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"The
Law of Attraction - Everything that comes to us comes through a law of
attraction. You could not draw anything to you until there was
first an avenue for that thing, through which that thing could flow
toward you. You could not draw riches to you if you held the
thought of poverty; you could only draw more of the same thing - more
poverty. That is why Jesus said, "When you pray, believe that
you have and you shall receive." They were to first provide
within themselves the mental pattern of the thing prayed for. That
person who can provide the best mental pattern - that is what we call
realizing - that one who can do it best, gets the best results."
- Dr. Ernest Holmes, "Law and
Love"
Sometime during
the year of 1990, I left 30 years of Catholicism and for the next few
months I wandered spiritually. I attended an Episcopal church for
a few short months on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California ...
but I was always very mindful that I was "seeking" ... and as
we know, when we seek, we find. During this time I found the
writings of Dr. Joseph Murphy and I began to study his work, through his
books, "The Power of Your Subconscious Mind" and the powerful,
"The Amazing Law of Cosmic Mind Power." I also
discovered Wallace D. Wattles, "The Science of Getting Rich,"
and I no longer had any desire to attend any formalized religious or
spiritual teaching. But, as time went on I found that I wanted to
discuss what I had been reading with others. And with precision
the Law of Attraction brought me into a conversation with a secretary
where I worked. During this conversation we found that we were
both studying metaphysics. At that time she was attending Agape,
Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith's work in West Los Angeles. Although she
strongly encouraged me to attend Agape, I lived in Hollywood and I was
not attracted to the idea of driving to West Los Angeles on Sundays.
As Divine Law and Order worked, she eventually told me there was a
Religious Science church in Hollywood. As a matter of fact, I
drove past it every day and was not even aware of it! Why, because
it was not my time to be.
When I walked into the Hollywood Church of
Religious Science I was still not convinced that this was the place for
me. I still was uncertain if I was ready to break from traditional
religion. But after listening to Dr. Bitzer's message that day, I
was healed of Catholicism for life! Even though Dr. Bitzer was in
his 90's at the time, he attracted my full attention throughout his
entire service. I felt like he was talking directly and personally
to me. I was not sure why the other people were there (kidding!).
His talks were direct and to the point. Never did he bring in
contradictory philosophies or other spiritual teachings to confuse his
audience. He left the teaching of Buddhism ... to the Buddhists
... and all the other trendy philosophies that claimed a "quick
fix" for people's lives out of his teachings. He taught an
Absolute Principle which included the Law of Attraction and the Law of
Reciprocity. As he explained the Law of Mind, it totally
fascinated me and gained my enthusiasm to know more. Dr. Bitzer
studied the writings of Emerson, and I did too with great
enthusiasm. I learned two important universal truths in doing so;
"That which I am to do best only my Maker can teach me," and
"no teacher can give you that which they do not have
themselves." Dr. Bitzer, even in his 90's, had a great
enthusiasm for the Science of Mind. And that
enthusiasm touched me deeply and moved me to study for seven years and become a
Religious Science minister ... to teach the Science of Mind and the
Absolute Principle on which it is based: "We are surrounded
by an Infinite Possibility. It is Goodness, Life, Law and
Reason."
The Science of Mind teaches that we
attract conditions and people in our lives for a Good purpose.
What we may call good or bad, is merely an opinion formed by what we
have learned in our lives and the level of our awareness of God's
Presence in our life. We don't feel guilt or shame about the so
called, mistakes, that we have made in life. Instead, we know that
no matter what we may have done or failed to do, it will all work to our
Good ... if we let it. In other words, we accept the lessons from
our experiences and use them to transcend the consciousness that created
them ... and leave them to the past. Students of the Science of
Mind quickly learn that we cannot use the Law of Attraction to
demonstrate (manifest) Good in our life, if our mind is turned to our
past experiences. Our work is to move onward and upward, in
consciousness, and develop the awareness for Good and more Good than we
have ever previously experienced. And we attract this Good by
giving it our full attention and enthusiasm. Faith is built by
seeing the results of it ... not by making excuses as to why things
don't turn out the way we would like ... or worse yet, believing that
our Good is not God's will for us. God does not give us our
struggles and challenges ... these are illusions of a mind that is not
realizing its own power. Struggling only brings forth more to
struggle with. When we realize that all the Power we will ever
need comes forth through our mind, we begin to cease struggling and
begin expecting our Good to show up!
As we gain a
greater understanding of our relationship to the Infinite, we realize
that this life is a great adventure. Developing a consciousness
that is filled with enthusiasm, joy, love and strength ... we activate
the Law of Attraction in our lives and begin to understand that God can
only do for us, what It can do through us. And as we begin to
"live the Science of Mind" ... we find with absolute
conviction ... that "God is in the midst-of-me ... and this
realization is the way to a wonderful life!
AND SO IT IS!
Keep
the faith!
Rev. Hank
Bates
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