“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the
kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God
cometh not with observation:
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or,
lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God
is within you.” Luke 17: 20, 21
“And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to
dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.
And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled that he had not
first washed before dinner.
And the Lord said unto him, Now
do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your
inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.
Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make
that which is within also?
But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and,
behold, all things are clean unto you.” Luke 11: 37- 41
Our
Father has named this, His ministry, Inreach. It can be described as
"within" reach.
He has
revealed Inreach as a ministry of the Trinity - having 3 parts:
1. Reaching into the Word to find the
tools 2. With which to practice
the Word 3. Resulting in testimony
to the power of the Word.
Our
Father has a specific message for us about His Word.
Study
alone of the Word in Scripture is not sufficient of itself.
Working
with His Word is a 3-fold process.
There are 3 aspects to this process and they all work together as one
whole. These 3 aspects are the TRINITY
OF THE WORD...The Fatherhood, the Sonship, the Holy Spirit of the
Word. These must necessarily work
together. Father, Son, Holy Spirit
- the same in essence, different in office.
This is
the Trinity of the Word: In the
name of the Father we study the Word, receiving it with our heart; in the name
of the Son we practice the Word, living it with our soul; in the name of the
Holy Spirit, we testify to the Word with our mind, sharing its healing power in
our daily life.
This is
the fulfillment of the 1st and greatest commandment:
“But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put
the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a
question, tempting him, and saying,
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind.
This is the first and great commandment.” Matt 22: 34-38
We give
our heart to studying His Word, we give our soul to practicing His Word, we give our mind to spreading His Word. In this we love the Lord, the Word, with
heart, soul, and mind.
Evil
would tempt to separate this process - typically dividing and conquering. This is not God's way. Study without practice and testifying is
faith without works. It is dead.
Imagine
for a moment: a physical heart lying over there, the body it belongs in lying
over there, the brain that belongs in the head of that body lying over
there...Would life be present? It
is not possible. All three, working
as one, together, make up the whole living body. So it is with His Word. If heart, soul and mind are separate in
the process of learning His Word, there is no life in the work.
And His
is the living Word. The living Word
is the Trinity of the Word.
This is
what His ministry of Inreach asks of us...heart, soul, and mind.
The kingdom
of God, the kingdom of
heaven - what work is ours in the fulfillment, of our Lord's Prayer "on
earth as it is in heaven"?
What, in
the name of the Father, are the Divine laws or truth's of His kingdom He
requires of us to understand enabling us to experience on earth as in heaven,
here and now?
How, in
the name of the Son, can we practice more consciously and more specifically
these divine laws in the minutia of our everyday life?
When, in
the name of the Holy Spirit can we share our testimonies?
This
Inreach process is based on the readings provided by the Christian Science
Lesson Sermon. These readings, a gift of spiritual nourishment from our Father,
prepared and delicately seasoned for us by His Son, are not only for us to hear
but to taste, chew, swallow and digest.
His Word sustains us...feeds our spiritual growth. His Word is our daily bread, meant
to bring Him into our individual and collective lives. His Word is a "lamp
unto our feet", peace to our struggling hearts. The Word of our King is the Royal Way. He is
the Word. As the living Word works
for us and within us, becoming an eternal blessing, through the power of the
Holy Spirit others are also blessed.
What blesses one blesses all. Inreach is a process of Cause, outreach is
the Effect. God is this only Cause
and Effect.
In this
ministry, we prayerfully search these precious readings, His Word, for one law
or truth that speaks to us, we write it down on a piece of paper to be carried
in our pocket all week. We study,
dig more deeply into the meaning of this law and throughout the week practice
applying it to our daily life. We
then meet weekly for a time of feasting on testimonies of revelation and healing
- a natural result of this work.
This
practice necessarily begins with the understanding that our Father has given us
the gift of free choice. This free
choice is not based on human decision-making. The choice is always between turning to
Him or away from Him. In Deuteronomy
(30: 19-20) he admonishes us: “I
call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before
you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou
and thy seed may live:
That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou
mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy
life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the
Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and
to Jacob, to give them.”
The gift
of free choice is like a test. And
He even gives us the answer - choose life...choose to obey Him and hold on to
His ways and means.
Our
practice works as follows:
When a
problem (or test) of any nature comes our way (frustration or impatience with a
family member, co-worker, anyone, confusion about employment, financial stress,
regret over the past or fretful of the future...whenever fear tempts us to lose
sight and feeling of the presence of God)
we pause...reach into our pocket and look at the law He has chosen for us to
practice... and we identify two ways of responding to the situation - either
our reaction or our response to God's action. We consciously and conscientiously
practice making the God-centered choice to respond as Christ Jesus would have
responded We must remain alert to
the temptation of discouragement when we fall short - reacting before pausing
and "waiting on" (serving) God.
We are babes in this Spiritward journey. When we do fall - we rise in humble
repentance and choose again. His
forgiveness is limitless.
Also, by
the nature of this practice we humbly begin to learn more of how evil operates
through human egotism - the only channel through which we allow it to
work. It is through the emotion of
ego we react. Motion of the Spirit
is very different from "e"motion or might we say evil motion or ego
motion. Motion of the Spirit has a calming effect even in the midst of the
storm.
Tests,
trials, are a God-given gift.
Trials are proof of God's loving care. Paul took "pleasure" in his
infirmities.
Tests are
like problems we're given to solve in math. Problems to the student of math are
necessary. Similarly, our tests or
problems are a gift to the student of Christ Jesus. He walks with us every step of the
way. Solving “the problem of
Christian being", the problem of genuine
discipleship, requires discipline - a conscious practice of Christian
discipline. Note the connection
between the words discipline and disciple - cause and effect. We don't become disciples. Discipleship is a result - the result of
living His Word...living in Him, of Him, and through Him - heart, soul, and
mind.
Here is
an example of a testimony shared by a woman in Inreach:
The law
in scripture this individual chose with God's direction was this: Ex 20:13 “Thou shalt
not kill.” Here is her testimony:
"This was the scripture that stood out to me. I felt God was telling me to reach more
deeply into its meaning. I wanted a
different law but I knew I must obey.
I waited until Thursday to begin the specific work with this law and
regretted this - because Wednesday was one of those hard days - a day of deep
discouragement with me. I felt so
far from where my head knew it should be.
It was a day of weeping and suffering...and all because I was not
focused on Father...evil was working overtime to distract me...all about me, my
lack, rather than about my Father and His infinite abundance.
I couldn't face another day like this. When I awakened Thursday morning I could
not get to the quote fast enough. I
asked what more He wanted me to hear in "Thou shalt not kill." I was told to stop allowing evil
thoughts to kill me. I had a choice
and I was choosing to swallow poisonous self-centered thoughts. Poison, be it physical or mental,
kills. I chose at that moment not
to kill my spirit. Spirit is a gift
from God. I must cherish God's
gifts not eclipse them with self-pity.
Of course, the moment I turned away from evil and towards Father for His
thoughts of encouragement..."Fear not...” and of direction,
"Take it one moment at a time..." instantly, His peace returned to
me.
The week continued and I was conscious many times over of the choice to
kill or not to kill - either myself or another - with thoughts of frustration,
impatience or discouragement. Each
time the choice was made I felt more alive...the living Word...I was finding
life in His Word. I was not feeding
myself or others poison but the truth that heals - and the result, the peace of
His presence, was gratefully felt.
Not only ourselves but others respond when we feed with His Word of
truth and love rather than lies and fear.
For the Father's gift of greater insight into His Word, for the Son's
gift of testimony to the power of His Word, and for the gift of the Holy Spirit
enabling me to testify, I give deep thanks."
The
application of His Word to our human lives is a divine Science - contrary to a
human science. The application of
the Word is about what Father is doing as a result of our obedience to
Him. As genuine disciples
of Christ, as doer's of the Word - not hearers only, we are ever consciously
striving to better understand, practice and testify to the power of His laws
revealed to and taught by Christ Jesus through His Word.
We have
been talking about the gift of healing - first ourselves, then others. Healing is our Father's gift of the
revelation of Truth, Himself, to human consciousness. Healing is about what Father does. He gifts us with a test. He has already given us the rules or
principles needed to solve any problem whatsoever - and with His gift of free
choice we either apply His rules, truths, or the worlds
rules, lies.
When His
truth is applied to a problem it causes an effect - as Christ Jesus teaches,
“And ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Cause -"You shall know the truth"......Effect - "and the truth will make you
free." John
8: 32
Our
knowing doesn't cause freedom or healing - the truth of His Word sets us
free. But we do have a part in this
- we must choose truth for the effects of Truth. Choosing the lie
results in the effects of a lie.
We must choose God to experience the effects of God.
Whatever
human vehicle our Father gives, be it situations with family, work, financial,
the body - our full-time Christian employment remains the same for all of us -
listening and obeying Him through study, practice, testimony of the Word. This process of Inreach, living
the Trinity of the Word, empowers us enabling us to empower each other with His
strength necessary to overcome evil with good in our daily walk and
conversation.
In
conclusion: His most precious and
all powerful 3-fold direction in the book of John - one of the best examples of
the Trinity of the Word:
“Then
said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then
are ye my disciples indeed;…” John 8: 31