Priesthood lesson question

[Anonymous]

Good advise, that i plan on following:) I think i’ll mention some things about JS being the village seer along with seerstone etc. The conclusion will be that God uses all of us wherever we are in our culture etc.

Also that the first vision shows that we should always question status quo in our own lives and in the church and look for further ligth and knowledge.

Thanks

[Anonymous]

I believe he was – that it is our perceptions of what that means that make it tricky.

I probably would talk a bit about how many people couldn’t accept him because they expected prophets to be perfect and sinless and almost sterile in a way – and that it’s easy for people now to view our current leaders the same way. I might reference Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk where he said church leaders have made mistakes and that God must be frustrated at times since we are all he has to do his work.

[Anonymous]

Whew, rough lesson IMO. Bravo for accepting it with stride. If it were me teaching, I would completely skip the first section and start with the first vision. Discussion topics could include the concept of actively seeking after truth and being inquisitive. Like others have said, I would talk about Joseph as an instrument, and just what kind of instrument he was, ie “the humble things if the earth will make manifest his word.” If you have acces to The Crucible of Doubt, there’s a good section under the chapter about hero worship, which discusses Gods use of mortals to accomplish his work. Very insightful. You could also talk about how Joseph never claimed to be speaking as a prophet at all times and wanted his opinions to be regarded as a mans opinions.

The lesson talks quite a bit about the last dispensation etc, I would change it up to talk about the continuous unfolding of the restoration, using Uchctdorfs talk: “Are we sleeping through the restoration?” as a guide.

Anyway, good luck and I applaud you for taking on such a difficult topic.

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[Anonymous]

Thanks. I wanted to talk about more controversial stuff but there was an investigator there plus I was super tired (slept horribly) and didn’t really feel on top of things.

I talked a little about seer stones and divining rods and that God uses where we are geographically and culturally.

We should always question the waters we swim in including our own religious life and even the church we live in. Always follow JS example of questioning and thereby remaining spiritually curious no matter what the source.

There is no middle man between us and God. No bishop of GA but only us and God. I guess that was the main points. I don’t know if people felt that boat was rocket but I tried to:)

Thanks for the suggestions.

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[Anonymous]

It’s me again:)

Giving lesson 13 about temples.

What would your angle be on this lesson? I guess mine will be the symbolism thing. That it the temple rituals have changed so many times that we have to conclude that it’s not the actual rituals etc that are important but that we are doing something that points towards God/makes us holy.

A good question could be: what difference could it make in our lives that we se ourselves as holy? (Becoming like God etc).

I could make a positive list and a negative list.

These are just some thought from the top of my head here, but any suggestions?

This could be a very hard lesson to do for me since I am not a traditional literal believer. I’ll have to navigate the mine field, but I think I could turn it around and make it more symbolic and meaningful.

Thanks:)

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[Anonymous]

FWIW

ToPotC – Chapter 13 (The Temple)

I like the direction you are thinking of taking things and would be really interested in hearing people’s take on it.

I’m going to be a simple attendee but I don’t think I can pass on raising a comment about letting whether or not someone attends the temple get in the way of our happiness or the way we treat family and friends.

[Anonymous]

Bear wrote:

These are just some thought from the top of my head here, but any suggestions?

This could be a very hard lesson to do for me since I am not a traditional literal believer. I’ll have to navigate the mine field, but I think I could turn it around and make it more symbolic and meaningful.

A good opening might not present itself, but I think it would be so great if you could reveal more of your non-literal beliefs. It might help everyone – the literal believers to be more flexible and accepting of non-literals, and the non-literals to be more patient and constructive. Your positivity really comes through in these posts, so I tend to think you’d be able to pull it off.

[Anonymous]

Thanks:)

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[Anonymous]

[Admin Note]: We don’t like to have concurrent threads about the exact same topic, so I am closing this one and asking everyone to comment on the one that is part of the new series we will have running.

I hope ypuunderstand, bear.

[Author]

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