Weekly Message for Sunday, April 7, 2002                                           

"All great people have felt an invisible Partner, an interior awareness.  It is involved in us; we do not walk through this life alone."  Ernest Holmes - The Science of Mind

                   Almost all religions and spiritual teachings state that our lives will become richer and fuller as we focus on God and live according to religious and/or spiritual principles.  Moses was charged with leading the journey to the Promised Land and ever since then, most of us have embraced the hope that was within Moses and assumed that there is "Good for me and I ought to have it."   Both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible are filled with promises of Good and these same promises are contained in the literature of all legitimate spiritual/religious teachings.  However, we must do the work to reveal the Good, and for most of us this has been challenging and confusing work to accomplish.

               Our challenge and confusion can start to be resolved by understanding that the world that we live in is what we see, hear, taste, touch and smell.  For many of us, if we can't see it, hear it, taste it, touch it or smell it - it doesn't exist.  This is not the Truth.  All spiritual principles are based on the "unseen" and until we cultivate a faith in the "unseen" we will not gain the "effective use" of spiritual principles.  We can compare the "unseen" to gravity.  We cannot see, hear, taste, touch or smell gravity, but we know it exists and most of us know how it works.  Just like the Great Unseen, God, we cannot draw a picture of gravity.  Gravity works all the time for everybody, just like spiritual principles.

             The greatest spiritual principle that has been revealed is, "it is done unto you as you believe."  The Master Mind Jesus restated this principle and demonstrated its effectiveness.  We can't see, hear, taste, touch or smell our "beliefs" - but we all have them and we all understand them to a certain measure.  Our beliefs are stored in our subconscious and even though we may not always be aware of their power, they are working constantly to "do unto us as we believe."  They never stop, just like gravity.  They work when we are awake and they work when we are asleep.  The problems that we experience are "caused" by our beliefs and the joys that we experience are "caused" by our beliefs.  Our beliefs will do unto us exactly as we believe.  If we believe we are "born lucky" we will experience luck.  If we believe that "the world is against us" we will experience this belief.

            Most of the beliefs that do not serve us are based on a belief in what we see and hear.  Most of us have accepted and believed in the world that we see.  Unfortunately, the world that we see is a result of the belief in "good and evil," and this is a false belief.  There is only Good, for there is only God.  Not God and something else, only God.  Just like gravity, there is not gravity and something else that is a natural force of attraction - only gravity is - it doesn't need anyone's help to do its work - it just does it, naturally and automatically without any assistance.  God works in the same way.  God doesn't need our help, our prayers or our promises........ God works naturally and automatically giving us everything we ask for according to our beliefs.  The nature of God is to give and so It does without opinion or judgment of right and wrong, good and evil.

             Now that we understand the nature of God, we can move towards the Promised Land and know that we can "live" there, not just journey there as did Moses.  As we make the decision to believe in the "unseen" ideas and thoughts of love, peace, harmony, success, prosperity and happiness, and keep our mind off the "externals," our beliefs will demonstrate for us greater love, peace, harmony, success, prosperity and happiness - naturally and automatically.  As we cultivate the belief that we are divinely guided and protected, sustained and maintained, we will soon forget the old beliefs that gave us confusing and sometimes disturbing experiences.  These old beliefs lose their power quickly as we fill our consciousness with God or Good.  Believe in Good and Good must happen.  We don't have to make it happen or even understand how it happens, it will just happen, naturally and automatically.

           Our beliefs in the Good create our Promised Land.  It is there waiting for us....... always has been...... but we must believe it - in order to live it!

 And So It Is! 
                                                            
Letting Love use me in Its own Good Way,
Henry Lee Bates