UP Church

NOVEMBER 27   

I WILL FEAR NO EVIL

Are not the friends of God, those on whom no fear shall come, nor shall they be put to grief?

The Koran

Today my heart is without fear, for I have implicit confidence in the good, the enduring and the true. Fear is the only thing of which to be afraid.  It is not the host encamped against us, nor the confusion around us, that we need to fear; it is the lack of confidence in the good alone which should concern us. Through inner spiritual vision, we know that evil is transitory, but good is permanent.  We know that right finally dissolves everything opposed to it.  The power of Spirit is supreme over every antagonist.  Therefore, we should cherish no fear, and when we neither fear nor hate, we come to understand the unity of life.

I put my whole trust in God.  I know that the Spirit will gently lead me and wisely counsel me. I know that the love which envelops everything flows through me to everyone, and with it there goes a confidence, a sense of joy and freedom, a buoyant enthusiasm for living, a zest for life. “For all thy ways are ways of pleasantness, and all thy paths are peace.”

I realize that fear is not Godlike, since it contradicts the Divine Presence, repudiates limitless Love and denies infinite Good.  Therefore, I know that fear is a lie, a fraud.  It is neither person, place nor thing; it is merely an impostor that I have believed in.  I have entertained it so long that it seems as if it really were something, and it attempts to make me believe that two and two are seven, that the earth is flat and that God is limited.  Today I repudiate all fear.  I renounce the belief in evil.  I enter into conscious union with the Spirit.  I accept the good as supreme, positive and absolute.  With joy I enter into the activities of the day, without regret I remember the events of yesterday, and with confidence I look forward to tomorrow, for today my heart is without fear.

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

NOVEMBER 26   

LIFE SINGS THROUGH ME IN RADIANT ECSTASY

The footsteps of those who dwell with the god of light are set free.

Book of the Dead

Now and always I recognize that I live, move and have my being in God.  I am part of Universal Mind.  I am one with Universal Substance.  All the qualities and all the wealth of good and desirable things that exist in Universal mind are mine now.  I perceive, accept and experience them.  I know that that Presence which manifests in my heart and mind is God expressing Himself within me.  As I feel this Presence more and more I hear the Song of Joy deep within.  Always when I am still I hear the Song of Life pouring through my consciousness.  I have only to listen for it is always there.

The Father and I are one.  This I know to be the truth of my being.  I open my mind and my heart to the inflow of the Divine Spirit and know that the presence of God flows through my being with perfect action and in perfect unity with good.

With this knowledge, this assurance that the loving Presence is always here – “closer to me than breathing, nearer than hands and feet” – I have nothing to fear.  I feel this loving protection around me, and I know that it is not only a Song of Joy, but a Song of Love and Protection.  I tune out all dull, negative ideas, and tune in with the sunshine of life, with brightness and laughter, with the joyous Presence that is Life itself.  I now lay aside all anxiety, all striving, and let the Law bring my good to me.  I joyfully anticipate greater abundance, more success and more joy.  Joy wells up within my heart and Life sings through me in radiant ecstasy.  

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

NOVEMBER 25   

THE LIFE OF THE FATHER IS MY LIFE

When Heaven and Man exert their powers in concert, all transformations have their commencements determined.

The Texts of Taoism 

God could not withhold Himself from me.  That which is He has given fully unto me to enjoy. The life of God is perfect, it is eternal, it is the essence of all things.  That life is God’s gift to me.  Therefore, this fullness is within me, ready to manifest through me as I partake of it.  Since I am self-choosing, even though Divinely endowed, I partake of my Divinity only as I let it through; I am always in the midst of plenty everywhere.  I know that I live in a changeless Reality. I am not disturbed by the passage of time, the movement around me, or the variations of experience through which I go.  Something within me remains immovable and says, “Be still and know that I am God.”

There is no here and there to the Spirit, for both are included within Itself, even as yesterday, today and tomorrow are but passing events in Its unitary wholeness, even as big and little are but outlines.  The manifest universe is an expression of that which transcends time, overshadows eternity, encompasses all form, and remains stable within that which forever flows.

I now consciously draw upon the life which is mine.  I now reeducate myself definitely, by whatever steps I may, to a belief that there is given unto me a fullness of life which is Divine in its origin, eternal in its presence, and always fully available. The life of the Father is my life.  The infinite richness of the Father is mine.  All things which proceed from Him may be mine.  I now claim them.  The act of taking is my right and privilege.  I exercise it now intelligently and in full faith.

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

NOVEMBER 24   

I ACCEPT MY OWN SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL PERFECTION

He is a rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Deuteronomy 32:4

My body is the temple of the Living God.  It is Spiritual Substance.  I have perfect confidence in my heart that God’s lifegiving Spirit is my life. Since God is my life and God is eternal, my life is eternal.  Therefore I cannot be separated from God, from Good, from Perfection.  If I would renew body, mind and affairs, I must first cause my imagination to rise above them. The supreme Ruler, omnipresent, therefore existing at the very center of my thought, the Christ within me, really has the power to make all things new.

The perfect Life of God now expresses its innate perfection and wholeness.  As the sun dissolves the mist, so does my knowledge of Truth dissolve all pain and discord.  I know the Truth about myself as a child of God and that Truth makes me free.  I am free because the Power of the Living Spirit is my power and it remolds and re-creates my body after the likeness of the perfect pattern of God.  I open wide the doorway of my consciousness to a greater influx from the Divine.  I know that the all-conquering power of Spirit is with me.  I accept my privilege, as a Son, of manifesting the Life, Love, Peace, Strength, Harmony and Joy of God – the Father Almighty who indwells me and incarnates Himself in me, as me.

Therefore, I rest in peace and in the quiet confidence I know that all is well.  It is my sincere desire that the Life and the Love which God is shall flow through me to the whole world.

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

NOVEMBER 23   

MY WORD DOES ACCOMPLISH

The first step that the soul of the faithful man made, placed him in the Good Thought Paradise;  The second step that the soul of the faithful man made, placed him in the Good Word Paradise; The third step that the soul of the faithful man made; placed him in the Good Deed Paradise.

The Zend-Avesta

Since thought is a definite, dynamic, creative, consciously directed and intelligent energy, then I know that a thought of Truth will definitely neutralize a negative argument.  I am on guard to protect my own word by knowing that it is the activity of Spirit through me and as such cannot be denied.  In effective prayer, I realize that a Power greater than I am consciously acts with creative intelligence upon my word.  In this way, I free myself from a sense of personal responsibility, while, at the same time, remaining aware that even spiritual laws must be definitely used, if they are to provide tangible results in my experience.

Believing that there is one Divine Intelligence that governs everything, I affirm that this Intelligence is acting in my mind, causing me to know what is best and to do what is best. I open my mind to new thoughts, new ideas.  And I know that as I do this new experience shall come to me.

I seek to believe with absolute conviction that my word will not return unto me void, and I do this when I realize that spiritual laws execute themselves, just as do others laws of nature.  I know that my word penetrates every unbelief in my mind, casts out all fear, removes all doubt, clears away every obstacle, and permits that which is enduring, perfect and true to be perceived by my mind.

I provide faith, acceptance, and a joyous expectancy that all the statements that I make in my prayers or treatments are not only true but that they will be carried out as I have spoken.  As my work is done with this sense of reliance upon the Law of Good, I know that my word shall not return unto me void but shall accomplish that whereunto it is sent.”

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

NOVEMBER 22   

TODAY I BESTOW THE ESSENCE OF LOVE UPON EVERYTHING

Love worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 13:10

“The Law of the Lord is perfect” and the Law of the Lord is Love.  We are made perfect in the Law when we enter into the communion of love with one another and with the invisible essence of Life.  Love is the fulfillment of the Law, that is, we never can make the most perfect use of the Law unless that use is motivated by love, by a sincere desire to express unity, harmony and peace.  As the true artist weds himself to the essence of beauty, imbibing her spirit that it may be transmitted to the canvas, or awaken a living form from cold marble, so we must wed ourselves to the essence of Love that we may imbibe its spirit, and, transmitting it, give loveliness to all events.

I desire that everything I think shall be from the heart as well as from the head.  I wish to release kindness and love, sympathy and understanding, peace and joy.  No condemnation, judgment or fear shall go from me to anyone or anything.

Today I bestow the essence of love upon everything.  Everyone shall be lovely to me.  My soul meets the soul of the universe in everyone.  Nothing is ugly; everything is beautiful, everything is meaningful.  This love is a healing power touching everything into wholeness, healing the wounds of experience with its divine balm.  I know that this Love Essence, the very Substance of Life, the creative Principle back of everything, flows through my whole being, spiritual, emotional, mental and physical.  It flows in transcendent loveliness into my world of thought and form, ever renewing, vitalizing, bringing joy and harmony and blessing to everything and everyone it touches. 

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

NOVEMBER 21

I RELY UPON THE ONE PERFECT ACTIVITY OF GOD

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

John 14:12

The all-intelligent, creative Presence is the source of all that I am. I believe in the ability and the willingness of this great Source to sustain its own creation.  The Kingdom and the Power and the Glory of God expresses through me.  I recognize myself to be a center through which the intelligence and power of the universe find expression.  Infinite Mind, operating through me, now brings to me the manifestation of harmony, order and the highest good.  The consciousness of peace and plenty is established within me.  All that is necessary to my happiness and well-being now comes into my experience.

Turning my mind into the Divine, I seek to draw into my own soul the essence of everything that is good, true and beautiful.  I seek to draw into my own mind the realization of the Divine Presence and the Power of Good until my whole being responds.

There can be neither limitation nor lack for nothing has happened to the One Perfect Activity.  It is in full operation for me.  I am now free from any sense of bondage.  All power is given unto me from On High.  Knowing this, I am strong with the strength of the all-vitalizing power of the universe.

I am sustained and healed by a divine stream of Spirit-Energy, which flows through me as radiant health and vitality.  Every fiber of my being responds to this spiritual flow.  I stand revealed as the perfect child of the Perfect Father.  Strength and courage are my divine birthright and I am now expressing my true self.  All that the Father hath is mine.  I draw from the spiritual treasure house all that I need.

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

NOVEMBER 20   

I HAVE CONFIDENCE IN MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE LAW

Despise no man and deem nothing impossible; every man hath his hour and everything its place.

The Talmud

I believe that no matter what the experience through which I am going, good will come out if it.  I believe that all poverty will be turned into riches; that all fear will be converted into faith. I believe that good finally will triumph over every evil and love will heal all hate.  I believe that I have a silent partnership with the Invisible; that this partnership has never dissolved and never can be.  I believe in the invisible Presence of Good in a universe peopled with perfect and eternal entities.  I believe that all things are possible to him who does believe.

Knowing that the law of God is a law of love, and knowing that the law of love is a law of liberty, I see freedom, joy, happiness, peace and wholeness in everything I look at.  I respond to the Divine calm which is at the center of everything.  Knowing that perfect love casteth out all fear, I am strong and confident because I know that the Law of Good goes with me and prepares the way before me.

I have complete confidence in my knowledge and understanding of the Law of Good. I not only know what is the Law, I know how to use It. I know that I shall obtain definite results through the use of It. I realize that doubts about my ability to use the Law are things of thought.  What thought has produced, thought can change.  Knowing this, having confidence in my ability to use the Law, and using It daily for specific purposes, gradually I build up an unshakable faith, both in the Law and possibility of demonstrating It.  There is no doubt in me, no uncertainty rising through me.  My mind rejoices in certainty and in assurance.  I confidently expect that my word shall not return unto me void.

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

NOVEMBER 19   

CONSTANTLY, I PARTAKE OF THE DIVINE BOUNTY

There is nothing impossible of attainment by persons of virtuous behavior.

The Mahabharta

I have within myself, as I sit here, the sense that though my body is real, tangible, with definite form and outline, it is at the same time somehow made of a living stuff which is saturated with God-Life.   I know that whatever the stuff is of which my body is made, though it is called material, it must really be made of the One Stuff and Essence of which all things are made.  Therefore, I sense within the very cells and tissues of my body an Eternality.

Realizing that the Spirit within me is God, the Living Spirit Almighty, being fully conscious of this Divine Presence as the sustaining Principle of my life, I open my thought to Its influx. I open my consciousness to Its outpouring.  I let that Mind be in me which was also in Christ Jesus.  That is the Mind of Truth, the Mind of God, carrying with It all the power of the Infinite.

I am now inviting the Spirit within me to flood my mind with its wholeness, to bring warmth and color and feeling and love into everything I do, say and think. I believe that at the very center of my being there is the man whom God has made, a perfect man.  Therefore, I lay aside all fear, all doubt, all misunderstanding, all uncertainty.  I know that Life has need of me or it would not have put me here.

I know and understand that Good alone is real.  I know that silently I am drawing into my experience today and every day, an ever increasing measure of truth and beauty, of goodness, of harmony.  Everything I do, say and think is quickened into right action, into productive action, into increased action.  My invisible good already exists.  My faith, drawing upon this invisible good, causes that which was unseen to become visible.  All there is, is mine now; all there ever was or ever can be, is mine now.

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

NOVEMBER 18   

“I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVETH”

Not to be separate from his primal source constitutes what we call the Heavenly man; not to be separate from the essential nature thereof constitutes what we call the Spirit-like man; not to be separate from its real truth constitutes what we call the Perfect man.

The Texts of Taoism

It has been written that Christ is the Redeemer; also that Christ is in us.  We have been told that our redemption is at hand.  We have been told to awake and that Christ will give us light.  Therefore, I conclude that my redeemer lives and is now acting through me.  Why, then, is not my redemption at hand?  It is, but I have failed to see it.  Can it be possible that I am using the Creative Power to produce the very limitation from which I so earnestly seek to extricate myself?  Undoubtedly, this is true.  There are not two powers; there is but One Power.

Today I realize that life is truly a mirror of king and slave.  Today I realize that my redemption is at hand.  The Spirit within me refreshes me daily.  I feel myself saturated with the Life Essence Itself; I feel the same Life Essence flowing in and through me.  I feel myself to be a perfect instrument in Life’s divine symphony, in tune with its harmony and perfection.  My body is an instrument in, through and upon which Life plays a divine and perfect harmony.  I am not going out in search of another power but am going to use the Power which I know already possesses eternity and is already at the center of my own life.  I know that this will heal every condition, overcome every obstacle, break down every barrier, and free me from every false condition.  My redemption is already at hand.

I look confidently into the future.  I see new friendships, new opportunities.  Everything in my experience is renewed.  Everything is made glad and happy and whole.  As I turn to the world around me, I see this same good evenly distributed everywhere, and operating through all people. 

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