Tell the Truth

Archive for August, 2008

Under His Feet
by the McKameys

When Simon Peter walked oppressed
Putting his faith unto the test,
He said, “Master will thou bid me come unto thee?”
Jesus said, “Come”, so Peter went,
And when the faith he had was spent,
Peter sank low but Jesus had waves roll under his feet.

Chorus:
Under his feet, Under his feet,
There’s not a problem that you’ll face he cannot meet.
Whenever you’ve waded out too far in waters too deep,
Remember when waves are over your head they’re under his feet.

Often we faint in trials sore,
Can’t face our problems anymore,
Forgetting wherever we may go he’s been there before,
We should look up and praise the Lord
He walks the water and the shore
The heavenly breeze and the thundering seas are under his feet.

Under His Feet…

For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. Psalms 18:28

6 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
7 Thou shalt have none other gods before me. Deut 5:6-7 (KJV)

What does it mean to have no other gods?

It means letting nothing else tell you…

• who you are
• what your nature is
• what you can and cannot do
• “No” or “Yes”
• how to behave
• what your limitations or capabilities are
• what is or isn’t possible
• what the rules are
• what kind of world you live in
• how to live
• what is true and what isn’t

God is one God, infinite and perfect, and cannot become finite and imperfect. (587:17)

Nothing that is finite and imperfect can be your lawgiver.

A material heart has nothing to do with Life. The divine Mind governs every function of the real man.

 151:17
       Mortal belief says that death has been occasioned by
18 fright. Fear never stopped being and its action. The
   blood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothing
   to do with Life, God. Every function of the
21 real man is governed by the divine Mind. The human
   mind has no power to kill or to cure, and it has no con-
   trol over God’s man. The divine Mind that made man
24 maintains His own image and likeness. The human
   mind is opposed to God and must be put off, as St. Paul
   declares. All that really exists is the divine Mind and
27 its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found har-
   monious and eternal. The straight and narrow way is to
   see and acknowledge this fact, yield to this power, and
30 follow the leadings of truth.

Heart is not a separate entity. It has no life of its own. It is governed by mind.

187:13
       The valves of the heart, opening and closing for the pas-
   sage of the blood, obey the mandate of mor-               
15 tal mind as directly as does the hand, ad-                   
   mittedly moved by the will. Anatomy allows the mental
   cause of the latter action, but not of the former.

A material heart does not dictate man’s life or health.

191:16
       The human thought must free itself from self-imposed
   materiality and bondage. It should no longer
18 ask of the head, heart, or lungs:  What are 
   man’s prospects for life? Mind is not helpless. Intelli-
   gence is not mute before non-intelligence.

Muscles and nerves don’t make the heart sick—mortal mind does, but the divine Mind heals.

219:11-22
   Not muscles, nerves, nor bones, but mortal mind makes
12 the whole body “sick, and the whole heart faint;” whereas
   divine Mind heals.
       When this is understood, we shall never affirm concern-
15 ing the body what we do not wish to have manifested. We
   shall not call the body weak, if we would have it strong;
   for the belief in feebleness must obtain in the human
18 mind before it can be made manifest on the body, and
   the destruction of the belief will be the removal of its
   effects. Science includes no rule of discord, but governs
21 harmoniously. “The wish,” says the poet, “is ever father
   to the thought.”

Mortal mind forms all conditions and controls the material heart, but I’m not a victim of a material heart.

220:30
30               Mortal mind forms all conditions of the mortal
   body, and controls the stomach, bones, lungs, heart, blood,
   etc., as directly as the volition or will moves the hand.

The heart doesn’t inform me of its status, that’s mortal mind talking. A material heart is a lie.

243:16
       The clay cannot reply to the potter. The head, heart,
   lungs, and limbs do not inform us that they are dizzy,
18 diseased, consumptive, or lame. If this in-
   formation is conveyed, mortal mind conveys 
   it. Neither immortal and unerring Mind nor matter,
21 the inanimate substratum of mortal mind, can carry
   on such telegraphy; for God is “of purer eyes than
   to behold evil,” and matter has neither intelligence nor
24 sensation.

The creations of God rejoice the heart. Truth decapitates error. Materiality gives place to a higher sense of being.

265:31
       The pains of sense are salutary, if they wrench away
   false pleasurable beliefs and transplant the affections
 1 from sense to Soul, where the creations of God are good,
   ”rejoicing the heart.” Such is the sword of
 3 Science, with which Truth decapitates error, 
   materiality giving place to man’s higher individuality and
   destiny.

The suffering heart needs peace, patience and a sense of the Father’s Love.

365:31
                                                            The poor suf-
   fering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace,
 1 patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear
   Father’s loving-kindness.

Evangelize yourself!

415:24
24                                                              To remove
   the error producing disorder, you must calm and instruct
   mortal mind with immortal Truth.

Correct material belief by spiritual understanding and Spirit will form you anew. Your heart cannot destroy you.

425:23
                   Consciousness constructs a better body when
24 faith in matter has been conquered. Correct material
   belief by spiritual understanding, and Spirit will form
   you anew. You will never fear again except to offend
27 God, and you will never believe that heart or any por-
   tion of the body can destroy you.

Place your whole heart on God.

587:23
   HEART.  Mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and
24 sorrows.

Love rejoices the heart. Rejoice with Love!

Mis 12:25-26
       In Christian Science, the law of Love rejoices the heart;
   and Love is Life and Truth.

Truth neutralizes any error you’ve become attached to and destroys it.

Mis 204:4 Truth
                                                    Truth, searching the
   heart, neutralizes and destroys error.

Our whole heart belongs to God—none of it belongs to matter.

Man 44:26 (to ,)
                                 God requires our whole heart,

Are gratitude and love abiding in your heart?

Man 60:15-17
15                                              Gratitude
   and love should abide in every heart each day
   of all the years.

I’d like to begin this post with a story… 25 years ago, I was living in a family-oriented religious community. We were putting on Saturday night dinners and entertainment for the families of the community. I was the leader of a musical group providing entertainment. I had written a lot of songs about life in the community and there was a group of four or five of us that played and sang the songs.

At the time we were first preparing to play, the leader of the music ministry in the community overheard us discussing a name for our band. He said, no, we would not be naming the group because once it was named, it would take on an identity, and a life of itself. Once that happens people think of it and relate to it differently. He didn’t want that kind of dynamic to enter into our activities. We were providing entertainment as members of the community, not as “Johnny and the Angels” (the name we jokingly used to referred to ourselves.)

Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking about Mrs. Eddy’s statement that “There is no disease.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 421:18) I love the boldness of the statement. I’ve been struggling with a disease that has a name, and her statement was wonderfully reassuring to me saying: Don’t worry about the disease taking it’s course; don’t worry about the ability of Truth to handle (heal) it; you’re going to be OK; God didn’t make it; it only exists in the mortal dream; you don’t need to be afraid of it.

I was up in the middle of the night last night and out of curiosity I thought I’d “Google” her statement. The first result I got back talked about diabetes and osteoporosis, and it was so helpful to my spiritual understanding. Here’s an excerpt:

Disease names like diabetes and osteoporosis are misleading and misinform patients about disease prevention.

There is a curious tendency in conventional medicine to name a set of symptoms a disease. I was recently at a compounding pharmacy having my bone mineral density measured to update my health stats. I spotted a poster touting a new drug for osteoporosis. It was written by a drug company and it said exactly this: ‘Osteoporosis is a disease that causes weak and fragile bones.’ Then, the poster went on to say that you need a particular drug to counteract this ‘disease.’

Yet the language is all backwards. Osteoporosis isn’t a disease that causes weak bones, osteoporosis is the name given to a diagnosis of weak bones. In other words, the weak bones are the result of excess acidity, and then the diagnosis of osteoporosis followed.

The drug poster makes it sound like osteoporosis strikes first, and then you get weak bones. The cause and effect is all backwards. And that’s how drug companies want people to think about diseases and symptoms: first you ‘get’ the disease, and then you are ‘diagnosed’ just in time to take a new drug for the rest of your life.

But it’s all hogwash. There is no such disease as osteoporosis. It’s just a made-up name given to a pattern of symptoms…

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?read=109084

To me this said that there is no disease named diabetes or osteoporosis. Disease is not an entity; it has no mind or identity. All there is to it is the discordant thoughts of mortal mind manifested in the body, and the Truth, when realized, will get rid of the symptoms.

Mrs. Eddy took the same view of disease that our music ministry leader took in the community. She saw that giving disease a name made it more of an entity in our thinking.

 391:24-26 (to 2nd .)
24                                                            Disease has
   no intelligence to declare itself something and announce
   its name. Mortal mind alone sentences itself.

 412:10–13
       You may call the disease by name when you mentally
   deny it; but by naming it audibly, you are liable under
12 some circumstances to impress it upon the
   thought.

When the medical community tries to heal disease, it is important for them to know the name of it. This gives them a knowledge of the symptoms and its likely development. It also suggests to the doctor a possible treatment.

In Science, an exact diagnosis isn’t necessary. Instead we learn that “there is no disease”, i.e. disease is not an entity or an identity. It does not have a “course” to run. It is not an activity of a physical body, but a manifestation of error thinking. Instead of working on the movie screen, we work on the projector—our thought.

If you see the body physically, it’s important to know the correct name of a disease because you believe it’s an entity, and it’s important to know it’s physical action to know how to treat it, and how seriously to take it.

If you see the body metaphysically, on the other hand, you know it’s important to NOT give disease a name because it’s never what it appears to be—it’s never a physical activity—it’s a mental one. And you know that man is not what he appears to be either—he is not physical.

 475:5-14
   Question. — What is man?
 6 Answer. — Man is not matter; he is not made up of
   brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The
   Scriptures inform us that man is made in                     Fleshly
 9 the image and likeness of God. Matter is                    factors unreal
   not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so
   unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and be-
12 cause he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so under-
   stood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of
   Love; he is not physique.

As I’ve prayed with understanding today, I’ve kept Mrs. Eddy’s statement in mind: “There is no disease”, and it has given me such comfort. My greater understanding has resulted in a decrease in symptoms today and greater confidence and joy. Mrs. Eddy says to “Mentally contradictevery complaint from the body” (S&H 391:21), and knowing “There is no disease” has made it so much easier.

I was led to look up one of my favorite scriptural passages in Bible Explorer today to see if I could get a greater appreciation of it. What I found was fascinating. Here’s the passage in the King James Version:

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Tim 1:7 (KJV)

Young’s Literal Translation renders sound mind identically. But when I began to look at different translations I found a great variety of terms used in its place.

• Self-Control—Amplified, Centenary, NCV, ES, BBE
• Self-discipline—NLT, NIV
• Good judgement—GW
• Sensible—Message
• Sobriety—Wesley NT
• Moderation—Mace
• Wise discretion—Darby’s
• Discipline—Am Std, Moffatt

The Living Bible alone of the translations I have seemed “off the wall” rendering the passage:

For the Holy Spirit, God’s gift, does not want you to be afraid of people, but to be wise and strong, and to love them and enjoy being with them. 2 Tim 1:7 (TLB)

I’ve always seen “sound mind” as indicating a solid and capable mind, but these different renderings give me a more generous understanding.