PSST: View yourself made new as “God’s ideal piece of art!”
Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs) for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson:
“God”
for June 28-July 4, 2021
prepared by Merrill Boudreaux, C.S.
pegasus6524@gmail.com • 314-308-1059
P.S.S.T. Golden Text (GT) I Chronicles 29:11.
Let’s be clear: You are one of God’s greatest creations!
God’s goodness, greatness, power, glory, and majesty is revealed in you. You are not bound nor constrained by matter or physicality. You are free to live fully as God made you. God has the perfect view of you.
Share with students a poem from the May 31, 2021 Christian Science Sentinel by Robert Witney titled “The Perfect View” (printed below).
The perfect view
Robert Witney
I hold the perfect view of you
grasped close within my heart
the soulful you
the healthy you
God’s ideal piece of art
I also see the perfect me
and cherish that as well
the patient me
the wakeful me
and we together dwell
in Mind, which holds the perfect us
forever in its view
the loving us
the faithful us
and we are each made new
P.S.S.T. Responsive Reading (RR) Psalms 66:1,2,4,5,7,8-10; 67:1-5; Daniel 4:3.
In Psalm 66:5, we are called upon to “Come and see the works of God:”
Mary Baker Eddy stated how this view was revealed by Christ Jesus when she wrote in Science & Health (p.476:32-5):
“Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.”
Read together Psalm 67:5, “Let the people praise thee O God; let all the people praise thee.” This is a complete relationship: what God sees of us, what we see of God, and what we see of each other.
P.S.S.T. Section 1 – How many scripture characters do your students know who had God revealed to them and subsequently were able to bless mankind? Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, Nathan, Jesus, John the Baptist, Paul, Jonah – among others. They all began with “…reckoning God as the divine Principle of all that really is” (citation S4/SH 275:10-15).
Can we add our names to this list? Read the guidance and assurance provided by Mary Baker Eddy in citations S5 and S6 (SH 68:4-6 & SH 264:15).
In the quietness, the stillness, of listening, God is revealed to each of us as well.
Read together Hymn 317 from the Christian Science Hymnal (printed below):
Hymn 317
Still, still with Thee when purple morning breaketh,
When the bird waketh, and the shadows flee,
Fairer than morning, lovelier than the daylight,
Dawns the sweet consciousness, I am with Thee.
Alone with Thee, amid the changing shadows,
Solemn the hush of nature, newly born;
Alone with Thee, in breathless adoration,
In the calm dew and freshness of the morn.
So shall it ever be in the bright morning,
When hearts awaking see the shadows flee,
O, in that hour, and fairer than the dawning,
Rises the glorious thought, I am with Thee.
P.S.S.T. Section 2 – If you are afraid that you can’t see God, hear God, know God, then pray for the light, the lamp of God to “lighten my darkness” (cit B8/II Samuel 22:29-33). What are the qualities of light? In the beginning, light was necessary to reveal all else that was created. See Genesis 1:1-3. Remember that all creation was pronounced by the Creator, God, as good. See Genesis 1:31.
P.S.S.T. Section 3 – What is the truth stated in citation B12 (Philippians 4:19): “my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”
This is an affirmation and an assurance of the eternal link and care God has for you. Think of the tenderness and comfort provided to the lepers in the scripture story in cit. 14 (Luke 17:12-16). What does this story tell us of how God saw them? What conclusion can we draw as to how God sees us?
Read together cit. B15 (Psalms 30:2,12), especially “O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.”
No one is left out, no one is outside God’s view of what was and is created.
P.S.S.T. Section 4 – Citation B20/I Cor 15:55,57 states “thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
How do you count your blessings? Why is it important to express gratitude? See Science & Health 3:22-23, “Are we really grateful for the good already received?”
Gratitude is often a basis for receiving the light, for God’s work and will being revealed. See II Cor. 2:14. Gratitude aids in overcoming any issue, concern, fear, problem. How? It turns thought to God, the Creator, the Originator and Maintainer of all. God, as He who loves and provides for you, who is never far from you.
Ask students to write out a Christian Science prayer treatment with gratitude at its core about an issue in the world of which they are aware. This will confirm that they are empowered to care and do something about it.
P.S.S.T. Section 5 – This Lesson leads to the assurance that you can hear God. Read citation B24/Psalms 51:8,12, “Make me to hear joy and gladness; restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”
How long does Spirit reign and rule? How long does God know you? How long does God care for you? Read citation S26/SH 208:20, “Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the kingdom of Heaven, — the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen.”
P.S.S.T. Section 6 – Do we need more than God? Can we have more than God? Do we have more than Good? Can we have more than Good? Why?
Read together citations B25/Deuteronomy 4:39 and S27/SH 520:3-5.
“That is enough” because that is “The Perfect View”!
