Week 4

This post is being written a few days late, but as they always say, better late than never! :D

This past week I was able to read about how Christ reacted to the death of His cousin, John the Baptist, and when Jesus fed the 5,000. I was able to think about the attributes of Christ and what I need to do in order to be more like Him.

Jesus Christ and John the Baptist were cousins. There isn't, as far as I've read, much about their childhoods, but I imagine that they were close friends. John prophesied the coming of the Savior and prepared the way for Him to start His ministry. The death of John the Baptist is tragic and violent, and without going into much detail, he was beheaded.

Matthew 14:12-14- And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus. ... When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. ... And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.

When Jesus heard that His beloved cousin had been killed, He tried to go to a solitary place. We don't have concrete evidence as to why He went there, but it is presumed that it was to be alone and to mourn the death of a close friend and cousin. However, a crowd followed Him there, and instead of turning them away, he had compassion over them and healed them. I love this story because is a prime example of selflessness. Christ saw the needs of the people and those needs took precedence over His own needs.

President Monson said: “He brought reality to the word compassion. He showed us the way. He marked the path we should follow. Selfless service characterized His life. … The Savior’s entire ministry exemplified love of neighbor”

When the Savior had compassion for the 5,000, and stayed to heal their sick, he performed a great miracle. After preaching and healing all day, the people were hungry and the 12 apostles suggested that Christ let the people go so that they could go into town and buy food for themselves. When the Savior heard this, He told them to feed the multitude themselves. They then told Him that the only food that they had to feed this multitude was five loaves of bread and two fish. Not to mention that these 5,000 people were just the men, there were women and children there who remain uncounted. This is where the miracle occurs:

Matthew 14:18-21- He said, Bring them [the loaves and fishes] hither to me. ... And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. ... And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full. ... And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and children.

Christ fed well over 5,000 people with only two loaves of bread and two fish! Not only that, but all were full and there were leftovers. This is amazing to me and I was able to learn that with the Lord's help and blessing, we can do all things. We may not be able to feed well over 5,000 people, but we can do amazing things.

This week's study principles:
Conference Talks- If we are ever reading the scriptures and we need clarification or enlightenment about a certain subject, we can look to conference talks to provide that for us. We only need to type it into google, and a whole new world will be opened to us.
Footnotes and Lexicons- (Speaking of the King James version that the LDS church prints because I'm not sure about other bibles) Footnotes can be found at the bottom of the pages in the scriptures and those footnotes provide us with cross-references, clarification, and explanations to what is happening in the verses. These footnotes are of extreme value, and we can use them to enlighten our minds and expand our understanding of the chapters. We can also look up words on the internet to find the greek translation and understand how they could have been translated differently to make the meanings of the verses different.

Week 3

The reading this week focused on various chapters in Luke, Matthew, and Mark. I had the opportunity to read about the Savior declaring that He was the messiah and the calling of the 12 apostles.

When the Savior declared that He was the Messiah, the people that He was with tried to kill him.

Luke 4:28-29- And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, ... And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

After realizing that the people were trying to kill Him, I started to wonder why. I came to the conclusion that they were angry because they wanted a Savior that would come down wielding a flaming sword and that he would then use to kill all of the Romans that were oppressing the Jewish people. They thought that he was blaspheming (not showing respect to God) by claiming to be their savior. I think that some of us are looking for that too; we want God (or Jesus Christ) to come and pluck us out of our problems and make drastic changes in our lives, but in reality, they will do the opposite. They will be gentle, and teach us what we need to do to make those changes ourselves.

When Christ was on the earth, he was limited, in a way, by His body. He wasn't able to be in more than one place at once like He could before he was born. He needed help running His church while He was still on the earth, and He needed people to run His church after His death. Given this, He called 12 men to be his apostles (helpers, if you will) and they were each given power.

Matthew 10:1- And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

This is important to understand because He gave them same power that He had. These men were called to take Christ's place after His death and they were given the power to do so. I think that pretty much rocks.

This week's study principles:

Patterns/Themes- It is important to look for the patterns and themes in the scriptures. It's what helps us learn more than just what's on the surface.

Context- In order to fully understand the stories and principles found in the scriptures, we need to understand the who, what, when, where, and why's of the verses. If we know that Jesus gave power to His apostles, but don't understand why, the meaning of the scripture would escape our minds entirely.

Week 2

This week I had the opportunity to study Christ's birth and His baptism.

As I read about the Savior's birth I was overcome by the feeling of how simple everything was. At first glance, His birth doesn't seem simple. A new star appeared and angels came down and people traveled years to go and see Him, but as I thought more on the circumstances, I realized that those things were peripheral. He was born in a room full of animals and the scriptures don't actually say anything about his birth. 

Matthew 2:25- she...brought forth her firstborn son

Luke 2:7- she brought forth her firstborn son and, wrapped him in swaddling clothes

I don't know about you, but to me, these simple words don't scream "son of God" or "Savior of mankind." I love this about the accounts of Jesus Christ's birth. He came into the world quietly and as a simple baby. He is our example of humility.

Jesus Christ's baptism causes the same sense of wonder and simplicity. He was perfect; He is the only one who has ever walked this earth or who will ever walk this earth that is without sin. We, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (as well as many other churches, I imagine) get baptized to become clean of sin. The same is true of the ancient jews. This is why it is so strange that Jesus, a perfect man, would be baptized.

Christ was baptized to "fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). This means that He was baptized to be the example to us.

This being said, I believe that Christ's baptism was very simple. He was immersed in the water and brought up again. This is the same way that we get baptized. I love that; I got baptized in the same why that Christ did.

This week's study principles:

Questions-  I learned that asking questions is an imperative part of learning the scriptures. We have to ask questions so that we can make sense of what we're reading.

Principles- We find principles in everything we read in the Bible and other books of scripture. When we find these principles, we have to apply them to our lives so that we can become like the people in the scriptures. (The good ones, of course :P)

Introduction (Week 1)

Hi!

I am a 21 year old college student that is currently attending Brigham Young University- Idaho. I am taking a New Testament class, which, as you may have guessed, is where I learn about the New Testament. I have been asked to share some of my thoughts and insights that I gain while reading this semester, and I have chosen to write a blog. 

We have assigned study skills each week so I will be addressing those at the end of each post.

Thank you so much for reading!