 Time4Thinkers.com has just launched an exciting summer project called "Radical Acts." The focus is 18 of Jesus' toughest teachings, including CHALLENGE Pharisees, DO GOOD to those who hate you -- and of course HEAL the sick. Participants are asked to make a commitment to follow one or more of Jesus’ teachings this summer, and share their stories as they unfold. A steady stream of amazing music, audio stories, and blogs will spice things up. But the main focus is the participants' effort to live these Radical Acts and share the results. Radical Acts is ecumenical. All are invited, regardless of religious (or no religious) affiliation. The more the merrier....and the more spiritual progress for us all! For those who were reading this blog way back in January, you will remember the WALK ON WATER (W.O.W.) four- part series that kicked off the New Year and an update that was written a couple of months later. Well, one of the focus subjects of "Radical Acts" is Walk on Water! You might like to check that one out! And if you haven't read the W.O.W. posts in awhile - here you go!
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Also, if you aren't yet a subscriber, a full-text version of the blog can be delivered to your email inbox. It's easy to sign up in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE READ MORE BLOG POSTS FIND A LIST OF MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT 1/24/2012 W.O.W. - A victory worth sharing At the beginning of the month, I wrote a four-post series on W.O.W. (Walking on Water) for 2012. To me, walking on water means accepting the exceptional in my day-to-day experience and stepping out into the "Great Amazing" that is life.
The posts discussed the four steps I am taking each day to get up on the water: 1) To think bigger thoughts and to expand my understanding of God every day. 2) To let the Christ (God's message of good for me) mobilize me in new directions. 3) To express stability with each new step and conquer doubt and fear. 4) To celebrate each victory and recognize that a forward step for one blesses all. Here is one recent victory. 1/3/2012 Look! I W.O.W! - Step 4 of 4 W.O.W.- Peter walked on water and so can we. Every day includes opportunities to witness and express the extraordinary. Man as the reflection of God is completely unlimited. So why do we sit in our boats - all tied up in little knots, feeling like we are getting nowhere - when we are created, by divine design, to walk on water?
This year my New Year's resolution is a little different than in past years. No more thinking small. Sure, I would like to eat better, move more, and drop off unecessary habits that waste my time. But rather than focus on the minnows of limitation nipping at my toes, I would like to go after the big fish of fear that would tell me I can't get out of the boat and express my unlimited potential for good. And I think I can do this in four steps. 1/2/2012 We can W.O.W. in 2012 - Step 3 of 4 This year is all about W.O.W. (Walking on water) in the New Year. Carrie had it right yesterday when she wrote, "This is so exciting. I have been cooped up in limitation too long. I want to stop judging ... how long a task will take, how much it will cost to do it or to get it done ... What you're saying here is to step out in faith, but what is new for me is the sense of glorious expectation ... of possibility." This year my New Year's resolution is a little different than in past years. No more thinking small. Sure, I would like to eat better, move more, and drop off unecessary habits that waste my time. But rather than focus on the minnows of limitation nipping at my toes, I would like to go after the big fish of fear that would tell me I can't get out of the boat and express my unlimited potential for good. And I think I can do this in four steps.  Step 3 - Take the stretched out hand and walk. It's exciting to embrace new views of God (Step 1) and to let the Christ mobilize you to move and express the unlimited possibilities of good (Step 2). This is what it means to W.O.W. Peter did. He walked on water. Why can't we? Why have a small expectation of good?! When Peter stepped out of the boat, his fisherman's perspective on the prospects of success at water-walking tried to sink him, but Peter overcame the resistance with a helping hand. Today's Step 3 is all about finding stability as we take each forward step. Peter had baggage. Jesus showed him the possibilities of freedom from material limitations, but Peter's past experiences argued that waterwalking wasn't wise. He stepped out in faith, but his faith was hobbled somewhat by fear. Until the hand, that is. Matthew's gospel tells us, "But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (14:30) According to Newton's 3rd law of motion, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." This reaction is sometimes referred to as "resistance". To Peter, resistance to walking on water was a normal, inevitable, unavoidable phenomenon. As a fisherman, he had seen winds and waves like this before. He was afraid of a material law of motion that declared walking on water to be a risky business.  Mary Baker Eddy explained, "Jesus... raised Lazarus from the dead, stilled the tempest, healed the sick, walked on the water. There is divine authority for believing in the superiority of spiritual power over material resistance. A miracle fulfils God's law, but does not violate that law. This fact at present seems more mysterious than the miracle itself. The Psalmist sang: "What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills, like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob." The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pp. 134-135)  Fear is simply material resistance to normal progressive spiritual phenomenon. Fear is material, not spiritual, and it has no spiritual basis or real law to support it. What saved Peter from fear was the "stretched forth hand" of Jesus. This wasn't his personal hand, but rather the same hand that was holding up Jesus. The possessive adjective "his" in the phrase "Jesus stretched forth his hand" is in italics in the King James Bible, indicating that the word was added in by translators to make sense of the passage. The hand that caught Peter was the stretched forth hand of divine Principle, God - the spiritual Law that allowed Jesus to prove material resistance to be nothing more than a mental suggestion, and nothing to either fear or accept. In fact, Jesus reminded Peter that his little faith - the same faith that got him to step out of the boat onto the water - was enough to stabilize his walk. "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" he asked. I don't think Jesus was knocking a small faith. To me, he was saying, "Don't you realize what you have?" Jesus knew that a tiny mustard-seed faith could move mountains. It could certainly move off fear when that faith was planted in God.  By rooting our faith in the everpresent God-power to accomplish all things, instead of personal power or will, we can discover that nothing is impossible to us. Mary Baker Eddy said, "Had Blondin believed it impossible to walk the rope over Niagara's abyss of waters, he could never have done it. His belief that he could do it gave his thought‐ forces, called muscles, their flexibility and power which the unscientific might attribute to a lubricating oil. His fear must have disappeared before his power of putting resolve into action could appear." (Science and Health, p. 199) So here is my sum-up of step 3 -
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My guess is, we all know someone who would love to walk on water but is having trouble taking the first steps. If so, please help out by emailing, Google + ing, tweeting, posting, or megahorning the link out your window, so that others can find it, too. And if you wish to subscribe to this blog, simply scoll up and submit your email in the box shown in the righthand column! You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE READ MORE BLOG POSTINGS FIND LINKS TO MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT  Hello 2012! Who says each day has to be more of the "same old same old?" Why not try something new, experience something grand, each day? W.O.W. = Walk on water.
Peter did it. He stepped out of the boat. He was willing to master limitation. Fear might have tried to sink him, but Peter did walk on water with a helping hand. This time my resolution is a little different than in past years. No more thinking small. Sure, I would like to eat better, move more, and drop off unecessary habits that waste my time. But rather than focus on the minnows of limitation nipping at my toes, I would like to go after the big fish of fear that would tell me I can't get out of the boat and express my unlimited potential for good. And I think I can do this in four steps.  W.O.W. = Walk on water. Peter did it. He stepped out of the boat. That showed his willingness to master limitation. Fear might have tried to sink him, but Peter did walk on water with a helping hand.
This year my resolution is a little different. No more thinking small. Sure, I would like to eat better, move more, and drop off unecessary habits that waste my time. But rather than focus on the minnows of limitation nipping at my toes, I would like to go after the big fish of fear that would tell me I can't get out of the boat and express my unlimited potential for good. And I think I can do this in four steps. |
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I have practiced Christian Science professionally in some form since 1979. But my journey with Christian Science started in a Sunday school where as a young child I was taught the Scriptures and some simple basics of Jesus' method of scientific Christian healing. A significant experience at the age of twelve opened my eyes to the great potential of this practice. After impaling my foot on a nail, I prayed the way I had learned in Sunday school. Within moments the pain stopped and healing began. By the next morning the wound had disappeared completely. Having experienced the great potential of Christian Science, there would be no turning back. |
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