Rock-solid GEMs of Truth to Apply to Meet Every Need!
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with new insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Truth”
for July 18 – July 24, 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
LET GOD BE YOUR ROCK! CALL UPON THE LORD. NOW! IT WILL NEVER BE IN VAIN!
[Warren: Here’s a new architecture-related note about founding a building on the rock foundation of “REFUSAL.”]
I enjoy the soil-boring term of REFUSAL to designate when an auger drills down to reach the point at which it refuses to penetrate the soil and therefore the point where a building can be safely built. I loved making the connection of what that means to us that we are stable with success/healing guaranteed when we place our prayers and Christian Science treatments on the rock of refusing to believe anything other than the bedrock spiritual Truth of being created in God’s “image and likeness” as recorded in Genesis 1. This denial or refusal portion of a proper prayer is modeled in the “Scientific Statement of Being” (on page 468 0f Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures). In this 60-word statement, which Albert Einstein called “the most profound statement ever uttered by mankind,” each sentence alternates between AFFIRMATIONS OF TRUTH and DENIALS (or REFUSALS) of the FABLE of man’s dust origin as the myth is told in Genesis 2 and 3.
“The Rock Song” — CedarS campers, staff and families love it when all or part of what we call “The Rock Song” is in the Bible Lesson because it reminds us of a favorite CedarS camp song by that name. Key part of this song found in this week’s Responsive Reading (II Samuel 22:47) . (The Psalms 18, verse :3 version was in last week’s Bible Lesson too!) You may want to hear it sung in more than one recent CedarS after breakfast Prac Talk that are listed and hearable at Inspirational Articles – CedarS Camps. There’s also a video with the traditional CedarS motions along with the audio as found in Psalms 18:3 and 46,. There’s a link below to Stephen Hanlin, a CedarS counselor and a CedarS 365 Hymn Sing leader, doing the motions while singing The Rock Song” (in a round for 44 seconds). Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/238522559504897/videos/382837602949483
“The Rock Song” was also selected by former CedarS counselor, Erin Williams, for “CedarS Round-the-Clock” Trilogy of CDs that she put together as a campership benefit project for CedarS 50th anniversary summer of 2011. Erin sang and played the prelude and opening hymn for CedarS June 7, 2020 Zoom Hymn Sing. You can hear Erin leading this call-and-response song by clicking on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPHaT93Uob4
(You can click thru any transitional webpage and “browse” YouTube.)
GIVE YOUR ALL TO FIND TRUE ABUNDANCE IN GOD!
A Ken Cooper offering (under Downloads near the upper right corner of the online version) brings life to citation B7.
Ken added: “The widow of Zarephath reminds me of Jesus’ observation when he saw a poor widow casting her two mites into the treasury, “she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.” Luke 21:4. When we give our all to God, we find true abundance, for then God shines through our lives, and we can bless everyone that is in the radius of that light. In such ways does God preserve all those under the shadow of His wings, and we become “angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:1-2).
The YouTube version of the poem can be found on https://youtu.be/GBAK6RfTPtA together with further comment under SHOW MORE. The full range of videos can be found on “Ken G Cooper Poetry You Tube” https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv6edwM4E2y4wJ98jGEPUOw
YouTube Bonus: “Trust God’s timing and you will see God’s provision.” Thus, concludes another Bible-study of I Kings 17 (citation B7) especially when it appears that God’s timing is off, as when Elijah asks the widow for food… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIIyf9IfEmI
DEMONSTRATE HEALING AT A DISTANCE LIKE JESUS DID IN HIS POWER-PACKED FEELING LOVE’S EVER-PRESENCE.
Cobbey on Jesus healing paralysis remotely (Matthew 8:5-13/cit. B10):
(Verse 5) The second healing in this chapter is the centurion’s servant. This is a healing of palsy. Palsy is paralysis. This healing occurs over a distance. It’s almost as if Jesus were saying to the physical scientists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, “Alright, gentlemen, you say in your list of things that represent action-at-a-distance, there can be light, magnetism, sound, and electricity.”
“Recognize that prayer is also action-at-a-distance and can out-distance all on your list. You do not have to be present physically to heal the sick. God is present with the one in need of healing as he is present with the one who is the channel for the healing or transparency.
You don’t have to move physically to heal spiritually. This is a tremendous breakthrough in a concept for healing which can occur even today, when it is considered that one must be at the bedside of a patient in order to accomplish anything. Jesus did not do that in every case. Remote healings required receptivity in the thought of those with whom he was dealing.
Here we have a centurion, who was not even a Jew. He is a Roman, a noncom officer in a sense over a hundred men. That’s why he’s called a centurion. He has enough concept of authority to say, “All you have to do, Jesus, if you’re good at what you’re doing, and a professional, just say, ‘Give the order,’ and those orders will be obeyed. That’s what happens in my profession,” he said.
(Verse 10) Jesus makes the comment that he has not “found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” One wonders if he would find that kind of faith today?
(Verse 13). He says “to the centurion, as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.” We get a better view of it in the gospel of John [4:46-53], if it’s the same incident which it undoubtedly is, where the nobleman’s son is healed. The nobleman goes back home to check.
It’s a day’s travel. He’s half way there and his servants have come to meet him. His servants say; “Everything’s fine.” The nobleman said, “What time?” And the servant said, “The seventh hour.” So, the nobleman asked about the time and it was the same hour that Jesus had said, “Go thy way. Thy son liveth.”
It’s a day’s travel for the centurion. He’s halfway home and his servant have come to meet him. … The healing got to the centurion’s home before the centurion got there. Which shows what is possible and how primitive we are in exercising the spiritual forces available to us. It may turn out that Jesus is the most important scientist in the history of the world in the sense of demonstrating his theory and proving it.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren’s application idea for YOU and all you love: Please join us for CedarS Sunday Hymn Sings every month. All are filled with radiant peace and joy to celebrate the ever-presence of divine Love and its healing power of prayer-at-a-distance)!” This breakthrough principle of the healing power of childlike thought that is receptive to remote prayer is on full display at CedarS monthly Hymn Sings at 7pm (Central Time) on the first Sunday of each month. These 30-minute global gatherings could be thought of as “Prayer Sings,” since hymns are really healing prayers set to music.]
KNOW the TRUTH to FREE the BEST YOU from being FOOLED & KILLED (slow or fast) by LIES!
Cobbey Crisler on John 8:32 (citation B13)
[Cobbey:] “John 8:32. Here is the recipe for freedom, “It’s the truth itself that makes you free.”
It is the fact that makes you free. In John 8:44, the devil is defined as a liar and also a murderer from the beginning. If you analyze that again, the devil has one of two purposes when it enters into the thoughts and lives of man. It is either to deceive or to murder or kill us or others. That’s the motive prompting the thought, critical or otherwise. Remember, judging righteous judgment eliminates most criticisms, and not judging according to appearance. It [the lying “fake news” that proclaims the reality and power of matter] either murders or kills our neighbor or ourselves, OR its purpose is to deceive—one or the other.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren’s P.S.] Greek word meanings that elevate what Jesus means by “Know the truth:
“Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31, 32 (citation B17)
Know in Greek is ginosko and means:
- to distinguish what is real from what is not
- to perceive, understand, discern, distinguish
- to perceive with the mind
- to have a clear perception of truth
truth in Greek is aletheia and means:
- what is real and factual and actual, not counterfeit
- no error, no lie, no falsity, no variance
So, to “KNOW THE TRUTH” means knowing, or being conscious of, what is already true!
Ruth E. Huff, my mother and the Founder of CedarS Camps, loved her eight years of conducting CedarS tours of Mary Baker Eddy’s homes with the supported of Longyear Foundation. One of her favorite take-aways from what she learned on these tours was a recollection recorded in Elizabeth Earl Jones Reminiscences: “Mary Baker Eddy was once asked by a reporter, what is a Christian Science treatment? After a few moments of deep thought she answered:
“Treatment is the absolute acknowledgment of the ever presence of infinite perfection!”
My mom, Ruth E. Huff, the Founder of CedarS Camps, so loved working with this mindset that she shared it with CedarS staff and families in the form of cards printed with the highlighted definition above.
1st connected BONUS: Everyone will be blessed who takes the time to listen to a Sentinel Watch (made especially for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day). This edition is an interview with Sallie Letterlough, an African-American who, as a civil rights activist, took part in the 1963 “March on Washington” later became a Christian Scientist. Awesome insights are shared by her as well as by Tony Lobl on Dr. King’s “I have a dream” speech.
Sallie gives magnificent examples of effectively applying in her life the non-violent principles of this week’s Bible Lesson: “…you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32/cit. B13) Sallie also gives some great Sunday School teaching and Reading Room attending ideas and examples of the priceless value of being present with an understanding of divine Love and holding onto that no matter what. To hear for yourself and share with others, click on this link: https://sentinel.christianscience.com/sentinel-audio/sentinel-watch/the-path-to-discovering-our-divine-rights
Another connected, audio link BONUS: Ken Cooper poem “God is our Freedom” on YouTube is also based on this “recipe for freedom” citation B13 in this week’s Bible Lesson.
LIKE JESUS & PETER, BE EAGER TO TEST YOUR RELATIONSHIP TO GOD’S INFINITUDE THAT KNOWS NO LIMITS. Cobbey Crisler comments on Jesus and Peter walking on water… (Matt 14:24-33, cit. B17)
[Cobbey:] “… right after the famous loaves-and-fishes incident in which everyone is fed,” we have the walking-on-the-sea incident.
(Verse 27). The disciples, not knowing how to cope with that, get told what the palsied man had been told (in Matthew 9:2) “Be of good cheer.” You’ll notice that Jesus says this at times when apparently he senses the great need of encouragement and the defeat of fear in thought. “It is I,” he said, “be not afraid.”
[W: For a slide show illustration of Jesus and Peter walking on water check-out https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/ed-peter-water/ Or, Download their Story Planner PDF and/or PowerPoint from the upper right of CedarS GEMs webpage.]
(Verse 28). Peter who (as usual) wants part of the action says, “That looks like fun, how about my coming out there and joining you?” Peter, not quite appreciating the consequences of his acts—fortunately for awhile—actually does it! He becomes the second one to walk on water.
(Verse 30). But then he begins to look where he is. “How did I get here?”
(Verse 31). At that point Jesus supports not only his own weight but also the weight of Peter in overcoming gravity, proving it is not a law of limitation for man. Man has dominion over gravity as well.
(Verse 32). Not only over gravity, but you will find that “the minute he gets into the boat, the wind ceases.” In other gospel accounts (e.g., John 6:21), “immediately the boat is at the land.” (They must have gone through the sound barrier and nobody was wearing helmets.)
So, even the so-called barriers to man’s being where he needs to be, from a standpoint of transportation, communication, etc., were proven to be no barriers at all in the hands of one who comprehended with his eye single. His relationship to God had, within his infinitude, no such limitations.
(Verse 35). When he lands on the other side, “many come to be healed.”
(Verse 36), “Many touch the hem of his garment.” Apparently the word had gotten around about that woman (in Matthew 9:20 and Mark 5:25) from recent Bible Lessons) who had done that, “and many were made perfectly whole.” Think of how many unrecorded healings occurred, or at least healings that we have yet to discover a written record about.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, A Tax-Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
BONUS LINK to “RADICAL STEPS” — a Poem by Richard Howard from the May 8, 1976 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel about Peter’s Walking On Water (W.O.W!)
as recorded in Matthew 14:23-32, citation B7.
(See Verses 1 & 3 quoted below and the whole inspiring message at: https://sentinel.christianscience.com/issues/1976/5/78-19/radical-steps
Matthew 14:23-32
By Richard Howard
From the May 8, 1976 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
“You can call him what you like—
impetuous, brash, outspoken—
but once he recognized the Christ
and heard that command,
he did what the others didn’t—
he stepped out onto the water and walked!
He didn’t wonder, he didn’t worry, he didn’t wait—
he didn’t even look to see if the others were behind him—
he just climbed out and walked.
… (See verse 2 at https://sentinel.christianscience.com/issues/1976/5/78-19/radical-steps )
“And now, sailor, what about us?
When the going gets rough,
and the waves pile up,
and the wind is contrary,
and the command is “Come!” which shall we do—
remain troubled and huddled and crying out,
or take those radical steps?”
Richard Howard
