Theme: Deliverance
Hymn 216
From the German of Georg Neumark
O he who trusts in God's protection
And hopes in Him when fears alarm,
Is sheltered by His lovingkindness,
Delivered by His mighty arm;
If ye God's law can understand,
Ye have not builded on the sand.
O wait on Him with veneration,
Be silent in humility;
He leads you after His own counsel,
His will is done and still shall be;
All good for you His wisdom planned;
O trust in God and understand.
Readings from the Bible.
Psalms 18:46‑50
The Lord liveth; and blessed
be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. It is God that avengeth me, and subdueth the
people under me. He delivereth me from
mine enemies: yea, thou liftest me up above those that rise up against me: thou
hast delivered me from the violent man.
Therefore will I give thanks unto thee, O Lord, among the heathen, and
sing praises unto thy name. Great
deliverance giveth he to his king; and sheweth mercy to his anointed, to David,
and to his seed for evermore.
Psalms 32:7 (to 1st .)
Thou art my hiding place;
thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of
deliverance.
Psalms 34:7‑9,17‑19,22
The angel of the Lord
encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. O taste and see that the Lord is good:
blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear
him.
The righteous cry, and the
Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken
heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous:
but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.
The Lord redeemeth the soul
of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.
Psalms 107:1‑9
O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he
hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; And gathered them out of the lands,
from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary
way; they found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their
trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that
they might go to a city of habitation.
Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his
wonderful works to the children of men!
For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with
goodness.
Psalms 116:1‑9
I love the Lord, because he
hath heard my voice and my supplications.
Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him
as long as I live. The sorrows of death
compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and
sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our
God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the
simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.
Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee. For thou hast delivered my
soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of
the living.
Jeremiah 20:13
Sing unto the Lord, praise ye
the Lord: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of
evildoers.
Joel 2:32
And it shall come to pass,
that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in
mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in
the remnant whom the Lord shall call.
Matthew 6:5‑13 when
when thou prayest, thou shalt
not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues
and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say
unto you, They have their reward. But
thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy
door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in
secret shall reward thee openly. But
when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that
they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things
ye have need of, before ye ask him.
After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for
ever. Amen.
Luke 4:14‑21 Jesus
Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into
Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round
about. And he taught in their
synagogues, being glorified of all. #And
he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he
went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of
the prophet Esaias. And when he had
opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;
he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again
to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the
synagogue were fastened on him. And he
began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Colosians 1:3‑13
We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, Since we heard of your
faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints, For the
hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of
the truth of the gospel; Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and
bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and
knew the grace of God in truth: As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear
fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ; Who also declared
unto us your love in the Spirit. For
this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you,
and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all
wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto
all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the
knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power,
unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the
Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the
saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
xi:1‑21
Many imagine that the phenomena of physical
healing in Christian Science present only a phase of the action of the human
mind, which action in some unexplained way results in the cure of disease. On the contrary, Christian Science rationally
explains that all other pathological methods are the fruits of human faith in
matter,‑‑faith in the workings, not of Spirit, but of the fleshly mind which
must yield to Science.
The physical healing of Christian Science
results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before
which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear
as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to
reformation. Now, as then, these mighty
works are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are the sign of Immanuel, or "God
with us,"‑‑a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and
repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime,
To preach deliverance to the captives [of
sense],
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are
bruised.
22:11‑29
"Work out your own salvation," is
the demand of Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you. "Occupy till I come!" Wait for your reward, and "be not weary
in well doing." If your endeavors
are beset by fearful odds, and you receive no present reward, go not back to
error, nor become a sluggard in the race.
When the smoke of battle clears away, you
will discern the good you have done, and receive according to your
deserving. Love is not hasty to deliver
us from temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and purified.
Final deliverance from error, whereby we
rejoice in immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless sense, is not reached
through paths of flowers nor by pinning one's faith without works to another's
vicarious effort. Whosoever believeth
that wrath is righteous or that divinity is appeased by human suffering, does
not understand God.
67:25
The lack of spiritual power in the limited
demonstration of popular Christianity does not put to silence the labor of
centuries. Spiritual, not corporeal,
consciousness is needed. Man delivered
from sin, disease, and death presents the true likeness or spiritual
ideal.
107:1‑14
In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ
Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and named my discovery
Christian Science. God had been graciously preparing me during many years for
the reception of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of
scientific mental healing.
This apodictical Principle points to the
revelation of Immanuel, "God with us,"‑‑the sovereign ever‑presence,
delivering the children of men from every ill "that flesh is heir
to." Through Christian Science,
religion and medicine are inspired with a diviner nature and essence; fresh
pinions are given to faith and understanding, and thoughts acquaint themselves
intelligently with God.
224:28
Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banner is the Soul‑inspired motto,
"Slavery is abolished." The
power of God brings deliverance to the captive.
No power can withstand divine Love.
What is this supposed power, which opposes itself to God? Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with iron shackles
to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever
enslaves man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes man free.
243:4
The divine Love, which made harmless the
poisonous viper, which delivered men from the boiling oil, from the fiery
furnace, from the jaws of the lion, can heal the sick in every age and triumph
over sin and death. It crowned the
demonstrations of Jesus with unsurpassed power and love. But the same "Mind . . . which was also
in Christ Jesus" must always accompany the letter of Science in order to
confirm and repeat the ancient demonstrations of prophets and apostles. That those wonders are not more commonly repeated
to‑day, arises not so much from lack of desire as from lack of spiritual
growth.
390:27
"Agree to disagree" with approaching
symptoms of chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consumption, or
smallpox. Meet the incipient stages of
disease with as powerful mental opposition as a legislator would employ to
defeat the passage of an inhuman law.
Rise in the conscious strength of the spirit of Truth to overthrow the
plea of mortal mind, alias matter,
arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit.
Blot out the images of mortal thought and its beliefs in sickness and
sin. Then, when thou art delivered to
the judgment of Truth, Christ, the judge will say, "Thou art whole!"
404:26‑21
Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are
one and the same thing in Christian Science.
Both cures require the same method and are inseparable in Truth. Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth,
make a man sick, and neither material medicine nor Mind can help him
permanently, even in body, unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers
him from his destroyers. The basic error
is mortal mind. Hatred inflames the
brutal propensities. The indulgence of
evil motives and aims makes any man, who is above the lowest type of manhood, a
hopeless sufferer.
Christian Science commands man to master the
propensities,‑‑to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer lust with
chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with honesty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if
you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and
success. They will deliver you to the
judge, the arbiter of truth against error.
The judge will deliver you to justice, and the sentence of the moral law
will be executed upon mortal mind and body.
Both will be manacled until the last farthing is paid,‑‑until you have
balanced your account with God.
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." The good man finally can overcome his fear of
sin. This is sin's necessity,‑‑to
destroy itself. Immortal man
demonstrates the government of God, good, in which is no power to sin.
566:29
The Old Testament assigns to the angels,
God's divine messages, different offices.
Michael's characteristic is spiritual strength. He leads the hosts of
heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and fights the holy wars. Gabriel has the more quiet task of imparting
a sense of the ever‑presence of ministering Love. These angels deliver us from the depths. Truth and Love come nearer in the hour of
woe, when strong faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through the
understanding of God. The Gabriel of His
presence has no contests. To infinite,
ever‑present Love, all is Love, and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor
death. Against Love, the dragon warreth
not long, for he is killed by the divine Principle. Truth and Love prevail against the dragon
because the dragon cannot war with them.
Thus endeth the conflict between the flesh and Spirit.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn 265
Samuel Johnson – Adapted
Onward, Christian, though the region
Where thou art seem drear and lone;
God hath set a guardian legion
Very near thee, press thou on.
By the Christ road, and none other,
Is the mount of vision won;
Tread it with rejoicing, brother:
Jesus trod it, press thou on.
By thy trustful, calm endeavor,
Guiding, cheering, like the sun,
Earth‑bound hearts thou shalt deliver;
O, for their sake, press thou on.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 175
Violet Hay
Lo, He sent His Word and healed them,
Still that Word of God is here.
Still its tender healing message
Speaks to every listening ear.
Truth divine, that overcometh
All the ills that seem to be,
In our hearts Thy Word abiding,
We may know Thee and be free.
Love divine, that faileth never,
Still Thy presence and Thy power
Mighty are to save and heal us,
Guard and guide us every hour.
Life divine, Thy Word proclaimeth
All true being one with Thee.
Sinless, fearless, whole, rejoicing,
Now and through eternity.
