PSST: Set your mind on Spirit and be free
Possible Sunday School Topics for the Christian Science Bible Lesson on
“Mortals and Immortals”
for NOVEMBER 6–12, 2023
by Lindsey Biggs, C.S of Maryland Heights, MO
540 460 3515 biggs.lindsey@gmail.com
P.S.S.T. for Golden Text
This is a great passage from Romans 8:6 as the Golden Text. Is this something they can incorporate into their daily lives? How about asking themselves with each challenge or situation – am I setting my mind on Spirit or am I merely setting my mind on matter? What is the corresponding effect? Of course, we want to experience life and peace. And these flow from keeping our mind on Spirit, or, as other translations put it, from being spiritually minded.
P.S.S.T. for Responsive Reading (RR)
These passages in the Responsive Reading point to the mental wrestling we all have. These passages could relate really well to some teenagers. See if your class can relate to what Paul is stating here.
Have they ever really wanted to do something right but had the impulse to do something else? Or despite their best intentions to get along with a friend, a teammate, etc. they just kept arguing?
What Paul is describing here is animal magnetism. That which seems to pull our thought away from God, good. It is nothing, but we need to be alert to how to it tries to operate and use our thinking. As we become more alert to it, we start to realize it for the imposter that it is (it is not our thinking) and it loses its hold over us.
A great companion article to these passages is the article “Ways that are Vain” in Miscellany on page 210. Your class might enjoy exploring some excerpts together.
An antidote is the story of Nehemiah. He is a great example of someone who “built the wall” to animal magnetism and did not let it deter him from his good work.
Perhaps there are examples from your own experience that you can share with students.
The RR closes with this very freeing passage which shows us what true law is:
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from [animal magnetism] the law of sin and death [through the ability to be and do good].” (Romans 8:2/RR)
P.S.S.T. for Section 1 – The benefits of listening to God
This passage gives us a great sense of what we are to do and what we can do:
“When mortal man blends his thoughts of existence with the spiritual and works only as God works…” (citation S22, SH p. 63:7–11)
It then tells us what the benefits are: tasting (or experiencing) heaven.
What does that mean to your students – to really get to taste or experience heaven?
Could it mean that we are so sure that we are spiritual – so sure that the reality of our being is in God – that we can live without fear? That we can live confidently and securely?
Wouldn’t that certainly be a great gift, and it comes from blending our thoughts of existence with God and reflecting God. Then we can gain confidence in our oneness with God and experience more and more demonstrations of God’s love and constant care. This allows us to experience the dominion that is meant for each one of us as the sons and daughters of God.
This passage gives us a great visual image for our relationship with God.
“Mind, supreme over all its formations and governing them all, is the central sun of its own systems of ideas, the life and light of all its own vast creation; and man is tributary to divine Mind.” (cit. S8, SH p. 209:1–2, 5–8) Perhaps you could bring in a model or picture of a solar system to indicate how we orbit around God; how all of our thoughts and activities can orbit around God. How problems seem to stem – and especially to continue – from allowing our thoughts to orbit around something other than God.
Here is an article that helps with this illustration:
A God-centered view that heals
P.S.S.T. for Section 2 – Being watchful, awake, alert
“Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” (cit. B5 / Ecclesiastes 7:29)
What are some of the “inventions” that the human race has come up with that would deter our attention and focus from the fact that we already are the pure, perfect, spiritual image and likeness of God? How can we be alert and awake to not allow these “inventions” to detract us from focusing our thoughts and mind on God?
Much of the human experience involves not being distracted by matter/error, and keeping our thoughts and focus on God, good.
Are there some goals that your students can set to help them achieve this more fully?
esus advised that his followers be watchful:
“… what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” (Mark 13:37)
This Bible talks about this over and over – being awake, alert, constant in doing good.
Mary Baker Eddy puts it succinctly this way:
“… keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them. It is plain that nothing can be added to the mind already full. There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness.”
(Miscellany, p. 210:2–7 keep)
This is a great article (below) because it helps us see that we can overcome a pull to anything that would divert our attention from God and our wholeness as a spiritual idea who is inherently satisfied.
You Can Overcome Video Game Addiction
P.S.S.T. for Section 3 — The peace that comes from God
Many people today long for more mental peace. This passage gives us a good indication of how to live in accord with Christ and the peace that comes from doing so:
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” (Isa 26:3)
Perhaps your students have a project, or college applications, or any number of things that seem to bring stress. How can practicing the ideas in the above passage help them gain greater mental poise and equanimity as they conquer these demands? How does this passage relate to the Golden Text about being spiritually minded, or keeping the mind on Spirit?
Explore the Bible story in Mark 4:36-39/cit. B11.
What was Jesus’ state of mind? Was he feeling frantic about the weather or was he peaceful? What is a good indication of the security he must have felt?
What did he understand about his relationship to God that gave him that type of freedom and security?
Weather challenges are something each student can pray about. How can knowing that God holds the winds in His fists, and that the wind and waves must obey God, help us conquer weather limitations?
Are weather and environmental challenges something your students can pray about more frequently?
Consider sharing some of Mary Baker Eddy’s demonstrations of overcoming severe weather from the biographies.
P.S.S.T. for Section 4 — Jesus as our model and Wayshower
Consider exploring what a “counterfeit” is. What does the word mean?
Why would we describe a mortal sinner as the counterfeit of the real, spiritual man?
How can this help us see that the real, spiritual, immortal man is what we want to follow?
Christ Jesus is our Wayshower. He shows us what it is like to follow God. He shows us God’s nature. These passages in SH p. 51:28–13 (cit. S23) help us dive into Jesus’ true nature more clearly. They show us his character, so that we can emulate him. It is helpful to have a model to show us the way. This is why Jesus is so important and why we can always look to his example to show us what is possible.
Consider creating a compare and contrast worksheet out of this passage. You could put Jesus on one side, listing the attributes from these passages (such as purity and perfection; unselfishness; serving God, etc). And you could put the counterfeit man on the other side and list those attributes (serving mammon, imperfection, impurity, etc.).
This can help us distinguish the false from the true and see which one we really want to follow.
P.S.S.T. for Section 5 – Giving God the glory
Bible Lens Research has this to add about the Bible account in this section:
“By voicing aloud his gratitude to God, Jesus publicly proclaims his relation to God and confirms divine power before healing is evident. A Bible authority suggests, “If he had not uttered this thanksgiving, the multitude would have glorified him rather than his Father, nor would they have learned . . . that he came forth from God.”
What are some ways that we can give glory to God – through athletics, academics, art, etc? How does recognizing the true power comes from God help us with humility?
How does it help us to be a better transparency for Truth?
P.S.S.T. for Section 6 – Live a life of pure joy
“You will show me the path that leads to life; your presence fills me with joy and brings me pleasure forever.” (cit. B22, Psalm 16:11, Good News Translation)
It’s helpful to see the sinless joy that comes from following God. It might be helpful to have a conversation about real joy.
What is lasting joy and where does it come from?
How does this differ from temporary pleasure or the gratification of the senses?
I love this passage because it equates Life with joy! Meaning that a joyful life is natural and normal. Something we can all achieve. A life filled with delight, hope, happiness, strength.
“The sinless joy, — the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain, — constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual.”
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 76:22–26)
Enjoy your class!
