Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity

Readings for Wed., 2/17/16, 2nd Church, Berkeley
SH Jonah 1:6 1st What (to 1st 5th ,)
6 …What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
SH Matt. 24:42
42 Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
SH Luke 4:14, 15
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
SH Luke 15:11-14, 17, 20, 25-31
11 And he said, A certain man had two sons: 12 And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. 13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. 14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. 17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. 25 Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. 26 And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. 27 And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 28 And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. 29 And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: 30 But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. 31 And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.
SH John 4:35
35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
SH Rom. 13:11 1st now
11 …now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
SH Song 7:13 1st at
13 …at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.
SH II Cor. 6:2 1st I
2 …I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
SH Col. 4:6
6 Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
SH Rev. 22:17
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
SH 176:7
The primitive custom of taking no thought about
food left the stomach and bowels free to act in obedi-
ence to nature, and gave the gospel a chance to be seen
in its glorious effects upon the body. A ghastly array of
diseases was not paraded before the imagination. There
were fewer books on digestion and more “sermons in
stones, and good in everything.” When the mechanism
of the human mind gives place to the divine Mind, self-
ishness and sin, disease and death, will lose their
foothold.
SH 394:24-29
can be aided by a drug or climate? Are material means
the only refuge from fatal chances? Is there no divine
permission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony,
with Truth and Love?
We should remember that Life is God, and that God
is omnipotent.
SH 397:12
When an ac-
cident happens, you think or exclaim, “I am hurt!”
Your thought is more powerful than your words, more
powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury
real.
SH 424:10-11
Under divine Providence there can be no accidents,
since there is no room for imperfection in perfection.
SH 230:16-18
God,
good, can no more produce sickness than goodness can
cause evil and health occasion disease.
SH 258:1-3
A mortal, corporeal, or
finite conception of God cannot embrace the glories of
limitless, incorporeal Life and Love.
SH 452:7-11
Walking in the light, we are accustomed to the light
and require it; we cannot see in darkness. But eyes ac-
customed to darkness are pained by the light.
When outgrowing the old, you should not fear
to put on the new.
SH 90:27-30
The understanding
and recognition of Spirit must finally come, and we may
as well improve our time in solving the mysteries of being
through an apprehension of divine Principle.
SH 238:19
Truth often remains
unsought, until we seek this remedy for human woe be-
cause we suffer severely from error.
SH 486:9-12, 20
Earth’s preparatory
school must be improved to the utmost. In reality man
never dies. The belief that he dies will not establish his
scientific harmony.
supposes Mind unable to produce harmony! So long
as this error of belief remains, mortals will continue mor-
tal in belief and subject to chance and change.
SH 266:13
Friends will betray and enemies will slander, until the
lesson is sufficient to exalt you; for “man’s extremity
is God’s opportunity.” The author has experienced the
foregoing prophecy and its blessings. Thus He teaches
mortals to lay down their fleshliness and gain spirituality.
This is done through self-abnegation. Universal Love
is the divine way in Christian Science.
SH 285:17-22
The time has come for a
finite conception of the infinite and of a ma-
terial body as the seat of Mind to give place
to a diviner sense of intelligence and its manifestations,
to the better understanding that Science gives of the
Supreme Being, or divine Principle, and idea.
SH 571:16
Know thyself, and God will supply
the wisdom and the occasion for a victory
over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love,
human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a
higher humanity will unite all interests in the one
divinity.
SH 276:17-18
If God is admitted to be the only Mind and Life,
there ceases to be any opportunity for sin and death.
SH 537:19-21, 29
No one can reasonably doubt that the purpose of this
allegory – this second account in Genesis – is to depict
the falsity of error and the effects of error.
The literal meaning would
imply that God withheld from man the opportunity to
reform, lest man should improve it and become better;
but this is not the nature of God, who is Love always, –
Love infinitely wise and altogether lovely, who “seeketh
not her own.
SH 271:26-29 (to 1st .)
Those, who are willing to leave their nets or to cast
them on the right side for Truth, have the opportunity
now, as aforetime, to learn and to practise
Christian healing.





Jonah 1:6 What (to 5th ,)
Matt. 24:42
Luke 4:14, 15
Luke 15:11-14, 17, 20, 25-31
John 4:35
Rom. 13:11 1st now
Song 7:13 at
II Cor. 6:2 1st I
Col. 4:6
Rev. 22:17
SH 176:7
SH 394:24-29
SH 397:12
SH 424:10-11
SH 230:16-18
SH 258:1-3
SH 452:7-11
SH 90:27-30
SH 238:19
SH 486:9-12, 20
SH 266:13
SH 285:17-22
SH 571:16
SH 276:17-18
SH 537:19-21, 29
SH 271:26-29 (to 1st .)

Hymns:
90 Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah
105 Help us to help each other, Lord
347 Though mountains may depart from thee

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