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Mine GEMs of HEALINGS by joyfully replacing the Mortal Model of Man with the Immortal Mindset Model! as given by “Christ Jesus & Unfallen Man”
GEMs = God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you to sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as inspired by God and
The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“MORTALS AND IMMORTALS”
for Sunday, November 12, 2023
(Cobbey’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps• 314-378-2574
REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE FLESH AS THE CONTAINER OF YOUR INDIVIDUALITY!
Freedom from the flesh & death (Resp Reading (RR), cit. B4/Rom. 8:6 & cit. S6/95:5-6
“To set the mind on the flesh is death;
but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” (RSV)
“… 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.” (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/cit. B2) 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 else moves aside. Everything is subordinated to that inspiration. “we’re in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in us.” …
Romans 8:14, 16 (postlude bonus to RR, NIV)
(More of Cobbey’s 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**
BE AN ANSWER TO JESUS’ PRAYER FOR HEALERS, PROBLEM SOLVERS TO BRING IN THE HARVEST! Cobbey on Matthew 9:35/citation B9, plus 9:36, 38 & 10:1)
[Cobbey Crisler:] “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
(Matthew 9:35 highlighted every shows there’s no incurability!)
[BONUS VERSES from Cobbey:] “In Matthew 9, Verse 36, Jesus is looking around him after he disposes of the Pharisaical thought— “he sees multitudes needing help, moved with compassion. There they were as sheep. They were shepherdless.” [W.] This is almost identical wording as this week’s citation B16/ Mark 6:34)
Cobbey again on Verse 37+). “He turned to his disciples then, and his disciples in future generations, and made the remark, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” Does that imply he expected his disciples to be out there solving human problems, healing?
(Verse 38). “He even asks them to “Pray the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.”
“We now come to Chapter 10. We’ve had so much evidence that Jesus was an effective healer, but we haven’t yet had evidence that there could be healing via the instruction-route: that could be taught to heal1 sent out like apprentices in some human trade or profession, and come back practicing the rules learned with results, namely, healed cases.
We find right after the prayer (Matthew 9:38) that God “would send forth more laborers into his harvest,” and what do we find? A mandate to heal.
(Cobbey on Matthew 10, Verse 1). “He called his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, to heal” What? Only certain diseases? “All manner of disease and sickness.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
LIKE JESUS, VIEW MATTER IN A RADICAL DIFFERENT WAY
AND SEVER ALL FLESHLY-ORIGIN CONNECTIONS.
Cobbey on John 6:62 -68 (esp. John 6:63/cit. B10, quoted in SH 356:15)
[Cobbey Crisler:] John 6:62, “What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?” Nativity in the Spirit. There can’t be the magnetic pull back to earth if that connection has been severed or proved never to have been a real connection.
“In John 6:63 [W. the last verse of citation B10] 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.” [W. “the pearl of great price”] He got the message. The words of eternal life, not the flesh of eternal life. “You have the words of eternal life. ”
“Jesus’ brethren in John 7:3 try to persuade him to come out into the open, and hire a public relations firm. If you are what you think you are, then back it up in the world’s way.
John 7:5,“Neither did his brethren believe in him.”
John 7:6. He announces, “My time is not yet come.” There’s an indication in Jesus own thought that he knew there would be a prophetic hour which must be fulfilled. The ingredients were not there yet. So, he indicates, “My prophetic hour is not yet come. Your time is always ready. “They did not have a solid understanding of prophecy.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
REMAIN AT PEACE WITH ALL WHO ARE FREAKED-OUT BY TURMOIL,
EVEN THOUGH IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT.
Cobbey Crisler on Mark 4:35-41. (citation B11)
[Cobbey: In Mark, chapter 4,] “Verse 37. … we have the “storm of wind, the waves.”
Verse 38. And another thing that Peter remembers is that Jesus was “asleep on a pillow.” No other gospel tells us that Jesus was asleep on a pillow. Things linger with Peter. Do you remember Peter’s roof in Mark 2:4? It took him longer to fix that roof than it took Jesus to heal the paralytic man inside the house.
“Now we have another thing that stuck with Peter. In the middle of crisis, there’s Jesus “in the lap of luxury” asleep on a pillow. He was not concerned about that boat or its occupants. There was a great sense of peace, obviously, in the mind of Jesus. But the frantic disciples go and shake him, wake him up. “Don’t you care that we’re perishing out here?” They hadn’t thought that he was in the same boat. Actually, when one bases it on a different mental concept, he wasn’t m the same boat with the disciples at all.
“You know how you and I feel when we’re awakened out of a sleep? We usually need a little time to get over the grogginess. Not with Jesus. He immediately arose, and rebuked the wind, just as he did to the man with the unclean spirit in the synagogue. He saw church right out there. So, church includes nature. Nature was trying to get outside the definition of church.
“Verse 39. Jesus said, “No” and “Yes” to God’s definition of church,
“Peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.”
Verse 40. Then he pointed to the problem. The problem was mental. ”You are fearful.” That obviously is what needs then to be said “No” to. “You have no faith.” Faith is what apparently needs to be said “Yes” to. That calms storms without as well as storms within, showing that the real conquest is that of inner space, not of outer space.”
“What Mark Recorded,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
Bonus PS: Mary Baker Eddy appropriates Jesus’ words in Mark 4:39 when he stills this big storm. “Human will-power may infringe the rights of man. It produces evil continually and is not a factor in the realism of being. Truth, and not corporeal will, is the divine power that says to disease, “Peace be still.” (Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures, 144:22/cit. S15)
Bonus story of the winner of an art contest to perfectly depict peace: I first heard about “Peace in the storm” in a Christian Science Sunday School class and just found this link that shares it— The real meaning of Peace | Short Stories (alltimeshortstories.com)
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4:6-7
“An art contest was held to find “the perfect picture of peace”. The challenge stirred the imagination of artists everywhere, and paintings arrived from far and wide. Finally, the great day of revelation arrived, and the field had been narrowed down to just two paintings.
“As a judge pulled the cover from first one, a hush fell over the crowd. A mirror-smooth lake reflected lacy, green birches under the soft blush of the evening sky. Along the grassy shore, a flock of sheep grazed undisturbed.
“Surely this was the winner!
“But when the second painting was uncovered, the crowd gasped in surprise.
“A tumultuous waterfall cascaded down a rocky precipice; the crowd could almost feel its cold, penetrating spray. Stormy-gray clouds threatened to explode with lightning, wind, and rain. In the midst of the thundering noises and bitter chill, a spindly tree clung to the rocks at the edge of the falls.
“But in that tree, a little bird had built a nest. Content and undisturbed in her stormy surroundings, she rested on her eggs. With her eyes closed and her wings ready to cover her little ones, she manifested peace that transcends all earthly turmoil. (See picture and more below.)
“Perhaps today, you’ve been guilty of searching for the kind of peace in the first picture. But the problem is that IT JUST DOESN’T EXIST. Real peace—the kind in the second picture—is one that’s ready and available to you when you take shelter in the arms of the Savior.
“Prayer Challenge: Pray that despite your circumstances, God would through Jesus Christ give you peace that surpasses all earthly understanding.” See picture and more below.
**BONUS PEACE-RELATED POEMS: The model of manhood maintaining peaceful resilience that is portrayed so well in Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” is lifted even higher by “Mother’s Evening Prayer” by Mary Baker Eddy. “If” starts by extolling the virtue of achieving manhood by retaining the inner peace to “keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you.” Mary Baker Eddy lifts this peace to a divine sense, beyond that of man’s understanding, by opening her “Mother’s Evening Prayer” with “O gentle presence, peace and joy and power.” She ends it with “and mother finds her home and heav’nly rest.”
“If” has been a special poem to me since my childhood because my fun-loving maternal grandfather had a framed version of it that he highlighted for me several times by reciting it for me by heart. (You can Download a picture of the framed version of “If” that he gave to my mom who in turn gave it to me.) The best gift is one that only God can give though. It’s “the peace of God that passes all understanding” which is all that will truly allow us to fulfill the promise of the final verse to live into and up to our (spiritual) manhood. When Kipling advocates trusting yourself, Christ Jesus tells us to follow him and trust God alone; when Kipling talks of treating the impostors of Triumph and Disaster just the same, Mary Baker Eddy tells us that “loss is gain” (Hymn 207); when Kipling advises to “not be tired by waiting… and don’t give way to hating” Mary Baker Eddy tells us to “Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear / No ill,—since God is good, and loss is gain. /”
Here in full is Hymn 207, “Mother’s Evening Prayer” by Mary Baker Eddy:
“O gentle presence, peace and joy and power; / O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour, / Thou Love that guards the nestling’s faltering flight! / Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight. /
“Love is our refuge; only with mine eye / Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall: / His habitation high is here, and nigh, / His arm encircles me, and mine, and all. /
“O make me glad for every scalding tear, / For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain! / Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear / No ill,—since God is good, and loss is gain. /
“Beneath the shadow of His mighty wing; / In that sweet secret of the narrow way, / Seeking and finding, with the angels sing: / “Lo, I am with you alway,”—watch and pray. /
“No snare, no fowler, pestilence or pain; / No night drops down upon the troubled breast, / When heaven’s aftersmile earth’s tear-drops gain, / And mother finds her home and heav’nly rest.
(The Christian Science Hymnal, No. 207:1–5) https://login.concord.christianscience.com/concord/secure/dashboard
Click here or on the link below for the words in print or here for an audio version of the poem “IF” by Rudyard Kipling.
Bring EVERY thought—NOT every OTHER THOUGHT — “to the obedience of Christ.”
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing EVERY thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
2nd Cor. 10:3-5/cit. B14, + verse 5, NKJV
[Cobbey Crisler’s insights:] “Then, you’re a king [when you “bring EVERY thought into the obedience of Christ.” II Cor.10:5]. In that sense Jesus was always a king. There’s nothing wrong with that messianic attribution to him of “king.” He ruled and nothing overruled him. But, look at all these things that [would attempt to] take over our “within” where the kingdom of God is supposed to be. And instead, we find anarchy most of the time.
“What is disease? If the kingdom-of-God-within is the healed, whole state, then anarchy-within must also tell us what disease is. It’s an outright rebellion. It’s a “Declaration of Independence” by one organ over the rest of the bodily systems. The Bible endorses only one system [Romans 8.28] “All things work together for good to them that love God.” There is the prerequisite. We always have to have a prescription filled. We’ve got to love God. Then, “all things work together for good.” That’s the ideal situation for any system, bodily or solar, all things working together for good. That’s the definition of perfect health as well.”
“Don’t be hacked from within by the VIRUS of unwise atheism and its family members (according to Wikipedia) of “the supremacy of human reason… secular humanism… religious criticism…free-thought skepticism…” They all doubt Paul’s assertion that that “God is always at work for the best of everyone who loves him. They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, CEB)
Here are coordinate ideas related in Cobbey Crisler insights on Ps. 14:1-3
“In Psalms chapter 14, Verse 1, “The fool”— that’s the kind of point of view it is, completely unwise—“The fool that said in his heart, [There is] no God,” has a foolish point of view that exposes you to the infection of that idea. It communicates a contaminating influence if it cuts one off from the very source of life and health. Because treatment is available.
In Verse 2 “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, [and] seek God.” Notice what arena we’re dealing with here. God was not checking our pulses [W: or our temperatures], but our thoughts. How do we know what effect thoughts actually have ultimately on the pulse, for example? “To see if there were any that could understand and [seek] God” because that’s the bottom line.
Instead, in Verse 3 “They are all gone aside, and become filthy.” Something that is unsanitary doesn’t belong; it’s not part of the health code of the Bible any more than it’s in the health code of material medica. Because what is unsanitary [W: is part of the unreality family and] is liable to cause or promote a disease.
It’s also interesting to note that the word “virus” which is being used so generally today as the cause of much of man’s physical complaints and effects [W:—as well as the cause of issues from implanted computer viruses or hacks].
The virus, according to Webster, is able to break down the defensive mechanism of the host. And, by the way, it comes from a Latin word that means poison or slimy liquid, virus. The word “filthy,” in part of its Hebrew meaning, is morally corrupt. So, we know we’re dealing really at both levels here, moral and physical. If out of that filthy condition, that polluted state of human consciousness, we’re coming to the conclusion “[there is] none that doeth good, no, not one,” has the defensive mechanism broken down? Have we become the host of ideas that are contaminating to our pure relationship to God? Or are we ingesting only those pure Words? It’s a question of thought. It’s the faculty of knowing that which God is addressing here.
Consider what Jesus lists in Mark 7, Verse 20, where he lists the toxic causes of man’s problems. He says, “That which comes out of the man, that defies the man.” Now we’re going the opposite route from those pure Words from God.
[Mark 7, Verse 21] “From within,” and, by the way, that is almost the literal translation of the Latin word intestin from which our word “intestine” comes. “Out of the heart of men, proceed,” and look at the list; it’s certainly not intestinal fortitude, “evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, porneia, root of our word pornography, murders.” [Verse 22]. “Thefts,” do we need to go into the headlines as current as this morning? “covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.” [W: fool, as in Psalm 14.1] And Jesus says in Mark 7, Verse 23, “All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” That’s where disease is also felt; the “within.”
[W: Instead of affirming that in God (and in reality) we have everything that we need,] {CC:] “We [often tend to] yearn for so much within, don’t we? How imperfectly that’s often expressed. Our longing often, perhaps most of the time, is expressed in terms that we would conquer the world outwardly in some way. [W: like by having lots of social media “likes” or followers…] Be appreciated. Be applauded. Be loved. Be served. Be patted on the head. Be comforted. Have obeisance shown to us. That we have the homage of the world outwardly. We want to conquer the world in some way. That’s trying to impose domination. That kind of longing is imperfectly expressed. A more perfect sense of longing, the desire that Jesus calls prayer, would be to conquer all the influences of that same world inwardly.”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
“Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face CONTINUALLY…
BE YE MINDFUL ALWAYS OF HIS COVENANT;” (cit. B15/ I Chronicles 16:11, 15 (to 1st 😉 [Warren:] Here in the Old Testament we have in this week’s Bible Lesson an exciting (to me and other lovers of God’s covenant of the 10 Commandments) a precious precursor to Paul’s “mind-set” language in the Golden Text: “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” (Golden Text (RSV), Romans 8:6/ see cit. B4 (KJV)
“LOVE INTO VIEW ” AS INEXHAUSTIBLE OUR SHEPHERD’S DIVINE SUPPLY!
Cobbey Crisler’s insights on Mark’s version that records Jesus’ mindset before he fed the multitude.
“And Jesus sees that “they were as sheep not having a shepherd.” (Mark 6:34/cit. B16)
[Cobbey continues:] “Look up that comment and you will find it in the Old Testament. Then read around it in the Old Testament to get the context of it. You will hardly find a statement by Jesus that does not have an Old Testament root or precedent, which is why he is always saying, “It is written.” But, many of the times when he doesn’t say it-is-written, it is implied.
[Cobbey continues:] “The only so-called miracle in all four gospels is the feeding of the “five thousand,” Verses 35-44. I put it in quotes because they were only counting the men. Out of the little boy’s lunch box comes five loaves and two fishes. We hear that from the gospel of John Chapter 6, Verse 13. They feed a multitude. Now we have a lesson on economics given to us by the Master. He didn’t regard that as a problem either. No Malthusian limitation on man that we’re going to outgrow our supply, and, therefore, we should kill off sectors of the human race in order to meet the supply. That’s Malthus and his philosophy of necessity. But we find Jesus saying instead in Matthew 14:16, “They need not depart.” Malthus says they need to be killed, but Jesus is saying, “They need not depart.”
Mark 6.37. The disciples say it would be impossible to feed the multitude, that it would take about “two hundred pennyworth.” The group was considerably more than five thousand if you count the women and the children.
What Jesus said to all the disciples made them become part of the remedy. Twelve baskets were taken around. There were twelve disciples. Each one was made to participate in the abundant result and learn from it. They started out with only five loaves and two fishes. They ended up with more fragments left over than they had when they started out. More available. That’s divine economics. It doesn’t exhaust.”
“What Mark Recorded,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[W: Click here for a BONUS application idea that shares a modern-day, loaves-and-fishes, example of divine supply as an amazing and quick answer to a humble prayer made with “an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love.” (SH 1:1)]
JESUS’ GEM of GRATITUDE-in-ADVANCE (G.I.A.) as HE APPLIED IT TO RAISING LAZARUS! John 11-12/cits. B18, B19+SH 493:28; 75:12
[Warren Huff:] The Lazarus resurrection story is featured in the Section 5 citations B18 & B19/John 11 & 12. Cobbey’s insights below PLUS ANOTHER LIFELIKE AND TEAR-JERKING REENACTMENT OF THIS EVENT with proper, life-bringing word substitution of a Greek word “exhyp,nos” NOT to mean “Lazarus sleepeth—”exhyp,nos” but that “Lazarus has been hypnotized—”exhyp,nos”.
[Cobbey Crisler insights ON JESUS’ G.I.A. GEM:]
“In Chapter 11, note how Jesus handles news of a severe sickness.
“In John 11:3, “Jesus gets a message from Lazarus’ sisters that Lazarus is sick.”
“In John 11:4, the first thing Jesus says is, “This sickness is not unto death.”
“Remember that’s what he said about the man born blind in John 9:3, ” Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God might be manifest in him.” We find the same kind of approach to a patient with Jesus’ method of healing including that concept.
John 11:5, “He loved the family very much, the family of Bethany,”
John 11:6, “But he still remains for two days.”
“Then in John 11:7, he says, “Let us go into Judea again.”
John 11:8, “His disciples say, What? Last time we were there we had to duck projectiles.”
Then in John 11:11, he says to the disciples, “Our friend . . . (see the shepherdmotive) Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” There are two Greek words for sleeping here. The first one is as if taking rest in sleep. The second one, “awake him out of sleep,” is the Greek word “exhyp,nos”. It includes within it the root of our word hypnotism. It has a suggestion of a trance-like, notnormally-induced sleep. It is interesting to see Jesus referring to death as a process of needing to be awakened from a trance.
John 11:12. “His disciples misunderstand that whole thing and “they say, If he’s sleeping, leave him alone. He’s fine if he’s resting.”
“John 11:13 shows how Jesus was using what we would call a euphemism. He avoided the word die, because he is seeing it differently.
In John 11:14, when, “they don’t comprehend him, he says very plainly, Lazarus is dead .”
John 11:16. “Thomas doesn’t cover himself with glory every time he appears in the Scriptures. On the other hand, neither do we in our daily lives very often. I don’t think we should finger-point at Thomas. But Thomas does have somewhat of a note of sarcasm here when he says to his fellow disciples, “Alright, let’s go with him. Let’s go die with him if he’s going to Judea. ” This was something he was not that willing to do when the opportunity arose. As you recall, when they captured Jesus in Gethsemane, where did Thomas head with all the rest of them?
John 11:17, “When Jesus arrives, we find that four days Lazarus had been in the tomb.” He sees the scene that was so often associated with death, the hired mourners and the official mourners.
“Martha appears in what I hope will always be a new light. We have a tendency to stereotype, even people we haven’t known. Martha has been labeled for centuries, “Don’t be a Martha.” Some people are sorry their name is Martha, because of that.
“In John 11:25, it is only to Martha that Jesus ever makes the statement, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Since we know that Jesus only addressed the receptive thought, and since Martha is the only one to whom he felt free to say, “I am the resurrection,” it is somewhat of an honor to be named Martha from that point of view. …
John 11:33, “shows the weeping and the groaning that’s going on.”
John 11:35 is the shortest verse in the Bible. It indicates Jesus’ humanity, “Jesus wept.”
John 11:36, “Behold how he loved him!”
John 11:37, “They asked, Could this man have prevented this incident?”
John 11:38, “Jesus comes to the cave.”
John 11:39, “And says, Take ye away the stone. At that point even Martha’s faith breaks down. It’s a hot country and a body in a tomb for four days and she so states.”
John 11:40, “Jesus,” supporting her continuing faith, “said, Didn’t I tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?” Thereby he continued to support the resurrection trust in womanhood.
John 11:41, “They took away the stone. Jesus lifts up his eyes, and makes a pronouncement that what he desires through prayer has already been accomplished. I thank thee that thou hast heard me.”
John 11:42, “And I knew that thou hearest me always. That’s a remarkable statement of Jesus’ theology.
“Here’s what the Anchor Bible says: “The prayer of petition is not the only form of prayer. If prayer is a form of union with God, then the Johannine (John’s Gospel) Jesus is always praying, for he and the Father are one.”
“1 John 5:14 is another work attributed to the beloved disciple and one of the most beautiful views and definitions of prayer. It comes through the transparency of this thought that was so close to Jesus. Check your prayer against this measurement.
“Here is the “Bureau of Standards” on prayer, “This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.” Notice the qualification. It is not according to our will. It is totally selfless.
1 John 5:15. “But that’s not all, “If we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” That’s prayer of affirmation coming through there.
“In John 11:42, isn’t that exactly what Jesus said, “I know that thou hearest me always. If we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions. “It is important to examine how our prayers measure against that standard. We find Jesus expressing gratitude before the event.
John 11:43. “Then he says, “Lazarus, come forth.” Obviously, he wouldn’t yell if he didn’t think Lazarus could hear. You notice he’s communicating with a so-called dead man, expecting him to be able to hear, using one of the faculties that was supposedly shut off. At the point of death, he doesn’t regard it as shut off.
John 11:44, “Lazarus comes forth,” very awkwardly, I may add, but nothing could keep him from answering that demand. As a matter of fact, if you have been through the traditional tomb of Lazarus in Bethany, I consider it much more of a miracle that he ever emerged from the tomb, let alone being raised from the dead. I’m quite sure he would have bumped his head several times on his way out.
“There’s another part of the healing that’s necessary. “Jesus turns to those around him, “the environment, holding him in this grave, “and says, ‘Loose him, and let him go.‘” There is a sense of freedom which is so important. Remember what he says to a woman in another gospel, Luke 13:12, “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.”
John 11:46, “Guess what? With the marvelous raising of Lazarus from the dead, there are informers. Rather than spreading the good news, they have to go report. “They went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done.”
John 11:47, “That’s when they have a meeting about him.”
John 11:54 “And Jesus can no more walk openly; but goes north into a wilderness,” staying out of reach temporarily.
“Chapter 12:1 begins where he revisits “Bethany.”
John 12:2, “Lazarus, Mary, and Martha there, Lazarus eating supper with them.”
“John 12:9 shows that, “a crowd begins to assemble. They hear that not only Jesus is there but Lazarus is a co-celeb. ” Bethany is only about a mile and a quarter from Jerusalem, so all of Jerusalem has been aware of this raising of the dead in their vicinity. “So people are coming to see Lazarus.”
“In John 12:10, look at “what the chief priests are consulting about.” Lazarus has just gotten out of the tomb and they want to stuff him back in! Because he was really walking evidence of God’s word.
“Here comes what’s been called Palm Sunday and we find the general populace greeting him, even the children in other gospel accounts (Matthew 21:9, 15).
John 12:13, “Calling him the King of Israel, Hosanna,” all Messianic terms, in recognition of Jesus’ Messianic roles.
John 12:14, “When Jesus chooses a young ass to ride into Jerusalem.” Dr. Bull makes an interesting point here, he says, “Nowhere else are we told in the gospel that Jesus rides anywhere. The presumption is that he walks. But here, very close to Jerusalem, where the walk isn’t that long, he makes a point of having a special form of transportation. It so happens that, although I’ve not seen this in any book, we are faced with another Messianic symbol. When Solomon was anointed king, that’s the way he came into Jerusalem, on the back of David’s mule. It also has to do with prophesy in Zechariah 9:9 where it talks about, “the king comes to Zion sitting on an ass’s colt.” The disciples don’t understand that until much later…”
“The Book of John, the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren:] Why not joyously and gratefully accept as your own the Holy Spirit of this healing feeling?! It can be your daily/nightly springboard to try for yourself the proven Christ-method of “trading in your sorrow…for the joy of the Lord.” Here is a moving and popular Christian song, one of several YouTube versions, like this one by Jeremy Camp as sung by Blessed Covenant, women of faith. Let your life sing for God by trading in what would falsely CLAIM to be “your” sickness, “your” mortal model curses … for Christ’s immortal man and “the joy of the Lord!”
(ONE COULD SING “PAST” SORROW INSTEAD OF “MY” SORROW TO FACILITATE ITS RELEASE FROM THEMSELF AS A MERE FABLE RATHER THAN A FACT. In CedarS Bible Lands Park, thousands have made such a trade by using Christ’s “FAN in hand” to separate the mixed-up mess of chaff and wheat, fables and facts, to burn a paper version of the fables they want to be forever free from in a fire built downwind.) Why not trade-in being a mere mortal for being an Immortal, the ever-new, best version of the true you! – a perfect and one-of-a-kind expression of God!
P.S. BONUS HISTORY of a Ruth E. Huff reenacting the raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11/cit. B18)
“Nana Ruth,” CedarS Camps Founder, had already been on two trips to Israel with Janet and Cobbey Crisler. She loved these trips and learned so much each time that she wanted to go for a third time. But, she’d made a commitment to speak at a meeting of the National American Camp Association about the benefits and logistics of operating camps with 1 week and 2-week sessions. So, she arranged with the Crislers to arrive as soon as she could join them join them after the convention which was in Boston that year. The day that Nana Ruth was able to join the group was when they were to come to Lazarus tomb at Bethany. Ruth ask Cobbey if she might do a bit of a fun reenactment and have him call out loudly “Lazarus, come forth!” at which point she would hop out of the tomb, wrapped in a sheet from the hotel. The timing and all worked perfectly. When she appeared on-call, 30-some jaws dropped and laughter erupted soon as Ruth unwrapped herself.
In this humorous way, Ruth (unknowingly) started a fun CedarS (and Huff family) tradition of reenacting Bible events in memorable and meaningful ways. After all, she was a self-described “scribe under orders” when she wrote CedarS Five Fun-damental Concepts which fittingly end with:
“5. We expect to make camping at CedarS FUN!”
Other, meaningful parts of the stop at Lazarus’ tomb that day, no doubt featured Cobbey’s insights elaborated above that include Jesus’ expectancy of a good outcome from every “valley of the shadow of death.” Jesus stated aloud and modeled for us the “One in the asking, one in the proof” (Hymn 524:3) confidence the Christian healing method of giving gratitude to God in ADVANCE! “Nana Ruth” echoed this in her own fun way every time she gratefully responded to a challenge by saying with “laughing eyes” and a smile: “It will be fun to see how God works this one out!”
Cobbey, Nana, Madelon Maupin, Barry Huff and all great Bible scholars and Sunday School teachers bring applicable closure and meaning to each event or citation by asking not only what does it mean, but WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ME AND TO EVENTS OF THE DAY.
FOR ANY PROBLEM “SET YOUR MIND” ON A RADICALLY DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW TO HAVE A RADICALLY DIFFERENT RESULT!
Cobbey on “never see death” (John 8:51/cit. S26/429:31-5) + John 8:58
[Cobbey Crisler:] In John 8:51 Jesus said, “If a man keeps my saying, he will never see death.”
“An unusual statement because certainly his disciples went on and saw the death process happening all around them. So once again, what does Jesus mean? What is the intent? What is the meaning? Dodd says it’s such a strong statement that it really excludes the possibility of ceasing to live. That there is an eternality to it. How would you feel that was intended? “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.”
“Take the raising of Tabitha or Dorcas. Peter went in there. Everyone else around there saw death. Was it helping the situation? Did it solve the problem called death? Peter must have gone in there with a radically different point of view. And did it have a radically different result?
“The statement in John 8:58 really started a popular commotion. Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Does that fit into his statement about, “no man ascendeth up to heaven save he that has come down from heaven, even the son of man that is in heaven “?
Is there a beginning for man, divinely speaking?
Does it hold within it the key of eliminating the last enemy called death?”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
ANCHOR YOUR HEREDITY & GOODLY HERITAGE IN GOD with “FULNESS OF JOY!”
Cobbey Crisler on Ps. 16:5-11 (prelude and postlude to citation B22)
[Cobbey:] “In Psalm 16:5, [prelude to citation B22] heredity is being dealt with in this pharmacy of the Psalms. “The LORD” is what? “The portion of mine inheritance!” Sometimes we’re proud of our inheritances. At other times, we’re ashamed of them. To anchor inheritance, heritage, and heredity in God, is, first, a radically different concept of origin, where we came from. Secondly, it only allows for the expression of the nature from which it is flowing, and that’s divine. The only inheritances, then, can be divine, if that logic prevails.
“In Verse 6 you will note that [deep] concern the psalmist [has] about hereditary limitations on his ability. Apparently, he comes to the conclusion through accepting the divine fact, the prescriptions he’s had filled, “Yea, I have a goodly heritage.” ··
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
“Kidneys are the problem in Verse 7. There’s a very polite Elizabethan word used in the Bible, “reins.” That has nothing to do with what holds horses back; in some cases it’s used that way. But it’s also the translation of the word that literally means “kidneys.” Calvin’s talking about the anatomy of the soul, remember of every part of the soul that he finds being mirrored in the psalms. But we also are finding specific references to portions of the anatomy that give out, that fail, that act up, and on which we are dependent if the body is dominant; but biblical therapy, if we elect that method, we’ve got to be absent from.
“We find that Verse 7, if it weren’t quite as tragic for the psalmist, it would be slightly amusing, in the fact that it reminds us of ourselves. “I will bless the LORD, who hath given me advice,” but if that’s all it took to get our attention, that would be one thing. But, he says kidneys also instruct me in the night seasons. [Audience laughter] I get cornered·.. I’m desperate. Now I’m back to God again, in a way. So very often these anatomical reminders are warnings.
“But remembering also that there are two levels that every biblical concept is expressing itself, the outer one and the inner one. That kidneys also is meant to refer to the mind as the interior self, even Webster under “kidney” talks about temperament and disposition. Almost all of the anatomical words have mental equivalents. It’s as if back when our vocabulary was being formulated or translated from previous vocabularies of earlier tongues that we’ve had this psychosomatic link: We’ve had the physical and the mental attached even to portions of the anatomy.
“Why has there been almost an unobserved record being kept by those who have investigated or seen or lived through some of these physical conditions, that also the mental state that accompanied them has been remembered. What is the (nearest dispensary) as far as Bible therapy is concerned?
“KEEP YOUR FOCUS AND PRIORITIES IMMOVABLE IN GOD TO BE UNMOVED— WITH A FULL DOSE OF JOY! {Feel “the Joy of the Lord” in a Christian song again}
Cobbey Crisler on Psalm 16:8–11 (prelude to cit. B22)
[Cobbey Crisler:] In Psalm 16, Verse 8, “I have set the LORD always before me: because [he is] at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Verse 9, “My heart is glad,” and guess what else happened; what follows? “My flesh also shall dwell confidently.” How does “flesh dwell confidently”? That’s a mental state, but it’s been subdued by a mental state. “My heart is glad.” What medicine do we want more than anything else? What leads us to a glad heart?
Then the flesh simply subsides as the significant bellwether as far as health is concerned.
WHAT IS THE DOSAGE OF GLADNESS IN VERSE 11? “IN THY PRESENCE [IS] FULLNESS OF JOY.” THAT’S THE DOSAGE, ‘FULLNESS.” THERE’S NO ROOM LEFT FOR ANYTHING ELSE.
[Cobbey about diseases that attack breathing;] “Someone asked me during intermission about a marauder of a disease called Tuberculosis [or CoVid-19?]. The fact that there was a great emotionalism in that because it’s taking family members. In the spirit of our investigation of Scripture, going to it for the answers; perhaps this should apply to each and every one of us since we’re the ones to search the Scriptures. The Bible will not dwell on the problems of tuberculosis [or covid], but it will dwell on the solutions. That’s what you want as far as any one of the maxims of the Bible
“The Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, the original meaning of both terms, ghost and spirit, being breath, you can tell it must mean that simply by studying all the references to the Holy Ghost. You’ll find that people are filled with the Holy Ghost. The only thing like that we can relate to anatomically is [lungs) What are we being filled with? What does the pharmacy of the Bible indicate is the cure for improper breathing or lungs? If we can be filled, if we can take in, breathe in the atmosphere of God, we are getting pollutant-free air to just inhale. We must utilize that breath and send back out purity utilized. This is the sequence of breathing in its highest spiritual form when we run into it in the Bible. Perhaps, a good dose of searching the divine intent behind the term, the Holy Ghost, will translate that into our nature. The divine nature has no tubercular problems. The divine nature is the nature of solution to problems.”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
