Show Notes for Episode 29, final episode of the Teach Me to Walk in the Light Podcast. If earth life was a cruise ship, Christ would be the captain but what would we be? Learn the meaning of captain, birthright and our role on the ship using stories taken from Brad Wilcox’s latest book. Includes FHE suggestion. This episode goes along with the Come, Follow Me – for Individuals and Families for the week of November 4 – 10.
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**This Episode goes along with the Come, Follow Me – For Individuals and Families for the week of November 4 – 10.**
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PERSONAL STUDY
NOTE: This is the final episode…at least for now 😉 I am changing gears and putting my time towards a new focus for 2020. Starting January 2020 you will be able to access a daily Come Follow Me study guide here on Melanie’s Library. A study guide geared towards families with teenagers, singles, empty nesters, or for your own personal study.
Thanks for being a listener of my podcast! I hope you’ll join me on this new journey in January 2020. In the meantime, be sure and check out some of the many other Come, Follow Me podcasts. All of them are fantastic!
1. Hebrews 2:9-10
2. Definition of a sea captain:
The captain is ultimately responsible, under the law, for aspects of operation such as the safe navigation of the ship, its cleanliness and seaworthiness, safe handling of all cargo, management of all personnel, inventory of ship’s cash and stores, and maintaining the ship’s certificates and documentation.
3. Christ is our captain… He is the captain for us and our salvation – leading and guiding us back home.
4. If earth life was like being on a cruise ship, Christ would be our captain but what are we?
5. Born to Change the World by Brad Wilcox
Wilcox pg 4,5
If we look up birthright in the Bible Dictionary, we are directed to see “Firstborn.” Under that heading we learn, “In the patriarchal order, the firstborn son is the heir and inherits the leadership of the family upon the death of the father. This is often spoke of in the scriptures as birthright (Gen 43:33). Under the law of Moses, the firstborn son was regarded as belonging to God…The eldest son received a double portion of his father’s possessions (Deut. 21:17); and after his father’s death, he was responsible for the care of the mother and sisters.”
He goes on to explain by saying…
Imagine a wealthy family in Old Testament times: father, mother, four sons, and three daughters. Who gets the money when Dad dies? Most would point to the firstborn son, but that’s just partly right. If Dad has four sons, his estate is divided into five equal shares. All the sons receive a portion, but the eldest, who has the birthright, receives two- a double portion. The three younger brothers leave with their portions, but the eldest doesn’t go anywhere because with his extra portion comes added responsibility. He is expected to care for his mother and provide dowries so his sisters can be properly married. Even after his mother and sisters are gone, he will stay to govern the affairs of his father’s estate. Of course, he will marry and have his own family, but he will spend the rest of his life fulfilling his birthright responsibilities.
Today we do not live in the same way as Old Testament families, but members of the Church have a similar birthright. We have received an “extra portion” temporally and spiritually. It has nothing to do with our birth order in our earthly families or our gender, as it did anciently. It has everything to do with our place in God’s eternal family because of the choices we made before we came to earth and the choices we are expected to make now that we are here.
6. He goes on to talk about how blessed we are temporally just be living in the United States. One change of shoes puts us among the most privileged people on this planet. Having the ability to read puts us in an even more elite group. We are living in the promised land. Spend a week or two in another country, even a third world country and see how blessed you are to live where you live with the opportunities that you have. We are also blessed with having the gospel in our lives. Something that has been a part of our lives since we were in primary for most of us. We’ve had the privilege to being baptized and becoming members of God’s kingdom. We have temples that we can visit whenever we want. We are very blessed, both temporarily and spiritually. That is our double portion. We are of noble birthright and with that comes added responsibility.
7. Wilcox pg 51
Our mortal experience could be compared to God sending all of His children on a cruise ship from one shore to another. The journey is filled with opportunities to learn, grow, be happy, and progress, but it is also full of dangers. God loves all of His children and is concerned about their welfare. He does not want to lose any of them, so He selected some He could trust and made them members of His crew. That’s us. So when we look around on this cruise ship called earth and see other people sitting in lounge chairs drinking, gambling in casinos, and partying late into the night and wonder why we can’t, we must remember who we are. We are not ordinary passengers. We are members of the crew. And before we complain too long and too loudly about having crew member responsibilities passengers don’t have, we need to remember that crew members get something passengers don’t get: a paycheck. There is nothing we could ever be asked to do in Christ’s Church for which we have not already been paid-paid in advance and paid in full, for we have been given a birthright. Because God trusts us, He sent us to earth with an extra portion and charged us with the well-being and safe return of all His family. Think of it! Of all the people on the earth, God looks to us, the members of His Church, to save the world. No wonder President Brigham Young once said, “All the Angels in heaven are looking to this little handful of people.”
It is one thing to be loved and another to be trusted.
8. President Ezra Taft Benson, July 1989
“Christ changes men, and changed men can change the world. Men changed for Christ will be captained by Christ…men captained by Christ will be consumed in Christ…Their will is swallowed up in His will… Not only would they die for the Lord, but, more important, they want to live for Him.”
FHE
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Yours Truly,
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