Universal Life Church Monastery of Massachusetts: January 2015

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

HEALTH: Eating healthy

Eating healthy is important, but try not to become stressed out if everything you eat is not considered healthy. Balance is key. Sometimes we cannot afford to buy all organic foods and that’s alright. Inorganic foods have nutritional value as well.

I Corinthians 10:31states, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

Making the effort to change your eating habits from unhealthy to healthy is wonderful, but be careful not to go to the extreme. God tells us that whatever we eat or drink, do it for his glory. If you are only able to eat inorganic foods, or you eat foods that aren’t very healthy once in awhile, don’t give yourself a hard time. Be thankful for the food, ask God to bless it to your body, and be sure to give God thanks.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

LIFE: Live life

“Live Life” is a term that we hear very often, but it is understood by very few people. People believe in being happy and for them happiness means to have everything perfect and having no worries in life. No life is perfect; one cannot have all the luxuries in the world- everyone has to face the ups and downs of life. To enjoy one’s life, he has to feel life, as Lord Byron says “the great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain.”

One of the greatest blessings in life is to feel the thrill, the adrenaline pumping, and heartbeat rising. That is when one knows one is enjoying life. One can live life by feeling every aspect of life-happiness and pain, success and loss, and only then has one truly existed.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

LIFE: Positive thoughts

Recently a lot of research has gone into the as yet unexplored power of the mind-how, by merely thinking and focusing on positive thoughts, hopes and aspirations, one can make them actualize into living realities. It is explained by some as the science of energy, and the ‘law of attraction’ by others: by thinking positive thoughts, one exudes positive vibes into the universe, and simultaneously, attracts positive energy to one’s self from the cosmos.

For many old school-ers, however, such abstract concepts are hard to visualize and digest. Hence for them, it can be explained in the words of the Bible “Through prayer, you can gain control of any negative, self-defeating thoughts and turn your life around. Just tell yourself: “I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13) Which explains the above mentioned concept in simpler words: by keeping a positive outlook to life, by hoping, meditating and reflecting upon all that is positive, life tends to become miraculously easier.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

LIFE: Questions

One of the questions most frequently asked us is what we want to do in our lives. From the time we begin to speak, this favorite query of all and sundry plagues us till we are fit into some stereotypical role that they have outlined for us already, irrespective of our wishes and desires.

Although, after a certain point, the world stops demanding an answer to it, this central concern of our being continues to haunt man from the inside, incessantly trying to figure out our purpose of being, the meaning of our existence, what role we have in this great play of the universe. The Bible gives a clear cut answer to this question, by defining explicitly what the purpose of man in this life should be when it says: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” To achieve something bigger than the gratification of one’s own needs; to move beyond the mere Self, and enable one to contribute to the world and humanity.

Thursday, January 1, 2015

LIFE: Static mind

The greatest threat to life is a static mind. An uninspired individual, thoughtlessly following the dictates of society does not hold the power to add anything to the already existing pool of human knowledge and experience. When one willfully gives up his faculty to think and reason for himself, to make active decisions, bogged down by the mundane reality of everyday activities, he kills his propensity to give life to new ideas.

The Bible instructs us to break out of this induced insipidity when it says: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Our individuality and uniqueness, the faculty of our imaginations and our souls, when inspired and allowed to manifest themselves, are what create life, and reassert the being and message of God.