SEASIDE CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL LIVING
Seaside's Vision is to be a spiritual nexus inspiring people to live their dreams.
Our Purpose is: Celebrating our Divinity, Loving our Humanity, Serving our Community.

We are all on our spiritual path. We are all seekers. I almost believe we are beyond that point of seeking, because we have found that path. We are more, in a sense, pilgrims. We have found that path. We are now exploring. We are delving into a deeper place in consciousness and Faith is the key. We have to "Keep the Faith" on our path, because sometimes we will hit those rough seas. Sometimes the timing may not be our timing. Sometimes the physical challenges may show up. Sometimes monetary challenges may show up. Do you know what? That is the perfect time to "Keep the Faith". It's not the time to give up and say "God gave up on me." When you are down at the lowest, is the best time to "Keep the Faith" and practice the principles.
I would like to share with you something Ernest Holmes wrote in his book 'The Science of Mind', from a chapter called: "Faith"

"If one will have faith in himself, faith in his fellowmen, in the Universe, and in God, that faith will light the place in which he finds himself, and by the light of this faith, he will be able to see that ALL IS GOOD. And the light shed by this faith will light the way for others. We become conscious of darkness only when we are without faith -- for faith is ever the light of our day and the light on our way, making that way clearly visible to us, even when to all others it may be beset with obstacles and the ongoing rough."
Faith will bring the light. Faith will bring the light. The darkness, those down times, is experienced only when we have lost the faith. I can remember a lady sharing -- after the earthquake up in L.A. That last one really shook them good. They asked her, she was a grandmother type, and they said - 'Aren't you scared? Aren't you going to leave?' - She said: 'Why, I rejoice that my God still has the power to shake the world.' That my God still has the power ... "Keep the Faith", our God, that Light, that Presence - It has the power, to shake the world. We have to "Keep the Faith" and that Faith is beyond the intellectual knowingness.

I like what Buckminster Fuller said. He said that 'Faith is far deeper than belief, because belief is somebody else's thinking.' Belief is somebody else's thinking -- you may believe something, but Faith is a knowingness. Faith is an unshakable conviction that cannot be taken away from you. It allows to know your Oneness. It allows you to know your connection. Faith is profound. It brings the Light. There cannot be darkness when you have Faith in that Higher Power. It doesn't work that way. When you have a Faith deep inside yourself, you can hear sirens and know that all is well. You can know the truth in the midst of all seeming obstacles. You think it's going to be OK -- a belief says 'yeah, I think this is the timing that should be right' but Faith is the knowingness. You can get yourself in trouble believing certain things as the world is flat.

When we can "Keep the Faith"... I am keeping the Faith. Take a look at some point in your life that seems to be disastrous and know that there is value there. "Keep the Faith". Keep that Light on. Know that you are not alone and it is not up to you to make that happen. You must be willing to step beyond that collective realm that is saying it is a disaster, that this is bad. People are always trying to gather more people for their cause. Take a look at the Crusades, some of the bloodiest wars that happened on this planet or; the Inquisition, and all the people that it killed. This Missionary idea that went out that we have to convert people to our side, to this position, that the more people you can get thinking a certain way make it more right. NOT! We have to go beyond that Missionary position. We have to go beyond the traditional way of doing things. The ego, it tries to get more numbers. It tries to get more people thinking in a certain way, trying to force people to take a certain position. Our Higher Self, the God Self is not about quantity. It is about quality. It is about knowing that truth in a deep way that can never be taken away from us. It is about a knowingness that is deep and profound, that is unshakable. See it is not your job to go out there and convince people. It is not your job to rescue this planet from its disaster. It is about knowing the truth. It is about being in a place of peace. Your job is not to figure out how to fix people. Rather, see the presence of God everywhere you look.

There were these wise men from a community. They knew they were not the absolute wisest. They thought some travel would be good to expand their awareness and their knowledge and to bring back some more wisdom to their clan and to their tribe. And so what this group did, these wise individuals, was they left, and as they crossed their county and they came to the outskirts of a new city, they saw, for the first time, sitting on the horizon, sky scrapers, something they had never seen before. Initially, they wanted to run up and check them out, and then thought 'No we should wait. Who knows what these things are? They could explode. They could devour us. They could eat us if we don't know what they are.' So, what they decided to do was to sit down, before they would approach them, and figure out what they were before they found out what they were. As they sat there and talked about what they could be, and all these kinds of things, they drew upon their past experiences, to figure out what they were. They actually came up with what they were figuring out from their past experiences. What they concluded and realized was that these tall things absolutely had to have been put there by giants. So they took off. They said 'Forget it.' They were very clear that that was the way of the giants, it was a dangerous place and they wanted nothing to do with it. So, they didn't go there. That was their belief. That was their thinking. That was their mind. They did not follow their heart. They did not follow their soul. They followed the fear that came from a place in mind. They did not allow the Light of the Spirit to shine the way, to reveal itself with the blessings that a new experience can bring. Just because the earth is shaking, doesn't mean that it is bad. Just because our life is beginning to unravel, doesn't mean that it is bad. It is the time to "Keep the Faith" and have that Light that will dissipate the darkness and allow us to see the foundation that is being set. The new home that is being built, on God's time, on God's plan because we have given, we have surrendered to that Divine motion, to that Divine Light, to that Divine Energy. When we have given away our will, when things unfold in a certain way that may not have been to our thinking, we can look for God with a knowingness that we will find that Spirit -- that which is right.

So, what I'd like to do this morning is end with some words from Nelson Mandela, that he shared in his 1994 inaugural speech:
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful, beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves; 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, famous, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. You're playing small does not serve this world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel unsure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us. It is in every one and as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same and as we liberate from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others

Thomas Edison, in December of 1914 -- his laboratory was burned to the ground. In 1914 it was worth over two million dollars, but he only had it insured for a couple of hundred thousand dollars, because he had come up with this great invention. He built it out of cement and he was sure it was fireproof but, it burnt to the ground. His son, twenty-four year old, Charles, in the frantic of the fire, came looking for his dad. He found him standing, very calmly outside, with the glow of the fire on his face and the wind blowing his white, distinguished hair. His heart just ached for his dad who was sixty-seven years old at this point and all his life's work was going up in flames. When he spotted his dad, his dad said: 'Hey, Charles, where is your mom?' Charles said: 'I don't know.' He said: 'Go get your mom, she will never see anything like this again in her life.' They stood there and they watched it. The next day as he was going through the rubble, Thomas Edison said: 'You know there is a lot of value in disasters. All my mistakes have been destroyed. We can start anew.' And it was three weeks later that he delivered the first phonograph. He kept the Faith.

"Keep the Faith", not buy into the earthly ways, the collective challenges, the headlines that are there. Ernest Holmes, once again from this particular chapter, writes:

"Pure Faith is a spiritual conviction;" See it's not thinking, it is a spiritual conviction. It is an unshakable conviction, "It is the acquiescence of the mind, the embodiment of an idea, the acceptance of a concept. If we believe that the Spirit, incarnated in us, can demonstrate, shall we be disturbed at what appears to contradict this? We shall often need to know that the Truth which we announce is superior to the condition we are to change. In other words, if we are speaking from the standpoint of the Spirit, then there can be no opposition to it!"

When we are speaking from the standpoint of Spirit, there can be no opposites.

This spiritual community, our purpose is to create that safe space for us to grow. My vision is that we are able to be here for one another. My vision is that you are able to establish loving, caring, compassionate relationships, that you pick up the phone, that you call one another and say 'I love you, how is your world going?' Take advantage of the opportunities to get involved with one another. You know these things are going on. You know if you are hurting in any way -- reach out. I try to be a mind reader, but I don't know if somebody is hurting. It's up to you to say 'Hey, Christian, I could use a prayer,' or call a practitioner. We are here to "Keep the Faith" to keep that Light going. To be that beacon in this community known as Encinitas, we want this Light to shine brightly so it encompasses all of North County. I'll tell you, though, it has to start right here, where we are, in a collective space. It's as we take care of ourselves, our own, our family that it then begins to reach out. We need your help to do that. We need you to help share the word and the "Keep the Faith". We need you to be able to give from a place of heart and of caring, not because you are looking to get back in your world.

There was this golfer by the name of Robert Davinsenzo. Robert Davinsenzo was a very successful Argentinean golfer who won a tournament one day. Actually, it probably took him several days to win this particular tournament. He was given this wonderful check. Then came all the cameras, the hoopla, the hype that goes with winning a tournament, the joy in the clubhouse. When it all died down at the end of the day, and the parties were over, he was walking back to his car all alone. This lady came out and congratulated and praised him for the wonderful tournament that he had just won. She shared that her young son was gravely ill and would probably die and that she had no money to pay for the doctor bills to assist her son. So, what Robert did was take his winning check, sign it over and pressed it in her hand and said 'Make some good days for your young child.' It's a beautiful story. A week later, he was sitting in the clubhouse talking with some friends. One of the officials from the Golf Association came up and said 'Hey, we heard, one of the caddies out there saw what you did, that you had given that lady your check. Well, we want you to know that that lady's a fraud. She is not married. Her son is not dying. As a matter of fact, she doesn't even have a child. You have been taken.' He said 'You mean there isn't a little sick boy?' He said 'No.' Robert said 'That is the greatest news I've heard all week.'
See, that is giving from heart. That is giving from a place of caring and love, not because you are looking to get back; because you are living from that place so often, it's easy to get caught up in doing good; being a 'do-gooder'; trying to do the right thing because you believe that it is the right thing.

I can remember, a number of years ago, being at somebody's place for dinner. They had a wonderful dinner, vegetables and things, and afterwards, you know, you sit around the table and socialize. I decided I was going to 'do good' and I would go out and clean the dishes. So, I was out there cleaning the dishes and occasionally I would whistle so they would know their faithful servant was selflessly missing out on the social stuff. You know, let them know what I was doing. I finished up on the dishes and there was one pot left. It was a wok. I had never seen one of these things before, but, it was pretty dirty and grimy and rusty. So, I thought 'Boy, I'm going to clean this real good.' I got out the biggest thing of steel wool and SOS pad and I just ground that thing so clear. When my host came in, I held up the pan like a little kid with his finger-painting to say 'Look what I did.' You should have seen her mouth drop down to her knees. She said 'It's taken me three years to get that pan seasoned like that.'

When we are coming, not from the head of trying to do good, but rather, when we are coming from the heart and we are keeping that Faith and knowing that we are listening to that Light. We are listening to that Energy. We are listening to that Spirit. We are being moved. We are no longer being motivated from the exterior, but rather, from the interior of our own being. We are being motivated from a place of absolute connectedness with Spirit. We are not going to be caught up in trying to appear a certain way. We will be in absolute integrity of being who we are, when we are able to shift our reliance from that external to that internal. We are going to watch our walk through life be one that is absolutely exquisite. As long as we are out there trying to do the right thing because we think we are supposed to be doing the right thing, it's going to be empty. It's going to be shallow. It's going to be hollow. That is not where Faith comes from. It comes from a deep place.

Yogananda said: "Etiquette without sincerity is like a beautiful but dead woman." 'Etiquette without sincerity'- doing it without the heart. Just acting because one is supposed to act. That's not what we're about. We are about being motivated from the heart. As long as we are alienated from our true Self, the right choices are going to be hard to make. As long as we are not connected with our Higher Being that we don't know what our innerself sounds like, and I know all of you do. The beautiful music of one voice, didn't it touch you in a way, today, that just reminded you of how good it can be. It can be that way. You have to have Faith in the midst of appearances.
We all have that place, that is inside us. That deep connection with Source that we've been able to feel. I believe that in this place known as Seaside, which is a consciousness that shines, there are many ministers here. People say; 'How many ministers does Seaside have -- one, two, three?' I say we have about 250 ministers here. I believe that each one of you that is able to have that Faith, that conviction is a minister of that Light. People say; 'Where is your Church?' Well, for this person on Monday morning it's in the Court House; this person over here, in the medical building; this person over here it's in the home; this person it's out there on the street, just sharing their ministry wherever they are. See, this is not about one person. It is about each of us going out there, knowing, keeping the Faith -- keeping the Faith of the magnificence of our being in midst of whatever challenges that might be there -- knowing that keeping the Faith brings the Light into that time of darkness. It is up to you to "Keep the Faith" knowing who you are, which is an expression of God, not any lower than the angels, not any child of God. You are Spirit expressing -- magnificent. You have to "Keep the Faith" and your life will reflect that.

My challenge to you is to "Keep the Faith" and feel that liberation.

God bless us all.
 
Rev. Christian Sorensen

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