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W’s Post Scripts: Find joy & blessings in each cross experience and in each section
of the Lesson!
[RR, B1, S1, S5, S9, B9, B16, S19, S21, B18, B20, B21, S30…]
Insights from Cobbey Crisler and Ken Cooper on select citations for
“Doctrine of Atonement”—
the Christian Science Bible Lesson for April 21, 2019


[Warren: Letting a time-sensitive need be known to CedarS Newsletter readers:
We just discovered that to meet new safety standards for the four Ziplines to and from CedarS Bible Lands Park (BLP) $97,000 total ($36,200 more as of 4-18) is needed in the coming few weeks! (Certified professionals are lined-up to provide new harnesses & gear and to install new cables, braking equipment, longer landing decks…) CedarS Board and other donors have just personally pledged to give or match up to $25,000 for this work because (starting for our Memorial Weekend Family Camp) it will annually bless thousands of visitors! It will make Christian Science Sunday School students, teachers and church members more Biblically literate and alive each summer and fall. And it will show “shoulder-season” visitors of all faiths how Christianly practical and Bible-based Christian Scientists are. From Mary’s Chapel behind Dawn Lodge all users can zip back in time to the Bible and BLP, climb its switch-back “Time-Travelers’ Trail” and learn A.P. (Answered Prayer) History lessons to take “back to the future.” Take-home, life lessons from this week’s Easter Bible Lesson for each BLP zipline guest include Jesus’ lessons: of “love meeting no response, but still remaining love” at Gethsemane(SH 566); of “kiss(ing) the cross and wake(ing) to know a world more bright”(Hymn 253); and of “gain(ing) a little each day in the right direction till at last he finishes his course with (the) joy” (21:13) at a “HE IS RISEN!”sign above an open tomb with the stone rolled away below our Resurrection/Cross to Crown Landing platform.
[Click here to give in increments of $100 to help meet this need.]


Warren’s (W’s) PS#1Ken Cooper’s poem this week “Two lives Touch” is based on Jesus healing work done in the garden of Gethsemane. You can Download it in PDF text format from online versions of this week’s CedarS Met and this week’s online Post Scripts which are both always available to browse by author and year at CedarS Metaphysical website.]

See more at PS#5a. The narrated poem can be found on https://youtu.be/Eu9UKe2HosY.


W’s PS#2a—Cobbey on”I and my Father are one.” John 10:30

“In John 10:30, Jesus’ great statement, “I and my Father are one.” If this is from the Aramaic, then, the Aramaic word would give the meaning, “I and my Father are in accord.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,”
B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#2b—“I and my Father are one” Music Video on YouTube (B7, S8 (315), S11 ( 361)
Here’s a link to an inspiring song by CedarS mom and award-winning Country Music artist, Cherie Brennan. It builds upon this week’s Bible Lesson citations B7, S8 & S11. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZMNlpZavkA

You can learn more about Cherie and buy her CD “You are Loved” (where “I and my Father are one” is the 4th song) on her website through Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/album/3Ii5CBrdNs6f8Y3t4l5XHl


Or W’s PS#2c—On Watchfire Music by Christian Science friend, Peter Link, —LISTEN TO A SAMPLE of “I and my Father are one” SUNG by Mindy Jostyn and BUY IT and the SHEET MUSIC for SOLOISTS at: https://watchfiremusic.com/shop/recordings/songs/i-and-my-father-are-one-2/


W’s PS#3—Cobbey Crisler on Psalm 30:5 (B9)
“Psalm 30:5 “One of our modern hymns [#425] has been made out of verse 5, “weeping may endure for a night, but joy [cometh] in the morning.” That word “joy” in the Hebrew is “singing.” Take weeping as the symptom and notice singing is the remedy. Sing, do we do much singing? It doesn’t have to be even with an audible or perceptible sound. It’s in our hearts, the song…. All the things that Jesus mentioned. They have to make room for the joy. It’s fullness of joy. It’s God’s dosage. Everything else has to be eliminated, removed, uncontained. That’s quite a prescription for depression, adversity. It seems difficult to sing in a trial, in a crisis. The Bible is just saying, try it, you might like it. [Laughter] Because it might solve [any and all issues].
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,”
by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#4—Cobbey Crisler on John 17: 1 (B10): Jesus’ prayer for himself having finished
In Chapter 17 of John's gospel, Jesus is praying audibly. If we've ever wanted
to be present when Jesus is praying, it would be during this very moving prayer indeed. It's divided into three sections. To whom does the prayer, represented in the first five verses, refer? Himself. It's a prayer for himself Jesus did take time out for himself. This is just before Gethsemane. So you know what's in his thoughts.

John 17:1. It's in this prayer he says, “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,”
by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#5a (&PS#1)Ken Cooper’s poem this week “Two lives Touch” is based on Jesus healing work done in the garden of Gethsemane. You can Download it in PDF text format from online versions of this week’s CedarS Met and this week’s online Post Scripts which are both always available to browse by author and year at CedarS Metaphysical website.]

Ken added: This week’s poem is about two lives touched by the power of Love, – the alternating thoughts of Malchus and Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, both blessed by the love of Jesus. In the extremity of his arrest and forthcoming ultimate sacrifice, Jesus remained at one with his Father. When Peter cut off the ear of Malchus, Jesus immediately called for all strife to cease and instantly healed the man. It is surmised that Peter went from assailant to penitent, for love had replaced his wrath. His victim, healed by Jesus, recognized that same love, and forgave Peter. Both felt the power of unconditional Love. “Atonement is the exemplification of man's unity with God” Mary Baker Eddy (S3). It embraces us all. When we walk in Love, we too are at one with Love, and all sense of self goes. The sacrifice of Jesus is made plain, his resurrection inevitable.

The narrated poem can be found on https://youtu.be/Eu9UKe2HosY.


PS#5b–Cobbey Crisler on “The Gethsemane Decision

“…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.

Do you think that by going to so many of these preceding verses that we need now look for very little explanation as to the agony of this hour, and the burden Jesus was bearing? With all the world's tradition behind the necessity for doing one's own will, to take that as an escape route and Jesus slams the door on that forever. The only salvation is taking that door that the key of David unlocks, don't try to shut it, the Scriptures indicate. The Scripture is locked. Or we would not have the mention of the need of a key. The key to the Scripture placed into the lock shows that neither the lock nor the key is the ultimately important thing. It's what's behind that door, that open door for man to walk through. But no one gets there except through that door and except through utilizing that key.

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.

Look at that discipline requiring human thought to conform and yield to the divine when all outlines and barriers around mentality as we have become accustomed to it fall away and we find no limitations to thought or mind at all if we are the image of the mind of God. "Not my will be thine be done” is Jesus using his own prayer in Gethsemane. If that Lord's Prayer can carry one through Gethsemane, it can carry one through anything. The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says this,

"Humanly he has the possibility of an independent will. But this will exists only to be negated in face of the divine will. Its perfect agreement with the divine will finds expression in the declaration of its negation." And also adds, "The third petition of the Lord's Prayer in Gethsemane expresses not merely submission but consent to a comprehensive fulfillment of God's will in keeping with the hallowing of His name and the coming of His kingdom. It thus implies an ultimate and basic attitude on the part of the one who prays. It agrees exactly with the petition of the Son in Gethsemane. And again from the same Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, "What is meant in this statement 'not my will but thine be done' is the active divine resolve which cannot remain in the sphere of thought but demands action everywhere. We have the impression [in the Scriptures] that nothing human but only this divine will can provide the impulse of the execution of the plan of salvation."

We discussed at some length a decision, a question, a choice that could have taken a fraction of a second if it were not for the human mind's built-in resistance that we see the ample testimony to be throughout the Scriptures. The necessity for inculcation to get the point over, and over, and over to us is obvious in studying the works of our master teacher Jesus in the New Testament, but also seeing the examples before him in the Old Testament. Gethsemane is the press, the oil press. Like Jesus, we must have oil within us. The pressure is still on. If Gethsemane is the press, can we say and be backed up by Scripture, that not my will but thine be done is the oil? If so, that's the Christ-oil. The word Christ is based upon the Greek word for oil. That's what poured out of Jesus' experience at Gethsemane. What is it designed to do? To anoint, to heal, to feed, to cleanse. If the pressure of Gethsemane is upon us, what is oil designed to do?

Do we find in our character anything unlike that Christ-anointed example? Is that human will that needs to be crushed out forever?

We think we're in an oil crisis today. The pressure is on.

But Gethsemane's purpose has a divine result regardless of what the world can bring to bear upon you and me, Jesus could say in part of that hymn that he sang before Gethsemane which is locatable in the later psalms, is still sung today at Passover, that he needed not to fear what man or flesh could do. Out of that experience flowed the oil that is still blessing us, is still being utilized. We're not in an oil crisis today if we're in the way with Jesus. We maybe at a "parting of the ways," the meaning of the word crisis. We may be challenged regularly and often to make our right decisions, our right choice, our Gethsemane decision.

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.”
Transcribed in part from “The Gethsemane Decision,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**


PS#6a—Cobbey Crisler on Jesus’ on-cross awareness in Matt 27 (B14) of his fulfilling a 1,000-year-old prophesy in Ps. 22 (B15)

W: In his remarkably inspiring talk, “The Walk to Emmaus,” Cobbey Crisler gives an eye-opening review of Jesus' words on the cross. They tip us off as to his confident awareness of his fulfilling prophesy by asking for God’s help in Psalm 22:1 and joyfully getting it a “live for ever” resurrection to “glorify him” (Psalm 22:26, 23). You’ll be rewarded by some “wows” in the divinely precise correlation of verses from the Old and New Testaments if you follow this advice from Cobbey that I partially transcribed with Janet Crisler’s encouraging permission from “The Walk to Emmaus.” An audio version and its full transcript are available through Janet.**

[Cobbey] "Rather than go through it and take away that thrill of discovery, study the statements Jesus makes from the Cross … Instead of worrying why our Master seemed to bend under pressure, that higher view of our Master working scripturally at every moment will be rewarded by finding the passage in Psalms 22:1. The context in which it appears (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34) was written one thousand years before the crucifixion." "It was as if Jesus were saying to humanity, if you want to know why I am here and really appreciate my role, read Psalm 22. So, should we do any less than turn to that chapter?" Just read Psalm 22 from beginning to end and see how your view of prophesy might change." The very words of the priests with their wagging heads in Matt. 27:39-43 are foretold in Ps. 22:7-8. Ps. 22:16 foretells of the piercing of hands and feet and Ps. 22:18 prophesies the parting of the garments and casting of lots for them as recorded in Matt.27:35. Matthew 27:32 We're going to see some of the details of the crucifixion. Remember Jesus kept emphasizing that the prophet had said that the Messiah would suffer.

Matthew 27:33. We know of a place of a skull or Golgatha.

Matthew 27:34 We're aware that the drink he was given has almost an exact recipe which you can be assured is not in my wife's cookbook. [Laughter] It says, he tasted it but he would not drink.

Matthew 27:39 Then it says, "they that passed by" beneath the cross "reviled him, wagging their heads," Please remember that, "wagging their heads." Remember we're reading the fulfillment. We're going to go back to prophecy shortly to test it out.

Matthew 27:43 and Psalms 22:8 Then we find at the bottom of the cross that the chief priests and the scribes and the elders, the ones who knew the Scripture best, presumably, saying, – if we would all read together I think it will really bring it more to thought. Let's read it out loud. – "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God." How would you characterize that remark? It's rather what? Wasn't enough to nail him on the cross without that sarcasm that he said he was the Son of God. So, let God say that. It really isn't worthy of those who are holding high theological positions of that period, or any period. But that seems to be human nature.

Certainly it stirred Jesus to the very roots of his being, the real roots of his being. That, of course, would refresh him on the cross. Do you think it reminded him of anything? If it did, do you think it was partly responsible for the very next thing that is uttered audibly?

Matthew 27:46 and Psalms 22:1 The very thing that many Christians wish their Master had never uttered, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? ...My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Just keep in thought the sequence of this.

Psalm 22:7,8. As Jesus may have done with his disciples which caused

their hearts to burn within them. Perhaps ours will too. Let's read together verses 7 and 8 out loud. '½II they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: lei him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him," a passage maybe one thousand years earlier than the event. Do you think that if you were disciples and Jesus was reading these two passages and you had witnessed to that, that any hair on your head could be horizontal?

You saw those events, and Jesus is describing them from centuries-old documents, and that isn't all. They could have recalled the next thing Jesus said on the cross after the scribes and Pharisees had said that. They could have recalled that Jesus said something they wished he hadn't said. Yet suddenly, in the light of what they see here, and in the light of the fact that how better could Jesus, as a Scriptural student, sound a trumpet note for every Scriptural student from his time through our century, than to do what every Jewish boy did in memorizing the Psalms, because they would recognize the Psalm by the first verse.

Psalm 22:1 ["My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"] Is that a coincidence? Was Jesus saying to every receptive thought [that] he told people to search the Scriptures to find him? No one can really comprehend what he said on the cross unless they find it here in Psalm 22. Because it's not simply a cry of agony, even though it came from the very depths of an agonizing experience. It was a quotation from the Scripture and a Scriptural student of Jesus' caliber would not quote from Scripture unless he meant it like a direction signal in the horizon down through the ages, pointing to the very same Scripture. Isn't it as if he were saying, "Read this if you want to understand why I am here." So, let's read it. I'm sure the disciples suddenly had the Bible given to them as they never had before. Suddenly the suffering aspects of the Messiah in prophecy came out through the very pioneer who had fulfilled those prophecies.

Psalm 22:13 Suddenly we find that "They gaped upon me [with] their mouths,"

Psalm 22:14 describes "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint." Anyone remember John's [19:34] description of what happened when the spear pierced his side? It said, "Blood and water poured out."

Psalm 22:15 says, "My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws." A very vivid description of a man who is in thirst.

Do you remember one verse in the gospel of John [19:28]? I'll read it to you just while you're looking at that Psalm 22 verse. Listen to how John does this. John was one of the fellows who went fishing. But look how he is writing for the record. '½fter this, Jesus knowing that all things were accomplished," How did he know? Did he know the blueprint? 1 "That the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst." Those disciples didn't even know that before the walk to Emmaus and before the time that Jesus talked to them in that room….”
Transcribed this week from “The Walk to Emmaus,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**


W’s PS#6b–B.C. Crisler on the crucifixion and resurrection in Matt 27 & 28 (B14, B18) & foretold in Ps. 22 (B15):
(Verse 26 of Chapter 27). “Then, the scourging, the whipping of Jesus.”

(Verse 60 of Chapter 26). "The two false witnesses."

(Verse 74). "Peter's denial to the point where he's cursing and swearing. The cock crows." (Verse 75). "Peter remembers that Jesus had told he would do this. He goes out and weeps bitterly."

Chapter 27, (Verse 3). 'Judas tries to give back the money"

(Verse 5). "Being unable to, he goes out and hangs himself."

(Verse 9). "Matthew finds in prophecy spoken by Jeremy the prophet even the prediction of the sale of Jesus for thirty pieces of silver."

He says it's Jeremy. It may have been in his version, who knows? But we find it today in Zechariah, Chapter 11, Verse 13.

(Verse 19). We find the political drama between Pilate and the Jews accentuate to the point that Matthew is the only gospel to mention Pilate's wife. "Pilate's wife had a dream not to bother this just man." But what man listens to his wife?

(Verse 24). Pilate goes ahead and succumbs to political pressure. "Washes his hands, saying he is innocent."

(Verse 29). "The crown of thorns. The mocking of Jesus."

(Verse 34). "On the cross, he's given vinegar to drink mingled with gall." That is in prophecy, too, Psalm 69, Verse 21.

(Verse 35). Matthew says that also. The parting of the garments is in prophecy. This is Psalm 22. Just read Psalm 22 from beginning to end and see how your own view of prophecy might change.

(Verse 38). "The two thieves."

(Verse 39). "The wagging of their heads.''

(Verse 41). "The chief priests mocking,"

(Verse 43). Saying, "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now." You'll find that in Psalm 22, the very words.

(Verse 46). "Jesus saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Is that just a cry of a bewildered, defeated man? Read Psalm 22 and you will see in the opening verse, it's an exact quote of that Psalm. lt was as if Jesus were saying to humanity, if you want to know why I'm here and really appreciate my role, read Psalm 22. So, should we do any less than turn to that chapter?

(Verse 55). "Many women stick with him and watch the events." Verse 56 gives us a list of them.

(Verse 57). "We find he is buried in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathaea who is called a rich man.'' In connection with also read Isaiah 53.

In Chapter 28 we find the resurrection (Verse 2). The stone has been rolled back without human help.

(Verse 6, B18). The angelic announcement is that Jesus is risen.

(Verse 7). "The women are told to go and bear witness to Jesus' resurrection."Women were not allowed to bear witness to anything in the courts of law of the Judaism of his period. What qualified women to bear witness to Jesus' resurrection? Because they were there and they were receptive. It was receptivity that counted.

(Verse 16). The last view we have of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew ''when the eleven disciples go away to a mountain in Galilee."

(Verse 17). Notice, it's said almost pathetically, that "some of his disciples doubted." We know of one, Thomas.

(Verse 18). "Jesus comes, announces, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.''

(Verse 19). "He cites their mission," to go where? Just to the Jews? All nations, the universality of Christianity, all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

(Verse 20). That baptism of the Holy Ghost is combined with fire! "Teaching them." We have been beneficiaries of this apostolic succession of the Spirit. "They taught that we were to observe what Jesus commanded." Do we benefit from the statement Jesus left with his disciples to give to us, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

How do you and I find immediate access to Jesus? In the Scriptures. Isn't that where Jesus told his disciples they could find him? In the Scriptures, fulfilling the prophecy. How about Matthew our tax-collector? Our despised customs official. Did he fulfill what Jesus had personally directed him to do? Did he teach others "to observe all things wherefore Jesus had commanded him"?

You will notice that he ends his gospel in that way, and has given to all generations following Jesus' words, "I am with you alway."

Through the gospel of Matthew we do have that sense of Jesus with us always.
“Book of Matthew, Auditing the Master: A Tax Collector’s Report,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 o Janet Crisler, at janetcrisler7@gmail.com

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