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 40450 Stetson Ave, Hemet, CA 92544
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Sunday Services: 10:00 am to 11:00 am
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Office Phone: 951-658-5157
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The Call of the divine

4/29/2020

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In the Science of Mind we speak of the fact that we are made of the Divine, that which is our source, it is what we plug into every day that allows us to know within our hearts we are not doing anything alone. 
Right now I am sure the “shelter in place” feels isolating, many of us haven’t seen family, friends or our spiritual family for the last month. It is a different world we are experiencing and perhaps more time that we are used to having. In truth, we can never go back to where we came from, for all of us are forever changed by this experience. But one thing in our lives we know as a constant is God. It is the one thing that never changes. We are the ones that shift and look at things with a different understanding. Our relationship to it might shift but God the power and the presence of all that is is the light that is held for us to see by when we feel we are in the darkness. Darkness is merely a shadow we cast, because what lies ahead is unknown. It is what we interpret as what we can’t see ahead. This is when we have the opportunity  to practice the presence.
     So, practicing the presence is taking the time within yourself and your day to reflect, restore, maybe even have a revelation of what is appearing in your life right now. 
Many of us question, what is next when all of this is over? Have you ever thought, you have a choice to create “the next choice”?Over the past few weeks I have been asked, “what is mine to do Rev?” And I ask you, "Why does there have to be something to do? Why not just be?" 
     
I’m not saying being a couch potato is a life ambition, but I look at this time for all of us to really look at what we have been “doing” in our world. For me, I didn’t realize what a crazy, rushed existence I was living until I had to be in the quiet. Yes, the last month has been both challenging and enlightening. Both personally and here at our spiritual home. Personally, I have taken the time to breathe, sleep in a little, and allow those things that call to me to do. Our spiritual home has been a blessing as well. With the Leadership Council we have reorganized, looked at our financial picture and done yard work. Each day I step into the world with the opportunity to contribute not only to my life but the world. What God calls us to is we do not need to chase a life purpose to be worthy of living. We are certainly not devoid of purpose in any way shape or form.
     Our purpose is to listen to the voice, that which excites us, gives us joy and be the heart and hands of the divine. 
We are co-creators with the divine. Everything we do is with the divine acting through us, and come into our minds and out through our hands Ernest Holmes our Founder said, "You must not define yourself by experiences or conditions, for while these are tools you can use, they are not who you are. You are Spirit, a fiery, heavenly intelligence created by God and unlimited in nature." Victor Frankl, was a psychologist who was a Jew and along with his wife was placed in a Jewish concentration camp. Through-out is time there - He searched for his purpose and life’s meaning. At the end of the war he was released and with it, he experienced a moment that released him also from his past - He discovered - Life’s meaning - Is the meaning you give it. What he further discovered was his purpose was to help those as best he could through the experience they were all having. He made a difference. There is a great story about a man walking along the beach one day and he noticed another man throwing starfish that had washed up on the beach during an overnight storm, back into the ocean. As he approached him he asked, What are you doing?And the man replied, why are you throwing the starfish one by one back into the ocean? Surely you don’t think you can make a difference? There are too many.The man looked at him, and as he did he threw another starfish into the ocean and said, “ I made a difference in that one” That is also how God works in our lives. God doesn’t give up on us, it has this amazing divine love that is already installed that we can tap into when we need it.To Tap into that divine love is saying - my relationship with the Divine makes a difference within me. It allows me to see things in a positive way, that no matter what I feel I can’t do. The Divine will somehow show me the what I CAN DO.The love connection we have, makes a difference.There is no wrong when we are on the spiritual path, no matter what we claim that as.There maybe over 1000 religions/faith connections but there is ONE Divine Universal power. If you don’t want to call it God, call it Love, Elohim, Yahweh, Source, whatever feels comfortable to you. Jesus called God “Abba” - heavenly father. It was like saying “daddy” in our English language. That was the connection Jesus the Christ had with God. He knew that whatever he did in his life was driven by his connection to the divine source. 

Ernest Holmes
There is a place within us that lies open to the infinite

Conclusion
As you move beyond this time together and head out into this coming week.
Notice what stirs you.
Notice what puts that divine spark within you

Affirmation:
I renew my life’s purpose each and every day by allowing the divine spark to guide what’s mine to do in the world.





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Easter - Resurrection and Awakening

4/13/2020

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This Easter morning we are waking up and being in the world differently everything has shifted. What we know to have been the way we have always been is no longer. We as a people are being asked to awaken to something new to be present to a new evolution - we as a people are experiencing from this moment a resurrection, a renewal an awakening. As a people we are experiencing a new way of being, this my friends is a “new normal”we can not return to our "old ways of being" in the world and as individuals. A a culture we have been for a very long time, been in a tomb. We have lived in the dark, by choice, until now where we are all now being forced to awaken to a the shift and change taking place.We have in the past, placed ourselves there (in the dark)with only now and then letting the cracks of light in so we could possibly see what the Divine is working with us to create. God is working through us 24/7, we as a soul can never be separate from it. We cannot separate ourselves from love, divine love. We are responsible for pushing the stones (not stone) out of the way so we can enter a new idea of what we are now going to be in the world. Love is right now wanting to push forward, bringing us with it, into the light.
...I love this quote by Anais Nin
And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom
We are each here to learn and to grow, claim our highest expression. We are all moving through changes in our lives, releasing those things that no longer serve us. New things are calling us and the process of change begins, actually it  ...has already begun.
Easter Sunday is a time we associate with Spring, renewal and resurrection. It is a call placed into the universe to each of our hearts, and recognized by the story in the New Testament. The story we know, is about a man - Jesus the Christ - who through demonstrations of love showed us a better way of being in the world. He was a teacher, a Rabbi, a man who embodied the Divine presence and knew with God all things are possible. Jesus the Christ knew when he entered the gates of Jerusalem, it was not going to end well.
He was taken on a journey where he ended up displayed on a cross, to a people who did not know Divine love, instead they only knew fear. People did not condemn him, fear did.
Jesus the Christ, brought a new consciousness of being to the world and that is where the fear came in and changed not only a man but all of us. He was the demonstration we were all waking up to. Like the story of Adam and Eve, he gave to us the knowledge through being hungry to know God. Yes, we were taken out of the garden because it was limited. We were instead placed in the world to be and see unlimited possibilities. To be a people to do the good works among many of spreading and demonstrating love and working together to create a world that enjoys sharing and caring about the human existence. Jesus was placed in a tomb after only 3 hours of being "on the cross" so his family could observe Jewish traditions of the Seder. Jesus was part of the bigger picture for all of us to know God. In the time they placed him in the tomb (darkness) to Sunday morning where he came out (showed us the light) to complete being the teacher for another 40 days among the people, and then he left. This is part of the story that goes untold. He "lived" beyond his "death". What that says for us is no matter what appears to be in the dark as an experience for us, we will eventually emerge into the light and move forward. When he left (ascended) it still shows humankinds ability to move into their highest potential, their highest good. The story about Easter us NOT about death, it is really about living! Please recognize this with me. One of the quotes I found by our founder Ernest Holmes is this...

The Spirit that raised Jesus dwells in all.
The Spirit quickens our mortal bodies when we let it.
Here is a lesson in mental and spiritual healing. 
As the Truth dawns upon the subjective state of our thought, it stimulates it into newness of action.
Everything works from within, out

Looking again at the time between death and resurrection is not just about a man who came into the world and died on a cross, it is our story as a people. What it shows us is, when something happens in our lives that is uncomfortable we want to by-pass it. Skip over it and move through it as quickly as possible so we don’t have to experience the uncomfortableness of the situation. When we look at what is happening currently in our world, we are experiencing being uncomfortable and being shut into our own tombs.
--Rumi said,
Where there are wounds (cracks), that is where the light enters

Instead of looking for the light, we are staying in the dark. So, I ask each one of us today, what is wanting to move through you?
What is it you have been saying you have been wanting to do, and now you have the time to do in?
When Jesus left the tomb...he kept going. He entered into a new light of being. He didn’t die, he kept living.
When we stay in the dark, we don’t grow spiritually or productively we stay the same…
When we refuse to move and not grow we will stay in the dark. It is our time to be broken open, now, right now
It is our time to decide to no longer be in the dark to walk  out into the light!There will be a time in the experience we will “break open” to the new. Allow yourself to do that, be broken open and allow the divine to guide you. Listen to your heart. It will not fail you. What we have learned we needed from the experience, acknowledge the growth that we have experienced, blessed it, given gratitude for it. It is our time to open up to another opportunity of growth, spiritual and mental. William Bridges, author said,
"Transition always starts with an ending. To become something else, you have to stop being what you are now; to start doing things a new way, you have to end the way you are doing them now; and to develop a new attitude or outlook, you have to let go of the old." Trust the process and let go.....
What we know when we do allow ourselves to trust and let go we then accept we are a soul experiencing changes within this body we inhabit. But what we know is that though we are a soul in a body we are immortal. Our soul continues living long after the body has no longer served us. The story of Jesus and the resurrection teaches us is that we continue to live long after we roll back the stone of limitation.
So let us together know that whatever we are experiencing is giving birth to something within us that wants to be expressed. We are only limited by what our minds think we can’t do, but our soul knows what we can…..
The Science of Mind text tells us,
Our lives and experiences may very well be likened to a river. If we stand on the bank of a river and watch it flow by we become aware of the fact that the river never changes but that its content is always new. By analogy, we might say the purposeful dynamic quality of Life within us never changes but the content of our experience of living remains the same...

Affirmation
Today, I am open to great changes in my life, claiming the highest expression of who I can be. I claim greatness now.

Surely the presence of Love is in this place
I can feel its mighty power and its grace
I can feel the holy presence, I see glory on each face
Surely the presence of Love is in this place….

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navigating covid-19

3/26/2020

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As a Spiritual Leader, yes, it has been interesting to navigate this "virus". I am grateful for my Leadership Council and Renee Johnson our President and Connie Kippycash who is the master of getting us on-line with Sunday service and our "donate" button. This is new "territory" for all of us. How to connect with all of you when we are to be disconnected. In the Science of Mind we practice non-separation from our divine source, which I like to name as God. It is interesting in this time to have to practice being separate from each other, when in fact I do believe we need each other more. How do we do that? Well, in this day of technology, I am encouraging everyone to email me (revrhonitretsven@gmail.com) to let me know how I can support you. I am also starting a time on Thursdays at 11 am where we can all meet on-line through Zoom conferencing. If you would like to be connected in that way, please email me.
It is important for all of us not to get caught up in the mass chaotic thinking. The first thing is to know there is enough for everyone. Sure, we have to think about the toilet paper thing, but is it really that important? How about being connected to our loved ones. I can't help thinking how when things seem to fall apart they are actually bringing us all together. The mandatory "stay at home" has provided us each with a space of being present to our home, pets, people etc. Why not look at this as an opportunity to connect with those we are often away from. This isn't going to last forever, though I know to some it will feel very isolating. What is important is to switch our consciousness from "doom and gloom" and stop looking at what I will refer to as "the body count" of those who have died. What we should be focusing on is those that are making it through. If we join together in a collective consciousness of lifting up one another things will start not only to shift within us but the world. When we dwell on the negative we get more of it. Is that really want we want to experience? My invitation to each of us is to know the divine is working through all of this and creating wellness. But, we have to know this without a doubt within our minds. As we embrace wellness it will not only occur within our bodies but again the world. Consciousness is so important during this time. Please know you have enough and you are well. Again, if you have any concerns please, please, email me and I will get back to you. I know for each and everyone of us God has got this. Trust and all will be truly be well. Know that I love you. - Rev Rhonda
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So...What's in your spiritual bank account?

6/18/2018

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So, what is in your Spiritual Bank Account?
 Do any of us really understand that infinite account of our life? When speaking to spiritual wisdom? I believe we all understand at some level through our faith traditions that we have an infinite mental reserve account of Love and Faith with God. It is to these Love, and Faith that we draw on when writing checks to the crisis’s in our lives not only for ourselves but for others.
As spiritual beings we accept and know the power of the divine as the infinite depositor in what I am going to refer to as, The Bank of Life. Which lucky for us is always open and never closed, for it is in “God We Trust” and consent to infinite possibilities insured by the FDIC (Fearlessly Divine Infinite Conviction).
 
So, we pretty much know that we have to have money before we can spend it, right?
And how comfortable it makes us to feel to have a good amount in that checking account? Knowing without a doubt it is an account big enough to draw on in emergencies without impoverishing us when it comes to paying for our ordinary needs. So let me speak to another kind of checking account which is equally important, located in the Bank of Life.
I will call this, our Spiritual Bank Account because we believe there are great spiritual forces that we can draw on, and deposit in our own minds, which can be used in any emergency, in any stress or strain of life. Realizing we were drawing on the infinite presence of God each day. We knowingly auto deposit hope, happiness and faith to more than meet any emergency that might possibly arise. If fact, our cup runneth over!
 
God the infinite creative power, the great Bank Manager in our hearts, knows when our funds are getting low and we need to look at our reserves. That is our prayer life. The beautiful part of this reserve account is that it is filled with unconditional love. One of the “conditions” of this reserve account is that it never has to be paid back, but forward. What we recognize is that love constantly expands because wherever we are God is also. Corinthians1 12:6 There are different ways of working, but the same God works all things in all men. So creating through our kindness, understanding, patience, and selfless giving we are embodying the divine power of love, that which God is.
 
The divine essentially has imparted its own life and, in a mysterious way which is beyond our comprehension, has endowed us with the capacity to Love. If the Divine is love, and if each one of us has, as we must have, immediate access to the Love of the Divine, then we earn the ability to draw on the Bank of Life in such degree as we become loving. By communing with the Infinite through spiritual practice of prayer we earn the ability to draw on this bank of infinite Love.
 
We know that we have to deposit money in the bank in order to draw
checks. We know that the money is in a safe place and that the checks will be honored unless we over draw the account.In our ordinary affairs we have to earn the money, and in a certain sense this will be true of our spiritual bank account. But the earning of the supply or substance for our spiritual bank account is a little different, for we earn the ability to draw on the Bank of Life only through having practiced Love. The Divine is in us, through us always, and It has already made the initial deposit, (and a big one), for everyone who is ever born into this world, because the Divine has given itself to us.
 
So what does it look like when we have to “right” those checks? Dip into our reserves? Spend mental coin?  We mentally “right” our checks against our account when we are called on to meet emergencies, times when we need more love and tolerance, more kindness and understanding, deeper faith and a higher hope. The crises that appears as an experience of being human. Here is where Law of Mind in Action comes in to honor that check.
 
When we apply our thought of Love (the Divine is right where we are or the situation is) directly to discordant situations, and there is nothing in you that is afraid, your thoughts of Love are applied to that situation and will heal it….
 
We must have a firm conviction when we apply the Principle of Love to any human challenge, speak our word of conviction through prayer or your personal spiritual practice, because it will operate as God in the condition that confronts you, and will neutralize everything that opposes it.
And now let us think of some other things we want to deposit in the Bank of Life. Perhaps one of the most important next to Love is Faith.
 
Faith in ourselves, faith in what we are doing, and faith in those around us. A person without faith is insecure and perhaps could be unstable about everything. Let us draw upon the reservoir of faith which comes only through implicit and complete surrender of all our fears, whether they be for big or little. Faith is natural; fear is unnatural. Faith is positive; fear is negative. Faith is affirmative; fear is denial of life. And we need a great deal of faith if we are going to meet all the fears and uncertainties that we are sure to encounter. Just as we cannot pay a thousand-dollar debt with five hundred dollars, so it is impossible to meet a trying circumstance unless we have sufficient faith to cover all the fear.
 
We have as much faith as we use. We have as much faith as we believe. Perfect Love alone can cast out all fear. Love is always greater than fear. Fear is not really an enemy of Love. All that fear can do is cast a shadow across your pathway. But this shadow is dissipated when you look at it with Love. We are not dealing with two opposing forces but with only One Force, which is absolute and positive and conclusive. The Divine never fails and Love never fails and we will never fail if we use the Love that the Divine is.
 
Something I want to share is we all have the opportunity to be an ATM (Accepting Truth Mindfully) being as we are always open 24 hours. We do this by knowing the Truth of the challenges in our life. No one and nothing is against us, unless of course you want to over draw your account by spending mental coin to figure that out? It is our consciousness here, and here alone, that is the real substance that we can draw upon to purchase every good and beautiful thing that Life has in store for us.
 
Here alone are peace and joy and certainty. Here alone is freedom from fear and doubt. Deliberately close all your accounts with the lesser banks, throw away the old checkbooks, debit cards, and forget them, and learn to turn daily to the one and only Supreme Source, which is the Divine. Spend your time knowing every day, this or something better, because God works through you as you. And the best part about all of this is we never have to worry about a-loan time, because God’s payments are always considered to be time well spent, because it’s all drawn up in unconditional love. Namaste.
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God Talks to Our Heart

4/16/2018

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God Talks to the Heart
 
There are days in our lives where we stop along our path of life and ask, “What is mine to do God? Can you give me a hint, because I am feeling a little lost at the moment!  I’ve lost my spiritual compass and I have no idea what direction I am going.” Actually what has happened is we have walked so far, we have finally reached the spiritual fork in the road. One side of the road leads to continuing life as it always has been, the other the sacred. Yes, it is that place we have arrived where humanity and divinity meet. Meaning we are really looking at our life as it stands and asking, “How has this all been working for me?”, “I feel something is missing from my life, yet I have everything I need?” Then as we stand staring at the road and something within our being, a place in our heart, beacons us to take the path of the sacred.   We find everything within us feels the “Yes” to walking with God, Our Father, Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, Supreme Being and we begin. What we have yet to discover is we have always been on the journey with IT, we just have finally decided to have a relationship with it. When one starts out on their spiritual journey we usually have no idea what we are looking for but we know it calls to us. IT hits us directly in the heart. There is an unexplainable longing to commune with this energy which we can only explain as loving. IT draws us into it and what is amazing about this loving momentum is it is unconditional.
As humans we long for connection and we seek until we find it with like minds that celebrate this sacred life. This is what we know as Religion or for some Spirituality. What we know about both is it is belonging to a collective spiritual practice that agrees with who we are on the inside and learning through prayer we can talk to God.  Often I am asked, “What is the difference between religion and spirituality?” Well, Religion is for people who are afraid they are going to Hell, Spirituality is for those that have already been there. But both speak of our relationship with God, it’s just a matter of how you want to understand and create that connection. One of the Master teachers of our path to God is Jesus the Christ. He was a way shower to mankind and what he demonstrated was our ability to be in a relationship with the divine. In the New Testament scripture we understand Jesus spent much of his time communing with his own soul, and in that communion he revealed it is through our inner thought that we contact God. Prayer is where we have a conversation with the divine. God knows what is on our hearts. In the book  A Course of Love, it says, “God is a relationship with love. If God were to speak to you Himself and tell you of what means your service would be to Him, He would but tell you this…My child, return to me. For we belong to one another. You are the bridge to me. I am the bridge to you. You are the bridge to your brothers and sisters. They are your bridge to yourself.
God talks to our hearts….but it is up to us to listen and take the first step.
Namaste
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Clearing the Air that we are not a cult

3/28/2018

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I love the conversations I am invited to during our "fellowship" time after service. I learn so much from everyone, and for this I am truly grateful. So today, I learned that most of the "valley" of Hemet thinks we are a "cult". This is because our building that we call a church is actually two domes. So like all good people we judge a book by its cover, right? People who know nothing about our "Faith" tell others we are "weird". I recently put up on our marquee, "no guilt, no sin, inquire within". Which is true about Religious Science, we do not believe in either one. But those again, who have no facts have condemned us to being scary and of course would NEVER cross the threshold for fear of being wrong.
First, I find the word "cult" funny. ALL religious faiths are cults, and this is why...a cult is a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular figure or object. A relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices regarded by others as strange or sinister, a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing. Yes, my friends that is what "cult" means. So, the love one has for Jesus, does that not qualify as a cult? Interesting...
So Science of Mind practices many paths to God. We agree to see more than one teacher like Jesus the Christ, Krishna, Abraham, Mohammad, Buddha, etc... We invite everyone to the table, to share ideas and to enter into a conversation about our relationship with it. Each of us has an experience of God to bring, mine is different from yours however, I know that it is all about love. God loves me and you and everything in this world, that is why it was created. 
I also know that I do not have to live a life of guilt or sin. Because I can forgive myself and start again. That is what God's love is about, knowing that each day is a new, and I can begin again. Sin is a mistake. Do we not all make mistakes? It is also a term of archery when you miss the mark. I've done that quite a few times in my life. But I keep going, knowing this or something better. Man created the term to control the masses NOT God.
We are an amazing faith that teaches the spiritual tools of positive living, empowering living, making better choices and loving God and all the teachers for loving us.
When you come to church you will be greeted and left alone. We will give you a visitors pack and answer any questions you may have, we are pretty much like many churches on Sunday, just glad you are here and exploring your Divinity. The only thing we ask, is for you to be open to the possibilities of having an amazing relationship with the God of your understanding. We are layed back and loving people. Our foundation is philosophy and our heart is love. So, if you want a BIGGER conversation about God, come see us under the domes OR if you are just curious, come to, all are welcomed, and you will leave knowing we are peaceful and normal people like everyone else in the valley and our God and Jesus are your God and Jesus.
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Blessings of love to all - Rev. Rhonda

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