BE GOD’S BELOVED AND FEARLESS MAN! TOUCH THE FRINGES OF ETERNITY! (Hymn 64) Applications ideas for us to follow to make MODERN-DAY DEMONSTRATIONS of the Christ power!
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
“Man”
for March 6, 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
ADVANCE GEM shared with audio on Sunday: BE CLAD BY “FEAR NOT…” ANGEL MESSAGES (Isa. 43:5/R. Reading & Daniel 10:19/Go. Text) An example of a Cobbey Crisler Sunday School student who proved God is “… the one who saves me from violence.” (II Samuel 22:3 plus Isa. 43:5, 1 John 4:18, Job 3:25)
[Cobbey Crisler on handling thoughts of fear:] “Fear… resting in the thought of everyone, especially today, with so many things that seem to be happening unexpectedly. Is that all accumulating in the form of suppressed fear? Look at what Job says happens.
“…the thing that I have greatly feared is come upon me…” (Job 3:25)
What is the relationship between the fear and the thing? … It’s magnetic…
…This is one of the most beautiful exposures of the nature of this to-and-fro evil to attack humanity. Our effort must be to break that magnetism so that the thing feared cannot come to man individually or collectively, because there’s nothing in thought to attract it.
… 1st John (4:18) gives us the solution to fear. What is it? “Perfect Love castest out fear:” What kind of love? It’s got to be perfect, not a chink in it, in the armor. Is that stating to us that only in thought is a complete defense, or panoply (a complete suit of armor), with the threat of something that otherwise would be fearsome indeed?
[Powerful application example shared by Cobbey:] One of my Sunday School students once had the rest of the class on the edges of their chairs as a result of an experience she had just that week. It illustrates this. She was walking home very late at night after an extension course at a local college …, and out of a car jumped four leather-jacketed “gentlemen” … (who) grabbed her, and started dragging her into the nearby woods.
… She said to the class that all that came to her was something she hadn’t even recognized was from the Bible. She never even remembered reading it. It was (from Isaiah 43:5) “Fear not for I am with you.” She kept shouting that at the top of her lungs, “Fear not for I am with you.”
(CLICK HERE TO HEAR HOW ADHERING VEHEMENTLY & VOCALLY TO THAT SIMPLE TRUTH SAVED HER…)
… That gal, in really reaching out for the only possible help—there was no human help — had apparently touched the solution for her experience that could be the solution for all of us. What needed to be counteracted in thought was fear, because look what came to her, “Fear not!” Why? The textbook answer, “For I am with thee.” Just that mustard seed was able to counteract what would have been the magnetic attraction to the thing she greatly feared. It was also apparently enough to, not only reach the thought of one boy, but perhaps even to alert the policemen to an idea that they had not contemplated on the previous night…
“The Case of Job,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FULFILL YOUR GOD-GIVEN HERITAGE AS DOMINION MAN, NOT DUST MAN!
Cobbey Crisler on Psalm 8:4, 6/cit. B1 & 200:9: “What is man that… put all things under his feet.”
[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**
SEE ALL YOU DO AS FLOWING WITH DIVINELY-PERFECT PLACEMENT AND TIMING – FOR GOD’S GLORY!
“It is God that… makes my way perfect.” Ps. 18:32) “…as in heaven, so on earth”– (SH 17:2)
An Answered Prayer (A.P.) History application of Eccl. 3:14/citation B11 will work for you!
[Warren Huff, now CedarS Executive Director Emeritus:] When CedarS current Executive Director, our daughter, Holly Huff (now Bruland), was on the Principia Upper School basketball team they made it into the district semi-final tournament. They were up against a highly-favored Orchard Farm team that featured a very tall, dominate post player.
During Principia’s team prayer session before this game Holly shared one application idea from the Bible lesson that we/she had been trying to apply to her three-point shooting. She also shared another idea about Jesus’ knowing the thoughts of his opponents that she was hoping to demonstrate to a greater degree in her defensive work as well as her knowing when to pass and shoot in her work as a point and/or shooting guard.
The Spiritual Application idea that relates to shooting appears again in this week’s Bible Lesson
as the Golden Text from Ecclesiastes 3:14: “whatsoever God doeth shall be forever…”
- (It goes on…) “nothing can be put to it,”—as in an “air-ball” (or a short) shot would need to have more “put to it” to score —
- “nor any thing taken from it”—as in a “brick” (or a too long, volleyball spike out of bounds) that would need to have something “taken from it” to make it count.
The key to shooting such a perfect, “nothing-but-net” shot in basketball (soccer …) is to make sure that it is “whatsoever God” is doing— to acknowledge it is being done through God and for His/Her glory.
The other Spiritual Application idea had to do with each player’s reflected right to have and to follow “all-knowing” Mind’s intuitions. This was “seeking first the kingdom of God” and among the many “added-unto” blessings that followed would be both seeing and making perfect passes as well as anticipating and intercepting your opponent’s passes. This application idea was based on a Bible story in the Lesson in which “Jesus knew their thoughts”. [This is from Matthew 9:4 where Jesus’ prayer detected and rejected the opposing elements in thought before he healed the paralyzed man.]
With just 5 minutes to go in the 4th quarter of this District Basketball Tournament, Principia, as the “Cinderella” or “David team” against the “Goliath team,” was trailing by 12 points. Coach Norm Purdy called a time-out and reaffirmed those application ideas as they applied to having a strong finish for this game and the season – all of it for the glory of God.
When these inspired young women came back out on the court, it was like a different game. Principia players anticipated pass after pass from their opponents to make great steals, passes and lay-ups. And the girls launched a flawless series of perfect three-point shots. As the clock clicked down to the final buzzer, “Prin” was still down by two points. The play that had been drawn-up wasn’t open. So, Holly had to “put up a prayer” from well beyond the three-point arc. Just as the buzzer went off it “swished” through the net – all for God’s glory—all as part of “whatsoever God” was doing. With that amazing 1-point win, Principia advanced to the district championship.
Thanks be to God for every time you feel a foretaste of “a new heaven and a new earth” in a divinely flowing rhythm with perfectly accurate anticipation, timing and execution of “whatsoever God is doing” through YOU—all for His/Her glory! (Rev. 21:1, 3, 4; SH 91; 573:29)
KEEP SINGLE-MINDED WITH YOUR “EYES ON THE PRIZE” OF LIBERTY!
From Warren’s 10/7/19 insights from James 1:25/citation B13:
“whoso looketh unto the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
- “Keep your eyes on the prize”—on the perfect law of liberty (like on the Statue of Liberty which David Copperfield “vanished” by literally “turning the tables” under his entire audience as explained by Christie Hanzlik) and shown on YouTube youtube.com/watch?v=823GNH4Rczg. If our perfect –free, large, full— liberty seems to be “vanished” by a group consent illusion or a popular turning to material beliefs, we can instantly turn the tables on those fables and look continually to the perfectly stable and divinely invariable LAW of liberty…
- Be an unwavering, all-in DOER— NOW! — NOT a forgetful hearer!
Find meaning in the rest of the first chapter of James:
Cobbey Crisler’s insights on James 1:17: “Every good gift and every perfect—free, large, full—gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”—as in an eclipse (W: or a revolving audience for a vanishing Statue of Liberty trick).
As promised in scriptures:
“God is not a man, that he should lie…hath he not said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19}
And, “For I am the Lord; I change not.” (Malachi 3:6)
James 1:18 “Of his own will begat he us with the word—logos—of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures”—a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself.”
[per Warren’s notes on Cobbey Crisler’s talk on “The Book of Job”]
… “We already know that James read Job because we read the verse (James 5:11) that mentions Job in it…
James 1:6 tells us how we should pray— [W’s 10/7/19 notes: like Job did who never wavered in proclaiming his spiritual innocence. Job so refined his powerful prayers of protest to God that he received his healing and “the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10)].
Cobbey: You’ll find when prayer is not prayer… “Let him ask in faith nothing wavering.” Wavering suggests this to-and-fro state of mind…
James 1:8 “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”…
James 3:17/cit. B13 “But the wisdom that is from above” all stems from the commitment to oneness.”
“The Book of Job: A Mental Court Case” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
BONUS RELATED TO UKRAINE & RUSSIA: As James 3:17 declares wise prayer from above are committed to oneness and guaranteed of success. As Mary Baker Eddy states of prayers of unsuccessful prayer for President McKinley when he was shot. “Had prayer so fervently offered possessed no opposing element, and President McKinley’s recovery been regarded as wholly contingent on the power of God, — on the power of divine Love to overrule the purposes of hate and the law of Spirit to control matter, — the result would have been scientific, and the patient would have recovered.”
(The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 293:21)
Here’s to breaking down these precious, promises and principles and to applying them to get the blessings of putting them into practice with “no opposing element”: Look to “the perfect (free, large, full) law of liberty” (citation B13/James 1:25) as an unwavering, permanent gift from above as we know the truth and practice it.
As Mary Baker Eddy says “Truth is revealed. It needs only to be practiced.” (SH 174:20)
DROP CONFORMITY WITH THE WORLD AND ITS PLEASURES! BE RENEWED AND COMPLETELY CHANGED FOR THE BETTER BY THE MIND OF CHRIST! BE THE BEST VERSION OF THE YOU THAT GOD MADE BY USING PAUL’S TIPS IN ROMANS 12:2/cit. B15:
“. . . be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
J.B. Phillips’ translation – “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.”
James Moffatt’s translation – “Instead of being molded to this world, have your mind renewed, and so be transformed in nature, able to make out what the will of God is, namely what is good and acceptable to Him and perfect.”
“The direction is to, ‘put on another form, change the form of the world for that of Christianity.’ This word would properly refer to the external appearance, but the expression which the apostle immediately uses, “renewing of the mind,” shows that he did not intend to use it with reference to that only, but to the change of the whole man. The meaning is, do not cherish a spirit, devoted to the world, following its vain fashions and pleasures, but cultivate a spirit attached to God, and his kingdom and cause” (Barnes Commentary from www.biblehub.com).
Conformed is syschematizo in Greek which means “to conform one’s self, one’s mind and character, to another’s pattern, to fashion one’s self according to (www.blueletterbible.org, Strong’s Lexicon 2964).
And be not conformed … – The word rendered “conformed” properly means to put on the form, fashion, or appearance of another. It may refer to anything pertaining to the habit, manner, dress, style of living, etc., of another” (Barnes from biblehub.com).
Transformed is metamorphoo in Greek which means “to change into another form, to transfigure, i.e. resplendent with a divine brightness, to the same image of consummate excellence that shines in Christ, reproduce the same image” (www.blueletterbible.org, Strong’s Lexicon 3339).
Renewing is anakainosis which means “a renewal, renovation, complete change for the better” (www.blueletterbible.org, Strong’s Lexicon 342).
“Acceptable – That which will be pleasing to God. or which he will approve. There is scarcely a more difficult text in the Bible than this, or one that is more full of meaning. It involves the main duty of religion to be separated from the world; and expresses the way in which that duty may be performed, and in which we may live so as to ascertain and do the will of God” (Barnes Commentary from www.biblehub.com).
“Perfect is free from effect, stain, or injury. That which has all its parts complete, or which is not disproportionate” (Barnes Commentary from www.biblehub.com).
In one of Mary Baker Eddy’s Bibles, she wrote beside Romans 12:
“Romans 12 is Christian Science.” (MBE Accession #B00017.C)
BE EXPECTANT AND BOLD TO TOUCH THE HEM OF CHRIST’S GARMENT!
Like Jesus, work in God’s time when confronted with competing demands
In his Commentary on Luke 8:41-48 (cit. B18) Cobbey Crisler sets the stage for how the woman who’d hemorrhaged for 12 years was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment.
[Cobbey:] “In this case we have something that might present a problem. Two people that need attention simultaneously. What do you do?… Here’s how Jesus deals with it. He is first summoned by a ruler of the synagogue with a great deal of human priority. Jairus has the rank and he asked first. He’s got a more urgent need….
“This radical change of thought was in the presence of the Christ-correction that Jesus was exercising in the mental realm. It’s going to be sufficient and the woman feels that it will help her. She’s lost all her money on physicians. [No health insurance…] Mark even tells us that she’s worse because of that choice. [Mark 5:26] All she does is touch the border of his garment. The issue of blood, the continuous hemorrhaging that had occurred for twelve years had kept her out of the temple, kept her out of worship and made her as unclean as the lepers…
“In Luke 8, Verse 48 he calls that lady, “Daughter.” Whose daughter? Certainly, not his. In fact, he lifts that word “daughter” entirely out of any sense of blood relationship. That was the woman’s problem. He lifts even her identity out of blood.
“Daughter, be of good comfort” (Verse 48). Look at how he’s addressing the thought of that woman. Not only the precious relationship to God, but the comfort. She hasn’t experienced that in twelve years. She’d lost all her money. She was about to be thrown on the society. There was nowhere to go when you were thrown on society. That may have happened to the woman who had been a sinner. Prostitution was the only open career for many women when they were simply thrown out and discarded from normal humanity…
Jesus refuses to allow that woman to walk away from the scene thinking that physical contact with his robe had anything to do with the healing. He says, again, “Your faith hath made you whole.” The word “whole” and the word “heal” in Anglo-Saxon have the identical root. It implies that disease is something less than wholeness, that it is a fragmentation of our being. Healing is the condition of being made whole.”
“Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
SEE LOVINGKINDNESS DRAWING ALL MANKIND to God for SOLUTIONS to WORLD PROBLEMS!
Cobbey Crisler on Jeremiah 31 (citation B19/Jer. 31:33, 34)
“In Chapter 31, which is Jeremiah’s greatest chapter, he predicts the new covenant will come. He defines it. In Verse 3 he shows that the new covenant is definitely based on the comprehension of God as love. It’s that very “lovingkindness” that will draw all mankind to God for the solution of the world problems.”— [to make “their soul (spiritual sense) as a watered garden.” (Jer. 31:12)
Jeremiah 31:33, 34 “… this shall be the covenant that I make… I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts… for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest…”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
