President George Q. Cannon says that we must thoughtfully and prayerfully turn our hearts over to God: “I should go in a prayerful spirit, asking God to write upon my heart his will; not with my own will already prepared, and determined to carry out my will.” (Cited in Henry B. Eyring, “Write Upon My Heart,” Ensign, Nov. 2000). The dangers we face are not so different from the dangers the ancient Israelites faced. Brueggeman writes, “In Jeremiah’s time the temptation was the gods of Babylon. In our day the comparable temptation may be the gods of militarism, of nationalism . . . of consumerism. In both cases the temptation is to vest one’s life hope in the things we ourselves generate, instead of receiving life as a gift from this One who stands beyond us and for us” (Brueggeman,102).
If you could have witnessed any event in the Old Testament, many of you might say you would have loved to see the children of Israel delivered from captivity as the Red Sea parted before their very eyes.
Reading 1 - Jeremiah 16
14 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord
liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
15 But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their eland that I gave unto their fathers.
16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
Jeremy prophesied of an even greater event than the parting of the Red Sea.
Reading 2 - Numbers 11
29 And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them!
Moses longed that the people would be able to receive their own revelation to guide their own lives. This comes through personal worthiness and knowing how to listen to the voice of the Lord.
Reading 3 - Jeremiah 31
31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
What does the phrase "write in in their hearts, really mean?"
Reading 4 - Elder D. Todd Christofferson teaches that this change of heart is up to us: “The gospel cannot be written in your heart unless your heart is open. . . . As a first step, you must lay aside any feeling of pride that is so common in the world today. By this I mean the attitude that rejects the authority of God to rule in our lives. . . . Further, for the gospel to be written in your heart, you need to know what it is and grow to understand it more fully. That means you will study it. . . . You must not only open your heart to a knowledge of the gospel and the love of God, you must practice the gospel law. You cannot fully understand or appreciate it unless you personally apply it in your life.” (D. Todd Christofferson, “When Thou Art Converted,” Ensign, May 2004.)
To understand the concept of doctrine, principle and application and how they inter-relate, I love this scripture in the New Testament:
Reading 5 – New Testament 2 Corinthians 3:2-6
2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
If we stress the how, without the why, we risk looking beyond the mark.
Your effectiveness as a parent is not in how many family home evening lessons you teach...rather in what did your children learn? Learning begins with your learning. This is why it is so important that you study the gospel alone and together.
Let's review the learning concept of doctrine, principles and applications:
A gospel doctrine is a truth revealed by Heavenly Father to His children related to their eternal progress. Doctrine is simple, foundational and fundamental. It always answers the question "why?"
Examples of doctrine are Atonement, Priesthood, Plan of Salvation and Godhead.
A principle is a guideline that comes from the doctrine for the righteous exercise of moral agency and answers the question "what?"
Look at the Articles of Faith. The first three teach us doctrine (Godhead, Plan of Happiness, and Atonement). The next one teaches principles: faith, repentance, baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost.
An application is a guideline for our behavior and action and answers the question "how?"
If you ask most parents and teachers and leaders in Church about where we have focused our efforts--on doctrines, principles or applications, an honest reply would be that we seem to have been fixated on applications.
President Pack taught: "True doctrine understood, changes attitude and behavior." Discuss as a couple, "why and how this works?"
This one statement summarizes the doctrine, principles, application concept better than anything I have heard: "As you teach the appropriate doctrine and help explain how the Lord communicates through the Spirit, your students will experience being led by the Spirit. They will learn the principles upon which such communication is based. As they apply those principles, they will make the correct choices in life."
http://speeches.byu.edu/reader/reader.php?id=11954 (Elder Richard G. Scott)
I am grateful for the overiding principle in my life taught by President Benson - "when obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that very moment, God will endow us with power."
Reading 6 –
Again, think of the great lesson taught in Elder Scott's summary of doctrine, principle and application. As you teach the appropriate doctrine and help explain how the Lord communicates through the Spirit, your students will experience being led by the Spirit. They will learn the principles upon which such communication is based. As they apply those principles, they will make the correct choices in life.
(BYU Education Week Devotional, Elder Richard G. Scott)
The benefit of all of this? Joseph Smith said it best:
Reading 7 – “I teach the people correct principles and they govern themselves” (Joseph Smith)
And finally, a look to the future gathering as prophesied by Jeremiah:
Reading 8 – Jeremiah 29
10 For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
14 And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
Can we each look inwardly and do our best to have an attitude of prayer, seeking, searching and feed our souls "the good word of God" as we learn to internalize and do His will.
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