#17 "Beware Lest Thou Forget"

Deuteronomy 6; 8; 11; 32
For my attention getter I am going to walk in with post-it notes stuck all over me with reminders on them, several ribbons or strings tied to my fingers, CTR ring, my cell phone connected to me in plain site, a made up frontlet (a head dress band around my head with a box connected on the front that holds a scripture) and an ipod armband connected to my left arm with a scripture in it. My first question after my class controls themselves will be what are the ways in which you remember things? What rituals or tools do you use to remember dates, people, times, events etc? Moses teaches his people ways to remember Christ and His commandments, what are ways or things we have to remember Christ, the covenants and commandments we’ve made?
*I loved the quote by President Ezra Taft Benson, people who are “captained by Christ will be consumed in Christ…Enter their homes, and the pictures on their walls, the books on their shelves, the music in the air, their words and acts reveal them as Christians” (Nov. 1985 p.6-7)
The book of Deuteronomy is the book known as the book that has all the laws in it. Moses teaches all the commandments and the laws of God in this section. He is about to die, or be translated and taken up to live with God; he goes through everything one last time with his people. Throughout his tenor he had instilled many things to help them stay in remembrance of God. This thing on my head is called a frontlet, they used these to put scriptures in, specifically a certain prayer called a Shema, found in Deut. 6:4-9; the Jews would recite this prayer 2 times daily.
* As we read this prayer I want you to listen for the commandments he gives and we will list them on the board.
Commandments- love the Lord with all thine heart and soul, and might, teach thy children and talk of them as you sit, walk, lie down and rise up, bind them on your head in frontlets, write commands on posts of the house and gates.
Deut. 6:20 is another command, testify to your children of the bondage and freedom from the Lord.
Deut. 8:2 Remember the Lord and how he led them these 40 years and all they learned from it.
Deut. 8:6 walk in God’s ways and fear him.
*How many times this week have you shared with your family or friends or co-workers or on facebook or blogger etc. of all the wonderful things the Lord has done for you this week? How many times have you shared a wonderful spiritual experience with them so they know that they can and do happen to you?
Deut. 8:11 forget not the Lord thy God
Deut. 8:14 Forget not
Deut. 8:18 remember the Lord thy God
*Are you seeing a pattern here? Are we paying attention? What can we use to remember the Lord?
Deut. 11:1 love the Lord, keep his charge, statutes, judgments, and commandments.
Deut. 11:8 Keep all the commandments
Deut. 11:16 take heed: be not deceived and serve other gods, and worship them.
Deut. 32:46 set your hearts on these words, command your children to observe and do all the words of the law.
* So to summarize: the commandments he dwells on the most in our readings are to remember the Lord, Love him with all thy heart, mind, might; do not serve other gods; keep the commandments; testify of the Lord’s goodness to everyone, especially our children. I would like to add here that this command of testifying to your children isn’t just for people who have children, or even children living at home. It is for everyone to testify to all children, I know from experience that those of you, who testify and share your personal spiritual experiences with my children in lessons or testimonies in sacrament, have touched my children in ways I cannot always do. Speaking as a child who doesn’t live with parents anymore; I find great comfort from hearing my parent’s spiritual moments. They still teach me about faith, about new ways they have found to communicate with the Lord, things they are noticing clearly as they experience old things in a new way. I love hearing their faith promoting stories; it gives me hope for my own experiences. I am thankful my parents teach me still. I know that my mom has kept a journal of all her experiences. She tells me that there are some that are so special to her that she can’t relate them verbally so she has them written down in a journal so that I can read them someday when she’s gone. I already cherish that journal and I don’t even know what’s in there, except that the entries are all from her heart. I have been trying to keep that kind of journal myself for my children thanks to her example.
Now we’ve discussed the commands let’s take a look some of the consequences that can befall us if we do forget.
Consequences: Deut. 8:19 ye shall surely perish (not-so-bad, I think that’s not brutal at all! It’s only fair don’t you think?)
Deut. 11:17 we incur Lord’s wrath, He will shut up the heaven, Now what kinds of things would we be missing if that happened. You think life is bad now, think about life without the blessings. Yuk! No rain, which means no food, no water, no clothing materials, nothing.
Deut. 32:20 Lord hides His face from us, I couldn’t even imagine my life without the spirit guiding and comforting me could you?
Deut. 32:21 basically this tells me that He would help another nation in battle against them, could this happen in the United States, Hum something to think about. 32:23 He will heap mischiefs (evils) upon them, spend his arrows upon them, I don’t know about you but what satan throws at me is bad enough, can you imagine what damage the Lord could do if He put His mind to it, being 10 x more powerful than satan?
32:24 burnt with hunger, devoured with burning heat and not just destruction but bitter destruction. Beast’s teeth and poisonous serpents, now that’s something I don’t want to picture, do you?
32:25 sword of other countries and terror from within our own walls, cities, homes where even the young, women and older wiser men and women are tortured? Are you scared into remembrance yet? Do you feel perhaps you could make some changes?
Here is my favorite scripture that shows that the Lord can be frightening if He chooses. 32:39 I am He and there is no god with me: I kill, heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand…..through 32:43

Okay so we have a taste of the Not-so-lovely consequences, let’s see what blessings can be ours, what the Lord desires to give us if we remember Him, keep His commandments, remember our covenants and teach our children.
Blessings: 6:3 we can increase mightily; what does this make you think of?
6:11 houses full of all good things, why because He put them there not because we did. Wells already dug for them, trees all ready to harvest.
11:9 our lives may be prolonged, I know some of you are saying no way, I’m checking out of here why would anyone want to stay? Think of your life without your body; those who are in the spirit world that haven’t been resurrected yet are not able to tangibly do, feel, or experience except by watching us. They may be at peace and happy, but I believe they are looking forward to being back in a perfected resurrected body again. Whenever you see the phrase ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’ it is the Lord saying that the land they are in is a land of beauty and prosperity and limitless potential.
11:11 hills and valleys, and any land that drinketh of the rain of heaven is going to be green and lush don’t you think? Have you noticed our world, how green and beautiful everything is? I love spring for that reason.
11:12 a land which the Lord is always watching over.
11:14 He will give rain in its due seasons. Meaning that whatever we need right when we need it will come to us, but we must always be remembering the Lord, in all its forms, testifying, feeling, praying, pondering etc.
11:21 that your days on the earth will be as wonderful as the days in heaven would be; now that makes me stop and think, what would that be like, what would that feel like; can you even fathom such a thing? When you think about your family members who are in paradise or those in heaven waiting to come here what do you picture life like for them? I can’t even picture the awesomeness.
11:23-25 the Lord will drive out all nations from their/our land, and looking at our dwindling armed forces we could use all the help we can get, but are we worthy of the Lord’s help? What steps can you personally take to help you get back into remembrance and keeping all commandments?
11:27 a Blessing-what blessing? D&C 130:20-25 tells us that the blessing He is speaking of is the Holy Spirit, this spirit cannot dwell with us unless we are obedient in all things.

I believe the Lord is very generous, because there are times when I slip and I still enjoy many of the blessings that we’ve discussed; I am thankful He is kind and merciful to me. I believe even though there may be times He could really get angry, He still remembers we are mortal and we are trying hard; and aren’t we thankful He can see the good intentions and desires of our hearts? I have a testimony that the Lord wants to bless us He is pleading with us to be obedient and remember Him so He can continue to bless us with the wonders He has in store for us. You may already feel so blessed and can’t picture any more goodness, but He would give it and continue to bless us as we continue to remember Him. We need to find those things that constantly keep Him in our thoughts, thankfully we don’t have to wear frontlets any more, because that would just not do good things to my hair, but there are other things we are given that can and do help us to have the Lord constantly in our thoughts and lives. I pray that you can find yours, that you can rediscover new ones, always be putting things in your lives that will help you remember the goodness of God in your lives, in the name of Jesus Christ amen.