12/8/13 Review

Important Dates
-Dec 11: Sewing Missionary Christmas bags at the church, 10am 
          (bring your sewing machine if you have one)
-Dec 14: Putting together Christmas bags for the missionaries, 11am
-Dec 15: Marvin Goldstein music program 7pm at Thomasville Rd Bldg
          (Please bring about 2 dozen cookies if you sign up, or bring some even if you didn't                sign up but are in the mood for some baking)
-Dec 21: Ward Christmas Activity 7pm
-Dec 28: Ward Temple Trip (this trip is for all ages)
-Dec 29: Family History Seminar during Sunday School & RS
       *All members are encouraged to have their LDS account information to make things               quicker during the presentation
-Jan 4: YM/YW Holiday Social/Dance
-Jan 5: Church time changes to 9am
-Jan 11: Temple Bus $27.50 each seat, talk to Bishop for more details

Lesson Review
Lorenzo Snow – Chapter 23: The Prophet Joseph Smith

President Snow personal knew Joseph Smith.  He “visited with him and his family, sat at his table and associated with him under various circumstance s, and had private interviews with him for counsel.”  He told of a meeting Joseph Smith attended in the partially constructed Nauvoo Temple.  The Prophet walked to the stand, accompanied by a minister of another faith.  President Snow describes the minister as “intensely solemn,” and continues to tell of the event by saying, “When anything that was said that created merriment or laughter among the people, [he] remained perfectly quiet, not even showing the least change of countenance.” In contract, Joseph Smith made a humorous comment before the meeting began. “President Smith got up, and I never heard him speak with more power than on this occasion.  The people were delighted, he was filled with the Spirit of God and spoke with great force and eloquence.”

What does this tell us about Joseph Smith?  What does this tell us is expected of us?

What are some of the qualities of Joseph Smith?  Poor, uneducated, honest, full of integrity, unacquainted with the trickery, he felt incompetent and unqualified like Moses of old, powerful, filled with the spirit, sincere, humble, a man devoted to the interests of humanity and to the requirements of God, generous, benevolent, loyal, of good character, faithful.

President Snow said:

“I knew Joseph Smith to be an honest man, a man of truth, honor and fidelity, willing to sacrifice everything he possessed, even life itself, as a testimony to the heavens and the world that he had borne the truth to the human family.

I knew him to be a man of God, full of the spirit of his calling – a man whose integrity could not be disputed, and who was honest in all his endeavors.  No one that was as intimately acquainted with him as I was could find any fault with him, so far as his moral character was concerned….I bear testimony of the good character of Brother Joseph Smith, of his honesty, his fidelity, his faithfulness, his generosity and benevolence, as a man and as a servant of God.”

How can we use Joseph Smith’s example as we seek to grow spiritually?

President Snow further said:

What is the nature of our testimony? It is this: That this is the dispensation of the fulness of times; that the angel that John the Revelator saw flying through the midst of heaven having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred and tongue and people—that that angel has made his appearance and restored the Gospel to the earth, Joseph Smith being the instrument through which the restoration was effected [seeRevelation 14:6].¹⁴

Joseph Smith affirmed that Peter, James and John visited him, and conferred on him authority to administer the holy ordinances of the Gospel through which every honest-hearted man and woman were promised the Holy Ghost, and a perfect knowledge of the doctrine.¹⁵

Joseph Smith was authorized to open up a channel and lay down a plan through which man could receive a knowledge of these things, so that we might not be left to depend upon the testimony of the Prophets, or the testimony of the ancient Apostles, or to the testimony of the Apostles of the present day, or to theBook of Mormon, or to anything that was done or said in the past, but that we might know for ourselves. It is an individual knowledge.¹⁶

In the integrity of my heart, with honesty of purpose to know the truth, I received [Joseph Smith’s] message—I obeyed this form of doctrine, and I received, in the most tangible and satisfactory manner, a divine manifestation—the promised blessing—a knowledge of this work. Am I the only witness? How is it with the experience of thousands whom I now address? Are you also witnesses?¹³

Question to ponder:  Are we also witnesses of the prophet Joseph Smith?

Next Week (12/15/13): Lorenzo Snow Chapter 24 found HERE