Fellowship with God

1.    Read 1 John 1:1–4. Describe in writing John’s desire for those he wrote to. Study the following scripture references and then list what these verses teach about how we can come to know God better and have greater joy and fellowship with God:

- John's desire was for us to have fellowship with him, and really through that have fellowship with the Father and the Son. He wanted us to have this fellowship so that "our joy may be full." 

o       1 John 1:8–10: We must recognize our sin and repent of our actions.
o       1 John 2:3–6:We must keep His commandments and strive to be like Him.
o       1 John 2:9–11; 3:11–19: We must love one another.
o       1 John 2:15–17: We must leave the world and Love the Father.
o       1 John 2:20–21, 27: We must abide in the Father.
o       1 John 3:4–6: We must stay away from sin.
2.    Choose one of the ways to have greater joy and fellowship with God as you described it above, and write a paragraph explaining how you can better implement those principles in your life.

One of the principles above that I find applicable to me right now is that we must  leave the world and love the Father (1 John 2:15-17). Living where I do and working in my field  a lot of the people drawn to this work are people that love the world and are often drawn to making things perverted and unsavory. I am lucky enough to not work on those kinds of projects but it still surrounds me and the lifestyle that they live is one that doesn't draw you closer to Heavenly Father. I think that I need to do a better job of stepping back from always thinking about work and what I need to get done so that I can escape from that world and recharge. I need to be focusing more of my time to drawing closer to God through meaningful scripture study and serving others.

Week 10

1.    Read James 1:19; 3:1–13; 4:11; and the institute student manual commentary for James 3:8, “The Importance of Taming the Tongue” (p. 410). Using these resources, make two lists:

Things We Say That Are Offensive to God	Things We Say That Are Pleasing to God
-Wrath - Offensive - Boasting - Iniquity - Cursing -Lying - Envying - Evil of Others	- Blessings - Good Conversation - Meekness - Wisdom - Rejoicing

2.    Referring to the following chart, read James 4:1–4 and identify four symptoms of people who are friends of the world. Read James 4:7–12 and write a prescription that would help people overcome the “world.” Write your responses in the appropriate column:

Symptoms of Being in the World (James 4:1-4)	Prescription for Being out of the World (James 4:7-12
-Lust - Wars and fightings -Desires to have/kill - Ask unrighteously	- Submit yourself to God - Resist the Devil -  Come closer to God - Cleanse yourself from sin - Purify your hearts - Mourn/ humble yourself - Speak not evil

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Choice Three: Hebrews 13. Works of Righteousness

Paul concluded his epistle to the Hebrews with some brief teachings and statements of counsel. The answers to these questions were found in Hebrews 13:
• How should we treat strangers and those “in bonds”?
 We should treat others that have been afflicted the same way that we would want to be treated. Also we should remember them and I take this to mean that we should offer assistance to them.

• How is marriage looked upon?
 Marriage should not be taken lightly. Commitment in marriage is the number one building block and going outside the marriage is wrong and serious sin. Also, there are things that are sacred to marriage and God cannot tolerate outside of the bounds of marriage.

• What warnings are given about covetousness?
 Coveting is a sin that may not seen serious but that lead to more serious sins. When we desire for something that we should not it is easy to lose sight of what is important and stray for that path of righteousness. So much of our society today id focused in coveting what others have.

• What is “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever”?
 Christ is "the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." I think that this is reference that he lives and is an eternal being. Also believe that this means that his atonement is the same for all and it will continue to be the same because it is his greatest sacrifice.

• How are we sanctified?
 We are sanctified by Christ's "blood"? This means his atonement and the opportunity to be forgiven and grow is a part of being sanctified.

• How do we respond to those who rule over us?
 We should obey those that rule over us. Those that have stewardship over us do so because they want us to be happy. It only adds to their worry when we are disobedient. It;s similar to with Christ's atonement and how we should strive to be our happiest and best self because Christ had atoned for each of our sine and we should strive to make the atonement easier on Him and ourselves by taking advantage of it.

• Who did Paul ask the people to pray for?
Paul asked he people to pray for himself. Paul understood how missionary work can be a scaty place and having the prayers of the people would not only help him but also help them to remember the missionary work. 

Choice 6

Read Hebrews 3:8–4:16 and the institute student manual commentary for Hebrews 3:11, “What Does It Mean to Enter into the ‘Rest’ of the Lord?” (p. 383). Write answers to the following questions:

What group of people was refused entrance into the Lord’s rest?  - The Israelites

What sins caused them to forfeit this privilege?
- The people sinned repeatedly by having their hearts hardened and not being receptive to the Lord and his servants.

How does Doctrine and Covenants 84:23–24 help define what is the Lord’s rest?







- D&C gives the example of Moses and the children of Israel hardening their hearts in the wilderness. Because of the hardness of their hearts they could not enter into his presence and being his rest means having the fulness of God.

What sins did Paul repeatedly warn against so as not to incur the same punishment?
- I think he was warning against the misuse and mistreatment of the priesthood and the people not using the priesthood they had been given so they could not progress. Also, their unbelief and unwillingness to submit.

How do you think the warnings in Hebrews 3:12–15 apply to us?
- I think that these warning definitely apply to us right now. We live in a world of ever worsening morality and a loss of things that we hold dear to us. Once your heart begins to harden the harder it will continue to get and repentance becomes more and more necessary. We should be careful to not stray because it will be that much harder to repent.

List the counsel found in Hebrews 4 that will help a person enter into the rest of the Lord.
- We should first be aware of it and fear not entering into  his rest. That should be a goal of our spiritually. We can find peace by attending our church meetings and listening to God's word. Also being open in dialogue with our heavenly father will help us because he knows us best of all.

How do Matthew 7:21–23; John 7:17; James 1:22 help in understanding how the word needs to be “mixed with faith”? (Hebrews 4:2–3). 
- Matthew talks about how works are what will solidify our faith. John speaks of doing the will of God, and James says we must be doers of the Lord. I think that the mixed with faith means that we need to have the faith to do something about what we hear. 

Baptism in Romans 6

1.    Review Romans 6:1–13 and answer the following questions in writing: 
o       What must be done with sin before baptism can occur?
- We must be "dead unto sin and alive unto God." This means that we need to put our sin away and be baptized in Christ's name and enter into his Gospel and not let sin reign in our mortal body.
 
o       What events from Christ’s life are symbolized in baptism?
- Baptism is a symbolism of Christ's death and his resurrection.  The descent into the water is symbolic of his crucifixion but as we rise out of the water it symbolizes his resurrection just as it does our own. 

o       Considering this symbolism, why couldn’t someone be baptized by sprinkling?
- Baptism by sprinkling doesn't offer the symbolism of death. We must be fully immersed under water to rise up again out of death. With baptism by sprinkling there is nothing to rise out of.

o       What do these verses teach us about how we can maintain the “newness of life”?
- The "newness of life" to me is that feeling of a life clean from sin and immersed in Christ's gospel. We can enjoy this feeling by being pure and without sin through the repentance that we are capable of because of our baptism.

o       According to Mosiah 3:19, what part of us would ideally die at baptism?
- The goal of baptism is the die in the sense of losing your natural man and being resurrected a saint. The natural man is what we are here is this life to overcome and we are only capable of that if we have the help of the spirit and the opportunity to repent.  

2.    Study Romans 6:14–23. Write a paragraph that describes how we know whose servant we are. Then write a statement identifying the true source of freedom.
- I believe we can know whose servant we are by knowing our heart. The verses state that those who are servants of God are servants of righteousness. There is a reward for both being a servant of righteousness and a servant of sin, the reward of sin is death but the reward of the servants of God is eternal life. I know for myself that I am striving for eternal life and to be righteous. People in the world think that by not following a set of morals they are more free but in righteousness we are freed through Christ.