Peace in Congo, Afghanistan, Sudan

Peace. Is it a distant concept?

Well, maybe. I know our lives are busy, but for the last several years a civil war has been raging in the central African country of Congo. In this civil war, most of the victims are women and children. What should your response be? Should it be indifference or should you bless everyone involved in the conflict? Jesus Christ believed that you should bless our enemies. That's the way he lived and his life and theology changed the world. If you follow Jesus, then Congo, or Sudan or Afghanistan is a great opportunity to bless everyone involved in wars in these countries. What I didn't realize until recently is how much the soldiers perpetrating violence need blessing. We don't bless them in their violence of course. We bless them in their desire to do right, their humanitarianism, their care for the weak. We bless them in their soberness.

The first time I started praying for Congo, I listened to God for ideas. And God answered right away and said to pray about drunkenness, including being drunk with power and the love of violence.

Blessing everyone involved in a conflict is powerful. How can I say that? Because in life we are dealing with ideas. In war, the idea is there are tribal differences, there are many minds at war with each other, there are limited resources, there's bad blood, bad history, enraged thinking. That's where God and Christ come in. Jesus proved the power of loving your enemies by blessing and loving even on the cross. This Love overcame death. God is divine Love, which is infinite Love. Infinite means "fills all space."

You end war by not ignoring it. You end war, not by taking sides, but by living, praying and knowing that God, infinite Love is everywhere and all powerful. You end war by blessing everyone including the soldiers. When you do that, you are practicing the First Commandment (Exodus 20:3) that there are no other gods (powers or authority) besides Love.

I bless you all as children of the one God, divine Love. I bless all those trapped by war and all those waging war as children of God.

Mary Baker Eddy, an American woman who discovered the laws of God, which she named Christian Science, said this:

"One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed."

You Have a Holy Purpose

Friend, God has called you to be Her presence, the Christ presence today. Wherever you go you are bringing Christ. Jesus Christ said that you are the light of the world. Whatever your vocation, being the light of Christ is your calling. And God would not give you an assignment without the means, the full capability to carry it out. Jesus said that you have the kingdom of heaven within you. Can you see that you already have the kingdom?!

Last summer counselors at a camp I was helping out at were having a struggle with a girl's sour attitude. I kept seeing her as God is seeing her, no matter what. At the end of my week there, this girl, looking radiantly happy, ran over and gave me a hug. Another time, I entered a meeting a few minutes late. After the meeting, someone took me aside and said that the man leading the meeting had been ranting and raving, including cussing, until I walked in the room. He immediately calmed down. Did I do anything? Not a thing. Was I special? Not at all. It was the Christ presence that is in us all. We're just recognizing the Christ (the action of divine Love) and giving it ample room in our lives.

The author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, wrote, "For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its unlikeness, mortality." So, you don't really have two lives. One human and one spiritual.

Your purpose is to love God with all your heart and soul and to serve only God.

Peace to the struggling heart!

There Goes That Storm

Psalms 119:65 - "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them." From this passage we can deduce that experiencing peace and being offended are polar opposites.

In today's world, is it possible to feel real peace? YES! One of my favorite ways to pray is "Peace, be still!" It is a quote from the Gospel of Mark when Jesus was out on a boat that was caught in a sudden storm. He commanded the storm to cease. And it did.

You know what? You have that same Christly authority. Mark's gospel records that "the wind ceased, and there was a great calm."

When I pray for myself or others, I command the world's mental storm, "Peace, be still!" Then, I pray for this for the patient, and then I tell myself, "Peace, be still." Praying in this manner has proven very effective.

The author of the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, says that, "The lightnings and thunderbolts of error [evil] may burst and flash till the cloud is cleared and the tumult dies away in the distance. Then the raindrops of divinity refresh the earth. As St. Paul says: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (of Spirit)." (S&H 288:14)

That's how Christian Science healings feel to me. I feel like we hear the storm dieing off in the distance, until it fades entirely. When this happens we think, I know that X seemed so serious, but now I wonder why I was fearful. I've seen this for healings of physical and mental problems.

It is God's law, Her law of Love, rather than any human effort that brings healing. God does the work! we watch Him work. We're just recognizing that the law of good is present and in operation.

Peace, be still! What an available companion that command is.

Love's Impulse

I used to put off praying. Not that I wouldn't eventually follow through. Now, I don't wait. When the thought comes to pray - I pray. If the thought comes to drop to my knees and pray, I follow that lead. Now, I believe that I am working at divine Love's impulse.

Sometimes that means waking up at 2AM because Love says, "Pray!" And, sometimes it means going to a professional hockey game with someone you love and have fun!

I am finding great satisfaction, love, and happiness responding to Love's impulse.

"Sensualism is not bliss, but bondage. For true happiness, man must harmonize with his Principle, divine Love; the Son must be in accord with the Father, in conformity with Christ."

-From Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
337:6-10

World Out of Control?

It is in my heart to pray for our world this morning. God governs. God being all good, governs everything harmoniously. Anything out of control is a denial to God. So, one or the other is not true. Material sense does not comprehend how anything in front of it is not true. Well, material sense often believes it's own illusions. Man is the likeness of God (Gen. 1.). God is not the likeness of man/material sense.

God-good governs. Period. Therefore nothing is out of control. To God, His spiritual sense, and his spiritual ideas all is harmonious. On this basis Christ Jesus healed. He had a different vision.

Today, I am declaring that God is in control. He is in control of me, my future, the Earth's future, Iraq's future (and present!), Iran, North Korea. If I don't do that, I'm saying that evil gets to choose when good is in charge and when it's not. It's a boaster. Jesus called it "a liar and the father of it."

Always in Our Right Place

This weekend my wife and I took my son to a Segway human transporter class at the St. Louis Science Center. About a mile from the science center, the car ran out of gas. Becaue I like to play practical jokes, my son, Peter, thought I was joking around. It wasn't a joke (this time). We rolled as far as we could and Peter and his mom had to walk the rest of the way. I called a tow truck to bring some gas. However, I wanted to be with Peter to see him on this amazing transportation device. (It is an ingenious device that balances itself on one axle using computers and gyros.) The class was about to start and the tow truck was still en route. I decided to listen to God and I heard that we are always in our right place at all times.

I love that simple spiritual fact. What? Iis such a thing as always being in your right place possible? When we consider that God-good is the only Cause and the only Creator, that He is omnipresent (everywhere at the same time) and that we are truly spiritual reflections of this grand Creator, such a thing is possible.

On one-hand, humanly I was not where I longed to be and felt that I should be. But, I refused to listen to anything that said I was separated from my right place and listened to God. I reasoned that according to God, I was always in my right place. And, that my true location was with God, not in a car without gas away from my wife and son.

I felt this simple unlabored peace, this God bestowed trust that I was in my right place. I did not outline that all would be well when the tow truck came. I felt and knew that in reality, spiritually, everything was already well. My thought had yielded to the Christ, and the result was peace, trust, and comfort. Not surprisingly, as I finished my prayer, the tow truck arrived and gave me fuel. I drove to the science center and was able to see the smile on my son's face as he piloted his Segway around.

I didn't miss out on any good that evening. Quite the opposite. I learned again that scientifically we are always in our right place.