Day 204

  • Principle: Inner desire and thoughts are of most importance to be righteous. 
  • Book of Mormon Reading: Alma 37:43 - 38:8
    • The Lord will not leave you without a guide.  Lehi’s family had the Liahona and you have the gift of the Holy Ghost.  And just as faith and diligence lead to the Liahona working the same goes for the Holy Ghost.  David A. Bendar taught:

      • “As we each press forward along the pathway of life, we receive direction from the Holy Ghost just as Lehi was directed through the Liahona. …

        “The Holy Ghost operates in our lives precisely as the Liahona did for Lehi and his family, according to our faith and diligence and heed. …

        “And the Holy Ghost provides for us today the means whereby we can receive, ‘by small and simple things’ (Alma 37:6), increased understanding about the ways of the Lord. …

        “The Spirit of the Lord can be our guide and will bless us with direction, instruction, and spiritual protection during our mortal journey” (in Conference Report, Apr. 2006, 31; or Ensign, May 2006, 30–31).
         

  • Study the following scriptures paying particular attention to cleanliness.
    • Matthew 14:34-36
    • Matthew 15:1-39
    • Mark 7:1-23
      • James E. Talmage taught about the numerous washings in Jewish Custom
        • “The numerous washings required by Jewish custom in the time of Christ were admittedly incident to rabbinism and ‘the tradition of the elders’ and not in compliance with the Mosaic law. Under certain conditions, successive washings were prescribed, in connection with which we find mention of ‘first,’ ‘second’ and ‘other’ waters, the ‘second water’ being necessary to wash away the ‘first water,’ which had become defiled by contact with the ‘common’ hands; and so further with the later waters. Sometimes the hands had to be dipped or immersed; at other times they were to be cleansed by pouring, it being necessary that the water be allowed to run to the wrist or the elbow according to the degree of supposed defilement; then again, as the disciples of Rabbi Shammai held, only the finger tips, or the fingers up to the knuckles, needed to be wetted under particular circumstances. Rules for the cleansing of vessels and furniture were detailed and exacting; distinct methods applied respectively to vessels of clay, wood, and metal. Fear of unwittingly defiling the hands led to many extreme precautions. It being known that the Roll of the Law, the Roll of the Prophets, and other scriptures, when laid away were sometimes touched, scratched, or even gnawed by mice, there was issued a rabbinical decree, that the Holy Scriptures, or any part thereof comprising as many as eighty-five letters (the shortest section in the law having just that number), defiled the hands by mere contact. Thus the hands had to be ceremonially cleansed after touching a copy of the scriptures, or even a written passage therefrom. “Emancipation from these and ‘many such like things’ must have been relief indeed.” (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, p. 366; see also Mark 7:1–23.)
    • What does Christ teach about being clean and cleanliness?
    • How does the act of being clean get in the way of actually being clean?
    • What do you do to help keep your heart and thoughts clean?  What do you do when impure thoughts and desire come into your mind and heart?  
  • Additional Study: