This recording is of the readings on the topic:The Lord Was Not in the Fire.
.
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid; I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand;
When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply; The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
We read and hear much about “sustainability” in reference to earth’s ecosystems, both human and natural. These ecosystems are currently regarded to be in conflict and disordered. We hear reports about the oceans warming, glaciers retreating, and sea levels rising. Some climatological literature examines the concept of a point of no return.
Can our prayers heal such disorders?
Click hereto read or listen to this article. Eric reasons that Jesus’ healing of Lararus after four days – the point of no return according to Jewish custom at the time – has relevance for us today.
This recording is of the readings on the topic:Secure Amid the Storm.
.
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.
(The Bible KJV – Romans 8: 38, 39)
.
Every Wednesday at 6.15pm a Testimony Meeting is held at the Christian Science church in Canberra (corner of Macquarie and Bligh Streets, Barton). At these meetings short readings on a particular topic are followed by time for members of the congregation to share how they have been helped and healed through prayer.
An article by Nancy Ellett Staal originally published in the March 16, 1998 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
Do you ever wonder if prayer can help others far away who are involved in a catastrophe?
I know that it can. Prayer uplifts thought to God, who is “a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46: 1). Prayer has an inspiring, healing effect on both rescue workers and individuals needing to be rescued or cared for. Helping the victims of a disaster through prayer is practicing the Golden Rule: “As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6: 31).
In this article Nancy describes her own experience of being caught in a devastating earthquake. Click here to continue reading.
An article by Tyler Flavin, which originally appeared online in the teen series Q&A – September 20, 2022
In this article Tyler describes the wild weather that engulfed the campers he was caring for and how he prayed about this situation. He talks also about what he learned from this experience.
… Just before the storm hit, there was an eerie stillness—just for a moment. Then the rain came down hard, and I saw one of my fellow counselors, who was heading out to get further instructions from the camp director, disappear into the rain not five feet away from the cabin. Even his neon jacket wasn’t visible behind the sheets of water.
… I was so grateful for this experience, because it taught me that no matter what storms we face in life—literal storms or mental ones—God is not in them, but He is still with us. We can know and demonstrate that His peace and His power can calm any storm.
Throughout her life, Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, lived in an area of the United States prone to climatic extremes. Having grown up on a farm, she was certainly aware of the impact that weather conditions could have on people’s economic and physical well-being. And in teaching Christian Science, she identified weather forces as subordinate to God.
Irving Tomlinson was a student of Eddy and worked on her staff for a number of years. He described her approach to the weather this way:
Mrs. Eddy taught us that weather conditions are not beyond God’s control, and that they can be corrected through right prayer. She made it clear that Christian Scientists are not to attempt to control or govern the weather. We should know that God governs the weather and no other influence can be brought to bear on it. She said we are to be particularly watchful to guard against any disastrous effects of storms.
Eddy’s correspondence and other writings indicate that she specified violent weather elements in particular as requiring ongoing prayerful attention. …
Clara Knox McKee was Eddy’s personal maid in 1906 and 1907. She recounted an experience that helps to illustrate further the distinction Eddy made between attempting to control the weather and holding it as a subjective state of human consciousness:
One day Mrs. Eddy called her students into her study and pointed to a very black cloud, shaped like a cornucopia, coming toward the house in direct line with her front study window. She asked each one to go to a window and face it, and to realize that there were no destructive elements in God’s creation. While the cyclone came whirling straight toward Pleasant View, before it reached within a mile or so, it parted and went around Concord and into the mountains, doing very little damage in our neighborhood. …
Mary Baker Eddy’s convictions regarding God, prayer, weather, and climate grew out of her Christianity. As a student of the Bible, she read in the Hebrew Scriptures accounts of prophetic appeals to God in times of drought. She knew well the Gospel stories of Jesus Christ stilling a storm on the Sea of Galilee. Unlike some others, however, Eddy came to believe that these incidents were neither miracles nor interruptions of the natural order. Instead, she classified them as demonstrations of divine law, which overruled what she identified as the limitations associated with laws of nature.
These statements are from an answer compiled by the researchers at the Mary Baker Eddy Library (menu option: Questions). The complete answer to the question: What did Mary Baker Eddy say about the weather? can be read here:
Upheaval in the world might suggest that there’s no hope for finding order in it. But as this author discovered, acknowledging and evidencing God’s control in our daily lives helps us understand how peace and harmony truly prevail.
This article by Emma Leslie is from the Christian Science Perspective featured in the August 25, 2022 Christian Science Monitor.
Reports of extreme weather, war, the pandemic, and economic instability can make it feel as though we live in a chaotic universe where we have little agency over our own lives.
As someone who has found mental peace and practical answers through prayer, I wanted to pray to see beyond this depressing view of life to something more hopeful, for myself and my family and for all citizens of the world. A moment of chaos on a recent trip gave me a modest but significant opportunity for such prayer.
Click here to read, or listen to, the full article.
Christian Science Canberra 