P.S.S.T.: [Partner every step with God to “love into view” your aspirations & prayers, especially when deemed impossible!]
Possible Sunday School Topics for The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson:
“God”
for June 26-July 2, 2023
prepared by Merrill Boudreaux, C.S., for CedarS Camps
pegasus6524@gmail.com • 314-308-1059
How does knowing God help us to know ourselves? See Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy 571:15-18,
“At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil.”
P.S.S.T. Golden Text (GT)/Luke 1:37: “…with God nothing shall be impossible.”
Science & Health states “… ‘Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?’ What cannot God do?” (SH 135:19)
So, what cannot man do as God’s image and likeness?
Consider taking your deepest desires, your greatest hopes for mankind and for your world, your greatest aspirations, and place them on the altar seeking God step by step in your life to provide timely guidance, answers and provision.
Let us look to this lesson to learn more about God and how you are inextricably linked to Her. See Science & Health 361:16,
“As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being. The Scripture reads: ‘For in Him we live, and move, and have our being.’”
P.S.S.T. Responsive Reading (RR)/Jeremiah 32:17,18,19; Isaiah 41:17,18; Jer.31:33,34.
By what names do you know God? See what names are used or implied in the Responsive Reading —
ü Maker
ü Great power
ü Mighty
ü Counselor
ü Provider of water, thirst quencher
ü Fountain
ü Pool of water
ü Lawgiver
ü Teacher
P.S.S.T. Section 1 – How are you being a witness for God? How are you witnessing your neighbor, your community, your nation, your world? See what Science & Health says:
“Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.” (SH 476:32)
How can you witness this man, first in your thought, then in your experience?
“Who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?” (SH 326:21)
How do you answer the question in citation S2/465:16?
“Question. — Is there more than one God or Principle?” (SH 465:16)
Is your God, what you know of God, the same God for everyone, by whatever name is chosen?
Does God give good only to you, excluding others, or to others, excluding others?
Is God not big enough to include all? See citation S5/12:31,
“In divine Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail themselves of God as “a very present help in trouble.” Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, ‘Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.’” (SH 12:31)
How is God an open fount?
P.S.S.T. Section 2 – If you are crying out for the living God to reveal how we are one with Her – no one excluded or left out – see citation B3/Psalm 107:8,9: “…he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.”
How important is it to listen to God, to God’s voice, to aid in being a witness? Read together Hymn 304 from the Christian Science Hymnal as a prayer of one who witnesses by active listening. (Hymn words printed here)
Hymn 304 “Feed My Sheep”
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.
(Hymnal 304:1–3)
How did Elijah practice active listening in the scripture story in cit. B4/I Kings 17?
How was he a witness?
What about the widow woman at Zarephath?
Beholding the perfect man, at one with God, opens thought to receive the truth as stated in cit. S9/494:10-11, “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.”
P.S.S.T. Section 3 – What do you think it means when Jesus said in cit. B7/John 12:46, “I am come a light into the world”?
How was that light demonstrated in the scripture story in cit. B8/John 9? What kind of a witness was Jesus in that story?
Read together Miscellany 210:2-4, “Beloved Christian Scientists, keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them.”
How does this statement guide us to knowing ourselves and others as we know God, as we affirm what God, by whatever name, knows us? Read cit. S11/210:11-16 for guidance.
“Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving a better understanding of Soul and salvation.” (SH 210:11-16)
P.S.S.T. Section 4 – How do you answer the question posed in cit. B9/Genesis 18:14, “Is any thing too hard for the Lord?” Then is anything too hard for man, for you? See again the Golden Text.
Read together the scripture story in cit. B11/John 11. Because Jesus knew himself and beheld Lazarus also as he beheld himself, he could do no less than restore Lazarus to life as he would later do so for himself. It was Jesus’ divine nature to witness God at hand. Where else could God be other than ever-available, always at hand?
Ask students to share any recent healings where they were involved or were a witness. Perhaps use a recent copy of a Christian Science Sentinel to share a testimony of healing.
P.S.S.T. Section 5 – Here is an excellent memorization opportunity in citation B12/Romans 8:35,37-39. Man, you and all others, are never separated for an instant from your Creator, your Father-Mother. See Science & Health 215:12:
“Whatever is governed by God, is never for an instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence and Life.”
Agree to practice another statement from the scriptures in cit. B14/Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” (the Golden Text repeated)
So the question may be asked, are you one with God? Then ask, is my fellow man (manifestation) one with God? Read also in Science & Health 470:32,
“The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.”
Now, commit to witness that!
