Cherish GEMs of the unfallen, true YOU!
insights from Cobbey Crisler, Ken Cooper & others from the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Adam and Fallen Man”
for Mothers’ Day, Sunday, May 9, 2021
shared by Warren Huff
CedarS Executive Director Emeritus warren@cedarscamps.org
KEN’S POETIC GEMs this week:
HEAR on YouTube 3 KEN COOPER POEMS, “SOUL: True Nourishment”, “Eve’s Apple”, and “Awake from the Adam Dream”. All three are inspired by application of ideas and citations in this week’s Bible Lesson.
[Ken wrote:] “This lesson is great for giving us food for thought!
“Mary Baker Eddy writes.” food does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that God is our Life.” S&H 388: 22–24 food). We see this week the efforts of the physical senses to claim their false dominion over man, the dream of life in matter, that we are limited by a material sense of food that is a false attraction. When we behold its true spiritual nature, it provides the nourishment of life, never limited by amount, location, unable to draw us into its web of submission to material theory and consequence. Whatever God gives is good.
“We see in this lesson the need to spiritualize thought, and not be tempted by the belief that food conducts our lives.. The apple that enticed Eve was not the food of God’s provision, the bread offered to Jesus was an enticement to reject the Word of God, for it is this that for which we must hunger, and only with this can we be truly filled.
“Temptation cannot touch innocence and purity. It is the belief that something or someone can provide something that omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent Love cannot give, or is unable to give. It is a mortal dream for such a claim is impossible. The I AM THAT I AM is always giving of its own infinity and there is nowhere where the self-expression, the infinite manifestation, of Mind is not being fulfilled. The Elohim of the First Chapter of Genesis is the only God, while the so-called Jehovah or Lord God is a lie. The one God cannot conceive good and evil, cannot give an instruction not to do anything, because in the infinity of Love there is no choice, – only the presence of good. The man of God’s creation, being the image and likeness of God, reflects the abundance of infinite Spirit. His food is spiritual, provided by His Father. This food is always good, and cannot cause harm or have adverse consequences.
“The poem “SOUL: True Nourishment” reflects the on-going thought of the provision of God’s all good. We have all we need, when we need it, in the form that fulfills the maintenance of infinite perfection. The poem was written with the love and care of our nursing homes in mind. It begins with God and covers the whole DAY, with Mind measuring “time according to the good (food) that is unfolded” (SH 584:5-6). When we are aware of our true nourishment, the false attraction of food does not touch us, cannot tempt us.
“The story of Adam and Eve is a tale, an invention. It does not refer to the man of God’s creating. There is and can be no other man, for what God made remains upright, good, and pure. Jesus described the devil (alias the serpent) as false … “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44 When). In attempting to explain the dream of mortal existence, this fable states that “the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept:” (Genesis 2:21 And (to :)) Adam never wakes up: his dream continues, for that is all it is. It is no part of reality. The Lord God had no creative power, because the one God created everything good. Belief in the Lord God is the same Adam dream.
“The story of Adam and Eve has no truth. There cannot be a tree of good and evil, because “A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit;” (Matthew 7:17) The apple offered to Eve was a material symbol of temptation, the belief that there was something to be had that God had not provided.
“In the new poem “Eve’s Apple”, read by Sue, we see the dismissal of the physical senses and their false reports. This dismissal of the lie is key. Mary Baker Eddy writes “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.” (S&H p. 14:31). Shutting the door on temptation, – on the material world, the five physical senses, is opening the door to the spiritual. Rejecting one, we affirm the other. The five physical senses are liars, the one spiritual sense is Truth. In a court of law, lies are rejected, they have no claim. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive”. (I Corinthians 15:22)” – not guilty and free!
“The text of the poem contrasts the physical sense of fruit with that of God’s creating, and indicates that we ourselves are the true fruit of God’s being. It doesn’t matter where we are, God is both the source of our being and the fulfilment of our being. He is our life, and we cannot fall outside His tender presence and care.
“The lie of the story of Adam and Eve is also exposed in the poem “Awake from the Adam Dream”. One Mind means exactly that, – it is this Mind that man reflects. Man is obedient to this Mind and nothing else. We are not mortal. The poem is a wakeup call to break away from the false temptation of mortality and rejoice in the truth of life with God. It is the rejection of the mortal body, and reaffirmation man’s natural love for God.“
“Awake dear hearts, awake, see ALL,
In lifting up one cannot fall.
God is our Lord, in Him we move,
Oh, sing with joy and God’s Love prove!”
PDF copies of the poems are available in color and B&W on the top right of the week’s metaphysical article. See YouTube Ken Cooper Poetry for all Ken’s YouTube videos.
- FFIND YOUR DOMINION-MAN HEALING IN A SIMPLE POEM THAT DEBUNKS THE FABLE OF YOUR DUST-MAN ORIGIN! (attached as Download page for reprinting)
GENESIS 1 OR GENESIS 2
By Woodruff Smith
Where did it begin this idea called you?
In Genesis 1, or Genesis 2?
Which one of these concepts
Will prove to be true?
If you know what is what,
Do you know who is who?
In Genesis 1 in the 26th verse
There’s a man with never a taint’ of a curse.
But in Genesis 2 in verse number seven
There’s a dust man conceived…
He’ll never see heaven.
So, it really comes down
To which one you will claim,
What thou see’st thou be’st…
So, what is your name?
There they both stand.
Which one is you?
Is it immortal man one,
Or mortal man two?
If you’re immortal man
You know what you’re worth.
For according to law
You’ll inherit the earth.
But if you’re just a mortal
And made out of dust…
Is there anything to you
That’s worthy of trust?
No, the thing they call man
In Genesis 2
Is the dream of the dreamer.
It never was you.
So, know what you are.
Take your place in the sun,
You’re the immortal man
Of Genesis 1.
TESTIMONY OF HEALING
I gave a testimony one night in our Golden, Colorado church based on the ideas from a poem I really liked, which said, “Which of these men do you think of as you, Genesis One or Genesis Two?”
A couple of weeks later a businessman, not knowing I was behind him, probably, testified that he had heard a rather banal, trite testimony a couple of weeks ago from someone who recited that line, “Which of these men do you think of as you, Genesis One or Genesis Two?” and he thought it was so trivial, so lightweight.
He went to a business meeting in Atlanta, Georgia after that and was in a hotel room in the middle of the night, sound asleep with his wife beside him, when he had a massive heart attack.
He said he wasn’t naive, he knew what was happening, and he knew he was in a life-threatening situation. He was totally helpless, so helpless he could not even cry out to his wife for help, obviously could not call a practitioner, and he said for the first time in
his life he felt completely helpless. He tried to
repeat the Lord’s Prayer, the 23rd Psalm, the Scientific Statement of Being, but he couldn’t remember them, couldn’t put them together.
He felt totally mentally jumbled and then he recalled a very simplistic statement…”Which of these men do you think of as you, Genesis One or Genesis Two?” and he realized that it wasn’t so banal after all, that if he were a Genesis Two man he would probably not live through the night, but if he were a Genesis One man he could claim his dominion over
the “things of the flesh.”
He did it. He said the pain lifted immediately and he felt whole and well. He decided the poem was OK after all.
–Lona lngwerson, CS
TO PLEASE GOD, WELCOME INSIDE YOU CHRIST’S “DRY-CLEANING” SPIRITUAL BAPTISM!
Lift-up every mixed-up mess to God to let his Holy Wind/Spirit be the “separator of fable from fact.” (preview of God’s benediction in Matt. 3:16, 17 (cit. B5); S5, 586:7; Isa. 41:16)
(Matthew 3:16, 17/cit. B5 & its prequel) Before starting his healing ministry, Jesus came to his cousin, John the Baptist, for a water baptism. Like Jesus —according to Matthew 3:12—let us come “with FAN in hand, to thoroughly purge” (or meticulously eliminate) every trace of the “fable” of a bad virus that would aggressively appear to be mixed-in with the God-ordained and maintained “fact” of an all-harmonious universe and all-good creation.
Mary Baker Eddy defines this “FAN” – that we are to have “in hand” so as ready to use early and often (or “promptly and persistently” SH 273:32 )– as “Separator of fable from fact; that which gives action to thought.” (SH 586).
[Warren H: Below are some Cobbey Crisler insights on the baptism of Jesus that have helped me often to lift up a humanly-unsolvable situation to the Spirit of God to separate out and permanently eliminate the mess! [The baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire can be found in Matthew 3:11-17.]
[Cobbey Crisler: Verse 11, John the Baptist speaking) “I am baptizing you with water: but the one who is following me (Jesus)… He is going to baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.”… Let me just suggest something… I think it does help to clarify how we can learn from these illustrations by going beneath the surface as much as possible. For instance, in the separation of the chaff from the wheat there are innumerable things that are required for the thresher to do before the results can be successful… We want to get rid of the chaff and get to the useful wheat. Why must we separate them? They’re all mixed. Take that symbolically. If this is all to be happening within us, this kind of baptism, Holy Ghost and fire, is there anything mixed up in us? Of course not, we’re not mixed up. We’re never confused. We never have arrived at a point where we can’t tell the difference between right and wrong. If some of us, a few of us, have that problem of being mixed up on occasion, then the chaff and wheat are together. Is there a way you and I can get out of that mixed up state? Is this the baptism then that is required as far as our thinking is concerned? In order to begin to sort this process of separation, the thresher must first locate a threshing floor. The threshing floor has certain requirements to it for maximum results. What are they? It has to be high, and certainly as level as possible. Why high? Because it needs to be unobstructed. You can’t have structures around it. It would have to be open with minimum obstruction. Hopefully none at all. Open to the wind.
“Here we are on our threshing floor with all the mixture at our feet. Our first responsibility was to get it up to the highest point where there are no obstructions. That’s very interesting because for anyone who is at some mixed up point in his life, the first requirement is to get up to that point.
“Second, what must be done? What’s the next thing the thresher does? Now he’s up there. It’s a beautiful wind. Is he going to put up a hammock and swing in it? He’s got to do something about the mess at his feet. It’s very exact this illustration. What does he do? He uses a fan. What is termed a fan in the King James Version is not the Madame Butterfly fan [or our electric fan] variety, but is like a fork, a pitchfork. He goes right into the mixture of the chaff and wheat and throws it into the air.
“So far, responsibility number one has been ours, to get to the high level in thought, locate the threshing floor. The second responsibility is also ours. To make sure we have that fan in hand to separate the chaff and wheat, to actually dig into that pile and throw it up into the air. But the actual separation occurs by the wind. Not ours. Do you see the difference in the responsibility? The Divine takes care of the separation after the human had gotten to the level where it is willing to work for the Divine and yield to it. The wind, or pneuma, or Holy Ghost, has that defined responsibility of separating the chaff from the wheat in our own thinking.
“Where does the fire come in? If you want to get rid of the chaff, it will be very important to destroy it completely. Because the chaff could, with a change of wind, be mixed back into the wheat. To eliminate that possibility, a thresher will build a fire downwind, the chaff will blow right into the fire and be consumed simultaneously…
“It is through this process of baptism, the meeting of the Holy Ghost and fire, that this deep spiritual cleansing goes on within us. This baptism of thought which requires the fan…
(Verse 13) “At this point, John the Baptist having announced this, Jesus appears and come to be baptized.” (Verse 14) ‘But John says, No, it should be the other way around. I’ve just been talking about this new baptism.’ (Verse 15) ‘Jesus said, permit it for the moment.’ Implying that the human mind has to swallow things piecemeal… the progress of man’s spirituality is a step at a time. Jesus, therefore, receives the water baptism. (Verse 16) But almost immediately we are told that water-baptism is to be superseded, we find that “the Spirit of God descends like a dove upon Jesus…Perhaps that dove was indicating… that the water-baptism is past. Spirit’s baptism must take over in this radical change of thought being required by this new era. (Verse 17) “In the middle of this great event, ‘A voice is heard that says, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren: Consider the lifelong, spiritual confidence our children get from our saying this blessing each night to our beloved children, in whom we and God are well pleased.]
[Cobbey again: “Remember the consistency of the Scripture. This is what turns us into students. The consistency of the Scripture would force us to study in depth how we please God. Here is ‘My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’ How do we please God? Do you remember any particular Scriptural statements on that?… One of the things that Paul says about it in Romans 8:8 is, ‘They that are in the flesh (they that are earthly minded, who obey the lower nature) cannot please God.’ “
What Mark Recorded,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren:] “The preceding verses, Romans 8:5-7, with other translations shed more light on the challenge of earthly-minded body worship that seems prevalent today in obsession with fitness, diet, revealing “selfies”… (Verse 5) “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh: but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” (“People who are controlled by the physical think of what is physical: and people who are controlled by the spiritual think of—give their attention to—what is spiritual.” Goodspeed (Verse 6) “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (“But to set the mind on the flesh brings death, whereas to set the mind on the Spirit brings life and peace.” The New Testament: A New Translation (Olaf M. Norlie)
“These passages and several from Mary Baker Eddy have helped heal body-worship and lots of resulting ills and issues: “Paul said, ‘Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.’ Sooner or later we shall learn that the fetters of man’s finite capacity are forged by the illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter instead of in Spirit.” S&H 223:2
“There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.” (S&H 468:9)
“These ideas from Miscellaneous Writings describe the form, color, light, beauty of our world being loved promises and representatives “of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the immortal Mind.” (87) “My sense of the beauty of the universe is, that beauty typifies holiness, and is something to be desired. Earth is more spiritually beautiful to my gaze now than when it was more earthly to the eyes of Eve. The pleasant sensations of human belief, of form and color, must be spiritualized, until we gain the glorified sense of substance as in the new heaven and earth, the harmony of body and Mind…
“Even the human conception of beauty, grandeur, and utility is something that defies a sneer. It is more than imagination. It is next to divine beauty and the grandeur of Spirit. It lives with our earth-life, and is the subjective state of high thoughts. The atmosphere of mortal mind constitutes our mortal environment. What mortals hear, see, feel, taste, smell, constitutes their present earth and heaven: but we must grow out of even this pleasing thralldom, and find wings to reach the glory of supersensible Life; then we shall soar above, as the bird in the clear ether of the blue temporal sky.
“To take all earth’s beauty into one gulp of vacuity and label beauty nothing, is ignorantly to caricature God’s creation, which is unjust to human sense and to the divine realism. In our immature sense of spiritual things, let us say of the beauties of the sensuous universe: ‘I love your promise; and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light,
and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and knowing this, I shall be satisfied. Matter is a frail conception of mortal mind; and mortal mind is a poorer representative of the beauty, grandeur, and glory of the immortal Mind.’” (Miscellaneous Writings. 86:14- 87:14)]
PASS YOUR HUNGER(-game) TESTS OF DIVINE IDENTITY: BE JESUS-PATTERNED & RECITE GOD’S PROMISES when “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:14, Unity of Good, 58:15)
Follow Jesus by memorizing (paying loving attention to) God’s Bible-based commands and promises to pass your wilderness, divine identity tests like he did!
Bible-based Blog
Facets surrounding Jesus’ words & deeds in Matthew 4:17, 23 so they shine even brighter:
Cobbey Crisler on Jesus’ temptations, Matthew 4:1-11, 23/citations B6 and B10:
“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 Matt. 3:17/cit. B5 (and Mark 1:11) that Jesus was God’s “Beloved Son”).
Verse 2. “After forty days and nights he’s hungry.”
This reminds me of Moses. He, too, had that testing period (Exodus 24:18) just prior to receiving the Ten Commandments. For forty days and forty nights. This Chapter in Matthew is just prior to the Sermon on the Mount or the Beatitudes. This preparation is the same. And there is a test.
Verse 3. “When the tester comes,” here it is, question Number 1: “If you are the Son of God.” Why would that even have emerged if we had not had Verse 17 in the preceding chapter? “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” The test question is, “If you are,” then what? “Command that these stones be made bread.”
How does Jesus respond to this test question? He quotes Scripture. Notice how Jesus responds to temptation. If this is the way Jesus elects to respond to it, what about you and me? How eloquent might you or I try to get when we respond to temptation? Make up original sermons, choose our words carefully, perhaps?
Jesus decided the best defense was Scripture. This verse is taken from Deuteronomy 8, Verse 3. Deuteronomy is a law book. In fact, the word in Greek deuteros nomos is the second law or the repetition of the law. How did he regard this test by Satan? What was going on in Jesus’ thinking here? Had he isolated it completely?
“First of all, what does Satan mean in Hebrew? Accuser. It is also the term for prosecuting attorney. If he has the prosecuting attorney accusing in thought, Jesus in his defense cites what? The law. He quotes the law book. He doesn’t need to do anything original. The law is the law and it never varies. Therefore, what is being suggested her by Satan, or the prosecuting attorney is illegal. It is illegitimate. He proves it by citing the law. That’s a marvelous technique for us in the middle of temptation.
“Our consciousness is like a law court. And the plusses and minuses that occur there have to be dealt with, as in a law court. Where are the accusations coming from? The prosecuting attorney or Satan. Where do we get the information? The law book or the defense attorney.
“You know that Jesus promised that something would come after he had left. It’s been translated “the comforter” in the gospel of John. The Greek word is parakletos, sometimes transliterated as paraclete. In Greek it can be the technical term for defense attorney.
“Verse 4 (cit. B6) So, where did Jesus turn for his protection and defense, the defense of his manhood, the defense of his sonship with God, which is a spiritual fact revealed directly to him by God? How does he defend it? By citing the law book, utilizing the Comforter or defense attorney against the arguments of Satan. If Jesus had to do that, can we do anything less? “Man shall not live by bread alone,” Jesus said, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Deut. 8:3) That is a great statement for survival in an emergency….
“All those temptations that hit human nature… We are in the wilderness at some point along with Jesus having the exact same tests applied to us. How are our responses to those exam questions? Do we pass with flying colors?…
Verse 10. We find that Jesus answers and that the only thing he says that’s original, “Get thee behind me Satan.” He dismisses the prosecution in thought, “for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shall thou serve.” That’s kind of a combination of Deuteronomy 6, verse 13 and Deuteronomy 10, verse 20.
Verse 11. Look at what happens. “The devil leaveth him.” No longer is there dualism in thought. “Angels came and ministered unto him.” True communication completely governed his thought, no longer a divided kingdom. The false communication is dismissed.”
[The result is citation B10/Matt. 4:23:] “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**
BE MADE ALIVE by CHRIST’s EXAMPLE that SOLVES ALL PROBLEMS of a FALLEN ADAM-man!
Cobbey Crisler on I Corinthians 15:22/cit. B8, plus citations S8/564:14 and S7/25:16
[Cobbey:] “…If our thesis as presented is accurate, that the implication of Paul’s statement in I Corinthians 15:22/cit. B8: “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” presents problem and solution, or remedy, then one of the greatest research jobs awaiting all of us is to get back into that problem called Adam which we’re all wrestling with.
“Just make a list of everything you detect that Adam did wrong mentally and physically. Because, if it is true that Jesus’ mission was to remedy the Adam man and wipe that alternative off the face of man’s consciousness, then everything that Adam did wrong which was upside down Jesus is going to put right side up and prove that man is upright. Many things may occur to you, for instance in the initial phases of such a list which we could just touch upon. Adam’s problem occurred in what environment? The garden of Eden. Where did Jesus face down and confront that Adam- problem? The Garden of Gethsemane. Is this a coincidence? Is Gethsemane intended to be the remedy for the problems of Eden in our own thinking? I love in that context to remember Isaiah’s words [Isaiah 1:29] when he says, “Ye shall be confounded for the gardens ye have chosen.” Eden, Gethsemane.
“Adam’s problem, though, is probably symbolized most graphically by what? He had been told not to do something, what was it? “Not to eat of that tree” [Genesis 3:3]. Instead he went and did it. The disobedience, doing one’s own will, would have to be totally remedied right up with the same even greater peak pressure on a humanhood that had just announced to the world that the way to get out of this Adam-mess is to yield to God’s will regardless of the pressure upon you, so [it’s] doing God’s will versus doing one’s own will. (“Jesus presented the ideal man… By his obedience to God he demonstrated more spiritually than all others the Principle of being.” (cit. S7/25:16)
“The tree of knowledge of good and evil. You know that the New Testament refers several times to the cross as the tree, that they nailed Jesus to the tree [Acts 13:29; 1Peter 2:24]. Interesting symbolism. The attempt to nail Jesus as if he were one more in the dying race of Adam, to be nailed to death, and that’s the termination and the end of anything that he would offer man radically as salvation. Jesus could not be nailed on the cross any more than God’s man could be nailed on the cross, and thus his theology was exemplified.
“Do you remember, – just things like this to show you how much fun this work can be as well – part of the curse on Adam [Genesis 3:17,18] was that thorns will be brought forth unto him. Did Jesus have to face Adam’s thorns on that weekend?
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread…dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return” [Genesis 3:19]. The grave was the pressure of the dust he was to return to. There are many other details showing the complete reversal of the Adam. It’s as if the highest sense of mind on earth, which had relinquished its right to mind except by reflection, is turning everything right side up just as we do visually. That topic is far from being exhausted. In fact, what can exhaust an infinite reservoir? It’s one thing about supply in the Bible. It’s never consumed. Therefore, there are no consumers.
“We’re going to review the actual events of the Gethsemane experience and see some of the differences. What Jesus faced, what he was remedying, why he was there and see that we must, just for gratitude’s sake alone, have a stake in that Gethsemane, pioneer work. But then we must take it beyond this. We must go and do likewise.
“Matthew 26:30 “When they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.” A hymn before Gethsemane. That shows the value Jesus places on such an uplifting of thought through the conjoining of music and words. The meaning that is often conveyed even more deeply to us when we have that unity of soul expressed by thought in that manner…
“…Jesus could say in part of that hymn that he sang before Gethsemane which is locatable in the later psalms, is still sung today at Passover, that he needed not to fear what man or flesh could do. Out of that experience flowed the oil that is still blessing us, is still being utilized. We’re not in an oil crisis today if we’re in the way with Jesus. We maybe at a “parting of the ways,” the meaning of the word crisis. We may be challenged regularly and often to make our right decisions, our right choice, our Gethsemane decision.
“Then, the result of no longer bowing down to a human will, no longer seeing within us any domination by others through their human will, but filled with the Holy Ghost’s own message, the angel that strengthens Jesus at that moment, according to Luke. That angel awaits to strengthen us today.
“The world with its creaky joints awaits, needs, yearns, for more Christ-oil to be poured from the thoughts and lives of those who have made the decision, are continuing to make the decision, and are moving from Gethsemane at the base of the Mount of Olives to the summit of the Mount of Olives where Jesus himself ascended. We never have to budge from that mount. It represents both cross and crown, both problem and solution. And therefore, that oil which negates the experience of the cross and delivers the crown shows us that those two symbols, as precious as they are in Scripture, are inseparable. If the cross represents the problem, and the crown the solution, then intertwined they deliver that simple message to me, problem solved. That is the result of the Gethsemane decision.”
“The Gethsemane Decision,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
TREASURE a SYMBOLIC REMINDER that when God’s in CONTROL: THERE’S NO CHANCE!
(from citation S10/171:4) It’s from a corny Warren Huff P.S. originally posted in 2014:
[Warren:] To enter “the gates of Paradise”—or of the kingdom of heaven (or of God) should not be thought of as too difficult since Jesus said “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). This universal salvation of entering the peaceful Paradise of God’s reign within you is the Christ-pronounced identity and destiny of all of you and doesn’t depend on time or on chance. It’s what we are to pray for daily in the “Daily Prayer” given to us by Mary Baker Eddy. (“Thy kingdom come;” let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!”, Church Manual, p. 41:19).
“To find yourself in God’s kingdom (Paradise), “unfallen, upright, pure, and free…”, it helps to remind yourself often that “There’s no chance in this Paradise (or this ‘Pair-a-dice…)’!” To help remind me of this I keep on my desk a pair of Monopoly dice that I have altered (and altar-ed with spiritual sense) the common acceptance of randomness and of luck—be it good luck or bad luck. I added just enough dots on each of the six surfaces to make a total of 7 dots per side; no matter how often or oddly these dice are rolled, double 7s, or double completeness, is all that ever comes up. An easy, universal pattern is to add dots with a Sharpie permanent clothes marker with one dot in the middle of each surface and a row of three dots on each side of it.
“You can modify any pair of dice according to this “pattern shewed to thee on the mount” (Ex. 25:40, Heb. 8:5). This could include dice designed to be hung from a rear-view mirror, but I chose Monopoly dice to link to another large lesson that “One with God is a monopoly” – not just a majority. This concept reminds me (and new Sunday School student drivers who I share it with) of this Biblically-based assurance: “The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.” (Ps. 121:8)
“Changing the common notion of chance elevates and brings a calm, all-is-well assurance to all our travels, to our relationships, to employment entry and exit timing for ourselves and others, to elections, to real estate transactions… For this to take place, here’s what Mary Baker Eddy says “must” happen: “we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God’s unerring direction and thus bring out harmony.” (SH 424:8, S26) Like “the ancient worthies” who understand “the control that Love held over all,” we can “emulate the example of Jesus.”(S&H, 514: 26…] And, in this Paradise (as with my ‘Pair-a-dice’), there is no chance!”
LEARN HOW TO THINK & ACT WITH UNCONDITIONALLY LOVE—LIKE JESUS DID!
Application insights on Matthew 5:5, 6, 8 (citation B11) from www.christianscience.com.
These three Beatitudes are part of a series of nine audio podcasts on the spiritual basis of the Beatitudes by Bible scholar Barry Huff and former Christian Science lecturer Susie (Rynerson) Jostyn. You can hear them all at: https://www.christianscience.com/youth/sunday-school-teachers/the-beatitudes/the-beatitudes-podcast
Links to three Beatitudes from Section 3:
Beatitude #3 (length 4:01: Matthew 5:5/cit. B11
“Is meekness a weakness, or is it a quiet knowing and strength? Bible scholar Barry Huff and Susie (Rynerson) Jostyn explore how a deeper understanding of meekness brings fresh insights to this beatitude. Part 4 of 9 of the Beatitudes audio series at: https://www.christianscience.com/youth/sunday-school-teachers/the-beatitudes/the-beatitudes-podcast/the-beatitudes-blessed-are-the-meek
Beatitude #4 (length 4:32): Matthew 5:6/cit. B11
“Hungry? bring out the spiritual importance of Christ Jesus’ promise, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Part 5 of 9 of the Beatitudes audio series.”
https://www.christianscience.com/media/youth-media-except-images/audio/beatitudes-podcast-series/the-beatitudes-blessed-are-they-who-hunger-and-thirst-after-righteousness
Beatitude #6 (length 4:29): Matthew 5:8/cit. B11
“Take a closer look at “pure in heart”—what it means to be pure, other Bible uses of the phrase, and the full promise of this Beatitude.”
https://www.christianscience.com/media/youth-media-except-images/audio/beatitudes-podcast-series/the-beatitudes-blessed-are-the-pure-in-heart
Bring ALL the Beatitudes into your life as Bible Characters did when God Answered Prayers for them. [Live “A.P. Bible History” on CedarS “Time Travelers Trail” using Warren Huff’s pledges for the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-12) & Larry Groce’s Beatitude song, written for CedarS]
(1) “Blessed are they who are free from pride. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” [Larry Groce]
- At the start of CedarS “Time Travelers Trail” at Abraham’s step, we review that Jesus said: “Before Abraham was I AM.” & “I of mine own self can do nothing.”
- A helpful acronym is “Q-T.I.P.” It stands for Quit Taking It Personally!
- Abram==>Abraham obediently left his comfort zone to find his growth zone.
- He gave his nephew LOT the first choice of land and offered radical Hospitality to strangers and so “entertained angels unawares.”
Repeat: “Like Abraham, Sarah and Hagar…, I pledge to be hospitable to angel thoughts that when they direct me to do so … to be free enough from pride … to instantly and confidently leave behind … my comfort zone and the merely material.”
(2) “Blessed are they who hurt inside and comfort to them be given.” [Larry Groce]
- In hiking the Patriarchs and Matriarchs timeline of the Bible, we review how: Abram and Sarai’s hopes for a child were disappointed and deferred for decades;
- How Jacob grieved over the lying message of the loss of his favorite son, Joseph;
- How Joseph was hurt by being sold into slavery and unjustly imprisoned;
- And how all the above characters were given the comfort: of a long-awaited child; of the reversal of the “blundering dispatch” about Joseph’s death; and, of freedom to serve and save humanity and to bloom wherever one is planted.
Repeat: “Like Jacob, when hurt inside…, I pledge to wrestle with angels… and refuse to let them go until they bless me… Like Joseph, when hurt inside… I will refuse to be discouraged… and will “live to give” and to bless those around me…and so I too will be blessed and comforted.”
(3, 4) “Blessed are the patient, the kind and the meek.
If you look for goodness* you’ll find what you seek.” [Larry G] *hunger, thirst for righteousness
- At the Exodus platform on CedarS 1/4-mile, Bible-timeline trail, pause to appreciate how Moses learned patience (40 years in Egypt, 40 in Exile, 40 in the wilderness)
- In total meekness, Moses had to lean “on the sustaining infinite” to lead and feed the multitude as they journeyed for 40 years in the wilderness. (S&H vii:1)
- Speaking of the Ten Commandments given to Moses (that are still guideposts today), Geith Plimmer, CS said: “The kindest word in the English language is NO.” [Warren Huff adds: “What could be a more kind, healing, mental climate than to love God and our fellow man so that we have: NO worries; NO thinking most things that aren’t up to being worship; NO obsessive graven images; NO habitually saying “OMG” (unless praying); NO forgetting about the present perfection of God’s creation (the Sabbath); NO disrespect for right authority; NO anger, put-downs or killing; NO lust or adultery; NO stealing; NO saying or thinking what’s not true; NO jealousy. (Exodus 20)
- “Moses was very meek, above all…” (Number 12:3) And, Jesus said “I of mine own self do nothing.” (John 5:30) before healing and solving every problem known to mankind.
Repeat: “Like Moses, I pledge to be patient… even when my freedom or another’s seems a long time coming … I will “hunger and thirst” for right and for meekness … in all that I say and do … and so enter into the Promised Land I seek.”
(5) “Blessed are they who are quick to forgive. They too, will be forgiven.” [Larry Groce]
- At the United Monarchy platform on CedarS 1/4-mile, Bible-timeline trail, pause to appreciate how Abigail changed the course of history by quickly persuading David to forgive her rude husband, Nabal.
- Learn how a penitent David was forgiven, not only for his premeditated adultery with Bathsheba, but also for the murder of her Hittite soldier husband, Uriah.
Repeat: “Like David, when I’m offended… by another’s rudeness and disrespect… I too will quickly be forgiving…and I too will be forgiven my shortcomings.
(6) “Blessed are they who are pure in heart, Children who walk in the light.” [Larry Groce]
- Walk the Talk! Daniel 1-3 – Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego (and Daniel) refused to defile themselves with the king’s food & drink (Dan. 1:9) or to bow down to his graven image or music, so they (and the king) saw the Christ with them in the burning fiery furnace where only their bonds were burned and no smell of smoke was left on them. (Dan. 3)
Repeat: “Like Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego…when I’m surrounded by pressure to bow down to matter… and to worship its idols…I pledge to remain pure in heart… Like them when persecuted…I will be able to walk in the light of Christ…knowing that only my bonds will be burned … and that no ill effects, or even bad memories, will follow.
(7) “Blessed are the peacemakers in this world, they win without a fight.” [Larry Groce]
With respect, creativity, firmness in the right, and confidence in Love, peacemakers win without a fight!
- “Understanding the control that Love holds over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions’ den and Paul proved the viper to be harmless.” (S&H 514)
- See Daniel’s calm trust in the lion’s den as shown in Briton Riviere prints
Repeat: “Like Daniel, when I’m surrounded by strife and seeming enemies … I pledge to win without a fight… by “understanding the control that Love holds over all” … and by ‘think(ing) without strife.’” (a motto from the CedarS song)
(8) “If you follow Christ and try to live his way, you’ll be persecuted (or challenged) like the prophets in their day. But rejoice, be glad, wipe your tears away, for yours is the kingdom of heaven.” [Larry Groce]
- A Mary Baker Eddy Motto: “Do right & Fear not!” …
- “even if it’s not popular thing to do” – CedarS Torchbearer Pledge
- It’s our turn in history to carry on the tradition of rejoicing “all the rugged way” because we know how it ends and that good always wins! (CS Hymnal 304)
Repeat: “Like Jesus in the Garden of “Gethsemane” … I pledge to do God’s will… to bravely forgive & love my foes like he did … “meeting no response…but still remaining love.” (SH 586)
**Try a virtual CedarS Sunday Hymn Sing! (by Zoom every Sunday at 7pm Central Time.) Invite family, church and other friends and even neighbors to join in this healing CedarS tradition along with a happy, worldwide “chorus” every week. You can sing along (muted) with CedarS unmuted, host musicians seven hymns that all are invited to request. Click here for a link and fuller details.
(A precious prelude precedes each sing at 6:45pm Central Daylight-savings Time (CDT.) We encourage singing along in Zoom’s gallery view to share the joy of seeing dear ones in virtual family-church reunions that bless all generations.
To protect privacy and copyrights, these “brief, but spectacular” sessions are NOT recorded. So, calibrate your time-zone clocks, mark your calendars, and remind friends, so that no one misses any of these inspiring, weekly reminders of our precious, spiritual oneness with each other and with our ever-loving, Father-Mother God who owns and embraces us all!
Lovingly singing prayers and praise to God for about 30 minutes each Sunday is such a warm, “Welcome Home” tradition to bless the start of each week with joyous, peaceful GRACE. (Our 2021 theme.) We have loved singing-in this grace with longtime as well as first-time friends—not only from ALL 50 of the United States, but also from 21 other countries! So far, our “Hymn Sing family” has clicked or dialed-in from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, England, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, as well as from each of the United States! In the universal language of divine Love, “the ‘still, small voice’ of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean to the globe’s remotest bound.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 559:8–10)
Here are some areas where financial support is needed and would double the blessings in very meaningful ways to thousands of dear ones served by CedarS:
- ENDOWMENT GIFTS to help cover CedarS camperships and operations are being MATCHED up to $200,000/year ($1-MILLION total)!
- And, UNRESTRICTED & OTHER MAINTENANCE AND HERD SUPPORT GIFTS WILL BE MATCHED UP TO $100,000! We send our special thanks in advance for clicking here to electronically share your tax-deductible support. It’s especially needed during this reduced-income period to help “keep our oil lamps burning.”
- Here’s our camp office address to MAIL your gift to:
The CedarS Camps Office, 410 Sovereign Court #8, Ballwin, MO 63011 - or call CedarS team at 636-394-6162 (Gay, Kim or Jennifer) to share a credit card gift.
- CedarS is a not-for-profit, 501-C-3 organization with a Federal ID # 44-0663883.
