Sermon on the Mount - God's Children are Peacemakers

Wednesday Readings List

April 20, 2016

Sermon on the Mount - God's Children are Peacemakers

Hymn 179
Love one another,—word of revelation;
Love frees from error’s thrall,—Love is liberation.
Love’s way the Master trod;
He that loves shall walk with God.
Love is the royal way.

 

Love knows no evil, neither shade of sadness;
Love casts out every fear, lifts the heart to gladness.
Love heals our every ill,
All the law does love fulfill.
Love is our answered prayer.

 

Love now is dawning over every nation;
Showing true brotherhood, publishing salvation,
Love bids all discord cease.
Conquering hate, enthroning peace,
Love, Love alone is power.

Matt. 5:9
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

 

I John 4:7, 8
Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. . . .for God is love.

 

Matt. 5:22 (to :), 23-24, 43-44 (to enemies), 45 (to :)
I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies … That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:

 

Prov. 14:29; 15:1-2
He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: ….
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.

 

I Sam. 25:2-3, 5, 10-13 (.),14-16, 23-24 (to said), 25, 27, 32-33, 35
And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats . . . . Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings . . . .

 

And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. And Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be? So David’s young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings. And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword.

 

But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them. But the men were very good unto us. Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs. . . . And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, And fell at his feet, and said, . . . Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: …. Now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.

 

And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me: And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand. …. So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house.

 

Prov. 31:10, 26; 3:17
Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. … She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

 

Is. 52:7
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

 

Is. 57:15 (to 1st ,), 18 (to :), 19
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, … I have seen his ways, and will heal him: … I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.

 

Mark 5:1-8, 11, 13-15
And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. … Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. … And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine . . . And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind.

 

Isa. 32:17, 18
The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;

 

II Kings 6:8, 14-17, 21-23
Then the king of Syria warred against Israel. Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host: and they came by night, and compassed the city about. And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do? And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

 

And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them? shall I smite them? And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow? set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master. And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.

 

Ps. 15:1, 3
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? … He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.

 

James 3:14-18
If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

SH 276:4-9

When the divine precepts are understood, they unfold the foundation of fellowship, in which one mind is not at war with another, but all have one Spirit, God, one intelligent source, in accordance with the Scriptural command: “Let this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

 

SH 315:6
He knew of but one Mind and laid no claim to any other.
SH 249:31 (to mind).
[T]here is but one Ego. We run into error when we divide Soul into souls, multiply Mind into minds and suppose error to be mind.

 

SH 94:14-16
Tyranny, intolerance, and bloodshed, wherever found, arise from the belief that the infinite is formed after the pattern of mortal personality, passion, and impulse.

 

SH 491:25
Personality is not the individuality of man. A wicked man may have an attractive personality.

 

SH 242:15 – Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error, — self-will, self-justification, and self-love, — which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death.

 

SH 64:8-10
Pride, envy, or jealousy seems on most occasions to be the master of ceremonies, ruling out primitive Christianity.

 

SH 327:8-10
What a pitiful sight is malice, finding pleasure in revenge! Evil is sometimes a man’s highest conception of right, until his grasp on good grows stronger.

 

SH 57:10-11
Both sexes should be loving, pure, tender, and strong.

 

SH 65:25-28
Matrimony, which was once a fixed fact among us, must lose its present slippery footing, and man must find permanence and peace in a more spiritual adherence.

 

SH 59:3, 11-16
There should be the most tender solicitude for each other’s happiness, and mutual attention and approbation should wait on all the years of married life. Fulfilling the different demands of their united spheres, their sympathies should blend in sweet confidence and cheer, each partner sustaining the other, — thus hallowing the union of interests and affections, in which the heart finds peace and home.

 

SH 506:11-12
The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace.

 

SH 329:26-31
If men understood their real spiritual source to be all blessedness, they would struggle for recourse to the spiritual and be at peace; but the deeper the error into which mortal mind is plunged, the more intense the opposition to spirituality, till error yields to Truth.

 

SH 96:12-15, 31
This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace.
During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection.

 

SH 226:14-17, 5
God has built a higher platform of human rights, and He has built it on diviner claims. These claims are not made through code or creed, but in demonstration of “on earth peace, good-will toward men.”
The voice of God in behalf of the African slave was still echoing in our land, when the voice of the herald of this new crusade sounded the keynote of universal freedom, asking a fuller acknowledgment of the rights of man as a Son of God, demanding that the fetters of sin, sickness, and death be stricken from the human mind and that its freedom be won, not through human warfare, not with bayonet and blood, but through Christ’s divine Science.

 

SH 40:31 (to ;)
The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us.

 

SH 61:4-6
The good in human affections must have ascendency over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happiness will never be won.

 

SH 28:32-5
There is too much animal courage in society and not sufficient moral courage. Christians must take up arms against error at home and abroad. They must grapple with sin in themselves and in others, and continue this warfare until they have finished their course.

 

SH 67:18
The notion that animal natures can possibly give force to character is too absurd for consideration, when we remember that through spiritual ascendency our Lord and Master healed the sick, raised the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves to obey him. Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other means and methods.

 

SH 144:20
Truth, and not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to disease, “Peace, be still.”

 

SH 33:21
This is the new understanding of spiritual Love. It gives all for Christ, or Truth. It blesses its enemies, heals the sick, casts out error, raises the dead from trespasses and sins, and preaches the gospel to the poor, the meek in heart.

 

SH 340:23-29
One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, “Love thy neighbor as thyself;” annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.

 

SH 264:24
Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love.

Hymn 161
It matters not what be thy lot,
So Love doth guide;
For storm or shine, pure peace is thine,
Whate’er betide.

 

And of these stones, or tyrants’ thrones,
God able is
To raise up seed—in thought and deed—
To faithful His.

 

Aye, darkling sense, arise, go hence!
Our God is good.
False fears are foes—truth tatters those,
When understood.

 

Love looseth thee, and lifteth me,
Ayont hate’s thrall:
There Life is light, and wisdom might,
And God is All.

 

The centuries break, the earth-bound wake,
God’s glorified!
Who doth His will—His likeness still—
Is satisfied.

 

Hymn 236
O peace of the world, O hope in each breast,
O Bethlehem star that ages have blest,
A day of fresh promise breaks over the land,
Gaunt warfare is doomed, and God’s kingdom at hand!

 

From cannon and sword shape tillers of soil,
No more let dire hate man’s spirit despoil,
Let Truth be proclaimed, let God’s love be retold,
That men of good will may their brethren uphold.

 

As stars in their courses never contend,
As blossoms their hues in harmony blend,
As bird voices mingle in joyful refrain,
So God’s loving children in concord remain.

 

Our God is one Mind, the Mind we adore;
Ineffable joy His love doth outpour;
Let nations be one in a union of love,
God’s bountiful peace, all earth’s treasures above.

 

Wednesday Readings List