Courtesy of nimdok
The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that in the U.S. 88% believe in God, 82% believe religion is important in one’s life, and 75% pray at least once a week, but only 39% attend a religious service at least once a week.
I’ve been asking myself, “is church relevant to me?” The answer is yes. So this leads to the more important question, “how is church relevant to me?”
Picture by Ryan Harvey
The short answer is…. plenty!
So, how was weight loss accomplished through prayer ?
Healing in Christian Science is not faith healing through the human mind or a blind faith. It’s not New Age thinking or positive thinking. It’s not visualization, seeing yourself the way you want to be.
It’s seeing yourself as God sees you, as God made you.
Stairs in the Michigan Capitol
I was sitting in the back by the door. After the meeting, and after many there had left, as two Michigan House Health Policy Committee members were walking out of the room one suggested that they take the stairs and the other concurred.
In the committee meeting, Meghan Swain of the Michigan Association for Local Public Health shared that childhood obesity has tripled in the state and adult obesity has doubled. A member of the committee shared that some of the members of the committee are now encouraging one another to take the stairs instead of the elevator.
The point was made that it’s not enough to talk about the importance of these things as they work to improve health in the state, but that they need to do something.
So, do you have an altimeter on the dashboard of your car to gauge your altitude?”
In my last blog post I discussed how metrics need to fit the thing being measured and how a one-metric-fits-all or one-metric-says-it-all approach can be misleading.
I attended the organizational meeting of the Health Policy Committee in the Michigan House of Representatives last Thursday and had the privilege of speaking with a number of committee members afterwards. Chairman Gail Haines of Waterford really has a good group on this committee. They bring together a very broad and diverse set of backgrounds in the area of health policy and they clearly have a passion for making improvements in our state in this area. I think that they will work well together and listen to a broad range of points of view as they do some good things in our state.
This video below showed me that the Christmas story can be told in the language of today’s Social Media and still share the same message.
So here’s a question: does something have to be new and popular to be relevant?
“The memory of the Bethlehem babe bears to mortals gifts greater than those of Magian kings, — hopes that cannot deceive, that waken prophecy, gleams of glory, coronals of meekness, diadems of love.”¹
Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, wrote these words in an article entitled, “Christmas Gifts”¹.
Christmas is a special time for me as a Christian Scientist, as it is for all Christians. It is a time to celebrate Jesus and what his coming upon earth means for us all. He is the Son of God. God is his Father. And God is our Father. Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father, which art in heaven…” Two very significant aspects of Jesus’ ministry stand out to me – love and healing.
You really gotta check out this video:
(If the video above won’t play, click here to view it on YouTube).
That was Mary Margaret of Corinth Baptist Church telling the story of Jonah from the Bible. In her conclusion (at 8:05 in the video) in her words, God says, “My love is great.” “And it is for all my creatures.”
I read something in a newspaper recently that got me to thinking about the Bible’s place in society. Of course it is found in Christian churches. It certainly is found in my Christian Science church. And I teach from it in my Christian Science Sunday School. It is found in the homes of Christians. I have numerous copies in my home, most of them a bit worn. Sometimes it is found in the classroom, but only under certain conditions. I remember taking classes on the Bible in college, studying the Old Testament and then the New Testament. These classes primarily looked at the Bible from a literary and historical perspective.
These, of course, are geographical places. And these days the Bible is found in different forms. My favorite is my black leather Bible. I also have the Bible on my computer with additional translations, commentaries and Greek and Hebrew dictionaries for more in-depth study. The Bible is available on cassette and CD. Some have a Pod-cast version. These are the physical forms and places in which the Bible is found.
But thinking a bit more broadly, where does the Bible find its place in the heart?
“It is the information at the core of religion where Believers and Non-Believers still have room to grow.” This was the conclusion drawn by Byron Pitts in his report on The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 covering the survey on religious knowledge in the U.S. conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. With today’s news cycles, that seems like long ago, but Byron’s conclusion caught my attention.
As a Christian Scientist I am a Christian and I strive to follow Jesus’ teaching to love one another. So, a question I have to ask myself is, “do I love enough to gain a basic understanding of the core beliefs that are important to my neighbors?” While we will all likely have areas where we need to agree to disagree, it seems to me that we would all be better off if we had a better understanding of one another’s core beliefs. I took the test that was given as part of this survey, and while I did quite well, I did not get 100% correct. So I must admit that I still have room to grow.
