First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w250115WMGC
Addressing the claims of fires out of God's control
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
The Bible (NOTE: During the meeting these citations will be read from the New Living Translation. The text displayed here is that of the King James version of the Bible.)
  1. Isa. 43:2 2nd when

    when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

  2. Dan. 3:13-20 Nebuchadnezzar, 23-28

    Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego. Then they brought these men before the king.

    14Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up?

    15Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?

    16Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

    17If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.

    18But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

    19Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego: therefore he spake, and commanded that they should heat the furnace one seven times more than it was wont to be heated.

    20And he commanded the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, and to cast them into the burning fiery furnace.

    23And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace.

    24Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.

    25He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.

    26Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace, and spake, and said, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, ye servants of the most high God, come forth, and come hither. Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, came forth of the midst of the fire.

    27And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king’s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.

    28Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed–nego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.

  3. Isa. 10:17 the (to :)

    the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame:

  4. Ex. 3:1-4, 10

    1Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

    2And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

    3And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

    4And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

    10Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

  5. Ex. 12:40, 41

    40Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.

    41And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

  6. Ex. 13:21

    21And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:

  7. Ex. 19:17, 18 (to :), 20

    17And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

    18And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire:

    ... 20And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.

  8. Ex. 20:1-3

    1And God spake all these words, saying,

    2I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

    3Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

  9. Ex. 24:15-18

    15And Moses went up into the mount, and a cloud covered the mount.

    16And the glory of the Lord abode upon mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days: and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud.

    17And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel.

    18And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

  10. Ex. 40:36-38 when

    when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys:

    37But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up.

    38For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

  11. Ps. 104:1 2nd O, 4

    O Lord my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.

    ... 4Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:


Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
  1. SH 161:5

    Holy inspiration 6has created states of mind which have been able to nullify the action of the flames, as in the Bible case of the three young Hebrew captives, cast into the Babylonian furnace; 9while an opposite mental state might produce spontaneous combustion.

  2. SH 586:13 (only, to 1st ;), 13 affliction

    Fire. Fear; ... afflic-tion purifying and elevating man.

  3. SH 586:11 (only, to .), 11 anxiety (only, to 1st ;)

    Fear.

  4. SH 151:18 (only)

    Fear never stopped being and its action.

  5. SH 532:26-27

        Fear was the first manifestation of the error of mate-27rial sense.

  6. SH 197:16 (only)

        We should master fear, instead of cultivating it.

  7. SH 22:18

        When the smoke of battle clears away, you will dis-cern the good you have done, and receive according to your deserving. Love is not hasty to deliver us from 21temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and purified.

  8. SH 192:11-15

        Erring power is a material belief, a blind miscalled force, 12the offspring of will and not of wisdom, of the mortal mind Human power a blind forceand not of the immortal. It is the headlong cataract, the devouring flame, the tempest’s 15breath.

  9. SH 329:14-17

        One should not tarry in the storm if the body is freez-15ing, nor should he remain in the devouring flames. Un -til one is able to prevent bad results, he should avoid their occasion.

  10. SH 381:8-10, 20-21

        When infringing some supposed law, you say that 9there is danger. This fear is the danger and induces the No laws of matterphysical effects.

        Think less of the enactments of mortal mind, and you 21will sooner grasp man’s God-given dominion.

  11. SH 380:15 (only), 19

        The physical effects of fear illustrate its illusion. ... Noth-ing but the power of Truth can prevent the fear of 21error, and prove man’s dominion over error.

  12. SH 454:5-9

    The understanding, 6Impotence of hateeven in a degree, of the divine All-power de-stroys fear, and plants the feet in the true path, — the path which leads to the house built without hands 9“eternal in the heavens.”

  13. SH 352:29-30

    The objects of alarm will then vanish into noth-30ingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor.

  14. SH 406:19-20 (to 1st .)

        Resist evil — error of every sort — and it will flee from you.

  15. SH 392:7-8, 22, 24-27 Stand

    Casting out evil and fear enables truth to outweigh error.

    Your decisions will mas-ter you, whichever direction they take.

    Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in Guarding the doorbodily results, you will control yourself har-27moniously.

  16. SH 410:14-17

        Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger. 15The more difficult seems the material condition to be Love casteth out fearovercome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith and the purer our love.

  17. SH 495:16-20

    Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and 18calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious — as Life eternally is — can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not.

  18. SH 310:5-6

    Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force; 6but all might is divine Mind.

  19. SH 262:30

    Divine Mind is the only cause or Principle of existence. Cause does not exist in matter, in mortal mind, or in physical forms.

  20. SH 282:23-27

        There is no inherent power in matter; for all that is 24material is a material, human, mortal thought, always governing itself erroneously.

        Truth is the intelligence of immortal Mind. Error is 27the so-called intelligence of mortal mind.

  21. SH 544:14-17

    No mortal mind has the might 15First evil suggestionor right or wisdom to create or to destroy. All is under the control of the one Mind, even God.

  22. SH 552:28

    Thus it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal 30mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when the perfect and eternal Mind is understood.

  23. SH 566:1-24

        As the children of Israel were guided triumphantly through the Red Sea, the dark ebbing and flowing tides 3Spiritual guidanceof human fear, — as they were led through the wilderness, walking wearily through the great desert of human hopes, and anticipating the promised 6joy, — so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires in their passage from sense to Soul, from a material sense of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for 9them who love God. Stately Science pauses not, but moves before them, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, leading to divine heights.

    12    If we remember the beautiful description which Sir Walter Scott puts into the mouth of Rebecca the Jewess in the story of Ivanhoe, — 15When Israel, of the Lord beloved, Out of the land of bondage came, Her fathers’ God before her moved, 18An awful guide, in smoke and flame, — we may also offer the prayer which concludes the same hymn, — 21And oh, when stoops on Judah’s path In shade and storm the frequent night, Be Thou, longsuffering, slow to wrath, 24A burning and a shining light!

  24. SH 19:29-1

        Jesus urged the commandment, “Thou shalt have no 30Jesus’ sinless careerother gods before me,” which may be ren-dered: Thou shalt have no belief of Life as mortal; thou shalt not know evil, for there is one Life, — 20 20:1even God, good.

  25. SH 171:12-13

        Mind’s control over the universe, including man, is no longer an open question, but is demonstrable Science.

From the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 123 “When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie” (verse 3)
Hymn 385 “When Israel, of the Lord beloved”
Hymn 71 “Glorious things of thee are spoken”