As always I like to appreciate you for taking the time out of your busy Sunday to consciously join myself and others as we deepen in our connection and communion with the Ground of our being, God in us as us.

Because I know that the times, all of us myself included, when we forget our divinity, we forget our true nature. We forget our spiritual identity when we're caught up in whatever it is that is happening or going on around us or to us, or for us.

We might cling to some affirmations and bible quotes. But in the middle of whatever it is, sometimes we're more invested in whatever the experience or the challenge is, than the remembrance of our true nature and so this morning, we're continuing on from last week about our core beliefs. I wanted to look at the core beliefs of our teacher and way shower.

As always I believe when something is true, you'll find this truth in all of the major philosophies of theology. In Hinduism, they recognise that the Atman which is the individual consciousness, and the Brahman which is the universal consciousness, our nature, God's nature are one.

In Judaism, they say that He is in all and all is in Him. In Islam Muhammad says, blessed be his name “Those who know themselves know their Lord”. Menicus and Confucianism says, Those who come those who know completely their own nature know heaven.
In The Chinese Book of Changes, it is written in the depths of the soul. One sees the divine, the one; and Buddhism. Lord Buddha says “ Look within you are the Buddha.”

We have so many examples from our way-shower, our teacher, our beloved Saviour and friend Jesus who demonstrated by example of his divinity, but also to remind us of our own divinity.

He told the Jews , I and My Father are One, also that it is the father within me that do the work. He reminded them, I am the Way the Truth, the life, I am the light of the world. You will know the truth the truth will set you free.

I've come that you might have life and have it abundantly. Before Abraham was I am, all these statements of truth speak to his core belief about himself. But also he reminded us that this was not just true of him but true of all of us.

The major teachings, I believe that he shared, was to remind us that we are all divine sons and daughters of the Most High God. He came to fulfil the law, he reminded us. Yes, Moses brought you the commandments, but the Pharisees and Sadducees with so busy enslaving and imprisoning people with the letter of the law, they'd forgotten the spirit of the law; and that's what he came to show, to demonstrate, to live, to express and to show us how we too, can live and express from our true nature.

I know from personal experience, that when I can catch myself in the midst of whatever it is my mind and consciousness is obsessed with and come back to these truths. To examine right where I am, these teachings still hold true. He said, Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will abide forever. These are not words that were meant for 2000 years ago. These are words that are meant that this very day, this very time that we are living in this very situation and condition and whatever the experiencing that we are facing.

The core beliefs we may have held before need to be eradicated and get these core beliefs so entrenched, so imprinted so emblazoned upon our soul, so that we too, can walk on water or turn it into wine; few of us have ever achieved such feats but he told us the works that he do, and that he has done, we will do greater.

We do not do greater because we are fearful. We do not do greater because we are lacking in our faith; that is not strong enough. We do not do greater because we have that self limitation of belief. We do not do great because we failed to trust. It’s all part of the human experience in our human nature. But what I'm here to remind you this morning, these may be experiences and expressions of the human nature, but we are more than our human nature, we are spiritual beings.

We need to come back into the alignment with these teachings, that are the same today, yesterday, world without end. This life was not meant to be fraught and yes, we will have tribulation that he told us, but he reminded us that we were to be good cheer. For as he overcame it, so we too shall overcome.

I have to keep reminding people that as he lived as an example, he overcame death. He overcame the way people treated him through forgiveness, through love, through trust in the belief of his own divinity. He recognised that he came from the Source of all that is God, The almighty, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and that to God, He ultimately returned. That was why he could say before Abraham was I am, that understanding, that recognition of him being a part of the Infinite Divine Source that is everywhere present; that are understanding and belief that that Spirit that creates an upkeeps the galaxies, the cosmos and everything; that sustains all of life was right where He was.
Yes, he had moments of weakness to like we do. But he overcame them because immediately he came back to the remembrance of who He was and Who's He was.

My Beloveds, the invitation always is to look to our teacher our way- shower, the example of what it is that we are ultimately called to be, to express, to do, to experience. We can only do that when we truly open ourselves to aligning with our true nature.
It's not just the saints and sages of the ancient world that had wisdom, we to have it. It isn't that God only spoke to those prophets of old. God is speaking to each and every one of us in the depths of our being if we choose to listen, If we choose to adhere, if we choose to obey. That is the greatest gift we have been given the ability to choose what it is we want. God did not create us as automatons to obey Him. That gave us the free will to do so if we so choose.

When we look at the example of Jesus, or Buddha, or any of the saints and sages of old, you can see that they worked on themselves so They could truly be saturated and drenched in the Divine that was right where they were; that they could live and express from that realisation, that eternity That is God, that is always present.

That they can move beyond the dualistic thinking of you and me and separation. That they could see that there was no other that we will all one that greed and selfishness and vanity. All of these things that we all have an experience and share and express could be transcended with right thinking, with compassion, with tolerance, with love, belief and acceptance, that the Divine is in and through all of creation.

The divine one the saints and sages recognise that it was important for their consciousness, not to be attached to anything but let it be attached to the Divine to the Sacred to God.

My beloveds, know who you are and affirm that.

Sacred Text

And they all said Are you the son of God then? And he said to them? Yes, I am. Luke 22:70

I believe that is an invitation for all of us to acknowledge that we, too are the sons and daughters of the Divine. That when we are thinking to ourselves that we are just this little identity, that little label we attach. I'm just Ingrid Scott. Remember to ask myself, Am I not the daughter of God of the Most High of the Infinite Intelligence the absolute reality the divine mystery that is everywhere present?

Am I not one with this life that is in and through all of things? Am I not able to align with the presence that is right where I am? Am I not able to speak the word for my health, my wholeness, my abundance?

Our sacred texts speak how our teacher affirmed boldly clearly, unflinchingly who he was and let's remember that, in those times that would have been thought of as heretics, that was considered blasphemous and he spoke it boldly.

Who are we then not to speak boldly, to our true identity, our true nature. Not just when things are good and everything is going swimmingly in our life, but to speak to our true nature, when things are challenging, when things can seem at their most distressing, when things can seem at their hardest. Let us speak from our true nature, as children of God as the sons and daughters of the Most High that we are joint heirs, as Christ was. My beloved, you are already that it isn't something you have to become. It's something you have to remember and claim.

STORY

Ken Butigan recalls the beginnings of his education in nonviolence at the University of San Diego:
I learned that Jesus was a maker of peace, an agent of restorative justice, and a proponent of what we might call “responsibility to protect nonviolently,” as in the case of the woman accused of adultery who was about to be executed when Jesus intervened, neither with justified violence or hand-wringing passivity, but instead, at great risk to himself, with a creative and thought-provoking nonviolent action that saved the woman’s life and saved the men from carrying the burden and terror of the guilt of homicide. In his time of foreign occupation and oppression, Jesus proclaimed a new, nonviolent order rooted in the unconditional love of God. . . . I [heard], as if for the first time, Jesus’ command for us to love our enemies and for us to offer no violent resistance to one who does evil and I was forced to reflect deeply on the actions Jesus took to dramatise this call, including urging [his disciple Peter] to put down his sword as the soldiers were arresting him in the garden of Gethsemane…
Jesus is the revelation and embodiment of our Nonviolent God, whose sun shines on the good and the evil alike. I would come to learn therefore that nonviolence was ontological, at the heart of God, the God who created the universe and said that it was good.Nonviolence is not ineffective, passive, weak, utopian, naïve, unpatriotic, marginal, simplistic, or impractical, but it recognises evil in the world and responds to it with good.

I thought it was a perfect example of someone who is trying to live the way that Jesus lived. It isn't always easy, when our teacher told us to turn the other cheek or if someone takes our coat to give our cloak as well. It isn't easy because we are so attached to our thoughts and feelings of indignation and self righteousness but as this also shows, we don't bury our hands and pretend evil doesn't exist. So we don't feed fire with fire. We feed those that are evil by returning good

Poem: Deborah Ann Belka

Establishing my faith,
pressing closer into . . .
the higher calling
found Jesus in You.Gaining a perception,
of godly discernment
giving understanding
my full commitment.Striving for perfection,
growing spiritually
working out my faith
uncompromisingly.Holding on to my hope,
trusting You for all things
letting Your Word
pull on my heart strings.Establishing my faith,
going for the goal . . .
the hope of Your glory
propelling my soul!

BODY MEDITATION

Please click here to be taken to the Body Meditation’s page.

SUNDAY SOUL CONNECTION PRAYER

Please follow this link.

MOVEMENT PRAYER 3

Please click here to be taken to my Movement Prayer’s page.

BUDDHIST REFLECTION

Please click here to be taken to my Buddhist Reflection’s page.

RUMINATION

You wander from room to room
Hunting for the diamond necklace
That is already around your neck!
Rumi

Benediction

May you Go into your week knowing you are and that you are loved perfecty and empowered by the Spirit within you to share and Express the Love and Light of your being with everyone you meet.

You already are