First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w190227
Spiritually-directed unfoldment, not human struggle
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
The Bible
  1. Ps. 91:1-4

    1He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

    2I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

    3Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

    4He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

  2. Gen. 26:1 2nd And, 2, 12 (to :), 14-17 3rd and, 19-22 (to :), 23-25 (to :), 26-28, 30, 31

    1And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.

    2And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of:

    12Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year an hundredfold:

    14 ... and the Philistines envied him.

    15For all the wells which his father’s servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.

    16And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we.

    17And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.

    19And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.

    20And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.

    21And they digged another well, and strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.

    22And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not:

    ... 23And he went up from thence to Beer–sheba.

    24And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake.

    25And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there:

    26Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar, and Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the chief captain of his army.

    27And Isaac said unto them, Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?

    28And they said, We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee: and we said, Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee;

    ... 30And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.

    31And they rose up betimes in the morning, and sware one to another: and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.

  3. Ex. 7:1 (to :), 2, 5, 10-12

    1And the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh:

    ... 2Thou shalt speak all that I command thee: and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.

    ... 5And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

    10And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

    11Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.

    12For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.

  4. Luke 4:14 (to :)

    14And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee:

  5. Luke 5:2-6, 8, 9, 11-13

    2And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.

    3And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.

    4Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.

    5And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.

    6And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.

    ... 8When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

    9For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken:

    ... 11And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.

    12And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

    13And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

  6. Luke 22:41, 42 not, 43

    41And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,

    42 ... not my will, but thine, be done.

    43And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

  7. Col. 3:2-4, 9 put, 10 put, 15, 16 (to ;), 17

    2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

    3For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

    4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

    9 ... put off the old man with his deeds;

    10 ... put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

    ... 15And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

    16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom;

    ... 17And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.


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

  1. SH 209:5-8

        Mind, supreme over all its formations and governing 6them all, is the central sun of its own systems of ideas, Allness of Truththe life and light of all its own vast creation; and man is tributary to divine Mind.

  2. SH 106:7

    6God has endowed man with inalien-Proper self-government able rights, among which are self-government, 9reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love.

  3. SH 279:13-8

    Spirit and matter can neither coexist nor co-operate, and one can no more create the other than 15Truth can create error, or vice versa.

        In proportion as the belief disappears that life and in-telligence are in or of matter, the immortal facts of 18being are seen, and their only idea or intelligence is in God. Spirit is reached only through the understand-ing and demonstration of eternal Life and Truth and 21Love.

        Every system of human philosophy, doctrine, and medicine is more or less infected with the pantheistic 24Pantheistic tendenciesbelief that there is mind in matter; but this belief contradicts alike revelation and right reasoning. A logical and scientific conclusion is reached 27only through the knowledge that there are not two bases of being, matter and mind, but one alone, — Mind.

    30    Pantheism, starting from a material sense of God, seeks cause in effect, Principle in its idea, and life and intelligence in matter.

    280

    280:1    In the infinitude of Mind, matter must be unknown. Symbols and elements of discord and decay are not prod -3The things of God are beautifulucts of the infinite, perfect, and eternal All. From Love and from the light and harmony which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections 6of good can come. All things beautiful and harmless are ideas of Mind. Mind creates and multiplies them, and the product must be mental.

  4. SH 145:8-13, 20

        The struggle for the recovery of invalids goes on, not 9between material methods, but between mortal minds The struggle and victoryand immortal Mind. The victory will be on the patient’s side only as immortal Mind 12 through Christ, Truth, subdues the human belief in disease.

    If there is any mystery 21in Christian healing, it is the mystery which godliness always presents to the ungodly, — the mystery always arising from ignorance of the laws of eternal and unerr-24ing Mind.

  5. SH 426:5-11

        The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less 6difficult when she has the high goal always before her Our footsteps heavenwardthoughts, than when she counts her footsteps in endeavoring to reach it. When the desti -9nation is desirable, expectation speeds our progress. The struggle for Truth makes one strong instead of weak, resting instead of wearying one.

  6. SH 536:11-26

    If man’s spiritual 12The fall of errorgravitation and attraction to one Father, in whom we “live, and move, and have our be-ing,” should be lost, and if man should be governed by 15corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead of by Soul, man would be annihilated. Created by flesh instead of by Spirit, starting from matter instead of from 18God, mortal man would be governed by himself. The blind leading the blind, both would fall.

        Passions and appetites must end in pain. They are 21“of few days, and full of trouble.” Their supposed joys are cheats. Their narrow limits belittle their gratifica-tions, and hedge about their achievements with thorns.

    24    Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material concep-tion of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the True attainmentimmortal side.

  7. SH 599:4

    Zeal. The reflected animation of Life, Truth, and Love. Blind enthusiasm; mortal will.

  8. SH 299:31

        If man were solely a creature of the material senses, he would have no eternal Principle and would be mutable 300 300:1and mortal. Human logic is awry when it attempts to draw correct spiritual conclusions regarding life from 3Old and new manmatter. Finite sense has no true apprecia-tion of infinite Principle, God, or of His infi-nite image or reflection, man. The mirage, which makes 6trees and cities seem to be where they are not, illustrates the illusion of material man, who cannot be the image of God.

  9. SH 84:30-9

    If this Science has been thoroughly learned and properly digested, we can know the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read 85 85:1the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading is the opposite of clairvoyance. It is the illumination of 3the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the ca-pacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the 6divine Mind.

        Such intuitions reveal whatever constitutes and per-petuates harmony, enabling one to do good, but not 9Value of intuitionevil.

  10. SH 254:19 the

    the human self must be evangel-ized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly 21to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material, and to work out the spiritual which determines the out-ward and actual.

  11. SH 298:13-15, 19-20

        Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, in-volves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, real-15ity. ... When the real is attained, which is announced by Science, joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat.

  12. SH 125:12-17

    12    As human thought changes from one stage to an -other of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and joy, — from fear to hope and from faith to understand-15ing, — the visible manifestation will at last be man gov-erned by Soul, not by material sense. Reflecting God’s government, man is self-governed.

  13. SH 467:13

    Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide 15him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, hav-ing that Mind which was also in Christ.

  14. SH 76:6-12, 22-26

    6    When being is understood, Life will be recognized as neither material nor finite, but as infinite, — as God, Real Life is Goduniversal good; and the belief that life, or 9mind, was ever in a finite form, or good in evil, will be destroyed. Then it will be understood that Spirit never entered matter and was therefore never 12raised from matter.

        The sinless joy, — the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness 24Immaterial pleasurewithout a single bodily pleasure or pain, — constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual.

  15. SH 283:1-6

    As mortals begin to understand Spirit, they give up the belief that there is any true existence 3apart from God.

        Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious 6Source of all life and actionaction.


From the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 396: “Ye messengers of Christ, His sovereign voice obey”
Hymn 553: “Our desire to heed God's calling Lifts us to a new design”
Hymn 437: “All my hope on God is founded; Day by day my trust is new”