Thursday, January 20, 2011

An Ongoing Healing

Just got back from the post office, and from talking to the girl I've blogged about whose mother is reading the Christian Science textbook. Paula gave me a big hug, and said, "My mother went for a check-up, and the gist of what the doctor said is this: the condition has changed. We don't understand it, but it seems miraculous." And she added, "Mother and I are expecting complete healing." So am I.

This is not too good to be true, not to someone who has experienced what Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy can do for one's health. Many of us know what a potent force the knowledge of God's laws and man's relationship to Him is.

Paula said further that her mother is not only continuing to read the book I gave them, she's reading the Bible through for the first time. We talked about all the promises one finds in the Old Testament alone that God makes about health and healing. I could fill many pages with these statements, but one of my favorites is from Psalms 103: "Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all they diseases." (verses 1-3)

And many of us know that what our heavenly Father says He will do, He does!

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Tucson and Christly love

Have been thinking about a conversation I had yesterday with a friend who lives in Tucson, Arizona--the locale of much media attention the past few days. As most readers know, Congresswoman Giffords was shot when she was speaking there.

My friend was shopping for groceries, not at this particular supermarket, and told me he had never felt such an atmosphere of suspicion and hate. There is no doubt this town is the focus of world thought, and is experiencing unusual mental stirring right now.

Every compassionate one among us wants to help in some way. And there is something we can do to do our part in defusing violence in our society. Finding solutions to world hatred begins with the individual, with you and me. And unselfish, Christly love is the remedy. Christian Science, with its emphasis on the teachings of Christ Jesus, shows that it is the irresistible Christ-love, expressing the power of God, divine Love, that humanity needs today.

Every time you and I bring harmony to a discordant situation or truly forgive an injustice, every time we love in the face of hate; every time we realize that man's true being is actually God's spiritual reflection, not a victimized or sinful mortal, we are doing a very important part in defusing violence in the community at large. Why? Because the world's challenges are the culmination of unresolved individual problems and differences.

The ability to express kindness, compassion, forgiveness, does not belong to a chosen few It is natural to all of us, since everyone's real being is the reflection of inexhuastible divine Love.

Regardless of what our occupation may be, our real reason for being is to bear witness to our loving Father, God, to express toward our fellow beings--whether living next door to us or in another country--the love God is unconditionally pouring out to all His children. Of course, it is challenging to love people when they're acting selfish, irresponsibly, even violently. But loving others is not something we are to do only when it's easy or when we feel like it. Jesus asked his followers to express the divine nature day in and day out. He taught, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9) We have a divine right to experience peace; but at the same time we have a duty to help make peace. And we can do both as we pray to replace the picture of an erring, violent man with the spiritual and perfect man that Christ Jesus illustrated through his healing works.

"There's no doubt that more Christly love and peace in the world would help a lot right now," someone may say. "But can one person really make a difference?" Decidedly so. There is encouragement in this Bible verse from the book of James: "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." (5:16)

And I've found inspiration from something that Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "When we realize that there is one Mind, the divine law of loving our neighbor as ourselves is unfolded, wherein a belief in many ruling minds hinders man's normal drift towards the one Mind, one God, and leads human thought into opposite channels where selfishness reigns." (page 269)

And the Bible counsels us, "Be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous." (I peter 3:8) Doing this gives us a concrete part in healing hate and violence. Taking the time each day to pray from the standpoint of only one Mind, and living the love that comes from the one Mind, from divine Love, bring God's healing power to bear on the fear and anger in our own surroundings. And through this Christlike action, we contribute to world harmony and progress.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Life-Saving Words

Had a happy call from my sister-in-law yesterday with the news that they had rescued yet another puppy, who was slated for extinction the next day. As I said to her, doesn't this give you a sublime feeling, expressing such pure love? She knows this well, being a serious helpless of God's creatures who can't say, "I'm starving, I'm afraid, help me, please!" Giving to an animal with no thought of what they can do for you (though the love they give back is priceless) partakes of the divine, in my view. We ended the phone call with my words, "Such great news...you've saved a life."

And earlier this morning, the topic of giving out the love that saves expanded and made me recall something our Master says: "The words that I speak unto, they are spirit and they are life." This is found in John 6:63. For those of us who are committed to following in Jesus' steps, we can say yea, verily to this. We no doubt have found in our own lives, have seen it in the lives of others, what God's tremendous love for the world in giving us His Son, can do. And has done. And is doing.

And as an adherent of Christian Science, which reiterates and makes practical, provable what Jesus knew and demonstrated of God's laws, I rejoice in knowing how many lives have been saved through its teachings. Literally saved. Not just from suffering and hopelessness. But from pronounced incurability and death.

Thank you Father, I say often to Him, for your great gifts to us -- Christ Jesus and Christian Science.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

A Follow-up on "Science and Health"

Just got back from the post office and heard some heartwarming news from my friend Paula. As some of you may recall, I did a blog post recently on giving a copy of the Christian Science textbook to this girl, whose mother is gravely ill. Well, it turns out that her mother is reading Mrs. Eddy's book, and is seeing results. She is now able to eat, Paula said, and is expecting to be healed!

I knew you would rejoice with me in reading about what Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is doing for this dear woman.

On Jesus, and Putting Down Fear

(Just ran across something I wrote awhile ago to a fellow Christian Scientist which might prove helpful to readers of my blog)


"Dear Friend,

Have been thinking deeply about what you said the other night, about being afraid, and something has come to me that you can--or no doubt--need to work on. And that is being more obedient and alive to what our dear Master brings out about God's love and care and power. Take this statement alone, in Luke 12:32 where Jesus says:
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." Now, I know you accept that intellectually, as true. But there are two parts to this, in my view: first a command to not fear, a command! Then, a comforting statement of divine fact, that God wants us to have all good, and that includes health and safety and unafraidness, doesn't it? I think there is where God may seem far away from you at times--lack of taking Christ at His word, and living through the day and night as though you really believed the Word of God to be true as it relates to you. Why on earth are too many so-called followers content to go around believing what Jesus called a murderer and a liar, and doubting God?!

You could buy, or borrow, a Bible that has Christ's words in red. I have one, and read from time to time everything our Lord said. Further, Mrs. Eddy brings out in Science and Health on page 115 in the "Scientific translation of mortal mind" that "fear" is actually "depravity". Think of this! Does it not behoove us to put it down as vigorously as we can, and awake to the glorious security and freedom and good that our heavenly --Father wants us to have--accept without reservation that Jesus meant what He said, instead of believing demoralizing and illness-producing insinuations from His enemy?

While fear tries in all kinds of ways to come in between us and God, we do have the truths that, if dug out and held tenaciously to--and obeyed--will keep us more and more out of evil's reach. It is only a false and untrue sense that our loving Father is ever absent from His children. And through accepting without reservation what Jesus said, as well as what Christian Science brings out about the unreality of those things that would make us afraid, we find ourselves more and more having the mastery over fear."

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

A Life Worth Living

People strive all their lives
For personal fortune, fame,
Or something else of
Primary benefit to themselves.
And what do they get
For their time and trouble?
Forgotten, for the most part.
Or if remembered, not for
Reasons that count all that much.
At the opposite end of
Earthly human endeavor
Are those who have found out
What life is all about.
"Go ye into all the world and
Preach the gospel to every creature,"
Our forever Master said.
While you and I might not make it
To exotic spots on the globe,
(I write this from Tennessee, USA)
We're in the world right where we are,
And can carry out Mark 16:5 here, now.
Let this be your life's work,
To honour Jesus in what you say and do.
And you will see this be the thing
That brings your life God-blessed meaning.

Earth has no joy
That can possibly
Compare.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Always in God's Presence

Happy New Year to you all, and may we gain a greater awareness that God is always with us -- loving us, caring for us, directing us. And yes, healing us.

To understand that our dear Father is with us in everything we do, everywhere we may go or be, is beyond price. And two life illustrations of this Biblical truth (see Genesis 21:22) show what a knowledge of His ever-presence can do for one.

A couple of nights ago, we saw a program on WWII, on the Pacific campaign. The battle of Iwo Jima, to be exact. Although I had known about the fierce fighting that went on due to a close friend of my mother's who served in the Marines and shared some of his experience, something new came out. The narrator said that 1 out of 3 Marines was either killed or wounded. 1 out of 3! I couldn't help thinking of Frank who came through that murderous conflict with not a scratch. Many pounds thinner, but that was all. And to what did this boy owe his safety? To the conviction he had gained from studying Christian Science that God was always with him. He was in fact in the Sunday School at the time of he enlisted, and what he had learned there brought him through intact, he said.

And the other experience I thought of involved a friend of ours in Australia. Paul served in the Solomon Islands and was also a life-long Christian Scientist. To what did he owe his safety through months of fighting in the jungles? As he wrote in a testimony that appeared in the Christian Science Sentinel, it was realizing this great truth: God and man are inseparable. Paul used to say, while in foxholes with bullets whizzing around, "God and I are not two but one; and that one is God".

Yes indeed, to have a working knowledge of God's power and presence is a treasure to many, certainly to me, and one of my favorite statements on this topic is found in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures where Mrs. Eddy writes: "Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him endless homage." (p. 18)

No matter what situation we may find ourselves in--even should a sense of safety be urgently needed--we can turn in complete confidence to God, divine Love, who, as the Bible assures us time and time again, is an ever-present, unfailing help in trouble. It is obvious that Christ Jesus fully realized the inseparability of man from God. He knew that man is God's child, whole and safe in the care of his creator, regardless of appearances.

In line with Jesus' teachings--his statement, for example, that God is Spirit (see John 4:24)--Christian Science brings out that our true selfhood, as the outcome of Spirit, is spiritual, not material; that man is not bound by human circumstances, is not at the mercy of worldly events. God's child can never, for an instant, be deprived of his Father's loving care, can never be out of his God-provided niche of spiritual security.

The Psalmist sang, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations." (Psalms 90:1) It is for this very reason that in truth we are eternally exempt from harm of any kind. We have never actually been apart from our divine source, God--not even for a moment. As God's man, dwelling in Him, we are and always have been preserved by His unerring laws of order, safety, and exemption from dangerous conditions.

What a potent help in everyday life, to know that we are always in God's presence.