Inspiration Page

Prayer and Watching Sports

2012-02-05T11:19:00.000-05:00

Hey all you Super Bowl fans! Here's a little something to think about when watching the Super Bowl or any sports program.

Watching the Super Bowl with an eye for safety

time4thinkers.com

Like a lot of people I like a good Super Bowl game. In recent years, I’ve found a fun way to be directly involved with it. You could even say

Prayer and Hope for the World

2011-03-15T11:41:00.001-04:00

As I read the world news today about devastation in Japan and uprisings and wars in the Middle East, I am reminded in my prayer that we cannot be separated for an instant from God, who is all good. Paul said it well in the Bible in a letter to the church at Rome --

FreeFoto.com

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35,37-39)

And didn’t Jesus teach us about God’s great and constant ever abiding love for each of his children? Jesus showed us that God does not send evil in the form of disease or hunger or storms or lack or death. He showed that God delivers from evil, by healing all forms of disease, feeding thousands, stilling storms, getting money from the mouth of a fish, and raising the dead.

He taught us that there is an unseen reality of goodness and harmony right at hand, right where death and disaster, inhumanity and evil appear to be. Paul seems to have gotten at least a glimpse of that. We too can get at least glimpses of this as we look up through our spiritual vision -- our spiritual sense -- and see beyond the material unrealities to the spiritual realities of being. Jesus was showing us what was real and powerful and in accordance with God’s law and what was unreal and powerless and could be overcome by that law. This spiritual seeing brings with it solutions, ideas with which to combat and overcome the apparent forces of evil that appear so real in the news of the day. It brings a greater degree of health and healing, safety and supply, love and peace to all on this planet.

Our spiritual vision and strength and ability to help, whether through our prayers or direct involvement of donations or rescue efforts comes from God. God who is Love is with us, each one right now, supplying every needed thing, whether food or money or water or stamina or strength, or ideas, or hope, or inspiration, or faith or health.

We can be assured based on Jesus’ revealing of eternal life -- life not confined to matter -- that even those who have died cannot and are not separated from God who is Life itself. Their lives are continuing on and they are moving forward. Paul speaks of death, in one of his letters, as an enemy to be overcome, which is based on Jesus words and example. Jesus proved that nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God.

God is giving us all the strength and dominion to rise above disaster and war and make good decisions in the world, to love one another and thus to be the ultimate victors.

We have this Biblical promise to lean on, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (I John 4:4)

Prayer for Libya

2011-03-05T13:57:00.002-05:00

There is not a lot of gray area it seems with the events in Libya. It is pretty clearly the age old good against evil scenario. There is nothing right or good, no justification morally, ethically or spiritually for the leader and government of a country turns its guns on peaceful protesters without restraint. That is evil.

How did Christ Jesus define evil? When speaking of the devil or evil he said, it “is a liar, and the father of it.” He also said of the devil that he was “a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.”

Doesn’t this help us to know how to pray about what is going on in Libya? The evil going on there has no real truth or power to it. It is a lie about the true man that God made and the true government of God governing all. God has all the power and God is all good, therefore good must rule and the evil must be destroyed as truth always defeats error or a lie.

There are many ways to pray about the Libyan situation. My prayer today is along the lines that the evil being expressed there must stop because it has nothing real and substantial behind it. It is brought down by the ever-present Good or God. God is revealing to those standing up for good and right, ideas that they need to protect themselves and to conquer the evil. Those motivated by money, power, pride and selfishness will be disarmed and brought down. Evil, having no real power, cannot conquer or rule anyone. God’s goodness rules and conquers all. God does not allow evil any presence nor share power with evil. God is all power and evil is powerless.

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." Psalms. 46:1

God’s promises to Egypt

2011-02-11T12:52:00.001-05:00

I read a Bible Lesson every day that helps bring inspiration to me. I couldn’t help but notice this wonderful comforting message regarding God’s children in Egypt in this week’s Bible Lesson titled “Soul.” From different parts of chapter 32 in Jeremiah, the prophet says this --

“Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
Great in counsel, and mighty in work:
Which hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and hast made thee a name, as at this day;
Therefore thus saith the Lord;
I will cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.”

Egypt was a might country in Biblical times too and did many great things. We can remember that God is the power in Egypt. God is keeping everyone safe. These are his people and God who is all good is the only real power. Therefore only good is governing our Egyptian brothers and sisters and not evil.

Remember when the Berlin wall came down? It was a huge change and yet it was peaceful. Why can’t we expect change to happen in Egypt in a similar way?

The Egyptians have really shown the world what a good spirit they have and we can pray that their spirit of brotherhood coming from the power of the universe, Love (or God), will sustain them and lead them in the right direction in the coming days and weeks.

God is truly with them.

Pray can help in Egypt

2011-02-04T00:44:00.003-05:00

Some feel there is nothing we can do but just wait it out and see what happens in Egypt. But our prayers can truly help quell the violence erupting there -- help to bring intelligence and wisdom and peace to this volatile situation.

Where do we start? How about instead of starting with the problem and trying to figure it out, we start our thought and prayer process with God and reason from there. This is something I have learned from studying and practicing Christian Science, and I have seen great results on an individual basis.

The Science of astronomy explains that what we see with our eyes is not what is real. We see the sun moving across the sky, and yet the sun is not moving at all, but rather the earth is spinning. Based on the Science of Life, Christ Jesus showed how life and harmony and goodness were present right where sin, disease and death appeared to be.

One of the greatest things we learn from this spiritual Science, or Christian Science, is how to follow the first commandment and have only one God, one Mind, and what exactly that means.

Mary Baker Eddy the founder of Christian Science writes in its textbook,
"The first demand of this Science is, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual." (SH 467:3-7 The)

God’s power, presence and peace are right where chaos and violence appear to be ruling the day. This can be our prayer, to know that God is present, all-present and that His peace, His wisdom, His goodness rules the day over the evil that appears to be. It is more natural for us to see God’s goodness spring forth than to see chaos rule.

We can meditate on the prophet Isaiah’s spiritual view of the inevitability and naturalness of God’s goodness breaking forth on the human scene,
"For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations." (Isa. 61:11)

Let’s together have one God and keep that picture before our thought as these other pictures are constantly being flashed before us.

Thoughts about Egypt

2011-02-02T11:46:00.001-05:00

There is nothing new under the sun. The demands being made by the Egyptians made this scripture from Ezekiel stand out to me recently,

"And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, Thus saith the Lord God; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him." (Ezek. 21:25-27)

Zedekiah is the prince referred to and he was wicked and his time was coming to an end. The corruption, selfishness and dishonesty, the evils or sins of Egypt’s leaders are coming to an end.

Our God is all good and we see this goodness in the human experience to some degree. That ever present goodness always destroys evil, not people, but the evil being expressed by people. Man is redeemed.

We can pray for and support this current overturning in our world and see it in its right light. Mary Baker Eddy, an amazing religious leader and thinker put it this way in her main work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,

“Marvels, calamities, and sin will much more abound as truth urges upon mortals its resisted claims; but the awful daring of sin destroys sin, and foreshadows the triumph of truth. God will overturn, until "He come whose right it is." Longevity is increasing and the power of sin diminishing, for the world feels the alterative effect of truth through every pore. “(SH 223:28)

We can see the events in Egypt as the “alterative effect of truth,” and the “power of sin diminishing.” Good is the power, always, and good only must reign.

We can be aware of God’s presence there and everywhere, destroying whatever is not good in human character, in the human scene. God’s very presence destroys any evil, because there is no evil in God. It’s like the light destroying the darkness. The light knows nothing about the darkness, but simply eliminates it by its very presence.

We can pray to know that God is on the scene and guiding the events -- the thoughts and actions of His people. We do not have to stand by and wonder or wait to see what happens, or be afraid. We each can be supporting prayerfully this overturning. We can pray to know that each one is responsive to God, that God is working His purpose out, as the Bible says,

"The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" (Isa. 14:24-27)

God is loving his people, including the president and his associates, and is present with them and they hear and respond to this divine Love, this ever-present, all powerful force for good.

Needed direction in our day

2011-01-17T14:13:00.000-05:00

Have you ever felt like things are a little hazy, like you are not sure exactly what you should be doing today? Maybe this particular day you are even wondering about your life and where it is going. So consequently you are not exactly sure what you should be doing, or maybe you have lost your motivation to do much of anything. Maybe even depression is starting to set in.

I think there is a sure way out of this deepening pit. I think to love is the best thing you can do. Really and truly. At these times we need to reconnect with our Source, with God. To be loving is the simplest and fastest way to do this. If someone calls you or you call someone, be very loving. Or if people are around you, be very loving and helpful. This is the most important thing we can be doing in our life. This simple rule begins to move us into the right direction where we reconnect with who we are. We begin immediately to connect with God who is Love as we are the image of that Love, the expression of that Love. That is why the immediate reconnection. This can also make us feel worthwhile again immediately.

Now with this better footing we can continue to contemplate our life, listen for direction and move forward in our day. Before we know it we will be right back to our happy, motivated, feeling directed sense of self.

Stranded by an ash cloud -- how I prayed

2010-04-27T20:00:00.003-04:00

There I was, stranded at an airport in Chicago, only halfway to my destination.

An ash cloud was moving across the United States from west to east as a result of the 1980 volcanic explosion of Mt. St. Helens, in Washington State. . . . .

Full article

Jesus' Church

2010-03-13T09:19:00.004-05:00

Here is a funky little video that was done for a Christian Science Bible Lesson and put on the tmcyouth.com site. Click here to view.

Burn on leg healed

2010-03-09T15:37:00.005-05:00

About finding God, I shared my first experience of an instantaneous healing of a painful burn on my finger through my own prayer in grade school. That greatly impressed me that this invisible God, this presence and power is real, and I can access it.

Well, later on when I was in junior high school I went for a ride on the back of my brother’s 250cc Honda, which I loved to do. When I went to get off the motorcycle, I slid off on the side
with the hot exhaust pipes. On these old motorcycles the exhaust pipes were chrome and up near the seat and had no heat covers on them, at least his didn’t.

You can imagine that when my inner leg hit that exhaust pipe it instantly seared my skin. It was very painful. However just as quickly I lifted my thought to God (that is the best way I can explain it) -- I just with confidence thought something to the effect “no -- I am not hurt -- God is taking care of me and would not let me be hurt.” Actually it wasn’t even that clearly articulated. I remember just turning away from the matter picture and going to God with a clear knowing that all was well and I could just go on with my day paying no attention to this accident. I knew and felt to some degree that this loving presence and power called God was right there with me taking care of me.

With this childlike confidence in God, the pain went away very quickly. The experience is still to this day vivid in my mind. I still had a serious burn scar on the inside of my leg that took awhile (many months and maybe longer) to heal up and go away. But I never experienced the pain associated with a serious burn like that except in those first moments when it occurred.

God is with us and we all can learn to turn to Him/Her step by step and then we prove to ourselves His/Her presence. You can start with small things, where there is not as much fear to deal with. And step by step we increase our faith and can deal with more serious issues.

One thing I attribute to this healing is the childlike trust that I had in God -- that God loved me and was ever-present, always loving Her children. Even now I strive to emulate, to reach within myself and find that childlike thought, that childlike trust when I pray.

This reminds me what Jesus once said:
(Matt 18:2-4 The Message Bible)
Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, "I'm telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you're not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God's kingdom.

Why inharmony and hate and what can we do about it?

2010-02-15T16:19:00.004-05:00

Here is a brief answer posted to the tmcyouth web site to a very good question asked by a young person.

She asks: "If there is only one Mind, and this Mind is governing the whole world, including us, in perfect harmony, why does there seem to be inharmonies like an earthquake in Haiti, terrorist attacks, and people who hate each other? AND what can you do about it?"

Click here for video question and written answer by "Mark" below it. You can also get involved in the discussion.

Haiti and God

2010-01-30T13:30:00.003-05:00

There’s an interesting discussion (see links below) responding to comments that have been made saying in essence that what happened in Haiti was the wrath of God or God’s punishment to the Haitian people, for the voodoo or other sins they have committed.

I would like to weigh in here briefly and say that I agree with what others have said in these discussions about what the Bible tells us, that “God is love.” That’s it! God does not cause or allow catastrophe or pain or destruction. God causes only good. God is like a mother loving her children, no matter what they do. God loves each one of us even more than this mother we can picture, and is always caring for each one of us and comforting us and protecting us and holding us in the palm of His hand. God delivers us from evil. He/She doesn’t send evil or even know of evil. Jesus showed us that, with his conquering of evil in all forms, i.e. sin, disease and death, at every turn. He also said, the devil or evil is a “liar and the father of it.” Because of that Truth and Love conquer it.

To bring it to a micro personal level, in my own experience whenever I’ve had pain or suffering of any sort I’ve always felt, and proved in many cases, that God, Love was right there to help me out of this suffering. Even if the suffering was from an accident that I had no control over, my suffering from that accident I’ve found can be eliminated as soon as I turn to God.

This happened to me in a serious car accident, where there was a fatality and serious injuries to myself and others. I turned to God instantly, before I was knocked unconscious. I had serious injuries, but when I became conscious and kept my thought on God’s presence and love for me and all, I experience no pain, was kept from going into shock and was soon taken care of by help that came. God never leads us into temptation or suffering or allows it. God destroys it by His or Her very presence and power.

We are all needing to wake up to this presence and power more and more and that is our deliverance, whether individuals or nations.

This experience will not leave Haiti where it found it. The Haitian people and nation will be better off in the end for this because of God’s love. God’s love is there and can be tangibly seen through all the love that is pouring into that nation by people and other nations. It can be seen by the good that is being done and by lives that are saved.

It will be better for the Haitian people, and the love and good that comes constantly from God will be seen the victor over evil. All and more will be restored to this people and nation.

Even those that have died, still live, and God or Love is taking care of them even though we can’t see them. Life is eternal. Jesus showed us that by raising himself and others from the dead. Those who have lost everything and are mourning will be restored and comforted. That is what Jesus promised (see Matt 5:4) and proved when he was on earth showing us about God.

Recipe for healing

2010-01-12T01:13:00.003-05:00

Here’s a little thought about the Christian Science Bible Lesson this week on the subject of Life.

Check out this video on the TMC youth website.

The healing that I refer to in this video can be found by clicking here.

Love and forgive yourself

2009-12-30T12:10:00.003-05:00

I know I haven’t been writing much for awhile but hopefully you’ll see more.

I was thinking today about the fact that we really do need to love ourselves and forgive ourselves for things we’ve said or done. In fact I was thinking that we have great authority for doing this. The Bible makes it so clear that we are to love and forgive our neighbor, and Jesus tells us this includes even our enemies. If we have the command to love others and forgive them then it only makes sense that we MUST also love ourselves and forgive ourselves.

What really hit me today is that this is a demand of God that we do this. Therefore heartily love yourself and forgive yourself today, knowing that you have divine authority to do this. And the best way to do this is to remind yourself that you are the pure and perfect child of God and that anything you might have said or done that you don’t like is the material sense or false sense of yourself, and you have every right to let go of that and not identify with it.

Ahhhhh . . . that feels good.

2009-10-28T22:40:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone -- I thought some of you might be interested in some short videos related to this week's Christian Science Bible Lesson.

I created a video with an idea as to how Science and Health helps us understand the Bible better. See video titled "Reflection " (See the other titles below on the same web page)

Christina asked a question about this lesson and shared some insights. See video titled, "Everlasting Punishment "

I shared some thoughts regarding Christina's questions. See video titled "An answer to Christina's question "

True witness

2009-05-12T21:19:00.003-04:00

Ok, so I threw together a campy little video for the TMC youth website again. There are some clever videos at this site. These are done to expound on ideas from the Christian Science Bible Lesson for the week. Enjoy. See Video

No need to fear flu or any other disease

2009-05-05T10:32:00.008-04:00

In the Bible we find so many wonderful promises to us, God’s children. The prophet Jeremiah caught a sense of our Father and Mother’s love for each of us when God told him, “I will cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good . . .”

Jesus told us that the kingdom of heaven (harmony) is within us. That too is a promise, a truth. The lie today that is being spread around is the opposite of all this, that God is not caring for His children and that the kingdom of heaven does not dwell in us.

We have a choice today to decide what to believe - the Word of God or the news.

One time I was at work and had some very strong flu like symptoms come over me and almost overwhelmed me physically. I remember sitting there in front of my computer with tons of work to do, and I thought something to the effect “no! you are a liar! I am the perfect child of God, cared for by God and completely spiritual.” I became very clear immediately that nothing could attack me like that or make me feel separated from God, the kingdom of heaven. I rebelled! Much like Mary Baker Eddy says to do in her book Science and Health;

"Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against them. Banish the belief that you can possibly entertain a single intruding pain which cannot be ruled out by the might of Mind, and in this way you can prevent the development of pain in the body." (page 391)

I felt instantly God’s angels* (thoughts) lift me up in my thought about myself, feeling my spirituality rather than feeling so material and vulnerable. The fear of the disease that seemed to be quickly taking over vanished and so did all the symptoms and I went on with my work -- grateful and inspired by what just happened.

My healings are not always this immediate. Sometimes I have to pray much longer to get ride of the fear, and consequently the disease. But the healing always comes when I don’t give up, even if gradually. So don’t ever give up or think that something is wrong with you or your prayer because change doesn’t happen instantly. Every victory, fast or slow, is an important step in our spiritual growth and our immunity to disease.

These spiritual healings are the reason I know that we are loved and cared for by God every minute of every day, and nothing can invade our harmony when we choose to trust God’s care and not let anything else have a place in our consciousness. We do have a say in this and can side with our all-loving, all-powerful God, who is Love.

* "ANGELS. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality." (Science and Health p. 581)

Photo from Free Foto.com

God and flu

2009-05-01T13:13:00.002-04:00

It is interesting to think about those two things together. Actually they don’t go together -- at all! It would be like saying light and darkness. We can’t have light and darkness in the same place any more than we can have God and the flu in the same place. So is God absent? God is ever-present Life and Love. Darkness isn’t something of itself -- it is the absence of light, isn’t it? The epidemic of disease is also not something of itself -- it is the supposed absence of God, or ever-present good.

So the big question for each one of us is, are we going to believe it and fear it? I read something very telling on the front page of the paper yesterday. The news writer wrote, “ . . . fear of the swine flu spreads as fast as the illness.” Mary Baker Eddy who discovered how Jesus destroyed disease and explains how to do it ourselves, wrote in her book Science and Health, “Destroy fear, and you end fever.”

So how do we destroy fear? Make a choice in our thought, know that God, good is present and therefore disease cannot be present and spreading. Believe in God rather than disease. Trust God, rather than fear disease or a power opposed to God. God is the only power and presence. That is what Jesus was showing us with all his healing works. He proved that God is present and doesn’t create or allow disease but destroys it.

God loves each one of us so much and is with us. Lean on this ever-present Love and it will destroy the fear of disease, and conquer the disease. We can do this, together. It will turn the tide.

The Bible - Lamentations 3:22
“It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.”

Our higher calling

2009-02-18T09:56:00.006-05:00

TMCyouth.com posts video comments about the Christian Science Bible Lessons each week. This is one that I did recently.

video podcast

Source connection

2009-02-09T12:11:00.004-05:00

We can worship God today by remembering that He/She is directing us and is guiding us to do what we are doing today -- whether going to the store, doing our job, taking care of the kids, shoveling snow, cleaning the house, writing a paper, driving a truck, teaching a class etc.

Consequently this God, who is the source of our life, is also giving us the motivation, the strength, the ideas, the ability, the flexibility, the stamina, the courage to do what we are doing today.

Remembering this, can give you the added strength or ideas or whatever it is you need to do what you are doing. Remembering our Source is so important. This strengthens us and allows us to do so much more. Thinking we are the source, weakens and limits us.

freephoto.com

Christ on the job today

2009-02-06T13:33:00.007-05:00

The Christ is working diligently today in consciousness for you and me. What is this Christ doing? Transforming thought from the false material basis to the true spiritual basis -- from a material sense of ourselves as burdened, limited and material, to a spiritual and true sense of ourselves as free, unlimited in expression, and spiritual. Can you feel this Christ working in you? Yes you can!

Sometimes we just need to be made aware of something to notice it.

The Christ is your divine nature, the godliness which is animating you. In her book, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy describes the Christ this way when referring to the Christ in Jesus.

We read in the Bible that Jesus said his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Why could he say that? Because he was in touch with this Christ working in him, his spiritual nature being brought to light in his thought.

The Message Bible interprets some words he said like this -- and he is talking about the Christ -- “Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." Sweet.

freephoto.com

God rejoices over you!

2008-07-30T18:18:00.004-04:00

Think of it -- God rejoicing over you! In the Bible in Zephaniah it says in part, The Lord thy God in the midst of you is mighty; he will save -- it goes on to say, With his love he will calm your fears -- and then it ends with this happy thought, He will rejoice over you with singing.

Most of us wouldn't readily take that to heart -- but why not? God, our Father and Mother, our best Friend is rejoicing over us -- why can't we rejoice over ourselves? Well, because we think of ourselves differently than the creator who made us. We think of ourselves as frail, limited, failing mortals. But this is a false sense of ourselves and we don't need to hang onto it. God who is Love itself, sees us as spiritual ideas, expressions of Him or Her, perfect, forever complete, innocent, full of life -- the life that He gives us to express.

Our role is acceptance. Accept how good and wonderful and beautiful and intelligent you are. This is a great way of glorifying God -- not yourself, but God -- because you are His expression.

Life is rejoicing over you with singing. Love is rejoicing over you with singing. Soul is rejoicing over you with singing.

Together let's let God be glorified today by accepting our innate goodness. Think of God, almighty, all loving God as rejoicing over you today.

God is taking care of you

2008-06-18T18:49:00.002-04:00

Did you know that God is taking very good care of you right now? It’s true. This loving Father Mother God is keeping you safe, providing comfort, loving you, caring for you and giving you everything you need, right now. That is what God does, constantly. This God tells us from Isaiah in the Bible, “This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.”

We show forth His praise because of all that this God or divine Love does for us. The Bible also tells us that “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

No matter what appears to be going on to the physical senses, all good is going on for us and everyone which we see through our spiritual sense. This spiritual sense that we all have, allows us to see things the way God sees them, the way God made them, spiritual and good and even perfect.

God is with us in the floods and the earthquakes and the wars and the cyclones. When there wasn’t enough for everyone to eat or someone appeared to be dead, what did Jesus do? Of all things, he gave thanks, right there where lack or death appeared to be to the material senses. He gave thanks because through his spiritual sense he knew and saw that God was pouring forth abundant good, giving everyone everything they need and more. He saw that since God is Life and God is All there is no death.

We too can give thanks today, right now for all the good that is coming to us from our God.

One way to quicker recovery

2008-03-03T03:37:00.001-05:00

I found something that really works to make ourselves feel better when feeling ill. We need to love more. This really works. When we are not feeling well usually it is easy to fall into feelings of self pity, or self indulgence or grumpiness and not think much about being loving toward others because we feel we need love and help.

And yes, we do need love and compassion and help when we are not feeling well, but the way I’ve found to get that is to be -- think and act -- based on who we really are. In my study of Christian Science I’ve learned that my true identity is a child of God -- translated this means I’m spiritual, immortal, the expression or reflection of Love. I reasoned that if that’s true, then if I act like it I will feel the real self coming through.

That real spiritual self is healthy. How we think about ourselves has everything to do with how we feel. So if we stay in a mental attitude of thinking of ourselves as an unhealthy mortal, separated from God then we will feel the effects of that. If we think of ourselves as the healthy, spiritual expression of Love and act out from that standpoint in our thought and speech and actions, even when we are ill, we will find a much quicker recovery.

Happiness

2008-01-07T14:57:00.000-05:00

It's been said,

“When you are young,

Happiness is about making yourself happy.

When you get older,

Happiness is about making others happy.”

I love it! It does seem that we eventually learn that happiness is truly all about making others happy -- as Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health, “. . . blessed is that man who seeth his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another’s good.”

A perspective on dealing with life challenges

2007-11-22T20:20:00.000-05:00

Here is some wonderful inspiration that someone gained through prayer and shared with me recently, which I felt would be helpful to many. I was given permission to share this with you.

Hi Mark,
I wanted to share an interesting thought that came to me today. This morning as I was studying the Christian Science Bible lesson I was thinking about the challenges I am having and how it seems pretty difficult right now.

It just seems like I should have moved past these issues by now. Then an idea came to thought. When we first moved into this house it was kind of dark and old looking. For some reason we could see past all of that.

So we worked on the house and this work required us to peel away layer after layer of stuff on the walls and floors. Most rooms had three or four layers on the walls of various materials. It was very freeing to peel it all away. Once finished, things seemed much nicer and roomier.

The correlation is with my thought. I think these past few years I have been slowly peeling away the layers. Some of the stuff I cannot get rid of until I uncover another layer. The result though is that as the layers are peeled away and gotten rid of I can get glimpses of the real me. Just like with the house we were able to get glimpses of the real beauty that was there beneath all the junk.

I guess this idea/inspiration helps me to see what is at work and how it is working. Just like with the house, the task sometimes seemed daunting and impossible, but I kept working at it and it was done and worth every minute of effort. I think I will find the same satisfaction with this process, but even more so.
Signed

God’s amazing care

2007-11-15T10:09:00.000-05:00

I had the most amazing thing happen the other night! Now I’ve had many many instances where I’ve felt God, divine Love was taking care of me -- where it was clearly evident to me -- but I’ve never had anything happen quite like this.

I had helped to organize getting some students to a dinner together and then to an inspirational talk with other students their age. I was giving one of the students a ride to the dinner, when on the way there my car just slowly died. The radio went dead then the lights dimmed, then the car slowed, all of which gave me time to pull over in a good place to park, and then it just died.

I never even had time to think about what I was going to do or how we were going to get to the dinner on time. Just as the car was dying my cell phone rang. It was another young friend who was able to get off work earlier than he thought and wanted directions to where we were having dinner. He was about two minutes from where I was stalled, and came by to pick me and my passenger up.

What was truly amazing to me is that it was all just like clock work, as if someone else was in control of everything and just naturally taking care of everything without any elapsed time. Now the thing is I’ve always felt sure that there is a greater than myself in control of my life, and seen many instances of it, but never quite like that, where I didn’t even have to think about anything, it just all happened.

We got to the dinner on time with all the groceries I had and the cookies my young friend was contributing. As I said, we had missed a beat. Also, then, the friend who picked me up was able to supply the transportation to the talk for a group of the students that I had planned on providing transportation for. He also had time in his schedule to take me back to my car where AAA came with a tow truck to take it to a repair shop.

In addition, I had an appointment the next day that I didn’t know how I was going to get to, but when I called the repair shop to see if they would have the car done in time, which was doubtful, he offered me a loaner car.

Now I realize this all might sound a little trite, but I’m feeling that it is a real sign that there truly is a controlling, governing Principle of the universe, which is Love, as Mary Baker Eddy discovered in Jesus teachings and actions. This was a zero stress situation.

Is it just luck or coincidence? I really don’t think so. I do feel inside me a peace, like God’s hand is in it. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Mrs. Eddy writes, “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.”

I’ve seen that happen too many times in this human experience to doubt it, but this was exceptional.

Ear infection healed

2007-11-12T11:41:00.000-05:00

When I was very young, I remember having a physical healing of an ear infection through prayer alone. I don’t remember exactly how old I was but I think somewhere between about first and third grade in school when this happened.

My dear mother was just learning about Christian Science. She had been raised a Catholic and become interested in Christian Science when she married my father, who had been raised in it.

I know she must have been very afraid for me when I had this painful ear infection. I remember lying in bed in great pain and just moving my head back and forth in constant motion making noise. I remember feeling my mother’s love for me as she sat beside my bed and talked with me. I remember her reading things to me from an inspirational magazine put out by the Christian Science Publishing Society, that had thoughts about God and experiences of healing the people related.

I’m sure the reading was helping to get her thought on God and quiet her fear. It also helped to get me thinking about God and His goodness and love for me. This was a special prayer time together we had with God. I remember feeling great trust in God, and felt that God loved me and would take care of me.

I don’t remember being in this extremely painful condition for too long, maybe a half hour or hour, from the best that I can recall, but I remember at one point my ear just drained and all the pain went away.

That had to be a huge relief to my mother who was really just learning to put her faith in God in this way. I don’t remember ever having ear aches like that again. This was one of those early experiences that began building my faith in a loving God, always taking care of me. Of course, God has this same care for all of His or Her children.

More happiness and satisfaction in your day

2007-11-05T11:58:00.000-05:00

Is there a simple action we can take that will guarantee more happiness and satisfaction in our day?

I think so. I have found that bringing God into my day makes all the difference.

But what does that mean, and how do you do it?

Well you have to admit, it sounds good, doesn’t it? :0)

It is easier than you might think to bring God into your day. We express God. God is Life, and we express that Life. Remembering during the day that we are expressing the almighty, unlimited, happy, creative, eternal, lovely Life, brings God into our day. It really is that simple. BUT we have to remember to do it, and it only takes a second or two.

It is a kind of prayer and it is so freeing and light, compared to going through our day thinking that we are just expressing ourselves, our little weak, limited, burdened sense of mortal life. We just don’t have the capacity to do much. All our creativity, strength, goodness, health, liveliness and individuality comes from this God who is our life.

When you express intelligence in your day take two seconds and say “thank you Father” – or “Mother” (which ever hits you). When you express strength and ability, take two seconds and say, “thank you Father” – or “Mother.” When you come up with some great idea about how to do something, take two seconds and say, “thank you Father” – or “Mother.”

This is a prayer. This is acknowledging that God is the power, the Mind and that you are expressing -- this wonderful source of all. This is keeping in line with the first commandment to have no other gods before us.

Enjoy!

A refreshing way to think about church

2007-10-30T02:32:00.000-04:00

These days it can be easy to think about church as old fashion, dogmatic, out of touch. Mary Baker Eddy, a true ideas woman and forward thinker has helped me to think about church in a vital way. She herself founded a church, but she understood church in its highest significance and brought that out in her writings.

She has helped me to think about the church that Jesus started. Where is it? Where did he build it? As a Christian, that would be the best church to unite with, right?

I’ve found his church to be built in our hearts and minds.

There is a story in the Bible of one of Jesus’ disciples, Peter, acknowledging through inspiration from God, Jesus pure spirituality that allowed him to heal, which is referred to as the Christ. Jesus basically said it was this acknowledgement on which he would build his church. (see Matthew 13:16-18)

In short, Jesus healed and left instruction for his immediate and future followers to heal like he did, through inspiration from God, which Mrs. Eddy explains how to do. I have found a vital sense of church, a deeply satisfying worship of God daily, through striving to love and heal more.

Mrs. Eddy says it this way in Science and Health on page 35,

“Our church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can unite with this church only as we are new-born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth the fruits of Love, — casting out error and healing the sick.”

This is a fun and inspiring sense of church we can all be involved in daily. And if we attend church in a building, we can take this true sense of church with us.

My first insight

2007-10-24T11:25:00.000-04:00

When I was a little boy in the Christian Science Sunday School, my teachers told me about God. The two main things they told me about God that I really grabbed onto somehow, was that God was all good, all loving and was everywhere, always with me.

As one of the original “latchkey kids” (these were the rare children that had keys to their homes because no parent was home when they got there) I found comfort in knowing that God, this loving Father Mother, was always with me. I really felt like God was my friend, although invisible and fairly intangible. And yet I guess I felt God as a presence.

This is so important for all of us as adults, to have that childlike sense that God loves us and is taking care of us. Jesus told us that we need to be childlike in order to enter the kingdom of God.

“Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." (Mark 10:15 – Message Bible)

This kingdom is not far off or in the future, it is now. It is the place of peace and harmony in our thought.

So together, let’s be like little children, put our hand in God’s and trust Him/Her with our life. I can’t begin to tell you how this has paid off for me. And I would like to remember it and keep it up, and you can join me if you like.

We can't lose our innate goodness and true value

2007-10-19T18:23:00.000-04:00

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, “Who would like this $20.00 bill?” Hands started going up. He said “I am going to give this $20.00 bill to one of you but first , let me do this. He proceeded to crumple up the $20.00 bill. He then asked “Who still wants it?” Still hands were up in the air. Well, he replied, “What if I do this?” And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. “Now who still wants it?” Still the hands went in the air.

“My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease the value. It was still worth $20.00. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as tho we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never loose your value. Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you. The worth comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE. YOU ARE SPECIAL- Don’t EVER forget it“.

Author unknown.

Feeling more support and happiness in your life

2007-10-17T11:04:00.000-04:00

Is there more than one Ego? We could also ask is there more than one God? We tend to act like there are many egos or many gods. We think we are little gods, with our own mind and our own life and our own plans, decisions, challenges etc. And we act like that. Then we might call on God our Creator, our Source to help us get through the day that WE have planned.

That kind of thinking is bondage. It is heavy, burdened. It sometimes works out and sometimes doesn’t. It is sometimes exciting and sometime drudgery. It is like a roller coaster ride.

I’ve found that to gain more peace and live life on a more even keel, maintaining a sense of joy and health and happiness is to remember that God is the Ego and I am the expression of that Ego, rather than my own little ego.

I love what Mary Baker Eddy wrote in a book called Retrospection and Introspection,
“The sun sends forth light, but not suns; so God reflects Himself, or Mind, but does not subdivide Mind, or good, into minds, good and evil.”

As the first chapter in the Bible, in Genesis tells us, we are the “image and likeness” of God, His/Her reflection, His/Her expression.

We practically apply this truism in our life by going about our day knowing that we are doing what we are doing as an expression of God, or Life or Love or Mind, all names for God. This gives us the confidence and comfort and peace and strength of knowing that we have the full power of the Creator or one Ego behind us to give us all the energy, ideas, strength, motivation, creativity etc. to do whatever we are doing.

Ahhhh! That is so much better.

"Life" includes only harmony

2007-10-15T11:03:00.000-04:00

Mary Baker Eddy a pioneering thinker and author wrote something that really got me to thinking. It’s from her major work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. “Harmony in man is as real and immortal as in music. Discord is unreal and mortal.”

This points to a major misconception of life that we tend to carry around and just accept. When we think of music, we don’t ever think of discordant music, right? That would be an oxymoron – discordant music. There is no such thing. If sounds are discordant or lack harmony we would never think of that as music. We wouldn’t even think of it as bad music. It doesn’t have anything to do with music.

Well, the same should be thought about life, except that we’ve been educated differently. We think that life includes concord AND discord, that it is a mix. This goes back to the Adam and Eve story in the Bible where the serpent (liar) tempted them to take from this tree of false knowledge and they would then know good AND evil. That story is about what is not true.

As Mrs. Eddy discovered, wrote about and proved, life is harmony and vise versa. Anything inharmonious is not life and has nothing to do with life, any more than it does with music.

I’m sure it was being clear about this fact that allowed her to heal like Jesus did. We too can begin to make this paradigm shift in our thought about life and heal spiritually. Thinking this way is key to helping me to heal.

When we think about any aspect of life it should include harmony. If it doesn’t, it is not really life, but rather a false mortal sense of life that can’t rule us.

Healing of flu (or something similar)

2007-10-09T12:36:00.000-04:00

I’m not exactly sure what you would call the specific illness I had but several weeks ago, I was feeling weak and aching. I was praying about it and I would get a little better and then worse. I couldn’t seem to shake it.

So I called on another Christian Science practitioner to pray with me about this. That day I felt a little better but woke up the next morning much worse and my wife and I were leaving for a trip across the country. I could barely get ready to go to the airport. I had to keep lying down. At one point I decided to really stop for a half hour and not think about anything else but just God and my relationship to Him/Her – trying to FEEL God with me.

I laid down and listened to an inspirational Bible lesson to help keep my thought on God. This helped greatly and I was able to get ready to go to the airport. It was still a bit of a struggle though, but I was putting all my trust in God to take care of me.

I was able to talk with my friend a bit, who was praying for me and let her know I was making this trip and was still struggling to find healing.

Here’s the cool part. By the time I got on the plane I was completely well. I mean completely. Whatever it was, was gone and I mentioned this fact to my wife. I mean there was no recovery time or fading out of the problem – it was just GONE.

I love to have healings like that. It makes it so obvious to me that there is a God. There is really no other explanation.

Happiness by what we think – part 2

2007-10-08T10:10:00.000-04:00

I’d like to add a couple other things about this purity of thought to the previous entry.

To define this purity of thought further-- it feels as if it is thought that is at one with God, Spirit. Since God is all good, these thoughts that fill consciousness are all good (not Pollyannaish thoughts) but good solid, happy, uplifting, true thoughts about spiritual reality -- in other words, seeing the spiritual reality in all things.

I find, it’s the base (dic def of base: morally low; dishonorable; meanspirited; selfish; cowardly) thoughts that bring different degrees of darkness to my life.

The reason I’m talking about this is because of the exhilarated feeling I’ve had when I’ve maintained purity of thought. There is such a freedom to it, an uplift, a strength, a power, and much love and compassion that goes with it.

I feel it was this state of thought that allowed Jesus to heal the way he did. I say this because I feel God more and spiritual healing comes easier for me the purer my thought is. Jesus told us, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”

I find this absolute purity is very difficult to maintain because the world and earthly debased thoughts are coming at us all the time from all directions.

I think this is why Jesus said simply, “ . . . what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.”

It seems we first need to be aware of the need to watch our thoughts constantly, then we need to do it if we want to feel this amazing freedom and strength, uplift, happiness, and holiness that goes with it.

I feel I have only scratched the surface of the possibilities of this one discipline.

Happiness by what we think -- part 1

2007-10-06T20:11:00.000-04:00

I’m discovering to a greater degree that purity of thought is the happiest place, most satisfying, most peaceful. I’m also well aware that purity of thought is very difficult to attain and challenging to hang onto.

What do I mean by purity of thought? For me right now, it’s where my thought stays completely with thoughts that are spiritually based. That would be, loving, good, supportive thoughts – thoughts that lack judgment or criticism of others. These pure thoughts are not mixed with sensualism of any kind. They would include no selfishness, anger or vengeful or lustful thoughts.

Keeping thought focused on the unseen God and His/Her unseen creation seems to be the most peaceful and happiest place I’ve found. This doesn’t mean to be in a state where we have our head in the clouds, but rather seeing the spiritual idea behind things, which I find allows me to unconditionally love others and support all the good that is going on humanly. In this mental place it becomes clear that all the bad stuff will destroy itself or be destroyed by the good, and thus I find the peace I was talking about.

It is sooo cool to just be in a state that no matter who I think about, I think supportive thoughts – detach any evil they may have expressed, and see past that to their spiritual identity as a child of God.

I find this takes tremendous effort in this world to think with purity of thought. One way I’ve worked on it is to imagine that all my thoughts could be seen or heard by others. That always brings me up a little short. It’s a good practice and discipline though and I’m going to keep it up.

I’ve got so very far to go. I would love to have you join me in this and I think the world will be a better place.

(In case you are interested, I happen to use the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures mostly to help me think pure and spiritually based thoughts)

God is a “cool dude”

2007-10-03T15:25:00.000-04:00

Is God really an old fuddy duddy like many seem to think? Absolutely not! It seems that what we tend to do is to project our human view of God on God. This makes us afraid to trust our lives to Him or Her, because we are afraid that this traditional, conservative, judge (as we might picture Him without realizing it) is at the ready to make us do all the things we don’t want to do.

I heard this view articulated recently on TV where someone was in a crowd of people and asked a young lady if she thought about God. She said something like, “oh, I’m young and free and enjoying life, this is not a time to be thinking about God.”

That blew my mind, because of my experience with God. To me God has, from one angle, always been a pretty cool dude. When I went skiing for the first time in high school, it was God who was right there with me on the slopes, taking away all my fears, and giving me the ability to go to the top of the mountain and ski well on my first day up.

I always found this thing or power or entity we call God to be a presence that helped and encouraged and showed me how to have the most fun, even at parties.

When I was graduating from high school I knew I didn’t want to go to college right away so I asked this God I had come to know as my best friend and helper, what should I do? Do you know what He or She told me? He said buy a motorcycle and travel the country. I said, “really?” This same God supplied me with a brand new Harley Davidson motorcycle to travel on. And travel I did. And this God, who I also think of as divine Love, was with me all the way.

Don’t miss out! I've found if you give your life to God you will have more fun than you’ve ever had.

The WHY question?

2007-09-26T11:25:00.001-04:00

Many times people are struggling with a problem, whether physical or financial or mental and they start asking or wondering WHY. “Why is this happening, why me, what is wrong with me, etc?”

That is exactly the wrong question to ask when striving to find spiritual healing. God is the only Cause there is. In prayer we are striving to lift thought above the problem and to see what God is causing, which is always good. This is something we begin to see through our spiritual sense.

It is the material senses that are telling us something is wrong or bad. So in prayer what we are doing is turning away from the material sense evidence to see what God is doing, to see the harmony of the situation as God sees it. Jesus did this.

As Paul tells us in the Bible, “. . . look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."
(II Cor 4:18)

The WHY question takes us right back to the problem, makes it very real and something created by the only creator, God, and consequently nullifies any prayer we’ve been doing.

Keeping our eye single to the light of truth that God is causing only good for us, and trusting that spiritual law to adjust anything that seems out of whack will bring the desired healing.

Give Yourself a Lift

2007-09-25T17:02:00.000-04:00

Giving yourself a lift, finding more happiness in your day is a scientific process. In other words it is based on Science, spiritual Science and all we have to do is follow simple rules to find wonderful lifting moments of happiness in our day.

This spiritual Science could also be called the Science of Love or Life. Using capital Ls signify that these words are also synonyms for God.

In this Science a rule to be happy and uplifted is to love and to give. Think about uplifting someone else and it will bring you with it.

For example, a DHL package delivery person just rang my doorbell and left a package. I went to get it and looked at the address and saw that it didn’t belong to me. I was able to get to the driver before he left and showed him the wrong address on the package.

Well, he kind of started kicking himself and trying to give me reasons for the mistake because he felt so bad. Consequently he was very serious because he was not happy with himself. I assured him the best I could that it was perfectly fine, no problem at all.

He was still very serious and looking furiously for the correct package in his van of packages. I was being very patient so he would feel ok about the need to take his time and look for the correct package.

The uplift came after he found the package, gave it to me and I was able to make him smile by commenting on the beautiful day we had, in a tone which made it obvious that I was not upset at all and was happy and wanted him to feel good about the day too. His smile lit up my day at that moment.

It can be so simple to give yourself a lift. Lift someone else.

Feeling your prayer answered

2007-01-18T12:50:00.000-05:00

Listen to this experience I had today!

Contact Mark

Thanksgiving and spiritual progress

2006-11-22T18:28:00.000-05:00

The following was sent to me by someone who has been deeply studying and practicing the ideas from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, especially over the past year. This is a list of things she felt she had to be grateful for in her life, and I find it to be very inspiring and want to share it with her permission. As you will see, it doesn’t feel so denominational but presents universal spiritual concepts that she has come to find and be grateful for which has blessed her life.

Thankful --

Learning to see the bright side.

Focusing on the positive instead of on all the negative.

I don’t think the circumstances change, I just think how I look at them has changed.

Loving my job and the kids in my class.

Focusing less on me and more on others.

Being able to run to express God.

Knowing that my strength and energy comes from within.

Learning step by step that it does not matter what the material senses are saying or reporting about the body -- all that matters is what God is saying to me (my spiritual sense).

Being able to look beyond the mortal.

Knowing that we can see others as God sees them.

Every morning thinking about my true identity and the truth about those around me.

Knowing that each day is a day to learn and grow more.

Knowing that I can screw up and move past it, the next time just try harder to do or be better.

Being able to pray for myself and be somewhat successful.

Learning that my past does not define me.

We can revise and expunge past events. (Jesus parable about separating the tares from the wheat)

Listening to God and actually hearing His inspirations.

Finding glimpses of the unspeakable peace I have been searching for.

Finding freedom mentally.

Learning that God loves me no matter what and has always loved me.

Learning to love others and myself.

Learning to love God.

Christian Science- without I am not sure where I would be.

Mary Baker Eddy for giving us this amazing lifesaver.

Christian Science practitioners for being able to see beyond all the material crap and seeing me for who I really am.

Beginning to strengthen my relationship with my husband through prayer.

Knowing that we are going to have to work it out either here or hereafter.

The opportunity to take Christian Science class instruction to learn more about healing.

No more "dark side"

2006-11-07T13:05:00.000-05:00

My first thought when I read a recent article about Reverend Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, confessing to his immoral acts was, “God bless the man.”

I think it is easy to condemn and judge someone like that for his wrong doing but my heart goes out to him especially because of something he said, “There’s a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life.”

If we are honest with ourselves we can all relate to that to some degree. Even St. Paul, another mega evangelist said,

“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.”
(Rom 7:19,20)

After a little more elaboration he ends with the declaration that Christ will save him from this inner raging war and impending doom.

Sensuality haunted me for a good chunk of my life and at times seemed overwhelming causing me to act out some of my hidden thoughts. This sensual thinking or “dark side” as Reverend Haggard called it must be destroyed or it will take us down.

Thanks to the Science of Christianity that Mary Baker Eddy discovered and wrote down in the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, I was able to overcome or root out this demon completely so it had no more power over me.

Eddy explains in her book some specific steps that need to be taken to overcome this kind of evil. The first is to recognize the sin or evil and admit it, so it is exposed rather than hidden. I did this in recognizing and admitting to myself that I was indulging in sensual thoughts and fantasies.

The next step is to realize the fact that this evil is really not a part of our true spiritual nature, which is our only real nature as made in the image and likeness of God according to Genesis 1:26, 27. God is good only and so are we as His creation or image. Therefore evil is an imposition and only has the seeming power or reality that we give it.

The next step is to recognize that there is no real pleasure in sensuality or evil. All one has to do is take an honest look at what you gain by mentally or physically indulging sensual thoughts or acts, whether it involves eating, or taking drugs, or drinking alcohol or violence etc. and you come to the conclusion that it doesn’t bring the pleasure it promises but rather more pain and darkness. What this does is to uncover evil’s real nature and wakes you up to how you are being used.

As I did this and admitted to myself the pain and darkness and depression actually caused by a few moments of indulging sensual fantasies the lure of it began to fade away. This I found to be the most important step in the process to completely find my freedom from indulging in sensual thoughts.

Another important step along with these other steps is true scientific prayer that acknowledges the grace and power of God in our lives to overrule any evil suggestions or attempts to lure us away from our God given purity and innocence.

This grace, or divine influence always active in our lives, is the Christ that Paul was speaking of that provides the spiritual light that saves from the darkness of mortality.

Eddy sums it up in this sentence from Science and Health,

“The real man being linked by Science to his Maker, mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to God, and to recognize the divine sonship.”

It is a great feeling to feel free from any "dark side." Anyone can do it.

Comments are always welcome ! Or you can Contact Mark

Forgiveness -- it's a beautiful thing to behold

2006-10-10T15:19:00.000-04:00

Well, I guess I'll begin this blog with an article I wrote for The Christian Science Monitor because I was so touched by the unfolding events in the school shooting in the Amish community. See link at bottom.

It was so refreshing to hear the community wide response of forgiveness from the Amish. Wow!! If we could all be like that. I have also heard here and there gallant men and women stepping forward to truly forgive the killer of their loved one(s), but much more often it seems that we the people are screaming for revenge.

What we seem to too easily forget (and I include myself) is that justice is always being served no matter what happens to the criminal. When any of us act out from the motive of hatred or anger or revenge, we suffer. We are being overcome by evil and that brings inevitable suffering. I've felt it and I'm sure you have.

The Amish choose not to perpetuate the evil but rather to side with love and forgiveness, to side with their God. What a great testament to what we are all capable of.

See my article in The Christian Science Monitor titled

FROM PENNSYLVANIA: A growing lesson on forgiveness
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1010/p18s01-hfcs.html

A comment from the Amplified Bible

I Peter 3:8,9
8) Finally, all [of you] should be of one and the same mind (united in spirit), sympathizing [with one another], loving [each other] as brethren [of one household], compassionate and courteous (tenderhearted and humble).

9) Never return evil for evil or insult for insult (scolding, tongue-lashing, berating), but on the contrary blessing [praying for their welfare, happiness, and protection, and truly pitying and loving them]. For know that to this you have been called, that you may yourselves inherit a blessing [from God--that you may obtain a blessing as heirs, bringing welfare and happiness and protection].

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