New Year Reflection

Rev-Bates Weekly Message for Sunday December 28, 2025

Regarding the Change in Publication Schedule

                          For many years, it has been my commitment to share a weekly message with this spiritual community. Beginning January 1, 2026, I will be moving from a weekly message to a single, thoughtfully prepared message released on the first of each month. This change is not a step back, but a step deeper allowing more time for contemplation, meditation, and clarity, so that each message may arrive as a focused offering rather than something routine. I trust that this will support reflection, contemplation, and study with the ideas we explore together.

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New Year Reflection

                       The beginning of a new year is not merely a change on the calendar; it is a moment of conscious renewal. We are invited to pause, to release the weight of what has passed, and to remember that life is always unfolding from this present moment. The past year, whatever it held—has brought us wisdom, contrast, and growth, even where we did not immediately recognize it. As we step into this new year, let us do so with intention rather than expectation, grounded in the knowing that Spirit does not rush, does not repeat mistakes, and does not withhold good. May this year be approached not as something to survive or conquer, but as a field of possibility in which we align our thoughts, words, and actions with the highest good we can imagine—and then allow that good to reveal itself in ways beyond our imagination.Keep the faith!

Rev-Bates

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become a place where Love can arrive

 Rev-Bates Weekly Message for Sunday, December 21, 2025

                       A few days before Christmas, I invite you to move into a quieter space, one that exists beneath the noise of shopping lists and expectations. It is in this quiet, silent space that we align ourselves with the Spirit within us, our very soul.

                       Christmas, at its essence, is about the birth of possibility. It speaks to the moment when hope chooses to enter the world in an ordinary way, through vulnerability, humility, and trust. It reminds us that renewal rarely comes as spectacle; it comes as a small, steady awakening within the human heart. Every act of kindness, every choice toward compassion, is a way of letting that birth happen again.
                        As we approach Christmas, the invitation is simple: become a place where love can arrive. Release what hardens the heart—resentment, fear, the need to be right—and make room for what heals. If we can carry peace within ourselves, even briefly, we become messengers of it to others. And in doing so, something quietly wonderful is born—not once a year, but whenever we choose to live from love.

Keep the faith!

Rev-Bates

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Why The Human Species Is the Most Evil

 Rev-Bates Weekly Message for Sunday, December 14, 2025

                        This morning on the News there were reports of a terrorist attack on a Hannukah Party in Bondi Beach, a suburban community of Sydney, Australia, killing 11 people and wounding 29. Also, a report of a shooting at Brown University in Rhode Island, USA killing two and wounding nine. Here in Palm Desert, the Mayor Pro-Tem is proposing to ban the Pride Flag during Pride Month. Who does this flag hurt? Our State Assembly Member, Greg Wallis, a republican, has denounced the proposal. My conclusion after these reports and so many like them, is that the human species is the most evil. Why? And what can we do?

                       This morning’s news confronts us with images and numbers that pierce the heart—lives lost, families shattered, communities stunned by violence. When we witness such acts again and again, it can feel unbearable to reconcile human intelligence, creativity, and tenderness with our capacity for cruelty. The question naturally arises: How can a species capable of love also inflict such harm? From a spiritual—not religious—perspective, this tension points to a deep inner conflict within humanity itself. We are not inherently evil so much as profoundly divided within our own consciousness, often driven by fear, alienation, and the illusion of separation from one another.

                        Violence is born where empathy collapses. When individuals or groups lose the felt sense of shared humanity, others become objects, symbols, or enemies rather than living beings with inner lives as vivid as their own. Fear then seeks justification, ideology gives it language, and anger gives it permission. Spiritually speaking, this is not the triumph of evil but the absence of awareness—an eclipse of our innate capacity to recognize ourselves in one another. The tragedy is not only in the act itself, but in how disconnected a person must feel to commit it.

                      So, what can we do? We begin where all lasting change begins: within consciousness. Each act of compassion, each refusal to dehumanize, each moment we choose understanding over reaction weakens the conditions that give rise to violence. This does not mean passivity or denial of justice; it means addressing root causes as well as consequences. We can cultivate presence instead of rage, dialogue instead of demonization, and courage instead of despair. Spiritually, our work is to remember—again and again—that humanity’s darkest expressions are not its essence. The same species capable of terrible harm is also capable of profound healing, and the future depends on which capacity we choose to nurture.

Keep the faith!

Rev-Bates

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Always Believe Something Wonderful Is About To Happen

 Rev-Bates Weekly Message for Sunday, December 7, 2025

                       Recently I purchased a greeting card for someone, and the card read “Always believe something wonderful is about to happen.” I read this and I thought, what a great affirmation, “I believe something wonderful is about to happen,” and with this affirmation registered in our consciousness, something wonderful will happen. This simple phrase carries a quiet power, a gentle instruction to the mind and heart to stay open to possibilities that cannot yet be seen but are already forming in the unseen currents of life.

                     When we hold an expectation of goodness, we begin to notice the subtle signs of beauty, opportunity, and connection that might otherwise pass unnoticed. Our thoughts become like a lens, shaping how we interpret each moment. In this way, believing is not wishful thinking, but a creative alignment with life’s natural tendency toward growth, healing, and expansion.

                     I invite each of you to accept this affirmation, “I believe something wonderful is about to happen.” Let these words touch your heart. Memorize it, write it down, in the silence of your thoughts bring these words to the uppermost part of your mind. This will register these words in your consciousness. Enjoy the experience of observing what they draw to you.

Keep the faith!

Rev-Bates

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What If I Am Not Thankful?

Rev-Bates Weekly Message for Sunday, November 30, 2025

                       If you find yourself unable to feel thankful, the first spiritual insight is this: nothing is wrong with you. Gratitude is not a performance or a moral requirement—it is a state of awareness that naturally rises when we are inwardly aligned. When it seems absent, it often means the mind is crowded, the heart is tired, or the spirit is calling for rest. In this sense, the absence of thankfulness is not a failure but an invitation to pause and breathe.

                     From a spiritual perspective, “not feeling thankful” can be a sign that you're being asked to look deeper—beneath circumstances, beneath expectations, beneath the noise of daily life. Instead of forcing gratitude, you can gently allow presence. When you return to the present moment, even without naming anything as “good,” you begin reconnecting with the inner Self that is always whole, always supported, and always held by something larger than the momentary mood.

                     And here is the quiet truth: gratitude doesn’t begin with feeling thankful; it begins with simply being willing. Willing to notice one small thing that is okay. Willing to trust that life is still moving in your favor even when your emotions haven't caught up. If thankfulness feels out of reach, let grace take its place. In time, the warmth of gratitude will return—not because you forced it, but because you created space for it to arise naturally.

Keep the faith!

Rev-Bates

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Don't Stop Believing

 Rev-Bates Weekly Message for Sunday, November 23, 2025

                        There is a quiet power that lives within every person—a steady, luminous presence that whispers encouragement even when the world seems uncertain. This power is not bound to doctrine, ritual, or any external authority. It is the inner knowing that life is always moving toward greater expression, and that within us is something capable of rising, expanding, and transforming. To believe is not merely to hope; it is to align ourselves with this inner current of possibility and to trust that the deeper truth of who we are is always enough.

                         Belief becomes most meaningful in the moments when evidence appears scarce. When circumstances challenge us, belief invites us to pause, breathe, and return to the quiet intelligence that guides us from within. This is the same intelligence that grows flowers from soil, moves oceans with tides, and heals the human heart after loss. By choosing to believe—especially when doubt seems easier—we open the door for clarity to return and for solutions to reveal themselves. Belief is the bridge between the life we have and the life we know is possible.

                          To never stop believing is to affirm that growth, healing, and expansion are natural states of being. It is to stand in the awareness that the universe is not against us; it is continually responding to the thoughts, emotions, and intentions we hold. When we believe in our own worthiness, life mirrors that belief back to us. When we trust our path, the next step becomes visible. And when we honor our inner guidance, we discover that the journey itself becomes lighter, clearer, and more aligned. So keep believing—not because it is easy, but because it awakens the truth of who you are and empowers the life you are here to create.

Keep the faith!

Rev-Bates

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we prosper by practicing inner receptivity

  Rev-Bates Weekly Message for Sunday, November 16, 2025

               Joel Goldsmith’s Infinite Supply teaches that true prosperity begins with an inner shift rather than an outer chase. Goldsmith reveals that supply is not something we gather, earn, or attract through effort—it is a spiritual presence already within us. When we quiet the mind and turn toward the Infinite, we tap a source that is never depleted, never absent, and never dependent on conditions. Prosperity, in this view, unfolds naturally as we recognize that our good flows from consciousness, not circumstance.

                 A central revelation in the book is that we prosper by realizing oneness—that there is no separation between ourselves and the divine Source. Goldsmith emphasizes that lack arises only when we believe we are separate, isolated beings trying to survive in a limited world. When that illusion dissolves, the flow of supply resumes, not as something we command but as something we witness. This awareness creates an atmosphere of ease: opportunities open, needs are met, and life arranges itself harmoniously.

                 Goldsmith also instructs that we prosper by practicing inner receptivity rather than outer striving. Instead of mentally outlining or forcing results, he invites us into the silence where intuitive guidance and tangible supply appear in perfect timing. Prosperity becomes a byproduct of spiritual consciousness—gratitude, trust, and the willingness to rely on the Invisible. In this receptive state, we come to see that “infinite supply” is not a promise for the future but a reality available in every moment we turn within.

Keep the faith!

Rev-Bates

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