Enjoy a Mary Baker Eddy insight + Cobbey Crisler insights on select Bible citations Warren Huff's PS#1—Mary Baker Eddy’s “reiteration” of Paul’s address in Athens (Acts 17:28, RR) and Cobbey Crisler insights on this passage: Also, Cobbey Crisler shared these insights on the context of Paul’s words to the Athenians in Acts 17 (RR): “Well, now Paul is heading for the cultural capital of civilization, Athens. And you can’t even go to modern day Athens without appreciating somewhat of what Paul saw, looking around at the remnants of that great city and “the columned buildings that were dedicated to so many gods. It must have moved Paul.” … “And so he opens his mouth and begins right away to talk in Athens. Now this is a tough area in which to introduce Christianity, except at least they were willing to listen because everybody talked about anything. I mean there were a lot of weirdo sects and ideas that they welcomed without question in Athens because everybody liked to dispute these ideas anyway. “He’s in the market, the agora, as well as in the synagogue. He runs into Epicureans; he runs into Stoics.” Now Tarsus where Paul came from happens to be a Stoic stronghold. So he must have been certainly aware of that philosophy… “They bring him to Areopagus, the hill of Mars or Aries, and they asked him to explain what he has to say.” … Acts 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. (Translated in the Amplified Bible (AMP) as “very religious and devout in all things” as in the Responsive Reading] Paul, standing there, shows how a lecture can be tailor-made to any environment. And, it’s better than uniformity if you want to get the ear of the locals. And in this way, you will find at no point does Paul mention the Old Testament. Why? (Pause) What would that mean to the Athenians? (See below, Acts 17:23, paraphrased) Instead, he kind of says, “On my way to the forum…you know. In other words, here I was, and I saw something you had back here. And, it says TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” (See Acts 17:23 … “Would everybody be listening? It relates. He’s picked up something locally. And, would you also be listening if he said “That monument you put ‘TO THE UNKNOWN GOD’, I want to tell you a little something about him. He’s unknown to you, but here’s some information that might be helpful… “And then, in Acts 17, verse 24, he describes “that God who made all, and therefore, couldn’t dwell in temples made with hands.” … We’re reminded of whom? Yes, but since Jesus, we heard that from Stephen, remember? As Saul, himself, he had heard that. “He dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” (paraphrased) What do you think that comment does when you’re looking at the Parthenon and buildings like it? “God doesn’t dwell in all of this. He made everything. How can you contain Him?” … Very interesting point. Have we even arrived at that point today in our thinking? … I doubt the Athenians had either. “The search where God is…” will end up with the conclusion in the last line of Acts 17, verse 27, “that He’s not very far from every one of us.” And then Paul very cleverly introduces lines from local poets: “In him we live, and move, and have our being” and “for we are also his offspring” – parts of poems we have identified, and they even know the authors. (See below, partial) Acts 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being**; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. [RR]” W’s PS#2—Cobbey Crisler insights on seeing & singing your new ID, healing, Ps. 30:2-5 (B4) “One of our modern hymns [#425] has been made out of verse 5, “weeping may endure for a night, but joy [cometh] in the morning.” That word “joy” in the Hebrew is “singing.” Take weeping as the symptom and notice singing is the remedy. Sing, do we do much singing? It doesn’t have to be even with an audible or perceptible sound. It’s in our hearts, the song…. All the things that Jesus mentioned. They have to make room for the joy. It’s fullness of joy. It’s God’s dosage. Everything else has to be eliminated, removed, uncontained. That’s quite a prescription for depression, adversity. It seems difficult to sing in a trial, in a crisis. The Bible is just saying, try it, you might like it. [Laughter] Because it might solve [any and all issues].” W’s PS#3 – Cobbey Crisler on four foundations of the Gospel in Mark 1:14-34 (B3) and nearby verses) (1) The announcement that, "the time is fulfilled." What does this mean? Prophecy. The time for the fulfillment of prophesy has arrived. So, everything is just brimming in the gospel of Mark with this great news. All of the expectation is over for the Messianic prophecy: We have a fulfillment now. ‘What could be more exciting than to be living in an era of fulfilled prophecy? Nothing, apparently, because this is what impels the gospel writers to pick up their pens…. (2) The second one, “the kingdom of God is at no distance.” It is right here. Even that idea is radical to Christendom today often because the kingdom of God, or often heaven, is considered to be so far away from any of us now. It is out of reach, and we’re not really behaving ourselves sufficiently to get there. It takes Palomar’s 200 inch reflecting telescope to even get a glimpse of it. But we find the founder of Christianity saying, ''Not so." His theology is based on the fact that "the kingdom of God is at hand." Do we act like it is? We moan and we groan most of the time. We wouldn't if our state of mind was the “kingdom-of-God-is-at-hand" and the “prophecies-are-fulfilled." But those are only two of the cornerstones. (3) The third one is “Repent!" That means to change your concept. Now, we’re going very deeply to the roots of what is required of us to get anywhere spiritually. The problem is mental or he never would have stated it in this way. It would be cruelly misleading if he laid down as one of the four important aspects of his theology the fact that we had to change our concepts of things. The implication is that every human ill, physical, moral, mental, all can be changed mentally. Otherwise, repenting wouldn’t make any difference. Changing one's concept wouldn't make any difference. This might be where maybe we temporarily get off the train leading to Jesus' theology. We may say to ourselves, if our bodies are riddled with cancer, of what avail would it be to change our concept? How would that affect the body? The implication is that this is the panacea. Repent ye. Change your concept about things. Do you realize what kind of a religion that suggests? It's very revolutionary in this respect: nothing is incurable from the point of view of Jesus ' theology. If you can change your concept, then everything is curable. That's some good news of victory that has yet to hit the human race with any impact like Mark, the hammer. (4) The fourth and final cornerstone is to "believe the gospel," That "believe" is not just to hold an opinion that .waves in the breeze. This is a conviction on and a trust in the pronouncements of the gospel of the kingdom of God, and that "kingdom of God is at hand." With that structure of the gospel in mind, we can do this kind of work together. As a matter of fact, the reward comes from doing this work individually and meeting each other that way. It affects the world's climate by doing this kind of deep research. In your own individual study, try those four columns. The time is fulfilled, The kingdom of God is at hand, Repent ye, Believe the gospel, and see how you can outline the whole gospel in that way. We may just discover that Peter becomes one of the most polished orators of all time. Yet he is regarded as a rather simplistic fisherman who probably stumbled in Greek and was more at home in his Aramaic.” W’s PS#4–Cobbey Crisler’s insight on the withered hand healing in Mark 3:1-5 (B15) Verse 3. Jesus stops the order of service again. He says to the man with the withered hand, ‘Stand forth.’ Would that electrify most congregational worship today? ‘Stand forth.’ Everything stops. The priority is here. Verse 4. Then he asks the question, ‘Is it lawful,’ is it a church rule, ‘to do good on the Sabbath days, or to do evil?’ Notice his definition of ‘doing-good’ here. He must not remain on the surface. Doing-good for Jesus would be what? Healing the man. Doing-evil would be what? Not healing the man. He regarded not-healing as evil. The normality of the spiritual function of healing is underscored here… Verse 5. Then he says, ‘Stretch forth thine hand.’ Why didn’t he go and stretch it forth for him? Again, the consistency of having dominion. Dominion doesn’t exercise you, does it? You exercise it… ‘Stretch forth thine hand and it was restored whole.’” W’s PS#5–Cobbey Crisler insights on Jesus walking on water in John 6:1-3, 16-21 (B16) John 6:12. "And everyone is filled." … As Sons of Men become aware what Sons of God are capable of doing, can you imagine what happens? … John 6:15. They want to make him a king right away. That means, "they wanted him to be the Messiah, to try to force him to be the human Messiah, the king that they were expecting. Instead, Jesus leaves them. " John 6:16, “The disciples go alone.” John 6:17, "Over the sea toward Capernaum." That means they had to be on the other side of the sea which is Bethsaida. John 6:18. The winds that come suddenly sweeping down from the east and the desert, or from the west and the Mediterranean, often stir the sea up without warning. They're having trouble negotiating their little boat. “And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.” John 6:19, "Jesus is having no trouble approaching them on the sea." This shows that he wasn't really walking on the surface of the sea at all. As my father once pointed out, if the sea were churned up, walking would be more laborious than being in the boat. Jesus, however, has a method that's revolutionary and less laborious. He must be walking above the sea, not in the peaks and valleys. And if he were, then it's walking on air. But what's the difference? They're both rather difficult to do from the human view of it. This sounds mighty logical to me. John 6:20. When he gets near, he says, "It is I, be not afraid." John 6:21, “They willingly received him into the ship." They then learn a lesson in transportation. Space and time, as obstacles, can be overcome. "Immediately the ship, the disciples, everybody is beached. They’re right there at the destination." It's a wooden boat. No one says it ended up in fragments. No one was holding their heads and complaining that they hit their head up against a sonic boom or something.” W’s PS#6–Cobbey Crisler insights on Jesus walking on water in John 6:63+ (B17) In John 6:63, Jesus impinges upon what has been considered laws of physics because he views matter in a radical way. He makes the statement, "It is the spirit that quickeneth.” That is where you find life. So if you want to talk about nativity anywhere, you better deal with origin and Spirit. "The flesh profiteth nothing.” You see how close one needs to be to Jesus in thought to understand what has been referred to as the Communion Supper. If he is accurate in saying, "the flesh profiteth nothing, "neither would symbolically eating it profit anything. So, it must not be the flesh he is talking about, but that great transformation that he is proving in his life to be possible to the Son of Man. John 1:14 refers to it as "the Word that was made flesh.” The Word connects us to Spirit, not flesh. Here is part of that Word underscoring the message that, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.” What happened in John 6:66? "Many walked right out," as soon as he had this radical statement to say about matter. John 6:67. Jesus had to turn to the twelve, and said, "Will you go away?" John 6:68. Peter had one of those classic remarks that he makes. It's really a lovely one. He looks around to the alternatives and says, "Lord, where will we go? You have the words of eternal life." He got the message. The words of eternal·life, not the flesh of eternal life. "You have the words of eternal life.” You can buy your own transcripts of most of Cobbey’s 28 talks at a new website: www.crislerlibrary.co.uk Please email your order or inquiry to office@crislerlibrary.co.uk, or directly to Janet Crisler, at janetcrisler7@gmail.com
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