Showing results by narrator "John Marino" in All Categories

Tonight’s subject is, "They Told What Had Happened" - "They Related Their Own Experience" is the better translation of that phrase in the 24th chapter of Luke. When I speak of "they told it", I am speaking of the evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

You might think that you are not really known, that not a thing is ever mentioned about you in any book ever written. But I want to tell you that the greatest book ever written is all about you. The Bible is your biography. It is also your autobiography, because you inspired it. It is you who dictated it, and it’s all about you - every word in it.

"Where are you from?" This you will find in the 19th chapter of the Book of John. And the rabbi said to Pilate: "We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, for he claims he is the Son of God." And their law would not allow that, for we know where this man is from, know all about him; and when Messiah appears no one will know where he is from. So his claim is false. When Messiah appears it will be mysteriously done. And yet we know exactly where this man is from.

The greatest thing ever known—what is it? Surely the answer must be one that is absolutely universal, both in its nature and in the possibilities of its application. It must be one that can be accepted wholly and unreservedly, not only by a single individual, but by bodies of individuals, be they the originators of any particular school of ethics, the followers of any particular system of philosophy, or even the adherents of any great system of religion. It must be one so true in itself that it can be accepted by all men alike the world over.

Today, I am going to talk about enthusiasm and how it makes all of life a joyous experience. Every normal person wishes to be well, happy and successful and there is nothing wrong with this. Sometimes we think that perhaps life withholds these good things from us, as though it didn't wish us to enter into the joy of living. And yet, Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

Friends, the next voice you hear might be God's! Wouldn't it be wonderful if this were true? Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could hear the Voice of God? And perhaps we can. Perhaps we all have heard the Voice of God but haven't recognized it.

Man's three greatest needs are: to feel that he is needed, wanted and loved; to feel that he belongs to the universe in which he lives, and to have an object or objects upon which to lavish his affection. It is now known that most unhappiness comes from a sense of being rejected; of not being wanted, needed and loved. It is also known that a large percent of our physical troubles is a direct result of emotional congestions that follow in the wake of feeling that we don't belong to life.

Tonight's subject is: Pre-Existence. For every child born of woman, there is a son of God in the heavens, who is his ancestral Self. He is buried in you. He is the Reality of man. The Bible speaks of this son as Jesus Christ, the true identity of every child born of woman. God became man, that man may become God.

Through the whole life and teaching of Jesus we find this gentle approach. And yet he was always just, as well as kind. He didn't say that we could be saved in our mistakes, but that we must be saved from them. He knew that to err is human, to forgive is divine.

You know the story of Good Friday. A man is in a garden. It's night time. And one called Judas comes in search of him, seemingly to betray him. He comes into the garden, and it's dark, so he asks the simple question, "Where is Jesus?" Then the voice in the dark answered, "I am he."

Shakespeare said, "There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Whether or not this immortal bard was 100 percent right in this, one thing is certain: the mind does play some very weird tricks on us, some of them so startling as almost to convince us that we are actually obsessed.

Would you like to trade in your old car for a new model without any extra expense to yourself? Or would you like to refurnish your home? Wouldn't it be strange if your car or home could remodel themselves so that nothing about them could wear out? This sounds kind of fantastic, doesn't it? And yet, we are told that none of us is more than a year old physically, that our entire body is renewed every year.

Recently I read a book called Vanished Parts of Yesterday by Lord Frederick Hamilton. In it he tells the story of Catherine the Great - who, when she found the first violet of spring, ordered a sentry to be placed over it to protect it from being plucked. Forgetting to rescind the order, day and night, summer and winter, a sentry stood where 150 years ago, a violet bloomed. The new generation did not know why the sentry was there and he didn't either. It was simply a tradition!

If I told you who you really are, it would shock you, for in this world you can be frightened, limited, and filled with doubt; yet I tell you that you are God himself, the very one who created and sustains the universe. When you first hear this you will no doubt resist it and believe the one who makes this statement to be insane because the idea seems impossible. But I tell you: God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

God started with a wish, saying; "Let us make man in our image." And we are told that we will be perfect as our father is perfect, and holy as our father is holy. Therefore, whatever God was, when his work is completed, man must be. We are told to be imitators of God as dear children, so we must discover how he became us in order to imitate him. It seems God lives as one possessed by a dream.

We have been talking about God's law and God's promise. God's law is conditional. You cannot be in one state and not suffer the consequences of not being in another state, and you and I are free to imagine any state in the world, and imagining that state we can occupy it. Occupying the state, we fertilize it; having fertilized it, it has its own appointed hour for fulfillment. Every vision has its own appointed hour it will flower; if it seems long, wait for it - it is sure and it will not be late.

Now, you have heard the expression time and time again: "Oh, he is reaching for the moon." It could be an ambition based upon your social desire. You want to transcend the limitation of your world where you were born. Or it could be some financial ambition, and friends who know your limitations will say of you: "He is reaching for the moon." Or it could be some tyrant trying to conquer the earth.

In the second chapter of the Book of Luke the story is told of Jesus' parents, worried and seeking him for three days, finding him and complaining, to which Jesus said: "How is it that you sought me? Know you not that I must be about my father's business?" I ask you not to put yourself in that frame of mind. Your earthly parents seek you and, at the tender age of 12, you dare to say to them: "I must be about my father's business."

If you awake in a dream and know exactly who is imagining it, you can control your dream. The same thing is true in this world. Become aware that it, too, is a dream. Awake! Remember who is imagining it, and control your day. Then one day you will completely awake to find yourself in that body which is the Lord Jesus Christ, to know that everything is your imagination pushed out.

Change your conception of yourself. Revalue yourself and you will automatically change your world. Man has always played the losing game by attempting to change his world, while he himself remained with his present values or conceptions of himself. Jesus discovered this law. So instead of changing men he changed himself. He said, "And now I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." He found himself to be the truth of all that he saw his world to be.