Showing results by narrator "John Marino" in All Categories

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 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.

In entering upon this course of instruction, each of you should, so far as possible, lay aside, for the time being, all previous theories and beliefs. By so doing you will be saved the trouble of trying, all the way through the course, to put "new wine into old wineskins" (Lk. 5:37). If there is anything, as we proceed, which you do not understand or agree with, just let it lie passively in your mind until you have listened to the entire book, for many statements that would at first arouse antagonism and discussion will be clear and easily accepted a little farther on.

This teaching is essentially a revelation of the Risen Christ. I am not speaking of the life of any man between his physical birth and death, but of the Christ who has risen in me and who rises in all. I have no mental image of a being outside of my life, or yours.

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.

I am quite sure you are going to find this an interesting series. Tonight it is "The Law of the Identical Harvest." In the very beginning, God established the Law of the Identical Harvest. And God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation: Plants bearing seed and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, and it was so." (Genesis 1:24)

God's almighty power and wisdom expresses itself most characteristically in the acceptance of what the world calls weakness or foolishness. Matthew tells the story of one who - knowing himself to be the personification of God's creative power and wisdom - questions 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.

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.

We are sitting at the edge of a wood consisting of the very old larch and pine trees which cover this sandstone hill; from the southern slopes we are able to see a wide panorama of beautiful countryside, which stretches away to the South Downs. An atmosphere of spontaneous joyousness and gaiety pervades all the activities of the various members of the deva evolution, who are to be found in this neighborhood.

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.

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.

Tonight's subject is Prophetic Blueprints. Now we could take it on this level, but I will not. To summarize it on this level, may I tell you: if you could conceive of an infinite might as a great computer, and if the imaginal activities of all of us -- every man, woman and child in the world -- make us free to change this activity at any moment in time, then you could predict the future for this level; for this level is the outpouring or out picturing of the imaginal activities of men, women, and children in this world.

On Sunday morning, April 12, my wife woke from what was really a deep, profound sleep and as she was waking, a voice distinctly spoke to her; and the voice spoke to her; and the voice spoke with great authority and it said to her: "You must stop spending your thoughts, your time, and your money; everything in life must be an investment."

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."

We are told that because of an act of disobedience, man fell, thereby separating himself from God. But scripture tells us that God consigned all men to disobedience that he may have mercy upon them. So we see: the fall was a deliberate act, a plan for expansion, for greater existence, and an ultimate birth. Scholars consider the 82nd psalm as one of the most difficult of all the psalms to interpret, stating that although the idea may be perennial, its meaning has vanished.

We are told that when Jesus found Philip, he said, "Follow me."

Then Philip told Nathanael, "We have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets wrote."

Philip is one who is interested in the workings of the mind. Looking for one who is searching for the source of the phenomena of life, Jesus finds one in whom he can reveal himself.

I was baptized and brought up in the Orthodox Christian faith. I was taught it in childhood and throughout my boyhood and youth.

"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.

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.