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[Find Soul’s beauty, see it, and express it this week!]
Metaphysical Application Ideas for the Christian Science Bible Lesson on

“SOUL”
for Sunday, August 17, 2014

by Kerry Jenkins, CS, House Springs, MO (314) 406-0041

[Bracketed italics added by CedarS Director, Warren, who needs help to underwrite operations & maintenance & fund Bible Lands Park development & off-season outreach to neighbors of all faiths.]

Letting “…the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us” instantly becomes an action as we move from the Golden Text to the Responsive Reading (RR) in this week's Bible lesson.  This beauty is not a bestowing of some kind of “godly” physique, but a God-like beauty [and innocence in a God’s eyes as per citation B-17 & P.S.6] that is akin to the goodness that is spoken of in Genesis 1:31 when it says: “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”  We are to “Bless the Lord … forget not His benefits … Declare His glory … His wonders among all people … Give unto the Lord glory and strength … worship the Lord.”  It's a fascinating thing to look at beauty as an action and not as an adjective isn't it?  Suddenly beauty is not something we either have or don't have, it's something we express and reflect.  So what does this beauty “look” like?  Where can we find it?  We are, or should be, on a mission to find this beauty, see it, and express it this week.  [See W’s P.S. 1 for ways to express the beauty of living to give in a new song that summarizes some of the themes of this week’s lesson.]  There are clues throughout the lesson about where to look: in His house, “in His temple” (B1), in His tabernacle…  [See W’s P.S. 2 about how 176 CedarS Family Campers will “bring an offering… in his sanctuary… and come into his courts” (RR)]  Keep your eyes open for these “places”, and think about what it feels like to dwell there—that's your home [and your welcoming-home at CedarS]—a place of infinite love and eternal beauty!

Section 1: Man's identity is Soul expressed.
Soul is often linked closely with identity.  Notice citation B3 where it speaks poetically of how He/God, knows each star in His creation, even their names/identities.  If He knows the names of stars, He surely knows and identifies you as precious, lovely, perfect, reflecting Soul's being!  [See W’s P.S. 3 for a link to a Desiree Goyette song “Stars” that like us are “fearfully and wonderfully made”, plus tips to having a “marvelous” memory for names like divine Mind does.  (B3 & B4)]  In citation S3 we are reminded that “…divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal.”  And we have citation S4: “Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love.”  This is in answer to the question: “What are body and Soul?” (p. 477:19)  This beauty of Soul, and Soul's expression, man, is not nebulous even though it is not physical.  We must deepen our thoughts about beauty.  It has “form”, “outline”, even “color” [and fragrance!  See W’s P.S. 3 for more on being fashioned “after His own likeness” and about “Love, redolent with unselfishness” (B5, 516:9-13)]  So man, too, has all of these qualities.  Ask yourself what your form, outline, color [and redolence] are, if they have no basis in matter?  We are so used to thinking in terms of the physical senses and appearance, we may even kind of enjoy thinking this way, or we may hate it… either way it's hard to think otherwise.  But if we are to understand our true selfhood as Soul's expression, we will have to devote some serious energy to pondering what our “form”, “outline” and “color” is, without matter involved!

Section 2: Soul communicating beauty through Her expression.
When you are deep in conversation with someone, where do you look?  You look at their face, right?  Well in this section God communicates with Moses in the most intimate way, face to face.  This visit takes place on top of a mountain, symbolically above material, earthbound views.  And Soul communicates that most holy set of rules, the Ten Commandments.  As a ray of light can never be separate from its source, and shines with light from that source, so Moses' face shone with that light of inspiration that he received while communicating with Soul.  [See W’s P.S. 5 for how Moses’ afterglow (B8) is being reenacted at CedarS.]  Today we can think of that shining as the beauty of Soul so clearly expressed that our being causes others to recognize Soul as the source behind our radiance.  Like an amazingly inspired musical performance, we are filled with awe at the beauty of the music expressed, not by the performer's technical brilliance or personality.

Section 3: It's not what you say, but why you are saying it!
Ever felt like you just weren't very good at communicating your ideas?  Or maybe you feel like even your thinking isn't very articulate?  Well this section is for you!  You know, when Moses came down from the mountain with those two tables of stone, he didn't have to make up a thing (well, we all know he lost his temper the first time… but that point aside… )  God told him exactly what to write, even wrote it for him!  When we are communicating our love for God, we are blessed, and given every word that we need to reach the hearts of those with whom we are speaking.  This doesn't mean we have to be quoting the Bible or even using the word 'God', though we well may.  It means that our motive is to glorify and express the beauty of Soul, not self.  As we are motivated to do this, our identity shines with the radiance of Soul, and the message of Soul is transparent to those listening.  This kind of communication heals.

Section 4: Sin is like dirty clothes, it's not part of you!
You are Soul's expression.  That's established (S7).  [Guilt or] Sin [or “missing the mark”] is no more a part of you than the dirty clothes you put in the hamper at the end of a long and messy day.  [In the court (consciousness) of sense testimony and its martial law those on trial are assumed guilty until proven innocent rather than being presumed innocent until proven guilty as in the Western tradition.  In the court of Spirit/Soul,] sin, like dirt, is no part of your being.  Our task [of pleading our innocence] is to “…lay off a false sense of life, substance, and intelligence.” (S17)  This is not always an easy task, but it is easier if we start from the standpoint that we are not intrinsically [guilty or] evil, rather, the thoughts that keep us from feeling like expressions of Soul are not our thoughts.  They are suggestions of the devil, as in Zechariah's vision in citation B17.  [See Warren’s P.S. 6]  The [accuser or] devil is nothing more than the suggestion that we have our own separate mind from God.  We can recognize these suggestions as not from “us”, but from that 'devil' [or adversary] that Zechariah was envisioning [and describing as in a court of material sense testimony and its martial law].  We can govern our thoughts and “Look away from the body into Truth and Love…” (S18).  This act of looking away from matter as the source of pain, pleasure, identity itself, will bring us the very happiness and harmony [and verdict of innocence] that we crave.  In the previous section we learn that when our motive is to glorify God, we are given thoughts from God to express.  Let's shed those [guilty] thoughts that suggest we are separate from Soul, rather than expressions of Soul.  Then we find ourselves clothed in “priestly clothes”—in the pure and productive beauty [of being adjudged innocent in the Supreme Court of Soul and spiritual sense].

Section 5: Christ reveals man as Soul's expression.
What better way for Soul to be manifest than in a healing of blindness [—whether optical blindness or “just” blindness to present good (See W’s P.S. 7)].  We see Soul with spiritual sense.  Our identity is spiritually-based and relies on spiritual sense to express itself, and to receive the light of Soul.  Blind Bartimaeus was not going to let the Christ—that light of Truth—pass him by.  He persistently called out, even when those around him told him to be quiet.  And when Jesus called him forward, he “[cast] away his garment”.  Isn't this reminiscent of the last section where we were encouraged to drop that false sense of self that is enmeshed in a material view of existence, and be re-clothed with the robes of Soul, spiritual sense? Bartimaeus didn't hesitate to throw off that false sense of himself as lacking in discernment, sight, understanding.  He was ready to rise to the occasion and see what the Christ truth had to reveal to him!  What did he do with that received light?  He “…followed Jesus in the way.”  Like Bartimaeus, we too can cast away the dark view of ourselves as clothed in matter, dependent on matter to bring us light, understanding.  

Section 6: A life of eternal noon.
Remember those “places” mentioned back at the beginning of this met?  There are many citations where God or Soul is mentioned as “dwelling”, and man as coexisting with Soul in these places.  This final section circles back to that thought.  Here we have God as a strong habitation, a fortress, and even the final line of Psalm 23 where it says: “…I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” (B23)  [See W’s P.S. 7 for some take-home lessons from the 23rd Psalms and the 5 loaned lambs in CedarS Bible Lands Park.]  Man lives in Soul forever, eternally.  We are inseparable from Soul.  Soul doesn't dwell in mortal man, as popular Christian belief declares.  Our spiritual, true selfhood is not trapped in matter until we die.  Rather we, being expressions of Soul, eternally dwell together with Soul, just as our ideas dwell in our consciousness and are expressed in our actions.  Back to the sunshine analogy: the ray of light can never be separated from its source (and so die).  All of a sunbeam’s light and warmth come from the sun.  This ray is how the warmth and light reach out and bless those that it touches.  Just so, we, being expressions of Soul, radiate beauty, communicate powerfully, shed false material sense and heal today, and always.


[W’s P.S. 1: Check out “a new song” (RR, Ps. 96:1) that will be sung on CedarS Time Traveling Bus to take some of the application ideas from this week’s Bible lesson “Back to your Future”.  Lyrics can be downloaded by clicking the link in the upper right corner of CedarS online Met this week.  A video may be also posted at http://www.cedarscamps.org/videos/]

[W’s P.S. 2: On Tuesday morning after a Cowboy Breakfast, CedarS whole Family Camp of 176 brothers and sisters of all ages will go into Moses’ Tabernacle in the Wilderness in our Bible Lands Park to “bring an offering… in his sanctuary… and come into his courts” (RR).]

[W’s P.S. 3: You can hear a wonderful Desiree Goyette song “Stars” (written by her husband Ed) by clicking here and scrolling down to the “Let it Go” album and the song “Stars”.  It was inspired by first-rate night skies like at CedarS and by the verses in citations B3 and B4 about stars and about how we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”.  (B3 & B4)  CedarS staff works to demonstrate “marvelous” memories to know each camper’s name “by heart” like divine Mind does.  It’s an immense help in memorizing anything to know that “wherever there is loving attention memory is inevitable.” (Grace Wasson, CSB)]

[W’s P.S. 4:  As you enter CedarS Tabernacle in the Wilderness you must always start with God, not with yourself, by sacrificing the material things that you are thinking about most so as to think most about the best, about God… who alone is up to the job of bringing you a spiritual sense of gladness and fulfillment. (Hymn 263)  Next comes washing your hands from feeling sorry for yourself to see that your offering to live in the highest way, as “His own likeness”, can only bring blessings (S5, 516:9).  (Washing with D.I.A.L. (Divine Image And Likeness) soap always seems to get that point across.)  Only when you stop feeling sorry for yourself do you see the divine light (the 7-branch candlestick) and receive His provision (the showbread) that is always there for you.  Next we should feel overwhelmed with the incense (strong fragrance) of gratitude, with “Love, redolent with unselfishness”.  This love strongly reminds us of all the characters in the Bible and in our lives who unselfishly lived to give good to us and others. (S5, 516:12)  The final stage of the Tabernacle is the Holy of Holies with the Ark of the Covenant and its two tablets of commandments.  When obeyed by loving God with all your hearts and by loving your neighbors as yourself, you will be led into your Promised Land… to your “rock of salvation and  reason for existing.” (My. 165)]

[W’s P.S. 5: Tuesday visitors to CedarS Tabernacle in the Wilderness and to Time Travelers Trail will see the glowing face of a time-traveling Moses as he shares his radiant love for the two tablets of promises written with “the finger of God”. What a delight to live in a community and world where there is:
1
. No reliance or dependency on less than the best!
2. No body-worship or other obsessions!
3. No frustration or cursing!
4. No incompleteness!
5. No disrespect for family or authority!
6. No anger or name-calling!
7. No broken promises or relationships!
8. No stealing!
9. No lying!
10. No jealousy!

[W’s P.S. 6: Below is some Biblical background for a Bible Lands Park reenactment of the changing of raiment from the filthy garments of guilt to the white robes of innocence.  At one of several stations in a CedarS Bible Lands Park adventure during this Family Camp week Desiree Goyette will guide visitors in acting out citation B-17 from Zechariah 3 and will conclude with singing together Hymn 19, “Behold they stand in robes of white…”

Info below copied from  Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary:
“Zechariah 3:1-10. Fourth Vision. Joshua the high priest before the angel of Jehovah; accused by Satan, but justified by Jehovah through Messiah the coming Branch.

1. Joshua as high priest (Hag 1:1) represents "Jerusalem" (Zec 3:2), or the elect people, put on its trial, and "plucked" narrowly "out of the fire." His attitude, "standing before the Lord," is that of a high priest ministering before the altar erected previously to the building of the temple (Ezr 3:2, 3, 6; Ps 135:2). Yet, in this position, by reason of his own and his people's sins, he is represented as on his and their trial (Nu 35:12).

he showed me—"He" is the interpreting angel. Jerusalem's (Joshua's) "filthy garments" (Zec 3:3) are its sins which had hitherto brought down God's judgments. The "change of raiment" implies its restoration to God's favor. Satan suggested to the Jews that so consciously polluted a priesthood and people could offer no acceptable sacrifice to God, and therefore they might as well desist from the building of the temple. Zechariah encourages them by showing that their demerit does not disqualify them for the work, as they are accepted in the righteousness of another, their great High Priest, the Branch (Zec 3:8), a scion of their own royal line of David (Isa 11:1). The full accomplishment of Israel's justification and of Satan the accuser's being "rebuked" finally, is yet future (Re 12:10). Compare Re 11:8, wherein "Jerusalem," as here, is shown to be meant primarily, though including the whole Church in general (compare Job 1:9).

Satan—the Hebrew term meaning "adversary" in a law court: as devil is the Greek term, meaning accuser. Messiah, on the other hand, is "advocate" for His people in the court of heaven's justice (1Jo 2:1).

standing at his right hand—the usual position of a prosecutor or accuser in court, as the left hand was the position of the defendant (Ps 109:6). The "angel of the Lord" took the same position just before another high priest was about to beget the forerunner of Messiah (Lu 1:11), who supplants Satan from his place as accuser. .. Zechariah 3:1 Additional Commentaries ]

[W’s P.S. 7:  The most prevalent kind of blindness today seems to be a failure to see the good that is present all around.  “Gratitude outlaws blindness to present good!” was often voiced by Miss Mary Kessler in her Sunday School class when Warren Huff was a student. 
And, for you who are seeking to see through the lie of a seeming loss of visual acuity, like blind Bartimaeus, you too can refuse to let the Christ—that light of Truth—pass you by.  You can persistently seek the Christ, even when those around you tell you to give up or be quiet.  Like Bartimaeus, you too can cast away all dark views of yourself.]

[W’s P.S. 8: With citations B15 about lost sheep and B23 about the 23rd Psalm come some take-home lessons that it's fun to bring to life in Cedar Bible Lands Park.  Our five lambs on loan from a neighbor are in a pasture right under the take-off platform for “Ruth’s Run” zipline.  Zippers are encouraged to know that the sheep they see below are normally very fearful creatures who don’t even want to be near running water for fear that they will slip in and be swept away with their saturated wool.  However, with a command from their shepherd they will charge a wolf who usually chooses to run away instead of be trampled. We can be confident to follow our Shepherd’s voice no matter what.  As Mary Baker Eddy’s article on “Obedience” puts it:  “Be sure that God directs your way; then, hasten to follow under every circumstance.” (Misc. 117: 31)]  

 

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