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What do I believe?
~ Rev. Glenn Chaffin
What I believe is a matter of importance, to me only; and this is as it should be for each of us. The questions in life are always about what you believe, not what I think. It is important (to you) to know what you believe and be able to express it in your life. Your personal statement of belief is the foundation of your relationships, your religion and your reality. I would like to assist you in writing your own statement of belief. If you are interested, (and you are) and have the time (you do) subscribe to the Independent Study Guide: What I Believe.
By the way, the following is my personal statement of belief (not that it matters to anyone but me).
1) I believe in an Infinite God.
2) I believe in One Life.
3) I believe in the creative intelligence of this One Life.
4) I believe in Good only.
5) I believe in Freedom: I believe the limits that matter are internal. I recognize potential, possibility and probability. I chose alignment with and acceptance of Life; or not. I have no control, because I am free. All prophecy is self-fulfilling; all judgment is self-judgment.
6) I believe in forgiveness and love: Forgiveness is the realization of equality. Love is the recognition of oneness. All forgiveness is self-forgiveness; all love is Self-love.
Sometimes we talk about training our mind, as if it was a dog, or a servant, an employee. Imagine instead that your mind is made up of trains of thought on fixed tracks. There is that train that is chugging up the hill: “I think I can, I think I can…” and that long freight train with a box car for every memory of every day you’ve lived. Maybe there are some toxic waste tankers or passenger cars complete with baggage compartments for everybody you carry around with you. I paraphrase Emerson in pointing out that every train is a romantic object, except the one you travel on.
I hear the train a comin’
its rollin’ ‘round the bend,
And I ain’t seen the sunshine,
since...
And now there is a music car in your train – which is a good thing because you need to be able to hear the train coming. You need to be able to identify when you are about to ride the rails. Perhaps another train song comes to your mind, but whenever you hear that train music in your head you’ll know you are at the crossing and it is time to Stop, Look and Listen. Soon the warning lights will be flashing and the barriers will come down.
I wonder if school children still learn the railroad crossing safety motto:
Stop – Look – Listen.
Stop – ask yourself:
“What was I thinking”?
What do these words and images say about me? Is this the truth about me? Remember: truth is universal, not individual. If it is not the truth of everyone – if it is not the truth of the One God, then it is not the truth about you either. It is just what you think and feel. Feelings are individual, not universal.
“Do I want to feel this way again”?
If not, then you’ve got to stop thinking these thoughts. Most of the time, thoughts give rise to feelings. But sometimes it works in reverse: feelings can fire the imagination and confuse the mind into thoughts that only express how we already feel. Again we must ask our self: is this the way I choose to travel through life?
Where is this taking me?
We choose to ride one train of thought over another because it gives us a sense of controlling the way we feel; but remember – there is no steering wheel on a train. You are just riding a rail.
“Do I choose to stay on board”?
If not, you’ve got to stop this train of thought. If you can’t stop it, yell for help! Ask those who’ll listen to you for help. They are usually the ones who love you enough to help. Ask the professional listeners and helpers to assist you in getting off this train of thought. Stopping is the first thing to do.
Look – at yourself:
What might give you a clue that another train is coming? For instance, if you were wandering the tracks looking into box cars just before you hopped that last train of thought, the next time you find your self in the same circumstances you may be able to stop yourself before you take an emotional ride.
What were you doing?
Were you making a lot of judgments and trying to figure things out? Were you wearing glasses that distort your view? Were you taking the blame, taking responsibility or trying to take control? What were you talking about?
What place, condition or circumstance were you in?
What was familiar or similar to another time and place? What were you looking at? What did you look like to others? You are looking for insights; but your view of your self may be distorted by disturbing experiences. It is helpful to ask another for their perspective, feedback and confirmation.
Listen – to the Truth:
You were thinking: planning, remembering, rationalizing, reasoning, imagining, emoting, expressing and focusing on details and priorities. It all made sense in a judgmental kind of way – but it was hard to understand and accept. But you’ve stopped that train of thought, looked at what you were doing and now it is time to listen to the Truth.
Listening is a loving state of mind: attentive, receptive, accepting, open to a new thought. The truth is universal. Facts are individual. Truth is an expression of reality – not the way it appears to be, but the way it really is. Reality is positive, accepting and filled with potential. It requires a loving mind to recognize it, to recognize the true you.
Listen to the truth about your self. If you can’t remember it, or don’t know the truth, then you need to listen to someone who knows you better than you know yourself. Listen to an optimistic, realistic, positive, loving and accepting perception of you. If you don’t, you’ll just get back on that fright train as it rolls down-hill gathering speed.
Switch Track – distract yourself:
There is one more thing we need to learn about a train of thought: how to side-track some of those box-cars. You may need to change tracks to change the direction your thoughts are headed. It is important to keep moving forward, yet that might appear impossible within the confines of your current train of thought. You may be on a circular track!
You may need a distraction to switch to a new track. It is best to do this in a way that enhances your ability to think clearly and turns your awareness to the good life.
Relax – count your breathe, count the stars, the sand (in an ascending order).
Divert your mind – meditate, pray, read, sing, write...
Focus on the physical – exercise, clean, plant, build, play, enjoy nature.
"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there".
Will Rogers
"The Church of God is not built with hands, it is eternal in the heavens; it is not lighted with candles; its dome is heaven and it is lighted by the stars of God's illumined thought, and each member in his separate star 'shall draw the thing as he sees it, for the God of things as they are'. Here all people recognize the God within their own souls and ask for and see no other God.
When you can look upon all creation as the perfect work of a perfect God, you will become a member of this church. I doubt very much if the church universal admits members from the church individual. When you can see in the saint and the sinner one and the same person, when you can realize that the one who kneels before the altar and the one who lies drunk in the street is the same one, when you can love the one as much as you do the other, no doubt you will be able to qualify. As it now is we have too many preachers who do not understand, that have no purpose; to many prayers, too many creeds, too many teachers, that have no message; too many churches, too many 'learned' people, and too few thinkers.
'The Kingdom of Heaven cometh not by observation.’ It is the 'still, small voice' within the soul that speaks. The expanded thought will never wish to join or be joined to. Nothing human can contain it. It feels the limitation of form and ceremony and longs for the freedom of the Spirit, the great out of doors, the Great God of the everywhere. Alone in the desert, the forest or by the restless ocean, looking up at the stars, man breathes forth these words, 'With only my maker and me'".
From Creative Mind, by Ernest S. Holmes
The Conduct of Life
Chapter 6: Worship
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The religion which is to guide and fulfill the present and coming ages, whatever else it be, must be intellectual. The scientific mind must have a faith which is science. "There are two things," said Mahomet, "which I abhor, the learned in his infidelities, and the fool in his devotions." Our times are impatient of both, and specially of the last. Let us have nothing now which is not its own evidence. There is surely enough for the heart and imagination in the religion itself. Let us not be pestered with assertions and half-truths, with emotions and snuffle.
There will be a new church founded on moral science, at first cold and naked, a babe in a manger again, the algebra and mathematics of ethical law, the church of men to come, without shawms, or psaltery, or sackbut; but it will have heaven and earth for its beams and rafters; science for symbol and illustration; it will fast enough gather beauty, music, picture, poetry. Was never stoicism so stern and exigent as this shall be. It shall send man home to his central solitude, shame these social, supplicating manners, and make him know that much of the time he must have himself to his friend. He shall expect no cooperation, he shall walk with no companion. The nameless Thought, the nameless Power, the superpersonal Heart, -- he shall repose alone on that. He needs only his own verdict. No good fame can help, no bad fame can hurt him. The Laws are his consolers, the good Laws themselves are alive, they know if he have kept them, they animate him with the leading of great duty, and an endless horizon. Honor and fortune exist to him who always recognizes the neighborhood of the great, always feels himself in the presence of high causes.
Matthew 6:5-6
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Luke 17:20-21
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
NEW THOUGHT THEOLOGY
CONCEPT OF GOD
God is INFINITE: The Universal in which the physical universe exists.
"I AM THAT I AM"
Gen. 3:14 - (1st person singular form of the verb "to be")
"God is a circle whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere".
St. Augustine
"There is a Power for good in the universe, greater than I am, and I can use IT"
"God is the changeless reality in which all change occurs".
E. Holmes
God is SPIRITUAL
God is the invisible, intangible force or presence that animates all.
God is Life, the non-physical animating force that re-creates Itself in physical form.
God is CREATIVE
The Infinite moves within Itself, upon Itself, to bring Itself forth in form and substance. It is the dynamic nature of the Infinite that transforms the potential into the actual.
Energy moving in a pattern is substance. God is that energy, the pattern through which it moves and the substance that is created.
"In the beginning God said "Let there be light … that it was good".
Gen. 1:3-4 - (good: of the nature of God)
God is INTELLIGENCE
The order of the universe displays an organizing principle: intelligence, on a Universal scale, an Infinite scale.
The creative process begins with the act of conception, a process of thought that provides a pattern for greater expression. On an infinite scale, this must be a Self-concept, and that which is created as a result is Self-expression.
God is ETERNAL
As time is a measure of the physical universe, and the infinite nature of God transcends the limits of the physical, God is timeless.
God exists "now". There is no past or future for the infinite.
God is LAW
The "Law of God" is descriptive, not prohibitive. This "law" does not limit nor control, but rather is the way It operates.
"Go thy way: and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee". Mt.8:13
NEW THOUGHT THEOLOGY
CONCEPT OF MAN
Mankind is PERFECT:
a whole and complete state to which nothing can be added and nothing can be subtracted; whole and complete being.
Man is the individualization of the Universal, not a separate individual.
Mankind is DIVINE
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also; and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?"
Jn.14:6-9
Christ consciousness is the awareness of one's spiritual nature.
"The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not: but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken: Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him".
Jn.10:33-38
"Our Father, which art in heaven…"
Mt. 6:9 - (he didn't say "My Father...)
"The Infinite never begat but one son; and is forever begetting the only begotten".
I. Swedenborg
"The Infinite Life is one life. That life is God. That life is my life now".
E. Holmes
Mankind is CONSCIOUS
"I think, therefore I am".
R. Descarte
Man is a self-conscious being, in which all levels of consciousness are manifest as well as the potential for Christ consciousness, the mystical awareness of oneness with God.
The consciousness of man is his use of the intelligence of the Infinite Life.
Conscious thought establishes a man's consciousness, which determines his expression and experience of his life.
Change your thinking = Change your life
Mankind is INTELLIGENT
"Imagination is the creative faculty of the mind".
E. Holmes
Thought is creative to the extent that it creates a self-concept, the beginning of the creative process in the individual.
"Man's thought is creative, not because he wills or wishes it to be so, but because it is the nature of thought to be creative".
E. Holmes
Ignorance is the only limitation, knowledge the only salvation.
"If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free".
Jn.8:32
Mankind is IMMORTAL
"Man is as spiritual now as he ever shall be".
E. Holmes
Man is not a human being, but a spiritual being manifesting Life through a human body. The death of the body is not the end of Life.
Transformaiton:
As all physical objects are transformations of infinite energy, the physical body is spirit in form.
Death is the transition from one form of expression to another, which may or may not be physical.
The continuity of the Life of the individual may be experienced as an ongoing incarnation, a re-incarnation or a non-physical embodiment of the consciousness of the individual. In any case, death is not an end to the life of the individual.
Mankind is FREE
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created free …"
T. Jefferson
Choice is the exercise of Freedom.
Self-reliance and independence are qualities of Freedom. These are qualities of spirit, that find increasing expression as the body matures and relationships are based on spiritual principles.
"The meaning of freedom implies the possibility of suffering".
E. Holmes
NEW THOUGHT THEOLOGY
THE RELATIONSHIP OF GOD AND MAN
A Relationship of ONENESS
"I and my Father are one".
Jn.10:30
A Relationship of LOVE
The re-cognition of Perfection. This is an a-priori awareness for the individual, and Self-awareness for the Universal. God can only love us, for It cannot be aware of anything but It's own perfect nature, individualized within us, as us.
"For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men shall honour the Son, even as they honour the Father".
Jn.5:22-23
While judgment is a superficial perception of facts, love is an awareness of the underlying (or transcendent) reality. God doesn't judge us, and we shouldn't judge; but we can and do.
A Relationship of CORRESPONDANCE
The Infinite responds by corresponding.
"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap".
Gal.6:7
"Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again".
Mt.7:1-2
"It can only do for us what It can do within and through us".
E. Holmes
Divine guidance is a process of inspiration, not control, manipulation or divine intervention. Likewise, prayer is for the purpose of aligning one's consciousness with the Reality, not trying to motivate God to intervene in your problem.
Our consciousness of God within us establishes the limitations through which a limitless potential is expressed. As we bring our consciousness into alignment with the nature of God (looking within instead of outward only, focusing on the principle instead of the precedent, loving instead of judging), that divine nature is more fully expressed within us, through us, as us.
A Relationship that is IMPERSONAL
God always says "Yes" to us. God doesn't say "yes" to our every request, but It does respond in the affirmative to us, through our self-concept, to every opportunity for Self-expression that we give It. This is a logical necessity of It's infinite nature.
"The law is a servant to the wise, and a task-master to the otherwise".
E. Holmes
The ability to give freely, to give as you choose, is financial freedom. It has little to do with getting out of debt, for we are always indebted to Life. We will never give more than we have received.
We don't give to receive. We give because we have received.
"I have, to give"!
This is the affirmation of financial freedom. It affirms that we have received, and that we have to give. Consider yourself amongst the Haves for those who have not lose even the little bit they have. Mt.25: 14-30
You wouldn't say: "I don't have to give"; would you? Do not confirm poverty by word or inaction.
Why Give?
“We do not give because God needs the gift but because the giving increases, broadens and deepens the life of the giver. Nor shall we give from the standpoint of duty. The Universe refuses to bargain with us. It already has given us everything It has. But It also has provided that the Gift of Life can only be received in its fullness as it flows through us to the fullness of others. How wonderful is this exact balance which God and nature keeps; how perfect is the Law of God and how glorious the opportunity to join with the Infinite Giver in the givingness of the self to the Joy of Life”.
Ernest Holmes
Where can I give?
Give where you live. Give value where you find value.
Give to the community you attend. Give your presence, presents, talent and treasure.
Your presence here is greatly appreciated as is your support of this Ministry.
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How can I give?
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New Thought
P.O. Box 39
Mound, MN 55364
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