Let’s always remember those who served and gave their lives for their country. These brave men and women should always be remembered. However I firmly believe these brave solders do not want us to mourn over them but to remember the wonderful qualities of God that each of them expressed fully in their lives while they were with us. Some of these qualities are courage, strength, perseverance, integrity, and discipline. These are qualities that come from God and can never be lost.
Mary Baker Eddy in her main book, Science and Health says, “Man is not the offspring of flesh, but of Spirit, — of Life, not of matter. Because Life is God, Life must be eternal, self-existent. Life is the everlasting I AM, the Being who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase.”(289:31-2)
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
God is with us in our work place
There is no limitation with God when we trust our care with Him. It was a Sunday morning where I worked as the day supervisor of nurses at a Christian Science Care facility. We had about 32 patients to care for. Normally we had six or seven nurses on staff on Sunday but this day only I and one other nurse arrived. The other nurses had all called in sick.
My first thought was how I am going to take care of all these patients. This Bible verse came to thought “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” I knew that I was about God’s business and He was the one performing it. Since all of those patients were loved by God He certainly would give them all the proper nursing care they needed.
When I told the night supervisor that there were just two of us working she volunteered to stay for an extra four hours after her shift had ended. Two nurses were on their way to church and said when they got back from church they would also help.
I refused to be afraid. I kept praying that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”(Rom. 8:28) I also affirmed that it was not physical care that was needed for the patients but peace and the presence of the love of God. A calm presence was maintained on the floor and everyone felt it.
The day went very smooth and all the patients got all the care they needed. Mary Baker Eddy said in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace.” (506:11-12)
My first thought was how I am going to take care of all these patients. This Bible verse came to thought “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” I knew that I was about God’s business and He was the one performing it. Since all of those patients were loved by God He certainly would give them all the proper nursing care they needed.
When I told the night supervisor that there were just two of us working she volunteered to stay for an extra four hours after her shift had ended. Two nurses were on their way to church and said when they got back from church they would also help.
I refused to be afraid. I kept praying that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”(Rom. 8:28) I also affirmed that it was not physical care that was needed for the patients but peace and the presence of the love of God. A calm presence was maintained on the floor and everyone felt it.
The day went very smooth and all the patients got all the care they needed. Mary Baker Eddy said in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace.” (506:11-12)
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Loving All Your Neighbors
God is Love. He loves all of His children impartially and without reservation. “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”(Gen. 1:31) He does not know man as white or black, Jew, Christian or Muslim, male or female or even as gay or straight. Man is His perfect idea. Man is here only to love one another and to do nothing else.
Recently in California the Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage. Many in the gay community were encouraged by this ruling. Those opposed felt horrified that such a ruling could take place, believing that gay living is against the Christian principles they were taught.
Jesus once had an adulterous woman thrown down at his feet by a mob. They screamed that their law said she must be stoned to death. Jesus calmly replied to them, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7) Each person in the mob was moved by Jesus’ remark, “convicted by their own conscience,” to quietly walk away “one by one.” Jesus finally told the woman to go and not sin again.
How often we hear stories of gays being harassed by an angry mob or being cast aside by their own families. Jesus pointed out to us “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).
When I first met the woman who is now my wife, she told me she had a few friends that lived a gay lifestyle. When she wanted me to meet them, I refused. I felt they were different than me. It disturbed me that two people of the same sex would have a relationship together. However, I have always been attracted to my wife’s wonderful quality of caring for others. She never put labels on people, especially her friends. She loved them because of the qualities they expressed. It did not matter whether they were straight or gay, white or black, Christian, Jew or Muslim.
When I was in high school, I was with a friend driving around in New York City when he saw a gay man and stopped the car. My friend got out of the car and slapped and pushed the man while I sat watching in the car, doing nothing to help the man. This has always bothered me. I knew that feeling prejudiced against any group of people was wrong. If I wanted to heal the problems of the world (and I did!) I needed to start with my own thinking about others.
Soon after I began to pray about this, I came across this statement in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.” I began to examine my thinking in light of this statement. I saw that I had no right to judge another’s behavior. My duty was to love everyone I came into contact with, in spite of their behavior, and that includes those who call themselves gay. God made man in His own image and likeness, pure and perfect. If I was seeing a sinning, lustful person, then I believed that God made a mistake. God does not make any abnormalities. Man is the perfect idea of God and I could see and witness nothing else. All that I can ever see is God and His idea, man. I made it a goal to hold firmly to this truth about God and man. My prejudiced ideas about gays began to fade. I started to see the spiritual qualities my wife’s friends expressed, such as kindness, gentleness, and grace. I began to be more receptive to socializing with more of her friends. Later, I began to get calls in my practitioner work from people that called themselves gay.
Jesus pointed out that we must love our neighbor as ourselves. He ate with sinners, touched and healed persons with contagious diseases, and even forgave those who crucified him.
Let us pray that we can love all our neighbors. Let us put no labels on man but love him like God does. Mary Baker Eddy once said, “Students are advised by the author to be charitable and kind, not only towards differing forms of religion and medicine, but to those who hold these differing opinions. Let us be faithful in pointing the way through Christ, as we understand it, but let us also be careful always to "judge righteous judgment," and never to condemn rashly.”(444:13-19)
Recently in California the Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage. Many in the gay community were encouraged by this ruling. Those opposed felt horrified that such a ruling could take place, believing that gay living is against the Christian principles they were taught.
Jesus once had an adulterous woman thrown down at his feet by a mob. They screamed that their law said she must be stoned to death. Jesus calmly replied to them, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7) Each person in the mob was moved by Jesus’ remark, “convicted by their own conscience,” to quietly walk away “one by one.” Jesus finally told the woman to go and not sin again.
How often we hear stories of gays being harassed by an angry mob or being cast aside by their own families. Jesus pointed out to us “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (Luke 6:37).
When I first met the woman who is now my wife, she told me she had a few friends that lived a gay lifestyle. When she wanted me to meet them, I refused. I felt they were different than me. It disturbed me that two people of the same sex would have a relationship together. However, I have always been attracted to my wife’s wonderful quality of caring for others. She never put labels on people, especially her friends. She loved them because of the qualities they expressed. It did not matter whether they were straight or gay, white or black, Christian, Jew or Muslim.
When I was in high school, I was with a friend driving around in New York City when he saw a gay man and stopped the car. My friend got out of the car and slapped and pushed the man while I sat watching in the car, doing nothing to help the man. This has always bothered me. I knew that feeling prejudiced against any group of people was wrong. If I wanted to heal the problems of the world (and I did!) I needed to start with my own thinking about others.
Soon after I began to pray about this, I came across this statement in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.” I began to examine my thinking in light of this statement. I saw that I had no right to judge another’s behavior. My duty was to love everyone I came into contact with, in spite of their behavior, and that includes those who call themselves gay. God made man in His own image and likeness, pure and perfect. If I was seeing a sinning, lustful person, then I believed that God made a mistake. God does not make any abnormalities. Man is the perfect idea of God and I could see and witness nothing else. All that I can ever see is God and His idea, man. I made it a goal to hold firmly to this truth about God and man. My prejudiced ideas about gays began to fade. I started to see the spiritual qualities my wife’s friends expressed, such as kindness, gentleness, and grace. I began to be more receptive to socializing with more of her friends. Later, I began to get calls in my practitioner work from people that called themselves gay.
Jesus pointed out that we must love our neighbor as ourselves. He ate with sinners, touched and healed persons with contagious diseases, and even forgave those who crucified him.
Let us pray that we can love all our neighbors. Let us put no labels on man but love him like God does. Mary Baker Eddy once said, “Students are advised by the author to be charitable and kind, not only towards differing forms of religion and medicine, but to those who hold these differing opinions. Let us be faithful in pointing the way through Christ, as we understand it, but let us also be careful always to "judge righteous judgment," and never to condemn rashly.”(444:13-19)
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