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[See and rejoice in the wholeness and beauty of God's creation that already exists!]
Metaphysical Application ideas for the Christian Science Bible Lesson on

"God the Only Cause and Creator"
For June 4, 2017

by Kerry Jenkins, CS, House Springs, MO
kerry.helen.jenkins@gmail.com (314) 406-0041

[Please consider CedarS TOP NEEDS OF THE WEEK: at end.]

I live in a modest house—1,400 square feet. It is just perfect for our family, three small bedrooms, one bathroom, and six of us living at home. It gets a bit tight when my older daughters visit, but in a good way. I have been praying for some time about office space, somewhere I can leave my CS books out, a desk and chair, and no one bothers me there—no boys asking for help, and I can't hear them when they have disagreements, that sort of thing. I can't really rent such space, I have two homeschooling boys and a mom who lives with us and needs some care. But I still felt there was an answer somewhere! This Bible lesson reminds me of the answer to my prayers. Just a few months ago I realized that right on our property we have a little shed that is wired for electricity and everything. We've just been using it for storage, got it free many years ago when Doug was asked to haul off some junk on a job. There it sat, right behind the garage, ideally situated with a good view, shaded by several trees. I cleaned it out, found used furniture, bought a desk chair and tiny lamp and even a small carpet. Washed the windows, and plugged in a little space heater when I first started working out here in March. Sometimes the boys, especially my eight-year-old will still peek over the window sill at me, but mostly they don't pester me when I'm in my office. So here's the part where this week's lesson really reminds me of this whole story…

The Golden Text tells us that we should "…be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create". In light of the entirety of this lesson, it becomes abundantly clear that we can really only rejoice forever in what God has created. What God creates is substantial, real, profitable, satisfying, beautiful, harmonious, pure, and eternal. Matter might be temporarily any of these things (except the eternal part), but can never satisfy or continuously merit rejoicing in that way. So I know this seems a stretch after that whole prelude, but the thing is, I literally rejoice and practically sing every time I go into that office. I relish the beauty, the birds and lizards that visit, the whippoorwill currently singing his relentless song outside, the rain on the metal roof. I'm just so grateful every day for this answer to my prayer that was always there. It was always a part of God's provision and creation. We are each created in completeness. We come with a "job", if you will. And mostly that job consists of doing what God created us to do—express Him. Expression is a form of praise and rejoicing isn't it?! Just take a look at the Responsive Reading and see all the commands about singing, showing forth salvation, praising, glorying, honoring, being glad, giving thanks…AMEN! These are what we are designed by our Creator to do, because His creation is worthy of this kind of rejoicing. God wouldn't create us to glorify and praise Him and not provide a proper venue for that praise. Whatever it is that you are doing currently, you are a complete creation, filled with every inspired thought, you are deeply satisfied in Spirit, gainfully employed. All that you have is real and eternal and is also good and from God—the only cause and creator.

Section 1: If we look only at God's works, we have everything to rejoice in.

The Creator bestows His glory on His creation. While we definitely perceive the world around us as full of life, often beauty and joy, we are not talking about God animating matter. That would be the Adam and Eve model. Matter is a construct of our consciousness. The more we perceive of God, of His heaven in our consciousness—are aware of spiritual good around us—the more we perceive the real, spiritual creation of God. It's not that the beauty we see around us is a lie; it hints at the underlying reality of God's unsurpassed spiritual creation. I mentioned all the natural beauty that I so relish from my little office. That is obviously a reflection of the reality of God's varied, colorful, and beautiful universe. As we rejoice in what we perceive, we ready our thought to receive and discern more deeply the spiritual beauty and permanence of God's creation. One way to think of this is that there is nothing "beyond" reality. God's creation is it. There is no "material creation" vs. a spiritual one. Mrs. Eddy tells us in citation S3 “…nothing exists beyond the range of all-inclusive infinity, in which and of which God is the sole creator." The serpent (in the Adam and Eve tale) tried to convince that there was something more that man should know, something that is necessary to satisfy and make us happy. Instead, man finds that this false tale of creation reveals that satisfaction never comes from knowing both good and evil, God and matter. We can stop pondering the "why's and wherefores of matter", and look strictly at God's work. In God's creation we can rejoice forever!

Section 2: When we shape our desires to praise God they are revealed to us.

Hannah was bitterly sad when she could not conceive. In citation B8 and B9 we learn of her despair, and also of her willingness to dedicate her child to God were He to grant her desire. Don't get hung up on the idea that a parent could choose where the child was to serve for the rest of his life. The point of this story centers more around improving our thoughts of conception (both conceiving a child, and conceiving in terms of any idea that we want to cherish). I know the office example is not like wanting a child, but, in much the same way, when our motives are to praise and rejoice in God, we will find that our desires, or prayers, reveal more clearly to us what we are asking for. In my case, it was an office, already in place, but just never seen as such. In another case, maybe it is finding that we include every aspect of motherhood within us and there is a great need for that motherhood to be expressed at a school, or somewhere else. "God's children already created will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being." (S7) At first when I read that sentence I put a comma after "children". But try reading it without, as Mrs. Eddy wrote it. It makes it even clearer that all His children are already created. We aren't waiting for them to appear in our families. We are waiting for our consciousness to become aware of them! And then to rejoice in them!

Section 3: God is the source of all beauty, creativity, grace.

Here again, it is being impressed upon us that Mind is the creator and that when our consciousness becomes aware of this we can best express this beauty. I love to sing. I express this love through soloing in church and singing in the symphony chorus in our city. I feel pretty clear about my role as a soloist in church, I know that it is only for the glory of God, that I am there to express Her, to heal through the medium of music, to enrich the service and expand on the Bible lesson for that week. But the symphony chorus involves a yearly audition—and I sing in the company of some very fine professional musicians with extensive resumes in opera and other performance. The first few auditions were really hard for me. Though I was accepted, I never enjoyed the experience and I felt like I sounded a lot like that original “Snow White” voice in the old, animated Disney-version. My nerves really sent my vibrato into overdrive. Also there were some opportunities for a smaller portion of the chorus to perform, and I was never asked because of these issues in my audition. By the third audition I'd had it with “Snow White” and began to pray more rigorously about who was truly in control. What I concluded, simply, was that I wasn't performing in relation to anyone else. I was a unique expression of Soul, and if the chorus needed what I had to offer, then nothing could hinder me from being where I needed to be. As it turns out, a good, large symphony chorus does need a variety of voice types. At that audition the director expressed surprise that I had certain techniques that previously I hadn't been able to demonstrate in an audition. In later years I have been asked, or auditioned—even in front of other chorus members—for special pieces that needed a smaller group of a certain type of voice, (even ones with straight tone!) and was included in these groups. This year, I found myself selecting a new kind of challenging piece to audition with, in a language I have never studied. I was able to memorize the three verses and sing with expression and joy. But most important was the way that, while certainly a bit nervous, I was much more excited about the opportunity to share this lovely piece with the director after having prepared it with the praise of God in mind. I didn't sing it perfectly, messed up a few words in fact, but was so full of joy, and love for the opportunity to express Soul that it really didn't matter. Whether you are expressing God through art, athletics, or any of the myriad activities of life, do it to praise God. Recognizing that our abilities are a reflection of God takes away the burden of personal "'talent" or "nerves". This recognition lends us unlimited scope, creativity and grace, because we are seeing that God is the source. Here's the best way of stating this fact from citation S11: "Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry, and the power of expressing them."

Section 4: Son/daughter, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven… [See W’s Crisler PS#1]

Well, because I am seeing this theme of praise and rejoicing throughout this lesson, I saw this element of being happy—of good cheer—for the first time, as important. Jesus perceived in this story (B17), that this man felt separated from God, felt he was a sinner. This feeling of separation allowed him to think that he was created in, and at the whim of, matter. Do you ever feel like maybe it is your fault that you are sick or sad, or whatever the issue. That either you deserve the problem for one reason or another, or maybe you think that you are "not a good enough Christian Scientist" and that is why you are feeling unwell, or sad or whatever the claim? This is a sin. We are never separate from God and He only causes good. He doesn't punish His creation with disease or unhappiness. No matter the circumstance, we can "be of good cheer", even before the healing or wholeness is recognized in our consciousness. We can start by declaring our right to feel the joy of praising God for the goodness and wholeness of His creation, which includes us. Jesus heals this man, in opposition to the scribes who feel that no one can forgive sins but God. Jesus knew that God's creation was sinless, and that man, the sinless, whole man of His creating, was the only true creation. He restored the rightful state of health to this man, and pointed him to the path of "sinless joy" that is mentioned in citation S20. Jesus wasn't going about correcting God's mistakes. He was correcting human misconceptions of God and man.

Section 5: Nothing more joyous than praising God with "…one accord in one place." [PS#3]

The story of the day of Pentecost, where all that were gathered spoke and understood one another's language, is a glorious example of how the bottomless well of good that is God's creation, is available to each of us when our motive is to glorify God. There is no limit to the good we can do when we work together to love and praise God through expressing Him. This is called church. Being "in one accord" here, is not about agreeing on politics, drapes or even Bible interpretations. It is about dwelling together in the kingdom of heaven, where we recognize that it is God who is the only cause and creator, so there is nothing to argue about. Again, the solutions to strife appear, like the office did for me. They appear in consciousness, already in existence, complete and perfect. They are understood by everyone, no matter their background, language, family, finances. The healing power that comes through recognizing this Creator at work in our church, our "…structure of Truth and Love", is boundless. And the joy that we feel when we embrace those with whom we are worshiping is deep and abiding. Citation S24 paraphrases the Bible when it tells us that "…whosoever layeth his earthly all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ's cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of Christian healing." Being willing to lay our mortal opinions on the "altar", allowing them to be burned into a more rarified and spiritual consciousness, we will find unity, and true, lasting joy.

Section 6: Heaven and heaven's people are something to rejoice in!

(And, by the way, we are that people!) The commands in this section hearken back to all those commands in the Golden Text and Responsive Reading. This is our "Home, heaven." (S26)— where we belong and feel most joyful. We are not out there looking for our sense of home or heaven. Jesus told us that this kingdom is within. So God's creation is whole, revealed, just like my little office, and all we are doing is educating our spiritual sense to see this creation, its beauty, presence, clarity. "When we learn the way in Christian Science and recognize man's spiritual being, we shall behold and understand God's creation,–all the glories of earth and heaven and man." (S29) Now that's something to rejoice in!


[Warren’s (W’s) PS#1 — Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 9:2-8 (B19), the healing value of good cheer and forgiveness:
“Verse 2, Chapter 9: ‘We have a man in bed with the palsy.” Can you imagine Jesus going by a man who had been that long without moving and telling him to “be of good cheer”? But there’s nothing Jesus said that he didn’t discern was needed. What that man needed, more than physical movement, was to be of good cheer. Jesus said, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” Jesus knew at a glance the whole history of a case.”
(Verse 3). The scribes say, “This man blasphemes.” In order to get the healing, he has to eliminate the theological obstruction to healing first.
(Verse 5). He says, “What is easier? To say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?”
(Verse 6). “Because the Son of man does have power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy), Arise, take up thy bed, and he goes.”

Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report , B. Cobbey Crisler]


[W’s PS#2—Cobbey Crisler on Acts 1:1, 2 (B20)—a treatise to the God-loving by Luke:
[“I’m sure you realize the Book of Acts is a second volume of a two-volume work, the first volume being, Luke, right! And the reason we know that: What’s verse one in the book of Acts tell us?It starts out with…really giving us that information, doesn’t it? It says in Acts 1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Now, why in that brief group of words do we have clues about the Gospel of Luke and similar authorship? Do you know?

Well, the Gospel of Luke, if you check the opening verses there, you will find that that Gospel is addressed to “Theophilus” as well. (See below)

Luke 1:3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,

Luke 1:4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those things…

And here, we’re told in the opening verse of Chapter One of Acts, “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus….” (See Acts1:1 above)

So, it doesn’t take too much more than common sense to at least link the books in terms of the one to whom it was written and in terms of the author….

Now, Theophilus – who is he? No one knows, but translated from the Greek it means what? Do any of you know? What’s “Theo” like in theology, God and Logos. All right, it’s…well, not Logos, that was theology, but Theo-PHILUS, Philus meaning, like Philadelphia, love. So, God-loving, literally, which has again caused some to think that it might not be addressed to an individual named Theophilus; it could be to us if we qualify in that definition, collectively.

“O All those who are God-loving.” (See below, Paraphrased) Again that is conjecture, but something worth considering.

We know that the first treatise that Luke wrote had to do with – what does the first verse tell us? (Indistinct answer from audience) Right. What “Jesus began both to do and teach.” (See below, Partial)

Acts 1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

So, it really, it sounds like it was a gospel such as we have. And the progress of the gospel, narrative wise, would take us, according to Verse 2, “until the day in which he was taken up after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.” …

Now, probably the most extensive use of the concept and phrase Holy Ghost is in the Book of Acts. So, we’re talking about not only church but a very close relationship to church of the concept of Holy Ghost. So, let’s review that a bit. The word Ghost in Greek is pneuma… spirit, or ghost, or wind, or breath, or air – and very much associated with movement, isn’t it? For instance, you know how the Bible opens: “The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (See below, Gen 1:2)

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

“The Book of Acts: After the Master What?” by B. Cobbey Crisler


[PS#3—Cobbey Crisler on Acts 2 (B21)—nothing stops Spirit “in one accord”

[With and after the account of the day of Pentecost] we talk about what is needed to get members in our church. The ingredients better be there; it’s the Holy Ghost pattern. Peter didn’t invent all that, and it was the result of the church praying “with one accord” to come out with the Holy Ghost. There’s no obstacle to the Holy Ghost.

Getting our church up to the highest possible platform with nothing standing between it and the Holy Ghost – and that’s moving — both in thought and action.

Look what occurs as a result of it. In Acts 2, verse 43: “Many wonders and signs are now done by all of the apostles.” (Paraphrased)… They’re healing everywhere! Not just understanding the Bible, but healing, but it looks like our comprehension of the Bible is essential to it, and both come from the Holy Ghost – both prophecy and understanding the scriptures, the key to the scriptures comes from the Holy Ghost, and no lesser source.

They, in verse 46, again with a familiar phrase, do what?… Acts 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
That’s the secret! But instead we opt for the easier alternative. If it isn’t working out “in one accord,” we leave early. (See above) (Laughter)

But, sticking it out on that high level, knowing that nothing can interfere between you and the Holy Ghost, you, collectively — that movement occurs and things happen that we never dreamed were possible.

And even Peter had to reach back into prophecy to explain what was going on because God had notified his people that this thing was possible collectively. And Acts 2, verse 47 ends: “The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”
“The Book of Acts: After the Master What?” by B. Cobbey Crisle



[TOP NEEDS OF THE WEEK:

1) $2k more for a new ice-maker for the Dawn Lodge drink counter is needed! An alumni parent offered to donate the bin and 50% of the cost of a new air-cooled icemaker bringing it down from ~$8k to $3.1k. Thanks to God, to him and to you all who can help with this new need of the week!
2) $500 still needed (of $2k total) for a key repair (in $50 increments) to replace (recently discovered) deteriorating subfloor and tile in a large Settlers House bathroom.
(Matched!)
3) ~$6.3k still needed (of 9.7k total) for Bible Lands Park (BLP) upgrades: $2.2k for smaller BLP shade structure to replace by 19-yr old tent “Tabernacle in the Wilderness”; and $7.5k for scriptural pavers on “Paul’s Trail” so BLP visitors and Cable Skiers can hourly see and “Walk in the Way of God's Word”.

Thanks to earlier outpourings of love and support, the Sports Center sod is growing! And, CedarS is doing other needed Maintenance work before our 56th season, our "adopted" herd of horses are also being well cared for, AND a growing stream of campership applications are being granted. However, we still need donations of about $80,000 more to grant the campership requests that traditionally come during this season. We also need ~$12k to meet our $50k match for Adopt the Herd! (CedarS Adopt the Herd matching fund opportunity goes through the end of our fiscal year, 9-30-17.)

Thanks way beyond words and whinnies to each of you who are grateful for CedarS weekly metaphysical and Sunday School offerings as well as for our work. Especially helpful are your much-needed MONTHLY gifts, past and ongoing, that can be started and adjusted at: www.cedarscamps.org/giving ]

[You can also reach a member of the Founding family nearly anytime to discuss current credit card and equity gifts as well as planned giving at our winter home/office by PHONE at 636-394-6162

or MAIL your tax-deductible support to our 501-C-3 organization
(Our not-for-profit, Federal Identification Number is #440-66-3883):

The CedarS Camps Office
1314 Parkview Valley Drive
Ballwin, MO 63011

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


[CedarS 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. But, 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.

[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.]

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