Valuable GEMS found within to Overcome Matter’s Enslaving Limitations

Valuable GEMS found within to Overcome Matter's Enslaving Limitations
Insights from Cobbey Crisler, Ken Cooper & others for The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on

“Matter"
for September 20, 2020

GEM#1a: [Warren "Moses:" Huff:] Get a YouTube mission-message of hope with proofs of "love from above" for Moses as well as for you. It was inspired by citations from Exodus chapters 3 and 4 as found in Section 3 of this week's Christian Science Bible Lesson on "Matter." [See citations B6 & B7 from Exodus 3 & 4, plus Mary Baker Eddy’s insights in Science & Health p. 321:8 (S6).]

Late-night camera work and narration in mid-March 2020 by Ken Pratt along with "ready, willing and able" editing by George Napper made possible this semi-professional sounding and looking message. May our obediently-socially-distanced production efforts and its messages bring not only a few smiles, but also some uplifting inspiration and the reality of God’s ever-presence in a time of seeming bondage today.

There are angel messages for everyone in this spontaneous video sharing: God intimately knows and loves each of you as precious in His sight; and God has a divine commission and mission of Love for you to do today for everyone who you can bless (within lawful guidelines)!

Loving smiles and messages reach across miles, compassionately do wonders, and are never illegal! So, let’s each of us be up and doing with love! Listen and obey each angel message to turn our “wilderness” of today which seems to be filled with “Loneliness; doubt; darkness” into world-wide blessings. That’s not only what Moses, but also what Elijah and Jesus did with their lowest wilderness moments!!! Like them and like all spiritual seers and doers throughout history, let each of us pledge to dispel every lonely, worrying, dark illusion by listening to and following God’s ever-inspiring, “burning-bush” angels!

Let us rejoice to gratefully demonstrate the present blessings of the second half of Mary Baker Eddy’s textbook definition of “Wilderness.” (Science and Health, page 597:16) She went through—and saw through—the limiting illusions of a merely material sense of things and put a “full stop” to them. Let us work together (even remotely) to put a complete end to the worldwide illusions of “Loneliness; doubt; darkness.”

Let's compassionately show that we are not alone, but All-One!! Let’s patiently “love into view” all good with “Spontaneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense unfolds the great facts of existence.” (SH 597)

SEE our video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50f4vWbs3ak&feature=youtu.be
[FYI: The scene behind “Moses” is a mural of an aerial view of CedarS painted by Angela Sage Larson on two walls in CedarS new office in the St. Louis area. In the sky portion Angela recorded one of Ruth E. Huff’s Bible openings that inspired the starting and naming of CedarS (near Lebanon) and the naming of Girls Camp cabins after birds (“where the birds make their nests.” Ps. 104:17)]

Warren’s reenactment as Moses of scenes from Exodus 3 and 4 was inspired by the Cobbey Crisler insights on Exodus 3 and 4 as transcribed below:

GEM#1b: Learn like Moses did that there is no death—that the Great I Am continues to be the God of all those who have merely changed their address. Cobbey on Exodus 3 (B6)
“Notice that when God appears to Moses at the burning bush and the bush was not consumed notice that, otherwise the bush would be I-was.

The bush was not consumed despite the passage of time, material elements, whatever.

That I Am is continuous and preserved.

Jesus brings out the point that God could not have used the statement “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” He could not have said that using the present tense in Moses time, if what were not true? (Voice: “Eternality”). Eternality of whom? Not just God. His point was not that. His point was the Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not dead, or God could not have said, “I Am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

They are I AM as well. If God is I Am, then his creation must always be I Am. That’s Jesus’ own point. We’ll get to that more as we get into the Gospels.”

“Heal the Sick: A Scriptural Record,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#1c: When what you’ve lean upon fails, learn from our I Am how to face it with authority & handle it with dominion as just illusion! Cobbey Crisler on Exodus 3 & 4 (B6, B87)
“Notice that when God appears to Moses at the burning bush and the bush was not consumed notice that, otherwise the bush would be I-was.

The bush was not consumed despite the passage of time, material elements, whatever.

That I Am is continuous and preserved.

Jesus brings out the point that God could not have used the statement “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” He could not have said that using the present tense in Moses time, if what were not true? (Voice: “Eternality”). Eternality of whom? Not just God. His point was not that. His point was the Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were not dead, or God could not have said, “I Am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

They are I AM as well. If God is I Am, then his creation must always be I Am. That’s Jesus’ own point. We’ll get to that perhaps later as we get into the Gospels.

In Chapter 4 Moses, after he has been tested on this I-Am subject, says he is afraid that others will not be receptive. They will say, when he gets back to Egypt in that symbolic condition of bondage, “Let’s ask ourselves whether we have emerged from Egypt.” Even the geographics of the Bible can be symbolized and made quite relevant to your own experience: The bondage represented by Egypt, the extent to which we are dominated rather than exercise dominion under God, which Genesis 1, (verse 26,) indicates is man’s heritage.

Then Moses (in Exodus 4:1) despairs of being able to go back and say, “God has appeared unto me, God is I AM, forget this antiquated theology that God is I Was. Let’s begin to do something about God now.”

Moses needs some examples. God says (in Verse 2), “What do you have right there, right in your hand?” A rod. I’m sure you know what that would mean to a shepherd, and all the uses of a rod in a shepherd’s hand: the symbol of authority, the counting of the sheep so as not to lose one, the encouragement, sometimes a little bit roughly, to get into the fold, the warding off of wild beasts, the general symbolic authority which it would convey.

“What is that in thine hand?” “You have a symbol of authority you’re already exercising.” But do know really what it is? How are you regarding it?” He is told to throw it on the ground (in Verse 3) and the minute it’s thrown on the ground, it becomes a serpent. If we wish to throw down our symbol of authority and release our grasp on it and let it fall into the dust-man theory of Genesis 2 and 3, according to Genesis 3 (Verse 14), dust is the serpent’s meat.

It becomes a serpent and Moses runs from a problem of his own making. Is this relevant to us? Does this teach us a lesson for ourselves? When things that we have learned to lean upon— whatever, hope, faith, perhaps health, substance or wealth, youth. If what we’ve relied upon falls from our grasp and hits the dirt, turning into what looks like the opposite, as our health disappears, our youth disappears, our wealth disappears, our hope, our faith, our religion, whatever, and in their places we find what the serpent represents, dread and danger. Then where are we religiously? Where are we? Is there any way out? Probably the biggest question that humanity asks itself: Is there a way out?

God tells Moses, as our spiritual progenitor, our pioneer in this laboratory testing, is God telling Moses what? (Voice: “Face it.”) Face it. Don’t run from it. Take it. Is the tail of the serpent the safest part or the most dangerous? In order to grab a serpent by the tail, you will have had to overcome what? (Voices: “Fear.”) Fear. You just simply cannot pick up a serpent that way if you have not already exercised a mental dominion and security over it. The lesson, too, perhaps is implicit that we should not let go of our rod or misunderstood its meaning, turn it into a false reliance, because it really isn’t youth, health, or hope or faith. It’s something even stronger.

We see the minute he picks that illusion… it was a magical illusion. The rod was always there. The problem was the illusion. He had fled before it. Now the rod become even higher than hope or faith, it becomes what for Moses? He now understands how to overcome human problems. Is this what he has to bring down into Egypt for the rest of humanity?

What does serpent represent in the Bible? Symbolizes, right from the beginning? It’s a symbol of the devil, the symbol of the power given to any opposition to God. So we find that a serpent here can be overcome. The serpent, in just whispering or suggesting things to Adam and Eve, introduces what according to the legend? (Voice: “Death.”) Before death, sin. The serpent and sin are parallels in Biblical symbolism.

That isn’t the only news that Moses through his own experience in the wilderness is to bear to waiting humanity. That’s only half the news: That man has the power in his grasp to overcome sin. The other half of the news is in Verse 6 (of Exodus 4) when God says, “put now thy hand into thy bosom.” He does. When he takes it out, before him is the evidence, and perhaps an incurable form of this disease, leprosy. You have to realize the dreaded nature of this disease at that time. It was sufficient to virtually ostracize you from the rest of the world. He takes this out. He has the same reaction he had when he first saw the serpent. What is it? The fear, the dread, to flee before, just even in repulsion. But look at the calm instruction (Verse 7), “Don’t get excited. Put it right back. Take it out.” Poof.

The whole to-and-fro nature of disease exposed here. Is this a message that God has given the only receptive individual in that known world—certainly the only one who has reported such an event—that man also has a God-ordained, God-given dominion over sickness and disease? But he must exercise that dominion just as he has the same dominion over sin.

In (Exodus 4,) Verse 8 (is) almost as historical, even though it is a prophetic note here, it seems historical for us, especially in our twentieth century when we have seen so many denominations are now being to focus on the role of healing within their ranks. In Verse 8 the prophesy is “if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign,” the victory over sin, “they will believe the voice of the latter sign,” the victory over disease, which is most easy to accept when one witnesses it. To see leprosy healed in front of you would cause many people at least to wonder seriously about what brought it about.

“Heal the Sick: A Scriptural Record,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#2: Cobbey Crisler comments on Jesus & Peter walking on water…
(Matthew 14:24-33, citation B9) and SH 329:7, S11)
… right after the famous loaves-and-fishes incident in which everyone is fed,” we have the walking-on-the-sea incident.

(Verse 27). The disciples, not knowing how to cope with that, get told what the palsied man had been told (in Matthew 9:2) “Be of good cheer.” You’ll notice that Jesus says this at times when apparently he senses the great need of encouragement and the defeat of fear in thought. “It is I,” he said, "be not afraid."

(Verse 28). Peter who (as usual) wants part of the action says, "That looks like fun, how about my coming out there and joining you?" Peter, not quite appreciating the consequences of his acts—fortunately for awhile—actually does it! He becomes the second one to walk on water.

(Verse 30). But then he begins to look where he is. "How did I get here?"

(Verse 31). At that point Jesus supports not only his own weight but also the weight of Peter in overcoming gravity, proving it is not a law of limitation for man. Man has dominion over gravity as well.

(Verse 32). Not only over gravity, but you will find that "the minute he gets into the boat, the wind ceases." In other gospel accounts (e.g., John 6:21), "immediately the boat is at the land." (They must have gone through the sound barrier and nobody was wearing helmets.)

So, even the so-called barriers to man's being where he needs to be, from a standpoint of transportation, communication, etc., were proven to be no barriers at all in the hands of one who comprehended with his eye single. His relationship to God had, within his infinitude, no such limitations.

(Verse 35). When he lands on the other side, "many come to be healed."

(Verse 36), "Many touch the hem of his garment." Apparently, the word had gotten around about that woman (in Matthew 9:20 and Mark 5:25, (B20) from last week’s Lesson) who had done that, "and many were made perfectly whole." Think of how many unrecorded healings occurred, or at least healings that we have yet to discover a written record about.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, A Tax-Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#3: Ken Cooper’s YouTube offerings shine new light both on “Peter’s faith” and “What is matter?”.
[Ken writes:] “The fundamental question What is matter? is answered in this thought-provoking Youtube video. The longer one listens to the answer, the more powerful the message becomes. [So, keep waiting!]
Realize, and keep with, the force of this absolute response. The explanation is right at the end.

The answer can never change, has no power to change, cannot even ask the question, cannot reply. It is the father of itself. Just as important, because matter is nothing, there is no foundation for any accusation of whatever kind, for God is always All-in-all, and man is His innocent and constant reflection. The Allness of God, Spirit, is necessarily the nothingness of matter.

When the judge calls for the evidence of the prosecution / persecution, and there is none, the case is dismissed. Should there be any evidence but it is shown to be a lie, and the father of itself, there is no case to answer. If asked where was the defendant when the so-called crime was committed, the evident answer is “With God, all the time. God, Spirit, Truth, is my alibi, I AM ever in the kingdom of heaven”. There is no other kingdom, no prison, no isolation, for God, Love, Truth, Principle, is infinite, always present, for man is God’s reflection. There is no greater freedom. The chains of matter disappear for they never had any reality, no history, no credence. Every accusation against man is empty and false, for man is always “NOT GUILTY!” The only court is heaven.

Christ is man’s standard of perfection, his true nature, and was best demonstrated and proved by Jesus the Christ / the Way-shower. Jesus overcame gravity, time, the forces of nature. Understanding the nothingness of matter, and the Allness of Spirit, this can also be our demonstration. We too can live the Christ, “walk on the sea”, (tempest-tossed human concepts – S&H 536:6-7), prove our dominion over error, and be free.

The story of Peter’s faith rejoices in the fact that Peter did walk on the water, and we can too, – we can overcome every material obstacle, because there is none. The last two lines of the poem resonate:

For I will remember undoubtedly,

When I saw the Christ, I walked on the sea.

The PDF version of this poem located under Downloads in the upper right of CedarS GEMs webpage, also includes a series of questions relating to overcoming the apparent storms of life, and Mary Baker Eddy’s poem “Christ my Refuge” gives that comfort of victory over all.

GEM#4: "Arise, Shine” as one who serves — to God’s delight!
See Isaiah 60:1 (B15) on a prayer shawl from Israel meant for you
[See an online picture of my prayer shawl in the upper right, +Cobbey Crisler on Isa. 42:1.]
[Cobbey:] “Chapter 42:1, in a prophesy of a servant who should come, the “elect of God” who would have “the Spirit of God upon him.” You will notice in Verse 7 (and Isaiah 61: what the assignment of this servant 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.”

“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**