of inner space.

In order to do that, you are going to have to lose the concept of who you think you are. You are going to have to lose the concept of everything you hold dear in the things you want to get rid of in your life.

We hold things tightly–even the things we want to be rid of in our lives. That’s why we don’t change. When we have the courage to say, “Okay, I let go and let God,” we loosen our grip and we go into an area that is not fearful or scary at all. It is wondrous and good. But we must lose our life as we know it in that situation and follow the Christ. Everything will be gained.

[Matthew 16:26]. “For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?” We have known many people who had a life beyond anything you can imagine. They had riches and everything you dream in your wildest fantasies would make you happy. But they have been empty human beings because so much has been lacking in their lives.

The most important ingredient of happiness is not in the material world; it is in the inner world, the soul realm. And when we gain those things in the spiritual realm, we discover a happiness that is beyond belief.

Here we are, (a month) after our New Year’s resolutions. We have decided, right now, to make the change. How do we go about it? How do we go through a transfiguration in our world?

[Matthew 17:1-4]. “Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, Lord it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwelling places here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

This Bible verse holds some keys about the truth of change inside of you. First of all, Jesus took three disciples with Him to be totally transfigured where He glowed with new life. Which disciples did He take?

The disciples of Peter, James, and John represent faith, judgment and love.

On New Year’s Eve, we have the Christ Mind power with us of faith. We think we can do anything. That faith creates wild enthusiasm that quickly dissipates. We have to add the power of judgment to that. We have to decide on the details of how to do this. We hitch the horse of our faith to the reigns of judgment.

Then we add the third to have the holy trinity of getting what we want in our New Year’s resolutions to come to pass. That third power is love. What do I mean by adding love? If I decide to quit smoking, I first build my faith that with God I can quit smoking. I add in my judgment on exactly when and how this is going to take place, and then I allow it to become me by loving the idea. I love the idea of days when I do not have a cigarette. I love the feeling of my body as my lungs regenerate. I become so in love with the idea that I become more in love with that idea than I love the cigarette in my mouth. With faith, judgment and love, I have real power.

Two other people appear–Moses and Elijah. Moses represents the law. Everything inside of you has to be based on law. What is the law? It is the teachings of the standards of the world; of living the Biblical teachings of Jesus Christ.

Elijah represents the utterances of the prophet. In other words, it’s not just getting our lives back to where they were, but going beyond with a new vision of what we can accomplish. Remember, if you team-up with God and make God your partner, you are no longer who you were. Do not limit yourself. But to go beyond, you must lose your former concept of yourself and say, “Here I am God. I am here to be transfigured. I believe that together, we can.”

Let me say this about the transfiguration: Transfiguration is always preceded by a change of mind. Our ideas must be lifted from the material, the physical, to the spiritual. But first we need to realize that it is possible for us to be transfigured as well as to understand the law by which transfiguration is brought about …

In our study and application of the Christian life we all have times when we are spiritually uplifted. Such a time is marked by a form of spiritual enthusiasm, which is brought about by statements of Truth; made by ourselves or others–prayers, words of praise, songs, meditations–any statement of Truth that exalts the spiritual realms of the mind.

Jesus was lifted up by Peter, James, and John (faith, judgment, and love). Whenever we dwell upon these virtues and try to live up to them, they are exalted in consciousness, and they go with us to the mount of Transfiguration. You may not always realize this. You may think that the uplifting was just a passing exaltation, but it stamps itself upon your soul and body and marks the planting of a new idea in the upward trend of the whole [human] …

Having once seen Truth, having once had the illumination, you find that the next step is to demonstrate it and not to be cast down or discouraged by the opposite. When the crucifixion comes and you are suffering the pangs of dying error, you may cry out “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” forgetting for the time the promises in the mount of Transfiguration. This is when you need to realize that you are passing through a transforming process that will be followed by a resurrection of all that is worth saving.

Molly WILL succeed in giving up the habit of smoking, and you WILL succeed in keeping the resolutions you made for 2001.

Let us pray:

I pray that this moment today is the beginning of a new fusion of Christ Mind with my human mind. I am ready to be transformed and renewed. I lift up my faculties–my Christ Mind powers of faith, judgment, and love–and I behold spiritual reality. I see my body as it is in Truth, my mind refined and revitalized in every cell, quickened and harmonized in every function, transformed into a new body of living luminous energy–beautiful, strong, whole, young, eternal, incorruptible.

Today, this moment, I become a true center of Divine energy. I thank You, dear God.
In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

PRAYER / MEDITATION__________________________________________________________

In this sweet time of prayer, I ask you to close your eyes and center on the power of God within you. Allow this meditation time to be a special time of power for you. Allow this meditation time to speak to your soul, to renew you, to cleanse you, and to cause a tremendous energy of God to be stirred within you.

As you rest and go within, you realize again that you are in the image and likeness of the perfect, eternal, whole God. Christ consciousness is filling you with unfailing faith. You abide in that faith. You are in the faith of the Almighty. God is quickened within you.

You have come here this morning, perhaps from a short way or a very long way away, in distance or in faith. You have come here to do worship, yes, but most of all you have come here to be renewed. You have come here to experience worth-ship. May that happen now in this moment.

God is within you; God surrounds you. Everywhere you are, God is. You live and move and have your being in God. Your mind is surrounded and infilled with Divine wisdom. Divine wisdom is awake in you, and you are expressing it.

There is, inside of you, a clarity of thought. Divine ideas flow through your human mind, and your whole body responds. And others are responding to you after your time in this deep awareness of who you are and what God is. Others respond to you in a different way because there is a Divine love flowing automatically from you.

God has not given anyone the spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. I decree in Jesus Christ’s name that all power is given unto you in mind and body. Through the spirit of Truth within you, you know, you see, you hear, and you speak only God-Truth.

God’s love includes every living creature. God blesses you with wholeness and freedom. Peace fills your mind and heart. You know that God is present, and you trust God to establish in your mind, body, and world all that is right, good, and orderly. Your life is a living expression of the love of God within you.

In this prayer time, dear God, we are calm and poised in Your love. We pray that Your good and Your love is magnified and multiplied in our lives–not later today or tomorrow, but now.

We decree that the living Christ quickens our minds and hearts. We know that Divine love radiates through you and attracts only good into our lives.

Dear God, may my soul magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoice in the power of the inner Christ to make all things right. We decree that all things are working together for our good. We are working with them in wisdom and in the power of Spirit.

Rest for a moment in the silence of prayer and accept this Truth as true for you now …

I have God within me as my partner to speak to the challenges and problems in my life. We say: “We now release you and bless you.” Divine love is adjusting my life. I abide in the peace of God.

God is in charge and all is well. Christ within me keeps me steadfast, positive, and secure. There is only God, and God is only good.

Christ in me frees me from all limitation. I am free now from all limitation that I hold in mind about myself. I free others from all limitation that I hold in mind about them. I free all situations and places from my opinions and concepts of limitation about them.

We are part of the resurrection of God this morning. We are being resurrected in thought and in life. We give thanks to God.

Dear God, I pray a personal prayer that there is a new vision created in each one of us that is so high that we have a transfiguration. I pray our very countenance is changed because of the thoughts we hold in mind. I pray that we are no longer in a mode of recovery, but that we are in a mode of discovery of our good, better, and best.

We give thanks to You, God, for new vision. God blesses everything turned over to God in thought in this sweet silence …

The Lord of my being is my life source. I am strong. I am vital. I am whole. I live in close communion with God, and my world (inside of my mind and body, and outside my mind and body) is blessed.

I decree these things are happening now. I am ready for the change, and I welcome it. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray … Amen.

_______________________________

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

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

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

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

DONATIONS Thank You for helping us with this great free work for ministers of every faith:
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By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

God bless you! Have a great week filled with God’s goodness.

Reverend Christopher Ian Chenoweth, Founder

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31Dec

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – The “ONE”derful year of ____

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - The "ONE"derful year of ____

Time Sensitivity: The Last Sunday before New Years

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

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A number of hours from this moment we enter into the new year. It is a time of hope for humanity, but turning a page on a calendar is powerless without humanity changing. Humanity changes by turning from the millstones of old ways and habits to building on the milestones of spiritual growth. Individually and collectively as one people under God’s leadership we must proceed down this path.

100 years ago it was a common belief held by the so-called elite of America, “that there were only about 400 people in all of America worth knowing.”

The writer of this period, O’Henry, believed that each person in society was worth knowing and had a story to tell. His classic story “The Gift of the Magi” has its theme in each person giving his most prized possession for their love of the other. We are giving our most prized possession, all of our days of our lives, in exchange for the future, in the strong hope of becoming all that we may become.

100 years ago, such a strong belief was held about “a good first footer” that many people were willing to pay for the “right” first footer on New Year’s Day. The first person to walk across your doorstep on that first day of the New Year was called the first footer. He would be hired to appear at the exact time so as to not trust fate, to bring misfortune for the whole year.

We stand poised on the threshold of not only a New Year but also a new millennium to be our own first footer to walk across our doorsteps into our future. God is already walking ahead of us preparing our way of good.

Jesus Christ holds to the all-inclusive belief that each person has worth and value. His prayer is that each person rise above the lacks and limitations of their past to an innate knowing of their worth and value.

There is a verse in the Bible that has great power concerning your life. I read from Matthew 16:19. Jesus says: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

We think that this is the truth for some people, a long time ago, but it is just as true for each of us today. Jesus is talking directly to us as we approach 2001, through these pages of our Bible. It is as if He came up to you in a vision and said, “I’m going to give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” You would know that you had something incredibly powerful working in your life. And you do. It’s for all of us. It crosses religious lines and theology of people. It is the Truth about humankind.

We have been given the keys. Here is the key. It’s in your prayer time. When you pray, what do you decide to bind to yourself? When you pray with a belief, with a knowing, without doubt, and you decide to have something in your life in the new millennium, it’s going to be there.

There’s a great power that happens beyond our physical sight.

As humans, we tend to focus on the negative. We think of ourselves being bound to our problems, tied to them where we can’t get loose. We try and we try, but we can’t do it. But what Jesus is telling you is that you are bound to your good, and your good is with you every day.

Allow me to share from James 1:2-8: “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”

Your mind is a vessel of God thought. Your mind can be the connecting place with God Mind. Your mind is the place where God answers your prayers. In order for God to get something to you, God must get it through you. And for God to get it through you, you must have an open channel. It may be a small little crack in the dam that we have put up, it can be the size of a grain of mustard seed, but there must be a crack in your free will for God’s will to come through. If there is, then all can change and all of the good of God can come to you. Everything can become anew. You have spent your whole life waiting to get to this point in your personal history. When a couple gets married, we expect it to be the finest time of their lives, and it should be. But how about you? Right now should be the finest time in your life too. You’ve lived too many years, you’ve invested too much time, and you’ve been here too many Sundays for it not to be. It doesn’t matter what is happening in the outer. Sure, we all have challenges. Let us go beyond our outer challenges and enter through this doorway of 2001 with an assurance of joy because we know we’re not alone. If we accept the promises of Jesus Christ, we know that we are walking forward all the time to greater and greater good in our New Year.

America has just concluded an historic presidential election. A great writer wrote these words and his writings led him to becoming president. This was written by Herbert Hoover, it’s called The Uncommon Man.

“In my opinion, there has been too much talk about the Common Man. It has been dinned into us that this is the Century of the Common Man. The idea seems to be that the Common Man has come into his own at last.

Thus we are in danger of developing a cult of the Common Man, which means a cult of mediocrity. But here is at least one hopeful sign: I have never been able to find out who this Common Man is. In fact, most Americans, and especially women, will get mad and fight if you try calling them common.

This is hopeful because it shows that most people are holding fast to an essential fact in American life. We believe in equal opportunity for all, but we know that this includes the opportunity to rise to leadership — in other words, to be uncommon.

Let us remember that the great human advances have not been brought about by mediocre men and women. They were brought about by distinctly uncommon people with vital sparks of leadership. Man of the great leaders were, it is true, of humble origin, but that alone was not their greatness.

It is a curious fact that when you get sick you want an uncommon doctor; if your car breaks down you want an uncommonly good mechanic; when we get into war we want dreadfully an uncommon admiral and an uncommon general.

I have never met a father and mother who did not want their children to grow up to be uncommon men and women. May it always be so. For the future of America rests not in mediocrity, but in the constant renewal of leadership in every phase of our national life.”

And so it does. When you travel around this country you see statues of people. This is true especially Washington, D.C. You see statues all the time, but these are never statues of common people. They are statues of people who have gone the extra mile, who have stepped out of their comfort zone, stepped out of mediocrity, and did something great.

May it be said of you on your tombstone that you did not, for one day, (beginning in 2001), allow yourself to become common. You become uncommon. There will be many around you who might say things like you’re getting sick, that you’re going to have to resign yourself to sickness. You decide to become uncommon. There might be many around you who might say that because of your debt load that you’re going down the tubes, that there is no other way because they are the experts and they know, so you just might as well accept your fate. But you stand up and become uncommon.

There are many around you who are doomsayers. Doomsayers are common people. You’ll find thirteen in every dozen who will tell you the worst possible thing about your life. Don’t believe it. They are common people. You start to become uncommon when you say, “I can become better than my past.”

There’s one thing in this world of recycling that we cannot recycle. It’s the calendar. You can’t recycle 2000. It’s impossible. But you can, by going into this New Year, stand up and decide to become more than you’ve ever become before.

Now, never do this alone. Realize that many times you are stretched way beyond your limits. You have to allow God to do it through you. You have to consent to becoming one with God, and then it becomes so. Part of our consenting is having self-confidence. Jesus said we have to love our neighbors as ourselves. Most of us, as good Christians, love our neighbors but we do not love ourselves. Remember that you are the channel for all of God’s love and creativity to come through to your outer world. But the channel has to be there in you, for you, as you, in order for what is in the channel to come through.

You are on a process to make tomorrow’s dreams come true by your work today, by standing up and agreeing to be what you were created to be. You are a child of God, a child of all possibilities, a child of love and a child of power.

This week, write down five things that you like best and least about yourself. What do you like best? Those are your uncommon areas that you need to work on and become better at bringing those to pass. Then you become honest with yourself. Assess yourself. What are the five things that you like least? Then you make a decision. You know that with God’s help what you bind to yourself will become you, and what you loose will be loose, not only here but also in heaven.

Next, write down five things that are really important to you. The five things you have a passion for in life, the five things you love with all your heart, are things you don’t do as much as you should. You put it off until some other time, like retirement, or sometime in the distant future. You need to be focusing on those things today to fortify yourselves.

The next thing you do is write down five things that were important to your parents about you. Here’s why that gives you some problems. Many times we spend our whole lives living a dream that our parents had for us. We try to please them, sometimes years after they are gone. Now, while it is noble to do such a thing out of love, there comes a time as an adult that you have to decide what is important to you, and start to live your own life. That is the only way you ever become uncommon. You are not a Xerox copy of your mother or your father. You are different. There has never been a life or a fingerprint or a hair like you before in existence. Therefore, you have to become what God created you to be. God did not command you to be a copycat. God commanded to let your light shine, and your light is individualistic.

So, you have to decide what is important to you, and you have to take an inventory of what is important to your parents, and decide how much you have done in that category. What is right for you? Find it out. Let that light shine that is you in that area of life.

Then, write down some time-oriented, specific goals for this New Year for yourself. I believe in goals because it keeps your vessel on track. If you are in a boat, you have to steer it one way or another to get it to go somewhere. Where do you want that boat to go? You have to have a plan. You have to have goals. Otherwise, it will never ever get there.

I ask you to release the calendar of the old year, realize that nobody is perfect. We tend to knock ourselves down when we have something bad happen to us. We have to stop that. We are God’s creation. We are being created and recreated by God, and God’s work is not done yet. Yes, we make mistakes and yes, we do things we’re not supposed to do. Okay, we need to go on and become better tomorrow and not constantly blame ourselves or knock ourselves down because we did not live up to our potential yesterday. We have to strive to live up to our potential tomorrow. That’s where it counts. We did the best we could in the moment, but now we have the power to go beyond, to go higher and become uncommon.

This is partly a do-it-yourself religion. And that’s the only religion that works in the end. If I were Jesus Christ and you wanted to come up here and sit at my feet, you could sit at my feet all day long and I could talk to you as Jesus Christ, but in the end I cannot save you. You have to save yourself, by becoming one with God yourself.

It’s like we go to a parent and say, “Please do this for me. Please take care of this for me.” They can for a while, but there comes a time when we have to do it for ourselves. This is the message of Jesus Christ. His message is not to sit at His feet and be saved by His works. His message is to listen to His words and take them on in our own lives and be saved through working the example in our own lives.

At the end of your life, as people look over the different deeds you have done, if someone would judge Christianity by your faithfulness, would they want to join? Would they want to join if they see you out on the road somewhere? That’s the bottom line to everything. Yes, they would join! Because you are ONE with God in every word, action, and reaction.

It’s not just whether you go to church. It’s whether you live it. We all have to become the best possible person that we can be in a given moment. We’re going to have times when we fall down and times when we become uncommon. To be uncommon is what we’re striving for. That is what we’re going to have happen in our lives.

Each and every one of you is investing time in these services, and it’s not going to be wasted. Sometime you’re going to be called upon to go the extra mile in your faith. When that happens, instead of just falling down and quivering on the floor, wondering how you can possibly take it, you’re going to enter into a time of faithfulness, and maybe even joy because you’re going to know that you are not alone- you and God are one.

Please join me in prayer.

We affirm together that this is the day for us to accept our good. This is the day when God is blessing us with a receptive faith and a trusting heart, an illumined mind and a quickened understanding. This is the day of victory in Christ when we become uncommon. We are in prayer this day, this “ONE”derful day, as a new opening comes in our eternal treasure of Truth. We realize that we are existing in abundant good that is around us like air. This is the day when the healing power of the Great Physician is working mightily in us.

Within the sacred precincts of our hearts, we hear the voice of God questioning, “Would thou be made whole?” The Great Physician knows that the faith in us is strong enough to ask, and is great enough to receive. God speaks with an authoritative power. As you enter into this New Year, God says to you, “Arise, take up thy bed and walk.”

This is our year to be free and whole. We arise and we lift up all old thoughts of neglect or hopelessness or helplessness, on which any belief in disease or weakness may have laid, and we walk with a new power, unbound, into the presence of the Christ. We find the Christ in the temple of our bodies. And the Christ will proclaim, “Behold, thou art made whole.”

This is the year for us to accept the good that God has prepared for us. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them who love Him.” We open our eyes and we look to God for the fulfillment of every conceivable need or good desire. Eyes have not seen the abundance everywhere present that God has prepared and provided. We no longer fix our eyes on the need or the seeming lack. The glories and the riches of the Father’s kingdom established here and now, in the midst of the earth, are ours.

This is the year for us to look to God as complete supply. We have found God, and we have found our all-sufficiency. All eternity is ours in which to prove God’s all-providing love. This year of 2001 is ours to accept God as our complete supply, the year for us, by faith, to bring into manifestation the good that we seek. This is the year to listen to the voice of love and wisdom within us, that directs us momently toward the good that God has prepared Whether tangible or intangible, the good we seek awaits us now.

We open our eyes that we may see, and our ears that we may hear the glad tidings, and we open our hearts that we may understand what God has prepared for those who love Him. We let our hearts be so filled to overflowing with the love and joy and riches of God that there is no room for any depressing, unhappy, untrue or unworthy feelings to remain in us. This is left behind and will not be recycled by us. This is the year for us to accept the fullness of the Father’s good, encompassed only by eternity. This is the good day, which has come to us, and it is filled with divine treasures for us all. We believe this as we walk towards the path of becoming uncommon people, in oneness with God. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray … Amen.

MEDITATION / PRAYER_______________________________________________

There is truly great power in united prayer. The dawning of each New Year reveals opportunities to experience new light in our lives. As we enter this special time of prayer, the light and life and love of Christ dawn anew within you. You prepare your heart and mind for this awakening during this prayertime.

THE CHRIST IS YOUR HOPE OF GLORY. This is decreed for you with great power.

In this quiet time of prayer, you still your thoughts and relax. Through the door of silent prayer, you enter a retreat of renewal and strength. Letting go of any anxious thought or feeling of tension, you become even more aware of the presence of God

The Christ spirit is your peace, the peace that passes your human understanding. This peace wells from within like the rising of the sun at dawn. In its quiet radiance, you are serene, poised, and composed. And you are grateful. The peace that radiates within you also radiates from you. You see the indwelling Christ spirit of peace in others as you pray.

Through the power of the spoken word, we decree: THE CHRIST SPIRIT FILLS YOU WITH PEACE. The Christ spirit within fills you with peace during every step in the new millennium. THE CHRIST SPIRIT FILLS YOU WITH PEACE. Take a moment now in the silence of prayer to experience this peace …

Just as the peace of Christ is always available to you, so is the light of the Christ spirit. You focus your attention now on the true light of God — that shines within your heart and mind. The light of Christ rises within you like the breaking forth of a new day. From a gentle glow on the horizon of awareness to the full brilliance of understanding, the light of Christ shines to reveal right answers and right paths. In this light, you are confident and wise.

You follow this glorious beacon of light with a receptive heart, rest now the listen to the “still small voice” of inspiration and wisdom …

The light of this new dawn also reveals the truth about health and wholeness. “If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.” We are new creations in Christ. Through the ongoing life process, new cells are created to take the place of old ones. The Christ spirit infuses every cell of the body temple with vibrant life. You are centered in the Christ spirit of life, and the way to renewed energy, strength, and vitality is open.

Our attention is now focused fully on the Christ spirit. In this quiet hour, we seek only a greater realization of this wonderful presence within us. From the Christ spirit within come ideas — divine ideas — that lead us to greater expressions of abundance. With the dawning of these ideas also comes the realization that good is always available to us.

As we pray, we know — without doubt — that the Christ spirit is providing for every need. We pray the prayer for prosperity: THE CHRIST SPIRIT INSPIRES YOU WITH A NEW AWARENESS OF ABUNDANCE. YOU PROSPER. Believe this now, without doubt, in the silence of prayer …

“How great , , , are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The Christ, our hope of glory, abides within our hearts and minds. We awaken to this day and each day of this New Year with faith in the Christ spirit of light, love, and life. And we are truly grateful.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

God bless you! Have a great week filled with God’s goodness.

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

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

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

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

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

GOD BLESS YOU,
Rev. Christopher Ian Chenoweth, Founder

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