Wed 19 Nov 2008
Tue 18 Nov 2008
This past Sunday I was at the Unity church here in Knoxville, helping them celebrate their 30th anniversary.
It was an opportunity for me to sing five of my own songs and several others during the service, and hear Carole O’Connell speak. Carole has a wonderful consciousness of God’s abundance and a clear grasp of Unity/New Thought principles.
The thing I took away with me was her saying that each night she and her husband work with the affirmation, “I sleep in peace, awake in joy, and live in a consciousness of good.”
I had asked Lora Beth, the minister, to let me know the lesson topic when Carole gave it to her. She emailed me Friday morning with the title, “Keep the Faith, All is Well!”
I had woken up at two in the morning on Saturday and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I was going through my songs looking for something to support the talk and found myself singing “Keep the Faith, All is Well!”, so I stopped looking and started writing. So I ended up with a new song to sing on Sunday morning.
I also chose the song, Life is Found in God. It gave me an opportunity to share Christian Science with the congregation. The song talks about Life not being found in matter, and that needed some explanation for folks who aren’t familiar with the idea. I explained that when we pass on, we leave our physical body behind us; so our life CAN’T be in our body because we take our life with us when we go!
After the service I was talking with Carole about the similarities and differences between Unity and Christian Science. One of the things we discussed, of course, was Christian Science healing. I was sharing with her that we had a congregation member who was recently healed of leukemia. Carole’s ears perked up. It turns out that her husband has leukemia. I was able to later email her the woman’s phone number for her husband to call. God put me in the right place Sunday.
I spent most of last year getting free of my commitments at Unity so that I could move on to the Christian Science church where I felt my spiritual growth was. I see now that I still have spiritual work to do at Unity as well. The Unity church has lost it’s musician and Lora Beth has asked me to come in a couple of Sunday’s a month to lead the music. It will provide opportunities for me to sing and talk about Christian Science as well as support Lora Beth in her ministry. Thats a win-win situation.
Sat 1 Nov 2008
In this week’s Bible lesson, Psalm 107 reminds us of God’s redeemption. According to the Psalm (taken from nine different translations) here are what God redeems us from:
God is clearly a God of redemption—not merely of consolation in suffering. We are to “heal the sick, cast out evil, raise the dead”. As Christian Scientists, like Jesus, we must be about our Father’s business. Our religion is not merely a philosophy or doctrine—it is Love in action.
Sat 25 Oct 2008
Animan Magnetism is still around. Here’s an article about the new transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy which has just been approved the the FDA.
It has been touted as a possible treatment for migraine, depression, and stroke, and is even said to have roused a patient from a coma.
Now transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has received its first stamp of approval as a therapy by the US Food and Drugs Administration, which says TMS can be used to treat depression in adults who don’t respond to anti-depressant drugs.
TMS involves holding an electromagnetic coil over the head and using it to stimulate the underlying brain tissue.
Rapidly changing magnetic fields induce weak electric currents in brain tissue, either exciting or inhibiting brain cells, and making it easier or harder for them to communicate with one another.
Several large trials have suggested TMS can be useful in treating depression, where it is used to excite cells in the areas of the brain involved in mood regulation.
In the latest trial, submitted to the FDA by Neuronetics of Malvern, Pennsylvania, which develops TMS devices, more than half of depressed patients showed an improvement in symptoms after receiving five 40-minute TMS sessions per week for four to six weeks.
Magnetic brain therapy gets US green light - mental-health - 21 October 2008 - New Scientist.
Sat 18 Oct 2008
O Thou unchanging Truth, whose facts eternal
Give us the courage to outface the storm,
To rise against the senses’ swift alarm
And stand unmoved at Spirit’s high tribunal,
Thy word acquits us and Thy Word is final.
O Thou abundant Life, whose freshness daily
Admits no common round, no dull routine,
This is our joy and this our discipline,
To take Thy gift of life and use it fully;
This is our highest task, to spend it freely.
O boundless Love, forever undiminished,
How far and little seems the lie of pain.
We were with Thee, before the world began,
And shall be with Thee, when the world has vanished;
Thy work is perfect and Thy work is finished.Peter J. Henniker-Heaton
Sun 5 Oct 2008
Here’s a good answer…
Mind creates all as ideas: it is the creative impulse. Life teaches that this self-creative impulse is forever at work. This manifests itself in an unceasing activity of ideas continually unfolding and always fulfilling their purpose. Life does not mean merely that Principle exists, but equally that all ideas in the universe are at work now. This gives man the consciousness that he is always fathered by Life, God, that he is ever the expression of vitality, initiative, the effervescing joy of living, and unconquerable activity. He recognizes moreover that the entire universe, his environment likewise expresses the ever-new, constructive, furthering, supporting, and providing activity of divine Life.
from References in the booklet Compendium for the Study of Christian Science
Wed 17 Sep 2008
Mrs. Eddy teaches that God does not know evil. Here’s a typical passage from Miscellaneous Writings.
Mis 367:13-2
Error says that knowing all things implies the neces-
sity of knowing evil, that it dishonors God to claim that
15 He is ignorant of anything; but God says of this fruit
of the tree of knowledge of both good and evil, “In the
day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” If
18 God is infinite good, He knows nothing but good; if He
did know aught else, He would not be infinite. Infinite
Mind knows nothing beyond Himself or Herself. To
21 good, evil is never present; for evil is a different state of
consciousness. It was not against evil, but against know-
ing evil, that God forewarned. He dwelleth in light;
24 and in the light He sees light, and cannot see darkness.
The opposite conclusion, that darkness dwelleth in light,
has neither precedent nor foundation in nature, in logic,
27 or in the character of Christ.
The senses would say that whatever saves from sin,
must know sin. Truth replies that God is too pure
30 to behold iniquity; and by virtue of His ignorance of
that which is not, He knoweth that which is, and
abideth in Himself, the only Life, Truth, and Love,
1 — and is reflected by a universe in His own image
and likeness.
How can it be possible that God does not know of evil—of sin, disease and death? If so, how can God heal me of my problem?
Think of it this way. If you were walking across the desert with a knowledgable geographer and saw ahead of you the mirage of a lake, would the geographer know about it? To you, it’s there. You can see it, and yet it has no reality. By a play of light you see something that he doesn’t, because he knows the geography.
Sin, disease and death can seem very real to us because we seem to experience them, but they are illusory experiences brought about by the false beliefs of a material consciousness.
God doesn’t see them just like the geographer doesn’t see your mirage—and when you see the Truth, you won’t see your problem either and will no longer suffer from it.
Sun 14 Sep 2008
192:30
30 . Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed
love, receives directly the divine power.
Sun 14 Sep 2008
One of the first duties of the physician is to educate the masses not to take medicine.
Sir William Osler, Aphorisms from his Bedside Teachings (1961) p. 105
British (Canadian-born) physician (1849 - 1919)