Not for glory

Ours, that is --

But solely His.

When the tempter said he ought

To pursue aims just for himself,

Jesus put this evil out of thought.

For our beloved Master was here,

As are you and I,

To be about our Father's work,

To not our duty shirk,

To see that God on high,

And not you nor I,

Gets all the glory.

What a Treasure

Feeling mighty thankful

This beautiful morning

For the practical religion

Mary Baker Eddy founded,

Christian Science,

As its teachings have me grounded

Upon the Rock.

And what Rock is this?

The spiritual understanding,

The knowledge of divine law,

That our great Master had

Of God's transcendent healing power.

And to think that we can know

The things that Jesus knew.

Is this not a blessing without measure!


N.B.  For those readers of my blog who are unacquainted with Christian Science and what it teaches, Mrs. Eddy's book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures will make it readily available to you.

Christ's power, not our own

On this all may rest assured:

When devils assail,

Without Christ, we're sure to fail.

With Christ, we always prevail.




"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God to the pulling down
of strong holds..."
Paul, I Corinthians 2:4

"Christ is such a terror to devils."
Mary Baker Eddy

Our reason for being

Devote your life to God,

And to His service,

And you will find

Life well worth living,

For yourself, and all mankind.

For this is why we're here,

To help our fellowman

In every way we can.

Don't you make time

For everything else

Under the sun?

Consider things more sublime,

Henceforth live your life

In God and His Holy Son.

Given all that God has done,

And does for us without fail,

Can we not love and serve

Him better than we are?

I know I can.




And thoughts along these lines from the Discoverer and Founder of
Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy:

"Goodness never fails to receive its reward, for goodness makes life a blessing.  As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good.  Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response:  I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing."  This is from First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, page 165.

Public Faces, Private Thoughts

Not so much what

we say in public

but what we think

when all alone

that tells the tale

For thinking shapes

our whole existence --

for good or ill --

causes it to square

with God's commands.

Or not.

It isn't pleasant face,

but loving thought

that proves to God

we're doing what we ought.

For feel ye love for one another

is still our Master's call.

Our health depends on it

On what, you may ask?  Upon making sure we keep the love flowing.  And by love, I mean that which God is, which He is continuously pouring out on us, and demands that we express to others.

Life has taught me that we who follow Christ, who reverence the Name, can't allow the shame of feeling less than love for our fellowman.  To be lacking this is deadly serious, I have found--not just a blip on the divine screen.  And it needs to be gotten at as quickly as possible.

Awhile back I happened to read something from one of my favorite writers on Christian Science, Samuel Greenwood, and this made a huge impression on me.  He said that in his many years of being in the public practice of Christian Science and helping countless people, it was lack of feeling love for others, lack of feeling God's love for themselves, that was the root of the physical problems they were facing.  I've come to see how right on this is.

One day I mentioned to a friend in Christ who lives in Scotland how many diseases are caused by lack of Christly love, and without a moment's thought,he said "All".  I was pleased to see such insight from this man, who isn't an adherent of my religion.

Beyond making us ill, the worst thing about not reflecting God's love (which is blatant disobedience to His commands, after all) is a sense of estrangement from Him.  Not that He ever stops caring about us, but our Father Who is all Love as Mary Baker Eddy points out is not going to follow us off into momentary resentment or ill will toward others, is He?  While indulging these devilish states of thought, we've cut ourselves off from Him, from all that makes life what it should be.

We need to keep our connection to divine Love.  With the armor of the Word, and no-fooling praying, we all can.  The rewards are tremendous.  1 John 4:16 puts it plainly: "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him."

Guest Column - John Wellsman

Computer Programming and Obedience to God



More than thirty years ago a course in computer programming provided much food for thought on obedience to God.  It seems that computers require very specific commands in a very specific and absolutely perfect format to perform their amazing feats.  We learned very quickly that even a simple program to get the computer to print out, "Hi, my name is John" which could be done in a dozen or so lines of instructions had to be absolutely perfectly entered.  Even the transposition of one word or letter or the omission of a single period could cause the computer to have a complete fit and print out literally hundreds of pages--yes, pages--of error messages.  Most "error" messages would refer to lines or instructions which were absolutely perfect in and of themselves but because of another simple error or omission they appeared to the computer to be either "unexpected" or erroneous.  We learned quickly to go directly to our coded instructions and proofread them VERY carefully rather than try to sort through the volumes of error messages.

It was while proofreading one of these programs that I began to think of how similar this was to being obedient to God's commands.  Our heavenly Father while loving and forgiving is also exacting.  There are no shortcuts or room for error in following His commands.  Ignoring or purposely violating divine directives can quite literally destroy one's human life as many can attest.  For example, in attempting to unwind one's snarls through the application of prayer one may find the "still, small voice" directing a certain course of action but resist through a false sense of pride or self-justification or some other human emotion--all the while trying to remove what may be a myriad of physical or emotional symptoms through prayer.  In such cases one might even be tempted to think that prayer isn't effective in solving physical problems.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.

The experience of a dear friend some years ago comes to thought.  This friend experienced a sudden loss of hearing at one point in his life.  The impairment of his hearing was of course extremely frustrating for the individual.  He sought the prayerful help of a Christian Science practitioner but initially received no immediate relief.  During this time the individual had been trying to decide on the purchase of a new car.  He had visited every auto dealership for miles around his home several times but had not been able to make a final choice.  Cost was not an issue as several vehicles were available within the individual's means.  He simply had been unwilling to make a commitment to action.  One day he realized that he indeed had more than enough information to make a decision and as he reached out for divine guidance in this simple situation, a course of action unfolded in his thought and he followed the steps indicated.  By the time the purchase of the new vehicle was completed shortly thereafter, the individual was enjoying completely normal hearing.  Obedience and willingness to listen and follow God's directions faithfully brought the quick healing--as it always does.