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W's Post Scripts: Grow “less selfish, more charitable and spiritual!” Walk worthy of your high calling. Purge thought of “all unworthy and untrue!”(PS#1)
Insights from Mary Baker Eddy, Cobbey Crisler, Ken Cooper, Barry Huff, Whit Larsen and others
on select citations for
Sacrament”—
the Christian Science Bible Lesson for January 13, 2019


Warren’s (W’s) PS#1—Mary Baker Eddy insights into “Sacrament”application ideas for us this week:
Praying in Communion Services by Mary Baker Eddy Christian Science Journal (CSJ) August 1889

"The sacrament shall be observed … by a short interval of solemn and silent self-examination by each member, as to his or her fitness to be called a follower of Christ, Truth; as to his real state of love toward man, and fellowship and communion with Christ; as to whether he is gaining in the understanding and demonstration of Truth and Love, coming out from the world and being separated from error; growing less selfish, more charitable and spiritual, yea, walking worthy of his high calling.”

“One should turn into his consciousness with renewed carefulness the ever-searching light of Truth. Shall it not be a specific time for purging from one's thought all that is unworthy and untrue?”


W’s PS#2a on the Golden Text and on giving oneself to prayer—Ken Cooper’s poem this week—“I Give Myself to Prayer”—springs from the Golden Text and resonates in citations about prayer throughout our second Bible Lesson for the New Year (B1, B2, B3, S1, S2…B11, B12, S16, S18, S19, B13, S21, S24, B18…
It can be accessed under Downloads near the upper right corner of both online versions of CedarS posts this week.
When Ken emailed this week’s contribution to me, he added:

"Prayer is how we connect with our Father-Mother God, and the attached poem “..I Give Myself Unto Prayer” led me to see the complete humility of Jesus as a fundamental truth of all being. Seeing God as the source of every action we too will shine with that same light and understanding of what “Our Father” means. Such divine action necessarily fulfils true prayer and opens the way to our demonstration and expression of “thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory”, spiritual communion.

[YOU CAN HEAR AND SEE] the You tube video version at https://youtu.be/EvhlIXcrmu8


W’s PS#2b—Cobbey Crisler on Psalm 109, verses 2 & 3 that sound like today’s adversarial accusations in U.S. politics, right before the answer in Verse 4, the Golden Text (IN CAPS):
“Psalm 109, [Verses 2 and 3]. “… the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me; they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. 3 They compass me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause. 4 For my love they are my adversaries; BUT I GIVE MYSELF UNTO PRAYER.

Cobbey: “Why is this adversarial position set up to try to cast us down as one of the stars of heaven? Is our potential under draconian pressure to be cast down? Are we going to submit to what Eve listened to? [snake talk lies and false promises] Or are we going to accept the leaven? And, remember, love is the banner over us, as we’re told in Song of Solomon [2:4]. And in Verse 4 [of Psalm 109], “For my love they are adversaries: BUT I GIVE MYSELF UNTO PRAYER.
“War in Heaven”: Conquest of Inner Space,
by B. Cobbey Crisler**

Warren’s apolitically intended application idea, in keeping with this week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson on PRAYER: As difficult as it seems to not get wrapped up in all the daily adversarial accusations of “divided government” and to not take sides in heated opposition, we as Christian Scientists owe it to our country and the world to pray as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not as I will, but… thy will be done.” (B12) and to “judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.” I Cor 4:5

In accounting for the failure of prayer to save President McKinley after he was shot by an assassin in 1901, Mary Baker Eddy revealed the importance of prayer that “possessed no opposing element”. “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.
First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany, 293:21


W’s PS#3Cobbey Crisler on Matt. 4: 17 (RR) “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
“Verse 17. After Matthew prophesies [in verses 15 and 16 from Isaiah 9:1, 2] of the coming of the Messiah], Jesus’ opening word, according to Matthew’s gospel is “Repent.” Change your concept. Again, just as John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:2, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That is radical good news for mankind.

It’s not a far-off event. Many denominations have left the impression that heaven is something attainable in the far-off future. But, the opening words of John the Baptist, as well as of Jesus, are “the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” right here. That means that we must be able to do something with it and about it. And, apparently that had something to do with the changing of our concept, even theologically, that heaven can do something about the problems that seem to be at hand.” (See PS#8.)
Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#4a—Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 6:3-18: Step 1 of prayer: mentally go to where our supplies already are & leave problems behind The Lord’s Prayer and Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 6:6 “But when you pray,” first, now notice, here are the rules for praying. If we think we’re praying, wait till we get through with what his requirements are, and then ask again. “When you pray,” here’s what we do. There’s no way around these requirements, because this is Jesus’ specific answer to how we pray. When we pray, number one, we do what? “Closet.” Number two, “Shut the door.”

Often we do one or two of these things but not all of them. Number three, “Pray.” Don’t forget why you’re in that closet. Don’t go to sleep with the door closed. What’s good about studying the Greek that’s behind this? The Greek word for closet is tameion. It really is not translated as closet, I don’t believe any other time it’s used. Tameion has in the Greek this meaning: it’s a storehouse. It’s a place in which our supplies are kept. Now ask yourself if you’re really praying.

In prayer, in our first step, do we actually go mentally into the place where our supplies already are? That means in prayer we can’t take any problem with us. In prayer we’re in the presence of the solution, or it’s not prayer, as far as Jesus’ definition is concerned. Once we’re in there where the supplies are, shut the door so that the problem doesn’t nag.”

That's a prayer that really is more of affirmation than it is a petition. The Bible actually authorizes both kinds of prayer.

But I think one of the most beautiful definitions of that kind of prayer which ties directly in with what Jesus is saying here in Matthew may be found in the First Epistle of John, Chapter 5. Measure your concept of prayer against this magnificent description of what it really is.

(Verse 14). Let's take the state of mind or thought described here… “This is the confidence.” Prayer has to have confidence. “That we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will." Not our will. What line in Jesus’ Lord's Prayer showed us that was true already? “Thy will be done." And what was his last commitment in Gethsemane before the Cross? Not as I will, but as thou “wilt.” How important is it, even under maximum pressure, especially, under maximum pressure?

Verse 14 continued, “If we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.” Notice the next verse.

(Verse 15). “And if we know that he hears us,” Do we? Is that our attitude in prayer? Do we know, or do we hope? “If we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask," look at the next step we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” Look at that definition of prayer. Does it agree with Jesus' definition of going into the tameon where our supplies already are? In that tameon would this be fulfilled? Would we know that he's heard us? Would we know that we had already the petitions we desired of him?

What else could have prompted Jesus outside the grave containing Lazarus to have thanked his God (John 11:41, 42) for already raising Lazarus when Lazarus hadn't even made a move, or at least a visible move to anyone around? Jesus expressing gratitude for the fulfillment of prayer before it was even visible.

So, the Sermon on the Mount is meaty, isn't it? It's not just milk.

Matthew 6, (Verse 7), “use not vain repetitions." Saying words, Jesus is telling us directly, is not part of the equation that gets results. Just words. How often one hears the Lord's Prayer almost as if the accelerator has been pressed to the floor?

Even when it is said slowly, and as a matter of ritual, then, that's not what he means. Because right after he says that, he gives the prayer that's probably repeated more vainly than any other prayer since his time, the Lord’s Prayer.

Josephus tells about a quote that Jonathan said to David. It isn't in the Bible. Where Josephus got this tradition I don't know. Here was Jonathan. Jonathan was a lovely, lovely character in the Bible. Remember, he went contrary to his father to support David. Jonathan said to David, "This God, who, before I have expressed my thoughts in words, already knows what it is."

This giving of alms in secret, praying in secret, both having the open results in our lives. But we often elect to appear in public self-righteous, and that becomes our definition of religion.

Verse 8 says, “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him." So, what could words do? Convey something to God he doesn’t already know? Or, is prayer to bring us into alignment with what God already knows? Isn't that why we have to go into the closet where the answers are? Doesn't that bring us into alignment, at-one-ment, so to speak, with our Father's solution?

The solution is already implicit in the fact that God is our Father. Understanding that makes us his children. And the problems are baptized away in the sense of the Holy Ghost and fire, operating in thought. As if there could be a double source which causes a conflict in man's thinking.

The source of his problems and the source of his blessings, and their constantly struggling for preponderancy in thinking. Vain repetitions are not going to align our thought with God.

(Verse 9). “After this manner therefore pray ye,” he said. “Our Father." Joachim Jeremiah, a German scholar, who is widely respected for his studies on Jesus, has stated that in every case, except when he is quoting the Old Testament, Jesus undoubtedly used the word '"Abba," when he spoke of his Father.

That puts Jesus in a very unique category. No other Hebrew thinker, or writer, prior to Jesus, or even subsequent to Jesus, except one of his followers, ever used the word “Abba” in connection with Father. Whatever Jesus did in connection with his God would express his sense of the relationship to God. Therefore, it would be vital to comprehend that, if that was Jesus' favorite word for God, at least to express his fatherhood.

Do you know what “Abba” is? It's probably the first word a Hebrew child learns. It means “Daddy.”Abba” and “Imma,”Daddy"' and "Mommy." You hear that today in the Holy Land. Little child gets way behind his parents, "Abba, Abba, Abba." Just think of that.

If we're little children, that have gotten behind our parent, how did Jesus say we were to enter into the kingdom of God? As a little child (Mark 10:15). If we really are saying the Lord's Prayer in the spirit that he meant it. Apparently, you and I are forced to go to the Father as little children,

“Daddy.” That tender relationship, that reliance, that trusting sense that our divine parent is there.

So, “Abba” is a very precious word. Paul uses it later on with the same tenderness (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). He would never have used that as a Pharisee, which he was, but got it from his study of Jesus.

(Verse 13). We know the Lord’s Prayer sufficiently, I'm sure. There’s some doubt as to whether the last line was in the original, the last line being, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever." That last line hardly violates the spirit of the prayer. It could very easily have been there. But we don't know for sure.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#4b—Bible Scholar, Dr. Barry Huff on The Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:9-13 (RR)
Discover the eight-part audio series of podcasts on the ChristianScience.com website in which Bible scholar and Christian Science Mother Church member, Dr. Barry Huff offers spiritual insight into each line of the Lord's Prayer.
https://www.christianscience.com/youth/sunday-school/resources/the-lord-s-prayer

1.THE PURPOSE OF PRAYER

2. ABBA “FATHER”

3. HALLOWED BE THY NAME

4. THY KINGDOM COME

5. OUR DAILY BREAD

6. LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

7. FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS

8. FOR THINE IS THE KINGDOM AND THE POWER AND THE GLORY


W’s PS#5Cobbey Crisler on Job 16:17-19 (B3) (and dust man issues)
[Citation B3 from Job 16:17 is simply “my prayer is pure”—or unmixed—with “no opposing element” (see PS#2b)
In Chapter 13, Verse 4 we see the mixed, opposing elements that Job was fighting to be free of in his prayer. It is at this point in the book of Job that he begins]
“to identify clearly these arguments that he's hearing as coming from "forgers of lies," and notice the use of the word physicians, "physicians of no value." Why are they of no value? Perhaps because Verse 12 in the same chapter says that all the arguments placed before Job by these physicians proclaim to cure but do not—due to returning to what? "Your remembrances [are] like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay."

So the arguments are all what? They're dustoriented. They're based on

the dust origin of man.

Is this telling us something about the [pure prayer] method of healing? Is there

something that we should accept or reject about the dust-origin of man

in order to get results? According to the New Testament [1 Corinthians 15:22], 'As in Adam," which is the other name for the dust-man, what happens? "All die." So, is there really any hope for us, any possibility of healing, if we are Adam and Adam's progeny? If we are that, it's dust-to-dust. It's hopeless. A hopeless dead end. That's exactly what the New Testament says. If that were it, the Bible would have ended a long time ago.

Instead, the alternative becomes the only, as we explore that alternative. The way which Jesus said his whole example proved to man. Wasn't the summary of his experience basically this: Look, my fellow men and women, we can make it, we can survive, we can overcome no matter what the world places in our path. His life exemplified it. Here Job, perhaps fighting to get that realization out of the heart of his own crisis, realizes the arguments about a dust-man aren't doing him any good at all. He might as well give up.

So, in Chapter 16, Verse 19, we find something higher [and pure as a basis for prayer]. Job says, "behold," what? "My witness [is] in heaven, and my record [is] on high." What is he saying about the dust origin of man? Is he saying, "Look for my origin and my nativity where? [Voice: "On high."] Entirely different, isn't it? A nativity in Spirit within which is no [opposing] element of dust. Is it possible that we, you and I, could relate to that verse as we would relate to a scientific textbook in school, and pull out of that a rule which we could apply? Could we in the middle of being covered with boils or whatever else novel combination of symptoms we may be facing, could we in the midst of that, say, "My witness is in heaven"? Therefore the boils are no longer permitted to bear witness in our mental courtroom if we've chosen our witness in heaven and our record on high.”

(just transcribed from) "Heal the Sick": A Scriptural Record, by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#6—Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 5:8, 10 and Beatitudes (B5, RR)—Jesus lays out mathematical rules of heavenly happiness.
“The beatitudes, the blessings. The word “blessed” in our sermon on the mount is not really the accurate translation of the Greek. The word is “makarios” which means “happy.”
Just think of the search for happiness among humanity. Here are rules laid down by Jesus simply stating that happiness can be obtained in the following ways…
… we should remember that Jesus never uttered anything that he hadn’t practiced.
The Sermon on the Mount is in essence a description of the life of Jesus…
The Sermon begins with the Beatitudes. (Verse 3). “Happy are the poor in spirit.” Doesn’t sound like they should be does it? But we find out the reason. Because such humility gets what results? And where is the kingdom of heaven? What was Jesus’ first announcement? “Right at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Later he says, “Within” (Luke 17:21).

We’ve talked about mathematics. How would you like to view Jesus as a mathematician par excellence? You can take his beatitudes and make equations out of them. Which shows how much of a mathematical thinker he was. For instance,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Thus, B x PS = KH. When you invest on the left side of the equation, what is the yield on the right side? The “Kingdom of Heaven.” “B” multiplied times “PS” equals “KH,” i.e., B x PS = KH.

You have measurable results. Do you see a difference here in Jesus’ approach to religion? When we stop to examine theology, even in our century, is there that much expectation for results in theological thinking? Yet here is the essence of Jesus’ thinking. And we have results…”

“… As you go down the Beatitude, read them all, scan them as they are in front of you. See if you can find results in every one of them. See if you can analyze them for those results. That becomes a very practical clue for how to lead one’s life.
The Commandments and Beatitudes have often been placed side by side. Many parallels have been used. Is that justified?
For instance, we are told in the Book of Revelation that those who have overcome the beast will stand on the sea of glass with harps. They’re singing two things representative of what has been given them. The victory over the beast, the animal origin of man. How can we overcome that animal connection?
Those who have overcome are said to be singing two things: the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. That sounds like they’re inseparable. They operate together. Do you know why? Because it’s part of the heavenly mathematics.
Why did the Commandments say, “Thu shalt not,” taking care of the minus aspects in human nature? And the Beatitudes, “happy are they”that do certain things, are plus? What do you do with the minus in thought, the chaff? It is dealt with by fire. You deal with the plus in thought through the Holy Ghost.
They operate together for a single purpose and a unique commitment to the totality of One infinite, God, good. The Beatitudes must be considered in conjunction with the Commandments in your study.
These Beatitudes took the same forty days preparation of Jesus in the wilderness as the Commandments took forty days of preparation in the wilderness for Moses. It may take the same wilderness experience for you and me to really appreciate what really is there behind the Commandments and the Beatitudes. They are really the staff on which we lean. If we try to go very far without that staff it must discipline us. {Discipline is] The same root word as disciple. We must come back and learn how to deal with the plus factors and the minus factors in our own thinking. That’s the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire…

Let me make recommendations for your own research. I have previously assigned my high school students to see on their own, through their own Scriptural research, whether there was any Old Testament precedent for each Beatitude. In other words, is this something that Jesus is saying, “Hey, here is a new idea of humanity, why don’t you consider it?” Or was he pointing out stones already in the foundation that had been neglected?

These are interesting things. I’ll give you one as a lead. Verse 5 of chapter 5, “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” You’ll see in Psalms 37, Verse 11, that almost word for word, we find that Beatitude there.
So you see, it’s not always being original, but recalling human attention to something that has been already revealed, already discovered, but essential to our progress and growth.”

“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master” by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#7—Cobbey Crisler on I Samuel 1:2-20 (B8) Hannah’s silent prayer & motherhood

[“In I Samuel the storyteller is trying to tell a much larger story in which the barren Hannah represents all of Israel. Verse 7 describes how barren Israel felt like a “turning of things upside down (being) esteemed as the potter’s clay” (Isa. 29:16)—like the upside-down, Adam, dust-man which Jesus later turned right side up.”

Verse 8. Elkanah, barren Hannah’s husband, asked: “Hannah, why weepest thou? And why eatest thou not? And why is thy heart grieved? Am not I better to you than ten sons?” This is like reading the lesson ten times with no healing (child).]

“Verse 13. Here we… meet a woman who is responsible for a breakthrough in religion. Impossible you say? But here it is. Hannah, the soon to be mother of Samuel goes to Shiloh. At that point this was the religion capital of Israel where the tabernacle was and the Ark of the Covenant. Guess what Hannah does in verse 13? Uncharacteristic as it may sound she prays silently. You know what people have said about women. Here is contrary evidence. Notice that the High Priest of Israel whose name is Eli, the maximum really, the peak of theological attainment, doesn’t recognize silent prayer when he sees it. Which leads perhaps, to this conclusion. I haven’t really heard this idea or concept presented anywhere in writing or orally: Namely, that from the evidence here it looks like a woman introduced and discovered the concept of silent prayer in religion. Praying from the heart not audibly so one could be seen and heard of men. The inaudible prayer, humility. [Jesus later said that the rule for healing was to “pray in secret.” It came first] through womanhood because in verse 13 “Hannah, spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: and the High Priest of Israel thought she was drunk.”

“There’s one other similar theological miscalculation in the Book of Acts [2:13 (B14)]. Just after the day of Pentecost when the language barrier was broken and all men united in their mother tongue, the Spirit, the Holy Ghost. At that point those who observed thought the disciples were drunk. Almost a pathetic statement about the human mind’s ability to accept something beyond itself. Almost as if the human mind were admitting that the only thing like inspiration it’s ever been used to, but remotely resembles inspiration, is intoxication, which is the very perversion of it. Even today many turn to drugs for/or intoxication devices for what they hope will be inspiration.

“What comes of all this? Hannah does again break a biological barrier. A woman who is barren does get a child [I Samuel 1: 19, 20]. Her concept of motherhood is so advanced she, after her child is weaned, virtually never sees him again, giving him to the service of God. This womanhood’s thought is vitally important and one to study deeply.

[It was really Hannah then, not Samuel, who introduced the age of prophesy — because if it were not for her fervent, silent prayer to God, we would not have had Samuel and his saying (after God called him three times) “Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.” If our sense of religion is not inspired today, we are killing the prophets!]

[Recently transcribed mostly from Heal the Sick: A Scriptural Record, by Cobbey Crisler** plus from my marginal notes of Cobbey’s quotes in my Bible from I Samuel, chapters 1 & 2]


W’s PS#8—Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 26:1-45, The Gethsemane Decision

“I'm not sure one could point to a more meaningful event in history than when Jesus, about to suffer the cruelty of Gethsemane and Calvary, spends his last moments praying for us whom he had never known physically, for those who believe on his disciples through their words.

On the slope of the Mount of Olives, just as it begins to rise from the Valley of Kidron, a very deep gulley that is a natural defense for the city of Jerusalem. One that enables the city to be secure from that vantage point, the East. No one has ever conquered Jerusalem from the East.

The brook Kidron is dry most of the year, only when the winter rains fill it do you have any kind of indication of water. Across from the city of Jerusalem at night, do we recall that John said that those who came to arrest Jesus snaked down the slope of the city into the valley of Kidron, and they were carrying torches and lanterns? I ask you to imagine what that would've appeared like from the vantage point from the beginning slope of the Mount of Olives where Jesus and his disciples were. It certainly would have been enough to strike fear in the average human heart.

Jesus certainly knew the objective of those who were coming. His disciples were falling in and out of almost a drugged-like stupor which prevented them from being any support whatsoever to their Master. The Gethsemane Decision is one that must be taken alone anyway, individually, alone with God.

The word "Gethsemane" is felt by most Bible scholars to mean "oil press." Why do you think an oil press would be located on the Mount of Olives? Pretty obvious, right? It's at the base of the Mount of Olives so the fruit would have flowed from the slope where the trees were and ended up for pressing purposes at the bottom of the mountain. The symbolic nature of that is probably not lost on any of us. The intense pressure, the olive is placed under between two huge stones where the hulk, the skin, the pulp, all pressed out of condition, distorted, and yet the essence is not caught by the pressure of those stones. It flows out to bless mankind in many ways. Olive oil was used for what back then? Still is in many cases. Anointing was for kings, priests, royalty, and what else? It was used for heat, for light.

What do you think the Gethsemane decision is? [Voice: "to let" God's will be made manifest…"] To let God's will. What's the other part of the choice? God's will or our own will, self-will or human will. Does that sound like much of a major choice? It's easy for us isn't it? Certainly, we do our own will easily. That's no problem at all. This may be why we have not succeeded where Jesus did. Where Jesus became one who could be called "Master." Because nothing ever mastered him.

Is the secret to being a follower and a believer of Jesus the straightening out of priorities in our thinking as Jesus established that method? God's will not our own. It's something human nature is not used to. It is radical. If we are facing the basic, primary decision between success and failure, it's whether we are in tune with our own wills or whether we are totally committed to God's will. We should be able to see all kinds of indications of this in the Scriptures…

This Adam-problem is something that is not limited to the discussion in Genesis. We find it referred to and alluded to throughout the Bible, as if it represents in symbols the human problem. One Bible commentator in discussing the choice between the Adam-man and the Christ-man, represented by Jesus, indicates that the way these terms are used in the New Testament especially, it looks like the intent is that each one, Adam and Jesus, are representatives of an entirely different human race. They are completely opposite. Humanhood following Jesus is ending up at a destination completely opposed to the destination of the Adam followers. There may be something in humanhood we have barely glimpsed, if at all.

Jesus found what humanhood could be when the Divine was behind it every step of the way. There is nothing in Jesus' humanhood that could stop the Divine from manifesting itself on earth as in heaven. This may be our decision we're talking about.

Jesus refused to allow anything to obstruct the divine will from operating on earth. Look what he was able to do with his own humanhood as well as with the humanhood of others as a result. He could take his fragile, one would think, human frame, anatomically speaking, through what was apparently at least the sound barrier, if not the light barrier. In no way did his body hamper him when we walked above the water.

He therefore had dominion, obviously, over what we call a law of gravity. Yet when he subdued gravity through this sense of dominion, gravity had no control over the dominion-man. Notice he was not like our astronauts, weightless as the result of negating gravity. He was still in absolute control of every aspect of his being and progressing toward his destination. He didn't have to do it step-by-step because we hear that when he set foot in the boat instantly, not only Jesus, but the comprehension of Jesus could embrace his disciples plus boat, and get all of them through what we feel today, technologically would require heat-resistant metal, crash helmets, oxygen masks, or whatever else in order to preserve the human frame, and to get it through such stresses and pressures and tensions. Jesus was used to the pressure of Gethsemane, the olive press. He did not fear what flesh could do to him, obviously…

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.

Matthew 26:36 "Jesus comes to a place called Gethsemane," the oil press.…

Matthew 26:37 Peter, James and John fall asleep, in a trance-like sleep." It's hypnotic.

Matthew 26:38 Even after Jesus had said, "Tarry ye here, and watch with me." My mom pointed out a parallel here. I recall hitting my head several times that I'd never seen that. Those words "Tarry ye here” are exactly the words Elijah said to Elisha and Elisha refused to tarry, "As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth." Look at that for image and likeness to Original! "As God lives and as your identity therefore must live, I will not leave thee." My mother just said, "Just think of how different that Gethsemane experience might have been if the disciples had just learned the lesson of Elisha and carried that Scriptural inspiration with them. Elisha saw the ascension of Elijah because he did not give up. Jesus was left alone in this experience in Gethsemane. The deep sleep that fell upon the original Adam falls upon his descendants.

Matthew 26:39 "Jesus then goes away about a stone's cast," further spiritual distance from his disciples, perhaps, and his prayer, the Gethsemane decision, "Saying, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless" make no mistake where my commitment is, "not as I will," He told us that was his mission, not to do his own will but to do his Father's will. If Gethsemane had broken him, where would we be? "Not as I will, but as thou wilt." Is that Jesus overcoming the original sin of Adam?

Let's now turn to Mark's version of the event. Something no other Gospel records.

Mark 14:36 "Jesus says, Abba, Father, all things [are] possible unto thee." He's praying his own Lord's Prayer, showing that this is not a prayer that he doesn't participate in himself. "Abba," as some of you may know if behind every use of Jesus' word "Father" in the gospels. "Abba" is the Aramaic word. No other religious thinker or writer before his time had ever used "Abba" for God. "Abba" is a child's word. It is "Daddy." It's one of the first two words that a Hebrew and an Arab child learns today. "Abba, Imma [Daddy, Mama or Mommy]"

When he told us we could not enter in to the kingdom of heaven without becoming as a little child, he obviously meant we cannot say the Lord's Prayer effectively without becoming a little child. It's an infant's reliance on God and Jesus goes to his Father as a little child in Gethsemane. When we're making our Gethsemane decisions, we had better follow the example and remember "Abba,"

Mark 14:35 "He states, the spirit truly [is] ready, but the flesh [is] weak."

Let's go to Luke's version.

Luke 22:42 Luke tells us a few other things. As a matter of fact, [this is] probably the most well known expression of the Gethsemane Decision where Jesus says, "Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." Remember if the opening line of the Lord's Prayer is recalled by "Abba," Our Father, "Abba" being the original behind it.

[Luke 11:1,2] Look at "Thy will be done" in the Lord's Prayer. Why is it there? The prayer that Jesus himself gave us in response to the question, "Lord, teach us to pray."

[Matthew 6:9] "After this manner therefore pray ye." "Abba." Immediately be a little child and be sure you're committed to God's will being done…

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**

Check out an awesome article, “The Way of Gethsemane,” by Lucy Hays Reynolds in the Anthology of Classic Articles II.


W’s PS#9a—The Mary Baker Eddy Library
FOR THE BETTERMENT OF HUMANITY

SIXTH TENET (S19)
[evolution of revisions]

Current edition

6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

1879 “Tenets and Covenant”

3d. — And we solemnly covenant to faithfully obey the ten commandments; to walk worthy our high calling, to deal justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God; to abhor a lie, to love truth, to do good to man, to have but one God, and to strive habitually to reach that higher understanding of Christian Science contained in the sermon on the Mount, whereby to cast out error and heal the sick. We give no credence to Spiritualism or Mediumship, and object to mesmerism and medicine, never in any case using any ourself.

1887 “Tenets to be Signed by those Uniting …”

Third. — We promise to love one another, and to work, watch and pray; to strive against sin, and to keep the Ten Commandments; to deal justly, love mercy, walk humbly; and inasmuch as we are enabled by Truth, to cast out evil and heal the sick.

1892 (from “Church Tenets and Rules”)

3. We solemnly promise to strive, watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus. To love the brethren, and, up to our highest understanding, to be meek, merciful, and live peaceably with all men.

1893 (from “Church Tenets and Rules”)

5. We solemnly promise to strive, watch and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus. To love one another, and, up to our highest understanding to be meek, merciful and just.

81st edition

(1894)

6. We solemnly promise to strive, watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus, to love one another, and to be meek, merciful, just, and pure.

1908(a) edition

6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

April 1997, revised June 2007


W’s PS#9b—Check out the Daily Lift for today that ties in the Sixth Tenet (S19) as the best password protection to keep your consciousness of Love (“kingdom within you” RR) from being hacked https://www.christianscience.com/christian-healing-today/daily-lift/password-protect-your-thinking


W’s PS#10 Cobbey Crisler on Acts 2:22-24 Peter’s 1st public lecture (B14)

And a sad commentary on human nature is that the human mind finds it difficult either to recognize inspiration or to give it credit as inspiration. And the closest thing that it can grasp for is to suggest that the source of inspiration is intoxication.

And that’s exactly what they suggest in Acts 2, Verse 13:
“Others mocking say these men are full of new wine.” (See below)

Acts 2:13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

(They say) that’s it’s impossible to be inspired unless you’re chemically induced to be so; you’re on a “high.”

And “Peter has to open his first public lecture telling everybody he isn’t drunk.” (See below, Paraphrased) Too sad, but that’s where thought was.

Acts 2:14  But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judæa, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:

He explains the reason why they can’t be is that it’s only nine o’clock in the morning, for one thing – it’s “the third hour of the day.” (See below) (Laughter)

Acts 2:15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.


Now, in Acts 2, verse 22, Peter begins his lecture in earnest, and his sermon includes a definite documentation that “Jesus is the Messiah of scripture” and not just the Messiah who is the king and political leader but “the one who would be forced to meet every obstacle the world put in his path and overcome every one of them, certainly a way-shower to whom all humanity could relate.” (See below, Paraphrased)

Acts 2:22 Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:

Here he says in Acts 2, Verse 23 that “Jesus was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God.” Now, that’s just another way of saying what? Where do you find the “determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God”? (See below) In the scriptures, specifically – prophecy.

Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:

And, if Jesus then went through all these things according to prophesy, look at Acts 2, Verse 25. Here are some of the specifics…
“After the Master What? The Book of Acts,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#11Cobbey Crisler on John 21: 1-12 “Cast your net on the right”, morning meal
“John 21, the last chapter of John, is considered by some scholars to be a later addition, but still, very possibly, by the same author.

John 21:1. We're told that Jesus appears at the Sea of Tiberias, which is Galilee.

John 21:2, "Already assembled there were seven disciples, all had left the profession of fishing, we thought: Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, the sons of Zebedee, unnamed here, James and John, and two other of his disciples."

John. 21:3. They apparently had nothing to do. Discipleship returns to the fishing boat. "Peter," with his fingers almost audibly drumming against the side of his boat, "says I have an idea. I’m going fishing." Nobody else had any better suggestion. "So they all go fishing. They spent that entire night fruitlessly. The very fishes avoided them.” Isn't it interesting that the Anchor Bible makes this comment on the disciples' profession, "It is notable that never in the gospels do the disciples catch a fish without Jesus’ help."

But notice the contrast between Verse 3 and Verse 4.
John 21:3, "That night they caught nothing."

John 21:4, "But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore."

What patience Jesus had with discipleship! Waiting for them to realize the importance of carrying on his work. But, once again, without that realization, "they did not even recognize Jesus humanly".

John 21:5. Jesus asked them an important question. You’ve spent the entire night out there. "Children, do you have any results? Do you have any meat? No is their answer. "

Now it is obvious when one is fishing using a net that there's very little difference between the right side and the left side. The factor then brought out in John 21:6 must be the obedience to Jesus' word, the concept that he has exhibited throughout in his approach to economics and supply. "Cast the net, "he says, "on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find." They are obedient. They do exactly what Jesus requests of them. Now, instantly, they find their net is filled with fishes. They could have saved themselves that entire night.

Then John 21:7 refers once again to "the disciple whom Jesus loved. He recognizes Jesus. It is the Lord, he says." He must have recognized that sign of dominion over all, that mastery that he introduced even into the profession of fishing but was attempting to elevate them from profession to practice of Christianity. What had happened to his invitation to them, and expectation of them, to become fishers of men?

Edgar Lee Masters (1869-1950), U.S. poet and novelist, says this about the impetuous Peter, "O, Peter, gnarled branch of the vine." Peter throws his fisher's coat around him and plunges into the sea. We must remember that the Sea of Galilee has a shoreline that drops off quickly. So, he probably had to swim part of the way. Traditionally, sailors and fishermen aren’t the best swimmers. But, ignoring that, just as Peter had burst into the tomb to be there first, he casts himself into the sea

John 21:8, "While the other disciples bring the ship ashore. It says they were not far from land, but as it were two hundred cubits, that’s about a hundred yards, dragging the net with fishes."

John 21:9. Here's all that time they could have spared by giving priority to the lessons Jesus had already taught them. Jesus hadn't toiled all night. He didn't even have to use the fish that they brought in. "For when they arrived there was a charcoal fire there." In fact, the Greek word is anthrakian which is the root of our word anthracite. "And .fish, already there, laid thereon, and bread " Toast and fish all ready.

John 21:10. But Jesus wanted them to participate in this, "and said, Bring of the fish which ye have now caught.”

John 21:11, "So, Simon Peter, who was already on shore, goes to the net personally, and pulls it to shore." Who but a fisherman would remember this detail? "There were one hundred fifty three fishes in that net. " Someone counted. It might be just the sign of the authenticity of authorship here by an eye witness. "And still, the net was not broken." Remember, back in Luke 5:6, at another incident, the net broke.
John 21:12, ''Jesus' invitation is to Come and dine. Now they know who he is."
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**


**You can buy your own transcripts of most of Cobbey Crisler’s 28 talks at this website: www.crislerlibrary.co.uk Email your order or inquiry to office@crislerlibrary.co.uk, or directly to Janet Crisler, at janetcrisler7@gmail.com

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