Lesson #8

The Power of the Word

When President Thomas S. Monson was serving as President Ezra Taft Benson’s Second Counselor in the First Presidency, he observed: “President Benson grasps quickly matters which come to his attention. He doesn’t need to consider an item at great length before he finds the inspiration of the Lord directing him in a decision. With the expansive nature of the Church today, throughout the world, and with the multitude of matters that come before the First Presidency, this ability to cut through detail and get to the heart of the issue is vital to carrying out the administrative work of the Church.”

“Many find that the best time to study is in the morning after a night’s rest. … Others prefer to study in the quiet hours after the work and worries of the day are over. … Perhaps what is more important than the hour of the day is that a regular time be set aside for study” (Howard W. Hunter, “Reading the Scriptures,” Ensign, Nov. 1979, 64).

The prophet Lehi also saw our day in his great visionary dream of the tree of life. He saw that many people would wander blindly in the mists of darkness, which symbolized the temptations of the devil. (See 1 Ne. 12:17.) He saw some fall away “in forbidden paths,” others drown in rivers of filthiness, and still others wander in “strange roads.” (1 Ne. 8:28, 32.) When we read of the spreading curse of drugs, or read of the pernicious flood of pornography and immorality, do any of us doubt that these are the forbidden paths and rivers of filthiness Lehi described?

Not all of those Lehi saw perishing were of the world. Some had come to the tree and partaken of the fruit. In other words, some members of the Church today are among those souls Lehi saw which were lost.

Lehi's Dream:
Great and Spacious building = the world. It has no foundation
Rod of Iron = Word of God
Tree and Fruit = Love of God

The Apostle Paul also saw our day. He described it as a time when such things as blasphemy, dishonesty, cruelty, unnatural affection, pride, and pleasure seeking would abound. (See 2 Tim. 3:1–7.) He also warned that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” (2 Tim. 3:13.)

Paul’s message is the same as Lehi’s. After portraying the terrible wickedness of future times—future to him, but present to us!—he said this to Timothy: “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned. …

“From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation.” (2 Tim. 3:14–15; italics added.)

 

President Benson said: My dear brethren, this is an answer to the great challenge of our time. The word of God, as found in the scriptures, in the words of living prophets, and in personal revelation, has the power to fortify the Saints and arm them with the Spirit so they can resist evil, hold fast to the good, and find joy in this life.

 

When you have questions: go to the scriptures. Don't go to google or pinterest or books, go to the scriptures. The Prophet Joseph Smith said that “the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

 

You must help the Saints see that studying and searching the scriptures is not a burden laid upon them by the Lord, but a marvelous blessing and opportunity. Note what the Lord Himself has said about the benefits of studying His word. To the great prophet-leader Joshua, He said:

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” (Josh. 1:8; italics added.)

Oh, my brethren, let us not treat lightly the great things we have received from the hand of the Lord! His word is one of the most valuable gifts He has given us. I urge you to recommit yourselves to a study of the scriptures. Immerse yourselves in them daily so you will have the power of the Spirit to attend you in your callings. Read them in your families and teach your children to love and treasure them. Then prayerfully and in counsel with others, seek every way possible to encourage the members of the Church to follow your example. If you do so, you will find, as Alma did, that “the word [has] a great tendency to lead people to do that which [is] just—yea, it [has] more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which [has] happened unto them.” (Alma 31:5.)

Like Alma, I say unto you, “It [is] expedient that [you] should try the virtue of the word of God” (Alma 31:5).

 

**My side note: we all have the opportunity to receive the word of God in our lives, through a patriarchal blessing. This is the Lords words to YOU. They are personal and meant to help us through our lives. When is the last time you read yours?

Chapter 7 -- from the President Benson manual

Lesson 7: Joseph Smith, an Instrument in the Hands of the Lord

“Joseph Smith, the latter-day Prophet, was an instrument in the hands of the Lord in opening a new gospel dispensation, the last and greatest of all gospel dispensations.”

Taken from the lesson that Sister Darling gave on Sunday from the manual.

Elder Ezra Taft Benson served as a full-time missionary in England in the early 1920s. 

 

He said, “we had a group of people out at South Shields Branch who were very faithful and very devoted and very loyal, and they had invited my companion and me to come over and speak in their sacrament meeting. They said, ‘Many of our neighbors don’t believe the lies that are being printed. If you will come, we will fill the little chapel.’

So he went over the little chapel to talk about apostasy. Here is what he said, "“We went over to the little chapel and it was filled. Everyone was happy. And after the opening exercises my companion spoke, then I spoke with a freedom I had never enjoyed in all my life. And when I sat down and looked at my watch, I had talked twenty-five minutes, and I hadn’t mentioned the apostasy, I hadn’t even thought of the apostasy. I had talked about Joseph Smith, and I had borne witness that he was a prophet of God and I knew it. I told about the coming forth of theBook of Mormon as a new witness for Christ, and I had borne testimony. When I realized what had happened, I couldn’t hold back the tears."

Some said that they could accept that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God.

The manual said, "Above all, President Benson regularly bore a firm and powerful testimony to his fellow Saints. “Joseph Smith was a prophet of the Living God,” he declared, “one of the greatest prophets that has ever lived upon the earth. He was the instrument in God’s hand in ushering in a great gospel dispensation, the greatest ever, and the last of all in preparation for the second coming of the Master."

President Benson continued to find opportunities throughout his life to share his witness of Joseph Smith’s calling.

1. Joseph Smith’s First Vision was the greatest event in this world since the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The reason why this event is the greatest is because it shows Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ as two distinct personages. 

" This restoration of the gospel, the bringing back of light and truth, is intended for the benefit and blessing of all God’s children. And so, humbly and gratefully, our missionaries go out into the world to proclaim that there has been an apostasy from the truth, but that through the goodness of God the heavens have again been opened and the gospel revealed unto man through Joseph Smith, the Prophet."

I saw this link on another website. If you have not yet received a testimony of the first vision, here is how to help you with that. click me. 

2. Consistent with New Testament prophecy, Joseph Smith received new revelation and angelic visitations.

President Benson said,  "Our solemn testimony is that this angelic messenger appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith in the early nineteenth century. This announcement that an angel from God appeared to a prophet in our times is entirely consistent with the prophecies of the New Testament and should therefore command the interest of every earnest seeker after truth.

On the evening of 21 September 1823, an angel appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The angel’s name was Moroni. He was the last of a long line of ancient prophets of two great civilizations who lived … on the American Continent centuries ago."

Taken from Deseret News: It said, "Joseph Smith saw a recorded 139 heavenly beings, according to "500 Little-Known Facts about Joseph Smith." A few of those visitors are listed below.

John the Baptist (D&C 13)

Adam, or Michael (D&C128:21; JD 9)

Abraham (HC, 2:380; D&C 27:10; JD 21:94)

Moses (D&C 110:11)

Noah (D&C 128:21; JD 21:94; Hyrum L. Andrus, "Joseph Smith, the Man and the Seer"

Cainan (HC, 3:338; D&C 107:53–57)

Abel (HC, 3:388; JD 18:325)

Alma the Younger (JD 27:374; Hyrum L. Andrus, "Joseph Smith, the Man and the Seer")

Mormon (JD 27:374; JD 17:374; Hyrum L. Andrus, "Joseph Smith, the Man and the Seer")

Lehi (JD 16:265–266; Brian L. Smith, "Joseph Smith and the Doctrinal Restoration: The Annual Sidney B. Sperry Symposium," 343)

The most singular evidence in support of Joseph Smith’s claim to being a spokesman for Almighty God was the publication of a scriptural record, the Book of Mormon.

There is a Book of Mormon challenge going on right now on Facebook. The goal is to read all of it from April 7th to June 30. Here is the link!

I encourage you to read the rest of the lesson...We couldn't get to it all. :) 

Inspiration

I want to inspire us all to stand up for our beliefs. I am borrowing a story read at the women's broadcast a few weeks ago. Enjoy.

"I recently read the story of Marie Madeline Cardon, who, with her family, received the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ from the first missionari...es called to serve in Italy in 1850. She was a young woman of 17 or 18 years of age when they were baptized. One Sunday, while the family was holding a worship service in their home high in the Alps of northern Italy, an angry mob of men, including some of the local ministers, gathered around the house and began shouting, yelling, and calling for the missionaries to be brought outside. I don’t think they were anxious to be taught the gospel—they intended bodily harm. It was young Marie who marched out of the house to confront the mob.

They continued their vicious yells and demands for the missionaries to be brought out. Marie raised her Bible up in her hand and commanded them to depart. She told them that the elders were under her protection and that they could not harm one hair of their heads. Listen to her own words: 'All stood aghast. … God was with me. He placed those words in my mouth, or I could not have spoken them. All was calm, instantly. That strong ferocious body of men stood helpless before a weak, trembling, yet fearless girl.' The ministers asked the mob to leave, which they did quietly in shame, fear, and remorse. The small flock completed their meeting in peace." --- Bonnie L. Oscarson

A little history on Marie Madeline Cardon:

“Suddenly the Thought Came to Me”

Child’s Vision Prepares Her Family for the Gospel

Elizabeth Maki3 June 2013

Marie Cardon Guild's personal history

Marie Madeleine Cardon was just a little girl living near Torino, Italy, in 1840 when she received a witness of a work unfolding on the other side of the world.

Born in 1834 to Waldensian parents, there was nothing in Marie’s quiet, rural life in the Alps to suggest the event that would, as she later put it, change “the career of my whole life.” Though just 5 or 6 years old, Marie had a vision of messengers of a restored gospel coming to Italy. She later described the dream:

“Fear not, for we are the servants of God and have come from afar to preach unto the world the everlasting gospel, which has been restored to the earth in these last days, for the redemption of mankind.”

I was upstairs in bed. A strange feeling came over me. It appeared that I was a young woman instead of a mere child. I thought I was in a small strip of meadow, close to our vineyard, keeping my father's milk cows from the vineyard. It seemed that I was sitting in the grass reading a Sunday school book. I looked up and saw three strangers in front of me. As I looked into their faces I dropped my eyes instantly, being very much frightened. Suddenly the thought came to me that I must look at them that I might remember them in the future. I raised my eyes and looked them straight in the face. One of them, seeing that I was afraid said: "Fear not, for we are the servants of God and have come from afar to preach unto the world the everlasting gospel, which has been restored to the earth in these last days, for the redemption of mankind." They told me that God had spoken from the heavens and had revealed his everlasting gospel, to the young boy Joseph Smith. That it would never more be taken from the earth, but that His kingdom would be set up and that all the honest in heart would be gathered together. They told me that I would be the means of bringing my parents and family into this great gathering. Moreover, the day was not far off when we would leave our homes and cross the great ocean. We would travel across the wilderness and go to Zion where we could serve God according to the dictates of our conscience. When they had finished their message to me they said they would return soon and visit us. They took some small books from their pockets and gave them to me, saying, "Read these and learn." Then they disappeared instantly.”

The little girl immediately told her father, Phillipe Cardon, everything she had seen and heard. About ten years later, after a royal decree had granted freedom to the long-persecuted Waldensians and the family had moved to Piedmont, Italy, Phillipe heard talk of three strangers preaching the very doctrine he had heard from his young daughter a decade before. He “became so excited and so intensely interested that he could not proceed with his work.” Instead, he went home, changed into his Sunday clothes, and went off in search of the three strangers.

He traveled over mountains and through valleys and arrived on Sunday morning just in time to hear Elder Lorenzo Snow preach. My dear father was most happy to hear the pure truth so well and so earnestly explained. His heart was full of joy. After the meeting my father approached these servants of God, shook hands and kindly invited them to come to our home where he desired them to make their headquarters. They kindly and willingly accepted his hospitality.

Marie and most of her family soon came to accept the gospel in its entirety. Marie even accompanied the missionaries as they preached in the mountains, translating their sermons for her neighbors. In 1854, the Cardon family immigrated to Utah, where Marie married John A. Guild. They had eleven children and eventually settled in Piedmont, Wyoming, named for the home of Marie’s youth. She died in 1914, leaving an autobiography for her children in which she bore strong testimony of the faith that had shaped her life.

My dear children, I cannot doubt the faith and the principals which I have embraced. My whole soul is filled with joy and thankfulness to God for his regard for me and for you in His manifesting to me the divinity of his great work in so remarkable a manner. How sincere is my prayer that you my children may realize how wonderful and yet how real and true is this, my life’s testimony to you.1

GC 2015

Hope you enjoyed this little rehash of Conference.

GC 2015

GC 2015

GC 2015

GC 2015

General Conference 2015

Did you not LOVE General Conference?! I want to help us relive conference all week. So, I have gone to the internet to find memes/quotes that will remind us of the words we heard on that wonderful weekend. So check back everyday for a new batch of quotes.

Because He Lives

This is a great video to bring the Spirit of Easter into our homes.

http://www.mormon.org/easter