Wednesday Meeting Readings

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First Church of Christ, Scientist, La CaÑada Flintridge

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w111207

Invitation to pray about Mecixo's drug trafficking

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The Bible:

Isa 51:7-9 (to ;), 12, 13 (to ;)
7¶Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.
8For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
9¶Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord;
12I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
13And forgettest the Lord thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth;
Isa 54:11-14
11¶O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
12And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.
13And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
14In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.
Isa 9:2, 4, 6, 7
2The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
4For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
7Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
II Sam 22:2-7 The, 14, 15, 18-21
2The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
3The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.
4I will call on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.
5When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid;
6The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;
7In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.
14The Lord thundered from heaven, and the most High uttered his voice.
15And he sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and discomfited them.
18He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.
19They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay.
20He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
21The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.
Matt 5:43-45
43¶Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
II Cor 3:17 where
17where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Jer 5:19 ye serve
19ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
Amos 6:1, 3-6
1Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
3Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
4That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall;
5That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David;
6That drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments: but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph.
I Tim 6:9-12 they
9they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
10For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
11But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
12Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Matt 7:15-19
15¶Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Matt 6:13 (to :)
13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
Rom 6:11 reckon, 13-16, 21-23
11reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
13Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
15What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
21What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gal 5:13
13For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
I Cor 6:19 know, 20
19know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy

S&H 225:25-4
The despotic tenden-
cies, inherent in mortal mind and always ger-
27minating in new forms of tyranny, must be rooted out
through the action of the divine Mind.
Men and women of all climes and races are still in
30bondage to material sense, ignorant how to obtain their
freedom. The rights of man were vindicated in a single
section and on the lowest plane of human life, when Afri-
226:1can slavery was abolished in our land. That was only
prophetic of further steps towards the banishment of a
3world-wide slavery, found on higher planes of existence
and under more subtle and depraving forms.
S&H 102:18-23, 30-2
18The looms of crime, hidden in the dark re-
cesses of mortal thought, are every hour weav-
ing webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are the
21present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare
the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on
the subject which the criminal desires.

30Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so-
called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. Christian
Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and pre-eminently
103:1promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore
in the community.
S&H 227:14
Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to fore-
15see the doom of all oppression. Slavery is not the legiti-
Native
freedom mate state of man. God made man free.
Paul said, "I was free born." All men should
18be free. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is lib-
erty." Love and Truth make free, but evil and error
lead into captivity.
S&H 340:23
One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; con-
24stitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the
Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates
pagan and Christian idolatry, ” whatever is wrong in
27social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes;
equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves
nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.
S&H 17:8

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
9
evil;

And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth

us from sin, disease, and death.
12

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the

glory, forever.

For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over
15
all, and All.
S&H 158:18
18 It is pitiful to lead men into
temptation through the byways of this wil-
derness world, ” to victimize the race with intoxicating
21prescriptions for the sick, until mortal mind acquires an
educated appetite for strong drink, and men and women
become loathsome sots.
S&H 373:14-15
The fear of disease and the love of sin are the sources
Love frees
from fear 15of man's enslavement.
S&H 311:14-19
Through false estimates of soul as dwelling in sense
15and of mind as dwelling in matter, belief strays into a
Soul
impeccable sense of temporary loss or absence of soul, spir-
itual truth. This state of error is the mortal
18dream of life and substance as existent in matter, and is
directly opposite to the immortal reality of being.
S&H 398:16
Homoeopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a
particle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms
The action
of faith 18of disease. What produces the change? It is
the faith of the doctor and the patient, which
reduces self-inflicted sufferings and produces a new effect
21upon the body. In like manner destroy the illusion of
pleasure in intoxication, and the desire for strong drink
is gone. Appetite and disease reside in mortal mind, not
24in matter.
S&H 12:18
18 The drug does
nothing, because it has no intelligence. It is a mortal
belief, not divine Principle or Love, which causes a
21drug to be apparently either poisonous or sanative.
S&H 484:17
Drugs and inert matter are unconscious, mindless. Cer-
18tain results, supposed to proceed from drugs, are really
caused by the faith in them which the false human con-
sciousness is educated to feel.
S&H 157:23-32
Matter is not self-creative, for it is unintelligent. Erring
24mortal mind confers the power which the drug seems to
possess.
Narcotics quiet mortal mind, and so relieve the body;
27but they leave both mind and body worse for this sub-
mission. Christian Science impresses the entire corpore-
ality, ” namely, mind and body, ” and brings out the
30proof that Life is continuous and harmonious. Science
both neutralizes error and destroys it. Mankind is the
better for this spiritual and profound pathology.
S&H 218:25
Resist the temptation to believe in matter as
intelligent, as having sensation or power.
S&H 250:15-19, 22
15 A
Mortal
existence
a dream mortal may be weary or pained, enjoy or suffer,
according to the dream he entertains in sleep.
18When that dream vanishes, the mortal finds himself
experiencing none of these dream-sensations.

Now I ask, Is there any more reality in the waking
dream of mortal existence than in the sleeping dream?
24There cannot be, since whatever appears to be a mortal
man is a mortal dream. Take away the mortal mind,
and matter has no more sense as a man than it has as
27a tree. But the spiritual, real man is immortal.
S&H 218:32-2
When we wake to the truth of being, all disease,
219:1pain, weakness, weariness, sorrow, sin, death, will be
unknown, and the mortal dream will forever cease.
S&H 404:3-9 (to 1st .), 17-19
3If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco, or the special
servant of any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet and
Appetites to
be abandoned destroy these errors with the truth of being, ”
6by exhibiting to the wrong-doer the suffering
which his submission to such habits brings, and by con-
vincing him that there is no real pleasure in false appe-
9tites.
The temperance reform, felt all over our land, results
18from metaphysical healing, which cuts down every tree
Temperance
reform that brings not forth good fruit.
S&H 406:28-31
The depraved appetite for alcoholic drinks, tobacco,
tea, coffee, opium, is destroyed only by Mind's mastery
Morbid
cravings 30of the body. This normal control is gained
through divine strength and understanding.
S&H 327:22
Fear of punishment never made man truly honest.
Moral courage is requisite to meet the wrong and to
Moral
courage 24proclaim the right. But how shall we re-
form the man who has more animal than
moral courage, and who has not the true idea of good?
27Through human consciousness, convince the mortal of
his mistake in seeking material means for gaining hap-
piness. Reason is the most active human faculty. Let
30that inform the sentiments and awaken the man's dor-
mant sense of moral obligation, and by degrees he will
learn the nothingness of the pleasures of human sense
328:1and the grandeur and bliss of a spiritual sense, which
silences the material or corporeal. Then he not only will
3be saved, but is saved.
S&H 327:1
327:1Reform comes by understanding that there is no abid-
ing pleasure in evil, and also by gaining an affection for
3good according to Science, which reveals the immortal
fact that neither pleasure nor pain, appetite nor passion,
can exist in or of matter, while divine Mind can and does
6destroy the false beliefs of pleasure, pain, or fear and all
the sinful appetites of the human mind.
S&H 371:26
Mankind will improve through Science and Christi-
27anity. The necessity for uplifting the race is father to
the fact that Mind can do it; for Mind can impart
purity instead of impurity, strength instead of weak-
30ness, and health instead of disease. Truth is an altera-
tive in the entire system, and can make it "every whit
whole."

From the Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 78: "God is my strong salvation"
Hymn 61: "Fight the good fight with all thy might"
Hymn 158: "It came aupon the midnight clear"

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