PSST: Memorize “…and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Section 4)
Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs) for The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson:
“Matter”
for September 12-18, 2022
prepared by Merrill Boudreaux, C.S.
pegasus6524@gmail.com • 314-308-1059
P.S.S.T. Golden Text: “Can people make their own gods? These are not real gods at all!” (Jeremiah 16:20, New Living Translation, NLT)
Ask students to complete this phrase: When I think of God, the first thing that comes to mind is…
Responsive Reading (RR)/Acts 19:24-29; I Corinthians 14:33; 8:5,6
What do you think it means to make a god or gods? Of what has our present world made gods? Who or what do we bow down to serve? Tweets, likes, friends, social media, money, food, status? Compare these gods with the power and longevity of the One God.
Read together from the RR, I Cor.8:5,6 (to 😉
P.S.S.T. Section 1 – Is the flesh, or our body, a god to you?
Do we listen to it, follow its dictates, bow to its wishes?
Or, do we challenge it in the face of One God, Spirit?
Ask yourself, who or what am I listening to, who do I follow, who or what do I believe?
Read together citation S7/Science & Health 205:7-13.
What are a few key words in that passage?
Unmasked…. “God created all through Mind, and made all perfect and eternal.”
P.S.S.T. Section 2 – Jesus turned our thoughts of God to Spirit, not matter (cit. S8/94:1-3).
When Mary Baker Eddy states that Jesus “was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe,” (citation S9/313:23-26), how would you define a “scientific man”? What is the scientific process?
Start with a theory or hypothesis, test it for its accuracy or authenticity, apply it to circumstances seeking proof, demonstrate it under varying circumstances, share it with others.
How was Jesus scientific?
How is Christian Science scientific?
What must be real and applicable to us – that matter is reality? or that God and all that She creates is the only reality and that one is perfect? See an answer to the above queries in citation S15/127:16. Read it together.
P.S.S.T. Section 3 –What is true, Spirit or matter? Both cannot be.
The scientific process proves that only one can be true, as they exclude each other. If matter is true, it excludes Spirit. If Spirit is true, it excludes matter.
Think about the healing of the man of the Gadarenes in citation B5/Luke 8. Jesus proved that no matter what the problem is called or how many names it chooses, a falsity is always not true, and has no standing. This scientific approach healed the man.
See what is written in citation S15/127:16, “Christian Science reveals God, not as the author of sin, sickness, and death, but as divine Principle, Supreme Being, Mind, exempt from all evil. It teaches that matter is the falsity, not the fact, of existence; that nerves, brain, stomach, lungs, and so forth, have – as matter – no intelligence, life, nor sensation.”
See further the Scientific Statement of Being in Science & Health 468:8-15. Notice it is a scientific statement, which means it can be proven and applied to all circumstances.
P.S.S.T. Section 4 – Memorize “…nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (cit. B11/Luke 10:19)
This, too, is a scientific statement and can be proven and applied. Are you flesh, bones, nerves, blood, brain, viscera? Are you young, old, male, female? See what Paul says in Galatians 3:28. It is wise to declare what is true when arguing against a false statement or false belief.
See also citation S25/247:13-15, “Immortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its own, — the radiance of Soul.”
Note that immortality is based in Soul, Spirit, not in matter. No need to look to the body or to “…consult almanacs for the probabilities either of his life or the weather… to learn how much of a man he is” (SH 171:4).
Ask students to complete this phrase, “When I think of man, the first thing that comes to mind is…”
P.S.S.T. Section 5 – “Thou shalt not raise a false report:” (our marching order (cit. B12/Ex. 23:1)
Remember to argue scientifically for yourself and others. You can never lose any of your senses given you by Mind. Because Jesus knew this was a scientific fact, he healed the two blind men in the scripture story in citation B14/Matthew 9:27-30.
P.S.S.T. Section 6 – One of the roles of Sunday School is to help or aid in your remembering who you are.
This starts with knowing who God is to you and who you are to God. Thus, the two phrases we asked you to complete:
- When I think of God, the first thing that comes to mind is…; and
- When I think of man, the first thing that comes to mind is….
Remember – God, Spirit, Mind, Life, omnipotence, and me as His image and likeness, not material but spiritual. This is the scientific truth in this Lesson.
