Click here to print PDF version
Wholeheartedly Apply Bible-based GEM to “FEEL the unspeakable PEACE that comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love.” (cit.S21, 264)
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey & others
as inspired by The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Christian Science”
for Sunday, December 25, 2022
(Cobbey Crisler’s insights are shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps.org
PEACE! WHAT A WONDERFUL GIFT WE’VE BEEN GIVEN FOR THIS CHRISTMAS BIBLE LESSON!
How appropriate that on Christmas Day when the world celebrates the arrival of Christ Jesus, “The Prince of Peace,” that the word peace is mentioned 19 times in this Bible Lesson on “Christian Science.” The words “Great peace” kick off the Golden Text (Psalm 119:165) and peace flows gently and is developed throughout the Lesson. It is and has the last word in the final sentence of the Lesson: “The calm and exalted thought, or spiritual apprehension is at peace.” (citation S30, 506:11-12)
As you will see with next month’s arrival of CedarS 2023 Program Brochure, CedarS theme for 2023 is PEACE. We are especially cherishing this line of Mary Baker Eddy’s in her poem, “Satisfied”— “It matters not what be thy lot so Love doth guide. For storm or shine pure PEACE IS THINE, what’er betide.” (Also Hymns 160-162, 513-515) This includes the idea that peace doesn’t come from circumstances going our way and everything being easy. But even in a storm we have a right to peace. And that peace can also extend from our campers and cabins out to this world that really needs peace these days as well.
The rest of the Golden Text is also pure gold: “Great peace have they which love thy law:… I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law is my delight. (Ps. 119:165, 174)
BELIEVE and OBEY YOUR ANGELS TO NURTURE THE GROWTH OF THE CHRIST IDEA! LIKE JOSEPH, ACCEPT & NURTURE GOD DOING WHAT SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE. Cobbey Crisler on Matt. 1:18-23 (citation B3)
[Cobbey:] In Matthew 1, verse 18 … we find “the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise.” The word “birth” in Greek is our word “genesis.” Writing to a Jewish readership, there would seem to be very little question that Matthew was relating a new genesis here. The word would remind his readers of the opening book of the Bible. “The birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph.” Our modem term “engagement” would probably best suit that. It was a period in which the couple would promise to one another. It was regarded with as much sanctity as the marriage-period itself. So that any violation of it morally was treated with the same severity as if it had been adultery during marriage.
“When the news reaches Joseph that Mary is ”with child,” how do you think the average husband would greet that news? They aren’t even married yet. The news comes to Joseph that his wifeto-be in this very sanctified period of promise is pregnant. Under the Jewish law, what would be the most severe measure that Joseph could take against Mary? Stoning. Publicly. He could have chosen and elected to have exposed Mary publicly and had her executed. But Joseph is as important an aspect of this great account of the introduction of Jesus humanly on earth as Mary. We get an insight into his thinking. Remember that Joseph is just you or I in the sense of going through the same reaction that one would have with this sort of news. This shows some of the quality and character of Joseph.
“(Verse 19), It says that “Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example.” We see right away that he doesn’t want to take the extreme measure, He wanted “to put her away privily,” and go through divorce proceedings, but quietly.
“(Matthew 1, Verse 20). “While he thought on these things.” That isn’t exactly Joseph being a philosopher. The Greek word suggests agony. “While he agonized about these things.” It gives us a view of what was really going on in his thinking. At that point, “an angel of the Lord appears unto him.” “Angel,” actually comes from a Greek word, angelos. It means “messenger” and is virtually inseparable from the message that the messenger delivers. It is this inseparable message and messenger that comes to Joseph in what appears to him as “a dream,” addressing him as the “son of David” and saying, “Forget what you’re thinking,” which was a normal conclusion any husband would come to, “Because Mary is with child but what is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.” How many husbands would exactly buy that? It really flies in the face of the entire biological history of man.
“Therefore, this event itself has become one of the most difficult to believe for anyone reading it. The virginity of Mary at the time of the birth of Jesus has been ridiculed by some, accepted religiously by others without question, and many of the rest of the readers somewhere in between. But let’s go on with what this message is as recorded by Matthew.
“(Verse 21). “She will bring forth a son,” his identity already established to the point that a name is given to him by the angel. That name really is a very common Hebrew name. It’s the same name as Joshua received in the Old Testament. Joshua was not his original name. It was first Oshea, “help” or “salvation,” (p. 64, J. R. Dummelow, “The One Volume Bible Commentary”). Joshua was a given name. It means something very close to our term “savior.” The explanation of the angel is that this name really will define his mission “to save his people from their sins.”
“Now we come face to face with one of the characteristics of Matthew. When we look at the gospel from an overall point of view, you see it over and over again. It may reveal to us what inspired Matthew to put pen to papyrus and record the gospel or good news. This is in Verse 22.
“(Verse 22). He explains that “all this was done.” What is he talking about when he says “all this”? The virgin birth of Jesus. He is about to give us what he considers absolute proof that the virgin-birth occurred. It occurred as a result of prophecy. Does that tell us at what elevation Matthew holds in prophecy? If he’s using this as proof of one of the most unbelievable, incredible, events recorded in the annals of man’s history, then how does he view prophecy? Does he view prophecy as a man-product or as revelation from God?
“If he’s writing this book for the Jews, it shows he is bringing in his big guns right from the beginning to show his Jewish readers that this is it! We can be fairly assured that he felt that what he is about to say would not be disputed, or at least be a matter of severe controversy in his audience. His famous statement which he says so often “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet.”
“Verse 23 is taken from the Book of Isaiah (7:14). We are really in the middle of a controversy. Even at the time Matthew was writing, he obviously felt this was a major point. Look at it from a common-sense point of view. If that particular prophecy was extremely controversial when Matthew wrote this book, do you think he would have included it as his first means of proof of his whole statement in the gospel? Suppose you or I were average Jews of that period, and we’d picked up the gospel of Matthew or heard it read, and he came to this point. If we’d thought it a matter of controversy, do you think we’d even continue the book? We’d probably laugh and close it up right there.
“So, I think we have a very strong indication here that Matthew, at least, felt what he was reading from the Old Testament was proof-positive for his readers. However, in the late first century and early second century, this came a matter of such tremendous controversy that it has lasted all the way up until our day. Even many ministers of other denominations today discounting completely that verse in Isaiah as having any Messianic implications. We find right in the first century Jewish writers responding to the tremendous impact of what Christian thinkers and writers were saying. They go back to Isaiah and say, “Wait a minute, Isaiah really didn’t use a Hebrew word that means “virgin” in every case. It can mean “virgin,” but he elected a word with more of a general meaning. Therefore, it could just mean “a young girl.”
“Of course, there isn’t much news in the fact that a young girl shall conceive and bear a child. Where is the news value in that? … When he begins by saying that the Lord Himself will give you a sign, there is no sign about a “young girl conceiving.” But there certainly is a sign or a wonder about a virgin conceiving because that is certainly unheard of… “Matthew… is definitely convinced that early Old Testament prophesy is a prediction of a virgin conceiving.”
“The Book of Matthew: Auditing the Tax Collector,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
STRIVE TO BE AS UNCOMPLAINING, PERSISTENT AND HUMBLE AS MARY IN YOUR SEASON OF HARDSHIP & AS OBEDIENT AS THE SHEPHERDS. Cobbey Crisler on Luke 2: 1-7, 9-11, 13, 14 (cit. B5)
[Cobbey:] “We’re also told (Luke 2:1-5) that taxing was going on at this time and that the taxing was going to occur in the town of the birthplace of the tribal families, and in Bethlehem where David was born. Those who had links to David genealogically [as did both Mary and Joseph] had to return to be counted. It was a census. That’s how they get to Bethlehem. Again, we’re talking about a hundred-mile trip. With no room in the inn (Verse 7), Mary is left with a manger. One of the earliest records we have about Jesus’ birth is found in an early second century document written by Justin Martyr (A.D. 100-163), an early Christian writer. He affirms that Jesus was born in a cave. This is also supported by other Christian writers a little later, Origen (A.D. 185-254), and Jerome (A.D. 340-420). They all were in a position to have had access to that information having visited the area, in some cases, lived there for several years.
“The manger was simply a stone, or perhaps a clay trough from which the animals would take their water or food.”
“Luke gives us the story of the shepherds (Luke 2:8-18), those alert shepherds in the fields near Bethlehem. This is going to radically change our ideas of Christmas, although I’m sure that you are probably prepared for the fact that the birth of Jesus undoubtedly did not occur on December 25th. It’s pretty cold out there for shepherds to be watching their flocks in winter nights of Palestine. Normally they all would be within an enclosure at that time.
However, it doesn’t hold always true today. It depends, again, on the weather. If it is warm, and if there is sufficient grass on the hillsides, the shepherds could have been out there at that point.
Shepherds generally are watched during the spring when the lambs were being born to protect the flocks from the marauding animals or human thieves. Shepherds had to be alert twenty-four hours a day. The whole figure of shepherd received special metaphorical treatment all the way through the Bible, specifically by Jesus himself, where the title “shepherd” is used to give an indication of his own character.
There was an expectation among the Jews in one of the Aramaic Targums or interpretations of Hebrew Scriptures. There is a tradition that the Messiah would be announced at Migdal Eder, the tower of the flock. This was a place just outside of Bethlehem, identified with the shepherds’ fields. So we do have an early Jewish tradition it would assign the Messianic inauguration near Bethlehem.
The announcement comes to the shepherds in Luke 2:9. Verse 10 begins to give us a hint of part of Luke’s purpose for writing. Most scholars think that Matthew has written his gospel for Jewish readership. It also seems clear that Luke wrote his gospel with a much more universal application in mind. Verse l0 underscores that in its last line by saying, “All people.” The universality of Jesus and his mission to the entire world is emphasized. Only Luke has this story of the shepherds. We’re dealing with the most spiritually conspicuous birth in history.
That means there would have to be a sign from God. We see that consistently through the Old Testament. A sign accompanying the setting aside of human laws, rules, and traditions. A radically new deeply drawn breath from Spirit, from the Holy Ghost, accompanied by angels. “Fear not”—the opening words again—”good tidings, great joy, all people.”
“Right here in this small city of David a sign, (Verse 11), an unmistakably, unique sign. First a virgin will conceive, (Verse 12), then a heavenly anthem or symphony ends the angelic message to the shepherds, (Verses l3 and 14).
The shepherds do something with the Holy Ghost with which they have been filled. They respond; they obey. They utilize what they have been inspired to do. They go to Bethlehem, (Verse 15), “find the babe lying in a manger,” (Verse 16), and “spread the news around,” (Verse 17) so that the story was available among others. We don’t know where Luke would have gotten it. But that gives us certainly sufficient justification to see that it was known by more than a handful…”
“Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
ENJOY GIFT-GIVING THAT’S SPIRITUALLY INTENTIONAL! REJOICE WITH EXCEEDING GREAT JOY TO GIVE UP OLD PRACTICES IN THE PRESENCE OF THE CHRIST SOLUTION! Cobbey on Matt. 2, cit. B6
[Cobbey Crisler:] “Chapter 2 [of Matthew] is entirely original with Matthew. No other gospel has what we read in this chapter. Without Matthew’s record we would be ignorant of the following facts.
(Verse 1). “Jesus was born in Bethlehem.” Does that ring any bells? Let’s assume that we are a first century Jewish audience. We’ve been handed a copy of Matthew’s gospel. It says “Jesus was born in Bethlehem.” What does that mean to us? What does that immediately conjure up in terms of our history? David’s birthplace was in Bethlehem. Again, what does that say to those who are expecting a Messiah? …
(Verse 2). Therefore, when we see that “wise men” suddenly show up, have an audience with Herod and say to him, “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” How would a man like Herod receive any news about another king of the Jews? After all, that’s what he was. “Where is he that is born King of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east.” Practically every king of that period employed soothsayers. Chaldeans from the area of Babylon, whose very profession was to predict, were astrologers, stargazers and prognosticators. They would attempt to give their particular employer, king or governor, some insight into the future so he could plan. I’m sure if this kind of profession were recognized today widely, the stock exchange would employ a few of them.
Herod must have been impressed by the three. I’m sorry, I said three, but if you will notice no number is given. So, you see I was influenced by the Christmas carol which has no Scriptural authority here. Nor does it say they were kings, just wise men from the east, following what they felt was a guiding, directing star.”]
(Verse 3). When it says “he was troubled,” Herod was basically troubled much of the time…
(Verse 4). So, “he calls the chief priests and scribes.” Herod is not a Jew. He’s really a foreign ruler. One of his parents was Idumean, or from Edom. The other of his parents may have been Arab. Herod really never was received by the Jews very fondly. He had support of the Roman emperors, however. He was a close friend of Caesar Augustus, and Augustus gave him his position. He had been a close friend of Mark Antony before that. You can see how clever a politician he was. Herod apparently was able to shift his allegiance from Mark Antony over to Augustus just in time so Augustus could back him.
He calls the chief priests and scribes and he says, “Now tell me what tradition do we have anywhere that a Messiah is to be born? Is there anything that I can tell about a geographical location, or what?”
Verse 5 is the answer that the Bible scholars of the nation give. “They say to him, in Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophet.” Now, here’s the quote. You know how Matthew does this. This is his characteristic. It’s happening because prophecy said it would happen.
“That seems to be the key reason why Matthew wrote his gospel. To show his generation, and, of course, future generations like us, that every event in the New Testament is a fulfillment of what was written in the Old Testament, therefore, dovetailing both Testaments into what would eventually become the Bible. But now Matthew is virtually saying this happened because it’s a fulfillment of prophecy.
We are able to date the general time when Jesus was born, the general chronology, because it gives Herod the king as being the reigning monarch. There are a lot of Herods. It is like the name Caesar. It’s a dynastic name. This is Herod the Great. Again we have a the problem with chronology. Herod the Great died in 4 B.C. What you obviously see is a rather insoluble point. How could Jesus have been born in the days of Herod the Great, if Herod died four years before the generally accepted birth date of Jesus? Very frankly, it couldn’t have happened. Not that Jesus wasn’t born in the days of Herod the Great. That is undoubtedly accurate. But whoever figured out our calendar figured it out inaccurately: It has been determined that it is possible that Jesus was born as early as 7 B.C. but certainly no later than 4 B.C. if he were born during the time of Herod the Great.
Herod was a weird king. He had that combination of plus and minus that exists in human nature wherever you run into it. Herod certainly brought the nation of Jews to a peak of prosperity and beauty. He had cities in Palestine that rivaled any in the Roman world.
The capitol of Syria/Palestine was in Caesarea on the Mediterranean. He built that city right from the ground up. It was described by Josephus (historian, 37/38-100 AD). Coming from the sea it was just a magnificent white marble city that caught the sun and sparkled for many miles into the Mediterranean. My wife, Janet, and I have dug at that spot. There’s not much on the surface but I know some of you have seen the theater on television because Leonard Bernstein has conducted many orchestras in the theater which has been excavated at Caesarea.
“As a matter of fact, one of the stones that was found in the theater had inscribed on it the name Pilate and the name Tiberius Caesar. It is the only epigraphical evidence of Pilate that has been uncover in the Holy land, other than coins. It was found right in that theater. Herod built the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem, far exceeding Solomon’s in its magnificence: It was all white stone and then gilded, covered with gold. So that Josephus said, when the sun came up in the morning and hit that Temple, if one didn’t shield his eyes, he would be temporarily blinded because it flashed. From a distance, the Temple of the Jews looked like a snow covered mountain but with sun glinting off the gold. This is what Herod did on the plus side.
On the negative side, as you will learn, he went around killing and slaughtering. He murdered members of his family and was very suspicious that someone was plotting his assassination or attempting to replace him. This we know of Herod’s character from other records of the period.
“Can the Old Testament stand alone then, as far as Matthew’s point of view is concerned? It can’t.
It is prophecy. But prophecy needs to have the Old Testament comprehended; it needs to be fulfilled. Can the New Testament stand alone? No, not without the fulfillment. Prophecy is the key to the fulfillment. They are inseparable.
This quotation comes from Micah 5, Verse 2. It is the only verse regarded by the first century Jews, at least, as giving any geographical location for a coming Messiah, Bethlehem named specifically.
There is one thing we should just think about as far as the virgin birth is concerned, despite all the intellectual turmoil around all the arguments relating to it. If Jesus, as an individual, has had such a tremendous impact on humanity—uplifting the standards of humanity, healing all the wounds and illnesses that humanity had been unable to solve up to his time—then from the standpoint of what we might call spiritual criticism (since the fountain rises no higher than its source), could Jesus have had any source other than the most pure origin available on earth? Could Jesus have emerged on the human scene in disobedience to the Ten Commandments? Could there have been, in other words, immorality, as some critics have urged, connected with the conception of Jesus on earth?
In one way, Jesus’ birth is the most spiritually conspicuous in all history. Isn’t that star in the heavens which the wise men thought they were following astrologically really symbolic of prophecy? Isn’t it essentially prophecy that led the wise men? Herod wanted to know why they were even there. And he went to the chief priests and scribes and the chief priests and scribes went where for their answer? To prophecy. So, once again, we see the high regard for prophecy which Matthew had, and all the New Testament writers have.
So Herod hears that prophecy indicates Bethlehem is the spot. The wise men needed help. They followed the star as far as they could and then wanted to know where this Messiah-king was to be born. Herod consults prophecy and finds out that it is Bethlehem. It is really prophecy that directs the wise men to Bethlehem.
(Verse 8). Herod, who wants to know exactly where this child is located, says the wise men are “to bring news back to him where this child is located.” Do the wise men obey Herod? No, fortunately.
(Verse 11). They go to Bethlehem and “find the young child with Mary his mother, falling down, and worshiping him, presenting gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” If there is deeper meaning to those gifts of the wise men to an infant, what perhaps, could it symbolize? Or we would be reading something into it that we shouldn’t?
In Isaiah 60, I think you will find how the tradition began that (these wise men were kings.
(Verse 1). I’m sure you’re familiar with its opening verse, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” What parallel might exist already? Light and the star, perhaps.
(Verse 3). Then we find that “the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising,” See how kings entered into the tradition here. It so happens that an early Christian writer saw this and suggested that the coming of the wise men was prophesied here in Isaiah.
In Verse 6 it says, “The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD.” So, we do have early Christian commentators seeing a connection between these passages and the coming of the wise men.
Justin Martyr (A.D. 100-163) is the first commentator we know of to introduce this concept.
Here’s what one of our greatest American Bible scholars of recent years has written. Here’s what he suggests. He goes beyond what the text would tell us but it’s an interesting thing to consider. We’re talking about Professor William Foxwell Albright. Professor Albright has made the comment, first, “that myrrh is used at the anointing of a king.” The wise men bring myrrh. Does this have any implication of the Messiah? Remember they said (Matthew 2:2), “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?”
Also, Albright says that “magical charms were written with myrrh ink,” and adds “the items brought by the wise men were regarded as the tools of a trade. Offerings of the magi would not be gifts of homage,” he suggests, “but a declaration of dissociation from former practices.”
Suggesting what? That these wise men made their living off of magical charms. See, “magi” and “magic.” Although at that time those weren’t related, but magi were wise men and some of the results they were able to come up with later got the term “magic.”
Were these wise men bringing what represented the tools of their trade and dissociating themselves from them at the inauguration of a new era represented by the infant child who was to bring the Christ-solution to mankind?
Remember the magi were very concerned about astrology, predicting the future. If they were convinced that here was a child that came as a direct result of the fulfillment of prophecy, then those who were truly wise men would exercise the option to go for this new method and give up the old.
That, again as I indicate, is just an idea presented by Professor Albright. He is a man I have found to be of deep insight and probably the most respected scholar of recent years. He passed away a few years ago and anything you can get authored by Professor Albright is worth studying. For one thing, he had a very deep humility in the presence of the Scripture.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
STRIVE TO INCREASE IN YOUR LOVE FOR GOD AND LOVE FOR MAN!
Cobbey Crisler on Luke 2:52, cit. B9
…Verse 52 tells us Jesus “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour” (or grace) “with God and man.”
Kay Kyser once pointed out in a talk that when it states that Jesus increased in favor with God and man, that it implies that Jesus grew in keep both of the Commandments that he later summarized for us, love for God and love for man.”
“Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
SEE LOVINGKINDNESS DRAWING ALL MANKIND to God for SOLUTIONS to WORLD PROBLEMS! Cobbey Crisler on Jeremiah 31 (citation B17/Jer. 31:3 +33, 34)
“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)
Jeremiah 31:33, 34 “… this shall be the covenant that I make… I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts… for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest…”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record, by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FOR FREEDOM KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT ALL LIES — EVEN AN 18-YEAR OLD ONE! Cobbey Crisler insight on citation B19, Luke 13:11-17:
[Cobbey:] “A woman with spinal difficulty is in a synagogue. Notice that Luke doesn’t say she has an infirmity. Luke, who is reputed to have been a physician, doesn’t even diagnose it as an infirmity but as a ‘spirit of infirmity,’ a sense of infirmity, a concept, a spirit, a thought. ‘She was bowed together. She couldn’t lift up herself.’
Verse 12. Jesus comes and announces to womanhood something that could be applicable in many ways, not just this one time. ‘Woman, you are free from thine infirmity.’ Verse 13. ‘She’s made straight and glorifies God.’
Verse 14. (& beyond, outside the Lesson) Incredible, ‘the ruler of the synagogue’ in which this grand healing and correction in thought occurred ‘answered with indignation’.
Jesus’ explanation about the cause of disease is Verse 16. No longer should there be any room in Christian thought that disease stems from God or is God’s will when Jesus attributes it directly to anything that would oppose God. Only what would oppose God could impose something on man that God Himself never created in His whole man. Is this a new theology? Satan and disease linked, and not God as the cause of loss, or pain, or sickness?
Because if it is, Jesus defines Satan as a liar in John (8:44). Satan has bound this woman with an infirmity that has her bent over, and has accomplished this for 18 years (Luke 13:16). And Satan is ‘a liar and the father of it.’ Satan’s works must be lies as well. If they are, they can be corrected mentally, by a full recognition of what is true. Notice that Satan does the binding. Jesus said (John 8:32), ‘Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.’
It’s a contest between the truth and the lie about God and His theology, about man, about woman, about children and about disease. If Satan is a liar, he will never change his character. Our idea of God may have gone haywire, but God has never moved.”
“The Gospels, Volume Three, Luke the Researcher,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
FIND ONENESS with God “as a humble ray of sunlight that is one with the sun” cit. S22, 26:10, John 10:30 & 315, 361:16 as sung in “I and My Father” Music Video on YouTube
Below is a YouTube link to an inspiring song by a CedarS mom and award-winning Country Music artist, Cherie Brennan. It emphasizes the “I and my Father are one” mindset of Christ Jesus and mentioned in this week’s Bible Lesson citation S22, 26:10 (& John 10:30, SH 315:3. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZMNlpZavkA
You can learn more about Cherie and buy her CD “You are Loved” (“I and My Father” is the 4th song) on her website through Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/album/3Ii5CBrdNs6f8Y3t4l5XHl
Or, on Watchfire Music by CedarS friend, Peter Link, — LISTEN TO A SAMPLE of “I and my Father are one” SUNG by Mindy Jostyn and BUY IT and the SHEET MUSIC for SOLOISTS at: https://watchfiremusic.com/shop/recordings/songs/i-and-my-father-are-one-2/
AN APPLICATION GEM TO CHERISH AND WHOLEHEARTEDLY MAKE YOUR OWN: WAKE-UP & CHANGE YOUR Genesis to “yield to the harmony of divine Mind.”(162) with “NO opposing element” (P.S.)
Welcome to YOUR BODY the INVIGORATING & PURIFYING “sunlight of Truth” (162)
Claim: “Christian Science brings to the (my) body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies … The effect of this Science is to stir (rouse, wake up, budge, shift, revive) the (my) human mind to a change of base (basis, foundation, origin, heart, starting point, Genesis), on which it may yield to (concede to, give acknowledgement to, admit to, forfeit to, surrender to, hail to) the harmony of the divine Mind.” (S&H 162:4-5, 9, citation S24).
These sentences begin & end a paragraph I’ll always treasure because it helped save my life!!
That’s why I always share my gratitude for it whenever any part of it is in the Bible Lesson. You can read about my 2008 healing of a large, cancerous growth thanks to a healing hymn sing and my in-depth, follow-up applications of this full, powerful paragraph – word by specific, healing word:
“Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates (refreshes, revitalizes, stimulates, enlivens, energizes, animates, rejuvenates, strengthens) and purifies (cleanses, disinfects, sanitizes, decontaminates, filters). Christian Science acts as an alterative (a medicinal plant that causes a gradual beneficial change in the body, usually through improved nutrition and elimination, without having any marked specific action OR A medicine or treatment which gradually induces a change, and restores healthy functions without sensible evacuations), neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions (emissions, discharges, oozings), expels humors (4 Medieval ones to be balanced: blood, yellow bile, phlegm, black bile), dissolves tumors (growths, cancers, lumps, swellings), relaxes rigid muscles (“thought-forces”), restores carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir (rouse, wake up, budge, shift, revive) the human mind to a change of base (basis, foundation, origin, heart, starting point), on which it may yield to (concede to, give acknowledgement to, admit to, forfeit to, surrender to, hail to) the harmony of the divine Mind.” (S&H 162:9, citation S24).
P.S. “YIELD to the HARMONY of divine Mind” (162) with **“NO opposing element” (My. 292) and “so far above all mortal strife, or cruel creed, or earthborn taint, fill(ed)… today with all Thou art…” (Hymn 23)
**Mary Baker Eddy wrote: “My answer to the inquiry, “Why did Christians of every sect in the United States fail in their prayers to save the life of President McKinley,” is briefly this: Insufficient faith or spiritual understanding, and a compound of prayers in which one earnest, tender desire works unconsciously against the modus operandi of another, would prevent the result desired. …
“These conflicting states of the human mind, of trembling faith, hope, and of fear, evinced a lack of the absolute understanding of God’s omnipotence, and thus they prevented the power of absolute Truth from reassuring the mind and through the mind resuscitating the body of the patient.
“The divine power and poor human sense — yea, the spirit and the flesh — struggled, and to mortal sense the flesh prevailed. Had prayer so fervently offered possessed no opposing element, and President McKinley’s recovery been regarded as wholly contingent on the power of God, — on the power of divine Love to overrule the purposes of hate and the law of Spirit to control matter, — the result would have been scientific, and the patient would have recovered. …
“In a certain city the Master “did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief,” — because of the mental counteracting elements, the startled or the unrighteous contradicting minds of mortals. And if he were personally with us to-day, he would rebuke whatever accords not with a full faith and spiritual knowledge of God. He would mightily rebuke a single doubt of the ever-present power of divine Spirit to control all the conditions of man and the universe.”
(The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 292:13–294:15)
