Spiritualism, A Guide for Those Who Seek ~ Part 3: Prayer (Dec. 3, 2011)

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Spiritualism, A Guide for Those Who Seek ~ Part 3
Religion

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10

By Ethel Rowe and Norma Bright
http://educate-yourself.org/mbc/ethelrowespiritualism3part03dec11.shtml
December 3, 2011

Religion

Spiritualism is a religion because it strives to understand and comply with the laws of nature which arc the laws of God.

Religion is defined as: right living which is attained through a knowledge of God's laws. Religion is not dogma; religion is not creed. Religion teaches us to. understand our relationship to the Parenthood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. Such understanding comes from within each individual, not from a large material structure or from the words of some eloquent preacher. Our elder brother Jesus told us many times that the Kingdom of God is within!

Religion is absolutely essential to man's progress. Until man knows and understands the laws which govern his life, he cannot live life constructively. Christian, Atheist, or whatever in between, man cannot deny that natural law. God's laws arc immutable, inviolable, and eternal. There is no instance where God has set aside these laws in response to human appeal or for any other reason.

Natural law is that law which God set in motion to govern all that He created. Spiritualists believe in a Supreme God of which we are a part; a God manifesting and finding expression in every form of life; a God whose decrees are carried out through the operation of Universal Law.

The law of life is that law which controls the relationship of God and man. God expresses through us only to the extent that we adjust ourselves to this law.

The law of love is the creative force of all life. This is the highest vibration one can attain - for love is God and God is love! Love is the cement of the Universe which holds all the worlds together in perfect order.

The law of truth is the knowledge of right thinking and right actions. Truth always triumphs over evil and wrong, leading us ever onward to a better and higher way of life. The law of compensation metes out to man just payment for his own acts, be they good or bad. This law of compensation exacts its punishment or reward automatically.

The law of freedom teaches man of his most precious gift from God, his free will, his freedom to choose. Man is unlimited in his desires, but the old saying, "Beware your desires lest you receive them, is true. Though wc may try to deny it, the truth is that our lives right now arc nothing more or less than the results of the choices we have made.

The law of attraction causes us to attract to ourselves that which enters into our lives, good and bad. Like attracts like, and with every thought, word, and deed, we bring this law into play.

The law of giving and receiving, cause and effect, is what Jesus taught as sowing and reaping. What we give out from ourselves, materially or spiritually, we wiH receive, multiplied one hundred fold. When a farmer sows corn, he expects to reap corn, but not the same amount that he sowed. He expects each seed to produce many cars of corn and each row of corn to produce many bushels. So it is in our lives. If we give good, we receive good in abundance; if we give out evil, we receive evil in abundance.

The law of system and order, harmony and balance, is the first law of the Universe. Without it, all would ~e chaos. The Sun and Moon would rise or set when they wished. The tides would rise and fall at random. All life would end if this law of order were to suddenly cease.

There is nothing more divine than the laws of God which govern life.The God who laid down such laws made them sufficient for all His purposes and has no need to supersede them. The God who controls earthly processes is the same as He who controls the processes of spiritual life.

To be spiritual is to follow the laws of nature (God). We must find God first, then ourselves. This way we may have a working, personal relationship to God. Creative power is always with us. It is ours for the asking. As we begin to express the qualities of God, greater health,
prosperity, and awareness shows in our daily lives. NOW is the time!

As we open ourselves to God, our spirit people draw closer. More spirit entities are working with earth people now than ever before in this age. Never before has there been so great a spiritual consciousness as at the present time. Everyone should have a workable, friendly rapport with spirit and establish the reality of their existence, but not worship them. They are not God. They are just a few steps ahead of you. They are not power, only God is a power. The high teachers can only give you a direction to travel while on earth, you have to do the travelling if you so choose.

Spiritualism does not oppose Christianity, it explains it. We both believe in life after death. Both believe in spirits, good, and evil. There are as many pathways to God as there are people on the earth. We all function at our own individual level of consciousness, so we are all at different places on the path. We are speaking of an infinite God. Therefore, there must be infinite ways to reach Him. Let us say there is a great mountain. The people living in the valley will describe the mountain one way. The person halfway up the mountain will see it from another angle. The people on the south side will see one thing, and the people on the north side another. The person at the top will have the grandest view of all, yet they are all speaking of the same mountain. Just so, we are all worshipping the same God and seeking the same truth.

There is &ly one truth and it is complete. Nothing can be added to it. All that can be done is to obtain a greater interpretation of what has been said!

Spiritualism does not define God. A definition limits, and God is limitless. Spiritualism believes God manifests by and through law. Man may utilize these laws but cannot change them. The unity of life refers to the family of God. All forms of life are a part of the flow in the mainstream of life. All people who inhabit the earth are our brothers and sisters. We are all related, one to another through our kinship of spirit; all sent forth from the same God essence; all are children of the one Supreme Parent and in this sense no one is greater than another.

In Spiritualism, there is no place for prejudice or bigotry. We would not dream of demeaning, exploiting, degrading, or enslaving a member of our greater family. All are a part of the family of God. The family ideal must embrace all life. Our politics, work, home life, studies, everything enters in the religion of Spiritualism. All shame and hypocrisies must be swept away. We must place our feet on the Universal Pathway, making deeds, not creeds, our goal toward Heaven. Most Christians of today believe revelation ceased 2000 years ago. Spiritualists affirm God's laws never change. Messages from the spirit world arc still coming through to us earthlings. Scientific studies confirm this each day.

We believe in the immortality of the soul. Communication from the spirit world has proven that the characteristics and memories of returning spirits are consistent with their individuality while on the earth plane. This has been demonstrated enough to satisfy Spiritualists that the grave receives only the physical body which decays back into the elements of the earth, but the consciousness lives on!

There is a fine line of personal responsibility which separates Fundamentalist Christians from earlier Christians and Spiritualists. You cannot believe in vicarious atonement and personal responsibility at the same time. Man cannot place his misdeeds upon the shoulders of a saviour, because man cannot change God's laws. Personal responsibility comes under the law of cause and effect - or in Jesus' words, sowing and reaping. This law follows us right into the spirit world and automatically adjusts all relationships. When we realize our personal responsibility and are willing to live up to it, we ally ourselves to the positive powers of goodness which changes our spiritual surroundings for the better.

Spirit people tell us, just as Jesus did, that sin is most harmful to the sinner. This points up the Law of Compensation or retribution for deeds good and evil. An infraction of a spiritual law is just as painful as a broken bone to the physical laws. You cannot break a law, you can only break yourself against it. The law remains intact. Obedience to God's laws sets in motion the forces which produce happiness even though man, in his blindness, may deny it during his lifetime. By working for the betterment of mankind, we shine brightly in the higher spheres. A candle loses nothing when it lights another candle.

We believe that THOUGHTS are THINGS! When our thoughts are wrong, we walk in darkness. Right thoughts lead to right actions and vice versa. What we do right on the earth plane is what we will be compensated for on the other side. We will reap what we have sown. We are building our own future abode, brick by brick, and stone by stone, with every thought, word, and deed, here and now! What will it be - a hovel, or a palace, or something in between? Why not work for the best?

Spiritualists believe that at death each soul gravitates to its own place. It has earned that place while in the physical body no matter what its status has been on earth. Man creates that which places him at a particular plane on the spirit side of life. If he arrives at a low estate because of misuse of Divine Laws while in the physical body, he does not have to stay there if he does not want to. There are great halls of learning on the spirit side of life, available to all who seek, just as there are on the material plane. If you wish, you can while away time, because you still have free will! You choose! There is no such thing as being condemned to Eternal Hell. God's Light shincs everywhere as a beacon, to guide all souls upward on the pathway back to Him. Death is not turning off the light - it is the turning off of the lamp because the dawn has come.

It can be seen that all of these principals are compatible with ordinary Christianity with the exception of personal responsibility. To Spiritualists, Jesus' life on earth and Jesus' death were an example, not a redemption. We believe in the law of cause and effect, sowing and reaping. Each of us answers for his or her own sins. No one can escape atonement! True repentance may help, but we pay our bills just the same. By the same token, we cannot discount God's great tender mercy. Every circumstance of temptation, heredity, and environment is weighed justly and compassionately before punishment is meted out. Motive also is a factor. For example, if a mother throws her child off a cliff to keep it from suffering from starvation or harm from some evil source, her act will be viewed much more compassionately than the mother who throws her child off the cliff because she does not want it around.

Each soul born into flesh is here on earth for a purpose. God would not create man in His image and likeness just to have him drift through life like a cloud. Man's purpose on earth is to experience, to create, and to progress spiritually in his work for the betterment of mankind.

God sets no limits on man. Nothing is impossible with man. Because of the great gift of free will, which God bestowed upon him, man can build successfully all that he desires, provided that he does not disobey natural law. Man can and does limit his own progress by misunderstanding life and his lack of knowledge of his own potential. What man can conceive, man can achieve!

The law of nature demands that every human shall be a producer. Everyone has work to do, either mental or manual labor. To live rightly, we must all work for the good of the whole, rather than for selfish, personal gratification. We say that we are here and God is there, but this is not true. God is in us, around about us. God is everywhere We are never separated from God. We are now and ever will be, safe in the bosom of the Eternal Parent. It is only illuision that argues separation between man and God. We can never be, even for an instant, separated from our Creator.

Jesus spelled it out for us when He gave the commandment that we love our God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and love our neighbor as ourselves. When we harm our fellow man, we are harming God. God is in all of us no matter how good or bad we may appear to be. If we keep that one commandment, we cannot break the other ten.

Truth is being revealed to the masses in the recent research on life after death experiences. Spiritualists have understood the truth of so-called death for years. The Great Enemy, the fear of death, is now being destroyed by understanding. Fear is always destroyed through understanding.

It is the spiritual man who is the reflection of God. The body is the temple of God.

Ethel Rowe

Part 4, Prayer
http://educate-yourself.org/mbc/ethelrowespiritualism4part03dec11.shtml

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All information posted on this web site is the opinion of the author and is provided for educational purposes only. It is not to be construed as medical advice. Only a licensed medical doctor can legally offer medical advice in the United States. Consult the healer of your choice for medical care and advice.