The song we
sang during special music (http://www.danielnahmodlyrics.com/sl-more-than-enough.html)
tells a story worth thinking about: “Your
infinite Love made me, made everything I see.”
God’s infinite
Love is another way of describing the creative substance we’ve been talking
about on Prosperity Sundays.
God’s infinite Love = substance. Does
thinking of this invisible, fertile, creative stuff as God’s infinite Love
(rather than substance) make it easier to grasp the idea that that’s one half
of, could we call it the creative compound of life? One half of the creative
compound of life is God’s infinite love. The other half is our thoughts held in
mind. Now, I’m not talking about the superficial thoughts, the thoughts we
“show” to other people. I’m speaking about the thoughts that we hold deep down
in our mind, the thoughts we think when we think we’re alone. Those core thoughts are the other half of the
creative compound of life.
Unless it’s your very first time, or
one of your first few times, in a Unity church, you’ve heard this phrase, “Thoughts held in mind produce after their
kind.”
Let’s me test your chemistry
knowledge for a moment. (SLIDE) This slide (hydrogen, hydrogen, oxygen) shows 2
parts hydrogen and 1 part oxygen, which you know to be what? Call it out. (H2O, or, water)
Now if you could put together
hydrogen and oxygen atoms together at a rate of two to one in favor of
hydrogen, water would be manifest according to how much hydrogen and oxygen you
assembled at that ratio.
Assuming you have a laboratory and
could do this, why would combining the atoms in the ratio of H2O
create water? Why would that occur? Would it be because you learned it in
science class and could repeat it, or would there be some kind of chemistry law(s)
at work? If you were completely ignorant of the compound H2O and you
mixed that ratio together, you’d still create water.
The same is true with “Thoughts held in mind produce after their
kind.” Regardless of whether you are aware or unaware of that spiritual
law, it’s at work.
If you want water you have to combine
those two components in a specific ratio, otherwise you won’t manifest water.
In our lives, thankfully, we don’t
have to have just the right amount of
some kind of thought to manifest it.
God is both generous:
John10:10 “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
Malachi 3:10 “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my
house, and try me now in this,” sayeth the Lord of Hosts. “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven,
and pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough for you
to receive it.”
Or as Daniel Nahmod put it, “More than enough.”
God is generous. God is also
intrinsically Good (or goodness); it is God’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom.
Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and love
(mercy) shall follow me all the days of my life…”
God is Good and generous. If you need
a visual, maybe this will work.
To quote our song again, “Why would I worry, why would I doubt, why
would I ever think I’d go without?”
God is Good and provides our plenty
There was a time when I was unaware
of how to make my life better, let alone that I was one of the components of
the compound for doing so. After I began to study abundance teachings in the
bible and other sources things began to change for me in my life. I still “fell
off the wagon,” but I would get back on as soon as I realized I was off. I
worked at getting back on the wagon sooner and sooner and worrying less and
less about having fallen off until I came to a place of deep abiding trust in
not just the Good & Plenty of God, but the awareness of my part in the
process.
One day a wildly, crazy, outside of
anything I ever considered as a sensible idea came to me… I think I want to
enter the ministry! WHAT???
As much as my superficial thinking
rejected that idea, there was a deeper thinking, seeing, feeling, occurring
about entering the ministry.
One afternoon while was peacefully
soaking in the tub that deeper thinking, seeing and feeling rose to the surface
of a few brief seconds… and I didn’t just think in that moment that entering
the ministry was a good idea, I saw and felt myself as a minister.
Eventually I started the two years of
pre-requisites required before I could apply to seminary. After I was accepted
God “opened for us the windows of heaven, and poured out for us such a blessing
that it seemed there would not be room enough for us to receive it.”
·
We
decided to rent our home in Colorado so we would have an income stream. We had
a renter right away.
·
We
took a trip to Lee’s Summit, MO to look for a home for two years and none of
the pre identified rental panned out. We decided to drive around a neighborhood
that looked the most appealing to us. As we were driving down on street Jane
said, “Turn here, I feel like there’s a house for us on that street… and there
was. We rented there for two years.
·
We
engaged a small local company to move us. He gave us a price. After that he
inquired about why we were moving. Ministry, I said. I need to give you a discount
he said! And he threw in all the used packing boxes we wanted at no charge.
·
We
had to have the roof and the decking on the house replaced. Literally as the
roofers were packing up after finishing it started to rain and rained for three
days!
·
We
planned a goodbye party for our neighbors, friends, and co-workers. I went to
our little local grocery and was ordering home-made brats, burgers, soda-pop,
etc. I invited Bert, the store owner to our party and he donated all the food.
He also insisted that I use his brand new big, big, big grill and that he would
deliver it.
·
When
the movers were putting the final boxes on the truck, just like the roofers, it
started to rain and rained the reminder of the day.
Good & Plenty. More than enough. Abundance.
I practiced abundance thinking and
when I fell down I picked myself up and stuck with it no matter how many times
I had to do it.
Abundance does not mean that every
person will become a millionaire/billionaire ala Warren Buffet or Bill Gates.
Abundance is much more than money but it includes money because we live in a
material world.
Abundance of friends, abundance of love, abundance of
spiritual treasures, and a remembrance of your part as component of the
spiritual compound called creative power. Abundance of skills, an abundance of
worth, and abundance of happiness… these are just some of the attributes of an
abundant life.
Here are six
quick abundance tips:
1.
Believe
that you, as a child of God, have the right to be prosperous.
2.
Realize
God as your source.
3.
Get
out of “debt-thought.” (or lack thought, or not enough thought. You are not
facing anything alone. You have God with you.
4.
Form
a mental vacuum – eliminate the thinking of what you no longer want – mental
house cleaning, then let love and trust and faith in God rush into the void
you’ve created.
5.
Commit
to your God-given Good. That’s what we did last week in envisioning and feeling
the life we want for ourselves.
6.
Give.
A Course in Miracles says, “To have: give
all to all.” Whatever you do (doing
is giving), give in full loving kindness without fear of depletion or loss but
with the expectation of abundance. Give all your love (give with your full
awareness of God) to all your circumstances and conditions.
Next week is Prosperity Sunday and
we’ll talk about, “Work and the Success Syndrome.”
In the meantime remember that
gratitude is a key to the process of abundance.
