Some GEMs of Active Ingredients from God’s Word that Preserve YOU and All Mankind!
Sunday, June 4th, 2023
May GEMs of Active Ingredients from God’s Word Preserve YOU and All Mankind!
God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with this PARTIAL SHARING of insights from Cobbey Crisler & others
as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“God the Only Preserver of Man
for Sunday, June 11, 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
REACH OUT TO YOUR ROCK, YOUR “… PLACE OF SAFETY” FROM FEAR
(II Sam. 22:3/Golden Text) How a Cobbey’s Sunday School students relied on God
[Cobbey Crisler on handling thoughts of fear]
“In Job 3:25 as Job is hearing from his “friends” [or familiar thoughts], finally Job says the very well-known statement, one of the most well-known in the entire Bible, “the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me.“ The Hebrew literally is this, “I feared a fear and it came upon me.“ The second part of the verse repeats it because it’s poetry, “and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.“ Look at the revelation, if we can use that word here about the nature of fear that we have. Had we already identified fear in Job’s thought earlier? (Voice: “Yes.”) Why did he get up every morning and go through that (ritual in Job 1:5 of offering burnt offerings for his children)? He says, the thing I greatly feared,” way behind, suppressed very deeply.
He was just keeping ahead of that fear through his religion. Nothing happened, and therefore he was very religious. Now everything is blown sky high. What’s going to happen to his religion?
What about this fear? What effect did it have? He saying, “the thing which I have greatly feared.“ What is its relationship to the fear itself?
(Sound of writing on the chalkboard) Here is the fear. And here is the thing we fear. Resting in the thought of everyone, especially today, with so many things that seem to be happening unexpectedly. Is that all accumulating in the form of suppressed fear? Look at what Job says happens. What is the relationship between the fear and the thing? (Voice: “Attraction.”) It is, isn’t it? In other words, this thing heads in the direction of the fear. It’s magnetic.
If we understand that to be true about the quality of fear in thought, would anyone be afraid again? Would anyone in his right mind want to be afraid again? If we that all that fear was doing, was attracting the thing that we were afraid of, right to us? Just think of the disservice so many Hollywood movies do, if this is correct. Also, ask yourself, if it is a coincidence, that right after we see certain movies, that we suddenly find the same disasters are occurring? The focus is human thought!
This is one of the most beautiful exposures of the nature of this to-and-fro evil to attack humanity. Our effort must be to break that magnetism so that the thing feared cannot come to man individually or collectively, because there’s nothing in thought to attract it.
The textbook gives us the solution to fear, the textbook of the Bible. Because I John (4:18) gives us the solution to fear. What is it? “Perfect Love castest out fear:” What kind of love? It’s got to be perfect, not a chink in it, in the armor. Is that stating to us that only in thought is a complete defense, or panoply (a complete suit of armor), with the threat of something that otherwise would be fearsome indeed?
One of my Sunday School students once had the rest of the class on the edges of their chairs as a result of an experience she had just that week. It illustrates this. She was walking home very late at night after an extension course at a local college in a very poor area of town, not lit very well. As she was walking through suddenly she heard a car behind her. It squealed its brakes, stopped at the curb, and out jumped four leather-jacketed “gentlemen.” They ran right towards her, grabbed her, and started dragging her into the nearby woods.
Here comes the big question, like it came from Noah, like it came for Daniel, like it came for Job. Here it is still a question mark in her thought. That girl had been used to studying the Bible. She was pretty good with it theoretically. Here came an opportunity to see if it had any practical value. Of course, you don’t think too intellectually at times like that. She said to the class that all that came to her was something she hadn’t even recognized was from the Bible. She never even remembered reading it. It was (from Isaiah 43:5) “Fear not for I am with you.” She kept shouting that at the top of her lungs, “Fear not for I am with you.”
Here was a mob scene. Something in the human nature of one of those boys was touched by that higher sense because it broke the mob up slightly. He said, “Hey, wait a minute, let’s let her alone. She’s not that kind of a girl.” That brief stopping of what looked like the inevitable was sufficient for car, just coming around to catch the scene in its headlights. It was a police car. The boys dropped her fast, got into their car and took off. The policemen, sizing it up quickly, stopped, went over to this gal and picked her up and said, “Would you like a ride home? Are you alright?” She said, “Yes, thank you very much.” She rode in the car with the policemen back to her house and the driver said, “You know, little lady, how lucky you are. This isn’t our regular beat. Our beat’s one block up from here. But my buddy said, ‘Hey, tonight, why don’t we just go down and check that area?’ So, I agreed and we went.”
That gal, in really reaching out for the only possible help—there was no human help — had apparently touched the solution for her experience that could be the solution for all of us. What needed to be counteracted in thought was fear, because look what came to her, “Fear not!” Why? The textbook answer, “For I am with thee.” Just that mustard seed was able to counteract what would have been the magnetic attraction to the thing she greatly feared. It was also apparently enough to, not only reach the thought of one boy, but perhaps even to alert the policemen to an idea that they had not contemplated on the previous night.
And everything arrived at once. You can imagine what that meant to the kids when they heard that in Sunday School and to me as well. I’ve always kind of taken it as a beautiful example of what Job is saying here in revealing the nature of fear.
…There’s a movie ad I read not too recently showing that we’re almost gluttons for punishment as far as human nature is concerned. That movie ad—maybe you’ve seen it—it promises audiences in big, bold headlines, “AT LAST—TOTAL TERROR!” (Laughter) Who wants total terror? But people are paying money for it! When they leave that theater, what’s dancing on their eyelids and their mental memory as far as these things are concerned? What does a knock on the door, or a scream in the night, or anything else now mean in terms of the helplessness of man and man shoved back into no-dominion-at-all, but fatalistically waiting for what comes?”
“The Case of Job,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
AS A SPIRITUAL SEER & SEEKER, LET GOD’S WORD SAVE YOU FROM ALL FEAR of being POISONED by FOOD, negativity, anger, jealousy…
I’m going to borrow a big pot from CedarS kitchen for my Sunday School class here in a couple of hours on our Opening Day of 1st session of 2023, our “best summer yet!” It will be help illustrate the story of Elisha and the prophets making stew during a drought. (citation B7, 2nd Kings 4:38-41 ) They are hungry — as we all are for a community feast to nourish our souls to shine as the best versions of ourselves. We will pledge be alert to keep anything from poisoning the pot– the pot-ential of each day and session, of each individual and cabin and camp group, by pledging to keep God’s laws as seen spiritually seen and outlined the Ten Commandments . (See Download online)
“LET NEITHER FEAR NOR DOUBT” MAKE TO AFRAID OF WHAT’S JUST AN ILLUSION!**
(Part of a 4-sentence treatment.) When an ILLUSION makes it appears that YOUR “BACK’S AGAINST the WALL,” PRAY a W.A.L.L. TREATMENT! —or C.A.L.L. treatment to know “who you gonna call?” (SH, 495:20, citation S10)
On page 495, lines 14-24 Mary Baker Eddy gives you (and the whole world) four powerful (and memoizable) sentences to guide your thoughts to healing when you are tempted to believe in the reality of some illusion or ghost of fear or doubt when it seems to be in your face.
** A lecture was sponsored a year ago by our branch church which addressed how to not get stuck in that dark place of fear. The talk, titled “Moving Past Fear — to Healing” and was given by Lisa Troseth, CSB. She’s giving it soon (June 13, 2023) in New York state as you can see in a calendar of many wonderful, upcoming lectures at Find a lecture – Christian Science.
W.A.L.L. Treatment (SH 495:14) These four sentences begin with the letters W, A, L, L—hence the W.A.L.L. treatment. This was a memory aid that came to me and has made it easier for me to remember the whole paragraph and use it often as a cornerstone for healings.
- “When the illusion…
- Allow nothing but his likeness to abide in your thought.
- Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and…
- Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding…” (cit. S10)
Or, it could be called the C.A.L.L. Treatment (SH 495:14) A different acronym/memory aid can be made by using the first letters of the directive verbs in each of these same four sentences. They are Cling, Allow, Let and Let again—hence the C.A.L.L. treatment. This alternate memory devise came to me when tempted to be afraid of some illusion or lingering “ghostly” belief from the past, present or future (like Scrooge was in “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens). Mary Baker Eddy unknowingly answered in-advance and brilliantly the question “Who you Gonna Call?” (from the 1984 movie “Ghostbusters” soundtrack song by Ray Parker Jr.). She treated all such “ghosts” as illusions in her ultimate, metaphysical “Ghostbuster” treatment that has served as a cornerstone for thousands of healings. – “When the illusion… tempts you,
- Cling Steadfastly to God and His idea.
- Allow nothing but his likeness to abide in your thought.
- Let neither fear** nor doubt overshadow your Clear Sense and calm trust…
- Let Christian Science instead of Corporeal Sense, support your understanding of being and…” (cit. S10)
(Reread carefully and consider memorizing the FULL, 10-line Christian Science treatment in Science and Health, page 495:14-24. Also of note are the four pairs of consecutive words (which I capitalized, highlighted and bolded above) all begin with C and S!
We’re faced with the barrage of news about a global pandemic, aggressive militarism and other forms of lawlessness – as well as with the hopefulness of peaceful protests which attempt to transform and uplift mankind out of hateful habits. To stay with the allness of God in the midst of this seeming somethingness of this evil we can always spiritualize thought as we C.A.L.L. on God and:
- C. Cling steadfastly to God and His idea [Christ]
- A. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought.
- L. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious — as Life eternally is — can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not.
- L. Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony.” (SH 495:14-16, 20)
Such CALL-ing on God gives us something certain to “cling steadfastly to,” and overturns what appears to be a worldwide fixation on fear. The C.A.L.L. treatment is a sure defense. It protects us as we follow the Wayshower, to find comfort and healing for our whole global family.
“Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the ‘glorious liberty of the children of God,’ and be free! This is your divine right.” (SH 227:23-26)
WHEN FACED BY FEARSOME SITUATIONS, LET US all PLEDGE TO WIN WITHOUT A FIGHT, LIKE DANIEL DID in citation B12/Daniel 6:1-26
[Warren:] A few decades ago, I commissioned Larry Groce to write a song for CedarS about the Beatitudes to share in everyday language its principles of heavenly happiness. We have sung it many times since then on stage in the dining room and at CedarS Bible Lands Park (BLP). Since this week’s Lesson features Daniel’s demonstration of remaining calm and unharmed when he was thrown into a den of very hungry lions to spend the night with them, we have shared portrayals of Daniel’s calm trust while in the lion’s den as illustrated in Briton Riviere prints that my mother, Ruth E. Huff, treasured.
Larry Groce conveyed this Beatitude as: “Blessed are the peacemakers in this world, they win without a fight.”
With respect, creativity, firmness in the right, and a calm, understanding confidence in Love, peacemakers always seek to win without a fight!
- “Understanding the control that Love holds over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions’ den and Paul proved the viper to be harmless.” (citation S7/514:26-28)
I have often asked ask those hiking up BLP’s “Time Travelers’ Trail to repeat after me: “Like Daniel, when I’m surrounded by strife and seeming enemies … I pledge to win without a fight… by “understanding the control that Love holds over all” … and by ‘think(ing) without strife.’” (a motto from the CedarS song)
We are also pointing out that the preparation of pausing before each activity at CedarS for a Met, or focus on God-centered goals and qualities, is one that Daniel, Jesus and Mary Baker Eddy did in their prayer practice. It’s a wonderful practice to take home for a lifetime of demonstrating the ever presence of infinite perfection.
When the strife, jealousy and hatred of his political enemies seemed most intense, the book of Daniel tells us that he responded by turning to God.
“Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime” (Dan. 6:10).
Mary Baker Eddy wrote about her kneeling three times a day in Miscellaneous Writings on page 133:22.
“Three times a day I retire to seek the divine blessing on the sick and sorrowing, with my face toward the Jerusalem of Love and Truth, in silent prayer to the Father which ‘seeth in secret’, and with childlike confidence that He will reward ‘openly’.
Even though Daniel’s prayer didn’t remove the challenge from his path, it did help him to maintain his thought in “the secret place” of knowing God’s complete control over all, so that he felt nothing but God and His presence and power. The aggressive barbs of the presidents and princes, and the fear, hunger, and animality of the lions found no foothold in his consciousness because it was filled with divine Love.
And so, Daniel was preserved. Plus, instead of harboring any resentment or anger against the king, Daniel said “O King, live for ever. . . before thee O King, have I done no hurt” (Dan. 6:22). As Jesus said during his crucifixion, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), Daniel’s consciousness was also filled with love. The consciousness of nothing but love and forgiveness got Jesus off the cross and out of the tomb, and Daniel out of the lions’ den unharmed.
“Understanding the control that Love held over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions’ den, and Paul proved the viper to be harmless.” Science & Health, Mary Baker Eddy, cit. S7/514:26-28
IN AN AFTER-BREAKFAST “PRAC TALK” THIS WEEK, CHRISTIE HANZLIK, CS, SHARED SOME INSPIRING IDEAS AND ARTWORK.
You can download the artwork and hear Christie’s “Prac Talk” from the webpage below. Christie not only shares the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den from this week’s lesson, but also relates it to experiences from Mary Baker Eddy’s life to illustrate “pure peace.” You can hear this all and see the artwork prints of Daniel facing and also looking away from the lions to God. This inspired Mary Baker Eddy in trying times to keep her thought only to God. Herew’s the link https://cedarscamps.org/wp-admin/post.php?post=16500&action=edit
