Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

I – “Three days later there was a wedding in the village of Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. Jesus and his disciples were guests also. When they started running low on wine at the wedding banquet, Jesus’ mother told him, “They’re just about out of wine.”

Jesus said, “Is that any of our business, Mother—yours or mine? This isn’t my time. Don’t push me.”
She went ahead anyway, telling the servants, “Whatever he tells you, do it.”

Six stoneware water pots were there, used by the Jews for ritual washings. Each held twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus ordered the servants, “Fill the pots with water.” And they filled them to the brim.
“Now fill your pitchers and take them to the host,” Jesus said, and they did.

When the host tasted the water that had become wine (he didn’t know what had just happened but the servants, of course, knew), he called out to the bridegroom, “Everybody I know begins with their finest wines and after the guests have had their fill brings in the cheap stuff. But you’ve saved the best till now!”

This act in Cana of Galilee was the first sign Jesus gave, the first glimpse of his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”
(John 2:1-11 – The Message)

II – “And stop constantly conforming yourselves to…this age…but on the contrary, be progressively transformed (transfigured; changed in form and semblance) by the renewing…the making-back-up-new again of the intellect; pertaining to the faculties of perceiving and understanding; of the mindset, disposition, inner orientation, and world view] into the [situation and condition for] you…to be habitually examining in order to be testing and, after scrutiny, distinguishing and approving what [is] God’s will(design; purpose; resolve; intent)…” (Romans 12:2 – JMNT)

III – “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
– George Bernard Shaw

IV – It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
– C. S. Lewis

V – “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
– Albert Einstein
VI – “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger. And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man’s ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.” – Kahlil Gibran

VII – “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

With special guest Robert Rutherford

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

With Special Guest, Robert Rutherford…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Bishop Jim’s insightful messages help others find THEIR METRON through M~otivation E~nlightenment T~ranscendence R~enewal O~utreach and N~etworking

Today’s Notes:

1. “There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!”
(Romans 5:3-5 – The Message)

2. “But this beautiful treasure is contained in us—cracked pots made of earth and clay—so that the transcendent character of this power will be clearly seen as coming from God and not from us. 8 We are cracked and chipped from our afflictions on all sides, but we are not crushed by them. We are bewildered at times, but we do not give in to despair. 9 We are persecuted, but we have not been abandoned. We have been knocked down, but we are not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-9 – The Voice)

3. “And he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: 18 When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, ‘The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!’” So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. 20 Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” – (Judges 7:17 -20 – NKJV)

4. “People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”
― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

5. “Awareness ultimately has no boundaries. It exists in this world but endlessly goes beyond it. The world’s great wisdom traditions all derive from a higher reality that is indescribable but can be experienced. This is the greatest wonder and source of awe. As the ancient Indian sages declare, “This isn’t knowledge that you learn. It’s knowledge that you become.” When you fully absorb this insight, you know what it means to transcend. You don’t need to travel anywhere; all of reality exists in you. You exemplify wholeness because you are united with everything and everyone around you. You exist to demonstrate that human beings can reach the infinite, and by simply being who you are, you help others get there.” ― Deepak Chopra

6. “Sometimes broken people teach broken people how to be whole again.” ― Q.Gibson

7. “When seen with imagination, all things shift toward meaning, releasing energies that are hidden within appearances, releasing the inner wings of spirit, opening wide the doors to healing and wholeness.” ― Michael Meade

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Today’s Notes:

1. “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (James 1:2-4 – KJV)

2. “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.”
(James 1:2-4 – The Message)

3. “When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends! Realize that they come to test your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance. But let the process go on until that endurance is fully developed, and you will find you have become men of mature character with the right sort of independence.”
(James 1:2-4 – Phillips)

4. “Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of non-forgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.” – Eckhart Tolle

5. “As soon as we wish to be happier, we are no longer happy.”
– Walter Landor

6. “Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.” – Sylvia Boorstein

7. “In the end, just three things matter: How well we have lived. How well we have loved. How well we have learned to let go”
– Jack Kornfield

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Bishop Jim’s insightful messages help others find THEIR METRON through M~otivation E~nlightenment T~ranscendence R~enewal O~utreach and N~etworking

Today’s Notes:

1. “Now a certain man was there having been in his infirmity thirty-eight years. Jesus, perceiving this one lying down, and knowing that he has already spent much time, is saying to him, “Do you want to become SOUND?” (John 5:5, 6 – CLV)

2. “Now there was yet a certain man there, having continuously[spent] thirty-eight years within his illness (weakness; infirmity). Jesus, having seen this man presently (or: habitually) lying [there], and intimately knowing (or: knowing from personal experience) that he already continues having[spent] much time [thus], He says to him, “Do you continue purposing to become SOUND IN HEALTH?” (or: “Are you habitually intending or presently wanting to become restored to your original healthy condition?”)”
(John 5:5, 6 – JMNT)

3. “May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit…”
(I Thessalonians 5:23 – The Message)

4. “Joy is a return to the deep harmony of body, mind, and spirit that was yours at birth and that can be yours again. That openness to love, that capacity for wholeness with the world around you, is still within you.” – Deepak Chopra

5. “You are whole and also part of larger and larger circles of wholeness you may not even know about. You are never alone. And you already belong. You belong to humanity. You belong to life. You belong to this moment, this breath.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

6. “Is anyone among you habitually experiencing weakness or normally infirm? Let him at once call to himself the older folks of the called-out community, and then let them speak well-being (or: pray goodness) upon him, anointing (or: massaging) him with olive oil in union with and in [the authority of] the Lord’s…Name…and then faith’s impartation of well-being…will progressively deliver (restore to health; rescue; save) the one being continuously labored to weariness and exhaustion, and then the Lord…will proceed causing him to rise…” (James 5: JMNT)

7. “Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.” – Alan Cohen

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Bishop Jim’s insightful messages help others find THEIR METRON through M~otivation E~nlightenment T~ranscendence R~enewal O~utreach and N~etworking

Music
Kordai Harris – Mary Did You Know
Eddie Sellers – Oh Beautiful Star of Bethlehem
Chandra Currelley – Worthy is the Lamb, He Lives In You
Bishop Jim – O Holy Night

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

Jim Swilley joins D.E. Polk for a joint teaching on the meaning of Christmas. Recorded at the Spirit and Truth Sanctuary.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

This is Part Three of Three

“In the Now with Jim Swilley” is a YouTube channel show recorded live at Metron. In this three part series Jon Scott joins Jim Swilley to discuss “Unto Us” and everything that means to us in the now!

“For unto us… not unto me… not unto you… but unto us, the collective, corporate community of mankind…the household of humanity…unto all of us, a child is born; unto us, the global family, a Son is given, and the responsibility of the government will rest on His broad shoulders. In fact, all the governments of all the peoples of the world will ultimately recognize Him as their one true foundation, for the earth is His, and He belongs to all of us . He will be the physical embodiment of the “I Am,” the God who defies description; and, in an attempt to define the indefinable, He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase and expansion of His kingdom and government and peace there will be no end. He will reign initially from David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing it and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time, on into the eternal now. The passionate zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9:6,7 – The Bible In The Now)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | More

This is Part Two of Three

“In the Now with Jim Swilley” is a YouTube channel show recorded live at Metron. In this three part series Jon Scott joins Jim Swilley to discuss “Unto Us” and everything that means to us in the now!

“For unto us… not unto me… not unto you… but unto us, the collective, corporate community of mankind…the household of humanity…unto all of us, a child is born; unto us, the global family, a Son is given, and the responsibility of the government will rest on His broad shoulders. In fact, all the governments of all the peoples of the world will ultimately recognize Him as their one true foundation, for the earth is His, and He belongs to all of us . He will be the physical embodiment of the “I Am,” the God who defies description; and, in an attempt to define the indefinable, He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase and expansion of His kingdom and government and peace there will be no end. He will reign initially from David’s throne and over His kingdom, establishing it and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time, on into the eternal now. The passionate zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” (Isaiah 9:6,7 – The Bible In The Now)