Super Seminary Scripture Stuff: August 2009

SCRIPTURE MASTERY

**Alma 41:10** "Do not supppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness."
**Alma 37:35** "O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God."
**Alma 37:6-7** "Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise. And the Lord God doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls."
**Alma 34:32-34** "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of ife, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed. Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."
**Alma 32:21** "And now as I said concerning faith -- faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."
**Mosiah 4:30** "But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not."
**Mosiah 3:19** For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."
**Mosiah 2:17** "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."
**Jacob 2:18-19** "But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God. And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good--to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted."
**2 Nephi 32:8-9** "And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the Spirit which teacheth a man to pray ye would know that ye must pray; for the evil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray. But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform anything unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."
**2 Nephi 32:3** "Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do."
**2 Nephi 28:7-9** "Yea, and there shall be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die; and it shall be well with us. And there shall also be many which shall say: Eat, drink, and be merry; nevertheless, fear God--he will justify in committing a little sin; yea, lie a little, take the advantage of one because of his words, dig a pit for thy neighbor; there is no harm in this; and do all these things, for tomorrow we die; and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes, and at last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Yea, and there shall be many which shall teach after this manner, false and vain and foolish doctrines, and shall be puffed up in their hearts, and shall seek deep to hide their counsels from the Lord; and their works shall be in the dark."
**2 Nephi 9:28-29** "O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God."
**2 Nephi 2:27** "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself."
***2 Nephi 2:25*** "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."
***1 Nephi 19:23*** "And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning."
***1 Nephi 3:7*** "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

DO NOT BE DECEIVED

President Benson gave the following advice: "May I suggest three short tests to avoid being deceived.....
1. What do the standard works have to say about it? We must diligently study the scriptures. Of special importance to us are the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants...
2. The second guide is: what do the latter-day Presidents of the Church have to say on the subject -- particularly the living President? There is only one man on the earth today who speaks for the Church. (See D&C 132:7; 21:4.) That man is the President of the Church. Because he gives the word of the Lord for us today, his words have an even more immediate importance than those of the dead prophets. When speaking under the influence of the Holy Ghost his words are scripture. (See D&C 68:4).
3. The third and final test is the Holy Ghost -- the test of the Spirit. By that Spirit we '...may know the truth of all things.' (Moroni 10:5). This test can only be fully effective if one's channels of communication with God are clean and virtuous and uncluttered with sin."

Laman, Lemuel, Sam and Nephi have the plates of brass in their possession. They have a new companion, Zoram. Tomorrow we will find out the "real" reason they needed Zoram!

THANK YOU HARRISON/SISTER MERRILL FOR THE CUPCAKES!!

WE LOVED THEM!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRISON!!

MURMURING

People who murmur:
1. Begin to question: 1st their own mind, then may make others question.
2. Begin to rationalize and excuse themselves from doing what they have been instructed to do.
They make excuses.
3. Become slothful in following the commandments.

With those three items in mind, focus on a commandment from living prophets that bother you the most. Do you question whether the commandment is applicable to you? Do you find excuses why you do not adhere to this commandment? Do you feel frustrated or irritated with those who remind you of the commandment? Are you slothful in keeping it?

BEWARE OF MURMURING!

Friday, August 21, 2009

MORE ORGANIZED

The basement is drying so we had seminary in part dining room, part kitchen. Everyone had a table so they can write in their journals. We learned three ways the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion: witness of Christ, keystone of our doctrine and the keystone of testimony. We talked about how it is not enough to own books to become a scholar -- we need to read them and p0nder them. Owning a copy of the Book of Mormon doesn't make us a true Christian. We need to read and pray about it. As we learn the precepts (instructions, teaching, commandments, principles), Joseph Smith told us we then must abide by them.
We talked about the law of witnesses which the Lord ordained. This law is: "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." We read the testimonies of the three and eight witnesses. They testified that it was marvelous and that they do not lie! We need to remember to share our testimonies often. Our testimonies will grow as we do this.
NEXT WEEK: 1 NEPHI 1 -- 5.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

BASEMENT MISHAP

Woke up -- went to the basement -- WATER!! So we had seminary in the family room. Not ideal -- but it works. Some of the students liked it better because they were sitting on a nice comfy couch. We probably will be in the family room for a few days. Even though conditions were not great, we talked about the title page. The Book of Mormon is written to show us what great things the Lord hath done for our fathers; and that we may know the covenants of the Lord and also to convince the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, who will manifest himself to all nations. The Book of Mormon has more references to Jesus Christ than any other scripture. There are 3,925 references made to Jesus names and titles of Christ. Tomorrow same time, same place....maybe a "little" better organized!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

First Day

Everyone was in seminary today -- all the seats were taken. We talked about The Plan of Salvation/Redemption/Mercy/Happiness/Restoration. We discussed how the plan sort of looks like a circle -- start in the presence of God and hopefully end in the presence of God. So it is the circle of life (sort of like in The Lion King).