APPLY GEMS of SOUL to heal ALL BODILY PROBLEMS! USE BIBLE EXAMPLES as SPRINGBOARDS for YOUR OWN MODERN-DAY PROOFS!
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as found in The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“SOUL AND BODY”
for Sunday, November 21, 2021
(Cobbey’s text is shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps.org
STOP BEING “A TENANT IN A TOMB BY BEING AT HOME IN THE BODY!”
Be at home in the ‘new man’ to “make all things new!” Cobbey on II Cor. 5:1-8, 16-17 (Responsive Reading)
[Cobbey on II Cor. 5, verse 1:] “Where we are now is a tabernacle, which if “dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens…” (We look out of heavenly consciousness—every window has a heavenly view. We worship where we live — Our bodies are our ultimate idols, if we are living there.
“Verse 4. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened:” Jesus said “take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden light.”…
“Verse 6. It’s not what we see but what we know that matters: “Therefore, we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.” This is one of the most radical statements in the whole Bible that is virtually skated over.
“It is foolhardy to adapt ourselves to live in corporeality. You are a tenant in a tomb if at home in the body. Why be so satisfied with data coming to us from the 5 channels of the corporeal senses? Jesus said “Take no thought for your body.”
“Verse 8. “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord.”
“Socrates said “The dead body will not be me. Don’t let him talk about burying Socrates. Say only that you are burying the body.”
“Ishmael (In Moby Dick said “My body is but the lees of my better being.”
“Verse 16. “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh:”
The ultimate objective is to know no man (or woman) after the flesh, according to fleshly information. Our divine nature or anyone’s true, divine nature is not conveyed or confined by anything fleshly from “the old man.” As Jesus beheld, we are to behold the “new man” and in so doing make not just some things but ALL things new.
“As Verse 17 says, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.*”
Transcribed from marginal notes in Warren’s Bible from a talk by Cobbey Crisler**
SHARE YOUR CHRISTIANITY in WAYS that ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE! (a GEM modeled by Paul)
[Cobbey Crisler insights on the context of Paul’s words to the Athenians in Acts 17 (cit. B2):] “Well, now Paul is heading for the cultural capital of civilization, Athens. And you can’t even go to modern day Athens without appreciating somewhat of what Paul saw, looking around at the remnants of that great city and “the columned buildings that were dedicated to so many gods. It must have moved Paul.” …
“And so, he opens his mouth and begins right away to talk in Athens. Now this is a tough area in which to introduce Christianity, except at least they were willing to listen because everybody talked about anything. I mean there were a lot of weirdo sects and ideas that they welcomed without question in Athens because everybody liked to dispute these ideas anyway.
“He’s in the market, the agora, as well as in the synagogue. He runs into Epicureans; he runs into Stoics.” Now Tarsus where Paul came from happens to be a Stoic stronghold. So, he must have been certainly aware of that philosophy…
“They bring him to Areopagus, the hill of Mars or Aries, and they asked him to explain what he has to say.” …
Acts 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
Paul, standing there, shows how a lecture can be tailor-made to any environment. And, it’s better than uniformity if you want to get the ear of the locals. And in this way, you will find at no point does Paul mention the Old Testament. Why? (Pause) What would that mean to the Athenians? (See below, Acts 17:23, paraphrased)
Instead, he kind of says, “On my way to the forum…you know. In other words, here I was, and I saw something you had back here. And, it says TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” (See Acts 17:23 …
“Would everybody be listening? It relates. He’s picked up something locally. And, would you also be listening if he said “That monument you put ‘TO THE UNKNOWN GOD’, I want to tell you a little something about him. He’s unknown to you, but here’s some information that might be helpful… “And then, in Acts 17, verse 24, he describes “that God who made all, and therefore, couldn’t dwell in temples made with hands.” …
We’re reminded of whom? Yes, but since Jesus, we heard that from Stephen, remember? As Saul, himself, he had heard that.
“He dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” (repeated paraphrased)
What do you think that comment does when you’re looking at the Parthenon and buildings like it? “God doesn’t dwell in all of this. He made everything. How can you contain Him?” … Very interesting point.
Have we even arrived at that point today in our thinking? … I doubt the Athenians had either.
“The search where God is…” will end up with the conclusion in the last line of Acts 17, verse 27, “that He’s not very far from every one of us.” And then Paul very cleverly introduces lines from local poets: “In him we live, and move, and have our being” and “for we are also his offspring” – parts of poems we have identified, and they even know the authors. (See below, partial)
Acts 17:28 (cit. B2) For in him we live, and move, and have our being**; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
“After the Master, What? The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
**Mary Baker Eddy on Paul’s words in Athens (cit. B2, Acts 17:28):
“St. Paul said to the Athenians, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” This statement is in substance identical with my own: “There is no life, truth, substance, nor intelligence in matter.” It is quite clear that this great verity has not yet been fully demonstrated, but it is nevertheless true. If Christian Science reiterates Paul’s teaching, we, as Christian Scientists, should give to the world convincing proof of the validity of this scientific statement of being. Having perceived, in advance of others, this scientific fact, we owe to ourselves and to the world a struggle for its demonstration.”
“Retrospection and Introspection,” by Mary Baker Eddy, page 93: 17
LIKE JOB, FIND THE IDENTITY & UNITY OF 1 MIND & 1 SOUL TO SOLVE CONFLICTS OF MANY OPINIONS! Cobbey Crisler on Job 23:13, 14 (cit. B3):
[Cobbey:] “In Job 23:13 we find two revelations from God to Job about God’s nature. Because there’s only one way that you and I can ever find out anything out about God who is the only one who knows who God is, God [Himself/Herself]. God must do the revealing and here Job has two concepts revealed to him about God. And you know we don’t get anything unless we’re ready for it. Job is ready. He needs this, doesn’t he?… Why does Job need to know God as “one [mind], and as soul”?
What’s been his problem? One problem is identity. He said (in Job 9:21, 22) even “[if I said] I am perfect… Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul:” Here if soul is identified with God, where does one find one’s identity? The, whatever he was thinking about as his soul, if he had it, would have to image forth the One Soul. How many souls are there? If you relate the word “soul” to God, there is no other possible alternative than for a monotheist to see one, with whatever is revealed to us about God. That may be tough logic, but if soul is related to God, as a synonym, then there can only be One. So, to seek his identity in that oneness-of-God will tell him more about himself.
What about one mind? Why did he need to know that? [Voice: Because it was God?”] That’s right. And he’d been having a dialogue with many minds, hadn’t he? Nothing but just One Mind as opposed to many, polytheistic gods, or many minds, many opinions… Just think of that beautiful revelation that comes as a solution to all that.”
“The Book of Job: A Mental Court Case” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren Huff’s P.S. on a verse 14 bonus: It relieves all fear of poor performance to know that “…he performeth the thing that is appointed for me…” This could be re-stated that “God is the performer; and we are the performance”… and that “many such things are with him.”
SEE HUMANITY’S CURES AS BEING WAY BEYOND MERELY MEDICAL SOLUTIONS.
Cobbey Crisler on Isaiah 1- Isaiah 2:22/citation B6: “Cease ye from Adam”
[Cobbey on the next verses:] Isaiah 1:5 and 6. Isn’t this a question of Isaiah asking all humanity, “Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it: [but] wounds and bruises, and putrefying sores.” That’s Job’s problem written right out there. That’s his record that he that he didn’t want to have as his witness any more when he said [in Job 16:19] “my record is on high.” They must not have been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” Here is even Isaiah bearing witness that the application of medicine has not cured what humanity needs to have cured.
In Isaiah 2:22/citation B6 maybe this is part of the solution? What’s the recommended solution? “Cease ye from man.” That word in Hebrew is actually the Hebrew word “Adam.” It literally reads, “Cease ye from Adam whose breath [is] in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
COUNT ON GOD’S SAVING GRACE & LOVINGKINDNESS WHEN YOU’RE CRUSHED & CONTRITE!
[Cobbey on Psalm 34:18/between verses 17 & 19/cit. B7] “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as are of a contrite spirit.” [or “… he saves those that are crushed in spirit” as Love saved Ruth when she was crushed when her husband died along with Naomi when she was crushed when her two sons died.]
EXPERIENCE the LOVINGKINDNESS of BOTH GOD’S HEALING & PREVENTATIVE POWER! [Cobbey Crisler on Ps. 34:19, 20 (between v. 18 & 22:]
“Psalm 34:19 We have the therapeutic and the prophylactic. We have the healing and the preventative arts. Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” That’s the therapeutic power of God. But it goes even a step further in Verse 20, “He keepeth all his bones.” That means “He guards or protects all his bones, not one of them is broken” It is the prophylactic, the preventive, power of God’s therapy.”
Psalm 34:22/cit. B7 “The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants; and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.” [like….]
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
AVOID the WRONG REMEDY—RELY on the STABLE, PERFECT MEDICINE of MIND!
[Cobbey Crisler on Psalm 19:7, 8/cit. B8 and the sure stability of Mind-cure medicine]
“Read Psalm chapter 19:7-9 and you will discover there are quality controls as far as God’s medicine (or vaccine) is concerned: all the things you would want to see on the label. Look at the words “perfect,” “sure,” right,” “pure,” “clean,” and “true,” which has the meaning in Hebrew of stable. You want a stable product. You want a clean product. You want it pure. You want it right. You don’t want the wrong remedy. You want it sure. You want it perfect.”
“Leaves of the Tree: A Prescription from Psalm,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
“YOU ARE GOD’S BUILDING” (I Cor. 3:9/cit. B9) HERE ARE YOUR “SPECS!”
(a Warren Huff classic inspired by studying for his architectural licensing exam)
View the Ten Commandments as Spirit’s Specs for you from “Spirit, the great architect” (SH 68:4) Architects use 10 categories or Specifications (Specs) to guarantee the quality and longevity of their work. The Master Architect is our sole “builder and maker,” (cit. S26/428:12/Heb. 10:11) Spirit, God, has given us as “Gods building” cit. B9/1st Cor.3:9 His specifications of the Ten Commandments that rule out of us all that would keep us from being all that God created us to be. I hope you enjoy finding and applying the fun links between these 10 Specs, the 10 Commandments and the healings of your own body and others’.
The 10 God’s-eye views of the spiritual you that follow—written by “*the finger of God”— bring health to the body by looking AWAY from it to God, instead of looking AT the body or TO it, as if it were in control. (*Deut. 9:10, Luke 11:20) In these powerful, 10-Commandment views of the real you, you can see how they work as your Divine Identity Protection Plan set up as specified by “Spirit, the great architect.” (S&H 68)
Click the link address below to view an animated series on each Commandment at https://www.christianscience.com/youth/sunday-school-teachers/the-ten-commandments/ten-commandments-animated-series.
TURN GRIT into “*PEARLS*!” & TRASH into BEAUTIFUL “TREASURES OF TRUTH AND LOVE!”
Part of CedarS 2020 Theme in cit. S10, Science & Health, p. 265:3-15 by Mary Baker Eddy
“Man understands spiritual existence in proportion as his treasures of Truth and Love are enlarged. Mortals must gravitate Godward, their affections and aims grow spiritual, – they must near the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper sense of the infinite, – in order that sin and mortality may be put off. This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggest man’s absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace.”
We invite you to join us in “gravitat[ing] Godward.” A CedarS-like camp setting, whether actual or on a virtual Hymn Sing, is the perfect place to discover and enlarge your treasures of Truth. Every “met” (inspirational sharing before activities), every breakfast Christian Science practitioner talk, every Bible Lesson study, every Hymn Sing, every Sunday School class, and testimony meeting offers campers nuggets of Truth to make their own. And each activity offers opportunities to apply these Truths and prove their value – to really turn them into treasures for life!
The list in this ongoing passage is such a beautiful promise of the blessings realized through spiritual growth:
– Enlarged individuality
– A wider sphere of thought and action
– A more expansive love
– A higher and more permanent peace
We see this list as so contemporary, as so on-target, and as so timeless. This is as exactly what today’s youth needs – and exactly what today’s world needs.
*Pearls* are wonderful examples of the “treasures of Truth” and how they grow. A pearl grows in an oyster only because an irritant has entered its shell and the oyster responds by secreting on it layer after layer of an irritant–soother (the way that spiritual sense and love heal whatever irritates us and others). Let’s take that as a challenge to be like the oyster and turn everything that looks negative and ugly into a string of beautiful pearls by applying layer upon layer of love and spiritual sense to grow our treasures of Truth and Love!
Enlarging your treasures of Truth and Love will soon make you “debt-free” by cancelling the debt — Think of “cancel culture,” but from a God’s eye view! St. Paul simply describes this higher view of ultimate “debt-forgiveness program” of Love that freed him—as it will free you. It is to: “Owe no man anything, but to love one another” (Romans 13:8). Saul voiced this as one who “owed” Christ and all Christians BIG-time by being known as their most enthusiastic enemy and persecutor. Saul made up for it as Paul by becoming Christianity’s most advent advocate and most eloquent missionary after he was converted by a “virtual” meeting with Jesus. (So, don’t underestimate the power of a virtual camp session, hymn sing or church service whenever the Christ is welcomed in!)
If you visit Saul’s road to Damascus in CedarS Bible Lands Park, you will be reminded to be like Ananias of the Damascus Christians. Like Ananias, you will be asked to stop “owing” any former enemy or persecutors and to stop “bearing false witness against” any and all Saul-like characters in your life—and instead see them as if they’ve been on their “road to Damascus” and changed for good by the Christ. In the words of a young Sunday School student “Forgive us our “trash-passes” as we forgive those who “trash-pass” to us.”
Had Ananias held Saul in a position that he’d outgrown after his “virtual encounter” with the Christ – if he had NOT obeyed God’s command to forgive Saul’s trash-passing and to restore his sight, the born-again Paul would not have become the most productive, passer of the treasure of Christianity that the world has known. “Those unpretentious, yet colossal characters, Paul and Jesus” (Misc. 360:6-8) both did all they could to pass along the rich treasures of their resilient spiritual sense of oneness with God. May we each do the same with all the treasures of Truth that spiritual sense constantly gives us!
STOP SITTING around YOUR Pool of Bethesda WAITING for SOMETHING to HAPPEN!
Do you want to “sin no more?” Tune-in so nothing obstructs your at-one-ment with God.
Cobbey Crisler on John 5:2-9/cit. B11, plus BONUS to verse 20):
[Cobbey:] “John 5:2 We’re now at the famous incident at the “Pool of Bethesda”. Near what serves as an occasional sheep market today, there is still a pool that has been excavated, that has archeological remnants that suggest the five porches. There is apparently, if this is the correct location of the pools, a structure that had two pools, each with two porches. Down the middle was a fifth porch with pools on either side. It may have been the ancient equivalent of a hospital.
“John 5:4 There’s some indication that it might have at some point in its history a spot that might have been associated with Aesculapius, the pagan founder of medicine, and that this superstition may have gotten to the point “that those who stepped into the pool when the water was troubled would be instantly healed.”
John 5:3 At least “an awful lot of people were waiting around for that event,” so the news must have spread that this occurred.
John 5:5 Here we run into a man that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. “He’d been there for thirty-eight years.” I’m sure that many of us would feel for him. We all have been sitting around our own pool of Bethesda waiting for something to happen, something miraculous, something fateful. We have all waited for something unexpected from the outside to lift us out of a condition that we haven’t made too much of an effort to do anything about.
“There was an environment there that did not help the problem. As a matter of fact, here’s how Professor Dodd describes it. I like this:
‘There is another story about a man who had given way to a chronic disability, and for years had nursed a grievance which excused him from doing anything about it.’
John 5:7. “Someone else always gets in before me.” If that sounds like a familiar excuse, then Bethesda isn’t so far back in history. So, he translates Jesus’ statements this way. Do you want to recover? That pinpoints it, doesn’t it? Do you see how that translation exhibits Jesus dealing with the thought of the patient? Where must it happen?
If communication from God to man must work, where must we work? In the thought of the receiver. Do we want to recover? That almost sounds silly to people who have been in a longtime condition, but it may very well be the core of the issue. Do we really want to be healed? Or have we become so settled into our condition that for thirty-eight years, we just sit there with our friends and talk about our operations? Misery loving company is a quality that attaches itself to human nature.
John 5: 6. Here’s how Dodd again translates Jesus’ question and then his demand on the patient. “Do you want to recover?”
John 5:8, “Then, pick up your bed and walk.” Jesus wasn’t about to volunteer to pick up his bed for him.
That says a lot. How else do we know Jesus, but to study his thoughts, his words, his methods, his messages, his intent, the logos, not but the word, but the thought behind it? What is required for the healing of a paralytic condition that has lasted practically a generation? It’s the very thing that he thought he couldn’t do, to pick up his bed and walk. Do you want to be healed? ‘Let there be light!’ (Genesis 1:3) That’s permission. Let it in.
John 5:9, “Immediately the man was made whole.” We don’t have any sense that there was a convalescence period. “He took up his bed and walked.”
“Notice in John 5:13 Jesus is saying: “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more.” This was another aspect to healing before it was complete, dealing with the thought of the patient. Jesus often views himself in the role of physician. Remember, he said, “A man that is whole needs not a physician” (Matthew 9:12; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31). “Sin no more” was something which that man had to comprehend in thought to avoid a recurrence.
“Notice the priority with what he dealt with the patient’s thought. “Do you want to recover?” OK great, we’ve got something we can work with.
“Do you really want to?
Do you want to give up this 38-year record of horizontalism?
“We have an even longer record of that. Stop and think how the “bed” dominates our lives, especially after a long day. All the way from birth to death, in sickness and in sleep. There is so much happening and looming so large in this concept of bed, that when Jesus healed the man, he made him take up what had dominated him for thirty-eight years. He said, “You dominate that bed and get out of here!” Jesus spoke with some degree of authority. And that’s just what happened.
BONUS verses right after Citation B13:
“Jesus responds to the debate on the Sabbath (verse 16) with a brilliant exegesis of the seven days of creation.
In John 5:17, “Jesus said, you’re stopping me for healing on the Sabbath day. But my reading of the Scripture is this, My Father worketh hitherto and I work.” If the original works, what can the image or reflection do?
“Notice also John 5:19 is Jesus’ famous statement, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do.” Taking this apart, it really gives you what man’s role is. What is it? It’s reflection. It’s image.
Man is not original in what he does. What he does stems from the original which is God. Then it reflects originality. Otherwise there would be competition for the job of Creator. Under monotheism there is no possibility for such competition (“For what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.”)
“He took the Son of Man through every problem that the world could hurl at him and proved that even the Son of Man can be victorious and not a creature of circumstances when the understanding of his true nature as the Son of God can be applied.
Our understanding of the Son of Man and the Son of God, and the difference, might be heightened by realizing that the Christ comes to the Son of Man. The Christ doesn’t come to the Son of God because the Christ really presents the Son of God.
We’re on the human side of things, who feel the foot of domination on our necks from outside circumstances. Is that where the Son of Man belongs? Notice the argument of Bildad in the book of Job… It uses the very same phrase that Jesus does, elevating him way above the outlines of fleshly domination. So, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do.” Why?
“John 5:20, “The Father loves the Son.”
John 5:30. The same point is repeated, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” Is this false humility or is Jesus actually giving us the facts straight out? What is the secret and source of everything he thought or did? What is the obstacle then between us and following Jesus? There’s something in there. Some kind of different concept of our selfhood than what he had. His was so transparent that there was nothing obstructing his at-one-ment with God, even on earth. His summons to us is to follow his example and shows his own expectation that we’re equipped to do it. So, we’re equipped to receive and to act on the instructions given us via communication. All we need to do is tune-in.
We’re coming to understand Jesus’ view of himself, and where he thinks this authority originates, “The Son of Man can do nothing of himself. (John 5:19)]
“John, the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
“SING ALL-IN FOR HEALING!” WELCOME HEALING BY SINGING WITH THE PURIFYING & INVIGORATING “SUNLIGHT OF TRUTH!” (cit. S9/162:4)
“Should we be silent? Ah, never.” (Hymn 283)
I can never keep from sharing my gratitude for the life-altering healing I had from the whole-hearted singing of healing hymns and from applying the truths of this “sunlight of Truth” citation!
As part of CedarS Bonus Thanksgiving Lesson Met for 2009 I wrote: “After a joyous 2008 summer and fall of service, I found myself agonizing in the passenger seat during our evening move home from camp. I sang (along with the sound system) many hymns that I knew by heart—thanks to years of CedarS Hymn Sing experience—belting them out, at first through tears of intense pain, and later through tears of immense gratitude. [I love Hymn Sings!!]
For the first part of the trip the disabling discomfort just wouldn’t let up—no matter how I changed my position or what hymns or citations I prayed. The pain seemed to radiate from a huge, internal growth that had been steadily growing for several months. It had attempted to rob me of my appetite and vigor as well as of all ability to lift one of my legs.
In deepest humility—and supported by the prayers of the dear driver, of my mom and of a practitioner who I kept calling—I continued to reach out to God and to sing each word with renewed understanding, conviction and vigor. With tears of joy I cherished the truths about my spiritual nature as if they were being tenderly told to me in order to save my life for God’s service—and that they did!
All pain finally broke thanks to this all-out, fervent praying and singing—and I have hardly stopped smiling or singing since. I remain eternally grateful that I took “God-is-All” instead of Tylenol—that I chose whole-hearted reliance on Christianly scientific prayer to eliminate not only the pain, but also its cause rather that just opting to temporarily relieve suffering.
I knew when I got home without pain that I was healed, although the draining and dissolving of the growth took several more weeks of consistent Sun-“ray-delineation therapy” which “dissolves tumors” with the invigorating purity of “the sunlight of Truth” that “Christian Science brings to the body.” (S&H 162:4/cit. S15 in this week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson). I applied each ray of this divine, healing sunlight – shining the specific, promising laws and wonderful ideas laid-out in the following precious paragraph.”
“Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates (refreshes, revitalizes, stimulates, enlivens, energizes, animates, rejuvenates, strengthens) and purifies (cleanses, disinfects, sanitizes, decontaminates, filters). Christian Science acts as an alterative (a medicinal plant that causes a gradual beneficial change in the body, usually through improved nutrition and elimination, without having any marked specific action OR A medicine or treatment which gradually induces a change, and restores healthy functions without sensible evacuations), neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions (emissions, discharges, oozings), expels humors (4 Medieval ones to be balanced: blood, yellow bile, phlegm, black bile), dissolves tumors (growths, cancers, lumps, swellings), relaxes rigid muscles (“thought-forces”), restores carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir (rouse, wake up, budge, shift, get up, revive) the human mind to a change of base (basis, foundation, origin, heart, starting point), on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind.” (S&H 162:4).
Have fun letting your body and life sing-out about this transforming “sunlight of Truth”!
WHEN A PERSON (OR GOVERNMENT) SEEMS TO BE POSSESSED BY A DEVILISH DIVISION, FIRST BIND THE RESISTANCE, THEN HEAL THE INHARMONY. Cobbey Crisler on Matt 12:22-28/cit. B13:
[Cobbey:] “Matt. 12:22/cit. B13). “Now we have someone brought possessed with a devil and healed.”
(Verse 25). Jesus talks about “a kingdom divided against itself ” which we have already discussed.
(Verse 26). “How could he use Satan to cast out Satan?”
(Verse 29). He makes a very interesting parallel in referring to a strong man’s house. “To enter into a house, and spoil the goods, you have to really render the strong man powerless.”
To do this means giving priority to the strong man before you begin to mess around in his house. Then the strong man would resist the healing. Was it mentality arrayed against the possibility, both in the environment and in that man? Did Jesus bind that mental resistance first, and then heal the case?”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax-Collectors Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
GET READY FOR “A COMPLETE CHANGE for the BETTER!” ACTIONIZE ROMANS 12:2/cit. B17
[FYI:] “In one of Mary Baker Eddy’s Bibles, she wrote beside Romans 12:
“Romans 12 is Christian Science.” (MBE Accession #B00017.C)
Romans 12:2“. . . be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Conformed is syschematizo in Greek which means “to conform one’s self, one’s mind and character, to another’s pattern, to fashion one’s self according to (www.blueletterbible.org, Strong’s Lexicon 2964).
Transformed is metamorphoo in Greek which means “to change into another form, to transfigure, i.e. resplendent with a divine brightness, to the same image of consummate excellence that shines in Christ, reproduce the same image” (www.blueletterbible.org, Strong’s Lexicon 3339).
“Acceptable – That which will be pleasing to God. or which he will approve. There is scarcely a more difficult text in the Bible than this, or one that is more full of meaning. It involves the main duty of religion to be separated from the world; and expresses the way in which that duty may be performed, and in which we may live so as to ascertain and do the will of God” (Barnes Commentary from www.biblehub.com).
JB Phillips’ translation – “Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold.”
James Moffatt’s translation – “Instead of being molded to this world, have your mind renewed, and so be transformed in nature, able to make out what the will of God is, namely what is good and acceptable to Him and perfect.”
YOUR FOCUS on GOD CHANGES YOU, even when it SEEMS just partly FULFILLED. Cobbey Crisler on II Corinthians 3:13-18/cit. B20
[Cobbey:] “In 2nd Corinthians 3:13 it says that Moses had to “put a veil on his face,” because… they weren’t really ready to face the abolition of so much that we trust right now that doesn’t deserve our trust, so much that we depend upon, other than God.”
“Instead of that veil, look what we must do in Verse 18, “We all, with,” what? “Open face.” Now here are the instructions; when in doubt, read the instructions. “We all, with open face,” no veil, no mist. “Behold,” how? “As in a glass.” Immediately we’re talking about what? Original and reflection. What are we supposed to look at? What’s our model? “The glory of the Lord,” and look what’s going to happen.
“Are we going to be changed into shame? No, the more we look at our Original, the more we will be “changed.” It’s passive again; we’re not doing the changing. Our focus on God changes us. The more light we face, the more transparent we become for that light. We “are changed into the same image.”
“Does it happen overnight, all at once? No, “from glory to glory.” Here we have the word glory expressing the very steps of our way, not from crisis to crisis, but from “glory,” that’s victory. There is an identity that is showing its supremacy over everything that the world has calculated to suppress it. It’s “from glory to glory” that we go down the way, making visible spiritual progress, because it’s happening from “the Spirit of the Lord.” (verse 17)
“This verse has caused the Interpreter’s Bible Dictionary to say that glory to Paul is “a partly fulfilled reality, although it is also a future expectation into which we enter by degrees.”
“We know when we’ve progressed just as we know when we’ve been inspired. We have already found glory palpable to our spiritual senses right here. Here is the link the human has with the divine, the link that we can tug on in the midst of kinds of bad news. This is why the gospel, or good news, elevates, uplifts our human experience because it is linked to facts that are quite applicable now, even though only partly fulfilled, perhaps some even tenuously based on what we think is hope rather than present fulfillment.”
transcribed from “Glory: Divine Nature in The Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
