Something for Halloween

What better time to consider the story of the witch of Endor in I Samuel than on Halloween! Follow the links for the full citation, or, if you have the program Concord, copy the links into the Citation Document window and view them there. Enjoy!


The Bible:
Deut 18:9-11,13
Isa 8:19-20,22
I Sam 28:3-20 (to :),25 Then
I Sam 31:1 (to :),2 (to ;),6
Lev 19:31
Lev 20:6 the,7
Acts 15:40
Acts 16:9-13,16-18
Acts 19:17-20 and fear
Gal 5:19-23,25
I John 4:1 (to :)

Science and Health:
86:13-20
352:12-32
587:1
594:22-24 (to .)
73:3-14,19-25
82:9-28
77:22-27
80:12
81:1
74:3,29
75:1-11,25-5
71:1-9,21
72:1-13
284:31-32
99:18-29

Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 2
Hymn 39
Hymn 64

Servant Leadership

I've loved this concept of servant leadership for a long time. I did some exploring online about it and its history. Check out these sites if you are interested in learning more, too:


Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership - Robert Greenleaf was the one who started the modern concept of servant leadership


10 Principles of Servant Leadership - from Hampton House at Butler University - I love what they have for #3!


Wikipedia's article on this subject - always helpful and lots more great links


And here are some ideas on this wonderful concept from the Bible and Science and Health. Follow the links to read the citations, or, as always, you can copy and paste the citations into the Concord software program and view them there (including all the hymns!).


Much love to you all!

The Bible:
Matt 4:17 Jesus
Matt 5:1-3,5,13
Matt 7:12
Mark 8:34-36
Mark 9:30 (to ;),33-41
Mark 10:31,35-38 (to :),40-52
John 13:1,4-7,12-17,34,35
John 15:13,14,16
II Cor 5:5,9
II Cor 6:1,3,4,6,8,10 as poor
Gal 6:2,3,5-7,9,10
I Pet 5:5 Yea,6

Science and Health:
51:28-8
54:8
48:10
64:8-10
270:22-24
142:18-20
4:3
34:18-23
272:3-8
30:26
25:22-9
451:2
454:14-2
453:14-15
444:16-19
570:14-18,23-24
367:17
323:32-4
518:15-19

Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 131
Hymn 403
Hymn 162

A little twist on an old favorite

Here's a new take on an old favorite verse from Psalm 23 that I found today. Verse six of this psalm is the Golden Text for the Christian Science Bible Lesson this week, so I took a little time to explore it more deeply with a variety of Bible translations, a couple of commentaries and the Hebrew lexicon in Strong's Concordance.

The verse reads: (Ps 23:6)

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

I've looked up a few of the words in this verse before - mostly "goodness," "mercy," the ones that seemed more important, but I'd never paid much attention to the first word - "surely" until today. And have always taken it as an affirmation (which it is), that without a doubt, goodness and mercy will be with me. Or, as one commentator says, they are like two angels who pursue you, determined to run you down. Fun thought!

Anyway, I checked on "surely" and found that, in addition to that affirmative, the Hebrew word used in this verse can also mean "only." So, "only goodness and mercy shall follow me" - nothing else but that goodness and lovingkindness that God has for his loved creation. No curses or blights, no plagues or illnesses - nothing bad can pursue me, much less catch up to me - only goodness and mercy.

Or, as Patterson puts in in the Message Bible:

Your beauty and love chase after me every day of my life. I'm back home in the house of God for the rest of my life.

Just makes you feel wonderful to think about it!

Much joy!

No plague shall come nigh thee

The Bible:
Ps 119:107
Jer 8:22
Jer 30:10 fear,11 (to :),12,13,17 (to ;),22
Ex 15:26 I am
Ps 25:1,2,4-6,7 according,17,18,20,21
Ps 91:1-5 (to ;),6,7,9-11,14-16
John 1:1-4,14,18
Matt 4:23 Jesus
Matt 5:1,2,5,8
Matt 8:2-4
John 8:12,32,47
Luke 17:12-19
James 5:13-15 (to ;)
Ps 103:1-4,11

Science and Health:
153:25-15
196:25-8
197:11-16
399:3-6,11-17,20-28
394:17-5
395:21
xi:9
142:26-12
143:26-31
288:31
176:21-7
418:29
390:20,29
393:8-18
474:31-2

Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 99
Hymn 175
Hymn 280

Test Time

It is that time of year again I think – midterms! I was remembering when I began taking classes for a graduate program about a decade ago. I was at an unfamiliar university. In a program that was new to me. I had an overload of classes. And I held a teaching assignment in an unfamiliar subject. And now -- tests!

I was scared. So scared, in fact, that I could hardly study. Every time I tried -- with my textbooks, notebooks, cue cards, handouts -- I got nowhere. I couldn't focus on anything except how hard these tests were going to be. How did I get into this graduate program anyway? Why was I doing this to myself?

Taking a walk on the Sunday morning before all of these exams, I really reached out to God for an answer. A Bible passage I'd always liked came to mind: "God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (II Timothy 1:7)

I thought about the statement, rolled it over and over in my mind. And then something about it struck me -- there's a distinction between fear and the three good things listed: power, love and a sound mind. God doesn't give us all four, but only the latter three. Fear doesn't come from God, and I didn't want anything that didn't come from God.

I sincerely believe that the only thing I can have comes from God's abundant love, the source of everyone's intelligence, including mine. It was giving me the strength, and the love, and the sound mind I needed to take the tests.

As I thought about these ideas that fall day, I started to feel joyful. My fear dropped off, because God's good was filling me up with a sense of goodness. I began to think more clearly. When I got home, I found I could focus on the work I needed to do to prepare for these tests. Any time the fear tried to sneak back in, I thought about that Bible passage and how fear and a sound mind cannot mingle. Soon the fear would go away again.

I took four tests that week. I did great on the three that were most important to my degree. The fourth, however, did not go so well -- but all was not lost. A couple of days later, my advisor called. He actually apologized for not realizing that I was so overloaded that semester! He didn’t understand that I was actually teaching a class on my own, not just assisting a professor with one. He strongly encouraged me to drop that problematic course, which I gladly did.

The next time tests came along (and you know they did!), I was off to a much better start. I didn't have to conquer fear again -- just the subject matter.

Here's a link to an idea from Science and Health, too, that describes what these spiritual views can do for us, whether a student or not, why the study of divine Science is so helpful in all ascpects of life.

Embraced by the light

I’ve still been thinking about that idea of all-encompassing light that I blogged about the other day, and wondering about how that would feel – to be so embraced by light. Perhaps this is trying to put a spiritual concept into physical terms, but it seems to me that this light would be the sum total of all the wonderful qualities that God is: good, love, joy, vitality, trust, wisdom, etc. Certainly there would be some response that we’d feel to that. Peace, the feeling of being so loved, warmth, and bliss are some that spring to my thought. Just an overwhelming sense of being in harmony with everything and so loved – and so able to love.

Have you seen the TV show “Saving Grace”? I think it is on TNT and was new this summer. I wasn’t going to watch it, but somehow ended up catching an episode, and then another, and soon was hooked. Anyway, in this show, Grace (played by Holly Hunter) is an Oklahoma City police detective who leads a pretty wild lifestyle. Not a strong moral compass and that doesn’t bother her. She is fiercely loyal to her friends and at least some of her family. She is also agnostic at best, perhaps atheist. One evening, after a pretty rough day and some heavy drinking and partying, she is driving home, way over the speed limit, hits a man walking along the side of the road, and crashes her car into a speed limit sign.

After trying to resuscitate him unsuccessfully, she prays, “Oh, God, please help me.” And that’s when Earl enters her life. Earl looks like an Earl, a bit rough looking, perhaps a biker, flannel shirt and jeans, but the thing is Earl’s an angel. Certainly not what most of us would expect to see when an angel came in answer to our prayer! ;-) But what would Grace expect (if anything)? Certainly Earl appears like the type of person she already relates to, would be comfortable with, in everyday life.

Well, Grace being pretty much a “non-believer,” Earl had some proving to do, and this is where light started to come in. And of course this involves angel wings – and boy does he have wings! Large, bright white and glowing. And when he envelopes Grace in those wings, or more correctly, the light from those wings, it’s like she melts. You can just see this amazing sense of peace, intense joy, pure happiness and love wash over the woman, and she absolutely basks in this feeling. Maybe this is a glimpse of how that light of God in that city at the top of the hill feels. (BTW, the man Grace hit is immediately healed – and gone – and her car and the road sign are unscratched.)

So do we need Earl to come along and spread his wings to feel the impact of God’s light? I think we have our Earls and that we have these moments (hopefully we all do!) and we get these glimpses in our lives. We get them when that special someone gives us a hug, when a friend says or does just the right thing at the right moment, when we are engrossed in a piece of beautiful music or art, when a physical or emotional ill is healed. Think what it will be like when we get to the top of that hill and experience that light full-time. Who wouldn’t want that or to do what it takes to get there?

The allegory in Miscellaneous Writings gives some examples on what prevents people from even trying, perhaps even noticing that light and the path to it, and hints at the dangers that challenge us along the way as we struggle to that city “four-square.” And I think Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy is a great guidebook to help us along the way, to help us overcome those roadside dangers and pitfalls, and to enable us to reach that holy city filled with the light of God.

Unlimited Capabilities

Seems like you hear from everyone, "Oh, I have too much to do! I don't have time for [insert meeting, lunch, event, opportunity, etc. here]." These are some ideas that I think help with this perspective that can be so mesmerizing, keeping one from doing what perhaps we really should be doing at times.


Just click on the links below to see the citations, or copy and paste the references into the Citation Document pane in the Concord software program to view them there.


Much joy!


The Bible:
Eccl 3:1,9-11 (to :),15,17,22 (to :)
Mark 1:14,15,39-45
Mark 3:7-10
Mark 5:21-42
Matt 11:25 Jesus (to ,),28,30
Rom 8:28 we
Gal 5:7,8
II Cor 3:4-6 such (to ;)
II Cor 9:1,6,8,11

Science and Health:
255:12-14
595:17
468:28-2
469:4-5 Life is not (to .)
428:19
322:3
312:24-26
387:3-26
248:12-4
260:13-20
288:27-28
128:4
385:7-11
89:21-22
326:16


Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 97
Hymn 253
Hymn 82

Everywhere there’s light

In Mary Baker Eddy’s book of collected writings, Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, there is an interesting six page article called “An Allegory.” I was reading it again this morning and didn’t make it past the end of the first sentence before I had to pause for a while. The sentence is: (323:2-6)

Picture to yourself "a city set upon a hill," a celestial city above all clouds, in serene azure and unfathomable glory: having no temple therein, for God is the temple thereof; nor need of the sun, neither of the moon, for God doth lighten it.

Obviously MBE is indicating here chapter 21 in Revelation where John describes the holy city, New Jerusalem. Though I’ve read this part of Revelation many times and have read this allegory a few times before, this morning I really had to sit back and ponder this depiction of light.

No sun, no moon, stars, street lamps, etc., just God giving light to the city. So the source of light is God, infinite Spirit, who I think of as omnipresent – everywhere present, always present. So the source is all around the city, not from some specific point and it is always “on”. And so it struck me, do you know what isn’t there? Shadows! The light is coming for all over; essentially is. You would need light to come from an object or point and then for it to shine on some thing that could block some of the rays in order to create a shadow. But this isn’t the case in the celestial city, the realm of God. God just shines and surrounds all spiritual creation in His light. Kind of cool, I think.

An image that this concept brought to my mind is from Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Don’t know if you ever watched this show, but periodically Captain Sisko would have encounters with a group of infinite beings called “the Prophets.” When he is with them, he is enveloped in light. Everything around him is white light. Hmm, don’t think he had any shadows, either. I think this might be a useful image to use to try to picture what this total surround of spiritual light might be like.

But what a great thought – to be shadow-less, to have no darkness on you or cast by you. This is what the true spiritual being is like. So to me this indicates that my role is to expect this light, see this light, and do what I can not to block it from shining purely, perfectly everywhere I go, in encounters with others – essentially to be expressing those good and wonderful spiritual qualities that reflects that light of Divine Being and helps to obliterate the shadows that cloud my own and others’ sense of life.

I think this is just the tip of the iceberg on this perspective of light and so I will be picturing for myself this "city that is set on a hill" awash in light for a while. What does that look like to you?

What is the question?

The story of Jesus healing the blind man (John 9) that is in this week’s Christian Science Bible lesson has become a favorite in the last couple of years. What really did it for me was reading Peterson’s paraphrase in The Message Bible, especially the first five verses:

Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, "Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?" Jesus said, "You're asking the wrong question. You're looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world's Light." (John 9:1-5)

I love how in this edition, Jesus really turns around the disciples questions – makes them realize that they need to change the basis from which they are perceiving this man and making their query. And why even look for a cause, since the cause they were looking for was a popularly held theological belief: Something is wrong with this person so someone must have sinned. And it might not have even been this person who sinned. Maybe God was taking it out on the son of the sinner.

To me, it’s like Jesus is saying you are starting from the wrong premise – you need to start with God as I am showing Him to you – God as Life, Truth and Love. And so what you should look for are the effects that must result from God’s causation. And those effects must be good as God is good. Jesus is shedding a clear light on these old philosophies and revealing that they are not true. And this understanding, this higher perspective, removed the man’s blindness.

In Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy wrote (476:32-5):

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. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.

I think this explains perfectly what Jesus did in this instance to heal this man of blindness and what he was telling his disciples (all of us!) so that we can “be energetically at work for the One who sent” him. Right now in my life, I feel like this passage from Science and Health and that story from John reveal the crux of practicing the love of Christian Science. This view might change, but for now I am earnestly trying to ask the better questions, checking to be sure that the basis of the question is from the right view of God and Her pure and perfect creation.

Prayer and Fasting

Muslims around the world are in the midst of the holy month Ramadan, so seemed appropriate to think about some ideas on prayer and fasting, which are at the heart of these special days. I read the first three Bible citations from the New International Version, especially because of Isaiah 58, and this is what these verses are linked to below. Check it out in that version and maybe some others, but it is really clear and interesting in the NIV.

The Bible:
Ps 35:9,13 I,18,24 (to ;),28
Ps 109:22,24,26
Isa 58:1-11,14
Luke 4:1-15
Luke 6:6-10
Matt 4:25
Matt 5:1-3,6
Matt 6:5 when,6,9-13,16-22
Matt 17:14-21
Joel 2:12,13 (to 5th ,)


Science and Health:
1:6
260:24
261:31-7
296:6
7:17
15:23
201:9-14,17-5
241:5,19-27
220:22
53:3-5
242:9
107:1
109:11-24
254:16
21:9
490:8
41:6
20:27
60:29
99:23

Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 64
Hymn 410
Hymn 237

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!

Oh, what a beautiful Mornin'
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I've got a beautiful feelin'
Everything's goin' my way.

Rogers & Hammerstein

I woke up this morning with this refrain from the well known song “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” from the musical Oklahoma singing in my head. There was no logical reason for it to be there. I enjoy musicals, but they aren’t a big part of my life. I truly hadn’t thought about this musical in ages. So I had to take it as a sweet message from my Father-Mother God. Really it was a lovely way to wake up with this gentle melody running through my thought.

So, being a fairly curious person, I had to ask why. Why this song, Father? What am I supposed to get from its words? Well, I realized that I have had an urge to appreciate mornings more. I’ve never thought of myself as a “morning person.” Not that I wake up grumpy – I’m usually in a good mood, even my husband says so (phew!). But I don’t exactly look forward to waking up, getting up, and getting going on the day. And for me being up before 6:30 is pretty amazing! So this was a great message to get, to brighten my outlook on starting the day. As I lay in bed and thought about the words and began to pray, I really was feeling more positive about this day’s beginning.

In Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy defined morning as “Light; symbol of Truth; revelation and progress.” (p. 591) Certainly only good things there! And I do want to progress, to be awake for revelation. A great reminder and something to continue to pray with as each morning comes along – whether it is at 6 AM or later in the day.

But I am thinking the message of this melody is more than that for me today. I have been thinking and wondering quite a bit lately about what I am doing with my life of late and about the mix of activities that I am participating in currently. There is a lot and it all takes quite a bit of my time, in addition to trying to finish fixing up our house (two-and-a-half years and counting!) and generally care for it. So I’ve been asking, “Am I supposed to be doing all of these things? Am I giving to each activity the care and attention it deserves?” They mostly all go together well in their focus, but… should something be dropped?

So the last two lines of the refrain feel significant to me in this regard right now. I can have a “beautiful feelin’” – a happy, secure, peaceful sense – that “everything’s goin’ my way” – because, as it says in Science and Health, “All is under the control of the one Mind, even God.” (p. 544) and I am learning more and more to trust this fact, and that the result of divine Mind’s or Love’s control is and must be good for all of Her creation, because God is Love. And this gives me a sense of peace, that I can trust that God will provide for me the opportunity and ability to do well for these activities, that She will help me see more clearly – in the light of the morning – what I should or should not be doing. I’ll know when I need to and don’t’ need to fret.
So I think I’ll be singing this song, or at least the refrain for today and the next few days. We know what hymn Laura Matthews is singing today. How about you? What song is in your heart and inspiring your day?

Have a beautiful morning!