CS Bible Lesson - 9-1-7,2008 - "Man"

[Mary Alyce]

The Lesson on Man gives us a wonderful opportunity to discover the dominion which God gave us. In Section I, we are told "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet. " and in Genesis we are told that God blessed man (the generic term for man and women), and gave them "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." I love the thought of dominion. But it is dominion because of our reflection of God's power. We don't have any power of our own. It comes from God.

In thinking of the extreme weather we have experienced throughout our country recently, it is helpful to remember that as stated in Seciton II, (Science and Health Marker 8) "The planets have no more power over man than over his Maker, since God governs the universe; but man, reflecting God's power, has dominion over all the earth and its hosts." Taking this statement as a statement of fact, we can know that wind, hurricane, rain, drought, floods, and fires do not hold the power over us. Nothing can take from us our dominion -- our ability to stand firm in the Truth -- or our willingness to be witnesses to the power of God to bless mankind.

In Section III we find the healing of the Centurion's servant. The Centurion was willing to witness the power of God and the power of Jesus as His Son to heal his servant. To the disciples he said "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." Mrs. Eddy tells us that "Divine Truth, Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness,, and death." Jesus used his authority to heal, and so can we when we remember that our dominion over any situation comes form God.

When we are faced with diseases, we need to realize that we have authority to "rise in rebellion against them." There can be no dis-ease if God is all and God is good. I love the thought of harmony. Many people equate harmony with health. As a musician, I see that harmony is the result of practiced principles and steadfast reliance and trust in the principles which are the foundation of music. To me, healing disease requires the same steadfast trust in the principles we are taught in Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy tells us in Section IV Marker 16, "A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms."

This lesson is so filled with authority and examples of how we can demonstrate our authority as God's reflections in all manner of ways. We can prove our dominion over weather, disease, food shortages, gas shortages, and more as we trust the Divine Principle, Love to show us how. As we pray, listen, and follow, we will be witnesses as stated in the Golden Text, " ...ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.";)

[Mowgli]

Mary Alyce,

Thank you so much for this post! It truly was inspirational, and you have provided some fantastic thoughts to ponder and rest on for this week.

The only thing I could add is, as you said, our dominion comes from reflecting God's power. This is a very simple rule in Science, but perhaps because of its simplicity I often overlook it in search of something "more profound". My goal this week is to focus on how I reflect God's power and goodness, and how to uncover when I don't seem to be doing it.

Thanks again mary Alyce for your thoughts and for sharing them with us!

Mowgli

[Mary Alyce]

Hello!

I am new to the process of "discussion groups", and therefore I may not have understood how to post a comment which would generate a discussion. Please accept my apology.

[JudyRae]

Welcome to these discussion forums Mary Alyce!

You haven't done anything wrong. What a wonderful sharing! Thank you! :)

It's only Tuesday and perhaps some of us haven't yet felt we know this week's Lesson well enough to start discussing it or sharing our ideas. For myself, with little time yesterday, I just managed to post on the Q&A pages, but hadn't got over to this area and that's another "problem" - I don't know that everyone does come and look at these Lesson discussions, but i'm sure they will as they get more familiar. Up to now, there have only been about 4 of us writing here.

I'll be back, but not today!

Thanks again

JudyRae

[Aslan]

H
I am new to the process of "discussion groups", and therefore I may not have understood how to post a comment which would generate a discussion. Please accept my apology.


Mary Alyce;

You did just fine. Sometimes it takes a while for responses to be approved by the moderators. I personally have been unusually busy the last few days.

What I got from my first reading of this weeks lesson was the recurring theme of dominion, as you pointed out. In trying to relate it to the Golden Text, my take on it is that in demonstrating our dominion we become witnesses to God's works.

Regards,
Aslan

[JudyRae]

I am loving the power that surges through this Lesson – the feeling that we, as the expression of the Omnipotent One are empowered and authorised to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, feed the hungry, still the storm, hold crime in check etc etc.

What a contrast between the disciples' experience with the epileptic boy and Jesus' healing of the centurion’s servant. Even though the disciples had the highest and best teacher in the world, they still bought into mortal mind’s alarming but deceptive picture and fell for it hook, line and sinker. They couldn’t see past the material illusion.

Jesus, on the other hand said, “I will come and heal him.” He didn’t say, “I will come and give him a treatment and then perhaps he’ll start to get better” His understanding that everything unlike God was NOT TRUE was so clear, so definite, so assured, that he spoke with such authority and the centurion recognised this in him.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (Gen 1)

JudyRae

[Susie]

At the beginning of the week, I read Mary Alyce's posting before I had a chance to read the lesson. What jumped out at me was the the Golden Text: "Ye are my witnesses." That thought held strong for me even before reading the lesson.

Being married to an orthodox christian- non-scientist, the use of the word "witness" is heard often in my home. I have found lately that looking up words I think I know sometimes adjusts my thinking slightly and I find a new gem. So I looked up witness: "Attestation of a fact or an event; testimony." AND "One who is cognizant; a person who beholds, or otherwise has personal knowledge of, anything; as, an eyewitness; an earwitness"

I have intentionally held this idea about being a witness, as I have read the lesson this week. A witness not only for God, in the orthodox sense, but of God and the evidence of his ever-presence. How blessed we are when chosen to be witnesses of all God has done, is doing and- in John's case- will do.

The lesson tells us: "Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to multiply, - to manifest His power (SH 517:30, Section I)." I looked up manifest- To make obvious. I see this thought as telling us how we are witnessing this Divine Love for ourselves and letting it be witnessed by others.

In Section II (John 5:19) "The son can do nothing for himself, but what he seeth the Father do..." This is followed by the centurion finding Jesus and requesting healing for his servant at home. The Centurion did not have a father (to the best of our knowledge) that had showed him how authority works, but he did have experience with how established authority works. I believe he recognized that Jesus was working under Divine Authority (the works he had seen-witnessed- his Father do) and was able to place the situation completely in the hands of Jesus.

Staying with this idea I found myself thinking how amazing it must have been for the disciples to have a front row seat to witness the Divine Power, and experience Jesus simply doing what he saw his Father do for man, and the universe. Even today we have that front row seat. For me the question is: How often am I accepting my ticket?


Susie

[Susie]

I'm really enjoying studying the lesson with all of you as we share thoughts and ask or answer questions. I've noticed over the past few weeks that my lesson studies seem to follow a pattern. On Monday: an overview reading and looking for main points. On Tuesday: Vocabulary clarification. By Wednesday: the questions begin or I notice a gem or two that fills me. On Thursday: I begin to see God's love for us in the lesson. This love-seeing has happened each week. Studying that moves from facts and understanding to love. What a journey!

Today I am seeing the story of the loaves and the fishes in a new way. Hadn't they been there three days? A three day conference with Jesus! Wow! How filling that would be just on its own. But there is more.... An unexpected feast. This unexpected feast just kept on providing and "when they were filled (I like this. They were full!), they gathered fragments. For me, today, I see that I can fill myself with the sustenance of God's feast until I am filled. I can know that what he has given me does not take from those that may join the feast after me. That when Divine Love feeds me, the "fragments" of that feast have the power to feed the spiritually hungry that come into my experience. They too will be fed until they are full!

I suspect there is an important message in : "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." A few lessons back we had the woman who was willing to take the Master's crumbs from the table. In the Old Testament, Esther gleaned from the field. Anyone with thoughts to share on this?

Susie

[Mary Alyce]

Susie,

What a good comment about --

"I see that I can fill myself with the sustenance of God's feast until I am filled. I can know that what he has given me does not take from those that may join the feast after me."

I love the thought that the good we receive does not reduce the good available for others. The ideas we have do not diminish the resource for those ideas, since God is infinite Mind.

As to your comments about:

"I suspect there is an important message in : "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." A few lessons back we had the woman who was willing to take the Master's crumbs from the table. In the Old Testament, Esther gleaned from the field. Anyone with thoughts to share on this?"

I like to think of the fragments as new ideas. Ideas which were not limited to the Old Testament, or New Testament -- but available today. No idea of God can be lost, even if it is just "a fragment".

In my further thought about the lesson, I'm drawn to the idea of being a better witness to the healing power of God. Every evidence of healing is proof of Jesus' promise to us that "greater works than these shall ye do". Would that we all believed this promise. That we were willing to accept healing as a fact of law. The law of Spirit! That mortality is not reality.

Each day we have the opportunity to challenge the ideas which come to us to be sure they are healing ideas as opposed to destructive ideas. Are we seeing our family, friends, co-workers, customers, etc., as true reflections of God? Are we listening to lies, or affirming the truth about all those we with whom we come in contact? If so, then we are using every fragment, and nothing is lost.

Thanks for your comments -- they have started me thinking more.

[JudyRae]

Thanks both of you for more lovely ideas.

To me, on a human level, it was important for the disciples that they each had a basket full of fragments to prove the superiority of Spirit over all mortal beliefs of lack and limitation. I guess they didn't quite learn that lesson though until after they saw Jesus after his resurrection - after all, they went back to fishing!

I too felt sure that there are deeper spiritual meanings to this though and after a search on www.spiritualitycom found these below which bring this out:

Water shortages and a downpour of inspiration (http://www.spirituality.com/article.jhtml?ElementId=/repositories/shcomarticle/Mar2008/1205265998.xml&ElementName=Water%20shortages%20and%20a%20downpour %20of%20inspiration) (Not something we're suffering from in the UK at the moment! :rolleyes:)

A different kind of answer (http://www.spirituality.com/article.jhtml?ElementId=/repositories/shcomarticle/Jul2007/1185818542.xml&ElementName=A%20different%20kind%20of%20answer)

Reversing decline in health and living (http://www.spirituality.com/article.jhtml?ElementId=/repositories/shcomarticle/Jan2008/1201123261.xml&ElementName=Reversing%20decline%20in%20health%20an d%20living)
Live audio chat with Channing Walker, C.S. (I didn't have time to read it all this morning, so didn't see the references to "gather up the fragments" but it's terrific and I'm going to listen to the audio version while I do the ironing this evening!)


JudyRae

[Susie]

Mary Alyce and Judy,

Thank you for your replies. Its a priceless experience to be blessed by the findings of others. Hmmmm... Just a thought, the loaves and fishes also started with an offering of ideas (the loaves and fishes) and those not only filled the hungry, but left fragements that were commanded to be gathered (that last thought inspired by one of the articles Judy found). In other words, maybe each time someone offers an insight to someone searching for answers on this thread, they are offering loaves and fishes. So, whether you have given me loaves and fishes, or fragments, I have new insights to hold close during my day.


Thank you,

Susie