Come, Follow Me Daily Study Guide for the week of March 9-15, 2020 covering Jacob 1-4. For personal and/or family study of the scriptures, geared towards 8 years old and older.
*This is a suggested outline that coincides with the Come, Follow Me manual. There is not just one right way when it comes to studying the scriptures. Everyone should study in a way that is best for them, but I do hope that you find these outlines helpful.
**I highly suggest getting a scripture journal. Throughout the year there will be several times that I will suggest jotting something down in your scripture journal. These are also great for writing down any impressions or “Aha” moments that you might have as you study the scriptures.
***A free PDF DOWNLOAD of the Study Guide is available at the bottom of this post. Making it easy for those who’d like to print out a copy.
****SONGS – For a list of suggested songs for each day of the week, be sure and check out the new blog called Music for Latter-day Life by clicking HERE
FHE DAY
Start the week off right with a Family Home Evening that introduces what you’ll be studying during the week. Sign up for the Teach Me FHE email group and receive an FHE outline delivered right to your inbox every Sunday morning. Sign up at the bottom of this post.
THE LORD DELIGHTS IN CHASTITY
BACKGROUND/SCRIPTURE
Sin has consequences for individuals and for societies. Jacob warns of both types of consequences when he speaks about sexual sin.
READ: Jacob 2: 31-35 and 3:10
MINI LESSON
WATCH VIDEO: I Choose to Be Pure (4:19), click HERE
Jacob speaks of sexual infidelity as the potential destroyer of the Nephite people, we can also apply his warnings to a new threat that causes so much heartbreak today – pornography.
*Pornography is a topic that should be discussed in every home. There are several videos that you could show to start the conversation, here are two video options that you can choose from.
OPTION #1:
WATCH VIDEO: Watch Your Step, (2:36) click HERE
OPTION #2:
WATCH VIDEO: Here are 3 short videos (about 2 min each) that do a great job explaining how pornography affects the brain, the heart, and the world. Click HERE
VIRTUOUS AND CHASTE
I like the words of Marilyn Green Faulkner found in her book The User-Friendly Book of Mormon:
“Virtue and chastity may be out of fashion, but that doesn’t make them old-fashioned. Instead, they are timeless principles of power.
“Recently, a friend who is a Christian pastor asked me about our temple worship service. I mentioned to him that there are five covenants we make every time we go and gave him [an] overview…”Wait a minute,” he said with a chuckle. “By ‘strict virtue and chastity,’ are you saying that every time you go to the temple, you actually promise not to have sex with anyone but your spouse?”
I replied, “Well, you’re a minister. Do you think it would be a good idea for all of your married parishioners, say on a monthly basis, to raise their right hands and swear to be faithful to their spouses?”
The scoffing chuckle died as he gave that some serious thought. Quietly, he replied, “It would be the best thing in the world.”
“The firm decision to be virtuous and chaste is one of the keys to happiness in marriage and peace in life. It is a decision we formally restate each time we go to the temple.”
PONDER & DISCUSS
What are some consequences of not obeying the law of chastity?
In what ways do these consequences affect people individually and as a society?
How have you been blessed by your efforts to be chaste?
How would you teach someone about the importance of chastity?
In your scripture journals, you may write down a statement or declaration of how you will stay morally clean. What are your boundaries? What will you do or not do to be sure you can defeat Satan’s tactics? (Optional: A great video to watch before writing down your statement or declaration is Chastity: What Are the Limits? (3:59) )
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES (optional)
BOOK OF MORMON VIDEO: Jacob Teaches about Pride and Chastity | Jacob 2–3 | Book of Mormon (10:37)
VIDEO OF CONFERENCE TALK: We Believe in Being Chaste (15:47)
VIDEO: Law of Chastity (2:03)
NEW ERA ARTICLE: Yes, You Can: The True Power of Sexual Purity By Charlotte Larcabal
GOSPEL TOPIC: Chastity
THE PURE IN HEART
BACKGROUND
Do you or someone you know struggle due to a family member’s addiction? Or perhaps from divorce or another person’s selfishness and inconsiderate actions?
Jacob, who had been speaking directly to people who were guilty of pride and sexual sins, now turns his attention to righteous people who were experiencing trials because of the wickedness of others.
SCRIPTURE
Jacob comforts the pure in heart with a promise if they will seek the Lord. This promise is available to all who have been betrayed or afflicted.
READ: Jacob 3:1-2
MINI LESSON/PONDER & DISCUSS
ACTIVITY: Using 2 clean pages in your scripture journal, draw a picture of a hand and a heart on each page. On the second page, using a pencil or crayon, scribble on the hand and heart so that they appear to have dirt on them.
Label the first page “Clean Hands and Pure Heart.” Label the second-page “Unclean Hands and Heart”
DISCUSS:
- What does it mean to be pure in heart?
Read Psalm 24:3-4 to help answer this question. Then write your answer on the first page labeled “Clean Hands and Pure Heart.”
2. What blessings did Jacob identify would come to the pure in heart who had been betrayed or afflicted?
Refer back to Jacob 3:1-2 and write these blessings on the first page also.
3. What does it mean to “look unto God with firmness of mind?”
Write this answer on the first page, the following quote may also help you answer this question.
QUOTE: To look to God with “firmness of mind” is to be constant and undeterred in one’s progress toward that life which is like God’s; it is to have undimmed vision of the plans and purposes of the Almighty; to enjoy peace and confidence in the Master as the tespests rage on all sides. To look to God with firmness of mind is to be, as Nephi said, steadfast in Christ (see 2 Nephi 31:19-20)—to pursue an undeviating course. (Millet & McConkie, Doctrinal Commentary on BOM, Vol 2, p. 24)
WATCH VIDEO: My Favorite Scripture – Doris (1:19)
4. What would cause our hands to be unclean to the Lord?
List actions that can make us unclean on the second page labeled “Unclean Hands and Heart”
5. What would cause our hearts to be impure to the Lord?
Write your answers on the second page, be sure to include “bad thoughts and feelings.”
6. Which comes first, bad thoughts or bad actions?
QUOTE BY DALLIN H. OAKS: “To become pure in heart…we must alter our attitudes and priorities to a condition of spirituality, we must control our thoughts, we must reform our motives, and we must perfect our desires.” (Dallin H. Oaks, Pure in Heart, pg. 140)
7. Is it possible to have clean hands but an unpure heart?
QUOTE: Referring to the scripture verses in Psalm 24: 3-4 Elder Bednar said: “…It is possible for us to have clean hands but not have a pure heart. Please notice that both clean hands and a pure heart are required to ascend into the hill of the Lord and to stand in His holy place.”
(Adapted from Scripture Study for Latter-day Saint Families)
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES (optional)
CONFERENCE TALK: Blessed Are All the Pure in Heart by L. Whitney Clayton
CONFERENCE TALK: Clean Hands and a Pure Heart by David A. Bednar
CHURCH WEBSITE: Website for victims of abuse
LOOKING BEYOND THE MARK
BACKGROUND
For the following object lesson, stand by a nearby tree OR show the following picture of a tree.
OBJECT LESSON: Standing near a large tree, ask family members to shake individual branches. Then let them try to shake the trunk.
DISCUSSION:
- Why is it harder to shake the trunk?
- How would you compare your testimony to this tree?
- Is it more like a branch or a trunk?
- Why is it important to have a testimony that cannot be shaken?
WATCH VIDEO: Spiritual Whirlwinds (2:25)
SCRIPTURE/MINI LESSON
READ: Jacob 4: 4-6
What do we need to do in order to have a testimony that cannot be shaken? Who must be our target focus?
READ: Jacob 4: 14
In this verse, Jacob tells us that the spiritual blindness of the Jews caused them to look “beyond the mark” which resulted in their stumbling spiritually and missing many gospel truths.
OBJECT LESSON:
- Get a bucket or sturdy bowl along with a ball
- Take turns tossing a ball into the bucket, standing a short distance away
- Now try tossing the ball into the bucket without looking at the bucket
DISCUSSION:
- Why was it harder to hit the target when we’re not looking at it?
- According to verse 14, how did the Jews look “beyond the mark”?
QUOTE:
Elder Bruce R. McConkie pointed out that Jacob’s teachings with respect to looking beyond the mark applied to the Jews of Jesus’ day:
“They took the plain and simple things of pure religion and added to them a host of their own interpretations; they embellished them with added rites and performances; and they took a happy, joyous way of worship and turned it into a restrictive, curtailing, depressive system of rituals and performances. The living spirit of the Lord’s law became in their hands the dead letter of Jewish ritualism.”
PONDER & DISCUSS
(Taken from March 2020 Ensign)
What is the Mark? How do we avoid “looking beyond the mark?”
“[Some] are blinded because they are ‘looking beyond the mark’ (Jacob 4:14) when the mark is Christ.” (Elder Maxwell “Jesus of Nazareth, Savior and King” Ensign, May 1976)
Elder Quentin L. Cook warned: “We look beyond the mark when we refuse to accept simple gospel truths for what they are.” (“Looking beyond the Mark,” Ensign, Mar. 2003, 42).
What does it mean to look beyond the mark?
In archery, if you want to hit the target, you have to aim for it. Looking beyond the target will cause you to miss. That may be one reason the word sin in the New Testament comes from the Greek word hamartia, which means “missing the mark.”
How do we hit the mark?
“If our primary focus, thoughts, and efforts are centered on increasing our love for Almighty God and extending our hearts to others, we can know that we have found the right target and are aiming at the bull’s eye – becoming true disciples of Jesus Christ.” (Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf “Aiming at the Center” Ensign, Jan 2017, 5.)
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES (optional)
ENSIGN ARTICLE: Looking Beyond the Mark by Elder Quentin L. Cook
GENERAL CONFERENCE DAY
Study a recent General Conference talk. A great way to study a conference talk is to have your own conference issue of the Ensign and a highlighter. Listen to the talk and as you listen, highlight the part(s) that stands out to you. Then after the talk, review and/or share and discuss what you have highlighted.
THIS WEEK’S TALK: Giving Our Spirits Control over Our Bodies By Elder M. Russell Ballard, click HERE
SUMMARY: Nobody escapes death in this life and, when thinking about what comes next, it is easy to question whether or not one is doing everything necessary to be reunited with their loved ones. “Today, ‘living right’ can be a pretty confusing concept,” but members of the Church understand the gospel principles that help them to be better prepared when they die. “It seems clear to me that one of the most important things we can learn in this life is how to emphasize our eternal spiritual nature and control our evil desires.” In coming to earth from the premortal world, all people made the decision to accept Heavenly Father’s plan for their salvation. “Your are — first and foremost and always — a spiritual being. And so when one chooses to put our carnal nature ahead of our spiritual nature, we are choosing something that is contrary to our real, true, authentic, spiritual selves.” Repentance, then, is an indispensable weapon in the battle over one’s self. Through daily repentance, individuals can remind their spirit to remind their bodies who is in charge. “I encourage you to slow down a bit and think about where you are now in subjugating your carnal nature and empowering your divine, spiritual nature, so when the time comes, you may pass into the spirit world to a joyful reunion with your loved ones.”
*For a list of discussion questions that go along with this talk, check out these from Chicken Scratch n Sniff by Clicking HERE
CATCH UP DAYS
Do one of the days that you missed OR any of the additional resources listed.
Yours Truly,
P.S. For more Come, Follow Me resources, check out my post Your Ultimate Guide to Come, Follow Me. It lists over 100 Come, Follow Me resources that are available online starting with the church’s resources at the top. You can find it by clicking HERE.
P.P.S. Sign up here for the Teach Me FHE email group and receive FHE outlines delivered right to your inbox every Sunday morning.
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