Praise God – It’s His Show! Be and See What He’s Created! – Metaphysical Application Ideas for Bible Lesson

Editor’s Note: The following background information and application ideas for the Christian Science Bible Lesson for this week are offered primarily to help CedarS campers and staff see and demonstrate the great value of daily study of the Christian Science Bible lessons year-round, not just at camp. If more information or the text of this Lesson is desired, please see the Director”s Note at the end. The citations referenced in the “met” (metaphysical application ideas) are taken from the King James Version of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The Bible and Science and Health are the ordained pastor of the Churches of Christ, Scientist. The Bible Lesson is the sermon read in Christian Science church services throughout the world.

Praise God – It’s His Show! Be and See What He’s Created!Metaphysical Application Ideas for Bible Lesson – December 12-18, 2005
“Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?”
Prepared by Kathy Fitzer, CS, of St. Louis, MO

Golden Text: Let’s be sure we’re giving God credit.
Ever tempted to think that you are a creator – that you have to be creative – or that you were created by human parents? Think again. All good comes from God. The phrase, “for thy pleasure” is more often translated, “by thy will.” So, acknowledge Love, Mind, as the creator – the only creator. Practice giving God credit! That even applies to the small things – like acknowledging God as the source of creative ideas for the perfect Christmas gift.

Responsive Reading: Praise God!!! To praise is to magnify; to glorify on account of perfection or excellent works. (Webster) Magnify (make larger in thought) the action of God. Notice the action words – founded, established. Notice the adjectives – strong, mighty, high. That’s describing God and His might. What are we to do and why? Praise – lift up consciousness and let in the good – because God is great. And finally, where are we to praise God? In the sanctuary – the secret place – and the firmament – spiritual understanding (see S&H 505: 7-8).

Section I: All force belongs to Mind alone!
Don’t take anything at face-value. Use your spiritual understanding! We need to be sure we’re acknowledging that ALL power is of God, and nothing is too hard for God! (B-1&4) God is Mind, so it follows that all power is of Mind, not matter. Laws of matter change. They are unreliable. Look around. You see what appear as forces of nature (including so-called forces of health) – believed to be a mixture of good and evil. Now, look again. See what God has made. For instance, see the oceans and seas that God made, as an abundant source of beauty, transportation, and supply. See the mountains that God created as “solid and grand ideas.” (S&H 511: 24) It is fun to practice looking at what the eye sees, and seeing only God’s qualities expressed. Instead of looking at effect and trying to figure out a cause, start with God as creator (see S-2) and reason what the effect of this creator must be! (S-5) Walking or driving on slippery roads a problem? Not if we realize that “adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of Mind.” (S-4) Sticking to the road is natural when we realize it is Love that holds each in their right place. The power is not in the tires, the shoes, or the surface of the road – it is in Mind! Similarly, the power to heal is in God’s stretched out arm – the symbol of Love embracing humanity. Look to cause, not effect, and find healing!

Section II: Laws of matter? Think Again!
Why, oh why, do we act as though matter has power to create or affect us? There is one God – Spirit, Mind, Truth, Love. God is our refuge (our place of safety), our strength, and our help when we get in trouble. (B-6) Since recorded time, people have too often forgotten that fact and turned to other gods for their security. It doesn’t work. Why? Because God is a living fountain – always providing limitless good. On the other hand, any other so-called force is a fake. It mimics the all-power, but fails to have the substance to support its boasting. In Jeremiah, God refers to himself as a living fountain and to the people’s “other gods” as cisterns – broken cisterns that can’t hold water. (B-6) At first glance, it may look as if water is present in each case. However, that water will soon disappear in a leaky cistern, whereas a fountain is perpetually providing fresh water – continually replenishing the supply. When it comes to answers to any problem, old stale ideas (springing from mortal mind) will fail and run dry, whereas the ever-creative forces of Spirit will forever feed and nurture man, “perpetuating the eternal facts of being.” (S-10) So, when you have a problem and matter seems to be really pushing itself on you – presenting the picture of physical, mental, emotional, or financial limitation – be still, silence the mental haranguing of mortal mind, and know that there is one God, the I AM God of present abundance. (B-7) God created ALL. Thus, either God created matter, or matter isn’t – period. Think of matter as limited form and power, and God as unlimited form and power. Those two concepts don’t mix. Matter claims to be good AND evil. God knows only good. How could Principle, Love, be responsible for chaos and misrule? It just doesn’t make sense. (S-8) What we call physical is really just the expression of thought – even if we are unconscious of the thought. (S-9) So, how do we improve the physical condition? By spiritualizing thought – correcting limited thought with the consciousness of unlimited Good, God. Then, the counterfeit disappears and the real appears in our experience. Nothing is by chance – God is in control. Start and stay there, and watch the physical correspond.

Section III: Where do babies come from?
We need to re-think the answer to this question if we’re ever going to perceive Truth. If God created us (B-1), creation must be entirely spiritual. When Mary first heard the angel tell her she would conceive, she argued from the basis of traditional beliefs concerning child-birth – a man and a woman were required! What convinced her to accept God’s message? It was the Holy Ghost – Divine Science – that enabled her to understand that God is the only creator. Mary’s role was to magnify (to praise) God’s work. (B-9) And that’s our role, too! It’s not too early to question every so-called law of matter – including the law of re-generation. (S-13) Mortal mind suggests that mortals create other little mortals. But, MAN is the idea of God – the idea of Spirit. Man is the evidence that God is! Mary’s spiritual sense recognized this sufficiently to have this idea of Christ, that had always been an idea with God, be seen as a physical form – as Jesus. (S-14) Don’t settle for the traditional answer to the above question. Babies come from God – as complete spiritual ideas – ever in harmony with the universe!

Section IV: Divine Mind stills the storms
Whether the storm appears as wind, waves, and lightening, pain, or the clashing of material personalities, the Lord stills them! (B-10) How? Jesus demonstrated the stillness of thought that understood the unreality of the storm. The disciples and Jesus were in the same physical place, but while the disciples reacted with fear, the master responded with authority. (B-12) Storms are always a misperception of the facts. Mrs. Eddy refers to the vapid fury of mortal mind. Vapid is defined as lacking liveliness or force; dead. Hmmm…. What appears as a storm is really just mortal mind destroying itself. (S-18) Jesus clearly understood that “the real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind.” He clearly understood that Mind controls every action and that all causation is in Mind, and that God’s law is unchanging good. This understanding enabled him to demonstrate the ever-present calm of divine Love, right where his disciples saw a storm. Will we be confused by the appearance of storms, or proceed with the authority of Christ, “believe in the superiority of spiritual power over material resistance” and dispel them – regardless of what form they try to take? (S-17&19) Discord is never natural. Praise God’s goodness – without wavering – even in the middle of the storm. Mrs. Eddy credits “the divine origin of Jesus” for giving him the human power to demonstrate the one Mind. (S-15) But, we all have a spiritual origin! Let’s not delay practicing the authority that gives us!

Section V: Understand your origin! You are the child of God!
Jesus understood that man is the offspring of God. He accepted the words of Deuteronomy, regardless of what the mortal senses reported. He had compassion on those around him who didn’t have that understanding, and he demonstrated man’s spiritual origin through healing. (B-13, 14 & 15) As long as it was believed that the life of the boy was in him, it was thought that the boy could be controlled by this mortal sense of life and destroyed by it. But, Jesus knew otherwise. Even when, to those standing around, the boy appeared to be dead, Jesus lifted up his concept of him – saw him as the immortal idea of God – and literally raised him up! The father reported that the problem had come to the boy when he was a child. In fact, the problem was the misperception of the child’s origin. The disciples, and other witnesses, entertained the same misperception as the father. Jesus wonders how long he will have to “suffer” this faithless generation. One definition of suffer is “to sustain or support,” and one definition of generation is “a series of descendents from the same stock;” i.e. Adam. Jesus’ role was to support the offspring of the Adam-dream, as he awakened them to the reality of being by healing. Their thought had yielded “its dominion to other powers” and so effaced the beautiful images and delineated “foreign agents, called disease and sin.” (S-21) Let’s be careful that we don’t do the same thing. We must not give power to that which has no power. Life isn’t in man. We’ll beat the rap of heredity if we understand that “…nothing inharmonious can enter being, for Life is God.” (S-22) Jesus’ demonstrations illustrated scientifically that Mind controls the universe. (S-20) We’ve got to give up our belief that man is a creator. We can’t understand God’s creation until we do. (S-23) You are the heir of God because you are God’s child – you are how God shows Himself. Accept that role; give up the belief that you are the offspring of human parents, saddled with a good and bad human inheritance, and you will find yourself free of fear and full of life! (B-16)

Section VI: Accept Science – Be who you are; See what is; Rejoice!
Jesus told his disciples that nothing would be impossible to them if they had faith as a grain of mustard seed. (B-17) A friend recently shared a fresh approach to this idea of the mustard seed. A mustard seed knows that it will grow to be a mustard plant – it knows that it contains within itself everything it needs to develop into its full capacity. No need to question or doubt. If we trust our identity as the offspring of God, as clearly as a mustard seed trusts its identity, nothing will be too hard. We will understand that God made us “to have dominion over the works of [His] hands” and has “put all things under [our] feet.” (B-19) We will have no doubt that “with God all things are possible.” (S-24) The key is to stick with God! When we look around, we must look rightly. Don’t accept things as they appear! As you look through the lens of spiritual understanding, you’ll be able to look beneath the surface, like a diver looking below the surface of the ocean to behold the beauty that is hidden to the casual observer. When driving a car with a bug-splattered windshield, I find that if I focus beyond the bugs, my vision isn’t restricted by the smears. When the body or the check-book or personal relations try to scream inharmony, look beyond. See God’s control ever-present. This is the Science of being. In the realm of Spirit, all is harmony. That realm of Spirit is present here and now. Translate what appears into what is! God governs the universe – including man! Look through the discord; keep your eye on the perfect model of health, supply, and peace. Don’t let that model go, and your “latent abilities and possibilities” as man will be realized. Right in the middle of a problem, REJOICE! You are “subject to the divine ‘powers that be.'” (S-27&28) Just like the mustard seed!

Camp Director’s Note: The above sharing is the latest in a long series of CedarS Bible Lesson “mets” (metaphysical application ideas) contributed weekly by a rotation of CedarS Resident Practitioners and occasionally by other metaphysicians. This document is intended to initiate further study as well as to encourage the application of ideas found in the Weekly Bible Lessons as printed in the Christian Science Quarterly and as available at Christian Science Reading Rooms.* Originally sent JUST to campers, staff and CedarS families who wanted to continue at home and in their home Sunday Schools the same type of focused Lesson study and inspiration they had felt at camp, CedarS lesson “mets” are in no way meant to be definitive or conclusive or in any way a substitute for daily study of the lesson in the books. The thoughts presented are the inspiration of the moment and are offered to give a bit more dimension, background and daily applicability to some of the ideas and passages being studied. The Lesson-Sermon speaks individually through the Christ to everyone, providing unique insights and tailor-made applications for each one. We are glad you requested this metaphysical sharing and hope that you find some of these ideas helpful in your daily spiritual journey, in your deeper digging in the books and in closer bonding with your Comforter and Pastor.)
Enjoy!

Warren Huff, Director                      director@cedarscamps.org
The CedarS Camps Office
1314 Parkview Valley
Manchester, MO 63011
(636) 394-6162