Hey, MAN, you’re “Sworn in” to Witness to “the whole truth & nothing but the truth!”
Application Ideas & Sunday School Assignments for the Bible Lesson SUBJECT: MAN
by Warren Huff, CedarS Director
Golden Text: “. . . .ye are my witnesses, that I am God.” Start this lesson by envisioning yourself in a courtroom setting, in the Supreme Court of Spirit. You have been summoned to appear as a witness by and for your Maker, by “God Himself and Man’s only lawgiver,” who also happens to be the Judge. (see Isa. 33:22) With one hand on “the supreme statute book, the Bible,” you have been “sworn in” to “tell the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God.” In your testimony (hourly, not just on Wednesday) it’s your job to provide unquestionable evidence that God not only exists, but also rules absolutely. That makes you an “I witness,” not just an “eye witness.” The “great I am” has given as your 9th commandment: “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Like one of an Architect’s 10 Specifications to guarantee the quality of a building, this spec (commandment) can be read as “Thou shall not (be capable of) bearing false witness.” As reflection, you can witness to God’s “all-seeing” x-ray vision that always discerns the truth and denies the false testimony of the senses. In your mental courtroom, whenever you are the Accused by “Personal Sense” and whenever “Fear” has made an appearance, you need to consult with your “Defense Attorney, Christian Science,” to hear how it defends your innocence. What guilt or trials are looming large for you today? Check out the powerful, healing arguments on your behalf found in Mrs. Eddy’s classic trial in Science and Health, p. 430:17 – 442:15.
Responsive Reading: An all-powerful, always-good God could not, and would not, make imperfect man, (Hymn #51:2) but rather the dominion man of Psalms 8 (as well as of Genesis 1) who is “a little lower than the angels.” Ps 8:5
Section 1: Remember to Claim your Heritage as DOMINION MAN! “Give loving attention to” (remember) God’s Sabbath day examination of you and the glorious grade of “VERY good!” (Gen. 1:31) I hope that you make that grade on all your exams and opportunities this school year, passing with “flying colors!” You’ve already “aced” your most important exam and are working out from perfection instead of up to it. Such high achievement (along with your eager participation in Sunday School) will constitute your obedience to all parts of the 4th Commandment/Spec: to remember the sabbath day “to KEEP it holy.” Keep what’s holy, like a hallowed gift from God, sacred to you. What better gift could you have than being the very “expression of God’s being” (S&H 470:23) of “infinity, freedom, harmony and boundless bliss.” (481:3) Your body (physique) and its size has nothing to do with your manhood or womanhood although ads and sense testimony bears false witness about that. Guard against being seduced into all the subtile and aggressive forms of body worship prevalent today. In the next hour, be alert to and list at least 5 examples of body worship. Such idolatry breaks your 1st Commandment Spec of having no other gods than Spirit, God. (FYI, in Architectural Specs, #1 covers “General Conditions,” which outline principles that over-ride and govern every situation.)
Section 2: Mental surgery: NOSE JOB needed! The NOSTRIL MAN Myth is Blown! The writer of Isaiah says “cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of?” This could include ceasing to be or to see another as a drip! When annoying drip-like behavior is seen to spring from our supposed nostril man heritage, (i.e. “post-nasal drip” :-), it can be quickly healed. Such behavior is not God’s “fine gold” (Lam. 4:2) man and you know it!
Our Christian Fundamentalist friends strongly argue for the infallibility of every word in the Scriptures, including our being descendants of that old NOSTRIL MAN, Adam, and his clan of miserable sinners. (See Gen. 2:7 for this miscalculation of creation, that is the opposite of “the inspired Word of the Bible” that Christian Scientists take as “our sufficient guide to eternal life.” This distinction is so crucial to the theology of Christian Science healing that Mrs. Eddy made it “her” 1st Tenet. (S&H 497:3)
Section 3: What manner of MAN you are! Like our Master Wayshower, you are able to master every boisterous wind and wave of your day! What looks to you like “rough sledding” ahead? Commit to memory (give loving attention to) and apply Mrs./ Eddy’s awesome 7-word, one-liner, which Jesus lived: “Meet every adverse circumstance as its master.” (S&H 419:16) That’s the way to “follow and rejoice all the rugged way!” (CS Hymn #304) This section shows that it wasn’t always totally rugged for Jesus though, because he had a pillow aboard ship and got to get some serious “shut-eye!” When I’ve soundly slept through a storm or something else (alarm, passing car at 4am, . . . ) that should have awakened me, I’ve used as an excuse that I was just trying to be more Christ-like. 🙂 Thank you, Mark, for including that little detail of Jesus sleeping through the storm!
Section 4: The Fountain of Youth/”Let Us” Diet! It’s wonderful that as a reflection of ever-new, eternal Love, we too can be ageless and “bring forth fruit in old age.” (Ps. 92:14, right after a CedarS of Lebanon foundational Bible opening.:-) The key to such a “forever young” mindset that’s full of “vigor, freshness and promise,” (S&H 246:23) is in what we “buy into” and in what we feed thought throughout each day. Here’s where the “let us diet” comes in: “Let us accept Science, . . . let us have one God, (1st Commandment Spec again) . . . Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life.” (S&H 249:1-7)
Section 5: Without the Dust/Nostril Model of Man, you can bear witness to and be an Attorney for “no more Oops, no more Slip-ups, no more Injuries!” At the heart of Christian Science healing is having such a Defense Attorney’s mindset. In this frame of thought you can easily see through the false testimony (of the senses and of supposed health laws) and defend the Accused (Injured) as if (s)he were a totally innocent and beloved friend, not a guilty sinner who continues to be punished for unwise choices. In this way you can “change the notion of chance” to the proper sense of God’s unerring direction and thus bring out harmony.” (S&H 424:8) You need “not fear what flesh can do unto” (Ps. 56:3) you, even when an accident appears to have occurred, if you employ powerful Defense Attorney logic to make the injury unreal and thereby “reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why.” (S&H 397:17) The reason why comes from Bible-based promises of God’s never-sleeping preservation of you (See the Isaiah and Psalms citations in this section). Write down a favorite promise or two to commit to memory and to see fulfilled!
Section 6: A Christian Contempt for the Dust Man Model of Creation produces “miracles!” B. Cobbey Crisler shared some unique and helpful insights into the symbolism of the healing in this section. (His inspiring “Gospel of John” cassette tape is available from CedarS.) We are not to literally follow Jesus’ example when he used a mud mix on the eyes of the man born blind as if it is somehow mud is medicinal or curative. Cobbey points out that in the Mid-East in Jesus’ day (and still today), the ultimate sign of contempt for something is to spit on it. Cobbey astutely proposes that by spitting on the dust, Jesus was teaching us by symbolism that he was (and we should be) utterly contemptuous of the Dust Man/matter model of creation and all the misery and disability it brings (See Section 2: Genesis 2:7 for more on man “formed . . . of the dust of the ground.”) Then, to help us make the connection for what was behind this man’s lifelong illusion of blindness, Jesus put the dust/clay, muddy mix on the man’s eyes and told him to go wash it off. What supposed hereditary ills would you like to wash off, so that you and others too will be healed and “come seeing?!” (John 9:1-7) All healed will join the joyous, liberated, worldwide ranks of “living witnesses and monuments to the virtue and power of Truth, as applies through this Christian system of healing disease.” (S&H 150:1)
