First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge
Wednesday Meeting Readings
December 30, 2009
Topic: Your prosperity not impacted by passing years
The Bible:
(1) Song 7:11,12 (to :)
11 Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages.
12 Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth:
(2) Ps 30:2,3 thou hast kept,4 (to 2nd ,),5 in his (to :),6,11 thou,12 (to .)
2 O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.
3 thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
4 Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his,
5 in his favour is life:
6 And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.
11 thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;
12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent.
(3) Gen 17:15,16 (to :),17,19 (to :)
15 ¶ And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her:
17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac:
(4) Gen 39:1,2,4-6
1 And Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him of the hands of the Ishmeelites, which had brought him down thither.
2 And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
4 And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.
5 And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field.
6 And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand; and he knew not aught he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured.
(5) Ps 90:1,2,4,17 let
1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
17 let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
(6) John 8:31,32,51,56-59
31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
(7) John 21:2-6
2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.
3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a-fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing.
4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.
5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.
6 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.
(8) Acts 4:1,13 (to ;),18,24,29 grant,30,31 and they were,32 (to :),33,34 (to :)
1 And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,
13 ¶ Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled;
18 And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
29 grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
31 and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul:
33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.
34 Neither was there any among them that lacked:
(9) II Pet 3:8 beloved,9
8 beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
(10) III John 1:2
2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
(1) 245:32-6
The infinite never began nor will it ever end. Mind
1 and its formations can never be annihilated. Man is not
a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and
3 sorrow, sickness and health, life and death. Man
Life and its faculties are not measured by reflects God
calendars. The perfect and immortal are the eternal
6 likeness of their Maker.
(2) 24:4
Acquaintance with the original texts, and willingness
to give up human beliefs (established by hierarchies, and
6 instigated sometimes by the worst passions of Life's healing
men), open the way for Christian Science to be currents
understood, and make the Bible the chart of life, where
9 the buoys and healing currents of Truth are pointed
out.
(3) 121:24-32
24 The sun is the
central stillness, so far as our solar system is concerned,
and the earth revolves about the sun once a year, besides
27 turning daily on its own axis.
As thus indicated, astronomical order imitates the
action of divine Principle; and the universe, the reflec-
30 tion of God, is thus brought nearer the spiritual fact, and
is allied to divine Science as displayed in the everlasting
government of the universe.
(4) 246:10,17-28 Chronological (to .)
The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and
gives ugliness to age. The radiant sun of virtue and truth
12 coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, un-
dimmed by a declining sun. As the physical and mate-
rial, the transient sense of beauty fades, the radiance of
15 Spirit should dawn upon the enraptured sense with bright
and imperishable glories.
Chronological data are no part
18 of the vast forever. Time-tables of birth and death are
so many conspiracies against manhood and Undesirable
womanhood. Except for the error of meas- records
21 uring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man
would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and
still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man,
24 governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and
grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty,
and holiness.
27 Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the
demonstration thereof.
(5) 247:3-7,13-24
3 I have seen age regain two of the elements it had lost,
sight and teeth. A woman of eighty-five, whom I knew,
had a return of sight. Another woman at Eyes and
6 ninety had new teeth, incisors, cuspids, bi- teeth
cuspids, and one molar. renewed
Eternal
Im- beauty
mortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its
15 own, — the radiance of Soul. Immortal men and women
are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind
and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness
18 which transcend all material sense.
Comeliness and grace are independent of matter. Be-
ing possesses its qualities before they are perceived hu-
21 manly. Beauty is a thing of life, which The divine
dwells forever in the eternal Mind and re- loveliness
flects the charms of His goodness in expression, form,
24 outline, and color.
(6) 598:19 (to ;),23-24,30
YEAR. A solar measurement of time;
One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual
24 understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity.
30 Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which
1 is the solar year. Eternity is God's measurement of Soul-
filled years.
(7) 333:16 The
The advent of Jesus of Nazareth marked the
first century of the Christian era, but the Christ is
18 without beginning of years or end of days. The divine
Throughout all generations both before and Principle
after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spirit- and idea
21 ual idea, — the reflection of God, — has come with some
measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive
Christ, Truth. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets
24 caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ, which
baptized these seers in the divine nature, the essence of
Love. The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and
27 ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God.
Jesus referred to this unity of his spiritual identity thus:
"Before Abraham was, I am;" "I and my Father are
30 one;" "My Father is greater than I." The one Spirit
includes all identities.
(8) 468:28-1
Eternity
Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of of Life
Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in
30 proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite;
1 eternity is forever infinite.
(9) 469:2-3,4-5 Life is not (to 2nd .)
What is termed matter is unknown to Spirit, which
3 includes in itself all substance and is Life eternal.
Life is not
limited. Death and finiteness are unknown to Life.
(10) 509:20-24 (to The)
So-called mineral, vegetable, and animal substances
21 are no more contingent now on time or material struc-
ture than they were when "the morning stars Divine nature
sang together." Mind made the "plant of appearing
24 the field before it was in the earth."
(11) 191:8
As a material, theoretical life-basis is found to be a
9 misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine
Principle of man dawns upon human thought, The immortal
and leads it to "where the young child was," birth
12 — even to the birth of a new-old idea, to the spiritual
sense of being and of what Life includes. Thus the whole
earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light,
15 chasing away the darkness of error.
(12) 200:9-19
9 Life is, always
has been, and ever will be independent of A mortal
matter; for Life is God, and man is the idea not man
12 of God, not formed materially but spiritually, and not
subject to decay and dust. The Psalmist said: "Thou
madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy
15 hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet."
The great truth in the Science of being, that the real
man was, is, and ever shall be perfect, is incontrovertible;
18 for if man is the image, reflection, of God, he is neither
inverted nor subverted, but upright and Godlike.
(13) 66:14
Each suc-
15 cessive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine
goodness and love.
(14) 504:23
The rays of infinite Truth, when gathered into
24 the focus of ideas, bring light instantaneously, whereas
a thousand years of human doctrines, hypotheses, and
vague conjectures emit no such effulgence.
(15) 98:15
15 Beyond the frail premises of human beliefs, above the
loosening grasp of creeds, the demonstration of Christian
Mind-healing stands a revealed and practical Revelation
18 Science. It is imperious throughout all ages of Science
as Christ's revelation of Truth, of Life, and of Love, which
remains inviolate for every man to understand and to
21 practise.
From the Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 46: "Day by day the manna fell: O, to learn this lesson well"
Hymn 451: "…Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more For olden time and holier shore"
Hymn 272: "Our God shall reign where'er the sun Does his successive journeys run"
