Presenting My Credentials

Presenting My Credentials

by Margaret Timms

Transcribed from the original recording; may contain errors.

I’m one of those old faces that Harry was talking about. And there are a few old faces here who know me pretty well, because I’ve been here about 30 years. There are several others who know me by sight, I think, but probably don’t know very much about me. And then, of course, you who are new know nothing about me. And so I thought tonight perhaps it might be a good idea to present some of my credentials. I have sat where you’re sitting many times and looked at the speaker and wondered, “What right does he or she have to be there?” When Glenn Clark was here, he chose all the speakers. One of his secretaries used to tell me that when somebody came to a camp that was recommended as a speaker, he would give them an opportunity to speak for an afternoon. And then he would have the secretary and other people that were familiar with him decide whether that person really had the qualifications that he wanted to have for his speakers. And then he would pass on them and he would decide who should be accepted. I don’t know what the credentials are that are required today. I haven’t been in touch with the national ring very much. So I don’t know how they choose them.

I know that many people come to speak who really don’t know very much about CFO or what the whole purpose of it was. But they come as experts. Starr Daily used to say the definition of an expert was somebody who blew in, blew off, and blew out.

And so I cannot qualify for that definition. Joe can. He doesn’t come very often. But I have to stick with whatever I say. I was brought up in a Methodist family. My father was a Methodist minister of the old school. He was a fundamentalist, and he was a devout follower of John Wesley. I don’t know how many of you know how the Methodists even got their name. You know, John Wesley had a very specific pattern for life. And one of the things that he required of his people was that they follow these disciplines. In fact, their book of rules, the one that corresponds to the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, was called a discipline. So Methodists in that day were disciplined. And one of the things they were supposed to have was a family altar every day. And my father followed that diligently. From the time I could remember, the whole family, and we came to be five children, had to meet every morning after breakfast for a reading of a chapter of the Bible, and we all had to get down on our knees and pray. Now, the Methodist church used to move their ministers every two years. And sometimes we had nice parsonages, and sometimes they weren’t so nice. But the one that annoyed me the most was the one that had a big porch.

And all our school friends used to make it a point to get there early so they could look through the windows and see us down on our knees. I didn’t realize then, of course, how valuable that training would be to me. But I was a very quiet little girl. I was susceptible to all of the teaching, and I followed it very carefully. And at one time, I was determined to be a missionary to Africa. But when Leonard came along after I graduated from college, I said to the Lord, “Well, I think that I might like to get married right now, and if You don’t mind, perhaps by the time I’m 40, I will devote my full time to You.” And I think the Lord said, “Okay.” Because that was about that time that I began to really feel that there was something more to this spiritual life than I knew. I had been very active in my church. I had… Due to Leonard’s influence. Leonard is my husband, by the way, and he’s back there, and I’m sure you’ll all get to know him. You want to stand up? Everybody’s been standing up today.

So, when we were married, and we moved to Wellesley, there was no suitable Methodist church. I was sick and tired of being connected with little tiny churches, and that’s the one that was there. So he said, “Well, it’s a good time to become an Episcopalian.”

He was a member of the Church of England. He was born in England, so it was no hardship for him to shift over. And I became very active in the Episcopal Church. In fact, I used to say, “I worked my way up from the kitchen to the pulpit.” I took all… did all of the jobs that there were. But there came a time when I began to question my Christian life. And I used to ask my father and various other ministers, “How come? When Jesus was here, He did these wonderful things. He healed people, and He provided for all of their needs. But it just doesn’t seem to work anymore.” After we were married, the depression came along, and our income got depressed. The children had a lot of illnesses. And things just did not seem to work out in accordance with the way in which the Bible said Jesus wanted things to do. And everyone gave me the same answer. “When Jesus was here, He could do those things. But now that He’s not here in person, you’ll just have to be good. And when you get to heaven, then you’ll find out that He’s still there.” And I thought that was pretty cold comfort, and I didn’t know why I was really bothering to spend all that time doing good things when it wasn’t really accomplishing anything for me.

And then one day, Leonard, who’s always been my research man, came home from the library with a book entitled The Healing Light. How many of you have read The Healing Light? Wonderful. And those who haven’t, must. Because I think it’s the basic book on spiritual healing. It was written by Agnes Sanford. She was an Episcopal minister’s wife who was on the verge of suicide for many years. And finally, through a series of experiences, she came to discover how to release the healing power of the Christ. It was always available, but people just didn’t know how to let it come through. And so in her book, she gave her experience of how she discovered this healing power and how we could discover it. And I was just so excited. That was what I had been looking for. And I began to practice all of the teachings that she had in that book. And our health pattern turned around completely. And then the next book that Leonard brought home to me was I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes by Glenn Clark. And Glenn Clark had in that book the pattern for all of the other things that we need in life besides healing. And once more, I was just so thrilled to see that there was somebody to whom the Lord had finally revealed the way in which He wanted us to live.

And so Glenn Clark has a very specific pattern. I’m sure many of you know that. How many of you know I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes? Not quite as many as know The Healing Light. But you should know it. Because we have a lot of books that tell us in theory about how God wants to work in our lives and how we can align ourselves with Him. But this one has a very specific day-by-day pattern. And if you follow it, you cannot help but have an infilling of the Spirit which will release itself and bring to us all of the things that God intends for every one of us. You know, the scripture says, “I am come that you should have life and have it more abundantly.” And anybody who is not experiencing abundant life does not know the power of the Christ within him. And we have to discover how to do it. And don’t get it confused with positive thinking. So many people think, well, if I just say, “I’m okay, God is doing this or that, I’m going to be fine.” But that is not it. We have to experience the sense of the presence of God. Now, it’s not going to come in lights or bells or visions or any of these things that some people think.

I get very discouraged sometimes that I don’t get real things that I think God is saying to me. But if I’m quiet, a verse of scripture will come or some reassurance will come. Then I know that that is where I’m supposed to start and begin to let the guidance come to bring about whatever God’s will is for me. And so those two books made a tremendous change in my life. And then, of course, you know what followed. I heard about the CFO. And I had to find one. Nobody that I knew knew anything about it. And finally, one day, I said to a friend, “I wish I could find out where there was one of these Camps Farthest Out.” And she said, “Oh, I can tell you, I know the secretary of Winnipesaukee.” You know, there’s a saying that says, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” Well, I was ready to come to Winnie and the teacher told me how to get here. And that was the beginning of my association with Winnipesaukee. And I was very fortunate because Glenn Clark was still around. And I shall be always grateful that I had an opportunity to know him personally. He was such a simple, gentle man. You would never think that he would be the one that would found such an organization as the Camps Farthest Out.

He’s nothing like our great television evangelists today with all their flamboyance. He was just as gentle and quiet and unassuming as you could ever imagine a man to be. But when he got on the platform, he talked about living in the kingdom. That was the way to live. And he taught us how to do it. And so having come to CFO was the third step in my spiritual growth. And that, of course, expanded into all the other areas that I had not been able to do through my reading and through my study. And so that made a 180 degree turn in my life. And now I can live knowing that there is a power, the only power. If we could just get the idea that there is one power in this world, and that power is God, and there is no other power, none of these terrible things that are going on in the world would bother us. We would have no fears. We would know that we have a protection which is capable of overcoming any experience that we have. And that’s really what we’re trying to discover here at Winnie and at all the CFOs. How to live in the kingdom where God is the only power. I think one of the problems with so many of our new campers is that they do not understand what Glenn Clark’s purpose was.

As Ken told you tonight, there’s no question of your denomination. We don’t know whether you’re Catholics or Protestants or Buddhists or whoever you are. We all know that you are God’s perfect children in God’s perfect eyes. You know, the scripture says, “Be ye perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” And that means your heavenly Father sees you as perfect. And there’s another scripture which says, “God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.” God does not see any of these things that we see that are in the human world. When we’re living in the spiritual world, then we’re living in accordance with God’s perfect picture of us. And so I think part of the trouble with some of our new leaders in the CFO camps is that they are not familiar with Glenn Clark’s writings. Now, there are lots of church camps and they are altogether different from this one and they’re all good. And if something happens here that is not in accordance with your idea of a church camp, just try to remember that this is not like the church camp that you’re associated with. You know, Leslie Weatherhead was one of the best known English ministers, he was a Methodist, and he had a big church in England for many, many years.

And when he retired, he wrote a book. He said, “There are many things in the doctrine of the church that I served that I could not agree with. As long as I was under their control, I could not criticize them. But now that I’m free, I have written this book. It’s called The Christian Agnostic.” And he said, “If you do not agree with what I write, just hang it up on a peg.” So if there’s something that you hear this week that you cannot agree with, hang it up on a peg. You may discover by the time you get home, or maybe in another year, that it is exactly what you needed to know. But because of your previous condition or your previous ideas, you could not accept it right at that time. And so that’s what I have to say to you tonight, that my purpose in being here is to try to share with you the experiences that I have had as a result of being in this atmosphere, which is dedicated to the revelation that came to Glenn Clark. It could only have come from the Holy Spirit. It is such a unified pattern. It ministers to body, mind, and soul. And the whole purpose is to bring total harmony into our lives, not only from our peace of mind, but also from our whole bodies, and above all, from our relationship to God.

And so the pattern is a complete one. And we must participate in it completely if we’re going to have the results that are supposed to come from that experience of being in the Camps Farthest Out. God. And so I hope that I can share with you the journey that I have taken, and perhaps it can help you to have a similar experience.

Now let us pray. And as we finish our prayer, let us pray for the prayer for the world, which the CFO people are using throughout the whole world every night at nine o’clock. Heavenly Father, we thank You that You’re here. We know that You’re always here. You’re far more ready to hear us than we are to hear You. And we ask that You’ll open our ears this week, open our eyes, open our hearts to the revelations that You have for us. And now we claim the promise that You gave us in Your scripture. “He giveth His beloved sleep.” Give to every one of us a sleep, a night of sleep, one which will be refreshing. Remove all of the weariness that we’ve experienced as we travel here. And refresh us, ready to hear those things which come from You. And let us join in that prayer for peace. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth.

Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. What is faith? How do we discover it? How do we develop it? I wish that God would just say in so many words, “Now you do this and this is what’s going to happen.” I wish I could hear it in my mind or in my… with a voice. We all do. But that isn’t the way it works. No, Jesus said, “You want the works, but you must have the faith first.” And so we must develop that faith by conditioning our conscious minds, by filling them with the truths that come to us from the Bible and from experiences that other people have had. And then we accept them and we let them go down into our… minds until there is no further… Leonard and I often talk about some of the problems that we have and then I say and he agrees, well, if we believe what we’re preaching, we better not worry about these problems. We better just practice. And if we don’t believe it, we better stop preaching. And I think that this is true for all of us. We need to know that we’re going to have the results that God wants every one of His children to have. Jesus said, “I am come that you should have life and have it more abundantly.”

And if we’re not having what we believe is abundant life, then we better find out why. Because it means that we have not accepted that spirit which is within us, which Jesus said is within every single one. Every time you read I, every time Jesus says I, every time you read I in the Gospels, that means I of you or I of me. It would be a pretty pathetic thing, wouldn’t it, if Jesus came and did all those things and it was only He who could do it. We really shouldn’t bother to pay any more attention. But He said in His final prayer before His crucifixion that we may all be one, that You may be in us and we in them and I in You and You in us. The same spirit that made Jesus say I is the same spirit that allows us to say I. And that’s the divine I, not the little I, not the little Margaret that thinks that she can go and do these things. But the divine I that we give the power to, that we get our little I out of the way and give this divine power within us opportunity to manifest itself and flow through us. And so we have to watch our words. Words have great power not only for our inner subconscious minds but also they go out with power.

They set up vibrations and they bring things into fulfillment. And this is what we’re going to do in the creative visualization class. We’re going to find out how to say the words and make the pictures that will bring about the way in which God wants every single one of us to be fulfilled. We’re all individuals. Isn’t it amazing that God could create such variety in His world? You know, in the story of the creation it says, “Let us create man in His own image and in our own image and likeness and breathe our spirit into him.” When we think of the great creative power of God, which has no limitation, which is constantly renewing itself and really bringing new creation into fulfillment, and then realize that that same spirit is within us, what is holding us back? Only our inability to realize and believe that we have this kind of power within us. And we do it in ways of habit. We get into such a habit of looking at the negative side of things that we forget that by looking at these negative things we are preventing the positive ones from coming into fulfillment. Stella Terrill Mann has a great… has two or three, I’m not sure how many we have in the bookstore this week, but she was a spiritual counselor who helped people to put their lives in order and in harmony, and she has a great facility for describing the various details of the way in which it was brought about.

And a woman came to her one time and she said, “What do you really want?” She said, “I’d love to go to England but I know I’ll never get there.” And she said, “Well, that isn’t really the positive way to say it.” And she said, “Well, I’d like to go but I know I’ll never have enough money.” And she said, “There again you are negating what it is that you want to do.” “Well,” she said, “I really would like to go but I just don’t see how it’ll ever come about.” Finally she made her see that she should hold the picture of going to England and just thank God that He was going to provide a way for her to go and to begin to picture herself in England. The lady finally got the idea and six months later Stella Mann got a postcard from her and she said, “I made it but I had to get married to do it.”

There are two lessons in that story of the negatives which were deep down in her subconscious mind. And the second thing was she had to trust God to bring it about. Now that is another lesson that we have to learn, is that we do not outline exactly to God how it’s going to happen. We make the pictures, we have this desire to do certain things, whatever they are, they’re different for every single one of us because God has a different plan for every single one of us. And the desires that we have come from deep within us and we begin to see how they can take over and bring about a sense of fulfillment in our lives. But we don’t actually figure out how it’s going to happen. So we may start out with a little pattern and gradually God will unfold to us the way in which He wants it to really develop. And so we begin by seeing what it is deep within us that we would really like to do because that is the talent that God has given to each one of us. If we have always wanted to write, which I suppose is probably a more common expression of a great many people, we’ve got to sit down and write.

But I think many, many people say, “Oh, I would love to write,” and they think about the books and they think about all the other things that would come along with writing but they never get down to sitting right down and picking up a pencil and beginning to write. So this is really not their soul’s sincere desire because as they are guided to develop this talent that they think they have they will begin to do what they are led to do. And so we have to evaluate the talents that we have and see which ones we really can put our heart and soul into in order to bring them into fulfillment. And I wanted to say to you young people up there, if you can accept what we are saying to you this week, you have discovered the secret of life. If you only can know that there is a power within you greater than any other power, it can bring about a most happy and successful life. The trouble with so many of us, these of us who have the old faces here, have said, “Oh, if I had only known what I know now when I was young, how different my life would have been.” And so you are having a wonderful opportunity to learn how to bring about the greatest fulfillment of the talents God has given to by just being able to put into practice these principles.

And don’t think because they are religious that they’re not going to be any fun. When I was working in the church and in charge of a women’s society, one of our churches, I had responsibility for nine churches and one of the churches had no women’s group, and I was concerned because some of the women in that church had asked if I couldn’t speak to their rector so that he would let them have a women’s group. So I made an appointment to see him and told him some of the things that we did together as groups and told him that I felt the women would benefit by it and that it would be very helpful if he would allow them to form a group. And he listened and he didn’t say too much but when he left he said, “All right. The only reason that I’m saying all right though is because you don’t look like a member of the women’s organization.”

Too many times we think being religious means dressed in black, long faces, taking all the joy out of life, when as a matter of fact if we know that there is this spiritual power within us, it means a fulfillment beyond anything that we could imagine, because think how wonderful it is to have something… Something that you can turn to. Some power beyond yourself. When things begin to get rough, to know that there is a power available that will meet whatever need we have. And we only know this by our practice, by our study, by our meditation, and by our training. We have to get to the place where we automatically know that there is this divine power waiting to meet whatever need we have. And God is so good. He’ll wait. He’s patient. You know, He gave us free will. He said we can do whatever we want to do. But if we will let Him guide us, if we will let His power be released in us, then we will have the greatest fulfillment. And so it’s really up to us. We’re the ones that have to decide how we are going to allow it to manifest itself in our lives. And to go back to the conscious and the subconscious minds, this is the way we allow it.

We fill our minds with the promises that God has given us. Glenn Clark said about these seven verses that I read to you, “They’re like blank checks.” But you know, if you have money in the bank and you never write a check, you’re never going to be able to use any of that money. And so we have to write the checks. We have to use that power. We have to accept it and act upon it and do what seems to be the thing that God is leading us to do. And be very vigilant about what we say. I’ve learned that I will… I’m about to say it.

Don’t try not to say never. Because that’s the thing we bring about. My sister said at one time, “The only place I never want to live is Buffalo.” And where do you think she’s lived for 40 years? There’s a woman in our church who’s always late. And she gets so upset. “I don’t see why I’m always late,” she said. And I had a conference with her one time. And she was really concerned about this. And she said, “My father was always late. He used to get us so upset. Sometimes he’d even be two hours late coming home for dinner. He just seemed to have no sense of time. And I said to myself, ‘I will never be late.’” And she said, “I’m always late.”

And I said, “Of course. Because your subconscious mind says you’re supposed to be late. Turn it around. And say, ‘I will always be on time.’” And what a difference. When you get your mind conditioned to that. Leonard’s conditioned my mind to being 15 minutes early. I get very upset.

He says, “His motto in life was Lord Nelson’s: ‘I owe all my success in life to being 15 minutes ahead of time.’” And I can’t even get him to be only 5 minutes ahead of time. But it works. To remember to put your affirmations in a positive statement. And not in a negative one. If you find yourself having a negative statement, turn it around. Tell your subconscious mind to write that off. And change it around so that it’s going to be a positive expression.

And then the way in which our dreams become fulfilled is quite amazing. I’ll tell you the story of mine. Because it’s still interesting to me. You know, we’re always most interested in our own experiences. When I was in high school, we had an English teacher who loved the new novels. The Book of the Month Club was just being developed. And he used to come in every month with the new novel that was being chosen by them. And I got very excited about it. And I always read them. And always wanted to do something with books. And it was the time when platform book reviewers were very popular. Every woman’s club had a wonderful book reviewer. She would come and dramatize some of the books and tell us all about the new books. And that was something that I could relate to. So I decided that that was what I was going to do. And I used to go to everybody and listen to them. And then I’d begin to picture myself in that situation. And I would think about what I would say about them. And how I would look. You know, the way you look is half the secret. And at that time we wore hats. And I used to get the most dramatic hats in my mind.

And one day I was with a group of women writing from a conference. And we were talking about what had happened at the conference and so on. And I said, “I’m going to be a book reviewer.” And you know the little snickers that come along. But that didn’t bother me. I still held that picture. And one day the woman who was in charge of our college alumni society asked me if I could do a program for it. And I said, “I really don’t know what I could do.” And she said, “Well, could you review a book?” I said, “That I could do.” And that was my beginning of a book reviewing career. And then I began to review books for various groups. And then finally I was listed with a national booking agency. And I went all around the northeast, really, giving book talks. And then one summer when the contracts were being issued, I was not getting any bookings. Here was everybody saying, “Oh, you were marvelous. I love to hear you. Your book reviews are fantastic.” And nobody wanted me. And it was a bitter blow because here I felt I was just on the verge of becoming nationally famous.

And I finally said, “Lord, all right, if You don’t want me to do book reviewing any longer, it’s okay. But would You please take away the hurt?” And so I managed to survive it. And as a matter of fact, that was the summer I came up here to camp. And I was going through that little turmoil at that time.

When the camp was over, the woman who had been running the bookstore here announced that she was no longer going to be here in the bookstore. And the secretary of the CFO camp contacted me and asked me if I would run the bookstore here. So that gave me an opportunity to do some more book reviewing. And I’m sure many of you remember the numerous book reviews that you heard from this platform. I was always amazed, amused, at the reaction of the council ring when I suggested that I might do book reviews. And they were very reticent. And one of them said, “Well, one night.” So I did one night. And after that, they were convinced that perhaps it wasn’t so dull as they might have thought it was going to be.

But the thing that I want to illustrate that story with is, and I forgot to tell you the important part. When I was making up my brochure to do book reviewing, I was going to talk to Agnes Sanford about coming to speak to our Women’s Society. And I went to see her, and she said, “No, I never go to that kind of a meeting.” She said, “The only meeting I speak at is one where I am listed as a healing speaker. And then people who are interested in that subject will come. If I go to your kind of a meeting, there will be a lot of antagonism. People that won’t be interested in it, and I will find I won’t have that response from the audience.” And just as I was about to leave, she said, “Is there anything else on your mind?” And I said, “Yes. I’m thinking of going, starting a book reviewing career. My husband doesn’t think I should do it. He thinks it’s wasting my talents. And he didn’t believe in secular books anyway. He believes you shouldn’t read a book until it’s at least 10 years old.” So she said, “Would you like to have me pray for you?” And I said, “Yes, I would.” So she said a very simple prayer.

She said, “Lord, Your servant wants to do what You want her to do. Will You please make it very clear to her what it is that You have in mind for her?” And she said, “I think you will get an answer, a very clear answer to this. If you don’t, pray a little more until you’re really sure. The thing that I think is holding you back is, this is only a preparation for something else.” And so when I didn’t get the bookings, I remembered what she had said. And this was probably a stepping stone to the ministry that I have had since that time. So we shouldn’t be discouraged if we have a picture of something that we want to accomplish. Rufus Moseley used to be one of the very excited spirit speakers for the CFO. I think probably some of you remember him. I never had a chance to hear him. But in his writings, he said he always outlined to God in great detail everything he wanted. And then he said, “Now, God, You take it and You make it the way You want it to be.” And so we have an obligation to use our creative imaginations, our conscious minds, in order to develop the picture that we believe is the one God wants us to develop.

And then we lift it to Him and let Him show us what the next step is for us to take. And if we get the green light that this is what we’re supposed to do, then we begin to visualize more and more about the way in which we can develop it and bring it into fulfillment. And then leave it to God to show us how we want to glorify Him in our work. Because that’s our only purpose here in this world, is to be His witnesses to His glory. And not only will we be witnesses to other people, but His glory within us will shine forth so that other people will say, “What is it you have? How do you manage to live without all of the difficulties that I’m having or somebody else is having?” And then we have an opportunity to share whatever it is that we are guided to share. So watch your thoughts. Watch your words. Make sure they’re always positive, never negative, in order that we give God the opportunity to fulfill His plan for us here while we’re here in this world. This is going to be a wonderful opportunity for us to figure out how to develop these plans. And if you feel guided to come to creative visualization, you’ll hear a little bit more about this subject.

Thank you.