Ask Alexa: What's the deal with becoming a little child to get into heaven?

Alexa: Jesus says that we must become like little children if we are to enter the kingdom of heaven and I am wondering how this is possible?

It is possible when a person matures and begins to realize how little they really know and in this new found humility reclaim their innocence.

Alexa: Did you hear about the fattest knight at King Arthur's round table?

Yes his name was Sir Cumference and he aquired his great size from eating too much pi.

Daily reflections, Day nine, "Let go and let God."

Day nine

Let go and let God.

“Miracles are habits and should be involuntary. They should not be under conscious control. Consciously selected miracles can be misguided.” T-1.1.5:1-3

The third step in twelve step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous says, “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood HIm.”

In the Our Father, we pray in part, “...Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”

It is this turning over our willfulness to God, to Jesus, to the Holy Spirit, to our Higher Power that the shift from wrong mindedness to right mindedness occurs and we let go and let God and in this sense the miracle then is involuntary. We intentionally give up control and let the Spirit work through us wherever that takes us.

If we think we know what we are doing, no matter how well intentioned, we have maintained an illusion of control, and things can be very misguided. The old joke is, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell God your plans.”

The slogan in AA is “Let go and let God.” This is the ultimate manifestation of humility to admit that on the path of the Spirit we are not in charge and we ask the Spirit to work through us..

Daily reflection, Day Eight - Hearing God's Voice

Day eight

Hearing God’s Voice

“All miracles mean life, and God is the Giver of life. HIs Voice will direct you very specifically. You will be told all you need to know.” T-1.1.4:1-3

This miracle principle can be both comforting and upsetting. People often complain that they don’t hear God’s Voice.

If you don’t hear God’s Voice there can be two primary reasons. 

First, you may not be listening on the right channel. Are you listening on the channel of Love or the channel of fear? We hear only on the channel of Love. If you are asking our of fear or are demanding a particular answer you probably won’t be able to hear God’s Voice because fear and demandingness are things of the ego which God knows nothing of.

Second, you may be asking the wrong question. If you are asking about things of the ego, God knows nothing of these because they are your illusions and projections. God gives us free will. He does not demand nor coerce us into the path of Love. If we’d rather be the victim and act out of fear and attack, we are able to do that but this is nothing God knows about. This is strictly our ego tricking us into thinking that things of the ego will bring us salvation which, of course, they won’t and can’t.

The best request we can make of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, our Higher Power, the muse, is to ask that the things of the ego which are blocking our awareness of Love’s presence be removed. It is in this purification of the mind that we find Love and peace.

The Course tells us that the path to salvation is forgiveness. Forgiveness is the willingness to give up making other people and situations responsible for our unhappiness. It is in this giving up that we remove the blocks of the ego from our awareness of Love’s presence in our life.

Today, when you feel angry, frustrated, depressed, anxious, bored, use this awareness as a forgiveness opportunity and ask God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Muse, you Higher Power to help you remove this block to your awareness of Love’s presence and you will probably hear God’s voice very clearly.

Sunday Sermons, First week of Advent, 12/01/19

December 1, 2019 First Sunday of Advent

Today, is the first Sunday of Advent. We are awaiting the birth of Jesus. He is coming to this world to enlighten us and show us the way to the world of the Spirit out of the world of the ego.

Every now and then there is a person born among us who becomes enlightened. It can be a Buddha, a Jesus, a Muhammad, a Lao Tsu, or any number of any other saints whose holiness is so apparent that we can’t miss it if we look closely and appreciate what we see.

People sometimes say that most of us are so deeply asleep, and shut down, and so confused that we wouldn’t recognize a Jesus, or a Buddha, or a Lao Tsu, or a Muhammad if they appeared in our current times and we met them.

To recognize Jesus we would have to be purified in our mind. If we are still caught up in and enamored by the things of the ego, we wouldn’t know Jesus or Buddha from Joe sixpack. For recognition it takes a sensitivity, an awareness, a desire to behold holiness. Most of us wouldn’t know holiness from titillating, sensationalized, celebrity enthrallment.

How do we get ourselves ready for the birth of Jesus into this world so that we would recognize him? How do we get our heads screwed on straight, and get ourselves on the right wave length?

First we have to be willing to give up the false promises made by the things of the ego. Will they really make us happy? Will all the shopping and gift giving at this time of year especially if it stresses us out and fills us with mixed feelings make us and others happy? We need to reflect and prioritize the things that truly make us and others happy. Consumption of material objects probably is not terribly high on the list while sharing time with loved ones and other people might be.

Second, we have to forgive all the people that we hate and stop making them responsible for our own happiness. We need to realize that we are not victims, but the beloved children of God who are richly and deeply blessed each and every second of each and every day. When we get into this frame of mind, Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tsu, Muhammad would be very recognizeable and give us great joy in meeting them.

Third, knowing that we are blessed by the Unconditional love of God, our Creator, we naturally want to extend this joy and peace throughout the world and we join with Jesus, Buddha, Lao Tse, and Muhammad in this mission.

Jesus is coming in four short weeks. Are you ready? Set aside the things of the ego and make space for His message of Love and Peace. What will you give up? What will you set aside? How will you make room for what Jesus’ birth has to offer?

Daily reflections, Day Seven, To bless or condemn

Day seven

To bless or condemn - that is the question.

“Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.” T-1.1.3:1-3

Have you noticed yet in your life that basically we have only two choices: love or fear? Fear is born from the separation and leads to judgement, resentments, guilt, blame, playing one up and one down. Love leads to wholeness, completeness, joining, joy, and peace.

So at any given time we can ask ourselves what is this behavior for? Am I attempting to join or to separate? Unconditional love knows no judgement, no exclusion, no resentment, no blame. Unconditional love would not have us feel and think of ourselves as a victim. Love asks us to be forgiving and to give up making other people and situations responsible for our unhappiness. Our happiness comes from our awareness of being One with the All. Some people call this “cosmic consciousness” and other people call it “enlightenment.”

The first principle of Unitarian Universalism asks us to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This principle applied asks us to question, “What is my purpose here? Am I trying to heal a sense of separation or am I intending to blame and punish and exclude?”

Today, when you feel angry, resentful, repulsed, see this as a forgiveness opportunity and ask yourself, “Do I really want to make this person, this situation, responsible for my unhappiness.” If the answer is “no” then ask your Higher Power to help you love this person and at least in your mind extend the blessings which you yourself enjoy being at one with your Higher Power.

Are you coming from a place of love or from a place of judgement? Coming from a place of love is natural, anything else is an illusion which you have made up and are projecting.

As the Beatles sang decades ago, ”Love is all there is.”

Glossary - Miracle

Daily reflections, Day Six, Be Aware Of The Source Of Miracles

Day six

Be aware of the Source of Miracles.

“Miracles as such do not matter. The only thing that matters is their Source, which is far beyond evaluation.” T-1.1:2:1-2

The “miracle” is a shift in perception in our mind from the world of the ego to the world of the Spirit. When we shed the ego and become aware of the All we experience the peace of God. 

Principle 2 tells us that this shift in perception, the miracle, doesn’t really matter, because what matters is the Source, or God, or Tao, or the Higher Power, whatever you want to call it. This Source, of course, is beyond evaluation and understanding. We are told in the Tao Te Ching that the Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth while the named is the mother of ten thousand things.

To experience the Source, sit quietly and go within. When we look on things of the world know that they are an illusion we create.

We are instructed in the first lesson in the ACIM workbook, on Day one, to look slowly around and say to yourself, “Nothing I see in this room (on this street, from this window, in this place) means anything.” We are asked in lesson two to say, “I have given everything I see in this room (on this street, from this window, in this place) all the meaning it has for me.”

And so, we come to understand that the world of the ego is one of projections. We have been socially conditioned to have names for things and these names, we have been taught, instill in our minds some sort of meaning. This “knowledge” is a social construction. The social construction isn’t real. It’s meaning is only something that I and my fellow humans have given it. These “things” and “meanings” are a part of the separation which I have created with my fellow humans to separate myself and ourselves from the Oneness of God.

In a certain sense we are living a lie until we realize and understand that it is but a lie and that there is another reality we can enter into and start living. It is this awareness of our choice which is the miracle and yet this choice, this miracle of changing my mind is only the means to the End not the End in Itself. The End in Itself is what makes the miracle possible for without it there would be nothing to choose.

Be aware of the Source of Miracles and your choice to live in the world of the Spirit are at One with the All..