Examples of the nature of the Christ in prophecy and in today's world.

Richard W. Stewart C.S.
Wormser Str 30
Dresden, Germany 01309



Living the Gospel

Thoughts for March 11, 2009

Questions about the validity of the Gospel message can be answered in daily experience. What Jesus taught can be proved as valid and truthful teaching by simply following his teachings and seeing them proved in the laboratory of life.

Also what the Bible says about the coming of the Messiah, the Christ, or the anointed One can be seen as validated in the life and nature of Christ Jesus.

And we can observe examples of this "true nature" coming through. Perhaps you would enjoy reading or re-reading Isaiah, Chapter 11 below. It tells of some of the signs of the nature of the Christ and also the results of this Christly nat ure expressed in life. It paints beautiful imagery and a hoped for peace and harmony of all forms of life. Enjoy the imagery of Isaiah and then enjoy the story from Africa and the video from California.

Sometimes it is just special to witness what is possible when the Christly, peaceful love of God shines through into daily life.

E njoy,

Rick


Isaiah 11 (King James Version)
Isaiah 11
1And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
2And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
3And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
4But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips20shall he slay the wicked.
5And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
6The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
7And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.
9They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
10And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
11And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his pe ople, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
14But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
15And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.
16And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.


From: Nature's Corner Magazine
Nature’s Corner® Magazine explores the intelligence of all types of animals in our homes, our backyards and in the rest of Nature. Here is a story found on their website and confirmed on several other sites.


“And=2 0the lion shall lie down with the lamb…”
Although the phrase of “the lion shall lie down with the lamb” is one of the more popular quotes from the Bible, it’s really misquoted. In the King James version, it’s the wolf that dwells with the lamb, and it’s a leopard that lies down with a kid, and “the calf and the young lion and the fatling together.” (Isaiah 11:6)
But in today’s world, there really is a lion that lies down with a calf…in fact, she adopted and nurtured a total of five antelope calves.
It’s a remarkable story of the love of one animal for another, and it seems to personify the truth that not all natural enemies are exactl y that—natural and unavoidable enemies.
On Christmas Day of 2001, game wardens at the Samburu National Park in Kenya watched as an adult lioness frightened off an oryx antelope mother, and picked up her baby calf in its mouth. Because lions normally hunt these antelope, they assumed the lion would kill and eat the baby. But then the unexpected happened.
The lion, named L arsens, began to nuzzle and fondle the frail little creature. Behavioral scientists first stated that the lioness had probably mistaken the oryx calf for a lion cub. But then the lioness showed her awareness of the calf as another species, because she allowed the calf to return to her natural mother to nurse.
For more than two weeks, the lioness Larsens nudged the little calf along, all the while allowing her to return to her antelope mother for nourishment before chasing the mother antelope away once again.
The fragile baby oryx was seen crossing the savannah with her lioness “mother,” and would curl up by her side for naps. Tragedy struck one day while the lioness napped by a water hole. While the baby oryx was playing, another lion attacked and killed it.
According to the wardens, Lars ens was enraged when she woke. Ten times she circled the lion that killed her oryx calf, roaring all the while. Then she disappeared from view.
Larsens was seen a few weeks later, following herds of oryx antelope. “She never kills them,” said one warden. “When she is hungry, she goes after warthogs.”
But Larsens would again amaze the rangers with her mothering instincts. On V alentine’s Day, 2002, lioness Larsens was spotted with another oryx calf. And just like the last one, she’d adopted the calf as her own.
It seemed Larsens had learned the need to protect her new baby from other lions and predators. She guarded the new baby ferociously, chasing off any lions that approached. “There are other lions trying to attack the lioness to get to the baby, but the rangers are watching them and the lioness is protecting the calf,” said park warden Mark Lenya-kopir.
“This is one extraordinarily maternal cat,” said lion expert Jim Cavenor. “I've seen lions adopt a few small animals, but they usually end up turning round and eating them after a couple of days. But she seems to be totally fixated on this little one.”
=0 A
Unlike the common assumptions of most people, animals do think. Their thinking is not some robotic response to environmental stimuli, but an active, cognitive reasoning. Larsens is proof of this. She adopted a series of what was normally a “prey” species for lions, and protected them as her own. She knew she could not provide nourishment for them, and allowed them to return to their mothers for food.
Larsens is just one example of how animals react with emotion, wit h feeling and with true knowledge of what they are doing. She ultimately adopted a total of five oryx calves, giving all of them fierce protection and tender care while ignoring her own basic needs. Her actions have made her a legend among the people of Kenya, and they bestowed another name on her because of their reverence for her loving nature.
The Samburu people call her Kamunyak—the blessed one.
Sources: The Observer, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy



And now from Africa to California.
Here is a video that you can find on Youtube.com. You should be able to go there directly with the link below, just click on it. If t hat does not work, simply visit the Youtube.com site and enter in the search window, "dog,cat, rat video."


http://www.youtube.com/v/D85yrIgA4Nk

God Made All His Creatures Free

"All of God's creatures moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible." Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (Page 514).

That verse has always been a favorite of mine. I have also used it as a powerful tool in praying for pets and animals of all sorts. It is the affirmation of the true nature of creation.

In thinking about how we pray for animals, I was doing a Google search and found the following articles reprinted on a website named, "Humane Religion." The first article is by Allison "Skip" Phinney and was originally published in the Christian Science Sentinel. And the second article is reprinted from The Christian Science Monitor. Both were reprinted on the Humane Religion website.

Enjoy,

Rick Stewart C.S.

Humane Religion Magazine

May - June 1998 Issue

GOD'S ANIMALS
Allison W. Phinney, Jr.

The following article was first printed in May, 1987. But it could have been written today. The things the author discusses are part of an ongoing, spiritual process, that continues to take place within the hearts and minds of those who are willing to listen to the message of God's love and compassion for all creatures.


God's Animals by Allison W. "Skip" Phinney Jr.

Foxes and polar bears, seals that need saving, and apes that learn to "talk"—the list goes on. Have you noticed how much news and information about animals of all kinds is reaching the public nowadays? People have always loved their pets. But something new is happening. We're becoming warmly interested in animals in a way and on a scale that's new. It's an encouraging sign of he times.

Prime-time television news will sometimes cover efforts to save whales that have wandered up the "wrong" river or will report attempts to prevent pods of whales from beaching.

Recently we've been reading about the restored reputation of the North American wolf. Turns out he's an essentially upright character with considerable devotion to his family.

Should it be surprising, really, that as mankind matures toward spiritual consciousness we'll see an increasing appreciation for all aspects of animals and environment? As people grow in Christliness and spirituali ty,they perceive each other differently. Instead of seeing someone to go to war with, they find delight in the life-enhancing customs and celebrations of their neighbors. Similarly, we're beginning to understand animals less as something to abuse and to dominate and more something to take joy in and to understand.

The teachings of Christian Science guide thought further in this direction. They show, for example, that just as we don't know the real nature of God's man until we let the Christ, or spiritual idea, illumine our view of man, so also we don't know the rest of creation as God has actually made it until we're conceiving it spiritually. As the Christ, Truth, lifts up and transforms our thought we can also expect to come to understand more about all God's ideas as He has made them.

The book of Genesis, in the Bible, tells about the creation of great whales, fish of the sea, birds, beasts, cattle, and all the creeping things. And they are seen as belonging to God's good creation. Noah saves representatives of these species from the flood. And in place throughout the Bible, as in the book of Job, some of these creatures, like behemoth the hippopotamus (“Behold he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not”), are approached with a sense of awe for heir strength, and others are valued for their speed or beauty.

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It is not God who introduced the violence of the
‘food chain’ into the world

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But if we try to conceive of God as having created an animal kingdom which, however various and beautiful, expresses the generally accepted meaning of the word "animality" we run into great difficulty. Would God have made animals that seem designed primarily to dine on each other—a smaller species that must die in order that other larger ones can live? Would a loving and wise Creator have determined the short life span of a loved domestic dog, for example? Would He have shaped the voracious forms that seem to live only to attack other life forms?

If we believed this, we would have to change our view of God as a loving Creator. Instead it makes a good deal more sense to change our human concept of creation. What isn't in accord with God the only Creator, we can assume, is not the final word, not real and substantial. We need the humility to be willing to look for the spiritual creation that would be in accord with Spirit, or God. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy makes the point, "God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men."* Specifically, then, disbelieving the picture of unbridled carnivorousness, violence, instinctive behavior described by the senses, in favor of hewing to the divine facts of a spiritual creation, can begin to give us a different, healing perspective. And this perspective makes us more discerning of God's actual creation of the true nature of the divine Mind's ideas—in our everyday experience.

Many wonderful healings of farm animals and pets have come about through prayer on this basis. I recall as a youngster, for example, seeing our dog healed of a veterinary-diagnosed slipped disk and at another time of a longstanding lump on the head. Once when she was lost I was spiritually impelled, as I prayed, to walk off the road into the middle of a large cornfield, where I was able to go straight to her, pick her up, and take her home. Prayer in Christian Science has healed family cats of ear mites, distemper, an atrophied leg, and kidney problems, without any medical help.

But we can expect to see more than the healing of animals' physical ills. As the spiritual leavening of human consciousness goes on, we will be seeing something of animals' true being, more of their intelligence, individuality, compatibility, and purpose. Every one of God's creatures is, after all, essential to the richness and completeness of God's creation. And humanity has important lessons to learn from animals, lessons we all very much need, about the nature of love and fidelity, goodness, grace, independence, beauty, nobility—aspects of true being that God expresses throughout His creation.

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Human beings have important lessons about love, fidelity, goodness and nobility to learn from the animals.

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Mrs. Eddy makes this intriguing observation in the chapter=2 0entitled "Genesis" in Science and Health:" God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the greater, and in return, the higher al-ways protects the lower ....Love giveth to the least spiritual idea, might, immortality and goodness, which shine through all as the blossom shines through the bud." **

As we get a stronger, better conception of the wonder and the perfection of Spirit's creation, what lessons mankind is going to be learning about these links to the greater—what changes will continue to come in mankind's view of the Creator's creation! #

*Science and Health, p. 550. ** Ibid., p. 518 Reprinted by permission from the Christian Science Sentinel © 1987 The Chistian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved.

GOD’S CARE FOR ALL CREATURES

Reprinted from The Christian Science Monitor

I have always been the kind of animal lover who would like to adopt every stray and support every organization dedicated to saving endangered species. But I've been forced to look for effective ways to live in harmony with our environment and to respect all living things. It's no surprise that the answers I need are in the Bible.

I began my search for them with the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis. Here the Bible identifies all forms of life as God's creation , blessed by Him and declared to be like their Creator—spiritual and good. And I remembered a statement of God's care in the book of Psalms that seemed to me like a promise for our own time. "O Lord, thou preservest man and beast (Psalms 36:6).

Numerous accounts of man's relationship to nature are recorded in the Bible. For example, when jealous enemies contrived to have Daniel punished by being shut in with lions, though he had done nothing wrong, the Bible tells us that he was preserved from harm and freed the next day (see Daniel, chap. 6).

God never relinquishes His responsibility for the well-being of His creation. He sustains and cares for all that is His, and this is a spiritual law we can perceive through prayer. I prayed to understand that in our effort to care for animals we express the intelligence and love that have their source in God. These qualities guide us to care for our domestic animals lovingly and to deal with wildlife wisely.

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In caring for animals we express the love that has its source in God.

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As I prayed I also turned to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Christian Science Church. She leaves no question about God's care for all His creation: "God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men" (p. 550).

I've seen the effects of understanding the truth expressed in this statement many times over the years, both in our own lives and in caring for our pets. But what of the conflicts that seem to arise as contacts between human and wildlife populations increase? As much as we'd like to live in harmony with the world's creatures, sometimes wildlife appears to threaten our livelihood or even our lives, by carrying diseases, for example. But this is all part of the distorted picture that the spiritual facts about God's creation corrects.

When our actions grow from our prayer to love all of god's creation, it is possible to find solutions that keep everyone—animal and human—safe. For example, there was a time when my family and I realized that we were surrounded by rattlesnakes. At first it felt like the kind of nightmare I'd seen in movies: We were hiking in the mountains, enjoying the solitude, far from any other hikers. As we reached a rocky summit we heard an ominous rattle. Looking down, one family member saw a rattlesnake within inches of his feet.

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To some degree, every creature expresses God’s qualities of intelligence and love.

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He was able to jump aside instead of stepping on the snake, but we were all shaken. I looked toward the rocks where we planned to make our picnic site: snakes lay in coils enjoying the sun. Glancing at the layered rocks around us, we began to see many more snakes in various states of repose. We were the intruders, yet we felt trapped as though we could hardly move in any direction for fear of triggering a defensive reaction from the snakes.

We began to speak to each other quietly, praying to understand that God governs every element of His universe—that every creature, to some degree, expresses His qualities, including intelligence and love. We recalled a favorite statement from Science and Health and said it aloud: "All of God's creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible" (p.514). The spiritual law of harmony was operating at that moment, even while we felt afraid. That law calms, protects, and guides. Trusting in it, our fear faded, and we were guided safely away from the snakes. No harm came to us or to them.

Countless are the things thou hast made, O Lord Thou hast made all by thy wisdom; And the earth is full of thy creatures, beasts great and small... All of them look expectantly to thee. Psalm 104:24,25,27 (NEB)

Whether we are caring for our pets, dealing with wildlife around us, or yearning, to preserve threatened animals in other parts of the world, we can affirm the active powerful law of God that is always in operation. It's our right and responsibility to see all creatures where they truly are—in God's care. Reprinted by permission from The Christian Science Monitor

Facing Monday with a song and without fear

Its Monday morning already here in Dresden, well really, really early Monday morning. But you know it is a day you can embrace with joy, and courage. You don't have to take the Mamas and Papas words, "Monday, Monday, can't trust that day," or the Bangles, "just another Manic Monday," as how you feel about the start of a new week.

A favorite hymn echoes thoughts from the Bible: "This is the day the Lord hath made, be glad, give thanks, rejoice. Stand in His presence unafraid, in praise lift up your voice."

I often find inspiration from the birds here in Dresden. One of my favorites is the Amsel, or the European Blackbird. Remember the Beatles song, "Blackbird singing in the dark of night?" Well, that is so true. I am often awake quite early, four or five in the morning, (we have a one year old little girl that rises early ! ) The streets are dark and quiet, no cars, no pedestrians, but the trees are full of song. Those Blackbirds are singing joyously, even though it is pitch black outside.

What an inspiration that can be. Perhaps all kinds of worries are looming in your experience and maybe have even caused you a sleepless night of tossing and turning. But while it is still dark and quiet, and before the world wakes up and starts pounding on your door, turn your thought to God. In that dark stillness that can be like the "closet" that Jesus recommended we enter in prayer, open your heart to a loving Father-Mother. Remind yourself that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapters 5-7, "your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him. " And remember that Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father which art in heaven......" "Our Father !!!!" Jesus never taught of an exclusive relationship with God, instead he repeatedly reminded those who would listen to him that God is our Father, a loving, caring parent who gives only good to His creation. And Jesus teachings were no hollow words, he followed his words with actions that proved without a doubt that all sin, sickness, and death fell before the love of God. The teachings of Christ Jesus were not about a blind belief in a future never, never land. This loving, compassionate Saviour demonstrated God's love for man in continual healing and comfort. And he promised in the Gospel of John, "He that believeth in me, the works that I do, shall he do also."

So rather than looking at the coming week and a blue Monday as inevitable, look and listen for the message of the Christ, coming to thought and inspiring you to a song of joy and gratitude. Just like the blackbird that sings in the dark of night, lift your voice in praise even when you seem to be surrounded in the darkness of fear and mortality. And the promise that your Father already knows your need and supplies it, can encourage you to embrace the day with joy and gratitude.

This Monday morning we can hear the wonderful song of our Father,the song of the universe, ringing out in harmony and hope. And like the prophet Isaiah we can hear the Father telling us: "Fear thou not, for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Rick Stewart C.S.
Christian Science Practitioner
Dresden, Germany
Monday, March 2, 2009

RickStewartCS@aol.com