Women and Girls of Tyre - Learning and Living the Gospel (4)

Read a recent conference address given by the prophet. Decide what you can do to follow the prophet, and do it. - Learning and Living the Gospel (4)

This lesson was part two of Learning and Living the Gospel (4). It worked out so well!

We met at the beach at 6pm. The beach was windy and FREEZING. It would have been such a lovely day to be at the beach three hours earlier, but oh well.

We sat on a giant beach towel and huddled under blankets. We did our opening stuffs and I gave my lesson:

Women and Girls of Tyre

Let’s all start by saying the sixth Article of Faith together: We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.

What does that mean? When Christ was alive on the earth he set up His church, and His church is organized the same way today.

Just like today, members of the church lived all over. Do you guys have family members that are members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints but aren’t in our ward? Where do they live?

We can’t all meet in the same building and attend the same primary class; the drive would be too far and there would be too many people! So we have church buildings wherever we have church members and the members gather together in wards (if there are a lot of members) or branches (if there are not a lot of members). Each of these wards or branches may have a different building and each have a different primary teachers and each have a different bishop, but all those teachers and bishops follow one prophet and teach the same lessons. If you attend a church in Mexico on Sunday, it will be a lot like the one you attend here: First you go to Sacrament meeting with opening and closing prayers, the opening and closing hymns and the talks from the members of the ward. You take the sacrament, You go to primary, where you sing and pray and listen to a talk and then have a lesson. The lessons you hear in a church in Mexico and the lessons you hear here are the same! Just in different languages. Isn’t that amazing!? You can go anywhere in the world on Sunday and walk into a church building that belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and hear the same songs, listen to the same lessons and be taught by the same spirit. This is Christ’s church. It’s His church if it is in Provo Utah, if it is in San Marcos, Ca, or if it is in Mexico. Distance makes no difference.

You can also travel in time and it would look the same. Right after Christ was crucified and resurrected you could find the same church all over the Mediterranean.

In the city of Tyre lived members of Christ’s church. They called themselves Christians, not Latter-Day Saints, because they didn’t live in the latter days, but they were a lot like us. They had 12 apostles, just like we have. They had missionaries, just like we have. They met once a week for church meetings, just like we do, they took the sacrament, just like we do. They learned about Christ, just like we do, and they tried to be like Christ by being kind to each other and doing lots of service, just like we do.

So, imagine if you lived in Tyre in 80AD, that’s about 50 years after Christ was crucified, and resurrected. Tyre is a port city, so it has a beautiful beach and ships would come in and out all the time. You would go to church once a week, you would have lessons about Christ and repentance and forgiveness and service. You would have other kids in your ward, you would have friends in your ward, you would know most of the people in your ward. You would pray, learn and grow just like you do now.

Well one day, about 80 AD in the city of Tyre, a boat came in with some very exciting passengers: The apostle Luke (as in one of the 12 apostles, as in the guy who wrote the book of Luke in the New Testament, that Luke) and the apostle Paul. Paul is an AMAZING missionary and travels all over the Mediterranean visiting wards and branches, teaching people, and doing good. He writes a lot of letters. He is quite famous by this point, so you would have been very excited to get to meet the famous Paul. Traveling with Luke and Paul are several disciples: Timothy, Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Tychicus and Trophyimus. Maybe you’ve heard of these church leaders, but maybe not.

Anyway, they get off the boat and your whole ward is very excited to meet these people. You invite them to come stay with you and to eat dinner with you. They say they are trying to get to Jerusalem by the day of Pentecost (which is a holiday), Jerusalem is only 120 miles away from Tyre and Pentecost was still 20 days away, so they have plenty of time to spend with the ward in Tyre. They say they’ll stay for a week.

In that week, your ward gathers together a lot! Families eat together with your visitors and ask them questions and they teach the answers. There is a lot of prayer, a lot of singing and a lot of learning! In that one week as you listen to Paul speak, the Spirit testifies to you that he is an apostle of God, and that he speaks the truth.

You want to know more! You want to learn more! You want to feel the Spirit more! So after Paul and Luke retire for the night you pray to Heavenly Father and ask more questions. You try to discern the answers from what the Spirit tells you. You are filled with the Holy Ghost! You say a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for Paul and Luke. Then the Spirit tells you something else: The Spirit tells you that danger is waiting for Paul in Jerusalem.

The next day is the the day Paul and Luke and the others are leaving. You know that the Spirit gave you revelation: and that Paul will be in great danger when he gets back to Jerusalem, so what do you do? You are just a little kid! How do you tell an Apostle of the Lord what the Spirit told you? Would you have enough courage to tell him?

When you tell him, other members of your ward say the same thing: The Spirit told them that it's dangerous for Paul to go to Jerusalem. You and others in your ward plead with Paul to stay. You say he should not go up to Jerusalem.

Paul listens very carefully to you and to the other members of your ward. After thinking for a short time he answers that he believes you, but the Spirit is telling him that he must still go to Jerusalem. Paul is an Apostle of the Lord. The word “Apostle” means “one sent forth.” and the Lord is “Sending Forth” Paul to Jerusalem. He must obey, even if it’s dangerous.

Paul, Luke, and the others are ready to go back to their boat. The whole ward, men, women, and children, walk them to the beach. Before they get on their boat. Every single person “kneeled down on the shore, and prayed.”

Here you are, kneeling with your whole ward, a huge group of people: men women and children and the Lord’s apostles, praying together on behalf of your beloved leader, knowing the Lord is telling him to go somewhere dangerous; What would you pray for?

For his health? For his protection? That the Spirit would guide and watch over him? Do you think this is the last time you’ll ever see Paul?

Sometimes Heavenly Father asks us to do hard things. Things that are scary, or seem impossible, things that are dangerous. But He will always help us do whatever He asks us to do. And if we have Heavenly Father helping us, why should we be afraid?

The women and girls of Tyre listened when Paul and Luke spoke. They wanted to learn what Paul and Luke taught. Then they went and prayed by themselves to Heavenly Father and ask more questions. They listened for those answers. They received revelation. You can do this very same thing. You can pray, listen, and receive revelation. At our last activity we talked about the Widow of Zarephath, about how the Prophet came to her and asked her do certain things, and each time she did them, the Lord gave back to her more that what she had sacrificed and in the end she gained a testimony that the Prophet was God’s true Prophet and what he taught was truth. I told you that God would send his Prophet into your homes. The Prophet would speak, and he would ask you to do something.

12 days ago was General Conference Russell M Nelson, our new prophet spoke. Did you listen? He asked you to do something. Do you know what it is? Will you do what he asks you to do? Will you sacrifice so you can gain back more, and so you can gain a testimony? I know that If you listen to him and if you do what he asks you to do, you will gain a testimony that he is Man of God, and that what he teaches it truth. If you listen to him and if you do what he asks you to do, God will give you back so much more than what you give up. I know you will come to love him the way the people of Tyre loved Paul. 

By this time they were all dying to know what the Prophet has asked them to do.. Several of them listened to his talk, they just couldn't remember an action item. I had made hand-outs for everyone. I read the part of the talk out loud. I also emailed out this handout with a link to the actual talk on LDS.org so the parent know we are working on that talk.

We then played on the beach: Volleyball, seashell/rock hunting, of course getting soaked in the waves. It would have been better if I had picked a beach with bathrooms. It would have been MUCH better if we could have had a beach fire, but I take what I can get.

Read a recent conference address given by the prophet. Decide what you can do to follow the prophet, and do it. - Learning and Living the Gospel #4 

 Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives

By President Russell M. Nelson

(April 2018 General Conference Saturday Morning Session, last talk)

Find a quiet place where you can regularly go. Humble yourself before God. Pour out your heart to your Heavenly Father. Turn to Him for answers and for comfort.

Pray in the name of Jesus Christ about your concerns, your fears, your weaknesses—yes, the very longings of your heart. And then listen! Write the thoughts that come to your mind. Record your feelings and follow through with actions that you are prompted to take. As you repeat this process day after day, month after month, year after year, you will “grow into the principle of revelation.”

I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that “if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things—that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.”

Oh, there is so much more that your Father in Heaven wants you to know.

Our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, will perform some of His mightiest works between now and when He comes again. We will see miraculous indications that God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, preside over this Church in majesty and glory. But in coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost.

My beloved... sisters, I plead with you to increase your spiritual capacity to receive revelation. Let {today} be a defining moment in your life. Choose to do the spiritual work required to enjoy the gift of the Holy Ghost and hear the voice of the Spirit more frequently and more clearly.

With Moroni, I exhort you {today} to “come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift,”beginning with the gift of the Holy Ghost, which gift can and will change your life.