IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON January 12, 2009 Issue

THE PROMISE OF CONTINUOUS RENEWAL

DAVID ROBERTSON

WHO DOESN'T YEARN for new and greater vitality in life? That's just what I gained from this week's Christian Science Bible Lesson on "Life"—new thoughts about ways to expand my concept and my experience of the divine Life, right now.

The word new is frequently used in this lesson, starting out with the Golden Text (Ps. 144:9), "I will sing a new song unto thee, O God." Section I follows this lead: "And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God" (Ps. 40:3, citation 2). Citation 3 shows that by keeping this wonderful sense of newness in our life, we defeat the supposition that we are mortal: "The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying, make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (Ezek. 18:1, 31). Spiritual newness, then, is the antidote to dullness, again, boredom, insipidness, and even thoughts of dying. The connection of newness and singing in these citations also showed me how to feel and express the fact that we live in God's new day, always full of promise and harmony.

The Old Testament character Enoch, for example, must have lived in God's new day. He did not lie down and die in order to see God, but rather "walked with God" into Life's continuing promise of new life-experience (see Gen. 5:21-24, Sect. III, cit. 8). Enoch's example reminds me that we do not die our way into heaven; rather, we live our way there. More and more life is divine Life's promise to each of us. As Mary Baker Eddy put it: "We all must learn that Life is God. Ask yourself: Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good? Am I demonstrating the healing power of Truth and Love? If so, then the way will grow brighter 'unto the perfect day'" (Science and Health, p. 496, Sect. III, cit. 13). I found this passage such a compelling description of how Enoch made his "walk" into a more perfect day.