Church of Jesus Christ Study Session with Come Follow Me

LDS Study Session seeks to generate reflection and 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. @mattsroberts90

Join us as we continue this week's study of Come Follow Me and look at the experience of Philip and the Ethiopian man. We learn about the importance of the Spirit in ministering and also the role of priesthood offices.

Elder Orson Pratt: In other words, “Leave your present field of labor; you can do more good somewhere else.” Now, a man left to his own judgment, without new revelation, would not want to go somewhere else; his own inclinations would be to stay where so many had received his testimony. But no; the Spirit of God thought differently. “Arise Philip, go unto the south country.” He was not told what he should do in the south country, but he started off according to the new revelation.

LDS Study Session seeks to generate reflection and 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. @mattsroberts90

Today, we go back to something picked up on in Episode 42 in greater depth. We look at how we need to avoid the attitude of the Sanhedrin in the light of Stephen's testimony and how it applies today.

*Apologies again for the sudden cut off at the end. Fortunately, my voice recording app seems to know when I'm wrapping these sessions up!*

LDS Study Session seeks to generate reflection and 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. @mattsroberts90

Today, we study one of the 21 Day Book of Mormon Challenge sections focused on faith. We learn about how faith begins to grow and how we cultivate that faith.

Elder David A Bednar: The exercise of faith in Jesus Christ is relying upon His merits, mercy, and grace. We begin to come to know the Savior as we arouse our spiritual faculties and experiment upon His teachings, even until we can give place in our souls for a portion of His words. As our faith in the Lord increases, we trust in Him and have confidence in His power to redeem, heal, and strengthen us.

True faith is focused in and on the Lord and always leads to righteous action. “Faith [in Christ is] the first principle in revealed religion, … the foundation of all righteousness, … and the principle of action in all intelligent beings.” Because acting in accordance with the correct principles the Redeemer proclaimed is central to receiving and exercising true faith, “faith without works is dead.” We are to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only.

LDS Study Session seeks to generate reflection and 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.

Today, we continue studying this week's Come Follow Me section. We focus on the account of Stephen and his boldness in testifying of Christ to the Sanhedrin.

Book of Mormon Central: What caused the people to cry out in rage, drag Stephen out of the city, and brutally stone him to death was his witness of the (at least partial) fulfillment of what Jesus had earlier told Caiaphas. Stephen announced that he had just seen “the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). That is when his accusers could no longer hold back. They cried out and rushed to seize him. Stephen’s paraphrase of Daniel 7:13and Psalm 110:1, together with the implication that Jesus was sitting on the right hand of God, was apparently what the Jewish leaders felt they needed to convict him of blasphemy and sentence him to death, just as Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin had done with Jesus.

https://bookofmormoncentral.org/blog/why-was-stephen-executed

LDS Study Session seeks to generate reflection and 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.

Today, we begin diving into the Come Follow Me study for this week. We look at the experience of Simon Magus, how the authority of the priesthood was important at this early stage of the Church and how we all have the potential to change.

President Joseph F Smith: These blessings, powers and privileges are not to be purchased but by the atonement of Christ; they are not to be obtained by personal influence, wealth, position or power, or in any other way but the direct way in which God has decreed that they should be obtained.

LDS Study Session seeks to generate reflection and 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.

Today, we study a little into the mission companions of Alma when he went to the Zoramites and what lessons we can learn about their previous backgrounds.

C. S. Lewis, the striving, pragmatic Christian writer, poignantly framed the issue. He asserted that Christianity tells people to repent and promises them forgiveness; but until people know and feel they need forgiveness, Christianity does not speak to them. He stated, “When you know you are sick, you will listen to the doctor.”

*Apologies for the sudden cut off of the end. My voice recorder app just ended the recording but as I was just wrapping up the episode I didn't rerecord it. Until we meet again!*

LDS Study Session seeks to generate reflection and 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.

Today I share the 21 Day Book of Mormon Challenge and one of the principles that it teaches. For those interested in finding out more about the 21 Day Book of Mormon Challenge see this link: https://www.lds.org.uk/the-book-of-mormon

Elder Neal A Maxwell: Petitioning in prayer has taught me, again and again, that the vault of heaven with all its blessings is to be opened only by a combination lock. One tumbler falls when there is faith, a second when there is personal righteousness; the third and final tumbler falls only when what is sought is, in God’s judgment—not ours—right for us. Sometimes we pound on the vault door for something we want very much and wonder why the door does not open. We would be very spoiled children if that vault door opened any more easily than it does. I can tell, looking back, that God truly loves me by inventorying the petitions He has refused to grant me. Our rejected petitions tell us much about ourselves but also much about our flawless Father.

LDS Study Session seeks to generate reflection and 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.

In this session we read of the great miracle of healing the man who was lame from birth and the effect this is had on a number of people.

Elder David B Haight: The early Apostles fearlessly continued to preach the principles of the gospel, as we do today, calling upon mankind to believe in the Son of God, our Savior, and to repent—to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins, and to receive the Holy Ghost in preparation to have administered unto them even higher ordinances of the gospel. Those early disciples declared to those seeking truth, in plainness, that as the Holy Ghost rested upon them, filling their hearts with joy, they would know of the doctrine for themselves, whether it be of God or man.

LDS Study Session seeks to generate reflection and 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.

We take a look at D&C 4 today and discuss the global and personal levels of the messages that it contains.

Elder Gary E Stevenson: Others want to get in the game—and do. What matters most is not how talented they are but their willingness to put themselves on the field. They do not wait to have their number called, because they know the scripture that says, “If ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work.”

You can put yourself in the lineup

LDS Study Session seeks to generate reflection and 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.

We carry on with our study of this week's Come Follow Me section with quotes from recent conferences to help us understand the simplicity and power of the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel of Christ.

Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf: The gospel is clear and plain. It answers the most complex questions in life, yet even a young child can comprehend and apply it. As Nephi said: “My soul delighteth in plainness; for after this manner doth the Lord God work among the children of men. For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding” (2 Nephi 31:3).