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As
many of us in spiritual studies have found, the time comes when we must
be  prepared
to "walk our talk." The Master Mind Jesus stated that we
will "know our faith by our works."
Dr. Ernest Holmes, Founder of Religious Science and author of the
"Science of Mind," wrote, "either
we are believing that it is, or we are believing that it is not."
He also stated that "this teaching is not worth a dime if we cannot
demonstrate it." In other words, "faith divorced from
works is not faith." There comes a time for all of us when we
have to put the books down and begin living our beliefs. Not the
beliefs and philosophy of the authors, the mystics, but our own.
In other words, we must put our words into action; the words we have
read, the words we have said and the words that will erupt in our minds
when we face our beliefs in our experiences!
The experiences that will bless us the most, are those experiences that
put us to the test. All of us will be given the opportunities to
demonstrate our faith, to see it unfold in our lives to the level that
we are willing to depend on it. Dr. Robert Bitzer, Founder of the
Hollywood Church of Religious Science, wrote that "we
must depend on Principle and Principle alone." This
Principle is Life, Love, God, Truth ....... Job 23:10
- "But he know-eth the way that I take: when
he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."
The books, the authors, the speakers, ministers, priests, rabbis,
practitioners ........ all of these.... are just our guides along the
path .... at some point each of us must go it alone ..... jump without a
parachute according to the ways of the world ....... but in
Reality, we are never without a parachute!
The Reality....... the Real, is God, Omnipresence.
But is Omnipresence "real" to us? That is always the
question and of course, most of us will answer this question many, many
times in our lives. An important question is, how much more of our
life do we want to spend with this question unanswered? At what
point do we want to make the "decision" to realize the
Presence of God in our daily experiences? Many of us have
experienced enough of life without this realization. We have
experienced confusion, disappointment, depression and all sorts of
effects of each of these. Are we ready to jump without a
parachute? Are we ready to put our beliefs to the test and move
into something way beyond what we have previously imagined for our
lives? Do we fear that we lack the faith to realize our dreams?
From
Rev. Mary Manin Morrissey of the Living Enrichment Center, Wilsonville,
Oregon, "Nobody has more faith than you do.
You have as much faith as the people you admire most in the world, those
whose accomplishments seem incomprehensible. Our faith is no less,
but our application of it may be faulty. Sometimes, we apply
our faith to holding back, believing more in what can go wrong than in
our knowledge that God can manifest good from any circumstance. But
as the Apostle Paul instructed, "Be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind." Take your mind off your problems and put it on
God and your natural faith emerges."
As we move
into this greater experience of a life "lived in faith," our
friends and family may see "miracles" happening in our lives,
but we will know that what the world calls miraculous is truly just a
normal and natural consequence of a "faith-filled" life
experience. And, yes, we may have a few more experiences that are
less than wonderful as our natural faith emerges... but we
can know without doubting, that "these too, shall pass."
As the wonderfully beautiful and often-mystical, Dolly Parton states,
"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with
the rain."
And
So It Is!
Living
The Way To A Wonderful Life,
Henry
Lee Bates
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"The
way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with