1st cache of Manhood & WOMANHOOD GEMs to Make Your Own!
Sunday, August 27th, 2023
By Warren Huff (with insights from Cobbey Crisler)
1st cache of Manhood & WOMANHOOD GEMs to Make Your Own!
God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Man”
for Sunday, September 3, 2023
(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
EXERCISE YOUR SPIRITUAL SENSE MINDSET AS A CHILD OF GOD & FIND IT EASY & LIBERATING TO BE DIVINE!
Cobbey Crisler on cit. B7/Romans 8:16, 17 & verses around it, plus Romans 9:8/Responsive Reading & cit. B8, Col. 3:2-4 & Hymn 370)
In Romans 8:16/cit. B7, Paul tells the Romans and us that “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” Paul continues in Romans 9:8/cit. B9: “…the children of the flesh — these [are] not children of God;” (YLT, Young’s Literal Translation) or “… those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; “ (NKJV)
[In his comments on the following verse, Cobbey expands on this:] “Paul says in Romans 8:17 “We are joint heirs with Christ,” – inheritors of the divine being. We are sharers, “partakers of the divine nature.”(2nd Pet. 1:4)
[W.] So, let’s be Part-takers in God’s Cast of children — typecast to be spiritual – with a natural spiritual sense mindset!
(Cobbey on Colossians 3:2) Have you heard the modern expression mind-set? Verse 2 is almost that literally in Greek. “That our mind-set must be on things above.” Can we have an inner spiritual sense entertained that provides the divine reason for our being, even when we’re living on the earth at a human level if we “set our mind on things above, not on things of the earth”?
(Verse 3) “For ye are dead.” That’s exactly what the body is. If we are to be absent from the body, the body itself is now dead to our thought and our thought no longer responds to it. No longer worships it. The Greek word means to be away from something, to be separated from. “And your life,” we haven’t lost anything then. “Our life is,” or literally, “has been hidden with Christ in God.”
[Warren: Hymn 370 echoes this verse: “Hid with Christ in God, O gladness: / O the meekness and the might, / When the risen Christ has lifted / All our thoughts into the light, …”
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 370:2)
(Cobbey again on Verse 4,) “When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear,” what about us? “We also will appear.”
“We will appear with him,” How? “In glory.” In imperishable radiance. That’s not an abstraction. It is supersensible, but it’s concrete being. It’s a sharing of the glorious liberty of the children who find it natural to be divine.”
“Glory: Divine Nature in the Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[BONUS from Warren (and Christie!):] Click here to check out Christie Hanzlik’s CedarS Met this week. She makes inspiring connections between the Golden Text and Responsive Reading (RR) and examples in each section of womanhood’s important leadership roles in gender parity as so brilliantly pioneered and articulated by Mary Baker Eddy.
In her Responsive Reading insights Christie quotes this verse from Romans: “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (RR, Rom. 8:16)
Christie states: “Before the daughters of Zelophehad stood their ground, even a phrase “joint-heirs with Christ” could have implied that only men could be joint-heirs with Christ. Now, after the change, it is possible to think of women as “joint-heirs with Christ” (RR, Rom. 8:16). Thank you, daughters of Zelophehad! These daughters were indeed carried on the nation’s shoulders!” (Golden Text/Isaiah 49:22)
Click here for an illustrated explanation on YouTube about the daughters of Zelophehad.
ACCEPT YOUR ORIGIN as the DOMINION MAN/WOMAN, the CLIMAX of Spirit’s creation — as God’s “very good image & likeness” from W’s notes on Cobbey’s talks on Genesis 1/cit. B2:
[Cobbey Crisler:] “Genesis chapter 1 was written in response to the Hebrew people’s crisis of exile.
“Verse 2 attempts to explain how creation occurred as well as how a new beginning could occur out of the vacuity of nothingness of exile. To the post-exilic authors of Genesis 1 “the earth was without form and void” – or “Toe-who” and Boe-who” – the translated names of the Babylonian mythical leviathan-like, sea monster and their mythical behemoth-like, land monster. The modern day myth is that we evolved from the sea to be dry land creatures with a refined further way of animal thought and life. Human thought was dark much like “darkness on the face of the waters.” … Spirit is the root of the whole word inspiration… No advance can occur in life without inspiration—so “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”… This happens also when Jesus is baptized, coming “straightway out of the water,” as part of a divine announcement. He sees “the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him.” (Matthew 3:16) Consequently, one recognizes that if Spirit represents the motive of his career, it’s an inspired career…
“It’s how the entire Bible begins (Genesis 1:2) because “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” It’s almost as if in Jesus’ baptism, we’re getting this genesis of God’s creation, that first chapter, applied on earth. The Spirit is moving on those waters in which Jesus is standing. There is a Spirit genesis here. Look at what happened in Genesis 1 in those brief verses when creation is depicted for us.”
Verse 3 (from a bumper sticker that Barry Huff enjoyed seeing) “The Big Bang theory: “Let there be light” and BANG! It happened!”) “Light (“or” in Hebrew, “phos” in Greek) was created before the stars… The motif here is that of the creation of the world by the WORD and a differentiation between the light and light-bearers.” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
Verse 4 records the first Quality Control-check—“it was good.”
Application ideas:
“Any lack of originality is only a lack of knowledge about your true origin.”
Compare the development of any right idea in business or otherwise to the mental model of creation in Genesis 1:
Verse 3 = the dawning of the light or idea
Verses 4-6 = the analysis (compare and divide as on the first day)
Verses 7-10 = the decisive, solid manifestation of the idea (dry land appears)
Verses 11-12 = investment in the idea and its productivity
Verse 13 = exposing the idea to light universally, marketing it
Verse 14-31 = diversification (lights for seasons, living creatures multiplying, male & female)
Verse 2:1-3 = rest (not inertia, but success of the idea and its continuing yield)
DISCOVER THE INDIVISIBLE NATURE OF GOD’S CREATION from the end of Genesis 1 (citation B2) in notes from Cobbey Crisler talks as transcribed by Warren):
[Cobbey said:] “Searching the scriptures does require scuba diving or at least snorkeling because there’s a need for both clear vision and inspiration.
Verse 26 Here in a book noted for its monotheism we find plural words relative to God. (“Let US make man in OUR likeness…”) Father-Mother (F-M) must be together indivisibly or we have more than one God. If there’s indivisibility in the original there must be indivisibility in the product.
Verse 27. To have Male-Female (M-F) in the product means that it’s in the original.
On IMAGE, Clemet of Alexandria wrote: “In our view, image of God is not an object of sense, but a mental object, perceived not by the senses, but by the mind.” But in Genesis 2:7 the mental model is dropped and in the material account of creation God forms man out of dust—the very OPPOSITE view.
This mimics the opposite view of male and female that is widely promoted in which sex promises us all satisfaction in physical unity—but does it deliver? The very definition of sex is division, not indivisibility. “The sensualist’s affections… and pleasures” would put one through lots of fitful, mental contortions that Mary Baker Eddy describes as “imaginary, whimsical, and unreal” (Science and Health, 241:8).
(Transcribed from notes taken by Warren Huff during several Cobbey Crisler talks from the margins of W’s Bible.)
“ARISE, SHINE, FOR THY LIGHT HAS COME” as one who serves — to God’s delight!
See the message from Isaiah 60:1/ct. B9 as embroidered in Hebrew as well as in English on a prayer shawl from Israel. It’s a message from God – meant for YOU today!
[See an online picture of my prayer shawl below, plus other insights by Cobbey Crisler from the book of Isaiah about the prophesied servant. [Isaiah 42:1, 7/citation B20 and Isa. 61:1.]
[Cobbey:] “Chapter 42:1, in a prophesy of a servant who should come, the “elect of God” who would have “the Spirit of God upon him.” You will notice in Verse 7 (and Isaiah 61:1 what the assignment of this servant 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.”
“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**
- From Isaiah 60:4: “Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.”
From Christian Science Sentinel – December 28, 2020 Bible Lens on The Christian Science Bible Lesson on “God” for January 3. 2021:
“Jerusalem’s return to glory is depicted with stirring images, including the reuniting of families. … Jerusalem lies upon the central ridge of the country. From the landward side she can see caravans streaming in; from the west over the Mediterranean ships are sailing in like flocks of pigeons. Along with this vast commerce come her returning exiled children.” [The Interpreter’s Bible: A Commentary in Twelve Volumes, Volume 6]
THIS “LET-US DIET” IS for both WOMEN & MEN of all AGES to “CHEW ON” & for the WHOLE WORLD to THINK-ON & LIVE WITHOUT STRIFE!
[Warren Huff:] Let us give thought & action to the following divine directives to memorize from citation S9/249. [As a memory aid, I think of this call to healthy action as our “Model Lettuce diet” or our “Excellent Let-us plan”]:
[Here’s some appetizer lettuce for us:] “Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that one perfect, producing His own models of excellence.” (cit. S9/249:1, bold underlining added)
In the very next paragraph on page 249 of Science and Health: is this week’s featured, a favorite, “mixed-green” combo of mine: “Let-us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor material power as able to destroy. Let-us rejoice that we are subject to the divine “powers that be.” (Bold italics added for Let us)
[Warren: Here is some ever-fresh “Let us” to chew on as it relates to several candidates’ advanced ageS and their media-replayed memory “freezes” and “senior moments” leading up to 2024 Elections in the United States:]Let us stop breaking the 9th Commandment to “not bear false witness…” by blindly accepting age as an expected limiting factor for others (and therefore for ourselves).
Mary Baker Eddy, tirelessly worked well into her 80s, actively demonstrating the productivity to “enjoy more than three-score years and ten and still maintain … vigor, freshness and promise… (She gives us this Let-us tip to chew on:)… “Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight.” (cit. S20/246:20, 28) The 105-year-old prophetess, “ageless Anna” obviously demonstrated this in Section 4 this week (cit. B16/Luke 2:38-38) as described by Christie Hanzlik, CS, in this week’s CedarS Met.
Mary Baker Eddy actually uses the words “Let us” 28 times in Science and Health, and 67 times in her other writings—plus there are 40 more “Let us” combos in the Hymnal! So, you could chew on different blends of “let us” every day as it’s in season for you, and apply or dress them to best suit your taste and meet the needs of the day. (Consider LET as a key element in Hymn 519 by Andrew Brewis, and also LEAN and LOVE as featured in a recent Bible Lesson.)
Let-us joyously picture “… heaven and earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme wisdom” (SH 91:2) This spiritual sense vision will enable us to affirm together that God is in charge of our country and of our leaders and of the whole wide world and its manifestation of good. It’s uplifting to know that “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” The original version comes from a spiritual written in World War II by Obie Philpot, a Native American of the Cherokee tribe. It speaks of God as our creator and protector. You might also enjoy an add-on parade of soulful, prayer-filled voices of this message as started by Tyler Perry and his friends of color and ended by Mahalia Jackson. I found these YouTube video offerings inspiring.)
Mary Baker Eddy adds rich Bible-based connections to let us confidently affirm God’s control of “every event of our careers.” (Unity of Good, 3:28) She writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Understanding the control which Love held (holds) over all, …” we can feel as safe amidst beliefs in a resurgence of pandemic variants as “…Daniel felt safe in the lions’ den” and we can prove all viruses to be as harmless as “Paul proved the viper to be…” (514:26)
To round-out and wrap-up our “Model Let-us diet in every branch of government:” let-us affirm that “…the LORD is our judge [in charge of the judicial branch], the LORD is our lawgiver [in charge of the legislative branch], the LORD is our king [in charge of the executive branch], he will save us.” (Isaiah 33:22)
Bring EVERY thought—NOT every OTHER THOUGHT — “to the obedience of Christ.”
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,
bringing EVERY thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
2nd Cor. 10:3, 4/cit. B13, + verse 5, NKJV (underlining added)
[Cobbey Crisler’s insights:] “Then, you’re a king [when you “bring EVERY thought into the obedience of Christ.” II Cor.10:5]. In that sense Jesus was always a king. There’s nothing wrong with that messianic attribution to him of “king.” He ruled and nothing overruled him. But, look at all these things that [would attempt to] take over our “within” where the kingdom of God is supposed to be. And instead, we find anarchy most of the time.
“What is disease? If the kingdom-of-God-within is the healed, whole state, then anarchy-within must also tell us what disease is. It’s an outright rebellion. It’s a “Declaration of Independence” by one organ over the rest of the bodily systems. The Bible endorses only one system [Romans 8.28] “All things work together for good to them that love God.” There is the prerequisite. We always have to have a prescription filled. We’ve got to love God. Then, “all things work together for good.” That’s the ideal situation for any system, bodily or solar, all things working together for good. That’s the definition of perfect health as well.”
“Don’t be hacked from within by the VIRUS of unwise atheism and its family members (according to Wikipedia) of “the supremacy of human reason… secular humanism… religious criticism…free-thought skepticism…” They all doubt Paul’s assertion that that “God is always at work for the best of everyone who loves him. They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, CEB)
Here are coordinate ideas related in Cobbey Crisler insights on Ps. 14:1-3
“In Psalms chapter 14, Verse 1, “The fool”— that’s the kind of point of view it is, completely unwise—“The fool that said in his heart, [There is] no God,” has a foolish point of view that exposes you to the infection of that idea. It communicates a contaminating influence if it cuts one off from the very source of life and health. Because treatment is available.
In Verse 2 “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, [and] seek God.” Notice what arena we’re dealing with here. God was not checking our pulses [W: or our temperatures], but our thoughts. How do we know what effect thoughts actually have ultimately on the pulse, for example? “To see if there were any that could understand and [seek] God” because that’s the bottom line.
Instead, in Verse 3 “They are all gone aside, and become filthy.” Something that is unsanitary doesn’t belong; it’s not part of the health code of the Bible any more than it’s in the health code of material medica. Because what is unsanitary [W: is part of the unreality family and] is liable to cause or promote a disease.
It’s also interesting to note that the word “virus” which is being used so generally today as the cause of much of man’s physical complaints and effects [W:—as well as the cause of issues from implanted computer viruses or hacks].
The virus, according to Webster, is able to break down the defensive mechanism of the host. And, by the way, it comes from a Latin word that means poison or slimy liquid, virus. The word “filthy,” in part of its Hebrew meaning, is morally corrupt. So, we know we’re dealing really at both levels here, moral and physical. If out of that filthy condition, that polluted state of human consciousness, we’re coming to the conclusion “[there is] none that doeth good, no, not one,” has the defensive mechanism broken down? Have we become the host of ideas that are contaminating to our pure relationship to God? Or are we ingesting only those pure Words? It’s a question of thought. It’s the faculty of knowing that which God is addressing here.
Consider what Jesus lists in Mark 7, Verse 20, where he lists the toxic causes of man’s problems. He says, “That which comes out of the man, that defies the man.” Now we’re going the opposite route from those pure Words from God.
[Mark 7, Verse 21] “From within,” and, by the way, that is almost the literal translation of the Latin word intestin from which our word “intestine” comes. “Out of the heart of men, proceed,” and look at the list; it’s certainly not intestinal fortitude, “evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, porneia, root of our word pornography, murders.” [Verse 22]. “Thefts,” do we need to go into the headlines as current as this morning? “covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.” [W: fool, as in Psalm 14.1] And Jesus says in Mark 7, Verse 23, “All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” That’s where disease is also felt; the “within.”
[W: Instead of affirming that in God (and in reality) we have everything that we need,] {CC:] “We [often tend to] yearn for so much within, don’t we? How imperfectly that’s often expressed. Our longing often, perhaps most of the time, is expressed in terms that we would conquer the world outwardly in some way. [W: have lots of social media “likes” or followers…] Be appreciated. Be applauded. Be loved. Be served. Be patted on the head. Be comforted. Have obeisance shown to us. That we have the homage of the world outwardly. We want to conquer the world in some way. That’s trying to impose domination. That kind of longing is imperfectly expressed. A more perfect sense of longing, the desire that Jesus calls prayer, would be to conquer all the influences of that same world inwardly.”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
KNOW THAT YOUR “ABILITY & OPPORTUNITY ARE COORDINATE IDEAS” AND THEN “RISE TO THE OCCASION!”
Application ideas offered by Warren Huff on citation S14/ 571:15-18:
“Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom [ability]
and the occasion [opportunity] for a victory over evil.”
“What occasions or opportunities are demanding your best these days?
1. Hard assignments, unbelievable work load and killer deadlines?
2. Important tests of our abilities or our faith and resilience?
3. A big game, presentation or performance?
4. Group Leadership role(s)?
5. An important date or social event?
6. A sticky situation where taking a moral or ethical stand and integrity are needed?
7. Challenging restrictions that keep testing your patience, equanimity and reliance on God?
Whatever opportunities you face, you can meet them as their master by obeying this powerful two-word command.
“Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil.” Science & Health, 571:15 (cit. S14)
“Know yourself as God knows you – as an ever-perfect expression of “infinity, freedom, harmony and boundless bliss.” (see S&H 481:3) Totally accept and simply express each of these elements of your divine identity to eradicate their illegitimate opposites. Without a body-based sense of self, you will be open for God to eliminate from your experience: all of matter’s debilitating drag of limited energy, funds, intelligence, speed, inspiration; all its sapping slavery of restrictions (injuries, illness, red tape, tie-ups); all its regular rub of inharmonious relationships and its constant cloud of frustration and unhappiness. All gone! These are all just fables that were never part of you or of those you love.
Today “your assignment, should you choose to accept it,” will be to simply do your part—know yourself spiritually—and watch God do Her part, to supply you with all the wisdom and occasions where victories are wanted. You may also enjoy highlighting in every lesson all of God’s jobs in one color and all of yours in another color.
A friend shed new light on this passage with this one-line insight:
“ABILITY (the wisdom) and OPPORTUNITY (the occasion) are coordinate ideas.”
By accepting this divine law and knowing yourself spiritually, you will never have ability without being given opportunity to express it. (no unneeded bench-sitting) And, you’ll also never be given opportunities (like the seven listed at the top) without having the God-given abilities to rise to the occasion!”
Warren Huff originally posted this on CedarS website on December 5, 2002
AT 105* ANNA PROVES THAT WHEN WE “LIVE TO GIVE”— “TIME IS NOT TOXIC!”
*See or hear Christie Hanzlik’s calculations of Anna’s age in Section 4 of her Met.
[Cobbey Crisler on citation B14/Psalm 71:18:] “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 greyheaded, 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.”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
BE A PATIENT & EVER-READY SERVANT OF GOD, LIKE ANNA, TO QUICKLY RECOGNIZE & CELEBRATE THE CHRIST! Cobbey on Luke 2:36-38/cit. B16
[Cobbey Crisler on the prophetess Anna:] “In Luke, chapter 2, Verse 36 we find a woman, the prophetess Anna, like the prophet, Simeon, who both instantly perceived the infant Jesus as the Christ child. Luke is telling us something here. THE ACCESS TO INSPIRATION IS EQUAL. IT DOESN’T MATTER IF YOU’RE MALE OR FEMALE. THE ABILITY TO PROPHESY, THE ACCESS TO GOD, IS DIRECT. THE WOMAN DOESN’T HAVE TO GO THROUGH ANYONE IN ORDER TO GET TO GOD, EVEN THOUGH THE WHOLE JUDAIC ECCLESIASTICAL STRUCTURE WAS BUILT THAT WAY.”
“Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
ACT LIKE YOU KNOW THAT PROPHECY IS FULFILLED NOW & THAT INCURABILITY IS HEALED BY CHANGING YOUR CONCEPT & BELIEVING! Cobbey on Mark 1:14, 15/cit. B21)
[Cobbey Crisler:] “Mark 1, Verse 14. We have “John put in prison.” He has already disappeared from the scene. And, ‘‘Jesus comes into Galilee, and his work begins.”
Verse 15. There are four foundational aspects to the gospel we need to study. Normally, an architect might refer to just one cornerstone in a building. But let’s remember that all four of the corners have cornerstones. To that degree, let’s ask ourselves if this is not a clue to understanding Mark. We have a foursquare gospel, and at each corner we have a particular point. If this is true, you should be able to compile the information that follows in the gospel under one of the following four headings.
(1) The announcement that, “the time is fulfilled.” What does this mean? Prophecy. The time for the fulfillment of prophesy has arrived. So, everything is just brimming in the gospel of Mark with this great news. All of the expectation is over for the Messianic prophecy: We have a fulfillment now. ‘What could be more exciting than to be living in an era of fulfilled prophecy? Nothing, apparently, because this is what impels the gospel writers to pick up their pens….
Study Mark as if it were a textbook, filled with data that Jesus needed us to know in order to follow him. It is a handbook, so to speak, a textbook where we can find data that can be applied. Those four foundational points, under “the time is fulfilled,” you will see over and over again, explicit or implicit, in the text.
The other foundational points:
(2) The second one, “the kingdom of God is at no distance.” It is right here. Even that idea is radical to Christendom today often because the kingdom of God, or often heaven, is considered to be so far away from any of us now. It is out of reach, and we’re not really behaving ourselves sufficiently to get there. It takes Palomar’s 200 inch reflecting telescope to even get a glimpse of it. But we find the founder of Christianity saying, ”Not so.” His theology is based on the fact that “the kingdom of God is at hand.”
“Do we act like it is? We moan and we groan most of the time. We wouldn’t if our state of mind was the “kingdom-of-God-is-at-hand” and the “prophecies-are-fulfilled.” But those are only two of the cornerstones.
(3) The third one is “Repent!” That means to change your concept. Now, we’re going very deeply to the roots of what is required of us to get anywhere spiritually. The problem is mental or he never would have stated it in this way.”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
LIKE JESUS, WHEN SIMULTANEOUS PROBLEMS ARISE, PRIORITIZE THE NOWNESS AND NEWNESS OF RECEPTIVITY AND HEALING OVER RANK.
Cobbey Crisler on Jesus dealing with time management of 2 urgent appeals (Matthew 9:18, 19, 23-26/cit. B22, and Mark 5:21-42 & Luke 8:41-55)
[Cobbey on the Luke version of this healing “double-header”:] “In this case we have something that might present a problem. Two people that need attention simultaneously. What do you do?… Here’s how Jesus deals with it. He is first summoned by a ruler of the synagogue with a great deal of human priority. Jairus has the rank and he asks first. He’s got a more urgent need. His daughter is on the verge of dying (Luke 8:41 or already dead in the Matthew 9:18 version). But Jesus can’t even get to the location where this girl is because of the crush of people in the narrow lanes of the Palestinian villages. The Greek word for “thronged” is often used to describe how close these groups got to one another. Jesus was nearly suffocated by the crowd.
“Later the disciples rebuked Jesus, in Verse 45, for asking “Who touched me?” To them it was ridiculous. Everybody was touching him. The Greek verb that’s used is a verb that means what happens to grain kernels between two grinding stones. They were ground really together. The people were that crowded.
“What happens? The woman does not wish to delay Jesus’ mission, but she is at the absolutely desperate end of a rope. Here we find the receptivity. Blessed are those who are in this state. Happy are those because the state of mind can be changed.
“This radical change of thought was in the presence of the Christ-correction that Jesus was exercising in the mental realm. It’s going to be sufficient and the woman feels that it will help her. She’s lost all her money on physicians. [No health insurance…] Mark even tells us that she’s worse because of that choice. [Mark 5:26] All she does is touch the border of his garment. The issue of blood, the continuous hemorrhaging that had occurred for twelve years had kept her out of the temple, kept her out of worship and made her as unclean as the lepers. With all sorts of legislative rules around her, she herself could not be touched because it would make the individual who did it unclean. But we find that Jesus welcomed that dear woman from the standpoint of God’s welcome, because he said, “the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do.” (John 5:19).
“In Luke 8, Verse 48 he calls that lady, “Daughter.” Whose daughter? Certainly, not his. In fact, he lifts that word “daughter” entirely out of any sense of blood relationship. That was the woman’s problem. He lifts even her identity out of blood.
“Daughter, be of good comfort” (Verse 48). Look at how he’s addressing the thought of that woman. Not only the precious relationship to God, but the comfort. She hasn’t experienced that in twelve years. She’d lost all her money. She was about to be thrown on the society. There was nowhere to go when you were thrown on society. That may have happened to the woman who had been a sinner. Prostitution was the only open career for many women when they were simply thrown out and discarded from normal humanity. She could not get a living unless her family supported her, and there is no indication of that happening.
“Jesus refuses to allow that woman to walk away from the scene thinking that physical contact with his robe had anything to do with the healing. He says, again, “Your faith hath made you whole.” The word “whole” and the word “heal” in Anglo-Saxon have the identical root. It implies that disease is something less than wholeness, that it is a fragmentation of our being. Healing is the condition of being made whole.
“We understand that equation when Jesus said, “If your eye be single” Matthew 6:22), indivisible, not shared, no divisions in it and no double vision. It is single-mindedness and persistency, as we see Jesus requiring later in our book, which results in man being whole as God views him.”
“Luke, the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
COME TO “THE WEDDING FEAST, GOD’S VIEW OF CREATION, ” (OF MAN & WOMANHOOD,) IN THESE “THRILLING TIMES” WHEN “DOMINION WOMANHOOD” HAS COME TO PROVIDE “THE REMEDY FOR EVE”—See Cobbey insights below.
[Cobbey Crisler (CC) on Revelation 12:1+]
“We find in investigating the Old Testament as well as the New, that the woman in travail is an image, a metaphor, used almost as often as Messiah in prophecy. For the epitome of that, look at the 12th chapter of Revelation where we find not a novel figure at all, simply a repetition of a symbol that has been seen throughout the Scriptures. Remember womanhood and comforter, and comfort and love and motherhood all closely linked as well as Scriptural ideas. So, the concept of womanhood and comfort and the Comforter perhaps having relation to womanhood’s fulfillment of prophecy and the Genesis 1 role of God-given dominion may all be linked up. At least it’s worthwhile investigating to see what the Bible says.
[CC:] “As a matter of fact, here is what the Anchor Bible says about the figure in Revelation 12. See if you have ever looked at it from this angle.
[CC quoting The Anchor Bible:] “In Revelation 12 there is a mysterious symbolic figure of a woman who has a key figure in the drama of salvation. There can be no doubt that Revelation is giving the Christian enactment of the drama foreshadowed in Revelation 3:15 where enmity is places between the serpent and the woman, between the serpent’s seed and her seed—and the seed of the woman enters into conflict with the serpent. However, often in the Bible collective figures are based on historical ones. This, the fact that woman represents the people of God [W: “generic man” cit. S28/561:22] would not at all preclude a reference to an individual woman who is the basis of the symbolism.” (Anchor Bible)
[CC:] “So, you see that Bible scholars are wrestling with the concept that what we have in Revelation 12 is the remedy for Eve. All the stereotypical womanhood elements, all the failures, all the mistakes, all the errors associated with the Eve-subordinated woman have now been swallowed up in the Transfiguration of womanhood clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet. Remember that part of the curse on womanhood humanly is the periodic monthly complaints, monthly-and-moon-related. [Warren: As Mary Baker Eddy writes: “The Revelator symbolizes Spirit by the sun. The spiritual idea is clad with the radiance of spiritual Truth, and matter is under her feet.” (SH p. 561:25-27/after cit. S28)]
[CC:] “We find that this ideal view of spiritual womanhood in Verse 1 of Chapter 12 restores the dignity of women’s dominion. Her feet are on the moon. That is the Scriptural symbol long-recognized in the Bible for dominion, “the moon under her feet.” Thus, the Book of Revelation, a book that is attributed in its first verse to Jesus, which authorizes our including it in a course relating “Jesus and the Equality of Women”: this comparison between Eve and the dominion woman, the contest again between Genesis 2 and Genesis 1, and womanhood having that right on earth to embody the dominion of Genesis 1.
[CC:] “Should a man be entitled to overcome the problems or stereotypes on womanhood?
If so, woman would not have dominion. Is it womanhood’s right to respond to her God-given role prophetically? Are we ourselves perhaps, living in one of the most thrilling times of history?” [W’s application insertion: a time when we’re hopefully praying TO witness “no retrograde step” in freedom and dominion for the women of Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and the whole world…] [CC:] “What would make these times thrilling despite their inherent dangers? It would be the spirit of prophecy. Is that happening? Can we see the signs of the times? Is manhood waiting to be fulfilled and completed as in the seven days when God himself rested after the completion of “male and female created he them”? (Genesis 1:27/cit. B2)
[CC:] “Until womanhood receives her appropriate Scriptural place, her God-given place, how can man rest in completion? How can man be generic?” [W: “The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man, the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence f God and man as divine Principle and divine idea.” (cit. S28/561:20)]
[CC:] “How can we, hand-in-hand symbolizing a higher spiritual unity than ever before, find ourselves co-residents of the Holy City, a city that has nothing but what is holy in it, a city that establishes our original relationship? No wonder when the Bible closes, we are asked to respond to one of the most heavenly invitations in its pages, “the Spirit and the Bride say, Come!” (Revelation 22:17) [W: This follows this week’s wedding invitation allusions “Let us be glad and rejoice … for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. … Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” (Revelation 19:7, 9/cit. B24)]
[CC:] “But, Ladies and Gentlemen, we cannot respond to that invitation to the wedding feast, God‘s view of creation, without our having on a wedding garment. [W. adds: Of this garment we read this week: “The divine Science of man is woven into one web of consistency without seam or rent. … … inspiration restores every part of the divine garment of righteousness.” (cit. S27/242:25)] [CC:] “That, hopefully, is what our search the Scriptures will give us. And we bring to that wedding feast our own thoughts uplifted to the sense of manhood and womanhood united forever by God with full dominion, no subordination or domination—no thought of sex —” [W: and the invasiveness of sex in advertising & in social media] “— but a full, complete, joyous image of the Father-Mother divine parent. That’s what the Scriptures are holding out for us to prove in our lives.”
[W: “There is neither … male nor female: for ye are all one on Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28/cit. B25)]
[CC:] “Then, let us go forward and be part of the fulfillment of that prophecy.”
“Jesus and the Equality of Woman,” by B. Cobbey Crisler
