Christian Science today
Genesis 1:24-26
“And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”–ESV
Have you ever felt like a robot, programmed by parents, science, religion, the world, or human history?
The truth preached by Jesus was more than just talk and robotic behavior. A life of spirituality is requisite.
Today’s spirituality relates most intimately to a greater dimension of wellbeing. It invites individual and collective discoveries of restored mind, body, spirit, and Earth. Today’s spirituality welcomes an understanding that transcends human knowledge.
“Heaven. Harmony; the rule of one Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; happiness; the atmosphere of Soul.”–21st Century Science and Health
Lies are defined as physical senses, lack of knowledge, wrong assumptions, personal opinions, fear, aversion. Lies are unable to detect the Truth of being. Physical senses are unable to detect Spirit and spirituality and therefore anything they claim aren’t the Truth of being. But because we can detect the life that goes on despite death, because we know that musical harmony exists despite terrible noise, because we know that mathematical equations are solvable despite multiple mistakes or voids in knowledge, we surmise correctly that spirituality exists, that instinctive, motivated spirituality that knows the one Spirit, Principle. Lies make people answerable to physical senses, rather than spiritual sense. Lies make people accountable to a lack of knowledge rather than to the Truth of being. Lies make people blamable, punishable, liable to displacement, anxious, abusive, and uncontrollable.
When we quit lies, we can’t fail to see the contradiction between the blessed spiritual creation of the universe and the cursed material creation. We can’t fail to see that the story of Adam and Eve is a myth, used to reinforce spirituality rather than fester the lies that fail us. In the biblical earthly paradise, the Garden of Eden, the rule was made clear, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”[1] Why believe or repeat a mythical story of evolving knowledge, as if Life and intelligence is separate from Principle, and passed down from dust, to mortals, to eggs and sperms, when the story fails to fulfill itself? A life outside God, Truth, is self-cursed to death. A life inside the material elements of change, terror, threats, death is unscientific. Every experiment made to prove that material elements contain life or intelligence, fails.
[1] Gen. 2:16-17
It’s amazing how hanging out with children can mute mental and bodily complaints.
Sore muscles vanished yesterday when the five-year-old neighbor boy came over to play with our grandchildren, five and eight years old. At the lunch table, we all began a detailed, serious conversation about school. Teacher’s names, how old everyone was in kindergarten and third grade, the big class, how kindergarteners get to third grade, music, crafts, recess, rain days when recess was inside a big room where they eat also.
Our five-year old grandson left his chair and walked into the kitchen inquisitively.
“Is everything all right?” his mother asks.
“I ate a bad bite of food,” he said.
“Spit it in the garbage.”
But he dribbles the food into his hand and dissects it to find…
“I think it’s a tooth,” he turns to us and says.
“Smile,” said his mother.
We all broke out in smiles and celebration. His first lost tooth. Adorable. Hugs all around.
The neighbor boy, sitting next to me, turns and says with bright eyes that see a wonderful future, “Now, he goes to first grade.”
I nod, but don’t explain that losing a tooth is not quite the condition to getting to first grade. Because we all were happy to keep reveling in joy.
Matthew 6:33, “If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.”–The Message
My nephew was born about the time I got married. What’s it been, 38 years?
We watched him grow up and were part of each other’s lives. He was a sturdy youngster, quick moving, quite often moving before thinking.
As I write this, I see his smiling, gung-ho attitude.
Years of farm work, swimming, family dinners together. Until his late teen years. When he started abusing drugs. Fear, police, thefts, some good times but in his twenties, he grew stronger, scarier. Interventions, professional help, prayer, medications, ultimatums, seemed to be of no avail.
He threatened and hurt his mother, our sister, and the option to separate was tearfully accepted. He moved one state away and random phone calls to his parents were short.
So many questions. What a horrible mystery. I pondered the Psalms: “I cry to you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.'”
And today, our sister called and said, “We just got a call, to learn that someone found Sean dead.”
I cried, simply cried. Not to God, for a living refuge. Not to Sean, for living such a hard life. Not to all the parents/people who struggle because of drug abuse and mental disorders. Not to myself.
I just cried. With no desire to blame, analyze, or get angry. I cry out my hope in a merciful life and relief in this life that never stops.
And then I saw the image of Sean when he was about ten. It’s a good image.
It reminded me that two days ago, I had the privilege of attending a church and listening gratefully to the guest speaker, a recovering heroin addict and alcoholic, sober, six years now. His message of fighting the good fight and keeping at the fight for good, remains alive.
I Timothy 6:12: Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
A stunning, poignant picture can say a thousand words.
But ONLY a thousand. Pretty much.
Let’s compare photographs from the James Webb Space Telescope and the winning 2022 Audubon photography winners.
The first image from the James Webb Space Telescope speaks to a galaxy cluster as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. Who knows what that cluster looks like today? The cluster could contain a dinosaur roaming planet.
The winning images of birds, honored by Audubon, speaks to a creation in existence now. Who knows what those birds will look like tomorrow?
To be frank, even though I read history, I don’t know what the past was like or the future will bring. But in general, I keep up on the theories and speculations and evidence showing that yesterday resembles today and probably will resemble tomorrow in that creation exists and isn’t totally understood by human mind; not understood by even eight billion human minds put together.
Based on history, the questions arise. What happens if the James Webb telescope discovers a planet habitable by human beings? Will the same thing happen when we discovered any new territory on Earth? Take overs, rule making, regeneration, fighting, fence building, compromises, forgiveness?
What happens if, by the use of pictures, scientists are able to postulate and experiment with theories that combine and manipulate matter/energy into something useful to human beings? More inventions, mining, mass production, exploitation, restoration? Extinction? All possible because it’s happening now.
Human intents and habits are one and the same, repetitive and unable to resolve itself, while creation continues alive and infinite, self-sustained. Somehow, human beings and human knowledge are not in control.
The lesson to take from the cosmos and birds is that creation continues with the substantial and identifiable ideas of justice, mercy, peacemaking, divine righteousness, wisdom, beauty, self-control, joy, perseverance, living the now.
Now is the time to nurture family, Earth, lawfulness, our gifts to soar.
Jesus said, “Take a lesson from the fig tree. From the moment you notice its buds form, the merest hint of green, you know summer’s just around the corner. And so it is with you. When you see all these things, you know he is at the door. Don’t take this lightly. I’m not just saying this for some future generation, but for this one, too—these things will happen. Sky and earth will wear out; my words won’t wear out.”–Mark
“Think about it: we can detach from the body to a degree, unconsciously, when we become so absorbed in a movie or activity that we forget out body. So, detach instead from the body–as a form of human belief–and learn the meaning of God and creation.”–from science & religion to God: A narrative of Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health
Ask:
Does the human mind consciously or unconsciously counteract these thoughts?
“Eat only what you need.”
“Forgive this person.”
“Exercise more.”
“Return their smile.”
“You can keep discovering the reality of divine Spirit.”
Does the human mind’s refusal to follow through on those thoughts mirror these bodily conditions?
Excessive blood pressure.
Persistent pain.
Lethargic digestion.
Unresponsive brain.
Depression.
Matthew 22:37
“And [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”
21st Century Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: A modern version of Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health:
“Citizens of the world, accept the “glorious freedom of the children of God,”[1] and be free! This is your divine right. The self-deluded idolatrous views, not divine law, has captivated you, made you arthritic, made you a procrastinator, weakened your body, and ruined your reputation.
“Sickness, sin, and destruction must at length recoil before the divine rights of intelligence, and then the power of Mind over the entire functions and organs of the human system will be acknowledged. It is proverbial that Mother Teresa,[2] and other philanthropists engaged in humanitarian work have been able to undergo, without weariness and danger, that which ordinary people could not endure. The explanation lies in the support which they derived from the divine law, supreme to the human law. The spiritual demand crushes the material demand and supplies not only energy but also endurance.
“We learn that divine Mind is the master of the human mind and physical senses and can vanquish sickness, sin, and loss. Exercise this God-given power. Take possession of your body and direct its feelings and actions. Advance in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made you capable of this and nothing can stop the ability and power divinely bestowed on your spirituality.
“We can never treat human mind and matter separately because they combine as one.
“Scientifically speaking, there is no human mind out of which to make incomplete beliefs proceeding from illusion. This misnamed mind is not an entity. What we call matter is only a false sense of substance, since its substance has no sensitivity. The one Mind contains no human opinions. All that is real is included in spiritual Mind.”
Isaiah 12:4
“And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.’”
[1] Rom. 8:21
[2] Mother Teresa (1910–1997) Albanian Roman Catholic nun.
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