Bible Study from December 21st, 2019

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Bible Study Questions and Readings

I thank you, dear ones, for your kind remembrance of me — the most lone and perhaps the most loved and hated of earth! May you watch and pray that you keep the Commandments, and live the Sermon on the Mount this coming year. Watch, too, that you keep the commandments that experience has compelled to be written for your guidance and the safety of Christian Science, in our Church Manual.

Lovingly yours,

Mary Baker Eddy

From Watches, Prayers and Arguments
by Mary Baker Eddy, page 142

Topic: Ten Commandments: Final Part 7

Moderator: Chardelle from PA

Bible Readings: Exodus 20: 3 – 17

Additional Readings: Spiritual Interpretation of the Ten Commandments by Mary Baker Eddy

Be prepared to discuss the tenth commandment.

  1. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.


Notes from the Discussion




Poem — “Cradled Obscurity” by Sibyl Wilbur




Thou shalt not covet.

10. Fulfillment. Love gives us all things.

— from “Spiritual Interpretation of the Ten Commandments” in Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 232-233




The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

— Psalm 23: 1 from the King James Bible




This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

— Galatians 5:16 from the King James Bible




If God’s gifts are available to all, there is no reason for envy. The one who covets Is misled, and sees effect as If It were cause. …. Cause always means freedom. It is an open highway to the one who walks toward It, since it offers limitless progress.

— from Precpts, by Gilbert Carpenter




Ingratitude is the original sum total evil, and its only remedy is gratitude, the highest human quality its destruction.

— from Collectanea, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 73




Can’t hide impules of heart from God nor avoid the consequences of keeping in your heart.

— from Bible Study




You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart..

— Matthew 5: 27 from the New International Version Bible




Even if the covetous desire is concealed in the heart, the covetous desire in itself is regarded by the Torah as damaging to the neighbor.

— The Tenth Commandment: “You Shall Not Covet” by Rav Elchanan Samet




ANGELS. God’s thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality.

— from the Glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 581




Content: To satisfy the mind; to make quiet, so as to stop complaint or opposition; to appease; to make easy in any situation; used chiefly with the reciprocal pronoun.

— From Webster’s 1828 Dictionary




Coveting is a sense of lack and a state of agitation.

— from Bible Study




Envy, evil thinking, evil speaking, covetousness, lust, hatred, malice, are always wrong, and will break the rule of Christian Science and prevent its demonstration.

— from Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, page 19




Evil was, and is, the illusion of breaking the First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me:” it is either idolizing something and somebody, or hating them: it is the spirit of idolatry, envy, jealousy, covetousness, superstition, lust, hypocrisy, witchcraft. That man can break the forever-law of infinite Love, was, and is, the serpent’s biggest lie!

— from Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, page 123




But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

— 1 Timothy 6:9 English Standard Version Bible




God is your helper and we must all eventually turn to him for the source of our needs.

— from Bible Study




One glaring example of the almost universal acceptance of covetousness is the burgeoning popularity of government run lotteries. Millions of people surrender part of their pay cheques each week hoping to win a fantasy life of ease and luxury. Likewise, the gambling meccas of the world are hugely popular vacation resorts specializing in entertainment appealing to our baser instincts. Promoting covetousness is big business. Advertising agencies and research firms make a science out of manipulating the selfish appetites of consumers. Like ancient Israel, we are a covetous society from the least to the greatest.

— from http://www.the-ten-commandments.org/




Satisfaction only comes from what God gives us.

— from Bible Study




All we have must be used for the glory of God and not for selfish purposes.

— from Bible Study




And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

— Luke 12: 15 from the King James Bible




God is the only One that can deliver us from the carnal mind desires.

— from Bible Study




But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

— Matthew 6:3 from the King James Bible




… he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days.

— Proverbs 28:16 from the King James Bible




… for God loves a cheerful giver.

— 2 Corinthians 9:7 from the King James Bible




One thing I have greatly desired, and again earnestly request, namely, that Christian Scientists, here and elsewhere, pray daily for themselves; not verbally, nor on bended knee, but mentally, meekly, and importunately. When a hungry heart petitions the divine Father-Mother God for bread, it is not given a stone,—but more grace, obedience, and love. If this heart, humble and trustful, faithfully asks divine Love to feed it with the bread of heaven, health, holiness, it will be conformed to a fitness to receive the answer to its desire; then will flow into it the “river of His pleasure,” the tributary of divine Love, and great growth in Christian Science will follow,—even that joy which finds one’s own in another’s good.

— from Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, 127




Find a need and fill it

— Ruth Stafford Peale




Instead of looking over at what your neighbor has, be happy with what you have, and make the best with what you have.

— from Bible Study




Anything in life worth having is worth working for.

— Andrew Carnegie




Another way to express the precept not to run into debt is: never permit effect to get ahead of cause in your estimation. If you keep a surplus of divine Mind on hand, you will have the expression of all your needs; but the attempt to obtain effect apart from cause is running into debt.

— from Precepts 3, by Gilbert Carpenter




Be still within the presence of thy God.
The poise of Soul is true activity.
In quietness and confidence thy strength
To human sense shall thus appear to be.

There is no object, person, place, or time,
To worship, serve, or suffer thee to fear.
The zeal of that which ever rightly sees
Perpetuates whatever it holds dear.

Thou canst not take God’s holy name in vain.
Thou livest as the ever cherished son.
Complete and fully satisfied, and dear
To Him who hath Himself all things well done.

Thine origin and premise honored is
As Father-Mother, Principle sublime.
Thus the effulgence of this deathless light
As Life eternal, must forever shine.

Excluding, getting, evidencing wrong,
Adulterating, craving anything,
Is not thy history nor thy Father’s plan
But is the misconceiving of a dream.

To love the Truth for Truth’s own sake alone,
Reveals the joy of undivided Soul
Wherein thy neighbor as thy perfect self
Comprises one complete and perfect whole.

This Christly edict is the Word of God.
The law and prophets thereby are fulfilled.
Thus, greater rule or vision cannot be
Than Love forever witnessing its own.

— from The Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, by by Irma Stewart





Love is the liberator.

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