My Goodness:  Mom is going to make two posts in one month!  Hold on to your hats!  Here it comes!

Teaching Judges in Seminary next week.  In Judges 2, the Lord lists the pagan God's that the Canaanites worship and tempt the Israelites to worship.  So I thought I better look them up and know some background concerning the "great" Baalim.  Wow!  What you can learn from Wikipedia! (along with the Bible dictionary)
Baal is basically a Phoenician God.  He is worshipped by all the "ites" in the area but with their own spin on it and at times with other names.  He is identified as Zeus among the Greeks.  Now who was Zeus?  How did he become the head honcho of the Gods.  Killed his "evil" dad, right.   Just think about that for a moment.

Baal (the more common use of the name), was the king of the Gods who ruled over the Gods of Heaven.  (Okay, I see the Zeus similarity).  In Canaan he was also known as Hadad and was the son of...wait for it...EL!

Now doesn't that put a whole different spin on these stories of the "Gods" of the ancients.  Satan, the great counterfeiter, spreads his version of what should have happened in the pre-existence.  In his version, the Son does get the Father's glory and saves all of mankind from the fathers tyranny.

Oh, there are many things that made the worship of false Gods despicable in the eyes of Jehovah.  But this must have been the most.  Satan changes the story so that he is the winner.  No wonder Zeus and the Gods had such carnal appetites.  That was who they were, the epitome of  carnal world.

Well, hope you enjoyed my little wikipedia find today. 

A New Years Resolution

I want to study the gospel more efficiently and more.  I don't know if I have been more efficient this morning.  I read a page and a paragraph of preach my gospel in 2 hours.

It was an amazing experience though.  You know how when you read about a doctrine, you might think, "Oh yeah, there is a great scripture that goes with that.  Let's see, I think it is somewhere in 2 Nephi, or is it Timothy?  Might be section 31 or maybe in Abraham."  In other words, you have no idea where it is, you just know it exists and it says something like....

Well this morning I made myself find the scriptures of which I was thinking.  It was amazing.  I also made a place in the back of my scriptures to jot them down and to organize them.

The section I read of Preach My Gospel was "Introduction: How Can I Best Use Preach My Gospel?" Like I said, I read just one page. 

The lesson that hit me the hardest was in the second section entitled "The Missionary Lessons." 

Rarely should a lesson go over 45 minutes. 

I was so impressed with this that I wrote William about it.  I know from experience, that the Spirit stops testifying somewhere around 46 minutes. But I can keep going anyway.  There is an old saying in entertainment and business, "Always leave the people wanting more."  I cringe when I look back on my mission and realize how often I tried to teach, not line upon line, but novel upon novel. 

Short and Sweet.  That needs to be my motto.  I think that needs to be everyones motto.  I don't mind getting out of church early. 

I thought of two chapters of the scriptures that went along with this section.  First 3 Nephi 27 and especially verse 21.  Jesus says his gospel shows us what we need to do and that includes what we have seen him do.  Then in 2 Nephi 31 it tells us what Jesus did.  I read 2 Nephi 31 outloud and even did a few markings to see how long it took Nephi to explain the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  6 minutes! 

Short and Sweet and to the point.