followHIM

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I love thinking about the Word of God with John chapter 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word is Christ.

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He basically, after the book of John teaches, He teaches in almost every chapter of the book of John something about His relationship with God.

You'll find, I think there are only two chapters where you won't find some verses where Christ talks about His relationship with God.

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if anybody's wondering what the first greatest Easter is just go read John 20 in 21 yeah there you go what's the greatest

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By the way, John chapter ten, John chapter eight, John chapter nine... John never brings up Sadducee.

Jesus answered them. Psalms 82, six. Is it not written in your law? I said ye are gods.

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In the Genesis story, they are prevented.

So what is different then from what's going on here in chapter 8 is because it's not that God never wants humans to partake of the fruit of the tree of life, but he doesn't want them to do it in a fallen state. He'd rather he did it in a redeemed state.

That to me explains Genesis.

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For this Melchizedek, this is referring to the Genesis 14 material. This Melchizedek was the king of Salem, the priest of the most high God who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and gave him a blessing.

So Melchizedek is a king of righteous, some kind of righteous king who is a king and a priest of the most high God in Salem, traditionally associated with an early version of Jerusalem, to whom Abraham paid tithes.

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Well, so if we go back to Genesis 3 now for a little bit, then you get this moment then when Eve, and as I like to think about it, Eve feeling this tension.

So I've sort of jumped forward for a moment. Um, and, and there's this moment then in Moses five, verse 33 and Cain gloried in that which he had done saying, I am free.

So I've, I've committed a sin to get what I want and notice if you back up now. To verse 31, you get what leads up to that.

And then there's this really fascinating moment. Verse 23 of Moses five, if thou doest well, thou shalt be accepted the verse before, why art thou Roth? Why is that countenance fallen?

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We're going to do Genesis chapter 22. Genesis chapter 22, verse one.

We'll do Genesis 1 through 6 as the assignment for Come Follow Me.

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I remember something that Stephen Covey did once with a group of young adults or teenagers

he had people take a piece of paper, fold it in half. And on one side of the page, that was just to make it into columns. And then in column one, right at the top, how I see myself, right? How others see me.

he was a little surprised at how negative kids could be about themselves. I'm this, I'm that, I'm weird, I'm strange. I'm not attractive. I'm whatever.

And then he said on the other side, I want you to write down how God sees me and started to go through scriptural references. What is the worth of a soul? What has he done for you? What has he said about you in your patriarchal blessing, which is amazing, your talents, your gifts, your capacities.

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Stephen Covey talked about it once, is that an airplane is off course about 90% of the time.

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You know about the seven habits. Well, the six events of the restoration, Brother Covey suggested the, the order of the events of the restoration are kind of a formula for solving life's problems.

I think I heard Brother Covey once at an education week also kind of say, if you look at the order of the Articles of Faith, you kind of see the order in which things fell apart as the apostasy began that started with the nature of God and then with the original sin and things like that.

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I want to Steven and Kovies books he talks about Albert Einstein being asked if you could ask out anything what would you ask him and Albert Einstein said well I ask him how he made the universe and then he changed his mind it said no wait I would ask him why he created the universe because then I would know the meaning of my life and recently I found that Steven Hawking in our day said that you know science may one day be able to tell us how the universe was created but it won't be able to tell us why does the universe bother to exist and we have beautiful answers here in the gospel

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Perhaps what we see in Exodus where Moses says in Exodus 32, don't blot me I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast written.

Don't take my name off the census, so to speak. Don't boot me out of the community. Keep me on the roster. Exactly.

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The first one is what's called the altar of burnt offerings. And then the second item is called the brass laver.

The Book of Exodus describes in great detail all the different inside internal bits of the animal.

The Book of Exodus says that when the high priest approaches the Ark of the Covenant, he will meet him there.

In Exodus chapter 40 and maybe part of Leviticus chapter 9, we get a description of how this entire system was constructed and then finally dedicated, literally sanctified or handed over to the Lord to be his dwelling place.

In Exodus chapter 40, we are told that this is going to be the moment of dedication.

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It's great to remember back to Moses, but now they have their own and remember the captivity of thy fathers in the land of Hebrew.

There's your Exodus 14 and 15 right there.

That's Moses language.

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And actually, the covenants that go back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the covenants of the patriarchs were, and you see this in both Exodus, you see it in Deuteronomy, and even in First Nephi, the reason the Lord redeems Israel is because of the covenant to the patriarchs.

What I think is incredibly important is what the Lord says, because Moses might be looking for a pat on the back.

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Again, I'm quoting from Grant Hardy from a book called Understanding the Book of Mormon.

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You kind of pick up on it as you go. There's wisdom in slowing down and saying, who is this? And maybe we can work together today to say, let's make sure we're drawing out who's speaking because we're also going to get the words of an angel.

And I think it was Grant Hardy in his book, Understanding the Book of Mormon, who said you really have to get to know Mormon indirectly because you don't really know who he is until we get to his own book.

He said, everything that follows, he's talking about between words of Mormon and Mosiah. Everything that follows is interpreted from the perspective of Mormon who lived hundreds of years after these events occurred. Careful readers, which we want to be, right? Must constantly ask, why would Mormon choose to include this? What might he have omitted?

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Again, I'm quoting from Grant Hardy from a book called Understanding the Book of Mormon.

This is just one reason.

I think Brother Hardy is on to something here.

He says, Mormon knew that this settlement, the one we're about to read about, was the origin of both the Nephite Christian Church and the line of prophets who would dominate the years leading up to the coming of Christ.

These leaders included the two Almas, the two Helamans, and the later two Nephites as well.

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You kind of pick up on it as you go. There's wisdom in slowing down and saying, who is this? And maybe we can work together today to say, let's make sure we're drawing out who's speaking because we're also going to get the words of an angel.

And I think it was Grant Hardy in his book, Understanding the Book of Mormon, who said you really have to get to know Mormon indirectly because you don't really know who he is until we get to his own book.

He said, everything that follows, he's talking about between words of Mormon and Mosiah. Everything that follows is interpreted from the perspective of Mormon who lived hundreds of years after these events occurred.

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I actually remember reading that story in your book. I think it came out a couple years ago, When It Doesn't Make Sense by John, by the way.

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This doesn't make sense. So you're like, that's a great title.

I did. Now, I wanna make sure that everybody knows John did not ask me to bring this up. This is what the publisher said to me when they looked at the manuscript.

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I wrote a chapter in When It Doesn't Make Sense called Modified Missions because, well, I was called here, but how come I didn't go there?

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I automatically thought of Jesus, the temptations of Jesus, Matthew chapter four.

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I am the light of the world

ye are the light of the world.

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there's a chart in the religion to 11 the new test with manual that shows which is so symmetrical and so elegant the way God does things is that the same characters, amount of transfiguration were there at the current long tempo Matthew 17 it's sort of this this section in some ways is a I don't know reenact manner or you know a redoing of that event on the amount of transfiguration

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I didn't learn that until I read the book of Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 10, it says that Christ has made for us a way through the veil, that is to say His flesh. So the veil of the temple represents the body of Christ.

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Hebrews is by far the most extensive New Testament treatment of a Christ-centered reading of this tabernacle material.

The High Priest of Good Things to Come.

The high priest of the Jerusalem temple or the high priest of the ancient tabernacle was simply the earthly shadow of the ultimate heavenly reality, which is Jesus.

So Hebrews 4 through 7 envisions there being a heavenly temple playing with the old Platonic notions of types and shadows.

So Jesus is our great high priest.

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John, like I said, Phil was with us year, year and a half ago when we talked about the book of Hebrews, which is maybe the most difficult book of the New Testament to understand.

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The way that verse 19 ends is, 'Until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.' And this book is called Our Day Star Rising.

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The Apostle Paul taught that the inspired concept that neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man in the Lord. Just 1 Corinthians 11.11.

I know the truth of that in my own life. No prophet, no apostle, no president of the church, no mission president, no bishop, no deacon's quorum advisor, no scout master, no seminary teacher, no one in all this world has taught me what Sister Holland has taught me.

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In Elder Holland's book, Our Day Star Rising, which has already been, I think Camille Frankelson introduced it really well, which I need to say she was one of my seminary teachers in high school.

He said this Latter-day Saint doctrine underscores why sexual sin is so serious. We declare that one who uses the God-given body of another without divine sanction abuses the very soul of that individual.

In exploiting the body of another, which means exploiting his or her soul, one desecrates the atonement of Christ, which saved that soul and which makes possible the gift of eternal life.

And when one mocks the son of righteousness, one steps into a realm of heat hotter and holier than the noonday sun. You cannot do so and not be burned.

Please never say, who does it hurt? Why not a little freedom? I can transgress now and repent later. Please don't be so foolish and so cruel.

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I don't know how many of you have been able to read Elder Holland's Our Day Star Rising along with your study of the New Testament.

It's a new book published just this year to accompany our, I mean if you wanted to, to accompany your study of the New Testament.

It's parts of his talks where he has spoken about different verses in the New Testament and it's arranged in the order of the New Testament.

Every ordinance of the gospel focuses in one way or another on the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, and surely that is why this particular ordinance with all its symbolism and imagery comes to us more readily and more repeatedly than any other in our life.

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Barbara Morgan Gardner is an associate professor of church history in doctrine at Brigham Young University.

I just want to say this book has changed a lot of lives. Just giving people, I think it was Elder President Oaks who said his favorite talks were someone took an old topic that he already knew about and showed him new things about it.

The priesthood is an old topic in the church. Barbara will show you new things. And it's page after page of new things you've never known.

I never intended to write a book. I was I was I was intended to help people find answers to questions and help them stay strong and active in the church and understand the priesthood especially how it relates to women and the book.

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And then he quotes Isaiah 53, which in the book of Mormon is known as Mosiah 14 and tells them Jesus is salvation. Jesus saves.

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The tower is actually mentioned in several places in the book of Mormon, the book of Omni, Mosiah, Helaman, Ether many times.

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I think we have many listeners who would love to have more of that peace in their lives. I know that you wrote a book called The Founder of Our Peace, talking about some of these ideas.

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Do you remember the book, Our Search for Happiness that Elder Ballard, now President M. Russell Ballard wrote?

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He had a line in there about it's hard to have a negative attitude about anything when your life is focused on Christ.

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He had a line in there about it's hard to have a negative attitude about anything when your life is focused on Christ.

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What did Elder Ballard say is a power to be reckoned with in this world and in individual lives? What's his book, Our Search for Happiness? Faith in Christ is a power to be reckoned with, but it's the first principle that everything else follows.

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In his book, Seekers Wanted, Tony Sweat, our good friend actually quotes you, Steve Harper.

He says, seeking is a long, patient, persistent process. Seeking is hard work. It is not for the weak-willed or faint of heart nor for the intellectually or spiritually lazy, but it will sustain faith in a world intent on destroying it.

Seekers are wanted in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The first converts were all seekers. Today's converts are seekers. We are all commanded to be seekers.

And then Tony adds, let us seek. Seekers don't run away. Seekers don't put their head in the sand. Seekers face the reality that is in front of them and desire to be fully aligned with God. Honest seekers are wanted, expected, and in the end, always rewarded.

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I assume that if you're reading this book, you are academically minded, but to those who may be skeptical about turning to academic scholars for religious learning, I share the following from President M. Russell Ballard, quote, so now Tony is quoting President Ballard, quote, consult the works of recognized, thoughtful and faithful LDS scholars.

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I assume that if you're reading this book, you are academically minded. But to those who may be skeptical about turning to academic scholars for religious learning, I share the following from president M. Russell Ballard, quote, consult the works of recognized, thoughtful and faithful LDS scholars.

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written revelations scriptures are not the revelations themselves, but rather records captured in limiting human language.

He says the purpose of scripture is not to be a perfect record of God's dialect or diction, but to act as a personal Urim and Thummim, a launchpad for revelation to connect us to the same divine source that revealed the truths in the first place.

He said earlier, just a couple of pages before that, let me find it. He says we see the task of scripture study in fresh light.

Our job is to get in tune with the same spirit that revealed the concept.

So I like what you're saying here. It's not the idea that we want to get the correct creation story, but we have four different creation stories to get us in tune with the creator.

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In the story of Job, what does God say to him? Were you there when the sons of God shouted for joy? Elder Maxwell said, now that we're here, we're wondering what all the shouting was about.

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I think it's Job who's going to ask, if a man die, will he live again? That is the question that Jesus answers.

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Job is a great book to read when we're suffering.

Shall we accept good from the hand of the Lord and not accept evil?

the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

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I came across something years ago in a strange source. I was looking at Dale Carnegie, the How to Win Friends and Influence People. He wrote another one called How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.

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He has not read How to Win Friends and Influence People.

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I want to share this because this touched me so much from Corrie Ten Boom's story, The Hiding Place.

Corrie Ten Boom and her family, Dutch family, these people knew how to receive Christ and then, yes, manifest him in their lives through their works because they believed in the salvation that he offered.

This is early in the story where her aunt, who had, I think, diabetes, but I forget the details, Corrie was given the doctor's assignment to take a certain serum and every Friday to put it on the stove and stir it because when it turned black, that would mean her aunt had three weeks or less to live.

She was tasked with doing that every Friday.

This Friday she does it and like normal, but then this time it turned black and she had been doing this for a long time and this was the first time and she knew it was bad news.

So she takes it to her father.

Her father says, check with the doctor.

She has to wait in the waiting room.

The doctor says, yes, you need to let her know that she has very little time left.

The family decides to all go together and she all go up to tell the aunt that this is going to be the end.

The father says, though I will speak the necessary words, perhaps she will take heart from all she has accomplished.

Our little procession filed up the steps to taunt John's rooms.

And as she saw the number of people entering the room, she laid down her pen.

She looked from one face to another until she came to mine and gave a little gasp of comprehension.

This was Friday morning and I have not yet come with the results of the test.

My dear sister-in-law, father began gently, there is a joyous journey which each of God's children sooner or later sets out on.

And John's some must go to their father empty handed.

But you will run to him with your hands full.

And then the family chimes in all your clubs, your writing.

She was a Christian woman who did lots of charities and good works, your writings, the funds you've raised, your talks.

But our well-meant words were useless.

In front of us, the proud face crumpled.

Tant John's put her hands over her eyes and began to cry.

Empty. Empty.

She choked at last through her tears.

How can we bring anything to God?

What does he care for our little tricks and trinkets?

And then as we listened in disbelief, she lowered her hands and with tears coursing down her face, whispered, Dear Jesus, I thank you that we must come with empty hands.

I thank you that you have done all, all on the cross.

And that all we need in life or death is to be sure of this.

Mama threw her arms around her and they clung together, but I stood rooted to the spot knowing I had seen a mystery.

Brothers and sisters, he has done all for us in the garden and on the cross.

It is all accomplished.

As he said, it is finished.

Salvation, as Lehi tells us, is free.

It's free.

We have to receive it if we want it.

It's there.

It's free.

Christ has done all for us.

It is amazing grace.

It is without limit.

Christ will lift us and take us all the way to joint airship with him.

I cannot believe the generosity of that, and yet I do because he is good.

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I want to share this because this touched me so much from Corrie Ten Boom's story, The Hiding Place.

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Alma later on is going to pick up in that same kind of language when he's talking about the seed and the seed growing into a tree and the tree producing fruit. He uses that same kind of language about the fruit thereof.

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Feels like Elder Bednar is very much tapping into not only that Book of Mormon theology of Alma 7, but the theology of the Book of Hebrews here.

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I think for me personally, I have seen, as I've learned more and more about this, the value of the Book of Mormon is just increasing in my eyes. 2 Nephi 2, 2 Nephi 9, Alma 12.

I've started reading Alma 12 the other day and I'm like, wow, we know so much about this story because of the Book of Mormon.

And I think, Oh, look at that. We could be covered by Christ or we'd be exposed.

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I was reading a book years ago called How To Stop Worrying And Start Living because I'm an expert in worry. I'm really good at it.

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Christians have often disputed as to whether what leads the Christian home is good actions or faith in Christ. Kind of a works grace thing. I have no right really to speak on such a difficult question, but it does seem to me like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most necessary.

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You know what C.S. Lewis said about that? Well, you can't have it that way. That's right. He either was the Son of God or he was crazy or something.

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You know what C.S. Lewis said about that? Well, you can't have it that way. That's right. He either was the Son of God or he was crazy or something.