They become soundbites…people say oh yeah that’s inspiring.,But they are statements about life…life in the here and now. Practical bit’s of wisdom that can change you and the outcome of lives that you touch…
People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
From The Paradoxical Commandments, by Dr. Kent M. Keith. Mother Teresa quoted this often.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Welcome Message From Neale - My Mentor
There comes a time when all that's left is God...
It happens in most people's lives more than once. It is that moment when you feel totally and completely isolated. It's that time when you feel, not that no one is hearing you, but that there is no one to hear you. You are really all alone. There is no one else, even when there is someone else in the room. There is nothing more, even when there is plenty more all around. There is only you, even when the world surrounds you. Perhaps especially when the world surrounds you, there is only you.
Yes, there comes a time when all that's left is God. Nothing else matters. Nothing else has any meaning. Nothing else calls to you, magnetizes you, demands your attention---or is even worthy of it.
This time comes, it seems to me, either when you have nothing or when you have everything. This moment arrives when everything else has been taken from you and there is nothing left, or when everything has been given to you and there is nothing more you could possibly want.
When this moment arrives, it is a great relief. It is a release, a letting go. And yet, for many of us, there is still a tiny part of our being that yearns for the single thing that so many of us have never had: complete acceptance and unconditional love.
Somebody love me just the way I am.
We have not been able to find that in another. We thought we could find it in another, we hoped that we could find it in another, but we cannot. We cannot even find it in ourselves. And because we cannot find it in ourselves, we cannot give it to another-and that is why we cannot find it there. For we cannot find anywhere what we have not placed anywhere, and we have not placed complete acceptance and unconditional love anywhere. We cannot even be okay with the weather, for goodness sake. We can find something to complain about around everything.
And so, we seek what is not there, for everything we seek to find in life must have been placed there by us. If we have not placed it, we cannot find it. What we do not place into life, we do not find, because we are the Only Source There Is.
If we cannot find forgiveness in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find compassion in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find tolerance in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find mercy in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find peace in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find acceptance in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. And if we cannot find love in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there.
All these things we must place into Life. First, into our own life, then into the life of another. Or, for some, it is the other way around. I want to say for most of us it is the other way around. For most of us, it is nearly impossible to give ourselves what we most want to receive: forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love.
Most of us cannot give these things to ourselves because we know too much about ourselves. We think ourselves to be unworthy of these things. We imagine ourselves to be something other than what we really are. We cannot see the Divinity that Divinity Itself has placed in us. We cannot see the Innocence. We cannot see the Perfection in our imperfection.
Because we cannot see these things in ourselves, we cannot give ourselves what we most want to receive. Yet, because we are not totally blind to what is good and worthy in the world, we are often able to see these things in others. We can often see Divinity in others. We can often see Innocence in others. We can often even see Perfection in the imperfection of others. And so we can give others forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. We can, but the question is, will we?
Too often, we do not. Because of our own wounds, we cannot heal the wounds of others. And so we deny our world the things our world needs the most. We deny our world forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. And when we deny these to our world, we deny these to ourselves---for what we have not placed into the world, we cannot receive from the world. Again, let the New Golden Rule be repeated:
What we have not placed into the world,
we cannot receive from the world.
There comes a time when we realize that we are the Only Source There Is. No one is going to give to us or to the world what we are unable to get to the world, and thus to ourselves. Not for very long.
The first place we find this out is in relationship with another. What we are unable or unwilling to give to another, we will not receive from the other. Not for very long. If we cannot give the person across the room forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love... we cannot look to the person across the room to give these things to us. For they only have to give what we have given them.
We imagine in relationship that the other person has what we do not have, and therefore, that they can supply it to us. This is the great illusion. This is a great mistake. This is the great misunderstanding. And this is the reason why so many relationships fail. We imagine that the other is going to supply us with forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. We imagine that the other is going to supply us what we cannot supply to them, and what we cannot even give to ourselves. And then we become angry with the other. And then we become angry with ourselves. And then...
... we realize that there's nothing left but God. We turn, then, to God. Please God, give me forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. Please give it to me, so that I may give it to others.
The world is rapidly approaching this turning point. We are coming to understand that God is the Only and Original Source. Now all that we need to do is understand, as well, that there is no separation between God and us. When we grasp at last this foundational understanding, when we embrace, finally, this basic truth, we will change ourselves, change our relationships, and change the world.
Until then, we will not. And we will wait for that moment when we realize....that there's nothing left but God. Hopefully, we will arrive at that moment before we create it...in the most crude of ways possible: by destroying everything else until there is nothing left. By destroying our relationship until there is nothing left. By destroying our world until there is nothing left. By destroying ourselves until there is nothing left.
Conversations with God contains a startling statement. It is something I've never forgotten. God said, "It is not necessary to go through hell in order to get to heaven." I invite us all to remember that on this day. I invite us all to embrace a new notion about ourselves and about life: not that there's nothing left but God, but that there's nothing but God.
When we see God in every other person and in every other thing, then we will have dropped our illusions, we will have stepped aside from our childish imaginings, and we will treat everything and everyone as if it, she, or he is Divine. And if you don't think that will change your life and your world, think again.
Neale Donald Walsch
^ Top
Neale's Story
Neale Donald Walsch is a modern day spiritual messenger whose words continue to touch the world in profound ways. With an early interest in religion and a deeply felt connection to spirituality, Neale spent the majority of his life thriving professionally, yet searching for spiritual meaning before beginning his now famous conversation with God. His With God series of books has been translated into 27 languages, touching millions of lives and inspiring important changes in their day-to-day lives.
Neale began his journey in the most ordinary way. Overstressed and overextended by modern day life when the options ran out and frustration reached its peak, he turned to God. Desperate questions scratched on a legal pad in the middle of a long, sleepless night, began a precious dialogue which changed Neale's life forever and eventually changed the lives of millions. This process began over 10 years ago and became the much loved Conversations with God Series.
Today the books have been translated into 37 languages, and Book One remains to this day in the 100 top selling spiritual books on Amazon.com.
In addition to bring through the extraordinary With God series, Neale has authored 16 other works, as well as a number of video and audio programs. Available throughout the world, each of the first five CwG dialogue books has made the New York Times Bestseller list, Conversations with God-Book 1 occupying that list for over two and half years.
The With God Series has redefined God and shifted spiritual paradigms around the globe. In order to deal with the enormous response to his writings, Neale joined with loved ones and friends to create the ReCreation Foundation, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to inspiring the world to move from violence to peace, from confusion to clarity, and from anger to love.
Neale's work has taken him from the steps of Macchu Picchu in Peru to the steps of the Shinto shrines of Japan, from Red Square in Moscow to St. Peter's Square in Vatican City to Tiananmen Square in China. And everywhere he has gone-from South Africa to Norway, Croatia to The Netherlands, the streets of Zurich to the streets of Seoul, Neale has found a hunger among people to create a way to live, at last, in peace and harmony. He has sought to bring men and women in every culture a new understanding of God and of Life which would allow them to experience that.
Neale was born into a Roman Catholic family living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His first spiritual teacher was his mother, who taught him not to be afraid of God, as she believed in having a personal relationship with the Divine. She taught Neale to do the same. A non-traditional believer, Neale's mother hardly ever went to church, and when he asked her why, she told Neale, "I don't have to go to church-God comes to me. He's with me and around me wherever I am." This view of God in his childhood would open Neale fully as an adult to transcend the traditional views of organized religion and bring to the world the message found in Conversations with God.
An insatiably curious child, Neale's comments about life seemed to possess a wisdom far beyond his years, and caused relatives and family friends to often ask, "where does he come up with this stuff?" While attending a Catholic grade school, Neale would often pose questions in Catechism class that would extend past the traditional grade school curriculum. Finally, the parish priest invited Neale to his rectory to answer questions. This meeting turned into a once-a-week visit that blossomed into an open forum where Neale learned not to be afraid to ask questions about religion and spirituality-and also learned that his asking these types of questions did not mean that he would offend God.
By the age of 15, Neale's involvement with spiritually-based teachings led him to begin reading a variety of spiritual texts, including the Bible, the Rig Veda, the Upanishads and Divine revelation according to Sri Ramakrishna. He noticed that when people got involved in religion they seemed less joyful and more angry, exhibiting behaviors of prejudice and separateness. Neale concluded that the collective experience of theology was not positive.
After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, but academic life could not hold his interest and he dropped out of college after two years to follow an interest in radio broadcasting that eventually led to a full-time position at the age of 19 at a small radio station far from his Milwaukee home, in Annapolis, Maryland.
Restless by nature and always seeking to expand his opportunities for self-expression, Neale in the years that followed became a radio station program director, a newspaper reporter and, ultimately, managing editor, public information officer for one of the nation's largest public school systems, and, after moving to the West Coast, creator and owner of his own public relations and marketing firm. Moving from one career field to another, he could not seem to find occupational satisfaction, his relationship life was in constant turmoil and his health was going rapidly downhill.
He had relocated in Oregon as part of a change-of-scene strategy to find his way, but Fate was to provide more than a change of scene. It produced a change in his entire life. A car driven by an elderly gentleman made a left turn directly into his path, Neale emerging from the auto accident with a broken neck. He was lucky to escape with his life.
Over a year of rehab threw him out of work. A failed marriage had already removed him from his home, and soon he couldn't keep even the small apartment he'd rented. Within months he found himself on the street, homeless. It took him the better part of a year to pull himself together and get back under shelter. He found, at first, modest part time jobs, once again in broadcasting, then worked his way into full time employment and an eventual spot as a syndicated radio talk show host.
He had seen the bottom of life, living in the weather, gathering beer and soda cans in the park to collect the return deposit-but now he seemed to be on a roll again. Yet, once more Neale felt an emptiness in his life. In 1992, following a period of deep despair, Neale awoke in the middle of a February night and wrote an anguished letter to God. "What does it take," he angrily scratched across a yellow legal pad, "to make life work?"
Now well chronicled and widely talked about, it was this questioning letter that received a Divine answer. Neale says that he heard a voice, soft and kind, warm and loving, that gave him an answer to this and other questions. Awestruck and inspired, he quickly scribbled these responses onto the tablet.
More questions came, and, as fast as they occurred to him, answers were given in the same soft voice, which now seemed placed inside his head. Before he knew it, Neale found himself engaged in a two-way on-paper dialogue. He continued this first "conversation" for hours, and had many more in the weeks that followed, always awakening in the middle of the night and being drawn back to his legal pad. Neale's handwritten notes would later become the best-selling Conversations with God books. He says the process was "exactly like taking dictation," and that the dialogue created in this way was published without alteration or editing.
In July, 2005 Neale completed the final CwG dialogue book, HOME WITH GOD in a Life that Never Ends. The book covers areas never before discussed in any of the previous CwG texts, of which there are nine, including Conversations with God-Book 1, Conversations with God-Book 2, Conversations with God-Book 3, Friendship with God, Communion with God, The New Revelations, Tomorrow's God, and What God Wants.
In 2008 he published Happier Than God, a spiritual, God-centered answer to The Secret, a movie-and-book that spoke of how humans have the power to create their own reality...but said virtually nothing about God's role in that process. In 2009 Neale released his groundbreaking work, When Everything Changes, Change Everything, which integrates modern psychology with contemporary spirituality in a new mix offering never-before available tools for emotional healing and spiritual growth, including the Mechanics of the Mind and the System of the Soul. He called this the WECCE Technology.
In 2001 Neale founded Humanity's Team, which he has described as a worldwide civil rights movement for a soul (HumanitysTeam.com). In 2005 he began work on making available throughout the world an education program for young children, creating The School of the New Spirituality (SchoolOfTheNewSpirituality.com).
Neale now offers three private programs of personal interaction with those who have read Conversations with God and would like to delve further into the material: The Messenger Tutoring Program (which helps people become teachers of this material), The Spiritual Mentoring Program (which seeks to assist people in finishing their Unfinished Business so that they can get on with their lives in a joyful and spiritually enriching way), and The Homecoming, where just 12 people remain in residence with Neale in his own home for five days and talk about everything they've ever wanted to know about CwG, the experience and the message. Information of this and more may be found at Neale's personal website: NealeDonaldWalsch.com.
^ Top
It happens in most people's lives more than once. It is that moment when you feel totally and completely isolated. It's that time when you feel, not that no one is hearing you, but that there is no one to hear you. You are really all alone. There is no one else, even when there is someone else in the room. There is nothing more, even when there is plenty more all around. There is only you, even when the world surrounds you. Perhaps especially when the world surrounds you, there is only you.
Yes, there comes a time when all that's left is God. Nothing else matters. Nothing else has any meaning. Nothing else calls to you, magnetizes you, demands your attention---or is even worthy of it.
This time comes, it seems to me, either when you have nothing or when you have everything. This moment arrives when everything else has been taken from you and there is nothing left, or when everything has been given to you and there is nothing more you could possibly want.
When this moment arrives, it is a great relief. It is a release, a letting go. And yet, for many of us, there is still a tiny part of our being that yearns for the single thing that so many of us have never had: complete acceptance and unconditional love.
Somebody love me just the way I am.
We have not been able to find that in another. We thought we could find it in another, we hoped that we could find it in another, but we cannot. We cannot even find it in ourselves. And because we cannot find it in ourselves, we cannot give it to another-and that is why we cannot find it there. For we cannot find anywhere what we have not placed anywhere, and we have not placed complete acceptance and unconditional love anywhere. We cannot even be okay with the weather, for goodness sake. We can find something to complain about around everything.
And so, we seek what is not there, for everything we seek to find in life must have been placed there by us. If we have not placed it, we cannot find it. What we do not place into life, we do not find, because we are the Only Source There Is.
If we cannot find forgiveness in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find compassion in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find tolerance in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find mercy in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find peace in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. If we cannot find acceptance in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there. And if we cannot find love in our lives, it is because we have not placed it there.
All these things we must place into Life. First, into our own life, then into the life of another. Or, for some, it is the other way around. I want to say for most of us it is the other way around. For most of us, it is nearly impossible to give ourselves what we most want to receive: forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love.
Most of us cannot give these things to ourselves because we know too much about ourselves. We think ourselves to be unworthy of these things. We imagine ourselves to be something other than what we really are. We cannot see the Divinity that Divinity Itself has placed in us. We cannot see the Innocence. We cannot see the Perfection in our imperfection.
Because we cannot see these things in ourselves, we cannot give ourselves what we most want to receive. Yet, because we are not totally blind to what is good and worthy in the world, we are often able to see these things in others. We can often see Divinity in others. We can often see Innocence in others. We can often even see Perfection in the imperfection of others. And so we can give others forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. We can, but the question is, will we?
Too often, we do not. Because of our own wounds, we cannot heal the wounds of others. And so we deny our world the things our world needs the most. We deny our world forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. And when we deny these to our world, we deny these to ourselves---for what we have not placed into the world, we cannot receive from the world. Again, let the New Golden Rule be repeated:
What we have not placed into the world,
we cannot receive from the world.
There comes a time when we realize that we are the Only Source There Is. No one is going to give to us or to the world what we are unable to get to the world, and thus to ourselves. Not for very long.
The first place we find this out is in relationship with another. What we are unable or unwilling to give to another, we will not receive from the other. Not for very long. If we cannot give the person across the room forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love... we cannot look to the person across the room to give these things to us. For they only have to give what we have given them.
We imagine in relationship that the other person has what we do not have, and therefore, that they can supply it to us. This is the great illusion. This is a great mistake. This is the great misunderstanding. And this is the reason why so many relationships fail. We imagine that the other is going to supply us with forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. We imagine that the other is going to supply us what we cannot supply to them, and what we cannot even give to ourselves. And then we become angry with the other. And then we become angry with ourselves. And then...
... we realize that there's nothing left but God. We turn, then, to God. Please God, give me forgiveness, compassion, tolerance, mercy, peace, acceptance, and love. Please give it to me, so that I may give it to others.
The world is rapidly approaching this turning point. We are coming to understand that God is the Only and Original Source. Now all that we need to do is understand, as well, that there is no separation between God and us. When we grasp at last this foundational understanding, when we embrace, finally, this basic truth, we will change ourselves, change our relationships, and change the world.
Until then, we will not. And we will wait for that moment when we realize....that there's nothing left but God. Hopefully, we will arrive at that moment before we create it...in the most crude of ways possible: by destroying everything else until there is nothing left. By destroying our relationship until there is nothing left. By destroying our world until there is nothing left. By destroying ourselves until there is nothing left.
Conversations with God contains a startling statement. It is something I've never forgotten. God said, "It is not necessary to go through hell in order to get to heaven." I invite us all to remember that on this day. I invite us all to embrace a new notion about ourselves and about life: not that there's nothing left but God, but that there's nothing but God.
When we see God in every other person and in every other thing, then we will have dropped our illusions, we will have stepped aside from our childish imaginings, and we will treat everything and everyone as if it, she, or he is Divine. And if you don't think that will change your life and your world, think again.
Neale Donald Walsch
^ Top
Neale's Story
Neale Donald Walsch is a modern day spiritual messenger whose words continue to touch the world in profound ways. With an early interest in religion and a deeply felt connection to spirituality, Neale spent the majority of his life thriving professionally, yet searching for spiritual meaning before beginning his now famous conversation with God. His With God series of books has been translated into 27 languages, touching millions of lives and inspiring important changes in their day-to-day lives.
Neale began his journey in the most ordinary way. Overstressed and overextended by modern day life when the options ran out and frustration reached its peak, he turned to God. Desperate questions scratched on a legal pad in the middle of a long, sleepless night, began a precious dialogue which changed Neale's life forever and eventually changed the lives of millions. This process began over 10 years ago and became the much loved Conversations with God Series.
Today the books have been translated into 37 languages, and Book One remains to this day in the 100 top selling spiritual books on Amazon.com.
In addition to bring through the extraordinary With God series, Neale has authored 16 other works, as well as a number of video and audio programs. Available throughout the world, each of the first five CwG dialogue books has made the New York Times Bestseller list, Conversations with God-Book 1 occupying that list for over two and half years.
The With God Series has redefined God and shifted spiritual paradigms around the globe. In order to deal with the enormous response to his writings, Neale joined with loved ones and friends to create the ReCreation Foundation, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to inspiring the world to move from violence to peace, from confusion to clarity, and from anger to love.
Neale's work has taken him from the steps of Macchu Picchu in Peru to the steps of the Shinto shrines of Japan, from Red Square in Moscow to St. Peter's Square in Vatican City to Tiananmen Square in China. And everywhere he has gone-from South Africa to Norway, Croatia to The Netherlands, the streets of Zurich to the streets of Seoul, Neale has found a hunger among people to create a way to live, at last, in peace and harmony. He has sought to bring men and women in every culture a new understanding of God and of Life which would allow them to experience that.
Neale was born into a Roman Catholic family living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His first spiritual teacher was his mother, who taught him not to be afraid of God, as she believed in having a personal relationship with the Divine. She taught Neale to do the same. A non-traditional believer, Neale's mother hardly ever went to church, and when he asked her why, she told Neale, "I don't have to go to church-God comes to me. He's with me and around me wherever I am." This view of God in his childhood would open Neale fully as an adult to transcend the traditional views of organized religion and bring to the world the message found in Conversations with God.
An insatiably curious child, Neale's comments about life seemed to possess a wisdom far beyond his years, and caused relatives and family friends to often ask, "where does he come up with this stuff?" While attending a Catholic grade school, Neale would often pose questions in Catechism class that would extend past the traditional grade school curriculum. Finally, the parish priest invited Neale to his rectory to answer questions. This meeting turned into a once-a-week visit that blossomed into an open forum where Neale learned not to be afraid to ask questions about religion and spirituality-and also learned that his asking these types of questions did not mean that he would offend God.
By the age of 15, Neale's involvement with spiritually-based teachings led him to begin reading a variety of spiritual texts, including the Bible, the Rig Veda, the Upanishads and Divine revelation according to Sri Ramakrishna. He noticed that when people got involved in religion they seemed less joyful and more angry, exhibiting behaviors of prejudice and separateness. Neale concluded that the collective experience of theology was not positive.
After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, but academic life could not hold his interest and he dropped out of college after two years to follow an interest in radio broadcasting that eventually led to a full-time position at the age of 19 at a small radio station far from his Milwaukee home, in Annapolis, Maryland.
Restless by nature and always seeking to expand his opportunities for self-expression, Neale in the years that followed became a radio station program director, a newspaper reporter and, ultimately, managing editor, public information officer for one of the nation's largest public school systems, and, after moving to the West Coast, creator and owner of his own public relations and marketing firm. Moving from one career field to another, he could not seem to find occupational satisfaction, his relationship life was in constant turmoil and his health was going rapidly downhill.
He had relocated in Oregon as part of a change-of-scene strategy to find his way, but Fate was to provide more than a change of scene. It produced a change in his entire life. A car driven by an elderly gentleman made a left turn directly into his path, Neale emerging from the auto accident with a broken neck. He was lucky to escape with his life.
Over a year of rehab threw him out of work. A failed marriage had already removed him from his home, and soon he couldn't keep even the small apartment he'd rented. Within months he found himself on the street, homeless. It took him the better part of a year to pull himself together and get back under shelter. He found, at first, modest part time jobs, once again in broadcasting, then worked his way into full time employment and an eventual spot as a syndicated radio talk show host.
He had seen the bottom of life, living in the weather, gathering beer and soda cans in the park to collect the return deposit-but now he seemed to be on a roll again. Yet, once more Neale felt an emptiness in his life. In 1992, following a period of deep despair, Neale awoke in the middle of a February night and wrote an anguished letter to God. "What does it take," he angrily scratched across a yellow legal pad, "to make life work?"
Now well chronicled and widely talked about, it was this questioning letter that received a Divine answer. Neale says that he heard a voice, soft and kind, warm and loving, that gave him an answer to this and other questions. Awestruck and inspired, he quickly scribbled these responses onto the tablet.
More questions came, and, as fast as they occurred to him, answers were given in the same soft voice, which now seemed placed inside his head. Before he knew it, Neale found himself engaged in a two-way on-paper dialogue. He continued this first "conversation" for hours, and had many more in the weeks that followed, always awakening in the middle of the night and being drawn back to his legal pad. Neale's handwritten notes would later become the best-selling Conversations with God books. He says the process was "exactly like taking dictation," and that the dialogue created in this way was published without alteration or editing.
In July, 2005 Neale completed the final CwG dialogue book, HOME WITH GOD in a Life that Never Ends. The book covers areas never before discussed in any of the previous CwG texts, of which there are nine, including Conversations with God-Book 1, Conversations with God-Book 2, Conversations with God-Book 3, Friendship with God, Communion with God, The New Revelations, Tomorrow's God, and What God Wants.
In 2008 he published Happier Than God, a spiritual, God-centered answer to The Secret, a movie-and-book that spoke of how humans have the power to create their own reality...but said virtually nothing about God's role in that process. In 2009 Neale released his groundbreaking work, When Everything Changes, Change Everything, which integrates modern psychology with contemporary spirituality in a new mix offering never-before available tools for emotional healing and spiritual growth, including the Mechanics of the Mind and the System of the Soul. He called this the WECCE Technology.
In 2001 Neale founded Humanity's Team, which he has described as a worldwide civil rights movement for a soul (HumanitysTeam.com). In 2005 he began work on making available throughout the world an education program for young children, creating The School of the New Spirituality (SchoolOfTheNewSpirituality.com).
Neale now offers three private programs of personal interaction with those who have read Conversations with God and would like to delve further into the material: The Messenger Tutoring Program (which helps people become teachers of this material), The Spiritual Mentoring Program (which seeks to assist people in finishing their Unfinished Business so that they can get on with their lives in a joyful and spiritually enriching way), and The Homecoming, where just 12 people remain in residence with Neale in his own home for five days and talk about everything they've ever wanted to know about CwG, the experience and the message. Information of this and more may be found at Neale's personal website: NealeDonaldWalsch.com.
^ Top
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
What A. Life...
Difficult is all I can say about my physical and spiritual life here lately...action's showing where I need work and others seem so lacking yet, In many way's I breathe the truth.
"Grief is a natural emotion. It's that part of you which allows you to say goodbye when you don't want to say goodbye; to express - push out - propel the sadness within you at the experience of any kind of loss. "
- Conversations With God Book 3
I hardly realize how much I miss you Patty since you are still with me in many way's...no one may realize how much we truly love one another., But the reality is that we travel soul to soul even now.
"Grief is a natural emotion. It's that part of you which allows you to say goodbye when you don't want to say goodbye; to express - push out - propel the sadness within you at the experience of any kind of loss. "
- Conversations With God Book 3
I hardly realize how much I miss you Patty since you are still with me in many way's...no one may realize how much we truly love one another., But the reality is that we travel soul to soul even now.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Our Brother Teaches
Are you ever hearing but never understanding? seeing but never perceiving.? Can you face the truth about yourself?....are ye seed that grows on the rock to be scorched? or on the path to be swooped up ?or are ye the seed that grow among the thorns and the thistle only to be chocked? Or are you the seed that has been planted in the good soil cultivated, grown and gracing the land? For on the path there are many rocky areas where the seed is but food for the birds and but dust for the land...know that all seed has a purpose. Know that our Lord feeds the birds and tills the soil so that you may take hold the good seed and drop it in rich soil so it grows.
aay
Matthew 13:1-58 (New International Version)
Matthew 13
The Parable of the Sower
1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9He who has ears, let him hear."
10The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"
11He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13This is why I speak to them in parables:
"Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
" 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.'[a] 16But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
18"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."
The Parable of the Weeds
24Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'
28" 'An enemy did this,' he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
29" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast
31He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."
33He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount[b] of flour until it worked all through the dough."
34Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. 35So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:
"I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world."[c]
The Parable of the Weeds Explained
36Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
37He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl
44"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
The Parable of the Net
47"Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51"Have you understood all these things?" Jesus asked.
"Yes," they replied.
52He said to them, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."
A Prophet Without Honor
53When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. 54Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. 55"Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" 57And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor."
58And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
aay
Matthew 13:1-58 (New International Version)
Matthew 13
The Parable of the Sower
1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9He who has ears, let him hear."
10The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"
11He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13This is why I speak to them in parables:
"Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand. 14In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
" 'You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.'[a] 16But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
18"Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."
The Parable of the Weeds
24Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?'
28" 'An enemy did this,' he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
29" 'No,' he answered, 'because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.' "
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast
31He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."
33He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount[b] of flour until it worked all through the dough."
34Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. 35So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:
"I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world."[c]
The Parable of the Weeds Explained
36Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
37He answered, "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.
The Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl
44"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.
The Parable of the Net
47"Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51"Have you understood all these things?" Jesus asked.
"Yes," they replied.
52He said to them, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."
A Prophet Without Honor
53When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. 54Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. 55"Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?" 57And they took offense at him.
But Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor."
58And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
It was His Life As Well...
Go into the heart of Love, and come from that place in all your choices and decisions, and you will find peace.
For the Master so put forth that heaven was at hand...thru love we obtain it.,not thru aggression or war, not even diplomacy. Jesus's life was one based in love in all things that he did...Jesus the Son of Man & Woman, the Son of God...God incarnate in our world then and today...Jesus promised the miracles of healing, manifestation of thought and deed and so it is. For in union with the Universal Laws All Thing's Are Possible.
It is not the death of Jesus that should echo in our hearts but his life of joviality and fellowship with his fellow man. We are all like Jesus Christ, that is our true nature...We have been befuddled by this world and it's teaching's of sin and separation from a God that only knows of divinity. Today I stand not alone but joined by millions all over the world who echo the thought of The Benevolent God that Our Brother Jesus spoke of.
I am free today of that fear in a God that will punish me for not prescribing to a certain dogma...certainly I ask that God who Loves us would have shown a path with less obstacles and less hardship.
For the Master so put forth that heaven was at hand...thru love we obtain it.,not thru aggression or war, not even diplomacy. Jesus's life was one based in love in all things that he did...Jesus the Son of Man & Woman, the Son of God...God incarnate in our world then and today...Jesus promised the miracles of healing, manifestation of thought and deed and so it is. For in union with the Universal Laws All Thing's Are Possible.
It is not the death of Jesus that should echo in our hearts but his life of joviality and fellowship with his fellow man. We are all like Jesus Christ, that is our true nature...We have been befuddled by this world and it's teaching's of sin and separation from a God that only knows of divinity. Today I stand not alone but joined by millions all over the world who echo the thought of The Benevolent God that Our Brother Jesus spoke of.
I am free today of that fear in a God that will punish me for not prescribing to a certain dogma...certainly I ask that God who Loves us would have shown a path with less obstacles and less hardship.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Gratitude Is The Attitude That Changes Everything.
Acceptance plays a large role in having gratitude for those things we start off not being comfortable with. It is in acceptance that I see truth...and truth is all there is.,And the truth that's in love is what our experiences should be created in.For Love Is All There Is. GOD so loves us that he never does not give us love in every experience that we have. It is our perception of what is that needs the most change.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Fellowship
Fellowship among us is a forgotten practice. People grow up never having had experienced it and without it., How Can You Have Fellowship With GOD? For if I know not my brother and sister how can I be whole?
So what do I do? I work on putting my hands out to others and look at taking other peoples hands. A large degree of fellowship I have practiced comes from 12 step programs such as this....
Shoemaker and our Twelve Steps
Make no mistake. Whatever Bill Wilson may have said or implied from time to time, Sam Shoemaker was not the only source of A.A.’s spiritual ideas. Wilson often steered his applause in Sam’s direction in an effort to avoid Roman Catholic and other objections to the Oxford Group from which A.A.’s ideas also came and of which early A.A. was a part. Moreover, Bill never mentioned A.A. specifics from Dr. Bob, Anne Smith, the Bible, Quiet Time, God’s direct guidance or Christian literature that was daily fare in early A.A.
Remember also! Dr. Bob said he did not write the Twelve Steps and had nothing to do with writing them. Those Steps represented Bill’s personal interpretation of the spiritual program that had been in progress since 1935. Dr. Bob emphasized, on more than one occasion, that A.A.’s basic ideas had come from study of the Bible. Dr. Bob studied the Bible. Daily, for three months, Anne Smith read the Bible to Bill and Bob. Bob read the Bible to AAs. He quoted the Bible to AAs. He gave them Bible literature. And he frequently stressed Bible study, stating that the Book of James, 1 Corinthians 13, and Jesus’s sermon on the mount (Matthew 5 to 7) were considered absolutely essential in the early spiritual recovery program. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob both said that the sermon on the mount contained the underlying philosophy of A.A.
Nonetheless, Sam’s own imprint is on the Steps. Every one of them. His imprint was on the presentation of Oxford Group ideas that Ebby Thacher made to Bill Wilson in Towns Hospital. And we will briefly take a look at just where Shoemaker’s language parallels the language of the Twelve Steps. In fact, our third chapter in "New Light on Alcoholism" provides further details and complete documentation.
Step One: Shoemaker spoke of the gap between man and God which man is powerless to bridge, man having lost the power to deal with sin for himself. As to the unmanageable life, Sam referred to the prayer in the Oxford Group so often described in "Victor’s Story" and quoted by Anne Smith in her journal: "God manage me, because I can’t manage myself."
Step Two: Sam spelled out the need for a power greater than ourselves. He quoted Hebrews 11:6 for the proposition that God is. He declared: God is God, and self is not God; and that man must so believe. Sam urged seeking God first, from Matthew 6:33. He espoused the "experiment of faith" by which man believes that God is; seeks God first in his actions, and then knows God by doing God’s will, and seeing that God provides the needed power. For this idea, Sam frequently cited John 7:17.
Step Three: Sam taught about the crisis of self-surrender, quoting William James’s Varieties of Religious Experience. Sam said it involved being born again; and declared that man must make a decision to renounce sins, accept Jesus Christ as Saviour; and begin Christian life in earnest. Sam illustrated a surrender with language similar to that in A.A.: namely, a "decision to cast my will and my life on God." Many times, Sam said one need only surrender as much of himself as he understands to as much of God as he understands. A clear precursor of A.A.’s "God as we understood Him"–which has unfortunately been misunderstood and has been attributed to other sources.
Step Four: Sam wrote of self-examination to find where one’s life fell short of the Four Absolute Standards of Jesus: honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. One was to write down exactly where he had "fallen short." There was a "moral obligation" to face these facts, recognize these as blocks to God, and be "ruthlessly, realistically honest."
Step Five: Shoemaker taught of honesty with self and honesty with God, quoted James 5:16 for the importance of confession to others, and stressed the need for detailed sharing of secrets.
Step Six: Though the fact of Bill’s borrowing of this "conviction" step from the Oxford Group 5 C’s seems to have been overlooked, Shoemaker taught often about the need for man’s conviction that he has been miserable, has (by his sins) become estranged from God, and needs to come back to God in honest penitence. Sam urged willingness to ask God exactly where one is failing and then to admit that sin.
Step Seven: Sam clarified this as the "conversion" step of the 5 C’s. It meant a new birth, he said. It meant humility. It meant, for Shoemaker, the assumption upon ourselves of God’s will for us and the opening of ourselves to receiving the "grace of God which alone converts." It meant "drawing near and putting ourselves in position to be converted. . . utter dedication to the will of God." Shoemaker often defined "sin" as that which blocks us from God and from others." So, originally, did Big Book language. And each of the foregoing life-changing steps hangs on early A.A.’s definition of sin and the "removal" process of examining for sin, confessing sin, becoming convicted of sin, and becoming converted through surrendering it. The conversion experience, according to Shoemaker and early A.A. established or enabled rediscovery of a "relationship with God" and initiated the new life that developed from the relationship with God which conversion opened. Since both the Sixth and Seventh Steps were new to A.A. thinking and added something to the original "surrenders" to Jesus Christ, these Steps cannot easily be understood all without seeing them in terms of the complete surrender, the new relationship, the new birth, and giving the sins to God, as Shoemaker saw the process and as Bill attempted to write it into the recovery path.
Step Eight: Wilson added this step to the Oxford Group’s "restitution" idea. Bill also incorporated the Shoemaker talk of "willingness" to ask God’s help in removing the blocks, being convicted of the need for restitution, and then being sent "to someone with restoration and apology." Step Nine: Sam said the last stand of self is pride. There can be no talk of humility, he said, until pride licks the dust, and one then acts to make full restoration and restitution for wrongs done. As AAs in Akron did, Sam also quoted from the sermon on the mount those verses enjoining the bringing of a gift to the altar without first being reconciled to one’s brother (Matthew 5:22-24). Restitution was not merely a good deed to be done. It was a command of God from the Bible that wrongs be righted as part of the practicing the principle of love. If one understands Shoemaker, one can understand the absurdity of some present-day AAs’ guilt-ridden suggestions about writing a letter to a dead person or volunteering help for the down-trodden or making a substitutionary gift to some worthy cause. Sam taught that the required amends were not about works. They were about love!
Step Ten: This step concerned daily surrender and the Oxford Group idea of "continuance." Sam taught it was necessary to continue self-examination, confession, conviction, the seeking of God’s help, and the prompt making of amends. This continued action was to follow the new relationship with God and others that resulted from removal of the sin problem in the earlier steps. Step Eleven: Sam wrote eloquently about Quiet Time, Bible study, prayer, and "meditation" (listening for God’s guidance). Sam urged daily contact with God for guidance, forgiveness, strength, and spiritual growth. So does A.A.’s Big Book. Quiet Time was a "must" in early A.A. And Shoemaker defined every aspect of Quiet Time from the necessity for a new birth to a new willingness to study, pray, listen, and read rather than to speak first and lead with the chin. Step Twelve: This step comprehends: (1) A spiritual awakening, the exact meaning of which Shoemaker spelled out in his books and in his talks to AAs. (2) A message about what God has accomplished for us, a phrase which Shoemaker himself used, saying, in several ways: "You have to give Christianity away to keep it."(3) Practicing the new way of living in harmony with God’s will and in love toward others, an idea easily recognized from Sam’s teachings that a spiritual awakening comes from conversion, that the gospel message concerns God’s grace and power, and that the principles to be practiced are defined in the Bible. Accordingly, our Twelfth Step language, without Sam, has become ill-defined and illusory. For A.A. Big Book students know that none of the three 12 Step ideas is set forth or explained in the chapter of the Big Book dealing with the Twelfth Step. To be frank, A.A. left Christianity in the dust. In so doing, AAs lost an understanding of what Sam Shoemaker taught and Dr. Bob emphasized: Conversion, the gospel message, and love and service were defined in the Book of Acts, the Four Absolutes, 1 Corinthians 13, Jesus’ sermon on the mount, the Book of James, and other specific parts of the Bible.
Dick B. is a retired attorney, living in Hawaii and student of the bible. He has more than 15 published titles to his name including Courage to Change The Christian Roots of the Twelve-Step Movement. Send e-mail to: DickB@DickB.com
So what do I do? I work on putting my hands out to others and look at taking other peoples hands. A large degree of fellowship I have practiced comes from 12 step programs such as this....
Shoemaker and our Twelve Steps
Make no mistake. Whatever Bill Wilson may have said or implied from time to time, Sam Shoemaker was not the only source of A.A.’s spiritual ideas. Wilson often steered his applause in Sam’s direction in an effort to avoid Roman Catholic and other objections to the Oxford Group from which A.A.’s ideas also came and of which early A.A. was a part. Moreover, Bill never mentioned A.A. specifics from Dr. Bob, Anne Smith, the Bible, Quiet Time, God’s direct guidance or Christian literature that was daily fare in early A.A.
Remember also! Dr. Bob said he did not write the Twelve Steps and had nothing to do with writing them. Those Steps represented Bill’s personal interpretation of the spiritual program that had been in progress since 1935. Dr. Bob emphasized, on more than one occasion, that A.A.’s basic ideas had come from study of the Bible. Dr. Bob studied the Bible. Daily, for three months, Anne Smith read the Bible to Bill and Bob. Bob read the Bible to AAs. He quoted the Bible to AAs. He gave them Bible literature. And he frequently stressed Bible study, stating that the Book of James, 1 Corinthians 13, and Jesus’s sermon on the mount (Matthew 5 to 7) were considered absolutely essential in the early spiritual recovery program. Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob both said that the sermon on the mount contained the underlying philosophy of A.A.
Nonetheless, Sam’s own imprint is on the Steps. Every one of them. His imprint was on the presentation of Oxford Group ideas that Ebby Thacher made to Bill Wilson in Towns Hospital. And we will briefly take a look at just where Shoemaker’s language parallels the language of the Twelve Steps. In fact, our third chapter in "New Light on Alcoholism" provides further details and complete documentation.
Step One: Shoemaker spoke of the gap between man and God which man is powerless to bridge, man having lost the power to deal with sin for himself. As to the unmanageable life, Sam referred to the prayer in the Oxford Group so often described in "Victor’s Story" and quoted by Anne Smith in her journal: "God manage me, because I can’t manage myself."
Step Two: Sam spelled out the need for a power greater than ourselves. He quoted Hebrews 11:6 for the proposition that God is. He declared: God is God, and self is not God; and that man must so believe. Sam urged seeking God first, from Matthew 6:33. He espoused the "experiment of faith" by which man believes that God is; seeks God first in his actions, and then knows God by doing God’s will, and seeing that God provides the needed power. For this idea, Sam frequently cited John 7:17.
Step Three: Sam taught about the crisis of self-surrender, quoting William James’s Varieties of Religious Experience. Sam said it involved being born again; and declared that man must make a decision to renounce sins, accept Jesus Christ as Saviour; and begin Christian life in earnest. Sam illustrated a surrender with language similar to that in A.A.: namely, a "decision to cast my will and my life on God." Many times, Sam said one need only surrender as much of himself as he understands to as much of God as he understands. A clear precursor of A.A.’s "God as we understood Him"–which has unfortunately been misunderstood and has been attributed to other sources.
Step Four: Sam wrote of self-examination to find where one’s life fell short of the Four Absolute Standards of Jesus: honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. One was to write down exactly where he had "fallen short." There was a "moral obligation" to face these facts, recognize these as blocks to God, and be "ruthlessly, realistically honest."
Step Five: Shoemaker taught of honesty with self and honesty with God, quoted James 5:16 for the importance of confession to others, and stressed the need for detailed sharing of secrets.
Step Six: Though the fact of Bill’s borrowing of this "conviction" step from the Oxford Group 5 C’s seems to have been overlooked, Shoemaker taught often about the need for man’s conviction that he has been miserable, has (by his sins) become estranged from God, and needs to come back to God in honest penitence. Sam urged willingness to ask God exactly where one is failing and then to admit that sin.
Step Seven: Sam clarified this as the "conversion" step of the 5 C’s. It meant a new birth, he said. It meant humility. It meant, for Shoemaker, the assumption upon ourselves of God’s will for us and the opening of ourselves to receiving the "grace of God which alone converts." It meant "drawing near and putting ourselves in position to be converted. . . utter dedication to the will of God." Shoemaker often defined "sin" as that which blocks us from God and from others." So, originally, did Big Book language. And each of the foregoing life-changing steps hangs on early A.A.’s definition of sin and the "removal" process of examining for sin, confessing sin, becoming convicted of sin, and becoming converted through surrendering it. The conversion experience, according to Shoemaker and early A.A. established or enabled rediscovery of a "relationship with God" and initiated the new life that developed from the relationship with God which conversion opened. Since both the Sixth and Seventh Steps were new to A.A. thinking and added something to the original "surrenders" to Jesus Christ, these Steps cannot easily be understood all without seeing them in terms of the complete surrender, the new relationship, the new birth, and giving the sins to God, as Shoemaker saw the process and as Bill attempted to write it into the recovery path.
Step Eight: Wilson added this step to the Oxford Group’s "restitution" idea. Bill also incorporated the Shoemaker talk of "willingness" to ask God’s help in removing the blocks, being convicted of the need for restitution, and then being sent "to someone with restoration and apology." Step Nine: Sam said the last stand of self is pride. There can be no talk of humility, he said, until pride licks the dust, and one then acts to make full restoration and restitution for wrongs done. As AAs in Akron did, Sam also quoted from the sermon on the mount those verses enjoining the bringing of a gift to the altar without first being reconciled to one’s brother (Matthew 5:22-24). Restitution was not merely a good deed to be done. It was a command of God from the Bible that wrongs be righted as part of the practicing the principle of love. If one understands Shoemaker, one can understand the absurdity of some present-day AAs’ guilt-ridden suggestions about writing a letter to a dead person or volunteering help for the down-trodden or making a substitutionary gift to some worthy cause. Sam taught that the required amends were not about works. They were about love!
Step Ten: This step concerned daily surrender and the Oxford Group idea of "continuance." Sam taught it was necessary to continue self-examination, confession, conviction, the seeking of God’s help, and the prompt making of amends. This continued action was to follow the new relationship with God and others that resulted from removal of the sin problem in the earlier steps. Step Eleven: Sam wrote eloquently about Quiet Time, Bible study, prayer, and "meditation" (listening for God’s guidance). Sam urged daily contact with God for guidance, forgiveness, strength, and spiritual growth. So does A.A.’s Big Book. Quiet Time was a "must" in early A.A. And Shoemaker defined every aspect of Quiet Time from the necessity for a new birth to a new willingness to study, pray, listen, and read rather than to speak first and lead with the chin. Step Twelve: This step comprehends: (1) A spiritual awakening, the exact meaning of which Shoemaker spelled out in his books and in his talks to AAs. (2) A message about what God has accomplished for us, a phrase which Shoemaker himself used, saying, in several ways: "You have to give Christianity away to keep it."(3) Practicing the new way of living in harmony with God’s will and in love toward others, an idea easily recognized from Sam’s teachings that a spiritual awakening comes from conversion, that the gospel message concerns God’s grace and power, and that the principles to be practiced are defined in the Bible. Accordingly, our Twelfth Step language, without Sam, has become ill-defined and illusory. For A.A. Big Book students know that none of the three 12 Step ideas is set forth or explained in the chapter of the Big Book dealing with the Twelfth Step. To be frank, A.A. left Christianity in the dust. In so doing, AAs lost an understanding of what Sam Shoemaker taught and Dr. Bob emphasized: Conversion, the gospel message, and love and service were defined in the Book of Acts, the Four Absolutes, 1 Corinthians 13, Jesus’ sermon on the mount, the Book of James, and other specific parts of the Bible.
Dick B. is a retired attorney, living in Hawaii and student of the bible. He has more than 15 published titles to his name including Courage to Change The Christian Roots of the Twelve-Step Movement. Send e-mail to: DickB@DickB.com
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Walking Thru The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death
For the Lord stay's with me in all my times...I thank GOD to allow me to be a vessel for His Love.
These are trying times not only for myself, but for many...all over town, but our country, as well as the world.
But if we grasp the Lord we shall get thru all thing's. I must not judge for it has been my way. I must clear away pain, sorrow and replace them with joy, happiness and bliss. This is what the Lord wants for us.
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
These are trying times not only for myself, but for many...all over town, but our country, as well as the world.
But if we grasp the Lord we shall get thru all thing's. I must not judge for it has been my way. I must clear away pain, sorrow and replace them with joy, happiness and bliss. This is what the Lord wants for us.
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Freedom
Freedom is the basic nature of God. It is also the basic nature of the human soul.
Without freedom all is lost both physically and spiritually. How can we be shackled in our quest for spiritual truth and prevail? We must pray, we must inspire and we must be. I am freedom so therefore I am free.
Without freedom all is lost both physically and spiritually. How can we be shackled in our quest for spiritual truth and prevail? We must pray, we must inspire and we must be. I am freedom so therefore I am free.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Grief
Grief is a natural emotion. It's that part of you which allows you to say goodbye when you don't want to say goodbye; to express–push out, propel–the sadness within you at the experience of any kind of loss.
Conversations With God Book 3
Even today I grieve for the family members, and friends who have gone on...but by grieving I let go so that both of us can continue our journey's...knowing one day we shall rejoice in each others company. If I truly believe in what I say I believe in then. That there is no death as we are led to believe at least in the way we have been taught.
Conversations With God Book 3
Even today I grieve for the family members, and friends who have gone on...but by grieving I let go so that both of us can continue our journey's...knowing one day we shall rejoice in each others company. If I truly believe in what I say I believe in then. That there is no death as we are led to believe at least in the way we have been taught.
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In looking deep into ones self it has been pointed out to me that if I recognize an asset or negative character trait, the reason I see it s...
