Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Moroni 1-5

Moroni’s Last Thoughts

Moroni thought that after summarizing the Jaredite history that he’d be close to death. But he found that he had more time to “write a few more things, that perhaps they may be of worth unto my brethren, the Lamanites.” (Moroni 1:4)

How can I apply Moroni 1 to my life? Moroni thought that his life would have already been taken by the time he gets to writing his last thoughts. So instead of giving up and “resting”, he decides to write more! He wants to write more things that perhaps they “may be of worth unto my brethren, the Lamanites.” Moroni didn’t lose sight of his goal and he made the best use of his time and energy.

Christ Gives Power to Confer the Holy Ghost

Jesus gave the Nephite apostles the power to confer the Holy Ghost. After a person is baptized, Melchizedek priesthood holders lay their hands on the person’s head and confer upon him the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Ordinations

Moroni 3 teaches how the Nephite apostles ordained elders, priests and teachers.

The Sacrament

Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the sacrament.


I’ve always wanted to do this … have a side-by-side comparison of the blessing of the bread and water to clearly see this similarities and differences.

    Both bless and sanctify the emblems.
    Both identify the emblem it represents. The water blessing adds that it was shed for us.
    In both blessings, we make a covenant … we witness unto God.
    In the bread blessing, we pecifically promise that we are willing to take upon us His name and keep his commandments.
    In the water blessing, we witness unto God that we will (DO) remember Christ.
    Finally, if we are willing to take upon us His name and willing to keep his commandments and willing to remember Him (and do remember Him), then we’ll always (bread) have his spirit with us.

In a church meeting back in November 2004, President Gary Riding of our Stake Presidency asked us to do one thing every week to help us sanctify ourselves. He suggested that either Saturday night or Sunday morning, we sit down and review our past week. Then we identify ways in which we can improve and be better sons and daughters of God. Then we should improve on those things for the next week. Then during the Sacrament, we need to sing the song and read and listen to the words of the hymn. We should think of Jesus and how we can be more faithful to him and how we can remember him. President Riding also suggested that if we have small children, that each parent trade off each week when it comes to tending to them. In this way both of us can have a chance every other week or so, to completely reflect during the sacrament.

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