APPLICATION GEMS TO PROVIDE COMFORT DURING TESTING TIMES!
Friday, October 21st, 2022
By Warren Huff (with insights from Cobbey Crisler)
APPLICATION GEMS TO PROVIDE COMFORT DURING TESTING TIMES!
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with new insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“PROBATION AFTER DEATH”
for October 23, 2022
(Cobbey’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps.org
LOVE INTO VIEW OUR “DEFENSE ATTORNEY” COMFORTER – and its EVEN GREATER WORKS! Cobbey Crisler on John 14:12-26/Responsive Reading (RR)
[Cobbey:] “In John 14:12 Jesus makes a prophesy. He makes a prophesy in impersonal terms…
“There are greater works, the ultimatum of the application of what Jesus had introduced to earth. So, when he’s talking about greater works being done, through what agency will these greater works come? We find the Comforter is introduced.
John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter.”
“We should know enough about prophesy and have enough respect to realize that most of the prophets in the Bible, including Jesus, had a tremendous regard for prophesy. They knew that it had come from God, not from man. Similarly, we should know how to recognize the Comforter when the Comforter arrives…
“The word “comforter” is parakletos, sometimes called paraclete… translated “comforter” given by our King James Version. You will find, however, that The New English Bible does not use “comforter.” It uses “advocate.” You’ll also find that I John uses parakletos and the King James translator of that uses “advocate.”
“We should know that the word “advocate” is a technical word legally. It specifically means “defense attorney.” That has a lot of implications to it. By contrast the name “Satan” in Hebrew is a technical term for “prosecuting attorney.” There you have the battle joined in thought.
The Comforter is to come and defend man. We can see all the ways that Jesus had introduced various defenses for man…
John 14:16, “that he may abide with you for ever.” Is there a provision for a third revelation? The Comforter is apparently the final one.
John 14:17, “the Spirit of Truth.” Notice how that counters Jesus’ definition of the “devil.” What did he say about the truth? It was the recipe for freedom (John 3:8). So, it’s got something to do with that. But there is also a communications problem. The world “cannot receive.” It’s not going to be a popular arrival. “It doesn’t see him or know him.”
But, we will know, “because it’s within.”
ALSO, CHERISH the FEMININE NATURE of the COMFORTER which comes with CHRIST as a RECOGNIZABLE PART of its NAME. Cobbey Crisler on John 14:26/Responsive Reading
“John 14:26 picks up the description. “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.” There’s another part of the list, identified with the Holy Ghost in Luke 3:22, the dove descending is the symbol of it. The words “dove” and “ghost” are feminine in the Greek, and the comfort aspect also introduces the feminine concept.
“The role of the Comforter “will be sent by God in my name.” If one were to regard that literally, the Comforter’s name should at least have some recognizable aspect either relating to Jesus or to Christ. Another aspect of the Comforter is “he will teach you all things.”
The role of teaching what? Is anything left out? “All things.” And at the same time, “it will bring everything back to human memory that Jesus said.”
“Book of John: A Walk with the Beloved Disciple”, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren: Welcome the Comforter and its great need today and its promise “for ‘greater works’… collective demonstrations…in governments… nations… that all could benefit from …the touch of the Comforter… ministries of divine Love…” , from a 12-29-13 CedarS Met:] Christine Irby Williams nicely tackled the tough question of what works could possibly be greater than what Jesus did in a wonderful precamp inspirational talk to CedarS staff this May (2013) as well as in part of an inspirational address for the Christian Science Nurses conference at CedarS this September (2013). [CedarS was delighted to again be hosting over 120 CS Nurses from all over the world during the first week of September 2019, and they are scheduled to return in September 2024.]
In 2013 Christine essentially said, in part:
[Christine:] “Jesus said… Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father…” (RR, John 14:12)
“Have you ever wondered what in the world Jesus meant by greater works? It does sound a little daunting. We read almost every week in the Bible Lesson something such as Jesus “went about…healing ALL manner of sickness and ALL manner of disease among the people.” (Matt. 4:23) He fed 5,000 men plus women and children with what had appeared to everyone else as a few loaves and fishes. He walked on water and suspended time and space. He raised to life a child who appeared to have just passed away (cit. B9/Luke 8:41-55), a young man who was on his way to be buried, and Lazarus, who had been in the grave four days already. And then, of course, he raised himself after the crucifixion, and he ascended. So, what could possibly be greater than any, much less all, of that? I’ve often wondered, and I’m still pondering his promise…
“There has been one particular area in which it’s likely that we’ve all been aware that there is plenty of room for “greater works,” and that is working together, or what might be called collective demonstration: in families, church work, any kind of organizational work—in a church context or otherwise, in neighborhoods, in governments of all sizes, in nations, among the people, and in the world at large. Would you agree with me that these are areas that could benefit from the light of Truth, the touch of the Comforter—the healing and saving ministries of divine Love? Might we be so bold as to think about tackling the environment? World peace? World hunger? If not, why not? If so, let’s get on with it! Let us “then be up and be doing,” as our hymn [#18] says!”
First posted in Warren’s Met on “Christian Science” for 12-29-13 [Christine shared more inspiration on this and more at the 2012 Fern Lodge Annual Meeting.]
BE AN ADHERENT OF TRUTH BY TAKING “THE INSPIRED WORD OF THE BIBLE” AS YOUR SUFFICIENT GUIDE TO ETERNAL LIFE! (cit. S1/497:3)
Click on the Download at the bottom of the online version of these GEMs to follow the evolution of the 1st Tenet of Christian Science as researched by The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Mankind, 200 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 ∙ (617) 450-7218 research@mbelibrary.org ∙ www.mbelibrary.org
COME TO LIFE’S RIVER TO BE HEALED AND PROTECTED IN THE COMMANDMENTS AND SPIRITUALLY NOURISHED AS IF AT AN AWESOME, CHURCH PICNIC! — Cobbey Crisler on Revelation 22:14-17 (prelude to citation B5)
. . . “… let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
[Cobbey:] “Revelation is like a smorgasbord: it has everything, but it is not meant to be devoured all at once. Bite full by bite full, when we are ready, when we have digested our earlier courses, when we begin to chew upon the meat of scripture, because we are weaned from its milk, we will be nourished, and sustained, and understand why Jesus made his appointment with John on Patmos. What mystery remains in the Bible? Didn’t Amos assure us God has revealed His secret to His servants, the Prophets? Fulfillment of prophesy constitutes the validity of God’s Word – so the fulfillment of prophesy must come. This includes the Comforter, the Holy City, God’s Temple, everywhere God is. The river of Life whose waters sustain the trees which are for the healing of the nations, [Rev. 2:1,2] a vision coinciding with Ezekiel’s.
Jesus, the Lamb, reminds us why he is transmitting these Apocalyptic pictures in the last chapter of his book, verse 16. (Rev 22:16) “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” The book is addressed to us in church. Did Jesus foresee that his church on earth would be assaulted in such obscure, obscene, and occult ways, that his Book of Revelation would be essential to its defense? Revelation 22:17 invites us to a wedding in his church. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
The only acceptable R.S.V.P. to such an invitation is to be with one accord in one place. This is Luke’s description of church in the Book of Acts. When your thought and mine relate to God and to all His infinite creation, aren’t we wearing our wedding garment already? ISN’T IT SPIRITUAL UNITY WITH HIM AND WITH OUR NEIGHBOR THAT KEEPS THE COMMANDMENTS AND FULFILLS THIS PREREQUISITE OF THE REMNANT? COULD THERE BE ANY GREATER REVELATION THAN ONE UNITING US TO OUR GOD AND TO ONE ANOTHER. Here, in the presence of the throne, we throw off our crowns of divisive opinions.
We worship on our mental knees, not from self-appointed seats disputing who should be greatest. This meeting with our God takes place scripturally only in the temple’s Holy of Holies in heaven itself, where our high priest has entered before us and both Cherubim sit on the right and on the left hand of God. This is the Father’s house where Jesus assured us there are many mansions. (John 14:2/RR) Access has been won for us, but we also have had to earn our entry. For Revelation 22:14 (before B20) states, “They that do his commandments… have right to the tree of life.” Blessed are they that do his commandments—that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Accepting that divine invitation, we sit down at the feast which has been promised to us throughout the Bible – the Agape, the feast of Love in the now fully revealed tabernacle of God and His two witnesses. Are we members of that church? Are we even now a part of that remnant, keeping the commandments and imbued with the spirit of spiritual prophesy? If we can respond affirmatively to that, not one single picture of Tohu and Bohu, of chaos, crisis, curse, tragedy, tears, ruin, pain, decay, death, or parody can any longer impress itself on human consciousness and develop there. The mark of the beast is effaced – the seal of God is in our foreheads – our names are written in heaven where nothing tampers with the majesty that God bestows.
In the beginning of the Bible, God said, “Let there be light.” The divine shutter snapped, and our nature was recorded in apocalyptic pictures. It may seem unendurably long for these pictures to develop in human consciousness, but He is our God, and we are His people, and that is the apple, the Apocalypse of gold in our pictures. – The End”
“Apocalyptic Pictures: Prophecy and Parody,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
BE EAGERLY RECEPTIVE TO CHRIST’S LIVING WATER—LIKE THE THIRSTY WOMAN WAS AT THE WELL IN SAMARIA.
Cobbey Crisler on John 4:5+ (cit. B6) plus Science & Health 234:4 “giving living water to the thirsty”)
[Cobbey:] “John 4.6, Jacob’s well is here in Samaria. It’s concealed in a partially completed church.
You cannot see the mountain to which the woman of Samaria was pointing in the story. It has been measured and it’s quite clear. Dr. Bull was the one who did the excavations at Telaras. He was the first scholar to announce that he feels he has discovered the Samaritan temple ruins on the top of Mount Gerazim which could be seen in Jesus time from the wellhead.
So, he, Jesus, rests. It’s about the noon hour…”He opens the conversation with the woman.”
John 4:8, “the disciples have gone to the nearby city,” which is probably Neapolis. It has been corrupted in Arabic as “Nablus,” which you may see in the news because that’s a hotbed of Palestinian unrest.
John 4:9, So, the woman of Samaria says, “How come you’re talking to me?”
A woman would naturally say that because she would not expect to be talking to him…
John 4:16. The woman, not comprehending thoroughly, but nevertheless bold enough to continue asking, finally gets the practicality of Jesus’ message and says, “That’s a great idea. Give me this living water, and I won’t take another step. Never will I have to come up with these heavy jugs and fill them with water.”
Remember, there are not too many conversations that are recorded between Jesus and anyone, so this one really stands out. …
John 4:17 He says call thy husbands…He’s testing again…
What is he after in this Samaritan woman (and also in) … a Roman centurion…a ruler of the synagogue? …
What is he looking for? Receptivity. That is the universal access. It means we all have the same access if we’d only use it. Whose fault is it if we aren’t using it? It’s ours. So, it has nothing to do with status, culture, sex, or whatever. He’s not really saying that womanhood is the best way to get to God. Or childhood, or any of those. Wherever we find receptivity it counts.
“So, ” the woman says, hedging a bit, “I don’t have a husband.”
John 4:18, “Whereupon Jesus said, ‘How right you are. As a matter of fact, you’ve had five husbands, and the one you’re living with right now can’t exactly be called your husband ‘” Boy, that has a nice twentieth century ring to it
John 4:19. All the woman can say in response to that is, “Sir, I perceive that you’re a prophet.” The woman is really beautiful. Jesus wouldn’t spend all this time with her if he didn’t see behind all this label and this stereotyped thing. There was a receptivity here that he wasn’t running into regularly. He was after that. He was after womanhood as a type to replace this femaleness as a stereotype. He continued to probe in order to do this.
John 4:20. The woman said, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain.” Boy, did that have a meaning. She’s pointing to the Samaritan temple, and guess who had destroyed it? The Jews. The Maccabean rulers had destroyed the Samaritan temple which was built to resemble the Jerusalem temple. It’s occupied territory. It’s a little difficult to dig in an area that Jordan still claims but Israel occupies.
It was destroyed by the Jews, so you can see the irony behind what the woman said, “Our fathers worshiped … “It’s past. It’s through. The Greek word that is used there is well in the past, “all wiped out.” We worshiped in this mountain, but the implication, guess who stopped us, or ruined the temple? Your fathers. We have a divisive thing. We, the Samaritans, worshiped here. You, the Jews, destroyed it. That’s the same thing that’s going on today in the same location.
John 4:21, “Jesus said, Woman.” this is his general address to womanhood, “Believe me. the hour cometh, ” still somewhat ahead, “when you won’t worry about geography in worshiping God. ··
John 4:23, ”The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. “Look at the definition of worship. “Worship is spiritual,” not structural, not geographical, not ritualistic. Why? Because worship of God can only properly be done by partaking of God’s own nature.
John 4:24 tells us that “God is Spirit. Therefore, worshiping Spirit can only be done spiritually.” There’s no other way to do it. How basic. By the way, when you see “a Spirit” in there. It shouldn’t be there.
Listen to what God says about it. Notice the strong tenor of his words. To translate “God is a Spirit” is the most gross perversion of the meaning. “A Spirit” implies one of a class of “pneumata,” the Greek word for it. There is no trace, in the fourth gospel, of the vulgar conception of a multitude of spirits. “God is Spirit.” Mathematically one can only derive from Spirit included in it. Namely, spirituality is the derivation. Worship must be that.
Notice what is done as this woman’s thought. Women weren’t supposed to discuss the Scriptures. There was a first century rabbi, Eleazar, who said, “To teach a woman Scripture was like teaching her lasciviousness.” That’s some extreme. That was the kind of thought that was at some rabbinical extremes in the first century, not necessarily the general Jewish view, but Eleazar is considered quite a great rabbi.
Jesus is discussing intellectual problems of Scripture with a woman. This is unheard of!
John 4:25 “That woman suddenly comes to him and says, I know That Messiah is coming.” How about that for recognition! “I know that the Messiah is coming which is called Christ.” … he will tell us all … he said, “I that speak unto thee am he”
John 4:27, ‘”When the disciples come back, their only problem is that he’s talking with the woman. ”
John 4:28, “The woman leaves her water pot. “That’s what she’d come for, but she went away with living water. “She ran into the city”
John 4:29, “She said to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did. It’s got to be the Messiah. ”
John 4:30, “The men came out,” reluctantly, because they didn’t want to look like they were coming out because a woman suggested it.
Do you remember when the women disciples told the men disciples that Jesus was risen? The men thought they were idle tales!
John 4:31, “In the meantime his disciples asked Jesus to eat the groceries they had bought.”
In John 4:34, “Jesus announces his meat is to do God’s will.” Remember that. That is what his food is, literally, in Greek. So, when he breaks bread and distributes it to his disciples later, you know what his definition of food is. It “is to do God’s will.” That’s the nourishment. “And to finish his work.”
“John, The Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren: To help fuel your imagination of the background of the Samaritan woman at the well (and the rest of her story), you might enjoy the spin put on it by “The Chosen” (“I Am He”) starting at ~39:50 into it.]
FIND ONENESS WITH GOD “AS A HUMBLE RAY OF SUNLIGHT THAT IS ONE WITH THE SUN”
from citation. S7/26:10 as sung in “I and My Father” Music Video on YouTube
Below is a YouTube link to an inspiring song by a CedarS mom and Zoom Hymn Sing Artist, Cherie Brennan, ho also is an award-winning Country Music artist. It emphasizes the “I and my Father are one” mindset of Christ Jesus as mentioned in this week’s Bible Lesson citation S4, 26:10. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZMNlpZavkA
You can learn more about Cherie and buy her CD “You are Loved” (“I and My Father” is the 4th song) on her website through Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/album/3Ii5CBrdNs6f8Y3t4l5XHl
Or, on Watchfire Music by CedarS dear friend, Peter Link, — LISTEN TO A SAMPLE of “I and my Father are one” SUNG by Mindy Jostyn and BUY IT and the SHEET MUSIC for SOLOISTS at: https://watchfiremusic.com/shop/recordings/songs/i-and-my-father-are-one-2/
BE HUMBLY EVER-READY TO MAKE WISE, LOVING ADAPTATIONS that always bring DIVINE BESTOWALS!
[Warren Huff & Geith Plimmer, CS on cit. S11, Science & Health 13:2]
[Warren:] “I will always cherish my time in the mid-1970s as a church lecture committee host for Geith Plimmer, a Christian Science Practitioner and Lecturer from Great Britain. In one of his very Bible-based, Christian Science lectures, Geith commented on this sentence in Science and Health “Love is impartial and universal in its adaptations and bestowals.” (SH 13:2-3, citation S11) He said something like, “individuals and organizations will only be ready to receive divine BESTOWALS when they are ready to make wise, loving and divinely-directed ADAPTATIONS. Humility and love are the keys to the letting go of limiting circumstances and of humanly-outlined outcomes. We need to open up a willingness to let “Thy will be done” and to humbly make appropriate adaptations so that all we do is “characterized” by “wisdom, economy and brotherly love.”
[Warren:] “A need to make adaptations seem to imply that we can make mistakes with lasting bad results even when we are striving wholeheartedly for good. But we are blessed to be students of the Bible and so to know that no mistakes can really be made when we love God with all our hearts and put all we do in His hands. As Saint Paul declares as one of the rules by which we gladly operate: “And we know that ALL things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom. 8:28, emphasis added)
I was delighted to share in my INSPIRATIONAL TALK (AT THE END of Arden Wood’s 2022 Annual Meeting), A DETAILED EXAMPLE ABOUT MAKING AN ADAPTATION TO CORRECT A “MISTAKE” THAT RESULTED IN A WONDERFUL BESTOWAL OF BLESSINGS. We all now “see the past (“mistake”) through wisdom’s eyes, as a blessing in disguise.” (You can read & hear this verse & Desiree Goyette’s whole, inspiring solo, “Let It Go,” at https://desireegoyette.com/track/2585018/let-it-go )
Click on the ARDEN WOOD WEBSITE FOR A REPLAY of this meeting. In the 2nd half) are SPECIFIC TAKE-AWAYS OF APPLICATION IDEAS TO MAKE YOUR OWN!
[I shared this application example in my May 1, 2022 Arden Wood inspirational talk:]
“Over thirty years ago, even though prayed about in advance, it looked like a big mistake had been made when CedarS was left maintaining an expensive piece of property and an old building in West St. Louis County to operate a service that was often undersubscribed. It was an attempt to put CedarS resources to use to offer an after-school and day-care program in the St. Louis area near Principia School when camp was not operating. The site featured a stone house built in 1818 on 8-acres that adjoined Queeny Park. It was bought during a high inflation period when interest rates could not he secured for more than 6 months and they had jumped to 20%. We were spending unsustainable funds to own that high maintenace property and the anticipated enrollment was big on some days and very small on most other days. To make a long and detailed story shorter, our Board prayed with several ideas and adaptations to make this program and property sustainable in keeping with Mary Baker Eddy’s guidance in the Church Manual: “God’s Requirement. Sect. 5. God requires wisdom, economy, and brotherly love to characterize all the proceedings of the members of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist.” (Man. 77:18)
As we prayed about the idea of selling the property, my mom who was then serving as Executive Director Emeritus, suggested that, like Gideon, we ask God for signs of this being a right idea. We did ask for “signs” – and God sent two quickly. First was a clear one right away that St. Louis County had favorably considered our application for this amazing Thomas Mason House to become an Historic Landmark so that developers wouldn’t tear it down; and the second sign was that my sister, her husband and their young daughter planned to move to St. Louis, knew of the house, were very interested in bidding on it and restoring its historic features. We did put out a sign and they won a bidding war that keep the Thomas Mason House in the CedarS family, so to speak, and the rest, including its preservation, is history.
In hindsight, after CedarS Board sold the house and land we had the financial wherewithal to “love into view” not just one, but two, unique, game-changing camp resources— first, our 30-acre Crown Lake in the shape of a crown positioned just right on our cross-shaped, 1,000 acres; and, second, a fun, over-300-foot-long waterslide to get from our Aquatic Center to our new Crown Lake. Both have blessed thousands and thousands of kids of all ages from every state in the U.S. and from over 25 other countries in the 32+ years since we sold CHEER House and they were built.
We now clearly “see the past through wisdom’s eyes, as a blessing in disguise” as Desiree Goyette wrote and sings in her solo “Let it Go.” Confidently holding out to see God’s blessing, always gives you the “grace to go forward wherever he guide thee, gladly obeying the call of his word” (from Hymn 278:2 – which was not only CedarS 2021 metaphysical theme, but also that of The Mother Church and Principia.)
A Bible-based comfort that gave us the grace, strength and courage in advance to sell the house was thinking of the conversation between Jacob and the angel he was wrestling with. Jacob’s condition for letting the angel go became ours for letting the property go: “And he (the angel) said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he (Jacob) said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. … And he (the angel) said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” (Gen. 32:26, 28)
WHEN SIMULTANEOUS PROBLEMS ARISE, PRIORITIZE RECEPTIVITY & HEALING OVER RANK, LIKE JESUS DID.
Cobbey Crisler on Jesus’ time management of 2 urgent appeals: Mark 5:21as prelude to Luke 8:41-55/cit. B9)
[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). 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.
“The other half of the time crunch demand and Christ’s use of humor to clear out funerial thought:
When Jesus goes to the raising of Jairus’ daughter, we don’t find any reason to bemoan the delay in getting there. Even though the news comes back that the daughter has died in the meantime (Verse 49). That is the human news. Jesus goes right in and clears the environment out (Verse 51). Notice, again, this must be telling us something about what is required in order to heal.
“The thought of death is so weighted down with its inevitability and grief that Jesus has to clear it out. Notice how he does so, incisively and brilliantly. He couldn’t clear them out while they were weeping. That was acceptable at a funeral. Jesus would have occupied the villain’s role.
“So, he simply tells them something that was an absolute fact to him, “That maid, right there that you see horizontal, no movement, no breath, no pulse, no anything, that little girl, she’s really not dead. That appearance that you see there is like sleep (Verse 52). And I am going to awaken her life.” All the paid mourners who were earning their salary for conducting a funeral service, and everybody else who had witnessed the tragedy associated with this little girl passing away laughed (Verse 53).
“Can you clear laughers out of funerals? There is certainly more justification from a social standpoint than with weepers. It also showed how deeply their grief had run. Forgetting every reason why they were there, they turned to laughing him to scorn. He put them all out.
“He went to the little girl, “Maid arise” (Verse 54). “Her spirit came again, she arose straightway” (Verse 55). And that beautiful practicality of Jesus, “Give her meat,” give her something to eat (Verse 55). What else would a twelve-year-old girl want anyway? It was also an announcement that everything was quite normal.”
“Luke, the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
CLICK on Kerry Jenkins’ PYCLs (for Sunday School) and go to #4: WHO DO “WE ACKNOWLEDGE AND OBEY AS GOD…”? [W. Is that up to the job of being God?]
[Kerry:] “We all “recognize the power of” (another definition of ‘acknowledge’), and obey, someone or something. This idea goes with a study of the first two Commandments [No other gods; No graven images (obsessions). Exodus 20:2-4], so this is a great way to include these fundamentals of Sunday School in this week’s class. [W. After Friday’s workday, LOOK ONLINE for an attachment of two pages of three, side-by-side, front/back bookmarks of God’s guaranteed “Top 10 Freedoms” to ACCENTUATE. The flip side is designed to be printed with the “Top 10 Limits” to ELIMINATE. Check out “The real Christian Scientist is constantly accentuating harmony in word and deed, mentally and orally, perpetually repeating this diapason of heaven: “Good is my God, and my God is good. Love is my God, and my God is Love.” (Mis. 206:19 bold underlining added) Also, as a sort of memorable “hymn” to sing throughout the day is “Swing music” tune shared on YouTube at “Accentuate the positive! Eliminate the negative! (…Don’t mess with Mister In-between!” It was made popular by Christian Scientist, Kay Kyser, a well-known Band Director and entertainer of his era, before he served as a Christian Science Practitioner, Teacher, Lecturer and Mother Church President.]
[Kerry’s PYCL #4 (Possible Younger Class Lesson ideas) continues below:]
“All this sprang from and reinforces Section 4’s citation S16 which tells us that we can measure our progress spirit-ward by asking ourselves “…where our affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and obey as God.” (SH 239:16-20)
“Who or what are we “obeying” [W. or thinking about most] when we gossip about others?
Who or what are we obeying or acknowledging [W. or thinking about most] when we complain about our body, or are afraid of something on or about our body?
When we are afraid, who are we acknowledging [W. or thinking about most]?
The second part of that passage might suggest we ask ourselves whether divine Love “is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us…”.
What would that look like? [W. The freedoms of: 1. NO WORRIES! 2. NO OBSESSION WITH …THINGS!]
How does Love become “more real” to us [and so be thought about most]?”
CHERISH UNIVERSAL HUMANITY—DO GOOD FOR ALL MANKIND WITH A “WALK TO EMMAUS” KNOWLEDGE AND SPIRIT! Cobbey Crisler on part of cit. B12/Acts 10:38-41 (+ relevant verses before & after)
“Acts 10, verse 34, begins a lecture or sermon to the first group of Gentiles. And the opening statement that Peter makes is one that could be well considered by every denomination of Christianity today… Here Peter expressed his new view of God, that God is no respecter of persons, that God speaks to receptivity.
Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
This new view of God, of course, leads to this next question: Should man as well be no respecter of persons? This is a tradition-shattering concept.
And Acts 10, verse 35, Peter summarizes it by saying “in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.” …
Then he begins to explain to Cornelius and the friends and acquaintances of Cornelius, the history of early Christianity. “The beginning of Christianity is traced from Galilee after John’s baptism, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth.” … Of course, that word “anointed” immediately identifies Jesus as the Messiah. This is a point that Peter is obviously going to get across to this Gentile audience that would need some instruction in this. (See below)
(cit. B12/Acts 10:38 How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
And you find in Acts 10, verse 43, he does that by stating that “all the prophets had given witness to the Messiah, namely Jesus.”…
As soon as Peter gets into this “Walked to Emmaus” approach, in other words the comprehension of Jesus’ role in the earlier scripture, we find in Acts 10, verse 44 that “the Holy Ghost falls on all the listeners.” …
It wasn’t Peter’s idea that this should happen; it’s at the Holy Ghost’s initiative. This is disturbing to some of those that came with Peter: Jewish Christians.
And we will find it becomes even more disturbing to other elements in the church later on, for this is a departure. The question underlying this event is “Should the church be parochial or universal?” Is it simply a sect of Judaism or an outcome of Judaism, or is it the fulfillment of God’s will as expressed in prophecy with its ultimate mission to embrace universal humanity?”
“After the Master What? – The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
EXPERIENCE YOUR OWN “morning meal miracle” CATCH – “CAST YOUR NET on the RIGHT side!”
At YOUR MORNING MEAL, LET CHRIST LIFT YOUR LOVE TO ESTEEM & DESIRE GOOD for every RECEPTIVE HEART — to “CAST YOUR NET ON THE RIGHT SIDE” to carry on Christ’s work – & to DISCOVER within the AGAPE, ABUNDANCE & DESIRE to FEED EVERY RECEPTIVE LAMB!
{Warren continues:] Picture the infinitude of God’s supply on YouTube and what it means to YOU!
If you’re looking these days for screen-time that is uplifting, you’re likely to enjoy visualizing the seemingly miraculous catching in an unbroken net of 153 fish that was brought about by obeying Jesus’ command to “Cast your net on the right side” (from John 21:2+, citation B13 this week). It will be far more meaningful to you if you first read Cobbey Crisler’s insights below on fishing and on the meaning of agape, one of the two Greek words for love that Jesus uses in asking if Peter loves him. (See Bonus beyond the part of this story in citation B13 in this week’s Bible Lesson.)
You will then understand more as you see a YouTube video re-visualizing and reenacting this Bible event on the *Sea of Galilee* made by The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. It is freely shared by them at https://youtu.be/6zhAT-jaljY .
After seeing it, ask yourself what does it means to me? How can I apply this to help me bring about “a new heaven and a new earth”? Mary Baker Eddy invites us all to join the Revelator: “Have you ever pictured this heaven and earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme wisdom?” [Science and Health p. 91:1 (a better way to remember 911, yes?)]
[*W:] “This YouTube video refreshed my memory of this spot on the *Sea of Galilee* from a January 2020 Principia Lifelong Learning Trip to the Holy Lands, led by our son, Principia College Bible professor, Dr. Barry Huff, along with a Palestinian Christian guide, Sophien Abu Hanna. Sophien offered onsite this new-to-me insight: Jesus could well have been giving guidance to the boatload of future fishers of men, by gesturing to the hill country on the right side of the boat which was filled with Gentiles and the marginalized who had shown themselves to be very receptive to the Christ and to budding Christianity. This idea inspired me then and resonates even more now after coupling it with Jesus three times imploring Peter to “Feed my lambs/sheep!” (or feed those who receptively follow and hunger after righteousness.)
Find meaning in YOUR “Morning Meal” today in Cobbey Crisler’s insights on cit. B13/John 21:1-14(+)
[Cobbey:] to read before seeing the YouTube video:] “John 21, the last chapter of John, is considered by some scholars to be a later addition, but still, very possibly, by the same author.
“John 21:1. We’re told that Jesus appears at the Sea of Tiberias, which is Galilee.
“John 21:2, “Already assembled there were seven disciples, all had left the profession of fishing, we thought: Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, the sons of Zebedee, unnamed here, James and John, and two other of his disciples.”
“John 21:3. They apparently had nothing to do. Discipleship returns to the fishing boat. “Peter,” with his fingers almost audibly drumming against the side of his boat, “says I have an idea. I’m going fishing.” Nobody else had any better suggestion. “So, they all go fishing. They spent that entire night fruitlessly. The very fishes avoided them.” Isn’t it interesting that the Anchor Bible makes this comment on the disciples’ profession, “It is notable that never in the gospels do the disciples catch a fish without Jesus’ help.”
“But notice the contrast between Verse 3 and Verse 4.
John 21:3, “That night they caught nothing.”
“John 21:4, “But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore.”
“What patience Jesus had with discipleship! Waiting for them to realize the importance of carrying on his work. But, once again, without that realization, “they did not even recognize Jesus humanly”.
“John 21:5. Jesus asked them an important question. You’ve spent the entire night out there. “Children, do you have any results? Do you have any meat? No is their answer. “
“Now it is obvious when one is fishing using a net that there’s very little difference between the right side and the left side. The factor then brought out in John 21:6 must be the obedience to Jesus’ word, the concept that he has exhibited throughout in his approach to economics and supply. “Cast the net, “he says, “on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.” They are obedient. They do exactly what Jesus requests of them. Now, instantly, they find their net is filled with fishes. They could have saved themselves that entire night.
“Then John 21:7 refers once again to “the disciple whom Jesus loved. He recognizes Jesus. It is the Lord, he says.” He must have recognized that sign of dominion over all, that mastery that he introduced even into the profession of fishing but was attempting to elevate them from profession to practice of Christianity. What had happened to his invitation to them, and expectation of them, to become fishers of men?
“Edgar Lee Masters (1869-1950), U.S. poet and novelist, says this about the impetuous Peter, “O, Peter, gnarled branch of the vine.” Peter throws his fisher’s coat around him and plunges into the sea. We must remember that the Sea of Galilee has a shoreline that drops off quickly. So, he probably had to swim part of the way. Traditionally, sailors and fishermen aren’t the best swimmers. But, ignoring that, just as Peter had burst into the tomb to be there first, he casts himself into the sea
“John 21:8, “While the other disciples bring the ship ashore. It says they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits, that’s about a hundred yards, dragging the net with fishes.”
“John 21:9. Here’s all that time they could have spared by giving priority to the lessons Jesus had already taught them. Jesus hadn’t toiled all night. He didn’t even have to use the fish that they brought in. “For when they arrived there was a charcoal fire there.” In fact, the Greek word is anthrakian which is the root of our word anthracite. “And fish, already there, laid thereon, and bread ” Toast and fish all ready.
“John 21:10. But Jesus wanted them to participate in this, “and said, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught. ”
“John 21:11, “So, Simon Peter, who was already on shore, goes to the net personally, and pulls it to shore.” Who but a fisherman would remember this detail? “There were one hundred fifty-three fishes in that net. ” Someone counted. It might be just the sign of the authenticity of authorship here by an eye witness. “And still, the net was not broken.” Remember, back in Luke 5:6, at another incident, the net broke.
John 21:12, ”Jesus’ invitation is to Come and dine. Now they know who he is.”
“John. 21:13. “Jesus,” in his characteristic gesture, “took bread, and gave them, and fish likewise.” This was indeed a breakfast, but how different from that last supper! This breakfast was celebrating his victory over death. Not looking forward to tragedy, death, and lack of comprehension by the disciples, the dawn was in the disciples thought as well as over the Sea of Galilee on that special morning.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[W:] BONUS for YOU of the transformative test of “AGAPE” in “the REST of the story” John 21:15+
Pass the test of Christ’s love to esteem all souls today & to desire, & actively work, for greater good for all!
[Cobbey, on the morning meal’s meaning for Peter being questioned three times by Jesus:]
“…we do know that three times Peter denied Jesus. Perhaps here he has an opportunity to redeem himself in three tests…
“Now we engage in a dialogue between Jesus and Peter. The dialogue as printed in the King James Version, seems rather dull and repetitive indeed. In the original Greek however, there is a depth of meaning.
“John 21:15, “Jesus says to Peter, do you love me more than these?” It’s obvious that Peter is being tested. We may ask, tested for what? That becomes clearer later in the story…
“Another word which we find repeated in the Greek New Testament, is philia, a word that conveys brotherly love. It still has a sense of class consciousness about it. It has the compassion and the sympathy, such as organizations like the Peace Corps show. But there is sometimes a condescending quality in the thinking of those who are expressing love at the philia level. Almost like patting the head of the one you are helping. As if implicitly we were saying, you’re down there and l’m up here, and I’m going to try to help you.
“The Greeks had a higher sense of love than that. And of course, taken out of classical Greek, it has a renewed and fuller meaning in concept in the New Testament. That word is agape. Agape, according to one commentator and lexicographer, conveys the following, “To desire good for the one you esteem. The concept of divine love.”
“If I should to choose to love you at the level of agape, look what is required of me. First, I must esteem you. That’s not patting you on the head. That’s eye-to-eye respect and esteem. Can one really have love anywhere without that quality of respect? I must esteem you. But that, too, could be a passive sense of love, without that other part of the definition which this one commentator had provided. To desire good for one you esteem. I must be actively employed in desiring for you good or I am not operating at the level of agape.
What word do you think Jesus uses when he says to Peter, “Do you love me?” ”Agapao?” he says. But Peter responds in the original text, “Yes, Lord you know that I love thee.” But he uses the word “phileo.” Maybe that explains Jesus’ repetition.
“John 21:17. The third time Jesus asks the question, he does not any more say agapao [the Greek for divine love that desires good for one you esteem]. Coming to where Peter is, and attempting to build there, he uses the verb phileo [Greek for brotherly love], “Peter was grieved because he had said unto him the third time, Do you love me?” If we use the JB Phillip’s translation, Jesus has simply said, “Alright Peter will you be my friend?” Peter says, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you. And Jesus said unto him, Feed my sheep.”
“That instruction to Peter, “to feed the lambs,” _and then not the first time “to feed my sheep,” but rather, “tend, or guard my little sheep,” according to the Vatican manuscript, and finally, “Feed my sheep.” This is an assignment for which Peter obviously qualifies and which he just as obviously fulfilled in the Book of Acts. (See raising of Lydia from death in Acts 9:32-35 & his angel vision to reach out to receptive Gentiles in Acts 10:1-35)
“But he evidently failed to pass the test Jesus was giving to him to some degree. He had not risen to the highest love that was a prerequisite, something Jesus had in mind… ·
“In John 21:19, Jesus turns to Peter and says, “Follow me.” He had given Peter a mission. He had told him in indicating to him, “Feed my sheep,” that Peter should be an “Abel” in his approach to Jesus’ religion, not a “Cain” [Gen. 4]. But notice the tendency of human nature when one is aware that he has fared badly on a test. In a classroom, when the papers are handed back and we see we have a big red “F” on top of ours, out first tendency is what? Generally, to turn the paper over so no one can see it. But after the initial flush of embarrassment has passed, the next tendency is to be curious about what our neighbor received, and a furtive glance to left or right might just reveal it.
“In John 21:20, Peter, if he ‘indeed flunked the test here, “turned about, and he seeth the disciple Jesus loved following. ” The author wants us to be quite clear that this is the very disciple who leaned on his breast at supper, and had said to him, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Although avoiding naming this disciple, we find him described with certain precision so that the reader was not to be at a loss for identity.
[W:] “LEARN WITH PETER that: “TO LOVE IS TO STOP COMPARING” (Merrit Malloy) and that
“EACH INDIVIDUAL MUST FILL HIS OWN NICHE IN TIME & ETERNITY.” Mary Baker Eddy, Ret. 70:18
Couldn’t this mean for you a liberating end of all jealousy and of any sense of sibling rivalry?!”
[Cobbey:] “John 21:21, “Peter, turning to this other disciple, the beloved disciple, with whom we have been visiting throughout this gospel, Peter says to Jesus, Lord, and something. He had not really comprehended what Jesus was after or where Jesus was trying to elevate him. Perhaps John would win a position or an honor that Peter himself failed to qualify for?
“John 21:22, Jesus had a response to Peter, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” That seems to deliver a clear message that there would be a gap of time, and Jesus and John would have some relation even beyond the ascension of Jesus. Perhaps Peter had been tested for this very same role, but it would be John who qualified?
“Where would that be? Where do we find Jesus and John together? In the New Testament after the gospels, in none other book than the Book of Revelation, except for a brief inclusion of John with the other disciples in Acts 1:13.
“Let’s turn to the Book of Revelation to see if this is the unfinished business Jesus was referring to when he said in John 21:22,“If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?” … He “tarried” almost sixty years, if not more, beyond the time of Jesus’ ascension, and received the Revelation on the island of Patmos…
…
“The entire Bible meets the student in the Book of Revelation. Is that book what Jesus was referring to at the end of the Gospel of John when he said, “If I will that he, the beloved disciple, tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.” (John 21:22). Peter, you have your mission. You are assigned to feed my lambs, to tend and guard my young sheep, to feed my mature sheep. But John has a very essential, important, individual mission as well. As usual there is a misunderstanding on that point.
“John 21:23 states a rumor went among the brethren that this disciple wouldn’t die. Notice the care with which either the author himself, or a later editor, states that Jesus didn’t say, “He shall not die” but, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?”
“Among the early traditions about John, recorded in early primitive Christian literature, is his punishment under Roman authority by being boiled in oil. The account reads that he did not die. He survived being boiled in oil. Although this is not attested to in Scripture, there is much early evidence pointing to that as part of John’s biography. That recorder, that scribe, under orders, went through and survived in following the command of his Master, to be a fisher of men…”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
IN EVERYTHING CONCEDE THAT ALL ABILITY COMES FROM GOD, NOT YOU!
PAUSE TO GET UP WATERSKIING, AS IF YOU WERE GETTING UP TO TESTIFY.
Mary Baker Eddy has given CedarS a favorite met for water-skiing. In citation S28 she says: “Beholding the infinite tasks of Truth, we pause, – wait on God. Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured and conception unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory.” (cit. S28/323:9)
After saying “Hit it!” for the ski boat to start pulling you, it seems natural for most beginners to lean forward right away, as if to get up “on their own.” But, this always causes quick nose-dives. A better method is to PAUSE, waiting to acknowledge the boat, or really God, as the true power of the event, able to pull us up and through it. God precedes and PRE-SERVES us – and we express such dominion that we almost feel able to walk on the water. (A successful pausing posture for skiers to mimic is that of a testifier getting halfway up out of their seat and pausing for a few seconds before proceeding, because another testifier got up at the same time.)
In like manner, when we realize that life is about God, about Love, and not about us (as physical beings) or because of us (as sexual beings), we are free to merely reflect, instead of originate, the “incontrovertible” perfection of man AS A SPIRITUAL BEING, as the “image, reflection, of God, . . neither inverted” (‘reversed in position, order, or relationship’) “nor subverted,” (‘overturned from the foundation: RUINED: perverted or corrupted by an undermining of morals, allegiance, or faith’) “but upright and Godlike.” (S&H 200:19, with Merriam Webster’s definitions in parenthesis)
From a Warren Huff Met originally Posted: 4/27/2003
