METAPHYSICAL MEETING, October 20, 2014
Contents
| - Topic | |
| - Call to the meeting | |
| - Readings | |
| - Participant contribution A | |
| - Participant contribution B | |
| - Participant contribution C | |
| - Participant contribution D |
Topic
Progress approved by God
Call to the meeting
Our next metaphysical meeting will be on Monday, October 20, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. in the reading room. Our daily prayers for our dear church are as important as ever as we continue to move forward.
The topic for the meeting is “Progress Approved by God.” Your inspiration in praying for our church is valuable and needed. Please join us for an uplifting time of togetherness and unity in this important endeavor.
“The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love. Time may commence, but it cannot complete, the new birth: eternity does this; for progress is the law of infinity” (Miscellaneous Writings 15:13-20).
Join us in person or by our teleconference system.
Readings
From the Bible, and from Prose Works by Mary Baker Eddy.
Participant contribution A
Thinking about this topic with respect to our branch church, I wondered, “Does God really know anything about our human plans? How can He approve our plans if He doesn’t know anything about them?” Yet, Mrs. Eddy wrote, “...progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil” (S&H 233:5). A study of the entire paragraph reveals that proof of Christian power through the destruction of sin, sickness, and death is a daily demand. Mrs. Eddy is referring to these proofs when she says that they are elements of progress. To me, this indicates that we can measure our human progress by judging the degree to which we have destroyed sin, sickness, and death. Can we measure the progress of our church by the degree to which sin, sickness, and death are destroyed? Of course, we can!
It is tempting to measure progress by the completion of milestones on a schedule chart. Completing each activity is considered progress. However, these activities are but shadows of real spiritual progress.
Let’s consider how the destruction of sin, sickness, and death will result in progress for our church. First, sin. Sin, in its simplest definition, is belief in anything that is not created or governed by God. Our church project gives us many opportunities to challenge sinful thoughts. Mrs. Eddy tells us that fear, a good example of sinful thinking, is one of the first things to destroy when giving Christian Science treatment. There’s a great opportunity to destroy our own and others’ fears about our project: it will take too long, our membership will dwindle, etc. Each time one of these or other fears pops up, it’s the time to eradicate it. This project is under the control of divine Love, who is providing for everybody’s needs.
Elements of progress include the destruction of sickness and death. Until I started thinking about this metaphysical topic, I wouldn’t have thought that the destruction of sickness and death has anything to do with our church project. Sin, yes, but sickness and death??? It turns out that we’ve already had delays due to sickness and death. As we pray daily to eradicate world belief in sickness and death, we will be helping everybody involved to overcome sickness and death, ourselves included.
There’s another aspect about overcoming sickness and death that supports our church’s progress. Most Christian denominations agree that most sin can be overcome, but ours is the only church that regularly and consistently heals, including raising the dead. As we more consistently overcome sickness and death ourselves, it will be recognized in the community. We will be affording proof of our utility, demonstrating true church. In the end, that’s what our project is all about – demonstrating true church, e.g., regardless of (or in spite of) our building and location.
Another part of the topic tonight talks about our progress being approved by God. In Acts, Peter refers to Jesus as “...a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him...” (Acts 2:22). So, progress that’s approved by God must likewise be accompanied by “miracles and wonders and signs.” This gets us right back to demonstrating over sin, sickness, and death. Jesus was approved by God, because of what he did. He told us to go and do likewise. We are approved by God when we heal, and this is real spiritual progress.
Participant contribution B
Who or what is it that approves the progress of our church? Christ Jesus did not require approval from anyone for his ministry. In fact, the authorities sternly objected to what he was doing; they even crucified him. However, Jesus did not accept the lie of life in matter, of intelligence in the brain, or of laws other than the eternally established permanence of Principle. Science and Health tells us that “he annulled supposed laws of matter, opposed to the harmonies of Spirit, lacking divine authority and having only human approval for their sanction” (S&H 382:1-4 he).
Bearing in mind that “Jesus’ deed was for the enlightenment of men and for the salvation of the whole world from sin, sickness, and death” (S&H 45:7-10), we have his word and his example as a basis for realizing that every spiritual activity emanating from divine intelligence is blessed and progressive. True activity is never outside of Spirit. It cannot be reduced to any lesser activity or substance because no such activity or substance exists outside of infinite, omniactive Mind. That’s the activity that our church reflects.
Our church, of course, is in reality the ongoing expression of divine Love, building a structure of Truth that includes natural progress that is fully approved by the Principle that is God. No interruption to the progressive unfoldment of Mind and its ideas is feasible or possible because of God’s omniscience. As the reflection of Mind’s omnipresent structure, our church possesses the dominion that naturally flows from Mind’s expression.
Through spiritual dominion, we work only by God’s direction. The material process has nothing to do with activity, progress, or approval. Everyone involved in our church unfoldment is truly a spiritual idea guided by the good that is God. Only divine blessings are possible and feasible in the infinite scope of divine intelligence, the reflection of divine Love’s caring for its own grand perfection.
Participant contribution C
As I prayed this month on the topic, I realized that’s the only way to go as God is the only source of wisdom. God is the knowing. He has provided for each one of us to gain our salvation. So we cannot follow the wrong way. He wouldn’t take us down the path unless we needed to be there. As I pray, I get a better idea of church. Each time I drive by or came in, the sight of our structure is grand, to see the beauty of our well-kept gardens, the architecture, I see the truth of what our church represents in our community. I’m proud to be a member of it. It’s opened five times a week, two services and three reading room. Our church is not a place, a physical structure. It’s a well organized thought force for our community.
Are we accepting the Christly view, are we living our religion, letting the Christ shine through? We are progressing, understanding our goal that is needed right now. Our Sunday School is progressing, with three permanent classes and a children’s room. Love can’t help but heal where the atmosphere is so dear. We all are so blessed in our church family to be so supported with such rich spiritual truths.
Mary Baker Eddy has given a prayer that covers these thoughts, the Daily Prayer. God is governing us right now, we are practicing the truth, He is directing us to do what we can’t help but do right. God has given us the completeness. The Christ is with us every step of the way. “Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness” (S&H 332:9-11 Christ). I ask each day, God, what do I need to do today? Are we listening for the answer? Progress is going on in each department. It’s obvious.
Aren’t we fortunate, I think we are! Our spiritual thought is uplifted and purified as we seek God’s own guidance. She is governing us. God is the only source of wisdom and knowledge.
Participant contribution D
I’ve been reading the past year’s Sentinels and Journals. Today I was reading The Christian Science Journal of February 2014, the article by Phil Davis titled “How to measure progress.” He specifically is addressing physical healing, but quite a bit of it applies to our church project. Just a couple of things from it: “The world tries to keep us at a surface level — to think only about a physical approach to healing that is entirely focused on improving matter. In Christian Science, however, we’re thinking about improving thought” We need to remember that. Then: “There’s a kind of spiritual charting, though, that is helpful. This is all about focusing thought on God and His goodness, and how we reflect that goodness — knowing that no matter what the world around is holding up for us to look at, and no matter how bad thing look, we always have the ability to realize that we are loved by God, governed by God, and that we are under God’s wonderfully good card.” And: “There are two particular aspects of spiritual progress worth considering,. The first involves actively looking at our mentality rather than our physicality. The second aspect involves looking to God as our healer and relying on Him fully — realizing that we are governed by God, and that God is good, divine Love.”