PSST: Stop thinking, “My life had a beginning and will some day end.”
Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs)for The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson:
“Life”
for July 10-16, 2023
prepared by Merrill Boudreaux, C.S., for CedarS Camps
pegasus6524@gmail.com • 314-308-1059
When you think of life, do you think, “I am in the midst of living”? Do you think, “My life had a beginning and will some day end”? Then, Stop it!
Perhaps a new view of Life, and your life as well, is in order.
P.S.S.T. Golden Text (GT)/Psalms 18:46: “The Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted.”
The first three words in the Golden Text are instructive: “The Lord liveth.” Everything proceeds from these three words. Ask students to complete the phrases,
- “Because God lives…” and
- “Because God is my life, I…”
Responsive Reading (RR)/ All you think, all you are, is because God is, your Life is. See in Neh. 9:6,9,11,12,15,21,23, Ps. 42:8 list of results because Life is
There is a large listing of results because Life is as recorded in the Responsive Reading. Ask students to state what they see from this listing in the RR.
Take a look at Psalm 23. There are two phrases in that Psalm of how God is always with you, surrounding you, leading you, following you:
- “…he leadeth me beside the still waters”
- “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life”
Why? Because that Psalm said, “I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” Here ‘house’ means ‘consciousness’. Therefore, everything you think, everything you are, is because God is, your Life is.
P.S.S.T. Section 1 – What are some key phrases in this section? Perhaps,
- The Lord is my light and salvation
- Whom shall I fear
- From whence cometh my help
- He will not suffer my foot to be moved
- He that keepeth thee shall not slumber
- The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in
- Because Life is God, Life must be eternal
- All the children of Israel were guided triumphantly
What do you make of these statements as applied to your life, your daily living, your eternal living without beginning nor end?
P.S.S.T. Section 2 – Now reason this:
Do you look for life through the material senses, through what you can observe only? Or, do you look to spiritual sense for telling you what your life is? What is spiritual sense? See Science & Health 209:31-32: “Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God.”
See also Science & Health 209:25 for a definite statement as to why we would not look to the material senses to tell us about life:
“Material substances or mundane formations, astronomical calculations, and all the paraphernalia of speculative theories, based on the hypothesis of material law or life and intelligence resident in matter, will ultimately vanish, swallowed up in the infinite calculus of Spirit.” (SH 209:25)
How then do you cultivate spiritual sense? See citation S10/298:13-20, noting the key words – intuition, hope, faith, understanding —
“Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality. Material sense expresses the belief that mind is in matter. This human belief, alternating between a sense of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, life and death, never reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal. When the real is attained, which is announced by Science, joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat.” (SH 298:13–20)
P.S.S.T. Section 3 – Do you have any examples of these words from Ps. 145:14-16, “The Lord upholdeth all that fall,” (cit. B8)?
How was this shown in the scripture story in citation B9/II Kings 25:27-30? Imagine that God gave Jehoiachin a daily allowance. How much do you need to meet your daily needs: Food, clothing, recognition, acknowledgment?
If God did it for Jehoiachin, he can certainly do it for you.
See citation B10/Psalm 84:11, “…the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold….”
Ask students to memorize from Science & Health citation S18/vii:1-2: “To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, today is big with blessings.”
P.S.S.T. Section 4 – “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Read this together from citation B13/Luke 12:32)
Why? Because there is nothing that God withholds? Why? It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Think about it. God has pleasure in treating you well, meeting your needs, providing for you because He loves you, he gives you life forever.
Read together the scripture story in citation B15/Matthew 9:20-22. God, Life, is saying to you also, “Be of good comfort.”
P.S.S.T. Section 5 – If you are concerned about the state or condition of our world, how might you pray? How might you find comfort? See Matthew 24:6,7:
“And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” (Matt. 24:6, 7)
Remember, “the end is not yet.” Why? Because Life is.
Read also citation S28/14:25: “Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man’s dominion over the whole earth.” (SH 14:25)
Read together Hymn 202 from the Christian Science Hymnal (words printed here):
Hymn 202 (& 412)
O dreamer, leave thy dreams for joyful waking, / O captive, rise and sing, for thou art free; / The Christ is here, all dreams of error breaking, / Unloosing bonds of all captivity.
He comes to bless thee on his wings of healing; / To banish pain, and wipe all tears away; / He comes anew, to humble hearts revealing / The mounting footsteps of the upward way.
He comes to give thee joy for desolation, / Beauty for ashes of the vanished years; / For every tear to bring full compensation, / To give thee confidence for all thy fears.
He comes to call the dumb to joyful singing; / The deaf to hear; the blinded eyes to see; / The glorious tidings of salvation bringing. / O captive, rise, thy Saviour comes to thee.
P.S.S.T. Section 6 – “God is able.” Because this is so, you are also able, capable, adequate, fulfilled.
Cultivating spiritual sense helps you see Life and all that your life possesses. Citation S32/215:12 says it well, “Whatever is governed by God, is never for an instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence and Life.”
Your Saviour comes to you. (See Hymn 202/412 above)
