- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
I was sustained as Branch Mission Leader last week. I was grateful for your support in getting me this far. The last week has been spiritually very difficult for a variety of reasons. Given we’re a small branch I’ll probably be teaching Gospel Principles most weeks. Initially I was worried. I simply don’t believe several things that are taught in the book. I’m aware that I’ve a responsibility to the Elders and investigators to not be overly critical or heterodox but I also want to retain my integrity when I teach. The lesson that greeted me today was the Millenium! My initial thought was: “Yikes!” I don’t believe in a literal millenium. I consider the scriptures about it to be metaphorical of the kind of experience we hope for and look forward to. A utopia to aspire to. Initially I considered batting it off to an Elder. But then I remembered that I had already agreed with the Branch President that he was happy for me to do it in my own personal way. I’ve really enjoyed following
Ray’s weekly report of his youth Sunday School classI’ll also be adding them to
my blog
The Millenium
http://www.lds.org/manual/gospel-principles/chapter-45-the-millennium GP: A thousand years of peace, love, and joy will begin on the earth at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This thousand-year period is called the Millennium. The scriptures and the prophets help us understand what it will be like to live on the earth during the Millennium.
We have little detailed information on the Millenium. Many of the scriptures use metaphor to describe what will happen. I personally spend very little time thinking about the Millennium as a time or experience.
I think I will probably not be alive when the second coming happens so instead today I want to try to focus on learning the principles taught in scriptures about the Millenium and apply them to my life today.
In the October 1971 Ensign, Elder Legrand Richards said:
Today I thought I would like to say a few words about the kind of a foundation we have for our faith, and what we live for, and what our aims and our ambitions really are. I think of the time the beautiful temple here on this block was erected, over a hundred years ago. When the foundation was being laid, we are told that it was sixteen feet wide, and at one time President Brigham Young came and saw the workmen throwing in chipped granite. He made them take it out and put in those great granite blocks with this explanation: “We are building this temple to stand through the millennium.” Isn’t that a good thought? Each one of us ought to want to build our lives and help our families to build their lives so that we can stand through the millennium.Principle One: It won’t only be LDS.GP: Because of the destruction of the wicked at the Savior’s Second Coming, only righteous people will live on the earth at the beginning of the Millennium. They will be those who have lived virtuous and honest lives. These people will inherit either the terrestrial or celestial kingdom.
The “principle for today” is a reminder that there are many good people across many faiths and life-philosophies who, although not of our faith, are still disciples of Jesus Christ or followers of God’s will for them.
In October 2001 Conference (explain General Conference), Elder M. Russell Ballard said:
“We must understand however that not everyone is going to accept our doctrine of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For the most part, our neighbors not of our faith are good, honorable people-every bit as good and honorable as we strive to be. They care about their families, just like we do. They want to make the world a better place, just like we do. They are kind and loving and generous and faithful, just like we seek to be.”http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2001/10/doctrine-of-inclusion?lang=eng In April 1995, Elder Dallin H. Oaks said:
“We believe that most religious leaders and followers are sincere believers who love God and understand and serve him to the best of their abilities. We are indebted to the men and women who kept the light of faith and learning alive through the centuries to the present day… We honor them as servants of God.”http://www.lds.org/general-conference/1995/04/apostasy-and-restoration?lang=eng Joseph Smith said:
“The inquiry is frequently made of me. ‘Wherein do you differ from others in your religious views?’ In reality an essence we do not differ so far in our religious views, but that we could all drink into one principle of love. One of the grand fundamental principles of ‘Mormonism’ is to receive truth, let it come from whence it may.”Principle 2: The Work of the Church during the Millennium teaches us about God’s love for all his childrenGP: There will be two great works for members of the Church during the Millennium: temple work and missionary work. Temple work involves the ordinances that are necessary for exaltation. These include baptism, the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the temple ordinances—the endowment, temple marriage, and the sealing together of family units.
Many people have died without receiving these ordinances. People on the earth must perform these ordinances for them. This work is now being done in the temples of the Lord. There is too much work to finish before the Millennium begins, so it will be completed during that time.
The other great work during the Millennium will be missionary work. The gospel will be taught with great power to all people. Eventually there will be no need to teach others the first principles of the gospel because “they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:34).
I love the principle that we are taught in this. God loves all of his children and will never give up on us.
In the General Conference of April 1924, Elder Orson F. Whitney said:
“Our Heavenly Father is far more merciful, infinitely more charitable than even the best of his servants. And the Everlasting Gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite minds can comprehend.”http://www.lds.org/general-conference/print/1987/10/a-champion-of-youth?lang=eng Elder Boyd K. Packer told of the following experience in a talk given in October 1995:
“Some years ago I was in Washington, D.C., with President Harold B. Lee. Early one morning he called me to come into his hotel room. He was sitting in his robe reading Gospel Doctrine, by President Joseph F. Smith, and he said, “Listen to this!”“Jesus had not finished his work when his body was slain, neither did he finish it after his resurrection from the dead; although he had accomplished the purpose for which he then came to the earth, he had not fulfilled all his work. And when will he? Not until he has redeemed and saved every son and daughter of our father Adam that have been or ever will be born upon this earth to the end of time, except the sons of perdition. That is his mission. We will not finish our work until we have saved ourselves, and then not until we shall have saved all depending upon us; for we are to become saviors upon Mount Zion, as well as Christ. We are called to this mission.”
“There is never a time,” the Prophet Joseph Smith taught, “when the spirit is too old to approach God. All are within the reach of pardoning mercy, who have not committed the unpardonable sin.”
https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1995/10/the-brilliant-morning-of-forgiveness?lang=eng Principle Three: Binding Satan through righteousness.GP: During the Millennium, Satan will be bound. This means he will not have power to tempt those who are living at that time.
D&C 43:
30 For the great Millennium, of which I have spoken by the mouth of my servants, shall come.
31 For Satan shall be bound, and when he is loosed again he shall only reign for a little season, and then cometh the end of the earth.
1 Nep 22:
25 And he gathereth his children from the four quarters of the earth; and he numbereth his sheep, and they know him; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd; and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture.
26 And because of the righteousness of his people, Satan has no power; wherefore, he cannot be loosed for the space of many years; for he hath no power over the hearts of the people, for they dwell in righteousness, and the Holy One of Israel reigneth.
Principle for today: How can we effectively start to bind Satan today?
Mosiah 5:1-2
4 Nephi 1:1-3, 15-18
Principle 4: Jesus to Reign on the EarthGP: During the Millennium, Jesus will “reign personally upon the earth” (Articles of Faith 1:10). Joseph Smith explained that Jesus will “reign over the Saints and come down and instruct”… The Lord will be king over all the earth, and all mankind literally under his sovereignty, and every nation under the heavens will have to acknowledge his authority, and bow to his scepter. Those who serve him in righteousness will have communications with God, and with Jesus
Principle for today: How can we make Jesus Christ our personal king and sovereign today?
In November 2011, President Thomas S. Monson said:
“When you choose to follow Christ, you choose to be changed… The world will shape human nature, but Christ can change human nature, and changed men and women can change the world.”1 Peter 2:21
John 13:15
2 Nephi 31:10, 16-17
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved youJohn 13:34 mackay11 wrote:Initially I considered batting it off to an Elder.
No way! I’ve been looking forward to British Branch ML “My New Calling” posts.
:thumbup: Ann wrote:mackay11 wrote:Initially I considered batting it off to an Elder.
No way! I’ve been looking forward to British Branch ML “My New Calling” posts.
:thumbup: Thanks Ann. It’s this forum that gave me the confidence and conviction that I could… even “needed” to do this.
I was handed a few bits and pieces by the stake HC today. He also reminded me to start making goals. I currently have one goal. Get the 4 Elders as many DAs over Christmas as possible. It’s the season for eating and being with welcoming families!
mackay11 wrote:I think I will probably not be alive when the second coming happens so instead today I want to try to focus on learning the principles taught in scriptures about the Millenium and apply them to my life today.
mackay11 wrote:Principle for today: How can we effectively start to bind Satan today?
I really like that. After all, the gospel should be about having a happy life
now, not a plan to defer happiness to another life/time. I’m glad you started this tread. I tried to send you a PM to see how things were going. I had it typed out but there was an issue with the submission process. I got some sort of error saying that the recipient wasn’t valid (even though I clicked on send PM from your profile). Oh well.
As stated in the other thread I’ve been a WML for a little over a year now so I’d be interested to hear your experiences.
:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: 
:thumbup: :thumbup: Seriously smiling widely while reading the entire lesson.
Well done, friend. Well done.
Old-Timer wrote::clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :thumbup: :thumbup: Seriously smiling widely while reading the entire lesson.
Well done, friend. Well done.
Thanks Ray. Having been following your Sunday school thread I feel like a young padawan. You’ve given me the confidence to believe a “thoughtful” approach to teaching is possible.
Next week is the “final judgement.” Followed by “exaltation.” That’s going to be interesting. There’s a great quote from Joseph Smith I’ll dig out. I think I’ll also focus more on how we are our best judge. Perhaps see if I can bring in a bit of the Givens approach to our divine nature and being our very best selves.
The discussion went really well. When we got to the Mosiah 5:1-2 reference (people had been filled with the spirit of goodwill having heard King Benjamin’s sermon on service. They didn’t even have the desire to act negatively). I asked the class whether they had felt the same way when they surrounded themselves with positive influences or read the words of Jesus Christ with the missionaries.
A guy I didn’t know too well, in his 20s, wearing jeans, a hoodie and a cap pulled down over his eyes looked up. I was blown away by his response:
He said last year he has got out of prison. He said he’d rightly been put away having got mixed up in the wrong crowd and done some really bad things. After getting out he had moved away from the bad circle of friends and had determined to make a start in life. He said that when he came to church or spent time with the missionaries he felt a sense of purpose and value.
It was a moment of realisation that even though there are many things I no longer believe or believe differently that it’s still an organisation and group that is an influence for good. I could of course be involved in acts that are good somewhere else. But there is work enough to do here too.
To end the lesson I asked him to read the President Monson quote about Christ being able to change us. It was wonderfully more meaningful to hear him read it.
nibbler wrote:mackay11 wrote:I think I will probably not be alive when the second coming happens so instead today I want to try to focus on learning the principles taught in scriptures about the Millenium and apply them to my life today.
mackay11 wrote:Principle for today: How can we effectively start to bind Satan today?
I really like that. After all, the gospel should be about having a happy life
now, not a plan to defer happiness to another life/time. I’m glad you started this tread. I tried to send you a PM to see how things were going. I had it typed out but there was an issue with the submission process. I got some sort of error saying that the recipient wasn’t valid (even though I clicked on send PM from your profile). Oh well.
As stated in the other thread I’ve been a WML for a little over a year now so I’d be interested to hear your experiences.
The delights of modern technology!
It will be interesting to compare notes. The new DL seems very strict. He checks rules with the MP. He has said no to an invite from a councillor in the branch presidency to have all 4 Elders over for the day after Christmas. Rigid rule keeper. Maybe it was my imagination, but he seemed to giving me a knowing stare while I was teaching. Maybe the fact that I had 4 days of stubble didn’t help much.
I’m probably being paranoid. Once I promised them every second correlation meeting at Subway he seemed a little more upbeat
Sometimes we forget how powerful the Gospel message can be when the sick hear and feel the message of the physician. Ha, don’t get me started. Ok, so I’ll start 
Almost every time we get a new Elder we have about a months worth of correlation meetings where right before the end the new guy will say “just one more thing… I was reading in the handbook and it says we should be…” There are usually a few “just one more things” at the end of all those first meetings.
After a while the strict obedience thing dries up a bit. Cynically, sometime after they realize that you aren’t in a position where you can promote them to SC/DL/ZL… or maybe after they realize that you aren’t the type to hide in a bush and use binoculars to spy on them so you can tattle to the MP when you see them drinking a soda. I believe that there are some WML that do this.
One of the more memorable examples was when the missionaries went to a regional training meeting given by some GAs. They came back with Elder So-and-so told us we need to call the WML every night to check in. I let that slide because at the time I was largely apathetic towards life in general, let alone church. I was firmly entrenched in stage 4 at the time. What I wanted to say was call me when you need something. If that means twice a day, call twice a day but don’t call just for the sake of calling.
I’ll say that I do enjoy the energy that each new blood brings. Both to me and the ward. We’ve had some very good young men come through our unit and it’s been a growing experience for me in working with them. I was a missionary myself, so I know the sacrifice they made to be here serving in our area. I’m trying to come around to where I can help them meet the expectation they had coming into the mission. Keep those “just one more things coming”
Old-Timer wrote:Sometimes we forget how powerful the Gospel message can be when the sick hear and feel the message of the physician.
Missionary work is/was one of the few remaining things I’ve had to reconcile with where I’m currently at, and this is the realization I’ve come to. It’s a beautiful thing for people to remain in their faith if that is working for them, but there are many people out there that don’t have anything to rely on and if all that effort in doing missionary work can reach one of those people then it was all worth it. A perspective I should have had all along, but it took a FC for me to learn it.
Oh yeah, mackay11 wrote:Maybe the fact that I had 4 days of stubble didn’t help much.
I wonder what the more strict missionaries think of me. I
reallydon’t look the part. 4 weeksof stubble from time to time and more often than not my shirt isn’t white. 😯 😆 When I go out on exchanges I don’t wear church clothes either, just whatever I’m wearing at the time. I feel like it’s my personal responsibility to show others that we aren’t all stuffed shirts.I like working with our group of missionaries. Policies and procedures aside you can tell that the they genuinely love the people. I’ve had really, really good missionaries for many moons now.
I’ve been with some missionaries where it seemed as though they were only motivated to have a baptism, sometimes even coming across as being a bit manipulative in the process. I’m sure their heart is in the right place but now that I have a bit of direction restored in my own life I think I’ll use my calling to help teach missionaries to love and serve above all else.
I have mentioned to the group in the past that my outlook had changed; take or leave baptism into the church, helping people live a Christlike principle that they weren’t living before was a huge success and would make the world a better place.
Quote:When I go out on exchanges I don’t wear church clothes either, just whatever I’m wearing at the time. I feel like it’s my personal responsibility to show others that we aren’t all stuffed shirts.
I do that, as well – for the same reason, but worded as showing people that we are regular people, also.
nibbler wrote:Missionary work is/was one of the few remaining things I’ve had to reconcile with where I’m currently at, and this is the realization I’ve come to. It’s a beautiful thing for people to remain in their faith if that is working for them, but there are many people out there that don’t have anything to rely on and if all that effort in doing missionary work can reach one of those people then it was all worth it.
A perspective I should have had all along, but it took a FC for me to learn it. True. I tell myself better late than never.
In PEC last week the topic of “lost sheep” came up. Apparently we’ve just had 30 names added to our list who no-one had heard of. It’s something to do with a COB department using address databases (electoral registers/phone book etc) to track down members who move away from one ward and don’t leave a forwarding address. I made the comment: “If a family has not attended for 20 years and then have moved away and chosen not to give the church a new address do you think they’re better left alone? If they’re clearly not interested then maybe we shouldn’t bother them. They know how to find the church if they ever change their mind.”
I’m trying to not be creeped out by the whole thing. It makes it feel a bit “stalker.”
But I start from what I do know. I know that the men sat around the PEC table meeting have pure and sincere intentions. When they visit these “lost sheep” it’s not because they are being stalkers or creeps or trying “get them back for their money.” They are doing it because of genuine desire to help people and hope to help a neighbour rediscover something that they themselves find dear.
With the knowledge of the attitudes immediately around me, is there any reason to jump to a different conclusion as to the motives of people in other church positions who are instigating this program?
mackay11 wrote:With the knowledge of the attitudes immediately around me, is there any reason to jump to a different conclusion as to the motives of people in other church positions who are instigating this program?
I don’t think so. Despite their faults, I really do think the vast majority of local leaders and central leadership of the church are well meaning.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.