Soul GEMs to FREELY SHINE light on your spiritual IDENTITY!
Saturday, August 5th, 2023
By Warren Huff (with insights from Cobbey Crisler)
Soul GEMs to FREELY SHINE light on your spiritual IDENTITY!
God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Soul”
for Sunday, August 13, 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
ACCEPT YOUR ASSIGNMENT OF GIVING WITH A SERVING SPIRIT TO THE DELIGHT OF GOD’S SOUL AND WITH THE SURE FULFILLMENT OF GOD’S PROMISE TO UPHOLD YOU!
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.” (Isaiah 42:1)
[Cobbey Crisler on Isa. 42:1 Golden Text, 6, 7, Responsive Reading]
“Isaiah, Chapter 42:1 is a prophesy of a servant who should come, the “elect of God” who would have “the Spirit of God upon him.” [W: In Verse 6 there’s a shift from God calling this elect servant in the third person[“him”], to God calling YOU and holding your hand, and keeping YOU, to give YOU “for a covenant of the people, for a light to the Gentiles.” You will notice in Verse 7 (Responsive Reading) – and in Isaiah 61:1 – what the assignment of this servant (YOU) would be, “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, [and] them that sit in darkness out of the prison house (W: or out of quarantines brought on by always resurging variants of the same false belief of identity based in a material body).”
[Cobbey again:] “Isn’t it interesting that the prophet Isaiah foresees this prophesied individual in the terms of “a servant” when the Greek word most often in the New Testament for healing has the classical Greek meaning of “to serve.” You remember how Jesus defined his ministry in those terms, “I came not to be ministered unto but to minister” [Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45]. Healing is serving by definition in Greek. Serving whom? God and man.”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren:] These prophecies in Isaiah foretell the coming of Christ as God’s healing servant. But the verse in our Bible lesson also promises that YOU are this called and healing servant who will be upheld. That is a promise of protection that in our prayers whenever we have “pictured this heaven and earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme wisdom” (SH 91:2).
[Warren’s PS:] As I was praying to see this supreme wisdom’s control over all and to unsee a resurgence of and dis-ease variants, I was led to read page 395 in the S&H chapter, “Christian Science Practice.” I found especially helpful the paragraph with the marginal heading of “Mental Quackery.” There Mary Baker Eddy says: “It is mental quackery to make disease a reality—to hold it (coronavirus or its derivatives) as something to be seen and felt—and then to attempt its cure through Mind…. Mental practice, which holds disease as a reality, fastens disease on the patient and it may appear in a more alarming form.” (SH 395:21)
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. B2):
[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.”
TAKE EACH STEP LIKE A SHEEP
WHO TOTALLY TRUSTS ITS SHEPHERD!
Insights by Ruth Huff & others into Psalm 23, verse 4 (cit. B4 & references to “[Divine Love] is my shepherd” in cit. S5/577:32-8 to “…I will dwell in the … (the consciousness] of [Love] forever” SH 578:16).
APPLY EACH LINE TO YOURSELF!
“Psalm 23 and ME”
Hear APPLICATION EXAMPLES FOR EACH LINE as shared by Warren Huff in his inspirational interview for the 2nd half of Arden Wood’s 2022 Annual Meeting at https://www.ardenwood.org/events/annualmeeting22/
Claim these divinely REAL definitions of YOUR heritage in the TWENTY-THIRD PSALM! They negate the supposed “23 and me” genetic domination of 23 pairs of ancestral X-Y chromosomes and can prove that they Do Not Apply (D.N.A.) to the real you! [Bracketed substitutions from Mary Baker Eddy show “the light which Christian Science throws on the Scriptures” with a “…spiritual sense” of Love. (S&H 577:32+/cit. S5)]
“[Divine Love] is my shepherd;” That’s MY RELATIONSHIP
“I shall not want.” That’s MY SUPPLY!
“[Love] maketh me to lie down in green pastures:” That’s MY REST!
“[Love] leadeth me beside still waters.” That’s MY REFRESHMENT!
“[Love] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]:” That’s God’s way of HEALING & MINE!
“[Love] leadeth me in the paths of righteousness” That’s God’s GUIDANCE & MINE!
“For His name’s sake.” That’s MY PURPOSE!
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” That’s MY TESTING!
“I will fear no evil:” That’s MY PROTECTION!
“For [Love] is with me;” That’s God’s FAITHFULNESS and MINE!
“[Love’s] rod and [Love’s] staff they comfort me.” That’s God’s DISCIPLINE and MINE!
“[Love] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:” That’s MY HOPE!
“[Love] anointeth my head with oil;” That’s God’s CONSECRATION and MINE!
“My cup runneth over.” That’s God’s ABUNDANCE and MINE!
“Surely goodness & mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:” That’s God’s BLESSING & Mine!
“And I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [Love]” That’s MY SECURITY!
“forever.” That’s God’s ETERNAL HERITAGE and MINE!
(partly penned by CedarS Founder, Ruth Huff, partly by her son, Warren Huff)
STOP RUNNING FROM PROBLEMS!
WRESTLE with them and with your ANGELS ‘TIL THEY BLESS YOU!
Cobbey on Jacob’s identity struggles Gen. 32/cit. B7 & cit. S6/308:14
[Cobbey Crisler on Jacob running from a problem instead of confronting it like Jesus advises in the Sermon on the Mount:]
“In Matthew 5, verse 29. Jesus says “If your right eye offend you, then confront it.” If you’ve got a problem, don’t run from it, confront it.
“Jacob ran twenty years from whatever he’d done that was wrong, rather than confront it. Finally, he was forced to face it because his brother was going to murder him the next day. He sent everybody away.
“He was all alone. There he was in the wilderness, like all of us have to be sometimes, struggling with his sense of who he was. Jacob’s character and name were suddenly transformed, into Israel (Genesis 32:28), meaning a prince, or one who has dominion, rather than one who is subordinate.
“One version of what the word Jacob means in a commentary I read was “following at the heel of.” Look at the difference between that and “Israel,” one who has dominion. “One-who-followsat the heel of” never makes it. Jacob never is the millionth person to go through the supermarket year’s supply of groceries. He’s either behind him or in front of him. He never makes it. It’s like the fellow at the pool of Bethesda.
“He was a Jacob in that sense. Everyone else got ahead of him. How many have been dominated by the thought that somebody else has had the luck; somebody else has the talent; somebody else has the know-how. or they knew the right people. That “Jacob” has to exchange to “Israel.”
“We are to be called children of Israel rather than children of Jacob.
Is this what Jesus is showing us in his own depth of insight in the Scripture?”
“The Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax-Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FOR BONUS insights on Jacob as “the Biblical ‘poster child’ for identity crises” (cit. B7/Gen. 32:24-30) CLICK here & scroll to “SECTION 2: OUR SPIRITUAL IDENTITY is “out of joint” with the FALSE, MATERIAL SENSE of IDENTITY” in KERRY JENKINS’ Met.
FOR BONUS insights on Abigail’s peacemaking (cit. B15/1 Sam 25:4 – 35) CLICK here and scroll to “SECTION 4: SOUL BRINGS PEACE TO EVERY BATTLE WITH SELF.” in KERRY JENKINS’ Met. .
TURN any bit of GRIT into a “*PEARL* of great price*” (Matt. 13:46) and ALL TRASH into “TREASURES of TRUTH & LOVE!” – a one-sentence prelude to citation S17, 265:5-15
“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.”
The four, lasting BONUS BLESSINGS of spiritual growth listed this passage are ones we have a right to claim and demonstrate as our own:
– 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 exactly what today’s youth needs – and exactly what today’s world needs.
At the close of every session (like today) we invite everyone to stay united in ongoing spiritual growth by continuing to “gravitate Godward” and demonstrate the permanent, “pure peace… storm or shine” (Hymn 513) that we’ve been seeking and demonstrating as our 2023 metaphysical theme.
Just as CedarS family of supporters from all over the world have been hearing CedarS Christian Science “Prac (practitioner) Talks” throughout the summer that have expanded on our “pure peace” theme, so too campers, staff and families can go back to them any time for inspiring, 10-minute reminders at: Summer Breakfast Prac Talks – CedarS Camps.
We know that many campers & staff will continue CedarS tradition of pausing to have a refreshing “Met” (a God-centered goal & inspiration) when they start activities in their homes just like we do at CedarS. And, we hope that campers and staff continue to prove the value at home of daily Bible Lesson study, weekly Sunday School classes & testimony meetings that offer nuggets of Truth for all to make their own.
We hope also that the “healing-treasures-seekers” from all 50 states and 23 countries (who have found their peace and joy in past CedarS Hymn Sings) will keep joining CedarS virtual Hymn Sings now held on the 1st Sunday of each month at 7pm Central Time.
BONUS OF A RELATED GEM: *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 & the oyster responds by secreting on it layer upon 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 “of great price” 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 ardent advocate and most eloquent missionary after he was converted by a “virtual” meeting with Jesus. (So, don’t underestimate the power of a virtual hymn sing or church service whenever the Christ is truly 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 treasures 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!
CHERISH a CHRISTLY COMPASSION to HEAL & FEED OTHERS — & have DOMINION!
Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 14:14-21 (1st part of citation B17)
[Cobbey:] Matthew 14: Verse 14 (similar to Matt. 15:30) “But the multitudes followed him.” Instead of saying, “Look, will you let a man be alone for once,” he turned around with compassion and healed their sick.”
(Verse 15-20). And out comes the famous loaves-and-fishes incident in which everyone is fed, with a balance left over despite the fact that we’re dealing with thousands of people. …
And, right after this (Verses 24-33) we have the walking-on-the-sea incident.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, A Tax-Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Warren:] A concomitant idea: Find in divine economics that our Shepherd’s supply is inexhaustible, because “LOVE IS, LIKE 5 LOAVES AND 2 FISHES—ALWAYS TOO LITTLE, UNTIL YOU START GIVING IT AWAY!” (See a Download at the bottom of the online version of these GEMs this message on my t-shirt above an ancient artist’s representation of it in ceramic tile. I got it in January 2020 on a Principia Lifelong Learning trip to the Holy Lands, led by our Bible professor son, Dr. Barry Huff.)
Cobbey Crisler on Mark 6:35-44 (similar to Matthew 14:14-21, cit. B17 and Matt. 15:30-38)
[Cobbey:] “The only so-called miracle in all four gospels is the feeding of the “five thousand,” (and also one this week of the feeding of the four thousand”) Mark, 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**
BONUS video of an episode of the popular show “The Chosen” that dramatizes the distribution of the 5 loaves and 2 fish.
FEEL THE SPIRIT & POWER OF THE LORD’S PRAYER that JESUS GAVE US (cit. B19/Matt. 6:9+) Mary Baker Eddy says “The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer of Soul…” (cit. S26/14:22)
that “covers all human needs” (SH 16:11)
Hope you can connect to enjoy each of a series of Barry Huff’s inspiring podcasts on The Lord’s Prayer provided as a resource on the ChristianScience.com website at https://www.christianscience.com/youth/teens or at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NgKgVA7fzM.
To go straight to the podcast related to the last two lines of The Lord’s Prayer with their spiritual interpretation (SH 17:12)— go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y81HTwsVrJU
