PSSTs – Soak-in Bible examples of Life & its permanency (5)
Possible Sunday School Topics for The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson:
“Life”
for July 11-17, 2022
prepared by Merrill Boudreaux, C.S.
pegasus6524@gmail.com • 314-308-1059
P.S.S.T. Golden Text “…Behold, I make all things new.” Rev. 21:5:
Life is never old; it is always new, always renewed moment by moment. Who makes your life, indeed who is your very life? You exist to give evidence to Life, God, Good.
Have you ever asked, “What is the purpose for my life?” Perhaps it is to be, to exist, to live full of love, forever.
Responsive Reading (RR)/What does the RR tell us of reasons to live?
(in Isaiah 43:11,18,19,21; 65:17,18,21,22; Psalms 133:3)
- To shew forth praise for God
- To be glad and rejoice
- To build, to plant, to eat
- To long enjoy the work of your hands
- To be blessed with life evermore.
P.S.S.T. Section 1 – More statements of reasons to live are found in Section 1:
- To rejoice and be glad
- To be at peace
- To be comforted
- To remain (never to die)
- To be part of the fountain of life
- To “remember that Life is God, and that God is omnipotent” (citation S5/Science & Health 394:28-29)
P.S.S.T. Section 2 – What do your students know of the story of Joseph, the son of Israel?
What role did the quality of patience play in the life of Joseph?
What was the outcome of patience in his life and in the life of the children of Israel later?
How was Joseph’s life renewed when untoward experiences came upon him?
What did these experiences reveal about the permanency of life, about the permanency of the presence of God, about the permanency of good?
How would you define “permanent”?
P.S.S.T. Section 3 – Jesus showed a example of his reason for living.
Jesus was clear about his reason for living. See what he said in citation B10/John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
How did the woman in the scripture story in citation B11/Luke 13 express patience?
What was permanent to her, the problem, or the hope, the anticipation of healing?
How was her life “renewed” at the moment Jesus laid his hands on her?
Christian Science is a teacher. What does it teach us about life? See citation S13/SH 471:31.
Imagine what that woman felt like after 18 years of suffering.
Read together citation S14/SH 249:6-8.
P.S.S.T. Section 4 – Ask how Jesus demonstrated what life is…
Is life something you have to earn, to struggle to achieve, or is it the “gift of God”? Jesus was clear about life, where it came from, who it was for, what we are to do with it.
Ask students to share examples from Jesus’ ministry where he demonstrated what life is, and its permanency. Example: From citation B16/Matthew 9:18,19,23-26 – this healing and others demonstrated “the great spiritual fact… that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal” (cit. S18/428:22). Because Life is God, infinite, death has no dominion, no place.
P.S.S.T. Section 5 – Soak-in Bible examples of Life & its permanency
Read together first Hymn 218 from the Christian Science Hymnal (words printed here):
Hymn 218 (219, 220, 542):
O Life that maketh all things new, The blooming earth, the thoughts of men; Our pilgrim feet, wet with Thy dew, In gladness hither turn again.
From hand to hand the greeting flows, From eye to eye the signals run, From heart to heart the bright hope glows, The seekers of the Light are one:
One in the freedom of the truth, One in the joy of paths untrod, One in the heart’s perennial youth, One in the larger thought of God;—
The freer step, the fuller breath, The wide horizon’s grander view; The sense of Life that knows no death,— The Life that maketh all things new.
Several stories from this Lesson, the one of Joseph, the woman with the spirit of infirmity, the ruler’s daughter, all help reinforce Paul’s clarity about life and its permanency in his statement to the Romans in citation B18/Romans 8:2,38,39. This is a statement of truth for yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever.
P.S.S.T. Section 6 – What are some statements that reinforce our reason for living, as found in Revelation 21 (cit. B20 in this section)?
- We can and do hear the voice of God
- God is with us, dwells with us
- We are God’s people
- God wipes away all tears
- There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain
Why is this so? Because God is ever with us, is our very life. Thus, old things – old beliefs – pass away and “all things are become new” (cit. S32/201:7-9).
