Claim our Pastor’s GEMs of Mind that GIVE YOU UNDERSTANDING in ALL things!
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey & others
as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Mind”
for Sunday, February 19, 2023
(Cobbey Crisler’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps
ACCEPT AS YOUR OWN THIS BONUS LIFELONG BLESSING:
A CONFIDENT EXPECTATION THAT YOUR EVER-present, ALL-knowing Mind will “give you understanding in ALL things.” (Golden Text, II Timothy 2:7, NKJV, CAPs added).
Picture yourself, and all, as inhabitants of the Revelator’s “new heaven and new earth,” and so “under the control of supreme wisdom” – always able to answer every question aright as reflections of “the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise…” (SH 91:1 & 587:5).
[Warren Huff:] I caught an amazing glimpse of this divine gift decades ago when in the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson I read the account of Joseph answering Pharaoh’s question about the humanly unknowable meaning of his dream (Genesis 41:1-57). This and correlated Science and Health citations in Bible lesson then and this week, remind me a precious time when these passages were answers to prayer for me during a final exam week at Princeton University. Besides working out in daily spring training for the football team and working about 20-hour a week in University food service and mail delivery, and in daily recess coaching at Miss Mason’s School (right across from the Christian Science church in Princeton), I had a course load of five demanding classes.
What made my upcoming finals week even tougher that year was having all five of my 3-hour finals in a row in the first five exam periods of the week. (The first was 9am-noon Monday morning, the second 2-5pm Monday afternoon, the third 7-10pm Monday evening, the fourth 9am-noon Tuesday morning and the fifth 2-5pm Tuesday afternoon.) To top that off, I had already fallen behind on the heavy reading assignments in several of the courses. So, on the Saturday morning before these finals, I thought, “How am ever going to be ready to humanly read, study and prepare for these exams with no real study time between them?”
Just as I started to ponder my seemingly impossible situation, the pain in my right side that I’d been aware of overnight suddenly became sharply worse and did not go away. A roommate, whose dad was a doctor, suggested that it looked like my appendix had burst and that I was having an appendicitis attack. I chose to handle this suggestion with prayer just as I’d had done successfully to meet many other challenges from making hard decisions to experiencing quick healings of broken bones, severe wounds, sprained ankles, torn cartilage… When this very aggressive problem refused to yield quickly to my own prayers, I struggled to get to the privacy of a pay phone booth… (this was B.C.— Before Cell phones). I was calling to ask for the uniquely powerful, prayerful support known as a Christian Science treatment that‘s given with professional warmth and principled love by wonderful Christian Science practitioners (who are normally readily available worldwide).
When none of the practitioners I knew from camp and from church picked up, and no human help seemed to be instantly available, I hobbled my way – still doubled over in pain— to a Christian Science Reading Room. Its “quiet precincts” were several blocks away on Nassau Street and proved to be a perfect place to reach out directly to God for angel messages and my healing.
For five or six sacred hours that Saturday I was the only visitor to the private study area in the back of the Reading Room. That sacred secrecy enabled me to feel free enough to stretch out on the floor whenever sitting up wasn’t comfortable… I snuggled up to every passage from the Comforter who was re-teaching me all the precious truths that applied to me in that week’s Christian Science Bible lesson. It included the account of Joseph’s divine intuition that enabled him to know and share the humanly unknowable dream of Pharaoh (Genesis 41:1-57). I reasoned that this was mine too and that God would give me the angel insights I needed for my healing as well as for studying for and writing my upcoming exams. I loved that Joseph humbly shared with Pharaoh the open secret of his success, “it is not in me: God shall give … an answer of peace.” (Genesis 41:16).
I also distinctly remember feeling great relief in affirming for myself the truth that, “When man is governed by God, the ever-present Mind who understands all things, man knows that with God all things are possible.” (S180:25) More lessons from the Comforter that I cherished during my Reading Room study came back to bless me big-time after I got my healing and was taking my finals.
That private Reading Room study area also gave me a perfect place to feel free enough to seek and find the Comforter’s comfort by wholeheartedly belting out favorite hymns. I knew by heart all of Mary Baker Eddy’s hymns from years of singing them in Sunday School, plus scores of other hymns from CedarS Hymn Sings every Sunday night. On this Saturday I was forced to study for my exams in the unconventional way of cherishing and singing each word of over a dozen hymns as if my comfort, my grades, and my very life depended on it. (And, I think they all did depend on and were blessed immeasurably by that uniquely powerful preparation.)
I’ll always remember that as spiritual sense gave me more and more peace, I closed my healing hymn sing by cherishing each word of “Christ My Refuge” a poem and hymn (254-258) by Mary Baker Eddy. At about 3pm my tears of pain changed to tears of joy! The pain lifted off as I let my heart sing the following laws, “O’er waiting harps strings of the mind, there sweeps a strain, Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind The power of pain… And wake a white-winged angel throng of thoughts illumed By faith, and breathed in raptured song, With love perfumed. Then His unveiled, sweet mercies show Life’s burden’s light. I kiss the cross, and wake to know A world more bright… I see Christ walk and come to me and tenderly divinely talk. Thus Truth engrounds me on the rock … whereto God leadeth me. (Christian Science Hymn #254)
With renewed freedom, I was inspired to RUN back to my Dodd Hall dorm room, to eat normally and prepare with peaceful inspiration Saturday night and Sunday for my first four final exams on Monday and Tuesday morning. I felt divinely inspired to review just what I needed to know and felt great and full of gratitude to God about my first four exams.
However, when I turned over the fifth exam on Tuesday afternoon, my heart dropped as I read all the exam questions which asked me to compare and contrast several books that I had intended to read over the weekend but did not, given the time I needed to spend in the Reading Room to have my healing. I was seriously tempted at first to just go up to the exam proctor and turn in the exam with a note that I’d had a health challenge and was unable to adequately prepare for the exam and to ask to take the course on a Pass-Fail basis so that my B+ grade going into the final could at least get me a “Pass” on my transcript for this sociology course.
Then, I remembered citations from the Christian Science Bible lesson that I’d mined in the Reading Room as cherished gems to apply to myself. That included the account of Joseph humbly knowing it was not in him, but in God to give the right answer. (Genesis 41: 1-57)
As I stood up to give up on trying to write about books that I hadn’t even read, an angel message stopped me saying “the same Mind that made this test and that wrote every book is your Mind that is taking this test and I will tell you everything you need to know.”
I gained confidence from this and from remembering other ideas from the Bible lesson that I had cherished and made my own spiritually during my healing, study time in the Reading Room.
They included these passages from Science and Health, with one that’s also in this week’s C.S. Bible lesson:
“A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity.” (128:14, citation S11)
“It is the prerogative of the ever-present, divine Mind, and of thought in rapport with this Mind, to know the past, the present, and the future. Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to commune more largely with the divine Mind… to be divinely inspired, yea, to reach the range of fetterless Mind.” (84:11-18)
“This (spiritual) understanding is not intellectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments, it is the reality of all things brought to light.” (505:26-28)
I sat back down in joyous, confident prayer to glorify God as a clear transparency, a scribe under orders. Instead of trying to make up what I humanly didn’t know, I was merely expecting to make it welcome. Ideas flowed and I effortlessly wrote them down. At the end of the three hours I handed in the exam with joy – and I found out the next day to my delight that my grade actually improved to an A-. All glory to God!! What cannot good do for you too when you, like Joseph, know that “it is not in me. God shall give (me every)… answer” that I need, and I know it!
All we need do is to be “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher”! (Hebrews 12:2)
[A rough draft of a testimony that I will send into the Christian Science periodicals]
BIBLICAL WISDOM FROM ABOVE STEMS FROM COMMITMENT TO ONESNESS, KNOWS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RIGHT AND WRONG, AND LIVES THAT WAY.
Cobbey Crisler on wisdom as defined in Job 28:12, 23/Responsive Reading:
[Cobbey:] “Job 28:12 shows what we’re after, “Where’s wisdom going to be found? Where’s the place of understanding?”…
“In Job 28:23 part of the answer, “God understandeth the way, and he knows the place.” But what does that do for us? That’s only part of the answer.
In Job 28:28 is the second part, “Unto man he says, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;” and the other side of the coin is “to depart from evil [that’s] understanding.” …
“This is the Bible’s definition of wisdom in its utter simplicity. It is so simple, everybody. Wisdom is to know the difference between right and wrong and to live that way. … Here is the essence of wisdom. Do you remember the author of Hebrews [1:9] in looking for an adequate description of Jesus reaching back into the Book of Psalms and says that the thing which distinguished him above all others was that “he loved righteousness and hated iniquity” and that’s what lifted him above. He said in John 12:32, “And I, if I be lifted up [above the earth], will draw all [men] unto me.”
We must deal with the plus and minus in thought. We cannot ignore one of them any more than we can have the Ten Commandments without the Beatitudes, or vice versa.”
… “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. 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 “But the wisdom that is from above” all stems from the commitment to oneness.”
“The Case of Job,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
COMMIT TO PRAY WITH A SENSE OF GOD’S ONENESS AND ALLNESS TO AVOID WAVERING!
Cobbey Crisler on James 3:11-17, citation B7 plus comments on James 1: 6, 8
[Cobbey:] 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.
… [James 3:11, cit. B7 and SH 287:12] “Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?” That’s variableness and instability!]
James 1:6 tells us how we should pray. 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.”…
“But the wisdom that is from above” all stems from the commitment to oneness.”
(James 3:17, citation B7)
“The Case of Job,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE FLESH AS THE CONTAINER OF YOUR INDIVIDUALITY!
Freedom from the flesh is Paul’s postlude to cit. B8, Romans 8:5-9+
“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6, KJV)
[Warren] The Contemporary English Version (CEV) translates this citation as “People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace.”
[Warren] The Living Bible (TLB) renders these verses: “Those who let themselves be controlled by their lower natures live only to please themselves, but those who follow after the Holy Spirit find themselves doing those things that please God. 6 Following after the Holy Spirit leads to life and peace, but following after the old nature leads to death.”
Cobbey Crisler writes about how Paul continues to develop this theme in Romans 8:9
[Cobbey:] on Romans 8:9 “How many auditoriums would empty in ridicule if Paul stood before them today and announced, “You are not in the flesh”? That’s an invitation to laughter, isn’t it? “You are not in the flesh,” Paul said. Flesh is not the container, then, of our individuality. We [are encouraged to think that] we are [our bodies]. We’re proud of that “fact”. We have turned the glory into shame by thinking out from the basis of flesh. We suffer from the incurred problems of an evolution that traces itself back through dust-like levels, so that heredity becomes a problem in health. We take pride in those “designer-genes” that form our genetic code.
“In the Bible it’s a case of choosing between Genesis or genetics. Genesis (1:1, 25) has us in the beginning created by God with dominion and in God’s image. So, flesh cannot be part of that image. Where are we seeing ourselves? “Adam, where art thou?” (Genesis 3:9)
“Where are we instead of in the flesh according to Romans 8, Verse 9? We’re “in the spirit” That’s home, then. Do we really feel at home in the Spirit? To be inspired is to have Spirit within, literally, in Latin. Do we enjoy living in an inspired state? Everything else moves aside. Everything is subordinated to that inspiration. “we’re in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in us.” …
Romans 8:14, 16 (postlude bonus to cit. B8, NIV)
(More of Cobbey’s bonus verses from 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 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**
THINK AGAIN TO PROVE THAT IT’S NOT PROBLEMS, BUT HARMONY, THAT IS AT HAND!
Cobbey Crisler on Matt 4:17 prelude to Matt. 4:23 (cit. B9):
[Cobbey:] “Verse 17 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” … Jesus’ opening word, according to Matthew’s gospel is “Repent.” Change your concept. Again, just as John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:2, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That is radical good news for mankind.
“It’s not a far-off event. Many denominations have left the impression that heaven is something attainable in the far-off future. But, the opening words of John the Baptist, as well as of Jesus, are “the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” right here. That means that we must be able to do something with it and about it. And, apparently that had something to do with the changing of our concept, even theologically, that heaven can do something about the problems that that seem to be at hand.
“… Are the problems at hand, or is heaven at hand? That’s the test question that Jesus met in the preceding verses so beautifully as a sovereign over it in the wilderness. He proved that heaven was at hand.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[W.] We follow our Master Jesus, as we dismiss dualism like he did to feel a heavenly harmony that heals EVERY PERSON & EVERY ISSUE! (cit. B9, Matt. 14:23)
Verse 23. And “healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.” Here are human problems that had defied solution, and Jesus solved them all based on his concept of theology, namely the kingdom. Remember a kingdom is not chaos. It’s an ordered government of heaven and harmony at hand.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
STAND WITH A PURIFIED HUMANHOOD, THAT IS NO LONGER INFLUENCEABLE BY ATTACKS OF EXTREMISM THAT WOULD CLAIM OUR MENTALITY AS ITS OWN IN AN ATTEMPT TO POSSESS OUR THINKING.
told this week in Luke 8:22, 26-35 (cit. B10) with Cobbey Crisler insights from the version in Mark 5:1-15:
[Cobbey:] “In [Luke 8:22-35 and] Mark Chapter 5, Verse 1, we have the very strange incident in the country of the Gadarenes. The ancient texts vary all over the lot here: Gadarenes, Gadara, Garisenes, Garis, Gurgesenes, or Gergesa? Gadara was a town. Gerasa was also a town. Neither of them were anywhere near the shore of the lake. But Gergesa is. Right on the shore and located, at least according to recent findings, at the only spot on the Sea of Galilee where the event could ever have happened anyway. The only spot where the sea-place approaches the shore. So, it’s probably Gergesa. Matthew has Gergesenes and Luke Gadarenes.
“Mark 5, Verse 2. (Luke 8, Verse 26)“Coming out of the ship.” He’s over in Gentile territory, by the way. This is not Jewish territory. It’s on the Eastern side. It’s where the Decapolis cities are, the confederacy of Greek cities. Today the Golan Heights is part of the region.
“Verse 3. “He runs into a man who is living in the tombs.” Interestingly enough, there are rock formations right smack at the point where the Heights approach the sea, where you would say they have the appearance of tombs. “This man had not the strong man bound.” We see the strong man is really mentality, not anatomy.
“Verse 3. You and I may have seen some of the pumping-iron movies, and we begin to think anatomy is the strong man. Hardly. Here we have a man of above-average muscular development, but mentally so out of sorts with what is normal. This man has exceeded certain human limitations and “he is able to break iron fetters, chains.”
Verse 4. “Nobody could control him.”
“Verse 5. This shows mentality unleashed, undisciplined, and filled with a dualism. He would even attempt to oppose God, or in some cases imitate or ape God. This man’s dwelling is at both extremes. Night and day are extremes. Mountains and tombs are extremes.
“Of course, you and I don’t recognize this mental effect, do we? Or do we commute between our mountains and our tombs? Are we in the pits? We know of manic depression, sure. But what about the mountains? Do we have our moments of altitudinous thinking, as well? Really inspired thinking? There we are, buying round trips daily on the mountain-to-tomb local. We get off on occasion somewhere in between. This man had taken it too.
“You can see what happens when the carnal mind can no longer take the extremes. The dual personality splits. The kingdom becomes divided against itself. That is being illustrated here.
“And the drug effect. Look at the drug effect, the mountains and tombs where these highs and lows flourish. Uppers and downers where one gets captured by the whole necessity for this. It becomes something so addictive, that in order to feel high or low, we need chemical inducement. So, this is not an outdated, outmoded, human problem. This kind of insanity is everywhere attempting to rule human thinking, including within ourselves. Jesus knew this. He was in a Gentile territory. It’s even out of the Jewish context. Therefore, it has a universality about it.
“Verse 7. The man with the unclean spirit knows the presence of the cure. Notice the great resistance to the cure that we see illustrated here. “What have I to do with thee, Jesus?” How often is that statement repeated in varying degrees by every single person on this globe? Everyone who has ever heard of the Christ message? Even those claiming to be followers. “What have I to do with thee?”
“When we compromise ourselves, or when we lower our standards under pressure, is it not the equivalent of saying, “What do I have to do with thee, Jesus?” Do we resent the role model he represents to thought? “Don’t torment me.”
“Verse 8. We’ve got three different treatments here. One, “Come out of the man, unclean spirit.”The word for man is anthropu, which is the root of anthropological. It is not so much a specific man as man in general. It’s a generic term for man. “Come out of manhood, unclean spirit.” He’s talking about impurity. Impurity doesn’t belong within God’s definition of manhood. There’s momentum, again, being applied. Is there a healing? No.
” Verse 9. So, the second, “He asked him, ‘What is thy name?’” Jesus is trying to pinpoint or identify the problem. And we find out, it’s very difficult to pinpoint because it’s “Legion.” Remember, when the remedy id oneness or monism, you already know what the problem is. The problem is always the opposite of the remedy. So, you have this multiplicity of problems and psychological reasons for why we’re in the fix we are. “Fix,” as sometimes applied to drugs.
“My name is Legion.” That’s a definition of impurity, by the way, “legion.” Purity is an unmixed state. So, we know what we’re dealing with. Remember one of the Beatitudes mentioned Matthew 5:8, it’s “the pure in heart that see God.”
“So, purity is what we need as our “anchor of the soul” as Hebrews 6:19 says. Remember, that later Jesus calls upon “legions of angels,” (Matthew 26:53). Also, “Michael and his angels,” Revelation 12:7, are fighting “the dragon and his angels.”
“So, we actually have this conflict here of thoughts. This is a confused mentality. Obviously, it’s chaotic thinking. It has no discipline at all. It’s no “first the blade, then the ear, and then the full grain,” Mark 4:28. That orderly sense of discipline in thought. It has lost all connection or link to possible discipline.
“The third treatment given by Jesus in this individual case is one that actually has aroused a great deal of compassion for the swine among its readers. It would not seem to be part of Jesus’ normal procedure to wipe out a herd like this to make a spiritual point. But there is indeed a spiritual point here. One that has to do with the definition of manhood. Remember, Legion is the problem and oneness is the remedy.
“Does man’s thinking, as you and I define it, contain a swinish element or nature? What is capable of being agitated by erroneous mental influence? Can manhood be ever defined as calm and free in his thought, when he has elements within his thought, that still victimize him rather than see him as the victor? Perhaps, we are being told here, through this illustration and event, that one of the “no’s” we are to be saying mentally is to the swinish nature that has attached itself to our identity and called itself “Legion.” Perhaps we are subjected to many influences, a legion of influences, instead of God alone the One on the throne.
“We know that human nature does commute between the mountains and the tombs. The swine are said, in Luke’s 8:32 version (after cit. B10) of this, to be nibbling on the mountains. Symbolically does the swinish nature nibble at our altitudinous and highest moments? There is a violence to this self-destruction that occurs at the only spot on the Sea of Galilee where it is possible. If nothing else, we certainly can conclude that swinish nature had no built-in defense to such mental invasions.
“Verse 15. Yet manhood can be freed from such influence. For this man, now “clothed and in this right mind” no longer is under subjection to legion. If his right mind is in this sense of oneness, the other mental state obviously was wrong. What expressed that mental state is self-destroyed.
“Before this incident, we might have concluded that man had no defense against such mental incursions. Therefore, our mental hospitals are destined to be filled. But rather, we discover that man can separate himself out of swinish influences and still stand as a man. Yes, and stand humanly with a humanhood that has been purified. One that is no longer influenceable by the legion of attackers that would claim our mentality as its own in its attempt to possess our thinking without any rights of ownership.
“When this incident begins to come to a close, we find that we can even see the sequence of things. Remember Mark 4:28, “first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn.” There’s more behind this blade. (That’s even the definition of animal later.)
“Right now, as with everything else, we have the worldview upside down. You and I have been told that we are descendants of the animal kingdom. If that’s the wrong point of view, then the remedy is the opposite. Notice, animals and their natures belong to mankind, and can be found in the definition of man, rather than man finding himself in the definition of the animal.
“That’s something we haven’t seriously considered in our twentieth century. Back in the first century, the notion that mankind may have descended from animals was considered absurd. But over time, the evolutionary theory suggested an entirely different kind of origin. This was the result of darkened and dualistic thinking. The mind that defines itself as coming from the animal realm, rather than the realm of the divine, becomes animal in concept. But divine revelation can clean us up. God defines man in a concept of holiness rather than unholiness. We need just to breathe in the Holy Spirit and take into thought what is holy.
I once heard a talk by Geith Plimmer. He recalled a biblical incident where, with such a compassion behind his expressed words, he discussed a dear man who was possessed. And he rejoiced with that idea of possession being used, because it showed that it didn’t really belong to him. He was possessed. The remedy he suggested was to dispossess. To dispossess is the remedy to possession.
Verse 19. How he loved those most glorious words humanly expressing love, “Go home to thy friends.” Here’s a man that had lived in the mountains and the tombs. How long has he had anyone whom he could call a friend? Where is his home? You see what Jesus is now defining as home and friends.
“Tell them.” Notice, he doesn’t tell him not to say anything. This is in a Gentile territory where he encourages the Word to go to other Gentiles. “Go home to thy friends.” Mr. Plimmer pointed out that here, when we first met him, he was a man that could be defined as completely irresponsible. Jesus not only heals him, but he restores the dignity of manhood, as he did in every healing. It was part of the healing. He also gave him responsibility. “Go home to thy friends and tell them.” He was one of the first Gentile disciples, if you could use that word, that took Christianity into that territory. What a prime responsibility for someone who could not account for his actions not very long before! Even before Paul, this man went to the Gentiles.
“Is there any record of what he did? There is none past this. But it’s interesting that when the Temple in Jerusalem fell to the Romans in A.D. 70, the Christians, having an advance awareness that this was happening, moved in Pella, part of the Decapolis area. A lot of preparation had been done.”
“What Mark Recorded,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
“FOR GOD HATH NOT GIVEN US THE SPIRIT OF FEAR;
BUT OF POWER, AND OF LOVE, AND OF A SOUND MIND.” (II Tim. 1:7, cit. B11)
It’s fun to see “sound mind” as a Biblical promise of mental health which seems especially needed these days. “Sound mind” is also most often translated as “self-control”…
Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear.—Or better, perhaps, the spirit of cowardice—that cowardice which manifests itself by a timidity and shrinking in the daily difficulties which the Christian meets with in the warfare for the kingdom of God. (Comp. John 14:27, and Revelation 21:8.) “Hath not given us,” in this particular case, refers to the time when Timothy and St. Paul were admitted into the ministry. The Holy Spirit is no Spirit, be it remembered, which works cowardice in men. But the reference is also a far broader one than merely to the Holy Spirit conferred on ministers of the Lord at ordination. It is a grave reminder to Christians of every age and degree that all cowardice, all dread of danger, all shrinking from doing one’s duty for fear of man’s displeasure, proceeds not from the Spirit of God.
“But of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.—Instead of rendering the Greek word by “a sound mind,” it were better to substitute the translation, self-control. The Holy Spirit works, in those to whom it is given, power, or strength, to fight the fight of God, power, not only patiently to endure, but also to strike good blows for Christ—the power, for instance, of steadfastness in resisting temptation, the strong will which guides other weaker ones along the narrow way “of love.” It works, too, in those to whom God gives the blessed gift, that strange, sweet love for others which leads to noble deeds of self-surrender—that love which never shrinks from a sacrifice which may benefit the friend or even the neighbour. And lastly, the Spirit works in us “self-control”—selbst-beherrschung—that power which, in the man or woman living in and mixing with the world, and exposed to its varied temptations and pleasures, is able to regulate and to keep in a wise subjection, passions, desires, impulses.”
STOP TRYING TO JUST TWEEZE THE DIRT FROM A GLASS OF WATER, OR THE SIN FROM THOUGHT. “THE WAY TO EXTRACT ERROR FROM MORTAL MIND IS TO POUR IN TRUTH WITH FLOOD-TIDES OF LOVE.” (SH 201:17-18, citation S20)
[Warren:] I’ll always remember how effectively CedarS Met writer, Christie Hanzlik, CS, illustrated pouring “in truth with flood-tides of Love” for groups at CedarS. Her video had her sitting at a picnic table with a muddy glass of water and pair of tweezers showing how impossible it was humanly to purify the water that way. Then, without missing a beat, she raised up a fully running hose that quickly washed all the impurities away!
Another friend, Reid Charlston, Director of Camp Owatonna, added more great insights into Mary Baker Eddy’s use of this “flood-tides of Love” analogy.
Flood Tides of Love
Written by Reid Charlston, Friend and Director of Camp Owatonna
“In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy says, “The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love” (201:17). Many people who do not live near the ocean, and especially the northeastern coastline of the United States, are not very familiar with tides. As a long-time sea kayaker who has taken and led many trips along the Maine coast, I want to share a little more about these tides to help explain this metaphor a bit more.
“The tides on the ocean are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon as it orbits the earth. The tide changes every six hours and thirteen minutes from high to low and back, which means you can predict it accurately to the minute for every day into the future and back into the past. When the moon is on one side of the earth it both pulls the water on that side towards itself and it pulls the earth itself towards itself and away from the water on the other side of the earth. This means that high tide will always be experienced on the side of the earth the moon is on and the opposite side at the same time. Low tide will be on the other two sides, and the shift between the two causes the rising and falling of the tides.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/tide-cause.htm
“From what I have been told, this tidal pull affects every body of water on earth, even a glass of water on your desk, but it is only visible when there is a large amount of water moving over huge amount of space. Thus we really can only see the moon’s gravitational effect on the oceans, and nowhere is that effect more prominent than the coastline of the Atlantic ocean from New England up into Canada.
“So, what is a flood tide? When the tide is going out (being pulled to the other side of the earth) we call that an ebb tide. When all that water comes rushing back, we call it a flood tide. The greatest example of this tidal swing is in the Bay of Fundy in Canada where the tidal range is 56 feet between low and high tide. Go to these web addresses to see some great time lapses of the water coming in and out of the Bay of Fundy. One video I watched said that at least 100 billion tons of sea water comes in and out of the Bay of Fundy each day.
https://youtu.be/_x9nbW0HW8c (great explanation of how tides work)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3LtEF9WPt4 (short time lapse)
https://youtu.be/6Rl4-vJ8Unw (another great short one)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OObk9ZPcGfo (longer video of the area with some great perspective of how much water comes in and out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=budXQlGL8Dc
“While I’ve never heard that Mrs. Eddy got to experience the tides at the Bay of Fundy, she more than likely got to witness the shifting tides off the coast of her native state of New Hampshire, possibly too in Massachusetts and Maine, both places we know she visited. So, this concept of flooding and ebbing tides was a natural one for her to use as a metaphor in this sentence.
“As I have read this passage I have always been struck by just how much love she is implying we need to pour in to extract error. It is no trivial amount, but rather a surge of the absolute maximum amount of love that we can possibly give – an amount we know is unlimited as we can only express God’s love which is infinite.”
Written by Reid Charlston, Friend & Director of Camp Owatonna
PERCEIVE & PRACTICE WITH PETER WHAT IT MEANS THAT “GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS” Cobbey Crisler on Acts 10.1-35 (cit. B13)
[Cobbey:] “Now let’s turn to Acts, Chapter 10. Here we’re introduced to Cornelius. Cornelius sounds like he was a musician of some sort, at least the way the King James Version translates it. We are told that “Cornelius belonged to the Italian band, a devout man, and one apparently who had despite his heathen background, been impressed by monotheism and was used to praying.” (See below, paraphrased)
Acts 10:1 There was a certain man in Cæsarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band,
Acts 10:2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway.
“He receives a vision.” (See below, paraphrased)
Acts 10:3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.
“Peter himself, (is) going to pray on the house top,” (verse 9 of Acts, Chapter 10) “about the sixth hour (or our noon time).” (See below, paraphrased)
Acts 10:9 On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:
“Although he is very hungry, he begins to fall into a trancelike state, and he begins to get a vision.” (See below, paraphrased)
Acts 10:10 And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,
“In this vision we see a sheet knit at four corners is let down to the earth.”
Acts 10:11 And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:
“And within that sheet we find varieties of animals.” (See below, paraphrased)
Acts 10:12 Wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Many of these animals are forbidden as far as the Levitical restrictions against certain items of food are concerned.
“They were unclean animals.” (See below, paraphrased)
Acts 10:13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.
Acts 10:14 But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.
“But in Peter’s vision, he hears an emphatic voice telling him to kill and eat.” (See above, paraphrased)
And Peter, true to his training even in his vision, says, “Not so, Lord; I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” (See above, paraphrased)
The response to Peter in the vision reads in verse 15, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” (See below)
Acts 10:15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
“Three times this message is given to Peter, “ which is rather interesting when we remember that Peter usually takes three times in order to get a message. (See below, paraphrased)
Now, lest we think that’s peculiar to Peter, I think if we look back at over some of our own lives and experiences, we make take more than three times sometimes to get a message.
Acts 10:16 This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven.
Now, Peter, really not knowing what this vision means yet, he’s thinking about it and suddenly the men from Cornelius have arrived.” (See below, paraphrased)
Acts 10:17 Now while Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean, behold, the men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon’s house, and stood before the gate,
He takes with him six Jewish Christians from Joppa, and they come to Caesarea.
23 Then called he them in, and lodged them. And on the morrow Peter went away with them, and certain brethren from Joppa accompanied him.
24 And the morrow after they entered into Cæsarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and had called together his kinsmen and near friends.
“Entering into Cornelius’s house, he finds he is surrounded by all Gentiles and a large group.
Peter is being faced now with a major challenge, because it is his training, as you can see in Acts 10, verse 28, that “it is unlawful for him to enter in and eat and keep company with Gentiles.” (See below, paraphrased)
Acts 10:28 And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean
Then it is Peter’s vision comes clear. If God had told him in that vision that, “what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.” (See below, repeated)
Acts 10:15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
And that applied to animals, what about men? Is it possible that Christianity is designed for anyone and everyone? If that’s what the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost has revealed to Peter, let’s see what the result is.
Acts 10, verse 34, begins a lecture or sermon to the first group of Gentiles. And the opening statement that Peter makes is one that could be well considered by every denomination of Christianity today. “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.”
Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
“Here Peter expressed his new view of God, that God is no respecter of persons, that God speaks to receptivity.
Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
“This new view of God, of course, leads to this next question: Should man as well be no respecter of persons? This is a tradition-shattering concept.
“And Acts 10, verse 35, Peter summarizes it by saying “in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” (See below)
Acts 10:35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.”
“After the Master What? – The Book of Acts”, by B. Cobbey Crisler** [transcribed by Sue Merrill from the CD series]
KEEP YOUR CHRIST-LIKE MINDSET AND SIXTH TENET SOLEMN PROMISE!
Section 5 of this week’s Bible Lesson on “Mind” ends with the SIXTH TENET (SH 497) which comes straight from Philippians 2:5 (citation B14). Here St. Paul states our aspirational goal: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
Below is a sharing from “The Mary Baker Eddy Library for The Betterment of Humanity” that traces the evolution of revisions to the Sixth Tenet which strengthen its Scriptural connections. Note that the ending of this Tenet is also Biblically-based as it has evolved from roots in Micah 6:8. “… what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” Elsewhere, Mary Baker Eddy states: “To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly” is the standard of Christian Science.” (Miscellany, 283:23)
Current edition 6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.
1879 “Tenets and Covenant” 3d. — And we solemnly covenant to faithfully obey the ten commandments; to walk worthy our high calling, to deal justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God; to abhor a lie, to love truth, to do good to man, to have but one God, and to strive habitually to reach that higher understanding of Christian Science contained in the sermon on the Mount, whereby to cast out error and heal the sick. We give no credence to Spiritualism or Mediumship, and object to mesmerism and medicine, never in any case using any ourself.
1887 “Tenets to be Signed by those Uniting …” Third. — We promise to love one another, and to work, watch and pray; to strive against sin, and to keep the Ten Commandments; to deal justly, love mercy, walk humbly; and inasmuch as we are enabled by Truth, to cast out evil and heal the sick.
1892 (from “Church Tenets and Rules”) 3. We solemnly promise to strive, watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus. To love the brethren, and, up to our highest understanding, to be meek, merciful, and live peaceably with all men.
1893 (from “Church Tenets and Rules”) 5. We solemnly promise to strive, watch and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus. To love one another, and, up to our highest understanding to be meek, merciful and just.
81st edition (1894) 6. We solemnly promise to strive, watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus, to love one another, and to be meek, merciful, just, and pure.
1908(a) edition 6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.
April 1997, revised June 2007
