Join us for the best summer yet!

Don't be an April Fool! (PS) Be inseparable from Love – “convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39 NRSV
Metaphysical Application Ideas for the Christian Science Bible lesson on

Unreality
for April 1-7, 2019

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


[Warren's note: Click here for Cobbey Crisler insights & to hear Ken Cooper poems this week.]


Here’s an even longer "title" for this week’s Met based upon an expanded NRSV translation of the last Bible citation in Section 7 (B17).
"Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35-39 NRSV

All I can think about as I read this week's lesson is how we are not separate beings from Love. We are not separated by unreality, by matter, by mist or the mortal dream. We are not separated from Love by sickness, by human knowledge or dogma. We are not separated by material, so called laws, or by human will. Our bodies cannot separate us from Love, either by their misery, or by taking pleasure in them. We are one with Love and there is no reality in any other belief or suggestion. So Paul just plain states this the best!

Golden Text and Responsive Reading: [See W's PS#1 & #2.]
The Golden Text really tells us three things we can do to keep ourselves from being fooled by material sense/unreality: "pursue, guard, avoid". We should pursue right or godliness and the qualities such as faith, love, endurance and gentleness. We need to guard these qualities that have been "entrusted" to us as divine reflections. And we must avoid error/unreality—profane chatter, contradictions of false knowledge. This makes sense right? We should and do want to pursue good and guard these good things we pursue. And we certainly want to avoid what would seem to steal that good from us, all that seems to oppose good and suggest that there is a duality out there of good and evil (and that God would make an opposing force to His goodness).

Then Jesus and Paul in the Responsive Reading tell us some ways to do these three things. We must let our light shine! We do not hide it where it will be starved for lack of oxygen and go out. We can't let our material sense of things (the "profane chatter, false knowledge") cover our spiritual sense that reveals the radiant beauty and magnificence of our true being! We have to share this understanding by radiating reflected Love, Life, Mind and so on! Clearly we cannot let the light be snuffed out with hatred. Love burns this hate away and keeps us aware and in touch with our oneness or unity with Love. Then we have Paul's encouragement to bring into our consciousness all things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous, praiseworthy….and to "think on these things."!!! As we do this, we are definitely being that city on the hill, that light that is freely shining. And we truly feel that no suggestion of evil can separate us from our secure, peaceful, harmonious oneness with Love.

Section 1: Reality is spiritual, unreality is an inverted, material, view.

Why "inverted"? Because our material sense of things, the superficial view that we take in, imitates reality in very effective ways. It takes the beauty of Love and turns it to hatred in all its forms, the harmony of health is turned into sickness, the vibrancy of Life is inverted in death. These are all means of telling human thought that we are very much alone, separated from all that is good, lovely, beautiful… Yes, these things all seem very real to material sense. But as we are willing to entertain those qualities of truth, honesty, justice, purity, loveliness, worth, and so on—to protect them, to ponder them and to shut out the lies—the "profane chatter", we find ourselves in the presence of spiritual reality. We can feel that there really is nothing material that can separate us from Good. Everything that suggests such a separation is a falsehood.

The beauty of Christian Science is that with it we can correct the material sense misconception of reality (S2). What a gift! If you have ever seen an impossible situation turn around in what seems a "miraculous" way, you have witnessed the Science of the Christ in action. This is the Science that Jesus practiced when he healed the blind and dumb man in this week's lesson (B7), brought the young girl back to life (B10), and many, many more acts of God's goodness in action throughout the New Testament. This correction of the material picture can be seen today in daily life where we might turn a situation that is causing us anxiety and stress, into an opportunity to be inspired, joyful, and blessed.

I've had some paperwork that has been weighing on me for awhile. It was due soon, and, to be honest, I find it difficult to discern what the forms are asking for. I recognized the stress I was feeling as "profane chatter". In the process of addressing the root cause of this suggestion, I found that I was able to have a little "work party" this week on one evening. My husband had the necessary papers to find what we needed. I could fill out the forms and ask the occasional question of him that he was able to look up. It took awhile, but was accomplished with a measure of peace and companionable partnership. So, that's one of the simpler demonstrations. You can find many ways that spiritual reality is brought to the fore by reading testimonies of healing from the periodicals that are published by the Christian Science Publishing Society, or by attending a Wednesday testimony service in a branch church of Christian Science.

Section 2: The god of Adam is the god of separation. [See W's PS#3 & #4.]

Love does not create a version of the universe where man is ashamed, sinful, tempted, fallen, and aware of something that God, the infinite All, does not include—evil. Why would omnipotent Love create, or even want to create, a man that would be kicked out of His kingdom—separated from Her goodness and allness? This is the story of the "mist", the obscurity, confusion, duplicity, and the dream of material existence. It does not line up with the God that Jesus revealed through healing, blessing, and preaching the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven within.

Notice Jesus did not pick and choose the "non-sinners" to heal and bless (see B10). He came to show that man is universally worthy and sinless, not judged and unclean! In this section too, we have an inverted sense of reality in this Adam dream. Even the passage in Isaiah (B5), speaks specifically of this idea of a creation that our mortal consciousness has "turned upside down". The unreality/matter/clay, cannot tell God that His work was self-made. Only God, Love, can declare what He has made. And He did, declaring everything that He made to be "very good" in the first account of creation. The lie of error is "no thing" as MBE says in citation S7. There is no knowledge of where it came from, no knowledge of the glory of our true self. This true self cannot be found in the dust of the ground, or in the rib, or in human biology. All of this arises from the confusion and mist of material knowledge. God does not separate Himself from His reflection, any more than the sun can separate itself from the rays that come out of it.

Shame, temptation, sin—these things would try to separate us from feeling the love of Love. So they cannot be a part of the true creation. We have divine permission, if you will, to leave those things out of our experience and welcome in the true qualities of creation.

Section 3: No duality in God, Good, spiritual reality. [See W's PS#5.]

Isn't it almost funny that when Jesus heals the blind and dumb man in citation B7, the Pharisees announce that it must be through evil that he healed him? They cannot "forsake discord" or "abandon their material beliefs." (S9) In the very presence of God's Allness and goodness, they insist on the presence of evil, even when it makes no logical sense. Yet, don't we do the same when we are so despondent at the presence of inharmony, even after we've seen evidence of God's allness at other times in our lives? It is surprisingly easy to do!

We have to do as Jesus instructed and MBE discusses in citation S9, we must bind the "strong man" or mortal mind. This is our part in seeing the harmony of reality. This can seem hard, but it is in cooperation with the harmony of divine reality, so it has the law of God working with us. It feels difficult because in abandoning our material sense of things, we are venturing off into spiritual reality, into that which to material sense certainly seems "intangible". It is not though!! This man's ability to see and speak after Jesus healed him, was tangible indeed!

Disease is just another of the original temptations from the Adam dream that there is benefit in knowing "more" than God by knowing good and evil. We can reject this suggestion at every turn and know that just like the laws of gravity support our ability to stick to the earth, so Love supports our state that we can stick to as harmonious, whole, and one with Love.

Section 4: The so-called laws of matter cannot separate us from Love. [W's PS#6a&b.]

Because we are divinely wonderful ideas of God, His laws must be written in our hearts and minds (B8). These laws apply naturally to Her creation, just as gravity applies to our earthly experience. Romans (B9) asserts that right where our senses tell us that we are separate, there is God, calling us His children! This is how He identifies His reflection.

I love that in this version of the story of Jesus raising the young girl from death, the ruler of the synagogue tells Jesus that even though he knows that his daughter is already dead, he is sure that Jesus can reverse this "inversion" of spiritual reality, if you will. He did not accept what the material senses were telling him. Mary Baker Eddy did this when she raised Calvin Frye from death. In fact, in one instance it is recorded that she kept at it for an hour! She was certainly not deterred by the material evidence!!

Death is not a separation from Love. Mortality is the Adam dream and when we are wakened, we are living in the eternal, no matter the evidence. While dreams do seem real, they are not the fact of our being! (And, just to chew on: the reason we have to have a lesson on "unreality" as well as "reality" is because this dream of life in matter has to be awakened from, otherwise, we are just experiencing the dream and not our oneness with Love!)

Section 5: Human will does its best to separate us from the one Mind—but Truth reveals oneness. [See W's PS#7.]

In this section Mary Baker Eddy's citations equate this Bible story with the willful practice of getting rid of evil through the evil of human will, or the practice of a magnetic personality. Truth is the antidote to this supposed power. We can remember that when we feel that we are drawn to something either by another's influence or by our own sense of human will or desire, Truth can silence this desire or pull because Truth is real.

When we know that human will is a falsehood, that it is untrue, then we can overcome our feeling that we are separate from the attraction of Love as the only true attraction. Human will can present as desirable, as attractive. But we have a divine right to see it as powerless. We don't have to respond to human will, whether our own or another's, with anything less than the peaceful understanding that it cannot touch us. Human will is just another iteration of the serpent's lie in the Adam dream that "ye shall be as gods". There is only one God—Good.

Section 6: Jesus showed us that even when we have been deceived by the serpent, we can experience our true oneness with Love. [See W's PS#8.]

Jesus' message of redemption is for all of us. He revealed, more than anyone else, that man is not what material sense presents. He demonstrated that the pleasures and pains of physical sense do not show us the real man. He revealed the inseparable man of Love who is free from the unreal claims of material belief. He showed us how to "break this earthly spell" (S24) and live our unity with God.

Pleasures in matter would seem to separate us from the true joy that is ours in Spirit. The Psalmist sings it this way: "Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." (B15) Unreality, the Adam dream, will whisper that there are things to be found in matter that we cannot experience in Spirit. This is true. But the joy and satisfaction that we experience in Spirit are deep, lasting, and have no evil side effects. God expresses Herself in joyful fullness. We are not missing out when we accept this true experience of spiritual reality. The real story is that we only feel more alone, more separate from Love, when we indulge in the whispers of material sense.

Section 7: God's statement of Truth:"I have called thee by name; thou art mine." (B16)

God has created our very selfhood, our spiritual identity (name), and we belong to Love. Paul tells us in citation B17 (our title for this met), that we cannot be separated from Love, from the love of Christ. He goes on to list some of the dream suggestions of unreality, because we do see these suggestions as we progress through this experience. But we do not have to live with that unreal sense of being separate from Love. We are given the ability to 'conquer' these lies, as Paul states!

"It is ignorance and false belief, based on a material sense of things, which hide spiritual beauty and goodness." (S27) Rather than see this as an indictment of our "blindness" to this good if we are experiencing inharmony in our life, know rather, that this is the very convincing but false dream of life in matter. We get the opportunity to dismantle this false sense of life by demonstration, daily. Be aware each day, that our selfhood is divine, lovely, pure, whole… Allow that material sense will not back this up, but that every glimpse we acknowledge of God's, Love's, activity in our experience, is a glimpse of our oneness with Love. This leads to further demonstration. But our goal must always be to rejoice in the oneness that we have with Love, the deeper understanding of spiritual reality, and of Love Itself.

Section 8: Good is all there is. [See W's PS#9a & 9b.]

Are we ready to admit this fact? Mary Baker Eddy (MBE) is clear that "Our material human theories" will not help us to see this fact. An understanding of God can only come from spiritual sense. (S30) This understanding will unite us with Love, will overcome every suggestion (listed in citation S30) that man is separated from Love. MBE also tells us in citation S31 that we aren't waiting for some future "spiritual realm" to feel this unity. She says that we must acknowledge God as "…supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual." We don't have to wait for some other iteration of life.

Jesus told us that "the kingdom of God is within" not out there where we are not sick, needy, sad, angry…. This kingdom within is as one with Love as it can get!



PS. Don't be an "April Fool!" on April 1st or any day!
[from Warren’s addendum to CedarS April 2013 Met and PSSTs for the “Unreality” lesson]

Did you know that the first "April Fools" were called this name in 1582? They were being ridiculed by the general French populace because these "April Fools" continued to celebrate New Year Day on April 1st instead of on January 1st as ordered by King Charles IX with his newly imposed Gregorian calendar. (wilstar.com/holidays/aprilfool.htm) …

We will never be fools when we choose to follow “God's calendar” and obey what he puts in our hearts, instead of what hearsay or news reports, heredity or medical reports, try to tell us. Never buy any lie! (Misc. 117:22) CedarS Founder, Ruth Huff, trained her children and grandchildren well to “never buy a lie” by calling us on every April 1st with some inventive and humorous absurdity (like “There is a horse running down Weidman Road!… By the way, it’s purple…) in order to train us to see life with a twinkle in our eyes and a “sorting hat” on our heads.]


[Reminder: Click here for special Cobbey Crisler and Ken Cooper insights this week.]


Thank you dear friends who have already given to the needs that we have let be known—as well as to those of you who still want in 2019 to make a big difference in CedarS vital work, outreach and blessings!

We have a wonderful matching gift challenge to meet! You can double your donation by helping CedarS earn our "Adopt the Herd" $75,000 Match for the horses and riding program. (still $40,104 to go by Sept. 30, 2019.)

So, if you have been blessed by receiving this inspiration weekly and haven't given lately, or are in a postion to be able to give more, we still have many needs, big and small, that you can help meet by clicking on https://www.cedarscamps.org/give/.

Current and planned gifts are a huge proof of your ongoing LOVE made visible and are greatly appreciated!! They not only defray the costs of running this service but also provide greatly needed camperships and essential program and operations support.

Please sign up to give whatever you can on a much-needed MONTHLY basis to support CedarS life-changing work! [You can start at any amount and adjust monthly as you wish at: www.cedarscamps.org/giving ] All of your gifts add up to big blessings in the lives of today's Sunday School students (tomorrow's joyous workers in our Christ-centered church!

With heartfelt gratitude and love,
Warren, Gay, Holly & your CedarS Family

You can also reach a member of the Founding family nearly anytime by
PHONE, now at 636-394-6162.

or MAIL to our Winter-Spring office address (below) your tax-deductible support to our 501-C-3 organization.

(Our not-for-profit, Federal Identification Number is #44-0663883):

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

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. 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/meta

American Camp Association

MAIN OFFICE
(November - May)
410 Sovereign Court #8
Ballwin, MO 63011
(636) 394-6162

CAMP OFFICE
(Memorial Day Weekend - October)
19772 Sugar Dr.
Lebanon, MO 65536
(417) 532-6699

Support our mission!

CedarS Camps

Back
to top