Cherished GEMs of Truth and Freedom for you to Love & Live!
Monday, July 17th, 2023
By Warren Huff (with insights from Cobbey Crisler)
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Cherished GEMs of Truth and Freedom for you to Love & Live!
God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly in this PARTIAL SHARING of insights from Cobbey Crisler & others
as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Truth”
for Sunday, July 23, 2023
(Cobbey Crisler’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps
AVOID ALL FALSE REMEDIES—RELY on the STABLE, PERFECT MEDICINE of TRUTH. Cobbey on Ps. 19:7, 8/Golden Text & the sure stability of Truth-cure medicine
[Cobbey Crisler:] “Read Psalm chapter 19:7-9 and you will discover there are quality controls as far as God’s medicine (or vaccine) is concerned: all the things you would want to see on the label. Look at the words “perfect,” “sure,” right,” “pure,” “clean,” and “true,” which has the meaning in Hebrew of stable. You want a stable product. You want a clean product. You want it pure. You want it right. You don’t want the wrong remedy. You want it sure. You want it perfect.”
“Leaves of the Tree: A Prescription from Psalm,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
“TURN THE TABLES” ON ALL FABLES! BE UNWAVERING & NEVER FOOLED BY A FABLE that FALSELY CLAIMS that ANY “PERFECT GIFT FROM ABOVE” (James 1:17, RR, cit. B18), like YOUR LIBERTY, CAN EVER BE MADE TO DISAPPEAR!
[W.] Discover in every “wilderness” experience a “vestibule” entryway where all that gets removed is a material sense (like the bulky outer garments) of “loneliness, doubt, darkness” while “spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.” (Science & Health, 597:16) In the sacred refuge and solitude of this wilderness, we find the constancy of perfect health, the confidence of spiritual light-heartedness and sufficiency … all of which can never be diminished or be made to disappear!
[Cobbey Crisler on James 1:17 (RR, cit. B18) and beyond thematically:
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”—as in an eclipse”
[Warren:] or as in illusionist David Copperfield’s trick to click here to see the whole audience slowly revolved to make the Statue of Liberty seem to disappear. (“The audience wasn’t in on it. This was a real illusion. The audience was placed on a rotating platform and Copperfield had it rotated so slowly that no one would noticed. When the curtains dropped the audience was actually facing the other way. The whole set was designed so you wouldn’t know you were moving. The spotlights used to “pass through the empty space” was actually there to blind the audience in case they turned around to where the actual statue was.“)]
[Cobbey again] “As promised in scriptures:
“God is not a man, that he should lie…hath he not said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23: 19}
And, “For I am the Lord; I change not.” (Malachi 3:6)
James 1:18 (RR, cit. B18) continues: “Of his own will begat he us with the word—logos—of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures”—a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself.”
[per Warren’s notes on Cobbey Crisler’s talk on “The Book of Job”]
… “We already know that James read Job because we read the verse (James 5:11) that mentions Job in it…
James 1:6 tells us how we should pray—[W’s 10/7/19 notes: pray like Job did who never wavered in proclaiming his spiritual innocence. Job so refined his powerful prayers of protest to God that he received his healing and “the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10)].
[Cobbey:] “You’ll find when prayer is not prayer… “Let him ask in faith nothing wavering.” Wavering suggests this to-and-fro state of mind…
James 1:8 “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”…
James 3:17 “But the wisdom that is from above” all stems from the commitment to oneness.”
“The Book of Job: A Mental Court Case” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[W.] “Keep your eyes on the prize” of Liberty—
As James 3:17 declares, wise prayer from above is committed to oneness and is guaranteed of success. Mary Baker Eddy says of the unsuccessful prayers for President McKinley when he assassinated: “Had prayer so fervently offered possessed no opposing element… the result would have been scientific and the patient would have recovered.” (Miscellany, 293:21)
[W.] For wise and successful, answered prayers keep your “eyes on the prize”—on the perfect law of liberty (like on the Statue of Liberty when David Copperfield seemed to make it vanish by turning the tables under his entire audience). When our perfect –free, large, full— liberty seems to have vanished by material illusions and false beliefs, we can instantly “turn back the tables on all fables” and look continually to the perfect, stable and unvarying LAW of liberty…
James 1:25/cit. B18 “whoso looketh unto the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
[W:] So, let’s all be “doers” —applying these precious promises and principles to enlarge our “treasures of Truth and Love” (SH 265) and to share the divine blessings of putting into practice the perfect law of liberty – our permanent gift of Love from above.
DELETE JUNK MAIL “things of the flesh” stray thoughts so as to “be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. … For, brethren, ye have been called to liberty.” (Gal. 5:1+, RR, cit. B15) — to “… walk in the light & turn away from a false material sense.” cit. S5/510:9)
[Christie Hanzlik in Section 3 of an “Unreality” Met wrote:]
“This past Wednesday, a friend shared a testimony about the importance of being alert to stray thoughts that try to undermine our joy and health. She compared this alertness to using a junk-mail filter with our email. When an inharmonious idea tries to take away our joy or health, we can quickly delete the junk. She added that we don’t need to take the junk mail personally, nor do we have to read it, analyze it, try to figure out why we got it, or get upset about it. Just delete it. It has no honest origins. Just delete it.
“The author of Galatians makes a list of things of the “flesh”—that which is limited and distorted—that could be considered junk mail: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like (cit. B11, Galatians 5:17-23) Even though this list might seem overwhelmingly long, as soon as we identify it as just junk mail, it’s easy to know what to do. Delete it.
“The author of Galatians also makes a list of good messages: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” These come from a good and reliable source: Divine Spirit. These messages we keep. These messages are undeletable because they come from an everlasting and validated source.
“Consider this verse from Romans using the junk mail analogy: “They that [spend their time reading junk mail] do mind the things of [wasted time and junk]; but they that [take in only the messages from Spirit enjoy the blessings] of the Spirit. For to [waste our time on junk thoughts] is [a dead end]; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. You are not [made out of junk], but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” (Romans 8:5, 6, 9) …
“Sometimes we may feel like there are just too many metaphorical email messages coming at us at once, but we are steadily making progress in deleting junk. As we are clearer and clearer as to what is true and real, it becomes easier to recognize and delete the junk. As Mary Baker Eddy writes, “If divine Love is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us, [junk] is then submitting to Spirit.” (SH 239:18-20)”
FOLLOW the RECIPE for FREEDOM as you GIVE a Know-the-Truth TREATMENT!
Cobbey on John 8.32/cit. B9 with notes & quotes from others
[Cobbey Crisler:] John 8:31, 32. “Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, ‘If ye continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, And ye shall KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE.’” (caps added)
[Cobbey:] “Here is the recipe for freedom, “It’s the truth itself that makes you free.” It is the fact that makes you free. In John 8:44, the devil is defined as a liar [W. a “fake news” distributor] and also a murderer from the beginning. If you analyze that again, the devil has one of two purposes when it enters into the thoughts and lives of man. It is either to deceive us or to kill us or others. That’s the motive prompting the thought, critical or otherwise. Remember, judging righteous judgment eliminates most criticisms, and not judging according to appearance. It [lying “fake news”] either murders or kills our neighbor or ourselves, or its purpose is to deceive, one or the other.”
Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren: Here’s a TREATMENT BONUS— “Know the Truth” Notes taken and typed-up by Ruth Huff from a Jack Hubbell lecture:]
“KNOW THE TRUTH” means knowing or being conscious of what is already true!
“Mary Baker Eddy was once asked by a reporter, what is a Christian Science treatment?
After a few moments of deep thought, she answered, (in words that Mom posted over her desk)
‘It (Christian Science treatment) is the absolute acknowledgment of present perfection!’ (Elizabeth Earl Jones Reminiscences).
“If you begin a treatment to improve an imperfect condition, STOP!
You have been mesmerized!
“You are well, before you give the treatment!
Treatment is being conscious of present reality.”
(Notes from a Jack Hubbell, CS, lecture and from word studies more fully summarized below)
“What does it mean to “know the truth?” – To acknowledge it!
acknowledgment: to acknowledge means to admit to be true
– to declare the Truth of something
– an admission of truth as a fact or principle
Unity of Good 7:20-22 . . . “an acknowledgment of the perfection of the infinite Unseen confers a power nothing else can.”
We can’t know a lie!
You cannot know that 2 + 2 = 5, because it does not! You can only believe it!
We can never know sin, disease or anything that seems inharmonious, because it is just a lying suggestion! We can only be tricked if we believe it!
Where do we learn what is real and what is a lie?
Through THE WORD (the Scriptures and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures)
SH 503:12 Divine Science, the Word of God . . . .”
How did Jesus pray? What was he thinking, what was he knowing that healed so effectively?
“…Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, — of man’s likeness to God and of man’s unity with Truth and Love.” (SH 12:13 Jesus)
protests: (1828 Webster’s Dictionary)
– solemn declarations of fact
– affirmation, acknowledgement of what is real
– to call as a witness in affirming or denying
What do we treat? How does knowing the truth have any effect? What really needs healing?
* NEVER treat man, never treat a ‘sick’ man
* Always treat the suggestion that man is sick
The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man
is, not shall be, perfect and immortal.
Science and Health, 428:22 (bolding added)
To ‘really know the truth’ wouldn’t deal with a real disease, but with a false suggestion. The false suggestion is all there is to the problem.
Jargon: to know the truth sometimes means we are going to quote a passage or call upon a line from some place and eliminate an imperfect condition – that we are going to fix matter with truth.
“KNOW THE TRUTH” means knowing or being conscious of what is already true!
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOUR EXPRESSION OF PERFECTION IS IN PROPORTION TO YOUR EXPRESSION OF PURITY!
As the 26th plank in “the platform” of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy writes:
“XXVI. Christian Science demonstrates that none but the pure in heart can see God, as the gospel teaches. In proportion to his purity is man perfect; and perfection is the order of celestial being which demonstrates Life in Christ, Life’s spiritual ideal”.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 337:14/citation S28)
Mary Baker Eddy zooms in on the importance in the Truth cure of seeing God’s “true likeness and reflection everywhere” (cit. S29/516:40). And this Bible Lesson on Truth clearly links Beatitude 6/ Matthew 5:8 to the healing Mind(set) of Christ. Two key Science & Health citations quote and highlight the importance of this “pure in heart” mindset, citation S13/341:8 along with citation S28/337:14-16 mentioned above.
BONUS ONE: Podcast on Beatitude #6 (length 4:29):Below is a link to a sixth Beatitude podcast by our Bible scholar son, now s PhD Principia College Professor, Barry Huff, with former Christian Science lecturer Susie (Rynerson) Jostyn. It is part 7 of a 9-part, (TMCYouth) audio series on the spiritual basis of the Beatitudes.
Matthew 5:8 Podcast Beatitude #6 (length 4:29):
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
BONUS TWO: An online Downloadable self-guided tour of CedarS “A.P. (Answered Prayer) History Trail with pledges to like Bible characters, SHOW how much LIVING EACH BEATITUDE can MEAN to YOU!
Pledge to practice Christ’s Mindsets (Mat. 5:3+) as inspired by the Beatitude song Larry Groce wrote for CedarS … (click here for the online version & go to bottom Downloads for all the Beatitudes)
6) “Blessed are they who are pure in heart, Children who walk in the light.” [Beatitude song, Larry Groce]]
- Remember to courageously “Walk the Talk” of PURITY! Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego (and Daniel in Daniel 1-3) 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 to yourself: “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.”
LIKE JESUS, STICK WITH THE ONLY REAL POWER, THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT!
When Jesus had finished 40 days in the wilderness of “sheltering in place”, he “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee” (Luke 4:14, cit. B13) Matthew adds (in chapter 4 verses 11, 23) that the result of Jesus overcoming his period of temptations in the wilderness was that “11…angels came and ministered unto him… 23 And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues … and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.”
[Cobbey Crisler adds in “The Book of Matthew…”:] “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.”
Let us, like Jesus, as we come out of our wilderness, waiting experiences, stick with the only real power, the power of the Spirit! And, whenever right activity seems to be on “pause — wait on God…” (Science & Health, 323:10).
Cobbey Crisler on Luke 4:14+ (cit. B13)
[Cobbey:] “Luke indicates that he understands that this [Jesus’ period of temptations in the wilderness has been a power test for Jesus. In Verse 14 he uses that word, “Jesus returned” not in any form of power that Satan had tried to impose upon him [“to take personal power, political power, and priestly power”]. But rather, “in the power of the Spirit into Galilee”— [“in the law that relates man directly to God, the source of the only power there is.]
“In Luke 4, Verse 40 as healing increases, we find that many healings occur, especially around the Sea of Galilee. Is it any more difficult for Jesus to heal collectively than it is individually? It doesn’t seem to take much more time, does it?
“Who does Jesus say is responsible for the healing? If God is responsible for the healing, does He love all His creation as instantly as he loves each individual part of His creation? Can that love reach collectively? Is it present collectively? If that’s the basis for Jesus healing, then we see that healing a multitude was just as normal and natural as breathing, and as healing an individual.
“What is the atmosphere there? If the Holy Ghost is there, then we all can breathe that same air simultaneously.
“The healings were apparently permanent. There was no standing in line. Jesus didn’t say, “All right, all the ears, eye, nose, and throat people over here.” He didn’t deal with them as a specialist would deal with them. He dealt with them as a general practitioner, as if he could be consulted and he could join with others in prayer and to be at-one with God, whether it was one individual or hundreds or thousands. Remember, he fed thousands from that same point of view.”
“Book of Luke: Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
JESUS SHARES A NEW SABBATH HEALING THEOLOGY in which “Satan & disease are linked, and not God as the cause of loss, or pain, or sickness” or of “everlasting punishment” Cobbey on Luke 13:11-16 where Jesus heals a bent-over woman
[Cobbey Crisler on a Sabbath healing objected to by lawyers & Pharisees in Luke 13] “Verses 10 through 17 are a healing found only in Luke.
(Verse 11) A woman with a spinal difficulty is in a synagogue Notice that Luke doesn’t say she has an infirmity. Luke, who is reputed to be a physician, doesn’t even diagnose it as an infirmity, but as a “spirit of an infirmity,” a concept, a spirit, a thought. “She was bowed together. She couldn’t lift up herself.”
“Verse 12. Jesus comes and announces to womanhood something that could be applicable in many ways, not just this one time. “Woman, you are free from your infirmity. Verse 13. “She’s made straight and glorifies God.”
“Verse 14. Incredible, “the ruler of the synagogue” in which this grand healing and correction of a human problem occurred “answered with indignation”.
“Jesus’ explanation about the cause of disease is in Verse 16. No longer should there be any room in Christian thought that disease stems from thought or is God’s will when Jesus attributes it to anything that would oppose God. Only what would oppose God would impose something on man that God Himself never created in His whole man. Is that a new theology? Satan and disease linked, and not God as the cause of loss, or pain, or sickness?
“Because if it is, he defines Satan as a liar as Jesus does in John (8:44). Satan has bound this woman with an infirmity that has her bent over, and has accomplished this for eighteen years. (Luke 13:16) And “Satan is a liar and the father of it.” Satan’s work must be lies as well. If they are they can be corrected mentally, by a full recognition of what is true. Notice that Satan does the binding. Jesus said (John 8:32) “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
“It’s a contest between the truth and the lie about God and His theology, about man, about woman, about children and about disease. If Satan is a liar, he will never change his character. Our idea of God may have gone haywire, but God has not moved.”
Book of Luke: Luke the Researcher by B. Cobbey Crisler
JESUS’ MODELS PRAYING FOR GOD TO BE GLORIFIED HAVING FINISHED HIS ASSIGNED MISSION. Cobbey Crisler on John 17: 1 (cit. B15), + BONUS verses 2-4:
In Chapter 17 of John’s gospel, Jesus is praying audibly. If we’ve ever wanted to be present when Jesus is praying, it would be during this very moving prayer indeed. It’s divided into three sections. To whom does the prayer, represented in the first five verses, refer? Himself. It’s a prayer for himself Jesus did take time out for himself. This is just before Gethsemane. So you know what’s in his thoughts.
John 17:1. It’s in this prayer he says, “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.”
John 17:2, “As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. “
John 17:3, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
John 17:4. Imagine being able to say at the end of an earthly career, ”I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” It would be wonderful if we could say that in any given day. But this is an entire career.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler
“LET NEITHER FEAR NOR DOUBT MAKE YOU AFRAID” of what’s just an illusion!**
(Part of a 4-sentence treatment.) When an ILLUSION makes it appears that YOUR “BACK’S AGAINST the WALL,” PRAY a W.A.L.L. TREATMENT! —or C.A.L.L. treatment to know “who you gonna call?” (SH, 495:20, part of citation S18)
On page 495, lines 14-24 Mary Baker Eddy gives you (and the whole world) four powerful (and memoizable) sentences to guide your thoughts to healing when you are tempted to believe in the reality of some illusion or ghost of fear or doubt when it seems to be in your face.
W.A.L.L. Treatment (SH 495:14) These four sentences begin with the letters W, A, L, L—hence the W.A.L.L. treatment. This was a memory aid that came to me and has made it easier for me to remember the whole paragraph and use it often as a cornerstone for healings.
- “When the illusion…
- Allow nothing but his likeness to abide in your thought.
- Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and…
- Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding…” (cit. S16)
Or it could be called the C.A.L.L. Treatment (SH 495:14) A different acronym/memory aid can be made by using the first letters of the directive verbs in each of these same four sentences. They are Cling, Allow, Let and Let again—hence the C.A.L.L. treatment. This alternate memory devise came to me when tempted to be afraid of some illusion or lingering “ghostly” belief from the past, present or future (like Scrooge was in “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens). Mary Baker Eddy unknowingly answered in-advance and brilliantly the question “Who you Gonna Call?” (from the 1984 movie “Ghostbusters” soundtrack song by Ray Parker Jr.). She treated all such “ghosts” as illusions in her ultimate, metaphysical “Ghostbuster” treatment that has served as a cornerstone for thousands of healings. –“When the illusion… tempts you,
- Cling Steadfastly to God and His idea.
- Allow nothing but his likeness to abide in your thought.
- Let neither fear** nor doubt overshadow your Clear Sense and calm trust…
- Let Christian Science instead of Corporeal Sense, support your understanding of being and…” (cit. S16)
(Reread carefully and consider memorizing the FULL, 10-line Christian Science treatment in Science and Health, page 495:14-24. Also of note are the four pairs of consecutive words (which I capitalized, highlighted and bolded above) all begin with C and S!
We’re faced with the barrage of news about a global pandemic, aggressive militarism and other forms of lawlessness – as well as with the hopefulness of peaceful protests which attempt to transform and uplift mankind out of hateful habits. To stay with the allness of God in the midst of this seeming somethingness of this evil we can always spiritualize thought as we C.A.L.L. on God and:
- C. Cling steadfastly to God and His idea [Christ]
- A. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought.
- L. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious — as Life eternally is — can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not.
- L. Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony.” (SH 495:14-16, 20)
Such CALL-ing on God gives us something certain to “cling steadfastly to,” and overturns what appears to be a worldwide fixation on fear. The C.A.L.L. treatment is a sure defense. It protects us as we follow the Wayshower, to find comfort and healing for our whole global family.
“Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the ‘glorious liberty of the children of God,’ and be free! This is your divine right.” (SH 227:23-26)
