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."

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.