PSST: SOAK UP AND FREELY SHARE GOD’S MESSAGE OF COMFORT!
Possible Sunday School Topics for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Christian Science”
for classes on June 26, 2022
Questions by former CedarS Program Director, Steve Henn, C.S. steven.henn@gmail.com
POSSIBLE SUNDAY SCHOOL TOPICS (PSSTs) for the GOLDEN TEXT
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” (Isa. 40:1)
Is this a command, or a promise?
How would it be interpreted in either instance?
Who or what is doing the comforting? Who is being comforted?
POSSIBLE SUNDAY SCHOOL TOPICS (PSSTs) for RESPONSIVE READING (Isa. 40:3, 4)
“Prepare ye the way of the Lord… Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain … made low.”
How do we prepare for God in our thought?
What valleys and mountains must be altered in our thinking to be fully ready for what God has to offer? What does God offer to His children?
SECTION 1 PSSTs: WHAT IS GOD’S MESSAGE OF COMFORT?
What message does Christ Jesus convey? (citation B4, Luke 4:14-19)
How much of comfort is directed to us as God’s beloved, and how much of comfort are we to direct to our brethren as reflections of God’s perfection and Love?
How do we receive God’s comfort?
How do we prepare to receive it?
What is the vital part of Christian Science? (citation S6, 113:5-6)
SECTION 2 PSSTs: LIST THE THINGS WE LOOK TO FOR COMFORT EACH DAY.
How do we feel God’s comfort on a daily basis?
List with your students all the things they look to for comfort each day.
Then discuss whether those comfort providing things are reflections of God, and thus eternally comforting, or temporary comforts.
What is the Comforter made of? How do we know we are in Her presence?
ACTIVITY: COMFORTER TRIUMPHING – list with your students all the things, material beliefs, that cause them discomfort. Then, for each one, identify a Scientific Truth that counteracts that false material belief.
If you want to make this more visual, cut out slips of paper and write the scientific truths on those slips, then use tape to cover over the false material beliefs you’ve written on a larger piece of paper.
SECTION 3 PSSTS: EXPERIENCE A BUOYANT, HOPEFFUL SEARCH FOR TRUTH
What is it that glorifies the Son of man? How is God glorified with him?
Where does the Comforter come from? When does the Comforter come?
How difficult is it for sin and disease to lose their reality and disappear?
What are some other opposites that naturally give way to each other?
How does Truth dispel error? What is the search for Truth like?
Does it have to be difficult? How was Mary Baker Eddy’s search? (cit. S14, 109:11-24)
How can we replicate this on a personal scale here and now?
SECTION 4 PSSTs: CHALLENGE YOUR STUDENTS TO FREELY GIVE THIS WEEK
What have we freely received? Who are we supposed to give to? What can we give?
Have your students seen any opportunities to give to others recently?
Must the giving be a thing? Or can what we give be spiritually substantial?
How can we reflect the nature of the Comforter and be a blessing to the communities we live in?
Can you challenge your students to freely give this week? What would that look like? Brainstorm with them some opportunities that might arise so they can be ready for them.
SECTION 5 PSSTs: CHALLENGE STUDENTS TO STUDY & PONDER SCIENCE & HEALTH
Have your students read and studied Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures?
Could this be a summer challenge?
Consider starting small – find the shorter chapters, like Prayer, to start with.
What would help to motivate or inspire them to start and then keep going with reading and studying this book daily?
What does it mean to study and ponder it?
How is that different from just reading it?
And what is the impact of this study and pondering?
Encourage your students to make a healing journal that they can keep during their study of Science and Health.
SECTION 6 PSSTs: I.D. & DISCUSS ATTRIBUTES OF COMFORTING LIGHTS TO EMULATE.
How are your students the light of the world? (cit. B15, Matt. 5:14, 16)
How are they like cities on a hill whose light cannot be hid?
Who else in the lives of your students resonate to them as lights of the world and cities on a hill?
What makes the people they respect as lights to be emulated so worthy of that admiration?
ACTIVITY: Have your students identify three people they know who they think are examples of being a light of the world and a city on a hill. Then go one by one and discuss the characteristics of each of these shining examples. Next, take a step back and notice which qualities or attributes are common among the three chosen examples. Finally, discuss how these examples acquired these attributes – what is the source of their expression of the Comforter – and how might your students work towards emulating similar qualities.
