Don’t Look Back

September 12, 2018
Hymns: 238, 444, 14
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The Bible & Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures By Mary Baker Eddy

LUKE 17:32
17:32 Remember Lot’s wife.

GENESIS
19:1…there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them;
12 … And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place:
13 For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord; and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it.
15 … And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
16 And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.
17 And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.
24 Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;
25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.
26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

ISAIAH (Good News Translation)
43:18…“Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago.

SH 30:26-28
If we have triumphed sufficiently over the errors of material sense to allow Soul to hold the control, we shall loathe sin and rebuke it under every mask.

SH 9:25-26 (to ,)
Are you willing to leave all for Christ, …?

RUTH
2:10 she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
11 And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not…
12 The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

SH 323:32-2
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.

SH 323:28-32
The effects of Christian Science are not so much seen as felt. It is the “still, small voice” of Truth uttering itself. We are either turning away from this utterance, or we are listening to it and going up higher.

EXODUS
16:2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness:
3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

NUMBERS
32:13 And the Lord’s anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation, that had done evil in the sight of the Lord, was consumed.

SH 79:9-11
Science must go over the whole ground, and dig up every seed of error’s sowing.

SH 201:7-16
We cannot build safely on false foundations. 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.
We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be emptied. Let us disrobe error. Then, when the winds of God blow, we shall not hug our tatters close about us.

SH 283:21-24
This false belief as to what really constitutes life so detracts from God’s character and nature, that the true sense of His power is lost to all who cling to this falsity.

SH 322:14-15, 22-32
The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless woes, turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love. Then we begin to learn Life in divine Science. Without this process of weaning, “Canst thou by searching find out God?” It is easier to desire Truth than to rid one’s self of error.

SH 262:7
By putting “off the old man with his deeds,” mortals “put on immortality.”

SH 92:25-26
We should blush to call that real which is only a mistake.

MATTHEW
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.

LUKE (Amplified Bible)
9:61 Another …said, “I will follow You, Lord [as Your disciple]; but first let me say goodbye to those at my home.”
62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back [to the things left behind] is fit for the kingdom of God.”

JOHN
10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

MARK
10:28 Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,
30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

II CORINTHIANS (Good News)
5:17 Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.

SH 227:21-22
Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and cries: “Follow me!

SH 521:29
The history of error or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence of Spirit; but it is the false history in contradistinction to the true.

SH 322:9
It is highly important — in view of the immense work to be accomplished before this recognition of divine Science can come — to turn our thoughts towards divine Principle, that finite belief may be prepared to relinquish its error.

SH 240:18
Mortals move onward towards good or evil as time glides on. If mortals are not progressive, past failures will be repeated until all wrong work is effaced or rectified. If at present satisfied with wrong-doing, we must learn to loathe it. If at present content with idleness, we must become dissatisfied with it. Remember that mankind must sooner or later, either by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error that is to be overcome.

JOHN
21:3 Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a-fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship; and that night they caught nothing.
4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore:
5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No.
6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
15 …when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter…lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon…lovest thou me? He saith…Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon…lovest thou me?… … …Peter was grieved…Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

SH 74:29-30
In Christian Science there is never a retrograde step, never a return to positions outgrown.

SH 206:28-30
Omnipotent and infinite Mind made all and includes all. This Mind does not make mistakes and subsequently correct them.

SH 324:13
Be watchful, sober, and vigilant. The way is straight and narrow, which leads to the understanding that God is the only Life. It is a warfare with the flesh, in which we must conquer sin, sickness, and death, either here or hereafter, — certainly before we can reach the goal of Spirit, or life in God.

PHILIPPIANS (J.B. Phillips)
12-14 …I do not consider myself to have “arrived”, spiritually, nor do I consider myself already perfect. But I keep going on, grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which Christ grasped me. My brothers, I do not consider myself to have fully grasped it even now. But I do concentrate on this: I leave the past behind and with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead I go straight for the goal—my reward the honour of being called by God in Christ.
ECCLESIASTES (Living Bible)
3:15 Whatever is has been long ago; and whatever is going to be has been before; God brings to pass again what was in the distant past and disappeared.
SH 468:28-2
Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite; eternity is forever infinite. Life is neither in nor of matter.

SH 263:7-10
When mortal man blends his thoughts of existence with the spiritual and works only as God works, he will no longer grope in the dark and cling to earth because he has not tasted heaven.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS
“Shaking off regret”
By Mary Gottschalk
The Christian Science Journal, April 2018

Paul’s human history as the zealous Pharisee Saul of Tarsus had included rounding up Christians to be executed. On his way to Damascus to commit more persecution, Saul was struck blind and heard Christ Jesus speaking to him. Jesus gave him a new mission—to shepherd the developing Christian Church. Paul (as he was later known) never questioned this command, and he never looked back
A new sense of life, aligned with divine Life, lifts us out of the false history of self, of sickness or sin, out of the frustrated mentality that says, “That’s just the way I am.” …Every healing experience teaches us to trust God more and to follow Christ.…No matter what the human circumstance, it is possible to yield all to God, shake off mortal sense, and follow Christ unimpeded.
“Retrospection and Introspection”
Prose Works, By Mary Baker Eddy
It is well to know, dear reader, that our material, mortal history is but the record of dreams, not of man’s real existence, and the dream has no place in the Science of being. It is “as a tale that is told,” and “as the shadow when it declineth.” …The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged. (Ret. 21:13-17; 22:1)