Faith: How to Embrace Your Inner Greatness

There is always something more to learn.

There is always some new angle to view life from.

The Infinite, which is a name of the Divine we use,

the infinite is not limited to what I already know.

And It in me, is where my magnificence comes from.

But it can’t come through me when I depend on my own council.

That phrase, my own council, comes from one of Ernest Holmes famous prayers in which he says….

"...let me not pursue the paths of my own counsel. oh Eternal and Blessed Presence, illumine my mind and command my will that my Soul may be refreshed and that my life may be renewed." 

That’s a clue to the waking up to our spiritual magnificence.

It’s so much more than my personal magnificence,

we are talking about the magnificence of

the Eternal Blessed presence that illuminates my mind

and your mind,

that refreshes us, and renews us –

and here comes the but…

but It doesn’t do so without our willingness,

openness, agreement, and alignment.

To see this week's video on YouTube, click here.

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Faith. What Do You Trust To See Clearly? A Spiritual Guide to Voting

What is the filter through which you will look when voting this year?  As a spiritual community, we have the opportunity to put our spiritual values, vision, and principles first when making important life decisions.  Whether that is in voting, or in choosing a new career path, or anything, taking a moment to get clear on what is spiritually important to you, can make the world of difference.

We have provided a spiritual guide to voting for you to use this election year.  The guide is nonpartisan and can be adapted to any faith tradition.  The guide includes resources that you can use if you, or someone you know, is a first-time voter, and, it includes reflection questions to stimulate conversation among family members, neighbors, and friends, about the key issues facing our nation from a spiritual perspective.

It is quite a burden lifted when we realize that we do not have to move the world – it is going to move anyway. This realization does not lessen our duty or our social obligation. It clarifies it. It enables us to do joyously, and free from morbidity, that which we should do in the social state.
Dr. Ernest Holmes
The Science of Mind (p. 270.5)

To see this week's video on YouTube, click here.

 

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Believe in Your Dang Self, and Vote! How ARE you going to vote?

Inspired by Rachel Hollis's concluding thoughts in "Girl, Stop Apologizing," Dr. Edward explores our Center's organizational vision of a healthy, loving, world, and asks the question "how are you going to vote in this election?" 

He isn't inquiring about who or what you are voting for, he is asking how we will connect our spiritual values and vision to our choices. Today's message is more than a pep talk, it's the awakening in us of what our soul already knows.

Dr. Edward is working on a spiritual guide to voting that he will make available to our community in the upcoming weeks.

To see this week's video on YouTube, click here.

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Better Together

Better together. That's the topic suggested for this week by the Diversity Inclusion Commission of Centers for Spiritual Living

Our teaching, the Science of Mind states that there is one Presence that is the Source of All. Based on this, we say that Oneness is the central principle of metaphysics. And everything else develops from that, like a puzzle.

One space – I am where you are and you are where I am, which is why we accept that we can pray affirmatively for each other.  Only one time – the present moment, endlessly unfolding.  Only one being – you are part of me and I am part of you.

And the puzzle is this – One means there is no other in absolute terms, and yet, that Oneness shows Itself in an endless variety of forms. We call that diversity. And see it as a valuable and necessary part of Creation, to be celebrated, explored, and integrated.

We are one, not because we are the same, but because we share the same Source

And together, we create something more substantial than what we are alone.

The creators of this week's content give us this image:

Wire rope begins with a single steel wire that's anywhere from .6 to 8 millimeters in diameter. The first step is to wind several of these small wires together into a strand. With each addition strand, a greater strength develops.

Any single strand of wire is perfectly good, and when integrated and wrapped around others, it becomes something mighty.

In the same way, our inclusion of more and different cultures, views, individual expressions, makes us stronger. Better. Together.

I leave you with this affirmation:

"I AM the activity of inclusion. I embrace the multiplicity of Creation as a Community expressing Divinity on Earth."

To view this week's video on YouTube, click here.

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Spiritual Growth in Action

You may have heard the phrase: I don’t see color? Some say that, meaning to refer to the oneness of all life. Here is another way to think about color. It comes from the content providers for this week’s suggested theme, Color Blind, or Color full:

Can you imagine looking at a beautiful garden that has flowers with many different colors, textures, and heights, but not being able to see the variations in color because you are blind to the variety?

Imagine instead, not only seeing all the colors our eyes are capable of seeing but enjoying them, being interested and curious about them, because after all, they are created by the Divine.

Though the idea of color blindness might be considered as an inclusive, consider this, that to see and appreciate color is to truly see and appreciation people for who they are. I think this is the meaning in the statement from our founder, Dr. EH, that Unity and uniformity are not the same thing.

Our different life experiences make us different from each other. And that is worth celebrating and exploring. We live in a world that is abundantly diverse with each of us expressing the Divine is our own colorful way.

Here are three ideas to consider this week:

1. Oneness is not Sameness.

2. Diversity is the natural state of creation

3. We are connected with those that are different:

It is a common idea in our world today, that If someone doesn’t believe or think or even look like we do, they could not possibly be connected to us.

Our call to action this week might be this. If we are interested in embodying Oneness, try being in conversation with people who have differing worldview with the intention to listen to and take in the differences, because in that kind of being open, we get a glimpse of what Oneness is.

To see this week's video featuring Rev. Joyce Duffala on YouTube click here.

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Heroes: A Tribute to John Lewis and Elijah Cummings, by Olivia Kinzler

It's a valuable and important practice to study the people who we admire, the people who are doing the kind of good in the world we want to be aligned with, and to try to make choices in the way they do, or to act in they way they do, until it becomes normal for us to do the same.

Here’s an example of how to use our heroes, let’s call them role models, to guide us. And I invite you to do this with me now.

Ask yourself…who are my heroes? Or if you prefer, ask yourself, who inspires you, or has inspired you. Who have I been moved by to live more authentically?

Then think of something you’re facing in your life and

And then ask yourself, how would these people respond?

To see this week's tribute to John Lewis and Elijah Cummings, by Olivia Kinzler, click here.

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A Bigger Universe, A Greater God – Dr. Chris Michaels

Our message today is brought to us by someone who has been one of our favorite speakers.  Since he moved to the east coast, we haven’t seen him as much as we would like.  Thanks to the miracle of the internet, we can present again Dr. Chris Michaels.

For those of you who have not met Dr. Chris yet, he  is a national speaker and author. He founded the Center for Spiritual Living in Kansas City, Missouri in 1990 and has served as Spiritual Director for over twenty years. As an educator and counselor, he has helped thousands of people understand the basic spiritual principles that govern our lives. With over two decades of study into the spiritual nature of life, Dr. Chris is a leading authority on the new spirituality movement. He is the author of Your Soul’s Assignment and his new book, The Power of You, available at bookstores nationwide or on amazon.com.

Along with speaking engagements at conferences, churches, and special events nationwide, Dr. Chris was a guest on Martha Stewart Living heard on SIRIUS satellite radio. His weekly radio show, "Healing Your Life" With Dr. Chris Michaels, is offered via podcast at www.itunes.com. In 2013 over 105,000 people downloaded his spiritual lessons from 95 different countries around the world. View his website at chrismichaels.net.

Dr. Chris’s topic is,  A Bigger Universe, A Greater God

To view this week's message on YouTube, click here.

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Prayer as a Pathway to Peace

Today's message is brought to us from Kingston, Jamaica, by Rev. John Scott. The Temple Of Light Church of Religious Science is primarily a teaching Institution, teaching people about themselves, their relationship to God, to their fellowmen and to the Universe in which they live.

The teaching is called “Science of Mind” and is basically the practice in this century, of what Jesus taught in the first century. Jesus taught Healing. Science of Mind is the practice of Healing of Mind, Body, and Affairs.

To see today's video on YouTube, click here.

From Rev. Scott's website:

“Science of Mind deals with Universal Principles which apply to all people, at all times, in all places.” It presents definite, specific ideas that may be used and demonstrated by anyone. This practical philosophy has helped all those who have practiced its principles, to live healthy, peaceful, successful, and happier lives.

As stated by the founder of Religious Science, Dr. Ernest Holmes,”There is a Power for good in the Universe greater than we are. It is available to us all and we can use it “Life is meant to be enjoyed, not endured”

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