Spiritual Growth

I hope that all who read this will find truth and enlightenment here.

Life is truly an amazingly interesting adventure. It is an adventure we are not taking alone.  Not always easy but most certainly interesting.  As humans on earth today, we are meant to seek “God” in our lives.  We all have special "callings". Our callings are the "Work" that we came here to do as our contribution to the glorious unfolding of God's divine plan for us as humanity and for our universe. We each play an important role.  We will walk the same journey sooner or later. There are many paths to this one destination but they all include pretty much the same processes, trials and tribulations. So no matter what path we each have chosen for ourselves, what religion, what beliefs, our goal and destination is the same and it was given to us  by GOD, OUR CREATOR.

No matter how we look at life, while here on earth, we have only so many years in which to accomplish our journey, our mission to do whatever we came here to do.  I don’t know how you feel but I feel like we need to be sure we are on track (if we haven’t already) and not waste any more precious time.  None of us can know how much time we have left.   If we knew we were to die tomorrow or even today would we be living our lives differently? 

We must allow our ‘true selves’, our ‘spiritual beings’, our ‘God beings’ to emerge and become dominant in our lives.  We need to allow our ‘souls’ to become an active part of our daily life.  We are here for one reason and that is to grow and develop spiritually with God.  There is nothing on this earth more important for us at this very moment.  NOTHING…

Consider this thought I borrow from Dr. Wayne Dyer:“We are spiritual beings learning through physical experiences.”  We are not physical bodies... We are Spirits... SOULS!  We just live in a physical body for a very short period of time. So our focus today is not about the physical world but we are to concentrate on our TRUE nature, our spirit, our higher selves, our souls (whatever name each of us calls it.)  We have all heard it before.  Everything in the 3rd dimension is an illusion, a pretty convincing one at that but still, it is an illusion.  We must step back, or better said, ‘step up’, and view this life from above (let’s get the larger picture) as to how each experience we have in this life affects our spirit and soul and not just how it affects our physical bodies or the environment we have created around us both of  which we already know will not endure.

There can be NOTHING more important to us than our Spiritual Growth and seeking God in every aspect of our lives. NOTHING!  

 So I urge all of us to make Spiritual Growth the highest priority in our lives.  Let us make an agreement with ourselves and with each other to think on this and pray on this and to talk about it with each other and others each week.  Some of us can do this through our personal ministries.  If we are not meeting in our own churches each week then maybe we can physically invite others into our homes like house churches or share with others online through our church blog and our Yahoo group and through email.  In addition to writing this weekly message I plan to start posting a subject every Sunday for open discussion and Bible study.  I warn all ahead of time, we are not going to get into heated discussions or arguments.  The purpose is for the enlightenment of all and everyone is welcome to share their thoughts and studies but no one is to argue with another’s words.  We will practice tolerance and understanding and peace.  This is part of the mission of the Church of Interfaith Christians.

I am sure we will revisit important subjects several times over during the course of our studies but even so I think that each week we will learn something new about ourselves and about our Spiritual journey.  So it is UP TO EACH ONE OF US to take charge. The REAL PERSON each of us is, the SPIRIT each of us is should make this decision.  Let us decide now to commit ourselves to communicating like this  every week and see if it doesn’t make a radical change in all our lives.

Let’s start from the beginning. First we must be willing to wrap our human minds around the seemingly incomprehensible truths of God. Sometimes it may seem impossible to do, but we must try. So far I have used the word "God" when I refer to the “supreme being” that is our Creator, that creates All-That-Is. Many people from many cultures have different names for “The Creator” and to keep us from getting caught up in semantics I may refer to the Creator by many names such as “Jehovah”, “Yahweh”, “The Devine”, "God" or "Great Spirit".  If anyone has any negative emotional responses to any of the terms I use, then please I encourage each of us to try to break free from these molds that can keep us in chaos and instead always try to envision the true meaning and feeling and see the larger picture. Our written and spoken language is such a limited method of communication and there is so much room for misinterpretation. So I ask that no one get stuck on one little word I might use and deny themselves the greater experience. Let us all try and practice the tolerance and understanding we preach in this church.  There is far too little of it in the world.  We will be able to teach the world by our own experiences.

I can guarantee that times will come over the course of our studies when each of us will come face to face with a realization that will shake the very foundations of our all ready established understanding and beliefs. It may be similar to when a person has always believed that the earth is flat and then suddenly they see a picture "from space" of what earth really looks like, beyond a shadow of doubt, proof. Such a person will have to deal with an internal crisis, as the very core of their beliefs are now shattered and they must decide to either embrace the new understanding that the world is indeed a sphere and not flat... OR... go into complete denial and refuse point blank to bring their consciousness into a higher reality.

The very thing that keeps us in Spiritual, mental & emotional bondage is the stubborn beliefs we have formed over the years about certain things, whether they are based on fact or not.   Through all of our religious backgrounds from family and previously attended churches, we all have picked up beliefs that  just aren't true and we want to insist that they are because these core beliefs form the very foundation of how we view the world and how we relate to this world.

It’s understandable that at times it is easier for people to turn away from such a breakthrough and to continue in denial than to face radical changes in how we see the world. A little example may be a teenager learning for the first time, after 18 years, that his mom and dad are not his natural parents and that he/she was adopted as a baby. Imagine the radical shift in how this teenager views his parents, the anger about the truth being withheld for so long and then how this teenager must now come to grips with a whole new, never before considered reality.

 This is a simple example of how we respond to radical change. In the spiritual path we have to undergo similar experiences where our core beliefs become endangered because things just are not what we think they are. Will we have the courage to go through these experiences?

 Growth is not about learning. Growth IS about change. It should be change for the better, for the betterment of our own lives and for the betterment of our world around us.

 It is my prayer that each of us will have the courage to break through these barriers when they come up, and they will. It is also my prayer that when it happens, that God will surround us with many angels to support us during such difficult times. Let us keep our mind open and seriously consider any new points of view presented and then based on our ‘Heart’, how we feel inside, see if we can embrace this new concept and challenge. It is like healing... it comes with time. Denial & stubbornness has never served or benefited anyone.  My advice is if any subject is one any of us  cannot understand or wrap our brain around then we should simply let it go.  Simply ‘lay it down’ so to speak and walk on by.  We do not have to accept it but we don’t need to fight with it either.  In this way the worst we can do is turn away and discount it as nonsense.

This journey can be fun and exciting and wonderful... IF WE LET IT BE. It can also be very hard, especially those times when we either make a great breakthrough or give up and go back to the way it was. Let’s hang in there... It is worth it!

Here is a good idea to help us with our spiritual journey.  Each of us can use a journal to record our thoughts and prayers and studies as we walk this journey. For some of us who have been at it awhile, the changes may be subtle and we may not notice how we are changing over time. By keeping a journal and reading in it every few months we will be better able to see the shift in our understanding and in our belief systems.

 Our Mission for today if we so choose: 

Let each of us take some time and prepare a spiritual journal.  It can be a diary, journal, composition book, spiral notebook, or three ring binder we’ve decorated for ourselves or it can be done online if we tend to think better there.   Let’s take some quiet time to get started writing in our journals. Some will want to take longer for the assignment while others may want to break it up into several shorter sessions.

First we take a few minutes and quickly examine our life up to this point in time.  What have we done? What have we accomplished?  Was it physical or was it spiritual growth or both?  What have we done with our lives that has made a difference in this world or to others in this world? Also, what have we given in exchange for what we have accomplished in our life so far?  In other words, what price have we paid? This is private for each of us to contemplate for ourselves.  Remember there are not right or wrong answers.  We each should just take a quick look at our own life not others lives for we cannot know other’s paths and how they have grown and gained enlightenment.

Now let’s write a short summary of our life based on the questions above. We don't want to be too cryptic because we want to be able to re-read this again in a few months from now. Only when we look back do we see how far we have come.  What’s the old saying: hind sight is 20/20?

And lastly, let each of us write down from our own viewpoint what our Spirit, our Soul desperately longs for.

It doesn’t matter how much we write. It is entirely up to each of us as individuals, as long as we write something in our journal every week. The only way to fail would be to write nothing at all. The first object of this exercise is for us to create a starting point in our life right now. As we put our thoughts to paper, we manifest a point from where we can go forward on this journey.  I like to add prayers to my journal as well, for example at this point we could add a prayer asking for help, support, guidance and clarity on this journey we are embarking upon.  Let us remember the help is always available, we just have to ask for it.

Here’s a thought to keep in mind...

 If spiritual growth was so easy...
Why do we NOT live in a glorious paradise filled with Love?
Instead we live in a world dominated by fear, violence, anger, greed and hatred.

 It is time to change our world and it has to start small. Think over the words Father Martin recently posted about the ‘loaves’ and the greater lessons to be learned there.  Remember our homes and families are our churches as well.  God is all about “love” and the Bible tells us “love begins at home”.  Through prayer and communion with God, I change, you change, others change and the whole world will change and become a better place.  (Is this more of the power of multiplication at work?)  We will soon learn more about the beautiful things that await us (as humanity) and also for our planet. But it all starts at home. It starts with each of us.  Then with our family and friends, our neighbors and then the guy down the street.  Today is just the beginning.

(If we were meeting in person, I would love to end this session with us singing the beautiful song Amazing Grace.)

Blessings,
Rev. Sharra