The value of prayer

View this email in your browser Dear Friends, This week's quote is from spiritual awareness class CL 64, which was published in Volume  of The Living Light Dialogue. The CL, or Church Lecture, series of classes were lectures delivered by Mr. Goodwin to the congregation of the Serenity Spiritualist Church. "For many centuries our individual souls have been evolving. And there are many, many centuries that yet face us in our evolution until there is a total acceptance within us of all experiences that our minds encounter. Illumination is directly dependent upon our willingness to accept. Without that willingness, there is no illumination. Without that acceptance, there is no fullness of God's love. So let us think now in this moment in this experience, what is it within us that is dictating? Is it our eternal soul or is it the limited experiences that this short earth life has already given to us? My good friends, lessons are given in many different ways that hopefully, in some day, we will in truth accept the cause of them. There greatest failing known to man is the failing of placing the blame and responsibility in life's experiences outside onto someone else or something else. This is one of the greatest delusions ever created by the human mind, but this delusion does, in truth, serve a good purpose: it serves the purpose of preserving the rigidity of our own will. It is that rigidity that slowly, but surely, is being broken. It is that rigidity that is man's true suffering. For a wise man long ago stated that a petrified opinion never saved a human soul. So it is our opinions that we have become addicted to. It is our opinions that, in truth, are causing our lack of goodness in our life, but those opinions, created by our minds, can be changed. They're changed through the power of prayer. For the mind to try to change an opinion that it has already accepted is only a battle and a house divided. It is through honest prayer that we are freed from these dictates of yesterday. It is through our own constant effort of prayer in all of our endeavors, in all of our thoughts, place God, that Divine Principle, in your thought and God will move whatever mountain your minds may have already created as your obstruction. If you will remember that in each and every moment of your life, you will live to see, through experience, that there is a power and an intelligence that is totally neutral, totally impartial that brings the promise of your own soul's aspiration."   Prayer is an aspiration. The effort of constant, conscious prayer is an expression and a demonstration of gratitude, which is a recognition and an acceptance of a greater power. As we become more open, through our efforts  of prayer, that divine Power flows more freely in our lives. We all have the same levels of consciousness; so the message to the individual is applicable to us all. If you have any topics you would like addressed in these weekly emails, please feel free to email your request. To ensure that you consistently receive Serenity's weekly emails, be sure to add Serenity's email address to your contacts and your white list. This will help ensure that the emails are not treated as spam. Additional information on these teachings is available on Serenity's website: http://www.livinglight.org Sincerely yours, Russell Fitzgerald Vice President Copyright © 2020 Serenity Association, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Serenity Association PO Box 4187 San Rafael, CA 94913-4187 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

More on forgiveness

View this email in your browser Dear Friends, This week's quote is from spiritual awareness class CC 71, which was published in Volume 4 of The Living Light Dialogue. This quote begins with a question from a student and includes a related question from a different student. "Thoughts are things, as we've been told. And I know that most all of us have thoughts sometimes that are not quite right. So is there a way for you to retrieve a thought? Do you act to destroy them? Or how do you retract the thought that you really don't want to go into action? Is there a way of stopping those thoughts, which are things, to carry on through? No. There is no way of stopping a thought that has once left the human aura. No, you cannot retract it or pull it back. You can, however, through forgiveness, release a counterbalance vibration from your aura and dissipate it. You see, the forgiveness is the forgiveness of the level of consciousness inside of ourselves that, through lack of self-control, we were unable to stop the thought from leaving our universe. Does that help with your question? Yes. In other words, then you would say, "Please forgive me for the thought that I have just sent out," that "I'm sorry" and that type of thing. No. Forgiveness is a feeling. It is not necessarily just words. It is a true feeling deep within your being for the thought that you have just had. You have a feeling and an inner, humble request of a Divine Intelligence inside of you to forgive you for the inability to control that level of consciousness. You see? Then you will be free. And you'll need not be concerned with the thought, for the thought will be dissipated by the counterbalance of forgiveness. Yes. You see, to forgive is to free. And not to forgive is to bind. And none of us want to be bound. We're striving for freedom. Yes. The lady now in group seven. Thank you. Would you then clarify the difference between regret and forgiveness? Thank you. Regret is the inability of any soul to forgive a level of consciousness that they have expressed. It is the inability of the individual to forgive that level of consciousness, to forgive that act, to forgive that thought. You see, when you cannot forgive it, you cannot free it. And if you cannot free it, you live in the eternal regret of it. Because our thoughts are our children." A number of people responded to last week's email on forgiveness; so, I thought a continuation of that theme might be of interest. Remember, these teachings were given in bits and pieces. A bit on forgiveness in this class, another bit in a later class. It is up to the individual student to weave those threads of insight into a living tapestry of greater understanding. We all have the same levels of consciousness; so the message to the individual is applicable to us all. If you have any topics you would like addressed in these weekly emails, please feel free to email your request. To ensure that you consistently receive Serenity's weekly emails, be sure to add Serenity's email address to your contacts and your white list. This will help ensure that the emails are not treated as spam. Additional information on these teachings is available on Serenity's website: http://www.livinglight.org Sincerely yours, Russell Fitzgerald Vice President Copyright © 2020 Serenity Association, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Serenity Association PO Box 4187 San Rafael, CA 94913-4187 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Insight into forgiveness

View this email in your browser Dear Friends, This week's quote is from spiritual awareness class CC 68, which was published in Volume 3 of The Living Light Dialogue. This quote begins with a question from a student. "As a result of these classes, I feel I am more aware of where I am at the moment. And I was wondering, how can I be forgiven my feelings toward my mother when she was alive? Yes, thank you very, very much. We all understand, as students, I am sure, that a guilt complex is one of the most destructive forces known to the human mind. Now, the lady is asking a question in reference to being freed from an experience. The experience is recorded on a tape in the subconscious. Whenever the eyes view or the senses become aware of any experience that in any way is associated with that tape—do you follow me? Yes. Then this tape starts playing in the subconscious and this feeling of guilt starts to rise. Is that intelligent to you? Yes. Now, it is known as self-control. Now, for example, number one is to become aware and to recognize that there is a taped experience, recognizing that it is an experience of the past, that it has no control over your present or future unless you permit it to have that. First, you must forgive yourself for what you think were your actions and thoughts that caused this need for forgiveness. Is that intelligent? Yes, it is. Yes. Now, once recognizing, becoming aware, and forgiving yourself for the expression at that time—because of your level of consciousness—then you will be in a position to forgive the situation. But first you must forgive your own soul. Do you understand? Yes. Because without forgiveness, there is no freedom. You must give to the Divine an experience that you have taken as your own. That's what forgiveness is all about."   Class CC 68 is an unusual class in that much of the class is spent on personal messages to the individual students. During the church services and in private counselings, Mr. Goodwin often gave personal messages, but those messages were not recorded. CC 68 is a rare example because personal messages were recorded. In this particular class, students were invited to ask questions regarding their spiritual unfoIdment. Although several students declined the invitation, many students asked questions and this is but one of those exchanges. We all have the same levels of consciousness; so the message to the individual is applicable to us all. If you have any topics you would like addressed in these weekly emails, please feel free to email your request. To ensure that you consistently receive Serenity's weekly emails, be sure to add Serenity's email address to your contacts and your white list. This will help ensure that the emails are not treated as spam. Additional information on these teachings is available on Serenity's website: http://www.livinglight.org Sincerely yours, Russell Fitzgerald Vice President Copyright © 2020 Serenity Association, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Serenity Association PO Box 4187 San Rafael, CA 94913-4187 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

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Insight into mediumship

View this email in your browser Dear Friends, This week's quote is from spiritual awareness class CC 54, which was published in Volume 3 of The Living Light Dialogue. "The purpose of mediumship is not to solve your love affairs. It is not to know when the stock market is going to make you the most money. It is not to get you a job in this mundane world. It is to help you to see that life, in truth, is eternal. That what you do here and now, what you think about, what you feel, and what you desire have a direct effect upon whether or not you're going to rise to realms of the spiritual world of light and understanding or whether or not you're going to remain in the lower levels of consciousness, known as the lower astral world. Remember, friends, communication with these dimensions is a very serious business. It is indeed the spirit of joy, but we are the instruments through which those souls of the departed are striving to help humanity. Its purpose, my friends, is not to entertain our senses. Its purpose is to serve God, to help man to see the Light within himself. A hundred times, again and again, we have spoken about the sincerity of our motive. Let us remember that everyone, in truth, is a medium, for everyone, in truth, is in communion with some level of consciousness.  So let us, friends, look at the job that God has given us in life with the spirit of gratitude and the spirit of joy, the spirit of complete and total acceptance. And let us never forget that whatever the job may be and however mundane it may appear to be, it's God's work and the greatest work, if we will let God move into it through our thought and through our feelings. So let us seek to serve God in whatever job we have merited in this life. There's no such thing as a bad job or a poor job, unless we've made it that way in our thinking. And so it is there's no such thing as a great medium or a poor medium, unless we, with our thinking, choose to make it that way.  So many people, friends, they come into a church of this nature—what is called a Spiritualist church—and they're seeking, we are sad to say, not the light of God and the true spirit of freedom, but they're seeking a way out of the problems that they have placed themselves into. However, it indeed can serve a good purpose if, through this type of work, the individual is able to find the way inside of themselves to get through their problem. Perhaps they will think that what has helped them to get through their particular crisis may help another human soul. And if they think and look at it that way, then they will become the ambassadors of goodwill. They will become the servants of God and the world will be better off for it happening."   Often people who visited Serenity and witnessed Mr. Goodwin serve as a medium, either at the Sunday devotional services or at the spiritual awareness classes, would desire to become a medium. For me, part of this quote addresses that rather common response to being near Mr. Goodwin and seeing a true medium serving the Light. He would regularly say that not everyone came to earth to be a carpenter or a concert pianist, but we can all learn to sand wood and to play a tune on a piano. For many people, mediumship is something that they really haven't experienced; so, it may be a bit foreign to them.  My understanding of mediumship is rather like inspiration. Everyone knows what it is like to be inspired and to suddenly become aware of a solution to some perplexing problem. But the solution did not just appear, although it may seem have done so. What happened was that we rose in consciousness to the level of inspiration where the solution was waiting for us. And when we reached that level inside of ourselves, we became aware of it. Mediumship, in my limited understanding, is rather like that: consciously setting aside the self to become receptive to that which is beyond the self. If you have any topics you would like addressed in these weekly emails, please feel free to email your request. To ensure that you consistently receive Serenity's weekly emails, be sure to add Serenity's email address to your contacts and your white list. This will help ensure that the emails are not treated as spam. Additional information on these teachings is available on Serenity's website: http://www.livinglight.org Sincerely yours, Russell Fitzgerald Vice President Copyright © 2020 Serenity Association, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Serenity Association PO Box 4187 San Rafael, CA 94913-4187 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.