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Trying to explain my faith

September 22, 2016 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

@Glowimages: Little girl praying. Little girl praying against a white background

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” – Thomas Aquinas.

I would respectfully disagree with both parts of that statement.

I didn’t use to be a person of faith.  I wouldn’t accept anything without being able to understand and agree with it first.  That made things difficult for my mother, since I resisted obeying her just because she said so.  Even as a child I needed an explanation for everything.  Sorry, Mom!

That I have deep faith today could be considered a minor miracle.  But it’s partly because of explanations I received.  It’s also from inspiration and actual evidence of my relationship with God.  It’s not a blind faith.

My faith in God has come through Christian Science.  And I gained it in a three-fold way described by the woman who founded the religion, Mary Baker Eddy.

Eddy was on a search for the “science” behind a spiritual healing of physical injury that saved her life.  She knew, as she put it, “…that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the science of this healing and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration.”

“Revelation, reason, and demonstration” has been the way it happened for me, too.

I’ve been able to reason and think through explanations of metaphysical and theological ideas to have them make sense.  I’ve been inspired and had spiritual understanding revealed to me by a higher power.  And I’ve also seen my understanding proved or demonstrated in my own experience, in ways that can only be attributed to God.

And the combining of those three modes has brought me to my own inescapable conclusions – to a consistent conviction that, as Jesus says, “…with God all things are possible.”

Rather than a blind faith, I would call mine a living faith, since all three things keep on happening.  Day by day I need to reason through explanations, receive revelations in my understanding and witness demonstrations of God in my life.

For me, this winning combination has been a sort of spiritual triangulation that has made it impossible for me not to have faith.

(photo ©Glowimages – model for illustrative purposes only)

Celebrate religious freedom on the Fourth of July

July 3, 2015 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

@Glowimages: The Statue of Liberty, New York City, United States of America with the Stars and Stripes flag in the foreground
© GLOW IMAGES

My Southern California colleague, Don Ingwerson, reminds us that a big part of why we celebrate our independence this weekend, is freedom to practice the religion of our choice.  That idea often gets drowned out by fun and fireworks.  And the prayer that’s at the center of religion can bring freedom from sickness.  Here’s Don…

Is July 4 just a day for barbecues, friends and family?

It seemed that way to a friend of mine a few years ago at an Independence Day neighborhood gathering. He was surprised to learn that most of the children attending didn’t know why they were celebrating….

One of the bedrocks of our country, which many other nations tragically lack, is the commitment to religious freedom we have maintained through the years. Yet I have learned such commitment requires fresh renewal with each generation. We can’t take for granted that all our citizens will understand and appreciate this crucial component of our history, nor recognize how vital it is that it should continue.

Please click here to read the rest in its original context…

How Christmas relates to healing

December 17, 2014 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

@Glowimages MCG02393.
© GLOW IMAGES

I grew up not knowing the real origin of Christmas.  Our family still celebrated Christmas (and Hanukkah) with presents and decorations, food and fun.  But I wasn’t familiar with the story of Jesus’ birth, which as the saying goes is “the reason for the season.”

Fast forward to early adulthood, where I’d begun to read the Bible and practice spiritual healing through Christian Science.  I experienced quick healing of a wound – in a way that would be considered physically impossible.

One evening, I was trimming my mustache and slipped.  The scissor blade went deep into my upper lip.  At that moment, along with pain and surprise, I had another response that came from my spiritual study.

I recalled an account I’d read that day about a woman working in a restaurant.  While using an electric appliance with one hand, she reached out with the other to turn off a dripping faucet – causing a huge electric shock to grip her.Continue Reading

Moving beyond drugs to find health

September 18, 2014 By christianscienceminnesota 1 Comment

@Glowimages 028845.
© GLOW IMAGES

As summer slips away again, I’m reminded of how walking along the seashore listening to the continuous sound of crashing surf can clear our head and allow fresh perspectives.

In the local Walgreens parking lot, I had a beach-like moment and found an answer.  A CVS store had opened up on the other end of the same block and I puzzled over how these stores were both thriving while selling identical merchandise.

As I stood listening to waves of traffic, the answer hit me:  drugs.  They are drug stores.  There’s an insatiable demand for prescription and non-prescription medication.   People’s search for health is relentless.  Everyone needs to be healthy.

But are drugs the only way?

Reports say a lot of us don’t think so.  In addition to mega-dollars spent on drug-based health care, Americans also spend almost $34 billion each year out of their own pockets on alternative treatments.  Even 3 out of 4 U.S. health care workers use some form of complementary or alternative medicine (CAM) to stay healthy.

Prayer is no longer listed as part of CAM but the statistics still show an increasing percentage of people pray about their health.

I’m part of those statistics….Continue Reading

Genetic choice – our thinking can change our genes?

May 29, 2014 By christianscienceminnesota 1 Comment

@Glowimages 02A14S9A.I write about how our thinking affects our health.  A previous post, Expectation: the ultimate placebo effect shows how thinking can be effective medicine – even when patients are told beforehand about a placebo, yet still expect and experience good results.

But what if a problem is genetic?  Is that conclusion that last word?  NO.

Can our thinking still have an effect?  YES.

A book that has something relevant to offer here is the Bible.  It gives examples of people who were “born” with certain conditions and then cured through an entirely new spiritual perspective of their well being.

A newer book, written over a hundred years ago, (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy), states:  “Heredity is not a law.”  It explains how changing our mental response to that subject – changing how we think about theories associated with our genetic inheritance – can help heal and even prevent disease.Continue Reading

Dr. Eben Alexander Says It’s Time for Brain Science to Graduate From Kindergarten

October 30, 2013 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

© GLOW IMAGES

In a previous post I wrote:  “I didn’t use to have any belief in spirituality….it was very upsetting for me to think about the possibility of death.  What bothered me most was the fear that I wouldn’t be able to think anymore….I’ve wrestled with the question of whether my consciousness is in my head, or something higher…and gained a conviction that whatever happens to my body or my brain, my conscious life will continue.”

What follows is an interview by my colleague, Ingrid Peschke, with Dr. Eben Alexander — a man who actually experienced my conviction.  What he says about God, unconditional love and immortality, has paradigm-shattering implications for healing and health.  Here’s Ingrid…

Anyone who openly declares that consciousness is not brain is going to get some attention. Especially when it’s from an established neurosurgeon whose knowledge of brain science includes 25 years of clinical practice, including 15 years at the Brigham & Women’s and the Children’s Hospitals and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Dr. Eben Alexander has collected his fair share of skeptics over the claims he’s made in his New York Times bestseller, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife.

After a year of being on the shelves for public consumption, his book has sometimes taken a beating from critics who have poked holes in his story of surviving a very rare case of meningitis, which virtually destroyed his neocortex (the side of the brain that makes us human) and nearly left him dead or at best a vegetable.

Still, no one can dispute the proof that he’s alive and well today.

Please click here to read the rest in it’s original context…

The health benefits of gratitude (beyond Thanksgiving)

December 4, 2012 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

© GLOW IMAGESThanksgiving is over.  Now what?  Where does all that gratefulness go?  Do we just move on and dive right into Christmas shopping?

I once overheard this comment on a bus in New York City on Thanksgiving Day:  “There should be 364 days a year of thanks-giving and one day for griping.”  What a wonderful idea!

With each passing year, it seems that Thanksgiving, the holiday, faces stronger and ever earlier competition from Christmas and the consumerism that is so aggressively urged on us.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the true meaning of Christmas.  But when two of my local radio stations start playing only Christmas music starting November 1st!, gratitude tends to get drown out.

Giving thanks needn’t be relegated to just a day or even a season.  We can do it every day.  In addition to having us identify the good in our lives, which can help ward off the depression that we hear is more prevalent at this time of year; gratitude is healthy in other ways.

In fact the health-giving effect of acknowledging our blessings and has been so widely studied and proven, it can literally be said that gratitude is good medicine.

Please click here to read the rest of this post in its original context…

Also featured in the West Central Tribune

Curing the incurable

October 5, 2012 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

Here is a guest post from my Australian colleague Beverly Goldsmith.  She tells from her own experience how incurable migraines were cured.

A spiritual response to: National Headache and Migraine Awareness Week

Do migraine sufferers want to just ‘manage’ headaches, or would they prefer permanent freedom from this complaint? I know what my preference would be!

In writing about National Headache and Migraine Awareness Week, September 17-23rd, Professor Paul R Martin, Adjunct Professor, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, and Head of “Conquer Headaches – The Headache and Migraine Program“, suggests how people can learn to cope with headache/migraine triggers.

From early in my life I experienced migraine headaches. My parents tried to find a cure for them. Doctors were consulted, drugs prescribed, and treatments undertaken. Numerous theories were put forward as to the possible cause. There was even a theological notion that I had to endure this affliction because it was God’s will.  Finally, we accepted the medical diagnosis that the headaches were triggered by a particular food. I stopped eating it. The headaches diminished in number, but they certainly weren’t cured.

Continue Reading

A healthier view of a negative test result

June 22, 2012 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

If your test comes back negative, you’re glad because as we commonly say, “They found nothing.”

Is that really true?  Was nothing found?

Yes, the diseased condition or the problem they were looking for isn’t there.  So then what is?  Health.  And health is not nothing, it’s something.  Something was found.

It’s popular to think of health just as the absence of disease.  I remember being struck by this phenomenon years ago while in a “health” food store.  As I looked around, I realized that every product was geared toward treating, preventing or warding off sickness.  There was barely anything about wellness.

Our health-care system is primarily a disease-care system.  The focus and the incentives are not on establishing and maintaining health but on paying for the treatment, management and occasionally the prevention of disease.

In recent years there have been efforts to promote healthy lifestyles as a path to wellness. Mostly the emphasis is on nutrition and exercise.  But there’s been very little shift in how we think of health.

Continue Reading

The Sandpiper

June 15, 2012 By christianscienceminnesota Leave a Comment

When the heart speaks, however simple the words, its language is always acceptable to those who have hearts. – Mary Baker Eddy

 

Today’s post is a little different.  So far I’ve focused mostly on how thought affects physical health.  Below is a true story by Robert Peterson – events that happened to him over 20 years ago and forever changed his life.  It shows how our thoughts and attitudes toward each other can improve our mental health and lead to healing.  It moved me and I hope it moves you too.

Here’s how he tells it:

Continue Reading

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About Joel

Joel Magnes Hi, I’m Joel Magnes, writing about the connection between our thinking and our health -- focusing on how spirituality and prayer can have a positive impact on our well-being.   I'm a practitioner of Christian Science, with over 25 years of expertise and experience in prayer-based healing.  And I serve as the Christian Science Committee on Publication for Minnesota; the church's media and legislative liaison. Contact Joel HERE.

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