Eckhart Tolle says:

"If you can recognize illusion as illusion, it dissolves. The recognition of illusion is also its ending. Its survival depends on your mistaking it for reality. In the seeing of who you are not, the reality of who you are emerges by itself."

This is so true. I ask, why do we accept things that are false about ourselves and others so readily? This is your God's day. God's life of freedom and health is your life of health and freedom.

Feel that today and let it prosper in you.

American theologian, Mary Baker Eddy said this: "Man, governed by his Maker, having no other Mind, — planted on the Evangelist's statement that "all things were made by Him [the Word of God]; and without Him was not anything made that was made," — can triumph over sin, sickness, and death."

Earthquake and Tsunami

I have been praying about the earthquake that struck Japan this morning and the resulting tsunamis. My Bible fell open to Ps 16, which reads "Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge." I am praying that for everyone in the Pacific region.

I am pondering the following:

Divine intelligence governs all creation perfectly and with perfect assurance. One of the names for God is Principle, which describes how God is the law-maker. Principle therefore is a law of good, a law of Love. This then mean that God and God's power is a law FOR good. I am reminding myself that God does not share His power and authority with anyone. Let's bring thought into harmony with these divine facts. Natural disasters are not natural. They are not from God. As it says in I Kings 19, God was not in the earthquake, wind and fire.

God's Action

Did you know that God is walking, acting talking, harmoniously and unencumbered? God's action is the Christ declaring Truth's Truth on your behalf.

Sickness, no matter how slight or bad, is a misconception of God. Jesus showed us how to remove the misconception. He said you can only serve one master. That is why we refuse to give our consent to disease. We recognize what Jesus did, that Our Father is benevolent and takes away disease. We recognize this when we become aware of divine Love and Love's presence to the exclusion of sickness.

Step aside and let divine Love have her day. Rely on Her wisdom and see what kind of day you have.

Loving More

This week I have been reading a book called The Mastery of Love.
I've had the book for a few years and this week God said it was time
to read it. He are some ideas that have been helping me to see love differently.

"We can talk about love and write a thousand books about it, but love
will be completely different for each one of us because we have to
experience love. Love is not about concepts; love is about action.
Love in action can only produce happiness. Fear in action can only
produce suffering. The only way to master love is to practice love."

"Love has no resistance, no expectations. In fear, we blame others
for not meeting our expectations." So, fear lived out is a recipe for
disappointment and inharmony.

Is it tempting to feel like you don't have enough love to go around because something has you down? That's how I felt yesterday. Something big hadn't worked out the way I thought it should. This morning I opened Mastery of Love I read "Self-pity is disrespect." Self-pity is: I'm not good enough, not bright enough not strong enough, not intelligent enough, not enlightened enough, not loving enough. "Happiness never comes from outside us. You are happy because of the love coming out of you."

So, no one else makes you/me happy or sad. Happiness is the result of Your [God's] love. Well, I realized that I didn't have to put up with self-pity and I was free to love, well freely.

Hot Run

As I was heading out for a run on a hot, hot day a neighbor said I should be safe and abandon the idea. In St. Louis, it's not only hot but humid. But, I had confidence that I could manage the situation. I realized when I was 2/3rds of the way through the run, I realized a few things. First, I hadn't committed to leaning on God, I had decided that I had intelligence to "manage" the situation. It turned out I didn't really. I ran too fast. Second, even when I realized I was running too fast, I didn't slow down enough. I realized I needed to listen to God. As I ran, I listened to ideas from an audio program from spirituality.com about solving world hunger. This audio chat was feeding me with spiritual ideas and these ideas were feeding me and sustaining me. I was pondering how all things are possible to God. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus told his disciples, "With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." American theologian Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love."

As I was running in the heat, I came across some large earthworms who were stretched on the sidewalk. They had expired from the heat. Because I was praying for myself and out of care for the innocent worms, I didn't feel I could accept the picture of death before me. I turned my heart to God, who is divine Life. I heard a message - life is springing up. A step later I came upon a very large worm who was writhing on the ground. (He was really large - about 9 inches long.) I picked him up to get him into a flower bed out of the heat. This worm who had been out in the sun was quite warm to the touch. To the touch, he was hot, maybe between 110-120F. It seems I was there at the right time to help the worm. I imagine that we both are grateful that prayer is not theoretical, it is practical. At times it heals us. At times it leads us to solutions.

New Day

I'm glad you stopped by. Man, how I hunger for the Word of God today. That's what feeds me. That's what makes my heart beat. That's what makes me want to relieve the suffering of others and support them.

Behold, I make all things new." (Rev 21.5) Wow, today is a new day. It is God's day, so then see how everything is subject to the power of Good.

Be glad, rejoice, be grateful, see harmony - experience Life.

Peace in Congo, Afghanistan, Sudan

Peace. Is it a distant concept?

Well, maybe. I know our lives are busy, but for the last several years a civil war has been raging in the central African country of Congo. In this civil war, most of the victims are women and children. What should your response be? Should it be indifference or should you bless everyone involved in the conflict? Jesus Christ believed that you should bless our enemies. That's the way he lived and his life and theology changed the world. If you follow Jesus, then Congo, or Sudan or Afghanistan is a great opportunity to bless everyone involved in wars in these countries. What I didn't realize until recently is how much the soldiers perpetrating violence need blessing. We don't bless them in their violence of course. We bless them in their desire to do right, their humanitarianism, their care for the weak. We bless them in their soberness.

The first time I started praying for Congo, I listened to God for ideas. And God answered right away and said to pray about drunkenness, including being drunk with power and the love of violence.

Blessing everyone involved in a conflict is powerful. How can I say that? Because in life we are dealing with ideas. In war, the idea is there are tribal differences, there are many minds at war with each other, there are limited resources, there's bad blood, bad history, enraged thinking. That's where God and Christ come in. Jesus proved the power of loving your enemies by blessing and loving even on the cross. This Love overcame death. God is divine Love, which is infinite Love. Infinite means "fills all space."

You end war by not ignoring it. You end war, not by taking sides, but by living, praying and knowing that God, infinite Love is everywhere and all powerful. You end war by blessing everyone including the soldiers. When you do that, you are practicing the First Commandment (Exodus 20:3) that there are no other gods (powers or authority) besides Love.

I bless you all as children of the one God, divine Love. I bless all those trapped by war and all those waging war as children of God.

Mary Baker Eddy, an American woman who discovered the laws of God, which she named Christian Science, said this:

"One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed."