Tag : Rev. Christian Ian Chenoweth

29Nov

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – We ALL Need Each Other

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - We ALL Need Each Other

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.

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The late Congresswoman from Texas, Barbara Jordan once said something that speaks great truth. She said, “I don’t want to be run-of-the-mill person.” I don’t either, or I know that you don’t. Isn’t that why we are here this morning? It is because we want to shine with God brilliance in our lives. We want to live in the very best ways we can and enjoy life more.

I share an affirmation with you. “Who I am makes a difference.”

I like to look at that in the morning and I like for that to begin my day. Feel empowered by God to go beyond where I would ordinarily go. I realize that God is with you, and you can do things that alone of your human self, I might not be able to do. You want to make a positive difference in this world. You want to make the world a better place.

A simple commitment that is very easy and very rewarding, every day, say to yourself, I will make a difference in at least one person’s life.

Small differences accumulate adding up to major changes in people’s lives. You can make a difference; you can add to the equation to someone’s positive life. Do you know how easy that is? How profoundly it changes your life when you make that commitment? It is so joyous when you go out there and go on your search. You wonder who is going to be “the one” today. You wait to find that person.

Let me tell you a story. There is a small village in Nigeria, West Africa, which is an agricultural community, a farming community. This village is in a large valley, plush with trees and vegetation. The villagers live in houses of dried mud which women decorate with colorful designs each year during the harvest festival.

Surrounding the village are fields filled with crops of yams, corn, and other vegetables. Just beyond the fields is a deep river that the villagers call “Baba,” which means, “Father.” The river has been a friend to the villagers and a provider for the people. The men fish in it. Women wash clothes on its banks. Children play in its waters. But, in the rainy season, it can overflow, and the people are very fearful of its power. It could wipe out their crops and even threaten their safety.

There was a man in the village named Modupe, which means, “I am grateful.” Modupe was a shy, quiet man whose wife had died and whose children were all married. Modupe lived all alone, so he moved to the top of the mountain overlooking the valley. There he built a small hut and cleared a small piece of land to grow his vegetables. The people did not see Modupe often, but they loved and respected him.

One year at harvest time, there were unusually heavy rains. But because the crops had done so well and there was much work to do, no one paid much attention to the rains. One morning, Modupe went outside his house and was looking out over the valley when he noticed that the dam had been damaged.

The heavy rains were pouring down and the river had become so swollen from the rains that the dam was going to break. Modupe knew he did not have time to run down to the village to warn the people. It would be too late and all would be lost. Even as he watched, the wall of the dam began to break and water started to seep through in several places. Modupe knew that his friends in the village, their crops, their homes, and their very lives were in danger of being lost in the flood. He had to warn them. But how was he going to do this? An idea came to him. He rushed to his hut and set his own home on fire.

When the people in the valley looked up, they saw Modupe’s house on fire. They said, “Sound the alarm. Our friend is in trouble. Let’s go help him.” Then, according to the custom, men, women, and children ran up the mountain to help. As they reached the top of the mountain, a loud crashing noise from behind caused them to turn around and look down into the valley. Their homes, their crops, everything was being destroyed by the river, which had broken the dam and flooded the valley.

The people began to cry and moan about their loss. Modupe said, “Don’t worry. My crops are still here. We will share them while we build a new village.” The people began to realize what had happened and they began to give thanks. They knew that in coming to help a friend, they had saved themselves.

When I help you, I save myself, because God comes through me. When you help me, you save yourself because God comes through you. How wonderful God is! When we stand alone, and we become so independent that we do not care about another person, that is when we all fall. United we stand. Spiritual people are not independent; they are interdependent. We are a blessing to other people. When we go out and say, “OK, God, today is my day. Today is somebody else’s day, too. I am going to look for someone and You tell me whom I should bless, today.” The blessing could be in 10 million different forms. It does bless the other person when you do something for them. It comes back to you, pressed down, shaken over. It comes through you and yet, it comes back to you from the outside, too. Wow! You are the blessor and the blessee. You serve God by become a blessing in your world.

Let me tell you a story. Once there was a heavily booked flight out of the Denver airport that was cancelled. The single agent was rebooking a long line of inconvenienced travelers. Suddenly, an angry passenger pushed his way to the front and slapped his ticket down on the counter. “I have to be on this next flight and it has to be first class!”

“I’m sorry, sir,” the agent replied, “You are going to have to go to the back of the line, because I have to take care of these people first, and then I’ll be happy to help you.”

The passenger was unimpressed. He said, “Do you have any idea who I am?”

Without hesitating, the gate agent smiled and picked up the public address microphone. “May I have your attention, please? We have a passenger here at the gate who does not know who he is. If anyone can help him find his identity, please come to the gate.”

The man retreated and the whole terminal burst into applause.

Have you ever done that? Have you ever gone to another person, wanting them to be impressed with who you are, and said, “Do you have any idea who I am?” If you really want to show another person who you are, become more interested in them than in you. They will be impressed.

Have you ever caused trouble because you thought you were not being treated as you should be because of who you are? If they only knew. You are willing to tell them who you are.

May you be known only by the positive difference you make in other’s lives. That is really what counts, isn’t it? We passed their way and we made their life better because we took the time to make their lives better.

Recently actor Paul Newman passed away. He was a great actor, but it was interesting that people said what he’ll really be remembered for is his humanitarian work. 40 years ago, he formed a food company “Newman’s Own.” All after-tax profit of what now $150 million year company is goes towards helping humanity. He had an illustrious career but is known best for what he did outside of his career.

Bill Gates will probably be the same, as will Warren Buffett. Live a life so large in positive shadow and it will be impossible for you ever to be forgotten.

So many times, we want to tell people what we have done in the past. We want to hand someone a resume and have them look at it and say, “I see what you are. Wow, am I impressed!” That is not who we are at all. We are not our biography, for the stories of our lives have not been fully written yet.

It is the difference that you can make in your life NOW that counts. You make a difference in your life as God directs. That is who you are.

May we take the pledge, today, to make a difference in at least one person’s life, every day, and find that happiness and bliss.

Let me tell you a story. One time, there were students of a rabbi. They approached their spiritual leader with a complaint about the evil that was everywhere in the world. They were intent upon driving out the forces of darkness. They requested that the rabbi counsel them. The rabbi suggested they take brooms and attempt to sweep the darkness out of the cellar.

The bewildered disciples applied themselves, using all their vigorous energy to sweep the darkness out of the cellar, but to no avail. The rabbi then advised his followers to take big sticks and to beat vigorously at the darkness to drive out the evil. When this likewise failed, he counseled them to go down again into the cellar and to protest against the darkness by lighting a candle. When they kindled their lights, the darkness had been driven out.

It is the same with us. When we kindle our light, something very special is going to happen.

Mark 4:21. “He said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lamp stand?'”

In other words, were you born into this life to hide your light?

Are you supposed to hide it deep inside of you where no one could see it?

No.

“‘For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ And He said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.'” (Mark 4:22-25)

For to those who have, more will be given. When you are giving more blessings every day, you are going to have more blessings come to you. When you give nothing, even what you have will be taken away. You will lead an empty existence. We all want to do God’s will, but are we willing to walk in God’s footsteps.

You do not need to go off to a distant land. You do not need to become a missionary in some foreign country, you are needed right where you are. Each is called two different service. Know that God needs you right where you have been placed.

Do not have faith in anything less than God in your life because there will never be an end to God in your life. God needs you to be a missionary in ____________ (your State). God needs you to be a missionary in ____________ (your City). God needs you to be a missionary in your own home and business by becoming a light; to walk into a room and to have everyone in that room turn around because you have walked into that room.

They are glad to see you because of what you bring into their lives. You are always there to make it better. You are always there to say something positive and to make their day better. Because it comes through you, you will have a better day, too.

We all wish we were able to give gifts to others which would add to their joy and happiness. One of the greatest gifts we can give is the gift of blessing. Everybody wants to feel blessed. When you get up, tomorrow morning, how much more alive you will be as you crawl out of bed if you think, “I’m going to meet my good.” How much more alive you will be if you crawl out of bed and say, “I’m going to do good.” Because, as you do good, you are going to meet good. I am needed.

Do you know when it is the most fun to be a blessing? It is when you are a blessing to people who are hard to bless. That is where it really becomes entertaining.

Allow to me share some poetry with you.

There was an old man from Blackheath
Who, when he sat on a set of false teeth,
Rose with a start and said,
“Lord bless my Heart.
I’ve bitten myself underneath.”

I know a man who had the people skills of a hornet. He would constantly come to me and say, “How come people don’t like me?”

If you say what you think, don’t expect to hear only what you like.

He would put others down to make himself look better.

There is nothing noble about being superior to some other person.

True nobility is being superior to your previous self.

Over time, as the man prayed to change, he started to care for others and show it in his words and actions.

Last year, he was going to be honored. He was a changed man. The president of this large corporation was there.

He made the discovery overtime that he had a natural ability, but he was using it in a negative way. If he could just turn that around and use the power of his words to be a blessing, he could change his world. He was doing it. His was a totally changed and blessed life.

Huxley, the British author of “Brave New World,” spent most of his years observing and commenting upon the meaning of human life. In the last decade of his own life, after all those years of philosophizing, he confessed, “It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has not more to offer by way of advice than ‘Try to be a little kinder.'”

Try to be a blessing. The Dalai Lama said the same thing. He said, “Religion is basically, three words: blessing, love, and kindness.” I agree. You have to imitate God. You have to be willing to follow God so closely that you are doing the will of God and you are doing it automatically by imitating.

A Welsh friend once shared his experience of working in an armaments factory during World War II.

The management had posted signs throughout the factory with just five letters on them: I A D O M. He told us that everyone knew the meaning of those letters. They stood for:

I It

A All

D Depends

O On

M Me

It all depends on me. The management used the signs to impress on the workers that each of them had to work as if the whole war effort depended on what they did individually. Each day, they had to think that victory depended on what they did that day. In a very real sense, I A D O M is a metaphor for individual growth. It all depends on what we do this day. If we want a better world; it all depends on us.

Late Hall of Fame catcher, Roy Campanella was one of professional baseball’s African American pioneers. Playing with Jackie Robinson on the Brooklyn Dodgers, Campanella won three Most Valuable Player awards in a 10-year career that was cut short by a crippling automobile accident.

Campanella was one of many stars on the powerful Dodgers teams of the early 1950s. He was confined to a wheelchair after an accident. He had a terrible time with the fact that he could not walk any more. He cried himself to sleep every night, as he thought, “What use am I to the world?”

The doctor came to him, one day, and said, “You are not doing very well with your own healing and I need your help. You have to feel alive again.”

Roy said, “No doctor, I just want to die.”

The doctor said, “No, Roy, you can still be a tremendous asset everywhere you go. Be a blessing to people. Get out of yourself, out of your own mind, and out of your own body, and think about other people more than yourself.”

Roy is still in a wheelchair, but he says, “I am more alive now that I was when I had two legs and was running around the bases. Now, I make other people’s lives better.” What a joy it is when you do. We often say, “God bless you.” God says, for you, to bless others.

Author Og Mandino wrote “The Greatest Salesman in the World,” which still sells 100,000 copies a year. But did you know there was a time when he was a drunken bum, living from gutter to gutter?

Do you know how he changed his life around? He changed his life around by getting out of his head and daily pity party and deciding to live for others. But he had to trick himself in order to do it. He went into the library and started reading success books and he got the idea to be a blessing. He wondered how he could be a blessing to others. He said, “Here is challenging advice. Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight.

“Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.”

There was once a bus driver who hated his job. He resisted getting behind the wheel every morning. He attended a seminar and was asked why he hated his job. He said, ‘Well, I think it is that seven minutes at the end of my run. At the end of my run, every day, I am next to this unofficial dump where everyone throws their trash. It just shows how bad humanity is.”

They said, “Oh, seven minutes out of your run. Other than that, is it OK?” He said, “It’s not bad, except the seven minutes there by the dump.”

One day, he got the idea that instead of complaining about it, why didn’t
he do something about the dump. He began to go in there and pick up cans. He looked forward to the seven minutes at the end of every run. It became his favorite place, because he knew if something was going to happen, he had to do it. During the spring, he picked up all the trash and then he started to plant flowers. Do you know that it became such a place of beauty that he had full busloads, not riding to their destination, but riding to the end of the run? He received an award from the city, but more than that, the city bought the property and made it a city park. The difference you can make with your life if you take the responsibility of I A D O M.

Our motto would be modified. I A D O M A G – It All Depends On Me And God – that is 1000 times more powerful than “me” alone.

Charles Harvey tells this true story. He said, “I made a commitment to being a blessing. Then, that very morning as I was driving to a job interview, running 15 minutes late already, I saw a middle-aged woman stranded with a flat tire. My conscience made me stop. I changed her tire and headed to the interview thinking I could just forget about getting the job now.

“But I filled out the job applications anyway, and went to the personnel director’s office. Did I get the job? Sure thing! The personnel director hired me on the spot. She was the woman whose tire I had just changed.”

That is the way God works.

I close with this.

The Day’s Result

Is anybody happier because you passed their way? Does anyone remember that you spoke to them today? The day is almost over, and its toiling time is through; Is there anyone to utter now a kindly word of you? Did you give a cheerful greeting to the friend who came along? Is a single heart rejoicing over what you did or said? Does the one whose hopes were fading now with courage look ahead? As you close your eyes in slumber, do you think that God would say, “You have earned one more tomorrow by the work you did today?”

My friend don’t be a person that lives just for self-betterment. Make a difference with your life in the lives of others.

Let us pray. I give this day the God-touch and I glory in God’s blessings. I pray that I bless others as God’s love is reflected through my thoughtful acts, my gentleness, and courtesy, my words of praise and gratitude. The God-touch of my words and actions has an expanding, uplifting quality.

Thoughts held in mind create and produce after their kind. Today, God, with Your help, I give attention to others. I hold only positive thoughts. I think of the many blessings that I can give, and I am constantly blessed.

God’s order is gentle and continuous in me. I become an imitator of God’s orderly, gentle ways. Harmony prevails and soothes each step on my path. I feel my oneness with every living expression of God’s creation.

In Jesus Christ’s name I DO THIS.

Thank You, God. Amen.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION____________________

Listen to these words of Jesus spoken about you: “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before humans that they may see your good works and glorify your God in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

God created you. You are special, In all the world there is nobody like you. Just is your fingerprint is unique so is your soul. Since the beginning of time, there has never been another person like you. Nobody has your smile. Nobody has your eyes, your nose, your hair, your hands, your voice. You are special.

Accept this in the silence of prayer …

No one sees things just as you do. In all of time, there has been no one who laughs like you, no one who cries like you. And what makes you laugh and cry will never provoke identical laughter and tears from anybody else, ever. You are the only one in God’s creation with your set of natural God-given abilities.

Accept this in the silence of prayer …

There will always be somebody who is better at some of the things you are good at, but no one in the Universe can reach the quality of your unique God-given combination of talents, ideas, natural abilities, and spiritual abilities. Like a room full of musical instruments, some may excel alone, but none can match the symphony sound of the Body of Christ. God set the members – every one of them – in the body as it has pleased the Creation. You have been sent here to be a blessing to your world. You are empowered by God to be a blessing.

Accept this now in our time of silence. In the silence of prayer …

Through all eternity, no one will every look, talk, walk, think, or do exactly like you. You are special. You are rare. And as in all rarity, there is great value. Because of your great, rare value, you need not attempt to imitate others. You should accept – yes, celebrate your differences. You are special.

Continue to realize that it is not an accident that you are special. Continue to see that God created you special for a very special purpose. God called you out and ordained you to a calling of being a blessing that no one else can do as well as you. Out of all the billions of applicants, only one is qualified, only one has the best combination of what it takes. YOU are God equipped.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Just as surely as every snowflake that falls has a perfect design and no two designs are the same, so within the Body of Christ it is, also. No two believers are the same, and without each member, the body would be lacking. God’s plan would be incomplete.

Ask God, today, to teach you your Divine plan for life. Let it unfold in perfect sequence and in perfect order, in such a way as to bring the greatest glory to God!

Rest in the silence of prayer …

May you be Divinely empowered to be a blessing to all you meet. You are also, an endangered species of blessing unless you decide to bless.

We pray, this morning, in the name and through the power if Jesus Christ.

Amen.

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GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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16Nov

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – New Life For You

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - New Life For You

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.

_____________________________________

One of the most powerful Biblical lessons is the raising of Lazarus from the dead by Jesus.

It is found in John 11:17-44. Jesus had been told about Lazarus’ death. He loved Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. They were some of His best friends. He was very fond of them and was very troubled when He received this news.

“When Jesus arrived, He found that Lazarus had already been dead in the tomb for four days. ‘Now, Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother.

“When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met Him, while Mary stayed home. Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask of him.’

“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’

“Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in Me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’

“She said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

“When she had said this, she went back and called to her sister, Mary, and told her, privately, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to Him.

“Now, Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met Him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up, quickly, and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to tomb to weep there.

“When Mary came where Jesus was and saw Him, she knelt at His feet and said to Him, ‘Lord if You had been here, my brother would not have died.’ “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’

“They said to Him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ “Jesus began to weep.

“So, the Jews said, ‘See how He loved him!’

“But some of them said, ‘Could not He who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

“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.’

“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.’”

Jesus had raised others from the dead, but certainly, no one who had been “dead” for four days. How do we look at this story? Oftentimes, we are in situations where we feel (from our human perspective) that there is NO hope: things will not get better; the prognosis is bad; we don’t know if we can make it.

Oftentimes, we think that about ourselves. Have you ever noticed that when we are faced with a tremendous crisis. In our story today, Mary and Martha and the others saw Lazarus as dead, hopeless, never to recover.

Do you know someone in your life you feel cannot change? That it is hopeless, that they can be a better person? There are people out there who say things like, “I don’t know if he/she will ever change. It seems like the end of the road for him/her. It’s all over. We might as well give up. He / She is showing evidence of not changing.”

In our story today, after four days, there was an odor. We all know people who have a track record of indicating they are not going to change. Don’t you agree? When we hold to the appearances, it seems as if that situation is hopeless. Jesus though, said do not look to appearances. There is an odor; there is an activity; there is a state of mind or activity that takes place when we’re around them and we say things like, “I don’t care how much I pray and meditate; this is not going to change.” We don’t actually say this, but we think it sometimes.

Even Lazarus thought he could not change. Did you notice that? We can only entomb ourselves. No one can entomb us. They can help us to be healed, but no one can entomb us. Even Lazarus thought things could not get worse for him. He felt he had reached the end of the road, and nothing could make him improve. The prognosis seemed hopeless.

But through the salvation of God, through the living Christ presence, there are no hopeless situations.

Jesus said when He approached the tomb important words for us today. The first thing He said was “Take away the stone.”

What does that mean? Change that crystallized point of view you have about that situation. Yes, we may know what the prognosis indicates. You might say, “But, he came from this family and I’ve found that nobody has ever improved. I know his brother and sister, and I knew his parents. I know he is not going to change. Let’s face the facts; let’s face the reality. The reality is that is the way they are. They cannot change or improve.”

When Jesus said, “Take away the stone,” He was saying to take away that crystallized point of view, that perception you have of some individual some situations in your life today. There are stones to take away in ourselves and in others.

A man said, “I have a brother. My brother likes to drink alcohol a little more than is necessary. I went to see my brother and talked to him as a minister would a congregant. I talked about all the beautiful things that are available to him and all of us, and how much I loved him. While I was saying this, my brother was looking at me with one eye, trying to figure out what I was talking about because he was having a good time. He didn’t have a problem; in his eyes I was the one who had a problem.

“Why doesn’t he stop drinking? Doesn’t he know he is destroying his body?” I would pray, “Oh God, I pray my brother stops drinking.”

I noticed that every time I went to visit my brother there would be a strain in our relationship. I was not comfortable around my brother and he was not comfortable around me. I can remember all the years that my brother drank. I can remember some of the things he did and some things he did not do, simply because he was drinking.

The man said that “I grieved over the loss of a good relationship with my brother. I realized one day that to have a good relationship with my brother I had to behold God working in him.”

We have to behold God’s presence in the lives of difficult people. When Jesus told them to take away the stone, He was saying to change your way of thinking about the situation.

The man said, “It wasn’t easy for me to accept my brother wanting to lead the life he wanted to live. I noticed that once I started beholding God with him and prayed for his highest good (irrespective of what that is; even though it is not what I want), I changed. And when I changed, our relationship became easier. When I would visit my brother, he would smile at me and I would smile at him and say, “It’s okay.

We opened up lines of communication and support that were blocked before and real progress is being made.” I rolled away the stone.

We never know what is around the corner. We don’t know everything seeing from just the limited view of this moment. This former alcoholic had many people who gave up on him. He changed his life; he became one of the most outstanding citizens in the community.

Not only do we want to behold the presence of God in the people around us, but we also want to behold the presence of God in ourselves. Sometimes, we beat up on ourselves and think, “I guess I never will do what I want. . .I never will lose the weight I want to lose . . . I never will find the right job. . .I never will find the right relationship.”

Take away that stone! New life is waiting, by walking forth from our self-imposed tombs of limitation and lack.

We realize we have to change if things are going to change. If nothing changes, nothing changes. If we don’t change our point of view or our consciousness, our experiences stay the same.

It is senseless to go through life knowing God’s truth as we know it, YET living and acting in ways we have always lived and acted. Let’s change. So, when Jesus said to remove the stone, not only was He telling Mary, Martha, and the other leaders, but He was also telling Lazarus. His soul connected with Lazarus. Jesus Christ does not recognize death. In Christianity, we do not recognize death as the end of the end to everything. In our God’s house, there are many rooms, many mansions, many experiences, many changes that take place in our lives. If we could remain more optimistic and see beyond the seemingly limiting situations and see the light in every situation, light appears. You can only see light when you look for light.

So, Jesus called out, “Lazarus, come out!” He was speaking to the very essence of Lazarus; that part of him that was asleep to his potential and to the truth of his being as a child of God. As Jesus called out to Lazarus, Mary, Martha, and the others heard Him, and they changed their perception. In their own way, they called out, “Lazarus, come out!”

Do you have someone in your life (like the man’s brother) to whom you could say, “Come out! I will not limit myself to what I see because what I see is not the truth. It may be part of it, but it is not the full truth. I free myself to see the God potential, when God works in you. I free myself to have a good relationship with you.” I cannot do that unless I send love and hope and joy.

“Lazarus, come forth!” Tell yourself to come out of your tomb of limitation. Wake up to your God-given potential. You have not even come close to the potential God has for you. There is SO much more. You may have accomplished in life, but it’s a drop in the bucket to what’s ahead. The only limitation that exists, the only Lazarus that exists in your life, is your own limiting perceptions and attitudes toward yourself. The hope of glory is that we can change.

We can be faced with a situation where, through human perception, we see no way to succeed. But when we say, “COME FORTH!” we speak the word and something happens. Doors open up that never opened before. We have brand new God ordained experiences.

Jesus said something else very significant when Lazarus was walking forth wrapped in burial clothes. He commanded to loose him and let him go. He had to be unwrapped from the wardrobe of death. We must in the same way unwrap ourselves from any vestment that holds us to limitation in the past. We must walk forth being let go and freed.

I say, “Let’s dare to believe!” The word “dare” means to be fearless, to have courage, to have the boldness enough to do something.” IF you believe in God – you believe God’s creation – yourself?

Do you believe in the spirit of Jesus Christ which is alive and active in your life this very moment?

Dare to believe! Dare to believe and put your belief into action. This is a challenge. Belief must become action if you are to realize miracles. Put the most into life and get the most out of life.

When we have the correct concept of God, we can (as Jesus did) dare to believe that ALL things are possible. Dare to believe that ALL things are possible with God.

Matthew 8:13 says, “Be it done for you as you have believed.” [RSV] I have some positive prayer affirmations I want us to affirm in prayer. I’m going to lead you through these.

“I believe in God, and I believe in myself.

I believe that the mighty Spirit of God is healing and strengthening me now.

I dare to believe that I can do all things through Christ who strengths me.

I believe in the resurrecting power of Jesus Christ.

I believe I am God’s child in whom God is well pleased.”

How do we do this? One day at a time; one thought at a time; one prayer at a time.

In closing, I want to share a little information with you.

Just for today, try to live through this day only, and not try to tackle your whole life’s problems.

Just for today, try to be happy. (This assumes what Abraham Lincoln says is true: that most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.) Happiness is within.

Just for today, try to adjust yourself to what is and do not try to adjust everything to your own desires.

Just for today, take good care of your body. Exercise it; care for it; nourish it so it will be the perfect machine to last a long time and will be responsive to your will.

Just for today, try to strengthen your mind. Study and learn something useful. Do not be a mental loafer all day. Read just a few lines that require effort to understand, which necessitate thought.

Just for today, be agreeable, look as good as you can, and talk softly, but plainly, in a firm voice. Act courageously. Criticize no one unjustly, and do not find unnecessary fault with things.

Just for today, have a program or a plan to do something. Write down what you expect to accomplish by the end of each hour. You may not be able to follow it exactly, but it will save you from two pests: hurry and indecision.

Just for today, have a quiet half-hour all to yourself. Relax. Sometime, think of God and the universe and get a little more perspective in your life.

Just for today, be unafraid. Be especially unafraid to be happy. Sometimes we are all afraid to be happy; to enjoy what is beautiful; to love and be loved by those who believe in you. Be unafraid of tomorrow, for then you may repeat “Just for today.”

Take away the stone, come forth, and unbind yourself.

Dear God, we give thanks for this wonderful opportunity. We believe in Your presence. We believe there are no impossible situations. We believe there is a spark of creating potential in all Your creations. We want You to influence our minds, our hearts, our very attitudes, and everything about us—our total consciousness. We are optimistic and excited about this life we live.

Truly, dear God, there are no hopeless situations. There is no Lazarus lying dead in our consciousness. We ask You now, God, to let Your Holy Spirit completely envelop this sanctuary, touching the mind and heart of every person here. We believe in You. We believe in Jesus Christ. And so we believe in ourselves.

And so, it is . . . Amen.

PRAYER / MEDITATION____________________________

In this time of prayer and meditation we focus our faith in God. We believe ALL things are working together for our highest good, especially now. As I begin this day, I think of the challenges and responsibilities that lie before me. I take stock of my strengths and skills, and I ask myself, “Do I believe I am able. Do I believe I can be healed? Do I believe that all things are working together for my good?”

I believe that God is able and therefore God will equip and empower me to be able.

In the stillness of prayer, I affirm the presence of God with us right now, and the answer comes: “Yes! I believe God’s indwelling presence. I believe in my abilities. I believe I can do all things that are mine to do with God’s help.”

Rest in the silence of prayer. . .

Through my belief that God is my loving help in every need, I can make my world one of harmony, accomplishment, and love. I believe I can overcome troublesome situations that have bound me in the past. I believe in the strength and might of God in my life; the power that calms every storm. I believe I will continue to progress to the realization of that which is for my highest good.

Dear God, I believe in Your power to heal every situation, every condition, of mind, body, and affairs. Heavenly God, I believe in Your presence in every situation that brings about harmony and order. I believe there is no situation beyond Your help, and appearances that seem so real can be changed by You.

Rest in the silence of prayer. . .

Lord, I believe in Your power to protect me and my loved ones under all circumstances. You are everywhere present. You are with me. You are with my loved ones. Lord, I truly believe that all Your children carry within them the spark of help from the Divine. I see the good in all persons everywhere. I know that Your presence surrounds us and dwells within us all, guiding us into right avenues of good.

I am not defeated by apparent loss or failure. I am now downed by circumstances. When I hold to the realization that I am a spiritual being and that I was created in Your image and after Your likeness and through Your spirit which is alive in me, I am able to stand strong and steady.

Rest in the silence of prayer. . .

I do not give way to fear. I do not give up. I know that there is yet more in me, and there are new paths, new ways, new ideas opening to me. This new life that is opening before me is Divinely ordered by You, dear God, and I am excited and joyous as I watch my life change and blossom. I believe in You, dear God. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe in myself. Thank You, God, for the ability to see past appearances and have an optimistic attitude. I thank You that we have the courage to do the things that are there for us to do, to rise above any apparent failing situation.

Rest in the silence of prayer. . .

Thank You, God, that we can make a 180-degree turn in our thinking, and that we can rise from what appears to be a dead-end and go forward in new directions to our good. Thank You, dear God.

Dear wonderful God, we believe in the purpose of Christianity and its worldwide mission, and we thank You that it is active in each of our lives right now. As we go forward in this worship service, we remain open, receptive, excited, and tuned into this real experience that we each are having. We are so grateful.

I believe in You, God, and so I believe in myself.

In Jesus Christ name, And so it is . . . Amen.

For over 22 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

Read More
01Nov

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Serving

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Serving

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.

_____________________________________

I love watching a good tennis match. For me one of the things tennis brings to mind is the flow—the give and take—of the game. It is a game where serving is everything.

I have an old T-shirt that says, ‘Tis Better to Serve Than to Receive. The scripture reference here is Bjorn (Bjorn Borg) 6-2, 6-3, 6-1. If you know anything about tennis, you know what that is all about.

It is better to serve than it is to receive, in tennis and in life. We all know it is better, but how is it better?

Psychologist and consultant, Peter Block, wrote the book, “Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-interest.” I want to read a portion of that to you now.

He says: “Ultimately, the choice we make is between service and self-interest. Both are attractive. Fire and intensity of self-interest seem to be all around us. We search, so often in vain, to find leaders we can have faith in. Our doubts are not about our leaders’ talents, but about their trustworthiness. We are unsure whether they are serving their institutions, or themselves. When we look out at our peers and our neighbors, we see so much energy dedicated to claiming entitlements. The nuclear family now includes a parent, a partner, children, a financial consultant, and a lawyer. We are no different. We were born into the age of anxiety, and became adults in the age of self-interest.

“The antidote to self-interest is to commit and find cause; to commit to something outside of ourselves and be a part of creating something we care about so we can endure the sacrifice, the risk, and the adventure commitment entails. This is the deeper meaning of service.”

When we are called to service, the issue comes up for us. It is a tug of war between two different parts of us – a part of us that is interested only in ourselves, and part of us that truly wishes to help and care for others.

In the Bible when Jesus was hanging on the Cross? There were two robbers on either side of Him.

One of the robbers looks over at Jesus through his pain and says (paraphrased), “What are you doing here? If you are so great, why don’t you save yourself?”

But the robber on the other side of Jesus says, in effect, “You’re the Son of God. My friend and I are guilty; we deserve to be here. But you haven’t done a thing.”

Jesus replies to the second man, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

These two men represent two parts of ourselves. The first man represents that natural, normal “looking out for #1” self-interest who can only see through his own eyes of pain and suffering. He can only feel a certain kind of mocking quality toward the Divine.

The second man looks up a little higher and sees that the sacred part of life that we call the Christ is totally innocent and recognizes it. He calls out to it, and then the Christ, that sacred part, assures him, “This day you will be with me in paradise;” just by making that conscious contact with God, with spirituality, he was saved. The second part represents our willingness to become larger than the little parts of ourselves – to give, to commit, to become great. Until we become fully in the state of the Christ, I think we are always in a kind of conflict or war between these two parts of ourselves.

In spirituality, life is about our service to others.

The reward of service is that when we turn our attention to help someone else, we forget our own misery, which was created by our own willingness to dote on it.

Service gives us the opportunity to look beyond ourselves. But we have to make that choice. Who are we going to be? Which man on the Cross are we going to be, today?

“Each person’s work will become manifest.” 1 Corinthians 3:13

There is a story about a conversation overheard when a group of school children were talking about sharing. According to one boy, sharing is what you do when you only have one of something and the teacher is looking. Which voice is that speaking? It is the voice of the first man—looking out for #1.

St. Francis wrote a prayer that captures the essence of what I am saying here today. He said: “O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; not so much to be understood as to understand; not so much to be loved as to love.”

The world, as is commonly understood (as in worldly wisdom), is looking out for #1. This has its value, its place, and its purpose. We all know that we have to take care of our own needs. I’m not speaking here of some type of total sacrifice, where we give up everything we have and lay on beds of nails.

We are to seek to satisfy our own basic needs; to find ways of nurturing ourselves and keeping ourselves healthy; and providing means of expression of our gifts.

But beyond that healthy self-interest, there lies a subtle trap that we all fall into. At some point, we have to stop trying to satisfy the ego and start surrendering the ego. And surrendering is the last thing the ego wants to do.

What do we do?

What happens is we eventually find ourselves in a cage of our own making. We do everything we already know how to do, over and over again, until the suffering becomes so great that we are willing to burst out of that cage and do whatever it takes. It seems like what is being offered to us as an antidote is to serve.

Spiritual people always look out for #2.

It is true, when we are thinking of someone else, we take our minds off our own pain, and it seems to magically disappear. What a great thing that is! When we actually begin to give of ourselves, we suddenly feel larger.

Why is that?

Because when we give, we literally do become larger because we experience, maybe for the first time, how great we are. We realize the God power of love inside of us. When we touch it, tap it, and give from that Divinity, we start experiencing God in the world.

For all our talk in Christianity about prosperity and abundance, we are still often trapped by our concepts. We are still that first man on the cross looking out for #1 in our prosperity. We are trying to see how we can use affirmations and visualizations to capture more for “me,” and we think we will give a little bit back, later. We don’t get the big picture of prosperity, which is simply to know that God is here. Prosperity is to experience that. When we do that, the world is different. We feel so prosperous. We know that abundance, but the ego doesn’t like it too much.

There is an old Jewish story of how God decided where to put the temple in Jerusalem. The story goes that there were two brothers. One had a family and one didn’t. They loved each other very much. They were in the grain/flour business together. Every night, the brother who had a family would look at his wife and children and say, “When I grow old, I’m going to have my family to take care of me, but my poor brother is all by himself.” So, he would take as much of the grain he had taken home for personal use, and he would put some flour back for his brother.

In the meantime, his brother who was at his house by himself would think, “I’m just fine. My poor brother has a whole family to feed, so I need to help them out.” So he would take some of his flour back to the business for his brother. Unknown to the other, they both would continually give back some of their personal flour.

One day, they met on the road on the way to their business, and they realized what they had been doing for all those years. That is where God chose to build the temple.

That is a sweet story. Behind it is the simple message of where divinity dwells – in the openness, the giving, and the sharing.

When a great teacher of prayer was asked, “How can I feel the bliss of God?” He answered in one word: “Service.”

There was an extraordinary article in the Toronto Star some years ago. The headlines said: “Girl Weeps as Jet Passengers Give.” Let me read you a little piece of that story.

“The little girl wept as big-hearted passengers on a jumbo jet raised the equivalent of $97,000 in a mid-air collection to pay for a lifesaving operation. Four-year-old Marian Kadash who suffered from a serious liver condition, was flying to Britain for tests at a top London hospital. She will need a liver transplant. The pretty, dark-haired child and her mother burst out in tears as the 450 passengers and crew who heard about her plight emptied their pockets. Everyone on board threw money into a suitcase being carried around the jet as it flew over the Mediterranean toward Heathrow Airport. The suitcase, which was filled after it went around once, was carried around a second time to cheers and applause. Astonished crew and passengers gasped with disbelief when the collection in a dozen different currencies added up to $97,000. The flight was flying British holiday merrymakers home from Tel Aviv, and a group of British millionaires helped bump up the fund raising to its final tally.”

What was going on in that place? People were stepping out of their self-interest and serving and giving. How did they feel? One of the great secrets to service is the experience you have when you give.

The writer, Alan Cohen, tells of a time when no one would do the dishes at his house. The dishes would just pile up in the sink. Everyone had the attitude of “Ugh, dishes . . . work . . .drudgery . . . chores.” He had the idea of putting up a little list in the kitchen. He called it “self-less service to God or knowing the bliss of God through selfless service.” He found that his roommates liked putting their names up there. Pretty soon the dishes were done and the sink was clean.

Service is really more of an attitude than it is a job or a specific role. You can do service wherever you are with whatever you are doing. In fact, you can do the same stuff you do every day, but shift whom you are doing it for. Are you the man on the right side of the Cross or on the left? If you can start seeing God in the people you work with, and seeing God’s expression in everything you do, then all of your chores become blissful prayer. What a secret. Then you start experiencing and feeling the presence of God.

I don’t know how many of you are new to church or how many of you have been coming to church for many years, but there is a lot to learn in spiritual truth. However, the basics are really rather simple. You get them all within a few months or so. After that, there really isn’t anything essential you have to learn. You’ve got it. Then you have to take it and apply it in your life, or it becomes more of a burden to you. You would be better off not knowing about it if you don’t put it into practice.

Service is the finest way of practicing the presence of God. So, when you are doing service, whether it is washing your dishes, or balancing your checkbook, or working in your office, or sweeping the steps, you are really sweeping out the dust from inside your own heart. You are really cleaning up your own life when you serve.

This is how service rules in the language of Murphy and Luke Yenson. Service rules because it gives you and me the opportunity to clean up our acts, to practice what we know, to see God in the world, to feel God rather than our own petty egos and our little concerns. What a great gift that is! Every person in prayer and meditation must eventually get up and begin serving God in the world.

I would like to close my talk with a parable that Bruce Barton tells that sums up very nicely what service is. It talks about the two different kinds of people there are in the world, and who live inside of us.

There are two seas in Palestine. One is fresh and fish are in it. Splashes of green adorn its banks. Trees spread their branches over it and stretch out their thirsty roots for a sip of its healing waters. Along its shores the children play as children played when Jesus was there. He loved it. He could look across its silver surface when He spoke his parables. And on a rolling plain not far away Jesus fed 5,000 people. The River Jordan makes this sea with sparkling water from the hills. Men build their houses near to it, and birds their nests, and every kind of life is happier because it is there.

The River Jordan flows on south into another sea. Here is no splashing fish, no fluttering leaf, and no song of birds, no children’s laughter. Travelers choose another route, unless on urgent business. The air hangs heavy above its water, and neither men nor beast nor fowl will drink.

What makes this mighty difference in these neighboring seas? Not the River Jordan – it empties the same good water into both. Not the soil in which they lie nor the country around it. This is the difference – the Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the Jordan. For every drop that flows into it, another drop flows out. The other sea is shrewder, hoarding its income, jealously. It will not be tempted into a generous impulse. Every drop it gets, it keeps. The Sea of Galilee gives and lives. The other sea gives nothing. It is named Dead.

There are two seas in Palestine; there are two kinds of people in the world; there are two kinds of persons inside you and me.

Move from survival to significance.

Decide this day whom you will serve.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION____________________________________

Allow yourself to sit comfortably in your seat. Take a deep and slow breath, in and out. Feel yourself relaxing in the bright presence of God.

Bring to mind the seashore; see the tide of the ocean coming in and going out. Notice the ebb and flow. See if you can feel the rhythm of that flow. The tide comes in and it goes out, again and again, ceaselessly ebbing and flowing.

There is a great secret to that flow. In Christianity, we call it the Holy Spirit, and there is a rhythm to its movement. Wonderfully, perhaps even miraculously, you and I have been given a physical complement to this ebb and flow; it is our breath.

Deeply relax in the silence of prayer. . .

Become conscious, now, of your lungs filling with air and then letting the air go. We can picture the ocean flowing in and out, as we breathe in and out. This rhythm, being conscious of the flow of breath, stills the mind and stops that endless chatter of thoughts. It brings us to that state we call the silence that lies so deep within us. Like the depths of the ocean, all is still, yet all is still vitally alive, the source of life.

I ask that we spend a few minutes or so, in the silence of prayer, following our breath in and out. If you wish, you can continue to picture the ebb and flow of the ocean as you do so.

We will rest together in the silence of prayer. . .

On the in breath allow the full love of God to come in. As you exhale allow all resentment and old disturbances of mind to leave you.

We are one in the great love of God.

On the in breath allow the full wisdom of God to enter your mind. As you exhale, you let go of old concepts and opinions that are not to the Christ standard.

On the in breath allow the full health of God to take residence in every cell. As you exhale you let go of any impurity that has been held within the body.

Rest in the silence of prayer…

We receive from God and we give. Dear God we ask a simple prayer that we can serve more. We ask that we can make a difference because of the difference you have made in on us. We are ready and we are willing to be of service now. Help us to give more and be less concerned about ourselves.

For this knowledge and experience, we are grateful,

In the name of Jesus Christ . . . Amen.

For over 22 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

Read More
25Oct

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Smile! God IS With You

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Smile! God IS With You

Time Sensitivity: none

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

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

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

_____________________________________

It’s good to laugh in church. If you can’t laugh in church where can you laugh?

Christianity is a religion of joy, and in that context I have a few things to share with you. I have a new somewhat modified version of 23rd Psalm to share with you today dealing with diets:

My appetite is my shepherd; I always want.
It maketh me sit down and stuff myself.
It leadeth me to my refrigerator repeatedly.
It leadeth me in the path of Burger King for a Whopper.
It destroyeth my shape.

Yea, though I knoweth I gaineth I will not stop eating
For the food tasteth so good.
The ice cream and the cookies they comfort me.
When the table is spread before me, it exciteth me.
For I knoweth that I sooneth shall dig in.
As I filleth my plate continuously,
My clothes runneth smaller.
Surely bulges and pudgies shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall be “pleasingly plump” forever.

Let share of story of Mrs. Monroe. She lives in Darlington, Maryland. She is a mother of eight children, and except for a few interesting experiences, she is like many other mothers across America.

She came home, one afternoon, from the grocery store, walked into her home, and everything looked pretty much the same, though it was a little bit quieter than usual. She looked in the middle of the living room and five of her darlings were sitting around in a circle, exceedingly quiet, doing something with something in the middle of the circle. So she put down the sacks of groceries, walked over, closely looked, and saw they were playing with five of the cutest skunks you can imagine.

She was instantly terrified, and she said, “Run, children, run!” Each child grabbed a skunk, and they ran in five different directions. She was beside herself and she screamed even louder, more frantically, and with great gusto. It so scared the children that each one squeezed his skunk! As the mother wrote me, “Skunks don’t like to be squeezed.”

I saw a sign the other day that said, “God put me on earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now, I am so far behind, I will never die.”

Maybe you feel that way, today. Maybe you feel that some things are temporarily out of your control as hard as you try. God can help manage your life and help you every minute of the day and night. God can bring your life into a wonderful Divine Order.

God has a plan for your life and for my life. It is a Divine appointment that you are here and that I am here, this morning, to hear these words. These words are for everyone whose get-up-and-go has got-up-and-gone.

When your smile has turned to a frown, and it is time to turn to God. We get tired often when life has become a hard climb. We have found that is a little bit tougher than to we had imagined. We wonder how in the world we will get over the next hurdle.

It is time to turn to God. When we do, we find out the truth that God is at hand, and we find that new strength is at hand. The truth is that your life can be great.

God is life, and God is the giver of life. We can, again, become engaged and excited about our lives, today. We can become excited about connecting with God.

The deeper the prayer in your life, the deeper the inspiration and the finer the ideas.

We are positive faith-filled people.

We choose to be. No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, sailed to an uncharted land, or opened up a new heaven to the human spirit. To do all that we need to do, we have to say, “Yes.” We have to say, “I’m ready; I’m willing; and I’m very excited about what is happening.”

Diane Ackerman once said, “I don’t want to be a passenger in my own life.”

You don’t, either. You want to be fully engaged in experiencing and enjoying. You want to be a VIP, a Very Involved Person. A person who is totally engaged and in the enjoyment of God’s blessings. Take yourself out of neutral in all the areas of our lives, and become engaged in the enjoyment, the spirituality, and the fun or our lives.

Hostile-looking tribesmen in a South American jungle suddenly surrounded a missionary. Noting their posed spears and poisoned arrows, the missionaries knew they had to think of something and think of it, quickly. At that moment a plane flew overhead, and he said, “See that bird up there? That is my friend. If you hurt us, it will kill you.”

The chief took one glance into the sky and then answered, “That’s no bird; that is a Boeing 747.”

Sometimes life takes surprising turns, in the moment of the surprise – we must call upon Divine help.

The survival of the fittest drama – not by hiding behind a shell because things in life have become unpredictable. I believe it is grasping life, riding the waves of life, and enjoying our moments.

Bruce Larson tells a story of an old woman who died in a nursing home. She left nothing of monetary value, but after she died, this was found in her possessions. It talks so richly about the life that is inside of the human being that I want to share it with you, this morning.

What do you see, nurses, what do you see?
What are you thinking when you’re looking at me?
A crabby old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice, “I do wish you’d try!”

Who seems not to notice the things that you do,
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe … ..
Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill … .

Is that what you’re thinking?
Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse; you’re not looking at me.
I’ll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of ten, with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters, who love one another.
A young girl of sixteen, with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she’ll meet.
A bride soon at twenty — my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.

At twenty-five now, I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide and a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty, my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my man’s beside me to see I don’t mourn.
At fifty, once more, babies play round my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead;
I look at the future, I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and the love that I’ve known.

I’m now an old woman … and nature is cruel;
‘Tis jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells,

And now and again my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I’m loving and living life over again.
I think of the years … all too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.
So open your eyes, nurses, open and see,
Not a crabby old woman; look closer … see ME!!

What do you see when you look into the mirror? Do you see someone who is made up of the sum total of his, or her problems? Do you see someone who, for some reason or another, in some areas of his or her life, puts himself or herself into neutral and hides for protection?

I’m going to give you a secret and a key. Commitment to life turns the weights into wings! It allows you to fly over former problems that used to hold you down, and allows you to take hold of a new day.

Oprah Winfrey says, “Every day is a kick.” I agree.

Author Eric Butterworth loves to tell this story of a rooster. This rooster crowed with vigor every moment at sunrise. He actually thought that his crowing caused the sun to rise. It gave him a sense of significance. His life mattered.

One morning, he overslept. He opened his eyes, rushed to his post atop the hen house only to find that the sun had already risen without him. His dream world collapsed as he realized his self-delusion.

Then, to his mind came a great thought, equal to the wisdom of a sage. He said to himself, “It may not be that my crowing causes the sun to rise. But I can still awake to celebrate its rising.”

When is the last time you celebrated the morning, celebrated life? Life is so rich; the most valuable thing you have in your entire life is this day, this 24-hour period. There is nothing richer.

The most precious commodity in our world is not gold – it is time. Live your life not by the gold standard but by the time standard.

I have, right here, a glass of water. This water just wants to be water. It does not care if it is used for washing, swimming in, sailing on. I could boil it, freeze it, mix it, brew it, and the water is happy. It does not complain in any way.

But now, I present to you my other example. Here is a human being. Unlike water, it cares a lot what happens to it. The human being craves peace of mind. Many in this form, live lives of, “if only.” If only, I had this, then I could be happy. Many of us live lives of acquisition, trying to acquire more money, relationships, or things.

Today, in this place, let us anchor our lives in the joy of the satisfaction of who we are, and that we have this time to spend together. To have lives that see God everywhere we look during these 24 hours. To have lives that seek an acquisition of experiencing more of God, the sacred presence within you, and all of us here, this morning. To live lives from this higher perspective, to reorganize our priorities, and to put God first. When we do, we will be less and less likely to veer off course.

QUESTION – which one is the rich man: a Watusi tribesman, who owns ten cows, has the love of his family, the respect of his tribe, and a smile on his face? Or the multimillionaire, who is alienated from his family, emotionally burned out, and cannot remember when he last relaxed and was not in a frenzy of getting and spending?

Which of these describes the good life to you: a large stock portfolio? Six-figure salary? Winning the lottery? A sizable inheritance? Or a sense of satisfaction and well-being? This seems to be a loaded question, but do not misunderstand me. There is nothing wrong with money and possessions. God has created a lavish universe for us to enjoy.

We are meant to spiritually have more. Our souls are meant to enjoy life and we are meant to allow our spiritual energy to overflow with joy. That is what life is about. Wealth, in of and itself, does not guarantee happiness.

How successful are you in life?

Today, judge your lives by the amount of joy you inject into each and every moment of the day, these 24 hours are to be enjoyed – they are a gift from God.

In hospitals, you see video monitors above the beds. The sound goes beep, beep, beep, and a line shows on the screen that the person is alive. A flat liner is when the line goes straight across the screen. That shows that the person is dead.

But what about our souls? We don’t have video monitors for our souls

BUT there are many flat liners, today, who are walking around. They are just eating, sleeping, and working – just existing – putting in their time. They do not have any beeps in their lives.

They are real zombies. Being at the bedsides of many people who were dying, making their transitions, no one ever says, “I wish I could have worked more overtime.” It is quite the opposite.

Henry Ford once asked an associate who worked around him, “Son, what are your goals?”

The young man said, “Mr. Ford, I am going to make a million dollars.”

A few days later, Henry Ford gave the young man a special pair of glasses.

Where the lenses normally are, were two silver dollars. He said, “Put them on.” The young man put the glasses on. Henry Ford said, “What can you see?”

The young man said, “Mr. Ford, I can’t see anything.”

Henry Ford said, “Exactly, money is blinding your life. You have to take the glasses off, or you are going to miss a whole lot that you are supposed to see. You are going to be blind to greater opportunities that can come your way.”

Your will is shaping your future. Whether you fail or succeed shall be no human’s doing but your own. You are the force, but you are not the force alone. God IS with you.

You can clear any obstacle before you, or you can be lost in the maze. It is your choice, and your responsibility, win or lose. Only you and your sense of God hold your keys to the destiny you will have.

I want you to have this kind of destiny. Even when things go badly for you, you will still find life good and worth living, because you know you are connected to God.

Your soul has wings. When you have a sense of God, you will fly over former problems that used to bother you. Here is what I pray for you. I pray that the same circumstance or event that would have put you into a crisis mode a year ago will feel like just a minor speed bump now, because you know you are NOT alone.

If we have a jigsaw puzzle, we can pour it out on a table, and it is a chaotic heap of similar looking bits of displaced matter. There are no clues. We look at our lives, and they are the same way, but the truth is that each piece fits into the bigger picture. Life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backward.

This is called “Life’s Weaving.” The author is unknown.

My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me;
I may not know the colors,
But God knows what they should be.
For God can view the pattern
Upon the upper side,
While I can see it only
On this, the under-side.

Sometimes God weaveth beyond my understanding,
Which seemeth strange to me;
But I will trust God’s judgment,
And work on faithfully;
‘Tis God who fills the shuttle,
God knows just what is best;
So I shall weave in earnest
And leave with God the rest.

At last, when life is ended,
With God shall I abide.
Then I may view the pattern
Upon the upper-side.
Then I shall know the reason
Why the new with the old entwined,
Was woven in the fabric
Of life that God designed.

Here are some rules for your life:

1. Your life is like a tapestry being woven by God and history on an enchanted loom. Every bobble of the shuttle has meaning. Every thread is important.

2. As a thread in the tapestry, every event in your life has some meaning and purpose for the larger pattern, even if you cannot see what it is in the moment.

3. You will discover the meaning more quickly if you direct your thoughts and focus your mind on God.

4. To aid in this, make a list of all the things you enjoy about your life. The simple pleasures: working with your hands, breathing fresh air, enjoying beautiful music.

5. When you are having dark times, sit down and write out stories: stories about your life past, when you were most enjoying yourself. Write down the meanings you now see in those stories. This will increase your faith and your confidence as you go through the present story that is now unfolding and that you cannot fully understand.

6. Ninety-four percent of us believe in God, according to a survey, but we need a larger concept of God, as we face new challenges in our lives. God is already large, but we have to make a larger concept of God in our own minds. We have old faith hanging in the closet. We need to take it out when we need it, dust it off, water it, and cause it to grow. We need to anchor our lives in a new, larger, increased faith.

7. Hard times come to a believer and a non-believer alike. But because God has promised to be with us, at all times, we CAN face even hard times in life. God is with you, and you remind yourself of this, over and over, again, during the day. God is our provider, strengthener, rescuer, and we seek that. When we seek that, we find it.

8. Consent to God in the moment, to new greater life, to new greater opportunity, by FIRST saying yes to God.

9. Imagine something with me. You are in your dining room, and you have a fine wooden table and chairs. You are sitting there at the table and you have just eaten dinner. You are smiling. You are sitting there.

You cross your legs, lean back, and all of a sudden, the back of the chair falls to the floor and breaks into smithereens. You think, “Oh no! This is the table my mother owned, and I loved this. How can this be?” You run down the street because, down the street, is a carpenter, the best in the city.

You say, “Please come to my house.” The carpenter arrives immediately, looks at the chair and says, “I’m sorry, it is beyond repair. But allow me to take it. I can make a stool out of this, and it will be better than you ever imagined.”

So the carpenter takes the chair and reshapes it into a stool. Not an ordinary stool, but he even puts in gold inlay and reshapes it into a family heirloom, a treasure, the most treasured thing in your entire home when you get it back.

That is the way it is with God. God comes instantly when we call. Maybe we have broken something into smithereens, and it cannot be repaired exactly as we would like it in our minds, but God is going to make something better out of it, if we give it to God, and if we are willing to allow that to occur.

Ephesians 4:17-24: “Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

There are so many of us who dream that if only we had money enough to go away to a south sea island, have servants to wait on us, and sit there on the beach with a drink with a little umbrella in it, then life would be good. Recently, a writer had such an experience. He had dreamed all of his life about this wonderful, perfect life. He had the money, so he gave it all up and went away to a south sea island. The natives there were completely pleasant and friendly.

Day in and day out, he lived there on the beach. Within a very short period of time, he made a real discovery about life. He discovered that he was completely bored. He was going crazy in his boredom. Then he found an old American magazine in one of the huts. It was probably 15 years old. He looked through the pages and said, “These were stories about people who were engaged in their lives.” That is where the magic is. It is not to disengage yourself, BUT TO BECOME MORE ENGAGED.

I don’t know where you think the ideal place is. Maybe you think it is on the beach on a south sea island. Maybe you think it is a small town where there is no crime or urban problems. Maybe you think it is on top of a mountain somewhere, just praying to God. But it is not. Reality, rarely, lives up to the fantasy. You do not grow unless you are engaged with life. You do not experience life fully without growing.

“What is the use of having a long life,” wrote a medieval mystic, “if there is so little improvement to show for it.” Without growth, a long life would be an extended exercise in the trivial. IN fact, it may be worse. For some people, life is a long, weary trek, punctuated by seasons of anguish, and only occasionally broken up by brief moments of happiness.

Your life is not going to be that way. I want you to experience life every second, to be so aware of God in your life, this day, that it is the best day you have ever lived.

A bold goal must capture the hearts and minds of people who do the real work. When John F. Kennedy was President, and he announced to the United States that we would put a man on the moon, a janitor at NASA was interviewed one day, and he was asked to describe his job as he swept the debris from one of the workrooms.

The janitor said, “I am helping to put a man on the moon.”

We too, need a bold goal for our lives, and we all have a need to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. Perhaps you will allow me to give you a suggestion.

Today, make God real in your life by seeing as God, hearing as God, thinking as God, moving as God, and enjoying as God!

Let us pray.

Dear God, I commit to You first, and then to life. I will no longer disengage. I allow You and I to walk together, hand in hand, thought in thought, life in life, and to meet everything with victory, a smile, and happiness. And so it is.

In Jesus Christ’s name and nature. Amen.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION____________________

This ministry is founded on awareness – the awareness of God in your life of faith. We come here to join in active communion, in oneness with God. As you rest in quiet and begin to empty yourself of worry, you begin to have an infilling – a transfusion in your awareness of the Divine perfection that is God.

We say “yes” to You, God, and with Your active help.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God, You are spirited, enthusiastic, and joyous working in my life. There is nothing dull or vague about You. We ask now for a miraculous way of a Divine intervention, for You to take over, infill our human minds, and our human bodies.

Infill our souls with Your life.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

May God now fill you, and thrill you, through and through with joy, power, and vitality. May God’s presence with you be free flowing, cleansing you of all the emotional poison. May God-life come to every part of your mind and body, carried with new life moving within your body to your work, your play, and to meet your every need.

I decree, in Jesus Christ’s name, that the spirit of happiness is infilling you. It is pervading your entire being with deep delight. Everywhere you go there is a Spirit of God, a Spirit of gladness, a Spirit of praise and thanksgiving, and Divine radiation with you.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God is buoyant in you. There is nothing outside of God that can have power over God’s love in you. There is nothing that can come to you outside of you that can harm your peace of mind, because that Power that is within you, living and breathing and having life in you, as you, is all.

You have eternal life in every moment of your life. Your life expands and enriches. It is fresh. It is vital with every passing hour.

In the name of Jesus Christ, I decree for you that you are charged, recharged, and you are charged again with the current of God. You are merged, blended, and bathed in God. God in you is radiant life and endless energy. There is no more fullness, feebleness, or weakness. There is a perpetual motion of God moving in you, restoring, nurturing, creating, and recreating. A great regeneration of God is causing you to be whole, balanced, and efficient.

The life-force of God, the energy-force of God is vibrant within you. It is forever your identity. You are the embodiment of this Spirit of life, of God.

And so it has been decreed and accepted here this day.

Dear God, I thank You.

In Jesus Christ name … Amen.

Since 1999 – 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.

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GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

Since 1999 – 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? Click here – if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

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

GOD BLESS YOU,

Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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18Oct

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – When Faced With A Challenge – Don’t Forget About God

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - When Faced With A Challenge - Don't Forget About God

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When faced with a challenge, don’t forget about God.

Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. A lot of people think it is. We say, “Oh God, you are so reluctant to give me what I want. Please God: please can I change Your mind in any way?”

It is not overcoming God’s reluctance; instead, it is laying hold of our own highest willingness. There is a huge difference. The power of God Almighty is waiting to give to you and to bless you. But we have to be willing in our awareness to turn to God and accept, and God says, “Yes, I will open up the windows of heaven for You – until you say it is enough.” Whoever rises from prayer a better woman, or a better man has already had his or her prayer answered.

God wants to give it to you; you can have the ultimate prayer of a human’s life answered.

Prayer is your key. It unlocks the storehouses of God’s infinite grace and power. All that God is, and all that God has, is at your disposal. You might say, “Well now, it is the priest, or the rabbi, or the minister who has God at his, or her disposal.” No, it is you too. You have it right where you sit this morning.

Often, we say, we are too busy to pray. We are just too involved with our busy lives to have time for God. Do you know what that really means? We are too busy to have power. Because our human self runs out of power quickly, but God never runs out of power.

A kindergarten class went to a fire station for a tour and some instruction in fire safety. The fireman was explaining what to do in case of fire.

The fireman said, “First go to the door and feel the door to see if it is hot. Now fall to your knees. Does anyone know why you should fall to your knees?”

One of the little children said, “Sure, to start praying to ask God to get us out of this mess.”

We have a great deal of activity in our lives, but we accomplish little when we try to accomplish it without God. When we have God in our lives, we can accomplish greater things than we ever dreamed possible. Nothing is impossible to God’s giving grace.

It has been said, there is more religion in some men’s curses than there is in some men’s prayers, especially if the former is sincere, and the latter is just ritual. When we pray, when we talk to God, we have to talk to God like God is our very best friend and talk from our heart. Then we have a connection.

There was a man who took his little six-year-old son fishing. They put the line into the river and then they went up to the cabin. After about an hour they went back to the river to see if they had caught anything. Sure enough, there were several fish on the line. The boy said, “I knew there would be Daddy.”

The father asked, “How did you know?”

The boy replied, “Because I prayed about it.”

They baited the hooks again, put out the line, and went back to the cabin for supper. Afterward they went back to the river again. There were fish on the line, and the boy said, “I knew it Daddy.”

The father said, “Son, how did you know?”

The little boy said, “I prayed again that there would be fish on the line.”

So, they put the line back into the river and went back to the cabin. Before bedtime they went back again and this time there were no fish. The child said, “I knew there wouldn’t be any fish on the line.”

The father asked, “How did you know?”
The boy said, “Because, I forgot to pray this time.”
The father said, “Why didn’t you pray?”
The boy said, “Because Daddy, I forgot.”
Don’t forget!

Don’t ever forget the first and foremost thing in your life is God. Put God first; don’t ever meet any situation alone. Don’t ever go into a problem turning like a tornado in your mind, or outside of yourself without God. Go with the power, the awareness, and the consciousness of God’s help, and everything will change. Everything will be better. Sometimes better than you can ever imagine, receiving the Grace of God.

Our failure to think of prayer as a privilege may be partly due to the fact we can pray any time. The door to prayer is so open, so continuous, that we fail to avail ourselves of an opportunity which is always there. We take it for granted. Yet it is the most incredible thing in the whole universe. Each one of you this morning, even if you are here for the first time, can take this knowledge with you as a gift of God. You cannot be alone. God loves you, and God is with you every single moment. You can talk with God. God is not way out there somewhere. God is not reluctant toward you. God is with you, right where you are.

We have heard commercials on television say for years that what is important for a good life is a strong portfolio of stocks. There is nothing wrong with this, and over the long term it is probably very wise. But I ask you to have a strong portfolio first of prayers and investments in faith.

A lady said, “I can’t pray for more than two minutes at a time. I try, but I just can’t. I run out of things to pray about.” She said, “What can I do?”

Her minister asked her, “What have you been thinking about or worrying about this week?”

She said, “Well,” and then she talked for 15 minutes.

The minister said, “Change all that into a prayer.”

Instead of thinking and worrying about things, talk to God in a solutions oriented positive way and ask God’s help to see your challenge in a new light. She had a spiritual solution, and right then they sat down and prayed. She led the prayer and prayed for 15 minutes easily and could have talked for an hour about things that had been bothering her in her life.

You can estimate the weight of the world. You can tell the size of a certain city. You can count the stars in heaven. You can measure the speed of lightning. You can tell the time of the rising and the setting of the sun. But we as humans cannot estimate the power of prayer. The power of prayer, when it works in and through you, is beyond anything that the human mind of any time or any age can comprehend. It is more because prayer is as vast as God is, because God is behind it. Prayer is as mighty as God is, because God has committed all that God is, to answer our prayers.

There was a little girl who had an uncle named Uncle Mack. She was visiting her uncle with three of her siblings and they were all thirsty at the same time. The little girl went to Uncle Mack and said, “Uncle Mack, I am thirsty. Can I have a drink?” The other children immediately decided they were thirsty too so all four lined up. The bigger ones pushed the little ones out of the way, so the smallest one was at the very end. “Uncle Mack, we’re thirsty,” they said. He had a bottle of apple cider in the refrigerator, and he poured the apple cider into clear glasses. Three got clear glasses of apple cider, but the little girl got the very bottom of the cider which had some sediment in it.

The others drank their apple cider and the little girl just stared at her apple cider and said to Uncle Mack, “I don’t want that. Look, it’s got all that stuff in it.”

Uncle Mack said, “That is the best of all. It is filled with vitamins and that is good.”

She said, “Yuck! I don’t want any part of that,” and she started crying. As they were talking, Uncle Mack looked over at the cider and told her to also look over. They saw a miracle. All of the sediment in the glass had floated to the bottom. It was as clear as the others were.

That is what happens in our own minds during prayer, it allows the sediment to fall to the bottom of us and gives us clarity.

Allow me to share a parable of Jesus Christ from Matthew 22:1-14. “Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: `The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again, he sent other slaves, saying, “Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fatted calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them.

“The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then he said to his slaves, `The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, `Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, `Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.”

There is a book written by author Elizabeth Sand Turner, which explains this parable of Jesus. She says in her book, “Your Hope of Glory,” the parable of the wedding feast and the wedding garment, relates that God has prepared a feast for you and invites you to it. Those in lower human consciousness make light of God’s invitation. They not only pursue their worldly interests, but definitely reject God’s summons. They kill the king’s messengers. They reside literally at the bottom of the glass in the sediment of life. This is a spiritual meaning of the fall of man, our highest thoughts are often allowed to sink to our lowest realms. In other words, we have Divine urgings inside of our minds, but we kill those thoughts. We say, “Not now, not now.” Then we go our own way. The price we pay is death to the good we would have had; the good God has already prepared for us. Those who accept God’s invitation must prepare themselves properly and wear a wedding garment.

You must prepare yourself in awareness. What does it mean to put on a garment of God? It means to know God is one with you, and to accept the good God has for you. Our preparation for God’s good consists of spiritual thinking and living. The robe of righteousness is the only fit wedding garment. Without this we shall not be permitted to eat at God’s table. Does God choose? No, it said earlier that the good and the bad were invited. God cares more about your present moment, your future, and your willingness to change, then God does about your past. God invites all to this banquet. God wants all to accept it, but in order to accept it, you must synchronize your human mind with God. Otherwise, you cannot even comprehend the good that God has already prepared for you.

Once, some years ago, a five-year-old girl was attending a formal wedding. The child was sitting with her grandmother. She had been in Sunday school, but had never attended a formal church service. During the wedding the minister said, “Let us pray.” Each person bowed his or her head in prayer. The little girl looked around, saw all the heads around her bowed, and everyone’s eyes toward the floor. She cried in her loudest voice, “Grandma, what are they all looking for?”

What are we looking for when we pray? Let us seek God first all the time. Sometimes in our human mind we try to twist God’s good.

There was an overweight businessman who decided it was time to shed some excess pounds. He took his new diet very seriously, even changing his driving route to avoid his favorite bakery. However, one morning, he arrived at work carrying a gigantic coffeecake. His co-workers all scolded him, but a smile remained on his face. He said, “This is a very special coffee cake. I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning. There in the window was a host of goodies. I felt this was no accident, so I prayed, “Lord, if you want me to have one of those delicious coffee cakes, let me find a parking place directly in front of the bakery. Sure enough,” he continued, “The eighth time around the block, there it was.”

A spiritual solution for your life. So often we want something our own way, the way of our human mind, which is not to our highest good. We must pray to God first. Second, we must move as God directs. In Matthew 6:10 the Bible states “Thy will be done.”

Sometimes a person will say, “I want to do God’s will but how could know whether the leading that comes to me is God’s will or my will?” This implies that our will and God’s will must necessarily conflict. When we pray to show the will of God, our own human will is illumined. God acts through our will faculty. And we know that it is God’s will because of the feeling of peace we have, because of the sense of rightness we have. We know that it is God’s will because of the good results that show forth in us and in our lives.

“Not my will, to Thine be done” is one of the most far-reaching positive affirmations of Jesus, and those who follow Jesus and keep Jesus is saying are finding great peace and relaxation in daily life. We are to pray that the will of God enters into us as the great clarifier allowing all the old sediment to fall to the bottom of our hourglass of life.

This will become a moving factor in your life towards real solutions. God does not take our will from us; rather, God gives us the utmost freedom to find creative solutions.

There is a story of an old Scot who was quite ill. The family called for their minister and as he entered the sick room he sat down. He noticed another chair on the opposite side of the bed, a chair which had been drawn close. The minister said, “Well, Donald, I see that I’m not your first visitor for the day.”

The old man looked up, was puzzled for a moment and then he recognized from the nod of the pastor’s head that the pastor had noticed the empty chair. “Well Pastor,” he said, “Let me tell you about this chair. Many years ago, I found it quite difficult to pray, so one day I shared this problem with my minister. He told me to not worry about kneeling or placing myself in some posture such as a Lotus position But instead, sit down with a chair opposite me and imagine Jesus sitting in that chair. Then he said to talk with Him as I would a good friend.” The aged Scot then added, “I’ve been doing that ever since.”

A short time later the daughter of the Scot called the pastor. When he answered, she informed him that her father had died very suddenly. She was quite shaken because she had no idea that death was so very near. Then she continued, “I had just gone to lie down for an hour or two, for he seemed to be sleeping so comfortably. When I went back, he was dead.” Then she added thoughtfully, “Except now, his hand was on the empty chair at the side of the bed. Isn’t that strange?”

The minister replied, “No, that is not strange at all. I understand.” A spiritual solution. When we are in the hospital, we may be in pain, or not feeling well, during such times we may find it is hard to pray. Place an empty chair in front of you, and in that chair, place in your mind the presence of Jesus Christ. Reach out to the chair and pray with that Presence. Oftentimes I have prayed with an empty chair, with the presence of Jesus Christ. You know something? It is a mystical thing, but the chair wasn’t empty. The presence of Jesus Christ was there. It can be in your life too because nothing is impossible for YOU.

Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote this: “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Therefore, let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheep or goats that nourish a blind life within the brain, if knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer, both for themselves and those who call them friends?”

There is one more spiritual solution to help you to pray. This is a hand solution. You have seen hands many times in prayer, but this time I want you to use your hand in a new way. When you don’t know how to pray, or you can’t think of the words, here is a way. First of all, what is closest to you is your thumb. Your thumb is for those nearest to you. You pray for those people nearest to you by looking at your hand.

What is the second finger used for? It is used for pointing. So often in our human life we point at others, we judge and criticize them. Perhaps we are pointing, and we are not forgiving someone. We have to think about those who we are pointing to at the present time. We have to pull back that finger, face it toward ourselves, and pray that we may replace any feeling we have for those people with the love of God.

Our third finger is the longest. So, we think of the tallest people in our lives. Perhaps our leaders of the country, or our city, or perhaps of the business we are in, and we pray for them.

The fourth finger, as any piano player will tell you, is the weakest finger in the hand. That is the finger to help you remember to pray for those around you who are weak, sick, frail, or even for ourselves if we are feeling bad.

Then we have the little finger on our hand. That is for praying for us, to realize that the little finger is the least important. We should always place ourselves in service to God and place God first. When we pray for our life in this way, then we have an added spiritual power and dimension that comes to our life.

Let us pray.

Give me, oh Lord, a steadfast heart, which no unworthy affection may drag downwards. Give me an unconquered heart, which no tribulation can wear out. Give me an upright heart, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside. Teach us in this congregation, this morning–good, wonderful God–to serve Thee as Thou deservest. To give and not count the cost, to fight and not heed the wounds, to toil and not seek rest, to labor and not ask for any reward except knowing that we are doing Thy will.

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

Prayer / Meditation__________________________

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Thy name give glory. For the sake of Thy steadfast love and Thy faithfulness”
Psalms 115:1

I ask you to get comfortable in your quiet place, your place of being alone with God. Relax every muscle and let those words of the Psalmist occupy your mind. You are the writer of those words; they are your prayer.

Close your eyes and ears to every outer circumstance and allow thankfulness to permeate your entire being. Realize your oneness with God, your neighbors, your foes, your rivals. You are one with all humans. Your heart swells as you realize your kinship with all life, all are one with

God as you are one with God.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

There is a unity in the universe. In the mood of wonder, joy, and love, contemplate the words a phrase at a time.

“Not to us, Oh Lord.” We get no credit. All good comes from You, God. We listen, act, and receive the benefits. Benefits we often haven’t earned, but that fact doesn’t shame us. It makes us even more thankful for Your love.

“Not to us, … but to Thy name give glory.” We remember that “name” means “nature.” We are giving glory to God’s nature, God’s compassion, God’s forgiveness. Our love for You, God, overwhelms us. All this and heaven too, the whole of the idea floods us with Your love. We are able to love our enemies living in Your nature.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

I ask you to pause and think of something that you have against someone. As you contemplate this, you will see the insignificance of your complaint. This is the time to allow the love of God to come through you. You forgive all parties to the incidents, including yourself. We have no enemies, only brothers and sisters.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

This is the time not only to think of God’s love, but to allow the love of God to come in and through you, forgiving all those who you hold anything against. You will do so as we listen to the words of the old hymn Rock of Ages. (OPTION sung softly)

Rock of ages,
Truth divine,
Strong foundation, ever mine;
Safe, secure, I here remain,
In the peace God doth ordain;
Living ever in the fight,
Pure and perfect in God’s sight.
On the rock of Truth I stand,
Destiny at my command;
Filled with peace and power of God,
Boundless good, eternal love,
Safe with Truth, so firm and strong,
Praising in triumphant song.
For the asking I attain
Every height in Truth’s domain,
Every wish within my heart;
For no blessing can depart.
All of good is ever mine,
On the rock of Truth divine.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God’s love gives us the ability to do good even to those who have spitefully used us. For the sake of Thy steadfast love and Thy faithfulness, we are only repaying in a small way what we have received. God has forgiven us so many times. We try to emulate God’s goodness. We forgive as we have been forgiven, with no reservations, and with no exceptions.

Dear God, this morning we say with the Psalmist, “Not to us.” Use us in bringing to pass the good you want to give us all. We are open and receptive.

We thank You through the name and nature of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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11Oct

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – God’s Truth Will Clothe You

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - God's Truth Will Clothe You

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There was an emperor who loved new clothes. Actually, he spent all of his money on clothes. He spent all of his time trying on his new suits and showing them off.

One day, two men came into the town where the emperor lived and they said they were weavers. They said they could weave the most beautiful cloth in the entire world. Well, the men were not really weavers at all. They were conmen.

The two men went straight to the emperor’s palace. One of them said, “Your Majesty, everybody knows about the beautiful cloth that we weave. But have you heard the amazing thing about it? Some people cannot see our cloth. They cannot see it, even when they are looking right at it.”

“They can’t see it?” the emperor said. “What kind of people can’t see your beautiful cloth?

The other man said, “Stupid people, people who aren’t good at their jobs; they cannot see the beautiful cloth.”

“That is truly amazing,” the emperor said. “I must have a suit that is made out of that beautiful cloth.”

The emperor told the two men to begin to weave at once. The men said, “Well, Your Majesty, in order to do this, we will need a great deal of money. We will need the best gold thread and the best silk thread to weave with.” The emperor gave them a great deal of money, thread, and a room in his palace to work in.

Well, the two men set up two big looms to weave on, but they did not put the thread on the looms. They put the thread away in a bag. Day after day, the two men sat at the empty looms and pretended to weave.

Everybody was waiting for the cloth to be finished. Everybody was waiting to find out if their friends would be able to see the cloth. The emperor wanted to go look at the cloth. He was absolutely certain that he would be able to see the cloth. He said, “I am not stupid, and I know that I am a good emperor: but this once, I’ll send somebody else to look at the cloth.”

So, the emperor sent his chief assistant down to the workroom. The two men at the looms said, “How do you like our beautiful cloth?” The chief minister looked at one loom and then he looked at the other loom, and he couldn’t see any cloth (because there was not any cloth to see).

“Dear me,” he said to himself, “I can’t see any cloth. Am I stupid? I never thought I was. Am I bad at my job? If I am, I must keep it a secret. I must NOT say that I cannot see the cloth.”

So, the chief assistant said to the men, “The cloth is beautiful.”

“Be sure to tell the emperor,” they said. “Tell him about the beautiful colors and tell him about how the gold thread shines.”

The chief assistant went back to the emperor. He said, “The colors, Your Majesty, they are beautiful. The reds, the purples, and how the gold thread shines.”

The next day, the two men asked the emperor for more money and more gold thread and more silk thread. The emperor gave them the money and the thread. The men put the money in their pockets, and they put the thread away in their bag. They kept on pretending to weave.

Soon, the emperor wanted to know when his cloth would be finished. So, this time, he sent his second chief assistant down to the workroom. The second chief assistant looked at one loom and then looked at the other loom, and he could not see a thing (because there was not anything to see). “Oh dear,” he thought, “I cannot see the cloth. I had better pretend that I can.” So, he said to the men, “The cloth is just beautiful.”

He went back to the emperor and told him that the cloth was really beautiful. The emperor couldn’t wait a minute longer; he had to see the beautiful cloth for himself. So, the emperor went down to the workroom. He took his chief assistant and his second assistant with him. The first chief assistant looked at the empty looms and said, “How the gold thread shines, Your Majesty.”

The second chief assistant said, “Wow, it is really beautiful.”

Well, the emperor looked at one loom and he looked at the other loom and he could not see a thing on the looms. “What is this,” he said to himself. “Am I stupid? No. That is not possible. Am I not a good emperor? Oh, no. That would be simply terrible. Well, I will have to pretend that I see the beautiful cloth.”

The emperor said to the two men, “Excellent, wonderful, beautiful,” and he gave each of them a medal to show how pleased he was. “Now, Your Majesty,” one of the men said, “We are ready to cut the cloth and make a suit for you.”

“Splendid,” said the emperor. “We are going to have a big parade next week, and I am going to wear my new suit of clothes.”

Before the day of the parade, the two men stayed up all night long. They used more than 20 candles to light the room so that everyone would see just how hard they were working. They pretended to take the cloth off the looms very carefully and move their hands around in the air and snap their scissors together. They used big needles and pretended to sew with them. But the needles had no thread.

At last, it was the day of the big parade. “Now,” said one of the men, “the emperor’s new clothes are ready.” The emperor went to the workroom at once.

One of the men pretended to hold out a coat. “Here is your new coat, Your Majesty,” he said, “It is as light as a feather.”

“And here are your new trousers,” the other man said. “And over here is your long royal cape. Your new clothes are so light that you will hardly feel that you have anything on at all.”

The emperor took off the clothes he was wearing, and the two men pretended to help him put on his new clothes. The emperor turned around and around in front of a mirror. “Why, my new clothes feel as light as a feather,” he said.

Two noblemen were supposed to hold up the end of the emperor’s royal cape. They could not see the cape, (they could not see the trousers or the coat, either), but they were not going to say so. They felt around on the floor and pretended to pick up the ends of the cape. Then the emperor and the noblemen marched out of the palace.

In the street, the people were waiting to see the big parade. “Look at the emperor,” the people cried. “What a beautiful new suit of clothes he has on.” Nobody could see the emperor’s new clothes, but no one was going to say so. “Look at the emperor,” they said, “what a beautiful new suit of clothes he has on.”

A small child tugged at his daddy’s pant leg. He looked up and said, “But he hasn’t got anything on.”

“Did you hear what that small child said?” somebody whispered. “A little child said that the emperor hasn’t got anything on.” Another person said it. And then another, and another, and another.

“He hasn’t got anything on,” everybody shouted at last. “The emperor hasn’t got anything on.”

The emperor knew now that the people were right. But he had to stay in the parade until it was over, he must not admit that he made a mistake. “The parade must go on,” the emperor thought, “and I must keep going, too.” So, the emperor walked proudly the rest of the way. And the two noblemen walked behind him holding up the ends of the new royal cape, the cape that wasn’t there.

“The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Anderson

This is NOT a children’s story. It is a story with profound spiritual for us in our lives, today.

As human beings, we are very self-consciousness. We are afraid. We are afraid that someone will discover – who we really are – that we, through some event or some action, will expose ourselves as the person we think we are. We view ourselves from our lack of self-esteem.

Now, here was a king, like you are a king – the bible says you are a child of God, an heir to the kingdom. But this king has an excess of money. He spends all of his money on new clothes to make him appear better to himself and better to others. He puts on outer garments to cover up who he really is.

There is a saying “that clothes make the man.” In the long run only the man makes the man, and only the woman makes the woman. The clothes we wear are just costumes that will only hide, who we really are, for a brief time. Back to the story, one day, two men come to town. They are weavers – weavers of dreams. They are sellers of the momentary illusion of happiness by obtaining something else outside of yourself. They go to the palace and talk to the one who, in the entire kingdom, already has it all, and can get anything that he wants. He has it all by Divine birthright.

They tell the king about the cloth. They say to the king, the top person in the kingdom – as their authority and reference, they use “everybody knows.”

We often fall into the trap of “EVERYBODY KNOWS.” “They are so many. Surely, THEY must know more than me. I must not even question. I must believe what THEY think.” And so, the king says the same thing. “Surely, they are right. THEY must know more than me. After all, THEY are so many in number.” THEY vs. YOU.

One man said, “Some people cannot see our cloth, even when they are looking right at it. The people who cannot see it are the people who are blind with stupidity or people who are not good at their jobs.” So, we see one of our primary fears – the fear of every person – “I might not be as good as they think I am.” So, no one asks questions. Each person accepts the authority of the all-knowing “THEY.” No one dares to think or to speak up.

Twice, the emperor gave the men a lot of money. And he gave them a place to live and to work. That brings up another great Truth. Anything in your life, that costs you a lot of money, has to be questioned as to its true value. Someone years ago, quoted to me Homan’s law: “At what price – profit?” The things of true value in this life, the things that will make a difference in your life, cost NO money. They are already within you. You already have them because of your Divine birthright. As Jesus said, “You, too, are a child of God.” You have it all, right now.

The men appeared to work long hours, but they were not building anything. The pranksters are the real fools, for they are not leaving anything real, or lasting behind. You are only remembered for what you give, and every day, we must strive to give more real value to our world.

Everyone was waiting to see the cloth, not so much to see the cloth themselves, but to see IF their friends would be able to see the cloth. Some who are not yet on the spiritual path love to see others struggle and fail. But, when we come from following Jesus Christ, that high point, that Divine understanding, that Godly view, we want to see others succeed and win. Spiritual people get as excited about another person success as their own. We succeed and win every time that we come from our highest spiritual consciousness and live within God.

The king had an inner fear that when the big moment came, he would fail to see the cloth. So, he put it off as long as possible. Often, that is the way we do things. When we are afraid of something, we procrastinate; we put it off as long as we possibly can.

So, the emperor sent his chief assistant. He could not see any cloth, but he didn’t want to admit it. He might be stupid or not good at his job. So, he raved about the cloth to the king. It was the same with the second assistant. The emperor finally got enough courage to go and see the cloth for himself; but, of course, he could not see anything. Yet, he would NEVER admit it.

The day of the big parade, when hundreds of people would be watching, the emperor put on the invisible clothes and walked naked into the crowd. Everyone in the crowd did not want to admit that they could not see the cloth, so they raved about the emperor’s new clothes.

Thus, we see human consciousness at its worst; sometimes this is called mob consciousness believing in what everyone else says, instead of speaking up yourself for what you know to be true. Even inside of us, worries, and fears that do not exist, overpower our reasoning. Human consciousness will often rave on about it and have anxiety about it and even get sick and die over something only imagined.

The crowd was convinced in their minds that the king was wearing beautiful clothes. But a little boy, who was not yet part of the mass hysteria, shouted, “He hasn’t got anything on.”

The people, one by one, started to wake up, started to open their eyes – not their physical eyes, but their perception eyes – the eyes that could see with a new understanding. They started to think for themselves, to ask questions, and to express opinions.

Too many times, we go along, and we never ask questions. We never think for ourselves. We never express opinions. Many times, in a worst-case scenario we become sheep, instead of the individuals that have the power to think for themselves.

Soon, as the crowd began to murmur among themselves, “The king has nothing on,” the king, who was in the middle of the parade, woke up.

The crowd did not speak up until they gained power from the masses. The king was having a very bad day. But look what went through the king’s mind. Have you ever been like this?

The king looked down. He knew he was naked. And he knew that everybody else knew he was naked, but he STILL did not want to expose himself, so he continued to march in the parade to the end.

Have you ever been in a place in your life where YOU KNEW you were making a mistake, and you knew that you knew, and everybody else knew? Yet you continue to march ahead? We do that. I do not know why we do it. If we would only wake up the rest of the way and realize that it is okay, to stop, and change the direction we are headed.

We do not have to walk to our own doom. We can call a halt, right now. We control the momentum. We control the movement by our minds. And we can decide, right now, “I do not have to keep on going following the sheep to the slaughter. I can stop.”

Many companies have been like this. We see major companies failing; they are on the news every day. When the employees and even management our interviewed they will often say that they sensed the problems but were afraid to speak up. It is as fascinating, as it is sad. The company trainers would often admit that they did not believe what they were required to teach. But the people expected them to teach it and so they would get up and teach it, even though they KNEW it was wrong.

It is often suspected that the new employees did not believe what they were being taught, yet they would never think for themselves, ask questions, or express opinions on the fear of exposing themselves. We think that we must blend in, and become part of the mass instead of an individual.

There is a secondary thought and original thought. We have the God-given gift of original thought, and yet few in adult life exercise it. We allow others to do our thinking for us.

History tells us that the successful are the people that stand out and think for themselves.

One day, someone speaks up and asks a question. It is very disturbing to everyone when that happens. Yet when we ask a question, people must then wake up and take a look at themselves; they must look at the definitions they have given to their own questions. Definitions are like a fence. They fence more out than they fence in.

Faith, religion, is an ongoing adventure. It is not something that is within a fence. It is different for every one of you because you are living a different life and you are on a slightly different path. Each person has his, or her own path, and each person connects with God. But that is where the similarity begins. God is always the same. God gives you what you need at the moment. God gives you understanding so you DO NOT have to walk the rest of the parade (your life) unclothed. You can put on “the whole armor of God,” and that whole armor is with you now.

That gives you all the power you will ever need, no matter what you need to overcome.

The FIRST adventure in faith is to DISCOVER who you really are. It is that point that says, “Wait a minute here. I am not stupid.” There has never been a stupid person because we all have the ability, the possibility of connecting with God. It is a person that realizes that when I work with God, God does good work through me. Therefore, I can believe in myself, totally and completely. It is discovering who you really are.

You are not an isolated island separated by icy seas. You are connected with God and God can think through you and work through you and therefore you have great worth.

The SECOND adventure in faith is EXPLORING the depths of you to permanently find God. That is quite an adventure. It is one of the ultimate adventures. It is the adventure that will continue all the days of our lives. Our fears and worries are easy to discover. Many people live in this realm because it appears like it is the path of least resistance, but it is an illusion because it is the reverse.

We all have human fears of being exposed. Researchers say one of the most common dreams that people have at night, is being naked, in a class, or in front of a group.

In the Bible that says to, “Put on Christ.” This will be the new clothes of our soul.

The THIRD adventure in faith is EXPRESSING all that God is. If you have discovered, and explored the goodness of God, it is going to come through you as health, as Divine ideas, success in your business, success in human relations. Every area of your life can express all that God is, as you pray earnestly and continuously for the opportunity.

The FOURTH adventure in faith is BECOMING a spiritual teacher by example and helping others to rise up above human blindness.

It is time to wake up. It is time to take a good look from a new perspective and to ask yourself the question that so many of us have avoided for so long: Is my life working? If not, why am I still in the parade? Why don’t I get on a new path? Why don’t I go in a new direction? I have a question for us all. It is on excesses in our lives. Remember, the king had excesses on clothing. He spent all of his money on clothes. He was obsessed with it. He spent all of his time and energy on clothes, because he was hiding from taking a good look at himself.

I say, if we are going to have an excess, why not have an excess of God? Goethe said, “We are shaped and fashioned by what we love.” It is time to move away from stagnation of blind following in our lives, seeking only the approval of others for our self-worth and to leave no forwarding address. God is not a theory of life – God is Life itself. Nothing is too small or insignificant for God’s uplifting Presence. You question, “Okay, but how?” In every instance, it is prayer. Here are seven conditions for true prayer.

1.You must recognize God as your parent. Your own personal parent that you are connected with, that you can hold, that you can walk with, hand in hand.

2.Acknowledge your oneness with God. It is a yes-ness inside of you. “Yes, I can do it because I am not alone. God is with me at this moment.”

3.Pray in the secret place – inside of you.

4.Close the door to the outer.

5.Believe you have received – right now.

6.Seek first the kingdom of God. Why is this not number one? Because often, after we have done our prayer work, we believe we will receive and then we drop everything and look to the outer realm, completely. Then, if it does not come right away; we have disbelief and throw up our hands and say it does not work. That is the very time you should seek first the kingdom.

7.Forgive. Release. Do not hold on to any resentment. Allow the Presence of God to flow through without obstruction.

Then, after you get past that, there are four steps to true prayer to bring it into manifestation.

A. Say NO to what isn’t working. You may be a person who is getting a new suit of clothes, but you cannot really see it or feel it in your life. Yet you are impelled to go forward. You are in a parade, and you do not have any clothes on. What do you do? You begin to say NO. You say, “Wait a minute. What in the world am I doing? What am I doing with my life?” You say, “NO that this has any more power over me.” You say, “NO that I have to continue walking down the same way.” You say, “NO.”

B. Spiritually Affirm. You affirm who you are. You affirm your power with God’s help. You affirm the power to change direction and get REAL clothes on, you, your dreams, and your life.

C. Silence. Stop the noise and listen to God. Hearing God’s voice. Waiting on the Presence of God to flow through you, and with you.

D. Imagination. Imagination to know that the spiritual always replaces the lower when you work with God. To see it coming right now in your prayer. It will begin to show in your life.

After all that, you act. You begin to act upon what you are praying about. Emerson said, “Prayer is a contemplation of the facts of life from their highest point of view.” Too many have been fooled too few. God is constant, truthful and can be relied upon to give you the guidance you need.

I pray that we will never be fooled again by ourselves or by another; that if we do not have all that we need right now in our lives, we do not continue walking down the parade route naked and defenseless. I pray that we stop and we put on the clothes of God.

Through God you WILL succeed and win.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION____________________

Allow me to speak for you …

Dear God, Hold me close, loving Presence of God. Be with me through the night hours and be with me through the day. Hold Thou my hand. Guide Thou my feet. Comfort Thou my heart. Fill me with new resolve and a knowing that all is well. I trust you to be with me and therefore I trust myself.

I trust my life, my hopes, my dreams, and my future to Your care.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Where I am, You are, dear God. In my need, You answer me. In my joy, You smile upon me. When I cannot fathom the ways and the wherefores, Your Light shines steadily, beckoning me on – on to the Truth as yet unknown. To depths of understanding as yet un-guessed at.

Be with me, Lord. Hold me close, today, this moment, tomorrow, and in the days to come. I am holding Your hand. I shall not fear. I thank You, my loving Lord, for Your Presence.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

I strive, this moment, to allow more of God to flow through me – God’s love, the greatest expression in the world. Love is that Divine quality that makes our world go around. Love is the enthusiasm of God inside of us.

This moment, feeling God’s Presence, I feel God’s love. And in that feeling, that love, I feel a sense of love for all those that I know and meet. God always externalizes at the level of my concept. And I examine my mental equivalence, strong power plans ahead, progress happens on my spiritual path.

Absolute faith in God begets absolute faith in God. My faith in God is measured by the faith in ourselves. And this faith is a mind activity that is happening in me, this moment.

There is a dynamic power, a movement of God that is happening in mind and in body. It is that movement of God that knows that when I ask for something in prayer, I receive a definite result.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

I pray within, the measureless, boundless, eternal of God’s all good. I ask nothing amiss and therefore, I miss nothing.

In the great waves of God, my entire being is flooded with spiritual light; an inward knowingness, a glorious power is flooding not only my body temple and my mind, but also my home and my business. They take on a superb dominion of God. My very work that I do with my hands and my mind take on a superb dominion of God.

This moment, as you rest in the silence, you prepare yourself for an adventure – an adventure in faith, an adventure with God, an adventure of going the extra mile on the high pathway of life.

Rest in the Presence of God.

I am aware of God. My mind is flooded with Divine ideas, ideas that tell me about my possibilities, ideas that tell me about the Presence that is surrounding me, everywhere present, and within me. I am becoming awake, and aware.

I know, with certainty, that I am not alone. I know that I have a Power with me that will help me overcome, to go over the mountain or to tunnel or to go around any difficulty I face.

There is a Power that is with me that will help me achieve success. God will give me health, and God will give me a new awareness and new ideas. Whatever I need, today, it is in God’s Presence that is my answer is found; and the Divine awareness of the Presence makes all things possible to me.

All things good are prepared for me, now, by the Presence of God. In this moment, in total awareness, I say, “Thank You, God,” for I know the Truth. I know who I am, and I live within that awareness.

In Jesus Christ’s name, Amen.

Since 1999 – 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? Click here– if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

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

GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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04Oct

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Strong Medicine

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Strong Medicine

Time Sensitivity: none

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“Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.”
Dorothy Sarnoff

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Proverbs 4:20-22 “My child, pay attention to what I say; listen closely to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to a human’s whole body.”

Studies show that prayer can be strong medicine. A study done at Dartmouth Medical School indicated that patients who receive comfort from religion were three times as likely to be alive six months after open-heart surgery as those who found no relief in faith. Another research study provides evidence that prayer is beneficial for recovery regardless of who’s praying.

This is true no matter what religion you are, as long as you have a deep abiding faith in God, and pray.

In the April 1999 issue of “Natural Health,” the article “The Power of Prayer” stated that “Advanced AIDS patients who received an hour of prayer six days a week for 10 weeks were significantly healthier than those who received no prayer, according to a study led by Elizabeth Targ, M.D., director of the Medicine Research Institute in San Francisco.”

An article from “Family Circle,” discusses the healing power of prayer citing that 30 U.S. medical schools have courses about faith in medicine. “Prayer is finding a place in medicine because research has proven it to be effective in healing.”

“Reader’s Digest,” March 1996: “Doctors and scientists are discovering the benefits of prayer. New scientific research confirms the healing power of prayer. According to different national studies, prayer can have beneficial effects on patients with high blood pressure, wounds, headaches, and anxiety.

A simple prayerful atmosphere where caring and compassion can be felt can set the stage for healing.”

“Ladies Home Journal” stated, “New research confirms that stress plays a significant role in the delay of body healing. A test conducted of two groups with identical flesh wounds affirms that patients exposed to stress took nine more days to heal.” That is incredible.

A study done by Randolph Byrd and Associates, with approximately 400 patients at San Francisco General Hospital, evaluated the effects of prayer on patients admitted to a coronary care unit. It was discovered that the people in the prayer group ended up with fewer of them suffering from congestive heart failure. Yet another study – the “Saudia Study” – confirmed that 97 patients considered prayer to be helpful with 70 percent giving the highest possible rating on the helpfulness of prayer in healing the bond.

Doctors say people who belong to a religious affiliation are healthier than those who do not.

Going to God in prayer has a powerful healing effect; and if I can communicate with God, then I can know healing is real, and healing IS possible. As you sit here, we are talking about real healing from God at the causation level, not just the effects.

We are spending time together in awareness of what God can and will do. When we need it, God can be called upon, and we can use the power of God for the healing of our physical bodies or the bodies of those that we love.

Psalm 41:2-3 “The LORD will protect them and preserve their life; God will bless them in the land and not surrender them to the desire of his foes. The LORD will sustain them on their sickbed and restore them from their bed of illness.”

Marion Theobald tells this story about her five-year-old granddaughter, Rachel. She rushed home from kindergarten one day, with a connect-the-dots project she had done. Her mother admired the artwork, and after heaping on the praise, continued with her chores, while Rachel and her three-year-old sister went into the den.

Sometime later, the mother decided her girls were too quiet. How many of you parents have been there?

All of a sudden, everything is peaceful, and you are wondering what is going on. She decided the girls were too quiet and she went to investigate. She found Rachel and her sister on the floor with the family pet. Rachel was using a purple permanent magic marker to connect the dots on the family Dalmatian.

Many times, when we are approaching our own healing, it is like trying to play connect-the-dots. We think that we ought to go here next, but we don’t know for sure. Even after we connect the dots, we do not know what the final picture will look like.

There is a story of a woman in Chicago, Illinois who was going to get a heart transplant. She had been in the hospital for some time awaiting a heart. On the other side of the country, there was a little boy who was dying. His name was Timmy. The little boy, on his own, decided to give his organs to science to help people continue to live. Timmy died. This woman had never met Timmy before but was told they had a donor and they had a heart.

She went into surgery and received her new heart. She woke up in the ICU.

It had been about three or four days and she was doing well. She looked over on the nightstand in her room and she saw a card. She now had the strength to raise her arm. She reached over and got the card. This is what was inside. “Hello, my name is Timmy. You have my heart, and I love you.”

Healing comes in many different ways. How many times have we said, “Oh God, I need a miracle and I need it now. I have been playing connect-the-dots and it doesn’t make any sense to me. I want to make some sense out of this sickness and I want to find out why I am sick and I want to be healed.” We try everything in the outer to manifest our healing.

We go to this specialist and then to that specialist to no avail. We are still sick. Then we try prayer. All of a sudden, something begins to happen. There is a movement inside of us. We say, “God, I need your help, I need a miracle.”

Matthew 9:35 “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing EVERY disease and sickness.”

If we consider the fact that your own human body that you are sitting in right now is designed by God for wholeness, it will almost seem impossible. It would seem as if it had to go to great lengths to deviate from that pattern. If this is true, then true healing inside of you, this morning, is NOT a far reach. It is something that is right here, right now, not something extraordinary, but a return inside of you to something ordinary from your Creator. Your Creator is constantly re-creating you.

I have a button on my television at home. The TV set has dozens of confusing controls.

I could do almost anything with this TV. When I mess it up enough, and I do through playing with it, I can push default and it will return to the factory settings – what it was supposed to be all along. So can we. Inside of us, we have factory settings too from our Creator, God. Prayer returns us to our natural state as a child of God.

If you cut your finger, do you know what would happen? The finger and everything inside of you would rush to wholeness, would rush to that site and begin to heal the wound. It is the same with a person who has lived 100 years, as it is with an infant, because your life that you have in your physical body is biased. Do know what it is biased toward? It is biased toward more life. You are on the side of life, even if you are sick this morning, even if you have been told dire things about your body and your condition. Everything is weighted on the scales of life, in favor of your life, in favor of your body. We just simply have to recognize it.

Even if we had someone here that was close to death, if they cut their finger, do you know what would happen? It would heal, because that is what the body naturally does. Everything is on the side of life, and the life inside of you wants to live. Every breath you take this morning, sitting there in that chair, is a communion. It is a communion service inside of you. It is a spiritual service toward more life. Your body, when it returns to the state that it is supposed to be in, that is right there within you now, it is functioning for one thing – to heal whatever needs healing.

We need to think about God and think about the pattern of perfection in which we are made. We do not need to reach far off saying, “Oh, if I could only get over there, my healing is on the other side of this country. If I could just get there, then I could be healed. If Jesus Christ says to you, “Do you believe? Can you accept your healing? Your faith (hear that? – YOUR faith) has made you well.” You focused on God, again, and you focused on that which is inside of you, again, and it came. There is no way it cannot come.

Revelation 21:4 “God will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

The new order is Divine order ever-renewing itself in perfection.

Bishop Coxe tells a story of visiting an old castle in England. This castle is still in pristine condition. It was built in 1558. He looked up on one of the beams high in the ceiling and this is the inscription that was one the beam: “This house, it is decreed in Jesus Christ’s name, shall never decay and shall always be preserved where almighty God is worshipped day by day.” A.D. 1558

It is the same with you and with me. This house, our body, is the temple of the living God. Every cell is attending worship service this morning. It is attending a worship service of vibrant health, alive health, strength health, happy health, joyful health, exuberant health. I want to be so alive, today. I want to be eternally alive and so do you, to feel so good, to thank God you are alive, and to thank God you have this moment in time.

Here is what we are not going to do. We are not going to say, “Well, by the clock, I say I am so-and-so years of age, and after all, this specialist told me I am beginning to have back pain. I really feel it, this morning.” But what if, in this moment, I say, “I am a child of God. I believe that I can return to health.” I do not stay stagnant. This body is constantly renewing and becoming well. Yes, I will seek the help of doctors as God directs. I believe in doctors, and I believed in medicine. I use every God created avenue to heal. But ultimately, I know that no one can heal except the Great Healer. Every physician will tell you that.

If I am honest, I will say that I have been a part of a malpractice – not from a doctor who has performed a medical malpractice on me of injurious neglect or improper practice, but a mental malpractice that I have performed on myself. I am going to think about my organs and physical body and myself in a new way, beginning today. I am going to know that I can do it. There is only one way to heal. It is in your new body, in your new mind, your new energy, your new happiness, the way you get up, tomorrow morning. Get out of bed and say, “Thank God I’m alive!’ Instead of “Oh God, it’s morning.” There is a huge difference.

Dr. Deepak Chopra, in his book, “Quantum Healing,” states that we have constantly changing bodies. The liver is new every six weeks; the skeleton is new every three months; the stomach lining is new every four days; atoms in our physical body temple are 98% new every year; and skin is new every month. If you do not like your skin, wait until next month. When you look at that old mug in the mirror, you are going to see a new mug of the soul woman and the soul man that is manifesting God – fully alive and feeling good.

Here is something I want you to remember this morning. I say that nothing is as contagious to your body as your mind filled with God. You will get it. You will catch it. You will have it manifest through you. It will not be a dis-ease, it will be an ease. You will take the “dis” out of disease and throw it away. You do not want that anymore. You want God-given ease. You want to feel at ease, ALL the time.

The whole point of Christianity is that you can. It is as if we brought on this stage an old rusty car. Imagine that it is all dented, rusty and its motor is going out. We decide to scrap it for parts. We start to take off the fenders and everything, and to our surprise, underneath the sheet metal that looks so bad is a brand new vehicle, never driven, zero miles. We say, “My, all this time, I thought I had a junker.”

So, when you look into the mirror, when you think about yourself, when you begin to pass judgment on your future and what you can obtain in your life and what is possible for you to obtain, I ask you to look, again, and to return to the natural state of healing that you have within you.

I would like to close with prayer.

Let us pray.

This morning, as I sit here in my seat, God, I stand firm in my faith. God, what this means is that with my human mind, I believe with 100% certainty in You, in wholeness, and that it is possible for me, because I have it within me. I believe with 100% knowing that I can be healed. I have the ability to command to perfect health every cell and every fiber of my mind and my body. I decree, in the name of Jesus Christ, that my body is responding.

God-life at the center of my being is healing and restoring everything that is out of adjustment. Naturally and easily, I relax, I work with prayer, I work with God, and I prove my own research studies. I do not have to go here and there, I simply have to go within and return, as I am doing right now, to my natural state. I know this is true about me and I will know this for the rest of my days.

In Jesus Christ’s name and nature. Amen.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION____________________

This is an important prayer time for you and for me.

We will make a covenant with God in awareness of what God can and will do

Allow me to speak for you. Dear God, Creator of the universe, Lord of my being, I acknowledge Your power as the source of my life, Your intelligence as the director of my cells, Your essence as the fiber of my tissues. I give thanks for Your life within me. God, I apologize for my past mistreatment of Your holy temple – my body. I know now that I must work with Your life force if I am to fully express my potential for perfection.

Therefore, on this day, I do, earnestly and joyfully, make this covenant with You, God, for God-life to manifest in and through my cells.

I promise to work with You, not against You, by appropriating into my mind only thoughts of health and wholeness, envisioning my cells as the perfection they were created to be – worthy of my most noble attitudes and aspirations.

I know now my body, like everything else in life, is a mirror of my inner thoughts and beliefs. Every cell responds to every single thought I think and every word I speak.

I promise to appropriate into my body only foods of health and wholeness, knowing God resides in the foods God created. Knowing, too, that what I eat today, I become tomorrow.

I promise to appropriate into my lifestyle only actions of health and wholeness. To this extent, I will seek abundant fresh air and adequate rest, and I will engage in regular, constructive exercises, knowing that as I move every muscle, I improve that muscle, and that which is constantly improving and regenerating cannot perish.

I enter into this covenant in the full realization that God’s laws are unchangeable. I have unshakable faith in the fact that as long as I honor my commitments to perfection, God will work within me rewarding me with unlimited health and the wholeness I so fervently seek and desire.

Manifesting this in the temple of the living God, I say, “thank You, God.”

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

Since 1999 – 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. 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, and bless every member of your church.
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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