9.2.07 Christian Reflections on The Secret #9 The Secret To You
WESTMINSTER PULPIT
The Rev. Dr. David Thompson
September 2, 2007 “Christian Reflections on The Secret: #9 The Secret To You”
What is The Secret to you? The ninth chapter of The Secret has a lot of depth in it but is also for me somewhat problematic. Once again it makes sweeping statements that as a Christian I feel need help. There is a lot of gold and it is set in a lot of quartz as well. We need to go for the gold!
The chapter begins talking about us as being energy, spiritual energy that can neither be created nor destroyed. James Ray of The Secret Team says that the definition of us as energy is the same as the definition of God: “Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it always was, always has been, everything that ever existed always exists, its moving into form, through form and out of form. You go to a theologian and ask what created the universe and he or she will say; God. OK describe God: “Always was, always has been, never can be created or destroyed, all that ever was, always will be, always moving into form, through form and out of form. You see it’s the same description, just different terminology. ”
Modern cosmology teaches us that matter always exists as energy at some level. The Big Bang Theory does teach us that what exists today, that we know as the universe, did not always exist in this form, however it is quite possible that energy always existed and that it cannot be destroyed, as Einstein has taught us. We find this difficult to understand as human beings, who are born and die, that God has always existed, but that is the assumption of our faith. We cannot answer the question, “Who created God?” We can only say that this question exists because we live in time and God may not do that in the same way that we do. In fact we believe with the old hymn that God is the Potentate of time or the one who created time. Time is only possible in an expanding universe. But a God who created the universe who may also be in or outside the universe simultaneously, may not be subject to its laws, one of them being time. Thus God can be eternal.
Dr John Hagelin, quantum physicist on The Secret Team says: “The universe essentially emerges from thought; ultimately we are the source of the universe.” I have a problem with that. I think what our Scriptures would say is a little more careful. In the Scriptures we begin with God. “In the beginning God created,” says Genesis. St. John says in his magnificent prologue “In the beginning was the Word, or expressed thought, and the Word was God.” The Scriptures teach that the universe is a product of thought, God’s thought. God thinks speaks and it is so. “God said let there be light and there was light.”
Where I believe that The Secret needs correction from theology is this: We did not create ourselves or the universe although the energy we are made from may not be destroyed. We didn’t ask to come in this form and usually we don’t ask to leave, we just find ourselves here as creatures of our Creator. But we are more than that and this is where The Secret Team is right. Genesis teaches us that we are made in the image of God and this gives us powers to co-create with God. We can understand our powers through experience. We create things by work and prayer, and prayer, as C. S. Lewis says, is a higher form of causation that we can explore but depends upon God’s will. Prayer is then focused intention on God that can affect the quantum field and also the law of attraction and the law of reciprocity thus ensuring that whatever we sow we reap. To use work and prayer is to be given the privilege of co-creating with God. The law of attraction is thus part of the instruments that can be used by our divinity as co-creators.
In Genesis God says that God’s name is: “I am that I am.” This is the claim to be in a divine eternal present, a God that in the present comprehends the past, the present and the future as one reality: “I am that I am.” Now if we are made in the image of God we also have God like qualities. If God is divine energy that cannot be destroyed then we who come from God are also divine energy. However we experience death. But for the Christian death is a transition only, a passing from one reality to the next. St. John said: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” According to John everlasting life can begin now.
In John’s Gospel, the 10th chapter, Jesus is quoted as saying, “Is it not written in your law I said you are Gods?” This is a reference to Psalm 58 which begins with the line: “God’s you may be, but do you give the sentences you should and dispense impartial justice to mankind?” Justice is one of our Divine quality gifts and every time we are called God’s in the Bible it is because we are to use this divine quality to be like God and deliver impartial justice. (By the way only when a court delivers impartial justice is it like God. There are huge implications here for our courts to deliver them from partisanship which destroys the divine image in the judges. But that’s another sermon.)
Dr Alan Wolf, theoretical physicist on The Secret team says: “You may be thinking: Well that’s very nice, but I can’t do that” or “She won’t let me do that!” Or “He’ll never let me do that.” Or “I haven’t got enough money to do that.” Or “I’m not strong enough to do that”, or “I’m not, I’m not, I’m not. Every single “I’m not” is a creation.”
Rhonda Byrne says: “It is a good idea to become aware when you say “I’m not” and to think about what you are creating as you say it. When you say “I am” the words that follow are summoning creation with a mighty force.” Why might Byrne be right about this? Because God is “I am.” It is a statement of divinity and power. We are made in that powerful image. Is that why the words “I am” are so powerful? She suggests that this ‘I am” power is what lies behind affirmations. We affirm that: “I am whole perfect, I am strong, powerful, I am loving, harmonious and happy.” Do we use this power to love ourselves? Do we say often, “I am happy”? If not, why not? It both creates a state of mind as well as being a descriptor of our mental state. Do we empower ourselves this way? Is that why Women’s Empowerment is so good at spinning women out of homelessness into a home and a job because they use affirmations all the time and it is empowering and it is connected to God in this way?
This is a thought created universe as Henry Ford once noted “Whether you think you can or think you can’t either way you are right.” A guru was once asked, what is the key to the universe? He answered: “I have good news and bad news. The bad news is there is no key to the universe. The good news is that the door has never been locked.”
Here is some pure gold from Rhonda Byrne: “I have found in my own life and in other’s lives that we do not think well of ourselves or love ourselves completely. To not love ourselves can keep what we want from us. When we don’t love ourselves, we are literally pushing things away from us. Everything we want, whatever it may be, is motivated by love. It is to experience the feeling of love in having those things—youth, money, the perfect person, job, body, health. To attract the things we love we must transmit love, and those things will appear immediately. The catch is to transmit the highest frequency of love, you must love yourself and that can be difficult. To love yourself fully you must focus on a new dimension of you.
St. Paul, in perhaps one of his most famous sayings is actually talking about this new dimension versus the old way of thinking. He says, describing his old behavior: “I cannot understand my own behavior. I fail to carry out the things I want to do and I find myself doing the very things I hate… When I act against my will, then it is not my true self doing it, but sin which lives in me… In my inmost self I dearly love God’s law. But I can see that my unspiritual self battles against the law which my reason dictates. Who will rescue me from this problem? Jesus Christ.”
If we look hard at what both St. Paul is saying and what Rhonda Byrne is saying there are some amazing congruencies. For instance, it is St. Paul, in the whole Bible, who writes most eloquently of love. Look how he uses love to counter the unspiritual self, the shadow self of Carl Jung, the dark energies of modern psychologies like resentment, anger, hate, lack of forgiveness, greed, or whatever is not of our divine image in God.
St. Paul talks of love as a whole new way of thinking. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind”, he said. Love and gratitude are the transformers for St. Paul. He says of love: “Love is always patient and kind, it is never jealous, it is never boastful or conceited, it is never rude of selfish, it doesn’t take offence, it is not resentful. It takes no pleasure in other people’s difficulties, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end.” Put love FIRST!!!
Of Gratitude St. Paul said: “I have learned that whatever state I find myself in therewith to be content.” He said; “In all things give thanks.” These are “secret shifters” in the mood battle between the old mind and the new mind of Christ.
When he says Love never comes to an end we notice that neither does God. And God is love. Love is energy, God’s energy available to us. It is creative. It attracts like energies to it. We can choose to use this positive energy, when we do so we are acting in the image of God. When we do not we are not acting in the image of God and thus the dark forces of our shadow side can take us over.
Now about Jesus’ role in this inner struggle, St. John said: “Whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” Anyone of us at any time can invite Jesus into our hearts. Revelation’s says: “Behold I stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and sup with them and they with me.” Or in our terms have fellowship with them, companionship. Where Jesus dwells there is always love. That is why St. Paul says, “who will deliver me from my dark side?” Jesus Christ. He said elsewhere “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” This is to live the life that the creator intended for us, a life full of peace. It is a life of healing, of joy, and of empowerment. It is to live in the Imago Dei, our birthright. It is to be God like, creative. It is to experience the law of attraction, it is to sow and reap with Christ at our side, divinely guiding and protecting us. It is to live in the Spirit.
Psalm 8 says: “I look up at your heavens, made by your fingers, at the moon and stars you set in place, ah, what is a human being that you should spare a thought for us? That you should care for us? Yet you have made us a little less than a God. You have crowned us with glory and splendor. Made us lord over the work of your hands, and set all things under our feet…Yahweh, I am that I am, how great is your name throughout all the earth!”
Let me close this chapter by saying what I believe we can endorse as Christians: We can say everything is energy. We can experience the law of attraction at work in our lives. We are spiritual beings. Though death comes to us all, we can begin eternal life here in the now. We are immortal souls who live in mortal bodies. I believe that we are all connected and are all one in God.
The universe does emerge from thought—God’s thought. We are co-creators with God. There is an unlimited supply of ideas available to us. All knowledge, discoveries and inventions are in the mind of God as possibilities which we can draw forth.
When he was a senior math major in college Alex’s fervent hope was to become a graduate assistant. To do that he would have to score the highest grade point on the exam, he studied desperately hard for weeks and got overtired and slept, awakening late, he had to rush to the exam. He wrote the exam and felt good about it and finished 15 minutes before time. Looking up he saw two math problems on the board which he thought were part of the exam that he had missed the instruction for by coming in late. Desperately he started on the first and solved the problem. The second he could not solve and he felt terrible and depressed knowing he had missed the graduate assistant job. He went home to sleep and feel sorry for himself. He was woken by a knock on the door. It was his math professor holding Alex’s exam with an excited look on his face. “Do you realize what you have done?” Alex wondered, could I have done that badly on the exam? “Alex you have made mathematics history. You have solved one of the classically unsolvable problems in math.” “How did I do that?” “It was the first problem on the chalk board”. “I thought that was part of the test.” “No”, the professor laughed, “those were two scientific enigmas that were left on the chalkboard from the previous class and you are the first person in history to unravel one of them.” “But nobody told me they were impossible to solve.”
The professor said something that by now we should recognize as part of The Secret. “Perhaps that is exactly why you were able to solve it.” Needless to say Alex got the job.
I believe that we can let go of difficulties from our past. We can co-create with God the life we deserve. I believe with Jesus, “that whatsoever things we ask for in prayer we are to believe that we have them already and they shall be ours.” A shortcut to manifesting things in the world by work and prayer is to believe that we already have them. I believe that our thoughts are very powerful, so we need to be aware of them. We need to discipline ourselves to keep our thoughts loving and kind first to ourselves and then to others. We need to put love first in everything we do and say for our words, like God’s words, create!
In this we have a wonderful friend and companion along life’s way. Jesus Christ. Each of us can be divinely guided and protected. He doesn’t have to remain for us as a distant figure from the past, or someone in a stained glass window. He can be present now with us at our invitation: Behold him standing at the door of your life knocking and invite him in. His last promise to us was a present tense, an echo from the burning bush of the One who always is: “Lo I am with you even until the end of the world.” Emmanuel, God with us! That is a promise that we can trust as we confront life in all its dimensions, its sorrows and its joys. And I am grateful.
What is The Secret to you? To invite Jesus into your heart. “The Secret to you” is Jesus, his life, his teachings, his Presence!
Email List
Stay up to date on upcoming events, sermons, and more!