Jesus turned, not to the human mind, but to the power he called Father to heal, and he encouraged others to do it, too. He said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” ( John 14:12).

Daily Bread

05/05/2012

A different look at diagnosis

By Mark Swinney

From The Christian Science Journal - May  2012

In its February 28, 2012, issue, The New York Times published a very thought-provoking op-ed article by H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. He is one of the authors of the book, Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health. In the article, Mr. Welch makes a number of astute insights about the pros and cons of the widespread screening of people for health issues. Here are some of his comments about screening:

“This process doesn’t promote health; it promotes disease. People suffer from more anxiety about their health, from drug side effects, from complications of surgery. A few die. And remember: these people felt fine when they entered the health care system.”

Christian Science teaches that if the Father is our creator, then it would follow that we can turn to our creator when we’re pressed by illness and injury. A divine creator doesn’t form its creations as a carpenter might hammer together a dog house. The dog house structure is quite separate from the carpenter and someday, being on its own, may be damaged or deteriorate. God, being all-present Spirit and Mind, cannot ever be separated from His creation. Ever-presence, of course, precludes this from happening. Man, as Spirit’s offspring, constantly derives identity and quality from the presence of God.

Everyone can appreciate a thinker like H. Gilbert Welch, who is prompting us to reexamine things such as physician-patient relationships, including approaches to diagnosis. We can help more people in the long run if we are mindful of what can cure and strengthen versus screenings and assessments that unintentionally may be causing harm.

“Physicians,” writes Mary Baker Eddy, “whom the sick employ in their helplessness, should be models of virtue. They should be wise spiritual guides to health and hope. To the tremblers on the brink of death, who understand not the divine Truth which is Life and perpetuates being, physicians should be able to teach it. Then when the soul is willing and the flesh weak, the patient’s feet may be planted on the rock Christ Jesus, the true idea of spiritual power” (Science and Health, p. 235).

To read the article in its entireity click on the link below:

WEB ORIGINAL A different look at diagnosis By Mark Swinney

How empty are our conceptions of Deity!  We admit theoretically that God is good, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite, and then we try to give information to this infinite Mind.  We plead for unmerited pardon and for a liberal outpouring of benefactions.  Are we really grateful for the good already received?  Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more.  Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks.  Action expresses more gratitude than speech.

Mary Baker Eddy

(Science and Health 3:17)

Daily Bread

05/04/2012

Wait on the Lord

By the editors of the Christian Science Sentinel

From an editorial in the Christian Science Sentinel

Does “waiting on the Lord” imply a passive acceptance of deferred good? Or does it rather, perhaps, mean we should wait on God right now, as a waiter or waitress waits on a table? A good waiter is proactive, alert, and fully involved in serving the customer. There is a vital, mutually beneficial relationship between the one who is served and the one who is the server.

Several people in the Bible demonstrated that serving God, even in the midst of difficult or extreme circumstances, transformed those circumstances into instances of healing and adversity overcome. Instead of waiting for something better to happen in the future, they accepted immediate opportunities to glorify God.

Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you.  The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.

Mary Baker Eddy

Science and Health 571:18

Daily Bread

05/03/2012

The language that unites us

A Christian Science perspective.

By Kevin Graunke / May 2012

A recent headline summed up the mood permeating society at many levels these days: “A Nation Divided: Can We Agree On Anything?” From “occupying” public places to governmental gridlock to radio talk shows, dispute appears to be favored above reason, while argument overrides civility, compromise, and actual communication.

Perhaps we can begin by learning a new/old universal language, one that can be freely understood by everyone – the language of divine Love spoken and lived by Christ Jesus. This is the native tongue in which he opened a dialogue with a woman at the extreme opposite end of the social and religious spectrum from himself. She was a Samaritan; Jesus, a Jew – and their respective peoples had built up walls of bitter hatred against each other for hundreds of years.

This ever-flowing, loving presence of the Christ can unite us today in that same common bond: seeing and genuinely appreciating the good in each other. By removing the destructive liabilities of hate and polarization, Christ effectively and quickly resolves arguments by calling on divine Love to dissolve the reaction and anger behind the yelling.

The founder of the Monitor, Mary Baker Eddy, has given our world a spiritually practical way to strengthen that bond. She wrote, “Each day I pray: ‘God bless my enemies; make them Thy friends; give them to know the joy and the peace of love’ ” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 220).

We can do the same. Starting today.

To read the article in its entirety click on the link below:

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR The language that unites us

For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto him, he heard.

Psalm 22:24

Christian scientific practice begins with Christ’s keynote of harmony, “Be not afraid!”

Science and Health 410:29

Daily Bread

05/02/2012

Forsaken by God?

By Abby Hillman

Christian Science Sentinel

“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” Jesus cried out with these words during his darkest hour hanging on the cross. The King James Bible translates them: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”         ( Mark 15:34).

That horrible day, Christianity seemed to come to an abrupt halt. Jesus had fulfilled his healing ministry by freeing people from sin, disease, and death. He had taught his disciples to follow his example and done everything that God required of him—lovingly, patiently, perfectly. Yet here he was in unimaginable agony, and apparently even his closest students had failed to stand by him. Death was imminent, and when it came, there was a hurried scramble to attend to the necessity of taking care of the body. If this were all there was to the story of Jesus Christ, it would be a sad affair and none of us today would likely know anything about it.

When I’m faced with a situation that seems unsolvable, overwhelming, or deeply disappointing, I go back to that moment on the cross when Jesus uttered those despairing words. I know by his subsequent actions that he was aware that even this horror would be surmounted, and that he would successfully demonstrate to that world and the world to come that Life cannot be conquered by death, Love is not overwhelmed by hate, error and evil do not have the final say—Truth does.

One day as I was reading the Bible, I happened upon the verse in Psalm 22 that Jesus was quoting that moment on the cross. As I read through the entire psalm, I was greatly interested to realize that it is actually like a Christian Science treatment (see Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 410), handling the beliefs of failure and discouragement through prayer. It identifies what needs to be addressed mentally and replaces it with the spiritual truths of God’s all-power.

I read those first verses that identified the fear, doubt, self-pity, and sorrow that I needed to conquer. Then I drank in the deep spiritual truths that displace those errors: the confidence in God’s all-power that destroys fear; the certainty of God’s ever-presence that eliminates doubt; the correct identification of self that wipes out self-pity; the joy of divine Love’s tender care that displaces sorrow; the awareness of the all-goodness of God that demonstrates the nothingness of sorrow, doubt, and darkness.

To read more click on the link below:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
II Corinthians 1:3-4, New International Version

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for [Love] is with me; [Love's] rod and [Love's] staff they comfort me.

Science and Health 578:10

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Daily Bread

05/01/2012

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When comfort seems scarce

A Christian Science perspective: Attending a funeral and offering comfort to a friend who may be grieving can be difficult. How can you be the most helpful?

By Patricia Hardee

Prayer is the effort to lift human thought to a higher level. Too often we try to respond to human want and woe on the same human thought level. Jesus didn’t. He turned to God, Spirit, in prayer, and rose to the God-consciousness where the spiritual reality can be seen and felt and brings healing.

I’ve learned from studying the Scriptures and Science and Health how important it is to be ready to respond spiritually by having my thought uplifted through prayer. Unprepared, however, it is easy to get caught up in offering mere sympathy to others and to miss taking care of one’s own thought – keeping it based in divinity while delivering humanity a hug.

Jesus apparently saw what we often miss. Mrs. Eddy explained: “Through the magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he defined Love” (Science and Health, p. 54). She also described Jesus as “divinity embracing humanity in Life and its demonstration” (p. 561). His work was based on the laws of God and the order in which they operate. He summed up these laws: Love God supremely; Love our neighbor as ourselves (see Matthew 22:36-40). The order is deliberate; alignment with God comes first: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

This spiritualized thought is not insignificant. It is the divine influence, the Christ-consciousness. When Jesus fed multitudes with a handful of fish and a few loaves of bread, he expressed the Christ. I like to think of this as “Creator comfort” humanly expressed as “creature comfort.” God, goodness, revealed can take the form of a ready-to-eat casserole, a note of comfort, a bouquet of fresh flowers, a loving hug, a tender word. Are they not creature comforts seen in humanity but sourced in divinity?

If we ever believe we are at a loss in the effort to comfort the grieving or to overcome any untoward condition, we can remember that the Christ comes to each of us right where we are to bring spiritual comfort and healing.

To read the article in its entirety click on the link below:

Daily Bread

04/30/2012

there is no spoon – video – original english

From spoon bending—to absolute science

By Alison Bristow

Reprinted from The Christian Science Journal

Though more than a decade has passed since the hit movie The Matrix was released, its bold exploration of timeless, spiritual themes keeps it alive with fresh relevance—and still a topic of conversation.

In the film the lead character, Neo, visits a prophet in a futuristic world. When he arrives, he finds a room full of others who, like him, are spiritually gifted in some way. Neo has an exchange with one of them—a young boy—who is bending a spoon without the use of any physical contact or force. When the boy notices Neo’s interest, he gives him the spoon. Neo stares hard at the metal object—but nothing happens. Then the boy instructs him: “Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.” To which Neo asks, “What truth?” The young boy answers, “There is no spoon.” Upon hearing this, Neo is able to bend the spoon without physical effort.

We love him because he first loved us.

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God loveth his brother also.

I John

(4:19-21)

Daily Bread

04/28/2012

A family support system

A Christian Science perspective on daily life.

Throughout the nation, families of all blends are grappling to some degree with these thoughts of uncertainty. It raises the question of what it means to be a family and how to care for one another in times of need.

Trusting God and knowing that He wants the best for us is not mere positive thinking. It rests on the spiritual fact of God’s love, manifest through a neighbor sharing some food, a friend volunteering to take care of one’s children, a co-worker giving someone a ride to work, a spouse helping out with extra chores, a friend sharing some outgrown clothes, and many more unexpected blessings.

Since the traditional nuclear family has become less common over recent decades, many people have found a broader sense of family, including other relatives, friends, and neighbors. This less rigid, less traditional concept of kinship opens us up to share in a broader way that hints at a divine context.

Mary Baker Eddy, who founded this newspaper and whose study of the Bible helped her overcome many dark moments as a single parent in great financial need, wrote, “Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 332). Each one of us is God’s spiritual creation, so we’re connected to one another in a very significant way. And prayer to feel more of this divine kinship brings a deeper understanding of who we are as part of this universal family.

Regardless of the degree to which families are or are not encountering economic challenges, everyone is united through our relation to “one Father with His universal family, held in the gospel of Love” (Science and Health, p. 577). Instead of self-contained family units, we can all reach out and reap the benefits of a more tolerant, inclusive, and spiritual concept of family. This finds us with open hearts and arms, truly inspired. Your Father-Mother God cares for you unfailingly.

To read the article in its entirety click on the link below:

A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

St. John 13:34-35

“With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science”.

Mary Baker Eddy

(Science and Health, pp. 469–470)

Daily Bread

04/27/2012

‘Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?’

A Christian Science perspective.

By Colleen Douglass

Once, while he was addressing a large group of people, Jesus learned that his mother and brothers waited outside to speak to him. When told about it, he “pointed to his disciples and said, ‘These are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!’ ” (see Matt. 12:46–50, New Living Translation).

His comments surely meant no disrespect, but they illustrated that his expansive view of family went beyond the limits of flesh and blood. This derived from perceiving God as his real Parent and led him to understand the spiritual nature of kinship that’s based on one’s relation to God and His children. 

LIVE— to discover your real worth

BY MARGARET ROGERS

From the May 7, 2007 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

WHEN I GOT TO KNOW Patricia several years ago, one of the things that struck me was her delight in what she was learning every day about life with God at the center. She wasn’t full of religious talk, but she brimmed with joy.

When you read her story [see sidebar], you’ll see she didn’t get to that place easily. Suicidal thoughts tormented her for years. But healing power sprang her from that mental prison. Patricia wouldn’t claim to have solved all life’s problems, and yet she has discovered her worth in God’s eyes and seen that she has something to give to the world. Now she can look people in the eye, laugh, love, and live unashamed in a way she didn’t think possible in earlier years.

Anyone can experience the power of spiritual truth to end self destructive thoughts. No matter how hopeless or ruined you feel, God knows you as His/Her worthy and loved idea, and as such you can’t be controlled by these hateful thoughts. Surrendering to the truth of your spiritual identity will defeat awful monsters that feel as if they’re you. Anyone who wants to change for the better can certainly live without shame, fear, and the desire to die.

Power is not in the lie but in spiritual truth. The truth that there is one good Life, and that Life is God, destroys the lie of many enemies, and even many personalities. As individual expressions of one Life, we exist in unity and harmony with everything else that lives. Jesus’ ability to heal came from his total conviction of this harmony. When he saw a tormented person, he saw through the lie to the reality—perfect Life expressing itself right there in a perfect identity. In the presence of that understanding, people woke up to their true selves.

To see and understand in that Christlike way is to reflect God’s love. The more we practice doing this, the more alert and prepared we’ll be to help those who are suicidal, or those affected by another’s suicide. Whatever thought or action claims to have destroyed happiness, or even life, can’t really do it—because everyone’s identity is spiritual and continually progresses. The divine consciousness that heals isn’t confined by barriers called birth and death, past and present. It’s always revealing to everyone the truth that causes misery to flow away and makes darkness bright as morning. | 

To read the article in its entirety click on the link below:.
	LIVE— to discover your real worth – Christian Science Sentinel Source: sentinel.christianscience.com

WHAT I WAS ALWAYS LOOKING FOR IS WHAT I HAVE NOW

By PATRICIA ORNETT

From the May 7, 2007 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

I wanted to feel light, free, and find a way out of the trap, the monotony. I wanted to say I was so, so sorry. To move on, comfort those around me, say it would be OK and mean it. I wanted to feel unity with everything and everyone. For a long time I didn’t feel any of this. What I now know is, those desires for a better existence were prayer (see Science and Health, p. 1).

Starting in middle school, I was obsessed by thoughts of suicide. I was diagnosed as manic depressive and given medications. I look them off and on, but they made me feel worse. Later I got into heavy drinking and eating disorders. At first they seemed to offer hope, a way out of suffering, and a opportunity to change myself. But at some point that suddenly flipped, and my fears became more extreme.

This all went on for about ten years. I felt I was letting down everyone trying to help me, and I couldn’t help myself with will-power. I longed to be a better person than I felt I was. Finally, I started to be honest with myself about my fears — for instance, the fear that I was worthless. Honesty was key. I learned not to be afraid to pour out my heart to God. And then I prayed that these fears be removed. It was letting God be God, instead of thinking I had to fix everything. Things started to shift. I felt the action of God, and the fears began lifting. I was becoming childlike and open to receive more.

Someone introduced me to Science and Health. When I began reading it, thought, “This is what I know.” But it went further than I thought was possible — it gave me a clear sense of a whole, new identity. It filled a longing, a memory, a hunger for Something I knew — that we’re spiritual. I read, “Matter has no life to lose, and Spirit never dies” (p. 275). And, “Man is more than a material form with a mind inside, which must escape from its environments in order to be immortal” (p.258). It made sense. I saw the stark divide between the material and the spiritual — and that the spiritual was the reality I wanted to live by.

Science and Health described the ground to be covered—where I’d been and where I was going. It was about divine Love meeting my human need. It showed me what my true job was—being still and receptive, removing fear, and opening entirely to a consciousness of Love’s presence. I began living in the clear light of divine Life, translating everything into spiritual ideas, watching God’s grace elevating my thought and experience.

Click on the link below to read Patricia’s story in its entirety.
	WHAT I WAS ALWAYS LOOKING FOR IS WHAT I HAVE NOW – Christian Science Sentinel Source: sentinel.christianscience.com