Recently my Christian Science branch church voted to have a pray vigil once a month on the gang violence in our community. We are also in April 2008 going to have a Christian Science Lecture on the subject.
From my Christian Science study on this subject these are some ideas that came to me.
1. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense.”(71:1-4) From this statement I realized that there are no evil persons called gang members. There is no evil place where they hang out since all space is filled with God and His goodness.
2. God made man in His own image and that is only good. Since God does not commit violence then His idea man is incapable of committing violence.
3. Man does not need to be in a gang to be safe, his protection comes from God. The Bible says The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”(PS. 121:7, 8)
4. Since God made man he did not make man of a color or a creed. We are all the sons and daughters of God
5. Is healing of gang violence possible yes. All things are possible to God. I know of two instances.
The first was a Principal at a public school that prayed that God was the only Mind.. Through his prayer he was lead to tell leaders of various gangs in his school that they were all brothers because they all prayed the Lord’s Prayer which begins “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”(Matt. 6:9) This hit home in their thought. The boys realized that they indeed all had one father. They began to see good in each other and instead of being enemies many of them became friends. They could not harm their brother.
The other instance took place at a prison. Three gangs were about to have an all out war. A man at the prison who was studying Christian Science asked if he could be a mediator between the gangs. He prayed to see each of these men as the children of God. He realized that no child of God wished harm to another child of God. He knew that right in the midst of that prison God’s love was there. He stopped a riot from taking place and gained respect of all the gang members.
The power of prayer is so powerful. I know right now the boys can feel this prayer. They can feel the love of God in their lives instead of hate. Evil has no power but to destroy itself. It cannot harm those boys nor can it touch any innocent member of our community. “Love is the liberator.”(225:21-22)
Friday, January 25, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
You Are Not An Alcoholic
Yes, you heard it right, you are not an alcoholic. Perhaps for years you have struggled with alcoholic problems with very little success. You are obedient and go to an AA meeting each week. Good for you for doing this. However Christian Science can help you find a permanent solution to addiction.
To start with you have to change the way you have been thinking about yourself. You are God’s perfect child. Why because God is love and He created you in His own image and likeness. There is nothing God has made that is not perfect. Jesus told us this. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”(Matt. 5:48)
You need to stop believing all the history about addiction. You are not part of a family of alcoholics. You are the child of God and so is every member of your human family. There is nothing that can be past down to you because your life is spiritual and not material. You are not made up of blood and bones but of spiritual ideas. Some of these spiritual ideas are unselfishness, kindness, purity and integrity. Can purity be drunk of course not?
Perhaps the reason you started to drink was to be more socially acceptable. However you have always been acceptable to God because you are His adorable darling. He accepts you just the way you are. How can God not love what He created?
Maybe you drink because you think you are more relaxed. Is there something to fear? If you think this then there is a time when God is not with you. This is a lie God is always with you every minute. “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”(Isa. 41:10)
You need to destroy the power of the addictiveness of alcohol. Alcohol is not your God and you do not need to bow down and worship it. Mary Baker Eddy in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures says, “You must control evil thoughts in the first instance, or they will control in the second.”(234:26-27) You can control it, when you see that addiction is not a stimulus but an aggressive suggestion that there is a power besides God. You do not need it for your life. Life is God always has been and always will be. You do not need to be dependent on anything but the presence and the power of God.
A speaker at my Christian Science Association a few years ago said this startling statement about alcohol. She said if Jesus could turn water into wine why cannot you turn wine into water. You can when you cease to believe that it has a power over you. You will not be lured by its desire because your thought will be focused on the things of God and not of the things of the world.
AA is wonderful because by saying I am Bill I am an alcoholic it was the first step at facing down alcoholism. Now take the next step by saying with absolute affirmation I am Bill the perfect child of God now and forever. “Citizens of the world, accept the "glorious liberty of the children of God," and be free! This is your divine right.”(Science and Health 227:24-26)
To start with you have to change the way you have been thinking about yourself. You are God’s perfect child. Why because God is love and He created you in His own image and likeness. There is nothing God has made that is not perfect. Jesus told us this. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”(Matt. 5:48)
You need to stop believing all the history about addiction. You are not part of a family of alcoholics. You are the child of God and so is every member of your human family. There is nothing that can be past down to you because your life is spiritual and not material. You are not made up of blood and bones but of spiritual ideas. Some of these spiritual ideas are unselfishness, kindness, purity and integrity. Can purity be drunk of course not?
Perhaps the reason you started to drink was to be more socially acceptable. However you have always been acceptable to God because you are His adorable darling. He accepts you just the way you are. How can God not love what He created?
Maybe you drink because you think you are more relaxed. Is there something to fear? If you think this then there is a time when God is not with you. This is a lie God is always with you every minute. “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”(Isa. 41:10)
You need to destroy the power of the addictiveness of alcohol. Alcohol is not your God and you do not need to bow down and worship it. Mary Baker Eddy in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures says, “You must control evil thoughts in the first instance, or they will control in the second.”(234:26-27) You can control it, when you see that addiction is not a stimulus but an aggressive suggestion that there is a power besides God. You do not need it for your life. Life is God always has been and always will be. You do not need to be dependent on anything but the presence and the power of God.
A speaker at my Christian Science Association a few years ago said this startling statement about alcohol. She said if Jesus could turn water into wine why cannot you turn wine into water. You can when you cease to believe that it has a power over you. You will not be lured by its desire because your thought will be focused on the things of God and not of the things of the world.
AA is wonderful because by saying I am Bill I am an alcoholic it was the first step at facing down alcoholism. Now take the next step by saying with absolute affirmation I am Bill the perfect child of God now and forever. “Citizens of the world, accept the "glorious liberty of the children of God," and be free! This is your divine right.”(Science and Health 227:24-26)
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
We Are All Brothers
Recently, we celebrated Martin Luther King’ day. What a man to pay tribute too. One thing I can remember that in his dream speech he said that some day men of all races would put away their differences and walk together as brothers. I had an experience in my life in learning how a man of another race was my brother.
The year was 1968, and there were many racial tensions going on in this country. I was in boot camp in the United States Air Force. My new roommate was an African American man from the Deep South. When we first met neither one of us had much to say to each other. I felt uncomfortable living with him and I think the feeling was mutual. I realized early on that this situation needed prayer.
The Bible states, “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? (Mal. 2:10) I began to see that I did not need to feel uncomfortable with this young man. God was my father and he was also his father so there were no differences between us. I then needed to love him as a brother and as the child of God.
Soon I had an opportunity to share my love with him. One day our drill instructor reprimanded my roommate during an inspection because his white underwear had turned blue because he washed it with his black socks. I volunteered to wash his clothes for him so it would not happen again. He then said he would help me make my bed because my bed never passed inspection.
We began to form a friendship together. I loved the qualities of God he expressed such as kindness, humility, and unselfishness. These qualities had nothing to do with what color man is. One day he open up to me and told me I was the first white man to treat him kindly. He introduced me to one of his black friends and we became friends as well.
Once during in the middle of the night an African American man sabotaged my foot locker by poring shaving cream all over it right before our inspection. Of course the next day I was reprimanded by our drill instructor. The man brag to his black buddies on what he did to me. To my surprise, the other black men did not take his side. They told him I was their brother and an act against me would be an act against all of them as well.
God had brought us together. There was love between us. Even though we were of a different race we were brothers. I never saw my roommate again but will always remember the love in his heart.
Mary Baker Eddy in her main work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures says, “With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science.”(469:30-5)
The year was 1968, and there were many racial tensions going on in this country. I was in boot camp in the United States Air Force. My new roommate was an African American man from the Deep South. When we first met neither one of us had much to say to each other. I felt uncomfortable living with him and I think the feeling was mutual. I realized early on that this situation needed prayer.
The Bible states, “Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? (Mal. 2:10) I began to see that I did not need to feel uncomfortable with this young man. God was my father and he was also his father so there were no differences between us. I then needed to love him as a brother and as the child of God.
Soon I had an opportunity to share my love with him. One day our drill instructor reprimanded my roommate during an inspection because his white underwear had turned blue because he washed it with his black socks. I volunteered to wash his clothes for him so it would not happen again. He then said he would help me make my bed because my bed never passed inspection.
We began to form a friendship together. I loved the qualities of God he expressed such as kindness, humility, and unselfishness. These qualities had nothing to do with what color man is. One day he open up to me and told me I was the first white man to treat him kindly. He introduced me to one of his black friends and we became friends as well.
Once during in the middle of the night an African American man sabotaged my foot locker by poring shaving cream all over it right before our inspection. Of course the next day I was reprimanded by our drill instructor. The man brag to his black buddies on what he did to me. To my surprise, the other black men did not take his side. They told him I was their brother and an act against me would be an act against all of them as well.
God had brought us together. There was love between us. Even though we were of a different race we were brothers. I never saw my roommate again but will always remember the love in his heart.
Mary Baker Eddy in her main work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures says, “With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science.”(469:30-5)
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