Blessings Infinite...

...can't help but come to you as you acquaint yourself with all the Master said.  Get yourself a Bible with Jesus' words marked in read; read and contemplate every word.  Or if you already have such a volume, review these teachings sublime.  Seeing for the first time, or reading again what God gave His Son to give to the world, will do wonderful things for anyone.

For a project worth pursuing, a person can't aim much higher than delve into these words, backed up as they are by a heavenly fire.  Endorsed by God Himself.  Does not He say,  "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; ; hear ye him"?  (Matthew 17:5)

Helping the World Connect With God's Power

        What continues to impel me to blog on Christ Jesus and Christian Science, is the desire to help people discover and utilize God's healing power in their lives.  And what I'm thinking about this morning is His priceless help in finding health.

        Every now and then I encounter someone who, though he or she has been praying for recovery from some illness, has concluded that it just isn't God's will for them to be healed.  Of course, I always take exception to this.  Often I begin to tell them about some of the many physical healings my family and I and people I know have experienced by relying God with the understanding of Him we have gained through Christian Science.

        Those who are accustomed to praying for God's  help in difficulties--as well as those who are not--can, through the teachings of Christian Science, learn how to rely on Him for healing of disease and bodily suffering--to rely on God, who, the Bible states, "healeth all thy diseases."  (Psalms 103:3)

        As those of us who love and revere Jesus know, the Master turned constantly to God for the healing of pain, disease, deformity, and even saving from death.  The Bible indicates that Jesus knew God would hear. The Saviour's understanding of man's oneness with the creator must have assured him that God answers every call, and that God's will is always good, always for harmony which includes physical harmony (health). And Jesus promises, "Verily, verily, I say unto  you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also."  (John 14:12)

        Healing can be accomplished as one understands the spiritual law underlying Jesus' teachings and works.  These divine and unchanging laws are explained fully and clearly in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.  The book teaches how to put into practice the spiritual truths found in Jesus' words and acts.  They make it possible for any individual to heal physical maladies through God's supreme power, even as Jesus utilized God's power.  "To ignore God as of little use in sickness is a mistake.  Instead of thrusting Him aside in times of bodily trouble, and waiting for the hour of strength in which to acknowledge Him, we should learn that He can do all things for us in sickness as in health," this book points out on page 166.

        Man is actually spiritual, not material, not at the mercy of fear and pain.  He can never, for even a moment be deprived of his Father's care.  Bringing such truths to bear on a particular trouble restores harmony and wholeness.

        As our prayers stem from love for God and man and a desire to know more of His perfect creation, we're seeking divine help in the most effective way.  Prayer in its highest sense is the discernment and understanding of God's perfect universe, including man.  Disease and suffering are misconceptions, a false sense of what God has created, and such misconceptions are cast out by spiritual understanding.

        There are men, women, and children all over the world who are experiencing healing right now.  They are realizing the curative, restorative power of God, divine Love, in action.  God's will for all His children is clearly all good--health included.

       

       
       

Don't Lose Heart, Jesus Says

        In telling his disciples about conditions that would come to pass, Christ Jesus spoke of "men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth."  Luke 21:26)

        Looking at things happening around the world right now, some of us may be ready to conclude that these days must surely be upon us.  We may feel overwhelmed by all that needs solving. Some people may be tempted to lose heart.

        This, however, is the thing one should not do when faced with disheartening circumstances.  When Jesus warned men of eventual upheaval, he also offered a way of escape.  "When these things begin to come to pass," he counseled, "then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth night."  (Luke 21:28)

        One's redemption or salvation from fear and deep discouragement can come as soon as one progresses in his understanding of God's government of man and the universe.  To those in search of renewed  hope and courage Christian Science offers this view of reality:  man and the universe spiritually created.  It shows one how to indeed look up, through enlightened prayer, to find's God's ever-present, redeeming help.  Through the study and application of Christian Science, countless individuals the world over have found that there is no problem too overwhelming for God to solve.

        Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 390):  It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony."  Problems seem hopeless only if we think of man as separated from God, left to fend for himself in a material, somewhat mysterious universe controlled by amoral forces.  But Christian Science teaches that man is spiritual, perfect, the expression of God, inseparable from God, loved by God, protected by God, secure in God.  And the same spiritual laws that enabled Christ Jesus to heal and regenerate men are available to all mankind.

        The basis of Jesus' unfailing ability to subdue difficulties of every description was his practical understanding of divine law, his consciousness of man's spiritual relationship to God.  God good, governs all things harmoniously, and the divine government is reflected in our daily lives.  When we realize that the divine Mind is continuously maintaining all in spiritual harmony and perfection, we can begin to see there is no  hopeless condition, no insoluble problem.

        Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 393):  Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God's government."  A knowledge of this keeps hope and enthusiasm intact, lifted above distressing material conditions.  There is never any need to lose heart, for God, good, is the only reality.

     

Our Everpresent Helper

Not turning to God

In times of need

Is cause for regret.

              And yet,

Who among us has

Not been guilty of this?

The shortest distance

(spiritually speaking)

To the way out

Of any conumdrum

Is to do what Isaiah has

God saying we are to do:

"Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth:
for I am God, and there is none else."

Instead of trying everything

And everyone else under the sun

To solve life's glitches,

Why not turn to our Father

Who has incredible riches

Of help and comfort

And answers tailor-made

For whatever His children face --

All of us, each and every one.

No Harmful After-Effects

        There are many reasons why I feel Christ healing as made available through the teachings of Christian Science is the  best way to go.  But this is perhaps the biggest:  there is no harmful fall-out from turning to God for healing and health.

        This was brought home to me vividly just this week in two conversations.  The first I overhead while waiting in line at the post office.  Two men were chatting, and one asked the other how his wife was getting along with such and such treatment.  The other man said something I could not believe.  He said, "She's too ill right now to take her pills"!  And the other instance involved a neighbor who said to me one morning,  "I'm taking about 14 different medications right now, and I think this may be why I feel so bad.  I think they're going to kill me!"  Is there any wonder I thanked God I don't have to go that way.

        Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:  "It is plain that God does not employ drugs or hygiene, nor provide them for human use; else Jesus would have recommended and employed them in his healing.  The sick are more deplorably lost then the sinning, if the sick cannot rely on God for help and the sinning can."

        She continues further down the page:  "Controlled by this belief, you continue in the old routine.  You lean on the inert and unintelligent, never discerning how this deprives you of the available superiority of divine Mind."

        In later posts here, I'll go into more detail on just how my religion heals (as I have done over the years in this blog), but for now, you may wish to investigate Christian Science on your own.  You have everything to gain from reading and pondering "Science and Health" mentioned above.
     

Using Our Talents For Christ

Writers who use their talents

 In the service of their King

 Have so little say

 In whether they write or not;

 Thoughts begin to flow,

 Words are set to go,

 And inspiration must be attended to,

 With singleness of heart.

 Those who do this gathering

 Of thoughts from above

 Inhabit a universe they're in --

 But all too often not of --

 Men and women who dwell apart.


 You, world, are richer far

                    That these beings

                                       Are as they are.

Where Loss is Gain

        The carnal mind that despises everything divine will say to us, "Don't do what Christ Jesus says to do, don't look to God for what is worth having in life.  You'll lose out on all the wonderful things I can offer you."

        Many of us have found that this is not true.  Quite the opposite.  It is not possible to give up anything worth having from holding to God's pormises of abundant good.  What can look for all the world like loss turns out to  be gain, often in the most amazing ways, in ways that can leave an on-looker wondering "how did that happen?" 

        Jesus says, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32)  But if you and I are looking away from God in disobedience to Christ's teachings, how can He give us anything?

        Mary Baker Eddy states:  "O learn to lose with God!  and you find Life eternal: you gain all.  To doubt this is implicit treason to divine decree."  (Miscellaneous Writings, page 341)

        When we reach the place where we can say, I'd rather lose with God than win without Him, we're on ground Jesus trod.

Our Most Valuable Key

                                          John Robert Howell


   
        A key is a tool, not an objet d'art or a talisman to be ritualistically thumbed in purse or pocket.  If it isn't used to unlock or activiate something, a key serves no purpose.  We often think of the textbook of Christian Science simply as Science and Health, but we know it is also with Key to the Scriptures.  That key is not a metaphysical abstraction.

        Mrs. Eddy obviously intended the Key to the Scriptures to be used to unlock the spiritual meaning, the inspired Word of the Bible.  The first tenet of Christian Science states:  "As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life."  (S&H 497:3)  Keys are to something; not ends in themselves.

        Mortal mind will try to keep diligent as well as dilatory students away from the Bible by any subterfuge it can.  All Christian Scientists should be alert to the wiles of the carnal mind when it comes time for daily study of both these essential books.

        Can we afford not to use this priceless key daily to open the door to the treasures our heavenly Father has for us all this coming year, and ever thereafter?