CSeNews.com - The Christian Science Worldwide Current Events & Information Web Site

Bible Lesson: SUBSTANCE

From the Christian Science Quarterly

Citations from the Holy Bible, New International Version

and the New American Standard Bible

For week of March 8-14, citations compiled by Bruce Cunningham, e-mail: cunninghambruce123@yahoo.com

Golden Text New International Version

Ecclesiastes 3:14 I know that everything God does will endure forever;

nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it.

Responsive Reading

Psalm 16:5 LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.

Psalm 37:3 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this:

6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like

the noonday sun. 11 . . the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.

18 The days of the blameless are known to the LORD,

and their inheritance will endure forever.

19 In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.

21 . . . . the righteous give generously;

31 The law of his God is in his heart; his feet do not slip.

34 Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; . . . .

Section 1 NIV

Psalm 104:24 How many are your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures. 30 When you send your Spirit,

they are created, and you renew the face of the earth.

31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works -

Psalm 115:14 May the LORD make you increase, both you and your children.

15 May you be blessed by the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Ezekiel 34:11 " 'For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my

sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.

13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and

I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.

I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, . . . .

26 I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in

season; there will be showers of blessing.

Section 2 NIV

Psalm 51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; . . . .

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit,

to sustain me.

Psalm 116:7 Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

2 Kings 4: The Widow's Oil

1 The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the LORD. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves."

2 Elisha replied to her, "How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your

house?"
"Your servant has nothing there at all," she said, "except a little oil."

3 Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just

a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side."

5 She left him and afterward shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought

the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another one."
But he replied, "There is not a jar left." Then the oil stopped flowing.

7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your

debts. You and your sons can live on what is left."

2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all

things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in

every good work.

Section 3 NIV

Jeremiah 30:11 I am with you and will save you,' declares the LORD.
17 . . I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,'

declares the LORD, . . . .

2 Kings 4: The Shunammite's Son Restored to Life

8 One day Elisha went to Shunem. And a well-to-do woman was there, who urged him to stay for a meal. So whenever he came by, he stopped there to eat.

9 She said to her husband, "I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy

man of God. 10 Let's make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us."

17 But the woman became pregnant, and the next year about that same time she

gave birth to a son, just as Elisha had told her.

18 The child grew, and one day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers. 19 "My head! My head!" he said to his father.
His father told a servant, "Carry him to his mother." 20 After the servant had lifted him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died. ²¹ She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and went out.

25 So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel.
When he saw her in the distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, "Look! There's the Shunammite! 26 Run to meet her and ask her, 'Are you all right?

Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?' "
"Everything is all right," she said.

32 When Elisha reached the house, there was the boy lying dead on his couch.

33 He went in, shut the door on the two of them and prayed to the LORD.

35 Elisha turned away and walked back and forth in the room and then got on the

bed and stretched out upon him once more. The boy sneezed seven times and

opened his eyes. 36 Elisha summoned Gehazi and said, "Call the Shunammite."

And he did. When she came, he said, "Take your son."

Section 4 New American Standard Bible

Psalm 61: Confidence in God's Protection.

1 Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer.
3 For You have been a refuge for me, a tower of strength against the enemy.
4 Let me dwell in Your tent forever; let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings.

2 Kings 8: Jehoram Restores the Shunammite's Land

1 Now Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, "Arise and go with your household, and sojourn wherever you can sojourn; for the LORD has called for a famine, and it will even come on the land for seven years."

2 So the woman arose and did according to the word of the man of God, and she

went with her household and sojourned in the land of the Philistines seven years.

3 At the end of seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines;

and she went out to appeal to the king for her house and for her field.

4 Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying,

"Please relate to me all the great things that Elisha has done."

5 As he was relating to the king how he had restored to life the one who was dead,

behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and for her field. And Gehazi said, "My lord, O king, this is the woman and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life."

6 When the king asked the woman, she related it to him. So the king appointed for

her a certain officer, saying, "Restore all that was hers and all the produce of the field from the day that she left the land even until now."

Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and loving-kindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Section 5 NASB

1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and

may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew 4: Ministry in Galilee

23 Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.

Matthew 12:9 Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. 10 And a man

was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" -- so that they might accuse Him.

11 And He said to them, "What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it

falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out?

12 How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do

good on the Sabbath." 13 Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand!"

He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other.

Section 6 NASB

Isaiah 58:11 "And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in

scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like

a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.
12 Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old

foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell.”

Psalm 52:1 . . . . . The loving-kindness of God endures all day long.