Christ will always get the victory

(c) By: Sharon Slaton Howell



You followers of Jesus Christ,

You do well to remember this:

Testing times are going to come

To all who carry His banner.

Opposition to your endeavors

Will have to be surmounted;

Discouragement may try to

Make you apathetic, inactive.

But this is a fact sacrosanct --

Our Master's ministering angels,

Of which there are legion

Hover about us day and night

And outnumber far and far out do

Whatever the devil's helpers try to do.

To Christ will always go the victory.



"Behold, I give unto power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy."

(Luke 10:19)

The wind is in the tree

(c) By: Sharon Slaton Howell



Ah, the wind is in the tree

And there are few sounds to me

As comforting in nature,

Yes, comforting --

Not mournful or foreboding

As it seems to some.

The wind makes me feel

Enveloped, safe, protected.

And why not,

Since God is all around.


"Do not I fill heaven and earth,
saith the Lord?"
Jeremiah 23:24

From matter to Spirit

Of the many, many things I am grateful to Christian Science for, what I'm
thinking about today and wish to put into cyberspace for perhaps a newcomer to read is this: "If divine Love is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is then submitting to Spirit." This is from Mary Baker Eddy's wonderful book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and it's found on page 239.

I have been giving much more attention to loving as Jesus loved. And just one of the rewards is a greater realization that, as our Master knew, man is made in God's, Spirit's image and is purely spiritual now. Of course, I've known this all my life as a student of Christian Science. But to have the belief of matter with all its falsities and binding conditions dissipating is a glorious thing. And I just thought I would share this with my readers.

God bless your day, as I am sure He will as you turn to Him as the one great reality and strive to imbibe that divine Love Jesus said is paramount.

Love

(c) By: Sharon Slaton Howell




The world can laugh at me

(And no doubt many will)

But I just can't help

Feeling the way I do;

I'm growing more and more

In love with You.



"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God

With all thy heart, and with all thy soul,

And with all thy mind, and with all

thy strength."

Christ Jesus

What it takes to be free

"Do you want to be free?" is a question asked of me when I phoned a Christian Science practitioner for help some years ago. I had been having a lot of grief from a fellow employee who sat across from me when I worked for The Christian Science Monitor. This woman I felt sure got up in the morning with the sole thought of making my life miserable. I was having physical challenges from all the disturbance and I needed help fast.

After pouring out how badly I was being treated, what the woman said to me after I replied, "Well, of of course, I want to be free." (This is why I'm calling you, I thought to myself. What a silly question!)

She was silent for awhile, then said something that floored me. "Well then, you will have to love." I couldn't say a thing for some moments, so surprised was I that she didn't take my side of things. I was clearly in the right, wasn't I? But respecting this woman's spiritual-mindedness and long experience with helping others, I hung up the phone and resolved to work on my state of thought. Was it easy or quick? Certainly not. But in time, my tormentor and I became good friends. And I actually was sorry to see her retire.

I have often thought of this--this need for us all to love as Jesus loved. What else will please our heavenly Father Who after all, is all love, all the time. Love is such a force. Nothing can withstand its power. And what it does for us in the way of harmony and peace of mind and good health cannot be exaggerated, I am finding.

So, whatever we're facing in life, let us love. Then love some more!

Some words from Martin Luther

Ran across some thrilling words in a book I got from the Farragut Public Library that are causing me to pray a lot more for this Cause of ours, and thought some of my readers might like to see them. I immediately thought of Jesus' declaration, 'Without me, ye can do nothing." (John 15:5)

"One of the principles most firmly maintained by Luther was that there should be no resort to secular power in support of the Reformation. He declared that 'doctrine of the gospel should be defended by God alone. The less man meddled in the work, the more striking would be God's intervention in its behalf.'

During the struggle at Augsburg, Luther 'did not pass a day without devoting three hours at least to prayer. In the privacy of his chamber he was heard to pour out his heart before God in words 'full of adoration, reverence, and hope, as when one speaks to a friend.

Movin' On

(c) By: Sharon Slaton Howell



I don't know about you,
but when relationships change,
there's no use in haning on --
and I'm talking about
someone clinging to me.
Do not like people draped
around my shoulders, as it were,
wanting friendships to remain
frozen, static,
rooted in musty past.
After all, no one owns us, do they?
It's like we want to leave town,
go to places new,
and someone wants us to stay,
keep things the same old way.
As some friends of Samuel Johnson
once came to him and said,
"Sir, we have a claim on you."
Whereupon the great man replied,
"You MAY think that."
And he went right on
doing what he wanted to,
paying no heed to their
attempts to hold him back.
There's nothing like being
together, yet being free.
(My family and I have this,
and to me, it's the way to be.)
But isn't this cold and un-Christian,
you may be thinking about now.
No it isn't, not to me.
In fact, I am finding
the more I try to do
what Christ Jesus taught,
this has set me oh so free,
disentangled me from
relationships outgrown,
removed me from places
where I no longer needed to be.

How priceless, the freedom
to get on with being all
our Maker wants us to be!

A Most Remarkable Woman

I was talking to a friend who lives here in Farragut who has taken up the study of Christian Science. Not only is she digging in to learn more of what Mary Baker Eddy has given to the world about God and man, she is having some wonderful proofs of God's everpresent help.

We've given her some biographies of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science as well. And my friend just cannot get over how many challenges this remarkable woman had to endure. And overcame. And I happened to recall one instance noted somewhere by a biographer (can't cite it right now) where Mrs. Eddy was scheduled to give a talk in some New England town and was notified that someone intended to blow up the hall where she was to speak. And what did this woman do? In her words (substantially): "I leaned on God, and was safe."

I can never thank God enough that He upheld the work given her to do. My life has been blessed beyond all telling because of this most remarkable woman.

To love as Jesus did

Yesterday, on Easter sunday, while pondering the awesome event that Christians celebrate all over the world, something the woman who discovered and founded Christian Science came to thought. Just looked it up and want to give it here. It's from Mary Baker Eddy's message to The Mother Church, 1902 (page 19):

"The nature of Jesus made him keenly alive to the injustice, ingratitude, treachery, and brutality that he received. Yet behold his love! So soon as he burst the bonds of the tomb he hastened to console his unfaithful followers and to disarm their fears."

This just blows me away, to be so filled with divine Love that one could do this. And it gives me renewed incentive feel more of the love Jesus lived, to let it pour out on all in my everyday experience. How the world needs this Christlike love. And how vital it is for us to live it as we never have before. Our very well-being depends upon it. I say to myself, if our Lord and Master with all he endured at the hands of man could still love, then I can do it. And I intend to do a better job at it.

And following the words I quoted earlier are these: "The Christian Scientist cherishes no resentment; he knows that that would harm him more than all the malice of his foes. Brethren, even as Jesus forgave, forgive thou. I say it with joy, -- no person can commit an offense against me that I cannot forgive. "

If Christ Jesus, if the woman who endured so much to give divine Science to mankind, went through all they did and still could feel love for others, then this is the goal for me.

For Easter

(c) By: Sharon Slaton Howell



"Whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die"
John points out Jesus said.
The Master said it, not I;
Jesus' words, not mine.
And how they do put
us in touch--here and now--
with things most divine.
And that word "liveth"
to me shows that I must
put into practice our Saviour's
teachings in daily life.
What purpose this does
give to me, to you.
It takes out of things
the gloom and sigh,
and brings instead
such incentive and joy;
makes our spirits soar,
and spreads before us
an adventure in living
that only gets better,
one that will go on--
just think about this,
dear readers everywhere--
FOREVERMORE.