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[Anchor the realm of the real in thought and deeds! Patiently support progress daily! (1, RR)]
Metaphysical Application Ideas for the Christian Science Bible Lesson

for Sunday, September 25, 2016 on

“Reality”

by Aubrey McMullin, C.S., Godfrey, Illinois
(618) 578-9407 aubrey.mcmullin3@gmail.com

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With forever love & gratitude, Warren Huff, CedarS Director and Editor of these newsletters]

As I thought about the lesson on Reality that we are studying this week, I couldn’t help but share the one thing that seemed persistent and very moving to me throughout this lesson: the importance of thought AND deed working together. I’ve been thinking of what a clever tag line could be for this lesson on Reality, but I don’t think it really needs one! I fully believe that our reality is a very simple and firm house built on a rock. It begins as a seed, planted by God in our thoughts and it is our duty to follow through and act on what we know as our spiritual fact of being. Our spiritual reality is not merely a thought or an idea about our identity. It is something to be lived daily and patiently practiced in demonstration and deed. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy provides many reminders that work with passages from The Bible to declare what our true reality is. Many of these reminders are sprinkled throughout this week’s lesson! Let’s find them together.

Golden Text: God’s word is true “from the beginning!” AND it endures forever!
Mary Baker Eddy gives us a wonderful definition of beginning in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures on page 502:24-27. She says, “the infinite has no beginning. This word beginning is employed to signify the only, – that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe.” What a wonderful way to start off our lesson on Reality: with God’s word being the ONLY truth, a truth that is an eternal unity of God and man, including their expression throughout the universe! We begin acknowledging our reality by including ALL in it and by recognizing that this reality truly has no beginning and no end.

Responsive Reading: I love this parable of “the sower and the seed” from Luke. As I read it this time, I noticed that it clearly mapped out what our deeds are to be: to prepare our gardens (our thought) with patience in order for the seed to bring forth fruit as well as to sow the seed unconditionally! So, sow!—no matter if some falls by the wayside, or on a rock, or among thorns—because some WILL fall on good ground, and there it will spring up and grow and “bear fruit an hundredfold!”

Cobbey Crisler has some great insights on this sower parable—all from Warren’s P.S.1 below. Cobbey shares that in verse 12 “the word ‘heart’ is mentioned. In ancient times, that was considered to be the seat of intelligence. If, then, we're talking about thought, the seed that is growing in thought must mean our mental condition determines whether the word is going to be fruitful.” He goes on to clarify that “the wayside is a mental condition that has failed to prepare itself for the seed and failed to welcome it, nurture it, cultivate it, and then receive fruit.” This seems to me that the seed that feel by the wayside was seed that fell on thought that was not prepared to demonstrate it, beginning by welcoming it.

When Cobbey talks about the good ground, he asks great questions that I’d love for us all to think about! He begins by clarifying that “‘the honest and good heart’ is the good soil.” And then he asks, “do you see some ingredients there we saw in many points he’s made up to now? The good soil is what kind of receptivity? Not only hearing, but doing, and bringing forth, ‘keeping it, and bringing forth fruit,’ and notice, ‘with patience.’ Even if it doesn’t happen overnight, which very few plants will promise us from our garden, the patient wait for fruit. Properly preparing and nourishing it, in the right conditions, will look today like it did yesterday. It is supporting progress daily that leads to the eventual fruits.”

This Responsive Reading reminds me of a short video the CedarS Camps Staff watched a couple of summers ago to help them prepare thought to welcome campers, even when their growth was sometimes unseen. It was a video about the growing process of bamboo and how even if what we see on the surface doesn’t quite look like it, progress is being made; the root system (or foundation) for this great plant is being created and strengthened so that it can grow tall and strong in a short amount of time. Here is the link to this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqee-E4joPY

Section 1: Reality is God AND His spiritual creation – in Love and its consciousness expression, in Thought and Deed!
Here is another use of the word “beginning”! Cobbey Crisler shares some interesting insights on John 1:1 (from Warren’s P.S.2 below). He points out that it begins the way that only one other book in the Bible begins: Genesis. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) and “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Cobbey asked after pointing this out, “do you think the early readers of (John’s) gospel would have recognized that? Do you think that was John’s intent? That it should be recognized?” This seems to be very intentional and instructional. I love how John, by wording the beginning of his gospel this way, tied the Old and New Testaments together. It reminds me of how I find myself thinking when I read Mrs. Eddy’s writings – always moving back and forth among several chapters in Science and Health and her Prose Works because her constant reminders of truths that are written similarly are dispersed throughout her writings.

Going back to what Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health on page 502 that the beginning signifies the only, it makes sense that both Old and New Testaments would have an element at their beginnings that remind us that there truly is no beginning in the human sense of the Word. Just as there is no material beginning, there can be no material time that must take place between knowing and demonstrating, God speaking and it being done, God commanding and it standing fast (B2, Psalms 33:4-6,9,11 and P.S.3), thought and deed. Mrs. Eddy reminds us that eternal things are God’s thoughts and therefore cannot exist in anything other than the “spiritual realm of the real” (SH3, 337:22-26. So [amidst the political frays of recent days] how will you keep your thought anchored in the “spiritual realm of the real” today? As we allow thought and deed to abide [not in “material man…the poor counterfeit” (SH3) –but] in the spiritual realm of God, “and there is no place where God is not, evil becomes nothing” (SH4, 479:29-5). This spiritual reality is a scientific FACT of being, including the universe, and “spiritual facts are not inverted” (SH5, 207:27-31). Let’s learn more about facts and demonstration in the next section!

Section 2: Spiritual FACTS (carried out in right thoughts and deeds) demonstrate Spiritual Reality [and “work out the spiritual which determines the outward and actual” (254:20)]!! We start this section with Paul re-stating the FACT that “things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (B6, B3). What does that mean? There are sayings such as “seeing is believing,” but just as the farmer in the bamboo story believed that it would grow, Ahab trusted and believed Elijah because he knew that Elijah’s instructions came from God . [This passage about following whatever directions we know come from God brings to mind a story often told in CedarS Bible Lands Park (CBLP). It’s about the miraculous filling with “holy water” of our Mediterranean Sea in CBLP in just six days. In May 2011, less than a week before CedarS was to kick-off its 50th season with promised cable waterskiing on its new Mediterranean Sea, it was a dry hole. (This was due to a pipe to drain its spring remaining unplugged to allow for the dry sculpting of its side walls by contractor Scott York’s crew.) Warren Huff, taking God at His earlier word of skiing on Opening weekend and on that morning’s random,” Bible-opening guidance, pleaded with Christian Science Association-mate Scott York to stay back and plug that hole with concrete—even though a morning shower meant they would likely get stuck in doing so. They did get stuck in plugging that pipe, as promised by Scott; they were pulled out, as promised by Warren; and the lake was filled in six days and cable skied on all summer, as promised by God! Other workmen and neighbors could only praise God in seeing a huge, 14-foot deep “dry hole” filled with 60 million gallons of water in such a short time. (Half by 12 inches of rainfall and half by pump and gravity transference of water impounded in our higher Crown Lake as inspired by Joseph storing grain in the 7 years of plenty in Egypt.) The fact that it rained only a few inches more for the rest of the summer showed even more God’s hand in the perfect timing of this provision and of everyone’s obedience in “hasten(ing) to follow under every circumstance” (Misc. 116:31). After the pipe was plugged Warren followed Elijah’s example by humbly prostrating himself in prayer atop CBLP’s Mount Carmel until results were apparent in “the outward and actual” (254:20) Mrs. Eddy backs this up with her statement that “the testimony of the corporeal senses cannot inform us what is real and what is delusive, but the revelations of Christian Science unlock the treasures of Truth” (SH7, 70:2-5).

In citation SH9, Mrs. Eddy says that “we must look deep into realism instead of accepting only the outward sense of things” (129:22-24). How reassuring that the outward sense of things is NOT realism! How reassuring that what we see is NOT what we get, unless of course what we are choosing to see is what we are seeing deep in Reality. This past month I was able to experience healing through my willingness to look past the outward sense of things and really focus on the reality of the situation. Upon arriving in Iceland where I was to spend the next 10 days travelling by car and enjoying some much needed time for myself and God, I found out that the rental I had reserved came with what seemed to me an unnecessary and uninformed increase in price (more than quadruple what I had been told I would be paying for it). I had my backpacking bag and my daypack with me and nowhere to go because I had planned on sleeping in the car or camping out, and now I had no car and no way to get to a campsite. I sat down in the airport feeling somewhat discouraged and very tired, opened my Bible, and read the first verse that I saw: from the Book of Ruth, “and Ruth said, intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for wither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” Immediately all doubt and discouragement melted away and I knew that I would know where to go and where I would be staying because I was following God, my highest sense of right and love and companionship. Within hours, although it did seem longer, I had lodging figured out as well as travel during my time in Iceland. At times it did seem like hoops were being jumped through with no end result in sight, but seeing is not believing. Believing is allowing your trust in God to make it possible to see all there really is to see.

Section 3: Evil is only a dream! Reality is ALL good (thought) and wakes us up from this dream (and deed)!

As we look at this third section, it is clear that the message is that we are of God, His image and likeness, His reflection. As such, how can we help ourselves and the world to wake up from the dream, to the spiritual FACTS of reality today? In citation B9, Jeremiah 23:28, we are instructed to speak God’s word faithfully. Are we careless conversationalists? Are we following these instructions to be thoughtful in thought and speech? Are we following the third commandment (Exodus 20:7) about not taking God’s name in vain? Our awakening from the dream of life in matter through Christ, the true idea of God, does at many times seem to be step by step—one phase of the dream at a time. Every instance of recognition of the reality of Mind and Love, however, helps us see and feel the joy of our true identity as God's individualized expression of His own being. Jeremiah 29:8 (B10) sums it up quite nicely, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Our thoughts are already known by God before they come through the gates which are our lips. We are His, speaking only what He has approved.

Accuracy in thought, however, precedes accuracy in word and deed. Hymn 412, by Rosa M. Turner, applies to this accuracy in thought bringing us to an alive, alert, and awake state of being.

“O dreamer, leave thy dreams for joyful waking,
O captive, rise and sing, for thou art free;
The Christ is here, all dreams of error breaking,
Unloosing bonds of all captivity.

He comes to bless thee on his wings of healing;
To banish pain, and wipe all tears away;
He comes anew, to humble hearts revealing
The mounting footsteps of the upward way.

He comes to give thee joy for desolation,
Beauty for ashes of the vanished years;
For every tear to bring full compensation,
To give thee confidence for all thy fears.

He comes to call the dumb to joyful singing;
The deaf to hear; the blinded eyes to see;
The glorious tidings of salvation bringing.
O captive, rise, thy Saviour comes to thee.”

How vital it is to be aware of our thinking and how to improve it! In every activity this quality of accuracy can be refined and active, bringing with it a sense of composure and dominion. This is done through the recognition of one's true selfhood as the spiritual expression of God, divine Mind. There is no element of error in God's universe, and man has never fallen from his original and eternal status as the complete and perfect expression of his Creator. Therefore, spiritual man, as God's expression of Himself, is not subject to mistakes. When we hold firmly to these truths about ourselves, we express higher degrees of accuracy in our daily lives and find ourselves living Mrs. Eddy’s statement, "Truth should not seem so surprising and unnatural as error, and error should not seem so real as truth" (SH15, 130:26). As we reason from this standpoint and consciously act on these truths, we will wake to know that mistakes can be and are eliminated from all experiences. The expectant goal for accuracy is now achieved in the first attempt. Not only can this be true of lesser affairs, but also of decisions pertaining to right activity. Accuracy in thought can fill our present experience, finding expression in the quality of our words and deeds.

Section 4: Spiritual reality is present, not as theory but as fact (thought) and heals (and deed)!

I love how this section spells out for us that the Word is NOT just theory! [No pie-in-the-sky as Cobbey calls it in his comment on John 1:14 (B12) in P.S.4.] The Word is FACT, and FACT is what heals. We live FACTUAL lives. How have you seen Truth’s FACTS bring healing to your life? How have you witnessed divine Truth being “known by its effects on the body as well as on the mind” (SH16, 350:24). In Matthew, we have record of a man being healed of paralysis (palsy) by Jesus, and one FACT that stood out to me from this story was that the healing took place over a great amount of distance!

What a wonderful gift to be practicing a truth that has absolutely no limitations or boundaries. As a Practitioner of Christian Science Healing, working and healing from a distance is a very natural occurrence and one that I value highly. No one really needs to be present physically to heal, because it is God, the Christ truth, Christian Science, which heals, not man! God is as infinitely present with the individual in need of healing as He is with the one who is the transparency for the healing. You do not need to move physically to heal spiritually, but rather be willing to allow the Christ to move through you.

Cobbey Crisler says that “it’s almost as if Jesus were saying to the physical scientists of the nineteenth and twentieth century, ‘Alright, gentlemen, you say in your list of things that represent action-at-a-distance, there can be light, magnetism, sound, and electricity. Recognize that prayer is also action-at-a-distance and can out-distance all on your list.” (See P.S.5.)

Cobbey also shares an insight that the centurion was not even a Jew. “He is a Roman, a non-com officer in a sense, over a hundred men. That's why he's called a centurion. He has enough concept of authority to say, ‘All you have to do, Jesus, if you're good at what you're doing, and a professional, just say, 'Give the order,' and those orders will be obeyed. That's what happens in my profession.’ Jesus says ‘to the centurion, as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.’ We get a better view of it in the gospel of John, if it's the same incident which it undoubtedly is, where the nobleman's son is healed. The nobleman goes back down to check. It's a day's travel. He's half way there and his servants have come to meet him. His servants say; ‘Everything's fine.’ The nobleman said, ‘What time?’ And the servant said, ‘The seventh hour.’ So the nobleman asked about the time and it was the same hour that Jesus had said, ‘Go thy way. Thy son liveth.’ The healing got to the centurion's home before the centurion got there. Which shows what is possible and how primitive we are in exercising the spiritual forces available to us. It may turn out that Jesus is the most important scientist in the history of the world in the sense of demonstrating his theory and proving it.”
(See P.S.5 on John 1:14)

Jesus truly demonstrated for the centurion’s servant that “Truth destroys only what is untrue. Hence the fact that, to-day, as yesterday, Christ casts out evils and heals the sick” (SH20, 142:31). This left everyone to witness that harmony was the FACT, and that sickness was a dream that the servant could awake from (SH19, 412:16-18, 23).

Section 5: The underlying spiritual facts (thought) are ALWAYS at work (and deed)!

The Christ is always at work in human consciousness to dispel the dark shadows of mortal belief and the tenacious claims of false theology and erroneous human doctrines. Paul, who knew so well the activity of the Christ, counseled, "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened” (B16, Ephesians 1:15-18). In the light of Christly understanding we see ourselves and our neighbors as the loved children of God, spiritual and perfect.

Paul's urging in I Thessalonians is, "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good," and in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy tells us, "Practice not profession, understanding not belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence and they assuredly call down infinite blessings." (p. 15) Are we planting ourselves “unreservedly on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of the prophets, and on the testimony of the Science of Mind” (SH22, 269:21)? When we do so, we can be sure that there truly are no other foundations, because “all other systems – systems based wholly or partly on knowledge gained through the material senses – are reeds shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock” (SH22, 269:21).

Those who have experienced the spiritual healing of Christian Science know that its teaching is both sane, reasonable, and logical, and that it has meant to them deliverance from danger. Healing is the fulfillment of God’s promise of protection, as Mrs. Eddy’s poem Mother’s Evening Prayer (also hymns 207-212) outlines.

“O gentle presence, peace and joy and power;
O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour,
Thou Love that guards the nestling’s faltering flight!
Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight.

Love is our refuge; only with mine eye
Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall:
His habitation high is here, and nigh,
His arm encircles me, and mine, and all.

O make me glad for every scalding tear,
For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill,—since God is good, and loss is gain.

Beneath the shadow of His mighty wing;
In that sweet secret of the narrow way,
Seeking and finding, with the angels sing:
“Lo, I am with you alway,”—watch and pray.

No snare, no fowler, pestilence or pain;
No night drops down upon the troubled breast,
When heaven’s aftersmile earth’s tear-drops gain,
And mother finds her home and heav’nly rest.”

Section 6: Take what you’ve learned about Reality (thought) and go and sow His seeds (and deeds)!

This last section brings us back to the Responsive Reading’s reminder and instruction to sow unconditionally right off the bat with David’s Psalm, “the Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it” (B19, Psalms 68:11). The word was given by God, but who published it? How are we proving the divine Principle of healing in our own lives, and holding fast to that which we know is effective and good? How are we publishing His word? On pages 95-96 of Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Healer, you can find a simple explanation of Mrs. Eddy’s as to why she published Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. She looked to the Bible for instructions on what to do next and opened to Isaiah 30:8 which reads, “Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever.”

How are you turning to God for directions and instructions on how to bring good tidings, publish peace, and publish salvation (B20, Isaiah 52:7)? The centuries have produced talent and genius of various sorts, much of which is considered as ranking high in human experience. The earnest thinker sometimes ponders though, “to what purpose?” Mrs. Eddy shares from Unity of Good, p.9: "The talent and genius of the centuries have wrongly reckoned. They have not based upon revelation their arguments and conclusions as to the source and resources of being, —its combinations, phenomena, and outcome, —but have built instead upon the sand of human reason. They have not accepted the simple teaching and life of Jesus as the only true solution of the perplexing problem of human existence." Herein may be found the cause of most of the world's fears, distrusts, hatreds, racial enmities, economic maladjustments, wars, and disasters. Because of the steady growth of Christian Science, however, many today are building on the rock of spiritual understanding. On that foundation ‘talent and genius’ will shine forth as beacon lights through the darkness of materialism, and reveal ever more clearly the practicality of ‘the simple teaching and life of Jesus.’ And this growth in spiritual understanding will continue until the Science of Jesus' teachings is universally understood and demonstrated.

By his marvelous works, Christ Jesus demonstrated the truth of all that he taught, and today his divine method is being followed by sincere Christian Scientists. By studying and following the teachings given in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, any honest seeker of Truth may learn to heal himself and others by the power of divine Love, which Christian Science proves to be the Principle of man's being. In the Preface to this book Mrs. Eddy states: "The divine Principle of healing is proved in the personal experience of any sincere seeker of Truth. Its purpose is good, and its practice is safer and more potent than that of any other sanitary method." (SH28, p. x) She adds, "No intellectual proficiency is requisite in the learner, but sound morals are most desirable." This was how Mary Baker Eddy chose to sow the seed, the word of God, reality. How can we?


[W’s P.S.1 of Cobbey Crisler insights on the Responsive Reading parable of “The Sower and the Seed” from Luke 8. 4-15:
“Parables are now given starting with Verse 4. There is one that deals with receptivity more than any other parable he gives. The words "hear" and "ears" are repeated more often in this parable than any other. In Verse 5, it's about "the sower that went forth to sow." It's one of the few parables that Jesus ever gives an interpretation of. You notice in Verse 8 one of his favorite phrases is there, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

Let's look at the interpretation. It says in Verse 11 that "The seed is the word of God." Notice that Jesus' teaching is not always meant to be taken literally. He is dealing in symbols. He's teaching spiritually through symbols. That must mean it's the ideal and most effective way to do it.

Where is this seed, the word of God landing? Where is the field? In Verse 12, the word "heart" is mentioned. In ancient times, that was considered to be the seat of intelligence. If, then, we're talking about thought, the seed that is growing in thought must mean our mental condition determines whether the word is going to be fruitful. Aristotle said this, using a similar metaphor: "The soul of the hearer must be wrought· first into a state of preparedness by the training of habit like land that is to foster seed." We have a clear symbol then of the word. We've got mental conditions that are similar to rock; with very little room to grow.

In the beginning, [such rock-] receptivity is a joyous, "Gee, it's what I always wanted to hear," or something like that. But it has no root (Verse 13). There we go back to the lack of foundation… It’s temporary. It lasts only briefly and there’s no radical commitment, no depth.
I skipped the wayside to Verse 12, where the fowls are peeking away at the surface of thought, “taking it right out of our heart.” The wayside is a mental condition that has failed to prepare itself for the seed and failed to welcome it, nurture it, cultivate it, and then receive fruit.
Verse 14. Thorns is a mental condition that is already “choked with care, riches, and pleasures.” In Greek, the word “pleasures” is “hedona,” the root of hedonism. With all that choking going on, the ability for those tender little seeds to work their way up through the obstruction is compromised. We have given greater priority in our mental garden to the cares, the riches, and the pleasures.

Verse 15. Now “the good ground, honest and good heart” is the good soil. Do you see some ingredients there we saw in many points he’s made up to now? The good soil is what kind of receptivity? Not only hearing, but doing, and bringing forth, “keeping it, and bringing forth fruit,” and notice, “with patience.”

Even if it doesn’t happen overnight, which very few plants will promise us from our garden, the patient wait for fruit. Properly preparing and nourishing it, in the right conditions, will look today like it did yesterday. It is supporting progress daily that leads to the eventual fruits.”

Transcribed from a talk by B. Cobbey Crisler entitled Luke, the Researcher. You can buy your own transcripts of most of Cobbey’s 28 talks at a new website: www.crislerlibrary.co.uk
Please email your order or inquiry to office@crislerlibrary.co.uk, or directly to Janet Crisler, at janetcrisler7@gmail.com]


[Warren’s P.S.2 of Cobbey Crisler insights on citation B1, John 1:1-3:

John 1:1. John starts off unlike any of the preceding gospels. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He starts off, as a matter of fact, as only one other book of the Bible begins. Notice Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Do you think the early readers of his gospel would have recognized that? Do you think that was John's intent? That it should be recognized? …

John 1:1 starts his gospel off, "In the beginning was the Word.” The Greek is, en arche hin ho logos. Does arche look familiar to you? It is the root word in "archeology." It's an exciting word. It doesn't just mean when things begin or when they have started in a human way, so much as, translated by some scholars, as "the first principle" of things.

For instance, when Jerome, in about 400 A.D. translates the Greek Bible into Latin, here’s how he does those opening words. "In principio," which, of course, is our root of our word "principle," in principio. He could have used another Latin expression which is "ab initio, " which would have meant at the initial phases of things, but instead he chooses a Latin word which has a dual meaning which could be "principle," the first principle, the origin, the basis of things.

If we choose that particular Greek meaning for the opening of both Genesis and John, then it gives it an entirely different connotation. If, in principle, God created the heaven and the earth, or in principle, was the word, it starts out like many mathematical or scientific textbooks which start out with the statement of principle. Everything else derives from it.

But then we come to a word which John uses in the first chapter and uses again in successive chapters but never with the same connotation. It stands out in its uniqueness and it is so emphatically important to the author that we have to just dwell on it somewhat and see what it might mean.

Let me give you a partial history of the word… Zeno (of Elea, c 490 – c 430 B.C.), a Greek philosopher used it in the connotation of right reason, of reality within the mind, pure thought. Which leads me to what Professor Dodd has said, "It is only in Greek that a term is available which means both thought and word, and that's logos." Only in Greek have you that term that can convey both thought and word. So, when you’re talking about logos, even from the standpoint of word, if we are not giving to it what really is behind it, we're losing something of the message, aren't we?

Why does the additional concentration on thought add to the definition of word? When you go behind the word to the thought, you're dealing with ideas, concepts, and the meaning. It is where all human languages finally give up their fragmentation and meet, and become one, in a Pentecostal day of infinite communication. The "word" is but an instrument which we must meet at the thought or at the meaning. Then, no barriers, especially language barriers, can stand between us and comprehension of one another, of the universe, its laws, and the source of those laws…. Do you know where we use logos in the English language? Biology, physiology. Logos is the one that has been used to define the sciences in the English language. … We use it all the time without realizing it, taking it for granted. Is there a scientific connotation, then, that "In the beginning,” "In the first principle of things,” there is a scientific unvarying, inalienable, order that's ruling. And that it's not only being uttered as an expression or word, but behind it is the immense thought that also must be based on the same principle…

John 1:3 continues with a statement that is quite absolute, "All things were made by him,· and without him was not any thing made that was made. " Is there any reservation for qualifications? "All things were made by him. That is [an] enormous commitment to make at the beginning of a book. The theology of this book is therefore committed right squarely on what principle if we're now defining the theological principle on which the Bible is based? Not only oneness of God, but the fact He's one, also means He's all. "All things were made by Him.” Everything is created by Him. That also poses problems, because all we have to do is open our eyes and look around us. And what we see, we'd rather not think was created by God. But as of now, we've just started the book. So, let's see what the style of the author is and his theological commitments. "All things were made by Him.”
He doesn't leave it there. The very next sentence adds, “Without him was not any thing made that was made." Why is he saying that? … What’s the distinction that he is implanting in his readers' thought right at the beginning of the book? "All things were made by Him.” What would you call that? That kind of statement is an absolute, but is it also an affirmation. It's a real solid plus. This is a plus of the theological view of John. "All things were made by Him."
What have we got now? Denial. Here is how we're going to deal with the minus element. The minus element is without Him, "without him was not any thing made that was made.” Any hint of a minus existing after the all-things-were-made-by­him being declared, is removed , because it is the other side of the same coin.

The plus, the minus, the affirmation, the denial is a mathematical approach. Dealing with the plus, dealing with the minus and ending up with one, not dualism,

One, so there’s no doubt that the key to the gospel is monotheism. It challenges the reader’s thought to see if he’s there at that altitude before he continues any further in the gospel. It forces the reader to get to that height in order to remotely communicate with what's in the gospel.”

Transcribed from a talk by B. Cobbey Crisler entitled Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple . You can buy your own transcripts of most of Cobbey’s 28 talks at a new website: www.crislerlibrary.co.uk Please email your order or inquiry to office@crislerlibrary.co.uk, or directly to Janet Crisler, at janetcrisler7@gmail.com]


[Warren’s P.S.3 of Cobbey Crisler insights on citation B2, Psalms 33:9, 11:
Chapter 33, Verse 9, we’ve already alluded to. The swiftness of God’s treatment. It’s not a process, according to the Bible. It’s not recuperation. It’s not convalescence, or gradual recovery. “He spake, and it was [done],” In case we have had room in our thinking for a possibility of relapse, it is stated, “He commanded, and it stood fast.” No side effects, no after effects.

In Verse 11, “The advice or counsel of the LORD stands” for how long? “For ever.” What good I that, if we aren’t there forever to receive such advice? “The thoughts of his heart to all generations.” What good are God’s thoughts unless those are the potions we are supposed to be taking, imbibing, ingesting. God’s thoughts, His potions. Take them, eat them up, drink them in. That makes the Bible a pharmacopoeia which is a word the dictionary says describes “preparations issued by official authority and recognized as a standard.” [Voice from audience] Pharmacopoeia, which is a word that in its ordinary meaning without uplifting it to what the Bible would require of the term anew would just simply be an authority to which one would turn to know where the remedies all are.”

Transcribed from a talk by B. Cobbey Crisler entitled Leaves of the Tree: Descriptions from Psalms”. You can buy your own transcripts of most of Cobbey’s 28 talks at a new website: www.crislerlibrary.co.uk Please email your order or inquiry to office@crislerlibrary.co.uk, or directly to Janet Crisler, at janetcrisler7@gmail.com]


[Warren’s P.S.4 of Cobbey Crisler insights on citation B12, John 1:14: (“made flesh”… “only begotten”
“To show that it isn't pie-in-the-sky, John 1:14 introduces the word "made flesh,” lived, illustrated, exemplified; it's been done, it's not just theory. The thought has been uttered in human experience, in life. Human life itself has seen this Word fulfilled. Was he the vanguard, the way shower?

He is called in Verse 14, almost in contradiction to what I'm saying, that he was "the only begotten of the Father." That seems fairly exclusive, doesn't it? Since it would also contradict Verse 12 where it refers to "sons of God," it just must be something in the translation we're missing, the intent: You can't have sons of God and have one son being the only begotten. That would be mixed up theology right in the beginning in a book that we are saying is extremely clear and close to Jesus own thought.

So, what have we got? The Greek word "mono genes” doesn’t mean “only begotten." If it has any meaning that we can express in English, it could be "unique," in the sense that he was representing the original man as a model. In other words, the only real man that God could ever beget.”

Transcribed from a talk by B. Cobbey Crisler entitled Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple . You can buy your own transcripts of most of Cobbey’s 28 talks at a new website: www.crislerlibrary.co.uk Please email your order or inquiry to office@crislerlibrary.co.uk, or directly to Janet Crisler, at janetcrisler7@gmail.com]


[Warren’s P.S.5 of Cobbey Crisler insights on citation B13, Matthew 8:5-13, the at-a-distance healing of paralyzed Centurion's servant:
“Test two a case of a paralyzed Centurion's servant:(Verse 5). The second healing is the centurion's servant. This
is a healing of palsy. Palsy is paralysis. This healing occurs over a distance. It's almost as if Jesus were saying to the physical scientists of the nineteenth and twentieth century, "Alright, gentlemen, you say in your list of things

that represent action-at-a-distance, there can be light, magnetism, sound, and electricity.

Recognize that prayer is also action-at-a-distance and can out-distance all on your list. You do not have to be present physically to heal the sick. God is present with the one in need of healing as he is present with the one who is the channel for the healing or transparency.

You don't have to move physically to heal spiritually. This is a tremendous breakthrough in a concept for healing which can occur even today, when it is considered that one must be at the bed­side of a patient in order to accomplish anything. Jesus did not do that in every case. It required the receptivity of thought in those with whom he was dealing.

Here we have a centurion, who was not even a Jew. He is a Roman, a non-com officer in a sense over a hundred men. That's why he's called a centurion. He has enough concept of authority to say, "All you have to do, Jesus, if you're good at what you're doing, and a professional, just say, 'Give the order,' and those orders will be obeyed. That's what happens in my profession," he said.

(Verse 10). Jesus makes the comment that he has not "found so great faith, no, not in Israel." One wonders if he would find that kind of faith even today?

(Verse 13). He says "to the centurion, as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour." We get a better view of it in the gospel of John, if it's the same incident which it undoubtedly is, where the nobleman's son is healed. The nobleman goes back down to check.

It's a day's travel. He's half way there and his servants have come to meet him. His servants say; "Everything's fine." The nobleman said, "What time?" And the servant said, "The seventh hour." So the nobleman asked about the time and it was the same hour that Jesus had said, "Go thy way. Thy son liveth."

The healing got to the centurion's home before the centurion got there. Which shows what is possible and how primitive we are in exercising the spiritual forces available to us. It may turn out that Jesus is the most important scientist in the history of the world in the sense of demonstrating his theory and proving it.”

Transcribed from a talk by B. Cobbey Crisler entitled Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report , You can buy your own transcripts of most of Cobbey’s 28 talks at a new website: www.crislerlibrary.co.uk Please email your order or inquiry to office@crislerlibrary.co.uk, or directly to Janet Crisler, at janetcrisler7@gmail.com]


[Your GIFTS are VERY MUCH NEEDED and ESPECIALLY APPRECIATED (before our Fiscal Year End of 9-30-16) to cover a year FULL of BIGGER than anticipated maintenance and operating expenses and HUGE with camper and staff blessings. Your generous support will enable CedarS to be sustainable in its efforts to bless over 1200 Sunday School students for this summer and in future years. The blessings of making one's own the love and science of Christianity are not only immediate and heartfelt, but they also last forever–as can be seen in our summer FRUITAGE. Please check back on this webpage in coming weeks for a gushing stream of new stories of blessings felt across the country and around the world–thanks to God and to your ongoing generosity! CedarS, your friend in need is "a friend indeed!"

1. "Unrestricted Gifts" allow CedarS to allocate funds where most needed.

2. "Maintenance Musts" Matching Funds! This hugely helpful matching grant offer has been renewed by dear supporters to match up to $25,000 through year-end 2016!

3. “Adopt the Herd” Matching Opportunity! Generous donors, aware of the ongoing need to care for CedarS herd, will match donations for our horse program! (Thanks for helping us reach our $50k answered prayer before our new fiscal year starts in October)

[You can also reach a member of the Founding family nearly anytime by
PHONE at 417-532-6699

or MAIL your tax-deductible support to our 501C3 organization
(Our not-for-profit, Federal Identification Number is #440-66-3883):

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[THANKS TO YOU PRECIOUS DONORS FOR YOUR ONGOING, GENEROUS and NEEDED SUPPORT OF CedarS IMPORTANT WORK!]


[CedarS weekly Metaphysical Newsletter is provided at no charge to the 1,200 campers and staff blessed each summer at CedarS, as well as to CedarS alumni, families and friends who have requested it. However, current and planned gifts are a big help and are greatly appreciated in defraying the costs of running this service and of providing needed camperships, programs and operations support.

[The Met application ideas above are provided primarily to help CedarS campers and staff (as well as friends) see and daily demonstrate the great value of studying and applying the Christian Science Bible lessons throughout the year, not just at camp! YOU CAN ALSO SIGN UP for weekly emails from past CedarS staff of possible ways to share Bible Lesson applications with older, as well as younger, Sunday School classes by clicking the "Subscribe Now" button (lower left) athttp://www.cedarscamps.org/metaphysical/ ]

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