Substance GEMs “of great price” to Make Your Own!
Sunday, September 3rd, 2023
By Warren Huff (with insights from Cobbey Crisler)
Substance GEMs “of great price” to Make Your Own! (Matt. 13:46/Cit. B10)
God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Substance “
for Sunday, September 10, 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
REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE FLESH AS THE CONTAINER OF YOUR INDIVIDUALITY!
Freedom from the flesh is Paul’s prelude to cit. B4, Romans 8:5+
“… 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 8:5+ 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/cit. B2) 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. B4, 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**
(BONUS: 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**
“USE” D.I.A.L. (“Christ, … the Divine Image And Likeness…” (SH 332:11-13) to set you free!
“As God is substance and man is the divine image and likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only the substance of good, the substance of Spirit, not matter.” (cit. S6/301:17–20)
“The admission to one’s self that man is God’s own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea.” cit. S23, 90:24–25, underlining added
[Warren:] Fun application ideas for a citation in this week’s Bible Lesson on “Substance,” first came to me many years ago. I had fun putting them in again to share on a CedarS metaphysical theme t-shirt. … (with continued, daily thought-cleaning power as claimed in each shower & handwash, as pictured online in a Download below) The graphic riddle below comes from a ‘90s CedarS metaphysical-theme T-shirt:
🍊 U 🙂 = (Orange or) “AREN’T YOU GLAD
U uuu D.I.A.L.? = YOU use D.I.A.L. ?
The tag line for this “blast from the past,” often-repeated 1990s Dial soap commercial was:
“DON’T YOU WISH EVERYONE DID?
[In a 2007 Met, a regular Met contributor of past decades, Corde Hanzlik, C.S. (mother of Christie Hanzlik, C.S., regular recent Met contributor) commented in reference to CedarS D.I.A.L. t-shirt:] “We’re not advocating the use of Dial soap, but the use our spiritual status – walking in the Spirit – in all we do! (See Science and Health citation S17/332:9 in this week’s Bible lesson that was also in a March 2007 Bible Lesson, along with other D.I.A.L.-related citations from Gal. 5:25 and SH p. 94:1.)
Using D.I.A.L. as an acrostic for Divine Image And Likeness sheds new light on this old advertising message, that was adapted as a CedarS metaphysical theme message with a T-shirt version in the 1990s. Since this week’s lesson defines us as “the image and likeness of God,” we have divine authority to feel the stress-free worth of being the very image and likeness – the reflection – of God! We must be very worthy with God as our constant source who is always taking knowledge of us! Do we always remember this point? It is always the spiritual man – the “D.I.A.L.” — that we must know. We have dominion, as cornerstones, and are happy! We “shew forth all” and are God’s marvelous works – moment by moment – by reflection! Thank you, God!”
WITH TWO BEATITUDES IN THIS WEEK’S BIBLE LESSON (cit. B7/Matt. 5:6 & cit. B9/Matt. 5:3), HERE’S A FUN WAY I (Warren) HOPE TO HELP THE 4TH GRADE BOYS IN MY SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS TAKE HOME AND REMEMBER THEM.
[Warren:] I have taped to the bottoms of six Frisbees easy-to-repeat, “spiritual spins” of each Beatitudes (see below). Students will get to take their gift Frisbees home, after we play “Disc Golf” with them. Before throwing their Frisbee toward the Disc Golf catcher/goal (or a blanket or other target), each player needs to say the first line (below) on their first shot, the second line on their second shot and the third sentence (the Beatitude according to JB Phillips translation) on their third shot, if they need to take it to make it. Each player will keep his own score card. As in golf, the low score wins.
The purpose of this game/activity is to help students take home and internalize the supreme happiness of the “mind(set) of Christ” that Jesus shared in the Beatitudes. (The Beatitude mindset of what to say YES to — as well as the Commandments mindset of what to say NO to — are both available as Downloadable attachments in the online version of these GEMs, in case you want to try it for your class, your family or yourself.)
INTERNALIZE the Beatitudes’ SUPREME HAPPINESS – the mindset of Christ!
- YES! to FREEDOM from PRIDE, do “nothing of myself” (John 5:30)
to find the joy of “the kingdom of God at hand” …”within you”. (Matt. 4:17, Luke 17:21)
“How happy are the humble-minded, for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs!” 5:3 Phillips - YES! to COURAGE TO CONFRONT SORROW…
& find COMFORT in “the control that Love holds over all” (SH 514)
“How happy are those who know what sorrow means for they will be given courage and comfort!” 5:4 J.B. Phillips - YES! to the MEEK STRENGTH of always SEEKING GOD FIRST
… for with that priority I will find “all things … added unto” me. (Matt. 6:33)
“Happy are those who claim nothing, for the whole earth will belong to them!” 5:5 - YES! to HUNGERING & THIRSTING TO BE GOD’S BEST ME… for only when I express God’s likeness will I be fully satisfied! (Gen. 1:26+)
“Happy are those who are hungry & thirsty for goodness, for they will be fully satisfied!” 5:6 - YES! to BEING QUICK to FORGIVE…
… for only then will I be fully forgiven also!
“Happy are the merciful, for they will have mercy shown to them!” 5:7 Phillips - YES! to BEING PURE IN HEART, sincere to my core,
… for then only will I clearly SEE God and ALL of creation.
“Happy are the utterly sincere, for they will see God!” Matt. 5:8 - YES! to BEING A PEACEMAKER …
& to finding my place as God’s child, WINNING without a fight.
“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, & your place in God’s family.” 5:9 - YES! to GLADLY STANDING FOR WHAT IS RIGHT … EVEN when bullied for it … knowing I’m in good company with all “spiritual seer(s)” (SH 593:4)… who God loves and protects.
“Happy are those who have suffered persecution for the cause of goodness, for the kingdom of Heaven is theirs! “And what happiness will be yours when people blame you and ill-treat you and say all kinds of slanderous things against you for my sake! Be glad then, yes, be tremendously glad—for your reward in Heaven is magnificent. They persecuted the prophets before your time in exactly the same way.” Matt. 5:10-12 Phillips
TO PASS YOUR DIVINE IDENTITY TESTS FOLLOW JESUS IN RECITING GOD’S PROMISES WHEN TEMPTED IN ALL THINGS LIKE HE DID
Follow Jesus by memorizing (paying loving attention to) all God’s Bible-based commands and promises to pass your wilderness, divine identity tests like he did! Cobbey on Jesus’ tests in Matt. 4:1-10 that precede Matt. 4:17, 23/cit. B14:[Cobbey Crisler:] “There is what we might call an identity-crisis test in Chapter 4 (of Matthew). The Anglo-Saxon word “tempt” has almost picked up a theological meaning. It really means “test.” That’s what the word means. It’s a test. (Verse 1) So, “Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness” to be tested on the fact that had recently been revealed (directly from God in Matthew 3:17 (and Mark 1:11) that Jesus was God’s “Beloved Son”).
Verse 2. “After forty days and nights he’s hungry.”
“This reminds me of Moses. He, too, had that testing period (Exodus 24:18) just prior to receiving the Ten Commandments. For forty days and forty nights. This Chapter in Matthew is just prior to the Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes. This preparation is the same. And there is a test.
Verse 3. “When the tester comes,” here it is, question Number 1: “If you are the Son of God.” Why would that even have emerged if we had not had Verse 17 in the preceding chapter? “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” The test question is, “If you are,” then what? “Command that these stones be made bread.”“How does Jesus respond to this test question? He quotes Scripture. Notice how Jesus responds to temptation. If this is the way Jesus elects to respond to it, what about you and me? How eloquent might you or I try to get when we respond to temptation? Make up original sermons, choose our words carefully, perhaps?
“Jesus decided the best defense was Scripture. This verse is taken from Deuteronomy 8, Verse 3. Deuteronomy is a law book. In fact, the word in Greek deuteros nomos is the second law or the repetition of the law. How did he regard this test by Satan? What was going on in Jesus’ thinking here? Had he isolated it completely?
“First of all, what does Satan mean in Hebrew? Accuser. It is also the term for prosecuting attorney. If he has the prosecuting attorney accusing in thought, Jesus in his defense cites what? The law. He quotes the law book. He doesn’t need to do anything original. The law is the law and it never varies. Therefore, what is being suggested her by Satan, or the prosecuting attorney is illegal. It is illegitimate. He proves it by citing the law. That’s a marvelous technique for us in the middle of temptation.
“Our consciousness is like a law court. And the plusses and minuses that occur there have to be dealt with, as in a law court. Where are the accusations coming from? The prosecuting attorney or Satan. Where do we get the information? The law book or the defense attorney.
“You know that Jesus promised that something would come after he had left. It’s been translated “the comforter” in the gospel of John. The Greek word is parakletos, sometimes transliterated as paraclete. In Greek it can be the technical term for defense attorney.
“Verse 4 So, where did Jesus turn for his protection and defense, the defense of his manhood, the defense of his sonship with God, which is a spiritual fact revealed directly to him by God? How does he defend it? By citing the law book, utilizing the Comforter or defense attorney against the arguments of Satan. If Jesus had to do that, can we do anything less? “Man shall not live by bread alone,” Jesus said, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” That is a great statement for survival in an emergency….
“Verse 5. But Satan isn’t through yet, is he? Next thing, take Jesus out of the wilderness, and move him into an entirely different environment. The sophistication of organized religion, ecclesiasticism. “Take him to the very pinnacle of the Temple.”
“Verse 6. Show him everything that could belong to him ecclesiastically if he would only go via the world’s route by following devilish suggestions. “If thou be the son of God,” the same test question again. “Cast thyself down.” Notice the suggestion is that Jesus do it himself. Apparently, Satan knew that it would not succeed trying to cast Jesus down. If Satan couldn’t do it, the only way that it could be done would be for Jesus to do it to himself.” …
“In verse 6 we find that Satan is quoting Scripture, “It is written, He will give his angels charge concerning thee.” In fact, that is a very key attempt by Satan. Why? Satan discovered what Jesus’ defense was, namely Scripture. O.K., if that’s the way you want it, the devil can use Scripture for its purposes. But the devil doesn’t know much beyond the 91st Psalm and everybody knows that. So, Satan quotes, “It is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee; and in their hands they shall bear you up.” You see, there is nothing to worry about, Jesus, even Scripture now backs you, so leap down.
“Verse 7. Jesus doesn’t react. It’s reaction in Judo that is taken advantage of by your opponent. Jesus doesn’t react. Simply quotes once again the law book. This come from Deuteronomy 6, verse 16. “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” You cannot test God and His revealed Word. The high quality of Jesus’ discernment and his thought is not sufficient to dismiss Satan after one temptation, or even a second one. How valuable is the quality of persistence! Supposed Jesus had given up after the second time, “I already covered this ground.” Or listened to Satan, but he doesn’t.
“Verse 8. The third charge or accusation occurs, “the devil takes him into an exceeding high mountain, and shows him all the kingdoms of the world.”
“All these things being offered to Jesus are to a degree a kind of power. He was offered personal power by changing stones to bread. Then he was offered priestly power if he’d go for the argument to be the head of ecclesiasticism. And he was offered political power by being shown all the kingdoms of the world.
“All those temptations that hit human nature… We are in the wilderness at some point along with Jesus having the exact same tests applied to us. How are our responses to those exam questions? Do we pass with flying colors?…
“Verse 10. We find that Jesus answers and that the only thing he says that’s original, “Get thee behind me Satan.” He dismisses the prosecution in thought, “for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shall thou serve.” That’s kind of a combination of Deuteronomy 6, verse 13 and Deuteronomy 10, verse 20.
“Verse 11. Look at what happens. “The devil leaveth him.” No longer is there dualism in thought. “Angels came and ministered unto him.” True communication completely governed his thought, no longer a divided kingdom. The false communication is dismissed.”
BONUS RESULTS in THE VERSES IN THE LESSON:
[Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 4:23/cit. B8:] “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**** Other KINGDOM citations in Section 3:
- “…, the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man.” cit. S16/560:11-15
DEMAND OF YOUR PATIENT (& YOURSELF) TO DO THE PART THAT GOD EQUIPPED YOU TO DO!
Cobbey Crisler on citation B14/Matthew 12:10-15 (and Luke 6:6-12)
[Cobbey:] “Matthew 12, Verse 13: Jesus says to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch forth your hand.” Notice, he did not go up to the man and do it physically for him. He said to the man, and notice what role he assigns to the patient in every case, “You do it.” You’re equipped to do it. That’s your part. Stretch forth your hand. Immediately this happened. It was whole again.” A fragment of the body could not depart along its separate route and create its own rules. The eye had to be single as God’s eye was single.
BONUS: (Verse 14). “The Pharisees went out, and held a council right there on how they could destroy Jesus.” They brought the man to Jesus and challenged him. Here a man’s whole life was turned around. One of the great insoluble problems, a man’s distorted physical being had been corrected and changed.
(Verse:15). “Jesus had to withdraw, but many followed him.”
“The Book of Matthew: Auditing the Master,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
LIKE JESUS, VIEW MATTER IN A RADICAL DIFFERENT WAY
AND SEVER ALL FLESHLY-ORIGIN CONNECTIONS.
Cobbey on John 6:62 -68 (esp. John 6:63, quoted by Mary Baker Eddy in cit. S21/356:15)
[Cobbey Crisler:] John 6:62, “What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?” Nativity in the Spirit. There can’t be the magnetic pull back to earth if that connection has been severed or proved never to have been a real connection.
“In John 6:63 (citation B1) Jesus impinges upon what has been considered laws of physics because he views matter in a radical way. He makes the statement, “It is the spirit that quickeneth.” That is where you find life. So, if you want to talk about nativity anywhere, you better deal with origin and Spirit. “The flesh profiteth nothing.”
“You see how close one needs to be to Jesus in thought to understand what has been referred to as the Communion Supper. If he is accurate in saying, “the flesh profiteth nothing, “neither would symbolically eating it profit anything. So, it must not be the flesh he is talking about, but that great transformation that he is proving in his life to be possible to the Son of Man. John 1:14 refers to it as “the Word that was made flesh.” The Word connects us to Spirit, not flesh. Here is part of that Word underscoring the message that, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.”
“What happened in John 6:66? “Many walked right out,” as soon as he had this radical statement to say about matter.
John 6:67. Jesus had to turn to the twelve, and said, “Will you go away?”
“John 6:68. Peter had one of those classic remarks that he makes. It’s really a lovely one. He looks around to the alternatives and says, “Lord, where will we go? You have the words of eternal life.” [W. “the pearl of great price”(Matt. 13:44-46/cit. B10] He got the message. The words of eternal life, not the flesh of eternal life. “You have the words of eternal life.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
“TURN THE TABLES” ON ALL FABLES! BE UNWAVERING & NEVER FOOLED BY A FABLE that FALSELY CLAIMS that ANY “PERFECT GIFT FROM ABOVE” (James 1:17, cit. B15), like YOUR LIBERTY, CAN EVER BE MADE TO DISAPPEAR!
Discover in any “wilderness” experience a “vestibule” entryway where all that disappears is a material sense (like where the bulky outer garments) of “loneliness, doubt, darkness” are removed while “spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.” (Science & Health, 597:16) In the sacred refuge and solitude of this wilderness, we find the constancy of perfect health, the confidence of spiritual light-heartedness and sufficiency … all of which can never be diminished or made to disappear!
[Cobbey Crisler on James 1:17/cit. B15 and beyond thematically:
“Every good gift and every perfect 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”
[W:] or as in illusionist David Copperfield’s trick to click here to see the whole audience slowly revolved to make the Statue of Liberty seem to disappear. (“The audience wasn’t in on it. This was a real illusion. The audience was placed on a rotating platform and Copperfield had it rotated so slowly that no one would noticed. When the curtains dropped the audience was actually facing the other way. The whole set was designed so you wouldn’t know you were moving. The spotlights used to “pass through the empty space” was actually there to blind the audience in case they turned around to where the actual statue was.“)]
[Cobbey again] “As promised in scriptures:
“God is not a man, that he should lie…hath he not said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23: 19}
And, “For I am the Lord; I change not.” (Malachi 3:6)
James 1:18 continues: “Of his own will begat he us with the word—logos—of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures”—a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself.”
[per Warren’s notes on Cobbey Crisler’s talk on “The Book of Job”]
… “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—[W’s 10/7/19 notes: pray like Job did who never wavered in proclaiming his spiritual innocence. Job so refined his powerful prayers of protest to God that he received his healing and “the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10)].
[Cobbey:] “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 Book of Job: A Mental Court Case” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[W.] “Keep your eyes on the prize” of Liberty—
As James 3:17 declares, wise prayer from above is committed to oneness and is guaranteed of success. Mary Baker Eddy says of the unsuccessful prayers for President McKinley when he assassinated: “Had prayer so fervently offered possessed no opposing element… the result would have been scientific and the patient would have recovered.” (My. 293:21, bold+ added)
[W.] For wise and successful, answered prayers keep your “eyes on the prize”—on the perfect law of liberty (like on the Statue of Liberty when David Copperfield seemed to make it vanish by turning the tables under his entire audience). When our perfect –free, large, full— liberty seems to have vanished by material illusions and false beliefs, we can instantly “turn back the tables on all fables” and look continually to the perfect, stable and unvarying LAW of liberty…
James 1:25 “whoso looketh unto the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
[W:] So, let’s all be doers—applying these precious promises and principles to enlarge our “treasures of Truth and Love” (SH 265) and to share the divine blessings of putting into practice the perfect law of liberty – our permanent gift of Love from above.
Be spiritual light-hearted to “turn the tables” on the “wilderness” fables of “loneliness, doubt, darkness.” (SH 597) These are among the burdens that prayer with “no opposing element” calls you and me to drop. “I drop my burden at His feet, and bear a song away.” Christian Science Hymnal 124:3]
Principia’s Founder Mary Kimball Morgan, CS, has great advice for our prayers for our congregations and the world: “If you ever feel that your work is becoming burdensome, just stop and place the responsibility where it belongs – in your Father’s hands. Get rid of the sense of burden before continuing your work, for heaviness of thought cannot glorify God.” This is part of an awesome, one-page treatment on how to be “equal to every demand placed on you” and “be deeply in earnest and at the same time spiritually light-hearted.” (Education at the Principia (EAP), page 222)
We are to be light-hearted, early and often, because from the beginning we know the “He is risen” end of the Easter story! Its blessings enable us to help ourselves and others “to kiss the cross and wake to know a world more bright” (Hymn 253:3, 550:3) This brighter world view can come right in the midst of an otherwise dark time for the world: with thought focused on outfalls of war, economic and educational concerns, resurgement covid cases, confinements…;
OPEN YOUR SPIRITUAL SENSE EYES AND KNOW WITH SCIENTIFIC CERTAINTY TO DROP ALL HEAVY BURDENS!
Cobbey on God’s command for light to shine in your heart for the divine glory of God in Christ Jesus & you! II Cor. 4:17+/cit. B18
[Transcribed from a talk by Cobbey Crisler:] “Here is a commandment from God. This commandment was for “light to shine out of darkness,” and to shine where? [Voice: “in our hearts.”]. Where is the finger of God at work? Where has Christ written his letter, his epistle? If that’s shining, if we’re facing God, face-to-face, Mind-to-Mind, if our mentality is taking on the likeness of God Himself, then that light is showing. But it’s a light that knows. It’s a mental light, “the light of the knowledge.” In the Latin Bible, do you know what that word is? It’s our word for science, scientiae. It is the light of the knowing in a sense of disciplined science “of the glory of God.”
“We have the ability, therefore we are without excuse, to know God because he has revealed Himself, His nature, to us. We can call upon our divine nature. We can begin to answer the question, “What is natural?” with the response, “The divine is natural for me.” That “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus” leaves not one slight dark spot of Adam’s amnesia left on the disc of our consciousness.”
“Verse 17 of Chapter 4 (of 2 Corinthians) stresses the meaning of the Hebrew word “kabod”— even though we’re in the Greek New Testament. Because it says “our light affliction.” Lightness here is the opposite of heaviness. [W: see the blessing above* of being “spiritually lighthearted.”] “Our light affliction” we don’t consider our afflictions light, do we? I mean, our shoulders are bent over, and if only our relatives knew what we were assuming as burdens for them. Our relationships would be happier, if the United States tackling so much of the economic burden of the world, and the military burden. Are our shoulders bending nationally as well as under such weight? According to the Bible, this is “light affliction” and it’s “for a moment,” and it’s going to work out for us “a far more exceeding [and] eternal weight of glory.”
“Remember “kabod” means heaviness and weight. This weight suddenly turns out to be something that’s substantial. We’re talking about substance, the real weight. We’re not talking about an abstraction.
“We’re talking about concrete being here in this “exceeding and eternal weight of glory” [2 Corinthians, Chapter 4, Verse 17]. Yet in Verse 18 we are told it’s not something you’re going to open your eyes and see. We have to cultivate the spiritual sense of appreciating what the physical sense do not tell us about.
“Of what value, of what validity, of what reliability are our bodily senses if not one of can tell us there is a God? Because if God exists, as the Bible reveals He does, and we can see His effects appreciably in our lives, and none of the senses tell us that God exists, who needs the senses? They are not bearing witness to facts that exist, even though unseen.
“We can’t bow down to our bodily senses as giving us correct information, can we? We know how deceived we are all the time. We also how limited the senses are; we know that some of our pet animals can detect things occurring through their senses that are completely inappreciable to ours. So, why have we been so satisfied with the data coming to us from these five channels?”
“Glory: Divine Nature in The Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FIND DIVINE, LOVINGKINDNESS CURE-ALLS FOR EVERY TME OF DAY & NIGHT!
HOPE IN GOD (WHO ALONE CAN QUENCH THIRSTY SOULS) TO FIND
A SURE CURE TO DEPRESSION (& put an END to CONTINUAL FEARS & TEARS)!
[Warren on Psalm 42:2 (and verses 5 & 8 and Cobbey Crisler on Ps. 42:11, before & after cit. B)] “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me: (Psalm 42:5, 6)
[W: Psalm 42, verses 2, 3 and 5 start with the psalmist acknowledging a thirst, lack, or seeming ‘hole in his soul.’ “… my soul panteth for thee O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God…” This is manifested in “tears… day and night…” and in questioning the existence of God— “Where is thy God?” (Verses 3 and 10)
That seeming void is filled with divine cure-alls for every time of the day and night—God’s commanded “lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song… and my prayer unto the God of my life.” (Ps. 42:8/cit. B20) These cure-alls are a panacea that end every pandemic – even one of depression and hopelessness.]
[Cobbey: “Psalm 42, Verse 11 is a refrain in this psalm and the next. [Ps. 43.5] It’s a question we all need to ask ourselves, “Why art thou cast down?” Depression, if not an economic fact, seems to be a mental one at present. “Why art thou cast down? Examine the reasons. “Why art thou disquieted within me?” That’s getting mad in a sense. That’s challenging what we are accepting without question. Why am I depressed? Why is this disquiet? What’s the reason for it? Then notice the remedy. “Hope thou in God: praise God, hope in God. The health of our countenance is in God. “
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Cobbey: “Verse 11 [of Psalm 42] is the effect of that [enemy] thought [of questioning the existence of God in verse 10]. Our “soul is cast down,” our whole identity depressed, “disquieted.” Only restored “hope in God” will restore “the health of our countenance,” showing the physical effect of the mental cause.”
“War in Heaven: Conquest of Inner Space,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
