Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me

Church of Jesus Christ Study Session seeks to generate reflection about areas in the Restored Gospel. Whether it's Come Follow Me, a General Conference talk or a recent Gospel Topic, hopefully you'll find something to keep the Spirit of Christ in your life. Twitter - @mattsroberts90

You can also join the discussion in the Facebook Group 'Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me'.

Today we have a bonus session looking at the Come Follow Me materials from last week. We consider how this experience of the people of Alma can be related directly to the suffering caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. We also consider how the Lord's hand can help us be agents unto ourselves through our suffering. 

Elder David A Bednar: The unique burdens in each of our lives help us to rely upon the merits, mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah. I testify and promise the Savior will help us to bear up our burdens with ease. As we are yoked with Him through sacred covenants and receive the enabling power of His Atonement in our lives, we increasingly will seek to understand and live according to His will. We also will pray for the strength to learn from, change, or accept our circumstances rather than praying relentlessly for God to change our circumstances according to our will. We will become agents who act rather than objects that are acted upon. We will be blessed with spiritual traction.

Church of Jesus Christ Study Session seeks to generate reflection about areas in the Restored Gospel. Whether it's Come Follow Me, a General Conference talk or a recent Gospel Topic, hopefully you'll find something to keep the Spirit of Christ in your life. Twitter - @mattsroberts90

You can also join the discussion in the Facebook Group 'Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me'.

Join us today as we continue the study of Mosiah 23 and consider what lessons we can learn about our daily trials from this experience.

Church of Jesus Christ Study Session seeks to generate reflection about areas in the Restored Gospel. Whether it's Come Follow Me, a General Conference talk or a recent Gospel Topic, hopefully you'll find something to keep the Spirit of Christ in your life. Twitter - @mattsroberts90

You can also join the discussion in the Facebook Group 'Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me'.

Join us as we begin to study the deliverance of the two groups we've been following the past week. Today we focus on Mosiah 21-22 and the people of King Limhi. We witness their eventual humility and reliance on the Lord and we reflect on the power of the Lord's deliverance. 

Monte S Nyman: Limhi’s people were now turning to the Lord with full purpose of heart and putting their trust in him. Their trust is exemplified in their devoted study to obtain deliverance from bondage. (Mosiah 21:36.) The Lord has instructed us to study things out in our minds as part of the revelatory process. (D&C 9:8.) . . . Gideon, the stalwart defender of righteousness, entered the picture. His study resulted in a plan to pay a tribute of wine to the Lamanites and to escape through a secret pass while they were drunken. The plan worked, and the people of Limhi were delivered from bondage by the hand of the Lord.

Church of Jesus Christ Study Session seeks to generate reflection about areas in the Restored Gospel. Whether it's Come Follow Me, a General Conference talk or a recent Gospel Topic, hopefully you'll find something to keep the Spirit of Christ in your life. Twitter - @mattsroberts90

You can also join the discussion in the Facebook Group 'Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me'.

Today we continue our study of the effect of King Noah and his priests on the people. We consider the importance of an oath to these ancient people and also reflect on the impact of a misunderstanding. 

Neal A Maxwell and Corey M Maxwell: The error of the Lamanites nearly led to the annihilation of Limhi’s people. Misunderstanding’s destruction can apply to many areas of life. We can bless others by stopping that which is wrong, such as misunderstandings. 'There are . . . times when one of the greatest acts of service we can perform is to stop something. The emotional chain of reaction and overreaction can come at us like electric voltage; it is very tempting to simply pass along. But we must say, ‘Let it stop with me.’ . . . At times we . . . should be stern, sweet sentries willing to expose ourselves to misunderstanding and pain in order to keep undesirable things from spreading any farther.'

Church of Jesus Christ Study Session seeks to generate reflection about areas in the Restored Gospel. Whether it's Come Follow Me, a General Conference talk or a recent Gospel Topic, hopefully you'll find something to keep the Spirit of Christ in your life. Twitter - @mattsroberts90

You can also join the discussion in the Facebook Group 'Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me'.

Join us as we begin our study of the prophecies of Abinadi coming to fruition in Mosiah 19. We consider the importance of heeding the prophet's voice and just what warnings we can take from observing King Noah. 

Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L Millet: In fulfillment of Abinadi’s prophecy, King Noah is put to death by fire at the hands of his own people. . .God has promised to ‘recompense unto every man according to his work and measure to every man according to the measure which he has measured his fellow man’ (D&C 1:10). ‘I will visit upon you the evil of your doings’ (Jeremiah 23:2) he promised: ‘and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations’ (Ezekiel 7:3) . . . Kings and kingdoms, the great and the small, all are subject to the law of recompense by a just God who either in this life or the world to come balances all accounts

Church of Jesus Christ Study Session seeks to generate reflection about areas in the Restored Gospel. Whether it's Come Follow Me, a General Conference talk or a recent Gospel Topic, hopefully you'll find something to keep the Spirit of Christ in your life. Twitter - @mattsroberts90

You can also join the discussion in the Facebook Group 'Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me'.

Today we continue looking at the group of Alma and the example of unity they set in Mosiah 18. We consider the principles that can build unity between a faith community and we reflect on why the individual helps to make the whole greater. 

Elder D Todd Christofferson: There is a second major reason the Savior works through a church, His Church, and that is to achieve needful things that cannot be accomplished by individuals or smaller groups. One clear example is dealing with poverty. It is true that as individuals and families we look after the physical needs of others, ‘imparting to one another both temporally and spiritually according to their needs and their wants.’ But together in the Church, the ability to care for the poor and needy is multiplied to meet the broader need, and hoped-for self-reliance is made a reality for very many. Further, the Church, its Relief Societies, and its priesthood quorums have the capacity to provide relief to many people in many places affected by natural disasters, war, and persecution."

"Without the capabilities of His Church in place, the Savior’s commission to take the gospel to all the world could not be realized. There would not be the apostolic keys, the structure, the financial means, and the devotion and sacrifice of thousands upon thousands of missionaries needed to carry out the work. Remember, ‘this Gospel of the Kingdom [must] be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.

Church of Jesus Christ Study Session seeks to generate reflection about areas in the Restored Gospel. Whether it's Come Follow Me, a General Conference talk or a recent Gospel Topic, hopefully you'll find something to keep the Spirit of Christ in your life. Twitter - @mattsroberts90

You can also join the discussion in the Facebook Group 'Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me'.

Join us as we begin to study the fantastic experience of Alma teaching his people about the glorious principle of baptism. We consider how our covenants play an important role in our lives and we reflect on the inseparable doctrine of the Atonement. 

Bonnie D Parkin: Covenants—or binding promises between us and Heavenly Father—are essential for our eternal progression. Step-by-step, He tutors us to become like Him by enlisting us in His work. At baptism we covenant to love Him with all our hearts and love our sisters and brothers as ourselves. In the temple we further covenant to be obedient, selfless, faithful, honorable, charitable. We covenant to make sacrifices and consecrate all that we have. Forged through priesthood authority, our kept covenants bring blessings to fill our cups to overflowing. How often do you reflect that your covenants reach beyond mortality and connect you to the Divine? Making covenants is the expression of a willing heart; keeping covenants, the expression of a faithful heart.

Church of Jesus Christ Study Session seeks to generate reflection about areas in the Restored Gospel. Whether it's Come Follow Me, a General Conference talk or a recent Gospel Topic, hopefully you'll find something to keep the Spirit of Christ in your life. Twitter - @mattsroberts90

You can also join the discussion in the Facebook Group 'Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me'.

We signpost the recent update from President Russell M Nelson regarding the opening of some Temples and the view going forward regarding this pandemic.

You can see the video here: https://youtu.be/PriwvrhdAzo

Church of Jesus Christ Study Session seeks to generate reflection about areas in the Restored Gospel. Whether it's Come Follow Me, a General Conference talk or a recent Gospel Topic, hopefully you'll find something to keep the Spirit of Christ in your life. Twitter - @mattsroberts90

You can also join the discussion in the Facebook Group 'Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me'.

Today we conclude this week's study of our Come Follow Me materials, finishing with Abinadi's inspired words in Mosiah 15 about the Saviour. We consider why he calls the Saviour the Father and the Son and also reflect upon the powerful teaching that the Atonement was experienced for all of the Saviour's seed one by one. 

Merrill J Bateman: The prophet Abinadi further states that 'when his soul has been made an offering for sin he shall see his seed'. 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', '[bore] our griefs, … carried our sorrows … [and] was bruised for our iniquities.'

Church of Jesus Christ Study Session seeks to generate reflection about areas in the Restored Gospel. Whether it's Come Follow Me, a General Conference talk or a recent Gospel Topic, hopefully you'll find something to keep the Spirit of Christ in your life. Twitter - @mattsroberts90

You can also join the discussion in the Facebook Group 'Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me'.

Join us today as we consider the powerful teachings recorded in Isaiah 53, quoted by Abinadi in Mosiah 14. We learn of the Saviour's experience in His mortal sojourn and reflect on the clear understanding that Abinadi has gained from immersing himself in the scriptures. 

Neal A Maxwell: [Jesus Christ] knows by actual, personal experience, because not only did He suffer pains, afflictions, and temptations of every kind during His second estate, but He took upon Himself our sins as well as our pains, sicknesses, and infirmities. Thus He knew, not in abstraction but in actuality, ‘according to the flesh,’ the whole of human suffering. He bore our infirmities before we bore them. He knows perfectly well how to succor us. We can tell Him nothing of pain, temptation, or affliction; He learned ‘according to the flesh,’ and His triumph was complete!