Prayers for Syria

I had the privilege of travelling to the beautiful, ancient city of Homs several years ago, loving its Roman waterwheel, still turning, and the gentle way its residents milled in the city centre, greeting friends, engaging in conversations over outdoor cafes - all the ways you would expect to see people enjoy a sunny day.
Now a tragic picture is unfolding. Protests against the authoritarian regime of Bashar al-Assad are being violently suppressed by government forces.  Secret pictures and videos smuggled out in the most difficult of circumstances document this.  Shelling of the city has killed hundreds of Syrians.  At least four journalists have been among the dead.  Only by the end of the week were the wounded allowed to be evacuated.
What can those of us far away from the violence do to help?  We can pray deeply to know that even in such war-torn circumstances, God's law of divine Love is protecting its creation.  The founder of the Monitor, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote in her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures", what the action of God - also called Truth, Life and Love -  is doing in spite of what the senses see: "Truth has no consciousness of error.  Love has no sense of hatred.  Life has no partnership with death. Truth, Life and Love are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because they declare nothing except God" (p 243).
Just as light annihilates darkness effortlessly, by being itself, the truth destroys a lie once it has been exposed.  The lie here is that individuals are motivated by such ambition, brutality, and cruelty that they will go to any length to protect their own position.  The truth is that God is ever in control, and God's sons and daughters can never be out from under the protection of this divine Love.  Why?  Because each one is made in the very image and likeness of God, as the first chapter in Genesis declares: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." (1:26).
The implications of being the image of divine Love, God, are true for every single one of us.  That means that a regime that looks determined to stay in power is also ultimately subject to this government, as well as those who appear to be the victims of such an imbalance of military strength.
The writer of Hebrews makes an astounding observation that has the feel of an eye-witness who has experienced the truth which he describes: "For the word of God is alive and powerful.  It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow.  It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God.  Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable" (Hebrews 4:12,13 New Living Translation).
Government representatives may try to reason with the Assad regime, but only God, infinite Mind, can provide the kind of searing truth that cuts through all beliefs and goes to the deepest core - to the heart - that deeply knows what is the difference between right and wrong.  Nothing can interfere with the laserlike reach of infinite Mind, God.  Nothing can resist the power of light to illumine the dark corners of thought that need transforming.
God, divine Love, is operating right now in Homs, as it is in other trouble spots in the world, bringing protection and safety to its citizens and making the way clear for its government to resolve whatever needs resolution to return to a life of peace for its citizens.  God is in charge, regardless of what the headlines claim.

The Christian Science Monitor
'Prayers for Homs'
by Madelon Maupin / February 29, 2012

Finding Solutions to Our Daily Shortages

With shortages seeming to be everywhere - in our own personal finances and employment, as well as our national, even global resources, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and afraid.  But there are practical solutions that many people are using to meet their immediate needs - spiritual solutions.  Read an article that shows how a family accessed these unlimited sources, that can't be taken from us no many what the economic environment.

Supply and demand - perfectly synchronized
by Janet  Clements

Unexpected expenditures for the month - and for the foreseeable future - were putting pressure on the house budget. As I calculated my income and my outgoings, I frantically realized that I could no longer be a stay-at-home mum. I needed a job yesterday! Before the children came along, I worked full-time as a graphic designer, but put my career on hold to raise my family.

I had to find an employer who could use my skills and coordinate with the hours that my two small children were at school. My needs were specific and I didn't know where to find that perfect fit. My initial reaction - to panic and start a frantic job search - was tempered with the idea to quiet my thought through prayer.

Right away I was filled with gratitude. I recalled a time when my husband and I had only $25 left in our bank account. He had been laid off from work and we were expecting our first child. He'd been looking for a new position for weeks and hadn't found anything. We had just enough money for some groceries.

With other bills to pay and the extra expense of  new baby on the horizon, the situation looked bleak.  As we prayed, we both saw that my husband had a wonderful supply of skills and good work ethics. All these qualities had their source in God, good. Not only does God impart good to man (meaning both men and women) but through His law, He also unfolds opportunities to express that goodness constructively.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote about thin in Science and Health: "Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear."

Knowing that man is never separated from opportunities to express God, my husband was guided to go to his university's outplacement office, where he saw a posting for a job that fitted his experience and abilities. Within days he was working at his new job.

As I remembered this experience, I asked myself, "Isn't that same law of supply and demand in operation for me now? If the need is now, the supply is now; such is the nature of divine Love."

I saw that all the skills and qualities that I express are really evidence of divine supply. This supply is the open handed, spontaneous abundance of God's love graciously pouring forth goodness. Love's bounty is as continual as a flowing river. It is the nature of divine Love to provide everything needed for our well-being, and this includes useful productivity.

I understood that demand isn't depletion, but rather proof that all the infinite goodness that divine Love is pouring forth has a purpose and is appreciated and utilized. so all the qualities that God gives me to express are needed and useful.

Because supply and demand are both of God, Principle, they have to be in perfect balance. There can't be a supply without a demand or a demand without a supply.

The Bible says it so well: "For I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened: But by an equality, that is at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there my be equality."

How beautifullly supply and demand are perfectly synchronized by God's law! As I prayed further, I saw that finding the right job didn't need to be circuitous. There was no need for wasted motions of running here and there looking for work.

Armed with joyous gratitude that I would be appropriated directed, and that both supply and demand are of God and in perfect balance in my life, I felt ready to go forward in the job search.

I made only one call, to a published company. They said they weren't really looking for anyone with my skills, but would be happy to look at my portfolio of work just the saem, if I wanted to go in the next day.

This was the one company I was guided to call - and they weren't hiring. I was tempted to doubt the direction been given as the result of prayer, but instead said, "Yes, I'll be there tomorrow". I had enough trust in God to follow through.

When I arrived the next day, there had been a company-wide meeting just a few hours before, in which a major restructuring was announced. Looking at my portfolio and seeing that I had experience in many areas, they said I was the perfect fit for a position that had just been created. In fact they needed my skills right away.

This was a beautiful proof that there is a divine, omniscient Mind overseeing, uniting, and synchronizing every aspect of being into one concordant whole that blesses all. 

The spiritual facts that guided me to that position are just as relevant for you and your loved ones. For now and always, the power and force of divine Love synchronizes supply and demand in such an all-encompassing way that each of us - you, me, everyone - is productive, fully supplied, and infinitely blessed.

from
 http://www.spirituality.com/
or contact Christian Science Reading Room Wollongong
csrr.wgong@1earth.net

Bullying - finding practical, spiritual solutions

Not only children experience bullying, but many adults have also found themselve facing this distressing situation. Are there practical solutions that don't involve resorting to reciprocated aggression and violence?  Absolutely, many people have found spirituality and prayer powerful weapons to arrest and solve this evil situation.

Lois Carlson, a teacher and practitioner of Christian Science in Chicago, Illinois, was the guest on this Sentinel chat called, "A spiritual defense against bullying." Lois has been in the full-time healing ministry of Christian Science since 1975, and has been a Christian Science teacher since 1991. 

FROM TAIWAN:  Kids are calling me something I really don't like, and sometimes I'm frozen with anger and left feeling deeply humiliated.  How do I pray about this?

LOIS:  You've helped us to idenify what bullying is - it's when somebody does or says something to you that makes you feel like you can't be yourself, and being afraid almost makes you feel like you're paralyzed.  The great thing I can assure you of is that right in the middle of the fire is a voice inside you, telling you that you are loved and you are safe, and that you are worth being known.

When somebody calls us something, or exaggerates some part of our body, or says things that are just so contrary to our spiritual nature as children of God, the good thing is that it doesn't change our spiritual nature.  We're still just as lovely to God, just as good and useful.  It is important that you pray about it before this happens again-if it happens again, since I would love to think that it could be stopped in its tracks right now.  When you pray about it, either before or after, ask God to help you hear His voice, because when God created you, He didn't just let you go like you were some balloon floating off into the atmosphere.  God holds on to you, and nobody can change who you are by saying something ugly about you.

NO LOCATION:  As a young girl I was bullied relentlessly at shcool.  Now, many years later I have a happy active life.  However, at times I still feel bullied-especially by other women.  I have a young daughter and wish to protect both of us from these attacks that seem to be so prevalent and even acceptable among women.

LOIS:  Your good life gives us assurance that the effects of bullying can be neutralized.  This bad, manipulative behaviour is really the exact counterfeit of a true sense of womanhood, which comes from God's great mothering.  Think of qualities like patience and intuition, of steadfast love, of nurturing care.  These are a very sharp conterfact to the aggression and belittling that we associate with bullying.

Painful periods in our lives will yield to the reality of God and His kingdom, which upholds and enforces creation in a way that we can understand.  Our Father-Mother God, the creator of the universe, never leaves us alone, never leaves us subject to the limitations and hatred of the carnal mind.

FROM GERMAN:  There are situations in which there seems to be a legitimate form of bullying.  For example, many superiors think they have the right to treat other employees disrespetfully.

LOIS:  That aggressive nature is not natural to man.  Man's purity, his goodness, his ability to love, can't be canceled.  And when I say "man", I'm referring to both men and women.  Just as we want the victim of bullying to know that something else is going on for himself, to protect him from attack, so we want the attacker to know that there's something better going on, so they don't have to act out the attack.

It's agony to be mean - it's agony to act in a way that's foreign to your own spiritual nature.  It's just like any other form of sensuality - it feels so entrapping because it makes you feel finite, when you've actually been designed to be this infinite expression.

FROM CHICAGO:  I've been picked on, insulted, and made fun of all my life.  How do I get my self-esteem back?

LOIS:  You have a right to revive your life according to the good that has happened.  A friend of mine who's a beekeeper old me that one worker bee only produces one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.  The tendency is to belittle what we do, and the good news is that you don't get your thoughts about yourself from other people - you get your thoughts from the majesty of God's love for you.

It's a very powerful prayer to ask God to teach you to know yourself the way He knows you, because He doesn't see you in terms of the cruelty.  He sees you in terms of your authority over the cruelty.  The tiny bits of good in your life are actually aligned to the divine Principle of all good, and that's what enables you to make your contribution to society, even if it's very modest.  It's just like, every raindrop counts, every ray of light counts, every bee contributes to the jar of honey!

To listen to the entire chat, go to cssentinel.com/chats/bullyingdefense.

This is an important topic that needs healing both for the individuals suffering from its effects and for society as a whole. We'd love to hear about your ideas on peaceful, healing solutions to bullying. 

Holy Purpose

"Spirit,God,gathers unformed thoughts into their propper channels,and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear." a quote from Science and Health with Key to the Scriputres by Mary Baker Eddy

God supplies all our needs - my experience

Last year I had an opportunity to understand and prove that God really looks after our financial needs. I have had opportunities in the past to prove this however, I had never lost the fear of my supply, work or money running out!

Last October, halfway through the month, after many expenses had been paid I discovered that again my money was again running out and vertually nothing was left in my account. In the past when this had occured, I would worry and stess about how I would pay for further expenses for the rest of the month. That month I had finally had enough of this state of affairs and I determined that I really needed to pray about this as it needed healing in my thinking. I reasoned that because God is all, always supplying my needs and those of my family there was no reason that we should go without and cut corners each month. I suddenly realised that I did not need to earn His care, I do not need to plead and beg for more good. I suddenly saw that the lack I was experincing each month really was due to the fact that I had accepted and actually expected my supply to either strech further but eventually to run out. I had without thinking been accepting a limitation. But if God is really all, all abundance, always supplying my needs as he supplies food for the birds, clothes the lillies (I thought of Jesus' words in the Bible where he talks about not taking thought for the next day, how God clothes the lillies etc  see Mathew 6 :25-34). I was driving at the time and it came so strongly to declare out loud in the car that I was not going to accept that limitation. I was not going to carry on believing that I was limited in anyway. I decided that my bank account and my supply was not going to run out because money is only the symbol of God's care and that in actual fact His care had never stopped! I was not trying to find a material means of fixing my situation but rather stand up to the imposition the lie that God's good was not available to me.This may have seemed an illogical thing to do but it broke my sense of fear and brought home the truth as taught to me in Christian Science that all we ever have to do is change our wrong belief about something - change a mental gear if you like. I clearly understood that God had always been sustaining me and my activities, all I had to do was acknowledge it and really understand this fact completly.

It was interesting what followed from this moment of spiritual clarity. That October became the first month that I actually did not run out of money, my bank account had money in it right up to pay day! I also refrained from being tempted to use my credit card or spend money unwisely . Two months later I was offered a part time job which I enjoy and has helped us finacially and within a couple of months my income had more than doubled. My husband was also offered a salary restructure out of the blue which enabled us to better cope with our weekly expenses. My bank account does not run dry anymore but of course the blessing is that I am fianlly free of the fear of 'running out' of things or running out of supply! God really does sustain us and I am so greatful for His wonderful care!

Healing Prayers for England

When my family lived in the Middle East life was not always easy. There were times when our safety and well being definitely seemed to be threatened. During those times it was the prayers of our friends in the peace and safety of Australia that made all the difference. Those prayers lifted our consciousness above the problem to realize and experience protection. They inspired us so that solutions could be seen and applied.  That's what Christly ideas always have done and always will do for humanity.

England needs our prayers now. 

In the Christian Science textbook, Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures, the discoverer of Christian Science says (96:31) ,

"... wicked wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection. "

I suppose one of the major questions we all, of all faiths, have to "discern" is ... is evil more powerful than good? But how can it be, when evil is just a lack of good - particularly when the Bible tell us that God is good and the source of all goodness. To admit that evil is more powerful than good is like saying the darkness is more powerful than the light and wrong thinking to be more powerful than right thinking. It is to think that there is something more powerful than God.  Yet God's message to the whole world is:

"Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else."  (Isaiah 45:22). 

Just as the light has all power over darkness, right ideas have all power over wrong thoughts and goodness has all power evil. And to think that God has competition from any other power is like thinking that if every man, woman and child banded together they could stop the sun from rising. Evil can never stop the appearing and presence of good - ever, it is an impossibility.

And where does goodness exist - in consciousness. It is a spiritual quality that is enacted through us all and to us all. Can man then be dominated by evil - either as a victim or a victimizer? The Bible tells us in Genesis (and Jesus proved to us) that man was "made in the image and likeness of God (good)".  God, who is the source of all goodness, is then the true source of our identity; our intrinsic selfhood.  This true identity is the Christ, our governing Principle.  Can we escape from divine Principle and act in a manner that is entirely opposite to our own true self? That's like thinking that 2+2 can decide to equal 3. We are what we are - that is wholly good, not a mixture of good and evil. Goodness has all power over us and within us. It is our conscience, our gut instinct, our subconscious, that voice in our thinking that tells what is right. But because this voice is God's utterance, not the human mind's, it cannot be overthrown or out shouted or ignored. God has no competition in governing His/Her likeness or expression.

In our prayers we can spiritually declare and deeply understand that where man is, God is and His Almighty Christly - and that means every man, woman and child on earth. Right where wrong thinking would do mayhem and violence, man brings to that place, peace and healing solutions. And evil has no power to dominate the good that is present, whether is be a suburb or a consciousness, just as the darkness cannot dominate the light. In fact the darker that night the brighter the light shines and the further it can be seen. 

(Isa 44:8) 8 Fear ye not, neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it? ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.

Our prayers then help to blow that mist away that would fool us into thinking of man as just a flawed, fallen being, capable of evil, so that we all can see the truth - the man of God's creating, wholly good and entirely loved. Our prayers turn on the lights so that the omnipresent good of God can be known, seen and experienced by all and the darkness of human thinking utterly extinguished.

Exploring spiritual solutions to Carbon Tax fears

With so many fears and uncertainties being voiced in the media about what effect Carbon Tax will have on our ability to pay our bills, keep our jobs and sustain our industries, many people are feeling unsure of what the future holds.  But do we have to view change through the lens of fear?  Is there a more secure foundation on which to base our family’s and community’s future well being – one that is unshakable and that can’t be taken from us? 

Donna Fay, wrote this article having lived successfully through a very shaky period in her life and her ideas are very helpful in thinking about life with the Carbon Tax.

God supplies our needs

Donna Fay

Fears about the future, about financial affairs and housing, and the way in which costs seem to be spiralling upward, are widespread.  How do we face these fears and also pray about the suggestion that something can displace the natural harmony of what Science and Health (the textbook of Christian Science) terms “the divine economy”?

The Encarta World English dictionary defines “balance” in part as “a state in which various elements form a satisfying and harmonious whole and nothing is out of proportion or unduly emphasized at the expense of the rest”. A harmonious whole. Nothing out of proportion. That would accurately describe God’s creation (see Gen.1).

It’s helpful to look at how Jesus faced the problems of the day. His trust in God’s power and presence was rock-solid. He knew that since we are the very image or idea of God, we have to be just like the Creator of that idea: entirely free from mortal limitations and beliefs, and eternally functioning with perfect supply and demand, with a continuously harmonious flow of good.  The healings that flowed from his ministry were a proof of these spiritual facts.

Can we prove these ideas in our own lives? Absolutely! In my prayers, I’ve learned it’s best not to start with the problem and get preoccupied with trying to figure out how best to cope wit it or change it. That would be admitting that somehow God’s ever-presence and omnipotence either lapsed or was set aside by another power, situation or condition.

One year, when I was a schoolteacher, I was handed a pink slip at the end of a school year, a year when I had just purchased a new home and was taking on higher mortgage payments. The pink slip seems a big threat to my home and especially my peace of mind. There was no guarantee that they would recall me.  If I wasn’t recalled, I would likely lose my home.

A Christian Science practitioner helped me approach this challenge with more spiritual dominion. She reminded me of a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal that starts out “Pilgrim on earth, home and heaven are within thee.” The end of that verse refers to the “pilgrim” as “cared for, watched over, beloved and protected,” by God, and ends up encouraging the pilgrim to “walk … with courage each step of the way” (No.278).

I had the summer to think more deeply about what home really is, and that it is not something that I was enclosed in, with four walls and furniture, fixtures and other things. Rather, it was an idea I include as one the “right ides that Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, says man includes. Certainly home is a right idea for us all. What exactly is home, I asked myself? I saw that it’s a form of refuge, shelter, sanctuary and a resting place. And these are all ideas that man includes as a result of what our Father-Mother God, divine Love, provides for us all.

Certainly God is able to maintain all the conditions that are necessary for a  harmonious and safe life; a life safe from financial challenges, and a sense of home that shelters as surely as four walls ensure a refuge from the outside.

The week came and went, and no calls or letters came, but I stayed with what I understood to be the real and only state of my home, an idea provided by divine Love.  Then, the night before teachers were to report to work, I received a call informing me I was going to teach again.

Throughout this experience, I’d been forced to trust God to maintain what He had provided for me in the demonstration of this new home. And I also had to see that my needs could be met without diminishing someone else’s supply.  I realized through this time that my life could never be ruined by economic conditions, contract negotiations, investments, or precarious financial affairs.  The prospects for home were not in the hands of persons or vulnerable to economic fluctuations.

Every need is truly met in God’s kingdom (and there is no other kingdom) because the abundance of all good is ever present and active.  Everything we learn in Christian Science affirms this to be true eternally.  And we can trust it.

Christian Science Sentinel

July 6, 2011