Join us for the best summer yet!

HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR APPLYING GEMs about HEARING GOD! 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

“God”
for December 27-January 2, 2022

 (Cobbey’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps.org

GOD KNOWS YOU & HAS A MISSION OF LOVE for YOU to DO TODAY!  FIND an UPLIFTING SPIN & GRIN in my REENACTMENT of MOSES at the BURNING BUSH –
Click below for a 2020 CLASSIC YouTube RERUN from Exodus 3:1-14/citation B2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50f4vWbs3ak&feature=youtu.be

[Warren “Moses:” Huff:] Late one Saturday night (3-21-2020) two dear friends, Ken Pratt and George Napper “burned the midnight oil” with me to help produce the divinely-linked message of hope and “love from above” that is conveyed in the YouTube video linked below. It was inspired by citations from Exodus chapters 3 and 4 as found in Section 1 of today’s Christian Science Bible Lesson on “God.”

That night’s late-night narration and camera work by Ken and “ready, willing and able” editing “by George” made possible this semi-professional sounding and looking message. May our after-midnight, obediently-socially-distanced production efforts and its messages bring not only a few smiles, but also some uplifting inspiration and the reality of God’s ever-presence in a time of seeming bondage today.

There are angel messages for everyone in this spontaneous video sharing: God intimately knows and loves each of you as precious in His sight; and God has a divine commission and mission of Love for you to do today for everyone who you are able to bless!

Loving smiles and messages reach across miles, compassionately do wonders, and are never outside of recommended protocols! So, let’s each of us be up and doing with love! Listen and obey each angel message to turn our “wilderness” of today which seems to be filled with “Loneliness; doubt; darkness” into world-wide blessings. That’s not only what Moses, but also what Elijah and Jesus did with their lowest moments!!! Like them and like all spiritual seers and doers throughout history, let each of us pledge to dispel every lonely, worrying, dark illusion by listening to and following God’s ever-inspiring, “burning-bush” angels!

Let us rejoice to gratefully demonstrate the present blessings of the second half of Mary Baker Eddy’s textbook definition of “wilderness.” (Science and Health, page 597:16) She went through—and saw through—the limiting illusions of a merely material sense of things and put a “full stop” to them. Let us work together (even remotely) to put a complete end to the worldwide illusions of “Loneliness; doubt; darkness.”

Let’s compassionately show that we are not alone, but All-One!! Let’s patiently “love into view” all good with “Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.” (SH 597)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50f4vWbs3ak&feature=youtu.be


BE ALL-IN FOR GOD AS YOU WHOLEHEARTEDLY SING HYMN 499
(as inspired by this week’s Golden Text, Isaiah 45:22)
Written and composed by DESIREE GOYETTE

I am the Lord, there is none else;
There is no God beside Me.
I girded thee, I girded thee,
Though thou hast not even known Me.
But know that from the rising sun
To the west there is none beside Me,
For I am the Lord, there is none else;
There is no God beside Me.

I am the Truth, there is none else;
There is no Truth beside Me.
Infinite light, bountiful, bright,
Is ever present to guide thee.
Beloved and free, eternally,
Perfect peace and joy I provide thee,
For I am the Lord, there is none else;
There is no God beside Me.

Innocent one, sinless and pure,
Nothing can ever divide thee.
Governed by Love, you are secure;
I am forever beside thee.
So rest and know wher-e’er you go,
Home and heaven cannot be denied thee,
For I am the Lord, there is none else;
There is no God beside Me.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 499:1–3)

POEM NOTES:
Isaiah 45:5, 6, 22 (Golden Text)

SILENCE DIVISIVENESS! “Think without STRIFE!”
PRAY for our DIVINE SENSE of ONENESS to INCREASE!

As CedarS wraps up our eight weeks of harmonious camper sessions for Summer 2021, and as we prepare to kick off our full Family Camp, it’s very fitting & needed that our Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson contains what Jesus was trained to pray to begin each day (and what all Jews still are supposed to pray to begin as well as end each day). Jews call this key prayer of theirs the “Shema” – the Hebrew word for “Hear”— because Deuteronomy 6:4/citation B1 starts with that word.

4 Hear, O Israel: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (citation B1/Deut. 6:4, 5)
[The rest of the Shema prayer… ] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9, (NIV), verses 6-9 after citation B71

Please note how constantly throughout each day (as yellow-highlighted above) Jews are supposed to prayerfully affirm the supremacy of God’s oneness and commandments to rule over all!

Another significance of this key prayer of oneness for us is that it led into the Christian Science Bible Lesson that began 2021.  In it the word “one” in used 60 times while alerting us of the importance of oneness as a healing keynote to focus on throughout each day. This will be especially helpful in the coming weeks and months of the world’s emergence from the pandemic as well as from an escalated exchange of missiles and violence in the Middle East.

As Christie Hanzlik, CS, points out in the opening paragraph of the CedarS Met for that week’s Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson: “It is tempting to see a world consisting of millions of human opinions, warring media reports, racial strife, class warfare, tribalism, gender inequity, political personalities, family disagreements and even conflicts within ourselves. The singular answer to this seeming divisiveness is the oneness of Truth, the oneness of good, the oneness of God. God is indivisible. And therefore we, as the outcome of God, are also indivisible.”

Verse 3 of Christian Science Hymn 157 calls for us to make daily progress in demonstrating unity:Day by day the understanding / Of our oneness shall increase.” This prayer request to God for oneness comes from no other than Jesus in the final hours before he allows himself to be captured for crucifixion, when he prayed for his disciples and us that we may feel at one with God and with one another! (John 17:11, 21, 22)

Christian Science Hymn 157
“Jesus’ prayer for all his brethren: / Father, that they may be one, / Echoes down through all the ages, / Nor prayed he for these alone / But for all, that through all time / God’s will be done.

One the Mind and Life of all things, / For we live in God alone; / One the Love whose ever-presence / Blesses all and injures none. / Safe within this Love we find all / being one.

Day by day the understanding / Of our oneness shall increase, / Till among all men and nations / Warfare shall forever cease, / So God’s children all shall dwell / in joy and peace.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 157:1–3)


ELEVATE MANHOOD TO ETERNALITY AS AN “I AM” EXPRESSION OF THE GREAT “I AM” GOD!
Cobbey Crisler referring to the significance of citation B2/ Exodus 3:14

[Cobbey:] Stephen was drawing God’s design as he saw it, that silver, if not golden, thread through the scriptures.  Starting with Abraham and working through to Moses in Acts 7, verse 32, notice that he selects for his example Moses’s beautiful view of God when “he stopped and looked to see why the bush was burning.”  (See below, paraphrased)

Acts 7:32   Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.

Ex 3:2   And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

That’s a very important intersection for mankind because between Genesis and Exodus, there may be maybe nearly 400 years of silence between Joseph and Moses.

What caused the silence?  Wasn’t God revealing?  Wasn’t God communicating?  Well, where did the fault lie?  …  Since communication has that prefix co, the fault lies either with the source or the receiver.  And we almost find an abrupt change as Moses becomes a receiver.  And it took him some while before he became a receiver.

And there he was in the mostly unlikely place in the middle of Sinai, and here is a bush burning.  But somehow it wasn’t consumed.  If that were happening in the middle of Times Square the local commuters and pedestrians would merely rustle their “Wall Street Journals” and walk on by,

But Moses stops to find out why.  That makes him an inquirer and immediately casts him as an important scientific observer in the history of humanity.  That’s scientific inquiry, isn’t it?  He wants to know why that the bush hasn’t burned.

And, at that moment, he receives communication.  And he receives one of the greatest breakthroughs about God, one that every one of us must have today before we can progress in any comprehension of the Godhead, I AM.

Why is that such a breakthrough?  Because here those children of Israel for nearly 400 years in bondage had been worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who lived hundreds of years before.  After many centuries of long, tired prayers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and nothing happening currently, what happens to any concept of God as I AM?  It really becomes you’re worshipping not an I AM God, but what? an I WAS God.

And that’s a God who is dead.  And not too long ago, “Time” magazine, on their cover, brought that back again.  That’s a I WAS God.  Here the tremendous pushing aside, waiting for the receiver, Moses, to get that point: “I AM, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, and I AM has sent me unto you.”  (See below, Partial)

I’m still I AM.  I’m not a God of the past.

Ex 3:6   Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

Citation B2/Exodus 3:14   And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

Now, what’s so beautiful about that is that Jesus took the statement a little further later in the gospels.  He said that that’s the proof that there’s a resurrection, that man is eternal.  You remember that in his argument with the Sadducees?  He made the point that since God said, “I AM the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” what did that do for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?”  (See above, Partial)

If “I AM the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac…” where are Isaac and Jacob?  (Ex 3:6   partial)

They are still living.  So, you see, Jesus elevated manhood to eternality just as Moses saw, in the revelation from God, that God was eternal and always I AM. 

Jesus added that God was now revealing that makes man eternal.  Now, what does that do to church and the concept of man working together cooperatively?  An immense breakthrough!”
After the Master What? – The Book of Acts, by B. Cobbey Crisler**


REACH OUT TO FEEL GOD’S PRESENCE, EVEN IF CIRCUMSTANCES SEEM TO HAVE YOU in the DEPTHS OF HELL! “Whither Shall I Go from Thy Spirit” from Psalm 139:7, 8/cit. B5 comforts us with assurance of the uplifting ever-presence of Spirit. We can sing together of this in
Hymn 599, “Whither Shall I Go from Thy Spirit”,
in the 2017 Christian Science Hymnal.

BONUS Christian Science Camps VERSION of HYMN 599 from Psalm 139!
Thanks to the initiating and copyright coordinating efforts by CedarS (then) Director of Operations, Holly Huff Bruland, all six of the North American camps for Christian Scientists came together to sing “Whither!” This happened when this Psalm was in the Christian Science Bible Lesson and we were all apart and unable (in early summer of 2020) to accept campers in person.  Holly arranged for all to sing their segments and send them in to Nathan Wood to edit together so that each camp could have the following Vimeo link to post to its social media and circulate as it saw fit:  https://vimeo.com/413393023

P.S. This Hymn is a favorite at several camps and is especially lovely when sung with a guitar as Erin Williams did in this YouTube version of it. (CedarS 50th Anniversary trilogy of CedarS CDs sold out at $25 each going totally to camperships.)

May be out of “CedarS Round the Clock” CDs:

at http://blog.cedarscamps.org/2011/07/16/order-around-the-clock-a-collection-of-3-cds-with-camp-songs-you-love-created-just-for-cedars/


 

APPLY INSIGHTS FOR STONE PILLOWS, A TWO-WAY LADDER & the GATE of HEAVEN from Genesis 28:10–13, 15, 16, 17/cit. B8

10 And Jacob went out from Beer–sheba, and went toward Haran.
11And he lighted upon a certain place [named by Jacob in verse 19 as Bethel, “the house of God.” Several parts of this story of Jacob’s dream of God’s promise to him as he flees Esau’s wrath on the way to his uncle Laban’s home appear in Hymn #192:3 So, like the wanderer, the sun gone down, darkness be over me, my rest a stone. Yet in my dreams I’d be, nearer my God to Thee…”]  and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

12And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
[See Downloadable picture of a graphic symbol of a ladder in the marginal notes of my Bible that I made during a talk about Church in the 1990s given by Cobbey Crisler as a CedarS Camps benefit at Principia School. My sketch show God at the top of the ladder and man at the bottom with his head on a rock. Cobbey said that this is the first link between rock and church. (QAHAL or church, is translated as “multitude” in verse 3 and in verse 14 as Jacob’s many promised descendants or “the children of Israel… until the Messiah should rename them…  and … they were to be brought back through great tribulation, to be renamed by Christian Science…” as “Children of Israel… Christ’s offspring.” Science & Health, 309:15-22 and 583:5-9.)

Cobbey pointed out that if the angels of God only descended from God, that would be like the Dead Sea, without an outflowing outlet.  He likens the angels of God ascending from man to be like the required elements of prayer, healing and gratitude. “The ladder is rung by rung—one at a time— and each step closer to God, and all the time surrounded by angelic messages.  That’s what God intends human consciousness to be… when ready for it, we take it in as the Holy Ghost; don’t stifle it or ridicule it, but utilize it for the benefit of humanity.” [from Warren’s marginal notes, see pic.]

13And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;

15And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

16And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.

17 this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

[Warren: The little bit of “heaven on earth” place that we call CedarS Camps has a reminder procedure before entering our mile-long Sugar Drive through a new electronically-operable gate (of heaven”).  Such a gate is the fulfillment of a feature long ago dreamed-of my electrical engineer dad, Warren Huff, Jr. “As in heaven, so on earth, God is omnipotent, supreme.” (spiritual interpretation of The Lord’s Prayer, SH p. 17)
One of CedarS entry gate codes symbolizes striving to gain entry to God’s blessings by thinking and acting out a commitment to keep the Ten Commandments and Beatitudes.  Consider retaking the Ten Commandment pledges early and often as did Jesus –“with the finger of God” (Deut. 9:10, Luke 11:20) to demonstrate healing and “the kingdom of God … within.” (Luke 17:21)]

BE MOVED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN YOUR NEXT 40 DAYS!
Cobbey Crisler on Acts
1:1, 2/cit. B14

“I’m sure you realize the Book of Acts is a second volume of a two-volume work, the first volume being, Luke, right! And the reason we know that: What’s verse one in the book of Acts tell us?

 

It starts out with…really giving us that information, doesn’t it? It says
Acts 1:1  The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

 Now, why in that brief group of words do we have clues about the Gospel of Luke and similar authorship?  Do you know?

 Well, the Gospel of Luke, if you check the opening verses there, you will find that that Gospel is addressed to “Theophilus” as well.  (See below)

 Luke 1:3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,

 Luke 1:4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.

 And here, we’re told in the opening verse of Chapter One of Acts, “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus….” (See Acts1:1 above)

So, it doesn’t take too much more than common sense to at least link the books in terms of the one to whom it was written and in terms of the author….

 Now, Theophilus – who is he?  No one knows, but translated from the Greek it means what?  Do any of you know?  What’s “Theo” like in theology, God and Logos. All right, it’s…well, not Logos, that was theology, but Theo-PHILUS, Philus meaning, like Philadelphia, love.  So, God-loving, literally, which has again caused some to think that it might not be addressed to an individual named Theophilus; it could be to us if we qualify in that definition, collectively.

 “O All those who are God-loving.” (See below, Paraphrased) Again that is conjecture, but something worth considering.

 We know that the first treatise that Luke wrote had to do with – what does the first verse tell us? … Right. What “Jesus began both to do and teach.”  (partial Acts 1:1 )

 So, it really, it sounds like it was a gospel such as we have. And the progress of the gospel, narrative wise, would take us, according to Verse 2, “until the day in which he was taken up after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.” …
Now, probably the most extensive use of the concept and phrase Holy Ghost is in the Book of Acts. So, we’re talking about not only church but a very close relationship to church of the concept of Holy Ghost. So, let’s review that a bit.  The word Ghost in Greek is pneuma.  Can you see this? I hope I will become more transparent as the evening wears on and you’ll be able to see through me to the blackboard.

 But, pneuma is spirit, or ghost, or wind, or breath, or air – and very much associated with movement, isn’t it? For instance, you know how the Bible opens:  “The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”  (Gen 1:2 )

 

And then, look what happened in the next seven days, rather remarkable accomplishments.  So, the pneuma is/has something to do with movement.

And even the definition of prophesy, given to us in Second Peter in the first chapter, tells us that prophesy really is the result of holy men of God being moved by the Holy Ghost. Alright, now we’ll see several examples of that movement as we go through.

 Reviewing the narrative in the gospel at the end, how many days between the resurrection and the ascension did Jesus have to get across to his students what they apparently had failed to get during the preceding three years?  (Murmurs from audience) 40 days. Right.”
“After the Master, What? – The Book of Acts,”
by B. Cobbey Crisler**


BE OF ONE ACCORD! LIFT ALL MIXED-UP MESSES TO SPIRIT FOR “DRY-CLEAN” BAPTISM!
Cobbey Crisler on Acts 2:1-44/citation B15


[Cobbey:] “Acts, Chapter 2, Verse 1, introduces right away the phrase that we’re to look for.  What is it?  “With one accord.”

“The day of Pentecost” is fifty days past Passover and when you realize the Jesus was crucified just prior to Passover and within the tomb roughly three days, how many days since Jesus’ actual departure via the ascension have transpired?  (See below)

“Well, fifty days, Pentecost, fifty days from Passover – all right, so it’s about a week since Jesus is gone.  This is a real test for the church, isn’t it?

Acts 2:1   And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

“He’s not going to be back physically, personally, but he told them where they could find him, which is where?  In the scriptures.

“And they seem to be obeying this, don’t they?  They’re looking to the scriptures for inspiration for church decisions.  And “in the day of Pentecost…they were all with one accord in one place,” there is church fulfilling its destiny – “all with one accord in one place.”  (See above)

“And suddenly, look at the result of this collective harmony!  And it may be the reason why we haven’t heard this kind of thing.

The “sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind…” remember ‘wind,’ pneuma, the movement.  (See below, Partial)

“The church is an expression of the movement, then.  “The rushing mighty wind…” spirit, and remember “holy spirit, Holy Ghost” is very much in the forefront in the Book of Acts.  (See below)

“It filled all the house where they were sitting,” showing that the early church started out in houses: the early house church.  (See below, Partial)

Acts 2:2   And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

“And, this wind is needed.  It’s needed in our own consciousness today.  It’s needed in our churches.  It may start as a sound and then move to movement and then even become something visible in our midst as we work together, and arrive at something together that we never could have arrived at individually – namely the victory over collective problems because we’ve applied the solution collectively, to blow away the stagnant air around church, all those neatly stacked theories that we can line up on call — the encrustations of Ecclesiastism needs the wind of “the Holy Ghost.”  (See below, Partial)

“And not only that wind but “cloven tongues like as a fire.”  (See below, Partial) Now, it’s talking about communication which you know immediately breaks down when you get more than one.  Co-mmunication.  Co- involves more than one.
And these “cloven tongues like as a fire sitting on each of them:” (See below, Paraphrased)

Acts 1:3   And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

Acts 2:4   And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

“Communication possible more than ever before possible for each individual, now that they’re working collectively.  And they’re “filled with the Holy Ghost.”   What a church meeting in consciousness:  “Filled with the Holy Ghost” and feeling it, and seeing it, and able to do something that never had been possible individually.  And they “began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”  (See above)

Now, at this moment, let’s first explore why this combination of wind and fire is so important.

“If you remember, John the Baptist said that “his baptism by water would be succeeded by a higher sense of baptism, which Jesus would bring,” and what was it?  — “The baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire.”  (See below, Paraphrased)

Luke 3:16   John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

“That combination, absolutely working together, or it would not be mentioned.  What does wind do to fire?  (Murmurs)  Burns faster.

“So, if your hearts are burning in you, and the Holy Ghost is also moving within you, what happens to the fire in your heart?  It spreads.

And that’s what attracts and draws, and the church just glows.  (Murmurs and laughter)

“All right, now, to illustrate the Holy Ghost and fire, just from an everyday incident in the Holy Land today, in separating “chaff and wheat.”

“There are several steps that are necessary:
“1st) The one trying to separate this mixed-up mess of chaff and wheat has to locate a very high place – a threshing floor that has no obstacles between it and what? — the wind.

[Warren application idea:]
Hope you can do this mental baptism for yourself daily! And, that you can even come to Mt. Nebo in CedarS Bible Lands Park to use a “FAN” as a lifter and “Separator of fable from fact.” (SH 586) so that all fables that have been mixed into your thought are burned and left behind forever—while the facts are remembered consistently “which gives action to thought.” (SH 586)

[Cobbey again:] “So, if we’re translating this mentally and this is the kind of baptism we’re talking about, it looks like a mental baptism, a spiritual thing.  What would that suggest itself to you as being required or pre-requisite for this baptism to occur in our own thinking?

“Step One is…uplift your thinking?  What?  Clear everything out, right? – And give priority, unobstructed priority, to this threshing floor, because we’re about to sort out things, which Jesus in many of his parables and other statements indicates is the kingdom of heaven – a sorting out type of thing.

“All right, now, once we’re on that exposed height available to the wind, there is something that is our responsibility, and there is something that belongs to God.  Let’s make sure we don’t confuse the roles.

“Our responsibility with that mixed-up fact/fiction, truth/error, chaff/wheat, looking very much alike all bundled up together, which describes our own consciousness at times, what do we do?  Man’s responsibility is to apply the fan.

“Now, it’s called a fan, but what it really is – it’s not a Madame Butterfly type – it’s a fork, pitch-fork type of thing.  And you go into the mixed-up mess, and then what do you do with the (mess)?  You throw it into the air!  That’s man’s responsibility.

“2nd) What is the Holy Ghost’s responsibility?  The wind does the separating.

“Now, that should come as a great relief to us because we’re usually down there trying to do the Holy Ghost job, especially for someone else – to do the separating for them.  (Laughter)

“It’s the Holy Ghost’s responsibility to do the separating.  We dig into it, be willing to get up on that highest plateau of mental consciousness, dig into the confused sense of good and evil – throw it up to the air and the wind, and let the Holy Spirit blow the chaff, which is lighter, of no substance, away, while the wheat, productive, nourishing, heavier in content, falls back at your feet.

“Now, some of the intelligent threshers still today in Israel will build a fire over on the side where the chaff will blow.  It saves time.

“When the chaff is separated by the Holy Ghost, the chaff just goes right into the fire where it is burned up and has no opportunity to mix back with the wheat again.

“That shows that those two processes are necessary, aren’t they: the Holy Ghost and fire, working together in consciousness, are essential.  And each has its own specific responsibility.

“The fire takes care of the chaff; the wind takes care of the separation.  But by golly, we’d “better be up there” with the fan – which might be why God has that very strong demand for Moses when he tells Moses to come to the top of Mount Sinai in the morning.  And he says, “And be there!”  Humanity needs that: those last two words, “Be there!”  And the necessity for us to be there with our fan is important.  (See below, Partial)

Ex 24:12   And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.

“Now, today we have a great deal of emphasis on speaking with tongues.  It’s reached into religion like never before; even established denominations are beginning to work with this concept, not just the Pentecostal and the Charismatics.

“Let’s study it (speaking in tongues) as it’s introduced in its earliest form.  We find in Acts 2, verse 4 that the early members here find they begin to “speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”  (Paraphrased)

…“We’re about to see the first public presentation of the church, the first lecture, or sermon, publicly presented.  And therefore, we want to see how it was done, because they were doing this “with one accord;” the spirit was impelling them to every move at this early period of the church.  (See below, repeated)

Acts 2:1   And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

The inspiration which, really, was the Spirit of the scripture was with them at every point.

And, Acts 2, Verse 6, I think maybe sheds a little further light on this “speaking with tongues,” because it clarifies it somewhat by describing “that every man heard them speak in his own language.”  (See below, Paraphrased)

Acts 2:6   Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

It seems to convey, then, that they were “hearing” in tongue, rather than speaking in tongue, which might make more sense because individual receptivity is preserved in that sense – tailor-made for each receptive thought, even in the language of their own country.  The possibility, then, may be that it is hearing in tongues, rather than speaking in tongues, but I think very early there may have been a confusion of the two.

For instant, I Corinthians, Chapter 14, Verse 2, we will see Paul addressing himself to this very problem.  In Verse 2 – this entire chapter is based on this “speaking in tongues.”  Verse 2:  “He that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him….”

… Back in Chapter 2, in Acts, they heard in their own tongue, and we find that the Bible is presenting here a solution or a remedy to something that occurred very early in the Bible.

Pentecost and what happened on the day of Pentecost is a remedy for what?  The what?  Tower of Babel.  (Added the audience)   All right.

Why?  What was the effect and result of Babel versus Pentecost?  Babel is the collective problem of not being able to communicate.  It’s still around.  Pentecost, the collective solution of showing that even human languages and their differences make no difference when the spirit communicates.

There is a uniting of humanity, when language disparity begins to break down as barriers and the spirit begins to take over in communication.  I think that many of us perhaps in meeting those of over lands may have had the experience of,
even though you cannot communicate in their language, you had very touching moments of being able to share the basic human yearning to be one and at one, and language has receded as the primary factor enabling you to communicate. And here it is subordinated completely after this being “of one accord,” and Acts 2, Verse 11 shows you what the disciples were talking about.  (See below, Partial)

Acts 1:14   These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

They were speaking of “the wonderful works of God.”  (See below, Partial)
That’s what was being shared.  They couldn’t understand how it happened.

Acts 2:11   Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues
the wonderful works of God.

And a sad commentary on human nature is that the human mind finds it difficult either to recognize inspiration or to give it credit as inspiration.  And the closest thing that it can grasp for is to suggest that the source of inspiration is intoxication.

And that’s exactly what they suggest in Acts 2, Verse 13:
“Others mocking say these men are full of new wine.”  (See below)

Acts 2:13    Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

(They say) that’s it’s impossible to be inspired unless you’re chemically induced to be so; you’re on a “high.”

And “Peter has to open his first public lecture telling everybody he isn’t drunk.”  (See below, Paraphrased)   Too sad, but that’s where thought was.

Acts 2:14   But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judæa, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:

He explains the reason why they can’t be is that it’s only nine o’clock in the morning, for one thing – it’s “the third hour of the day.”  (See below) (Laughter)

Acts 2:15   For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

But what is Peter’s method?  He goes where? To the scripture.  You see, it goes back to “the prophet Joel.”  (See below, Acts 2:16)

Acts 2:16   But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

Here is again a use of scripture as fulfillment!  Here is prophesy, and here is fulfillment, dovetailing – all, subordinate to the Holy Spirit.

And, the prophecy we read about is about “pouring out the Spirit of God on all flesh.”  (See below, Paraphrased)  Please note that Acts 2, verse 17, included “not only sons, but daughters, shall prophesy.”  (See below)

Acts 2:17   And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

And this free, uninhibited, and still disciplined, access to the one Spirit by all nations, peoples, sexes, social levels, economic status, characterizes Christianity from the very beginning – not necessarily in the member’s thought, but that’s what the Holy Ghost is communicating, whether the members believe it or hear it, even today.

The separation into denominationalism was not the Holy Spirit’s idea.  The embracing of universal humanity was.  And here, we find even the ability to prophecy, both sexes, and not necessarily limited to nationality.…

…And Peter says the very first words Jesus said in his public ministry, according to at least one gospel, and that is the word “repent.”  And that word “repent” which turns most of us off in this room, and probably most of the world off, in its original is an exciting concept and absolute a pre-requisite before we can even unite with the church that the Book of Acts is talking about.

“Repent” in Greek, coming from the – well the noun is “metanoia” m-e-t-a-n-o-i-a, metanoia, meaning to change your concept about things.  Change your mind about things.  Change you concept about things.

Now, that is the call of the church; it was the call of Jesus to his first listeners.  Change your concept; that’s all that’s needed to get totally different results.  The Christ summons humanity to change its concept it’s been adhering to all along – the atrophy.  Because the Holy Ghost is moving through these changed concepts, and separating the old out from the new.

And when this happens, all this scriptural exegesis, the walk to Emmaus and the changing of concept, verse 41 shows that “three thousand new members joined the church.”  (See below, Paraphrased)

Acts 2:41   Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

Now we talk about what is needed to get members in our church.  The ingredients better be there; it’s the Holy Ghost pattern.  Peter didn’t invent all that, and it was the result of the church praying “with one accord” to come out with the Holy Ghost.  There’s no obstacle to the Holy Ghost.

Getting our church up to the highest possible platform with nothing standing between it and the Holy Ghost – and that’s moving – both in thought and action.

Look what occurs as a result of it.  In Acts 2, verse 43: “Many wonders and signs are now done by all of the apostles.”  (See below, Paraphrased)

Acts 2:43   And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

They’re healing everywhere!  Not just understanding the Bible, but healing, but it looks like our comprehension of the Bible is essential to it, and both come from the Holy Ghost – both prophecy and understanding the scriptures, the key to the scriptures comes from the Holy Ghost, and no lesser source.
 “After the Master, What? The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**


LIVE IN “THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF LOVE” (cit. S30/578:16) AS YOUR LIFE SINGS WITH HYMN 465
Lyrics and arrangement by Fenella Bennetts

(inspired by Psalm 23 & Mary Baker Eddy’s
spiritual sense of it as given in cit. S30/578:5, 16)

Dear Shepherd, You are Love divine,
You meet my every need.
Where fields are green and waters still
I rest, I drink, I feed.

Your love restores my thirsty soul,
And leads me from the wild
To walk in ways of Truth and Life
As Your beloved child.

And even when the shade of death
Suggests that we can part,
No fear of evil enters here;
Your strength and guidance, ever near,
Bring comfort to my heart.

Your goodness spreads before my eyes;
No enemy You know.
Your oil is poured upon my head;
My cup, it overflows.

Your grace and mercy every day
Bring blessings from above.
I’m living in the house of God,
The consciousness of Love.

(The Christian Science Hymnal, No. 465:1–5)

Fenella Bennetts


CLAIM DIVINE LOVE NOT GENETICS AS YOUR GOOD SHEPHERD TO PROVIDE YOU WITH ALL GOOD!
Insights by Ruth Huff & others into Psalm 23 (SH 578:5/cit. S30).  APPLY EACH LINE TO YOURSELF!

 “PSALM 23 AND ME

Claim these divinely REAL definitions of YOUR heritage in the TWENTY-THIRD PSALM!
They negate the supposed “23 and me” genetic domination of 23 pairs of ancestral
X-Y chromosomes and can prove that they Do Not Apply (D.N.A.) to the real you!

[Bracketed substitutions from Mary Baker Eddy to show “the light which
Christian Science throws on the Scriptures” with an “incorporeal
or spiritual sense” of Love. (Science & Health 578:1)]  

 

“[Divine Love] is my shepherd;” That’s MY RELATIONSHIP

“I shall not want.” That’s MY SUPPLY!

“[Love] maketh me to lie down in green pastures:” That’s MY REST!

“[Love] leadeth me beside still waters.” That’s MY REFRESHMENT!

 “[Love] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]:” That’s God’s way of HEALING & MINE!

 “[Love] leadeth me in the paths of righteousness” That’s God’s GUIDANCE & MINE!

 “For His name’s sake.” That’s MY PURPOSE!

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” That’s MY TESTING!

 “I will fear no evil:” That’s MY PROTECTION!

 “For [Love] is with me;”   That’s God’s FAITHFULNESS and MINE!

 “[Love’s] rod and [Love’s] staff they comfort me.”   That’s God’s DISCIPLINE and MINE!

 “[Love] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:” That’s MY HOPE!

 “[Love] anointeth my head with oil;” That’s God’s CONSECRATION of ME & MY holy mission!

 “My cup runneth over.” That’s God’s ABUNDANCE and MINE!

 “Surely goodness & mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:” That’s God’s BLESSING & Mine!

“And I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [Love]” That’s MY SECURITY!

“forever.”  That’s God’s ETERNAL HERITAGE and MINE!

(partly penned by CedarS Founder, Ruth Huff, partly by her son, Warren Huff)

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