Christ's Own

   


All of us who belong to Christ

Do well to remember this:

Tough times are going to come

To all who carry His banner.

As the Bible plainly states:

"Yea, and all that will live

godly in Christ Jesus

shall suffer persecution."*

Opposition to our endeavors

May nearly overwhelm.

Discouragement may drop

Like a concrete block.

But what of it? --

When we know this is fact --

Our Master's ministering angels,

Of which there are legion,

Hover about us day and night,

And outnumber far and far outdo

Whatever the devil's helpers try to do.

And let us not forget this:

It isn't primarily us the devil is after;

It's to interfere with Christ

Working in us to bless others.


*II Timothy 3:12

Jesus' Words

The words God gave

To His beloved Son,

Lift us out of bondage

And make us oh so free.

Their presence and their power

We can never lack.

They go where God says go;

They do what God says do.

For no would-be force

Upon this earth

Can stop these words

From getting through.





"So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: 
it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish
that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it."

Isaiah 55:11

Pleasing God

       Why is this paramount?

        First and foremost, because our beloved Christ Jesus did this,  in everything he thought/said/did and taught.  We must do likewise.

        The New Testament states:  "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" -- his, not yours and mine.  (Paul in Philippians 2:13)

        And here's where the battles come in.  Just about everything that confronts us in the world as we know it pushes against this.  The carnal mind would try to get us to forget all about what God wants for us, what He unerringly sees is best for His child, if it could. It is to our immediate and everlasting benefit that we not let it.

        False, material belief would convince us that we first have to satisfy mere human opinions, expectations, and desires -- our own and that of others -- and that conforming our life to divine demands can come later, if ever.  Truth reveals to us that doing God's will is much more important, and that this is the only way we can really find lasting -- or even immediate -- peace, joy, and freedom.

        We each have two mental roads confronting us continuously -- the broad one leading to matter, self, and limitation, and the narrow one that paradoxically leads to expanding horizons, satisfying purpose, and lasting happiness, to those added things Jesus implied in his command, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."  (Matthew 6:33)

        A childlike longing to please God, however faint at first, will set our feet on the road that widens into increasing harmony and freedom.  Moreover, every effort to make good this longing in our day-to-day doings will not only carry us farther along this road but also spare us so many of mortal thought's unnecessary side trips.

        As Jesus illustrated for us, the individual who is most free is the one who knows whom he is trying to please -- and knows this One is God.  As the teachings of Christian Science make plain, we are not independent, self-sufficient creatures totally unrelated to God;  we are the very expression of His being!  And we exist to obey and adore Him.





       













         



        

The Up-Side to Afflictions

After God's chastening is over

What then for us 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 between us and Him

Can leave one feeling punished, bereft;

But when 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?

A Gorious Discovery

                                              John Robert Howell



        Genesis 1:27 reads:  "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created  he him."  It is worth noting that the Hebrew word here for "man" is "Adam."  In Genesis 12:7 man is said to  be formed of the dust of the ground, and that "man" is also "adam."  Around this fleshly axle theological material mindedness and slavish literalness to the text have been wrapped and tangled for over two millennia.

        Without Mary Baker Eddy and her glorious Discovery, we might never have known better.  Her inspired and inspiring definition on pages 475-77* of her Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures is alone worth the cost of that precious volume.  Students of Christian Science are thus blessed with the knowledge that the man of our heavenly Father God's creating is something much more glorious than the descendant of a couple of wardrobeless sinners cavorting about the Garden of Eden skimpily clad only with "napkins" made of fig leaves.
 

        *Let me quote from some of the passages in Science and Health:

"Question. -- What is man?

"Answer. -- Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements.  The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God.  Matter is not that likeness.  The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit.  Man is spiritual and perfect;

A mortal sinner is not God's man.  Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals.  They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil, which declares that man begins in dust or as a material embryo.

Learn this, O mortal, and earnestly seek the spiritual status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood.

When speaking of God's children, not the children of men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you," that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal.  Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals.  In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.  Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy."