APPLY TIMELESS GEMS to EXPUNGE ALL CLAIMS OF DIVISION! USE BIBLE EXAMPLES** as SPRINGBOARDS for YOUR OWN MODERN-DAY PROOFS!
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler, Ken Cooper & others as found in The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Ancient and Modern Necromancy, alias Mesmerism and Hypnotism, Denounced”
for Sunday, November 28, 2021
(Cobbey’s text is shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps.org
AFFIRM GOD’S CONTROL of ALL BRANCHES of GOVERNMENT, per Isa. 33:22/cit. B4
[Warren;] I find this Bible promise from Isaiah very reassuring in my prayers. Note that it specifies that God, Love, is in control of, or in charge of, all three branches of our government: the Judicial, the Legislative, and the Executive.
So, let-us affirm that “…the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.” (Isaiah 33:22)
“Understanding the control which Love held (holds) over all, …” we can feel as safe in a pandemic and with the threat of Inauguration Day demonstrations as “…Daniel felt safe in the lions’ den” and can prove the virus to be as harmless, as “Paul proved the viper to be harmless.” (SH 514:26)
Let-us joyously affirm together that God is in charge of our country and of our leaders and of the whole wide world. It’s uplifting to know that “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” The preceding imbedded link to the original version shares a heartfelt spiritual written in World War II by Obie Philpot, a Cherokee Indian. It speaks of God as our creator and protector. You might also enjoy an add-on version of soulful, prayer-filled, black voices that I found inspiring in these YouTube video offerings.)
EXPUNGE OLD LIES – AND NEW ONES! WAKE UP TO BEING HELD BY “TENDER MERCIES!”
Make the psalmist’s prayers your own:
- “according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions” (Psalm 51:1, B11);
- “Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies…” (Psalm 25:6);
- crown me “with lovingkindness and tender mercies… unto (my) children’s children” (Ps. 103:4, 15);
- let “thy tender mercies…quicken me…” (Ps. 119:156);
- “let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us… and purge away our sins” (Ps. 79:8,9); and,
- acknowledge “his tender mercies are over all his works… throughout all generations.” (Ps. 145:9,13)
“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 (or 445 in spiral bound supplement) Click here for a Summer 2020 video of it sung as a guitar duet by David and Craig, two Christian Science Practitioners on the beautiful back porch of CedarS new Care House.
WORK FOR “GROWTH in GRACE”–this THANKSGIVING WEEK & the rest of 2021!
Grace has been CedarS one-word metaphysical theme this year! We invite you to join us for “growth in grace”! (citation S6, 4:3-5) One way to think about grace is as a deep sense of God’s unconditional love. Grace is not something we have to earn or deserve. Grace – affording abundant joy, loving-kindness, mercy, and gratitude – is a gift, freely received and freely given!
Here are some of the citations we’ve been studying so far this year, the last one that
appears in the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson for November 28, 2021.
“Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections” (SH p. 17)
“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17)
“Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other means and methods.” (SH p. 67)
“God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” (II Corinthians 9:8)
“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:6)
“The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love.” (SH 494:15)
“But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.” (Psalm 86:15)
“What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds.” (cit. S17, SH p. 4:3-5)
We invite you to explore many more references to grace (plus more to gracious):
- 159 references in the Bible to grace
- 73 references in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy
- 93 references in the Christian Science Hymnal
- over 25,000 references in JSH Online
We have seen the simplicity of this theme result in healing for campers, staff, cabins, families, countries, and the world. With many issues facing the world today, there seem to be no viable human solutions, and yet, we have grace – and grace always wins!
Listen to an audio podcast that shares two excellent examples of healing by
CONSENTING TO THE TOTAL SUPREMACY OF GOOD TO UNDO &
DISPROVE ALL FAKE CLAIMS OF EVIL BEING IN CONTROL!
This audio podcast connects perfectly with and amplifies citations S9, S10 & S11/Science & Health pages 102-104 in these this week’s Bible Lesson and has two excellent examples of healing:
What is animal magnetism?
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/3680qr8ihc?s=e
If you’d rather see the printed version, here it is:
What is animal magnetism?
https://journal.christianscience.com/shared/view/1msxqefl5aa?s=e
From JSH-Online, the official website of The Christian Science Journal, Sentinel, and Herald.
SEE HUMANITY’S CURES AS BEING WAY BEYOND MERELY MEDICAL SOLUTIONS.
Cobbey Crisler on Isaiah 1- Isaiah 2:22/citation B6: “Cease ye from Adam”
[Cobbey on the next verses:] Isaiah 1:5 and 6. Isn’t this a question of Isaiah asking all humanity, “Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it: [but] wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores.” That’s Job’s problem written right out there. That’s his record that he that he didn’t want to have as his witness any more when he said [in Job 16:19] “my record is on high.” They must not have been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” Here is even Isaiah bearing witness that the application of medicine has not cured what humanity needs to have cured.
In Isaiah 2:22/citation B6 maybe this is part of the solution? What’s the recommended solution? “Cease ye from man.” That word in Hebrew is actually the Hebrew word “Adam.” It literally reads, “Cease ye from Adam whose breath [is] in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
SEE EVERY ILL CURED BY GOD’S ORDERED GOVERNMENT OF HARMONY AT HAND!
Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 4:23 (cit. B15):
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**
ACCEPT THAT SPACE IS NO OBSTACLE TO HEALING BY THE POWER OF GOD’S WORD! Cobbey Crisler on John 4:46-53 (cit. B16):
[Cobbey:] “In John 4:46 we go “back to Cana, and while Jesus was there a nobleman has a
sick son at Capernaum. “
John 4:47, He asks Jesus to “come heal his son at the point of death.”
John 4:48. What is Jesus doing? Does he say, “Right away.”? He’s working with the Father’s thought, isn’t he? What does he say? “Unless you see signs and wonders, you won’t believe.” The implication is that we trust before we get the result. Remember that is exactly what Jesus illustrated in the raising of Lazarus (in last week’s Bible Lesson). Trust that it was already done, complete and finished.
John 4:49, “The nobleman says, Sir, come down ere my child die.” The physical proximity of a physician was considered necessary, then as now, to heal.
John 4:50, “Jesus says” instead, “Go thy way; thy son lives”.
John 4:50, “The man trusted sufficiently in what Jesus said and went his way.”
It’s a fair walk from what has been thought to be the location of Cana to Capernaum. You can imagine what has been going on in the father’s thought, the anticipation of the event, maybe doubt, and whether he was ever convinced of what Jesus said?
John 4:51, “His servants meet him half way, and they say, Your son lives.” Those were the same words Jesus said. The last words Jesus had said are repeated here.
John 4:52. He says to his servant, “Tell me, what time exactly did he begin to improve?” Notice, built into the father’s thought was that it had to take time or process. What time did he begin to improve? “The servant announcement is, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him, instantly. ”
John 4:53. So, the father checked his watch. And he knew it was the same hour
that Jesus said, in Verse 50, “Thy son liveth.”
What you see there is something that physicists say exists in nature to some degree, namely, action-over-a-distance. Physicists define as part of this action-over-distance what? Light, magnetism, electricity, sound, things like that. Actionover-a-distance. Jesus said humanity better consider another candidate for action over-a-distance, a candidate that will eventually replace all. Namely, prayer. Prayer-action-over-a-distance.
You didn’t have to be physically near someone to have someone healed. What freedom that announces to mankind if there’s no physical prerequisite for healing! Healing can occur regardless of time and space (and time and space are not obstacles to healing), it occurs mentally or in thought. Prayer travels faster than a man could walk from Cana to Capernaum. The healing got there before the father. The healing was there just as Jesus indicated in John 3:13, “No man ascendeth up to heaven except he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.” This is how Jesus regarded the son of this nobleman, and then proved his vision.
Do we have any evidence of what Jesus said was the summary of his mission? Proof that angels were ascending and descending on the Son of Man (John 1:51)? In the case of the nobleman’s son, it is healing. There is verification. There is a semeion, or an identifying mark, or feature of Jesus’ theology. Completely leaving the old definition of religion for the new, a practical form of theology which brings with it results.”
“Book of John: A Walk with the Beloved Disciple” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren’s P.S.] Here are a couple of free visual resources that illustrate this story of Jesus healing the nobleman’s son. Click “View Slide Show” &/or “Download Image Set” at: FreeBibleimages :: Jesus heals the Official’s son in Capernaum (John 4:43-53 (citation B16) A video version is at https://vimeo.com/160922524]
How is this story in citation B16/John 4:46-53 an example of the healing power of the Word at work? Why was it chosen specifically for this Bible Lesson?