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Wednesday, June 07, 2023
Theme: THE DIVINE EVER-PRESENCE
Readings from the Bible:
1. Acts 17:27 they, 28 (to ;)
... they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; ...
2. Ps. 139:7, 8, 11
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. ... If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
3. Isa. 33:2 (to ;), 5, 17 (to :), 20–22 (to ;)
O LORD, be gracious unto us; ... The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness. ... Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: ... Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby. For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; ...
4. Ps. 103:2, 4 (to 1st ;), 6
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: ... Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; ... The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
5. Lev. 13:9, 10 (to :), 17 if, 20 4th the, 45
¶ When the plague of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be brought unto the priest; And the priest shall see him: ... ... if the plague be turned into white; then the priest shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: he is clean. ... ... the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a plague of leprosy broken out of the boil. ... And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.
6. Matt. 8:2–4 behold (to 3rd ,)
... behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, ...
7. Hos. 6:1 (to :), 2 we
Come, and let us return unto the LORD: ... ... we shall live in his sight.
8. Hos. 11:3 they, 4 (to :)
... they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: ...
9. Matt. 6:22–24
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! ¶ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
10. John 12:44, 45, 49, 50 (to :)
¶ Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. ... For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: ...
11. Josh. 1:9
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. and correlative passages from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
Readings from Science and Health:
1. SH 180:25–27
When man is governed by God, the ever-present Mind who understands all things, man knows that with God all things are possible.
2. SH 331:18 God (only), 20–24
... God is individual, incorporeal. ... He is all-inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real and eternal and by nothing else. He fills all space, and it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and individuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind.
3. SH 469:21
We bury the sense of infinitude, when we admit that, although God is infinite, evil has a place in this infinity, for evil can have no place, where all space is filled with God.
4. SH 146:23
Divine Science derives its sanction from the Bible, and the divine origin of Science is demonstrated through the holy influence of Truth in healing sickness and sin. This healing power of Truth must have been far anterior to the period in which Jesus lived. It is as ancient as “the Ancient of days.” It lives through all Life, and extends throughout all space.
5. SH 394:28
We should remember that Life is God, and that God is omnipotent. Not understanding Christian Science, the sick usually have little faith in it till they feel its beneficent influence. This shows that faith is not the healer in such cases. The sick unconsciously argue for suffering, instead of against it. They admit its reality, whereas they should deny it. They should plead in opposition to the testimony of the deceitful senses, and maintain man's immortality and eternal likeness to God.
6. SH 242:15
Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error, — self-will, self-justification, and self-love, — which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death.
7. SH 14:1
If we are sensibly with the body and regard omnipotence as a corporeal, material person, whose ear we would gain, we are not “absent from the body” and “present with the Lord” in the demonstration of Spirit. We cannot “serve two masters.” To be “present with the Lord” is to have, not mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demonstration and understanding of Life as revealed in Christian Science. To be “with the Lord” is to be in obedience to the law of God, to be absolutely governed by divine Love, — by Spirit, not by matter.
8. SH 153:16–2
You say a boil is painful; but that is impossible, for matter without mind is not painful. The boil simply manifests, through inflammation and swelling, a belief in pain, and this belief is called a boil. Now administer mentally to your patient a high attenuation of truth, and it will soon cure the boil. The fact that pain cannot exist where there is no mortal mind to feel it is a proof that this so-called mind makes its own pain — that is, its own belief in pain. We weep because others weep, we yawn because they yawn, and we have smallpox because others have it; but mortal mind, not matter, contains and carries the infection. When this mental contagion is understood, we shall be more careful of our mental conditions, and we shall avoid loquacious tattling about disease, as we would avoid advocating crime. Neither sympathy nor society should ever tempt us to cherish error in any form, and certainly we should not be error's advocate.
9. SH 351:13
It was the living, palpitating presence of Christ, Truth, which healed the sick.
10. SH 266:24–29 (to 1st .)
Mortals must follow Jesus' sayings and his demonstrations, which dominate the flesh. Perfect and infinite Mind enthroned is heaven. The evil beliefs which originate in mortals are hell. Man is the idea of Spirit; he reflects the beatific presence, illuming the universe with light.
11. SH 249:6–9
Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor material power as able to destroy. Let us rejoice that we are subject to the divine “powers that be.”
12. SH 471:18–19
God is infinite, therefore ever present, and there is no other power nor presence.
HYMNS: 109, 7, 485
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