Faithful Founding Fathers

Post by Eric Wood

Brethren, I too have enjoyed our EQ discussions when I am in town.  There is strength in that body of the Priesthood.

I have been thinking a lot in light of recent events about the need for leadership; the need to open our mouths among our peers.  All that tyranny needs is for good men (and women) to sit idly by and do nothing while the landscape changes about them.  Our silence is our complicity in the evil around us.  We are to honor, uphold and sustain the law; when the law is properly followed, and as it was intended by honorable and wonderful men.

These men, who created our sacred Constitution, have been maligned of recent years, for having been less than perfect men.  And so, many of them were not perfect.  BUT, we Latter-day Saints know of their true character because we have had prophets testify of their goodness and testify that they did indeed petition those working in the first temple (to have the fullness of the higher ordinances in this Dispensation), to accomplish their temple work so that they could make forward progress in the Kingdom of God.  Had they not been good and just men, they would never have been allowed to appear in the temple in the first place, let alone qualify for those ordinances to be completed, as sent on errand to petition.  One of the modern champions for the Elders to rise up and save the Constitution as it hangs by a thread, Ezra Taft Benson, was able to personally inspect the original temple records of these men.  Here is his account:

“Shortly after Spencer W. Kimball became president of the Church, we met together in one of our weekly meetings. We spoke of the sacred records that are in the vaults of the various temples of the Church. As I was soon to fill a conference assignment to St. George, President Kimball asked if I would go into the vault at the temple and check the early records. In so doing, I realized the fulfillment of a dream I had had ever since learning of the visit of the Founding Fathers to this sacred place. I saw with my own eyes the records of the work that was done for the Founding Fathers of this great nation, beginning with George Washington. I was deeply moved on that occasion to realize that these great men returned to this promised land by permission of the Lord and had their ordinance work done for them. If they had not been faithful men, if they had not been God-fearing men, would they have come to the elders of Israel to seek their temple blessings? I think not. The Lord raised them up, sanctioned their work, and proclaimed them “wise men.” Moreover, a president of the Church declared them to be the “best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of the earth,” and testified that they were “choice spirits” and “inspired of the Lord.”

The temple work for the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence and other Founding Fathers has been done. All these appeared to Wilford Woodruff when he was President of the St. George Temple. President George Washington was ordained a high priest at that time. You will also be interested to know that according to Wilford Woodruff’s journal, John Wesley, Benjamin Franklin, and Christopher Columbus were also ordained high priests at that time. When one casts doubt about the character of these noble sons of God, I believe he or she will have to answer to the God of heaven for it.”

May we be worthy of the treasure we have been entrusted with, in Jesus name, Amen.

Let Your Light So Shine

Thank you for the discussion on Sunday. I felt the Spirit chastise me to read and make more of an EFFORT and to LABOR with the Scriptures, or the Spirit. It is worthy of our best attention.

I wanted to apologize if my comment on reading the lesson before Sunday seemed pretentious in any way. Since I am a teacher and know what it is like to teach I can appreciate the participation and I wanted to help Jason when he taught. It just so happened to be the subject of the lesson! The entire idea of the lesson was to come prepared to meetings to be uplifted. I hope to make that a goal of mine and invite you (selfishly) to read the lesson before Sunday so we can be edified by the Spirit. Remember, if you don’t like my lessons it’s your fault! 😉 I digress…

As I pondered what I would write concerning scripture study I thought back to a visit I made to some college friends a few years back. Every morning we would wake up and this family’s father would be at the breakfast table FEASTING on the scriptures. I mean, this guy just loved to read the scriptures! His family knew he loved the scriptures and read them. He showed them.

The Lord taught in Matthew 5:13-16

13 ¶Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before [your family], that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

The Church has been so great at providing us with zero excuses not to read the scriptures. You can find them anywhere; on your phone, tablet, computer, ect. When we read the scriptures on our phone and/or tablet do our children or wives think we are reading your scriptures? Or playing on our phones? Checking our Facebook page? Tweeting? Instagraming? Blogging? We could be doing anything on our phones or tablets and they wouldn’t know otherwise. Do you remember the time when the only way you could read your scriptures was when you HAD them with you? I hope to make an effort to not only read the scriptures but to read the actual paper copy of scriptures.

In my scriptures I have found precious gems and funny notes that inspire me more than when I read the electronic copy on my phone or tablet. And guess what? The batteries will never run out on your scriptures!

It is my goal to read my actual scriptures more so that my family will know that I love them. What do you guys think?

Johnny

Thoughts on 3 Nephi 6

Post by Michael Ellerbeck

So I’ve been trying to read the scriptures with while thinking about what questions certain scriptures could answer, so here goes:

3: How to deal with repentant/penitent people who have covenanted to keep the peace

Grant them a place to live so that by their hard work they can become self sufficient and this would help establish peace.

4: How to form order in the land, how to form Laws

With Equity and justice

5: What would cause a people to not prosper continually

Falling into transgression

10: What did cause disputations among the people?

Pride and boasting because of their great riches, and great persecutions.

12: What happens when people start to separate out by ‘ranks’
those with riches did receive great learning, those who were poor were ignorant and didn’t receive learning

13: What other separations occurred
Some were prideful and some where exceedingly humble

some would return railings, others would receive all manner of afflictions but not rail and were humble and penitent before God.

14: What happens when there is a great inequality in the land?

The church was broken up.

Where did the church NOT break up?

A few Lamanites who where converted to the true faith. They would not depart from it, they were firm, steadfast, and immovable, willing with all diligence to keep the commandments of the Lord

15: How did Satan break up the church?

temptation: to seek for power and authority and riches and vain things of the world

puffing: up with pride

stirring: to do all manner of iniquity

16: How long did it take

Not long

17: What was the result

Awful: Wickedness

18: What kind of sinning did it become?

Not ignorantly willfully rebelling against God

19: How did God try to help them

men inspired from heaven sent forth

preaching of their sins and iniquities (boldy, get it?)

21: the result

many angry

especially the chief judges

lawyers

23: what did the judges do

kill the men inspired from heaven

24 – 30

the result

A complaint went against the judges, but they had so many friends in high places, and they joined together into that covenant of old (from the devil):

To combine against all righteousness

To destroy them

and set at defiance the laws and rights of the country

A warning?

I think yes

A Few More Thoughts on Scripture Study

I would like to add just a few more brief thoughts on scripture study. I have listed some ideas on how to study the scriptures.

1) Apply the Scriptures to our own individual life. Think how it applies to me today.
2) At the same time remember the context of the scripture. To whom was it written and when? What was the point the writer (or the Lord) was trying to convey to his audience?

3) Although inspired, the scriptures are not perfect. These are the result of imperfections of men. For example there might be some small imperfections in translation. However I believe that we are even less perfect than the scriptures and can learn significantly from them. The scriptures have such power and contain so much spiritual truth that our mortal minds cannot comprehend it all.

4) The Holy Ghost will help us determine what the Lord would have us learn as we read. The primary purpose of scripture is to increase our religious knowledge and testimonies, not to be a history or science lesson.

5) It is a tremendous blessing that God has given us the scriptures. Do we take this blessing for granted? I add my voice to President Williams in encouraging Quorum members to make scripture study a daily part of their lives.

Brent Jensen

Increase in Learning

Post by Paul Sheets

I have been reading Elder Bednar’s book entitled, “Increase in Learning: Spiritual Patterns for Obtaining Your Own Answers” and have come across a number of spiritual gems that have helped me. He wrote about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost:

“The simplicity of this ordinance may cause us to overlook its significance. These four words – “Receive the Holy Ghost” – are not a passive pronouncement; rather, they constitute a priesthood injunction – an authoritative admonition to act and not simply to be acted upon. The Holy Ghost does not become operative in our lives merely because hands are placed upon our heads and those four words are spoken.”

In priesthood yesterday, we talked a lot about how studying the scriptures is critical to inviting the Spirit in to our day and in to our lives. I realized that I often act as if all I need to do to have the Spirit in my life is keep the commandments. The truth of the matter is that this is just one part of the equation. The equation to inviting the Spirit in to our lives is as follows:

Desire + Invite + Obey => Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost

Each one of these steps is critical and each one takes a concerted effort to realize its full impact. I’ve realized in my life the opportunity to more poignantly embrace these three steps to ensure that I am regularly “Receiving the Holy Ghost.”
Does anybody have any ideas as to how we can conciously invite the Spirit in to our lives? Prayer? Hymns? What else?

Great Power, which looks small

I happen to be reading in the book of Ether right now in the Book of Mormon, and one section that impressed me was chapter 3 verses 4 and 5.

This was when the brother of Jared had brought the 16 small stones up the mountain to have the Lord touch them and light them up.

After he humbly addresses the Lord and asks for forgiveness because of his weak and evil nature in verse 2, and then acknowledging that their suffering in the wilderness was due to their iniquity, while still declaring that the Lord had been merciful, he begs the Lord to not let them cross the ocean in darkness and presents his case.

Verse 4:

And I know, O Lord, that thou hast all ^apower, and can do whatsoever thou wilt for the benefit of man; therefore touch these stones, O Lord, with thy ^bfinger, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness; and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have ^clight while we shall cross the sea.

 5 Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this. We know that thou art able to show forth great power, which ^alooks small unto the understanding of men.

This is the brother of Jared’s great statement of faith.

And this is what we can do in our own lives. We can be confident that the Lord can and will show forth his great power if we will just ask.  And it may be for things which look small to most men, or may not seem that important to others.  But if it is important to us and our family, it will be important to the Lord.  He wants to bless us, if we will ask in faith.

Are there any ‘small’ things that the Lord has blessed you with that you would like to share in the comments below?

It’s a Wonderful Life

post by Paul Sheets

The 1946 film “It’s a Wonderful Life” teaches a powerful lesson about the impact that one person can have on the lives of others.  George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) has a few things that begin to go wrong in his life.  While being consumed with a moment of shortsightedness, he contemplates ending his life by jumping in to a freezing river.  A guardian angel who is trying to earn his wings is sent to keep him from taking his life.  In so doing, Clarence gave George Bailey “A chance to see what the world would be like without (him).”  After seeing the world without him, he begins to realize how many lives he has touched and how much better off his loved ones are because of him.  After George has this epiphany, the angel Clarence declares to him, “You see, George, you’ve really had a wonderful life.”

As we were going through the lesson in Elders Quorum (President’s Monson’s talk “Consider the Blessings”), I was struck by the impact that President Monson had been able to have on the lives of others.  Truly, he has had a “wonderful life.”  As we were going through the various examples that President Monson shared, it dawned on me that the Lord will provide a way for us all to have a “wonderful life” and that these moments will most likely come when we are seeking to bless the lives of others.  As we enter the holiday season, it is my hope that we pay special attention to blessing the lives of others so that we can look at ourselves in the mirror and confidently exclaim, “You’ve really had a wonderful life.”

The Merciful Obtain Mercy

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a magnificent address during General Conference in April called The Merciful Obtain Mercy.

It was the subject of our lesson on Sunday and we had an excellent discussion that helped the concepts sink into our minds and hopefully will affect our actions this week and into the future. (That’s why we have Sunday School lessons.)  It already has affected mine.

President Uchtdorf said that this subject was a growing concern for many in the church and the world, and I think we’d all agree.

During our lesson, we first talked about the reasons for broken relationships, and listed some on the board:

• Pride
• Sin
• Poor communication
• Broken commitments
• Contention
• Resentment
• Revenge

We shared some heartfelt personal stories about how some of these behaviors have impacted our lives, and all of us could relate with these feelings because we’re human.  We also discussed the fact that our humanness makes it easy to see these behaviors in others and look down on them, yet justify our own use of these acts.  We are always the exception.

President Uchtdorf explained it well, “When we feel hurt, angry, or envious, it is quite easy to judge other people, often assigning dark motives to their actions in order to justify our own feelings of resentment.”

This is not right, yet we still do it.  And we discussed why. Our minds naturally jump to explain things.  There must be a logical reason behind everyone’s actions.  The problem is, the variety of reasons is so diverse, we can’t possibly guess the correct one.  And even if we did, we must remember that people make mistakes, and it is not our place to judge.

“I the Lord will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.”  D&C 64:10

That’s the crux of the matter.  And it only makes sense, because we don’t know everything, only God does.  But that doesn’t make it easy.

So on the matter of judging others, Elder Uchtdorf tried to simplify his counsel into the most basic form, so that all of us could understand and there would be no confusion.

He said, “When it comes to hating, gossiping, ignoring, ridiculing, holding grudges, or wanting to cause harm, please apply the following:

Stop it!”

He said that he didn’t know how to articulate this point with any more eloquence or passion enough to make it stick.  Although he did add a bumper sticker he saw on a car with a driver who looked a little rough around the edges, “Don’t judge me because I sin differently than you.”

That’s the bottom line.  First, we need to immediately recognize when we begin to have this behavior of judging others, then we need to stop judging them, and extend mercy.  And do it immediately, before they ask for mercy.

It may be counter-intuitive for our minds, but it’s the Lord’s way.  Christ was the exemplar.  And we are trying to be more like him, and less like our faulty human selves.

We are trying to act in accordance with a bigger picture, a vision, a goal.  That is what this whole church is about.  And what Brother Aaron Wight so clearly articulated during our lesson, that we need to have a vision in mind for our relationships with others. What do we want our relationship to be like?

If we want the vision to be realized, we must act accordingly.

Brethren, let us act according to the knowledge we now have regarding this subject.

Sure, we may have known this concept before, but I think we’ve been given more light and knowledge due to President Uchtdorf and our Priesthood lesson.

Thank you for enlightening our quorum.

Big Changes are Afoot…

Words Can Change Us