Application GEMs of how to LET YOUR THOUGHT AND WHOLE BODY BE FULL OF LIGHT!
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler
as found in The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Soul and Body”
for May 22, 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
OBEY GOD’S COMMAND TO LET the KNOWING LIGHT of CHRIST JESUS SHINE IN YOUR HEART TO GLORIFY GOD! Cobbey Crisler on a prelude & postlude verses to Psalm 71:19, 23 (Golden Text
[Warren:] This week’s Golden Text is “ . . O God, who is like unto thee! . . My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.”
According to 1828 Webster Dictionary, redeemed means: “delivered from bondage, distress, penalty, liability…” and restoration: means “The act of replacing in a former state; Renewal; revival; re-establishment; Recovery; renewal of health and soundness” This is a perfect follow-up to the preceded verse of Psalm 71. Verse 18 is “Now also when I am old and gray headed, O God, forsake me not; until “I have shewed” strength and power.”
[Cobbey:] Those interested in geriatrics — It’s in Psalm 71, Verse 18. That’s also been isolated out as a special problem. No one ever expects that old age is going to be like it is until one arrives. No preventive medicine has been taken. Nothing seems to be possible. Once again, it is submission to the inevitable. Verse 18 shows that’s also included in biblical therapy. “Now also when I am old and gray headed, O God, forsake me not; until “I have shewed” two things that seem to be taken from those in that category, “strength and power.”
The New York Herald Tribune many years ago came out with a study that originated in the De Couri Clinic in Cincinnati. The opening line in the article reporting their findings is “Time is not toxic.” It has no effect in bringing about degenerative disorders. Anyone who thinks that because he or she is getting along in years, that loss of vigor, disability, or degenerative disorders should be experienced is suffering from a time neurosis which may be more effective in physical conditions in producing the effect of fear. It went on [along] that [line]. So there’s another discovery. Again, as the other doctor we quoted said, “We’re waking up to things that have been really known inherently all along.” The Bible has never budged from its position. We have vacillated. God hasn’t moved.
Chapter 73, Verse 26 refers to heart failure and degenerative diseases. “My flesh and my heart faileth.” But look at immediately what the psalmist knows to do. He feels those symptoms and what does he say? “God [is] the strength of my heart .“ See how .it handles the terminal nature of heart problems, “and my portion for ever. ,;· …
Verse 3. Here is a popular experience, “I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.” [Laughter] What’s going to get attention of our thought, even at the moments of extreme agony? On that cross Jesus is saying Psalms. The Psalms got Jesus off the cross. Are there prescriptions in the Psalms for lesser problems if they can deal with the crucifixion?
“Glory: Divine Nature in The Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
SEE LOVINGKINDNESS DRAWING ALL MANKIND to God for SOLUTIONS to WORLD PROBLEMS!
Cobbey Crisler on Jeremiah 31 (Responsive Reading/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**
For a WHOLE BODY, STOP the DUALISM of trying the doomed-to-fail plan of the DEVIL (of diabolos, of trying to throw/shoot at the same time in opposite directions (of good & evil)!
Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 6:22-23/Responsive Reading: “the light of the body is the eye…”
[Cobbey:] “(Matthew 6, verse 22). Should we be surprised when it says, ‘The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single’? Haven’t we been prepared for that in Jesus’ theology up to now?
“Single, not double vision, duality. Commitment to something other than one God, dividing our sight between what is corrupt and what is pure. Because “if our eye is single,” here’s an equation again. You can make that into an equation. “if thine eye be single”, how does the body respond? Your body is whole. Your body’s single too. Not fragmented.
(BONUS Verse 23) But, ‘if your eye is evil,’ see the parallelism? His definition of evil is what? The opposite of single. ‘If your eye is single,’ he says, on one hand, on the other hand, he says, ‘if your eye is evil.’ So, evil is something other than single. He is showing that it’s the devil’s outlook, ‘diabolos’ in Greek, the attempt to put dualism on the throne, or have a divided throne.
Isn’t that why in the Book of Revelation (4:2), one of the greatest revelations vouchsafed to John as a seer, was the fact he saw a throne in heaven and one sat on the throne. Just that single vision, according to Jesus, would result in instantaneous healing in our bodies, to see the throne in heaven and only one on it. No one, or no thing, or no thought other than what comes from God can have ascendancy or sovereignty, then, in our being, because ‘our body is full of light’ from the one that sits on the throne. (Matthew 6:22)
There’s something about divine logic that always coincides with divine revelation. The divine logic that Jesus is showing here was coincident with the revelation that John got.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
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)
MANIFEST DIVINE FREEDOM FROM THE FLESH BY FOCUSING ON WHAT’S GOING ON WITHIN, NOT ON THE OUTER MAN OR WOMAN. Cobbey on Paul’s discussion in Rom. 8, cit. B6
[Cobbey Crisler on Romans 8:] “In Verse 19 would you agree with Paul that “the earnest expectation of the whole human race is waiting for this manifestation of the sons of God”? That it could be manifested, this sense of glory?
“Verse 21 mentions “the creature itself.” Look what is going to happen to the human body as the result of the evangelization of our mentality. As our mentality becomes more and more like God, the human body, “the creature itself, also shall be delivered.” There’s freedom, freedom from “every ill that flesh is heir to,” as Shakespeare says. “Delivered from the slavery,” literally in Greek, “the bondage of corruption,” “the slavery of decay into,” literally, “the freedom of the children of God.” The divine mode of being, as one dictionary says glory is, “into the freedom of the glory of the divine mode of being, of the divine nature, of the radiant thought of the children of God.”
If (only) all our thoughts could be at the level of such radiance. We’ve seen light come out from a human expression. We’ve met people who radiate a sense of insight. That’s just simply “the ministration of death,” as Paul says [in 2 Corinthians 3.7]. That’s in the fleshly. That’s simply an outward manifestation of what’s going on within. More should be going on within. And we’re spending most of our time trying to dress the without.”
“Glory: Divine Nature in The Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
HOPE IN GOD (WHO ALONE CAN QUENCH THIRSTY SOULS) TO FIND
A SURE CURE TO DEPRESSION (& put an END to CONTINUAL FEARS & TEARS)!
[Warren on Psalm 42:2 (and verses 5 & 8 and Cobbey Crisler on Ps. 42:11, in (& after) citation B5] “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me: (Psalms 42:5, 6)
[W: Psalm 42, verses 2, 3 and 5 start with the psalmist acknowledging a thirst, lack, or seeming ‘hole in his soul.’ “… my soul panteth for thee O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God…” This is manifested in “tears… day and night…” and in questioning the existence of God— “Where is thy God?” (Verses 3 and 10)
That seeming void is filled with divine cure-alls for every time of the day and night—God’s commanded “lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song… and my prayer unto the God of my life.” (Ps. 42:8/citation B5) These cure-alls are a panacea that end every pandemic – even one of depression and hopelessness.]
[Cobbey: “Psalm 42, Verse 11 is a refrain in this psalm and the next. [Ps. 43.5] It’s a question we all need to ask ourselves, “Why art thou cast down?” Depression, if not an economic fact, seems to be a mental one at present. “Why art thou cast down? Examine the reasons. “Why art thou disquieted within me?” That’s getting mad in a sense. That’s challenging what we are accepting without question. Why am I depressed? Why is this disquiet? What’s the reason for it? Then notice the remedy. “Hope thou in God: praise God, hope in God. The health of our countenance is in God. “
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Cobbey: “Verse 11 [of Psalm 42] is the effect of that [enemy] thought [of questioning the existence of God in verse 10]. Our “soul is cast down,” our whole identity depressed, “disquieted.” Only “hope in God” restored will restore “the health of our countenance,” showing the physical effect of the mental cause.”
“War in Heaven: Conquest of Inner Space,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
TIRED OF WAITING? Here’s a PSALM to HELP YOU get THROUGH any waiting period of SEEMING STAGNATION “Unto You, O Lord, do I lift up my soul… Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.” (Ps. 25:1, 5/cit. B8, NKJV; SH 593:20) “My soul, wait thou only on God, for my expectation is from him.
In God is my salvation (from false beliefs) and my glory.” (Ps. 62:5; SH 593:20)
“Divine Love leads me and you “THROUGH the valley of death,
(where) I will fear no evil; for [Love] is with me…” (Ps. 23; SH 578:10)
[Warren:] In the header of this GEM about waiting, I capitalized THROUGH, because Love means for us to keep moving and serving—never to wallow (and “stall-oh!”) in the “darkness” (and “vestibule”) parts of the definition of “Wilderness. Loneliness; doubt; darkness.” 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 597:16-19) These great correlative passages are perfect for our rite (& divine right) of passage to come out of this unprecedented pandemic when right activity seems to be somewhat on “pause — (for us to) wait on God…” (SH 323:10). Check-out a variety of other very helpful insights about this in “Recent Daily Lifts” at: https://www.christianscience.com/christian-healing-today/daily-lift
The idea of being a patient waiter, as if on God’s wait staff, means being ready to graciously wait on and do whatever is needed to be an attentive host only to good—to “entertain angels…” by actively hosting ONLY good. (SH 299:15) This also relates to when Jesus finished a 40-day period of sheltering in place in the wilderness, that he “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee… and… their synagogues (churches) and laid his hands on everyone (at least symbolically) and healed them.” (Luke 4:14) Let us, like Jesus, as we come out of our wilderness, waiting experiences, return to a higher sense of church and to stick with the only real power, the power of the Spirit!
TAKE EACH STEP LIKE A SHEEP WHO TOTALLY TRUSTS ITS SHEPHERD!
Insights by Ruth Huff & others into the 23rdPsalm (citations B9 & B11). Apply each line to yourself!
Hear application examples for each line of “Psalm 23 & ME” shared by Warren Huff as part of his inspirational talk for the 2nd ½ of Arden Wood’s May 1, 2022 Annual Meeting at https://www.ardenwood.org/events/annualmeeting22/
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 show “the light which Christian Science throws on the Scriptures” with an “incorporeal or spiritual sense” of Love. (S & H 578)]
“Psalm 23 and ME”
“[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 and MINE!
“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)
STRIVE TO FEEL GOD’S FACE ALWAYS SHINING ON YOU (& THE SYMPTOMS)! AND, ALWAYS PAY YOUR BILL BY GIVING GOD THANKS AND PRAISE! Cobbey Crisler on Ps. 107:1 (cit. B10) -22
[Cobbey:] “I’m going to give you an assignment in Psalm 107 because it’s a very rewarding one to work with. In the first 22 verses, for example, when you are studying this independently at home, work out the steps that are being given us, the symptoms, the appointment with the Great Physician, the treatment, the complete remedy, and then paying your bill. That happens to be a refrain, “Pay your bill. Pay your bill.” In this particular Psalm, in Verse 8, [and Verses 15, 21, 31] “Oh that [men] would praise the LORD [for] his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” Follow that all the way through and you’ll find three different sets of prescriptions and treatments that can be quite relevant to our own experience.”
[Cobbey’s transcribed-from-audio response to an audience question:]
“The appointment with the Great Physician and then, of course, when you’re in front of the Physician, that’s face-to-face, seeing God’s face, get the treatment, let His face shine upon thee, then the remedy, go out and have the prescription filled. The remedy solves the whole problem; then pay your bill. Follow that through and see what comes.”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
ACCEPT THAT SPACE IS NO OBSTACLE TO HEALING BY THE POWER OF GOD’S WORD! Cobbey Crisler on John 4:46-53 (cit. B14):
[Cobbey:] “In John 4:46 we go “back to Cana, and while Jesus was there a nobleman has a sick son at Capernaum. ”
John 4:47, He asks Jesus to “come heal his son at the point of death.”
John 4:48. What is Jesus doing? Does he say, “Right away.”? He’s working with the Father’s thought, isn’t he? What does he say? “Unless you see signs and wonders, you won’t believe.” The implication is that we trust before we get the result. Remember that is exactly what Jesus illustrated in the raising of Lazarus (in last week’s Bible Lesson). Trust that it was already done, complete and finished.
John 4:49, “The nobleman says, Sir, come down ere my child die.” The physical proximity of a physician was considered necessary, then as now, to heal.
John 4:50, “Jesus says” instead, “Go thy way; thy son lives”.
John 4:50, “The man trusted sufficiently in what Jesus said and went his way.”
It’s a fair walk from what has been thought to be the location of Cana to Capernaum. You can imagine what has been going on in the father’s thought, the anticipation of the event, maybe doubt, and whether he was ever convinced of what Jesus said?
John 4:51, “His servants meet him half way, and they say, Your son lives.” Those were the same words Jesus said. The last words Jesus had said are repeated here.
John 4:52. He says to his servant, “Tell me, what time exactly did he begin to improve?” Notice, built into the father’s thought was that it had to take time or process. What time did he begin to improve? “The servant announcement is, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him, instantly. ”
John 4:53. So, the father checked his watch. And he knew it was the same hour
that Jesus said, in Verse 50, “Thy son liveth.”
What you see there is something that physicists say exists in nature to some degree, namely, action-over-a-distance. Physicists define as part of this action-over-distance what? Light, magnetism, electricity, sound, things like that. Actionover-a-distance. Jesus said humanity better consider another candidate for action over-a-distance, a candidate that will eventually replace all. Namely, prayer. Prayer-action-over-a-distance.
You didn’t have to be physically near someone to have someone healed. What freedom that announces to mankind if there’s no physical prerequisite for healing! Healing can occur regardless of time and space (and time and space are not obstacles to healing), it occurs mentally or in thought. Prayer travels faster than a man could walk from Cana to Capernaum. The healing got there before the father. The healing was there just as Jesus indicated in John 3:13, “No man ascendeth up to heaven except he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” This is how Jesus regarded the son of this nobleman, and then proved his vision.
Do we have any evidence of what Jesus said was the summary of his mission? Proof that angels were ascending and descending on the Son of Man (John 1:51)? In the case of the nobleman’s son, it is healing. There is verification. There is a semeion, or an identifying mark, or feature of Jesus’ theology. Completely leaving the old definition of religion for the new, a practical form of theology which brings with it results.”
“Book of John: A Walk with the Beloved Disciple” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
COME TO LIFE’S RIVER TO BE HEALED AND PROTECTED IN THE COMMANDMENTS AND SPIRITUALLY NOURISHED AS IF AT A BRIGHT-STAR, CHURCH PICNIC! — Cobbey Crisler on Revelation 22:14-17 (citation B18)
. . . “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”
“Revelation is like a smorgasbord: it has everything, but it is not meant to be devoured all at once. Bite full by bite full, when we are ready, when we have digested our earlier courses, when we begin to chew upon the meat of scripture, because we are weaned from its milk, we will be nourished, and sustained, and understand why Jesus made his appointment with John on Patmos. What mystery remains in the Bible? Didn’t Amos assure us God has revealed His secret to His servants, the Prophets? Fulfillment of prophesy constitutes the validity of God’s Word – so the fulfillment of prophesy must come. This includes the Comforter, the Holy City, God’s Temple, everywhere God is. The river of Life whose waters sustain the trees which are for the healing of the nations, [Rev. 2:1,2] a vision coinciding with Ezekiel’s. Jesus, the Lamb, reminds us why he is transmitting these Apocalyptic pictures in the last chapter of his book, verse 16. (Rev 22:16) “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” The book is addressed to us in church. Did Jesus foresee that his church on earth would be assaulted in such obscure, obscene, and occult ways, that his Book of Revelation would be essential to its defense? Rev 22:17 invites us to a wedding in his church. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
The only acceptable R.S.V.P. to such an invitation is to be with one accord in one place. This is Luke’s description of church in the Book of Acts. When your thought and mine relate to God and to all His infinite creation, aren’t we wearing our wedding garment already? ISN’T IT SPIRITUAL UNITY WITH HIM AND WITH OUR NEIGHBOR THAT KEEPS THE COMMANDMENTS AND FULFILLS THIS PREREQUISITE OF THE REMNANT? COULD THERE BE ANY GREATER REVELATION THAN ONE UNITING US TO OUR GOD AND TO ONE ANOTHER. Here, in the presence of the throne, we throw off our crowns of divisive opinions.
We worship on our mental knees, not from self-appointed seats disputing who should be greatest. This meeting with our God takes place scripturally only in the temple’s Holy of Holies in heaven itself, where our high priest has entered before us and both Cherubim sit on the right and on the left hand of God. This is the Father’s house where Jesus assured us there are many mansions. Access has been won for us, but we also have had to earn our entry. For Revelation 22:14 (before B20) states, “They that do his commandments… have right to the tree of life.” Blessed are they that do his commandments—that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Accepting that divine invitation, we sit down at the feast which has been promised to us throughout the Bible – the Agape, the feast of Love in the now fully revealed tabernacle of God and His two witnesses. Are we members of that church? Are we even now a part of that remnant, keeping the commandments and imbued with the spirit of spiritual prophesy? If we can respond affirmatively to that, not one single picture of Tohu and Bohu, of chaos, crisis, curse, tragedy, tears, ruin, pain, decay, death, or parody can any longer impress itself on human consciousness and develop there. The mark of the beast is effaced – the seal of God is in our foreheads – our names are written in heaven where nothing tampers with the majesty that God bestows.
In the beginning of the Bible, God said, “Let there be light.” The divine shutter snapped, and our nature was recorded in apocalyptic pictures. It may seem unendurably long for these pictures to develop in human consciousness, but He is our God, and we are His people, and that is the apple, the Apocalypse of gold in our pictures. – The End”
“Apocalyptic Pictures: Prophecy and Parody,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
