Author: alk

Wednesday readings 11/14/12

The Bible
Gen 1:1, 31 (to good)
1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good
Prov 2:1-11
1My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
2So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
3Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
6For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
7He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.
8He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints.
9Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path.
10¶When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
11Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:
Prov 3:1-6
1My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments;
2For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.
3Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
4So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
5¶Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Mark 4:1-30
1And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.
2And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,
3Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:
4And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.
5And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:
6But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
7And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
8And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.
9And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
10And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable.
11And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
12That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.
13And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?
14¶The sower soweth the word.
15And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
16And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;
17And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended.
18And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,
19And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
20And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.
21¶And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick?
22For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.
23If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
24And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.
25For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.
26¶And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;
27And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.
28For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
29But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.
30¶And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?
Matt 16:15-17
15He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy
vii:1-26
To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is
big with blessings. The wakeful shepherd beholds
the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full radiance
of a risen day. So shone the pale star to the prophet-
shepherds; yet it traversed the night, and came where, in
cradled obscurity, lay the Bethlehem babe, the human
herald of Christ, Truth, who would make plain to be-
nighted understanding the way of salvation through Christ
Jesus, till across a night of error should dawn the morn-
ing beams and shine the guiding star of being. The Wise-
men were led to behold and to follow this daystar of
divine Science, lighting the way to eternal harmony.
The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent
of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the
portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and
the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling
away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-
stone to faith. The only guarantee of obedience is a
right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is
Life eternal. Though empires fall, “the Lord shall
reign forever.”
A book introduces new thoughts, but it cannot make
them speedily understood. It is the task of the sturdy
pioneer to hew the tall oak and to cut the rough
granite. Future ages must declare what the pioneer
has accomplished.
viii:4-12
To develop the full
might of this Science, the discords of corporeal sense
must yield to the harmony of spiritual sense, even as the
science of music corrects false tones and gives sweet con-
cord to sound.
Theology and physics teach that both Spirit and
matter are real and good, whereas the fact is that
Spirit is good and real, and matter is Spirit’s oppo-
site.
465:0 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept;
line upon line, line upon line;
here a little, and there a little. — Isaiah.

This chapter is from the first edition of the author’s
class-book, copyrighted in 1870. After much labor
and increased spiritual understanding, she revised that
treatise for this volume in 1875. Absolute Christian
Science pervades its statements, to elucidate scientific
metaphysics.

465:1-15
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Question. — What is God?
Answer. — God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite
Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.
Question. — Are these terms synonymous?
Answer. — They are. They refer to one absolute God.
They are also intended to express the nature, essence, and
wholeness of Deity. The attributes of God are justice,
mercy, wisdom, goodness, and so on.
470:11-471:20
Divine Science explains the abstract statement that
there is one Mind by the following self-evident propo-
The divine
standard of
perfection sition: If God, or good, is real, then evil, the
unlikeness of God, is unreal. And evil can
only seem to be real by giving reality to the
unreal. The children of God have but one Mind. How
can good lapse into evil, when God, the Mind of man,
never sins? The standard of perfection was originally
God and man. Has God taken down His own standard,
and has man fallen?
Indestructible relationship
God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle
of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection,
man, remains perfect. Man is the expression
of God’s being. If there ever was a moment
when man did not express the divine perfec-
tion, then there was a moment when man did not express
God, and consequently a time when Deity was unex-
pressed— that is, without entity. If man has lost per-
fection, then he has lost his perfect Principle, the divine
Mind. If man ever existed without this perfect Principle
or Mind, then man’s existence was a myth.
The relations of God and man, divine Principle and
idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows
no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine
order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He cre-
ates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged
in its eternal history.
Celestial evidence
The unlikeness of Truth, — named error, — the op-
posite of Science, and the evidence before the five cor-
poreal senses, afford no indication of the grand
facts of being; even as these so-called senses
receive no intimation of the earth’s motions or of the
science of astronomy, but yield assent to astronomical
propositions on the authority of natural science.
The facts of divine Science should be admitted, —
although the evidence as to these facts is not supported
by evil, by matter, or by material sense, — because the
evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by
spiritual sense. Man is, and forever has been, God’s re-
flection. God is infinite, therefore ever present, and
there is no other power nor presence. Hence the spirit-
uality of the universe is the only fact of creation.
472:5-11
God’s law destroys evil
The way which leads to Christian Science is straight
and narrow. God has set His signet upon Science, mak-
ing it coordinate with all that is real and only
with that which is harmonious and eternal.
Sickness, sin, and death, being inharmonious, do not
originate in God nor belong to His government. His
law, rightly understood, destroys them.

Prayer inspires, and eliminates leg pain

Two different people I interacted with recently noticed something unusual about me, with both using the phrase,”I see you have something going on here.”  Well, maybe so, but the double comment made me stop at the beginning of the week and write down in my Christian Science Quarterly next to the subject, “Unreality”, What is going on?  After that I wrote, Anger or peace?  Hatred or love?  Frustration or patience? Material bondage or spiritual freedom?  Poor material vision or clarity of sight?  Imprisoned in matter or completely free in Spirit?  So, I pondered these contrasts all week long, but by Saturday morning I had come to accept that for a couple of days my left hip and leg were sore from a groin pull, and that morning my right hip indicated some issue.  Early that Saturday morning I was replacing flowers in the church and had a few minutes to look at the Bible Lesson.  I didn’t get much farther than the Golden Text, from 1 John: “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. ” I reasoned that means:

God is Love and there is no hatred at all.
God is Spirit and there is no matter at all.
God is Life and there is no death at all.
God is Soul and there is no ugliness at all.
God is Truth and there is no inharmony at all.
God is Principle and there is no disorder at all.

I did write and think about other qualities, but this was the gist.  It was 9:00 AM before I knew it, and time to head to a tennis game I was scheduled to play in.  When it was over, I realized I had not felt so much as a tweak during the match and that my legs were moving in accord with God’s quality of grace in action.

I am so very grateful to God for His goodness, not just for restored harmony of leg movement, but restored harmony of thought-movement!
HF

Hymn Brings Quick Healing

One of the hymns at a Wednesday evening testimony meeting really resonated with me.  I hadn’t sung/read it for some time and found the message inspirational.  For several days following the service, I prayed with it each day.  Christian Science Hymnal, #406:

O Love, our Mother, ever near,
To Thee we turn from doubt and fear!
In perfect peace our thoughts abide;
Our hearts now in this truth confide: Man is the child of God.

O Light, in Thy light we can see
That man is ever one with Thee.
In love our lives Thou dost enfold
And now our waiting hopes behold That man is God’s own child.

O joy that ever will remain,
Midst seeming sorrow, hate and pain,
Our hearts to fill with this glad song
That soars above the mists of wrong: Man is the loved of Love.

The following Saturday I enjoyed a lovely day hiking with friends.  Shortly after returning home, I suddenly felt extremely ill.  My entire body was painful.  I turned immediately to this hymn and was comforted by Love’s tender care for me. I felt Love’s infinite presence that dissolves all unlike itself.  I affirmed that peace is inherent in man as God’s reflection, the expression of Soul, another name for God, thus nothing can disturb nor disrupt that peace and normal functioning.  After praying for about an hour, all pain left as quickly as it had come.

My gratitude to God for His omnipotence and omnipresence is unbounded.

NH

Hearing restored and gratitude for knowing God more

A little more than a year ago I found Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy at a thrift store in their book section.  I had never heard of it before then.  At home I would read it whenever I could.  I was really amazed at the testimonies at the back of the book.  I found some of the book difficult to understand and overlooked a lot of the reading and after a few months I donated it back to the same store.  As time went by I kept thinking about Christian Science, feeling in my spirit it was true.  I was wishing I had kept the precious little black leather book.

I finally found a Christian Science Practitioner close to where I live.  I first met with her to find out more about Christian Science.  She was very loving, kind and patient during treatment and through follow-up sessions.  She also gave me a lot of helpful info, including telling me of a Christian Science Reading Room, where I bought another copy of Science and Health.  I read this and the Bible, and many other books from the Reading Room, along with praying daily.

About three weeks later I began to lose my hearing in my right ear and within days I could barely hear people talk unless they talked very loud or got right next to my ear.  It was so frustrating that I couldn’t hear my doorbell ring, my phone ring, the water running and even the TV with the volume up as far as it could go. My left ear had been damaged when I was nine years old after a doctor tried to correct a problem with excessive earaches so I never could hear much out of that ear.  Meanwhile my family and friends out of concern kept insisting I go to the doctors to have it checked but I decided not to, wanting to lean on God for healing.  I called the Christian Science practitioner for treatment.  Two weeks later over the weekend I began to hear a little bit and on Monday morning after waking up I could hear all the lovely sounds of the birds and every thing was so loud!  Praise be to God, my hearing was totally restored and made whole as God created me to be.  Even the hearing in my left ear is better than it used to be.  And thanks be to God for the Christian Science practitioner’s standing with me with her prayers, love, and support. Because God first loved us, we love.  Praise God for His loving grace!

R.S.

Quick Healing of Painful Knee

Recently while vacationing in the mountains where we do a lot of hiking, I awoke one morning with an extremely stiff knee after an extensive hike the previous day.  As I attempted to go downstairs, the knee did not want to bend and was quite painful.  I had never experienced this condition before.  I immediately turned my thoughts to that week’s Bible lesson, which was on God.  The lesson contained many powerful statements from the Bible and Science and Health as to the fact that God is all, that there is nothing else beside Him.  God is the only power, is ever-present and was right there at that moment embracing me with His tender love and care.  God is the only creator and had created me in His image and likeness. Since God is spiritual, my true identity is spiritual.  I reflect the unchanging harmony of Soul, God, which includes the perfect functioning of every part of my body.  I am tributary to God, Spirit, not to a mortal body, physical functions or to world belief of disability.

As the day wore on, the use of the knee progressively improved and the pain lessened.  Whenever I was aware of any discomfort, I reaffirmed the facts of spiritual Truth I had turned to that morning.  I realized that God’s perfection is invariable and so is mine.  The following morning when I awoke and prepared for another extensive hike, the knee was completely restored to its normal functioning, with no discomfort at all and continues that way.

I am deeply grateful for Christian Science which gives us the spiritual understanding of our true identity as the child of God, reflecting all of His qualities.  I am grateful for this quick healing and for a fuller realization of my oneness with God.

N.H.

Prayer, Identity & You: A Christian Science lecture by Dave Stevens, C.S.B.

Prayer, Identity & You:  Our community welcomed experienced Christian Science speaker Dave Stevens last year, speaking on this topic to a full house.  It addresses how to identify oneself from God’s perspective, and the harmonizing side-effects of this identification.

Quick healing of bike accident injury

I don’t know exactly how to pray for each and every situation, but I do know that prayer has a meaningful and beneficial impact on my life.  Whenever I am unsure about how to proceed with prayer, even when I know that is the right step to be taking, I simply think, “It matters how I think right now.”  This thought always humbles my thinking and allows me to be receptive to God.

During a recent road biking excursion I made a swift and unexpected dismount onto the pavement at the start of a climb.  As I was lying in the road trying to piece together what had just happened I looked over at my arm and noticed a bone in my arm looking alarmingly out of place. Instead of praying immediately, I let the physical situation take hold of my thought—I was experiencing really forceful resistance to prayer which was completely contrary to my usual response of, “It matters how I think right now.”  In a few minutes I was helped off the road and able to lie on the pavement in the sun.  My fellow riders included three family members who also actively practice Christian Science, and for them I couldn’t be more grateful.  As I struggled with resistance, these three people purposefully and vocally reminded me that I was in fact perfectly whole and able to claim dominion over the physical situation.  Their conviction to see me as spiritually pure melted my resistance in a matter of moments.

The second I began to identify more with a spiritually whole vision of myself, rather than a fallen, injured physical person, the transformation from bone out of place and a great amount of physical pain to feeling perfectly normal was very quick.  My brother, who was sitting with me and praying as I lay on the side of the road was himself impressed with the way improved thought and a willingness to simply be present with God directly corresponded to a restoration of my arm.  The healing was in fact so swift, that I had a hard time trusting the results at first.  In response to this tentative thinking, my brother and I worked with this idea from Mary Baker Eddy, “Whosoever understands the power of Spirit, has no doubt of God’s power, —even the might of Truth, —to heal, through divine Science, beyond all human means and methods” Miscellaneous Writings 52:7.

Half an hour later I was playing with my two-year-old niece whom I instinctively reached out to and picked up in my arms when she called my name and ran to me.  I experienced no pain from this simple act of love.  A week later I participated in a 100K bike race on the exact same road where the bike accident had happened a week before.  I was able ride free of pain or apprehension both physically and mentally.

I pursue a lot of outdoor sports, from cycling and distance running to rock climbing and river running.  Without a doubt, these experiences have been the most significant for me as a student of Christian Science.  It’s in those moments of physical duress that I have come to know and understand my spiritual identity as the more accurate and complete description of me.  I am so grateful for the insight that prayer gives us into life, making each opportunity to pray not just physically but mentally and spiritually transformative.

L.T.

Prayer helps after head struck

I have a very dear friend from England who was moving her parents into a care facility so I flew to LA to assist with packing the house.  As we left Starbuck’s after getting something for breakfast, I became aware of someone ranting to my left and suddenly he threw my friend against the wall.  As I turned to help my friend, he struck me on the temple with a blunt object and I seemed to be experiencing a lot of pain.  We hurried back to Starbucks to avoid further threats from this seemingly deranged young man.

I immediately thought, man is not a victim and can’t be victimized.  The side of my head was really pounding by this time so I kept repeating the Scientific Statement of Being (found on page 468 of Science and Health, by Mrs. Eddy.)  I sought reassurance that my friend was OK and she exclaimed there was a huge lump growing on my head.  I assured her that I was fine but she insisted the paramedics be called.  This is not what I wanted but I knew I needed to handle this so I tried to remain as calm as possible.  The paramedics found my blood pressure was absolutely normal; however, they gave my friend a litany of symptoms to watch for as I declined any further assistance.

We walked back to the house but as we started to get the packing materials out, I was in extreme pain and experiencing a migraine aura.  I was so grateful to have my cell phone with me which had a Christian Science practitioner’s number in it.   The practitioner gave me some encouraging ideas and the aura lifted immediately but the pain persisted; however I was able to pack.  Later that afternoon, the police arrived for a routine investigation precipitated by the paramedics’ report.  I sincerely expressed this individual needed help not incarceration.  Later that evening, I was able to sleep comfortably and I awoke with absolutely no pain.  We packed the rest of the house and I flew home that afternoon with no ill effect from the cabin pressure.  I went to work the next day, and although there was extensive bruising, I experienced no more pain.  Within a few days all evidence was gone.

My friend called me about a week later from England to see how I was doing. I said I was perfect!   She then admitted she had been having difficulty breathing when she was thrown against the wall but was so concerned about me that she made no mention of this incident.  Her present normal condition without medical intervention was further proof of God’s love for both of us.  I am so grateful for this demonstration of God’s care in sudden need.

RT

Prayer to leave matter out of solution brings good results

A few weeks ago there appeared in the weekly Bible Lesson (“God the Only Cause and Creator”) this passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 69:  “… ‘Do you teach that Spirit creates materially, or do you declare that Spirit is infinite, therefore matter is out of the question?’ ”  That question really grabbed my attention and stayed with me.

A few days later, I began to experience an annoying pain in my right arm.  Since I was on vacation at a tennis resort and had several matches scheduled, I started thinking, “Oh no, maybe I won’t be able to play; maybe if I stretched, or soaked in a hot tub or applied ice packs or something, I’d get through the next few matches.”  But right at that moment my thought returned to the above reference.  I wanted to leave matter completely out of the picture!  I turned to an article in the December 2010 Christian Science Journal entitled “Petition- an Important Element of Prayer” and started a prayer of petition.  I asked God to just rid my thinking of all these matter-based suggestions of methods to deal with a painful arm.  I pleaded for a purely spiritual recognition of my perfection at that very moment.

Soon the pain was gone.  I played tennis every day for the next ten days with no ill effects.  I was grateful for two reasons:  I wanted to realize the blessing of “leaving matter out of the picture”… and I wanted to enjoy the rest of my vacation!

H.F.

Painful Toe Healed through Prayer

One day my toe had what looked like an in-grown toenail.  It started hurting a lot.  I run for my high school track team, and when my toe started to prevent me from running, I turned to God and relied on His guidance.  At first, I was not feeling confident and felt under huge time pressure because I we had a track meet coming up.  So, I went back to the basics we have been learning in Sunday School, affirming that I am the perfect reflection of God and running is my special way of expressing God-like qualities.  My ability to run isn’t just because of physical characteristics; it’s a God-given talent that can’t be taken away by inharmony (the appearance of a hurting toe.)  I decided to stand up for myself being spiritual as a lawyer arguing a case would.

These truths helped me get back on the right track of thought.  The next morning the pain in my toe had lessened greatly, and I was back to running the following day.  I was able to run unhampered, and set a Personal Best record that meet.  I’m extremely grateful for this healing and I’m also glad that I’m back to expressing God through running!

A.H.