Who's on the Lord's Side? - December 4, 2007

Today we focused on Exodus chapter 32. We looked at what the Lord has said about Idolatry in DC 1:16, and then we read some scriptures in Deuteronomy regarding why the Lord commanded the Israelites to slay all of the inhabitants of the cities they came to - and saw that it was always due to idolatry. Going back into Exodus 34 and 32, we read the story of the golden calf, and we discussed Christs' relationship to the church as the Bridegroom. Within this context, we looked at Ex. 34 and read some verses about Israel going 'a whoring' after these other Gods.
We read some excerpts from a talk by Spencer W. Kimball regarding following other Gods, and discussed it in our lives. Two things I really liked from this talk were 1. He pointed out that most of the reasons people turn to other gods is due to the effort of the exercise of faith required. Many people don't have the patience or the faith, and so they turn to carnal false gods instead. The second thing that really impressed me was his discussion of wealth and the gods we pursue. He talked about a young man giving up going on a mission because he really loved his car. In the end, the car is just a composite of steel and rubber, which gave maybe some momentary satisfaction, but only the allusion of going somewhere. Whereas on a mission, he would have been exercising the blessings and promises given through the oath and covenant of the priesthood - which include the power to create worlds, move seas and mountains and more importantly - ALL that the Father hath. Pretty amazing to think that we are so short sighted and focus so much on the here and now and don't have the patience to exercise our faith so that we can receive the things to come.
We used some game show methods within this lesson - thanks to all who showed up and participated.
The assigned reading is Exodus 33 - 40.
Tomorrow we will finish up some final discussion of todays lesson as well as celebrate Hanukkah with some latkes and discuss the historical importance of this holiday to the Jewish people. We will also hold our first gerah auction tomorrow.