TGIF – Today God Is First: In the book of the prophet Jeremiah we read: “…. the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, to destroy, and to build, and to plant. Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. “ [Jeremiah Chapter 1] In the Message to The Mother Church for 1902 Mary Baker Eddy wrote of GODLIKENESS the following: “St. Paul writes: “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” To attain peace and holiness is to recognize the divine presence and allness. Jesus said: “I am the way.” Kindle the watch-fires of unselfed love, and they throw a light upon the un‐complaining agony in the life of our Lord; they open the enigmatical seals of the angel, standing in the sun, a glorified spiritual idea of the ever-present God—in whom there is no darkness, but all is light, and man’s immortal being. The meek might, sublime patience, wonderful works, and opening not his mouth in self-defense against false wit‐nesses, express the life of Godlikeness. Fasting, feasting, or penance,—merely outside forms of religion,—fail to elucidate Christianity: they reach not the heart nor renovate it; they never destroy one iota of hypocrisy, pride, self-will, envy, or hate. The mere form of godliness, coupled with selfishness, worldliness, hatred, and lust, are knells tolling the burial of Christ. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” He knew that obedience is the test of love; that one gladly obeys when obedience gives him happiness. Selfishly, or otherwise, all are ready to seek and obey what they love. When mortals learn to love aright; when they learn that man’s highest happiness, that which has most of heaven in it, is in blessing others, and self-immolation—they will obey both the old and the new commandment, and receive the reward of obedience. Many sleep who should keep themselves awake and waken the world. Earth’s actors change earth’s scenes; and the curtain of human life should be lifted on reality, on that which outweighs time; on duty done and life perfected, wherein joy is real and fadeless. Who of the world’s lovers ever found her true? It is wise to be willing to wait on God, and to be wiser than serpents; to hate no man, to love one’s enemies, and to square accounts with each passing hour. Then thy gain outlives the sun, for the sun shines but to show man the beauty of holiness and the wealth of love. Happiness consists in being and in doing good; only what God gives, and what we give ourselves and others through His tenure, confers happiness: conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can. Consult thy every-day life; take its answer as to thy aims, motives, fondest purposes, and this oracle of years will put to flight all care for the world’s soft flattery or its frown. Patience and resignation are the pillars of peace that, like the sun beneath the horizon, cheer the heart susceptible of light with promised joy. Be faithful at the temple gate of conscience, wakefully guard it; then thou wilt know when the thief cometh. The constant spectacle of sin thrust upon the pure sense of the immaculate Jesus made him a man of sorrows. He lived when mortals looked ignorantly, as now, on the might of divine power manifested through man; only to mock, wonder, and perish. Sad to say, the cowardice and self-seeking of his disciples helped crown with thorns the life of him who broke not the bruised reed and quenched not the smoking flax,—who caused not the feeble to fall, nor spared through false pity the consuming tares. Jesus was compassionate, true, faithful to rebuke, ready to forgive. He said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” “Love one another, as I have loved you.” No estrange‐ment, no emulation, no deceit, enters into the heart that loves as Jesus loved. It is a false sense of love that, like the summer brook, soon gets dry. Jesus laid down his life for mankind; what more could he do? Beloved, how much of what he did are we doing? Yet he said, “The works that I do shall he do.” When this prophecy of the great Teacher is fulfilled we shall have more effective healers and less theorizing; faith without proof loses its life, and it should be buried. The ignoble conduct of his disciples towards their Master, showing their unfitness to follow him, ended in the downfall of genuine Christianity, about the year 325, and the violent death of all his disciples save one. The nature of Jesus made him keenly alive to the injustice, ingratitude, treachery, and brutality that he received. Yet behold his love! So soon as he burst the bonds of the tomb he hastened to console his unfaithful followers and to disarm their fears. Again: True to his divine nature, he rebuked them on the eve of his ascension, called one a “fool”—then, lifting up his hands and blessing them, he rose from earth to heaven. The Christian Scientist cherishes no resentment; he knows that that would harm him more than all the malice of his foes. Brethren, even as Jesus forgave, forgive thou. I say it with joy,—no person can commit an offense against me that I cannot forgive. Meekness is the armor of a Christian, his shield and his buckler. He entertains angels who listens to the lispings of repentance seen in a tear—happier than the conqueror of a world. To the burdened and weary, Jesus saith: “Come unto me.” O glorious hope! there remaineth a rest for the righteous, a rest in Christ, a peace in Love. The thought of it stills complaint; the heaving surf of life’s troubled sea foams itself away, and underneath is a deep-settled calm. Are earth’s pleasures, its ties and its treasures, taken away from you? It is divine Love that doeth it, and sayeth, “Ye have need of all these things.” A danger besets thy path?—a spiritual behest, in reversion, awaits you. The great Master triumphed in furnace fires. Then, Christian Scientists, trust, and trusting, you will find divine Science glorifies the cross and crowns the association with our Saviour in his life of love. There is no redundant drop in the cup that our Father permits us. Christ walketh over the wave; on the ocean of events, mounting the billow or going down into the deep, the voice of him who stilled the tempest saith, “It is I; be not afraid.” Thus he bringeth us into the desired haven, the kingdom of Spirit; and the hues of heaven, tipping the dawn of everlasting day, joyfully whisper, “No drunkards within, no sorrow, no pain; and the glory of earth’s woes is risen upon you, rewarding, satisfying, glorifying thy unfaltering faith and good works with the fulness of divine Love.” ’Twas God who gave that word of might Which swelled creation’s lay,— “Let there be light, and there was light,”— That swept the clouds away; ’Twas Love whose finger traced aloud A bow of promise on the cloud.” [pages 16-20] Your and my total at-one-ment with God is our confident assurance, that no matter what challenges come into our life experience, our inseparability enables us to stand tall and face down all suggestions of evil. To illustrate the value of this fact we have this testimony from Julia A. Westphal from the February 27, 1995 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel About ten years ago I became aware of a growth on one of my eyelids. It was not painful, but I was constantly aware of it. One day as I dropped off my teenage son at school, I suggested that he act as practitioner for me and specifically pray to heal me of the condition. He had attended Sunday School since he was small, and I was confident he could and would pray effectively for me. I drove on to work that morning, and my son and I did not discuss this situation any further. I considered citations from Mary Baker Eddys writings regarding growth, especially from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. One statement was What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds (p. 4). The next morning when I woke, I had difficulty opening my eye, and realized something was covering the eyelid. I washed this away, and saw the growth had drained during the night. A complete healing was rapid, and the condition disappeared, never to return. Afterward I asked my son what he had taken up in his prayer. He said he considered the subject of resentment. Although we had never discussed it, I had been feeling resentful about my employment, and was not happy at work. That physical healing was a start on the healing of my attitude toward employment, and soon that situation was resolved as well. This healing made me extremely grateful for the opportunities my children were having to learn the healing truths of Christian Science and to practice them for themselves and others. More recently, on a warm Sunday afternoon, a friend gave me a ride home from church. He did not notice I had my hand in the window of the car, and as he was adjusting the air conditioning he proceeded to close the electric window on one of my fingers. As soon as he realized what had happened, he reopened the window. At first there was some pain, but as I sat, declaring silently my oneness with my Father-Mother God and that I was never severed from Spirit, the pain quickly dissipated. This phrase is part of a statement in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany (also by Mrs. Eddy): And how is man, seen through the lens of Spirit, enlarged, and how counterpoised his origin from dust, and how he presses to his original, never severed from Spirit! (p. 129). After several days the fingernail became discolored, and then infected. I asked for the prayers of a practitioner, and prayed myself to establish in consciousness my completeness as a child of God; to see myself as spiritually intact, without any discordant condition. Although it was necessary to keep the finger bandaged for some time, I was always able to do my work at the computer keyboard satisfactorily. Through prayer alone, the discharge from the infection ceased. The old nail came off painlessly, and a new, beautifully shaped nail grew in its place. I did not have any pain during the healing process, and a manicurist remarked how quickly and beautifully the new nail grew in. Because some of my daily routines had to be adjusted during this period, this healing also helped me learn to be more patient with myself and others, and to gain more inner peace and calm. When my second son was an infant, he developed a very bad case of diaper rash. It reached a point where his skin was so raw he could not tolerate being touched by anything but tepid water. I tried using some baby creams to protect him, but nothing helped, and even the application of baby powder brought him pain. He was such a cheerful baby, and I became increasingly concerned and frustrated about a condition that seemed out of my control. I called a practitioner for help. She reminded me that God was his source and condition as stated in Science and Health: To reduce inflammation, dissolve a tumor, or cure organic disease, I have found divine Truth more potent than all lower remedies. And why not, since Mind, God, is the source and condition of all existence? (pp. 180–181). That night when I put him in bed, I prayed to see clearly his innocence and purity, which could not be touched by any supposed physical irritation; as the child of God, he was complete and whole, lacking nothing to keep him happy and secure. I went out of his room and closed the door, confident that he was safe in Gods care. My fear was quieted, and my son and I both slept soundly. The next morning he woke happy and healed! The skin had been completely restored to its natural, clear condition. There was no scarring, or any recuperative healing process. He had truly been renewed. For the remainder of his time in diapers, he never suffered again from diaper rash. This healing reminded me of the sign given Moses when his hand was restored from leprosy after obeying Gods command to put his hand into his bosom: And, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh (Ex. 4:7). It is wonderful to know that no condition is beyond Gods omnipotent, loving care and control. Julia A. Westphal Manchester, Missouri The photograph is entitled: Light swept the clouds away….
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 02:10:34 +0000
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