WASH-OFF EVERY TRACE OF DUST MAN TO SEE GEMs of REALITY SPARKLE!
Insights by Cobbey Crisler and others** for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Reality”
for September 20-26, 2021
(shared with Janet Crisler’s blessing) by Warren Huff
CedarS Executive Director Emeritus warren@cedarscamps.org
PRAY FOR GOD TO OPEN YOUR EYES TO REALITY & PERSIST TO SEE WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU!
[Warren on a link from citation B1/Ps. 119:18 “Open thou mine eyes…” to Elisha’s version of it in 2nd Kings 6:8+]
[Warren:] Elisha prayed that his servant could see God’s presence and power right with them. “LORD, I pray thee, OPEN HIS EYES, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:17, caps added) As Lindsey and John Biggs, CS, wrote in Section 1 of this week’s CedarS Metaphysical application ideas: “What a beautiful, compassionate prayer. Elisha was already seeing the power of God and he knew his servant just needed a little help seeing clearly – spiritually discerning – the love of God that was surrounding them.”
[For a delightful prequel about Elisha’s helpful, “spiritual seer” insights that protected the king of Israel “not once, nor twice” see 2nd Kings 6:8+ (and Science & Health 593:4). And in the rest of this instructive story (2nd Kings 6:18-23) you can see how the eyes of your seeming enemies can be closed until you can graciously lead and feed them so that strife come(s) “no more.”
A poem inspired by this story called “Vision” by Elizabeth Glass Barlow was published in the December 17, 1969 issue of The Christian Science Sentinel.
DECEMBER 17, 1960 ISSUE
VISION
II Kings 6:15–17
Elizabeth Glass Barlow
“Lord, … open his eyes, that he may see,”
The mighty prophet prayed.
Send not armies great and strong,
Neither strength to battle wrong,
But lift his vision to behold
Thy truth already here,
The legions of omnipotence,
The hosts of Thy deliverance.
Awake, O man, and know
Love’s all-embracing sphere.
Lord, open my eyes that I may see
Thy presence everywhere,
My dwelling circled by Thy might,
My mountaintop aflame with light,
The shining sentinels of Thy love
Triumphant in this hour.
For Thou with me art greater far
Than all the seeming evils are.
Be still, O heart, and trust
His omnipresent power.”
A CedarS mother, staff member, and regular Sunday evening Hymn Sing leader, Desiree Goyette, wrote a wonderful musical setting of this inspiring poem that is sung as a favorite hymn (Hymn 527) at CedarS Hymn Sings. Here’s to letting our lives see and sing its healing message!
ASK GOD for HEALING & SIFT THOUGHT to FIND YOURSELF NOT GUILTY OF INCURABILITY! Sift plus & minus thoughts for 100% precious peace, 0% vile division! Cobbey Crisler on Jer. 17:14/cit. B6:
Bonus Prelude to citation B6: “Jeremiah chapter 15, verse 18 asks, “Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable?” Look at the prescription in Verse 19 “If you return, then will I bring thee again, [and] you will stand before me.” Look at this for a mental sifting of plus and minus. “If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth.” How much do you and I reflect or image forth God’s mouth or words? Remember what James [3.10] says, “Out of the same mouth proceedeth both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.” That’s what James wrote in his epistle. Notice the control of thought and therefore, our communication here. If we take forth the precious from the vile, we will be more like God now. If we want the word to become flesh, we must conform to what that word is. It’s indivisible. It does not have part precious and part vile in it, nor should man.
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.” (Jeremiah 17:14/citation B6) 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.
In 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. [W: In Exodus 4:1-8/citation B4 last week,] Moses was shown that man has just as much dominion over the serpent, symbolizing iniquity, as over the leprosy on his hand [symbolizing disease].
Verse 17 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.”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
REJOICE THAT YOUR UNCHANGEABLE GOD’S TIME IS NOW TO REVERSE THE CURSE & POUR-OUT BLESSINGS!
Cobbey Crisler on Malachi 3:6 (cit. B8) plus bonus verses 10-12
Malachi 3:6/cit. B8 “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
[W: James describes God as our “Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”(James 1:7) What a blessing to have consistently reliable laws of God that can be scientifically proven time after time.]
Malachi 3: Verse 10 The blessing that God promises in verse 10— to “pour out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it”— is what God says to the lie “it is enough”. The deluge is to show the infinite supply that is able to pour through you. [No blessing will be held back.] The deluge is to show the infinite supply that is able to pour through you.
Verse 11 “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, for he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.” This promises that God’s time is now; our grateful acknowledgement of that is essential.
Verse 12 “And all nations shall call you blessed” (praise you—creative ideas); for ye shall be a delightsome land” (empty or devoid of fear, inertia).
Comments from B. Cobbey Crisler as recorded in Warren Huff’s Oxford wide-margin Bible
LIKE JESUS, SHOW CONTEMPT for the DNA-DUST MAN
and WASH OFF EVERY TRACE OF THE DUST MAN!
W. on Cobbey Crisler seeing the disciple’s question of Jesus as a multiple-choice exam John 9:1+/cit. B12
[Cobbey:] “John 9:2. The disciples ask Jesus “who did sin?
(A) This fellow over here? or
(B) his parents?”
John 9:3. Jesus had that paper before him as in the examination room on that point many times before. “He says,
(C), none of the above… [Or as Warren proposes as another right multiple-choice test answer (D) DNA (Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid (DNA) (the molecule that supposedly carries encoded genetic instructions) Does Not Apply!)]
[Cobbey continues his (C) answer of:] “None of the above. Neither hath this man sinned or his parents.”
What’s that saying about origin? Where is that man? His roots are not in parents or in some reincarnated experience…”
Notice what he does in John 9:6 and what it may remind you of. “He spat on the ground, made clay of the spittle.” That reminds you of man being made of the dust in the Second Chapter of Genesis Verse 6 and 7, doesn’t it? Would Jesus ever [by spitting show disgust or contempt for or] mock God if he considered that was the real way that creation occurred? Yet, it almost looks like a mockery of that. He’s taking on that concept of the man of dust. He’s spitting on that ground, into the dust, making clay of it, and slapping it on the eyes of the blind man.
John 9:7. The man goes to the pool of Siloam. He can’t see his way there. He’s got mud all over his face. He doesn’t go seeing. He comes seeing.” He comes only after he has washed off that symbolic making or formation of man out of the dust.
In a way, it might even give us a greater hint on what the true meaning of baptism is, the immersion in Spirit, nativity, and washing off every trace of the dust man.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
Check out a great reenactment of this healing to the end of the story (verse 41) at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHBo7ka3YZQ
BE MADE ALIVE by CHRIST’s EXAMPLE that SOLVES ALL PROBLEMS of a FALLEN ADAM-man!
Cobbey Crisler on I Corinthians 15:22/cit. B13
[Cobbey:] “…If our thesis as presented is accurate, that the implication of Paul’s statement in I Corinthians 15:22/cit. B13: “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” presents problem and solution, or remedy, then one of the greatest research jobs awaiting all of us is to get back into that problem called Adam which we’re all wrestling with.
“Just make a list of everything you detect that Adam did wrong mentally and physically. Because, if it is true that Jesus’ mission was to remedy the Adam man and wipe that alternative off the face of man’s consciousness, then everything that Adam did wrong which was upside down Jesus is going to put right side up and prove that man is upright. Many things may occur to you, for instance in the initial phases of such a list which we could just touch upon. Adam’s problem occurred in what environment? The garden of Eden. Where did Jesus face down and confront that Adam- problem? The Garden of Gethsemane. Is this a coincidence? Is Gethsemane intended to be the remedy for the problems of Eden in our own thinking? I love in that context to remember Isaiah’s words [Isaiah 1:29] when he says, “Ye shall be confounded for the gardens ye have chosen.” Eden, Gethsemane.
“Adam’s problem, though, is probably symbolized most graphically by what? He had been told not to do something, what was it? “Not to eat of that tree” [Genesis 3:3]. Instead he went and did it. The disobedience, doing one’s own will, would have to be totally remedied right up with the same even greater peak pressure on a humanhood that had just announced to the world that the way to get out of this Adam-mess is to yield to God’s will regardless of the pressure upon you, so [it’s] doing God’s will versus doing one’s own will. (“Jesus presented the ideal man… By his obedience to God he demonstrated more spiritually than all others the Principle of being.” (cit. S7/25:16)
“The tree of knowledge of good and evil. You know that the New Testament refers several times to the cross as the tree, that they nailed Jesus to the tree [Acts 13:29; 1Peter 2:24]. Interesting symbolism. The attempt to nail Jesus as if he were one more in the dying race of Adam, to be nailed to death, and that’s the termination and the end of anything that he would offer man radically as salvation. Jesus could not be nailed on the cross any more than God’s man could be nailed on the cross, and thus his theology was exemplified.
“Do you remember, – just things like this to show you how much fun this work can be as well – part of the curse on Adam [Genesis 3:17,18] was that thorns will be brought forth unto him. Did Jesus have to face Adam’s thorns on that weekend?
“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread…dust thou [art], and unto dust shalt thou return” [Genesis 3:19]. The grave was the pressure of the dust he was to return to. There are many other details showing the complete reversal of the Adam. It’s as if the highest sense of mind on earth, which had relinquished its right to mind except by reflection, is turning everything right side up just as we do visually. That topic is far from being exhausted. In fact, what can exhaust an infinite reservoir? It’s one thing about supply in the Bible. It’s never consumed. Therefore, there are no consumers.
“We’re going to review the actual events of the Gethsemane experience and see some of the differences. What Jesus faced, what he was remedying, why he was there and see that we must, just for gratitude’s sake alone, have a stake in that Gethsemane, pioneer work. But then we must take it beyond this. We must go and do likewise.
“Matthew 26:30 “When they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.” A hymn before Gethsemane. That shows the value Jesus places on such an uplifting of thought through the conjoining of music and words. The meaning that is often conveyed even more deeply to us when we have that unity of soul expressed by thought in that manner…
“…Jesus could say in part of that hymn that he sang before Gethsemane which is locatable in the later psalms, is still sung today at Passover, that he needed not to fear what man or flesh could do. Out of that experience flowed the oil that is still blessing us, is still being utilized. We’re not in an oil crisis today if we’re in the way with Jesus. We maybe at a “parting of the ways,” the meaning of the word crisis. We may be challenged regularly and often to make our right decisions, our right choice, our Gethsemane decision.
“Then, the result of no longer bowing down to a human will, no longer seeing within us any domination by others through their human will, but filled with the Holy Ghost’s own message, the angel that strengthens Jesus at that moment, according to Luke. That angel awaits to strengthen us today.
“The world with its creaky joints awaits, needs, yearns, for more Christ-oil to be poured from the thoughts and lives of those who have made the decision, are continuing to make the decision, and are moving from Gethsemane at the base of the Mount of Olives to the summit of the Mount of Olives where Jesus himself ascended. We never have to budge from that mount. It represents both cross and crown, both problem and solution. And therefore, that oil which negates the experience of the cross and delivers the crown shows us that those two symbols, as precious as they are in Scripture, are inseparable. If the cross represents the problem, and the crown the solution, then intertwined they deliver that simple message to me, problem solved. That is the result of the Gethsemane decision.”
“The Gethsemane Decision,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FOLLOW THE MASTER’S METHOD, LIKE PETER DID,
TO CLEAR OUT FUNEREAL THOUGHT & RAISE THE DEAD!
Cobbey Crisler on Acts 9:36+/cit. B14 & Peter raising Tabitha when all believed her dead:
[As a prequel in Acts to the raising of Tabitha, Cobbey said:] “at nearby Lydda, Peter heals a man named Aeneas who for eight years has been paralyzed, unable to move. It didn’t take long for the news to get around that this kind of healing work was being accomplished by the early Christians [and for Tabitha’s friends to send for Peter].
“In a neighboring “town of Joppa we find a woman named Tabitha. … She had had an exemplary life, had done much good for many.” (See Acts 9:36) …
Acts 9:39 Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them.
“Do you recall back in the narratives of the gospel where a similar situation occurred, and Peter was there? (Mark 5:22, 36-42, Matt. 9:24, 25) It was the raising of Jairus’ daughter… Do you remember when Jesus came into that environment that you could almost cut it into square blocks of moisture, the grief was so thick? There were paid mourners at that point. As a matter of fact, we are told that even the poorest individual was entitled to at least three instruments at the funeral service. You can imagine Jairus, being a ruler of the Synagogue, the extent of noise, and activity, and mourning that must have occurred at the passing of Jairus’ daughter.” [W: Peter clearly had an indelible image of what Jesus did and followed the Master’s method as shown in another video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGJ0TKRTEFI&t=13s ) Peter began to follow Jesus’ method by clearing out the funereal thought of the mourners.]
Acts 9:40 But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
Acts 9:41 And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive.
Acts 9:42 And it was known throughout all Joppa;”
“After the Master, What? – The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
TO NOT SEE a TOMB as YOUR ENDING, NEVER SEE a WOMB as YOUR BEGINNING!
Cobbey Crisler on John 8:51, 58 as a BONUS in bold related to Acts 9:36-42/cit. B14)
[Cobbey:] “In John 8:51 Jesus said, ‘If a man keeps my saying, he will never see death.’
An unusual statement because certainly his disciples went on and saw the death process happening all around them. So once again, what does Jesus mean? What is the intent? What is the meaning? Dodd says it’s such a strong statement that it really excludes the possibility of ceasing to live. That there is an eternality to it. How would you feel that was intended? “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.”
Take the raising of Tabitha or Dorcas. (in Acts 9:36-42/cit. B14) Peter went in there. Everyone else around there saw death. Was it helping the situation? Did it solve the problem called death? Peter must have gone in there with a radically different point of view. And did it have a radically different result?
The statement in John 8:58 really started a popular commotion. Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Does that fit into his statement about, “no man ascendeth up to heaven save he that has come down from heaven, even the son of man that is in heaven?” Is there a beginning for man, divinely speaking? Does it hold within it the key of eliminating the last enemy called death?”
“Book of John: A Walk with the Beloved Disciple” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
TALK OF “TENDER MERCIES” & QUIT FOCUSING ON NEGATIVITY:
Cherish “… his tender mercies … over all his works.” (Ps. 145:9-11/cit. B20)
[Warren: Enjoy a serenade of “Tender Mercies” by two Christian Science Practitioners! See and hear Craig Ghislin, CS, and David Price, CS, two of CedarS Met contributors, singing a guitar duet of “Tender Mercies” on the back porch of our new Care House where they were serving.
[Click on either: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PToeaQ_CWLE&feature=youtu.be
By accentuating the harmony, positivity and blessings that flow from receiving God’s “tender mercies,” we can and should eliminate the curses of strife and negativity that daily news and ads play up, especially in weeks before an election.
(Ps. 145:10/cit. B26) “All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee”—as two of them do in the “Tender Mercies” duet from the deck of CedarS log Care House.
Cobbey Crisler points out in the next verses that we should encourage one another to share examples of God’s power, TO STOP FOCUSING THOUGHT ON STRIFE AND TO QUIT TALKING ABOUT ILLNESSES (and viruses)!
[Cobbey Crisler on Ps. 145:11/cit. B26] “Psalm 145, Verse 11. A receptive, spiritually-educated, human race going to God with total commitment for the answer to all ills will no longer talk about illnesses. “They shall speak of the glory of God’s kingdom, and talk of thy power.“’
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
