METAPHYSICAL MEETING, July 21, 2014
Contents
| - Topic | |
| - Call to the meeting | |
| - Readings | |
| - Participant contribution A | |
| - Participant contribution B | |
| - Participant contribution C | |
| - Participant contribution D | |
| - Participant contribution E |
Topic
Going forward with spiritual confidence
Call to the meeting
Our church is going forward! This is very much the outcome of the prayerful thinking and attitude of each one of us. We know it is Mind’s intelligence that unfolds whatever is needed to sustain the momentum of progress. Nothing can delay or stagnate the advance of Principle.
So please join us for our July metaphysical meeting on the topic, “Going forward with spiritual confidence,” on Monday the 21st, at 7:30 p.m. in our Reading Room.
As usual, you are welcome either to attend in person or participate via teleconference. All members are encouraged to attend, whether you come to share inspiration or to listen.
We look forward to hearing your ideas about spiritual confidence., what it is, how it is operating within our church, and what we can do to mitigate whatever may stand in the way of going forward.
“The confidence inspired by Science lies in the fact that Truth is real and error is unreal … Divine Science insists that time will prove all this” (S&H 368:2-6).
With warm greetings to you all,
Readings
Hymn 141: "If the Lord build not the house, they that labor build in vain"
Ps 36:7-9
John 10:2-7 he,9 by
II Cor 9:8 God,15
Pul 3:11-18,20-23,26-29
Pul 4:2,7-14 (to .),18-27
Participant contribution A
We gain confidence in the ability of Truth by seeing it demonstrated consistently in our lives.
In order to apprehend more, we must put into practice what we already know. We must recollect that Truth is demonstrable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated (S&H 323: 13-16).
This understanding is our confidence and is manifested collectively in a church body. The more healing we do individually translates into a collective confidence, which overrules the testimony of material circumstance. Therefore, the thing to be doing is to gain and maintain the higher nature of the healing Christ, active in all of life’s circles, to be engaged in bearing witness to God’s will being done, rather than letting material sense define what is going on. Has material sense ever told us the truth about anything? Has it ever given us permanent confidence in human ways and means? The answer is of course, no.
For example, having a new church building would not give us such confidence. Similarly, having more people in our membership will not give us such confidence. Being recognized positively as a church will not give us such confidence. But knowing that Truth is effective and will address any discordant situation because we are proving it every day, will give us the confidence which brings hope and progress.
Participant contribution B
Mrs. Eddy says that “Every day makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. These proofs consist solely in the destruction of sin, sickness, and death by the power of Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of progress, and progress is the law of God whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfill.” (Science and Health, pg. 233: 1)
Our church is keeping its doors wide open to Truth, Life, and Love. We are expressing harmony at our church services, Wednesday evening testimony meetings, and in our Sunday School. In addition, we have so many wonderful opportunities to provide outreach through our Bible Lesson Discussion group, MBE biography reading group — all of these in person and through our teleconference system. Members also serve at the Soup Kitchen in Pasadena and provide loving care and delicious meals to the individuals in need there. We are a loving and supportive church membership and express interest in one another’s spiritual growth and activities. We so enjoy having our Sunday School children as part of our church family and love to see their spiritual growth and progress as well. We have just participated with other local C.S. churches in providing healing C.S. lectures for our community.
I feel that every Christian Science church that continues to keep its doors open is a Christian Science demonstration. As we handle the claims of financial limitation and the disinterest from individuals in organized religion, we can be a shining beacon of light bringing out the healing beams of Truth and Love for all to witness and experience. Our church helps to “hold crime in check” and heal an ever-changing world as well as bringing harmony to our earth and its creatures. Our prayers are far reaching and can help and heal our neighborhoods, schools, communities, cities, the United States of America, and all of mankind in the world. As this week’s Bible Lesson on Truth brings out, “Eternal Truth is changing the universe. As mortals drop off their mental swaddling clothes, thought expands into expression. ‘Let there be light,’ is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love, changing chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres” (S&H 255:1-6).
As we progress with spiritual confidence in our steps forward, I like to reflect upon another of Mrs. Eddy’s writings:
“These two words in Scripture suggest the sweetest similes to be found in any language — rock and feathers: “Upon this rock I will build my church;” How blessed it is to think of you as beneath the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, “safe in His strength, building on His foundation, and covered from the devourer by divine protection and affection. Always bear in mind that His presence, power, and peace meet all human needs and reflect all bliss” (Mis. 263:5).
Participant contribution C
Hymn 176 speaks to me as we think about moving forward with confidence. It begins:
“Long hast thou stood, O church of God,
Long mid the tempest’s assailing,
Founded secure on timeless rock
Rises thy light, never failing.”
Christian Science, the laws of God, gives us all the confidence we need as we proceed. We are not constrained by thoughts of time, or how long a process must take. We are moving according to God’s time table not a man-made one.
In Pulpit and Press (3:7–12), Mrs. Eddy writes, “Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love. If you maintain this position, who or what can cause you to sin or suffer? Our surety is in our confidence that we are indeed dwellers in Truth and Love, man’s eternal mansion.”
Participant contribution D
“Confidence” includes a feeling freedom from uncertainty. It would mean that we’re going forward with spiritual certainty. The only certainty there is is spiritual certainty. The Psalmist wrote, “It is better trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes” (Ps. 118:8,9). We could add, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in real estate deals, city ordinances, or the opinions of men.”
Another related word is “trust.” We are going forward with spiritual trust. The Message paraphrases Proverbs 3:5-7 as, “Trust God from the bottom of your heart, don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go, he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all.”
Participant contribution E
Not uncommonly, a variety of apparently substantial and tangible obstacles appear in the path of those who are moving forward. Often these are just nuisance events. Sometimes they present stumbling blocks that require effort to climb over. Occasionally they appear to completely block the path ahead. Bearing in mind that our spiritual adventure is the unchallengeable unfoldment of good, of divine Life itself, none of these obstacles has reality. God, divine Love, embraces His own creation with the certainty of divine nurturing, and the result, always a spiritual formation, is a spiritual idea dwelling for ever within the arms of Love’s caring. Here there are no obstacles, but only Mind already knowing all that needs to be known in developing concepts and creation according to the precision and certainty of perfect Principle.
The governing Principle is operating now within our church. It’s seen in the devotion of every individual member fo the inevitable good that is God, coming forth as an active expression that is church, an expression untainted by time or by measurement. The divine Principle of All is established in endless good, and manifest through the Christ-ideas that constitute our church, and also the broader but enduring church of Spirit guiding our community.
Can development and unfoldment take longer than it should? Can progress become bogged down? Can we become ambivalent to what is happening, or may not be happening? The answer to all such questions is inevitably in the negative. That’s because there really is only one Mind, not many minds juggling the present and the future. The one Mind governs every individual and every circumstance. These individualities are infallible expressions of Soul, the identity of the Christ manifest as the working of our church. Knowing and holding to this is our effective prayer, and our protection from whatever could stand in the way of progress.
After all, progress is always the development of Mind itself, the emanations of Spirit, the activity of Life. Progress is always in and of Spirit, never material in form. We have the surity of established, divine Principle providing us with the confidence that our progress is spiritual and that it is assured, never affected by any material obstacle, and always evidenced in our ongoing development because Mind is All, and is One. It’s God’s infinite, eternal confidence, which we reflect, and which guides to the appropriate form of progress in every instance.