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JANUARY, 2010
“The Two Parts of Our Message: The Letter and the Spirit of Truth,” Tape 1, Sides 1 & 2 1:00 P.M. JOHN STEPHENSON: THE 2009 ASILOMAR RETREAT "The Gathering of Saints," Tape 1, Side 1 (No. 0905) ************************************************ SUNDAY, JANUARY 10 - at 227 E. BLODGETT RD., LAKE BLUFF, IL - 7:30 P.M. VIRGINIA STEPHENSON: THE 2003 NASHVILLE CLASS “The Divine Life,” Tape 1, Side 1 (No. 0308) ************************************************ SUNDAY, JANUARY 17 – NO MEETINGS. ************************************************ SUNDAY, JANUARY 24 - at 259 SKYLINE DR., CARPENTERSVILLE - 1:30 P.M. JOEL S. GOLDSMITH: THE 1955 HOLLAND CLOSED CLASS* “The Two Parts of Our Message: The Letter and the Spirit of Truth,” Tape 1, Sides 1 & 2 ************************************************ ON-LINE STUDY (At Your Convenience) Go to: www.infinite-invisible.net/AudioFilesPage.html LUELLA OVEREEM: THE 1983 CLEVELAND CLOSED CLASS “Meditation,” Tape 1, Side 1 ****************************************************************************************************************** STUDY CHAPTERS FOR JANUARY AWAKENING MYSTICAL CONSCIOUSNESS, Chapter 1: “The Secret of the Word Made Flesh;” VIRGINIA STEPHENSON: THE MONTHLY LESSONS OF 2010, January: “The Divine Life;” LIVING BY THE WORD, Chapter 1, “Living By the Word;” DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, Vol. I: The January, 1971 Lesson ****************************************************************************************************************** ANNOUNCEMENTS *JOELS 1955 HOLLAND TAPES are not available from the IW Catalog. They came to me without titles or catalog numbers, so I have given them titles and numbers for the purpose of our tape meetings. These are rare tapes, and we are having them in Chicago for the first time. JOHN STEPHENSON CLASSES: FEBRUARY 12 - 15, 2010, WAIKIKI, HAWAII New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel On the beach at Waikiki - same as 2009. Contact: Kehaulani Coleman at: kehau_coleman@yahoo.com (808) 222-9478 APRIL 8 - 12, 2010 - ASILOMAR RETREAT -PACIFIC GROVE, CALIFORNIA CONTACT: Liz Parker at eaparker@aol.com (916) 652-6562 BOB HARPER CLASS TAPES AND CD’s are now available of the 2009 LAGUNA WOODS CLASS: Contact Bob for details. ************************************************************************************************* EXCERPTS FROM TAPES FOR STUDY, PRACTICE, AND MEDITATION SUNDAY, JANUARY 3 - at THE INN OF CHICAGO- 11:00 A.M. JOEL S. GOLDSMITH: THE 1955 HOLLAND CLOSED CLASS* “The Two Parts of Our Message: The Letter and the Spirit of Truth,” Tape 1, Sides 1 & 2 In the religious world, and in most of the metaphysical world, there are two powers, and there is always this negative power which causes our sins or diseases or lacks, and then there is the power of God that we are trying to reach so as to overcome these negative powers or forces or destructive powers or forces. That is the rule in religious teaching, that the power of God will overcome the enemies of our lives, whether of our health or any other function of our being. But we in the Infinite Way do not accept that at all. We don’t accept a God that heals disease, we don’t accept a God that overcomes lack, we don’t accept a God that reforms sinners: we don’t accept a God that you turn to for anything at all. Why? Because we have accepted God as infinite: the one power, the only power. Therefore, we do not give recognition to any other powers that have to be overcome. So that, instead of turning to God and saying, “Oh, God, will you heal this disease?” We turn to the disease and say, “You have no power! You have no jurisdiction; you have no law. Therefore, we need not fear what you can do.” Do you see the difference in that approach? We are not using God. Why? Because God is always about Its own business maintaining the harmony of this universe. And what are we suffering from? We are suffering from the belief that there is a power, or a dozen powers, opposed to God. So, we are running around and looking for a God to overcome for us, and there is no such God. Otherwise, the world would have had him and overcome the errors long before this. For Meditation: I Chronicles 29:11 For Study: THE EARLY YEARS, Chapter 17 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SUNDAY, JANUARY 3 - 1:00 P.M. JOHN STEPHENSON: THE 2009 ASILOMAR RETREAT "The Gathering of Saints," Tape 1, Side 1 (No. 0905) [This retreat], it really is a gathering of saints, for you all are saints. What is a saint? A saint is someone that is aware of the spiritual nature of life, aware of their spiritual consciousness. Now, in the traditional religious context of saints, what brought them to the attention of the Authorities is that they presented an awareness of truth to their communities, and in that awareness of truth, they benefited those around them, whether they were out in the communities, whether they were in a monastery, wherever they were, and people recognized that. As people recognized that activity, that spiritual activity within an individual, then that reinforced that spiritual nature that someone was developing. We develop this spiritual nature in unique ways. Many of us, we would never have dreamed that we would be in a spiritual message 20, 30, 40 years ago. Something happened to us. Something changed in us. Someone gave us a book. Someone mentioned something about meditation. However we have had that little spark of truth in us ignited, that we paid attention to that flame, that we nurtured that flame, and that we recognized that spiritual activity, set us on this path where we could gather in a meeting like this, where we have a long weekend to really explore and to plumb the depths of Soul. For we have not even touched the surface of what the spiritual life is, even if we have been living it for decades. … Most of the saints and prophets of the past, they left us a roadmap to the door. Because nobody can take you through the door, you step through the door of spiritual consciousness individually. But to gather as we are gathering, and to recognize this spiritual activity, benefits not only us, but it benefits the world. Saints are recognized because they have healed, because they have lifted in consciousness, because they have shown the freedom that comes with spiritual realization. When that is recognized and nurtured, it brings a lift to human consciousness. It takes people out of the limitations, the concepts of the world that they’ve built around them. For Study: A PARENTHESIS IN ETERNITY, Chapter 6. ****************************************************************************************************************************************************** TUESDAY, JANUARY 10 - at 227 E. BLODGETT RD., LAKE BLUFF, IL - 7:30 P.M. VIRGINIA STEPHENSON: THE MONTHLY LESSONS OF 2010/ THE 2003 NASHVILLE CLASS January/ Tape 1, Side 1: “The Divine Life,” (No. 0308) [Virginia’s Lesson and Tape were unavailable at the time of publication of the Study Guide, so I have chosen an excerpt from her book, LOVE’S WAY REVEALED, Chapter 7, “Joyful Abandonment,” pp.49-53.] When you find that you have been accepting a material sense of existence, always thinking in terms of physical sense, it is as if you have been wearing a heavy garment, and all that is necessary is for you to cast it aside, to abandon it. The old garment of personal sense was nothing to begin with, just an imposition of erroneous beliefs that had accumulated through the centuries. You do not have to keep that false sense of self, but you do not have to surrender it either, for, in reality, material sense is not an entity or an identity. There is no mortal man who has to surrender to another entity. There is just the one spiritual being, whose identity is revealed as soon as you abandon the old garment and put on the new robe of praise and thanksgiving. Mortality is only a sense of restriction; it has no reality. There has never been a mortal, because God can only create Himself in His own image and likeness, which is spiritual being. So we joyfully abandon the material sense of a selfhood apart from God, with all of its offspring - its common sense, its attitudes of caution, desire, fear, and its ideas of achieving, attaining, accumulation. We cast off all entrapments that would keep us bound to a stationary position in "this world," and we let what IS expand into the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the Tree of Life. If you cling to material sense, you invite crucifixion, and through suffering you will learn that you cannot take even good mortality into the kingdom of God. You have to go in divested of all personal sense; you have to be naked in the presence of the Lord. You have to be free of all materialism, and then this new creature rises up in you, which is eternally present, your real Selfhood. The crucifixion is unnecessary if we learn the way of joyful abandonment of the old man and the old beliefs. This lifts us above suffering, leaving behind a sense of self that is no longer part of our consciousness. The crucifixion is applicable only as long as we hold on to material sense. Actually, the crucifixion has taken place. Jesus Christ made the atonement once and for all. He made the supreme sacrifice in teaching the way of I Am, and he did it for all mankind so that you and I, individually, do not have to suffer if we will die daily to personal sense and identify with this divine Sonship-consciousness that is omnipresent. There is only one Soul, a state of absolute purity, unfallen, untrampled, unharmed. There is not a poor soul or a sinning soul or a sick soul or an old soul or a new soul. There is only one Soul, unconditioned by human theories and beliefs. This Soul has no human history; it has always been pure, regardless of all the old theology, necromancy, hypnotism, and astrological beliefs that the race of man has accepted as true. The Soul has always been a giant reservoir of god, awaiting our awakening and the divesting of that straitjacket of personal sense. Do not accept the theory of fallen man/woman. The belief that the Soul goes through evolutionary processes in incarnation after incarnation is the straitjacket. Be willing to abandon that manmade theory of the fall of man. What a straitjacket, that ancient human hypothesis created by the mind of man to rationalize, to make sense out of the belief in good and evil! Cast it off! It has no divine authorization. Cast it off! Cast out the bondwoman and her son and accept the child of promise, the New Jerusalem, the joy that no man can take from you, the joy of Christ Jesus' revelation and accomplishment. Christ Jesus wiped out all of that nonsense about a fallen man, and he revealed individual being as the child of God, created in the image and likeness of God. For Meditation: "There are no winners or losers in the kingdom of God. Why? Because there is no conflict and there is no overcoming. There is just One - one Self, one Soul - and One is never at war with Itself. God is in agreement with Itself." – From LOVE’S WAY REVEALED, Chapter 7 For Study: Virginia's Monthly Lesson For January, 2010; Subscriptions for Virginia’s Monthly Lessons: Leslie Lewis, (808)779- 9817 llewis002@hawaii.rr.com ****************************************************************************************************************************************************** SUNDAY, JANUARY 24 - 1:30 P.M., at 259 Skyline Drive, Carpentersville, IL JOEL S. GOLDSMITH: THE 1955 HOLLAND CLOSED CLASS* “The Two Parts of Our Message: The Letter and the Spirit of Truth,” Tape 1, Sides 1 & 2 It has to be your life that shows forth God. Otherwise, God’s work has failed, because the miracle isn’t going to happen out in the air, the miracle is going to happen in your experience; and the miracle will be God revealing Itself, God “closer than breathing,” God as a better experience, God bringing another section of the world into the worship of one power. …So, as we awaken in the morning, we turn to It in the realization, “This is Your day, this is Your life, this is Your business, this is Your ministry, and I am Your servant; so let’s get together. Then, as you face this day with these different truths, you will find that always this Presence will make Itself so clear since you will know what to do and when to do it and where to do it. Oh, in the early stages we make mistakes. If you don’t, I did! But, as a rule, we make lots of mistakes, because we do not rightfully hear or interpret the Word or the Spirit. But of this you may be assured that no harm will be done. Never fear to make a mistake; never. Never be afraid to make a mistake, because It will correct it before any great harm is done. … Obey your highest impulse, and then, if for any reason it turns out that you have misinterpreted It, It will correct it before any damage can be done. Well, that is the part that concerns the letter of truth, that is one-half of our Message. The other half concerns the spirit of truth, or the consciousness of truth. It is this second-half which accounts for whatever measure of success comes into our life through this Message. The first half only leads to the second half. It is the second half that really brings the success. In other words, now that we know … I’m assuming that we now know that there is only one power and that there is no use in going to God to get Him to do something for us (whatever God is going to do, He is already doing, and we just leave Him do it). We know, now, that there is only one power, and we know also that there is only one law, so we’ve lost all fear, now, of material law, mental law, even legal law, because we have complete confidence, now, in Spirit, God as the law-giver and the law. We have learned, too, in this year, that Christ is individual identity, yours and mine, his and hers, saint and sinner. So that, we have learned in this year to consciously look about us in our families, in our marketing, in our shopping, in our business life and our professional life, and learn not to judge people by what they appear to be outwardly, but to have a secret place within ourselves wherein we look at each other and realize, “Just think. There is divinity. There is the very Christ of God. Sitting behind those eyes is the very Christ of God. The Soul of God looks right out from those very eyes.” Now, that was part of our lesson last night, of the Ninth Commandment: “Never bear false witness against thy neighbor.” And every time you say that your neighbor is a human being, even a good one, or a healthy one, or a wealthy one, you are bearing false witness. You are only bearing witness to truth when you say of your neighbor, “He is the Son of God,” or “She is the Daughter of God, the Child of God,” and “We are of the household of God, all One, heirs, joint-heirs with the Christ in God.” Then are you bearing witness to spiritual truth, and you will find that it will take less than one week for the people of this world to change their attitude toward you. The very moment that you stop seeing people as human beings … the moment you give that up and abide in the realization that the Soul of God looks out of every pair of eyes, it will be less than a week until you find that people will be responding to you in a different way. For Study: THE EARLY YEARS, Chapter 17. For Meditation: “Does a situation arise in which one is uncertain of the right course of action? The following statement was made by [Mary Baker Eddy] to her household, ‘It is more important to know that right is than to know what is right.’ The will of God is always right and His will alone is done. We can rest in the certainty that all propulsion and action are in the divine Mind and therefore only that which is of God Himself can possibly happen. Good is enthroned. Nothing but good is going on.” – Doris Henty, from ADDRESSES AND OTHER WRITINGS on CHRISTIAN SCIENCE **************************************************************************************************************************************************** On-line Study (At Your Convenience) LUELLA OVEREEM: THE 1983 CLEVELAND CLOSED CLASS “Meditation,” Tape 1, Side 1 Every problem known to humanhood is the result or the effect of believing in the appearance that we’re cut off from God. There isn’t any “God” separate from man. There is no such God. You can’t have God, alone, [separate] any more than you can have bread alone or man alone. You have to have wholeness, you have to realize the oneness of spiritual Being. There isn’t any separation; there is One, whole, and it is in that realization, then, in the degree of that realization, that we live by grace and all of our needs are met. You don’t have to “earn your living by the sweat of your brow.” You don’t have to “compete” with people. You don’t have to do anything, humanly. And what you think you do is very temporary and very limited. It isn’t necessary to do that. What is necessary is to realize our oneness with God. Well, you can’t do that with your mind. You can learn the words, but you can’t realize oneness with God, that God is the life and the self and the mind of all being, that there is only One, because it looks like there are four billion. And the mind is the limited sense which sees all the visible realm and believes what it sees, believes what it sees with its eyes and hears with its ears. But spiritual discernment goes beyond this visible realm into the invisible Reality. It is only in meditation that we can catch that realization, that we can really accept it and put our trust in it. But we have to start by doing it. And so, whenever you have any kind of a problem come up, you have to learn not to try to solve it out here by human means, physical or mental, but first, before you try to do anything, turn within, drop the problem. The problem is a sense of separation from God, so the thing you have to do is to turn within and try to make that union back with God, feel that presence, feel yourself as one with God, feel God as your Self. That cannot happen with your mind. You have to do it by meditation. That is why it is so all-important that we have to learn to live by meditation. It’s a tool, it’s a way of life, and it is the only way. That is, you can’t do it with your mind, you have to get deeper than the mind, into this Consciousness which you are. As you are pondering these truths and not judging by appearances, not putting any labels onto anything to call it “good” or call it “bad,” or call it “enough” or “not enough,” or “sick” or “well,” any of these labels, that’s the practice that we have to do in order to begin not to react to anything. Actually, good and evil are not what the world thinks they are. Even humanly, they’ re not what the world thinks they are. For Study: DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, Vol. I: January, 1971 Lesson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Let It Go”* ‘Tho the appearance outside is frightful, Within, it’s so deLightful, Well, there’s only one Power and so, Let it go, Let it Go, Let it Go. *Sung to the tune of “Let It Snow” ~~~~~~~~~~~~ “That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” - Philemon 1:6 ~~~~~~~~~~~~ “A tremendous movement is taking place as the initiate discerns the difference between physical harmony and spiritual wholeness.” – Joel, Wisdom #84 |
| by Luella Oveeem: DEVELOPING SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, Vol. I, January, 1971 Lesson |
| JANUARY 2010 PHOTO: Bob at Asilomar Retreat Ctr., Pacific Grove, CA by Donna Michel |
THE CHICAGO GOLDSMITH GROUP www.infinite-invisible.net
(Mezzanine Level)
227 E. Blodgett Rd., Lake Bluff IL, 60044 (Fourth Sunday*) 259 Skyline Dr., Carpentersville, IL Conducted by Bob Harper (* Of the Month) Meditation Starts 15 min. Before Meeting Time Conducted by Bob Harper MAIL AND TEL: Bob Harper, P.O. Box 337, Carpentersville, IL 60110 (847)428-4759, (847)710-4759 (cel.), (847)428-4835 (fax) bob_harper@sbcglobal.net |
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