Hearken and Prepare (Doctrine and Covenants 133-134)

Here are some of the main slides we used in our discussion last week about hearkening and being prepared. Click on each image to view it at a larger size. 

                   

Five of Them Were Wise painting

Captain Moroni Raises the Title of Liberty painting

We also had a discussion in class about things we do in our personal study to study and learn from the scriptures. Here how Elder Bednar studies here: 

Doctrine and Covenants 121-128: Sacrifice, Affliction, Baptism for the Dead, and Turning to Christ.

We lightly covered a little bit of the last three sections of our Come Follow Me study on Sunday:

1. Doctrine and Covenants 121-123, when Joseph Smith and others were unfairly imprisoned for four months. 

2. Doctrine and Covenants 124, when Joseph Smith continued to build temples.

3. Doctrine and Covenants 125-128, which talks about doing work for those that have gone before us.

I wish we had been able to cover more material but we had a great discussion. This is a highlight of some of the main quotes and videos focused mainly around the topic of adversity, some that we covered and some that we did not. If you were in my class, these slides are not in the order of our class discussion, but instead in chronological order of the sections. 

Highlights from Doctrine and Covenants 121

Joseph Smith and several other men were imprisoned for four months in a small, dark, space. Quentin L. Cook (Quentin L. Cook, "Personal Peace in Challenging Times, October 2021) shared his thoughts about this in our last General Conference:

"I was recently assigned to dedicate a portion of historic Nauvoo. As part of the assignment, I was able to visit Liberty Jail in Missouri. As I viewed the jail, I contemplated the events that make it such a significant part of Church history. The lives of the Saints were threatened as the result of an extermination order issued by the governor of Missouri. In addition, the Prophet Joseph and a few choice associates had been unjustly imprisoned in Liberty Jail. blessings. I was deeply moved as I read what the Prophet Joseph Smith declared as he was confined in Liberty Jail:"  

Our own desires, rather than a feeling of “Thy will be done,”2 create the feeling of a pavilion blocking God. God is not unable to see us or communicate with us, but we may be unwilling to listen or submit to His will and His time.

Our feelings of separation from God will diminish as we become more childlike before Him. That is not easy in a world where the opinions of other human beings can have such an effect on our motives. But it will help us recognize this truth: God is close to us and aware of us and never hides from His faithful children.

Henry B. Eyring, “Where is the Pavilion?” October 2012

When we become humble enough to submit ourselves to the will of Heavenly Father, we reflect the light of Jesus Christ, who always submitted Himself to the will of the Father (see John 6:38; 3 Nephi 27:13).

Adrian Ochoa, “The Choice of Humility,” Ensign, July 2020

The test a loving God has set before us is not to see if we can endure difficulty. It is to see if we can endure it well. We pass the test by showing that we remembered Him and the commandments He gave us.

Henry B. Eyring, “In the Strength of the Lord,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2004, 17.

Elder Hales suffered greatly, with health problems and major surgeries. About adversity he said:

This excerpt was taken from the talk, "“The Covenant of Baptism: To Be in the Kingdom and of the Kingdom.”

Highlights from Doctrine and Covenants 126

The Lord tells Brigham Young that his offering is acceptable to the Lord. He had served several missions far from his family and it was more important for him at that point to be with his family.

This reminds me of 3 Nephi 17, which was the time when the Savior had been crucified, and then resurrected, visited the people in the Americas, after many signs, including darkness for three days. The people had gone to the temple in the land of Bountiful when the Savior appeared. Of that time period, Bruce C. Hafen says: 

"The people in 3 Nephi 17 [3 Ne. 17] had survived destruction, doubt, and darkness just to get to the temple with Jesus. After listening to Him for hours in wonder, they grew too weary to comprehend Him. As He prepared to leave, they tearfully looked at Him with such total desire that He stayed and blessed their afflicted ones and their children. They didn’t even understand Him, but they wanted to be with Him more than they wanted any other thing. So He stayed. Their almost was enough.

Almost is especially enough when our own sacrifices somehow echo the Savior’s sacrifice, however imperfect we are. We cannot really feel charity—Christ’s love for others—without at least tasting His suffering for others, because the love and the suffering are but two sides of a single reality. When we really are afflicted in the afflictions of other people, we may enter “the fellowship of his sufferings”27 enough to become joint-heirs with Him.

Bruce C. Hafen, “The Atonement: All for All,” General Conference, April 2004

Highlights from Doctrine and Covenants 127 
Joseph Smith had been falsely accused, and to avoid imprisonment, was hiding out in friends' homes. In the meantime, he wrote letters, much like Paul did as he traveled around preaching and teaching the gospel, often with what he called "a thorn in his side." He starts his letter to members in this section as follows:

Joseph himself draws parallels to Paul. We can gain further insight from this observation by Seely:

The Prophet Joseph Smith must have felt a deep kinship with the Apostle Paul.

•  Both began their service to the Lord through a life-changing vision. 

• Both were true to the vision they received and acted with unrelenting faith and courage to fulfill their missions, bearing testimony to a skeptical world (see JS—H 1:24–25). 

• And both sealed their testimonies with their blood as witnesses to the gospel they had so fervently preached throughout their lives.  

    "Paul, Untiring Witness of Christ," by David Rolph Seely and Jo Ann H. Seely

Some observations about affliction:

When faced with unfairness, we can push ourselves away from God or we can be drawn toward Him for help and support. For example, the prolonged warfare between the Nephites and the Lamanites affected people differently. Mormon observed that “many had become hardened” while others “were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God.”25

Dale G. Renlund, “Infuriating Unfairness,” April 2021 General Conference

Do not let unfairness harden you or corrode your faith in God. Instead, ask God for help. Increase your appreciation for and reliance on the Savior. Rather than becoming bitter, let Him help you become better.26 Allow Him to help you persevere, to let your afflictions be “swallowed up in the joy of Christ.”27 Join Him in His mission “to heal the brokenhearted,”28 

strive to mitigate unfairness, and become a stonecatcher.29

Dale G. Renlund, “Infuriating Unfairness,” April 2021 General Conference

Doctrine and Covenants 124:4 also has a focus on temple work:

When I was serving as the Executive Director of the Temple Department, I heard President Gordon B. Hinckley refer to this scripture spoken by the Lord about the Nauvoo Temple: “Let the work of my temple, and all the works which I have appointed unto you, be continued on and not cease; and let your diligence, and your perseverance, and patience, and your works be redoubled, and you shall in nowise lose your reward, saith the Lord of Hosts.”12 (D&C:127:4)

Our work in the temple is tied to our eternal reward. Recently we have been put to the test. The Lord has called us to work in the temples with “diligence, … perseverance, and patience.”13 Being “recommended to the Lord” requires those qualities. We must be diligent in living the commandments, persevere in our attention to our temple covenants, and be grateful for what the Lord continues to teach about them and be patient as we wait for temples to reopen in their fulness. 

Ronald A. Rasband, “Recommended to the Lord,” October 2020 General

Highlights from Doctrine and Covenants 128

In Doctrine and Covenant 128, the Saints learned about Baptism for the Dead, that work could be done for those that died without learning about the gospel. This was a huge relief for Joseph Smith, who had struggled and worried about his brother Alvin, that had died. There is a great video about it here, called Glad Tidings: The History of Baptisms for the Dead. 

Here are some thoughts about temple work:

“Jesus’s Atonement in behalf of all represents a great vicarious sacrifice. He set the pattern under which He became a proxy for all mankind. This pattern under which one man can act in behalf of another is carried forward in the ordinances of the house of the Lord. Here we serve in behalf of those who have died without a knowledge of the gospel. Theirs is the option to accept or reject the ordinance which is performed. They are placed on an equal footing with those who walk the earth. The dead are given the same opportunity as the living. Again, what a glorious and wonderful provision the Almighty has made through His revelation to His Prophet”

(Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Great Things Which God Has Revealed,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2005, 82

83). 

Many of your ancestors did not receive those ordinances. But in the providence of God, you did. And God knew that you would feel drawn to your ancestors in love and that you would have the technology necessary to identify them. He also knew that you would live in a time when access to holy temples, where the ordinances can be performed, would be greater than ever in history. And He knew that He could trust you to accomplish this work in behalf of your ancestors.

Henry B. Eyring, “Gathering the Family of God,” April 2017 General Conference

There are quite a few videos in the Come Follow Me for Sunday School manual related to Baptisms for the Dead. This is just a few of the ones I considered highlighting for the class. I wish we had time to watch them.

A Visit from Father - President Russell M. Nelson shares a personal family history story that bears testimony of the importance of temple and family history work for all families."

Connected to Eternal Families

If We Put God First

Redeeming the Dead Redeemed Me