APPLY UNIVERSAL GEMs that SPARKLE THROUGH ALL GOD’S WORKS! USE BIBLE ILLUSTRATIONS** as SPRINGBOARDS for YOUR OWN MODERN-DAY PROOFS!
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as found in The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Is the Universe, including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?”
for December 13-19, 2021
(Cobbey’s text is shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps.org
(See more below where ** appears about the solo you can click on to hear)
**Reflect on “What Christmas Means to Me” as you listen online to this new solo.
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‘TIS THE SEASON TO FIND THE REASON for hope & joy on the darkest days!
AND YOU ARE INVITED TO DO SO TODAY! Please join us at one or both of our Christmas Hymn Sings TODAY, this Sunday, December 19th, at 2:00pm and 7:00pm Central.
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On Christmas Eve ENJOY another NOT-to-be-MISSED EVENT (in English and Spanish) at 7:30pm Eastern Time on DECEMBER 24, 2021 a talk by Astrophysicist LAURANCE DOYLE, PhD, THAT HE CALLS “THE SCIENCE OF CHRISTMAS.”
READ ABOUT & FIND HEALING IN A SIMPLE, CLASSIC POEM THAT DEBUNKS THE FABLE OF YOUR DUST-MAN (ATOMIC) ORIGIN WITH THE FACT OF YOUR SPIRITUAL ROOTS!
(Lock into your Genesis 1/Responsive Reading origin vs. a Genesis 2 man evolved from dust and atomic force)
GENESIS 1 OR GENESIS 2?
By Woodruff Smith
Where did it begin this idea called you?
In Genesis 1, or Genesis 2?
Which one of these concepts
Will prove to be true?
If you know what is what,
Do you know who is who?
In Genesis 1 in the 26th verse
There’s a man with never a taint’ of a curse.
But in Genesis 2 in verse number seven
There’s a dust man conceived…
He’ll never see heaven.
So, it really comes down
To which one you will claim,
What thou see’st thou be’st…
So, what is your name?
There they both stand.
Which one is you?
Is it immortal man one,
Or mortal man two?
If you’re immortal man
You know what you’re worth.
For according to law
You’ll inherit the earth.
But if you’re just a mortal
And made out of dust…
Is there anything to you
That’s worthy of trust?
No, the thing they call man
In Genesis 2
Is the dream of the dreamer.
It never was you.
So, know what you are.
Take your place in the sun,
You’re the immortal man
Of Genesis 1.
TESTIMONY OF HEALING [“The proof is in the pudding.”]
I gave a testimony one night in our Golden, Colorado church based on the ideas from a poem I really liked, which said, “Which of these men do you think of as you, Genesis One or Genesis Two?”
A couple of weeks later a businessman, not knowing I was behind him, probably, testified that he had heard a rather banal, trite testimony a couple of weeks ago from someone who recited that line, “Which of these men do you think of as you, Genesis One or Genesis Two?” and he thought it was so trivial, so lightweight.
He went to a business meeting in Atlanta, Georgia after that and was in a hotel room in the middle of the night, sound asleep with his wife beside him, when he had a massive heart attack.
He said he wasn’t naive, he knew what was happening, and he knew he was in a life-threatening situation. He was totally helpless, so helpless he could not even cry out to his wife for help, obviously could not call a practitioner, and he said for the first time in
his life he felt completely helpless. He tried to
repeat the Lord’s Prayer, the 23rd Psalm, the Scientific Statement of Being, but he couldn’t remember them, couldn’t put them together.
He felt totally mentally jumbled and then he recalled a very simplistic statement…”Which of these men do you think of as you, Genesis One or Genesis Two?” and he realized that it wasn’t so banal after all, that if he were a Genesis Two man he would probably not live through the night, but if he were a Genesis One man he could claim his dominion over the “things of the flesh.”
He did it. He said the pain lifted immediately and he felt whole and well. He decided the poem was OK after all.
–Lona lngwerson, CS
| Genesis Roundtable – First day of creation Click here to view: https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/ime05d2dxu?s=e |
If you like this content, you can find more like it in the online Christian Science Sentinel.
KEEP GROUNDED in YOUR “LIKENESS” to GOD INSPIRED by GENESIS 1:26
and “The “I, Yi, Yi Song””
with references to “image” & “likeness” in Science & Health p. 476:28-5/cit. S24; + p. 200; 94:1-6; 90:24-25…
from Next Generation Fellowship 2018 by Mike Griswold (vocal) Mike Tice (guitar). Released: 2018.
LISTEN (by clicking black bar in the online version) for an ORIGINAL ‘LITTLE DITTY” on REFLECTION
(written, sung and offered VIA EMAIL by longtime CedarS staff member, Mike Griswold, now the Director of the Music Ministry at Brentwood Christian Science Church/Next Generation Fellowship
email for more: musicamonteverde@gmail.com
**Reflect on “What Christmas Means to Me” as you listen online to this new solo.
Another Mike Griswold original solo that he recently wrote and will perform this Sunday at Brentwood Christian Science Church he calls “What Christmas Means to Me.” The solo is based on the ideas in Mary Baker Eddy’s article by this title for the Ladies Home Journal. With its emphasis on LIGHT it also fits very well with that theme in next week’s Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on “Christian Science. You can find the lyrics below and listen to the MP3 audio version by clicking on the attached Download in the online version of this week’s GEMs.
“What Christmas Means to Me”
by Mike Griswold, Director of the Music Ministry
at the Brentwood Christian Science Church/
Next Generation Fellowship.
“Those who walked in darkness have seen a great light
In earth’s darkest valleys, all shall be made right.
A virgin shall give birth, God’s own child come to earth,
And all the angels in the heavens sing:
“You’re the Children of God, not descendants of Eve.
With Christ our savior, sin will face defeat.
You are free, You are free, because Spirit is your Father…
That’s what Christmas, what Christmas means to me.
“I and my Father are one.
I am His son, and you are His children.”
Then he raised the dead, the
Paralyzed took up his bed, and the
Sinner of them all became a Saint.
“You’re the Children of God, not descendants of Eve.
With Christ our savior, sin will face defeat.
You are free, You are free, because Spirit is your Father…
That’s what Christmas, what Christmas means to me.
“And what does this mean right now?
In this holy hour, are we his disciples?
Surrendering our hopes and schemes,
Our selfish wants our unfilled dreams
Reaching out our hands to the least of these,
“Take up your cross” come now and follow me…”
“You’re the Children of God, not descendants of Eve.
With Christ our savior, sin will face defeat.
You are free, You are free, because Spirit is your Father…
That’s what Christmas, what Christmas means to me.
“You’re the Children of God, not descendants of Eve.
With Christ our savior, sin will face defeat.
You are free, You are free, because Spirit is your Father…
That’s what Christmas, what Christmas means to me.
Soloist Congregation
“Spirit our Father Spirit our Father
“Christ our Savior Christ our Savior
“Holy Spirit Fire Holy Spirit Fire
“Leading me Leading me
“That’s what Christmas, what Christmas means to me.”
SHARE YOUR CHRISTIANITY in WAYS that ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE! (a Paul GEM)
Cobbey Crisler insights on the context of Paul’s words to the Athenians in Acts 17 (cit. B8, and 208:5 & 596:7-10)
[Cobbey:] “Well, now Paul is heading for the cultural capital of civilization, Athens. And you can’t even go to modern day Athens without appreciating somewhat of what Paul saw, looking around at the remnants of that great city and “the columned buildings that were dedicated to so many gods. It must have moved Paul.” …
“And so, he opens his mouth and begins right away to talk in Athens. Now this is a tough area in which to introduce Christianity, except at least they were willing to listen because everybody talked about anything. I mean there were a lot of weirdo sects and ideas that they welcomed without question in Athens because everybody liked to dispute these ideas anyway.
“He’s in the market, the agora, as well as in the synagogue. He runs into Epicureans; he runs into Stoics.” Now Tarsus where Paul came from happens to be a Stoic stronghold. So, he must have been certainly aware of that philosophy…
“They bring him to Areopagus, the hill of Mars or Aries, and they asked him to explain what he has to say.” …
Acts 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
Paul, standing there, shows how a lecture can be tailor-made to any environment. And, it’s better than uniformity if you want to get the ear of the locals. And in this way, you will find at no point does Paul mention the Old Testament. Why? (Pause) What would that mean to the Athenians? (See below, Acts 17:23, paraphrased)
Instead, he kind of says, “On my way to the forum…you know. In other words, here I was, and I saw something you had back here. And, it says TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” (See Acts 17:23 …
“Would everybody be listening? It relates. He’s picked up something locally. And, would you also be listening if he said “That monument you put ‘TO THE UNKNOWN GOD’, I want to tell you a little something about him. He’s unknown to you, but here’s some information that might be helpful… “And then, in Acts 17, verse 24, he describes “that God who made all, and therefore, couldn’t dwell in temples made with hands.” …
We’re reminded of whom? Yes, but since Jesus, we heard that from Stephen, remember? As Saul, himself, he had heard that.
“He dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” (repeated paraphrased)
What do you think that comment does when you’re looking at the Parthenon and buildings like it? “God doesn’t dwell in all of this. He made everything. How can you contain Him?” … Very interesting point.
Have we even arrived at that point today in our thinking? … I doubt the Athenians had either.
“The search where God is…” will end up with the conclusion in the last line of Acts 17, verse 27, “that He’s not very far from every one of us.” And then Paul very cleverly introduces lines from local poets: “In him we live, and move, and have our being” and “for we are also his offspring” – parts of poems we have identified, and they even know the authors. (See below, partial)
Acts 17:28 (cit. B5) For in him we live, and move, and have our being**; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
“After the Master, What? The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
**Mary Baker Eddy on Paul’s words in Athens (cit. B2, Acts 17:28):
“St. Paul said to the Athenians, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” This statement is in substance identical with my own: “There is no life, truth, substance, nor intelligence in matter.” It is quite clear that this great verity has not yet been fully demonstrated, but it is nevertheless true. If Christian Science reiterates Paul’s teaching, we, as Christian Scientists, should give to the world convincing proof of the validity of this scientific statement of being. Having perceived, in advance of others, this scientific fact, we owe to ourselves and to the world a struggle for its demonstration.”
“Retrospection and Introspection,” by Mary Baker Eddy, page 93: 17
FULFILL YOUR GOD-GIVEN HERITAGE AS DOMINION MAN, NOT DUST MAN!
Cobbey Crisler insights on Psalm 8:4, 6/ cit. B16): “What is man?”
[Cobbey:] “Psalm 8, Verse 4. What is the presumption behind biblical therapy? What is its premise? We know it would be based on the question in verse 4 in part, “What is man?” That has been the most elusive answer to any question for the human race, except, perhaps, what is God? Who am I? The great unanswered question. Or does the Bible provide answers that fill that gap in thought, that vacuity? The answer given here biblically is “Thou madest him to have dominion.”
You need to have a premise on which to base the whole idea or concept of biblical healing or therapy. It’s based on the fact that man has dominion. Of course, that immediately recalls to us God’s pronouncement of that effect in Genesis 1 [Verse 26]. If dominion is part of the nature of man, what does that say about man’s ability to get rid of disease? We can’t have dominion and be dominated simultaneously. The logic of that premise requires us to search out more deeply what the Bible is telling us about man’s nature as it relates to God because it’s on that basis that we are having these prescriptions filled…
If it’s God’s theology, according to the Bible, it works. God’s theology in the Bible can never be confined to theory. When God spake, what happened? It was done. That’s how quickly His medicine works…
“In biblical terms, [Psalms 8:6], “Thou makest him to have dominion.” What is there about this fact that we can apply? Are the Psalms, in part, the threshold of our discovery of this throughout the entire Bible?”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
WALK ABOVE THE WAVES! DON’T BE AFRAID OR LOOK DOWN. WITH CHRIST ABOARD, TRAVEL AT THE SPEED OF THOUGHT! – Cobbey Crisler on John 6:16-21 (B8)
[Cobbey:] John 6:16. After Jesus feeds the 5,000, he stays behind and the disciples go back alone in their boat.
John 6:17. “Over the sea toward Capernaum.” That means they had to be on the other side of the sea, which is Bethsaida.
John 6:18. “The winds that come suddenly sweeping down from the east and the desert, or from the west and the Mediterranean, often stir the sea up without warning. They [the disciples] are having trouble negotiating their little boat. And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.
John 6:19, “Jesus is having no trouble approaching them on the sea.” This shows that he wasn’t really walking on the surface of the sea at all. As my father once pointed out, if the sea were churned up, walking would be more laborious than being in the boat. Jesus, however, had a method that was revolutionary and less laborious. He must be walking above the sea, not in the peaks and valleys. And if so, then he’s walking on air. [W. Gravity takes two material objects to work, so don’t be one of them.] But what’s the difference? They’re both rather difficult to do from the human view of it. This sounds mighty logical to me.
John 6:20. When he gets near he says, “It is I; be not afraid.”
John 6:21, “They willingly receive him into the ship.”
They learn a lesson in transportation. Space and time, as obstacles, can be overcome. “Immediately the ship, the disciples, everybody is beached. They’re right there at the destination. It’s a wooden boat. No one says it ended up in fragments. No one was holding their heads and complaining that they hit their head against a sonic boom of something.”
“The Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
LIKE JESUS, SHOW CONTEMPT for the DNA-DUST MAN
and WASH OFF EVERY TRACE OF THE DUST MAN!
W. on Cobbey Crisler seeing the disciple’s question of Jesus as a multiple-choice exam John 9:1+/cit. B20
[Cobbey:] “John 9:2. The disciples ask Jesus “who did sin?
(A) This fellow over here? or
(B) his parents?”
John 9:3. Jesus had that paper before him as in the examination room on that point many times before. “He says,
(C), none of the above… [Or as Warren proposes as another right multiple-choice test answer (D) DNA (Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid (DNA) (the molecule that supposedly carries encoded genetic instructions) Does Not Apply!)]
[Cobbey continues his (C) answer of:] “None of the above. Neither hath this man sinned or his parents.”
What’s that saying about origin? Where is that man? His roots are not in parents or in some reincarnated experience…”
Notice what he does in John 9:6 and what it may remind you of. “He spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle.” That reminds you of man being made of the dust in the Second Chapter of Genesis Verse 6 and 7, doesn’t it? Would Jesus ever [by spitting show disgust or contempt for or] mock God if he considered that was the real way that creation occurred? Yet, it almost looks like a mockery of that. He’s taking on that concept of the man of dust. He’s spitting on that ground, into the dust, making clay of it, and slapping it on the eyes of the blind man.
John 9:7. The man goes to the pool of Siloam. He can’t see his way there. He’s got mud all over his face. He doesn’t go seeing. He comes seeing.” He comes only after he has washed off that symbolic making or formation of man out of the dust.
In a way, it might even give us a greater hint on what the true meaning of baptism is, the immersion in Spirit, nativity, and washing off every trace of the dust man.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
Check out a great reenactment of this healing to the end of the story (verse 41) at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHBo7ka3YZQ
TALK OF “TENDER MERCIES” & QUIT FOCUSING ON NEGATIVITY:
Cherish “… his tender mercies … over all his works.” (Ps. 145:9-11/cit. B24)
Enjoy a serenade of “Tender Mercies” by two Christian Science Practitioners! See and hear Craig Ghislin, CS, and David Price, CS, two of CedarS Met contributors, singing a guitar duet of “Tender Mercies” on the back porch of our new Care House where they were serving.
[Click on either: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PToeaQ_CWLE&feature=youtu.be
By accentuating the harmony, positivity and blessings that flow from receiving God’s “tender mercies,” we can and should eliminate the curses of strife and negativity that daily news and ads play up, especially in weeks before an election.
(Ps. 145:10/cit. B24) “All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee”—as two of them do in the “Tender Mercies” duet from the deck of CedarS log Care House.
Cobbey Crisler points out in the next verses that we should encourage one another to share examples of God’s power, TO STOP FOCUSING THOUGHT ON STRIFE AND TO QUIT TALKING ABOUT ILLNESSES (and viruses)!
Cobbey Crisler on Ps. 145:11
“Psalm 145, Verse 11. A receptive, spiritually-educated, human race going to God with total commitment for the answer to all ills will no longer talk about illnesses. “They shall speak of the glory of God’s kingdom, and talk of thy power.“’
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
TALK OF “TENDER MERCIES” & QUIT FOCUSING ON NEGATIVITY:
Cherish “… his tender mercies … over all his works.” (Ps. 145:9-11/cit. B24)
Enjoy a serenade of “Tender Mercies” by two Christian Science Practitioners! See and hear Craig Ghislin, CS, and David Price, CS, two of CedarS Met contributors, singing a guitar duet of “Tender Mercies” on the back porch of our new Care House where they were serving.
[Click on either: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PToeaQ_CWLE&feature=youtu.be
By accentuating the harmony, positivity and blessings that flow from receiving God’s “tender mercies,” we can and should eliminate the curses of strife and negativity that daily news and ads play up, especially in weeks before an election.
(Ps. 145:10/cit. B24) “All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee”—as two of them do in the “Tender Mercies” duet from the deck of CedarS log Care House.
Cobbey Crisler points out in the next verses that we should encourage one another to share examples of God’s power, TO STOP FOCUSING THOUGHT ON STRIFE AND TO QUIT TALKING ABOUT ILLNESSES (and viruses)!
Cobbey Crisler on Ps. 145:11
“Psalm 145, Verse 11. A receptive, spiritually-educated, human race going to God with total commitment for the answer to all ills will no longer talk about illnesses. “They shall speak of the glory of God’s kingdom, and talk of thy power.“’
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
TURN GRIT into “*PEARLS*!” & TRASH into BEAUTIFUL “TREASURES OF TRUTH AND LOVE!”
Part of CedarS 2020 Theme in cit. S30, Science & Health, p. 265:3-15 by Mary Baker Eddy
“Man understands spiritual existence in proportion as his treasures of Truth and Love are enlarged. Mortals must gravitate Godward, their affections and aims grow spiritual, – they must near the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper sense of the infinite, – in order that sin and mortality may be put off. This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggest man’s absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace.”
We invite you to join us in “gravitat[ing] Godward.” A CedarS-like camp setting, whether actual or on a virtual Hymn Sing, is the perfect place to discover and enlarge your treasures of Truth. Every “met” (inspirational sharing before activities), every breakfast Christian Science practitioner talk, every Bible Lesson study, every Hymn Sing, every Sunday School class, and testimony meeting offers campers nuggets of Truth to make their own. And each activity offers opportunities to apply these Truths and prove their value – to really turn them into treasures for life!
BONUS “POSTLUDE” after cit. S31:
The list in this ongoing passage is such a beautiful promise of the blessings realized through spiritual growth:
– Enlarged individuality
– A wider sphere of thought and action
– A more expansive love
– A higher and more permanent peace
We see this list as so contemporary, as so on-target, and as so timeless. This is as exactly what today’s youth needs – and exactly what today’s world needs.
*Pearls* are wonderful examples of the “treasures of Truth” and how they grow. A pearl grows in an oyster only because an irritant has entered its shell and the oyster responds by secreting on it layer after layer of an irritant–soother (the way that spiritual sense and love heal whatever irritates us and others). Let’s take that as a challenge to be like the oyster and turn everything that looks negative and ugly into a string of beautiful pearls by applying layer upon layer of love and spiritual sense to grow our treasures of Truth and Love!
Enlarging your treasures of Truth and Love will soon make you “debt-free” by cancelling the debt — Think of “cancel culture,” but from a God’s eye view! St. Paul simply describes this higher view of ultimate “debt-forgiveness program” of Love that freed him—as it will free you. It is to: “Owe no man anything, but to love one another” (Romans 13:8). Saul voiced this as one who “owed” Christ and all Christians BIG-time by being known as their most enthusiastic enemy and persecutor. Saul made up for it as Paul by becoming Christianity’s most advent advocate and most eloquent missionary after he was converted by a “virtual” meeting with Jesus. (So, don’t underestimate the power of a virtual camp session, hymn sing or church service whenever the Christ is welcomed in!)
If you visit Saul’s road to Damascus in CedarS Bible Lands Park, you will be reminded to be like Ananias of the Damascus Christians. Like Ananias, you will be asked to stop “owing” any former enemy or persecutors and to stop “bearing false witness against” any and all Saul-like characters in your life—and instead see them as if they’ve been on their “road to Damascus” and changed for good by the Christ. In the words of a young Sunday School student “Forgive us our “trash-passes” as we forgive those who “trash-pass” to us.”
Had Ananias held Saul in a position that he’d outgrown after his “virtual encounter” with the Christ – if he had NOT obeyed God’s command to forgive Saul’s trash-passing and to restore his sight, the born-again Paul would not have become the most productive, passer of the treasure of Christianity that the world has known. “Those unpretentious, yet colossal characters, Paul and Jesus” (Misc. 360:6-8) both did all they could to pass along the rich treasures of their resilient spiritual sense of oneness with God. May we each do the same with all the treasures of Truth that spiritual sense constantly gives us!
