Sunday School

Ok, how about those Sundays where all the meetings are a little different, but the themes tie together quite nicely?

Sacrament Meeting (Main Meeting)-Reverence
--Not just the be quiet and listen in church kind of reverence, but reverence for the sacred. Reverence for God who has given us everything.  Reverence so that we can know what He wants for us.

Sunday School (the real class-not my mind meanderings)
--The Judges (Book from the Bible)
Ok, so I didn't take notes, but I did listen.  The following is from the text of the lesson:

The purpose of this lesson was "to encourage class members to seek influences that will strengthen them in living the gospel in a challenging world."
Through the following stories we were taught ways to do that:
1. Children of Israel & the apostasy cylce--the strength of righteous parents and the consequences of forsaking their ways
2. Deborah—the strength of a righteous friend
3. Gideon—the strength of faith in God
4. Samson—the strength of covenants and the consequences of breaking them

Find the full lesson here.

Relief Society (Women's Meeting)
Our lesson came from Seeking to Know God, Our Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ

Elder Robert D. Hales Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 

As prophesied, we live in a time when the darkness of secularism is deepening around us. Belief in God is widely questioned and even attacked in the name of political, social, and even religious causes. Atheism, or the doctrine that there is no God, is fast spreading across the world.


Even so, as members of the restored Church of Jesus Christ, we declare that “we believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.”1

Some wonder, why is belief in God so important? Why did the Savior say, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”?2

Without God, life would end at the grave and our mortal experiences would have no purpose. Growth and progress would be temporary, accomplishment without value, challenges without meaning. There would be no ultimate right and wrong and no moral responsibility to care for one another as fellow children of God. Indeed, without God, there would be no mortal or eternal life.

And this might have been my favorite quote from the whole lesson. It really stood out to me:
I testify that the way to know the truth about God is through the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost, the third member of the Godhead, is a personage of spirit. His work is to “testify of [God]”19 and to “teach [us] all things.”20


However, we must be careful not to constrain His influence. When we do not do what is right or when our outlook is dominated by skepticism, cynicism, criticism, and irreverence toward others and their beliefs, the Spirit cannot be with us. We then act in a way that the prophets describe as the natural man.

“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”21 This “natural man is an enemy to God, … and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, … and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, [and] full of love.”22

If we do not yield to the gentle influence of the Holy Ghost, we stand in jeopardy of becoming like Korihor, an anti-Christ in the Book of Mormon. Not only did Korihor disbelieve in God, but he also ridiculed the Savior, the Atonement, and the spirit of prophecy, falsely teaching that there is no God and no Christ.23
For the full text of this talk, go here. Then you can check out what all those numbered footnotes lead to.

So, do you see the ties there?  I hope so.
Happy Sunday.