Wednesday Bible Readings

November 13th, 2024

From The Bible

Rom. 15:4 whatsoever

... whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. 

Ps. 43:5

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God. 

Ps. 130:7

Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. 

Ps. 61:1, 2, 8 (to ,); 62:1, 2 (to 2nd ;), 11

Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. ...So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, … Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; ...God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. 

Matt. 4:23 (to 1st ,), 24 2nd and

¶ And Jesus went about all Galilee, ... and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. 

Matt. 9:20–22

¶ And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. 

Heb. 11:1

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 

Matt. 17:14 (to 1st And), 14 there, 15, 18–20

¶ And ... there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. … And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. 

Gal. 5:5

For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. 

Rom. 5:5

And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. 

Acts 3:1 (to ,), 2, 3, 5–7 expecting (to :), 8, 11–13 (to 1st ,), 13 2nd the (to ;), 16 (to 1st ,), 16 yea

Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, … And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple; Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms. ... expecting to receive something of them. Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: … And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. … And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. ¶ And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, ... the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; … And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, ... yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. 

Ps. 62:5

My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. 

John 13:36 (to ;); 14:1 (to :), 15, 16

¶ Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; … Let not your heart be troubled: ... ¶ If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 

Lam. 3:26

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. 

Heb. 6:10 God (to 1st ,), 11, 19

... God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, … And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: … Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 

Rom. 15:13

Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

SH 361:25–27 (to ,)

A germ of infinite Truth, though least in the kingdom of heaven, is the higher hope on earth, ...

SH 588:7 (only, to ;)

Holy Ghost. Divine Science; ...

SH 107:1–3, 7–10; 108:3, 19–24 (to ;), 30

IN the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and named my discovery Christian Science. ...
This apodictical Principle points to the revelation of Immanuel, “God with us,” — the sovereign ever-presence, delivering the children of men from every ill “that flesh is heir to.” ... According to St. Paul, it was “the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power.” It was the divine law of Life and Love, unfolding to me the demonstrable fact that matter possesses neither sensation nor life; that human experiences show the falsity of all material things; and that immortal cravings, “the price of learning love,” establish the truism that the only sufferer is mortal mind, for the divine Mind cannot suffer. … When apparently near the confines of mortal existence, standing already within the shadow of the death-valley, I learned these truths in divine Science: that all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-present; … My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed mind produces all the organism and action of the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels, and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that Mind is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in Mind-science. 

SH 109:11–13 (to ,), 15–16 (to ,), 16–24, 28–29, 31 John

For three years after my discovery, I sought the solution of this problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scriptures and read little else, ... The search was sweet, calm, and buoyant with hope, ...I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God, and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration. The revelation of Truth in the understanding came to me gradually and apparently through divine power. …  Jesus once said of his lessons: “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. ... (John vii. 16, 17.) 

SH xi:1–7 (to 1st ,), 9–14

Many imagine that the phenomena of physical healing in Christian Science present only a phase of the action of the human mind, which action in some unexplained way results in the cure of disease. On the contrary, Christian Science rationally explains that all other pathological methods are the fruits of human faith in matter, … The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus’ time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation. 

SH 332:19 Jesus

... Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea of God — the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth. 

SH 171:14

Jesus illustrated the divine Principle and the power of immortal Mind by healing sickness and sin and destroying the foundations of death. 

SH x:22–23

The divine Principle of healing is proved in the personal experience of any sincere seeker of Truth. 

SH 152:5

The author has endeavored to make this book the Æsculapius of mind as well as of body, that it may give hope to the sick and heal them, although they know not how the work is done. Truth has a healing effect, even when not fully understood. 

SH 40:25–28, 31

Our heavenly Father, divine Love, demands that all men should follow the example of our Master and his apostles and not merely worship his personality. … The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and this advance beyond matter must come through the joys and triumphs of the righteous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions. Like our Master, we must depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being. 

SH 298:4–7 (to Science), 13–17 (to 2nd ,), 17–18 never, 20–21 (to 1st ,), 21–23 start (to 2nd ,)

As a cloud hides the sun it cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot destroy Science ...Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality. Material sense expresses the belief that mind is in matter. This human belief, alternating between a sense of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, ... never reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal. ... Spiritual ideas, ... start from Principle, and admit no materialistic beliefs. Spiritual ideas lead up to their divine origin, God, ...

SH 12:1–9 (to ,), 10–11 (to ,)

“The prayer of faith shall save the sick,” says the Scripture. What is this healing prayer? A mere request that God will heal the sick has no power to gain more of the divine presence than is always at hand. The beneficial effect of such prayer for the sick is on the human mind, making it act more powerfully on the body through a blind faith in God. This, however, is one belief casting out another, ... It is neither Science nor Truth which acts through blind belief, ...

SH 167:3–7

If we rise no higher than blind faith, the Science of healing is not attained, and Soul-existence, in the place of sense-existence, is not comprehended. We apprehend Life in divine Science only as we live above corporeal sense and correct it. 

SH 368:10

Against the fatal beliefs that error is as real as Truth, that evil is equal in power to good if not superior, and that discord is as normal as harmony, even the hope of freedom from the bondage of sickness and sin has little inspiration to nerve endeavor. When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error. 

SH 1:-10

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. 

SH 297:20–24

Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual evidence, contradicting the testimony of material sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the ever-present, is becoming understood. 

SH 279:3

A New Testament writer plainly describes faith, a quality of mind, as “the substance of things hoped for.” 

SH 278:32–3

Which ought to be substance to us, — the erring, changing, and dying, the mutable and mortal, or the unerring, immutable, and immortal? 

SH 468:17–22 Substance

... Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are substance, as the Scriptures use this word in Hebrews: “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Spirit, the synonym of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance. 

SH 301:6–13

To himself, mortal and material man seems to be substance, but his sense of substance involves error and therefore is material, temporal. 
On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit, which mortals hope for. He reflects the divine, which constitutes the only real and eternal entity. 

SH 496:15

Hold perpetually this thought, — that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being. 

SH 393:32

It is well to be calm in sickness; to be hopeful is still better; but to understand that sickness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the universal and perfect remedy. 

SH 253:9–14

I hope, dear reader, I am leading you into the understanding of your divine rights, your heaven-bestowed harmony, — that, as you read, you see there is no cause (outside of erring, mortal, material sense which is not power) able to make you sick or sinful; and I hope that you are conquering this false sense. 

SH 125:12–16

As human thought changes from one stage to another of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and joy, — from fear to hope and from faith to understanding, — the visible manifestation will at last be man governed by Soul, not by material sense. 

SH 45:17

Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of human hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, hath elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual idea of man and his divine Principle, Love. 

Hymn. 437

All my hope on God is founded; / Day by day my trust is new. / Through the trials of life He guides me, / Only good and only true. / God alone, dearly known, / Calls my heart to be His own. 

Earthly treasures, pride and glory, / Human power and worldly trust, / Though with care and toil are builded, / In the end will fall to dust. / But God’s power, hour by hour, / Is my temple and my tower. 

Daily does th’almighty Giver / Bounteous gifts on us bestow. / Love’s desire our soul delighteth, / Joy attends us where we go. / Blessings stand at God’s hand, / Healing flows at Love’s command. 

Now from man to God eternal / Endless thanks and praise be sung. / Hearts made new are anthems raising / Through the love of Christ, His Son. / Hear God’s call, one and all, / We who follow shall not fall. 

Words: Joachim Neander; tr. Robert Bridges; adapt. Fenella Bennetts, alt.

Music: Herbert Howells

Hymn. 518

Know, O child, your full salvation; / Rise o’er sin and fear and care; / Joy to find, in every station, / Something still to do, or bear. 

Think what spirit dwells within you; / Think what Father’s smiles are yours; / Think what Jesus did to show you: / Spirit’s promise lifts, restores. 

Hasten on from grace to glory, / Armed with faith and winged with prayer; / Heaven’s eternal day before you / God’s own hand shall guide you there. 

So fulfill your holy mission, / Safely pass through pilgrim-days, / Hope shall grow to full fruition, / Faith to sight and prayer to praise. 

Words: Henry Francis Lyte, adapt. alt.

Music: Nicholas P. Schliapin

Hymn. 508

I’ve got peace like a river, / I’ve got peace like a river, / I’ve got peace like a river in my soul. 

I’ve got joy like a fountain, / I’ve got joy like a fountain, / I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul. 

I’ve got love like an ocean, / I’ve got love like an ocean, / I’ve got love like an ocean in my soul. 

I’ve got faith like an anchor, / I’ve got faith like an anchor, / I’ve got faith like an anchor in my soul. 

Words: African American spiritual

Music: African American spiritual; harm. CSPS