John would for sure outlive His mother

Who knows why Jesus actually turned care of His mother over to John, but maybe it was because He knew that John would outlive His mother.

So this week we talked about the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. I learned more about the physical aspects of crucifixion than I ever wanted to. It makes more sense now, but it is also very gruesome. I'll spare you the details. But there were some really interesting things that I learned from our discussions.

First, from what we read in John 16:32, we get the sense that Jesus didn't realize that the Father would forsake Him too. I had never noticed that before. But it makes sense that it would work out this way so that He can succor us when we feel that way.

Second, in John 19:29, it talks about how they used hyssop to give Jesus vinegar. I'd never put it together before, but hyssop is the 'bitter herbs' from Passover. So in that moment of intense agony, He was partaking from the bitter herbs.

Third, in Mark 15:38, as well as in Matthew and Luke, we hear that the veil of the temple was rent in two. I'd made the connection before that the veil of the temple separated the people from the holy of holies, which represented the presence of God, so the veil represented the separation between us and the presence of God, and when Jesus died, His sacrifice allowed us to be able to return to the presence of God. However, the connection I hadn't made before was that the rending of the veil could represent Heavenly Father rending His clothes as a sign of His grief over the death of His Son. And that gives us insight into how much Heavenly Father loves us that He was willing to put His Beloved Son through that so that we can return to live with Him.

Know that you're loved!

The worst year of my life...

Yes, there is a year that I have labeled the worst year of my life. But for the first time in my life, I'm thankful for it.

So as I was working on getting my papers resubmitted, one day, I was really frustrated because things just weren't working out, and I pulled out my scriptures and was very much guided to Doctrine and Covenants 68:6, which says:

Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.

And that was exactly what I needed. Now things are working out better than I ever could have expected. I have officially been cleared to serve a mission, and my papers should go in tomorrow or Wednesday, so I will have the opportunity to bear record of the Savior, though I don't know where yet. And I have received a stronger testimony of the Lord's timing, and that He is mindful of me. He has turned some of the worst experiences of my life into one of the greatest blessings.

Some of you probably know that senior year of high school was by far the worst year of my life. I changed medications, and it was awful. First the dose was too low, and then once we got to a decent dose, the side-effect anxiety was terrible. Because of this, I went through some serious depression and anxiety. For a little bit, I tried Prozac, but that actually made the problem worse. So instead I'm on Zoloft. But if I had gone out on a mission without having had to deal with depression or anxiety, it probably would have manifested itself while I was out, and then I likely would have had to come home to sort out medication. And even if I hadn't, they probably would have tried the Prozac first, and after that, I most definitely would have had to come home. So for the first time in my life, I am thankful that I went through that, so that now I can go on a mission without having to worry about that as much.

"Judas was the ultimate back-stabber."

So I don't have my notebook with me right now, but I have some time now that I think I'll use to write this post.

This week we talked about the Last Supper and the Atonement.

So this is a picture I found online that shows the kind of table that Christ and the Apostles probably sat at during the Last Supper. Because I don't have my notebook, you have been deprived of my glorious stick-figure drawing, but this will suffice.


As you notice, them lying like this makes it much easier for Jesus to wash their feet. But it also shows a lot more. First of all, while we don't know exactly where Jesus was lying, we know John is on one side of him. Assuming Jesus is right-handed, He's probably lying with his left arm under him, so He can eat with his right hand, and so John is probably in front of Him, or on the right. But we also hear about how Jesus gives Judas a sop of bread. Well, when you're lying like that, you really can only reach the people on either side of you. So Judas may have been on Jesus's left, kind of behind Him. So Judas really was the ultimate back-stabber.

Talking about the Atonement was enlightening. Thinking about Abraham's similitude of the Atonement, Abraham was the one with the knife in his hand, about to inflict that pain on Isaac. I had never thought about the fact that in the Atonement, Heavenly Father, who is perfectly just, was the one who had to inflict that punishment on Christ, His Only Beloved. It wasn't like justice just ambushed Jesus. That burden was placed on Him by His Father. And of course, at this moment, Christ is dealing with so much more. He'd never felt guilt before. He'd never felt shame or self-loathing. He hadn't experienced temptation like we do. And at the same time as He's suffering for our sins, He's dealing with our afflictions and temptations and our trials and sicknesses, and He's dealing with all these things that He'd never felt before. And He's doing this for worlds without number. And this was His choice. He asked if there was another, easier way, but when there wasn't, He went through with it, even though it was extremely difficult. I'm not sure what I ever did to deserve this. As if one could ever deserve the Atonement.

"God doesn't learn anything when we pray, but we do."

I am so thankful for the Thanksgiving break coming up. That will be a lifesaver. If you have any suggestions for movies I should watch while grading, I'm all ears.

So this week, we talked about a bunch of little things. One of these was Jesus cleansing the temple. The part that Brother Griffin drew our attention to was in Matthew 21:14, where it says that after He cleansed the temple, the blind and lame came to Him and He healed them. Brother Griffin drew the parallel that Christ cleanses our temples, and then brings in our weaknesses and heals them. I think back on the times that I've felt that healing power, and I know that I had to get to a place where He could work in my life first, and only then could He heal me.

We also talked about Mary and Martha, and Brother Griffin asked what would have happened if the roles were somewhat switched, and Mary had said, "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath not taken the time to listen to what thou hast to say? Bid her cease her labors and join me here." (altered Luke 10:40) The response would probably have been the same. It wasn't Mary's choosing to sit and listen to Jesus that was the better part. It was Martha's judgement that was the problem. Martha's service was probably appreciated after the long journey that Christ probably had that day. We each are different and our way of showing respect for the Master is individual, but we need to remember that there is no right way to show our love for our Savior.

Know that you're loved!

"Now let's go down to the well. As you can tell, this is going to be a deep lesson."

So you may have noticed that I haven't posted in a couple weeks. I'll go back and post about those weeks once I get the time, which will not be tonight.

So this week we talked some about Luke's parables, which means the Good Samaritan and Luke 15's three parables about being lost.

I had never seen the parable of the Good Samaritan like this before, but there's another meaning in it that I'd never seen before. First, we consult the picture:


So we see that the man is coming down from Jerusalem. You might be interested to know that 'man' also means 'Adam' in Aramaic, which is the language that Jesus would have spoken. And the word 'stripped' is also used to mean the body being stripped from the spirit. The opposite of the word means to endow, or put a sacred garment on. Sound familiar?

In any case, you have a couple characters: first, the Jew, who wouldn't go anywhere near him; second, the Levite, who came over and looked, but wouldn't help; third, the Samaritan, who appears to have gone out looking for someone to help; fourth, the innkeeper, who clearly knows the Samaritan, and the Samaritan trusts him, even though most people would try to rip off the Samaritan.

The important part though is to apply it to ourselves, and we fit in all the categories. We are the Jew when we are too proud to help. We are the Levite when we think we're too busy to help, but when we trust the Lord and take the time to help, we will be repaid for all the effort and time that we've put in, and we become the innkeeper. Sometimes, in small measure, we can be the Samaritan, though it's normally Christ who plays that role. But we can also be the thieves, beating ourselves up as we walk along the road of life.

So remember to pay attention to what roles you find yourself playing.

The other story I want to touch on is the one about the woman taken in adultery. Now, apparently adulterers hadn't been stoned in about 600 years. I didn't know that. So she was probably very scared. (And can we just mention that the man didn't suffer any retribution for his actions?) I'd always wondered why Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground, but Brother Griffin mentioned that when He did, all eyes probably went to that, taking the attention off her. Now we don't know what he wrote, but one idea that Brother Griffin said that others had had is that he started with the youngest and went to the oldest, writing all their names, then working from oldest to youngest, wrote the names of the woman they'd last committed adultery with, and they one by one left. As Brother Griffin said, "There was only one perfect person in the temple that day, and no stones were thrown."

Know that you're loved!!

"How can chess be bad? It's got four bishops in it!"

So we continued talking about the Sermon on the Mount this week.
First, did you know that near where Christ was giving this sermon, there was a Roman city on a hill that they'd see every night? So when Christ says that "a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid," He's actually referencing something they'd be familiar with.

Then on Thursday, we started talking about miracles, and how miracles don't end with the physical part. You can get a physical miracle, and you can get a spiritual miracle. While the physical miracles often don't last, spiritual miracles do, and they mean a lot more. I really enjoyed talking about the leper in Matthew 8, and one thing Brother Griffin mentioned is how leprosy is often a symbol for baggage that we carry. This leper, when he says, "if thou wilt" is showing that he has faith not to be healed. And that was a difficult lesson for me to learn. In the year that shall not be mentioned, I often prayed that things would get better, and kept getting the answer that I just had to endure. And I wasn't really happy about that. It was miserable. But now I'm grateful I had to wait so I could learn to have faith in the Lord's timing. Just like Jairus, who was delayed on the way to receive his miracle and had his daughter die while he was waiting, for a while, it felt like the time for my miracle had passed, and it hadn't. Things got better, but even more, I learned a lot from the experience. Not that I'd want to go through that again, but it shaped me a lot. And I'm grateful for that.

The first recorded Bible Bash

So this week we talked about Jesus Christ's baptism, being tempted by Satan, the calling of the Twelve Apostles, and the Sermon on the Mount. And it all was really amazing this week!

So first, did you know that Jesus got baptized in the lowest source of fresh water in the world? It gives more meaning to the symbolism in the temple of the baptistry being underground.

Now the temptations- Brother Griffin pointed out that in all three, Satan is trying to get Christ to take the easier way out. It's easier to just make bread than to go back and then find some. If He'd thrown Himself off the temple and been saved by an angel, He would have instantly had more followers. And Satan tried to tell Jesus that He could have kingdoms without performing the Atonement, which was the easy way out. Also, this is the first recorded Bible Bash. Jesus and Satan are both using scripture to back up their arguments. We also talked about how Satan doesn't come blindly at you. He knows your weaknesses. A couple fun thoughts- "How long have you been single? Try millenia! You can wait." "Satan hates your guts because he doesn't have any." Brother Griffin also talked about how Jesus rejected temptation as soon as it came. If we give it time in our brain to rationalize, sin is much more likely to win. But if we outright reject it the moment it appears, it can't win. And I think that's so accurate.

When we were talking about Jesus calling the Apostles, one thing mentioned is that Peter probably gets more corrective feedback than anyone else in the New Testament. And Brother Griffin proposed that this is because he takes it better than almost anyone else. He accepts the correction and works to improve. And I want to say it was Elder McConkie he quoted saying, "If you're not receiving correction from the Lord, you're not praying right." Or something like that. And it makes me feel better remembering that Peter got corrected too.

Another awesome thought from someone in my class: "God used my weaknesses to make them stronger." I hope I can be like that on my mission.

Now for my favorite part- the Sermon on the Mount. First, if you compare Matthew 5 and 3 Nephi 12, the last verse of both, in Matthew 5, Christ doesn't include Himself in that list of perfect people yet, but in 3 Nephi, He does. When He had finished His work, He was complete, and therefore perfect. I still have a lot more to do first to complete the work that God has given me to do, and it's nice to know that I don't have to be perfect now.

Now for the best part- did you know that the Beatitudes are the greatest lecture on repentance ever?

 Here's the picture of the board. First in repentance, you have to be poor in spirit, or lacking. Then you mourn for what you've done wrong. Then you work on being meek, or teachable. Then you hunger and thirst after righteousness and seek to know the right. You have to be merciful and accept that other people have gaps to overcome just like you do. Then you have to be pure in heart and have the right intent. Then you have to take that peace that you've gained through repentance and share it with others by being a peacemaker. Then you have to be willing to be persecuted for righteousness sake, making those changes permanent, and not just in the easy times.

And did you ever noticed that only two have the same promise- poor in spirit and persecuted for righteousness sake? That's because it's a cycle. You just keep climbing up towards being with God. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. When you look at the Beatitudes like this, it fits so well with how we work to become more like our Father in Heaven.

Know that you are loved!

"You didn't bring your virtual recommend with you."

Yeah, we couldn't enter the Holy of Holies in class. Speaking of which, you should totally check out http://virtualscriptures.org/virtual-new-testament/. It's this amazing app that lets you look around places in the New Testament, like Temple Mount and the Pools of Silom. Seriously, check it out. My mind was blown by how amazing it is. Even the curtain in the temple moves after you go through it.

Anyways, we talked about the early life of Christ this week. Did you know that the words to More Holiness Give Me go really well with the tune to Away in a Manger? Anyways, we talked a lot about Greek and how some of the words may not have translated well. Did you know that 'inn' also could be translated as 'guest chamber'. In Greek, the word is katalyma, and every house of decent size had one. So when it says that "there was no room for them in the inn," (Luke 2:7) what it probably actually means is that none of their family would let them stay- hence they were probably disowned. Brother Griffin mentioned that it's interesting that the Son of God would be born to a woman who was despised and rejected of men, a woman of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Also, did you know that there was an aqueduct that flows from Bethlehem into Temple Mount that they used to clean the waste out of the temples? So the waste was thrown on the east side of the alter. Then there would be water that would wash most of it into drains, which would flow to a stream to the east of the temple. And guess what else is to the east of Temple Mount? Gethsemane. There is so much more symbolism in the law of Moses than I ever thought there was. Also, when you pluck a turtledove, there would be a drop of blood in every pore. Isn't that symbolism just amazing?

So every class, Brother Griffin ends by saying, "Know that you are loved." And I just want to pass that on to you- know that you are loved.

Samson died of a fairly common foot condition- fallen arches

What a week this has been. But I've been able to see the Lord's hand in everything that's happened.

This week, we got to the New Testament and started talking about the Gospels and the Church of Jesus Christ. We discussed the name of the church today, as given in Doctrine and Covenants 115:4- the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. First, 'the' indicates that it's singular- one church. Second, 'of Jesus Christ' indicates ownership. It's Christ's church. And third, 'of Latter-Day Saints' indicates joint partnership. One thing that I liked that he said was, "He combined His perfection with out imperfection." And that's really what the Church is.

But my favorite thing was when we talked about the Atonement for just a bit. He said, "The Savior was declared guilty during an imperfect judgement for our sins. At Judgement, He can proclaim us not guilty, because He's already been pronounced guilty for those things." And I'd never thought of it like that. I love that I have a Savior who loved me enough to give His life for me.

At the end of class on Thursday, Brother Griffin told a story about how he was an institute teacher up at Utah State and absolutely loved it. Then one day, a couple religion professors from BYU came up and asked if he'd be interested in teaching at BYU. He wanted to say no, but the Lord clearly told him, "Don't close any doors." Well, he ended up doing a guest lecture at BYU, and they offered him a job, and he felt like he needed to take it, even if that wasn't what he really wanted. And he talked about how he didn't think it could possibly be better than at Utah State, but it is, and he's blessing the lives of so many more people in one semester here than in six years there.

And I really needed that. It's been interesting being back here. I have realized that if I pay attention, every day I see a reason why I needed to be here today. Some days, I learn something that will really help on my mission. Other days, someone needed my help or just needed me to be there. And I have no doubt that this is where I'm supposed to be. But for a while, it was hard because I knew that I was supposed to go on a mission, and I wanted to know why I couldn't go then. At first, it felt like the Lord was saying I wasn't ready yet. And to be fair, I've already grown a lot being back here. But Brother Griffin's story just hit home that the Lord knows what's ahead of me, and that I'm supposed to be there at a specific time, and that things will be so much better than I ever could imagine. I don't remember who, but someone told me to pay special attention the last six months of my mission, because if I hadn't been delayed, I wouldn't have been there, and who knows what the Lord needs me there for. I'm still tired of waiting for my call. I just want to know where I'll be going. But I love being back.

Why didn't Noah's family play cards?

Because he was always standing on the deck.

This week we talked a lot about the Old Testament, setting the scene for Christ's life and ministry. We talked about the sacrifices they were commanded to make and how the Lord works in our lives.

One of the things we discussed is how when we get commandments from the Lord, we're often missing either the what, how, or why. And that forces us to act in faith until the Lord reveals the rest to us. Recently, I've been waiting to learn the why behind my mission being a bit postponed, and as I've had faith that this is what I'm supposed to be doing, I've been learning the reasons why a little bit every day.

Another thing that Brother Griffin mentioned that I had never noticed before was the large number of parallels between the story of Cain and Abel and the war in heaven. Abel was a shepherd, who sacrificed when he gave his offering, and said offering was acceptable. Cain didn't have to give up something personal when he gave his offering (he didn't name his vegetables, at least I assume he didn't), and tried to get gain, and when his offering was rejected, he got angry instead of repenting. And then Abel was killed while he was watching his flocks. The scriptures really are full of types of Christ, which help us to better know the Savior and understand His sacrifice.

"Whether by mine own voice or by the mouth of my serpents, it is the same."

I had a hard time choosing a title this time. There were a number of good ones.  But I felt like this one was the best.

So this week, we talked about the Creation and the Fall. And we read Moses 4:27, which says:

     "Unto Adam, and also unto his wife, did I, the Lord God, make coats of skins, and clothed them."
And who knew a verse this short and seemingly insignificant could hold so much meaning! 

First, they'd tried to cover themselves, using fig leaves. But apparently fig leaves dry out really quickly, since their surface area is so large, and then they curl in on themselves, so they wouldn't provide a lasting covering. Plus, "fig leaves are like sandpaper. But hey, they were the latest in Fall fashion." 

So to make more lasting coverings, some animals needed to be killed. Adam and Eve had named all the animals. They probably were rather attached to them. And then they watched those animals be sacrificed to cover them. From the very beginning, God is teaching them about Christ's Atonement. We can try to cover ourselves, but it doesn't work. To cover us, we needed an infinite atonement, and Christ volunteered. Christ was our brother. We loved Him. And then He was sacrificed to cover our sins and weaknesses and afflictions. I can't imagine being in heaven and watching it, knowing that He was going through that for me. I can't help but feel loved, knowing He did that for me. I can't wait to head out on a mission and get to spread that knowledge, wherever I'm sent! 

"Cross-referencing is a pain with scrolls."

So this semester, I am taking a religion class called Christ and the Everlasting Gospel. For this class, I will be writing a post every week sharing something that I've learned. So without further ado...

Oh, the title this week comes from something that Brother Griffin said in class, which I liked. I think the title each week will be something funny that he said during the past week.

On Thursday, Brother Griffin said, at some point in the lecture, "If you're on the same boat as the Savior, it's not going down." This week, I've been reading about Alma and Amulek (Alma 14), and at the end, when they come out of the prison rubble unscathed, it reinforced this truth to me that if we're on the Lord's side, we will be okay. This doesn't mean that life will be easy, as if it ever is. I mean, the prison didn't fall apart the very first day Alma and Amulek were put in. They had to wait and suffer in there for a little while first. But in the end, it will be worth it.

This week, we've seen Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Jose, as well as the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, as well as lots of fires and the earthquakes in Idaho and other disasters. I can't imagine being in a boat in a hurricane, but our world today can very much feel like we're in a hurricane or like the world is falling down around us. And I don't doubt that Alma and Amulek were probably a little concerned when the walls and the roof were falling down around them, but they trusted in the Savior, and none of the falling debris hurt them. If we're in the Savior's ship, we can take courage that it's not going down, and that it'll be okay in the end.