The reason for our joy

Wednesday readings, 2nd Church Berkeley, inspired by article in Nov. 2 CS Sentinel: http://sentinel.christianscience.com/issues/2015/11/117-44/the-reason-for-our-joy
SH Ps. 89:15
15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.
SH Ps. 95:1
1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
SH Gal. 5:22 1st the, 23 (to 1st :)
22 …the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance:
SH Phil. 1:2-5, 9-11, 25 1st I, 26
2 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; 9 And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; 10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. 11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. 25 …I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for your furtherance and joy of faith; 26 That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again.
SH Phil. 2:1-4, 13, 14, 16-18
1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, 2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. 4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. 17 Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all. 18 For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me.
SH II Cor. 12:10 1st I
10 …I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
SH II Cor. 6:10
10 As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
SH John 17:1, 11 1st Holy, 13
1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: 11 …Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 13 And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
SH John 16:24 1st ask
24 …ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.
SH Acts 3:1 1st Peter, 2-8
1 …Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; 3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. 4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us. 5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them. 6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. 7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
SH Phil. 4:1, 4
1 Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved. 4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
SH 304:16-18
Harmony is produced by its Principle, is controlled
by it and abides with it. Divine Principle is the Life
of man.
SH 260:31-4
If we look to the body for pleasure, we find pain; for
Life, we find death; for Truth, we find error; for Spirit,
we find its opposite, matter. Now reverse this action.
Look away from the body into Truth and Love,
the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and
immortality.
SH 486:27-2
If the
five corporeal senses were the medium through which
to understand God, then palsy, blindness, and deafness
would place man in a terrible situation, where he would
be like those “having no hope, and without God in the
world;” but as a matter of fact, these calamities often
drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happi-
ness and existence.
SH 34:29
What a contrast between our Lord’s last supper and
his last spiritual breakfast with his disciples
in the bright morning hours at the joyful
meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom
had passed into glory, and His disciples’ grief into repent-
ance, – hearts chastened and pride rebuked. Convinced
of the fruitlessness of their toil in the dark and wakened
by their Master’s voice, they changed their methods, turned
away from material things, and cast their net on the right
side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore of
time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal
sensuousness, or the burial of mind in matter, into new-
ness of life as Spirit.
SH 262:17-23
Job said: “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the
ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee.” Mortals will echo
Job’s thought, when the supposed pain and
pleasure of matter cease to predominate. They
will then drop the false estimate of life and happiness, of
joy and sorrow, and attain the bliss of loving unselfishly,
working patiently, and conquering all that is unlike God.
SH 265:23-24, 28
Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not gained
stronger desires for spiritual joy?
The pains of sense quickly inform
us that the pleasures of sense are mortal and that joy is
spiritual.
SH 407:11
Here Christian
Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the
weakness of mortal mind, – strength from the immortal
and omnipotent Mind, – and lifting humanity above
itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and
good-will to man.
SH 359:20
implies? From Puritan parents, the discov-
erer of Christian Science early received her
religious education. In childhood, she often listened
with joy to these words, falling from the lips of her
saintly mother, “God is able to raise you up from sick-
ness;” and she pondered the meaning of that Scripture
she so often quotes: “And these signs shall follow them
that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick,
and they shall recover.
SH 536:24-26
Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material concep-
tion of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the
immortal side.
SH 377:3-5
If grief causes suffering, convince
the sufferer that affliction is often the source of joy, and
that he should rejoice always in ever-present Love.
SH 66:6-14
half remember this in the sunshine of joy
and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through
great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are
proofs of God’s care. Spiritual development germi-
nates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes,
but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher
joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each suc-
cessive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine
goodness and love.
SH 354:20
If our words
fail to express our deeds, God will redeem that
weakness, and out of the mouth of babes He will perfect
praise. The night of materiality is far spent, and with
the dawn Truth will waken men spiritually to hear and
to speak the new tongue.
SH 569:11-14
He that touches the hem
of Christ’s robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality,
and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing, – in a sweet
and certain sense that God is Love.
SH 125:12-16
As human thought changes from one stage to an-
other of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and
joy, – from fear to hope and from faith to understand-
ing, – the visible manifestation will at last be man gov-
erned by Soul, not by material sense.


Ps. 89:15
Ps. 95:1
Gal. 5:22 the, 23 (to :)
Phil. 1:2-5, 9-11, 25 I, 26
Phil. 2:1-4, 13, 14, 16-18
II Cor. 12:10 I
II Cor. 6:10
John 17:1, 11 Holy, 13
John 16:24 ask
Acts 3:1 Peter, 2-8
Phil. 4:1, 4
SH 304:16-18
SH 260:31-4
SH 486:27-2
SH 34:29
SH 262:17-23
SH 265:23-24, 28
SH 407:11
SH 359:20
SH 536:24-26
SH 377:3-5
SH 66:6-14
SH 354:20
SH 569:11-14
SH 125:12-16

Hymns: 112, 221, 342

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