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The Way to a Wonderful Life, Sunday, May 19, 2013   

       Eric Butterworth, "Spiritual Economics" Chapter 9, The Money Enigma - "A survey was conducted by a research department of a large university.  In essence, they wanted to know what effect money had on the lives of people.  Three of their findings:
What do people worry about most?  Money!
What makes people the happiest?  Money!
What makes people the unhappiest?  Money!
        You may say these results do not include you, for your mind is stayed on God as ever-present substance.  But no matter how lofty your spiritual ideals may be, no matter how many powerful affirmations of Truth you can speak by rote, you still have to pay your bills.  Emerson obviously experienced difficulties with this. He tells of a man who "rose to the empyrean heights and dove to the unfathomable depths, but never paid cash."

         We have learned that spiritual truth is often in direct opposition to many of the widely-held beliefs in the collective consciousness.  From the world we have learned that "money can't buy happiness" and with this negative view of money so many have found themselves in poverty and debt.  Our relationship to money determines how much of it we will have for our use ... and how much joy we shall have with it.  Eric Butterworth writes the following for us to realize the role of money in the lives of those both scientific and spiritual:  "Money supported Albert Schweitzer in the steaming jungles of Africa where he labored unselfishly for the natives.  Gandhi, in his extreme poverty, going about the land of India with his loin cloth and a little spinning wheel, giving the image of abject poverty, required a lot of money to care for him and his entourage.  One of his followers said, "It takes an awful lot of money to keep Gandhi living in poverty."  Even Jesus and his disciples were supported by money.  This aspect of his ministry is rarely considered, since Jesus has been given the image of a magic-worker who would simply pull money out of the air.  In the eighth chapter of Luke, there is a very revealing phrase:  "Certain women ... ministered unto him of their substance (money)" (Luke 8:2-3 KJV).  What could be clearer than that some of his followers were women of means who simply paid much of the expenses."

     There are many false ideas that we have accepted as truth in regards to money and wealth.  We have been told that we should give our money away to worthy causes even when the giving would leave us with little to enjoy life with.  Wallace D. Wattles addresses this in his book, "The Science of Getting Rich" where he writes:  "You do not want to get rich solely for the good of others.  Nor do you wish to lose yourself for the salvation of humanity or to only experience the joys of philanthropy and sacrifice.  The joys of the soul are only a part of life.  They are no better or nobler than any other part.  ... Get rid of the idea that God wants you to sacrifice yourself for others, that you can secure his favor by doing so.  God requires nothing of the kind."

     Money given from a feeling of abundance is money given with the right spirit.  Sharing our good and being genuinely generous develops a prosperity consciousness.  Obligation or sacrifice weighs us down ... sharing and generosity give us a feeling of happiness and confidence.  Both sharing and generosity keep us in tune with the spiritual Law that Jesus spoke of in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:29):  "For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away."  And from these words we can know that the spirit in which we give is the spirit that will draw to us the increase in the good that we desire to have, including money.  If we give, even though it may be to a very worthy cause or organization thinking that we will "have less" or that in some way we can manipulate the Law of G-d into multiplying back to us our gift, then we shall realize disappointment in some way.  But many people will say, but didn't Jesus tell the rich, young man to give up all that he had to the poor and follow him?  Yes, he did.  But, Jesus realized that the young man had allowed the fear of loss of what he had, even though he was rich, to make him miserable and unhappy. 

     There is no happiness with wealth when the fear of loss or lack fills our mind ... or thinking that people are out to cheat us because they know we are rich.  Some people are prosperous with money but experience poverty in their souls primarily because they believe they made the money ... and nobody including G-d gets any credit for their wealth but themselves ... and no one else deserves it but them.  This is pitiful prosperity and misery will surely show up in some way in the life of those who hold such mental dis-ease.

     Wallace D. Wattles writes, "What tends to do away with poverty is not the getting of pictures of poverty into your mind, but getting pictures of wealth into the minds of the poor. ... You are not deserting the poor in their misery when you refuse to allow your mind to be filled with pictures of that misery. ... Poverty can be done away with, not by increasing the number of well-to-do people who think about poverty, but by increasing the number of poor people who succeed in getting rich through the exercise of faith and purpose. ... The poor do not need charity.  They need inspiration.  Charity only sends them a loaf of bread to keep them alive in their wretchedness or gives them an entertainment to make them forget for an hour or two.  But, inspiration will cause them to rise out of their misery.  If you want to help the poor, demonstrate to them that they can become rich; prove it by getting rich yourself.  Get rich.  This is the best way that you can help the poor."  

     These words from Mr. Wattles may appear to be harsh words for some people, but in truth, "what one can do all can do" and if we see people as incapable of over-coming poverty, or any negative condition for that matter, then we are seeing them as inferior and this denies the truth of their being.  Everyone has access to the infinite abundance of the universe, but not everyone believes they can receive their part of it.  To reinforce the belief in anyone that they are dependent on charity, is to open up an avenue in our own consciousness to be dependent on someone or something outside of ourselves for our good.  At some point, this belief will be realized in our own personal experience of life.  What we know for anyone, we are knowing for ourselves as well.  Consciousness is everything and everything is consciousness.  What we believe for ourselves we must believe for everyone.  

     Let's think about these words from the Master Mind Jesus from the Gospel of John 5:5-9, "One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”  The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”  Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”   And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked."

     Rather than pity the man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years, Jesus knew that all that he really needed was not someone to pity him or to offer him charity, but someone to know the truth about him ... to know that the Spirit within him was greater than he appeared to be.  The world belief in poverty and misery has resulted in more people being poor and miserable.  Let's stop believing the things of the world and follow Jesus' instruction to "be in the world but not of the world" ... let's know that money can buy happiness for with money we have a greater possibility of being healthy, creative, confident and at peace with life.  Let those who believe that "money can't buy happiness" live with the results of their belief ... but let us reject this false-idea as just so much nonsense that will never give us the "life abundant" that is ours to experience.

AND SO IT IS!

Keep the faith!
Rev. Henry Bates

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Rev. Bates Blogs:   http://livingthesom.blogspot.com http://revbates-en-espanol.blogspot.com  http://Rev-Bates-una-vita-meravigliosa.blogspot.com Click here for Free e-books:  Prayer Is A Powerful Thing by Rev. Bates   The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace D. Wattles   All Power to You by Dr. Robert H. Bitzer Supreme Mastery of Fear by Dr. Joseph Murphy "spiritual ... not religious" "Even God could not have created a perfect individual.  We must go through the experiences of evolution." - Dr. Ernest Holmes