Claim GEMS of Light and Comfort from Christ Jesus!

Claim the GEMS of Light & Comfort from Christ Jesus and the Divine Science of Christ!
from Cobbey Crisler, Ken Cooper & others from The Christian Science Bible Lesson on

“Christ Jesus"
for August 30, 2020

GEM#1: Come to Life’s river to be healed and protected in the Commandments and spiritually nourished as if at a divine, church picnic! — Cobbey Crisler on Revelation 22:14-17 (Golden Text AND B20, Bible citation 20) . . . “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”
“Revelation is like a smorgasbord: it has everything, but it is not meant to be devoured all at once. Bite full by bite full, when we are ready, when we have digested our earlier courses, when we begin to chew upon the meat of scripture, because we are weaned from its milk, we will be nourished, and sustained, and understand why Jesus made his appointment with John on Patmos. What mystery remains in the Bible? Didn’t Amos assure us God has revealed His secret to His servants, the Prophets? Fulfillment of prophesy constitutes the validity of God’s Word – so the fulfillment of prophesy must come. This includes the Comforter, the Holy City, God’s Temple, everywhere God is. The river of Life whose waters sustain the trees which are for the healing of the nations, [Rev. 2:1,2] a vision coinciding with Ezekiel’s. Jesus, the Lamb, reminds us why he is transmitting these Apocalyptic pictures in the last chapter of his book, verse 16. (Rev 22:16) “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” The book is addressed to us in church. Did Jesus foresee that his church on earth would be assaulted in such obscure, obscene, and occult ways, that his Book of Revelation would be essential to its defense? Rev 22:17 invites us to a wedding in his church. “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”

The only acceptable R.S.V.P. to such an invitation is to be with one accord in one place. This is Luke’s description of church in the Book of Acts. When your thought and mine relate to God and to all His infinite creation, aren’t we wearing our wedding garment already? Isn’t it spiritual unity with Him and with our neighbor that keeps the commandments and fulfills this prerequisite of the remnant? Could there be any greater revelation than one uniting us to our God and to one another. Here, in the presence of the throne, we throw off our crowns of divisive opinions. We worship on our mental knees, not from self-appointed seats disputing who should be greatest. This meeting with our God takes place scripturally only in the temple’s Holy of Holies in heaven itself, where our high priest has entered before us and both Cherubim sit on the right and on the left hand of God. This is the Father’s house where Jesus assured us there are many mansions. Access has been won for us, but we also have had to earn our entry. For Revelation 22:14 (B23) states, “They that do his commandments… have right to the tree of life.” Blessed are they that do his commandments—that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Accepting that divine invitation, we sit down at the feast which has been promised to us throughout the Bible – the Agape, the feast of Love in the now fully revealed tabernacle of God and His two witnesses. Are we members of that church? Are we even now a part of that remnant, keeping the commandments and imbued with the spirit of spiritual prophesy? If we can respond affirmatively to that, not one single picture of Tohu and Bohu, of chaos, crisis, curse, tragedy, tears, ruin, pain, decay, death, or parody can any longer impress itself on human consciousness and develop there. The mark of the beast is effaced – the seal of God is in our foreheads – our names are written in heaven where nothing tampers with the majesty that God bestows. In the beginning of the Bible, God said, “Let there be light.” The divine shutter snapped, and our nature was recorded in apocalyptic pictures. It may seem unendurably long for these pictures to develop in human consciousness, but He is our God, and we are His people, and that is the apple, the Apocalypse of gold in our pictures. – The End”
“Apocalyptic Pictures: Prophecy and Parody,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#2: Be part of a religion of problem solvers!
Cobbey Crisler on Luke 7:19-22 (RR) Use Jesus’ measuring standard—works!

“Jesus responds in the next verses to John the Baptist’s question about whether Jesus really is the Messiah they were waiting for. There is only one answer Jesus has for John. Jesus doesn’t dictate the answer. He tells John the Baptists disciples to just go and look and conclude for themselves what they had seen and heard. Jesus had opened blind eyes, corrected lame limbs, cleansed lepers, enabled the deaf to hear perfectly, raised the dead, and preached the good news of victory to the poor. Then they were to take their observations back to John the Baptist.

That would be the only answer Jesus would give: his works. If that’s the only answer Jesus gave for the effectiveness of theology, I doubt that the rules have changed.

What would be the measure of effective theology to Jesus right here and now, if he looked around at every denomination on the face of the globe? Would they have to come up against that same merciless, yet really merciful, measurement? Are we producing? Are we solving problems?

In the twentieth (and twenty-first) century, problems seem to be multiplying faster than the loaves and fishes did. We have very little time. We can’t afford to waste time on anything that doesn’t work, especially religion.”

Luke the Researcher, by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#3: Know with the certainty of science that there are no dark spots of amnesia in your consciousness! Cobbey Crisler on God’s command for light to shine in your heart for the divinely natural glory of God in Christ Jesus and in you! II Cor. 4:6 (RR)
Chapter 4, verse 6 of 2 Corinthians. Here is a commandment from God. This commandment was for “light to shine out of darkness,” and to shine where? [Voice: “in our hearts.”]. Where is the finger of God at work? Where has Christ written his letter, his epistle? If that’s shining, if we’re facing God, face-to-face, Mind-to-Mind, if our mentality is taking on the likeness of God Himself, then that light is showing. But it’s a light that knows. It’s a mental light, “the light of the knowledge.” In the Latin Bible, do you know what that word is? It’s our word for science, scientiae. It is the light of the knowing in a sense of disciplined science “of the glory of God.”

We have the ability, therefore we are without excuse, to know God because he has revealed Himself, His nature, to us. We can call upon our divine nature. We can begin the answer the question, “What is natural?” with the response, “The divine is natural for me.” That “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus” leaves not one slight dark spot of Adam’s amnesia left on the disc of our consciousness.”
“Glory: Divine Nature in The Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM #4: Like Jesus, stick with the only real power, the power of the Spirit!—
Cobbey Crisler on Luke 4:14 (B3)
“Luke indicates that he understands that this [Jesus’ period of temptations in the wilderness in the Easter Lesson Responsive Reading] 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.]
“Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#5: "Arise, Shine” as one who serves— to God’s delight!
See Isa 60:1 (B5) on a prayer shawl from Israel meant for you
[See an online picture in the upper right, plus Cobbey Crisler’s insights on Isaiah 42:1.]
[Cobbey:] “Chapter 42:1, in 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 Isaiah 61: 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.”

“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**

GEM#6: Follow the Fish! (– and our Master Fisherman!)
Enjoy Ken Cooper’s poetic YouTube offering “Follow me..” on Matthew 4:12-20 (B6)
The “Word of God” is always heard, for man is the reflection of what God says. As “Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness.” Science & Health 332:9, we rejoice in the fact that man is always responding to the divine Christ message and follows what the Christ says. Jesus is our perfect model. He expressed the Christ more than anyone else. The expectation of his command to “Follow Me” was evidenced in his words to John’s disciples, “the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached”. When we cast our net as Jesus directed, this casting is the activity of Love, the Christ message of Jesus, to love one another. And it is fulfilled.

When we launch our net this positive outreach hauls in the unlimited spiritual riches God provides. Using a material net will only bring in false and empty concepts. Casting our net on the right / correct side, we harmonize with Jesus the Christ, and recognize the pure abundance of life in the kingdom of Heaven, where we are, here and now. Launching our net of love we can know that “Love is reflected in love” (Science & Health 17:7). The poetic “Follow me..” rejoices in man “Aglow with the love of Christ.” What we see is what we get. Seeing our fellow man as he is, is the need of now, and brings the light of Christ in to our world, to “radiate and glow into noontide glory.” Science & Health 367:23.

The words in pdf version are attached to CedarS online Met as upper right Downloads.

GEM#7: Realize (or “real-eyes”) the power of Paul’s advice to the Philippians to be forward-looking instead of backward-looking to help resolve all mistake ever made — even all miscues in the handing of a pandemic. Getting caught-up in a polarized “blame game,” is “mental quackery” and only postpones a real solution. Paul tells us plainly to “do…this one thing” to come out “perfect” on the other side of any seeming disaster – “…forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things that are before…” Philippians 3:13, B7)

Mary Baker Eddy echoes this life-lesson in Science & Health: “When we learn that error is not real, we shall be ready for progress, “forgetting those things that are behind.” (SH 353:22)

Here’s a past CedarS application activity that we’d love to do again in CedarS Bible Lands Park to bring new life to Paul’s advice in Philippians 3:13. Hundreds of campers and staff have fun, hands-on memories of doing a fun, spiritual growth, “Tire Traversal” activity at CedarS in the 1980s and ‘90s. Using two, side-by-side sets of 19 tires suspended on aircraft cables between a double sets of big trees on opposite shores of a Crown Lake cove, we challenged campers to race a friend (or themselves) using the one piece of advice that Paul gives to perfection-seekers in his day and in ours. To get from to their destination on the far side of the cove, perfection-seekers needed to freely swing from the tire they were on and eagerly release it as they reached out for the next one— symbolically dropping the past and seizing the now in line with Paul’s Philippians 3:13 tip on how to be perfect.

We were forced to discontinue this fun, hands-on application of this Bible message because one winter a visiting beaver community chewed through the supporting trees and used them to make a home on Crown Lake! We have “forgotten” that loss in favor of “reaching out” to demonstrate an even better dream. We hope one day soon to re-build twin, side-by-side Tire Traversals. (This time we’ll use power poles, treated so as to NOT be tasty to beavers.) These Tire Traversals will be spiritual-growth teaching-tools, this time in our Bible Lands Park near Philippi—and will serve as fun elements in a future, hands-on-learning tour of Paul’s journeys. These Tire Traversals are planned to span our Mediterranean Sea just north of Kayak Cove—between the Carthaginian and Sicilian peninsulas. Estimates to accomplish it start at ~$7,000 (or less with some donated services & materials). We’re keeping our eyes on this prize to provide activities that teach Biblical life-lessons in fun, hands-on ways!
[W. – Fall 2020 update:] If you’re an angel wanting to help us love this dream into view, consider this project as an unselfish way for you to invest in a tax-deductible way, possibly using a second economic stimulus check. Just call us for more info or to donate at 636-394-6162!)

GEM#8: Pray the Lord’s Prayer to connect us all as family… Everywhere—with infinite, super-substantial resources… Concentrate more on Christ & less on crisis. Be persistent in prayer. Don't give up.
Cobbey Crisler on Luke 11:2-10 (B9):

“Verse 2. “Our Father,” the greatest source of oil on this planet are those two words, “Our Father.” It pours a consecrated relationship over each and every one of us. If we pray it sincerely, if it leaps from our heart, if it finds at-one-men t with the source of that revelation, then it establishes not only our relationship with our Father but it establishes our relationship with every other part of His creation. "Our Father" stated sincerely, deeply and understandingly makes all of us brothers and sisters, like it or not. If we don’t like it, don't say the prayer. But if we say, "Our Father,” the inevitable logical conclusion is we’re all related, every one of us.
So, "Our Father which art in heaven," is no geographical location either. That statement is just as true in Moscow, in Cambodia, in Atlanta, in a Washington, D.C. hospital, in Korea, or in Warsaw, Poland.
"Our Father” doesn’t depend on oil out of the ground. We don’t run out of the resource represented by that concept. If it embraces us all, it may be the single most infinite source of power at our disposal and we don’t have to move.
If we do "hallow God’s name," anything synonymous with God must be hallowed. If John had revealed to him that God is Love, then Love must be hallowed. If John tells us that God is Spirit, it is Spirit then that needs to be hallowed. Not its opposite. The opposite would be unhallowed.
If God is Mind, as Job had revealed to him, then it's the Mind that is divine and hallowed, and no other. What a relief not to have to hallow mentality which falls short of the divine, for God never hallowed it.

"Thy kingdom come.” We've already discovered from Jesus where it is. All that is left is to see it here. "Thy will be done " subordinates any other claim to will or motivating power for you and me. That 's what it is in heaven, and the likeness on earth is expressing it, with all the heavenly freedom that doing God 's will conveys to us. Jesus said what relates us to him is doing the Father 's will. We are as close to him as his brother and sister.

Verse 3, "Give us day by day our daily bread," in one early translation, "super­ substantial bread.”

Verse 4, "Forgive us our sins, " but in proportion to that motivation being identified in our thought. Again, an equation. "The forgiveness in our thought for others" is the fulfillment of commandment Number 2, to love one's neighbor. God is pouring down that same element of forgiveness because we have arrived at that altitude, and experienced what exists at that altitude of thought.

"Lead us not into temptation,” instead the deliverance from evil is what God brings to us. The oil in that prayer is pure Christ-oil. Christ is a Greek word related to the meaning "oil." It means "anointed."

If we are suffering an oil-crisis, and if Jesus is correct that our outward things are resulting from our state of thought, then our oil-crisis may reflect that we are concentrating more on crisis and less on Christ, the source of the oil.

The disciples had asked what to pray, and Jesus had given it to them. Now he's going to tell them how. From Verse 5 on down, and there throughout the rest of the Gospel of Luke, it is necessary to be persistent in prayer. Don't give up.”

“Book of Luke: Luke the Researcher” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#9: Mentally go to where our supplies already are. Leave nagging problems behind. Pray.
Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 6:6-8 (B10):

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**

W’s P.S.: In Science & Health citation 14, Mary Baker Eddy picks up on a Sermon on the Mount promise on page 13, lines 10–12, where she says, “If our petitions are sincere, we labor for what we ask; and our Father, who seeth in secret, will reward us openly.” (referring to Matt. 6:6, B10)

GEM#10: Be moved by the Spirit of God in your next 40 days!
Cobbey Crisler on Acts 1:1, 2 (B14)

“I’m sure you realize the Book of Acts is a second volume of a two-volume work, the first volume being, Luke, right! And the reason we know that: What’s verse one in the book of Acts tell us?

It starts out with…really giving us that information, doesn’t it? It says
Acts 1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

Now, why in that brief group of words do we have clues about the Gospel of Luke and similar authorship? Do you know?

Well, the Gospel of Luke, if you check the opening verses there, you will find that that Gospel is addressed to “Theophilus” as well. (See below)

Luke 1:3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,

Luke 1:4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.

And here, we’re told in the opening verse of Chapter One of Acts, “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus….” (See Acts1:1 above)

So, it doesn’t take too much more than common sense to at least link the books in terms of the one to whom it was written and in terms of the author….

Now, Theophilus – who is he? No one knows, but translated from the Greek it means what? Do any of you know? What’s “Theo” like in theology, God and Logos. All right, it’s…well, not Logos, that was theology, but Theo-PHILUS, Philus meaning, like Philadelphia, love. So, God-loving, literally, which has again caused some to think that it might not be addressed to an individual named Theophilus; it could be to us if we qualify in that definition, collectively.

“O All those who are God-loving.” (See below, Paraphrased) Again that is conjecture, but something worth considering.

We know that the first treatise that Luke wrote had to do with – what does the first verse tell us? … Right. What “Jesus began both to do and teach.” (See partial below)

Acts 1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

So, it really, it sounds like it was a gospel such as we have. And the progress of the gospel, narrative wise, would take us, according to Verse 2, “until the day in which he was taken up after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.” …

Now, probably the most extensive use of the concept and phrase Holy Ghost is in the Book of Acts. So, we’re talking about not only church but a very close relationship to church of the concept of Holy Ghost. So, let’s review that a bit. The word Ghost in Greek is pneuma. Can you see this? I hope I will become more transparent as the evening wears on and you’ll be able to see through me to the blackboard.

But, pneuma is spirit, or ghost, or wind, or breath, or air – and very much associated with movement, isn’t it? For instance, you know how the Bible opens: “The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (See Gen 1:2 below)

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters

And then, look what happened in the next seven days, rather remarkable accomplishments. So, the pneuma is/has something to do with movement.

And even the definition of prophesy, given to us in Second Peter in the first chapter, tells us that prophesy really is the result of holy men of God being moved by the Holy Ghost. Alright, now we’ll see several examples of that movement as we go through.

Reviewing the narrative in the gospel at the end, how many days between the resurrection and the ascension did Jesus have to get across to his students what they apparently had failed to get during the preceding three years? (Murmurs from audience) 40 days. Right.”
“After the Master, What? – The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler

GEM#11: Review Old Testament Messianic prophesies like two disciples did in their Walk to Emmaus and acknowledge Jesus as their fulfillment! Cobbey Crisler on Luke 24.13-32 (B15)

"Jesus came out of that tomb and spent the entire rest of the day gathering up the lost sheep (Luke 24:15-31). Where you and I may have checked into a motel room, [made a] call home and then said don’t bother me for the next few hours. Jesus was on the road to Emmaus, talking to Simon and speaking to many receptive hearts. What happened? They all come back to Jerusalem and hold the first church meeting without realizing historically what they are doing (Luke 24:33)…

“Their hearts had been dead, and those men walking to Emmaus suddenly had their hearts on fire. Why? Because Jesus, beginning with Moses, and going through all the prophets, and through Psalms, explained who he was for the first time (Luke 24: 27). At least they listened.

“He tried to tell them many times. But for the first time they were ready to listen. They had seen what he had gone through. Jesus described every event they had witnessed that weekend, but used the Old Testament to do it. He found a description of his entire mission through the crucifixion, and the resurrection, all in the Bible.

“His disciples found who they were really following, that it was indeed someone whom God had anointed. Not a temporary phenomenon, he was the ideal representative of manhood on earth as in heaven. The one who said, “This is the way” (John 14:6) and “Follow me” (Matthew 4:19). The one who was able to prove every step of the way that what he had to share with humanity was not theory but solid fact that could be proved. And if we aren’t proving it, we are breathing in the Holy Ghost and doing nothing with it.

“That walk to Emmaus must be taken by every single Christian until our hearts are on fire. This is the result of discovering the founder of our church, backed up Scripturally. If the founder is there, then the church he founded must be backed up Scripturally.”
“Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler

W’s P.S.: In Science & Health citation 15, Mary Baker Eddy gives a spiritual interpretation of Jesus breaking the bread after the walk to Emmaus. On page 46, line 5, she says, “In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus was known to his friends by the words, which made their hearts burn within them, and by the breaking of bread. The divine Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries ago, has spoken through the inspired Word and will speak through it in every age and clime. It is revealed to the receptive heart, and is again seen casting out evil and healing the sick.”

GEM#12: Take full advantage of our instant access to Jesus—to the Christ with us always!
Cobbey Crisler on Matt 28: 1-20 (B16) Jesus’ resurrection [& ever-present availability]

In Chapter 28 we find the resurrection (Verse 2). The stone has been rolled back without human help.

(Verse 6). The angelic announcement is that Jesus is risen….

(Verse 18). "Jesus comes, announces, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.''

(Verse 19). "He cites their mission," to go where? Just to the Jews? All nations, the universality of Christianity, all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

(Verse 20). That baptism of the Holy Ghost is combined with fire! "Teaching them." … How do you and I find immediate access to Jesus? In the Scriptures. Isn't that where Jesus told his disciples they could find him? In the Scriptures, fulfilling the prophecy. … You will notice that Matthew ends his gospel in that way, and has given to all generations following Jesus' words, "I am with you alway."

Through the gospel of Matthew, we do have that sense of Jesus with us always.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#13: ALL humanity is promised rest when they come to the Christ’s Comfort!
Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 11:28-30 (B22, plus preceding verses related to prophesy & our Golden Text)

[verses related to prophesy directly preceding Lesson citation B22] (Matthew 11: 9). "But, did you go out to see a prophet? If you did, I'm going to tell you," he said, "that John is more than a prophet." What could be more than a prophet? Despite the fact that John had said, "Are you he that should come?" Jesus was unshaken about John's role. And he said, John was “more than a prophet.” What is more than a prophet? It is the one who would fulfill prophecy. You can see that is the answer because Verse 10 gives it.

(Verse 10). More than a prophet is "This is he of whom it is written." Prophets were employed to write about John the Baptist. That makes his role very important. Notice Malachi 3, Verse 1, "Behold, I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee."

Also, Jesus had this to say. Verse 14. Notice the qualification, "If you will receive it, this" meaning John the Baptist, "is Elias, which was for to come." Then adds one of the most characteristic statements of Jesus.

(Verse 15). "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear:” You will find this is repeated frequently in the Book of Revelation where Jesus is speaking. That Book, if it's what it claims to be, has a rating that perhaps you and I don't thoroughly appreciate. The Book of Revelation starts out in Verse 1 as coming from God to Jesus to John (the apostle) to us. It is Jesus being quoted as speaking directly to John.

Remember, the Book of Revelation ends (Chapter 22, Verse 16), "I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify these things in the churches." (citation B20 and Golden Text) That means this book comes to us as the only book in Scriptures which comes directly from Jesus himself. If it is a true claim, how important is the book! There is no question it's a unique book, if the statement is true. We do run into that characteristic statement by Jesus in there all through the seven churches. "He that hath ears to hear let him hear" (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22).

[The invitation of Jesus is to Verse 28: ' Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden."

How much of humanity is included? "I will give you rest" He was saying that at a moment in his own history when his back had every justification to bend under a load. But he was saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

(Verse 29). "Take my yoke." It's definitely a yoke, isn't it? "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me." The yoke is our obligation to learn to be a disciple. That is the yoke.

Verse 30 describes that yoke, compared with the world's burdens which we seem to be glibly carrying anyway. Choose, rather, his yoke, which he says "is easy, and his burden is light." This has a wonderful meaning to those who have known Jesus was a carpenter as a youth. Some normal items made the carpenter's shop of that day would have included yokes.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#14a: Let’s love into view our Comforter as our Defense Attorney and usher in even “greater works” in teaching of all things! Cobbey Crisler on John 14:12-17 (B14)
In John 14:12 Jesus makes a prophesy. He makes a prophesy in impersonal terms…
“There are greater works, the ultimatum of the application of what Jesus had introduced to earth. So, when he’s talking about greater works being done, through what agency will these greater works come? [W: See GEM#14b] We find the Comforter is introduced.
John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter.”

We should know enough about prophesy and have enough respect to realize that most of the prophets in the Bible, including Jesus, had a tremendous regard for prophesy. They knew that it had come from God, not from man. Similarly, we should know how to recognize the Comforter when the Comforter arrives… The word “comforter” is parakletos, sometimes called paraclete… translated “comforter” given by our King James Version. You will find, however, that The New English Bible does not use “comforter.” It uses “advocate.” You’ll also find that I John uses parakletos and the King James translator of that uses “advocate.”

We should know that the word “advocate” is a technical word legally. It specifically means “defense attorney.” That has a lot of implications to it. By contrast the name “Satan” in Hebrew is a technical term for “prosecuting attorney.” There you have the battle joined in thought.

The Comforter is to come and defend man. We can see all the ways that Jesus had introduced various defenses for man…
John 14:16, “that he may abide with you for ever.” Is there a provision for a third revelation? The Comforter is apparently the final one. [W: See GEM#14c]

John 14:17, “the Spirit of Truth.” Notice how that counters Jesus’ definition of the “devil.” What did he say about the truth? It was the recipe for freedom (John 3:8). So, it’s got something to do with that. But there is also a communications problem. The world “cannot receive.” It’s not going to be a popular arrival. “It doesn’t see him or know him.”

But, we will know, “because it’s within.”

John 14:26 picks up the description. “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.” There’s another part of the list, identified with the Holy Ghost in Luke 3:22, the dove descending is the symbol of it. The words “dove” and “ghost” are feminine in the Greek, and the comfort aspect also introduces the feminine concept.

The role of the Comforter “will be sent by God in my name.” If one were to regard that literally, the Comforter’s name should at least have some recognizable aspect either relating to Jesus or to Christ. Another aspect of the Comforter is “he will teach you all things.”

The role of teaching what? Is anything left out? “All things.” And at the same time, “it will bring everything back to human memory that Jesus said.”
“Book of John: A Walk with the Beloved Disciple”, by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#14b: “Plenty of room for ‘greater works’… collective demonstration…in governments… nations… that could benefit from …the touch of the Comforter… ministries of divine Love”?
Christine Irby Williams on “greater works…” (B22, John 14:12-16) (from a 12-29-13 Met)
“Jesus said… Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father…” (B22, John 14:12)
Christine Irby Williams nicely tackled the tough question of what works could possibly be greater than what Jesus did in a wonderful precamp inspirational talk to CedarS staff this May as well as in part of an inspirational address for the Christian Science Nurses conference at CedarS this September. [CedarS was delighted to again be hosting over 120 CS Nurses from all over the world during the first week of September 2019.] In 2013 Chris essentially said, in part: “Have you ever wondered what in the world Jesus meant by greater works? It does sound a little daunting. We read almost every week in the Bible Lesson something such as Jesus “went about…healing ALL manner of sickness and ALL manner of disease among the people.” He fed 5,000 men plus women and children with what had appeared to everyone else as a few loaves and fishes. He walked on water and suspended time and space. He raised to life a child who appeared to have just passed away, a young man who was on his way to be buried, and Lazarus, who had been in the grave four days already. And then, of course, he raised himself after the crucifixion, and he ascended. So, what could possibly be greater than any, much less all, of that? I’ve often wondered, and I’m still pondering his promise…

There has been one particular area in which it’s likely that we’ve all been aware that there is plenty of room for “greater works,” and that is working together, or what might be called collective demonstration: in families, church work, any kind of organizational work—in a church context or otherwise, in neighborhoods, in governments of all sizes, in nations, among the people, and in the world at large. Would you agree with me that these are areas that could benefit from the light of Truth, the touch of the Comforter—the healing and saving ministries of divine Love? Might we be so bold as to think about tackling the environment? World peace? World hunger? If not, why not? If so, let’s get on with it! Let us “then up and be doing,” as our hymn [#18] says!” Christine shared more inspiration on this and other topics at the 2012 Fern Lodge Annual Meeting.

First posted in Warren’s Met on “Christian Science” for 12-29-13

GEM#14c: Mary Baker Eddy see the Divine Science of Christianity as the fulfillment of this prophesy as she states: “In the words of St. John, ‘He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.’ This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.” (Science & Health citation 25, page 55:22-29)

GEM#15: Let your Christ light be not hid, but shine before men like an oil lamp that lights up the darkness of the house! Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 5:15-16 (B23)
(Verse 15). One about "men do not light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candle­stick or lamp stand." It's a lamp and lamp stand rather than candles. They didn't have wax candles then. They had very small ceramic lamps. You may have seen one of them lit with a tiny little wick dipped in olive oil coming out this narrow little spout. Imagine, that's all the light they had when the sun went down. It's a narrow little land and the days are short in much of it because hills are on either side. So, it takes longer for the sun to be seen and the sun sets very quickly.
(Verse 16). In asking them to "let your light so shine before men," that often is given out of context by itself. That word "so" means "thus," let your light thus shine before men. It requires the preceding Verse 15 to explain how the light should shine. So, it could be seen and its light could project and light the darkness of the house.
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

In a correlative call that closes this Bible Lesson and its light of Christ theme, Mary Baker Eddy writes:
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven… Let us watch, work, and pray that… this light be not hid, but radiate and glow into noontide glory.” (Science & Health citation 26, page 367:17)