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Matthew
6:19"Do
not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But
store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not
destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For
where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
22"The
eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will
be full of light. 23But
if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then
the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"
24"No
one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the
other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You
cannot serve both God and Money." -
(attributed to) The Master Mind Jesus, New International Version Bible
In this message, I am going to the Bible for some of the same principles
of prosperity that we have studied from Wallace D. Wattles book,
"The Science of Getting Rich." The statements above
attributed to the Master Mind Jesus, understood correctly, give us great
insight into success and prosperity and contain within them insight into
the Law of Mind. Especially now, in our current global economy, it
is time for us to be very clear about success and prosperity.
Contemporary "prosperity preachers"
tell us that "God wants you to be rich" or to have our
"best life now." And this all sounds well and good,
after all, G-d has an ever-lasting love for us so why wouldn't the best
life now and riches be available to us? But, we are dealing with
Intelligence, and so we must intelligently prepare ourselves for our
good. Dr. Robert H. Bitzer, one of the greatest teachers of
Principle once said, "I believed that "all that the Father
hath is mine," but then I found that I could say this a thousand
times a day but I didn't have a dime more." Then he
discovered that "the trick to demonstrating money is use-ness
... what are you going to "use" the money for?"
I would take Dr. Bitzer's idea about money a
step further and say, "what are you going to use it for and how
many people will benefit from your use of it?" The ideas that
bring great wealth are those ideas that benefit the most people.
If Levi Strauss made only a pair of levis for himself, he would never
have become rich. Can you imagine Alexander Graham Bell thinking
that the telephone was just for him? The Law is give and be given
to and so the more we give, the more we receive. In other words,
the more people that benefit from what we have to give, the more we
receive.
Each of these men demonstrated a Principle and
that Principle is within the teachings of the Master Mind Jesus: "Do
not store up for yourselves treasures on earth ..." Emerson
stated, "prayer that is for a selfish end is meanness and
theft." And from this great wisdom we know that
whatever it is that we are to do in order to gain success and
prosperity, we must do it for the good of all. Even more
importantly, we must strive to do that which we do with enthusiasm.
"For where your treasure is, there your heart
will be also." As long as we are giving, we will
always have everything that we need and desire. And we must be
willing for others to reap even a greater benefit, perhaps, than we do
ourselves. "If then the light within you is
darkness, how great is that darkness!" Jealousy and
competition will block our good. If we are constantly seeing
others with more than we have or comparing our success and wealth to
others, we will find ourselves without the new ideas and enthusiasm that
expands our success and prosperity.
"No one can serve
two masters. ... You cannot serve both God and money."
These words have been used to create so many false ideas about money.
But, in truth, it is giving us a great instruction in how to be
prosperous ... don't work just for the money ... don't do anything, just
for the money! To be prosperous and successful at what we do, it
must be appealing to us. If possible, we should love what we do
and do what we love. And if we find ourselves in a position where
this isn't true for us, then we must look within our mind and find
something about what we do that benefits others, and then recognize that
we are giving of our skills and talents for the benefit of others.
I cannot emphasize enough how important this is. This recognition
of giving, will prosper us. We will be expressing more of G-d and
our good will show up in the right and perfect time.
Giving aligns us with the Nature of G-d.
"It is the Father's good pleasure to give to you" ... and so
we understand that as we express more of the In-dwelling Presence of G-d
within us, it must be " our good pleasure to give to others."
And as we do, we shall receive all the riches of life that we can accept
for ourselves.
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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