Introduction
The Miracle of God's Love
Living in the Eternal Now
|
Thoughts For Transformation
Spiritual Insights for Positive Living
"A Unique Weekly Guide to Self Empowerment for
Inner Peace, Fulfillment and Prosperity"
This book contains a series of weekly reflections
on ancient, yet modern Spiritual Truths that can support you in your daily
life. It is available from the Temple of the Living God's Bookstore.
Introduction
"This book will enable
you to experience positive, self-determining actions and results as
you learn to:
Discover keys to unlock your life purpose
Practice useful disciplines to gain or enhance inner clarity, spiritual
insights
Achieve practical and useful goals
Accept and demonstrate prosperity
Change negative mental attitudes into PMA's
Refocus relationships
Heal inner woundedness
Open to vision and learn to live with courage, faith and a deeper sense
of aliveness and love.
LeRoy E. Zemke, a native of Wausau, Wisconsin is a minister, intuitive
counselor, educator and management consultant. Educated at the University
of Wisconsin an Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL, Mr. Zemke hold a BA
degree form University of South Florida. He was ordained in 1960 and has
done advanced studies in comparative religion, transformational/depth
psychology, alternative systems of healing, and metaphysical philosophy.
He is internationally recognized as a leading exponent of self help, personal
motivation and inner awareness principles.
His work comes from his own
deepest, inner vision of what is possible for each being as they learn
to express their true potential. These teachings
are expressed through his ministry in one of Florida's largest West Coast
New Thought Metaphysical Churches, as well as in workshops, conferences,
intensives, on-going classes and in his In-depth consultations which
have
taken him back and forth across the U.S. and much of Europe for over
35 years".
Sample Essays
The Miracle of God's Love
- Essay 22, page 72 - 74
"Beloved, if God so loved
us, we ought also to love one another."
1 John 4:11
From the tiniest blade of grass to the most distance star within the
cosmos, all of the universe teems with radiant life. This life pulse energizes,
supports, strengthens and coexists within all life forms. Man shares this
connection and is himself able to give expression to his pulse in a variety
of ways, both subtly and overtly, as he awakens to the realization of
his own inner nature.
Awakening is the real inner purpose of our life. To awaken signifies
the process we individually grow through in discovering the internal as
well as external perimeters or boundaries of our nature It is the experiencing
of our real selves as opposed to our illusory, or ego superficial selves
which normally rules our daily or our outer life.
How is this awakening accomplished?
A perimeter is discovered usually when we meet resistance to some proposed
direction we seek to explore
or learn about. We also discover a perimeter when we "try our wings" on
a project or attempt to accomplish something new we have never tried
before and meet with unexpected success or expansion. The nature of the
discovery of perimeters allows us to learn about those areas of ourselves
that teach us how we can honor, incorporate, integrate and thus own our
very deepest qualities, talents, skills or abilities.
Another kind of perimeter
is the kind of experience we have with another human being in relationships.
Any kind of relationship teaches us as much
about our own person as it reveals about that other being. The stresses
and strains, the tugs, pulls and stretchings that allow both intimate
and friendship relationships to work create yet another framework or
dimension
for our growth. This occurs when we find ourselves either attracted to
or repulsed by specific people, be they family members, loved ones,
friends,
acquaintances, or people we have just met. The attraction-repulsion process
is part of the discovery we make about ourselves which helps us to
learn
about the real nature of our being. In essence, that real nature is more
than, or is greater than, the discovery of the tugs and pulls of the
emotional
fabric of the personality self, the ego self, that part of our self that "likes" or "dislikes" anything
or anyone.
Perhaps the greatest challenge is to accept that our inner nature, or
our sacred, holy essence is already perfect, whole and complete. The meaning
of love, metaphysically speaking, is to be open, receptive, and attuned
to the flow and rhythm of our individual life process. Openness is synonymous
with acceptance or receptivity. It is the permission we give to ourselves
and our experience. It is the discoveries we make from our experiences
that enable us to know the dimensions and regions of love that exist and
are ever available to us.
God's love is not some vague hoped-for state of being available only
to a select, favored few. It is already ours just for the claiming of
it, and the accepting, honoring, and owning of our real being. Awakening,
then, is in part a discovery of the Miracle of God's Love as being ever
accessible to us wherever we are and whatever may be happening in our
lives.
It is not enough to merely know that God's love exists or is possible.
It must become our personal experience within our lives. We must fill
our heart, soul and body with Divine Love by claiming it and accepting
it. Then we must think about it, feel it, show it, radiate it, give it
and accept it, demonstrate it everywhere we go, in all that we do, say
think and feel.
Truly, life cannot have meaning, purpose or value unless we are willing
to give Life the joyous gift of our beingness, our true self. We make
such a gift when we cease to criticize, when we cease our grumbling, faultfinding,
nursing of grievances, thinking and emotional projections of negative
energies. These are fatal to the demonstration of Divine Love which would
heal us and allow us to integrate our lives and become whole.
Awakening is a rich, vibrant, loving demonstration of the soul's journey
to the stars. It is the heartfelt embrace of the Spirit singing as we
seek for fuller and fuller expression of all that we are. It is the call
of our deepest urges, our most powerful yearnings to reach out and touch
that which is the highest and best within us and within life. It is our
thrust toward God that allows us to become who we are. And in that becoming
, we own, honor, accept and demonstrate the holy and healing Presence
called Love.
The following is quoted from Emmet Fox's Golden Keys
to Successful Living by Herman Wolhorn:
"My soul is filled with Divine Love. I am surrounded by Divine Love.
I radiate Love and Peace to the whole world. I have conscious Divine
Love. God is Love, and there is nothing in existence but God and His Self-expression.
All men are expressions of Divine Love: therefore, I can meet with nothing
but the expressions of Divine Love. Nothing ever takes place but the
Self-expressing of Divine Love.
"All this is true now...
I do not have to try to bring this about, but I observe it already
in being now. Divine Love is the actual nature
of Being. There is only Divine Love, and I know this.
"I perfectly understand
what Divine Live is. I have conscious realization of Divine Love. The
Love of God burns in me for all humanity. I am a lamp
of God, radiating Divine Love to all whom I meet, to all whom I think
of.
"I forgive everything
that can possibly need forgiveness - positively everything. Divine
Love fills my heart, and all is well. I now radiate
Love to the whole universe, excluding no one. I experience Divine Love.
I demonstrate Divine Love.
"I thank God for this."
Living in the Eternal Now -
Essay 28, page 91 - 94
"The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadth
me beside the still waters. He restoreth
my soul; he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake."
Psalm 23:1-3
Immediately that we hear or
read the words "Living in the eternal
now," perhaps our intellect responds with the flash thought, "Well,
where else am I living, for heaven's sake?" However, the more we
discover about ourselves, about our inner and outer perceptions, the
more
likely it is that we will learn that living in the present, i.e., staying
focused in the present, can be challenging. Each of us approaches that
challenge differently.
I would like to share some
examples about two major areas of life that I feel might benefit from
being approached from the concept of "living
in the now."
In a given 24 hour period,
how often do your thoughts return to activities, events and specific
circumstances - be they health issues, personal or
business matters - that occurred a day, several days, a week , two weeks,
a month, 3 months, 6 months, a year, etc. ago? On one hand, it is useful,
revealing and purposeful for each of us to evaluate, clarify and reexamine
our personal past, our personal involvements and life connections to
people,
places and events. On the other hand, "The problem," caution
teachers of the Inner Way, "is that we can become trapped in thought
by our repeated returnings to experiences that are essentially over and
done with, finished or finalized." If there are matters or circumstances
that have not been resolved or completed and we dwell upon them in thought,
we actually reenergize that condition or situation. In a larger sense,
that does not serve us well. I causes us to live disconnectedly, halfheartedly,
and ineffectively in the present.
Conversely, attempting to live in the unknown future also creates a problematic
view of life. While it can be wise, useful and highly significant to consider,
reflect upon and plan for the future, the conflict or problem arises if
we actively attempt to live in the future to avoid being fully present
in the now. Attempting to live in the future will create stress,
worry, anxiety and frustration. To live in the future means to desire
to control people and events, to control their decisions and reactions
or safeguard one's own. It is a futile effort, essentially, and a waste
of precious time. It cannot be done.
For anyone to attempt to project their life, to attempt to misdirect
their energies into the future will result in weakening their focus in
the moment, in the now. They will lose touch with reality and their experience
of themselves as human/spiritual beings. Only when such individuals can
allow themselves to release future-oriented projection will they begin
to act out of clarity, decision and wisdom in the here-now-present. Only
by living in the eternal now can we empower ourselves to take action,
resolve problems and allow ourselves to enter the Kingdom of God.
"Well," you might ask, "how is this empowerment, this
living in the now accomplished?" Let us consider a somewhat abbreviated
listing of ideas and practical tools which might serve as potential guidelines:
1. Start to make any necessary changes now.
Make a list of circumstances needing healing, change or resolution. Next
begin to move, to act, to direct your energies in the direction
of the change you wish to accomplish. Concentrate on one change, one thing.
To attempt to change two, three, or more areas or circumstances at the
same time can get confusing, become overpowering and be perceived as overwhelming.
Start with the simplest task and move on to the more complicated issues
as you realize success and empowerment in the process.
2. If frustration should emerge, allow it; give
space in your thinking and feeling nature for releasing the anxiety
or frustration or fear that may surface. Say to yourself, "I can
confidently and calmly release all that I fear." "God is in
charge of my thought and my actions." "I give thanks." This
will permit you to handle one issue at a time. Fear can polarize or paralyze.
Fear can act to block even the most sincere intention to
effect change. Allowing the fear discharges the energy around and about
it. It permits you to free yourself to step out of the past - or the
shadowy
unknown aspects of the future.
3. Take God as your partner. When we truly
accept that God's Presence is actually available to us, personally,
the frightening or confusing or negative experiences of the moment fade
gradually in proportion to that realization. Once having experienced that
oneness, it is immensely comforting, reassuring and clarifying to know
that all the forces of the Universe (God) are readily available
to help us. Look for God everywhere, in everyone, in everything and accept
that Presence as part of all of life's experiences. See God shining
through even pain, hurt or loss. Feel God's Love supporting, healing and
nurturing you in all circumstances. Trust God in all things and
continue to move into life undeterred.
4. Do your best with your life! Let others
take care of their lives! Much too often do we fear the results of others'
actions or reactions and live out of a place of lack or considerable weakness.
Before we can help others , we must become strong. To the best of your
ability, be open and honorable to yourself - about your weaknesses and
strengths. It may be important to seek professional help if you genuinely
feel you need it. Seek healing or comfort as that may be appropriate.
But emerge from your past... and stay focused in the now. Your future
is unfolding, on time, on course, in Divine Order.
There can, of course, be challenges,
perhaps even temporary "setbacks."
Inner growth is seldom, if ever, a constant, even experience. However,
the lesson behind it all is that to really empower ourselves, to really
live in the Presence of Ultimate Reality, we must be willing to continue
to do our "home work," our inner processing, while attending
to our personal issues and seeing to our daily affairs. Living in the
eternal now is learning how to give the most, the best and the noblest
that we can offer moment by moment according to our capacity and capabilities.
To live in the now means,
essentially, to truly recognize ourselves as sons and daughters of
the Most High. It means to act out of wisdom with
love and light and vision in all our ways and the far-reaching effects
of our lives. Our every thought, work and deed moves out in a "ripple
effect" to encompass the 360-degree circumference of our world.
May Peace, Love and Light go forth from you into the eternal now, to
return
to you from the eternal now, enhanced with Life's boundless blessings.
Where we are, God is. Where God is, we are. There is One Life. That Life
is God. That Life is Whole and Perfect. That Life is our life now.
|
Home > Zemke
> Thoughts for Transformation