What is first?

Good is the real first and last because it is the only law governing. Anything else is a lie.

God is governing all that I am and all that I do. Nothing is important except what God directs because that is all. I am included in his blessing as I am his perfect image and likeness. I serve only God as he is all there is. My supply for all my needs financial, personal, family, housing, employment, practice are met by the law of God, divine Principal.

“Christian Science QuarterlyTM Aug. 31–Sept. 6 2 0 0 9

myBible Lesson

Golden Text . . . all of you are children of the most High.” Psalms 82:6 all

The government of my home, practice, business affairs, human relations, family, income, job, rests on God’s shoulders. He rules with fairness and justice. There are no limits to what he brings. Jesus demonstrated his passionate commitment proving that God is our everlasting Father/Mother God who cares deeply for each one of his ideas.

Dear heavenly Father/Mother God lead me in the way you wish for me to go. I am your humble and obedient servant. Forgive me for past transgressions as I have truly repented for those things that I have done.

I know with each passing moment that my commitment to living morally, mercifully and humbly is right and fulfilling. Revenge, hatred, anger, frustration, violence are evil and no part of me.

I desire to “wear righteousness like a belt and truth like an undergarment.” NLT Is 11:5

A life with Love

“It is with lasting love that I am tenderly caring for you.” (I John 4, New Living Translation) I work in Love with Love’s authority and I am at-one-with Love. I confess that Jesus is the Son of God to be the savior of the world. He walked with Love along every way and proved the power of Love to meet all human needs. He met all human needs through his complete expression of Love, and Love’s law.

And I “acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures p. 497)

‘I have chosen to take up permanent residence in a life of Love. What a relief! I live in God and God lives in me.’ “This way love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we are free of worry on Judgement Day”-( every hour and every moment of every hour God stands in awe of his perfect creation, loving each one, treasuring each one, reaching out in love to each one) our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life -- fear of death, fear of judgement -- is one not yet fully formed in love.”

‘I am going to love--love and be loved.’ “First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.” (The Message I John 4) I take these wonderful words of living to heart and I stand in awe of the inspiring message of healing they represent. I align my consciousness with Love and Love eliminates all evil from me.

The Garden War, Day Two

The Garden War, Day Two

Well, I must say I began this day much less enthusiastic. I still had large piles of brush and branches around the yard from the day before. I still had a bunch of weeding and planting yet to do.

The angelic tractor driver was back at it, fresh with new inspiration. He wanted to trim the croquet area so as to provide for the best possible surface conditions for ball movement.

I myself had some awesome inspiration, I devised a strategy where the kids would spend some Dad time with me. The strategy was simple. We, my kids and me, would work in the yard together! They would drag all the brush and I would do all the cutting.

I love cutting and trimming, it allows my creative side to flourish. But, I am not a fan of having to pick up all those limbs, sticks and drag them across the yard. Dragging brush for me, is like scrapping the house before you paint! I would rather crawl up in the highest branches of the tree hanging out over a limb thirty feet in the air than drag branches. (It could be that I pile all the branches together and then attempt to drag the pile all at once!)

For some unknown reason, I decided, begrudgingly, to start hauling the cut branches myself. My strategy failed or rather I failed my strategy. I didn’t even attempt to execute it I just plowed right into dragging the limbs. Interesting how the devil (drop the d and it is evil) attempts to influence behavior, decisions or intentions to performing on it’s behalf?

I was into my second round of dragging, still graveling over the fact that I had no help, ( I still had not asked for any), when I severely rolled my right ankle falling to the ground. Fear and pain were screaming at me and enlisting anger and criticism to their side as allies. I immediately began praying. My first response was:

“There is no life, truth, intelligence nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind

and its infinite manifestation for God is all-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is

mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal.

Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material;

he is spiritual.” Science and Health with the Key to the Scriptures, page 468

However one defines the scriptures, the message is the same: rely on God and he will support, strengthen, empower, steady, help, those that call on him.

“Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be thou not dismayed; for I am God; yea, I will strengthen thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” The Bible KJV; Isaiah 40:10 (This was is the weekly bible lesson.)

So, as I have learned and practiced christian healing, I made a choice right then to fight the arguments that were being promoted by d-evil in conjunction with human reasoning using my brain to communicate pain regarding my ankle.

My immediate call to action, divine Mind and all it’s resources of infinite good and Love, was effective. My arguments were vocal and specific to the belief of injury, self-criticism and anger.

Prayer, knowing that I was and am governed by God, all that is good, harmonious, sure footed, forgiving, loving, tender, powerful, refuted the testimony of the physical senses that said I had been injured.

My ankle, the tendons, muscles, nerves, were and are governed by divine Mind, God, and this Mind includes perfection, protection from the belief of accident and injury. No amount of human reasoning, fault finding, aggravation, stupidity, human history, d-evil, could change, alter, cause my demise or any injury of any kind.

As I mentally grabbed these spiritual truths and understood their metaphysical effect for healing me, right then, right, there, I felt immediate relief and the pain subsided. I was able to complete my work and did so with a renewed spiritual vigor and insight.

I changed my thinking and turned my thoughts and actions toward forgiveness and gratitude, God, the criticism and self-pity regarding the yard work was removed. I know that I am responsible for my thoughts and actions and that I must recognize d-evil when it tempts me.

“Don’t panic. I’m with you. There’s no need to fear for I’m your God. I’ll give you strength. I’ll help you. I’ll hold you steady, keep a firm grip on you.” The Message, Isaiah 40:10

The angelic tractor driver finished his work and I finished mine, with a smile and a renewed appreciation for growth in grace. The yard work was a success for all and all was well. Oh yea, the ankle it is good!

The Garden War, Day One

This past weekend, I wanted to please my wife and surprise my oldest daughter who is graduating by doing some gardening in the yard to prepare for the guests and family who will be joining us for dinner and graduation celebrations.

Fortunately, I had planned a head and had all my yard equipment tuned up and was ready for bear. I even replaced a choke cable and changed the oil on my riding tractor with the help of my 7th grade son.

I was looking forward to testing out the lawn tractor and getting some drive time. But, NO way! My son had other ideas and was already behind the wheel before I could blink. I mean to tell you that rascal beet me to the punch and was on his way to the great mowing place of heavenly divine on earth.

So, beaten, I got the default fun job; the trimmer, weeding, tackling the honey suckle, branch trimming and removing all kinds of jungle plant life grown wild due to the rains of the spring, (and my procrastination).

Whooooooo!

I began my campaign on several fronts, the trees, the garden and the flower beds. I made great progress and felt confident in my battle plan. Of course the weeds, bushes, grasses, trees were not to go down easily as they released their secret weapon, pollen.

But, I was prepared. I had been studying my weekly bible lesson published at mybiblelesson.com. One of the passages I called on to defeat the nasty beliefs of irritation from the pollen was;

“Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defense.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 234: 32-3)

The arguments of the material senses attacked me mentally trying to impress upon me the belief of itching eyes, runny nose and irritated skin and trying to punish me into mental submission, to quit, give up and become aggravated. I fought back knowing knowing that the activity I was engaged in was a virtuous and right activity. My motives were good and true in serving my family. And, I really do enjoy all the yard work including pulling weeds.

In addition, I believe and I mentally asserted that I am God’s perfect idea (Genesis 1) and that I have dominion over every living thing. Being a farm boy and believing in what the Bible has to say about man’s “dominion over all the earth,” I expected that divine law to govern me, right then and right there. So, armed with these truth's I continued my successful campaign until the call for dinner.

Meanwhile the angelic figure on the lawn tractor created a playing surface in the yard for one of our favorite family games, Croquet. My son had truly been inspired from having spent time in the heavenly sanctuary of tractor time. I was grateful for his dutiful service and the excellent job he did mowing and vowed to let him win again.

to be cont....

Expectations

Dear heavenly Father-Mother God, divine Mind. I am your humble and obedient servant. I start this day asking humbly for your guidance and gracious mercy. The world calls to me tempting me with worldly things, greed, corruption, criticism, sickness, all manner of sin. I call to your heavenly grace for help, hope, health and prosperity.

I am at-one-with Mind and I express unity, moral courage. I serve only one master, God, who is all that is good and lovely. I have dominion over failure, termination, indebtedness, unemployment, irregularity, homelessness.

“The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less difficult when she has the high goal always before her thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps endeavoring to reach it. When the destination is desirable, expectation speeds our progress.” Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures pg. 426

Love Trusts in Faith

I am blessed to teach weekly a 3rd grade Sunday School class. The class is engaging and rewarding. Each week I begin the class by asking the students to share how they turn to God in prayer for their daily challenges. Their answers and openness are fantastic and full of examples of God’s ever present care for all kinds of things.

This past week, after our sharing, we began our bible lesson by counting the number of times the word love was mentioned in our opening texts from the weekly bible lesson that we recite during the beginning of Sunday School. It was a fun exercise and it allowed me to ask them to be specific about how Love can impact them on a daily basis.

Amazingly, we discovered the word eighteen different times in just a few short citations from the King James version of the Bible.

After the hunt for love, I began our class discussion by asking each student to compose a Love sentence that we could all write out on a piece of paper that we could use during our day. Everyone was eager to share their ideas and all of them did. “Love trusts in faith.” “Love is always with you.”

We had a fun and rewarding class finishing with many practical thoughts about how to demonstrate Love more fully in our daily lives. Shortly after class, my opportunity to see that “Love is always with you” came literally screaming at me.

My family and I, after a lovely Sunday Senior celebration at my daughter’s high school decided to make a trip to the store to pick up some groceries for the week. As we were busy collecting all the goodies into our shopping carts, I made a turn down one of the isles heading for some pancake mix.

My third grader, (who is in my Sunday School class,) managed to get his foot right into the path of my cart. Unfortunately, I did not see him and I ran over his little foot. He let out a scream that sent chills up the back of my neck and I flew into action to comfort him.

I sat right down in front of my cart where he was and cradled him into my arms immediately turning to God in prayer. The bible lesson we had earlier in the day was what I turned to and I worked to demonstrate right then and right there God’s ever-loving-presence. He was screaming and in a seeming great deal of pain. But I held firm to God, Love, and my faith in Him.

As I hugged my son tight, I reassured him that he was being cared for by me and that God, Love, would meet our prayer request for help. We declared the truth that God is always with us and that whatever the suggestion regarding his foot, that Love was right there for comfort, healing and complete recovery. I carried him while he regained his composure so we could finish our shopping.

We made our way through the check out stand and back to our car. On the way home I continued to support him through Christian Science treatment but I found that I was unintentionally blaming myself for having run over his foot. My mood changed and I became increasingly self-damning.

Although I had checked him out in the store, when we got home I again checked his foot thoroughly and found nothing out of place or discolored. He however, was not yet comfortable putting his weight on his foot so I continued to pray for him mentioning to him the truths from Sunday School class we had reviewed earlier in the day regarding Love.

Unfortunately, at this point, I needed the truths more than he did as my thought had noticeably deteriorated to the point that my wife commented on my poor attitude. I was kind of shocked myself and taken aback by these negative thoughts that were attacking me and that I was holding on too.

Where was my joy? Where was I placing my trust? Does Love ever die or cause harm or injury? I had a choice, continue to condemn myself or have faith in my own prayers for myself and my son. I had some work to do and I found myself being grateful for my wife’s comments even though I did not care for them at the time.

Later that evening when I went up to tuck my little guy into bed, I found him reviewing his notes from our Sunday School class. Right then, right there, the mesmerism that had been affecting my thought was wiped out. Tears welled up in my eyes as he told me the truth he was reciting in his prayers.

I hugged him and kissed him good night as he layed down to rest peacefully for the night. I was inspired by the faith of this little guy and his practical application of prayer.

Before going to bed, I read about Jesus’ parable of the talents and again was reminded to trust in God, specifically the gift of knowledge that I have received from my study of Jesus and the Bible. Depak Chopra in his book The Third Jesus states, “ that once you hear the truth about God, which has been freely given to you, you can’t bury it inside yourself but must act on it to make it grow.” That statement was inspiring to me and allowed me to trust God more fully the rest of the night.

When my son got up the next morning he was bright and cheery. I checked his foot and found no discoloration and minimal swelling, but it was still tender and not completely free of pain. He dressed himself and made his way down stairs without any assistance or complaint.

We had a normal morning and he was able to slip on his sneakers without any fuss. When we arrived at the bus stop he walked to the bus unaided with his backpack strapped to him and climbed aboard with a smile.

For my part, I began my day with the study of the Christian Science bible lesson and discovered some very comforting truth that I put into prayer action.

Dear heavenly Father-Mother God “search my life, find out everything about me;” (The Message) I am my Father-Mother’s son. All that I am, every decision I make, every word that I utter, every thought I think must be inspired by God, good, divine Love. As I live and move and breath, I do so as the perfect image and likeness of God.

I am in accord with God, all that is perfect and eternal. Spirit, not human will, is my guide in front of me, behind me, beside me. God will show me the way of life, nurturing reliance upon divine Mind, not human opinion.

This inspiration gave me the confidence I needed and complete freedom from the days previous events. I texted my wife and told her I loved her and apologized for my poor attitude.

I continue to appreciate practical prayer and the immense power of turning to God for every need as Jesus challenged me to do. The value of church work and it’s rewarding, demonstrable effect for me personally and my family. Particularly in this case where the inspiration from a Sunday School class of 3rd graders met the needs of the belief of accident and subsequent fear with immediate results of healing of an injured foot.

I am happy to report that my son is well on his way to complete recovery as all but a bit of pain is gone, no swelling, discoloration and he is walking normally. “I run to you, God; I run for dear life. Don’t let me down.” The Message Ps 31”