The Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Chapter 6: The Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ

i have a gift for you today, some assembly required

paper -

the first piece is a piece of white paper. i know, it's an expensive and impressive gift.

what can you do with it?????????

you can fold it and cut it and crumple it up but that isn't what it was invented for. that isn't its purpose. paper is for writing on. it is for recording information.

this paper actually represents something you already have, or rather what you are. this piece of paper represents your spirit. it is clean and white and waiting for information to be written on it. it is waiting for experience.

pencil -

what can you do with the pencil alone????????

you can throw it and poke your neighbor with it, make some kind of craft with it, but that isn't its purpose either.

a pencil is for writing or drawing. it is for recording information.

the pencil represents your body. the body is sturdy and makes a mark on anything it touches. the body moves through mortality having experiences and recording this experience on your spirit. that is why we are here.

just as a pencil and paper are meant to be together, so are a spirit and body. neither can fulfill their true purpose without the other.

2 Nephi 2:23

And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin.

#1

“In the glorious dawn of Easter morning, when the thoughts of the Christian world are turned to the resurrection of Jesus for a few fleeting moments, let us express appreciation to our Heavenly Father for the great plan of salvation that has been provided for us.”

this is the plan of salvation. our spirits came to earth to receive bodies. in life we experience joy and sorrow. we learn new talents and commit sin. our spirit papers are waiting for experience.

i'm going to give you a moment to write down at least one of each of these that are important in your life right now.

at least one joy, one sorrow or worry, one talent you are using or developing, and one sin you are struggling with. these are yours, we are not sharing them so it should be things that are personal and meaningful to you.

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keep these things in mind today and apply the lesson to those things.

pres hunter loved the holy land. he was often there. as he shares his thoughts when visiting special places there, we will travel with him and hopefully gain a deeper understanding and testimony on our journey.

my next gift to you.

blood / sacrament

#2

I have stood in the garden of Gethsemane on many occasions. I’ve contemplated in my mind the suffering, the agony of the Savior—that agony that was experienced when our Heavenly Father permitted him, in a way our minds cannot even comprehend, to take upon himself the pain and sins of all mankind. My soul was filled with sorrow as I’ve thought of his great sacrifice for mankind.

Matt 26:27 - 28

And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

Mosiah 3:7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

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the next piece of your gift-----------cross / nails------

#3

I’ve stood beneath Golgotha, the place of the skull, and contemplated the humiliation of the crucifixion which led to our Savior’s mortal death, but which brought to pass his and all mankind’s immortality. And again my soul has been subdued.

John 10:17-18

17 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. 18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

John 19:28 and 30
28 ¶After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. 30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

i did a lot of studying trying to find one or two scriptures to represent the crucifixion. 2 stuck out to me.

over and over, it says, "that the scripture might be fulfilled". these things were not done to Him outside of His control. He allowed it. not only did he allow it, He made sure every mortal and spiritual obligation was fulfilled. He made sure His death prepared the way for us, down to the tiniest detail. He was filling list of the demands of justice, that we might have mercy.

#4

Think of it! When his body was taken from the cross and hastily placed in a borrowed tomb, he, the sinless Son of God, had already taken upon him not only the sins and temptations of every human soul who will repent, but all of our sickness and grief and pain of every kind. He suffered these afflictions as we suffer them, according to the flesh. He suffered them all. He did this to perfect his mercy and his ability to lift us above every earthly trial.

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-----------------tomb-------------gift---------------

#5

And I’ve stood in front of the garden tomb and imagined that glorious day of resurrection when the Savior emerged from the tomb alive, resurrected, immortal. In that contemplation my heart has swelled with joy.

#6

Without the Resurrection, the gospel of Jesus Christ becomes a litany of wise sayings and seemingly unexplainable miracles—but sayings and miracles with no ultimate triumph. No, the ultimate triumph is in the ultimate miracle: for the first time in the history of mankind, one who was dead raised himself into living immortality. He was the Son of God, the Son of our immortal Father in Heaven, and his triumph over physical and spiritual death is the good news every Christian tongue should speak.

although the tomb is empty, all of the things Christ did are contained in it.

just as Christ left behind His mortality when He emerged immortal from the tomb, we leave all of our sorrows, sins and pains of this world behind as we partake of the sacrament and His atonement.

--------------blood and nail in tomb----------

#7

Christ’s resurrection ushers in the blessing of immortality and the possibility of eternal life. His empty tomb proclaims to all the world, “He is not here, but is risen.” (Luke 24:6.) These words contain all the hope, assurance, and belief necessary to sustain us in our challenging and sometimes grief-filled lives.

we will someday also rise from the tomb. we will leave our mortal life behind to be immortal and live with Him forever.

------------spirit and pencil in tomb------------------

----------passalong card----------------https://www.mormon.org/easter

my last gift to you, is an invitation. i invite you to search the scriptures and read about Christ's Atonement. search for the many details and effort Christ went to to pay for us fully.

i encourage you to share this gift with others.

#8

It is the responsibility and joy of all men and women everywhere to “seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have [testified]” (Ether 12:41) and to have the spiritual witness of his divinity. It is the right and blessing of all who humbly seek, to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness of the Father and his resurrected Son.

it is my testimony that no matter how dark the hour, day, weeks may seem, Jesus Christ has taken the path before us. He has carried it all before He has asked us to. He carries the majority of the load if we will but allow Him to.

**************how to****************

if anyone wants to make their own set, i just copied and pasted the sacrament prayers from doc and cov 20 .   77 is the bread and 79 is the water.  i changed the wine to water to make it what it is today.   (less miraculous in this case than it was biblically)      i used craft pins, not a sewing pin for the nail in the prayer for the bread and drop of red paint watered down for the red spot to represent the blood.   

the tomb is a coloring page from the church i edited it so i had a top to put on the envelope flap.   

you can see in the picture that the top of the tomb would be gone with the stone in place, the envelope closed without that extra piece.   i got two on a page by printing them as 5x7 size . . .  .( i think).   i had to play with the size a bit so it would fit my envelopes.   envelopes with a triangle flap work better so you have room for the top of the tomb and the stone to overlap.   

we used wood, bricks and stones to color on.  i made 50 for my lesson so the different under textures let us mix it up a bit.  

if possible, leave time at the end for testimonies, be sure to bare your testimony.  

i hope you enjoy this lesson and can feel the Spirit of the Lord in it.   

you are what you eat

we have all heard that we are what we eat.   members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints have a guideline for their eating practices called the word of wisdom .   this activity is great for eating habits or anything else you might "eat".   anything you take into your body or mind has its effect.   it doesn't just apply to food.   it can be movies, activities, music, etc.

here's the basic run down of it -

use two basic people outlines like this one or make your own.   you can use just heads too.   draw a happy face on one and a sad face on the other.   cut out foods, (or words/examples of whatever you are talking about) that are good for you or bad for you.   glue them on to cover the body.   the body with the good food, has a happy face and the body with the bad food has a sad face.  i even saw one with x's on the eyes, i guess that one ate poison and died.   yikes!

this is really aimed at little kids but if you have an age range you are dealing with, you can have the older kids write words or just help out or even hand it over for them to teach.   teaching is a great way to learn.

that's a nice thing to say!

one of the past fhes we did with the missionaries was to talk about speaking kindly. the challenge was to say something nice to each person in the family everyday for a week. to kick that challenge off, we played a game. it can be any game where there are multiple win/lose situations.

* for instance, go fish. players ask for cards and either get what they asked for or don't - win/lose.

each time someone "wins" a card or whatever, they have to compliment the "loser"

* in go fish, if the person gets the card, they compliment the person who gave them the card. if they don't get the card, the person they asked compliments them.

we played jungle jam but it would work with a lot of games. war, slap jack, rock paper scissors, go fish etc would work. you could tweak it for pictionary in a larger group and draw good things and everyone has to guess who it is about. you could use scattergories, draw names of the people playing and write a compliment or list good qualities about the person using only words that start with the letter rolled, guess who it's about and see who comes up with the best compliments.

**no left handed compliments like, "i really appreciate your help when you do the chores" may sound nice unless there is a background situation where that is a hint hint, do the chores. that isn't nice. compliments are not tools to shame or guilt someone into better behavior.

     

you get it. it's a nice way to start the week or just pick everyone's mood up any day. it's a nice addition to any game anytime.

jacob 4

jacob 4 

jacob says that he can't write much of what has been said and done because it's difficult to write on the plates. it would take forever to just write it with a pencil much less carve it into metal plates!   jacob says that they will take the time and trouble to write those most important things on metal plates because the things on plates will last through time.   they have paper and use it to communicate with each other, they use it for scriptures etc.   paper is not really meant to last the centuries though.   just the really important stuff is being engraved on plates with the intention of it being read by future generations.

we had a little example of this done for us in seminary.   our seminary teacher made copper plates, ( i assume he bought some sheets of copper and cut them down to the size of the small plates.  around the size of a large recipe card).   he gave us some tools to write with and a list of glyphs. he told us to write what was most important to us. we had to write it in egyptian letters on the copper plate. we only got one plate and had to do it all in one 90 minute class. we wrote on paper first but then had to condense it down. then we had to press it into the plate. that was not easy! imagine gripping your pencil really tight and then pushing letters into metal. our fingers were sore. we ended up with only a few lines since the plates were small, (we got the small plates of nephi). it was one of the most spiritual lessons we ever had. several of us had personal prophecies revealed to us. our teacher did too.

 

if you have never boiled down your testimony to the bare bones, i recommend it. in your journal, write your testimony. then condense it down to the most important things. in just a few lines, tell your future generations what you want them to know. it is an amazing experience.

the gospel of Jesus Christ kniffel

family home evening on the fly here!
my little blonde curls had his turn at the lesson but just wanted to play kniffel.   (kniffel is kind of like yahtzee but with less rules for little kids)

ok, mom has this covered.   the missionaries asked us to use first five investigator lessons in the preach my gospel book for our family home evening for five weeks.

we used the building blocks lesson for the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ

we used the plan of salvation game for the plan of salvation.   we simplified it but it was fun and gave a chance to talk about not only this life but temple work for the dead.

this week, was the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

the six sections are:
Through Christ we can be cleansed from sin
Faith in Jesus Christ
Repentance
Baptism, our first covenant
the gift of the Holy Ghost
endure to the end

playing the game:
you will need the book, ( paper or online), to play or you can simply use the titles to lead a discussion

if you don't happen to have a kniffel game, you will need:

label 5 die with the six sections  . . .ok, just the simple one or two word version: Atonement, faith, repent, baptism, Holy Ghost, endure.   you can make them, glue or use stickers for labels or i just wrote on them and then wiped it off afterwards.

30 markers for each person, coins or buttons or whatever

a paper with 25 squares, 5x5.   it doesn't actually matter what shape it is but that is just easy.

play:
you are trying to collect the first principles of the gospel.   sometimes we are stronger in faith or repentance or whatever.  
each person takes turns rolling the 5 die.   you get to roll 3 times.   whatever you have that matches, you put together.   you might have 2 x faith and then baptism, repentance, and endure.   save faith and have someone read about faith while you take your next two rolls.   just a few sentences, you don't need to read the whole section.   you could just talk about how you might build or gather faith in your life.  

how ever many matching principles you can collect in your three throws, you get one marker for each of them.   if you get all five to match, you get 6 markers.

roll until someone fills their 25 squares.   to be fair, if someone fills their squares, finish the round so that everyone gets to roll the same number of times.    after everyone has rolled, whoever has the most markers wins.

you could use this game for any of the values or anything you want to talk about.   you can play it more like yahtzee or the simple  version we played.   the point is really to talk about what you can do to build your knowledge and faith in the gospel and, of course, to have fun!

alma 24-25 - bury your swords

alma 24 - 25
family home evening we did with alma 24. 

materials-
cereal box
crayons or colored pencils
bits of scrap paper
scissors
pens / pencils
glue and or tape
printed or written alma 24:17 (all or just part)
tacks if you want to hang it
this is a fhe we did a while back. i have seen it done many ways, i wanted something that we could leave hanging up to be a reminder but i have seen people use cardboard swords a and buy them in the yard etc.
i used a piece of a cereal box for "ground" so it would be stronger and last a little longer. cut a section off of a corner of the cereal box. i put the fold so the back side is longer then the front.and colored. i glued cut green paper on the back half to look like grass (and cover the cereal label). i folded little strips of paper and cut swords shapes. 

we read and talked about the people of anti-nephi-lehi and how they had been converted and would no longer fight so they buried their swords. we then talked about what might be swords in our family and how we could bury them. the kids took the little swords and wrote things that they used as swords to hurt others. i let them come up with them and was surprised how many and how correct they were. they were harder on themselves than i was but i let them choose. we got things like being disobedient, yelling, teasing, etc. we then stuck them in the "ground" one at a time and talked about ways we could keep them buried. for a few weeks after that, we would say, "i thought we buried that sword" when something would come up. it was a good reminder. we may re-visit it again actually.