4/2/2014 What you know for sure![]() In Oprah Magazine, my favorite monthly feature is “What I know for sure.” Here Oprah Winfrey lets the reader see what has meaning to her, what moves her to action. I think that until each of us connects with what we know for sure, we haven’t found our truth - the reality, the substance and the honest core of who we are. Jesus said, “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32 Christian Science takes the next step of explaining and defining this truth as the ultimate, as God Himself. To be in touch with God, - to know for sure what is Truth - frees from the push and pull of simple belief. To know Truth as Spirit, for example, dissolves the thoughts about, fears of and obsessions with matter, Spirit’s opposite. To know Truth as the divine Principle of life leads to a bigger life where limitation, sin, sickness and death fall away. Truth is true and right, always victorious over a lie. Lies fall by their own weight before Truth. Truth is permanent. Lies are temporary. One of my favorite quotes along these lines is: “Man survives finite, mortal definitions of himself, according to the law of “the survival of the fittest.” EDDY, NO AND YES, p. 25 ![]() To me, Christian Science discoverer Mary Baker Eddy understood that we can, and ultimately will, master the false and misleading beliefs about life that bind us to problems. The “fittest” is always the truth. In proportion to our understanding of - that is, as we know for sure - the truth of Truth, God and His creation, man, we thrive. In her complete exposition of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy gives two graphic illustrations of mastering mortal error, – what we can call a mistaken, false view, or lie about life, disease and limitation included – with an understanding of the truth. Under the heading Benefits of metaphysics in the chapter “Christian Science Practice”, she writes: “Gazing at a chained lion, crouched for a spring, should not terrify a man.” p.380 Now, why wouldn’t he be afraid? Because he knows the lion is chained. When we know for sure that an error – any discord – is already chained by divine Truth, the God of harmony, goodness and health, we are strong and safe. Fear and its symptoms of stress and disease stop. Truth masters the lie in every case. Mrs. Eddy continues: “The body is affected only with the belief of disease produced by a so-called mind ignorant of the truth which chains disease. Nothing but the power of Truth can prevent the fear of error, and prove man’s dominion over error.” A second example in the same chapter involves a tiger. Under the heading Latent power, Mrs. Eddy writes : "By looking a tiger fearlessly in the eye, Sir Charles Napier sent it cowering back into the jungle. An animal may infuriate another by looking it in the eye, and both will fight for nothing. A man’s gaze, fastened fearlessly on a ferocious beast, often causes the beast to retreat in terror." p.370 ![]() And that begs the question: What is the truth? Are we a beast fighting a beast – a mortal, material being fighting with a mortal, material condition? Or are we man – the man of Truth’s, of God’s, creating, possessing and expressing dominion over mortal beliefs and material conditions through the power of Truth? What we know for sure determines outcomes. Mrs. Eddy concludes, “A man’s gaze, fastened fearlessly on a ferocious beast, often causes the beast to retreat in terror. This latter occurrence represents the power of Truth over error, — the might of intelligence exercised over mortal beliefs to destroy them…” (ibid) 23 years ago I suffered from the aggressive symptoms of pneumonia. One night, after a series of progressively difficult nights, I read two passages from Science and Health that nourished my prayers with spiritual truth. "Sickness is not a God-given, nor a self-constituted material power, which copes astutely with Mind and finally conquers it. God never endowed matter with power to disable Life or to chill harmony with a long and cold night of discord." p.378 "When it is learned that disease cannot destroy life… this understanding will quicken into newness of life." p.426 ![]() These passages reminded me of what I knew to be true - that sickness is not a material power and that disease can’t destroy the life of the real, spiritual man. I stopped being afraid. I understood that no matter how impressive the lion’s roar of symptoms, disease was chained and powerless over me. Only while I believed that sickness was a power that could control a weakened physical "me" did I suffer from pneumonia. But what I knew for sure was that matter – sick or well – is not me and does not control me. I knew for sure that I am the creation of Truth, divine Spirit, and therefore completely spiritual. I could feel the power of Truth in me, on me, healing me. From the moment that I gave consent to what I knew for sure, disease lost its destructive hold. Knowing the truth produced a definitive change in my physical state. I slept that night for the first time in weeks, and I was entirely well when I awakened the next morning. I didn’t need any period of convalescence – not even for an hour. Take a page from Oprah’s magazine. Think about what you know for sure. Question your truth, examine it thoroughly. Challenge it to meet the high standard of the Truth that is God. Test it for its substance and basis in what is unchangeably real and permanently true. What I know for sure is that what we know for sure is controlling us. And we can know the truth, the real truth of Truth, God, that makes us and keeps us free. Not a subscriber and want to be?
It's easy! Just sign up in the sidebar. You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE FIND LINKS TO MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT LISTEN TO A COLLECTION OF MY "YOUR DAILY LIFT" 2-MINUTE PODCASTS 6/1/2013 Heaven and hell - What the heck?![]() British author Susan Ertz wrote, “Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” Immortality, or eternal life, is often confused with prolonged mortality or endless humanhood. But immortality describes life without any mortal limits, not an extension of limited being. It’s the progression beyond mortal beliefs about life where immortal life, inseparable from Life as God, is fully understood. Eternity is the experience of total freedom in infinite good. Eternal mortality would be the hell that many, whose faith is rooted in Calvin's teachings, fear awaits us. But Eternal life is heaven, and heaven is the harmony of life that is ours to experience both now and forever. Christian Science makes a distinction between human experience and mortality. Mortality is not a state of life moving towards death; it is belief in life as already material and therefore already at least partly dead from the start. Matter is lifeless, dead. Death is a consequence of materiality. It’s a product of mortal belief. If you believe yourself to be material, you believe yourself to be mortal. And a mortal can’t avoid death - that is, he experiences the limits of his own belief. But what if man as God creates us– you and I – are not really material or mortal? What if real life never actually ends? Take a deep breath. This is an important point: The human experience of death is a perspective of the observer. It is not the experience of the one believed to be passing through it. Death is the product of a mortal belief. It is a false perspective. Even if one believes himself to be mortal, this belief will only last so long as its limits are tested and life is proven to go on. Man is not for a minute actually mortal. And the sense of mortality will fade out as the false belief in it is swallowed up by the understanding that God’s man is spiritual and that real life was never mortal in the first place. "Man is more than physical personality, or what we cognize through the material senses. Mind is more than matter, even as the infinite idea of Truth is beyond a finite belief. Man outlives finite mortal definitions of himself, according to a law of "the survival of the fittest." Man is the eternal idea of his divine Principle, or Father. He is neither matter nor a mode of mortal mind, for he is spiritual and eternal, an immortal mode of the divine Mind. Man is the image and likeness of God, coexistent and coeternal with Him." MARY BAKER EDDY, No and Yes, 25 ![]() The words mortal and human are not synonymous terms. Mortality is a misconception about life as material. Mortality is a belief in death and darkness as inevitable. Human experience is the testing ground for mortal beliefs where mortality yields to the truth about real life. Whether human experience seems more like heaven or hell depends on the degree to which we cling to self-limiting mortal beliefs about life. But we can outgrow the confines of mortal and material beliefs. We are capable of yielding to a life free from limits. How to do it involves spiritualizing thought and daily life through honesty, unselfishness and purity rooted in an understanding of God. And we can do it. We are all capable of growing spiritually. We can shake off false mortal concepts about life, and progress out of limitation, fear and hellish conditions. At the age of 12 I had a healing that illustrated this. I impaled my foot on a rusty nail and was in a lot of pain. But I prayed for a better sense of my life as God made me. I vigorously challenged the belief that I was even a pinky toe, or one foot’s worth, mortal or material. I had learned in the Christian Science Sunday School that “there is no life, truth, substance or intelligence in matter.” I reasoned, “But there is life, truth, intelligence and substance in me!” I accepted my being to be presently spiritual. I knew I could experience the heaven of healing. This wasn’t theory to me. It was fact. ![]() Looking in the bucket of bloody water, I thought, “That is not me. My substance is spiritual and has never been hurt.” I bandaged up the foot and got on with my day. When I went to bed that night, the bandage fell off. The openings on the top and bottom of my foot were closed and were nearly healed. By the next morning there was no wound at all. All evidence of the accident yielded completely to the spiritual fact and my human body conformed in perfect health. Whatever beliefs we may currently hold about heaven and hell, life and death, mortality and immortality - these beliefs can and will ultimately yield to spiritual understanding. No one will be left out of heaven. Christian Science discoverer Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "The admission to one's self that man is God's own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This conviction shuts the door on death, and opens it wide towards immortality. The understanding and recognition of Spirit must finally come, and we may as well improve our time in solving the mysteries of being through an apprehension of divine Principle. At present we know not what man is, but we certainly shall know this when man reflects God." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Eddy, 90) To be sure you don't miss something,
you can have new posts delivered to your email inbox. Simply subscribe in the sidebar. And if this post is meaningful to you, it may also help others. Please share! You may also wish to: VISIT MY WEBSITE HOME PAGE FIND LINKS TO MY OTHER PUBLISHED CONTENT LISTEN TO A COLLECTION OF MY "YOUR DAILY LIFT" 2-MINUTE PODCASTS ![]() _ There is a great New Testament story that I think beautifully illustrates the importance of a spiritual perspective in healing. People refer to it as the Pig story or Swine story – which in a way makes the very point that the crazy pig part is what they remember most. You will find it in Mark, Chapter 5. And, oh my, it is a doozy. There was this guy who had a legion of mental problems. Legion is a term indicating about 2000. Bound in chains to keep him under control, he lived in the tombs outside of town. He had quite a problem, but it wasn’t what you might think. His problem involved a group of swine-herders working nearby. In this story swine-herder is simply another name for symptom-watcher, and they were good at their job! They watched this man rage and cry and cut himself while they herded swine in the neighborhood. They had seen all his 2000 symptoms over the years. They were convinced this man was a mess - a complicated case. They were afraid of both him and his problems. It made sense that such a complicated case would require a complicated solution, right? |
![]() Find me on YouTube![]() I have practiced Christian Science professionally in some form since 1979. But my journey with Christian Science started in a Sunday school where as a young child I was taught the Scriptures and some simple basics of Jesus' method of scientific Christian healing. A significant experience at the age of twelve opened my eyes to the great potential of this practice. After impaling my foot on a nail, I prayed the way I had learned in Sunday school. Within moments the pain stopped and healing began. By the next morning the wound had disappeared completely. Having experienced the great potential of Christian Science, there would be no turning back. |
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© 2011-2025 Michelle Boccanfuso Nanouche, CSB. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy. Site updated Feb 4, 2025.
© 2011-2025 Michelle Boccanfuso Nanouche, CSB. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy. Site updated Feb 4, 2025.