Theme: “Purpose”
Readings from the Bible
Proverbs 20:12,18 (to :),24 (to ;)
The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.
Every purpose is established by counsel:
Man's goings are of the Lord;
Ecclesiastes 3:1,4-7,11-15,17
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away
stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from
embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to
rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no
man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. And also that every man
should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God. I know that,
whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. That which hath been is now; and that which
is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for
every purpose and for every work.
Isaiah 14:24,26,27
#The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
Romans 8:12-19 brethren,24 we,25,28,31 If,35,37-39
brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye
shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For 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: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet
hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
If God be for us, who can be against us?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am
persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things
present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
II Timothy 1:1-4,6-10
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in
Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the
putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love,
and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:
I John 3:1-3,7-9
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is
righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For
this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
x:22-27, 30
The divine Principle of healing is proved in the personal experience of any sincere seeker of
Truth. Its purpose is good, and its practice is safer and more potent than that of any other
sanitary method. The unbiased Christian thought is soonest touched by Truth, and convinced of it. No intellectual proficiency is requisite in the learner, but sound morals are most desirable.
8:28-30
We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in
this way only can we learn what we honestly are.
18:1-11 np
Atonement is the exemplification of man's unity with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth,
Life, and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man's oneness with the Father, and
for this we owe him endless homage. His mission was both individual and collective. He did
life's work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals,--to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility. Jesus acted boldly,
against the accredited evidence of the senses, against Pharisaical creeds and practices, and he
refuted all opponents with his healing power.
The atonement of Christ reconciles man to God, not God to man; for the divine Principle of
Christ is God, and how can God propitiate Himself? Christ is Truth, which reaches no higher
than itself. The fountain can rise no higher than its source. Christ, Truth, could conciliate no
nature above his own, derived from the eternal Love. It was therefore Christ's purpose to
reconcile man to God, not God to man. Love and Truth are not at war with God's image and
likeness. Man cannot exceed divine Love, and so atone for himself. Even Christ cannot
reconcile Truth to error, for Truth and error are irreconcilable. Jesus aided in reconciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love, the divine Principle of Jesus' teachings, and this truer sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter, sin, and death by the law of Spirit,--the law of divine Love.
51:6-24
Jesus could have withdrawn himself from his enemies. He had power to lay down a human
sense of life for his spiritual identity in the likeness of the divine; but he allowed men to attempt the destruction of the mortal body in order that he might furnish the proof of immortal life.
Nothing could kill this Life of man. Jesus could give his temporal life into his enemies' hands;
but when his earth-mission was accomplished, his spiritual life, indestructible and eternal, was
found forever the same. He knew that matter had no life and that real Life is God; therefore he
could no more be separated from his spiritual Life than God could be extinguished.
His consummate example was for the salvation of us all, but only through doing the works
which he did and taught others to do. His purpose in healing was not alone to restore health, but
to demonstrate his divine Principle. He was inspired by God, by Truth and Love, in all that he
said and did.
150:4
To-day the healing power of Truth is widely demonstrated as an immanent, eternal Science,
instead of a phenomenal exhibition. Its appearing is the coming anew of the gospel of "on earth peace, good-will toward men." This coming, as was promised by the Master, is for its
establishment as a permanent dispensation among men; but the mission of Christian Science
now, as in the time of its earlier demonstration, is not primarily one of physical healing. Now, as then, signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical healing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demonstrate its divine origin,--to attest the reality of the higher mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the world.
326:3-22
If we wish to follow Christ, Truth, it must be in the way of God's appointing. Jesus said, "He
that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." He, who would reach the source and
find the divine remedy for every ill, must not try to climb the hill of Science by some other road.
All nature teaches God's love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set his whole
affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual.
We must forsake the foundation of material systems, however time-honored, if we would gain
the Christ as our only Saviour. Not partially, but fully, the great healer of mortal mind is the
healer of the body.
The purpose and motive to live aright can be gained now. This point won, you have started as
you should. You have begun at the numeration-table of Christian Science, and nothing but
wrong intention can hinder your advancement. Working and praying with true motives, your
Father will open the way. "Who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?"
328:20-4 (np)
Understanding spiritual law and knowing that there is no material law, Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that believe, . . . they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." It were well had Christendom believed and obeyed this sacred saying.
Jesus’ promise is perpetual. Had it been given only to his immediate disciples, the Scriptural passage would read you, not they. The purpose of his great life-work extends through time and includes universal humanity. Its Principle is infinite, reaching beyond the pale of a single period or of a limited following. As time moves on, the healing elements of pure Christianity will be fairly dealt with; they will be sought and taught, and will glow in all the grandeur of universal goodness.
451:19
Every Christian Scientist, every conscientious teacher of the Science of Mind-healing, knows
that human will is not Christian Science, and he must recognize this in order to defend himself
from the influence of human will. He feels morally obligated to open the eyes of his students
that they may perceive the nature and methods of error of every sort, especially any subtle degree
of evil, deceived and deceiving. All mental malpractice arises from ignorance or malice
aforethought. It is the injurious action of one mortal mind controlling another from wrong
motives, and it is practised either with a mistaken or a wicked purpose.
506:18
Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear.
513:22-19
Genesis i. 25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind,
and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are spiritual realities. So-called mortal
mind--being non-existent and consequently not within the range of immortal existence--could not by simulating deific power invert the divine creation, and afterwards recreate persons or things upon its own plane, since nothing exists beyond the range of all-inclusive infinity, in which and of which God is the sole creator. Mind, joyous in strength, dwells in the realm of Mind. Mind's infinite ideas run and disport themselves. In humility they climb the heights of holiness.
Moral courage is "the lion of the tribe of Juda," the king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open field, or rests in "green pastures, . . . beside the still waters." In the figurative transmission from the divine thought to the human, diligence, promptness, and perseverance are likened to "the cattle upon a thousand hills." They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and keep pace with highest purpose. Tenderness accompanies all the might imparted by Spirit.
539:27-24
The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human power to expound the facts of creation,
and demonstrate the one Mind which makes and governs man and the universe. The Science of
creation, so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus, inspired his wisest and least-understood sayings,
and was the basis of his marvellous demonstrations. Christ is the offspring of Spirit, and
spiritual existence shows that Spirit creates neither a wicked nor a mortal man, lapsing into sin, sickness, and death.
In Isaiah we read: "I make peace, and create evil. I the Lord do all these things;" but the prophet referred to divine law as stirring up the belief in evil to its utmost, when bringing it to the surface and reducing it to its common denominator, nothingness. The muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the stream. In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our ignorance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought to know that God's law uncovers so-called sin and its effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil and all power to sin.
Science renders "unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are
God's." It saith to the human sense of sin, sickness, and death, "God never made you, and you
are a false sense which hath no knowledge of God." The purpose of the Hebrew allegory,
representing error as assuming a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe a lie.
Hymn 324
Frances R. Havergal – Adapted
Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.
Take my every thought, to use
In the way that Thou shalt choose.
Take my love; O Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store.
I am Thine, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.
Hymn 180
Based on the Danish of Jens N. L. Schjorring
Love the Lord thy God:
Love is staff and rod
For heart and soul and mind.
In this command forever strong,
To silence thoughts of wrong
All laws fulfillment find.
Here we rest content:
Good from God is sent
Where seeds of Love are sown.
Who as himself his neighbor loves,
By constant purpose proves
His neighbor's good his own.
They whose every thought
Still from Love is sought
In Soul, not flesh, abide.
Love's presence gives a joy untold:
Now may we all behold
The Spirit and the bride.
Hymn 349
H.
Thy will, almighty Father, Thine,
And Thine alone be ever done;
For Thou art Life and Truth and Love,
The great, eternal, Holy One.
Reflecting truly all Thou art
And all the sunshine of Thy love,
No life we know from Thee apart,
But peace on earth from heaven above.
We walk in freedom and in peace
Thy holy purpose to fulfill,
And Thou dost ever point the path
For loving servants of Thy will.
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