First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w171122
Food
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
The Bible
  1. II Cor. 9:8, 10, 11

    8And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

    ... 10Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;)

    11Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.

  2. Ps. 128:1-4

    1Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways.

    2For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.

    3Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.

    4Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.

  3. Deut. 10:17, 18

    17For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward:

    18He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.

  4. Ex. 16:11-16, 22-24, 30, 31

    11And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

    12I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.

    13And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.

    14And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground.

    15And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.

    16This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.

    22And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

    23And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

    24And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.

    30So the people rested on the seventh day.

    31And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

  5. Lev. 25:1-7

    1And the Lord spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,

    2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord.

    3Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;

    4But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

    5That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.

    6And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee.

    7And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.

  6. II Kings 4:38 (to ;), 42-44

    38And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land;

    42And there came a man from Baal–shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.

    43And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.

    44So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.

  7. Matt. 15:10-13

    10And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:

    11Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

    12Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?

    13But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

  8. Matt. 6:25

    25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

  9. John 21:4, 5, 11-13

    4But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.

    5Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.

    ... 11Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land full of great fishes, an hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, yet was not the net broken.

    12Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.

    13Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.


Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy

  1. SH 388:20-21

    If food was prepared 21by Jesus for his disciples, it cannot destroy life.

  2. SH 389:13

        Our dietetic theories first admit that food sustains the life of man, and then discuss the certainty that food can 15Scripture rebukeskill man. This false reasoning is rebuked in Scripture by the metaphors about the fount and stream, the tree and its fruit, and the kingdom di-18vided against itself. If God has, as prevalent theories maintain, instituted laws that food shall support human life, He cannot annul these regulations by an opposite 21law that food shall be inimical to existence.

  3. SH 221:1-3 (np)

    221:1    I knew a person who when quite a child adopted the Graham system to cure dyspepsia. For many years, he 3Starvation and dyspepsiaate only bread and vegetables, and drank noth-ing but water. His dyspepsia increasing, he decided that his diet should be more rigid, and 6thereafter he partook of but one meal in twenty-four hours, this meal consisting of only a thin slice of bread without water. His physician also recommended that 9he should not wet his parched throat until three hours after eating. He passed many weary years in hunger and weakness, almost in starvation, and finally made up 12his mind to die, having exhausted the skill of the doctors, who kindly informed him that death was indeed his only alternative. At this point Christian Science saved him, 15and he is now in perfect health without a vestige of the old complaint.

        He learned that suffering and disease were the self-18imposed beliefs of mortals, and not the facts of being; that God never decreed disease, — never ordained a law that fasting should be a means of health. Hence semi-21starvation is not acceptable to wisdom, and it is equally far from Science, in which being is sustained by God, Mind. These truths, opening his eyes, relieved his stomach, and 24he ate without suffering, “giving God thanks;” but he never enjoyed his food as he had imagined he would when, still the slave of matter, he thought of the flesh-27pots of Egypt, feeling childhood’s hunger and undisci-plined by self-denial and divine Science.

        This new-born understanding, that neither food nor 30Mind and stomachthe stomach, without the consent of mortal mind, can make one suffer, brings with it an-other lesson, — that gluttony is a sensual illusion, and 222 222:1that this phantasm of mortal mind disappears as we better apprehend our spiritual existence and ascend the ladder 3of life.

  4. SH 254:8

    To stop eating, drinking, or being 9clothed materially before the spiritual facts of existence are gained step by step, is not legitimate. When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs 12our path. Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spir-itual perfection slowly; but to begin aright and to con-tinue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of 15being, is doing much.

  5. SH 388:12-20, 31-5

    12    Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutri-ment of life, and there follows the necessity for another Sustenance spiritualadmission in the opposite direction, — that 15food has power to destroy Life, God, through a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of all material 18health-theories. They are self-contradictory and self-de-structive, constituting a “kingdom divided against itself,” which is “brought to desolation.”

        If mortals think that food disturbs the harmonious functions of mind and body, either the food or this thought 389 389:1must be dispensed with, for the penalty is coupled with the belief. Which shall it be? If this decision be left 3Diet and digestionto Christian Science, it will be given in behalf of the control of Mind over this belief and every erroneous belief, or material condition.

  6. SH 544:7-10

    6Birth, decay, and death arise from the material sense of things, not from the spiritual, for in 9the latter Life consisteth not of the things which a man eateth.

  7. SH 206:15-18

    15    In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes, — Spirit, not matter, being the 18source of supply.

  8. SH 530:5

        In divine Science, man is sustained by God, the divine 6Principle of being. The earth, at God’s command, brings Divine providenceforth food for man’s use. Knowing this, Jesus once said, “Take no thought for your life, 9what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink,” — presuming not on the prerogative of his creator, but recognizing God, the Father and Mother of all, as able to feed and clothe 12man as He doth the lilies.


From the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 201: “O do not bar your mind”
Hymn 479: “Glorious things of you are spoken”
Hymn 327: “The God who made both heaven and earth”