Lynne's Scripture Journal D&C

December 29, 2017 Section 75:6-13 Missionary Attitude, Missionary Work, Read This AGAIN, My Quest, My Goal, How nice to start my morning with verses 7-13. These verses seem to me to be the only missionary manual one would need. It seems to encompass—in these few verse—so many of the things that, as missionaries, we struggle with : V 7-8: “…I, the Lord, chasten him for the murmurings of his heart; 8. …nevertheless, I forgive him and say unto him again, Go….” 9. “… go with him [ or her ], and proclaim the things which I have commanded—10. Calling on the name of the Lord for the Comforter, which shall teach them all things that are expedient for them—11. Praying always that they faint not; and inasmuch as they do this, I will be with them even unto the end.”   12: “Behold, this is the will of the Lord your God concerning you….” 13:...proclaim the things which I have commanded them; and inasmuch as they are faithful, lo, I will be with them even unto the end.” Smith and...

December 27, 2017 Section 75:1-5 Missionary Work How To, Missionary Work Rewards Of, Missionary Stories, Missionary Concerns About ‘Success’, One of the themes of this section is missionary work. The section heading states “Certain elders, who had encountered difficulty in bringing men to an understanding of their message, desired to learn more in detail as to their immediate duties. This revelation [ section 75 ] followed.” I remind myself that this counsel is given by the Lord to those who had been called to go on missions, but who had never done anything like this. They had responded to their call, and had gone to work doing their best, but they did not feel they were being successful in their work. The first thing Christ clarified is in v 3: “ Behold, I say unto you that it is my will that you should go forth and not tarry, neither be idle but labor with your might.” V 4 tells them to do this by ‘ lifting up your voices’ (i.e. talking—to everyone). He explains the m...

December 25, 2017 Section 74:1-7 Demands of Life, To-Do Lists, Priorities, Mistakes, Leaders Mistakes Of, Atonement, In this section, Joseph has re-commenced his revision of the Bible. The student manual says that Joseph was told to begin this project as early as March 7, 1831. When I look at my life, I often feel I have too many things that I must be doing. One of those things was the demands of a full time job, but I’m retired now. My ‘demands’ now are 1) church callings; 2) home projects that I feel I must complete and not leave to my children (photo albums completed, Waits lifetime correspondence scanned and saved; 3) going on missions which I feel compelled to do, but I know that compelling desire comes from inside me and not from outside pressure and since completing our Japan mission it comes because I now know how much growth and satisfaction and simple joy come from serving a mission; 4) friendships—(something we pretty well neglected in our child rearing days and dur...

December 24, 2017 Section 73:1-6 Missionary Work, Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible, Priorities, Work for the Lord, Seek the Lord Early…And Late, Church Callings, It the D&C 73 it is January 1832. A little over 1 month ago (Dec 1 1831) Joseph and Sidney were commanded to go to Ohio and preach the gospel. Several people had left the church and had written letters, “scandalous letters”, to the newspapers which in turn caused many people to be more than upset about Mormonism and to reject its teachings before ever hearing of those teachings. Joseph and Sidney had followed the Lord’s command, they stopped their work of translating the Bible and began their 5 weeks of missionary work where they “ did much towards allaying the excited feelings which were growing out of the scandalous letters then be published in the Ohio Star.” (p 153) In the April 1978 General Conference, President Ezra Taft Benson said: “The Church’s mission is to declare the gospel of the kingdom to...