The REAL Super Hero

Gordon and I just watched Ant-Man and Thor.  We quite enjoyed them and may even watch a few more of the Marvel series in preparation for watching Endgame!  No promises, but it's a possibility!

With all the excitement about superheroes who save the world, I hope you will take advantage of the great and precious opportunity this week and next to teach your children about the true superhero who really has saved the world!  (See John 16:33:  I have overcome the world.)

I have written a hymn that I am submitting for consideration to be included in the new hymnbook being produced by the church.  I wrote it with a quote in mind that I recently read by President J. Reuben Clark.  I can't find it again to quote it exactly, but in essence he said that while we may teach that Jesus Christ was a great teacher and that he performed many miracles, etc., the most essential thing we must teach about Him is that He is the Firstborn Son of God in the Spirit and the Only Begotten Son in the flesh and as such, that He performed a mission in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross of Calvary that no other could have done or will ever do, that through His great Atoning Sacrifice, He is our Savior and Redeemer.  In this, He stands alone.  Because of this, we must always remember Him, evermore worship Him, and with all our heart, might, mind and soul, follow Him.

You may want to review the words to the hymn in connection with the Come Follow Me lesson this week and next.  You could talk about what each verse represents and why the name of the Savior in that verse applies to that event.

For instance, in the 2nd verse, I use the name Only Begotten Son.  What does that mean and how does that apply to the Savior's experience in the Garden of Gethsemane?

• Only Begotten Son means that Jesus is the only person ever born who had an immortal Father and a mortal mother, so His body really did have superhero qualities that no other person's body has.  He literally had a body that allowed Him to save each of us from death:  physical death and spiritual death.
• As Only Begotten Son, He had a body capable of suffering infinite pain and was not subject to death until He willed it to die, thus, making Him capable of suffering the Infinite Atonement and not dying until "It [was] finished."  
• As Only Begotten Son, He was also capable of living a sinless life in mortality, which allowed Him to satisfy the law of justice when, as sinless, He suffered for our sins.  He owed justice no penalty personally, so He was able to pay the price for our sins.
• As Only Begotten Son, He could love His Father and us perfectly and obey His Father perfectly, so that when it came time for Him to suffer, even though He asked if the Father could take this trial away from Him, in the same breath He could also say, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done."  

I hope you can use this hymn to teach your children about the greatest superhero in the universe, the Only One who has saved us from death and the Only One who will be able to abolish evil and suffering and bring peace to the earth!

Here is the text to the hymn:

ALWAYS REMEMBER HIM

Je-sus, the Son of Man,

Cen-tral to Fa-ther’s plan,

Said, “Here am I,

“Send me to live, to die!”

Al-ways re-mem-ber Him

E-ver-more wor-ship Him

Come, now, come fol-low Him,

Je-sus, our King!

Je-sus, the Sin-less One,

On-ly Be-got-ten Son,

In ag-o-ny,

Suf-fered for you and me!

Al-ways re-mem-ber Him

E-ver-more wor-ship Him

Come, now, come fol-low Him,

Je-sus, our King!

Je-sus, On Cal-v’ry’s cross

Died will-ing-ly for us!

The Great I AM,

God’s sa-cri-fi-cial Lamb!

Al-ways re-mem-ber Him

E-ver-more wor-ship Him

Come, now, come fol-low Him,

Je-sus, our King!

Je-sus, first from the grave,

A-rose, our souls to save;

Now King of Kings

With heal-ing in His wings!

Al-ways re-mem-ber Him

E-ver-more wor-ship Him

Come, now, come fol-low Him,

Je-sus, our King!

WARNINGS from President Russell M. Nelson

As you study JS-Matthew, Mark 13 and Luke 21, you may want to also consider these latter-day warnings of President Russell M. Nelson:

Given between April 2018-May 2019

As cited in the Come Follow Me Podcast for May 27-June 2, 2019

by Scot and Maurine Proctor

Scot:

We live in such troubled times and they will get worse.  President Nelson just counseled the saints in the South Pacific with these words:  “Now here’s a warning for you: There’s trouble ahead.  Prepare for attacks from the Adversary.  He will attack you through your God-given appetites. Please protect yourselves from Satan’s traps, including harmful drugs and pornography."
 (May 25, 2019, Papeete, Tahiti)

Maurine:

Here’s another warning from President Nelson:

Now, as President of His Church, I plead with you who have distanced yourselves from the Church and with you who have not yet really sought to know that the Savior’s Church has been restored. Do the spiritual work to find out for yourselves, and please do it now. Time is running out. (“Come Follow Me”, April 2019 General Conference. https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2019/04/46nelson?lang=eng)

Scot:

“There are difficult days ahead,” the 94-year-old prophet said at an outdoor devotional in Samoa. “Please protect your children. Help them to know the Lord and love Him and keep His commandments and be free from the shackles of addiction and bondage.”

He also 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.
(We Can Do Better and Be Better.” –Russell Russell M. Nelson, April 2019 General Conference)

Maurine:

And in his major talk on revelation in the first general conference when he spoke as President of the Church, he said:

“I am optimistic about the future. It will be filled with opportunities for each of us to progress, contribute, and take the gospel to every corner of the earth. But I am also not naive about the days ahead. We live in a world that is complex and increasingly contentious. The constant availability of social media and a 24-hour news cycle bombard us with relentless messages. If we are to have any hope of sifting through the myriad of voices and the philosophies of men that attack truth, we must learn to receive revelation.

“Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.”
(Revelation for the Church, Revelation for our Lives. President Russell M. Nelson, April 2018, https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/04/revelation-for-the-church-revelation-for-our-lives?lang=eng)

A Story from President Monson--Inasmuch As You Have Done It Unto the Least of These My Brethren...

On a cold winter’s night in 1951, there was a knock at my door. A German brother from Ogden, Utah, announced himself and said, “Are you Bishop Monson?” I answered in the affirmative. He began to weep and said, “My brother, his wife, and family are coming here from Germany. They are going to live in your ward. Will you come with us to see the apartment we have rented for them?”

On the way to the apartment, he told me he had not seen his brother for many years. Through the holocaust of World War II, his brother had been faithful to the Church, once serving as a branch president before the war took him to the Russian front.

I observed the apartment. It was cold and dreary. The paint was peeling, the wallpaper soiled, the cupboards empty. A forty-watt bulb, suspended from the living room ceiling, revealed a linoleum floor covering with a large hole in the center. I was heartsick. I thought, “What a dismal welcome for a family which has endured so much.”

My thoughts were interrupted by the brother’s statement, “It isn’t much, but it’s better than they have in Germany.” With that, the key to the apartment was left with me, along with the information that the family would arrive in Salt Lake City in three weeks—just two days before Christmas.

Sleep was slow in coming to me that night. The next morning was Sunday. In our ward welfare committee meeting, one of my counselors said, “Bishop, you look worried. Is something wrong?”

I recounted to those present my experience of the night before, revealing the details of the uninviting apartment. There were a few moments of silence. Then Brother Eardley, the group leader of the high priests, said, “Bishop, did you say that apartment was inadequately lighted and that the kitchen appliances were in need of replacement?” I answered in the affirmative. He continued, “I am an electrical contractor. Would you permit the high priests of this ward to rewire that apartment? I would also like to invite my suppliers to contribute a new stove and a new refrigerator. Do I have your permission?”

I answered with a glad “Certainly.”

Then Brother Balmforth, the seventies president, responded, “Bishop, as you know, I’m in the carpet business. I would like to invite my suppliers to contribute some carpet, and the seventies can easily lay it and eliminate that worn linoleum.”

Then Brother Bowden, the president of the elders quorum, spoke up. He was a painting contractor. He said, “I’ll furnish the paint. May the elders paint and wallpaper that apartment?”

Sister Miller, the Relief Society president, was next to speak. “We in the Relief Society cannot stand the thought of empty cupboards. May we fill them?”

The three weeks which followed are ever to be remembered. It seemed that the entire ward joined in the project. The days passed, and at the appointed time, the family arrived from Germany. Again at my door stood the brother from Ogden. With an emotion-filled voice, he introduced to me his brother, his brother’s wife, and their family. Then he asked, “Could we go visit the apartment?” As we walked up the staircase leading to the apartment, he repeated, “It isn’t much, but it’s more than they have had in Germany.” Little did he know what a transformation had taken place and that many who had participated were inside waiting for our arrival.

The door opened to reveal a newness of life. We were greeted by the aroma of freshly painted woodwork and newly papered walls. Gone was the forty-watt bulb, along with the worn linoleum it had illuminated. We stepped on carpet deep and beautiful. A walk to the kitchen presented to our view a new stove and new refrigerator. The cupboard doors were still open; however, they now revealed every shelf filled with food. As usual, the Relief Society had done its work. . . .

It was time to leave. As we walked down the stairs and out into the night air, snow was falling. . . Finally, a young girl asked, “Bishop, I feel better than I have ever felt before. Can you tell me why?” I responded with the words of the Master: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matt. 25:40.) (Thomas S. Monson, “A Provident Plan—A Precious Promise,” Ensign, May 1986, 64)

THROUGH OUR TRIALS, GOD CAN MANIFEST HIMSELF IN OUR LIVES (John 9, Christ Heals A Blind Man)

In John 9, when Jesus and His disciples come upon a man who was born blind, His disciples asked,

Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

When we are faced with trials and tribulations that are hard to bear, in looking for an explanation for why these things have come upon us, we can be assured that there is a purpose in the bigger scheme of things and that at least part of that purpose is that “through our challenges, God can manifest Himself in our lives.” (Come Follow Me 2019, April 29-May, John 7-10)

As baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are all covenant sons and daughters of God.  What does it mean to be a covenant son or daughter?  It means that not only have we made covenants or promises to Him, but He has also made covenants or promises to us.  As we have promised to always remember Him, He has promised to always remember us.  He is bound to do so, by the Priesthood authority under which the covenant was made.  He was bound to do so by the love He felt for each of us as He suffered the Atonement on our behalf:

          But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. 

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?  Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.  (Isaiah 49:14-16)

When we experience hardships, troubles, challenges, tribulations in our lives, the Lord is perfectly aware of us and what has befallen us and cares with a love we cannot even begin to comprehend.  We can be assured that He is standing next to us, ready to bless us.

When we are on the covenant path, striving to keep the promises we have made to Him, we put ourselves in a position to be able to receive His blessings.  We can put our faith and trust in Him, fully expecting that He will help us as we seek to move forward.

This thought has come to me:  When we are on the covenant path, there is always hope, there is always a way, or a path, forward.  As we put our trust in the Lord and call upon Him, He will always show us that path and bless us with the strength we need to walk it.  The journey we take along that path will prove to be a defining experience in our life—by walking with Him at our side, we will become acquainted with the Him as our minds are enlightened with His guidance and our hearts receive His comfort and our body and spirit receive His strengthening influence.  We will learn things we could not have learned in any other way.

Think of Nephi when he was faced with the challenge to build a ship.  What did He learn about the Lord from that experience?  As he had to depend upon the Lord for every step of building that ship, beginning with learning where he could find ore for the tools he would need and getting help to recruit his brothers’ support, he learned day by day and week by week that the Lord was there to give him answers and resources and skills that were needed to accomplish the task:

The Lord had said to Nephi:  And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led. (1 Nephi 17:13)

We have the same promises from the Lord as Nephi did.  He will lead us through our wildernesses and prepare the way before us if we keep His commandments.  Indeed, He will lead us to our promised land which is salvation and exaltation in His Kingdom.

Only the Lord knows what He wants of us.  Only He can guide us to do it.  It may not be in the way of the world that He guides us (see 1 Nephi 18:2), but it will be in the way that He has prepared for us, in order for us to learn what He wants us to learn.

Truly, through our trials, God will manifest Himself to us, and in that way, those trials will become blessings in our lives.

We Were There

WE WERE THERE

Today in Sacrament meeting I had a thought come to me that I had never thought in just that way before. 

We were there.  Each one of us was there when Christ suffered the Atoning Sacrifice.  Each of us was part of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Then I tied that thought to other truths I have contemplated many times before:

He suffered for each of us, one by one, in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the Cross of Calvary. 

He suffered for our sins, but not only for our sins. He also suffered all that we individually would suffer during our mortal experience—our pains, sicknesses, trials, tragedies, injuries, mistakes, accidents, doubts, fears, disappointments, sadness, sorrow, grief, anxiety, despair, depression, shame, regret, heartache, injustice, abuse, separation, loneliness --and he suffered these for each one of us individually, exactly as each of us would suffer them, from our unique perspective, given all our strengths and weaknesses, given all the givens from our individual life experiences, good and bad.

And as He did so, He was aware of each one of us, individually.  He was mindful of us, but more than aware, more than mindful.  He actually saw us (see Mosiah 15:10, Isaiah 53:10).  With the perfect omniscience and foreknowledge of a God, for He was a God, He beheld each one of us and with all the love He held in His heart for us, He lived our mortal sufferings in just the way we would live them. He experienced what we would experience, He went through what we would go through, He felt what we would feel.

Why did He do this?

He suffered for our sins to satisfy the demands of justice by paying our debt to justice for us so that He could apply mercy on our behalf and forgive us when we repent, forgive us of our sins, cleanse us from our sins, and remember our sins no more.

He suffered all that we would suffer so that He would understand perfectly according to the flesh how to succor us when we needed help.  He suffered all that we would suffer so that He would understand us perfectly when we stand before Him to be judged according to our works and the desires of our hearts at the last day.

I believe that as we receive the ordinances and covenants of the gospel “one by one,” and as we partake of the Sacrament to renew those covenants each week “one by one,” the act of doing so “one by one” is symbolic of Christ suffering the Atonement on behalf of each of us “one by one.”

The Atonement of Jesus Christ was infinite in its scope.  As Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote, “Its effects cover all men, the earth itself and all forms of life hereon, and reach[es] out into the endless expanses of eternity.”  The Atonement is also intimate in its effect in that it reaches out and embraces every being who ever lived or will yet live on the earth, “one by one.”

See Mosiah 14 and 15 (Isaiah 53), Alma 7:11-12

While serving in the Presidency of the Seventy, Elder Merrill J. Bateman taught that the Atonement was an intimate, personal experience through which Jesus Christ came to know perfectly how to help each of us:

“For many years I thought of the Savior’s experience in the garden and on the cross as places where a large mass of sin was heaped upon Him. Through the words of Alma, Abinadi, Isaiah, and other prophets, however, my view has changed. Instead of an impersonal mass of sin, there was a long line of people, as Jesus felt ‘our infirmities’ (Hebrews 4:15), ‘[bore] our griefs, … carried our sorrows … [and] was bruised for our iniquities’ (Isaiah 53:4–5). …

“The Pearl of Great Price teaches that Moses was shown all the inhabitants of the earth, which were ‘numberless as the sand upon the sea shore’ (Moses 1:28). If Moses beheld every soul, then it seems reasonable that the Creator of the universe has the power to become intimately acquainted with each of us. He learned about your weaknesses and mine. He experienced your pains and sufferings. He experienced mine. I testify that He knows us. He understands the way in which we deal with temptations. He knows our weaknesses. But more than that, more than just knowing us, He knows how to help us if we come to Him in faith” (“A Pattern for All,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2005, 75–76).

Read Mosiah 15:10–12 and the following statement by Elder Merrill J. Bateman, an emeritus member of the Seventy:

“The prophet Abinadi … states that ‘when his soul has been made an offering for sin he shall see his seed’ (Mosiah 15:10). Abinadi then identifies the Savior’s seed as the prophets and those who follow them. For many years I thought of the Savior’s experience in the garden and on the cross as places where a large mass of sin was heaped upon Him. Through the words of Alma, Abinadi, Isaiah, and other prophets, however, my view has changed. Instead of an impersonal mass of sin, there was a long line of people, as Jesus felt ‘our infirmities’ (Hebrews 4:15), ‘[bore] our griefs, … carried our sorrows … [and] was bruised for our iniquities’ (Isaiah 53:4–5).

“The Atonement was an intimate, personal experience in which Jesus came to know how to help each of us” (“A Pattern for All,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2005, 75–76).

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught concerning the Savior’s mortal experiences: “There is no physical pain, no anguish of soul, no suffering of spirit, no infirmity or weakness that you or I ever experience during our mortal journey that the Savior did not experience first. You and I in a moment of weakness may cry out, ‘No one understands. No one knows.’ No human being, perhaps, knows. But the Son of God perfectly knows and understands, for He felt and bore our burdens before we ever did. And because He paid the ultimate price and bore that burden, He has perfect empathy and can extend to us His arm of mercy in so many phases of our life. He can reach out, touch, and succor—literally run to us—and strengthen us to be more than we could ever be and help us to do that which we could never do through relying only upon our own power” (“In the Strength of the Lord” [Brigham Young University devotional, Oct. 23, 2001], 7–8; speeches.byu.edu).

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland wrote of Christ’s compassion and ability to help us: “Christ walked the path every mortal is called to walk so that he would know how to succor and strengthen us in our most difficult times. He knows the deepest and most personal burdens we carry. He knows the most public and poignant pains we bear. He descended below all such grief in order that he might lift us above it. There is no anguish or sorrow or sadness in life that he has not suffered in our behalf and borne away upon his own valiant and compassionate shoulders” (Christ and the New Covenant [1997], 223–24).

Why not just feed us more bread?

After Jesus fed the multitude through multiplying the bread and fishes, they sought him the next day and expected him to give them more food. As I read this morning, I pictured the multitude leaving their homes and going to find Jesus across the sea the next morning. I could envision them saying "Don't worry about packing any food, he'll feed us!" But when they got to him and asked for him to do his mighty works, not-so-subtly asking for him to give them bread again and even reminding him of Moses and how he gave bread daily to the Israelites, he told them that HE was the bread. They were very disappointed, they were probably hungry! Why wouldn't he just feed them again? They thought that was what they needed. But Jesus knew what they really needed, and it wasn't free food. They needed HIM.

When he explained that HE was the bread of life, and they needed to eat his flesh and drink his blood in order to never hunger or thirst again, they were offended. I'm sure that sounded absolutely wrong  and went against everything they knew. What in the world was he talking about? That would be an abomination! Many followers left him then. They couldn't get past their limited perception of who he was and what they understood. But the disciples had the faith to stay, even though they didn't understand exactly what he was teaching. They trusted him. Of course we know now that Jesus was talking about taking the sacrament, not literally eating his flesh and blood, but they didn't know that then! But they knew what they knew, they knew what they had seen and felt, and they chose to doubt their doubts before doubting their faith.

I want to remember this story when I think about things in the gospel or our church history that I don't understand. I want to trust that Christ knows what he is doing and knows what he is talking about, even though it doesn't make sense to my mortal mind. I love that the Come Follow Me Manual is helping me to really dig into the stories of Christ's life and apply them to my life today.

Jesus Feeding the 5000+

 I wanted to share with you guys some thoughts I had as I read in the Come Follow Me manual this morning about the miracle of feeding the 5000. When I read in Matthew 14:16 "But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them to eat" my gut reaction was to feel overwhelmed, like when I think about all the people in our ward who need rides to church and how few people seem to be willing to take them. Or when I think about all the sisters in our ward with real struggles and needs who need love and support and dedicated ministering sisters but also think of the load that each sister already carries and how it's hard to ask ministering sisters to do more. I think the apostles may have had similar feelings. In John 6:9 one of the apostles tells Jesus:  There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? I'm sure we can all relate to that. I often feel like I have so little to offer and the needs are so great. But Christ made those 5 loaves and 2 fishes MORE than enough to feed all the multitude. I know that whatever we have to give, he will make it more than enough! We don't need to apologize that we don't have more to give, just offer it with faith and watch the Lord work miracles with it. I love this story and the comfort it gives me.