“What mourners?” you may be asking and “Why would we do that?”

Well, first let me give some background here.  I’m referencing the account in the Gospel of Mark (5:36-42) in which Jesus arrives at the home of Jairus whose daughter has recently died.  Jesus has already assured the parents that they need not fear.

When he comes to the house, however, he is met with the tumult of those that are weeping and mourning.  The Master asks them why they are making such a scene and tells them that the girl is not dead but is instead asleep.

And what’s their response?

…they laughed him to scorn.

Does this mortal mind ridicule of Jesus deter him from healing the girl—from raising her from the dead?  Absolutely not!  He puts all of those mourners, all of those naysayers, out!

The Bible continues:

And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway the damsel arose, and walked;

Clearly, a profound and far-reaching account of the ever-present healing power of our God as demonstrated by our Master!

Now, this raises a question for each of us:

Are we willing to cast the mental mourners out?

To be clear here, I’m not only speaking of the belief of grief which vigorously must be resisted instead of indulged, since it is the fictitious claim that Life is not eternal, that God is not omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and omni-active, and that we are not His immortal reflections.

No, I’m also talking about those other “mournings”—those other mockings—of the carnal mind that would also insist that we can’t be healed of whatever sense of limitation error has imposed on us or that we have agreed to, accepted, and are acting from.

Thoughts that would taunt us into believing the lie that we are victims!  Or mesmerizing us into accepting the delusion that we could be ill!  Or impoverished!  Or frail, or hopeless sinners!

Mental jeers that would seek to intimidate us into bowing down to the false gods of the illusion of life and intelligence in matter.

Odious accusations that shout we cannot be healed except by material means!

What’s the inevitable bottom line here then?

Are we going to accept those lies that are blasphemies against the Holy Ghost—against the Comforter?  Against Christian Science!

Or are we going to use our God-given divine authority and power to overthrow those falsehoods?

In her book Miscellaneous Writings, Mary Baker Eddy wrote:

Christian Science is the unfolding of true metaphysics; that is, of Mind, or God, and His attributes. Science rests on Principle and demonstration. The Principle of Christian Science is divine. Its rule is, that man shall utilize the divine power. (p. 69)

So, we’re left with two logical and imperative questions:

1) Are we going to be obedient to that rule and utilize the divine power?

And:

2) How many mourners are we going to kick out today?

Well—what are you waiting for?

The JSH-Online audio podcast “The healing distinction between spiritual and material sense” has just been posted at the Record of Truth section of The Christian Science Journal. In a two-part interview format, Rita Polatin interviewed me and then Elise Moore, C.S.B., about how understanding our spiritual sense is the key to handling whatever problems we appear to be experiencing in our lives—an understanding that comes by using the truths of Christian Science.

You can hear it at: https://journal.christianscience.com/journal-audio/record-of-truth/the-healing-distinction-between-spiritual-and-material-sense?s=sa

Enjoy!

“Oh my,” you may be thinking, “what could that title be referring to?!”

Let me answer your question with a question.

Would you knowingly put several drops of arsenic in a glass of water, drink it, and then be bewildered as to why there was an adverse reaction?

Of course not!

Yet some seem to have no problem in taking the mental poison of erroneous thought systems into their thought and actually thinking that it will not, or does not, pose an impediment to their demonstrations of Christian Science.

They unwittingly or knowingly consume false doctrines or dogmas ranging from material medical methodologies and so-called “health laws,” to a variety of eastern and western religious doctrines, philosophies, and practices, and even to atheist websites that agree with their agitated political positions.

“Why would they do these things?” you may well ask.

Because they aren’t realizing that they are being mesmerized into doing so by those very thought-systems—systems that are expressions of the carnal mind.

Expressions whose sole goal is to overturn the Science of God!

Remember, the Apostle Paul stated in his Epistle to the Romans (8:7) that:

the carnal mind is enmity against God:

Is enmity against God!

Is that a position to be joining in with?

Moses warned the Israelites:

When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. (Deuteronomy 18:9)

And Mary Baker Eddy rightly declared:

Whatever teaches man to have other laws and to acknowledge other powers than the divine Mind, is anti-Christian. (Science and Health, p. 169)

Warning her followers further, she admonished us to realize that:

A slight divergence is fatal in Science. (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 17)

Do we believe her statements or not? I do!

As Christian Scientists—as those anointed and appointed by God to be healers—can we possibly be made to forget that these other systems are based wholly or in part on the testimony of the material senses—a testimony that is entirely corrupt?  A testimony that is without one iota of truth!

A testimony that is poisonous to the demonstration of Christian Science!

So before you take a drop here and a drop there from other systems, ask yourself: “Is it really worth it?”

Sometime in the mid-1990’s The Christian Science Monitor hosted an exhibition dealing, in part, with the impact of the then new digital photography on ethics in journalism.  I particularly recall looking at three photographs, two of which were edited versions of the same original.  All three were of the Communist leadership watching a May Day Parade in Moscow’s Red Square. In the first of the two edited versions, one of the individuals had been digitally removed from the photograph, and in the second a can of Coke had been inserted into someone’s hand.

I was immediately struck by the technology that enabled this to take place, but of greater import, by the implication for the rewriting of history.  Individuals could be removed as if they had never existed or been part of an event, or added—all to further a particular political or philosophical position.

In other words, unethical journalism could manipulate the history of human events to its own false narrative—a history that wasn’t true.

And, needless, to say this was very concerning!

However, beyond the obvious connection to the history of humanity, there’s a deeper metaphysical implication here—an implication that we need to take seriously.

“What might that be?” you may be asking.

Simply put, it’s error’s constant attempt to edit falsities into our narrative—a narrative that is God’s story of us as His image and likeness.

Edits proclaiming us as flawed mortals filled with limitations, misdeeds, poor past choices, and wrongful acts.  “Histories” asserting proclivities towards diseases, heredity, or poverty.  Scenarios boasting beliefs of ingrained negative personality traits.  Outlines declaring victimization and oppression.

The list could go on and on with all the etcetera of evil—of the carnal mind!

And all of which seem to be a never-ending vortex inexorably sweeping us down into its yawning chasm.

But none of it—not one iota of it—is true!

And therein lies our means to freedom.

In her book Retrospection and Introspection, Mary Baker Eddy wrote:

The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged. (p. 22)

“Well,” you might be thinking, “I can see the importance of that, but how does it get accomplished?”

By humbly turning to God to learn whatever spiritual lessons need to be understood about the errors you’ve accepted about yourself and about God—and by applying those lessons to your experience—you are in fact expunging the material record—that’s how!

And since that record is expunged, the human history is necessarily revised!

That’s right!  No shadows of things that never took place and that were never truly part of you remain to haunt or linger.  No false echoes.  None!

On page 470 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy stated:

The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.

“Unchanged in its eternal history” means, “unchanged in its eternal history”!  No wiggle room there!

So get out your spiritual red editorial pens.  Edit out the lies and replace them with the truth of your ever-perfect healthy, harmonious, and holy relationship to God in whom you have always lived, and moved, and had your being!

There simply is no other narrative!

“Well,” you might be asking yourself “what’s the difference?”

In a simple phrase: Night and Day!

How so?

Glad you asked!

Reacting is one of the tactics of mortal mind that would draw us into its web of lies through emotions, disappointments, personal will, etc., by seeking to have us attempt to work on its terms.  Terms that are the essence of the carnal mind and that would strive to “…deceive the very elect.” (Matthew 24:24)

Let’s remember that Mary Baker Eddy unequivocally stated:

Thought will waken from its own material declaration, “I am dead,” to catch this trumpet-word of Truth, “There is no death, no inaction, diseased action, overaction, nor reaction.” (Science and Health, p. 427)

Nor reaction!

And in Unity of Good (p.11), she penned:

Jesus taught us to walk over, not into or with, the currents of matter, or mortal mind.

Walking over clearly involves not reacting and being pulled down into the currents—the modes—of material thought.  You’ll recall that the Apostle Peter, when directed by the Master to come out of the boat and walk over the waves as the Savior was doing, initially was successful.  Initially, that is, until he looked at the ferocity of the waves—the picture that mortal mind was presenting to his thought through the material senses.  A picture that engulfed him in the mesmerism of fear and that led him to begin to sink. (Matthew 14:29-31)

Shouldn’t we, as Christian Scientists, recognize that it is imperative that we do not react to the false images that mortal mind is placing before our thought—whether of disasters, diseases, accidents, conflicts, problems within our churches or families, or any other inharmonies that error would use to exalt itself via its lie that God is not present or not all-powerful?

What to do then?

Handle those falsehoods by responding with the metaphysical truths as revealed and taught in Christian Science—that’s what!

Don’t accept the lies that are presented.  Realize that they are each and every one of them originated and supported by the material senses (Science and Health, p. 318) and therefore have no reality to them.  None!

We can’t possibly begin to fulfill our responsibilities as healers if we’re busily engaging and believing in the reality of evil, can we?  We have to see how it’s trying to operate in thought, expose and denounce it, assert the truth and see error’s nothingness thereby destroying the claim.

And lest anyone may be thinking that the current political climate and outcome of the presidential election in the United States are somehow exempt from this necessity, let’s not forget that Mrs. Eddy admonished us to:

Pray that the divine presence may still guide and bless our chief magistrate, those associated with his executive trust, and our national judiciary; give to our congress wisdom, and uphold our nation with the right arm of His righteousness. (Christian Science versus Pantheism, p. 14)

Notice that she did not say: “only if he is the one we favored!”

Everyone deserves to be saved—to be awakened from the lie and enslavement of the belief of life and intelligence in matter.  Everyone!

But if we are agreeing with the lies about them—lies that would attempt to deface their true and only nature as the image and likeness of God—we are joining in with “…the accuser of our brethren…which accused them before our God day and night.” (Revelation 12:10)

Do we really want to do that?

And let’s not neglect the fact that the same biblical passage declares that it is because the accuser is cast down that “…salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ…” is come and demonstrated.

Shouldn’t that be where our thought lands—not reacting but responding?

I’ve noticed over the past year that when pointing out that there is a need for an individual to metaphysically handle a specific false belief system that is wrongfully influencing them and blocking their healing, nearly everyone uniformly replies: “But I don’t believe in that system!”

Whether we believe in a system or not isn’t the sole criterion for it working against our demonstration of Christian Science.  Remember, there are millions upon millions who believe in each of these false concepts, and unless we’re handling the specific form of error that’s trying to obstruct our healing—both in our own thought and the world’s thought—we likely may experience its adverse effects.

So, the important questions are:

• Are we—through prayer and spiritual discernment—awake to what’s coming at us?
• Are we handling those lies based on the truths of Christian Science—the truths of the absolute supremacy of God?

And please, let’s not forget, that none of these lies are to be feared but are instead to be destroyed.  As the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy:

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (II Tim 1:7)

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about.

Perhaps you feel that though you’re deeply turning to God for the lesson you need to learn, you’re not able to hear what He is revealing to you.  Clearly, since Mary Baker Eddy wrote:

In divine Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail themselves of God as “a very present help in trouble.” (Science and Health, p. 12)

to believe that we can’t hear God is unacceptable.

But what form of animal magnetism might be trying to convince you otherwise?

Well, beliefs such as atheism that claims there is no God to hear come to mind.  Or religious systems that would insist that one must pray to an intercessory saint or to a person who has passed on (such as a “guide” in occultism)—systems which falsely assert that we cannot speak to and hear directly from our ever-present Father-Mother God. Credos that fly directly in the face of the biblical truth that declares:

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. (Ps. 139:7-10)

And let’s not be naive enough to believe that we aren’t being wrongfully influenced. To some degree, we all are.  As Mrs. Eddy told Laura E. Sargent:

If you believe you are above error while in the flesh, master that lie, or it will master you. (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy—Expanded Edition, Vol. 1, p. 121)

One of the great beauties of Christian Science—one that I saw from my first exposure to it—is that each of us can turn to God directly to awaken to both what we need to cast out of our thought and to what is absolutely true about our indestructible, inexhaustible, infinite relationship to our God—the truth that sets us free!

And you can believe that!

My latest JSH-Online audio podcast “Take off the victim label” has just been posted at the Putting it on Record section of The Christian Science Journal. Rita Polatin interviewed me about how important it is to not allow error to label us in this way and how we can throw off the shackles of victimization by using the truths of Christian Science.

You can hear it at: http://journal.christianscience.com/audio/putting-it-on-record/take-off-the-victim-label

Enjoy!

Here’s a question that we all need to ask ourselves: “Am I—in any way—accepting the label of being a victim?”

If we’re honest—and we must be if we’re expecting to make spiritual progress—perhaps we’re acquiescing to that claim in some fashion.

What do I mean by that?

Well, are we accepting any assertion of limitation on our experience—be it illness, lack of supply, relationship inharmonies, feelings of oppression, anger, aging, discouragement, etc.—while simultaneously believing that we’ve done everything we could have done, and all to no avail?

If so, then my friends, we’re wearing the garment of victimization and suffering accordingly.

And, let’s face it; if we truly had done all we needed to do, we’d be free. It’s just that simple!

But more and more, I hear from Christian Scientists, who have fallen into this trap of believing that there is a power opposed to God that could actually thwart their ability to be healed, and who thereby have agreed—tacitly or overtly—to take on this insidious victimization mantle. A mantle that has been heavily promoted throughout our society by psychology and psychiatry. A mantle whose adornment allows the person to give excuse to error—whether they’re comfortable or uncomfortable in its lies.

A mantle that God has never, ever placed upon us!

To the contrary, we’ve been given the dominion, power, ability, and authority by Almighty God, whose image and likeness is our true and only identity—an identity that is wholly, immutably, and irrevocably spiritual—to cast off those self-imposed shackles of mortal mind—of the carnal mind!

But to do so requires that we use our God-given spiritual senses of discernment, perception, comprehension, judgment, and vision to be alert to the carnal mind’s claims of an identity separated from God and existing in matter—and vehemently refuse to use its weapons that the Apostle Paul alludes to in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians.

Weapons that include the belief of being a helpless victim.

Weapons that we dare not embrace!

Instead, we need to metaphysically persist in using what Paul states are the spiritual weapons of our warfare—weapons that are:

…mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ… (II Cor. 10)

Make no mistake: God is leading us out of the wilderness as we strive to bring every thought to the obedience of Christ and recognize that there is only one God—one power—that we are subordinate to: namely, divine Love.

As Mary Baker Eddy wrote:

Citizens of the world, accept the “glorious liberty of the children of God,” and be free! (Science and Health, p. 227)

Go ahead! Cast off that “Scarlet V”!

No, this title isn’t referring to winning a sporting event, or succeeding in business, or any other material endeavor.

It’s the beginning of a profound idea that Mary Baker Eddy voiced to Laura E. Sargent (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy-Expanded Edition, Vol. 1, p. 120):

Our only triumph is when we open our consciousness to the fear or error that is blinding and holding us in thrall and overcome it. God gave me this insight when first I discovered the Science of Christianity, and I have not lost it and can never lose it so long as I duly watch and pray to this end.

Think of it!

Our only—our only—triumph is to awaken to the evil that is mesmerizing us and overcome it!

Now to some, this may seem obvious.

But far too many folks that call me for help are exceptionally reluctant (to be euphemistic) to examine their thinking and find out what error they’ve taken in and are allowing to detrimentally govern their health and well-being.

Yet throughout her published writings, Mrs. Eddy states the need to uncover error.

For example, in Miscellaneous Writings (page 154), she counseled us to:

Watch diligently; never desert the post of spiritual observation and self-examination.

By the way, in case anyone is confused here, “never” means never!

In the same book (p. 348), she penned:

Error, left to itself, accumulates.

And she stated in Science and Health:

A knowledge of error and of its operations must precede that understanding of Truth which destroys error, until the entire mortal, material error finally disappears, and the eternal verity, man created by and of Spirit, is understood and recognized as the true likeness of his Maker. (p. 258)

It should be absolutely clear that we must uncover and rebuke error.

Yet I frequently hear “reasons” offered for not being obedient to her demands such as:

• If I uncover error, aren’t I making a reality of it?
• Shouldn’t I just be thinking of the good?
• Isn’t this going on a “witch hunt”?
• If I look for the error, aren’t I saying that I’m not already the perfect idea of God?

These excuses—and make no mistake, that’s exactly what they are—and others like them, are only the efforts—the suggestions—of the carnal mind to keep itself covered and operating in our consciousness so that it can continue to enslave us!

You’ll recall that in referring to the Master, Mrs. Eddy wrote:

All that error asks is to be let alone; even as in Jesus’ time the unclean spirits cried out, “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee?” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, p. 211)

And let’s not forget, that the Founder and Discoverer of Christian Science also admonished us to uncover error when she wrote:

Without a knowledge of his sins, and repentance so severe that it destroys them, no person is or can be a Christian Scientist. (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 107)

There is no wiggle room in that declaration, so it’s imperative that we take the time to seriously ponder its import.

You might be asking: “OK, what’s the practical application here?”

Well, if you’re not receiving the healing you’ve been praying for—whether it’s physical, emotional, or behavioral—ask yourself if you’re really willing to cleanse your thought to the degree that is required of you.

Mrs. Eddy told her last class:

So often have I longed to see and know only Love—only the good—but I have not dared. I must uncover and rebuke and hate iniquity. (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy-Expanded Edition, Vol. 1, p. 297)

If we profess to be Mary Baker Eddy’s followers, shouldn’t we also be willing to uncover, rebuke, and hate iniquity?

Dare we do otherwise?!

My latest JSH-Online audio podcast “…to be present with the Lord.” has just been posted at the Putting it on Record section of The Christian Science Journal.  Rita Polatin interviewed me about how this vitally important spiritual truth can be practically applied in our daily experiences as well as in the lives of those who contact us for Christian Science healing.

You can hear it at: http://journal.christianscience.com/audio/putting-it-on-record/to-be-present-with-the-lord.

Enjoy!