Independent Christian Science articles

Obey The Great Physician

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I’ve been reading an article by Rosalie Stamp, called “Spiritual Consultations.” It mentions consultation with the great Physician. It says that, at times, we may wish that Jesus was here to help and heal. But it states that we should rather ask, what did Jesus call upon for his healing work? There are three things: he called on the same eternal Mind, the same invincible Truth, the same great liberating Love that is with us all right now.

We can always remember that our true great Physician always has a good diagnosis or verdict for us. His diagnosis is the perfection, the loveliness that strengthens spiritual selfhood, which we reflect.

I’m so grateful for this. It’s a reminder that God’s verdict is the reality, it is the truth, and it is what we all must always keep in our hearts, even though mortal mind insists on its lies and deceptions. I love Mrs. Eddy’s article “A Treatment for Every Day,” which can be found on our website under “articles.” I love where she says we must declare times without number, “I am perfect in God,” and to say often, “I am perfect, joyful, triumphant and complete.” This should be our only diagnosis and Verdict, because it is the Truth!

Faith in God Gives Peace

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I am so grateful for all that I’ve learned in Christian Science. One of the things I have been learning over the years is the importance of cultivating faith in God daily. It helps me to take a look at the challenges that come and use them as tests of my faith. To be truly free is to trust God completely. I learned that not to trust is not just about not trusting, but also means I am having more faith in evil and denying God. Looking at the lack of faith this way has helped me question what I am trusting when challenges come up. It has helped me to revere God’s power and presence more. It has freed me from the habit of looking at an error and judging its improvement as a measure of God’s work. It has also helped me to free myself from the fear of losing people, relationships, or things that I used to cherish. Now, I trust God with my all and know that, with Him, I cannot lose anything He wants for me. It has helped me be more grateful for how God is present, day and night, especially those early hours of the morning when nothing else seems to be near. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, page 228, “There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has all power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God.” This citation has helped me many a time to look to God alone and to trust Him wholeheartedly.

Immanuel “God With Us”

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I am so grateful to be in this church, because here I’ve learned the power of the word Immanuel, meaning “God with us.” I am so grateful for this word because, as I ponder it, it really makes perfect sense. If God is All, and I am His expression, reflection, or manifestation, then the absolute truth is that I am always in His presence!

I grew up learning about God. I knew God, but it was a far-away God. I would pray for His help, and it did come, but all the time I thought of God as being so far away. Isn’t it wonderful to learn that God is with us right here? Wherever we might be, and because of that, Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy, tells us on page 475 that “Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death.” On page 476 it says, “In divine Science, God and the real man are inseparable as divine Principle and idea.” How wonderful is that! It means that I must always know who I am in this relationship with our Father-Mother God, good. So in this presence of Love, I should also know there can’t be any pain, any sickness, any sorrow, or any lack, because in these, too, God, good, cannot exist in the same space with evil. I am so grateful for all that I’ve learned here, and what Christian Science has done in my life.

All Are Worthy of God’s Love

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I am so grateful to learn through Christian Science that I am worthy, and everyone else also, worthy of God’s Love as my birthright, and that this gives me the dominion to say no to my fears. Without this learning I remained easily mesmerized by any false suggestions that false sense threw my way. It is simply exhausting living in fear. To me that makes it illegitimate, and not a part of our birthright. I learned that even when my knees are shaking I must know that God is my ever present help and will never leave me. This brings some comfort. There are so many verses in the Bible to remind us such as, “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.”(23rd Psalm)

I like what Mrs. Eddy writes in Retrospection and Introspection; page 61, “Science saith to fear, ‘You are the cause of all sickness; but you are a self-constituted falsity, — you are darkness, nothingness. You are without ‘hope, and without God in the world.’ You do not exist, and have no right to exist, for ‘perfect Love casteth out fear.’ God is everywhere. ‘There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard;’ and this voice is Truth that destroys error and Love that casteth out fear.”

I am so grateful for this learning because often it is the fear that we need to get rid of in order to live as our Father Mother wants us to as God’s children. I am so grateful to God, Christ Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, and all who are demonstrating this Science, to help awaken others to this Truth that makes man free.

Rely on Christ, It Has No Law Against Health

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Christian Science teaches that God has all power. How wonderful, how beautiful!

One evening I started feeling very warm. A lot had been going on, and by nighttime I felt very hot. A relative even commented on it. But I remember just lying down and turning unreservedly to God, to the Christ, which Science and Health tells us is “The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error.” (Science and Health, page 583)

All I was thinking was the truth that I have learned since coming to this church and since being introduced to Science, the truth about my inseparability from God. God that made me in His image and likeness, made all of us in His image and likeness. All that was going through my thoughts were these thoughts — the truth I have learned, the simple truth.

I fell asleep and when I awoke I was feeling a whole lot better. I was able to do that day what was mine to do. The point of turning to the Christ is very important. Even when we are led to call someone for help, we call on the Truth, the Christ, not person ever. It is the Truth that heals, and what they share with us is really the Christ, the Truth which we rely on. And in our being one with that Truth, God, the changes go on in our thinking, which makes the healing take place. I am so grateful for this because it really shows us that all power belongs to God. Nothing is above God, so whatever we’re going through, if we have made the Truth our own, we need not be afraid. Trust in God.

We look at the stories in the Bible of what has gone on, and in our own life, the truth that we have relied on. If those have become so natural to us, they naturally come to our thinking when we need them. I am grateful to God for Christ Jesus and how he healed, and Mary Baker Eddy and how she taught us all to heal, and also to bless others.

Make Room for God in Your Heart

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I was greatly touched recently by a song that I wasn’t familiar with, called, “Make Room for God in your Heart.” One of the verses was, “Is there room in your heart for God to write His story, and trade your dreams for His glory?” The song kept asking that question, is there room in your heart?

I thought that any growth I’ve had in Science has been because I needed to make room in my heart for Christ to come. We all need to change our dreams, our willful planning, or our sense of what life is, to God’s will in our lives, and the true divine spiritual sense of what life is.

Even in the beginning, if you only think you have maybe just a little room in your heart, as you grow and take in those truths, you find that your heart just expands more and more, and soon that Love of God is just flooding through you, and you have made room in your heart for Him. All those past material dreams are now all for His Glory.

I read something so lovely recently about Handel, who wrote the beautiful Messiah, that so many of us listen to at this time of year. He wrote it in a very short time, and it was absolutely divine inspiration. He said it just came through him. He was given these beautiful verses to write music to. He said he wept when he wrote the “Hallelujah” Chorus, because he felt as if he’d seen the face of God, and then had experienced a touch of heaven with that beautiful music. Handel’s Messiah has gone out to reach so many people. Even people who have never believed in God and when they hear that holy music and those sacred words, find it is so uplifting and powerful. When Handel was praised for what he did, he said, “to God I give all the glory.” It is such a beautiful story.

We are all here to make room for God in our hearts. There couldn’t be a more glorious purpose!

Courage and Kindness

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Courage and Kindness by Mary Beth Singleterry Kindness is an important quality of God. A few years ago there was a British production of the story of Cinderella. It wasn’t in cartoon form, it was live, with real actors. It was very beautifully done. It transcended just the fairytale story to something much more substantial.

In this production, the mother, the real mother of Cinderella, would tell her as a child to always remember to have courage and to be kind.

That left quite an impression on this little girl, and those two qualities of God — courage and kindness — kept Cinderella safe during such a difficult time with her stepmother and stepsisters. And because she was faithful to that — despite abusive behavior toward her — she was lifted out of that situation into something quite wonderful, as you know the story. This production gave a richer and deeper meaning, and I think of it often in my own life — to have courage, and to be kind.

The definition of kindness is “the disposition which delights in contributing to the happiness of others.” Kindness ever accompanies love. How true that is. What a wonderful quality kindness is and how it certainly would heal so many of the troubles we seem to have these days. So have courage and be kind. All good is possible, because in doing that you are reflecting your Father-Mother God.

Freedom — Every Man’s Right!

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There is a video on the church website of a radio interview with a music historian, singer, and teacher named Joe Carter. He tells about the “spirituals” that the slaves would sing — and they became the foundation for Country, Jazz, and other forms of music. The slaves believed in the Supreme Deity, and the songs were really reaching out to God with a yearning to be free.

Today, it seems that all mankind, people everywhere, are in bondage of one sort or another — to illness, to depression, addiction, heredity, or many other forms of oppression. Mrs. Eddy speaks to this in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, pages 224-228. She says that “men and women of all climes and races are still in bondage to material sense, ignorant how to obtain their freedom.” I love her reassurance that through faith in God, trust in Truth the strong deliverer, we too, through Christian Science, will know and acknowledge the God-given rights of man and be free, as she had done to help mankind. Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health, page 224, “Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banner is the Soul-inspired motto, ‘Slavery is abolished.’ The power of God brings deliverance to the captive. No power can withstand divine Love. What is this supposed power, which opposes itself to God? Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with iron shackles to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever enslaves man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes man free.”

Through the study of Christian Science, I found what God really means, and from that I found who I am and who everyone else is. I can’t be grateful enough for it because it has changed my life.

I am also very grateful for the “Models of Excellence” magazine that Lynda and Chardelle put together — the piece they did particularly on Martin Luther King. The part of it echoing his words, that the time for this freedom, the freedom that I’m sure Mrs. Eddy was talking about, will come, and I love the spiritual that speaks to this freedom. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “We will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men, white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty we are free at last.”

I thank God, Christ Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, and thanks to all, who in their own special way are bringing their fellow man to the Christ’s way of living, and the greatest freedom of all, the freedom to do and be right!

The Sword of Spirit

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I remember the first time I read the article from Miscellaneous Writings by Mrs. Eddy, “Put up Thy Sword.” I had been raised in Science most of my life, but I had never read Prose Works and never read that article. I remember being dumbfounded; I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was supposed to be peaceful all the time. As a child my favorite beatitude was “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matt. 5:9) So I always worked at trying to be very peaceful. As some people say, how did that work for you? Well, it didn’t work for me. I wasn’t being honest in addressing any situation. I would often stifle what I felt and what I thought.

When I read this I realized that yes, as Christian Scientists we do have to carry a sword, the sword of Spirit, the sword of Truth; and as this article explains, it’s the sword that cuts off the head of false beliefs. The false beliefs are things we think to be true; but because they are not of God, they are not true! Of course, we have to carry this sword.

I love it where Mrs. Eddy says, “My students are at the beginning of their demonstration; they have a long warfare with error in themselves and in others to finish, and they must at this stage use the sword of Spirit. They cannot in the beginning take the attitude, nor adopt the words, that Jesus used at the end of his demonstration.” (Mis. page 215)

Once learning that lesson, I began to realize that peace is earned, and it’s earned by raising that sword and sometimes maybe raising a little ruckus, doing whatever we need to do to correct the situation with the truth. But it is always done with the motive of love, to bless and to heal. With that motive it does bless and heal, and the situation changes, and true healing takes place. Also, true peace takes place, the real peace, “the peace that passeth all understanding.” (Phil. 4:7) That peace is an amazing, wonderful part of Christian Science that we all can experience.

Heaven Within Us All

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I’m so grateful to have learned that heaven is within us. It is what we are all seeking; peace, contentment, joy, good health, and love. It’s already within us. To think that this already exists within everyone, but only our habits of wrong thinking block our view from seeing what gracious gift of goodness God has already given all of us, is wonderful. The Bible tells us that in Matthew. For example, in Matthew 6, we learn that we cannot serve two masters, God and mammon at the same time. We need to choose and walk on that narrow way, stay in that secret place and let God’s love shelter us. We do not make heaven with our thinking, but how glorious it is that we can feel ourselves in heaven when we change our wrong thinking of selfishness, resentfulness, revengefulness and self-righteousness, which only block our view so that our view can be clear enough for us to see the heaven that we all seek and that it awaits us.

I cannot thank God enough for all the workers who have kept His truth going so that our brothers and sisters elsewhere, everywhere really, can also feel the same and have the same view awakened in them. I am so grateful for Christ Jesus’ example. He showed us how connected in one union he was with God all the time, everywhere he went. I thank Mrs. Eddy for allowing this, for being so pure in thought that this Truth for the world could come through her and bless us all. I am so grateful for those working currently and actually living this truth that our examples might bless others.

Love is the liberator.