Ken Cooper’s “POETIC PRELUDE” shares Bible EXAMPLES of EVERLASTING REJOICING!

Ken Cooper’s “POETIC PRELUDE” shares Bible EXAMPLES of EVERLASTING REJOICING!
from the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on “Everlasting Punishment”
for Sunday, May 1, 2022

• In Ken’s YouTube prose rendition “The Great Commandments” we see the effectiveness of 100% commitment to God…
• In the poem “THE MAN SICK OF THE PALSY”  his friends showed great love, and Jesus responded…
• My poem “Self-immolation” looks at the need for the complete removal of self, (done by 100% commitment to ALL the Commandments).
  

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[Ken writes:] The Golden Text this week could not be clearer: “A nation is exalted and made great by the righteousness of its people, but sinful acts are a disgrace to its soul”. (Proverbs 14:34, my combined translations). It brings home the place of The Holy Bible in our lives, for it is the repository of ageless wisdom, and as Mary Baker Eddy notes “As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.” (Science & Health p. 497:3) What makes a nation great? – Obedience and adherence to the Commandments, the obedience of all its subjects to the inspired Word in both the Old and New Testaments.

The Responsive Reading (RR) is equally clear in its response “In the west, people will respect the name of the Lord; and over to the east, they will glorify him. For when the enemy appears, God will come like a raging flood tide driven by the breath of the Lord, to raise up His standard and completely demolish those who stand against Him.” (RR, Isaiah 59:19, combined translations). Sin is utterly destroyed. Having been destroyed there is no need of punishment, for it is now nothing. Mary Baker Eddy writes in the tenets of Christian Science: “We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.” (Science & Health p 497:9). When Jesus said “Get thee behind me, Satan” temptation for him was no more. To the adulterous woman, his command was “Go, and sin no more”. What a blessing! Her belief in sin was no more and that was the end of it. When error becomes to us nothing, it reverts to its only state, and it can no longer have any effect.  In God’s kingdom, there is no punishment, and in the Lord’s Prayer, we have the simple statements “THY KINGDOM COME”, and “FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM, AND THE POWER, AND THE GLORY, FOREVER.”  This is what is everlasting, and God’s kingdom is now.

Error is nothing because God is everything. Belief is overcome by understanding. This is so clearly shown by the Ten Commandments.  As seen last week, – these are statements of fact.  “Thou shalt not” is such a wonderful promise, a revelation, and so well supported by Jesus in his ministry, when the “shalt nots” become wedded to the simplicity of “Thou shalt”! The proof of life in God’s kingdom.

In the prose rendition “The Great Commandments” we see the effectiveness of 100% commitment to God, – “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and all thy soul, and with all thy might”. (Bible citation 4 (B4), Deut. 6:5) Jesus expanded on this, “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” The prose examines each of these in turn.

When we give God our 100% attention, the belief in sin cannot get into our thinking. Loving God with our whole heart is not only giving God our full focus, but also everyone we see, including ourselves. The “forever forgiving” is Love’s forgiveness reflected in our love for one another, including ourselves. What a command! The ONENESS of GOD is what we adore, and this includes all his spiritual creation.

“At one with God I have everything good at hand. I am in His kingdom, and there is nothing else, nowhere else, to go. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” ” As we hold on to this truth of being, we bring it not only into our lives, but into the lives of others.

 WHEN WE OBEY THE FIRST COMMANDMENT WE FULFILL THE SECOND. WE FIND EVERLASTING LOVE.

Adherence to the Great Commandments of Moses and Jesus brings healing. It is absolute Christian Science, summarized by Jesus: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”  (Matthew 5:48).

In Section 4 we have the story of the man brought to Jesus who was sick of the palsy (as we may feel sick of any problem that continually gets at us!). Jesus posed the question “Whether is easier to say, “Thy sins be forgiven thee, or Arise and walk?” (B19, Matthew 9:5). The poem “THE MAN SICK OF THE PALSY” is taken from the version in Luke. His friends showed great love, and Jesus responded. Jesus stated that true forgiveness overcomes sin. When he saw the perfect man, those he healed became part of that revelation, and their lives were changed.

“We felt blessed to see fulfilment, man shown forth as whole and pure,
Sin and sickness were both banished by the Love of God so sure.
Sins forgiven same as healing, Love shows forth the way to heal.
Jesus you have shown Life’s meaning. Only health and joy are real!”

Science & Health citation 22 (S22) ends this section “Whatever enslaves man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes man free.” (SH 225:2). We need not be sick of anything, for in God’s kingdom there is nothing to make one sick, – but everything to make one rejoice and be happy, – infinite freedom!

How then to find this infinite freedom?  In Science & Health citation 28, we read on the first page of our textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures what we must do: “Prayer, watching, and working, combined with self-immolation, are God’s gracious means for accomplishing whatever has been successfully done for the Christianization and health of mankind” (1:6) What a stirring statement to deal with our healing work for the situation in Ukraine.  My poem “Self-immolation” looks at the need for the complete removal of self, (done by 100% commitment to ALL the Commandments).

For all I have to do as me is REFLECT HIS LOVE MOST PURE,
And A HEART SO FILLED LIVES BY HIS WORD, – there is just nothing more:
For as His child, AT ONE WITH LOVE, I only have to be,
Expressing thus the God of All, IN PERFECT PURITY.

Living by His Word (Principle / Logos) was so well expounded in the Cobbey Crisler Application GEMS just issued, – Application GEMs to help us overcome every “dead-end” and rise in the newness of Life! – CedarS Camps see the last section (04/24/2022).

And with perfect purity, there is no distraction, and thought is fully the reflection of Mind. Knowing there is nothing more than ONE infinite Mind, God, reaffirms the governance of God, consigns the false belief of another power to its native nothingness, and leaves man free, – as God’s expression of all that God is.

Science & Health citation 30 says it all “One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations: constitutes the brotherhood of man, ends wars:…….leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.”(S30, 340:23) Let’s then worship our one infinite God, follow the commandments, and so love and support all our neighbours.

NOT EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT, BUT EVERLASTING REJOICING!

Copies of my poems are available in pdf format in color and B&W as DOWNLOADS at the bottom of the online version of this Poetic Postlude to this week’s Bible Lesson. (Audio of the Met is to be recorded online later tonight, and the email will follow soon thereafter.) The full range of Ken’s videos on YouTube can be found on KenGCooperPoetry.  All Ken’s poetry and other writings can be found on Ken Cooper Poetry. (Links work on Metaphysical page).

Write to Ken on kengcooper@btinternet.com.