Articles

You may not have expected it, but suddenly you find your name mentioned in connection with the election for First or Second Reader of your branch Church of Christ, Scientist. What's your response? This high calling warrants prayerful consideration.

Suppose you are a new member, attending your first business meeting, eager to learn how a Christian Science branch church operates. Longing to be a participant in the advancement of Christian Science, you may wonder just how a church serves the community and what your contribution might be.

Man, being God's spiritual offspring, lives in eternity. He doesn't come to earth for a span and then return to God, immortal Mind; he remains forever at one with Him.

Even considered only as a chronicle of human achievements, Mrs Eddy's life story is an impressive one indeed. Beginning her career in midlife, and working in an environment fundamentally hostile to the assumption of leadership roles by women, she discovered the Science of Christ and demonstrated its capability through healing; wrote and published the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and many other works to define and describe the nature and demands of this Science; and established an educational system through which its requirements could be adequately and precisely taught.

Do we enjoy challenges? Do we welcome each opportunity to prove that our Principle is God? To face fearlessly the anger and hatred of the carnal mind for Truth, and to demonstrate Truth in spite of opposition? Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, did.

There are times when we are tempted to feel inadequate, inferior, or unworthy. We may see ourselves as simply not good enough.

There was a time when I had a recurring physical difficulty that seemed to defy healing. In spite of all my efforts, there was little break in the cycle.

An "armour of light"? This phrase is used by Paul, the faithful and intrepid apostle of Christ Jesus, in his letter to the Romans. Yet we often think of armor as something much more solid and tangible, something that repels the projectiles of an enemy.

When I was about ten years old, it was normal for the Protestant Sunday School class I was attending to spend some of the class time at the regular church service. On one occasion I was stunned to hear the congregation, including myself, vehemently condemned as "miserable sinners.

They didn't even recognize him. They had seen him respond with tender affection to children, with stern rebuke to hypocrites, with healing compassion to those who were ill.