DIVINE IMPERATIVE

Posted on June 11, 2018 by thoughtsmjdisler

The will of God is the divine imperative, the cosmic urge for self-expression, the irresistible impulse of the light to shine, the joyous invitation of the Infinite, persuading man to come up higher in thought, feeling and action.

 – J. Sig Paulson, Your Power to Be, 1969

Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk,
that by it you may grow up to salvation;
for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
I Peter 2:2-3
Bible, Revised Standard Version.

Jesus:
But seek for first of all His kingdom, and His righteousness …
Matthew 6:33a

Keep on asking and it will be given you;
keep on seeking and you will find;
keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you.
For every one who keeps on asking receives,
and he who keeps on seeking finds,
and to him who keeps on knocking it will be opened.
Matthew 7:7-8

Posted in Asking, Growth, Guidance, Heaven, Jesus, Kindness, Prayer, Receiving, Vocation, Wisdom | Comments Off on DIVINE IMPERATIVE

QUIET BLISS

Posted on June 5, 2018 by thoughtsmjdisler

At any time, in any hour of extremity [difficulty], we can call to our aid some living power above us, who, by the law of sympathy, shall impart his thoughts to illuminate our intellect, his love to warm our hearts, his strength to reinforce our infirmity, and augment our natural gifts and powers, and his quiet bliss to send a ray of sunshine into our darkness.

In harmony with this law of our spiritual nature, Jesus, the Christ, said, and still says, to his disciples, “If I go away, I will come again; I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you; I will manifest myself to you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” (John 14:3, 18, & 21; Matthew 28:20)

By this sublime power we can penetrate … to the inmost Central Life, who says, “Call upon me, and I will answer.” For as long as God thinks of us we are in his presence, and as long as he loves us we are saved. If it be true that we exist by virtue of a continual derivation of life from him, we shall live as long as his being lasts. … And if God is love, and by virtue of the properties of an infinite Spirit, which take him out of the limitations of time and space, he is everywhere and in all things, we cannot by any possibility stray from the infinite Father’s presence, and his boundless, irrepressible and everlasting love.

 – Warren Felt Evans, Soul and Body, 1876.

And, therefore, we having with us such an encompassing cloud of witnesses,
throwing off all weight, and seductive sin,
let us run persistently through our prescribed course;
looking forward to Jesus, the Leader and Trainer of our faith,
Who, striving for the reward prepared for Him,
endured the cross, despising its shame,
and sits on the right of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12: 1-2
The New Testament in Modern English
Ferrar Fenton, translator
Fourth Edition, 1906.

Posted in Affirmation, Christ, Comfort, Faith, God, Guidance, Hope, Jesus, Love, Prayer, Protection, Receiving, Spirit | Comments Off on QUIET BLISS

INVISIBLE REALITY

Posted on May 30, 2018 by thoughtsmjdisler

…love is the side of human nature that lies next to God, and brings us in vital contact with him.

Jesus was distinguished from all persons of human history by his vivid consciousness of God within. This was the secret of his power. He bore into human hearts the strong conviction of a divine presence, and men were made to feel the invisible Reality that was ever working within him, and through him upon others. It was from this there went forth a virtue for the moral healing of the soul and the calming of its doubts and fears.

The central point of our existence is divine, and God is incarnated in the whole of humanity, but men have not known this and perceived it, as did Jesus of Nazareth. With him it was not a theory, a speculation, an hypothesis, but an intense consciousness, a living verity and reality. From this divine depth of his being he spake and acted, oftentimes losing sight of the human element in his complex nature, and he stood forth before the people as the God-Man and the Man-God. Hence his wonderful power over diseases of mind and body, for, as Paul affirms, “All power is of God” (Romans 13:1).

Whatever he was, and whatever unsolved mysteries there may be about his nature and his relations to God and the other world, it is enough for us to know that, somehow through him, God acted upon men, and through his mediation men had communication with the Divinity.

 – Warren Felt Evans
excerpts from Soul and Body, 1876

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness
and the power
and the glory
and the victory
and the majesty,
indeed everything that is in the heavens and on the earth;
Yours is the dominion and kingdom, O Lord,
and You exalt Yourself as head over all.

I Chronicles 29:11
Amplified Bible
copyright The Lockman Foundation, 2015

May you know more and more of grace and peace as your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord grows deeper.

He has by his own action given us everything that is necessary for living the truly good life, in allowing us to know the one who has called us to him, through his own glorious goodness.

It is through this generosity that God’s greatest and most precious promises have become available to us men …

2 Peter 1:2-3, 4a
The New Testament in Modern English,
Revised Student Edition, translated by J. B. Phillips, 1972

Posted in Affirmation, God, Healing, Inner Life, Jesus, Love, Peace, Power, Reality, Receiving, Trust | Comments Off on INVISIBLE REALITY

LOVING PRESENCE

Posted on May 20, 2018 by thoughtsmjdisler

If there is anything necessary to an individual sense of security, peace of mind, and satisfaction of soul it is, greater than all else, a sense of the Divine Presence, a realization that there is a power which knows, cares, and understands. Without this sense of security we feel lost.
… This is not an illusion, nor is it an intellectual weakness; it is a spiritual experience. And just as we have physical experiences so we may have spiritual ones.

We are to so completely sense this Presence that the heart will respond and the emotions acquiesce. Without such an emotional agreement, words are empty and ideas void of real meaning. …when this divine moment comes we are to leave everything else and flee into its loving embrace.

God Is, and the sooner we realize this truth the better for ourselves. In no way can we disrupt the harmony of the Divine Being, but we do disrupt our own harmony when we are out of line with Truth.

 – excerpts from Ernest Holmes, “The Divine Presence,”
The Hidden Power of the Bible, 1929, edition of 2006.

The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.
Deuteronomy 33:17a
The Bible, King James version

Now to him who is able to keep you from falling
and to present you before his glory without fault and with unspeakable joy,
to the only God, our saviour,
be glory and majesty, power and authority,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
before time was, now, and in all ages to come, amen.

Jude 1:24,
The New Testament in Modern English
Revised Edition, translated by J. B. Phillips, 1972.

Posted in Creation, God, Healing, Hope, Listening, Love, Receiving, Spirit, Truth | Comments Off on LOVING PRESENCE

INFINITE LADDER

Posted on May 9, 2018 by thoughtsmjdisler

In a peaceful rural location near Lexington, Kentucky, there is a Shaker village restoration “Pleasant Hill”. Years ago, we went there many times when visiting family. After enjoying the excellent Shaker-style food at the restaurant, we wandered the settlement, trying to imagine the industrious life of its inhabitants.

The banner image for this blog was taken in one of the buildings of Pleasant Hill. It is looking upward at a magnificent spiral staircase, with a continuous shape that seems to suggest a possible metaphor for life and the logic of learning and growing along the way. – mjd

“Ideals are but mile-stones which we put successively behind us, while we press on to another, they are successive rounds of an infinite ladder, which we put beneath us while we rise higher.” [ – quoted from Joseph Le Conte ]

With our purpose to attain an ideal or a series of ideals, for many appear along the path of life, we by careful selection and by frequent contemplations of them so blend our work with our ideals that that work itself is idealized.

… If one reaches this point, he has overcome drudgery in work.

 – Floyd Wilson, Man Limitless, 1905.

Posted in Freedom, Growth, Life, Peace, Rest, Truth, Vocation, Work | Comments Off on INFINITE LADDER

SUBTLE TRANSFUSION

Posted on April 28, 2018 by thoughtsmjdisler

Prayer is essential, not to the salvation of the soul, for the soul is never lost; but to the conscious well-being of the soul that does not understand itself. There is a vitality in our communion with the Infinite, which is productive of the highest good. As fire warms the body, as food strengthens us, as sunshine raises our spirits, so there is a subtle transfusion of some invisible force in such communion, weaving itself into the very warp and woof of our own mentalities. This conscious commingling of our thought with Spirit is essential to the well-being of every part of us.

 – Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind, 1938

Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In every thing give thanks:
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
The Bible, King James Version

Posted in God, Gratitude, Guidance, Inner Life, Jesus, Listening, Mind, Prayer, Receiving, Soul, Thought | Comments Off on SUBTLE TRANSFUSION

SCATTER BLESSINGS

Posted on April 18, 2018 by thoughtsmjdisler

“Love in the human is a growth that must be daintily nourished. It is timid in that it waits to be sought–it is powerful when once one fully possesses it or is possessed by it. It recognizes no foe, and yet overcomes opposition by its attractive force. It dignifies work, for work within its scope is delight. It joys in giving, for its province is to scatter blessings; and it lifts man to a realization of his oneness with infinite power.”

 – Floyd B. Wilson, Man Limitless, 1905

Just think what a wealth of love the Father has lavished upon us,
in order that we might be called children of God:
and such we are!

God is Love;
and whoever continues in love,
dwells in God, and God in him.

We love, because He first loved us.

I John 3:1a
I John 4:16b & 19

Ferrar Fenton, translator
The New Testament in Modern English, Fourth Edition, 1906.

Posted in Affirmation, God, Hope, Love, Reality | Comments Off on SCATTER BLESSINGS

INNER – OUTER LIFE

Posted on April 12, 2018 by thoughtsmjdisler

There is no inner life that is not also an outer life

There is an outer way and an inner way and both are one.

He who asks, with the ground swell of his whole inner being, for the things which minister to life and feed its deepest roots, will get what he asks for. [“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” – Luke 11:9]

Religion can no more be cut apart from the intellectual currents, or from the moral undertakings, or from the social tasks of an age, than any other form of life can be isolated from its native environment.

But at the same time the only possible way to realize a kingdom of God in this world, or in any other world, is to begin by getting an inner spirit, the spirit of the Kingdom…

[In the Beatitudes], in a few lines, loaded with insight, the seed-spirit of the Kingdom comes full into sight. We are given no new code, no new set of rules, no legal system at all. It is the proclamation of a new spirit, a new way of living, a new type of person. … this spirit would produce not only a new inner world, but a new outer world as well.

The beatitude [blessedness] lies not in attainment, not in the arrival at a goal, but in the way, in the spirit, in the search, in the march.

 – excerpts from Rufus Jones, The Inner Life, 1922.

(Jesus said:)

How happy are those who know their need for God,
for the kingdom of Heaven [the kingdom within] is theirs!

How happy are those who know what sorrow means,
for they will be given courage and comfort!

Happy are those who are hungry and thirsty for true goodness,
for they will be fully satisfied! [“Seek and you will find.”]

Happy are those who claim nothing,
for the whole earth will belong to them!

Happy are those who are hungry and thirsty for true goodness,
for they will be fully satisfied!

Happy are the merciful,
for they will have mercy shown to them!

Happy are the utterly sincere,
for they will see God!

Happy are those who make peace,
for they will be known as sons of God!

Happy are those who have suffered persecution for the cause of goodness,
for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs!

And what happiness will be yours when people blame you and ill-treat you
and say all kinds of slanderous things against you for my sake.
Be glad then, yes, be tremendously glad–
for your reward in heaven is magnificent!

Matthew 5: 3 – 12a
The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Student Edition
translated by J. B. Phillips, 1958.

Posted in Growth, Guidance, Heaven, Inner Life, Jesus, Listening, Perfection, Reality, Spirit, Wisdom | Comments Off on INNER – OUTER LIFE

TONIC EFFECT

Posted on April 4, 2018 by thoughtsmjdisler

“Art thou desiring to be made whole?” can be taken as a fundamental question of Christ to men. “Fear not she shall be made whole,” is addressed not to one solitary case of need; it is the message of the gospel to everybody. Christ is always concerned to quiet strained nerves, to allay fear, to remove prejudice and suspicion, fret and worry, strain and anxiety. But he also goes farther. He regards health of body and buoyancy of spirit as the true normal condition of life, and he called men to a way of living which produced these results. Pythagoras taught the novel idea, many centuries before, that the various elements of the body could, through the attitude and disposition of the mind, be put into such relation or balance with one another that the body in its right form would reveal a harmony, like that of the musical scale, or even like that of the harmony of the planetary spheres. It is from this theory that we get our word tonic as that which puts the body into tone, or harmony.

(Christ’s) gospel is in this fundamental sense tonic. It aims at nothing less than an integral wholeness of life, a harmony of outer and inner self, a freedom from all physical hindrances except those which are a necessary part of finite and limited existence and a complete possession of the potential powers of personality. That way of living seems to have been the normal course with him, and one of the most striking effects of his relationship and fellowship with men was this fundamental tonic effect upon them. He organized their potential powers. He liberated the forces of which they had been unconscious. He made them whole.

– Rufus Jones, “Jesus Christ and the Inner Life,” The World Within, 1918.

Now there is in Jerusalem, near the sheep-market, a public bath, called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five covered walks, in which lay a great number of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed. And there was a man there who had been detained by his sickness for thirty-eight years.

Jesus, noticing him prostrate,
and knowing that he had been ill for a long time,
asked him:
“Do you desire to become well?”
“Sir,” replied the sick man to Him,
“I have no one to throw me into the bath when the water is agitated;
but while I am coming, some one else goes down before me.”
Jesus said to him,
“Rise up, take up your rug, and walk.”
And the man was at once restored;
and, taking up his rug, he began to walk.

John 5: 2-3, 5-9
The New Testament in Modern English, Fourth Edition, 1906
translated by Ferrar Fenton

Posted in Atonement, Christ, Healing, Inner Life, Jesus, Music, Reality, Receiving | Comments Off on TONIC EFFECT

HEALING LIGHT

Posted on March 27, 2018 by thoughtsmjdisler

Some of the things in human experience that enable a sense of freedom can, paradoxically, limit us also. One such thing is language – words – semantics. There are concepts and experiences that simply cannot be adequately conveyed by words. So, sometimes we struggle to learn and grow, but without understanding the barriers that seem to hold satisfaction just beyond our grasp. Here is the entry point for prayer (listening, not dictating), music, art (in the broadest sense), friendships, fulfilling the work we are led to in this world.
We are fortunate when we find an author of words that do, in fact, reach something deep inside – perhaps something we didn’t even realize we were looking for. Likely we return again and again to these words, and discover something newly enriching each time – something that energizes personal growth, authenticity, commitment to life. One such writer for me over many years has been Agnes Sanford in her first book, The Healing Light: The Art and Method of Spiritual Healing, 1947. This book is intended for any reader, but is not a quick read, not for the faint of heart, not literary in any sense of the word, but has become one of the very few books other than the Bible that I think of as a “backbone.”

 – mjd

The One Who Knew said, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.’ Happy, that is, are those people who know that their spirituality is small, that their creeds are imperfect, that their instruction concerning God and man is incomplete. Happy are those who know that they do not know all of truth. For only those who admit their spiritual poverty are willing to learn.

Through meekness those who seek God can produce results by learning to conform to His laws of faith and love.
The first step in seeking to produce results by any power is to contact that power. The first step then in seeking help from God is to contact God. ‘Be still and know that I am God.’

 – Agnes Sanford, The Healing Light: The Art and Method of Spiritual Healing, 1947

Later on the Lord commissioned seventy other disciples and sent them off in twos as advance-parties into every town and district where he intended to go himself.

(Jesus:) Whatever town you go into and the people welcome you,
eat the meals they give you
and heal the people who are ill there.
Tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is very near to you now.’

Luke 10:1, 8-10
J. B. Phillips, translator, The New Testament in Modern English
Revised (Student) Edition, 1972

 

 

Posted in Giving, Healing, Heaven, Hope, Inner Life, Jesus, Silence | Comments Off on HEALING LIGHT