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October-December, 2007

Chasing Pearls

by Rev. John Vise

Recently, a minister friend of mine asked me to fill in the pulpit for him while he and his wife took some much needed time off together. He then requested that I give him the sermon title by the end of the week, as that was his deadline for putting it in the paper for the following Saturday.

I had been thinking about how some people place a great value on spiritual awakening, some don’t even know what it means, and others think it is cool that it is available to some but not for them.  Of course I know that when you are ready it will start to happen for you, and this brought to mind the ‘pearl of great price’ parable in Matthew. So, I called him back and said the title would be ‘Pearls.”

I decided to share with the congregation some of the Pearls in my life and how I ‘sold everything I had’ to obtain them.  Selling everything you have means: To make the necessary financial and time commitments to obtain those pearls, no matter what.

About thirty years ago, after spending sixty days with friends in British Columbia, Canada, and while driving back home, I was divinely discontent, a state of mind that Napoleon Hill described in his book Think and Grow Rich. This state of mind is a good thing as you know that change is on its way. Thirty of those days were in a log cabin in a wilderness territory on the banks of a beautiful glacier fed lake. The combination of being away from the ordinary life and now enjoying this peaceful basic existence life far away from everything, stirred something in me.

I was given a copy of the Science of Mind monthly magazine and my interest in the philosophy of Earnest Holmes grabbed my attention. I ordered everything in the book by Earnest Holmes and a few books that were by other writers. For the first time in my life I was affirmed in some of my beliefs, which differed greatly from the bible belt consciousness that I grew up around. Oh… it sure felt good and I wanted more of this, so I made the decision to take one year off and study. What a beautiful year. More and more books magically came into my life and I was opening up to a whole new way of seeing things with confidence.

Toward the end of that year, I was introduced to ACIM by a United Methodist pastor friend of mine. I immediately became an avid student of the ‘Course.’  It was as if I was tied to a rocket ship as my spiritual awareness went into a completely different orbit. Then, some 20 years later, I read the Disappearance of the Universe, by Gary Renard, and the boosters on the rocket ship I was riding on ignited and it catapulted me into another orbit. The value of the information in this book to ACIM students is priceless. Another ‘pearl’ in my now long list of pearls.

Then in February I attended the ACIM Conference in San Francisco and attended one of the sessions by Pathways of Light with Revs. Mary and Robert Stoelting. I enjoyed the session and picked up some of their literature to take with me to study later after I returned home. Something kept speaking to me as I read and studied the different courses offered. I was seeing more pearls. So, I picked up the phone and called and talked to Robert. I ordered the first five courses while I was on the phone with him, and later all the rest of the courses for the O.M.C. certification.

Pearls, pearls, pearls… everywhere pearls.  What a beautiful way they have for your own further spiritual awakening and a way to share in the teachings in ACIM and my own ministry.

© 2007, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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