Eliminating radical thoughts for peace

Radicalized religion has our attention. What else does it want?

War with religion? War with those of us struggling to practice a religion of love and a life of meaning?

I doubt it. No matter how much destruction radicals inflict upon religion, radicalized religion would be destroyed if they messed with religion.

But we can ask, why did radicalized religion reach such a crisis point?

Perhaps it’s because our religious policies are failing us.

Perhaps it’s because religion is divided by creeds specific to human behaviors and thinking rather than specific to worship of God.

Perhaps it’s because we are so busy lighting candles, reading Bible lessons, and maintaining buildings rather than increasing spirituality and correct interpretations of spiritual texts?

Thing is we need to do more because radicalized religion doesn’t only bother the religious. The nonreligious are also afflicted since radicals aim at anyone who doesn’t agree with them.

The nonreligious try to stop the radicals with bullets. How can the religious help?

It is time for religious thinkers to take the baton and run the race that eliminates radicalization by designing relevant policies and practices. It is time for religious thinkers to hold off defending their beliefs and go full force advocating the love of Christ.

The new ideas that come with progress don’t mean we give up lighting candles or stop reading sacred texts.

The other night I attended a village prayer vigil. We came together with our differing religious backgrounds.

Scriptures read were: I John 4:7-8, 18-21 and Isaiah 58.

A moment of individual prayer was respected.

And we all sang together a couple of times. The departing song was:

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Everywhere I go, let it shine, let it shine. Won’t let anyone blow it out; I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. All around the world, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

 

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Q & A’s on Christian Science

What is Christian Science? The mental process for improvement; the law of Truth and Love interpreting harmony to the universe.

When did Christian Science come into being? It’s existed forever.

How do I discover Christian Science? Through prayer, meditation, and revelation. It finds you.

Where is Christian Science? Everywhere.

Who has written about Christian Science? Many people however in the 19^th century, Mary Baker Eddy wrote extensively on this Mind-force she termed Christian Science.

What has happened to Christian Science since Eddy’s time-period? The law of Truth and Love is still intact and translating harmony, health, and holiness to humanity however Christian Science has been buried in misunderstandings.

Why is Christian Science confused with a church? Because Eddy founded a church before she died and human beings began linking the law of Truth and Love to a religious organization and its behaviors rather than share it as a universal Mind-power for good.

How do I separate Christian Science from a religious organization? Know yourself as the representative of Truth and Love, not the representative of a religious organization. Know Christian Science as never able to be locked into a church or book.

Christian Science is free. The law of Truth and Love illuminating life and wellbeing is free. You are free. You can mentally know this power as able to support humanity in its endeavors to improve mind, body, and spirit.

Happy thoughts: The flower hat my granddaughter made me…

Outstanding movie

Wow, the film, Hidden Figures, is outstanding. I highly recommend.

As described online at IMDB, it’s the story of a team of female African-American mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program.

Hidden Figures shows how progress can come without violence.

This is not to belittle the people who fight for equality and encounter violence, because sometimes fighting for equality and freedom isn’t pretty but is necessary for the good of humanity.

However, all examples of nonviolent progress can be recognized as significant and attractive. Hidden Figures does this.

I also appreciated the evidence of families working together and staying strong in their faith and faithfulness.

From 21^st Century Science and Health:

At first, Truth leads the few and faithful. As time marches on, the few and faithful thoughts of Truth move forward with the motto of freedom. The powers of this world will react and the old-guard will try to stop truth and make it submit to their human standards and systems. Science, not distracted by threats or assaults, continues to progress. There is always some chaos; however a mobilization to truth’s standard is inevitable.

Improvement comes as mindsets improve. World history illustrates the might of Mind and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking or spiritual clarity. Words and actions, breathing the omnipotence of divine justice and wisdom, are what powerfully break through discrimination, human agendas, and diminishing returns. Not by weapons and blood does the breath of freedom come. Love is the liberator.

Recovery is celebrated each day

I will give thanks unto thee with uprightness of heart, When I learn thy righteous judgments. (Psalm 119:7, ASV)

The attitude of gratitude is advised in the Celebrate Recovery program, a biblical and balanced program that helps people overcome addictions, bad habits, and hang-ups.

I went to a weekly meeting of Celebrate Recovery and found it touches people at many levels. The welcoming groups was very welcoming. They had literature available showing the steps that can be taken to recovery.

Giving thanks to God in prayer allows conscious contact with Him and His will for us.

I’ve learned over the years that my gratitude needs constantly to be purified. Although thanking God for a roof over my head and food on the table is worthy, I find it more powerful to be grateful for life, truth, and love, for the ability to live life for God rather than myself.

One of the booklets I picked up at the weekly Celebrate Recovery meeting

 

When reading…

When reading the Bible, I find the text more beneficial when I read for thoughts.

Reading to learn about how human beings think and act, or reading to learn history is helpful, but it’s basically inert knowledge.

Reading for thoughts however is active knowledge. It’s knowledge I can apply to my everyday life.

For example, from the modern Christian Science Bible lesson of this week, subject, independence I read in my Bible, Romans 6 and this verse stuck out:

“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.”

Humanly and historically, the reference to Christ and death brings the image of Jesus being crucified and resurrected. Knowledge that sits in my mind until I re-read and look for thoughts.

The thought of Christ is universal. We all have unity with Christ-spirit. We all can identify with the Christlike nature of compassion, mercy, truthfulness, trustworthiness. Anytime it feels as though one of those qualities has died, it will be raised and die no more because their source is God, divine Truth, the same God that created us.

Last week, I felt as though my energy was exhausted. As if it died. When I prayed, instead of praying for my energy to return, I prayed to align my thought with the thought that divine energy dies no more. My energy did return however it feels more solid because I was touched with a sense of divine energy being more substantial than human energy.

When reading the Bible, or any text, I look for thoughts, connections to the divine, rather than learning what other people did or didn’t do. What is God doing now? What has God done forever? The answers are mine, and die no more.

 

Article in Daily Star newspaper

Click here for my article in the Daily Star newspaper. Or read text below.

Divine intent, a bigger influence than time

Has time ever disappeared briefly for you? Did you ever wonder where the last three hours went? Or, the last thirty years?

On another clock, did an extra 15 minutes ever appear to allow you to finish a project?

“Time is not a factor in your life,” was the title of a talk given recently by David Hohle, of Chicago, Illinois, in the Upper Room at the United Presbyterian “Red Door” Church in Oneonta. The talk was hosted by the Oneonta Christian Science Society in the Upper Room, entered by means of the elevated walkway from Roosevelt Avenue. The Society also meets there for regular church services.

But while listening to Hohle speak, I found myself admiring the large beautiful stain glass window in the background.

Obviously in the past, the window started with many piles of colored glass. Pieces were cut from the stained glass and then connected to showcase order, appeal, inspiration, and even a sense of transcendence.

But it’s the light that makes the indescribable goodness possible.

At the talk, I heard Hohle mention “revelation” and “divine intent.”

Yes, I really did pay attention.

I interpreted the revelation and divine intent as light, shining through ideas that counter restrictions, such as time.

Hohle pointed out what physical science teaches, the relativity of time. He also noted that religious thinkers came to the same conclusion millenniums ago.

Hohle read from the King James Version of the Bible. He also read from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

Mary Baker Eddy’s lifespan was from 1821 to 1910. She published her Science and Health in 1875, however she revised the book hundreds of times until her death and explained in Science and Health that revisions are “requisite,” because “spiritual ideas unfold as we advance.”

Certainly, Eddy’s Science and Health is not the Bible, yet it talks about the Bible, and because the household Bible of the 19^th century was King James Version, that’s the one she quoted.

Modern Science and Health revisions quote modern Bibles, to correspond.

Anyway, I went home to locate in the English Standard Version a verse Hohle read from II Peter. It reads, “Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

God can have greater influence on our life than time. A good God with good ideas that come to us through revelation or divine intent. Can they be cut and connected to showcase order, wellbeing, and safety?

I think so.

Whether I’m trying to understand better the current political situation or world events, I see the benefits of first understanding God better, of responding to revelation or divine intent, rather than to religious or political ideology.

We all have the capability to receive revelation or light, whether in religion or politics. Therefore, I see the wisdom of many versions and freedom of speech. For the news, I don’t only read one newspaper. I read at least three newspapers to try to get a bigger picture.

I use time or text as tools, not a truth.

Only truth is truth.

When I’m conscious of divine intent, or let light shine through me, rather than block the light with dread, frustration, or anger, I can experience fewer constraints.

Not all constraints have dropped away in my life, maybe they don’t need to. I still respect time, however it’s nice knowing and watching the possibility that time doesn’t have to control my life. It’s nice becoming familiar with the influence of divine intent on life.

Cheryl Petersen is a freelance writer and covers religion. Her website is www.HealingScienceToday.com

 

 

 

 

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