Warren Huff’s Bible Blog (initially posted on 3-7-2020)
REMEMBER OUR EVER-PRESENT, “GREAT I AM” GOD
ISN’T AN “I WAS” GOD OR AN “I WILL BE” GOD!
CLICK HERE TO SEE A YOUTUBE reenactment of Moses’ encounter with God the great “I Am” was inspired by Cobbey Crisler’s insights into Exodus chapters 3 and 4 as transcribed below from “Heal the Sick: A Scriptural Record.”
[Excerpts from “Heal the Sick: A Scriptural Record,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**:] “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.”
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)
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.”
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:
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**
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 (cit. 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 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**
FYI: The mural scene behind “Moses” in the YouTube video is an aerial view of CedarS painted by Angela Sage Larson on two walls in CedarS new office in the St. Louis area. Note that in the sky portion, Angela recorded one of Ruth E. Huff’s Bible opening answers that inspired the founding and name of CedarS (near Lebanon) and the naming of Girls Camp cabins after birds (“where the birds make their nests.” Ps. 104:17)]
[Further video footnotes from Warren:] 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. We hope our quickly orchestrated, production efforts the night before sharing this for Sunday School, bring not only a few smiles, but also some uplifting inspiration and the reality of God’s ever-presence in a time today when many freedoms seem to be under attack—although God is still ever powerfully present on the scene to save all seekers, even when numbers or conditions are not in their favor.
