How To Have Great Relationships

Want a better relationship (without having to leave the one you're in)? Hear the sermon

Spotlight on Spirituality and Health

I found a new website that I'm sure many of you will enjoy.  It looks at all things related to health and science through a spiritual lens.  The site is called Spotlight on Spirituality and Health.

Easy Way To Increased Spiritual Understanding

To my surprise, many said this Sunday was most powerful, and transformative.  I was feeling it.  Of course I realize I cannot say what should be the most important point in the sermon for you, but I will say what point I think you should pay most attention to.

The Parable Of The Talents

In the Parable of the Talents Jesus speaks these words "Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many."  The Spiritual significance of the parable is this:

 DON'T WAIT UNTIL YOU KNOW AND UNDERSTAND ALL TRUTH. WORK WITH (ACKNOWLEDGE) THE TRUTH THAT YOU DO KNOW (or the Truth that resonates with you) IN ALL WAYS, AND YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THAT TRUTH AND ALL TRUTH WILL INCREASE.

 Of course this increase of understanding and power is really your God Consciousness revealing itself more fully.

For Example

If the words from our textbook, "Pain, sickness, poverty, old age and death cannot master me for they are not real," find some agreement in you.  Don't wait until you fully understand the principle behind it.  Take these words into you daily affairs.  If you seem to be bedridden with pain, remind yourself often "Pain cannot master me because it is not real." 

Maybe it appears that wherever you are hanging around, the flu seems to be going around.  Your throat starts to feel scratchy. Know right away, "Sickness cannot master because it is not real."   

 Furthermore:  STICK WITH IT. 

There Words Are Not Weapons of Mass Destruction

You are not hurling these words at a seeming problem.  No, instead you are standing firm in the truth of God being the only presence and power.

Treasures In The Church

I knew it, but most people in our church family don't know that Robert Babilonia is an excellent photographer.  You don't believe me, see for yourself.

If you need great photography, or know someone who does,  Robert is your guy.

Are there any other entrepeneurs in the church.  Let me know so that your church family can know.

Ageless Living

A new sermon, Ageless Living, has been posted on the website.  You know this is a pet topic of mine.  This is one of the Summer sermons.  Take a listen. 

The Big 3--Ideas For Getting The Most Out Of This Ministry

In Sunday's sermon, I mentioned three core ideas from our textbook that insure a life of bliss, when you embrace them.
Here they are:

• Everyone must learn to wait alone in silence for the inner revelation of Truth
• There is no permanent outer escape from your trials and circumstances. All help must come from within (your awareness of God as the only Presence and Power).
• Keep your eyes off of results

Summer Sermons Coming Soon

We had some great sermons during the Summer season and I will (slowly) post each one.  I expect by mid-October all of them will be available for your listening pleasure.

Personality and Individuality Sermon Tips

The Story: Emily Cady seemed dominated by an overbearing, pitbullish personality. She prayed and claimed that this personality has no power over her, and cannot affect her in any way. This was not enough. One day while walking, the realization popped in her awareness, "There is no such personality such as this in all the universe; there is nothing but God." The revelation continued to with, "There is no personality in all the universe; there is nothing but God."

In Short: Christ is the only identity aand activity.

So What Do You Do With This?

SCENARIO 1: Reader, do you seem to have a personality that is in any way self-sabotaging and self-destructive? Then frequently remind yourself, "There is no such personality in all the universe; there is nothing but God."

SCENARIO 2: Does your child, or spouse, appear to have a shy personality, or perhaps a pitbullish personality? Don't you believe it. Don't settle for, "Oh, that's just the way he (she) is." KNOW: "There is no such personality in all the universe; there is nothing but God."

SCENARIO 3: Maybe your co-worker or supervisor is giving you grief. You really like your job, but this one individual's caustic personality is making you think about quitting. Don't quit! You have to pull out the big guns on this one. Remind yourself often: There is no personality in all the universe; there is nothing but God. You may be asking yourself, "Well what good is this going to do?" First, it will remind you that both Power and Presence is in Love (God). Continuing to stay with it will facilitate a true realization of this fact; the end result being beneficial for all concerned.

My First Podcast--Earthquakes and Hurricanes

The podcasts will only get better as I improve sound, and add music. You can listen here:

Membership In Unity

I'm glad to inform you that in recent weeks more people have made a decision to become members of our church family. I think it's a good thing that people took time to think about membership in Unity in Silver Spring before rushing blindly into membership.

A New Member's Ceremony is scheduled for September 18th.

Sermon Summary #3--Are You The Only One In This Truth?

Over the years I've heard it time and time again: "It would be nice if my husband (or wife) was into this Truth as well." Sometimes I hear it like this: "My brother is having such a hard time...if only he was into this things would be so much better for him."

BE THE PRINCIPLE How do you get those you care about to be interested in these spiritual principles? One sure way is for you to BE the PRINCIPLE in your daily living. This will cause your friends to say, "What is it that you are doing? I want some of that." There's your open door for discussion. But that's the lightweight stuff.

ONLY ONE MIND Reader, you know one of the basic principles is that there is only ONE MIND--just one. This Mind is Truth Itself. This Mind is spiritual illumination. But more than that, this Mind is the Mind of everyone that you know and even those that you don't know. It is the ONLY MIND.

If you would stay with the Truth that EVERYONE KNOWS THE TRUTH OF GOD'S ALLNESS; EVERYONE LOVES THE TRUTH OF GOD'S ALLNESS; EVERYONE ENJOYS THE TRUTH OF GOD'S ALLNESS, you will be surprised at how friends and relatives begin to take a sudden interest in Truth. And those of you reading this that are a part of our congregation, if we all held to this daily, we would see the church bursting at the seams with new visitors and members.

Sermon Summary -Truth Not Working

I hear it all the time, particularly before folk leave the church: "I've stayed with Truth for many years but I don't get any results. What's happening here?"

It's not possible. Anyone who claims to have stayed with Truth (for any amount of time) without getting results never started with Truth. Let's start with our Lessons In Truth textbook. What does it say? "We must learn to lose sight of results that are the 'loaves and fishes'...and let results take care of themselves." Yes, this goes against the grain of a lot of metaphysical mumbo jumbo that has made folk demonstration-drunk in recent years . Nevertheless, you must take your mind off of the results. Why? What is the basic premise of Truth? God (Absolute Goodness or Perfection) Is All. Absolute Perfection is EVIDENCE. Anyone focused on getting results is starting with the problem and hoping Truth can eliminate it. It never works. You can go to as many classes, in as many churches as you want, but as long as your focus is on the problem (to do anything with it) nothing will work. Okay...maybe for a few weeks, and then you are facing the same ol problem again. To end right, you have to start right. Instead of starting with the problem, be it lack, pain, sickness, or ignorance, start with God's Allness as All that there is. Yes, even right where the problem seems to be. If you start with God's perfection, you end with God's Perfection. Start with a seeming problem, and it never seems to go away.

Summary #1 (One Mind)

Rather than sum up last Sunday's sermon (July 31) in one posting, I am sending out one summary point each day for the remainder of this week.

Perhaps you are feeling, "Had someone exposed this Truth to me as a child, I would not be spending my adulthood trying to disbelieve in the make-pretend powers of disease, lack, limitation, etc." Now, you want to make sure your child (or grandchild) gets this Truth as soon as possible. What can you do? The basic teaching in Unity is that there is only one Mind--the Divine Mind. This Mind knows that God (absolute Goodness) is the only Presence and Power. Your job is to know that this Mind is your child's only Mind right now. Stop believing that she/he has an undeveloped child's mind that must "get" this Truth. There is no such Mind. DAILY praise the all-knowing Mind as your child's only Mind right now. This will do wonders.

Prosperity In Your Home--Sermon Commentary

I intentionally kept Sunday's sermon simple, and I've been wondering if it was too simple. All day long I've been wondering if the point was understood. Rather than risk the gamble of assumption, I am going to spell it out right here.

The purpose of walking through your home singing the first two lines of Surely The Presence is to keep in the forefront of your awareness that your home is the very presence of Infinite Substance. It is the presence of Infinite Abundance. Abundance (Infinite, divine Substance) is not somewhere and sometime else, but right there in and as your very home, NOW.

Just the constant recognition, awareness and acknowledgment of this fact will do more to establish prosperity and joy in your home than anything else you can do.

Ageless Living--Sermon Summary

The audio version of this sermon will not be available, so here is a summary of the most important parts. WhyThe Desire to Live Agelessly? $56 billion dollars a year is spent on anti-aging products. Why is there a desire to live agelessly? Remember, desire signifies the presence of fulfillment. The reason you desire to live agelessly is because it is possible, and normal to live agelessly. Three Point To Consider To live agelessly consider these ideas:

1. Your body is pure Spirit and is not governed by material laws. We cannot keep saying God (Spirit) is ALL, and think of the body as material. Only what is true of Spirit (God) is true of your Body. Don't judge by the appearance.
2. As God is the only Power, there is no power in so-called time to rob your Body of its vim, vitality, health, beauty and ability. There is no time in God and no God in time. Despite all appearances time has never affected your Body.
3. Because of the above, the appearance of aging is not inevitable or unavoidable.

Help For the Aging Body

The question has been asked, "Is it possible to turn the aged form into one of beauty and immortality without the change called death?" And the answer, in a nutshell, is that as the Truth of your Body is accepted and understood it is visibilized as your Body. Your business is to accept your Body's spiritual nature as its only nature.

Read the above paragraph again and it is easy to see why your best years are ahead of you, and not behind. With each passing year (time is not really real), your understanding of your Body's true nature is clearer and this clarity of spiritual vision shows forth on your body. Put no limits on this.

Stop Aging Yourself

Finally, STOP RECORDING AGES. Do not put a number on your Body or any Body. Body is timeless. The Truth is your Body is birthless, deathless, timeless and ageless. "Before Abraham was I AM." This is the Christ Truth of you.

Reminder-Service Starts At 10am

One Sunday, can you believe, we actually started the service close to 10:30am. Why? No one was sitting in the seats. Other times, we have had a first-time visitor arrive a little before 10am only to sit for twenty minutes because that's when the next person arrives. It's no surprise that they never come back.

I know many of you come from quite a distance to get to church, and it's good that you make it at all. However, I am asking everyone to please be a little more mindful that the service actually starts at 10am.

Sermon Uploads

Sunday's sermon and a previous sermon will be uploaded Wednesday night.

How To Work The Sermon Player

I've learned that many people who want to listen to our sermons at www.unityinsilverspring.org/audio.html are confused about how to work the player. Below are a few helpful hints:

• To the right of the uppermost sermon title, there is a scroll button. It is a grey circle under an “up” arrow. You can scroll all the way down to the “down” arrow to see the list of sermons on the player. Currently, there are 11 sermons.
• To the left of the player (grey letters), you will see the words “Sort Options.” Click on it and you can sort sermons by topic, speaker, series, year, etc.
• At the bottom left of the player, you will see the words “Search Archive.” Let’s say you are interested in all sermons on Prosperity. Type in the word and all the related sermons will show in the player. Or type in the name of a speaker and all of their talks will show. You get the picture.
• At the top of the player is the Volume button.
• The Details button will give all the details regarding a particular sermon title that you have already selected.
• When your mouse hovers over a sermon title, right above the player you will see a pop-up reading “Download This Clip.” You can save the sermon to a CD to play in your car, or save it to your computer.

Your Heart's Desire--Sermon Lesson

Here are essential points from last Sunday's sermon:

• Sometimes it seems that you have an intense desire for something: money, cigarettes, alcohol, sex, etc. That desire is actually a desire to experience the fullness of your Christ nature. All satisfaction is from within.
• This is not to say that you should not enjoy the pleasures of companionship, etc. It means that when you first find this fulfillment within, you are guaranteed to find it "fleshed" out into fulfilling experiences.
• The question came up: "Why is it that when you thought you wanted to travel, you realized your real desire was to experience God, and yet the result was an abundance of travel opportunities?" Here's why: I first found the fulfillment as a grander experience of God's Allness, and that fulfillment then fleshed itself out in a fulfilling way. Had it not been the travel opportunities, the fleshing out would've been something far more fulfilling than the travel I thought I desired.
• THE BOTTOM LINE: Living the Spiritual Life is living a Life of fulfillment.

The You Tube Video

You might want to check this out as a reminder of some of the points of a previous lesson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nm4b05_Fps

Hear For Yourself What I Said About Sex

There was a lot of talk after Sunday's sermon. "The Rev said we shouldn't have sex." Never said it. Hear for yourself. The sermon, Your True Desire, is now available.

Sunday School-Catch The Excitement

Sunday school is an active, and empowering way to volunteer your service at Unity in Silver Spring. Begin thinking now if you would like to be on a rotation schedule to help Tiffany (Dr. Manuel) carry on with her excellent, and inspiring vision for the Sunday School.

Sunday's Sermon Is Available On The Website

This Sunday's sermon, "The Way Out Is Within" is available on the Unity in Silver Spring website. I know many of you are having a hard time making this maneuver, so let's take it step-by-step.

1. Click on www.unityinsilverspring.org
2. To the right you will see a set of earphones with the words Listen To Sermons. Click.
3. The top spot is always reserved for the most recent sermon.

Happy Listening!

Bible Readers Alert

Laura is taking a well deserved break from coordinating the Bible Reader's Schedule. For the time being I (Rev. Allen) will be taking over her responsibilities. If you have any questions, cancellations, or substitution requests, please contact me. allen.white2@att.net

Thanks!