Book Group

Hi everyone,
AJ & I have been home for a little over a week. Now that we are back to sleeping when it is dark and waking when it is light I want to let you know about a new project. I have been wanting to start a study or book group for ages and somewhere during one of the 16 flights we took in 6 weeks I finally decided to take action! 
So beginning next week I will lead a book study group here in our local area. Anyone is welcome to attend as long as you are willing to do the reading and study questions. And, as I mentioned to some of you overseas recently, I hope (with the help of amazing volunteers here in Wilkesdale) to be able to provide recordings of the sessions to you via youtube.
Full details of the group are below. They might also appear on the website sometime soon but for now the blog is an easier and swifter way to let you all know.
Love,
Mary 
P.S. Its great to be home and while I didn’t get to post much while we were away, I did write a little and took some photos, so I will be posting ‘retrospectively’ – blogger has taught me how. So if you are interested in seeing some travel pics keep you eye out in January and February postings. 
Introducing a New Group
A study group led by Mary to explore the messages and meaning outlined in the books ‘Through the Mists’, ‘The Life Elysian’ & ‘The Gate of Heaven’ received from Aphraar by R.J. Lees
The group is designed to:
  • Encourage participants to discover, reflect upon and appreciate more of God’s Truth and to practically examine how these Truths impact upon our lives and soul’s journey.
  •  Assist participants to develop self-reflection, an important quality in establishing a personal relationship with God.
  •  {Hopefully} create an online resource via You Tube, for people in other areas, or those unable to attend the group in person, to be able to follow-along with the book group and their reflections.

Participants & Attendance

 

At commencement of the study group course the group will be open to anyone to attend
After the initial meeting the group will be closed to new members, meaning that people are not able to join the group part-way through the study course unless they have completed all of the required reading, study questions & viewed all the prior YouTube presentations.
Required reading and study questions to be completed before each meeting. Those who are unable to fulfil these requirements should not attend further groups but can continue to follow-along in their own time using the planned YouTube segments.

Group Format & Participation

 

The group format will be a discussion led by Mary using the study questions and general reflections by leader and participants.
Sessions should last a maximum of 2 hours and will be held weekly with some weeks off due to Jesus and Mary’s travel schedule.

Creating an Online Resource

 

With the assistance of some of the Gods Way of Love teams, all group sessions will be recorded and placed on YouTube.
This will enable people in other locations to ‘join’ the study group or start their own study group guided by the online format.
With consideration that all filming and production is carried out by volunteers, every effort will be made to ensure that editing and uploading of these sessions happens swiftly. We would love to provide this resource to as many people as possible in a short time frame. 

Details for the First Meeting 

 

Our first group meeting will be held in the Wondai Diggers Club, March 15th at 12.30pm.
The first book to be studied will be the ‘Through the Mists’ by R. J. Lees and is available as a free download on the website or alternately for purchase at www.lulu.com
Set study questions to be completed for each chapter are outlined below.
Before the first meeting please have read the Preface and Chapter 1 and complete the study questions in response to Chapter 1.
Bring your copy of the book, a pen, a journal with your completed study questions for the chapter, a water bottle and your enthusiasm.
Further details about future meetings etc. will be outlined at the first group. If there are any pressing questions before then please contact Mary: mary@divinetruth.com

Book Study Group Questions

Each week, read the required chapter and write a response to the following questions:

 

What issues of God’s Truth are demonstrated in this chapter?
How does this Truth relate to my own life and/or progression?
Did this chapter highlight to me an aspect of Natural Love, Morality, Personal Truth, Divine Love or Divine Truth that I am avoiding and thus hindering my own progression?
Did the chapter raise questions? Was there any part that I found confusing or didn’t understand? Note these for discussion in the group.
Did any part of the chapter move me to anger, grief, fear, joy or repentance? Write and reflect on this.
Journal about any other feelings this reading triggered.

Links

http://www.divinetruth.com/PDF/People/RJ%20Lees%20-%20Through%20the%20Mists.pdf
www.lulu.com

Greece + Your Guides & Guardians

In the car ride from the airport, Katerina tells us that people are feeling the financial pinch but she says that “Maybe this is good, since its bringing everyone closer to their emotions.” During our short stay of 5 days in Athens, I processed a lot, I ate good food, I faced myself in ways I had been avoiding for far too long.
All-in-all I found Greece an easier place to be and we enjoyed the company of old and new friends at dinner.
There were riots in downtown the night before we left but for us we were talking our own revolution in Kat and Artur’s living room. We spoke about this crazy heart desire to start the transformation of our own souls, on how to love and heal the rifts and wounds of family life, on how to walk the Narrow Way.
***************************************
On the morning of our first Greece talk, some spirit friends dropped in to offer some very practical advice to those in the group.
Practical Tips for Staying Connected to Your Spirit Guides & Guardians:
  1. Stay Hydrated

    Drink plenty of plain (non-carbonated, non-flavoured) water, at least three litres a day.

  1. Get Connected with Your Body and its Feelings

    Feel your emotions and where they are stored in the body. We are close to you but can’t communicate with you as well when you are ‘in your head’ (dominated by your intellect) or more attuned to the feelings of others.

    We recommend daily gentle exercise – heavy exertion can detune you as much as inactivity. Focus on movement while you stay connected to your breathe and physical sensations.

    Also, take time each day to be still while you tune into your breath, your feelings and the sensations in your body.

    We communicate with your spirit body and not always with words or thoughts – the more hydrated you are, the more in connection with your physical body’s sensations you are, the more sensitive you will become to your spirit body’s feelings.

  1. Eat mainly live, light food. Avoid stuffing yourself with starch and carbohydrates. These things dull your senses and encourage numbness. The more in touch with your feelings you are the more complete the message we will be able to give you will be.
  1. Foster imagination and creativity in your life, in whatever way you are drawn to. We can communicate inspiration to you better when you are open to new possibilities and ideas. Any type of creative pursuit encourages these qualities.
  1. Take action in your life in your passion and desires.  We can give you clear and often immediate feedback when you are engaging your passions and desires in a certain direction. When you constantly sit in indecision or inaction and intellectually ponder issues we find it difficult to give clear guidance. Beware of trying to ‘figure everything out’, rather than being humble to the fact that you won’t have everything right immediately and no amount of intellectual pondering or planning will change that. We exist to lovingly guide you towards what is good, loving and true and for those who desire it, we would guide you to God.
  1. Feel yourself rather than the feelings of others. Beware of addictions and abdicating your will. Make time for prayer, quiet and feelings. Don’t fill every space in your day with noise and activity. Spend time away from the computer, TV, phone and music. Be in nature, be creative, and focus on feeling yourself and longing for God. Too often you are engaged with the feelings or others and pre-occupied with pleasing them.

    Our focus is on your best welfare and growth; many of you do not share our focus! So this impedes our communication. By disengaging from pleasing others and beginning to make growth your priority we will find guiding you so much easier.

  1. Regard us as friends, not as far-off, impersonal beings. Each of you is a unique individual with specific interests, talents and passions. We too are all individuals. We have been allocated to you because we share common passions and personality traits with you. You may come to view us as friends for this is how we feel for you. We have much love and regard for you. We care deeply for your welfare but do not feel ourselves to be your superiors merely as your friends with and interest in your safety and well-being. When you regard us as lofty, dispassionate and without a life and personality of our own, you distance yourselves from us.

    While it is true that many of us are now completely free from error, we have each lived a life on earth and we understand the trials and difficulties you face in your growth towards your true self and towards God. When you regard us as ‘pure’, you often feel we have always been chaste and uncorrupted. Many of you have the feeling or belief that we cannot directly relate to your experience or understand you. We wish to tell you that we do, many times we are more aware of exactly what you face than you are, and usually we have face similar things during our own life on earth. This is why we have become your guide.

Please feel that you can get to know us – as your dear friends – this will help us to be in better rapport.
With much love to each dear friend assembled,
Your spirit guides and guardians.

Gothenburg.

The extreme cold that effected all of Europe hit while we were in Gothenburg. The thermometer on the outside of our cosy apartment registered -15 degrees, and Per in Vilhemina told us his had dropped to -40. 
The hospitality and our central heating however were so warm that we were never uncomfortable.

We held three great seminars here and it was evident to both us how our own emotions effect who attends and how things go. In the week following our second seminar we both connected to some big stuff and the third session was a dream. 
Thank-you to all of the Swedes who made us welcome and those from other countries that made the trip. We had fun – hope you did too!

Vilhemina

Just before we hopped the planes back to Gothenburg, we stopped for lunch in the tiny town of Vilhemina. This is the town closest to Heligfjall and where Per heads up the school.

Eva and Per have been renting an apartment there before the move to Heligfjall (which happened just weeks before we arrived). The apartment looks over the lake and I marveled at Eva’s very healthy looking orchids seemingly impervious to the extreme cold in the visa behind them.

 

Heligfjall.

Our days at Helgfjall are spent exploring the property which has its very own bakery, sauna, barn, cellar, lakehouse and cabins apart from the main house where Eva and Per stay and the 100 year old cottage that AJ & I sleep in. 

 

We spend hours discussing this idea of ‘Learning Centre’ and gradually without us realising it, it seems that the Centre shifts from an idea to a living thing. 
Per, AJ & Rita – the bakery in the background
By the stream

Per, AJ & Anna dig to the cellar

We gather with the others to make a meal and talk for hours about what it means to live our lives in testament to the Truths we already know, and how we may teach though living example.

Late one afternoon (just before dusk at 3pm) AJ & I don snow shoes and walk out into the woods where huge birch trees reach up tall to the sky while heavy snow tugs their branches earthward.
into the woods…
We still ourselves and let the silence envelop us. Eva & Per call this place a ‘church’ and I feel their meaning.
There are already many messages for me this trip but so far the reoccurring tug on my soul is about how seldom I make space in my life to deeply long for God, to let Him Love me. In the quiet, pre-dawn hours where jet-lag finds me alert and alone I quake at the potential of this connection with Him. I am surprised to find how much I still fear His Love. And here again in the snow subdued woods, at the place named ‘holy’, I know again that God is always there – between the moments, in the space, His presence, His Love, like the hulking calm and peace that immediately surrounds us in the snow subdued woods…. He waits – a quiet immense presence ready to envelop us in Love the moment we invite Him into our hearts. 

Mine these days is a trembling heart, awake to possibility, enlivened by the passion in those we meet, awed by the Infinite Care I feel guiding my life. It is a heart that feels so humbled by the Love that I must breathe deeply here in the forest. I must breathe to stay present and not run and hide like the small, unworthy child  I believe myself to be.

Brave.

The bears are sleeping at Vilhemina, hunkered down, preparing to raise cubs in the spring.

We arrive at night by propeller plane.
It is snowing as we cross the tarmac and I am grateful for the jacked loaned to me by one of our welcoming committee in Gothenburg this morning. We have travelled all day; on three separate flights, joined by friends along the way.
Anna & Anna join us in Gothenburg

Joy & Rita join us for the final flight from Stokholm to Vilhemina

on the tarmac

Eva meets us and bundles us into a warm, waiting car to cover the distance remaining to her and her husband, Per’s, new home. 

We wind our way along a road lined with birch and fur trees, their branches bravely holding up under the 40cm of snow that has fallen in the past week. Ice and softly falling snowflakes reflect the light from the headlights as Eva drives us north. 
Already I know that we have landed in a wonderful place, so strange, striking and crazy beautiful. 
It takes us 40 minutes to drive to ‘Heligfjall’, which means holy mountain in the language of the indigenous Sami people. A people who believe, that no land is ever owned except by God.
Heligfjall lies in south Lapland, just a few hundred kilometres shy of the arctic circle. It is the place that our friends, Eva and Per, have chosen to make their new home and to create a place of learning and growth they hope it will become a Gods Way of Love Learning Centre.
We turn into an arching driveway that just last week bore the prints of a passing lynx, and the small 2WD car fails at this final leg. So we walk to the house in the snow, dry, white and thick below our boots, and still falling gently upon our heads and faces. Per greets us with a warm hug and we pass into the kitchen complete with combustion stove and candles burning.
We have been up since 4 am and by now are bone tired but still we sit in the cosy kitchen for hours more, till past midnight, listening to the story of this couple and their adventures and turmoils of the past few months.
Per has spent his life a company man, a successful engineer working for a large car company. He has been accustomed to working amongst men and machines, to variables, which are concrete, controllable and fixable.
He tells us of a decision he made to finally remove the armour around his heart and soul, and to and heal emotionally. Within a few short months, this man with a Masters degree in Science but no experience in classrooms, now finds himself the Principle of a local high school. In this tiny outpost of community, where the local industries are fishing and hunting and teen pregnancy, unemployment and alcohol abuse are common, Per has challenged himself to become a leader and a creator of new possibilities for the youth that frequent his new office. His days are now filled with different, less controllable variables and he will freely admit that the armour is challenged and falling away. 
As Per tells his story I can feel what a gift this tiny school has been given. These people, this community has engaged his heart. What better gift to offer youth but a leader who is humble? A person who listens not just to the nuts and bolts of their stories but one who feels the nuance and hardship and wants to work with them to find new solutions. 
And we all reflect on the perfection of Gods Laws that always bring us exactly what we need in order to heal and serve well. The gifts are ever present and if we only trust in a Wisdom far greater than our own, not only do we receive but so often the opportunity to give our own gifts is created. 
My heart nearly bursts at the beauty and power of God to alter our souls towards joy if only that we follow our hearts in humility and a desire to love. But such journeys commence with sensations that feel like risk, and loss, and it is too easy to panic and clamour to know what next strange thing may lie just over the horizon. Courage is needed to take our first steps outside of what is comfortable and familiar, and I believe we will be called upon again and again to dig deep, and breathe hard and have faith. We may quake in our boots many times if we are to stay the course.
We finish our tea and smile at our friends. These people are brave – and it inspires me. 
  
Eva and Per will tell you such things are not comfortable or easy. But their growth is evident and adventure hangs like an excited newcomer in the air at Heligfjall.

Trees. Sunshine. Us.

There have been some peaceful moments this last month.
We’ve spent many hours together alone – talking, crying, planting trees, tending gardens and growing a new thing called ‘us’.

Summer breathes golden all around. The days are long and hot.
Butterflies make daisy chain flights from wildflower to flower.
Lazy monitor lizards bask in midday sun and crickets and tree frogs chorus us as night drains the heat of day into cool breezes.
I touch the trunk of the old mama mulberry tree who has seen more seasons on this place than us and I finally breathe in deep.

I breathe in life, I breathe in choice and opportunity.
I exhale more at peace with a life so unexpected, unusual and rich. I am content.
There is still so much unknown in this chrysalis life, so many corners of this soul still uncharted. I feel it is only now that my journey is beginning. A choice to live God’s Way and not my own.

I am so, so grateful for all that I am Given.

Tomorrow we leave on a six week adventure to share Divine Truth in Sweden, Greece, England and Texas.
I’m often challenged to just stay breathing when we travel. In the past I have been quick to run and hide behind my façade.
So my prayer as we pack is to receive this trip as the gift that it is – an amazing opportunity for me to walk the Way, to be humble to every experience, especially those that may push up against my demands for control, for justice or for space.

I’m doing my best to pack this suitcase full, not just with winter woolies, but humility as well.

I’d love to bring you along on this trip. I hope to be able to share some of the moments in each place with you here.

And to those who we plan to see that I have only met online before – how exciting! I can’t wait to meet you!

Fear Is Not Our Ruler!

Wow! AJ & I just arrived home after a full day of absolutely awesome auditions for our first God’s Way of Love concert to be held tomorrow.

I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge all of you who auditioned. It was so amazing sitting in that hot, dusty and very ordinary hall, feeling the buzz build throughout the day and watching something extraordinary unfold. Thank-you for following and sharing your passions. You inspire me.

I loved the little rush of ‘invincibility’ I observed in many of you realizing that you were bigger than your fears.

It reminded me of an important Truth, that positive possibility can only grow and creativity is free to come out and stretch her legs whenever fear ceases to rule our lives. 

As AJ said tonight “Today was a good day. Its always a good day when people challenge their fears”

You are all so brave and so talented to boot. Look out world!

For anyone interested in attending:

Gods Way of Love Concert – Sunday 8th January 2 -4 pm at the Murgon hall – open to all.


Free admission with a free supper provided by the Hospitality Team to follow.

In Order To Be Truthful


A poem by
Michael Leunig

In order to be truthful

We must do more than speak the truth


We must also hear the truth


We must also receive the truth


We must also act upon truth


The difficult truth


Within us and around us


We must also devote ourselves to truth


Otherwise we are dishonest


And our lives are mistaken


God grant us the strength and courage


To be truthful

Amen

Live From the Heart: Steve Jobs, You Are Already Naked

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, passed away this year.  At the time Brene Brown shared a link to a speech Steve had given at a Stanford Graduation ceremony.

Steve is eloquent in his message. He needs no paraphrase. But his words caused me to reflect on so many things!

Steve dropped out of college but he hung around to learn.

I find this so inspiring since most of my life my sense of duty has stifled my joy in learning. I’ve mostly been  too concerned about doing what I perceived was ‘good’, passing the exam and making people proud to truly embrace the joy of expanding my mind and my horizons.

I landed at university, with one of the highest OP scores possible and an absolute bundle of emotional hang-ups. I immediately felt so intimidated by an environment seemingly full of incredibly smart, together and worldly people that I forgot that I actually seemed to do quite well with my own brain before then. I was so overwhelmed that I coped out and rebelled.

My allegiance to the call of ‘doing what I think is expected of me’ remained intact enough to keep me passing my courses but I skipped lectures, partied (far too hard) and tried desperately to avoid my extreme sense of insecurity about my brain and my worth by delaying all study to the very last minute.

My joy at learning often popped up during that final week of cramming when I would discover course content for the first time. My fascination for physiology, child development and the miraculous powers of healing and repair inherent in the human body had only minutes to be savoured before they were overshadowed by my intense panic at the lack of time to memorise these wonders and the terror of failure, which would cement in me the belief I was so desperately trying to avoid – ‘That I’m just not good enough to acheive anything in life.’

Steve did it so differently and his story opens my heart a little to my grief at how much my own hang-ups have prevented my child-like interest in discovering new things.

By staying open to learning for its sheer enjoyment Steve stayed connected to his soul and his story highlights the benefits of trusting the wisdom of your soul’s passions (even if you don’t quite know where they will lead you!)

When he dropped-in on a calligraphy course Steve had no idea how his fascination for the art would fit into his future life or career. He just did it because he loved it. Later his knowledge of calligraphy would prove to be extremely helpful in his lucrative career. But when he attended the course he neither knew this nor cared. He simply followed his passion.
I find that God is teaching us this lesson constantly. He can reach us when we live in our souls – that passionate, creative, desirous part of our selves. 
When we live in our soulful place He can Love us, Inspire us, and also Correct our errors far more rapidly. But when we hang back, always trying to get it right, to be perfect to figure it out before we begin, we lock up possibility, change and growth. 
Trusting our passions and following them towards a destination we can’t see right now can feel risky, and sometimes crazy, but Steve’s example demonstrates how beautiful the process can really be.
Steve simply suggests “Find what you love and do it” 
As I’ve mentioned my own life has most often lacked this kind of simplicity. Instead its looked something like this:
Find what I love -> Try to get everyone else to love it or at least approve of it before I’ll really go for ‘it’ -> Worry that I’m not good enough to succeed at ‘it’ anyway -> Try to find a small achievable version of ‘it’ so I’ll be ‘safe’ while I try to live a happy life -> Worry (some more) that no-one will get me or ‘it’ and I’ll end up all alone  -> Agonize  that I really want to do ‘it’ but I’m just not capable or good enough and so on and on… you get the picture..
I see now that there is so much power in simply doing ‘it’. Yes, sometimes my fears will be realized, it may not go perfectly, but I will be engaged in a thing I love. 
And besides, there is nothing like facing a few fears to change our perspective and help us grow!
All of my anxiety, self doubt and need for approval has limited my life so much. I have wanted to be perfect before I began (mainly so I could hold onto the false idea that that way everyone would still ‘love’ me).
Now it feels like such a waste!
 
So as this new year approaches, I’m trying a new tack. I’m finding what I love and charging towards it, full of the knowledge that this way God is going to reveal to me both my errors and strengths. So far its hair-raising but also, in sweet moments, breath-taking in its beauty.
As Steve suggests “You are already naked”
This past year I’ve focussed much prayer on a desire to become more real. But honestly I’ve still been grappling with the ‘good girl’ facade I’ve worn (with varying degrees of success) for most of my life. Its been tough to let go and see how much of ‘me’ I’ve generated in order to feel safe and ‘loved’.
What I’ve learned is that the biggest thing I’ve lost through investing in how I’m viewed, in trying hard to be liked, is my connection to myself.  
What I have perceived as the worst thing there is to loose, i.e. the approval of others, has caused me to loose my own perspective, my knowledge of myself and what I love and want. My life has been crowded with the desires of others and none of my own.
I’ve come to see that living emotionally ‘naked’ takes courage (at least for me) but that it is so, so worth it. There is rest to be found once we step off the fast-paced treadmill of always trying to maintain a facade. 
To me living ‘naked’ means no longer denying my desires and dreams in an attempt to avoid shame, fear or rejection. It means honouring my feelings and my self in my relationships with others, not suppressing them in order to make everyone happy or to avoid my own fears and embarrassment. 
In a naked life I am unapologetic in living in a way that I believe in. I don’t shy away from my hopes or disappointments. I don’t hide my light under a bushel, nor do I make out I’m prettier/ more accomplished/ more together/ wiser than I really am. 
The truth is that we are already naked in the eyes of the One Who Made us. There is no point in hiding who we are or what we really want.  Entering a relationship with Him requires our humility, our willingness to be ‘naked’. For only when we see ourselves as we truly are, in our truth and error, can we be Shown a way to grow towards Him once again. 
Bless you Steve, may your adventures in the spirit world (where we are indeed naked) be rewarding and full of new invention!