THE STORY OF MADAM ABARA

This is about a lady of great influence and power. She lived in wealth and had many servants in her mansion with well-manicured lawns and marble floors.

 

One remarkable part of her life is that whenever a servant did anything wrong in Madam Abara’s view they will get a devastating slap from her. Her slaps are not to the face, but to the upper back of the servant concerned.

 

If a servant slouched, did not carry a plate well, did not speak up, stammers, asked for clarity regarding some instruction, spoke too loudly, spoke too softly, had an expression Madam Abara viewed as disrespectful, a hard slap to the back will be the sure reward. Most of the time this reward comes like lightening and can have the effect of hurling down the servant concerned! They get thrown to the ground from the devastating effect of Madam Abara’s well-practiced, hot and powerful hits.

 

Now, our activities which include our thoughts, words and deeds form our destiny. These deeds are seeds that we plant every moment, and they are nurtured through the workings of the Laws of Creation such that at a definite time we will have to reap what we have sown earlier on as seeds. We can only expect results that are like our earlier activities. The Law that brings these about is the unchangeable Law of Sowing and Reaping, the Law of Reciprocal Action. This Law speaks of the Justice and Love of the Creator and makes man the architect of his own fate or destiny.

 

One day, Madam Abara heard words to this effect and promptly made a firm volition to change. She also decided to do only what is good from that day on. That inner change had the effect of putting a stop to the unwholesome habit of acquiring further debts by Madam Abara.  She did not stop at that. With the same relentlessness of her former ways, she now engaged in doing only what is good in thought word and deed and showed nothing but kindness and understanding to her servants. She even offered to help them whenever she perceived that help was needed by them, to the surprise of the servants. The servants were now living with a brand-new Gentlewoman!

 

Meanwhile, the Law of Sowing and Reaping continued working on Madam Abara. The result or harvest of her past activities must come back to her and influence her environment, her circumstances and on her physical body! What was due for Madam Abara was that she will go into slavery! The time for this to happen came indeed. On one fateful day, she instructed one of her servants to sweep the purple marble floor of her living room. The young woman was doing the work in a sluggish manner. In former times Madam Abara would have landed a crushing slap on her back. On this day however, Madam Abara seeing the servant’s struggle, asked her to give her the broom so that she can show the servant how to sweep properly. In a few movements, she showed her this in all kindness and handed back the broom to the servant to continue. In view of Madam Abara’s inner change, the full repercussions of her former deeds could no longer have a full effect but the symbolic service she performed for her servant was enough to wipe away the need for the heavy penance she would have suffered if she had remained immersed in her former tyrannical attitude.

 

For Madam Abara the sustained resolve to be good formed a formidable covering and protection that prevented the onrushing reciprocal action from having a full effect or any effect at all.

 

The same Laws of Creation that judge us also redeem and forgive us! Forgiveness comes about by true repentance, authentic inner change for the better, heartfelt prayer for help, and persistence in doing only what is good in thought, word and deed.  May we be strengthened in our resolve to change our ways. May we be open and receptive to the power which enables us to continuously live aright! Amen.

 

WHAT IS WRONG WITH GAMBLING, LOTTERY AND BETTING?

Insisting on finding a scriptural legislation on gambling, betting and the lottery may be a wild goose chase as there are no specific injunctions on these matters except that we are warned to beware of the love of money. We are told further that we cannot serve two masters, it is either we hate the one and love the other. We cannot serve both the Lord and Money.

One of the consequences of the over dependence on our reasoning mind is being chained to the things of this world. One of such is the love of gain which we can safely regard as the underlying reason behind gambling, betting and the lottery. 

Still, the question posed above is tricky because someone can buy the lottery ticket or play the casino cash machine just for the fun of it occasionally and not get addicted. But then that is tantamount to wasting money just as buying a useless item or indulging in an overpriced lunch or dinner. Here we need to tread carefully for whatever is given to us through the ever-loving care of the creation laws must be used responsibly with thanksgiving and not frittered away.  The lotteries claim that their takings are used for the betterment of society like funding education and social amenities. However, the participants do not always share these high aims but enter the game most of the time with the hope of making some quick money. Then most of the lottery participants cannot even afford the game and are simply made by subtle methods to part with their little cash for nothing!  Casinos and the betting companies are even more explicit. They encourage their customers to play more. The casinos offer cheap or even free drinks that will remove inhibitions to spending on the game which is already skewed to favour the casino operators. The chances of winning in lotteries, betting or gambling is so slim that many who are addicted go into penury. 

If we have the intention of giving our money to worthy causes, there are numerous opportunities for this if we look carefully around us and we can also revalue our wealth such that it serves us and others who are connected to us in a beneficial way. 

Finally, putting one’s hope of becoming rich through gambling or the lottery is poverty thinking and is tantamount to affirming that we can become prosperous just *by chance!*. Such manner of thinking is a denial that we can attract that which is good and keep it through being inwardly upright and the work of our hands. Indeed, most lottery winners lose all the money within a few years of winning just because their innermost self could not retain the unmerited wealth. The way to sustainable prosperity is an inner state focused solely on that which is good in thought, word and deed, serving others with our talents, gifts and qualities and prayer for guidance to be led on to the right paths. May we all succeed!

PLEASE MEASURE YOUR FAITH BY THE ACCOUNTS IN MATTHEW CHAPTERS 5, 6 AND 7.

Do you consider yourself a follower of Christ? Do you believe in Him? Do you wish to do exactly what He has taught us? If your answer is yes to any of these questions, then I respectfully invite you to measure your faith by Matthew Chapters 5, 6 and 7. The main words of these chapters were ascribed to Jesus. We will now consider some passages from these Chapters and relate them with what obtains today amongst believers.

1. Matthew Chapter 5 

1.      1. If you have accepted the teaching that once you are born again, you are no longer subject to the law then your faith runs counter to verses 17 and 18 which says:

 

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

 

2.      If you have also accepted the teaching that you have to engage in hate prayers such as asking that your enemies should die or be consumed by fire, then you have accepted a teaching that is contrary to verses 43-45:

 

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

 

2. Matthew Chapter 6.

 

 

There are learning points in Chapter 6 as well.

 

1. Have you been taught to pray with many words or repetitive words? In that case please check whether what you are doing is in keeping with verses 7 and 8:

 

⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

 

2. If your prayers are mainly about how to make billions of dollars and pounds all for your sweet comfort and to make others envy you, then I implore you to be advised by the words of verse 24.

 

24 "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

 

3. If you cling to the attainment of your earthly goals only and you forget to also have a goal of keeping your thoughts pure and doing only what is good or seeking to obey the Almighty’s Commandments, then pause and ask yourself: how many times have I pleaded for God’s Will to be done in my life? Have I ever prayed earnestly to be led to the way of righteousness which leads to the Lord’s Kingdom? Remember now the words of verses 31-33 which says:

 

³¹ …do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 

3. Matthew Chapter 7.

 

1.              If you assume that because you have accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour then you will simply walk straight into heaven, then realise today that there is a lot more to be done after your acceptance of Christ. Calling Him Lord, Lord, obeying denominational dogmas and creeds, giving tithes, making large or tiny donations or even prophesying or performing miracles in the Name of Jesus have their relevance quite alright but are really not enough! Are you surprised?  We have to do the Will of the Father in addition!

Hear the words in verses 21-23:

 

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

 

2.              If you are of the school of thought that salvation and redemption “is by faith alone” then please read verses 24-27 which enjoins us to put the teachings of Christ into practice. We are to embrace His teachings and actually build on it through our activities including what we think, say and do in our everyday lives. We should not be under any delusion that we give our Lord any service by the few hours of piousness performed when we are dressed in our Sunday attire! Matthew 7:24-27 says: 

    

²⁴ “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. ²⁶ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷ The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

 

Going by a consideration of the passages we lifted from Matthew 5, 6 and 7, one cannot but conclude that what many believers believe today and what they do is not the same as is clearly stated in the sacred scriptures we cited. And these are scriptural words from the well-known Sermon on the Mountain which can be regarded as a source for the key teachings of Jesus available in the Bible.

 

The Message of Jesus the Son of God has thus been interpreted wrongly in many respects and the signposts are misplaced by religious leaders who put their human understanding above the Wisdom of God. By their actions they lead many astray. For this reason, another Message from the Kingdom of Heaven has now been given. This Message puts the misplaced signposts back into their proper places, so that the right road may be recognised by all serious seekers. It brings to our remembrance the true teachings of our Lord Jesus.

 

I THINK, THEREFORE I EXIST!

A similar statement was credited to the seventeenth-century French philosopher René Descartes. By saying “I think; therefore, I am” Descartes reckoned that he had arrived at the ultimate statement which could not be doubted. He found that he could not doubt that he himself existed, as he was the one doing the doubting in the first place.

Certainly, we feel our own existence. No matter how real this feels to us, it is just consciousness of our existence. As man there is yet a further quest. Who am I?

Yes, I do exist but what am I? Who am I? Many have tried in vain to define themselves by the title they bear on earth: President, Chairman, CEO, General Manager and so on. Such definitions vanish when the position that confers such titles are removed. Of course, such titles are transient. Neither can we be defined by our fame as beauty queen, wonderful dancer, or boxing champion as these too are not permanent and even if they are, they do not truly define us in our real essence and immense abilities.

The real question is that man needs to become self-conscious. The purpose of life on earth is for us to attain this all-important self-consciousness. To know exactly who we really are.

You are much more than your physical body that the world can see. Your physical body too is transient. It is born, it grows, matures, ages and then withers away. Yet through it all, deep within you, you do not feel old or frail. Only the body experiences these. That core in you that feels forever young is your real self! It is spirit!

To know the nature of the spirit therefore is to know yourself. Your real self. The spirit has its origin in the Spiritual part of this wonderful Creation. From there it takes a dip into this earth in order to mature. Maturity involves coming to self-consciousness. So, what is the nature of the spirit? What are the abilities of the spirit?

1. Spirit has access to the ever-flowing Power that streams through Creation. Spirit can make use of this Power to achieve the miraculous in all areas of life! The scope for development within our space of existence is set so wide such that development is endless and eternal!

2. Spirit is magnetic. It can attract people, circumstances and all that it genuinely desires. The possibilities are simply innumerable!

3. So that spirit will not attract everything and everyone to itself in a wild confusion, the spirit is endowed with the power to decide on what is to be attracted to it. The decision is made through our thoughts, words and deeds. So, we are also managers of what is to come to us in this wonderful workshop of Creation which offers a table that is always set. From this table we can take whatever we desire in line with our abilities. The table is always set and it gives to us and always gives in abundance.

You now see that for anyone to ignore these magnificent spiritual abilities and be restricted to some paltry earthy titles and fame is pitiable indeed.

With this understanding, let us begin our journey to self-consciousness by listening to our inner voice in silence, staying in nature regularly, practising the art of giving to others in love, receiving with gratitude and meditating on the Almighty always. Let us also resolve to do only what is good and make everything we do into a service to the Lord of all the Worlds! With these we will be on our way to working consciously in the spiritual sense. Peace, joy and success is what follows naturally.

HOW WE CAN LIVE A FULFILLING LIFE.

In order to live a fulfilling life, we need to know our own true nature, who we really are, indeed our inherent abilities! Our real self is not our title, position or the amount of money we have in the bank. The power we get from titles, position or money are temporary. Relying solely on them means that we will lose our identity when we are stripped of these momentary things.

 

The inner core of man is spirit. If we become conscious of this then we can tap into the limitless Power of Creation which only our spirit can access. Our titles, earthly power, position and our money do not have this access.

 

Just like a lens gathers the power of the sun, our spirit through its instrument known as the intuition can collect the Power of Creation streaming through us and we can pass this Power on in concentrated form through our thoughts to achieve the most wonderful feats if that is our desire.

 

Another ability of the spirit is that it can attract like a magnet. In order not to attract just anything to itself in a wild confusion, man is also endowed with the ability to decide what it wishes to attract to itself.

 

In short, we have access to the ineffable Power of Creation, we can attract what we desire just like magnets and we have the ability to decide exactly what we wish to attract! Now that we have an idea of our spiritual abilities, in order to live a fulfilling life, we have to commit to a wise use of these abilities. How can we do this?

 

Let us start with exercising the power of silence. If, for instance, you seriously contemplate on a subject, this thought takes on form within you and as you stay with the thought it becomes strongly magnetic within you through the power of silence. It will then attract all that is similar, bear fruits by producing more useful thoughts and will even attract higher thoughts from the unseen world and this is what is well known as inspiration! You then only need to carry out by visible deeds what the inspiration has indicated in all diligence using the all-embracing Power of Creation.  

 

We can also make wise use of our spiritual abilities by continually meditating on the Word of Truth. This will sharpen our intuition, the sense of the spirit which guides us from deep within us. This of course leads us to the right actions at all times.

 

Let us also spend time in Nature. Let us not be far from the steams, the fields, the flowers and the trees. Let us be friendly with the birds and the animals. There is a lot to learn in the radiant beauty, effortless ease and harmony we find in Nature. We can key into these as we grow in our own spiritual nature.

 

Another way we can live a fulfilling life is to embrace the Law of the Power of Simplification. In Nature we find that birds do not struggle to fly they just fly, the earth rotates effortlessly around the sun daily. We too can attain to a fulfilling life effortlessly when we leave alone the belief that life must be hard. The simple way for us is that we go through life joyfully, doing everything based on love and living in such a manner as to cause no harm to others in the pursuit of our personal desires. The Rule of living is as simple as that!

 

Success in life is attainable. Nothing comes to us that we have not invited. Let us therefore go forth courageously choosing at all times to do only what is good. As we wish it, so will it happen to us!   

 

 

HOW SHOULD WE PRAY?

“Let your speech be yea or nay! And when you pray, obey the same commandment! Do not pray in order to hear your voice, but pray because your inner being demands it. Dare to pray only when your soul stirs, be it in joy or sorrow. But every prayer out of presumption or habit is sacrilege to God! Let His Name be too holy for you to have It on your lips on every occasion!”  This admonition was issued to mankind by Jesus when He tread this earth.

When we pray, instead of seeking our selfish interests first, let us give ourselves. Giving ourselves when we pray!  That sounds strange of course. But that is the template Christ gave us when He lovingly gave us the Lord’s Prayer. Unlike the usual begging we are used to, the Lord’s Prayer contains mainly promises man makes to his Creator! These sentences: “Our Father Who art in Heaven!”, “Hallowed be Thy Name”, “Thy Kingdom come”, “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven” –are actual promises to the Almighty which we should take seriously as carelessness in this regard have dire consequences.

For example, when we say “Our Father, Who art in Heaven!” we are in effect promising the Almighty: “I am here, Lord, to listen to Thee and to obey Thee like a child!”

And when we say: “Hallowed be Thy Name”, we are giving assurances to our Maker that we do not misuse God’s Name through superficiality, because we regard the Name of God as being too holy to do so!

 

How many of us think about these when we rattle off the Lord’s Prayer?

 

The very first petition “Give us this day our daily bread!”  comes only after the vows.   And the Grail Message gave the true meaning of this petition thus:

 

“When I have fulfilled what I promised, let Thy Blessing rest upon my earthly work so that, in attending to my physical needs, I may always retain the time to live according to Thy Will!”

 

The Lord’s Prayer teaches us how to live in accordance with the Laws of God and how to ask and what to ask for with the guarantee of being heard from above.

 

What should be paramount in our prayers should be our yearning for spiritual ascent as exemplified by the thief crucified to the right-hand side of Jesus. Compare this attitude to the attitude of the one on the left who was seeking an earthly relief from his predicament which he brought upon himself.

 

In the end, the foolish thief got no visible advantage while the wise thief got a firm promise of a place in paradise! One can decide the path to follow. It is either the path of those who make self-serving earthly demands and expect arbitrary actions from the Creator, or the path of repentance that pleads humbly for God's forgiveness and strength for spiritual ascent.

 

May we have the strength to pray aright and always seek what is really of benefit to our spirit. Amen.

 

 

 

HOW CAN WE RECEIVE EVERYTHING WE NEED?

I  have a personal story which illustrates an answer to this question.

As young children, my brother and I have been taught not to scramble for gifts when we attend children's parties. Birthday parties of friends were frequent in those days. 

So, we would seat patiently when the big Aunties brought out the fanciful gift items to be distributed to the children attending. Most times all the children at the party would leave their seats, move close to the Aunties, some pulling at their dresses and yelling at the top of their voices to gain the attention of the Aunties.  Most times, the Aunties would notice the two boys seating calmly and watching the scenario.  

The Aunties will then announce that the two boys who did not join in the noisy scramble would be given their own gifts first! 

The same principles apply to our lives as a whole.  It applies to our mundane desires and to our striving for spiritual ascent! All we need to do is to live a simple life, and develop ourselves to be inwardly upright and genuine human beings. What this means is to abide by the Laws of the Almighty. Because His Laws govern the Universe, once we abide by His Laws, we will simultaneously have the intimate connection with the whole of Creation, which will further us in everything that we need for ourselves and for our spiritual ascent. Then, everything we need and everything that brings us joy and peace will stream towards us in rich abundance. 

Let us not be like the children in the story who thought that they will obtain the party gifts by exertion. Such an attitude yields no positive results and is a waste of energy! Instead of engaging in troublesome exertions let us open ourselves in all simplicity to the Word of God which means adjusting ourselves to God’s Holy Will expressed in the Laws of Creation. Naturally, the Laws of Creation will then see to our welfare as agreeable dwellers in Creation! We will know peace and we shall be happy!