The True Incentive

What motivates you?  Money?  Fame?  Companionship?  Or something more unsavory like revenge or fear?  If any of those is a driving factor, where are you really headed when you employ them?  And what do you actually have when you get there?

What do you think compelled Jesus?  The Bible says he was about his Father’s business (see Luke 2:49).  And what business is His Father in?  Love.  Plain and simple.  (see 1 John 4:8)

Mary Baker Eddy says that Love (another name for God) is reflected in love (see Science and Health page 17). To me that means that the omnipotence of infinite divine Love is made manifest in my capacity to love and be loved, infinitely.  And with that capacity comes an obligation to lift each thought, each perspective, each motive – as much as possible – into the light of Love, to be purified and redeemed.  It certainly takes some practice, and some deep willingness.  But it becomes increasingly natural with every effort to do so.

A  profound truth is that Love never loses sight of loveliness (see S&H page 248).   A realization of that divine fact dissolves what is unlovely whether it’s unhappiness, disease, or any other discord.  Jesus knew that.  His entire ministry was about putting His Father’s love into practice, seeing it made manifest in health, holiness, and harmony.

Love for God and man was his true incentive.  What’s yours?

Melissa Hayden is a Christian Science practitioner in Salem, OR. You can find more information and additional articles at this link.  If you like what you’re reading, click the “add me” button.

The Evangelism of Letting Your Light Shine

“Evangelism” comes from a Greek word that basically means good news.  Although the early writers of the Gospels were considered to be the first evangelists, doesn’t it make sense that Jesus himself was the original evangel?  His message of hope, health, and harmony was not to gain him ratings or income, but to make the point that the Kingdom of God is here and now – within you.

Evangelists today come in all forms: TV, pulpit, talk radio, street corners.  But the best kind of evangelism is the one Jesus himself recommended in the Sermon on the Mount.  He said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”  (Matt 5:16)

That’s it.  Just live your life in such a way that it illuminates the good news of God.

Melissa Hayden is a Christian Science practitioner in Salem, OR. You can find more information and additional articles at this link.  If you like what you’re reading, click the “add me” button.

One God, one set of rules.

The Bible is very clear that we are to have only one God.  (see Ex. 20:3 for example)  The Bible is also pretty clear about all the trouble you can get into for thinking – and acting – like there are more gods than one.

We make the mistake of thinking that God inflicts all that trouble on us when we follow other gods.  But that’s not how it works.  God is always God: the same rules always apply under all circumstances.  It’s just that when we look away from God’s oneness, we lose track of the significance of that only-ness.  The consequences stem from divided affections.  And as Jesus makes plain, “every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth.”  (Luke 11:17)

Doesn’t that seem like what we’re doing though, when we say God saves believers but condemns non-believers?  Sounds like two sets of rules.  Or when we say that God can’t really compete with evil on this side of death, but once you go to heaven evil is vanquished.  Sounds like two different Gods.

There’s no wiggle room in Isaiah’s statement:  “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.”  (45:5)

So rather than reinterpreting that to make it fit what we can’t explain, let’s readjust our concept of God and His kingdom to accept that very clear statement at its deepest level.  There is only one God, here and forever, for one and all.  No exceptions.

Divine Love – another name for God – is always caring for all of us, all the time.  Infinite Spirit is always ever present all the time.  No one is left out.  Ever.

One God, one set of rules.

Melissa Hayden is a Christian Science practitioner in Salem, OR. You can find more information and additional articles at this link.

I am not a Scientologist

Sometimes people assume that the Science in Christian Science is the same as the Science in Scientology.  Two completely different systems.  The IRS has agreed that Scientology is a religion, but it’s neither biblically oriented nor Christian.  Christian Science, on the other hand, is completely Bible-based and wholly Christian.  Here’s a great article that really explains the differences.

And here are the Tenets of Christian Science that show just how deeply rooted it is in the Bible (Science and Health, page 498):

1.  As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God.  We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God’s image and likeness.
3. We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal.  But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.
4. We acknowledge Jesus’ atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man’s unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.
5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.
6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

And by the way, I don’t know Tom Cruise or John Travolota, either.  Just sayin’…

Melissa Hayden is a Christian Science practitioner in Salem, OR. You can find more information and additional articles at this link.  If you like what you’re reading, click the “add me” button.