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[PSST: Speak from your heart, full of hope…listen to others’ hearts & hopes. (2)
Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs) for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson:

“Mind”
for February 15-21, 2021

prepared by Merrill Boudreaux, C.S.
pegasus6524@gmail.com • 314-308-1059

P.S.S.T. Golden Text (GT): You’ve been given a future and hope!
Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJV): “…I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Have you considered that God is thinking you, in the present tense, now? If so, what qualities would God be using as She is thinking you? What is therefore the result of God’s thinking? Use some synonyms for God and overlay them with the qualities of your life now, as well as your future.

Examples of synonyms for God:

  • Good
  • Universal
  • Permanent
  • The Only Cause
  • Love
  • Intelligence
  • Wisdom
  • All Power

P.S.S.T. Responsive Reading (RR): Think about the impact of the law of God, Good, on our lives.
If God wills it, can anything ever set it aside, derail it, deny it? God has marked you as Her handiwork – rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eye.

Read in Science & Health: “Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less than beautiful” (SH 248:3-5).

Consider then God’s thinking of you as you think of a friend – lovely, beautiful, bright, accomplished, wonderful to be around. So, it is between God and you, between God and what She creates.

P.S.S.T. Section 1: Look to God and what She is thinking, knowing about the situation.
Read from citation B1, Isaiah 45:22: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”

If you desire to see the truth about any situation, this is the command. Look to God and what She is thinking, knowing about the situation.

Read also in Science & Health: “Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind? We must look where we would walk, and we must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we have our being” (SH 264:9).

Because God IS, forever, you are the result, forever.

P.S.S.T. Section 2: Speak from your heart…listen to others’ hearts…
What is the point of the scripture story of the tower of Babel in citation B5? Is it an attempt to explain our differences, our diverse human languages? What if instead we celebrated the infinite variety of God’s creation with God, God’s voice, God’s language at the center of our interactions?

See what Mary Baker Eddy says in Miscellaneous Writings: “When the heart speaks, however simple the words, its language is always acceptable to those who have hearts” (Mis. 1883–1896, 262:10).

What is the charge to us then, to speak from our heart, and to listen to the message from another’s heart? This is so, because we accept that we all have the same Mind, since there is only one Mind, one God, universal Good. Therefore, a material suggestion that we cannot understand one another has no footing, no foundation. Such suggestion collapses. Read together citation S7 (SH 209:10). Let your thought rest on the truth stated in citation S9 (SH 143:26-31).

P.S.S.T. Section 3: Imagine you are in Athens, on Mars’ hill, listening to Paul… [More at GEM#3]
Would you choose ignorance worshipping an unknown God, or would you choose God who made all things, who gives all life, who breathes all things? Are God’s thoughts known to you? Are your thoughts known to God? See citation S12 (SH 1:10).

See also the definition of Angels in the Glossary of Science & Health, p.581:4.

P.S.S.T. Section 4: Claim God’s lasting gifts of peace, harmony, wisdom…
What are the qualities or characteristics of God, Mind’s thinking to us in citation B8 (James 3:17,18):

  • Pure
  • Peaceable
  • Gentle
  • Easy to be entreated
  • Full of mercy and good fruits
  • Without partiality
  • Without hypocrisy

As you think about these qualities you will find peace, harmony, wisdom. Claim these and be at peace. “The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace” (cit. S19, SH 506:10-12).

P.S.S.T. Section 5: Know you can reach out to God so strongly She feels touched! (In pain, exams.)
Have you ever felt that God was holding your hand, guiding you, answering your questions, saying, “Fear not, I will help thee”? (cit. B11, Isaiah 41:13).

Read with confidence citation B12 (Isa. 30:15,21). Share an example from the scripture of individuals who were led, guided, hand-held by God. Moses is a good example throughout his life. What about Moses’ mom who was guided to save him at the very beginning? See the powerful guidance provided by Mary Baker Eddy in Science & Health (SH 495:14).

How was the woman in the scripture story in citation B13 (Luke 8:40-48) guided by God? What qualities or characteristics did she possess? Perhaps listening, humility, assurance, desire for healing, setting aside what others might be thinking, confidence. Have you ever reached out to God so strongly that God would say of you, “Who touched me?” What a grand relationship to have with God, to feel that close to God. Remember God’s breathing you, thinking you right now. See Acts 17:28.

P.S.S.T. Section 6: Be open to the unity of others getting the same inspiration you’re receiving.
Ask students to share what they know or understand about the Pentecost story in citation B16 (Acts 2). What is the key takeaway from that story? Think about what had to happen before the multitude could hear the disciples speak in his own language. The disciples had to first be of “one accord in one place.” This is a hint at the need to be prepared, to be receptive, to be open for each other to receive the same inspiration I am receiving. All having the same Mind does not hinder us, but unites us. Read together in Science & Health 518:13:

“God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the greater, and in return, the higher always protects the lower. The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good. Love giveth to the least spiritual idea might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality — infinite Life, Truth, and Love.”

PSST Section 7: Reverse the fable that Liberty or any fact/gift can be vanished. Share GEM#11 trick]
These qualities and characteristics we have been talking about are yours, BUT not exclusively yours. James says in citation B17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). [W: CedarS Met writer and practitioner, Christie Hanzlik, CS from Boulder, CO, originally shared the trick performed by the illusionist David Copperfield that appeared to a large audience to make the Stature of Liberty disappear. The way he did it is briefly explained in CedarS GEM#11 by Warren who connected it with citation B17 from James 1:17.]

Our prayer for you is that you feel God’s presence that can never “vanish,” that you confidently reach out to God, that you be assured that She is thinking you, that you feel no separation between God and you, and between you and your fellow beings.

Read together Hymn 267 from the Christian Science Hymnal, words printed here, especially for healing all strife:

Hymn 267 (& 268)

Our God is All-in-all,
His children cannot fear;
See baseless evil fall,
And know that God is here.

Our God is All; in space
No subtle error creeps;
We see Truth's glowing face,
And Love that never sleeps.

We see creative Mind,
The Principle, the Life;
And Soul and substance find,
But never discord, strife.

O, Perfect and Divine,
We hear Thy loving call,
And seek no earthly shrine
But crown Thee Lord of all.

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