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hear Christie read her CedarS “Met” for the week.
“With God ALL things are possible!”
Metaphysical Application Ideas for The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“God”
for June 26 through July 2, 2023
by Christie C. Hanzlik, C.S.,
Boulder, CO • ccern@mac.com • 720-331-9356 • christiecs.com
INTRODUCTION: GOLDEN TEXT and RESPONSIVE READING
It is difficult—and arguably impossible—to find adequate words to define “God,” the subject of this week’s Bible Lesson. God is infinite, all, and thus we will always have more and more (and more!) to learn about God. And yet, through prayer—listening with stillness—it is possible to understand God. Such an understanding, along with an “absolute faith that all things are possible to God,” is what Christian healer, Mary Baker Eddy, explains is necessary to heal the sick and reform those who feel and act as if they are separate from God, Good. In her textbook on healing, she begins the first chapter, “The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 1:1–4; also citation 15 in last week’s Bible Lesson on “Christian Science). As an assignment for this week, consider committing this sentence to memory, if you haven’t already done so.
Mary Baker Eddy’s declaration derives from the Bible and the teachings of Christ Jesus. Note, for example, that the Golden Text, or main idea, of this week’s Bible Lesson on “God” quotes Christ Jesus, who said, “…with God nothing shall be impossible” (GT, Luke 1: 37 with). And elsewhere, Christ Jesus says, “…with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). These statements about God’s omni-potence lay at the heart of Mary Baker Eddy’s declaration on prayer.
The early Bible prophets—those who see beyond the outward appearance of things—emphasized that nothing is too difficult for God, and that God, divine Love, meets our every need. This week’s Bible Lesson shows how God, the force and substance of all Good, meets needs with practicality. In the Responsive Reading of this week’s Lesson, the prophet Isaiah describes God metaphorically, saying that God opens rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys, will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry lands springs of water. And the prophet Jeremiah shares God’s words, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 32: 17, 18, 19; Isaiah 41: 17, 18; Jeremiah 31:33). Jeremiah’s prophecy helps us to understand that God is not a far-away and man-like being, but is an ever-present help, a constant and reliable source of health, satisfaction, comfort, and joy.
SECTION 1: “A SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING OF HIM”
Recall Mary Baker Eddy’s declaration, “The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love” (SH, p. 1:1–4). While the Golden Text emphasizes that “with God nothing shall be impossible,” the first section describes the second part—“a spiritual understanding of Him.”
In this section of the Lesson, the prophet Isaiah shares God’s message that God is that which has no predecessor, that which always has been, and is all good. Isaiah also explains that our purpose and relation to God is to be “witnesses,” who are tuned in to God’s goodness and ready to show our praise (Citation B1, Isaiah 43: 10-12, 15, 21). God’s goodness is ever-flowing, and as we acknowledge it, we see more and more evidence of Good.
The first section also includes Mary Baker Eddy’s definition of God, “The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence” (cit S1, 587:5) This first phrase—“the great I am”—is about God being self-existent, not caused by something else, not created by something else, and always and forever existent. There is no other “I am.” “The great I am” is a phrase about being and existence. God is not a man-like entity that can be defined in terms of person, place, or thing, but is self-existent, omni-existent, and all-existent Good.
Along these lines, Mary Baker Eddy poses the question, “Is there more than one God or Principle?” And she answers her own question: “There is not.” She adds, “God combines all-power or potency, all-science or true knowledge, all-presence” (cit S2, 465:16-6). God is “the great”—and only—“I am.”
To gain a spiritual understanding of God, we must break free of the view of a material, man-like or corporeal-person view of God. God is not a man-like being. God is not a corporeal person. We cannot possibly understand God if we are thinking in terms of a man-like being or a corporeal person. We cannot begin to understand God until we overturn a false sense of God as a man-like being. As Mary Baker Eddy explains, “If we pray to God as a corporeal person, this will prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and fears which attend such a belief, and so we cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infinite, incorporeal Love, to whom all things are possible” (cit. S4, 13:20-24, my underlining).
Note that when referring to God metaphorically as Shepherd, Father, Mother, Author, Great Physician and so forth, it is crucial to stay clear that this does not mean that God is a corporeal person separate from us. No. These metaphors show how God—ever-present Good—is watchful, protecting, nurturing, authoritative, healing and so forth. These characteristics cannot be compressed into a corporeal form. Metaphors for God should never convey a sense of God being a corporeal person from which we could ever be separated. Recall that Mary Baker Eddy uses the metaphor of the sun and the ray, or the ocean and a drop of water as metaphors for God. When we want to break free of the material and mistaken sense of a corporeal person-like God, these metaphors of our one-ness with God may be more helpful. God is all Good and we are at one with this all-Good-ness. We are distinct from God and yet inseparable, like a drop of water surrounded by the ocean, or a ray of light shining from the sun.
SECTION 2: ELIJAH’S ABSOLUTE FAITH
The second section contains an account that shows the prophet Elijah’s absolute faith. Elijah possessed both a spiritual understanding of God and an absolute faith that “with God nothing shall be impossible” (GT). The second section illustrates this absolute faith with the account of Elijah surviving a drought in Cherith, and then hearing a divine message to go to Zarephath where he would find a woman to help him find food and nutriment. This message would not be easy for Elijah to trust and would have necessitated faith to follow it. Zarephath was 100 miles away, and a dangerous journey for Elijah because Jezebel, the vengeful wife of King Ahab, was hunting for him. Elijah’s faith had already been tested in Cherith and his faith would be further refined in Zarephath.
Elijah follows the divine message to travel to Zarephath obediently only to find that the woman, who was supposed to help him, is herself destitute and preparing what she thought would be her last meal. In other words, the woman he had been told would sustain him was about to eat her last meal. But Elijah did not doubt. He knew that “with God nothing shall be impossible” and followed through with his faith by instructing the woman to first feed him and then trust that her supply of meal and oil would be sustained. And, as we find in first Kings, “She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah” (cit. B4, I Kings 17:1, 8-16, NIV).
This Old Testament account of a prophet’s absolute faith that all things are possible to God shows us that even before the Wayshower, Christ Jesus, a clear sense of Christ—the awareness of God as an ever-present help in trouble—enabled a sense of calm trust and assurance that all is well. Elijah’s Christ-sense enabled him to have an absolute faith in God’s comfort even during extreme trouble. Elijah’s story overturns a false view of God as a punishing and vengeful deity, and instead shows that, “The attributes of God are justice, mercy, wisdom, goodness, and so on” (cit S6, 465: 14).
I find it inspiring that even when Elijah’s situation became increasingly difficult, he didn’t miss a beat, didn’t complain, and he trusted. Every trial of Elijah’s faith in God made him stronger. The more difficult seemed Elijah’s material condition to be overcome by Spirit, the stronger was his faith and the purer his love. In fact, Elijah’s journey exemplifies this concept in Science and Health: “Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger. The more difficult seems the material condition to be overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith and the purer our love” (cit S7, 410: 9-17).
Elijah proved the truism, “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” (cit. S9, 494:10-11).
SECTION 3: WITH SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING AND ABSOLUTE FAITH IN GOD, WE CAN HEAL THE SICK AND REFORM THE SINNER
The third section uses the account of Christ Jesus healing the blind man to show how the Wayshower’s spiritual understanding of God and his absolute faith that nothing is impossible to God, enabled him to heal the sick and reform the sinner. In the account, Christ Jesus encounters a blind man, and his disciples asked Christ Jesus, “Who was it that sinned to cause the man to be blind, him or his parents?” Christ Jesus didn’t get boxed in by these two options. He didn’t accept either of these human hypotheses. Along these lines, Mary Baker Eddy describes the uselessness of human hypotheses: “Human hypotheses first assume the reality of sickness, sin, and death, and then assume the necessity of these evils because of their admitted actuality. These human verdicts are the procurers of all discord” (cit. S12, 481:19).
So, instead of answering the disciples query about who had sinned to cause the blindness, Christ Jesus instead answered, “Neither the man nor his parents sinned.” And then Christ Jesus healed the man, enabling him to see. Christ Jesus’ calm authority and peaceful actions alleviated fear and opened others to a spiritual understanding of God and a truer faith that all things are possible to God. Mary Baker Eddy explains that we can each encourage healing as we give a fear-reducing treatment of Love. She writes, “Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemption from disease and danger. Watch the result of this simple rule of Christian Science, and you will find that it alleviates the symptoms of every disease.” (cit. S14, 411:10, 27-32)
Christ Jesus was able to heal the man because of his spiritual understanding of God, an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, and an unselfed love that enabled him to see the man and all of the witnesses as perfect, whole, and inseparable from the Harmony of Good. As the author of John wrote, “If [Christ Jesus] were not of God, he could do nothing” (John 9: 1-11, 32, 33, paraphrased) And Christ Jesus was the “light of the world,” come to heal the blind man, yes, but also to show each of us the light—the truth of understanding and faith—so that we too can follow the path of healing. Christ Jesus’ clear and spiritual understanding of God, Good, opened the eyes of the blind man and opened the eyes of all witnesses both then and now.
To understand this account of Christ Jesus healing the blind man, a definition of “sin” is helpful. One way to define “sin” is as the belief that we could be separated from God. We cannot actually be separated from God (ever present and divine Love) but when we falsely feel or believe that either ourselves or others could be separate from God, Good, this is “sin” or “sinful belief.”
Actions that derive from a belief of separation from God could be described as sinful actions, and those who are acting as if they’re separate from God could be described as sinners. In truth, however, God’s creation cannot be separate from omni-present God, and thus the terms “sin, sinning, and sinners” are a mere construct of language. We need a term for what it would feel like to be separated from God, even though we cannot actually be separated from that which is ever-present. The “sin terms” describe mere belief, and we can overcome the “sinful feeling of separation” for ourselves and others to the degree that we acknowledge the impossibility of separation from God, the all-in-all. In this section, Christ Jesus easily reformed the belief in sin and its resultant problems with an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, a spiritual understanding of God, and an unselfed love. He overturned the belief that the blind man or his parents could sin, and he also overturned the belief that the witnesses—the crowd around him, and us—could be made to see themselves or the man as separate from God’s all-power, also known as omni-potence.
The power to heal did not come from Christ Jesus as a person; it comes from the supreme source of all Good, God. Our light and goodness and power come only from God. “There is no power but of God,” as we read in Romans (Romans 13:1). And as the Psalmist states, “For God lights my candle: the Lord my God enlightens my darkness” (cit. B5, Psalm 18: 1, 28, paraphrased)
Mary Baker Eddy dedicated her life to understanding the divine Science that enabled Christ Jesus to heal. As she explained, “When man is governed by God, the ever-present Mind who understands all things, man knows that with God all things are possible. The only way to this living Truth, which heals the sick, is found in the Science of divine Mind as taught and demonstrated by Christ Jesus” (cit. S13, 180:25, my underlining). And elsewhere she states, “If Spirit or the power of divine Love bear witness to the truth, this is the ultimatum, the scientific way, and the healing is instantaneous” (cit. S14, 411:10).
SECTION 4: CHRIST JESUS MAINTAINS AN UNSELFED LOVE FOR LAZARUS AND DEMONSTRATES THAT ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE TO GOD
Section 4 begins with a question from Genesis, “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” (cit. B9, Genesis 18:14) Clearly, this question is a rhetorical question similar to Christ Jesus’ words, “…with God nothing shall be impossible” (GT, Luke 1:37)
The section then illustrates this statement of God’s omni-potence with the account of Christ Jesus raising Lazarus even after Lazarus had been in the grave for four days already (cit. B11, John 11:1-44). It is difficult to imagine a more extreme example of what would not normally be seen as “possible,” but Christ Jesus maintained an absolute faith that all things are possible to God. While others were mourning, Christ Jesus beheld a clear view of Lazarus as never born into a limited existence, and thus unable to die out of a limited existence. In the account, Martha had faith in Christ Jesus to heal her brother, Lazarus, “even now,” meaning even after he had been in the grave, and her faith-filled words suggest that she was beginning to gain an “absolute faith that all things are possible to God” and a spiritual understanding of God.
Even while others were mourning, Christ Jesus was able to see beyond the outward sense of things and instead see Lazarus as an eternal idea, never born and never dying. Jesus was not cold or uncompassionate. Jesus wept. But still, he maintained a pure and eternal love for Lazarus and the whole crowd. As Mary Baker Eddy explains, “Jesus said of Lazarus: ‘Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.’ Jesus restored Lazarus by the understanding that Lazarus had never died, not by an admission that his body had died and then lived again. Had Jesus believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his body, the Master would have stood on the same plane of belief as those who buried the body, and he could not have resuscitated it” (cit. S17, 75:12).
Lazarus’s family loved him and mourned his death. It seems to be human nature for us to cling to a person in corporeal form and not be able to see beyond that. Christ Jesus loved Lazarus more purely by seeing his friend’s eternal—never born and never dying—existence. The purity of Christ Jesus’ love, his unselfed love, enabled him to demonstrate the absolute power of God in all things. Christ Jesus loved Lazarus too purely to see him as dead, or fallen away from Life. As Mary Baker Eddy explains, “Never born and never dying, it were impossible for man, under the government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his high estate” (cit. S20, 258:27). The key to healing as Christ Jesus did is purifying our love and awakening to a purely unselfed love that sees no death, no limitation, no lack, and so forth. An unselfed love sees as divine Love sees—the radiant light of Life, eternal and whole and complete.
SECTION 5: NOTHING EXISTS SEPARATE FROM GOD
As we gain a spiritual understanding of God, it becomes clear that nothing can separate us from the love of God, nothing can cause us to feel separate, and we can expect a continual reminder and affirmation of God’s love.
As the first section of this week’s Lesson showed, a spiritual understanding of God necessitates breaking free of the limited view of God as a corporeal person or man-like being. God is not a man-like being. God is incorporeal—not limited to body—and is ever-present. God, Good, is all-in-all. To the degree that we understand this unlimited concept—God, Good, is all-in-all—we become aware that we are inseparable from this all-ness. And “Christ” is the word to describe our awareness of our inseparability. The presence of Christ, is the presence of an awareness of our inseparability from divine Love, infinite Good, ever-present Truth.
The concept of our inseparability from God’s all-ness is stated clearly in Romans when Paul writes, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (cit B12, Romans 8:35, 37-39).
We could add to Paul’s list of things that seems to try to make us feel separate from the love of God. In the second section of the lesson, for example, we read about Elijah, who faced famine, drought and disappointment but maintained an absolute faith that all things are possible to God and then witnessed nourishment and blessing for himself and the woman in Zarephath. In the third section, we read about Christ Jesus seeing beyond the belief of congenital blindness, and maintaining an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, and thus witnessing the healing of the blind man. And in the fourth section, we read about Christ Jesus maintaining such a pure love for his friend, Lazarus, that he didn’t buy into his friend as being born into a limited form or dying out of a limited form, and thus witnessed Lazarus’s resurrection. If we were to restate Paul’s words in the context of this week’s Lesson and combine it with Mary Baker Eddy’s opening sentence in her chapter on “Prayer,” we could say, “For I am persuaded, that neither famine, nor drought, nor poverty, nor starvation, nor blindness, nor the belief of sin and separation, nor life in matter, nor death in matter, nor any other trial or tribulation could separate me from an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, a spiritual understanding of God, and an unselfed love.”
We cannot be separated from God because God is all-in-all. As Mary Baker Eddy states, “In divine Science, God and the real man are inseparable as divine Principle and idea.” (cit. S22, 476: 4)
Healing the sick, raising the dead, and reforming the sinner is not miraculous. This is the expected outcome of an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, a spiritual understanding of God, and an unselfed love. So-called miracles are not super-natural, but are divinely natural proofs of God’s omni-presence and omni-potence. What some call miracles are glimpses, views, and visions of God, Good’s, omnipotent all-ness. This is the Science—the Knowledge—of the Christ, our awareness of God’s all-ness. As Mary Baker Eddy states, “The true Logos is demonstrably Christian Science, the natural law of harmony which overcomes discord, — not because this Science is supernatural or preternatural, nor because it is an infraction of divine law, but because it is the immutable law of God, good. Jesus said: ‘I knew that Thou hearest me always;’ and he raised Lazarus from the dead, stilled the tempest, healed the sick, walked on the water. There is divine authority for believing in the superiority of spiritual power over material resistance.” (cit. S23, 134: 21)
As we gain a more and more consistent understanding of God, Good, and the divine fact that God is all-in-all, we will witness more and more consistent proofs that there are no gaps, no holes, no lapses from God’s Law of Harmony. God as Principle, Law, and we as the outcome of this Principle, cannot be separated. We are the proof of God as Principle. And as we acknowledge and maintain an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, then we witness this divine principle.
Maintaining absolute faith necessitates prayer—listening with stillness—and this can begin with an affirmation of God’s all-ness. As Christ Jesus explained, when we pray, we can pray like this: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.” And Mary Baker Eddy offers a spiritual interpretation of this prayer: “For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.” (cit. S26, 17:12-15)
As we gain a Christ-awareness of the truth of this prayer, we will discover, as Christ Jesus did, that “with God nothing shall be impossible.” (cit. B14, Luke 1:37)
Some GEMs of BIBLE-BASED application ideas (from Cobbey Crisler & others) should be POSTED during the week and others will be added to the string and EMAILED together later in the week. You can always check for current GEMs at CedarS INSPIRATION website, whether or not you’ve SUBSCRIBED here for this free, inspirational offering.
Also later in the week, look for Ken Cooper’s
“POETIC POSTLUDE”
contributions related to this Bible Lesson.
THANKS to all you PRECIOUS DONORS for ALL of your ONGOING SUPPORT!
Every camper & visitor will be blessed by your generosity, vision & LOVE!
ANOTHER MATCH WAS MET and its project operationally completed before camp! Thanks to several generous donors to our special A/V Appeal we were able to finish building a CHAPEL AV BOOTH that will protect not only donated, new equipment but also all our hymnals for worship services and for CedarS Sunday Hymn Sings, like tonight’s first one of Second our Session of 2023!
If you haven’t lately checked out the GIVING TREE, there are still plenty of other smaller areas of need to fill yet this summer! Campers & staff will also be blessed bigtime by the donations made to additional areas of camp, including the horse program, activity equipment, camperships, and Christian Science nursing and practitioner services.
We’re deeply grateful for EVERY GIFT of love & support,
The CedarS Team
P.S. For more about ways to keep CedarS operations ever more green and flourishing and/or to make a planned gift, a required IRA distribution or an ENDOWMENT GIFT (that will all be MATCHED), feel free anytime to call or text me (Warren Huff, Executive Director Emeritus and Project Manager) at 314-378-2574. I can put you in touch with our Financial Advisor/broker who donates all fees for stock transfers and freely shares tailored, tax-advantaged giving approaches.
