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W's Post Scripts: Pay attention to your already revealed cornerstone that's essential to your progress and growth! (PS#7)
Insights from Cobbey Crisler, Ken Cooper, Chris Irby Williams and others
on select citations for
Christ Jesus”—
the Christian Science Bible Lesson for March 3, 2019

Warren’s (W’s) PS#1 Ken Cooper’s new contribution for this week— a poem entied “Jesus Our Foundation Strong” based on the Golden Text and this Bible Lesson. It is attached as a Download to the online version of this Newsletter .

A narrated version of the poem can be found on Ken Cooper Poetry You Tube https://youtu.be/9C5UYkSD_Yg ]

Ken added: A corner / foundation stone is not just for a moment. It constantly demonstrates its strength and value, otherwise it would not be what it is. The foundation of Christianity is Jesus the Christ, forever. We rest upon this stone, not as flimsy mortals, but strong, — expressions of the healing power of the Christ within us, fellow citizens. Meek does not mean mild, (soft – Webster 1828). Our building is stone not sponge, and with moral courage we stand together, cemented by Love. Every stone is vital to the whole, needed to be what it is, what you are. The corner stone supports us all, and as with Jesus, we love and support one another by being who we truly are.”


W’s PS#2Cobbey Crisler on Isaiah 42.1 (Responsive Reading)
“Chapter 42:1, in a prophesy of a servant who should come, the “elect of God” who would have “the Spirit of God upon him.” You will notice in Verse 7 what the assignment of this servant would be, “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, [and] them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”

Isn’t it interesting that the prophet Isaiah foresees this prophesied individual in the terms of “a servant” when the Greek word most often in the New Testament for healing has the classical Greek meaning of “to serve.” You remember how Jesus defined his ministry in those terms, “I came not to be ministered unto but to minister” [Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45]. Healing is serving by definition in Greek. Serving whom? God and man.”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record,”
by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#3—Cobbey Crisler on Luke 4:14-24 (B2)
“Luke indicates that he understands this [Jesus’ period of temptations in the wilderness] has been a power test for Jesus because in Verse 14 he uses that word, "Jesus returned" not in any form of power that Satan had tried to impose upon him [“to To take personal power, political power, and priestly power”]. But rather, "in the power of the Spirit into Galilee"—[“in the law that relates man directly to God, the source of the only power there is. (CC)]

He appears in his hometown of Nazareth. Here is a hometown boy that has made good, locally, mostly in Capernaum, not far away. He comes back. "His fame has spread." They invited him to do some of the reading publicly (Verse 16). They hand him Isaiah (Verse 17). If they handed him a scroll, he would have had to spend some time unrolling it to find exactly what he was looking for. This particular verse is very close to the end.

Isaiah 61, Verse 1, is what Jesus is reading. Notice, it's very specifically a prophecy of the Messiah. The word related to Messiah appears in the word "Anointed. " In Hebrew that's the word relating it to the Messiah. "The Spirit of the Lord (is) upon me." Notice, Luke has just said in Verse 1 of this Chapter that "Jesus was filled with the Spirit." Here the prophecy says (in Luke 4, Verse 18), "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.

Jesus is saying this in the congregation of the synagogue of his hometown. He's simply reading the Old Testament. If he read Scripture like he cited it spontaneously, like he healed with it, you can imagine you probably would have heard a pin drop in that synagogue. Add to that the fact that Jesus knew he was fulfilling every word of that prophecy in himself and in his own career.

Think of the impact in that environment.

Here, then, is God's definition of the Messiah through prophecy:

Number one, the Messiah would do what? "Preach the gospel to the poor.”

Gospel doesn't just mean "good news," It means, in particular, news of victory.

What's the second one? "Heal the brokenhearted.”

The third, “Preach deliverance to the captives. "

The fourth, “Recovering of sight to the blind. "

The fifth, “To set at liberty them that are bruised.”

And finally, Verse 19, “To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."

Having said all those things, having defined the Messiah in the Bible, he closes the Book and he sits down (Verse 20). There is a long silence. Everyone is looking at him. He adds (in Verse 21), "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

Unfortunately, his hometown reacts violently (Verse 28), especially to Verses 25 through 27, where he goes back into the Bible for two very significant events in the history of the Jews, and certainly in the history of healing. One was the widow that Elijah visited (Verse 26). In the midst of the famine, she had an endless supply of oil (1 Kings 17:16). The next one in Verse 27 is Elisha's healing of Naaman's leprosy (2 Kings 5:14).

Why would the audience at Nazareth be so incensed by what Jesus is bringing out in these stories? He was talking about foreigners, wasn't he? When you read it, think of this emphasis. He said, "I tell you quite factually, there were many widows in Israel. There were many Jewish widows. But Elijah didn't go to any of them.

(Verse 26) Instead he went to a Lebanese widow."

Is it really nationality that makes the difference? Is it really sex that makes the difference? Or age, or economic status?

No, it's receptivity, isn't it? You couldn't find it in Israel, but you could find that in Lebanon. In fact, that’s the only place Elijah found it.

It's quite a commentary on the lack of faith among the monotheists of Israel. There were many lepers in Israel during Elisha's time, but he didn't go to any of them. He went to the commander in chief of the enemy forces, the Syrian general. There was more receptivity in Naaman's thought than he found in Israel.

Remember how often Jesus says to some of those he cures, like the centurion and some of those who were not Jewish, he says in Matthew 8:10, "I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel."

The receptivity message is that God is universally accessible. They didn't like that message. Verse 29, They "thrust him out of the city." They nearly killed him. That was the attempt. (Verse 30,) "But Jesus passing through the midst of them went his way.

I suggest to you, as my father suggested to me once in discussing this incident, that it is easier to accept prophecy than it is to accept fulfillment. With prophecy, one may have been trained to respect and revere it over the years. But when fulfillment occurs, who's ready for that, especially in one’s own home town? That's the point Jesus said (in Verse 24), “No prophet is accepted in his own country."

Later we find Jesus telling his followers to search the Scriptures (John 5:39).

They will find him there which more or less implies that if we can't find Jesus in prophecy, we can't find Jesus.

Luke 4:33, This first specific healing is the one of the unclean devil. Many of these healings require steps. There is a sequence in healing, in many cases, three specific phases that Jesus goes through before the healing occurs.

One asks the question, "Why? Couldn't Jesus heal instantaneously?" We know he did. But look at the value for us in having the method that he used preserved step by step.
“Luke the Researcher” by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#4Cobbey Crisler on Jesus healing all manner of sickness, Matthew 4: 23 (B4)

Verse 23. And “healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.” Here are human problems that had defied solution, and Jesus solved them all based on his concept of theology, namely the kingdom. Remember a kingdom is not chaos. It’s an ordered government of heaven and harmony at hand.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#5 –-Cobbey Crisler on the same case of epilepsy that’s healed in citation B7, Matthew 17:14-21 (as described originally by Mark with Jesus addressing first the parent’s thought in Mark 9: 17-29):
“We have healings throughout Mark which require your study. We have an epileptic child healed in the next few verses, 17 through 29.
Verse 21. Jesus recognizes that the first patient is the father and his thinking. [“and he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.”… ]
Verse 23. He turns and deals with the father, his parental thought. [“Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. 24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe: help thou mine unbelief.”]
Verse 25-27. Jesus then deals with the young man.
Verse 29 says, “This kind of healing.” Because the disciples had failed, this healing required two things, “prayer and fasting.” You can say this in another way using two other words: “No” and “Yes” [as Mary Baker Eddy titled one of her works on scientific, mental healing.] Fasting is what we say “no” to and prayer is what we’re affirming. Once again, we see that we are given the rules of healing.”
“What Mark Recorded”
by B. Cobbey Crisler**

More:
17th Chapter of Jeremiah, Verse 14, “Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed.” There’s Jeremiah’s prayer. “Save me and I shall be saved.”
The Anchor Bible points out that the word “salvation” as used in the Old Testament is often used in terms of a not-guilty verdict in court. Salvation is often used in the Old Testament in terms that we would understand today as a not-guilty verdict in court.

The salvation of man would eventually include a verdict of not-guilty, or innocent. This is, of course, the entire theme of Job, his guilt or innocence.”
“Heal the Sick”: A Scriptural Record, by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#6Cobbey Crisler on Matt. 18:1-4 (B8) — the priceless gift of child-like receptivity!
Chapter 18: The disciples are busy fighting among each other.
(Verse 1). Saying, “Who’s the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
(Verse 2). That’s the time “Jesus called a little child,”
(Verse 3). “And said, Unless you’re converted, and become as little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
There it is, again. What “Abba” does in the Lord’s Prayer. It makes us little children in that prayer. He has a lot to say about children and the child-like receptive thought in that chapter.”
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master, A Tax Collector’s Report,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#7Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 5:5 & Beatitudes (B9)— 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. …

“… As you go down the Beatitudes, 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…
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. … 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, “Thou 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 has] 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#8—Cobbey Crisler’s on Luke 10:1, 17-20 (B13) (plus added verse for context):
“Chapter 10, “the harvest is great, but there are not many workers out there.” That is what Jesus says in verse 2. It also underscores the need for disciples, and explains why now seventy go out (see verse 1).
… Verse 9 makes it quite clear that now there are not just twelve going out, but seventy whom Jesus expects to leave and come back with every kind of human problem solved through prayer alone.”
“The seventy come back” in verse 17. They are so enthusiastic over the results that they are probably tripping over each other to get to Jesus and tell him. Because they went out in pairs, he has thirty-five pairs coming back with tales of what they’d done.
Imaging any class in any subject being so effective that the entire student body could go out, do such field work, and come back with the evidence and the proof that they’d understood what they were doing, and that the teacher had been such an effective communicator!

Verse 20. Jesus said, “You know what? You are rejoicing for the wrong reason. You think it’s great all those results out there. And it really is. But the real reason to rejoice is that your names are written in heaven.” That tells us something rather radical about the reason for rejoicing in healing. It has something to do with our identity. … It's as if our original names and natures have been ratified as the result of healing work on earth. … If our names are written (in heaven), who did the writing? … Man, restored and whole, represents the heavenly model and standard which is the norm for man that God has revealed through Jesus to us. … And if our names are written in heaven, where is heaven? If it's within, we don't have to go anywhere. We don't have to commute to find our identity. … Namely, an identity that is related to the kingdom, not anarchy or disease. It is a government, a comprehension of God and man immediately assessable to us, and applicable to the human problem…
That is so advanced because it’s so simple. What is simple is not received by a state of mind that has become used to the complex. Notice verse 21. It is a prayer of Jesus starting with gratitude, “I thank thee, O Father, that you have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” My own father said to me, “There is your Scriptural authority directly from Jesus that a child should understand Bible symbolism before the scholar.” Childlike thought is receptive to meaning. It will yield. It will trust. It is ready to learn. It doesn’t have so many educated theories to get around.
Once again, we find that access to Jesus’ theology requires a mental state that isn’t childish, but is childlike, receptive and open."
Luke the Researcher”, by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#9a—Cobbey Crisler on John 14.5-12 (B17) plus bonus verses 16-26 –Jesus prophesies greater works AND the Comforter:
“Chapter 14 begins with a discussion, a dialogue between Jesus and some of his disciples.
John 14:5, Thomas asks about the way.”
In John 14:6 Jesus responds, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”…

In John 14:12 he makes a prophesy. He makes a prophesy in impersonal terms…
“There are greater works, the ultimatum of the application of what Jesus had introduced to earth. So, when he’s talking about greater works being done, through what agency will these greater works come? We find the Comforter is introduced.…

John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter.”

We should know enough about prophesy and have enough respect to realize that most of the prophets in the Bible, including Jesus, had a tremendous regard for prophesy. They knew that it had come from God, not from man. Similarly, we should know how to recognize the Comforter when the Comforter arrives… The word “comforter” is parakletos, sometimes called paraclete… translated “comforter” given by our King James Version. You will find, however, that The New English Bible does not use “comforter.” It uses “advocate.” You’ll also find that I John uses parakletos and the King James translator of that uses “advocate.”

We should know that the word “advocate” is a technical word legally. It specifically means “defense attorney.” That has a lot of implications to it. By contrast the name “Satan” in Hebrew is a technical term for “prosecuting attorney.” There you have the battle joined in thought.

The Comforter is to come and defend man. We can see all the ways that Jesus had introduced various defenses for man…

The role of the Comforter “will be sent by God in my name.” If one were to regard that literally, the Comforter’s name should at least have some recognizable aspect either relating to Jesus or to Christ. Another aspect of the Comforter is “he will teach you all things.”

The role of teaching what? … “All things.” And at the same time, “it will bring everything back to human memory that Jesus said.”
“Book of John: A Walk with the Beloved Disciple”,
by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#9bChristine Irby Williams on “greater works…” (B17, John 14:12) (from a 12-29-13 Met)
“Jesus said… Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father…” (B8, John 14:12)
Christine Irby Williams nicely tackled the tough question of what works could possibly be greater than what Jesus did in a wonderful precamp inspirational talk to CedarS staff in May 2013 as well as in part of an inspirational address for the Christian Science Nurses conference at CedarS this September. She essentially said, in part: “Have you ever wondered what in the world Jesus meant by greater works? It does sound a little daunting. We read almost every week in the Bible Lesson something such as Jesus “went about…healing ALL manner of sickness and ALL manner of disease among the people.” He fed 5,000 men plus women and children with what had appeared to everyone else as a few loaves and fishes. He walked on water and suspended time and space. He raised to life a child who appeared to have just passed away, a young man who was on his way to be buried, and Lazarus, who had been in the grave four days already. And then, of course, he raised himself after the crucifixion, and he ascended. So what could possibly be greater than any, much less all, of that? I’ve often wondered, and I’m still pondering his promise… There has been one particular area in which it’s likely that we’ve all been aware that there is plenty of room for “greater works,” and that is working together, or what might be called collective demonstration: in families, church work, any kind of organizational work—in a church context or otherwise, in neighborhoods, in governments of all sizes, in nations, among the people, and in the world at large. Would you agree with me that these are areas that could benefit from the light of Truth, the touch of the Comforter—the healing and saving ministries of divine Love? Might we be so bold as to think about tackling the environment? World peace? World hunger? If not, why not? If so, let’s get on with it! Let us “then up and be doing,” as our hymn [#18] says!” You can read more inspiration on this and other topics from Christine that she shared at the 2012 Fern Lodge Annual Meeting at http://fernlodge.org/2012/11/jesus-promise-you-will-do-greater-works/

First posted in Warren’s Met on “Christian Science” for 12-29-13


W’s PS#10—Cobbey Crisler on Mark 16:17, 18 (B18):
Verse 17. The gospel of Mark ends with deeds, not words. "These signs shall follow them that believe.” There's one of our foundational points again (Mark 1:15). Those who believe will have signs that follow. Otherwise we’re not believers.“We can say all we want, "We're believers in Jesus Christ," but we're not unless signs are following. That is Jesus' own definition of a believer.

“All of these signs are fulfilled in the Book of Acts except the sign regarding poison. This was accomplished in an early Christian tradition by Barsebus. He was forced to drink poison and recovered without any problem. So, we have "the new tongues."

Verse 18. The ''taking up of serpents, the drinking any deadly thing,” even a poisonous chemical! Look at that in the environment today. "And be healed." It’s a sign that follows those that believe.

Why are we leaving our environment untouched by the Holy Spirit?

Why aren't we seeing the Spirit there, and therefore, liberty?”
“What Mark Recorded,” 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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