WEDNESDAY EVENING READINGS MAY 23, 2012 “ABUNDANCE”
THE BIBLE
GENESIS
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 24 ¶And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
PSALMS
26:7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. 8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. 84:11… no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
PROVERBS
3:1 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments; 2 For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. 5 ¶ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. 10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
AND FROM THE NEW LIVING TRANSLATION:
II KINGS
17:1 Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, “As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!” 9 “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.”
10 So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, “Would you please bring me a little water in a cup?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called to her, “Bring me a bite of bread, too.” 12 But she said, “I swear by the Lord your God that I don’t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die.”
13 But Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you’ve said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what’s left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!”
15 So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her son continued to eat for many days. 4:38 Elisha now returned to Gilgal, and there was a famine in the land. 42 One day a man from Baal-shalishah brought the man of God a sack of fresh grain and twenty loaves of barley bread made from the first grain of his harvest. Elisha said, “Give it to the people so they can eat.”
43 “What?” his servant exclaimed. “Feed a hundred people with only this?” But Elisha repeated, “Give it to the people so they can eat, for this is what the Lord says: Everyone will eat, and there will even be some left over!” 44 And when they gave it to the people, there was plenty for all and some left over, just as the Lord had promised.
AND AGAIN FROM THE KING JAMES VERSION
JOHN
8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
10:7 I am the door of the sheep. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
2
10 I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
MATTHEW
6:8 … your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
PHILIPPIANS
4:19 …my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. 6 … in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
EPHESIANS
3:14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; 19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. 20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
SCIENCE & HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES BY MARY BAKER EDDY
SH 530:5-6
In Divine Science, man is sustained by God, the Divine Principle of being.
SH 517:30-31
Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to multiply,–to manifest His power.
3
SH 502:29
There is but one creator and one creation. This creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and forever reflected. These ideas range from the infinitesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons and daughters of God.
SH 95:6-9 we (to need) We approach God, or Life, in proportion to our spirituality, our fidelity to Truth and Love; and in that ratio we know all human need …
SH 203:13
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 15:28-30
Practice not profession, understanding not belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence and they assuredly call down infinite blessings.
SH 507:3-6
Spirit duly feeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the line of spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the fatherhood and motherhood of God.
SH 494:10-11
Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.
SH 66:10-11
Trials are proofs of God’s care.
SH 12:31
In Divine Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail themselves of God as “a very present help in trouble.”
SH 66:6-7, 14
Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff,– a broken reed, which pierces the heart. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.
SH 410:14-17
Every trial of our faith in god makes us stronger. The more difficult seems the material condition to be overcome by spirit, the stronger should be our faith and the purer our love.
4
SH 571:15-19
At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you.
SH 323:13-18 (to ;)
In order to apprehend more, we must put into practice what we already know. We must recollect that Truth is demonstrable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated. If “faithful over a few things,” we shall be made rulers over many;
SH 325:32
A false sense of life, substance, and mind hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific demonstration.
SH 288:27-28
Science reveals the glorious possibilities of immortal man, forever unlimited by the mortal senses.
SH 203:13
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 76:22-29
The sinless joy, — the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain, — constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual. This state of existence is scientific and intact, — a perfection discernible only by those who have the final understanding of Christ in divine Science.
SH 507:15-20
The universe of Spirit reflects the creative power of the divine Principle, or Life, which reproduces the multitudinous forms of Mind and governs the multiplication of the compound idea man. The tree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagating power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind which includes all.
SH 7:23
God is not influenced by man. The “divine ear” is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing and all-knowing mind, to whom each need of man is always known and by whom it will be supplied.
SH 180:25-27
When man is governed by God, the ever-present Mind who understands all things, man knows that with God all things are possible.
5
SH 494:13 to … to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.
SH vii:1-2
To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings.
PUBLICATIONS QUOTATION:
“Supply as Spiritual Reflection,” By L. Ivimy Gwalter Christian Science Sentinel August 15, 1936
“Man has supply because he reflects God. The first chapter of Genesis states that God made man in His own image and after His likeness. Christian Science is the glorious discovery of the great truth, namely, that man is the full and perfect expression of God. Such being the fact, man has nothing underived from God, not can he, as God’s reflection, be incomplete or lack in any degree that which God includes. Therefore, man manifests supply, and furthermore, supply is wholly spiritual.
“Spiritual supply flows directly from God to man; or, more accurately stated, it coexists with God and man. It requires no human avenue or channel in order to be made manifest. Man in God’s image can no more be separated from supply than he can be separated from God, for all that man has, all that man is, is the reflection of God.”
6