Sunday, March 27, 2016

Church Services This Week at Ridge Crest Ward Northridge Stake Layton Utah 27 March 2016

Elders Quorum
President Eyring’s Sunday morning talk from October 2015 general conference, “The Holy Ghost as Your Companion”
We talked about apostles that any of us had met.  The instructor talked of not meeting president Eyring, but in doing work on president Eyring’s home. He talked about the feeling in his home.

The Holy Ghost will confirm truth that you are hearing.

We are all born with the light of Christ, which is a small portion of the Holy Ghost. It might be called our conscience. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is something we must seek for and it must be conferred upon us by one with authority from God.

The light of Christ is like a flashlight in the dark. The Gift of the Holy Ghost is light a flood light or perhaps the light of the sun.

“The companionship of the Holy Ghost makes what is good more attractive and temptation less compelling. That alone should be enough to make us determined to qualify for the Spirit to be with us always.

“Just as the Holy Ghost strengthens us against evil, He also gives us the power to discern truth from falsehood. The truth that matters most is verified only by revelation from God. Our human reason and the use of our physical senses will not be enough. We live in a time when even the wisest will be hard-pressed to distinguish truth from clever deception.” (President Henry B Eyring, “The Holy Ghost as Your Companion”, October 2015 General Conference)

“The truths that mark the way home to God are verified by the Holy Ghost. We cannot go to the grove and see the Father and the Son speak to the young Joseph Smith. No physical evidence or any logical argument can establish that Elijah came as promised to confer the priesthood keys now held and exercised by a living prophet, Thomas S. Monson.

“Confirmation of truth comes to a son or daughter of God who has claimed the right to receive the Holy Ghost. Since falsehoods and lies may be presented to us at any time, we need a constant influence of the Spirit of Truth to spare us moments of doubt.

“While a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, George Q. Cannon urged that we make a constant quest for the Spirit to be with us. He promised, and I promise it as well, that if we pursue that course, we “will never lack for knowledge” of the truth, “never be in doubt or in darkness,” and our ‘faith will be strong, [our] joy … full.’2”  (President Henry B Eyring, “The Holy Ghost as Your Companion”, October 2015 General Conference)

Sunday School
My lesson on How can the Book of Mormon help me strengthen my faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ?
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Have you learned anything in your gospel studies this week that you would like to share?

It is Easter today. What is Easter?

How can the Book of Mormon help me strengthen my faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ?

From the lesson outline:
The primary purpose of the Book of Mormon is to convince all people that Jesus is the Christ. It teaches that we “must come unto Him or [we] cannot be saved” (1 Nephi 13:40). It contains many examples of faithful disciples who had faith in Jesus Christ and received the blessings of His Atonement. Book of Mormon prophets bore powerful testimony of the Savior, that we “may know to what source [we] may look for a remission of [our] sins” (2 Nephi 25:26).

Why is it important to convince people that Jesus is the Christ?  So they can follow his example? What does following his example get them? Eternal life. What about in this life? What do they get in this life? Knowledge of how to be happy. Is that true? Does following Jesus gives us the knowledge to be happy in this life?

But we have trials happen to us. People get hurt. People have disabilities. How is following Jesus suppose to make me happy when stuff like that happens?

Do you have any scriptures about Jesus Christ that are meaningful to you?

Do you have any scriptures which have helped you better understand the Atonement?

Often times people accuse Latter-day saints of not being Christians or people in the Church spend a lot of effort trying to prove to others that we are Christian.  In some ways the word Christian can kind of be a loaded word meaning more than what we intend.  The word saints is probably a better word to describe us.  A saint as the Lord used it was not someone who was perfect, but one who followed the Lord and made covenants with him.  Christian meaning one who believes in Christ is nice starting point, but the word saint means one who has made covenants with the Lord.

Have the youth imagine that a friend asks them if Mormons are Christians. Challenge them to use scriptures from the Book of Mormon (such as the scriptures suggested in this outline) to answer this question.

Everyone look up Elder Neil L Anderson’s October 2011 General Conference talk, “The Book of Mormon: Strengthening Our Faith in Jesus Christ.”  Everyone take a section and see if you can answer the question, “How can the Book of Mormon help me strengthen my faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ?”

People in the old testament and in the Book of Mormon knew of Christ. Their animal sacrifices were to remind them off Christ. When something is like Christ to make us remember him we sometimes call that a type of of Christ.

Jacob tells us about this:
Jacob 4:5
5 Behold, they believed in Christ and worshiped the Father in his name, and also we worship the Father in his name. And for this intent we keep the law of Moses, it pointing our souls to him; and for this cause it is sanctified unto us for righteousness, even as it was accounted unto Abraham in the wilderness to be obedient unto the commands of God in offering up his son Isaac, which is a similitude of God and his Only Begotten Son.

After going over all this with the youth have them see if they have thought of any other things they could tell a friend to show that Latter-day saints believe in Christ.

We don’t hear a lot about the Savior so blatantly like this in the Old Testament.  There is a lot of stuff in Isaiah pointing forward to a messiah, but a lot of it is in poetry and symbolism.  Perhaps this was to protect the doctrine from those of that time who may have felt the teaching threatening.  Perhaps it was to protect the doctrine from the future custodians of the record.  Some of the hands that what we have now as the Bible were not always in it for God, so they removed things that were more plain and that threatened their position in the Church.

It is possible that there were things more plainly spoken about the Savior, but were removed by those that didn’t believe it or that wanted to keep control over the people.

The Book of Mormon is more rich with plainly spoken things about Christ because if was sealed away for our day and did not pass through all those hands.
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Sacrament Service
Jesus doesn't make up the difference. He makes the difference.

Lots of people are pulling for you. Jesus is pulling with you.

“People look at my six days to see what I mean on the seventh. “ - Unknown

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