KA2024 Paper One
Infinite LOVE + Her Infinite Manifestation=GOD LOVES US
INTRO
I am always profoundly and humbly grateful for these meetings of heroic hearts—you who are all seeking to be a healing force in the world. A friend of mine has shared that every morning, she prays, takes the world up in her arms, and tells it not to be afraid. That is what we are all working to do
These meetings are a part of the ongoing unfolding of good . Unfolding. The process by which something unfolds or becomes revealed. “Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness.” (SH246:25). And this Association has gathered a lot of what we have learned since we were together last year.
I’m so deeply grateful for your work. We have taken a pause to refresh and renew our commitment to be that healing force and join with hundreds of other associations, with tender practicality and relevance, that movement of thought that must push on the ages.
Know that you are in your right place. All whom you love are in their right place. We can put aside any strain or stress and leave it all as we take in this nourishing day
So we begin…….
“All is infinite Mind or LOVE and its infinite manifestation” declares the scientific statement of being. So there we start. We are starting with God as LOVE. The highest holiest, breathtakingly tenderest, and most supreme idea of absolute, permanent, fundamental and the first and original LOVE.
In Psalm 42: 2, we read “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: …” “Living God” represents the divine source of life. Jeremiah records God referring to Himself as “the fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13).
To know God, we start with the absolute. “The starting point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind—that God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle.”(Science and Health, p. 275:6)
1 - Now let’s look at LOVE.
How many times do we say things like …..
We love having friends over.
And that movie, I just loved that movie!
(picking up a phone) OK, hun, I’ll see you later. Love you.
Love is a word we use so often. So when John writes in the Bible “God is Love.” It makes us stop and pause. God is LOVE.
God is Love. And God is infinite. So then Love is infinite!
“... Science reveals infinity and the fatherhood and motherhood of Love. Human capacity is slow to discern and to grasp God’s creation and the divine power and presence which go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals can never know the infinite until they throw off the old man and reach the spiritual image and likeness. What can fathom infinity!” (Science and Health, p. 519:10–17 Science)
And what can fathom infinite LOVE?
Here we will measure, expand and more deeply understand infinite Love as the formative power behind all unity, beauty, and the articulation of inspiration, the new birth, of decency, dignity and delight and of goodness, gladness and grace.
“Man reflects infinity, and this reflection is the true idea of God.” (SH, p. 258:11)
LOVE is the motive power behind all we effectively do as we each reflect the infinite ocean of Love - which is described in beautiful detail in Matthew Henry's commentary on 1 Corinthians 13, often referred to as the "Love Chapter," which emphasizes the importance of love as the greatest of Christian virtues. Here’s a summary of his key points: SLIDE 3
Or you can open your Bible
2 - THE ORIGIN AND ONLINESS OF LOVE
¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Jesus makes this momentous announcement to Nicodemus, the Pharisee who sought him out at night. In this interchange, the Master challenges this Jewish leader to look beyond the flesh to Spirit (see vv. 1–8). God’s giving of His Son….is shown as the ultimate demonstration of divine Love to the world.
God sent his son:
In short, God so loved us that He showed us that the CHRIST is among us. The Christ, the divine manifestation of God, came to show us what a child of God - the son of God looks like. We are heirs of the one God and the everlasting life we now have—is expressed in an abundant life—in freedom, recovery, and release.
Let’s break this down SLIDE 4
¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
( much information from Ellicot’s Commentary for English Readers
God so loved the world.--This is the revelation of the nature of God, the foundation of our love for God and man.
(This is echoed in I John 4 Expanded Bible: Love originates from God
7 ·He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. 10 This is what real love is: It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us.
It is not us trying to muster up a feeling for God, trying to get to God as if God were afar off, But real LOVE is God’s pure, continuous, overflowing love graciously and eternally pouring over us and through us.
LOVE agapaó: the highest - spiritual love
World kosmos: order, the world
Usage: the world, universe; worldly affairs; the inhabitants of the world; adornment.
Gave - Offered; put; placed
His only begotten Son.--From the Bible Lens: Only begotten is translated from the Greek adjective monogenēs. Originally meaning singular or one of a kind, it came to signify only. In the Greek version of Hebrew Scripture, monogenēs can indicate something that is precious because it is unique.
Believeth in.--Better, believeth upon. Casts his whole being on him
Everlasting life.--Better, as the same Greek word is rendered in the previous verse, eternal life. It is of frequent use in this Gospel (seventeen times), and always used in reference to life.
From other translations:
Phillips For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that every one who believes in him shall not be lost, but should have eternal life. You must understand that God has not sent his Son into the world to pass sentence upon it, but to save it—through him.
3 - LOVE from PRIMARY CLASS
Immortal and universal, Love is mentioned 366 times in SH
LOVE is active in correcting:
Love is used exclusively in Science and Health with Truth many times in reference to Jesus and in giving instructions how to heal. For example -
So Love actively corrects, instructs, and fulfills, but did you know that LOVE yearns? This comes up in the biography of Mary Baker Eddy in her involvement with the young artist, James F. Gilman re: the drawings for Christ and Christmas (Years of Authority, Peel, p. 45):
On one occasion as they discussed the details of the design for an illustration of a Christian Science healing—(drawn as) a woman, vaguely suggestive of Mrs. Eddy, raising a man from a sickbed—Gilman held forth on the “most spiritually appropriate disposition” 37 of the woman’s hands and arms:. Gilman, the artist, tried to get across a sense of perfectionism in his drawing to which Mary Baker Eddy protested. She said: “Yes, but Love yearns.”
Divine Love yearns
This is illustrated beautifully in Luke 15:20-32 (The Parable of the Prodigal Son):
Here is another refreshing aspect of Love – Love is always there – waiting to bless
And we can answer to this outpouring of living Love:
4 - LOVE ITSELF and FATHER LOVE and MOTHER LOVE
Omnipotence and ever presence of divine Love fill the kingdom of heaven – which includes the Golden rule that neutralizes division. Love unites and brings together a diverse humanity in which the Golden Rule is practiced and all are included at whatever stage they are; there is no judgment, no coercion, and no polarization. Love’s authority is enforced by the law of harmony and the law of progress that ensure one’s freedoms and love for others are aligned.
Maria Louise Baum (1867-1941) is probably best known for writing the words to seven Christian Science hymns, including the hymn "Like as a Mother." She was also the principal author of the Hymnal Notes included in the Concordance to the Christian Science Hymnal.
A first cousin of journalist and Wonderful Wizard of Oz author Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919), she was herself an early journalist for The Christian Science Monitor, as well as an ardent advocate for Mary Baker Eddy’s teachings and legacy.
One day, before she was a serious student of Christian Science, Baum was in great emotional and physical anguish. She found sudden healing after she “‘wrestled in prayer.’” Recalling this event from the late 1890s, she wrote, “I realized the presence of God a thousand times more clearly than I had ever felt a human presence.” As time went on, she began relating that transformative experience to the teachings of Christian Science.1
Baum became a member of The Mother Church in 1900 and went on to make some notable contributions to the Christian Science movement over four decades.
Hymn. 174:1–3
Like as a mother, God comforteth His children; / Comfort is calm, that bids all tumult cease; / Comfort is hope and courage for endeavor, / Comfort is love, whose home abides in peace. /
Love is true solace and giveth joy for sorrow,— / O, in that light, all earthly loss is gain; / Joy must endure, Love’s giving is forever; / Life is of God, whose radiance cannot wane. /
O holy presence, that stills all our demanding, / O love of God, that needs but to be known! / Heaven is at hand, when thy pure touch persuades us, / Comfort of God, that seeks and finds His own.
5- OCEANS OF LOVE - being immersed in LOVE
LOVE as the ocean - the first time I heard this idea it was in a video clip of children from the School of Africa in Kenya singing it:
“God’s love is like the ocean - the ocean big and wide”
We cannot escape LOVE
At times, we may feel like fish in the sea, crying to find the ocean. And yet, here we are, working out our reason for living, which is immersed in LOVE.
Mrs. Eddy saw her reason for living and defined her work as she wrote in My. 202:23–25
“My work is reflected light, — a drop from His ocean of love, from the underived glory, the divine Esse” (My. 202:23–25)
And as we work out the metaphysics of Love, we experience a spiritual baptism. This baptism is described here in Mis. 205:13–22
“The baptism of Spirit, or final immersion of human consciousness in the infinite ocean of Love, is the last scene in corporeal sense. This omnipotent act drops the curtain on material man and mortality. After this, man’s identity or consciousness reflects only Spirit, good, whose visible being is invisible to the physical senses: eye hath not seen it, inasmuch as it is the disembodied individual Spirit-substance and consciousness termed in Christian metaphysics the ideal man — forever permeated with eternal life, holiness, heaven.
In Mis. Writings - we have a full statement on LOVE (249:28; 250:14)
“What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the underived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the alone God, is Love. ...
“Love is not something put upon a shelf, to be taken down on rare occasions with sugar tongs and laid on a rose-leaf. I make strong demands on love, call for active witnesses to prove it, and noble sacrifices and grand achievements as its results.
“Unless these appear, I cast aside the word as a sham and counterfeit, having no ring of the true metal. Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or goodness without activity and power.
And as we wake up and work out the metaphysics of divine Love, we gain strength and a confident peace - born of overcoming obstacles that wring out a true and tried mental conviction. This strength is described here:
“This strength is like the ocean, able to carry navies, yet yielding to the touch of a finger. This peace is spiritual; never selfish, stony, nor stormy, but generous, reliable, helpful, and always at hand.” My. 121:9
6 - HEALING AND LOVE
From WKMBE vol 1 p. 296) “In a discussion with her students, Mrs. Eddy asked them: What is the best way to do instantaneous healing?” Many arose. Some said, “Realize the ever-presence of good”; others, “Deny the claims of evil.” There were many answers, but when they had finished, she said, as I remember: “I will tell you the way to do it. It is to love! Just live love—be it—love, love, love. Do not know anything but Love. Be all love. There is nothing else. That will do the work. It will heal everything; it will raise the dead. Be nothing but love.”
Love brings healingThe true badge of a Christian is the joy and unselfed love s/he expresses. We might ask: "Why is love the essential quality in healing?"
STORY!! Feeling loved and worthy - (See https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1p5chcdtmbi?s=copylink)
Here is an inspiring story from the Sentinel of a young mother who worked on her understanding of Love in this way.
She writes: “I could have been the poster child for Overachievers Anonymous. Our first child was two and a half years old, and I was pregnant with our second. I was working full time, co-conducting services at my Christian Science branch church, weighing a major decision regarding relocation, and my husband was traveling a lot. I wanted to do everything right. I worked hard to fulfill these different roles—emphasis on the “I.” I put the responsibility squarely on my shoulders. But trying so hard to be right and taking on so much brought me to the breaking point. I feared that a single misstep would send everything tumbling down.
One night, feeling exhausted, I reached out to God. I don’t remember the specifics of how I prayed, but I’d gotten to the low point of berating myself for not knowing how to pray better. (Otherwise, I wouldn’t have all these issues, would I?) I got a direct response. And it surprised and humbled me. With no words, I felt heard and approved of and dearly loved.
It was as if an iron hand in a velvet glove came into my thought and swept away the cobwebs of false responsibility, worry, doubt, and anxiety. A comforting wave of assurance rolled over me. I knew I was loved. God approved of me—not because of what I was doing humanly, but because I am His loved child. God understood everything. And all was well.
That was it—that message was a direct hit to the heart of the beast of anxiety. The thunder of the Truth came in with the gentleness of Love.
And then I felt a calm joy, and a rested confidence. God loves me! God knows me and approves of me! I simply wept with the relief of it all and ended up laughing. I accepted the fact that I did know how to pray; I did know how to listen to God. I accepted God and God’s love for me. I realized that God and I have a wonderful understanding of one another, and an inseparable relationship!
Each situation I was involved in was resolved in its own time: the baby, the potential move, the church services, and the rest. All was well. All is well. And, as the hymn says, all must be well (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 350, Mary Peters).
Years later I came across this correspondence written by Mary Baker Eddy from the collections of The Mary Baker Eddy Library. SLIDE 5 It fit this story perfectly: “You are not alone. Love is with you watching tenderly over you by day and night; and this Love will not leave you but will sustain you and remember all thy tears, and will answer thy prayers” (L12888, Letter to Caroline Frame, November 5, 1903, © The Mary Baker Eddy Collection).
======
Such reassurance!! “Fear not” and “Be of good comfort” are common reassurances from the Master. For example, he speaks to his fearful disciples as he walks on the water and to the woman who touched his hem (see Mark 6:50; Luke 8:48). And he answers the disciples’ question about things to come, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
7 - “OUR closeness to God is our oneness with God – Admit it!
As water is to wet
As sugar is to sweet
As salt is to salty ………………..so is our oneness with God as we are the defining evidence of each quality of God.
We are the evidence of the infinitude of God. All is infinite God and its infinite manifestation. We are each needed so that God can be fully known. Thank you Amy for sharing that recently! Repeat - We are each needed so that God can be fully known.
It reminds me of this story you may have heard through the years:
‘An elementary school teacher was giving a drawing class to a group of six-year-old children. At the back of the classroom sat a little girl who for more than twenty minutes, sat with her arms curled around her paper, totally absorbed in what she was doing. The teacher eventually asked the girl what she was drawing. Without looking up, the girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” Surprised, the teacher said, “But nobody knows what God looks like.” The girl said, “They will in a minute.” – Robinson, K. (2009)
We can all know what God “looks like” – to have a familiarity so strong that we can talk with God as one might talk with a friend, as Moses did. To “... / Know in God the perfect Friend; …” as it says in the Christian Science Hymnal, No. 263:3.
Yeaars ago friends from around the country were involved in a delightfully fun haiku contest to create haikus about our oneness with God Here are some: SLIDE 6
A favorite!! from Isobel:
Oh cuddle divine
arms a big as outer space
trigger sweet release
written with thoughts of a dear friend
rest assured, you are safe,
curled in the palm of Her hand
protected, alert
for my sons
God's love for you and me
infinite and intimate
bigger than the sky
for busy people
satisfying rest
loon calls fill the evening
night ending day. peace.
morning haiku
calm presence of Love
strengthens my confidence: God
underlines my day
So can we admit it? Can we admit our closeness to God? That we are one with God and that God loves us?
“The admission to one’s self that man is God’s own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This conviction shuts the door on death, and opens it wide towards immortality. “(Science and Health, p. 90:24–27)
This infinite idea ( science of being) that we are mastering “... confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace. (Science and Health, p. 265:12 confers)
Example: One man called me up struggling with some serious self-doubt. He was known for his intelligence and strategic thought. He feared he lacked being loving and gentle. We talked about his God-given qualities of exactness and effectiveness. As those came from God and reflected Principle and Truth, these qualities were synonymous with Love and Soul. You can’t express your God-given intelligence and think it lacks another God-given quality. He didn’t need to change who he was, but to drop whatever wasn’t Godlike and to see more fully the person God created: He just needed to be more of what God already created him to be. He simply needed to admit it!. To see that the qualities of intelligence naturally included love and gentleness. Our prayerful work gave him the confidence needed.
The practice of Christian Science reveals our closeness to God. Understanding this Science of Being“...
Example of this:
A woman was competing at the national and international levels in her sport. During one set of matches, she felt burdened and anxious about some surging claims of aging that flared up and was concerned because was playing in a highly competitive match outdoors with major heat advisories and warnings.
We talked about thought shifting from the material claims to praising God.
At first this seemed like just one more thing she had to do. But thought did shift. She saw that even with these challenges, glorifying God did not mean an additional thing she needed to do. When she saw that glorifying God was to be the active, full and joyous child of God - to be fully herself.
Her prayerful efforts were not about becoming a different person, but being more of who she really was and being fully present, authentic, and true .
This gave her greater endurance and the ability to supercharge efforts – even playing in extreme heat.
Her focus was on God and she gave whole-hearted attention to the perfection of being demonstrated in calculated movement, undistracted attention , joyous spontaneity in response and exacting delivery.
ANd thenshe went on to win bronze, silver and gold in various competitions.
That is what accepting our oneness God, good means. Go deeper-wider-broader-higher - into your expression of God - accept yourself as God’s own creation – be more of yourself!
¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) This love is happening every moment. What does this mean for you? Everlasting life - the fullness of you as Love’s evidence. ! The completeness of you as Love’s design! This means that every moment of your life you are living, moving, loving, resting, and producing all the good that God gives, does and is.
READING of THIS MOMENT of our LIVING with Ron Stevens
Poems THIS MOMENT OF YOUR LIVING By Godfrey John From the April 1977 issue of The Christian Science Journal
You're alive—not merely existing. You are: you're not trying to be. Discover the life of the moment—this moment of your living.
Not You
Not you—as an amalgam of happenings, you-as-you-were a decade, a moment, ago: to ask What was I? is to be blind to the fact of presence. Man is not a chronology. Not you as a mosaic of hopes and fears: to ask What will I be? is to stop discovering. Not you content with a status quo: a cup of years spilling satisfaction over the hour. Not even you-as-you-becoming--
But You Being
You spiritually. You in the action of being you where being is the emanation of I am. "I AM hath sent me unto you": Being, God, impels man, breathes through him Love's incentives. Soul's expression now, you go as His fragrance in every place.
This is your felt unity with Him. Moment by moment.
Soul plants pure desires along your days. The innocence of what you are flares through the guilt of what you are not. Like cyclamen in the winter sun: not withholding, not seeking to hold—but giving out help simply by being what it is—moment by moment.
You Timelessly
Not you in the moment. But this moment of you—brilliantly, immaculately. Knowing is being. Infinitely. Mind's allness, Mind's oneness never stops being known. As man-idea, woman-idea—one idea—in God's thought, you are instantly understood, always being known; you have Soul's mobility within this hourless knowing: the dance fulfilling the dancer without end, as beauty in the unspoken, as rhythm in what is still.
Discovering
To ask Who am I? is to be irrelevant. To ask What am I? is to be blind to substance, to the isness of Spirit where you are.
Ask, How am I being?
Man is what he's being—Love's pure idea—birthlessly real.
Love's meaning is your meaning at each moment of new awakening— at the precision-timing of Principle. Here you are learning to be what you are. Beautifully. Brilliantly. Preciously. Agelessly. Mightily. Deathlessly. Yes, as a psalm spills over you. Yes, in this fond discovering of you. You are what you are because I am that I am. Now.
Moment by moment by moment by moment
Godfrey John
SEGUE–How can we best LIVE FOR ALL MANKIND?
First by loving God. We love God because he first loved us.
Love is constantly creating, always effective, always being expressed by you.
Love does stuff, and so do you.
Infinite LOVE + Her Infinite Manifestation=GOD LOVES US
INTRO
I am always profoundly and humbly grateful for these meetings of heroic hearts—you who are all seeking to be a healing force in the world. A friend of mine has shared that every morning, she prays, takes the world up in her arms, and tells it not to be afraid. That is what we are all working to do
These meetings are a part of the ongoing unfolding of good . Unfolding. The process by which something unfolds or becomes revealed. “Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness.” (SH246:25). And this Association has gathered a lot of what we have learned since we were together last year.
I’m so deeply grateful for your work. We have taken a pause to refresh and renew our commitment to be that healing force and join with hundreds of other associations, with tender practicality and relevance, that movement of thought that must push on the ages.
Know that you are in your right place. All whom you love are in their right place. We can put aside any strain or stress and leave it all as we take in this nourishing day
So we begin…….
“All is infinite Mind or LOVE and its infinite manifestation” declares the scientific statement of being. So there we start. We are starting with God as LOVE. The highest holiest, breathtakingly tenderest, and most supreme idea of absolute, permanent, fundamental and the first and original LOVE.
In Psalm 42: 2, we read “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: …” “Living God” represents the divine source of life. Jeremiah records God referring to Himself as “the fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13).
To know God, we start with the absolute. “The starting point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind—that God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle.”(Science and Health, p. 275:6)
1 - Now let’s look at LOVE.
How many times do we say things like …..
We love having friends over.
And that movie, I just loved that movie!
(picking up a phone) OK, hun, I’ll see you later. Love you.
Love is a word we use so often. So when John writes in the Bible “God is Love.” It makes us stop and pause. God is LOVE.
God is Love. And God is infinite. So then Love is infinite!
“... Science reveals infinity and the fatherhood and motherhood of Love. Human capacity is slow to discern and to grasp God’s creation and the divine power and presence which go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals can never know the infinite until they throw off the old man and reach the spiritual image and likeness. What can fathom infinity!” (Science and Health, p. 519:10–17 Science)
And what can fathom infinite LOVE?
Here we will measure, expand and more deeply understand infinite Love as the formative power behind all unity, beauty, and the articulation of inspiration, the new birth, of decency, dignity and delight and of goodness, gladness and grace.
“Man reflects infinity, and this reflection is the true idea of God.” (SH, p. 258:11)
LOVE is the motive power behind all we effectively do as we each reflect the infinite ocean of Love - which is described in beautiful detail in Matthew Henry's commentary on 1 Corinthians 13, often referred to as the "Love Chapter," which emphasizes the importance of love as the greatest of Christian virtues. Here’s a summary of his key points: SLIDE 3
Or you can open your Bible
- The Superiority of Love (Verses 1-3):
- Henry emphasizes that even the most extraordinary spiritual gifts and abilities are worthless without love. He notes that eloquence, knowledge, faith, and even acts of charity or sacrifice are meaningless if they are not motivated by love.
- Henry emphasizes that even the most extraordinary spiritual gifts and abilities are worthless without love. He notes that eloquence, knowledge, faith, and even acts of charity or sacrifice are meaningless if they are not motivated by love.
- The Characteristics of Love (Verses 4-7):
- Henry describes the attributes of love, highlighting its patience, kindness, and humility. Love is not envious, boastful, proud, rude, self-seeking, easily angered, or resentful. It rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
- He emphasizes that these characteristics are active and practical expressions of love, which should be evident in the life of a believer.
- Henry describes the attributes of love, highlighting its patience, kindness, and humility. Love is not envious, boastful, proud, rude, self-seeking, easily angered, or resentful. It rejoices in truth, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.
- The Permanence of Love (Verses 8-13):
- Henry contrasts the temporary nature of spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues, and knowledge with the eternal nature of love. He explains that these gifts are partial and will pass away when perfection comes, which he interprets as the state of complete understanding in the presence of God.
- He concludes that faith, hope, and love are the three enduring virtues, but the greatest of these is love. Love is supreme because it is the only one that continues into eternity; faith ripens and hope blossoms into LOVE.
- Henry contrasts the temporary nature of spiritual gifts like prophecy, tongues, and knowledge with the eternal nature of love. He explains that these gifts are partial and will pass away when perfection comes, which he interprets as the state of complete understanding in the presence of God.
2 - THE ORIGIN AND ONLINESS OF LOVE
¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
Jesus makes this momentous announcement to Nicodemus, the Pharisee who sought him out at night. In this interchange, the Master challenges this Jewish leader to look beyond the flesh to Spirit (see vv. 1–8). God’s giving of His Son….is shown as the ultimate demonstration of divine Love to the world.
God sent his son:
- “to preach good news to the poor....to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.....” (Luke 4:18-19).
- For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.(John 3:17)
- Jesus said: ... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.(John 10:10 I)
In short, God so loved us that He showed us that the CHRIST is among us. The Christ, the divine manifestation of God, came to show us what a child of God - the son of God looks like. We are heirs of the one God and the everlasting life we now have—is expressed in an abundant life—in freedom, recovery, and release.
Let’s break this down SLIDE 4
¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
( much information from Ellicot’s Commentary for English Readers
God so loved the world.--This is the revelation of the nature of God, the foundation of our love for God and man.
(This is echoed in I John 4 Expanded Bible: Love originates from God
7 ·He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. 10 This is what real love is: It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us.
It is not us trying to muster up a feeling for God, trying to get to God as if God were afar off, But real LOVE is God’s pure, continuous, overflowing love graciously and eternally pouring over us and through us.
LOVE agapaó: the highest - spiritual love
World kosmos: order, the world
Usage: the world, universe; worldly affairs; the inhabitants of the world; adornment.
Gave - Offered; put; placed
His only begotten Son.--From the Bible Lens: Only begotten is translated from the Greek adjective monogenēs. Originally meaning singular or one of a kind, it came to signify only. In the Greek version of Hebrew Scripture, monogenēs can indicate something that is precious because it is unique.
Believeth in.--Better, believeth upon. Casts his whole being on him
Everlasting life.--Better, as the same Greek word is rendered in the previous verse, eternal life. It is of frequent use in this Gospel (seventeen times), and always used in reference to life.
From other translations:
Phillips For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that every one who believes in him shall not be lost, but should have eternal life. You must understand that God has not sent his Son into the world to pass sentence upon it, but to save it—through him.
3 - LOVE from PRIMARY CLASS
Immortal and universal, Love is mentioned 366 times in SH
LOVE is active in correcting:
- Love, whose design it is to reform the sinner[14];
- Love is the liberator[15]
- Perfect Love casts out fear.[16]
- In short, Love does stuff.
- Love is the fulfilling of the law[17]
- The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.Zephaniah 3:17
- ... Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.(Isaiah 43:1 Fear)
Love is used exclusively in Science and Health with Truth many times in reference to Jesus and in giving instructions how to heal. For example -
- First in the list of Christian duties, he taught his followers the healing power of Truth and Love.[20]
- ”The irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love.”(Science and Health, p. 584:1)
So Love actively corrects, instructs, and fulfills, but did you know that LOVE yearns? This comes up in the biography of Mary Baker Eddy in her involvement with the young artist, James F. Gilman re: the drawings for Christ and Christmas (Years of Authority, Peel, p. 45):
On one occasion as they discussed the details of the design for an illustration of a Christian Science healing—(drawn as) a woman, vaguely suggestive of Mrs. Eddy, raising a man from a sickbed—Gilman held forth on the “most spiritually appropriate disposition” 37 of the woman’s hands and arms:. Gilman, the artist, tried to get across a sense of perfectionism in his drawing to which Mary Baker Eddy protested. She said: “Yes, but Love yearns.”
Divine Love yearns
This is illustrated beautifully in Luke 15:20-32 (The Parable of the Prodigal Son):
- "So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him."
- And to the other son “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.”
- This parable, often seen as illustrating God's love, shows a father eagerly awaiting the return of his lost child, and comforting the other son, filled with compassion and joy for both.
- "The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: 'Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.'"
This verse reflects God's enduring love and desire for a close relationship with His people.
- "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!"
This verse emphasizes God's yearning to extend grace and compassion to His people.
Here is another refreshing aspect of Love – Love is always there – waiting to bless
- The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. (Psalms 34:18)
- He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. (Psalms 147:3)
- And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. (Daniel 10:19)
And we can answer to this outpouring of living Love:
- ¶ Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. ...(Habakkuk 1:12 (to 1st .))
- And sing! That we may know how Love divine / Forever waits to bless.(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 269:3)
4 - LOVE ITSELF and FATHER LOVE and MOTHER LOVE
Omnipotence and ever presence of divine Love fill the kingdom of heaven – which includes the Golden rule that neutralizes division. Love unites and brings together a diverse humanity in which the Golden Rule is practiced and all are included at whatever stage they are; there is no judgment, no coercion, and no polarization. Love’s authority is enforced by the law of harmony and the law of progress that ensure one’s freedoms and love for others are aligned.
- LOVE
- “The great miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man. “ (Science and Health, p. 560:11–15)
- God's love is not defined by gender ( a mental concept) but can be understood through our reflection (male and female created He them) of the masculine and feminine qualities
- “The great miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man. “ (Science and Health, p. 560:11–15)
- OUR FATHER-MOTHER GOD
- Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious, (Science and Health, p. 16:27 Our)
- VIII. Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation. As the apostle expressed it in words which he quoted with approbation from a classic poet: “For we are also His offspring.” (Science and Health, p. 332:4)
- Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God. (Science and Health, p. 516:21)
- God as Father Love
- God as Father implies strength, power, mercy, justice, wisdom.
- FATHER. Eternal Life; the one Mind; the divine Principle, commonly called God.(Science and Health, p. 586:9)
- (From https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/2cc1f5vw25i?s=copylink) Such Father-love reflected in us has tenderness in its strength, patience in its justice, fairness and constancy in its mercy.
- This kind of love, we might say, taking our cue from Paul in 1 Cor 13, suffers rebuffs and remains kind;
- does not vaunt itself,
- is not puffed up with its own goodness.
- It does not behave itself with any arrogance.
- It is not easily provoked. It rejoices to see every sinner saved.
- does not vaunt itself,
- The Principle of Love corrects and governs man - but does not accommodate a single element of error.
- God as Father implies strength, power, mercy, justice, wisdom.
- God as Mother - Love
- SH 592:16 MOTHER. God; divine and eternal Principle; Life, Truth, and Love.
- (from https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/2cc1f5vw25i?s=copylink) Mother-love is reflected by us through purity, meekness, gentleness, compassion, courtesy, and forbearance. Such love yearns to relieve suffering. It encourages the tender newcomer or infant in Science and earnestly seeks the one that is lost or confused to bring him back into the fold.
- This love—to remember Paul again— bears all things with equanimity and confidence. It has boundless confidence that all things will work out harmoniously. It stands strong and endures and never gets tired. It does not get discouraged nor cease to be kind.
- SH 60:6 “ A mother’s affection cannot be weaned from her child, because the mother-love includes purity and constancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal affection lives on under whatever difficulties.”
- SH 367:3 “The tender word and Christian encouragement …..(that comes from) legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love.”
- SH 592:16 MOTHER. God; divine and eternal Principle; Life, Truth, and Love.
Maria Louise Baum (1867-1941) is probably best known for writing the words to seven Christian Science hymns, including the hymn "Like as a Mother." She was also the principal author of the Hymnal Notes included in the Concordance to the Christian Science Hymnal.
A first cousin of journalist and Wonderful Wizard of Oz author Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919), she was herself an early journalist for The Christian Science Monitor, as well as an ardent advocate for Mary Baker Eddy’s teachings and legacy.
One day, before she was a serious student of Christian Science, Baum was in great emotional and physical anguish. She found sudden healing after she “‘wrestled in prayer.’” Recalling this event from the late 1890s, she wrote, “I realized the presence of God a thousand times more clearly than I had ever felt a human presence.” As time went on, she began relating that transformative experience to the teachings of Christian Science.1
Baum became a member of The Mother Church in 1900 and went on to make some notable contributions to the Christian Science movement over four decades.
Hymn. 174:1–3
Like as a mother, God comforteth His children; / Comfort is calm, that bids all tumult cease; / Comfort is hope and courage for endeavor, / Comfort is love, whose home abides in peace. /
Love is true solace and giveth joy for sorrow,— / O, in that light, all earthly loss is gain; / Joy must endure, Love’s giving is forever; / Life is of God, whose radiance cannot wane. /
O holy presence, that stills all our demanding, / O love of God, that needs but to be known! / Heaven is at hand, when thy pure touch persuades us, / Comfort of God, that seeks and finds His own.
5- OCEANS OF LOVE - being immersed in LOVE
LOVE as the ocean - the first time I heard this idea it was in a video clip of children from the School of Africa in Kenya singing it:
“God’s love is like the ocean - the ocean big and wide”
We cannot escape LOVE
- SH 6:17-18 “God is Love." More than this we cannot ask,higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go.
- It is the ultimate and singular definition of who we are and why we are—thus giving us our purpose – to love.
At times, we may feel like fish in the sea, crying to find the ocean. And yet, here we are, working out our reason for living, which is immersed in LOVE.
Mrs. Eddy saw her reason for living and defined her work as she wrote in My. 202:23–25
“My work is reflected light, — a drop from His ocean of love, from the underived glory, the divine Esse” (My. 202:23–25)
And as we work out the metaphysics of Love, we experience a spiritual baptism. This baptism is described here in Mis. 205:13–22
“The baptism of Spirit, or final immersion of human consciousness in the infinite ocean of Love, is the last scene in corporeal sense. This omnipotent act drops the curtain on material man and mortality. After this, man’s identity or consciousness reflects only Spirit, good, whose visible being is invisible to the physical senses: eye hath not seen it, inasmuch as it is the disembodied individual Spirit-substance and consciousness termed in Christian metaphysics the ideal man — forever permeated with eternal life, holiness, heaven.
In Mis. Writings - we have a full statement on LOVE (249:28; 250:14)
“What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the underived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the alone God, is Love. ...
“Love is not something put upon a shelf, to be taken down on rare occasions with sugar tongs and laid on a rose-leaf. I make strong demands on love, call for active witnesses to prove it, and noble sacrifices and grand achievements as its results.
“Unless these appear, I cast aside the word as a sham and counterfeit, having no ring of the true metal. Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or goodness without activity and power.
And as we wake up and work out the metaphysics of divine Love, we gain strength and a confident peace - born of overcoming obstacles that wring out a true and tried mental conviction. This strength is described here:
“This strength is like the ocean, able to carry navies, yet yielding to the touch of a finger. This peace is spiritual; never selfish, stony, nor stormy, but generous, reliable, helpful, and always at hand.” My. 121:9
6 - HEALING AND LOVE
From WKMBE vol 1 p. 296) “In a discussion with her students, Mrs. Eddy asked them: What is the best way to do instantaneous healing?” Many arose. Some said, “Realize the ever-presence of good”; others, “Deny the claims of evil.” There were many answers, but when they had finished, she said, as I remember: “I will tell you the way to do it. It is to love! Just live love—be it—love, love, love. Do not know anything but Love. Be all love. There is nothing else. That will do the work. It will heal everything; it will raise the dead. Be nothing but love.”
Love brings healingThe true badge of a Christian is the joy and unselfed love s/he expresses. We might ask: "Why is love the essential quality in healing?"
- We all come from LOVE
- Love unites our hearts to divine law and thus nurtures right motives and action.
- Love stills all fear and strife with its pacifying influence.
- Love reaches the patient and causes him to respond as nothing else can .
STORY!! Feeling loved and worthy - (See https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1p5chcdtmbi?s=copylink)
Here is an inspiring story from the Sentinel of a young mother who worked on her understanding of Love in this way.
She writes: “I could have been the poster child for Overachievers Anonymous. Our first child was two and a half years old, and I was pregnant with our second. I was working full time, co-conducting services at my Christian Science branch church, weighing a major decision regarding relocation, and my husband was traveling a lot. I wanted to do everything right. I worked hard to fulfill these different roles—emphasis on the “I.” I put the responsibility squarely on my shoulders. But trying so hard to be right and taking on so much brought me to the breaking point. I feared that a single misstep would send everything tumbling down.
One night, feeling exhausted, I reached out to God. I don’t remember the specifics of how I prayed, but I’d gotten to the low point of berating myself for not knowing how to pray better. (Otherwise, I wouldn’t have all these issues, would I?) I got a direct response. And it surprised and humbled me. With no words, I felt heard and approved of and dearly loved.
It was as if an iron hand in a velvet glove came into my thought and swept away the cobwebs of false responsibility, worry, doubt, and anxiety. A comforting wave of assurance rolled over me. I knew I was loved. God approved of me—not because of what I was doing humanly, but because I am His loved child. God understood everything. And all was well.
That was it—that message was a direct hit to the heart of the beast of anxiety. The thunder of the Truth came in with the gentleness of Love.
And then I felt a calm joy, and a rested confidence. God loves me! God knows me and approves of me! I simply wept with the relief of it all and ended up laughing. I accepted the fact that I did know how to pray; I did know how to listen to God. I accepted God and God’s love for me. I realized that God and I have a wonderful understanding of one another, and an inseparable relationship!
Each situation I was involved in was resolved in its own time: the baby, the potential move, the church services, and the rest. All was well. All is well. And, as the hymn says, all must be well (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 350, Mary Peters).
Years later I came across this correspondence written by Mary Baker Eddy from the collections of The Mary Baker Eddy Library. SLIDE 5 It fit this story perfectly: “You are not alone. Love is with you watching tenderly over you by day and night; and this Love will not leave you but will sustain you and remember all thy tears, and will answer thy prayers” (L12888, Letter to Caroline Frame, November 5, 1903, © The Mary Baker Eddy Collection).
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Such reassurance!! “Fear not” and “Be of good comfort” are common reassurances from the Master. For example, he speaks to his fearful disciples as he walks on the water and to the woman who touched his hem (see Mark 6:50; Luke 8:48). And he answers the disciples’ question about things to come, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
7 - “OUR closeness to God is our oneness with God – Admit it!
As water is to wet
As sugar is to sweet
As salt is to salty ………………..so is our oneness with God as we are the defining evidence of each quality of God.
We are the evidence of the infinitude of God. All is infinite God and its infinite manifestation. We are each needed so that God can be fully known. Thank you Amy for sharing that recently! Repeat - We are each needed so that God can be fully known.
It reminds me of this story you may have heard through the years:
‘An elementary school teacher was giving a drawing class to a group of six-year-old children. At the back of the classroom sat a little girl who for more than twenty minutes, sat with her arms curled around her paper, totally absorbed in what she was doing. The teacher eventually asked the girl what she was drawing. Without looking up, the girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” Surprised, the teacher said, “But nobody knows what God looks like.” The girl said, “They will in a minute.” – Robinson, K. (2009)
We can all know what God “looks like” – to have a familiarity so strong that we can talk with God as one might talk with a friend, as Moses did. To “... / Know in God the perfect Friend; …” as it says in the Christian Science Hymnal, No. 263:3.
Yeaars ago friends from around the country were involved in a delightfully fun haiku contest to create haikus about our oneness with God Here are some: SLIDE 6
A favorite!! from Isobel:
Oh cuddle divine
arms a big as outer space
trigger sweet release
written with thoughts of a dear friend
rest assured, you are safe,
curled in the palm of Her hand
protected, alert
for my sons
God's love for you and me
infinite and intimate
bigger than the sky
for busy people
satisfying rest
loon calls fill the evening
night ending day. peace.
morning haiku
calm presence of Love
strengthens my confidence: God
underlines my day
So can we admit it? Can we admit our closeness to God? That we are one with God and that God loves us?
“The admission to one’s self that man is God’s own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This conviction shuts the door on death, and opens it wide towards immortality. “(Science and Health, p. 90:24–27)
This infinite idea ( science of being) that we are mastering “... confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace. (Science and Health, p. 265:12 confers)
Example: One man called me up struggling with some serious self-doubt. He was known for his intelligence and strategic thought. He feared he lacked being loving and gentle. We talked about his God-given qualities of exactness and effectiveness. As those came from God and reflected Principle and Truth, these qualities were synonymous with Love and Soul. You can’t express your God-given intelligence and think it lacks another God-given quality. He didn’t need to change who he was, but to drop whatever wasn’t Godlike and to see more fully the person God created: He just needed to be more of what God already created him to be. He simply needed to admit it!. To see that the qualities of intelligence naturally included love and gentleness. Our prayerful work gave him the confidence needed.
The practice of Christian Science reveals our closeness to God. Understanding this Science of Being“...
- (It) enhances their endurance and mental powers,
- enlarges their perception of character,
- gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness
- and an ability to exceed their ordinary capacity.
- becomes more elastic,
- is capable of greater endurance,
- escapes somewhat from itself,
- and requires less repose.
- develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man.
- It extends the atmosphere of thought,
- giving mortals access to broader and higher realms.
- It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity.”(Science and Health, p. 128:8 Christian)
Example of this:
A woman was competing at the national and international levels in her sport. During one set of matches, she felt burdened and anxious about some surging claims of aging that flared up and was concerned because was playing in a highly competitive match outdoors with major heat advisories and warnings.
We talked about thought shifting from the material claims to praising God.
At first this seemed like just one more thing she had to do. But thought did shift. She saw that even with these challenges, glorifying God did not mean an additional thing she needed to do. When she saw that glorifying God was to be the active, full and joyous child of God - to be fully herself.
Her prayerful efforts were not about becoming a different person, but being more of who she really was and being fully present, authentic, and true .
This gave her greater endurance and the ability to supercharge efforts – even playing in extreme heat.
Her focus was on God and she gave whole-hearted attention to the perfection of being demonstrated in calculated movement, undistracted attention , joyous spontaneity in response and exacting delivery.
ANd thenshe went on to win bronze, silver and gold in various competitions.
That is what accepting our oneness God, good means. Go deeper-wider-broader-higher - into your expression of God - accept yourself as God’s own creation – be more of yourself!
¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) This love is happening every moment. What does this mean for you? Everlasting life - the fullness of you as Love’s evidence. ! The completeness of you as Love’s design! This means that every moment of your life you are living, moving, loving, resting, and producing all the good that God gives, does and is.
READING of THIS MOMENT of our LIVING with Ron Stevens
Poems THIS MOMENT OF YOUR LIVING By Godfrey John From the April 1977 issue of The Christian Science Journal
You're alive—not merely existing. You are: you're not trying to be. Discover the life of the moment—this moment of your living.
Not You
Not you—as an amalgam of happenings, you-as-you-were a decade, a moment, ago: to ask What was I? is to be blind to the fact of presence. Man is not a chronology. Not you as a mosaic of hopes and fears: to ask What will I be? is to stop discovering. Not you content with a status quo: a cup of years spilling satisfaction over the hour. Not even you-as-you-becoming--
But You Being
You spiritually. You in the action of being you where being is the emanation of I am. "I AM hath sent me unto you": Being, God, impels man, breathes through him Love's incentives. Soul's expression now, you go as His fragrance in every place.
This is your felt unity with Him. Moment by moment.
Soul plants pure desires along your days. The innocence of what you are flares through the guilt of what you are not. Like cyclamen in the winter sun: not withholding, not seeking to hold—but giving out help simply by being what it is—moment by moment.
You Timelessly
Not you in the moment. But this moment of you—brilliantly, immaculately. Knowing is being. Infinitely. Mind's allness, Mind's oneness never stops being known. As man-idea, woman-idea—one idea—in God's thought, you are instantly understood, always being known; you have Soul's mobility within this hourless knowing: the dance fulfilling the dancer without end, as beauty in the unspoken, as rhythm in what is still.
Discovering
To ask Who am I? is to be irrelevant. To ask What am I? is to be blind to substance, to the isness of Spirit where you are.
Ask, How am I being?
Man is what he's being—Love's pure idea—birthlessly real.
Love's meaning is your meaning at each moment of new awakening— at the precision-timing of Principle. Here you are learning to be what you are. Beautifully. Brilliantly. Preciously. Agelessly. Mightily. Deathlessly. Yes, as a psalm spills over you. Yes, in this fond discovering of you. You are what you are because I am that I am. Now.
Moment by moment by moment by moment
Godfrey John
SEGUE–How can we best LIVE FOR ALL MANKIND?
First by loving God. We love God because he first loved us.
Love is constantly creating, always effective, always being expressed by you.
Love does stuff, and so do you.
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