W’s Post Scripts: Pay attention to your already revealed cornerstone that’s essential to your progress and growth!
Monday, February 25th, 2019
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#2—Cobbey Crisler on Isaiah 42.1 (Responsive Reading) 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.” W’s PS#3—Cobbey Crisler on Luke 4:14-24 (B2) 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. W’s PS#4—Cobbey 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.” 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): More: 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.”
W’s PS#6 –Cobbey Crisler on Matt. 18:1-4 (B8) — the priceless gift of child-like receptivity! W’s PS#7—Cobbey Crisler on Matthew 5:5 & Beatitudes (B9)— rules of heavenly happiness. “… 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. 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. W’s PS#8—Cobbey Crisler’s on Luke 10:1, 17-20 (B13) (plus added verse for context): 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… W’s PS#9a—Cobbey Crisler on John 14.5-12 (B17) plus bonus verses 16-26 –Jesus prophesies greater works AND the Comforter: In John 14:12 he makes a prophesy. He makes a prophesy in impersonal terms… 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.” W’s PS#9b—Christine Irby Williams on “greater works…” (B17, John 14:12) (from a 12-29-13 Met) 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): “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?” **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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