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Application GEMs in a PRAYER to “LOVE INTO VIEW” THE COLORFUL, EVER-PRESENT, PERFECTION OF SOUL!
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

 “Soul”
for August 8 – August 14, 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


APPLY GOD’S PROMISE OF BEING UPHELD TO ALL WHO SERVE TO THE DELIGHT OF GOD’S SOUL!

“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” (Isaiah 42:1, citation B5)

Cobbey Crisler on Isa. 42:1 (B5)
“Chapter 42:1 is a prophesy of a servant who should come, the “elect of God” who would have “the Spirit of God upon him.”  You will notice in Verse 7 – and in Isaiah 61:1 – what the assignment of this servant would be, “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, [and] them that sit in darkness out of the prison house (W: or lockdown, shelter-in-place or quarantine).”

Isn’t it interesting that the prophet Isaiah foresees this prophesied individual in the terms of “a servant” when the Greek word most often in the New Testament for healing has the classical Greek meaning of “to serve.”  You remember how Jesus defined his ministry in those terms, “I came not to be ministered unto but to minister” [Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45].  Healing is serving by definition in Greek.  Serving whom?  God and man.”
­Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record,”
by B. Cobbey Crisler**

[Warren:  These prophesies in Isaiah foretell the coming of God’s healing servant, Christ Jesus. But the verse in our Bible lesson also promises that all of God’s servants and healers will be upheld.  That is a promise that we can affirm in our Prayer Watch specifically for health care workers and for all exposed these days to the CoVid-19 virus in their work to restore freedom and harmony to our communities, our world and all citizens.    

Florence Nightingale, a famous wartime nurse in the Crimean war, was cited by Mary Baker Eddy as a great example of the immunity and endurance that God gives to all who provide care for and serve others.  She wrote: “…Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists engaged in humane laborers have been able to undergo without sinking fatigues and exposures which ordinary people could not endure. The explanation lies in the support which they derive from the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and endurance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best deeds… Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untoward conditions, if without sin, can be experienced without suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself.” (Science and Health, p. 385:2)

 [W:] MANY wonderful resources are being shared daily with great healing content for our Global Prayer Watch for World Health 2020.  Check out on JSH-online an excellent Journal podcast by Janet Horton, a retired US Army Chaplain.  It gives context to the above passage by sharing a brief biography of Florence Nightingale and her tireless labors for the soldiers during the Crimean War.  She also shares an example of the pulling together and protection that she and others in the Pentagon demonstrated when it was bombed on 9/11.

[W:] As I was praying to see as divinely protected all the world’s front-line, health care providers, including all dear Christian Science nurses—and all patients as well, I continued to read page 395 in the chapter, “Christian Science Practice.”  I found especially helpful the paragraph with the marginal heading of “Mental Quackery.” “It is mental quackery to make disease a reality—to hold it (the coronavirus) as something to be seen and felt—and then to attempt its cure through Mind…. Mental practice, which holds disease as a reality, fastens disease on the patient and it may appear in a more alarming form.” (SH 395:21)

THINK AGAIN TO PROVE IT’S NOT PROBLEMS, BUT HEAVEN, THAT’S AT HAND!
Cobbey Crisler on Matt 4:17/cit. B5:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

 [Cobbey:] “Verse 17. … Jesus’ opening word, according to Matthew’s gospel is “Repent.” Change your concept.  Again, just as John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:2, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  That is radical good news for mankind. 

“It’s not a far-off event.  Many denominations have left the impression that heaven is something attainable in the far-off future.  But, the opening words of John the Baptist, as well as of Jesus, are “the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” right here.  That means that we must be able to do something with it and about it.  And, apparently that had something to do with the changing of our concept, even theologically, that heaven can do something about the problems that that seem to be at hand.

“… Are the problems at hand, or is heaven at hand?  That’s the test question that Jesus met in the preceding verses so beautifully as a sovereign over it in the wilderness.  He proved that heaven was at hand.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

 [W.] We follow our Master Jesus, as we dismiss dualism like he did to feel a heavenly harmony that heals EVERY PERSON & EVERY ISSUE! (Matt. 14:23) As a prelude to these verses from this week’s lesson, you’ll enjoy Cobbey’s insights on Jesus’ wilderness testing experience where he overcame feeling isolated and alone, by feeling ALL One with his Abba “Daddy”! You’ll enjoy this even more if you’re feeling vulnerable to attacks from a devilish, divisive virus! (Devil or diabolos means to try to throw in 2 opposite directions at the same time.)
Cobbey Crisler on Jesus “acing” his long isolation tests & healing all, Matt. 4:
1-11 before verses 17, 23 (in citation B3):
[W. Before the Matthew 4:17 and 23 verses in this week’s lesson is what enabled Jesus to heal everyone.]
[Cobbey:] “There is what we might call an identity-crisis test in Chapter 4 (of Matthew).  The Anglo-Saxon word “tempt” has almost picked up a theological meaning.  It really means “test.”  That’s what the word means.  It’s a test. (Verse 1)  So, “Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness” to be tested on the fact that had recently been revealed (directly from God in Matthew 3:17 (and Mark 1:11) that Jesus was God’s “Beloved Son”).

Verse 23. And “healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”  Here are human problems that had defied solution, and Jesus solved them all based on his concept of theology, namely the kingdom.  Remember a kingdom is not chaos.  It’s an ordered government of heaven and harmony at hand.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GO MENTALLY TO WHERE OUR SUPPLIES ALREADY ARE & LEAVE PROBLEMS BEHIND.  Cobbey on Matt. 6:3-18/B6, B12 & Luke 11/B12:  on The Lord’s Prayer & Sermon on the Mount

[Cobbey Crisler:] (Matthew 6, Verse 3). “But when you do alms.” This, again, is a very well-organized speech. First, he introduces the subject of alms. Then he gives what the false alms are, the conditions under which alms should not be given, and then he gives the true alms.

Verse 3 introduces the truth, “When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.” That temptation exists even in contribution in church today, when you decide to give more than a George Washington.

Occasionally, if you have to reach over so that whoever it is, other than George Washington, might be possibly seen by others dropped into the hat, human nature does derive a certain amount of satisfaction if our neighbor sees how righteous we are.

(Verse 4). He is exposing that here. He says, it should be done in secret. Why? Because “God knows,” and that’s the only thing that counts. Because the Father which sees thee in secret him­self “will reward thee openly.” It will be seen in your life, the outcome and the outlook. The results in your life are all that’s needed to bear witness to what has happened inwardly.

(Verse 5). We’ve finished with alms.  Second thing, prayer. “When you pray, don’t be as the actors are. They like to stand around publicly and speak their prayers in public. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.”  See the result of our thinking.

Step 1 of prayer:

Matthew 6:6 “But when you pray,” first, now notice, here are the rules for praying.  If we think we’re praying, wait till we get through with what his requirements are, and then ask again.  “When you pray,” here’s what we do. There’s no way around these requirements, because this is Jesus’ specific answer to how we pray.  When we pray, number one, we do what? “Closet.” Number two, “Shut the door.”

Often, we do one or two of these things but not all of them. Number three, “Pray.”  Don’t forget why you’re in that closet.  Don’t go to sleep with the door closed.  What’s good about studying the Greek that’s behind this?  The Greek word for closet is tameion. It really is not translated as closet, I don’t believe any other time it’s used.  Tameion has in the Greek this meaning: it’s a storehouse.  It’s a place in which our supplies are kept.  Now ask yourself if you’re really praying.

In prayer, in our first step, do we actually go mentally into the place where our supplies already are?  That means in prayer we can’t take any problem with us. In prayer we’re in the presence of the solution, or it’s not prayer, as far as Jesus’ definition is concerned.  Once we’re in there where the supplies are, shut the door so that the problem doesn’t nag.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,”
by B. Cobbey Crisler**

John 5:14. “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to     his will, he heareth us” through the crack or into the keyhole. And then pray. That kind of prayer, just open your eyes, don’t close them to the supplies already there.

That’s a prayer that really is more of affirmation than it is a petition. The Bible actually authorizes both kinds of prayer. But I think one of the most beautiful definitions of that kind of prayer which ties directly in with what Jesus is saying here in Matthew may be found in the First Epistle of John, Chapter 5. Measure your concept of prayer against this magnificent description of what it really is.

(Verse 14). Let’s take the state of mind or thought described here… This is the confidence.” Prayer has to have confidence. “That we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will.” Not our will. What line in Jesus’ Lord’s prayer showed us that was true already? Thy will be done.” And what was his last commitment in Gethsemane before the Cross? Not as I will, but as thou “wilt.”  How important is it, even under maximum pressure, especially, under maximum pressure?

Verse 14 continued, “If we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.” Notice the next verse.

(Verse 15). “And if we know that he hears us,” Do we?  Is that our attitude in prayer? Do we know, or do we hope? “If we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask,” look at the next step we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” Look at that definition of prayer. Does it agree with Jesus’ definition of going into the tameon where our supplies already are?  In that tameon would this be fulfilled? Would we know that he’s heard us?  Would we know that we had already the petitions we desired of him?

What else could have prompted Jesus outside the grave containing Lazarus to have thanked his God (John 11:41, 42) for already raising Lazarus when Lazarus hadn’t even made a move, or at least a visible move to anyone around? Jesus expressing gratitude for the fulfillment of prayer before it was even visible.

So, the Sermon on the Mount is meaty, isn’t it? It’s not just milk.

Matthew 6, (Verse 7), “use not vain repetitions.”  Saying words, Jesus is telling us directly, is not part of the equation that gets results. Just words. How often one hears the Lord’s Prayer almost as if the accelerator has been pressed to the floor?

Even when it is said slowly, and as a matter of ritual, then, that’s not what he means.  Because right after he says that, he gives the prayer that’s probably repeated more vainly than any other prayer since his time, the Lord’s Prayer.

Josephus tells about a quote that Jonathan said to David. It isn’t in the Bible. Where Josephus got this tradition, I don’t know. Here was Jonathan. Jonathan was a lovely, lovely character in the Bible. Remember, he went contrary to his father to support David.  Jonathan said to David, “This God, who, before I have expressed my thoughts in words, already knows what it is.”

This giving of alms in secret, praying in secret, both having the open results in our lives. But we often elect to appear in public self-righteous, and that becomes our definition of religion.

Verse 8 says, “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” So, what could words do?  Convey something to God he doesn’t already know? Or, is prayer to bring us into alignment with what God already knows? Isn’t that why we have to go into the closet where the answers are? Doesn’t that bring us into alignment, at-one-ment, so to speak, with our Father’s solution?

The solution is already implicit in the fact that God is our Father. Understanding that makes us his children. And the problems are baptized away in the sense of the Holy Ghost and fire, operating in thought. As if there could be a double source which causes a conflict in man’s thinking.

The source of his problems and the source of his blessings, and they’re constantly struggling for preponderancy in thinking. Vain repetitions are not going to align our thought with God.

(Verse 9). “After this manner therefore pray ye,” he said. “Our Father.” Joachim Jeremiah, a German scholar, who is widely respected for his studies on Jesus, has stated that in every case, except when he is quoting the Old Testament, Jesus undoubtedly used the word ‘”Abba,” when he spoke of his Father.

That puts Jesus in a very unique category. No other Hebrew thinker, or writer, prior to Jesus, or even subsequent to Jesus, except one of his followers, ever used the word “Abba” in connection with Father.  Whatever Jesus did in connection with his God would express his sense of the relationship to God. Therefore, it would be vital to comprehend that, if that was Jesus’ favorite word for God, at least to express his fatherhood.

Do you know what “Abba” is?  It’s probably the first word a Hebrew child learns.  It means “Daddy.”  “Abba” and “Imma,” “Daddy”‘ and “Mommy.”  You hear that today in the Holy Land. Little child gets way behind his parents, “Abba, Abba, Abba.” Just think of that.

If we’re little children, that have gotten behind our parent, how did Jesus say we were to enter into the kingdom of God? As a little child (Mark 10:15). If we really are saying the Lord’s Prayer in the spirit that he meant it.  Apparently, you and I are forced to go to the Father as little children, “Daddy.”  That tender relationship, that reliance, that trusting sense that our divine parent is there.

So, “Abba” is a very precious word.  Paul uses it later on with the same tenderness (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). He would never have used that as a Pharisee, which he was, but got it from his           study of Jesus.

(Verse 13). We know the Lord’s Prayer sufficiently, I’m sure. There’s some doubt as to whether the last line was in the original, the last line being, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the   glory, forever.” That last line hardly violates the spirit of the prayer.  It could very easily have been there. But we don’t know for sure.
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

(Verse 16). We move from alms and prayer into fasting, “When you fast, don’t be as the actors, hypocrites, of a sad countenance.”  There is a lot of fasting in religion today.  Many denominations set periods aside for fasting.  Jesus, almost foreseeing that in human nature, says, “When you fast, don’t disfigure your faces. That’s an appearance of fasting.”

(Verse 17). “But when you fast, do the opposite, wash your face.”

(Verse 18). “That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret.”

ENJOY INSIGHTFUL PODCASTS ON EACH PART OF THE LORD’S PRAYER as featured this week!

For more of the spirit and power of overflowing praise for God that Jesus gave us in The Lord’s Prayer, consider exploring a classic series of podcasts (by Barry Huff) on The Lord’s Prayer provided for YouTube viewing at https://youtu.be/9NgKgVA7fzM as a resource from the ChristianScience.com website.

In your deeper Bible Lesson Study time you may wish to go straight to the podcast related to the lines of The Lord’s Prayer with their spiritual interpretation that are featured in various sections of this week’s Bible Lesson:

SECTION 2 (citations B6/Matthew 6:9, cit. S4/14:22; cit. S6/16:24-29)

More on The Lord’s Prayer ABBA “FATHER” at https://youtu.be/aub1ySqzLNM
More on The Lord’s Prayer Hallowed be Thy name at https://youtu.be/ga80Zaqke0o

SECTION 3 (cit. B9/Luke 11:2; cit. S9/16:30-31) and
SECTION 4
(cit. B12/Matt. 6:10; cit. B13/Luke 22:42; cit. S12/17:1-3)

More on The Lord’s Prayer “THY KINGDOM COME” & “THY WILL BE DONE” at https://youtu.be/XnqTv4v9cAU

SECTION 5 (citation B14/Matt. 6:11; cit. S17/17:4-5)

More on The Lord’s Prayer “OUR DAILY BREAD” at https://youtu.be/A1pa7nT-_dQ

SECTION 6 (citation B16/Luke 11:4; cit. S21/17:6-7)

More on The Lord’s Prayer “FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS” at https://youtu.be/EeHfjXOs8do

SECTION 7 (citation B23/ Matt. 6:13 (to :  ); cit. S27/17:)

More on The Lord’s Prayer “Lead Us NOT INTO TEMPTATION” at https://youtu.be/z5UVPJDWy0w

SECTION 8 (citation B25/ Matt. 6:13; cit. S32/17:12-15)

More on The Lord’s Prayer “FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY” at https://youtu.be/Y81HTwsVrJU

 For these and more go to and scroll down from: https://www.christianscience.com/youth/sunday-school-teachers?icid=Homepage:main-menu:Sunday%20School%20Teachers

 “ACKNOWLEDGE ONE Christ… or divine Comforter” in the evolution of the SECOND TENET
(Science & Health 497:5, cit. S7) from The Mary Baker Eddy Library for The Betterment of Mankind

 Current edition:
2.  We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God.  We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God’s image and likeness.

1879 “Tenets and Covenant”
2d. — We rest our hope and Faith on God, the only Life, Truth and Love, depending for salvation not on the person of God, but on the understanding of the Principle or Spirit that is God, and the demonstration of this Spirit or Principle according to those commands of our Master, “Go ye into all the world, preach the Gospel, heal the sick, and these signs shall follow them that believe” (understand).  “They shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover.”

1887 “Tenets to be Signed by those Uniting …”
Second. — We acknowledge one Father, Son and Holy Ghost, — one God, the brotherhood of man, and Divine Science.  And the forgiveness of sin, which is the destruction of sin.  And the atonement of Christ, which is the efficacy of Truth and Life.  And the way of salvation marked out by Jesus, which is healing the sick, casting out devils [evils], and raising the dead, — uplifting a dead faith into Life and Love.

1892 (from “Church Tenets and Rules”)
2.  We acknowledge and adore one Supreme God.  We acknowledge His Son, the Holy Ghost, and man in His image and likeness.  We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin, in the destruction of sin, and His present and future punishment of “whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie.”  We acknowledge the atonement of Christ, as the efficacy of Truth and Love.  And the way of Salvation as demonstrated by Jesus casting out evils, healing the sick, and raising the dead, — resurrecting a dead faith to seize the great possibilities and living energies of the Divine Life.

1893 (from “Church Tenets and Rules”)
2.  We acknowledge and adore one Supreme God.  We acknowledge His Son, and the Holy Ghost, and man in the Divine image and likeness.

81st edition (1894)
2.  We acknowledge and adore one Supreme God.  We acknowledge His Son, and the Holy Ghost, and man as the Divine image and likeness.

179th edition (1900)
2.  We acknowledge and adore one Supreme Infinite God.  We acknowledge one Christ, the Holy Ghost, and man as the Divine image and likeness.

214th edition (1901)
2.  We acknowledge and adore one Supreme Infinite God.  We acknowledge one Christ namely the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter — and the son Christ Jesus – man in the divine image and likeness.

249th edition (1902)
2.  We acknowledge and adore one Supreme Infinite God.  We acknowledge one Christ, His son, the Holy Ghost or Comforter, — and man in the divine image and likeness.

252nd edition (1902)
2.  We acknowledge and adore one Supreme and Infinite God; — acknowledge one Christ — His Son Christ Jesus; the Holy Ghost or the divine Comforter; and man His divine image and likeness.

1907 edition
2.  We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God.  We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God’s image and likeness.

SILENCE DIVISIVENESS! Think without STRIFE!
PRAY for our DIVINE SENSE of ONENESS to INCREASE!

As August continues and we “love into view” our “best CedarS Family Camp yet,” it’s very helpful that our Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson contains what Jesus was trained to pray to begin each day (and what all Jews still are supposed to pray to begin as well as end each day). Jews call this key prayer of theirs the “Shema” – the Hebrew word for “Hear”— because Deuteronomy 6:4/citation B10 is preceeded by that word.

4 Hear, O Israel: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deut. 6:4, 5)
[The rest of the Shema prayer… ]
 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9, (NIV), verses 6-9 after the portion in citation B10.

Please note above how constantly throughout each day Jews are supposed to prayerfully affirm the supremacy of God’s oneness and commandments to rule over all!

It’s helpfully significant that this key “Shema” prayer of oneness dovetails with CedarS 2022 theme of “Unity” – which was subsequently announced as the theme of this year’s Annual Meeting of the Mother Church.  The value of unity/oneness is a powerful, healing keynote to focus on throughout each day. Our united prayers and actions will be especially helpful in the coming weeks and months as the world emerges from the pandemic and hopefully from global economic woes and an escalation of the terrorism and atrocities of wars in Ukraine, the Middle East or wherever these “errors are screaming on their way out.”

As Christie Hanzlik, CS, pointed out in a paragraph of a CedarS Met for a previous Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson: “It is tempting to see a world consisting of millions of human opinions, warring media reports, racial strife, class warfare, tribalism, gender inequity, political personalities, family disagreements and even conflicts within ourselves. The singular answer to this seeming divisiveness is the oneness of Truth, the oneness of good, the oneness of God. God is indivisible. And therefore we, as the outcome of God, are also indivisible.”

Verse 3 of Christian Science Hymn 157 calls for us to make daily progress in demonstrating unity:Day by day the understanding / Of our oneness shall increase.” This prayer request to God for oneness comes from no other than Jesus in the final hours before he allows himself to be captured for crucifixion, when he prayed for his disciples and us that we may feel at one with God and with one another! (John 17:11, 21, 22)

Christian Science Hymn 157
“Jesus’ prayer for all his brethren: / Father, that they may be one, / Echoes down through all the ages, / Nor prayed he for these alone / But for all, that through all time / God’s will be done.

One the Mind and Life of all things, / For we live in God alone; / One the Love whose ever-presence / Blesses all and injures none. / Safe within this Love we find all / being one.

Day by day the understanding / Of our oneness shall increase, / Till among all men and nations / Warfare shall forever cease, / So God’s children all shall dwell / in joy and peace.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 157:1–3)

LIKE JOB, FIND THE IDENTITY & UNITY of 1 MIND & 1 SOUL to SOLVE CONFLICTS OF MANY OPINIONS! Cobbey Crisler on Job 23:13, 14 (cit. B11):

[Cobbey:] “In Job 23:13 we find two revelations from God to Job about God’s nature. Because there’s only one way that you and I can ever find out anything out about God who is the only one who knows who God is, God [Himself/Herself]. God must do the revealing and here Job has two concepts revealed to him about God.  And you know we don’t get anything unless we’re ready for it. Job is ready. He needs this, doesn’t he?… Why does Job need to know God as “one [mind], and as soul”?
What’s been his problem? One problem is identity. He said (in Job 9:21, 22) even “[if I said] I am perfect… Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul:” Here if soul is identified with God, where does one find one’s identity? The, whatever he was thinking about as his soul, if he had it, would have to image forth the One Soul. How many souls are there? If you relate the word “soul” to God, there is no other possible alternative than for a monotheist to see one, with whatever is revealed to us about God. That may be tough logic, but if soul is related to God, as a synonym, then there can only be One. So, to seek his identity in that oneness-of-God will tell him more about himself.
What about one mind? Why did he need to know that? [Voice: Because it was God?”] That’s right. And he’d been having a dialogue with many minds, hadn’t he? Nothing but just One Mind as opposed to many, polytheistic gods, or many minds, many opinions… Just think of that beautiful revelation that comes as a solution to all that.”
“The Book of Job: A Mental Court Case” by B. Cobbey Crisler
**

[Warren Huff’s P.S. on a verse 14 bonus: It relieves all fear of poor performance to know that “…he performeth the thing that is appointed for me…” This could be re-stated that “God is the performer; and we are the performance” … and that “many such things are with him.”

LOVE INTO VIEW OUR SHEPHERD’S DIVINE SUPPLY AS INEXHAUSTIBLE!

 

Below are Cobbey Crisler’s insights on Mark’s version of the feeding of the multitude.
(in this week’s Bible Lesson we have the Matthew 15:29-38 version as citation B17).
[Cobbey Crisler:] “The only so-called miracle in all four gospels is the feeding of the “five thousand,”
I put it in quotes because they were only counting the men.  Out of the little boy’s lunch box comes five loaves and two fishes.  We hear that from the gospel of John Chapter 6, Verse 13.  They feed a multitude.  Now we have a lesson on economics given to us by the Master.  He didn’t regard that as a problem either.  No Malthusian limitation on man that we’re going to outgrow our supply, and, therefore, we should kill off sectors of the human race in order to meet the supply.  That’s Malthus and his philosophy of necessity.  But we find Jesus saying instead in Matthew 14:16, “They need not depart.”  Malthus says they need to be killed, but Jesus is saying, “They need not depart.”

Mark 6.37.  The disciples say it would be impossible to feed the multitude, that it would take about “two hundred pennyworth.”  The group was considerably more than five thousand if you count the women and the children. 

What Jesus said to all the disciples made them become part of the remedy.  Twelve baskets were taken around.  There were twelve disciples.  Each one was made to participate in the abundant result and learn from it.  They started out with only five loaves and two fishes.  They ended up with more fragments left over than they had when they started out.  More available.  That’s divine economics.  It doesn’t exhaust.”
“What Mark Recorded,”
by B. Cobbey Crisler**

[W: Below is a BONUS sharing of a modern-day, loaves-and- fishes, example of divine supply as an amazing and quick answer to a humble prayer made with “an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love.” (SH1:1)]

An EXAMPLE you can “TAKE to the BANK” of
an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, (Science & Health, p. 1:1-4)
An Answered Prayer (A.P.) History example of divine abundance quickly demonstrated!
shared by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus

HERE WAS THE PROBLEM OR UNIQUE SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES PRESENTED:
(Warren: While the particulars of every fable vary, it’s the same lie of lack that’s always negated by the law of divine abundance which remains unchangeable & provable by all!)
The situation at CedarS Camps in early May of 1993, just weeks before camp, we made a critical and costly discovery just as a major project was looking to be on time and on budget. This wonderful “home improvement” to our Dawn Lodge was adding-on a new Basketball Pavilion beyond a first-floor dining room addition along with several new bedrooms in a shed-roof dormer loft above it. Just as it was being created by literally “raising the roof” – or a 20-ft by 200-ft section of roof over the east beamline of CedarS main Dawn Lodge Dining Room, the workmen made the costly discovery that the 24-year-old, original, cedar-shake roof over the rest of building was starting to deteriorate. In order to make the roof leak-proof in the immediate short term before camp as well as problem-free in the long term, it all would need to be replaced with a new, insulated metal roof. We were told that would cost an additional $100,000—and that these unbudgeted funds were needed right away in order to be able to finish the job before the Opening Day of camp that was just weeks away.

A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE TREATMENT/PRAYER FOR THIS LIE OF LACK:

Instead of panicking, I again felt the radiant joy, inspired by many demonstrations of God’s abundant love as well as by my mom, Ruth E. Huff’s wonderful, automatically instantaneous response at such times. I can always hear and see (in my thought) Mom’s classic, smiling reply to almost any issue—”It will be fun to see how God works this one out!”

With this joyous confidence and love, I was led to turn to the opening chapter of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures called “Prayer.” I needed go no farther than its first sentence to re-open in the depths of my being its awesome, healing power: “The prayer that reforms the sinner (like me as the project manager who had majorly “missed the mark”) and heals the sick (like a leaky roof and the sick feeling of every lie of limitation) is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love.” (SH 1:1-4 with bolding and parenthesizes added) I’ll NEVER forget that simple, radiantly confident feeling of effective prayer and divine care as I simply cherished each of those three elements – along with some of Jesus’ awesome examples of it.

As I recall, in that week’s Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson, there were two of Jesus’ demonstrations of divine, ever-present abundance—the feeding the multitudes with five loaves and two fish AND the sending of Peter to get the money to pay taxes for the two of them from the mouth of the first fish that Peter caught (Matt. 17:27). It’s not a mere coincidence—but a  “human and divine coincidence” that God brought those examples to thought then – and brings these examples to our attention now to face down the aggressive fear and evidences of lack during what claims to be the economic turmoil of armed conflicts and an ongoing global pandemic.

Right now, we too can “love into view” a growing, glowing faith in divine Love
and its abundance that never fail.

TAKE NOW & TO YOUR FUTURE THIS ANSWERED PRAYER (A.P.) HISTORY:
A West Coast phone call came just minutes after I’d received the $100,000 bad news with the calm confidence that God had it covered.  A voice I’d never heard before—from an “as-in-heaven, so-on-earth” angel of a friend who I’d never met before— said: “As I was praying this morning, I sensed that CedarS Camps had an urgent need. Would $100,000 help?”
Before I could take any human footsteps, other than prayer, God sent that speedy answer—and in the exact amount needed! This is a literal example of what we should spiritually understand 365/24/7 from Isaiah (3)65:24 (/7):
“Before they call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking I will hear.”

P.S. A FUN, MORE RECENT, BONUS:
I had the inspiring joy of going on a January 2020 Principia Lifelong Learning “Journey through the Holy Land” led by professor, Dr. Barry Ray Huff—the dear son God sent to bless us all.  On the trip, I purposely invested in items to share and help inspire the outreach and work of CedarS Bible Lands Park. At a gift shop I bought a spoon holder to serve at home as a daily Biblical reminder of how God meets every human need. You can see in the picture in the bottom “Download” part of the webpage, where I placed the spoon holder on top of a T-shirt with this classic message:

LOVE IS LIKE 5 LOAVES AND 2 FISH.
ALWAYS TOO LITTLE UNTIL YOU START GIVING IT AWAY.

As we give, give, give with a sense of divine Love and Her abundant supply, we find that we can never “out-give” God who constantly gives, Gives, GIVES back to us from an infinitely renewable resource! Jesus illustrated this law of divine abundance—even super-abundance –by quickly feeding the hungry multitudes with only five loaves and two fish and then by symbolically taking up twelve baskets of left-overs (one basketful for each disciple in the three Gospel accounts of Mark 6:38, Luke 9:13, John 6:8)

(A rough draft of what is to be sent soon to the CSPS periodicals.)


HERE’S DAILY, HEART-HEALTHY NUTRIMENT THAT YOU CAN’T OVEREAT!

 [Christie Hanzlik, CS, from her June 14, 2020 Met on “God the Preserver of Man” Section 2:]
… Mary Baker Eddy even offers a nutritional guide…our right nutrition is “peace, patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear Father’s loving-kindness.”  (citation S18 this week, 365:31)  I could eat a whole buffet of that meal every day of the year!”
[Warren proposed memory aid: note that’s 365 days a year from page 365]

TIRED OF WAITING? Here’s a PSALM to HELP YOU get THROUGH any waiting period of SEEMING STAGNATION  “Unto You, O Lord, do I lift up my soul… Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.” (Ps. 25:1, 5/cit. B19, NKJV; SH 593:20) “My soul, wait thou only on God, for my expectation is from him.
In God is my salvation (from false beliefs) and my glory.” (Ps. 62:5; SH 593:20)
“Divine Love leads me and you “THROUGH the valley of death,
(where) I will fear no evil; for [Love] is with me…” (Ps. 23; SH 578:10)

[Warren:] In the header of this GEM about waiting, I capitalized THROUGH, because Love means for us to keep moving and serving—never to wallow (swallow, or “stall-oh!”) in the “darkness” (and “vestibule”) parts of the definition of “Wilderness.  Loneliness; doubt; darkness.” Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.” (SH 597:16-19) These great correlative passages are perfect for our rite (& divine right) of passage to come out of a restrictive-protocols pandemic when right activity seems to be somewhat on “pause — (for us to) wait on God…” (SH 323:10).  Check-out a variety of other very helpful insights about inspiration to defeat inlation in “Recent Daily Lifts” at: https://www.christianscience.com/christian-healing-today/daily-lift

The idea of being a patient waiter, as if on God’s wait staff, means being ready to graciously wait on and do whatever is needed to be an attentive host only to good—to “entertain angels…” by actively hosting ONLY good. (SH 299:15)  This also relates to when Jesus finished a 40-day period of sheltering in place in the wilderness, that he “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee… and… their synagogues (churches) and laid his hands on everyone (at least symbolically) and healed them.” (Luke 4:14) Let us, like Jesus, as we come out of our wilderness, waiting experiences, return to a higher sense of church and to stick with the only real power, the power of the Spirit!

 EXPUNGE FABLES! AWAKE to EVERLASTING, TENDER MERCIES HOLDING YOU!


Make the psalmist’s prayers to God your own to “withhold not thy tender mercies…” “remember…thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses” (cit. B19, Ps. 25:6) … let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.” ” (Ps. 40:11) and “according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” (Psalm 51:1)

“The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged.”

Retrospection and Introspection,” by Mary Baker Eddy, page 22:1

“I awake each morn to a brand new day… Tender mercies are holding me” Words and Music by Susan Booth Mack Snipes, Hymn 500 in 2017 Hymnal. [My favorite performance of it to hear it sung on the back deck of CedarS Care House as a duet by then CedarS Met contributors Craig Ghislin, CS, and David Price, CS, who were both serving as Christian Science practitioners.]

 

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