Every time we shout out and sing our praise to God, we bring our minds and body into harmony with our soul. This is so for any soul that chooses to be in union with God. Every act that brings about this harmony, also brings about the increased connection between our mind and our soul. This is the true value and merit that comes from praising our Lord.
Though I would like to think that God is "pleased" or "happy" when we praise Him, this is actually a human thought and sentiment. All emotions are activities of the mind...these have no occurrence in the spiritual realm or with spiritual entities. We use these descriptions because these are the concepts that we (as human beings) understand...we use these to help convey a message that would motivate us to do acts that enhance our relationship with others when in fact it is our own very selves that we are enhancing.
Surely, there are all manner of the "praising" of God that happens in His kingdom. However, in that kingdom, this activity comes about naturally and requires zero effort to bring about.
To recap, we do not enhance God when we praise Him (for He does not "need" our praise)...rather, we enhance ourselves and our relationship with God. And that, my brothers and sisters, is what is truly "pleasing" to God.
So praise God whenever you manage to remember to do so. A good way to start getting into this practice and habit is to always mindfully say "thank you" to God for any and every little thing you experience and get in your life.
Alleluia!
~~~~~
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Dear Daughters (12-13-2008)
Oftentimes, we (by nature) lock our own selves into a belief that who and what we are (or have become) is who and what we really are. In truth, there is no such thing as "who we really are" or "what we really are". Rather, there is only the truth and reality of what we can become.
Take your sights off who you are and set your sights on who you can and want to become. Always remember these well known words of wisdom – "Becoming is superior to being".
~~~~~
Take your sights off who you are and set your sights on who you can and want to become. Always remember these well known words of wisdom – "Becoming is superior to being".
~~~~~
Dear Daughters (1-1-2009)
The path where our greatest fears lie is quite likely where our greatest joy, peace and fulfillment lies as well. Be strong, be brave and be still in the face of overwhelming fear and adversity. Those times are moments that offer us the best opportunities to strengthen and grow our spirit and soul.
I leave you with a beautiful prayer from Psalm 141: “I call upon You, O Lord; come quickly to me”
As Jesus said often, “Ask and you shall receive”. Ask for Him to come to you during your darkest or most melancholy moments and He will bring you strength to overcome anything. God hears the cries of the heart…always.
~~~~~
I leave you with a beautiful prayer from Psalm 141: “I call upon You, O Lord; come quickly to me”
As Jesus said often, “Ask and you shall receive”. Ask for Him to come to you during your darkest or most melancholy moments and He will bring you strength to overcome anything. God hears the cries of the heart…always.
~~~~~
Sunday, August 2, 2009
The Light and Dark Sides of HP
We have at this point (in this series of essays) hopefully come to understand the existence of two types of "choices":
1. the choice that is governed by our human programming (which I will refer to henceforth as the natural choice)
2. the choice that is made by the soul (which I refer to as the supreme choice as described in an essay titled "The Supreme Choice" )
There are two sides to the influence of human programming on the mind. I like to refer to these as the light side and the dark side of human programming. The light side are those influences of human programming that bring about joy, happiness, peace (mental peace), and all other "positive" human feelings, emotions, and experiences. The dark side include those influences that bring about the opposite of those experiences such as fear, anxiety, sadness, loneliness, and other "negative" emotions and feelings.
Let's talk about the dark side of human programming since this blog is written to help the reader remove anguish, anxiety and pain from their day-to-day existence. The areas of the dark side that bring us the most troubles are those that we are not able to overcome. We may never quite overcome FOREVER some of these more troubling parts of our programming. Nonetheless, we can define, strive for and incrementally achieve for ourselves a level of capability for overcoming that brings a sense of peace to us.
There have been numerous times when I would pray to God to remove a very troubling programming from my mind. But then I later came to realize (as I matured) that this troubling programming (that I would pray about) also came with a sub-programming that helped perpetuate my failure at overcoming it. That sub-programming was none other than the strong desire to not lose this troubling programming. Are you lost yet in the jargon of all these?
In other words, I really should be focusing my overcoming efforts at overcoming the sub-programming makes me want to continue to continue being empowered by the troubling programming.
I use this personal example to somehow illustrate the dynamics of human programming and the power it has over our activities and choices and consequently the quality of our relationship with one another.
~~~~~
1. the choice that is governed by our human programming (which I will refer to henceforth as the natural choice)
2. the choice that is made by the soul (which I refer to as the supreme choice as described in an essay titled "The Supreme Choice" )
There are two sides to the influence of human programming on the mind. I like to refer to these as the light side and the dark side of human programming. The light side are those influences of human programming that bring about joy, happiness, peace (mental peace), and all other "positive" human feelings, emotions, and experiences. The dark side include those influences that bring about the opposite of those experiences such as fear, anxiety, sadness, loneliness, and other "negative" emotions and feelings.
Let's talk about the dark side of human programming since this blog is written to help the reader remove anguish, anxiety and pain from their day-to-day existence. The areas of the dark side that bring us the most troubles are those that we are not able to overcome. We may never quite overcome FOREVER some of these more troubling parts of our programming. Nonetheless, we can define, strive for and incrementally achieve for ourselves a level of capability for overcoming that brings a sense of peace to us.
There have been numerous times when I would pray to God to remove a very troubling programming from my mind. But then I later came to realize (as I matured) that this troubling programming (that I would pray about) also came with a sub-programming that helped perpetuate my failure at overcoming it. That sub-programming was none other than the strong desire to not lose this troubling programming. Are you lost yet in the jargon of all these?
In other words, I really should be focusing my overcoming efforts at overcoming the sub-programming makes me want to continue to continue being empowered by the troubling programming.
I use this personal example to somehow illustrate the dynamics of human programming and the power it has over our activities and choices and consequently the quality of our relationship with one another.
~~~~~
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Laws
For the most part, we have become accustomed to looking at laws with a negative sentiment. This is due to our natural tendency to view laws as some form of control imposed on us by some controling entity that restricts our full experiencing of freedom.
The laws of nature (natural laws) keep us from taking off from the ground and naturally flying, for example. The laws of society seek to prevent us from engaging in numerous activities that our minds and bodies would wish to do. The controls defined and implemented by an establishment seeks to bring about a desired common behavior from members of that establishment in order to achieve a desired objective.
There is one set of laws the preception of which has been twisted as a result of man's teaching of these from the point of view of reward and punishment. These are the laws from God. The better perspective is to view these laws as the user manual and guide for the human body and its natural programming. These laws were not made for the pleasure of God (God is not a controlling entity).
~~~~~
The laws of nature (natural laws) keep us from taking off from the ground and naturally flying, for example. The laws of society seek to prevent us from engaging in numerous activities that our minds and bodies would wish to do. The controls defined and implemented by an establishment seeks to bring about a desired common behavior from members of that establishment in order to achieve a desired objective.
There is one set of laws the preception of which has been twisted as a result of man's teaching of these from the point of view of reward and punishment. These are the laws from God. The better perspective is to view these laws as the user manual and guide for the human body and its natural programming. These laws were not made for the pleasure of God (God is not a controlling entity).
~~~~~
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
