Rejoice in God’s Glory, True Substance!

Rejoice in God's Glory, True Substance!

Metaphysical Application Ideas for the Christian Science Bible Lesson on “Substance” fFor study during the week of September 6 -12, 2010

by Rick Stewart, C.S., Dresden, Germany [with bracketed italics by Warren Huff]

 

[Editor's Note: The following application ideas for this week, and the Possible Sunday School Topics that follow, are offered primarily to help CEDARS campers and staff (as well as friends) see and demonstrate the great value of daily study and application of the Christian Science Bible lessons year-round, not just at camp! You can sign up to have them emailed to you free — in English by Monday each week, or by each Wednesday you can get a FREE TRANSLATION in French thanks to Pascal, in German thanks to Helga or in Spanish thanks to a team of Ana, Erick, Claudia and Patricio. YOU CAN SIGN UP at www.cedarscamps.org/newsletters]

 

Until this week's Bible Lesson I cannot honestly say that I have ever thought very deeply about God's glory. I sang about glory in songs, “Glory, glory, hallelujah.” I read about glorifying God and thought about it being a form of praising God. But “glory” as significant to understanding God?    And then because of this week's Golden Text, Psalm 104:31, “The glory of the Lord shall endure forever,” I realized that this was really a word to understand better.

 

[Stay tuned since “the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you” is a promise from Leviticus 9:6 made in the Golden Text for the lesson on “Reality” in two weeks. Consider singing Hymn 65 “From glory unto glory . . .”]

 

The Hebrew word that we have translated as “glory” is a noun, “kabod.” It has to do with weight, but perhaps weight as in the mass of something, or you could say the significance, the weightiness, the substance of something. And in this case that is why we find “glory” in the Golden Text of our lesson; it is about the true substance, significance, or the weight of God as expressed to man, and significantly that endures continually, eternally.

 

An interesting revelation of glory early in the Bible is when God reveals Himself to Moses, Exodus 33: 13-19. God has assured Moses that He will continue with Moses and the Children of Israel. And then Moses said, “Now show me your glory” (v.19). And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. “

 

And so through this Hebrew word, “kabod”, God's glory is revealed to Moses. God passes before Moses and he proclaims the nature of God as compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, faithful, forgiving, merciful, and abounding in love.    When God is present, no one has to declare, “The king is in the house,” everyone will be aware of His divine presence. And this glory of God is an enduring substance in our lives, a significant presence, and often found through the influence of others, as they bring the light of the Glory of God into our experience.

 

A perfect example of this is in the life of one of my favorite Sunday School teachers, Iris Link. My brother, Scott, called just the other day to say that he had just had a wonderful phone conversation with her, really inspiring. And just like when she was teaching Sunday School, the glory of God just shined through to Scott's experience.

 

In class she always inspired us with lots of clear practical ideas about applying Christian Science in our lives. Another thing that was really cool was that she had a ski boat, and would invite us to go skiing. We had some great times together. But sometimes on the ski trips, as often happens in Florida, big thunder clouds would loom up and threaten to ruin our ski day.   Almost without fail, even though the threat of rain was imminent, we would trust in God's harmonious direction of our day, and in just a little bit out would come the sun in all of its Florida glory. So even though the clouds looked dark and threatening, God's glory would shine through and we could continue our adventure together.

 

As you dig into this week's lesson you might begin by thinking a little about clouds and God's glory. Sometimes in our lives there are threatening clouds of matter, on X-ray films, in family or job situations, in world conditions. They seem to threaten the harmony in life. This week's lesson can teach us how the dark clouds of fear can be transformed to the cloud that announced the presence of God to the Children of Israel. And just like the Children of Israel we can discover the nature of God in all His glory: merciful, compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in love. And through the understanding of the one true and enduring substance, the light of the Glory of God shines through the error.

 

The Golden Text: Psalm 104:31 “The glory of the Lord shall endure forever:”

[Isn't this nonstop, spiritual endurance the key to the sustainability that the whole world seems to be seeking and is CedarS 2010 theme?]

 

The Responsive Reading: This is a beautiful introduction to the nature of God and our relationship to Him. It echoes the message in Isaiah 43:7 that tells us that God created us for His glory. 

[Note of interest quoted from a Cobbey Crisler talk, “The Song of the Lamb”: “…we, perhaps, might regard as the Song of Moses… a summary of God's will for man as revealed to Moses. The essence of Moses' teaching is the Commandments. And the Song of the Lamb, the essence of Jesus' teaching, is the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount.” Hurray for us and for Sunday School classes that we had a full Beatitudes review in last week's lesson on Man!  In his talk Cobbey points out that it is these two songs – “the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb' (the Commandments & the Beatitudes) – that are being sung in Revelation 15:2 by “them that had gotten the victory” over anything connected with the animal, whether it's the bodily image of animalism, whether it is the mark or identity with the animal kingdom, or whether it is ‘the number of his name,' the vast quantity that seem to walk around claiming such kinship to the animal, we find that there is a group here referred to that ‘stand on that sea of glass, having the harps of God.'” Having such mastery is glorious and a worthy goal!]

 

Section 1: Truth is the substance that endures forever.  
The truth about God endures forever. It is not just a story for thousands of years ago. The same truth revealed in the Bible “endureth to all generations” (B-1) and (B-2). Through “faith” we discover the true substance that endures forever. God's wonderful “works” “stand fast forever” (B-4).  Science and Health points out the necessity of finding true “substance” (S-1), and shows how a “false” sense of substance obscures (S-2).

 

Years ago my dad, a friend from Sunday School, and I were fishing on Florida's Gulf Coast, an area dotted with hundreds of little islands and an area that even in the sunshine was tough to navigate. We traveled about 5 miles from the boat ramp where we launched our boat. As we were fishing, a dense blanket of fog rolled in very quickly. We decided we had to stop fishing and try to make our way back to the boat ramp. Since we had traveled a good ways over open water, there was no easy way to just follow channel markers. We used our compass as much as possible and we got busy praying and listening for guidance. The fog remained heavy, and as we traveled the sun set and darkness fell. After a long, slow trip that involved sometimes going overboard and pulling the boat through extremely shallow waters and past oyster bars, we sighted some trees through the fog.   We headed toward them and found a small canal.  We continued to pray and chug along. Finally we found a dock to tie up to.  In the dark and fog the area looked unfamiliar.   There was a road at the end of the dock, so my friend David and I went to investigate where we had ended up. We sighted some hunters just letting their dogs out and asked where we were. “Oh,you are about 200 yards from the boat ramp; it's right over there.” We had traveled 5 miles in the fog and dark and ended up 200 yards from where our car was parked. You talk about feeling like glorifying God!

 

The glory of God may break through the clouds of error, or it may just enable you to find your way through the darkness of error with “Science, the sunshine of Truth…” (S-4). The eternal presence, God's glory that accompanied the Children of Israel, remains with us today.

 

Section 2: The glory of eternal life.  
Have you ever thought a little about who got to talk with Jesus? Government authorities, church officials? Wasn't it often someone we might think of as unworthy or not qualified? This section tells us about the substance that Jesus had to share with the people he spoke to, the substance of Life (B-5).

In citation B-7 Jesus stops by a well that was close to a piece of ground that the patriarch Jacob, had given to his son Joseph. He asks a woman there for a drink of water. In the Bible Note from Section Two in “My Bible Lesson.com” it is explained that it was improper for a Jewish man to speak to a woman alone in public. And it was even worse because the woman was a Samaritan. The Jews and Samaritans – although descendants of ancient Israel – really had no dealings with each other. Since later in this story we find out that the woman had been married five times, and was currently living with someone who was not her husband, you might wonder why Jesus chose to speak with her.

 

Eventually in their conversation Jesus offers the woman”living water” that “whosoever drinketh……shall never thirst” (B-7). Now there is refreshment that beats all comers.

 

This message of the Christ, refreshment that promises eternal life, should have cornered the market years ago. But the question remains, why did he speak to this woman? Could it be because her life in matter was not so satisfying? Her thirst had not been quenched with material life.    Science and Health citations S-9, S-10 and S-11 give the perspective from our Leader that explains why the message of the Christ, the substance of Life, eternal Life, often goes unheeded. Perhaps Jesus knew that the hungering, thirsting human heart was most prepared to acknowledge the Christ, and receive the answer “substance and Life” (S-11).

 

Section 3: The kindness of God's glory satisfies.
We are told that the “Kabod,” the Glory of God, is compassionate, forgiving, merciful, and abounding in love. Is there any story ever told more expressive of this than the story of the Prodigal Son? Citation B-11 (Luke 15:11-32) is a perfect illustration of awaking to God's Glory, God's Love. The youngest son had fallen so low that he was ready to eat the food he was giving to the pigs. [Not a kosher companion!] And then he woke up, he stopped wallowing in self-pity about his mistakes and he headed home.

 

But didn't he have to awake from a false sense of substance to a true sense? What satisfies, what lasts, what nourishes? His false sense of want had led him to the extreme poverty where he lived and ate with pigs. He rose, awoke and began the journey back to his home. We can walk the same path and we can also discover our Father-Mother eagerly waiting to bless each and every one of us.

 

Since we have learned through the earlier sections, true Substance endures, the Truth endures, eternal Life endures, so the Good in our lives endures. No situation, circumstance, condition, can destroy our true substance. Like the Prodigal we can awake and discover that we are still the loved child of our Father-Mother God. This is the only record worth contemplating. [“Choose you this day.”]  Wallowing in self-pity, regret, belief in mistake; or glorying in our existence as the loved of Love!

 

Citation S-15: “Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.”

 

[Christian Science Lecturer, Geith Plimmer, of Great Britain, pointed out: “When you are ready to make the needed adaptation of Love, you will also be ready to receive the bestowals of Love.” Consider that in answering the Question of the Week: “The new school year has many students thinking about friends, homework, and fitting everything into busy schedules. How did prayer help you during a challenging experience at school?”]

 

Section 4: “Mine eyes have seen the glory..”
Have you ever heard a chairman in a meeting remark, “the ayes have it”? Well, can't we declare the “I” has it!! On page 587 of Science and Health, lines 5-8, we find the definition of God that contains the description, “all-seeing.” The one “I” is the “all-seeing.” All sight, all faculties, are not dependent on human organization or development.

 

Jesus faithfully fulfilled the promise of Scripture–“recovering of sight to the blind.” [See the PS at the end for Cobbey Crisler's unique take on the healing of blindness in John 9 (B-16).]

 

Section 5: The glory of the substance of Mind    
Are we embracing the same way of thinking, the same attitude of our Master, Christ Jesus. In citation B-19 we read, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” The J. B. Phillips translation has, “Let your attitude of life be that of Christ Jesus himself.” It was this attitude that enabled the Master to awaken those who wanted to think differently about themselves, those who were ready to change their minds.

 

Jesus healing of the palsied (B-20) was the healing that Mary Baker Eddy read when she recovered from a fall on the ice in February 1866. Her healing opened the path for her further investigations for Mind, God as the source for healing. She writes, “St. Paul writes: ‘For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.' This knowledge came to me in an hour of great need; and I give it to you as death-bed testimony to the daystar that dawned on the night of material sense. This knowledge is practical, for it wrought my immediate recovery from an injury caused by an accident, and pronounced fatal by the physicians.  On the third day thereafter, I called for my Bible, and opened it at Matthew ix. 2.  As I read, the healing Truth dawned upon my sense; and the result was that I rose, dressed myself, and ever after was in better health than I had before enjoyed.  That short experience included a glimpse of the great fact that I have since tried to make plain to others, namely, Life in and of Spirit; this Life being the sole reality of existence.” (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 24:2-18)

 

Science and Health references (S-21-S-25) share our Leader's [glorious] insights from her textbook [that “Mind is substance”].

 

[Proving that “all being is painless and permanent” (S-24):] This summer when I was preparing to head to CedarS for Second Session, I was experiencing a great deal of pain in one of my knees. Movement was difficult and painful and my prayers seemed to have had no effect. I was able to make the trip with my two boys with little inconvenience, but some continued pain. Arrival at CedarS meant immediate work at PAL (Practitioners Are Loving) House.  It was a joy to be back home at CedarS. A few days into our session I realized I was completely free of the knee problem. The only thing that had taken place was imbibing in that wonderful attitude of selfless service you always find at CedarS. My healing was complete. It was not so much a “knee adjustment” as it was an “attitude adjustment.” “Let this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (B-19).

 

[May today's (9-6-10) “Daily Lift” by Lois Carlson lead you to a healing, daily shift–“A Shift in Consciousness”.     Lois quotes from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (149:28), “Whatever guides thought spiritually benefits mind and body.”]

 

Section 6: I am all ears to hear and live out the glory of God 
Bible citation (B-22) from The Living Bible translation is pretty good; “Come to me with your ears wide open.  Listen, for the life of your soul is at stake.” I have so often found that as I was willing to listen, to tune my thought and ears, to God and His goodness, that hearing problems were quickly resolved. Like the little lamb that should listen to its shepherd, I find myself repeating our Leader's words, “I will listen for Thy voice.”

 

But we must remember that all faculties are not to be found in matter, but in Soul, God (S-26). Citation S-30 from Science and Health shows our need to choose; we choose to reject what the material senses might report of injury, or disorder and embrace the facts of Science. Moses, the man who beheld God in all His glory, lived to 120 years and still maintained all his faculties and powers.  [And since Moses body was never found on Mount Nebo – a favorite perch that's well worth visiting at CedarS Bible Lands Park – he likely ascended over all sense of animalism into “the glory of the Lord that endures forever” (GT) – maybe singing “the song of Moses” – from a glorious vantage point that is ours to share.]

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[P.S. on the John 9 (B-16) healing of blindness in Section 4: 
In a talk Cobbey Crisler called John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple he states:
“John 9:1, “Jesus passes by, he sees a man who was blind from his birth, ‘a helpless mortal who has arrived through no fault of his own, or so it seems.  He was blind from his birth, and Jesus had just declared in John 8:58, 'Before Abraham was I am.' Does that theory apply to this man? So, he is being tested on the very point he just cited.

 

“John 9:2, “Who did sin? (A) This fellow over here? or (B) his parents?”

 

“John 9:3,  Jesus had that paper before him as in the examination room on that point many times before. “He says, (C) none of the above.” – (Warren has also added (D) as in DNA Does Not Apply.) – “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents.” What's that saying about origin? Where is that man? . . . His roots are not in his parents or in some reincarnated existence.

 

“The works of God should be made manifest in him.” That's where we're going to find the real roots of this man, the real native origin. Otherwise, he's stuck with that immutable logic, which he himself introduced in John 3:6, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” Is there any way out? “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” There's the way out.

 

“Notice what he does in John 9:6 and what it may remind you of. “He spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle.” That reminds you of man being made of dust in the Second Chapter of Genesis Verse 6 and 7, doesn't it? Would Jesus ever mock God if he considered that was the real way that creation occurred? Yet, it almost looks like a mockery of that.  He's taking that concept of the man of dust. He's spitting on that ground, into the dust, making clay of it, and slapping it on the eyes of the blind man.

 

“John 9:7, “The man goes to the pool of Siloam. He can't see his way there. He's got mud all over his face. He doesn't go seeing. He comes seeing.” He comes only after he has washed off that symbolic making or formation of man out of the dust.

 

“In a way, it might even give us a greater hint on what the true meaning of baptism is, the immersion in Spirit, nativity, and washing off every trace of the dust man.”]

 

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[CedarS weekly Metaphysical Newsletters are provided at no charge to the 1,200 campers and staff who were blessed this summer at CEDARS–as well as to thousands of CEDARS alumni, families, Sunday School teachers and friends who request it, or who find it weekly on our website or through CS Directory. But, current and planned gifts are much-needed: to cover the costs of running this “free” service; to provide camperships to make inspirational opportunities possible for our deserving youth; and to complete Stages 1 & 2 of Bible Lands Park (BLP).   (Click on —http://blog.cedarscamps.org/— for other pictures and write-ups on CedarS Bible Lands Park.) For those of you wanting to see CedarS new Bible Lands Park first-hand or to dig for genuine biblical artifacts planted in our cave, there are still some few places left in the Midwest Bible Conference being put on at CedarS by Bible Studies Seminars from Sept. 16-19, 2010!)

Special Announcements:
1) Registration has now opened for Cedars 50th anniversary jubilee over the August 19-22, 2011 weekend, and all Cedars alumni and supporters are warmly invited! To learn how you can participate in this special celebration, please visit www.cedarscamps.org/50th
2) You can now click on the pdf symbol (at the right) to download a pdf version of CedarS Lesson mets for easier printing and for better reading from mobile devices.
3) You now can and we hope you will use your Visa and Mastercard as well as Discovery Card and American Express and virtual checks directly (without going through PayPal) to make monthly and one-time donations and to submit tuition payments for programs.
Your support is always tax-deductible and welcomed–but during the economic downturn, your help has been and continues to be especially needed and appreciated! To support CedarS work you can make a charitable donation to our 501C-3 tax-exempt, charitable organization in many wonderful ways.
Thank you for considering writing a monthly check payable to CedarS Camps and mailing it to:    CedarS Camps, 19772 Sugar Drive, Lebanon, MO 65536;

or for calling Warren or Gay Huff at (636) 394-6162 to discuss gifts of securities or property you are considering giving to benefit CedarS.

 

[Camp Director's Note: This sharing is the latest in an ongoing, 10-year series of CedarS Bible Lesson “Mets” (Metaphysical application ideas) contributed weekly by a rotation of CedarS Resident Practitioners and occasionally by other metaphysicians. (To keep the flow of the practitioner's ideas intact and to allow for more selective printing “Possible Sunday School Topics” come in a subsequent email.) These weekly offerings are intended to encourage further study and application of ideas in the lesson and to invigorate Sunday School participation by students and by the budding teachers on our staff.Originally sent JUST to my Sunday School students and 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, application 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. The thoughts presented are the inspiration of the moment and are offered to give a bit more dimension and background as well as new angles (and angels) on the daily applicability of some of the ideas and passages being studied. The weekly Bible Lessons are copyrighted by the Christian Science Publishing Society and are printed in the Christian Science Quarterly as available at Christian Science Reading Rooms or online at eBibleLesson.com or myBibleLesson.com. The citations referenced (i.e.B-1 and S-28) from this week's Bible Lesson in the “Met” (Metaphysical application ideas) are taken from the Bible (B-1 thru B-24) and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (S-1 thru S-30). 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. 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 the 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, Executive Director   director@cedarscamps.org]