Seek Happiness, Identity & Beauty in Soul, Not in Body! —
Lesson Application Ideas on “Soul and Body” May 17-23, 2004
By Gary Duke, C.S., St. Louis, Missouri
Golden Text (Expression and Protection):
“…the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory.”(Ps.84:11) How is the sun seen? By rays of light emitting from it. How is God seen? By man who expresses God. And as we realize this unity, we experience more of the shield and protection, grace and glory of God. “…a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being.”(S&H 361:17)
Responsive Reading (Humble Constant Praise):
How long should I be praying? Pop Tart prayer or the meal made from scratch which simmers all day long in the Crock-Pot? “From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the Lord’s name is to be praised.” (Ps.113:3) The added ingredient of humility is essential seasoning, “…the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.”(Ps.34:2)
Section 1 (Identity):
“The tail is wagging the dog” when we let body determine our identity instead of God. It’s like believing the sun revolves around the earth because we mistakenly see it move through the sky.(S5) “Rightly understood, instead of possessing a sentient material form, man has a sensationless body; and God, the Soul of man and of all existence, being perpetual in His own individuality, harmony, and immortality, imparts and perpetuates these qualities in man, – through Mind, not matter.”(S4) What does this mean to us? 1. Each person is unique by individually expressing God-like qualities; 2. Qualities aren’t material things but are expressions of Mind; 3. God is the Soul or identity of man, which makes us harmonious and immortal. This 1,2,3 wags everything perfectly!
Section 2 (Beauty):
Why is the sun always beautiful whether rising or setting and a starlit night the same? Is it because light is a spiritual quality which we relate to as spiritual ideas? “Sun and planets teach grand lessons. The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns naturally toward the light.”(S7) And how can we feel more beautiful or handsome? “…let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us.”(B8) The Researched Bible Guide illumines this passage: “There is spiritual light, so beauty-inspiring, that the plainest face within which it is born is illumined with singular loveliness, which wins its way into many a heart. Who has not beheld a light divine irradiate the human countenance, giving joy, and prophesying perfection, where we had least expected to find beauty? You know what the natural light can do for material objects; you know what mental and moral light can work for human faces; rise from this, and know what spiritual light, Divine Light, can do for immortal beings and immortal works.” Mrs. Eddy was known to possess great beauty to which she attributed, “The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious freedom of spiritual harmony.”(S8)
Section 3 (Sunlight of Truth Heals):
Imagine being hunched over, literally or figuratively, for 18 years unable to straighten out, much less gaze at beautiful sunsets or starlit nights? And then imagine someone named Jesus comes who is so full of light/truth, that you’re instantaneously healed and can stand straight after he says, “Woman (man, child, athlete, business person…) thou are loosed from thine infirmity (physical, mental, emotional, financial…).” (B11) You might want to borrow some of that light or at least find out the brand of those flashlight batteries! (B10) The light from God is always available, but at times we’re stuck in a dark maze of our own making and need to be shown the door and then have it unlocked so we can get out. “Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions, expels humors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind.”(S12)
Section 4 (Agelessness):
I recently attended a talk where the lecturer stated, we don’t think of a plant or tree in terms of “growing old,” we think of them as “growing new” as in growing new leaves. We too should be growing new daily ~ what new leaf (talent, service, idea, quality…) have you grown today? As we think in these terms, what we’re accomplishing is letting go of our “earthly house” (body/matter based thinking) and establishing our “building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”(B15) Then we’re living in the eternal where score is not kept by linear means, but there is no score because we have it all, including agelessness. “Man in Science is neither young nor old. He has neither birth nor death.”(S17)
Section 5 (Baptism and Purity):
If you had the inspiration to immediately leave what you’re doing, hop on a boat, sail about 140 miles and then walk another 10 miles into town so you could preach to a small gathering, would you do it? I might check and recheck my inspiration a few times before heading off! “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God,” says the 6th Beatitude.(Matt.5:8) Paul was very pure in heart and saw God’s purpose for him clearly. “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.”(B20) Paul made the long trip, preached and was thereby living up to his own admonishment ~ “…glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”(B21) Afterwards, Paul baptized a woman named Lydia. “The baptism of Spirit, washing the body of all the impurities of flesh, signifies that the pure in heart see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its demonstration.”(S20) Her spiritual baptism led to purification and enhanced her vision of God as Soul, her sinless identity. “Soul is the divine Principle of man and never sins, – hence the immortality of Soul.” (S21)
Section 6 (Perfection):
“Aw come on, nobody’s perfect! What’s so bad about (fill in the blank)? The counter to wrong thought, gossip-filled conversation and sordid action is the promise and command from Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”(B23) He went ahead and proved it too! “Christ, Truth, was demonstrated through Jesus to prove the power of Spirit over the flesh, – to show that Truth is made manifest by its effects upon the human mind and body, healing sickness and destroying sin.”(S25) His example inspires us to keep shining even though temptation might cause us to believe in a power outage or dead batteries. “The radiant sun of virtue and truth coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, undimmed by a declining sun.”(S27)
Section Summary Benediction:
Our expression of God is our sun and shield; our radiant protection. Humble, constant, praise in prayer each day establishes our identity which reveals beauty, health, agelessness, purity and perfection.
