Being Free Now

“We treat error through the understanding of Truth, because Truth is error’s antidote. If a dream ceases, it is self-destroyed, and the terror is over.” (Science and Health, page 346)

Understanding Truth is waking up. It is breaking the sleep of mortal beliefs and coming into the day and its promise of goodness. Those errors of sense, of sin and disease and evil and lack, can’t be healed through contemplating more of the lie, going into “dream analysis.” The Truth is the only antidote, and it completely releases us from that mesmerism into wide-awake reality, tangible good.

We know that in a dream we have no real freedom to move and think and do as our conscious mind might instruct. We are stuck in the subconscious sense of things–that which is beneath a conscious, conscientious mind, which has no real control and is limited. The unreality of the dream and our lack of control as we dream are just like our belief in error, a material experience. We seem stuck and the more we stay fixed on the limits, the more they seem to hold us back.

But Truth is our antidote. It is that refreshing splash of water that wakes us from the dream of a damaged, destructible life, to the real world. Our day is full of blessings and the Truth of God as Life, as Love, and of man as inseparable from that infinite Life, sets us free to be fearless. The Truth is that we are not out of control in a nightmare, but absolutely controlled by perfect Mind, awake to God’s experience, the Life He caused to be. The night terrors can’t hold us in the light of God’s glorious, honest, vividly beautiful day!

This is today’s e-inspire. These messages are based on passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. These books are our “pastor” in Christian Science. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for fresh inspiration. Or get a free subscription to receive an inspirational message like this one every morning directly to your inbox by contacting me at lamolitercs@aol.com. A downloadable compilation of categorized messages is also available by request.

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” (Galations 5: 1)

We have seen our freedom. We have been told and have loved this recognition of ourselves as no longer the slaves of sense and matter, but free men and woman who have the right to flourish and be happy. The Christ-message has given us a great vision of what is possible, what is really true for us. Liberty.

But this freedom can’t be taken for granted. We must daily take a stand to be on the right side of that liberation, rather than sinking back into the familiarity of being a slave to circumstances, material sense, and fear. We have to choose anew to join together with the forces of goodness, purity, and to claim fully the strength that comes by that unity. The allure of the senses can captivate us again if we are not alert. We must not let that captivating take us captive again. We are free born and we must not forget this. Stand strong and certain and renew that trust in and love of the Life that sets you free every day, today.

Keeping that yoke of mortal beliefs off of us may seem difficult. Doesn’t the world say otherwise? Doesn’t finiteness and evil appear to be the nature of life? It may seem daunting to stay faithful to your heritage of freedom. But you have the law on your side! God’s Truth of you, your birthright and your very innocent and lovely selfhood, is bigger than the world’s temptations and more loving than its propositions.

Know who you truly are. This is your “get out of jail free” pass, and it can be used over and over again, until you forget you ever needed it because you are so busy relishing the wide open life you are gratefully living!

This is today’s e-inspire. These messages are based on passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. These books are our “pastor” in Christian Science. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for fresh inspiration. Or get a free subscription to receive an inspirational message like this one every morning directly to your inbox by contacting me at lamolitercs@aol.com. A downloadable compilation of categorized messages is also available by request.

“Soul is the substance, Life, and intelligence of man, which is individualized, but not in matter.” (Science and Health, page 477)

Our individuality is not material. Our uniqueness is not found in our physicality or personality. It is spiritual. We are made to express with absolute completeness as well as originality, all that is God’s own nature, His own perfect quality made evident.

So what is spiritual individuality? What makes each radiant ray of God’s sun different and special? How can we reflect infinite good and yet be unique and individualized? Spirit certainly doesn’t allow for a limited view of person as confined to body and personality traits, to time and age and circumstance, heredity, birth order or marital status. Our spiritual individuality is created of God’s substance, out of His nature, which is Love.

So, it seems to me that our spiritual individuality, our unique character, is founded on the specificity of God’s love for each of us. The precise way in which He loves you makes up your unique beauty, your incomparable identity, your needed originality. It is because God loves you in such a pointed and perfect way, that you are the expression of something unlike any other idea. Our individuality is founded on and made glorious by the particular, masterful precision of God’s love for the brilliant idea that is you!

This is today’s e-inspire. These messages are based on passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. These books are our “pastor” in Christian Science. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for fresh inspiration. Or get a free subscription to receive an inspirational message like this one every morning directly to your inbox by contacting me at lamolitercs@aol.com. A downloadable compilation of categorized messages is also available by request.

“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” (Joshua 1: 9)

God is our Commander-in-Chief. He tells us with assurance that we have nothing to fear. Divine Truth announces our freedom from the terrorism of anger, disease, lack, confusion. We are being told by God, the Creator and Preserver of all, that we have every reason to be strong and unafraid.

Why? Not because there will never be a single threat to our poise and peace, but because we will always have God, perfect Truth and Love to save us, uplift us, set us free, as the true victors that we always and already are. You will never enter into a circumstance that is too hard for God or for which He has left you alone. You will always be guarded and protected, loved and safe.

So let’s take this command and guarantee at its word. Let’s not act like victims when we are standing firmly on the winning side, with God and His graceful power. Let’s not allow the sense of battle to get us discouraged. This seeming conflict only gives us more occasions to triumph, to see our own strength and ability as God’s reflection, and to thrive even more on the spoils of our victory—the blessings of inspiration, revelation, more trust in God, and less fear in man and matter.

Don’t be afraid. Don’t let discouragement creep in. You are not alone and your companion is always the Christ, the Savior of all that is good and right–of you!

This is today’s e-inspire. These messages are based on passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. These books are our “pastor” in Christian Science. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for fresh inspiration. Or get a free subscription to receive an inspirational message like this one every morning directly to your inbox by contacting me at lamolitercs@aol.com. A downloadable compilation of categorized messages is also available by request.

“Bow down and worship the Lord our Creator! The Lord is our God, and we are his people, the sheep he takes care of in his own pasture. Listen to God’s voice today!” (Psalms 95: 6-7, Contemporary English Version)

Try to take on the mindset of a sheep. Get into that humble place of trust and obedience. You are in a pasture that is perfect for your sustenance as well as for your exercise, your healthy growth, your play. And you are not alone in this place. You know that there is a Shepherd, and when He calls to you, you hear His voice above all else. You know His job is to protect you and lead you, and so you listen and follow. Naturally.

We dwell in God’s own pasture. This is where He cares for us—in this gentle and perfect place of His own Mind, this secret place which is also large and lovely. We can’t wander out of His pasture into a dangerous place. Nor do we at any time possess that pasture, own its assets, or have the power to either make it more beautiful or to mess up its fruitfulness and comfort.

The pasture belongs to God and yet it is ours to enjoy freely. This pasture is Life, and God is Life. You roam without limits and yet safe in God’s Life. He is in control of this Life-pasture. He keeps it full of what is healthy and good and pleasing and wise for our care. Listen for God’s voice today. Hear your Shepherd telling you that you are safe, that you are cared for, that you are the little sheep that trust and obeys easily because you know so well that you are perfectly loved.

This is today’s e-inspire. These messages are based on passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. These books are our “pastor” in Christian Science. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for fresh inspiration. Or get a free subscription to receive an inspirational message like this one every morning directly to your inbox by contacting me at lamolitercs@aol.com. A downloadable compilation of categorized messages is also available by request.

“Neither sympathy nor society should ever tempt us to cherish error in any form, and certainly we should not be error’s advocate.” (Science and Health, page 153)

What are we cherishing and why? Are we coming to hold to and care for the great Truth of God, good, or are we cherishing some form of safety in numbers, following the flow of the world even if we don’t feel confidence in its way of thinking and acting?

Watch out for temptation. We, just like Jesus, are receiving the news daily of our holy heritage, of God’s own love for us and His own perfect control and care for all. Those temptations to an easier life, a more powerful life, a merely material experience, did not cause Jesus to change his devotion or to move off his own best understanding of Life, of God, or his firm trust in the ever-presence of spiritual Truth.

We can and must be as strong in our faith, our confidence in what we know to be right and true and healing. If we do adore this Truth of Life as Love, as God, then we can’t allow ourselves to be hypocrites, thinking one thing in our hearts, but changing our words or behavior to satisfy society, or to gain or give sympathy to that which we have no desire to experience and don’t really trust. It may seem alluring to join error’s team, to sympathize with trouble and fear and danger and anger. But if this is what we cherish, then this is what we experience for it is what our thoughts hold dear. On the other hand, if we are cherishing Truth, Life, Love, the good and enduring and true, we will experience a life full of God’s intention and one that not only feels healing to us, but heals others as well.

This is today’s e-inspire. These messages are based on passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. These books are our “pastor” in Christian Science. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for fresh inspiration. Or get a free subscription to receive an inspirational message like this one every morning directly to your inbox by contacting me at lamolitercs@aol.com. A downloadable compilation of categorized messages is also available by request.

“The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less difficult when she has the high goal always before her thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps in endeavoring to reach it. When the destination is desirable, expectation speeds our progress.” (Science and Health, page 426)

The marginal heading on this paragraph in our textbook reads “Our footsteps heavenward.” We are being encouraged to know that we are ascending, not merely moving forward humanly. Our work and prayer and spiritual growth is not about a human process of achievement. It is an upward way to understanding of reality.

While this passage surely applies to any human endeavor we may aspire to, the high goal is never to attain personal success; for with a sense of mere human accomplishment as our aim our movement will not be toward heaven, but remain earthbound, limited. Personal wealth, fame, or self-centered attainments are never going to be a high goal, a holy one. These are worldly allurements, which are not the desirable destinations to which our leader refers.

Our progress is sped by focusing on the goal of spiritual awareness, of an expanded vision of life. We should see that what we seek is the mount of revelation, not some particular human goal. God’s inspiration and the possibilities this brings for our human experience are not nearly so limited. The vision from the mount, from a more exalted, spiritual viewpoint, always reveals the true destination and gets us there more directly, more wisely, and with more real and deep satisfaction and peace, and blessings for us and for all.

This is today’s e-inspire. These messages are based on passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. These books are our “pastor” in Christian Science. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for fresh inspiration. Or get a free subscription to receive an inspirational message like this one every morning directly to your inbox by contacting me at lamolitercs@aol.com. A downloadable compilation of categorized messages is also available by request.

“Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God.” (Science and Health, page 254)

A pilgrim is one who travels and wanders in a foreign land, traversing strange ground. He is also defined as one who journeys to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion. It seems some times that we feel unmoored and out of our comfort zone, merely wandering without a sense of where or how to get there. At other times we are feeling that every step is leading us to that holy place and that we walk with intention.

Whether we are a purposeful pilgrim or a confused and frightened one does not change the welcome, the hospitality, the understanding that comes of being God’s guest. No matter whether we feel we have lost sight of our promised land or stopped believing it exists, we are still traversing God’s fertile plain, where new ideas are ready to spring up, where landmarks will come into view and lead us back onto our path.

And when we feel we are focused on the goal, to reach with pure motive, that full understanding and demonstration of Life as Love, we are not alone or comfortless in that mission. For that heavenly home is not a destination, but is the very place in which we are now journeying, the holy ground on which we stand.

Take heart. God does not see a wanderer or a far-off traveler. He sees His own child always with Him, always in His Life, and never a stranger to His approving, assuring, guiding light of Love.

This is today’s e-inspire. These messages are based on passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. These books are our “pastor” in Christian Science. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for fresh inspiration. Or get a free subscription to receive an inspirational message like this one every morning directly to your inbox by contacting me at lamolitercs@aol.com. A downloadable compilation of categorized messages is also available by request.

“And in that day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.” (Isaiah 12: 1)

God does not hold a grudge. The anger that we may feel He has for us over certain behavior and circumstances in our lives, does not sit on us like a curse. God is not like that. He is sustained Love. He is not subject to the whims of human emotion and reaction. He is the divine Principle that stands firmly as Truth, Life, and Love.

We may feel at times that we have disappointed Him and so we are suffering. But we have only strayed from what is His highest ideal, what He caused us to be, and because we are not being ourselves, it feels uncomfortable, like punishment, like we have riled God’s wrath. But we can never truly be anything or anyone but who we are. God knows this. His comfort toward us for our mistaken belief about ourselves is ever at the ready. Love is always His activity and intention.

So, let’s do see that clinging in thought to the mistakes of our past as well as self-judgment for ignorance in this moment, are the only things that are damning us to hell. God is ready to show us that children are here to learn right from wrong, through trial and error at times, and that it doesn’t make the Mother-Father love us any less. Her child is always worthy of a comforting and cleansing embrace, a second chance to know and prove his true goodness and the joy and peace that brings.

This is today’s e-inspire. These messages are based on passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. These books are our “pastor” in Christian Science. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for fresh inspiration. Or get a free subscription to receive an inspirational message like this one every morning directly to your inbox by contacting me at lamolitercs@aol.com. A downloadable compilation of categorized messages is also available by request.

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 38-39)

To be persuaded is to be convinced by way of an appeal to reason or understanding. It is a response to an entreaty to believe. Paul, the author of this quote, was not an immediate believer by any means. He did not come into his Christianity and healing work by way of an easy and ignorant faith. He needed to have the understanding, needed to have every reason to believe in what he came to see was a vital force for good in the world.

The Christ message and its light did not fail to bring about a conviction in Paul, just as it must in us. It must become clear and inarguable to us that separation from God is not only something we strive to overcome, but that which is utterly impossible. Paul’s persuasion didn’t come through human argument or material methods of reasoning. He knew that the Love of God was always with him and in him, by means of divine revelation. Mary Baker Eddy refers to this compelling force as “Science…a law of divine Mind, a persuasive animus.” (Miscellany 3: 15)

This animus, this animating spirit, purpose, and intention is the Truth acting upon us and for us. It is that divine impetus that moves us to know in our hearts that what Paul says to the Romans is true for us. We are persuaded by God Himself, by the honest Truth, that He is always with us and that nothing, no matter how evil or dark or aggressive, can separate us from Him and His faithful, tender, perfect Love.

This is today’s e-inspire. These messages are based on passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. These books are our “pastor” in Christian Science. Come back every Tuesday and Thursday for fresh inspiration. Or get a free subscription to receive an inspirational message like this one every morning directly to your inbox by contacting me at lamolitercs@aol.com. A downloadable compilation of categorized messages is also available by request.