9/5/99 No One Owns You!


Class Notes and References for Sunday, September 5, 1999, MAN: Nobody owns you!

You all know when you are in a situation or around someone that totally dominates you. You lose your confidence. That person, place or thing owns you. You have hit the wall. The fact is, that nobody owns you. You reflect the power and intelligence you need for any situation.

This weeks Responsive reading is helpful in that regard:
Ps 18:29
For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.

Whatever limits you in any direction must be overcome by understanding the source of you strength, intelligence, attraction and dominion. Not enough money? Lacking the “sex appeal” to be popular? Just can’t understand what the Professor is saying? Not enough time? Are you too sick to get out of bed? Christian Science defines “man” in two separate areas of the textbook. The first is in the chapter, “Recapitulation”. This chapter is the last chapter of the Science and Health section of the textbook (before the Key to the Scriptures section.) The second spot is in the Glossary. The Glossary is the last chapter of the Key to the Scriptures section and defines Bible terms. Lets look at the Glossary definition of Man first. Mrs. Eddy focuses on two synonyms for God in this definition, Mind and Spirit. Why?

S&H 591:5
MAN. The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind.

When we think about the world’s definition of man we immediately think of a material brain and body. When you spiritualize those terms what do you get? Mind and Spirit, the very opposite of the material view. Wouldn’t it therefore seem logical that Mrs. Eddy would explain what man is by denying the power of material brain and body? Now look at the definition from Recapitulation:

S&H 475:5-22
Question.--What is man?
Answer.--Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.

Naturally you think of yourself as having form, color, quantity and quality. And, you compare your color, quantity, quality and form to everyone else’s. You do not have two bodies, a material and a spiritual one. Just one, and that one is spiritual! You might have two views, however—a material view of body that needs to progress to a spiritual view of body. Look at the following sentence from our textbook:

S&H 512:21-24
From the infinite elements of the one Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and quantity, and these are mental, both primarily and secondarily.

Imagine, your identification wholly emanates from Mind and is mental. What does it mean: “primarily and secondarily”? That means in the absolute and in the relative. (In what Mind knows about you and in what you express humanly.)

Let’s re-read the explanation of Man from Recapitulation but this time replace the word “man” with the word “I” or “me” or “my”:
S&H 475:5-22
Question.--What am I?
Answer.--I am not matter; I am not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform me that I am made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. I am spiritual and perfect; and because I am spiritual and perfect, I must be so understood in Christian Science. I am idea, the image, of Love; I am not physique. I am the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which I am the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore am eternal; I have no separate mind from God; I have not a single quality underived from Deity; I possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of my own, but reflect spiritually all that belongs to my Maker.

What have you just done? You have given yourself a treatment! Here is another one:

S&H 393:10-24
Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.
Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God's government. Have no fear that matter can ache, swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law of any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have no pain nor inflammation. Your body would suffer no more from tension or wounds than the trunk of a tree which you gash or the electric wire which you stretch, were it not for mortal mind.

Finally a little statement that I repeat each day. I want you to have it. Memorize it! “Recognition of the allness of God leaves no contrary power to consider, no threat to be feared, no battle to be fought.” If you can understand that then you can understand that no person, place or thing can ever own you! Dominion is yours.



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