THE REAL MISSION—BE CLOSE TO GOD

DAVID ROBERTSON

THERE'S NO BETTER WAY to get a grip on reality than to have an intimate talk with God about your problems and aspirations! That's just how this week's Bible Lesson on "Reality" starts off. In the Responsive Reading (from Job, chapters 35-37, 42), a man named Elihu speaks about God and admonishes his friend Job to magnify God's majestic works. But Job talks directly to God about them.

Section I shows Moses getting instructions from God in what the Bible wonderfully describes as a friendly talk (see Ex. 33:11, citation 2). While Moses talked intimately with God, theirs was not, strictly speaking, a private conversation, because it was recorded for anyone to read. To me this illustrates that the communication we have from God can at the same time bless the whole human family.

Passages in Science and Health follow right along with this promise of intimacy with God, declaring just what a friendly talk with God would reveal: "To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle of all that really is" (p. 275, cit. 2). Section III amplifies the promise of direct communication with the Creator through the words of His Son: "Jesus said, 'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God' [Truth]" (p. 341, cit. 13). As I studied this Lesson, I found my own desire growing to "look deep into realism instead of accepting only the outward sense of things" (p. 129, Sect. I, cit. 6). It's through the prayer of conversation with God that we experience such an influx of reality, and the mental freedom and spiritual insight that bring healing.

About the author

David Robertson earned a Masters degree in theology at Bangor (Maine) Theological Seminary and is continuing his Bible study at Bard College's Institute of Advanced Theology.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

PARENTING

BRIGHT BEGINNINGS