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"AT-ONE
WITH GOD ... Until we awake to the fact that we are One in nature with
God, we shall not find the way of life. Until we realize that our
own word has the power of life, we will not see clearly. The Bible
points out that we have the same power, in our own life and in our own
world, that it claims for God. "The Word was with God and
the Word was God," is an oft-repeated but little understood
statement. The promise to us is equally positive: "The
word is nigh thee, even in thine own mouth that thou shouldst know it
and do it." If any word has power, it follows that all
words have power. It means that every word which we hear, speak or
think, has some power." - Dr.
Ernest Holmes, "The Science of Mind"
The Jewish Holiday
of Yom Kippur is always a reminder to me of how important it is to
affirm our One-ness with God, Infinite Spirit. And as we realize
that this is true, we know that this Life that lives in us, as us, is
always Present. Every human problem or condition of discord can be
attributed to a feeling of "separation from God" ... and the
only way in which we experience this "separation" is in our
mind. And the reason we think we are "separated from
God" is that we are judging the "appearance" as if God is
not Present in it. Our state of mind is all important whenever we
think about the conditions and situations in our lives. We can
read in scripture, "Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind
is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee." (Isaiah 26:3)
So, we know that whatever is going on in our
life that disturbs us, we must get our mind off the disturbance and back
to God. And this can be a struggle for many of us and also
frustrating for some of us. As we turn to God, we must give up the
"fight" ... and many of us have instilled within our mind that
we must fight for our good. In reality the only fight we have is
within our own mind to release our mental grip on the problem and to
surrender it to God. Yom Kippur, or "Day of Atonement"
for those of the Jewish faith, time is spent in seeking forgiveness for
mistakes made in the past year and sacrifice in the form of fasting as
atonement for these sins. In other words, this is a time for
keeping the mind "stayed on thee." In the "Science
of Mind" we know that this has value. The greater value of
this mental process can be realized by daily "fasting" from
negative thoughts and "clearing" our mind each day of any
sense of separation from God, or Good.
It is important that we know that God is
"within us" ... that this "in-dwelling" Presence is
realized in the "now" ... the Present. What we have done
or left undone in the past is not as important as our awareness of our
relationship with God now, in this moment. And the mystery that is
beyond our human understanding is that no matter whether we called our
experiences good or bad, God is working through all things for our Good.
This is sometimes difficult for many of us to understand, but it is
always the Truth. We cannot experience the fullness of life as
long as we have doubts about our ability to accept and receive all the
Good that is ours. The Master Mind Jesus stated, "it rains on
the good and the bad alike" ... but let's get over this good and
bad completely and realize that no matter what we have done, or what
someone has done to us ... it was done in the consciousness that was
present when it was done ... and everyone's consciousness changes.
As Dr. Holmes tells us in the opening paragraph
of this message, if one word has power all words have power, and so it
is incumbent upon us to choose our words wisely knowing that we are
creating our experiences by each word we speak. Behind each word
we speak is a pattern of thought, so we not only want to be more aware
of the words we use, but also seek to identify the pattern of thought
behind each word that does benefit our life experience ... and in this
way we can clear our consciousness of any negative patterns that hold us
back from experiencing a greater and more fuller experience of life.
Contemplate these words by Dr. Frank Richelieu: "I have
been entrusted with life. I have been entrusted with a mind.
I have been entrusted with a body. I have been entrusted with the
ability to move and to speak. It is up to me to use everything I
have been entrusted with."
As
we bless the good in our life, we are blessing the God that is in the
midst of us, pressing against us and surrounding us. We are always
experiencing life according to how we approach it. Let us approach
life as if we are continually in a state of at-one-ment with all the
good that Life has to offer us!
AND
SO IT IS!
Keep
the faith!
Rev.
Dr. Henry Lee Bates
Visit Rev. Bates BLOG: Living
the Science of Mind
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