Lesson 3 First Vision

I have always heard the account of the First Vision. It's refered to many times at church. But what I hadn't read in a long time, if ever, was the account of Joseph's persecution when he mentioned it to some of the people in the different religious sects of his day. He was just a boy - 14/15 - and his account of His vision received great attention from some of the most learned and high up members of the different religions and great religious scholars. They could have brushed him off as just a boy, "what does he know after all, he's just a kid" but instead there was great excitement over his vision and none of it good. Even the sects that couldn't agree with eachother previously, would unite themselves against a 14/15 year old kid.

But the other remarkable thing is that this kid, who was at an impressionable and tender age, did not begin to doubt himself even though the persecution likely brought him to tears. He did not begin to think that maybe he'd just had a dream and it wasn't real after all. He kept true to the things he saw and was not swayed by the pressure that was suddenly cast on him.

This was a wondrously strong and determined kid who grew into a great and brave man. It is no wonder that this was the one the Lord trusted to bring about the restoration of the Gospel.

Lesson 2 scripture chain

I like marking these scripture chains in my scriptures. It gives me something to read and follow should I need a short and meaningful study time.

This chain talks about the nature of Jesus Christ - who He is, His Divinity and what He did for us as well as a bit about His Second Coming. It also touches on what we need to do to follow Him.

Anytime in the D&C when we see a blessing addressed to someone specific it helps to put our own name in place of the other person and see if that scripture applies to us as well. An example is in the first passage of this scripture chain. I think that if these particular blessings in the D&C didn't apply to all of us in some way they would not have need to be included in the scripture.

Creation

Sis. Poaletti gave sharing time on the Creation yesterday. She broke down the days and what blessings we got from each day of creation based on the blessings listed in D&C 59: 18-19. A couple things I found interesting - one is blessings were added as new things were made. The other is that the creation of vegetation alone fulfilled every one of the blessings outlined:

18 Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season thereof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart;

19 Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul.

Another thing I remembered that I'd learned at the temple before is that the creation had a very specific order. For instance - there had to be water and land and there had to be light before there could be plant life. There had to be seasons for the different harvests. There had to be plant life before there could be sea and bird life and these were needed before animal life and all before human life. But something else I got out of this that I hadn't realized before - according to genesis, I haven't studied the account in the Pearl of Great Price yet, is that first there was sea life. Then the next day was animal life - could be that animals originated from the sea as in Evolution? But also that animals and humans were created in the same day.

On a different note in the same topic of Creation, we believe we had a part in the Creation. That we were allowed to help and even required to help as these things were being created. By doing so we were taught how things work and given the knowledge we would need to make our earthly life better. Of course we forget these things when we are born but we "remember" them again as we study and learn. Which could be why when we discover something new, or learn something new to us, we are excited. The excitement is our spirits remembering something we learned in the pre-existence and it feels right to us.

But anyway, Alan says that maybe we were divided into groups and each group had a different aspect of creation that they were to do. His idea is "this group handles this prototype and the next group over here is the great meteor group to clean the slate for the next group" and so on.

Maybe so, but I had a distinct thought that whatever part we played in the Creation had to do with the specific talents that we had in the pre-existence and that we still have now. For instance, a physicist today might have participated in the first day and helped to organize the matter into a world or helped to separate day and night. A botanist would have worked on plant life. A zoologist, animal life. A mechanical engineer - the workings of the bodies of plant, animal and human. An electrical engineer - the process and need for lightening storms as well as nervous systems. A people engineer i.e. manager skills might have been over their own little group and helped to keep them organized. An artist - the colors and shapes of plants and animals, ground and sea, and sky. A musician - the sounds of waves crashing and wind blowing, songs of birds, and sounds of other animal life and even the way our ears interpret these sounds. A teacher - organized the ways certain animals taught their young to survive. A mother - the mechanics of family groups in the animal kingdom.

If we think of what talents we have, we might have an idea of some of the roles we played in the Creation and that's pretty enlightening.

Gratitude for the Atonement

From the study guide:

"How can you show the Savior your gratitude for His Atonement?"

I was thinking yesterday about how the passages clearly stated that without Christ's atonement we would have to suffer for our own sins even as He suffered. We do suffer already but in the smallest degree and only if we put off repentance. Our Savior has removed the need for us to have to suffer. All we have have to do is realize our own guilt and come to Him and repent.

It is a tremendous thing He has done for us. I know a little bit of the agony of sin and the pain it can cause. That is I know the smallest degree and I think everyone has felt it at one time or another. I can't imagine if we had to suffer in the greatest degree - which is what Christ suffered.

How can I show gratitude?

I think that the first thing is to always remember to give thanks in prayer. But also more importantly is to not take the atonement for granted and forget that it is there for us. Christ suffered for us and it would be in vain if we do not repent. The very act of repentance is the best way of showing gratitude to our Savior.

Also remembering Him each week when we take the sacrament and again thanking Him in prayer. Teaching our children about the atonement. Fogiving others as He has asked us to do. And forgiving ourselves. Changing our lives so they are more in accordance with His teachings.

All these things show that we have gratitude for the Lord and His sacrifice for us. But not only that but it brings our focus to Him and in turn keeps us in the right path that will lead us back to Him and our Father in Heaven.

February 19, 2009 Blessings from the Atonement

D&C 18: 11-12
The Lord suffered pain of all mankind. This translates to, in my opinion, He suffered all the pain that is suffered at any time by anyone including the pain of death. He did this so we could repent.

This brings me to a question. I know that it is emotional and spiritual agony to go through repentance especially for something serious. If it weren't for Christ's atonement would this agony have been physical pain as well had we been required to atone for our own sins? And would we have been strong enough to do so? I think not. The natural man is weak and it is so much easier now to do something wrong and brush it aside than it is to go through the embarrasment, fess up, make things right, apologize and change our being in order to fully repent. But the rewards of doing so are incredible and wonderful and liberating. Would we have learned that and known it well enough to go through a physical pain of atoning for our own sins?

He was resurrected from the dead so that He could bring us to Him as long as we repent.

D&C 19: 16-17 & 20

This seems to answer my question above:

16 For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent;
17 But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;

It seems also that if we don't use the gift Christ has given us, that is the atonement, then we will end up suffering anyway.

Verse 20 says that we may have felt that suffering in the smallest degree if there was a time that He withdrew Himself from us. This also hints that the suffering is more of a spiritual anguish which in my opinion does affect the physical body as well. Anyone who anguishes over something long enough does indeed get physically sick. So if we are suffering in the smallest degree, even enough to make us ill, imagine if we were suffering in the greatest degree - even as Christ had suffered. I believe that would cause both tremendous spiritual and physical pain.

Christ really has done a wonderful thing for us in atoning for our sins and taking that great degree of pain from us, as long as we repent.

D&C 58:42
If we repent we will be forgiven. But that isn't all, the Lord will forget it. It won't ever be an issue again.

This also means we need to forgive ourselves. Trust Christ's words here. If he can "remember them no more" then we must also put them aside and not ever let their memory bring us down.

D&C 76: 62-70

Other blessings of repentance:
We will dwell with God and Jesus Christ for ever
We will be in attendance with Christ on His second coming.
We will have part in the first resurrection and come forth in the resurrection of the just
Our names will be written in Heaven
Just men (and women) are made perfect through Christ

And others are contained in this section.

Febraury 17, 2009 Ressurection

What can we learn about the ressurection?

D&C 88: 14-18

• Christ's redemption brought about the ability for all to be resurrected from the dead.
• A soul is the joining of both spirit and body. Unless both are together we are not a soul. Only a spirit without our body.
• The ressurection redeems the soul. Brings spirit and body back together.
• Ressurection is only through Jesus Christ who redeemed us.
• The earth will be sanctified for the righteous to inherit after the resurrection.

D&C 93:33

• man is spirit. elements (the things that make up our physical bodies) are eternal. spirit and element joined inseperably (a soul) bring fulness of joy.

We are not entirely happy as only a spirit without a body. It's like reaching an unstable state of being. We need our physical bodies to feel full joy. This is why ressurection is so important. What would be the purpose of coming to earth to recieve a body, feel a temporary joy in having our bodies and spirits joined together only to have them eternally separated again when we die? I think that the joy we have now with our mortal bodies is only a part of the full joy we will experience when our bodies are made perfect as our imfirmities, illnesses, handicaps are removed in the resurrection. (See passage below)

Alma 11:42-44

• The death that we are familiar with (there is another spiritual death) is a temporal death when our bodies and our spirits are separated. Christ has overcome this death for us.
• The spirit and body shall be reunited in its perfect form: no hair lost, all limbs in their proper frame.
• All will be restored to their perfect form: man, woman, bond and free, righteous and wicked. Ressurection is a gift given to all.
• After ressurection we will be brought to stand before God and have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt and we will be judged according to our works, good or evil.

February 16, 2009 Lesson 2

Well, this morning is a little difficult to do this. It's President's Day and all 3 girls are home and I'm getting interrupted quite a bit. Maybe I'll try a little more later. But I have gotten a short passage read.

D&C 19:16-19 speaks about the Savior's suffering for us. He implores us to repent because He has already done the hard work for us. He has already done the suffering that is required to remove our sins. If we would repent we would not have to suffer but if we don't then He cannot help us and we will have to suffer ourselves. This suffering is so tremendous that even He who is Diety could not take it without help. What a wonderful thing He has done for us and how ungrateful we can be sometimes when we ignore that or forget it. Compared to what He accomplished in the garden, our job of coming to the Lord with our guilty consciences and seeking forgiveness is extremely small. If we could wrap our minds around that we would do it.

Christ suffered great pain for us because He was doing the will of our Father who loves us and also because He, our Savior, loves us. What great love that is for someone to suffer great agony on our behalf. He says Come unto me and I will give you rest. He has given us a chance for our souls to be at rest, to lay down our troublesome storms and calm our seas. We just have to accept His help and show our love for Him by coming unto Him and applying the atonement in our lives.