“Yield control to the sovereignty of God” and shine with YOUR Beauty of Holiness!
Applicable Metaphysical Ideas for the Bible Lesson on “Soul and Body”
November 13-19, 2006
Prepared by Kathy Fitzer, C.S. of St. Louis, MO
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 (as well as friends) see and demonstrate the great
value of daily study of the Christian Science Bible lessons year-round,
not just at camp.
God delights in prospering you! A perfect relationship exists between God (Soul) and His reflected expression. The body is neither self-acting nor material. It is tributary (subject) to God, and so – like all of creation – expresses the joy, beauty, purity, strength, health, and perpetual individuality of Soul. Praise God and find the beauty of holiness which includes all of these qualities.
Golden Text: Let’s accept this invitation to praise God; let’s answer the call to “yield control to the sovereignty of God.” (see New Interpreter’s Bible; Vol IV, p. 792-793)
Responsive Reading: The invitation to praise God is extended to all – right here on earth! In everything you do every day, give God the glory – the praise and recognition. The Hebrew word translated strength can also be translated as boldness. It’s kind of fun to think about boldly praising God – holding nothing back, but giving Him all the credit! God promises to make our lives flourish as we turn to Him will every ounce of our being! Does this mean that God holds back the blessings unless he gets the praise? Or, is it that as we praise (as we magnify) we are able to see what God is giving? I’d say the latter.
Section I: Spirit, Soul, made all! Aren’t we glad?!?!
We have so much to rejoice (be glad) about! “The Lord reigneth!” (B-1) That means that Spirit, Mind, Soul has sovereign power. The supposition of evil doesn’t get a vote. What Soul wants, Soul gets! And Soul wants only good, only order. Let’s be grateful for that good – always! It’s not hard to rejoice and be glad – grateful – when we realize that the Lord gives us joy! The Hebrew word translated here as “rejoice” (B-4) is a primary root, meaning to brighten up – to cheer up. So, we reflect God’s brightness. How could this expansive, immortal Spirit – light – create a limited mind or a limited body or exist in mortality? (S-1) Human thought has just gotten things mixed up. Viewing things through the mist of false belief, it looks like soul is both good and evil, and is an intelligence living in matter. (S-2) But, just as astronomical science explains that things aren’t always as they seem (no, the sun does NOT move around us), Christian Science explains the reality of God and man. (S-8, section II) How freeing to know that our identity is not stuck in physique, but is a compound idea – including all right ideas. Nothing is out there that we have to try to get! We are not separate from perfect Mind. We reflect everything that belongs to immortal Soul – and nothing else! (S-4) Check out nature and learn! Instead of seeing the misty view of a limited material creation, rejoice in the order, variety, beauty, individuality, and responsiveness evidenced in the natural world! (S-6)
Section II: The beauty of God’s creation is perfect and permanent!
How do we get beyond the undependable misty view to see the perfect, permanent beauty of God’s creation? First, we have to desire to see that beauty (sweet attractiveness and delightful loveliness – Amplified Bible) more than the superficial, transient material standard of beauty and pleasure that the world is holding out there! And that means wanting to dwell in the house of the Lord – the consciousness of Love! (B-6) God has made everything beautiful and good. (B-8) Check out Mrs. Eddy’s description of this beauty – eternal, exempt from age or decay, permanent radiance, reflecting charm in expression, form, outline, and color. Contrast that to the fading and fleeting sense of beauty that the world would put on us. Can a material sense of body ever be just right? The Christianly Scientific recipe for beauty has nothing to do with hair color, make-up, clothes, size, or six-pack abs. Let’s elevate thought above the illusion of matter-based beauty – undependable and changing – to the calm and freedom of spiritual harmony, independent of appearances and incapable of being taken away! (S-7) The divine nature is inherently beautiful, sublime (excellent), pure, and holy. So that it is our nature, too! Holiness doesn’t mean that something can’t be fun or attractive. Holiness just makes the good and beauty permanent! (S-9) Stop trying to make yourself beautiful. Desire to see yourself and everything as the reflection of God – already beautiful and complete. (S-10)
Section III: Go up higher! Purity of thought enables us to see the beauty!
What is the state of thought that enables us to see this beauty? Purity! (B-9) Notice all the references to going up higher. (B-11, S-11) In water, sediment settles to the bottom, and you swim to the top to get to the clear, pure water. That’s how it is with thought, too. The higher (the closer to God) our thought is, the purer our heart. The glossary defines heart, in part, as mortal feelings, motives and affections. (S&H 587) Keep these pure in order to achieve perfection. (S-12) It is tempting to judge progress according to an end product or destination. But, all you really have to measure is the purity of your thought! Bottom line …give up the false belief that there is life and intelligence in matter. (S-14) Believing that we live in matter is never freeing. Rather, it fetters us – it ties us down. Sailors used to be afraid to sail too far out to sea because they thought they might fall off the edge. That sounds crazy to us today because we KNOW the earth is round, and act according to what we know to be true. Similarly, we have to KNOW that we are the offspring of Spirit, and act according to “the beautiful, good, and pure” that make up our ancestry.” (S-15) Your thought must be kept pure in order to not fall into the trap of thinking that you have inherited certain physical or mental characteristics (good or bad) from human ancestors. The higher our thought – the more we focus on our inheritance from God and leave out anything else – the more beauty and perfection we will behold!
Section IV: Strength is of God – Claim it!
Consider how much effort people put into making themselves strong – the time and money spent working out, the amount of talk about strengthening this part or that part! And here we learn that God is our strength! (B-12) What if we spent as much time claiming and expressing the strength that is as we do trying to find or get strength. (B-13) And this certainly isn’t limited to physical strength, but emotional and moral strength, as well. When we find ourselves feeling alone, facing something that seems hard, we need to realize that the strength we need doesn’t come from sucking it up and putting on a good face. It comes from getting straight about your identity. Shake off the dust of Adam that would bind you to constant toil and struggle. (B-14) Your identity, your Soul, is Mind. (S-17) And Mind gives DOMINION; dominion over all challenges – physical, mental, emotional. If we were made of dust, we’d have reason for concern that without proper diet and exercise we would deteriorate back into dust and crumble away. Or that the bones, sinews, and muscles could be injured or diseased, and stop functioning. But dust and physiology have nothing to do with man!!! Man is entirely spiritual – the expression of Soul! (S-18&19) In order to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we must acknowledge no other strength than the strength of Spirit. (B-16) Whether it is moral strength – deciding to live a life that is constantly constructive, rather than destructive – or emotional strength, or physical strength that is required, claim that you already have what you need. Refuse to start from the basis of weakness when you need strength! Express that strength – exercise physical and mental strength – but do so knowing that you already have all you need. (S-20)
Section V: Health – the beauty of holiness!
What does the Bible teach us about health? First, we find it as we turn to God and resist evil. (B-17) Second, we must be strong and not be afraid, because God will save us. As we turn to God, we give up false beliefs and find ourselves redeemed, walking on a road that leads us out of sickness and limitation to health, harmony, and joy. (B-18) The leper that Jesus healed recognized the purifying qualities of Christ, yet approached Jesus with great humility, knowing that Jewish law prohibited him from coming any closer than 6 feet. Jesus, recognizing the individual’s innate purity and acknowledging the higher law of God, reached out to touch the leper without fear. The man was healed by that touch, but Jesus still sent him to the priest to be blessed. Jesus may have wanted to illustrate that he had no intention of destroying the law of Moses, but was here to fulfill it – to elevate it from a material basis to a spiritual. Also, Jesus was showing a sense of human kindness. The man required this blessing in order to re-enter society. (B-20) Notice the marginal note of “fear and sickness identical.” (S-22) Think about how much fear was associated with leprosy. Do we react similarly with the mention of the word cancer or some other disease? Jesus didn’t react that way! He wasn’t phased, and we shouldn’t be phased either! Jesus understood the origin of man to be spiritual. Every problem stems from the belief that “man originates in matter and has beginning and end, that he is both soul and body, both good and evil, both spiritual and material.” (S-23) This is what general belief teaches – just as general belief taught the leper that there was no cure for him. But, just as the leper turned to Christ (Truth) as the higher authority, we can too. Today Science (Truth) moves thought to Soul and away from the report of the body, and leads mortal mind to think about something better than disease or sin. (S-24) As we turn to Science (a correct knowledge of God and man) as earnestly as the leper turned to Jesus, the picture of disease will be displaced and the perfect man revealed. (S-25) The beauty of holiness appears, because health has always been man’s natural state. Accept it!
Section VI: Perpetual individuality! Immortal Soul = immortal man!
Soul doesn’t know time. Soul just is! Soul doesn’t know old or young, or even about waiting. Soul is “perpetual in His own individuality, harmony, and immortality” (S-29) There’s no waiting for good. If one day is the same as a thousand years to Soul, time isn’t a factor. Harmony and healing just are – now! (B-24) Time and delay are mortal phenomenon. Soul perpetually expresses man in the beauty of holiness – no decline, no end, no waiting. How do we realize this good? By remembering God’s law – God’s law of immortal (imperishable) good. (B-23) The important thing is to understand that all cause is mental – not physical. Christian Science reverses sense testimony and explains that: (1) Soul governs the body, (2) God and man are scientifically linked, (3) the seeming ambiguity of life appearing to be both matter and Spirit, good and evil, is bogus; and (4) thought is free to see that the universe, including man, is indeed spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. (S-26) So, let’s stop measuring and limiting good. Instead, demonstrate eternal life. (S-27) Eternal “is characterized by abiding fellowship with God.” (Webster) That’s what it’s all about. Understand your eternal relationship with God. We have to recognize that identity (Soul) doesn’t exist in a material body. Soul is the source of man’s individuality, harmony, and immortality, but that harmony is in Mind, not matter. (S-29) Confusion comes when we think that mind is in matter. Mind can’t be confined. (S-28) As Science reverses this false belief, body is seen to be the idea of Mind and is free to express Mind’s beauty of holiness – health, strength, immortality!
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 citations referenced (i.e. B1and S28) from this week’s Bible Lesson in the “met” (metaphysical application ideas) are taken from the King James Version of the Bible (B1-24) and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. (S1-30) 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 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
CedarS Camps Office (where you can now mail support or requests till the office moves back to camp in May)
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