Week 5: Abraham

The reading for the past lesson is a must to read, for it is Genesis 12-23. I enjoyed the reading, and the pure life that Abraham has; furthermore, the reading has the rare chance to read of a communion with God. Abraham's is an extraordinary person, and he shows how a prophet lives a perfect life with the grace of God.
A glue-in expounds from the writing of President Joseph Fielding Smith in the Doctrines of Salvation

"Salvation does not come all at once; we are commanded to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect. It will take us ages to accomplish this end, for there will be greater progress beyond the grave, and it will be there that the faithful will overcome all things, and receive all things, even the fulness of the Father's glory.

I believe the Lord meant just what he said: that we should be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect. That will not come all at once, but line upon line, and precept upon precept, example upon example, and even then not as long as we live in this mortal life, for we will have to go even beyond the grave before we reach that perfection and shall be like God.

But here we lay the foundation. Here is where we are taught these simple truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in this probationary state, to prepare us for that perfection. It is our duty to be better today than we were yesterday, and better tomorrow than we are today. Why? Because we are on that road, if we are keeping the commandments of the Lord, we are on that road to perfection, and that can only come through obedience and the desire in our hearts to overcome the world."

When I was reading of how Abraham received the commandment to sacrifice his only son, I saw a complete obedience to God. He did not question. The emotions of his soul was not written out; although, his reaction is usually written. I saw that his attitude was in the spirit of the commandment.

Elder Melvin J. Ballard wrote: “You remember the story of how Abraham’s son came after long years of waiting and was looked upon by his worthy sire, Abraham, as more precious than all his other possessions, yet, in the midst of his rejoicing, Abraham was told to take this only son and offer him as a sacrifice to the Lord. He responded. Can you feel what was in the heart of Abraham on that occasion? You love your son just as Abraham did, perhaps not quite so much, because of the peculiar circumstances, but what do you think was in his heart when he started away from Mother Sarah, and they bade her goodbye? What do you think was in his heart when he saw Isaac bidding farewell to his mother to take that three days’ journey to the appointed place where the sacrifice was to be made? I imagine it was about all Father Abraham could do to keep from showing his great grief and sorrow at that parting, but he and his son trudged along three days toward the appointed place, Isaac carrying the fagots that were to consume the sacrifice. The two travelers rested, finally, at the mountainside, and the men who had accompanied them were told to remain while Abraham and his son started up the hill.

“The boy then said to his father: ‘Why, Father, we have the fagots; we have the fire to burn the sacrifice; but where is the sacrifice?’

“It must have pierced the heart of Father Abraham to hear the trusting and confiding son say: ‘You have forgotten the sacrifice.’ Looking at the youth, his son of promise, the poor father could only say: ‘The Lord will provide.’

“They ascended the mountain, gathered the stones together, and placed the fagots upon them. Then Isaac was bound, hand and foot, kneeling upon the altar. I presume Abraham, like a true father, must have given his son his farewell kiss, his blessing, his love, and his soul must have been drawn out in that hour of agony toward his son who was to die by the hand of his own father. Every step proceeded until the cold steel was drawn, and the hand raised that was to strike the blow to let out the life’s blood.” (“The Sacramental Covenant,” New Era, Jan. 1976, pp. 9–10.)

Bear in mind that Abraham was saved from a similar fate instigated in wickedness by his own father. As with most people, Abraham must have abhorred human sacrifice. Why would the Lord require such a trial of his faith? What can be learned from the life of Abraham, who was faithful to the end?

In the lesson Lisa Muirhead spoke of three great intelligences:

God                                      Man                                              Satan

                                            D&C 10:5                                      2 Nephi 2:29

                                            Ephesians 6:10-13                          Alma 34:15

We can only bind ourselves to one of the two: God or Satan. God provides the way to happiness and truth, and Satan leads the way to misery and ignorance. 

Week 4: Learning of a few of the first Patriarchs

In the fourth spoke of the first great patriarchs of mortality. Lisa did speak of many people including the following: Cain, Abel, Enoch, and Noah.
The story of Cain and Abel is a basic one. Lisa printed out a Glue-in that sets everything straight from the world's misunderstanding of the Gospel.


The Pearl of Great Price supplies many answers. (See Moses 5:1-41, especially verses 16-38, along with the notes and commentary provided in this study guide.) For example, Adam and Eve taught the gospel of Jesus Christ to their family, including Cain and Abel. Cain held the Melchizedek Priesthood and had been taught proper sacrifice, which was the blood sacrifice of a firstling of the flock. Cain had a bad and arrogant attitude to begin with. Satan is the one who commanded Cain to offer sacrifice and encouraged him to mock God by offering a sacrifice of produce from his farm. Cain received repeated warnings from God, inviting him to do things right and receive the promised blessings. Cain rebelled against Adam and Eve and kept his evil doings from them. He surrounded himself with wicked peers, including a wicked wife. Satan taught Cain how to murder Abel. Cain gloried in his wickedness and murdered Abel in order to get his material possessions; thus, Cain was fully accountable for rebelling against God and making covenants with Satan. His punishment was completely fair according to the law of justice.


Enoch


In the lesson Lisa reviewed the writing of Moses as he saw Enoch in vision, when he was translated, meaning to be changed to an immortal being without dying. His glorious Zion people lived 365 years in the Gospel; so well so, the entire community was taken up to live with God. Moses' words can be read concerning the scope of Satan’s triumph and the resultant sorrows of God in chapter 7:29-40.

29 And Enoch said unto the Lord: How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity?
30 And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still; and yet thou art there, and thy b

osom is there; and also thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever;

31 And thou hast taken Zion to thine own bosom, from all thy creations, from all eternity to all eternity; and naught but peace, justice, and truth is the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou canst weep?
32 The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;
33 And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;
34 And the afire of mine indignation is kindled against them; and in my hot displeasure will I send in the floods upon them, for my fierce anger is kindled against them.
35 Behold, I am God; Man of Holiness is my name; Man of Counsel is my name; and Endless and Eternal is my name, also.
36 Wherefore, I can stretch forth mine hands and hold all the creations which I have made; and mine eye can pierce them also, and among all the workmanship of mine hands there has not been so great wickedness as among thy brethren.
37 But behold, their sins shall be upon the heads of their fathers; Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom; and the whole heavens shall weep over them, even all the workmanship of mine hands; wherefore should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?
38 But behold, these which thine eyes are upon shall perish in the floods; and behold, I will shut them up; a prison have I prepared for them.
39 And that which I have chosen hath pled before my face. Wherefore, he suffereth for their sins; inasmuch as they will repent in the day that my Chosen shall return unto me, and until that day they shall be in torment;
40 Wherefore, for this shall the heavens weep, yea, and all the workmanship of mine hands.

Noah

Methuselah was the prophet left after Enoch's Zion people of God were taken up, and Noah was his son. They taught the gospel to the world for many decades, mainly being the only people that would receive it. Noah was a "perfect man," and I am humble to see how his sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth did not fall into the ways of the world. Noah must must have been a great father.

A glue-in, quoting from the book The Old Testament Made Easier by David J. Ridges, says on page 198.

"One of the important messages we learn form the account of Noah and the ark is the value of faith obedience. For example, securing a year's supply of emergency food storage, as commanded by the Lord through our modern prophets, may be difficult during times of plenty because the need is not constantly pressed upon our minds by current circumstances. Therefore, it requires faith obedience to gather food storage. Elder Spencer W. Kimball spoke of Noah and this principle. He taught:

"Paul, speaking to the Hebrews, said:

By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house...

(Hebrews 11:7).

"As yet there was no evidence of rain and flood. His people mocked and called him a fool. His preaching fell on deaf ears. His warnings were considered irrational. There was no precedent; never had it been known that a deluge could cover the earth. How foolish to build an ark on dry ground with the sun shining and life moving forward as usual! But time ran out. The ark was finished. The floods came. The disobedient and rebellious were drowned. The miracle of the ark followed the faith manifested in its building" (Faith Precedes the Miracle, 5)"

The Creation

The reading in preparation for the second class was the first few chapters of Genesis. This lesson went over the creation and the creation of Adam and Eve; furthermore, agency, the right and ability to choose, was discussed.
The creation of an Earth for Man to abide on is crucial for our life. Adam and the Lord were mostly known to be involved in the creation of the earth; otherthan, the verse in the writing of Abraham in Chapter three of his book number 22 says: "Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the ^aintelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the ^bnoble and great ones;"
A glue-in given to us quotes from the writing of Bruce R. McConkie, concerning the Creation of the Earth and Adam.


We know that Jehovah-Christ, assisted by “many noble and great ones” (Abr. 3:22), of whom Michael is but the illustration, did in fact create the earth and all forms of plant and animal life on the face thereof. But when it came to placing man on earth, there was a change in creators. That is, the Father himself became personally involved. All things were created by the Son, using the power delegated by the Father, except man. In the spirit and again in the flesh, man was created by the Father. There was no delegation of authority where the crowning creature of creation was concerned. (Promised Messiah, p. 62)


With Fathers personal involvement in creating his beloved child to have a mortal body, he modeled the creation of Adam after his spirit's imagine. Our tangible body is how we have always looked in the spirit world when we were raised in the presence of God the Father before mortality. Doctrine and Covenants 77:2 references to this truth, being explained to us by Christ himself in an inquiry about parts of Revelation of John.
The Earth was originally created without the opposition in the world of hot and cold; barren and fruitful; and decay and preservation. Only perfection existed; however, I see a couple things that existed as opposites as the following: the voice of Satan and the light of Christ, and the Tree of Life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Only with opposition can we learn and be able to chose. Adam and Eve had one chose; although, he chose the names of all the animals and his wife. On way I understand how the mind works is that "man could not ^bact for himself save it should be that he was ^centiced by the one or the other." 2 Nephi 2:16 There are only two sources of enticing from God and Satan. We can simply recognize the source and whether it is good and bad. Before I move on to the second topic of the creation of Adam and Eve, Lisa Muirhead shared a children's book with the class called Finding the Green Stone by Alice Walker. 
Its about a world, which has humanity blessed with a great gift. This gift is a green stone. The green stone is shines according to the light of one's righteous choices. The main character is a boy that lost his green stone because he was unrighteous, lacking the understanding that the lose of one's green stone represents his character. The boy cared to have the stone though, searching diligently for it, for it was a cherish item of his community. The community even helped as most of the community knew that he can obtain the stone and the light thereof, if he changes his unrighteous character to embrace integrity. Not until the child learned of his errors did he find his stone, and the entire community rejoiced in his revelation.
After the creation of man, the father said "And I, the Lord God, said unto mine ^aOnly Begotten, that it was not good that the man should be ^balone; wherefore, I will make an ^chelp meet for him." I will conclude with two final glue-ins. They speak of 'an help meet for Adam,' and the relationship he had with Eve.


The distinction between "help meet" and "helpmeet" (or "help-mate," as it is sometimes referred to) is crucial to proper understanding of the roles of husband and wife. "Helpmeet" means "helper" or "assistant" and is often interpolated to mean "of lesser status." "Help meet" means "help that is vital for him." "Meet" means "necessary," "vital," "required." (see D&C 58:26)


second one


Thus, God created a vital help for Adam, a companion of equal status to work with him and he with her. The equality of husband and wife is clearly taught in the Proclamation on the Family. The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve stated (bold added for emphasis):


 By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners.


President Howard W. Hunter taught the following about the proper relationship between husband and wife (bold added for emphasis):


"A man who holds the priesthood accepts his wife as a partner in the leadership of the home and family with full knowledge of and full participation in all decisions relating thereto... The Lord intended that the wife be a helpmeet for man (meet means equal)—that is, a companion equal and necessary in full partnership." ("Being a Righteous Husband and Father")

First Class

The first class of institute was foundational, setting the environment, which I feel is pretty fast pace. You will be given a notebook, which you may not even need to carry with you. Lisa will keep it for you. She provides everything.

The founding doctrines of Institute this year was the discussion of how we can have knowledge of the Plan of Salvation bless our lives. "^aTruth is ^bknowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;" (D&C 93:24) How does this knowledge bless us, and how can have more blesses for exercising faith more fully in the fullness of the restored Gospel. 

The knowledge of God, the Atonement, and the Plan of Salvation is an anchor to the souls, for the world is a tempest. If we get relaxed in keeping the commandments, the tides and  winds can carry us to forbidden places.  We can know who we are, why we are here, where we are from and going. Elder Neal A. Maxwell said in the Ensign of MAY 1984:

So much more than a matter of abstract theology, this great plan can focus daily life. Its truths are crucial to how we see ourselves, others, life, the Lord, and even the universe. Or how we view a baby. Or death. Or the praise and honors of the world. This plan constitutes the mother lode of meaning and can cradle us, conceptually, amid any concern. 

Scriptures to look at

Plan of Mercy                 Plan of Happiness                 Plan of Redemption

Alma 42:15                     Alma 42:8,16                        2 Nephi 9:6-13

2 Nephi 11:5                                                                 Alma 34:8-16

*Alma 24:14                                                                 Alma 42:5-26

*Alma 34:16                                                                 Hebrews 5:8-9

*Alma 42:13                                                                                        !

“We mortals have a limited view of life from the eternal perspective. But if we know and understand Heavenly Father’s plan, we realize that dealing with adversity is one of the chief ways we are tested. Our faith in our Heavenly Father and his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, is the source of inner strength. Through faith we can find peace, comfort, and the courage to endure. As we trust in God and his plan for our happiness with all our hearts and lean not unto our own understanding (see Prov. 3:5), hope is born. Hope grows out of faith and gives meaning and purpose to all we do. It can give us comfort in the face of adversity, strength in times of trial, and peace when we have reason for doubt or anguish.” M. Russell Ballard, Ensign, May 1995, 22

Welcome to Institute!

This week on the Ocean YSA Branch Weekly is dedicated to catching you up on the first few weeks of Institute. Our new teacher Lisa Muirhead is a wonderful teacher, and everyone ought to come. She is a great servant of God too busy to address us, but Lisa has delegated me to address the Santa Cruz area of California, concerning what Institute is.
This year Institute is a bible study, covering the Old Testament. Since General Conference, the second scripture mastery versus of the Book of Mormon that I memorized helps us understand the points that Sister Muirhead. The versus is 1 Nephi 19:23.


"And I did read many things unto them which were written in the books of Moses; but that I might more fully persuade them to believe in the Lord their Redeemer I did read unto them that which was written by the prophet Isaiah; for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning."


This versus tells us exactly what we are doing in the class. We are reading many things from the Books of Moses, dissecting the word of God to understand the real restored truths revealed to us by our modern prophets.
We will be reading from Isaiah; however, the main purpose is to "liken the scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning." Since the beginning, this goal has directly been address. Lisa applies the word of God to us as a great source of strength that all the young single adult saints need. I will write a brief summary of each class up until this week, so you may catch up and join us this coming Thursday at 7 pm at the Stake Center.


"I ask you to make Institute a priority." - Thomas S. Monson

Reflection on General Conference

How has General Conference affected you?

Please add your comments to this post.

I reviewed the first talk of General Conference, committing me to memorize the scriptures.  I have committed to memorize a scripture a week, coming from the scripture mastery. I see what Elder Scott taught in my life. Nephi is my friend now, a great example. Memorizing 1 Nephi 3:7, I see his great maturity to have a powerful testimony, a bold personality, and a habit to bear his testimony in his speech. My personal definition of faith is the boldness that we do the commandments of God, and Nephi is a great friend encouraging me to follow the spirit, having the faith that I can accomplish what I am prompted to do.
....
The branch members don't seem so understand that I would like to see how General Conference affected to members. You can email a paragraph or so to me on how the event of this past conference, if you want. My email address is alexnhicken@gmail.com. If you do so, I will post it in this entry.  I gave an example. This newsletter is not about me. Its about you and the work of God in the Santa Cruz Stake for the YSA. Have a good week.

Creating a Central Source of Communication for a Community Through Twitter

As you may have noticed, I am kind of fazing away from this blog, focusing more on the Ocean YSA Branch Weekly blog. Since I see that people still have the care to visit the blog after its been a week or so to post an entry, I am inspired to write of an endeavor that I am working on for the branch of my church that I am in to make a more united community.
Most people are part of a community. In this community, a general openness of many things is needed to be able to serve each other. If there is a big community of fifty people, you do not want to send texts to each individual. A mass email can be okay, but that is not too commonly useful. I figured out how to make communication simple for the entire community to reach.
 each other with one single number on a cell phone.
Using twitter, I thought, making an account, that everyone can mention an account's username, receive the tweets in texts, and see that twitter could be a central source of communication. This did not work though. I soon found that if a twitter user mentions another twitter user the tweet does not count as the mentioned user-name's tweet, and none of his followers will receive that text. That does not accomplish my desire to have a simple way to address a large group of people through texting. I desire a singular phone number to address a body of people rather that addressing each person individually. Even on twitter you still have to address an individual by their username. Why do we need an address the individual if everyone should hear the news?
In this informing central source of open connection for everyone, we can support each other. I don't only want this for myself, but I want the entire community to be able to address that community. Each person is knowledgeable and capable in themselves to do things that another cannot. For example, someone needs transportation to an activity; instead of texting every person individually, we have a single phone number to send the message to, and everyone will receive the text. When an individual responds to the tweet with the same number that the person, asking the favor, used, everyone will know that when that person's need is met because it will go through twitter. Only the tweets of a twitter username is sent to his following. Perhaps another person sees that driver will be passing by their house and asked to join in the carpool.
I found a way to do this. I was trying to figure out a way to use a retweet bot, but I could not; however, I found that twitterfeed.com tweets the updates of blogs. Thinking this out, I realized that you can text posts to blogs at blogspot.com, so I further looked, seeing that you can add multiple authors to a blog. We can now have the desire of a central phone number to text a general community. The new number would be bloggr; although, you can name it whatever you want. Do you see what would happen? Everyone can texts posts to the same blog, and twitterfeed would tweet it at a central username on twitter. All of the followers of that account can receive the updates of that community by text. There could be some down falls; however, they can be easily addressed.
I see it may be seen as a hassle to add people to be an author of a blog. It is more simple than choosing to follow a twitter user though. The main guy running the blog only needs to give a code for a potential author to text to at the 256447 number or bloggr, and she becomes an author; however, giving out the codes to every person may be a pain, it is simple.
Another down fall is that the blog sees the updates as an anonymous writer, so someone can easily fake to be someone else. For example, if I sign a name to a post asking for a ride to an activity, I may be adding the name of a person, which did not need the ride, so further communication would be needed to follow up if the source is credible. Which someone may do anyways, making further arrangement to pick up the individual at what time and place, and so forth privately.
A third downfall is that the two blog feed websites, which I found to tweet the updates would only do it once every half hour, so the updates come slowly; unless, you want to watch the blog. The tweets are not instantaneously updated, but the blog is. Procrastination, organizing things in the last minute, would be bad through twitterfeed as it updates every half hour; unless, someone is watching the twitterfeed account forcing it to tweet the updates.
In conclusion a community can have a central bulletin board type source of communication. This communication can be used very dynamically. Here is another example. If you want to invite and remind a singular person to an activity,  the fruits of that effort can be greater, for instead inviting one person; everyone is invited. This is definitely not good for asking out a girl. haha, but this service can be good step towards a community's unity, if they are trustworthy.