Life in God or Life in Materialism

[Joseph from Scotland]

Last weeks lesson showed me that the material God “in a box” sacrament interpretation of some Churches does not measure up to the true presence of God in our lives as outlined in powerful quotes in the Bible and Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy.

This weeks Lesson invites me to ask the question “what is life”? amidst daily cries from people saying “my life is bad” “my life is toxic” and even “I have a new life being born again” which some Christians say all of which have a starting point that life is somehow starting at “0” and ending at age “60” with material pleasure in between if we are lucky.

John Clare the poet says in his poem “what is life”

“And what is Life? An hour-glass on the run,
A mist retreating from the morning sun,
A busy, bustling, still-repeated dream.
Its length? A minute’s pause, a moment’s thought.
And Happiness? A bubble on the stream,
That in the act of seizing shrinks to nought.
And what is Hope? The puffing gale of morn

The key here I think in the lesson is the word rightousness because its mentioned (along with the word “right” and “aright”) a few times.

Golden text – The Spirit is life because of righteousness

Responsive Reading – I the LORD have called thee in righteousness

and S and H also talks about “right motives” and to “begin aright” in the lesson.

So I have a choice at any point to trust my senses and what they might tell me about my Life Experience. Or I can choose to live up to the command of the Bible to live “Righteously” by looking to God as the starting point of my identity to say “who am I” and to trust that part of Gods role is to maintain my innocence and purity.

Websters 1828 describes it as:

Righteousness
RIGHTEOUSNESS, noun ri’chusness.

1. Purity of heart and rectitude of life; conformity of heart and life to the divine law. righteousness as used in Scripture and theology, in which it is chiefly used, is nearly equivalent to holiness, comprehending holy principles and affections of heart, and conformity of life to the divine law. It includes all we call justice, honesty and virtue, with holy affections; in short, it is true religion.

2. Applied to God, the perfection or holiness of his nature; exact rectitude; faithfulness.

3. The active and passive obedience of Christ, by which the law of God is fulfilled. Daniel 9:7.

4. Justice; equity between man and man. Luke 1:75.

5. The cause of our justification.

The Lord our righteousness Jeremiah 23:6.

[Susanne]

Thank you for this wonderful post, Joseph!

As I re-read the lesson after your remarks, I could see my life “before and after.”

“Before” — when I just skated along and didn’t want to entirely follow God’s law because I might “miss out” on something. That didn’t work out so well!

“After” — has me understanding that without “conformity of heart and life to the divine law”–aka obedience–things just won’t go as I had planned. My plans can never be anywhere near as good as God’s plan of all good. This is what I learned after coming to Plainfield. I used to avoid the “straight and narrow”. Now I want to be sure to stay in it!

I don’t think a day goes by where I don’t thank God for how far He has brought me, and it spurs me on to “cleave unto him”!

[Joseph from Scotland]

Hi Susanne,

Yes its a lovely feeling.

One thing which I found hard to deal with when I first came to CS was that this isn´t a “journey”´. One thing which makes CS different fro Buddhism and the New age movement is they talk a lot about journeysand even people who have been healed talk about change using material time of “before” and “after”. This is good to mark our thought changes, however it can impede us. To think of a journey, is a bit like waiting for a destination to arrive and the beauty of our religion is that we have already reached our destination. Its here and now and its life in God. Right here, at this moment, and theres no necessary wait, second birth or evolution to reach it. We simply need to embrace our new identity in God, our All.

ITS NOW Isn´t it wonderful?

[Florence]

Surely, life in God is the only Life, because He is Life. This from the Lesson spells out what we do to experience it: Deut. 30: 20. That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days.
Love:
Obey:
Cleave:
Do the above and we will gain a clearer realization of our present spiritual perfection ( where we are NOW and have always been).

• This reply was modified 9 years, 9 months ago by JeremyRyanPalmer.
• This reply was modified 9 years, 9 months ago by Florence.

[jacob45]

Yes, reality, or eternity, has already started and is always now. Anything else never really existed.

[Joseph from Scotland]

Mrs Eddy talks a lot about progress and growth, however she is not referring to material growth, she is referring to how well we demonstrate the reality of God with us.

The journey of CS cannot be measured in months or years and we should not look to material mechanisms to measure it. I believe progress is marked by how well we demonstrate faith, not how well we measure it.

This idea of a journey cannot be used as a declaration of healing having taken place or not. We cant rely on human measurement to tell us anything.

Mrs Eddy often said that she sensed healing long before it appeared on the body and her patients sometimes scorned her because they couldnt sense it.

The journey in cs is the journey through the wonderful chasms of Love, like a fish swimming in the deepest ocean.

[MaryBeth]

It is easy to get caught up with what is referred to as “absolute and relative” terms and both have their place. Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health “Earth has little light or joy for mortals BEFORE Life is spiritually learned.” I think this is what Susanne was meant. And although Mrs. Eddy doesn’t mention “second birth” she has a whole chapter on the “New Birth.”! In her chapter “Glossary” she often includes both the relative and absolute definitions as in her definition of “YEAR” which reads in part”….Eternity is God’s measurement of Soul-filled years.”

[Author]

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