What Is Our Assignment?

Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith believes we are each inexhaustible in our potential. “We came here,” he says, “for our souls to unfold. If we were to leave today, did we give our gifts? Did we give more blessings than pain? Did we serve? Did we leave a vibrational imprint on the planet? Did we give more than we took?”

Beckwith, one of New Thoughts most respected and recognizable leaders, adds, “We cannot be cowards. We must have the confidence and courage to speak of possibility and to walk in that direction. We see real-life people who have sacrificed their lives to make a difference, following principles that are exactly what we teach.

“This is not piety,” he adds, “but a great sense of celebration.”

Opening us to transformation is his prayer.

In the May issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine, writer Julie Mierau offers some insights into the work already accomplished by Beckwith — in the Agape Center, in the Association for Global New Thought, in his prolific writing — and explores what he believes comes next.

While Beckwith works on a new book, “Take Back Your Mind,” he also seeks to continue to be instrumental in the metaphysical movement, “walking down the mystical corridors of our philosophy,” he says, “yielding to the next stage of our unfoldment. Don’t leave this planet one day before you share your gifts.”

The question ever guiding his work is, “How can we serve?” That, he says, is where we live.

A Community, A Practice,

An Embodiment of Evolving Consciousness

On November 30, 1986, Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City, California, began creating a global community “dedicated to recognizing, honoring and nurturing the dignity and uniqueness of all people.” Its mission statement reads, in part, “We embrace the transformational and evolutionary impulse of the planet through our spiritual practice, sacred service and unconditional love.”

As Agape’s founder and spiritual director, Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith outlines the center’s ongoing focus: to be an example of the next stage of human evolution, to demonstrate the “diversity that leads to a great inclusivity.”

“Everyone here is celebrating the One,” Beckwith says. “We have done what we sought out to do. At times we are called the United Nations of spiritual communities.”

Walking through Agape’s halls, you hear many languages and accents. Agape also gathers people from all the world’s faith traditions, creating a rich diversity that Beckwith says “makes for a beautiful coming together.”

At its core, Agape offers a progressive New Thought message, one that both embraces and transcends the best of all religions and always with a focus on enabling all participants to become the “next great version of themselves.”

“Our strength,” Beckwith explains, “is service. Ultimately, we want each person to be encouraged and inspired to take their gifts to the world.”  At Agape, he says, “We see individuals coming to their wholeness and visioning a kind and just global society. We see whole people catching a vision of great possibility.”

For more information on Agape and its outreach, visit www.AgapeLive.com.

Today, We Celebrate Mother Earth

“End Plastic Pollution” sets the tone for this year’s annual Earth Day celebration, held worldwide on April 22. From injuring marine life to disrupting hormonal balances, from littering our landscapes to clogging our streams, the exponential growth in plastic pollution threatens the very survival of Mother Earth. In response, this year’s celebration is dedicated to providing information and the inspiration needed to fundamentally change human behavior.

On April 22, 1970, millions of people took to the streets to protest the pollution caused by 150 years of industrial development. Earth Day today is a annual global event, with an estimated 1 billion people in 192 countries taking part in what is the largest civic-focused day of action in the world.

For more information on how you can celebrate and take action, visit www.EarthDay.org.

Embrace the Adventure

—Dr. Ernest Holmes

Really, this is the adventure you and I are on. It is a terrific one and it should fire the imagination and the will to action. We are on the adventure of self-discovery through faith, and we are learning the greatest lesson in life — man doesn’t live by bread alone but by a subtle power which flows through everything, a Divine Presence which encompasses everything. Man doesn’t live by will or wishing or hoping or longing. Man lives only because the Divine Life has descended into him.

God comes new and direct to everyone who expects Him, talks to everyone who listens and acts through everyone who imbibes His spirit. The authority of your word, your prayers, your meditation, is in the Law of Good and not in you at all, any more than the authority of gravitational force is in you as a person. That authority is divine; that authority is as absolute as you permit it to be. Our experiment is not with the power or the goodness or the presence or the love or the truth or the beauty of God, but with ourselves.

And so we get right back to that little word of Jesus — if you can believe, then it will be done unto you, and it will be done unto you as you believe. It is the “if” and the “as” to which we must pay attention. If we can believe, then the power is delivered, and it will be delivered as we believe. For this is the way of life. Nor can you or I change one part of it. We can neither add to nor take from the divine fact that God is still in His heaven and that part of His heaven which you and I enjoy is within.

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