Realizations Upon Reading

Mary and Elisabeth-  © 2015 by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.

Mary, Elisabeth and the Line of David

The Gospel According to St Matthew starts with the genealogy from Abraham through Joseph. These are names of people whose stories are in the bible and we know their stories. A few stories in here stand out to me, the first is the realization after reading this chapter many times over the years that this is the line of Joseph. It is a amazing line going back to Abraham, and while Joseph is not blood related to Jesus he is still his father. He raised Jesus, taught him his trade.  Reading this genealogy also made me wonder about Mary's line I don't recall that Marys line was ever discussed but I would hazard a guess that to be married to Joseph her line goes back to Abraham as well.  We know from Luke that Mary and Elisabeth were cousins, hence John the Baptist was a cousin of Jesus. There are great lessons in obedience and faith that we can discuss involving Mary, Joseph, Elisabeth and Zacharias.  Zacharias is especially interesting in his crisis of faith after speaking directly to the angel Gabriel! 

All Things Work to the Glory of God

As interesting as the discussion of Zacharias and faith is, a second realization occurred to me while reading the genealogy of Joseph, and its the thought that has consumed me since reading it.

Matthew 1:6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;

We have all heard this story - David saw Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11) became enamored of her, lies with her, and arranges for her husband to be killed in battle. The child of this union is King Solomon who built the Temple, who is known as the wisest king, who furthered the line and went down to Joseph. 

The scriptures don't tell us a whole lot about Mary and Joseph, but this line (Matt 1:19) is so telling the more you think of it 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.

Joseph would be within his legal rights to take this public, to state how he had been wronged by his bride to be. But even before the angel appeared to him he was noted as a just man and did not want to take the issue public, after the angel appeared to him he took Mary as his wife, and knew her not until she gave birth. Then he raised that child as his own.

Our Heavenly Father took Davids sins of adultery, lust, and murder and used them to bring forth King Solomon, the Temple of Jerusalem, and the man who raised the Son of God as his own. To me that is proof of all things working to the glory of God.

It was only a four year hiatus...

New Year- New Start

According to my published posts the last time I actually posted anything was May 2015. Well, its been a while - I didn't forget but also didn't get any writing or posting done. Let's start again and see where we go from here.

We are Responsible For Our Own Learning

This year my Church as started a new learning program - well, perhaps not so new as a shift in emphasis. For those of you who followed me through what I posted while an online student at BYU-Idaho (Graduated!!)

You may remember that BYU (on all campuses) follows something called Disciple Leadership along with the honor code. As a student, as a member of the Church and as a responsible person you are responsible for your own learning, your own actions, your own walk with Christ and your own life.  That doesn't mean that you are not going to learn from teachers, but it does mean that how much and how well you learn is up to you.  You are also encourage to not only learn from your peers but to teach your peers. It is a great way to learn lifetime learning skills and to carry them into the real world.

The Church as taken that and applied it to our weekly church schedule.  Our new books are entitled Come Follow Me and it lays out the lessons for the entire year and it is our job as members to read and study before church and to be ready to discuss during Sunday School, Relief Society, Priesthood or Primary (whichever group you are in). It think its a great way to reinforce the fact that we are suppose to be studying the scriptures on our own, it helps focus the discussion in class because its not the first time seeing the material and really allows for in home discussions about the material because we are all doing the same lessons!

This year we are studying the New Testament. I am making it my goal to post every week, because of our church schedule along with the New Testament you will see posts about our Relief Society talks, possibly Primary class tie ins.

I want to extend the invitation to anyone who wants to study as well- here is the online link for Come Follow Me  I hope some of you will follow along.  Finally, of course I will discuss LIFE. This is a blog about Life, and my life also includes family, hobbies, cooking, activities and all the normal stuff.

Once again, sorry about the long break, as we go along I'll try and catch you up with what happened over the last 4 years- its allot :)