Remember His Marvelous Work

The Responsive Reading this week in the lesson on Truth at first seemed to me to be kind of ordinary. How often is that in the lesson, I thought.

But then I read it again.

Responsive Reading

Psalms 33:4 the; 105:1–5; 111:2, 3, 7, 8

. . . the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are

done in truth. 1 O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon

his name: make known his deeds among the people.

2 Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his

wondrous works. 3 Glory ye in his holy name: let the

heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. 4 Seek

the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore.

5 Remember his marvellous works that he hath

done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;

2 The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them

that have pleasure therein. 3 His work is honourable

and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever.

7 The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his

commandments are sure. 8 They stand fast for ever

and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.

The line from Ps 105:5 "Remember his marvelous works that He hath done" really struck a chord in my thought. How many of His marvelous works have I experienced in my life? I could not count them, they are so many. Just my being is one of them.

I think that sometimes I have taken for granted the good that God has given to me. But today I will do as the responsive reading tells me to and I will give thanks unto the Lord and make known his works among the people. I don't know how many people read this blog but here goes.

I have experienced healings of burns on my face from a hot iron that fell on me when I was a toddler. I was healed of the measles in a half hour. I was healed of severe stomach pains when I was in my early teens. I was healed of severe hay fever also when I was a teenager. I was healed of a broken or dislocated kneecap in a few hours after a fall from a bike. Soon there after I met my husband after being led to go to church while on vacation.

After we were married and started our family we had many healings through prayer and the practice of Christian Science. Our first child was born with a large growth on his head. The doctors were very concerned and unbeknownst to us did many tests on him. When they came to give us the results of these test, we told them that we did not want to know what the results were, that we would rely on God to heal our son. We talked with a Christian Science Practitioner and were told to look away from the material problem and see him as God's perfect child. So we put one of those baby caps on him and went about doing what the practitioner said. Seeing him as the idea of Love, God, was not a hard thing to do. About three weeks later, my sister-in-law, who is not a Christian Scientist, came to visit. By this time we had almost forgotten about the problem. But she burst out, "Oh, my, his head! It's normal!" I looked at him and indeed it was. "Perfectly round" as my husband would say.

When this same son was about three months old, he stopped having bowel movements. We again called a practitioner. This problem persisted for three weeks. During this three weeks the baby never showed an ounce of discomfort. We were sure that God would handle this problem just as He did for us in the past. We knew that "Every function of the real man is governed by divine Mind." [God] Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy page 151. and "in this Mind the entire being is found harmonious" . As I said in three weeks his healing was complete.

When our second child was about 10 months old he seemed to really want to walk. And we expected that he would do so at any given moment. He was very active, climbing out of his crib and crawling everywhere. But he just couldn't get that walking thing. I know this is young to expect your child to walk but his brother walked at nine months, so it was not something new to us. One day, as my husband was holding his hands and encouraging him to walk, we noticed that his little feet didn't lie flat on the floor. Again, I asked for prayerful help from a practitioner, and within 24 hours he was walking with his feet flat on the floor. You couldn't stop him after that.

These are just a few of my remembrances of God's marvelous works!

Ps 119:116,117

Psalms 119:116,117

Uphold me according to Thy word: that I may live.

Hold Thou me up and I shall be safe: and I shall have respect unto Thy statutes.

God is always here, upholding.

Who is this "me" that the Psalmist is talking about? Is it this person, this physical body?

Is that what Jesus saw when Peter stepped out of the boat to come to him on the water? A physical man?

Nope. Jesus saw the qualities of God that Peter expressed. He saw the bravery, the trust, the love, the intelligence.

Uphold all of my goodness, my love, my trust, honest, intelligence, according to Thy word, according to what you know about me, and I shall live.

Hold my goodness, intelligence, love, happiness, spiritual substance up and I shall be safe:

My thoughts on the pot of oil story in II Kings 4

II Kings 4:1-7

Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy

servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor

is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do

for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing

in the house, save a pot of oil. Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours,

even empty vessels; borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon

thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that

which is full. So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought

the vessels to her; and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she

said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And

the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy

debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.

Ok, what is the first lie here? That her husband is dead. And he was a good guy. Serving God and all. OR you could say, my company is dead, the economy is dead. And it was good, principled, incorrupt. Undeserving of dying. And here comes the "Creditor." The banks? No.

Creditor= mortal mind, the world belief that she could not take care of her family, that her sustenance came from something or somewhere other than God.

When Elisha asked her what she had in her house she honestly told him that all she had was a pot of oil.

Mrs. Eddy defines OIL. as "consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration." Using semicolons to divide these words because they are a collective idea, or as she often puts it, a "compound idea", needing each other to form the idea.

Elisha told her to go and borrow "empty vessels" figuratively these "empty vessels" stood (to me) for patients, "empty souls" you might say. People that needed to be "filled up full with thoughts from God". That needed "consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration." They could also be looked at as lack of jobs, clients, a company emptied of jobs or clients. Or even the world problems that we read and hear about every day.

And when she went "in" she was told to "shut the door". Mrs. Eddy tells us many times, with different words to do this. In S&H pgs 390-393 she says to dispute, blot out, destroy, suffer no claim, dismiss, rise in rebellion against, banish, mentally contradict, reverse the case, stand porter, exclude from thought.

So that is what she did. She was obedient to her practitioner. She stood porter. She excluded from her thought the idea that she could not care for her family. She banished the idea that there could be a lack of supply, a lack of jobs, a lack of clients. She dismissed it, mentally contradicted it, disputed it. She reversed the case and rose in rebellion against it and then she poured out.

She shut the door and poured out all of that "consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration." This is when she "exercised her God given authority". She rose "in the conscious strength of the spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind" or the claim of the "creditor". She filled the empty vessels with the "oil" of "consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration."

She trusted "in the Lord with all her heart, and leaned not unto her own understanding"

She took "antagonistic grounds against all that is opposed" to her harmony, all that is opposed to her good, her supply. She took "possession of her" self and governed BECAUSE God had made her capable of it! and "nothing can vitiate", destroy or impair, "the ability and power divinely bestowed on man" or woman. She was "firm in her understanding that the divine Mind governs". AND she "had no fear", no doubt.

"And it came to pass" Here is the promise. The assurance. Mrs Eddy says "The promises will be

fulfilled." The vessels, the empty souls, were filled, were healed.

And the OIL stayed! The "Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration." It

stayed! She was in the full time practice of Christian Science. And she paid her debt, and lived with her children of the rest.