UP Church

JANUARY 20   

TODAY I UNCOVER THE PERFECTION WITHIN ME IN ALL ITS FULLNESS   

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. 

Matthew 13:44

Success (in the attainment of objects) forsaketh the person whose heart is unsteady, or who hath no control over his mind, or who is a slave of his senses. 

The Mahabharata

Without either hunger or thirst, beyond all grief (all) rejoice in the place of heaven. 

Katha Upanishad

Who would not be successful in the true sense of the term?  For there is no success without happiness and a sense of certainty.  There is something eternal about success.  There is no grief in success, because one who is truly successful is no longer sad.  He knows the things of this world are but temporary.  His treasure is truly in heaven.  Jesus likened it unto a treasure hid in a field, and he said he would sell everything we have in order that we might purchase this field and uncover this hidden treasure.  This treasure, the Mahabharata tells us, cannot be found while the heart is unsteady, while one is slave to objective appearances, or while he lacks control over his thought world.  All of this means that success, even in our objective undertakings, depends, first of all, upon stability of mind, consistency of purpose and concentration of effort.  The kingdom of heaven is already hidden within us.  The field which contains this hidden treasure is our own soul.  The priceless Pearl is covered by the hardened shell of experience.  We must learn to see God at the center of our being.

Today I uncover the perfection within me.  In its fullness I reveal the indwelling kingdom.  I look out upon the world of my affairs, knowing that the Spirit within me makes my way both immediate and easy, for I know that “it is not I, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”  

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living ” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

JANUARY 19   

I SEE GOD IN EVERYTHING; PERSONIFIED IN ALL PEOPLE; MANIFEST IN EVERY EVENT

Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. 

Philippians 2:3, 4

Theirs was the fullness of heaven and earth; the more that they gave to others, the more they had. 

Kwang-Tze

One is the Sense that’s active through them – their passions for each other.  ‘Tis Love Himself who worketh the one harmony of all.  Thus, therefore, let us sing the praise of God. 

Thrice-Greatest Hermes 

Jesus said, “Give and to you shall be given.”  All the great scriptures have been announced this central and transcendent truth, realizing that every act carries with it a sequence, bringing the result of this action back to the self.  This is what is meant by Karma, for Karma means the fruit of action.  Emerson called it the Law of Compensation, and Jesus proclaimed the same law in his teaching that as we sow, so shall we reap.  This is why Kwang-Tse tells us that the more we give to others the more we have.  Whitman also refers to this when he says, “The gift is most of the giver and comes back most to him.”  This all means the return of the self to itself.  The great apostle did not tell us to forget the self, he merely told us to also remember everyone else.  That is, we are to see ourselves each in the other and behold God in all.  Hermes tells us that when we realize Love as the great harmony, we shall all sing the praise of God.  Before we can do this we must perceive this harmony in each other and in everything.  Thus, everything which seems separated is united at the root.  “Over all, in all and through all,” the “sustaining Beauty” of the inevitable “seed of perfection” to which Browning referred as nestling at the center of our own being.

I see God in everything, personified in all people, manifest in every event.  The Spirit is not separated from the person or the event; It unites each to itself, vitalizing each with the energy of Its own being; creating each through Its own divine imagination.  I, too, am an instrument of Its perfection, and today I recognize my union which is perfect and complete.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living ” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

JANUARY 18   

I KNOW THAT I UNDERSTAND HOW TO SPEAK THE WORD OF TRUTH

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. 

John 6:63

And where do name and form both cease, and turn to utter nothingness?  And the answer is, “In consciousness invisible and infinite, of radiance bright.”  Buddhism in Translations

All the objects in the world are of one and the same taste, are of one reality, have nothing to do with the modes of particularization, and are not of dualistic character. 

The Awakening of Faith

This lesson tells us that the objective world is quickened by the indwelling Spirit.  The words of truth are life unto every form which they animate.  All words which are spoken in a realization of the Divine Nature are words of truth, and all such words give life. ”It is the spirit that quickeneth.”  Our lesson also tells us that all objects, that is, the entire objective universe, comes from One Substance.  This Substance is differentiated, that is, manifest in many forms.  It looks as though the cause were dual because the forms are all different, but our lesson clearly states that we must not fall under this delusion which is of a dualistic character, but, rather, penetrate the Unity back of all form.  In our text from Buddhism, we have the idea that there is a place where both the objective name and form cease to exist as things in themselves.  There is an invisible consciousness which radiates all forms.  This does not mean a denial of the objective world, but, rather, an affirmation that is an effect projected from, by, and within a transcendent cause which has complete control over it.

I know that I understand how to speak the word of truth.  I know that the invisible Power of the Spirit is with me.  I know that my world is peopled with forms of light, with the Divine Radiance.  I know that I am a perfect being, living under perfect conditions with other perfect beings in a perfect God.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living ” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

JANUARY 17   

I KNOW THAT I LIVE IN THE CHANGELESS REALITY   

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. 

I John 2:17

And the horde of evil passions cannot tarry there, even for a moment.

Hymns of Mahayana Faith

All that is with you passeth away, but that which is with God abideth. 

The Koran

Neither the Will of God nor the Nature of God can change.  Reality is the same ‘yesterday, today and forever.”  That which was is, and that which is, will remain.  Man’s nature is spiritual.  The only thing about him that can change is that which ought not to be permanent.  We are changeless beings living in a changing world.  Thus all of our experiences are bound together on a thread of continuity which Lowell called “the thread of the All-Sustaining Beauty which runs through all and doth all unite.”  It is wonderful to know that something permanent, substantial and eternal stands in the midst of our being, and, I believe, watches with joy the eternal change taking place.  To the Spirit these changes are merely variations of experience.  The Spirit is never caught, tied or bound.  Ugliness may seem to exist for a brief moment but Beauty, like Truth, endures forever.  All that is evil passes; as our Hymn of faith says, it cannot exist even for a moment when faced by the Divine Reality.  Everything that we now experience objectively will change, as it ought to, “… but that which is with God (of good) abideth.”

I know that I live in a changeless Reality.  I am not disturbed by the passage of time, the movement around me, nor the variations of experience through which I go.  Something within me remains immovable and says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”  This “I Am” which is God within me, is substantial, changeless and perfect.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living ” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

JANUARY 16   

THE PEACE AND THE POWER OF A CONSCIOUS RECOGNITION OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE IS WITH ME TODAY

Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 

II Corinthians 3:17

There is an originating and all-comprehending (principle) in my words, and an authoritative law for the things (which I enforce). 

The Texts of Taoism

My fifth name is All good things created by Mazda, the offsprings of the holy principle. 

The Zend-Avesta

We all desire to experience liberty, and to know that the all-comprehensive Mind and Principle is in the very words we speak.  The Zend-Avesta tells us that all good things are created by Mazda (the principle of light).  Here we have a concept of liberty, of light and of freedom accompanying our words; a Divine Authority imparting a creativeness to our thought.  The creative power of Spirit is in our word in such degree as we become conscious of Spirit.  We know that words of love overcome thoughts of hate.  We know that peace will heal confusion, and that a sense of power will overcome the belief of weakness.  All our work should be built upon the supposition that good overcomes evil, not by combating, but by transcending it.  The noncombativeness of Spirit is the principle back of the law of nonresistance which Jesus so plainly taught.  The Spirit has no opposites; It is always joyous, perfect and free.  There is no difference in the essence between our spirit and the Spirit.  The spirit of man is the Spirit of God in man – the two are one.

The peace and the power of the Divine Presence is with me today.  Therefore, I walk calmly, knowing that I am enveloped in the Divine Presence.  I am fully conscious that my word liberates every bondage, whether it be in myself or in others. I know that my word is the law of good automatically executing itself, irresistibly proclaiming itself; inevitably fulfilling itself.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living ” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

JANUARY 15   

THERE IS A SUBTLE POWER WITHIN ME – THE ESSENCE OF SPIRIT   

For, lo, he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name.  

Amos 4:13

From Him is the seed of all things, and it is He that upholds the Earth with all her mobile and immobile creatures. 

Mahabharata

The Atman (the real self) is permanent, eternal and therefore existence itself.  Raja Yoga

The great prophet Amos tells us that The God of hosts is the name of the Power that forms the mountains, creates the winds, and declares Its presence in the sanctuary of our own thought.  This poetical description of Spirit brings a sense of lightness, of peace and of transcendent joy.  He seems to have lifted the load of life in his declaration that the Spirit treads upon the high places of the earth.  This transcendent thought of God should ever be with us, and, like Jesus, we should walk over the waves of human disturbance rather than being submerged by them.  Again, our lesson tells us that the Atman, which means the real self, is eternal and permanent, and here the text swings into the profound observation that Spirit exists within Itself.  This has a definite meaning in demonstration.  Life does not depend upon something outside itself, but immediately precipitates itself in our experience when we recognize it.  It is this divine recognition which gives us transcendent power and we may rely upon this law for it is absolute.  “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.”

There is a subtle power within me, the essence of Spirit.  I am sustained.  I am guided.  I am kept in the way of peace, prosperity and joy.  Every atom of my being is vibrant with life, alive with deathless self-existence.  There is something within me today which sings a celestial song, which exalts.  This song finds its echo in everything I do, causing the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and awakens the paralysis of fear into life and action.   

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living ” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

JANUARY 14   

TODAY, I AM RESOLVED TO SEE ONLY THE GOOD

He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains in pieces. 

Psalm 107:14

“Sin is an obstruction in the heart; an inability to feel and comprehend all that is noble, true and great, and to take part in the good.”  If man is to be free from sin, his mind and heart must be opened to the influence of enlightenment. 

The Talmud

In the world there is nothing absolutely bad; Know, moreover, evil is only relative. 

The Masnavi I Ma’Navi

We all wish to be brought out of darkness into the light.  To be free from the bondage of fear, superstition and want, the mind must be riveted on freedom.  The thought must rise transcendent over bondage.  If we do this, we are brought from the shadow of darkness into the light of the glorious freedom of the sons of God.  The Talmud tells us that if we would be free from sin (mistake) the mind and heart must be open to enlightenment.  Ignorance of the truth is the great sin or mistake from which spiritual enlightenment alone can give freedom.  But what is spiritual enlightenment other than an increasing capacity consciously to become aware of the Divine Presence as peace, joy and harmony.  Our lesson tells us that “… evil is only relative.”  This is a blessed assurance that no matter what the so-called evil of limitation may look like, it is an effect, blown across the pathway of our experience by ignorance.  If we are to know the truth that makes us free, we must first recognize the essential non-reality of evil as being a thing within itself; we must equally know the essential absolute reality of good, not only as the Supreme Beneficence, but as the Absolute Power.

Therefore, today I am resolved to see only the good; and whenever evil, in the form of lack, fear, pain or uncertainty presents itself; I shall endeavor instantly to recognize its native nothingness; to know that it is entirely relative.  I shall make every effort to see through this limitation to That which is boundless and free.  I shall proclaim the glad tidings of the freedom of the kingdom of God in my experience, and in the experience of everyone I contact.   

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living ” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

JANUARY 13   

TODAY I RECOGNIZE THAT I AM A PERFECT BEING, LIVING UNDER PERFECT CONDITIONS   

All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. 

John 1:3

His being is conceiving of all things and making (them)… He even makes all things, in heaven, in air, in earth, in deep, in all of cosmos, in every part that is and that is not of everything.  For there is naught in all the world that is not He. 

Thrice-Greatest Hermes

There is naught whatsoever higher than I … All this is threaded on Me, as rows of pearls on a string. 

The Bhagavad-Gita

All things are threaded on the Divine, “like rows of pearls on a string.”  Spiritual intuition tells us that beauty is at the root of everything.  Ugliness is its suppositional opposite.  We must sense not the opposite but the Reality. “For there is naught in all the world that is not He.”  This means that God is in and through everything.  It is this Divine Presence which we are to recognize.  For every apparent opposite we are to supply a spiritual sense that is transcendent of the form which the material sense has created.  In this way one can look at, in and through a difficulty or a difficult situation, until he perceives the truth at the very center of its being.  Thus the devil, that is, evil or false appearance, is transmuted into an angel of light, for there is naught beside Him.  If everything enduring and true comes from God, the Creator, then we may be certain that no matter what the appearance is, the reality is always perfect.  This is why Jesus tells us to judge not according to appearances, but to judge righteously.  We shall always judge righteously when our knowledge is based upon the certainty of the Divine Presence, perfect at the center of everything.

Today I recognize that I am a perfect being, living under perfect conditions, knowing that the good alone is real.  I shall also know that good alone is the only thing that has any power either to act or to react.  Everything that I do, say or think today, shall be done, said or thought from the spiritual viewpoint of God in everything.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living ” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

JANUARY 12   

I KNOW THAT THE TRUTH IS IN ME, PERFECT AND COMPLETE  

I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. 

I John 2:21

This is God your Lord; All power is His: But the gods ye call on beside Him have no power over the husk of a date stone! 

The Koran

However anxious you may be, you will not save (yourself).  The perfect men of old first had (what they wanted to do) in themselves, and afterwards they found (the response to it) in others. 

The Texts of Taoism

There is no power, presence or person outside the Divine.  God not only is, He is also One.  Our lesson from the Koran says that a belief in any opposite to the One has no power, even as darkness has no power over light.  God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness. To believe in the Light is to dispel the darkness.  A knowledge of good overcomes evil.  The consciousness of abundance dispels want and pours the contents of the Horn of Plenty into our uplifted bowl of acceptance. John tells us that there is no lie in the truth.  The truth never contradicts itself; it never denies us our good; it evermore proclaims the Divine Presence in everything, through everything and around everything.  If God is Allness, then there is no otherness.  Kwang-Tze tells us that anxiety will not save us, because anxiety is unbelief.  Jesus also tells us to take no anxious thought for tomorrow.  The Chinese sage said that perfected men find that they already have everything within themselves, after which they discover the same in others.  This corresponds to the teaching of Jesus that the blind cannot lead the blind.  We must know the truth about ourselves before we can know it about others.  This is the lesson.

I know that the truth is in me, perfect and complete.  I know that I manifest the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  I know that the truth makes me free.  Today it frees me from the burden of care and anxiety.  Every form of fear, every sense of burden is dropped from my consciousness and I walk the way of truth lightly, joyously.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living ” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

JANUARY 11        

TODAY I SPEAK MY WORD, KNOWING THAT IT WILL NOT RETURN UNTO ME VOID   

He is in one mind and who can turn him? 

Job 23:13

Mind is Brahma; for from mind even are verily born these beings by – mind, when born, they live; – mind they approach, (mind) they enter. 

Taittariya Upanishad

The Mind, then, is not separated off from God’s essentiality, but is united unto it, as light to sun. 

Thrice-Greatest Hermes

Job tells us that God is of one mind, and Jesus clearly taught that this one Mind includes our own thinking.  Emerson also tells us that “there is one mind common to all individual men.”  It is this eternal and perfect Mind which we use.  “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”  The Mind of God must be peace, joy and perfection.  We enter into this divine state of Being in such degree as our own thoughts are peaceful, joyous and perfect.  To practice Presence of God is to practice the presence of Perfection, of Wholeness.  This Perfection and this Wholeness include joy, peace and the fulfillment of every legitimate desire.  Hermes said that our mind is united to God’s Essence as light is united to the sun, that is, we are individualized rays of the universal Light.  And the Upanishad says that everything is born from Mind, lives in It and by It.  “In Him we live, and move and have our being.”  We live in Mind and our thoughts go out into Mind to be fulfilled.  This is the principle of spiritual mind healing and demonstration.  Each one individualizes this Universal Mind in a peculiar, unique and personal way.  This is our divine inheritance.  But we have drawn too lightly upon it, not fully realizing as Jesus did, the limitless significance of our relationship with the Infinite.  We should learn more fully to enter our divine companionship.

Today I make a greater claim upon good.  Today I speak my word, knowing that it will not return unto me void.  It must accomplish and prosper, not because of the power of my will, but because I am willing to let, to permit, to accept, guidance, power and peace.     

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living ” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker