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"...
asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him,
The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one
Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first
commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
"
In
the statement given to us by the Master Mind Jesus, "Thou shalt
love thy neighbour as thyself," there is an assumption that we love
our self. How true is this for most of us ... and is it always
true for us ... or do we waver in the face of comparisons or other's
opinions of us?
In metaphysics we learn that the
"Law of Attraction" is a Universal Law ... meaning it works
for everyone ... all the time. No matter what comes to us ...
either Good or seemingly not-so-good, we have drawn it into our
experience ... at some level of Mind. What we think ... and what
we dwell on ... becomes an "attracting energy" to the Universe
and It gives us exactly what we "give" unto It. Our
thinking, then, is our "praying without ceasing" ... and when
we look at the conditions and experiences that we face in our lives ...
we can see our "thinking" made manifest. The scriptural
statement, "there is nothing un-seen that will not be seen"
... cautions us to put our conscious thinking on surveillance ... for it
is our "conscious" thinking that creates the pattern or
imprint on our subconscious ... and these patterns or imprints, create
the conditions and experiences in our lives.
I can remember a time when I
experienced a devastating financial situation and I felt humiliated by
it ... I went through moments of fear, anxiety and shame ... and
self-blame. But, there was something within me that wanted to
understand how this had happened to me. As I turned to a book
written by Dr. Joseph Murphy for guidance, I read that poverty was a
"mental disease" ... at first I was offended ... and then I
realized that I was offended because I was taking the statement as a
"negative" rather than a "teaching" that I so
desperately needed in order to "move to the other side" of
this challenge. Was this financial experience something necessary
for me? Yes, it was ... as it was less than a year or so after I
began to move to the other side of the challenge that I became a
"practitioner" ... and was called on to help other people move
to the other side of financial challenges. However, if I had
listened to my ego and remained offended ... than I may have found
agreement ... but I would not have found the solution.
Modern metaphysics did not give us
something new. Nor did the Radical Jesus give us something new
when He stated, "it is done unto you .. as you believe" ...
for in the Book of Job in the Bible we can read, "that which I have
feared has come upon me." In other words, the imprint created
by the thoughts of fear and loss ... created a devastating loss for Job.
Both Jesus and Job gave us a glimpse into a Universal Law ... but the
Great Jesus went even further in His teaching and stated, "it rains
on the Good and the bad alike" ... in other words, don't be
offended ... don't get upset with yourself ... and don't start believing
that somehow you are bad ... when negative experiences occur ... always
remember that it is all an experience to "open us up" to
something Greater that we are to do ... to Be or to Have ... in the
midst of adversity, we must love ourselves ... even when our ego wants
to beat us up with blame and shame.
In scripture we can read, "I
have loved you with an ever-lasting love" ... and in Truth, we must
do likewise ... we must have an ever-lasting love for ourselves.
Love must become habitual with us ... for it is the Power of Love within
and around us that heals our past and creates new and exceptional
dimensions for higher living.
The rewards are
tremendous as we express love from within a consciousness of Love ... a
consciousness developed with love of God and love of self ... and each
and every one of us will, without taking thought, share this love with
all those in our experience. I am going to end this with words
from Eric Clapton's song, "Lovin' You Lovin' Me -
"I'm lovin' you lovin' me lovin' you.
It's all the same; when loving, two together makes one.
Everybody sing la, la la la, la la la, la la la.
It's all the same, and we are one."
And
So It Is!
Maximum Love,
Rev.
Hank Bates
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