Wednesday Readings for February 8th, 2023

From The Bible

Ex. 25:1, 2

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. 

I Chron. 29:1 David (to 1st ,), 5 who, 9 (to 1st ,), 9 because (to :), 20 (to 4th ,), 21 (to 1st ,)

... David the king said unto all the congregation, ...

... who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord? ...

Then the people rejoiced, ... because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord: ...

... ¶ And David said to all the congregation, Now bless the Lord your God. And all the congregation blessed the Lord God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads, and worshipped the Lord, ...

And they sacrificed sacrifices unto the Lord, ...

Ps. 50:7 (to 2nd ,), 7 3rd I, 9, 10 (to ,), 13, 14

Hear, O my people, ... I am God, even thy God. ...

I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, ...

Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: 

Hos. 6:6

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. 

Mic. 6:6, 7 (to 1st ,), 7 2nd for, 8 

¶ Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ... for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? 

John 1:19 this, 20 (to 1st ,), 20 I, 29

... this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, ... I am not the Christ. ...

... ¶ The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 

Mark 11:11 (to :); 12:28 (to scribes), 28 asked, 29 (to 1st ,), 32 (to ;), 33 (to 2nd ,), 33 4th and

And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: ...

... ¶ And one of the scribes ... asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, ...

And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; ...

And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, ... and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. 

Matt. 9:10–13

¶ And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that,he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 

Luke 19:2 (to 4th ,), 4 (to :), 5 (to 6th ,), 5 for, 6 (to 2nd ,), 7–9 (to 2nd ,), 10, 11 (to 2nd ,)

And, behold, there was a man named Zacchæus, which was the chief among the publicans, ...

And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: ...

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchæus, make haste, ... for to-day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, ...

And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, ...

For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, ...

Luke 10:25, 30 (to 4th ,), 30–32 4th and (to 1st ,), 32–34 passed (to 2nd ,), 34 5th and, 37 Then (to Jesus), 37 Go

¶ And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? ...

And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, ... and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, ... passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, ... and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ...

... Then said Jesus ... Go, and do thou likewise. 

Matt. 16:24

¶ Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 

Matt. 10:8

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. 

James 2:14 (to 1st ?), 18

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? ...

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. 

Acts 17:22–26 (to 1st ,), 27 (to 1st ,), 27 though, 28

¶ Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, ...

That they should seek the Lord, ... though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 

Rom. 12:1, 2, 9, 10, 20 (to :), 21

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what isthat good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. ...

Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Bekindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; ...

Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: ...

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. 

II Cor. 5:1, 5, 6, 8

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ...

Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: ...

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. 

Eccl. 12:13

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 

Phil. 2:13

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES by MARY BAKER EDDY

SH 596:7–9 (to .)

Paul saw in Athens an altar dedicated “to the unknown God.” Referring to it, he said to the Athenians: “Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you.” ...

SH 428:15–19

We should consecrate existence, not “to the unknown God” whom we “ignorantly worship,” but to the eternal builder, the everlasting Father, to the Life 

which mortal sense cannot impair nor mortal belief destroy. 

SH 596:1–6

Unknown. That which spiritual sense alone comprehends, and which is unknown to the material senses. 

Paganism and agnosticism may define Deity as “the great unknowable;” but Christian Science brings God much nearer to man, and makes Him better known as the All-in-all, forever near. 

SH 3:14 to

... to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire. 

SH 16:1–2

A great sacrifice of material things must precede this advanced spiritual understanding. 

SH 11:22–31

We know that a desire for holiness is requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we 

desire holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it. We must be willing to do this, that we may walk securely in the only practical road to holiness. Prayer cannot change the unalterable Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding of Truth; but prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us into all Truth. 

SH 266:18 (only)

This is done through self-abnegation. 

SH 568:30–3

Self-abnegation, by which we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against error, is a rule in Christian Science. This rule clearly interprets God as divine Principle, — as Life, represented by the Father; as Truth, represented by the Son; as Love, represented by the Mother. 

SH 286:1

To seek Truth through belief in a human doctrine is not to understand the infinite. We must not seek the immutable and immortal through the finite, mutable, and mortal, and so depend upon belief instead of demonstration, for this is fatal to a knowledge of Science. The understanding of Truth gives full faith in Truth, and spiritual understanding is better than all burnt offerings. 

SH 325:20–2

Paul had a clear sense of the demands of Truth upon mortals physically and spiritually, when he said: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable 

unto God, which is your reasonable service.” But he, who is begotten of the beliefs of the flesh and serves them, can never reach in this world the divine heights of our Lord. The time cometh when the spiritual origin of man, the divine Science which ushered Jesus into human presence, will be understood and demonstrated. 

When first spoken in any age, Truth, like the light, “shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.” A false sense of life, substance, and mind hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific demonstration. 

SH 28:9–11

While respecting all that is good in the Church or out of it, one's consecration to Christ is more on the ground of demonstration than of profession. 

SH 40:25–28

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

. 

SH 326:4–5, 8–15

Jesus said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” ... All nature teaches God's love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual. 

We must forsake the foundation of material systems, however time-honored, if we would gain the Christ as our only Saviour. Not partially, but fully, the great healer of mortal mind is the healer of the body. 

SH 286:9

The Master said, “No man cometh unto the Father [the divine Principle of being] but by me,” Christ, Life, Truth, Love; for Christ says, “I am the way.” Physical causation was put aside from first to last by this original man, Jesus. He knew that the divine Principle, Love, creates and governs all that is real. 

SH 487:19–23, 25–26, 30

Christian evidence is founded on Science or 

demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and there is in reality no such thing as mortal mind. Mere belief is blindness without Principle from which to explain the reason of its hope. ...

The Apostle James said, “Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.” ...

This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This Principle makes whole the diseased, and brings out the enduring and harmonious phases of things. The result of our teachings is their sufficient confirmation. When, on the strength of these instructions, you are 

able to banish a severe malady, the cure shows that you understand this teaching, and therefore you receive the blessing of Truth. 

SH 457:19–24, 28–30

Christian Science is not an exception to the general rule, that there is no excellence without labor in a direct line. One cannot scatter his fire, and at the 

same time hit the mark. To pursue other vocations and advance rapidly in the demonstration of this Science, is not possible. ... The Scientist's demonstration rests on one Principle, and there must and can be no opposite rule. 

SH 458:25 The

The Christian Scientist wisely shapes his course, and is honest and consistent in following the leadings of divine Mind. He must prove, through living as well as healing and teaching, that Christ's way is the only one by which mortals are radically saved from sin and sickness. 

SH 23:1–5, 7 The

Wisdom and Love may require many sacrifices of self to save us from sin. One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to 

pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires constant self-immolation on the sinner's part. ... The atonement is a hard problem in theology, but its scientific explanation is, that suffering is an error of sinful sense which Truth destroys, and that eventually both sin and suffering will fall at the feet of everlasting Love. 

SH 216:28–1

When you say, “Man's body is material,” I say with Paul: Be “willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” Give up 

your material belief of mind in matter, and have but one Mind, even God; for this Mind forms its own likeness. 

SH 261:31–5; 262:7

We should forget our bodies in remembering good and the human race. Good demands of man every hour, in which to work out the problem of being. Consecration to good does not lessen man's dependence on God, but heightens it. Neither does consecration diminish 

man's obligations to God, but shows the paramount necessity of meeting them. ... By putting “off the old man with his deeds,” mortals “put on immortality.” 

SH 428:19

We must realize the ability of mental might to offset human misconceptions and to replace them with the life which is spiritual, not material. 

SH 261:21–27

Detach sense from the body, or matter, which is only a form of human belief, and you may learn the meaning of God, or good, and the nature of the immutable 

and immortal. Breaking away from the mutations of time and sense, you will neither lose the solid objects and ends of life nor your own identity. 

SH 234:9, 31

We should become more familiar with good than with evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we bar our doors against the approach of thieves 

and murderers. We should love our enemies and help them on the basis of the Golden Rule; but avoid casting pearls before those who trample them under foot, thereby robbing both themselves and others. ...

Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more harm than one's belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence. Better suffer a doctor infected with smallpox to attend you than to be treated mentally by one who does not obey the requirements of divine Science. 

SH 150:12

Now, as then, signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical healing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demonstrate its divine origin, — to attest the reality of the higher mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the world. 

SH 564:12–13 (to God), 14–16

The 

Revelator speaks of Jesus as the Lamb of God ... Since Jesus must have been tempted in all points, he, the immaculate, met and conquered sin in every form. 

SH 590:9

Lamb of God. The spiritual idea of Love; self-immolation; innocence and purity; sacrifice. 

SH 1:6

Prayer, watching, and working, combined with self-immolation, are God's gracious means for accomplishing whatever has been successfully done for the Christianization and health of mankind. 

SH 428:8

To divest thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear, — this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may establish in truth the temple, or body, “whose builder and maker is God.” 

SH 203:7–8, 12

If God were understood instead of being merely believed, this understanding would establish health. ... This thought incites to a more exalted worship and self-abnegation. Spiritual perception brings out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in deed and in truth. 

SH 99:23

The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect man. 

SH 202:3

The scientific unity which exists between God and man must be wrought out in life-practice, and God's will must be universally done. 

SH 340:9 Let

... Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: love God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole of man in His image and likeness. Divine Love is infinite. Therefore all that really exists is in and of God, and manifests His love.

Christian Science Hymnals

Hymn. 237

O may we be still and seek Him, / Seek with consecration whole, / Listening thus to hear the message, / Far from sense and hid in Soul. 

He hath promised we shall find Him, / Love divine its promise keeps; / God is watching with the watchful, / God is Life that never sleeps. 

If we pray to Him in secret, / Lift to Him the heart's desire, / We shall find our earthly longings / All made pure by Love's pure fire. 

Then upon the precious metal / God's own image will appear, / Faithfully to Him reflected, / One with Him forever near. 

Words: Fay Linn

Music: 14th Century Carol

Hymn. 110

Here, O God, Thy healing presence / Lifts our thoughts from self and sin, / Fills with light their hidden places, / When Thy love is welcomed in. / Here Thy tender sweet persuasions / Turn us home to heavenly ways, / While our hearts, unsealed, adoring, / Pour the fragrance of Thy praise. 

Reverent lives unveil Thy beauty, / Faithful witness bear of Thee; / Binding up the broken-hearted, / We reflect Thy radiancy. / So may deeper consecration / Show Thee forth in healing's sign, / Till through joyful self-surrender / We in Love's pure likeness shine. 

Words: Maria Louise Baum

Music: J. S. Bach

Hymn. 256

O'er waiting harpstrings of the mind / There sweeps a strain, / Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind / The power of pain, 

And wake a white-winged angel throng / Of thoughts, illumed / By faith, and breathed in raptured song, / With love perfumed. 

Then His unveiled, sweet mercies show / Life's burdens light. / I kiss the cross, and wake to know / A world more bright. 

And o'er earth's troubled, angry sea / I see Christ walk, / And come to me, and tenderly, / Divinely talk. 

Thus Truth engrounds me on the rock, / Upon Life's shore, / 'Gainst which the winds and waves can shock, / Oh, nevermore! 

From tired joy and grief afar, / And nearer Thee,— / Father, where Thine own children are, / I love to be. 

My prayer, some daily good to do / To Thine, for Thee; / An offering pure of Love, whereto / God leadeth me. 

Words: Mary Baker Eddy

Music: Basil Harwood