Whole vs. hole

I may have written about this before but since it comes up in this week's Bible lesson, it is worth mentioning again. In the story of the woman with an issue of blood that she has been unable to cure despite seeing all the doctors and trying all the cures, she hears about Jesus and decides to do something very dangerous and brave. In her condition she is forbidden by Jewish law to mix with others as her issue of blood makes her unclean and would do that same for anyone she came in contact with. In her desperation she moves among the throng surrounding the Master in the hope that if she can but touch his clothes, she will be healed. And that is exactly what happens. She touches him and feels immediately that the condition has been healed. Jesus feels that touch and searches her out as she tries to slip away unnoticed. His purpose is not to expose her disobedience but to strengthen her understanding of how she had been healed. If he had let her go she would have believed she could only be healed by contact with him and he knew he was not always going to be there. But God always is. It was her faith in the Christ's ability to heal anything, including this stubborn and hopeless blood condition. Faith like that was rewarded and he just wanted her to see that by turning to God she would always find the answers she sought.

Do you have a hole or gap in your life that needs healing? Is there a hole in your budget that seems to drain away your paycheck from month to month? Is there a hole in your social life that never seems to be filled by just the right person? Is there a hole on an xray that would suggest some medical condition that needs healing? Are you currently seeking employment and not finding a good job? Whatever you are pursuing as determinedly as that woman went after her solution, you might try turning to Christian Science for healing.

Christian Science is the law of everpresent good from a loving Father Mother God. It is this divine parent meeting every human need with a perfect solution. It is the truth about your wonderful God and His love for each and every one of His children, you included. When you turn to Christian Science for healing, the prayer begins with understanding that you are whole, not hole. It turns you back to Genesis One where God saw everything He had made and it was very good.

Try thinking of yourself along these lines today and see if it doesn't make a difference. If you want to know more you can read our textbook, Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy. Visit a local reading room where the friendly staff can answer questions. Or contact a Christian Science practitioner who devotes their full time to being available for prayerful support and treatment. There are also many sites on the internet for more information. Don't live with something that can be healed, get help and a healing.

Take up your cross

There is a direct challenge in this week's Bible lesson. I have read the lesson several times already this week but just noticed this today. It comes from the gospel of Matthew. "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." That phrase 'take up his cross' resonated with me. What did the Master mean by that and how can I be obedient to that directive?

Each of us has times when we feel like we are dragging around a cross to be borne, some sense of a heavy burden we are dealing with. Or we might see some cross looming in our future, some unavoidable something that we are fearing or dreading. Some confrontation. Some physical condition that has appeared and now seems to be getting bigger, more evident, suggesting a name of some disease. It might be the world's thoughts about advancing age or diminishing funds. Whether it is a present situation that must be shouldered, weighing us down, or something we fear on the horizon, it seems to be our cross to bear. No one else can help.

What if we chose to 'kiss the cross', as Mrs. Eddy expresses it in hymn 253. She says we can 'wake to know a world more bright'. That cross certainly loomed for Jesus. He made his choice and that experience led to his resurrection and ascension. Isn't that what we all want? So what is required of us?

The cross indicates sacrifice. Is there something in your thought that you need to let go of, some wrong idea about God (I prayed about this but He didn't do anything), some wrong idea about yourself (I am somehow separated from divine Love, outside of Love's care and protection), some wrong idea about someone else (he or she is just impossible), some wrong idea about church (the services are so boring). It is our choice whether we shoulder this as a problem to be endured or take up the false idea and grow spiritually as we understand God's allness and goodness. God's law is the only law we are subject to. Mrs. Eddy tells us that "Truth is God's remedy for error of every sort".

Don't fear this cross. Embrace the opportunity to have it lift you up. Once you see the unreality of some illusion it can no longer fool you. All you see is what is really there. Good is the reality. Health is the reality. Abundance is the reality. Harmony is the reality.

Jesus and the blind man

Looking for something new in this familiar story, I found some helpful insights in a book by Trench, The Miracles of our Lord. Trench points out that the man was brought to Jesus by others, which might have meant his own faith was not strong. How often when we turn to the Christ for healing is our own doubt part of the challenge. Will God, or our understanding of Christian Science, be able to heal this?

This man was accustomed to being led by others. Jesus reaches out and takes him by the hand and leads him out of the town, away from the watchful eyes and beliefs of those who knew the man and the idly curious. Perhaps to help this man with his lack of faith Jesus used a simple remedy of that day to start things off. He used saliva and onionted the man's eyes. He also put his hands on him, as we might reach out to a friend in need or distress, a comforting touch. Then he asked him if he could see anything. At this point the man looks up. Metaphysically speaking, he begins to raise his level of thinking by looking upward to heaven. Physically he was raising his sight from the ground. He does see moving forms. If this man had been blind from birth he might not have known what people look like so it may be that this blindness was the result of some disease or accident. So Jesus repeats his actions by putting his hands on the man's eyes. The man's faith must have greatly increased, his expectations about this healing improved with this first evidence of returning sight. Jesus again instructs him to look up and now he finds his sight restored, another indication that it might have been somehow lost.

What this tells me is that we need to approach every healing with the understanding that the Christ can and will restore whatever appeared to be lost whether it was health, supply, employment, self respect, or peace. Just what are we expecting to happen when we pray or ask for Christian Science treatment? Let there not be a doubt or fear that God is not up to the occasion. He is. And so are we.

Jesus led that man away from those who were holding a false picture about him or the Christ. When the healing was complete he told him to go home but not to return to town, not to go back to the past. Let's not relive the lie but rejoice in what has been revealed as the truth.

If you choose to turn to the Christ for healing, if we call upon a practitioner to support us in prayer, we can expect to feel the healing touch of divine Love, the power of God's law of everpresent good operating on our behalf, removing any false belief and bringing the truth of our identity as God's perfect image and likeness. This improved understanding, this clearer perception about God and His child, becomes clear and we 'see' it. Healing follows.

diviner concepts

This week's Bible lesson on Soul has been a good one for me. I especially have liked something from the second section. The Bible verse from John reflects Genesis One: "All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made." Mrs. Eddy illuminates this further where she writes of 'diviner conceptions' and 'the only true conception of being.'

For me, that 'means my prayers and my study are to help me understand this divine conception, what Divine Mind knows about me. I am an idea in divine Mind. That is where I originated. I am a concept of God. Only what God is knowing about me, that divine concept, is true. Nothing has been added to it, or taken from it, it has remained exactly as God conceived it. It is the only concept of me and I am most lovingly and wonderfully made. That is the only conception that ever took place.

That means there are no birth defects, no unpleasant or dangerous traits handed down from one generation to another, no poor genes. I do not have to look at my family and think that I will be stuck with a certain look or action. God is my Father and Mother. All that is true about me is His concept of me.

Wonderful.

Only reflections of good can come

This promise is found in Science and Health "From Love and from the light and harmony which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections of good can come." I have always read that to mean that because of the nature of divine Love and Spirit we, as the image and likeness of God, must only reflect good. That is all there is to reflect. We are the good reflection of the Original. Today I thought about it in a slightly different light.

Because God is divine Mind and we reflect that Mind (there is no other) then all we can know, all that can come to us, are good things. The things we reflect upon can only be good. Reflection in the sense of what we are thinking and believing. How comforting to know that we have the power and ability to counter any negative thinking, any false beliefs, any suggestions that something is present that God did not make.

A helpful thought to work with today. Only reflections of good can come.