Go to spirituality.com and click on “past chats.”
Val Kilmer talks about his film in the making on Mark Twain and Mary Baker Eddy. Go to spirituality.com. Enjoy!
June 2nd, 2010What do you learn in Sunday School?
May 25th, 2010We believe …“A little child will lead them” (Isaiah 11: 6)
INFINITE HORIZONS
SCHOOL ON SUNDAY
-Helping children/teens discover their Godlike qualities and their innate greatness, in a casual Sunday school setting
Click here for information
“which is the Christ in you; the hope of glory.” Col 1: 27
Learn what God is.
What God’s love means to you:
To keep you healthy.
To keep you happy.
To keep you safe.
To keep you true to yourself.
To keep you loving others.
To know the Bible.
These ideas spring from the direction stated in the Christian Science Manual, Article XX, Subject of Lessons. Section 3.’ The first lessons of the children should be the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20: 3-17), the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6: 9-13), and its Spiritual Interpretation by Mary Baker Eddy, Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5: 3-12). The next lessons consist of such questions and answers as are adapted to a juvenile class, and may be found in the Christian Science Quarterly Lessons, read in Church services. The instructions given by the children’s teachers must not deviate from the absolute Christian Science contained in their textbook.’
We tailor the classes to the age and experience of the children present, so that they can learn how to apply God’s law of divine Love to their own lives, in their own way. Sometimes the youngest children find it easier to heal than adults because of their innocent receptive thought.
What is Sunday School all about?
Phone (760) 753 4545
912 S. Coast Hwy. 101, (just South of H Street – across from Starbucks), Encinitas, CA 92024
If you would like to receive information from our Christian Science Society of Encinitas which includes notices about our events and services, please enter your email address to the right in the subscribe window. It is free, and you will then be sent an email to confirm your subscription.
Fruitage from Ribbon Cutting and Healing in Africa Talk!
May 13th, 2010Thank you for your loving support of our Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and Mark Ruble’s talk on Reading Rooms and Healing in Africa! It was such a happy time – an opportunity to get to know each other and hear of the wonderful quick, whole and complete healings that have been done in Africa. It was also heartwarming to hear of the practical steps that have been taken to help those in Africa with the basic needs of food and clothing. For more information on helping those in Africa, go to www.iwanttohelpafrica.com.
This was such a joyful time, we hope you can come and visit us during Reading Room hours, to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere and opportunity to find out how to bring healing into your lives, and the lives of others.
Thank you!
Below are the links to Mark’s wonderful talk!
See what Love has prepared by Mark Patterson
April 25th, 2010So I’m driving my old 1968 VW camper bus with my friend Scot up to visit his grandpa on his homestead along the Wind River in Wyoming. My VW has a habit of occasionally eating its fan belt, so I always carry a couple spares. I am between jobs so I figured it’s cheaper replacing the fan belts than repairing the problem.
Scot and I’ve been driving non-stop for hours now across the vast lonely open spaces of eastern Oregon when suddenly the VW’s warning lights come on. It ate a fan belt. We pull over, open the engine hatch, I pop on another, and we’re on our way.
A half hour later the warning lights come on again! What?! Another fan belt’s gone. I know I have one more, so I fix it. But now I’m nervous. We haven’t passed a town or a gas station for a long time and the idea of being stuck without help and maybe missing out on visiting Grandpa is disconcerting to say the least.
I start thinking, “Well, if it’s right to see Grandpa, it’ll work out.” It’s Wednesday night and Scot suggests that we have our own little testimony meeting (as is common in Christian Science churches) and so we do. I’m reluctant at first, but Scot starts off and soon we’re sharing things we’re grateful to God for and my anxiety lessens dramatically.
Until the dashboard lights up again.
We’ve burned through 3 fan belts in the space of 60 miles. Plus now there are mysterious metal shavings coming off the engine pulley. Ugh. I rummage around anxiously and – find one last spare fan belt. It feels like a minor miracle.
We put it on, get back in the VW, and this time, both of us start to pray.
Praying trusts our deepest desires to God. It turns us away from the fatalistic resignation of “if it’s right, it’ll work out” kind of thinking. Knowing that God is Love and that Love is power helps us let go of fear, let’s us become still, lets us see the solution – the salvation – Divine Love has always already prepared for us.
And that’s exactly what happens to Scot and me.
Praying lets me glimpse that if God really is Love, and if God really is power, and if God is really actively present in our lives, then I can be a witness to that. I cling to this idea. You could say I “stand still” with it, because it is a solid Biblical truth. Not an “if it’s right it’ll work out” kind of thing. No. Solid. It helps me actively look and see what Love has prepared for us, right here and right now.
That’s all I need to do: just see what Divine Love has prepared for us.
What a wonderful feeling that is, to know that my job right now is just to be a witness of what Love has already prepared for us. It’s actually fun to think about – because you know it has to be good. Mrs. Eddy – whose life was full of such witnessing, wrote: “Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.” (Science and Health p. 66:14)
And that is about to be proven.
So we drive on. And on. And in the growing twilight we see some buildings up ahead. We’re on the outskirts of Boise already! And there, just off the road is… a VW dealership!
It’s almost 9pm now and we figure we can just pull in there, sleep in our bus for the night, and wait until morning to get help. But then we notice that the back door of the building is open. But instead of being happy, I start to worry “what if no one’s there” or “what if someone is there, but they don’t want to help us.”
Then I remember, no! Let’s just see what Love has prepared for us.
So we park and walk through the open door. There are five mechanics busily putting things away and cleaning up and obviously getting ready to leave. I start to worry again about burdening them with our problems but then remember again “just to see what Love has prepared” and I hear myself asking “Can you help us?”
One of the mechanics comes over, wiping his hands off on a red shop rag, he asks us what’s the problem.
We tell him the story, how we’re on our way to visit Scot’s grandpa, how the VW ate three fan belts and now there are these metal shavings and we weren’t sure why.
He comes out to our VW bus and looks at the engine. Then quietly goes back inside and starts looking through a junk box. My mind is filling again with “what if he can’t find what we need” and then immediately I go back to that solid thought of just trusting that God is present, blessing all of us, that we actually can see what Love has prepared.
He pulls out a pulley wheel and rummages around some more and – in the midst of this big box of all kinds of junk – finds a tiny shim, the missing little piece of metal that wedges the pulley wheel correctly in place. Then he looks around under a shop bench, finds a box of fan belts and pulls out one that had come off an old Chevy. “This’ll fit” he says, then goes back out to our VW and installs everything, sliding in the missing shim, adjusting the torque on the pulley bolt correctly, and putting on the belt just right.
Then the worrying thoughts start to come back again: We hardly have any money. How much is this going to cost? How am I going to pay for this?
But I stop. And then I sincerely go back in my heart, remembering to just stop being afraid and see what Love has prepared. He looks up at us and says “That oughta do it” and I ask him how much we owe him, and he says “Nothing. Just go have a good visit with your grandpa.”
Maybe all of twenty minutes have passed and, after shaking his hand and thanking him profusely, we are back on the road to Wyoming – rejoicing to be witnesses to the wonderful kindness that Love had prepared for us.
I’ve leaned on this lesson many times since that trip. And it has made me realize how important it is not to resign my thinking to fatalism, to the “if it’s right, it’ll work out” kind of wishful thinking that has nothing to do with the way Jesus taught us to pray and rely on God. Jesus taught us to silence that kind of wishywashy fearful approach. He taught us instead actively pray, to be expectant that God’s goodness for us is present, right where we are, to leave fear behind, to stand still with Love, and then go to that place inside where we can see the salvation of the Lord – where we can feel ourselves being an active witness to what Love – not fear, or fate, or history, or circumstances – has prepared for us.
Mrs. Eddy wrote: “Immortal Mind is God, immortal good; in whom the Scripture saith ‘we live, and move, and have our being.’ This Mind, then, is not subject to growth, change, or diminution, but is the divine intelligence, or Principle, of all real being; holding man forever in the rhythmic round of unfolding bliss, as a living witness to and perpetual idea of inexhaustible good.” Misc. 82:28
So why give in to thinking “If it’s right it’ll work out” when God is already holding you in His arms? When you are already His “living witness to… inexhaustible good”?
Divine Love has great things in store for you. Don’t be afraid. Listen to the intuition that guides you to trust in God and His goodness. Silence the fear and still your thoughts, and stand focused on witnessing God, divine Love, in action.
This is seeing the salvation of the Lord. This is receiving your daily bread – your daily experience of the grace of God. This makes your life a great adventure of giving as well as receiving Love’s blessings.
Oh, and by the way, Scot and I had a great time at Grandpa’s ranch, a safe drive home, and my VW bus never ate a fan belt again.
“Give us this day our daily bread.” Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections.
You are always invited to join us for our Sunday church service at the Reading Room in person or on zoom Sunday morning at 10 am PT. To let us know you are coming, please email us at christiansciencenote@gmail.com and we can help you find the link to our meeting. After church we have an open discussion about the week’s Bible lesson and/or testimonies of healing and comments and questions about Christian Science.
Phone (760) 753 4545
912 S. Coast Hwy. 101, Encinitas, CA 92024
If you would like to receive information from our Christian Science Society of Encinitas which includes notices about our events and services, please enter your email address to the right in the subscribe window. It is free, and you will then be sent an email to confirm your Subscription.
What I love
April 25th, 2010What I love isn’t a person
Not a body, personality
It is the perfect reflection, expression of You
What else can I do
But see You
The mortal seems so real
But it is just a counterfeit
Man is made in your own image
Perfect and spiritual
So all I can see and love is only You
Laura Wright
Encinitas, CA
Getting Out
April 25th, 2010Out
Out of the stuffy, dark
Closet of self
Out
Into the cool, fresh breeze
Of unselfishness
Joy just there
Not because of person, place or circumstance
Just there
Ever-present good
Never ending Love
Changing forms
But continually flowing
Lighting our way, keeping us safe
Embracing
Us
Forever
Laura Wright
Encinitas, CA
Finding Truth
April 25th, 2010By Stephanie Wright and Summer Wright
Many thousands of authenticated healings are hidden away in the special calm of a Christian Science Reading Room. This precious place is open for all to find how they can be healed, well supplied, and securely loved. This is a place for seekers to find answers. People who have visited the Reading Room have been healed of age-related problems. We have seen people healed of urinary tract issues, incontinence, and problems with the sciatica nerve. One person had his well-aged parent completely healed, while another found much needed employment–and the list goes on. Since the late 1800s, our periodicals, The Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly magazine, and The Christian Science Journal, a monthly publication, have documented thousands of healings through understanding God. Articles on every kind of healing imaginable are categorized through titles, authors, and subjects available on computer programs. These articles show how to understand and accept the ideas that actually heal people. You may wonder, “How can healing happen without material methods?”
Many people love God but don’t understand God. Perhaps they love and read the Bible, attend inspiring church services, yet they still feel separate from God and often really do not understand what God is seeing and doing. We are all ignorant of God to some degree. Mary Baker Eddy had read the Bible since she was a child and knew it well, but still suffered from many ailments. She sought healing through almost every means available but never found permanent relief. At the age of 45, she had a serious fall on ice and the doctor attending her told her family that he did not expect her to live until morning. She asked for her Bible, read one of Jesus’ healings, gained new insight into how healing took place, and found that she was suddenly well. For the next three years, she searched the Bible and was awakened to the higher meaning of its message. She soon became able to heal as Jesus did. She realized how Jesus understood God’s creation. Through this study she began to write down her inspiration and teach others. These writings were the beginning of her main work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. It in no way replaces the Bible; it simply brings out the spiritual importance of its teachings. What Mrs. Eddy discovered and proved is that God is present everywhere–yes right where you are–and that God is perfect goodness. She saw that God has made us spiritual and perfect, and that this understanding heals. She discovered far more than a theory–she discovered Truth.
Now you may be thinking, “How can this be? How do we attain this unity with perfection?” Through finding and understanding the real nature of God, we begin to understand perfection in this imperfect world. This is the ultimate practice. It’s complete in every way. Accepting what God is usually requires a leap of faith, but our steps are upheld by the arms of our Maker who loves us. It is very sweet indeed. Once a student makes this shift in thinking and sees the favorable results, the light dawns in consciousness and Truth is received and accepted. It can be experienced again and again. This takes place right in our own thinking, our consciousness. All healing is pretty simple; it’s accepting that it sometimes takes effort. This is the purpose of the support systems offered in the Reading Room.
Because this knowledge is totally exemplified by Jesus Christ, Mrs. Eddy named her discovery Christian. Because the Mind of Christ is consistently effective when correctly understood, she also named it Science (a systemized body of knowledge).
Along with Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the Christian Science textbook, the Reading Room and Bookstore contains many resources to help us learn this Science. There are audio talks, lectures, pod casts for your computer – iPhones and mp3 players. We have music and healing articles on CD. We also have biographies of Mary Baker Eddy by Christian Scientists and non-Christian scientists alike. We welcome you and will do all we can to speed you on your way to permanent health and happiness.
For more information, testimonials and short videos, visit www.christianscience.com. The Encinitas Reading Room is located at 514 Second Street in San Diego’s North County. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Every Tues at 11 a.m. is a worldwide chat from www.spirituality.com, hosted by a Christian Science Healer and/or Teacher. Group meetings are at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Sundays and 7:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. “God is Love” Sunday school is held at 10 a.m. on Sunday as well. Please visit us or contact 760.753.4545 or cssencinitas.ca@gmail.com to learn more. Stephanie Wright and Summer Wright are members of the Christian Science Society of Encinitas, CA.
http://www.visionmagazine.com/archives/0909/Regional.html
When there was no one else there
April 25th, 2010When there was no one else there…. You were there,
Guiding and guarding and caring for me.
I’ve seen you through so many people and things,
To understand you – the joy it brings!
Each time I glimpse Your beauty, Your grace,
I see work to be done – new lines to trace.
Do I have the courage to see this through?
Can I be honest and true like You?
You never falter, you never faint –
Your image and likeness, in mind, I paint.
I must be pure in heart and mind,
Since I am from the God-like kind.
Have I the strength if not through you?
No, there’s nothing else to hold on to.
How can I find that final release,
To be set free and inspired, to be at peace?
What must I see, or hear, to know?
Wence does it come, that eternal glow?
Expressed, unimagined, never heard of,
Like a melody sung of a heavenly dove.
I seek…….. And with each step I take,
I see more real, forsake the fake,
Inspired, refreshed, and born anew,
Like Christians before – who understood You.
How do I discern with freedom not fear
And follow the Shepherd – so many sheep to shear!
Unwanted sheep of life’s untried path
God guide me I pray thee, the way thou hath.
Keep me from the unwanted ills,
The greed, the hate, the anger that kills.
To see the glory of this unending day,
Show me through your eyes the Truth of today!
Man in your likeness, the Christ undismayed,
Made manifest in all the ideas You have made.
Expressing the Principle You are, my Lord,
Truth – to myself, must I show cross the board!
Endurance, justice – all you bestow,
Increase’s the knowledge the all Mind here shows.
Fighting the battle, what’s hiding in thought,
Frees me and others of mortal things taught.
Unlearn life as it has been shown,
And see what I can, of the unknowable known.
Clarity
April 25th, 2010How do I get clear, on what seems like such a blur?
I already know as the question is asked,
But writing it down helps to forgive things past.
We are not what we were or what we seem to be,
We are in fact God expressed, eternally.
To see this Truth I look though the lens,
Of the Science of Life on which existence depends.
It shows me the Christ that Jesus has taught,
Brought though the light of that great women’s thought.
Mrs. Eddy by name, or Leader the same,
One with the Father who is never to blame.
God is all our lives, our realness true,
Our freedom from bondage from fettered, mortal, wombs.
Shining before me with His likeness divine,
It’s me who She’s seeing as His wondrous shine!
And look, there they are! the ones I thought bad,
Perfectly normal without any sad,
Frowns on their faces or feeling disgrace,
Just being a likeness, reflecting Her face.
We’re one with each other, united in Him,
Who brings us the light, and never goes dim.
We cannot be fearful, seek lust or dismay,
We are constant, eternally free from decay.
I’ll never stop loving or being just me,
Who to be is the expression of eternity.
What is Unity?
April 25th, 2010I am constantly learning in Science that unity is actually the collaboration of the ideas of God, which all being is truly in and of Him, divine Mind, seeing and expressing Itself.
Every Sunday, and hopefully every day, we pray in the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father which art in heaven”…. OUR Father… In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy gives us the spiritual meaning of this passage in the words “Our Father-Mother God – all harmonious”. The divine parent of everybody. Could it be that the idea presented in this phrase is the key to staying constantly connected with God and with each other throughout life?
As we love each other more, expressing the qualities that make up our true being, we see our oneness with God come to the surface and have a demonstrable effect in our lives. But we can’t stop there. If we are to do good simply to have it in return then it will be said of us that indeed we loved little. Christ Jesus said that we must love the way that he loved and gave this as the “new commandment”.
Before he gave us this commandment a lawyer asked him, “Master, what can I do to inherit eternal life?” He answered the man by going over the commandments of Moses. The man said that he had done this and still felt he lacked something. So, again he petitions Jesus, “these I have done,” he says, “what lack I yet?” Jesus, always letting the Mind of Christ work in him, says to the man, “Sell all you have and follow me.” Now, selling all of his possessions may have been a step in the right direction but it seems to me that true humility comes through selfless love, not selling material possessions. Even though this would be a great sacrafice, it doesn’t bring us to the point of loving spiritually.
In the light of Christian Science we can look beyond the mortal sense of things and see that, though he may have been asked to give up much materially, Jesus was really asking him to follow him in thought and in deed, telling him to learn to love the way he did. Loving without thought of his possessions, his family, his beliefs, and his life. Paul speaks of this love in his letter to the Corinthians when he says that if he has the faith to move mountains, if he sells all he has and gives it to the poor, or if he understands all the mysteries of God, or even is burned at the stake, and has no love, he is nothing. To me, this love he is talking about is a loving the way that God loves.
There are many words used for this kind of Christian love, my favorite one is grace. Grace is defined by some as divine influence in the heart, reflected in the life, or letting God work through us, through our hearts and minds for the benefit of others.
Our Master loved selflessly, without thought of what he would get in return. He showed the world the true meaning of divinity embracing humanity, that spiritual link that connects all of us to each other, and shows us our unity with God, with good, constantly, infinitely, and eternally.
I see this as a crucial point in His ministry. Such sayings as “I and my Father are one”, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”, and in praying to the Father about his followers said “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” John 17:21
This shows us that as we see our oneness with God, we will also see it with each other. Can you imagine a world where people measure the good in their lives, their treasure, by how they treat other people, by how they love? Can you see the peace that the grace of God brings? I hope so, cause it is here, right now. Close your eyes for a moment and try to see this truth right here, right now… hope you got a better view.
Another thing Jesus said was “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” AT HAND! Here! NOW!! With us! To prove through right thinking, acting, and living. As we each get our personnal sense of self out of the way and let divine Mind shine through, we shall see that we are not all trying to make our individual mind’s think like God’s Mind, or to get different minds to think like us, or to have others convert to something that they are not, or even to change ourselves into something we are not, but what we will see, through Mind, is that we are all expressing the thinking of the one Mind. Divine Mind. The Mind of Christ. It is here, now. It is not far off or waiting to reveal itself. All that needs to be done is for us to accept it, and live it.
There is a quote in the “We new Mary Baker Eddy” series by Sue Harper Mims that speaks to me of the way to live in this Mind. This student speaks of a time, while in class instruction, that Mrs. Eddy asks the students just what is the best way to do instantaneous healing? Some answer, “Realize the ever-presence of good”, others say, “Deny the claims of evil”, and so on. After they quite down she answers them with the statement, which, to me, brings out the essential unity of God and man…. She says to love. She says, “I will tell you how to do it. It is to love! Just live love – be it – love, love, love. Do not know anything but Love. Be all love. There is nothing else. That will do the work. It will heal everything, it will raise the dead. BE nothing but love.”
This speaks to me of the unity that Jesus referred to when he said, “I give you a new commandment; Love each other the way that I have loved you.”
This command of our Lord brings to light the only way that we can truly follow him. Are we willing to love in this way? Are we willing to forsake all that we know for a higher understanding of the Christ and Christian Science? Are we willing to be comforted? Individually? Globally? Universally?” I know I am. I hope you are too. Science demands on us nothing that we cannot do. I see it as more of a question of will we do.
Are we really ready to “sell of we have and follow Him, in our thinking, in our talking, in our acting? At home, at work, at school, and at church? Are we willing to humble ourselves so much that it really is God speaking, acting, and working through us. Or are we to caught up in the fact that we need to do the work ourselves?
It is a constant battle for me to see through divine revelation to what is really going on in my experience, but when I do, it enables me to love the way our Master and Leader clearly point out. And it heals… “The way is strait and narrow and there are few that go in thereat.” Lets be those few. Lets live that love, here, now, together. This will unite our church, it will unite our community, it will unite our country, and it will unite our world. And I think that is a great start!