Tag Archives: covenant

Have You Considered a Prayer Covenant?

Prayer – how important a part does it play in your life? And how other person focused is your prayer? Or are you mostly concerned with your own needs? Recently a fellow writer suggested that a number of us online, most of us writers, form a 40 day prayer covenant, the idea being that each day everyone on the list would pray for the person nominated for that day. We were asked to each give three brief points, the first a point of praise and the other two requests. Prayers could be changed as they were answered and new ones … Continue reading →

Gospel Doctrine: The Value of the Old Testament

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You may think a blog on the value of the Old Testament may seem a bit out of place in the middle of our study of the New Testament. Part of the inspiration, I’m sure, comes from my new calling as Seminary teacher; I have been considering how to emphasize the importance of the Old Testament to teenagers this year. Perhaps that is why the scriptures expounded by Christ caught my eye. Many times, we tend to neglect the Old Testament in favor of the New. We figure that most of what it teaches us we can get much more … Continue reading →

Visiting Teaching Message: Practicing Holiness

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The second section of the Visiting Teaching message on practicing holiness truly touched my heart. Although there were several things that touched me in both quotes, I felt myself truly respond to Bonnie Parkin’s admonition that “holiness is a product of covenant living.” Throughout our spiritual walk with the church, we make covenants. First, we covenant when we are baptized to serve Christ and try to be like Him. Then we renew that covenant every Sunday when we take the sacrament; we restate our willingness to keep His commandments. When we go through the temple, we make several covenants, and … Continue reading →

Gospel Doctrine: Render to Caeser the Things Which Are Caeser’s

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When the Pharisees sought to lay a trap for Jesus, they asked Him whether they should pay taxes to the Romans. If He said yes, they would claim that He supported the much-hated Romans who domineered the nation; if He said no, they could report Him to the authorities as stirring up rebellion. Christ replied instead that we should “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” In the course of the lesson He taught, Jesus displayed a Roman penny, which bore the head of Caesar upon it. He used this … Continue reading →

Circumcision: Joining the Covenant

Abraham, the first Jew, was the first human being to practice circumcision. Since then, circumcision has been a ritual that brings Jewish babies into the covenant with G-d. In fact, the Hebrew name for circumcision, or brit, is the same word for covenant. In Soviet Russia, where all Jewish rituals were outlawed, and in concentration camps during the Holocaust, there were many who risked their lives to bring their sons into the covenant, and in spite of many who disapprove of the custom, the number of Jews seeking kosher circumcision for themselves and for their infant sons in increasing. Circumcision … Continue reading →

RS/EQ: Doers of the Word

Now that we have finished pondering the quotes from President Kimball this week, you may have wondered what else there is to study in the lesson. If you turn to the back, you will see a list of ‘related scriptures’ to read and ponder. As usual, I wound up caught up in the first scripture and didn’t make it to the rest. I guess it’s a good thing I have an entire week to study! The first scripture referenced is James 1:22. “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” This scripture fits … Continue reading →

RS/EQ: Endure To The End

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The third section of this week’s lesson by President Kimball is subheaded “The gospel of Jesus Christ charts our course back to our Heavenly Father”. Here, President Kimball expands on how the laws and ordinances of the gospel, coupled with the atoning power of Christ and the power of forgiveness in our lives, bring us home to dwell with Heavenly Father again. Over and over he stresses that there is no other way to return to our Father except through Christ. So many subjects came to my mind as I studied this section that deciding on one was nearly impossible. … Continue reading →

The Waters of Baptism

My Easter Sunday was quite one of the loveliest I have ever spent. (I think I’ve watched Pride and Prejudice too many times. Sorry, I’ll drop back into the American styling of the English language.) Anyway, all that aside, on Easter Sunday I was privileged to be in Waxahachie, Texas for the baptism of my beloved niece, Rebecca Case. I was so proud of her for fighting everything that stood in her way so that she could enter the waters of baptism on that very special day. Rebecca is really a most remarkable young woman. Her mother is violently anti-Mormon … Continue reading →

Noble Birthright

Yesterday it was such a privilege for me teach our Sunday School class (the 16-17 year-olds) regarding covenants, eternal marriage and the noble birthright each of us inherited through the Abrahamic covenant. First, a refresher on the Abrahamic Covenant: Quoting from the Bible Dictionary located within the scriptures issued by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “Included in the divine promises to Abraham were the assurances that: 1) Christ would come through his lineage, and that 2) Abraham’s posterity would receive certain lands as an eternal inheritance . . . The portions of the covenant that pertain to … Continue reading →