Contents
Contents
Contents
“Foreword”: So Much the Better by Leonard Sweet
“Week 1 Sunday”: We Begin the Quest; Monday: Is There a Cosmic Presence?; Tuesday: God Fading Out; Wednesday: We Cannot Live by a No; Thursday: Could the Universe Have Happened by Chance?; Friday: The Intelligent Out of the Nonintelligent?; Saturday: God in the Unexplained Gaps?
“Week 2 Sunday”: Our Pegs Come Down; Monday: Science and Religion; Tuesday: The Five Steps of Science; Wednesday: The Kingdom of God Is within You; Thursday: Working with or against the Kingdom; Friday: The Laws of the Kingdom Are Self-acting; Saturday: Walking with the Lights
“Week 3 Sunday”: The Kingdom of God Is Among You; Monday: The Kingdom Works as Self-frustration; Tuesday: Picking Out a Hypothesis; Wednesday: Our Freedom Complicates God’s Game; Thursday: How God Reveals God; Friday: God Is My Adventure; Saturday: Fastening on Dead Branches
“Week 4 Sunday”: The First Step Upward; Monday: The Second Step; Tuesday: The Third Step; Wednesday: The Fourth Step; Thursday: The Fifth Step; Friday: The Sixth Step; Saturday: The Seventh Step
“Week 5 Sunday”: Review Your Life and Reverse; Monday: Return to God; Tuesday: Renounce, Restore, and Receive; Wednesday: Relating the New Life; Thursday: Released and Releasing; Friday: The Four Stages of Life; Saturday: Swallowing Sunshine
“Week 6 Sunday”: Cultivation; Monday: Segregating Our Enemies; Tuesday: You Are Made for Loyalty to God; Wednesday: Substitutes for God; Thursday: Beginning the Practice of the Presence of God; Friday: Get the Center Right; Saturday: Having Our Being in God
“Week 7 Sunday”: When We Become God; Monday: The Self-centered and the Self-disrupted; Tuesday: Living in a State of Self-reference; Wednesday: Punishment of Egocentricity Is Inherent; Thursday: Out of Sorts with Ourselves and Others; Friday: The Steps Down; Saturday: Egocentricity in Religion
“Week 8 Sunday”: The Third Enemy: Anger, Resentments; Monday: A Good Anger; Tuesday: The Disruptive Effects of Anger; Wednesday: Anger Is Poison; Thursday: Subconscious Resentments; Friday: Anger Dims the Vision; Saturday: Resentments Resulting in Self-pity
“Week 9 Sunday”: How Not to Deal with Resentments; Monday: Further Suggestions for How Not to Deal with Resentments; Tuesday: Forgiving for Christ’s Sake; Wednesday: The Basis of Resentments: An Unsurrendered Self; Thursday: Dissolve Resentments through Prayer and Appreciation; Friday: Loving People for What They May Become; Saturday: Final Steps for Overcoming Resentments
“Week 10 Sunday”: The Fourth Enemy: Fear; Monday: Anxiety as Asset and Liability; Tuesday: Fear and Disease; Wednesday: Fear Is Costly; Thursday: Homegrown Fears; Friday: Physical Effects of Fear; Saturday: The Effect of Fear on Animals and Children
“Week 11 Sunday”: First Step in Deliverance: Complete Honesty; Monday: The Will to Be Well; Tuesday: Every Foe You Face Is a Defeated Foe; Wednesday: Worry Is Atheism; Thursday: Fear Is the Fifth Columnist; Friday: Relax in God’s Presence; Saturday: One Day at a Time
“Week 12 Sunday”: In Quietness and Confidence; Monday: Faith in God’s Faith; Tuesday: Surrendering Our Fears; Wednesday: Getting Rid of Fears by Tasks; Thursday: The Fear of Failure; Friday: Further Fears to Be Conquered; Saturday: The Fear of Deat
“Week 13 Sunday”: Fashioned for Faith and Not for Fear; Monday: Without Faith You Cannot Meet Life’s Emergencies; Tuesday: Fear and Anxieties Keep Us from Being at Our Best; Wednesday: Resolve to Act on No Fear; Thursday: Creating Faith in Other People; Friday: Cultivating Faith; Saturday: Facing Life Cheerfully and with Anticipation
“Week 14 Sunday”: A Sense of Unresolved Guilt; Monday: Psychiatry Can Be Disruptive; Tuesday: What Are You, My Brother? Wednesday: Relaxing in the Presence of God; Thursday: Bringing Up Anything Touchy; Friday: Back to Normal with the Help of God; Saturday: Turn from Yourself to Christ
“Week 15 Sunday”: Negativism and Inferiority Attitudes; Monday: Touchy People and Unsure People; Tuesday: Made for Positive Achievement; Wednesday: Do Not Dress Up Negativism as a Friend; Thursday: Frustrating Myself; Friday: Shut Your Mind against All Negative Thoughts; Saturday: No Illusions of Grandeur!
“Week 16 Sunday”: Your Possibilities in God; Monday: Doing What You Can’t! Tuesday: The Man Jesus Saw; Wednesday: Look Beyond Self to God; Thursday: A Problem-centered Gaze Is Unhealthy; Friday: The Kingdom Belongs to You! Saturday: The Kingdom Speaks When You Speak
“Week 17 Sunday”: Receptivity: The First Law of Life; Monday: Response: The Second Law of Life; Tuesday: Never Alone! Wednesday: Your Handicaps Your Handles! Thursday: Flee Forward! Friday: Nobodies Become Somebodies! Saturday: Plan for Creative Achievement
“Week 18 Sunday”: Undisciplined Desires; Monday: The Urges Redeemed; Tuesday: The Kingdom Our Real Environment; Wednesday: The Christian’s Survival Value; Thursday: The Undisciplined Self; Friday: Attention, Meekness, Power; Saturday: The Meek Inherit the Earth!
“Week 19 Sunday”: A Disciplined Self Is a Self of Power; Monday: A Disciplined Sex Life; Tuesday: The Law of Decreasing Returns in Sex; Wednesday: Steps to Sex Victory; Thursday: The Primary End of Sex; Friday: Sex Can Be Sublimated; Saturday: Further Steps in Sex Victory
“Week 20 Sunday”: Disciplined Bodily Desires; Monday: The Taking of Narcotics Is a Failure of Nerve; Tuesday: Undisciplined Desire: Tobacco; Wednesday: Undisciplined Desire: Tobacco (continued); Thursday: Undisciplined Desires: Expert Opinion; Friday: Disciplining Our Time; Saturday: A Ladder for Discipline
“Week 21 Sunday”: Insincerities: Conscious and Unconscious; Monday: Insincerities: Are Your Ears Red?; Tuesday: Insincerities: Dualisms in Ourselves?; Wednesday: Insincerities: The Mask; Thursday: Insincerities: Rationalizations; Friday: A Ladder to Overcome Insincerities; Saturday: The Ladder on Insincerities (continued)
“Week 22 Sunday”: Divided Loyalties; Monday: Divided Loyalties: Man or Menagerie?; Tuesday: Conscious and Subconscious Minds at War; Wednesday: Can the Subconscious Be Redeemed? Thursday: The Holy Spirit Works in the Subconscious; Friday: “For They Were Afraid Of ”; Saturday: Striking Deeper Levels
“Week 23 Sunday”: Recharging Rundown Batteries; Monday: Steps in Receiving the Holy Spirit; Tuesday: Steps in Receiving the Holy Spirit (continued); Wednesday: Final Steps in Receiving the Spirit; Thursday: Unbalanced Virtues; Friday: Virtues May Become Vices; Saturday: Steps to Right Unbalanced Virtues
“Week 24 Sunday”: Ignorance and Lack of Judgment; Monday: A Well-trained Conscience; Tuesday: Steps in Becoming Informed and Balanced; Wednesday: Bodily Disharmony and Disease; Thursday: The Physical and Spiritual Bases of Health; Friday: Does Character Affect the Glands? Saturday: The Moral and Spiritual Bases of Disease
“Week 25 Sunday”: Disease Is Not the Will of God; Monday: Salvation Is Wholeness; Tuesday: Some Steps Toward Physical Health; Wednesday: Lack of Vitamins and Nervous Results; Thursday: Grace, Grass, and Gumption!; Friday: Go Over Your Mental and Spiritual Attitudes; Saturday: The Whole Person Becomes Sick
“Week 26 Sunday”: An Unchristian Social Order; Monday: The Social Order Converts the Individual; Tuesday: The Lack of a Total Discipline; Wednesday: Disciplined to the Kingdom; Thursday: Lack of a Creative, Outgoing Love; Friday: The Miracle Starts from Within; Saturday: A Final Examination
“Week 27 Sunday”: We Turn to Our Resources; Monday: Is the Christian Way Unrealistic?; Tuesday: The Judgment of God and the Judgment of Life; Wednesday: The Christian Way Is the Natural Way; Thursday: Evil Is Self-destructive; Friday: Jesus, the Standard Note; Saturday: Let’s Be Normal!
“Week 28 Sunday”: Afraid of Sanity! Monday: The Homeland of the Soul: The Kingdom of God; Tuesday: Within You: At Your Doors!; Wednesday: The Kingdom of God and Moral Tension; Thursday: The Kingdom of God and Original Sin; Friday: The Kingdom of God Is the Norm; Saturday: The Kingdom of God and the Natural Man
“Week 29 Sunday”:The Kingdom of God Is the Cause!; Monday: The Kingdom of God and Business; Tuesday: The Kingdom of God Is Among You!; Wednesday: The Kingdom of God and Human Relationships; Thursday: The Kingdom of God Is Mutual Aid; Friday: The Retreat Away from People; Saturday: Working with and for Others
“Week 30 Sunday”: The Kingdom Is at Your Doors!; Monday: God Rules in Terms of Christ; Tuesday: The Kingdom and Repentance; Wednesday: The Kingdom as Pervasion and Invasion; Thursday: The Kingdom Means Choice, Crisis, Conversion; Friday: The Crisis of Conversion and of Cleansing; Saturday: The Kingdom of God Is Our Own
“Week 31 Sunday”: Naturalized in the Unnatural!; Monday: What Shall We Seek First?; Tuesday: Calling the Roll of Life Strategies; Wednesday: The Kingdom Is the Eternal Rightness; Thursday: Get the Spiritual Straight and the Material Will Be Guaranteed; Friday: Too Little and Too Much, Alike Harmful; Saturday: The Results of Too Little and Too Much
“Week 32 Sunday”: Getting According to Need, Giving According to Ability; Monday: Seeking First the Kingdom Means Action; Tuesday: The Kingdom and the State; Wednesday: The Kingdom and Race; Thursday: The Kingdoms of Class and Money; Friday: The Kingdom and the Church; Saturday: The Kingdom and the Family and the Self
“Week 33 Sunday”: Prayer Is Surrender; Monday: Prayer Is Alert Passivity; Tuesday: Is Prayer Autosuggestion?; Wednesday: Prayer: The Greatest Single Power; Thursday: Nine Steps in Prayer; Friday: Further Steps in Prayer; Saturday: The Final Steps of Prayer
“Week 34 Sunday”: Relaxed Receptivity; Monday: Bodily Relaxation; Tuesday: Relaxed in Spirit; Wednesday: Settling Down in God; Thursday: Relaxed, Even If Not Released; Friday: The Secret Companionship; Saturday: Self-reference or God-reference
“Week 35 Sunday”: The Morning Quiet Time; Monday: Quiet Expectancy in the Quiet Time; Tuesday: Life Not a Reservoir, but a Channel; Wednesday: Opening Blocked Channels; Thursday: When the Mind Wanders; Friday: Building Up from the Subconscious; Saturday: Relaxed Strenuousness
“Week 36 Sunday”: Physical and Mental Relaxation; Monday: Meeting Today, Today; Tuesday: Are We Circumstance-directed?; Wednesday: Guidance at Secondhand; Thursday: Led of God or Led of Things?; Friday: A Sense of Mission and Submission; Saturday: Listen, Learn, Obey
“Week 37 Sunday”: Be Silent to God; Monday: The Pattern in the Mount; Tuesday: The Seven Ways of God’s Guidance; Wednesday: General Guidance through the Revelation in Christ; Thursday: Guidance through Collective Experience; Friday: God Guides through Opening Providences and the Natural Order; Saturday: Guidance through Moral Intelligence and the Inner Voice
“Week 38 Sunday”: Life Is Cooperation, or It Is Death!; Monday: The Redemptionists; Tuesday: A Man Foursquare; Wednesday: Unveiling Human Possibilities; Thursday: Your Own Soul Pierced; Friday: Equality of Opportunity: The Keynote; Saturday: Doing the Impossible
“Week 39 Sunday”: A Trackage for Fellowship; Monday: Further Steps in Corporate Living; Tuesday: Keep the Large Outlook and Spirit; Wednesday: Organs for One Another; Thursday: General Thoughts on Group Living; Friday: Guidance for Marriage Relationships; Saturday: Guidance Particularly for Wives
“Week 40 Sunday”: I Will Not Let Anything Master Me; Monday: Abundant Living “In Spite Of ”; Tuesday: Let Your Peace Return to You; Wednesday: Pain Is God’s Preventive Grace; Thursday: Deflected Grace; Friday: Frustrations Becoming Fruitful; Saturday: On Using Illnesses and Impediments
“Week 41 Sunday”: Working with a Wound in Your Side; Monday: The Berry in the Mouth; Tuesday: Blind and Deaf, Yet Adequate; Wednesday: Making All Things Work Together for Good; Thursday: Victorious Vitality Mastering Circumstances; Friday: God’s Watch-care over Our Spirit; Saturday: Making Life Count with Small Equipment
“Week 42 Sunday”: Making the Time Process Beautiful; Monday: A Ladder for Youth; Tuesday: The Ladder for Youth (continued); Wednesday: Taking God into Your Life Choices; Thursday: A Ladder for Middle Age; Friday: A Ladder for Old Age; Saturday: The Ladder for Old Age (continued)
“Week 43 Sunday”: Adjusting Our Vocabulary to Fact; Monday: Labels Can Become Libels; Tuesday: Steps to Bridge the Gap between Word and Fact; Wednesday: Further Steps in Word-Fact Relationships; Thursday: Looking over Our Money Relationships; Friday: A Ladder for Mastery over Money; Saturday: The Ladder for Mastery over Money (continued)
“Week 44 Sunday”: Gold-seekers or God-seekers?; Monday: Some Steps in Getting Rid of Race Prejudice; Tuesday: The Backing of Biology and Democracy; Wednesday: Continued Steps in Getting Rid of Race Prejudice; Thursday: We Face the Question of War; Friday: Is War a Surgical Operation?; Saturday: Did Christ Approve of War?
“Week 45 Sunday”: Has Gandhi Shown Us a Way Out?; Monday: The Good Things in War; Tuesday: Becoming an Embodied Conscience; Wednesday: The Church Is a Society within a Society; Thursday: Why I Should Give My Allegiance to the Church; Friday: The Church: The One Unbroken Fellowship; Saturday: The Church: The Mother of Movements
“Week 46 Sunday”: The Owner’s Stamp; Monday: “It Will Spring Up Out of the Earth”; Tuesday: The Owner’s Stamp Already There; Wednesday: The Mark of Jesus: Forgiveness of Injuries; Thursday: The Mark of Jesus: No Self-pity; Friday: The Mark of Jesus: Calm Receptivity; Saturday: The Mark of Jesus: The Power to Take It
“Week 47 Sunday”: The Dying Kicks of Evil Habits; Monday: A Ladder to a Contagious Life; Tuesday: The Four Steps in Helping Others to Christ; Wednesday: The Universal Witness to This Way; Thursday: The Five Steps in Following Christ; Friday: Steps in Reading the Word; Saturday: Steps in Reading the Word (continued)
“Week 48 Sunday”: We Begin a Study of the Beatitudes; Monday: A The First Step: Receptivity; Tuesday: The Attitude and Its Outcome or Reward; Wednesday: Goodness Is Our Native Air; Thursday: From the Receptive to the Positive Virtues; Friday: The Center of the Christian Gospel: Reconciliation; Saturday: The Kingdom Belongs to the Receptive, the Positive
“Week 49 Sunday”: Grace in the Dungeon; Monday: The Dungeon Makes or Breaks Us; Tuesday: Finding Freedom through Limitations; Wednesday: Making Irritations into Character; Thursday: Making Calamities Serve; Friday: Great Movements Born Out of Troubled Times; Saturday: The Five Steps Out of the Dungeon
“Week 50 Sunday”: The Aim of the Christian Discipline; Monday: The Christian Discipline Produces Spontaneity; Tuesday: “Vanished the Ripe Fruit of Thy Soul’s Desire!”; Wednesday: Evil Is a Parasite upon the Good; Thursday: The Whole Nature Disciplined by Love; Friday: The Mind Is the Key; Saturday: Disciplined beyond Timidity
“Week 51 Sunday”: “Your Commission”! Monday: “Your Commission Free from Stain”; Tuesday: Your Commission Free from Stain of Worry and Fear; Wednesday: Free from Hate and Resentments; Thursday: Free from Harsh Attitudes; Friday: Free from Stain of Prejudice; Saturday: Free from Stain of Emptiness
“Week 52 Sunday”: Witnessing before Our Pontius Pilate; Monday: Witnessing before Class Interests; Tuesday: Witnessing before Faithless Friendships; Wednesday: Witnessing before Dull Ignorance; Thursday: Christians Are People Who Care; Friday: Witnessing before Race-prejudiced Might; Saturday: It Is Tomorrow!
Special Meditations
“New Year’s Meditation”; “Good Friday Meditation”; “Easter Meditation”;”Our Christmas Meditation”