Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs)
for The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson:
“Unreality”
for March 28 – April 3, 2022
prepared by Merrill Boudreaux, C.S.
pegasus6524@gmail.com • 314-308-1059
P.S.S.T. Golden Text (GT)/Ecclesiastes 5:7: “Many empty promises are like many foolish dreams. They mean nothing. You should honor God.” (International Children’s Bible)
Read together Hymn 269/270 from the Christian Science Hymnal (printed here):
Hymn 269/270:
Our God is Love, unchanging Love, And can we ask for more? Our prayer for Love’s increase is vain; ‘Twas infinite before. Ask not the Lord with breath of praise For more than we accept; The open fount is free to all, God’s promises are kept.
Our God is Mind, the perfect Mind, Intelligence divine; Shall mortal man ask Him to change His infinite design? The heart that yearns for righteousness, With longing unalloyed, In such desire sends up a prayer That ne’er returneth void.
O loving Father, well we know That words alone are vain, That those who seek Thy will to do, The true communion gain. Then may our deeds our pure desire For growth in grace express, That we may know how Love divine Forever waits to bless.
Pay particular attention to the last line in the first verse: “God’s promises are kept.”
What do students know of God’s promises to them and to all mankind? Note in Concord there are 50 references from the Bible and 11 from Science & Health for the word “promise”. Perhaps the class would like to research some of them to anchor the hymn just read and the Golden Text. Note, God’s promises are not empty but fulfilled every moment.
P.S.S.T. Responsive Reading (RR)/Ecclesiastes
Read together Eccl 3:14 from the RR, “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.” In reviewing this lesson, let’s look to what God does and what God promises as a counter to falsehoods based in unreality. We pray for wisdom to know the difference, and we affirm that we can know the difference. As is stated in the last verse in the RR/Eccl.12:14, “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.”
P.S.S.T. Section 1 – Note in citation B2/Isaiah 41, verse 15, that God has given you “a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth…” How does a threshing instrument work? What does it separate? For this lesson, it will separate the unreal from the real. This is God’s promise. What is your best threshing instrument? Your Pastor – the Bible and Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures. Note also the powerful statement in citation S4/SH 287:32, “Truth cannot be contaminated by error.”
Let us agree to look for and then look at the truth in every situation by asking the question, “Is this what God has promised for me?” If not, then let it go.
P.S.S.T. Section 2 – What were God’s promises to the prophet Elijah in citation B4/I Kings 17? How can we literally apply these promises in our prayer for the people of Ukraine?
P.S.S.T. Section 3 – What are some of God’s promises as stated in citation B5/Isaiah 58:11,12?
- The Lord shall guide thee continually
- [The Lord shall] satisfy thy soul in drought
- [The Lord shall] make fat thy bones
- Thou shalt be like a watered garden
- [Thou shalt be] like a spring of water, whose waters fail not
How was the woman in citation B7/II Kings 8, cared for and proved God’s promises are kept?
Ask students to memorize the opening of citation S13/SH 494:10-11, “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.”
P.S.S.T. Section 4 – How can we use the threshing instrument of silence to focus on that which is real vs unreal? See the promise of silence in citation B8/Zechariah 2:13, “Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord:..”
Now ask yourselves, can both evil and good be real? Which one would nullify the other? Which one is more powerful than the other?
See citation S19/SH 186:11, “Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth. It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It is unreal, because it presupposes the absence of God,..”
Which is speaking to you in the quiet of a moment? Cultivate silence, quietness, your able threshing instrument.
P.S.S.T. Section 5 – What is the promise affirmed in citation B10/Psalms 67:1, “God is merciful to us, and blesses us;…”
Here is a wonderful memorization opportunity – citation S22/SH 14:12-16: “Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, — neither in nor of matter, — and the body will then utter no complaints.”
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, you can know the truth that silences the unreal.
P.S.S.T. Section 6 – What guidance do we have from the scriptures that aid in our seeing and using God’s promises?
- Genesis 1
- The Ten Commandments
- The Beatitudes
- Old Testament prophets
- Jesus Christ and his ministry
- Paul and his letters to the early churches
- Jesus’ NEW commandment, “Love one another”
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter,.. Divine Love is infinite. Therefore all that really exists is in and of God, and manifests His love” citation S25/SH 340.
Now ask and answer this question, “Dost thou ‘love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind’?” (SH 9:17–18)
Read together Hymn 138 from the Christian Science Hymnal (printed here). Pay particular attention to the last verse.
Hymn 138
I praise Thee, Lord, for blessings sent To break the dream of human power; For now, my shallow cistern spent, I find Thy font and thirst no more.
I take Thy hand and fears grow still; Behold Thy face and doubts remove; Who would not yield his wavering will To perfect Truth and boundless Love?
That Truth gives promise of a dawn Beneath whose light I am to see, When all these blinding veils are drawn, Thy love has always guided me.
