"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 Gods precepts out front
Changes things for us:
Mental trash gets left by the curb,
Gossip -- harmful to us and to others
Simply falls off.
Sickness-breeding states of thought
Give way to peace on earth, goodwill --
Relationships are transformed.
We feel oh so free,
Just the way our dear Father
Wants it to be.
The Word removes us
From the places
We no longer need to be,
Frees us from those things
We no longer need to do.
We can count on it --
Christ's Word unclutters.
*John 15:3
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
Friday, August 3, 2018
Some Thoughts on Proving Truth
A few days ago a woman emailed me saying she had happened onto my blog and found it helpful. Her problem seemed to be an inability to get healing results from her efforts to know the Truth as given in Christian Science. As she left no way to get in touch with her, perhaps the following thoughts might be of benefit.
Many times as I've been re-reading the testimonies of healing at the back of Mary Baker Eddy's book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures I've been struck by this awareness: since disease is not real, and there is actually no such thing, what all those people who were healed simply by reading and pondering the textbook were experiencing was a false belief. Laid on them by family or in most cases, by doctors who told them they had this or that disease. They were impressed by a mortal mind name and description which as Truth dawned on their thought, replaced their fears and misconceptions with divine facts of being--the divine facts which Jesus taught and demonstrated for mankind and which Christian Science makes available to us.
And, a post my husband among last month's entries on July 5th, might also prove helpful to readers -- "Absolute Faith".
Many times as I've been re-reading the testimonies of healing at the back of Mary Baker Eddy's book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures I've been struck by this awareness: since disease is not real, and there is actually no such thing, what all those people who were healed simply by reading and pondering the textbook were experiencing was a false belief. Laid on them by family or in most cases, by doctors who told them they had this or that disease. They were impressed by a mortal mind name and description which as Truth dawned on their thought, replaced their fears and misconceptions with divine facts of being--the divine facts which Jesus taught and demonstrated for mankind and which Christian Science makes available to us.
And, a post my husband among last month's entries on July 5th, might also prove helpful to readers -- "Absolute Faith".
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Truth Makes Free
I have no doubt that many who are tuning into my blog might be interested to learn that there is a way to combat sickness and recover health without having to depend on medication. That way is the healing power of Christianity that Christ Jesus practiced. His words "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32) point to the naturalness of healing from a purely metaphysical standpoint as he did. They point to unchanging divine law, which we can turn to with certainty.
Through the study of Christian Science, we're helped to see what that healing truth is, the truth found in the Bible's pages. There we learn that God is omnipotent and entirely good and that man is the image of God. As the likeness of his creator, man forever expresses these God is Spirit, man is spiritual. To be sure, we appear to be merely flesh and bones and subject to suffering. But physicality isn't the actual or ultimate substance of our being. Life in the flesh is a misconception of man, whose real identity as the image of God is incorporeal, untouched by debilitating physical conditions.
The growing understanding of man's spiritual nature has a purifying effect on the body. It awakens us to the everpresence of Christ, Truth--of the divine healing influence--and the body responds to this uplifting influence. Health is restored.
Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "To ignore God as of little use in sickness is a mistake. Instead of thrusting Him aside in times of bodily trouble, and waiting for the hour of strength in which to acknowledge Him, we should learn that He can do all things for us in sickness as in health." (page 166)
Spiritual healing in Christian Science is more than a recover of health; it includes moral strengthening. Turning to God in prayer and relying on Him for healing constitute the genuine Christian way of salvation. This holy activity regenerates and purifies one's thought and life.
We have a God-give right not only to enjoy sound health but to recover it through spiritual means when it is threatened. Jesus has furnished us with a precedent, indicating that as we follow his example we can learn what God is and how to avail ourselves of His power.
The Bible is full of assurances of God's healing help. These are not empty promises. They come to life for us in clear-but healing when we are equipped with practical knowledge of God's eternal law of harmony and of our relationship to Him. understanding that a study of Christian Science brings, we can turn to God for every aspect of our well-being, including health, proving to our own satisfaction and joy, "The Lord will take way from thee all sickness." (Deuteronomy 7:15)
Through the study of Christian Science, we're helped to see what that healing truth is, the truth found in the Bible's pages. There we learn that God is omnipotent and entirely good and that man is the image of God. As the likeness of his creator, man forever expresses these God is Spirit, man is spiritual. To be sure, we appear to be merely flesh and bones and subject to suffering. But physicality isn't the actual or ultimate substance of our being. Life in the flesh is a misconception of man, whose real identity as the image of God is incorporeal, untouched by debilitating physical conditions.
The growing understanding of man's spiritual nature has a purifying effect on the body. It awakens us to the everpresence of Christ, Truth--of the divine healing influence--and the body responds to this uplifting influence. Health is restored.
Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "To ignore God as of little use in sickness is a mistake. Instead of thrusting Him aside in times of bodily trouble, and waiting for the hour of strength in which to acknowledge Him, we should learn that He can do all things for us in sickness as in health." (page 166)
Spiritual healing in Christian Science is more than a recover of health; it includes moral strengthening. Turning to God in prayer and relying on Him for healing constitute the genuine Christian way of salvation. This holy activity regenerates and purifies one's thought and life.
We have a God-give right not only to enjoy sound health but to recover it through spiritual means when it is threatened. Jesus has furnished us with a precedent, indicating that as we follow his example we can learn what God is and how to avail ourselves of His power.
The Bible is full of assurances of God's healing help. These are not empty promises. They come to life for us in clear-but healing when we are equipped with practical knowledge of God's eternal law of harmony and of our relationship to Him. understanding that a study of Christian Science brings, we can turn to God for every aspect of our well-being, including health, proving to our own satisfaction and joy, "The Lord will take way from thee all sickness." (Deuteronomy 7:15)
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Newness of Life
Getting to the end of life's rope
Will drive some heavenward, it's true.
But why should one go that way to God?
If things for you are looking grim,
There is a better road for you.
It's the path the Master trod.
Above all else, this one thing do --
Resolve to follow in Jesus' steps,
It will do wonderful things for you.
Take to heart what Jesus said,
As sure as God loves you dearly,
You will to hopes fulfiled be led.
For freedom, joy and salvation,
Now, and everlasting,
It is the one --
The sure--
The royal way.
Will drive some heavenward, it's true.
But why should one go that way to God?
If things for you are looking grim,
There is a better road for you.
It's the path the Master trod.
Above all else, this one thing do --
Resolve to follow in Jesus' steps,
It will do wonderful things for you.
Take to heart what Jesus said,
As sure as God loves you dearly,
You will to hopes fulfiled be led.
For freedom, joy and salvation,
Now, and everlasting,
It is the one --
The sure--
The royal way.
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Sustained
Feeling worn down by too much to do?
Consider Jesus' words in John 14:10 -
"The Father that dwelleth in me,
He doth the works."
Being God's reflection,
These words are true
For me and you.
Humility and reliance on his Father
Shines through all that Jesus said.
Looking to God for action and ability
As our blessed Master did
Will do wonders for our stamina,
And keep joy and enthusiasm
Going in the process.
Consider Jesus' words in John 14:10 -
"The Father that dwelleth in me,
He doth the works."
Being God's reflection,
These words are true
For me and you.
Humility and reliance on his Father
Shines through all that Jesus said.
Looking to God for action and ability
As our blessed Master did
Will do wonders for our stamina,
And keep joy and enthusiasm
Going in the process.
Thursday, July 5, 2018
Absolute Faith
By John Robert Howell
To those wandering in the wilderness of sickness, disease, financial woes, joblessness, immorality, or despair Christian Science is the "true Light" which can lead out of this miasma of materiality and fleshly woes. It has done so for tens of thousands worldwide for over a century.
Some may immediately counter by saying that they have tried Christian Science and it just didn't or doesn't work for them. It is safe to say that somewhere within the root of such withered hopes is a halting, fearful, timid, and half-hearted commitment to the Truth Jesus taught.
Christian Science cannot be admixed with any other system and certainly not with any medical belief or solution. If one has in thought even the subtlest belief that if Science doesn't work, he can always go to a doctor or take medicine to correct the problem, he is then already trusting in and committed to matter for a solution and shouldn't be surprised at his failure to find healing through purely spiritual means in Christian Science.
Jesus made it clear that anyone who put his hand to the plow (of Truth) and then looked back (to matter) was unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven. One simply cannot put one tentative foot in the boat of Divine Science as it launches forth and yet keep for security's sake, one foot on the dock of belief in material reality. The embarrassing and disheartening result of such an attempt to give power to both Spirit and matter should be evident.
The principles of mathematics are generally accepted without demur. We know the rules of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division have to be obediently and exactly applied to get the correct result. The rules of Divine Science, Christian Science, can only be applied in the same unquestioning and undeviating manner. It must be clear beyond the slightest doubt or equivocation that the laws, so-called, of matter and medicine cannot be applied in conjunction with Christian Science. To do that would be very little different from professing at the same time adherence to atheism and Christianity.
The very first sentence of the first chapter of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, states: "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,--a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love." (S&H, p.1)
The term "absolute faith" should not be read over hastily. The prayer that reforms and heals cannot be based on vacillation or timorousness, but on complete and resolute faith in God and belief in His capability to heal and save.
When Lot, his wife, and two daughters were told by angels to flee from Sodom and Gomorrah before the impending destruction of those cities, they were also told not to look back. Lot's wife could not resist doing so and was changed into a pillar of salt. We can't trust God for our welfare and at the same time look back longingly or fearfully to matter for comfort and support as well.
For those who are inclined to temporize on the issue of absolute fidelity to Science, but who are unwilling to capitulate completely by getting medical treatment, there may still be the irresistible temptation to get a medical diagnosis to a problem, particularly one which has not been readily met in Christian Science, as some sort of aid to metaphysical treatment. The real result of this approach will probably be, however, to find oneself to be obliged to dance wit the one he invited to the party.
Medical diagnosis invariably succeeds in fixing a problem even more firmly in thought by giving it a name, attaching consequences, and vividly outlining a material picture in mortal mind. No matter how practical or informative a physical diagnosis may seem to be, it only adds to the errors to be overcome if the case is to be treated metaphysically in Christian Science. No medical pronouncement is ever going to assist in spiritual treatment. When seeking a material solution one pays his money, but it will be a sort of Hobson's Choice, not God's will, which will determine the outcome.
We live today in a highly materialistic age, one where the great god is medicine, not our heavenly Father-Mother God. The arrogant dogmatism of this medical religion confronts, indeed assaults, us at every turn: television (news and commercials), newspapers, magazines, conversations, billboards, radio, and so on. One can't even stand in line at the grocery store without getting a thorough dose of it. It take daily work just to refute and counteract all that we encounter in the course of normal lives. To find oneself attentive to any of the medical claims or pictures is only to raise the spiritual portcullis of our consciousness and invite the invasion and destruction of our confidence in God's willingness and ability to govern our lives.
"Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized" (S&H, p. 167) This unequivocal and unambiguous statement is not even a gossamer endorsement of any medical diagnosis or treatment. If one truly believes that God is omnipotent and omnipresent then where is any possible need or requirement for supplementing His care?
To be a Christian Scientist one must choose whom he will serve. As Jesus said, we cannot serve God and materiality at the same time. Giving up as fast as practical even material pleasures may seem about as appealing as wearing a hair shirt, but the sooner it is done and to the degree it is done, we win the spiritual freedom, health, completeness, and joy which can never decline, fade away, or be taken from us.
In her article "Truth-Healing", Mrs. Eddy states: "It is impossible to be a Christian Scientist without apprehending the moral law so clearly that, for conscience' sake, one will either abandon his claim to even a knowledge of the Science, or else make the claim valid." (Mis. p. 261) This is quite a challenge to our commitment, but what an opportunity to prove our worthiness to be called Christian Scientists.
To those wandering in the wilderness of sickness, disease, financial woes, joblessness, immorality, or despair Christian Science is the "true Light" which can lead out of this miasma of materiality and fleshly woes. It has done so for tens of thousands worldwide for over a century.
Some may immediately counter by saying that they have tried Christian Science and it just didn't or doesn't work for them. It is safe to say that somewhere within the root of such withered hopes is a halting, fearful, timid, and half-hearted commitment to the Truth Jesus taught.
Christian Science cannot be admixed with any other system and certainly not with any medical belief or solution. If one has in thought even the subtlest belief that if Science doesn't work, he can always go to a doctor or take medicine to correct the problem, he is then already trusting in and committed to matter for a solution and shouldn't be surprised at his failure to find healing through purely spiritual means in Christian Science.
Jesus made it clear that anyone who put his hand to the plow (of Truth) and then looked back (to matter) was unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven. One simply cannot put one tentative foot in the boat of Divine Science as it launches forth and yet keep for security's sake, one foot on the dock of belief in material reality. The embarrassing and disheartening result of such an attempt to give power to both Spirit and matter should be evident.
The principles of mathematics are generally accepted without demur. We know the rules of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division have to be obediently and exactly applied to get the correct result. The rules of Divine Science, Christian Science, can only be applied in the same unquestioning and undeviating manner. It must be clear beyond the slightest doubt or equivocation that the laws, so-called, of matter and medicine cannot be applied in conjunction with Christian Science. To do that would be very little different from professing at the same time adherence to atheism and Christianity.
The very first sentence of the first chapter of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, states: "The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God,--a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love." (S&H, p.1)
The term "absolute faith" should not be read over hastily. The prayer that reforms and heals cannot be based on vacillation or timorousness, but on complete and resolute faith in God and belief in His capability to heal and save.
When Lot, his wife, and two daughters were told by angels to flee from Sodom and Gomorrah before the impending destruction of those cities, they were also told not to look back. Lot's wife could not resist doing so and was changed into a pillar of salt. We can't trust God for our welfare and at the same time look back longingly or fearfully to matter for comfort and support as well.
For those who are inclined to temporize on the issue of absolute fidelity to Science, but who are unwilling to capitulate completely by getting medical treatment, there may still be the irresistible temptation to get a medical diagnosis to a problem, particularly one which has not been readily met in Christian Science, as some sort of aid to metaphysical treatment. The real result of this approach will probably be, however, to find oneself to be obliged to dance wit the one he invited to the party.
Medical diagnosis invariably succeeds in fixing a problem even more firmly in thought by giving it a name, attaching consequences, and vividly outlining a material picture in mortal mind. No matter how practical or informative a physical diagnosis may seem to be, it only adds to the errors to be overcome if the case is to be treated metaphysically in Christian Science. No medical pronouncement is ever going to assist in spiritual treatment. When seeking a material solution one pays his money, but it will be a sort of Hobson's Choice, not God's will, which will determine the outcome.
We live today in a highly materialistic age, one where the great god is medicine, not our heavenly Father-Mother God. The arrogant dogmatism of this medical religion confronts, indeed assaults, us at every turn: television (news and commercials), newspapers, magazines, conversations, billboards, radio, and so on. One can't even stand in line at the grocery store without getting a thorough dose of it. It take daily work just to refute and counteract all that we encounter in the course of normal lives. To find oneself attentive to any of the medical claims or pictures is only to raise the spiritual portcullis of our consciousness and invite the invasion and destruction of our confidence in God's willingness and ability to govern our lives.
"Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized" (S&H, p. 167) This unequivocal and unambiguous statement is not even a gossamer endorsement of any medical diagnosis or treatment. If one truly believes that God is omnipotent and omnipresent then where is any possible need or requirement for supplementing His care?
To be a Christian Scientist one must choose whom he will serve. As Jesus said, we cannot serve God and materiality at the same time. Giving up as fast as practical even material pleasures may seem about as appealing as wearing a hair shirt, but the sooner it is done and to the degree it is done, we win the spiritual freedom, health, completeness, and joy which can never decline, fade away, or be taken from us.
In her article "Truth-Healing", Mrs. Eddy states: "It is impossible to be a Christian Scientist without apprehending the moral law so clearly that, for conscience' sake, one will either abandon his claim to even a knowledge of the Science, or else make the claim valid." (Mis. p. 261) This is quite a challenge to our commitment, but what an opportunity to prove our worthiness to be called Christian Scientists.
Sunday, July 1, 2018
Keeping Our Priorities Straight
Not enough time in the day
To do all the things you need to do?
Your priorities are out of whack.
Consider placing God's demands
Before other people's, and your own.
Think of Christ Jesus, someone
Who was never flurried or worried,
Who was always on time for healing
Why was this, do you think?
Could one reason have been
"I do always those things that please him"?
John 8:29
A holy example, this.
But one we can all shoot for.
Even the willingness to pray,
May this day be lived the way
You heavenly Father, know is best
Will begin adjusting circumstances
As only God can do.
There will then be enough time
For Him -- first don't forget --
And time enough for you.
To do all the things you need to do?
Your priorities are out of whack.
Consider placing God's demands
Before other people's, and your own.
Think of Christ Jesus, someone
Who was never flurried or worried,
Who was always on time for healing
Why was this, do you think?
Could one reason have been
"I do always those things that please him"?
John 8:29
A holy example, this.
But one we can all shoot for.
Even the willingness to pray,
May this day be lived the way
You heavenly Father, know is best
Will begin adjusting circumstances
As only God can do.
There will then be enough time
For Him -- first don't forget --
And time enough for you.
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