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The Bookmark Newsletter V.160
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September 2019 |
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Very dear Friend,
One day as I tried to focus on my study of Christian Science, I found my mind wandering off into the ordinary things I usually think about. I wondered why, when I try to think in the Truth I love so much, why does my thought wander away into such mundane things?
In analyzing it, I realized that it is due to our resistance to hard, deep thinking, or as we term it, our “metaphysical work.” It seemed as though I had two separate areas in my mind: my metaphysical mind, and what I have come to call my comfort mind. Today we have comfort food and our comfort zone, and I often drift over from my metaphysical mind to my comfort mind, because it is filled with ideas I can think in effortlessly. Here is where I keep my grocery list, my “to-do” list, plan dinner, and keep the list of obligations I must fulfill, calls I have to make, and appointments I should keep.
Spiritual understanding that reforms and regenerates our inmost thoughts unfolds gradually as we give much deep thinking to finding it. As spiritual ideas unfold, we have to change and adapt to this progress. Here in this deep thinking, we commune with God and come to understand Him. Here we discipline ourselves to close out the world so we can listen from within for God’s thoughts. This brings about the unfoldment of the divine selfhood within each of us. Christ Jesus referred to it when he said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” Mrs. Eddy refers to it often throughout her writings. It is our real individuality coming to light, and as it does, mortal thought loses its attraction or fascination for us. It has been my experience that as we grow spiritually, we come to think in our comfort mind as easily as we do in the other mind. The problem of dualism (believing in two powers) good and evil, mortal and immortal, right and wrong is slowly replaced by spiritual ideas (divine power) that we think in because we understand them. In this way, we spiritualize our human mind and come to be in our comfort mind all the time.
To summarize: trying to understand the Truth as it is set forth in Christian Science is hard thinking while mulling over the uppermost thoughts in our comfort mind is effortless, and we naturally drift into the area that takes the least amount of effort on our part. The area that is most comfortable, natural, and relevant to our life today is our comfort mind. In time, as we spiritualize our thinking, we find that thinking in spiritual ideas is so easy, so inspiring that we begin to think more in spiritual ideas. And is there anything more comforting than to live in our spiritual selfhood? Our oneness with God? The goal is to graduate into one mind filled with spiritual ideas, then we can be living in our right mind all the time, demonstrating health, abundance, and daily good!
Ann Beals
2013
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NEW ITEMS!!!
Herbert E. Rieke
ASSOCIATION ADDRESSES, VOL. V
In his 1958 address under the topic “Omiscience of God”, he states:
“There are four simple approaches in the practice of Christian Science. They are the omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, and omni-action of God. As we realize the omnipotence of good we see that evil has no power. As we recognize the omnipresence of good we see that evil has no presence. By understanding the omni-activity of good we see that evil cannot act, function, or operate. Through the clear discernment of the omniscience of good we recognize that there is no knowledge of evil. Today I would like to discuss with you the omniscience of God or good, and the application of this great truth to the solution of human problems.”
In his 1960 address under “Heredity and Environment”, he states:
Heredity and environment – what does Christian Science teach about these? Do they have an effect upon us? How do we handle the belief of the effects of a false sense of heredity and environment? These are important questions. Christ Jesus in the Lord’s Prayer gave us the answer. In the first line we read, “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.” This statement corrects all false beliefs in regard to heredity. If we all have one and the same heavenly Father-Mother God, then in the words of Paul, we have an “inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away . . .” (I Pet. 1:4)
For more information about Mr. Rieke’s Addresses
Plus
Association Addresses, Vol. IV
In her 1946 Address she states:
What was the one lost piece of silver for which the woman of our time, our dear Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, so diligently searched? Was it not the lost element of healing, so long vanished from Christianity? Was it not the spiritual interpretation of the Lord’s prayer, which instantaneously heals the sick, the spiritual meaning of the Beatitudes and of the Commandments, and the spiritual understanding of the Scriptures as a whole? The world was not lacking in the letter of the Bible. Probably every Christian household owned a Bible – its words were before the people, but the practical meaning and availability of its teaching to a sick and sinful world had for years grown dimmer and dimmer.
In her 1946 Address she states:
It was because Jesus let the incorporeal, spiritual Christ have ascendancy in consciousness that he could be the Saviour of the world. As a human he understood the needs of humanity. As the exemplar and demonstrator of the Christ he expressed the God-idea which heals and blesses.
For more information about Ms. Brown’s Addresses
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