God With You

Yes, He is,
In everything you do,
Whether night or day,
At home or when away,
Feeling up and cheery,
Or downhearted, weary.
Rest not until you know
Beyond any devil's doubt,
That our loving Father
Is never apart from you.
You could not get away
From Him if you tried.
Is this not glorious? --
That His care does surround,
His powerful arms are around,
You and me and those we love,
Beside us wherever we go.
God be thanked this is the case,
A fact nothing can erase.
Knowing what Christ Jesus knew,
Comforting, healing, priceless.

When An Accident Happens

        My husband and I were on an outing in the Oklahoma countryside when climbing on rocks, I happened to slip off, badly twisting my foot.  While I silently declared certain truths taught in Christian Science, this statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures came to my thought:  "When an accident happens, you think or exclaim, 'I am hurt!'  Your thought is more powerful than your words, more powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real.

        "Now reverse the process.  Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine metaphysics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be."  These words are by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of my religion. 

        I pondered this reassuring statement and was able to carry out the day's plans.  However, that evening the foot began to cause me much discomfort, making sleep impossible.  By the next morning it was extremely painful to place any weight on the foot.  Feeling the need for prayerful support, I phone a Christian Science practitioner, whose very first words were, "It never happened!"

        This joyously spoken conviction of man's uninvadable spiritual wholeness brought a wonderful sense of comfort.  The mesmerism of fear and pain began to abate, and several hours later all evidence of the accident had completely vanished.

        I was of course grateful to be free from pain and incapacity, but even more for the clearer realization that life is actually in Spirit, God.

        If someone were to overhear a mother assuring her frightened child who had just awakened from a bad dream that it never happened, he would not dispute the truth of such a statement.  Yet he might find the same words surprising, perhaps difficult to understand, when spoken after the occurrence of an accident.  Nevertheless, they have a scientifically demonstrable basis, and have been proved true countless times.

        Scriptural authority for denying the reality of an accident, is found in the first chapter of Genesis, which says plainly that God made man in His image and likeness.  Because man is God's reflection, he is spiritual, perfect.  Man's real being has never been material or subject to mortal beliefs of chance and accident.  He has never been apart from his divine source, God, for a moment.  The Psalmist sang, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations."  It is for this very reason that one is eternally immune to accidents of any kind.  Spiritual existence is the reality; the belief of life in matter is the dream.  As a divine idea dwelling in God, man is and always has been preserved by His unerring laws of order, safety, harmony, and invulnerability to harm.

        Christ Jesus demonstrated man's sonship with God, Spirit.  He proved by his countless cures of sin, sickness, and lack that man's true, spiritual selfhood is intact, eternally secure.  And Christian Science, which explains the Master's teachings, brings to light the real man, who is continuously upheld by his heavenly Father, divine Love.  This Science shows the eternal existence and identity of each child, man, and woman to be divine, beyond the reach of misfortune, pain, disfigurement, or accident of any description.

        And Paul proved the powerlessness of accidents when he restored to life a young man who had accidentally fallen from a window.  Being assured that God is Life, Paul said to those nearby, "Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him."

        We need to understand the unreality of all discord and its consequent powerlessness to separate us from God, divine Mind.  In the measure that we do, we possess spiritual authority to deny the suggestion that a given situation will require lengthy recuperation.

        We do not continue to suffer throughout the day from last night's dream.  In like manner, why should we accept penalty from events equally as illusive?  The events comprising the mortal dream of material existence never really touch you and me, God's beloved children.



   

Uncluttering

"Now ye are clean through the word
Which I have spoken unto you,"*
Our Lord and Master said.
It never fails; it never will,
Living Jesus' words,
Putting God's precepts out front,
Changes things for us:
Speaking personally,
Media trash gets left by the curb;
Pointless political discussions
Simply cease to be.

We can count on it --
Christ-following transforms.
We no longer find ourselves
Where we don't need to be.
Life becomes purer,
Simpler, more than ever free --
Just the way our heavenly Father
Wants it to be.


          (*John  15:3)

Loving Jesus' Words

                                         "This is my beloved Son,
                                         in whom I am well pleased;
                                                   hear ye him."
                                              
                                                  (Matthew 17:5)





                                      Loving Jesus' words as I do,

                                      Can't  help wanting for them

                                      What His Father wants --

                                      Homage, obedience, love.



                                      Do you want this

                                      for Jesus' words, too?
                  

Emerging From the Unreal

        One day while sitting in a friend's office in downtown Boston and talking about this and that, this man who also was a Christian Science practitioner, said the most arresting thing.  As he gazed out of the window, he remarked, "How few people out there have even begun to wake up from this mortal dream of life in matter."

        I've thought much about this through the years, and realize more than ever its critical need for all of us.  And one of the beauties of Christian Science (and there are many), is that through the spiritual understanding it gives we can't help but emerge from what is actually unreal.

        The teachings of Christian Science stand on the eternal reality of life in and of God alone--in divine, infinite Spirit--as demonstrated by Christ Jesus.  The Master taught that God is Spirit.  Therefore Christian Science draws the logical conclusion that the offspring of God, Spirit--in other words, man--is entirely spiritual; he always has been and ever will  be.

        The Science of Christianity elaborates on man's true, spiritual nature.  It helps us understand that belief in life in matter is an error, a mistake, ignorance of what God made and sees as real and present.  This so-called existence has its being in the darkness and restrictions of mortal thought, in a supposed material consciousness apart from the one, infinite, divine Mind.

        Mary Baker Eddy points out in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Mortal existence is a dream of pain and pleasure in matter, a dream of sin, sickness, and death; and it is like the dream we have in sleep, in which every one recognizes his condition to be wholly a state of mind.  In both the waking and the sleeping dream, the dreamer thinks that his body is material and the suffering is in that body."

        Let's consider some of the reasons what waking up to life in Sprit does for us.  So many blessings to select from!  There is the increased joy and vitality one experiences.  Better health, increased harmony in day-to-day relationships, and a greater sense of God's constant provision are also benefits of emerging from the unreal.  Whatever form of discord may confront us is an erroneous belief which stems from ignorance of our inseparable relation to God, divine Love.  And it is corrected by spiritually realizing the truth of God and man.

        Inharmony is never more than an illusion of physical sense, a lie about God's perfect creation.  It is somewhat like the bad dream one has at night--frightening, yet not real.  And what comfort and freedom we feel when we wake up and see that there is nothing there at all.

        When we know the truth of God and of ourselves as His reflection, we understand the falsity of mortal beliefs and fears.  And this understanding increases our dominion over them.  Christian Mind-healing involves an awaking from a material and false sense of being to the spiritual and true sense.

        In Psalms we find this petition to God:  "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law."  The teachings of divine Science show us how to witness the fulfillment of this petition.  Here is just one of the many clear explanations to be found in Science and Health:  "For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence.  In reality there is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its unlikeness, mortality.

        "Being is holiness, harmony, immortality.  It is already proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree, will uplift the physical and moral standard of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify and elevate character.  Thus progress will finally destroy all error, and bring immortality to light."

        The night dream vanishes when we wake up from it--not by doing anything to it.  In a similar way we emerge from the unreal through the exercise of spiritual thinking, not by trying to rearrange or change the illusion.  So-called material life is mental and just as much an illusion as the night dream.  The need is always for more spiritual enlightenment.  As material beliefs are replaced by spiritual understanding, existence is perceived as God created it.

        There is one more reason why we should want to emerge from the unreal of material thinking.  Science and Health points out:  "Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth."