GEMs to TREASURE of HOW TO THINK WITHOUT STRIFE! TO START & STAY with the WHOLENESS of GOD’S ONENESS & ALLNESS!
God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler & others
as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Ancient & Modern…” (fables of separation from God)
for Sunday, May 28, 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
SILENCE DIVISIVENESS! HEAR HOW TO THINK WITHOUT STRIFE!
START & STAY with the WHOLENESS of GOD’S ONENESS & ALLNESS!
Apply the Responsive Reading/Deut. 6:4 & SH 9:17 to yourself & the whole world.
As Memorial Day weekend arrives AND we “love into view” our “best summer yet,” it’s very helpful that our Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson contains what Jesus was trained to pray to begin and end each day. (All Jews are still supposed to pray this key prayer at the start, as well as at the end of each day). They call this prayer the “Shema” – the Hebrew word for “Hear”— because the word Shema starts Deuteronomy 6:4 even though it’s left out from where that verse starts our Responsive Reading.
4 Hear, O Israel: “The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” [The Shema prayer continues… ] 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9, (NIV), verses 6-9 follow the RR verse.
Please note how constantly throughout each day Jews are supposed to prayerfully affirm the supremacy of God’s oneness and of His commandments that He gave to rule over all!
In her ground-breaking opening chapter of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, picks up on and interprets the centrality of the Shema’s demands on all of us and what we think most about– morning, noon and night – by asking the question: “Dost thou “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”? This command includes much, even the surrender of all merely material sensation, affection, and worship. This is the El Dorado of Christianity. It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the divine control of Spirit, in which Soul is our master, and material sense and human will have no place.” (page 17)
It’s significant that this key “Shema” prayer of oneness with God dovetails with CedarS 2023 theme of “Peace”. The value of oneness to overcome a sense of division and divisiveness is a powerful, healing keynote to focus on throughout each day. Our united prayers and actions will be especially helpful in the coming year as the world strives to emerge from the ravages and atrocities of wars in Ukraine, the Middle East or wherever these “errors are screaming on their way out.”
As Christie Hanzlik, CS, pointed out in a paragraph of a CedarS Met for a previous Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson: “It is tempting to see a world consisting of millions of human opinions, warring media reports, racial strife, class warfare, tribalism, gender inequity, political personalities, family disagreements and even conflicts within ourselves. The singular answer to this seeming divisiveness is the oneness of Truth, the oneness of good, the oneness of God. God is indivisible. And therefore we, as the outcome of God, are also indivisible.”
Verse 3 of Christian Science Hymn 157 calls for us to make daily progress in demonstrating unity: “Day by day the understanding / Of our oneness shall increase.” This prayer request to God for oneness comes from no other than Jesus in the final hours before he allows himself to be captured for crucifixion, when he prayed for his disciples and us that we may feel at one with God and with one another! (John 17:11, 21, 22)
Christian Science Hymn 157
“Jesus’ prayer for all his brethren: / Father, that they may be one, / Echoes down through all the ages, / Nor prayed he for these alone / But for all, that through all time / God’s will be done.
“One the Mind and Life of all things, / For we live in God alone; / One the Love whose ever-presence / Blesses all and injures none. / Safe within this Love we find all / being one.
“Day by day the understanding / Of our oneness shall increase, / Till among all men and nations / Warfare shall forever cease, / So God’s children all shall dwell / in joy and PEACE.”
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 157:1–3)
GO WHERE THERE’S RECEPTIVITY, LIKE ELIJAH, ELISHA & JESUS DID. EXPECT FULFILLMENT, HEALING. Cobbey Crisler on Luke 4:14-33 (citation B2)
In the 3rd episode of Season 3 of “The Chosen” in the Angel app at https://thechosen.app.link/ambYM1qrcwb you can see their video version of Jesus speaking in his own synagogue in Nazareth and almost being thrown over the brow of a cliff before walking through those who intended to kill him.
Another video version of this is offered by “Free Bible Images” at this link: https://vimeo.com/160923878
[Cobbey Crisler on Luke 4:16-32:] “Jesus appears in his hometown of Nazareth. Here is a hometown boy that has made good, locally, mostly in Capernaum, not far away. He comes back. “His fame has spread.” They invited him to do some of the reading publicly (Verse 16). They hand him Isaiah (Verse 17). If they handed him a scroll, he would have had to spend some time unrolling it to find exactly what he was looking for. This particular verse is very close to the end.
Isaiah 61, Verse 1, is what Jesus is reading. Notice, it’s very specifically a prophecy of the Messiah. The word related to Messiah appears in the word “Anointed. ” In Hebrew that’s the word relating it to the Messiah. “The Spirit of the Lord (is) upon me.” Notice, Luke has just said in Verse 1 of this Chapter that “Jesus was filled with the Spirit.” Here the prophecy says (in Luke 4, Verse 18), “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”
“Jesus is saying this in the congregation of the synagogue of his hometown. He’s simply reading the Old Testament. If he read Scripture like he cited it spontaneously, like he healed with it, you can imagine you probably would have heard a pin drop in that synagogue. Add to that the fact that Jesus knew he was fulfilling every word of that prophecy in himself and in his own career. Think of the impact in that environment.
Here, then, is God’s definition of the Messiah through prophecy:
Number one, the Messiah would do what? “Preach the gospel to the poor.”
Gospel doesn’t just mean “good news,” It means, in particular, news of victory.
What’s the second one? “Heal the brokenhearted.”
The third, “Preach deliverance to the captives. ”
The fourth, “Recovering of sight to the blind. ”
The fifth, “To set at liberty them that are bruised.”
And finally, Verse 19, “To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Having said all those things, having defined the Messiah in the Bible, he closes the Book and he sits down (Verse 20). There is a long silence. Everyone is looking at him. He adds (in Verse 21), “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
“Unfortunately, his hometown reacts violently (Verse 28), especially to Verses 25 through 27, where he goes back into the Bible for two very significant events in the history of the Jews, and certainly in the history of healing. One was the widow that Elijah visited (Verse 26). In the midst of the famine, she had an endless supply of oil (1 Kings 17:16, 26). The next one in Verse 27 is Elisha’s healing of Naaman’s leprosy (2 Kings 5:8-14).
Why would the audience at Nazareth be so incensed by what Jesus is bringing out in these stories? He was talking about foreigners, wasn’t he? When you read it, think of this emphasis. He said, “I tell you quite factually, there were many widows in Israel. There were many Jewish widows. But Elijah didn’t go to any of them. (Verse 26) Instead he went to a Lebanese widow.”
Is it really nationality that makes the difference? Is it really gender that makes the difference? Or age, or economic status?
No, it’s receptivity (that makes a difference), isn’t it? You couldn’t find it in Israel, but you could find that in Lebanon. In fact, that’s the only place Elijah found it.
It’s quite a commentary on the lack of faith among the monotheists of Israel. There were many lepers in Israel during Elisha’s time, but he didn’t go to any of them. He went to the commander in chief of the enemy forces, the Syrian general. There was more receptivity in Naaman’s thought than he found in Israel.
Remember how often Jesus says to some of those he cures, like the centurion and some of those who were not Jewish, he says in Matthew 8:10, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”
The receptivity message is that God is universally accessible. They didn’t like that message. Verse 29, They “thrust him out of the city.” They nearly killed him. That was the attempt. (Verse 30,) “But Jesus passing through the midst of them went his way.”
I suggest to you, as my father suggested to me once in discussing this incident, that it is easier to accept prophecy than it is to accept fulfillment. With prophecy, one may have been trained to respect and revere it over the years. But when fulfillment occurs, who’s ready for that, especially in one’s own home town? That’s the point Jesus said (in Verse 24), “No prophet is accepted in his own country.”
Later we find Jesus telling his followers to search the Scriptures (John 5:39).
They will find him there which more or less implies that if we can’t find Jesus in
Prophecy, we can’t find Jesus.”
“Luke, the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
REFUSE TO ACCEPT THE FLESH AS THE CONTAINER OF YOUR INDIVIDUALITY!
Freedom from the flesh is Paul’s postlude to cit. B4, Romans 8:5-9+
“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.” (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 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 cit. B4, 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**
THINK AGAIN TO PROVE THAT IT’S NOT PROBLEMS, BUT HARMONY, THAT IS AT HAND!
Cobbey Crisler on Matt 4:17 prelude to Matt. 4:23 (cit. B10):
[Cobbey:] “Verse 17 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” … Jesus’ opening word, according to Matthew’s gospel is “Repent.” Change your concept. Again, just as John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:2, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That is radical good news for mankind.
“It’s not a far-off event. Many denominations have left the impression that heaven is something attainable in the far-off future. But, the opening words of John the Baptist, as well as of Jesus, are “the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” right here. That means that we must be able to do something with it and about it. And, apparently that had something to do with the changing of our concept, even theologically, that heaven can do something about the problems that that seem to be at hand.
“… Are the problems at hand, or is heaven at hand? That’s the test question that Jesus met in the preceding verses so beautifully as a sovereign over it in the wilderness. He proved that heaven was at hand.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[W.] We follow our Master Jesus, as we dismiss dualism like he did to feel a heavenly harmony that heals EVERY PERSON & EVERY ISSUE! (cit. B10, Matt. 4:23) As a prelude to these verses from this week’s lesson, you’ll enjoy Cobbey’s insights on Jesus’ wilderness testing experience where he overcame feeling isolated and alone, by feeling ALL One with his Abba “Daddy”! You’ll enjoy this even more if you’re feeling vulnerable to attacks from a devilish, divisive virus! (Devil or diabolos means to try to throw in 2 opposite directions at the same time.)
Cobbey Crisler on Jesus “acing” his long isolation tests & healing all, Matt. 4:1-11 before verses 17, 23 (in citation B10):
[W. Before the Matthew 4:17 and 23 verses in this week’s lesson is what enabled Jesus to heal everyone.]
[Cobbey:] “There is what we might call an identity-crisis test in Chapter 4 (of Matthew). The Anglo-Saxon word “tempt” has almost picked up a theological meaning. It really means “test.” That’s what the word means. It’s a test. (Verse 1) So, “Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness” to be tested on the fact that had recently been revealed (directly from God in Matthew 3:17 (and Mark 1:11) that Jesus was God’s “Beloved Son”).
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**
WHENEVER 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. B11
[Cobbey:] “Matt. 12:22/cit. B11). “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**
GIVE THE BEST GIFT! BRING HEALING –AND BEAUTY–TO EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING THAT SEEMS “LAME!”
Cobbey Crisler on Acts 3:1-8 (cit. B15, and “Look on Us” a YouTube poem by Ken Cooper) in which Peter lifts up a lame man who leaps as prophesied in Isaiah 35:6
[Cobbey:] “Acts, Chapter 3, we find that the introduction of the public lecture and ministry technique is increasing. We’re now going into a renewed phased; it’s becoming part of church activity.
And “Peter and John together give a combined lecture” beginning in Chapter 3.
Acts 3:1 Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
And first, preceding that, look what else identifies the church? Right. “Coming to the temple.”
Probably, as the Anchor Bible suggests at the second daily hour of prayer, which is three P.M.
There at the temple – now notice the juxtaposition here of the “physical structure that’s represented the worship of one God, the temple here, and outside it, a man needing help.
Religion had not been able to address itself to his problems, as yet. “He had been lame from the moment of birth, and every single day, his outlook was merely to survive through other’s charity.”
Acts 3:2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;
So, Peter and John were just two other faces. And they walked by, and “he asked for alms.”
Now, for some the highest view of religion is social service and would give such alms. And often such alms are helpful and humanitarian. He didn’t ask for healing. Perhaps he might have given up on that, or considered it just wasn’t possible.
“But, Peter, fastening his eyes upon him” – now that kind of focus is something, probably, more than physical, wouldn’t you say?
Acts 3:4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.
You remember when the woman who had the infirmity of eighteen years? Jesus looked on that woman, and everyone else had looked on that woman, …
How did Jesus look at people? How did he see them that enabled him to get such tremendous results – just the opposite of the human sympathy that religion had felt was virtually the highest contribution it could make to the ills of mankind?
If Peter and John, having witnessed Jesus healing in many cases, “fastens his eyes upon him on John, said, Look on us.” (Acts 3:4)
Now, immediately, he got his attention. Now, to study the sequence that led to the healing that the text often gives you. What’s needed in human mentality to bring the healing into the experience of the individual?
“Look on us,” is apparently requirement one – away from the alms, the masses, the crowds, the helpless condition – “look on us.”
You know the story about – if you want the donkey to move, you have to get his attention first. You know (the story), you hit him between the eyes. You know, in a way, this is getting the attention of the patient.
“Look on us.” “He gave heed unto them….” (See below) So, we have the condition of what? Receptivity and expectation, expecting to receive – there are your two words. (He was) expecting to receive something of them.
Acts 3:5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.
“Then Peter said, Disabuse yourself of any hope that I’m going to hand you out the coin of the realm, but what I have I’m going to give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” (Acts 3:6)
Peter, to encourage his thought and the possibility of it, for that man had sat there daily in that condition, to help him separate himself from that condition, he “takes him by the right hand, lifts him up: and immediately on his feet, he feels his feet and ankle bones receiving the strength” – simply an endorsement of what Peter and John had already seen was there. (Acts 3:7)
So, I thought you might be interested in seeing this first, specific miracle, so-called, that occurs after Jesus’s departure – the first specific one. We’d been told that “signs and wonders” had occurred. (Samples below of “signs and wonders wrought by the apostles)
Acts 3:43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Acts 5:12 And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.
Here’s how the Anchor Bible has described the concept of miracle: “Of course, one may assume such miracles cannot occur, but it cannot be doubted that they were of decisive importance to primitive Christianity. We shall not be able to understand the latter unless we take the accounts of these healings seriously.”
The first thing this man does, before he even walks, is what? In verse eight? (“his feet and ankle bones” — Murmurs) Before he walks, “he leaps.” (See below, paraphrased) Not that’s even harder than walking for someone who has been in that condition. (Laughter) “He leaping up stood, and walked…” – those are three different things requiring his feet and ankle bones to support that activity — “leaping first, standing, walking and entering into the temple,” a relationship now between church and mankind healed, a church that can bring results! (See below)
Acts 3:8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
“Walking, and leaping, and praising God.” (See above)
Remember this is the same temple the man at the pool of Bethesda enters after Jesus had healed him. (See John 5:7-9)
And also, this – if we’re going to understand the scripture in terms of prophecy – if God indicates to humanity through His inspired word through prophecy that this is exactly what humanity should be doing – increasing their understanding of divinity to such a point that these obstacles, these ills that have plagued mankind for centuries unchallenged, should be wiped out of human experience.
Well, I don’t think the mention of the word, “leaping” in verse eight is a coincidence. (See below, repeated here for convenience)
Acts 3:8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.
Turn to Isaiah 35, verse 6, Isa 35:6 and you will see that prophecy embraces healing the sick. [W: Note that Isaiah 35 was divinely given in a Bible opening by CedarS Founder Ruth E. Huff, to be the purpose of CedarS to put into practice daily as outlined below.] …
Isa 35:6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
Every day of our worship in the week, be it one day or more, if we were hearing the prophets about healing the sick and then walking away and forgetting it, wouldn’t we be more or less in the same category as those who ignored prophecy in the days of Jesus?
Isa 35, verse 3, actually in a form of command – it says “strengthen ye the weak hands, confirm the feeble knees.” (See below)
Isa 35:3 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
And Isa 35, verse 5, talks about “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.”
Isa 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
And then in Isa 35, verse 6, “shall the lame…” do what? “Leap as an hart….” (See below)
Isa 35:6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
The contrast between lame and leaping, even greater than lameness and walking.
Now, that becomes/is a prophecy. We can’t ignore it. The fact that we perhaps aren’t doing that kind of healing work has no relationship to the fact that prophecy says it will be done and implies that it should be done.
And Isa 35, verse 10, shows you the results when humanity begins to comprehend the scope of prophecy. And it begins to look very close to the definition of church, doesn’t it? “The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (See below)
Isa 35:10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
It’s a collective thing, isn’t it? Collectively together, you and I, can obliterate sorrow and sighing and ills of mankind’s experience. And the church is designed to get us together to accomplish that result.
And what are we doing about the very instrument will bring it about? Are we supporting it? Or are we finding that we have grave doubts about the church?”
“After the Master What? – The Book of Acts”, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
LET YOUR TRUE I.D. SPARKLE IN SONG! PRAY IT IN SONG WITH LIGHT-HEARTED, HEALING JOY! Cobbey insights on Psalm 30:2-5 (citation B17)
[Cobbey Crisler:] “Psalm 30:2 Again, the appointment with the physician, the Great Physician, in the Bible is very often this, “O Lord my God, I cried unto thee.” It does not take our being attuned to God to make the appointment. Just as the Prodigal Son suddenly decided that his really right place was not in that pig pen when he came to himself [Luke 15: 16-18]. There’s a whole new view of one’s identity. He decided that his father’s house held much more. Then you notice the father did not go to the man with the swine to save the son. The son had to do something. Then, the father ran to meet him as he was coming [Luke 15:20].
“With your back to the Father, you’re not even heading in that direction. With your face toward the Father you’re looking at the Father’s face, which is part of the cure biblically, [that] is to see the divine nature. Then of course, you want to be nearer the source of your nature. Step by step the light grows brighter around your feet. We know where we’re heading. We may not have arrived yet, but it’s getting brighter, and lighter, and our problems are dropping away, our burdens, and the divine nature is becoming applicable nearer and nearer. “O Lord my God, I cried unto thee; you have healed me.”
“One of our modern hymns [#425] has been made out of verse 5, “weeping may endure for a night, but joy [cometh] in the morning.” That word “joy” in the Hebrew is “singing.” Take weeping as the symptom and notice singing is the remedy. Sing, do we do much singing? It doesn’t have to be even with an audible or perceptible sound. It’s in our hearts, the song…. All the things that Jesus mentioned. They have to make room for the joy. It’s fullness of joy. It’s God’s dosage. Everything else has to be eliminated, removed, uncontained. That’s quite a prescription for depression, adversity. It seems difficult to SING in a trial, in a crisis. The Bible is just saying, “Try it, you might like it!”** [Laughter] Because it might solve [any and all issues].
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
A. Mary Baker Eddy see the Divine Science of Christianity as the fulfillment of this prophesy as she states: “In the words of St. John, ‘He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.’ This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.” (Science & Health citation 30, page 55:22-29)
B. LET’S LOVE INTO VIEW OUR COMFORTER AS OUR DEFENSE ATTORNEY AND USHER IN EVEN “GREATER WORKS” IN TEACHING OF ALL THINGS! Cobbey Crisler on John 14:12-17
In John 14:12 Jesus makes a prophecy. He makes a prophecy in impersonal terms…
“There are greater works, the ultimatum of the application of what Jesus had introduced to earth. So, when he’s talking about greater works being done, through what agency will these greater works come? We find the Comforter is introduced.
John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter.”
We should know enough about prophesy and have enough respect to realize that most of the prophets in the Bible, including Jesus, had a tremendous regard for prophesy. They knew that it had come from God, not from man. Similarly, we should know how to recognize the Comforter when the Comforter arrives… The word “comforter” is parakletos, sometimes called paraclete… translated “comforter” given by our King James Version. You will find, however, that The New English Bible does not use “comforter.” It uses “advocate.” You’ll also find that I John uses parakletos and the King James translator of that uses “advocate.”
We should know that the word “advocate” is a technical word legally. It specifically means “defense attorney.” That has a lot of implications to it. By contrast the name “Satan” in Hebrew is a technical term for “prosecuting attorney.” There you have the battle joined in thought.
The Comforter is to come and defend man. We can see all the ways that Jesus had introduced various defenses for man…
John 14:16, “that he may abide with you for ever.” Is there a provision for a third revelation? The Comforter is apparently the final one.
John 14:17, “the Spirit of Truth.” Notice how that counters Jesus’ definition of the “devil.” What did he say about the truth? It was the recipe for freedom (John 3:8). So, it’s got something to do with that. But there is also a communications problem. The world “cannot receive.” It’s not going to be a popular arrival. “It doesn’t see him or know him.”
But, we will know, “because it’s within.”
John 14:26 picks up the description. “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.” There’s another part of the list, identified with the Holy Ghost in Luke 3:22, the dove descending is the symbol of it. The words “dove” and “ghost” are feminine in the Greek, and the comfort aspect also introduces the feminine concept.
The role of the Comforter “will be sent by God in my name.” If one were to regard that literally, the Comforter’s name should at least have some recognizable aspect either relating to Jesus or to Christ. Another aspect of the Comforter is “he will teach you all things.”
The role of teaching what? Is anything left out? “All things.” And at the same time, “it will bring everything back to human memory that Jesus said.”
“Book of John: A Walk with the Beloved Disciple”, by B. Cobbey Crisler
C. “Plenty of room for ‘greater works’… collective demonstration…in governments… nations… that could benefit from …the touch of the Comforter… ministries of divine Love”?
Christine Irby Williams on “greater works…” (John 14:12-16) (from a 12-29-13 Met)
“Jesus said… Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father…” (B22, John 14:12)
Christine Irby Williams nicely tackled the tough question of what works could possibly be greater than what Jesus did in a wonderful precamp inspirational talk to CedarS staff this May as well as in part of an inspirational address for the Christian Science Nurses conference at CedarS this September. [CedarS was delighted to again be hosting over 120 CS Nurses from all over the world during the first week of September 2019.] In 2013 Chris essentially said, in part: “Have you ever wondered what in the world Jesus meant by greater works? It does sound a little daunting. We read almost every week in the Bible Lesson something such as Jesus “went about…healing ALL manner of sickness and ALL manner of disease among the people.” He fed 5,000 men plus women and children with what had appeared to everyone else as a few loaves and fishes. He walked on water and suspended time and space. He raised to life a child who appeared to have just passed away, a young man who was on his way to be buried, and Lazarus, who had been in the grave four days already. And then, of course, he raised himself after the crucifixion, and he ascended. So, what could possibly be greater than any, much less all, of that? I’ve often wondered, and I’m still pondering his promise…
There has been one particular area in which it’s likely that we’ve all been aware that there is plenty of room for “greater works,” and that is working together, or what might be called collective demonstration: in families, church work, any kind of organizational work—in a church context or otherwise, in neighborhoods, in governments of all sizes, in nations, among the people, and in the world at large. Would you agree with me that these are areas that could benefit from the light of Truth, the touch of the Comforter—the healing and saving ministries of divine Love? Might we be so bold as to think about tackling the environment? World peace? World hunger? If not, why not? If so, let’s get on with it! Let us “then up and be doing,” as our hymn [#18] says!” Christine shared more inspiration on this and other topics at the 2012 Fern Lodge Annual Meeting.
First posted in Warren’s Met on “Christian Science” for 12-29-13
D. Mary Baker Eddy see the Divine Science of Christianity as the fulfillment of this prophesy as she states: “In the words of St. John, ‘He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever.’ This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.” (Science & Health citation 30, page 55:22-29)
