CHOOSING OUR LEVEL OF SPIRITUALITY

Plymouth Stake Relief Society

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On a scale of 1-10 where is your spirituality today and why ?

“There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty - it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God.”

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How true is this statement in the world that we live in ?

• DVD

Is your lamp full ?

Or is it more like this ??

What is our spiritual oil?

Oil:Olives are first soaked in water to clean them

and purge them of their bitterness, and then they are crushed to extract their oil.

Olive oil had multiple uses anciently: food, cooking, condiment, treatment for wounds, ingredient in cosmetics and soaps and fuel for lamps.

The oil in the parable represents our faith, testimony, purity and dedication, our good works and the keeping of covenants-

The wise virgins could not share their oil with the foolish virgins because “the oil of spiritual preparedness cannot be shared”

Marvin J. Ashton.

“it is the intense pressure that extracts the oil and gives us the purest oil. If we think of this symbolically in our life, then is it the pressure (the struggles and challenges) that we go through that extract the best in us—that makes us pure and creates our oil? If that is the case, it is our challenges and pressures that create our oil and make us pure enough to see Christ. THIS is the reason we cannot “share” our oil. Our trials are our own. It is through overcoming them and becoming pure that we have ‘oil’ and we cannot share that. Each person must go through this individually.”

How???

Group work/questions

Scripture Study

Effective prayer

Meaningful fastingWork

Service

Now as good as things may be, we must still get better. We have been asked to “raise our sights” and we have been shown that the “world is changing rapidly,” and so are the tactics of the adversary.We have been told that “we can’t do things exactly the way we did them 10 or 20 years ago and assume that’s enough.”……………

“What was sufficient then, will not offer adequate protection now.”

Richard Hawks.

• D&C 68:6“be of good cheer”

Proverbs 23:7“For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

John 16:20“but your sorrow shall be turned to Joy

Take responsibility for your own physical well being. Your soul consists of your body and spirit. Feeding the spirit whilst neglecting the body, which is a temple, usually leads to spiritual dissonance and lowered self-esteem. Spiritual confidence increases when your spirit, with the help of the saviour is truly in charge of your natural man.”

Elder Jörg Klebingat

“That our spirit and body are combined in such a way that our body becomes an

instrument of our mind and the foundation of our Character.”

President Boyd K. Packer

D&C 88:124 D&C 88:119

“Some people smile very naturally. Some may be happy but haven’t told their faces yet.”

Elder Joe J. Christensen

2 Nephi 9:29

To be Spiritually Minded Is Life Eternal

Drop by drop………

Over time, the ‘little things 'in our lives shape our character

• Little things are but parts of the great. The grass does not spring up full grown by eruption. It rises up and increases as noiselessly and gently as not to disturb an angel’s ear, perhaps is invisible to an angels' eye. The rain does not fall in masses but in drops; the planets do not leap in their orbits, but inch by inch and line by line thy circle the orbits. Intellect, feeling, habit, character, all become what they are through the influence of little things. Each of us will get to Heaven not by leaps, yet surely by inches.

Most of us clearly understand that the Atonement is for sinners. I am not so sure, however, that we know and understand that the Atonement is also for saints—for good men and women who are obedient, worthy, and conscientious and who are striving to become better and serve more faithfully. We may mistakenly believe we must make the journey from good to better and become a saint all by ourselves, through sheer grit, willpower, and discipline, and with our obviously limited capacities.

The gospel of the Saviour is not simply about avoiding bad in our lives; it also is essentially about doing and becoming good. And the Atonement provides help for us to overcome and avoid bad and to do and become good. Help from the Saviour is available for the entire journey of mortality—from bad to good to better and to change our very nature. David A. Bednar.

GethsemaneThe word “Gethsemane” means “oil press.” There is significant symbolism here. The Jews put olives into bags made of mesh fabric and placed them in a press to squeeze olive oil out of them. The first pressings yielded pure olive oil which was prized for many uses, including healing and giving light in lanterns. In fact, we consecrate it and use it to administer to the sick. The last pressing of the olives, under the tremendous pressure of additional weights added to the press, yielded a bitter, red liquid which can remind us of the “bitter cup” which the Saviour partook of. Symbolically, the Saviour is going into the “oil press” (Gethsemane) to submit to the “pressure” of all our sins which will “squeeze” His blood out in order that we might have the healing “oil” of the Atonement to heal us from our sins.

I testify of a loving Saviour who rejoices when we apply His Atonement daily with the calm and happy assurance that we are facing in the right direction. By applying the Atonement of Jesus Christ, you can begin increasing your spiritual confidence today if you are willing to listen and act." I testify of a loving Saviour who is anxious for your “confidence [to] wax strong in the presence of God” (D&C 121:45). Elder Jorg Klebingat.

What thoughts come to mind if you had a personal interview with your Saviour one minute from now? Would you meet or avoid His gaze? Would you linger by the door or confidently walk up to the Bridegroom ? Would you have enough oil in your lamp to sustain you ?

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What is the one thing you are going to do from today to raise your spirituality and fill your lamp in

preparation for the Bridegroom?

Further information:

Please feel free to visit our Blog for quotes and further discussion on this subject. www.choosingourlevelofspirituality.blogspot.co.uk

The power point used today will be made public on the blog at the end of the year.