7/18/99 YOUR ORIGINAL PERFECTION


Notes and references from Sunday School, July 18, 1999
YOUR ORIGINAL PERFECTION

A well known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this." He proceeded to crumple the dollar bill up. He then asked, "Who still wants it?" Still the hands were up in the air.
"Well," he replied. "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. "Now who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.

"My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value in God's eyes. To Him, dirty or clean,
crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to Him."

John 8:3-11
3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,
4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
8 And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
9 And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
10 When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

QUESTION: What did Jesus write in the ground? In those days when there was a trial the charge against the accused was written down on a stone tablet and displayed to those in the courtroom. We donít know for sure but some Bible scholars believe that he wrote her sins in the ground in the same fashion. By so doing, Jesus could wipe away the sins in the ground as easily as saying to the woman, ìneither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no moreî.

Mis 14:8
It is urged that, from his original state of perfection, man has fallen into the imperfection that requires evil through which to develop good. Were we to admit this vague proposition, the Science of man could never be learned; for in order to learn Science, we begin with the correct statement, with harmony and its Principle; and if man has lost his Principle and its harmony, from evidences before him he is incapable of knowing the facts of existence and its con- comitants: therefore to him evil is as real and eternal as good, God! This awful deception is evil's umpire and empire, that good, God, understood, forcibly destroys.

Look at the sentence, ìÖin order to learn Science, we begin with the correct statementÖî You saw the value of the five dollar bill in class (and the $20 bill in the story above) no matter what I did to it. In the same manner we need to see our true value, our original perfection, as ìthe correct statementî about yourself and others. The follow quotations reinforce this point.

My 262:1
God creates man perfect and eternal in His own image. Hence man is the image, idea, or likeness of perfection
--an ideal which cannot fall from its inherent unity with divine Love, from its spotless purity and original perfection.

Un 64:16
Mortals may climb the smooth glaciers, leap the dark fissures, scale the treacherous ice, and stand on the summit of Mont Blanc; but they can never turn back what Deity knoweth, nor escape from identification with what dwelleth in the eternal Mind.


We are not ìburying our heads in the sandî and ignoring the problem when we deny the material evidence. We are simple declaringî the correct statementî. We are required to look deep into our thought (see last weekís notes) and uncover the false claims that we have accepted as truth. If we donít examine our thinking (daily study) then these thoughts go uninterrupted and grow in their influence upon us and our experience. We must interrupt and disturb that which has been allowed to remain undisturbed and hidden in our thinking. That is what is meant in the next reference as ìlatent errorî.

S&H 559:1-8
This angel had in his hand "a little book," open for all to read and understand. Did this same book contain the revelation of divine Science, the "right foot" or dominant power of which was upon the sea,--upon elementary, latent error, the source of all error's visible forms? The angel's left foot was upon the earth; that is, a secondary power was exercised upon visible error and audible sin.

Benediction: Find the five absolutes!

II Cor 9:8
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:



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