FSY-Truth Will Make You Free-Learning More About Scripture Study

This discussion will be such an important one. You have the opportunity to teach your youth a skill. A practice-that they will use the rest of their lives.  How to find truth-and how to find it with God’s help.  There are some truths that do not matter much in the long run, like that fact that it is perfectly fine to listen to Christmas music in November!  But there are othertruths that do matter like Jesus Christ is our strength! This is a truth that we want our youth to go back to again and again.  Just like Nephi reminding himself that God loves His children-even when he didn’t understand everything.  This is what we want for our youth as well, they might not understand everything-but if they know this truth-if it burns in their hearts-that Jesus Christ is their strength—that knowledge will be a foundation to them while they wrestle with their questions!

In Daniel 1:1 we read, “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, King of Judah, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon untoJerusalem, and besieged it.”Daniel experienced a physical siege in his day. Hewas eventually carried away from his homeland, captive into Babylon. What happens when everything that defines you is taken away? Your home, your culture, your freedom, even your own name. For Daniel this wasn’t a hypothetical question. It was his reality.Centuries after Daniel lived, a psychiatrist and Holocaustsurvivor named Viktor Frankl walked out of the Nazi concentration camps and wrote a masterpiece called Man’s Search for Meaning. An idea oftenattributed to Frankl, and popularized by Stephen Covey, goes like this: “Between stimulus and response there is a space, and in that space lies our power to choose our response.”Daniel’s power did not come from sheer willpower.   Danielchose to fill that space Victor Frankl spoke of with the assurance of God’s promises.  His power came because he trustedthe one who was writing his story.Elder D. Todd Christofferson gave a talk entitled, “The Power ofCovenants,” in April 2009. “We need strong Christians who can persevere against hardship, who can sustain hope through tragedy, who can lift others by their example and their compassion, and who can consistently overcome temptations. We need strong Christians who can make important things happen with their faith.  What is the source of suchmoral and spiritual power? And how do we obtain it? The source is God.  Our access to that power is through our covenants with Him.”Today we are being given an ultimate masterclass in spiritual resilience from Daniel and his friends. We’re exploring how Daniel found holy space even when he was surrounded by Babylon, and how he maintained his devotion to God while under a siege of cultural assimilation.   Daniel teaches us that anchoring our lives to Christ, through covenant, gives us the power to choose, no matter how oppressive our circumstances feel.

If you’re a teacher preparing this week’s FSY lesson, welcome! This week’s chapter is chapter 11 ‘Truth Will Make You Free,’ and our focus is learning more aboutstudying the scriptures. Today I’m going to walk you through some ice breaker questions to start your class, what we learn about the importance of scripture from Lehi and Nephi, and an invitation for your youth that will help them take truth into the rest of their lives instead of just leaving it in the church classroom. Take what works for your class and make it your own.

This week in Come Follow Me we're in Ezekiel.  And I'll be honest: Ezekiel can feel like a lot. Wheels within wheels, eyes on wheels, strange creatures, a valley of bones. This is some really bizarre stuff!  But underneath all the imagery is a very tender message from a God who refuses to leave His people alone.Today I want to walk through three things. First, prophets as watchmen. Second, our responsibility as shepherds in Israel. And third, the healing power of the temple. We are going to see a who God warns His people, gathers His people, and then He heals His people.

Welcome to another episode of He Is Our Story-FSY edition!  It’s a new month which means a new chapter inthe FSY guidebook!  Chapter 11-Truth willmake you free! I am so excited to spend a month learning and understanding more about truth.  We are not just talkingabout honesty here.  We are talking aboutthe precious ability to seek, value, and defend truth.  Truth is a loaded topic in the day we live. Thinkabout what a teenager scrolls through before they even eat breakfast, they have watched a video from someone they've never met, claiming to have the answer toeverything. They’ve seen a post with ten thousand likes. A clip that looks completely real but was made by AI. A friend's opinion, a celebrity's opinion, and an algorithm that quietly learns what they already agree with and servesthem more of it all day!Never before has so much information been so easy to find and never has it been so hard to know what we can trust to be true.  The world is also full of messages like"just follow your heart" and "live your truth," which soundkind but quietly suggest that truth is whatever feels right to me. That's a very different idea from what the Lord teaches.In Doctrine and Covenants 93:24, we get the Lord’s definition of truth: "Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come." Truth isn’t determined by what is popular and it doesn't change just because someone doesn't believe it anymore.  Our job isn't to create truth. Our job is to seek truth by learning and by faith.

Have you ever had to tear something down beforeyou could build it back up? Home renovations are usually like that!  There is typically a good amount of destruction in a remodel before you begin to re-build! I have seen this in myyard!  Sometimes I have to literally dig roots out and cut down the plants or weeds I don’t want before I can plant theones I do! If you understand this concept than you have a basic understanding of what the Lord was asking Jeremiah to do when He called him to be a prophet!We get the answer to that question in Jeremiah31:4-5 we read, “Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built.”  “Thou shalt plant vines…The planters shall plant.” And then in verse 28 “And it shall come to pass, that like as I havewatched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build and to plant, saith the Lord.” But how does this happen?  We know what it takes to re-build a room or re-landscape a yard.  But how do youre-build a life? And maybe even more importantly how do you create a meaningful, hope filled life in the midst of it being torn down? Is it possible to experience hope and distress at the same time? These are just some of the questions Jeremiah is going to answer for us today!

Welcome to another episode of He Is Our Story-FSYEdition!  We are closing out the month ofOctober. Finishing up FSY chapter 10-Our Body is Sacred.  For both the young women and young men thiscoming Sunday is a focus on becoming a covenant daughter or son of God by practicing humility and virtue. The young women will be studying D&C 25 and Proverbs 31.  The young men will bestudying the stripling warriors in Alma 53 and 56. Each will be asked to read the scriptures looking for attributes that lead to virtue and truth. And I was watching another podcast, and Grace Feeman made an observation I hadn’t noticedbefore.  She pointed out that both of these scripture accounts developed from a mother’s teachings.  In Proverbs 31:1 we read, “The words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.” And we all know the famous line from the stripling warrior story.  In Alma 56 we read, “Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; yea, they had been taught by their mothers,that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.  And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it.”Some principles you can learn through reading andstudying books-but some principles are better taught by studying people.  And in both of these scripture examples, itwas through the example of a righteous mother that the character traits of virtue and truth were taught.  And yes, Iam sure these mothers sat down and taught their children about Jesus Christ and prophets and how to live a good life.  Butwhen these mothers were done with their official lesson, they went out and showed their children what it looked like to live a good life, to believe in Jesus Christ, and to follow the prophet.  Their lives were the lesson!

Have you ever been asked by the Lord to dosomething you felt completely unqualified to do? Maybe it was a calling, a mission, mending a relationship. You looked at the task and just knew there were so many people who were far more able and more willing than you.  Despite your hesitancy you responded like Nephi-“I will go and do!”   You moved forward trusting that as you obeyed the Lord would provide blessings.  But instead, life got harder.  He promised to be with you, and now it feels life feels worse than before.  If our story looks like this does it mean God hasforsaken us? Does it mean He does not keep His promises?  In the Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis imagines a devil admitting that his side is in the most danger when a person who no longer feels like obeying God, but still intends to, looks around, and sees no trace of God, asks why he has beenforsaken, but then obeys anyway. Obedience when you feel forsaken.  Is that what some mockingly call “blind faith”?  Or could it possibly be one of the highest forms of discipleship?Today we are going to let Jeremiah teach us theanswer to this question!

"Lately it feels like you can't open a news app without seeing the same question: Is AI becoming too powerful? Some people are excited. Some are nervous. But almost everyone isasking the same follow-up: Who is responsible for setting the limits? The companies that built it? Governments? The people using it?Despite all the different opinions, you won't find anyone suggesting that we just let everyone do whatever theywant with AI and hope it all works out! And that is because we all understand that when something is powerful, it needs safeguards. The more powerful it is, the more important those safeguards become.Now let me take that question somewhere you might not expect. There is a power far greater than any softwarethat every one of us carries. It's the power to create life. Not to simulate it or imitate it, but to actually bring a human being into the world, with a body, a spirit, and an eternal future.Here's what I want us to think abouttoday: We can't agree on who should set the limits for AI. But we've never had to wonder who has set the limits for the power to create life. It was neverours to decide. It was a gift, and the Giver told us how to use it.He didn't just hand it to us and walkaway. He gave it with purpose and with boundaries, and I want to suggest that the boundaries aren't there to take something from us. They're there because Heknows exactly how powerful it is, and exactly how much He loves the people it affects.

We have had a week to sit with the messages from this most recent General Conference.  And this week, as the titles for each of the talks was released, I tried to find a theme, a common principle weaving throughout, if not all, at least most of them.  I heard sermons about Tithing, Fasting, Loving One another, using the language of peacemakers, leaving theworld behind, the power of covenants-there were two talks entitled “A Child of God.” I began to think the theme might be “back to basics!”  And then the title of Elder Renlunds talk jumped out at me.  “How long Will it be, Ere They Believe Me?”  The title wasa question! It was a question that the Lord asked Moses when the children of Israel were complaining about life in the wilderness.  Life outside of Egypt was hard.  They questioned Moses and they questioned the Lord.  Did either one of them know what they were doing?  This was after the people had seen the miraculous Passover in Egypt.  When the first born sons in all of Egypt died if their house was not marked by the blood of the Lamb.  This was after theywitnessed the parting of the Red Sea.  This was after they saw fire reign down on Mt Sinai, and after the miracle of Manna, and water from a rock. How long would it be before theybelieved the Lord would bless and prosper them? Have we seen miracles come from paying our tithing?  Have we seen miracles borne out of fasting?  Do weremember our diving identity as Children of God?  Have we experienced the peace that comes into our lives as we avoid contention and seek to love one another? Do we rememberthe times we have experienced the protection, blessings and inspiration that come from attending the House of the Lord? Like the ancient House of Israel, we have had miraculous experiences with the Divine, and yet, we still findourselves crying out, “Why is this happening to me?”  “Has the Lord forgotten me?”  “Where are the blessings from myobedience?”  Can you hear the Lord asking us the same question He asked Moses?  “How long will it be before you believe me?”  So, for me anyway, that was the theme of conference.  It was aninvitation to remember the places I have been with God, and an opportunity to focus and trust in the promised blessings that have been made to me from God.  This week as we finish up Isaiah, we are going to be reminded what true worship looks like, what life looks lifewhen we separate ourselves from God, the promises given to those in a covenant relationship with Jehovah.  And we aregoing to be given a glimpse of the joy that awaits those we have kept their covenants with God.  Then we are left to answer for ourselves Jehovah’s question-“How long will it be before you believe me?”