Today members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints started the new Sunday schedule of worship and a new curriculum of study.
The three-hour block that began in 1980 was shortened to two hours; one hour
for sacrament meeting and fifty minutes for Sunday School and other priesthood
and auxiliary lessons. The new curriculum titled “Come Follow Me” will be used
for all Sunday School, Primary, Young Men and Women classes, as well as
priesthood and relief society instruction.
Elder Cook in his October General Conference address
that explained the changes were more than shortening the Sunday meeting times, but
included four purposes for the changes:
1.
Deepening
conversion to Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthening faith
in Them.
2.
Strengthening
individuals and families through home-centered, Church-supported curriculum
that contributes to joyful gospel living.
3.
Honoring
the Sabbath day, with a focus on the ordinance of the sacrament.
4.
Helping
all of Heavenly Father’s children on both sides of the veil through missionary
work and receiving ordinances and covenants and blessings of the temple.
As member of The Church we can come closer to the
Savior Jesus Christ by improving our individual and family gospel study program
and improving our Sabbath worship. The Church’s role in the salvation of its
members is more of a supportive role and places the major responsibility on
families and individuals.
This week my wife and I continued to have scripture
study together by reading the Book of Mormon. For our individual scripture
study program, we are now reading the “Come Follow Me for Individuals and
Families” lessons. Today when we came home from our Sunday meetings, we discussed
what we had learned from our individual study. It was a fun experience to be
able to discuss the scriptures we read during the week on our own and the
impressions we had received, and I know if we continue to do this each week our
testimony and understanding of the scriptures will deepen and our love for
Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will increase.
When the rich young man came to Jesus and asked what
he needed to do to have eternal life, Jesus to him that he should keep the
commandments and then the young man said he had done that all his life. The
young man then asked, “what lack I yet?” Jesus told him to sell all he had and
then “come, follow me” (Luke
8:22). We have all been given the same invitation to come follow Jesus Christ.
We may not have to sell all we have, but we each have something that we
consider as precious as the young man’s wealth that we must be willing to “sell”.
Are we willing to sell whatever it is that is keeping us from coming closer to
the Savior or will we go a way sorrowing because we are not willing to sacrifice
our ‘wealth”?
My wife and I are excited about these changes and the
opportunity to accept the invitation to come follow our Savior. As we increase
our personal and family gospel study it will bring us closer to the Savior and
at the same time, we will grow closer as a couple.
Your comments and questions are welcome.
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