PSST: To be the best YOU, “diligently seek” to always know & do just as Mind guides!
Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs) for The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson:
“Mind”
for August 14-20, 2023
prepared by Merrill Boudreaux, C.S., for CedarS Camps
pegasus6524@gmail.com • 314-308-1059
P.S.S.T. Golden Text (GT)/ “…who has known the mind of the Lord?… For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.” (Romans 11:34,36)
How can you know “the mind of the Lord” as noted in the Golden Text?
See a beginning point in Hebrews 11:6, “…he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
See also the further guidance in the 6th Tenet in Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures (497:24), “And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus…”
That tenet continues with guidance for our actions when we allow that Mind to be in us. It further states, “to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.” With these actions we do glorify God, our Mind.
Responsive Reading (RR)/Psalm 109:26,27; Psalm 147:5,6; II Kings 6:1-7; Psalm 92:4,5
Do you believe that the story in the Responsive Reading of the axe head floating is a miracle? (II Kings 6:1-7)
Or, do you believe it is the natural order of our Mind directing and leading?
Ask students to craft a prayer they may have prayed in the same circumstance. This is not seeking a formula, nor just saying words, but praying for inspiration even today of how we open thought to receive Mind’s message.
P.S.S.T. Section 1 – Read together the Bible portion of this section. (Deut. 4:39; Deut. 4:6; Jeremiah 51:15) This citations offer other examples of how others might have prayed about the axe story.
You can depend on this Mind to aid in your growth and to resolve any issue with which you are faced.
Read the following from citation S4/Science & Health 279:26, “A logical and scientific conclusion is reached only through the knowledge that there are not two bases of being, matter and mind, but one alone, – Mind.”
P.S.S.T. Section 2 – If we believe that our nation, our world, has changed from giving God/Mind the glory to worshipping other gods, what can you do about it?
We can be metaphysicians! What does that mean?
See citations B7/II Corinthians 4:18 and S7/269:13-20.
This requires us to think deeply about human circumstances looking and listening for Mind to be in us.
Read together citation S9/205:29-3.
How to do this in the midst of all the noise surrounding us?
See the guidance in Science & Health 14:31-13:
“When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”
“So spake Jesus. The closet typifies the sanctuary of Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but lets in Truth, Life, and Love. Closed to error, it is open to Truth, and vice versa. The Father in secret is unseen to the physical senses, but He knows all things and rewards according to motives, not according to speech. To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error.” (SH 14:31–13)
Daily find and enter your individual closet. Mary Baker Eddy states in SH 241:23: “One’s aim, a point beyond faith, should be to find the footsteps of Truth, the way to health and holiness. We should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is revealed;” (SH 241:23–26).
P.S.S.T. Section 3 – “From beginning to end, the Scriptures are full of accounts of the triumph of Spirit, Mind, over matter” (cit. S10/139:4-5).
Ask students to share one of their favorite scripture stories where they find inspiration and guidance. Do you go to the scriptures each day to have your Mind revealed?
P.S.S.T. Section 4 – What is the key message in this section? There is no division or minds many, there is no division in the kingdom of God. This truth heals the pervasive view in our world that we are separated by ethnicity, by gender, by race, by geography, by income or economics.
Read the healing prayer in Hymn 135 from the Christian Science Hymnal (words supplied here):
Hymn 135
I know no life divided, O Lord of life, from Thee;
In Thee is life provided For all mankind and me:
I know no death, O Father, Because I live in Thee;
Thy life it is that frees us From death eternally.
I fear no tribulation, Since, whatsoe’er it be,
It makes no separation Between my Lord and me:
Since Thou, my God and Father, Dost claim me as Thine own,
I richly shall inherit All good, from Thee alone.
P.S.S.T. Section 5 – What is the message in this section?
“I have loved thee with an everlasting love…” (cit. B14/Jer.31:3)
Feel this uniting love as stated in Hymn 276 from the Christian Science Hymnal (words supplied here):
Hymn 276 (277)
Peace be to this congregation; Peace to every heart therein;
Peace, the earnest of salvation; Peace, the fruit of conquered sin;
Peace, that speaks the heavenly Giver; Peace, to worldly minds unknown;
Peace, that floweth as a river From th’ eternal source alone.
O Thou God of peace, be near us, Fix within our hearts Thy home;
With Thy bright appearing cheer us, In Thy blessed freedom come.
Come with all Thy revelations, Truth which we so long have sought;
Come with Thy deep consolations, Peace of God which passeth thought.
This inspired hymn guides us to an inner and outer peace, to rest, to a cessation of toil and fatigue (be ever vigilant that you are never too tired to pray) to know that Mind is ever with you.
Here is a definition of Mind from philosopher Ralph Cudworth (1618-1688) that might be worth considering – “The true idea of God is this – ‘A perfect conscious understanding Being and Mind existing of itself throughout eternity.’ ‘A Being absolutely perfect.’” [See Note 1 below.]
See also the powerful statement in citation S20/390:32. (“Rise in the conscious strength of the spirit of Truth to overthrow …)
P.S.S.T. Section 6 – Share with students a healing from a recent Christian Science periodical. Every healing proves Mind with us, harmony with us, peace with us.
Who is included in this “us”? Every Christian Science prayer treatment must acknowledge that the truth is not exclusive to us but inclusive of all of us.
Why do you think this is an important statement?
P.S.S.T. Section 7 – Why do you think it is important to give God the glory and to withhold glory from matter?
- Do you believe that God, Mind, is all-powerful?
- Do you believe that God cares?
- Do you believe that God is your life and your reason for living?
Read citation S28/270:7-10, “Only by understanding that there is but one power, – not two powers, matter and Mind, – are scientific and logical conclusions reached.”
Ask students to summarize what this Lesson has said to them, what is a key takeaway for them?
Read together Hymn 10 from the Christian Science Hymnal
(words supplied here).
Hymn 411 (10)
All power is given unto our Lord, On Him we place reliance;
With truth from out His sacred word We bid our foes defiance.
With Him we shall prevail, Whatever may assail;
He is our shield and tower, Almighty is His power; His kingdom is forever.
Rejoice, ye people, praise His name, His care doth e’er surround us.
His love to error’s thralldom came, And from its chains unbound us.
Our Lord is God alone, No other power we own;
No other voice we heed, No other help we need; His kingdom is forever.
O then give thanks to God on high, Who life to all is giving;
The hosts of death before Him fly, In Him we all are living.
Then let us know no fear, Our King is ever near;
Our stay and fortress strong, Our strength, our hope, our song;
His kingdom is forever.
You are an important member of this forever kingdom, and so is everyone else.
Note 1. “Central to Cudworth’s metaphysics is the Platonist principle that mind is ‘first in the order of nature’…” — “The mind in question is the mind of God, which ‘containeth its immediate intelligibles within it self’”
“As ‘a Being absolutely perfect’, God is ‘the very idea or essence of good’ whose essential goodness is manifest in all things.”
(Ralph Cudworth, “The True Intellectual System of the Universe -1678. Quote sourced from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cudworth/#LifeWork)
