"That you might have life, and have it more abundantly -- even the gift of Life Eternal!"
Life itself is a sparkling fountain of abundant, joyous, intelligent vitality. It is an everlasting power of beauty and renewal when comprehended. Life is a very sacred gift and was not intended to be neglected nor squandered. Neither was it meant to be dissipated nor destroyed. Life was never intended to be taken for granted or resented, as I once resented it. Life itself contains all that is whole and beautiful and complete and glorious when one becomes aware of its eternal vibrancy, its exulting, exuberating, triumphant song of BE-ING.
Vibrant, interesting, attractive people are those who are literally vibrating with aliveness. Vibrant means to vibrate with life. Vibrant people are those who are tingling with the vital forces of divine life surging within themselves in an aware alertness of activity. This is not the out-side, running to and fro activity but the dynamic, powerful activity of intelligence and purpose as one "STANDS FORTH" to fulfill the highest good within himself.
Those who are dull, uninteresting, boring and completely unanimated or in a state of half-dead zombiesm are the ones who are, or have, permitted the life force to be crowded out of their bodies by negligence, ignorance, accepted nurtured sorrows, or indifference. These are the ones who have never understood nor valued the singing power of abundant life nor reached for that promised "Life Eternal." They have never thrilled with the glory of breathing, the dynamic power of thinking, the sublime wonder of actually being alive! They have never dreamed that they were intended to become the masters of that vibrant life-force surging within themselves. They may have even resented, at times, a gift so priceless and hence they have not appreciated it. They have never been really aware of the full purpose and power of that dynamic force of life right within themselves and hence have failed to make full use of its immeasurable powers. Within this precious gift of life is the power of complete mastery over one's self.
Those who have failed to bring forth the full power of life, have failed to realize that it all lies in their power of choice as they select or fail to make a selection of their own thoughts. The very power to select one's thoughts is the heritage of gods.
When one begins to comprehend the power of the great life-force within and begins to make a selection of the thoughts that are permitted to abide within his mind, then all evil, desolating, negative thoughts can be rejected. Darkness can be banished forever. Vibrant, glorious life is then released within one's own being with its full, flowing power of exultation. One can then direct the flow of life within and thereby increase its everlasting powers of triumphant exuberance.
The divine privilege of the gift of Life is the very power of existence! It is the joy of being! It is a privilege so sacred and so breathtaking it is almost beyond thought. And certainly it is beyond the power of words to reveal. Life itself holds within it the power of continual renewing, if one but permits it to come forth. Each moment holds a new beginning. Each day nurtures a promised marvel of singing fulfilment. Each breath contains within it the promise of new hope and greater accomplishments in the unspeakable magnitude of eternal, ever increasing triumphs.
Life is the dynamic, sublime gift of BEING. Within it is held all the unspeakable powers of existence. It is a privilege and also a responsibility. Just as wealth and high positions carry with them greater obligations and responsibilities so does the precious gift of life carry with it certain duties and obligations. Few have ever understood or accepted the divine responsibilities entrusted to them along with that precious heritage of life -- hence many tread the earth with death cavorting triumphantly at their heels in mocking derision even as it rides in -waiting upon the unholy man's coat-tails.
There is a deep obligation that goes with the sacred gift of life. Every human being who comes into this world was intended to help make it a better place to live in because he was permitted to live here. Each is expected to live according to the very highest impulses of his own divine nature. None are exempted from this requirement -- and every living soul will be held accountable. And sometimes the greatest wickedness of all is the bitter intolerance that has been perpetuated under the guise of "righteousness," or some man-interpreted form of religion. The service one is required to render to this world is in helping to make it a better place in which to live, not just for a few, but for all.
Occasionally those who have been restored to life, or had their lives spared by a seeming miracle, appreciate the gift, at least for awhile. But even they often forget the wondrous marvel and blessing in being permitted to retain this one reality with which they have been so generously endowed.
No life came into being through accident. Every individual was a son or daughter of God before he was ever entrusted into the care of his mortal parents. Every individual's life was bequeathed to him in the beginning as a priceless, irreplaceable gift. However, many lives have become quite worthless, either to themselves, or to the world or to God through their own actions or because of their negative re-actions and hence the divine heritage so generously given has slipped from their grasp as they are left bleak and desolate and naked.
There is another truth that must be mentioned here: the more worthless a life has become, through transgression, selfishness and lustful evils and vicious crimes, the harder will the individual fight to maintain his hold upon it. Why? Simply because within him is the instinctive knowledge that if he loses his life, through failure, he will lose all. So it is a coward will permit an innocent man to die in his place, or let another receive the punishment for his crimes as he clutches the ragged shreds of that which he has already so ignominiously forfeited.
Yet it is true that, "as long as there is life there is hope." This is more true than anyone realizes. As long as there is the breath of life within one there is the opportunity to use that breath aright -- and within that breath is held the power of new beginnings.
Life is a gift that increases its glowing, unfolding, innumerable blessings and powers by awareness and appreciation of its unutterable, glorious majesty.
Thrill with the gift of Life and let its tingling, reverberating power surge through your being with awakening vitality. Let your own awareness of its invigorating forces increase continually.
"He who loves his life shall lose it and he who hates his life shall find it," does not mean the great God principle of existence but the mediocre mortal existence one casually accepts with all its physical entrappings. This scripture is not referring to the great, vibrant Spirit of exquisite, dynamic power held within the confines of a man's soul. This Life principle is of God and is enhanced by love and appreciation and praise.
The more aware one is to the vibrating gift of life the more powerful will become his thoughts, the more dynamic his nature and his actions and the more beautiful will be his life. As one's appreciation for the gift of life increases, the powers of God will be released more fully and with greater abundance into his physical being.
No individual can possibly be dull, uninteresting or a failure who appreciates the sacred gift of life and then lives worthy of so holy a bequest.
"The life more abundant -- yes -- even Life Eternal" is only the consciousness or awareness of the value of so precious a legacy. With comprehension one can develop his life into an ever increasing rhythm of singing, triumphant splendor.
Life becomes a living fountain of increasing joy that multiplies into delights in a wondrous unfolding of everlasting radiance by simply being grateful for it. Joy itself is LIFE! And life is love and harmony and beauty immeasurable. Beauty is life's glorious expression. Youth is its reality. Joy is its language. And singing gratitude and praise hold the keys of its eternal release.
As the gift of inner life is taken hold of and reveled in the body begins to take on the effulgence of everlasting, deathless beauty and vitality.
The body grows old through negative thinking. Thought by thought the body assumes the vibrational reactions of every discord, every fear, every dismal, hateful, jealous, sorrowful, self-pitying idea harbored in the mind of man. Thoughts reveal their secrets on the open surface of the face and skin. From thoughts and emotions come the etchings of time as each line is engraved by the mis-use of the powers of one's own thoughts. Wrinkles with all their ugly tracings write their own story upon the human countenance and form. Evil thoughts are saboteurs of youth and beauty, and of life itself.
There is no room for the ugliness of age, the negation of disease or the decay of death to take hold as long as one revels in the gift and blessing of life. And for such a one life becomes ever more abundant. As one rejoices and gives thanks for the divine, wondrous gift of life, his life forces will be increase instead of being diminished within him.
"Life more abundant" belongs to all who will only accept, with appreciation, the divine heritage bequeathed to them by God. Such will begin to participate in the infinite powers of that divine life.
Mortal man has fully accepted the human side of his nature in a fullness of acquiesence. And in so doing he has ignored the spiritual side of his nature almost entirely. He has walked the path of earth harboring the negative, grubby thoughts of the flesh -- the thoughts of fear, dislikes, hates and morbid-mindedness -- the thoughts that lead to death. Occasionally he may attend some Sunday service to glimpse for a brief moment a higher way. But always he returns again, though mayhap with an inward sigh of regret, to the habitual road of trudging mortals. Yet in that moment of Sabatical delight some noble thought, lingering, may help sustain him in unknown ways for hours or even days to come.
Old age is no longer to be a thing of days or years. Age is a condition registered by thought and mortal concepts. Old age is the backward look as it squanders the present. Old age is the backward look that gathers into its fold all the mortal fears and failures and follies and discords of the past. Old age holds to the ancient discordant hates and resentments, to the marred moments of anguish, the pains and sufferings and sorrows, keeping them forever alive, as they become permanently engraved into the perfect smoothness of the skin. Age is but the etching on the face of memory's anguished, hateful thoughts. Age is that backward look that clings to the mistakes and the sorrows and the griefs that were meant to pass away after their lesson was learned.
Old age is an ugly thing. It is a false condition. Fortunes have been and are being spent to erase its ugly script from the faces of women. They may have their faces "lifted" by painful, intricate, expensive operations that leave a greater weakness for those muscles to sag into the rhythm of their established thinking patterns.
The only permanent "lifting", which is not contrary to natural laws, is the uplifting of one's own thoughts. As one learns to think only the most beautiful things possible, holding himself in the joyous vibrating existence of that ever-present, glorious NOW, the realm of the soul, his face will be lifted to correspond with his thoughts.
The ancient engraving may not be changed in a day. It took years to establish that distorted pattern known as "AGE". But it can be changed thought by thought as all negation is overcome through exalted thinking habits. Wrinkles are but the dried excrements of the mind. And as the wonderful revealer of the Odes of Solomon wrote in his thirteenth Ode: "Tell forth praise to His Spirit: and wipe off the filth from your face: and love his holiness, and clothe yourself therewith."
As one lets only love and kindness pour forth from his heart and his mind he learns to hold himself in the great stream of God's concentrated love and will receive the life more abundant and will be restored to beauty, both of form and feature.
None have ever believed His teachings, hence none have ever received the "Life more abundant." The very principle of life diminishes as an individual permits the great life force, so sacredly entrusted to him, to be slowly extracted by contrary thinking and feeling habits.
"EXISTENCE" is from the latin words meaning literally to "STAND FORTH!" This is the life more abundant! It is the dynamic, living, pulsating force of life in constant and continual action as its powers and energies are renewed, regenerated and released from within. It is the love of God that is shed forth through the hearts of the children of men. And one can literally bathe himself in this divine love of God whenever he so desires. More will be given upon this matter later.
Love is life! One can become that love as he permits it to flow out through his being to enfold the world and every living thing upon it. In this outpouring love one's own soul is the first to receive of its healing, maturing, glorifying powers of renewal and quickening. Next the physical body will be enhanced as one is rewarded openly for his own inner communion. Then it is that this love, in expanding and increasing grandeur and power, will flow out through his heart to help heal and bless a world.
This love of God holds within its potential powers the power to "lift" and exalt not only one's face but every condition. This love is brought forth through man's own thinking and "feeling" vibrations and activities. As one's thinking is exalted the face will be lifted to assume the loveliness and beauty of his thoughts. His body will also be enhanced as his entire being casts aside the secret shadows his mind has embedded into it through his mortal misthinking.
Haggard, aged countenances are caused by negative, discordant thoughts, not by time, though it does take time to engrave such dismal lines into the living tissues of man's flesh.
As one steps into the "Life More Abundant," by his exalted vision, the lower laws of mortal, negative thinking will be replaced by the love and power of divine thinking. The body will become the holy instrument through which the soul operates as the love of God is released in ever increasing beauty to fill the entire being of man. Then the whole body becomes enhanced, beautified, invigorated, renewed and glorified. The physical part of man, the mortal flesh, assumes the powers of the Spirit as he becomes alive to "STAND FORTH" in the power of God -- to be fulfilled! This is man's destiny and his true heritage. From the most humble mortal to the highest monarch it is the same. The law is eternal and the way of Life is established.
Rejoice in every noble aspect or glimpse that opens to your mental view. Make an effort to fight the lethargy that would lull you back into stupid existence, ruled by your old thought patterns and habits, if you do not make a stand. Many of the old, accepted thoughts were established generations ago and man is still accepting them. Man must lift himself to behold the things of the Spirit.
As the spiritual side of one's nature is accepted and developed, through appreciation and belief, man is automatically lifted into a higher vibrational existence. And within the Spirit is the gift of life. This life becomes more abundant, more vibrant and powerful with one's increasing awareness of it.
Within man himself lies the choice of selection as he travels the road toward his own goals.
"There is a way -- and ways -- and THE WAY!
And the high man travels the high way,
And the low man travels the low --
While in between, on the misty flats, the rest drift to and fro.
But for every man that goeth,
There's a high way and a low --
And every man decideth the way his soul shall go!"
There is the road of life and there is the road of old age and death. And in between there are "illions" of inviting, subtle, deceptive little by-roads, all eventually emerging into the great beaten path that leads to that ugly back door of death.
The road of life is ignored because it is not wide nor broad. And at first it appears to be too difficult and steep. It takes vision and determination to travel it, though it is narrow and it is straight -- for always the goal is right ahead. It is difficult at first because one has to climb up and out of the ruts dug deep by preceding generations with their conformed thinking habits. One must first believe there is a higher way of life than mere mediocre, mortal living. Then he must believe or BE and LIVE accordingly.
This journey into the higher realm is a far greater journey than Columbus took in order to span the oceans and reveal new lands of promise. It is a greater journey by far than that undertaken by our pioneer ancestors as they settled the far flung expanses of the west.
In crossing the ocean there was a boat with a tangible deck beneath their feet. There was the wide reality of the endless waters surrounding them. They were enfolded in the tangible reality of material substance. It was only in the heart of one man that a vision beckoned, clear and more real than the substantial surrounding of earthly reality. To Columbus the vision was more genuine than the ship or the ocean or the clouds. To Columbus that vision was the one great, inspiring reality.
The western pioneers also followed their dreams. They too had their tangible surroundings, their wagons, though in some instances only makeshift, unwieldly handcarts. But with all, their hands gripped hard materials and their feet trod firmly upon the solid earth.
Those who travel this greater way must do so at first through belief. Of them it is required to struggle not against expanses and time and hardships and privations but against the unseen forces of human habits and beliefs. The struggle is against the inherent lethargy and the mental fears and doubts that have been implanted within themselves, perhaps for centuries. Their struggle is not against great monsters waiting at the "outer edge", nor against savage Indians, nor against raging torrents nor high mountains. No. They have no such tangible difficulties to combat and overcome. Their struggles are against the darkness of unbelief, against their own morbid memories, against discords and lusts and dismays and against the corroding, lingering dislikes of years as well as against the orthodoxed walls that man has constructed around himself since time itself began. Each individual must prod himself into mental alertness.
Yet this higher road is as literal and as real as any highway on the earth. It is more so to those who have traveled it. It is a road that at first must be desired and so one needs to call on faith to verify its veiled reality. Faith is the very ingredient which lifts a man out of the doubting, worm consciousness of earthly, mortal thinking. Faith gives the mind power to soar above the dust of the beaten, earthbound track. Faith is the very power that opens one's mind to BE LIEVE as it prepares one's mental eyes to see that which is not visible to the common group.
Faith may be but the desire to rise above the sorrows, the vicissitudes and the evils of this lonely, dreary world of fears and failures and heartrending sorrows. Faith may be but an upward glance of the soul as the mind opens to question the why that lies behind an existence that is so drab and ugly. Faith is a hope that may burn for but a moment before being extinguished by the smothering density of mortal thinking. Yet every lifted thought, every shimmering hope, every questioning idea is the food on which faith grows and becomes established. Faith is the power that opens the mind and the heart to the great wonders of eternity. Faith is the very essence of the soul and prepares one for that secret, inner directing which comes only from God. This loving, unspeakable, inner directing is every man's right as he opens his soul to accept. And as one thus opens his soul and heart he will be individually taught of God. Such a one will need none to teach him as he learns to walk in majesty, radiating Light.
As one travels this road, that is above all others, he learns the wonder of living the laws Christ gave. They are no longer impossible words given to mock man. They become shining way-marks along a trail of utter glory rising in singing triumph to the highest stars.
As one accepts the higher laws and begins to apply them in his life he enters the life more abundant. In fact he takes hold of the very essence of life itself. The higher road is as much a road of letting go of old thinking habits as it is one of acquiring new information in every increasing vision of unutterable glory. The greater vision is no longer an unattainable hope. It becomes the one great, glorious reality.
As one travels this higher road of light he will soon realize that he is traveling in the Spirit. He has left the heavy task-master behind, mammon. The very earth has lost all hold upon him. He is free! Forever and forever abundantly, beautifully free! It is then one realizes that never again can he relapse or return to the caverned, dismal darkness of mortal thinking and existing. He has learned to think only the most beautiful things possible and has thereby entered a realm of sheer, exquisite beauty, of joy and gladness and everlasting, increasing power. He is abiding in the life more abundant, vibrant, exotic, eternal! He has overcome the weaknesses of the flesh. And he learns that they were all contained in his own habits of thought. They were as deeply grooved into his mind, those strange patterns of thinking, as were the pioneer trails of long ago -- and they were as solid and concrete as the great freeways of today. In overcoming the old habitual thoughts of darkness and decay and death, one steps forth into a more abundant life than he ever before dreamed possible.
In this estate, death has no claim. The body, instead of growing old and dying, is renewed and charged with the glowing, powerful, vibrating ecstasy of Life Eternal.