(Having just had a conversation with one of my dear Christian friends on the topic of heaven, bless her heart, feel inspired this lovely October 30th morning to put down some thoughts on same.)
Because so many people have not been taught the joy and practicality of developing their spiritual sense, they deprive themselves of a better and happier life, looking to some future heaven to provide them with fulfillment and happiness.
But Christian Science shows that it is unnecessary for any of us to wait before experiencing happiness, health, and well-being. You and I do not have to postpone good to some future time -- we receive it from God and reflect it now. God, divine Love, is constantly bestowing on His spiritual likeness, man, blessings that are satisfying and unending.
And just think of Christ Jesus who, when he was approached by someone in need, did not refer that person to a future paradise. Instead, the Master blessed the receptive seeker right then and there. Did he not say in Luke (17:21) "Behold, the kingdom of God is within you"? When we sincerely open our thoughts to the ever-present Christ, Truth, we are given the spiritual ideas to meet our present human need. Whether for a job, companionship, safety, a place to live, or release from pain or suffering.
And think about this, if you will. Does a loving human parent -- aware of his children's needs --intentionally withhold good? How much more, then, may we expect from our heavenly Father, infinite, ever-present, divine Love! Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures on page 494: "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need."
So many people out there consider existence a matter of sometimes "having" and more often of "not having." They mentally accept discord and deprivation, expecting and receiving only occasional benefits. They are taught to look to heaven as the only place where they will find constant good. I find this so sad. But the kingdom of God, all good, is within us. We already possess the joys of heaven--here and now. As Christian Science points out, the only change we have to make is from our acceptance of a mortal, solitary, incomplete sense of existence to the acknowledgment of spiritual existence, immortal, Godlike.
In that book I mentioned by Mrs. Eddy is this statement (page 171): "Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of materiality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will reopen with the key of divine Science the gates of Paradise which human beliefs have closed, and will himself unfalllen, upright, pure and free."
Many men and women I personally know who had unknowingly resigned themselves to a life of pain, lack, despair, or unhappiness have found to their great joy that heavenly good is possible here and now. Through the teachings of Christian Science they have successfully eliminated mental barries to health, harmony and freedom.
Waking up to the divine fact that we are in heaven where we are does open the door to exciting possibilities. And I can say from my own experience, the more I am realizing this, not only is my life more blessed than I ever expected, people around the world are being helped in ways I never would have imagined.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
God's supply recession-proof
Sitting here this Saturday morning thinking about the economy, several thoughts come to mind: first, I happened to read in The Wall Street Journal the other night about some economic downturn in 1907, and it occurred to me, why the Leader of the Christian Science movement, Mary Baker Eddy, was on the scene working for her Cause during this time. I do not know the particulars of how severe the problems were, but it is apparent that she and her Cause came through it all. And I couldn't help thinking about the wonderful practitioners and teachers during the Great Depression, who through what they knew of God's laws came through it all intact, if not abounding in money. I can't say about this, but I do know they prevailed through what they understood of God's everpresent goodness and government.
Just some of the things that come to thought right now:
l) As Christ Jesus demonstrated for his followers for all time, God's supply is infinite. This Jesus proved time and again as readers of his parables know. God obviously knows nothing about lack or finite good, since there is no such thing in His universe. And His universe is actually the only one there is;
2) As Mrs. Eddy stated in something she wrote (and a Baptist friend of mine was greatly enlightened by when I showed her the statement) man is God's reflection, and since His hands are full, so are ours. Let me quote it in full for you. This is in the book We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, page 134: "When you stand before a mirror and look at your reflection, it is the same as the original. Now you are God's reflection. If His hands are full, your hands are full, if you image Him. You cannot know lack." This lady said, what that woman brought out is a brand new idea for me! I have never thought of myself as God's reflection. This is so neat to think about!
3) And picking up on the thought of our being God's image and likeness, His reflection, I have learned through the teachings of Christian Science that as the one Mind, God couldn't be less than whole or complete, less than infinite, less than finished and complete, man, His manifestation can't be incomplete or lacking any good thing. An understanding of the completeness of God's creation and of ourselves as His child, His always-cared for child, can be demonstrated by any one of us. And it so obviously has been through the decades by thousands of students of Christian Science who have proved in their own daily lives God's supply is recession-proof.
Hope some of this is a comfort to my readers. We don't have to sink under the current, and projected, conditions.
Just some of the things that come to thought right now:
l) As Christ Jesus demonstrated for his followers for all time, God's supply is infinite. This Jesus proved time and again as readers of his parables know. God obviously knows nothing about lack or finite good, since there is no such thing in His universe. And His universe is actually the only one there is;
2) As Mrs. Eddy stated in something she wrote (and a Baptist friend of mine was greatly enlightened by when I showed her the statement) man is God's reflection, and since His hands are full, so are ours. Let me quote it in full for you. This is in the book We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, page 134: "When you stand before a mirror and look at your reflection, it is the same as the original. Now you are God's reflection. If His hands are full, your hands are full, if you image Him. You cannot know lack." This lady said, what that woman brought out is a brand new idea for me! I have never thought of myself as God's reflection. This is so neat to think about!
3) And picking up on the thought of our being God's image and likeness, His reflection, I have learned through the teachings of Christian Science that as the one Mind, God couldn't be less than whole or complete, less than infinite, less than finished and complete, man, His manifestation can't be incomplete or lacking any good thing. An understanding of the completeness of God's creation and of ourselves as His child, His always-cared for child, can be demonstrated by any one of us. And it so obviously has been through the decades by thousands of students of Christian Science who have proved in their own daily lives God's supply is recession-proof.
Hope some of this is a comfort to my readers. We don't have to sink under the current, and projected, conditions.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Our Master warns us
Whatever our work in life
may happen to be,
we need to ask; search
our motives regularly:
Is it for His holy child
that I do what I do? --
is a question to
which we need to hew.
For there is nothing that
so lights up the carnal mind's face
as seeing us putting ourselves
in dear Jesus' place.
"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men,
to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no
reward of your Father which is in heaven."
Matthew 6:l
may happen to be,
we need to ask; search
our motives regularly:
Is it for His holy child
that I do what I do? --
is a question to
which we need to hew.
For there is nothing that
so lights up the carnal mind's face
as seeing us putting ourselves
in dear Jesus' place.
"Take heed that ye do not your alms before men,
to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no
reward of your Father which is in heaven."
Matthew 6:l
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Jesus on excess
A friend just emailed me about a very well written editorial/opinion by Maureen Dowd in today's New York Times on the AIG wasting of taxpayer dollars -- again! And I can't help revisiting one of my blogs, on the topic of being economical done a few blogs back. And George W., wherever you are, read the Times as well. I doubt that you can take up for these guys a second time.
But back to what matters and that is something Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, page 266 to the effect that we must follow all the sayings of our Master, Christ Jesus. What safety there is for us when we do this!
And speaking of Jesus, let me end this Sunday bit with his sublime statement about greed: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting." (Luke 21:34)
Isn't this wonderful and timely though. But why should one be surprised at this, when it is through living the Word of God--especially in these crucial times--that one has the way out of every problem that may come his way.
But back to what matters and that is something Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, page 266 to the effect that we must follow all the sayings of our Master, Christ Jesus. What safety there is for us when we do this!
And speaking of Jesus, let me end this Sunday bit with his sublime statement about greed: "Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting." (Luke 21:34)
Isn't this wonderful and timely though. But why should one be surprised at this, when it is through living the Word of God--especially in these crucial times--that one has the way out of every problem that may come his way.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Mighty -- but meek
One may be a daughter
of the South,
yet not all sweetness and light,
a person who is weak,
lacking might,
reluctant to fight
when the Cause is right.
How to balance standing
up for oneself
with acting meek---
what a challenge.
With me, it's a
work in progress.
After centuries of
half the race being
put down, told to
be seen and not heard,
(with a few exceptions)
can make one want
to go overboard
to oneself express.
Thank God for the Word--
which helps many
of us to keep words in,
and not commit the sin
of not being loving enough.
Sometime this is tough.
But there is our Hero
for all time,
our Exemplar sublime,
who though his rebuke
was soemthing one would
not have wanted to be
on the receiving end of,
was the most loving man
that ever walked the earth.
Being daughers (and sons)
of the King,
should we not be able to
express might and meekness?
This followers of Christ
and Christian Science
will increasingly need to do.
of the South,
yet not all sweetness and light,
a person who is weak,
lacking might,
reluctant to fight
when the Cause is right.
How to balance standing
up for oneself
with acting meek---
what a challenge.
With me, it's a
work in progress.
After centuries of
half the race being
put down, told to
be seen and not heard,
(with a few exceptions)
can make one want
to go overboard
to oneself express.
Thank God for the Word--
which helps many
of us to keep words in,
and not commit the sin
of not being loving enough.
Sometime this is tough.
But there is our Hero
for all time,
our Exemplar sublime,
who though his rebuke
was soemthing one would
not have wanted to be
on the receiving end of,
was the most loving man
that ever walked the earth.
Being daughers (and sons)
of the King,
should we not be able to
express might and meekness?
This followers of Christ
and Christian Science
will increasingly need to do.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
It takes Christ Jesus and Christian Science
Having taken as my text for this blog the following statements from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, here goes something very important to me. In fact, it is the impetus for this blog I've started. And I'll no doubt be re-visiting this topic time and again.
First, from page 269: "The testimony of the material senses is neither absolute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of the prophets, and on the testimony of the Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none. All other systems -- systems based wholly or partly on knowledge gained through the material senses -- are reeds shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock."
And from page 569: "Alas for those who break faith with divine Science and fail to strangle the serpent of sin as well as of sickness! They are in the surging sea of error, not struggling to lift their heads above the drowning wave."
Having had many a discussion with Christians who love Christ Jesus but know nothing of Christian Science, and on the other hand, with Christian Scientists who are trying to live with Christ Jesus a footnote to their lives, it is my conviction that one must have both. To try to get along with only one or the other, is fatal to understanding God and having dominion over evil. It just cannot be done. And it is not being done in too many sad instances.
Regarding the first quotation above, I recall one Wednesday evening testimony meeting at the Wellesley, MA church when I gave a testimony, quoted most of that statement, inadvertently left out "the testimony of the Science of Mind" whereupon a wonderful practitioner rose and said in a loving and gentle way, "let me add to the good lady's remarks the last part of that quotation. " And then, he gave a wonderful testimony as to the power of Christian Science.
I was glad he corrected me. And it reinforces what I'm driving at, that one must have the full package, Christ Jesus and Christian Science for spiritual progress and well-being.
I've had oh so many talks with Christians on the subject of religion, and recall one when we were moving down South. The mover, a devout Baptist, saw a painting of Daniel in the Lions Den over my desk which opened a most inspiring conversation. Finally, he asked, are all members of your church as reverent toward Christ Jesus as you are? I had to answer, unfortunately they are not. And this in my view is the reason for the stagnation, the deadness in too many churches and lives today.
And this, too, reinforces why I say, and Mrs. Eddy knew and founded her Church to reinstate Jesus' words and works, that Christian Scientists cannot make the grade, cannot have the joy and peace and rightness with God they should be enjoying if they think Jesus is obsolete. Shocking that many think so? It is to me. But with more than one patient I've helped who have told me, "I have never once felt close to God", (and you think there is not an unsettling thing to hear!) it is clear to me that the problem is absence of love for Christ Jesus in their hearts and thoughts. Just reading great articles, listening to splendid lectures, taking class instruction, being brought up in Christian Science--the whole nine yards--is not all that is required. It takes living the Word, having Jesus' teachings at the core of one's life. And without this love for Christ as well as Christian Science, how can they experience God's blessings? They can't. No one can. Why would one expect God to look favorably on someone who has no reverence for His holy child?
I well realize this is not popular to point out, but if you and I are not boldly standing up for Christ and Christian Science, what are we taking up space for?!
First, from page 269: "The testimony of the material senses is neither absolute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of the prophets, and on the testimony of the Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none. All other systems -- systems based wholly or partly on knowledge gained through the material senses -- are reeds shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock."
And from page 569: "Alas for those who break faith with divine Science and fail to strangle the serpent of sin as well as of sickness! They are in the surging sea of error, not struggling to lift their heads above the drowning wave."
Having had many a discussion with Christians who love Christ Jesus but know nothing of Christian Science, and on the other hand, with Christian Scientists who are trying to live with Christ Jesus a footnote to their lives, it is my conviction that one must have both. To try to get along with only one or the other, is fatal to understanding God and having dominion over evil. It just cannot be done. And it is not being done in too many sad instances.
Regarding the first quotation above, I recall one Wednesday evening testimony meeting at the Wellesley, MA church when I gave a testimony, quoted most of that statement, inadvertently left out "the testimony of the Science of Mind" whereupon a wonderful practitioner rose and said in a loving and gentle way, "let me add to the good lady's remarks the last part of that quotation. " And then, he gave a wonderful testimony as to the power of Christian Science.
I was glad he corrected me. And it reinforces what I'm driving at, that one must have the full package, Christ Jesus and Christian Science for spiritual progress and well-being.
I've had oh so many talks with Christians on the subject of religion, and recall one when we were moving down South. The mover, a devout Baptist, saw a painting of Daniel in the Lions Den over my desk which opened a most inspiring conversation. Finally, he asked, are all members of your church as reverent toward Christ Jesus as you are? I had to answer, unfortunately they are not. And this in my view is the reason for the stagnation, the deadness in too many churches and lives today.
And this, too, reinforces why I say, and Mrs. Eddy knew and founded her Church to reinstate Jesus' words and works, that Christian Scientists cannot make the grade, cannot have the joy and peace and rightness with God they should be enjoying if they think Jesus is obsolete. Shocking that many think so? It is to me. But with more than one patient I've helped who have told me, "I have never once felt close to God", (and you think there is not an unsettling thing to hear!) it is clear to me that the problem is absence of love for Christ Jesus in their hearts and thoughts. Just reading great articles, listening to splendid lectures, taking class instruction, being brought up in Christian Science--the whole nine yards--is not all that is required. It takes living the Word, having Jesus' teachings at the core of one's life. And without this love for Christ as well as Christian Science, how can they experience God's blessings? They can't. No one can. Why would one expect God to look favorably on someone who has no reverence for His holy child?
I well realize this is not popular to point out, but if you and I are not boldly standing up for Christ and Christian Science, what are we taking up space for?!
Monday, October 13, 2008
Our adorable God
So many thoughts about God crowd in this lovely October morning still dark, and while not in any particular order, since they center around the One, are worth sharing, I think. What joy to have a way to express instantly the inspiration one feels! What freedom to not have to wait around for others to read/evaluate/ and edit one's heartfelt thoughts!
First, read yesterday afternoon what the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy says about "Wind" in her major work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "That which indicates the might of omnipotence and the movements of God's spiritual government encompassing all things." I love this thought of God surrounding us, and couldn't help thanking God mightily while sitting in the cool grass with one of our dogs, just letting that crisp autumn wind blow over us, making colorful leaves twirl and dance. So much more than just lovely nature, the whole scene conveyed Him to me, as nature is increasingly doing, I find.
And, read recently in Mrs. Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings, page 106 a most beautiful sentence (boy, could that woman write!): "It has long been a question of earnest import, How shall mankind worship the most adorable, but most unadored, -- and where shall begin that praise that shall never end?"
To me, this adoration for God, this earnest desire to share with the whole world what He had done for her in the healing He wrought, explains why her Cause prospered in the early days, and why it still lives, and cannot be lost. Gratitude for Christian Science and what it is doing right now for us is stronger than it has ever been for many people I know, and I rejoice in this fact. What so many of us faithful to the Cause owe to our loving Father, God is eternal and will be with us forevermore.
Truly is our God the most adorable!
First, read yesterday afternoon what the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy says about "Wind" in her major work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "That which indicates the might of omnipotence and the movements of God's spiritual government encompassing all things." I love this thought of God surrounding us, and couldn't help thanking God mightily while sitting in the cool grass with one of our dogs, just letting that crisp autumn wind blow over us, making colorful leaves twirl and dance. So much more than just lovely nature, the whole scene conveyed Him to me, as nature is increasingly doing, I find.
And, read recently in Mrs. Eddy's Miscellaneous Writings, page 106 a most beautiful sentence (boy, could that woman write!): "It has long been a question of earnest import, How shall mankind worship the most adorable, but most unadored, -- and where shall begin that praise that shall never end?"
To me, this adoration for God, this earnest desire to share with the whole world what He had done for her in the healing He wrought, explains why her Cause prospered in the early days, and why it still lives, and cannot be lost. Gratitude for Christian Science and what it is doing right now for us is stronger than it has ever been for many people I know, and I rejoice in this fact. What so many of us faithful to the Cause owe to our loving Father, God is eternal and will be with us forevermore.
Truly is our God the most adorable!
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