"my sin is ever before me"

[JPalmer]

2. Psalm 51 : 1-4, 6-10, 12
1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

The phrase “my sin is ever before me” struck me this week. My first thoughts went to these two quotes:

Christ Jesus: “Get thee behind me, Satan.” (Luke 4:8)

Mary Baker Eddy: “Let your prayer be daily: reveal to me, Oh God, my secret faults, every error, every sin.” (Collectanea, page 170)

The recognition of animal magnetism’s attempt to ensnare him allowed Christ Jesus to say, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Christian Science allows us to see the lies coming, so that we can put them behind us by not entertaining them. As Florence mentioned at this last Roundtable, we must give our consent before error has any seeming power over us. “Get thee behind me, Satan” can only be used correctly when that consent is not given, and the lie is actively handled, not merely ignored.

David consented to a few lies in the story from the lesson, and one secret fault allowed another, and another. By having these errors exposed by Nathan, they came out front and center be handled and self-destroyed. Therefore David seeking to have his sin ever before him was not about giving it power, but having any and all sins exposed and ready to be handled.

Reminds me of the April 29th, 2020 Calendar Statement: “Don’t skip over a problem, face it and destroy it.” (Plainfield Bible Study) Sounds exactly how David took care of error when he was awake and alert.

Before coming to Plainfield, the subtlety of the lies, and not having Christian Science to know how to detect and handle animal magnetism, came together so that I was blind to a great many errors that were handling me. I am very grateful that this Science and practitioner support has brought many of these secret faults out to be faced and destroyed.

Thank you for this lesson!

[spencel]

“By having these errors exposed by Nathan, they came out front and center be handled and self-destroyed. Therefore David seeking to have his sin ever before him was not about giving it power, but having any and all sins exposed and ready to be handled.”

From our Lesson this week we are instructed, “Lust, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, and you can destroy them only by destroying the wicked motives which produce them. … Choke these errors in their early stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and success.” Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, page 404

I can see that if I don’t have, “my sin is ever before me” then I do not choke (handle) the error that plagues me.

Choke: To stop; to obstruct; to check growth, expansion, or progress; as, to choke the spreading of the fruit. To be offended; to take exceptions. (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary)

This Lesson has given me a greater understanding of why my previous attempts to handle sins failed since I did not recognize or destroy the motive behind them. Like the pharisee that is self deceived by outward actions but does not destroy the sin. It seems the pain of exposure is much kinder than, “…an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and success.” The more I read Mrs. Eddy’s works under the clear teaching at Plainfield the more I see her many warnings to handle error before it controls us.

Thank you for the Lesson this week.

[Susanne]

Thank you so much for these posts. I must say that growing up in the C.S. church, sin was never spoken of, but there was much visible sinning going on that was never called out. (“Cleanse me from my sin”–what sin?) This led to a very wishy-washy, “anything goes” upbringing for me where I mistakenly thought being a Christian Scientist was being protected by some kind of magical fairy dust while we could just skip along using CS to make life merry. By not speaking openly about the tough subjects, like sin, everything was left to smolder under the surface, and for me, this went on for decades until I discovered Plainfield. I had to reckon with what I had been doing and completely re-learn what it meant to be a Christian Scientist! Obedience–another “tough love” subject, if you will–was the missing puzzle piece for me. I learned that obedience to God is the most important thing in the world, in addition to truly loving our neighbor, and this became the secret to happiness and a total life transformation.

And sin is nothing to fear–isn’t it believing there is a power apart from God?–that obeying the First Commandment will correct.

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