I am deep into holiday preparations with my son and daughter. Most of the grands are in their teens and want to have parties with their friends. Ian and Katie Rose, six and two, are just beginning to see how our family celebrates the fall holidays.

What fun to see a holiday refered to in the Thanksgiving Bible Lesson. The Lord is instructing Moses on what He wants the people to do. They are to celebrate from Sabbath to Sabbath for one week. The outline for the Sabbath is given in Exodus 12: 1 - 14. The beginning of the grain harvest included waving a sheaf of new corn before the Lord as an acknowledgement of His bounty. We will include corn in our Thanksgiving menu this year.

During the week the people had the Festival of Booths or Tabernacles. It was observed from the 15th to the 22nd in October and marked the end of the agricultural year when the combined produce for that year as well as the grain harvest has been secured. It was a time of great rejoicing and they camped out in booths constructed of branches. These could be set up on their roof or out in the street. They commemorated the sojourn in the wilderness.

In all the hubub of planning, shopping, cooking and eating of your Thanksgiving feast this year, be sure to take moments to praise God. The Lesson reminds us that He satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Reach out to family, friends and neighbors sharing your love for God. let gratitude permeate your days. Be grateful. Give thanks.

Feel free to camp out in the back yard.

Thanks-giving

So just what is it for which we are to be giving thanks? We live in challenging times. The world seems sunk in depression, many are struggling with finances, the news is filled with health threats. How does one keep thought uplifted and grateful? It all goes back to God. The Thanksgiving Bible Lesson opens with a Golden Text from Psalms. "Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving". Have you ever sung to God? Have you ever taken a moment to sing your gratitude for the good that is already present in your life? We all should find time for that every day. Watch for and be aware of the good happening all around you.

Many people have those hand-held music thingies with playlists of their favorite songs. They listen to them often. Somewhere in your own personal favorites there must be a line about love. Try adapting it to sing silently to God and tell Him you love Him. That warm feeling you get is Him singing "I love you back".

The Lesson continues with a Responsive Reading that encourages you to make that joyful noise, coming into His presence with praise. What are we so happy about? He is our God and we are the sheep in His pasture. He is our Father Mother and we are His beloved children. He is divine Mind and we are what He is thinking about. He is Love and we are what He is loving.

I love the description in this section of what God does for us. He prepares the 'corn' and provides it, the things we will need. (Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need) Once we plant this 'corn,' this seed, in thought, it needs to be tended and nourished. So He waters the soil, a softening influence in stony or stubborn ground. He settles the furrows, smoothing out the rough patches in life. He keeps it soft with showers, showers of goodness and blessing. He blesses what springs forth as a result. All this leads to a wonderful harvest, the coming to fruition of our prayers and hopes. Your 'year', your efforts are crowned with success and there should be rejoicing on every side. What blesses one, blesses all. Those green pastures are now filled with flocks; flocks of ideas, evidence of abundance, glowing health. You should be moved to shout with joy.

But God is satisfied with that quiet song. A simple 'I love You'. Sing one today.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

I know, I know, Halloween hasn't come yet and here I am talking about Thanksgiving. But it is one of my favorite holidays and especially dear to me as a Christian Scientist. Our churches hold a service on Thanksgiving Day. You are invited. If you can't get to a service, you can get the Thanksgiving Bible Lesson in the form of a small pamphlet. I'd be delighted to send you one!

So, over the next few weeks that is what my blog will be about. Thanksgiving and the some of the thoughts in this wonderful lesson. You can be thinking back on some of your families gatherings. Remember those feasts and be grateful for those who spent hours and hours getting all those yummy dishes ready, set a beautiful table, did the cleaning up, and set out all those leftovers for turkey sandwiches while you watched the reruns of the Macy's parade or Miracle on 34th Street.

This is a time for happiness and gratitude. Make the most of it for the next few weeks. It is a very satisfying thing to do.

...for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me (John 14:30)

This morning I pulled out a little book of daily devotionals. I'm not even sure how I was lead to do that but I am so grateful that I did. I opened to the entry for October 23 and found the Scripture mentioned above. When I first read it, I was disappointed. I thought I had been lead to this book for a purpose and those words did not inspire me. In fact, I was not sure what they meant. So I read further.

The writer explained it like this. Imagine you owned 10,000 acres of land. You buy 9,999 of those acres but I keep one acre for myself in the very center of that property. And I reserve the right to cross through your property to get to mine whenever I want to and you can't stop me. It would be like choosing to live your life to your highest sense of right but keeping one little place open for wrong thoughts or motives. You are allowing error to creep in, or boldly march in, whenever it wants to and make its presence known and felt.

But Jesus says: the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. He has no property, no place in me. Every child of God, every child of Good, can look error or temptation or illness or lack in the face and say: you have nothing in me - no territory that you occupy, no domain, no dominion. Not over what I say or think or do. You cannot influence me in any way. You cannot make yourself felt or obeyed. You do not control me. I am the Lord's property. I am my Father's child.

That is a very powerful message and I am so looking forward to using this idea today. I hope you will too.

Jesus' practitioners

As the time approached for the crucifixtion experience, Jesus was well aware of what lay ahead. He tried to prepare his students by telling them that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things from the authorities, and be raised up the third day. They could not or would not believe this. How was Jesus himself dealing with it? Well, he had certainly proved his ability to heal others and even to raise the dead. But he had not yet had to go through any physical attacks on his person. One time, when a crowd gathered to throw him off a cliff, he just walked right through and escaped. But according to the Scriptures he faced beatings, ridicule, and violence.

Jesus had no one to turn to in the way Christian Scientists might contact a practitioner, someone who has made the commitment to devote themselves full time to the practice of Christian Science healing. So he took his three most devoted students up to 'an high mountain apart'. And I can believe that both literally and spiritually. Because before their eyes he transformed himself, so that his face did shine like the sun and his clothing was as white as light. Not only did he do this but standing with him were Moses and Elias. Moses represented the law and Jesus was certainly familiar with the things Moses had done to lead his people from slavery in Egypt to the border of the Holy Land. Elias was one of the greatest prophets and it was in his writings that Jesus learned what awaited the Messiah. So he called upon them in his hour of need for inspiration and encouragement. Both had been dead, as far as the world was concerned, for hundreds of years and yet there they were in the flesh. The disciples recognized them as people and not as spirits. So Jesus uplifted his disciples thought even as his own was being lifted.

If you find yourself facing something too awful to deal with on your own, know that you are not alone. Help is only a phone call or email away. Practitioners are standing by 24/7/365 and so is God, our heavenly Father, divine Love. Those calls are answered, help is given, the situation gets resolved, but best of all, we gain a clearer view of God, His wonderful creation, and our place in it as His beloved children, safe in His unfailing care. Don't hesitate. Call.

arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house

This week our Bible lesson is on Christ Jesus. We are studying the story of his healing of the palsied man. Confined to his bed, unable to walk, this man was brought to Jesus by his friends who believed the Master could help him. What I am paying particular attention to in this story is how Jesus healed him. Those present believed that this type of illness was a punishment from God for a sinful life. Whatever that man had done, whatever choices he had made, he was now stricken with this condition. He was not born with this problem, he appeared to have brought it on himself. Palsy, however, was not a physical condition, only the physical manifestation of what this man accepted, and felt he deserved.

At my Association meeting our speaker made it very clear to us that we should never accept illness or error or limitation as a reality, as a condition that needs correcting. It is only a suggestion that there is another power present other than God, good, and that this other power has the ability to control us or harm us. It is a false belief about man as mortal. It tries to reverse the truth of our spiritual being. The Bible, the inspired Word of God, says clearly that man was made in the image and likeness of God, the divine Mind. We are one of His ideas, created whole and perfect, faultless. An image is the exact duplicate of the original. Like the image in the mirror, it cannot do anything but reflect the original. That is the reality of our being and Jesus was very aware of it at all times. So aware of it that he saw this in everyone he encountered. This true view of them broke the illusion and healing occured as one's true nature was revealed, the perfection that was always there, even when hidden by the mask of mortality.

He addressed the man with three commands and these are words you can pray with to reverse whatever error you are dealing with. First, he said 'arise'. Lift up your thought, don't accept this as your problem because it is not brought on by God, who is the only cause and creator. All that He causes and creates is good. He fills all space so there is nowhere for something He did not cause or create to exist. There is no other power to cause or create it. The reflection is always true to its original. Rise up your thinking to honor God in this way and to see that you are His beloved idea and child.

Then he told him to 'take up his bed'. He was to show his mastery over that which was trying to confine him. This symbol of his enslavement had no power over him, quite the reverse. He was not condemned to spend his days lying on a bed as a constant reminder of past mistakes. He was forgiven and cherished by his heavenly Father, who wants us to express all health and holiness and wholeness. Lift up your thought and then lift up your body. God gives us dominion.

Finally, he was to 'go unto thine house'. This man was to go home. Maybe he had been cast out by his family. Maybe he had chosen to leave them for a different lifestyle. Maybe he had been ashamed to go back once he was striken by palsy. Whatever the reason, he was to return to his home and his family. But Mrs. Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, takes this idea to an even higher leve. In her spiritual interpretation of the 23rd Psalm, she substitutes 'spiritual consciousness' for the word 'house'. As in, 'I will live in the house (the consciousness) of divine Love forever. This man was to go back to his spiritual consciousness, to the place where he always lives in God's house.

We can use all three of those directives as we work out whatever it is that is trying to tie us to a problem or challenge; physically, financially, emotionally. Remember, it is not a condition and it is not yours. It is only a suggestion, a lie, an illusion, about your unbroken relationship to God as His very own idea and child. Arise, show dominion, and go 'home'.

I love this week's Bible lesson

Yes,I love this week's Bible lesson for the way it is presented. The subject is Soul, which is all about our spiritual sense. Mrs. Eddy gives us a beautiful definition for spiritual sense in the chapter called Science of Being in her book Science and Health. She writes: "Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality."

That sentence is in the first of the six sections of the lesson and then each of the next sections works with one of those qualities. It is such a lovely progression of our spiritual growth. We may need to have intuition first, as Jacob did when he wrestles with the problem of being reunited with the brother he had cheated out of his inheritance. Growing beyond intuition comes hope. One definition of hope is to wish for something with expectation of its fulfilment. Doesn't that lead beautifully into faith!

There is an example of this in the Gospels when Jesus stills a storm. The terrified disciples had awakened him, sure they were about to perish. As if a ship carrying Jesus could sink. He calms the storm with a word and asks them where was their faith. Sometimes that is what we need when we pray for healing, faith that God hears us, loves us, and will bring it to pass.

So beyond faith comes understanding. It is not enough to have faith in the principle of mathematics. When we understand it we can apply it and get the right answer. Understanding.
Then with understanding comes fruition. In the chapter Footsteps of Truth Mrs. Eddy writes: "Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and feet to the lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving a better understanding of Soul and salvation." And this is exactly what those who turn to Christian Science find today.

This spiritual reality is what we think of as heaven or the kingdom of heaven. And it is available to each of us instantly.