“Lay Hold upon Every Good Thing”

In the April, 2006 Ensign, Elder Merrill J. Bateman wrote an article entitled, “Becoming a Disciple of Christ”. In it, he explains what it means to “lay hold upon every good thing”. I found it comforting since I tend to be one who tries to do everything all the time.

“To ‘lay hold upon every good thing,’… involves faith, repentance, participation in sacred covenants, companionship of the Holy Spirit, and enduring to the end. It does not mean laying hold on every good thing all at once. The principle is ‘line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little’ (2 Nephi 28:30). Also, the command to serve God ‘with all your heart, might, mind and strength’ (D&B 4:2) should leave one exhausted at the end of life, not midway through the journey. The Lord expects us to pace ourselves, to ‘run and not be weary, and … walk and not faint’ (D&C 89:20).”

Elder Bateman seems to be encouraging a steady consistent commitment to the gospel, rather than bursts of high-powered activity, followed by a lack of interest. An important point for all of us to remember.

Apostles and Disciples

Have you ever noticed that while Jesus called 12 apostles in the Old World, the twelve he called in the New World were not “called” “Apostles”. They were called “disciples”.

1 Ne 12: 8-9:
8 And the angel spake unto me saying: Behold the twelve disciples of the Lamb, who are chosen to minister unto thy seed.
9 And he said unto me: Thou rememberest the twelve apostles of the Lamb? Behold they are they who shall judge the twelve tribes of Israel; wherefore, the twelve ministers of thy seed shall be judged of them; for ye are of the house of Israel.

Why is that? The word “apostle” means “one sent forth” (BD Apostle). The apostles in the Old World were sent forth to the world (or the surrounding countries anyway) to preach the gospel to those who hadn’t heard it. But the disciples in the Americas were not sent to preach or minister outside of the few thousand people that were preserved after the earthquakes and destructions surrounding Christ’s death. Perhaps that is why the title “Disciple” is given to them rather than “Apostle”. I just found that interesting.

Old Testament Jeopardy

Today is my wife’s last day teaching with me in Sunday School. She has received a new calling. We thought it would be fun to review what we have learned so far this year with a Jeopardy game. We didn’t take the time to phrase these as answers and require them to answer in the form of questions. I bought a varietly of candy bars and we’re going to give the winning team first choice.

  Pre-Mortal Life The Creation and The Fall Noah Abraham Joseph
100 What is God’s "work and glory"? (Moses 1:39) On what day was man created? (Moses 2:26-31) What were the names of Noah’s sons? (Gen. 6:10) What was Abraham’s name before the Lord changed it to Abraham? (Gen
17:5)		 Who was Joseph’s mother? (Gen 30:22-24)
200 Who was God’s first born spirit son? Who created the Earth? How many of each animal was Noah commanded to take on the ark? (Gen
7:12)		 Who was Abraham’s first born son? (Gen 16:15) Who purchases Joseph in Egypt? (Gen 39:1)
300 Who presented an alternative to God’s plan? One day to the Lord is how long for us? (Abraham 3:4) How many times did Noah send a dove from the ark? (Gen 8:8-12) How old was Abraham when Isaac was born? (Gen 21:5) What 3 people did Joseph interpret dream for? (Gen 40, 41)
400 How many of God’s spirit children chose to follow Satan’s plan? What instituted the fall? (Moses 4) What was the sign of the Lord’s covenant with Noah that He would
never again flood the earth? (Gen 9:13)		 Abraham paid tithes to what great priesthood holder? (Gen 14:18-20) What was the interpretation of pharaoh’s dream? (Gen 41:25-32)
500 Why was Lucifer’s plan rejected? Give two reasons. How can we be redeemed from the fall? (Moses 6:50-54) What mountain did the ark land on when the flood waters receded?
(Gen 8:4)		 What is the Abrahamic covenant? (Abraham 2:6-11) What are the names of Joseph’s two sons? (Gen 41:51-52)
  Pre-Mortal Life The Creation and The Fall Noah Abraham Joseph
100 "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." The sixth day Shem, Ham, & Japheth Abram Rachel
200 Jesus Christ Jesus – with Michael (Adam) through power & command of Heavenly
Father		 Clean beasts by seven, all else by 2 Ishmael Potipher
300 Lucifer/Satan 1000 years to us is one day to God (or one day on Kolob) 3 times 100 years old Pharaoh’s Butler, Pharaoh’s Baker, and Pharaoh
400 1/3 Adam & Eve partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, of
which they were commanded not to partake		 bow in the sky (rainbow) Melchizadek Egypt would have 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of famine
500 Because he sought to take away our agency and he wanted God’s glory By accepting the atonement of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance,
baptism, keeping the commandments)		 Ararat God promise to Abraham 1) A promised land to live in. 2) A great
posterity. 3) The gospel of Jesus Christ and the priesthood for Abraham
and his posterity		 Ephraim & Manasseh

Excel Format

Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration (movie review)

Last week my wife and I went to see the new Joseph Smith movie which has replaced “Testaments” at the Legacy Theater in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. First off, you should know that I am not a big movie goer. I think my wife and I only saw one movie in the theater in all of 2005. We haven’t seen the latest Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, or Star Wars movies. Call us weird, but it’s just not our thing. We do still enjoy a good classic now and then, or a musical. So my review should not be taken very seriously. 🙂

Anyway, I enjoyed the Joseph Smith movie. It was more or less snippets and scenes from the life of Joseph Smith – a very broad biography. In only 68 minutes you can’t go into a lot of detail, so they didn’t. But you get a glimpse of Joseph Smith’s personality, the trials and persecution he went through, and what others thought about him, good and bad.

There seemed to be a very large focus on his trials. I came away thinking, “Wow, he sure suffered a lot!” It showed lots of angelic visitations, and had some good one-liners to answer some questions that might be in the minds of non-Mormons as they watch it. For those who are wondering, the First Vision scene did show the satanic attack (although it didn’t explain why it happened), and there was no mention of polygamy.

One of my favorite scenes was when Joseph was out whacking a rug in the yard, and an Irish saint came to him and said something like, “Joseph, pardon me, but I don’t think a man of your great status should be engaged in such menial chores.”
Joseph replied with a smile, “How long have you been married?”
“Three years.”
“That long? May I offer you some advice?”
“Aye.”
“The Lord intends a marriage to last a lot longer than three years. In fact, he intends it to last forever. Now, if a wife doesn’t want her husband in this life, why would she want him in the next? You give that some thought.”

That was paraphrasing, of course, but it was a pretty humerous scene.
Anyway, for those who have seen the movie, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. And for those who haven’t…umm…go see it, I guess!

What is your “Dream Calling”

Among conversations I have with people, this topic will occassionally come up. What calling in the church do you most aspire to? For me it is “Stake Sports Director!” Why? Well, I’ve always loved sports. Growing up in a small town there wasn’t much else to do. I played every sport available to me. Now that I’m married with small kids, the opportunity to be involved with sports is much less available to me. It’s hard to leave my wife at home with some ornery babies to go “play.” I’m guessing that with this calling, when I go play, or I go referree, or I go “oversee” a sports program, I would simply be fulfilling my calling. Plus, I don’t know much about this, but I would assume there is not a lot early morning meetings that need to be attended or lessons to prepare each week – not that I mind that stuff…

So what is your “Dream Calling?”

What will we know in the Spirit World?

I was thinking recently about the Spirit World, and how much we will know when we get there. Will a full knowledge of our pre-earth life be restored at that time? What will non-believers think when they realize that death wasn’t the end? Will it be easy to see that Christ’s church is leading the Spirit world or will there be just as much confusion as there is here?

A well-known scripture shed a little light on this for me today.
D&C 130:18:

Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.

Of course we won’t have the full knowledge of our pre-earth life restored unto us in the Spirit World. That will not come until the Resurrection. Our time in the Spirit world is still part of the test of “mortality”. That makes sense because many people accept the gospel in the Spirit world and we can still change and repent there (although we’re told it’s much more difficult to repent there than here – see Alma 34:33-35). The judgment will not have happened yet either, which means the test is certainly not over.

Primary Songs for 2006

My daughter just started Primary this year. She is really enjoying it. After he first day she came home singing “Scripture Power.” It’s quite the catchy tune!

My wife asked me to help her find the words & actual song if possible on LDS.org. I came across all the songs that the kids will be singing in Primary for 2006 and made a CD for my daughter to listen to to help her learn.

You can find all the words to the songs and download MP3s here:
http://www.lds.org/pa/display/0,17884,6413-1,00.html

Or, to make it easier on you, I’ve downloaded each of the songs and put them in a zip file which you can download here.

Praying in a foreign language

A post on Times & Season brought back some mission memories I thought I’d share…

I went to South Africa (Cape Town) on my mission. It is an English speaking mission. I bought a tape from the mission office that had some basic Afrikaans terms. Among them was a simple prayer. It was really simple. It was your basic “Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for our many blessings. We ask Thee to bless us with thy Spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”

On the a couple of occassions when Afrikaans families would ask me to say a prayer, I would use that prayer. Sometimes they I would add a few words in English, but that prayer was normally sufficient and the family would be surprised and delighted that I took the effort to learn to pray in Afrikaans.

One of my fondest memories was about 2 – 3 months into my mission. I baptized a 17 year old young Afrikaans speaking girl. The day of the baptism after a dinner appointment at a member’s home, the father of that house suggested I say the prayer in Afrikaans. He wrote it all down for me and I had about an hour to learn it beforehand.

I shocked everybody (except my companion and the witnesses) when I said the baptismal prayer in Afrikaans. I was sure nervous but I was told I sounded fluent the way I spoke it. :mrgreen:

In case you’ve read my other post, this was Emily’s daughter that got baptized. This was another big part of your progression toward the waters of baptism. She was crying after the baptism and said she had never felt that good inside before.

Its somewhat funny because as a teenager I prayed that I would go somewhere foreign yet English speaking. (I really struggled in Spanish class). I have no regrets about where I went. I definitely wouldn’t change that. But sometimes I kind of feel like I missed out because I’m not fluent in another language. Yet I did pick up a lot more Afrikaans & Xhosa than I ever thought I would.

Old Testament Reading Schedule

After completing our Stake Presidency’s challenge to read the 5 gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 3 Nephi) by September 1st, 2005, and President Hinckley’s challenge to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year, I’ve decided to issue myself a challenge. In light of the fact that we are studying the Old Testament this year in Sunday School and the fact that it is the only book of scripture I have yet to completely read, I’m going to challenge myself to read the entire Old Testament by the end of the year. My wife is going to do it with me, which will be a fun experience.

I found it useful to track my daily progress with an excel spreadsheet for the other two goals, so I’ve created this spreadsheet to help me with this goal.

Explanation:
The spreadsheet simply lists the books in the Old Testament with the number of chapters in each book. (I find it easier to track my progress by chapters rather than pages.) In the box next to it, list the number of chapters you have read in each book. The box on the right will display how many chapters you’ve read, how many are remaining, how many days are left, and, most importantly, how many chapters you have to average per day in order to finish by your goal date (you may change the goal date if you wish).

Click the image below to see a larger view:
OT Reading Chart

Click Here to Download the spreadsheet.

Recall Notice

My Grandma just sent this to me through e-mail. I’m sure it’s an old one, but still fun:

The Maker of all human beings is recalling all units manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to the serious defect in the primary and central component of the heart. This is due to a willful malfunction, in the original prototype units code, named Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect in all subsequent units. This defect has been technically termed, “Sub-sequential Internal Non-morality,” or more commonly known as SIN, as it is primarily expressed. Some other symptoms:

[a] Loss of direction
[b] Foul vocal emissions
[c] Amnesia of origin
[d] Lack of peace and joy
[e] Selfish or violent behavior
[f] Depression or confusion in the mental component
[g] Fearfulness
[h] Idolatry
[i] Rebellion

The Manufacturer, Who is neither liable nor at fault for this defect, is providing factory authorized repair and service free of charge to correct this SIN defect. The Repair Technician, Jesus, has most generously offered to bear the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs. There is no additional fee required. The toll free number to call for repair in all areas is: P-R-A-Y-E-R. Once connected, please upload your burden of SIN through the REPENTANCE procedure. Next, download ATONEMENT from the Repair Technician, Jesus, into the heart component. No matter how big or small the SIN defect is, Jesus will replace it with:

[a] Love
[b] Joy
[c] Peace
[d] Patience
[e] Kindness
[f] Goodness
[g] Faithfulness
[h] Gentleness
[i] Self-control

Please see the operating manual, HOLY BIBLE, for further details on the use of these fixes. As an added upgrade, the Manufacturer has made available, to all repaired units, a facility enabling direct monitoring and assistance from a resident Maintenance Technician, The Holy Ghost. Repaired units need only make Him welcome and He will take up permanent residence on the premises!

WARNING: Continuing to operate the human being unit without correction voids the Manufacturer’s warranty, exposing the unit to dangers and problems too numerous to list and will result in the human unit being permanently impounded. For free emergency service, call on JESUS.

DANGER: The human being units not responding to this recall action will have to be scrapped in the furnace. The SIN defect will not be permitted to enter Heaven so as to prevent contamination of that facility. Thank you for your attention.

— Author Unknown