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GOD THE ONLY CAUSE AND CREATOR - 06/07/15

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Florence

Florence
737 posts
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06/01/2015 09:36

Turning Our Captivity

Job 42: 10 And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Unselfed Love… Science and Health, p192:30-31 Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine power.

Christ Jesus loved God and all mankind including His enemies; what an example He gave of unselfed love, which Science and Health tells us receives the divine power. It’s no wonder He healed, even raised the death.

Job put into practice the same unselfed love, when he prayed for his friends; and thus the turning of his captivity! This is a great reminder for us, since it appears that when we are in trouble we tend to get focused on self, with a goal of seeking relief for our suffering. To pause and lift thought off the appearance (of whatever may be the claim) with expanding embrace of love for God and all mankind does bring more blessings than we can imagine.




 
janetm

janetm
21 posts
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06/02/2015 09:41

Re: Turning Our Captivity

This is so true! I have done this! Focusing on the problem does not get me anywhere. It keeps me from God, delays the healing and I forget about the blessings I have already received. When I attempt to help others this keeps me focused on God and I become filled with love for God and my brother, completely forgetting self! "What blesses one blesses all."



 
spencel

spencel
91 posts
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06/02/2015 19:51

Re: Turning Our Captivity

Gilbert Carpenter relates something he learned his first days at Pleasant View in chapter 79 of Footsteps to Truth:
"Mrs. Eddy expresses it in Science and Health, page 261, 'We should forget our bodies in remembering good and the human race.' This reasoning throws light on Job 42:10, where we can deduce that Job’s troubles were due to an inturned thought, since it reads, 'And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends.' As man attains a knowledge of Truth, he becomes a channel through which the unbroken power of infinite good flows out to the universe. Mrs. Eddy employs the illustration of mortals as windowpanes, being the channels through which the light passes. This divine essence not only blesses humanity, but it sustains the channel through which it flows.
I will relate the circumstances connected with the first time I fell ill, while at Pleasant View. Remembering the above revelation, I resolved to test it out. I sat down by the window, and let my thought go out in prayer to all the sufferers in the world in hospitals; in sick rooms; those condemned under the classification, incurable; those without knowledge of the presence of God to care for them; to bring them the truth, that there is no incurable disease and that, even though they did not know it, they do have a heavenly Father who is the great Physician, who “healeth all thy diseases.” I let my thought issue forth to all who needed God, with the true realization of the God that is all-presence, all-power and Love. When I returned from this mental journey, I found myself well."




 
Susanne

Susanne
174 posts
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United States
06/03/2015 08:38

Re: Turning Our Captivity

Gilbert Carpente: ” I let my thought issue forth to all who needed God, with the true realization of the God that is all-presence, all-power and Love. When I returned from this mental journey, I found myself well."


Thank you for sharing this beautiful reminder that I need to get out of myself and to embrace the world in my thought. What a simple yet powerful concept this is, one of the Laws of the Universe in action!




 
MaryBeth

MaryBeth
795 posts
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06/03/2015 09:07

Re: Turning Our Captivity

I have loved that story about Gilbert Carpenter! And certainly the one small line in the story of Job "And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends." is by far one of the most significant. In Isaiah 58:10, we also read, "And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday." Expression is the antidote for depression. We find our own burdens made lighter when we reach out to help a brother.



 
Fairlie

Fairlie
94 posts
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Location:
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06/05/2015 12:26

Re: Turning Our Captivity

Thanks very much for all these valuable reminders that unselfed love frees us from focusing on our own physical and emotional problems.