In the Christian Science Bible Lesson July 21, 2014 Issue

Letting Truth lead

For the Lesson titled "Truth" from July 21 - 27, 2014

Kathleen Collins

A sign on a church marquee: “Fight Truth decay. Study the Bible Daily.” This light-hearted play on words made me chuckle, but it also turned my thought to the foundational first tenet of Christian Science: “As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 497). Both Truth and Life are capitalized as names for God.

This week’s Bible Lesson, titled “Truth,” opens with a prayer for enlightenment: “O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me” (Psalms 43:3, Golden Text).

The story of Gideon proves that anyone who listens can hear Truth’s call (see Judges 7:12–21, citation 10). Gideon was an obscure farmer. He couldn’t believe that God would choose the likes of him to drive out the enemy Midianites and Amalekites (see Judges, chap. 6). What finally convinced him? It was a dream he overheard a man tell his companion—a cake of barley bread rolled into a tent of the Midianites, overturning it. The companion instantly understood its meaning: “This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon ... for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host” (7:14).