JPalmer
134 posts Location:
Plainfield
United States |
03/26/2015 13:58self-immolation14. 99 : 23-29
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.
IMMOLA'TION, noun The act of sacrificing.
—from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary
I only knew this word in its more modern context of being set on fire. But now—seeing that “self-immolation” means “the act of sacrificing self”—it makes so much more sense! What I identified as “myself” before coming here was also something I intensely hated. That identity brought me a life of pain, without purpose, and feeling irreconcilably separated from God. Once I stopped clinging to that self, God sent me here to a life of joy and purpose. Being forced to sacrifice that self was the hardest experience I ever went through and the best thing that ever happened to me.
Sacrificing self is one of the main criteria that people point to when saying something is a cult. They’ll say, “I would never do that” and then go home and watch 5 hours of television escaping from the life they’ve built, so they can live as someone else for a while, only to feel depressed the next morning. That is what I did for decades. What a waste!
But now it is clear that when sacrificing self, it must not just be to another’s idea of self, but to God, and Him alone! How much better is it to sacrifice that self and truly make a difference? God is Mind—He has already determined your purpose. God is Love—He is offering you support and guidance constantly. God is Truth—what He gives will never be shown as false, so there will be no regret. Self only wants to keep, but God sent us to give! Where else could I have learned this but here? Without Christian Science, life made no sense at all to me.
I am so grateful to God for sending me here, so I can learn and begin to understand these lessons. I am also grateful that He has given me purpose, and made me useful to His mission. Thank you.
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.
—from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 1
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jacob45
370 posts Location:
puerto limon
Costa Rica |
03/26/2015 21:58Re: self-immolationI try to get rid of this personal, material sense of self, this imagination that says: "i am." Our true selfhood is Mind expressing Himself, the activity and image, reflection of the divine Self-awareness, the All-in-all, the only Ego.
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