PSST –Discuss examples together of how God and His kingdom are“within you” rather than being somewhere “out there”.
Possible Sunday School Topics (Treasure Hunt Edition so you can find for yourself what citations answer the questions)
from the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“Probation After Death”
for classes on April 23, 2023
Questions by former CedarS Program Director, Steve Henn, C.S.
steven.henn@gmail.com
Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs) for the GOLDEN TEXT (GT)
Who is Jesus responding to with this phrase?
How does this understanding contrast with how many people often relate to God and His kingdom?
Do we ever feel that the Kingdom of God is separate or apart from us – “lo here or lo there”?
How do Jesus’ teachings counteract this view of God?
Look in this lesson with your students for God and His kingdom as “within you” rather than being somewhere “out there”.
PSSTs for the RESPONSIVE READING (RR):
If any of your students is a CedarS camper, she may already know Hymn 599 by heart. It is a beautiful hymn, (#599) and worth teaching to students who do not yet know it.[W: Thanks to the May 2020 of initiating and copyright coordinating efforts of Holly Huff Bruland, CedarS then Director of Operations (now Executive Director), all six of the North American camps for Christian Scientists came together to sing “Whither!” This happened when this Psalm was in the Christian Science Bible Lesson and we were all apart and unable (in early summer of 2020) to accept campers in person. Holly arranged for all to sing their segments and send them in to Nathan Wood to edit together so that each camp could have the following Vimeo link to post to its social media and circulate as it saw fit: https://vimeo.com/413393023
What is the core message of this Psalm?
How does it provide comfort to your students?
How can your students use it to provide comfort to their peers/family?
Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs) for Section 1:
What is the source of all goodness?
Does the presence of “darkness” in our lives change this source? What are some examples of darkness that may challenge your students? How does recognizing God as the source of all goodness help to lift this darkness?
What synonyms for God can help us see Her goodness in the face of specific dark temptations?
Activity: match synonyms to the specific challenge they help us to address.
You can put challenges on note cards and organize them by which synonym they are most clearly destroyed by.
Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs) for Section 2:
Citation B5 is the result of a very long journey for Joseph. The significance of this incredible forgiveness can only be truly understood by recognizing the context from which it comes.
Spend time sharing the origins of this story – either through the children’s book about Joseph, or through reading the story in the Bible (beginning in Genesis 37).
How many “valleys” did Joseph experience? And how did he lean on God in each of those?
How was Joseph able to so fully forgive his brothers?
What is the foundation of his forgiveness?
How can we do the same in our lives?
What wrongs can befall your students?
How easily can they forgive like Joseph? What is the foundation of forgiveness?
How does this relate back to our Golden Text and the kingdom within?
Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs) for Section 3:
Carefully consider citation B11 with your students. How is Moses a clear example of this?
Identify with your students the two main times in this section that Moses cleaves unto God.
Brainstorm with them the many other times that Moses leans fully on God. And what is the result in each situation?
How do your students cleave to God?
What synonym do they feel most closely connected to that they can lean on most fully? What challenges do your students face that will be benefited by leaning more fully on God?
Memorization passage: Citation B11, [Deut. 4:4 ye] is a great passage to memorize – and it can also be paired with the first sentence in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. [“To those leaning…]
Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs) for Section 4:
What is life eternal? How does Jesus define it?
Look at SH 410:4 for Mary Baber Eddy’s explanation of this specific passage.
How does this definition of life inform Jesus’ actions when he hears of Lazarus’s sickness?
How is Jesus’ response, to wait, an expression of love for his disciples, including Lazarus?
Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs) for Section 5:
Where are the footsteps of Truth? How can we find them?
What proofs can we offer of our understanding of Jesus’ teachings?
How is proof more powerful than profession?
How can we be consistent in our watching and praying?
How does being consistent in watching and praying help us to lean more fully on God, to see God’s kingdom as within us, rather than out-there-somewhere?
Possible Sunday School Topics (PSSTs) for Section 6:
When is the day of salvation?
What does salvation look and feel like?
How can we experience it now?
