GREAT MORNING BELOVED!!

Welcome back. Soon we will be together here in the Spiritual Center. I am looking forward to it. And I know, from some of the surveys we received, some of you are excited for it too. You will receive an email this week with more details. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

There’s an ancient parable told in many cultures describes a time when the gods became angry with mortals who squandered their talents. So, they conspired to hide the highest gifts of divinity, wisdom and enlightenment, from them.

A debate ensued among the gods as to where to hide the gifts. Some said, “Let’s bury it deep in the earth.” Others said, “No, that will not do because humans will dig into the earth and find it.”

Then the gods said, “Let’s sink it in the deepest ocean.” Others said, “No, not there, for they will learn to dive into the ocean and will find it.” Then the gods said, “Let’s take it to the top of the highest mountain and hide it there.” But once again, they replied, “No, they will eventually climb every mountain and take up their divinity.”

Then the gods gave up and said, “We do not know where to hide it because it seems that there is no place that human beings will not eventually reach.”

The final answer emerged: “We will hide their divinity deep in the center of their own being, for humans will never think to look for it there.” All the gods agreed that this was the perfect hiding place, and the deed was done.

And since that time, humans have been going up and down the earth, digging, diving, climbing and exploring — searching for something already within themselves.

We reintroduced our Five Principles last week and discussed the first principle, “God is absolute good, everywhere present.” This week let’s look at Principle #2 – Human Beings have a spark of Divinity within them, the Christ Spirit within. Their very essence is of God, and therefore they are also inherently good.

Eric Butterworth writes about this divinity in humans in an excerpt from his book,  Celebrate Yourself!

Within every person is the unborn possibility of limitless growth, and ours is the privilege of giving birth to it. Paul obviously had this in mind when he referred to: … the mystery hidden for ages and generations ... which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:26, 27).

Studies of God have abounded in all the religions of the world, most of which have dealt with an intellectual construction of a Being “out there.” And we have been subtly conditioned by artists’ visualizations such as Michelangelo’s classic frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. A massive figure of a man, representing the Almighty, reaches down to touch a human man. It is a beautiful work of art, but not the best example of our attempt to define the indefinable.

Through the ages of man’s quest for Truth and reality, there has appeared, here and there, a lone figure who caught the idea of the mystery of God in man. Ikhnaton, King of Egypt from 1379-1362 B.C.E, was a forerunner of the ideal. His is probably the first awareness of “God is one and man is one in that one.”

Among the Greek philosophers, Plotinus, who lived in the 3^rd century, CE, stands out as a forerunner of the new insight of Truth. He caught the idea of a cosmic force that is both imminent and transcendent in life. Each being contains in itself the whole intelligible world. Therefore, all is everywhere. Each is all, and all is each. He saw man at the very center of the universe which rushes and streams and pours into him from all sides while he stands quietly.

But for the most part, this idea of God in humans has been a well-kept secret in the field of religion, and a rejected theory in science. This could well be the most colossal blunder ever made by humanity, for while we have searched the heavens and the Earth, the great secret of existence lies within ourselves. It is only through realizing this mystery of God in humans that we can understand one like Jesus, with all His spiritual power, as a demonstration of that which is fundamental in all life.

Dwell for a while on the idea of the universe as the allness that we call God, realizing that everything within it, from the vast galaxies to the subatomic particles, is created in and of the universe. You may wonder about the vastness of the universe and peer at it through a telescope. However, you are not on the outside looking in. You are on the inside looking out. You are the universe at the point where you are. Think about that!!

Attributed to Saint Augustine is this profound thought: God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. If the center is everywhere, it is where you are. You are the center of the universe, the center of God. This is not a point to be made egotistically, but transcendentally, spiritually.

There is that of you which is centered in God, and which is a point of God-activity flowing forth into expression as you. And the circumference is limitless. There is no limit to God, or to us in God consciousness. THAT’S IMPORTANT. We limit ourselves so much…

We are like a wave of the ocean, each of us distinct as a wave yet made up of the energy and attributes of the ocean itself. We are not the whole ocean but of the same composition.

And God is like the ocean is in a wave. The wave is nothing more nor less than the ocean formed into the shape of a wave.

And you are God expressing as you. Thus, the divine is not a projection of the God into the human. God cannot project Itself outside Itself; God can only express Itself within Itself. Humans are not an individual in God, for that would presuppose isolation and separation. Humans are an individualization of God.

We are expressions of God, we are the divine expressing in human form.

This is fundamental for everyone. As Jesus said: ” … he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do … ” (John. 14:12). Jesus was demonstrating what is possible for human beings when we are fully aligned with the presence of God within us.

God in each of us is the allness of which we are an eachness, and the constant need in our lives is to unfold more of our allness in a process of conscious evolution. It is not trying to get into God or to get God into us. It is to, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10).

We can never be separate from God.

We all have a long way to go, but Jesus demonstrated a goal that is believable and achievable, and He pointed to that in us which is perfectible. Wherever we are along the way, no matter what the problems or challenges, there is always more in us, the Christ in us as our hope of glory, which means our potential for healing, overcoming, prospering, and succeeding.

“Is it not written in your law, ‘I have said you are gods’?” John 10:34

Our job as humans is to revive this spiritual Truth in the world and to live from the Christ of our being, the part of us that is God, our divine core. The whole point of spiritual growth is to know ourselves as Spirit and express it in our lives.

The root of both sin and evil, from our mortal view is ignorance, a sense of separation from good that brings negative results into our world.

We are not conceived in original sin but in original virtue.

We are spiritual beings living in a spiritual universe that is governed by spiritual laws and run by spiritual forces.

It is living from the Christ within, making choices from the higher Self, loving unconditionally, contributing to the well-being of the planet.

And there is no limit!

Meditation