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[May the Force of Genesis 1 light be with you! Use Downloads 1 & 2 to
help you wake-up from the Adam-and-Eve dream to Life eternal
!]
Metaphysical Application Ideas for the Christian Science Bible Lesson on

“Adam and Fallen Man”

for Sunday, May 10,2015

by Rick Stewart, C.S., Dresden, Germany
+49 351 312 4736, RickStewartCS@aol.com

[Bracketed italics added by CedarS Director, who’s very grateful for good support already received, with more needed. With applications coming in daily, getting many to camp will depend on "Love's Provision" of campership assistance. Won't you be an angel who gives a life-altaring and life-altering experience at CedarS?]

Although every single direction of this week's Bible Lesson is centered on the theme of waking from a dream to God’s present reality, with your permission, I would like to start with a little bedtime story.

It was time for our three-year-old, Martha, to go to bed. We usually spend some time together, singing, talking, reading or praying and it often includes her sister, Alma. A couple nights ago it was just Martha. As we settled down Martha asked, “Papa, can you sing “row a boat.” Well, she meant that familiar children's song, “Row, row, row your boat.” That is originally from the 1850s.

So in my best voice I launched into one of Martha's favorite songs. It just so happened that I had already spent several days exploring this week's Lesson in preparation for the Met. I sang along in a rousing voice with Martha gleefully joining in, “Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.” When I hit that line,, “life is but a dream,” suddenly the song had a whole new significance. It even led into a simple little discussion with Martha and me about the fact that God is Life, and that our life is in God and that life is not a dream. We didn't spend too much time on that discussion because Martha's next request was already there, “Papa, can we sing about Mary's little lamb now?” Well, since I cannot think of any connection whatsoever with Mary Had a Little Lamb and the Bible Lesson let's jump right into the Lesson. Let's see what we can learn about the importance of waking to the Life that is God and letting all these dreams of mortal existence, including the so-called Adam and Eve story, just go floating down the stream. After all, “life is not a dream,” but the glorious reality of God's, Spirit's creating. So we are not going to be dreaming away the hours, but waking to this present reality, Life as God made it.

Golden Text: “…now it is high time to awake out of sleep.” Romans 13:11
(Thanks to some wonderful Bible translation research by Christian Science Practitioner, Karenlee Mannerino C.S. from Chico, California, we have some really interesting insights into this verse from other Bible translations. If you would like to be included on Karenlee's emailing list for weekly Bible translations related to each week's lesson just drop her an email request, Karenleecs1@aol.com
)

Here is the Golden Text (Romans 13:11) from
the New Living Translation, J.B. Phillips, and the Message:

NLT —Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

PHIL —the present time is of the highest importance—it is time to wake up to reality.

MSG —But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God.

Responsive Reading
The citations from the Prophet Isaiah that make up the Responsive Reading begin to point us to another version of man's beginnings than the often repeated “dust of the ground,” Adam and Eve version from Genesis 2

Isaiah wrote, “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; Shake thyself from the dust;”

I love that call of Isaiah; it always makes me think of the second account of creation given in the Bible from Genesis 2 as simply needing to be shaken off. Even though there is already a clear account given in Genesis 1 where God creates man in His image and likeness, Genesis 2 starts out with the man supposedly coming from the “dust of the ground.” (matter)

And the choice between these two versions, Genesis 1 or Genesis 2 [as put in the following poem,] is going to continue to wake us up throughout this Bible Lesson.

[GENESIS I OR GENESIS 2 (G-1 or G-2)
By Woodruff Smith

Where did it begin
This idea called you?
In Genesis I,
Or Genesis 2?
Which one of these concepts
Will prove to be true?
If you know what is what,
Do you know who is who?
In Genesis I in the 26th verse
There's a man with never a taint' of a curse.
But in Genesis 2 in verse number seven
There's a dust man conceived…
He'll never see heaven.
So it really comes down
To which one you will claim,
What thou see'st thou be'st…
So what is your name?
There they both stand.
Which one is you?
Is it immortal man one,
Or mortal man two?
If you're immortal man
You know what you're worth.
For according to law
You'll inherit the earth.
But if you're just a mortal
And made out of dust…
Is there anything to you
That's worthy of trust?
No, the thing they call man
In Genesis 2
Is the dream of the dreamer.
It never was you.
So know what you are.
Take your place in the sun,

You're the immortal man
Of Genesis I.]

[A separate version of this poem to print with a TESTIMONY OF HEALING
is available as Download 2 in the upper right of CedarS online Met.]

Years ago I was part of a panel discussion including a Baptist minister. As we each shared insights with our audience I remember how wonderfully impressed I was to hear the young Baptist minister firmly declare, “You know I think we spend way too much time referring to the Adam and Eve story and thinking of man as a miserable sinner, it is like we have totally forgotten that there is another account in Genesis 1, where God creates man in His image and likeness.” I was impressed!

Section 1: Spiritual creation [as recorded in Genesis One,G-1], real his story…..
In the first book of the Bible we read, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. … And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. … And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw that it was good: … And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: … So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. … And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”

Citations S1 and S2 each lead us to the simple fact that God is the creator and that man and woman are clearly part of this spiritual creation. And Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health writes, “All that is made is the work of God, and all is good. We leave this brief, glorious history of spiritual creation (as stated in the first chapter of Genesis) in the hands of God, not of man, in the keeping of Spirit, not matter, – joyfully acknowledging now and forever God's supremacy, omnipotence, and omnipresence. The harmony and immortality of man are intact. …The reader will naturally ask if there is nothing more about creation in the book of Genesis. Indeed there is, but the continued account is mortal and material. … The Science and truth of the divine creation have been presented in the verses already considered, and now the opposite error, a material view of creation, is to be set forth.” (S4)

The practicality of these facts was illustrated to me in the early days of my practice. A mom came to me and was terribly worried that her adult son, Billy, would never land a decent job. She explained that he had a criminal record and had been told that that record would follow him his entire life. I encouraged both her and her son to take a look at this page in Science and Health, Page 521, and to remember that creation is spiritual and in the hands of God, not of man. That was indeed the only record regarding man that could be known. We worked for some weeks in affirmation of man's true nature and and man's real history, “his story.” We all rejoiced when this young man landed what he referred to as “the best job he had ever had.” The prediction that his so-called record of mistakes and failures would follow him his entire life was shattered.

Section 2: Genesis-Two Man and woman created from “dust” and “spare ribs?” C'mon! [See Download 3 to lift your thought above this mist and mist- teary-us creation.]
The Prophet Isaiah seemed to have a knack for seeing through long-held, false beliefs. In the Responsive Reading, Isaiah 52, he cautioned “shake thyself from the dust,” and in citation B4, Isaiah 2, he says, “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?”

Are the man and woman of God's creating mortal, material beings made from dust and a rib?

The Science and Health citations (S5–S10) really give us a wake-up call regarding what we accept about man's origins. As we remember our highest sense of what God is – Love, Spirit…, and not some big, bearded material being on a cloud, we are more ready to realize what kind of man God, Spirit, Love would create. And holding on to a sense of the Truth about God and man both keeps us more alert and awake, and if we doze off into a little nap we can truly wake up.

Citation S5 states “God's man, spiritually created, is not material and mortal.… The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream, the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter.” (306: 30-2)

A few years ago I was parked at one of my favorite entrances to the beach at St. Augustine, Florida. I sat in my car to check the waves for a possible surf session. There were lots of fishermen on the beach and as I watched, a wave washed a huge school of small fish onto the sand. Suddenly the fishermen were busy trying to save as many of the small fish as possible. I decided to help and jumped out my car and ran down to the beach. As we worked together we were successful in saving almost all the small fish and everyone was pretty proud of what we had accomplished together. Just then I glanced back to my car in time to see it being loaded onto a flat-bed wrecker. A police car was there. I was parked in a no-parking zone, but had only gotten out of my car to help with the beach rescue. I ran up and started to plead with the policeman, but he would not listen to any of my protests. I realized I had no money to pay the impoundment fee, so I began to think of what arguments I could use before the judge to get my car back. As I planned my arguments, a simple fact came in to my thought, “Wait a second. You sold your car. You don't even own it anymore? What?” At that point I realized I was dreaming and I woke myself up. It was the truth dawning in my thought that got me out of that dream, that nightmare.

Man and woman from the dust of the ground and from a spare rib, what a nightmare? We can with little insights of Truth begin to wake ourselves from the silly dreams of mortal existence; pain, disease, job discrimination, lack, death… and begin to free ourselves from the nightmares and dreams.

As Citation S10 reminds us “God never slumbers, and His likeness never dreams. Mortals are the Adam dreamers.” (249:21) Watch out what [lies of G-2] you have been willing to accept about yourself!

Section 3: [For a Heavenly Mother-Father Day,] don’t accept what the serpent said… [& see PS1]
Years ago one of my very insightful cousins, Jim Orlet, was in Sunday School. He was just a very little guy. His teacher Alice Ware told of Jesus' healing of the ten lepers. But Jim, or Jaime, as he was then, was not going to be fooled. He told his teacher, “Alice Ware, you know leopards can't talk.”

And guess what, serpents can't talk either. In the continuing soap-opera saga of the Lord God making man and woman out of material elements, and subject to deception and temptation, we read about the big trouble Adam and Eve got into by listening to a deceiving serpent. Talk about a nightmare!

Through Mary Baker Eddy's explanations in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, we can see how we can learn from this story of Adam and Eve.

Are sick, sinning, hurtful, hateful mortals the children of God's creating? Mrs. Eddy explains in citation S13 “Anybody, who is able to perceive the incongruity between God's idea and poor humanity, ought to be able to discern the distinction (made by Christian Science) between God's man, made in His image, and the sinning race of Adam.” (345)

Remember sticking with the truth begins to break through dream clouds of mortal, material sense. As Jim pointed out to his teacher, “leopards can't talk,” and neither can serpents. We can overcome the inversion of God's spiritual, good creation, the distortion of what God has created through a misty view of things. We wake up as we [lift our thought above the mist as in Download 3 and] stick with the Truth.

In citation S16 we read “When the mist of mortal mind evaporates, the curse will be removed which says to woman, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.” Divine Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as never dying, but as coexistent with his creator.” (557)

Section 4: Jesus can wake us all from the [G-2] nightmare of the Adam dream.
Insightful Prophet Isaiah continues in his powerful glimpses. In citation B9 he writes, “The Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means “God is with us.”) (Isaiah 7, NLT) Isaiah wrote this approximately 700 years before Jesus birth.

In citation S17 and S18 (below) Mrs. Eddy explains what Jesus was able to accomplish through his obedience, righteousness, and grace. (B13 too)
Citation S17 states “The Son of the Virgin-mother unfolded the remedy for Adam, or error; and the Apostle Paul explains this warfare between the idea of divine power, which Jesus presented, and mythological material intelligence called energy and opposed to Spirit.” (534)

And citation S-18 continues “In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow, – thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying.” (259)

Once again the importance of sticking with the Truth is shown in Section 4. Jesus is ready to eat with and associate with those who religious society considers sinners. He points out who it is that most needs the help and are willing to accept it in citation B-11: “They who are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” [Mark 2:15-17, Cobbey’s insights on these verses are in online Met Download 4, upper right.]

Through Jesus' insight, inspiration, and encouragement many were awakened to a higher sense of their selfhood and they were healed of both sin and sickness. [Cobbey’s insights on the collective healings are in the online Met Download 5, upper right.] Nothing quite compares with awaking someone [or whole groups] to their own worth and ability.

When my mom headed to college, Grandmother Lafferty gave her a little poem to keep her alert and awake to be herself. “Be what you is.” “Be what you is, don't be what you ain't. If you're the puppy dog’s tail, don't wag the dog.” Being true to ourselves becomes a much more profound lesson when we rise to be what the Christ allows us to see of ourselves. With that Christly insight there is no mortal condition or circumstance that can keep us from awaking to who we are as God's beloved children. And as we awaken to this view of ourselves we cannot be dominated by any form of error. We rise and we reflect more of our divine likeness.
As states S22 “Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other means and methods. …Man delivered from sin, disease, and death presents the true likeness or spiritual ideal.” (67)

Section 5: “in Adam all die… in Christ shall all be made alive.” (B14)
The Apostle Paul wrote this to the Christians in Corinth, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (B14, I Cor. 15:22)
A Christian Scientist wrote to me recently that he had never heard of anyone awaking from physical death. And perhaps that it is somewhat similar to Paul's statement, but without the last half of the statement.

For example in citation B15, Luke 7: 11-16, you have the precise case of someone who was actually being carried in a funeral procession, (the widow of Nain's son) who was awakened, sat up, and began to speak. This event and others like it are often dismissed with a comment like, “Well that was Jesus!” It sure was Jesus. And Jesus at his best! But let's not forget the Master's comments, teachings, and insights that require of us to do as he did.

In citation S26 Mrs. Eddy writes, “Jesus said (John viii. 51), “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” That statement is not confined to spiritual life, but includes all the phenomena of existence. Jesus demonstrated this, healing the dying and raising the dead. Mortal mind must part with error, must put off itself with its deeds, and immortal manhood, the Christ ideal, will appear.” (429)

Perhaps it is most easily seen in the betterment of daily thought and experience, alertly bringing our daily routines more into line with a lively, deathless existence. Consecrating thought to live as the Master teaches and thereby become more and more expressive of the Life divine.

But besides the wonderful raising of the dead [Old and New Testament accounts] in the Bible, in the biographies of Mary Baker Eddy, and also over many years in Christian experience there have indeed been many instances of life being restored where it appeared to have ended physically. [See the upper right Download 6.] As thought becomes more receptive and open to the facts of Life, the belief of death will fall away much more easily.

In 1993 I was helping organize a series of youth meetings, “Freedom Seven: The Florida/Caribbean Youth Meetings.” I had spent hours and hours over two years in helping to organize this meeting. And the first of three sessions was about to take place at Lake Swan Camp, located between Palatka and Gainesville, Florida. The day before the meeting was to open I drove six hours to Miami to pick up a group of Jamaicans coming to the meeting. They were going to stay in my home their first night. It was Thursday night, we had just arrived from our drive from Miami, and they were all settling in. Suddenly as I worked in my front yard a series of nine gun shots rang out. I had no idea what was going on, but I went inside to reassure my guests. They jokingly said, “Well, are you trying to make us feel like we are at home in Kingston?!”

The next morning, the day the meeting was due to begin, I was in my front yard. A police car drove up and a police officer asked, “Excuse me, would you by any chance know Rick Stewart.” I said I did, and that was me. He explained that there had been a confrontation with an armed robber yesterday. (That was the series of shots fired.) The robber had fired on police and had been shot, but that he was alive. The policeman had a photo of a cat with him and showed it to me. A neighbor had explained that it might be my cat. I looked at the photo and realized it was the cat that had lived at my house since I first purchased it. The policeman explained that in the exchange of gunfire my cat had been hit. And that they had buried him at the city location for dead animals several miles north of town. I could not believe my ears. “Cat was dead?” I thought of all the work I had been doing for the youth meeting and this just seemed like such an attack of error. How could this take place?

All day long I kept being tempted to dwell on this event. The youth meeting had to take place and I needed to be prayed up and operating at full-speed, but I kept being tempted by this event. All weekend long whenever I was tempted to dwell on this very negative event, I would affirm that God's law of Life could not be destroyed by human events. A good friend and neighbor, Brian Fisher, said to me, well Rick, just think of it as your cat having saved the policeman! And you know that did help some.

The next Wednesday, almost a week after the event, I was on the telephone to my friends in Jamaica. They had completely enjoyed the youth meeting and were back home preparing for their Wednesday evening testimony meeting. As I spoke on the phone I looked through the glass door leading to my outside deck. I watched as my cat walked up to the door asking to come in. All I could say over and over again was, “Cat's not dead. Cat's not dead.” I should explain I always called this cat, “Cat.” I figured he was his own boss and I did not need to give him a name.

I had a house guest, a long time friend and wonderful Christian Scientist, Warren Wagner. He was studying in the living room. I went in almost in a daze and just said, “Cat's not dead.” He immediately and almost matter of factly said, “Well, Rick, you know pictures often lie.”

Later that night I received a call from Kingston. “Rick, you know you are quite famous here in Jamaica for all you have done for the youth meeting, but after last night's testimony meeting, I have got to tell you, your cat is even more famous.”

As citation S-25 states “Thought will waken from its own material declaration, “I am dead,” to catch this trumpet-word of Truth, “There is no death, no inaction, diseased action, overaction, nor reaction.”

Section 6: Let's not sleep, let's stay awake to Life!
As the Amplified Bible puts citation B18: “Accordingly then, let us not sleep, as the rest do, but let us keep wide-awake (alert, watchful, cautious, and on our guard) and let us be sober (calm, collected, and circumspect). (I Thessalonians 5: 5, 6, 21)

Mary Baker Eddy declares “Christian Science is dawning upon a material age. The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine in the darkness, though the darkness, comprehending them not, may deny their reality. The proof that the system in this book is Christianly scientific resides in the good this system accomplishes, for it cures on a divine demonstrable Principle which all may understand.” (S27, 546)

As Martha and I finished with “Row, row, row your boat,” and continued with “Mary had a little lamb,” we then concluded on a little more spiritual note.

Many of you may know Mary Baker Eddy’s “Mother's New Year Gift to the Little Children”, Misc. 400. It was originally written as a New Years gift from Mrs. Eddy to the “Little Children.” In 1951 it was set to music with loving simplicity by Martin Broones, C.S.B. This verse by Mrs. Eddy is a good example of what the spiritual sense of Christian Science can bring to Christian thought.

Whereas many little ones learned from the New England Primer, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I shall die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul shall take. Amen.”

Mrs. Eddy wrote,
“Father-Mother God,
Loving me, –
Guard me when I sleep;
Guide my little feet
Up to Thee.”

As Martha and I sang it together I thought of it in a whole new light.

“Guard me when I sleep.” God guards all of us even when we sleep in the Adam dream. In Nepal, in Libya, Syria, Nigeria, in hospitals, in sick beds. Wherever the Adam dream seems real and threatening, even there God guards us in our sleep. The Comforter is there right now.

Guide my little feet

Up to Thee.

And as we walk we will be guided up, up to see and know God as He eternally is, Life and Love, our one and only Father-Mother. And we will wake to see ourselves as God has made us, in His image and likeness, male and female, equal, free, manifesting loving dominion over all creation.

Yes, it is time to wake!


[W’s PS#1: For a Mother’s Day Hymn (#406) that goes along with this lesson see Download 3 in the upper right of CedarS online Met. Check out the Mothers Day references too about true womanhood in Section 3 citations B6, B8, S11, S14, S15, and S16.]


[Bracketed italics added by CedarS Director, Warren Huff, who’s forever grateful for all the good already received and LETTING 3 SPECIAL NEEDS BE KNOWN –
Significant funding is still needed for these special opportunities:
1. It is apparent that getting many to camp will depend on "Love's Provision" of campership assistance. Could you be one of the angels who gives towards camperships and the life-altaring and life-altering experiences they provide at CedarS?]

2. Over 100 needed items are featured on CedarS Giving Tree that could fit the budget of every grateful Met-recipient and camper. You can choose for yourself $1-and-up ways to give to support CedarS needs. Click here to see 2 young alumni tell their reasons to give.

3. Adopt the Herd” Matching Opportunity! Generous donors, aware of the ongoing need to care for CedarS herd, will match donations for our horse program! (~$20k needed to reach $50k goal)]


[The weekly Metaphysical Newsletter is provided at no charge to the 1,200 campers and staff blessed each summer at CedarS, as well as to CedarS alumni, families and friends who have requested it. However, current and planned gifts are a big help and are greatly appreciated in defraying the costs of running this service and of providing needed camperships, programs and operations support. Click http://www.cedarscamps.org/giving/ for more about how you can provide even monthly support online. Or you can always call the Huffs at 636-394-6162 get information or discuss privately how to transfer securities or other assets to help support and perpetuate CedarS work.]

[You can also reach a member of the Founding family nearly anytime by
PHONE at 636-394-6162
or MAIL your tax-deductible support to our 501C3 organization
(Our not-for-profit, Federal Identification Number is #440-66-3883):

The CedarS Camps, Inc.
1314 Parkview Valley Drive
Ballwin, MO 63011

THANKS TO YOU PRECIOUS DONORS FOR YOUR ONGOING, GENEROUS and NEEDED SUPPORT OF CedarS IMPORTANT WORK!


[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/ ]

[For additional "Director's Notes" on the history, development & 4 translations of CedarS weekly Bible Lesson "Mets" go to Notes in our online online version of it.]

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