Some solid Emmet Fox to elevate the soul. These are some things I highlighted during my studies.
EMMET FOX- Power through constructive thinking 1932
Emmet fox on the Lords prayer.
Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.
"The great prayer is a compact formula for the development of the soul. It is designed with the utmost care for that specific prupose; so that those who use it regularly, with understanding, will experience a real change of soul."
"It is the change of soul that matters. The mere acquisition of fresh knowledge received intellectually makes no change in the soul."
"Jesus foresaw that men who had never known him, relying, quite sincerely, no doubt, upon their own limited intellects, would build up theologies and doctrinal systems, obscuring the direct simplicity of the spiritual message, and actually erecting a wall between God and man.""
OUR FATHER-
"Oliver Wendall Holmes said: "My religion is summed up in the first two words of the lords prayer.""
"In this clause Jesus lays down once and for all that the relationship between
God and man is that of father and child. This cuts out any possibility the deity could be the relentless and cruel tyrant that is often pictured by theology."
"It is a cosmic law that like begets like. It is not possible that a rosebush should produce lilies, or that a cow should give birth to a colt. The offspring is and must be of the same nature as the parent; and so, since God is divine spirit, man must essentially be Divine Spirit too, whatever appearances may say to the contrary."
"Do you not see that at a single blow this sweeps away ninety-nine percent of all the old theology, with its avenging God, its chosen and favored individuals, its eternal hell fire, and all the other horrible paraphernalia of man's diseased and terrified imagination. God exists-- and the Eternal, All-Powerful, All-Present God is the loving Father of mankind. If you would meditate upon this fact, until you had some degree of understanding of what it really means, most of your difficulties and physical ailments would disappear, for they are rooted and grounded in fear."
"The prayer says not "my father," but "our father." Making a second point, ending all the tiresome nonsense about a chosen race, about the spiritual superiority of any one group of human beings over any other group. The illusion is cut away that members of any nation, or race, or territory, or group, or class, or color, are, in the sight of God, superior to any other group."
"We are to pray not only for ourselves but for all mankind, for indeed we are all truly-and in a much more literal sense than people are aware-limbs of one body."
"In these two simple words, innocent-as they look, Jesus has concealed within them a spiritual explosive that will ultimately destroy every man-made system that holds the human race in bondage."
Which art in Heaven
"Here heaven stands for God or cause, because in religious phraseology heaven is the term for the PRESENCE OF GOD. In metaphysics it is called the absolute, because it is the realm of pure unconditioned being."
"The word Earth means manifestation, and man's function is to manifest or express God or cause."
"Man's destiny is to express God in all sorts of glorious and wonderful ways. Some of this expression we see as his surroundings; first his physical body, which is really only the most intimate part of his embodiment; then his home; his work; his recreation; in short, his whole expression."
"Every feature of your life is really a manifestation or expression of something in your soul."
"Trying to have manifestation without Cause, is atheism and materialism, and we know where they lead. Trying to have Cause without manifestation leads man to suppose himself to be a personal God, and this commonly ends in megalomania and a kind of paralysis of expression."
Hallowed be thy name
"The word "hallowed" has the same meaning as "holy," "whole," "wholesome," "heal," or "healed.""
"Because the nature of God is Hallowed, everything that follows from that cause must be hallowed or perfect too."
"God cannot cause or send anything but perfect good."
"From this it follows that God cannot, as people sometimes think, send sickness or trouble, or accidents-much less death-for these things are unlike his nature. "Hallowed be thy name" means "Thy nature is altogether good, and Thou are the author only of perfect good.""
"If you think that God has sent any of your difficulties to you, for no matter how good a reason, you are giving power to your troubles, and this makes it very difficult to get rid of them."
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
"That is to say, our work is to bring more and more of God's ideas into concrete manifestation upon this plane."
"God has glorious and wonderful plans for every one of us; he has planned a splendid career, full of interest, life, and joy, for each, and if your lives are dull, or restricted, or squalid, that is not his fault, but ours."
"If only you will find out the thing God intends you to do, and will do it, you will find that all doors will open to you; all obstacles in your path will melt away; you will be acclaimed a brilliant success; you will be most liberally rewarded from the monetary point of view; and you will be gloriously happy."
"There is a true place in life for each one of us, upon the attainment of which we shall be completely happy, and perfectly secure. On the other hand, until we do find our true place we never shall be either happy or secure, no matter what other things we may have."
"We abuse our free will, trying to work apart from God; and the very natural result is all the sickness, poverty, sin, trouble, and death that we find on the physical plane."
"If we choose through prayer, what we know to be Gods will, then we are insuring for ourselves ultimate success, freedom, and joy, however much self-sacrifice and self-discipline it may involve at the moment."
Give us this day our daily bread
"It is the will of God that we should all lead healthy, happy lives, full of joyous experience; that we should develop freely and steadily, day by day and week by week, as our pathways unfold more and more. To this end we require such things as food, clothing, shelter, means of travel, books, and so on; above all we require freedom; and in the prayer all these things are included under the heading of bread. Bread, that is to say, means not merely food in general, but all things that man requires for a healthy, happy, free, and harmonious life."
"Lack of any kind is always traceable to the fact that we have been seeking our supply from some secondary source, instead of from God, himself, the author and giver of life."
"People think of their supply as coming from certain investments, or From a business, or from an employer, perhaps; whereas these are merely the channels through which it comes, God being the source. THE NUMBER OF POSSIBLE CHANNELS IS INFINITE, THE SOURCE IS ONE."
"The particular channel through which you are getting your supply is quite likely to change, because change is the cosmic law for manifestation."
"In short we have to train ourselves to look to God, Cause, for all that we need, and then the channel, which is entirely a secondary matter, will take care of itself."
"In its inner and most important meaning, our daily bread signifies the realization of the presence of God-an actual sense that God exists not merely in a nominal way, but as the great reality; the sense that he is present with us; and the feeling that because he is God, all good, all powerful, all wise, and all loving, we have nothing to fear; that we can rely upon him to take every care of us."
"To seek realization by will power is the surest way to miss it. Pray regularly and quietly-remember that in all mental work, effort or strain defeats itself-then presently, perhaps when you least expect it, like a thief in the night, the realization will come."
"The most futile thing in the world is to seek to live upon a past realization. The thing that means spiritual life to you is your realization of God HERE AND NOW."
"When we seek to live upon yesterday's realization, we are actually seeking to live in the past, and to live in the past is death. The art of life is to live in the present moment, and to make that moment as perfect as we can by the realization that we are the instruments and expression of God himself. The best way to prepare for tomorrow is to make today all that is should be."
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us
"Sin simply means a sense of separation from God, and is the major tragedy of human experience. It is, of course rooted in selfishness."
"Our true selves are at one with God, undivided from him, expressing his ideas, witnessing to his nature-the dynamic thinking of that mind."
"You must forgive everyone who has ever hurt you if you want to be forgiven yourself; that is the long and the short of it. You have to get rid of all resentment and condemnation of other, and, not the least, of self-condemnation and remorse."
"We cannot make this point too clear to ourselves; we have got to forgive."
"There is no escape from this, and so forgiveness there must be, no matter how deeply we may have been injured, or how terribly we have suffered. It must be done."
"If your prayers are not being answered, search your consciousness and see if there is not someone whom you have yet to forgive. Find out if there is not some old thing about which you are very resentful. Search and see if you are not really holding a grudge against some individual, or some body of people, a nation, a race, a social class, some religious movement of which you disapprove perhaps, a political party, or what-not."
"Setting others free means setting yourself free, because resentment is really a form of attachment. It is a cosmic truth that it takes two to make a prisoner; the prisoner and a gaoler. There's no such thing as being a prisoner on ones own account."
"When you hold a resentment against anyone, you are bound to that person by a cosmic link, a real, though mental chain. You are tied by a cosmic tie to the thing that you hate. The one person perhaps in the whole world whom you most dislike is the very one to whom you are attaching yourself by a hook that is stronger than steel."
"Remember, you belong to the thing with which you are linked in thought, and at some time or other, if that tie endures, the object or your resentment will be drawn again into your life, perhaps to work further havoc."
"You must cut all such ties, by a clear and spiritual act of forgiveness. You must loose him and let him go. By forgiveness you set yourself free; you save your soul. And because the law of love works alike for one and all, you help to save his soul too, making it just so much easier for him to become what he ought to be."
"But how, in the name of all that is wise and good, is the magic act of forgiveness to be accomplished, when we have been so deeply injured that, though we have long wished with all our hearts that we could forgive, we have nevertheless found it impossible; when we have tried and tried to forgive, but have found the task beyond us."
"The only thing that is essential is willingness to forgive. Provided you desire to forgive the offender, the greater part of the work is already done. People have always made such a bogey of forgiveness because they have been under the erroneous impression that to forgive a person means that you have to compel yourself to like him."
"If you endeavor to coerce yourself into doing so, you will finish by disliking or hating the offender more than ever."
"We are not obliged to like anyone; but we are under a binding obligation to love everyone."
"The method of forgiving is this: Get by yourself and become quiet. Then quietly say
" I FULLY AND FREELY FORGIVE X(mentioning the name of the offender); I LOOSE HIM AND LET HIM GO. I COMPLETELY FORGIVE THE WHOLE BUSINESS IN QUESTION. AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, IT IS FINISHED FOREVER, I CAST THE BURDEN OF RESENTMENT UPON THE CHRIST WITHIN ME. SHE IS FREE NOW, AND I AM FREE TOO. I WISH HIM WELL IN EVERY PHASE OF HER LIFE. THAT INCIDENT IS FINISHED. THE CHRIST TRUTH HAS SET US BOTH FREE. I THANK GOD." On no account repeat this act of forgiveness, because you have done it once and for all, and to do it a second time would be tacitly to repudiate your own work. Afterward, whenever the name of the offender or offense happens to come into your mind, bless the delinquent briefly and dismiss the thought. Do this, however many times the thought may come back. After a few days it will return less and less often, until you forget it altogether."
"The result of this policy will be that very soon you will find yourself cleared of all resentment and condemnation, and the effect upon your happiness, your bodily health, and your general life will be nothing less than revolutionary."
Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil
"The facts are these- the more you pray, the more time you spend in meditation and spiritual treatment, the more sensitive you become. And if you spend a great deal of time working on your soul in the right way, you will become very sensitive. This is excellent, but like everything in the universe, it works both ways. The more sensitive and spiritual you become, the more powerful and effective are your prayers, you do better healing, and you advance rapidly. But, for the same reason, you also become susceptible to forms of temptation that simply do not beset those at an earlier stage."
"As we advance, new and powerful temptations await us on the path, every ready to hurl us down if we are not watchful- temptations to work for self-glory, and self-aggrandizement instead of for God; for personal honors and distinctions, even for material gain; temptations to allow personal preferences to hold sway in our counsels when it is a sacred duty to deal with all men in perfect impartiality."
"Many fine souls who triumphantly surmounted all other testings have lapsed into a condition of superiority and self-righteousness that has fallen like a curtain of steel between them and God. Great knowledge brings great responsibility."
"One's knowledge of the truth, however little it may be, is a sacred trust for humanity that must not be violated."
"Now, some less experienced souls, eager for rapid advancement, have rashly desired to be subjected immediately to all kinds of tests, and have even looked about, seeking for difficulties to overcome; as though one's own personality did not already present quite enough material for any one man or woman to deal with."
"We pray that we may not have to meet anything that is too much for us at the present level of our understanding. And, if we are wise, and work daily, as we should, for wisdom, understanding, purity, and the guidance of the holy spirit, we never shall find ourselves in any difficulty for which we have not the understanding necessary to clear ourselves."
Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever
" The kingdom in this sense means all creation, on every plane, for that is the presence of God- God as manifestation or expression."
"We know that God is the only power, and so, when we work, as when we pray, it is really God doing it by means of us. Just as the pianist produces his music by means of, or through his fingers, so may mankind be thought of as the fingers of God."
"If when you are praying, you hold the thought that it is really God who is working through you, your prayers will gain immeasurably in efficiency."
"IF, when you have any ordinary thing to do, you hold the thought, "Divine Intelligence is working through me now," you will perform the most difficult tasks with astonishing success."
"The wondrous change that comes over us as we gradually realize what the Omnipresence of God really means, transfigures every phase of our lives, turning sorrow into joy, age into youth, and dullness into light and life."
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QaR
October 2008 
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