I am open to expanding my understanding of God.
I am teachable and ready to receive new ideas.
My heart is open to God, my everywhere present Source of all good.
I am a Child of the Universe, richly endowed with the fullness of all-good.
I am ready to receive and express the free flow of divine abundance.
Responsive Reading for Sunday, July 9
Responses are inspired by lyrics to “Ready to Receive” by Sue Riley and others and teachings of Eric Butterworth in Spiritual Economics:
St. Paul was teaching about Jesus in ancient Athens. Some of the men of the city led St. Paul to a hill where there were many idols “and said, ‘May we learn what this new teaching is that you speak of? . . . . We should like to know what these things mean.’ Now all the Athenians as well as the foreigners residing there used their time for nothing else but telling or hearing something new” (Acts 17:18-21).
I am open to expanding my understanding of God. I am teachable and ready to receive new ideas.
“Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: ‘You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, 'To an Unknown God.' What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:22-3).
I am open and receptive to experiencing God as limitless Wisdom, Life, and Substance.
Paul continued: “The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24-5).
My heart is open to God, my everywhere present Source of all good.
Paul continued: “He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth . . . so that people might seek God . . . . though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For 'In him we live and move and have our being,' as even some of your poets have said, 'For we too are his offspring.' Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination” (Acts 17:26-9).
I am a Child of the Universe, richly endowed with the fullness of all good. I am ready to receive and express the free flow of divine abundance.