Lent (1-20)
Keep A True Lent By Charles Fillmore
THE WORD LENT comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for spring, which is derived from a verb meaning to lengthen. Lent comes in the spring when the days become noticeably longer.
This annual season of fasting, prayer, and penitence has been observed by the Western Church since the first century after Christ, although it has not always been forty days long. In more recent times it has been kept forty days, after the example of Moses and Elijah, and to commemorate the forty days of fasting and prayer that Jesus spent in the wilderness.
The first day of Lent is called Ash Wednesday from the custom that prevailed in the early Church of sprinkling ashes on the heads of penitents on the first day of Lent, in token of repentance for sin.
Ash Wednesday comes forty-six days before Easter. There are six Sundays in Lent, and they are not considered part of Lent, because in the Western Church Sunday is always a feast day. The forty weekdays beginning with Ash Wednesday constitute Lent.
The fifth Sunday in Lent is known as Passion Sunday, because it marks the beginning of Passion-tide, the last two weeks of Lent. These two weeks specifically commemorate the Passion of Jesus, or His experiences following the Last Supper.
The last week of Lent is called Holy Week. It includes Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday.
Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter, commemorates Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem when the people strewed palms in His way.
Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter, is a corruption of the Latin word mandati meaning “of the commandment,” and refers to the command “This do in remembrance of me” spoken by Jesus in regard to His breaking of the bread and drinking of the wine at the Last Supper. Maundy Thursday commemorates the event of the Last Supper.
Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, probably known originally as God’s Friday, commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus.
Easter Day, of course, commemorates the Resurrection. The word Easter comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Eastre, the name of the Goddess of spring, in whose honor a festival was celebrated each April. Easter Day always comes on the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after March 21. If the full moon falls on a Sunday, Easter is the next Sunday. Easter can never fall earlier than March 22 nor later than April 25.
Lent is a season of spiritual growth, a time for progressive unfoldment. When we can blend and merge our mind with God-Mind, the way is open for the Lord to glorify us and to lift us into a higher, purer, more spiritual state. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” said Jesus. Unity students everywhere are invited to participate yearly in our Lenten program. Christ is in our midst, as the God of our planet, as the one great Teacher. Place all burdens on the Lord and enter the Lenten season expecting definite results.
Fasting means abstaining from; it is abstinence. The place of overcoming is in the consciousness of man. The forty-day fast is an all-round denial of sense demands. In fasting, we as metaphysicians abstain from error thinking and meditate on spiritual Truth until we incorporate it into the consciousness of oneness with the Father.
The desire to excel is in all men. It is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which ever urges us on through earth toward heaven. It should be encouraged and cultivated in the right direction.
As day after day we steadily adhere to our firm resolve to follow the steps outlined for the Lenten season, we discover that we are building on a firm foundation, and are mounting into a higher consciousness. We come to know that Christ is indeed with us and is resurrecting in us His realizations of light, life, and substance.
Denial
1st Day, Ash Wednesday.
Read Matthew 5:1-16.
Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, is so-called from the ceremonial of ashes. Ashes symbolize repentance.
John the Baptist came, saying, “Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Repentance means denial; it is a relinquishment and should be made without too much vehemence. Therefore, I deny out of consciousness old error thoughts, as if I were gently sweeping away cobwebs, and I affirm positively and fearlessly that I am a child of God, and that my inheritance is from Him.
As I follow this rule I find that I am letting go of old mortal beliefs and the Divine within is flaming higher and higher. Its pure white light is infusing all my surroundings with a delightful spirit of wisdom, dignity, and peace. I realize more and more the law of righteous thinking that is bringing me into a consciousness of my perfect dominion.
In Christ it is not difficult to eliminate belief in strife and contention. If petty quarrels, jealousy, uncharitable thoughts come into my life, I overcome them by a quiet but positive denial made in the realization that no error has any power or reality in itself. I turn away from the belief in negation, and my thinking changes. I rid my consciousness of limited thoughts that have encumbered and darkened my understanding. I break down mortal thought and ascend into a spiritual realm, the kingdom of the heavens.
In the spirit of divine love I affirm: “Forgetting the things that are behind, I realize I am strong, positive, powerful, wise, loving, fearless, free spirit. I am God’s perfect child.”
Affirmation
2nd Day, Thursday.
Read Luke 7:1-17.
The science of Spirit is the orderly study of truths formulated in Divine Mind according to the operation of universal law. An affirmation is a positive and orderly statement of Truth. By affirmation we claim and appropriate that which is ours.
The Word is the working power of Divine Mind. One will never go down to defeat if in his hour of need he positively affirms the almightiness of God-Mind through Christ, and invokes its help in his behalf.
I declare that as a child of God I am now entering the Christ consciousness of perfection. This is in itself an affirmation, the highest I can make. Jesus helped Himself into this high state of being by His use of the spoken word. He continually made the very highest affirmations such as, “I and the Father are one,” “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth.” I am joint heir with Jesus to the infinite good of the kingdom, and by the faithful use of my spoken word I claim my heavenly good.
Faith is the result of many affirmations. Each affirmation helps to build up a substantial, firm, unwavering state of mind, because it establishes Truth in consciousness.
As day by day I repeat and courageously live affirmations of Truth, I come to know that I am opening a channel of intelligent communication with the silent forces at the depths of being; thoughts and words therefrom flow forth, and I realize an entirely new source of power developing within me.
I affirm: “Through Jesus Christ I realize my divine sonship, and I am transformed into His image and likeness.”
God
3rd Day, Friday.
Read John 15:1-16.
“God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” We do not see God with our physical eyes excepting as He manifests Himself through His works. His attributes are therefore brought into expression by man who is His son and who is like Him in essence. Jesus was a true expression of God because He was like Him. If we would manifest the divine attributes, we must seek to attain the consciousness and the understanding that characterized Jesus. We must endeavor to raise our thoughts and feelings to God’s level if we would make ourselves channels through which He can come forth into expression and manifestation.
God transcendent suggests God as above and beyond His creation. This idea of God as remote from the practical affairs of man or from man’s own experience is false. God (perfection) is not out of reach of His offspring nor something beyond or above them. Tennyson tells us that “closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.”
I am centered in God because I focus my attention on His ideas and ideals. The Holy Spirit, which is the Word of God in action, leads me into a consciousness of my divine sonship and inheritance. My inheritance from Him is executive ability, abundant supply, faithfulness, joy, all good. “I am thy portion and thine inheritance.”
In the name of Jesus Christ I declare: “God’s perfect plan of bodily perfection is bearing fruit, and I am made whole.”
I AM
4th Day, Saturday.
Read John 10:1-18.
I am a child of the Father, and my inheritance is from Him. I AM is the Christ within me, the true spiritual being, whom God made in His image and likeness. Through the I AM (the Christ), I link myself with the Father, with Spirit, with life, wisdom, love, peace, strength, power, and Truth.
I AM is the gate through which my thoughts come forth from the invisible, and it is through this gate that I go to get into the presence of Spirit.
The I AM has its being in heaven; its home is in the realm of God ideals. I hitch my I AM to the star of God, and infinite joy follows as night the day.
The I AM always assures me that the preponderance of power is in spiritual things. Fear throws dust in one’s eyes and hides the mighty spiritual forces that are always with one. I deny ignorance and fear, and affirm the presence and power of the I AM. “I AM THAT I AM . . . I AM hath sent me unto you.”
I realize that spiritual character is the rock foundation of being. As I build my consciousness in God-Mind, I find that I am in heaven right here on earth. I let go of the little self and take hold of the big self. “Not my will, but thine, be done.” The I AM is the will in its highest aspect. The will may be said to be the man, because it is the directive power that decides the character formation which makes what is called individuality.
I boldly affirm: “I am a child of God, and I am joint heir with Jesus to abiding life, wisdom, love, peace, substance, strength, and power.”
The Altar
1st Sunday.
Read Matthew 5:21-26.
The altar represents a fixed, definite center in the consciousness of man. It is a place within where we meet the Lord face to face and are willing to give up our sins, give up the lower for the higher, the personal for the impersonal, the animal for the divine.
The altar, mentioned in Revelation 11:1 symbolizes the consciousness of full consecration that takes place in the temple of worship, the body. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.”
The altar to the unknown God is a yearning to know the unrevealed Spirit, and a reaching out of the mind for a fuller realization of its source.
Prayer does not change God–it changes us. Sincere desire is a form of prayer. Deep desire is essential for spiritual growth. It is desire–earnest, intense desire–that draws the whole being up out of mortality and its transient joys into the power to appreciate and receive real spiritual blessings. This is a demonstration, the proving of a Truth principle in one’s body and affairs. It is the manifestation of an ideal when its accomplishment has been brought about by one’s conformity in thought, word, and act, to the creative principle of God.
Kneeling at the altar I take my statement of Truth and hold it steadily in mind until I get my realization, the logic of my mind is satisfied, and there is the lifting up and expanding of soul consciousness.
To this end I affirm: “It is not I, ‘but the Father abiding in me doeth his works.'”
The Garden of Eden
5th Day, Monday.
Read John 14:1-12.
Man’s body temple is the outer expression of the Garden of Eden, which God gave him to keep and to trim. Man’s primary work in the earthly consciousness (the Garden) is to use his creative power to preserve harmony and order in his world, and to conserve his powers for divine direction.
The Garden of Eden represents a region of being within, in which are provided all primal ideas for the production of the beautiful. It represents the elemental life and intelligence placed at the disposal of man, through which he is to evolve a spiritual mind and a spiritual body.
The Garden is the spiritual body in which man dwells when he brings forth thoughts after the pattern of the original divine ideas. The Garden is the substance of God.
God’s greatest gift to man is the power of thought, through which he can incorporate into his consciousness the Mind of God.
There are twelve gates which open into this wonderful Garden of Eden. These gates are the twelve faculties of mind: faith, strength, wisdom, love, power, imagination, understanding, will, law or order, zeal, renunciation, life. Each faculty, through the most accelerated mind action, as in prayer, has been purified and therefore opens into the very heart of the Holy City within.
I affirm: “My body is the temple of God, cleansed, purified, undefiled, made perfect. Praise God!”
Faith
6th Day, Tuesday.
Read Hebrews 11:1-12.
Faith is the perceiving power of the mind linked with a power to shape substance. It is spiritual assurance, the power to do the seemingly impossible. It is a force that draws to us our heart’s desire right out of the invisible spiritual substance. It is a deep inner knowing that that which is sought is already ours for the taking, the “assurance of things hoped for.”
Faith working in spiritual substance accomplishes all things. This is the faith that co-operates with creative law. Exercised in spiritual consciousness, it finds its abode, and without variation or disappointment it brings results that are seemingly miraculous.
Faith in the reality of things spiritual develops the faith center in man’s brain. When the mental eye is illumined with faith, it sheds a radiance that hovers like a halo around the head and extends in lessening degree throughout the whole body. “When thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light.”
The halo that the early artists painted around the heads of the saints was not imaginary, but real. This illuminating power of faith covers the whole constitution of man, making him master of all the forces centering about spiritual consciousness.
I realize that my faith in the invisible is building a real abiding substance in my mind and in my body. Spiritual ideas grow quickly when planted in the rich soil of my mind, and my body temple changes accordingly.
I affirm: “I have faith in the glorious infusion of the more abundant life of Christ vitalizing me. I am lifted up and healed.”
Strength
7th Day, Wednesday.
Read Matthew 4:1-11.
Strength is freedom from weakness; stability of character, power to withstand temptation. It is the force or power to do, capacity to accomplish. “The name of Jehovah is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” Strength originates in Spirit; the thought and the word spiritually expressed bring the manifestation.
Jesus is the greatest teacher. He is the type that I am striving to follow, not only in spiritual culture and in mind culture, but in body culture. By faithfully studying and using the methods of Jesus I am bringing forth the very best that is in me.
Through Christ the mind and the body of man have the power of using strength on various planes of consciousness. I affirm that I am steadfast and strong in thought and in deed, and thus I am
establishing strength in soul and in body. I refuse to let the thought of weakness enter my consciousness, but always ignore the suggestion and affirm myself to be a tower of strength within and without.
Supreme strength as demonstrated by Jesus can be attained by one who trusts in Spirit and conserves his vital substance. The strength of Spirit is necessary to the perpetuation of soul and body and to the overcoming of death.
As I relax more and more and lift my consciousness to harmonize with the ever-present perfect Mind, I am invigorated and restored to stabilizing power. No harm can befall me. I am made strong through Spirit.
I affirm: “The joy of the Lord is a wellspring within me, and I am established in divine strength.”
Wisdom
8th Day, Thursday.
Read Matthew 7:1-12.
Wisdom is of Spirit. One can get flashes of understanding at any time, but the clear light of the Supreme shines steadily on us as we become obedient and receptive to the Supreme’s monitions. Jesus always listened for the “inner voice,” and was obedient to it in His meek and lowly work among the humblest class of men.
Spiritual discernment always places wisdom above the other faculties of mind. It is pure knowing, and comes by kindling the inner light. “The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable.” This means that as I call the righteous judge into action I may find my standards of right and wrong undergoing rapid changes, but if I hold steadily to the Lord as my supreme guide, I shall be led into all righteousness.
As I dwell upon this all-knowing faculty within, I become conscious of the Christ radiance lighting my mind, and my whole being is illumined.
My thoughts are quickened through their conscious relationship to Spirit. I am flooded with new life, which raises my organism above the disintegrating thought currents of the earth; and thus I am not only redeeming my mind, but am also saving the flesh from corruption.
Spiritual understanding reveals that the resurrection of the body from death is not to be confined to Jesus, but is for all men who comprehend Truth and apply it as Jesus applied it.
Realizing that I am awakening to the reality of my higher self, I affirm: “Christ within me is my glory. The brightness of His presence wipes out all darkness, and I am filled with life and light.”
Love
9th Day, Friday.
Read I John 4:7-21.
Love, in Divine Mind, is the idea of universal unity. In expression, it is the power that joins and binds together the universe and everything in it. Love is a harmonizing, constructive power. When it is made active in consciousness, it conserves substance and reconstructs, rebuilds, and restores man and his world.
As I make a perfect union between my mind and the loving mind of the Father, I realize a goodness everlasting and joy beyond expression. The point of contact is a willingness and a seeking on my part. “Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”
Love is that mighty power, that divine quality of God that is expressing through all mankind, and cannot be suppressed by any outside force. I now firmly declare that it is expressing through me, and that no environment or external condition can hinder it. Any unloving condition of the world is no bar to my exercise of love; in fact, it is an incentive.
I am not afraid to pour out my love on all the so-called evil of the world. I deny the appearance of evil, and affirm the omnipotence of love and goodness.
The word love overcomes hate, resistance, opposition, obstinacy, anger, jealousy, and all other error states where there is mental or physical friction. As divine love enters into the thought process, every cell of my body is poised and balanced in space, in right mathematical order as to weight and relative distance.
In quietness and confidence, I affirm: “God, in His love, fills me with new life. In His name I am cleansed, strengthened, and healed.”
Power
10th Day, Saturday.
Read Luke 4:31-44.
Man controls his thoughts and his feelings by the use of his innate power. A quickening from on high must precede his realization of dominion. “Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you.”
Man is the power of God in action. The power to control his thinking is the highest gift given to man. There is a universal, creative force that urges man forward to the recognition of the creative power of individual thought.
The word Jehovah (Christ) is charged with spiritual power far above and beyond any other word in human language. The power center in the throat is the open door between the formless and the formed worlds of vibration pertaining to the expression of sound. When the voice has united with the life of the soul, it takes on a sweetness and a depth that one feels and remembers. But sweeter and deeper still is the voice of one who has made union with Spirit and can say with Jesus, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
I cultivate a loving attitude of mind toward everybody, and my voice is rich, warm, and mellow. As I pray and realize spiritual dominion, I feel vital and energetic and my voice is strong and vibrant and brilliant. Through these vibrations I feel the power of unity with the higher self more quickly than in any other way. “All power is given unto me in heaven [mind] and in earth [body].”
In His name I affirm: “All the issues of my life are stirred to action by the quickening Christ power, and I have dominion over my thoughts and my feelings.”
Imagination
2d Sunday.
Read Acts 10:9-35.
The imagination is that faculty of mind which images and forms. Everything that is manifest was first a mental picture and was brought into expression by this forming power. Man accumulates a mass of ideas about substance and life, and with his imagination he molds them into shape.
Those who look to the Holy Spirit for guidance find that its instruction is given to all who believe in Christ, and the command is to make all things after the pattern shown Moses on the Mount as found in Exodus 25:40.
The Spirit of truth projects into the chamber of imagery pictures that, rightly understood, will be a sure guide for all people who believe in the omnipresence of mind. The imagination will carry out any idea or set of ideas that the I AM reflects into it, hence theories are not to be trusted. There must be evidence in works. This is accomplished by the working power of the world.
With my imagination I lay hold of perfect ideas and clothe them with substance. My body is the product of my mind. In my communication with God, the imagining power of my mind is playing an important part. It receives divine ideas, and in dreams and visions reflects their character in the consciousness. According to the Scriptures this is the opening of the heavens and the seeing the “angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”
With my imagination fixed on Spirit, I affirm: “In the quietness and confidence of Spirit, I see myself as God sees me, His perfect image and likeness.”
Understanding
11th Day, Monday.
Read Luke 2:40:52.
Spiritual understanding is the ability of the mind to apprehend and realize the laws of thought and the relation of ideas one to another. It is that something through which we understand God and ourselves.
Understanding reveals that love and wisdom should work together, that power should be expressed through love, and zeal should be tempered with wisdom.
Intellectual understanding comes first in the soul’s development, then a deeper understanding of Principle follows, until the whole man ripens into wisdom.
Those who are being educated in Truth through the power of the word will finally arrive at the place where the true light from Spirit will dawn on them, and they will see with spiritual understanding and have proof of the reality of the Christ Mind.
I realize that God is supreme knowing. That in me which comprehends is understanding; it knows and compares in wisdom. Its comparisons are not made in the realm of form, but in the realm of ideas. Understanding is that in me which knows how to accomplish things. I claim my Christ understanding at all times.
If willfulness of the mortal tries to take over, I gently deny it power, and affirm for spiritual understanding. At all times I hold for absolute freedom in the Lord. God is the one principle; we are all as free to use God as we are free to use the principle of mathematics or music. The principle never interferes, but if it is to be rightly applied, I must develop understanding.
I affirm: “Divine understanding in me unites with the Holy Spirit, and I always know what to do.”
Will
12th Day, Tuesday.
Read John 1:1-18.
The will is the executive power of the mind. The commandments of Jesus teach the Father’s will. Those who keep them are therefore at one with the will of God.
It is possible to get very close to the kingdom of heaven by doing good works and surrendering to Spirit the various faculties of the mind, but we can never fully enter into and abide in heaven, or divine harmony, without surrendering all that makes up the personality, of which the will is the center.
The will may be said to be the man, because it is the directive power that determines character formation. When man wills the will of God to be done, he forms spiritual character. The use of the regenerate will is for the sole purpose of spiritual unfoldment.
When the will of man adheres to wisdom faithfully, and carries out in its work the plans that are idealized in wisdom, it creates in man a consciousness of harmony and peace. Spirit breathes into such an individual continually the necessary inspiration and knowledge to give him superior understanding.
I bring the divine will to bear in my consciousness by understanding, by appropriating universal wisdom, by affirming, “Not my will, but thine, be done.” God is potential, unformed will; man is manifest God will. I now link my will with the principle of divine force in order to develop superior executive capacity. After this manner I am swiftly bringing forth faculties that under the slow action of mortality would take ages to develop.
I affirm: “The will of God is uppermost in my consciousness, and I am glorified in my understanding.”
Law
13th Day, Wednesday.
Read Galatians 6:1-10, 16.
Divine law is the logical process by which divine principle, or God, manifests. The inner spirit of the law is the spiritual way of life that Jesus taught and lived.
Divine law is the universal something in us of which we all are conscious, and tells us when we are doing right and when we are doing wrong. It may be defined as the innate knowing of right and wrong, and this knowing may be quickened. The quickening does not come by the study of material things, but by concentrating the mind on the Christ. Man does not make the law; the law is, and it was established for our benefit before the world was formed.
There is a law of spiritual and mental growth constantly at work in the mind, raising man from sense consciousness to spiritual consciousness. The nature of the universe is purity and goodness. Abiding in the Christ consciousness, man aligns himself with divine law. He becomes “the light of the world.”
Today I find I am one with the infinite law of expansion–one with the principle of never-ceasing growth and development toward the fulfillment of God’s perfect idea that is firmly infixed in all creation.
Divine law cannot be broken. It holds man responsible for the result of his labors. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” is the action of true ideas working in my mind and in my body.
I affirm: “My house is set in order, and I press forward toward the goal of perfection.
Zeal
14th Day, Thursday.
Read Luke 10:30-42; 11:1-4.
Zeal is the affirmative impulse of existence; its command is, “Go forward!” Zeal is the mighty force that incites all things to action; the eternal urge behind all things. To be without zeal is to be without the zest of living. Zeal and enthusiasm incite to glorious achievement in every ideal that the mind conceives.
Zeal should be tempered with wisdom. Some persons get so fired with zeal when they first tackle a job, that they quickly grow tired, and fail to carry it through to completion. The need is for control, equalization.
Watch the pull of a giant locomotive; note how it slowly but steadily moves forward, almost by inches at first but gradually increasing until its mile-long train swiftly disappears in the distance.
“The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up” means that the zeal faculty has become so active intellectually that it has consumed the vitality and left nothing for spiritual growth. Excessive zeal in religious forms of worship eats up the purely spiritual. When we become very zealous in observing the rites of the church we are prone to forget the church itself, which is Christ.
The divine command is, “Take time to be holy.” I am quick to do the bidding of Spirit and use a portion of my zeal in establishing God’s kingdom within me. I do not put all my enthusiasm into helping others; my own unfoldment is of great importance to me. I love to aid my brother, but I do not allow that idea to rob me of the power to demonstrate Truth for myself.
I affirm: “My zeal is tempered with wisdom, and I maintain a perfect balance within and without.”
Renunciation
l5th Day, Friday.
Read Matthew 18:21-35.
The accumulated effects of sins of past lives, is a burden that those who accept it expect to carry for ages, or until they work out of it. They are weary treadmill travelers from birth to death. There is no such hopeless note in the doctrine of Jesus. He came to bring a full consciousness of abundant life, complete forgiveness, redemption from all sin, and victory over death and the grave.
The law is Truth, and the truth is that all is good. There is no power and no reality in sin. If sin were real and enduring, like goodness and Truth, it could not be forgiven but would hold its victim forever. As I enter into the understanding of the real and the unreal, a great light dawns on me, and I see what Jesus meant when He said, “The Son of man hath authority on earth to forgive sins.”
The Son of man is that in me which discerns the difference between Truth and error. As I get this understanding, I am in position to free my soul from sin and my body from disease, which is the effect of sin. In spiritual understanding the I AM of man forgives or “gives” Truth “for” error; the mind is set in order, and the body healed. The moment man realizes this he puts himself in harmony with the Truth of Being, and the law wipes out all his transgressions.
In His name I affirm: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes me free from the law of sin and of death.”
Life
16th Day, Saturday.
Read John 4:1-26.
Life is a phase of Being, the expression of which manifests as animation, activity, and vigor. The consciousness of eternal life places one in the stream of life that never fails.
The whole race needs a spiritual quickening of the life principle; its origin is in Divine Mind. Life is the gift of God. “Stir up the gift of God, which is in thee.” To think intently about life is to quicken it into action. To talk about energy, force, power, life, will make the life currents flow swiftly throughout the whole being.
To Jesus the God presence was an abiding flame –a flame of life everlasting that He felt in every cell of His body making Him more and more alive, cleansing and purifying Him until He became every whit perfect.
By mastering carnality Jesus opened the way for all men to attain eternal life. During our higher realizations of Truth we are often conscious of this abiding flame working in and through us.
I now make alive all the cells in my organism by mentally infusing into them the Christ consciousness. This is the new birth, which is transforming my body and raising it to electrical energy. This was carried to its fulfillment by Jesus in the resurrection of His body. The next step in divine evolution is the spiritualization of the body, or the Ascension.
The quickening life in me is now brought into expression by my holding and repeating this statement of Truth: “I have the Mind of Christ. My words are spiritually quickened and they are alive forevermore. I am filled with the vitality and vigor and health of Jesus Christ.”
Conservation
3d Sunday.
Read Isaiah 55:1-13.
We should ever remember that our youth, which we love so well, never really dies; it merely falls asleep in the realm of the subconscious. People grow old because they let the youth idea fall asleep. By using spiritual understanding they can awaken it.
The awakening of youthful energies is necessary to one in the regeneration. The body cannot be refined and made, like its Creator, eternal before all the thoughts necessary to its perpetuation are revived in it.
Jesus represents man in the regeneration; that is, man in the process of restoring his body to its pristine purity where it will live on perpetually without old age, disease, or death. A necessary step in this process of body restoration is the quickening of the vitalizing energies in the subconsciousness that feed the body and give it the life force that renews its youth. Eternal youth is one of the God-given ideas that man loves.
Waste of substance is the great sin that results in body disintegration. It is the sense mind that causes all waste, whether in the organism or in the more external realm called the world. Jesus came to save men from sin and to make them ready for an abundant entrance into the glorious kingdom of Christ, which is to be established on the earth.
We can get at the subject of conservation definitely by considering the life “hid with Christ in God,” for the hidden protected life is the conserved life.
I now make conscious union with the substance of all spiritual attributes as I affirm: “Through Christ the divine economy is active in me, and I conserve the spiritual essences in all phases of my life.”
The awakening of youthful energies is necessary to one in the regeneration. The body cannot be refined and made, like its Creator, eternal before all the thoughts necessary to its perpetuation are revived in it.
We can get at the subject of conservation definitely by considering the life “hid with Christ in God,” for the hidden protected life is the conserved life.
I now make conscious union with the substance of all spiritual attributes as I affirm: “Through Christ the divine economy is active in me, and I conserve the spiritual essences in all phases of my life.”
Jesus Christ Our Helper
17th Day, Monday.
Read Romans 8:1-11.
If God had not planned to make Jesus a continuous working factor in our civilization there would be no good purpose for His having been sent, and for the great sacrifice that He made. He came to show us “the way, and the truth, and the life,” and He promised “Lo, I am with you always.” He also promised that He would be with us as a teacher. “When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you into all the truth.”
No one is overlooked. The helpful hand of Jesus is extended to all. Whoever you are, wherever you are, Jesus in His spiritual consciousness is waiting for your mental recognition. Whatever your object, He will show you how to attain it. “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.”
Jesus developed the innate powers of mind and body and thereby became a citizen of the heavens or realms where dwell the sons of God. He did this by the power of His word–by releasing the imprisoned electrons of His body and raising them to spiritual consciousness.
Why do we not see Jesus? Optics show that man’s eyes are limited in sight. They are aware of rays of light within a very narrow range. The microscope reveals a world of living things to which the natural eye is utterly oblivious. Both below and above the range of human vision living entities exist. We sometimes feel the presence of what we cannot see.
Affirm: “I rejoice in the restorative power of Jesus Christ now working mightily in a new consciousness of life in my soul and body.”
Evolution
18th Day, Tuesday.
Read Romans 8:18-39.
In every man the Christ, or the Word of God, is infolded; it is an idea that contains ideas.
Evolution is the result of the development of ideas in mind. What we are is the result of the evolution of our consciousness, and our consciousness is the result of the seed ideas sown in our mind. Therefore spiritual evolution is the unfolding of the Spirit of God into expression. It is the development achieved by man working under spiritual law. Humanity is the garden of God, of which the soil is the omnipresent thought substance.
The Christ, or Word (Son) of God evolution of man is plainly taught in the New Testament as the supreme attainment of every man. “For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God.”
Without some evidence in us of the Christ man we are little better than animals. When through faith in the reality of things spiritual we begin soul evolution there is great rejoicing; “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Christianity teaches the complete law of evolution.
“God said,” and thus God created that which was to appear, God planned man and the universe, and through His word projected them into creation as ideal principles and immanent energies acting behind and within all visibility.
I affirm: “I am one with the ever unfolding, ever increasing Spirit of divine understanding. My whole consciousness is ripening into perfection.”
The Blood of Jesus
19th Day, Wednesday.
Read John 6:41-65.
Through the power of His word Jesus purified and spiritualized the natural blood in His body until it became a spiritual life stream, into which all may enter and be cleansed.
Through the power of His word Jesus broadcast the spiritual electrons of His body into the race thought atmosphere, that they may be apprehended by all who believe in Him.
This Lenten season I realize that I am baptized in His spiritual life stream, and am purified and cleansed. The electrons of His blood, which I appropriate, are centers of energy and life within, and they uplift and strengthen me.
Jesus called the bread He had blessed His body and the wine His blood. As I appropriate words of Truth, “eat them” so to speak, I partake of the substance and life of Spirit and build the Christ body. Thus I partake of the body and blood of Jesus, the true sacrament that vitalizes the body by renewing the mind.
The blood of Jesus in me is the life contained in God. The crown of life is attained by living eternally in the presence of God. Attainment depends on the understanding of the science of right thinking. My way to eternal life lies in my acknowledgment of my oneness with the Christ of God. In His name I am gradually transforming and regenerating my blood and my body. Thus I am saved by Jesus Christ.
Realizing victory over every limited belief of the mortal, I affirm: “I rejoice in the restorative power of Jesus’ blood now working mightily in me to renew, to restore, and to make every whit whole.”
The Body Temple
20th Day,Thursday.
Read Matthew 6:16-34.
God created the idea of the body as a self-perpetuating, self-renewing organism, which man reconstructs into his personal body. God created the body idea, and man, by his thinking manifests.
I realize that I shall have a perfect body and a perfect world when I understand and use the perfect word, the word that contains all the attributes of God. Therefore, I declare that my words are being charged with a full understanding of Divine Mind and its inhering ideas, and that I consciously apply this understanding in all of my feeling, thinking, speaking, and living and am therefore steadily putting on the Christ in mind and body.
Overcoming step by step the limitations of material thought, my body becomes more refined and increasingly radiant. The law is that my body is transformed by the renewing of the mind. By affirmation the mind lays hold of living words of Truth and builds them into the body. As I enter into and abide in the Son of God consciousness I have eternal life and my body is transformed into pure flesh manifesting the perfection of Spirit.
To bless is to invoke good on that which is blessed. It is to confer God’s good on something or someone. Therefore I bless my body temple, and declare its purity and strength and beauty. I pour out upon my body temple the oil of love and clothe it in garments of praise.
Realizing that the body of Christ in me is the result of my spiritual thought that maintains its unity with Spirit even in manifestation, I affirm: “The Word of God in me quickens my mind, and my body is transformed into the likeness of His glorious body.”