Spiritual Solutions

The free gift of God is eternal life. – Rom. 6:23

How freeing it is to know life as a Universal flow! The flow is personalized in you and as you. You are an integral part of the Universe, where each part contains within it all the elements of the whole. Thus there is that of you that is more than your physical body, and the you that transcends the body is what Eric Butterworth called “a time-space parenthesis in the Universal dimension of eternity.” The important thing is that you are a unique individualization of God. What ever else life is, you are in it, you are its livingness, you are here, and you are alive and living. But where did you come from? Where will you go when you die? 

Unless we have a view of life that transcends or at least includes death, we will experience fear and dread about our own life, and confusing bereavement in facing the passing of another. Some persons are so unnerved at the passing of a loved one that their faith is shattered, and they turn away from religion because of the “untimely” death of a friend or loved one. This indicates that they were trying to understand God through their experiences, indicating a very limited concept of God.

The need is to begin with God as the underlying principle, and then to look at trouble from this transcendent perspective. Looking at death through the consciousness of God is to see not a void, but another dimension of life.

Some persons think it is negative to talk about death. However, fear of dealing with the subject could indicate a subconscious bondage to it. It may suggest that our faith does not include the wholeness of life that transcends death. When we get the realization of wholeness then we see death as a part of the wholeness and not a deviation from it.

Life that appears to begin with birth and end with death is like one instant in the movement of a wave in the ocean. In one instant the wave is a particular body of water. In this moment life for you is your body. But life is not limited to your body. If the body should be laid aside by death, it would not be the end of you or of the flow of life projected through you and as you. The wave moves on! Thus, it is not possible to understand life unless we are willing to look squarely into and through this thing called death.

It could be said that death is the other side of life, and life is the other side of death. Could it be that a transcendent self looks out through the eyes of an infant and sees with the unconscious wisdom of a previous life, and that the loved one who passes from our sight may be on the way to an inexorable new birth?

The important thing is to know that you are an eternal expression of the Universal flow, and that there is no beginning and no end to you. Thus, knowing that you are going to live forever, you can let go your apprehensions and anxieties about death, and get on with the business of living your life from within-out one day at a time.

The Psalmist says, “A day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day.” Imagine life between birth and death as one day of livingness. You rise in the morning, launch into the day, experience its problems and blessings, and then, even if you are not satisfied with the day, eventually you relax into a night’s sleep. And what is night? It is the “brief shadow through which we pass from sunlight to sunlight.” It brings rest and renewal. And the morning comes . . . and beginning again.

Obviously, all this is not easy to realize when you stand before the casket containing the physical form of one whom you have loved. But perhaps your understanding of life is not yet broad enough to encompass life that transcends birth and death. It is natural to have feelings of sadness, but the sadness can be tempered with the joy of knowing that your loved one is in the flow of life and that he or she goes forward to meet his or her good.

Seek to embrace a larger sphere, and know the Truth of a limitless flow of life. God is life, in whom there can be no beginning and ending. There can be no death in God, and thus there can be no death, in terms of the finality of life, for your loved one.

So what is death? Jesus said of the little girl, “She is not dead, but sleepeth.” Death is no more a reality or finality than sleep. Get this thought of the eternal flow of life that transcends death into your consciousness . . . and you will be free of fear of death, free from the burdens of worry over the passing of time or the deepness of grief over the passing of a loved one.

You can resolve to live each day as if it were the only day of all eternity . . . which in fact it is! Yesterday no longer exists, and tomorrow and the days of the future will simply unfold out of the continuous flow of the experience that is now in its unfoldment. In its complete sense, life simply is. Let us accept it, live it, and rejoice in it.

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-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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You have a healing power deep within your soul!

You are a child of God, a child of the Universe, an individualized expression of the Most High. In God you live and move and have your being; in the Universe you live and move and have your being. God dwells within you; the Universe dwells within you. The whole Universe walks with you; you do not walk the path of your life alone. The Universe is dynamically involved in you; its dynamic flow is always expressing as you. Thus you are always in touch with the flow of healing power.

Once you capture the idea that you are a whole creature, a child of the Universe, the very expression of the Universal stream of life, you will not be satisfied until you find improvement in health. As one example of this dynamic connection, Myrtle Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement, after a medical verdict that she only had a few months to live from terminal tuberculosis, got in touch with the flow of healing life and went on to live a full life for more than forty years.

It has been said that God is a circle whose center is everywhere. Know that God is a circle that is centered in you. All the attributes of the Infinite are in focus as you, flowing forth through you. You are in this flow right now. Indeed, you are this flow at the point where you are. Thus you are a child of the Universe, a Son or Daughter of God.

Meditate on this tremendous insight. It means that you are created in the image-likeness of an infinite idea. No matter what other influences may have left their mark on you from the outside, there is that of you that is begotten only of God, which is forever the divine flow from the inside.

You can be healed. You can be healed because you are whole! You have a healing power deep within your soul. Appearances may limit your judgment and your faith but the fundamental Truth remains: you are a child of the Universe, and spiritually you can never be cut off from the stream of life, what Solomon (Song of Sol. 4:15) and Jesus called “living water” and “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:10, 14)

Early in the morning, take a few moments to “wait on the Lord,” to get yourself plugged in as it were. You can even do this while you are still in bed, before you get involved in the day’s activities. The current of life is within you as always, but you need to consciously get your thoughts on the right side. First, focusing in on your breath, affirm for yourself, “With every breath I breathe, I breathe the breath of God, and I am healed.”

Then you can also affirm something like this: “I am in the flow of life itself, and I move easily with the flow. I am free from tension, stress, and strain and I go forward in the flow, unhurried and unworried. I am radiantly and enthusiastically alive.” Finally, affirm, “I am a child of the Universe, established eternally in the healing stream of life. I am strengthened, renewed, restored, and made whole in every way.”

You can be healed! Remember that the healing stream is constant, not present only when you affirm that it is working. The need is not to overcome illness, but simply to open up the way whereby you get into the eternal flow of life. You have a healing power deep within your soul. You have a healing power ready to unfold, right where you are.

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-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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RESTING IN GOD

40th Day, Saturday. Read Isaiah 11:1-10; 12:1-6.

After Jesus’ crucifixion He was laid to rest in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. Jesus represents the expression of the I AM identity. Arimathea represents an aggregation of thoughts of lofty character, a high state of consciousness in man. Joseph represents a state of consciousness in which we improve in character along all lines. We not only grow into a broader understanding but also we increase in vitality and substance. We are resting in God, and at the same time gathering strength for the power of greater demonstrations to follow.

A degree of cleansing, a wiping out of sense consciousness has been accomplished. By mentally reviewing our experiences, we recognize that nothing is really destroyed, but rather transmuted. Through faith we take stock of the progress we have made and find that we are getting a consciousness of radiant substance and of a higher life. Nothing is lost. When sense consciousness is raised to a higher plane all that belongs to it is saved with it.

In reality the invisible cannot be seen, touched, or comprehended by the outer senses, yet in this realm a great and mighty work is being accomplished.

Today I realize that the leaven that “leaveneth the whole lump” is the Truth. The word of Truth within me is not idle, but quietly spreading from point to point. This process will continue until my whole consciousness is vitalized by the Holy Spirit.

I affirm: “I rest in the consciousness of eternal life and strength, and I am made perfect.”

Questions:

1. What does Arimathea represent?

2. What does Joseph represent?

3. What happens when sense consciousness is raised to a higher plane?

4. What is the leaven that “leaveneth the whole lump”?

Father-God, I rest in the consciousness of Your presence within me and about me. I rest in the consciousness of Your life and perfection within me.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

 If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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LIFE

16th Day, Saturday. Read John 4:1-26.

Life is a phase of Being, the expression of which manifests as animation, activity, and vigor. The consciousness of eternal life places one in the stream of life that never fails.

The whole race needs a spiritual quickening of the life principle; its origin is in Divine Mind. Life is the gift of God. “Stir up the gift of God, which is in thee.” To think intently about life is to quicken it into action. To talk about energy, force, power, life, will make the life currents flow swiftly throughout the whole being.

To Jesus the God presence was an abiding flame –a flame of life everlasting that He felt in every cell of His body making Him more and more alive, cleansing and purifying Him until He became every whit perfect.

By mastering carnality Jesus opened the way for all men to attain eternal life. During our higher realizations of Truth we are often conscious of this abiding flame working in and through us.

I now make alive all the cells in my organism by mentally infusing into them the Christ consciousness. This is the new birth, which is transforming my body and raising it to electrical energy. This was carried to its fulfillment by Jesus in the resurrection of His body. The next step in divine evolution is the spiritualization of the body, or the Ascension.

The quickening life in me is now brought into expression by my holding and repeating this statement of Truth:

“I have the Mind of Christ. My words are spiritually quickened and they are alive forevermore. I am filled with the vitality and vigor and health of Jesus Christ.”

Questions:

1. How does life manifest itself?

2. Where does life originate?

3. What was the God presence to Jesus?

4. How do we make alive all the cells of our organism?

Christ within me is my life. Every part of my body temple is filled with the vigor and strength of Christ.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

—————————————————–             

 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

 If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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When someone close to us dies, especially if it is sudden, it can be difficult to adjust to that movement and sense of loss. But I think perhaps it can bring two things to mind for us:

First of all, we can learn to treasure the time we have with one another, to love one another and be with one another in the fullness of our spirit. And another thing is that, although our loved one goes into a realm that we are not able to see at this time, we can know that life is eternal, there is a timelessness to life and we can establish a new relationship with our loved one in that dimension.

We live really on two levels. One, we live on a physical level where we relate to one another in the outer. And we do our work, and we have our homes, and we have our families and our loved ones and friends. We live in a world where sometimes we are thrown by difficulties and we go through dark times. We judge much by appearance.

Then there is another world that is parallel to it, a world that has no beginning and no end, a world that I think of as timeless. It is a world that is our spiritual world and is the true heritage of our being, that from which we sprang in the very beginning. Creation happens not only in the outer but happens within us all the time, and that creative spirit is always at work within us.

In our journey through life, if we can shift from being an outer-oriented person to being an inner-oriented person, to being aware of the timelessness of life, then we see that life did not begin at birth nor does it end at death. We can also see a dimension where we can truly say that we dare to believe that God is good.

Every tradition has its creation story. You will remember the creation story in Genesis, where it says “And God created heaven and earth.” And it goes on in all the different aspects of that creation, and in every phase it says “And God saw that everything was good.” So we see the good being expressed through the creative spirit. Then later, in each of the gospels, we see that same creation story repeated many times in different ways through new beginnings in different situations.

It is significant that in each of the religious traditions across the world we find creation stories. The creation story is important to all people because it points us in the direction of our true roots. We are rooted in the beginning with God. We were created in the beginning with God.

We read in the scriptures that the Jews were confused when Jesus spoke to them about Abraham. They said that their father was Abraham, and he said “Well, you’re not acting like your father was Abraham, so Abraham really isn’t your father.” They scoffed at him and spoke jeeringly to him. Then he said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” And they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. (John 8:59).

What was Jesus saying there? He wasn’t speaking of his personal self; he was speaking of his spiritual nature, saying in essence “In the beginning of time, I was there.”

That is true of all of us, we have been from the beginning of time created in the likeness and in the image of the living God.

We are here to bring forth the fruits of that creativity in our lives. How do we do that? How do we focus on that instead of getting caught up in the appearance of things and seeing our limitations amid our doubts and our fears?

First we must become aware that there is a dimension which can be recognized as being timeless. We then move consciously into that recognition as we adapt for ourselves a spiritual discipline, a discipline of how we deal with time and how we relate to it in our lives.

There’s a story of St. Ignatius Loyola, who founded the Jesuit order, about when he was a student. He was playing a ball game with some fellow students and one of them said to the group, “Now, if the world were to end tomorrow what would you do right now?” Some of them said, “Well, we’d go out and get drunk and we’d do all of the things we wouldn’t do normally.” And the other half said, “No, we would go to the church and throw ourselves on our knees and pray that we would be safe and certain forever.” Ignatius hadn’t spoken, so one of them asked him what he would do. He said, “I would go on playing my game.”

You see, we must not get caught up in the “forever.” Nor must we get caught up in just living for today. We must combine the two, because each one is hinged upon the other in a timeless way.

We are the very essence of the creative Spirit of God in expression right here on earth, right now, today. And the future, of our own selves and of our world, really depends on how we bring forth that creative spirit in our own lives.

Each one of us is unique, and we have much to give to our world. We have peace to give, we have love to give, and we have the gifts of the spirit to share. Yet we must discipline ourselves, in a gentle way, in a spiritual way, to be open to the Spirit that expresses through us naturally if we turn to it and we let it. For we are truly spiritual travelers on a timeless way!

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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Someone asked Jesus, “Teacher, can you tell me how to attain eternal life?”

By eternal life, of course, he’s talking about the life of God present now and not some time in the future. Eternal life is now, when we recognize, know, experience and express the fullness of God’s presence in our lives. That’s eternal life – and it’s right now!

How can we attain that?

Jesus said to the man, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

He didn’t say to love the Lord your God just a little bit, or just on Sundays, but he said “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” It’s a full commitment, a total commitment. How do you do that? How do you feel and know and experience God’s presence with you at all times, in all places, all around you and within you at all times? How do you do that?

There’s a story from the scriptures that demonstrates how this begins to become possible. The story is from the gospel of Mark, in Mark 14:1-6. It’s during the time just before Passover and not long before the Crucifixion; and the chief priests and scribes were seeking how to arrest Jesus and kill him.

 “And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. But there were some who said to themselves indignantly, ‘Why was the ointment thus wasted? For this ointment might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and give to the poor.’ And they reproached her. But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.’”

This is about two different kinds of people and two different kinds of motive. We see the motives of the Pharisees and scribes; they hang around with Jesus, but their motive was not pure. They may have eaten with him, but they were not fully engaged with him or his teachings, nor really the love of God which they professed. They became very critical of the woman for her actions; they tore her down. That was their focus in life, which was their motive. It came out of doing things as a sense of duty or responsibility or fear.

When we do things out of obligation, or when the motive in our lives is one that is underscored by fear, then our life is filled with criticism. We begin to resent the things that we do; so we begin to criticize and put things down. We say that this world is not a good world, it’s not a friendly universe, and this is reflected back to us in bad experiences. So we must watch our motive.

You see, this story is not only about the Pharisees and scribes and the woman and Jesus in the long ago; it is about us right now.

There are Pharisees and scribes that live in us that sometimes get into those critical modes of being. We begin to look from the world viewpoint. And you know people who are critical all the time. From the time the alarm goes off in the morning, the coffee’s too strong, the day is ugly whether it’s hot or cold or sunny or raining or whatever, and then they do nothing but complain at work or at home. You know what I’m talking about. So the world is reflected back to them as an unfriendly world and they find much to criticize.

We need to look at ourselves and see if we’re coming from a place of obligation or doing things out of a sense of duty. Or are we doing things out of a sense of love? Are we looking at the world through the eyes of love? Years ago, James Dillet Freeman wrote a book called “Look with the Eyes of Love” which had a powerful impact on my life; I realized that when we look with the eyes of love; we are seeing as God sees.

How do we love God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind? We can only do it with the expression of God in and through us.

When we really love, we are extravagant in our love, aren’t we? We give extravagantly, we don’t hold back. Any time that you have been in love, haven’t you wanted to give extravagant gifts? It maybe seemed foolhardy at the time. But that’s the process of giving yourself totally, isn’t it? You want to give; there’s no counting of the cost, is there?

The danger, really, is in feeling a sense of obligation in our giving.

In the gospel of John (John 11:1-2), we are told that the woman in the scriptures who broke the vial of precious ointment over the head of Jesus was Mary, the sister of Martha and of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.

Mary is the opposite of obligation; in this story she is the very principle of love expressed. That’s what it’s about, the extravagant gift of love.

Jesus said, in the story, “Don’t trouble her. She has done a beautiful thing to me.” Or, she has done something of wonderful significance for me. Isn’t that something we want to do for ourselves and others? We want to be of a wonderful significance in our world, don’t we?

That’s what the Christ within is saying to us now “Do you want to be of wonderful significance in your world?” If you do, let the love which is of God express through you. Because that’s the only way we can see it.

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