Article August 20, 2012 Issue

Taking direction from God

Gil Bird

After designating the Bible and her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures to be the official pastor of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in 1898 Mary Baker Eddy developed 26 weekly subjects (each featured twice a year) for use in the Bible Lesson-Sermon, which is read during Sunday services and used for daily study. Christian Scientists, as well as other Bible students and spiritual seekers throughout the world, continue to study the Lessons on those subjects today, and they remain as fresh and relevant to humanity now as they were over a century ago. No Lesson is ever exactly the same because the citations from the Scriptures and Science and Health that make up each Lesson are newly chosen for each specific week.

Over the years, I was amazed time and again when I read a Bible Lesson, knowing it had been prepared some time ago, and found it addressed so well what was currently happening on the world scene, or it addressed so specifically some challenge I was grappling with. It is truly inspiring and supportive to know that all around the world people are studying the same Lesson and gaining timely healing insights together, no matter where they are or under what circumstances they live. In fact, these Bible Lessons are prepared by a small team of Christian Scientists known as the Bible Lesson Committee many months in advance of the date they are actually used. 

I used to think, “How did those who compiled the Lesson for that week know that this particular world event was going to take place?” or “How did they know that I would need to hear those exact citations in my life this week?” I used to be awed by that, but not so much anymore. Now, I expect that to happen. The Bible Lesson Committee listens prayerfully for God’s direction as these Lessons are prepared, which leads to choosing citations that will be most helpful for humanity at the time these Lessons are read. After all, the Bible tells us, “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matthew 6:8). Because these Bible Lessons come directly from the Word of God, it is aptly written that the Lesson-Sermon is “. . . undivorced from truth, uncontaminated and unfettered by human hypotheses, and divinely authorized” (see Explanatory Note, Christian Science Quarterly). 

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