The finest GEMs of Life for you to Love & Live!
God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly in this PARTIAL SHARING of insights from Cobbey Crisler & others
as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Life”
for Sunday, July 16, 2023
(Cobbey Crisler’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps
GET IN THE SPIRIT OF THE GOLDEN TEXT “ROCK SONG”– a CedarS favorite! (Psalm 18:46)
CedarS campers, staff and families love it when what we call “The Rock Song” is in the Bible Lesson because it reminds us of a favorite CedarS camp song by that name. Part of this song is found in Psalm 18:46 in this week’s Golden Text.
“The Rock Song” was selected by former CedarS counselor, Erin Williams, for “CedarS Round-the-Clock” Trilogy of CDs that she put together as a campership benefit project for CedarS 50th anniversary summer of 2011. You can hear Erin leading this call-and-response song by clicking on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPHaT93Uob4 (You can skip the ad.)
Erin sang and played the prelude and opening hymn for CedarS June 7, 2020 Zoom Hymn Sing. If you want to see a video with the traditional CedarS motions along with the audio, below is a link to Stephen Hanlin, a CedarS counselor and a CedarS 365 Hymn Sing leader, doing the motions while singing “the Rock Song” (in a round) as found in Psalm 18:46. Here’s the link: the rock song.mov (dropbox.com)
FIND DIVINE, LOVINGHINDNESS CURE-ALLS FOR EVERY TME OF DAY & NIGHT!
HOPE IN GOD (WHO ALONE CAN QUENCH THIRSTY SOULS) TO FIND
A SURE CURE TO DEPRESSION (& put an END to CONTINUAL FEARS & TEARS)!
[Warren on Psalm 42:2 (and verses 5 & 8 and Cobbey Crisler on Ps. 42:11, in (& after) Responsive Reading] “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me: (Psalm 42:5, 6)
[W: Psalm 42, verses 2, 3 and 5 start with the psalmist acknowledging a thirst, lack, or seeming ‘hole in his soul.’ “… my soul panteth for thee O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God…” This is manifested in “tears… day and night…” and in questioning the existence of God— “Where is thy God?” (Verses 3 and 10)
That seeming void is filled with divine cure-alls for every time of the day and night—God’s commanded “lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song… and my prayer unto the God of my life.” (Ps. 42:8/Responsive Reading) These cure-alls are a panacea that end every pandemic – even one of depression and hopelessness.]
[Cobbey: “Psalm 42, Verse 11 is a refrain in this psalm and the next. [Ps. 43.5] It’s a question we all need to ask ourselves, “Why art thou cast down?” Depression, if not an economic fact, seems to be a mental one at present. “Why art thou cast down? Examine the reasons. “Why art thou disquieted within me?” That’s getting mad in a sense. That’s challenging what we are accepting without question. Why am I depressed? Why is this disquiet? What’s the reason for it? Then notice the remedy. “Hope thou in God: praise God, hope in God. The health of our countenance is in God. “
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Cobbey: “Verse 11 [of Psalm 42] is the effect of that [enemy] thought [of questioning the existence of God in verse 10]. Our “soul is cast down,” our whole identity depressed, “disquieted.” Only restored “hope in God” will restore “the health of our countenance,” showing the physical effect of the mental cause.”
“War in Heaven: Conquest of Inner Space,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
DAILY USE THESE ALL-INCLUSIVE FEATURES OF YOUR ROYALTY “BENEFITS PACKAGE” (AS “THE SPITTING-IMAGE” of YOUR FOREVER QUEEN MOTHER/KING FATHER) IN THE DIVINELY ROYAL KINGDOM WITHIN YOU:
1) a complimentary, personal fitness & health care system (with the Best Physician on-call for you 24/7/365);
2) a free, built-in security system constantly monitored by “the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal” Security Go(uar)d (SH 587:5);
3) a perfect travel-planning system with free trip insurance/assurance (“going out & coming in forever”);
4) systems for personally-planned, food service & waste management (“going out & coming in” Ps 121:8);
4) an ideal match-making service** (to preserve right companionship & even your “going-out” … dating);
5) an income (“coming-in”) preservation service** from your Soul/sole Provider of “infinite resources”;
6) and, best of all, it’s FOREVER! —Cobbey Crisler on Psalm 121:3, 8 (cit. B2) No off-hours
TO PRESERVE THE REAL YOU, (as well as your travels, companionship & income) CALL ON YOUR GREAT PHYSICIAN
[Prequel & postlude to Psalm 121:5, 7/cit. B2 by Cobbey:]
[Cobbey:] “Psalm 121, Verses 3 and 4. Let’s remember that the Bible tells us that the Great Physician has no off-hours; “He that keepeth thee will not slumber.” There are no busy circuits, no vacations, no fully booked calendars. You can get right to God, and there is a security system built in Verse 8*, “The Lord shall preserve thy going out* and thy coming in* from this time forth, and for ever.”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler
**[Warren: Psalm 121:8 is annually a key metaphysical citation to support those coming-in and going out from CedarS. We all apply it to help affirm divinely-safe arrivals and departures when hundreds are travelling to and from CedarS from all over the world.]
**[Here’s a semi-humorous, one of my wordplay offering: “Psalm 121.8 establishes a helpful divine basis for those seeking right relationships and supply. “You can rest easy that it’s God who cares for your “going out” (your dating and companionship) and who provides for your “coming in” (or your in-come) forever!”]
STOP ACCEPTING THE FLESH as the CONTAINER of YOUR LIFE/INDIVIDUALITY!
Strive for freedom from the flesh as Paul says in Rom. 8:6+/cit. B7 & Col. 3:1+/cit. B23
“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.”— “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (cit. B7/Romans 8:6 KJV)
[Warren] The Contemporary English Version (CEV) translates this citation as “People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace.”
[Warren] The Living Bible (TLB) renders these verses: “Those who let themselves be controlled by their lower natures live only to please themselves, but those who follow after the Holy Spirit find themselves doing those things that please God. 6 Following after the Holy Spirit leads to life and peace, but following after the old nature leads to death.”
Cobbey Crisler writes about how Paul continues to develop this theme in Romans 8:9.
[Cobbey:] on Romans 8:9 “How many auditoriums would empty in ridicule if Paul stood before them today and announced, “You are not in the flesh”? That’s an invitation to laughter, isn’t it? “You are not in the flesh,” Paul said. Flesh is not the container, then, of our individuality. We [are encouraged to think that] we are [our bodies]. We’re proud of that “fact”. We have turned the glory into shame by thinking out from the basis of flesh. We suffer from the incurred problems of an evolution that traces itself back through dust-like levels, so that heredity becomes a problem in health. We take pride in those “designer-genes” that form our genetic code.
In the Bible it’s a case of choosing between Genesis or genetics. Genesis (1:1, 25) has us in the beginning created by God with dominion and in God’s image. So, flesh cannot be part of that image. Where are we seeing ourselves? “Adam, where art thou?” (Genesis 3:9)
Where are we instead of in the flesh according to Romans 8, Verse 9? We’re “in the spirit” That’s home, then. Do we really feel at home in the Spirit? To be inspired is to have Spirit within, literally, in Latin. Do we enjoy living in an inspired state? Everything moves aside. Everything is subordinated to that inspiration. “we’re in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in us.” …
BONUS: EXERCISE YOUR SPIRITUAL SENSE MINDSET AS A CHILD OF GOD & FIND IT EASY & LIBERATING TO BE DIVINE!
Cobbey continues on Romans 8:16, 17 & ties in to Colossians 3:2-4/cit. B23 & Hymn 370
[Cobbey Crisler:] “In Romans 8:16, Paul tells the Romans and us that “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”
[In his comments on the following verse, Cobbey expands on this:] “Paul says in Romans 8:17 “We are joint heirs with Christ,” – inheritors of the divine being. We are sharers, “partakers of the divine nature.” (2nd Pet. 1:4)
[W.] So, let’s be Part-takers in God’s Cast of children — typecast to be spiritual – with a natural spiritual sense mindset!
(Cobbey on Colossians 3:2/cit. B23) Have you heard the modern expression mind-set? Verse 2 is almost that literally in Greek. “That our mind-set must be on things above.” Can we have an inner spiritual sense entertained that provides the divine reason for our being, even when we’re living on the earth at a human level if we “set our mind on things above, not on things of the earth”?
(Verse 3) “For ye are dead.” That’s exactly what the body is. If we are to be absent from the body, the body itself is now dead to our thought and our thought no longer responds to it. No longer worships it. The Greek word means to be away from something, to be separated from. “And your life,” we haven’t lost anything then. “OUR LIFE IS,” or literally, “HAS BEEN HIDDEN WITH CHRIST IN GOD.”
[Warren: Hymn 370 echoes this verse: “Hid with Christ in God, O gladness: / O the meekness and the might, / When the risen Christ has lifted / All our thoughts into the light, …”
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 370:2)
(Cobbey again on Verse 4,) “When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear,” what about us? “We also will appear.”
“We will appear with him,” How? “In glory.” In imperishable radiance. That’s not an abstraction. It is supersensible, but it’s concrete being. It’s a sharing of the glorious liberty of the children who find it natural to be divine.”
(bonus verses from Romans 8)
In Verse 19 would you agree with Paul that “the earnest expectation of the whole human race is waiting for this manifestation of the sons of God”? That it could be manifested, this sense of glory?
“Verse 21 mentions “the creature itself.” Look what is going to happen to the human body as the result of the evangelization of our mentality. As our mentality becomes more and more like God, the human body, “the creature itself, also shall be delivered.” There’s freedom, freedom from “every ill that flesh is heir to,” as Shakespeare says. “Delivered from the slavery,” literally in Greek, “the bondage of corruption,” “the slavery of decay into,” literally, “the freedom of the children of God.” The divine mode of being, as one dictionary says glory is, “into the freedom of the glory of the divine mode of being, of the divine nature, of the radiant thought of the children of God.”
If (only) all our thoughts could be at the level of such radiance. We’ve seen light come out from a human expression. We’ve met people who radiate a sense of insight… That’s in the fleshly. That’s simply an outward manifestation of what’s going on within. More should be going on within. And we’re spending most of our time trying to dress the without.”
“Glory: Divine Nature in The Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
WHEN “LEANING ON THE SUSTAINING INFINITE,” FULLY EXPECT TO SEE
FUN WAYS FOR GOD TO SUPPLY ANSWERS TO OUR EVERY NEED!
[W.] What a relief to know that it’s by God’s will and “amazing grace”— not by any of our own efforts, other than that of leaning on God — that we are given lives “big with blessings.” As Mary Baker Eddy has proven and promised: “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings” (cit. S18, vii:1) What could be bigger blessings for us than daily demonstrations that the newness of Life in God is ALL-inclusive: “Behold, I make all things new!” (Revelation 21:5).
As our lives sing with the blessings of new manifestations of “infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss” (SH 481:23), all their supposed opposites will naturally be ruled out of us, thereby enabling us to overcome: every lie of limitation; every seemingly enslaving habit; every thought of inharmony, division and strife; and every unhappiness arising from disappointed human will.
Living with renewable energy and expectation in the nowness of newness, moment to moment, is a big part of leaning on “the sustaining infinite” and sharing in the big blessings of each new day.
SEE EVERY ILL CURED BY GOD’S ORDERED GOVERNMENT OF HARMONY AT HAND! Cobbey Crisler on Matt. 4:23 (cit. B14):
Verse 23. And “healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.” Here are human problems that had defied solution, and Jesus solved them all based on his concept of theology, namely the kingdom. Remember a kingdom is not chaos. It’s an ordered government of heaven and harmony at hand.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
STRIVE TO “TOUCH THE FRINGES OF ETERNITY” (Hymn 64:3) TO FIND PERFECT WHOLENESS WITHIN YOU!
Cobbey Crisler on an issue of blood healed, plus a dead 12-yr.-old raised
Click on links below to see helpful images and video reenactments of these Christian healings meant for you too!
- Heal longtime “issues” – Reach out to “touch the fringes of eternity” (Hymn 64) as in a Mark 5:28 reenactment
- Put out all mourners to raise the dead like Jesus did with Jairus’ daughter as in a Mark 5:21…42 reenactment of a healing that “sandwiched” the issue of blood healing
[Cobbey:] “A woman, hemorrhaging 12 years, was healed by touching the “wings” of Jesus’ garment. (Cobbey Crisler (CC) on the version in Luke 8:41) “The woman… is at the absolute desperate end of a rope. Here we find receptivity. Blessed are those are in this state. Happy are those because this state of mind can be changed. “This radical change of thought was in the presence of the Christ-correction that Jesus was exercising in the mental realm. It’s going to be sufficient and the woman feels that it will help her. She’s lost all her money on physicians. [No health insurance…] Mark even tells us that she’s worse because of that choice. [Mark 5:26] All she does is touch the border of his garment. The issue of blood, the continuous hemorrhaging, had occurred for twelve years, had kept her out of the temple, kept her out of worship and made her as unclean as the lepers, …
(CC on version in Mark 5:34) Verse 34. Jesus calls the woman, “Daughter.”… Jesus is using daughter in an entirely new way… The woman’s problem is blood. He even lifts the term “daughter” out of a blood relationship and defines a divine relationship… The dignity of womanhood is demonstrated.”
(CC on version in Luke 8:48) “Daughter, be of good comfort” (Verse 48). Look at how he’s addressing the thought of that woman. Not only the precious relationship to God, but the comfort. She hasn’t experienced that in twelve years. She’d lost all her money. She was about to be thrown on the society. There was nowhere to go when you were thrown on society. That may have happened to the woman who had been a sinner. Prostitution was the only open career for many women when they were simply thrown out and discarded from normal humanity…
“Jesus refuses to allow that woman to walk away from the scene thinking that physical contact with his robe had anything to do with the healing. He says, again, “Your faith hath made you whole.” The word “whole” and the word “heal” in Anglo-Saxon have the identical root. It implies that disease is something less than wholeness, that it is a fragmentation of our being. Healing is the condition of being made whole.”
“What Mark Recorded” and “Luke the Researcher,” both by B. Cobbey Crisler**
Warren’s ADDED BACKGROUND NOTE, THAT RELATES to APPLYING the 10 Commandments GEM ABOVE:
“In Numbers 15:38-40, God tells Moses to have Hebrew men attach fringes to the border, or wings, of their prayer shawl garments —like the one pictured in a Download in the online version of these GEMs —to remind them to abide by God’s Ten Commandments (See GEM on 1st and all Commandments) and to ‘be holy unto your God’ (Numbers 15:40). The woman healed of her 12-year issue was rewarded for exercising her faith that Christ Jesus was fulfilling this prophecy in Malachi: “But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; (Mal. 4:2). Many others in Jesus day were also rewarded for exercising their faith in Jesus being the fulfillment of the scriptural promise of the healing power connected to the keeping of God’s law represented by the 10 Commandment fringes on the borders of his garment… Mark 6:56 records of Christ Jesus’ healing that “whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.” (or “perfectly whole” in the account in Matthew 14:36) Here’s to perfect wholeness for you in your faithfully following of the science of the Christ and in fulfilling God’s laws.
LIKE JESUS, WHEN SIMULTANEOUS PROBLEMS ARISE, PRIORITIZE THE NOWNESS AND NEWNESS OF RECEPTIVITY AND HEALING OVER RANK.
Cobbey Crisler on Jesus dealing with time management of 2 urgent appeals (Matthew 9:18, 19, 23-26/cit. B15, and Mark 5:21-42 & Luke 8:41-55)
[Cobbey on the Luke version of this healing “double-header”:] “In this case we have something that might present a problem. Two people that need attention simultaneously. What do you do?… Here’s how Jesus deals with it. He is first summoned by a ruler of the synagogue with a great deal of human priority. Jairus has the rank and he asks first. He’s got a more urgent need. His daughter is on the verge of dying (Luke 8:41 or already dead in the Matthew 9:18 version). But Jesus can’t even get to the location where this girl is because of the crush of people in the narrow lanes of the Palestinian villages. The Greek word for “thronged” is often used to describe how close these groups got to one another. Jesus was nearly suffocated by the crowd.
“Later the disciples rebuked Jesus, in Verse 45, for asking “Who touched me?” To them it was ridiculous. Everybody was touching him. The Greek verb that’s used is a verb that means what happens to grain kernels between two grinding stones. They were ground really together. The people were that crowded.
“What happens? The woman does not wish to delay Jesus’ mission, but she is at the absolutely desperate end of a rope. Here we find the receptivity. Blessed are those who are in this state. Happy are those because the state of mind can be changed.
“This radical change of thought was in the presence of the Christ-correction that Jesus was exercising in the mental realm. It’s going to be sufficient and the woman feels that it will help her. She’s lost all her money on physicians. [No health insurance…] Mark even tells us that she’s worse because of that choice. [Mark 5:26] All she does is touch the border of his garment. The issue of blood, the continuous hemorrhaging that had occurred for twelve years had kept her out of the temple, kept her out of worship and made her as unclean as the lepers. With all sorts of legislative rules around her, she herself could not be touched because it would make the individual who did it unclean. But we find that Jesus welcomed that dear woman from the standpoint of God’s welcome, because he said, “the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do.” (John 5:19).
“In Luke 8, Verse 48 he calls that lady, “Daughter.” Whose daughter? Certainly, not his. In fact, he lifts that word “daughter” entirely out of any sense of blood relationship. That was the woman’s problem. He lifts even her identity out of blood.
“Daughter, be of good comfort” (Verse 48). Look at how he’s addressing the thought of that woman. Not only the precious relationship to God, but the comfort. She hasn’t experienced that in twelve years. She’d lost all her money. She was about to be thrown on the society. There was nowhere to go when you were thrown on society. That may have happened to the woman who had been a sinner. Prostitution was the only open career for many women when they were simply thrown out and discarded from normal humanity. She could not get a living unless her family supported her, and there is no indication of that happening.
“Jesus refuses to allow that woman to walk away from the scene thinking that physical contact with his robe had anything to do with the healing. He says, again, “Your faith hath made you whole.” The word “whole” and the word “heal” in Anglo-Saxon have the identical root. It implies that disease is something less than wholeness, that it is a fragmentation of our being. Healing is the condition of being made whole.
“We understand that equation when Jesus said, “If your eye be single” Matthew 6:22), indivisible, not shared, no divisions in it and no double vision. It is single-mindedness and persistency, as we see Jesus requiring later in our book, which results in man being whole as God views him.
In the other half of the time-crunch demand for healing, Christ’s uses humor to clear-out funerial thought:
[Cobbey:] “When Jesus goes to the raising of Jairus’ daughter, we don’t find any reason to bemoan the delay in getting there. Even though the news comes back that the daughter has died in the meantime (in Luke 8:49 or that she died before Jairus came to get Jesus’ to raise her in the Matthew 9:18 version, cit. B16). That is the human news. Jesus goes right in and clears the environment out (Verse 51). Notice, again, this must be telling us something about what is required in order to heal.
“The thought of death is so weighted down with its inevitability and grief that Jesus has to clear it out. Notice how he does so, incisively and brilliantly. He couldn’t clear them out while they were weeping. That was acceptable at a funeral. Jesus would have occupied the villain’s role.
“So, he simply tells them something that was an absolute fact to him, “That maid, right there that you see horizontal, no movement, no breath, no pulse, no anything, that little girl, she’s really not dead. That appearance that you see there is like sleep (Verse 52). And I am going to awaken her life.” All the paid mourners who were earning their salary for conducting a funeral service, and everybody else who had witnessed the tragedy associated with this little girl passing away laughed (Verse 53).
“Can you clear laughers out of funerals? There is certainly more justification from a social standpoint than with weepers. It also showed how deeply their grief had run. Forgetting every reason why they were there, they turned to laughing him to scorn. He put them all out.
“He went to the little girl, “Maid arise” (Verse 54). “Her spirit came again, she arose straightway” (Verse 55). And that beautiful practicality of Jesus, “Give her meat,” give her something to eat (Verse 55). What else would a twelve-year-old girl want anyway? It was also an announcement that everything was quite normal.”
“Luke, the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FIND JOY IN BEING A WELCOME LIGHT TO RECEPTIVE SEEKERS!
Cobbey Crisler on Acts 13:46, 47, 52 (the context for cit. B20/Acts 13:(46,) 49)
[Prequel context] “Acts 13:46. Now because the Jews were rejecting Paul and Barnabas, look what the last five words in Acts 13, verse 46, says. “We turn to the Gentiles.”…
…But, you will notice he would back this up with scriptural authority in Acts 13, verse 47, he says “the Lord commanded us, saying…” ; and that quote, you might write it in the margin of your Bible, is from Isaiah 49, verse 6.
Isa 49:6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
… And then when that happens, salvation will begin to reach the ends of the earth. And look at what has happened in history as Christianity moved out of Judaic definition of it and moved around the world… Message speaks to those who are receptive. Receptivity is really ordination in a way, because receptivity is the prepared ground into which the seed can fall. And, eventually, all must become receptive.
In this case, these are the ones who were at that point. And it’s pretty clear that you did not have universal receptivity then, any more than you do now.
[So, while the rejecting] Jews stirred up everybody, in Acts 13, verse 50, “the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Ghost; they come to Iconium” (in verse 52) still known as Iconia in modern Turkey.”
“AFTER THE MASTER, WHAT?” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FOLLOW PAUL’S BRAVE, PIONEERING EXAMPLE. REFUSE to be THROWN OUT!
Cobbey Crisler on Acts 14:19-27, citation B21
[Cobbey: “Chapter 14 ends with the exciting sequel of Paul being worshipped and then being stoned and raised by prayer and returning to where he was stoned….] … That shows you the extremes of human nature. You’re a god one moment, and they stone you the next. And that’s exactly what happened to Jesus if you recall the triumphant entry into Jerusalem – and one week later the crucifixion. So, avoid triumphal entries if you can at all help it.
“So, “Paul is stoned.” (Acts 14:19) … Now, remember later in a list of the things that he gives that he’s been through; he says he was stoned once, and this is the only record that we have of it. “They drag him out insensible, looking as if he is dead.” (Acts 14:19, cit. B21)
“The disciples, instead of running, stand around about him.” (Acts 14:20 cit. B21) “Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.”
“Now, I don’t know whether anybody in this room would have had the courage Paul did. Even if we rose up from the dead, would you have run back into the city? Didn’t you get the idea that you weren’t wanted?
“He comes back into the city. He would not be thrown out. He then leaves with Barnabas the next day,” normally, “to Derbe to preach there.” (Acts 14:20 cit. B21)
Acts 14:21 And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch (NOT in cit. B21)
“And Acts 14, verse 22, the last three lines, he indicates that “we must through great tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” (NOT in cit. B21)
“But he’s establishing churches as he goes. And think of the influence of his example in stamping the example to follow Christ in that early church. So, as he creates churches as he goes along, he comes back through. He retraces his steps and returns to Antioch in Syria, not the Antioch of Pisidia. He’s back home again
Acts 14:26 And thence sailed to Antioch, from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled.
“If you want to know how the church responded to the results of this first mission; they hold a special corporate meeting and “rehearsed” in Acts 14, verse 27, “all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.” Look at that news, “the door of faith has been opened to the Gentiles.” (cit. B21) …
“That says something about the corporate body, especially if the New Testament remark “that the church is the body of Christ is correct. You can’t divide that body. If you try, you’re trying to break the body of Christ in that sense. This was tried on the cross.
“And collectively man is at one under one God if the Biblical theme is accurate. And that must include the Gentiles; it must even include those we may count among our enemies. And Paul’s approach here is a pioneering one.”
“AFTER THE MASTER, WHAT?” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
LIKE PAUL, QUICKLY FOLLOW ANGELIC GUIDANCE and REACH OUT TO THE RECEPTIVE! Cobbey on Acts 16/cit. B22
[Cobbey Crisler’s prequel in Verse 4.] “They now go through the same area, bringing the decrees, or the letters, from the mother church in Jerusalem, and spreading them around the infant churches.”
[Verse 8] “Now they’re coming to Troas.” Look how far they’ve traveled, near ancient Troy on the western coast of Turkey, on the border between Europe and Asia.
[Verse 9] Arriving in Troas, “Paul gets a vision that a Macedonian man is saying, Come over and help us.”
Verse 10. Look what happens to the grammar beginning in Verse 10. The person changes to first person. Many have suggested what would be the common-sense conclusion. The author of the book suddenly is participating. Luke may have been with them. Maybe he was there in Troas. This is where, perhaps, they picked him up. It’s all speculation, but it certainly is a good and logical reason as any. You get a feeling of excitement when that person shifts. “We endeavored to go to Macedonia.”
[Verse II.] “We, loosing from Troas, came to Neapolis.” Neapolis means New City. It’s now Kavalla in modern Greece, the Macedonia part; it was the port to Philippi, a beloved city later for Paul, one of most beloved churches.
[Verse 13.] There isn’t even a synagogue, apparently because those who are Jews, or who want to pray other that in the Roman style, must meet out of the city near the river. “there we find women praying in the outdoor synagogue.”
[Verse 14.] Lydia is mentioned, “who sells purple,” that was the color of the emperor, which would be quite expensive clothing. “She was from Thyatira,” one of the churches in the book of Revelation. Here she was in Philippi as a merchant of purple cloth.
[Verse 15.] She becomes, therefore, apparently, our first woman convert in Europe.
“After the Master, What? The Book of Acts”, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
COME TO LIFE’S RIVER TO BE HEALED AND PROTECTED IN THE COMMANDMENTS AND SPIRITUALLY NOURISHED AS IF AT AN AWESOME, CHURCH PICNIC! — Cobbey Crisler on Revelation 22:14-17 (prelude to citation B25)
. . . “… let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” with an exegesis by Mary Baker Eddy in Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 549:1/cit. S31
[Cobbey Crisler:] “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? Revelation 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. (John 14:2/RR) Access has been won for us, but we also have had to earn our entry. For Revelation 22:14 (before B20) 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**
THIS “LET-US DIET” IS PERFECT FOR EACH OF US TO “CHEW ON” AND FOR THE WHOLE WORLD TO THINK AND LIVE WITHOUT STRIFE!
[Warren Huff:] Let us give thought & action to the following divine directives to memorize from citation S30. [As a memory aid, I think of this call to healthy action as our “Model Lettuce diet” or our “Excellent Let-us plan”]:
[Here’s some appetizer lettuce for us to start page 249:] “Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that one perfect, producing His own models of excellence.” (SH 249:1)
In the very next paragraph on page 249 of Science and Health: is this week’s featured, a favorite, “mixed-green” combo of mine: “Let-us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor material power as able to destroy. Let-us rejoice that we are subject to the divine “powers that be.” (Bold italics added for Let us)
Mary Baker Eddy uses the words “Let us” 28 times in Science and Health, and 67 times in her other writings—plus there are 40 more “Let us” combos in the Hymnal! So, you could chew on different blends of “let us” every day as it’s in season for you, and apply or dress them to best suit your taste and meet the needs of the day. (Consider LET as a key element in Hymn 519 by Andrew Brewis, and also LEAN and LOVE as featured in this Bible Lesson.)
