Rejoice in a full string of GEMs of Truth that make us all free!
G.E.M.s = God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you to sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as inspired by God and The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Truth”
for Sunday, July 28, 2024
(Cobbey’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus,
warren@cedarscamps• 314-378-2574
ACCEPT YOUR ASSIGNMENT OF GIVING WITH A SERVING SPIRIT TO THE DELIGHT OF GOD’S SOUL AND WITH THE SURE FULFILLMENT OF GOD’S PROMISE TO UPHOLD YOU!
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” (Isaiah 42:1)
[Cobbey Crisler on Isa. 42:1, 7, Golden Text]
“[Prequel:] Isaiah, Chapter 42:1 is a prophesy of a servant who should come, the “elect of God” who would have “the Spirit of God upon him.” [W: In Verse 6 there’s a shift from God calling this elect servant in the third person[“him”], to God calling YOU and holding your hand, and keeping YOU, to give YOU “for a covenant of the people, for a light to the Gentiles.” You will notice in Verse 7 (Responsive Reading) – and in Isaiah 61:1 – what the assignment of this servant (YOU) would be, “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, [and] them that sit in darkness out of the prison house (W: or out of a renewed need to quarantine).”
[Cobbey again:] “Isn’t it interesting that the prophet Isaiah foresees this prophesied individual in the terms of “a servant” when the Greek word most often in the New Testament for healing has the classical Greek meaning of “to serve.” You remember how Jesus defined his ministry in those terms, “I came not to be ministered unto but to minister” [Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45]. Healing is serving by definition in Greek. Serving whom? God and man.”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren:] These prophesies in Isaiah foretell the coming of Christ as God’s healing servant. But the verse in our Bible lesson also promises that YOU are this called and healing servant who will be upheld. That is a promise of protection that you can specifically affirm in your prayer walks and watches — not only for yourself, but also for all our brave workers and citizens facing another surge whether of military of viral attacks, or shortages and delays in supplies of food, material labor… All the dear ones who seek to restore freedom and harmony to our communities, to our country, and to our whole world have been clad in Love’s protection whenever they (you) have “pictured this heaven and earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme wisdom” (SH 91:2).
Florence Nightingale, a famous wartime nurse in an earlier Crimean war, was cited by Mary Baker Eddy as a great example during her long hours of virus exposures of the endurance and immunity that God gives to those who provide care for and serve others. She wrote: “…Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists engaged in humane laborers have been able to undergo without sinking fatigues and exposures which ordinary people could not endure. The explanation lies in the support which they derive from the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and endurance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best deeds… Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untoward conditions, if without sin, can be experienced without suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself.” (Science and Health, p. 385:2)
[W:] Check out on JSH-online an excellent Journal podcast by Janet Horton, a retired US Army Chaplain. It gives context to the above passage by sharing a brief biography of Florence Nightingale and her tireless labors for the soldiers during the Crimean War. She also shares an example of the pulling together and protection that she and others in the Pentagon demonstrated when it was struck by a terrorist-controlled airplane on 9/11.
BE ALL-IN for GOD! Wholeheartedly SING of YOUR INNOCENCY in Hymn 499 (v. 3)
(as inspired by Isaiah 45:22 /citation B8
Written & composed by DESIREE GOYETTE, CedarS staff, parent, Hymn Sing Musician
“I am the Lord, there is none else;
There is no God beside Me.
I girded thee, I girded thee,
Though thou hast not even known Me.
But know that from the rising sun
To the west there is none beside Me,
For I am the Lord, there is none else;
There is no God beside Me.
“I am the Truth, there is none else;
There is no Truth beside Me.
Infinite light, bountiful, bright,
Is ever present to guide thee.
Beloved and free, eternally,
Perfect peace and joy I provide thee,
For I am the Lord, there is none else;
There is no God beside Me.
“Innocent one, sinless and pure,
Nothing can ever divide thee.
Governed by Love, you are secure;
I am forever beside thee.
So rest and know wher-e’er you go,
Home and heaven cannot be denied thee,
For I am the Lord, there is none else;
There is no God beside Me.”
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 499:1–3)
POEM NOTES:
Isaiah 45:5, 6, 22/ citation B8
JESUS CHOOSES HIS DISCIPLES—IT’S NOT BY CHANCE
In Matthew 4, verse 18, 19, citation B2 [and as Cobbey comments on the Mark 1 version, Verse 16:] “Peter and Andrew are introduced to us. The Anchor Bible suggests they probably already knew Jesus. That would also conform more readily to John’s account. Remember, they met or saw Jesus at the baptism. That would have been down in Jordan. In Verse 14 we’re back to Galilee.
There is a recognition factor. “He saw Simon, Andrew his brother.” It is not by chance that Jesus appoints his disciples, “He sees them casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.” Apparently, they were not very good ones. I say that because the Anchor Bible with tongue in cheek tells us that there’s no record anywhere in the gospels that the disciples ever caught a fish without the help of Jesus. They were ready for a new profession anyway.
[Cobbey on Mark 1,] Verse 17, “Jesus said, Come after me; I will make you to become fishers of men.” Notice the intriguing aspect of that call. Because if you weren’t intrigued, you’d stay in your fishing boat. “Fishers of men,” if you weren’t up to the level of seeing the wryness of that appeal, you wouldn’t move. But if you were there, “Fishers of men,” let us go find out what that’s all about. Then you would have left. They left a living here. Many of us may have, without being aware of it, been summoned by that same Christ-command to follow and be “fishers of men.” But we are too busy with our professions or our professions are our priority.
[Warren: At https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWGCkovAUWM I think you would enjoy seeing on YouTube, a moving impression in Season 1 of “The Chosen” of the miracle that led up to Jesus’ invitation to Peter and Andrew to become “fishers of men” and what followed.]
[Cobbey on Mark 1, Verse 18.] “So, we do not make the same apostolic response as Simon and Andrew did, “Straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.”
BONUS:
“Verse 19. “And, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John.” They had a small business going. They were real entrepreneurs.
“Verse 20. Because they left their dad Zebedee with the hired servants. They were filling out Social Security forms and everything on these people. They left and went after him.” (Jesus)
“What Mark Recorded,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
Verse 21, “Straightway on the sabbath day.”
Let’s look at the gospel from above. Let’s see the divine structure here that is motivating what we are being told. Aside from simply gathering the first disciples and paying tribute to John the Baptist’s fulfillment of his mission, a greater sense of baptism, the fact that Jesus is defining things in Mark for us. He’s defining things like church, and baptism, and man, and repentance, and relationship. All of these things are major definitions. But we have to move from the day-to-day approach into the narrative and see this happening in an over-all tenor behind the text.
The Sabbath day is an important thing, because what we’re supposed to do on the Sabbath day had already been defined by a commandment (Exodus 20:8). We’re to keep it holy. Is he going to be consistent or inconsistent -with this commandment? We test his every move. “He enters into the synagogue,” where worship is going on, “and he teaches.”
Mark 1, Verse 22. What he is teaching is so radical that his hearers acted as if they’ll never heard this before. How wonderful! That means it’s inspired. They didn’t recognize in his method anything they were used to in the scribal method the Bible experts, the teachers of that period. In Jesus’ remarks they heard more authority coming across than they had ever heard from the local ecclesiastics.
“Now we’re going to really see part of Jesus’ definition of church. He begins with this preaching that we have heard him do. But his preaching is never separate from his practice of what he’s preaching.
Verse 23. “And there in that synagogue a man with an unclean spirit appears.” Let’s ask ourselves, what is he introducing into the environment of what humans have defined as church? He is introducing healing as an appropriate, if not mandatory church activity. As a matter of fact, it has greater priority than the order of service. Everything stops for healing. Despite the fact that the great resistance of the “carnal mind,” which Paul says in Romans 8:7 is “enmity against God.” Mark, in Chapter 1, Verse 24 quotes this carnal mind’s resistance, “Let us alone. What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth.”
Is the church of that period prepared for healing? Is it ready to be regarded as a place to remedy health and other problems?
Verse 25. We find Jesus using very strong words, “Hold thy peace, and come out of him.” A very imperative command. He uses almost the identical words to still a storm at sea later in Mark 4:39, “Peace, be still.” How appropriate! If the message can. be used to cure a storm in nature, it can also cure a mental storm in human nature. Jesus’ methodology links weather problems and the mental conflict of humanity.
Verse 26. The unclean spirit is not giving up without a fight.
This is warfare. “When it had torn him, he was convulsed, cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.” Remember that God is portrayed in Psalms as speaking-and-it-was-done.” So, all of the resistance is of no moment at all in the healing. It doesn’t damage the individual even though it tears and convulses because the individual is better than before.
The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says, “It is in no sense true that the word and work of Jesus are distinct as two separate functions of his manifestation. “He-spake-and-it-was-done,” is the nature of God, and if man in his relationship to God is what Genesis 1 says it is, namely, image, then the image of an original that speaks-and-it-is-done would also have to be able to speak-and-it-is-done.”
But it’s God’s word that we’re speaking, because that’s what the image is like, God.
Verse 27. “Authority” is the point that’s raised. It’s almost as if religion, as defined by human kind, has come across to us with splendor, with robes, with grandeur, spectacle, but without authority. “The authority Jesus proves is illustrated by the results.” This is what spreads Christianity. Not knocking on doors, not even one-to-one that we so reverence, but healing. There’s a one-to-one. That news, the good news, the gospel of healing, spreads by itself. Who can hold it in? It’s bigger than all of us. It’s God’s word applied, and capable of being applied.
Verse 28. So, we find that “his fame spread abroad all-around Galilee.”
Mark 1.32-41
Then “at even,” Verse 32. What that tells you is that it’s now after sunset and other people can come and be healed. It was a Sabbath day we find out from another gospel. They all come and the Sabbath is over and he heals a great multitude. In fact, in Verse 34, “He [even] healed many who were sick of divers diseases.” That’s not the bends. That’s simply “diverse diseases and casts out many devils;”
GEM#7a: Like Jesus, stick with the only real power, the power of the Spirit!—
When Jesus had finished 40 days of “sheltering in place” in the wilderness, 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…, B18) Let us, like Jesus, as we come out of our wilderness, waiting experiences, stick with the only real power, the power of the Spirit!—
Cobbey Crisler on Luke 4:14, 40 (B18)
“Luke indicates that he understands that this [Jesus’ period of temptations in the wilderness has been a power test for Jesus. In Verse 14 he uses that word, “Jesus returned” not in any form of power that Satan had tried to impose upon him [“to take personal power, political power, and priestly power”]. But rather, “in the power of the Spirit into Galilee”— [“in the law that relates man directly to God, the source of the only power there is.]
“In Luke 4, Verse 40 as healing increases, we find that many healings occur, especially around the Sea of Galilee. Is it any more difficult for Jesus to heal collectively than it is individually? It doesn’t seem to take much more time, does it?
Who does Jesus say is responsible for the healing? If God is responsible for the healing, does He love all His creation as instantly as he loves each individual part of His creation? Can that love reach collectively? Is it present collectively? If that’s the basis for Jesus healing, then we see that healing a multitude was just as normal and natural as breathing, and as healing an individual.
What is the atmosphere there? If the Holy Ghost is there, then we all can breathe that same air simultaneously.
The healings were apparently permanent. There was no standing in line. Jesus didn’t say, “All right, all the ears, eye, nose, and throat people over here.” He didn’t deal with them as a specialist would deal with them. He dealt with them as a general practitioner, as if he could be consulted and he could join with others in prayer and to be at-one with God, whether it was one individual or hundreds or thousands. Remember, he fed thousands from that same point of view.”
“Book of Luke: Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
See end for healing of Peter’s mother-in-law from flu BONUS GEM#7b: Mark’s version of Peter’s mother-in-law’s healing (Luke 4:38-40, cit. B17 & Mark 1:29-31)
[Cobbey:] Jesus “comes out of the synagogue.” He’s just established healing as part of his definition of the church. Healing as a regular activity of the church. If we are not witnessing healings, we are not fully within Jesus’ definition of his church. Coming out of the synagogue, he goes to Simon Peter and Andrew’s house, one which has apparently been discovered by archeologists in Capernaum.
Verse 30. “Simon’s mother-in-law.” You have to be married to have a mother-in-law, “sick of a fever.
Verse 31. Notice the church’s healing activity is not confined to the four walls we call synagogue or church. That same healing aspect of the ever-presence of God comes into the humble home of Peter and Andrew, “healing Peter’s mother-in-law.”
“What Mark Recorded,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
BONUS GEM#7c: Matthew’s version of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law of the flu. He put all aside for the priority of healing in Matt 8:14-16.
[Cobbey Crisler:] “(Verse 14. We come to the third healing [in Matthew’s series of 10 of Jesus’ proofs after the Sermon on the Mount of his Messiahship by his works, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. To have a mother-in-law, Peter had to be married. Peter had a wife. It’s on the Sabbath day, too. But does Jesus consider women that important? Would he break the Sabbath for a woman? One may think that he might for a man. But would he do it for a woman? He does.
Whatever business he had in Peter’s house, he puts all aside and gives priority to the mother-in-law’s needs. Despite the fact that it was the Sabbath. (Verse 15). He heals her of fever. [W: So much, for the supposed length and severity of the flu—as well as for its being communicable… “and she arose and ministered unto them.”]
(Verse 16). “Many come, when the even was come to be healed.” Why the evening? Because then the Sabbath is over and they could all come without any fear of recriminations from the Jews.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report”, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FOLLOW the RECIPE for FREEDOM as you GIVE a Know-the-Truth TREATMENT!
Cobbey Crisler on John 8.32/cit. B24 with notes & quotes from others
John 8:31, 32. “Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, ‘If ye continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, And ye shall KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.’” (caps added)
Verse 32 only from The Contemporary English Version as in citation B24/John 8:32:
“You WILL know the Truth, and the truth WILL set you free.” (caps added)
[Cobbey:] “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 [W. a “fake news” distributor] 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 us or to 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 [lying “fake news”] 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: Here’s a TREATMENT BONUS— “Know the Truth” Notes taken and typed-up by Ruth Huff from a Jack Hubbell lecture:]
“KNOW THE TRUTH” means knowing or being conscious of what is already true!
“Mary Baker Eddy was once asked by a reporter, what is a Christian Science treatment?
After a few moments of deep thought, she answered, (in words that my mom posted over her desk)
‘It (Christian Science treatment) is the absolute acknowledgment of present perfection!’ (Elizabeth Earl Jones Reminiscences).
“If you begin a treatment to improve an imperfect condition, STOP!
You have been mesmerized!
“You are well, before you give the treatment!
Treatment is being conscious of present reality.”
(Notes from a Jack Hubbell, CS, lecture and from word studies more fully summarized below)
“What does it mean to “know the truth?” – To acknowledge it!
acknowledgment: to acknowledge means to admit to be true
– to declare the Truth of something
– an admission of truth as a fact or principle
Unity of Good 7:20-22 . . . “an acknowledgment of the perfection of the infinite Unseen confers a power nothing else can.”
We can’t know a lie!
You cannot know that 2 + 2 = 5, because it does not! You can only believe it!
We can never know sin, disease or anything that seems inharmonious, because it is just a lying suggestion! We can only be tricked if we believe it!
Where do we learn what is real and what is a lie?
Through THE WORD (the Scriptures and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures)
SH 503:12 Divine Science, the Word of God . . . .”
How did Jesus pray? What was he thinking, what was he knowing that healed so effectively?
“…Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, — of man’s likeness to God and of man’s unity with Truth and Love.” (SH 12:13 Jesus)
protests: (1828 Webster’s Dictionary)
– solemn declarations of fact
– affirmation, acknowledgement of what is real
– to call as a witness in affirming or denying
What do we treat? How does knowing the truth have any effect? What really needs healing?
* NEVER treat man, never treat a ‘sick’ man
* Always treat the suggestion that man is sick
The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man
is, not shall be, perfect and immortal.
Science and Health, 428:22 (bolding added)
To ‘really know the truth’ wouldn’t deal with a real disease, but with a false suggestion. The false suggestion is all there is to the problem.
Jargon: to know the truth sometimes means we are going to quote a passage or call upon a line from some place and eliminate an imperfect condition – that we are going to fix matter with truth.
“KNOW THE TRUTH” means knowing or being conscious of what is already true!
——————————————————————————————————–
Mary Baker Eddy was once asked by a reporter, what is a Christian Science treatment? After a few moments of deep thought, she answered,
“It (Christian Science treatment) is absolute acknowledgment of present perfection!” (Elizabeth Earl Jones Reminiscences).
If we begin a treatment to improve an imperfect condition, STOP!
You have been mesmerized!
You are well, before you give the treatment!
Treatment is being conscious of present reality.
(Jack Hubbell)
We sometimes say,
“I’m sick, what can I do to get well? I know I’ll affirm I AM WELL, that will stop me from being sick.
It is not a tool to use to make the sick well.
We affirm “I AM WELL” because “I AM WELL”.
[More of this on original word meaning in KM Kathy Merrill file]
“Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him,
If ye continue in my word, John 8:31
“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
John 8:32
Continue: in Greek is meno
- Abide; remain; continue to be present;
know: in Greek is ginosko
– 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
believe: in Greek is pisteuo
- Think to be true, be persuaded of, place confidence in
- Conviction and trust
- Acknowledgement of a fact or event
Word: in Greek is logos
–the sayings of God
– the oral precepts given by God
– Old Testament prophecy given by the prophets
– in John the essential Word of God
truth: aletheia
– reality
– what is real and factual and actual, not counterfeit
– no error, no lie, no falsity, no variance
If we begin a treatment to improve an imperfect condition, STOP!
You have been mesmerized!
You are well, before you give the treatment!
Treatment is being conscious of present reality.
(Jack Hubbell)
APPLY for YOU & YOURS Paul’s Answered Prayer (AP) History of RAISING THE DEAD!
What cannot God do! Cobbey on Acts 20:6 -12/cit. B18 + Bonus of prelude & postlude verses
[BONUS— insights from Cobbey on prelude verses, Acts 20:1-5]
“Chapter 20. Verse 1. “Paul eventually leaves to head to Macedonia.”
[Verse 2.] “And into Greece.”
[Verse 3.] “Where he stays for three months.”
What do we pick up in Verse 5? The grammar changes again. And it’s talking about Troas again where we picked it up before. There’s some significance, maybe, that the author has something to do with Troas.
[Cobbey Crisler on cit. B18/Acts 20:6-12:]
[Verse 6.] They’re getting ready to sail. Paul separates from them. At Troas, “We abode seven days.” Paul, and maybe Luke, were there seven days.
[Verse 9.] You know how long-winded Paul could be. And I hope I’m not repeating his example here, and I don’t want to find any Eutychae here in the audience, because “Eutychus, fell into a deep sleep.” Anyone here feel like entering into that condition? I hope not because “Eutychus sank down and fell from the third loft.”
Verse 10. If that wasn’t enough of a problem, “Paul ran down and fell on him as well, but announces, “Don’t trouble yourselves, his life is in him.” This looks like it may not have been as instant resuscitation or healing. It could have involved broken bones and everything.
[Verse 11.] Paul goes back, continues talking, breaks bread, and eats.
Verse 12. “At dawn they bring the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.” The man was alive and healed, no broken bones, apparently. There is, again, a major healing that we see.
“After the Master, What? The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
HERE’s a KEN COOPER POETIC MONOLOGUE HE WROTE about this HEALING, called “The Mother of Eutychus.”
Feel the moving words of a mother who has been listening to the words and inspiration of Paul, when she is suddenly challenged to put Paul’s words into practice when her son appears to have died from a fall…
[BONUS— insights from Cobbey on postlude verses & the unity & love in church, Acts 20:13-38]
“Verse 13. The first person continues. “Traveling by ship…”
[Verse 15] The we. “We come to Miletus.”
[Verse 18.] Talks to the Ephesian church representatives in his farewell speech.
Verse 19. “He tells with all humility of mind what he’s been doing, serving the Lord, with many tears, and temptations.”
Verse 24. One of the greatest things Paul ever said, “None of these things move me.” Lest you forget what these things are, note 2 Corinthians 11, Verse 23 and the following verses. When you add those things together right next to this comment. Listen, for instance, He said, “in labours more abundant, stripes, in prisons, [Verse 24] the Jews five times received if forty save one, [Verse 25] thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, three times shipwrecked, a night and day in the deep, [Verse 26] journeyings, perils of waters, robbers, and so forth.[verse 27] weariness, watchings, fastings, cold, nakedness…” and so forth. After all that list just to spread the Word and see the church begin to embrace universal humanity. He went through that for us because we’re in the line of that same Christianity. Then he could turn to us and say that the same time that “none of these things move me.”
None of these things move him because none of these things could move the rock on which the church was based, and that’s where he was. “He neither counted his life dear, and he wanted to finish his course with joy.”
[Acts 20, Verse 25.] “He said they won’t see his face anymore.”
“He predicts that after he leaves right within the church men will arise, speaking perverse things, to fragment the unity which church means.
Verse 31. “Therefore, watch…” he said. Watch, an important aspect to avoid, having church, or the unity destroyed, which is so important.
Verse 35. It’s a very touching scene indeed, the last four lines; you get one of the very few comments we have outside the gospels of a statement of Jesus. This is not in any of the gospels. It really is something unique. “The words of the Lord Jesus, It is more blessed to give than receive.” That’s something Paul got from some place, but it was not the gospels.
[Verse 36.] “After he’d spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed.”
[Verse 37.] “They wept…They fell on his neck…They kissed him.”
[Verse 38.] “And sorrowed mostly because they would see his face no more.” Look at the human relationship in that church. The love for one another. Ask ourselves if we have that same kind of affection today.”
“After the Master, What? The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
