Speech Delivered as Keynote Address at Conference on Giving St. Mary in St. Paul, MN

1. WELCOME "God: Source of AllGoodGifts" St. Mary of the Lake White Bear Lake, MN Speaker: Dr. Steve McSwain Author, Interfaith Activist and Spiritual Teacher www.stevemcswain.com

3. God: Source of All Good Gifts 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.--Matthew 7:7-15

4. Must You Agree with Everything You hear? “In any relationship where two people agree on everything, one of them isn’t necessary.” - Anonymous

5. God: Source of All Good Gifts 7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.--Matthew 7:7-15

6. Introduction: "...how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" So, For What Good Gifts Would You Ask?

7. CONFUSION… Older, Wiser Fish asked by Younger, Inexperienced Fish, “Where’s this place they call the Ocean?” Pleasure… People… Possessions… Position… “You Never Get Enough of What You Don’t Need!” --Unknown

8. Rumi, Sufi Poet, "I have lived on the lip of insanity..." What Is the Kingdom of God? Where is the Kingdom of God? (1)JOY Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God Is within you.” (Luke 17:21) Insight into the Real Place of Happiness? Father Thomas Merton, "As soon as a person is disposed to being along with God..."

9. "Without knowing what I am or why I'm here, life is impossible." --Leo Tolstoy "Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow..." Shakespeare, MacBeth (2)PURPOSE The Capacity to Know Why You Showed Up? “You were born to walk with God, So why would you walk alone?” Quotation taken from The Enoch Factor

10. (3)REASON PERMISSION TO QUESTION EVERYTHING? "Question Everything...Learn Something...Answer Nothing!" --Euripides “The unexamined life Isn’t worth living.” --Socrates

11. ”Silence is the Voice of God” – Mother Teresa “Silence is the Voice of God in the Corridors of a Noisy Mind "Where there is silence, one finds the anchor to the universe." --Lao Tzu (4)SILENCE The Capacity to Know Solitude, Silence and Stillness? "Be still, and know that I am God." Ps. 46:10 "Pray without ceasing." 1 Thess. 5:17

12. "What could you not accept, if you but knew, that everything that happens is planned by One who has your best interests at heart." --A Course in Miracles (5)ACCEPTANCE The Capacity to Accept What Is? To Even Accept the Unacceptable? Romans 8:28 "When you've learned the lesson that life's difficult times are designed to teach you you'll stop having those particular difficulties." --Unknown

15. Toward the Future = worry; see Matt. 6:19-20; 25-34Byron Katie and “THE WORK” PRESENT = PRESENCE

16. “Synchronicity” “Meaningful Coincidence” Carl Jung (8)DIVINE-CIDENTS The Ability to See the “Conspiracy of Improbabilities”? "A COINCIDENCE is... God behaving incognito." --Unknown “You cannot but be at the right place @ right time." -A Course in Miracles

17. (9)DEATH The Capacity to Die Before You Die “There’s only one thing worse than death…” "I'd like to achieve immortality by not dying!" --Woody Allen “Just do the dance that you’ve been shown; By everyone you’ve ever known. Until the dance becomes your own. In the end, there is one dance You’ll do alone. --Jackson Browne “Today is a good day to die.” --Native Americans

19. THE END "God: Source of AllGoodGifts" St. Mary of the Lake White Bear Lake, MN Speaker: Dr. Steve McSwain Author, Interfaith Activist and Spiritual Teacher www.stevemcswain.com