1.
Do We Feel
Like We Fail at Scripture Reading?
“For most of my life, I’ve misunderstood guilt. I knew on
some level I needed to feel guilt in order to bring me to repentance. I thought
true repentance meant I had to feel really bad about myself for a long time.
That’s how it works, right? Wrong. I
was mistaking guilt for shame.
Guilt = I did something bad, something not in line with my
values.
Shame = I am bad.
For example, let’s
say you haven’t read your scriptures all week. If you think, “Ugh! I’m the
worst! I’m never righteous enough,” that is shame. If you think, “Hmm, this
business of not reading my scriptures all week—that is not in line with my
values. I made a mistake. I better fix it,” that is guilt.”
2.
Why Study
our Scriptures More Deeply?
Whatever level of spirituality we now enjoy in our lives;
whatever degree of faith in Jesus Christ we now have; whatever strength of
commitment and consecration, whatever degree of obedience or hope or charity is
ours..., it will not be sufficient for
the work that lies ahead.... •We need to educate the rising generation more
deeply and more powerfully than we have ever done before or than anyone has
ever done before.... •The rising generation needs that deep learning.
Deep learning is inherently a spiritual experience. The
rising generation will learn deeply only insofar as the redeeming and
strengthening powers of Christ work in their lives, purifying, sanctifying, and
qualifying them to receive His grace and the gifts He has prepared for them.
They must diligently work and seek learning, but they must also be cleansed
through the atoning blood of Christ so that they can receive more light and be
taught by the Holy Ghost.
The rising generation needs that deep learning because the
world they will face will be both great and terrible—there will be increased
light and power from heaven, and there will be even more terrible wickedness
and turmoil and confusion. They will need to be grounded in the plain and
simple truths of the gospel, the gospel will need to be deep in their hearts,
and they will need what President Russell M. Nelson has called resilient faith
in Christ: “Why do we need such resilient faith? Because difficult days are
ahead. Rarely in the future will it be easy or popular to be a faithful
Latter-day Saint.
Attacks against the Church, its doctrine, and our way of life
are going to increase. Because of this, we need women who have a bedrock
understanding of the doctrine of Christ and who will use that understanding to
teach and help raise a sin-resistant generation.
When I was a young man growing up in southeastern Idaho, I
remember frequently hearing a quote from Elder Heber C. Kimball given in
1867:
“To meet the difficulties that are coming, it will be necessary for you to have a knowledge of the truth of this work for yourselves. The difficulties will be of such a character that the man or woman who does not possess his personal knowledge or witness will fall. … The time will come when no man nor woman will be able to [stand] on borrowed light.”12
More than ever in the 64 years of my life, this prophetic
statement by Heber C. Kimball is coming to pass. Deep, continuing conversion is
becoming much more important for those desiring to keep their covenants. It is
becoming more and more precarious to stand on borrowed light.
As evil increases in the world, there is a compensatory
spiritual power for the righteous. As the world slides from its spiritual
moorings, the Lord prepares the way for those who seek Him, offering them greater
assurance, greater confirmation, and greater confidence in the spiritual
direction they are traveling. The gift of the Holy Ghost becomes a brighter
light in the emerging twilight.
My brothers and sisters, as evil increases in the world,
there is a compensatory power, an additional spiritual endowment, a revelatory
gift for the righteous.
I like to think of it this way: If two people are walking
together along a very gentle terrain, one lantern is often sufficient. But when
the time comes, as it does with each child, that he or she steps away from us
to take his or her own journey, our light is no longer sufficient to light his
or her way. And while one may be linked tightly to a companion—if you are
fortunate enough to have a companion of faith—if we unexpectedly face jagged
rocks and uneven cliffs, each needs his or her own lantern to light the path.
3.
How Can We Improve
our Study? Here are a couple of ideas that have worked for me. Bring
some ideas that have worked for you.
Are you willing to pray to know
how to pray for more power? The Lord will teach you. Are you willing to search
the scriptures and feast on the words of Christ—to study earnestly in order to
have more power? If we will humbly present ourselves before the Lord and ask
Him to teach us, He will show us how to increase our access to His power.
2
. Use
Colors to Mark Your Scriptures
Example:
·
The Strengthening aspect
of Christ’s Atonement
o
Strength, power, grace
·
The Redeeming Aspect of Christ’s
Atonement, repentance
·
The Savior
·
Holy Ghost, revelation
·
Strategies of Satan, sin, and evil
·
Family
I want to review with you three
basic ways or methods of obtaining living water from the scriptural reservoir:
(1) reading the scriptures from beginning to end,
(2) studying the scriptures by topic, and
(3) searching the scriptures for connections,
patterns, and themes.
4.
Always
begin with some time in the Book of Mormon:
PRESIDENT MONSON:
This
morning I speak about the power of the Book of Mormon and the critical need we
have as members of this Church to study, ponder, and apply its teachings in our
lives. If you are not reading the Book of Mormon each day, please do so. If
you will read it prayerfully and with a sincere desire to know the truth, the
Holy Ghost will manifest its truth to you.
My dear
associates in the work of the Lord, I implore each of us to prayerfully
study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day. As we do so:
1.
We will be in a
position to hear the voice of the Spirit,
2.
to resist
temptation, to overcome doubt and fear, and
3.
to receive heaven’s
help in our lives.
I so testify with all my heart.
PRESIDENT NELSON
3 Promises by President Nelson: My dear brothers and sisters,
1) I promise that as you prayerfully study the
Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day.
2) I promise that as you ponder what you study, the
windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to
your own questions and direction for your own life.
3) I promise that as you daily immerse yourself
in the Book of Mormon, you can be immunized against the evils
of the day, even the gripping plague of pornography and other mind-numbing
addictions.
PRESIDENT HINCKLEY: I promise
you [if you] read the Book of Mormon, there will come into your lives:
1. An
added measure of the Spirit
2. A
strengthened resolution to obey
3. A
stronger testimony of Jesus
PRESIDENT BENSON:
“ I
counsel you... to make reading in the Book of Mormon a few
minutes each day a lifelong practice.
There
is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you
begin a serious study of the book.
The power:
1. To
resist temptation
2. To
avoid deception
3. Stay
on strait path
When
you begin to hunger and thirst after the Book of Mormon, you will find life in
greater and greater abundance.
PRESIDENT
KIMBALL:
I find
that when I get casual in my relationships with divinity and when it seems that
no divine ear is listening and no divine voice is speaking, that I am far, far
away. If I immerse myself in the scriptures the distance narrows and the
spirituality returns.
