Church Services This Week at Ridge Crest Ward Northridge Stake Layton Utah 13 July 2014

Elders Quorum

Teachings of Presidents of the Church : Joseph Fielding Smith chapter 14 -  The gift of the Holy Ghost

Doctrine and Covenants 130:22

22 The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.

The Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit.  A spirit means he does not have a physical body,  but the word personage indicates in the image of a person.  It appears that he needs to be a spirit in order to perform his duties for mankind.  Likely once the Earth in perfected and his work is done he will get a body.

The instructor talked about being at the temple yesterday. He said that there was a wedding and the wedding party was irreverent. I have noticed that most times I have witnessed a wedding group at the temple their overall behavior is inappropriate for the temple and rude to those around them.  It is very difficult at times when with family and friends to remember to be reverent.  It is something we all should be aware of.

He talked about how easily our behavior can drown out the Spirit, even in a holy place.

Reverence can help bring the Spirit. Reverence is more than being quiet. Reverence is our mental state.   Reverence is our language and speech.  We should work to develop reverence as part of our character, so it isn’t something we have to consciously focus on.

The Holy Ghost can't guide us if we are determined to follow our agenda no matter what.

Sunday School

Psalms are like, and can be hymns. Hymns are like, and can be prayers.

The teacher spent the time having us share hymns that we like that are based on Psalms.

Sacrament Service

Patriarchal blessings are personal scripture.

“A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary [to lead] unto life and salvation; "(Joseph Smith, In Lectures on Faith, comp. N. B. Lundwall, Salt Lake City: N. B. Lundwall, n.d., p. 58.)

"Once there was a man who dreamed that he was in a great hall where all the religions of the world were gathered. He realized that each religion had much that seemed desirable and worthy.

He met a nice couple who represented The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and asked, ‘What do you require of your members?’

‘We do not require anything,’ they replied. ‘But the Lord asks that we consecrate all.’" (President Dieter F Uchtdorf, Come, Join With Us, October 2013 General Conference)

It is true that pretty much anyone can be a member of the Church, even if they do not give it their all.  Nonetheless, if we are to become like God and to live where he lives we have to learn to put forth great effort and make many sacrifices.

Have a good attitude about your home teaching and about having home teachers.

Sunday July 20, 2008 - Services Sullivan Hollow Second Ward

This Week at Church
Priesthood Opening
Malachi 3:8-10

8 ¶ ^aWill a man ^brob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In ^ctithes and offerings.

9 Ye are ^acursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

10 Bring ye all the ^atithes into the storehouse, that there may be ^bmeat in mine house, and ^cprove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not ^dopen you the ^ewindows of heaven, and pour you out a ^fblessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Elders' Quorum

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith - Chapter 13: Obedience: “When the Lord Commands, Do It” p. 158–70
True leaders lead by example. I read something on this recently in the book One Lord...On Faith by Mark E. Peterson.
"To lead youth, we must be leaders in very deed.
We ourselves must hold to every standard which we hope to make part of their lives.
We must be as firm in the faith as we hope they will be." p.4

And from page 11 of the same book, "As the shepherd leads, so moves the flock."

In his talk Obedience—Life’s Great Challenge - Elder Donald L. Staheli Of the Seventy quotes President Ezra Taft Benson. “When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.”

The goal is to get to the point that we are not just doing our duty because it is expected, but because we want to do it. Perhaps we start out doing it because it is expected, but we keep going and we will grow and eventually get there.

1 Samuel 15
22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great ^adelight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the ^bvoice of the Lord? Behold, to ^cobey is better than ^dsacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of ^erams.

Doing our duty because we truly want to be obedient is better than doing it because it is a sacrifice for us.

Sunday School
Book of Mormon Lesson 27: “All Things Denote There Is a God” p120
Alma 30-31
We have prophets, scriptures, and the gift of the Holy Ghost to prove to us that Christ lives, but we have to test it out for ourselves.

An Antichrist can be a person, a philosophy, or an organization. It was expressed that an Antichrist has much of the same properties as Idols. They lead us away from doing our duty or learning the truth. Antichrists set themselves up to sound like truth.

Alma 30:13-15

13 O ye that are bound down under a ^afoolish and a vain hope, why do ye yoke yourselves with such foolish things? Why do ye look for a Christ? For no man can ^bknow of anything which is to come.

14 Behold, these things which ye call prophecies, which ye say are handed down by holy prophets, behold, they are foolish traditions of your fathers.

15 How do ye know of their surety? Behold, ye cannot know of things which ye do not ^asee; therefore ye cannot know that there shall be a Christ.

Korihor says that the followers of Christ are bound by the yoke of the gospel and that it is weighing them down. Christ also referred to it as a yoke, but he talked of himself being yoked with us and helping us carry it and make it light.

He also says that one cannot know of things they cannot see. Someone expressed that that philosophy is like a child's perspective when playing peekaboo. If they cover their eyes they think you are not there. They also try to hide from you by covering their eyes.

• First Korihor teaches against Christ saying he doesn't exist.
• Then he preaches against the prophets. By saying that no one can know of things to come of of things you cannot see.
• Then he preaches against the people and their fathers. He said they believed it because they had a frenzied mind.

He taught them to rely on their own minds and strength. Many continue to think that science knows so much when it is constantly being discovered that what we thought was scientific fact is in fact untrue. For example, the world is flat. Based upon what they perceived the learned men of the day deduced that it must be flat.

Sacrament Meeting
First Speaker
Our spiritual trial in our day are going to be as hard as the physical trials of the pioneers.

Next one of the youth reported on a camp out he went on recently.

The choir sang Love One Another. They merged it with some other upper room song. One of the men sang a solo accompanied by piano and violin.

Second Speaker
A missionary that just return from a Spanish speaking mission in Chicago.

Third Speaker - Our high councilman
Symbolism allows the human mind to expand upon the meaning.

Raising our arms to sustain people who are called is a symbol of a covenant to serve each other.

An angel asked Adam why he offered sacrifices. The angel then taught him that it was a symbol. Moses 5

5 And he gave unto them commandments, that they should ^aworship the Lord their God, and should offer the ^bfirstlings of their ^cflocks, for an offering unto the Lord. And Adam was ^dobedient unto the commandments of the Lord.

6 And after many days an ^aangel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer ^bsacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me.

7 And then the angel spake, saying: This thing is a ^asimilitude of the ^bsacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of ^cgrace and ^dtruth.

What happened with you this week at Church?

Sunday June 15, 2008 - Services Sullivan Hollow Second Ward

Priesthood Opening
The scripture given today described the things that Amulek gave up in order to go with Alma.

Alma 15
16 And it came to pass that Alma and Amulek, Amulek having ^aforsaken all his gold, and silver, and his precious things, which were in the land of Ammonihah, for the word of God, he being ^brejected by those who were once his friends and also by his father and his kindred;

The bishop shared with us that "You just never know when." He was commenting on people receiving the gospel. Those who you thought would never accept the gospel and even said would accept the gospel, may someday accept. You also don't know when, where, or how missionary successes will be opened up to you.

Elders' Quorum

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith
Chapter 11: The Organization and Destiny of the True and Living Church p.135–47

The instructor passed out a handout with various graphs illustrating the Church's growth.

Someone stated that the biggest adversary of the Church is the members complacency.

Helaman 5
12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the ^arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your ^bfoundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty ^cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

The Church is the same no matter where you go. No matter the town. No matter the country. Many other churches have doctrine and ways of doing thing that varies depending on what is popular in those areas or in those cultures.

The instructor showed the video of number of stakes over time.

Sunday School
Book of Mormon Lesson 22: “Have Ye Received His Image in Your Countenances?” p98
The world works from the outside in. The Lord works from the inside out and changes hearts.

Conversion and baptism get used interchangeably, but baptism is just a step toward conversion. Sometimes we also talk as if a person who has been in the Church from birth and baptized when they are eight has not been converted.

Alma 5: 14

14 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, have ye ^aspiritually been ^bborn of God? Have ye received his image in your countenances? Have ye experienced this mighty ^cchange in your hearts?

Check your countenance before you leave your house. Your countenance is deeper than just your facial expression. It is our countenance that reveals who we are inside.

Sacrament Meeting
Girl reported on girl's camp.

First Speaker
Mosiah 17
2 But there was one among them whose name was ^aAlma, he also being a descendant of Nephi. And he was a young man, and he ^bbelieved the words which Abinadi had spoken, for he knew concerning the iniquity which Abinadi had testified against them; therefore he began to plead with the king that he would not be angry with Abinadi, but suffer that he might depart in peace.

Second Speaker
They spoke on the priesthood.
Because of transgressions and apostasy the priesthood was taken from the people.

The children of Israel were lead by the priesthood. Christ gave the apostles the priesthood and they set up the Church.

The primary children sang to the fathers for Father's Day.

Third Speaker
You should not feel you are imposing on your home teachers to have them come give you a blessing.

We should not solicit people to give them blessings. Blessings rely on the faith of the person receiving the blessing. Part of that faith is asking for it.

The bishop gave a few words.
He asked, what can I give Heavenly Father for Father's Day?