Lesson 7: "Be not afraid, only believe"

For some reason of all the miracles Christ performed, this one (well, technically two) sticks out to me the most this week.

All we know about Jairus (Greek, "whom God enlightens") is that he was "one of the rulers of the synagogue" (Mark 5:22). His faith in Christ's ability to heal his daughter seems genuine, and he implored Jesus to come with him to save her. He knew if Christ would come, his daughter would be spared from death.

As they went a large crowd followed, as it usually did. As they walked, a woman who had suffered for twelve years from a blood hemorrhage touched the Savior's clothes and was healed. He stopped to inquire who touched him, which the disciples thought was a bit odd, considering the large crowd which was no doubt constantly bumping up against him. He looked at the woman, who then confessed what she had done, and told her, "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague" (Mark 5:34). Not only did he know that she had been healed, he also knew what he had healed.

As he is talking with this woman, someone brought Jairus the news, "Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?" (Mark 5:35). Essentially, "There's nothing he can do now, there's no point in taking any more of his time."

Christ told Jairus, "Be not afraid, only believe" (vs. 36). Luke adds, "and she shall be made whole" (Luke 8:50). Jairus did believe and his daughter was restored to life.

I wish more details of this account had been preserved because I'd like to get to know Jairus a bit better. I'm left to assume because his reactions weren't recorded, he was quietly trusting in the Lord. I'm sure someone would've written something had Jairus snapped... "We need to walk faster." "Why are we stopping to see who touched you? We're on a tight schedule!" "If we hadn't stopped, maybe we would've made it in time and my daughter would still be alive!"

There was only quiet faith on the part of Jairus. How hard would it be to calm the natural sense of urgency a parent would feel on behalf of a dying child? Instead of letting the incident with the healing of the woman irritate him, he seems to have let it build his faith in Christ's ability to grant the desired blessing. Even when he received word of his daughter's death, he quietly followed the Master. When those around him were laughing to scorn, he still showed faith.

This whole experience seems to have been tailored to build Jairus' faith in Christ's power to heal. Jesus could easily have simply told him to go home and his daughter would be healed, as he had done with the centurion (see Matt 8:5-13) and the nobleman (see John 4:46-54). But Jairus would've been deprived of his walk with the Master. They could have walked a different route where they would not have been "interrupted" by the woman seeking healing for herself, Jesus could've simply found her on the way back and healed her later.

So, what can we learn from Jairus and his experience?

First, miracles are predicated on faith. The woman was told it was her faith which made her whole, not the touching of Christ's clothes. Often, we will experience ridicule or scorn for exercising our faith. There is no evidence from the scriptural account to show Jairus ever lost his faith in Christ.

Second, the Lord is keenly aware of us. He knew who, out of a large pressing crowd, had touched his garment. We can be assured he is also aware of our needs, many times even when we are not.

Third, we shouldn't get too caught up in our own needs that we can't stop to help someone else along the way. Elder Neal A. Maxwell taught:

"When, for the moment, we ourselves are not being stretched on a particular cross, we ought to be at the foot of someone else’s—full of empathy and proffering spiritual refreshment." (Neal A. Maxwell, "Endure It Well", April General Conference, 1990)

Fourth, no one is beyond the healing reach of the Savior. How often do we consider ourselves as having gone too far astray? We have wandered off beyond Christ's ability to help us back. We give up on ourselves just as those in the house had given up on the daughter (turns out she was only mostly dead...).

Finally, we need to exercise patience when asking for blessings from the Lord. God has a way of using what we feel are delays and turning them to our benefit. We can grumble about having to wait (and probably miss out), or we can let it strengthen our faith like Jairus did.

Lesson 7: Needs of the One

This week's lesson deals with Christ's miracles. There have been chapters and books written about the various miracles performed, so what does that leave for a 45-minute lesson? There are so many ways to apply the lessons to our lives today, how does one pick a few selected examples when they are all so rich?

When I worked on this lesson last time (four years ago), one of the strongest impressions I had was how much the Lord loves the individual. I went through and counted 21 miracles performed for just one person; healings, casting out devils, even raising the dead. He often went out of his way to reach someone. If I have time this week, I'll see about picking a few miracles to discuss, but now I want to focus on "the one".

The Lord used the image of the shepherd leaving the "ninety and nine" to search for the one sheep which had gone astray (Matt 18:12-13) to show us (among other things) how much he cares for us. And notice the sheep didn't get a lecture all the way home, but the shepherd rejoiced in finding the one which had been lost.

When the resurrected Savior came to visit the Nephites, he told the multitude to come forward to feel the nail marks in his hands and feet, they came "one by one until they had all gone forth" (3 Nephi 11:14-15). So, how many people are we talking about? Thirty? Fifty? How about 2,500 (see 3 Nephi 17:25). Even with a group of 2,500 people, he still made sure they had individual one-on-one time with him.

That's how I imagine the atonement taking place. We talk about the infinite atonement (see 2 Nephi 9:7, Alma 34:12) which makes it easy sometimes to forget the very personal nature of the sacrifice. I haven't found any supporting evidence of this, but I believe the atonement was made one person at a time. The closest I've been able to find is a quote from Elder John H. Groberg:

"I feel that as [the Savior] hung upon the cross and looked out…, he saw through the stream of time. His huge, magnanimous, loving soul encompassed all eternity and took in all people and all times and all sins… Yes, he saw down to you and to me" (John H. Groberg, "Beauty and Importance of the Sacrament", Conference Report Apr 89).

In my heart, I see the Savior in Gethsemane taking on himself the burden of our sins. When my name "came up" I imagine him pulling my picture out of his wallet (I'll never understand how it was done, so I put it into terms I can grasp a bit better) until he was sure I had been sufficiently covered before he pulled out the next person's photo. "I ... [suffer] these things for [you], that [you] might not suffer if [you] would repent" (see Doct and Cov. 19:16-18). And then, just to make sure, he went through it all again on the cross:

"...while he was hanging on the cross for another three hours, ... all the infinite agonies and merciless pains of Gethsemane recurred." (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, "The Purifying Power of Gethsemane", April General Conference 1985)

So, while there are so many great spiritual lessons to be found in the miracles performed by Christ, one of the biggest for me is the reminder of the importance and value in God's eyes of the one.

Lesson 6: Once More, With Feeling

Sometimes, lessons jump out at you from unexpected places in the scriptures. I've been wondering all week how to approach this week's lesson on the selection of the 12 Apostles. I went through all the scriptures listed in the manual and wondered, "what am I going to do with the other 40 minutes of class time?"

Then I read something about the experience with Peter before his call to the apostleship. In Luke 5, Christ was teaching the people near the Sea of Galilee and a large crowd was gathering. He saw two ships docked as the fishermen were working on their nets after an uneventful night of fishing. Christ entered one of the boats and taught the crowd from there. When he finished, he instructed Simon (not Peter yet) to "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught" or large catch (vs. 4). Simon responded that they had been fishing all night without any success, "nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net" (vs. 5).

This may be obvious to some of you, but it was one of those, "how long has that been in there??" moments for me. I knew he went back and always thought, "Good job Peter, you're such a trooper" but never tied it in with anything, so I missed the bigger picture...

-Hey, Nephi. Would you mind going back to Jerusalem? Turns out we need the Brass Plates (see 1 Nephi 3). Nephi says, "Sure Dad, anything the Lord asks!"

-Hey, Nephi, this is going to be a long trip. Would you mind going back to Jerusalem to pick up Ishmael and his family? Thanks. (see 1 Nephi 7). By this time I would've been murmuring, "anything else you need while I'm in town? If we forget anything else, we'll just have to do without because I'm not going back in again" but Nephi is faithful and goes without complaining.

-Alma, I know you just got kicked out of Ammonihah, but would you mind going back? Yeah, the Lord needs you to tell them to repent or be destroyed. "Have fun storming the castle..." (see Alma 8). Even though the people of the city had just "reviled him, and spit upon him, and caused that he should be cast out of their city" (verse 13), he "returned speedily to the land of Ammonihah" (verse 18). No complaining, no "you could've told me while I was still there", just willing obedience.

-Samuel (the Lamanite, not the Old Testament prophet. See Helaman 13), how about going back to Zarahemla and "prophesy unto the people whatsoever things should come into [your] heart" (verse 3).

So, when the Lord asks us to do something, again, what is our attitude? Do we complain a little? Maybe subtly remind the Lord (as Peter did) that we just tried that and it didn't work? Imagine if Naaman only dipped himself in the river Jordan six times instead of seven. "Three... nope, Four... nothing, Five... still not getting any better here... Six, that's it. I'm going home!" Or do we, like Alma and Samuel the Lamanite, immediately turn around and go back? Simon Peter's previous try simply didn't work, it's not like the fish threw him off the lake. Alma was thrown out of the city, but went back faithfully and "speedily".

Why does the Lord so often ask us to do things repeatedly? Just once, wouldn't it be nice to have someone come up and say, "Here is the golden horseshoe and silver platter you ordered, will there be anything else sir?" The first time I prayed for a testimony of the Book of Mormon, I didn't get an answer. Didn't get one the second time either, or the third... I think I had read it at least four times before my answer came, and I can't imagine it would've had the same lasting impact had it come when I asked the first time when I "took no thought save it was to ask" (Doct. and Cov 9:7).

So, what I learned from Peter, and by extension the other examples used here, is that I will be asked to do things over. Things which didn't work out well, or at all, the first time. Things I would rather just leave behind and move on. Things which the Lord knows I could do better. Will I grumble a bit, or welcome the opportunity?

Lesson 5: How's Your Cup?

I didn't have anywhere near enough time to go through everything I found for the lesson this week, so I'll hit some of it here.

I won't go over the visit of Nicodemus, but I do want to share something that caught my attention with the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. I've heard and read this story so many times and could only see the "Christ is the Living Water" message, which is still pretty powerful, don't get me wrong. But this time something else grabbed me and showed me another level to the story.

The woman came to the well prepared to take water home with her. Seems a bit obvious in hindsight. What's the point of coming to the well if you aren't going to get any water? Spiritually, how many times do we come to church, conference, personal/family scripture study, etc. without bringing anything to hold the "living water" (see John 4:10) which is waiting? So, to help me identify the issues easier, I came up with three problems we might face with our containers.

First, Jeremiah 2:13 ties in with this (to me, anyway):

"For my people have committed two evils;" It's nice when the Lord breaks it out into points we can easily identify...

"they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters," Some of us aren't even trying to get any water, but that's not what I'm worried about right now. I just want to focus on those who actually show up...

"[and] hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." there's a hole in yer bucket, dear Lizza, dear Lizza...

There's our first issue. We need to examine our container to see if we have any leaks or cracks. We're trying to get "living water" from the scriptures or from meetings, but we can't hold on to it because things in our lives are interfering. We feel good at first, but it quickly fades as other concerns or interests take the place which the Spirit would otherwise occupy.

The next two come from a devotional given by Elder Bruce R. McConkie:

"...sometimes a speaker brings a jug of living water that has in it many gallons. And when he pours it out on the congregation, all the members have brought is a single cup and so that's all they take away. Or maybe they have their hands over the cups, and they don't get anything to speak of." (Bruce R. McConkie, "The Seven Deadly Heresies", Fireside Address, 1 June 1980)

The second issue, as mentioned above, is that we don't bring a large enough cup. Maybe we haven't prepared ourselves sufficiently to be receptive to the message being presented, or maybe we choose, through commission or omission, to bring a small cup. How many times have you heard, "Oh, I forgot it was high council Sunday" and see people (or yourself) mentally tune out. I've done it before. We show up to church and essentially hold out a tiny cup when the speaker has come prepared to share gallons of "living water" with us.

The third one, and possibly the most damaging, is when we put our hands over our cup to keep us from getting any water at all. Why would someone come for water, but then put their hand over their cup? Well, what if the speaker was talking about a "pet sin" I wasn't ready to give up just yet? I'd either have to acknowledge the issue and deal with it, or I could just tune out and effectively put my hand over my cup.

So now I have an easy checklist to make sure I'm getting enough "living water":
- Do I have any cracks in my cup?
- Is the cup large enough?
- Did I actually take the lid off the cup before trying to fill it?

Some Favorite Scriptures

I picked up a CD by John Bytheway titled "7 Scriptures That Will Rock Your World" and listened to it on my way up to Calgary this morning. It was very good and got me thinking about a few things. While I recommend the talk to anyone, I don't want to give a feeble summary here. Let's face it, I'm no John Bytheway. Instead, I thought I'd talk about a few scriptures which have really impacted me in my life. I know from experience when people talk about their favorite scriptures, it doesn't always hit the listener the same way it does to the person sharing. That's fine, often the same verse(s) of scripture will often have a different impact on us at different times in our lives depending on our current circumstances and that is part of the beauty of the scriptures; they reach us when we need it most. Kind of like "spiritual Motrin"... The scriptures target your needs the same way geeks target a Star Trek convention.

I'm not going to rank these to say one is more a favorite than the others or had more an impact, and there's a good chance I will have to stretch this out over several posts to get them in. Here goes...

The first one is in 1 Nephi 21:14-16 (also in Isaiah 49).

"But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me—but he will show that he hath not.

"For can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, O house of Israel.

"Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."

I had missed this one for quite a while because it was tucked away in the "Isaiah chapters" of 1 and 2 Nephi. I don't recall exactly what was happening when this scripture "rocked my world", but I was in high school and was feeling down about something. Everything in high school seems to get blown out of proportion and feels like the end of the world. I remember reading this (must've been senior year because that's the year we were covering the Book of Mormon in seminary) and it made me slow down to think.

Back before the days of the Palm Pilot or smartphones, when I needed to remember something I usually wrote a note on my hand; school assignments, girls' phone numbers (well, that's where I would've written them if I ever got any), scheduling items, etc. That's when the light went on for me. This is what Christ was saying here, "I'm never going to forget you because you've been 'graven ... upon the palms of my hands', I always have a reminder of you." He didn't use a pen, but instead the nails which pierced his hands, wrists, and feet. The marks in his hands which he invites all to come and feel for themselves (3 Nephi 11:14-15) as a witness of his divinity serve as a reminder of us.

It came as a comfort, as well as a gentle "suck it up" moment, to realize that no matter how bad things were (or how bad I thought they were), I was not alone and the Lord was very much aware of me. As Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught, "Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion, Christ is not going to turn his back on us now" ("Come Unto Me", BYU Devotional, 2 March 1997).

Talk on Prophets

We got a phone call on Tuesday evening from one of the counsellors in the bishopric, which is always a little nerve-racking at the best of times. Let's face it, they don't call just to catch up and see how things are going. There's always a reason behind it.

Brother Gibb: "How are you doing?"

Me: "I'll tell you in a minute, depends on how the rest of this call goes..."

Brother Gibb: "We've had to make a change..." after what seemed to be minutes (long enough for me to frantically try to remember which auxiliaries he handled, and I know Brother Tieland is the counsellor over the Sunday School, so if this is headed in the direction I feared it was going, I was about to lose my favorite calling ever), he continued, "...in the speakers on Sunday."

Well, why didn't you just say so? I'll gladly speak on Sunday. In fact, I'd speak every Sunday if it means keeping my calling in the Sunday School. I was given the topic of "How Old Testament Prophets Can Help Us in Our Day" and Dawn got the modern prophets version

Here's a link to the whole talk...

This is not the version I gave in Church, however. Due to some delays in getting bread for the sacrament, the meeting was about ten minutes late getting started. Dawn and I were chopping whole sections out of our talks as we waited for our turns.

I really enjoyed preparing for my topic, it was hard narrowing it down to what I had on paper. I have to say I'm really enjoying the Old Testament this year. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to prepare the lessons which make me dig into the scriptures deeper than I would normally.

Lesson 36: Don't Be Afraid, it's Just Isaiah

In my years of working with computers, I've met several people who are afraid to do even simple tasks because they just know there's a hidden "self-destruct" button that they are bound to inadvertently hit. Smoke will start coming out the back, the keyboard will start melting, it will somehow take down anything connected to the computer, and then with it's dying breath send out a message of warning on the internet so everyone will know not to give them a computer again. I haven't done an extensive search, but I'm fairly confident there aren't any documented cases of this worst-case scenario actually happening. People are just naturally cautious about what they don't understand.

The same seems to hold true with Isaiah. When these lessons roll around during Old Testament or the Book of Mormon, I see the same look of trepidation in some of the class members, shear terror in others. I can almost see the eyes glaze over at the mention of Isaiah, especially when they realize there are four weeks of Isaiah lessons.

When I was younger, I thought Isaiah was boring and hard to understand, so I usually read those chapters a little faster. Now, while I don't claim to understand much of it, I do actually enjoy the Isaiah chapters. Sunday's lesson dealt with the first six chapters in Isaiah (yah, I know I'm late. Deal with it). There's no way I can cover all the cool parts in those chapters, so I'll just tackle a few of them and see how far I get.

The first one has to be one of my favorites:
"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isaiah 1:18).

The invitation from the Lord here is as always: "Come". Even if your life seems permanently stained with sin, we can be made clean and pure through the atonement of Christ. He doesn't say "Come, after you've worked it out on your own," the invitation is for us to "Come now".

The next one is Isaiah 2:20:
"In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats"

So, the time will come when men's idols will be cast away to dark and hidden places. The part that never really stuck out to me before was the fact they had made their own idols on an individual basis. Maybe I don't like golden calves, maybe my idol is a silver Corvette stingray. It could also be the sound-proofed man-cave with projector & large-screen, 5.1 surround sound, equipped with the mini-fridge and microwave within arm's reach of the couch. So I had to stop and think (some might argue I haven't started up again), what is my idol? To what do I give the devotion which rightly belongs to God? Whatever it is, things don't look very bright for it or me if I haven't removed it on my own.

Number 3 is from chapter 4:5-6…

"And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory [of Zion*] shall be a defence.

"And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain." (*See 2 Nephi 14:5)

This was always a bit confusing for me until I taught the Exodus lesson a few years ago. While the Israelites were wandering around in the wilderness, the Lord blessed them with a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire by night. These not only provided protection, but were a sign to Israel that the Lord was with them. This protection is promised to “every dwelling place of mount Zion”, or every faithful home. This isn’t just a little bit of smoke coming out of the fireplace, this has reference to the presence of the Lord.

So, those are just a few of the thoughts which jumped out to me from this week. Once I get a chance to draw breath this week, I'll see if I can tackle next week's lesson.