Cherish GEMs that show YOU connected to the only power in the Universe!
insights from Cobbey Crisler and others from the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Is the Universe, including Man, Evolved bt Atomic Force?”
June 14-20, 2021
by Warren Huff
CedarS Executive Director Emeritus warren@cedarscamps.org
APPLY GOD’S PROMISE OF BEING UPHELD TO ALL WHO SERVE TO THE DELIGHT OF GOD’S SOUL! “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” (Isaiah 42:1, citation B11)
Cobbey Crisler on Isa. 42:1 (citation B11)) +verse 6
“Chapter 42:1 is a prophesy of a servant who should come, the “elect of God” who would have “the Spirit of God upon him.” [W: In Verse 6 there’s a shift from God calling this elect servant in the third person, to God calling YOU and holding your hand, and keeping YOU, to give YOU “for a covenant of the people, for a light to the Gentiles.” You will notice in Verse 7 – and in Isaiah 61:1 – what the assignment of this servant (YOU) would be, “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, [and] them that sit in darkness out of the prison house (W: or out of a lockdown, shelter-in-place or quarantine).”
[Cobbey again:] “Isn’t it interesting that the prophet Isaiah foresees this prophesied individual in the terms of “a servant” when the Greek word most often in the New Testament for healing has the classical Greek meaning of “to serve.” You remember how Jesus defined his ministry in those terms, “I came not to be ministered unto but to minister” [Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45]. Healing is serving by definition in Greek. Serving whom? God and man.”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren:] These prophesies in Isaiah foretell the coming of Christ as God’s healing servant. But the verse in our Bible lesson also promises that YOU are the called this called and healing servant who will be upheld. That is a promise of protection that you can specifically affirm in your prayer walks and watches— not only for yourself, but also for all our brave workers in health care, law enforcement, food supply, election polling, and other essential lines of service. All the dear ones who seek to restore freedom and harmony to our communities, to our country, and to our whole world have been clad in Love’s complete protection as they (you, we) have “pictured this heaven and earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme wisdom” (SH 91:2).
Florence Nightingale, a famous wartime nurse in the Crimean war, was cited by Mary Baker Eddy as a great example of the endurance and immunity in the moment that God gives to all who provide care for and serve others. She wrote: “…Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists engaged in humane laborers have been able to undergo without sinking fatigues and exposures which ordinary people could not endure. The explanation lies in the support which they derive from the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and endurance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best deeds… Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untoward conditions, if without sin, can be experienced without suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself.” (Science & Health, p. 385:2)
[W:] Check out on JSH-online an excellent Journal podcast by Janet Horton, a retired US Army Chaplain. It gives context to the above passage by sharing a brief biography of Florence Nightingale and her tireless labors for the soldiers during the Crimean War. She also shares an example of the pulling together and protection that she and others in the Pentagon demonstrated when it was struck by the high-jacked aircraft on 9/11.
[W:] As I was praying to see as divinely protected all the world’s front-line, health care providers, including all dear Christian Science nurses—and all patients as well, I continued to read page 395 in the chapter, “Christian Science Practice.” I found especially helpful the paragraph with the marginal heading of “Mental Quackery.” There it says: “It is mental quackery to make disease a reality—to hold it (the coronavirus) as something to be seen and felt—and then to attempt its cure through Mind…. Mental practice, which holds disease as a reality, fastens disease on the patient and it may appear in a more alarming form.” (SH 395:21)
BE PATIENT & EVER READY, LIKE SIMEON, TO ACCEPT A NONPOLITICAL LAMB as the Comforter & Redeemer of all mankind, delivering lasting freedom from the inside out! Cobbey Crisler on Luke 2:25-32/cit. B12 on Simeon, + verses 36-38 on prophetess Anna
Cobbey on Simeon: “It says in Verse 25 that Simeon “was waiting for the consolation of Israel… That word “consolation” is very close, the same root, as the Greek word translated “comforter” by Jesus… He says in Verse 30, ‘Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.. Verse 32 says, ‘A light to lighten the Gentiles…’” The old prophet Simeon recognizes the Christ, even as an infant, as God’s answer to the prayers of Israel for a comforter and redeemer of all mankind.
Most Jews were praying for and expecting their liberator would be one who would militarily free Israel from occupation by foreigners. They were looking for a political lion, but God sent them what they really needed, a non-political lamb—one who would give them lasting freedom (from the inside out)—no matter the political circumstances. [Are we always open to the solutions God provides, even when they don’t take the forms we expect?]
Bonus postlude from Cobbey on Anna: “In Verse 36 we find a woman, Anna, as well, not only a prophet, but a prophetess. Luke is telling us something here. The access to inspiration is equal. It doesn’t matter if you’re male or female. The ability to prophesy, the access to God, is direct. The woman doesn’t have to go through anyone in order to get to God, even though the whole Judaic ecclesiastical structure was built that way.”
“Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
Cobbey Crisler on I Corinthians 15:22/cit. B13
[Cobbey:] “…If our thesis as presented is accurate, that the implication of Paul’s statement in I Corinthians 15:22/cit. B13: “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” presents problem and solution, or remedy, then one of the greatest research jobs awaiting all of us is to get back into that problem called Adam which we’re all wrestling with.
Just make a list of everything you detect that Adam did wrong mentally and physically. Because, if it is true that Jesus’ mission was to remedy the Adam man and wipe that alternative off the face of man’s consciousness, then everything that Adam did wrong which was upside down Jesus is going to put right side up and prove that man is upright. Many things may occur to you, for instance in the initial phases of such a list which we could just touch upon. Adam’s problem occurred in what environment? The garden of Eden. Where did Jesus face down and confront that Adam-problem? The Garden of Gethsemane. Is this a coincidence? Is Gethsemane intended to be the remedy for the problems of Eden in our own thinking? I love in that context to remember Isaiah’s words [Isaiah 1:29] when he says, “Ye shall be confounded for the gardens ye have chosen.” Eden, Gethsemane.
Adam’s problem, though, is probably symbolized most graphically by what? He had been told not to do something, what was it? “Not to eat of that tree” [Genesis 3:3]. Instead he went and did it. The disobedience, doing one’s own will, would have to be totally remedied right up with the same even greater peak pressure on a humanhood that had just announced to the world that the way to get out of this Adam-mess is to yield to God’s will regardless of the pressure upon you, so [it’s] doing God’s will versus doing one’s own will. (“Jesus presented the ideal man… By his obedience to God he demonstrated more spiritually than all others the Principle of being.” (cit. S7/25:16)
The tree of knowledge of good and evil. You know that the New Testament refers several times to the cross as the tree, that they nailed Jesus to the tree [Acts 13:29; 1Peter 2:24]. Interesting symbolism. The attempt to nail Jesus as if he were one more in the dying race of Adam, to be nailed to death, and that’s the termination and the end of anything that he would offer man radically as salvation. Jesus could not be nailed on the cross any more than God’s man could be nailed on the cross, and thus his theology was exemplified.
Do you remember, – just things like this to show you how much fun this work can be as well – part of the curse on Adam [Genesis 3:17,18] was that thorns will be brought forth unto him. Did Jesus have to face Adam’s thorns on that weekend?
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread…dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return” [Genesis 3:19]. The grave was the pressure of the dust he was to return to. There are many other details showing the complete reversal of the Adam. It’s as if the highest sense of mind on earth, which had relinquished its right to mind except by reflection, is turning everything right side up just as we do visually. That topic is far from being exhausted. In fact, what can exhaust an infinite reservoir? It’s one thing about supply in the Bible. It’s never consumed. Therefore, there are no consumers.
We’re going to review the actual events of the Gethsemane experience and see some of the differences. What Jesus faced, what he was remedying, why he was there and see that we must, just for gratitude’s sake alone, have a stake in that Gethsemane, pioneer work. But then we must take it beyond this. We must go and do likewise.
Matthew 26:30 “When they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.” A hymn before Gethsemane. That shows the value Jesus places on such an uplifting of thought through the conjoining of music and words. The meaning that is often conveyed even more deeply to us when we have that unity of soul expressed by thought in that manner.
Matthew 26:36 “Jesus comes to a place called Gethsemane,” the oil press.
“The Gethsemane Decision,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
GET OUT OF A LIMITED, MORTAL SHELL! NO EGG ORIGIN FOR YOU!
[Cobbey Crisler introductory comments on I Cor. 15:50:] “Another conclusion is coming through Paul’s receptivity. He presents two views, one with man within an egg origin, one out of an egg origin. A chicken takes 10,000 pecks to get out of its shell of limitation. Bible pioneers like Paul worked hard to get out of their limited, mortal shells and they communicated this to us. [Mary Baker Eddy says, “Mortals must emerge … They must peck open their shells with Christian Science…” (cit. S17/552:16-19)
I Corinthians 15, verse 50 “…flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”
One might ask “Why are we trying to drag flesh along as if it’s a party?” [This relates to Mary Baker Eddy’s observation: “Being in sympathy with matter, the worldly man is at the beck and call of error, and will be attracted thitherward.” [S&H 21:25] Take up your bed and walk—Mind suddenly takes on the glow of our original glory.”
Transcribed from notes in the margins of Warren’s Bible from a talk given
by Cobbey Crisler
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