We are blessed to have the teachings of Christ Jesus from the Bible and are indebted to our textbook for the spiritual explication of the Scriptures. But, now, what do we do with it?First Church of Christ, Scientist, Asheville, NC
- KJV Luke 17:17 (to 1st said,), 20-21 1st The
- 17 …Jesus answering said 20 …The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
- KJV Matt 4:23
- 23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
- KJV Matt 5:2
- 2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
- KJV Matt 7:24-29
- 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. 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. 28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: 29 For he taught them as one having authority,
- KJV Mark 11:25
- 25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
- KJV Mark 1:35-42
- 35 And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. 36 And Simon and they that were with him followed after him. 37 And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee. 38 And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth. 39 And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils. 40 And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. 42 And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
- KJV Luke 18:15-17
- 15 And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. 17 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.
- KJV II Tim 2:15
- 15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
- KJV John 4:24, 35-38
- 24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 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. 36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. 37 And herein is that saying true, One soweth, and another reapeth. 38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labour: other men laboured, and ye are entered into their labours.
- KJV John 13:1, 3-7, 12-17
- 1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. 3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; 4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. 5 After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. 6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? 7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. 12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? 13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. 16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. 17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
- KJV Matt 5:8
- 8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
- KJV Matt 5:44-48
- 44 …Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? 47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
- KJV Acts 20:32, 35
- 32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. 35 I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
- S&H 138:17-2
- Jesus established in the Christian era the precedent for
all Christianity, theology, and healing. Christians are
under as direct orders now, as they were then,
to be Christlike, to possess the Christ-spirit, to
follow the Christ-example, and to heal the sick as well as
the sinning. It is easier for Christianity to cast out sick-
ness than sin, for the sick are more willing to part with
pain than are sinners to give up the sinful, so-called pleas-
ure of the senses. The Christian can prove this to-day as
readily is it was proved centuries ago.
Our Master said to every follower: “Go ye into all the
world, and preach the gospel to every creature! . . .
Heal the sick! . . . Love thy neighbor as
thyself!” It was this theology of Jesus which
healed the sick and the sinning. It is his theology in this
book and the spiritual meaning of this theology, which
heals the sick and causes the wicked to “forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
- S&H 37:22-25
- It is possible, – yea, it is the duty
and privilege of every child, man, and woman, – to follow
in some degree the example of the Master by the demon-
stration of Truth and Life, of health and holiness.
- S&H 54:1-5
- Through the
magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine
Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he de-
fined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished
error.
- S&H 349:8
- We propose to follow the Master’s
example. We should subordinate material law to spirit-
ual law. Two essential points of Christian Science are,
that neither Life nor man dies, and that God is not the
author of sickness.
- S&H 326:3-14
- If we wish to follow Christ, Truth, it must be in the
way of God’s appointing. Jesus said, “He that believeth
on me, the works that I do shall he do also.”
He, who would reach the source and find the
divine remedy for every ill, must not try to climb the hill
of Science by some other road. All nature teaches God’s
love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set
his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the
material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual.
We must forsake the foundation of material systems,
however time-honored, if we would gain the Christ as
our only Saviour.
- S&H 248:17-18, 20-29
- Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you repro-
ducing it?
The world is holding
it before your gaze continually. The result is that you
are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your life-
work, and adopt into your experience the angular outline
and deformity of matter models.
To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right
direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect
models in thought and look at them continually,
or we shall never carve them out in grand and
noble lives.
- S&H 249:1
- Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on
sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive
ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that
one perfect, producing His own models of excellence.
- S&H 283:8-24
- Matter and its effects – sin, sickness, and
death – are states of mortal mind which act, react, and
then come to a stop. They are not facts of Mind. They
are not ideas, but illusions. Principle is absolute. It
admits of no error, but rests upon understanding.
But what say prevalent theories? They insist that
Life, or God, is one and the same with material life so-
called. They speak of both Truth and error as mind,
and of good and evil as spirit. They claim that to be
life which is but the objective state of material sense, –
such as the structural life of the tree and of material
man, – and deem this the manifestation of the one Life,
God.
This false belief as to what really constitutes life so
detracts from God’s character and nature, that the true
sense of His power is lost to all who cling to
this falsity.
- S&H 222:31-6
- We must
destroy the false belief that life and intelligence are in
matter, and plant ourselves upon what is pure and per-
fect. Paul said, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Sooner or later we shall learn
that the fetters of man’s finite capacity are forged by the
illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter
instead of in Spirit.
- S&H 241:23-27
- One’s aim, a point beyond faith, should be to find the
footsteps of Truth, the way to health and holiness. We
should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is re-
vealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is
purity.
- S&H 337:14
- Christian Science demonstrates that none but
the pure in heart can see God, as the gospel
teaches. In proportion to his purity is man
perfect; and perfection is the order of celestial
being which demonstrates Life in Christ, Life’s spiritual
ideal.
- S&H 371:22
- No impossible thing do I ask when urging
the claims of Christian Science; but because
this teaching is in advance of the age, we
should not deny our need of its spiritual unfoldment.
Mankind will improve through Science and Christi-
anity. 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. Truth is an altera-
tive in the entire system, and can make it “every whit
whole.”
- S&H 497:24
- 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.
- S&H 477:4-5
- Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom
of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.
Luke 17:17 (to said,),20-21The
Matt 4:23
Matt 5:2
Matt 7:24-29
Mark 11:25
Mark 1:35-42
Luke 18:15-17
II Tim 2:15
John 4:24, 35-38
John 13:1, 3-7, 12-17
Matt 5:8
Matt 5:44-48
Acts 20:32, 35138:17-2
37:22-25
54:1-5
349:8
326:3-14
248:17-18, 20-29
249:1
283:8-24
222:31-6
241:23-27
337:14
371:22
497:24
477:4-5316…Speak gently, it is better facr o rule by love than fear
88…Gracious Spirit, dwell with me
371…We lift our hearts in praise, O God of Life, to Thee
Matt 4:23
Matt 5:2
Matt 7:24-29
Mark 11:25
Mark 1:35-42
Luke 18:15-17
II Tim 2:15
John 4:24, 35-38
John 13:1, 3-7, 12-17
Matt 5:8
Matt 5:44-48
Acts 20:32, 35138:17-2
37:22-25
54:1-5
349:8
326:3-14
248:17-18, 20-29
249:1
283:8-24
222:31-6
241:23-27
337:14
371:22
497:24
477:4-5316…Speak gently, it is better facr o rule by love than fear
88…Gracious Spirit, dwell with me
371…We lift our hearts in praise, O God of Life, to Thee
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FYI, my readings are under 15 minutes and after announcements there are over 30 minutes for testimonies. Testimony time is usually full. The length of your readings would indicate the opposite ratio, with readings the length of a Sunday lesson sermon. Does that fit well for your church’s needs?
Hi Marilyn,
Last evening I made a point to check the clock after hymn1, readings, prayer, hymn2, and notices. We were only 20-25 minutes into the time. I just now reread the selections within 16 minutes. I also try to read at a reasonable pace with inflection and pauses…I don’t believe I’m flying through the reading. So I think we typically will have approximately 40 minutes for testimonies and comments.
I once read a suggestion to have 40 Bible verses and 90 SH lines to achieve a balanced 15-20 minute reading. I don’t stay rigidly with this, but it seems a good guide. This week’s citations were on the heavier side.
…cheers and blessing to you.