We have had the delightful privilege of officiating at several beautiful weddings this summer, and each one is unique and special. One of the biggest issues the couple deals with in the wedding planning seems to have nothing to do with the ceremony. It involves who to invite! Have you ever turned down an invitation to attend someone’s wedding? It seems like a simple decision … but it can have an incredible spiritual impact!

In Matthew 22:2-14, that’s exactly what happened.  First, let us share an “updated” version! It all begins begins with, “The kingdom of heaven is like …:

A CEO Facebooked, Tweeted, and e-mailed wedding invitations for his son, then sent his staff to re-invite those he had already contacted online. That seems a little redundant, but that’s what he did. Despite the personally delivered second invitation, the guests refused to come.

So the CEO invited the guests a third time. He instructed the staff to tell the prospective guests that Emeril Agassi was preparing the meal and that it would be wonderful.

He reminded the guests that he had two big screen TVs, Wii games they could play, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, three saunas, four hot tubs, plenty of hor d overs, and enough drinks for everyone.

But the prospective guests still ignored the invitation.

Some of the guests said they were too busy. They had other things to do. Others were so irritated at the invitation that they went postal and killed the CEO’s staff. So the CEO hired the Russian mafia and had all of the guests assassinated who were responsible for killing his staff.

The CEO told his remaining staff to e-mail, Tweet, Skype, and Facebook as many people as they could and invite them to his son’s wedding. It didn’t matter who the people were. He just wanted people in seats at the wedding.

But when the CEO came in to see the guests, he noticed one of the guests was not wearing the proper black tie attire. So he approached the man and asked why he wasn’t properly dressed. The man was both surprised and speechless. Without further ado the CEO had the man handcuffed and thrown out of the banquet hall.

For many are invited, but few are chosen.

 Wow! That would be a wedding to remember! The thing is, this story, like many Bible stories, is not meant to be taken literally. Whenever a Biblical account seems bizarre or convoluted, you can bet your lottery ticket it is a signal to look for its deeper spiritual truth.

Look at how this story begins: “The kingdom of heaven is like…” and then the next 13 verses are filled with rudeness, violence, and murder. That’s not the kind of heaven we envision. How ‘bout you? Look, we’ve all been brought up in conventional religious traditions. We are all refugees from embedded theology. That’s why we’re drawn to this search for deeper Truth. We know there’s more to the Bible than the Bible we grew up with.

Killing your guests because they refused to come to your wedding. Please! And that’s what the kingdom of heaven is like? We don’t think so! In its literal version, this story is selling fear, self-righteous murder, and violence. In its literal version it reads like a breaking news segment on CNN.

Here’s another, more sane view, from a Spiritual perspective. This metaphysical snapshot should clear this story up very nicely :

• The kingdom of heaven represents the process of becoming one with the Christ Presence within us.
• The CEO or king, as the scripture reads, is God, the Eternal One, Divine Mind, the First Cause, or whatever name you use to describe the One Reality that is All That Is.
• The wedding invitation is the call to marry our human self with our Christ Self (the two shall be one – human self and divine self).
• The wedding banquet is the Unlimited, Omnipresent Substance which is readily available to us each-consecutive-moment-of-now.
• The servants(staff) are spiritual thoughts, ideas, and divine inclinations.
• The killing and murder represent our neglect, refusal, disinterest in, and failure to apply truth principles.
• Inviting anyone and everyone symbolizes our willingness and openness to change old habits and belief systems.
• The man improperly dressed represents our attempt to understand spiritual truths with a material consciousness.
• Binding the man’s hands and feet and tossing him into the darkness means that we are unable to do the work we have come here to do as long as we remain in the dark about our true nature.

In a nutshell, this story has this to say to us:

Becoming aware of our innate divinity is like this: The first thing we’ve got to understand is that the allness of God is in the eachness of us. We must realize that we have total and complete access to incredible abundance, unless we choose to deny our innate divinity and neglect to apply truth principles.

When we fail to apply Truth principles, we handcuff our spiritual growth and remain unaware of our incredible Christ potential. We remain in the dark.

But if we accept the divine invitation to be the best Christ we can be, we will be able to have anything we want on the banquet table — things like health, inner strength,        happiness, compassion,  inner peace, unconditional love,  self-confidence,  wisdom, joy, unlimited prosperity.

Every one of these “delicious dishes” can be yours. But you’ve got to show up at the wedding. You’ve got to accept the divine  invitation. You’ve got to enter the banquet hall prepared to accept your good.

In her book Dare to Believe, May Rowland, Director of Silent Unity for over 55 years said: “I remembered from the teachings of Charles Fillmore that Jesus Christ made a rent in the materialistic consciousness and showed us the way back to God, thus shortening the evolutionary period of our spiritual development by millions of years.”

You, too, can rent the veil of materialism and take your place at the banquet table of peace, abundance, and prosperity.

Imagine what a world we could create, imagine what your life could be, if each of us married our human self with our Christ Self, our True Self!

We could live happily ever after. Why not start right now ?

Isn’t the Pause Button a wonderful invention? It allows us to stop the action on a TV show, movie, or YOUtube video so we don’t miss anything! Wouldn’t it be great if we had a Pause Button for life? Sometimes it feels like things are just moving way too quickly. This Sunday, discover how you can experience the amazing transformation of using the Spiritual Pause Button you have within. Your life will never be the same!

Spiritual Pause Poem

By Rev. Bil Holton, Ph.D.

Most of us have home alarm systems. We set them when we’re at home or away and feel safer for doing so. And if it ever goes off in a real emergency the dispatcher’s voice chimes in asking for the password. Because homeowners are the only ones who know the password, intruders know they only have minutes to leave before the police come.

How many of you have ever set your alarm off by accident? After your initial surprise and irritation with yourself for having set the alarm off, don’t you feel a sense of relief knowing that an end to the noise – is just a password away?

Remember when you were children and you had your first nightmare? Wasn’t it comforting when one of your parents came rushing into your bedroom and said, “It’s okay. I’m here.” The sound of a parent’s voice and a parent’s presence were all you needed to feel safe again.

Remember a time more recently when you were in a panic, or lost, or going through a difficult time.  Remember how it felt when you called a friend. The sound of his or her voice on the other end of the line was all you needed to regain your composure.

We’ve all been in situations like that. The voice I want to talk about in this article is another voice: the world’s greatest alarm system. It is an alarm we WANT to hear! It is the  ‘still small voice’ – which allows us to see things from the Christ perspective. And we hear that voice in three ways:

• when we’re relaxed,
• when we meditate, and
• when we pray.

If our consciousness is Christ–centered, we will hear the ‘still small voice.’ We cannot go astray if we get really good at hearing the voice. When we meditate, or just relax, we receive intuitions. These intuitive flashes are the ‘still small voice’ saying: “Here’s the answer. Do this. Don’t do that. Wait. Don’t wait.

Intuitions are cosmic emails from the Christ Presence within us. They are our Christness talking to us. Because we are the Christ expressing as us, we are already pre-wired to recognize the voice. It’s in our spiritual DNA. We are password protected because we have immediate assess to the greatest security system in the world: the still small voice. And the password is: Peace be still.

You and I are the Christ expressing as us and so we can claim perfect health and wholeness.

We are the Christ expressing as us and so we have the power and the wisdom to handle any situation.

We are the Christ expressing as us and so we have all of the finances we need to do the work we have come here to do.

We are the Christ expressing as us and so the answers to our most pressing questions can come to us with speed, ease, comfort, and joy.

We are the Christ expressing as us and so we can enjoy a life filled with happiness and prosperity.

When we listen to the ‘still small voice,’ an intuitive flash, an aha , a cosmic email, we will always stay in integrity. The ‘still small voice’ comes when we are peaceful, when we are composed, when we are prayerful.

We will master the art of living when we master the art of prayer.

We will master the art of living when we master the art of meditation.

We will master the art of living when we master the art of relaxation.

We will master the art of living when we master the arts of forgiveness, and kindness, and compassion, and service.

The really neat thing about it is we all have the same password. The password is: Peace be still.

Whatever you’ve got facing you this week – a health challenge, more month left than money, an anorexic checking account, unemployment, uncertainty… Listen to your intuition, the ‘still small voice.’ And remember: You are password protected!

Armand and Angelina have been well-known on the Unity circuit for a long time … but now they are spreading their wings! They appeared on America’s Got Talent, and were voted by the judges to move on to Vegas! And we are fortunate to have them scheduled to appear right here, on our own stage, at USLC with a musical talk entitled “I Now Pronounce Us…Not Guilty!”

Revs. Bil & Cher continue their series for June, entitled “How to Become a Spiritual Techie!” ~ focusing on some of today’s most popular technology as a metaphor for the incredible spiritual growth tools we have at our disposal, for instant connections and high speed access!

This week, our title is “The Power of Spiritual Tweets!” Twitter has become quite a phenomenon, with people varying in their assessment of its usefulness. But the concept of Twitter, and the tweets we send, has a powerful message for our spiritual growth and development. Come this week to discover what Spiritual Tweets are, and how they can catapult us to new levels of awareness of our Oneness!

Revs. Bil & Cher begin a brand new series for June, entitled “How to Become a Spiritual Techie!” We will be using some of today’s most popular technology as a metaphor for the incredible Spiritual tools we have at our disposal, for instant connections and high speed access!

This week, we introduce the series with “There’s an App for That!” It seems no matter what need you have with your smart phone, someone will jump in and say, “Oh, there’s an app for that!” This Sunday, discover the best Spiritual “apps” we have accessibility to, that can literally transform the experience of living! You’ll even learn how to “download” them … no phone needed … no extra charge!

This Sunday Revs. Bil & Cher continue their 3-week Prosperity Series that brings us back to the basics of what Prosperity is, from Unity and Spiritual perspectives, and shares more of the formula to manifest Prosperity in all areas of your life! This week, we share what F1 and F2 represent, and give you tools to experience them in your life! You WILL see results — sometimes instantly!

This Sunday Revs. Bil & Cher continue their 3-week Prosperity Series that brings us back to the basics of what Prosperity is, from Unity and Spiritual perspectives, and shares a formula to manifest Prosperity in all areas of your life! This week, we share what PET and GC respresent, and give you tools to experience them in your life! You WILL see results — sometimes instantly!

This Sunday Revs. Bil & Cher begin a 3-week Prosperity Series that begins by bringing us back to the basics of what Prosperity is, from Unity and Spiritual perspectives. Discover what the foundational Principles are to guarantee your prosperity, and take away a newly-modified, updated Prosperity Formula that Revs. Bil & Cher have created based on their study and meditation. It is going to be the beginning of awesome change, as we declare our place, standing firm in the Truth of Abundance and Divine Flow!

Download the Handout from the Podcast

As we continue our walk towards the great day of Easter, Revs. Bil & Cher offer Part 3 in their unique look at some of the key events surrounding title=”Resurrection of Jesus” rel=”wikipedia” href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_of_Jesus”>the resurrection of Jesus. This Sunday, we take a look at the Great Entrance into Jerusalem — known as Palm Sunday … from both the literal and metaphysical perspectives. Learn how we make this Great Entrance in our own Spiritual journey, and how we can capitalize on it to experience abundant living!