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“An increasing sense of God’s love,  omnipresence and omnipotence enfolds” YOU!  (My. 174:26)


Lesson Application ideas on “GOD” for June 28-July 4, 2004 by  Julie Ward,  C.S. (Westwood, Massachusetts)


Life’s great  question – how can  we love God more? Understand Him, acknowledge,  obey,  serve,  and praise Him.  “Draw  nigh to God,  and He  will  draw  nigh to  you.”

GOLDEN TEXT –  He  is the All  and Only,  now and forever.  His is the glory,  majesty,  dominion,  and power. Amen! (“Amen” is from the Hebrew verb, ‘to  take care,  to  support,  to  be firm,  true,  reliable, to  believe in.” As  an  exclamation,  it can  mean, “Truly!” or “Surely!”)

RESPONSIVE READING – a joyful  celebration of God’s eternal  victory. He leads us home,  plants us firmly in  our right place.  He  reigns “for ever  and ever.” No  contest! No  wavering!  Just the perfect  stability  of good,



SECTION I – What  is God?


Here’s a question we should be asking ourselves continually. This week  let’s try  to  stretch  our concept of God every  single day.  One way  to  do  this is to  keep  these questions alive in  our hearts:



         Who is so  great  a God as our God?


         Who is God,  save the Lord?


         Who is a rock,  save our God/


         Who  hath  known  the mind of the Lord, or who  hath  been  His counselor?


He alone is the Source,  the Action,  the Communication, the Reason  for it all!

This week, re-visit the seven  synonyms as if you’ve never  heard  of them  before. Ask  yourself what  each synonym is doing.  For instance, Love is encouraging,  supporting,  embracing.  Truth is uncovering,  clarifying, stirring. What  do  you  think the others are  doing? And their activity  is expressed as YOU! “Everything in God’s universe expresses Him.” That  includes you,  right here and now. Notice the ways that  you  express Him,  and be grateful  for them. “God is at  once the center and circumference of being.” There’s no place left  for anything else.


SECTION II – God is ONE indivisible Good.

Here’s another  great  question to  consider: “To  whom then  will  ye liken me,  or shall  I  be equal? saith  the Holy  One.” God is the incomparable Holy  ONE,  the Adorable ONE. And we learn  in Science and Health, “Principle and its idea is one.” This is no  grammatical  error. There can only be one ALL. “The allness of Deity  is His oneness.”


SECTION III – Total  obedience to  God –  nothing less!

Are  you  a Mary  or a Martha? Martha certainly seemed the more conscientious sister,  but Jesus said that “Mary  hath  chosen  that  good part, which  shall  not be taken  away  from  her.” Human goodness and human  accomplishments can  be taken  away  from  us,  but what  we hear  in prayer, “sitting at the feet  of Jesus,” is with us forever.  Are we like Martha, “cumbered about much serving”? Are  we so  busy that  we forget to  be still  and listen  for divine inspiration? “Divine Mind rightly demands man’s entire obedience,  affection,  and strength. No  reservation is made for any  lesser  loyalty.”(SH11)  But obedience has its rewards – “Obedience to  Truth  gives man  power  and strength” –  and joy! If,  like Mary, “divine Love is becoming nearer,  dearer,  and more real  to us,  matter is then submitting to  Spirit.” And isn’t that the real measure of healing?


SECTION IV – Don’t forget! Healing = understanding God.

We  can’t be made to  forget  all of God’s “benefits” –  the blessings that He  gives to  ALL of His children.  He  forgives ALL our iniquities.  He  heals ALL our diseases. No one is left  out.  Nothing is too hard. Jesus knew this. He  went to ALL  the cities and villages,  healing “EVERY sickness and EVERY disease among the people.” (B14) When  he healed the ten  lepers,  he didn’t worry about the fact that the disease  was deemed incurable.  He  didn’t even  worry that at  least  one of the men  was a Samaritan. They  had to  be obedient to  his command to  go  to  the temple to  be cleansed,  and “AS THEY  WENT they  were cleansed.” When  we  hear the Christ  telling us to  go  forward,  do  we trust that  we’ll  be healed as we go? The tenth  leper didn’t forget.  He  didn’t forget to  acknowledge  “the divine Principle which  had  healed him.” We  won’t forget,  either.  And what  will  we remember? “We  should remember  that  Life is God,  and God is omnipotent.”(SH19)


SECTION V – God is not mysterious,  but completely knowable.

When  Paul  went to  Athens, he was met  by the skepticism of the Epicureans and Stoics.  Can’t you  just hear the disdain  in their voices as they  asked, “What  will  this babbler say?” But this “babbler” cut straight to  the chase! He  rebuked the “ignorant worship”  of the “unknown God.” He  explained that the one God is knowable –  not the hypothetical  God of human  opinions,  not the political  deity  who  changed from  nation to  nation. And here’s the great  news about this great  and only God: “In  Him  we live,  and move,  and have our being.” (Compare  this with  Mrs.  Eddy’s statement in  Ret.  93: 17)

And here is yet  another  promise about this great,  knowable God: “We  know that  all  things work  together  for good to  them  that  love God, to  them  who  are the called according to  His purpose.”(B19) In  the oneness of God there are  no  ideas at  cross-purposes.  No  right idea interferes with  any  other  idea in the whole universe. Do  you  think  of yourself as “called according to  His purpose?” You  are. And what  is that  purpose? To  glorify  Him. Here are  two more questions to  consider

 this week:

           If God be for us,  who  can be against  us?


         How can there be more than  all?

 

Here  are  two  terms you’ll  want  to  know:

Agnosticism – (theology) A theory  that  does not deny God,  but denies the possibilityof knowing  Him.

Pagan – one who  has no  religion (formerly, one who  is not a Christian – from  the Late Latin “civilian”, i.e., not a soldier of Christ).


SECTION VI – Alleluia! – God is with us!

“Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” What  better  way  to live Christian Science than  to live with the constant,  joyful  acknowledgment that  God is all-powerful,  ever-present, and that  He is always with us.  In  His presence, there is no  sorrow,  no  crying,  no pain, for “the former  things” (the false beliefs)  “are  passed away.” Give God the glory  in all  things.  Wherever  there claims to  be lack (of comfort,  of hope,  of understanding,  or even  of supply)  we can  “rejoice in the affluence of our God.” (SH28)


Here’s a great summation of this lesson  from My. 174:25-28: “To-day  my  soul  can only sing and soar. An increasing sense of God’s love,  omnipresence and omnipotence enfolds me. Each  day  I  know Him  nearer,  love Him more, and humbly  pray  to  serve Him  better.”

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