UP Church

JULY 8          

MY SPIRITUAL BODY

Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you? 

I Corinthians 6: 19

Emerson said that “God builds His temple in the heart,” and Seneca that “He (God) is to be consecrated in the breast of each.”  St. Augustine said that ‘the pure mind is a holy temple of God.”  To realize that God is in us, with us and for us, is the first step toward understanding that we are the temple of the Holy Ghost.  Bishop Wilberforce tells us that “the conscious mind … is the temple of the Christ Mind.”  We must so control the conscious mind that the Christ Mind may function through it.  We must permit the Spirit to control the intellect.

“This is none other but the house of God …” “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the living God?”  Then this body of mine is none other but the house of God.  Therefore, Infinite Power, let me know only Thy perfect life flowing into and through me.

Today I realize that my body is the temple of God; that there is the divine pattern of perfection at the center of my being.  I shall not think of my physical body as being separated from this spiritual Presence.  The Presence is the Cause, the body is the effect, and the two are one.  Therefore, I too shall exclaim: “In my Flesh shall I see God.”

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

JULY 7

I AM THE TRUTH

Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. 

John 8:32

Jesus implies that there is a truth which known automatically will demonstrate itself in our experience.  What could this truth be other than a consciousness of our union with life?  It is wonderful to contemplate this spiritual and exalted idea of truth, that truth which frees us from the tyranny of fear and the thralldom of fate.  It is not in our stars, nor in our environment, that we should look to discover this pattern of truth.  The truth that Jesus proclaimed would make us free, lies only in the conscious union of man with God, the conscious union of the heart’s desire with the Source of its being.

“Be yourself today regardless of what happened yesterday.”  We are in bondage only to a false sense of the self.  We are in bondage because we judge the possibility of the future by the limitations of the past.  We are in bondage because we do not realize that “He maketh all things new.”

Today I commune with the spiritual truth in everything.  Today I know that the truth makes me free from fear, doubt or uncertainty.  Today there is a song in my heart as I gladly proclaim that truth which is the revelation of Divinity through humanity.

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

JULY 6     

I HAVE PROTECTION

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 

Psalm 91:1

This is a song of hope, a psalm of praise, the acknowledgement of an overshadowing Presence, the Most High Good, to which Jesus gave the name, “Our Father which art in heaven.”  We have a right to know that in so far as we live in accord with the Divine we are protected by Its omnipotent Law.  “His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”  The knowledge of truth will ward off the darts of evil, for evil is as night before the onrushing day; it is as darkness dissipated by the rising sun; it is as a fire extinguished by the waters of Spirit.

“Fear thou not for I am with thee … I will strengthen thee … I will uphold thee.”  “For I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand.”  It is when we turn from all belief in separateness that we find the indwelling Spirit.  When we have dismissed all fear, then we know that God is Love.  When we have turned away from every sense of weakness we know that God is Strength.  Jesus said we cannot serve both God and Mammon, and the Gita tells us that we must do away with the Pairs of Opposites before we can enter into peace.

Today I put on the whole armor of faith.  I place before me the shield of Divine Wisdom.  I surround myself with the conscious knowledge of the overshadowing Presence.  Therefore, I fear no evil, for thou art with me.

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

JULY 5    

I RECEIVE MY GOOD

What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. 

Mark 11:24

How simply Jesus tells us that whatever we need we shall receive if we believe that we have it!  Is it so hard, then, for us to believe that the divine gift is forever made?  Prayer is a sincere desire to enter into conscious union with the Divine Presence and to receive from It every good thing that makes life worthwhile.

The Truth leads me into a more abundant spiritual life.  It also leads me into the possession of everything necessary to my well-being here on earth.  When I discover the inner kingdom, with its spiritual gifts, the material gifts which shadow forth this inner kingdom will also make their appearance.  I now learn to forget the wrong that may have appeared in my outer world, and turning with gratitude to that inner Light, I think upon those things which are good.  In doing this I become emancipated from my previous bondage.

My prayer today is one of affirmation.  It incorporates a complete acceptance of the Divine beneficence and the eternal givingness of the Spirit.  Today I lift high my cup of acceptance, knowing that the universal Horn of Plenty fills it to overflowing.  This shall include everything I need, whether it be health, happiness or wisdom.  Today my mind is open and my consciousness receives the kingdom into itself.

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

JULY 4     

I AM LOVE 

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear … for God is love. 

I John 4: 18, 16

There is no fear in love and there is no liberation from fear without love.  Fear is based on the supposition that we are unprotected, rejected, and friendless.  If the fearful mind would entertain love and the harmony and peace that go with it, it must turn from everything that denies this love, and trusting in Divine Guidance, open its being to the influx of love, not just love of God but love of everything, for love is all-inclusive.

“I will fear no evil for thou art with me.”  Today Divine love and infinite tenderness sustain me. In order that I shall not separate myself from this love, I endeavor to see it reflected in everyone and everything.  I shall permit only that which is loving, kind and true to find entrance or exit through my consciousness.  Thus I shall be assured that I am bathed in the warm glow of that Love which casteth out all fear.

Becoming conscious of myself as I really exist in the Mind of God, I shall find that I am walking in pathways of peace; that something within me like a magnet attracts that which belongs to itself.  This something is Love, the supreme impulsion of the universe.  I know that I have no existence apart from this Love.  As I grow in the knowledge that I am one with the Spirit, I know that I shall grow in the ability to use the Love within me.

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

JULY 3 

I AM PEACE

Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.  Samuel 25:6

Phillips Brooks said that “peace is the entire harmony between the nature of anything and its circumference.”  “House” is a symbol of the physical body and of “that house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.”  House is a symbol of any of the “vehicles, bodies or habitations of the soul” on any or all planes.  The Bible speaks of the House of Bondage and the House of Freedom.  Symbolically, it tells us that we must come “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage’; that we must be led by the Divine Spirit into that true home which is heaven.  Jesus said that ‘in My Father’s house there are many mansions.”

Today I permit my mental house to be at peace.  I know that my true home is heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.  Today I enter into this permanent home.  I consciously move in and make my dwelling place in this House of Peace and Gladness.

The perfect Life of God now expresses through me.  As the sun dissolves the mist, so my knowledge of truth dissolves all pain and discord.  There is nothing for me to fear.  God is my life, my strength; I claim my true sonship.  I claim my divine inheritance of perfect life.  Today I am made perfect through conscious union with the Source of all life.  I have peace in the Household of the Lord. 

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

JULY 2

I EXPRESS DIVINITY

We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory … by the Spirit of the Lord. 

II Corinthians 3:18

Beholding the image of perfection in everything, dominion is added to glory.  This refers to the continual progression of the soul.  Since God is infinite, our expansion is progression and eternal.  No matter how much good we experience today, the Infinite has more in store for us tomorrow.  We should look forward to this expansion with enthusiastic anticipation.  The march of life is not a funeral dirge, but a song of triumph.

Grateful for each success and each new advancement, I advance to new and greater revelations of truth.  Knowing that the Spirit within me is free, I am no longer bound by the patterns of yesterday.  Freedom is made manifest through my thoughts, in my words and actions.

The good that I experience yesterday is going to be multiplied today.  I cast this good upon every wind of heaven, knowing that it goes out to bless.  I condition my mind to accept greater good for myself and others.  I wait calmly, but with joy, for new experiences to come to me, for new opportunities for service.  I expect my mind to be flooded with new ideas.  I know that the Spirit of the Lord is with me and that glory of the Lord is around me.

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

JULY 1   

I AM ONE WITH ALL PEOPLE

Have we not all one Father?  Hath not one God created us? 

Malachi 2:10

Arthur Compton, in The Freedom of Man, tells us that science has discovered nothing which contradicts the idea of a Universal Mind or Spirit to which men are as Its, or His, children.  It would be impossible to converse with each other unless there were a common medium, or, as Emerson said, “one mind common to all individual men.”  It is impossible to depart from this Divine Presence, to be separated from this heavenly Father, which is the Parent Mind.  Since God is everywhere, wherever we are God is.

Today I know that there is one Spirit in everyone I meet.  Realizing that there is one Heavenly Father, I know that there is a brotherhood of humanity.  There are no aliens, no strangers.  The Divine Image in me cannot be separated from the Divine Image in others.  I see God in everyone I meet. The Spirit that is within me responds to the Spirit within them, for we have one Father.

I neither condemn nor make excuses for another’s seeming shortcomings. I endeavor to help him to know that God at the center of his being reveals to him his perfect Being.  In the Kingdom of God within him no false beliefs exist.  No self-frustration nor inner conflict can exist in Heaven within him.  When I can really see God in the person who is in great need, I prove my consciousness of oneness. I am one with the Spirit in all people.

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

JULY 6     

I HAVE PROTECTION

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 

Psalm 91:1

This is a song of hope, a psalm of praise, the acknowledgement of an overshadowing Presence, the Most High Good, to which Jesus gave the name, “Our Father which art in heaven.”  We have a right to know that in so far as we live in accord with the Divine we are protected by Its omnipotent Law.  “His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”  The knowledge of truth will ward off the darts of evil, for evil is as night before the onrushing day; it is as darkness dissipated by the rising sun; it is as a fire extinguished by the waters of Spirit.

“Fear thou not for I am with thee … I will strengthen thee … I will uphold thee.”  “For I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand.”  It is when we turn from all belief in separateness that we find the indwelling Spirit.  When we have dismissed all fear, then we know that God is Love.  When we have turned away from every sense of weakness we know that God is Strength.  Jesus said we cannot serve both God and Mammon, and the Gita tells us that we must do away with the Pairs of Opposites before we can enter into peace.

Today I put on the whole armor of faith.  I place before me the shield of Divine Wisdom.  I surround myself with the conscious knowledge of the overshadowing Presence.  Therefore, I fear no evil, for thou art with me.

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

JUNE 30   

I GIVE MY WORLD LOVE, JUSTICE AND TEMPERANCE 

“For all things proceed out this same spirit, which is differently named love, justice, temperance, in its different applications, just as the ocean receives different names on the several shores which it washes.” 

Emerson

God must act by means of me, for otherwise I have no purpose in life. I am; therefore that which caused me to be, must have a reason for my being.  I have confidence that the Infinite Mind knew what It was doing as It released me into the world.  I have a divine purpose and a spiritual reason for being.  I am not an accident of fate, nor a victim of inheritance.  I am a living soul equipped to display the attributes of God in my world.  I have within me the potentials of greatness, yes, the glory of God as he acts through man.  To me is given the Mind, Life and Love of God, and I accept my role in the Divine Plan.

I live, because God is life.  I love, for within me is a Love greater than I have ever known.  I am kind to others, because God in me knows their love, their integrity and their hopes.  I have at the center of my being all the Mind of Truth. His Ideas are mine, and His Ways are my paths of peace.  I know the real meaning of spiritual justice.  I judge no man by his outer actions.  I judge only righteous judgment.  God is man in his own real self, and though his outer actions may camouflage this, it still remains true.  I behold the Truth in every person.  I see God in every face.

To live in the Presence is to live always in balance.  I have true temperance, for I am guided by a Wisdom that always guides me rightly.  I indulge in the good, and fast from all evil.  I find my every hunger and thirst satisfied by an inner manna of the Spirit.  I live with wisdom, and allow my fellowman to do the same.  I have the spiritual intelligence to perceive the difference between temperance and intolerance.  I live and let live.  I love and let love happen.  I have faith in my concept of Truth, and respect my fellowman’s concept as well.  I live in God, and I express His love, justice and temperance.  

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