Tell the Truth

Archive for September, 2009

A commentary on the power of man by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert… Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
My name is Ozymandius, King of Kings,
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Would you like to super charge your spiritual growth? Here are some things that will work for you!

1) The Daily Prayer —

Man 41:19 It
Daily Prayer. SECT. 4. It shall be the duty
of every member of this Church to pray each
21 day: “Thy kingdom come;” let the reign of
divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in
me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy
24 Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and
govern them!

Practicing the daily prayer is not just a matter of saying it each morning. Instead, when you sit down to do your metaphysical work each morning (and yes, it does need to be a daily practice), have the intention of establishing God’s Word—Truth, Life and Love in your consciousness. You are not working each morning to be inspired, to be entertained or to be faithful to a time commitment you have made. You are working to establish God’s Word in your consciousness. Nothing less. Approach it in that attitude.

2) Work! – Growing in consciousness does not happen by merely asking God for it. It happens through work—and hard work at that. Take your Bible Lesson or an article (perhaps Mary Baker Eddy’s essay on Place, or Adam H. Dickey’s excellent article, “God’s Law of Adjustment”—both of which are available on this website), a chapter from Science and Health, or the Bible and determine to internalize it.

Make a commitment to spend 3 hours each day (yes, that is THREE hours) working on your chosen material. When I work with an article I take two paragraphs a day and spend my 3 hours on those paragraphs. I go over them and over them. I think of analogies that will illustrate them. I think about how I would explain the principle to non-Christian Scientists. I take the truths presented and pray for myself and others using them repeatedly. I write down my thoughts on a note pad. Each hour I work (one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening) I make new notes. I write down scriptures that are related to it. I look at different translations of those passages. I look up words in the dictionary. I do everything I can to get these ideas as deeply ingrained in me as I can.

In the preface to Science and Health Mrs. Eddy states, “The time for thinkers has come.” Think.

The Bible lesson is often wonderful material to work with, but don’t feel limited to it. I find that spending three hours on Saturday is sufficient time to spend on the Bible lesson for me if my primary focus is elsewhere during the week. I have also at times felt that a week working on the Bible lesson was not enough. Remember the purpose of your work is not to be a good Christian Scientist by following rules, but to transform your consciousness. Everything else must take a back seat to that intention. Don’t ignore the lesson, but don’t limit yourself to it either.

But, you say, I don’t have three hours a day! Try to work for two hours then, or even a single hour if that’s all the time available for you to work. I am fortunate to have a reduced work schedule at the moment, and am without the demands of marriage and family. But remember, the goal is for you to pour in Truth through flood-tides of Love—to transform your mind by establishing metaphysical Truth in it. This is not a trivial task, nor a goal to be taken lightly. You must make an effort to do what you can. There is no other way.

You may also find it helpful to work with a clock. It will keep you mindful of exactly how long you have been working. I find it helps me stay focused.

When problems come up during the day, if you are mindful enough to meet each one with Truth and not find yourself “in the soup”, you are likely spending enough time working (not that we can ever stop working!) If you see error in another, or a claim of less than perfect God and perfect man around you, and you rise to handle it with the Truths you have been learning, you are likely spending enough time working. If not, work until you get there. If you are calling your practitioner with every ache and pain while neglecting your own work toward your healing, you can be sure that you are not doing enough work.

3) Work with a practitioner – Practitioners devote a great amount of time to building their consciousness. Seek one out that you respect and learn from them. When you receive a healing from a practitioner, find out when they did and work on learning and applying those truths for yourself. If you receive a healing from a practitioner, but haven’t learned from the experience, you are only marginally better off. If you have learned how the healing was done, you will be able to use that knowledge to be of use to yourself and others in the future. (This is a new idea to me, coming from one of the practitioners at the Plainfield church, and one that I’m putting into practice immediately!)

4) Tend your soil – You can’t make your seeds grow. God brings the increase. What you can do is plant your seed and tend the soil. The seed is metaphysical Truth, don’t bother with anything less. The soil is your consciousness. Fill your consciousness with Truth. Don’t get lazy and take in what the radio, TV, co-workers, or your corporeal senses are telling you. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. Meet every claim with Truth. If you miss a cue and find yourself disturbed, don’t waste a moment with remorse. Instead, turn immediately to the Truth right then. Don’t worry about what you didn’t do, instead meet the claim now. You are only living in the eternal now, and now is the only moment you have to handle error. It’s never too late!

Work these steps earnestly and sincerely, and I can promise you that you will grow. Try it for two weeks. If it hasn’t born fruit, you can always try something else, but this is what has worked for me, and I believe it will work for you.

There are three possibilities concerning the nature of man: First, that man is solely material; second, that man is material united with Spirit; and third, that man is solely spiritual, and not material at all. We must accept one of these three basic views of man, but which is the right one, and how do we know?

The first two beliefs are presented in the 2nd chapter of Genesis:

The first:  “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground…” Gen 2:7  In this passage, the Bible clearly makes the argument that man was formed of the dust of the ground, and that he was man before he was given life.

The second comes as a continuation of the passage above:  “…and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Gen 2:7  Now man is presented as though being initially material as now being united with life–the material and spiritual now being united. In these stories arising from a material creation, the male gender alone is created and the female, Eve, later being derived from the rib of Adam as an afterthought of God.  “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;  22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.” Gen 2:21-22  This is the most common belief and is generally held by most religious people. It is considered the most common-sensical view of man.

The third possibility is taken from the first chapter of Genesis. In this presentation, man is created as the image and likeness of God in both genders simultaneously. In this story of creation, no material body was created. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.  27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Gen 1:26-27  This is the teaching of Christian Science, who views the two alternative stories as being in error, and these beliefs being the ultimate source of mankind’s experience of sin, disease and death.

Let’s look briefly at the three possibilities in terms of life continuing after the death of the body.

If man is material, when he dies, that’s it. End of story. This view is at least consistent with the premise. If you view man as completely material, and his intelligence arising from brain tissue, matter thus creating mind, then this view of man will satisfy you. If you do not believe that atoms and molecules can bring forth identity and intelligence by themselves then this view of man is less than satisfying.

If man is both material and spiritual, another problem presents itself. If a material body is an essential part of man–as essential as the spiritual part of him, then when man dies and his life goes on after the death of the body, he must then go into the spiritual world only half of a man–a cripple, missing an essential half of his identity. If you take the position that this is not the case and nothing essential to man is lost to him, then why would you consider that man is a union of the material and spiritual? What essential contribution does matter make to a man whose entire essence is spiritual?

If man is spiritual, his life continues on without the material accompaniment of a body. If man is wholly spiritual, the material body must then be non-essential, and it cannot be an essential part of man at all. This view allows man to continue into the spiritual world with his full essential nature intact, and there is some evidence to support this view.

Jesus arose from the dead, showing that life continues even without the body. Lazarus was raised from the dead showing the Mind’s ability to re-animate the physical body, rather than mind being at the mercy of a brain decomposed for three days which would seem to be critical in the first view presented of man as purely material.

Scripture offers other hints as well. The fact that Jesus was able to heal as he did illustrates that the material condition of the sick was no obstacle to man’s wholeness. If matter was an essential part of man, then Jesus would have had to change the essential nature of each man and woman he healed.

Most people judge reality by appearances, and by their experience. “Seeing is believing.” Jesus warned us, however, against judging on this basis in the Gospel of John: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. ” John 7:24  From this I draw the following conclusions: 1) that judgment according appearances is by it’s superficial nature wrong judgment; 2) that there is another criteria that allows you to make right judgment; and 3) that the right judgments you make from spiritual Principle would not coincide with empirical or experiential evidence.

In Christian Science, the right standard is the story of man’s creation presented in the 1st chapter of Genesis–God make man in His image and likeness. His image is a spiritual image, not a material one. (God has no material body parts, and neither does man who is his spiritual reflection.) Man’s likeness is perfection since that is God’s nature.

This view of man as spiritual and perfect is the foundation of the Christianly Scientific view of man. In Christian Science, and any judgment made of man must precede from this unvarying Principle.

How can we judge the truth of this argument? Why should you accept it rather than one of the other views of man? No one can ever win an argument through the intellect alone. The proof must be seen through demonstration. This is the way a mathematical postulate is proved and it is the way metaphysical postulates must be proved as well.

One may argue mightily with the theologies and practices of the Christian church (Christian Science included), but one cannot argue with the evidence of healing. If a practitioner can heal another by their thought alone then it must be said that what is true of them is what was true of Jesus: “…if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” In other words, the healing provides the proof. “The proof is in the pudding.”

And the proof of over 100 years of Christian Science healing rests on the side of the spiritual status of man.

“Come naturally into Spirit through better health and morals and as the result of spiritual growth.” 485  “Advancing to a higher plane of action, thought rises from the material sense to the spiritual…” 256

We advance to a higher plane of action. We stop trying to manipulate the movie screen and start paying attention to the projector, then turning away from the machinery itself to the film that holds the projected image, then turning once again to the human mind that impressed the images onto the film itself, and finally turning to the spiritual Truth that overshadows the human sense of mind and governs and maintains the harmonious heaven of our spiritual reality.

I am definitely in the wrong place at work, but I know my divine shepherd is leading me. I’m going to follow him by taking one step at a time—beginning with the tasks before me today. I’m going to do each one with love, trusting that as I do so, I will be led to the next step.

It could just be that God’s “honey, do” list doesn’t read “1, 2, 3”; but instead, it reads “Love, love, love”.

In God’s eternal creation, as each step is being unfolded, man, God’s idea, through his normal activity (work), fulfills his part to play. God’s creation needs man, and likewise, man needs to fill his part in order to find the sense of fulfillment and satisfaction he requires for his well-being.

The need and the supplier of that need in creation are divinely linked by God’s purpose and grace. It is impossible that God’s plan could ever be frustrated by a lack of anything. Thus the place seeks the right man to fulfill it’s need and man seeks his right place to achieve his fulfillment and satisfaction.

The idea is always matched to the place and the place to the man. It is impossible that there would be a man without a place allowing his contribution, or a place languishing for a man to step in and fulfill it’s need.

The work available must fulfill all of man’s need; and the man is able to fulfill all the needs of the place he is in. They are divinely linked by Principle and that Principle must be fulfilled.

Coming from a New Thought background, I am always trying to understand how Christian Science differs. Here’s my latest perspective…

Mrs. Eddy sees a spiritual world which is “above” this one. The spiritual world contains the perfect creation of God—a world of ideas. The things which appear in this world are often only a poor shadow of the spiritual ideas comprising reality; and there are even objects which exist in the spiritual world which do not even appear in this one, because this world is filtered through mortal mind—mankind’s wrong and destructive human mental conceptions.

Man is called a co-creator in many metaphysical churches, but in Christian Science, there is no need for man to create anything. Everything has already been created by God “in the beginning”. Man’s role is to express God, making His divine ideas manifest in this world by “seeking first the kingdom of God”. This self-existent perfect spiritual reality already includes health, wealth, purpose, qualities, love, life, etc. which are all an integral part of God’s creating. Although these things can be seemingly degraded or destroyed in this world, they exist eternally in the spiritual one, and thus man can never be deprived of them. When Jesus restored sight to the blind, he was not restoring damaged eyes, he was manifesting the spiritual sense which always remains intact in the spiritual world. He was not working miracles against so-called material law, but he was restoring that which was already there and which had always remained perfect.

Christian Science starts from perfection, rather than trying to create it. It starts from spirit, rather than from matter. It does not try to improve the imperfect, but endeavors to see the perfect as it already exists in spiritual reality and to mentally bring our thinking into line with that divine reality, thus allowing it to manifest in this world of appearances.

The common metaphysical approach is to work to create a “mental equivalency” of the desired end which then forms a sort of mold that spirit then fills with substance. The problem of this approach, from a Christian Science perspective, is that once again, the desired end is filtered through man’s selfishness and material beliefs, which deviate from God’s creation. God’s creation rests on the unchanging and perfect ideas of God and is therefore eternal–similar to the mathematical idea of 2 + 2 = 4. It is always and everywhere true. Reality consists of these divine ideas of God alone. They are the only thing that will last. Deviation from God’s reality is what brings about death. Anything that is not of God, and therefore eternal, by its very nature must pass away.

I’ve been working with Psalm 45 this morning…

3 Put on your sword, powerful warrior. Show your glory and majesty. 

[The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God  Eph 6:17 (NCV)]

4 Ride on victoriously in your majesty for the cause of truth, humility, and righteousness. Let your right hand teach you awe-inspiring things.

[We are to ride victoriously! And not just for ourselves, but for Truth, humility and righteousness. Demonstration is the way we are to live. It is the path of righteousness. Our experience in putting God's Word into practice will teach us awe-inspiring things!]

6 God, your throne will last forever and ever. You will rule your kingdom with fairness.

[God rules! Not matter or circumstance!]

7 You love right and hate evil, so God has chosen you from among your friends; he has set you apart with much joy.

[10 For  “Whoever desires to love life and see good days...
11 let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”  1 Peter 3:10-12 (ESV)]

8 Your clothes smell like myrrh, aloes, and cassia…

[The fragrance of right thought...]

10 Listen to me, daughter; look and pay attention. Forget your people and your father’s family.

[34  “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
36  And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.
37  Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Matt 10:34-37 (ESV) -- forget the "human", mortal man. Put aside how you were raised. Put aside false beliefs.]

11 The king loves your beauty. Because he is your master, you should obey him.

[23 But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’  Jer 7:23 (ESV)]