A Sentinel Watch interview with Joan Bernard Bradley. Click here to listen.
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In this interview Joan talks about how she overcame resentment over incidents of racial abuse and discrimination. She goes on to tell how through prayer and effort she has been able build respectful relationships in racially diverse settings.
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… I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
(NKJV Bible – Jeremiah 29: 11)
This article by Mark Swinney was first published in the 8 May 2009 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel. In it Mark talks about how he found confidence in parenting by understanding the nature of God as the Father-Mother of us all. Here is a small sample of what he writes. To read the full article click here.
… If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a parent, it’s this: Truly effective prayer for children results from a conscious acknowledgment of their oneness with God. Just seeing a child as near God, or extremely close to God, is not good enough. Oneness—that’s the true model of God and His offspring. Good parenting holds to the beautiful oneness of God as cause, and child as God’s effect—divine Parent and offspring. I’ve found that if I have even the slightest notion of a separation between God and my child, I become afraid. Yet, as soon as I behold God and my child as one, everything falls into place. Fear dissolves and everything is right. …
1 O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.
2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
7 Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence.
8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
(The Bible KJV – Job 33: 4)
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He hath made every thing beautiful in his time:
(The Bible KJV – Ecclesiastes 3: 11)
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Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation. … “For we are also His offspring.”
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p332)
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
“I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight.These things I will do for them, and not forsake them.”
(The New King James Version Bible – Isaiah 40: 28-31; 41: 10; 42: 16; 65: 21, 23, 25)
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Readings from the Bible and the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
When man is spoken of as made in God’s image, it is not sinful and sickly mortal man who is referred to, but the ideal man, reflecting God’s likeness. (Science and Health p346: 2)
Man’s genuine selfhood is recognizable only in what is good and true. Man is neither self-made nor made by mortals. God created man. (Science and Health p294:25)
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Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all things.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p124)
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The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying,
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
(The Bible KJV – Jeremiah 31: 3)
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We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p248)
Christian Science Canberra 