Saturday, July 31, 2010

Saturday's Prayer

I use the power of my word today to focus my thoughts and intentions only on what is good and desirable. What I focus on, I will drift toward, create, or attract. By being intentional with the words I speak and the thoughts I entertain, I am choosing to feel good and I am creating the kind of day and the kind of life that I deserve and desire. I focus on what is good, hopeful, beautiful, loving, creative, joyous, and abundant and blessings flow freely into my experience today. I demand it! I allow it! I give thanks for it! And so it is.

Rev. Durrell Watkins, DMin

Friday, July 30, 2010

Friday's Prayer

May this day bring us peace and joy. May this day bring us love and prosperity. May this day find our dear ones well. May this day see merciful justice prevail. May this day be a wonderful day filled with blessings. Amen.

Rev. Durrell Watkins, DMin

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Heaven Is All There Is

Spirit & Truth

Heaven Is All There Is
“…what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.” A Course in Miracles

I don’t believe that God has a counterpart. God, as far as I can experience and discern, is the All-in-all. It is in God that we live and move and have our being (according to a Greek poet and later St. Paul). Because God has no opposite, Heaven (communion with God) has no opposite. Hell is simply the “feeling” of separation from God; but in reality, no such separation can exist. Whenever we feel like Hell, let’s remember that God is Good, God is omnipresent, and God, being omnipresent, can have no opposite. “There’s not a spot where God is not.” God, the Good, is right where we are, right now.
The illusion of separation from Good is now being dispelled. Divine Love is all-encompassing and can have no opposite. Alleluia! Amen.
Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins, Sunshine Cathedral
Spirit & Truth is Sunshine Cathedral's monthly magazine of daily devotionals and inspirational reading.

Thursday's Prayer

I abide in a consciousness of joy.
I abide in a consciousness of abundance.
I abide in a consciousness of health.
I abide in a consciousness of peace.
I choose this day to be happy and poised and grateful for all the Good that I see and even for unknown blessings that already on their way into my experience.
I declare this to be a divine order day and I allow it to be.
Divine energies are flowing through my life, leading me in the ways of wisdom, and drawing to me all that I need to feel accomplished, safe, and opulently prospered.
All is well in my world today, and so I am thankful and I am receptive to my Good.
Amen.

Rev. Durrell Watkins, DMin

What is the Bible's Purpose?

Question: I watched a couple of the "Sharing the Light" messages on YouTube, and I was curious if you believe that the bible is the word of God. What is the purpose of the bible for Christians? (Steve, asked by email)

Answer: The writer of what we call John’s gospel said the “word” was an eternal Reality and that it was made “flesh.” The institutional Church has always interpreted that to mean Jesus was the word (voice, messenger) of divine truth. In the Hebrew scriptures, the “word of God” was the prophetic word spoken by the prophets to their particular communities. The bible that we have is a collection of sacred stories that the Church canonized hundreds of years after the writers of those stories had died. So, when we call the bible the “word of God,” it almost suggests that God dictated every word, or that God somehow channeled a heavenly message through human vessels…in other words, that God wrote the bible. I must say that I do not believe that. We find too many human prejudices in the bible that I could never attribute to God. And we find information that we now know to be scientifically inaccurate. We also find inconsistencies in the bible (like two contradictory creation accounts).
So, while we may euphemistically call the bible the world of God, we must not mistake that to mean the “words” of God. The bible is a collection of stories written, edited, translated, interpreted, and taught by humans. The bible covers multiple cultures and it covers about 1300 years of writing. The stories are wonderful in that they show people struggling to make meaning in their lives and they share their experiences, beliefs, hopes, disappointments, creativity, and growth. We aren’t meant to idolize their stories, but to courageously follow their example. We are meant to ask our own questions and share our own stories. As we follow the brave examples of the biblical characters, then the divine word comes alive in us. I find the bible to be very important, but only after we liberate it from the limitations of literalism that we have traditionally tried to place on it.


Best always,

Pastor Durrell

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Prayer for Well-being

Eternal Essence of Life within me,I acknowledge your presence expressing in, through, and as my life.I trust that you are guiding me always to wonderful opportunities, helping me to see and seize the possibilities around me.I allow you now to erase from me all fear, all regret, all belief in lack or limitation, all false notions of inadequacy, scarcity, or separation from you.In the place of these error thoughts, let me now be filled with hope and joyful expectation of Good. Let me now demand and accept the blessings of health, happiness, success, supply, peace, wisdom, and love. As I am blessed, let me be a blessing to others and may all people come to know of their unity with you.I feel your presence within me, and I am made whole, perfect, and complete. This is my truth and for it I rejoice. Alleluia! Amen.

Rev. Durrell Watkins, DMin

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Wrestling With God Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il6TfgitYPY

Watch this video where I discuss my book, Wrestling With God Without Getting Pinned