Live your Christ-identity today!

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Live your Christ-identity today!
Metaphysical Application Ideas for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on

“SOUL AND BODY”
November 18–24, 2024

by John and Lindsey Biggs, C.S of Maryland Heights, MO
541 418 1176 JohnBiggsCS@gmail.com
541 460 3515 biggs.lindsey@gmail.com

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Introduction

This week’s Lesson is all about discovering our true identity. Our identity is “born” of Spirit – beautiful, complete, healthy, pure and free. God gives us the inspiration we need to demonstrate this and defend ourselves daily. As we identify ourselves in Soul, we lose a false sense of identity, and gain our spiritual identity. We see ourselves as God sees us and we are less tempted to believe the lies of the carnal mind. We cherish ourselves as the sons and daughters of God – complete with an eternal identity at one with God. Identifying ourselves spiritually is essential to salvation, finding our true purpose, and feeling a sense of worth and value that comes from God.

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GOLDEN TEXT

There is so much healing throughout this whole Lesson! With that in mind, I loved considering the welcoming invitation of this Golden Text from Mark 4:11: we get to see and study about the action of the kingdom of heaven, and we love to recognize that the “mystery” of healing has been illuminated by the presence of Christ! Our souls – our individualized spiritual senses – do not dwell within a limited body but instead turn us to God, to see what’s really happening. In the discipline taught by Jesus – the discipline of looking to God rather than to any other supposed influence – we’ll see more and more clearly what God is really doing here.

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RESPONSIVE READING

“Seek ye first…” (Matt. 6:33) These are some of my favorite passages. They remind me to seek God’s kingdom first before I seek anything that I want or need. They invite us to “pause, wait on God,” before pushing onward and upward. (S&H, 323:9) And they revise how we view ourselves and our relationship to God.

“Beholding the infinite tasks of truth, we pause, — wait on God.”
(Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 323:9–10)

The passages corresponding to “take no thought” remind us that we don’t “live by bread alone, “but by every word the proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matt. 4:4)

When we seek the “things” then we miss the true substance of being! Each of us, our homes, etc. are made up of spiritual qualities. So, when I “translate” my home into spiritual qualities – such as joy, peace, harmony, collaboration, upliftment, then I see that my actual home is the spiritual qualities that are expressed, discerned, and felt in my home. Whereas, if I focus on “things” then I get stuck thinking about material boxes, bookshelves, limitations or lack. But when I focus on spiritual qualities, then I feel that my home is the embodiment of spiritual qualities and then it, and I, feels satisfied. I think this is what Jesus talked about when he said to “keep our treasure in heaven”! Then our treasure is in the feeling of God’s presence and care, the feeling of our closeness to God, and then we care less about the external expression of that, but feel more satisfied with the Kingdom of Heaven within.

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SECTION 1 – UPLIFTING OUR SENSE OF THINGS

It’s helpful to remember that, in passages like these from Bible citation 1 (Psalm 25:1,5,20), the reference to the word ‘soul’ can be spiritually translated to mean ‘spiritual sense.’
Mary Baker Eddy illustrates this in her writings. Here’s one brief example: “[LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]:” (Science and Health, 578:8)

And then I really appreciate this explanation as well:
“Because Soul is a term for Deity, and this term should seldom be employed except where the word God can be used and make complete sense. The word Soul may sometimes be used metaphorically; but if this term is warped to signify human quality, a substitution of sense for soul clears the meaning, and assists one to understand Christian Science. Mary’s exclamation, “My soul doth magnify the Lord,” is rendered in Science, “My spiritual sense doth magnify the Lord;” for the name of Deity used in that place does not bring out the meaning of the passage.” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 75:15–25)

So, when these passages, here and throughout the Bible Lesson, talk about our souls and lifting up our souls to God, we can translate that as allowing our sense of things to be uplifted. Giving our sense of things to God, instead of insisting that whatever we see or feel via a material sense of things, is reality. God, being All-in-all, simply has no caveats or room for something else. And we can love to turn our entire sense of things over to God! Let’s love to see what He shows us, to see how He illuminates His great love for us all.

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SECTION 2 – GOD’S PURPOSE IN OUR HEARTS AND MINDS

 “Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.” (Jer. 32:41)

I love this passage as it speaks to the great intentionality that God has. What God does, God does with purpose. “With my whole heart and my whole soul.” God is committed to what He does, which means that God’s unfoldment of purpose cannot lack any element of good. It must include fulfillment, satisfaction, joy, prosperity, new views of God’s goodness and love, new heights of spiritual understanding.

For those looking for a new sense of purpose, you may find this article interesting: Who are you?

“And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good…” (Jer. 32:40)

An everlasting covenant. That certainly speaks to me of constancy and consistency. The following passages in Science and Health really speak to the constancy and goodness of God. A Concord search yields some interesting results for “consistency” (and other such derivatives).

Here is one example:

“Consistent prayer is the desire to do right.”

(Science and Health, p. 9:32)

God doesn’t promise to be good for a period of time. God sustains goodness. God sustains purity forever. God sustains perfection. God is a law of goodness and perfection. What if we truly knew that everything that we love and cherish – every single spiritual quality – was upheld and supported by a law of eternal perfection. How would we live differently? How would we overcome fear on a more regular basis? How would we feel our oneness with divine Love more consistently?

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 SECTION 3 — REPRESENTING GOD’S TRUTH

I was so interested to read the Easy-to-Read Version’s translation of Bible citation 7, from Matthew 9. Here’s what it says:

“Some people brought to him a man who was paralyzed and was lying on a mat. Jesus saw that these people had much faith. So he said to the paralyzed man, “Young man, you will be glad to hear this. Your sins are forgiven.” Some of the teachers of the law heard what Jesus said. They said to themselves, “What an insult to God for this man to say that!” Jesus knew what they were thinking. So he said, “Why are you thinking such evil thoughts? The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. But how can I prove this to you? Maybe you are thinking it was easy for me to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ There’s no proof that it really happened. But what if I say to the man, ‘Stand up and walk’? Then you will be able to see that I really have this power.” So Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Stand up. Take your mat and go home.” The man stood up and went home.” (Matthew 9:2-7 ERV)

I’ve often thought about that comment Jesus makes, about ‘which is easier – to say your sins are forgiven, or arise and walk?’ I liked how this translation brings out the importance of not just saying nice things but actually being sincere, and actually demonstrating the truth of the lovely things we say. How did Jesus know the man’s sins were forgiven? Well, through prayer: Jesus always looked to our heavenly Father-Mother to see what was really happening, and that fullness of Love’s action which destroys sin, also destroys ANY sense of abnormality or disharmony. In other words, it was looking to God which allowed Jesus to declare with such tender authority that sin was forgiven; it was not just “Jesus being nice.” And that tender authority, demonstrated, included physical healing.

I’m taking a good lesson from this. I, and probably many of us reading this newsletter, know the truth decently well. But how often do I just say the truth, without really going to God to see what He is doing and saying, right here? How often do I let what I say be simply and ONLY the natural outpouring of divine Truth, versus thinking that I’ll just say true things based in what I personally know? A humbling and growth-inducing question indeed!

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SECTION 4 — THE SIMPLICITY OF THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

 Eternal life is the gift that God has given us now. It is our privilege to realize we are living that eternal life now. There is no time or separation from God. There is just one Life – God. God’s life is being lived in each of us.

The sweetness and simplicity of the First Commandment is seen in this passage (citation B9 / Luke 10:25–28). The A certain lawyer’s “trick question” about how to inherit eternal life didn’t fool Jesus. Following the First Commandment helps us see that we have that life now. That we don’t exist to please human circumstances, etc. We exist to please God. We exist to glorify God.

“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:” (Galatians 1:15, 16)

This passage hints to this fact of living our divine identity here and now. It reveals the Christ within each of us. And that we don’t live to please outside circumstances but we live to please the Christ within us. Christ is the Spirit of God that animates us. It’s what gives us joy, energy, spiritual thinking, etc.

“This Christ, or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine nature, the godliness which animated him.”  (Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 26:12–14)

We can realize that the Christ identity is the true child of God. It’s what is receptive to Truth and Love. It’s the language of Spirit written in our hearts and minds. It is what turns us towards Christ, Truth, to find out more of our spiritual identity. It is our eternal identity.

The Christ is “no respecter of persons”. Everyone, regardless of culture, region, etc., can hear and respond to the Christ. It is the godliness within each of us. It is the Light that lights each person on the globe – our innate goodness and true nature as the offspring of God, giving us receptivity to spirituality.

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SECTION 5 – TRULY DEPENDENT ON GOD

For me,  citation S18 (S&H 228:20), about being masters of our bodies rather than dependent on them really threw into a new light Jesus’ command from Bible citation 11 (Luke 12:22,23) about taking no thought about food and clothes. It’s a question of dependence. Jesus isn’t saying people shouldn’t eat or wear clothes! But what is it we depend on for understanding and expressing who we are? I’ve often taken Jesus’ comments about what we wear, to be a reminder to not fret about what other people think of us. To not worry about if we have the fanciest things, or the most things, or if other people can tell how great we are.

Who we truly are, shines out in our actions, our discipline, our innocent and natural love for God. What we wear can simply be useful, appropriate to the task at hand; certainly clothing can be a fun way to express individuality, but that can just go along so naturally with all the other ways we express ourselves — or, to say that more accurately, the ways we express God. And the same goes for food, too. We don’t need to stuff ourselves, and we also don’t need to fret about calorie counting or relying on food to maintain our health.

Food represents provision, fellowship, thoughtfulness, diversity; think of all the Bible stories that include Jesus having dinner with folks! And of course, the symbolism of family gatherings, or even larger church potlucks or community tables at restaurants: food, in its most pure sense, brings people together. That’s a provision of divine Love, isn’t it! Food, therefore, isn’t the center of our lives; it’s simply and gracefully adjacent to the expression of real, divine good, throughout our whole lives. And as Mary Baker Eddy says in that citation S18, keeping our dependency on God allows us to be masters of every aspect of our lives, as we express God’s government over His expression. We are God’s expression! So, it makes sense that we’d only look to Him, to see what’s really ours today.

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SECTION 6 – FINDING OURSELVES, AND OTHERS, IN GOD

 I like how Jesus didn’t fret about getting in a long-winded argument with the lawyers and Pharisees, in Bible citation 14 (Luke 14:1-4). He didn’t worry about trying to convince either the man in need of help, or the bystanders, about the power of God to heal. “Outside the chalk,” in the following passages in the Bible, Jesus does share more about this ever-present right to healing, but I just love his consistent example that healing itself does not depend on one person talking another person into it. Mary Baker Eddy illustrates this in Miscellaneous Writings:
“That individual is the best healer who asserts himself the least, and thus becomes a transparency for the divine Mind, who is the only physician; the divine Mind is the scientific healer.” (Misc. 59:26)

Jesus modeled this perfectly, showing us all that everyone’s true individuality — as healthy, whole, purposeful, good — is entirely expressive of God. To be expressive of God is synonymous with being dependent on God! After all, there is no expression without a cause, and God is the only Cause and Creator. And when we’re not experiencing the fruits of this eternal fact, we can remain with our hope in God, persisting in praising Him (cit. B12, Psalm 42:11, points out), because in Him is where we find all the truth. Everything true about ourselves, our prospects, our status, is found in the light and love of God.

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 SECTION 7 – GIVING THE GIFT OF SINLESS JOY

The joy of Soul. Sinless joy – the joy of being and doing good. Everyone wants to be joyful! Joy is a pure quality of light that brings healing and harmony to the Earth. Joy is attractive. Have you ever been around someone that exudes confident joy – an assurance that all is well. It’s a gift! It reminds us who we really are. Joy is a healing quality.

“Happiness consists in being and in doing good; only what God gives, and what we give ourselves and others through His tenure, confers happiness: conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can.”

(Message to The Mother Church for 1902, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 17:22–25)

Knowing that we are worthy and loved confers a deep happiness. This type of satisfaction comes from knowing we are as the daughters and sons of God – our inherent, permanent relationship to God.

As we approach this giving season, it’s fun to think about these two things from that Message to The Mother Church for 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy:

That happiness consists “in being and in doing good” (an unselfed joy, if you will). And that our true worth, value, and satisfaction, comes from our permanent relationship to God, good – a relationship that God is imparting to us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually by causing us to  hear God’s special messages that come to each one of us.

Have a blessed week!

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EARLY THANKSGIVING Met BONUS
“A HOW-TO GUIDE FOR GIVING THANKS!!”

To HEAR Avery Sander, CS read her inspiring, timely Met , click on its title above for the online version and then on the play arrow on the Listen bar.

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FYI: WE HOPE SOON TO “LOVE INTO VIEW” FUNDING  for materials and labor to replace the failing, 24-year-old incandescent light fixtures & dimmers in Mary’s Chapel with LED uplighting to give reflective, inspiring illumination from a (hoped-for) new white ceiling above its two, big fans. Estimated funds still needed for all this = $9,887.

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We are deeply grateful for EVERY GIFT of love and
pledge of much needed support,
The CedarS Team

P.S.  TO MAKE A PLANNED GIFT, a mandatory IRA distribution or an ENDOWMENT gift that will all be MATCHED (thanks to renewed pledges!), feel free anytime to call or text me (Warren Huff, Executive Director Emeritus, Project Manager & Development Team)
at 314-378-2574.
I can put you in touch with our Financial Advisor/broker who donates all fees for stock transfers and for sharing tailored, tax-advantaged giving methods and ideas.