One Spirit MinistriesChange Your Thinking, Change Your Life! |  |
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Easter Service CHURCH OF THE GREAT SPIRIT a.k.a. GOD's CHURCH A Gathering Place for Spiritual Sharing and Healing Welcome to God's Church, a universal, non-denominational, inter-faith gathering of God's children to worship God and promote spiritual healing and growth regardless of any religious affiliation or background. We use non-exclusionary language in our services and read from the Great World Scriptures of difference religious/philosophical traditions. God's Church does not ask anyone to give up their religion as there are many paths that lead to God. However, we do advocate the Law of Oneness, recognizing and accepting the holiness and interconnectedness of all life. We view all living beings as manifestations of God. 1. Prelude: "Let us worship God in God's many names and forms: Universal Intelligence or Consciousness, the Light, the Great Void or Nothingness, Yahweh, Allah, Brahma, Divine Mother, Mother Earth, etc.... or in God's many paths: Christ, Krishna, Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, etc.... Let us invite in the spirits and the little creatures, as God is in all." "God is a Spirit and They that worship must worship Spirit and Truth. God is Sat, Chitt, and Ananda (Truth, Knowledge, and Bliss)." 2. Call to Worship: "O come let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before our maker-sustainer-changer, our Mother-Father God. We are the beings of God's pasture and the sheep of God's hand. 3. Invocation: "Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for Mother-Father God will be your everlasting light." (Isa. 60:20) 4. Doxology: "Glory be to the Mother-Father Creator, the Daughter-Son Sustainer, and the Holy Spirit Changer as it was in the beginning, is now and ever will be world without end. Amen." 5. Dedication (Sankalpa): May the fruits of this worship service which belong to God give enlightenment to all living beings and alleviate the pain, misery, and suffering of the myriad sentient/feeling beings throughout the universe. 6. Special Messages or Service Theme: Christ Realization - When did Jesus become Christ? 7. Hymn 1 - It is Well with My Soul 8. Offertory and Three Homages: We offer the merits of today's scripture readings to All so that they may be able to obtain the Truth. "Homage to all the Buddhas in all the Worlds. Homage to all the Bodhisattvas in all the Worlds. Homage to the Scriptures of Great Wisdom." 8. Introductions/Readings from the Great Scriptures of the World: Passage 1: Matthew 26, 27, & 28. 9. Pastoral Message: The Last Week, Easter We begin our Easter story with Jesus Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, sitting on an ass and an ass's colt, with people laying garments, tree branches, palms in his way as he passes. During this last week in Jerusalem, Jesus teaches and heals many, including Hebrew scribes and Pharisees (priests). At the house of Simon the Leper, a woman prepares Jesus' body for burial by anointing him with rare oils. At the same time, Judas Iscariot makes arrangements with the chief priest, Caiaphas, to betray Jesus for 30 silver coins. The first day of Passover, the festival of unleavened bread, Jesus sends his disciples into the city to prepare for the evening meal. At the Passover meal, Jesus prepares the disciples for his own death. He uses the wine and bread to symbolize the new covenant with God. After the meal and singing of a hymn, they go to the Mount of Olives where Jesus alerts the disciples to the fact that they will fall in to the clutches of temptation. He tells Peter that he will deny Jesus thee times before the cock crows thrice the next morning. Jesus retreats to Gethsemane and prays to God to have the cup (the karma) of suffering removed from him. Judas kisses Jesus as the signal to identify Jesus to the guards; the guards arrest him. Peter tries to fight the kingdom of heaven's battle with the sword, chopping off the ear of one of the guards. Jesus admonishes Peter about violence and heals the guard. The guards deliver him to Caiaphas, the chief priest, who tries to preserve his priestly kingdom by going on a search for evidence against Jesus. Before the Pharisees, Jesus announces that his return to the kingdom will be a grand sight. At the sound of the rooster's crow, Peter's heart is pierced with repentant guilt as he denies Jesus. Judas' heart is struck with unbelieving guilt, and he end his life with the hanging cord of suicide. Unsuccessful, Caiaphas has Jesus delivered to Pontiat Pilate who bears the crown of the governorship, and in lieu of the murderer Barbaras, he condemns Jesus to death though he can find no guilt in Jesus. The soldiers mock Jesus with a crown of thorns and nail him to the cross on Calvery hill. A sign is placed over his head: "Jesus King of the Jews". Two thieves who are crucified with him. The crowd joins in the cruelty and mockery. After Jesus cries out in forsakenness, asking God not to abandon him, one of the soldiers begin to offer him vinegar. Upon His death, the veil in the temple splits, the earth shakes and the dead are raised. Jesus' body is retrieved and placed in the rock vault of the rich merchant Joseph, awaiting the 3rd day of Passover, now known as Easter. A huge stone is placed at the mouth of the tomb to seal it off. Pilate posts a guard overnight to ensure no one steals the body. On the morning of the end of the Sabbath, the third day, an angel comes, rolls back the stone, and sits upon it. The angel tells Mary Magdalene and the other Mary that Jesus is no longer there, but has risen from the dead and is to be seen in Galilee by many. As the two women leave the tomb to tell the other disciples of the good news, they meet the risen Jesus and worship him. Jesus tells them to tell the others to go to Galilee; there they all shall see him. And so it was. In Galilee, the risen Christ came to them saying: "lo, I am with you always, even onto the end of the world... Follow me." Why was all this done? To fulfill the Old Testament prophesies, to pay off our karmic debt, the "cup", to bring us, the human race, out of the depths that we had sunk to, to bring us back to God, to show us the way, the path, that is was possible... Let us follow Jesus, let him be our role model. REFLECTIONS Realize, he did it, and so can we. But we each must assume responsibility for our own karmic debts and spiritual growth. We each must become our own Messiahs through the realization of our own Christ Consciousness, through the transformation of consciousness from the physical body to the spiritual body, as Jesus did. When did the man Jesus become Christ? Was it when he was born, or baptized, at the transfiguration, or on the cross, or when his spirit body rose, or when his physical body resurrected, or at the final ascension? We must know this to understand the process. We must discern the difference between risen, resurrection, reincarnation and ascension; we must choose our own course. Will we, - our spirit bodies, rise and ascend to God, becoming one for eternity, or will we reincarnate into the cycles of life and death, or will we seek resurrection of the physical body? (similar to reviving after a death or near death experience). What is your choice? 13. Silent Meditation: Let us center ourselves & focus on the God within, the inner Sadguru, the Higher Self. Realize that that God is within each of us & that we are all part of the same One. Know that we are each droplets in the Divine Ocean of God. Let us experience the Ocean. Let us be one. Let us meditate and pray to that purpose. Let us merge into the One for Eternity. Visualize it; feel it; live it; and be it. 14. Prayer and Commendation: "Our Mother-Father God, take our bodies and our minds and make them wholly yours. Let your will, not our will or desires, be done. Help us to free ourselves of attachments to people and things of this material world so that we may better love and serve you and our fellow living beings. To those who need healing at any level of their being, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically, let them receive that healing now, at this moment, and in keeping with thy will. Let those we have named this morning receive the merits of this prayer as well as the homeless, the starving, the sick, the dying, the disabled, the abused, those mourning the loss of loved ones, and the victims of aggression in all nations, the earth, and throughout the universe. Let them know and feel your mercy and love. Let peace prevail. May they be healed as we channel light, God's energy, to them. Into thy hands, our Mother-Father God, we commend our mind, body, emotions, and spirit. We are totally yours and we submit to your will. That we may suffer no more, free us from our attachments, expectations, and negative desires. Lead us from darkness to light, from unreality to reality, from death to immortality. As your humble servants, we seek to be one with you and all living beings, now and forever. Love and guide us to that end." "Om Kara Sat Nam Sri Wahe Guru" - One sound, essence of Truth, Mother-Father Creator of the Universe, awesome knowledge that dispels ignorance, we bow to thee. 15. Universal Seal: "HUM, OM, AUM, AMIN, AMEN" 16. Offering (Love Donation): "Hear the words of the Great Prophets and Scriptures of the World. Freely ye have received, freely give. 17. Offering Dedication: "All things come of thee, O Mother-Father God, and of thine own have we given thee. God has given us the right to use things in external reality or the material world while we are here, but true ownership belongs to God. Blessed be God who daily gives us benefits and leads us to our salvation, to freedom, to eternal life." 18. Announcements and Invitation to New Members: If you would like to joint our Church of the Great Spirit or merely wish to give us feedback on our worship service, we invite you to send an e-mail message to me. Thank you. Rev. Holly A. Heinz 19. Benediction: "May you all be blessed with health, abundance, knowledge, and opportunities for spiritual growth. May the almighty omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient Mother-Father God bless and keep you." 20. Sign of Peace - Namaste!
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