Sunday, October 28, 2001


                   It is an absolute Truth that we are created in the image and likeness of God; we are Spirit and we are Life.  The evidence of this defies contradiction.  The evidence also shows the truth that we are all unique in our expression of the One, there are no two of us alike.  This individualized expression of God that we are must express Itself in order to gain a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.  Each of us thinks individually and these thoughts that we think create our experiences.

           We can discipline our thoughts to create either heaven or hell in our experience.  We have the free will to do this.  No one can think for us and therefore no one can take our dominion and authority over our life from us, our free will, unless we consent to it.  Our thoughts, like our finger prints, are unique and this is an indisputable truth.  It is only in our human thinking that we allow ourselves to believe that anyone or anything can have power over us.  The power over our thoughts, our beliefs and our ideas about ourselves is God Ordained, God Sustained and God Maintained.  This power is God within us.  As we understand and know that "He that is within me, is greater than that which is in the world," we can live in freedom, peace, harmony and joy.

           But man has created many inventions that deny this authority and dominion.  We incessantly look out at the world with thoughts of big and small, greater and lesser, and this builds within us the creation of "comparisons."  Someone once said that "we live in a world of comparisons," and objectively this is correct but spiritually it is disaster.  Comparisons lead to all manner of discord in our lives, resentment, jealousy, inferiority, superiority, and so on.  The spiritual truth is that there is no big or small, there only is.  When we compare we lose sight of our spiritual identity and the understanding that we are in our right and perfect place at all times.  When we lose sight of this truth, then we begin, in our mind, to separate ourselves from God and this creates a lack of trust in the unconditional love that God Is.  After all, objectively can we believe that a homeless man and a man living in a 30 room mansion in Beverly Hills are both in their perfect right place and are both receiving unconditional love and protection from God?  Objectively this is difficult to understand, if not impossible.  Spiritually, it is quite simple.  Both are receiving precisely, perfectly, that which they are willing to accept in consciousness.  God has no favorites so we don't need to examine any other externals to figure this out.  It is an "inside" job.  What each are receiving is precisely to the point of perfection, that which they are accepting for themselves.  Why is there such a disparity in their level of acceptance?

            One of the reasons most probably is the level of their awareness and attention on comparisons.  Since we live in a universe with infinite abundance of every Good thing, when we compare we will always find that we have less.  Even the man in the 30 room mansion, will find someone with a 60 room mansion to make his home look small.  The mind that accepts more and more of the Good available in the universe does not stop and compare but keeps its attention on the beauty, the joy and the happiness of expressing life in a greater and greater way.  The Universe is always growing and expanding, never stopping to compare and if we are to align ourselves with the growth and expansion of the Universe, we must not stop and compare either.  In order to expand and grow both spiritually and in love, joy, peace, happiness and harmony on the objective side of life, we must continually keep our mind on more and more Good, knowing always that there is nothing to block us from accepting more and that "it is the Father's Good pleasure to give us the Kingdom."  When we stop and compare, out mind is not on the Good, not on the Kingdom, but on comparison, on a belief that perhaps there is something that we are not receiving or, that we are receiving more than others and once again we are caught up in the tricks of the ego mind that create superiority.  Inferiority and superiority come from a belief in big and small, greater and lesser, and both attitudes held steadily in mind, will create havoc in our lives.

         There are two statements in scripture that will keep us focused on the "Good Life" if we will take the time to remember them and affirm them as the Truth in our lives.  The first is a statement of unconditional love, "I have loved you with an everlasting love."  The second statement will keep us reminded of the first, "Thou wilt keep them in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee."  In other words, God loves us unconditionally, we must not deny this love by allowing our mind to believe in the tricks of comparisons.  Whatever Good we want to see more of in our experiences we must seek it first in our very own consciousness, in our awareness of the giving-ness of God.  What we take possession of in consciousness is ours.  The world cannot give it and the world cannot take it away.       
                                     
 And So It Is!             
                                                            
Letting Love use me in Its own Good Way,
Henry Lee Bates