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[Cherish Soul’s fulfillment in promises of timely & sufficient supply!]
Metaphysical Application Ideas for the Christian Science Bible Lesson on

“Soul”
for February 16, 2014

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

[Bracketed italics by CedarS Director Warren Huff.  Life-transforming camperships needed!]

This lesson highlights the promises that God has made to Her children.  These precious promises or covenants are always visible through spiritual sense.  When they seem obscured or delayed, you can be sure that material sense is involved!  The very first promise in this lesson is found in the Golden Text, an extract from a “conversation” that God had with Abraham, where He promised that Abraham would be a father of nations.  Throughout the lesson you can find examples of the prosperity, joy, health and life that God promises us as Her children.  And you can also find out how we can “take delivery” of these promises, bring them into view in our day-to-day lives!

Responsive Reading: if…then… [If you walk in the spiritual sense of Soul’s statutes, then…]
It sounds formulaic, but these passages from Isaiah and Leviticus are promises of the profound spiritual riches that we inherit as we bring our consciousness into obedience to God's laws. Human ups and downs happen, we seem to experience times of drought and times of abundance. But these are only indications of material sense based on material, so-called law.  God's law provides “threshing” that reaches to the vintage and vintage until sowing time.  In other words, there is no “slack” time where we are scrimping and scraping along the bottom until the next “pay check” or harvest season.  Since farming was a common occupation, these analogies were very clear to the listeners and readers of the day.

Section 1: Accept God's promise NOW of being the representative of Soul!
If we are tempted to wonder where those promises of abundance are today we need go no further than to ask: “How am I determining the state of my life?” “What criterion am I using to decide if I am doing well or doing poorly?” God made His promise, His covenant, with the Children of Israel (S3).  Have you tried defining yourself in the same way as this definition?  [S&H 583:5]  Can you claim ownership of your heritage as you read “I am” in front of “the”?  (I am “the representative of Soul, not corporeal sense; I am “the offspring of Spirit, who, having wrestled with error, sin and sense,” I am “governed by divine Science;…”).  Or do you think of this as something of a “work in progress”, somewhere down the line you will be this, or will see yourself in this way?  Isn't putting this off a bit like wandering around in the desert for 40 or so years until you finally accept that spiritual sense is right all along and you have the authority to walk right into the “promised land” of God's bestowing?  Why not accept it now?  God has made His covenant not with mortal man, but with the true Children of Israel!  You are one of them!

A passage I love in support of the above thought is citation S5 where Mrs. Eddy talks about how the spiritual idea guides all right desires from sense to Soul. It is our right desires that are guided out of a sense of existence in matter and into true or spiritual existence, where Soul governs.  These right desires spring naturally from being a child of Israel as defined in citation S3.  And that is a perspective from which we can prosper, whereas a material view of ourselves gives us no solid foundation from which to grow and succeed [—and in fact would keep us in the bondage of living to get.   To catch new views of yourself and “glorious glimpses of the Messiah” and how that changes everything, see Warren’s P.S. on citations S4-S6 and B3.]

Section 2: Break the material dream – let your light & prayer shine with spiritual sense.
Jesus gave us a prayer, the Lord's Prayer, that shows us how to help material sense yield to spiritual reality.  This prayer captures the power of God, and the power of spiritual sense to bring healing and freedom to our human experience.  I had a cool example of that a couple of weeks ago.  We had been going from one to the next in our family with the flu.  There are five of us at home, so this belief of contagion can get pretty heavy if not checked.  The trouble I was having was that we were to leave for a weeklong visit to a family member who is not particularly friendly to Christian Science just now and I was feeling burdened and stressed rather than peaceful about the upcoming travels.  It's not a big deal that we have to meet the claim of sickness; I usually have no trouble seeing these things as an opportunity to draw closer to God, even with discomfort as a part of the claim.  But in this case I was really feeling a bit panicky when the third member of the family started experiencing these symptoms and it was two days before we were to leave.  All those stupid “what ifs” kept intruding in my thought.  I really needed to get a grip.  So I called in “reinforcements”, a friend of mine who is also in the healing practice.  You know what he said?  “You are just going down there to let your light shine.”  Phew!  I can do that no matter what, I was instantly relieved and all anxiety was gone.  I was thrilled to see that call to action in this section this week!  My son woke up from a nap awhile after the call, declare that he felt much more “peaceful”, and that night he ate a normal dinner (and even a little extra dessert :-).  There were no lingering after effects.  We went on the trip with all five of us, two looooong days down in the truck, tight quarters in a hotel, and back in six days total.  We were all healthy and happy and we successfully let our light shine the whole time.  When our desire is “right”, when we pray with understanding, we take possession of the power that is contained in the Lord's Prayer.  Sure, it's not “wrong” to want to stay healthy, but that's a pretty human desire and can sometimes stem from more selfish motives.  But wanting to bless, to let our light shine on all around us, is a God-guided, spiritually-motivated desire that comes with peace and power!  This separates our thought from the realm of the material dream in which man naturally experiences sickness, etc. and focuses our consciousness on the spiritual reality where light is always shining and blessing all.

Section 3: Catch the spiritual sense of religion.
In citation B13 (Matthew 12:1, 2, 9-22) we have Jesus defending his disciples to the Pharisees whose material sense of religion blinded them to Soul and the love that Soul expresses to man.  The material sense of religion is always trying to squeeze out the Christ, the active Christianity that Jesus demonstrated.  I love that the Pharisees “held council against him, how they might destroy him.”  The next verse has Jesus being followed by the multitudes “…and he healed them all”.  Wow!  Jesus was demonstrating God's promise to heal and bless and prosper His children.  While the material sense of God and religion would say that the path that they were following didn't respect a materially-defined set of traditions and rules of an earlier era; and despite the obvious good, they needed to be kept in a materially-defined realm.  The “…false evidence of the corporeal senses…” are today's Pharisee (S12).  We can let Soul and our spiritual senses overwhelm these material claims and “heal them all”!

Section 4: Use Soul-sense to put love for God and man first!
As I mentioned under section 2, sometimes our spiritual sense of things can seem to take a back seat to the material picture.  In this section, once again a Pharisee tries to trip up Jesus and condemn him.  But Jesus answers his inquiry (B14) with such a clear sense of the essence of Soul.  With the clarity that spiritual sense brings, there is no argument that can confuse our thought or allow anxiety and fear to thrive.  Our focus is on the spiritual meaning of the Bible, the love that is behind the words and the works that are inspired by those words.  On our trip we were driving our 16-year-old, 425,000-mile pickup truck.  As we often do, we had combined this necessary trip for a family event, with a business transaction, picking up a truck to restore at my husband's auto restoration business. So we had done the usual pre-trip work on the truck and trailer and set off.  We made it all the way to our destination and within about 35 minutes of home (about 1500 miles total), before the engine finally breathed its last.  Material sense told us that this was especially bad timing.  We have had some significant unanticipated expenses this fall that were met beautifully by an increased income, but were trying to think through the added tax burden that would come with that.  We had just taken an entire work week to visit this family member and hear her performance.  (When you are self-employed, that means no paycheck)… and, well, all the usual arguments of material thought…  Now it looked as if a “new” vehicle would be needed as well, since a new engine in this truck would run similar to a used vehicle with far fewer miles on it!  Anyway… more cash…  But I was just heading home from the trip where my goal was to “let my light shine”.  The Pharisee of material sense would tempt us to accept that this would represent a “lean” time of year, a period where the stores from the harvest were all used up and we'd need to wait until after the spring planting to feel that things were prosperous again.  But this week's Golden Text makes clear that there are no lean times for the Children of Israel.  The light of Soul would give us the understanding that we are the beloved Children of God and spiritual sense supports the peace and certainty that this brings.  The first section speaks of the prosperity that is given to us as the Children of Israel.  Should we be grateful for that prosperity only when the evidence around us supports that truth?  Or, should we be grateful at all times?  The Soul senses are directing us to be grateful at all times.  So we are.  No new truck as of yet, but hopeful leads and a lot of peace and joy at the prospect.  That's saying a lot.  Putting God first and loving man at all times, these commands order our days and tell us how we should respond to the challenges of mortal thought.

Section 5: [Be transfigured by your immortal nature –as Soul’s Divine Image And Likeness.]
T
his section unites all the truth and power of the Old Testament with the Christ-love that Jesus embodied in the New Testament.  The Transfiguration of Jesus also reveals the immortality of Soul and Soul's expression by showing Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the Prophets) in the company of Jesus, transcending time.  This demonstrates for all time that the Law and Prophets are not without the love and tenderness of the Christ.  They are for all time and they are united.  Just as Jesus declared when he said that he was not come to destroy the law… immortal sense reveals man's immortal nature.  “Soul is never without its representative” (S21).  God's promise to us is eternal, not in mortality. [See Warren’s P.S. for present-day time-traveling.]

Section 6: [Embrace your “pathway”] from material sense to Soul! [Hymn 64:1]
Our home is heaven (S28) — it is peace and joy.  Spiritual sense always will reveal our perfect situation, our prosperity, our present joy and health, our peace.  This is the view that John was sharing in Revelation.  Citation B20 is yet another in the string of promises included in this lesson that spiritual sense reveals to man right here.  Step-by-step our thought moves toward Soul, toward the understanding of Soul's government of man.  The “Pilgrim” referred to in citation S28 is someone who is searching for God, who is going to worship God, who is dedicated to their task of worshiping and searching for God.  This dedication is guided by spiritual sense and by Soul.  Heaven is revealed to each of us as we continue on this path to spiritual understanding.


[Warren’s P.S. on citations S4-S6 and B3: On CedarS travelling Lego model of our Bible Lands Park, it’s easy to catch “glorious glimpses of the Messiah” and of yourself from close encounters with God and with Bible Lego characters from Moses to the Messiah. (See S4 & B3, Ps. 105:7…) Sunday School students and “all generations” in Florida this upcoming week (as in Texas last week) will time-travel with “Not-so-ordinary Lego Emma” to receive some special life-gifts.  They will be “baptized” (dry-cleaned) as precious to God by being “seers” of their “divine nature”—and by being doers who live to give as “the reflection(s)of Soul” (S6 & S4, 333:19-27)]


The Met application ideas above are provided primarily to help CedarS campers and staff (as well as friends) see and daily demonstrate the great value of studying and applying the Christian Science Bible lessons throughout the year, not just at camp!  YOU CAN ALSO SIGN UP for weekly emails from past CedarS staff of possible ways to share Bible Lesson applications with older, as well as younger, Sunday School classes by clicking the "Subscribe Now" button (lower left) at http://www.cedarscamps.org/metaphysical/ ]

[Warren Huff, CedarS Director & editor of these notes & bracketed, italic additions.]


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[Additional Director's Note: You can sign up to have these application ideas emailed to you free — by Monday each week in English; or by each Wednesday you can get a FREE TRANSLATION: in German, thanks to Manfred and Jeanette; or in Spanish, thanks to a team of Ana, Erick, Claudia and Patricio, or in Portuguese, thanks to helpers of Orlando Trentini in Brazil.  A voluntary French translation by Rodger Glokpor, a Christian Scientist from Togo (West Africa) has been contributed.  Thank you, Rodger and all translators! Go to http://www.cedarscamps.org/ and click "Newsletters" to sign-up for a free translation into these languages.  This sharing is the latest in an ongoing, 13-year series of CedarS Bible Lesson "Mets" (Metaphysical application ideas) contributed weekly by a rotation of CedarS Resident Practitioners and occasionally by other metaphysicians.  (Ask and look for "Possible Sunday School Topics "and "Possible Younger Class Lessons" in emails to follow.) 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 "and Sunday School ideas are in no way meant to be definitive or conclusive or in any way serve as 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 and in a variety of useful formats 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-26) and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (S-1 thru S-32). 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.]

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