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| Ensign, May 1998, 25 | ||
“A Teacher Come from God”
Elder
Jeffrey R. Holland
Christ was,
of
course, much more than a teacher. He was the very Son
of
God, the Holy One
of
the eternal gospel plan, the Savior and Redeemer
of
the world.
But Nicodemus was starting
about the way you and I started, the way any child or
young student or new convert begins—by recognizing and
responding to a thrilling teacher who touches the
innermost feelings
of
our heart.
In recent months President
Gordon B. Hinckley has called on us to hold our people
close to the Church, especially the newly converted
member. In issuing this call President Hinckley has
reminded that we all need at least three things to
remain firmly in the faith—a friend, a responsibility,
and “[nourishing] by the good word
of
God.”
2
Inspired instruction in the
home and in the Church helps provide this crucial
element
of
nourishing by the good word
of
God. We are so grateful to all who teach. We
love you and appreciate you more than we can say. We
have great confidence in you. To teach effectively and
to feel you are succeeding is demanding work indeed.
But it is worth it. We can receive “no greater call.”
3
Surely the opportunity to magnify that call exists everywhere. The need for it is everlasting. Fathers, mothers, siblings, friends, missionaries, home and visiting teachers, priesthood and auxiliary leaders, classroom instructors—each is, in his or her own way, “come from God” for our schooling and our salvation. In this Church it is virtually impossible to find anyone who is not a guide of one kind or another to his or her fellow members of the flock. Little wonder that Paul would say in his writings, “God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers.” 4
For each
of
us to “come unto Christ,”
5 to keep His
commandments and follow His example back to the Father
is surely the highest and holiest purpose
of
human existence. To help others do that as well—to
teach, persuade, and prayerfully lead them to walk that
path
of
redemption also—surely that must be the second most
significant task in our lives. Perhaps that is why
President David O. McKay once said, “No greater
responsibility can rest upon any man [or woman] than to
be a teacher
of
God’s children.”
6
We are, in fact, all somewhat like the man of Ethiopia to whom Philip was sent. Like him, we may know enough to reach out for religion. We may invest ourselves in the scriptures. We may even give up our earthly treasures, but without sufficient instruction we may miss the meaning of all this and the requirements that still lie before us. So we cry with this man of great authority, “How can [we understand,] except some [teacher] should guide [us]?” 7
The Apostle Paul taught: “For
whosoever shall call upon the name
of
the Lord shall be saved.
“[But] how then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? and how
shall they believe in him
of
whom they have not heard?
“Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word
of
God.”
8
Now, at a time
when
our prophet is calling for more faith through hearing
the word
of
God, we must revitalize and reenthrone superior
teaching in the Church—at home, from the pulpit, in our
administrative meetings, and surely in the classroom.
Inspired teaching must never become a lost art in the
Church, and we must make certain our quest for it does
not become a lost tradition.
President Spencer W. Kimball
once pled: “Stake presidents, bishops, and branch
presidents, please take a particular interest in
improving the quality
of
teaching in the Church. … I fear,” he said, “that all
too often many
of
our members come to church, sit through a class or a
meeting, and … then return home having been largely
[uninspired]. It is especially unfortunate
when
this happens at a time …
of
stress, temptation, or
crisis
[in their life]. We all need to be touched and nurtured
by the Spirit,” he said, “and effective teaching
is one
of
the most important ways this can happen. We often do
vigorous work,” President Kimball concluded, “to get
members to come to Church but then do not adequately
watch over what they receive
when
they do come.”
9
On this subject President Hinckley himself has said, “Effective teaching is the very essence of leadership in the Church.” May I repeat that. “Effective teaching is the very essence of leadership in the Church. Eternal life,” President Hinckley continued, “will come only as men and women are taught with such effectiveness that they change and discipline their lives. They cannot be coerced into righteousness or into heaven. They must be led, and that means teaching.” 10
Among the last words the
Savior said to His disciples and among the first words
He says to us today are: “Go ye therefore, and teach
all nations. … [Teach] them to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you
[always], even unto the end
of
the world.”
11 To Peter, the
apostolic leader
of
the Church, the resurrected and ascending Christ said,
“Feed my lambs, … feed my sheep, … follow [thou] me.”
12
In all
of
this we must remember that the Lord has never given
more emphatic counsel to the Church than that we are to
teach the gospel “by the Spirit, even the Comforter
which was sent forth to teach the truth.”
No eternal learning can take
place without that quickening
of
the Spirit from heaven. So, parents, teachers, and
leaders, we must face our tasks the way Moses faced the
promised land. Knowing he could not succeed any other
way, Moses said to Jehovah, “If thy presence go not
with me, carry us not up hence.”
15
That is what our members
really want
when
they gather in a meeting or come into a classroom
anyway. Most people don’t come to church looking merely
for a few new gospel facts or to see old friends,
though all
of
that is important. They come seeking a spiritual
experience. They want peace. They want their faith
fortified and their hope renewed. They want, in short,
to be nourished by the good word
of
God, to be strengthened by the powers
of
heaven. Those
of
us who are called upon to speak or teach or lead have
an obligation to help provide that, as best we possibly
can. We can only do that if we ourselves are striving
to know God, if we ourselves are continually seeking
the light
of
His Only Begotten Son. Then, if our hearts are right,
if we are as clean as we can be, if we have prayed and
wept and prepared and worried until we don’t know what
more we can do, God can say to us as He did to Alma and
the sons
of
Mosiah: “Lift up thy head and rejoice. … I will give
unto you success.”
16
We do have a legitimate worry
about the new member, wanting each one to stay with us
and enjoy the full blessings
of
the Church. I am just simple enough to think that if we
continue to teach them—with the same Christlike
spirit, conviction, doctrine, and personal interest the
missionaries have shown them—new converts will not only
stay with us but, quite literally, could not be kept
away. The need for continuing such solid teaching is
obvious. In
times
like ours we all need what Mormon called “the
virtue
of
the word
of
God” because, he said, it “had [a] more powerful effect
upon the minds
of
the people than the sword, or anything else, which had
happened unto them.”
17
When crises come in our lives—and they will—the philosophies of men interlaced with a few scriptures and poems just won’t do. Are we really nurturing our youth and our new members in a way that will sustain them when the stresses of life appear? Or are we giving them a kind of theological Twinkie—spiritually empty calories? President John Taylor once called such teaching “fried froth,” the kind of thing you could eat all day and yet finish feeling totally unsatisfied. 18 During a severe winter several years ago, President Boyd K. Packer noted that a goodly number of deer had died of starvation while their stomachs were full of hay. In an honest effort to assist, agencies had supplied the superficial when the substantial was what had been needed. Regrettably they had fed the deer but they had not nourished them.
I love what President J.
Reuben Clark said
of
our youth well over a half century ago. The same thing
can be said
of
new members. “[They] are hungry for the things
of
the spirit,” he said; “they are eager to learn the
Gospel, and they want it straight, undiluted. …
“… You do not have to sneak up
behind [them] and whisper religion in [their] ears; …
you can bring these truths [out] openly.”
19
Satan is certainly not subtle
in his teachings; why should we be? Whether we are
instructing our children at home or standing before an
audience in church, let us never make our faith
difficult to detect.
Remember—we are to be teachers “come from God.” Never sow seeds of doubt. Avoid self-serving performance and vanity. Prepare lessons well. Give scripturally based sermons. Teach the revealed doctrine. Bear heartfelt testimony. Pray and practice and try to improve. In our administrative meetings let us both “instruct and edify” as the revelations say, that even in these our teaching may ultimately be “from on high.” 20 The Church will be the better for it, and so will you, for as Paul said to the Romans, “Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?” 21
A memorable account
of
the power
of
such teaching comes from the life
of
the prophet Jeremiah. This great man felt the way most
teachers or speakers or Church officers feel
when
called—inexperienced, inadequate, frightened. “Ah,
Lord,” he cried, “behold, I cannot speak: for I am
[but] a child.”
But the Lord reassured him:
“Be not afraid
of
their faces: for I am with thee. … Therefore gird up
thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them.”
22
So speak unto them he did, but
initially not with much success. Things went from bad
to worse until finally he was imprisoned and made a
laughingstock among the people. Angry that he had been
so mistreated and maligned, Jeremiah vowed, in effect,
never to teach another lesson, whether that be to an
investigator, Primary child, new convert, or—heaven
forbid—the 15-year-olds. “I will not make mention
of
[the Lord], nor speak any more in his name,” the
discouraged prophet said. But then came the turning
point
of
Jeremiah’s life. Something had been happening with
every testimony he had borne, every scripture he had
read, every truth he had taught. Something had been
happening that he hadn’t counted on. Even as he vowed
to close his mouth and walk away from the Lord’s work,
he found that he could not. Why? Because “his word was
in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones,
and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.”
23
That is what happens in the
gospel to both the teacher and the taught. It is what
happened to Nephi and Lehi
when,
the book
of
Helaman says, “the Holy Spirit
of
God did come down from heaven, and did enter into their
hearts, and they were filled as if with fire, and they
could speak forth marvelous words.”
24 Surely it must have
been that kind
of
heavenly joy Mary Magdalene experienced
when
near the Garden Tomb she unexpectedly beheld her
beloved resurrected Lord and said to Him simply, “Rabboni,”
25 which is to say,
literally, “Teacher.”
From all
of
us who have been taught to all
of
you who teach—we say thank you, from the bottom
of
our hearts. May we exalt the teaching experience within
the home and within the Church and improve our every
effort to edify and instruct. In all
of
our meetings and all
of
our messages may we nourish by the good word
of
God. And may our children and new converts, our
neighbors and new friends, say
of
our honest efforts, “Thou art a teacher come from God.”
In the sacred name
of
the Master Teacher, Jesus Christ, amen.
© 2001 Intellectual
Reserve, Inc. |