Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs)for The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson:
“Soul”
for February 12-18, 2024
prepared by Merrill Boudreaux, C.S., for CedarS Camps
pegasus6524@gmail.com • 314-308-1059
P.S.S.T. Golden Text (GT)/Psalm 103:2: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”
How might you interpret the meaning of the word “soul” in the Golden Text? Perhaps re-state that phrase with what you consider soul means. Maybe: my whole being, my core, my entire understanding of who I am, all that is a part of me, all that is me…
Responsive Reading (RR)/Ezekiel 34:11,12,14,16,26,28; Jeremiah 32:38,40,41
How am I like a sheep? Who is my shepherd?
What happens when I follow my shepherd,… and when I do not?
What is the nature of the relationship between shepherd and sheep; between sheep and shepherd?
I am one among many sheep.
How am I like the others? How am I unique?
In the experience of a unique sheep, what causes me to rejoice?
Do I have freedom of choice?
P.S.S.T. Section 1 – How does my life magnify God? What does that word “magnify” mean? How does it work that when others see me they see God?
In the Science & Health portion of this Section is included another synonym for God along with Soul; that is, Love. Read together citations S5/247:24 and S6/60:29-31. Do you feel the care that Soul, Love, has for you in these passages? What expressions of Soul, Love are mentioned that are expressed in your daily experiences?
Read also Science & Health 249:6-8, “Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor material power as able to destroy.”
P.S.S.T. Section 2 – What is the command of the Lord according to Jeremiah in citation B5/Jer.31? How are these commands aligned with your soul, your spiritual sense of your calling?
* Sing with gladness
* Shout among the nations
* Publish ye
* Praise ye
* Let goodness flow in you, through you
* Be as a watered garden
* Be satisfied with goodness
If you are concerned about your future, or the future of humankind, then memorize and pray what is stated in citation B7/Psalm 28:9: “Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.”
How was this prayer shown in the story of Daniel in citation B8/Daniel 1?
As it was for Daniel, so it is for you.
As stated in citation S10/248:8, “Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each day brings to a nearer tomb.”
P.S.S.T. Section 3 – Once again, in Section 3 some key words are called forth for our remembrance:
* Praise the Lord for his goodness
* For his wonderful works to the children of men
* He satisfieth the longing soul
* Filleth the hungry soul with goodness
* God shall supply all your needs
* Soul and its attributes were forever manifested through man
*Whatever blesses one blesses all
Read together Psalm 23 and note how Love, Soul, Mind leads you and follows you all the days of your life. You are never alone, can never be abandoned, never have needs unmet.
P.S.S.T. Section 4 – In the Bible Lesson “Love” two weeks ago, it was suggested you memorize Psalm 43:5. Here we recommend a review and a re-awaking to memory:
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why are thou disquieted within me? Hope in God: For I shall yet praise him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (cit. B14/Ps.43:5).
The result is that God commanded the blessing for you. How did Jesus command the blessing for Jairus’ daughter? What was the blessing? See citation B16/Luke 8:41-55.
See citation B18/John 10:10: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
This is also your authority to live. How does your role as a sheep permit you to practice life abundant? This question leads into Section 5, which supplies some answers:
P.S.S.T. Section 5 – Read together citation B23/Lamentations 3:25: “The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.”
This is a private question for you – Does your soul, your whole being, your core, seek the shepherd?
Read together Hymn 304 from the Christian Science Hymnal (words supplied here).
Hymn 304 – “Feed My Sheep” poem by Mary Baker Eddy:
“Shepherd, show me how to go / O’er the hillside steep, / How to gather, how to sow,— / How to feed Thy sheep; / I will listen for Thy voice, / Lest my footsteps stray; / I will follow and rejoice / All the rugged way.
“Thou wilt bind the stubborn will, / Wound the callous breast, / Make self-righteousness be still, / Break earth’s stupid rest. / Strangers on a barren shore, / Lab’ring long and lone, / We would enter by the door, / And Thou know’st Thine own;
“So, when day grows dark and cold, / Tear or triumph harms, / Lead Thy lambkins to the fold, / Take them in Thine arms; / Feed the hungry, heal the heart, / Till the morning’s beam; / White as wool, ere they depart, / Shepherd, wash them clean.”
How blessed we are to have the scriptures and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures for our guidance and truth-telling!
Read together citation S26/264:24-31.
P.S.S.T. Section 6 – With the first citation in Section 6 we return to the Golden Text, “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” Ask the students to offer a summary of what they will take away from this Lesson.
Perhaps citation B25/2nd Corinthians 9:8 summarizes it all, “God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”
What does the word “abound” mean? … “to occur or exist in great quantities or numbers, to be rich or well-supplied, to be filled, abundant…”
Conclude with a favorite Sunday-School-student quote from Science and Health (cit. S30/vii:1-2), “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings.”
And here is a blessing for you from James 2:16, “And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; …”
