Keeping the Faith

There are two handles by which you can

view the unknown future. You can grasp it

by the handle of fear and ask- what is going

to happen now? The second way is to

grasp the handle of faith and know that

God, Buddha or your Divine Power is in

control and forge ahead. For me, faith is

believing when I do not see it. Our culture

says seeing is believing and no doubt we

have quoted that phrase more than once.

For me, my belief in God allows me to trust

and know that believing is seing…..believing

God for the future in advance. Faith is be-

lieving even before we receive it. For ex-

ample, President Kennedy stood before the

nation in 1960 and challenged NASA to

place a man on the moon. This was long

before we had the technology to do some-

thing like this. President Kennedy had a

vision of what would happen before it came

to pass. In situations where we need to

rely on faith, things will always seem impos-

sible until we believe in a higher power for it

to happen.

With faith, we acknowledge the fact that the

universe and all life that resides in it was

created and nurtured by the will of God or

Primordial Buddha. Human beings are spir-

itual forms of life that have been created

from compassion and for great purpose,

and have branched off from the Creator

God or Primordial Buddha. Our Creator

encourages the spiritual evolution of hu-

mankind via the process of reincarnation.

One day, we will all leave this three dimen-

sional world and return to the spirit world.

The things of this world are all transient and

can’t be taken back with us. Faith is the

only thing that can be taken back with us;

and for those that believe, faith opens the

gates of Heaven.

In summary, faith is believing when I don’t

see it, giving when I don’t have it, persisting

when I don’t feel like it, praising even before

I receive it and trusting if I don’t receive as I

planned. All of it begins with a personal

faith in God or our Higher Power.

Be blessed………. and have faith to believe!

Doug

OUR VISION STATEMENT

The Spiritual Light Center is a peaceful

and joyful fellowship of individuals, cen-

tered in love, dedicated to the God within,

and honoring the many paths to truth.

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

We seek to develop our highest selves by

continuous sharing of spiritual ideas, in

an environment of unconditional love and

respect for others.

May 2018 Newsletter

ONGOING EVENTS AT SLC

Every Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Join our group

in the Hall for Movie Night! We enjoy a

good spiritual movie or documentary and

afterward pick a place and go out to eat!

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

May 6, 11 a.m.

Leon Jones has been following his bliss for

many years after selling his business in At-

lanta and moving to Peru where he now

provides many needs for the local children.

He will speak on "Follow Your Bliss."

May 13, 11 a.m. Mother’s Day

Michele Laub holds her Master’s Degree in

Mental Health and School Counseling and

has been a psychotherapist for over 20

years. She is certified in several fields and

is working toward licensure as a S.O.M

practitioner. She will speak on “Keys to

Mothering Yourself.”

May 20, 11 a.m.

Rev. Lisa Rowe is a licensed S.O.M.

practitioner at the Center for Spiritual

Living in Asheville. Metaphysics and

shamanism are her passion as an ex-

plorer and adventurer in life. She will be

sharing with us on “Just Imagine!”

May 27, 11 a.m.

Rev. Ron Lindahn is an ordained staff

member of Center for Spiritual Aware-

ness and expert in Kriya Yoga, as well

as a fine illustrator and photographer.

He will be speaking on “Remember

What You Really Are.”

The Sacred Community of Hendersonville especially invites the SLC community to a summer potluck and walk in the Labyrinth May 20th 4p.m. to 7p.m. at Bishka and Alexander Ravenel’s cabin at 551 Crescent Dr. Saluda, N.C. Bring a dish, a smile and share the love.

SPIRITUAL LIGHT CENTER INFORMATION

80 Heritage Hollow Drive, Franklin, NC 28734

Right behind the Gazebo Restaurant in Heritage Hollow

828-369-3065 slcfranklin@frontier.com

Keeping the Faith

With a Mustard Seed of Faith by Bill Groves

When I was about 17 I got involved in the Charismatic Renewal within the Catholic

Church. I had a solid “faith” and was surrounded by signs and expressions of God’s

power all around me. I observed healings of strangers, of family members, and experi-

enced them myself. The effects of faith were tangible and undeniable.

That was a long time ago. That faith of my youth has never wavered, but my under-

standing of it has changed as my experience has broadened. I’ve traveled many parts

of the world and seen astounding results of faith manifested by people of many reli-

gions. Recognizing that all faith is One did not come to me as the result of theological

study. It came rather objectively by seeing the obvious or “miraculous” evidence of the

Divine at the beckoning of faith from those of diverse religions. The only common de-

nominator in these experiences was faith itself.

I have tried without success to grasp just exactly how faith works, what is the mecha-

nism. I’ve had lots of people try to tell me how faith works, but, in the end, I realized

they were only telling me what they themselves believe, and what works for them. Of-

ten when I tried their techniques I got no results. Does this mean I wasn’t doing it right?

Perhaps. More likely, it worked for them because they believed it, and I lacked that be-

lief. It has occurred to me that if someone truly needs help or healing it would probably

be much more effective to help that person find something they can believe in rather

than try to evangelize them into believing in what works for me. That may be easier

said than done because I’d have to get my ego out of the way.

Fundamental evangelists have hardly cornered the market of evangelization. It’s abso-

lutely everywhere. The pharmaceutical industry is always hawking drugs that, if you’d

just buy them, would make you happier, slimmer, healthier, and have a better sex life.

Just take our pill and say no to that pesky

dysfunction! It seems every small group of

people has at least a few who, whenever

they get excited about a new fad, book, or

healing practice, they won’t sit still until

they’ve nagged everyone into buying into it.

It worked for me so it must work for every-

one! Or not. If the Universe worked like a

slot machine then everyone who puts a

quarter into that slot and says the magic

words should get the same Kewpie Doll.

For some reason it doesn’t work out that way. The variable element is faith. It works

because of what you personally believe, not the magic words you say. Still, the magic

words may boost your faith, which is the operative element.

Most of us have read a book or two that has deeply affected us. One that turned my

head around was Timeless Healing by Herbert Benson, M.D. Dr. Benson is considered

the world’s foremost authority on the Placebo Effect. Strictly speaking, the Placebo Ef-

fect is what explains why a sugar pill will work to get rid of a headache if you think it’s an

aspirin. I’ve heard that the pharmaceutical industry is required to write off one third of

the effectiveness of any new drug being tested as being the result of the Placebo Effect.

I just did some research and the big majority of resources I found said it is generally

considered that 50% of drug effectiveness is due to the Placebo Effect. That says if you

believe something will work, it likely will work. Because you believe it. In a study Dr.

Benson reported, pregnant women were told they were being given an effective heart-

burn medication, but were instead given something that was known to cause heartburn.

A significant majority experienced heartburn relief. Go figure.

This works on animals too. If you encourage a pet to believe

something will help them, the chances it will help go way up. If

you tell a bunch of partiers they are drinking an alcoholic bever-

age, they’ll “get drunk”, complete with impaired judgment, motor

control and even lowered IQ. Placebo pills even work after

you’ve told the person they’re taking a placebo. If they found it

worked before, it will keep working even when told it wasn’t the

real thing. Many in drug studies choose to continue taking the

placebo even after they’re told that’s what it is. It works! Pills in

your favorite color and with a brand name stamped on them work

better than generic looking pills do. Medical testing has shown

that fake surgeries can be just as effective as the real thing. If the

patient wakes up with a scar and medical personnel say the sur-

gery was successful, then it usually does the job, even if no real

surgery was done. And it’s cheaper, with fewer side effects!

The dark side of this is called the Nocebo Effect. If you believe

something negative will happen, it’s probably gonna happen. In a

study of men taking Finasteride for enlarged prostates, half were told it might cause

erectile dysfunction. Of the group told of this side effect, 44% reported erectile dysfunc-

tion compared to only 15% of the group that were not told this. Fear is a crippler.

As I said earlier, I’ve tried without success to figure out how all this works. I just know it

does, without a doubt. That is why I have chosen to be part of a spiritual family that

does not tell people what to believe. We say we “honor all paths to God”. I only want to

help a person become more solid in their faith, but never tell them what to believe. Yes,

it is clear to me that believing in an angry anthropomorphic male God in the sky is a

very limiting and likely a hobbling thing

to believe. But I’d rather encourage

someone with a strong trust in such a

God than to attack, put down, and

trash their faith leaving them with

nothing but broken hopes. I’ve seen

folks with beaming smiles whose fun-

damentalist faith has moved moun-

tains for them. Who in the literal Hell

am I to go up to them and tell them

their faith is second fiddle to mine?

The fact is they believe, and if they

have faith it will work, just like mine. If

they become ready to move on to a

less restricting faith, then I’d be glad to

make suggestions, if asked.

In Matthew 17 Yeshua said, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard

seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing

will be impossible for you." He did not go on to clarify exactly and precisely what that

faith must be in. If he did not, neither will I. I know my faith works even though the ob-

ject of that faith has shifted over the years. Earlier in my life I believed it was God the

Father working through his son Jesus that answered my prayers. It worked for me.

Now I believe that I co-create the answer to my prayers with the power of the Divine

working through me. For me, the “Divine” is the Creator underlying all reality, his son

Jesus/Yeshua, and the many other manifestations and entities of the Light living in spirit

or flesh working with and through my willing being. And you know what? Although my

theology has changed, I don’t think my faith works any better now than it did before. As

long as I have had faith, it has worked.

If we recognize it is faith itself that works we will be far less critical, controlling and

judgmental of what other’s believe, whether we are talking about religion, spirituality,

medicine, or even where to invest your money. It is our faith, our spiritual imagination,

which manifests our life as it is. If I’m all gung ho in influencing someone to accept my

beliefs, it is very unlikely that I’d be doing so to help the other person, although I’d al-

most certainly tell myself that was my motivation. Controlling and manipulating others

to accept what I believe is done to make me more secure in my own beliefs. That is

motivated by fear and ego. Most likely it will only confuse and irritate the object of our

“evangelization” who is trying to find their own personal faith to empower them. No one

has ever accomplished anything with your faith. It first had to be theirs. Please, let’s be

respectful of that. Help empower others by first asking what they believe, and then

speak only to help them discover and build their own faith from a mustard seed into a

force which can truly move mountains.

What Are Spirituality and Faith? Not What Most

People Think by Steve McSwain, Huffington Post

Spirituality is not declaring, “The Bible says it; I believe it; that

settles it.” That settles nothing. Such proclamations sound

certain, as if the person making them is living by faith.

Want to know the truth? Most likely it is this: declarations like

these are often confused for faith, and no one is more be-

mused by them than the one who makes the declaration.

Declarations of absolute certainty succeed only in hiding

people from the reality of their own fear, as well as their ina-

bility (or refusal) to genuinely live by faith, which is learning

how to live in the face of uncertainty.

Faith is learning to live beyond the verbal crutches, without the declarations people

make that delude them into believing they are right, that what they believe is the truth,

that their beliefs are more right than the beliefs of others. This is fundamentalist religion,

and it was mine for decades.

Those who do are driven by the compulsory need to declare they are right — that only

their beliefs are correct — fiercely debate, argue and defend those beliefs. This is like

trying to hold together a straw man in the middle of a wind storm. How do you know

when you are living in the delusion of your own declarations?

How do you feel whenever someone expresses a belief different from your own?

Threatened? Uncomfortable? Or, what goes on inside you when another person ques-

tions your beliefs? Do you react? Defend? Get into debates? Disagreements? Do you

feel the need to correct someone for what you perceive is the error of their ways?

Or, do you do the opposite — equally revealing of your own lack of faith — and that is to

just withdraw from them, to refuse to engage them. You may write them off, so to

speak, to go your merry way, dismissing them as “lost” or confused while pretending to

be certain with your increasingly loud declarations?

Spirituality is relinquishing the need to control, which is only an illusion anyway. And

what is it that cannot be controlled? Life itself. And what is it that is inexplicable and un-

controllable about Life itself? Well, pretty much everything.

This is the explanation for why religion, and religious people, become dogmatic, narrow-

minded, and absolutely certain that their beliefs are right and others are wrong. This is

the spiritual illness of our time and it is anything but genuine faith.

Faith is so much more than the declarations you make. It is a life you live. It is life lived

in the face of uncertainty which cannot be controlled. Saint Paul put it like this: “Now

faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews

11:1). In other words, faith is an inner feeling of peace, of confidence, of certainty that,

even though you cannot see anything clearly, that’s OK. You no longer must have cer-

tainty. This is the paradox — in uncertainty you find certainty. It’s only when you try to

make things around you absolute, certain, safe that you really have given up a life of

faith in exchange for a collection of beliefs. You then make an idol of the Bible, for ex-

ample, saying things about it — how it is “infallible,” “inerrant,” “the absolute truth” —

and so create the illusion of certainty instead of the truth of uncertainty.

Begin today to live by faith, genuine faith, instead of empty proclamations. This means

give up the illusion of control. In other words, exchange your catalogue of beliefs — be-

liefs that can only reward you with the illusion of certainty and security. Instead, allow

inner peace to emerge. It will. Naturally and with no effort on your part own. This is the

meaning of faith. It is your natural state of existence.

You could think of faith as this inner, quiet confidence that, even though you cannot see,

predict or control anything, it is no longer necessary to do so. How might you have this

kind of faith? Give up looking for it. You have it already. Don’t try to control. This will

take practice, however, lots of it in fact. Make it your spiritual practice to release — to

relinquish the compulsory need to control and you’ll begin to make the wonderful dis-

covery that easterners know and describe as, “the wisdom of uncertainty” — what Saint

Paul called, “the evidence of things not seen.” You will begin to feel certain in the face of

uncertainty. This is the mystery. You cannot explain it. You can, however, experience it.

It is the meaning of spirituality.

Faith Healing

Shouldn't Work, but

It Does by Nigel Barber Ph.D.,

Psychology Today

From a scientific perspective, faith

healing is unexplained, incompre-

hensible, and should not work. Yet

it does work. The same is true of

drug placebo effects, of course.

Scientists recognize that there are

placebo effects but have great

trouble accounting for them.

If you grew up in a superstitious country, chances are you experienced faith healing.

Here are some examples from my own childhood in Ireland:

-Children born after their father's death were understood to have the cure for thrush, a

throat infection.

-The seventh son of a seventh son had special powers, such as the ability to cure ring-

worm.

-A cure for warts was inherited in some families.

Such traditional faith healers generally practiced for free, although strangers might wish

to compensate them for their inconvenience with a small gift. Given that these services

were genuinely free, and given that faith healers considered it immoral to demand pay-

ment for their special gift, they were widely used. What of the results?

One year, my sisters and I became infected with ringworm from contact with farm ani-

mals. The man with the cure was a local bachelor farmer who could be encountered

early in the morning harvesting mushrooms in our pasture. He welcomed us to his cot-

tage and treated our ringworm by drawing a wedding ring across each lesion, making

the sign of the cross. "They should be gone in a month," he said. Sure enough, all dis-

appeared in about three weeks.

A close friend had a similar experience with warts. The faith healer knotted pieces of

knitting wool above each wart, without touching it, while reciting a Hail Mary. The warts

fell off within a month.

Most scientists cope with such evidence through simple skepticism. Perhaps the osten-

sible "cure" had no connection with the outcome. Without treatment, the course of re-

covery would be exactly the same. It is certainly true that ringworm undergoes sponta-

neous healing. This is a seasonal phenomenon, however with the rash characteristically

flourishing during wet or humid seasons spontaneous recovery would have required

several months, not a few weeks. The

girl had also had her warts for at least

two years, so their accidental recovery

in a month was even more unlikely.

It is always hard to make much sense

of such anecdotal phenomena to the

satisfaction of scientists but faith heal-

ing seems to evoke a placebo effect,

not unlike the use of drugs to treat peo-

ple who are mildly depressed (and

therefore experience no true pharmaco-

logical response to the medicine).

When people receive a prescription drug, such as Zoloft, or Paxil, they expect improve-

ment and are fair game for a strong placebo response. Why should recipients of faith

healing expect to get better? Several elements of the situation conspire to give patients

the expectation that they will get better.

To begin with, there are traditions about which individuals acquire the gift to heal a spe-

cific malady. Notice how the pagan aspects of faith healing or "superstition" are com-

bined with Christianity so as to convey the impression that different supernatural forces

are working on the problem. Social pressure might also be a factor as we feel pressure

to believe in the cure after the manner of The Emperor's New Clothes.

If there is a history of successful outcomes, then people who consult the faith healer are

likely to show up because they already have a positive expectation of cure, even if they

consider themselves too sophisticated to be taken in by magical thinking.

By means unknown, faith healing is evidently capable of boosting immune function. This

would explain why minor lesions clear up faster than would otherwise be the case.

Since placebos account for half of the effects of non surgical medicine (which may be

too conservative) then faith healing is a trillion-dollar industry in the U.S.

All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have

not seen. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one

without faith, no explanation is possible. ~St. Thomas Aquinas

Faith is knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of

proof. ~Kahlil Gibran

Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose

ways you may not understand at the time

~Oswald Chambers

Faith is a bird that feels dawn breaking and sings while it is still dark.

~Rabindranath Tagore

Fear knocked at the door and faith answered. No one was there. ~English Proverb

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

~Martin Luther King, Jr.

◄ April May 2018 June ►

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1

4:30 p.m. Movie Night

2

3

4

5

6

11:00 Service

Leon Jones

7

8

4:30 p.m. Movie Night

9

10

11

12

13 Mother’s Day 11:00 Service

Michele Laub

14

15

4:30 p.m. Movie Night

16

17

18

19

20

11:00 Service

Lisa Rowe Sacred Community of Hendersonville Pot Luck 4-7 p.m.

21

22

4:30 p.m. Movie Night

23

24

25

26

27

11:00 Service

Rev. Ron LIndahn (Potluck Sunday)

28

29

4:30 p.m. Movie Night

30

31