Choose to be DOMINION MAN! Bible-based GEMs on the first 3 sections
Thursday, March 2nd, 2023
By Warren Huff (with insights from Cobbey Crisler)
Be DOMINION MAN! Your string of biblical GEMs (thru Section 3)
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey & others
as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Man”
for Sunday, March 5, 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
AWAKE from the ADAM DREAM to SALVATION from SIN, DISEASE & DEATH!
Cobbey on Genesis 1 & Genesis 2 (Golden Text, citations B4, B5)
[Cobbey Crisler:] “Can we change choices if we have made the wrong ones? Do you find the Bible filled with this choice-making? How does it open, for instance?
“Genesis 1 (Golden Text, cit. B4) and Genesis 2 (cit. B5) are clearly a choice, aren’t they? They contradict each other. We really cannot live with both although most of us are undoubtedly trying. The necessity to make a decision, important decision, relates back to how the pioneer Christian made his decision. Whether he himself has that rock beneath him, as we said, before he made any rules. Or whether he, too, vacillated and was dualistic, and was pulled to and fro, according to the motion of Satan in the Book of Job (Job 1:7; 2:2).
“… Jesus, prior to going to Gethsemane, as you recall, sang hymns [Matthew 26:30], prayed with his disciples [Matthew 26:35, 42, 44] and for them, as well as for those who were to believe on him through the words of his disciples.
“I’m not sure one could point to a more meaningful event in history than when Jesus, about to suffer the cruelty of Gethsemane and Calvary, spends his last moments praying for us whom he had never known physically, for those who believe on his disciples through their words.
“… This Adam-problem is something that is not limited to the discussion in Genesis. We find it referred to and alluded to throughout the Bible, as if it represents in symbols the human problem. One Bible commentator in discussing the choice between the Adam-man and the Christ-man, represented by Jesus, indicates that the way these terms are used in the New Testament especially, it looks like the intent is that each one, Adam and Jesus, are representatives of an entirely different human race. They are completely opposite. Humanhood following Jesus is ending up at a destination completely opposed to the destination of the Adam followers. There may be something in humanhood we have barely glimpsed, if at all.
“Jesus found what humanhood could be when the Divine was behind it every step of the way. There is nothing in Jesus’ humanhood that could stop the Divine from manifesting itself on earth as in heaven. This may be our decision we’re talking about.
“Jesus refused to allow anything to obstruct the divine will from operating on earth. Look what he was able to do with his own humanhood as well as with the humanhood of others as a result. He could take his fragile, one would think, human frame, anatomically speaking, through what was apparently at least the sound barrier, if not the light barrier. In no way did his body hamper him when he walked above the water.
“He therefore had dominion, obviously, over what we call a law of gravity. Yet when he subdued gravity through this sense of dominion, gravity had no control over the dominion-man. Notice he was not like our astronauts, weightless as the result of negating gravity. He was still in absolute control of every aspect of his being and progressing toward his destination. He didn’t have to do it step-by-step because we hear that when he set foot in the boat instantly, not only Jesus, but the comprehension of Jesus could embrace his disciples plus boat, and get all of them through what we feel today, technologically would require heat-resistant metal, crash helmets, oxygen masks, or whatever else in order to preserve the human frame, and to get it through such stresses and pressures and tensions. Jesus was used to the pressure of Gethsemane, the olive press. He did not fear what flesh could do to him, obviously…
“…If our thesis as presented is accurate, that the implication of Paul’s statement [I Corinthians 15:22/Science & Health 545:31] “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” presents problem and solution, or remedy, then one of the greatest research jobs awaiting all of us is to get back into that problem called Adam which we’re all wrestling with.
“Just make a list of everything you detect that Adam did wrong mentally and physically. Because, if it is true that Jesus’ mission was to remedy the Adam man and wipe that alternative off the face of man’s consciousness, then everything that Adam did wrong which was upside down Jesus is going to put right side up and prove that man is upright. Many things may occur to you, for instance in the initial phases of such a list which we could just touch upon. Adam’s problem occurred in what environment? The Garden of Eden. Where did Jesus face down and confront that Adam-problem? The Garden of Gethsemane. Is this a coincidence? Is Gethsemane intended to be the remedy for the problems of Eden in our own thinking? I love in that context to remember Isaiah’s words [Isaiah 1:29] when he says, “Ye shall be confounded for the gardens ye have chosen.” Eden, Gethsemane. [W: The fables of Eden at the base of CedarS Time Travelers Trail is overcome by the facts of Gethsemane at the top.]
“Adam’s problem, though, is probably symbolized most graphically by what? He had been told not to do something, what was it? “Not to eat of that tree” [Genesis 3:3]. Instead he went and did it. The disobedience, doing one’s own will, would have to be totally remedied right up with the same even greater peak pressure on a humanhood that had just announced to the world that the way to get out of this Adam-mess is to yield to God’s will regardless of the pressure upon you, so [it’s] doing God’s will versus doing one’s own will.
“The tree of knowledge of good and evil. You know that the New Testament refers several times to the cross as the tree, that they nailed Jesus to the tree [Acts 13:29; 1Peter 2:24]. Interesting symbolism. The attempt to nail Jesus as if he were one more in the dying race of Adam, to be nailed to death, and that’s the termination and the end of anything that he would offer man radically as salvation. Jesus could not be nailed on the cross any more than God’s man could be nailed on the cross, and thus his theology was exemplified.
“Do you remember, – just things like this to show you how much fun this work can be as well – part of the curse on Adam [Genesis 3:17,18] was that thorns will be brought forth unto him. Did Jesus have to face Adam’s thorns on that weekend? “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread…dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return” [Genesis 3:19]. The grave was the pressure of the dust he was to return to. There are many others showing the complete reversal of the Adam. It’s as if the highest sense of mind on earth, which had relinquished its right to mind except by reflection, is turning everything right side up just as we do visually. That topic is far from being exhausted. In fact, what can exhaust an infinite reservoir? It’s one thing about supply in the Bible. It’s never consumed. Therefore, there are no consumers…
[Cobbey continues:] “Look at that discipline requiring human thought to conform and yield to the divine when all outlines and barriers around mentality as we have become accustomed to it fall away and we find no limitations to thought or mind at all if we are the image of the mind of God. “Not my will be thine be done” is Jesus using his own prayer in Gethsemane. If that Lord’s Prayer can carry one through Gethsemane, it can carry one through anything. …
“Gethsemane is the press, the oil press. Like Jesus, we must have oil within us. The pressure is still on. If Gethsemane is the press, can we say and be backed up by Scripture, that not my will but thine be done is the oil? If so, that’s the Christ-oil. The word Christ is based upon the Greek word for oil. That’s what poured out of Jesus’ experience at Gethsemane. What is it designed to do? To anoint, to heal, to feed, to cleanse. If the pressure of Gethsemane is upon us, what is oil designed to do? Do we find in our character anything unlike that Christ-anointed example? Is that human will that needs to be crushed out forever?
“We think we’re in an oil crisis today. The pressure is on. But Gethsemane’s purpose has a divine result regardless of what the world can bring to bear upon you and me, Jesus could say in part of that hymn that he sang before Gethsemane which is locatable in the later psalms, is still sung today at Passover, that he needed not to fear what man or flesh could do. Out of that experience flowed the oil that is still blessing us, is still being utilized. We’re not in an oil crisis today if we’re in the way with Jesus. We maybe at a “parting of the ways,” the meaning of the word crisis. We may be challenged regularly and often to make our right decisions, our right choice, our Gethsemane decision.
“Then, the result of no longer bowing down to a human will, no longer seeing within us any domination by others through their human will, but filled with the Holy Ghost’s own message, the angel that strengthens Jesus at that moment, according to Luke. That angel awaits to strengthen us today.
“The world with its creaky joints awaits, needs, yearns, for more Christ oil to be poured from the thoughts and lives of those who have made the decision, are continuing to make the decision, and are moving from Gethsemane at the base of the Mount of Olives to the summit of the Mount of Olives where Jesus himself ascended. We never have to budge from that mount. It represents both cross and crown, both problem and solution. And therefore, that oil which negates the experience of the cross and delivers the crown shows us that those two symbols, as precious as they are in Scripture, are inseparable. If the cross represents the problem, and the crown the solution, then intertwined they deliver that simple message to me, problem solved. That is the result of the Gethsemane decision.”
“The Gethsemane Decision,” a talk by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FIND YOUR DOMINION-MAN HEALING IN A SIMPLE POEM THAT DEBUNKS THE FABLE OF A DUST-MAN ORIGIN! (at the bottom of the online version is a Download doc for reprinting)
GENESIS 1 OR GENESIS 2
By Woodruff Smith
Where did it begin this idea called you?
In Genesis 1, or Genesis 2?
Which one of these concepts
Will prove to be true?
If you know what is what,
Do you know who is who?
In Genesis 1 in the 26th verse
There’s a man with never a taint’ of a curse.
But in Genesis 2 in verse number seven
There’s a dust man conceived…
He’ll never see heaven.
So, it really comes down
To which one you will claim,
What thou see’st thou be’st…
So, what is your name?
There they both stand.
Which one is you?
Is it immortal man one,
Or mortal man two?
If you’re immortal man
You know what you’re worth.
For according to law
You’ll inherit the earth.
But if you’re just a mortal
And made out of dust…
Is there anything to you
That’s worthy of trust?
No, the thing they call man
In Genesis 2
Is the dream of the dreamer.
It never was you.
So, know what you are.
Take your place in the sun,
You’re the immortal man
Of Genesis 1.
TESTIMONY OF HEALING
I gave a testimony one night in our Golden, Colorado church based on the ideas from a poem I really liked, which said, “Which of these men do you think of as you, Genesis One or Genesis Two?”
A couple of weeks later a businessman, not knowing I was behind him, probably, testified that he had heard a rather banal, trite testimony a couple of weeks ago from someone who recited that line, “Which of these men do you think of as you, Genesis One or Genesis Two?” and he thought it was so trivial, so lightweight.
He went to a business meeting in Atlanta, Georgia after that and was in a hotel room in the middle of the night, sound asleep with his wife beside him, when he had a massive heart attack.
He said he wasn’t naive, he knew what was happening, and he knew he was in a life-threatening situation. He was totally helpless, so helpless he could not even cry out to his wife for help, obviously could not call a practitioner, and he said for the first time in his life he felt completely helpless. He tried to repeat the Lord’s Prayer, the 23rd Psalm, the Scientific Statement of Being, but he couldn’t remember them, couldn’t put them together.
He felt totally mentally jumbled and then he recalled a very simplistic statement…”Which of these men do you think of as you, Genesis One or Genesis Two?” and he realized that it wasn’t so banal after all, that if he were a Genesis Two man he would probably not live through the night, but if he were a Genesis One man he could claim his dominion over the “things of the flesh.”
He did it. He said the pain lifted immediately and he felt whole and well. He decided the poem was OK after all.
–Lona lngwerson, CS
ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR ORIGIN as the DOMINION MAN, the CLIMAX OF SPIRIT’S CREATION — AS SPIRIT’S VERY GOOD IMAGE AND LIKENESS
transcribed from W’s notes on Cobbey Crisler talks on Genesis 1 (B2):
“Genesis chapter 1 was written in response to the Hebrew people’s crisis of exile.
“Verse 2 attempts to explain how creation occurred as well as how a new beginning could occur out of the vacuity of nothingness of exile. To the post-exilic authors of Genesis 1 “the earth was without form and void” – or “Toe-who” and Boe-who” – the translated names of the Babylonian mythical leviathan-like, sea monster and their mythical behemoth-like, land monster. The modern-day myth is that we evolved from the sea to be dry land creatures with a refined further way of animal thought and life. Human thought was dark much like “darkness on the face of the waters.” … Spirit is the root of the whole word inspiration… No advance can occur in life without inspiration—so “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”… This happens also when Jesus is baptized, coming “straightway out of the water,” as part of a divine announcement. He sees “the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him.” (Matthew 3:16) Consequently, one recognizes that if Spirit represents the motive of his career, it’s an inspired career…
“It’s how the entire Bible begins (Genesis 1:2) because “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” It’s almost as if in Jesus’ baptism, we’re getting this genesis of God’s creation, that first chapter, applied on earth. The Spirit is moving on those waters in which Jesus is standing. There is a Spirit genesis here. Look at what happened in Genesis 1 in those brief verses when creation is depicted for us.”
Verse 3 (Warren: from a bumper sticker that a friend enjoyed seeing) “The Big Bang theory: “Let there be light” and BANG! It happened!”) “Light (“or” in Hebrew, “phos” in Greek) was created before the stars… The motif here is that of the creation of the world by the WORD and a differentiation between the light and light-bearers.” Theological Dictionary of the New Testament
Verse 4 records the first Quality Control-check—“it was good.”
Application ideas:
“Any lack of originality is only a lack of knowledge about your true origin.”
Compare the development of any right idea in business or otherwise to the mental model of creation in Genesis 1:
Verse 3 = the dawning of the light or idea
Verses 4-6 = the analysis (compare and divide as on the first day)
Verses 7-10 = the decisive, solid manifestation of the idea (dry land appears)
Verses 11-12 = investment in the idea and its productivity
Verse 13 = exposing the idea to light universally, marketing it
Verse 14-31 = diversification (lights for seasons, living creatures multiplying, male & female)
Verse 2:1-3 = rest (not inertia, but success of the idea and its continuing yield)
DISCOVER THE INDIVISIBLE NATURE OF GOD’S CREATION from the end of Genesis 1 (Golden Text) in notes from Cobbey Crisler talks as transcribed by Warren):
[Cobbey said:] “Searching the scriptures does require scuba diving or at least snorkeling because there’s a need for both clear vision and inspiration.
Verse 26 Here in a book noted for its monotheism we find plural words relative to God. (“Let US make man in OUR likeness…”) Father-Mother (F-M) must be together indivisibly or we have more than one God. If there’s indivisibility in the original there must be indivisibility in the product.
Verse 27. To have Male-Female (M-F) in the product means that it’s in the original.
On IMAGE, Clemet of Alexandria wrote: “In our view, image of God is not an object of sense, but a mental object, perceived not by the senses, but by the mind.” But in Genesis 2:7 the mental model is dropped and in the material account of creation God forms man out of dust—the very OPPOSITE view.
This mimics the opposite view of male and female that is widely promoted in which sex promises us all satisfaction in physical unity—but does it deliver? The very definition of sex is division, not indivisibility. “The sensualist’s affections… and pleasures” would put one through lots of fitful, mental contortions that Mary Baker Eddy describes as “imaginary, whimsical, and unreal” (Science and Health, 241:8).
(Transcribed from notes in W’s Bible margins taken by Warren Huff during several Cobbey Crisler talks.)
HERE’S A CATCHY LITTLE DITTY TO HELP KEEP YOU GROUNDED in YOUR “LIKENESS” to GOD as INSPIRED by GENESIS 1:27 (Golden Text) and “The “I, Yi, Yi Song””
Singing this toe-tapping tune to oneself must come from “the admission to one’s self that man is God’s own likeness [which] sets man free to master the infinite idea.” (cit. S18, 90:24-25, bracketed word added)
Other references in this Bible Lesson to “image” & “likeness” & “reflection” in Science & Health include p. 531:5/cit. S5; 333:19-23/cit. S12; 299:11-15/cit. S18; 332:9-15/cit. S22;
[Some other reflection references in Science and Health include: 300:9; 90:24-25; 476:28-5; 392:8; 200:16; 497:5; 200; 94:1-6; …
Song for Next Generation Fellowship 2018 by Mike Griswold (vocal) Mike Tice (guitar). Released: 2018.
LISTEN (by clicking black bar in an online Met) for an ORIGINAL ‘LITTLE DITTY” on REFLECTION
(written, sung and offered VIA EMAIL by longtime CedarS staff member, Mike Griswold, now the Director of the Music Ministry at Brentwood Christian Science Church/Next Generation Fellowship
email for more: musicamonteverde@gmail.com
DELIGHT TODAY IN GEMS OF BIBLICAL THERAPY AND ITS HEALING TREE, fed by inspired Prayer Watch “channels of thought!” [Science and Health, p. 593:14 definition of RIVER]
“My prayer some daily good to do to Thine, for Thee; An offering pure of Love, whereto God leadeth me.” Hymn 257
[Warren continued: Here’s where this “GEM of the Day” (God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in us today)
fits within this week’s growing string of GEMs. ]
Insights from Cobbey Crisler on Psalm 1:1, 2 and 3 (Responsive Reading:
[CC:] “The very opening Psalm sets the tone for the entire psalter [or book of psalms]… We’re told right away that happiness, certainly an objective of all of us*, is the result if a man DOESN”T do certain things and DOES do other things…
[W:] What NOT to do— [CC on Ps. 1:1:] “Don’t follow the advice of the ungodly… the morally wrong… Don’t sit in the seat of those who deride or mock. [W: as if putting down others would benefit oneself politically.] Getting rid of that is the purgative [W: or purging part of the cure or medicine] …
[W:] What TO do— [CC on Ps. 1:2:] “What do we take, then as the restorative “medicine?” [W: or the invigorating part of a stimulus package for a return to health.] [CC:] “His delight in [W: or his pursuit of happiness] is in what?… “Meditation day and night in God’s law.” [Psalm 1:2] His teaching.”
[CC on Ps. 1:3] “Then, the tree appears in Verse 3, “that tree that brings forth fruit in his season with the leaf that will not wither or fade.” That tree is mentioned later in Ezekiel [47:12]…
Of course, we find the whole idea expanding when we reach that tree in the last chapter of the Bible. That tree has grown in our thought too. Its grand root has been fed by the rivers of spiritual inspiration.” …
[CC:] “That fruit is fair. It’s never consumed. Its leaf is for medicine. The leaves of the tree may include prescriptions from the Psalms that we will be focusing on.”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler
DAILY COMMIT TO GLADLY OBEY EACH COMMANDMENT TO FEEL HARMONIOUS WHOLENESS WITHIN & TO EXPRESS “THE WHOLE OF MAN IN HIS IMAGE & LIKENESS.”
[SH 340:9+/cit. S1; from Eccl. 12:13 and Deut. 5:6, 7/Responsive Reading. also Deut. 30:10-20; Deut. 9:7; Ex. 20:1+; Mark 12:29+;]
Jesus also answered a question by a “certain ruler” about how to “inherit eternal life” with a recitation of keeping the commandments. (Luke 18:18-22, cit. B18) Jesus says the greatest of the two great Commandments is to “love God with all your heart… soul & … mind” (Deut. 6:5 & Matt. 22:37). It’s lived by whole-heartedly putting into practice the 1st 4 Commandments, summed-up below:
#1. Celebrate examples of God’s unfailing, freeing love if ever tempted to be worried!**
Click on each # below for elements of a Barry Huff podcast series on The 10 Commandments at ChristianScience.com. It starts with https://www.christianscience.com/youth/resources-lists/sunday-school-teachers-teaching-resources/the-first-commandment-animated-tr
#2. Quit thinking most about material things and bodies that will never be “up to the job” of being God.
#3. Don’t say O.M.G. (“Oh, My God!”) unless you are praying God’s name and expecting a quick answer!
#4. Remember—give loving attention to—God’s Genesis 1 Sabbath & work out from perfection, not up to it!
Jesus says the second great Commandments is to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39). It’s lived by whole-heartedly putting into practice the rest of the Commandments, summed up below:
#5. Respect and obey all RIGHT authority figures and boundaries in your life.
#6. Refuse (re-fuse) to get angry, make fun of or put anyone down! (unchecked feelings of superiority leads to killing Matt.5:21+)
#7. Seek deep satisfaction in all God’s given and keep your promises (unchecked lust leads to adultery Matt.5:27+)
#8. Stop trying to GET happiness & instead try to GIVE it! (fulfill your “reason for existing… to impart…” My. 165)
#9. Stop saying what’s not REALLY true of others or of you (bear true witness— “tell …the whole truth… so help me God!”)
#10. Feel & say of the good of others “Thank You God! That’s Mine Too! (TYG! TMT! Is more powerful than TNT!)
**I’ve found it helpful to know that Jews combine our 1st and 2nd Commandments as their 2nd Commandment. They regard the preceding verse not only as the 1st Commandment, but also as a divine reminder of how God saved them – delivering them out of slavery in Egypt: “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage” (Exodus 20:2 & Deuteronomy 5:6).
We can daily live out the healing power of the 10 Commandments as we live-up to the truism that “to whom much is given, much is expected.” With all my heart I praise and thank God daily as I mentally review the many prayer-based healings God has given me. With ALL glory to God, these demonstrations of divine power (as I’ve shared in talks and Mets) have come to me in the form of:
- my yielding to divine Mind’s harmony 12 yrs. ago for a rapid dissolving of a cancerous growth;
- an instantaneous healing of a broken arm (later x-ray verified before playing D1 football);
- a $100k humanly unsolicited gift from a first-time donor who called a few minutes after I knew of the need & was truly grateful in advance that it was already met;
- God filling our Mediterranean Sea in CedarS Bible Lands Park for Cable Skiing and other watersports with 60 million gallons of “holy water” in just 6 days before CedarS 50th Opening Day as had been promised to our Memorial Weekend guests;
- a downpour, on-cue and “out of the blue,” to divine drench a wildfire (That makes it possible for all wildfires since “Impossibilities never occur.” SH 245:27)
- AND MANY MORE!…
“What cannot God do?” [These testimonies & others should eventually be fully shared as testimonies in the Christian Science periodicals.]
FULFILL YOUR GOD-GIVEN HERITAGE AS DOMINION MAN, NOT DUST MAN!
Cobbey Crisler on Psalm 8:4, 6/citation B1: “What is man that… put all things under his feet.”
[Cobbey:] “Psalm 8, Verse 4. What is the presumption behind biblical therapy? What is its premise? We know it would be based on the question in verse 4 in part, “What is man?” That has been the most elusive answer to any question for the human race, except, perhaps, what is God? Who am I? The great unanswered question. Or does the Bible provide answers that fill that gap in thought, that vacuity? The answer given here biblically is “Thou madest him to have dominion.”
You need to have a premise on which to base the whole idea or concept of biblical healing or therapy. It’s based on the fact that man has dominion. Of course, that immediately recalls to us God’s pronouncement of that effect in Genesis 1 [Verse 26]. If dominion is part of the nature of man, what does that say about man’s ability to get rid of disease? We can’t have dominion and be dominated simultaneously. The logic of that premise requires us to search out more deeply what the Bible is telling us about man’s nature as it relates to God because it’s on that basis that we are having these prescriptions filled…
If it’s God’s theology, according to the Bible, it works. God’s theology in the Bible can never be confined to theory. When God spake, what happened? It was done. That’s how quickly His medicine works…
“In biblical terms, [Psalms 8:6], “Thou makest him to have dominion.” What is there about this fact that we can apply? Are the Psalms, in part, the threshold of our discovery of this throughout the entire Bible?”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
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 any more? 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**
WHAT GOD KNOWS of YOU, KNOW of YOURSELF & OTHERS!
Cobbey Crisler on I Corinthians 13:12 (cit. B7) “see face to face”
Verse 12. Seeing “face to face” is a mental thing…
“then I shall know even as I am known…” What God know of us, we know of ourselves and others…
[from Cobbey talk notes taken by Warren]
YOUR FOCUS on GOD CHANGES YOU, even when it SEEMS just partly FULFILLED! Cobbey on II Corinthians 3:13-18/cit. B8
[Cobbey Crisler:] “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.”
“Glory: Divine Nature in The Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
GET OUT of a MORTAL SHELL! STOP BELIEVING the FABLE & CURSE of AN EARTHY, EGG ORIGIN!
In bite-sized pieces, victory, after victory, after victory “swallow up death in victory.” “Put on” the total wholeness of “incorruption…” and “immortality.” Abide “in heavenly love… (where) no change my heart shall fear.” (Hymn 148)
I Cor. 15:48/citation B9: “As is the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven.” (NIV)
[Cobbey Crisler on bonus verses,1st Cor. 15:50, 53:]
“Another conclusion is coming through Paul’s receptivity. He presents two views, one with man within an egg origin, one out of an egg origin. A chicken takes 10,000 pecks to get out of its shell of limitation. Bible pioneers like Paul worked hard to get out of their limited, mortal shells and they communicated this to us. [Mary Baker Eddy says, “Mortals must emerge … They must peck open their shells with Christian Science…” (S&H 552:14)
I Corinthians 15, verse 50 “…flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”
One might ask “Why are we trying to drag flesh along as if it’s a party?” [This relates to Mary Baker Eddy’s observation: “Being in sympathy with matter, the worldly man is at the beck and call of error, and will be attracted thitherward.” [S&H 21:25]
“Take up your bed and walk—Mind suddenly takes on the glow of our original, incorruptible glory.”
I Corinthians 15, verse 53 “…this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
I Corinthians 15, Verse 54, “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
[Cobbey Crisler writes on bonus postlude verses:] “In Isaiah 25:8 & 9: Just to see how the peak of prophetic insight, namely Isaiah’s great thought, dwells upon this concept of healing. Does that sound familiar to you at all? It talks about God doing what? “Swallowing up death in victory.” That’s where Paul gets that concept. He mentions it [in 1 Corinthians 15:54]. It’s from Isaiah. “Swallowing up death in victory; the Lord GOD wiping away tears from off all faces;” and the beautiful statement that “the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth.” That goes way beyond just physical healing. It’s totally whole, nothing left fragmented. Certainly, the radical statement of “swallowing up death in victory,” swallowing is not always at once, is it? It’s bite-sized pieces, victory, after victory, after victory, swallowing up the effects of death.”
[from Cobbey Crisler talk notes taken by Warren]
OBEY GOD’S COMMAND TO LET the KNOWING LIGHT of CHRIST JESUS SHINE IN YOUR HEART TO GLORIFY GOD! Cobbey Crisler on II Corinthians 4:6 (cit. B10)
[Cobbey:] “Chapter 4, verse 6 of 2 Corinthians. Here is a commandment from God. This commandment was for “light to shine out of darkness,” and to shine where? [Voice: “in our hearts.”]. Where is the finger of God at work? Where has Christ written his letter, his epistle? If that’s shining, if we’re facing God, face-to-face, Mind-to-Mind, if our mentality is taking on the likeness of God Himself, then that light is showing. But it’s a light that knows. It’s a mental light, “the light of the knowledge.” In the Latin Bible, do you know what that word is? It’s our word for science, scientiae. It is the light of the knowing in a sense of disciplined science “of the glory of God.”
“We have the ability, therefore we are without excuse, to know God because he has revealed Himself, His nature, to us. We can call upon our divine nature. We can begin the answer the question, “What is natural?” with the response, “The divine is natural for me.” That “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus” leaves not one slight dark spot of Adam’s amnesia left on the disc of our consciousness.”
“Glory: Divine Nature in The Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
WELCOME CHRIST TO STOP BEING SICK OF A FEVER & OF HEARING ABOUT IT 24/7!
Cobbey Crisler on citation B11, Matthew 8:14, 15, 16 (+ “Hurricane season” bonus, Matt. 8:26)
EXERCISE DOMINION over ALL THAT LOOKS TO BE OUTSIDE of YOU—EVEN THE ELEMENTS!)
[Cobbey:] “(Verse 14. We come to the third healing [in Matthew’s series of 10 of Jesus’ proofs after the Sermon on the Mount of his Messiahship by his works, the healing of] Peter’s mother-in-law. To have a mother-in-law, Peter had to be married. Peter had a wife. It’s on the Sabbath day, too. But does Jesus consider women that important? Would he break the Sabbath for a woman? One may think that he might for a man. But would he do it for a woman? He does. Whatever business he had in Peter’s house, he puts all aside and gives priority to the mother-in-law’s needs. Despite the fact that it was the Sabbath. (Verse 15). He heals her of fever. [W: So much, for the supposed length and severity of the coronavirus as advertised these days—as well as for its being communicable… “and she arose and ministered unto them.”].
(Verse 16). “Many come, when the even was come to be healed.” Why the evening? Because then the Sabbath is over and they could all come without any fear of recriminations from the Jews.
[W: Added BONUS if you keep reading you can see in Jesus’ fourth proof, the stilling of the storm, an encouraging application to today’s weather concerns.
“(Verse 26). “He says, “Why are ye fearful,” immediately seeing the thought, reading the thought, “you of little faith.” He rebukes the wind and the sea; “and there was a great calm.” That tells us something about what it must mean in Genesis 1 (Verse 26/Golden Text) when man “was given dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air.” Is it possible? Is Jesus telling man it is possible that he can exercise dominion over the elements? He has within him the kingdom of heaven, dominion that can be exercised over what looks (to be) outside of him…]
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
BE AN ANSWER TO JESUS’ PRAYER FOR HEALERS, SOLVING PROBLEMS TO BRING IN THE HARVEST!
Cobbey Crisler on the end of Matthew, chapter 9, verse 35/citation B12, plus BONUS verses 9:36, 38 & 10:1
“And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
(Matthew 9:35 highlighted every shows there’s no incurability!)
[BONUS VERSES from Cobbey:] “In Matthew 9, Verse 36, Jesus is looking around him after he disposes of the Pharisaical thought— “he sees multitudes needing help, moved with compassion. There they were as sheep. They were shepherdless.”
(Verse 37). He turned to his disciples then, and his disciples in future generations, and made the remark, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” Does that imply he expected his disciples to be out there solving human problems, healing?
(Verse 38). He even asks them to “Pray the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.”
We now come to Chapter 10. We’ve had so much evidence that Jesus was an effective healer, but we haven’t yet had evidence that there could be healing via the instruction-route: that could be taught to heal1 sent out like apprentices in some human trade or profession, and come back practicing the rules learned with results, namely, healed cases.
We find right after the prayer (Matthew 9:38) that God “would send forth more laborers into his harvest,” and what do we find? A mandate to heal.
(Verse 1). “He called his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, to heal” What? Only certain diseases? “All manner of disease and sickness.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
“USE” D.I.A.L. (“Christ, … the Divine Image And Likeness…” cit. S16/332:11-13) to set you free!
“The admission to one’s self that man is God’s own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 90:24–25/citation S24)
[Warren:] Fun application ideas for a citation in this week’s Bible Lesson first came to me many years ago. I had fun putting them in again to share on a CedarS metaphysical theme t-shirt. … (with continued, daily thought-cleaning power as claimed in each shower & hand-wash, as pictured online in a Download below) The graphic riddle below from a ‘90s CedarS metaphysical-theme T-shirt
🍊 U 🙂 = (Orange or) “AREN’T YOU GLAD
U uuu = YOU USED.
D.I. A. L. ? = D.I.A.L.?
(The tag line for this commercial was: “DON’T YOU WISH EVERYONE DID?”
(A “blast from the past” spinoff of an often-repeated Dial soap commercial in the 1990s graphic riddle from a ‘90s CedarS metaphysical-theme T-shirt)
[In a 2007 Met, a regular Met contributor of past decades, Corde Hanzlik, C.S. (mother of Christie Hanzlik, C.S., contributor of this week’s Met and others on a monthly basis) commented in reference to CedarS D.I.A.L. t-shirt:]
[Corde wrote:] “We’re not advocating the use of Dial soap, but the use our spiritual status – walking in the Spirit – in all we do! (See Science and Health citation S16/332:9 in this week’s Bible lesson that was also in a March 2007 Bible Lesson, along with other D.I.A.L.-related citations from Gal. 5:25 and SH p. 94:1/cit. S17 thos week.)
Using D.I.A.L. as an acrostic for Divine Image And Likeness sheds new light on this old advertising message, that was adapted as a CedarS metaphysical theme message with a T-shirt version in the 1990s. Since this week’s lesson defines us as “the image and likeness of God,” we have divine authority to feel the stress-free worth of being the very image and likeness – the reflection – of all that God is! We must be very worthy with God as our constant source who is always taking knowledge of us! Do we always remember this point? It is always the spiritual man – the “D.I.A.L.” — that we must know. We have dominion, as cornerstones, and are happy! We “shew forth all” and are God’s marvelous works – moment by moment – by reflection! Thank you, God!”
PRACTICE HAVING A SPIRITUAL SENSE MIND-SET THAT WORKS LIKE CHRIST JESUS’ INVISIBILITY-CLOAK!
FIND IT NATURAL TO BE DIVINE!
Cobbey Crisler on Colossians 3:2, 3, 4 (cit. S19, 325:10)
(Cobbey on Colossians 3:2, quoted by Mary Baker Eddy in citation S19, 325:10) “Have you heard the modern expression mind-set? Verse 2 is almost that literally in Greek. “That our mind-set must be on things above.” Can we have an inner spiritual sense entertained that provides the divine reason for our being, even when we’re living on the earth at a human level if we “set our mind on things above, not on things of the earth”?
(Verse 3) “For ye are dead.” That’s exactly what the body is. If we are to be absent from the body, the body itself is now dead to our thought and our thought no longer responds to it. No longer worships it. The Greek word means to be away from something, to be separated from. “And your life,” we haven’t lost anything then. “Our life is,” or literally, “has been hidden with Christ in God.” (Hymn 370)
(Verse 4,) “When Christ, [who is] our life, shall appear,” what about us? “We also will appear.”
“We are joint heirs with Christ,” Paul says [in Romans 8:17], inheritors of the divine being. We are sharers, “partakers of the divine nature.” “We will appear with him,” How? “In glory.” In imperishable radiance. That’s not an abstraction. It is supersensible, but it’s concrete being. It’s a sharing of the glorious liberty of the children who find it natural to be divine.”
“Glory: Divine Nature in the Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
SEE LOVINGKINDNESS DRAWING ALL MANKIND to God & to SATISFYING GOODNESS for SOLUTIONS to WORLD PROBLEMS! Cobbey on Jeremiah 31 (cit. B17, Jer. 31:3, 12 +)
[Cobbey Crisler:] “In Chapter 31, which is Jeremiah’s greatest chapter, he predicts the new covenant will come. He defines it. In Verse 3 he shows that the new covenant is definitely based on the comprehension of God as love. It’s that very “lovingkindness” that will draw all mankind to God for the solution of the world problems.”— [to make “their soul (spiritual sense) as a watered garden.” (Jer. 31:12)
Jeremiah 31:14 “… my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord.”
Jeremiah 31:33, 34 “… this shall be the covenant that I make… I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts… for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest…”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
ANCHOR YOUR HEREDITY & GOODLY HERITAGE IN GOD!
Cobbey Crisler on Ps. 16:6-11 (citation B19)
[Cobbey:] “In Psalm 16:5, heredity is being dealt with in this pharmacy of the Psalms. “The LORD” is what? “The portion of mine inheritance!” Sometimes we’re proud of our inheritances. At other times, we’re ashamed of them. To anchor inheritance, heritage, and heredity in God, is, first, a radically different concept of origin, where we came from. Secondly, it only allows for the expression of the nature from which it is flowing, and that’s divine. The only inheritances, then, can be divine, if that logic prevails.
In Verse 6 you will note that [deep] concern the psalmist [has] about hereditary limitations on his ability. Apparently he comes to the conclusion through accepting the divine fact, the prescriptions he’s had filled, “Yea, I have a goodly heritage.” ··
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Cobbey on Bonus verses:] “Kidneys are the problem in Verse 7. There’s a very polite Elizabethan word used in the Bible, “reins.” That has nothing to do with what holds horses back; in some cases it’s used that way. But it’s also the translation of the word that literally means “kidneys.” Calvin’s talking about the anatomy of the soul, remember of every part of the soul that he finds being mirrored in the psalms. But we also are finding specific references to portions of the anatomy that give out, that fail, that act up, and on which we are dependent if the body is dominant; but biblical therapy, if we elect that method, we’ve got to be absent from.
We find that Verse 7, if it weren’t quite as tragic for the psalmist, it would be slightly amusing, in the fact that it reminds us of ourselves. “I will bless the LORD, who hath given me advice,” but if that’s all it took to get our attention, that would be one thing. But, he says kidneys also instruct me in the night seasons. [Audience laughter] I get cornered·.. I’m desperate. Now I’m back to God again, in a way. So very often these anatomical reminders are warnings.
But remembering also that there are two levels that every biblical concept is expressing itself, the outer one and the inner one. That kidneys also is meant to refer to the mind as the interior self, even Webster under “kidney” talks about temperament and disposition. Almost all of the anatomical words have mental equivalents. It’s as if back when our vocabulary was being formulated or translated from previous vocabularies of earlier tongues that we’ve had this psychosomatic link: We’ve had the physical and the mental attached even to portions of the anatomy.
Why has there been almost an unobserved record being kept by those who have investigated or seen or lived through some of these physical conditions, that also the mental state that accompanied them has been remembered. What is the (nearest dispensary) as far as Bible therapy is concerned?
KEEP YOUR FOCUS AND PRIORITIES IMMOVABLE IN GOD TO BE UNMOVED— WITH A FULL DOSE OF JOY!
Cobbey on bonus prelude Ps. 16:8-11 + 17:3-4 & Ps. 17:15/cit. B19
[Cobbey Crisler (CC) on Verse Ps. 16:8:] “I have set the LORD always before me: because [he is] at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Verse 9, “My heart is glad,” and guess what else happened; what follows? “My flesh also shall dwell confidently.” How does “flesh dwell confidently”? That’s a mental state, but it’s been subdued by a mental state. “My heart is glad.” What medicine do we want more than anything else? What leads us to a glad heart?
“Then the flesh simply subsides as the significant bellwether as far as health is concerned.
“What is the dosage of gladness in Verse 11? “In thy presence [is] fullness of joy.” That’s the dosage, ‘fullness.” There’s no room left for anything else.
[CC on diseases that attack breathing;] “Someone asked me during intermission about a marauder of a disease called Tuberculosis [or CoVid-19?]. The fact that there was a great emotionalism in that because it’s taking family members. In the spirit of our investigation of Scripture, going to it for the answers; perhaps this should apply to each and every one of us since we’re the ones to search the Scriptures. The Bible will not dwell on the problems of tuberculosis [or covid], but it will dwell on the solutions. That’s what you want as far as any one of the maxims of the Bible
“The Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, the original meaning of both terms, ghost and spirit, being breath, you can tell it must mean that simply by studying all the references to the Holy Ghost. You’ll find that people are filled with the Holy Ghost. The only thing like that we can relate to anatomically is [lungs) What are we being filled with? What does the pharmacy of the Bible indicate is the cure for improper breathing or lungs? If we can be filled, if we can take in, breathe in the atmosphere of God, we are getting pollutant-free air to just inhale. We must utilize that breath and send back out purity utilized. This is the sequence of breathing in its highest spiritual form when we run into it in the Bible. Perhaps, a good dose of searching the divine intent behind the term, the Holy Ghost, will translate that into our nature. The divine nature has no tubercular problems. The divine nature is the nature of solution to problems.”
[CC bonus on Psalm 17, Verse 3-4] “A cardiograph is taken within the precincts of a hospital in order to prove your heart, to test it out. But according to Biblical therapy, one of the leaves on that tree is that God proves our heart.
“… you know what the cardiogram is that results from the cardiograph test? What prints out? Verse 3, ‘Thou hast tried me, and shall find nothing.” There’s another problem that contributes to ill health that we’re all aware of, and that’s hypochondria and the fact that we talk about our illnesses a great deal and too much. Therefore the weight of focus in thought, the weight of thought is on that side. Which is why that needs to be purged out. The purgative must be taken. Here we find the psalmist recognizing that because he is saying, “I am purposed [that] my mouth shall not transgress.” in Verse 3.
“Contrast the transgression of our mouth with, in Verse 4, “by the word of thy lips I have kept [me from] the paths of the destroyer.” It’s kind of an invitation to “shut up and listen” as far as the pathology of the Bible is concerned dealing with the source of many of our diseases, building up of its forms in the image of our thinking. If you and I could take that music of joy in the Psalms. No wonder gladness and joy are connected with psalms. That is what brings that kind of healing within. When we can let the rhythm of our heart be ruled by the rhythm) of the Psalms then we can be kept from the paths of the destroyer.”
Cobbey Crisler on Psalm 17:15 (cit. B19)
Verse 15 of Psalm 17 [tells us] that God’s prescriptions, precisely filled, bring satisfaction. Satisfaction because “we awake in God’s likeness.” But that results first from the prerequisite of “beholding God’s face in righteousness.” That requires us to go back to the theology of Genesis 1 to comprehend what that means. If we indeed are image, or likeness, and God is the original, the only way we can find out about our nature is to spend our time studying the original. We know the image. We also know what’s not the image by studying the original.
“Just as Treasury Department experts know counterfeit bills, not because they have studied all the many thousands of counterfeit attempts, from poor work to expert work, but rather, simply study the original and you will know the counterfeit immediately. That’s in a sense akin to surgically removing in a mental way or taking this purgative cathartic Word of God to remove what does not belong to our nature. Imagine the joy of letting go what has burdened us for so long. It’s part of that darkness that is ignorance, that the light, the laser beam of revealed truth, simply removes, and not painfully at all. It just does what light is supposed to do. It removes any rationale for the existence of darkness.”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
