When the Heart Points to Spirit
Good things often come in threes... This Sunday, our entire service is musically focused on Jazz while we invited our platform chairs and readers to share inspirational works. We will also welcome our newest members after service and honor and bless them Unity Fort Worth style. And finally, Jean-Marie will continue his discussion on the four subtle bodies, focusing on the physical body in a brief message this week.
Experience the Service
Sermon Notes
Denial & Affirmation for the Week
With every breath I remove the power I give to any form of limitation on all levels of Being. I envision my body in its perfect expression of Health and Wholeness right here and right now. I embrace both body and mind in harmonious balance as I allow such harmony to inspire each other for the Goodness of my life and that of others. I am and we are whole…I am and we are healed…I am and we are perfect.
Main Scripture
Matthew 3:13-17: The Baptism of Jesus
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved,[a] with whom I am well pleased.”
Metaphysical Interpretations
Revealing Word (Charles Fillmore)
body – The outer expression of consciousness; the precipitation of the thinking part of man. God created the idea of the body of man as a self-perpetuating, self-renewing organism, which man reconstructs into his personal body. God creates the body idea, or divine idea, and man, by his thinking, makes it manifest. As God created man in His image and likeness by the power of His word, so man, as God's image and likeness, projects his body by the same power.
Mind – By the term Mind, we mean God—the universal Principle, which includes all principles.
mind – The starting point of every act and thought and feeling; the common meeting ground of God and man. God is mind, and we cannot describe God with human language, so we cannot describe mind. We can only say: I am mind; I know. God is mind; He knows.
mind, mortal – Error consciousness in unregenerate man, or man composed of ungodlike thoughts. It is the opposite of the Christ Mind, which is the perfect Mind of God in man.
mind, three phases of – Conscious mind, subconscious mind, and superconscious mind, called the Lord. The superconscious mind transcends both the conscious and subconscious phases of mind. The harmonious working together of these three seemingly separate minds is necessary to the bringing forth of the latent possibilities of man.
Readings
Good Morning
by Mary Oliver
“Hello, wren” is the first thing I say.
“Where did you come from appearing so
sudden and cheerful in the privet? Which,
by the way, has decided to decorate itself
in so many white blossoms.”
Paulus is coming to visit! Paulus the
dancer, the potter. Who is just beginning
his eightieth decade, who walks without
shoes in the woods because his feet, he
says, ask to be in touch with the earth.
Paulus who when he says my poems sometimes
changes them a little, according to the
occasion or his own feelings. Okay, I say.
Stay young, always, in the theater of your
mind.
Bless the notebook that I always carry in
my pocket.
And the pen.
Bless the words with which I try to say
what I see, think, or feel.
With gratitude for the grace of the earth.
The expected and the exception, both.
For all the hours I have been given to
be in this world.
The multiplicity of forms! The hummingbird,
the fox, the raven, the sparrow hawk, the
otter, the dragonfly, the water lily! And
on and on. It must be a great disappointment
to God if we are not dazzled at least ten
times a day.
Slowly the morning climbs toward the day.
As for the poem, not this poem but any
poem, do you feel its sting? Do you feel
its hope, its entrance to a community? Do
you feel its hand in your hand?
But perhaps you’re still sleeping. I
could wake you with a touch or a kiss.
But so could I shake the petals from
the wild rose which blossoms so silently
and perfectly, and I do not.
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed – and gazed – but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
Now for our next song: I guess that's why they call it the blues.
He Teaches You
by Ida Boyer Bontrager.
He’s greater far, that little child, than you;
The very child you teach, he teaches you.
You teach him to be Christlike, but have you
Forgotten he already is, far more than you?
You teach him right from wrong, and yet it’s he,
Not you, whose conscience is more clear and free.
You teach him trust in God, but can’t you see
That it is you who lack trust more than he?
For you find doubt and reason in your way
While he in simple faith believes straightway.
You teach him to forgive, but don’t you know
That he forgives in half the time you do?
And he, when he forgives, at once forgets;
But you? You struggle long with grudge and debts.
You try to teach him love. You can’t. You cry,
“My child, you are the teacher, and not I!”
So learn from him, be like him, you who teach.
You must, Christ says, if heaven you would reach.
Now, let us listen to "God Bless the Child."
Still I Rise
by Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.