You are growing!


September 17, 2000 - Notes and References You are growing!

One comment needs to be made about last week. It is fine to have nice clothes, cars, houses, etc. Just make sure they are not the goals and objectives in your life. Instead they should be the by-products of a spiritual sense of yourself and others. You concept of God needs to grow. Here’s a perfect citation:

Pe 14:1-2As our ideas of Deity become more spiritual, we express them by objects more beautiful.

Notice that it does not say that as your objects become more beautiful that your idea of Deity (God) becomes more spiritual. Put God first!


On page 297 of our textbook MBE uses the word "chrysalis". A chrysalis state is a cacoon state whereby the caterpillar transforms into the butterfly.

297:20-24Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual evidence, contradicting the testimony of material sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the ever-present, is becoming understood.

I we think of prayer as our quiet audience with God it can become a state of consciousness whereby our thinking is transformed and we obtain a spiritual sense of everything we deal with. Frank Gale, a student of Mrs. Eddy shares a letter she wrote to him:

"You are growing. The Father has sealed you, and the opening of these seals must not surprise you. The character of Christ is wrought out in our lives by just such processes. The tares and wheat appear to grow together until the harvest; then the tares are first gathered, that is, you have seasons of seeing your errors-and afterwards by reason of this very seeing, the tares are burned, the error is destroyed. Then you see Truth plainly and the wheat is 'gathered into barns,' it becomes permanent in the understanding."-A LETTER FROM MBE TO FRANK GALE, WE KNEW MARY BAKER EDDY, SECOND SERIES, PAGE 25

Deep, quiet longings for an inspired view of life means, as Presidential candidate Al Gore said on Oprah last week, "I see myself as, not as a human being seeking a spiritual experience, but as a spiritual being in a human experience." For us this statement is more than just clever speech writing. It is the basis of each day'’ activities.

Thus we have two approaches to life. One is starting from the mortal basis of life and trying to spiritualize our experience. (Doesn’t work—can’t heal a thing!) The other is to start with God and then understand your relationship to him/her (yes, her) as an idea of Mind. Mrs. Eddy shows us both approaches on page 115 of the textbook:

SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF IMMORTAL MIND

GOD: Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind.

MAN: God's spiritual idea, individual, perfect , eternal.

IDEA: An image in Mind; the immediate object of understanding. — Webster.

SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF MORTAL MIND

First Degree: Depravity.

PHYSICAL. Evil beliefs, passions and appetites, fear, depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, deceit , hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease, death.

Second Degree: Evil beliefs disappearing.

MORAL. Humanity, honesty, affection, compassion , hope, faith, meekness, temperance.

Third Degree: Understanding.

SPIRITUAL. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, spiritual power, love, health, holiness.

You can’t start with the physical and expect to reconcile yourself spiritually. What Mrs. Eddy is explaining is the process out of matter, but to heal we must always start with God. The world will see the translation of mortal mind into a spiritualized life but you start your work with the Truth of being and work out from there. Moral qualities are not achieved through will power simply because you want to be more moral. They are the result of spiritual sense. The very by-product of your "original perfection" and such morality has always been characteristic of who you are.

Questions from class this morning:

How do I best handle my time?

Great question. To answer it lets go to the Glossary. But before we go there, tell me where it is located. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is divided into two sections: the Science and Health part and the Key to the Scriptures part. The first 14 chapters comprise Science and Health. It ends with the chapter "Recapitulation" (questions and answers). That chapter is the textbook for class instruction. The last page of Recapitulation contains the Tenets of Christian Science. The last three refer to the Scriptures. That part deals with Genesis, The Apocalypse (Book of Revelation) and the Glossary of Bible Terms. It is in that last chapter that we get a glimpse of the answer to your question.

Contents

Preface vii

I. Prayer 1

II. Atonement and Eucharist 18

III. Marriage 56

IV. Christian Science versus Spiritualism 70

V. Animal Magnetism Unmasked 100

VI. Science, Theology, Medicine 107

VII. Physiology 165

VIII. Footsteps of Truth 201

IX. Creation 255

X. Science of Being 268

XI. Some Objections Answered 341

XII. Christian Science Practice 362

XIII. Teaching Christian Science 443

XIV. Recapitulation 465

Key to the Scriptures

XV. Genesis 501

XVI. The Apocalypse 558

XVII. Glossary 579

XVIII. Fruitage 600

Three definitions come to mind. Sun, Year, and Time. Notice in the definition of Sun that the order of the three synonyms is changes from the normal "Life, Truth and Love" to "Truth, Life and Love". Why? Well, what are the two qualities of the sun? Light and Warmth. And what two names for God correspond to those two qualities? Light of Truth and Warmth of Love.

Life is in the center because infinite Life is surrounded, enclosed and protected by the warmth of Love and the Light of Truth.

Your life is infinite, without time or mortal measurements. What time is it when you are standing on the sun? There is no time! Instead on trying to manage your time, try managing your timing. That is what grace is all about. Look at Mis 117:

"The disobedient make their moves before God makes His, or make them too late to follow Him. Be sure that God directs your way; then, hasten to follow under every circumstance."

595:1SUN. The symbol of Soul governing man, — of Truth, Life, and Love.

595:17TIME. Mortal measurements; limits, in which are summed up all human acts, thoughts, beliefs, opinions, knowledge; matter; error; that which begins before, and continues after, what is termed death, until the mortal disappears and spiritual perfection appears.

598:19 (to ;)YEAR. A solar measurement of time;

How do I achieve more perfection in my day’s activities?

It is necessary to spend quiet time in lesson reading and prayer each morning. I have never had a single day when every thought, every word and every act expressed perfection. I have had many days when a majority (over 50%) of my thoughts, speech and actions were inspired. Remember though, I am speaking in the relative. You must always think in the absolute, where your continual perfection is uninterrupted.

You will find yourself witnessing more of your perfect expression when you seek inspiration not will-power.

How do you pray?

The first chapter is "Prayer". Read it! She tells us what prayer is and what it is not. Lets look at just of few definitions of prayer:

1:11Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds.

4:3-5What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds.

4:12-13The habitual struggle to be always good is unceasing prayer.

4:19-21 daily (to ,)daily watchfulness and in striving to assimilate more of the divine character,

4:29 (to obedience)watchfulness, and devout obedience

4:10 loyal (to ,)loyal and heartfelt gratitude,

Now lets look at what prayer is not:

2:24-25Can we inform the infinite Mind of anything He does not already comprehend?

2:31 (only)Asking God to be God is a vain repetition.

3:4-5Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to solve the problem?

We will continue to answer this question each week. Hope these few references give you some clues.

How do you handle things you do not have control of, like an accident?

Start with God and man’s perfectibility in Science. The following well known citation does not refer to accidents as much as it refers to odds and probability. Look at the reference to "notion of chance". You are not subject to such mortal laws of chance and therefore are never in a situation out of God’s control.

424:5-11Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony.

Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, since there is no room for imperfection in perfection.

Can you go back and change mistakes from the past?

Absolutely and you are required to do so. Look at this reference:

Ret 22:1The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged.


We covered a lot of ground this week. We will review many of these points again in weeks to come. See you all next week.

Mike


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