English
Español[Think, Thank & Sing Your Way to Thanksgiving Joy & Healing!
Don't let a lie steal them!]
Bonus Metaphysical Application Ideas for the Christian Science Bible Lesson for "Thanksgiving"
by Jared Eggers of St. Louis, MO
[with bracketed italics & PS life-saving healing account by Warren Huff]
As the U.S. national holiday of Thanksgiving fast approaches [this coming Thursday] and we take time to ponder what we are grateful for, we may do well to ask ourselves, "To what extent are we grateful?" Are we grateful enough to tell others of our gratitude? Are we grateful enough to shout our gratitude from the hilltops and housetops? Are we grateful enough to sing about our gratitude? The Golden Text and Responsive Reading of this year's Thanksgiving Bible Lesson call on us to do just that. They ask us to be so grateful for the good we have seen in our lives that we are willing to sing our praise and thanks to God. It calls for our gratitude to overflow from our hearts so completely that the hills, fields and animals around us break out into song with us as if we were in an animated musical.
[For something to sing about: click here to listen to "You Belong to God" Suzanne Riedel's "Daily Lift"; click here and scroll down to listen free to 10 sample "2009 Songs of Thanksgiving"; and. read my testimony at the end about making life sing with whole-hearted gratitude to God and to Christian Science for the priceless gift of a life-saving healing!}
Section 1–["Gratitude outlaws blindness to present good." Miss Mary Kessler]
Leviticus 23 describes the annual harvest of grapes and fruit. (B-2) This was such a large and important harvest for the year, that people would set up temporary shelters, or booths, in the fields in order to minimize their commute to the fields and maximize their time for harvesting. At the end of the harvest, they would have a huge celebration right there in the fields. At first this celebration was simply in thanks to God for the harvest, but for the children of Israel it eventually became a celebration of thanks for their Exodus from Egypt. This Bible verse helps us to see that we can be grateful for all of the good we've already had. [It helps to remind ourselves especially during holiday seasons when something or someone from the past seems to be missing that: "all the good the past hath had remains to make our own time glad, our common, daily life divine, and every land a Palestine." CS Hymnal 238:2]
Next is an account of another community thanksgiving ceremony. (B-3) This time the thanksgiving is not simply for deliverance or supply but also for the fact that God is the only power in the world. Verses 35-43 emphasize God's power over growth, over the harvests and over the course of history. It is a testimony of thanks for the fact that pagan idolatry is comprised of nothing but false beliefs and for the proof of an all powerful, single God.
Science and Health instructs us to be grateful for the good we have already received. Our gratitude should be such that we expect even more good. (S-1) When our thanks are genuine, they lead us to a better understanding and a higher recognition of good. (S-4 & S-5)
Section 2-["Feed the hungry"-"Feed the famished affections"-"with grace for to-day" Hymn 304. S&H 17 One Thanksgiving–after the Huff family dog ate our turkey off an oven cooling rack-our family shared a special grace and oneness of spiritual priorities that fed our deeper needs] Once we have truly recognized the good that God has given us, we are better equipped to put our trust in Him alone. Through gratitude and trust we can truly live without worry. When we trust in God, we are able to see that he will supply every human need. To see the fullness of God's supply, we should not turn away from what is provided for us, even if it seems to be from an unexpected source or of an unusual form. (B-9 & B-10)
Science and Health confirms our need to trust in God for our supply. (S-6 and S-7) Trusting in an all-good God, we needn't worry about supply failing or faltering. Trusting matter to supply or sustain us always ends in limits and our harmony seems to be derailed. (S-8) But Mrs. Eddy proved by her healing of a woman that food has no power to cause either health or sickness. (S-10) When we put our trust in the infinite supply and strength of God, material beliefs disappear and we are never left wanting. (S-11)
Section 3-[Heal worry–"ingratitude in advance"–with gratitude in advance that God keeps His promises and supplies us perfectly when we are obedient to His commandments (B-15).] With gratitude for God's goodness and trust in His strength, we can prove what we have learned. Only by constantly striving to walk in Christ's path are we led to God and thereby able to see and cherish the good that God provides. (B-15) The one God is all-powerful and can dissolve any inharmonious claim (S-12 and S-16) but we must live in obedience to God and show Him forth in our lives. (S-13 thru S-15)
Section 4-[Be a cheerful giver! "Freely ye have received, freely give!" Matthew 10:8] In the ninth chapter of Corinthians II Paul writes about the benefits of generosity. (B-19) Paul points out that giving benefits not only the recipient but also the giver. (Remember how we must avail ourselves of the good already received in order to be ready to receive more good?) Giving of the good that we have already demonstrated is not only the ultimate "thank you" to God, but it also passes that good along to others. And the recipient of that good, Paul tells us, receives a dual benefit. His need is met and he begins again to praise God, which starts the cycle of good over again.
The highest gift we have to give is healing. Those of us who know the truth must go out and give that gift to others. It is not a light that should be hidden, but should shine for all to know and cherish. (B-16 through B-18)
The good that we realize is never limited. Once we recognize that this good is from God, we have claim to an infinite source of good and therefore we are free to pass good on to others without worry of lack or limitation. (S-18)
It doesn't matter whether your home is large or small or if your bank account is full or nonexistent; if you have even a small understanding of Truth, Life and Love, you are "rich in Spirit." This wealth, even in the smallest denomination, is bigger and stronger than any amount of money ever conceived by man. This wealth must be shared with those that are blinded by matter so that they too may be freed to see and more easily receive the blessings of God. (S-19) The blinded thinkers of this world are desperately waiting for their eyes to be opened. We must share the truth and those that are ready to hear it will respond to the gift with gratitude. (S-23)
[PS. Here's Warren's promised, whole-hearted song of gratitude to God and to Christian Science for the priceless gift of a life-saving healing!
“About a year ago—after a joyous 2008 summer and fall of service, I found myself agonizing in the passenger seat during our evening move home from camp. I sang (along with the sound system) many hymns that I knew by heart—thanks to years of camp Hymn Sing experience—belting them out at first through tears of intense pain, and later through tears of immense gratitude. For the first part of the trip the disabling discomfort just wouldn't let up—no matter how I changed my position or what hymns or citations I prayed.
The pain seemed to radiate from a huge internal growth that had been steadily growing for several months. It had attempted to rob me of my vigor and my desire/ability to eat —as well as of all ability to lift one of my legs. In deepest humility—and supported by the prayers of the dear driver, my mom and a practitioner who I kept calling—I continued to reach out to God and to sing each word with renewed understanding, conviction and vigor.
With tears of joy I cherished the truths about my spiritual nature as if they were being tenderly told to me for the first time and for the purpose of saving my life for God's service—and that they did! All pain finally broke thanks to this all-out, fervent praying and singing—and I have hardly stopped smiling or singing ever since. I remain eternally grateful that I took "God-is-All" instead of Tylenol—that I chose Christian Science treatment to eliminate not only the pain, but also its cause rather that just opting to temporarily relieve suffering.
I knew when I got home without pain that I was healed, although the draining and dissolving of the growth took several more weeks of consistent "ray-delineation therapy" which "dissolves tumors" with the invigorating purity of "the sunlight of Truth" that "Christian Science brings to the body." (S&H 162:4) I applied each ray of this divine, healing sunlight —shining the specific, promising laws and wonderful ideas set forth in this precious paragraph.
"Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates (refreshes, revitalizes, stimulates, enlivens, energizes, animates, rejuvenates, strengthens) and purifies (cleanses, disinfects, sanitizes, decontaminates, filters). Christian Science acts as an alterative (a medicinal plant that causes a gradual beneficial change in the body, usually through improved nutrition and elimination, without having any marked specific action OR A medicine or treatment which gradually induces a change, and restores healthy functions without sensible evacuations), neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions (emissions, discharges, oozings), expels humors (4 Medieval ones to be balanced: blood, yellow bile, phlegm, black bile see http://www.wsu.edu/~hanly/chaucer/coursematerials/humours.html), dissolves tumors (growths, cancers, lumps, swellings), relaxes rigid muscles ("thought-forces"), restores carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir (rouse, wake up, budge, shift, get up, revive) the human mind to a change of base (basis, foundation, origin, heart, starting point), on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind." (S&H 162:4). Have fun singing out this transforming "sunlight of Truth"!]
Warren Huff, Executive Director The CedarS Camps
Website: www.cedarscamps.org Email: warren@cedarscamps.org<br />
Tel: (636) 394-6162
