SPIRIT-GOODNESS

SPIRIT-GOODNESS

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

And so let us come near to God with a true heart full of faith. Our hearts must be made clean from guilty feelings and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold on to the hope we say we have and not be changed. We can trust God that He will do what He promised.  Let us help each other to love others and to do good. (NLV, Heb. 10:22-24)

Eddy: “Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated from God, and obey only the divine Principle, Life and Love.  Here is the great point of departure for all true spiritual growth.”

Many ancient and modern religious traditions and rituals impose guilt, fear and self-condemnation.  LOVE-GOD annuls them with divine grace.  LOVE gives us wisdom, love, strength, guidance and triumph.  When our starting premise is our matter-transcending unity with SOUL, then the pursuit of intelligent goals and objectives becomes a joyous and rewarding spiritual journey.  Spiritual enlightenment, which emanates from MIND-GOD, prods us to express more of our magnificent SOUL-fueled attributes.  The repercussions are success in our ventures and we are also able to help others reach their thoughtful goals.

 

For the word of the cross is folly to them that perish; but to them that be made safe, that is to say, to us, it is the virtue of God. (WYC, I Cor. 1:18)

Eddy: “The belief that man has existence separate from God is a dying error.  This error Jesus met with divine Science and proved its nothingness.”  And, “We must have trials and self-denials, as well as joys and victories, until all error is destroyed.”

SOUL-SPIRIT is giving us its cascading spiritual riches.  Our incorporeal self is constituted of SPIRIT’s own limitless substance and life-energy. These spiritual facts overcome setbacks, obstructions, attacks, injustice and failures. While we often think of the “cross” as terrible experiences, it also symbolizes how during trying times we can become more connected to the love, intelligence and resources of SPIRIT-GOD.  We can cast off ingrained, failed and unproductive attitudes and replace them with spiritually enlightened ones.  We can abandon a limited, mortal outlook on life and grab onto overflowing, immortal LIFE-GOD.  Every time we supplant sclerotic, matter-trapped, obstinate beliefs with MIND-drawn intelligence and ingenuity we generate more love, health,

Forgiven and Blessed

Forgiven and Blessed

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, "Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?" They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, "The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone." Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt. Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. "Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?" ¹¹"No one, Master." "Neither do I," said Jesus. "Go on your way. From now on, don't sin." (John 8:3-11 in “The Message”)

 

A woman I know was helped by this biblical story.  She had made a grave mistake at work and the criticism was severe.  She felt guilty, ashamed and humiliated.  Ostensibly her career path at the firm had come to an end.  She was experiencing anxiety attacks and uncontrollable crying spells. 

 

In our conversations together I said that the fountain of her life was LOVE, and that LOVE’s tender caring for her erased mistakes and punishment.  Also, that our mistakes are opportunities for self-development. 

 

Kindness, empathy and forgiveness are qualities of LOVE and our expression of them augments our opportunities.  I reminded her of her intelligence and multiple talents. 

 

            Her mental clarity returned.  She scrutinized her past judgment and decisions and took note of what she would do differently in the future under similar circumstances. 

 

She was not fired, but high profile opportunities were given to others.  In the meantime, we continued our conversations and prayers.  We often talked about how LOVE’s opportunities were inexhaustible. 

 

One of our favorite take-off points for prayer and conversation was this statement by M. B. Eddy: “I am Spirit.  Man, whose senses are spiritual, is my likeness.  He reflects the infinite understanding, for I am Infinity.  The beauty of holiness, the perfection of being, imperishable glory, -- all are Mine, for I am Truth.  I include and impart all bliss, for I am Love.”

 

We kept on insisting that MIND would reveal something rewarding for her either with her present employer or with a new one. 

 

            I wrote several prayerful, spiritual concepts for her which she made fine use of. One of them is this one:

 

“Unfathomable and preeminent LOVE-MIND subsumes and generates everything about us.  Mistakes, guilt and setbacks are temporary experiences because LOVE’s spiritual power catapults us toward new opportunities and success.  Our intelligence, talents and right motives are gifts from MIND and divine law makes sure that we can express them triumphantly.”

 

And so it came to be.  She was given a demanding assignment and she excelled at it.  Her career was now flying again. 

 

The propulsive thrust of MIND-LOVE shatters through any obstructions to our progress. 

 

 

We Are Elevated by LOVE-GOD

We Are Elevated by LOVE-GOD

 

By

 

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

 

 

Draw night to God and he will draw night to you. (KJV, James 4:8)

 

Eddy: “To put down the claim of sin, you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the illusion, and thus get the victory over sin and so prove its unreality.” Also, “Since God is All, there is no room for his unlikeness.  God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it good.

 

One of the hardest things to do is to detect wrongs and correct ourselves.  We get easily fooled by groupthink, fall into counterproductive habits, self-righteousness and rigidity.  Divine WISDOM yanks us out of our mental and cultural traps.  It motivates us to seek out and ponder contrarian viewpoints.  MIND/TRUTH induces mental versatility, adroitness, and resourcefulness and transformation. Then we enjoy SPIRIT’s torrential blessings.

 

 

Arise go unto Nineveh, that great city … (KJV, Jonah 3:2)

 

Eddy: “Since God is All, there is no room for His unlikeness.  God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it good.”

 

MIND-LOVE commands thought to eschew its fears, stubborn beliefs and material phantasms and accept its all-surrounding mandate of unbounded health, love, bounty and freedom.  Jonah's whale in the Old Testament symbolizes obstinate and apparently overwhelming fears and difficulties.  But these fade away when we are conscious of LOVE's superlative grace and might.  To go to Nineveh is to move thought to an acceptance of our incorporeal unity with LOVE-SPIRIT’s all-encompassing and ever-flowing health and goodness. 

 

 

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. ² “Rabbi,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” ³ “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins,” Jesus answered. “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him. ⁴ We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. ⁵ But while I am here in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶ Then he spit on the ground, made mud with the saliva, and spread the mud over the blind man’s eyes. ⁷ He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing! (NLT, John 9:1-7)

Eddy: “Heredity is not a law.”  And, “The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have learned from error, and man’s real existence as a child of God comes to light.” 

Being the fountain of our being, PRINCIPLE-SPIRIT has provided us with an excellent and bountiful inheritance of health, intelligence, love and resources.  Our spiritual endowments from LOVE—SPIRIT elides the multiple, specious assertions of material heredity.  Divine excellence is our past, present and future. 

 

We Flourish in GOD

We Flourish in GOD

by

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

“From His eternal care we never shall remove, encompassed by His grace, enfolded by His love” (Hymn 199)

We are saturated by Love’s rivers of health, intelligence, vigor and opportunity.

 

For I will restore health to you And heal you of your wounds,’ says the LORD… (KJV, Jeremiah 30:17)

Eddy: “When apparently near the confines of mortal existence, standing already within the shadow of the death-valley, I learned these truths in divine Science: that all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-present; ….”

Right when everything is ostensibly lost or we are in pain, despair, and even impaired, Truth-God is revealing that we possess a luxuriant, spiritual essence.  We can connect to Truth-God and to our triumphant, incorporeal self.  Love-God is fostering our formidable, magnificent self.

 

 The Lord is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works. (KJV, Ps. 145:9)

Eddy: “There is no error in Science, and our lives must be governed by reality in order to be in harmony with God, the divine Principle of all being.”

The preponderance of Spirit-Good obviates evil.  All issues obstructing our health, professional advancement, and fruitful relationships are precluded by our recognition of Love’s supremacy and its tender mercies.  We are flourishing within the super-fecundity of infinite Life-God.  This is a restorative insight.

There Is No Death, Only LIFE

There Is No Death, Only LIFE

 

By

 

Julio C. Rivas

 

 

Dr. Eben Alexander, a Harvard-trained neurosurgeon, experienced something of immortal, spiritual existence when he was in a coma for 7 days. His brain cortex was dead. It was being eaten by a very rare type of bacterial meningitis.

 

In his book “Proof of Heaven,” he recounts that during his spiritual journey he discovered that existence was without physicality. Each living being was both distinct and unified to everything and everyone else. In addition, everything was beautiful, joyful, and full of love.

 

He perceived a message, which had three parts:

 

“You are loved and cherished, dearly, forever.”

 

“You have nothing to fear.”

 

“There is nothing you can do wrong.”

 

On the seventh day, while his doctor and his wife were discussing disconnecting him from his mechanical life-support, he woke up healed of the bacterial meningitis that had been eating his brain.

 

The book “Life after life,” published in 1975 and written by Dr. Raymond Moody, describes the experiences of 150 people who died, or almost died, and recovered to tell about it. The book encouraged thousands of people from around the world to share their own post-death-and-back experiences. Support groups exist today in many cities where men and women feel comfortable talking about the continuity of life beyond death.

 

To one who glimpses something of spiritual existence, life is the immortal outcome of the divine SOURCE, SPIRIT-LOVE. Whether we are a part of a religious tradition or not, we can intuit that we are the outcome of a universal, uncontainable, inexhaustible, perennial LIFE-FORCE.

 

Of course, throughout human history we have benefitted from radiant, spiritual standard-bearers who have experienced and proven something of the materially transcending reality of infinite LIFE-SPIRIT. Within the Judeo-Christian tradition, we have Melchizedek, Enoch, Christ Jesus, and many others since then. There are also others from other traditions. Another of these standard-bearers from more recent times is the 19th century, radical thinker, Mary Baker Eddy, who perceived, proved and taught the LIFE-PRINCIPLE which generates prolific beauty, health and goodness.

 

We do not need to have “near-death” experiences to liberate ourselves from our feeble, time-enslaved, matter-enclosed views of existence. The more we study and learn about unbounded SPIRIT-LIFE, the easier it is to sense that we are vivid, perfect, perpetual, non-physical, spiritual beings.

 

I have witnessed patients of mine return to life after being diagnosed as clinically dead, or after being in comas for weeks and months. In these cases, I maintained my spiritual conviction that they were in unity with MIND-GOD, and that MIND’s revelations were causing them to thrive within uninterrupted SPIRIT-LIFE.

 

Spiritual awakenings cause us to feel our eternal connectivity to sublime LIFE. Those who have become aware of their immortality describe the feeling that they are at one with a tender, warm, gentle and limitless LOVE. They discern distinct celestial beings that live in perfect synchronicity with each other. In LIFE-REALITY, there is no limitation, separation, sin, guilt, disease, fear, nor hate.

 

The divine LIFE-FORCE makes one feel wanted, belonging to a grand, beautiful, excellent purpose. Superlative SOUL-LIFE excludes material birth, growth, aging, and death. Corporeality, along with failure, sin, and sickness, are a sham to our spiritual apprehension. Physical belief-distortions cannot touch, nor impede our glorious, celestial identities and divinely impelled existence.

 

We are LIFE-beings. We live within LOVE’s infinity. Tender, immaculate, and unbounded LOVE-LIFE maintains a harmonious balance among all spiritual life forms. A holy unity supports and enhances everyone’s divine purpose and reveals more of their radiant, eternal, excellent essence.

 

We are divine LIGHT-LOVE’s perpetual, shimmering beings. We are divine LIFE-LOVE’s eternal chorus. Let us choose to live as we really are.

 

 

MIND Propagates Us

MIND Propagates Us

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

 

You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. (NIV, Ps. 139:3)

 

Eddy: “Immortal man was and is God’s image or idea, even the infinite expression of infinite Mind, and immortal man is coexistent and coeternal with that Mind.”

 

Unparalleled INTELLIGENCE-MIND produces spiritual reality.  The universe and man reflect from MIND immeasurable, spiritual excellence. We are MIND’s brilliant, magnificent, incorporeal expressions. There is an unalterable correlation between INTELLIGENCE-MIND and its effect – man and the universe. This dynamic relationship fructifies our lives with love-relationships, health, intellectual elasticity, prolific accomplishments, and fulfillment.

 

“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” ³⁷ Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’” (NLT, Matt. 22: 36-37)

Eddy: “Man and his Maker are correlated in divine Science, and real consciousness is cognizant only of the things of God.”

MIND-SPIRIT propagates our incorporeal, immortal, affluent identities.  By seeking and expressing MIND we heighten our spiritual sensibilities. Our increased spiritual acuity expels weaknesses and resolves ostensibly intractable conditions. MIND-infused intelligence annihilates illness, fear and sin because these imperfections, like all material imperfections, are void of the qualities of MIND.  

LIFE-prodded Victory

LIFE-prodded Victory

By

Julio C. Rivas, CS

 

 

¹⁵Jesus spoke to her, "Woman, why do you weep? Who are you looking for?" She, thinking that he was the gardener, said, "Mister, if you took him, tell me where you put him so I can care for him." ¹⁶Jesus said, "Mary." Turning to face him, she said in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" meaning "Teacher!" ¹⁷Jesus said, "Don't cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go to my brothers and tell them, 'I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.'" ¹⁸Mary Magdalene went, telling the news to the disciples: "I saw the Master!" And she told them everything he said to her. ^19-20Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, "Peace to you." Then he showed them his hands and side. ^20-21The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: "Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you." (The MSG, John 20:15-20)

Eddy: “The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit, and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses that his body was not changed until he himself ascended, -- or, in other words, rose even higher in the understanding of Spirit, God.”

Mary of Magdala, the deeply committed and capable disciple of Jesus, quickly perceived the resurrected Jesus. Even after his resurrection Jesus continued to enrich his cognition of man’s divine identity. He also helped his students come out of despair and to cognize man’s SOUL-generated, infinite possibilities for health, love and success. From Jesus’ accomplishments we learn that our Christly essence cannot be buried by materiality, hatred, disease and loss. Spiritual apprehension places us on an ascending path of superabundant LIFE.

¹²Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life. (The MSG, James, 1:12)

Eddy: “The human concepts named matter, death, disease, sickness, and sin are all that can be destroyed.” And, “The divine must overcome the human at every point.”

Christly wisdom armors us with celestial grit, resilience, love, might, and victory.