Prayer Request: Please prayer for a situation I have with new neighbors who are volatile, aggressive and fabricating information about me and have threatened me. They have criminal background and have been very good at lying to everyone about a situation that they initiated. Sometimes I am in fear of them. I live alone.
Prayer Request: Please pray for me regarding employment and depression. Thank you.
Time Sensitivity: Valentine’s Day February 14
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Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.
Every week we have multiple requests from churches to share a Positive Daily Inspiration with their congregation. You never have to ask for permission – you have my permission.
Many churches forward Positive Daily Inspiration to their congregations and visitors. This has exploded during Covid closures, and yet it is still little known about. Many churches send a message of their choice once or twice a week to their congregations co-authoring the message. Churches report that it has helped them stay in business and increased their financial support during these hard times.
Here is an example:
First Street Methodist Church (address any town USA)
Positive Daily Inspiration.
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1 John 4:8 “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Valentine, Nebraska is a small town with a population of 2,000. The whole town experiences love as they celebrate Valentine’s Day. Everyone becomes more loving, like what happens at Christmas time the world over. It is great when we become more loving to each other.
Churches teach the biblical teaching of keeping the Sabbath. If God is love, like our Bible says, then to keep the Sabbath, we must spend 24 hours out of our week, refreshing and cleansing our lives by becoming love.
24 hours every Sunday, not judging or criticizing, not jumping to conclusions, but giving everyone, including yourself a break. The Sabbath is – a spiritual cleansing of love.
On the main street in Gatlinburg, Tennessee is Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum. If you are a romantic person this could be a place to do research.
Robert Ripley reported that the longest and simplest love letter ever written was the work of a Parisian painter by the name of Marcel de Leclur in 1875. The addressee was Magdalene de Villalore. This love letter contained the phrase “I love you.” He had this written out 1,875,000 times (1,000 times the calendar year). De Leclure did not pen this letter with his own hand; he hired a scribe. He was so entranced with the sound of “I love you,” that he dictated it word for word and had the hired man repeat it verbatim. All-in-all, the phrase was uttered a total of 5,625,000 times before it reached its destination. How could that lady turn down that man?
Valentine’s Day dates back six centuries. It is a commonly accepted day that they believe birds chose their mates. This goes back even before we linked it with St. Valentine. It has been hearts and flowers ever since. ANY day of the year that we decide we are going to become more loving to humanity, to our spouse, our boyfriend or girlfriend, and to all the people in our lives it is a true godly act. Valentine’s Day cards are good because they help us express the Divine love that is inside of us and allows an avenue for that love to come forth.
The two great things to hold onto in this world are God and each other. Love is the power that links the lonely islands of different people’s souls, beaten by icy separation seas of ignorance, fear and circumstance.
Wouldn’t it be a glorious service to humanity, to begin THIS day, from this room, a chain of love throughout this entire city, and then throughout this entire nation? We can do this by allowing this chain of love to begin with who? WITH YOU. When you agree to do this, you are saying yes to God. Say, “Yes, this morning I’m going to allow Divine love to flow from me. During the Lenten period of 40 days that will begin with Ash Wednesday, March 2 I’m going to be loving to everyone I meet. For forty days I’m going to suspend my judgments on people – suspend anger, criticism and condemnation – and I agree to be loving for the next forty days. If, at the end of this experiment, I choose to take up anger, hate, and disagreements with others, I can do that. But for forty days I’m going to walk the high path and be a real light to the world. For forty days I’m going to truly follow Jesus Christ whose main teaching was love. I’m going to become a sample of God’s love.”
A chain letter was received that stated the person would be in dire circumstances if they didn’t pass it on to five people. It said they would have horrible things happen if they did not pass on this chain letter to five people.
Why not make your life a living love chain? Why not make your life the link in that chain that can make a difference in this town?
Wouldn’t it be great if just for this week we name this whole town “Valentine, __your town, or city name______,” and what if we become that manifestation and then begin a conscious realization of love for the next forty days? That means loving everybody in our lives – not just the select few who are easy to love – everybody, especially those few who are difficult to love, and keep that wonderful smile on your face to show to everybody.
Make it a beacon for everyone to enjoy, savor, and hold on to. One of the secrets of life is that it’s much easier to love everyone, than to hate some. It becomes like a poison to the soul, which the person holds onto dearly hoping the other person will die. But the effects are the reverse.
Love is the theme song of the universe. It is power of new life, not just in you but in those people who come to you on your path.
We make a great mistake of thinking that love must be returned. To truly be in loving action, love must free, not bind. It loves with open arms and open hands. We must love all who cross our path, and not expect anything in return. Now, some who are hearing this will say, “There the minister goes again talking about that Pollyanna philosophy.” But this is not Pollyanna in any way. Love is not a matter of escape from life. Rather it is a dedication to God.
So many have loved from the basis of lack. What happens when we live on the basis of lack-love?
1. If we are loving from lack, our credo is that we have the idea we lack something and we are incomplete.
2. We are searching in our life because we need something to compensate for that lack. Only by looking outside of ourself can we find a person who will fill that lack in completeness.
3. From the foundation of lack we become dependent on that relationship.
4. In time, they do not fill our needs. This results in resentment and hostility inside of us.
Many relationships are like this. We need to realize that we have God’s love with us and they do too. In God’s love we lack NOTHING.
If we are coming from the foundation of God’s love:
1. We know we lack nothing.
2. We know there is no necessity to search outside of ourselves for a special relationship.
3. Because we radiate love, we attract special relationships into our life from a higher level – not needy ones, but special relationships sharing that which is God’s love; sharing that which we each already have.
To go to a new level of awareness of sharing – not really wanting anything from anyone else – is what we see during the Olympics. We watch many differing people coming together in a celebration of love. Yes, we look at each other and realize we are different, but we don’t care. We don’t ask anything of someone else, we find joy in sharing. Holding hands in spirituality, and standing up for the very best, of what is best in humanity, as a people. We are many different races, and faiths becoming one people.
If we are unwilling to love the expression of life called human which we have seen with our eyes, how are we going to love the source – God – which we have not seen? Some people say, “I love God, but it’s people that I can’t stand.” How can we love music and not harmony? How can we love the morning and not the day? Every individual is an inlet and an outlet for the complete love of God.
We can’t possibly love anyone or anything unless we first love ourselves in a spiritual way. We have to know that if we are going to love, we have to pour that love through us (like a hose). As that love comes through us, what does that do to us (to the inside of the hose)?
It cleans us out to the core, too. We become infilled with love.
But, if I’m standing here and I realize that God’s love has to get through me to get to you and I say, “Oh, I’m no good today. My hair doesn’t look good today. I look tired. This isn’t my good suit. How can I effectively talk about love because I have the wrong tie on? What was I thinking about?”
I am the hose of God; it has to flow through me to you.
In the world community, love is the only safe emotion there is.
It is the only safe way in which we can live as a people with our fellow humans and with ourselves. Love gives all, but it also demands all. Love is the toughest taskmaster and hardest discipline in the universe. Why?
Because we also have the baggage, we carry right above our eyes in our human minds.
We, so easily, can slip back into saying, “Well, wait a minute. You did this to me last Valentine’s Day. I remember.” We have to rise above our past. Life, to be alive, has to consent to live above yesterday. It is not held down; it is freed today in a brand-new life in a brand-new awareness of God.
I want to quote a very famous African-American by the name of Booker T. Washington.
As I quote him, realize the time in which he lived, and realize he had the right to hate if anyone did. He said this: “I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.”
It has been said that as soon as you begin to condemn them, you become one of them.
Psalms 127:1 states: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Here it’s talking about more than a stick-built structure. It’s talking about the HOUSE OF YOUR LIFE. If God is building your house, what materials does God use? Divine love!
Joel Goldsmith has written: “Illumination dissolves all material ties and binds men and women together with golden chains of spiritual understanding. It acknowledges only the leadership of the Christ. It has no ritual or rule, but Divine love. No other worship than the inner flame that has ever been lit at the shrine of Spirit. This union is the free state of spiritual brotherhood, and sisterhood. The only restraint is the discipline of the soul. Therefore, as we know liberty without license, we are a united universe without physical limits, Divine service to God without ceremony or creed. The illumined walk without fear but by love and grace.”
Allow me to share a story with you. This is a story that takes place in England. It is the story of William Dixon. He was a widower who had lost his only son. One day he saw that the house of one of his neighbors was on fire. Although the aged owner was rescued, her orphaned grandson was trapped inside in the blaze. Dixon climbed an iron pipe on the side of the house and lowered the boy to safety. His hand that held onto the pipe was badly burned.
Shortly after the fire, the grandmother who lived with the boy died.
The townspeople wondered among themselves, “Who will care for the boy?”
Two volunteers appeared at the town council, wanting to care for the boy.
The first was a father who had lost his son and wanted to adopt the orphan as his own. Then there was William Dixon who was to speak next. Instead of speaking, instead of saying anything, he merely held up his scarred hand.
When the vote was taken, the boy was given to him.
Love cannot just stay inside of us. It has to be expressed. We have to go the extra mile. People are children of God, but orphans of society are waiting for our love.
I ask you, for the next forty days, to hold with me a cease fire – to anyone in your life who has harmed you, has spoken against you, or that you have harmed or spoken against. I ask you to replace it, for forty days, with love.
You say, “I’ve tried; I can’t do it. I just don’t have it in my mind to do this.” Ask for Divine love, God’s love, to come through you. Your mind is not alone. You are immersed in God and God is love.
I’d like to share with you a place in the Bible you are familiar with (John 3:16). You’ve heard it before, but let’s take it to a new depth today. “For God so loved the world … ” I like that. It doesn’t say God just loved or cared for or kind of liked the world. It says SO LOVED the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.
Let’s talk about the size and the scope of God for a moment. The breadth of God – for God so loved the world. The length of God – that he gave his only Son. The depth of God – so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish. The height of God – but may have eternal life.
I believe eternal life is not just a hereafter proposition. I want life today.
I want it so full, so dynamic, that there are no dips in it. And I want it tomorrow and the next day. I want joy and happiness overflowing, and more love than I’ve ever had in my life. That, to me, is eternal life.
I’ll talk about the after-death proposition later, but right now I do not want to perish into my moodiness or another person’s moodiness. I want eternal full life.
Don’t be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.
Martin Luther called John 3:16 the heart of the Bible. He said it was the gospel in miniature. He said:
God – the greatest lover,
So loved – the greatest degree,
The world – the greatest number,
His only Son – the greatest gift,
That everyone who – the greatest invitation,
Believes – the greatest simplicity,
In Him – the greatest person,
May not perish – the greatest deliverance,
But – the greatest difference,
May have – the greatest certainty,
Eternal life – the greatest possession.
There is only one God. Love is the only God there is. All else must be dissolved and love, in reality, stands forth. The Biblical statement “God is love” is accurate in every way. God is not a superman dishing out love to you and expecting it in return. No, God is love and you are God’s instrument of expression. To love God is to experience the feeling of love and to let love flow through you.
God is love, and in that love, there is no condemnation, disapproval or fault-finding. Love always welcomes its children back into the fold.
Love always approves of its creation regardless of the stage of unfoldment it is in. Love, God, approves of you as its child or self-expression.
The approval of love never varies, unlike the sliding scale of human values.
Allow me to share one more story with you. This is a dynamic story of how God loves. God works through many situations and many peoples’ minds.
I’m taking you back to England for this story.
I’m telling you the story of William Cowper who, at age 32, passed through a great crisis in his life. At the end of this crisis, he tried to end his life by taking an overdose of drugs, but it failed. He thought he would outsmart the power of God. He thought, “God cannot take away my right to kill myself,” so he hired a horse-drawn carriage and ordered the driver to take him to the river. He was intending to throw himself from the bridge.
It was one of London’s foggiest nights. They drove around for an hour without reaching the chosen spot. Cowper was disgusted and decided he would get out and walk to the bridge. When he got out, to his surprise he found he had actually gone in a circle and he was back at his own doorstep.
The next morning he decided he would fall on a knife, but the blade broke and his life was spared. Then he decided to hang himself. He did lose consciousness, but he was still alive and well when he was brought down.
The next morning something strange happened that had not happened for a long time – he felt a strange cheerfulness. He opened up the Bible and read a verse in a letter to the Romans. In a moment he received the strength to believe and he rejoiced in the power of God’s love. Sometime later Cowper summed up his faith in God’s love dealing with him in a great hymn that has become a favorite to the church community. I wanted you to know the story behind this hymn.
God moves in mysterious ways,
His wonders to perform.
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in the unfathomable minds
Of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.
Heed, fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In the blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense
But trust Him for His love and grace.
Behind a frowning providence
Hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour.
The bud may have a bitter taste
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain.
God is His own interpreter
And He will make it plain.
The greatest conversion experience is the love of God flowing through us.
Where before we might not have liked ourselves at all, now we care and have respect for ourselves. Where before we might not have liked other people, now we’re seeing with new eyes. We see the good in them and we rejoice in it. We’re not separate any more. We’re not on an isolated island on an icy sea. We’re holding hands in consciousness and we’re standing as ONE HUMANITY together.
I ask you to join me in saying this affirmation of positive prayer for the next forty days of Lent. It is simply this: “Divine love, manifest Thyself in me.”
I’m sure you will have disagreeable people coming to you in the 40 day period before Easter, people who it would be easy to dislike. You just step back for a moment, step on the right foundation of God’s love, and say in prayer: “Divine love, manifest Thyself in me.”
Celebrate Valentine’s Day by using this time to make a commitment. Join me in this prayer practice. Join me in a cease-fire for Valentine’s Day and beyond. Join me in a chain of love with all humanity around you as an experiment. I don’t think you’ll ever leave it behind.
I love you. God bless you!
PRAYER/ MEDITATION________________________________
This prayer is a celebration of the love of God. Relax now into the presence of God.
On this week celebrating love, I consent to become the manifestation of Christ love as I rest into the loving nature of God.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
Dear God, create in me this day a desire to mend a quarrel, to seek out a forgotten friend, to dismiss suspicion and replace it with loving trust.
Inspire in me this day to write a love letter or share some treasure or give a soft answer instead of a hard response.
Help me today to encourage youth to manifest loyalty in word and deed, and to keep promises. Help me to find the time to help another and give the gift of forgiving a grudge. Help me, dear God, to forgive an enemy and help me to listen.
Dear God, give me the words to apologize if I am wrong so I can try to understand others. Help me to scoff at envy, to examine my demands on others, and to think first of someone else.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
Help me, dear God, to appreciate everything and everyone around me.
Help me to be kind, to be gentle, to laugh a little more. Help me to know that I deserve confidence, that I can take up arms against malice, that I can stop complacency and express our gratitude.
Help me to remember to go to You, dear God, in prayer every day so I can have Your Divine love and manifest Your Divine love out of the strength I receive during my prayer time.
“Divine love, manifest Thyself in me.”
Rest in the silence of prayer …
The true church of Christ is inside of me so that wherever I go I will be God’s love in manifestation. I will be kind to strangers, and I will gladden the hearts of others. I will gladden the heart of a child.
Help me, wherever I go, to show my love, to speak it, and to live it.
These are simple things, but as I meditate on them in prayer, I realize that their influence has never fully been measured. Love is a celebration of life. There is no celebration that compares with the realization of its true meaning.
There is a sudden stirring in my heart. I extend myself now to the core of life, and I grasp the significance of Divine love. I hear the wild, sweet music of the angel choir. I pray as I realize what is going on inside of myself that I can take action to love my world and everyone in it.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
Divine love, manifest Thyself in me.
I dedicate myself, all of myself – my emotions, my attitudes, my speech–to the Spirit of God’s love. I want to make a difference. I choose to make a difference in the world because of the life that I have lived. I know that my one life can make a difference in the lives of others. So, I dedicate myself to love this morning.
In the love of Jesus Christ I pray.
I am so thankful because I am in ACTIVE love with God and with humanity.
Thank You, God. I love You … Amen.
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Christopher Ian Chenoweth
Prayer Request: I am in a real battle here, and a very frustrating situation as well too. I was hurt and messed up badly by someone who was trying to cover up a mistake that was made. It messed me up neurologically in my brain what happened and hoping to be healed internally from that. Need nothing short of about a miracle to heal internally from that. Being messed up from what’s happened has then in turn put me in a very frustrating situation here where now not being able to do what I was before, it’s been easier as a result to fall into some sin temptations that I otherwise would not if these things had not happened, these sins then have opened up doors/portals to the demonic realm, then getting all if this bondage in my soul.
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.
Every week we have multiple requests from churches to share a Positive Daily Inspiration with their congregation. You never have to ask for permission – you have my permission.
Many churches forward Positive Daily Inspiration to their congregations and visitors. This has exploded during Covid closures, and yet it is still little known about. Many churches send a message of their choice once or twice a week to their congregations co-authoring the message. Churches report that it has helped them stay in business and increased their financial support during these hard times.
Here is an example: First Street Methodist Church (address any town USA) presents a free gift Positive Daily Inspiration.
(And the message of their choice copied and pasted to their mailing list.) Churches can also utilize our Archives, and our Encyclopedia of Prayer to do the same with 1000’s of available messages.
Go to our homepage www.PositiveChristianity.org and sign-up for free. (Never a charge.)
We love people that reuse our material for the good of society. Our only copyright – is you have a right to copy.
_____________________________________
A surprised mother found her four-year-old son crying as he was tying his shoes. She looked at the little boy and said, “Why are you crying?” He said, “Because I have to tie my shoes.” The mother said, “But you’ve just learned how. It isn’t that hard, is it?” “Yes,” he wailed, “But I’m going to have to do it for the rest of my life.”
Have you ever felt that way? Sometimes if we look ahead in our imagination, life can be a bit overwhelming.
I know it can be for many of us.
There are things that are overwhelming to you when you really think about it from the aspect of “I have to do this. I have to meet the challenge. I have to be up to the task.” A lot of times there is a long road ahead of us, and we need the power to go down that road.
Today we’re going to talk about tearing down the walls of doubt.
A while back on a Sunday after the game on television, I called a friend and said, “Did you see that game? Did you see the last five minutes?” My friend said, “What happened?”
The friend went on to tell me how they turned off the game because they just knew we had lost. In the last five minutes we actually went on to a great victory.
When you are working inside of yourself to tear down a wall of doubt, you need two forms of help: human and Divine.
There are many times when my friends and I have gotten together simply to believe in each other. We have walked, and talked, and believed, and great things have happened. We need friends like that. We need human friends.
Let me talk about the human power first. Do you remember the old story of Androcles and the Lion. In this story, a thorn was pulled from the lion’s paw. You see, Androcles was a slave. He has escaped his taskmaster and had run to find freedom.
He hid in a cave. While in there, he heard a noise. He turned around and saw he was being approached by a lion. He thought, “This is worse than what I escaped from.” He just knew he was going to be eaten; that he had come to the end of the line.
He cowered back to the back part of the cave, and the lion growled. Then he noticed a tear coming out of the lion’s eye, and the lion stuck out his paw. His paw was all swollen. In the middle of his paw was a thorn. Androcles withdrew the thorn carefully from the lion’s paw, and the lion smiled. The lion licked his face and then retreated. Androcles said,
“Whew! I’m glad that’s over!”
Three years later in Rome, Androcles had become a Christian. Roman persecutors seized him and ordered Androcles to renounce his faith. He did not. They told Androcles they were going to throw him into the lions. Guess which lion he faced?
The lion he had helped three years earlier. When the lion saw Androcles, he came out and instead of eating Androcles, he licked his face. Androcles was not put to death but was released because the Romans thought he was a person of high magic.
He was . . . and so are we.
I have a few questions for you now. How many lions have you befriended on your pathway of life? How many thorns have you withdrawn from or plucked out of swollen paws? Are you aware that someday you are going to be thrown into the arena?
We all, at various times, are thrown into an arena. Do you know what saves us? Those times when we have helped others; the times they have been at their worst and we have been at our best; the times we have helped them, pulling the thorns from swollen paws.
We are saved in that moment. Possibly some time ago you have befriended somebody. They see you and your life changes because of it.
It is the power of the Bible; it is the power of Christianity; it is the power that shares your power of what you can do.
You are going to be saved each and every time.
It has been said that one seed makes a tree and many trees a forest. The addition of one drop of water at a time turns a stream into a river. The river flows to replenish the sea. One step at a time is the way we make our journey of life.
As we think of what lies ahead, we can find relief from tension as we realize we are not called upon to live a whole year in one day. Our highest aspirations are reached one step at a time, one person at a time helping us.
That is the human part of this story. You know that’s important. You are not in this to be an individual. We are in this life to be spiritually interdependent. You know this is true with us. I need you. I admit it. I love being
with you and I love sharing with you.
Now, let us talk about God, the Divine. To really produce something that has the power to tear down walls inside of you and outside of you, you need help beyond yourself. You need help beyond the other people who are standing with you.
You need Divine help.
God is constantly whispering something to you. Do you know what that whisper says? Right now, God is whispering to each of us. The silent whisper says, “Surprise yourself!” The human shout inside of us says, “I’m afraid,” but God constantly says, “Surprise yourself.”
When you went to realize your dreams, you might have said inside of yourself, “I’m afraid,” but a greater mind rose inside of you and whispered, “Surprise yourself!” That is the giant persuader, the catalyst of the mind, that gets you moving.
As I speak this morning to this group of such fine individuals, I know that many of you have a log to cross. Many of you are looking at a twenty-foot ravine that requires you to jump it. And many of you realize you cannot go back. There’s nowhere else to go. You can’t go up, you can’t go down . . .
You pause and the human shouts inside of you and says, “I’m afraid.” Then, you are surrounded by some good friends.
This is what a friend is – someone who believes in you. The friends are with you saying, “Yes, you can do this.” Then, even though you’re still afraid, you get quiet for a moment, and you hear God’s secret whisper saying, “Surprise yourself!”
At that moment you know that you can do it. Nothing in the world can stop you. I brings you wonderful joy.
I would like to share with you from the Bible. This is a story you know from Joshua [Joshua 6:1-17, 20]. It is a story about the tearing down of the walls at Jericho. It has great truth for you today, and it has a Biblical principle inside of it.
Remember, when I read the Bible to you, it’s important to know that you are the characters in the story, and this is a story about you. Great truth can come from this as you realize that right now this is a story about your life and mine.
I’m not preaching at you; I’m here talking to myself as much as I’m talking to you.
Now Jericho was shut up inside and out because of the Israelites; no one came out and no one went in.
Think about yourself when you are filled with fear. When we are afraid, we shut ourselves up. I put a wall around my mind.
At this point, someone could come up to us and say something very positive, but we couldn’t hear them. We would repel that thought. All of our thoughts are shut up inside of myself, and all we can do is think within myself of our worry, our sickness, or and we are closed inside the gates of my mind. We have to tear down that wall, and I need help doing that. This is what this story is really about.
The Lord said to Joshua . . .Joshua is your name too. It means “whom Jehovah makes triumphant.” When God comes through you and makes you triumphant, you know that something miraculous has happened.
The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have handed Jericho over to you, along with its king and soldier.”
Jericho is a city just over the Jordan in the land of Canaan. It was the first city taken and destroyed by the Israelites after their entering the Promised Land.
Again, let’s think about our journey. Each of us is on a journey. Sometimes we are walking and sometimes we are running, but we going to the Promised Land. The Promised Land is consciousness. What it means spiritually is “spiritual realization.”
Think about that. When you come to that point inside of yourself, when you get past all of the stuff and get to that point of spiritual realization, all is well and there is a great joy inside of you.
Jericho means “moon reflecting.” This is a fascinating thing. What is the moon? If we look up tonight and see the moon, what is that?
As we look at the moon, it does not shine of its own light, but merely reflects the light of the sun.
People looked at the moon and thought, “Gee, there must be a great fire in the moon.” But we know now that is not true.
We know it is simply reflecting the light.
What does this have to do with you? It talks about our intellect inside of ourselves. The intellect seems to express the light of understanding, but spiritual understanding reveals that it shines by reflected light. Even as the moon is a part of our planetary system, so the intellect has a legitimate place in God.
It is when the intellect becomes egotistical, when it thinks, when it originates its own light, that there is a problem. I’m not talking about being egotistical like when a person says, “I’m so beautiful.” I’m talking about being egotistical by saying, “I’m right! Don’t confuse me with the facts.
I know what I think, and I act because I think. I am right!” All the time it’s like staring at the moon trying to get a suntan. It’s hard to do.
Our intellect is reflected light. From where? From the wisdom from on high – the Mind of God. When we stop thinking of ourselves as the end-all, and turn to God, then the walls are torn down inside of us. Then we have the power to do what we need to do with our lives.
You shall march around the city, all the warriors circling the city once. Thus, you shall do for six days, with seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the sevenths day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets. When they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and all the people shall charge straight ahead.” So Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and said to them,
“Take up the Ark of the Covenant, and have seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord.” To the people he said, “Go forward and march around the city; have the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord.”
As Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Lord went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord following them. And the armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets; the rear guard came after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. To the people Joshua gave this command: “You shall not shout or let your voice be heard, nor shall you utter a word, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.” So, the ark of the Lord went around the city, circling it once; and they came into the camp, and spent the night in the camp.
Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns . . .
The reason I read so much at once is I wanted you to hear over and over again how they talk about the number seven.
It’s talked about throughout the Bible, and it has a real significance for you and for me – a Biblical principle of how to tear down walls inside of us.
Seven refers to the Divine law of perfection in the Divine natural human. In the spiritual, twelve is the spiritual number of completion.
But how do you fully manifest the man and woman while going on the journey to spiritual realization or the Promised Land?
Do you remember in the Bible where Elijah told Namun to bathe in the Jordan seven times? The Bible talks about the cleansing of us seven times over and over again.
If you go into a church today, you will find candlesticks that represent seven lamps, or the seven centers in the body.
You’ll see seven candles on the candelabras. It was that way in Biblical times also.
In times of old, the tabernacle represented the body of the human. The seven lamps were a symbol of the seven centers in the organism through which intelligence is expressed.
What are these seven centers inside of you?
1. Seeing
2. Hearing
3. Tasting
4. Smelling
5. Feeling
The other two centers are:
6. Intuition
7. Ability to connect with the wisdom from above – The Mind of God.
These are the areas to be developed inside the human. These are the ways to develop yourself as a divine human being.
We read about going around the city seven times. This is to enter every one of your abilities you have as a human, to pray so much that you see good, to pray so much that you hear good, to pray so much that you literally smell God around you, to pray so much that you taste God. It is talking about a spiritual completion inside of you, allowing a full day for each sense. It allows you to become so aware of the presence of God that you literally tear down any wall inside of you.
You will not use any physical force in doing this; neither did they. The walls will fall down on their own.
The walls you have inside of you now, will not be able to stand up when you totally surrender your own human senses to the mind of God and the power of God. It will occur.
Let me finish the story now. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord passed on, blowing the trumpets continually. The armed men went before them, and the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets blew continually. On the second day they marched around the city once and then returned to the camp. They did this for six days.
On the seventh day they rose early, at dawn, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times.
It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city ..”
The “city” is a gathering together of thought people inside of yourself. Even your fears and your worries are starting to listen to God at that point. You have marched around your city so much that everyone is listening. All your senses come together and shout, and the walls inside of us are torn down.
” . . . The city and all that is in it shall be devoted to the Lord.” . . . So, the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpets, they raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat; so the people charged straight ahead into the city and captured it.
That’s my story; it’s your story. Let’s do this.
God bless you 7 times, God bless you 70×7!
Prayer and Meditation__________________
In Genesis, the book of the beginning, it says, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them,
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth . . . And God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good,” Genesis 1:27-28, 31
Let us, during this prayer time, cast off the feeling of limitation and frustration that keeps us from being what we were created to be. Our Creator believes in us. Every creator worthy of the name believes in his or her creation. God believes in you! Even in the midst of your sense of separation, when you have a mistaken identity, a false sense of self, your Creator believes in you. Even in the dark night of your soul, (which is a time when all seems lost), God believes in you. Even when you fail to hear or turn away from the call of greatness that urges you to return to your Source, God believes in you.
Accept this now as you rest in the silence of prayer…
God believes in you. God has faith in you. God believes in me.
Think about that for a moment and allow it to empower you: God believes in me . . . God has faith in you. Because God believes in you, you can believe in God’s handiwork in you.
You can have faith in God’s image in you. Take heart. Listen to the following words and allow me to speak that silent voice inside of you. God believes in me. God has faith in me.
God created me in God’s image and after God’s likeness. My Creator believes in me. God put the Divine spirit within me. God knows the stuff of which I am made, and God has faith in me. I will no longer judge with my eyes and my ears. If others lose their faith in me, and even if I lose my faith in myself, God, You never lose your faith in me.
You always believe in me. God always trusts the Divine handiwork in me.
Accept this now as you rest in the silence of prayer…
God, I thank You for believing in me!
I am God’s creation. I believe in God as my Creator. My heavenly God and I are one, one in faith, one in belief, one in trust. A life energy is released in you as you meditate on these truths about you. The words are the leading edge of a whole new state of faith believing in and trusting in God, and in the image of God that you are following.
Accept this now as you rest in the silence of prayer…
I am filled and fulfilled by the growing realization that God has faith in me, and I have faith in God. God believes in me. I believe in God. God trusts me. I trust God. What a glorious partnership, in faith, my Creator shares with me.
Accept this now as you rest in the silence of prayer…
God has never left you. God has never forsaken you. God has loved you with an everlasting love. With a loving kindness, God has drawn us and awakened us. This is the revelation of the One who believes in us.
It is God’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom, not because we have worked hard to earn it or that we merit it, but because of the grace of our Creator who believes in us.
We are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, all our strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. This is the natural expectation of the Creator who believes in us, and who knows the stuff we are made of. God expects us to believe in the Divine, to believe in ourselves, and to believe in our neighbor as God does.
As we close this wonderful time with God, we are to let our light shine in such a way that all who see it will know that its source is the God of light inside us and in them. This is the radiant desire of our Creator who believes in us.
In the nature of Jesus Christ we pray . . . Amen.
For 23 years – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 1,600,000 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? Reply – 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
Prayer Request: Please pray for Piers and Christine. Their communication seems diminishing at this point. Christine is left wondering if there is hope in their relationship. She is crying out to the Lord for His guidance.
Please help me touch the Father’s heart for these two precious souls?
A plea from a mother’s heart
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.
Every week we have multiple requests from churches to share a Positive Daily Inspiration with their congregation. You never have to ask for permission – you have my permission.
Many churches forward Positive Daily Inspiration to their congregations and visitors. This has exploded during Covid closures, and yet it is still little known about. Many churches send a message of their choice once or twice a week to their congregations co-authoring the message. Churches report that it has helped them stay in business and increased their financial support during these hard times.
Here is an example: First Street Methodist Church (address any town USA)
Positive Daily Inspiration.
(And the message of their choice copied and pasted to their mailing list.) Churches can also utilize our Archives, and our Encyclopedia of Prayer to do the same with 1000’s of available messages.
Go to our homepage www.PositiveChristianity.org and sign-up for free. (Never a charge.)
We love people that reuse our material for the good of society. Our only copyright – is you have a right to copy.
_____________________________________
The longest walk I pray you will never have to make is down a hospital corridor to visit someone you love who has been given a dire diagnosis. A lady was walking down the corridor one day. As she walked, she wondered, “What can I do? I’m not ready to lose my husband. How can I bring healing to him? What will it take?”
She confided that she felt so helpless. She wanted to spiritually know it all. She wanted to bring healing to the one she loved so very much.
As she walked along, she realized that it was not just going to be the surgeon’s knife, chemical agent, specialist, or doctor that would bring about a permanent healing – it was going to be God. As she walked toward the room and faced the door of where her husband was, she realized that as she opened that door she had to bring an awareness and remembrance of God into that room.
I am often asked, “How long will my healing take?”
And I answer, “About as long as it takes you to know, really know, that beyond the illness, there is an allness of God that is now.”
Imagine that you had a curtain in front of you, right now. With your human eyes, you could not see through it. You are standing on one side, while God and healing are on the other. It is so very close, like a mist that you could reach through, but you have to remember to reach through it.
Every day, prayer touches so many people who have experienced miracle healings, healings that have turned the word terminal into temporal.
The very foundation of Christianity is made up of cases of people who have been told there is no way they would be healed, but they were healed. When you walk down a hospital hallway to see a loved one, keep in mind that with God, ALL things are possible.
Have you ever heard the saying: “Time heals all wounds?” Bringing in God brings time and a half in, and time and a half heals faster. Healing with God’s speed! There is a time to medical science. If I go to a doctor and ask, “How long will it take me to be healed?” he/she will give me the exact answer learned from books. The good doctors will tell me about the process of cell renewal. The doctor will conform to set time schedules – skin cells are renewed every 3-5 days, stomach cells every four months, and so on. But spiritual healing deals with consciousness that transcends time’s limitations, and achieves a rapid acceleration of the renewal process, so that the result may appear to be instantaneous.
There is only one condition to be healed when you open that door – within yourself first, and then within the person you are praying with – this condition is misconception. When we open that door, let us know that no matter what awaits on the other side of that hospital door, with God all things are possible.
When you open that door, with faith, you carry a spiritual power with you. You are the carrier of the cure.
We do not stay within human mind and believe that the dire prediction will be permanent. We know that no matter what it looks like to our physical eyes, this is temporal, and in faith we know God has come to heal the situation.
Disease is simply “nothing” trying to act like “something.” It depends upon our belief in it to sustain it. Sometimes, the person lying in a hospital bed might be so weak that he or she does not have the power to believe. We have to bring that belief. When we visit that person, we have to live the truth of the winged soul. We have to rise above difficulty. We have to bring hope and a light into the room. Jesus said that you are the light of the world. That means when you are walking down a hospital corridor, open the door, and walk into that hospital room, may you be the light and the hope.
One thing you are not going to do is buy into the situation, shake your head, and think “Oh my, how awful this is.” You are going to bring a spiritual wellness and an awareness of healing.
The great revival of Divine healing is due to the application of the same law that Jesus used. Jesus demanded faith on the part of those whom He healed, and with that faith as the point of mental and spiritual contact Jesus released the latent energy in the Adam and cell structure of His patients and they were restored to life and health.
A change of mind will change the character of a germ, a cell, or an entire body. We can bring that change of mind to our loved one. We can facilitate that lasting spiritual touch.
I am talking to you, today, as Positive Christians. Positive Christians know that they can go beyond the physical. Positive Christians know that they stand on the foundation of God to go further than what they see with just their physical eyes, and know the truth of God.
In Acts 17:28, it says: “For ‘In him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.'” When you go into a hospital room, I ask you to recall that the person who is lying there with tubes and all the things humankind have put into his/her body to save him/her; this person is living this very moment, moving and having their being in God. And God, with and within this person, is perfection. God is doing God’s work.
What can you do of a constructive nature when someone is ill? Here are 6 practical suggestions:
1. Follow the advice of a prominent, medical school authority who said, “In sickness, send for your minister even as you send for your doctor.” In other words, as you are going down that corridor and turn into the hospital room of someone you love, know that God’s power is just as potent as the finest surgeon, specialist, or chemical agent in the world.
I ask you to make a call to ask for prayer help, and then make a call to your minister. Get all the strength of God with you when you walk down that corridor. When you make that journey with God, the walk becomes much easier. It will even become something you can tolerate. You’ll be surprised at the strength that comes to you step-by-step as you need it.
2. Pray for the doctor. This is something most people forget about doing. You are there, and you are going to pray for your loved one who is lying in that hospital bed. Always pray first for the doctor. I pray that God Mind will be in his or her mind, that the doctor will be guided by God to make an exact diagnosis and to see with higher vision and know more than just human mind in the way to proceed.
I believe it comes to pass. I believe there will be insight, guidance, and ways to heal that the doctor would have never found in any book. The doctor will have a feeling on a way to proceed and will proceed in that way. It produces marvelous, accelerated results in the one you love so very much.
3. Whatever you do, do not become panicky or filled with fear. I know this is easy to say and hard to do. Your faith will be tested the most when someone you love meets a challenge. You have to hold the highest thought in spiritual awareness, realizing you are a broadcasting station of consciousness. Whatever you hold in mind will broadcast out from you. If you hold the very worst in mind, it will send out a negative, destructive thought.
You are super-faith-filled people. Yet, when something like this occurs, you might find yourself falling into that area of feeling panicky, worried, and filled with fear. Instead, stop right where you are, generate up, and think about God, instead. Think about God’s power. Instead of sending forth a destructive thought, send forth a thought of healing and wholeness.
4. Completely surrender your loved one into the hands of God. By your faith, if you can place him or her in the flow of Divine power, there will be healing. This is very hard to do, also. We live in human mind, and we want to get in there and fix things. Yet, how much more does God fix things.
In that moment, before you open the door to the room, give your loved one over to God and know that the very highest and best is going to occur.
5. It is important that harmony prevail in the family. When I visit hospitals, I often see people who have been up all night long. I see disorder. I see people worrying out loud and thinking the worst out loud.
Imagine if I were to ask each of you to gather with me in a circle, to think and pray the absolute worst. You know that is absurd; we would never do that. Yet, families do it all the time, in their group imaginings of the worst.
What are you to do? You are the light in that situation. You bring people back to the positive energy of God. You are the carrier of the cure.
Disharmony and disease are akin. There has to be harmony in a situation like this, within the family unit. In other words, all people need to be working together, in a prayer consciousness for a common good.
Matthew 18:18-19: “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven … “
There you are, waiting and praying with your family. You are binding health to your loved one.
You are sewing it into the very fabric of prayer consciousness … “and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” With all the power of God, the Great Physician, you are losing what you no longer want to be in the physical body temple of the one you love so dearly.
“Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
There you are, sitting beside your loved one. You are trying so hard, but you may not completely form a picture of your loved one as whole. You mind keeps coming back to the disasters you see with your human eyes. As you to close your eyes while in the room, sit in the silence of prayer and visualize the person as he or she would be totally well smiling, laughing, running. Then, your faith attaches to this, and you bring a great power to the hospital room. You bring the power of God. You are the channel of God’s healing activity. You are like the light that radiates out. Believe me, at some level of mind, the patient is feeding off you more than he or she is feeding off the tubes going into him/her, because you are bringing the remembrance of all the possibilities of God.
6. Be perfectly natural in your prayers. When you talk to God, say something like, “Please God, heal my loved one who I care for so much.” Then you enter into another room; you go across the threshold with your faith. You are not begging or pleading a prayer. You are coming from the position that God has heard your prayer and God HAS answered. Then, with everything in your spiritual awareness you say, “Thank You, God. I know you have heard my prayers.” That is the Jesus Christ method of prayer. It works because you are working it. You know God is working in your loved one. You will see.
The doctors come in, shake their heads, and say: “I can’t believe how quickly you are healing. We thought you would have some serious problem, but now you don’t.” They will be amazed, and YOU WILL, TOO.
And that is right and good, because prayer should always be fresh, new and wondrous. Answered prayer never gets stale. It brings great joy to your life. You will find that as you walk out of that hospital, you have been changed as profoundly as your loved one.
In the last few moments, let me talk about “absent healing.” Let’s say that you can’t get to your loved one in person. You wish you could. You are willing to drop everything, but for some reason you can’t be there. The truth is, you can get to your loved one in prayer.
There is no boundary of time or space in prayer. If I pray with you, one-on-one, it has great power because we are joining in prayer, and we are making a connection. If I am not here, but I am sitting in another state in the silence praying with you, visualizing, and speaking the word in faith, it has the exact same power. There is no time or space in prayer.
When you sit down and think about the very best that is going to happen through the doctors, the nurses, the medicine and God, you are bringing it to pass in an accelerated way.
Now, I ask you to join me in prayer.
I ask you to think about someone in your circle of friends or family who needs a healing right now. We are going to concentrate on that healing, and believe the very finest and that with God all things are possible.
Dear God, I ask for Your healing to take place now. I pray for the doctors and the nurses that they can have Your mind working within their mind to guide them with great efficiency of healing.
Thank you God for hearing my prayer.
In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen
PRAYER / MEDITATION _________________________
Let us pray a prayer of healing:
With an understanding faith, we know that with God, from a tiny scratch to something perceived to be more serious, You, dear God, are already providing for all the healing that is needed. Through the gift of life, You gave within the person for whom we are praying, we claim, in faith, visualizing and believing without doubt, a perfection and wholeness of mind and body through the Christ.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
We boldly claim the gift of the Christ health in this person. As this person heals, may he or she realize the power of the Divine. May this person receive a manifestation in the outer of the perfection of the inner self. May this perfection reach through the mist and create a demonstration of perfect and complete health. We are decreeing, in total faith and in the spiritual battery of belief, the gift of life that continues to show forth perfection.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
We pray that our loved one works in Divine harmony and that the body works in perfect order. We pray our loved one is able to breathe easily and deeply, that the heart is beating in perfect rhythm, that the digestive system is strong and able to take nourishment. We are praying, together in a complete conviction, that through Christ, this loved one is whole and well now.
We praise and give thanks for the miracle of God making every disease temporal and bringing healing to all situations.
Allow yourself to rest in God. The greatness of God is here. The power of God is active in those for whom we pray.
Meditate on these words found in I Corinthians: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit that is within you?”
You are created in the image and likeness of God. God’s life and health flow through every part of your being. God’s vital energy is in every cell of your body. God’s order blesses every function of your body.
God’s breath is your breath. You are whole and perfect. You give thanks that appearances are not the truth in God’s sight. You give thanks that all things are possible with God. You give thanks that you are created as a spiritual being first, and that your life is filled with Christ. In God you live, move, and have your being. This is so true.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
We feel a great surge of healing life through our entire being. We know that omnipresent God life is part of our lives, and that we are immersed in healing. In our minds we think health. Uppermost in mind is the thought of perfect health as our natural physical state. Our God-given heritage becomes the dominant thought of this hour.
We are thinking complete health and wholeness of God. We do not rehearse aches and pains; rather, we rehearse God. The healing essence of God within us is doing perfect work right now.
Our bodies are temples of the living God – living within every organ, tissue, and atom of our being.
In appreciation and thankfulness, we rest once more, in the silence of prayer …
In Jesus Christ’s name we pray … Amen.
For 23 years – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 1,600,000 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? Reply – 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
Prayer Request: For my wife Joni she doesn’t see anything wrong with why we were separated spending time with other men or having them on Facebook she can be so cold and calous towards my feelings she shows me no affection she is born again she threatens too walk out I love her so much . I just ask for her too show me love and affection ungodly ties broken her past deleted from Facebook and phone 📞 for her too show itmacey.she deals with depression bipolar
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.
Every week we have multiple requests from churches to share a Positive Daily Inspiration with their congregation. You never have to ask for permission – you have my permission.
Many churches forward Positive Daily Inspiration to their congregations and visitors. This has exploded during Covid closures, and yet it is still little known about. Many churches send a message of their choice once or twice a week to their congregations co-authoring the message. Churches report that it has helped them stay in business and increased their financial support during these hard times.
Here is an example: First Street Methodist Church (address any town USA)
Positive Daily Inspiration.
(And the message of their choice copied and pasted to their mailing list.) Churches can also utilize our Archives, and our Encyclopedia of Prayer to do the same with 1000’s of available messages.
Go to our homepage www.PositiveChristianity.org and sign-up for free. (Never a charge.)
We love people that reuse our material for the good of society. Our only copyright – is you have a right to copy.
_____________________________________
God IS taking care of you! And God IS taking care of me! I am excited about my life as it unfolds, oftentimes without any seeming responsibility on my part, other than to cooperate with God and let it happen. Isn’t it wonderful how when we get out of the way, we can change and grow? Oftentimes, we don’t like it at the time, but in retrospect, we see it was the best thing.
If God is your copilot – switch seats!
I have a prayer that I want to pray before we worship.
We ask God to take full charge of this experience.
Have Thy way in me, Lord. Have Thy way in me. Have Thy way in my thoughts, my actions, my feelings, and in my decisions. Have Thy way in me, Lord. Have Thy way in me.
Dear God, right now we are each open and receptive, knowing that this is a spiritual experience, in which we each are being lifted to a higher level of life. Have Your way in each of us.
And so it is. In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.
I want to share a Bible story with you. First, we are going to review it historically and literally, and then we are going to review it spiritually. There is a lot more meaning to this story than just the general surface level. It is found in John 8:1-11 [RSV].
“They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him, ‘Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?’ This they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him.
“Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.’ And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’
“She said, ‘No one, Lord.’
“And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.’
As we review this story literally and historically, we notice that there are three groups of characters in it: the scribes and the Pharisees (the so-called leading citizens), the adulteress, and Jesus Christ. The scribes and the Pharisees are individuals who are accustomed to condemning others. They may be “enlightened” citizens and they may be very prosperous, but they condemn what they see outside of themselves. One other thing we notice about them is that they lack compassion. Also, they are very weak men who come together to deal with what appears to be a defenseless woman. They may be popular in the eyes of men because of their positions, but in the eyes of God, they are not very popular at all. And obviously, they have unforgiving hearts.
Then there is the adulteress. This is the woman who is about to be stoned. We know according to the story that she was caught in the act of adultery. There is no mention of the man she was involved with.
She felt that because of the law, she faced certain death. Jesus Christ was brought into her life because of this dilemma.
She learned that even in hopeless situations, there is hope through the activity and the love of Jesus Christ.
The other, in our story, is Jesus Christ. Jesus faced three dilemmas. The first one being the Mosaic Law: should He allow them to stone her? Second, should He tell them to let her go? Or third, should He ignore the situation and walk away, to save His own skin?
Remember, He knelt down and began writing on the ground with his finger. There are many points of view on this particular act. I feel that he was kneeling on the ground and writing because he was praying, trying to figure out what to do; he needed to take his attention away from the appearances, the dilemma. He knew that the woman should not be stoned, so He asked God for the solution that would bring about the greatest good in this challenge.
Jesus knew that He had to find a way to not negate, but yet to spiritualize and override the Mosaic teachings in those days.
Now, let’s look at this, spiritually. The word adultery spiritually means “mixed thoughts” or errors that have their existence in the unregenerated feelings or thoughts that have not come under the dominion of God. In its literal usage, adultery meant sexual relations outside of marriage. It refers to a physical experience only, but to adulterate also means to add something other that cheapens the quality or upsets the completeness of your life, your actions, or an experience.
As we relate to other people, ARE WE relating from our highest and best? Are we beholding the best, in ourselves and others, as we relate to people?
Back then many marriages were arranged, it had absolutely nothing to do with how the person felt about the other, because this is the way it is supposed to be.
“I don’t have to like you. I’m in a relationship with you, so this is what you have to do. You promised you would be with me, so this is what you have to do.” It really has nothing much to do with how I feel about you and myself.
That can be adultery. It is cheating on expressing the love of God. If we do not behold the love of God in ourselves and that individual in your relationship, that can be adultery.
What inspired this particular woman, in this situation, was not so much her physical act, but what thoughts and feelings she was holding in her mind. I think the men in this situation represent the intellect in you and me. When the intellect is working without the heart, we get into trouble. The heart is the woman in this situation. Have you ever noticed that about yourself? Have you ever noticed that when you don’t combine the wholeness of your mind AND heart that you tend to get yourself into trouble?
What is interesting about this is that the men were trying to condemn this particular person – which means, when the intellect of you is so full of information, acting so knowledgeable, and tries to make decisions, like condemning this woman, we really are condemning ourselves. That is why the first stone is never cast.
I love the way Jesus said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” In other words, He was saying that if you want to kill this person (yourself), admit that you never made a mistake.
You will notice that they all started leaving … the eldest ones first. Those thoughts that we have held onto the longest leave first. Why should I waste a moment condemning any part of me or someone else? Even though there seem to be three characters, each one of them is in all of us. The activity takes place; the healing is within us; and the problem is outside of us. As we behold the Christ love, we each become a whole, complete person. This is good.
The Christ asked, “Where are your accusers?” When we go within, in prayer and meditation, and ask God to make us clean and whole in every way, even those thoughts and points of views I have hidden from myself, the Christ will give us the solutions. In other words, you have made mistakes before … change. Open yourself to a new life within you. Change you. You use that energy, that power, that love of Christ in you, to change yourself.
When Jesus asked where the accusers were, they were all gone. Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.” The Christ never condemns. The Christ is always there with a win/win situation. If you want a win/win situation, always turn to God and you will find it.
We have all had some problems that could not have solved alone. Few have managed to get through life without going in prayer, and turning to the Christ? I have never seen anyone figure out the full good of God’s love, without turning to God. As you turn to God and allow yourself to have that experience, new things happen.
How do we go about changing our lives? We say that life changes at certain times in our lives. I tell you that we are daily changing. The greatest suffering or pain comes when we resist that change, because it is natural to change. Be renewed by the changing of your mind, the changing of your life, or the changing of your experiences.
Do not cheat on your God-given potential. The greatest sin is to live and die, and fail to really live, to cheat on our real God-given potential. Have you ever spent a moment looking back at some of the things you used to do and you realize you don’t do them anymore? Isn’t that wonderful! If you could also think back to when you made a change in direction, a change in consciousness, or a change in attitude, you would remember that you really didn’t like it, at first; it was not very comfortable. But you realized it was the best thing that could ever happen to you.
I have three steps to share with you about changing your life. We are motivated to change, not so much from what is happening outside of us (although we do describe it as such), but by something that happens inside of us. There is a Divine discontent, or an unrest. It does not have a whole lot to do with our station in life.
People from all walks of life have the same feelings. Some have PhD’s; some have businesses; some are schoolteachers. Yet, inside of each of them, they will tell you, at one time or another, there was a void, a discontent, something that was missing. And if their friends asked them why they were going to make a change, they answered, “I just have to do it.” It may not make logical sense, if it seems you have the decision made right now, but there is some type of discontent inside which says, “There is something higher, something different, something better.” You can’t deal with it with logic. You have to let go and let God.
The invitation to change takes place when there is some sort of inner unrest or incompleteness. This unrest or incompleteness could be a sign that we are adulterating our thoughts, which means that we are trying to rationalize this motivation that God has stimulated in us. We try to change the view or the prompting that God has given us.
So, the first step is that when there is a sense of unrest or discontent, generally, that is God telling you there is something better, something different, waiting for you.
The second step is rather than to fight your accusers, go within and ask for guidance. In other words, rather than acting on our first instinct which is usually to fight the feeling or the experience as the accusers were doing with this lady, be still and take time to ask for guidance. If you will notice, Jesus took time. He did not respond quickly. There are situations that take place in our lives that are so complex, that we need to be still, let go, be at peace, and not make a quick decision. Wait on the Lord for the Divine guidance and the Divine answer.
The third step, which is so powerful, do as Jesus said: “Go and sin no more.” Don’t make that mistake again. You will make mistakes in the future, but don’t make that one again. Once you are re-directed, you go forward, not backward. Sometimes we keep doing things over and over again. Sometimes we get stuck. We don’t have to get stuck.
If you experience Divine discontent, go within and ask for guidance. Once you get that guidance, go into action and go forward.
Life change is what is unfolding in us right now. I’m experiencing it, wonderfully. I am learning that if I am non-resistant to these changes and let them happen naturally, I enjoy the journey.
A young woman, 95 years of age who didn’t have much formal education, but instead had an abundance of Divine wisdom once said, “Don’t you know that if you accept it, it won’t hurt so bad?”
If we let go and let God, through the midst of change when we have this Divine discontent, this unrest, instead of labeling it, realize that you are God’s holy child and you are good. Ask for guidance and do those things you are guided to do, as quickly as possible. Don’t fight it. Then, go and sin no more. Don’t make that mistake again. Go forward and enjoy your new life. A new life is unfolding for each of us. A life of change is a certainty. Let us know that God goes ahead of us on our path of life and that we never walk alone.
Let’s relax and know that even this very second, in each of us, there is a newness of spirit that is consuming those thoughts we may adulterate by mixing something impure into them. We behold the Christ love in ourselves, and it is our mission to behold the Christ love in others. Not only are we experiencing a change in life, but others are also. We accept this and are non-resistant to this, because God is in charge of all us.
Let us pray:
Thank You, dear God, for life, for unfoldment of new life, and especially for giving us the courage and ability to accept and enthusiastically enjoy a changed life.
And so it is … In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen
God bless you!
PRAYER / MEDITATION___________________________
During our time of prayer and meditation, we open ourselves entirely to this spiritual experience. Our experience this day is one of Divinely directed change, the opportunity to change our point of view, change experiences, change what we feel about ourselves and others, through the help of God.
“We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s Will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Colossians 1:9
Rest in the silence of prayer …
Change comes to all of us, for growth brings change. Change need never frighten us. Change can be whatever we make it – a blessing or a challenge. It is always made into a blessing through God’s power.
Is some change shaking the foundation of your world as you have known it? Are the circumstances of your life turning in a different direction, making you unsure of what lies ahead?
Listen to the words God put upon the mind of the prophet Isaiah [paraphrased]:
“Thus say the Lord, remember not the former things or consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing something new. Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
God’s promise to you is that God will be with you through any change. Sometimes we expend great energy in resisting change simply because we feel unaccustomed to it and feel accustomed to the familiar, comfortable patterns are already established in our lives.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
It is during these times that a change in the pattern, whether small or major, can seem to throw us off balance and cause us to feel confused or upset. When such an event occurs, the best course we can take is to center ourselves in God and affirm our oneness with God.
As we center ourselves in God, let us realize that change is part of God’s Divine plan for us–a plan that will help us achieve what is highest and best for us.
Rest in the silence of prayer …
Do you wish for some circumstance to be changed right now? It can be, with God’s help. It will be changed, for nothing remains forever the same. Do you wish that your life could be different? It can be with God’s help. Through God this very moment, things are changing for the better. Old limitations are falling away. New and inviting doors are opening before you.
Ask for God’s help in the silence of prayer …
Do you wish that you had more strength, more life, more vitality? You can with God’s help. You have this help right now, for you have the strengthening, sustaining, and revitalizing life of God, mighty in the midst of you. Right now you can be happy, free, strong, and well. Right now, this very moment, your life can change, and it is changing for the better.
Dear God, we are so grateful for life, as it is unfolding in our life and in our experiences. We are grateful for the courage, strength, vision and stability of mind we have to know that all things are actually working together for our highest good, even in the midst of change.
(Silence)
Not only do we welcome this truth for ourselves, but as we go beyond this sanctuary, we know that for all people everywhere, there is this energy of change and growth. This motivation is stimulating the minds and hearts of all Your creation, dear God. We are so grateful.
We know this for our world, and the leaders of the countries of our world. We know that this change is touching each of them, inviting them to study spiritual things and to look for peaceful ways to live together.
Change is taking place. We know this for ourselves and for our world.
In Jesus Christ’s nature, rest in the silence of prayer …
As we return to full awareness of this experience, this morning, opening ourselves as never before, allowing our fears to become still, our inhibitions and anxieties to quiet themselves, we are directed and we feel the influence of the change that our souls desire, with God’s full and active help.
We go forth now. And as we do, we remain excited for this Jesus Christ experience of change. For this we are so grateful.
And so it is … Amen.
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Prayer Request: Please pray for my 5 year old grandson’s best friend Jake. Jake desperately needs an new heart and without one is facing a risky and painful procedure to install a device that keeps his heart beating until he can receive a new heart. Jake is only 5 years old. No parent should have to watch their child go through this. Pray that Jake receives a new heart quickly
