Guest Column (Elizabeth)

It might be helpful to readers of this blog, who may know that Christian Scientists rely on God for healing of their physical ills, to learn that not all individuals come to this religion for healing.

Such was my case. I was a working member of another Protestant denomination, but was not finding basic answers to spiritual issues. I didn't feel I knew God well enough, despite all my efforts to study the Bible and do what I felt a good Christian lady should be doing.

Well, one day while I was in college, happened to get to know a girl who had something different. It wasn't was she talked about; it was the way she conducted her life. One day we got into a deep conversation about religion, and this girl mentioned that she was a student of Christian Science. I hadn't heard of it, but was interested to learn just what it taught. This person who turned out to be my closest friend in life said that if I got a copy of Mary Baker Eddy's book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures", this would explain much to me. I did so, and began reading. To my surprise, I learned things about God and His laws and my relationship to Him that thrilled me. So helped was I, that I eventually left my church and became a member of the Christian Science church.

Later, I took a teaching assignment in Hawaii and while there, felt called to enter the full-time public practice of Christian Science. I yearned to help others find the enlightenment (yes, and physical healings) that I had found through my study and pondering and applying divine truths to daily problems.

Mrs. Eddy points out in her book that "Christian Science brings God much nearer to man, and makes Him better known as the All-in-all, forever near." It certainly has done this for me.

The Blessings from God's Chastening

"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."
(Hebrew 12:11)



After God's chastening is over

What then for one is left?

Many things, worth more than gold.

And crowning them all must be

The dawning, "He did what He did

Out of love for me!"

Removing those things that

Stand betwen us and Him

Can leave one feeling punished, bereft;

But when a particular process divine

Has run its course,

Is perfected, and at last is through,

What thoughts of praise and awe there are.

And a person may even wonder,

Is this the way angels feel about You?

Freedom

To longing deep and universal -
"If I could just be free!" -
Is this fact divine and comforting
That all can come to see.
Man is and ever has been in God -
His perfect child, eternally.
For we are not the slaves of
Influences prenatal or heriditary;
Not helpless before circumstances,
Never under carnal mind curse
For a year, a day, an hour.
These truths Christ Jesus knew,
And they gave him wondrous power.
This Christly knowledge Science imparts,
Saving knowledge so glorious,
That we're not hemmed in by fleshly starts,
But are right now the way He made us.
Fortunate world that there is revealed
Crucial things that you and I can see,
(Things God has always known)
That now and through all eternity
We are His loved child, His very own -
Immensely loved and blessed and free.

Honoring Christ...

...is what a friend
of mine lives to do.
And to this high calling,
he is consistently true.

Not just in the uplifting
and bold things he writes,
but how he helps others
to reach new heights,

in knowing the right
and timely thing to say,
which encourages and
brightens another's day.

A kind word here and there,
loving support given,
and voila, someone's
discouragement is rive

When honoring our Master
is where one's heart is set,
this holiest of goals
is certain to be met.

And it can't help other
people's lives affect,
more benefically,
than one may expect.

No need for self-depreciation

"Ye are all the children of God
through faith in Christ Jesus"
Paul tells us in Galatins 3:26.
Wherefore, then, all this
putting ourselves down?
Be humble, yes, and this only
increases as one wakes up
to this glorious fact:
you and I belong to Him,
are made in His likeness.
Does it not devalue God's work
to discredit what we are,
the good we can do?
Accepting what the Bible says
can be a major breakthrough,
change dramatically our view.
The devil uses many a strategem
to inferfere with Christ
working through us to serve.
From a proper sense of ourselves
let us, then, not swerve.


We are Christ's,
and Christ is God's,
for heaven's sake!