What Is Love?

From Rev. David McArthur (edited by Mike McGuire, not reviewed by the speaker)

What is love, really?  Charles Fillmore, that great American mystic, said that the faculty of love is the greatest power of man, the greatest of all our capacities. “The pure essence of Being that binds together the whole human family... that joins and binds in divine harmony the universe and everything in it; the great harmonizing principle known to man. Divine love is impersonal; it loves for the sake of loving. … Like the sun, its joy is in the shining forth of its nature. … Love is the great harmonizer and healer.”

Compassion.  A woman, Nettie, remembered that when she was 12 she joined other kids in meanly ridiculing her twin sister, who was severely disabled and seen as a freak in their small town. So her mother put her alone in a room with only a photo album. It was filled with pictures of the twins since they were small. Nettie saw the pain that her sister had endured over the years. One picture was inscribed, “The doctors give me pain. Nettie makes me laugh.”  She realized what she had been doing and the hurt she had caused her sister. At that moment she changed.

Flow.  Love is always there. It flows like a spigot that's always dripping. We can choose how much to turn it on. That flow takes you to intelligence. It is intelligence, a capacity to understand that helps us resolve the differences, that illuminates and harmonizes. What unifies us rather than separates us is love. You don't have to know how.

You know what to do.  A four year old liked to go to the house next door. One day his mother watched as he crawled up beside the neighbor on the front porch swing. The man had recently lost his wife of many years. As she watched her son coming back home, she asked what he did there. He answered, “I helped him cry.” If a four year old knows what to do, so do you. Remove that which separates us. You are love. It takes us from that place of separation to that place of wholeness and harmony. It goes far beyond the walls and heals and harmonizes. Feel the spigot open as you say, “I am a radiating center of divine love.” YES YOU ARE!

Ho'o pono pono: I love you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.

From Rev. David McArthur (edited by Mike McGuire, not reviewed by the speaker)

You have the power.  Dr. Hew Len, in Hawaii, healed so many patients that the ward was closed in just three years. He did this without therapy. He did it by working on himself, using Ho'o pono pono.  We believe what is out there is a reflection of what we have within. If it is in your world it is a part of you. If you don't like what you see, you can clean it out. You have the power to change it.

To transform.  The divine always expresses to us in wholeness and harmony. You cannot hold back the divine wholeness within you, the perfection which is you. So when something shows up, use these four steps. However, while thinking them might make a difference, it will not transform you. To transform, instead of saying “I love you”, feel it. Thinking is nice, but doing the loving is transformative.

1^st is “I love you.” FEEL it, if you want transformation. Your love goes to that part of yourself that is out-picturing the disharmony. The part of you which is divine love goes to it, too, and has all the power. It is waiting for you to ask.

2^nd is “I'm sorry.” FEEL free to let go. If you remain in your head, your head will give you all the reasons “they” were wrong. Reasons don't matter here. Have the willingness to let go. “I didn't mean to create disharmony.” This is repentance.

3^rd is “Please forgive me.” FEEL the deep desire for freedom. The disharmony has no place in your life anymore. Ask the divine presence to remove it, to free you fully.

4^th is “Thank you” and it is easy. We FEEL fully the appreciation for, and complete acceptance of, what is given.

God will heal anything in your heart. She will remove any limits, if you want to feel better.

A NASA rocket was hopelessly off course. It had no self guidance system, and one of the scientists knew they had no control. She went to prayer. She had done some Ho'o pono pono work before, so she called Dr. Len in Hawaii who does the “unseen” work. With his guidance, she told the rocket, “I love you”. They worked the four steps of Ho'o pono pono, and the rocket self-corrected!

What are you one with? Ask yourself. —That amazing power!

“Thank you!”

From Pet Peeves to Peace

There's a down-side to our spiritual growth, which is knowing we can and need to transform our feelings of frustration, irritation, even rage; our Pet Peeves.

We spend so much time in non-peace—hostility, anger, upset, Righteous Indignation!—but it's lying to ourselves.  It's not harmony; we don't feel our spiritual truth.  We need to shift, to get to the heart.  We know how.  And we now know we can extend that shift to those around us so that we are in harmony together.

But when we do shift, we ask ourselves, “Why did I wait all that time?”  It's because when we indulge in our pet peeves, it feels good!  But we stay out of our peace.  And by practicing our little peeves that don't matter we build up our non-peace pettiness to have when it does matter.  So ask yourself, “What am I here for?”

There is something within each of us that, the longer we are on our spiritual journey, the more loudly it calls to us.  Jesus taught that the Christ peace is from within, from the being that you really are.  Look at the little things.  When you move in peace you are that presence which moves through you.

When the Roman soldiers arrested Jesus, and one had an ear cut off, Jesus healed it, saying, “No more of this.”  No more hostility, it was time to heal.  Because of that beautiful peace in all of us, we  hear, “no more of this; time to heal.”  It is time we go about this.  Get out of your irritation and into peace.  Focus on your heart and go to that love and compassion there.  You can have compassion for someone who doesn't know any better.  Gandhi quickly forgave the ruffians who beat him up, realizing they did not know any better.  They did not know, either, the feeling of seeing the beauty in another.

Am I here to add to the tensions of this world or to add peace?  It's my choice.

For this week shift from irritation to peace at every opportunity because you are the peace.  It is not the peace which you are finding, but the real YOU.  “I am the presence of peace here and now.”  Because it is who you really are.  Yes you are, and you are magnificent!

From Mike McGuire, prayer team
Summary of Rev. David's sermon