We are pleased to share some lovely news from the Periera Family - Carina had a little baby girl last night called Megan. Congratulations to all the family !!
Our next RS Activity will be our traditional August Fish and Chip night on Wed August 20th. We will meet outside the Leisure Centre as usual at 7.30pm. If anyone needs transport from Ipswich please speak to Sara, Miriam or Yvonne.
FYI we are this week losing one set of our Elders. Please keep feeding our 4 remaining missionaries who appreciate your support greatly.
A reminder that the Family History Centre is open on the 2nd Sunday each month - please speak to Alison Pentreath if you would like to come in and receive some help.
Please can we have your VT figures for July ASAP if you have not already passed these to your VT supervisors.
Sister Pam Talbot-Ashby has a large crop of blackberries at the bottom of her garden if any sisters would be interested in picking some, please contact her.
Lesson:
Our lesson today was given by Sara - who posed the question, what would you love your relationship with your Father in Heaven to be like?
Suggestions from the Sisters included: Loving and Kind / Encompassing love / Personal / Close / Understanding / Friend / Honest / Faithful / Strengthening / Two Way / Protective and Safe / Grateful
Sara made the proposal that to have this kind of relationship with the Lord there is one thing we need to be doing right in our lives, which we may not think of automatically. That is observing the Sabbath Day. Since the recent Sacrament Meeting on this topic Sara has studied the subject and found some wonderful insights on the difference this one thing can make.
We watched the following video by Brother John Bytheway a wonderful and popular youth speaker in the church:
CLICK HERE
We discussed the idea of the Sabbath being viewed and treated differently from Holy Sabbath - Sabbath - Sunday - Weekend and began to think about how WE treated it. Not with the words we use so much as with the attitude and actions we bring to it, remembering in particular that the Sabbath is far more than the three hours we spend at church each Sunday.
The Sabbath was instituted on the earth right from the Creation and throughout the Bible we see the Lord consistently asking his children to live this law, to observe His day. And we decided we wanted to know why it was so important. If we could understand WHY, it becomes so much easier to live the law.
We turned to a scripture in D&C 59:9 where the Lord continued to exhort his children in the latter-days to observe the Sabbath Day - where he told us why. We need to keep unspotted from the world. So what does that have to do with our relationship with the Lord? Sister Sheri L Dew summed it up perfectly in one sentence:
Coming unto Christ means walking away from the world. It means placing the Lord at the centre of our lives.
THAT is what the Sabbath allows us to do. To walk away from the temptations of the world and remember and move toward what it is all about - the Lord. It is that choosing and deciding which enables us to become the people that will be close to the Lord both here and in the eternities.
We compared two quotes - we have a choice!!!
Elder Bruce R McConkie: "It is in no sense an exaggeration, nor does it overstate the fact one wit, to say that any persons who keeps the Sabbath according to the revealed pattern will be saved in the Celestial Kingdom."
President Joseph F Smith: "Persons who habitually desecrate the Lord's day and do not remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, will become weak in the faith and spiritually sickly and will lose the Spirit and favour of God and ultimately forfeit their standing in the Church and their exaltation."
Back to the video we learnt of Eli Herring, who was an amazing American football player who was offered millions of dollars to play in a top team but turned it down as he didn't want to play on the Sabbath.
What became of Eli Herring? He went on a mission, married in the temple and became a teacher - earning a lot, lot, lot less than millions of dollars. And did he regret the decision? Not a bit!
But what was even more impressive is how he became the man who could turn down the world in favour of the Lord. When a little boy he liked to creep into the spare room on a Sunday and watch football on TV. One day his father caught him, Eli panicked expecting anger. But his father wasn't angry, he was disappointed. He said Eli turn it off. Eli did and never watched Sunday football again.
His father (the one who spoke of the Holy Sabbath - Sabbath - Sunday - Weekend) taught his family in his everyday life he was one who believed in the Holy Sabbath. He knew and loved the Lord. And by making those choices and being that example his children became men who could knew and loved the Lord too.
By observing the Sabbath Day we are allowing ourselves to have the relationship with the Lord we desire but more than that we are allowing our children and our families that relationship too. That's what Sara learnt about the Sabbath day. What did you learn? And what difference will it make to you and your family?
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