Sunday, January 5th, 2025 Roundtable
Meet Every Problem as its Master
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: God
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayer
Goodness never fails to receive its reward, for goodness makes life a blessing. As an active portion of one stupendous whole, goodness identifies man with universal good. Thus may each member of this church rise above the oft-repeated inquiry, What am I? to the scientific response: I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing.
from Miscellany, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 165
God alone governs all, is All-in-all. God is our constant Guide and Guardian. No mortal thought, known or unknown, seen or unseen, can interfere with the manifestation of Love’s presence with us. The weather manifests God’s government, and no evildoers can change this fact. The devils of human thought – all the powers of many minds – are powerless in Love’s presence. God is All. God is Mind.
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 65
Daily Watch
390 — WATCH that you realize in your work of healing the sick, that the absolute Truth is what does the healing. Mrs. Eddy once said, “Meet every false claim with the absolute Truth: nothing short of that will answer.” Also she said, “Strive to work from God, instead of up to God.”
If you work from the standpoint that you are absent or separated from God, and must work up to Him, how can you ever do this, since if you are absent from Him, how can you ever make the demonstration to be present with Him? The absolute Truth declares that you are now in the presence of God, united to him and reflecting His power.
The only basis of successful demonstration is that now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation. We are already in the presence of God, and victory is already established. Mrs. Eddy said to Irving Tomlinson, “I have always known that victory is as certain now as it will be a century hence.”
We do not try to work up to perfection or health. We do not use understanding to heal the sick. We use understanding to know that there is nothing to heal, since the kingdom of God is here and now — and in man. Once Mrs. Eddy asked a student how he would meet a certain condition of disease. He replied that he would try to realize some particular statement of Truth which he quoted. She said, as a shadow of disappointment passed over her face, “I hoped you would not need to realize your way into Truth, but would start there.”
Discussion points
The spot where God shines through
We are one, not two.
…perfect God and perfect man, — as the basis of thought and demonstration.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 259
“Know” and “Let” by Rhoda A. Hyman
Let go and let God.
Golden Text: Psalm 62 : 11
“God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.”
Church. The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle. The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 583
God has spoken once; twice have I heard this; that is, 1. “God has spoken it, and I have heard it, once, yea, twice. He has spoken it, and I have heard it by the light of reason, which easily infers it from the nature of the infinitely perfect Being and from his works both of creation and providence. He has spoken it, and I have heard once, yea, twice (that is, many a time), by the events that have concerned me in particular. He has spoken it and I have heard it by the light of revelation, by dreams and visions (Job 4 15), by the glorious manifestation of himself upon Mount Sinai” (to which, some think, it does especially refer), “and by the written word.” God has often told us what a great and good God he is, and we ought as often to take notice of what he has told us. Or, 2. “Though God spoke it but once, I heard it twice, heard it diligently, not only with my outward ears, but with my soul and mind.”
Matthew Henry complete commentary
6. 284 : 15-16
Can Deity be known through the material senses?
“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. “
This has been proven to me in every way. When Christian Science came to me, I was a wreck, physically, mentally, and financially; but since the reading of Science and Health turned my thought toward the light, I have found that, as far as I am willing to receive the word and live it, all comforts are supplied me. I am especially grateful for the spiritual help. I know that things which I did and thought last year I would not do or think this year, and am satisfied. Through the careful and prayerful study of Science and Health I have been lifted from sickness to health, from sorrow to peace, from lack to plenty, and, the most beautiful of all, from darkness to light. — Mrs. H. S. C., Seattle, Wash.
“A Grateful Testimony” from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 700
Mind versus Resistance by William P. McKenzie
Non-resistance to Truth is understanding.
A paraphrase from Laura Sergant’s Notes from a Class
“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” — Christ Jesus
(Matthew 7:3)
If God doesn’t know it, there’s nothing to know.
If God didn’t sow it, there’s nothing to grow.
Unless He fashion it, favor it, have pride in it,
Can reality abide in it?
If God doesn’t see it, there’s nothing to see.
If God couldn’t Be it, there’s nothing to Be.
But, if His tender love enfold it, embrace it,
Nor time, nor tide erase it.
If God didn’t plan it, it isn’t a plan.
If God couldn’t bless it, it isn’t for man!
“God made the Heav’ns and earth, and all that is therein.” “And for His glory was ev’ry man created!”
If God doesn’t know it, there’s nothing to know.
If God didn’t sow it, there’s nothing to grow.
Unless He fashion it, favor it, have pride in it,
Can reality abide in it?
If God couldn’t hear it, its never been heard.
If God didn’t say it, it isn’t “the Word.”
But, if He order it, honor it, rejoice in it,
Then, hear Truth’s voice in it!
Reality by Dorothy Chancellor Currey
Because mortal mind is kept active, must it pay the penalty in a softened brain? Who dares to say that actual Mind can be overworked? When we reach our limits of mental endurance, we conclude that intellectual labor has been carried sufficiently far; but when we realize that immortal Mind is ever active, and that spiritual energies can neither wear out nor can so-called material law trespass upon God-given powers and resources, we are able to rest in Truth, refreshed by the assurances of immortality, opposed to mortality.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 387
Strength and Freedom by M. Bettie Bell
“…this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” — Nehemiah 8:10
We don’t have to do this work, we get to do this work.
Innocence and Truth overcome guilt and error. Ever since the foundation of the world, ever since error would establish material belief, evil has tried to slay the Lamb; but Science is able to destroy this lie, called evil.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 568
Responsive Reading: II Samuel 22 : 33
33. God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.
Virtue medicine — Gratitude, Honesty, Charity, and Courage
Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty is human weakness, which forfeits divine help.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 453
God’s preparations for the sick are potions of His own qualities.
from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 268
The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged.
from Retrospection and Introspection, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 22
The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have learned from error, and man’s real existence as a child of God comes to light.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 288
God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 393