“The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good.”  (SH 450:19–22)
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March 19, 2020 at 6:35 am
The 91st Psalm has been a “go-to” for comfort for many for centuries. When I was little, my dad would tuck me in at night and we would say and pray the 91st Psalm together. It has never failed to comfort me in times of trouble. I love reading different translations of this Psalm using the Bible Gateway site.
This version from The Voice translation, provided some renewed inspiration from this time-tested Psalm this morning.
http://biblegateway.com
Psalm 91 is a beautiful psalm of trust in God. But how does God take care of all His people, all at the same time? Well, keep reading because Psalm 91 is one of just a few places in Scripture that describe what we might call “guardian angels†(Exodus 23:20; Psalm 43:3). Though rare, these passages teach that God is not alone in maintaining and protecting His creation and His people. He has made a host of heavenly messengers ready to do His bidding, and His bidding is often to guard His people throughout their lives and protect them—sometimes from dangers they are not even aware of.
Psalm 91 The Voice (VOICE)
Psalm 91
1 He who takes refuge in the shelter of the Most High
will be safe in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 He will say to the Eternal, “My shelter, my mighty fortress,
my God, I place all my trust in You.â€
3 For He will rescue you from the snares set by your enemies who entrap you
and from deadly plagues.
4 Like a bird protecting its young, God will cover you with His feathers,
will protect you under His great wings;
His faithfulness will form a shield around you, a rock-solid wall to protect you.
5 You will not dread the terrors that haunt the night
or enemy arrows that fly in the day
6 Or the plagues that lurk in darkness
or the disasters that wreak havoc at noon.
7 A thousand may fall on your left,
ten thousand may die on your right,
but these horrors won’t come near you.
8 Only your eyes will witness
the punishment that awaits the evil,
but you will not suffer because of it.
9 For you made the Eternal [your][a] refuge,
the Most High your only home.
10 No evil will come to you;
plagues will be turned away at your door.
11 He will command His heavenly messengers to guard you,
to keep you safe in every way.
12 They will hold you up in their hands
so that you will not crash, or fall, or even graze your foot on a stone.[b]
13 You will walk on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the lion and the serpent underfoot.
14 “Because he clings to Me in love,
I will rescue him from harm;
I will set him above danger.
Because he has known Me by name,
15 He will call on Me, and I will answer.
I’ll be with him through hard times;
I’ll rescue him and grant him honor.
16 I’ll reward him with many good years on this earth
and let him witness My salvation.â€
Footnotes:
a. 91:9 Hebrew manuscripts read, “who is my.â€
b. 91:11–12 Matthew 4:6; Luke 4:10–11
The Voice (VOICE)
March 19, 2020 at 11:54 am
It has been asked what Christian Scientists will do in a time of contagion. This is what one Christian Scientist has done to direct the thoughts of our community and world into higher and healthier channels.
Cure for Epidemics
From the March 16, 1899 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
Weatherford (Texas) News
1. Stop talking and thinking about contagious diseases.
2. On arising in the morning repeat the Lord’s Prayer in the spirit of holiness.
3. As soon as breakfast is over, before taking up your duties of the day, take your Bible and carefully read the Ninety-first Psalm, knowing ” that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” You might linger over the lines of this beautiful Psalm : ” He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress : my God ; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust : His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. . . . Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation ; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.” (You will observe that David said, ” His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.” Evidently David had more faith in God’s protecting power than he had in vaccine virus and poisonous lotions.)
4. When conversation or thoughts about disease and contagion come to you during the day, think over the inspiring words you read in the morning.
5. In the evening read the twenty-third Psalm, re-read the Ninety-first Psalm, repeat the Lord’s Prayer, and take care above all, to observe the first of the Ten Commandments, ” Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.” If you observe this commandment ” in spirit and in truth,” you will not let disease of any name or nature become the chief in your thought and conversation.
It is but just to state that we got the inspiration for this prevention and cure of disease, from the writings and teachings of Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, and have found this mode of treatment of infinite value in whatever case it has been applied.
March 20, 2020 at 1:47 pm
A couple of things have come to me with all that is going on. First one re time… it has been waayyy too easy to get sucked into the aggressive projection that this all has to take time. Time to run its course, time to come back financially, time to get supplies, etc.
Have always loved reading the lessons James Rome writes about when supervising the building of the church in Boston. Seemed impossible that all would/could be done by the end-date Mrs. Eddy had given. He writes this:
One feature about the work interested me. I noticed that as soon as the workmen began to admit that
the work could be done, everything seemed to move as by magic; the human mind was giving its consent.
This taught me that I should be willing to let God work. I have often stood under the great dome, in
the dark stillness of the night, and thought, “What cannot God do?†(Science and Health, p. 135.)
(The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 61:21)
What am I giving consent to? Mortal mind’s ever-changing opinions? Or to God’s power to lift, turn, move, heal. Here, now.
The second little tidbit that came to thought was the lesson of Job. Everything – family, prosperity, health – stripped away from him. And then there were his friends “helping” by pointing those condemning fingers. But the turnaround came when he prayed for not just himself, but for those friends. ALL was restored, and then some. MBE’s piece, Love Your Enemies (Mis.8:8) has been invaluable.
March 21, 2020 at 6:46 am
I have been working with the Hymn 144. “ In atmosphere of Love divine we live, move, and breathe;†First thing each morning I awake with the expectation that “glorious day is dawning†and we can only expect good. In Science and Heath, Mary Baker Eddy writes on page 70: 5
March 21, 2020 at 6:52 am
“ whatever is false or sinful can never enter the atmospheric of Spirit.†Also the definition of Heaven. “ Harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul.â€
March 21, 2020 at 6:57 am
Imagine a diamond shaped road sign with the warning:
BE ALERT
CROSS WINDS
POSSIBLE
Amongst the roadsigns I have been collecting for so many years, which so inspire me as I drive by them, the one to which I allude seemed so appropriate for reminding us that crosswinds propagated by error are likely at every turn–and that we must be alert and prepared with Love, Divine Truth and right thinking.
Perhaps as you come across road signs during this incredibly ‘windy’ circumstance, they can inspire you as well.
March 21, 2020 at 9:20 am
The one phrase that has repeatedly jumped out at me lately is ..”Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breath, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space. That is enough! “
March 21, 2020 at 1:53 pm
I’ve found a lot to pray with in Eddy’s description of one of the first prayer watches:
“During his night of gloom and glory in the garden, Jesus realized the utter error of a belief in any possible material intelligence. The pangs of neglect and the staves of bigoted ignorance smote him sorely. His students slept. He said unto them: “Could ye not watch with me one hour?” Could they not watch with him who, waiting and struggling in voiceless agony, held uncomplaining guard over a world? There was no response to the human yearning, and so Jesus turned forever away from earth to heaven, from sense to Soul.” (SH 47:31)
– Realize the utter error of a belief in any possible material intelligence (or power), including the forces of nature that claim to operate at the viral level. Realize that everyone in government and society reflects the divine intelligence.
– Watch with Christ- watch that thought about everyone and everything is Christlike. Witness and be grateful for the Christ in other’s actions including healthcare workers and those reaching out to help neighbors and strangers.
– Hold uncomplaining guard over the world by realizing there is nothing external to thought. Stand porter at the door of thought.
– Respond to human yearning by acknowledging that the Christ is an ever present influence in human consciousness and repeating itself, preaching deliverance to the captives of sense.
– And the goal for every treatment: “…be thoroughly persuaded in your own mind concerning the truth which you think or speak, and you will be the victor.” (SH 412:5)
March 21, 2020 at 2:56 pm
Some thoughts I’ve been deeply affirming for all, and to each silently as I pass them in grocery store, or outside on trail, and thinking about:
God is the only communicator, all that is passed to each of us, is only from God-to each idea, not man to man. Only love is shared. As we pass each other in the store, in the car, outside — I’m declaring “you’re God’s idea, all that’s being shared from me, to you is love, and you to me, is love”
This is God’s universe: Mentally think of God holding this universe, with it’s ideas in every crook and cranny, tight in his “pocket” – so the universe is impregnable, uninvadable, un-breachable; therefore his ideas untouched.
Divine Mind sees its own ideas, its own expression as good, as eternal, as beautiful and undisturbed. This is divine Mind’s universe. There is no other universe. Despite what anyone has thought or theorized concerning matter from the beginning of human history, this has always been God’s world. This is the universe divine Love has created. Mrs. Eddy’s scientific statement of being, “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation for God is All-in-all.” All means all. It means nothing else is true except God, good. This is knowable and tangible to us. God’s goodness is the solid substance of everything we truly know. That substance is our world, it is the house we dwell in, the real body we include. If we stood on a hill or on a mountain and looked out over everything we saw, we would be looking at God’s world, the world of the divine Mind, a world of infinitely beautiful design, a world of eternal form and color, without decay, a world full of God’s goodness, a world where the claims of matter and of mortal mind are subdued and then silenced.
Thinking deeply about Jesus’s healings; it didn’t matter how many people surrounding him, claimed or thought-sickness, disease was real
March 21, 2020 at 4:00 pm
I just received this “March Inspiration†from my Association and liked it so much I want to share here on our website. I emailed to get permission to share it with our church and got a very enthusiastic “yes!†So here it is: I had a grey picture of a giraffe reaching tall up to tree leaves, but it didn’t copy….
DEAREST ASSOCIATION FAMILY
One of our Reading Room attendants called me to tell me that the Reading Room’s floor needed replacing because it was old and scratched. Now we have a lovely, active Reading Room but she was fixated on and agitated by the floor. After listening to a lengthy explanation of how awful our flooring was, I told her she was just going to have to look  UP, not down, for the time being. Silence. And we moved on to more important topics. But the concept stayed with me.Â
I love that when Moses was trapped in-between the Red Sea and Pharoah’s army, he LOOKED UP. He kept his thought vertical. And when Jesus arrived at Lazarus’s tomb, “… Jesus lifted UP his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.” [John 11:41-43] Vertical.
Vertical = Upward. Upright,. Erect. Infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, man, is always vertical.Â
Lateral = Side-to-side. The so-called mortal mind/material sense is always lateral.Â
Have you noticed that mortal mind (matter and all its other aliases) never looks UP? Mortal mind is always lateral. It looks side-to-side to assess the situation and solve its problems. It looks at other people as sources of supply or threats and obstacles. It looks at historical conditions to justify current conditions. It looks at other so-called human minds to find its way. It looks to matter for answers. It looks at others as sources of disease, danger, and dismay. Lateral. Mortal mind is incapable of looking UP.
Having this opportunity to heal a global pandemic, we must stay vertical rather than lateral…LOOK UP to the only factor governing health, happiness and prosperity. God, Good. All-power. All-presence. All-science. Omni-Life. Omni-substance. Omni-Reality. And to man, the all-harmonious expression of God’s being.Â
P.S. I reread Genesis 1 recently and there was no mention of disease in it. No disease or dis-ease in Creator and creation. Only good. Yes! Yay!
March 26, 2020 at 8:52 am
There is not a spot, where God is not.
March 26, 2020 at 10:21 am
I love this verse from Hymn 528–as we obediently honor the “shelter in place” notice from Jeffco.
Hymn. 528:2
Lord, Your righteousness is steadfast as the mountains; Lord, Your goodness is a river without end.
Lord, Your lovingkindness is a wondrous thing;We will shelter safely underneath Your wing.
March 28, 2020 at 7:33 am
Loving the truth that Divine Love is embracing the world! This hymn expresses that thought quite well.
Hymn. 517:1–5
Joyfully we’re singing of our dear God’s grace, Living every day within Love’s warm embrace. Eagerly we long to witness everywhere;
All throughout the world, God’s saving love to share.
REFRAIN
Singing of our dear God’s grace, Living in Love’s warm embrace, Longing, now and everywhere, All God’s saving love to share.
Who can separate us from the love of God? Truth is here to shield us with its staff and rod. What is there to harm us when this help is sure? We are more than conquerors; we rest secure.
Christ will be the beacon that will light our way. Through distress and peril, God is faithful still, Why should we be fearful if we trust God’s will?
God remains our refuge in the trials we face,
Shielding and sustaining us with loving grace. Working through the labors of our hearts and hands, Truth will lead us onward in triumphant bands!
REFRAIN
Singing of our dear God’s grace, Living in Love’s warm embrace, Longing, now and everywhere, All God’s saving love to share.
March 28, 2020 at 7:26 pm
CONTAGION FEAR AND FAMINE
March 19, 2020
Ps 91:2-11
Prov 3:25
Isa 26:3
Mis 228:20-8
S&H 154:3-23
S&H 96:12
Mark 5:36 Be
Luke 12:28
March 28, 2020 at 7:28 pm
If you have not already read these passages from Mis 228:20-8 and from S&H 154:3-23 and S&H 96:12 they seem very helpful to me.
April 5, 2020 at 12:45 pm
Thanks to all for sharing your insights; your inspiration has been helpful and uplifting.
I have stayed with this affirmation that “Love is the only power”.
In addition, I love this excerpt from Retrospection and Introspection pg 60:14-20.
Christian Science saith to the wave and storm, “Be Still,” and there is a great calm. Material sense asks, in its ignorance of Science, “When will the raging of the material elements cease?” Science saith to all manner of disease, “Know that God is all-power and all-presence, and there is nothing beside Him;” and the sick are healed.
And from Unity of Good pg 11:3
Jesus taught us to walk over, not into or with, the currents of matter, or mortal mind.
In considering the parable of the Tares and Wheat, in this weeks lesson, a “tare” tried to present itself in a “text chain” in which I was included among family. The one initiating the text was expressing gratitude and finding what was positive in “sheltering in place”. Another person replied with a link to an article on “positive toxicity” and that the “phony positivity” was merely disgusting platitudes. Wow, this was a call to “walk over the currents”, work more deeply, and impersonalize the error.
I found the following citations to be helpful:
(S&H p. 446:25–27) Not human platitudes, but divine beatitudes, reflect the spiritual light and might which heal the sick.
And a definition for beatitude is “supreme blessedness”.
We can claim this for the world and it roots out the “noxious weeds/tares” of mortal mind.
My Beloved Brethren: – The chain of Christian unity, unbroken, stretches across the sea and rises upward to the realms of incorporeal Life – even to the glorious beatitudes of divine Love. (Miscellany p.200:11–14)
I enjoyed thinking about the only “chain” I/we can be a part of, is the chain of Christian unity.
Error is only fermenting, and its heat hissing at the”still, small voice” of Truth; but it can neither silence
nor disarm God’s voice.
(Miscellaneous Writings p.134:25–27)
May 1, 2020 at 5:15 pm
This is such an inspired piece:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/sentinel-audio/sentinel-watch/how-i-am-praying-about-the-pandemic