How To Get Rich

Whenever I write a post I wonder if it will raise any eyebrows and create a stir; especially among "religious" folks? Well, this week when I post about getting rich and how "wealth searching" is an inherently spiritual and healthy pursuit, I bet I will raise some one's blood pressure a lot! But let me say from the start-the wealth searching has a lot to do with GOD SEARCHING.

Richness and Prosperity Have Much to Do With Putting God At The CENTER.

Open minded spiritual searchers understand the value in richness and abundance. It is the "set in their ways legalistic" and media influenced folks that twitch just a bit when any spiritual leader dares to talk about getting rich, or abundance, prosperity theology, or how the Bible encourages the acquisition of wealth in the proper perspective. Which type are you?

I encourage you to comment below.

1. There is more than one perspective out there. The Bible teaches clearly about abundance (John 10:10), God giving his faithful followers wealth and prosperity (1 Timothy 1:17), the Creator gives us the power and ability to acquire wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18), and poverty comes when we refuse to follow the universal laws (Proverbs 13:18) The media teaches us that if one person has much then they must have denied the poor theirs, there is a limited and finite supply of everything, a simple lifestyle and living with less is the best and godly way, we must work and share so that everyone is equal and life is fair.

2. Just because someone tells you it is so, does not necessarily make it so. Search for the Truth in what ever sacred writings you follow. Figure it out for yourself. From where I research, read and study, the Bible teaches us that we are the ones who place limits on ourselves and the world, God is infinite in source and substance and abundance, prosperity, fulfillment and wealth is God's dream for our lives.

3. When we get our lives and the spiritual laws out of sync, we create and bring about our own lack, loss and difficulties. When it comes to getting rich, we move away from this promise when we make money, wealth and power our God, our center and our focus. The Bible tells us that if we want to get rich we first have to get God in the center and the focus of our attention.

4. Everything depends on what you see, your mindset and your outlook. If you see the world as lacking, scarcity, peril and limited you will always bring into your life what you see and what you give and what you put your attention upon the most. If you see abundance, promise, possibilities and infinite source you will bring into your life all the good and great rewards you deserve and God desires for you. See the best and express the best; that being LOVE. This is what I mean by keeping God at the center and keeping your life on a spiritual track. (Look at the picture to the right. Do you see a young woman or an old lady? You always see and find what you look for and what you focus upon.)

The teacher Paul in the Bible said it this way; "Tell them, to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage-to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous." (1 Timothy 1:17 from The Message)

This is How To Get Rich.

Blessings

Rev. Bill

How To Pray?

Now here is a topic we shouldn't even have to blog about. Right? Doesn't everyone know how to pray? I mean come on. "Now I lay me down to sleep..." Haven't we all been taught to pray since we were old enough to scream "mommy?" "Our Father who art in heaven..." another well known verse of prayer. So what can we say today about praying that hasn't been said, written about, preached on and studied for ever?

You've got a point here. But sometimes repetition is food for the soul. And since you brought up the Lord's Prayer, found in Matthew 6:5-15, let's use it as the model for our theme this week, "How To Pray."

Over to the right of this post you will find a column called "Helpful Resources." I have created a PDF file outlining some tips on praying based on Matthew 6, "The Lord's Prayer." Simply right click on the link, "howtopray" and save to your computer. It takes the Lord's Prayer verse by verse and raises some good questions to help you in your life of prayer.

Just like we are having this conversation today, prayer is most importantly your direct link, communication channel and conversation with God. It is the way you get closer to God and the means by which God uses us to channel great power, resources, abundance and love into our lives and to others across our daily relationships.

“Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” -Saint Augustine

check out this interesting video about prayer

Have a great week of prayer.

Blessings

Rev. Bill

How To Get Found

If we are ruthlessly honest with ourselves there are days we get lost and feel lost. Right? When you feel lost how do you get found?

In the Bible in Luke 15:11-31 there is a telling story about one who got lost and how he got found again. Getting found is ultimately a "two way street." It involves the one who got lost and another who seeks to find the one who is lost.

Check out this movie about our theme this week.


How Do You Get found when you get lost?

• Don't let your light go down.
• Don't let your fire burn out.
• Rise up now.
• Don't be afraid to stand out.

There is a really big world at your fingertips and you have a chance to change it.

One clear lesson that goes contrary to cultural trends is this:

Remember that as you seek to fill another person's cup, their life with your love, your cup, your life will be made full with love too. There is a solid spiritual law at work here. "Sowing and Reaping" is one name it goes by; also "The Law of Like Return"; that's my name for it. You may have also heard it called "What Goes Around Comes Around" or "The Law of Attraction."

No matter how you name it and what you call it, it is absolutely true. If you feel a bit lost this week, find someone else who is a bit lost; struggling, afraid, lonely, sad or distressed. Ask them how you can help them feel better. Do it for them. What you give away will always come back to you.

In our story in Luke 15:11-31 the lost son:

1. Needed to admit that he was lost.
2. He then headed back in the right direction, toward home.
3. He hadn't even got there yet and his dad who was looking for him and hoping to see him on his return ran out to welcome him back home.

When you feel lost, admit it and return to your spiritual center. When you feel lost believe and trust that God in love is already out there looking for you to return.

This is how the lost get found.


Get found this week. Help someone else get found too.

Blessings

Rev. Bill

What Comes First?

Living and Giving, what does come first in a successful life? The world tells us to live it up and live first and then give of what you have left or from your success. Now practically, this seems appropriate because how can we give of what we do not have and possess?


But things do fall apart when we think we first have to live; achieve it, earn it, amass it, acquire it, win it or find it before we will give.

You hear it said a lot; "You know when my ship comes in, then I will really make a big gift to my church." Or, "I can't give any of my time, talent, and treasure now because I do not have any thing to give. So, I will wait till later." AND later never comes.

There is a spiritual law in the universe that runs the way we live and the results we get whether we believe it or follow it or not. We've talked about this law many times before; it is called the "Law of Sowing and Reaping." (Galatains 6:3) So in order to really live and receive we have to first give and share.

By giving we are talking about giving our money to a good cause, giving our time to make that cause work and giving our talent to bring value on board for the success of that cause.

By giving we are also talking about our money a lot too. As a person once said, if you want to know what is really important in your life, just take a tally of what you have spent your money on in the past six months.


Living and Giving go hand in hand. As it says in the Bible in 2 Corinthians 8 "First they gave themselves to God and then to us." We give to a higher order of life; toward the spiritual side of life and we give to others. One really good way to do that is in and through the church. When we do that according to the universal laws, we then can really live! Guaranteed.

Blessings in your Giving and Living this week.

Rev. Bill McBride

Thinking and Becoming

Consider how strongly connected your mind and your thinking is to what you experience and do. When it comes to doing extraordinary things; our theme for this week, we often think and say "Well, I can't do anything extraordinary. I'll stick with the ordinary. Let's leave the extraordinary to Jesus and his miracles or at the very least those special few really gifted individuals."

But that is not how God wants to work today with you. God wants to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things.


What extraordinary thing is God wanting to do with ordinary you this week?

In fact, listen carefully, you are only just a thought away from extraordinary things. Yes you are! "Cogito ergo sum" - "I think, therefore I am" is a philosophical statement in Latin used by René Descartes. If you can think then you can become. And when it comes to our Creator, the sky is really the only limit.

What did these ordinary people end up doing?


We are the ones who limit God working in and through our lives. God does want to do extraordinary things in our lives and for others through us. Miracles are not just for the Bible days any more.

Three lessons come to us from scripture; especially in the extraordinary story of the feeding of the five thousand in Mark 6:30-44.

1. Use what you have right now today. Don't wait for something special to come your way before you make use of the time, talent and gifts you already have.


2. Commit what you have right now to God. Give God the credit for all the good things given to you and that come to you.


3. Expect great things to happen for you, to you and through you for others.

More great things would be seen in our lives and in our world if we all said and thought this: "I Can." As the wise sage said, "The people who say 'I Can' and 'I Can't' are both right."

Blessing to you.

Have an extraordinary week.

Reverend Bill McBride

How to Handle Your Guilt

So, are you feeling guilty today? Ever made a bad choice or done something for which you then felt guilty? Ever done something and then in hindsight said, "Ouch, I wish I hadn't done that one?" How do You Handle Your GUILT?

We allow our poor choices to imprison us and defeat us when we hold onto the guilt they bring. We can learn some things from our guilt, if we take a brief step back from it and see it in a larger frame. The useful thing that guilt can do for us is to show us that the choices we made did not bring to us what we needed or wanted. Guilt can point us in a new direction and motivate us to seek amends and make it right. After that, guilt serves no purpose or use. In fact, when we hold on to the guilt, we harm ourselves and make ourselve into far less than God intended.

Guilt imprisons us when we make it more powerful then it really is. If you can picture our emotions as energy, which on a metaphysical scale they really are, how would you rate the power of guilt? And, what is the most powerful emotion we can bring to the world? Remember that guilt only has as much power as you give it.

Use your guilt to build a newer and better life this week.

• Admit your fault
• Acknowledge your failure
• Accept forgiveness

Use your guilt to correct your mind, heart and actions and then use your renewed energy to give your best to yourself and others.

Watch this short movie to find the answer and to understand why you must release your guilt.



Blessings to you this week as you love.

Rev. Bill

The Unexpected Arrives

We thought together last Sunday about "Getting Ready for the Unexpected." (You can listen to my message by clicking the link on the right side of this page)

Right after church the unexpected happened to me. On the walk home from church, right on the walkway by the front porch, I came upon an unexpected little fallen nest and two baby birds. Recall the rain and big wind on Sunday morning? The storm must have dislodged this little nest from our big Maple tree. Mom and Dad bird, whom appeared to be finches or wrens, were flitting back and forth among the branches and calling as loud as they could in their tiny bird voices.

I did what any self-respecting man who is totally in charge of his world would do; I quickly went inside, found Loretta and asked, "What should we do Loretta, there is a nest on the ground and two tiny baby birds next to it?" Well, Loretta knew exactly what to do. She went into "mom mode" and hurried outside and scooped them up, nest and all and then said we have to get them back into the tree so hopefully their parents would rescue them.

Well to make this story short, we improvised a nest spot and waited and watched. Unfortunately the parents never came back or were unable to find their kids. They did fly around the yard, from tree to tree for a while, but eventually the day fell silent with no more bird calling for lost young. We then went outside and prepared the best we could, to adopt and raise these two little guys, or gals?

Loretta fashioned a home including the original nest and I did what I know best, told her how to find all the information and training she needed online. "Why don't you 'Google' how to care for baby birds?" She did and now today, it's Wednesday, only three days after our quick adoption and countless feeding later, did you know baby birds need to eat every 20 minutes?, and our two sibling birds, which I named "Peep & RePeep" have nearly tripled in size and are now trying to jump out of their box in the garage? By the way, if you need to know anything about raising baby birds call Loretta. (photo on right is a hungry bird eager for food).

And here is the really weird thing. According to the research, guess what is the best food for baby birds? Cat Food. Yup, our Mittens the cat is sharing her food with some little birds. Ironic isn't it?

As I preached on last Sunday, you never know when and what the unexpected will be and when it will happen. You just have to be ready for it; and as Micah 6:8 says "Do what is just and right, Do what is kind and merciful and Do a daily humble walk with God." Good idea for bird raising and people relating too.

Now I do not believe for a second that God caused these baby birds to tumble out of their tree to give me a test of faith or to help me practice what I preached. More likely, their descent to my walkway was caused by wind and some poor "bird-nest engineering." But I am humbled still, by how dependent these two birds are on others for their very life. As it said online, their chance of survival is low, even if they learn to fly out of our garage to the nearest tree; but as Loretta reminded me, "We will do everything in our power to give them a chance." We keep telling Mittens the cat, about how nice it is for her to share her food, but she does not get to visit them up close and personal.

I might now add to our life lessons that unexpected Lessons can come from some unexpected places. What will you do this week to give the folks around you and yourself the chance you and they need to live, thrive and become an abundant success?

To give us a quick review from Micah 6:8

• Do Justice - life is not always fair but that does not mean we just walk on by and ignore a need even if it comes from tiny peeping birds.


• Do Kindness and Mercy - All God's children need some love this week, big or small.


• Do Humility With Your God - Be prepared to lend a hand and stoop to help someone or some creature that just might benefit by you. You never know; so be prepared.

Thanks Loretta for your motherly love for Peep and RePeep this week.

(photo on left, Loretta is getting lunch ready and I get to hold a bird in the hand. In just 3 days they are already flapping their wings and trying to fly.)

Thank God for our Creator's wonderful love for each of us.

And, this definitely means you.

Blessings

Rev. Bill