Sunday June 13th, 2021 Roundtable
The LORD Turned the Captivity of Job When He Prayed for His Friends
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: God the Preserver of Man
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayers
PRAYER FOR ONESELF — I thank Thee, Father-Mother God, that neither ignorant, fraudulent, nor malicious mortal mind can reach me, affect me mentally, physically, financially, or otherwise; and I know it, for God is the only power; that I am not the victim of aggressive mental suggestion, nor the target of M.A.M. claiming to operate through any channel whatever, but I am the blessed legal child of God, spiritual, immortal, all-harmonious, perfect, happy, healthy, pure, sinless, free, and fearless and diseaseless, and deathless, expressing the substance of all good.
Hold yourself constantly and consciously under God’s eternal law of blessing, of happiness, harmony, health, peace, joy, power, progress, protection, abundance; there is no other law, – only a contrary mortal mind lie which you are awake and alert to, and not under.
— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 63
Discussion points
406 — WATCH that you realize that as you work for God, He cares for you; if you do His work, His reward is sure. No financial need should ever cause us to feel that we must leave God’s work, in order to work for man, since the right demonstration of doing God’s work carries with it all the support needed. It is true that God loves us with an unchanging love; but it is helpful to feel that we must earn that love, in order to have it expressed.
Prayer should not be regarded as an effort to jog God’s elbow, so that He will remember us; it should be our effort to remember God, to know that He is caring for us in every way, and to determine to live up to what He expects of us. It is our confident trust in Him and our effort to serve Him, plus the expectancy of all good, that brings a continuous daily inflow of His love and care into our lives, and meets all our needs.
— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
GOLDEN TEXT: Psalm 121 : 8
“The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”
214 — WATCH lest you overlook the fact that a student who indulges in travel merely for entertainment, may become as unfaithful to his demonstration as one who smokes without protest. The error in smoking is not the outward act, but in the enjoyment of a negative apathetic state of mind, which is the direct opposite of the mental alertness and activity which is fostered by Christian Science. One who over-indulges in travel for pleasure neglects his duty to God, to his Leader and to mankind, and differentiates between phases of the Adam dream, which is not a sound basis from which to perceive its entire unreality.
This is not a watching point to prohibit students from travelling; but it is a call for consistency and watchfulness. Mrs. Eddy was consistent when she pointed out her birthplace to Calvin Hill. She said, “Over there are the hills of Bow where they say I was born, but I was not. I was born in Mind.” Again, when she sent a student a book of beautiful poems for Christmas, she wrote, “I send you a book of dreams, but they are so sweet, some of them, that I listen to them as we take in the fragrance of flowers that are dreams of matter.”
Once, when a student was about to travel, Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Remember, that unless you travel mentally, that if you don’t traverse new lands spiritually, if you don’t cross metaphysical waters, that is, and reach shores hitherto unvisited in Soul, you have wasted your time, money and effort, and you will get nothing out of it. Don’t do less Science but more. May God enfold you in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake, where no evil, no accident, no allurements, no blame lies, claiming some world more dazzlingly beautiful than the radiance of divine Love, for straight is the gate and narrow the way thereto.”
— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.
2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.
8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
— Psalm 121 from the King James Bible
Preserve: To save from decay; to keep in a sound state; to keep or defend from corruption.
— from 1828 Webster’s Dictionary
Click here to play the Hymn: — Hymn 148 From The Christian Science Hymnal, 1932 edition
Click here to play the Hymn: — Hymn 89 From The Christian Science Hymnal, 1932 edition
Forum post — A Tried & True Means of Preserving God-Consciousness
Forum post — Job and Carpenter – What They Have in Common Kerry from CA
Forum post — “Job, Christian Science Practitioner” by Rae from FL
Article “Proof of Love” by Willis F. Gross
Forum post — Perfection: At What Price by Ron from NC