“On the side of Good”

I will gain a balance on the side of  good, my true being.

This alone gives me the forces of God wherewith to

overcome all error. On this rests the implicit faith

engendered by Christian Science, which appeals

intelligently to the facts of man's spirituality, individuality,

 to disdain the fears and destroy the discords of this

 material personality.¹                                                                    Mary Baker Eddy

We are taught through Genesis chapter 1 in our Holy Bible that God created all that was made and that He saw His creation as very good. Man and the universe created by God, Good, must then express and manifest this divine constant Good.

We are taught in Christian Science the ultimate importance of Genesis chapter 1 as a measuring stick for all things that comes to our thought, a distinguishing factor against the lies of the devil compared to God’s allness and Goodness.  We are told, “Since God is All, there is no room for His unlikeness. God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it good. Therefore evil, being contrary to good, is unreal, and cannot be the product of God.”²

God is All, therefore the claims of evil can be and must be removed from our thoughts so that we may see and follow God’s Goodness. The more we cultivate this activity, the more we see our divine right as the children of Good the more we are freed from the false claims of evil, lack, sickness, disease and death. The more time we waste in believing in and perpetuating the lies of error, evil, the constant false claims of an evil bad, the more our lives are drug in the mire of these lies. Our freedom comes from the stand on the side of Good.

As the children and heirs to the Christ we must spend our every moment magnifying the grace of God, the Truth of Life and its abundant Good. If we do not do this we are as the Prodigal Son eating the husks the swine eat and groveling in the dirt of life. What a waste of time!

It is like when Jesus asked the toiling fishermen (his disciples who had returned to their old ways after his crucifixion) if they had caught anything in their nets. “Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat?  They answered him, No. And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.  They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.”³

Jesus’ healing works constantly shined the light of Truth upon all discord, sickness, disease and death and revealed the power of Good, God. He didn’t have anything good to say about or to evil. He abolished it and taught his followers to do the same.

When we take the side of Good we too heal the discords, pains, fears, sicknesses, and sins that the devil throws at mankind. It is powerless in the presence of Good. But the importance of magnifying Good, realizing Good, sustaining and maintaining the divine Goodness of God in our thoughts cannot be stressed enough. The praise of Good and the life lived expressing Good is man’s purpose, work, and joy. The reward through the strife is the joy of seeing man’s constancy in the Allness of God’s precious Love for all mankind and His salvation from all evil.

When we’re tempted by the long nights of strife and the confusions of the day, let us take our firm stand on the side of Good. Let us see that we are the heirs with the Christ, that our Creator is the God of All Good. Let us beat down the temptations of evil, sin, bad feelings, anger, resentments, and fear, with the trust that Good, God, is the victor over every evil claim. Let us rejoice that we are the children of Good and honor Him by constantly fighting for the side of Good.

Gentle hugs

1 Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy page 104 starting on line 30 to n.p.

2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy page 339 lines 7-10
3 The King James Version of The Holy Bible John 21 vss. 5, 6

Already Created Good

Is there anything actually ‘new’? or are ‘new’ things just discovered? Dis-covered, found, realized, seen, understood?

In Genesis chapter 1 and the first three verses of Genesis chapter 2 God created all in the seven days of creation. To most the number seven represents completeness, finished, whole, all that is needed. When one looks to these verses one can see a complete creation of man, animals, water, light and universe, the Allness of All. This creation in its wholeness was pronounced as ‘very good’.

When we see life in this divinely scientific way we can see that nothing in it that was created was evil, less than good. Therefore where does evil and its representation come from? It doesn’t when one sees and realizes that “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”¹

Everything that was made was made by God and it was very good. The Good of God’s creating didn’t include evil of any sort.

When we magnify Good as the All of All everything else becomes less and less to the point of diminishing and disappearing back into nothing. Good is All-in-all. Bad, evil, the opposite of Good therefore has to be the unreal of the Divine Real.

When we magnify Good as the All-in-all, the Divine Real becomes more and more real to us. The wrong, error, bad, the opposite of the Real, evil then becomes a mistaken belief. In this magnification of Good, evil, the unreal disappears.

God, Good, already created all and all was proclaimed ‘very good’, therefore as we magnify the Good, the Real in our thoughts, Good becomes more real to us in our day to day lives than the mistaken beliefs of bad or evil.

What would be the benefit in that? A life more representative of the Real, the Good of God becoming more real to us! Our lives would be based more upon the truth of Being as created by the all wonderful good God. The evils, errors, misrepresentations would therefore diminish, lessen, disappear. Our lives then would be more in accord to the Real than the unreal. Our lives would become more fully the representation of Good, God. This is the true blessing of Love, God. That He created all Good for Man and the Universe to live and enjoy. What could be bad about that? Nothing!

Magnify Love’s work, all the Good of God’s creation. Live Life, God, as His witness to His Good and rejoice. STOP magnifying the unreal, the bad of everything and start living a life of Good!

Gentle hug

 
1 The King James Version of the Holy Bible Genesis 1 vs. 31

Competition?

I was raised with a tennis racket in my hand.  As far back as I can remember I started on the back boards as my parents played on the courts. As I got better at keeping the ball going on the boards my parents let me play with them. As I grew I became the number one or two on my school tennis team depending on my game records.  Then I played on a citywide tournament.  But I quit playing tennis for a long time.  Why?  Because I didn’t like how I felt and thought.

When I was in competition with another person or team in school I felt tense, angry and slightly vicious. Being brought up in Christian Science I knew that those thoughts against my opponents wasn’t correct.  I also noticed that sports are 90% mental.  When I really disliked a team I didn’t play as well, sometimes even losing.  I found that the win at all cost, putting shots at people’s feet, making them run from side to side wearing them down, and the temptation to subtly trash talk was incongruent to the way I was being raised through my Sunday School Lessons and church work.

When one looks up the word “Competition” it states, “The act of seeking, or endeavoring to gain, what another is endeavoring to gain, at the same time; rivalry; mutual strife for the same object; also, strife for superiority…” It is from a standpoint of only one winner, only one receiving a reward, and the rest being beaten down, rivalry.  It is from the belief that only winners can have Good.  This is actually a fear, a fear that there is only a small part of good and only for those who fight for it and win.

But I was learning in my life that we all live in the Kingdom of Heaven, surrounded by the ultimate Good, God, Love.  There is no true competition for Good in the work place, for persons, purpose, title, or even homes.  Because we are all the ‘Children of God’ everything that is Good is there for all.  Each one receives his/her Good that is purposed for us to do, think, say, be, express.  Each one of us have our own job, reflecting God.  Each one are embraced in Goodness and Love.  So the belief of competition is actually an evil because it denies the Allness of Good.

Mary Baker Eddy stated, “Competition in commerce, deceit in councils, dishonor in nations, dishonesty in trusts, begin with "Who shall be greatest?"²

Christ Jesus was asked by his disciples, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”³

“Beloved children, the world has need of you—and more as children than as men and women: it needs your innocence, unselfishness, faithful affection, uncontaminated lives.  You need also to watch, and pray that you preserve these virtues unstained, and lose them not through contact with the world.  What grander ambition is there than to maintain in yourselves what Jesus loved, and to know that your example, more than words, makes morals for mankind!”⁴

Our Good is readily seen when we see that Good is for everyone.  As little children that are taught to share and love one another, we too are to see and express Good with each other.  We are never to think there is a lack of Good and then live our lives from that standpoint.  We’re to trust, know, and love the Good that includes each one of us.

Once when I went back to playing tennis, this time for the fun and a happy competition with myself, I played a very good tennis player.  They were beating me 4 sets to 0. I was calm and happy, taking shots and trying to return them well.  It was their serve.  Normally a good player wins their serve.  But I started getting in a good shot here and there and as I was picking up points the other person was getting very upset and unnerved.  They had thought they were going to quickly beat me and celebrate my defeat. But with each point I was winning this person became very angry.  I wasn’t playing against this person. I knew that I was no match.  I was playing for fun and to see how I could do on the court. I won their serve and then almost my next serve.  The game score ended up 1-6.  Of course they won but I felt like that we had both won.  I had enjoyed getting to see how I could defeat my feelings of insecurity, playing each shot to the best of my ability, and seeing how I had been freed from a large sense of competition.

When we see that the feelings of competition are actually temptations that we should deny and correct from our thinking. We will all be able to see more freedom from the belief that Good is lacking and we must battle for it.  We will be lifted above the strife of rivalry and see that each one is completely given all Good that each one of us needs and wants.  Good isn’t an iffy thing it is a promise from Love, God, who is All Good.  We can feel this Good and enjoy it all of the time.  We do not have to ‘win’ it.  Good is what and who we always are.

“Day by day the promise reads,
Daily strength for daily needs:
Cast foreboding fears away;
Take the manna of today.”⁵

Hug 



1 Webster 1828 Dictionary
2 Message to the Mother Church 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy page 4 beginning on line 1
3 The King James Version of the Holy Bible Matthew 18:1-4
4 Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy page 110 lines 4-12
5 Christian Science Hymnal No. 46 vs. 2

Expecting? What?

“A certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God:”¹

The man that normally sat at the gate of the temple asking for alms didn’t limit his good to small bits of money or he could never have received a healing from Peter and John.  He had to have an expectant heart and thought that someday life would become better than what he was living at that moment.  He had to have expectancy of something good because when Peter said, “Look on us. And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them”, he had to be mentally prepared for the grand occurrence that was about to follow.

Are we expecting good? Are we ready for ‘better’? Are we seeing the possibility of receiving healing, strength, an opportunity to praise God?  Or are we stuck in dark patterns of thought, followed by the same old, same old of yesterday brought today and through to tomorrow?  What are we expecting?

We must lift our lives through our thinking.  We must decided that Good is here.  We have to change our view from the depressing, dismal, uselessness in our thoughts to higher views of Good, being ever-present and ever available.  This will bring on a better Now. In other words, we have to start expecting Good to get Good.   How else could that beggar be lifted out of his circumstances into healing and praise?  We have to prepare our thoughts for better by expecting and thinking better.

Every time we are tempted to grumble or think that things are bad we need to change our thought from disgruntled to grateful. Every time we feel sad and lonely we must be ready to give instead of ‘get’.  Every time we feel uncomfortable, lazy, apathetic we need to turn our thoughts to sharing comfort, energizing our days by giving good, and getting excited about the opportunity to make other’s lives happier. 

A person that expects Good is a person that looks for and doesn’t miss the opportunity to give good.  A person that expects is the one that gains.

So let us turn our lives around by first turning our thoughts around.

“Through the love of God our Saviour
all will be well;
Free and changeless is His favor;
All must be well;

Precious is the Love that healed us,
Perfect is the grace that sealed us,
Strong the hand stretched forth to shield us;
All, all is well.

Though we pass through tribulation,
All will be well;
Ours is such a full salvation,
All must be well;

Happy still, in God confiding,
Fruitful, when in Christ abiding,
Holy, through the Spirit's guiding;
All, all is well.

We expect a bright tomorrow,
All will be well;
Faith can sing through days of sorrow,
All must be well;
While His truth we are applying,
And upon His love relying,
God is every need supplying,
All, all is well.”²

Expect Good and receive Greatness!

Gentle hug

1 The Acts of the Apostles chapter 3 vs. 2-9 from the King James Version of The Holy Bible
2 Christian Science Hymnal No. 350

Everyday is a day of Gladness!

It is said by Mary Baker Eddy, “Happiness consists in being and in doing good; only what God gives, and what we give ourselves and others through His tenure, confers happiness: conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can.”¹

Has happiness and gladness seemed illusive, sometimes playing a disappearing act on you?  Happiness comes in doing good, God’s Good.  Happiness is what we give to ourselves and others by doing the highest sense of Good. By seeing that good isn’t selfish, self-centered, but the ultimate of sharing what is divinely Good.  It blesses us all by doing and being Good. It brings to everyone a Divine vision where God’s Glory is the purpose and motive. 

Today Christians celebrate this day of Easter not for the ham dinner, the egg hunts, or the frivolity, but for the Good that Christ Jesus revealed through his extreme action of Love.  He knew what the ultimate purpose was when he let the people try to kill the mortal body.  He knew that it was for the ‘greatest good for the greatest number’. He allowed the ugliest moment in human history to occur.  He had many other times walked through the crowds that wanted to stone him. But he knew that it was the time to break forth the light of eternal life by showing the nothingness of the ‘crowd mentality’ that thought it could end Life.  He knew that Life is God, our Life, our God.  He knew that Life is eternal, perfect, precious and all Good.  He knew that the demonstration of the resurrection would lift thought to higher ideals and purposes in individual and collective lives. Christ Jesus knew that it was the plan of the Fathers that he was to be used for not only God’s healing revelation but also the revelation of eternal Life. 

We may not have to go through a martyr situation.  But every time we give and share Good, glorifying Life as Good, we tear away the curtain of dismal views and beliefs about life in general. We lift all those around us to a higher sense of happiness, joy and Good.

Is it too much to ask to live and share Good?  This happiness of ‘being and doing good’ is given to us by God, Good, to be shared with all.  Is this too much to ask?

Let us be and share Good.  It is the ultimate healing activity.  It breaks oppression, depression and the darkness that tries to hide the light of Good. Let us let this Good resurrect our lives to higher purposes, ways and thoughts.

Gentle hug

1 Message to The Mother Church 1902 page 17 lines 22-25

'Ignorance isn't bliss'

After driving through the United States once, I was SHOCKED at how many laws I had broken without knowing it.  Each state having their own laws can be so different from one state line to the next on certain issues.  I hadn't taken the time to check.

Have you ever driven into a state without knowing all of their laws?  Afterwards, or when we get into trouble, we realize that we have broken several laws without intent? 

Saying, “I didn’t know they had that law,” as we get a ticket doesn’t stop the law or the punishment. Whose fault would it be, ours for not knowing or the state for having the law?  Ignorance isn’t an excuse when it comes to laws.  We are responsible for learning the laws of the land and then following them.  There are ways to learn these laws but we have to take the time to search for them, study them, and memorize them so that we do not forget and break them.

Just as there are laws of the land, there are also Divine Laws.  When we break them, even unintentionally, we are penalized for them. As long as we keep breaking them we are in the wrong and we then pay a price.  To acknowledge that they are there but then not to follow them doesn’t free us from the cost of breaking them.  We must know them and obey them.

The very first and utmost Divine Law, a Law that a majority of people have read and have been taught is, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”  This ‘me’ is God, Love, the Creator, the One All and only Good.  When we find other things, people, jobs, activities more pressing, more important, more attractive, we are actually breaking a law, a Divine Law.  Those who do not pay attention to this law or doesn’t realize its validity is no less immune to the penalties. Just as one who drives through a state that has a law such as ‘hands free’ cell phone usage and doesn’t obey that law.  

When life seems like we are hitting brick walls, one after another.  When life seems harder than it should be, filled with obstacles, hardships, disappointments, we need to find out the spiritual Divine Law that we are breaking and stop it.  We need to realize that if life is hard it is probably because we’re making it that way. By not knowing and turning to, following and obeying a Divine Law we’re making our lives harder.

It is like turning a page and trying to read the words upside down.  Most of us can do it. After many years of reading this way it would seem normal. But it is harder. We would have to work at it.  It is disconnected and slower for our brains.  Life could be so much less of a hassle. 

Life can be more productive, more rewarding if we knew the Creator’s ways, means, laws, and directions.  Things could be calmer, more gentle, easier.  Let’s go back to the very first commandment.  If we had only one God and that God was Good, Love, the Truth, intelligence; and, if we followed God towards every question, receiving Good as an answer, why would we want to work so hard?  Because as errant children we think that we won’t get our own way, our own object, intent, or good.  Like disobedient children we keep trying to do it our way with the frustrations, anger, disappointments that disobedience brings…’how’s that working for us’?

God knows all because He created all.  God is Good and His way, intent, love is to give us all Good.  All we have to do is learn His Divine Laws, follow them to the letter and obey.  The reward?  Good! 

Hugs 

Supply is ever present when we know it is from God

Good Day!

I will be posting almost daily supportive thoughts.  Todays thoughts are on Supply, God's style:

In studying John 6:1-14 Jesus fed the multitudes with five loaves of barley bread and 2 small fish. When everyone was filled they went around picking up the leftover fragments.  It was 12 baskets full that remained over and above the food that had been eaten! 

How?  Gratitude, understanding, acceptance, knowledge, that there is nothing impossible to God and that God fulfils all need.

In Matthew Henry Bible Commentary it states, “All of our comforts come to us originally from the hand of Christ; whoever brings them, it is he [God] that sends them.”

“Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.”  Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

When we study the Holy Bible, we find divine rules like the rule Mary Baker Eddy presented and Jesus demonstrated.  These rules, applied to our daily needs, manifests supply in all ways, health, wealth, guidance, direction.  By demonstrating these rules we become accepting that these rules are for everyone to experience and enjoy.  Gratitude for what we already have makes us ready to receive more.  But what we receive are spiritual ideas because God is Spirit.  These spiritual ideas, then in turn bring us all that we need, in the here and now.

Jesus showed time after time small demonstrations to magnitudes larger than what we sometimes can imagine daily needed supply. When he did it, he gave thanks to God before the demonstration. He also not only hoped but expected the perfect answer to supply whatever was needed.

At times it seems very hard to be grateful in the middle of fear, concern, what seems to be large lack.  But Jesus revealed to us that he/we are never in actual lack because God is right here with us, evidencing His proof of constant care.  This is a spiritual idea, because God is Spirit, spiritual.  What we have to do is look up to Him, give thanks, acknowledge His abilities and understand that it is a Divine Rule for all to demonstrate and that we can. 

One of the best ways to do this is to stop thinking we have to be God, that it is personally up to us to come up with some kind of supply be it money, food, adequate shelter, clothing, job, etc.  God is God and He knows what we need.  He shows us what He has prepared for us.  He gives to us all that we need every moment.  What we NEED to do is to turn to Him and get out of the way.  All of the struggles that we put ourselves through is because we lack the knowledge that God is already doing everything.

When we look to God, accept His perfect care, are grateful, ready, and understand the truth that God is doing all and caring for all, we can see the demonstration as quickly as Jesus did in seeing the multitudes being fed.  We must look to God without outlining the HOW, WHEN, WHERE it will be done and by whom humanly it will be brought to us and when.  This closes the infinite multitudinous avenues that God, Spirit, has at His disposal.  We must open our thought to the vast array of ways God has and just be grateful and ready and patient.

Need something?  Go to God. For it is said, “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt 6:33)  Seek God and His ways.  Be grateful that He is doing all for you and everyone.  Love this knowledge and understand that all comes from God.  Watch how HE DOES it and rejoice.  Share this knowledge with others.  Return to the place of gratitude that brings peace and watch how this Divine Rule may be demonstrated in your own life.

God is here.  He is giving to all.  He does have all that we need.  We can see this evidenced in our lives.