Gods_Witnesses( ) God's Witnesses Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Transcription

1 1 of 7 2/18/ :20 PM Gods_Witnesses( ) God's Witnesses Wednesday, February 12, 2014 The Bible Isa. 43: Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. Ex. 20:1, 3- (to :), 16 AND God spake all these words, saying, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Ex. 23:1 (to :), 3-, 7 THOU shalt not raise a false report: Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause. If thou meet thine enemy s ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again. If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and wouldest forbear to help him, thou shalt surely help with him. Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked. Prov. 12: He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness: but a false witness deceit There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health. The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellors of peace is joy.

2 2 of 7 2/18/ :20 PM There shall no evil happen to the just: but the wicked shall be filled with mischief. Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight. Prov. 14:, 2, 26 A faithful witness will not lie: but a false witness will utter lies A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies. In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge. Prov. 24:28, Be not a witness against thy neighbour without cause; and deceive not with thy lips. 29 Say not, I will do so to him as he hath done to me: I will render to the man according to his work. John 1:6-9, 11-16, 18 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. Matt. 4:23 23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness

3 3 of 7 2/18/ :20 PM and all manner of disease among the people. Matt. :2, 21, 22 (to 1st :), 23-2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Matt. 7: JUDGE not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother s eye. Rom. 8:14-16 as as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy SH 476:32-4 Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal 477:1 man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour 3 saw God s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.

4 4 of 7 2/18/ :20 PM SH 62: Our false views of life hide eternal harmony, 30 and produce the ills of which we complain. SH 264:13-1, As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were 1 invisible, will become visible. Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being. 21 Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit. SH 63: In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is 6 not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor does he pass through material conditions prior 9 to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the law of his being. SH 248:8-32 Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal 9 freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each day brings to a nearer tomb. 12 The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in order to perfect his conception. We are all sculptors, working at various forms, moulding and chiseling thought. What is the model before mortal 1 mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering? Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you reproducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious 18 sculptors and hideous forms. Do you not hear from all mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding 21 it before your gaze continually. The result is that you are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your lifework, and adopt into your experience the angular outline 24 and deformity of matter models. To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect 27 models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, 30 health, holiness, love the kingdom of heaven reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear. Self-completeness Spiritual origin Mental sculpture Perfect models

5 of 7 2/18/ :20 PM SH 261:27 Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a 30 skyward flight. SH 298:4-10, 13-1 As a cloud hides the sun it cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the 6 voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot destroy Science armed with faith, hope, and fruition. What is termed material sense can report only a mortal temporary sense of things, whereas spiritual sense can 9 bear witness only to Truth. Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality. 1 SH 122:1 122:1 The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord, 3 assigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and death; but the great facts of Life, rightly understood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false 6 witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, the actual reign of harmony on earth. The material senses reversal of the Science of Soul was practically exposed nineteen hundred years ago by the demonstrations of Jesus; 9 yet these so-called senses still make mortal mind tributary to mortal body, and ordain certain sections of matter, such 12 as brain and nerves, as the seats of pain and pleasure, from which matter reports to this so-called mind its status of happiness or misery. Truth s witness Opposing testimony SH 121:22-24 Science shows appearances often to be erroneous, and corrects these errors by the simple 24 rule that the greater controls the lesser. SH 134:4 12 The word martyr, from the Greek, means witness; but those who testified for Truth were so often persecuted 6 unto death, that at length the word martyr was narrowed in its significance and so has come always to mean one who suffers for his convictions. 9 The new faith in the Christ, Truth, so roused the hatred of the opponents of Christianity, that the followers of Testimony of martyrs

6 6 of 7 2/18/ :20 PM Christ were burned, crucified, and otherwise persecuted; and so it came about that human rights were hallowed by the gallows and the cross. SH 66:6-7, 9-10, 14 6 Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, a broken reed, which pierces the heart. Sorrow is salutary. Through great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine 1 goodness and love. SH 61:29-3 In the first chapter 30 of the Fourth Gospel it is written, There was a man sent from God... to bear witness of that Light. John the Baptist prophesied the coming of the immaculate Jesus, and John saw in those days the spiritual 62:1 idea as the Messiah, who would baptize with the Holy 3 Ghost, divine Science. SH 149:31 To-day there is hardly a city, village, or hamlet, in which are not to 10:1 be found living witnesses and monuments to the virtue and power of Truth, as applied through this Christian 3 system of healing disease. SH 246:27 27 Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into 30 loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight. Spiritual idea revealed True life eternal SH 262:14 These clearer, higher views inspire the Godlike man to reach the absolute centre and circumference 1 of his being. SH 248:3-3 Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less than beautiful. SH 98: One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity. This exalted view, obtained and retained when the Sci- Love s endowment

7 7 of 7 2/18/ :20 PM ence of being is understood, would bridge over with life discerned spiritually the interval of death, and man would be in the full consciousness of his immortality and eternal harmony, where sin, sickness, and death are unknown. SH 411:10 If Spirit or the power of divine Love bear witness to the truth, this is the ultimatum, the scientific 12 way, and the healing is instantaneous. Printed from CONCORD: A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE STUDY RESOURCE, published by The Christian Science Board of Directors in Boston, MA, USA. This content may be under copyright and may not be further reproduced or distributed, unless permitted under the Concord User License Agreement.