Reality

Reality 3-29-09 Sara Lincoln

What words in the Golden Text (James 1: 17) define ‘reality’?

What is the difference between ‘hearing the word’ and ‘doing the word’? In this question, ‘word’ means ‘command.’

What is a ‘word / command’ from the Christ that you obey right away?

What is a ‘word / command’ from the Christ that you may not be so quick to obey?

What is a ‘suggestion’ from mortal mind that feels like a ‘command’? Why don’t’ you have to obey a command from mortalnomind?

Thank you God! Here’s a problem that seems to be, but in reality, is not about me.
I always reflect and express All-knowing Mind, so I’m listening for Your ideas.
Mind knows and I know so all is well. No problem!
Is this a prayer? ___

Now it’s your turn. Say a prayer that mentions God, I, problem, reality.

If it’s r___________, it’s p________________. SH 353: 16-18

Can my human consciousness and human understanding lead me to truth and show me what’s real and perfect? _______SH 505: 16-17
What does show me Life, Truth, and Love? SH 505: 22-25

What did the Psalmist mean in Ps. 19: 14. Put that prayer in your own words.
What did the Psalmist mean in Ps. 138: 8. Put that prayer in your own words.

As you continue learning, in school and out of school, will you hear many ‘theories’ or mostly ‘spiritual reality’? What can you think every day that will honor Truth more than theories? SH 502: 29-5

Christ Jesus was always focused on Reality, on perfection. Did he stay focused on Reality and perfection even when there seemed to be evidence of imperfection? ____
Mark tells about a time when Jesus’ friends brought a blind man to him and said, ‘Jesus, please touch this blind man and heal him.’ What happened? Mark 8: 22-25
What reality did Christ Jesus know that healed the man? SH 486: 23-26

If you know that God is light, is perfect, and you are God’s perfect reflection, what is the cloud that tries to block the sunlight of Truth? _____ SH 315: 16
This little 3-letter word cannot affect you or hurt you if you “s__________ s________ and prove man’s heritage, the ___________ of the sons of God.”


If someone has a disease for 8 months, does the disease become real? _________
If someone has a disease for 38 months, does the disease become real? ________
But what if the disease goes on for 38 years! Then that disease definitely becomes real, right? _______ Read about this man in John 5: 2-11
What did Christ Jesus do when he saw such a man?
What did Christ Jesus know that healed the man? SH 476: 32-4
Tell us what you think Christ Jesus said to the crippled man beside the pool.
Christ Jesus knew that blindness is not Reality. Through C__________ S___________, we also know that blindness is not Reality.

What about an earthquake or hurricane or flood or drought? Which of these is a reality?
You are a spiritual thinker, an infinite manifestation of Infinite Mind. What do you say to the earthquake, hurricane, flood, or drought?

If you hear about someone who is trying to cheat or lie, what do you say to yourself?

Knowing reality is a daily promise to ourselves to go beyond m_______________ k_______________ and use s______________ u_________________. SH 96: 27-30

When will you know all the reality you need to know? _______
The Apostle Paul wondered about this and came up with this great perspective:
I Cor. 2: 9-10 Let’s put Paul’s instruction in our own words:



I Cor. 13: 9, 10, 12 When will “I know even as also I am known {by God}”? ______

Your goal is always to look for and look at Truth, Reality. Will that always be easy to do?
Our textbook says “the goal of goodness is assiduously earned and won.” SH 233: 8.
What do you think ‘assiduously’ means?
Let’s look it up.

When will you have a vocabulary as big and useful as Mary Baker Eddy’s? _______

Mary Baker Eddy gave this prayer that helps us remember our goal and how to achieve it:

Father-Mother good, lovingly
Thee I seek, —
Patient, meek,
In the way Thou hast, —
Be it slow or fast,
Up to Thee.

I will memorize this prayer.

Matter

Matter 3-22-09 Sara Lincoln

What is the meaning of ‘matter’? This is an important question. Is it a ‘matter of opinion’? What do the experts say?
* the dictionary reveals that matter has many meanings, for example, matter is a physical object that occupies space. The limited human mind trying to understand substance calls it ‘matter.’
* The Bible uses another meaning of matter: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
Eccl. 12: 13
* Christ Jesus said ‘no man can serve two masters…Ye cannot serve God and mammon (matter).’ Matt. 6: 24
* Christian Science says, “Matter is neither a thing nor a person…” SH 287: 26
What do you say about matter and materiality?

When looking for answers in Science and Health, we may go first to’ the six important points’ of Christian Science called the ________. SH 497 Tenet five tells us what proves the nothingness of matter.
We also look again at the s____________ s_____________ of b__________, SH 468 What does it say about matter?


Tell us what you are really sure about, for example, you are really sure that you are you and not someone else! What else are you really sure of?

Let’s look at these things you are really sure about. Can any of them be destroyed? _____
Every material ‘thing,’ can be destroyed. Can a spiritual idea also be destroyed? _______

These Bible friends proved that matter could not destroy them. What do you remember about each one?
Noah? Joseph? Moses? Daniel? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo? Christ Jesus? Paul?
Why couldn’t matter destroy them? What was their protection? ________________
The Apostle Paul tells us how to defeat the enemy, the belief in matter. II Cor. 4: 18
He says we should not look at the things ________ ______ _______. We should look at the things ________ ______ _____ _______. Why?

Latest news!! Matter is not ‘a thing’ it’s just ‘a dream.’ Only mortal mind believes in the dream called matter and materiality. Paul gave a name to the mortalnomind that hates God and man. He called it the ________ _______. Romans 8: 7

The carnal mind or matter mind (what we call mortalnomind) tries to put thoughts in your head saying that there is life, truth, and intelligence in matter or that you are limited or sick. Thank God you can say every day, “God is my Mind and God is never limited or sick. I am never limited or sick. I am the expression of God, God’s image and likeness.
Matter never impresses me.”

We are not farmers, but we can still get the point in Jesus’ parable about ‘the good seed’ and ‘the tares {weeds}.’ Matt. 13: 24-30 What is the point?
Our textbook says, in effect, the good seed is my spiritual individuality and a mistaken thought or false belief cannot destroy it. SH 300: 13

The true story of creation in Genesis 1 says that God created dry land and seas, trees and grass, sun and moon, fish and birds and animals. Are these material? ______
It takes an advanced thinker like you to understand that “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead;” Rom. 1: 20. Invisible things are seen???? WOW.
What can ‘see’ things that are ‘invisible’?
The created things in Gen. 1 are m______________ of idea / thought, not m__________.
Gen. 1 also says that God created males and females in the image of God, which is spiritual. God gave man/woman ____________ over all created things. Gen. 1: 28

There is a chapter of questions and answers in Science and Health. What is the name of that chapter? ___________________. A recapitulation is a s______________.
The question, “What is man” includes this statement: “Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas;”
SH 475: 13-15. “He is not physique” means man is not __________.
How does it help you to know that you include all right ideas?

Science and Health includes a dictionary called the G________ which defines ‘matter.’
The meaning of matter is “…life resulting in death…the opposite of Truth.” We don’t want ‘the opposite of Truth’ so let’s rise above this ‘mythology’ and act like who we are, God’s loved ideas, forever. Always the i_____________ m__________________ of i_____________ M________. SH 468: 10-11

Why don’t we have to agree with matter which is Truth’s opposite? _________
“Because Truth is omnipotent in goodness, error, Truth's opposite, has no might.”
SH 367:331. I choose____________________

Matter cannot have a bad effect on your life if you decide to l________ and o_________
God, Good, and refuse mortalnomind’s dreams. Our Golden Text (Col 3: 2) puts it this way: ‘Set your affection on things above {on Spirit} not on {material} things on the earth.’

Substance

Substance 2-15-09 Sara Lincoln

What is the meaning of ‘evidence’? __________
What evidence do the five physical senses give that you are you?

What do you know and like about yourself that the physical senses don’t show?

What you like about yourself (and others) is ‘substance’ -- how you think and act, who you really are. The dictionary says that ‘substance’ is both mental and material, but Christ Jesus and Christian Science give a better explanation. Substance is idea. Substance is mental. The ‘evidence’ of substance is not matter. It is _______________.
Scientifically speaking, All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation. SH 468
How long will you be a manifestation of unlimited Mind? ____
How long will mortalnomind try to trick you with ‘evidence’ that lies? _____

So how do you stay connected to substance (who you really are) and evidence
(the manifestation that others can see)? The Apostle Paul gives us a word that describes ‘intelligent trust.’ That word is ___________. Hebrews 11: 1

Abraham had intelligent trust in an idea about God that came to him, that there is only one _______. There are not _______ ________. Abraham heard the one God say to him, “I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect.” Gen. 17: 1
Several thousand years later, Christ Jesus repeated what God said: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Matt. 5: 48
Almost two thousand years after Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy again repeated what God said: “Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness…he is spiritual” SH 468: 8-15
Good ideas just keep on coming, even to you and me!

When Abraham heard God, did he say, ‘I must be imagining things! My physical senses tell me not to expect perfection.’ _____ Abraham trusted his intelligence and intuition that there’s something more than a physical sense of substance and evidence, so he obeyed God’s command. He left the land of limitations and step by step he discovered God’s definition of substance and evidence: good and eternal.

Since Abraham, there have been other men and women who knew that substance and evidence were mental / spiritual, not material. Name some of these people who have greatly blessed mankind: .. . . . . . . .

These friends of mankind could see things that were invisible to others because they had and trusted the quality of ________. They held on to it no matter what!

Do you also have faith, an intelligent trust, in the four omni-rules:
omniALL_________, omniALL_________, omniALL_________, omniALL________
See definition of Good (SH 587)

In ancient times, before people invented writing, the only way to communicate was verbally. People talked about what they knew, or wanted to know. They told each other and they told their children and that verbal activity was the beginning of history. In ancient times, and still today, when people want to understand something, they sometimes make up a story about it.

About 3,000 years ago, people wanted to know why many men and women didn’t seem to be God’s friends or friends to each other or friends to their children. To answer that question, someone wrote the story of Adam and Eve. When you make up a story to explain something, that story is called a ‘myth.’ The word ‘myth’ is sometimes used to mean ‘lie,’ but myth also means a ‘story’ or ‘explanation.’
Where in the Bible is the Adam and Eve story / myth? ________________
Let’s review some of the main points.
What kind of trouble has this particular story teller in Genesis 2 caused for people who don’t ask questions, who believe that ‘myth’ is ‘scientific truth’?

Science and Health, published in ________ was the first book to clearly explain the difference between the mythical creation of mortals and the spiritual creation of man.


Here are some ways mortalnomind describes you and me and everyone else.
In front of each description, write ‘myth’ or ‘spiritual creation.’ Write ‘m’ or ‘sc.’
___Fallen, sick, sinning, and dying ___ Reflects eternal Life, Truth, and Love
___Perfect God and perfect man ____ Has poor thought models
___Isolated and solitary {all alone} ____ Has the mind of Christ
___True reflection and friend of God ____ An unfolding spiritual idea
___Permanent individuality as Mind’s idea ____ A limited material idea


There are millions of people who still believe they are separated from God and are limited in many ways. How are you going to avoid such beliefs as you grow up?
You might get some ideas from SH 128: 14-19

Our textbook tells us we better be awake, not asleep: “the parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream, the ________ ________, in which originated the delusion that life and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter.” SH 306: 31 - 3

If we are awake we hear Truth asking, ‘is evil mind? Is mind evil?’ If we are willing to answer no – no, Truth says, “Good for you. You know one Mind and you will go far.”

If you seem to learn something from material sense, you need to refuse it and lose it! What happens when the ‘sense-dream’ vanishes? SH 312: 5-7

What is most important to you about substance?

Man

Man 3-8-09 Sara Lincoln

What is your family name and why is it important to have one?

Last week we discovered that Christ Jesus had a family name: Christ Jesus ______
He called himself the Son of man whereas Peter called him the Son of the living God (Matt. 16: 13, 16). Why is it important for us to appreciate both names?

Who else besides Christ Jesus has the family name of ‘man’? SH 515: 21-22

Jesus looked to Truth to see “the perfect man” governed by Truth and Love. Mary Baker Eddy uses three other words that mean ‘looked to Truth.’ What are those three words? SH 476: 32 ___________ ________ __________

Let’s tell what we see in the others in our class as we behold them ‘in Science.’

The Apostle Paul says in our Golden Text, “There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3: 28
I’m sure Paul knew the Scriptures and knew that verse in Genesis 1 that mentions
‘male and female.’ What verse is that and what does it say?

Did Paul forget Gen. 1: 27?
What do you think he was trying to tell the community of Christians in Galatia?

In ancient times, before people invented writing, the only way to communicate was verbally. People talked about what they knew, or wanted to know. They told each other and they told their children and that verbal activity was the beginning of history. In ancient times, and still today, when people want to understand something, they sometimes make up a story about it. Are there any stories your parents tell about who you are and what you can do? For example, when I started taking piano lessons at age 10, my mom told me I had the musical talent of my Aunt Louise. I didn’t know anything about Christian Science at that time, so I didn’t know to say, no one gets talents from another person, every talent is given by God, God individualizes talent in every person, every one has many talents.
What stories do your parents tell about you and your talents / abilities?

About 3,000 years ago, people wanted to know why many men and women didn’t seem to be God’s friends or friends to each other or friends to their children. To answer that question, someone wrote the story of Adam and Eve. When you make up a story to explain something, that story is called a ‘myth.’ The word ‘myth’ is sometimes used to mean ‘lie,’ but myth also means ‘story.’
Where in the Bible is the Adam and Eve story / myth? ________________
Let’s review some of the main points.
What kind of trouble has this particular story teller caused for people who don’t ask questions, who believe that ‘myth’ is ‘scientific truth’?

Science and Health, published in ________ was the first book to clearly explain the difference between the mythical creation of mortals and the spiritual creation of man.


Here are some ways mortalnomind describes you and me and everyone else.
In front of each description, write ‘myth’ or ‘spiritual creation.’
Write ‘m’ or ‘sc.’
___Fallen, sick, sinning, and dying ___ Reflects eternal Life, Truth, and Love
___Perfect God and perfect man ____ Has poor thought models
___Isolated and solitary {all alone} ____ Has the mind of Christ
___True reflection and friend of God ____ An unfolding spiritual idea
___Permanent individuality as Mind’s idea ____ A limited material idea



There are millions of people who still believe they are separated from God and are limited in many ways. How are you going to avoid such beliefs as you grow up?
You might get some ideas from SH 128: 14-19

The Pharisees gave very strict instructions to the people about obeying Moses’ Ten Commandments. Because one commandment says “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Ex. 20: 8-11) the ‘ruler of the synagogue’ criticized Jesus for healing a woman on the Sabbath day. ‘Healing’ was considered ‘working’ and working was not allowed on the Sabbath. The woman had been crippled for 18 years but Jesus “laid his hands on her and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.” Luke 13: 11-17.
What was the difference between what the Pharisees believed about the Sabbath and
what Jesus knew about the Sabbath?


The Scientific Statement of Being makes several statements about ‘man.’
Write down 4 of these statements.


The Psalmist (Ps. 37: 37) gave a good rule for the person (man) who wants to be at peace. He knew, we know, that each time you find peace for yourself, you help bring peace to the world. The Psalmist said, and Christian Science says, to
___________ the perfect man
___________ the upright
(I call it the P37 rule)
Put that rule into your own words: