Articles

As a Christian Science chaplain in the United States Army, I was in the country of Jordan, ministering to soldiers in my unit. Several asked if I would baptize them in the Jordan River, where the Bible says Jesus was baptized.

“Abandon all hope , ye who enter here. ” Dante’s epic poem, The Divine Comedy, certainly presents an arresting image of the gates of hell.

Paul, encouraging the newly minted Christians at Thessalonica, wrote, “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness” ( I Thessalonians 5:5 ). And to the Ephesians he wrote, “Walk as children of light” ( Ephesians 5:8 ).

One of the beautiful teachings of Christian Science is the truth that each moment is an opportunity to know what it means to be spiritual. As God’s image and likeness, we are not physical bodies with a temporal shelf life; rather, each of us is caused and created by Spirit, God.

When a fishing boat leaves the harbor, it’s guided by buoys that mark the channel. These are a huge help in keeping the vessel from running aground.

That question popped into my head once again. As a teacher coach, I visit many different schools within a week, and I often try to remember the outfit I wore on the previous visit to each school.

One summer, when a friend and I were taking a vacation together, it became clear that we had completely different views and goals—so different that things she said and did hurt and annoyed me. In retrospect these differences were trivial, as I no longer even remember what they were.

Gratitude overflows to my grandparents and an aunt who accepted Christian Science as their way of life soon after Mary Baker Eddy founded The Church of Christ, Scientist. My relatives were present when Mrs.

A deeper study of the Bible’s book of Ephesians has captured my time and thought this year. In six chapters, we read how to “put off the old man,” a way of thinking based in matter, and to “put on the new man,” thinking based in Spirit, God.

Many have found the idea that prayer heals to be a fact. Numerous lives transformed and restored to harmony, reversed diagnoses, and remarkable healings—some of which have been verified and recounted in this very magazine—attest to it.