The Bible Speakes to You January 7, 1967 Issue

[The above is an abbreviated, postproduction text of the program released for broadcast the week of December 30-January 5 in the radio series, "The Bible Speaks to You." Heard internationally over approximately 1,000 stations, the weekly programs are prepared and produced by the Christian Science Committee on Publication, 107 Falmouth Street, Boston, Massachusetts, 02115.]

RADIO PROGRAM NO. 248 - What Does the New Year Offer You?

Questioner: Here we are on the threshold of the new year. Many people look at the prospect with some dread. Some feel that the new year doesn't offer them much. What do you think? Speaker: The new year of itself doesn't change anything. But at least the word "new" suggests hope, something better. It's an opportunity to put the old behind us. We can go along in the same old rut, but we really don't have to. Drudgery, hopelessness, a feeling of being tired or dissatisfied all the time, are more often states of thought than of circumstance. There's such a direct relationship between thought and circumstance that I think we can't ignore them. Questioner: How is one able to make a change for the better? Speaker: The answer to that, I feel, is that one must lift his thought to his relationship with God try to gain a clearer, more inspired understanding of the nature of God, and start conducting his life m such a way that he thinks, lives, and acts in acknowledgment of his continuing relationship to God.

Let me take just one aspect of this to be more specific. I think you would agree that there's too much tendency on the part of many people toward self-interest: what s in it for me? Centuries ago Christ Jesus had the answer for that attitude. He taught, "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom" (Luke 6:38).

Well, this was a pretty remarkable statement to be making to those people. A great many, I'm sure, felt they didn't have anything to give. They were poor. Many of them were hungry and sick. Questioner: But Jesus wasn't necessarily talking of giving of one's material possessions.

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