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What about Jesus, the Christ, and eternal life?

5/30/2013

"Before Abraham was, I am."
CHRIST JESUS

In a letter to the Hebrews, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” To me, this speaks of the eternal nature of the Christ, and of the permanent healing mission that Christ Jesus established for all mankind.

Christian Science makes an important distinction between the Christ and the man Jesus, who so lived the Christ that his name was permanently linked with it. The Christ is God’s eternal self-revealing nature - God's revealing of Himself right now, always now. It is the divine, present and permanent message of God to humanity that good, and only good, constitutes God’s creation. The Christ is as eternal as God and predates the birth of any one individual.

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Hebrews 13:8, NIV

Jesus lived the Christ; he expressed it more fully than anyone before or since. But Jesus was a human man and the Christ was the divine message and power that he lived. This distinction between the personal Jesus and the eternal Christ in no way separates the one from the other, nor does it disrespect the infinite value of Christ Jesus and what he still gives the world. If anything, understanding the distinction heightens the awareness of what Jesus accomplished, helps explain how he did it, and shows his life to be the perfect human model for ours.

Jesus made his first unique appearance as a baby born to a virgin. This indicated off the bat the special nature of his relationship to the Christ. He may have appeared to those around him to be a fragile infant, but he wasn’t weak. He came to this world with an already developing understanding of His nature as God’s Son. Where did this understanding come from? He later would explain what he knew of his eternity. He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” See the switch? Where you and I might consider life as occurring on a limited human timeline – the was and will be line beginning with birth and ending in death – Christ Jesus lived on the is line of eternity, where existence isn’t broken down into was, is and will be, but simply always is. Jesus' well-developed spiritual sense allowed him to see his own eternity, and this gave him power and authority over fear, sin, disease and death.

Christ Jesus experienced life - his and everyone's - as immortal. His sense of himself included the knowledge of life before human birth and the continuity of his forever life as God’s son. What Jesus explained about real life came from a personal knowledge of God, not only as his Source, his Father, but as the real Father and Mother of us all. Jesus was a revelator of the eternal Christ, the eternal expression of divine Life. The Christ-message to humanity, that life is eternal and that we had better get on with living our real life free of sin and sorrow and hate, is just as important to us today as it was when Jesus walked the earth. Jesus gave us an example to follow, through his words and life, that develops in us our innate spiritual sense and leads to the understanding of real life as eternal.

"When mortal mind is silenced by the "still, small voice" of Truth that regenerates philosophy and logic; and Jesus, as the true idea of Him, is heard as of yore saying to sensitive ears and dark disciples, "I came from the Father," "Before Abraham was, I am," coexistent and coeternal with God, — and this idea is understood, — then will the earth be filled with the true knowledge of Christ."
MARY BAKER EDDY, Miscellaneous Writings, 360

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Daily Lift - The giving equation

5/29/2013

Today's Daily Lift is a condensed version of a longer blog post from a year ago titled "Reflection, tithing and finding the right balance".

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English version

French version

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Stop the turbulence

5/28/2013

I love long flights. They give me time to think and pray... and nap! On one trip, high above the Atlantic, things rocked and rolled with heavy turbulence. I was shaken from sleep, not only by the movement but, by the murmurs of fellow passengers. For a few moments, fear seemed to be drawing all oxygen from the plane, taking my breath with it.

But, instead of succumbing, I fought back with the only tool I had to defeat it. I prayed. I thought about God as my Life - That I am always safe in Life, never powerless or alone. That I am safely hid with Christ in God, the divine Life of all, where no evil or terror can reach me. Within seconds the crazy shaking stopped and calm returned.

Was it luck? Chance? I can't tell you how many times I have observed this phenomenon of sudden peace resulting from prayer on airplanes and in other situations where big shake ups have threatened to take me out. Once the fear is faced and dismantled by an understanding of God and my relation to Him, turbulence in whatever form just stops cold.

Just today, I was on my way to the airport when one problem after another seemed to shake me up. A bus driver was driving erratically while yelling at someone on his cellphone, making several people on the bus, including me, sick from the motion; a suspected bomb at the airport blocked the path between the train station and my terminal; several technical problems in my hotel room required four different maintenance workers to spend a long time fixing things.

"I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?" NEHEMIAH 6:3

In the middle of the latest hoopla in my room, I opened the Bible to the story of Nehemiah and his team rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. He was confronted by one problem after another that attempted to derail his project. The book of Nehemiah recounts that two opponents of the building plan sent a message to Nehemiah saying, "Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono." But Nehemiah recognized that the invitation was a trap. Four times they tried to get him to go to Ono, and each time Nehemiah refused. Then the fifth time, they tried an extra convincing argument, one they were certain he would fall for, and Nehemiah stood firm, knowing that God was strengthening him for his work and protecting the fulfillment of his good purpose. That was the last he heard from the troublemakers. The project was finished and the wall was built with success. (Nehemiah, Chapter 6)

When I read the account, I had to chuckle at the play on words between Nehemiah's Ono and my "Oh, no!" - a place where I had been tempted to go several times today. As I read the account of how Nehemiah stood firm against the turbulence and upset of interruption, I realized that I, too, could turn from "Oh no!" to prayer.

My prayer was a heartfelt protest: "Oh, no I will not be stopped from the peaceful period of preparation that I need for my lecture tonight. Oh, no I will not accept disruption and turmoil as acceptable or normal today. This is God's perfect day and both I and my lecture are safe and protected in it."

Not five seconds after that prayer, the room full of maintenance men emptied. Everything works. Peace and order reigns.

Mary Baker Eddy explained, "Evil has no power, no intelligence, for God is good, and therefore good is infinite, is All." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 398) Prayer that stands up to fear and fuss draws its authority from the fact that disturbances don't have real substance or power.

Really, you gotta love what prayer can do.

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee... LORD, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. ISAIAH 26:3,12

Who is Mary Baker Eddy?

5/26/2013

I am a Christian Scientist and healing prayer is my area of practice. Christian Science is the explanation of the healing work of Bible prophets, apostles, and of Christ Jesus himself. To trace its modern day roots, we can look to the one who discovered the Science of Christ healing in 1866 – American religious reformer, Mary Baker Eddy.

Born in 1821, Mary Baker grew up during the time when religious, moral and scientific circles were wrestling with questions about life before birth, the human experience and the afterlife. Her father, a staunch Calvinist, believed that all mankind was predestined before birth to experience one of two possible life tracks - to live eternally in heaven or to forever burn in hell.

This all or nothing life and death belief met with resistance in the young Mary, who from an early age rejected some of her father’s strong religious views. She couldn’t reconcile a capricious human life with the God of Love that her own study of Scripture brought out. An independent thinker, a questioner of truth, Mary grew into a courageous and serious young woman. She dared to challenge the many theories and beliefs of human life and God that cropped up around her.

"At the age of twelve I was admitted to the Congregational (Trinitarian) Church, my parents having been members of that body for a half-century...Before this step was taken, the doctrine of unconditional election, or predestination, greatly troubled me...So perturbed was I by the thoughts aroused by this erroneous doctrine, that the family doctor was summoned, and pronounced me stricken with fever.

"My father's relentless theology emphasized belief in a final judgment-day, in the danger of endless punishment, and in a Jehovah merciless towards unbelievers; and of these things he now spoke, hoping to win me from dreaded heresy.

"My mother, as she bathed my burning temples, bade me lean on God's love, which would give me rest, if I went to Him in prayer, as I was wont to do, seeking His guidance. I prayed; and a soft glow of ineffable joy came over me. The fever was gone, and I rose and dressed myself, in a normal condition of health. Mother saw this, and was glad. The physician marvelled; and the "horrible decree" of predestination — as John Calvin rightly called his own tenet — forever lost its power over me." (Retrospection and Introspection, Mary Baker Eddy, p.13)

Despite the agitation that her father's theological opinions stirred, Mary's orthodox Christian parents gave her a strong foundation in Bible study and taught her to pray. Healing prayer was quietly encouraged by her mother, who had gentler views of God. Mary came to expect that her prayers should be able to help and heal. In fact, archival evidence points to remarkable healings produced even by her childhood prayers - healings of sick animals and injuries of the other children on the farm.

Mary’s spiritual journey continued into adulthood. Despite an extraordinary amount of personal loss, stress, and insecurity in young adulthood, she leaned on God continually and stayed close to her Bible. And occasionally people were healed by her prayers. There are reports of blindness and other illnesses cured through her prayers a full decade before she discovered the divine Principle of healing in Christian Science.

The desire for more consistent health for herself and others led Mary to explore allopathic medicine, hydropathy, homeopathy and a variety of popular mind cures – and when I say explore, I mean she took up serious study, often becoming a practitioner of some of these methods for a time. But one by one, disappointed in their results, she abandoned each system, trusting her Bible to continue to guide her to answers to her questions about life and health and healing.

Then came a pivotal experience following a bad fall. Unable to walk and in debilitating pain, she was cured through her own prayers of what her doctor later indicated was a possible spinal dislocation and concussion. She discovered that not only is God an aid to healing, but that God, who she understood to be the divine Mind or intelligence of all, is the only true healer on any case - that God is all and that matter has nothing to do with life, health or healing. A radical new premise, yes. But, having been healed by its revelation, she couldn’t argue with the results of her discovery.

Mary Baker Eddy, Mrs. Eddy as she would soon be known, described this great discovery in her autobiography, Retrospection and Introspection:

“The divine hand led me into a new world of light and Life, a fresh universe — old to God, but new to His "little one." It became evident that the divine Mind alone must answer, and be found as the Life, or Principle, of all being and that one must acquaint himself with God, if he would be at peace…

“I had learned that thought must be spiritualized, in order to apprehend Spirit. It must become honest, unselfish, and pure, in order to have the least understanding of God in divine Science… For Spirit to be supreme in demonstration, it must be supreme in our affections, and we must be clad with divine power...” (27)

Of her quick physical healing, she explained, “I had learned that Mind reconstructed the body, and that nothing else could. How it was done, the spiritual Science of Mind must reveal. It was a mystery to me then, but I have since understood it.” (ibid. 28)

As a child Mary Baker was a healer even before she could explain how to heal. As an adult, she was healed of the effects of the accident before she completely understood how such healing was done. But the divine Spirit that is God was always supreme in her affections. Honesty, unselfishness and purity were a natural part of her character. These elements that render one susceptible to divine healing were always hers, so healings naturally occurred even before the full explanation of how to do it was discovered. Consistency in good results, however, required an understanding of the Science of divine healing. And when that understanding developed following her discovery, Mary Baker Eddy became world renowned as a remarkable Christian healer, teacher and founder of a new religious movement, Christian Science.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures is the exposition – the full explanation of Christian Science. It is the seminal textbook of Christian healing, rooted in Scripture and developed over 44 years of Mrs. Eddy’s personal research and practice. Science and Health explains what life is about, who and what God is, and how one can heal like Christ Jesus.

Walking and talking to Jesus' beat

5/25/2013

Walking the streets of Neuchatel, Switzerland, our small group encountered two Mormon missionaries. One, a young man from Spain, said, "Hi! We are Mormons, and we are here to share the Book of Mormon with anyone who doesn't have it."

I replied, "Wonderful! I am a visiting Christian Scientist, here to give a lecture on finding God."

"Really?" the second missionary, a young man from England, asked. "What time is the lecture, and where is it?"

Several hours later they came.

Those with me were interested in how easily I conversed with the missionaries and how readily I invited them to the lecture. I just followed Christ Jesus' example.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man..." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 476) He didn't limit his encounters to those of a singular religious order; he embraced those around him in the family of man and the science, or true knowledge, of God's good creation. He classified men by their inherent spirituality, by their inclusion in the family of Spirit, not by their nationality, color or creed. He spoke to men's hearts. And their hearts beat in rhythm with his. "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way?" (Luke 24:32)

Our Mormon friends acknowledged that it was a good lecture - that they were touched by what they heard. They gifted the sponsoring church with a Book of Mormon and happily received a copy of Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health in return.

What's not to love when we encounter others, and allow them to encounter us, '"in Science"?

"Deeds, not words, are the sound test of love... " (from a letter by LEWIS D. STRANG, reprinted in First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, Mary Baker Eddy, vii.)

Unending life within your reach - a new lecture

5/12/2013

Blog readers get the news before anyone else. I have a new lecture available titled Unending life within your reach. It was immensely fun to put together because the subject is just so interesting. This one hour lecture introduces a Christian Science perspective of life before birth, the human experience and immortality, to general audiences. It explains the nature of God as divine Life, the source of all being, and how it is possible for us to live without fear of deterioration, aging, disease and death.

Some common questions about Christian Science addressed in the lecture are:

Who is Christ Jesus, and what do his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension teach us about life and immortality?
What present proof is there of eternal life?
Is death an inevitable stepping stone to eternal life?
Is Christian Science treatment effective in cases of grave illness?
Can you show how physical healing happens in Christian Science?
Can the deteriorating effects of aging be reversed?
Is it ever too late to treat a case effectively through prayer in Christian Science?

If you are interested in attending this lecture, check out a my calendar, listing dates and locations as they are scheduled.

This, that and the other (Don't miss the other!)

5/12/2013

Just popping in for a minute between lecture trips. Here's a little of "this and that" that I have recently published. Plus a little something extra that particularly inspired me on another blog earlier this year. Hope you will check out:

THIS

God is here and will help - a short podcast (audio) offers insights of how to get out of tight and difficult spots in life. I tell the story of Jim Lovell and his amazing solution to an impossible situation while piloting a plane over the Sea of Japan.

THAT

One, two, three prayer - a new Daily Lift. What do you do when your kids are driving you crazy? A little humor and a little prayer can be a big help.

THE OTHER

What voices are you listening to? A blog post from March 1, 2013 by Virginia Harris, CSB. This has a really cool take on the words of John, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.”

What about Jesus, the Christ, and eternal life?

Daily Lift - The giving equation

Stop the turbulence

Who is Mary Baker Eddy?

Walking and talking to Jesus' beat

Unending life within your reach - a new lecture

This, that and the other (Don't miss the other!)

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