VIctory to Christ, Always

        Why do people who should know better disbelieve Christ Jesus' teachings, this among them, "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom", and accept the very opposite information the devil puts out?


        For professing Christians to do this seems inexplicable given all the Holy Bible reveals.


        How to account for this?  It can only be that one is allowing himself to be deceived by what Jesus, never one to waste words, disposed of this way:  "he is a liar and the father of it."  This evil is a marauder on your well-being, a beast of prey that wants to kill off the infinite good God has for you, to keep you down and miserable.  It is all lies that have been deceiving you.  And you can stop this detrimental practice right now.  There's nothing to stop anyone from doing this. As the New Testament states:  "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."  And he does.


        Understand that you may feel you're in a battle at times.  And so you will be, in a sense.  But you're not alone in this.  Most, if not all, the shining lights that have gone before you who named the Name of Christ, went through the same thing.  But they stayed in the fight, and came out on top.  So will you, if you accept what your Saviour says, and stop believing what the father of lies is telling you is you.


        We set ourselves up for problems, you and I, when worldly considerations are crowding God out of daily life.  As Psalms puts it, "God is not in all his thoughts.  (Ps. 10:4)  Too much attention is being given to the former and not enough to the latter.  But this can be remedied.  All it takes is the desire to do right by God's Word.  Then doing it.  If we do our part, God will do the rest.


        Say to God, I will trust the words You gave your dear Son to give the world.  I will not doubt that what Jesus said is true.  Stay with this until the resistance ceases.  As it always does, and always will. The blessings this brings are beyond most of us to imagine.


        Then we will find ourselves saying, "Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."


        


       

Take Jesus At His Word

Christ Jesus was not a man
Who went around saying things
Because He had nothing better to do!
This being so, we need to
Take Him at His every word --
Not do like some people do
Who pick and choose
Among His teachings,
People who only use
What they consider
Easier things to do,
Ignoring all the rest.
Let us believe that all
Our Master said is true.
Are we not admonished
To go forth, teaching others
"To observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you."*
All things.
Let one then acquaint himself
With all our Saviour said,
(If he hasn't already)
Love these sublime sayings,
Trust them, live them.
The heavenly fallout
Will be forever lasting.


*Matthew 28:20)

Ohio Man: Lifted Up From Invalidism

        As a young man in Ohio, this man was seriously ill, too weak to even get out of bed and take a ride in his parents' car.  For many months, he was completely bedridden.


        Then something wonderful happened, he told us, when we met him after we had both moved to New England, and become good friends for many years.  A neighbor mentioned a book to him he might find of interest and help.  This was Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. This book was obtained for him and he began reading and thinking about what it pointed out.  This man's healing was not quick, he told us.  But little by little, his physical symptoms disappeared, and his strength came back. Complete freedom came eventually.  He decided to give the rest of his life to the public practice of Christian Science to help others find the freedom he had found.


        So marked was this man's full recovery from ill  health, his energy and full life was an inspiration to all who knew him.  He later learned to fly, got a small plane, flew all over Massachusetts and even to Ohio to visit to visit relatives.  He learned to ski, got a book from the local library, studied carpentry and added an addition to their house. He hiked miles each day, when he could take time from his healing work.  And one Sunday while at the church we all attended, we were in the parking lot after the service when someone we were talking to said, "Who is that college kid?  Is he a new member?"  Our friend's posture, his springy step, his expression of agelessness and energy was remarkable.  We didn't know his age, and this didn't matter at all. He seemed to transcend aging more than anyone I knew.  His shining example of relying on God for everything he did will continue to uplift all those who knew and loved him.


     All this from Mary Baker Eddy's great discovery of the divine truths that underlay the words and works of Christ Jesus.






       

A Fuller, More Useful Life

        It was an unhappy friend who sat across from me the other day at lunch.  This lady was feeling frustrated with her job, wishing she had more opportunities to make use of her extensive education.


        Many people have a desire to express their particular abilities in a satisfying, purposeful way.  We each can lead a life that counts, whatever our interests 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 to 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 events.  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 can 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 read 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 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, during that moment there would be no divinity reflected.  The Ego would be unexpressed, and the Father would be childless,--no Father."  (p. 306)


        As the 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 our door quicker than the desire to honour God in what we're doing, to be useful to Him and our 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.


        Finding out who we really are, and accepting that wonderful fact, enables us to express more of good, more of God, more of His love in everything we do.  This is the way of our salvation, and is therefore, inescapably where success lies.  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)


        You and I exist to bear witness to God, to reflect Him, in every way.  Our purpose or activity, then, is not actually at the disposal of individuals, places, or times.  As we know ourselves to be God's perfect child, we see that the opportunity to lead a fuller, more useful life can never really be absent.  And this is why we're all here.


       




       
       

The Only Way to Avoid Destruction

To avoid destruction worthy of the name,
Embrace the narrow path Jesus taught
His followers to take in life.
Why did our Master say this to us?
To take all the joy out of living?
Ridiculous thought.
It was to save us from the sorrow,
The disillusionment and lack
Of all things worth having,
That inevitably comes from
Taking the broad way --
Fun at first perhaps,
Which has a way of
Ending up not so funny.
The prince of this world
Ultimately presents his bill.
And the worst thing about
Disregarding Jesus' words?
It causes estrangement from God,
Not that He ever leaves us,
Any sense of apartness
Is all on our side, not His.
Why do we want to miss out
On all the good things?
Our heavenly Father yearns to give.


No matter how far down the broad way
You may have gone -- if even to the end --
Turn around right now and adopt
The one, the only way, to live.


Our loving God demands this of us all.

Cause and Healing

                                                        John Robert Howell




When your body's crying out in pain,
What makes you think the Bible's Word is vain?
If sickness propagates from thought, what aid
Can come from medical opinion staid?
What fact of use can heart or lung relay,
Since thinking draws the outlines ills obey?
To rout disease, on God alone repose
Divine anatomy will causes hid expose.
If tempted, then, from fear to diagnose
Let Mind supreme, instead, the case dispose.