English
EspañolHere are Cobbey Crisler insights and others on some citations for “Spirit"
(the Christian Science Bible Lesson for February 11, 2018 and CedarS Bible Lesson
MET-aphysical Applications Newsletter by Rick Stewart, CS)
[Here's a follow-up correction of a misquote of citation S23 from Section 4 that I failed to catch before emailing the Met ASAP. An important second not was missing (my bold below) :
“The exterminator of error is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind — called devil or evil is not Mind, is not Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality.” (S23, 469:13–17, see online version)
Click on this link to hear a custom song “Spirit of Heaven” on YouTube written and sung “with the spirit, and … with the understanding also” (Golden Text) to a karaoke version of Jane Siberry’s “Calling All Angels” for this Bible Lesson on “Spirit” and Genesis 1 (B1) by a past CedarS camper, Becky Huff (no human relationship).]
[Warren’s (W’s) PS#1—Cobbey Crisler on John 4: 21-25 (Responsive Reading-R.R.)
The context of Jesus’ John 4:24 quote in the R.R. is that at about noon at the well in Samaria speaking to a Samaritan woman (“the least likely social contact for a Jew”.
“Jesus doesn’t concern himself at all about these artificial ghetto outlines that others have thrown around their neighbors. "He opens the conversation with the woman."…
…
John 4:9, "So, the woman of Samaria says, How come you’re talking to me?" A woman would naturally say that because she would expect to be talking to him.
John 4: 15 The woman, not comprehending thoroughly, but nevertheless bold enough to continue asking, finally gets the practicality of Jesus' message and says, "That’s great idea. Give me this living water, and I won't take another step. Never will I have to come up with these heavy jugs and fill them with water.''
Remember, there are not too many conversations that are recorded between Jesus and anyone. The relative importance, just from the quantity of this text, stands out.
John 4:16, “Jesus says Go, call thy husband, and come hither.”
John 4:17 He knows what he's saying. He knows the whole story. So, what is he doing? He’s testing again. Here’s a Samaritan woman. What is he interested in? Is he interested in whether someone is a Jew, a Samaritan, a child, a man, a woman, a Roman centurion, a ruler of the synagogue? Does he really care? What does he really need?
What is he looking for? Receptivity. That is the universal access. It means we all have the same access if we’d only use it. Whose fault is it if we aren’t using it? It's ours. So it has nothing to do with status, culture, sex, or whatever. He's not really saying that womanhood is the best way to get to God. Or childhood, or any of those. Wherever we find receptivity it counts.
"So, '' the woman says, hedging a bit, "I don't have a husband."
John 4:18, "Whereupon Jesus said, 'How right you are. As a matter of fact, you've had five husbands, and the one you're living with right now can't exactly be called your husband '" Boy, that has a nice twentieth century ring to it.
John 4:19. All the woman can say in response to that is, "Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet.” The woman is really beautiful. Jesus wouldn't spend all this time with her if he didn't see behind all this label and this stereotyped thing. There was a receptivity here that he wasn't running into regularly. He was after that. He was after womanhood as a type to replace this femaleness as a stereotype. He continued to probe in order to do this.
John 4:20. The woman said, "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain.'' Boy, did that have a meaning. She's pointing to the Samaritan temple, and guess who had destroyed it? The Jews. The Maccabean rulers had destroyed the Samaritan temple which was built to resemble the Jerusalem temple. It's occupied territory. It's a little difficult to dig in an area that Jordan still claims but Israel occupies.
It was destroyed by the Jews, so you can see the irony behind what the woman said, "Our fathers worshiped …” It’s past. It's through. The Greek word that is used there is well in the past, "all wiped out." We worshiped in this mountain, but the implication, guess who stopped us, or ruined the temple? Your fathers. We have a divisive thing. We, the Samaritans, worshiped here. You, the Jews, destroyed it. That's the same thing that's going on today in the same location.
John 4:21, "Jesus said, Woman.” this is his general address to womanhood, "Believe me. the hour cometh, " still somewhat ahead, "when you won’t worry about geography in worshiping God.”
John 4:23, ''The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” Look at the definition of worship. “Worship is spiritual,” not structural, not geographical, not ritualistic. Why? Because worship of God can only properly be done by partaking of God's own nature.
John 4:24 tells us that "God is Spirit. Therefore worshiping Spirit can only be done spiritually." There's no other way to do it. How basic. By the way, when you see "a Spirit" in there. It shouldn’t be there.
Listen to what God says about it. Notice the strong tenor of his words. To translate "God is a Spirit" is the most gross perversion of the meaning. "A Spirit" implies one of a class of "pneumata," the Greek word for it. There is no trace, in the fourth gospel, of the vulgar conception of a multitude of spirits. “God is Spirit.” Mathematically one can only derive from Spirit included in it. Namely, spirituality is the derivation. Worship must be that.
Notice what is done as this woman's thought. Women weren't supposed to discuss the Scriptures. There was a first century rabbi, Eleazar, who said, "To teach a woman Scripture was like teaching her lasciviousness." That's some extreme. That was the kind of thought that was at some rabbinical extremes in the first century, not necessarily the general Jewish view, but Eleazar is considered quite a great rabbi.
Jesus is discussing intellectual problems of Scripture with a woman. This is unheard of! .
John 4:25 "That woman suddenly comes to him and says, I know that Messiah is coming.” How about that for recognition! “I know that the Messiah is coming which is called Christ.” She didn’t say that right. Why, is that in the text? Because it is for the Greeks. “I know that the Messiah when he comes will tell us all things.”
John 4:26 Jesus, in one of those rare occurrences, is discouraged from turning the fact that he was the Messiah that into an advertising campaign. Rather, he focuses on this woman and her receptivity, “He said, I that speak unto you am he.”
Book of John: A Walk with the Beloved Disciple, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
W’s PS#2— Cobbey Crisler on Luke 10:1-21 (R.R.):
[“Chapter 10, “the harvest is great, but there are not many workers out there.” That is what Jesus says in verse 2. It also underscores the need for disciples, and explains why now seventy go out (see verse 1).
… Verse 9 makes it quite clear that now there are not just twelve going out, but seventy whom Jesus expects to leave and come back with every kind of human problem solved through prayer alone.”
“The seventy come back” in verse 17. They are so enthusiastic over the results that they are probably tripping over each other to get to Jesus and tell him. Because they went out in pairs, he has thirty-five pairs coming back with tales of what they’d done.
Imaging any class in any subject being so effective that the entire student body could go out, do such field work, and come back with the evidence and the proof that they’d understood what they were doing, and that the teacher had been such an effective communicator!
Verse 20. Jesus said, “You know what? You are rejoicing for the wrong reason. You think it’s great all those results out there. And it really is. But the real reason to rejoice is that your names are written in heaven.” That tells us something rather radical about the reason for rejoicing in healing. It has something to do with our identity. … It's as if our original names and natures have been ratified as the result of healing work on earth. … If our names are written (in heaven), who did the writing? … Man, restored and whole, represents the heavenly model and standard which is the norm for man that God has revealed through Jesus to us. … And if our names are written in heaven, where is heaven? If it's within, we don't have to go anywhere. We don't have to commute to find our identity. … Namely, an identity that is related to the kingdom, not anarchy or disease. It is a government, a comprehension of God and man immediately assessable to us, and applicable to the human problem…
That is so advanced because it’s so simple. What is simple is not received by a state of mind that has become used to the complex. Notice verse 21. It is a prayer of Jesus starting with gratitude, “I thank thee, O Father, that you have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” My own father said to me, “There is your Scriptural authority directly from Jesus that a child should understand Bible symbolism before the scholar.” Childlike thought is receptive to meaning. It will yield. It will trust. It is ready to learn. It doesn’t have so many educated theories to get around.
Once again, we find that access to Jesus’ theology requires a mental state that isn’t childish, but is childlike, receptive and open."
“Luke the Researcher”, by B. Cobbey Crisler
[W’s PS#3—Transcribed from W’s notes on Cobbey Crisler talks on Genesis 1 (B1, S2, S3):
“Genesis chapter 1 was written in response to the Hebrew people’s crisis of exile.
“Verse 2 attempts to explain how creation occurred as well as how a new beginning could occur out of the vacuity of nothingness of exile. To the post-exilic authors of Genesis 1 “the earth was without form and void” – or “Toe-who” and Boe-who” – the translated names of the Babylonian mythical leviathan-like, sea monster and their mythical behemoth-like, land monster. The modern day myth is that we evolved from the sea to be dry land creatures with a refined further way of animal thought and life. Human thought was dark much like “darkness on the face of the waters.” … Spirit is the root of the whole word inspiration… No advance can occur in life without inspiration—so “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”… This happens also when Jesus is baptized, coming “straightway out of the water,” as part of a divine announcement. He sees “the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him.” (Matthew 3:16) Consequently, one recognizes that if Spirit represents the motive of his career, it’s an inspired career…
“It’s how the entire Bible begins (Genesis 1:2) because “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” It’s almost as if in Jesus’ baptism, we’re getting this genesis of God’s creation, that first chapter, applied on earth. The Spirit is moving on those waters in which Jesus is standing. There is a Spirit genesis here. Look at what happened in Genesis 1 in those brief verses when creation is depicted for us.”
Verse 3 (Barry Huff’s bumper sticker: The Big Bang theory: “Let there be light” and BANG! It happened!) “Light (“or” in Hebrew, “phos” in Greek) was created before the stars… The motif here is that of the creation of the world by the WORD and a differentiation between the light and light-bearers.” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
Verse 4 records the first Quality Control-check—“it was good.”
Application ideas:
“Any lack of originality is only a lack of knowledge about your true origin.”
Compare the development of any right idea in business or otherwise to the mental model of creation in Genesis 1:
Verse 3 = the dawning of the light or idea
Verses 4-6 = the analysis (compare and divide as on the first day)
Verses 7-10 = the decisive, solid manifestation of the idea (dry land appears)
Verses 11-12 = investment in the idea and its productivity
Verse 13 = exposing the idea to light universally, marketing it
Verse 14-31 = diversification (lights for seasons, living creatures multiplying, male & female)
Verse 2:1-3 = rest (not inertia, but success of the idea and its continuing yield)
[W’s PS#4—Transcribed from W’s notes on Cobbey Crisler on the end of Genesis 1 (B6, S6-S11):
“Searching the scriptures does require scuba diving or at least snorkeling because there’s a need for both clear vision and inspiration.
Verse 26 Here in a book noted for its monotheism we find plural words relative to God. (“Let US make man in OUR likeness…”) Father-Mother (F-M) must be together indivisibly or we have more than one God. If there’s indivisibility in the original there must be indivisibility in the product.
Verse 27. To have Male-Female (M-F) in the product means that it’s in the original.
On IMAGE, Clemet of Alexandria wrote: “In our view, image of God is not an object of sense, but a mental object, perceived not by the senses, but by the mind.” But in Genesis 2:7 the mental model is dropped and in the material account of creation God forms man out of dust—the very OPPOSITE view.
This mimics the opposite view of male and female that is widely promoted in which sex promises us all satisfaction in physical unity—but does it deliver? The very definition of sex is division, not indivisibility. “The sensualist’s affections… and pleasures” would put one through lots of fitful, mental contortions that Mary Baker Eddy describes as “imaginary, whimsical, and unreal” (Science and Health, 241: 8).
(Just Transcribed from notes taken by Warren Huff during several Cobbey Crisler talks from the margins of W’s Bible.)
[W’s PS#5—Cobbey Crisler on Matt.5:1-11 (B15, B8, S26)—rules of heavenly happiness.
“The beatitudes, the blessings. The word “blessed” in our sermon on the mount is not really the accurate translation of the Greek. The word is “makarios” which means “happy.”
Just think of the search for happiness among humanity. Here are rules laid down by Jesus simply stating that happiness can be obtained in the following ways…
… we should remember that Jesus never uttered anything that he hadn’t practiced.
The Sermon on the Mount is in essence a description of the life of Jesus…
The Sermon begins with the Beatitudes. (Verse 3). “Happy are the poor in spirit.” Doesn’t sound like they should be does it? But we find out the reason. Because such humility gets what results? And where is the kingdom of heaven? What was Jesus’ first announcement? “Right at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Later he says, “Within” (Luke 17:21).
We’ve talked about mathematics. How would you like to view Jesus as a mathematician par excellence? You can take his beatitudes and make equations out of them. Which shows how much of a mathematical thinker he was. For instance,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Thus, B x PS = KH. When you invest on the left side of the equation, what is the yield on the right side? The “Kingdom of Heaven.” “B” multiplied times “PS” equals “KH,” i.e., B x PS = KH.
You have measurable results. Do you see a difference here in Jesus’ approach to religion? When we stop to examine theology, even in our century, is there that much expectation for results in theological thinking? Yet here is the essence of Jesus’ thinking. And we have results…”
“… As you go down the Beatitude, read them all, scan them as they are in front of you. See if you can find results in every one of them. See if you can analyze them for those results. That becomes a very practical clue for how to lead one’s life.
The Commandments and Beatitudes have often been placed side by side. Many parallels have been used. Is that justified?
For instance, we are told in the Book of Revelation that those who have overcome the beast will stand on the sea of glass with harps. They’re singing two things representative of what has been given them. The victory over the beast, the animal origin of man. How can we overcome that animal connection?
Those who have overcome are said to be singing two things: the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. That sounds like they’re inseparable. They operate together. Do you know why? Because it’s part of the heavenly mathematics.
Why did the Commandments say, “Thu shalt not,” taking care of the minus aspects in human nature? And the Beatitudes, “happy are they”that do certain things, are plus? What do you do with the minus in thought, the chaff? It is dealt with by fire. You deal with the plus in thought through the Holy Ghost.
They operate together for a single purpose and a unique commitment to the totality of One infinite, God, good. The Beatitudes must be considered in conjunction with the Commandments in your study.
These Beatitudes took the same forty days preparation of Jesus in the wilderness as the Commandments took forty days of preparation in the wilderness for Moses. It may take the same wilderness experience for you and me to really appreciate what really is there behind the Commandments and the Beatitudes. They are really the staff on which we lean. If we try to go very far without that staff it must discipline us. {Discipline is] The same root word as disciple. We must come back and learn how to deal with the plus factors and the minus factors in our own thinking. That’s the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire…
Let me make recommendations for your own research. I have previously assigned my high school students to see on their own, through their own Scriptural research, whether there was any Old Testament precedent for each Beatitude. In other words, is this something that Jesus is saying, “Hey, here is a new idea of humanity, why don’t you consider it?” Or was he pointing out stones already in the foundation that had been neglected?
These are interesting things. I’ll give you one as a lead. Verse 5 of chapter 5, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” You’ll see in Psalms 37, Verse 11, that almost word for word, we find that Beatitude there.
So you see, it’s not always being original, but recalling human attention to something that has been already revealed, already discovered, but essential to our progress and growth.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master,” by B. Cobbey Crisler
[W’s PS#6—For an inspiring poem about the story of Joseph and about Spirit, just click here first, then click on the link in the upper right to download “I have dreamed a dream” (Genesis 41:15, citation B11). It’s a custom, Ken Cooper poem for this Lesson that is posted online…
[W’s PS#7—Cobbey Crisler on Matt.12:22-29 (B14)—
(Verse 22) "Now we have someone brought possessed with a devil and healed."
(Verse 25) Jesus talks about "a kingdom divided against itself" which we have already discussed.
(Verse 26) "How could he use Satan to cast out Satan?".
(Verse 29) He makes a very interesting parallel in referring to a strong man's house. "To enter into a house, and spoil the goods, you have to really render the strong man powerless."
To do this means giving priority to the strong man before you begin to mess around in his house. Then the strong man would resist the healing. Was it mentality arrayed against the possibility, both in the environment and in that man? Did Jesus bind that mental resistance first, and then heal the case?"
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master,” by B. Cobbey Crisler
W’s PS#8—Cobbey Crisler on Philip baptizes and Ethiopian in Gaza (Acts 8:26-40, B17)
“Philip’s home town is Caesarea, and he’s probably at that point on the Mediterranean.
“And an angel of the Lord speaks to Philip saying, ‘Go to Gaza.’” (Acts 8:26)
Now, you have to understand that leaving Caesarea for Gaza is no decision that one would likely come by, even today. And, therefore, obviously, it’s not Philip’s idea. Human nature would have preferred to swing in its hammock looking out over the Mediterranean in Caesarea. But the angel, ignoring human nature, suggests that Philip “get off his hammock” and head south for Gaza because there is some divine purpose to be fulfilled. (See attached map) Well, Philip goes down to Gaza, and he still doesn’t know why he’s there. And he’s “gazzing” around.
And, we find that, as he looks around, the landscape is only cluttered by one chariot, not moving, right there in the sands of the desert area. And a black man – now you raised that point about whether other races are to be involved now, in this developing concept of church.
Here we have “a black man of Ethiopia. And he’s very important. He’s maybe second or third in the kingdom.” (See Acts 8:27) …
“He’s under the queen of the Ethiopians in charge of the treasury, and he had come to Jerusalem to worship.”
There’s no way of knowing what link he might have had into the faith of Judaism but it’s fairly obvious that he was not a Jew by either race or nation. So that is a breakthrough, potentially.
So, returning, he’s in his chariot, and he’s obviously wealthy because he can own a whole scroll of Isaiah. And since they were laboriously hand copied, and mostly synagogues owned them, you can imagine how much it was valued.
To give you a since of proportion and chronology on this and to also increase your awareness of why The Dead Sea Scrolls are so important, we now possess – that is, humanity now possesses a copy of the Book of Isaiah almost in total. That is, could be, as much as 200 years older than the one held in the hand of the Ethiopian here. So, you can see how important that particular scroll is.
Now, the spirit says to Philip… And Philip is still standing there, like the chariot, but that’s a comfort: he’s standing there waiting for instructions. Many of us would be running around; which is…remember Peter got itchy during the transfiguration?
He said while that was going on up there, “Is it okay Lord if I build three tabernacles down here”; he had to feel busy. (See Luke 9:33)…
Well, you know a lot of us kind of have to do that too.
But Philip is still waiting for his next instruction. And” the spirit says, ‘Go and join yourself to the chariot.’” (See Acts 8:29)
You’d think that was common sense; there’s nothing else out there. And…but, Philip hears him reading Isaiah out loud.
Now that’s the way they always used to do, even when they were alone. I know you’d think that was weird today, but they’d would think you were weird if they came to you alone, and you were reading to yourself. Somehow, that was kind of company, and they read it out loud.
“And hearing Isaiah, Philip knows it, and he said, ‘Do you understand what you’re reading?’” (See Acts 8:30)…
“And the Ethiopian says, ‘How can I unless someone teach me, someone guide me?’”… “And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.” (See Acts 8:31)
Now, get what’s happening in church, this concept of church, as it develops.
We’ve had the Samaritans included. Here we have a black man and a white man in the fastest means of transportation known to man at that time, but is which is standing stock still. And both of them are traveling in an even more rapid rate through the scriptures – taking the walk to Emmaus, together, in the scripture. And Philip had arrived just when the spirit had planned for him to arrive because the eunuch had read through Isaiah, perhaps, or had just turned to the 53rd Chapter of Isaiah. (similar to Acts 8:32)
And Acts 8, verse 32 he’d gotten to the point about “he was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before his shearers, opening not his mouth.” (See Acts 8:32) …
Acts 8:35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.
“Whom?” Do you have any doubt? He says, Phillip is saying at this early date in the Christian church that Isaiah 53 refers to Jesus.
Now, what was this all about? It seems like an awful lot of emphasis is being given to this. Philip is up in Caesarea, probably, or Samaria. He’s brought all the way down to Gaza because here this man is sitting in a chariot. He’s reading Isaiah. He arrived in time to hear him read something that Philip feels is a fulfillment of prophecy about Jesus.
He gets that message from Philip. He becomes a member through baptism of the Christian church, and off goes, perhaps the first, representative of the black race included in Christianity. And it was the Spirit’s idea.
And, way back, you know, in the history of the black race, there must be some very early tradition. Certainly we know the heart behind Negro spirituals. And we know that even up to our present age that Haile Selassie, the last Emperor of Ethiopia, was a Christian emperor and prided himself in that. And how far back did those “roots” go? Could they be found in Acts, Chapter 8, where the spirit had just announced that the Christian church embraced mankind? And any other option, or concept, or opinion, or idea, was not God’s.
Now, in Acts 8, verse 39, “The spirit of the Lord catches away Philip, the Ethiopian goes on his way rejoicing, and Philip comes back to Caesarea.”
Acts 8:40 But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Cæsarea.
[Cobbey answering question from the audience: Philip the evangelist, right. He had four daughters, four virgin daughters who in early Christian history (according to Eusebius in his Ecclesiastical history) are recorded to have even raised the dead, showing that women apparently were capable of healing at that level as well in the early Christian church.
…(Another question How long did it take to get…?
Well, it just depends whether you’re walking or the spirit is moving you. It’s much cheaper if the spirit moves you, even today the way air travel is going up.
…Here’s Caesarea here, and Gaza is down here. (See attached map)
“After the Master What? The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler
**You can buy your own transcripts [IN FULL!!] to most of Cobbey’s 28 inspiring Bible talks at a new website: www.crislerlibrary.co.uk Please email your order or inquiry to Janet Crisler at office@crislerlibrary.co.uk ]
