YouTube: The Jesus Question

Most of us in this country have a Christian background, which prompts us to look to the sayings of Jesus for guidance on spiritual matters. How we think of Jesus makes all the difference on what we hope to find. The mainstream Christian thinks of Jesus as the Savior who offered the only way to eternal salvation. The American New Thought movement, which flourished in the nineteenth century, saw Jesus as the Wayshower, one who understood and expressed fully his Christhood, and invited all people to do the same.

Charles Fillmore, an American mystic that became Unity’s co-founder, adopted this view as the cornerstone of his teachings. Assuming Jesus attained immortality in the body, he believed that anyone who aligned with his Jesus Christ standard could also lift this fleshly clothing to such a high vibratory level that we would no longer age or experience physical death. His model placed the soul in a state of evolution, traveling through multiple incarnations with the goal of reaching the ultimate prize of immortality. In his book, The Spiritual Journey of Charles Fillmore, Neal Vahle includes this quote:

“This question is often asked by Unity readers. Some of them seem to think that I am either a fanatic or a joker if I take myself seriously in the hope that I shall with Jesus attain eternal life in the body. But the fact is that I am very serious about the matter.”

As I point out in my book, The Complete Soul, I find this interpretation of Jesus places him impossibly out of our reach. The basic premise of the mystic is that God, as omnipresent Spirit, is centered as the soul of every person. As such, the soul is complete. What evolves is our understanding of who and what we are as spiritual beings. Our objective is not to overcome the death of the body, but to understand that the soul is already immortal. The spiritual journey is all about moving from the body-based self-image most of us operate from, to the understanding that we are spiritual beings going through this human experience. The condition of the body is not the barometer of the soul.

The truth that comes through our current near-death research is, I believe, closer to the ideal that Jesus taught. This research reveals the immortal nature of the soul, not at the end of a very long evolutionary process, but now, at this very moment. Getting a true glimpse of our divine Self is the truth that sets us free.

YouTube: The Defining Factor

Now as they went on their way, he entered a village; and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving; and she went to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42

While the Bible often gives God a distinct and commanding voice, sometimes through a heavenly messenger, I think our best conceptualization is the still small voice given to Elijah.

But what is a still small voice? It’s not really a voice at all. We should think of it more as an impulse than a voice speaking words. It is the impulse to be free. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus opens his ministry by quoting from the book of Isaiah. When we go back to the Hebrew scripture, here’s what we find:

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6).

By this account, it is clear that the focus of his ministry is to “let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.” He also says that those who have learned from the Father will come to him. In other words, those who have learned to listen to the still small voice of God will understand what he is talking about.

Why do we crave freedom? Because the soul is already free. At the spiritual level, there are no restrictions. We encounter restrictions at the physical and material levels. Jesus is teaching people how to work with these seeming contradictory conditions. While most were waiting for a messiah to appear and set them free, Jesus was teaching that freedom begins as a perceptual shift. If you seek first the kingdom of God, that is, if you learn to heed the quiet voice of God, it will help clarify your vision and make straight your path.

Though we may not have thought of the inner impulse to be free as the voice of God, doing so will help us realize that we desire freedom because our soul is free already. We are being prompted at all times to claim our inherent freedom.

YouTube: The Voice of God

When we think of God’s voice, we might imagine a booming sound echoing across the universe, one that would coincide with the muscular figure depicted in so many classical paintings. In Unity, we are most familiar with Elijah’s still small voice that comes after the mighty winds and earthquakes.

While the Bible often gives God a distinct and commanding voice, sometimes through a heavenly messenger, I think our best conceptualization is the still small voice given to Elijah.

But what is a still small voice? It’s not really a voice at all. We should think of it more as an impulse than a voice speaking words. It is the impulse to be free. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus opens his ministry by quoting from the book of Isaiah. When we go back to the Hebrew scripture, here’s what we find:

“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6).

By this account, it is clear that the focus of his ministry is to “let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.” He also says that those who have learned from the Father will come to him. In other words, those who have learned to listen to the still small voice of God will understand what he is talking about.

Why do we crave freedom? Because the soul is already free. At the spiritual level, there are no restrictions. We encounter restrictions at the physical and material levels. Jesus is teaching people how to work with these seeming contradictory conditions. While most were waiting for a messiah to appear and set them free, Jesus was teaching that freedom begins as a perceptual shift. If you seek first the kingdom of God, that is, if you learn to heed the quiet voice of God, it will help clarify your vision and make straight your path.

Though we may not have thought of the inner impulse to be free as the voice of God, doing so will help us realize that we desire freedom because our soul is free already. We are being prompted at all times to claim our inherent freedom.

YouTube: Soul Searching

“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20

While this seems like a personal warning to the modern reader, it will help to get some context. The scribes and Pharisees were religious professionals whose positions gave them special recognition. Seeking such positions often meant that it was the position itself, and not the spiritual quest, that drew their interest. If we think of Jesus referring to the kingdom of heaven as the spiritual dimension rather than a place you go when you die, then this makes sense.

To be productive, the spiritual quest must be pure, based on an honest desire to know God. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt. 5:8). If we are seeking God simply as a means of solving a problem, then our spiritual quest will only take us as far as the end of the problem. Meister Eckhart addressed this issue with this famous quote:

“Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love a cow – for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage.”

Soul searching, at its best, is really about understanding our spiritual motive. Are we seeking an understanding of the bigger picture, and how we fit in, or are we simply looking for a little milk and cheese? If we actually want to enter the kingdom of heaven, that is, if we want to experience genuine spiritual revelations, then we need to become pure in heart, to seek God for the sake of knowing God. This is why Jesus put this at the top of the list, to seek first the kingdom and all other things would be added.

We all appreciate people who want to get to know us, not for what they can get from us, but because they value us as people. These are the relationships that are most meaningful and most reciprocal.

YouTube: What is Truth?

In Unity, we refer to our teachings as Truth. What is interesting is that another religious organization might look at us and question this. They have their own version of Truth. Of course, we’ve all heard people refer to my truth and your truth. So, I raised this question some months ago: With approximately 7.9 billion people on this planet, are there also 7.9 billion truths?

Referring to our teachings, we arrive at our understanding of Truth using three points. How we view the nature of God, how we view the nature of the individual, and how we view the nature of the relationship between God and the individual. The sum of how we address these three areas is Truth, as we understand it. Because other religious organizations will address them differently, they will have a different understanding of Truth.

Our foundation statement simplified is this: There is but one presence and one power in the universe; God, the good, omnipotent. This covers our understanding of God. Each individual is an expression of this one presence and one power, the image and likeness of God. As such, the relationship between God and the individual is oneness.

Over the last several weeks, we’ve been exploring the truth about prayer, that prayer doesn’t change God, it changes us. The reasoning behind this is reflected in our understanding of God as the one presence and one power in the universe. Changeless. Prayer, therefore, becomes an inside/out proposition. We make an adjustment in our thinking and feeling. When we pray for healing, for example, we affirm that we are already whole, that the one presence and one power is now expressing this wholeness through us. That we are in a relationship of oneness with this presence of wholeness allows us to accept we have already received what we ask for in prayer. Asking, in this sense, is affirming wholeness is ours already.

What we call Truth teachings are all based on this trinity of ideas. If we get this firmly in our mind, we have the Truth that will set us free.

YouTube: The Gift

When we think of the gift Jesus gave to humankind, our doctrinal conditioning will take us to his death, the notion that he gave his life as a sacrifice for our sins. I like to think of this gift in a dramatically different way. He dedicated his life to teaching the truth of our oneness with God.

The Franciscan monk, Richard Rohr, made a very telling observation that he calls the great comma. It refers to a statement found in the Apostle’s Creed. The line and comma in question is this:  

“…I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried …”

The comma Rohr points to is the one between the “…born of the virgin Mary, He suffered under Pontius Pilate…” That comma represents 33 years, the entire life and teachings of Jesus. This is the gift he gave and the creed passes right over it.

Matthew’s account of the immaculate conception embodies the gift of Jesus’ teaching. This conception, imparted by the Holy Spirit, is symbolic of our receptivity to the deeper aspect of our own soul. Jesus taught his followers to go into the inner room, close the door, and pray to the Father in secret. That is, lay aside for a time the influence of the intellect, the Joseph aspect, and assume an intuitively receptive attitude. Advocating a direct experience with God was a refreshing approach. For those who were raised believing they were separate from God, the notion of the kingdom of God within would not have been an easy concept to grasp. But once that seed was planted, it would not be easy for the new believer to return to the old way of thinking.

The Christmas story is our story. I am not convinced that Jesus envisioned his message reaching beyond the world that he knew, but I think he would have found great satisfaction in knowing that his gift is still being given to people like you and me.  

YouTube: Gateway to Intelligence

Call upon the wisdom of the Infinite

This week we’re exploring divine intelligence and its expression through us as order.

Life and enthusiasm were the first topics for our Advent season. Love and understanding were the subject of last week. Today we’ll look at power and strength as the third of this four-part, pre-Christmas series. Intelligence and order will be the fourth.

How do we come to identify and name a characteristic of God? We can look for biblical passages such as this one: “Ah Lord God! It is thou who hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thy outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for thee” (Jeremiah 32:17). We can look at tradition that declares the omnipotence (all power) of God. Or through simple observation we can see countless expressions of power in everything from the volcano to the seed growing silently.

The power of God empowers us with the strength we need to carry on with our life. Those times when we feel our strength is waning, we affirm God’s limitless power works in and through us to give us the boost we need, when we need it. We remember Jeremiah’s inspiring words, “Nothing is too hard for thee” and we might add, “for thou art centered in me.” As an inlet and outlet to the everlasting power of God, I meet each day knowing that nothing is too hard for me.

Visualize God as a power center within your being. Imagine this power radiating out through your every atom and cell, expressing as the strength of optimism. One of Charles Fillmore’s favorite affirmations goes as follows:

“I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a mighty faith to do the things that ought to be done by me.”

Such an empowering prayer! As we saw in our first lesson on life, we know that life, zeal, enthusiasm, power, and strength are all interconnected, one power expressing in a variety of ways. This one power is our God center, our very center of power. Stir up this power with words, visualizations, meditations, actions, and any way that comes to you. A simple smile given to a passing stranger can empower them in ways you never know. Remember, nothing is too hard for thee, and thou art centered in me.

YouTube: Tapping Your Center of Power

Life and enthusiasm were the first topics for our Advent season. Love and understanding were the subject of last week. Today we’ll look at power and strength as the third of this four-part, pre-Christmas series. Intelligence and order will be the fourth.

How do we come to identify and name a characteristic of God? We can look for biblical passages such as this one: “Ah Lord God! It is thou who hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thy outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for thee” (Jeremiah 32:17). We can look at tradition that declares the omnipotence (all power) of God. Or through simple observation we can see countless expressions of power in everything from the volcano to the seed growing silently.

The power of God empowers us with the strength we need to carry on with our life. Those times when we feel our strength is waning, we affirm God’s limitless power works in and through us to give us the boost we need, when we need it. We remember Jeremiah’s inspiring words, “Nothing is too hard for thee” and we might add, “for thou art centered in me.” As an inlet and outlet to the everlasting power of God, I meet each day knowing that nothing is too hard for me.

Visualize God as a power center within your being. Imagine this power radiating out through your every atom and cell, expressing as the strength of optimism. One of Charles Fillmore’s favorite affirmations goes as follows:

“I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a mighty faith to do the things that ought to be done by me.”

Such an empowering prayer! As we saw in our first lesson on life, we know that life, zeal, enthusiasm, power, and strength are all interconnected, one power expressing in a variety of ways. This one power is our God center, our very center of power. Stir up this power with words, visualizations, meditations, actions, and any way that comes to you. A simple smile given to a passing stranger can empower them in ways you never know. Remember, nothing is too hard for thee, and thou art centered in me.