APPLICATION GEMS from the Bible of HOW to LISTEN to GOD’S ANGEL-THOUGHTS & also WIN WITHOUT A FIGHT!
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with new insights from Cobbey, Kerry & others as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“God the Preserver of Man”
for December 11, 2022
(Cobbey Crisler’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps.org
“MAKE RADIANT ROOM” to hear ANGELS of SPIRITUAL SENSE show the reason for the season & KEEP the CHRIST in your CHRISTMAS! From Kerry Jenkins’ PYCL #1: PREPARE FOR ANGELS.
[Kerry Jenkins’ possible Sunday School ideas for this week’s Lesson PYCL #1: PREPARE FOR ANGELS.]
“ …we will have some more angel appearances in the Bible lessons leading up to Christmas so maybe it would be fun to start noticing them now. This lesson has a few examples beyond the Golden Text where they are keynoted. (They include Mark 1:13/cit. B15; Ps. 68:17/cit. B16; Ps. 91:11/cit. B18; cit. S20/174:9; cit. S25/574:27) If we substitute the definition of angels as “God’s thoughts passing to man,” from Science and Health p. 591 for any place that angels appear, what will the references look like? For example, our Golden Text says when referring to enemies: “Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord chase them.” “…let “God’s thoughts passing to man,” chase them.” … (Science and Health p. 581)
There are two great stories of war time in Israel that ended very unconventionally. (citation B8/Judges 7:2-7,21 & cit. B13/II Kings 6:8-17+) Read both stories with this angel definition in mind.
How does it apply to the thoughts/inspirations of the two great prophet leaders from these stories—Gideon and Elisha?
Wasn’t it angels/God’s thoughts, inspiration, understanding, that chased away both enemies in these two stories?
There were no battles that ensued in these two examples that in their own ways brought peaceful resolutions to warring neighbors. (Judges 7:2-7,21 & II Kings 6:8-17)
It would be helpful to fully read or tell both stories including, perhaps some of the surrounding detail that enriches their message. Especially important for this focus might be the completion of Elisha’s story where he leads the Syrian army to the King of Israel and has them fed and returned to their home.
Where was the combat or battle in these stories?
How did angels save them all? Can angels save us from conflict? (and even from “thinking without strife” as is a goal/motto sung in the CedarS song written by Founder Ruth Huff.)
There are several mentions directly of angels in Section 4, but can they spot how angels are at work in Gideon’s story? How about Elisha’s?
Start an ongoing chart or picture of all the ways that angels [of spiritual sense] appear to us and look forward to how we can add to it as the weeks before Christmas arrive.
WEAR ANGEL ARMOR ALWAYS (AAA) TO BE PRESERVED according to citation B5/Eph. 6:10-15.
From Kerry Jenkins’ PYCL #4: WHAT KIND OF ARMOR DO WE NEED TO BE PRESERVED?
citation B5/Eph. 6:10-15 10 “Finally, receive your power from the Lord and from his mighty strength. 11 Put on all the armor that God supplies. In this way you can take a stand against the devil’s strategies. (12 This is not a wrestling match against a human opponent. We are wrestling with rulers, authorities, the powers who govern this world of darkness, and spiritual forces that control evil in the heavenly world. 13 For this reason, take up all the armor that God supplies. Then you will be able to take a stand during these evil days.[a] Once you have overcome all obstacles, you will be able to stand your ground.) 14 So then, take your stand! Fasten truth around your waist like a belt. Put on God’s approval as your breastplate. 15 Put on your shoes so that you are ready to spread the Good News that gives peace.” (“God’s Word” version of Eph. 6:10-15)
[Kerry Jenkins’ possible Sunday School ideas for this week’s Lesson PYCL #4: What kind of armor…]
“Think about last week’s Bible Lesson story of David facing Goliath and what kind of armor David wore…
Was it effective? Is it armor that is available to us anywhere, anytime?”
You may wish to expand your understanding how to put on spiritual armor today and “end wars” and strife by following the examples of Gideon and Elisha in this week’s lesson and how they won peace without waging conventional warfare. ]
“What is the armor of God?
When we are “Clad in the panoply of Love”, we are told, hatred can’t harm us! (SH p.571:18-19).
How does this work?”
And, what a relief to know that it’s by God’s will and “amazing grace”— not by any of our own efforts, other than that of leaning on God — that we are given lives “big with blessings.” As Mary Baker Eddy has proven and promised: “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings” (cit. S6, vii:1) What could be bigger blessings for us than daily demonstrations that the newness of Life in God is ALL-inclusive: “Behold, I make all things new!” (Revelation 21:5).
Living with the renewable energy of expecting newness every moment is a big part of leaning on “the sustaining infinite” and sharing in the big blessings of each new day.
It’s reassuring that “… man is sustained by God, the divine Principle of being.” (cit. S23/530:5) and that
“… the evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by spiritual sense.” (cit. S14/471:13-17)
“LET NEITHER FEAR NOR DOUBT MAKE TO AFRAID” of what’s just an illusion!**
(Part 3 in this Bible Lesson of a 4-sentence treatment.) When an ILLUSION makes it appears that YOUR “BACK’S AGAINST the WALL,” PRAY a W.A.L.L. TREATMENT! —or C.A.L.L. treatment to know “who you gonna call?” (SH, 495:20, cit. S19)
On page 495, lines 14-24 Mary Baker Eddy gives you (and the whole world) four powerful (and memoizable) sentences to guide your thoughts to healing when you are tempted to believe in the reality of some illusion or ghost of fear or doubt when it seems to be in your face.
** Recently a lecture was sponsored by our branch church which addressed how to not get stuck in that dark place of fear. The talk, titled “Moving Past Fear — to Healing” and was given by Lisa Troseth, CSB. A video recording of it is available on our church’s website . Please feel free to share with any seekers who would be blessed by it, this link: https://csheals.org/lectures/.
W.A.L.L. Treatment (SH 495:14) These four sentences begin with the letters W, A, L, L—hence the W.A.L.L. treatment. This was a memory aid that came to me and has made it easier for me to remember the whole paragraph and use it often as a cornerstone for healings.
- “When the illusion…
- Allow nothing but his likeness to abide in your thought.
- Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and…
- Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding…” (cit. S16)
Or it could be called the C.A.L.L. Treatment (SH 495:14) A different acronym/memory aid can be made by using the first letters of the directive verbs in each of these same four sentences. They are Cling, Allow, Let and Let again—hence the C.A.L.L. treatment. This alternate memory devise came to me when tempted to be afraid of some illusion or lingering “ghostly” belief from the past, present or future (like Scrooge was in “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens). Mary Baker Eddy unknowingly answered in-advance and brilliantly the question “Who you Gonna Call?” (from the 1984 movie “Ghostbusters” soundtrack song by Ray Parker Jr.). She treated all such “ghosts” as illusions in her ultimate, metaphysical “Ghostbuster” treatment that has served as a cornerstone for thousands of healings. –“When the illusion… tempts you,
- Cling Steadfastly to God and His idea.
- Allow nothing but his likeness to abide in your thought.
- Let neither fear** nor doubt overshadow your Clear Sense and calm trust…
- Let Christian Science instead of Corporeal Sense, support your understanding of being and…” (cit. S16)
(Reread carefully and consider memorizing the FULL, 10-line Christian Science treatment in Science and Health, page 495:14-24. Also of note are the four pairs of consecutive words (which I capitalized, highlighted and bolded above) all begin with C and S!
We’re faced with the barrage of news about a global pandemic, aggressive militarism and other forms of lawlessness – as well as with the hopefulness of peaceful protests which attempt to transform and uplift mankind out of hateful habits. To stay with the allness of God in the midst of this seeming somethingness of this evil we can always spiritualize thought as we C.A.L.L. on God and:
- C. Cling steadfastly to God and His idea [Christ]
- A. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought.
- L. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious — as Life eternally is — can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not.
- L. Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony.” (SH 495:14-16, 20)
Such CALL-ing on God gives us something certain to “cling steadfastly to,” and overturns what appears to be a worldwide fixation on fear. The C.A.L.L. treatment is a sure defense. It protects us as we follow the Wayshower, to find comfort and healing for our whole global family.
“Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the ‘glorious liberty of the children of God,’ and be free! This is your divine right.” (SH 227:23-26)
PLEASE GOD BY DOING DEEP-CLEANING CHRIST’S WAY—FROM the INSIDE OUT!
Try Christ’s ultimate “DRY-cleaning” baptism method! Cobbey on Mark 1:8+, cit. B15
[Cobbey Crisler:] Mark 1:8 “I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost”… John the Baptist never healed the sick as part of his theology. Here it’s not baptism with water that is ultimately going to count on earth, but baptism with the Holy Ghost… We find John the Baptist… removing the focus from physical cleanliness as being the means by which we would enter a heavenly state… You know water can’t reach what’s within, what is in consciousness, what is mental and really needs cleaning…
Mark 1, verse 10… “the Spirit like a dove descends upon him” in this baptism. It shows he is coming out of the watery baptism into the higher sense of baptism of the Spirit. The spiritual sense of man is what emerges after the carnal sense is washed from consciousness…
Mark 1:11 The announcement comes, “Thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased,” shows that sonship and relationship to God is not in a fleshly context… It is a very emphatic point of our relationship to God.” [Warren: Consider the lifelong, spiritual confidence given to the dear ones in our care when we nightly say a blessing over them, and to them, that they are beloved children, in whom God and we are well-pleased.]
[Cobbey again:] “Remember the consistency of the Scripture. This is what turns us into students. The consistency of the Scripture would force us to study in depth how we please God. Take “Here is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” How do we please God? Do you remember any particular Scriptural statements on that?… One of the things that Paul says about it in Romans 8:8 is, “They that are in the flesh (they that are earthly minded, who obey the lower nature) cannot please God.”
What Mark Recorded, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren: The preceding verses, Romans 8:5-7, with other translations shed more light on the challenge of earthly-minded body-worship that seems so accepted and prevalent in today’s obsession with fitness, diet, revealing selfies… After the King James in italics is Goodspeed’s translation of Romans 8:5 “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh: but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” = “People who are controlled by the physical think of what is physical: and people who are controlled by the spiritual think of—give their attention to—what is spiritual.” Goodspeed]
For a couple of Mary Baker Eddy’s insights that I’ve found helpful to shine a Christ-light light on trending bodily-mindedness, click on my P.S. at the end of a January 2014 Met on “Sacrament,” by Kathy Fitzer, at https://www.cedarscamps.org/metaphysical/articles/2014/1/sacrament/
In this 2014 Met —at the bottom under Download— you can also click on a pdf file that outlines Matthew’s version of Jesus’ baptism of “the Holy Ghost and fire.” It – and BETTER YET Cobbey’s full talk transcript available below through his wife, Janet Crisler—give a hands-on way to separate any mixed-up mess of good (facts) and bad (fables) by taking them up to the highest point (God). That allows Spirit, God, the Pneuma or Wind—NOT you with tweezers—to sort out any mixed-up mess and to put an end to the fables. In the Glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scripture, Mary Baker Eddy defines FAN as “Separator of fable from fact; that which gives action to thought.” SH 586
At CedarS Bible Lands Park where thought is put into action, we take a separating “fan in hand” and climb our miniature Mt. Nebo where an actual fire is built downwind. There—using the wind of Spirit and a separating “FAN in hand”—we let the wind sort-out the fables —written on folded-up scraps of papers —and let the fire burn them up. We pray to be see that this will put an end to every mixed-up mess that would attempt to fool and discourage us and so keep us from being the best versions of ourselves that God made and maintains.
In my inspirational talk for Arden Woods’ May 1, 2022 Annual Meeting, in the second half of the meeting, you can hear many application examples and see a time-traveling Moses reenact the separating of chaff from the wheat on Mt. Nebo in CedarS Bible Lands Park. Here’s a link at https://www.ardenwood.org/events/annualmeeting22/
[W.] Continuing citation B3 with Mark 1: (32) 34, 40-42 we read how Jesus’ love instantly cleanses every kind of disease, including one who may have been deemed an incurable leper!
[Cobbey:] Mark 1, verse 32: “Then ‘at even,’ 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;”
Verse 40. A leper comes to him. We already know what the early message in the Scriptures is about healing leprosy? Notice what the patient does. Study the patient’s role. Then study the healer’s role, namely Jesus. The leper comes, “beseeching, kneeling, and saying, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” What does that show is occurring in his thinking? Is he ready? Again, there’s your key. Receptivity is the key to healing. You know, a leper was not supposed to approach anyone. He was to remain at least six feet away and ringing a bell. He was supposed, according to the Torah, to shout everywhere he went, “Unclean, unclean.” Imagine the label one attached to oneself. No wonder it was incurable. You never got off the subject. Unclean, unclean.
Here, he’s breaking through that ritually required barrier and saying, “If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” Look at the difference just in thought there. From “Unclean, unclean” [to] “if thou wilt thou canst make me clean.” Jesus noticed how the healer here works. [Verse 41,] “Moved with compassion, put forth [his] hand, and touched him.” That’s a no-no. You know what the ritual law said he had to do after that? Go home and bathe. And send out all his clothes to the laundromat and stay there for at least seven hours before he could even mingle with humanity again, because touching a leper made you unclean. [Voice:”…took the serpent by the tail.”] Took the serpent by the tail, good point. No fear.
Also, if we’re studying the healing method of Jesus. If we’re saying that this course on “Heal the Sick: A Scriptural Record” is the record of how we, too, should heal the sick, if this is what Jesus had in mind, or what God is revealing to humanity through the Bible, then what else happened when Jesus touch that leper?
Just ask yourself. Put yourself in that leper’s position. Then stand back and appreciate deeply Jesus’ humanity. How long had it been since that leper had felt a human touch? Did Jesus have to touch him humanly to heal him? [Voice: “No, he didn’t.”] He’s proved in other cases he did not have to. [Voice: “I think he wanted to prove that he wasn’t afraid of leprosy, and nobody should be.”] Alright, that’s also a good point. But look at it from the leper’s point of view. Did Jesus do everything from his own point of view? In other words, like, “I’m gonna do this because I want to show you all I’m not afraid of this dread disease”? No. That’s part of it. [Voice: “Love”] But that great love that saw the man’s need. The love that meets the human need Jesus was expressing there. That man must have just responded in such a way that he was healed immediately.
Jesus makes him do something. It’s a rare case where Jesus ever does it all for the patient. He says, “Be thou clean.” Whose responsibility? [Voice: “His.”] “Be thou clean.”
Let’s remember now as we see these things occurring in the early moments of Jesus’ earthly career, that within them, this is not just something that’s springing full blown. There is a continuity, isn’t there? We’ve spent the whole morning with the continuity, the promise, the prophecy, the indications of healing to come up to Jeremiah’s [31:33] prediction of the New Covenant and it would be “written within on our hearts.”
When Jesus touches this leper and heals him, there comes with it all that authority of God’s revelation behind him, nothing new, as old as God and His revelation to man. Yet, don’t we hark, in a way, to some of the earlier records? For instance, when Jesus tells this man in Verse 44 to go “to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded.” Maybe behind that stands that statement of God to Moses [Exodus 4:8] that if they do not believe “the voice of the first sign that they will believe the voice of the latter sign,” or healing? What greater evidence of one’s religion or understanding could you have than the evidence of a healed case? Especially of one that could very well have been a form of incurable leprosy.
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
EXPECT “LESSER IDEAS” TO RESPOND to the DIVINE LOVE THAT CHERISHES EACH ONE.
Cobbey Crisler on Psalm 36:6 (prelude for verse 7 in citation B17.
“Let’s not leave out veterinary medicine as far as God is concerned, because the statement is made here, “You preserve both man and beast.” Perhaps some of you have heard this story. It’s a very moving one. It was reported to me by someone who is in the audience today. About the illustration of God’s love and care for what we would call an animal or beast. In this case, it was a goat. The female goat was having difficulty in giving birth to its kid. The pain was so obvious that the owner of the farm on which this goat was roomed and boarded felt so deeply about what was happening that she seemed to [go] all to pieces emotionally. She canceled everything else she had to do except very priority appointments, and stayed in the stall near that goat. The plaintive cries and the appeals to help only seemed to break down the defensive mechanism of the host, as we said was a condition of virus.
Finally, in that kind of desperation that has always held-out some hope for man because we’ve given up every other exploration of alternatives, she said this, “Dear Father, please show to this one of your lesser ideas in a way that they may understand Thy love and Thy care.” That brought a sense of peace so that the concern and worry were not as paramount.
As she sat there, the door of the barn was open slightly, in the crack came a rabbit. The rabbit wasn’t at all concerned by the presence of a human, went right by her to the stall of the goat and began to lick the face of that goat and kept licking and loving, licking and loving. Then after the rabbit had fulfilled its assignment—it was a divine assignment—that rabbit came through prayer—it left and the goat stopped its cries, and got vertical, got well and had the kid without any after effects. That kind of song in our hearts answered directly, “Thou preservest man and beast.” How we could utilize those thoughts! That wasn’t quoted from the Psalms but it was based on a revealed fact that came from a joyous heart. The rabbit responded. Like the fish responded when Jesus needed tax money (Matthew 17:27). These are potions from God’s dispensary.”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
Psalm 36:6-7 (RR) New Living Translation (NLT)
6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths.
You care for people and animals alike, O Lord.
7 How precious is your unfailing love, O God!
All humanity finds shelter
in the shadow of your wings.
- New GEMs for your Sunday—Kiss the Cross/Win the Crown! Overcome the flood (of lust & of the corona-virus) with a strong, “No-and-Yes” Love of the Commandments and the Beatitudes!— priceless Cobbey Crisler insights from Revelation 12 (cit. B19) with citations B8, S14, S15, S16 illustrating how to conquer and destroy the moral contagion and animality of lust/rape— plus Bible-boosts from Psalms, Isaiah, Song of Solomon…
“Our defense against the dragon and its FLOOD in Revelation 12 is the “No-and-Yes” Love found in the Commandments and Beatitudes…
“The red dragon has seven heads and ten horns [Revelation 12:3]. What would that perhaps relate to? Methodius, an early Christian, writing at the last of the Third Century, indicates to those to whom he is writing that the ten horns of the dragon are the opposites of the Decalogue. What could gore us, lay us absolutely open, completely open to the world’s weapons than to deny the Commandments, fail to use them, or openly live in opposition to them?’
“Take the Commandments [Exodus 20: 3-5, 7, 8, 12, 13-17]. Reverse each one. Look what’s happening to our world today. See if the dragon’s horns are not goring humanity freely and with license.
“Thou shalt commit adultery” [Exodus 20:14]. Beginning to look like the rule rather than the exception. When that happens [as it did in Amnon’s rape of Tamar in II Samuel 13:1-19, B8], that’s one of the dragon’s horns, if Methodius is correct.
“Thou shalt kill” [Exodus 20:13]. There’s hardly a television program in which we don’t come up with some fictionalized representation of murder.
“Thou shalt steal” [Exodus 20:15]. Time magazine has reported shoplifting as the key crime in our country.
“What are the rules? Why are we ignoring the Commandments? What would the seven head, perhaps, relate to in Revelation 12:3? They have crowns (coronas) on them. They’re claims to sovereignty when the crowns are on those heads.
“In the Book of Revelation we started right out with John saying [in Chapter 1, Verse 1] that the revelation was coming to him from Jesus and through Jesus from the seven Spirits of God [Verse 4]. Not eight, not six, but you find the seven Spirits of God mentioned throughout the Book of Revelation. Like the seven branches of the menorah, like Zechariah’s [4:2] beautiful vision of the Godhead in that way, seven lamps and seven pipes. These seven aspects of God, if denied, opposed, vilified, held up to ridicule, is that what those heads are claiming such sovereignty, is that what they’re doing within?
… “We find [in Revelation 12:1] womanhood “clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet.” Interestingly enough, the moon had a linguistic relationship to the curse upon woman, being the root of monthly. Yet woman is seen with total dominion over all material influences. Her feet are on the moon. That’s the symbol of dominion in the Bible; [it’s] to have everything under your feet. That crown of twelve stars leaves no doubt that woman is seen here as a total remedy for Eve…”
… “Eve lost the battle with the serpent. Womanhood in the twelfth chapter of Revelation is the remedy for Eve’s loss. Woman has been blamed throughout centuries by theologians many for being the reason for the downfall of the race… If, as usual, we have things upside down, the remedy would have to see woman responsible for the salvation of the race. Interestingly enough we find her in Jesus’ parable [Matthew 13:33] putting the leaven in the within.”
“This dragon [Revelation 12:3], is again the nature of our enemy here. What are the weapons? The dragon has heads, horns, crowns (corona… coronavirus) on the heads, a tail, flood. All these are weapons… And the tail. We talk about Star Wars, and here it is! One third of the stars of heaven cast to the earth [Revelation 12:4]. “The brilliant potential of those stars! Cast down! Trod under foot! Trampled upon! Because the tail of the dragon got them and they probably were defending themselves against the hypnotic heads, the hydra head, where flame and all that was coming out. Is our attention toward the head of the dragon?
And is the sting in the tail? That’s where Moses was told to pick up the serpent [Exodus 4: 3, 4]. Then the defense system of our within must involve knowing what the tail of the dragon would do as well as the head. Not just the obvious approach in this warfare, but the ambushments, the deceits, the smokescreens. Being surrounded by the enemy, to watch against that.”
“The flood. In Isaiah [59:19] we’re told when the enemy comes in like a flood, what happens? “The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.” The enemy does come in like a flood. Overwhelmed, one problem after the other. You get through treating one part of your body and it moves to another part. Or it combines in some kind of weird crescendo leading towards total disaster or death.”
“As this flood of propaganda, as well in effect, reaches towards our house where we live, where did Jesus tell us to build? On the rock [Matthew 7: 24, 25]. Then, if the flood comes— and the flood still comes—but when it subsides and is through, we discover that our home is still there. Our foundation then is important in resisting this flood in our mental warfare. It is a flood. It’s not a trickle. The intent of the flood is to drown everything before it.”
“What is the standard that God lifts up? In Song of Solomon the bride, womanhood, symbolized in Song of Solomon [2:4], says, “his banner,” and an alternate word in Hebrew there, is “standard,” “over me [was] love.” Then the eighth chapter of Song of Solomon, [Verse 7] adds, almost tying-in with our symbolism of Revelation 12 [Verses 15 and 16]—“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.” (Song of Solomon 8:7)
“Weapon, then? Love. To the human sense of things, it appears the most helpless type of weapon to use in a battle of what would seem to be between forces of a mentally galactic struggle. But instead, we discover Love to be the real and only weapon. It’s what resists the virus. It cannot come in and break up the host. Love then must be the leaven that gradually changes the whole lump of human thought…”
[…“The virus is one of the smallest particles, not even quite observable, but speculated upon. The interesting thing about the definition—let me paraphrase it: a virus causes the metabolism, the whole life process of the host cell, to break down. It [the coronavirus, attempts to] take command the minute it imposes itself on another tiny aspect of expressed being. It [acts as if it] is dominant. It would change everything around it to a new form, a diseased form. Taking this into the infinitesimal, we find this warfare going on even at the tiniest micro level….”]
“…Why is this adversarial position set up to try to cast us down as one of the stars of heaven? Is our potential under draconian pressure to be cast down? Are we going to submit to what Eve listened to? Or, are we going to accept the leaven? And love is the banner, remember, we’re told [in Song of Solomon 2:4] over us. And Verse 4 [of Psalm 109], “For my love they are adversaries; but I give myself unto prayer.”
“Another verse on Psalms tells us what we have already learned: “Through thy commandments thou hast made me wiser than mine enemies” [Psalm 119: 98]. We all know the avenues of approach through the Commandments. That’s what keeps our eyes open.
“After all, to have God’s kingdom [“the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established” (Church Manual 41:10)] within us requires rules. That’s the basis of the government within. What is disease, but a state of bodily insurrection? Where did it come from? Where did that rebellion originate that decides that it will go independent of the rest of the system?
“When God has told us this doesn’t fit in with the holistic approach we see some physicians reaching for “All things work together for good” [in Romans 8:28]? But there’s a qualification, “to them who love God,” who are at the state of receiving His role, His prophesied role in such a wholeness.
“No wonder the dragon has got ten horns [Revelation 12:3] because the Commandments are our defense. We know what NOT to do. That’s what the Commandments have told us [in Exodus 20: 3-5, 7, 8, 12-17]. We also know what TO do. That’s what the Beatitudes have told us [in Matthew 5:3-12]. [Warren: The Commandments and the (Matthew 5:3-12) Beatitudes portion of the Sermon on the Mount, along with the Lord’s Prayer and its Spiritual Interpretation by Mary Baker Eddy, constitute “the first lessons of the children” in Christian Science Sunday Schools. (Church Manual, 62:24). Pledging to put at least some of them into practice in inspiring, relevant ways is incorporated into every visit to CedarS Bible Lands Park.]
“That ability of being able to say “yes” and “no” is the simplest mental defense that we have. Jesus knew it. He said, “Let your communication be yea, yea, and nay, nay.” [Matthew 5:37]. He said “Anything else cometh of evil.” No and yes, when to say either or both.
“Mental defense and Commandments and Beatitudes readymade, spiritually given to us so that we may never be in doubt what to say “no” to and what to say “yes” to. But the beast would break our commitment to such a standard. It’s the only standard that resists the flood of the enemy, even by the Spirit of the Lord.”
“’War in Heaven’: Conquest of Inner Space,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
More Revelation GEMs! Rejoice in the expunging of the mistakes of Eden! —The “woman with a crown (corona) of twelve stars” versus a great red dragon … with seven crowns upon his heads” (complete coronavirus in its head) – Cobbey Crisler on Revelation 12 (B10)
“Now we come to Revelation 12 – a great and portentous moment in the Bible. The word “sign” which the King James Version translates “wonder” appears in verse 1 for the first time and in its only positive use in Revelation.
Rev 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
This unique sign is the epiphany of God’s womanhood – a contrast with the succeeding negative uses of the word sign is vivid. It stands out as does Isaiah’s well known and similar pronouncement that “the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son.” (Isaiah 7:14) …
But comprehension of this and interpretation of Isaiah’s statement, as well as the twelfth chapter of Revelation, have run the gamut of controversy. Scholars and theologians agree one thing that Revelation 12 is difficult if not impossible to explain. There may be a good reason for this, for the title of the book is not explanation but revelation.
To John at Revelation 12, verse 1 (see above) there appeared a great Symeon in heaven. The Greek word usually stands for a distinctive feature, identifying someone or something clearly…
And we have a woman and her attire is celestial for it is associated with sun, moon, and stars.
…The Expositor’s Bible Commentary and The Anchor Bible have pointed out the sun, moon, and stars were part of the high priest’s garments. Does it follow, then, that this woman has something to do with the highest responsibilities in church?…
Consider then this Apocalyptic Picture of the woman with priestly implications and meanings and a crown of victory or dominion. How far this is from the stereotype subordinate role accorded woman by Ecclesiastical traditions through the centuries.
Although the very first statement about woman in the Bible is that God created her with dominion which precludes subjection. The first representative of womanhood in the text is Eve, and Eve is not only dominated by her husband, she is evicted from Eden, her home, woman’s special domain. This eviction has been used as Ecclesiastical pretext for her exclusion from high church offices…
…This is why the dominion woman of Revelation 12 is such a radical sign that sends tremors through anciently rooted traditions and overturns them.
For Revelation 12 reverberates with news of woman’s God-ordained assignment, to complete the salvation of the race, which Jesus inaugurated. The Anchor Bible refers to this one as a “key figure in the drama of salvation.” …
Revelation 12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
The Bible has conditioned us, however, to look for God’s ideals to make an earthly statement, to have a concrete, practical application to present living.
In fact, The Lord’s Prayer petitions that God’s will be done in earth as it is in heaven…
The Genesis 1 womanhood and her spiritual dominion must now be fulfilled on earth. The curse on Eve must be remedied and her stereotype transfigured. …
To exemplify this spiritual ideal is no easy task. The woman is opposed by the dragon’s animalism and its sworn enmity against life and health. This is the second sign – the great red dragon. Woman has met this symbol before in Genesis 3. It was smaller then – a serpent beguiling Eve.
Now, although John identifies it as that old serpent, it has grown to the proportions of a dragon, face to face with the woman of the Apocalypse. At this point in scripture, one could well reflect upon a young Sunday School boy’s ingenuous question: “Why didn’t they kill it when it was little?”
It may also be worth pondering that the symbols chosen – a talking serpent and a dragon – are not real entities in nature. They belong to the language of mythology. Even if a myth has ballooned for centuries, it is still a myth….
…The act of nailing Jesus to the cross thus takes on symbolically the attempt to nail him to the tree of sin and its fruit, and to see him perish in the demoralization of Adam, and in the shame and futility of the Adam race. This would have left Jesus career as barely a footnote to human history. But, Jesus solved the problem of that tree; he called himself the bright and morning star, and this was the dawning of an entirely new human race. …
Sealed by God, rather than marked by the beast – a race that could now heal in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rather than die in the name of Adam of Eden.
But Adam was not all there was to this surrender in Eden, there was Eve. Logic would conclude that she needs to be remedied as well, in order for all Eden’s mistakes to be expunged.
God’s logic and His revelation could not be counteracted, so we should pursue what Revelation waits to disclose on this theme. Eve’s failure was listening to the serpent; she was beguiled, as Paul writes. The serpent then, not the tree, represents Eve’s problem…
…How is the serpent’s apparent success to be remedied? The woman in Genesis One has dominion; this is the only remedy for manipulation and its fruits of subjection and subordination. The matrix of God’s womanhood is not the stereotype of man’s making. Only God’s type of womanhood could stand impervious to beguilement and subtlety, listen solely to God and free her seed from the magnetic pull of the dragon’s tail. Can such a role model be lived on earth as it is in heaven? Prophesy’s answer is an unequivocal “Yes!”…
……The woman of Revelation 12, verse 1, wears a crown or corona in Jerome’s Latin translation. The woman of Revelation 12, verse 2, is pained or cruciator in the same Latin translation – a word that shares the same root with cross and crucifixion. In this combination of crown and cross, we have what appears to be a divine human coincidence, an event divinely prescribed, but humanly carried out. It comes as no surprise to read further in The Anchor Bible that “the woman’s symbol is almost as important as The Lamb.”…
…Going back to Genesis One, the next reference to the number two is not in numerical form, but rather illustrated in the product of God’s nature, as male and female. Both are said to be the image of God, having His dominion, and absolutely God-like – “Male and female, created He them.” For what reason we ask? – Logic responds, “To be like Him, to be two witnesses of his nature – manhood and womanhood, two luminaries, two candlesticks…
What a radical challenge this is both to our present traditions as to God’s essential being as well as to the relationships between the sexes. First, we must conclude from the text of Genesis One, that image is male and female, the original, or God, is revealing His nature, and Her nature, as Father/Mother.”
“Apocalyptic Pictures: Prophecy and Parody” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
Make your own the precious GEM of healing! A practitioner anonymously shared this testimony about a CedarS counselor healed of “malaria” by seeing its link to the word “miasma.”
“I had been called for a college girl who was put in a hospital because she had contracted malaria. She was traveling with a group in South Africa. If she wasn’t released in 2 days, she would be separated from the group. I looked up malaria and found it had the same origin as miasma.
In the dictionary the word “miasma” means unwanted atmosphere or influence, poisonous germs infecting the atmosphere. In early literature like Shakespeare, miasma meant the night-air which was considered poisonous.
I went to Science & Health page 274 to see what Mary Baker Eddy said about miasma. “Truth and Love antidote this mental miasma, and thus invigorate and sustain existence.”
Among the definitions of antidote, it relieves, prevents, or a remedy to counteract the effect of a poison. She was healed and continued with the group.
Another insight on miasma: A friend who did crop dusting from an airplane in New Zealand, said there was an atmosphere of air that they called a miasma. It was not mountain air hitting sea air or pollution. It had no reason to occur and no reason to leave, but they couldn’t fly in it. They just waited patiently.
So, this mental miasma has no reason to occur. Truth and Love are its antidote. All this world belief is just a miasma with no reason to be.”
Another GEM from an anonymous CedarS Met subscriber who emailed “Spread this!” about this at least humanly-hopeful poem that written on March 13, 2020 about that day’s events: (Also available as a freestanding PDF Download online)
Lockdown
Yes there is fear. Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness. Yes there is even death. But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi People are singing to each other across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them. They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know is busy spreading fliers with her number through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on. Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples are preparing to welcome and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have. To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate. Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness. Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness. Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now. Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing, Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love. Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able to touch across the empty square, Sing.
Fr. Richard Hendrick, OFM March 13th 2020
APPLY SAFE TRAVELS PROMISES OF PS. 121:8/cit. B22. DON’T LET GO OF ANGEL INSIGHTS till THEY BLESS YOU! (as when Jacob wrestled with the angel until it blessed him in Gen. 32:26)
[Warren:] Here’s a spiritual insight into the word preserve that I enjoyed wrestling with this week until I gained its blessings: Subdivide the word preserves into pre-serves (Ps. 121:8/cit. B22 & Ps. 140:1) . This hyphenated word PRE-SERVE encompasses the past (pre or prior, planned to provide); the present (the perfectly timed provisions of divine Love in the ever-present now); and the future of God’s stored-away preserves, “barrels of meal” and “cruises of oil” that did not fail and will not since “He who depends on Thee, ne’er is forspent” (Hymn 246). I continue to enjoy highlighting in different colors, God’s past love (our heredity), present care and future provisions.
Another rich gem can be mined from the word “pre-serve” as it relates to our Master’s, foot-washing servant mindset. That is the mind of Christ that we all solemnly promise to watch and strive for in the Sixth Tenet. (SH 497:24) At CedarS we delight to pre-serve our staff, campers and their families all year long with CedarS Mets in five languages, GEMs and Sunday School teaching ideas to help prepare us all (and all of you dear supporters) to make strengthen our applications of spiritual sense to make each session at CedarS the “best one yet” of serving.
Psalm 121:8 states the law that “The Lord will preserve (pre-serve) your going out and coming in from this day forward, even for evermore.” This is annually a key metaphysical citation for upcoming holiday travels as well as Camp Session starting and ending days. We affirm it to assure divinely-safe arrivals and departures when hundreds are travelling to and from CedarS from all over the world.
Finally, a semi-humorous “Warren wordplay” offering: “Psalm 121.8 also establishes a helpful divine basis for those seeking right relationships and consistent supply. “You can rest easy that our God operates in match-making mode to bless your “going out” (your dating) and also in employer mode to provide for your “coming in” (or your in-come) forever!”
