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Insights from Cobbey Crisler, Ken Cooper & others for The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Substance"
for September 13, 2020
GEM#1: See GEM#3 red text on *a pearl of great price* Go all-out to prioritize what you see is of true value! Hear about scientific testing for the natural acoustical amphitheater where Jesus likely shared many parables. Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 13:44-46 (Golden Text and Bible citation B24)
“Chapter 13 begins eight parables.
Verse 1) starts out where Jesus is preaching on the side of the Sea of Galilee…
[Verse 2, “He went into a ship and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.”
First of all, when you’re standing in a ship without a public address system, can you be heard? This is one of the things that I questioned, and received grants from two foundations to explore… We took an acoustical expert to Israel from… an acoustical firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts… We had a hundred pounds of equipment. We tested every area where it said in both Old and New Testaments a single individual addressed hundreds, if not thousands of people without the aid of public address systems. We came back with very definite evidence that there seemed to be acoustical phenomena at these places which permitted such sound to carry. Of course, none of the gospels tell you where it is exactly.
But outside of Capernaum there is this little cove, and in the middle I stood holding seven red balloons. I had to pop one balloon at a time while my acoustical-colleague was on the slope of this natural amphitheater measuring it with his electronic instrument…
Interestingly enough, we measured how many people could have been in that area. Five to seven thousand people could have stood or sat there and seen and heard anyone in the vicinity of the rock where I was standing. My suggestion is that these four parables, where Matthew records as having been said here, have an unusual emphasis on the acoustical element. Listening and being receptive…
… Parable number five is the treasure in the field (Verse 44).
Parable number six is the hunt for pearls (Verse 45).
There are two different points in these parables. First, “the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field.” The man doesn’t know it’s there, but he discovers it, stumbles on it, knows its value, and “sells everything for it.” That shows that the kingdom of heaven can be discovered even when one isn’t looking for it.
Those who discover it in that way, nevertheless, can appreciate its value. This man in the parable gives it total priority.
(Verse 46). There was also the merchant looking for goodly pearls. And when he found it, while searching, he did what the other man did. He “sold all he had” because again, prioritizing, he recognizes the value.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master,” by B. Cobbey Crisler
GEM#2: Practice valuable tips from Jesus on how to control thought and eliminate anxiety. Cobbey Crisler’s insights on parts of the Sermon on the Mount and on “heavenly mathematics” in Matthew 6:24-33 (Responsive Reading) that line up with Luke 12:22-31 (also partially in citation B15):
(Matt. 6:25 & Luke 12:22-23). Now Jesus is going to show us how to control our thinking better than we have been able to thus far. This is the first of several verses which begin ‘Take no thought’ or utilizing that concept.
“Let’s determine just what thought-taking is. Does it mean to be thoughtless? Thought-taking is the way Jesus is using this in context. It’s anxiety, it’s care, its concern. Alright, let’s ask ourselves how we do in this test.
‘Take no thought for your life, what you are going to eat, drink, or wear.’ How much time do we give in any day to those three objectives, eating, drinking, wearing? Then Jesus said, ‘Do you know what? It’s not the menu that counts so much as your life which is bigger than what you’re eating, and your body, or identity, much bigger than what you wear.’
(Matt. 6:26 & Luke 12:24), 'Look at the fowls of the air; they don't sow or reap, but your heavenly Father feedeth them.' I'd like to say that that thought-taking also can run to the taking of photographs because I'm convinced there was something more than a human hand in one of the photographs. Gordon Converse and I were traveling in a little yellow Volkswagen down by the Sea of Galilee. I saw a field of wheat blowing in the wind, just beautiful. I said to him, "Hey. there's our Biblical verse, ''the wind bloweth where it listest' (John 3:8). Let's go get that wheat."
That was a human plan, as we found out very shortly. Because we got down there and Gordon opened the window of our little Volkswagen and rolled it down.
Got his camera ready. Right in front of the camera came (a flock of) forty to fifty birds. And there they are, feeding right off the wheat.
You would have to stand there a century to get that picture. And here it was a couple of feet in front of us. If you study those birds carefully, you will see that some have the wheat in their mouths already, some have some are just landing. He froze those birds’ positions with his camera. I looked at Gordon thunderstruck because I said, 'I'm sorry, we'd better change the Bible verse, we've just been handed another one.' That is, 'Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.' …(Another verse from the lesson that would work is, “Fear not little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32, B15)
(Matt. 6:28 or Luke 12:27). Or, 'What you're wearing, why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.' They're disappearing from the Holy Land rapidly with all this building, but you can still see some of them…. all red anemones behind the snow-covered 10,000-foot peak of Mount Hermon is absolutely magnificent. There's no difficulty at all when you're visiting the Holy Land in the Spring to “love your anemone.” They're simply magnificent.
(Matt. 6:29 or Luke 12:27). You can understand really why it says, 'That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.'
(Matt. 6:33 or Luke 12:31). And then Jesus gives the priority equation, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." In other words, is what we eat, drink or wear of no significance? They are natural and normal on earth. He's not wiping them all out as if it were a branch of some ascetic cult. But rather, 'Seek God first and all these things will be added.' Added. The heavenly law of mathematics is priority first and all those that we would normally take thought of would come into our experience naturally. Instead of wasting so much good mental time, taking thought, worrying, and being anxious, we spend that same time seeking the kingdom of God, and all those things come naturally as a result of that."
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
GEM#3: Grow Priceless “*Pearls*” from Grit! — Turn Trash into Valuable Treasures of Truth and Love!
CedarS 2020 Theme from citation 5 in Science & Health, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 265:3-15:
"Man understands spiritual existence in proportion as his treasures of Truth and Love are enlarged. Mortals must gravitate Godward, their affections and aims grow spiritual, – they must near the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper sense of the infinite, – in order that sin and mortality may be put off. This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggest man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace."
We invite you to join us in "gravitat[ing] Godward." Camp, sports and wherever you stretch your limits and your comfort zone are perfect places to discover and enlarge your treasures of Truth. Even online camp sessions with their "mets" (inspirational sharing before activities), Christian Science practitioner visits, and Bible Lesson studies, along with online Sunday Hymn Sings, add to campers virtual or in person home Sunday School classes and testimony meetings to offer campers nuggets of Truth to make their own. And each activity where one applies these Truths and proves their value really turn them into treasures for life!
The list in this passage is such a beautiful promise of the blessings realized through spiritual growth:
-Enlarged individuality
-A wider sphere of thought and action
-A more expansive love
-A higher and more permanent peace
We see this list as so contemporary, as so on-target, and as so timeless. This is as exactly what today's youth needs – and exactly what today's world needs.
*Pearls* (especially those of great price, as referred to in GEM#1, the Golden Text and Bible citation B24) are wonderful examples of the “treasures of Truth” and how they grow. A pearl grows in an oyster only because an irritant has entered its shell and the oyster responds by oozing onto it of an irritant–soother (the way that spiritual sense and love soothe and heal whatever irritates us and others). Let’s take that as a challenge to be like the oyster and turn everything that looks negative and ugly into a string of beautiful pearls by applying layer upon layer of love and spiritual sense to grow our treasures of Truth and Love!
Enlarging your treasures of Truth and Love will soon cancel the debt and make you “debt-free.” St. Paul simply describes Love’s ultimate “debt-forgiveness program” that freed him—as it will free you. It is to: “Owe no man anything, but to love one another” (Romans 13:8). Saul voiced this as one who “owed” Christ and all Christians BIG-time by being known as their most enthusiastic enemy and persecutor. He made up for it by becoming Christianity’s most missionary advocate and most eloquent friend after he was converted by a “virtual” meeting with Jesus. (So, don’t underestimate the power of virtual camp sessions, hymn sings or church services when the Christ is welcomed in!)
If you get to visit Saul’s road to Damascus in CedarS Bible Lands Park, you will be reminded to be like Ananias of the Damascus Christians. Like Ananias, you will be asked to stop “owing” any former persecutors and to stop “bearing false witness against” any Saul characters in your life—and instead to see them as if they’ve been on their “road to Damascus” and “changed for good” by the Christ. In the words of a young Sunday School student “Forgive us our “trash-passes” as we forgive those who “trash-pass” to us.”
Had Ananias held Saul in the position that he had outgrown after his “virtual encounter” with Jesus – if he had NOT obeyed God’s command to forgive Saul’s trash-passing and to restore his sight, the born-again Paul would not have become the most productive, treasure-passer of Christianity that the world has known. “Those unpretentious, yet colossal characters, Paul and Jesus” both did all they could to pass along the rich treasures of their resilient spiritual sense of oneness with God. May we each do the same with all the treasures of Truth that spiritual sense constantly gives us!
GEM#4: Prove for yourself what Mary Baker Eddy calls “the dictum of Scripture… (that) All things work together for good to them that love God” (Science & Health 444:4). Here she’s quoting Paul in Romans 8:28 (B7) which provides us with the true “prayer… fervently offered (that) includes no opposing element” (Miscellany 293:21). The news is full of arguments for the existence of all kinds of evil and opposing elements these days. Most of them are based on the VIRUS of unwise atheism and its family members (according to Wikipedia) of “the supremacy of human reason… secular humanism… religious criticism…free-thought skepticism…” They all doubt Paul’s assertion that that “God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him. They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose.” (Romans 8:28, CEB) It’s been said, “There are no atheists in foxholes.” or in Intensive Care or on Ventilators…]
Leading up to a Cobbey Crisler comment on Romans 8:28 below are helpful Bible insights on VIRUSES from Psalm 14:1-3 & II Corinthians 10:5 :
“In Chapter 14, Verse 1, “The fool”— that’s the kind of point of view it is, completely unwise—“The fool that said in his heart, [There is] no God,” has a foolish point of view that exposes you to the infection of that idea. It communicates a contaminating influence if it cuts one off from the very source of life and health. Because treatment is available.
In Verse 2 “The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, [and] seek God.” Notice what arena we’re dealing with here. God was not checking our pulses [or our temperatures], but our thoughts. How do we know what effect thoughts actually have ultimately on the pulse, for example? “To see if there were any that could understand and [seek] God” because that’s the bottom line.
Instead, in Verse 3 “They are all gone aside, and become filthy.” Something that is unsanitary doesn’t belong; it’s not part of the health code of the Bible any more than it’s in the health code of material medica. Because what is unsanitary [W: is part of the unreality family and] is liable to cause or promote a disease.
It’s also interesting to note that the word “virus” which is being used so generally today as the cause of much of man’s physical complaints and effects [W:—as well as the cause of issues from implanted computer viruses or hacks].
The virus, according to Webster, is able to break down the defensive mechanism of the host. And, by the way, it comes from a Latin word that means poison or slimy liquid, virus. The word “filthy,” in part of its Hebrew meaning, is morally corrupt. So, we know we’re dealing really at both levels here, moral and physical. If out of that filthy condition, that polluted state of human consciousness, we’re coming to the conclusion “[there is] none that doeth good, no, not one,” has the defensive mechanism broken down? Have we become the host of ideas that are contaminating to our pure relationship to God? Or, are we ingesting only those pure Words? It’s a question of thought. It’s the faculty of knowing that which God is addressing here.
Consider what Jesus lists in Mark 7, Verse 20, where he lists the toxic causes of man’s problems. He says, “That which comes out of the man, that defies the man.” Now we’re going the opposite route from those pure Words from God.
[Mark 7, Verse 21] “From within,” and, by the way, that is almost the literal translation of the Latin word intestin from which our word “intestine” comes. “Out of the heart of men, proceed,” and look at the list; it’s certainly not intestinal fortitude, “evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, porneia, root of our word pornography, murders.” [Verse 22]. “Thefts,” do we need to go into the headlines as current as this morning? “covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.” [W: fool, as in Psalm 14.1] And Jesus says in Mark 7, Verse 23, “All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.” That’s where disease is also felt; the “within.”
[W: Instead of affirming that in God (and in reality) we have everything that we need,] We [often tend to] yearn for so much within, don’t we? How imperfectly that’s often expressed. Our longing often, perhaps most of the time, is expressed in terms that we would conquer the world outwardly in some way. Be appreciated. Be applauded. Be loved. [W: Have lots of social media “likes” or followers…] Be served. Be patted on the head. Be comforted. Have obeisance shown to us. That we have the homage of the world outwardly. We want to conquer the world in some way. That’s trying to impose domination. That kind of longing is imperfectly expressed.
A more perfect sense of longing, the desire that Jesus calls prayer, would be to conquer all the influences of that same world inwardly. [W: “to bring EVERY thought”—NOT EVERY OTHER THOUGHT— “to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)] Then, you’re a king. In that sense Jesus was always a king. There’s nothing wrong with that messianic attribution to him of “king.” He ruled and nothing overruled him. But, look at all these things that [would attempt to] take over our “within” where the kingdom of God is supposed to be. And instead, we find anarchy most of the time.
What is disease? If the kingdom-of-God-within is the healed, whole state, then anarchy-within must also tell us what disease is. It’s an outright rebellion. It’s a “Declaration of Independence” by one organ over the rest of the bodily systems. The Bible endorses only one system [Romans 8.28] “All things work together for good to them that love God.” There is the prerequisite. We always have to have this prescription filled. We’ve got to love God. Then, “all things work together for good.” That’s the ideal situation for any system, bodily or solar, all things working together for good. That’s the definition of perfect health as well.”
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
GEM#5: Sift plus-thoughts of love from minus-thoughts of illness and incurability to be saved in your “expected end”—with your “soul as a watered garden” – 100% precious, 0% vile!
Cobbey Crisler on Jeremiah 17:14 thru 31:12 (before & after citation B9, Jer. 30:11, 17)
17th Chapter of Jeremiah, Verse 14, “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed.” There’s Jeremiah’s prayer. “Save me and I shall be saved.” The Anchor Bible points out that the word “salvation” as used in the Old Testament is often used in terms of a not-guilty verdict in court. Salvation is often used in the Old Testament in terms that we would understand today as a not-guilty verdict in court.
The salvation of man would eventually include a verdict of not-guilty, or innocent. This is, of course, the entire theme of Job, his guilt or innocence. [On page 276:1-4 (citation S21), Mary Baker Eddy quotes Job 33:24 ‘I have found a ransom’
This comes from one of Job’s speeches to God about his innocence or uprightness: “If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness: Then he is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth:”
(Job 33:23–25)
Here is God being quoted, in Verse 12 Chapter 30 [of Jeremiah]. “Thus saith the LORD, thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. [Verse 13] “There is none to plead thy cause [of innocence], that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.”
Jeremiah 30, Verse 15, “Why do you cry for your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable.” Why? [Voice: “The multitude of your iniquity.”] That’s all. Just because of “the multitude of your iniquity.” There is the Bible definition of an incurable disease. It’s just up to us whether it’s incurable or not. Our outlook, our comprehension, and what we are going to do about the iniquity aspect of it. Moses was shown that man has just as much dominion over the serpent, symbolizing iniquity, as over the leprosy on his hand [symbolizing disease].
Jeremiah 30, Verse 17 (citation B18) is God’s view of whether there is any incurability or not. “I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds.”
Religion has got to be practical, especially in our century. There’s no room for anything that’s not practical anymore. There are too many problems requiring solutions. Humanity in its history has run [from problems] long enough. Like Jacob ran for twenty years until he began to wrestle [Genesis 32. 24, 25]. Collectively mankind is wrestling now. As John Bunyan said about religion. “The soul of religion is the practical part.”
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)
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
GEM#6: When simultaneous problems arise, prioritize receptivity and healing over rank, like Jesus did.
Cobbey Crisler on Jesus dealing with time management of two urgent appeals in Luke 8:41-55 (citation 11)
“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 asks first. He’s got a more urgent need. His daughter is on the verge of dying (Luke 8:41). But Jesus can’t even get to the location where this girl is because of the crush of people in the narrow lanes of the Palestinian villages. The Greek word for “thronged” is often used to describe how close these groups got to one another. Jesus was nearly suffocated by the crowd.
Later the disciples rebuked Jesus, in Verse 45, for asking “Who touched me?” To them it was ridiculous. Everybody was touching him. The Greek verb that’s used is a verb that means what happens to grain kernels between two grinding stones. They were ground really together. The people were that crowded.
What happens? The woman does not wish to delay Jesus’ mission, but she is at the absolutely desperate end of a rope. Here we find the receptivity. Blessed are those who are in this state. Happy are those because the state of mind can be changed.
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. With all sorts of legislative rules around her, she herself could not be touched because it would make the individual who did it unclean. But we find that Jesus welcomed that dear woman from the standpoint of God’s welcome, because he said, “the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do.” (John 5:19).
In Luke 8, Verse 48 he calls that lady, “Daughter.” Who’s 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. She could not get a living unless her family supported her, and there is no indication of that happening.
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.
We understand that equation when Jesus said, “If your eye be single” Matthew 6:22), indivisible, not shared, no divisions in it and no double vision. It is single-mindedness and persistency, as we see Jesus requiring later in our book, which results in man being whole as God views him.
The other half of the time-crunch demand and Christ using of humor to clear out funerial thought:
When Jesus goes to the raising of Jairus’ daughter, we don’t find any reason to bemoan the delay in getting there. Even though the news comes back that the daughter has died in the meantime (Verse 49). That is the human news. Jesus goes right in and clears the environment out (Verse 51). Notice, again, this must be telling us something about what is required in order to heal.
The thought of death is so weighted down with its inevitability and grief that Jesus has to clear it out. Notice how he does so, incisively and brilliantly. He couldn’t clear them out while they were weeping. That was acceptable at a funeral. Jesus would have occupied the villain’s role.
So, he simply tells them something that was an absolute fact to him, “That maid, right there that you see horizontal, no movement, no breath, no pulse, no anything, that little girl, she’s really not dead. That appearance that you see there is like sleep (Verse 52). And I am going to awaken her life.” All the paid mourners who were earning their salary for conducting a funeral service, and everybody else who had witnessed the tragedy associated with this little girl passing away laughed (Verse 53).
Can you clear laughers out of funerals? There is certainly more justification from a social standpoint than with weepers. It also showed how deeply their grief had run. Forgetting every reason why they were there, they turned to laughing him to scorn. He put them all out.
He went to the little girl, “Maid arise” (Verse 54). “Her spirit came again, she arose straightway” (Verse 55). And that beautiful practicality of Jesus, “Give her meat,” give her something to eat (Verse 55). What else would a twelve-year-old girl want anyway? It was also an announcement that everything was quite normal.”
“Luke, the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
GEM#7: To touch true substance, simply reach out, drop the past (that's the only price!) Ken Cooper’s “Reach Out,” read by his wife Sue, shines new light on the healing of desperate woman who reached out.
Ken writes: “In Miscellany Mary Baker Eddy writes, “When a hungry heart petitions the divine Father-Mother God for bread, it is not given a stone, — but more grace, obedience, and love. If this heart, humble and trustful, faithfully asks divine Love to feed it with the bread of heaven, health, holiness, it will be conformed to a fitness to receive the answer to its desire; then will flow into it the “river of His pleasure,” the tributary of divine Love,” Mis. 127:8-18 (to 1st ,)
“The river of His pleasure flows through the kingdom of heaven, washing through each one of us, giving the unlimited abundance of goodness and Love. When we turn to God, we see, feel and hear this river.
“Our prayers are a reaching out, and with any reaching it is with the expectation of holding / collecting whatever we are reaching for. God, infinite Mind, always knows and supplies our needs, and we just have to collect what God provides for each moment. When we reach out for the pearl of great price, it becomes our focus. We can’t reach out with out with hands full of problems, fears, bags of memories. With full heart, soul, mind and strength, dropping all else, we reach and find, and rejoice in what we receive. It is already ours as the reflection of Mind. Ever grateful for the abundant flow of Love’s substance, we bathe in the river of His pleasure.
“The story of the woman with an issue of blood is related in three of the gospels. She reached out, and touched the hem of Truth. That was all that was required, for one grain of infinite Truth is the equivalent of all Truth. True prayer is to glorify God, not matter, and when we love God with all our heart, we necessarily love ourselves and the perfection of man is revealed.
“The poem “Reach Out,” read by Sue, reveals what happened to this woman in her own words, and in her reaching out she found the Christ, touched the hem of perfection, and was healed. The last two lines of the poem read:
"We all can banish every doubt
By simply this: just reaching out!"
“We too can simply reach out, drop the past (that's the only price!), touch true substance, and receive the understanding of complete and perfect life in the abundant and harmonious kingdom of heaven. This is our precious God-given pearl!
GEM#8a: Step outside your comfort zone and expect God to meet all your needs!
Cobbey Crisler on Jesus sending out his disciples two by two to heal without any food or money. (Mark 6:7, 8; B13)
In Mark Chapter 6, Jesus began to show that healing was the Father's business and one could expect income from it. The income flowed out of the gratitude of those healed. In a sense, it was gratitude-currency.
Verse 8. He "commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse. "
It would come as a result of their healing work. Gratitude.
Verse 11. But there would be areas that would not receive them. The classic example of non-receptivity is Sodom and Gomorrah. "It would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for the city," that turns off the very salvation that the race needs. It's like committing suicide.
Verse 13. Look what they did. The first class in history, specifically sent out to heal, comes back with all the great news that "they healed all their cases."
“What Mark Recorded” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
P.S. GEM#8b: [Warren:] I love that in Section 4 of this week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson the Lesson committee is showing us Christ’s two-fold, (“1-2 Punch”) method of trust-stretching by experiential training and acknowledgement:
1) NOT ONLY, Experiential learning by doing in Mark 6:7,8 (B13): where Jesus sends out his disciples two-by-two on a mission to heal—without any food or money so that they’d learn to rely on God to supply all needs;
2) BUT ALSO, a follow-up, Q&A reminder debriefing in Luke 22:35 (B16): where Jesus was then able to ask them, “When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing.”
Actively acknowledging and expressing gratitude for past proofs of God’s care is a perfect and powerful way to zap worry and anxiety! Never too often can we remind ourselves and others of past demonstrations, large and small — of the Answer Prayer (A.P.) History of ourselves, our families, friends, church members and those we’ve heard about in testimonies in the Christian Science periodicals, in Bible Lesson Sermons…
