Are you ready for a week of discovering deeper, clearer views of what is real? Especially if those views include things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, virtuous, harmonious, healthy and of good report? (B-3) We gain these views of reality as we see through the eyes of the Christ–cherishing all human conditions and environments as glimpses of divine reality. And that is exactly what the Christian Science Bible Lesson for this week offers you.

As we dig into our Bible Lesson this week, let’s start with a full sense that God’s infinite, all-encompassing favor and love is poured forth on all of us impartially and universally. And the evidence of our Fathers love is the priceless gift of His only begotten son, Christ Jesus.
So clearly Christ Jesus was loved of the Father beyond measure, but what we learn in this week’s Lesson is that Jesus’ life was lived so that we too would know that grace of Gods infinite Love. Yes, Jesus may have been God’s favorite, but through this Lesson we will learn that you are too.

This weeks Bible Lesson repeatedly reminds us to remember the everlasting works of God. We are told that these works endure forever, that they are wondrous and glorious, and that these works are Truth. (See this weeks Responsive Reading.) There is another aspect of Gods works that we also will discover in this weeks Lesson. These works are not something of a historical nature, something to remember from the past, but our actual participation in Gods works being revealed here and now. And playing an important role in this present unfoldment is a good teacher. For example, Jesus not only encouraged a remembrance of Gods historical works, he also encouraged a life that continuing in the word and continuing to know the truth. (See Section 4, B-11)

Lets let the light of the universal Comforter shine on you and me, speak and act on our behalf, heal us, and be reflected [in a loving, peaceful presence] in all that we do. [Then we will be giving and re-giftingthe greatest gift in the world –the spiritual present of Christ ‘s presence!]

I have to say over many years this has become one of my absolute favorite Bible Lessons. It is always guaranteed to give you great ideas about defeating evil, and seeing Good triumph. And it always offered a great wakeup call against the hypnotism of mortal thinking that tries to lullaby us to sleep every day.

This Lesson always gives a powerful answer to the age-old false belief of necromancy. Simply put necromancy is a belief in a form of magic that calls on the spirits of the dead to receive information. And it has evolved in use to be thought of as encompassing many forms of so-called black magic.

Mary Baker Eddy sure chose some humdingers for Bible Lesson subjects, didnt she? But she did so with good reason. As a young girl she had been required to repeat the Westminster Catechism every Sunday. This form of systematic instruction included memorized statements of Calvinistic doctrine and had been written and formulated in the 1600s. The Westminster Catechism, in its long and short versions, is a central catechism of Calvinists in the English tradition throughout the world and included statements of church doctrines, one of those being the doctrine of predestination and everlasting punishment. After her discovery of Christian Science Mrs. Eddy knew there were questions about the nature of God that had to be answered if one hoped to have a demonstrable understanding of the Science of Christ, and an understanding of God.

In her autobiography, Retrospection and Introspection, pages 1315, she relates her early experience with this doctrine:

THEOLOGICAL REMINISCENCE
At the age of twelve I was admitted to the Congregational (Trinitarian) Church, my parents having been members of that body for a half-century. In connection with this event, some circumstances are noteworthy. Before this step was taken, the doctrine of unconditional election, or predestination, greatly troubled me; for I was unwilling to be saved, if my brothers and sisters were to be numbered among those who were doomed to perpetual banishment from God So perturbed was I by the thoughts aroused by this erroneous doctrine, that the family doctor was summoned, and pronounced me stricken with fever. My father’s relentless theology emphasized belief in a final judgment-day, in the danger of endless punishment. and in a Jehovah merciless towards unbelievers; and of these things he now spoke, hoping to win me from dreaded heresy. My mother, as she bathed my burning temples, bade me lean on God’s love, which would give me rest, if I went to Him in prayer, as I was wont to do, seeking His guidance. I prayed; and a soft glow of ineffable joy came over me. The fever was gone, and I rose and dressed myself, in a normal condition of health. Mother saw this, and was glad. The physician marveled; and the “horrible decree” of predestination – as John Calvin rightly called his own tenet forever lost its power over me. (The whole account is worth reading!) Retrospection and Introspection, by Mary Baker Eddy, Pages 13 15.
Just think, as a girl of 12, Mary was ready to take a stand against what she ultimately called this erroneous doctrine of perpetual banishment from God. But she is not alone in standing against the belief of everlasting punishment, and the erroneous doctrine of an eternal hell awaiting some.
In 1855 Boston Biblical scholar, Thomas B. Thayer, explained at length the fact that references to Gehenna (the word translated as hell) in the New Testament are not a hell. This is his conclusion:
Now no one believes in such a hell as this. A material hell of fire, and torments by flame, have been long ago abandoned. And the Savior cannot be understood as believing or teaching future torments, . . . (See, The Origin and History of the Doctrine of Endless Punishment by Thomas B. Thayer, 1855) Excerpts from this work can be found at the following link: http://30ce.com/developmentofhell.htm
This weeks Bible Lesson clearly explains the simple concept of turning from sin or evil thinking and returning to God. It is a clear answer to the question; does an all-loving, merciful God punish some of His children eternally?

What a complete (seven sections) and insight-full Bible Lesson we have this week. We can learn from the pros (prophets) how to see what God sees and what God would have us see. Or as my friend, David Pickersgill, from Leeds, England put it, “Rick, this lesson for me is like a workbook on how to be a spiritual seer, a prophet.” (S16) (Science and Health page 593 :”PROPHET. A spiritual seer; disappearance of material sense before the conscious facts of spiritual Truth”.) David and I had a great conversation about the lesson and I asked him if I could share some of his insights. He agreed. So if you see a notation attributed to David, you will know who I am talking about.

First let’s think a little about how to see. Seeing is not just a passive function or faculty. It is certainly more than a function of a material organ. It is an active operation of thought. Acute and discerning sight can be cultivated and trained. And through the unfoldments of the Comforter “seeing” can be identified as a faculty of Mind, God, which is reflected by man. Just like the Prophets of old you and I can become trained spiritual seers. [One of my wonderful Sunday School teachers, Miss Mary Kessler, shared with us this brilliant one-liner on the subjective nature of true seeing: Gratitude outlaws blindness to present good. Why not let gratitude outlaw your blindness to present good and give you a sight for sore eyes today!]

As I thought about the active faculty of seeing I thought of a couple examples from my life. First, I was reminded of two of my hometown heroes. One of these men, Newt Perry, trained me as a lifeguard, was my boss, and great friend. Newt instilled the understanding in his lifeguards, that eye contact was essential to good lifeguarding. You remained alert, and attentive to preventing accidents, and you kept your eyes open. One day as I was on duty a little guy jumped off the diving board and as soon as he hit the water I looked him right in the eye and saw that he wanted some help. I simply jumped down, offered him a hand and he paddled to the side. No tears, no trauma, no big deal. And after a little talk about no reason to fear the deep water, and no reason to fear the jump, he was making that spring and swimming to the side without a problem. Seeing that cry for help in his eyes, responding quickly, and simply encouraging him, turned him into a competent deep-end jumper.

So as we jump into this week’s lesson we will be looking to our pros (Prophets) to help us become better seers of things around us, observant, attentive, intuitive. And like the Prophets we can aspire to not just acute material seeing, but to the exercise of a spiritual faculty that goes beyond the limits of acute mortal sight. Lets exercise the qualities of thought that allow us to see as God sees.

My mom once shared with me an experience she had with this deeper, spiritual seeing. At some point in her practice she received an inquiring letter from the Christian Science Board of Directors. It seemed that someone had written an accusing letter that said she had violated the standard of keeping confidential the communications from patients. And this involved a fellow practitioner. Well, that was pretty absurd, my mom was a pro when it came to keeping her mouth shut about things that did not need to be shared. So she immediately began to pray. There appeared to be the need for a modern day expression of the qualities of being a prophet, seeing beyond the physical senses. My mom knew that she had only shared the information referred to on one occasion that was completely appropriate and supportive of everyone involved. And my mom knew that the individual she had spoken with would never divulge the confidence. Her motives had only been healing and support. As she prayed, mom told me she had a clear mental picture of the moment when she spoke of the concerns. And suddenly in her recollection she saw that there had been a supporting column near where she stood as she spoke of the incident. And then mom clearly saw,(mentally), someone standing behind the column, eavesdropping, (listening in) to the private conversation. And mom saw exactly who it was. Mom had “seen” where the leak came from. She replied to the letter and soon received a supportive and appreciative letter from the Board of Directors for her years of service as a practitioner. This exercise of prophetic seeing, going beyond the acuteness of physical seeing, had harmonized a human situation. And it also helped preserve a deep friendship that continued for years afterward.

We might think of our time with this Lesson as is expressed in Hymn 58, and Hymn 438 from our new Supplement. The words are from a poem by Elizabeth C. Adams, “Seeing only Thy creation, We can share Thy happiness.” Like a prophet of old we are being invited to see what God has done and share our vision.

Oh, one last thing before we “jump” into the lesson with our eyes wide open. I asked David what about the “seven sections” this week. Maybe you even wondered or pondered the same thing. Or is it possible you may have actually murmured, ruminated a little bit, “We have always had six sections in the past, why do we need seven now?”

Well, David and I both remembered that “seven” is often representative in the Bible as “completeness, spiritual perfection.” The Hebrew word for seven is “Sheva.” Ancient Hebrew scholars were particularly attentive to seven names for Deity: Eloah, Elohim, Adonai, Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh, YHWH, El Shaddai, and Tzevant. So for a Bible Lesson that begins with God seeing His creation as all good, that it was done, completed, and that also ends with the unfoldment of this completed glory to you and me, it seemed completely appropriate and correct to have seven sections. I am sure there are other considerations involved, but for me this was a case of the actual composition of our Bible Lesson expressing an essential element to its message. And did you know that according to the Readers Encyclopedia, in Medieval Judaism, God was often referred to as “The Seven.” So let’s have some fun with our seven sections!!

Until this weeks Bible Lesson I cannot honestly say that I have ever thought very deeply about Gods 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 weeks 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.” {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, Gods 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 Scotts 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 Gods 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, Gods glory would shine through and we could continue our adventure together.

As you dig into this weeks lesson you might begin by thinking a little about clouds and Gods 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 weeks 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.

ye shall know the Truth and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32 A good preparation to be a follower of Christ Jesus and a healer is learning to identify yourself with Truth and let go of the lie, error. But please dont give up on yourself if it takes a little while to learn that. I was telling a friend recently that there was a time when I was eight or nine that I had lied so much that no one would believe me when I told the truth. Just like Aesops fable about the bored shepherd boy who called wolf, when there was no wolf. When a wolf really came, no one listened to his cries for help and his sheep were eaten by the wolf. I had lied so often that when I told the truth, no one listened. Can you imagine how frustrating that was? But dont worry God did not give up on me and He wont give up on you either.

Isn’t it cool to remember that the same thing that kept the works of Christ Jesus in Gods hand also keeps you and all that you do in Gods hand. Being kept means being taken care of, protected, cherished, preserved. And you will find that throughout the Bible the hand of God, has great significance. The right hand of a ruler was always viewed as a place of great authority, so when we read about the right hand of God, we know it references all the power of God. The hand of God is often in reference to the actions of God, and this hand of God is related to the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, or divine Science. So to know that our lives and our actions are held tight in the divine Science of Being. As Mrs. Eddy says in Miscellaneous Writings: Christian Science refutes everything that is not a postulate of the divine Principle, God. It is the soul of divine philosophy, and there is no other philosophy. It is not a search after wisdom, it is wisdom: it is God’s right hand grasping the universe, – all time, space, immortality, thought, extension, cause, and effect; constituting and governing all identity, individuality, law, and power. (364:10)