Farewell Talk in Sacrament
10 September 2017
(This talk is where the title of the blog comes from. These are not Teancum's exact words; they were taken from his notes.)
I've been called to serve in the Canada Montreal Mission.
In his epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul admonishes the people of Ephesus (I think that's what the country is) to "take unto (themselves) the whole armor of God". You're probably familiar with this analogy. I want to focus on one point. The final piece of the armor is "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The Spirit is our tool, not only to defend ourselves, but to interact with the rest of the world. These days, swords aren't very common. So for my purpose, let's change it to an ax.
I'm talking about using the Spirit like a tool, specifically in order to teach more effectively. We all have need to teach by the Spirit in our lives, whether it be in church callings, with friends, as a missionary, with your children, in school or work--not specifically about the Gospel.
I work at a Scout camp. No internet, no phone service, very little electricity, no TV . . . heck, we don't even have books, for the most part! So Scouts are forced to find other sources of entertainment. One thing they find to do is chop wood, since there's so much of it around.
Watching 12-year-old Scouts learn to chop wood! It's very exciting. They are really bad at it, so it's fairly comical, and there's always the constant tension of them hurting themselves. They put incredible amounts of time and energy into splitting logs. They try so hard, and get very little results for their actions. Someone experienced with an ax can split a ton of logs very cleanly with relatively little effort.
I show them how it's done, and they are always amazed by how cool I am. For the most part, it just depends on how they use the tool they have. I'm going to use this example as a sort of parable to understand how we can use the Spirit.
We are all the woodcutter, and we need to teach others to help build the kingdom of God, just as the Scout needs to be taught how to cut wood to build his campfire.
None of us are Captain America; we can't split wood with our bare hands. So the first thing we need to cut wood is an ax. There's a scripture in D&C Section 42 which sums this up pretty nicely. Verse 17 says, "And the Spirit shall be given you by the prayer of faith, and if ye receive not the Spirit, ye shall not teach." So no matter how good you are, it is impossible to teach without the Spirit.
There's a story that illustrates this very well. In Matthew 16:13-17, Christ is talking to Simon Peter:
"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying,
Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?
And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias,
or one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."
None of us are strong enough to teach those around us without the tools with which we've been provided. We need it both in our daily lives, and especially when we are actually teaching. Luckily, the verses also explain how to receive the Spirit: "By prayer of faith". We need to have faith in Christ and all that comes with that, and then pray to ask for the Spirit, and then we shall have it.
We have the ax (the Spirit), and we want to start chopping. Now we need to prepare. This is where the majority of our work comes in. We need to set the scene for the Spirit to do its work. We need to keep our ax sharpened and precise at all times. This is comparable to tuning our minds to the frequencies of the Spirit, and nurturing our ability to hear its promptings, and following them as they come. Do this by living your life in such as way as to invite the Spirit and, as mentioned before, pray fervently and faithfully for it to accompany you.
In Preach My Gospel, it tells us the Spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a heavy hand. Rather, it whispers. It caresses so gently that if we are preoccupied, we may not feel it at all. As we hone our attention to the Spirit, we become able to follow its directions and better penetrate the minds and hearts of those we teach, just as a sharpened ax cuts easily through logs.
Now we can begin to chop. The main mistake I saw Scouts make as they learned to chop wood (and this is what also made it so entertaining to watch them) was that they tried to use their own strength to chop through a log, rather than using the weight and leverage that can come from using the ax effectively. This tires them very quickly, and they accomplish very little. Likewise, in teaching, I feel it is common that we rely on our own knowledge and teaching experience rather than the Spirit. This is what I struggle with the most when it comes to effective teaching. While our own knowledge and ability can greatly help, just as more strength can help in chopping wood, it is not nearly sufficient to touch lives and hearts.
Reliance on the Spirit requires a lot of faith. In Exodus 4:10-12, Moses is speaking to the Lord in the burning bush:
"And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore,
nor since thou has spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
And the Lord said unto him, "Who hath made man's mouth" or who maketh the dumb or
deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say."
Like Moses, we may feel inadequate to teach the Gospel, or we may feel confused as to what we need to say if we are advised not to use our own knowledge. But if we act in faith, the Spirit will tell us what to say in order to effect those we teach.
Then, Teancum bore his testimony of the Spirit, and closed in the name of Jesus Christ.
At the Open House that afternoon, the grandparents and cousins mentioned that was more talking than they had ever heard out of him. By long shot.
10 September 2017
(This talk is where the title of the blog comes from. These are not Teancum's exact words; they were taken from his notes.)
I've been called to serve in the Canada Montreal Mission.
In his epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul admonishes the people of Ephesus (I think that's what the country is) to "take unto (themselves) the whole armor of God". You're probably familiar with this analogy. I want to focus on one point. The final piece of the armor is "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The Spirit is our tool, not only to defend ourselves, but to interact with the rest of the world. These days, swords aren't very common. So for my purpose, let's change it to an ax.
I'm talking about using the Spirit like a tool, specifically in order to teach more effectively. We all have need to teach by the Spirit in our lives, whether it be in church callings, with friends, as a missionary, with your children, in school or work--not specifically about the Gospel.
I work at a Scout camp. No internet, no phone service, very little electricity, no TV . . . heck, we don't even have books, for the most part! So Scouts are forced to find other sources of entertainment. One thing they find to do is chop wood, since there's so much of it around.
Watching 12-year-old Scouts learn to chop wood! It's very exciting. They are really bad at it, so it's fairly comical, and there's always the constant tension of them hurting themselves. They put incredible amounts of time and energy into splitting logs. They try so hard, and get very little results for their actions. Someone experienced with an ax can split a ton of logs very cleanly with relatively little effort.
I show them how it's done, and they are always amazed by how cool I am. For the most part, it just depends on how they use the tool they have. I'm going to use this example as a sort of parable to understand how we can use the Spirit.
We are all the woodcutter, and we need to teach others to help build the kingdom of God, just as the Scout needs to be taught how to cut wood to build his campfire.
None of us are Captain America; we can't split wood with our bare hands. So the first thing we need to cut wood is an ax. There's a scripture in D&C Section 42 which sums this up pretty nicely. Verse 17 says, "And the Spirit shall be given you by the prayer of faith, and if ye receive not the Spirit, ye shall not teach." So no matter how good you are, it is impossible to teach without the Spirit.
There's a story that illustrates this very well. In Matthew 16:13-17, Christ is talking to Simon Peter:
"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying,
Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?
And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias,
or one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."
None of us are strong enough to teach those around us without the tools with which we've been provided. We need it both in our daily lives, and especially when we are actually teaching. Luckily, the verses also explain how to receive the Spirit: "By prayer of faith". We need to have faith in Christ and all that comes with that, and then pray to ask for the Spirit, and then we shall have it.
We have the ax (the Spirit), and we want to start chopping. Now we need to prepare. This is where the majority of our work comes in. We need to set the scene for the Spirit to do its work. We need to keep our ax sharpened and precise at all times. This is comparable to tuning our minds to the frequencies of the Spirit, and nurturing our ability to hear its promptings, and following them as they come. Do this by living your life in such as way as to invite the Spirit and, as mentioned before, pray fervently and faithfully for it to accompany you.
In Preach My Gospel, it tells us the Spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a heavy hand. Rather, it whispers. It caresses so gently that if we are preoccupied, we may not feel it at all. As we hone our attention to the Spirit, we become able to follow its directions and better penetrate the minds and hearts of those we teach, just as a sharpened ax cuts easily through logs.
Now we can begin to chop. The main mistake I saw Scouts make as they learned to chop wood (and this is what also made it so entertaining to watch them) was that they tried to use their own strength to chop through a log, rather than using the weight and leverage that can come from using the ax effectively. This tires them very quickly, and they accomplish very little. Likewise, in teaching, I feel it is common that we rely on our own knowledge and teaching experience rather than the Spirit. This is what I struggle with the most when it comes to effective teaching. While our own knowledge and ability can greatly help, just as more strength can help in chopping wood, it is not nearly sufficient to touch lives and hearts.
Reliance on the Spirit requires a lot of faith. In Exodus 4:10-12, Moses is speaking to the Lord in the burning bush:
"And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore,
nor since thou has spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
And the Lord said unto him, "Who hath made man's mouth" or who maketh the dumb or
deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?
Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say."
Like Moses, we may feel inadequate to teach the Gospel, or we may feel confused as to what we need to say if we are advised not to use our own knowledge. But if we act in faith, the Spirit will tell us what to say in order to effect those we teach.
Then, Teancum bore his testimony of the Spirit, and closed in the name of Jesus Christ.
At the Open House that afternoon, the grandparents and cousins mentioned that was more talking than they had ever heard out of him. By long shot.
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