The sweep of the Christ

There is a forward sweep to the Christ. A fresh breeze that sweeps in off the ocean and an eagle that sweeps across the sky hint at what it's like. But they only sweep through space. This is a sweep that cuts across time as well. Through this sweep the Christ -- God's immortal idea -- reaches us. Reaches us in a way that is decisive, winning, healing. (And by Christ we mean the timeless Truth the man Jesus represented and demonstrated -- the divine idea whose power he exercised during the years of his healing ministry and which has always been an active presence.)

It's no mistake that over 3,000 years ago Moses, when faced with a leprous hand, could see it healed. n1 The Christ was there. It's no mistake that Peter, after Jesus had ascended, could still say to a lame man, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk," n2 and have him do so. The Crist was there.It's no mistake, more recently, that when faced with symptoms of the flu, I could feel the presence of Truth's immortal idea, the Christ, and have the symptoms vanish.

n1 See Exodus 4:6, 7;

n2 Acts 3:6;

It comes right down to today. The Christ -- the immortal idea that comes from God, that comes to you -- is here. Now. In all its power. A power that can heal you of illness. A presence that, when understood, can be applied to a whole range of problems and help solve them. It's an ever-active power or presence that is always available but has simply too often been resisted. Responding to this Christ-power takes a clear understanding, a willingness and a desire to accept the truth from God. That's the part you and I have to play: digging in and gaining this spiritual understanding. It's an understanding and desire that, when we're receptive, seeps into and permeates the very fabric of our lives and prompts us to think and live on a higher, purer basis. And to drop from our lives the things that are sensual, wrong, selfish.

Work and pray to be receptive and obedient to what God has to impart to you, and you'll be putting yourself directly in the path of the Christ.

Jesus knew the Christ was present in his time. He knew it would be present in ours. He spoke for the immortal Christ when he said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." n3 Because the Christ cuts across both time and space, it is always with us, no matter how desperate the need. And we can find, even if we can't explain how, that its presence is sheltering and caring for us.

n3 Matthew 28:20;

Christian Science makes plain just what has been and is taking place. Mary Baker Eddy n4 writes, "Truth's immortal idea is sweeping down the centuries, gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning. . . . The time for the reappearing of the divine healing is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ's cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of Christian healing." n5 Healing is within your reach, no matter how defeated you may feel. The saving Christ has swept through space, across the years; it is within your consciousness right now. Your need is to yield to it and obey its demands.

n4 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science;

n5 Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesm , p. 55.

Those who became conscious of the Christ in the past and demonstrated its presence have left us a blessing. The blessing is a clearing they have cut in the jungle of resistance to the Christ.A clearing you and I can stand in. Because of them, there's less of the foliage of selfishness and material-mindedness blocking our view of the Christ.

And, if we have an eye to the future, it's a blessing we can pass along. We can chop back even more of the ensnarling and entangling vines of, say, selfishness or greed. Get rid of them. Then, in the years ahead, the view will be that much more open for anyone who beholds the Christ surfacing in his or her life.

The more we prove the presence of the Christ -- slash down our mental opposition to it -- the sooner will come the time when the jungle of resistance to the Christ no longer exists in human thought. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Hebrews 13:8

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