The FRUITS of the Spirit

Each week our Youth Discussion groups are fueled by the week’s :

This week’s lesson subject is “Spirit” – and the sub-theme is Fruits of the Spirit.  You can read “Cultivate the Fruits of the Spirit” in the Christian Science Sentinel .  Below are just some ideas I am thinking about as I prepare for Sunday’s Bible Lesson Class for teenagers in our Sunday School.

The Golden text which sets the theme for the lesson is from the King James Bible: -

Ephesian 5: 9 – the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;

The verse preceding it in the Bible speaks of the light of Spirit (as opposed darkness )and The Good News Bible, translates this week’s golden text:

for it is the light that brings a rich harvest of every kind of goodness, righteousness, and truth.

When we study the Science of Christianity and live in this light of Spirit we can all expect our own “rich harvest of every kind of goodness, righteousness, and truth”. (Note it doesn’t say “wealth, fame, material possessions”. ) The Bible Lesson contains a lot of really helpful ideas about how to be more fruitful how to reap that “rich harvest”– how to be more productive and how to do more good works, including healing.

The last chapter in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy is called Fruitage – and contains testimonies of healing sent in by people who had been healed through reading Science and Health and studying and applying Christian Science. The lesson this week and every week contains ideas about how to heal and be healed.

The first section of the lesson reminds us that Jesus taught in parables, and the responsive reading is the parable of the sower and the seed. This parable can help us to understand – and thus avoid – the kind of thinking and activities that stop the seed from being fruitful – and yielding a harvest of 30-fold, 60-fold or 100-fold. What do you think the different scenarios in the parable represent? How did Christ Jesus explain them? What lesson can you learn for your life?

Section 2 – really helps us to think about the question: How did Christ Jesus heal? How can we heal? How can we cultivate the same kind of thought and spirituality that enabled Jesus to heal so effortlessly?

Section – 3 There lots to think about in every section and every Bible verse and passage from Science and Health that’s in the lesson. But one thing I am getting from this section 3 is the need to weed our thinking – we need to “watch and pray” to avoid temptation (see Matt 26:41) or as Science and Health puts it “Be watchful, sober, vigilant”.

Section – 4. Here we learn of Jesus Christ as the true vine and God as the “husbandman” (what is husbandman? ) What was Christ Jesus mission? What do we “most need”? And why? What are the signs that we are winning?

Section – 5. Here we read of Jesus healing on the Sabbath – and the Jobsworth who said he shouldn’t be healing on the Sabbath! Jesus knew the high law the over-ruled the petty limited sense of law that made the ruler of the synagogue indignant. The Science and Health passages in this section explain the superiority of this high law of Spirit and give some really practical pointers for our own healing work.

Section – 6. The final section of this week’s lesson reminds us that the early Christian Church grew because of the healing work of the first apostles – and that Christians today are still under “direct orders ..to heal the sick as well as the sinning” (Science and Health p 138). And this is so essential to our church.

Our church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can unite with this church only as we are new-born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth the fruits of Love, — casting out error and healing the sick.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p 35