The rock that is higher than I

Readings, 2nd Church, Berkeley, 6/15/16
SH Ps. 61:1, 2
1 Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. 2 From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
SH Ps. 18:2, 31
2 The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. 31 For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?
SH Ps. 27:5
5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.
SH Ps. 62:7
7 In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
SH Ps. 121:2, 3, 5
2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. 3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.
SH Ex. 17:1-6
1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD? 3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? 4 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. 5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
SH Ps. 78:35
35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God their redeemer.
SH Isa. 32:1, 2
1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. 2 And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
SH Matt. 16:13-18
13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
SH Matt. 7:24 1st whosoever, 25
24 …whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
SH 371:27-30
The necessity for uplifting the race is father to
the fact that Mind can do it; for Mind can impart
purity instead of impurity, strength instead of weak-
ness, and health instead of disease.
SH 407:6-8, 11
Man’s enslavement to the most relentless masters –
passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge – is con-
quered only by a mighty struggle.
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 514:6
Mind, joyous in strength, dwells in the
realm of Mind. Mind’s infinite ideas run and dis-
port themselves. In humility they climb the heights of
holiness.
SH 567:3-6 Truth
Truth
and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong
faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through
the understanding of God.
SH 511:23-3
To mortal mind, the universe is liquid, solid, and aeri-
form. Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand
for solid and grand ideas. Animals and mor-
tals metaphorically present the gradation of
mortal thought, rising in the scale of intelligence, taking
form in masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. The
fowls, which fly above the earth in the open firmament
of heaven, correspond to aspirations soaring beyond and
above corporeality to the understanding of the incorporeal
and divine Principle, Love.
SH 269:21
The testimony of the material senses is neither abso-
lute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly
on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of
the prophets, and on the testimony of the
Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none.
All other systems – systems based wholly or partly on
knowledge gained through the material senses – are reeds
shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock.
SH 136:1-12
Jesus established his church and maintained his mission
on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught
his followers that his religion had a divine
Principle, which would cast out error and heal
both the sick and the sinning. He claimed no intelli-
gence, action, nor life separate from God. Despite the
persecution this brought upon him, he used his divine
power to save men both bodily and spiritually.
The question then as now was, How did Jesus heal the
sick? His answer to this question the world rejected.
He appealed to his students: “Whom do
men say that I, the Son of man, am?
SH 137:8-9, 16-1, 6-9
Yearning to be understood, the Master repeated,
“But whom say ye that I am?
With his usual impetuosity, Simon replied for his
brethren, and his reply set forth a great fact: “Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God!”
That is: The Messiah is what thou hast de-
clared, – Christ, the spirit of God, of Truth, Life, and
Love, which heals mentally. This assertion elicited from
Jesus the benediction, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-
jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven;” that is, Love hath
shown thee the way of Life!
Before this the impetuous disciple had been called
only by his common names, Simon Bar-jona, or son of
Jona; but now the Master gave him a spir-
itual name in these words: “And I say also
unto thee, That thou art Peter; and upon this rock [the
meaning of the Greek word petros, or stone] I will build
my church; and the gates of hell [hades, the under-
world, or the grave] shall not prevail against it.
them, the victor over sickness, sin, disease, death, and
the grave.
It was now evident to Peter that divine Life, Truth, and 
Love, 
and not a human personality, was the healer of the 

sick and a rock, a firm foundation in the realm of harmony.

SH 346:9-13
The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we 
need to understand that error is nothing, and that its 
nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in 
order to prove the somethingness – yea, the allness – 
of Truth.


SH 426:16-19
When it is learned that disease cannot destroy life, and that 
mortals are not saved from sin or sickness by death, this understanding will quicken into newness of life.

SH 497:13-19
We acknowledge Jesus’ atonement as the evi- 
dence 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.









Ps. 61:1, 2
Ps. 18:2, 31
Ps. 27:5
Ps. 62:7
Ps. 121:2, 3, 5
Ex. 17:1-6
Ps. 78:35
Isa. 32:1, 2
Matt. 16:13-18
Matt. 7:24 whosoever, 25
SH 371:27-30
SH 407:6-8, 11
SH 514:6
SH 567:3-6 Truth
SH 511:23-3
SH 269:21
SH 136:1-12
SH 137:8-9, 16-1, 6-9
SH 346:9-13
SH 426:16-19
SH 497:13-19

Hymns
440 Glorious things of thee are spoken
445 I awake each morn to a brand new day
450 O house of God, built on a firm foundation

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