God is a God of Love

If you are looking to find out how to live prosperously while also pursuing a spiritual life, please read on.


“The world has provided many ways through which you can make money and propser, but those ideas often include taking from others. Let's see how to do this while seeing your brothers with love.”

There are many ways the world has provided through which you can make money, or prosper, but so many of those ideas include taking advantage of anothers situation, and this is not a healthy spiritual practice.

In a spiritual reality, nothing can be lost and therefore, nothing can be taken, but while we perceive this physical reality, the idea of losing when you give or gaining when you take, are inbred into the worlds thinking.

If you embrace this form of getting, you might succeed, but this may come at the cost of your peace. This might seem to be an acceptable compromise that you are willing to make, but when you lose your peace, all things in your life will become tainted, unhealthy and sickly. This has nothing to do with any punishment from God. Quite the contrary, it is a direct result of you allowing your mind to go to a place where you are not allowing God to enter due to the fear of hearing Him say you should be doing something else...and He would, but this is not a fearful thing. This is a joyous thing since this involves the knowledge that God is now helping to lead you towards a more beneficial place of mind where finances and health will fall nicely in line since they are but the effects of having your spirit mind in a good place.

The key to living prosperously is in letting go of how the world has taught you could prosper and also to let go of what you believe it means to prosper.

You are a glorious child of God. You are an eternal being with all the creative capacity of your Creator. With this in mind, there is nothing in all existence that is unworthy of you, nor are you unworthy of anything in existence. Everything is already at your disposal...so the idea that you must fight or struggle to survive, let alone prosper, is not a natural state of being. This 'less than' form of living is simply the direct result of us believing we do not deserve abundance...even though we so often cry for it, but we still feel undeserving...and so we experience what we believe we deserve.

How do we get past this? We move on by doing everything we can to quiet our lives and open our minds to hear the Holy Spirit, the voice of God. It may not be that you hear words, but that you feel inspired or simply lead to do something that you might have otherwise not done. The inspiration may come in many forms, but the overall idea is that you let go of what you have believed to be the way to prosper and allow the Holy Spirit and Jesus to rewrite how your mind sees this and then be open for these new ways of seeing to take hold in your life.

For example, if you have lost a job or hate your current job, you might feel very fearful as to what is going to become of you. You might be very fearful of how you will survive, how you will maintain medical insurance or how you will take care of your family. These concerns may seem valid, but the simple fact that you have fears is preventing your mind from hearing the answers that God would provide.

For Jesus and the Holy Spirit, fear does not exist because they know only love. You can't hand your fears over to them because they are not real thoughts, but simply experiences you are choosing to have based upon how you perceive other thoughts. So the thing to do is to find those root thoughts that bring about your fear and hand them over to the Holy Spirit and Jesus to correct. They will shine perfect love on those thoughts and those thoughts will be returned to you as healed.

By releasing these thoughts, your fears will begin to subside and your mind will become quieter. You will slowly begin to become more and more aware of the presence of God...Who never ever left, but was just obscured by your fears and overactive misuse of mind.

A Course in Miracles states that whatever you want for yourself, give that thing first to another and then you shall also have it for yourself. The Course also states that how you see and treat your brother is how you see and treat Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit. So if you truly desire to stop punishing yourself and truly want to prosper, see your brothers with love. See all people with compassion. Ignore what they are doing with respect to using their actions to paint a picture of who they are. Instead, know that they are all wonderful, shining, perfect and glorious Sons of God. Know that anything they do does not represent who they really are, but simply represents who they currently believe they are, and they are merely mistaken.

Stop identifying your brothers by their mistakes, and you'll stop identifying yourself by your own. Stop judging them by their actions, and you'll stop judging yourself by your own. Stop seeing them as being unworthy of everything the universe has to offer, and you'll stop seeing yourself as being unworthy as well. Choose to see your brothers this way, and you will have opened the door to be prosperous. Not because you deserve it, because we all deserve it, but because you will have allowed it.

I know it's hard to fathom that our struggles are a result of what we have done to ourselves. You may ask, "How or why would we do this to ourselves?", and the answer is simple... we hate who we have become. Inherently, we know we are deserving of all things, and we know we have chosen to settle for less. This has split our mind to where we do not make rational choices. We often do exactly what is not in our own best interests, and then we ignore or forget that we had any part in bringing about the situation. We blame the world or God for the situation, but this does nor make it true. This just makes it the experience we have settled for, but we don't have to settle for this experience.

Open your mind right now and stop thinking about the world for a moment. Be sincere and say to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, "I choose to see that I am worthy. I choose to allow you to bring into my life the perfect experiences that will help me to draw closer and closer to you. I open my mind to you. I choose to see the root of all my fears, and then hand those thoughts over to you as I become aware of them. I will work with you to heal my mind so that I do become willing, once again, to experience all the blessings that God has already provided, but I had simply chosen to hide from. I hid because I thought He would control me, but now I choose to see that He and I are one, and are working together to bring happiness and joy to all. I am thankful and happy to know I am moving forward. Life will never be the same again, and that is what I really want. I set aside all images of what I believed was true, and I allow you to help me see clearly. I open my mind to you. You are my brother and my advocate. I will be like you someday because of the love you have for me and because I will allow you to heal my mind so that I too see that I have that same love for you and all creation. I am a creator like my Father and I am one with Him. I cannot be destroyed or harmed in any way. We are one."

Know you are loved. Know you are not alone. Know you are worthy. Know that your experience until now was simply the result of what you thought you knew, but now, your experience of this world will transform into what God would rather have you see.

Go in peace and all the love of creation with you. You are loved. You are one. Be in peace.

Video submitted by Harold McDonald

David Garibaldi: Jesus Painting from Thriving Churches on Vimeo.

Kisses From Katie

I am reading this book by Katie Davis called Kisses from Katie. Katie also has a blog.

http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-10-17T21:04:00-07:00&max-results=7

(Katie lives in Uganda and runs a orphanage. She is from Brentwood Tennessee. She moved to Uganda when she was 19.)

 This is a post of hers that is so beautiful.

Today I look around and my breath catches in my throat.

Surely I should take off my shoes. Or fall to my knees. Or raise up my hands. Surely this moment is holy.

Not because of anything spectacular. This morning is going the same way every morning goes. Still in my pajamas, hair disheveled, placing porridge dishes in the sink before grabbing another cup of coffee, I look around.

Regina moves into place beside me to help scrub the dishes. All four of her once-malnourished children play in the yard in front of us, strong and healthy. We both look out the window at them and look at each other and smile and don’t say a word.

As we look back out the window, Makerere walks by, not limping, raking the leaves in our back yard. He looks up and he smiles and I think of whole months when he didn’t smile and whole months when he just couldn’t leave his alcohol addiction and whole months when I could see his leg bone.

And it fills up my heart and I know it with my whole body and it tumbles out of my mouth in a barely audible whisper, “God has been good to us.”

Some days, babies die and children don’t obey. Some days, friends won’t leave their addictions or take the ARVs that could save their lives or listen when I try to share the gospel. Some days the hurt of the world muddles my vision and I forget to remember that every moment is holy and I could live here on my knees with shoes off and hands raised if I would just choose to see it.

Tomorrow or next week or in ten minutes I will forget. A devastated friend will sit on the couch and I will struggle to find words that encourage. I will cry as I peel carrots over the open, already-stained pages of Psalms. But right now I breathe deep and bend knees and raise hands high. And I say it to you and I say it to me: God has been good to us.

And to Him, the Good Father, I say thank You.

Your Prayers Needed

I just received a call from Charlene Johnson about her sister. The doctors are saying there is nothing that can be done for her and suggesting the family make the decision to withdraw life support from her today. They have come to that decision to let her go, so please pray as this family goes through this rough day in losing one they all love. I'd especially like you to pray for Charlene after just losing her other sister a few weeks back and now losing her last sister so close together. This must be a great burden for her to deal with. We need to lift her up to the Lord today. So, as you go about your business today, please pause for a moment of prayer for Charlene and her family.

Thank you

Matthew 25

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. ³² All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
   ³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶ I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
   ³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹ When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
   ⁴⁰ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

1 John 3:16-19 — “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence ...”

James 2:14-17 ESV 

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Good News Music Radio

http://www.goodnewsmusicradio.com/


You can listen to Woody's weekly radio show on your computer by clicking on the web sight above.

Special Prayer Request

 http://www.sgnscoops.com/2012/01/25/special-prayer-request/

Dear prayer warriors! Im Mary Tom Speer Reid’s grandaughter. Im asking if you can post for everyone to please pray for this precious woman who has touched so many lives. She was hospitalized yesterday for dehydration. Our family has to make some hard decisions in the next few days and weeks. We will need all the prayers we can get.

I am a church member.

 http://www.thomrainer.com/2012/01/i-am-a-church-member.php

I am a church member.

I will seek to be a source of unity in the church. I know there are no perfect pastors, staff, or other church members. But neither am I. I will not be a source of gossip or dissension. One of the greatest contributions I can make is to do all I can in God’s power to help keep the church in unity for the sake of the gospel.

I am a church member.

I will not let my church be about my preferences and desires. That is self-serving. I am in this church to serve others and to serve Christ. My Savior went to a cross for me. I can deal with any inconveniences and matters that are just not my preference or style.

I am a church member.

I will pray for my pastor every day. His work is never-ending. His days are filled with constant demands for his time; with the need to prepare sermons; with those who are rejoicing in births; with those who are traveling through the valley of the shadow of death; with critics; with the hurts and hopes of others; and with the need to be a husband and a father. My pastor cannot serve our church in his own power. I will pray for God’s strength for him and his family every day.

I am a church member.

I like the metaphor of membership. It’s not membership as in a civic organization or a country club. It’s the kind of membership given to us in 1 Corinthians 12: “Now you are the body of Christ and individual members of it” (I Corinthians 12:27). Because I am a member of the body of Christ, I must be a functioning member, whether I am an “eye,” an “ear,” or a “hand.” As a functioning member, I will give. I will serve. I will minister. I will evangelize. I will study. I will seek to be a blessing to others. I will remember that “if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

I am a church member.

I will lead my family to be good members of this church as well. We will pray together for our church. We will worship together in our church. We will serve together in our church. And we will ask Christ to help us fall deeper in love with this church, because He gave His life for her.

I am a church member.

This membership is a gift. When I received the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, I became a part of the body of Christ. I soon thereafter identified with a local body and was baptized. And now I am humbled and honored to serve and to love others in our church. I pray that I will never take my membership for granted, but see it as a gift and an opportunity to serve others, and to be a part of something so much greater than any one person or member.

I am a church member.

And I thank God that I am.

Food Pantry

Please remember on Sunday to bring an item for the Food Pantry basket~ If everyone brought in one item every Sunday we can make quite an impact.

Shirley &Roscoe

I just heard from Shirley and both she and Roscoe are 
feeling much better.
He is home from the hospital and they are both on the road to recovery and expect to be at church on Sunday.
Shirley says "thank you" for all of the prayers.

WRCC Food Pantry Newsletter-Submitted by Trish Butcher

How many nights a week do you hear or even ask yourself, "What are we going to have for dinner?" Imagine hearing that question and not really knowing what you are going to have for dinner because your cabinet is empty. More and more people each day in one of the richest counties around are facing that situation. Our pantry saw 99 families this past Thursday. The biggest family which had 11 people living under 1 roof, told us Thursday that they took in 2 more people that had nowhere to go. Wow! I am honestly not sure if I could live in that type of situation but if you have no choice you do what you have to do. We continue to see new families each week. There were 6 new families this week. On Tuesday 9 people came out to stock and on Thursday 53 volunteers assisted guests.
Our needs this week include healthy cereals, oatmeal, cake and brownie mix, canned meat, boxed dinners, dry beans, rice, sugar, flour, boxed potatoes, and toilet paper and diapers.
There is an awesome opportunity that your family can enjoy. David Crowder will be performing a FREE concert, made possible by a donating a bag of groceries per ticket. Food donations will be accepted for tickets TOMORROW at Northview Church Lobby, 12900 Hazeldell Pkwy, Carmel from noon to 9pm. The concert is Friday, February 3 at 7pm. Only 2200 tickets are available. The food collected will be distributed to local food pantries. This is part of the "Souper Bowl Extravaganza."