Was it something you did wrong?


Notes and References from 7/01/01

Was it something you did?

Continuing from last week, Christian Science is not some philosophy or system of changing some human event. It is a revelation of Truth that inspires. With this inspiration we see clearly the spiritual facts of existence and the falsity of the material condition we were claiming to be true.

We simply can’t put our problem first and then bring God (Love and Truth) to it. The Bible does not start, "In the beginning problem of mine". The Lord’s Prayer does not start out, "Our problem which art on earth, hollowed be Thy name. The doctrine of Christian Science does not read, the "You and your problem can't be deprived of the manifestation of good." Just the opposite, it reads that Divine Love cannot be deprived of you! You are depriving yourself of Love's effect on you when you turn from Spirit to matter.

304:9-14 This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death.

Have you ever heard Christian Scientists tell you that you are having a problem because of something you have done wrong? That is not correct and you have never heard that in our class. That would be starting with the problem as real and then finding a cause. Nonetheless, when you have a problem the remedy is found by uplifting your thought. –by letting the revelation so change your nature that you no longer identify the problem.

Along this line let’s look at the two pronged effect of Christian Science from this week’s lesson:

559:1-10 This angel had in his hand "a little book," open for all to read and understand. Did this same book contain the revelation of divine Science, the "right foot" or dominant power of which was upon the sea, — upon elementary, latent error, the source of all error's visible forms? The angel's left foot was upon the earth; that is, a secondary power was exercised upon visible error and audible sin. The "still, small voice" of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean to the globe's remotest bound.

When we pray to have an outward or visible problem healed we are, as we said last week, minimizing or trivializing the power of God. We are asking God to recognize our little problem, instead of submitting to the allness of God and see what unexpected greatness is planned for us. (Usually far greater than anything we could have prayed for.) Instead of the still small voice coming to our matter, it reached the globe’s remotest bound!

I remember when I got married, I was so worried about everything going just right. Would the tuxes arrive, did I forget the ring, would it rain???? By best man suggested that we just pray for perfection and all of those details would be included. Another time I lost my class ring at a College Org event at a park. The entire group feeling sympathetic to my loss formed a line and combed the entire field looking for my ring. —Everyone, that is, but my friend Jeff (the same person mentioned above). He sat silently and prayed. After a short time he got up and went in an entirely different direction from where we thought I had lost the ring. He went right o the ring and picked it up. You see in both cases I was minimizing what I was asking for. Jeff was turning to the allness of God first and that included everything else.

Remember the story of the man who goes on vacation only to have his burglar alarm go off the day after he leaves? The neighbors are furious. The loud piercing alarm goes for the entire night. Nothing works to turn off the alarm. The man finally gets home to find that someone has actually cut the electricity to his house to make the alarm stop. What is missing in the story? That’s right, what about the burglar that was the source of the alarm going off in the first place? When you treat matter you are forgetting about the burglar (the false, latent belief that needs to be handled in your thinking. Whether or not you have actually sinned the need is the same. You must lift your thought out of matter into the revelation of Truth.

The only purpose in seeing a problem is to remove it’s reality. (Cleanse your garment as stated below.) Then you will see yourself as a fellow saint of a holy household, without stain or blemish.

Ret 86:8 "Know thyself!" as said the classic Grecian motto. Note well the falsity of this mortal self! Behold its vileness, and remember this poverty-stricken "stranger that is within thy gates." Cleanse every stain from this wanderer's soiled garments, wipe the dust from his feet and the tears from his eyes, that you may behold the real man, the fellow-saint of a holy household. There should be no blot on the escutcheon of our Christliness when we offer our gift upon the altar.

It takes humility and deep desire to be willing to turn to the Christ to take you in and touch your heart, change your nature. It’s like the cute story of 12 yr old Mark, whose parents hosted the Last Supper, he was caught spying on everyone with a bedsheet wrapped around his naked body. The disciples thought they would have some fun and pulled the sheet off of him. He ran away embarrassed.

Mark 14:51,52 And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him: And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.

Don’t hide behind your bedsheet (material façade). Go to Love and allow yourself to be loved.

After class one of you asked about the word, Shekinah, in the last hymn we sang. I too, did not know what it meant so I looked it up for you and here it is:

Shekinah is not mentioned in the Bible but it is referred to in the Talmud as the place on earth where God dwells. Many Christians believe that the Shekinah is the body of Christ within which God came to earth. Jews believe that the burning bush that spoke to Moses or the Ark of the Covenant represent the Shekinah. Others simply refer to a temple within which you can feel God’s presence as the Shekinah.

Here is what your Leader says of the word,

40:31 "The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and this advance beyond matter must come through the joys and triumphs of the righteous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions. Like our Master, we must depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being."

Isn’t that exactly what we are talking about? See you all next week.



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