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True Freedom Comes from Spirit!
Metaphysical application ideas for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on

“Spirit”
for the week ending August 9, 2020

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


Click here to hear Kerry Jenkins, CS , read her metaphysical application ideas) on this week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson on “Spirit.” Or paste into your browser https://www.cedarscamps.org/metaphysical/audio/play/audio-met-on-spirit-by-kerry-jenkins-cs-mp3/


For YouTube enrichment of this week's Christian Science Bible Lesson on "Spirit," click to hear "LISTEN," a Ken Cooper poem. Also, click on the title for his monologue called "Jairus' Daughter," that shares the father’s thoughts and revelations.


Short summary:
Everyone wants to feel true joy, love, wisdom, energy. We want to experience these kinds of qualities with freedom and abandon! This Bible lesson points us in the right direction to do just that. As our Golden Text from 2nd Corinthians 3 verse 17 puts it, "Wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Where is this mysterious place? It is within each of us!

We are children of God, even heirs of God, the Responsive Reading tells us in Romans 8:16, 17. As heirs to Spirit, we naturally include Spirit's qualities quoted in the Responsive Reading. Verse 22 of Galatians 5 has one translation that includes these qualities in a slight variation of the King James Version. Instead of:"…longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance…"–all great qualities, we have this: "…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self control: against such there is no law." None of these qualities are resident in any permanent way, in matter. If we try to look there for them, we are disappointed. There is no law of matter that can deprive us of experiencing these qualities either. Our desire to rise to a higher view, to see these qualities manifest in a more continuous way in our daily lives, can only come through rising higher in our spiritual understanding and daily demonstration of them.

Section 1: Freedom starts with worshiping God as Spirit.

I couldn't help but notice that the beautiful passage from Psalms 51:10,12 , Bible citation 2, is one that David wrote in the aftermath of taking another man's wife and subsequently, essentially having that man killed. You can read the story in 2nd Samuel chapters 11 and 12. David improperly abused his status as king, falsely thinking that his title gave him "freedom" to do as he pleased. This "freedom" became a nightmare of bondage when the woman became pregnant and the child subsequently died. David’s remorse and repentance, as well as growth and progress are beautifully echoed in Science and Health citation 5, page 208:20 "Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the kingdom of heaven, — the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen."

We need not despair when we have fallen prey to some material allure. Our path to success in this endeavor is to start with the understanding that what we worship as our "God", must be Spirit. If what we value, seek, treasure, is mostly material, we will be misled by false promises that trend toward misery, or short-lived pleasures. But Spirit's joy and satisfaction "…cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen." That is a promise, it is there within us, waiting for our eyes, our spiritual senses to discern it and lead us to that "clean heart" and "right spirit".

Section 2: It helps to know what man is!

It wasn't until recently that I thought of a new way to see Psalms 8:4 (Bible citation 4) "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Rather than think of it as how "small" man is in the scheme of things, and saying that even as "insignificant" as man is, God still cherishes him, I see that it can be a question about what man IS actually, as a creation. Is man just a material being? Well, no! God is not "mindful" of matter. Here we are being pointed to the fact that man is a creation of Spirit, so, spiritual. We can really only have dominion over matter and material suggestions, if we ARE spiritual. Otherwise, it would just be "domination" over matter, greater "material power" over lesser "material power". We have dominion because Spirit is the real, and matter the insubstantial! As citation 6 on page 63 of Science and Health states so clearly, we are not derived from matter, we are not constituted of matter. Our being, our substance is the image of Spirit. And, because "God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss", as Science and Health citation 8, states on p. 481, man's being must reflect only "…infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss."

Section 3: Healing arises from the root/stump of Spirit.

Our first citation in this section is from Isaiah 11:1-3, and is a prophecy about the Messiah coming from the family tree of David. This is a great metaphor for how the healing Christ proceeds from Spirit. And this metaphor or prophesy in verses 6–9 embraces the idea of a Messiah, not as a warrior king, but an ideal king whose peaceful mission was to heal, and to reveal a higher understanding of God that brings us spiritual freedom. This spiritual source does not share its kingdom, power or glory with matter.

Jesus explains his totally spiritual source of healing power when the Pharisees accuse him of gaining it by cooperating with "Beelzebub." You can read his full reply in Bible citation 9, Matthew 12 verses 22-29. Just as Jesus tells us elsewhere that we cannot get fresh and salt water from the same spring, so here, he explains that goodness does not proceed from evil, or evil would be destroying itself! Since all good comes from Spirit, we can safely look to Spirit for all that we need.

Section 4: Spiritual law, is the only true law.

We come up with laws that govern us, even today. These laws are hopefully informed by spiritual qualities that lead to order, love, safety, justice, and so on. In as much as human laws reflect these spiritual qualities, they can be relied-upon, lasting, helpful. Ultimately, true law, must be spiritual. This law can be relied upon even when human circumstances do not appear to be upheld by such qualities! It takes a turning to Spirit in order to see how this is manifest.

At the end of Luke chapter 8, the only Bible citation in this section, Jesus is asked to heal a young girl. He is too late to heal her before she passes on, but, disregarding the material laws of time and death, Jesus heals her, brings her to life. As Mary Baker Eddy comments on Jesus’ healings in Science and Health citation 17, page 274, "His acts were the demonstration of Science, overcoming the false claims of material sense or law."

Every healing we have in Christian Science is, in some way, a demonstration over material "law". Whether it be a law of time, health, accident, or simply feelings such as anger, resentment, or sadness, each time these yield to a rising, spiritual view of life, we are overcoming the suggestion that man is material and subject to material, so-called, laws.

Jesus could raise Jairus' daughter, not because he had spiritual superpowers, but because he recognized that she was not born into matter, and so could not be subject to the "law of sin and death" that Paul talks about in Romans chapter 8.

In Science and Health citation 20 on page 417, Mary Baker Eddy tells us, "Maintain the facts of Christian Science, that Spirit is God, and therefore cannot be sick; that what is termed matter cannot be sick; that all causation is Mind, acting through spiritual law. Then hold your ground with the unshaken understanding of Truth and Love, and you will win."

I have a really wonderful example of how this spiritual law is the only true law, when I was involved in a dog sledding accident. I was tucked into the sled and my husband, Doug, was driving. We were really flying down a narrow trail between spruce trees. Things got a bit sideways and the sled flipped and came to a stop with my face between the trunk of a tree and the steering bow of the sled. The injury seemed pretty severe. But I remember deciding that I was going to do just what it said in the above quote and "Maintain the facts of Christian Science…". I decided not to even look in a mirror when I got home.

I couldn't see out of one eye, but continued to maintain my sense of peace that there could be no accidents in a universe governed by Mind–no collisions in a universe of Spirit. By the second day I could see clearly once again. I didn't look at my face until three days later, just kept it clean and covered. When I got a glimpse, I had to laugh at the very vibrant colors mixed with a few remaining abrasions. By the next evening, when I was to sing in a concert, there was no sign whatsoever that anything had happened only four days before. I felt so embraced by this spiritual law of Love! There was no question that this healing was the result of an awareness of the supremacy of spiritual law.

Section 5: Spiritually progressive thought is available to all.

In researching the story in citation B11 found in Acts 8:26-30, 35-39, I was stunned to find out that as both a eunuch and a foreigner, the "man of Ethiopia", would not have been allowed to enter the temple in Jerusalem. And yet, he had clearly travelled from a great distance in order to worship there. It doesn't say that he had expected entry, was disappointed in his trip, or that he got exactly what he expected. But it certainly gave me pause to think that this was his intention and that even if he was able to see this temple, he would not have been allowed inside! Clearly, he was struggling to understand the Biblical writings he was reading, or Philip would not have appeared to him to help him out. He must have been entertaining that "spirit within", because he was ready to receive the word that Philip shared and to ask for baptism by Philip as well.

The Christ is unfolded to us as we seek. We do not have to be in a certain place or circumstance, or with certain people. Our pure desire to know and do what God has planned is answered by God's, Spirit's angels. Just as Philip appeared to the eunuch, so we will and do have angelic appearances in our thought as we open our spiritual consciousness to receive them.

Notice that the "Spirit of the Lord" caught up Philip and Philip disappeared from sight! That is the nature of Spirit's angel presence. It is there, tangibly at times, to meet our need in just the way that is necessary. And the great thing is that these angels help us to rise higher in our understanding of Spirit!

Section 6: We live in freedom and rise higher through Spirit.

As is often the case, our last section circles us back to sum up our theme. The spirit of freedom is within us. As we springboard from our infinite source in Spirit, we can overcome the limitations that seem to surround us, the mistaken sense of life and inharmony in matter as the fact, rather than just a dream-like state from which man can be awaken. Science and Health reveals that “the power of … divine Spirit must break the dream of the material senses… until the body corresponds with the normal conditions of health and harmony.” That’s from page 412, lines 16-27 in citation 19 of this week’s lesson.

Infinite spiritual progress can naturally only come through our striving Spirit-ward in all our thoughts and actions. We gain freedom, and the ability to rise above the humanly limited views of existence by recognizing our spiritually true nature that is within us. There is a law of spiritual freedom for the man of God, of Spirit. Spirit informs that man with divine messages that free us from the bondage of false, material promises. Nothing can keep us out of this spiritual kingdom within, because we have nowhere to travel to get there.

Spiritual progress comes not through human travel, but through the mental qualities that we saw in the Responsive Reading: gentleness, patience, kindness, self-control, generosity, faithfulness and so on. Spirit supplies these qualities to man right where we are in our understanding and demonstration of the pure consciousness of good, of Spirit.

Have a great week!


PS. GEMs from Cobbey Crisler and others are ONLINE GEMs-in-progress that will be sent later.


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CedarS is a not-for-profit, 501-C-3 organization with a Federal ID # 44-0663883.

FYI on how our Summer and Fall 2020 tuition has been dramatically reduced:
As we prayed with the motives of loving our neighbor, being law-abiding, acting with wisdom, and offering a camping experience that is consistent with our Christian Science foundation, we were led to cancel not only our June but also our July onsite camper programs and our August Family Camp. We were led to make several adjustments to our operations for onsite CIT training and staff development in support of new ONLINE program offerings. Here are decisions that protocol compliance, our facility capacities and divine guidance led us to make:

CedarS Camps (income-)adjusted Schedule for Summer and Fall 2020:

  • Session 1 (June 7-20): Cancelled
  • Session 2 (June 21- July 4): Cancelled for campers–replaced with 14-day Precamp for all staff "in a bubble"
  • Session 3 (July 5 – July 17): onsite camper programs Cancelled, but with CIT program and staff continuing in order to support two last weeks of ONLINE, grade-level programs and an international, virtual Musical Theater camp & production. (averaged over 120 online campers per week from preschool thru 12th, from coast to coast & from 8 different countries)
  • Session 4 (July 19 – July 31): onsite camper programs Cancelled, but with inspiration to take home & share from a summer-finale, Staff Retreat Week 4.1 and closing camp weeks 4.1 & 5.
  • Family Camp, Session 5 (August 2-8): Cancelled because with protocols, not able to give an uncompromising "family feeling"
  • All 2020 Fall Programs postponed until 2021 and beyond… This includes a Labor Day DiscoveryBound National Event, several local church and other retreats and a Maddie Maupin deep-dive Bible Study of Genesis (now from October 21-25, 2021)

With never-changed gratitude and full-strength love to each of you,
Warren, Holly, Gay, Kim, Jennifer, and CedarS Team


  • APOLOGIES FOR ANY EDITING NEEDED FROM CEDARS VOLUNTEER EDITORS, CONTRIBUTORS AND TRANSLATORS FOR THIS FREE SERVICE. Thanks for your forgiveness and your needed, ongoing support!

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