Tag Archives: what is christian science
Audio Bible Lesson
Christian Science Weekly Bible Lessons are now in audio, released every Wednesday at…
Christian Science weekly Bible study, read from the Bible. With a spiritual interpretation from 21st Century Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, a contemporary version of Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health, read by Cheryl Petersen, author and copyright owner.
New Book: A Study Guide for Christian Science
I am thoroughly pleased and intrigued with this study guide for Christian Science. And now I am thrilled to announce, A Study Guide for Christian Science is published and available for the public online at Amazon.
This study guide roots in the Bible and includes twenty-four exercises that follow the pattern of instruction through questions and answers as presented by 19th-century spiritual leader, Mary Baker Eddy and found in the book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, both, the old version and new.
Eddy revised her Science and Health until she died in 1910 and Cheryl Petersen modernizes Science and Health today, titled 21st Century Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: A modern version of Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health.
The Study Guide for Christian Science brings clarity to the application of spirituality, as it stays one step ahead of changing human history, language and technology.
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 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 19th 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
New Book
Thought provoking book for those interested: Click for link to Amazon
Listen to radio interview over internet
On August 9, 2016, Bonnie Lykes-Bigler interviewed Cheryl Petersen about her revisions of Mary Baker Eddy’s Science and Health, on WIOX Roxbury radio.
To listen to a recording, click here and scroll down to the streaming box with Cheryl’s photo before clicking Play.
Cheryl talks with WIOX about her books
Lion or lying?
We read in I Peter 5:8, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” This knowledge oftentimes leads me to pray for more courage to stand up against the world, as if the world causes my problems. However, when no healing results, I switch out my prayer and stop lying to myself.
I very well could be dealing with my own apathy, not a lion.
I pray for courage to become less apathetic.
It’s the story of Joseph that taught me this lesson. It’s not the story of the personal Joseph, but the story of how he was connected, more specifically to Moses and the Exodus of the children of Israel.
The personal Joseph has been put down as a hero who saved the people of Egypt and Israel. Joseph has also been put down as a villain who enabled a population to be dependent and enslaved.
As far as the Exodus, there is no conclusive historical evidence that it’s massive movement even occurred, but again, I learn my lessons from the bigger picture, the myth of it all, if you will.
Joseph, an Israelite, was sold into slavery as a teenager. In a zig-zag almost unbelievable way, he ended up ruling the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, because he had a dream that there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.
During this famine time, Joseph’s family was moved to Egypt so they too wouldn’t starve to death. After the famine, Israelites lived with Egyptians. I can only guess that the Egyptians felt relieved the famine was over and the Israelites felt appreciative for being saved. Years passed. Centuries passed.
Maybe resentment crept in, but the Egyptians started feeling impinged upon and began asking the children of Israel to do jobs around the place. I suppose the Israelites could have done the jobs out of appreciation, but it dawned on me that at some point a few of the Israelites probably felt like the Egyptians could do their own work. Bucking the majority of Israelites who wanted to keep the peace, the few went along with working for Egypt.
The asking quickly became demanding and the Israelites became slaves. Resentment or not, apathy to keep the peace played a role in this high action saga. I tell myself, this wasn’t a case of the Egyptians kidnapping the Israelites and enslaving them, it was a case of the Israelites becoming so lethargic, even though their physical bodies were actively at work in the fields, they were so spiritually lazy that they were basically self-enslaved.
By time Moses came on the scene, the Israelites were fully isolated in Egypt. They had no energy or ambition to seek and stand with their God. They were visionless, except one woman who birthed Moses and took extraordinary measures to save him.
It was a lot of rig-a-ma-roll, but Moses grew up and eventually led the people of Israel out of Egypt and the saga continues.
Anyway, if I catch myself following a peaceful routine and even planning my day so that routine remains, I try to snap myself out of the pending apathy. I do not want to use spirituality to make a comfortable mortal life. I do not want to try to use spirituality to preserve a past. There is no such thing as a peaceful mortal life.
Spirituality is powerfully useful to reveal mental and interconnected peace. Our physical situation is peaceful only when those around us are peaceful to an increasing degree also. I can’t isolate myself from others and I don’t want to isolate others from me. With this in mind, I pray and find there is no famine of spiritual ideas to move forward and respond to this human life with courage and confidence in God, Truth, Love.
Healing Science Today 