Wednesday Bible Readings
December 30th, 2024
From The Bible
There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
(John 3:1–8)
Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. ¶ And he spake this parable unto them, saying, ...
... ¶ And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field: ...
And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
(Luke 15:1–3, 11–25 (to :), 28–32)
... be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
... put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. ...
... Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
(Ephesians 4:23 be, 24 put; 5:14 Awake)
And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. ...
And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. ...
... ¶ And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, ...
And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.
(Acts 9:1–6, 8, 10, 11, 17, 18)
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. ...
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
(II Corinthians 5:6, 8, 17)
Question. — What is God?
Answer. — God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.
Question. — Are these terms synonymous?
Answer. — They are. They refer to one absolute God. They are also intended to express the nature, essence, and wholeness of Deity. The attributes of God are justice, mercy, wisdom, goodness, and so on.
Question. — Is there more than one God or Principle?
Answer. — There is not. Principle and its idea is one, and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Being, and His reflection is man and the universe.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 465:8–1)
Question. — What is man?
Answer. — Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God’s image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 475:5–22)
Carnal beliefs defraud us. They make man an involuntary hypocrite, — producing evil when he would create good, forming deformity when he would outline grace and beauty, injuring those whom he would bless.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 263:11–14 Carnal)
Reform comes by understanding that there is no abiding pleasure in evil, and also by gaining an affection for good according to Science, which reveals the immortal fact that neither pleasure nor pain, appetite nor passion, can exist in or of matter, while divine Mind can and does destroy the false beliefs of pleasure, pain, or fear and all the sinful appetites of the human mind.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 327:1–7)
Truth makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away and “all things are become new.” Passions, selfishness, false appetites, hatred, fear, all sensuality, yield to spirituality, and the superabundance of being is on the side of God, good.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 201:7 Truth)
Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts consciousness and leads into all truth.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 505:16–17)
Willingness to become as a little child and to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear, — this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony. The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”
Unless the harmony and immortality of man are becoming more apparent, we are not gaining the true idea of God; and the body will reflect what governs it, whether it be Truth or error, understanding or belief, Spirit or matter. Therefore “acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace.”
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 323:32–12)
Immortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its own, — the radiance of Soul. Immortal men and women are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness which transcend all material sense.
Comeliness and grace are independent of matter. Being possesses its qualities before they are perceived humanly. Beauty is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind and reflects the charms of His goodness in expression, form, outline, and color. It is Love which paints the petal with myriad hues, glances in the warm sunbeam, arches the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with starry gems, and covers earth with loveliness.
The embellishments of the person are poor substitutes for the charms of being, shining resplendent and eternal over age and decay.
The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious freedom of spiritual harmony.
Love never loses sight of loveliness.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 247:13–3)
What an abuse of natural beauty to say that a rose, the smile of God, can produce suffering! The joy of its presence, its beauty and fragrance, should uplift the thought, and dissuade any sense of fear or fever.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 175:9–12)
... The human mind will sometime rise above all material and physical sense, exchanging it for spiritual perception, and exchanging human concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man will recognize his God-given dominion and being.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 531:10 The)
Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree, will uplift the physical and moral standard of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy all error, and bring immortality to light.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 492:7–12)
No impossible thing do I ask when urging the claims of Christian Science; but because this teaching is in advance of the age, we should not deny our need of its spiritual unfoldment. Mankind will improve through Science and Christianity. The necessity for uplifting the race is father to the fact that Mind can do it; for Mind can impart purity instead of impurity, strength instead of weakness, and health instead of disease. Truth is an alterative in the entire system, and can make it “every whit whole.”
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 371:22)
Arise, arise and shine, / On thee hath dawned the day; / God is thy sun, and Christ thy light, / Be thou a steadfast ray.
Sing praise, O waking heart, / For all thy God hath wrought; / For Truth’s clear light on thee hath shone, / And purified thy thought.
No more shall sin and wrong / Obscure the light divine, / For God hath given thee His Son, / And lo, all things are thine.
Arise, arise and shine, / Uplift thee from the sod, / And let thy living light show forth / Man’s unity with God.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 14)
A glorious day is dawning, / And o’er the waking earth / The heralds of the morning / Are springing into birth. / In dark and hidden places / There shines the blessed light; / The beam of Truth displaces / The darkness of the night.
The advocates of error / Foresee the glorious morn, / And hear in shrinking terror, / The watchword of reform: / It rings from hill and valley, / It breaks oppression’s chain. / A thousand freemen rally, / And swell the mighty strain.
The watchword has been spoken, / The light has broken forth, / Far shines the blessed token / Upon the startled earth. / To hearts and homes benighted / The blessed Truth is given, / And peace and love, united, / Point upward unto heaven.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 2)
I walk with Love along the way, / And O, it is a holy day; / No more I suffer cruel fear, / I feel God’s presence with me here; / The joy that none can take away / Is mine; I walk with Love today.
Who walks with Love along the way, / Shall talk with Love and Love obey; / God’s healing truth is free to all, / Our Father answers every call; / ’Tis He dispels the clouds of gray / That all may walk with Love today.
Come, walk with Love along the way, / Let childlike trust be yours today; / Uplift your thought, with courage go, / Give of your heart’s rich overflow, / And peace shall crown your joy-filled day. / Come, walk with Love along the way.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 139)
