WEEK 00 [WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR OWN LEARNING]

“We Have Waited for Him and He Will Save Us”

December 19 – December 25

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Welcome back you guys. This is creative. Come follow me for the New Testament Week zero . I'm calling it week zero because we're not technically in the verses of the New Testament just yet. It will seem when you open up the book like this is something you could maybe skip over. In fact, that was what I felt when I first read it, to be totally honest with you, because it's right before Christmas time.

I was like, oh, maybe I can take this preliminary lesson and smash it into lesson one, and that way I can be a week ahead and enjoy Christmas a little. That was my game plan you guys, and then the more I studied this lesson and really read the verses. , I realized it needed its own time. It needed a full week.

Remember how President Nelson's been pulling at us to hold onto our testimonies, to deepen them, to take ownership of them, to expand them. That's what this lesson is all about, and it uses the New Testament to do that. So it's completely worth your time and study, I promise. There's a beautiful introduction paragraph in this week's lesson that mentions the phrase from the savior that says, what seek, and then it invites you to ask that question to simply come to this year of study and.

What is it? I hope to get out and your answer's gonna be different than mine, but I'll tell you mine just cuz we're friends. So I have two big reasons. The first thing I seek this time is a bit of a mulligan . So like I told you guys in the Old Testament, the first year of Come follow me after. After it was announced by President Nelson, I was terrible.

I just, I can't. To see this year be so different than the last. The second big reason, and the one that's maybe more sacred to me is because of a promise that's in my patriarchal blessing, and I won't read it for you verbatim, but basically the promise is that as I come to study the life of the savior, I will know him as my savior, that I will even recognize him when I see him and I, I have been wondering for, When that will be fulfilled.

What I seek is to see him as he is. and I think it's gonna happen. In fact, the more I studied this lesson, the more I realized it's completely in my control whether that happens or not, and I intend to make it happen. So you guys, we've got a good year ahead of us. This week of study is a little shorter.

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The lesson this week is broken up into four big sections that will help you take responsibility for your own learning. And the first big one is about becoming a disciple of Christ. It's phrased a little bit differently, but I feel like that's the message. So if you look at 0.1 in the manual, it says, to truly learn from the savior, I must accept his invitation to come follow me.

This is a great place to. because I feel like it's what the savior it's the invitation he extended to all his disciples in the New Testament, especially those who would come to be his apostles. In fact, the more I studied this part of the New Testament, the more I felt ignited by it. Basically, when he encounters all these would-be apostles.

Over the course of time, he invites them to follow, and it's not this big. Dramatic promise. He simply says, come and see. The first one I read about was with Andrew who was introduced to the savior through John the Baptist, and he basically has a question for the savior. He wants to know where he lives, and the Savior's response is, come and see.

I think they had some audacious hope. I think they caught sight of something that they thought could be this Messiah that the Jews had prayed for and hoped for, they thought it might be. And because they were willing to plant that desire and give place for it, it could grow. And that's the process of discipleship.

So when I read that quote, you guys, my brain immediately went to martial arts movies because that's what they do. Like it's the plot line of. You know, from Karate Kid to Kung Fu Panda, all of them are the same. It's some kid who happens to see a master do something. Remarkable. And they can't wrap their head around how it's possible, but they want in.

Get that self-discipline, that control over the natural man and they progress. That's what I see when I read the New Testament . When you look at the lives of these disciples who turn to be apostles and even the women who follow all these different disciples of Christ, they do this. They see him in some small way, do some.

Something they can't wrap their head around and they want in and so they follow him. What I love you guys is that's the invitation for us as well as we study the words of the savior in the New Testament, you're gonna catch glimpses that will. Intrigue you. You'll catch a miracle or even just a fraction of a miracle or just hear his words, and your heart will catch.

It'll catch in your throat and you'll have hope. In fact, I think that's the common denominator between all of these disciples. They had hope that there was a Christ who would come. They learned that from their religion. Most of them were Jews. They wanted the Messiah to come, and they had hope that he could be it.

But because we come and check in every day and we study with the savior in our New Testament, we will come and we will see. The question is what will we see? So as I was studying, you can read all of this in the notes, but one of the things I loved is thinking about what it is that the disciples. , and at first I assumed it must be the miracles, right?

But where he credits his testimony is to prayer and fasting. That teaches me something. , I feel like what he's saying is you're gonna see all these miracles. You're gonna see great things happen. But where you will come to know me as your savior is when you come to be like me. When you come to see, like I see, in fact, one of the things I love about the New Testament is you get to see these disciples see not just miracles, but they see as he sees.

Then he'd just gotten as a gift, and so he was showing us all these cool things under a microscope. He kept sending me pictures on my phone and it was staggering to look at. You see, you know, a grain of salt and it's cube shaped, it's a crystal, right? It's just incredible to see. And you can't see those things in that way without that proper tool.

And I feel like that's the message of the New Testament. It's you need the gift of the spirit, you need the guidance of this master teacher, and you need to come every day, come and study and be his student every day. And if you'll do, You will come and you will see. In fact, it's a promise you can rest on.

In fact, I love the last line of his quote. He said, God wants you to learn of his son Jesus Christ, and experience the profound peace and joy that comes from following the path of discipleship. He knows the end, he knows the promise, and he's giving it to us as an apostle of Christ. He's saying, come and see, and if we do, there is peace and there is joy ahead.

There's a lot to learn in the New Testament, you guys. I can't wait to get there.

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The second big point in the manual is about how you are responsible for your own learning. And I feel like it's what happens in those martial arts movies when the students finally come into the Dojo or wherever it is, and they are on their first day of class and the master gives out all these rules and these like stipulations that if they wanna be his student, there are.

You can go in the notes and learn a little more deeply, but let me give you kind of a bird's eye view of all of them. So first, when you start in John seven 17, this is the one where it says that any man. know my will and do my will. He will know my doctrine. So it's this invitation to act, you know, if you were in any any mastery program, you have to act.

The apostles of the Savior saw him and witnessed what he could do, and then he invited them to do what he did. You know, they had to do their own miracles and all these things they had to act, and that's the same invitation for us. Discipleship will be a process of trial and error and enacting the principles that we learn in the verses and we're gonna figure it out together.

make space in order to really study under this master, they have to let their old friends go or maybe break up with their girlfriend, . You know, they have to make some big cut in their plans in order to make space to become as he is. And I think that's what Alma was teaching me when he talks about giving place for the seed, if I really want this testimony seed to grow.

I gotta give place. I gotta scoop out some of the dirt that's nice and compact and been there forever and get rid of it. So there's room. So I think as I've studied and as I've prayed this week, that's one of the focuses of my prayer is Heavenly Father, where do I need to give place? I really want my testimony of the Savior to.

So watch for that as. The next two are in James. The first one is the epic verse of James that Joseph Smith taught us when he studied the New Testament. And that is, if any of you lack wisdom, let 'em ask of God, and then an invitation to be doers of the word. And I of course love this. Everybody loves this verse, but I think.

There's such simplicity in it that when you struggle, ask the master. Don't ask the other teachers in the classroom, don't even ask me. Go and ask the master teacher what it is you need. If you lack wisdom, if you lack understanding, ask. What I think is really powerful is it implies that we understand that there are some things that are gonna need to be spiritually taught.

Basically, I picture the roots of that tree as my faith and that as my faith in Christ deepens, as my understanding of him deepens into that nourished rich soil. Then what naturally happens is works. Shoot up . You know, my, my life will be evidence of my discipleship. You'll see fruits of my discipleship in my life.

So this is Nephi talking about Lehigh's vision and how he wants to have one for himself, and it's this independent spirit in Nephi that I just love. because like we talked about in the Old Testament, there are no second generation disciples. Every generation has to know for themselves and has to find the truth for themselves to be a real disciple of Christ.

We have to be willing to do the work to show up every day in the dojo and try to master this for ourselves. It's not, discipleship is not inherited, so we have to show. . Another one you're gonna find, this is in second Nephi. He talks about delighting in the scriptures, but I really love what comes at the end of this section where he says, he writeth them.

Be a better teacher for my kids. So I tried to incorporate their talents and their interests and their hobbies and the things that we have fun together as a family doing. I tried to pull all those in to come follow me, and when I started to make that shift, Things changed in me and in my family. I always read this verse as for the prophet of my children, meaning like for their testimonies down the road they will profit.

But I think a big piece of this work is just to engage with your kids. To make the gospel taste good to them, so it's exciting and fun to them. When I had that focus of how can I make the gospel palatable to my family? How can I be like Lehigh at the tree and taste the goodness for myself, and then invite them to come and convince them it's worth the effort to get here?

Anxiously engaged and that there is power in you. I love that ending piece, that there's power in all of us. I think that's what the light of Christ is. He's basically saying like, you have all the tools to be the person I want you to be right now. I just need you to do it the same way in all those martial arts movies, it's not that they.

Change dramatically as a person physically. They have all the capability, all the muscle structure they need to do those moves. They just need the self-discipline and the training and the coaching in order to pull them off, and that's what we're gonna have this year in the New Testament. The last one that the manual calls out is D N C 88.

Scholars or to seek, listen to podcasts or you know, to help get help in those areas. But I really think that's a big piece of how Joseph Smith learned. It's a big piece of how we can learn too, that you seek knowledge out of the best books, but you understand that the trump card to all of the commentary and all of the scholarship is your own connection with the Holy Ghost and what we learned from prophets and apostles in our day, that all those will work together.

So seek learning, balance out the scholarship with the sacred, and you'll find a lot of beautiful revelation.

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Because in the end, it doesn't matter what talents you're blessed with or what family you're born into. , it's the showing up every day in this discipleship pathway that really helps you become like he is. So all of this third section is about how to fill your lamp with oil, how to be that diligent learner.

And so you'll see a few tips tucked into these verses. The first one's in Luke 11, this is nine through 13. And this is the promise that for everyone that Asketh Receiveth and he, that seeketh Findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. This is a promise that you. Trust in this is what I'm baking on you guys, that if I diligently ask and seek and knock, I will.

I don't know if you guys, maybe that just tells you how old I am, but my teacher had transparencies, you know, those overhead projectors, and she would put one layer down, like if you're learning geography, she'd put one layer down that had all the rivers and then another layer on top of it that had all the mountains and then another layer on top of it that had the roads.

And you could see all those transparencies projected on the wall and they would combine together to form a full image. And that's basically how revelation works for me. and what I love in this promise is if I wanna add oil to my lamp, what he's basically asking me is keep watching the transparencies.

I love this piece cuz there are sometimes you guys in the scriptures that it's a scary thing to believe, especially when you have forces pulling against you. The other way to stand and to boldly be a believer is scary at times. But he asked you to do just that. To fearlessly strive to believe, doubt your doubts as Elder Holland would say.

The third tip he says is, you must ask your Heavenly Father in the name of his son Jesus Christ to manifest the truth. There's more to that quote, but I started to look up that word manifest cuz I wondered, I think all of my young years I thought that promise was. If I'd read the Book of Mormon and I got to the point where he would manifest the truth of it unto me, I would feel a certain thing.

It happens as I see these layers fit snugly together, things that I never could have anticipated and at a pace I never hoped for. They come quickly and clearly, and I start to see. That's what manifesting the truth unto me means it means, Hey Maria, I'm not coming all in one woosh. I'm coming layer by layer day by day, and so I have to stay.

I have to be a disciple cuz I don't have all the layers. I need to know what else is coming. So I love that promise about manifesting the truth. The fourth step he offers in his talk is he says, you need to act. If any man will do God's will, he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself.

That's a pretty big promise from an apostle of God that he will he. Answer and he will. If you ask and you seek and you knock, he will manifest. It may not come how you expected and it may not come at the pace you hoped for, but it will come and that's promise you can count on. Another one is in John 5 39.

They just add to each other. Another big one is John seven 14 through seven. This is when the savior is talking about God's doctrine and he's at the temple with a whole bunch of scholars who are baffled by his ability to understand because he's not someone who would've been trained the way they were trained.

And what I love about his response, especially when he calls attention to the, these aren't his words, but those who sent him, they're his words, is what he's saying is there is power in spiritual understanding. All the scholarship, all the commentary, all the studying you can do is powerful and will help you, but it will not compare to what you can gain by learning directly from the spirit.

And what the Lord says is no obey the law. First and then you'll see, so for example, when I played volleyball in high school, I remember my coach teaching me that I should put my middle finger on the nozzle where the, like where you'd go to pump the ball before I served and I didn't understand, there couldn't be any real rational reason why that would help my serve, right?

The ball is exactly round. It shouldn't help me. What I came to understand over time was what she was really teaching me to do was. S like, settle down. When I get to the serving line, I needed to breathe. That process of finding the nozzle and putting my finger on it, gave me a chance to like get centered so that when I went to serve, my mind was calm.

That's why that commandment is a thing. So I love that we learned that in John seven as well. Another big one is in acts. This is Acts 17, 10 through 12. This is where he says they received the word with all readiness of mind and search the scriptures daily. I do think there's something to discipleship.

That means you need to be physically ready. I can't show up to my scripture study exhausted. I mean now and then I do, but it doesn't go terribly well. I have to carve out time. I have to carve out space, I have to get tools. I have to make the discipleship a priority, and when I do, when I show up ready, he can feed me, he can teach me better.

I mean, all of you have been teachers. You know what it's like when you have a student who sits in class and they are ready and eager to soak up whatever you have to say. That connection that happens is rapid, and I think that's what he's inviting you to do. He also talks about being a receiver. This idea of.

Expecting a pass. And when you're expecting a pass, nine times out of 10, you get one because he, he is anxiously ready to send in the ball. So I think that's the promise of discipleship. Another big one that I love, this is one of the last ones. This is in first Corinthians two, nine through 11. This is where he says, I have not seen nor ear hood, ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that loved him.

This to me is prepared to be dazzled. You know, it's, it's an invitation to expand your mind, step deeper in, in fact, that's, that's the phrase, if you look in the notes, there's a quote from Marion G Romney, and he quotes First Corinthians two, nine through 11, and he says, God hath to revealed them to us by his spirit for the spirit searchs, all things, yea

That's what the spirit offers. with the help of the spirit, we have access to the deep things of God. I don't you just loved that phrase. I feel like that's what happens with the disciples in the New Testament, especially Peter, when we get to that part in the New Testament where he says, you know whom say ye that I am?

And Peter says to them, says to the savior that he is the son of God. And he says, and Simon Peter answered, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him and said, blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee but My Father, which is in. This is the deep things of God.

become deeply rooted so that we become unshakable. I love that. There's another one in Alma 5 45. This is that message from Alma about fasting and praying and how that solidified his testimony. So I think that's a piece of discipleship that we have to add in. It's not enough to study. It's not enough to witness these miracles as we read through them.

And then they have an opportunity and a responsibility to nurture it and to be valiant in the testimony of Jesus Christ. And then to share. And this is something we're gonna see over and over again in the New Testament, that people will come to the savior, they'll come and they'll see, they'll witness miraculous things.

They'll see him for who he is, and then their testimony's infectious. You see it with the apostles, you see it with disciples, you people. The word will spread and people will come. And since everything we studied in the Old Testament teaches us that we. We are someone who is designed to be infectious. Our testimonies are going to do incredible things in this latter day world if we allow it to happen, if we let it roll out of us.

that we need to be the kind of friend who will hold a corner . You know, sometimes we're the person on the bed and sometimes we're the one holding the corner, and I think we have to be that in our families, and we have to be that with our friends and our wards and our stakes. We have to be someone who can valiantly hold their corner and let a friend come closer to the savior, to the healing power that the savior offers.

That's the reason we need to be powerful disciples so that we can bring ourselves and others to him. The last point in this area is not so much a scripture reference as it is a link to guide to the scriptures on testimony, and I love the beginning line. It basically says, members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have the sacred opportunity and responsibility to obtain their own testimonies.

In fact, I love what we learned in this last conference from Elder McConkey. He taught about the. the story in the New Testament of the man with palsy and how his friends open up a hole in the roof and they each hold a corner and they let him down in order to access the savior. And the way he described it was all about why we gather, why we need each other so much because.

it wouldn't work if you said one person holding a corner or even two people holding corners. You needed all four. You need that partnership in the community between them. He also talked about sometimes we're the one on the bed and we're the one holding the corner. And part of being in a community of believers is you know that you're gonna take your turn in one of those spots.

I think it applies in award level, but also in a family and in your class, whoever it is you're teaching. I think to be disciples of Christ means we show up for class together. We work together, we struggle in the same ways, and we teach each other what we've learned. We advance together under this great master teacher and we progress in the process.

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The last big area of how to be a better disciple of Christ through the New Testament comes in how to handle questions. So the last area is, what should I do when I have questions? And I just love the way they phrased it. They basically give you three simple tips in the manual. They say, seek understanding from God.

They act in faith and trust that there's more to this than they can see. And then that eternal perspective, it means like even if you lose a preliminary match or if you struggle in practice, all that training and all that discipleship will pay off in the long run. There will be that pivotal moment when you need it, and he will be there.

You'll have the tools you need. So questions aren't a bad thing. Questions actually prompt goodness. In fact, I think the biggest. Example of this comes from Joseph Smith . I mean the whole restoration came because of questions. So I went back to Joseph Smith history and started studying again his words, and I love the way he phrased it cuz all of us deal with moments in the scriptures or just in the gospel where we.

He's wrestling with questions and then he. A pivotal thing. He turns to the source, so he turns to the same book of scripture that we're gonna study this year. He turns to the New Testament and he finds an answer, and this is where he learns from the epistle of James, that if any man lack wisdom, he can ask of God, who will give to all men liberally.

What I love is what you learned a little bit later in 12, he says, never did any passage of scripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. And he talks about how he reflected on it again and again. When you are wrestling with questions and you've turned to the source and you get.

in his lifetime, at least this understanding of, I'm gonna ask God, I'm gonna put this to the test. He, he chooses to experiment upon the word. So if you'd see in 13 at length, I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in darkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, and that is Ask of God.

So remember at the beginning when we were talking about what seek ye and whatever it is you hope to get out of this year of study. I think that's the invitation. Will we trust James or not? Will we come and be a disciple of Christ? Will we come to God and ask what we need? What we seek, and if we will in his way?

Answers come. They came to Joseph Smith in profound ways. His questions opened up all kinds of understanding that came over time. And that blessed generations, right, it changed the course of history. So questions are good. Uh, if you need more tips on this, go listen to sister Dew's, engage in the wrestle and you'll get all kinds of guidance.

One thing I learned from Elder Uchtdorf is he said, asking questions of the Lord is good because oftentimes he will answer questions that you should have asked. Don't you love that answer there? There are sometimes when I come to the Lord, , I call them heliotrope questions. Basically, the reason I called them this is because when Violet was little, she loved the color Heliotrope.

She learned about it from some Pixar movie and she thought it was so exciting, I think just to say it. And so she started to call anything that was pink and anything that was purple or any shade in between. She called them all heliotrope and she would say it over and over again, and I sort of. Pull her back a little bit and say, you know, heliotrope was great.

Sometimes I think that happens with gospel questions too. We tend to come at the Lord with helitrope questions. He trope questions, you know, you'll ask questions like about race in the priesthood and you'll have trouble struggling to get an answer, and often the answer that I get is much more about, you know, what we learned from Nephi where he says that all are alike unto God.

Male and female bond and free black and white, all of those, that's the answer I get when I pray about race in the priesthood because I'm asking a heliotripe question. But before he can gimme that kind of detailed answer, I have to solidly understand pink and purple. Does that make sense? So I think when you have gospel questions that you're wrestling with, try to seek answers that are to the questions maybe you should have asked and President Uchtdorf at the time he promised that you would receive them.

I loved that piece because sometimes I wrestle with questions that I think. I should know this. I should be able to get the answer. And some things I think you simply can't get the answer to because our mortal minds don't think as he thinks. So I loved that piece of his testimony as well. Another good invitation comes from President Nelson in his, you know, his moving mountains talk, and he basically said this, he says, choose to believe.

He said, there are primary questions about the nature of God and of Jesus Christ, and is Joseph Smith a prophet? Those are. Primary questions and then there are all the secondary questions about all the littler details. And he said, coming to understand the secondary questions can never help. You know the primary questions, you have to do it in the other order.

That's the other part of his promise is when you understand the core primary questions clearly and have a testimony of those, then the secondary questions either answer themselves. Or fall away from importance. And so he invites you to seek answers to the primary questions. This, it's the same thing Elder Anderson asked us to do this last conference when he asked us to solidify our testimony on those five big areas.

Remember we had an object lesson about this in the Old Testament, that when we know those five key areas of any testimony, then we can rest easier. We don't have to know a hundred little details. We can testify of what we do know. Primary question ways and let the other things answer themselves or fall out of our minds.

It's gonna be a really good year you guys.

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Welcome back guys. This is the creative preview, so you get to see a quick glance at all three object lessons, and then for those of you in the course, I'll walk you through each one and how to pull them off. The first one is easy. It doesn't really involve any supplies. You're just gonna have a martial arts movie night, so you can pick your favorite martial arts movie, watch it as a family, and we'll talk all about Discipl.

It also involves a printable that I've styled after the martial arts style, and it has a reading log in it so that your kids can keep track of all the reading assignments throughout the year and earn different colored belts in the process. , just trust me, it, it'll all work out. So that's your first one.

The third one is talking about answers to questions. And that great talk from Elder Corbridge where he references like you can't get answers to questions. Finding all the negative answers. And so for this one, you're gonna play a game. You can either play the game of clue that he references in his devotional, or if you happen to have, guess who on hand that works just as well.

So get those supplies on hand and I'll walk you through all the details.

That's it for week zero, you guys. Okay. 52 more weeks to go. This is gonna be a really good year of study, so I hope you're excited.

Throw them at me at on the Instagram live. If you wanna do something in a more private way, just within the course, you can put a question up on the discussion. So for those of you who are new, you can find the discussion boards up at the top right of every video. There's just a little chat icon. Just click it and it will open up a way to connect with me and everybody else in the class.

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