Inauguration Edition: Truth GEMs to open freedom doors

Inauguration Edition: Truth GEMs to open freedom doors to right :opportunities!
insights from Cobbey Crisler, Ken Cooper & others from the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on

“Truth”
for January 24, 2021

prepared & offered by Warren Huff,
CedarS Executive Director Emeritus warren@cedarscamps.org

GEM#1a: Everyone will be blessed who takes the time to listen to this week's Sentinel Watch (made especially for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day). This edition is an interview with Sallie Letterlough, an African-American who, as a civil rights activist, took part in the 1963 "March on Washington" later became a Christian Scientist. Awesome insights are shared by her as well as by Tony Lobl on Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech.

Sallie gives magnificent examples of effectively applying in her life the non-violent principles of this week's Golden Text: "…you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32) Sallie also gives some great Sunday School teaching and Reading Room attending ideas and examples of the priceless value of being present with an understanding of divine Love and holding onto that no matter what. To hear for yourself and share with others, click on this link: https://sentinel.christianscience.com/sentinel-audio/sentinel-watch/the-path-to-discovering-our-divine-rights

GEM#1b: Below is another audio link to a Ken Cooper poem on YouTube. It’s based on the Golden Text and citation B8 in this week’s Bible Lesson. (I'm sorry that I put a link at the end of Lindsey's Met on Monday morning that mistakenly misdirected those who clicked it to a YouTube-posted poem for last week.) The first of Ken's offerings this week is called “God is our Freedom” (See more in GEM#8.)

GEM#1c: Use the recipe for freedom to free you from being deceived or killed!
Cobbey Crisler on John 8:32, 44 (Golden Text, citation B8)
“John 8:32. 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 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 or to murder or 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 [the lying “fake news” that proclaims the reality and power of matter] 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**

GEM#1d: Greek word meanings that elevate what Jesus means by “Know the truth":
“Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31, 32 (citation B8 & Golden Text)

Know in Greek is ginosko and means:

• to distinguish what is real from what is not
• to perceive, understand, discern, distinguish
• to perceive with the mind
• to have a clear perception of truth

truth in Greek is aletheia and means:

• what is real and factual and actual, not counterfeit
• no error, no lie, no falsity, no variance

So, to “KNOW THE TRUTH” means knowing, or being conscious of, what is already true!

Ruth E. Huff, my mother and the Founder of CedarS Camps, loved her eight years of conducting CedarS tours of Mary Baker Eddy’s homes with the supported of Longyear Foundation. One of her favorite take-aways from what she learned on these tours was a recollection recorded in Elizabeth Earl Jones Reminiscences: “Mary Baker Eddy was once asked by a reporter, what is a Christian Science treatment? After a few moments of deep thought she answered:
Christian Science treatment is the absolute acknowledgment of present perfection!”

Mom so loved working with this mindset that she shared it with CedarS staff and families in the form of cards printed with the highlighted definition above.

GEM#2: An Inauguration Day affirmation for harmony from Isaiah 33:22, citation B6.
[Warren;] I find this Bible promise from Isaiah very reassuring in my prayers. Note that it specifies that God, Love, is in control of, or in charge of, all three branches of our government: the Judicial, the Legislative, and the Executive.
So, let-us affirm that “…the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.” (Isaiah 33:22)

“Understanding the control which Love held (holds) over all, …” we can feel as safe in a pandemic and with the treat of Inauguration Day demonstrations as “…Daniel felt safe in the lions’ den” and can prove the virus to be as harmless, as “Paul proved the viper to be harmless.” (SH 514:26)

Let-us joyously affirm together that God is in charge of our country and of our leaders and of the whole wide world. It’s uplifting to know that “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” The preceding imbedded link to the original version shares a heartfelt spiritual written in World War II by Obie Philpot, a Cherokee Indian. It speaks of God as our creator and protector. You might also enjoy an add-on version of soulful, prayer-filled, black voices that I found inspiring in these YouTube video offerings.)

GEM#3: Let’s unite to pray to see “grace as courteous goodwill, an attractively polite manner of behaving” already being manifested more in our leaders, as well as in ourselves and in all. This divine grace and truth all have already been given “by Jesus Christ” (cit. B7, John 1:17)
"For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

GEM#4: Apply God promise of being upheld to all who serve to the delight of God’s soul!
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” (Isaiah 42:1)

Cobbey Crisler on Isa. 42:1, 6 (citation B11)
“Chapter 42:1 is a prophesy of a servant who should come, the “elect of God” who would have “the Spirit of God upon him.” [W: In Verse 6 (in this week’s RR) there’s a shift from God calling this elect servant in the third person, to God calling YOU and holding your hand, and keeping YOU, to give YOU “for a covenant of the people, for a light to the Gentiles.” You will notice in Verse 7 – and in Isaiah 61:1 – what the assignment of this servant (YOU) 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 (W: or out of a lockdown, shelter-in-place or quarantine).”

[Cobbey again:] “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**

[Warren:] These prophesies in Isaiah foretell the coming of Christ as God’s healing servant. But the verse in our Bible lesson also promises that YOU are the called this called and healing servant who will be upheld. That is a promise of protection that you can specifically affirm in your prayer walks and watches— not only for yourself, but also for all our brave workers in health care, law enforcement, food supply, election polling, and other essential lines of service. All the dear ones who seek to restore freedom and harmony to our communities, to our country, and to our whole world have been clad in Love’s complete protection as they (you, we) have “pictured this heaven and earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme wisdom” (SH 91:2).

Florence Nightingale, a famous wartime nurse in the Crimean war, was cited by Mary Baker Eddy as a great example of the endurance and immunity in the moment that God gives to all who provide care for and serve others. She wrote: “…Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists engaged in humane laborers have been able to undergo without sinking fatigues and exposures which ordinary people could not endure. The explanation lies in the support which they derive from the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and endurance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best deeds… Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untoward conditions, if without sin, can be experienced without suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself.” (Science & Health, p. 385:2)

[W:] Check out on JSH-online an excellent Journal podcast by Janet Horton, a retired US Army Chaplain. It gives context to the above passage by sharing a brief biography of Florence Nightingale and her tireless labors for the soldiers during the Crimean War. She also shares an example of the pulling together and protection that she and others in the Pentagon demonstrated when it was struck by the high-jacked aircraft on 9/11.

[W:] As I was praying to see as divinely protected all the world’s front-line, health care providers, including all dear Christian Science nurses—and all patients as well, I continued to read page 395 in the chapter, “Christian Science Practice.” I found especially helpful the paragraph with the marginal heading of “Mental Quackery.” There it says: “It is mental quackery to make disease a reality—to hold it (the coronavirus) as something to be seen and felt—and then to attempt its cure through Mind…. Mental practice, which holds disease as a reality, fastens disease on the patient and it may appear in a more alarming form.” (SH 395:21)

GEM#5: Like Jesus did to lift-up a woman who was bent-over for 18 years, we can fully remember the Sabbath day completeness of all God has made (as in Genesis 1) and mentally correct each lie & liar by a full recognition of what’s true about spiritual reality and our perfect identity!
Cobbey Crisler on Luke 13:11-16 (& the sabbath day healing referred to in Luke 13:14, B12)
“Verses 10 through 17 cover 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. [Some think maybe a severe curvature of the spine.] 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 because Jesus had healed on the sabbath day…”

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 … 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 new theology, 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 lies, they can be corrected mentally, by a full recognition of what is true. Notice that Satan does the binding. Jesus said “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32, GT, cit. B8)

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**

GEM#6: In the freeing power of Truth, “find a sovereign antidote”—i.e. a supreme cure—a superior, God-ordained solution—or an unequaled, excellent answer to every problem, to every lie and every challenge! (cit. S19, 495:10)
[Warren:] Mary Baker Eddy’s use of the word “sovereign” daily inspires me because
410 Sovereign Court #8
Ballwin, MO 63011
is the address of CedarS first-ever, off-site office (outside of a Huff home)!

Thanks to a very generous lead gift and to several other needed ones that came when we let the need be known, we were able to happily move CedarS office to that address after camp in 2019, instead of back to our basement at 1314 Parkview Valley Drive. (From Sovereign Court, our home on Parkview Valley Drive is only about a mile—or a 5-minute bike ride either through, or alongside, beautiful Queeny Park.)

By “human and divine coincidence” (SH 561:16), the numbers in CedarS Ballwin office can also be resolved from “things (like a number sequence) into thoughts” like CedarS mission. (SH 123:12) Hopefully, you’ll remember our address, and (at the right time) come by for a visit!
The sequence of numbers in CedarS Ballwin office address is 4—10—8:

• The 4 (in our “410, Unit #8” address) could be seen, not only as representing the 4-square footprint of our new office condo (and of the Holy City), but also as CedarS being FOR—or in full support of:
• The 10 (The Ten Commandments) and
• The 8 (The Eight Beatitudes)
• The Commandments and Beatitudes are forever featured as fun-to-live elements both in CedarS Bible Lands Park and in “The first lessons of the children” that Mary Baker Eddy specifies to be taught in Sunday School. (Church Manual, p. 62)

The word “Court” in CedarS new office address has connections (as a noun) to a Royal Court, Court of Law or High Court. “Court” (as a verb) could mean to “woo” or “attract.” We hope CedarS mission will woo the “unprejudiced minds—simple seekers for Truth, weary wanderers athirst in the desert… (and) Give them a cup of cold water in Christ’s name…” (SH 570:14) And, in our deep desire to have all the dear ones who God means to be attracted to and blessed at CedarS, we affirm hourly that “Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of Mind.” (SH 124:20) If you’ve gotten this far, please check-out CedarS variety of 2021 programs; UPLOAD CEDARS ONLINE APPLICATION (thru CircuiTree*); and then, explore abundant, financial aid options GUARANTEED to meet any need as long as CedarS reduced 2021 dining and bunk space remains!
*or paste in this link to CedarS ONLINE application thru CircuiTree: https://register.circuitree.com/CedarSCamps/Registration/EventSelection.aspx

Citation S21 introduces two more acronyms that I have dubbed the W.A.L.L. Treatment and the C.A.L.L. treatment. The closing sentence of citation S19 is “When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea.” (cit. S21, 495:14) The W and c are bolded in the sentence from the Lesson to show the first letter of the acronym from the first of four sentences in a paragraph in which the sentences begin with the letters W, A, L, L or
C, A, L, L —hence the W.A.L.L. and the C.A.L.L. treatments. These memory devises came to me as an easier way to remember the whole paragraph and to use as cornerstone for healings. The W.A.L.L. and the C.A.L.L. treatments. can be explored more on this online blog page.

GEM#7: Defend all you value from attacks— from within! as well as from without. Exercise the power of being of one accord & the power of collective prayer to heal & open prison doors! Like Peter, pray for boldness & wait before you speak or act, to be filled with the Holy Ghost!
Cobbey Crisler on Acts:12, 14, 16-21, cit. B14
[Cobbey:] In the fifth chapter of Acts we see that, church founders are now aware, a little bit, of what is trying to enter into the structure of church and destroy it within. You see, they just had a beautiful meeting about withstanding the attacks from without. And following right on the heels of that comes something they weren’t prepared for (yet) the attack from within…

And now, perhaps being aware with that, look what happens to the meetings again. Acts 5, verse 12, gives us our familiar phrase of unity. It’s what? “They were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.”

You see, they’re still connected with the temple (Solomon’s porch). It’s still effective Judaism really…

Acts 5:14 And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.

[BONUS verse:] Now, Acts 5, verse 15, shows that healing is occurring all over. As a matter of fact, the indiscriminate public sense of it was “that even Peter’s shadow passing on people seemed to heal people.” It was that easy in those early days…

Acts 5:16 There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one.

“And this stirs up – it seems like healing stirs up Ecclesiastism more than anything else,” because Ecclesiastism isn’t capable of getting to the level (apparently) which permits them to do such healing. (See below)

Acts 5:17 Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,

And, in Acts 5, verse 18, “they high priest gets up and they throw the apostles in a common prison.” (See below)

Acts 5:18 And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison.

Acts 5, verse 19, look at the power of collective prayer – “It can open prison doors. And they go back to the temple, and they start talking.” (See below, Acts 5, verses 19, 20, paraphrased)

Acts 5:19 But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said,

Now, in the meantime, the meeting is going to go on, you see. And they’re still meeting.

Acts 5:20 Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. (See above, paraphrased)

In early morning, the council is all together (in verse 21). And they’re saying, “What are we going to do with those fellows in prison, but they don’t know that a few yards from them they’re still preaching out in the temple, despite the fact that they’ve been put in prison.” (See below)

Acts 5:21 And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

So, “when the officers come to get them, they’re not there and nothing’s been touched. The keepers are all there. The doors are all shut, but no prisoners.” (See below, paraphrased)

[BONUS: The rest of the story!]
Acts 5:22 But when the officers came, and found them not in the prison, they returned, and told,

Acts 5:23 Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within.

So, you can understand the last two lines in Acts 5, verse 24: “The council, or Sanhedrin, this is the very group that convicted Jesus, doubted where this was going to grow.” (See below, paraphrased)

Acts 5:24 Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow.

So, at that point while they were doubting, “someone came in with the news that the ones they were looking for were in the temple, not too far from where they were, still teaching the people. So, they bring them without violence because they thought they might be stoned. And, when they bring them before the Sanhedrin, again the power to convict is there as the Sanhedrin convicted Jesus.” (See below, paraphrased)

Acts 5:26 Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.

They say, in verse 28, “Didn’t we tell you not to teach in his name? And, look what you’ve done. You’ve filled Jerusalem with you doctrine, and apparently you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.” …

Well, returning to Acts 5, verse 29, “Peter and the other apostles say what? Against, yes, if there’s a choice, we have to obey God.” (See below)

Acts 5:29   Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

They review. It’s sort of rubbing it in, I must say, you know. They really review the crucifixion with the same group, many members of which had been responsible for it.

And, Acts 5, verse 33, shows you “how much this inquisition – had little really it accomplished except to make them madder.” (See below)

Acts 5:33 When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.

And at that point, in verse 34, we’re introduced to “Gamaliel.” (See below)

Acts 5:34 Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;

Gamaliel is probably the second most famous rabbinical teacher in Jewish history, after Phileo the Great. And I think Gamaliel was Phileo’s grandson. Gamaliel is the teacher of Paul, so you can see the kind of and quality of instruction that Paul had as a Pharisee. Gamaliel well deserved his reputation if the following account is correct. It says he had “quite a reputation even then” in Acts 5, verse 34. (See above, partial, paraphrased)

And here is his speech to the group: “He says, “Let’s wait a minute before we touch these men.” …

“We have two other instances: Theudas and Judas of Galilee, in our history, who went out to start movements. And they were either killed or captured, and the movement collapsed.” (paraphrased)… “So, my advice to you, Gamaliel says, (in verse 38) is to let these men alone.”

And a very beautiful counsel that even his students saw does not follow, later.
“If this counsel be of men, it won’t come to anything, but if it’s of God, nothing we can do can overthrow it unless we want to be found in opposition to God.” (See below Acts 5, 38, 39)

Acts 5:38 And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:

Acts 5:39 But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

Beautiful statement of the highest quality of Pharisaical thinking, liberality in thought which has been attested to, certainly, by many scholars. The Pharisees did have a higher sense of things than the Sadducees in that respect.

Well they agree with Gamaliel. They beat the apostles; they had to get that out of their system. Again, tell them not to speak in Jesus’s name. And guess what they do? They go back rejoicing, rejoicing, that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. And when you stop to think about that kind of apostolic thinking, do we have it? Would we qualify? Or do we turn tail at the first kind of disappointment, or when somebody doesn’t really appreciate or like what we’re doing in church. You know why? – Part of the reason – they undoubtedly rejoiced? Because they must have remembered it as Matthew records it that Jesus had said this, personal instruction to his disciples.

He said, “Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” (Matt. 10:16 paraphrased)…

But “beware of men for they will deliver you up to the councils.” What had just happened? “And they will scourge you in their synagogues.” (See Matt 10:17)…

What had just happened? “And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.” (See below, exact quotes)

Matt 10:18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.

Matt 10:19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.

Matt 10:20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

And what did Peter wait for before he opened his mouth – to be filled with the Holy Ghost? What if that attitude characterized every church meeting and persecution today?
“After the Master, What? Book of the Acts of the Apostles,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

** Bible Talks by Cobbey Crisler: Both audio recordings and transcripts of Cobbey Crisler’s popular Bible talks are now available from the Crisler Library at Oxford. You can contact the library at office@crislerlibrary.co.uk or contact Janet Crisler directly at janetcrisler7@gmail.com.

GEM#8: Hear on YouTube two, custom Ken Cooper poems related to this week’s Bible Lesson. They are called “God is our Freedom” and “Ever Truth’s River”.

[Ken wrote:] “God, Truth, never changes. It cannot not be itself. Amid all the apparent fears of the pandemic picture, what God sees is all there really is. He sees each of us as Himself, and we can only be and are what God is. The false chains of isolation, virus, and everything that may include, are shattered by Truth. Truth has no bounds, hence the freedom contained therein. We can rest assured that we can never be isolated from Truth, God, who is always giving us everything we need. We are subject to God, Truth, and nothing else, because we are the embodiment of Truth. Truth has no exceptions. No one person can be affected by anything that God is not, because Truth is universally expressed as man.

The poem “God is our Freedom” rejoices in the Truth that maketh free. These words, spoken by Jesus, were proved by Jesus, were the essence of his ministry, and have been proved by everyone that has followed his loving example. Our freedom is based on this simple truth of being, the ONENESS OF GOD AND MAN. What greater freedom can we have.

I remember struggling with a set of accounts that I could not balance, and asked a colleague for help. He removed the error by seeing the truth. It was so obvious, we laughed! The accounts had always been in balance, and that exposed the counterfeit. When we follow the rules the underlying Principle of all Life is revealed, for “Spirit, Life, Truth, Love combine as one” (S&H:S5) to blow away any sense of imbalance. There is no imbalance or counterfeit in infinite good. Our spiritual nature is eternally free. This poem is an affirmation of Truth, an affirmation of our freedom.

Truth flows like a river, its source and destination is effectively one. When we know our source we have our destination, for infinity includes All, the beginning to the end. The healing by Jesus of the woman with an infirmity for 18 years confirms this truth. The poem “Ever Truth’s River”, read by Sue, looks at the difference between false and true attraction, and the fact that Truth is ever-present and therefore always demonstrable. Time is never an issue, because Truth is timeless, ever now. “Truth is always the victor” because it is the only participant.

When we express God we express the infinite, – there is no greater freedom!”

The related PDFs of Ken’s Lesson-customized offerings are attached to CedarS online version as upper right Downloads. **