Monday, March 25, 2019

A Prayer for This Week (March 25 - 31, 2019)

By Prayerful Living


God, source of light and truth,
You reveal the real and bring understanding to light.
My consciousness emerges into the light of spiritual reality.
God, divine Mind, creator of the universe, help me to know what is real,
that I may be grounded on a foundation of Your truth.
God, help me distinguish reality from unreality, light from darkness.
God, my rock of Truth, I choose to serve you only.
Help me to watch my thoughts and actions and separate the good from the bad.
God, immortal, eternal,
help me to see clearly Your spiritual reality and discern that which is true.
God, everpresent Life,
help me to rise from mortal dreams and know Your unending truth.
Thank you God for Your light, may I see more of Your reality every day.
And so it is. Amen.

http://www.csdirectory.com/biblelessonstudy/

Sunday, March 24, 2019

The Widow of Nain - Weep Not

By Ken G. Cooper

[Luke 7:11-16]

It’s been long years since my husband died
The flowing tears that cried and cried;
The bringing up of our lovely lad
The only thing that kept me glad.

But Oh, dear God, just what is your plan
That I be robbed of my young man?
The deep well of tears that had been dried
Now refilled and my faith sore tried.

Look, my little lad is laid down low
On bitter bier that moves so slow.
Midst torrid heat and the black-dressed flies,
The wailing throng around me cries.

As I walk in step with broken heart,
A sudden feeling makes me start;
I look up and my gaze is quick led
To a white-robed man straight ahead.

How to I explain what I now so feel?  
His look so loving, calm, and real.
Compassion o’erflowing, reaching me;
“Weep not” a command, not empty plea!

Deep grief swept away by tangible Love,
Expectancy strong with this saint from above;
He walks with assurance, touches the bier:
The procession stops from front to rear.

I feel new hope, can this be true?
His perfect Love changing my view!
A future free from barren strife;
A Love that is Eternal Life.

He looks at my son, Love in his eyes:
“Young man, I say unto thee, arise!” 
This is not now a foolish word,
I see it’s death that is absurd!

My son sits up from where he laid dead
The bier is no more a mortal bed.
My son is risen, whole and free!
I see Life, immortality!

The white robed man helps him to get down
Holds our hands in the warmth of his own.
I hug my son tight, can’t let him go
Turn to his saviour and thank him so.

“Weep not!” This message is so strong,
For good is true and doubting wrong!
My life transformed in simple trust:
To follow Christ my humble must.

Weep not again, just shout with joy!
You’ve seen the proof, here is my boy!
God’s Love and Life encompass sight
When we are open to His light!

Download a PDF of this poem

©Ken G Cooper 2019                         
kencooperpoetry.com                     
kengcooper@btinternet.com                                                       
Ken G Cooper Poetry You Tube


Wednesday, March 20, 2019

God the constant

by J. Denis Glover, CS

Imagine His constancy—
Longer than breath,
Closer than flesh,
Firmer than resistance—
Think of it for a moment.

And when you get up,
It remains;
When you drive and shop,
It remains;
When you forget,
It remains.

Think of that constancy,
Now, for a moment.

Monday, March 18, 2019

A Prayer for This Week (March 18 - 24, 2019)

By Prayerful Living, for "Matter"


God, I love You dearly. Unto You I lift up my heart.
I praise Your wisdom. You know me better than I know myself.
Direct my path in life so that I am not lead astray by materialism.
God, You are omnipresent Spirit.
Help me not to be fooled by the trappings of matter but revel in Your reality.
God, You are omnipotent authority.
Heal me of any false beliefs of human limitation.
Bring to my body and consciousness the sunlight of Truth.
Father-Mother God, You, divine Love meet all my needs.
Show me that I am fed by Your spirit, I do not hunger after the material world.
God, You are infinite Wisdom.
Give me the understanding to know the Truth and be free.
And so it is. Amen.



Sunday, March 17, 2019

Here am I

By Ken G. Cooper

See what God sees. There's nothing else.

There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so
 many?" John 6:9 (see also Matthew 14:17, Mark 6:38, Luke 9:13)

I have followed this man for most of the day.
He came past my village as the sun's warmth was burning through the early mist.
I had just collected some food for our family, five loaves and two fishes. He smiled at me. I joined the growing crowd.

He has stopped again. He is speaking. 
I can hardly see him for the numbers that have gathered and keep growing.

Everyone is listening. 
It is as if he is talking to each of us directly. To everyone, heart to heart.
I can hear everything he is saying.
There is a feeling of love all around.

I think he must be the Messiah.

The sun has now sunk low; there is a coolness in the air.
Someone next to me is hungry, sees the food I am carrying.
"No, it's not for sale".
Somebody else speaks to me: 
"Please come to the Master".

What can he want with me?
All I have is five loaves and two fishes.
"You can have them".

********

Hey, Dad, that was some crowd! There must have been thousands! Someone asked me to meet with Jesus himself and led me to him. He looked at me with such love and asked if I would let him have my basket of food. Oh Mum, I just felt that love so much and somehow knew I wouldn’t lose anything. So I offered it all to him. Everyone had to sit down. Jesus waited for them to be quiet. He then blessed the food, giving thanks to God, and then shared it amongst all the people! I sat at the front, eating, watching in disbelief. When all had eaten, each of his disciples collected a basket of fragments! Dad, he came over to me, took my hands in his, chatted with me. I remember so clearly what he said. That I could never lack, for God is everywhere and sees everything that truly is! That there can be no limitations, only the abundance of good; to believe what I had just seen and to make my life as bountiful as the loaves and fishes!

Mum, Dad, look! He gave them all back to me after everyone was fed! Here are those loaves and fishes!

Here am I.*

“And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.”  Luke 15:31
* see I Sam. 3: 1-19

Download a PDF of this poem

©Ken G Cooper 2019                         
kencooperpoetry.com                     
kengcooper@btinternet.com                                                       
Ken G Cooper Poetry You Tube

Friday, March 15, 2019

Truth Cannot Be Found In Matter

By Anthony J. Whitehouse, CS

THERE IS A FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH required to gain dominion and that axiom is:

TRUTH CANNOT BE FOUND IN MATTER

Obviously matter cannot be truthful or convey an aspect of truth since it is mindless and inanimate.
Look at the issue in practice. You look at a blemish or tumor on the skin and come to the conclusion that there is a cancer. Matter here is attempting to define a truth or formulate a truth when the formulation must actually take place in consciousness.

You are sitting next to someone who suddenly becomes quite psychotic and looses their peace of mind. In both cases, one experiences the mortal mind claim that there is truth in matter when obviously there is not. The truth one experiences is not IN the matter, it is in the ascriber or mortal mind. Only mortal mind formulates the truth it experiences and that formulation is the result of the delusion that matter can convey truth.

One also has to realize that the error of believing that there is truth in matter gives rise to sensuality and its slavery. If the false belief was not there, then the sensuality would not arise because matter cannot convey anything.

Now take the next step and realize that it is impossible for matter to come up with a truth of its own volition. The tumor or screladema one experiences must be a lie of mortal mind precisely because there is no truth in matter.

Mortal mind holds that there is truth in matter and as a result of this false conclusion you have the chaos of mortal existence. Mortal mind starts its garbage every morning by conveying the idea that the the body or matter is tired. It attempts to convey a truth which is dependent on matter for its veracity.

To find healing one must first realize that truth cannot be found in matter because it is only in this realization that one is no longer mesmerized by what looks like matter behaving in an intelligent manner. Once the mesmerism is seen through the healing occurs.

Sure it would be nice to see a rod turned into a snake before ones eyes and vice-versa but we don’t have to have such experiences if we are fully conversant with Divine Science which sets out the rule for us. We just have to think it through. We can see the logic of it and avoid the mesmerism inherent in a belief with holds that matter conveys the truth.

Our dear leader gives us chapter and verse on this point it the following quotations:

We cannot fathom the nature and quality of God's creation by diving into the shallows of mortal belief. We must reverse our feeble flutterings — our efforts to find life and truth in matter — and rise above the testimony of the material senses, above the mortal to the immortal idea of God. These clearer, higher views inspire the God-like man to reach the absolute centre and circumference of his being.
(SH 262:9)

There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter.
(SH 468:9–10)

In the universe of Truth, matter is unknown.
(SH 503:10-11)

The belief that intelligence, Truth, and Love, are in matter and separate from God, is an error; for there is no intelligent evil, and no power besides God, good. God would not be omnipotent if there were in reality another mind creating or governing man or the universe.
(Mis. 36:28)

Is our consciousness in matter or in God? Have we any other consciousness than that of good? If we have, He is saying to us to-day, “Adam, where art thou?” We are wrong if our consciousness is in sin, sickness, and death. This is the old consciousness. In the new religion the teaching is, “He is not here; Truth is not in matter; he is risen; Truth has become more to us, — more true, more spiritual.”
(Mis. 179:8–15)

He is unfit for Truth, and the demonstration of divine power, who departs from Mind to matter, and from Truth to error, in pursuit of better means for healing the sick and casting out error.
(Mis. 268:9)

Whatever simulates power and Truth in matter, does this as a lie declaring itself, that mortals' faith in matter may have the effect of power; but when the whole fabrication is found to be a lie, away goes all its supposed power and prestige.
(Mis. 334:8)

Matter testifies of itself, “I am matter;” but unless matter is mind, it cannot talk or testify; and if it is mind, it is certainly not the Mind of Christ, not the Mind that is identical with Truth.
(Un. 33:10)

Make Time To Pray

By Prayerful Living

MAKE TIME TO PRAY....
We are all busy.
Lots to do.
Much of what we hear about in the news is bad.
We tune it out (or try to).
"Its not my problem, I have plenty of my own."
However, we are all in this together.
We are all "one body, in Christ."

Meister Eckhart the theologian, philosopher and mystic of the 14 century said: "What happens to another, be it bad or good, pain or joy, ought to be as if it happened to you."

That is why it is worthy of our time to pray.
- Shalom Aleichem (Peace be unto you)

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

"Why hast thou forsaken me?"

By H J B Corderoy
Brisbane, Australia

When a physical healing eludes us or a loved one dies we are prone to ask, as Jesus did on the cross, “why hast thou forsaken me O god?”  This was a momentary lapse in Jesus’ communication with the Father. It is a perfectly human reaction and therein lies the answer. But more about that later.

Jesus used healings as a way of getting the attention of the people who were steeped in the ways of the world. He hoped that as a result of seeing these so called miracles people would be drawn to seeking the Truth that he was teaching. These healings were the ultimate human proof of the Truth that he was teaching. The sole purpose of his earthly life, resurrection and ascension was to reveal to us the truth about our real existence as the spiritual ideas of God. He taught us how to know God thereby unlocking the path to our redemption and final adoption by God. The purpose of our life on this earth and in the eternal realm of divine Mind is to understand God. What we do not understand in this life will remain for us to work out in the eternal hereafter.

When we seek a healing through prayer the important thing that we gain is a better understanding of God and our relationship with him. The healing is an added blessing. ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added to you’. If you do not experience a healing do not despair. You have started on the path to understanding God. Your success in this endeavour will depend on the degree of your spiritual understanding of God up until that time.

The more you study and pray to understand God, the more you express an overwhelming love of God, the greater will be your spiritual and physical rewards. Each step you take in this process of understanding will improve your ability to meet the next challenge. God only requires of you a demonstration of your present understanding.

If a person passes before they are healed, that person Is no worse or better off as a result of their passing.They will have to continue their spiritual development in the hereafter from the point where they left it at the time of their passing.Those that are left behind will naturally feel a sense of loss. But they too will have gained spiritually from their prayer. There is no need for those left behind to feel any guilt because their prayers apparently failed nor any anger because God allowed their loved one to fall ill and to die. Both these human reactions are perfectly understandable.

Although the physical body is dead, there has been no death or loss of the spiritual attributes or body of thoughts which make up the real being of your loved one.Those spiritual thoughts remain in existence in the realm of divine Mind as they have since the beginning. The individual’s body of spiritual thoughts are eternal and will be recognisable to us when we too enter the realm of divine Mind.

Why then did a loving God allow this to happen?
It happens because we are living under the law of mortal mind and not the Spirit. It happens when we drop our guard for a moment and allow ungodly thoughts and suggestions to enter our consciousness.

For the law of the Spirit of the life of Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death". (Rom. 8:2) So, God did not cause the accident, the sickness or the death. It is a consequence of living under the law of mortal mind. God knows only light; only good. (I John 1:5)  God 'is of purer eyes than to behold evil’. (Habakkuk) 

God has nothing to do with the material world and its woes. ‘Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of light with whom in no variableness nor shadow of turning’. No evil, disharmony, or imperfection comes down from God.These accidents and illnesses we experience are all the consequence of listening to the babble of the mortal minds around us.

The sickness and death that we see around us is the result of the miasma of many mortal minds seeking to dominate each other. Mortal mind dreamed up the disease and then passed it from one receptive mind to another. What we failed to do in the first instance was to guard against this involuntary mesmerism by mortal mind. Secondly, our understanding of the Truth was not sufficiently well enough developed to deny the power of mortal mind which is continually being reinforced by the mortal thoughts of those around us. In the case of children, or those in a coma, it is their love-ones who must supply this protection until their spiritual understanding is sufficient to the cause.

When faced with this seemingly overpowering weight of false opinion we cry out 'Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief’. The doubt we feel when faced by this opposition is yet another ploy by mortal mind to hold us in subjugation. Hold steadfastly to the Truth and you will succeed.

How then did mortal mind dream up these illnesses in the first place when God is supposed to be omnipotent? It all happened in the Garden of Eden. At that point in his physical evolution man decided that he was intelligent enough to know the difference between good and evil. He decided that he was a god in his own right and that he no longer needed the one true God in his life. By his own choice, mortal man gave up his spiritual birthright. He was no longer God's child but became man's child. This was when mortal mind first entered on the scene. Mortal mind decided that it created man when all it really did was procreate a physical body.

The real and eternal man was created by God as his spiritual likeness.That man ‘lives and moves and has his being’ in divine Mind as a perfect idea of God. The realisation of the existence of the spiritual man remained hidden until the advent of Jesus Christ. Through Christ's death and resurrection, mankind was offered the opportunity of adoption by God: ‘but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba , Father’. This is how we may regain our birthright as the child of God which we lost in the Garden of Eden.

At that moment in the Garden of Eden the evolution of the material man and the spiritual one parted company. Since then the material man has sought out many inventions some of which are good but many of them bad. Even in today's world we face individual ‘Garden of Eden’ moments when our human ego clashes with the Divine.The sickness and unhappiness we see in the world today is as  a result of the multiplicity of mortal minds all competing with one another; all claiming to be god-like. 'Though there be many that are called gods whether in heaven or in earth…. But to us there is but one God’

The teachings, healings, and the resurrection of Jesus revealed to us the Truth about our real being and the path to our spiritual evolution in the eternal life. Of course the Garden of Eden is only an allegory for the time when mankind chose to be independent of the one and only true God and to deny His supremacy.

Has God forsaken us? If we bought ‘two sparrows for a farthing’ and one of them died we might say 'its not worth worrying about’. Not so with God. He will never forsake his spiritual children. In the spiritual realm ‘every hair on our head’ is precious to him!

'For the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death’. If we live under God's law we shall be free of mortal mind and its diseases and death.

Returning now to the illusion that we have not been physically healed. I say illusion because illness and death do not exist in Gods realm. Healing is part of the process of spiritualisation leading us to a better understanding and obedience to God.The physical body obeys the mind in control of it whether that mind be divine or mortal. Sin, disease, and death are concepts of mortal  mind intended to keep us subjugated. Every step we take in seeking to understand God is a spiritual healing in itself. Each of these steps is far more important to our eternal life than any physical healing welcome as that healing may be from a human point of view.

How do we know if we are controlled by mortal mind? If we are primarily concerned with our own ego, our status, our wealth, our health, or material things then we are not listening to God. We are leaving the door ajar to suggestions by mortal mind. We are allowing thoughts of ill-health and disharmony into our consciousness and our being. Admit only good thoughts to your consciousness and all will be well.

God has not and will not forsake us. Rather, it is we who have forsaken Him by making a god out of mortal mind and we are suffering the consequences. We have involuntarily allowed mortal mind to govern us hence we are subject to random sicknesses, early deaths and the loss of eternal life. Far from forsaking us, God, out of his perfect love for us, has provided a means of redemption of our eternal life through Christ Jesus.

What wonderful gift of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. We can never be thankful enough. “What manner of love hath God bestowed upon us that we should be called his children”.

Sunday, March 10, 2019

A Prayer For This Week (March 11-17, 2019)

By Prayerful Living, for "Substance"


God, Your kingdom reigns in my heart.
All praise to You for Your sound wisdom,
understanding and knowledge.
I give thanks for the unfolding realization of true substance,
the treasures of Your truth.
Loving You, the living God,
I find my cup overflowing with spiritual riches.
Help me to always hear Your voice, I wish to serve You in all I do.
Help me to see the nothingness of matter and the allness of Spirit,
resisting worldly ways, and prosper in the provision of Spirit.
God, You are the source of all good.
May I continue to be a witness to this reality each day,
in bountiful ways.
And so it is. Amen.

God's Treasure

By Ken G. Cooper

[Luke 19:1-10]

I AM VERY RICH
My name is Zacchæus. I’m small
When I’m with others they’re all tall.
But I’m chief publican so there!
I’ve made my way with lies and flare!
Making money my simple itch,
It surely works. I’m very rich.
False figures are my easy deal: 
I don’t care if people squeal. 
It’s left a lot in penury
So I can live in luxury.

ZACCHAEUS YOU ARE LOVED!
I am well loaded, at the top,
I wonder if my ways will stop.
There’s this man Jesus, makes me squirm,
I may from him have lots to learn.
He’s getting better known than me,
I feel resentment! How dare he!
I need to know what makes him tick
And may well learn some useful trick.
I see ahead a sycamore tree
Where safely hidden I will see.

“And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, 
and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchæus, make haste, 
and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house.”

I AM GOD'S TREASURE!
My life thus changed immediately
Because he knew the God-made me.
Christ Jesus made me see as true
The altogether spiritual view.
Half my riches go to the poor:
I find in God my treasure store.
My ill-got wealth four-times return,
It is God’s blessing I will earn.
I am God’s treasure! Love does fill
A life now changed to do God’s will.

“This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.  
For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” 


Download a PDF of this poem

©Ken G Cooper 2019                         
kencooperpoetry.com                     
kengcooper@btinternet.com                                                       
Ken G Cooper Poetry You Tube

Monday, March 4, 2019

Reach Out!

By Ken G. Cooper

[Mark 5:25-34]

Condemned unclean these many years,
No hope of healing, just of tears.
Physicians tried but can’t replace
The emptiness of “helpless case”.

But I’ve just heard a diff’rent view, -
Is it gossip or really true?
A man is healing everyone,
Whether a parent, daughter, son.

The question is can he heal me,
Infirm these years for all to see?
The habit of illness hard to shake:
The thought of healing makes me quake!

I ask around. He’s coming here!
This Jesus, this amazing seer.
A man runs shouting “Look at me!
I was born lame and now I’m free!”

Another shout and further joy;
A mother hugs her little boy.
The crowd it gathers steadily.
This man approaches, will pass me!

I see Love in his eyes, incredible light, 
The look of assurance and infinite might.
The crowds throng him closely, just how to get near,
Don’t want him to see me, I feel awesome fear.

The sounds of rejoicing resound with a din.
I move among people that clamour for him.
The love that just shines from this wonderful man
Gives me a confidence that nothing else can.

I know it sounds silly, but I know this much,
All that is needed is the gentlest touch!
I get nearer and nearer, just one person behind,
My heart skips a beat as I reach out my hand!

“Who touched me?!” 

Mocking his question, each in turn,
Disciples, they have much to learn,
For I feel deep salvation pure,
The love of Christ has been my cure.

But now, in full health, I’m not hid,
And I must do as Jesus bid.
In wondrous fear I must answer his call,
From standing, I kneel, testify all!

He speaks again, with strength of Soul,
“Daughter thy faith hath made thee whole; 
Go in peace.” that’s what Jesus said.
I’m now so free from my sick bed!

Oh how to share with each of you
The meaning of just what is true:
We all can banish every doubt,
By simply this: just reaching out.  


JESUS PROVED:
“YE ARE THE SONS  (and Daughters) OF THE LIVING GOD.”
Hosea 1:10 2nd YE  



Download a PDF of this poem

©Ken G Cooper 2019                         
kencooperpoetry.com                     
kengcooper@btinternet.com                                                       
Ken G Cooper Poetry You Tube