Day 202

• Principle: Jesus Christ is the promised messiah and has power to bless you in your individual needs.
• Book of Mormon Reading: Alma 37:11 - 37:25
  • The Book of Mormon is full of power.  Bruce R. McConkie taught:
    • Elder Bruce R. McConkie (1915–85) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles listed some ways in which the power of the Book of Mormon is and will be demonstrated: “What then is the power of the Book of Mormon? It will proclaim the everlasting gospel; it will gather Israel; it will build the New Jerusalem; it will prepare a people for the Second Coming; it will usher in the Millennium—at least it will play such an important part in all of these that its value and power can scarcely be overstated” (The Millennial Messiah [1982], 171).
  • What gives the Book of Mormon this power?
• In John 6:22-71 Jesus Christ gives what is known as the Bread of Life Sermon.  He proclaims himself the promised messiah and teaches what that means.  As you read his teachings ponder what this means for your life and how he has the power to do it.
  • How was this sermon different from feeding the five thousand?  Why do you think people turned away? David O. McKay taught:
    • “[The sermon on the Bread of Life as recorded by John] is highly spiritual, and contains references about Christ as the ‘Bread of Life,’ which His followers could not believe. They could not comprehend what He was saying, and many of them walked away. . . .
      “. . . the twelve . . . slightly glimpsed the spiritual significance of that sermon. . . . “. . . Those apostles had that day the power and privilege of making a choice—whether they would walk with those who were impressed only with the physical favors, advantages, which nature could give, or whether their gifts heed to the spiritual in man. . . .
      “. . . Such a decision may determine whether one responds to the call of one’s soul to rise, or yields to the tendency to grovel. . . .
      “. . . the disciples of Jesus glimpsed a light that would enlighten their souls spiritually as the sun replaces darkness with beams of light. But there are few persons who see that Light or even believe in the fuller life, and often after glimpsing it, they turn away to the grosser and more sordid things.” (“Whither Shall We Go?,” Speeches of the Year, 1961, pp. 2–4. Italics added.)
  • Find one section from this sermon that you enjoyed.  Write it down in your own handwriting on a slip of paper and take it with you to review during the next sacrament meeting.  
• Additional Study:
  • Dallin H. Oaks, “Teachings of Jesus”, October 2011
  • I Need Thee Every Hour, Hymns No. 98
  • Before I Take the Sacrament, Children’s Songbook No. 73