CCFM 2023 NT - Week 00

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[00:00:00] INTRODUCTION

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Welcome back you guys. This is creative. Come follow me for the New Testament Week zero . I'm calling it week zero because we're not technically in the verses of the New Testament just yet. It will seem when you open up the book like this is something you could maybe skip over. In fact, that was what I felt when I first read it, to be totally honest with you, because it's right before Christmas time.

I was like, oh, maybe I can take this preliminary lesson and smash it into lesson one, and that way I can be a week ahead and enjoy Christmas a little. That was my game plan you guys, and then the more I studied this lesson and really read the verses. , I realized it needed its own time. It needed a full week.

There's a reason they put it in the Come Follow Me Manual because it sets this beautiful foundation for everywhere we're gonna go next. So if you haven't opened it up your manual yet. This week's title is We are Responsible for our own Learning. It's this big, bright spotlight [00:01:00] that is shining down on our testimonies.

Remember how President Nelson's been pulling at us to hold onto our testimonies, to deepen them, to take ownership of them, to expand them. That's what this lesson is all about, and it uses the New Testament to do that. So it's completely worth your time and study, I promise. There's a beautiful introduction paragraph in this week's lesson that mentions the phrase from the savior that says, what seek, and then it invites you to ask that question to simply come to this year of study and.

What is it? I hope to get out and your answer's gonna be different than mine, but I'll tell you mine just cuz we're friends. So I have two big reasons. The first thing I seek this time is a bit of a mulligan . So like I told you guys in the Old Testament, the first year of Come follow me after. After it was announced by President Nelson, I was terrible.

The first time we did the New Testament, I did kind of a smattering of study with my kids. I didn't really put any object lessons or any effort in, and I didn't get a [00:02:00] whole lot out of it. So this year I hope to do it all differently. I don't hope to spend a ton more time and effort. I just hope to get a lot more out of it, and I think that will happen because of the three years of study we've done together.

I just, I can't. To see this year be so different than the last. The second big reason, and the one that's maybe more sacred to me is because of a promise that's in my patriarchal blessing, and I won't read it for you verbatim, but basically the promise is that as I come to study the life of the savior, I will know him as my savior, that I will even recognize him when I see him and I, I have been wondering for, When that will be fulfilled.

And it's not that I think I'll hit the capstone of that this year, but I do think these last three years of study and this fourth one will give me a whole new view of the savior. Elder Holland talks about. Holding up a jewel and how when you study the life of the savior from all these different books, you get [00:03:00] different facets of his personality as you turn that gem around and see the different sides, and that's how I feel about this year.

What I seek is to see him as he is. and I think it's gonna happen. In fact, the more I studied this lesson, the more I realized it's completely in my control whether that happens or not, and I intend to make it happen. So you guys, we've got a good year ahead of us. This week of study is a little shorter.

The lesson breaks down into four big areas. So I'll walk you through those four big areas, but I want you to keep in mind what seek. What is it that you hope to get out of this year of study? How do you want your family to look or your class to look by the end of 2023? And keep that in mind as you go into this week's lesson and I think answers will start to flood in they did for me, so I promise they will for you as well.

All right, you guys, let's get started. Grab your scriptures, grab your notes. It's time to study the New Testament.[00:04:00]

[00:04:00] POINT 1: TO TRULY LEARN FROM THE SAVIOR, I MUST ACCEPT HIS INVITATION, “COME, FOLLOW ME.”

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The lesson this week is broken up into four big sections that will help you take responsibility for your own learning. And the first big one is about becoming a disciple of Christ. It's phrased a little bit differently, but I feel like that's the message. So if you look at 0.1 in the manual, it says, to truly learn from the savior, I must accept his invitation to come follow me.

This is a great place to. because I feel like it's what the savior it's the invitation he extended to all his disciples in the New Testament, especially those who would come to be his apostles. In fact, the more I studied this part of the New Testament, the more I felt ignited by it. Basically, when he encounters all these would-be apostles.

Over the course of time, he invites them to follow, and it's not this big. Dramatic promise. He simply says, come and see. The first one I read about was with Andrew who was introduced to the savior through John the Baptist, and he basically has a question for the savior. He wants to know where he lives, and the Savior's response is, come and see.

And then [00:05:00] that sort of triggers this domino effect. And Andrew tells Peter and Peter tells Philip and Nathaniel like they get this, you get this web of people who are intrigued by the savior, and I found myself wondering. , why they followed, you know, why did. Drop everything and follow him. And fundamentally, I think it's the same reason we follow.

I think they had some audacious hope. I think they caught sight of something that they thought could be this Messiah that the Jews had prayed for and hoped for, they thought it might be. And because they were willing to plant that desire and give place for it, it could grow. And that's the process of discipleship.

It's this willingness. Open up space to change and to be something better. The visual I love for discipleship is martial arts movies, but let me explain why. Okay. So when I was studying discipleship, when I was teaching my YSAs, I found this quote [00:06:00] from James E Faust, and he says this, he says the last, the word for disciple and the word for discipline, both come from the same Latin root, discipulus, which means pupil. It emphasizes practice or exercise. Self-discipline and self-control are consistent and permanent characteristics of the followers of Jesus, as exemplified by Peter, James and John, who indeed forsook all and followed him. What is discipleship? It is primarily obedience to the savior.

So when I read that quote, you guys, my brain immediately went to martial arts movies because that's what they do. Like it's the plot line of. You know, from Karate Kid to Kung Fu Panda, all of them are the same. It's some kid who happens to see a master do something. Remarkable. And they can't wrap their head around how it's possible, but they want in.

And so they go and they talk to the master and they want to be his student and they are willing to put in the time and the effort. They make lots of mistakes and they learn, and over the course of time they become like he is. I don't think they ever fully become like that master in the movie, but they [00:07:00] become like him and.

Get that self-discipline, that control over the natural man and they progress. That's what I see when I read the New Testament . When you look at the lives of these disciples who turn to be apostles and even the women who follow all these different disciples of Christ, they do this. They see him in some small way, do some.

Something they can't wrap their head around and they want in and so they follow him. What I love you guys is that's the invitation for us as well as we study the words of the savior in the New Testament, you're gonna catch glimpses that will. Intrigue you. You'll catch a miracle or even just a fraction of a miracle or just hear his words, and your heart will catch.

It'll catch in your throat and you'll have hope. In fact, I think that's the common denominator between all of these disciples. They had hope that there was a Christ who would come. They learned that from their religion. Most of them were Jews. They wanted the Messiah to come, and they had hope that he could be it.

And [00:08:00] that's where I feel like we are. After studying the Old Testament all last year, we have this. that the Messiah is coming, that the King of Kings will be born, and we get to study him all year long. So we're signing up to be his disciples, to be his students. And it's gonna be a process, and it's gonna be work, and we're gonna fail a lot.

But because we come and check in every day and we study with the savior in our New Testament, we will come and we will see. The question is what will we see? So as I was studying, you can read all of this in the notes, but one of the things I loved is thinking about what it is that the disciples. , and at first I assumed it must be the miracles, right?

Because they see incredible miracles done at the hands of the savior. And although I think those add to their faith, they don't define their faith. I learned this from Alma, remember Alma the Younger in the Book of Mormon, how he talks about how he. Built up his faith through prayer and fasting. You can find all the references in the notes, but that really intrigued me cuz Alma the Younger saw angels, you guys, he had [00:09:00] a pretty miraculous encounter with angels and was out for three days.

But where he credits his testimony is to prayer and fasting. That teaches me something. , I feel like what he's saying is you're gonna see all these miracles. You're gonna see great things happen. But where you will come to know me as your savior is when you come to be like me. When you come to see, like I see, in fact, one of the things I love about the New Testament is you get to see these disciples see not just miracles, but they see as he sees.

So imagine you'd walked the Roads of Palestine with the savior and you've seen him. and now how do you interact with widows and how do you see the broken or the leper or those who are possessed like you see differently? Even things like mustard seeds and fig leaves, they would see differently. The reason this came to mind is Jake, my son-in-law, was just here and he brought a, a [00:10:00] microscope with him.

Then he'd just gotten as a gift, and so he was showing us all these cool things under a microscope. He kept sending me pictures on my phone and it was staggering to look at. You see, you know, a grain of salt and it's cube shaped, it's a crystal, right? It's just incredible to see. And you can't see those things in that way without that proper tool.

And I feel like that's the message of the New Testament. It's you need the gift of the spirit, you need the guidance of this master teacher, and you need to come every day, come and study and be his student every day. And if you'll do, You will come and you will see. In fact, it's a promise you can rest on.

You will see. So doesn't that make you excited just to jump into his words? I feel like we are gonna grow so fast and so deeply that we will see things we never could have seen before. In fact, that's the promise from Elder Uchtdorf. If you look in the notes, you can see it. But he basically says that you're gonna, as you study him, you'll come to see things in unmistakable [00:11:00] ways, thing that, things that transcend what you could have done on your own.

In fact, I love the last line of his quote. He said, God wants you to learn of his son Jesus Christ, and experience the profound peace and joy that comes from following the path of discipleship. He knows the end, he knows the promise, and he's giving it to us as an apostle of Christ. He's saying, come and see, and if we do, there is peace and there is joy ahead.

There's a lot to learn in the New Testament, you guys. I can't wait to get there.

[00:11:35] POINT 2: I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR MY OWN LEARNING

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The second big point in the manual is about how you are responsible for your own learning. And I feel like it's what happens in those martial arts movies when the students finally come into the Dojo or wherever it is, and they are on their first day of class and the master gives out all these rules and these like stipulations that if they wanna be his student, there are.

There are things they're gonna need to do. That's kind of what I felt like when I read the verses that are listed in this week's section. So if you [00:12:00] look in that block of, um, text in the Come Follow Me manual, there's a bunch of scriptures listed, like nine or 10 scriptures, and I felt like each one of them taught us something about discipleship.

You can go in the notes and learn a little more deeply, but let me give you kind of a bird's eye view of all of them. So first, when you start in John seven 17, this is the one where it says that any man. know my will and do my will. He will know my doctrine. So it's this invitation to act, you know, if you were in any any mastery program, you have to act.

The apostles of the Savior saw him and witnessed what he could do, and then he invited them to do what he did. You know, they had to do their own miracles and all these things they had to act, and that's the same invitation for us. Discipleship will be a process of trial and error and enacting the principles that we learn in the verses and we're gonna figure it out together.

You guys. The next big one is in Thessalonians five. This is the invitation to prove all things hold fast to that, which is good. What I like about hold fast to that, which is good, is [00:13:00] it sort of implies that we're gonna have to let some things go. You know, kinda like every one of those movies, the main character has.

make space in order to really study under this master, they have to let their old friends go or maybe break up with their girlfriend, . You know, they have to make some big cut in their plans in order to make space to become as he is. And I think that's what Alma was teaching me when he talks about giving place for the seed, if I really want this testimony seed to grow.

I gotta give place. I gotta scoop out some of the dirt that's nice and compact and been there forever and get rid of it. So there's room. So I think as I've studied and as I've prayed this week, that's one of the focuses of my prayer is Heavenly Father, where do I need to give place? I really want my testimony of the Savior to.

shoot out. I mean, if you didn't get that feeling from me before, like I want my testimony the savior to expand and in order to do that, I gotta give place. So that's my prayer. I don't have an answer yet, but I'm praying that I will know for my family and for myself, [00:14:00] what ground do I need to scoop out and move so that I can give place and become as he is.

So watch for that as. The next two are in James. The first one is the epic verse of James that Joseph Smith taught us when he studied the New Testament. And that is, if any of you lack wisdom, let 'em ask of God, and then an invitation to be doers of the word. And I of course love this. Everybody loves this verse, but I think.

There's such simplicity in it that when you struggle, ask the master. Don't ask the other teachers in the classroom, don't even ask me. Go and ask the master teacher what it is you need. If you lack wisdom, if you lack understanding, ask. What I think is really powerful is it implies that we understand that there are some things that are gonna need to be spiritually taught.

I think I'm witnessing this profoundly in the Old Testament. There were some things you guys, I just could not wrap my mortal head around, especially when we got into Isaiah and some of the other words, like I struggled, so I needed spiritual sight. [00:15:00] And what I love is that the savior promises, you'll get it. He promises, if you like wisdom, ask of God and he will give to all men liberally and he will upbraideth not he his MO is to give abundantly. So ask God, don't ask me. Don't ask other commentators. Ask God for answers and see what comes. Another one in James is this understanding of faith and works that they're gonna go together. This is another invitation to act, but what I love visually for now, we've been talking about that tree of testimony.

Basically, I picture the roots of that tree as my faith and that as my faith in Christ deepens, as my understanding of him deepens into that nourished rich soil. Then what naturally happens is works. Shoot up . You know, my, my life will be evidence of my discipleship. You'll see fruits of my discipleship in my life.

I'll see it, my kids will see it. That's the promise. I think that's why he can promise us that we'll have more joy and delight in the scriptures because [00:16:00] we will see the fruits. Uh, so faith and works have to go together. So, I see faith as my roots and works as everything that's above the surface. When you go a little bit further in first Nephi, it talks about how he was desirous to hear for himself.

So this is Nephi talking about Lehigh's vision and how he wants to have one for himself, and it's this independent spirit in Nephi that I just love. because like we talked about in the Old Testament, there are no second generation disciples. Every generation has to know for themselves and has to find the truth for themselves to be a real disciple of Christ.

We have to be willing to do the work to show up every day in the dojo and try to master this for ourselves. It's not, discipleship is not inherited, so we have to show. . Another one you're gonna find, this is in second Nephi. He talks about delighting in the scriptures, but I really love what comes at the end of this section where he says, he writeth them.

For the learning and profit of my children, the reason this jumped out at me is, I feel like this is what I was missing that first year when I messed [00:17:00] up. . . Now that it was all my fault, I mean this was a team effort. We all could have done better, but it was, I could have led this a lot better, and what I found is when my brain shifted gears in 2020, when I was determined to do this better, I was determined to.

Be a better teacher for my kids. So I tried to incorporate their talents and their interests and their hobbies and the things that we have fun together as a family doing. I tried to pull all those in to come follow me, and when I started to make that shift, Things changed in me and in my family. I always read this verse as for the prophet of my children, meaning like for their testimonies down the road they will profit.

But I think a big piece of this work is just to engage with your kids. To make the gospel taste good to them, so it's exciting and fun to them. When I had that focus of how can I make the gospel palatable to my family? How can I be like Lehigh at the tree and taste the goodness for myself, and then invite them to come and convince them it's worth the effort to get here?

How can I do that [00:18:00] better? When I changed my prayers that way, answers came from all different directions. I. understanding about how I could teach my own family better, and I think that's a big piece of being a disciple. You have to have a goal in mind of what you hope to accomplish, and then a determination to see it through.

And then you have to choose to see the joy in the effort in the process. And it comes. Another verse that you'll see is Alma 32 27. This is where he says, even if you can know more than desire to believe, let the desire work in you. This is what had to happen for me between the New Testament year in 2019 and 2020 because I had a desire for my family to love the scriptures.

I just hadn't let that desire work in me. I mostly. Pushed against it and in 2020 that shifted. So I can testify that this works when you just have a desire. Answers come slowly and in layers, but they come and you'll get clarity. So I love that piece. I think a disciple has to offer that, right? They [00:19:00] have to, A true disciple of Christ is someone who will say, I don't understand all things, but I have a desire that this could work for my family.

And so I engage. That's discipleship. Another piece of discipleship comes in D&C 1818. This is where he invites you to ask the Father in, in his name, in faith, believing you shall receive and you shall have the Holy Ghost. This promise of the Spirit is a powerful one because I think what he's inviting you to do is to come to the source and seek the guidance of the spirit Most of.

Sweet revelations I get from the scriptures don't necessarily come from the words of the scriptures. Sometimes they do, but a lot of them just come from me being diligently in my scriptures, and then ideas are planted in my mind, answers to problems. Solutions I never would've come up with on my own come because I've opened those scriptures and I've tried to dive in and it's just in that process of engaging that I feel like I've found Revelation. So I look forward to that. In the New [00:20:00] Testament, it's part of being a disciple. Another one that comes is in 58. This is & 58, 26 through 20 week 28. This is where he teaches you that you can't be compelled in all things that you have to be you.

Anxiously engaged and that there is power in you. I love that ending piece, that there's power in all of us. I think that's what the light of Christ is. He's basically saying like, you have all the tools to be the person I want you to be right now. I just need you to do it the same way in all those martial arts movies, it's not that they.

Change dramatically as a person physically. They have all the capability, all the muscle structure they need to do those moves. They just need the self-discipline and the training and the coaching in order to pull them off, and that's what we're gonna have this year in the New Testament. The last one that the manual calls out is D N C 88.

one 18. So this is where it commands you to seek learning out of the best books. I think this is really important for discipleship because I think especially when it comes to scripture study, you simply [00:21:00] can't do it all honestly. You need help. And I think it's okay. Sometimes we get in our head that it's wrong to seek out.

Scholars or to seek, listen to podcasts or you know, to help get help in those areas. But I really think that's a big piece of how Joseph Smith learned. It's a big piece of how we can learn too, that you seek knowledge out of the best books, but you understand that the trump card to all of the commentary and all of the scholarship is your own connection with the Holy Ghost and what we learned from prophets and apostles in our day, that all those will work together.

So seek learning, balance out the scholarship with the sacred, and you'll find a lot of beautiful revelation.

[00:21:45] POINT 3: I NEED TO KNOW THE TRUTH FOR MYSELF

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in those martial arts movies, there's always some kid who's like the star of the class and that seems to have all this natural talent. Or maybe their dad was, you know, like somebody important. And at first they seemed like they're advancing faster than everyone else. And then you see the diligent efforts of the [00:22:00] underdog show up and advance past him, right?

Because in the end, it doesn't matter what talents you're blessed with or what family you're born into. , it's the showing up every day in this discipleship pathway that really helps you become like he is. So all of this third section is about how to fill your lamp with oil, how to be that diligent learner.

And so you'll see a few tips tucked into these verses. The first one's in Luke 11, this is nine through 13. And this is the promise that for everyone that Asketh Receiveth and he, that seeketh Findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. This is a promise that you. Trust in this is what I'm baking on you guys, that if I diligently ask and seek and knock, I will.

know. I feel like that's what's happened in every book of scripture so far. I don't have those big whoosh moments that other people describe. What the Holy Ghost, I get these layers, these slow layers that end. Coming into something bigger for me, I always picture when I [00:23:00] was a little kid, teachers used to use transparencies.

I don't know if you guys, maybe that just tells you how old I am, but my teacher had transparencies, you know, those overhead projectors, and she would put one layer down, like if you're learning geography, she'd put one layer down that had all the rivers and then another layer on top of it that had all the mountains and then another layer on top of it that had the roads.

And you could see all those transparencies projected on the wall and they would combine together to form a full image. And that's basically how revelation works for me. and what I love in this promise is if I wanna add oil to my lamp, what he's basically asking me is keep watching the transparencies.

Trust that there are more. If you don't fully understand something, trust that there is more revelation coming. I don't have all the transparencies yet, so I love this understanding, right. There's a great talk from Elder Uchtdorf. It's from 2014 October, 2014. It's called receiving a testimony of light and truth, and he breaks down this idea of gathering oil into four simple steps.

I won't read you the full quote, but it is in the notes. But he says, first you have to search the word of God. Ancient prophets. Modern prophets. [00:24:00] You need to seek it out with a desire to learn, and then you're supposed to ponder those things and prepare to receive more. The second tip he asked you to do is to consider ponder and fearlessly strive to believe.

I love this piece cuz there are sometimes you guys in the scriptures that it's a scary thing to believe, especially when you have forces pulling against you. The other way to stand and to boldly be a believer is scary at times. But he asked you to do just that. To fearlessly strive to believe, doubt your doubts as Elder Holland would say.

The third tip he says is, you must ask your Heavenly Father in the name of his son Jesus Christ to manifest the truth. There's more to that quote, but I started to look up that word manifest cuz I wondered, I think all of my young years I thought that promise was. If I'd read the Book of Mormon and I got to the point where he would manifest the truth of it unto me, I would feel a certain thing.

You know that whoosh. I would feel something specific. And what I learned when I studied that word is that to manifest simply just [00:25:00] means to display by one's, acts or appearance, and it's plural. I asked. So I think it's, for me, that's how I'm describing revelation. I've learned in my adulthood that him manifesting the truth unto me doesn't happen in a moment or in a flash or in a sudden feeling.

It happens as I see these layers fit snugly together, things that I never could have anticipated and at a pace I never hoped for. They come quickly and clearly, and I start to see. That's what manifesting the truth unto me means it means, Hey Maria, I'm not coming all in one woosh. I'm coming layer by layer day by day, and so I have to stay.

I have to be a disciple cuz I don't have all the layers. I need to know what else is coming. So I love that promise about manifesting the truth. The fourth step he offers in his talk is he says, you need to act. If any man will do God's will, he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.

So he invites you to. Live the [00:26:00] doctrine and watch for the fruits, and then he has this epic promise. So he says, if you will do these things, you have a promise from God who is bound by his word, that he will manifest the truth to you by the power of the Holy Ghost. He will grant you greater light that will allow you to look through the darkness and witness unimaginably glorious vistas, incomprehensible to mortal sight.

That's a pretty big promise from an apostle of God that he will he. Answer and he will. If you ask and you seek and you knock, he will manifest. It may not come how you expected and it may not come at the pace you hoped for, but it will come and that's promise you can count on. Another one is in John 5 39.

This is where he invites you to search the scriptures. For in them. You see the things of eternal life. This is a great promise as well, cuz I think this is what we've done for the last three years as I've searched the scriptures entirely, not just piecemeal, like a little section of a verse or a quote that's up on my fridge, but as I've really studied the [00:27:00] scriptures, I find the words of eternal life and they just.

They just add to each other. Another big one is John seven 14 through seven. This is when the savior is talking about God's doctrine and he's at the temple with a whole bunch of scholars who are baffled by his ability to understand because he's not someone who would've been trained the way they were trained.

And what I love about his response, especially when he calls attention to the, these aren't his words, but those who sent him, they're his words, is what he's saying is there is power in spiritual understanding. All the scholarship, all the commentary, all the studying you can do is powerful and will help you, but it will not compare to what you can gain by learning directly from the spirit.

And he. , he puts a witness on that. In fact, what he says to the scholars in the temple is that he obeyed the word of the Lord and because of his obedience, he gained knowledge. And I love this cuz that's kind of backwards to what the world teaches. They teach that if you want to know the truth about a law, [00:28:00] then you should study the law and then choose to obey it.

And what the Lord says is no obey the law. First and then you'll see, so for example, when I played volleyball in high school, I remember my coach teaching me that I should put my middle finger on the nozzle where the, like where you'd go to pump the ball before I served and I didn't understand, there couldn't be any real rational reason why that would help my serve, right?

The ball is exactly round. It shouldn't help me. What I came to understand over time was what she was really teaching me to do was. S like, settle down. When I get to the serving line, I needed to breathe. That process of finding the nozzle and putting my finger on it, gave me a chance to like get centered so that when I went to serve, my mind was calm.

I was focused. I couldn't have understood that at the beginning, but it was a process of. Doing it. That helped me understand, oh, I think I get what this is for . And I think that's how the commandments are. Some of them we just do, he, he commands us to be obedient even if we don't understand why. But I think it's a process that over time, as we see the fruits in our [00:29:00] life come to be, we start to get it and we go, oh, that's why.

That's why that commandment is a thing. So I love that we learned that in John seven as well. Another big one is in acts. This is Acts 17, 10 through 12. This is where he says they received the word with all readiness of mind and search the scriptures daily. I do think there's something to discipleship.

That means you need to be physically ready. I can't show up to my scripture study exhausted. I mean now and then I do, but it doesn't go terribly well. I have to carve out time. I have to carve out space, I have to get tools. I have to make the discipleship a priority, and when I do, when I show up ready, he can feed me, he can teach me better.

I mean, all of you have been teachers. You know what it's like when you have a student who sits in class and they are ready and eager to soak up whatever you have to say. That connection that happens is rapid, and I think that's what he's inviting you to do. He also talks about being a receiver. This idea of.

Kind of like an inbound passing basketball. Remember when we talked about this with Isaiah that the invitation is like, if you're going to receive [00:30:00] revelation, you have to be ready. You know, if I was in basketball, that means I have a certain posture, my hands are out, my eyes are focused. That's what it means to be a disciple, to be a ready receiver who is physically and spiritually.

Expecting a pass. And when you're expecting a pass, nine times out of 10, you get one because he, he is anxiously ready to send in the ball. So I think that's the promise of discipleship. Another big one that I love, this is one of the last ones. This is in first Corinthians two, nine through 11. This is where he says, I have not seen nor ear hood, ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that loved him.

This to me is prepared to be dazzled. You know, it's, it's an invitation to expand your mind, step deeper in, in fact, that's, that's the phrase, if you look in the notes, there's a quote from Marion G Romney, and he quotes First Corinthians two, nine through 11, and he says, God hath to revealed them to us by his spirit for the spirit searchs, all things, yea

the deep things of God, [00:31:00] the Spirit can teach. what cannot be understood. It's almost like taking that microscopic view. If I look in the microscope, I can see things I can't see otherwise, and details and finishes to, you know, like an animal's wing or, you know, like a, a salt cube. I can see things in so much more detail because I'm using a tool that allows me to see it.

That's what the spirit offers. with the help of the spirit, we have access to the deep things of God. I don't you just loved that phrase. I feel like that's what happens with the disciples in the New Testament, especially Peter, when we get to that part in the New Testament where he says, you know whom say ye that I am?

And Peter says to them, says to the savior that he is the son of God. And he says, and Simon Peter answered, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him and said, blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee but My Father, which is in. This is the deep things of God.

When you come to [00:32:00] understand things through the help of the spirit, they stay, they have holding power. It's how Jacob in the two new, in the Book of Mormon can say, I am unshakable. You know, he is, he, he can't be shaken because his understanding of God is so deeply rooted, uh, that he won't be shaken. And that's the imitation of the New Testament, I feel like as well, to study, to be his disciple, to study under his tutelage and.

become deeply rooted so that we become unshakable. I love that. There's another one in Alma 5 45. This is that message from Alma about fasting and praying and how that solidified his testimony. So I think that's a piece of discipleship that we have to add in. It's not enough to study. It's not enough to witness these miracles as we read through them.

We have to fast, we have to pray. We have to seek. Deep things of God. Uh, the last section they reference is the gospel topics area of testimony. And what I loved about this one is this very first line, it says, members of the church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints have a sacred [00:33:00] opportunity and responsibility to obtain their testimonies.

And then they have an opportunity and a responsibility to nurture it and to be valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ. And then to share. And this is something we're gonna see over and over again in the New Testament, that people will come to the savior, they'll come and they'll see, they'll witness miraculous things.

They'll see him for who he is, and then their testimony's infectious. You see it with the apostles, you see it with disciples, you people. The word will spread and people will come. And since everything we studied in the Old Testament teaches us that we. We are someone who is designed to be infectious. Our testimonies are going to do incredible things in this latter day world if we allow it to happen, if we let it roll out of us.

So we gotta deepen our own witness so that we can beam out a little bit brighter. . There's a great quote in the notes. If you go, there's a talk just from this last conference from Elder McConkey and he talked about the four friends. You know, he was referencing that story [00:34:00] of letting the man down with palsy through the hole in the roof, and he talked about how we all need to be that for each other.

that we need to be the kind of friend who will hold a corner . You know, sometimes we're the person on the bed and sometimes we're the one holding the corner, and I think we have to be that in our families, and we have to be that with our friends and our wards and our stakes. We have to be someone who can valiantly hold their corner and let a friend come closer to the savior, to the healing power that the savior offers.

That's the reason we need to be powerful disciples so that we can bring ourselves and others to him. The last point in this area is not so much a scripture reference as it is a link to guide to the scriptures on testimony, and I love the beginning line. It basically says, members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have the sacred opportunity and responsibility to obtain their own testimonies.

And then having obtained a testimony, each member has a duty to nurture it throughout their life. , and I think there's a lot of reasons why we need that, but a big one comes because of being in this work together. I, I think [00:35:00] we know from our study of the Old Testament that we were put here at this time to do a great work, and we need each other to do it.

In fact, I love what we learned in this last conference from Elder McConkey. He taught about the. the story in the New Testament of the man with palsy and how his friends open up a hole in the roof and they each hold a corner and they let him down in order to access the savior. And the way he described it was all about why we gather, why we need each other so much because.

it wouldn't work if you said one person holding a corner or even two people holding corners. You needed all four. You need that partnership in the community between them. He also talked about sometimes we're the one on the bed and we're the one holding the corner. And part of being in a community of believers is you know that you're gonna take your turn in one of those spots.

So when you can be a corner holder, you do the best you can. And I think this is pivotal for us in order to be that Zion community. We've been prophesied to be. In order for us to help others gather and come to Christ, we have to understand and work [00:36:00] together. We have to get each other's weaknesses and compensate and help.

I think it applies in award level, but also in a family and in your class, whoever it is you're teaching. I think to be disciples of Christ means we show up for class together. We work together, we struggle in the same ways, and we teach each other what we've learned. We advance together under this great master teacher and we progress in the process.

[00:36:29] POINT 4: WHAT SHOULD I DO WHEN I HAVE QUESTIONS?

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The last big area of how to be a better disciple of Christ through the New Testament comes in how to handle questions. So the last area is, what should I do when I have questions? And I just love the way they phrased it. They basically give you three simple tips in the manual. They say, seek understanding from God.

Act in faith and keep an eternal perspective. And doesn't that fit with all the martial arts movies you've seen? Like there are just moments when they have to seek guidance from the source. They can't get whatever move it is they're struggling with just Right. So they seek guidance from the source. They show up for [00:37:00] practice and do all the drills and you know, like paint the fence moments when they don't even understand.

They act in faith and trust that there's more to this than they can see. And then that eternal perspective, it means like even if you lose a preliminary match or if you struggle in practice, all that training and all that discipleship will pay off in the long run. There will be that pivotal moment when you need it, and he will be there.

You'll have the tools you need. So questions aren't a bad thing. Questions actually prompt goodness. In fact, I think the biggest. Example of this comes from Joseph Smith . I mean the whole restoration came because of questions. So I went back to Joseph Smith history and started studying again his words, and I love the way he phrased it cuz all of us deal with moments in the scriptures or just in the gospel where we.

are wrestling with questions. So he talks about a great uneasiness that he was feeling because of all the questions in his mind. If you go on the verses, I lay 'em out in the notes, but you can find them in Joseph Smith history one versus 10 through 13, [00:38:00] and he talks about how he has questions, what is to be done, who of all these parties are right or how they wrong altogether.

He's wrestling with questions and then he. A pivotal thing. He turns to the source, so he turns to the same book of scripture that we're gonna study this year. He turns to the New Testament and he finds an answer, and this is where he learns from the epistle of James, that if any man lack wisdom, he can ask of God, who will give to all men liberally.

What I love is what you learned a little bit later in 12, he says, never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. And he talks about how he reflected on it again and again. When you are wrestling with questions and you've turned to the source and you get.

An unclear answer. Like you can tell there are bits and pieces, but you don't have all the transparencies yet. You, you need to seek more. And that's what Joseph Smith teaches us. He ponders, he stews, and he wonders, and then he chooses to believe in what he can't see and [00:39:00] what no one has experienced before.

in his lifetime, at least this understanding of, I'm gonna ask God, I'm gonna put this to the test. He, he chooses to experiment upon the word. So if you'd see in 13 at length, I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, and that is Ask of God.

So remember at the beginning when we were talking about what seek ye and whatever it is you hope to get out of this year of study. I think that's the invitation. Will we trust James or not? Will we come and be a disciple of Christ? Will we come to God and ask what we need? What we seek, and if we will in his way?

Answers come. They came to Joseph Smith in profound ways. His questions opened up all kinds of understanding that came over time. And that blessed generations, right, it changed the course of history. So questions are good. Uh, if you need more tips on this, go listen to sister Dew's, engage in the wrestle and you'll get all kinds of guidance.

But. . I also added some [00:40:00] things in the notes. I, I love what Elder ff talked about. This is in 2009 at a BYU devotional, but he talks about how good questions are and how they can, they can be the gateway to revelation if we use them in the right way. All good students ask questions and he can answer questions.

One thing I learned from Elder Uchtdorf is he said, asking questions of the Lord is good because oftentimes he will answer questions that you should have asked. Don't you love that answer there? There are sometimes when I come to the Lord, , I call them heliotrope questions. Basically, the reason I called them this is because when Violet was little, she loved the color Heliotrope.

She learned about it from some Pixar movie and she thought it was so exciting, I think just to say it. And so she started to call anything that was pink and anything that was purple or any shade in between. She called them all heliotrope and she would say it over and over again, and I sort of. Pull her back a little bit and say, you know, heliotrope was great.

Let me help you understand what color actually is heliotrope. But in order to do that, I had to teach her more clearly about pink and about purple. And once she knew those two colors [00:41:00] solidly, then we could kind of work our way in and she could figure out the exact shade of heliotrope and then identify it.

Sometimes I think that happens with gospel questions too. We tend to come at the Lord with helitrope questions. He trope questions, you know, you'll ask questions like about race in the priesthood and you'll have trouble struggling to get an answer, and often the answer that I get is much more about, you know, what we learned from Nephi where he says that all are alike unto God.

Male and female bond and free black and white, all of those, that's the answer I get when I pray about race in the priesthood because I'm asking a heliotripe question. But before he can gimme that kind of detailed answer, I have to solidly understand pink and purple. Does that make sense? So I think when you have gospel questions that you're wrestling with, try to seek answers that are to the questions maybe you should have asked and President Uchtdorf at the time he promised that you would receive them.

So I love that part. You can read more in the notes from his. I also think the way he describes this, he says basically, if it all made sense to our mortal [00:42:00] minds, that would basically be evidence that it's not divine because his ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. So the very fact that we don't understand all the answers to all the questions we have can be evidence that this is the divine gospel, that it comes from a source that is not mortal and not limited by mortal constraints, and we can't put mortal limits on an immortal.

I loved that piece because sometimes I wrestle with questions that I think. I should know this. I should be able to get the answer. And some things I think you simply can't get the answer to because our mortal minds don't think as he thinks. So I loved that piece of his testimony as well. Another good invitation comes from President Nelson in his, you know, his moving mountains talk, and he basically said this, he says, choose to believe.

Stay faithful, study with a desire to believe. He invites you to stop increasing your doubts by chatting with other doubters. You know, it's that. I think that's a big piece of handling gospel questions is you have to question them. You have to study from good sources. You have to stop [00:43:00] wondering the thoughts and impressions of all the other people who have already fallen away and instead turn to the true source.

Another one of my very favorites, and I'll end on this one. This is Lawrence Corbridge, and he gave an fantastic devotional at byu. This is, it's 2019. It's called Stand Forever. I'm sure you've heard it, but this is one where he talked about primary and secondary questions, and we referenced this in the doctrine and covenants as well, but he basically said the same thing I was talking about with Heliotrope questions.

He said, there are primary questions about the nature of God and of Jesus Christ, and is Joseph Smith a prophet? Those are. Primary questions and then there are all the secondary questions about all the littler details. And he said, coming to understand the secondary questions can never help. You know the primary questions, you have to do it in the other order.

You have to seek a testimony of the primary questions first, and then all the secondary questions will become clear. , right? When I know how God feels about all of his children, I don't have to question. I don't have to wonder as much about race. In the priesthood, things become [00:44:00] clear and the unimportant falls away.

That's the other part of his promise is when you understand the core primary questions clearly and have a testimony of those, then the secondary questions either answer themselves. Or fall away from importance. And so he invites you to seek answers to the primary questions. This, it's the same thing Elder Anderson asked us to do this last conference when he asked us to solidify our testimony on those five big areas.

Remember we had an object lesson about this in the Old Testament, that when we know those five key areas of any testimony, then we can rest easier. We don't have to know a hundred little details. We can testify of what we do know. Primary question ways and let the other things answer themselves or fall out of our minds.

And I love that. Don't you feel like you're geared up? I just think this week of study, especially if you go into each of these verses and seek out answers for yourself. You'll feel this pull this invitation to be his disciple this year more deeply than you've ever been before. That's how I [00:45:00] felt, and I love that we're gonna figure it out together.

It's gonna be a really good year you guys.

[00:45:13] Creative Introduction

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Welcome back guys. This is the creative preview, so you get to see a quick glance at all three object lessons, and then for those of you in the course, I'll walk you through each one and how to pull them off. The first one is easy. It doesn't really involve any supplies. You're just gonna have a martial arts movie night, so you can pick your favorite martial arts movie, watch it as a family, and we'll talk all about Discipl.

It also involves a printable that I've styled after the martial arts style, and it has a reading log in it so that your kids can keep track of all the reading assignments throughout the year and earn different colored belts in the process. , just trust me, it, it'll all work out. So that's your first one.

The second one is another printable. This is designed [00:46:00] to be a gumball machine and I'll explain why. This is to talk about how to receive revelation from the scriptures, cuz that's a big focus this week. And so I'm gonna give you one of my favorite ways to teach that and there's a printable associated with it and you can make your own little mini gumball machine.

The third one is talking about answers to questions. And that great talk from Elder Corbridge where he references like you can't get answers to questions. Finding all the negative answers. And so for this one, you're gonna play a game. You can either play the game of clue that he references in his devotional, or if you happen to have, guess who on hand that works just as well.

So get those supplies on hand and I'll walk you through all the details.

That's it for week zero, you guys. Okay. 52 more weeks to go. This is gonna be a really good year of study, so I hope you're excited.

If you wanna get a little bit more, you can join me on Instagram, 10:00 AM on Mondays. That's Mountain time. That's when I'll go through some of the insights I didn't have time to fit into the videos, [00:47:00] and also chat through the object lessons and hopefully answer any questions that you have or just thoughts that you have.

Throw them at me at on the Instagram live. If you wanna do something in a more private way, just within the course, you can put a question up on the discussion. So for those of you who are new, you can find the discussion boards up at the top right of every video. There's just a little chat icon. Just click it and it will open up a way to connect with me and everybody else in the class.

Another good option if you're looking for a way to consume the content faster is to download the podcast so you can get a podcast version of all the insights. If you search for creative, come follow me in any podcast app or as a subscriber. If you wanna hear the insights and the creative and get access to the notes and all those things through your podcast app.

Then message me and I will send you your private podcast link. This is one that's just for subscribers of the course, but hopefully it gives you ways to access the content faster and a little more conveniently. So if that works for you, message me either on the discussion boards or via email, and I will send you that link.

But otherwise, I hope you [00:48:00] really enjoy this preliminary week of study. I know we're not fully into the New Testament yet, but we, it will wet your appetite so that you will be eager to jump in next week cuz good things are coming. All right, you guys enjoy your week and I will see you when we come back for week number one.