CFTraveler
1st February 2007, 05:11 PM
Warning: This is a religious sermon about Peace and Divine Order. If you don't like religious topics, Please DO NOT READ. I am sharing this to those who want to read it.
PEACE
1. How much do I want peace of mind?
2. How much do I want a life of Divine Order?
3. How much do I want loving relationships?
The first question was about peace of mind. If we desire the pearl of great price called peace of mind, then you and I are going to have to do something. We are going to have to sell off our investment in our need to be right, our need to be in control of everything and everybody in our lives or in the fringes of our current experience. We’re going to have to be willing to give up unforgiveness and judgments toward and about other people, and ourselves. And we’re going to have to be willing to release all of these, because in no way and at no time, will you or I have peace of mind if we are engaged in judgments of others, or in needing to be right, or in always trying to be in control.
In other words, we’re going to have to remember that if God is all there is, and God is our source, then God is their source as well. Even though we may not like the way God shows up, as and through them, we have to remind ourselves, moment-by-moment, in all of our interactions with other people, that God is also their source. God comes through them, as them, in a unique and unrepeatable expression of God at the point where they exist.
We have to be willing to give up our investment in needing to have control, needing to judge, and needing to be right. We have to be willing to know that God’s love is the most important spiritual aspect to express and receive.
The second question dealt with having a Divine Ordered life. If we desire the pearl of great price that is called an ordered life, where things are always in control instead of OUT of control, then we are going to have to sell off a desire to exist just on the surface of life, and move to the center of our spiritual being.
Daily and momentarily, you and I are required to come into an anchored place of prayer within ourselves and live from that anchored place, instead of living out of the suitcase of our emotions. We have to know that no matter how rough the storms may get out here on the surface of our lives, no matter what kinds of circumstances show up for us to handle, or that seem to show up in our lives, we have to know that, as long as we are willing to live within that anchored place within us, we can manage, and our lives will have an order about them.
When Jesus’ disciples were nearly drowning in their emotions, they called on Him to calm the storm. What He said to them in effect (using today’s language), was move to the center of your own spiritual being. In that anchored place, view with the help of God's perception with what is on the surface of your life. See it for what it is, and do not get immersed within the problem. If you stay anchored in that spiritual place, you won’t get swamped and your boat won’t sink. You will be able to handle life and it will be in Divine Order. You will know that God is your source and you are not living on the surface, being bounced around by every wave that comes and goes.
The third pearl of great price we looked at was loving relationships. If we want that, we have to be willing to sell off the tendency to mistake the deed for the doer.
Most often, relationships are broken or fall apart because we have a tendency to look at what is going on out hereâ€â€the mistake or the deed. The price for a loving relationship is for you, and I, to be willing to give up the desire to simply look at what the other person is doing and how they are doing it, and to take that as who they are. Instead, look beyond the appearances and behold that essence of God’s-love. Allow them to be who they are, knowing that, as we celebrate and appreciate this spiritual loving essence, they will be more fully present from within themselves, in that relationship.
So, the price of a loving relationship is going to require that we sell off the need to judge, the need to possess, and the need to compare. All of these are barriers to a loving relationship. In order to have that pearl of great price called a loving relationship, we must be willing to sell those things, and not engage in those thoughts any more.
-by Rev. Chris Chenoweth
PEACE
1. How much do I want peace of mind?
2. How much do I want a life of Divine Order?
3. How much do I want loving relationships?
The first question was about peace of mind. If we desire the pearl of great price called peace of mind, then you and I are going to have to do something. We are going to have to sell off our investment in our need to be right, our need to be in control of everything and everybody in our lives or in the fringes of our current experience. We’re going to have to be willing to give up unforgiveness and judgments toward and about other people, and ourselves. And we’re going to have to be willing to release all of these, because in no way and at no time, will you or I have peace of mind if we are engaged in judgments of others, or in needing to be right, or in always trying to be in control.
In other words, we’re going to have to remember that if God is all there is, and God is our source, then God is their source as well. Even though we may not like the way God shows up, as and through them, we have to remind ourselves, moment-by-moment, in all of our interactions with other people, that God is also their source. God comes through them, as them, in a unique and unrepeatable expression of God at the point where they exist.
We have to be willing to give up our investment in needing to have control, needing to judge, and needing to be right. We have to be willing to know that God’s love is the most important spiritual aspect to express and receive.
The second question dealt with having a Divine Ordered life. If we desire the pearl of great price that is called an ordered life, where things are always in control instead of OUT of control, then we are going to have to sell off a desire to exist just on the surface of life, and move to the center of our spiritual being.
Daily and momentarily, you and I are required to come into an anchored place of prayer within ourselves and live from that anchored place, instead of living out of the suitcase of our emotions. We have to know that no matter how rough the storms may get out here on the surface of our lives, no matter what kinds of circumstances show up for us to handle, or that seem to show up in our lives, we have to know that, as long as we are willing to live within that anchored place within us, we can manage, and our lives will have an order about them.
When Jesus’ disciples were nearly drowning in their emotions, they called on Him to calm the storm. What He said to them in effect (using today’s language), was move to the center of your own spiritual being. In that anchored place, view with the help of God's perception with what is on the surface of your life. See it for what it is, and do not get immersed within the problem. If you stay anchored in that spiritual place, you won’t get swamped and your boat won’t sink. You will be able to handle life and it will be in Divine Order. You will know that God is your source and you are not living on the surface, being bounced around by every wave that comes and goes.
The third pearl of great price we looked at was loving relationships. If we want that, we have to be willing to sell off the tendency to mistake the deed for the doer.
Most often, relationships are broken or fall apart because we have a tendency to look at what is going on out hereâ€â€the mistake or the deed. The price for a loving relationship is for you, and I, to be willing to give up the desire to simply look at what the other person is doing and how they are doing it, and to take that as who they are. Instead, look beyond the appearances and behold that essence of God’s-love. Allow them to be who they are, knowing that, as we celebrate and appreciate this spiritual loving essence, they will be more fully present from within themselves, in that relationship.
So, the price of a loving relationship is going to require that we sell off the need to judge, the need to possess, and the need to compare. All of these are barriers to a loving relationship. In order to have that pearl of great price called a loving relationship, we must be willing to sell those things, and not engage in those thoughts any more.
-by Rev. Chris Chenoweth