Christian Science shows that because every Bible story presents the Word of God in action, each story has continuous application beyond and above its original historical setting. Divine Mind, God, is the interpreter as the various Bible verses speak to diverse states of human thought, some states more enlightened than others. And the appeal of these verses is no more restricted to a particular age than art can be restricted to a particular century. Thus each individual may at any time discover an approximation of his or her state of consciousness characterized somewhere in the Bible.
The alert Bible student will prayerfully seek out the meaning of the Bible in an inspirational, instructional way. Its message is a lamp for our feet,See Ps. 119:105. illumining consciousness and alerting us to possible pitfalls on the pathway of spiritual development. While the Scriptural texts have remained the same for centuries, the richness and depth of their application to humanity's needs can always be probed in fresh ways. Since each moment we express—at least in some degree—a new state of thought, we can look at a verse in a fresh and deeper way virtually each time we ponder it.
To illustrate, in Second Kings we are told that Elisha the prophet came to Gilgal during a famine. He asked his servant to prepare a meal for his students, and one pupil collected some wild gourds that he did not know were poisonous. These were shredded into the pot, and when the men ate they became ill and appealed to Elisha. The prophet did a significant thing. Calm in the face of his students' fear of death, he called for meal and cast it into the pot. The apparent poisonous effect of the pottage was dispelled, "and there was no harm in the pot."II Kings 4:41 .
