Please check out my post on this lesson from 2016:
https://gospeldoctrine2016.blogspot.com/2016/01/book-of-mormon-4-things-which-i-saw.html
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| Quentin L. Cook |
Nephi was shown events from the
Saviour's life that bore testament to His great love for the people then and
for us now. I often feel overwhelmed in the knowledge that I know the Lord
loves me. I feel so blessed and honoured when I know prayers have been answered
and blessings given. In the October 2017 General Conference, Elder Quentin L Cook had this to
say: ""The Saviour’s example of humility and sacrifice for all
mankind is the most profound event in history. The Saviour, even as a member of
the Godhead, was willing to come to earth as a lowly infant and begin an
existence that included teaching and healing His brothers and sisters and
ultimately suffering indescribable pain in Gethsemane and on the cross in order
to perfect His Atonement. This act of love and humility on the part of Christ
is known as His condescension."
The love and humility of the
Saviour are portrayed in the pictures below. They show His
great love, compassion, and caring. I know the Lord loves me. I need to demonstrate
my love by being obedient and living His laws.
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| Jesus Christ, Saviour and Redeemer |
Nephi further witnessed the power
of Satan. We can see his power around us every day, In the April 2019 General
Conference, our prophet, President Russell M. Nelson said, “The battle with sin
is real. The adversary is quadrupling his efforts to disrupt testimonies and
impede the work of the Lord. He is arming his minions with potent weapons to
keep us from partaking of the joy and love of the Lord.” A great
description of how Satan is doing this, was provided by Elder Gene R. Cook in
the April 1982 General Conference. He said, “In this world of illusions, Satan
sows selfishness, unbelief, fear, doubt, greed, spiritual instability, and a
general concern for self into men’s hearts. He is a master builder of spiritual
detours to waste time, divert attention from that which is good, and diminish
spiritual receptivity. In these days of increasing deception, and more to come,
one must be aware of Satan’s spiritual snares and be sure of his own
discernment." All we need to do is look at our Facebook feed or watch the
news on television to see Satan at work. We know, from Nephi’s vision, that God
will help us to resist Satan and his wiles.
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| Satan at work |
Come Follow Me is one tool to help us keep the love of God in our hearts
and minds continually and prevent Satan and his followers from influencing us
to do wrong and move away from light and truth. We need to read our scriptures,
ponder and pray about them, and then listen for the promptings of the Spirit. At
the beginning of
Chapter15,
Nephi returned to his family following his vision. He found his brothers
arguing about the things that their father Lehi had told them. In
verse
8, he asked them, “Have ye inquired of the Lord?“. In
verse
9, they replied, “We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto
us.” Although Nephi must have been tired from his spiritual experience, he took
the time to explain to his brothers that they could know of the things Lehi had
spoken. They needed to soften their hearts, ask in faith, and believe that an
answer would be given. In
John W.
Welch’s notes on Come, Follow Me, he says, “As human beings, we all know
the general result we want. Most of us want good outcomes as often as possible.
What we lack, more often than not, is the understanding of how to get from where
we are now to where we want to be. Because the path is unclear, we end up
disagreeing about the means and methods to employ to get where we want to go... What they were missing, of course, was the reality and importance of
individual, personal revelation.” I rely on personal revelation to help me
understand scriptural passages. Most importantly, I would not be able to stand
in front of the Gospel Doctrine class every second Sunday, without asking for
personal revelation, relying on the Spirit’s direction.
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| Come Follow Me manuals |
I introduced my class to a
resource that I have used extensively, that provides an in-depth understanding
of the chronology of the Book of Mormon. Events from the Book of Mormon are
shown together with Biblical events and important periods in world history. I
would recommend this to anyone who would like a general overview. It can be
found at:
https://www.bookofmormontimeline.com/.
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| Book of Mormon Timeline |
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