Spiritual Solutions

My wife and fellow Unity minister, Kathryn, counseling a woman who was upset, frustrated and unhappy with her partner, told her gently, “Just be kind!” And truly, this is the key to happiness.

Moment by moment, as we go about our daily tasks, the answer comes. “Just be kind!” life whispers. Be kind. We do not understand. It is too simple. Yet life, considering that every individual in the world is unique, repeats again and again, “Just be kind!” There is a great hunger in the world today for simple kindness, as there has been for many years. It is brought home to us in so many ways.

Some time ago, a sensitive and highly gifted woman in this country found herself suddenly thrown amid circumstances where she had almost no privacy. As a result, she began to dislike people; she shrank from contact with them, wishing she might never have to see them. Her dominant desire was to escape to some desert solitude, where she could feel the freedom of space and the healing balm of silence.

That being impossible, she decided she would play a game with life. She would pretend that she was “Mother of the Universe,” and that all beings in it were her children. If they misbehaved, it was because they had not been brought up properly. She would have to tolerate their short-comings, and see what she could do to re-educate them.

Sometimes she knew the people well enough to make some constructive suggestions. If a person was cruel or critical or unkind to some other person in her home, she would tactfully try to awaken in him or her a truer sense of values, either through speech or through example. If someone was greedy, she would be generous. If someone was afraid, she would be calm and serene, and either explain to him or show her that there was nothing to fear.

If she was among strangers, as on a bus for example, and people eager for seats trampled over others to get them, she would imagine that they were her own errant children whom she loved in spite of their waywardness, misbehaving in surroundings where she could not easily correct them. Then she would visualize them as considerate, instead.

In any event, her game of pretending that she was “Mother of the Universe” promoted understanding, sympathy and tolerance, and she found herself loving people again instead of hating them, welcoming people instead of avoiding them, performing acts of kindness instead of being critical, enjoying harmony instead of feeling discord.

Friends, life is made up of simple situations; if we can learn to handle little tasks with love, they will become great, and so will we. Kindness is more than a virtue; it is a power in the up building and restoration of prosperity. It is the antidote for unkindness, the only cure for the aftereffects of unkindness.

Kindness may be administered by the least as well as the greatest. It will restore confidence, spread good will, enrich the consciousness as well as the coffers of the individual, business firm, and government.

Yes, the eternal cry of life is “Just be kind!” Be kind in little things. Handle little things with love, and you will be happy, unworried, even more prosperous and healthy.

Practice the spirit of mothering, of loving, of being kind and understanding, patient and tolerant. Not only will your individual world become harmonious and peaceful and happy, but the world in general will have just that more weight on the constructive side.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Today I choose to be a peacemaker. If I am experiencing disharmony within myself or with another, I affirm this simple, yet powerful. statement. Let us then consider this statement in light of four roads to peace that have been suggested by the Bible.

First, The Damascus Road. Paul was traveling this road with the intention to completely destroy the Christian movement. He was on his way to Damascus on this militant mission when he was struck blind in a spiritual experience, and when several days later the “scales fell from his eyes,” he began to see for the first time in the light of Truth.

It was not just a changing of sides or a switch from one persuasion to another. It was an awakening to a new level of consciousness on which he began to perceive things from an entirely new frame of reference. Paul had been sure of his rightness in his devotion to the destruction of the Christian movement which was to him the road to peace. But the true road to peace for him was an awakening, a change, a conversion. This was symbolized in the change of names, from Saul to Paul; there had likewise to be a change of nature.

We must understand this, that we cannot find peace in a fast-changing world by the methods and concepts applied in the past. As Jesus said, “Except you be born anew, you shall not see the Kingdom.” There must be an awakening, a new birth, a new view, an enlargement of the concept. Paul thus revealed a spiritual inroad to peace, the Truth with a capital “T” which urges us to follow the divinity within ourselves. He knew that only by doing so could the new heaven and the new earth come into manifestation.

Second, The Emmaus Road. Two of the disciples were on the road to Emmaus after the crucifixion, and along the way the resurrected Christ appeared to them. On the Emmaus Road a new concept was born: “Immanuel,” God with us, for here was the demonstration of the ever-living Christ, the Christ of every road.

The Emmaus Road is the revelation of the Christ within, the rediscovery of what Jesus had in mind, the divinity of humankind, the realization that worship is not a performance but an inner experience. This leads to a road to peace that is a road of love and understanding, of believing in the inherent divinity in all persons, of seeing the Truth of the Christ in ourselves and working to deal with people everywhere on the level of the Christ in them. The Road to Emmaus leads us to a new level of consciousness on which we can be honest with ourselves and others as we recognize the Truth of being and sense the non-material “peace that passes understanding.”

Third, The Road to Jericho. We are all familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan who helped the man who had been injured and robbed by thieves then left to die by the side of the road. The Samaritan treated his wounds and took him to the inn and cared for him. The priest and the Levite who passed by on the other side were religious and had the means to help, but they did not do so. They represent ignorance and indifference to the spiritual dimension of life. The Samaritan had the courage and the strength and the power to help, but he had one thing more – he had the compassion to act.

The story points up an important realization, not that I am my brother’s keeper, but that I am my brother’s brother. Even more, as Emerson puts it, “The heart and soul of all men being one, this bitterness of his and mine ceases; he is mine – I am my brother and my brother is me.” There is thus the compassion to act.

The Jericho Road to peace starts with the compassion to act with one person, in the recognition that we are all one; it begins with a commitment to do what we can with what we have for whom we are able.

Finally, The Road to Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Road is that of commitment to goals higher than personal. It is the victory of the divine over the human. Jesus knew what was ahead, but to be lifted up he had to go to Jerusalem, to “lose his life so that he could find it.”

So it is with us; we must be willing to let go much of what we hold on to in consciousness in order that we may find the peace and freedom so deeply desired by us. As has been said, everyone wants peace but not many are willing to do that which makes for peace. Are we willing to walk the Jerusalem Road, the road to true peace? Are we willing to renounce our warlike nature and everything based on fighting and violence? For there will be no peace until we have peaceful hearts and a loving consciousness. Peace begins with you. This is the Jerusalem Road to peace. Are you ready to be a peacemaker?

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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It was Lao-tzu who said that one lives in proportion to the number of points with which he or she contacts life and the world, inferring that the flow of life must go outward to form a harmonious interaction with people. To love God and your neighbor, as Jesus instructs us, is to “establish points” with which you contact life and the world. It is to get into the flow of love. You will invariably find it easier to get along with people when you go along with the movement of the flow of love.

There is a flow of love and harmony everywhere, whether you are aware of it or not, and whether you are consciously moving in it or not. This is what the omnipresence of God means. You are never out of the Presence of God even though you may be out of the consciousness of the Presence. You are never out of the flow of love and life. The important thing is to be in conscious awareness of this flow.

If you could realize the importance of keeping consciously in the flow of life and the danger of getting out of this flow even for one instant, you might see any episode of confrontation in the light of what it reveals about you rather than the other person. Then take a moment to “be still and know” and use it as a reminder to get back in the flow.

The key to staying in the flow of love is conscious awareness. I remember a significant moment for me from many years ago, when my children were acting up and I was yelling at them to behave. I suddenly became aware that I was acting out my own father, who sometimes yelled at us kids like that when he was frustrated with us. I realized that I didn’t need to do that, I didn’t need to yell at my kids and it didn’t do any good anyway, in fact it made matters worse. It was a moment of conscious awareness for which I am very grateful. Since that time so long ago, I have noticed that being consciously aware is an integral part of my spiritual growth. 

Well, what can you do when you think a person is being mean and nasty toward you? When Jesus says, “Pray for those who despitefully use you,” he indicates the need to elevate your thoughts about them, for they are your thoughts that are obstructing the flow in your mind. In other words, stop resisting and start loving. Get yourself back in the flow. The Truth is, if you could really know this person and vice-versa, there would only be love between you. For that is the reality of life which human experiences and one’s reactions to them tend to obscure.

Then what can you do when you seem to be surrounded by people with whom you have so little in common, people who may appear to be beneath you, and people who resist your efforts even to get along with them? You can turn on more light. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” (Matt. 5:14) You may wonder why you are there. You are there to let your light shine. The important thing is that, at the moment you are there. And wherever you are, God is. Wherever you are, there is a flow of light and love. Get in the consciousness of it.

Former Unity minister and author, Eric Butterworth, in his book In the Flow of Life, suggests that every morning, before setting out into the world, or before making the initial contact with the world through watching or reading the morning news, it is the better part of wisdom to prepare yourself by a prayer or meditation to get consciously in the flow of life. He says, “It is a simple matter of getting your lights turned on before you face any darkness in the world or in human behavior. In the flow of love you will tend to see and respond to the divinity in all persons, and so you will establish yourself in the kind of consciousness that you desire to experience, letting it flow through you and go from you.”

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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This morning, when I went outside to pick up the newspaper at 5:30, the night sky was clear and filled with stars. I was reminded of when I served in the British Royal Navy many years ago and I was on night watch while we sailed the Indian Ocean; the night sky was filled with stars that looked like huge jewels in the far reaches of space.

It must have been on such a night when the psalmist looked up in the sky and spoke the words recorded in Psalms 8: “When I look at thy heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.” (Ps. 8:3-6)

As I read those words again, my heart is filled with inspiration, gratitude and wonder at the Divine Order in which we live, move and have our being. In this month of November, the month of giving thanks, there is perhaps no better time to recognize and give thanks for the divine order that permeates every area of our lives.

Even when we are not aware of it, order is here, because God is here. Divine order is the very essence of God which brings to us the experiences that help us learn and grow. Its presence in our lives assures us that all is well, that everything will work out for the best.

Divine order is not something we earn or achieve. We do not have to search for order, because it was there all along. To know this is true, we need only perceive it with the faith of spiritual vision and spiritual understanding.

The former Unity minister and author Eric Butterworth once told of being involved in an experience of square dancing. He said that he was never very good at it, but he remembered the caller giving instructions. Eric was having a difficult time, running into people and generally disrupting the entire group. The caller finally came over and said quietly to him, “You gotta keep in step or you’ll bump into the person next to you. In dancing you either cooperate or collide.” Cooperate or collide . . . Eric said he always remembered that.

Certainly we must keep in step with divine order, the divine plan within ourselves, or we shall find ourselves bumping into people and things all about us. When we fail to operate in accord with the laws of God, we are sure to collide with people or situations or things sooner or later.

And what is cooperation? It is love. It is the attitude of mind wherein we do not work alone. We do not operate, we cooperate. We work with God. We work with people. The same law that guides the planets in their courses is in control right here on earth for those who accept the law. In the scriptures we are told, “Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.” Cooperate or collide is a good law of life.

Our success, our well-being and indirectly our prosperity are very much dependent upon how well we get along with other people. We are told in Romans 13:10 that “love is the fulfilling of the law.” Love is the expression of the natural law of divine order in the universe as the strongest single force in existence. No other human force is so thoroughly impregnated by the power of God.

“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (I John 3:1) There is no element of trying to change or make or shape things into a new pattern. Open your eyes and see; recognize something that actually exists. For example, a man in a dark room feeling his way about suddenly touches the light switch. He doesn’t alter anything in the room, he doesn’t make anything, and he doesn’t add anything or take anything away. Yet, suddenly, everything is changed. The things that acted as stumbling blocks in the darkness are found to be the most useful and beautiful. Everything is in harmony which seemed before to be naught but evil to his darkened vision.

The electric switch that transforms and transmutes the miracle before our eyes in the relationships of life is our right use of divine love. It changes our whole perspective. Think of yourself not as a worker, but as a co-worker with God, with the divine law, and a partner with those who work with you. The spirit of love will lead you into the ways of cooperation, and into giving from the abundance and benevolence of divine order. For, as Amy Carmichael said, “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”

Begin right where you are to turn on the light of love. Love will make you non-resistant, cooperative, and helpful. Love will lead you to a greater spirit of service and a keener sense of fair-play. Love will enable you to have greater drive and more enthusiasm. Love will make you creative and successful.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev.  Alan A.  Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Trust and Surrender are such important elements in a unified consciousness. We tend to think of trust as something we give in response to something we get but, as spiritual teacher Jeddah Mali reminds us: “In the spiritual world it works exactly the other way around. First we extend trust and then we experience the fruits of safety.”

Many people feel that it is naïve to extend trust without a good reason or a good history to back up such a decision, that with so many violent and disturbing events on our planet, fear is a valid response. But is it? What does fear do for us? It produces an environment where we see different circumstances as a threat. If we are fearful we are putting out a strong message, and thoughts held in mind tend to produce after their kind. We draw our fears toward us and we can say with Job, “That which I feared has come upon me.” Then when we experience the very circumstances we were afraid of we often use it as a justification for being afraid in the first place. Little do we realize that we are creating it over and over again.

How often do we question the validity of our fears? When you come to think about it, you can see that all fear stems from something imagined that may happen to us in the future. We seldom have fears about anything in the past, and we rarely fear what may happen today.

Check up on your fears, find out their origin, and doubtless you will find that every one of them has some reference to the future. And therefore it is based upon an unreality, because the future is unreal; it doesn’t exist. Only the present is really important. So stop thinking so much about the future or living in it, and you will no longer be tortured with thoughts about what tomorrow might bring. If you learn to do this, you will experience a richness of life that you could never have dreamed possible. The anxieties and petty fears that now keep you upset about the future will be gone.

The future as we think about it cannot be lived ahead of time. We are in the midst of life now, so let’s live in the present knowing that those things that do not really exist, such as things in the future, cannot harm us or hurt us. As we learn to live today, we shall discover more resources in our lives than we ever thought existed.

To live a completely happy life, all of life must be lived in the present, not in the future and not in the past, which is, of course, impossible except for the mind. When we try to live in the past, our lives are often lives of regret and remorse. If we live in the future, it is usually a life of fear and worry. Only the present is truly important and if it is lived happily, joyfully, filled with peace and comfort both in mind and body, then the future is bound to be more of the same.

From the activity of the Divine Presence time comes to you one moment at a time, and it is your joyous privilege to live each moment as it comes. Into each moment comes the power that is God, poised in influence and action. Therefore, there is never a moment when you are really lacking in strength, wisdom, harmonizing love, and creative power to do all the things that need to be done by you.

There’s only one thing you cannot do – you cannot stop that central light of God shining in you. You can completely surrender to that understanding, for you have no presence outside the Divine Presence; you live in it, move in it, and have your being in it. And surrender is not giving up what we love; it’s giving up engaging in what’s holding us back, our doubts and fears and limiting thoughts. Profound trust surrenders us to our good.

There is never one moment when you are farther from the all-sufficiency of the Infinite than one prayerful thought. Remember this when you are tempted to worry about the future. I love the thought expressed by one man in his realization of the Divine flow in and through his life: “I am spiritually drenched with divinity.” Can you imagine anything that could bring you more happiness and peace of mind? Once you begin to feel the presence of the eternal in every fiber of your being, you will give up worry and dread in regard in regard to the future. You will give up trying to live in a world that is yet to come.

You have only the present at your command. Let the past remain past, and let the future come to you as it will. Possess life now and live each day as it comes, serenely, joyously, comfortably and with a deep active trust and faith in the presence and power and love of God expressed in and through and as you.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Whenever you feel bitterness, resentment or unforgiveness, it is a time for-giving. If you truly forgive from your heart, in that moment letting go of whatever situation prompted the bitterness, resentment or unforgiveness you will find it is also a time for-getting. It is a time for getting a sense of peace, for getting in touch with the love in your heart, for getting an opportunity to express your true self, and for getting into the flow of love and harmony.

We hear it said, “Well, I’ll forgive, but I won’t forget.” Forgiveness is not an obligation or a “have to.” If you continue to feel the emotions and sensations around the situation, forget about forgetting; just focus on the forgiveness. However many times it comes to mind, forgive. Remember the response of Jesus when Peter asked whether he should forgive even seven times: “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” In other words, keep forgiving as long as it takes.

You see, for-giving is a form of giving which brings an appropriate return according to the sincerity of our actions. We must give in order to receive. And, of course, as in all our giving, our motivation must not be to get something in return, but for-giving simply out of the awareness that forgiveness is a choice and a necessary action for our own spiritual health. For forgiveness to be authentic, it has to be a choice and not a chore. Let it be a spontaneous flow of love and forgiveness toward the other person.

Forgiveness and understanding go hand in hand. Remember this, just like you, the other person is doing the best that he or she can at any given point in time. Forgiveness of yourself starts with self-acceptance, and forgiveness of others is the acceptance of others just as they are. Forgiveness is recognition that, in essence, we are all the same.

At all times, there is a wellspring of Infinite life, substance, and intelligence within you, and you can give way to its flow into your experience. Sometimes we block that flow, and the most effective remedy is to give and forgive. There’s an old saying that when things get tight, something’s got to give. And that means you. You must give, by giving way to the flow of infinite and eternal energy from which all things proceed.

One of the most effective ways of getting back into the flow is through giving. You may have been thinking lack, thinking “get” or the need to “get.” Now you need to “think give.” It’s the “give” in it that makes all the difference! The need is to think “give,” to give way to the inner flow. Jesus says, “The Father knows what you need before you ask him.” Couple this with the promise that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, and we realize that the answer is always within.

When we think “give” and “for-give” not only will our thoughts be in the flow of spiritual power, which will invest our own words with creative power, but also we will become ready and willing channels for giving in life’s relationships, which in turn will draw even greater good to us. It is a continuing cycle that is always in evidence with the spiritual healthy-minded person.

Life is a flowing experience and, as Emerson says, ”Within every person is an inlet that may become an outlet to all there is in God.” All that is required is that we “give way,” let it be, or as Meister Eckhart said, “let God be God in us.” Think “give,” for life is lived from within-out.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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We’re getting some new windows on one side of our house next week, and it got me to thinking about how our soul could sometimes do with new windows. It is said that your eyes are the windows of your soul; that means they’re not only for others to look into to catch a glimpse of your soul, but they are the windows through which your soul looks outward. So, ask yourself what you see when you look at your life, your world and others in it.

I am reminded of the scriptural passage in Isaiah 54:2, God speaking, “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; hold not back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.” It seems to me that we often need new windows to look through, to “let the curtains of our habitations (where we habitually dwell) be stretched out,” to see a larger vision for ourselves and for others. We need to grow in conscious awareness of God’s ever-present reality, in which we “live and move and have our being.”

As God said to Abraham (Gen. 13:14-15, 17) “Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I will give to you . . . Arise, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” We are talking of awareness, of being aware of the benevolence of God active in your life right now and the gifts that are continuously given. This is the nature of God; it is the lovingness of God presence omnipresent, giving of itself in, through and as you. As it says in the scriptures, “We love because God first loved us.”

I well remember the words of James Dillet Freeman that made a distinct impression upon me when he spoke at the Unity church I attended in 1969, which at that time was located in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He said, “Look with the eyes of love.” I have found that when we really do that we align ourselves with our true nature, and we see rightly.

In answering the question, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” a question which was meant to test him, Jesus, referring back to the biblical books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, responded “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

When Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” he is giving us an imperative, to enable us to dwell in the warmth of our own Divine support. For to live is to be in relationship. If we look with the eyes of love at the other person, we will see that his life is as it is because of the way he is seeing life. We will be looking through a new window and making an attempt to stand with him or her and to see as he or she sees. One of the best ways to try to understand someone is to see the good in him or her. In many places in the scriptures it implies that this is the way of the saints, those who love God in themselves and in others.

All true saints have one characteristic: their ability to relate to all people, to walk and talk with all persons, to identify alike with the leper and the criminal, the disfigured and the stupid, the thief and the alien, the coward and the heretic, with the beast of the field, the bird of the air, and the fish of the sea. Somehow these saints comprehend the shared existence of creation.

A saint is one who is fulfilling the process; a saint is what one is intended to be. Jesus demonstrated the potential in all persons; he showed what a person will be if he or she releases his or her imprisoned splendor. This is what all religions are about, despite doctrinal differences: the proper way to be a spiritually mature person. It is the first and foremost lesson of life. The more creatures unlike yourself you can identify with, the more fully do you reveal what you can be.

Our problem is that we do not know or love ourselves fully enough to be able to truly know and love others. We can identify with the similar, and not with the dissimilar. This is why we tend to organize in groups or categories of people with common traits or needs or backgrounds.

By nature we are generous and loving, but we often frustrate and restrict our impulses in very subtle ways. We must challenge ourselves to change the tendency of simply looking at people, and try to look with them through the same window, which means that we must first accept the fact of their existence and thus the significance of their lives and our shared experience. In this way we are able to empathize and walk in their shoes for a while, as we together look through what may be for us a whole new window.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Today, Sunday, April 24, is Easter Sunday. During the forty days of Lent we have been preparing ourselves for this resurrection day, this Easter experience of our own lives.
 
 
Here is the message for Easter Sunday:
 
Resurrection is the rising of man out of the human thoughts, beliefs and superstitions in which he is submerged. This is the waste of the ages. Instead of discarding this waste in experiencing Truth, man has become enmeshed, mind, body and soul in this waste which results in an outer experience he calls death. Death is the cessation of the activity of breath and life.
 
All breath and life proceed out of the consciousness of life. The awareness of the functions of life which are faith, love, will, strength, imagination, wisdom, the power to listen and understand and the ability to let the love of God move unhampered through the experiences, is the true purpose of every human form.
 
Life is consciousness! Death is the lack of consciousness. Man becomes smothered and lifeless in the machinations of his own mind and the misdirection of his feeling nature. The result is inertia. It is the destination of power to move itself. Life is activity! Death is the result in life of inherent or habitual indisposition to activity.
 
This activity is caused by the forgotten use of the powers of life, such as loving, willingness and ability to serve with joy, freedom and with original power and authority. Death is a forgetfulness of life which results in heaviness and a dreading of the faculties of life. It is the lethal, fatal condition of complete unconsciousness.
 
The overcoming of such a condition is the resurrection. There is a power in man which if he knows and uses, he will never taste death. Man himself makes the cession by yielding his true self, by accepting something less than all truth.
 
Every time we are aware consciously of this indwelling power within, our mind is resurrected. There indwells man one great Truth, that man himself is not personality or even individuality; man is the one unlimited, all knowing, eternal all powerful essence of life we call God. When man knows in mind, body and soul who and what he is, there will be no death.
 
Resurrection is a moment by moment awareness, a bringing to view again that which was forgotten or lost. It is to rise again to an original concept of life and includes the renewal of the body!
 
 
(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)
 
If you’d like to hear an Easter Message in two parts, click the play buttons below and Let Your Spirit Soar!
 
Let Your Spirit Soar! – Part 1

Let Your Spirit Soar! – Part 2

God is Blessing You, Right Now!
 
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
 
——————————————————————–
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com
 
To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com
                                                 
Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.
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Today, Saturday, April 23, is the fortieth day of the Lent. Lent is the period of time during which we can prepare ourselves for the Easter experience. 
 

Assignment 40
 
Relaxing is the perfect form for receiving. An old and familiar phrase, “easy does it,” means the same thing as “let go and let God!” They both have the same effect. To be a happy-go-lucky soul is to win the world. To be tight, tense, fretful and anxious, is to close the door of your good.
 
To receive the Divine activity in our lives, to allow our perfect pattern to come forth, there must be a period of rest, complete detachment and non-resistance. Man’s striving, his laboring, his struggling is a detriment to his release of the real power within. To “be still and know” (resting in the Lord) is man’s most difficult assignment. Nevertheless, it is the only way of accomplishment.
 
To contend, contest, to vie, to compete and battle is a hindrance to man’s true development. It has built a world that is a juggernaut and he himself is crushed by its wheels. Wealth, fame, fortune, possessions momentarily takes their toll, as does poverty, lack and loneliness rob us daily.
 
Striving from one to the other is man’s physical destroyer. To find an inner peace and inner calm in the center of the storm is man’s only hope; continual progress is neither possible nor desirable. We must have times of renewal for consolidating our gains and for gathering new strength. If we do not take them, they are pushed upon us by the wise and unrelenting law of life.
 
There must be a resting in God. This is where we fail, we are afraid of the wait and of the inactivity. We all run in such high speed we miss the true power. We need to let our soul catch up with our bodies. Man is afraid of a rest period, but all of nature is dormant at sometime, that it may be refilled. Man runs dry because he will not rest in the Law.
 
Some of the greatest development is achieved in a rest period; many times it is a forced experience. No one has ever gone down in any kind of experience without coming up a new being. We often must be forced out of the race of striving to find the real power through which all things are accomplished. “Our remedies in ourselves do lie, which we ascribe to heaven,” Shakespeare said. Nothing is truly ours until we use it and prove it. Do your part, rest in the law and see what God will do. The power that raised Jesus Christ from the tomb is in you today!
 
 
(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)
 
 
God is Blessing You, Right Now!
 
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
 
——————————————————————–
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com
 
To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com
                                                 
Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.
——————————————————————–
 
 

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Today, Wednesday, April 20, is the thirty-seventh day of Lent. Lent is the period of time during which we can prepare ourselves for the Easter experience.
 
 
Assignment 37
 
Sometimes we feel so alone. There may be many people around us but none to whom we can turn and feel release and companionship. It may take much of a lifetime to find such a one. We live with many we love and honor without finding this precious relationship.
 
Strange as it may be the only completely satisfying companionship in the outer comes only when we have made an inner adjustment in regard to the person. Outer companionships do not “wear well” and lead to loss or maladjustment unless we have made our own inner agreement.
 
First we must be able to commune with an inner wisdom, knowledge and understanding. This has been called “native intelligence.” Biblically it is called “the inner voice,” truthfully it is God. All activity in and through us must be common to our thinking mind, our feeling nature and extend to every cell of the physical body. These three must be connected and must participate in every moment of life if we are to be a whole being. We cannot function fully as a partial God.
 
We usually omit one or the other. If we have accepted mind and feeling, we believe the body unfit for spiritual experiences. If we have accepted mind and spirit we exclude the body. In true communion the man and God interchange, mingle and move into true expression. It has been difficult for man to understand God as part of his physical self.
 
The Truth of God’s presence in man as life and intelligence has been something that man could not “bear to hear.” He did not understand it as a “common” condition or relationship. The very ideas of our mind flow from the fountainhead of God. We are to appropriate, accept, and integrate this Truth into our whole being. We must eat and drink, let our whole being absorb all Truth.
 
The relationship of man and God is common to all. To be aware and let it become alive in us is Communion. The consciousness of God’s Presence with you becomes the bread of heaven. Activity and use becomes the wine of life. Man’s relationship to life and to others is the crux of his fulfillment.
 
Man’s greatest and deepest relationship is his kinship with himself. To have true relationship with yourself is to companion with God! Bread is the Truth of your Oneness, wine is the acting, living, and being. Eat and Drink!
 
 
(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)
 
 
God is Blessing You, Right Now!
 
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
 
——————————————————————–
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com
 
To subscribe for free weekday inspirational quotes, Rich Words, go to www.alanrowbotham.com
                                                 
Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.
——————————————————————–
 
 
 
                                                    

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