Old Testament Lesson #3 The Creation

(Moses 1:27-42; 2-3)

THE HARMONY OF THE CREATION ACCOUNTS

There are three scriptural accounts of the Creation:  Genesis 1-2, Moses 2-3 and Abraham 4-5.  The same sequence takes place in all three.  (A fourth account of the creation, in the temple ceremony, puts the days in a different order, and Elder Bruce R. McConkie said the reason for that is obvious to any student of the gospel.  Except for me.  If you know, put it in a comment at the bottom!)  Moses and Abraham verify the truth of the King James Version, as well as clarifying it with additional information.  Some examples follow:

• Although Genesis uses the singular word "God" as the Creator of the earth, it switches to plural, letting us know it may have been a committee of gods. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness"(Genesis 1:26).  In addition to revealing the story of the pre-earth existence and the plan of salvation, the Book of Moses gives a preface that clarifies who the Creators were.  "And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Behold, I reveal unto you concerning this heaven, and this earth; write the words which I speak. I am the Beginning and the End, the Almighty God; by mine Only Begotten I created these things; yea, in the beginning I created the heaven, and the earth upon which thou standest" (Moses 2:1).  Abraham uses the plural all the way through: "And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth." (Abraham 4:1).
• Moses and Abraham both make it clear that the earth was not created from nothing; rather it was organized from existing matter.  "They, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth" (Abraham 4:1).
• Abraham and Moses emphasize that the creation was done by the power of God's word.
• While Genesis reads that each day was pronounced "good" by God, Moses reads that each day God said that all He had created so far was good, and Abraham reads, "The Gods saw that they were obeyed" (Abraham 4:10), giving us an interesting insight into what it is to be "good."
• Abraham uses the word "times" rather than "days."
• All three state that there was a plan first, a spiritual creation before the physical.  (See Gen. 2:5, Moses 3:5, Abr. 5:5.)

CREATIVITY IS A DIVINE CHARACTERISTIC

General Relief Society President Mary Ellen Smoot taught, "Creation is one of the characteristics that defines God.  He takes matter without form and molds it into stars, planets, and solar systems...Brothers and sisters, we are children of God.  Shouldn't we be about our Father's business?  Shouldn't we be creators as well?...The raw materials of creation are all around us.  President David O. McKay taught: 'Sculptors of life are we, with our uncarved souls before us...' Do we prize the gifts, talents, and choice spirits that God has given us?  Do we share the creations of our hearts, minds, and hands with others?"

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said that creating contributes to our Heavenly Father's perfect happiness, and can increase our happiness as well. "The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul...Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before--colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter...Try to see how many smiles you can create, write a letter of appreciation, learn a new skill, identify a space and beautify it...The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create.  That is your opportunity in this life and your destiny in the life to come...Trust and rely on the Spirit.  As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you."

When we realize from the scriptural accounts that creating is reorganizing what we find or what we have into something better, we can see that every day, as we work to build the Kingdom of God, to raise our families, or to better the world around us by doing our daily work, we can be on a creating committee with Deity.  God has guided all good creations, and continues to do so, co-creating the Bible, the printing press, the lightbulb, the Internet, an effective Primary lesson, each individual infant, a spiritual home environment, a beautiful fireworks display, an inspiring Girl's Camp.  He guides us in how to create a spiritual giant out of a 12-year-old girl or an effective missionary out of a 19-year-old boy.  The account of the creation of the world teaches us that God's abilities are limitless.

FOLLOWING THE PATTERN OF THE CREATION
Despite the overwhelming disadvantage of functioning during the Great Apostacy, the translation of the King James Version of the Bible (see my previous blog entry), was successful because it followed a pattern similar to that used in the creation of the world.  We can use the same pattern for creating on a day-to-day basis:

1. Remember that Heavenly Father is able to create anything by the power of His word. (See Jacob 4:8-10.)  Stay worthy of the Gift of the Holy Ghost and He can counsel you as to what to create and how.  A feeling of great enthusiasm and drive for a project is how the Spirit often manifests itself, as it did to King James.  Relentless nagging thoughts about the importance of a particular work that you normally wouldn't want to do can also indicate a prompting of the Spirit.
2. With this divine guidance, make a plan and carefully evaluate it.  Spiritual creation always comes first.
3. Use a committee if appropriate and possible.  King James enlisted 47 great men, and sought the insight and aid of any learned man in the country of England.
4. Trust in the Lord and follow through on the inspiration given to you.  Don't hesitate or be afraid.  Knowing you have never done it before, thinking it is beyond your ability, or realizing you don't know how, are all irrelevant because "[you] can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth [you]" (Philip. 4:13).
5. Pause to evaluate along the way, and seek the opinions of others.  After every segment of God's creation, he paused and said his work was "good."  Every chapter of the King James Bible was translated by multiple people and reviewed by multiple committees to make sure it was the very best it could be.
6. At the end of the creation, God looked it over and pronounced it "very good."  The King James translators wrote a lovely dedication to their work, which follows the title page of the Bible.  When you reach the outcome of your inspired project, stop, look it over, and rejoice in it.  Whether it is a home repair, a musical performance, a Primary lesson, or a conversation with a new friend, go over in your mind what went well, and thank Heavenly Father for allowing you to jointly create with Him.  This will make you more likely to succeed the next time. 

Sources:  Mary Ellen Smoot, Ensign, May 2000; Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Ensign, November 2008.

The Amazing King James Translation

THE CREATION OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE

Did you know that in the 1300s, British farmers would pay a wagonload of hay to rent a hand-written English copy of the Bible for one hour, or to purchase just a few sheets of the manuscript? (1)  So great was their hunger for the gospel light that many were willing to do this, even knowing that if they were caught reading they might be burned at the stake with their Bible manuscripts hanging about their necks!  This first English translation of the Bible was done by John Wycliffe, with the aid of some associates. 

John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe saw that the leaders of the Church of England were not following the teachings of the Bible and were leading the common people astray. He felt the people deserved to be able to read the truth for themselves. The church leaders, on the other hand, said it was as dangerous to let a layperson read the scriptures, as it would be to give a toddler a knife and allow him to cut his own bread. So Wycliffe was imprisoned as a heretic for five years. He worked himself to death on his manuscript, and died December 31, 1382. The church authorities later dug up his bones, burned them, and scattered them in the river, feeling sorry at having missed their chance to execute him. (2)

William Tyndale

A hundred years later, William Tyndale also wanted to give the common people a Bible they could read for themselves.  Almost all of Wycliffe's Bibles had been burned, some of them with people attached, and England had returned to the same state it had been in previously.  The church leaders were the only ones who could read the Bible, and they didn't follow it.  In fact, the Bishop of Gloucester surveyed 311 church leaders in his diocese and found that 168 of the 311 did not know all Ten Commandments, 31 couldn't tell him where the commandments came from, and 40 not only couldn't repeat the Lord's Prayer, they didn't even know who had said it.  By now, Gutenberg had invented the printing press and published the Latin Vulgate Bible on it.  The invention of the printing press dramatically lowered the cost of books, making them available to a broader portion of the population.  Tyndale translated the Bible into the common vernacular, something that he hoped any plow boy could read and understand.  He had to leave England and do his work in Germany to preserve his life.  He smuggled his Bibles back into England.  People had an insatiable craving for these books, even knowing that they might be hunted down, excommunicated, imprisoned, tortured, or even burned at the stake for possessing them.  Tyndale himself was finally betrayed by one of his closest friends, and was executed October 6, 1536, by being strangled and then burned.  His final words were, "Lord, open the King of England's eyes!"

His prayer was answered.  Henry VIII's new wife Anne Boelyn liked the idea of an English Bible, and gradually the notion became more popular until several different English versions of the Bible were circulating through several monacharies.

Anne Boelyn

THE KING JAMES TRANSLATION

In 1603, James, the King of Scotland, also became King of England.  King James loved the Bible, and himself had translated parts of it into English.  In every letter he wrote, he quoted scripture.  The suggestion was made to him that the present Bible translations had too many mistakes to teach the truth well and it should be retranslated.

King James

King James loved the idea!  He was so excited about it that he immediately drew up a detailed plan about how the work could be accomplished.  He carefully selected men from all different walks of life and religions, all of whom were the most honorable, knowledgeable, and Christ-like people he could find.  They were great and good men who had spent their lives trying to bring people to Christ in various ways in their own denominations.

47 men organized into six groups did the translation at the three great colleges, Westminster, Cambridge, and Oxford.  James was not a rich king and really couldn't afford to pay them much, so the colleges donated room and board for the translators.  Each group took a section of the Bible.  Each man in each group translated each chapter, then they compared and combined their translations.  Each book was then sent to the five other committees for their review.  Any learned man in the country of England could be called upon to assist.  The bishops of the land were instructed to inform their congregants of the project and solicit help from any who felt they had some special linguistic knowledge.  The translators worked diligently and carefully to find, not just the most accurate translation, but the one that carried the deepest meaning in the most beautiful way.  For example, the 23rd Psalm could have been translated, "The Lord is my shepherd, therefore I lack nothing."  Instead they chose the beautiful phrase we have all come to love:  "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."

The King James Version was the first Bible translation to have a table of contents, a map of the Holy Land, chapters and verses, and summaries of the chapters.  It took eight years for the 47 men to complete the work, and several of them had died before 1611 when it was done.

Quoting a scholar of the Bible, Geddes MacGregor:  "[The King James Translation] has been in life and death the guide of a billion hearts and minds.  It has taught, consoled, enlightened, civilized and disciplined millions who have read little else.  It has...astonished the learned, and formed the characters of those who have led."

181 years after the KJV was first printed, Alexander Geddes, a Roman Catholic Priest and translator, wrote, "If accuracy, fidelity, and the strictest attention to the letter of the text, be supposed to constitute the qualities of an excellent version, this of all versions, must, in general, be accounted the most excellent.  Every sentence, every word, every syllable, every letter and point, seem to have been weighed with the nicest exactitude; and expressed...with the greatest precision." (3)

For a nice 3-minute video by the Church on the William Tyndale, go to either Mormon Messages on YouTube, or the Church's website and search for the video "The Blessings of Scripture."  I apologize for not being able to link it directly.

For another great article on the King James Bible go to the August 2011 Ensign.

Sources: 
(1) Robert J. Matthews, "A Bible! A Bible!" Ensign, January 1987;
(2) Lenet H. Read, "How the Bible Came to Be: Part 7," Ensign, August 1982;
(3) Dr. Laurence M. Vance, A Brief History of the King James Bible, excerpts found at http://www.av1611.org/kjv/kjvhist.html;

Old Testament Lesson #2 "Thou Wast Chosen Before Thou Wast Born"

A RIGHTEOUS DESIRE

When you were young, did you ever want something so much, but no matter how you hoped and wished, that desire was not realized?

Elder Vaughan J. Featherstone tells such a story:

"When I was a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood, the member of the bishopric who advised the deacons quorum came into our quorum meeting the Sunday before Thanksgiving and said, 'I hope we won’t have one family of this quorum who won’t kneel down in family prayer and have a blessing on the food this Thanksgiving.' It was 1943, and our country was engaged in World War II. We discussed our need for a divine blessing for those who were in military service and for all the other difficulties we as a nation were facing. We also talked about the blessings we each enjoyed. Then we were again encouraged to have family prayer.

"A heavy cloud settled on my heart. I didn’t know how my family could have family prayer. My father had a drinking problem, and my mother was not a member of the Church at that time. We had never had a prayer in our home, not even a blessing on the food. After quorum meeting I continued to consider the challenge, and finally concluded we would not be able to have prayer.

"That evening at sacrament meeting the bishop stood up at the close of the meeting and said, 'Brothers and sisters, Thursday is Thanksgiving. I hope we will not have one family in the ward that will not kneel in family prayer. We ought to express our gratitude for the great goodness of our Heavenly Father to us.' And then he enumerated some of our many blessings.

"Again it seemed as if my soul were filled with an enormous gloom. I tried to figure out a way our family could have prayer. I thought about it Monday, and again on Tuesday, and on Wednesday. On Wednesday evening my father did not return home from work at the normal hour, and I knew from experience that, because it was payday, he was satisfying his thirst for alcohol. When he finally came at two in the morning quite an argument ensued. I lay in bed wondering how we could ever have prayer with that kind of contention in our home.

"On Thanksgiving morning, we did not eat breakfast so we could eat more dinner. My four brothers and I went out to play with some neighbor boys. We decided to dig a hole and make a trench to it and cover it over as a clubhouse. We dug a deep hole, and with every shovelful of dirt I threw out of the hole I thought about family prayer for Thanksgiving. I wondered if I would have enough courage to suggest to my parents that we have a prayer, but I was afraid I would not. I wondered if my older brother, who has always been an ideal in my life, would suggest it, since he had been in the same sacrament meeting and had heard the bishop’s suggestion.

"Finally, at about two-thirty in the afternoon, Mother told us to come get cleaned up for dinner. Then we sat down at the big round oak table. Dad sat down with us silently—he and Mother were not speaking to each other. As she brought in the platter with the beautiful golden brown turkey, my young heart was about to burst. I thought, Now please, won’t someone suggest we have a family prayer? I thought the words over and over, but they wouldn’t come out. I turned and looked at my older brother, praying desperately that he would suggest prayer. The bowls of delicious food were being passed around the table; plates were being filled; and time and opportunity were passing. I knew that if someone did not act immediately, it would be too late. Then suddenly, as always, everyone just started eating.

"My heart sank, and despair filled my soul. Although I had worked up a great appetite, and Mother was a marvelous cook, I wasn’t hungry. I just wanted to pray."

ABRAHAM'S DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY

The Book of Abraham starts very simply:  "In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my fathers, I, Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence" (Abraham 1:1). This sounds so ordinary, but there was a great deal of suffering which caused the move.  The rest of the chapter gives us the explanation. Abraham's kinsfolk and community had become horrifically wicked, and were offering human sacrifice to idols, even sacrificing their own children (see verses 5-14). As the knife was raised to sacrifice Abraham himself, he cried unto the Lord. A "vision of the Almighty" filled him, and an angel of the Lord appeared to rescue Abraham.  God spoke to him personally, counseling him to move to a strange land, and promising him great blessings once he did so (verses 16-18).

Abraham had possessed a great desire for righteousness in his youth and young adulthood, but as with Elder Featherstone, it was not realized until he started his own family.  "And finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers" (verse 2).  It would be interesting to know who taught Abraham the gospel.  Where did he learn of God, and where did he see this example of righteousness? 

Abraham married and followed the Lord's command to journey to a new land.  Even before he reached his destination, however, he received the blessing he had sought.

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

In the land of Haran, the Lord said to him, "I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee above measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations; and I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father" (Abraham 2:9-10).  We call this the Abrahamic Covenant, and even today, everyone who hearkens to the gospel and joins the Church, becomes a partaker, an child of Abraham.

So Abraham, one who had been raised in idolatry and great wickedness, a victim of life-threatening abuse, who had to escape his own home in order to fulfill his desire for righteousness, became the literal and symbolic father of all the righteous for all the following generations of time!  What an amazing irony!  Abraham is the finest example of the principle taught by Elder Neal A. Maxwell: "What we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity."

FOREORDINATION CAN SURPRISE US

In a vision, as Abraham was shown the preexistence, he discovered that he, himself, was in the council of the great leaders the Lord was preparing for His kingdom on earth.  I wonder if that surprised him?  "Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones...and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born" (Abraham 3:22-23).

It is interesting to note how the Lord fosters his leaders when he sends them to earth.  Joseph Smith was raised in a family that had been prepared for generations to receive a prophet in their midst, where his parents and grandparents had sought truth and read the Bible to their children, and studied religion carefully.  Gordon B. Hinckley was born in Salt Lake City, the hub of Church activity, into a family where the restored gospel had been lived for generations, and where his father was a great local Church leader.  But Abraham came to a different environment, to an abusive, non-believing home, to a heritage of gross wickedness.  And yet he became one of the greatest of all the prophets, the father of all believers, because he was foreordained to it, he desired it, and he followed through on his desire. 

What can we learn from this?  Not that the home environment is not important, because it is, but that foreordained "noble and great ones" can be planted on the earth in surprising places.  They can be anyone from any background.  Perhaps the challenges that a person faces because of his family helps to prepare him for the specific work the Lord has for him to do.  We would do well to assume that each person in our quorum, in our Primary class, or in our Young Women group, regardless of their present circumstance, is foreordained to a great work, and that we have a responsibility to help them and train them accordingly.  We may also do well to lift our vision of ourselves, because our capabilities and responsibilities may be much greater than we realize.

President Ezra Taft Benson said, "God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the second coming of the Lord.  Some individuals will fall away; but the kingdom of God will remain intact to welcome the return of its head--even Jesus Christ.  While our generation will be comparable in wickedness to the days of Noah, when the Lord cleansed the earth by flood, there is a major difference this time.  It is that God has saved for the final inning some of His strongest children, who will help bear off the kingdom triumphantly...Make no mistake about it--you are a marked generation.  There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time than there is of us."


Sources:  Vaughan J. Featherstone, The New Era, Nov. 1985, p. 4; Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, November 1996; Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 104-105.

Teaching Tip: The Seven Dispensations Memory Aid

"A dispensation of the gospel is a period of time in which the Lord has at least one authorized servant on the earth who bears the holy priesthood and the keys, and who has a divine commission to dispense the gospel to the inhabitants of the earth" (Bible Dictionary, "Dispensations").  Each time, after a period of falling away, the gospel is revealed anew, so that people of that dispensation have accurate and unadulterated information upon which to build their faith.  As a memory aid for the chronology of the seven major gospel dispensations, here is a little story with awesome artwork by myself :)  Feel free to copy or print it.

Old Testament Lesson #1 "This Is My Work and My Glory"

(Moses 1)

OVERVIEW OF MOSES 1

"We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly..."  (Article of Faith 8)

"To say that the Bible is the word of God does not make its meaning any clearer or solve any of its problems; it simply guarantees that the meaning is worth every effort to find and that every problem is supremely worth solving"  (Alex Motyer, The Story of the Old Testament, p. 21).

One of these "problems" is authorship of Genesis.  Many Bible scholars are divided on how we got this book.  Did Moses write it?  Did he compile it?  Was it just a bunch of oral traditions written down?  Was it a collection of pagan myths transfered to Christian beliefs? 

The reason for the question is that the first chapter of Genesis, which explains the authorship, is missing from the Bible.  This problem was solved in June of 1830 when the Lord gave that chapter back to us as Joseph Smith began work on his Bible translation.  It now can be found in the Pearl of Great Price as Moses chapter 1. 

But why would it have been missing in the first place?  Moses 1:23 gives us the answer:  "And now of this thing Moses bore record; but because of wickedness it is not had among the children of men."  The devil had chapter one removed from the Bible.

Why?

Why did people go to work at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001?  It's a no-brainer: because they knew nothing about the enemy.  There has continued to be difficulty in fighting the attackers because of a lack of knowledge of their tactics, or of even of where they are.

Satan wanted the first chapter of the Bible removed because it is the book of instructions for fighting him and winning.

Moses 1 teaches us the Battle Plan:
1) Who our Leader is and what his characteristics are
2) What the battle objective is
3) Who we are and how we fit in
4) Who the Enemy is, and what his main tactic is
5) That he is less powerful than God
6) How he can be defeated
7) How extensive the Lord's commitment is, and how great His help will be

The Book of Moses is an amazing tool to help us overcome any of the snares of the devil.  One specific battle tactic the devil is increasingly employing today is pornography.  The following notes are from a talk I was asked to give to the Young Women of our ward to help them avoid Internet pornography.  Moses 1 is one of the greatest scriptural tools for combating this great evil. 

MOSES 1 TEACHES US HOW TO DEAL WITH PORNOGRAPHY

v. 6  "I have a work for thee, Moses, my son."  Heavenly Father has a great work for you and the devil knows it.  He'd love to derail it, just as he wishes to stop Moses from being worthy for his great calling.

v. 12  "But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him. And it came to pass that when Moses had said these words, behold, Satan came tempting him, saying: Moses, son of man, worship me."  Moses was still standing on holy ground, where he had had such a wonderful vision, when the devil came looking for him.  Moses did not go into a sleazy bar, or to a drug party, or to any questionable place at all.  The same thing happened to Joseph Smith, didn't it, in the Sacred Grove?  Now listen carefully:  There are some people that Satan knows will never go out and get in trouble, so he tries to bring trouble to them.  You, just like Moses, may be standing in a holy place (your own home, where you read your scriptures, where you say your prayers) minding your own business.  You may be on the Internet looking up scriptures for all I know, and suddenly there it is on your screen, as Moses said:  "the bitterness of hell" (v. 20). When this happens to you (not "if"), you need to know what to do. Moses is an excellent example of a person who beat the devil.  So let's see what he did.

v. 12 Heavenly Father called Moses his son, a son of God.  What did the devil call him?  "Son of man."  The devil would say, "You're only human...It's only natural to be curious."  But we know the natural man is an enemy to God.  We are to rise above that to our true potential.

v. 13 "And it came to pass that Moses looked upon Satan and said: Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten."  So your response would be like Moses':  "I am a daughter of my Heavenly Father who loves me and I love him" (from the Young Women Theme).

v. 13-15 "Where is thy glory, that I should worship thee? For behold, I could not look upon God, except his glory should come upon me, and I were transfigured before him. But I can look upon thee in the natural man. Is it not so, surely?  Blessed be the name of my God, for his Spirit hath not altogether withdrawn from me, or else where is thy glory, for it is darkness unto me? And I can judge between thee and God."  Moses had never met the devil, I don't believe, but he confidently said, "I can judge between thee and God."  In other words, "I can plainly see that you are not someone worthy of worship."  A former bishop told me that every person who has come into his office to seek help because they were over their head in sin has said, "I knew it was wrong when I started, but..."  Every person has the Light of Christ, or what we call a conscience--even people who know nothing about Christ.  Moses did.  You do.  Even if you had never, ever heard of pornography, as soon as you saw it, you would know immediately that it was wrong.  When you encounter something that you instantly feel is wrong, just get out.

v. 15 "God said unto me: Worship God, for him only shalt thou serve."  This leads straight to another point that you need to know: You cannot live a dual life.  You may think that you can view a little pornography once in a while, and still go to church and do everything else right and that it will be okay.  But it will not work.  The Spirit will leave you.  You may still be doing all the right things, and on the outside you may appear okay, but on the inside you will be rotting spiritually, gradually destroying yourself.

v. 16  "Get thee hence, Satan; deceive me not; for God said unto me: Thou art after the similitude of mine Only Begotten."  Moses said God told him he was made to be like Jesus Christ.  You were, too.  You can say to the devil, "I have taken upon me the name of Christ, and I will not be sidetracked from my goal of becoming like Him."  This is maintaining a holiness inside and out.  Only then can you truly be like Christ and experience the great joy that comes with living a Christian life.

v. 18 Moses said, "I will not cease to call upon God, I have other things to inquire of him."  You also will need answers to prayers to guide you throughout the rest of your life.  To receive those answers, you need to have the Spirit.  At times, you will need it desperately.  Imagine all the difficult decisions in the future.  Imagine all the trials you may encounter.  Don't you think you are going to want to call on God for His help?  Don't you think you are going to want Priesthood blessings, inspiration in how to solve problems, the comfort of the Holy Spirit to bless and calm you?  No matter whether any other ill effects ever should come of viewing pornography, the loss of the Spirit would be so disastrous to your entire life that that reason alone should make you want to stay as far away from it as possible.  Elder Wirthlin says that an ounce of pornography takes away a pound of spirituality (New Era, May 1988).

v. 19   "And now, when Moses had said these words, Satan cried with a loud voice, and ranted upon the earth, and commanded, saying: I am the Only Begotten, worship me." The devil will try the same tactic with you that he tried with Moses.  After Moses made it clear that Jesus Christ was the most important thing in his life, he said, "I am the Only Begotten, worship me."  He will try to find out what is important to you, and then he'll say,, "So you want eternal happiness?  Well, that's me!  That's what I'm all about!  These physical thrills are what happiness is all about!"  Or "So you want love?  Well, I can give you love!  Just watch it, right here on the Internet!"  But remember, this tactic only works for people who know nothing about the gospel, and who ignore the Spirit of Christ within them.  Moses knew very well that the devil was not Christ, because why?  Because he already knew Christ!  If you study the truth, you recognize lies.  If you know the gospel, you will not be fooled.  Make sure you spend enough time studying the gospel at Church and at home.

v. 20-22  "And it came to pass that Moses began to fear exceedingly; and as he began to fear, he saw the bitterness of hell. Nevertheless, calling upon God, he received strength, and he commanded, saying: Depart from me, Satan, for this one God only will I worship, which is the God of glory. And now Satan began to tremble, and the earth shook; and Moses received strength, and called upon God, saying: In the name of the Only Begotten, depart hence, Satan.  And it came to pass that Satan cried with a loud voice, with weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth; and he departed hence, even from the presence of Moses, that he beheld him not."  It was very difficult for Moses to get rid of the devil.  He prayed repeatedly and received strength, but it took four tries altogether to force the devil away.  In the end, he had to command the devil to leave in the name of Christ.  The devil's stellar characteristic is tenacity--stubbornness.  He never gives up.  You have to be more tenacious than he is--the scriptures call it being "steadfast and immovable."  You may find, like Moses, that you need Priesthood help if you are embroiled in a fight with the devil.  It may be beyond what you can do, but it is never beyond Christ.  Who is his representative in your ward?  Your bishop.

v. 24-25 "And it came to pass that when Satan had departed from the presence of Moses, that Moses lifted up his eyes unto heaven, being filled with the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of the Father and the Son;  And calling upon the name of God, he beheld his glory again, for it was upon him; and he heard a voice, saying: Blessed art thou, Moses, for I, the Almighty, have chosen thee, and thou shalt be made stronger than many waters; for they shall obey thy command as if thou wert God."  When Moses won the battle, he once again was filled with the Spirit "and calling upon God, he beheld his glory again."  And then he was given an even greater vision than the first.  And he was able to carry forth his great work in life, that of freeing the children of Israel from bondage.  You also, will receive greater spirituality as you shun the temptations of the devil, and you will carry forth the great work you are destined for.

The Measure of Our Faith

WANTING TO BELIEVE

Just a couple of days before Christmas, as I was driving my two 9-year-olds to Grandma’s, Marisha said, “I’m going to stay up all night Christmas Eve and find out if Santa is really real.” But Ammon said, “Not me. I don’t want to know. I want to believe.”

Elder Michael T. Ringwood, in this past General Conference, said he had been drawn repeatedly over the past several months to a statement in the scriptures, Helaman 6:36: “And thus we see that the Lord began to pour out his Spirit upon the Lamanites, because of their easiness and willingness to believe in his words.” This is an amazing scripture. These were the Lamanites, who had been led in the opposite direction for centuries by their fathers.

Elder Ringwood puzzled over the question, “What happened to cause a people full of hatred and disbelief to have an easiness and willingness to believe in the word of God?” 8,000 of them had listened to the voices of Nephi and Lehi as they taught by the Spirit, and had been converted. 300 more were converted through the miracle of hearing a voice as they went forth to harm Nephi and Lehi. And many more were converted through the testimony of those 300. As they were converted, they immediately began living the gospel. They cast down their weapons and habits of war, they studied the word of God, and they obeyed the commandments. They had great faith which enabled them to endure to the end at the peril of their lives (Helaman 15:5-9).

Samuel the Lamanite explained that “because of their steadfastness when they do believe in that thing which they do believe…because of their firmness when they are once enlightened, behold the Lord shall bless them and prolong their days, notwithstanding their iniquity,” speaking not just of this individual group, but also of the entire Lamanite nation (Helaman 15:10).

At the same period of time, the Nephites, who had a heritage of belief and obedience, became “hardened, impenitent, and grossly wicked” (Helaman 6:2) and their civilization was eventually cut off from the face of the earth.

Our lives sometimes go through stages of an easiness to believe, and sometimes a hardness of heart. Elder Ringwood suggests that times of significant change, times of intense service, times of trial, times of learning new principles, and times in our youth and childhood are often times when it is easier to believe. We are commanded to create more of these times in our lives, by becoming as little children, that we may inherit eternal life (3 Nephi 11:38). He says that as we reflect upon these times, we “will find what really brought an easiness and willingness to believe were not the circumstances but the commitment to live the gospel during these periods of life.” He says, “Daily living of the gospel brings a softness of heart needed to have an easiness and willingness to believe the word of God.”

A BELIEVER FROM THE DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS

We are all very familiar with Martin Harris, the third witness of and financier of the Book of Mormon, who at many times of his life had a difficult time believing. This disbelief led to the loss of the Book of Lehi, and it led to many years of estrangement from the Church. Very few of us are familiar with his older brother, Emer. But we should be!

Because Emer had an easiness and willingness to believe. Hearing of the golden Bible, Emer had walked 25 miles to learn more about it from his brother, Martin. When the book was published, Martin picked up the first bound copy off the press and handed it to Emer.

Emer joined the church early in 1831. He was a scribe for Joseph for a short time. He was called to serve a mission with Simeon Carter (D&C 75:30), but switched companions and served with his brother Martin. They baptized 82 people in one place, 100 at another, and organized a branch of 70 in Pennsylvania.

Emer was a skilled carpenter who built the window sash in the Kirtland Temple. Later, he used the same tools to build the winding stairway in the Nauvoo Temple.

He and his family arrived in Missouri just in time to be thrown out by the extermination order. Among the meager possessions he carried with him at the exodus was a chest in which he had fitted a false bottom for the safe transport of copies of the Book of Mormon. The mob did search his belongings, including the chest, but his preparation saved the books.

Emer was 69 when the Saints moved west, and he moved with them. His patriarchal blessing stated, “Thou has[t] not fainted in times of disease and persecution when every evil thing has [been] spoken against the church of the Living God. Thou hast endured in faith. The Lord is well pleased with thee because of the integrity of thy heart.” After he arrived in Utah, he also became a patriarch and was known as a great healer. He died at the age of 88 and is buried in the Logan Cemetery. (You can see a photo of his headstone here.)

JOHN THE BELOVED

And now, let’s examine a great believer from the Bible, John the Beloved. Have you ever wondered where the name “John the Beloved,” came from? Was he loved more than the other disciples? Did Jesus name him that? No. Jesus gave him the title “Son of Thunder.” In the heading of the Book of Revelation, he is referred to as “St. John the Divine,” meaning one who sees the future. He is often called “John the Revelator” because of his visions.

So who came up with “John the Beloved?” Well, you don’t find that particular title in the Bible, but you find the origin of it: Five times in his gospel, John referred to himself as “that disciple whom Jesus loved.” It was not that Jesus loved him more than others; it was John’s own acceptance, appreciation, and emulation of that love that made him into “John the Beloved.”

His perception of this great love led him to desire to labor in the Lord’s kingdom for the salvation of His children until Christ should come again. He’s already been doing that for 2,000 years.

If we were to follow the example of John, we would be looking for evidences of the Lord’s love in our lives every day, and we would be thinking of ourselves in terms of God’s love for us. If we were to do this, we would lose all need for self-confidence or that elusive mirage, self-esteem. Both would be replaced by faith in God. We would also let go of our need to compare, our need to compete, and our compulsion to view our inadequacies in a depressing light that shuts out the Spirit and prevents us from loving others. Imagine thinking of yourself as “[insert your name here] the Beloved.” It would change your life. As John himself wrote, “We love him, because he first loved us.” If we comprehended how much God loved us, we would then want to love Him, and that would make all the difference in our lives, as it did in John’s.

LOVE IS THE MEASURE OF OUR FAITH

President Uchtdorf recently told us, “God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God! For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are—and who we will become.” He is echoing the words of Elder Maxwell 13 years before: “What we insistently desire, over time, is what we will eventually become and what we will receive in eternity.”

Ultimately, for the Lamanite converts, for Emer Harris, and for John the Beloved, it was the love of God and the love FOR God that created the condition of a softened heart which allowed them to believe and to endure to the point of martyrdom in the case of the Lamanites; to the age of 88 in the case of Emer; and indefinitely in the case of John the Beloved.

President Utchdorf said, “Since ‘God is love,’ the closer we approach Him, the more profoundly we experience love.” He said, “God’s love is so great that He loves even the proud, the selfish, the arrogant, and the wicked.” Can we do that?

I love this quote from Sue Monk Kidd: “That’s the only purpose grand enough for a human life—not just to love, but to persist in love.”

President Uchtdorf stated, “The divine love of God turns ordinary acts into extraordinary service…Love is the guiding light that illuminates the disciple’s path and fills our daily walk with life, meaning, and wonder. Love is the measure of our faith, the inspiration for our obedience, and the true altitude of our discipleship.” That’s why we must “pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart [to] be filled with this love” (Moroni 7:48).

We need to become like John the Beloved and see the love of God in our everyday lives, that we may also live the love of God. Let’s follow the counsel of President Utchdorf: “In your daily interactions with others, in the words of a hymn, in the laughter of a child, listen for His voice. If you listen for the voice of the Father, He will lead you on a course that will allow you to experience the pure love of Christ.” And this promise brings our lesson full circle: “As we draw near to Heavenly Father, we become more holy. And as we become more holy, we will overcome disbelief and our souls will be filled with His blessed light.”

LIVE IN THE CHILD’S NATIVITY

(You may want to bring a nativity set and ask a young child to arrange it for you before class as an illustration of the paragraph below.)

As children will always arrange a nativity set with Jesus in the middle and everyone else facing him in a tight circle, we must so live our lives. “Because love is the great commandment, it ought to be at the center of all and everything we do in our own family, in our Church callings, and in our livelihood” (Elder Uchtdorf). We must put Christ at the center of our circle. (See previous post.)

“My dear brothers and sisters, don’t get discouraged if you stumble at times. Don’t feel downcast or despair if you don’t feel worthy to be a disciple of Christ at all times. The first step to walking in righteousness is simply to try. We must try to believe.” We must “choose to listen.” We must “try and keep on trying” (Elder Uchtdorf).  We must "educate our desires" (Elder Maxwell).  Ammon said he didn’t want to know about Santa, because he wanted to believe in him. With a testimony of Christ, it is the opposite: We first believe so that we may later know.

“An easiness to believe will come when the word of God is etched into our hearts” (Elder Ringwood). In our homes and families, we need to create an environment and live traditions that "educate our desires," and make it easy for us and our children to believe.


(Sources: Michael T. Ringwood, Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Ensign, November 2009; Susan Easton Black, Who’s Who in the Doctrine and Covenants; Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees; Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, November 1996)

Two Christmas Messages

THE STAR

By Ruth Dinkins Rowan

The day of the Christmas presentation finally arrived. My young daughter, Jana, was so excited about her part that I supposed she was to be one of the main characters, though she had not told me what she was to do. The parents were all there and one by one the children took their places. I could see the shepherds fidgeting in the corner of the stage meant to represent the fields for the sheep. Mary and Joseph stood solemnly behind the manger. In the back, three young wise men waited impatiently. But still Jana sat quietly and confidently.

Then the teacher began: “A long time ago, Mary…had a baby and…named Him Jesus,” she said. “And when Jesus was born, a bright star appeared over the stable.”

At that cue, Jana got up from her chair, picked up a large tinfoil star, walked behind Mary and Joseph and held the star up high for everyone to see.

When the teacher told about the shepherds coming to see the baby, the three young shepherds came forward and Jana jiggled the star up and down excitedly to show them where to come. When the wise men responded to their cue, she went forward a little to meet them and to lead the way, her face as alight as the real star might have been.

The playlet ended. We had refreshments. On the way home Jana said, with great satisfaction, “I had the main part.”

“You did?” I questioned, wondering why she thought that.

“Yes,” she said, “’cause I showed everybody how to find Jesus.”

How true! To show others how to find Jesus, to be the light for their paths, that is the finest role we can play in life.

THE CHILD'S NATIVITY

By Nancy Jensen

Have you ever watched a small child arrange the Christmas nativity set? If so, you know how children universally do it: Baby Jesus in the center, and all of the people and animals in a tight circle looking at him. Children understand that all the figures are there to look at Jesus, not to be seen of themselves.

The point of Christmas is the birth of Christ, the Wonderful Gift. Do our fun and exciting holiday traditions act as the child’s nativity figures, all directed at Baby Jesus? Or do they try to stand alone, as if they are there to be enjoyed of themselves?

Since school, community, and television programs usually will not focus on Christ, in our homes we must be sure to counterbalance their non-religious, we-don’t-want-to-offend-anybody programs. We need to be sure our families understand that our Christmas traditions are symbols of our relationship with Christ. We must be sure the shopping and partying and interior decorating contribute to our spiritual closeness to the Savior, rather than overshadow it. In our homes at Christmas, we need to be standing in that tight circle around the manger, gazing in wonder at the Baby Jesus.


(Nativity set arranged by Jacob Cutler, age 11.  When his mom, my friend Ann Marie Cutler, saw it, she took a photo and sent it to me to illustrate this blog.  Perfect, huh?  Thanks, Ann!)