Your God-given GEMs to be Mind-ful of!

Be Mind-ful of your God-given GEMs! Give them your loving attention to always REMEMBER them!
insights from Cobbey Crisler, Ken Cooper & others from the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on

“Mind”
for Sunday, February 21, 2021

shared by Warren Huff,
CedarS Executive Director Emeritus warren@cedarscamps.org

GEM#1: Rely on the perfect medicine of Mind
Cobbey Crisler on Psalm 19:7, 8 (Responsive Reading) and Mind-cure medicine
“Read Psalms chapter 19:7-9 and you will discover there are quality controls as far as God’s medicine is concerned: all the things you would want to see on the label. Look at the words “perfect,” “sure,” right,” “pure,” “clean,” and “true,” which has the meaning in Hebrew of stable. You want a stable product. You want a clean product. You want it pure. You want it right. You don’t want the wrong remedy. You want it sure. You want it perfect.”
“Leaves of the Tree: A Prescription from Psalm,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#2: Remember your ever-present, "great I AM" God isn't an "I was" or "I will be" God! My quick sketch on YouTube of Moses' encounter with God, the great "I Am," was inspired by Cobbey Crisler's insights into Exodus chapters 3 and 4 as I transcribed them from his talk, “Heal the Sick: A Scriptural Record.” If you want this background and his application ideas for Exodus 3:14,15 (citation B2 in this week’s Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson), you may want to click the link to my March 2020 CedarS Bible Blog.

GEM#3 from the apostle Paul: Share your Christianity in ways that interest your audience!
Cobbey Crisler insights on the context of Paul’s words to the Athenians in Acts 17 (cit. B7, and cit. S10, 596:71-0): “Well, now Paul is heading for the cultural capital of civilization, Athens. And you can’t even go to modern day Athens without appreciating somewhat of what Paul saw, looking around at the remnants of that great city and “the columned buildings that were dedicated to so many gods. It must have moved Paul.” …

“And so, he opens his mouth and begins right away to talk in Athens. Now this is a tough area in which to introduce Christianity, except at least they were willing to listen because everybody talked about anything. I mean there were a lot of weirdo sects and ideas that they welcomed without question in Athens because everybody liked to dispute these ideas anyway.

“He’s in the market, the agora, as well as in the synagogue. He runs into Epicureans; he runs into Stoics.” Now Tarsus where Paul came from happens to be a Stoic stronghold. So, he must have been certainly aware of that philosophy…

“They bring him to Areopagus, the hill of Mars or Aries, and they asked him to explain what he has to say.” …

Acts 17:22 Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

Paul, standing there, shows how a lecture can be tailor-made to any environment. And, it’s better than uniformity if you want to get the ear of the locals. And in this way, you will find at no point does Paul mention the Old Testament. Why? (Pause) What would that mean to the Athenians? (See below, Acts 17:23, paraphrased)

Instead, he kind of says, “On my way to the forum…you know. In other words, here I was, and I saw something you had back here. And, it says TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.” (See Acts 17:23 …

“Would everybody be listening? It relates. He’s picked up something locally. And, would you also be listening if he said “That monument you put ‘TO THE UNKNOWN GOD’, I want to tell you a little something about him. He’s unknown to you, but here’s some information that might be helpful… “And then, in Acts 17, verse 24, he describes “that God who made all, and therefore, couldn’t dwell in temples made with hands.” …

We’re reminded of whom? Yes, but since Jesus, we heard that from Stephen, remember? As Saul, himself, he had heard that.

“He dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” (repeated paraphrased)

What do you think that comment does when you’re looking at the Parthenon and buildings like it? “God doesn’t dwell in all of this. He made everything. How can you contain Him?” … Very interesting point.

Have we even arrived at that point today in our thinking? … I doubt the Athenians had either.

“The search where God is…” will end up with the conclusion in the last line of Acts 17, verse 27, “that He’s not very far from every one of us.” And then Paul very cleverly introduces lines from local poets: “In him we live, and move, and have our being” and “for we are also his offspring” – parts of poems we have identified, and they even know the authors. (See below, partial)

Acts 17:28 (cit. B7) “For in him we live, and move, and have our being**; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”
“After the Master, What? The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

**Mary Baker Eddy on Paul’s words in Athens (Responsive Reading, Acts 17:28):
“St. Paul said to the Athenians, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” This statement is in substance identical with my own: “There is no life, truth, substance, nor intelligence in matter.” It is quite clear that this great verity has not yet been fully demonstrated, but it is nevertheless true. If Christian Science reiterates Paul’s teaching, we, as Christian Scientists, should give to the world convincing proof of the validity of this scientific statement of being. Having perceived, in advance of others, this scientific fact, we owe to ourselves and to the world a struggle for its demonstration.”
“Retrospection and Introspection,” by Mary Baker Eddy, page 93: 17

GEM#4: Commit to oneness to avoid wavering! –Cobbey Crisler on James 3:17 (citation B8) after comments on James 1:17 plus James 1:6, 8
James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect—free, large, full—gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”—as in an eclipse.
… "We already know that James read Job because we read the verse (James 5:11) that mentions Job in it…
James 1:6 tells us how we should pray. You'll find when prayer is not prayer… "Let him ask in faith nothing wavering." Wavering suggests this to-and-fro state of mind… James 1:8 "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."…
James 3:17 "But the wisdom that is from above" all stems from the commitment to oneness."
“The Case of Job,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#5: Constantly re-Mind yourself of — REMEMBER— the Sabbath day to keep it and yourself holy and whole –complete as on the first Sabbath of Genesis 1 when God declared you to be a “very good” finished product as His/Her “image and likeness.” Never forget the facts of your Genesis 1 spiritual origin even when bombarded with the widespread, genetic fables of a Genesis 2 material, dust, origin ! Refuse to accept the flesh as the container, of your individuality!
Cobbey Crisler on freedom from the flesh according to Paul from Romans 8, Verses 5: “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” (plus, verse 6 bonus— “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (cit. B9, Romans 6:6, KJV)

[Warren] The Contemporary English Version (CEV) translates this citation as “People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace.”

[Warren] The Living Bible (TLB) renders these verses: “Those who let themselves be controlled by their lower natures live only to please themselves, but those who follow after the Holy Spirit find themselves doing those things that please God. 6 Following after the Holy Spirit leads to life and peace, but following after the old nature leads to death.”

Cobbey Crisler writes about how Paul continues to develop this theme in Romans 8, Verse 9. “How many auditoriums would empty in ridicule if Paul stood before them today and announced, “You are not in the flesh”? That’s an invitation to laughter, isn’t it? “You are not in the flesh,” Paul said. Flesh is not the container, then, of our individuality. We [are encouraged to think that] we are [our bodies]. We’re proud of that “fact”. We have turned the glory into shame by thinking out from the basis of flesh. We suffer from the incurred problems of an evolution that traces itself back through dust-like levels, so that heredity becomes a problem in health. We take pride in those “designer-genes” that form our genetic code.

In the Bible it’s a case of choosing between Genesis or genetics. Genesis (1:1, 25) has us in the beginning created by God with dominion and in God’s image. So, flesh cannot be part of that image. Where are we seeing ourselves? “Adam, where art thou?” (Genesis 3:9)

Where are we instead of in the flesh according to Romans 8, Verse 9? We’re “in the spirit” That’s home, then. Do we really feel at home in the Spirit? To be inspired is to have Spirit within, literally, in Latin. Do we enjoy living in an inspired state? Everything moves aside. Everything is subordinated to that inspiration. “we’re in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in us.”…

(bonus verses from Romans 8)
In Verse 19 would you agree with Paul that “the earnest expectation of the whole human race is waiting for this manifestation of the sons of God”? That it could be manifested, this sense of glory?

“Verse 21 mentions “the creature itself.” Look what is going to happen to the human body as the result of the evangelization of our mentality. As our mentality becomes more and more like God, the human body, “the creature itself, also shall be delivered.” There’s freedom, freedom from “every ill that flesh is heir to,” as Shakespeare says. “Delivered from the slavery,” literally in Greek, “the bondage of corruption,” “the slavery of decay into,” literally, “the freedom of the children of God.” The divine mode of being, as one dictionary says glory is, “into the freedom of the glory of the divine mode of being, of the divine nature, of the radiant thought of the children of God.”

If (only) all our thoughts could be at the level of such radiance. We’ve seen light come out from a human expression. We’ve met people who radiate a sense of insight… That’s in the fleshly. That’s simply an outward manifestation of what’s going on within. More should be going on within. And we’re spending most of our time trying to dress the without.”
“Glory: Divine Nature in The Bible,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#6: [Warren’s testimony examples of knowing that “with God all things are possible” – even to “know the past, the present and the future” … when, at the end of its rope, "the human mind… yields to the divine Mind." (SH 180:25-27; 84:11, cit. S16; 85:5-6, cit. S17)
[Warren Huff:] These citations from Science and Health in Section 4 of this week’s Bible lesson, along with the Bible stories about what Joseph demonstrated in interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams in chapter 41 of Genesis; what Elisha said and did in II Kings 6:8-17, and what Jesus discerned about the Samaritan woman at the well [John 4:7-29)] and in the thoughts of the scribes and Pharisees [Luke 6:8] remind me of two, all-glory-to-God, back-to-back demonstrations of these priceless truths when they appeared in a Christian Science Bible Lesson. Claiming them to be true for me too when I was at the end of my rope humanly enabled God to give me two seemingly impossible healings during finals week of my Freshman year at Princeton University.

Click the following link for the rest of the story:
Healing and Divine G-u-i-dance at exam time – CedarS Camps

GEM#7a: Be expectant and bold to touch the hem of Christ’s garment!
In his Commentary on Luke 8:41-48 (cit. B13; cit. S21, 86) Cobbey Crisler sets the stage for how the woman who had been hemorrhaging for 12 years was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment.
[Cobbey:] “In this case we have something that might present a problem. Two people that need attention simultaneously. What do you do?… Here’s how Jesus deals with it. He is first summoned by a ruler of the synagogue with a great deal of human priority. Jairus has the rank and he asked first. He’s got a more urgent need….

“This radical change of thought was in the presence of the Christ-correction that Jesus was exercising in the mental realm. It’s going to be sufficient and the woman feels that it will help her. She’s lost all her money on physicians. [No health insurance…] Mark even tells us that she’s worse because of that choice. [Mark 5:26] All she does is touch the border of his garment. The issue of blood, the continuous hemorrhaging that had occurred for twelve years had kept her out of the temple, kept her out of worship and made her as unclean as the lepers…
“In Luke 8, Verse 48 he calls that lady, “Daughter.” Whose daughter? Certainly, not his. In fact, he lifts that word “daughter” entirely out of any sense of blood relationship. That was the woman’s problem. He lifts even her identity out of blood.
“Daughter, be of good comfort” (Verse 48). Look at how he’s addressing the thought of that woman. Not only the precious relationship to God, but the comfort. She hasn’t experienced that in twelve years. She’d lost all her money. She was about to be thrown on the society. There was nowhere to go when you were thrown on society. That may have happened to the woman who had been a sinner. Prostitution was the only open career for many women when they were simply thrown out and discarded from normal humanity…
Jesus refuses to allow that woman to walk away from the scene thinking that physical contact with his robe had anything to do with the healing. He says, again, “Your faith hath made you whole.” The word “whole” and the word “heal” in Anglo-Saxon have the identical root. It implies that disease is something less than wholeness, that it is a fragmentation of our being. Healing is the condition of being made whole.”
“Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#7b: Poetic GEMs: Hear on YouTube a custom Ken Cooper poem related to this week’s Bible Lesson. It is called “Reach Out”.

[Ken wrote:] “Man is the infinite manifestation of Mind, hence in that omniscience man knows all that God knows. There is nothing else to know or be known. God, Mind, is the very consciousness of man. What God knows, man knows and expresses. This lesson is an affirmation of that Oneness, the guarantee of divine peace.

Following from last week, to know is to remember and understand what is true. God knows everything there is to know about Himself. Man is the glorious proof of this knowledge. We are reminded every week “All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation”. This never changes. Mind can never forget, for nothing is lost in the Allness of infinity. What Mind knows is all there is to know. Man is always the full expression of I AM.

In the poem “I AM THAT I AM”, shared from the sentinel, the Word and Mind of God is revealed. It transformed the life of Moses, lifting him away from the material senses of man to the immortal recognition, the knowing, that man is at one with God, and anything else is illusion. History is a mortal measurement. The future a mortal fear. All that matters is the now of present perfection, and this is all we can (k)now. I AM THAT I AM is the love of God speaking right now, the logos, the Word, independent of time. In the fulness of omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, the oneness of Mind embraces us all without exception in the actuality of now. We manifest this Mind, and we can have no greater freedom.

Another shared sentinel poem, “No Problem”, bears testimony to the impact of I AM THAT I AM, taking several instances where the illusion of material sense is overturned by the power of God. No matter what we seem to be facing, the power of infinite Mind is constantly expressing itself. The divine Mind has no problems, for it is always the evidence of perfect solutions. Right Now. God knows nothing unlike Himself because there is nothing unlike himself. Recognize that we are Mind made manifest, and share in the joy and freedom of Spiritual Being. God is never worried, because worry does not exist in I AM, – present perfection. And with present perfection, that is all there ever can be.

When we pray “for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus” it is the prayer of affirmation, for there is only one Mind, which is expressed as Man. In the poem “Reach Out” the woman knew that to touch the hem of understanding would reveal the whole of Truth, and this is what happened. The Mind that was in Christ Jesus revealed what was needed to be known, to Jesus, and to her, and to us. We are God’s thoughts, there is no greater peace.

“PDF copies (color and B&W) are available as Downloads on the upper right of CedarS online metaphysical article for this week.”

GEM#8: Greet and embrace everyone (even silently) as Paul greeted the Corinthians: “Joy be to you!”
[W:] As Kathy Fitzer points out on in her opening comments for SECTION 6 of her Metaphysical application ideas this week, the word “grace” used in citation B14, II Cor. 13: 14 comes from a Greek word meaning joy. “The grace (joy) of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.”) She says “Greeks would greet each other … Joy be to you! How different out world would be if we embraced everyone that way.”

This is even more significant for CedarS and our 2021 one-word theme of GRACE. The final Fundamental of the Five Fundamental Concepts upon which CedarS Ruth E. Huff founded CedarS Camps is simply, “We expect to make camping at CedarS FUN!”

GEM#9: Be moved by the Spirit of God in YOUR next 40 days!
Cobbey Crisler on Acts 1:1, 2 (cit. B15)

“I’m sure you realize the Book of Acts is a second volume of a two-volume work, the first volume being, Luke, right! And the reason we know that: What’s verse one in the book of Acts tell us?

It starts out with…really giving us that information, doesn’t it? It says
Acts 1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

Now, why in that brief group of words do we have clues about the Gospel of Luke and similar authorship? Do you know?

Well, the Gospel of Luke, if you check the opening verses there, you will find that that Gospel is addressed to “Theophilus” as well. (See below)

Luke 1:3 It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,

Luke 1:4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed.

And here, we’re told in the opening verse of Chapter One of Acts, “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus….” (See Acts1:1 above)

So, it doesn’t take too much more than common sense to at least link the books in terms of the one to whom it was written and in terms of the author….

Now, Theophilus – who is he? No one knows, but translated from the Greek it means what? Do any of you know? What’s “Theo” like in theology, God and Logos. All right, it’s…well, not Logos, that was theology, but Theo-PHILUS, Philus meaning, like Philadelphia, love. So, God-loving, literally, which has again caused some to think that it might not be addressed to an individual named Theophilus; it could be to us if we qualify in that definition, collectively.

“O All those who are God-loving.” (See below, Paraphrased) Again that is conjecture, but something worth considering.

We know that the first treatise that Luke wrote had to do with – what does the first verse tell us? … Right. What “Jesus began both to do and teach.” (See partial below)

Acts 1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

So, it really, it sounds like it was a gospel such as we have. And the progress of the gospel, narrative wise, would take us, according to Verse 2, “until the day in which he was taken up after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.” …

Now, probably the most extensive use of the concept and phrase Holy Ghost is in the Book of Acts. So, we’re talking about not only church but a very close relationship to church of the concept of Holy Ghost. So, let’s review that a bit. The word Ghost in Greek is pneuma. Can you see this? I hope I will become more transparent as the evening wears on and you’ll be able to see through me to the blackboard.

But, pneuma is spirit, or ghost, or wind, or breath, or air – and very much associated with movement, isn’t it? For instance, you know how the Bible opens: “The spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (See Gen 1:2 below)

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters

And then, look what happened in the next seven days, rather remarkable accomplishments. So, the pneuma is/has something to do with movement.

And even the definition of prophesy, given to us in Second Peter in the first chapter, tells us that prophesy really is the result of holy men of God being moved by the Holy Ghost. Alright, now we’ll see several examples of that movement as we go through.

Reviewing the narrative in the gospel at the end, how many days between the resurrection and the ascension did Jesus have to get across to his students what they apparently had failed to get during the preceding three years? (Murmurs from audience) 40 days. Right.”
“After the Master, What? – The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

GEM#10: Be of one accord! Lift all mixed-up messes to Spirit for a “dry-clean” baptism!
Cobbey Crisler on Acts 2:1-44 (citation B15)
[Cobbey:] “Acts, Chapter 2, Verse 1, introduces right away the phrase that we’re to look for. What is it? “With one accord.”

“The day of Pentecost” is fifty days past Passover and when you realize the Jesus was crucified just prior to Passover and within the tomb roughly three days, how many days since Jesus’ actual departure via the ascension have transpired? (See below)

“Well, fifty days, Pentecost, fifty days from Passover – all right, so it’s about a week since Jesus is gone. This is a real test for the church, isn’t it?

Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

“He’s not going to be back physically, personally, but he told them where they could find him, which is where? In the scriptures.

“And they seem to be obeying this, don’t they? They’re looking to the scriptures for inspiration for church decisions. And “in the day of Pentecost…they were all with one accord in one place,” there is church fulfilling its destiny – “all with one accord in one place.” (See above)

“And suddenly, look at the result of this collective harmony! And it may be the reason why we haven’t heard this kind of thing.

The “sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind…” remember ‘wind,’ pneuma, the movement. (See below, Partial)

“The church is an expression of the movement, then. “The rushing mighty wind…” spirit, and remember “holy spirit, Holy Ghost” is very much in the forefront in the Book of Acts. (See below)

“It filled all the house where they were sitting,” showing that the early church started out in houses: the early house church. (See below, Partial)

Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

“And, this wind is needed. It’s needed in our own consciousness today. It’s needed in our churches. It may start as a sound and then move to movement and then even become something visible in our midst as we work together, and arrive at something together that we never could have arrived at individually – namely the victory over collective problems because we’ve applied the solution collectively, to blow away the stagnant air around church, all those neatly stacked theories that we can line up on call — the encrustations of Ecclesiastism needs the wind of “the Holy Ghost.” (See below, Partial)

“And not only that wind but “cloven tongues like as a fire.” (See below, Partial) Now, it’s talking about communication which you know immediately breaks down when you get more than one. Co-mmunication. Co- involves more than one.
And these “cloven tongues like as a fire sitting on each of them:” (See below, Paraphrased)

Acts 1:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.

Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

“Communication possible more than ever before possible for each individual, now that they’re working collectively. And they’re “filled with the Holy Ghost.” What a church meeting in consciousness: “Filled with the Holy Ghost” and feeling it, and seeing it, and able to do something that never had been possible individually. And they “began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (See above)

Now, at this moment, let’s first explore why this combination of wind and fire is so important.

“If you remember, John the Baptist said that “his baptism by water would be succeeded by a higher sense of baptism, which Jesus would bring,” and what was it? — “The baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire.” (See below, Paraphrased)

Luke 3:16 John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

“That combination, absolutely working together, or it would not be mentioned. What does wind do to fire? (Murmurs) Burns faster.

“So, if your hearts are burning in you, and the Holy Ghost is also moving within you, what happens to the fire in your heart? It spreads.

And that’s what attracts and draws, and the church just glows. (Murmurs and laughter)

“All right, now, to illustrate the Holy Ghost and fire, just from an everyday incident in the Holy Land today, in separating “chaff and wheat.”

“There are several steps that are necessary:

“1st) The one trying to separate this mixed-up mess of chaff and wheat has to locate a very high place – a threshing floor that has no obstacles between it and what? — the wind.

[Warren application idea:] Hope you can do this mental baptism for yourself daily! And, that you can even come to Mt. Nebo in CedarS Bible Lands Park to use a “FAN” as a lifter and “Separator of fable from fact.” (SH 586) so that all fables that have been mixed into your thought are burned and left behind forever—while the facts are remembered consistently “which gives action to thought.” (SH 586)

[Cobbey again:] “So, if we’re translating this mentally and this is the kind of baptism we’re talking about, it looks like a mental baptism, a spiritual thing. What would that suggest itself to you as being required or pre-requisite for this baptism to occur in our own thinking?

“Step One is…uplift your thinking? What? Clear everything out, right? – And give priority, unobstructed priority, to this threshing floor, because we’re about to sort out things, which Jesus in many of his parables and other statements indicates is the kingdom of heaven – a sorting out type of thing.

“All right, now, once we’re on that exposed height available to the wind, there is something that is our responsibility, and there is something that belongs to God. Let’s make sure we don’t confuse the roles.

“Our responsibility with that mixed-up fact/fiction, truth/error, chaff/wheat, looking very much alike all bundled up together, which describes our own consciousness at times, what do we do? Man’s responsibility is to apply the fan.

“Now, it’s called a fan, but what it really is – it’s not a Madame Butterfly type – it’s a fork, pitch-fork type of thing. And you go into the mixed-up mess, and then what do you do with the (mess)? You throw it into the air! That’s man’s responsibility.

“2nd) What is the Holy Ghost’s responsibility? The wind does the separating.

“Now, that should come as a great relief to us because we’re usually down there trying to do the Holy Ghost job, especially for someone else – to do the separating for them. (Laughter)

“It’s the Holy Ghost’s responsibility to do the separating. We dig into it, be willing to get up on that highest plateau of mental consciousness, dig into the confused sense of good and evil – throw it up to the air and the wind, and let the Holy Spirit blow the chaff, which is lighter, of no substance, away, while the wheat, productive, nourishing, heavier in content, falls back at your feet.

“Now, some of the intelligent threshers still today in Israel will build a fire over on the side where the chaff will blow. It saves time.

“When the chaff is separated by the Holy Ghost, the chaff just goes right into the fire where it is burned up and has no opportunity to mix back with the wheat again.

“That shows that those two processes are necessary, aren’t they: the Holy Ghost and fire, working together in consciousness, are essential. And each has its own specific responsibility.

“The fire takes care of the chaff; the wind takes care of the separation. But by golly, we’d “better be up there” with the fan – which might be why God has that very strong demand for Moses when he tells Moses to come to the top of Mount Sinai in the morning. And he says, “And be there!” Humanity needs that: those last two words, “Be there!” And the necessity for us to be there with our fan is important. (See below, Partial)

Ex 24:12 And the Lord said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.

“Now, today we have a great deal of emphasis on speaking with tongues. It’s reached into religion like never before; even established denominations are beginning to work with this concept, not just the Pentecostal and the Charismatics.

“Let’s study it (speaking in tongues) as it’s introduced in its earliest form. We find in Acts 2, verse 4 that the early members here find they begin to “speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (See below, Paraphrased)

Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

“We’re about to see the first public presentation of the church, the first lecture, or sermon, publicly presented. And therefore, we want to see how it was done, because they were doing this “with one accord;” the spirit was impelling them to every move at this early period of the church. (See below, repeated)

Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

The inspiration which, really, was the Spirit of the scripture was with them at every point.

“And, Acts 2, Verse 6, I think maybe sheds a little further light on this “speaking with tongues,” because it clarifies it somewhat by describing “that every man heard them speak in his own language.” (See below, Paraphrased)

Acts 2:6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

“It seems to convey, then, that they were “hearing” in tongue, rather than speaking in tongue, which might make more sense because individual receptivity is preserved in that sense – tailor-made for each receptive thought, even in the language of their own country. The possibility, then, may be that it is hearing in tongues, rather than speaking in tongues, but I think very early there may have been a confusion of the two…

“And Peter says the very first words Jesus said in his public ministry, according to at least one gospel, and that is the word “repent.” And that word “repent” which turns most of us off in this room, and probably most of the world off, in its original is an exciting concept and absolute a pre-requisite before we can even unite with the church that the Book of Acts is talking about.

“Repent” in Greek, coming from the – well the noun is “metanoia” m-e-t-a-n-o-i-a, metanoia, meaning to change your concept about things. Change your mind about things. Change you concept about things.

Now, that is the call of the church; it was the call of Jesus to his first listeners. Change your concept; that’s all that’s needed to get totally different results. The Christ summons humanity to change its concept it’s been adhering to all along – the atrophy. Because the Holy Ghost is moving through these changed concepts, and separating the old out from the new.

And when this happens, all this scriptural exegesis, the walk to Emmaus and the changing of concept, verse 41 shows that “three thousand new members joined the church.” (See below, Paraphrased)

Acts 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

Now we talk about what is needed to get members in our church. The ingredients better be there; it’s the Holy Ghost pattern. Peter didn’t invent all that, and it was the result of the church praying “with one accord” to come out with the Holy Ghost. There’s no obstacle to the Holy Ghost.

Getting our church up to the highest possible platform with nothing standing between it and the Holy Ghost – and that’s moving — both in thought and action.

Look what occurs as a result of it. In Acts 2, verse 43: “Many wonders and signs are now done by all of the apostles.” (Acts 2:43 Paraphrased)

They’re healing everywhere! Not just understanding the Bible, but healing, but it looks like our comprehension of the Bible is essential to it, and both come from the Holy Ghost – both prophecy and understanding the scriptures, the key to the scriptures comes from the Holy Ghost, and no lesser source.

They, in verse 46, again with a familiar phrase, do what? (Murmurs) “With one accord in the temple…one accord.” (See below)

Acts 2:46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

That’s the secret! But instead we opt for the easier alternative. If it isn’t working out “in one accord,” we leave early. (See above) (Laughter)

But, sticking it out on that high level, knowing that nothing can interfere between you and the Holy Ghost, you, collectively – that movement occurs and things happen that we never dreamed were possible.

And even Peter had to reach back into prophecy to explain what was going on because God had notified his people that this thing was possible collectively. And Acts 2, verse 47 ends: “The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (See Act 2:47)

GEM#11: "Turn the tables" on all fables! Be unwavering and never fooled by a fable that falsely claims that any “perfect gift from above” (cit. B17) can ever be diminished or made to disappear! Discover in your wilderness experience a vestibule entryway where all that disappears is material sense (like bulky outer garments) of loneliness, doubt, darkness while spiritual sense unfolds the sacred refuge and solitude of wilderness, the constancy of perfect health, the confidence of spiritual light-heartedness and sufficiency…all of which can never be diminished or made to disappear!

[Cobbey Crisler on James 1:17 (cit. B17) and beyond thematically:
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”—as in an eclipse”[W:] or as in illusionist David Copperfield’s trick to click here to see the whole audience slowly revolved to make the Statue of Liberty seem to disappear.
[W: CedarS Met writer and practitioner, Christie Hanzlik, CS from Boulder, CO, originally shared the trick performed by the illusionist David Copperfield that appeared to a large audience to make the Stature of Liberty disappear. The way he did it is briefly that "the audience wasn't in on it. This was a real illusion. The audience was placed on a rotating platform and he slowly rotated it so no one would noticed. When the curtains dropped the audience were actually facing the other way. The whole set was designed so you wouldn't know you were moving. The spotlights used to "pass through the empty space" was actually there to blind the audience should they turn around to where the actual statue was the whole time."]

[Cobbey again] …James 1:6 tells us how we should pray… You'll find when prayer is not prayer… "Let him ask in faith nothing wavering." Wavering suggests this to-and-fro state of mind…
James 1:8 "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."…
James 3:17 "But the wisdom that is from above" all stems from the commitment to oneness."
“The Book of Job: A Mental Court Case” by B. Cobbey Crisler**

[W.] "Keep your eyes on the prize” of Liberty—
As James 3:17 declares wise prayer from above is committed to oneness and is guaranteed of success. Mary Baker Eddy says of the unsuccessful prayers for President McKinley when he assassinated: “Had prayer so fervently offered possessed no opposing element… the result would have been scientific and the patient would have recovered.” (Miscellany, 293:21)

[W.] For wise and successful, answered prayers keep your “eyes on the prize”—on the perfect law of liberty (like on the Statue of Liberty when David Copperfield seemed to make it vanish by turning the tables under his entire audience). When our perfect –free, large, full— liberty seems to have vanished by material illusions and false beliefs, we can instantly “turn back the tables on all fables” and look continually to the perfect, stable and unvarying LAW of liberty…
James 1:25 “whoso looketh unto the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

[W:] So, let’s all be spiritually light-hearted doers on Prayer Watches to “turn the tables” on the solo fables of “loneliness, doubt, darkness.” (SH 597:16) These are among the burdens that a Prayer Watch with “no opposing element” calls you and me to drop. "I drop my burden at His feet, and bear a song away." Christian Science Hymnal 124:3]

GEM#12: The evolution of the SECOND TENET (SH 597:5, cit. S29) and of the SIXTH TENET (SH 597:24, cit. S31) has been well researched and documented by The Mary Baker Eddy Library for The Betterment of Mankind. It was available by prior permission to share by clicking on in the Download section at the upper right corner of this CedarS webpage.
Contact the MBE Library at (617) 450-7218 RESEARCH@MBELIBRARY.ORG WWW.MBELIBRARY.ORG