Passion and aggression are not the same. People who blaze trails in a particular field are called “rainmakers” – the idea being that they have some special dispensation to deliver extraordinary results upon command and especially under pressure. We assume it is their aggression that produces the consistent results we see. But, the discerning eye reveals that what appears to be aggression is actually passion – or a deep, abiding love for their cra … Read More

via A Poem a Day Brings Money My Way!

When the Master finished speaking, the man walked through the crowd, looked into the eyes of the Master, and told him, “I know you are busy and everyone wants your attention. I know you hardly have time to even listen to my words. But my heart is so open and I feel so much love for you that I have the need to invite you to my home. I want to prepare the best meal for yoyu. I don’t expect you will accept, but I just had to let you know.”

The Master looked into the man’s eyes, and with the most beautiful smile he said, “Prepare everything. I will be there.” Then the Master walked away.

At these words, the joy in the man’s heart was strong. He could hardly wait to serve the Master and to express his love for him. This would be the most important day of his life: The Master was going to be with him. He bought the best food and wine, and found the most beautiful clothes to offer as a gift to the Master. Then he ran home to prepare everything to receive the Master. He cleaned his entire house, prepared the most wonderful meal, and made the table look beautiful. His heart was full of joy because the Master would soon be there.

The man was waiting anxiously when someone knocked at the door. Eagerly, he opened the door, but instead of the Master, he found an old woman. She looked into his eyes and said, “I am starving. Can you give me a piece of bread?”

The man was a little disappointed because it was not the Master. He looked at the woman and said, “Please, come into my house.” He sat her in the place he had prepared for the Master, and gave her the food he had made for the Master. But he was anxious and could hardly wait for her to finish eating. The old woman was touched by the generosity of this man. She thanked him and left.

The man had barely finished preparing the table for the Master again when someone knocked at the door. This time it was another stranger who had traveled across the desert. The stranger looked into the man’s face and said, “I am thirsty. Can you give me something to drink?”

The man was a little disappointed again because it was not the Master. He invited the stranger into his home, and sat him in the place he had prepared for the Master. He served the wine he had intended to give the Master. When the stranger left, the man again prepared everything for the Master.

Someone knocked at the door again. When the man opened the door, there stood a child. The child looked up at the man and said, “I am freezing. Can you give me a blanket to cover my body?”

The man was a little disappointed because it was not the Master, but he looked into the eyes of the child and felt love in his heart. Quickly he gathered the clothes he had intended to give the Master, and he covered the child with the clothes. The child thanked him and left.

The man prepared everything again for the Master, and then he waited until it was very late. When he realized the Master was not coming, he was disappointed but right away he forgave the Master. He said to himself, “I knew I could not expect the Master to come to this humble home. Although he said he would come, something more important must have taken him elsewhere. The Master did not come, but at least he told me he would, and that is enough for my heart to be happy.”

Slowly he put the food away, he put the wine away, and he went to bed. That night he dreamed the Master came to his home. The man was happy to see him, but he didn’t know that he was dreaming, “Master you came! You kept your word.”

The Master replied, “Yes, I am here, but I was here before. I was hungry, and you fulfilled my need for food. I was thirsty, and you gave me the wine. I was cold, and you covered me with clothes. Whatever you do for others, you do for me.”

The man woke up, and his heart was filled with happiness, because he understood what the Master had taught him. The Master loved him so much that he had sent three people to give him the greatest lesson: The Master lives within everyone. When you give food to the one who is starving, when you give water to the one who is thirsty, when you cover the one who is cold, you give your love to the Master.

That’s a beautiful story and I hope you hear the lesson in the story. Another word for the Master is the Christ. The Christ – the only begotten Son of God – lives within each of us. When you give to another person, you give love to the Christ in that person. Everyday you have the opportunity to give love to the Christ in another person through gifts of love, services, money, aid, blessings, kind words, kind deeds, help, compassion and much more. Are you taking advantage of these opportunities? Or, are you letting them pass you by in search of that “perfect” opportunity to give?

Love is the greatest Law. Love is the Law. And, Love fulfills the Law.

Last week, we talked about protecting your imagination. We said we must keep our minds in a place where the impossible is possible for us.

This week, I want to talk about catching God’s vision for your life. God has a plan for you. As a spiritual being, your responsibility is to “catch the vision” of that plan. To catch the vision, we must figure out what makes us different and then nurture those differences until they draw to us the magnificent life that each of us was born to live.

I want you to imagine a ball – a big rubber ball. If I toss the ball to you, what must you use to catch it? Your hands. You catch the ball with your hands. Now, think of God’s vision for your life as that ball. Spirit “tosses” the ball to you and through the hands of your mind – your imagination – you catch it. It is through your imagination that you catch God’s vision for your life.

Let me share with you a story about a remarkable young woman from Los Angeles named Khadijah Williams. Khadijah is 18 years old and this year she graduated from Jefferson High School. Next fall she will enroll as a freshman at Harvard University.

Khadijah is an unusual student because for most of her life, she has been homeless. As long as she can remember, Khadijah has floated from shelters to motels to armories along the West Coast with her mother. She has attended 12 schools in 12 years; lived out of garbage bags among pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers. Every morning, she upheld her dignity, making sure she didn’t smell or look disheveled.

In her college essays, Khadijah wrote, “I have felt the anger at having to catch up in school…being bullied because they knew I was poor, different and read too much.” Khadijah was in 3rd grade when she first realized she was different. Her teachers marked the 9-year-old as gifted, a special category that Khadijah, even at that early age, vowed to keep. Khadijah says, “I still remember that exact number. It meant only 0.01 students tested better than I did.”

Everyone in this sanctuary has something that makes you different. Whatever that is, it’s your clue to God’s vision for your life. The first step in catching the vision God has for your life, is to figure out what makes you different. Tonight, I want you to make a list of everything that makes you different.

Your list will probably include some things that you’re embarrassed about. It may consist of some things that others have called odd. It will probably be filled with character traits that you’d kept hidden because no one around you would understand if you expressed it. Perhaps there will be something on your list that you tried to squash because you didn’t want to be considered different or weird. Think about those qualities that your family or friends tease you about. Each of us has something that makes us different. It’s that thing that we can’t help but to express.

You are a unique, unrepeatable expression of God’s excellence. These qualities that seem weird or unusual are actually clues that point to God’s vision for your life. The first step in catching the vision God has for your life, is to figure out what makes you different.

In the years that followed, Khadijah’s mother would pull her out of school 8 more times. When shelters closed, money ran out or her mother didn’t feel safe, they packed what little they carried and boarded buses to find housing in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Ventura, San Diego, San Bernardino and Orange County. Khadijah finished only half of 4th grade, half of 5th grade and skipped 6th. 7th grade was split between Los Angeles and San Diego. 8th grade consisted of 2 weeks in San Bernardino. At every stop, Khadijah pushed to keep herself in each school’s gifted program. She read nutrition charts, newspapers and 4 to 5 books a month, anything to transport her mind away from the chaos and the sour smell.

God has placed something special inside each one of us. Like Khadijah felt when she learned that she was gifted, I know you’ve felt it, too. Maybe it’s come to you while you were taking your children to school – as you dropped them off, you felt this twinge that there’s something more you were meant to do. Maybe you were at work going through your regular routine and that old feeling resurfaced – there’s something great that I’m designed for. Very subtly, very softly, something inside you hinted at a bigger, grander vision for your life. This afternoon, I’m urging you to catch the vision. It is through your imagination that you look past what is and grasp the possibility of what can be.

Like Khadijah, you must transport your mind away from the chaos and the sour smell of current conditions and focus on developing the things that make you unique. The vision for where you’re going may be far removed from where you are right now. In fact, you probably cannot see the ultimate outcome. You just know that there’s something more out there for you.

The things that make you different are the things that will create your greatest success. Think about it. There’s no way this young woman could have known that the things that made her different would one day lead her to one of our nation’s top universities. At 4th, 5th and 6th grades, when she was being pulled from one part of California to another, she didn’t know that Harvard existed. She only knew there was something that made her different and perhaps there was value in cultivating it. The second step in catching God’s vision is to cultivate the things that make you different. These are your gifts. Tonight, when you make your list, I want you to imagine ways to develop these qualities. Although you cannot know how the things on your list will ultimately play out, you can rest assured that if you have them, there’s a divine reason why you have them.

Perhaps you want to write but were told most writers don’t get published. So, you put that interest aside to take up something more practical. Tonight, imagine simple ways to cultivate yourself as a writer. It’s quite possible that the ultimate vision for your writing isn’t as a novelist or playwright or screenwriter. You really do not know how God intends to use your gifts. And, quite frankly, it’s none of your business. Your responsibility is simply to develop the gift.

Often we get sidetracked or discouraged because we want to know how everything is going to play out before we get started. We’re told “begin with the end in mind.” So, most of us don’t get started because we can’t see the end; or, we see the end but can’t see how we will get from where we are to where we want to be.

Your attention is misplaced. When you live a life led by Spirit, your only responsibility is to develop your gifts. God will take care of the rest. The mere act of developing the things that make you unique will function as a magnet that will begin to draw to you opportunities that you could not have previously envisioned. The second step in catching the vision is to cultivate the things that make you different.

At school, Khadijah was the outsider. At the shelter, she was often bullied, “You ain’t college-bound,” the pimps barked. “You live in skid row!” Once you get a handle on what makes you different and begin to develop those differences, then the real work begins. The experiences of life will come in to distract you. So, you must keep your mind focused on the idea that something greater is possible for you. Isaiah 26:3 tells us “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose imagination is stayed on thee.” The third and final step in catching God’s vision for your life is to stay focused.

In 10th grade, Khadijah realized that if she wanted to succeed, she needed to focus. She began to reach out to organizations and mentors. When she enrolled in the fall of her junior year at Jefferson High School, she was determined to stay put, regardless of where her mother moved. Graduation was not far off and she needed strong college letters of recommendation from teachers who were familiar with her work. This soon meant commuting by bus from an Orange County armory. She awoke at 4am and returned around 11pm and kept her grade point average at just below a 4.0 while participating in the Academic Decathlon, the debate team and leading the school’s track and field team.

When her college applications were due in December, James and Patricia London of South Central Scholars invited Khadijah to their home in Rancho Palos Verdes to help her write her essays. When they went to return her to skid row, her mother was gone.

Developing your gifts will require incredible focus. The distractions you face may not be as life threatening as pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers or parental abandonment but they’re just as compelling. Failed relationships, job transfers, unexpected pregnancies, downturns in the economy, sudden or prolonged illnesses, job losses, pay cuts, natural disasters, and bad hair days – all of these things are distractions that compel the imagination to turn away from the vision God is giving you for your life.

Once you know what makes you different and you develop those differences, that’s when the real work begins. It’s quite possible that the bottom may fall out. All of us are familiar with stories of successful people who were once homeless. Tyler Perry lived in his car while he developed the plays that ultimately made him a millionaire. Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame was once homeless, living in his friend’s basement. The third and final step in catching God’s vision for your life is to stay focused.

No matter what, hold your gaze steady; keep your mind focused on the idea that something greater is possible for you; and develop your gifts. Remember Isaiah 26:3 “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose imagination is stayed on thee.” Whatever happens, the Spirit of Absolute Good will provide for you.

When her mother disappeared, the Londons’ invited Khadijah to spend the rest of her school year with them. This past Friday, Khadijah graduated with honors, 4th in her class. She was accepted to more than 20 universities nationwide, including Brown, Columbia, Amherst and Williams. She chose a full scholarship to Harvard and aspires to become an education attorney.

Khadijah Williams graduates Jefferson High School

Spirit is waiting on you to catch the vision. Every little nudge is Spirit tossing you the ball. Will you reach up with the hands of your mind – your imagination – and catch it? Or will you allow your imagination to drop the ball once more – being pulled this way and that by life’s distractions? Keep your imagination focused on Spirit. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose imagination is stayed on thee.

Last week, I shared with you that the imagination is the forming power of the mind. Through this faculty the formless takes form – the invisible becomes visible. We said that your imagination functions as the hands of your mind. It takes the ideas that God gives you and shapes them.

This week I want to talk about protecting your imagination. There are no limits to your imagination. Imagination is a gift from God. Any gift from God is like God.

God is limitless. Your imagination is limitless. God is perfect. Your imagination is perfect. God has no beginning and no end. Your imagination has no beginning and no end. Whatever you imagine you can do, you can do.

As a child, you believed anything was possible. Raise your hand if you remember what it was like to believe in the impossible. You had no concept of what you could not do. So, you believed you could do anything. You felt like you’d live forever and that everything would always be good. Anyone remember that feeling?

All of us are born believing we can do anything. We believe we can fly. Over time different experiences clip our wings. Sometimes life clips our wings.

You pulled out all the stops for that promotion, gave your very best effort and came up short. Or, you married the man or woman of your dreams and not only did they let you down but they also betrayed you. Maybe you invested all you had into a business venture only to discover it was a scam. Perhaps you had a well-meaning teacher who thought they were helping you out by saying things like “Math just isn’t your subject honey.” Experiences like these shape our imagination in subtle ways. Often they clip our wings. I call people and events like this wing clippers.

The wing clippers are the people and events that take us down a notch. In school, they show up as bullies and well-meaning but misguided teachers. In life, they show up as bankruptcies, foreclosures, pink slips, failed businesses, unexpected pregnancies and failed marriages. Wing clippers present very convincing evidence that we’re not as hot to trot as we think we are. Sometimes the evidence is so compelling that it will make us put our dream on a shelf. Anyone ever put a dream on a shelf?

We get tired and frustrated and begin to settle for less. We stop putting forth effort toward our dream. We start believing we were foolish or misguided for going after our dreams. Or we believe we can’t have our dream until things get right in our lives. Anyone have a dream you’ve deferred until things get right in your life?

The only reason the wing clippers have had an effect in your life is because you have allowed your imagination to be shaped by something other than God. With God all things are possible. Whatever you imagine you can do, you can do. Only the world will tell you that your dream is impossible. God will not. The wing clippers have had an effect in your life because you have allowed them to influence your imagination.

You have taken the lies they’ve told about you, and made it your truth. On Sundays, you come here and say I am a Spiritual Being and you sing I can have as far as I can see, but you know that you’re not actively living that Truth everyday. How do I know this? Because I’m a teacher and I don’t always live this Truth. Sometimes I forget that I’m a Spiritual Being and that I can have as far as I can see.

We must protect our imagination. As spiritual beings we have a conscious mind that thinks and reasons and makes decisions. This conscious mind can pull information from God or it can pull information from the wing clippers. We must constantly go to God in prayer about our dreams. Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness. The best information we will ever get about what’s possible for us is going to come from the quiet time we spend with the Father. Through prayer, God will help you put life’s disappointments into proper perspective. Through prayer, you can be healed of the shame of past mistakes. Through prayer, the thing that once looked like your greatest failure will become the stepping stone to your ultimate victory.

It is this regular communion with God that protects our imagination and renews us. In this quiet time, the areas that the wing clippers have torn down are built back up.

You’ve heard the phrase “pray without ceasing”? What it means is keep your mind connected to God. When you come out of your quiet time, keep your mind stayed on God, stayed on the Truth about you – you are created in the image, after the likeness of a loving, all-powerful God.

We must protect our imagination because the wing clippers creep in, in subtle and unsuspecting ways. Check the music you listen to. Does it remind you that you’re able to accomplish anything or is it just one more sad love song? Check the television programs you watch. Do they remind you that you have a Divine Power inside of you? Or do they fill your mind with horror stories about the world we live in? Check the people you hang out with on a regular basis. Do your conversations reflect a belief that anything is possible for you? Or are they little pity parties disguised as authentic talk about the “real” issues of life? The wing clippers creep in, in subtle and unsuspecting ways. We must be vigilant about keeping our minds in a place where the impossible is possible for us.

Now, let’s deal with those wing clippers. Anyone seen a duck lately? Do you know what happens when water gets on a duck’s back? They shake it off. That’s how I want you to handle the wing clippers. Shake them off.

When the wing clippers show up, do not argue with them. Ignore them. Arguing with them means you agree with them on some level. In fact, the harder you argue with them, the more you actually agree with them. Let them have their opinions – their opinions can only impact you to the extent that you agree with them. But when you ignore it, you turn it into water on a duck’s back. And, you can just shake it off.

If the wing clippers need a bad economy, ignore it and shake it off. If the wing clippers need to catch whatever bug is going around, ignore it and shake it off. Your dreams are too lofty, ignore it and shake it off. Getting older means getting physically weaker, ignore it and shake it off. There are no more good men or good women available, ignore it and shake it off. Too old to be discovered, ignore it and shake it off. Too young to have your dreams come true, ignore it and shake it off. However the wing clippers show up – as people, as events, as mistakes, whatever – ignore them, turn them into water on a duck’s back and shake them off.

We must protect our imagination. Within each of us is a great reservoir of untapped potential. The impossible can be yours…as long as you pull your information from the right source. Are you drawing your inspiration from God or are you taking your cues from the wing clippers?

Whatever you imagine you can do, you can do. Start by believing the impossible can be possible. Most of us haven’t done this since we were children. We’ve forgotten how good it feels to imagine the impossible. Do it anyway. In His sermon on the mount, Jesus tells us to become like a little child. This wasn’t a commission to run wild and act like you have no home training; rather, it is an invitation to return to that mindset where you believe the impossible can be possible. Whatever you imagine you can do, you can do.

Understanding Principles is a Bible-based New Thought church. At our core, we are a teaching ministry. We believe that in order for you to live the abundant life that Jesus demonstrated, you need to understand the principles that support that life. Every class we offer teaches you principles for living the life Jesus intended.

Another way that we teach these principles is through our 12 Powers of the Mind program. The Creator has endowed each of us with 12 spiritual powers (or faculties of the mind) and each month during the Sunday service a teacher shares some helpful information about one of those 12 faculties. This month we study the spiritual power of imagination, and we use the color light blue as a visual reminder that God has given us imagination.

The imagination is the forming power of the mind. Through this faculty the formless takes form – the invisible becomes visible. With our imagination we lay hold of ideas and clothe them with substance. We grasp them and dress them up.

Let me see if I can make this clearer. Has anyone ever played with clay? Raise your hand if you’ve ever played with clay. Okay. Now, what did you do with it? You made shapes out of it, right? Did anyone make a square? Did anyone make a ball? Did anyone make anything more elaborate than that?

How did you make the shapes? You used your hands and your fingers to form something that you liked. And, if you didn’t like what you created, you started over, didn’t you?

The power to shape was in your hands and the quality of the finished product had to do with the dexterity of your fingers. Think of your imagination as the hands of your mind. It takes the ideas that God gives you and shapes them. Your imagination functions as the hands of your mind.

And the clay? The clay is what we call God-substance or the body of God. Think of the clay as the invisible ethers. It’s the great reservoir of unformed potential. It can become anything – just like the clay with which you played as a child could have become anything.

How are you using your imagination? What have the hands of your mind created from God-substance? Are you fashioning a heaven or a hell for yourself? Have your hands formed the primary relationships in your life in such a way that you don’t even want to be in them anymore? Or have the hands of your mind formed relationships that satisfy and nurture you? Have your hands formed a physical body that you don’t want to look at in the mirror? Or have the hands of your mind formed a body that you’re pleased with and happy to take care of? Have your hands formed a life where you are not the winner? Or have the hands of your mind created a life where you win and win big? You get the career you want, the accolades you desire and the girl or guy of your dreams.

God has given you the power to imagine anything. This power of imagination does not care whether you’re young – old, tall – short, fat – skinny, purple – green, red – yellow. The hands of your mind can shape for you any kind of life you desire no matter who you are, where you’ve been or what’s happened to you in the past. Stop telling those horror stories from your past and using them as excuses for why you cannot have the life you desire right now. God has given you the power to imagine anything. You can imagine a life full of wonder and excitement and adventure just as easily as you can imagine one of hurt, defeat and anger.

But it’s even more basic than that. Your imagination is always working. It never turns off. So, the real question is how are you using your imagination today? What have the hands of your mind shaped for you today? Did you wake up happy and excited? Or did you barely roll out of bed, grumbling all the way? Are you re-living every bad thing that ever happened to you since you arrived on the planet? The hands of your mind are always shaping, forming, creating.

If you’re in a relationship, is your imagination fixated upon the fact that he or she didn’t do something right? Or, is your imagination running with a wonderful romantic idea to remind your significant other that you love and appreciate them? If you have children, is your imagination fixated upon the fact that they took forever to get out of bed this morning? Or, is your imagination focusing upon all the ways that your children make you proud? If you have none of those things – you’re single and have no kids, is your imagination fixated upon what you do not have? Or, is your imagination running with the powerful idea that you can enjoy the luxury of having 100% of your time be your own? What kind of day are the hands of your mind building for you right now?

Your imagination is always working. It never turns off. What you imagine today will become your tomorrow. So do not think that you mope or wallow in self-pity without consequence. What you imagine today will become your tomorrow. Actors, are you shaping a career with an Academy Award or a career where you’re stuck in your day job? Writers, are you forming a career where your spec script gets scooped up in a bidding war, or are you fashioning a life where your scripts never get noticed? Singers, are you creating a career where your big break comes no matter how old you are, or are the hands of your mind forming a career that keeps you in obscurity for the rest of your life? Your imagination is always working. It never turns off.

Here’s the good part. You can start over. Remember what happened when you created a shape from the clay that you didn’t want? You undid it and started over and created something that you did want, right? Well, that same principle applies to your imagination. If you have previously created a few Frankensteins to chase you around your life, you can relax. You have the power to toss those monsters out of your life and start over. Because your imagination is always working, you are constantly presented with the opportunity to form something new. Every time you think a thought you are dipping into the great reservoir of unformed potential. This time choose something that you really want.

The imagination is the forming power of the mind. Through this faculty the formless takes form – the invisible becomes visible. What are you bringing forth from the invisible right now? Will it be something to make you happy or make you run for the hills? You have the clay in the hands of your mind. What you do with it is entirely up to you.

However, this spiritual coming of age cannot be hurried or forced, but must appear when the consciousness is ready, exactly as the flowering of a bulb can only be the result of natural growth. You have to demonstrate where you are. To seek to demonstrate beyond your understanding is not spiritual. Fix your attention upon spiritual things, and without consciously trying to make haste you will be amazed to discover the pace at which your soul has hastened.

To take a simple example: Suppose that in a street accident you find that a man has severed an artery and the blood is spurting out. The normal course is that unless this bleeding is stopped the victim will die. Now, what is the spiritual attitude to take in such a case? Claim the ability of God to heal. If your faith is strong enough the severed artery will immediately be healed. But if your faith fails, you must take the usual steps to save the man’s life by immediately improvising a tourniquet, or whatever the proper procedure may be, still claiming divine aid.

“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised)…” Hebrews 10:23