Here is yesterday's post from my friend, Lisa Natoli's blog, Gorgeous for God., which is a beautifully expressed message.  She asked us to pass it on...so here it is with out further comment.  With Love and Gratitude, Kristen

Lesson 176

Today is a review lesson from A Course in Miracles:

God is but Love, and therefore so I am.

(161) Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.
(162) I am as God created me.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

I went to a great church service in Maine on Sunday. The guest minister (Dr. Mar Imsong) was saying the church is a dying institution and that we cannot put new wine (the message of Jesus) into old wineskins (the church), that we need to put new wine in new wineskins and he said “which means we need to go back to the beginning - with Jesus with his disciples - and start there.” He said that young people are not coming to church, and probably will never come to church and what is needed now in the world is “passionate individuals with the Love of Christ in their heart who have a willingness to go out there and teach the message of Jesus to those who need it.”

He said we need to be like Jesus’ disciples 2000 years ago, and he said that we are all ministers, and he reminded us that Jesus’ disciples were not learned men, but fishermen, and that we are not to rely on the laws and practices of the church, but to lean on the message of Jesus and go teach that, and to be the demonstration of God’s Love in our daily lives.

He was saying we are going to see drastic changes in the way people hear the message of Jesus, because of the internet and cell phones and the way people communicate nowadays, and that we need to get creative and active, and stop thinking it’s going to come through the church, because it is not. And this was spoken by a minister in a church.

It was so awesome.

He’s right: We need new wineskins. The old way of doing business (and living life) is not going to work anymore. We need brand new wineskins to hold this beautiful wine that comes from the Tree of Life. We are standing smack in the middle of a global shift. If you think life is going on as it always has, then you are in for a brutal surprise. This world is changing, and fast.

Where are you?

It is impossible to do things the way we have done them before.

Here are some great quotes to consider:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. ~Charles Darwin~

“There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” -Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (1532)

“Whosoever desires constant success must change his conduct with the times.” -Niccolo Machiavelli

“Every generation needs a new revolution.” -Thomas Jefferson

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.” - Abraham Lincoln

“In describing today’s accelerating changes, the media fire blips of unrelated information at us. Experts bury us under mountains of narrowly specialized monographs. Popular forecasters present lists of unrelated trends, without any model to show us their interconnections or the forces likely to reverse them. As a result, change itself comes to be seen as anarchic, even lunatic.” - Alvin Toffler

“The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them. Even the choices words lose their power when they are used to overpower. Attitudes are the real figures of speech.” - Edwin H. Friedman

“In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” - Eric Hoffer

So, we are standing in the middle of tremendous change. It’s already occurring. We are witnessing it with our very eyes. Last night I was watching television (for the first time in over a year) and I can’t believe how dumb it all is. I also noticed on the commercials that they use a soothing woman’s voice (I feel like it’s the same woman, is it? does anyone know what I am talking about??) and it’s the exact same voice they use in the futuristic movies (like The Island, with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson) to manipulate the masses on the gigantic movie screens that are in the streets, and in every building.

I am blessing you in every way, you, who is reading this. I love you. You are as God created you. Do me a favor, please and rise above the nonsense, okay? Refuse to participate in the dumbification of the masses. Okay? Please. Do it for me. Do it for Jesus.

Watching that crap on television last night, I could begin to see why people have difficulty seeing things clearly. I can see why there is confusion and muddy thinking.

Plus every other commercial is about prescription drugs, telling you to call your doctor to get a prescription.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All I could think was: holy crap, people sit in front of this box every night?? And listen to this crap?

I woke up this morning, feeling drugged and disoriented.

I suppose I sound like your great grandmother giving old-fashioned advice from the stone age, but whatever. Be aware of what you allow into your mind and be conscious of how you spend your time.

Going on all around you is the creation of God. You can tap into this power and it will disrupt all your old patterns, knock out your problems, heal all sickness, and catapult you into Heaven where miracles occur naturally.

But first, you must have a willingness to change your patterns. If there is something in your life that is not working, then that is an indication that something needs to change. Move the energy in other ways than just sitting on the couch or in front of the computer every night.

Please give me your blessing, holy Son of God.

Please join with me in the resurrection.

Please be part of the solution with me, as we usher in dramatic changes.

We are no longer part of the sleeping dead, Instead we take our place with Jesus by our side and we spring to life, transformed entirely.

Like the minister on Sunday church service said: “What this world needs is passionate individuals with the Love of Christ in their heart who have the willingness to go out there and teach the message of Jesus to those who need it.”

Amen, Lord Almighty.

Would you also do me a favor and email this post to your friends, coworkers, and family? Magazine & newspaper editors. Chat groups. Community leaders.

Let’s start spreading the word.

I appreciate your help.

-Lisa

Wake up, wake up
this night is gone
wake up

abandon abandon
even your dear self
abandon

there is an idiot
in our market place
selling a precious soul

if you doubt my word
get up this moment
and head for the market now

don’t listen to trickery
don’t listen to the witches
don’t wash blood with blood

first turn yourself upside down
empty yourself like a cup of wine
then fill to the brim with the essence

a voice is descending
from the heavens
a healer is coming

if you desire healing
let yourself fall ill
let yourself fall ill


Translated by Nader Khalili
Rumi, Fountain of Fire


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And now...from Jesus:

Today's Lesson 175 - from Review V

“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”

[159] “I give the miracles I have received.”

“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”

[160] “I am at home. Fear is the stranger here.”

“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”

Here is just the reminder needed for today...from our old friend St Francis. 
Thanks to Lisa Natoli for posting it on her blog today!  www.gorgeousforgod.com

The prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace!

That where there is hatred,
I may bring love.

That where there is wrong,
I may bring the spirit of forgiveness.

That where there is discord,
I may bring harmony.

That where there is error,
I may bring truth.

That where there is doubt,
I may bring faith.

That where there is despair,
I may bring hope.

That where there are shadows,
I may bring light.

That where there is sadness,
I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort,
than to be comforted.

To understand,
than to be understood.

To love,
than to be loved.

For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.

It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.

........................................................................................................
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Wow...it sure sounds alot like our review lesson for today!
I  Love it so much. 

“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”

[153] “In my defenselessness my safety lies.”

“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”

[154] “I am among the ministers of God.”

“God is but Love, and therefore so am I.”

~A Course in Miracles, Lesson 172, from Review V

 Take just a moment to read those whole lessons today or this evening. 
They will mean much more to you now....in fact,  you will never be the same again!

AMEN!!!