Friday, October 14, 2011

Giving back to God

We watched an interesting documentary last night on the remarkable building that Egyptians did a couple of centuries before Jesus appeared.  And thinking about the monuments they raised to honor their Pharoahs, I couldn't help pondering this verse from the Old Testament:  "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?"  (Psalms 116:12)  Is this not a sublime prayer!

When one thinks of all the blessings our loving heavenly Father daily pours out upon us, it is natural that we would want to give back in some way.  One can well understand men's desire through the centuries to erect structures reaching up to the heavens.  Contemplating all this on my early morning walk with one of our dogs, I concluded that the best way to acknowledge God's gifts is to take seriously what He gave His Son to give to us.  As God says in the New Testament:  "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."  (Matthew 17:5)

What higher monument could we build to show our gratitude than living what Jesus commanded?  And being a student of the Christ Science, I followed out my thinking on this theme, that the way we honor our Father is staying true to what Mary Baker Eddy has revealed of the truths that were the basis of our Master's glorious teachings and healings.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

A book that transforms lives

Every so often I re-read the testimonies of healing at the conclusion of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy's masterwork, and just now came across something I must send into cyberspace.  It's found on page 644 and describes so well what many of us have experienced through our encounter with this God-inspired volume.

The writer from Bloomfield, Nebraska says:  "Like a prisoner who had been in chains for years, I was suddenly set free.  I did not then know how the chain had been removed, but I had to acknowledge that it  came through the reading of this book.  I then felt an ardent desire to read more and to know what this power was that had freed in a few days of that which I had been trying for years to shake off and had failed.  It then became clear to me that this was the truth which Jesus Christ taught and preached to free humanity almost two thousand years ago."

How many of us can say an Amen to this.  This book the man refers to is available today, thank God, and is in most public libraries where you can check out a copy.  Or it can be obtained on-line, or from a Christian Science Reading Room.  What has done wonders for countless others, can transform your life.  And God being in charge of this blog I'm doing, I know He can cause someone in need in any part of the globe to read this, be inspired to get Science and Health, and start on an amazing spiritual journey.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

As to "The Broken Net"

In an August blog post here, I mentioned a new website my husband had just started.  Well, some readers noticed a similarity to another website on Christian Science which was widely read and discussed, and inquired if that one could have had the same author.  My husband replied as follows:

 Things without all remedy/Should be without regard: what's done is done. -
"Macbeth" (Shakespeare)

 Let me say, of all the people I know who feel a deep love for the Cause of Christian Science, and respect for its Discoverer and Founder, Mary Baker Eddy,  and have worked tirelessly to uphold the purity of the teachings of Divine Science, I'm married to one shining example.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Mind's Artistry

I may not come in until December!  Autumn being my favorite month -- especially October -- it's just too glorious outdoors to do much inside.  Not the autumn we knew in New England, but close.  Really close.  Case in point:  while sitting outside just now with one of our dogs reveling in the crisp, invigorating air, I happened to see something quite amazing.  There above a shrub was the most perfect spider web I've ever seen.  A perfect, large circle with the little artist sitting inside.  How one tiny thing could create something so symmetrical and so beautiful with the sun hitting it!  But being one of God's, Mind's creatures, it shouldn't be so surprising to me.

Couldn't help thinking of something Mary Baker Eddy writes in her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (page 468):  "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all."

To think that from the smallest of His creations to man himself, we are what God has formed, a manifestation of Mind.  What an eternal truth -- a truth Christ Jesus exemplified in dazzling demonstrations -- to take with me today and every day.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Opportunity and Employment

It was an unhappy friend who sat across from me the other day at lunch.  This woman was feeling frustrated with a lack of employment, wishing she had the opportunity to make use of her training and expertise.

Many people have a desire, and downright need, to express their particular abilities in a satisfying and rewarding way.  But you know what?  We each can lead a fuller, more useful life, whatever our line of endeavor may be, no matter what challenges we may be facing.

Instead of wasting time waiting for opportunity to knock at the door of their lives, people can wake up the fact that bountiful good lies within their grasp now.  Christ Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you."  (Luke 17:21)  And this is just where opportunity is, too.

This kingdom of good, this absolute reign of God, divine Principle, is not dependent on people, places, or the world economic situation.  It is intact -- within the true consciousness of each of us, which is a reflection of God Himself, of the one perfect Mind.  We can begin to discern this reality through prayer and through a spiritual understanding of God and man.

As we learn from the Bible, man is actually the spiritual image of God.  He is the loved likeness of divine Love. This realization helps us to turn radically away from the discouraging view of inactivity or frustration.  It encourages us to accept the spiritual fact that because God is infinite, ever-active good, man, His image, must be continuously expressing that good in satisfying activity.

In assuring mankind of God's tender relationship to each of His offspring, and of man's spiritual value, Jesus said:  "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?  and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows."  (Matthew 10:29-31)  Each and every one of us is important, useful individual, because we are all God's beloved offspring, made in His image.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:  "If God, who is Life, were parted for a moment from His reflection, man,  the Father would be childless, -- no Father."  (p. 306)

As an individual grows in the understanding of man's unity with his Maker, he comes to realize that he can't be forgotten, lost in the crowd; he can't be deprived of God-given avenues for self-expression.

Nothing brings opportunity to one's door quicker than the desire to be useful to God and to one's fellow beings.  With this holy aspiration even the most under-utilized person will find his life blossoming into activity that blesses more widely than he imagined.  No matter how desolate one's circumstances may sometimes seem, they can be turned completely around as he begins to understand his actual, spiritual nature and strives wholeheartedly to reflect the divine will.

You and I exist to bear witness to God, to reflect Him in every thing we do.  Our purpose or activity, then, is not actually at the disposal of individuals, places, or time.  As we know ourselves to be God's prefect child, we see the opportunity to lead a meaningful life can never really be absent.  As the Bible assures us, "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work."  (II Corinthians 9:8)