TRUE PEACE

Posted on February 17, 2017 by thoughtsmjdisler

“Peace I leave with you; My own peace I give to you. I do not give as the world gives. Do not allow your heart to be troubled, nor yet be discouraged.”

 – Jesus, John 14:27; The New Testament in Modern English, translated Ferrar Fenton, 1906.

“Christ meant that inward peace which can break through all assaults and crosses of oppression, suffering, misery, humiliation and what more there may be of the like, so that a man may be joyful and patient therein, like the beloved disciples and followers of Christ. Now he who will in love give his whole diligence and might thereto, will verily come to know that true eternal peace which is God Himself, as far as it is possible to a creature; insomuch that what was bitter to him before, shall become sweet, and his heart shall remain unmoved under all changes, at all times…”

– Theologica Germanica
 – by an unknown knight of the Teutonic order
– discovered by Martin Luther, who published it in 1516
– translated from German by Susanna Winkworth, 1874.

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PERFECTION – PROCESS

Posted on February 12, 2017 by thoughtsmjdisler

“To the Divine Mind, time, space and sequence, cannot be realities; so God must view His work from the beginning as being complete and perfect.”

 – Ernest Holmes, The Hidden Power of the Bible
 [The Bible in the Light of Religious Science], 1929; Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin edition, 2006

“As for God, His way is perfect!”
Psalm 18:30a

“The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the whole person.”
Psalm 19:7

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
– Christ Jesus
Matthew 5:48

The passage from Psalms 18 caught my attention because the words “way” and “perfect” seem contradictory. We tend to think of “way” as oriented in linear time, but “perfect” as a point in time, the achievement of a goal, thus eventually free from the limitations of time. In thinking more deeply about the concept from Psalm 18, it became clear: In a believer’s life and experience “perfection” is the process, and the goal wholeness: at-onement with God and with ourselves as His child.  As each step along the way seems to have matured an aspect of wholeness, a new goal – indeed, many new vistas in spiritual life – present themselves – not because we have failed, but because we are continually learning, continually being led by the One Who Knows. Jesus’ statement is clear: He is declaring believers “perfect” in the same sense that God declared his creation “good” in Genesis. “Perfection” IS oriented in our human experience of “time.”

“Perfection” is in the “process.”

 – mjd

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KINGDOM OF LIGHT AND POWER

Posted on February 8, 2017 by thoughtsmjdisler

“God still calls us to the heritage of a Kingdom of light and power. … Man may sin and alienate himself from God, but he can never erase his divine parentage. Eternal truth is written in those words in Genesis: ‘And God created man in his own image.’ … Our problem is basically not one of more knowledge of what to do … What we need is power to put our present knowledge into actual and consistent practice.”

“The unlocking of cosmic power and love can be accomplished if you will become utterly, completely obedient to the Light within you. All eternity is met in you as Christ asks you to become a partner with Him in the historic task of the redemption of our world from the ocean of darkness that claims it to the ocean of God’s dazzling, blinding light of divine love and perfection.”

 – Cecil E. Hinshaw, The Light Within as Redemptive Power.
President of William Penn College, William Penn Lecture, 1945

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MIND TRANSFORMED

Posted on February 3, 2017 by thoughtsmjdisler

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

 – Romans 12:2
The Bible, King James Version

“Do not adapt yourselves to this age; but be transformed by the renewal of the mind, to search out what is the intention of God, – the Good, and Noble, and Perfect!”

 – Romans 12:2
The New Testament in Modern English, translated by Ferrar Fenton
from the Greek text of Drs. Westcott and Hort, Fourth Edition, 1906.

“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-make you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed. Thus you will prove in practice that the will of God is good, acceptable to him and perfect.”

 – Romans 12:2
The New Testament in Modern English, translated by J. B. Phillips. Revised Edition, 1972.
“…a new translation from the latest and best Greek text published by the United Bible Societies in 1966…”

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ETERNAL REALITY

Posted on January 29, 2017 by thoughtsmjdisler

“Knowing the higher law of the goodness of God and through this light having gained a perfect comprehension, we shall now see things or states as they are to the Eternal … Beliefs based on the eternal Reality are self-existent forces which cannot be overshadowed by the beliefs of the world, but can and do conquer all mortal beliefs and make manifest the goodness and mercy of the living God of love.”

 – Walter DeVoe, Mystic Words of Mighty Power, 1905.

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TEMPLE-HOUSE

Posted on January 25, 2017 by thoughtsmjdisler

“Your body is your house; your mentality is your garden; your character is your earth. All these are subject to your spirit, the Master of the House.”
In this temple-house of God your thoughts and feelings as well as the members of your body can hold devotional services daily by doing all things for the Lord only. There is no piece of work but what may be a sacrament and an opportunity for bringing forward the high and holy One who is on His way proving Himself All in All.”

“To him who has found the truth that work is joy, and activity which blesses others is ever divine, there is no need of a special day of rest, for he rests in working, never knowing weariness or bondage.
‘The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath’ (Mark 2:27), and was intended from the first to be a reminder to man that ‘there remaineth a rest for him,’ a final attainment of perpetual rest in the midst of, and one with, ceaseless activity–the divine paradox, identity of rest and activity.”

 – Annie Rix Militz, Spiritual Housekeeping: A Study in Concentration in the Busy Life, 1910

9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

Hebrews 4:9-10

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SANCTUARY of the SPIRIT

Posted on January 22, 2017 by thoughtsmjdisler

“It is inner silence as a habit that is desirable. … The ideal is to penetrate beyond mere self-consciousness to the holy of holies, to uplift the soul in worship, breathe a silent prayer to the Father.
… it is a law of the spiritual life that renewed consecration is the beginning of all fresh activity; and the silent communion at its best is consecration. … (it) is a glad moment of recreation on the part of the man who worships God ‘in spirit and in truth.’ It is a rediscovery of the primal sources of the spiritual life … It is the natural act of the self-reliant soul, an expression of the freedom of true individuality; and hence valuable as a means to an end.”

“The silent time is needed largely as a preparation for the remainder of the day. Put yourself into the present, make a fresh start…”

“To live in the present is truly to become ourselves, and to become one’s self is to serve the higher Power. We know not who and what we are until we thus begin to live.”

Horatio W. Dresser, The Power of Silence:
A Study of the Values and Ideals of the Inner Life, 2nd edition, 1905.

“For God alone my soul waits in silence;
from Him comes my salvation [the answers to my needs] ”
“My soul, wait only upon God, silently submit to Him;
for my hope and expectation are from Him.”

Psalm 62: 1 & 5

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SWEET MEDITATION

Posted on January 17, 2017 by thoughtsmjdisler

“What is more easy and sweet than meditation? Yet in this hath God commended His Love, that by meditation it is enjoyed. As nothing is more easy than to think. so nothing is more difficult than to think well. The easiness of thinking we received from God, the difficulty of thinking well proceeded from ourselves.Yet in truth, it is far more easy to think well than ill, because good thoughts be sweet and delightful: Evil thoughts are full of discontent and trouble. So that an evil habit and custom have made it difficult to think well, not Nature. For by nature nothing is so difficult as to think amiss.” Centuries #8

“To think well is to serve God in the interior court: To have a mind composed of Divine Thoughts, and set in frame, to be like Him within. To conceive aright and to enjoy the world, is to conceive the Holy Ghost, and to see His Love: which is the Mind of the Father.” Centuries #10

-Thomas Traherne (1637-1674), Centuries of Meditations;
Now First Printed from the Author’s Manuscript, ed. Bertram Dobell, 1908.

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LIGHT

Posted on January 13, 2017 by thoughtsmjdisler

“In the beginning God prepared and created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep. The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was pleasing, and He approved it.”

 – Genesis 1: 1-4a

“The light that we want is not some thing that God has to give; it is God Himself. God does not give us life or love as a thing. God is life and light and love. More of Himself in our consciousness, then, is what we all want, no matter what other name we may give it.”

 – H. Emilie Cady, Lessons in Truth, 1934

“We don’t get to the light through endless investigation of the darkness.”

 – Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love, 1996

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Seeking

Posted on January 8, 2017 by thoughtsmjdisler

“What we seek, seeks us.”

    – Marsha Sinetar, Ordinary People as Monks and Mystics: Lifestyles for Self-discovery, 1986

“…know once and forever that you are not seeking God, but God is seeking you. Your longing for greater manifestation is the eternal Energy, which holds the worlds in their orbits, outpushing through you to get into fuller manifestation. You need not worry. You need not be anxious. You need not strive. Only let it. Learn how to let it.”

  – H. Emilie Cady, Lessons in Truth, 1934, p.104

“The wisdom from above is first of all pure; then it is peace-loving, courteous, willing to yield to reason, full of compassion and good fruits; it is whole-hearted and straightforward, impartial and unfeigned–free from doubts, wavering and insincerity.”

 – James 3:17

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