The Sermon on the Mount teachings principles which have many applications in the lives of young people.  Matthew 5 outlines 4 important ideals that we examined in class.  They are: 1.  Adultery & Divorce 2.  Honesty 3.  Retaliation & Violence 4.  How to deal with your adversary In each instance,Continue Reading

Matthew 4 deals with the conflict between Satan and the Savior.  A great question to ask in the beginning of class is, “How can I be strong when temptation comes?” After some time to reflect and write their responses, (hopefully) a class discussion will result.  I had students write aContinue Reading

I had a great conversation yesterday amongst my colleagues.  We were discussing what wisdom means when we looked at a scripture that I have read many times before, but this time I saw it in a whole new light. Alma 48:11 reads, “And Moroni was a strong and a mightyContinue Reading

I recently taught the war chapters (Alma 43-63) in Gospel Doctrine in my ward, and as I prepared, I thought how these chapters parallel our day.  We live in a time when it is difficult to discern between truth and error.  There are forces at work attempting to eradicate aContinue Reading

1 Behold, I will asend my bmessenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly ccome to his dtemple, even the emessenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.  But who may aabide theContinue Reading

Hosea’s name means “deliverance” or “salvation” and is connected on a basic level with the names Joshua and Jesus.  Hosea was a prophet at the time of King Jeroboam II, who died in 746 BC. His ministry may well have continued until the loss of the Northern Kingdom in 721Continue Reading

The book of Jonah is a wonderful message of forgiveness and grace.  Jonah is called by the Lord to preach repentance to a hardened people, a people that he does not feel are worthy of being saved.  In Jonah’s estimation, the people of Nineveh are so hardened, so unworthy ofContinue Reading

From Ezekiel 34 to the end of his book, Ezekiel focuses on the latter days, emphasizing events far in the future, removed from his world of 600 B.C.  His focus narrows on the restoration of the house of Israel both physically and spiritually, the reunion of the kingdoms of JudahContinue Reading

Ezekiel’s vision of the Lord is not unlike the vision John has in Revelation 4.  Both men see God on his throne, surrounded by heavenly attendants.  Both men describe lightning, brilliant light, creatures unknown to man, and a brilliant rainbow in the midst of the heavenly vision. We spent timeContinue Reading

I found the following seminary teaching advice from Joe Spencer to be quite valuable and wanted to post a piece of it here.  I agree that “the process of learning—and so the process of teaching—is the process of moving from immediate answers to unanswerable questions, from supposed knowledge to recognizedContinue Reading