LDS Freedom Forum

A sacrament talk that I was assigned to give later in the month was moved up to THIS Sunday! Now that would be stressful enough, but all the thoughts and materials I had put aside for this topic has disappeared. I can only imagine that I must have left them in my office at school, for which I will not have access to over the weekend. This talk is just not coming together as I had planned!
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The topic is "Love thy neighbor as thyself". I have many scriptural references but what I would love are stories from members about living this principle. Any ideas? I would be ever so grateful.

Deborah

Thank you Jules. I like the "charity covereth a multitude of sins" - you don't usually think of that when discussing love for others.

In what ways does our society break this commandment? It's easier to stand up and talk about people and instances where we are getting it "right" or doing okay, but it's harder to confront the sometimes painful truth where we routinely break this commandment. Not saying you should get up and call your congregation to repentance, rather, follow the Spirit to know what to say. Anyway, just another side of the same coin. I hope things go well.

You are right Mattctr, it IS harder to confront others with the painful truth that we are not doing a good job of loving our neighbor. But I did find a wonderful talk by Elder Ballard where he retold the Saviour's parable of the Good Samaritan, in which Elder Ballard quite tactfully brought out WHO the Samaritians of our day might be and our attitudes towards them -I could include that. Thank you.

Debs,

Tell them what Jesus Christ the ultimate teacher already told them. The two greatest commandments are: 1) Love God, 2) Love your neighbor like yourself.

Secondly, tell them how Thomas S. Monson is the best at this.

Thirdly, tell them a personal story about how someone did a small thing for you that made your day one day.

Finally, ask them to repent--like Lehi, Jeremiah, Noah and Jonah have done before you. Tell them the gadiantons have taken over just like the Book of Mormon and Ezra Taft Benson warned us about. Tell them 9/11 was an inside job, the War on Terror is a fraud, and we are being bankrupted by wolves in sheep's clothing. You may feel embarrassed saying all of this over the pulpit to your Ward and neighbors, but if you really love them, Deborah, you will do it.

God speed.

HaHaHaHa Thank you for your response, Cowell, it made me smile.

Seeing that I don't have a security team for crowd control, I probably won't be taking your advice to "wake up" my congregation at Sacrament Service tomorrow. Although I AM known somewhat as a rebel in my ward because I burned my Republican Membership Card after the Bush/Cheney war on the American people and our economy "woke me up"; I for the most part keep my politics to myself. "Blessed are the peacemakers" . . .

Of course, my Bishop might never ask me to speak in Sacrament again, so I MIGHT just end my talk with a BANG! It is certianly a thought!!

Pray, seek the Lord's council. Follow it. Then teach by the Spirit. The message that is needful for that congregation will be given.

I once was asked to give a talk with on only 12 hrs of notice, the majority of the time would be during the night. I got the phone call during elders quorum social on a Saturday night. The 1st counselor didn't even assign me a topic and gave me free range as long as it was spiritually uplifting. Luckily, I had followed the spirit 3 months prior where I felt prompted by the Holy Ghost to write a sacrament talk. Funny thing is that I never thought I would ever have the opportunity to give that sacrament talk because when you are asked to speak, generally you are given a topic to speak on.

I was just asked to give another talk a few weeks ago. The bishop called me on Thursday and asked if I would speak on a topic that I had previously given during sacrament meeting, but I was able to come up with different material with ease. He asked me to be the concluding speaker, but he called it the accordion speaker. Basically, he needed me to adjust my talk to whatever time was leftover. He told me to plan big and prepare short. I was following 2 youth speakers and older sister who returned from a mission. I'm the executive secretary, so I wasn't surprised when one of the youth speakers called me to cancel because he didn't feel comfortable speaking in front of the congregation. After she would speak there would be musical number and I then I was allowed to give my remarks. When the sister missionary got up to speak the first counselor passed me a note that read "end 5 minutes to the hour". She spoke until 10 minutes to the hour and the musical number took an additional 5 minutes, so I just got up and told the congregation I wasn't going to burden them with my talk. I left it on the seat and bore my testimony for a few minutes and sat back down.

I notice under circumstances where I have short notice to speak, I generally receive personal revelation during the night. I don't get much sleep nevertheless, I seem to be wide awake either through spiritual rejuvenation or maybe it's just the uncontrollable nerves.

Thanks so much for your imput everyone, and I think you are right DrJay that the message that is right for your congregation will be given to you, because it is obvious to me that the one I had been working on that was lost - not to be retrieved, most probably happened for a reason. I am now working on a somewhat different message.

I too will the last "accordian speaker" tomorrow, seer stone, which is a little scary because I don't want to go over the time limit. I am so thankful that I don't get as nervous as I used to in these situations. Of course it took 5 years of Gospel Doctrine teaching to get here, but for some reason the butterflies still come!

Easy--pick your favorite 10 scriptures about The Savior and talk about them.

Deborah000 wrote:...I AM known somewhat as a rebel in my ward because I burned my Republican Membership Card after the Bush/Cheney war on the American people and our economy "woke me up"; I for the most part keep my politics to myself. "Blessed are the peacemakers" . . .

Hope the talk went well. Burning the republican card due to the war...nicely done. I went through the same awakening process.

Here's one of the best talks I've every heard...may take you further through the awakening process if you haven't made this jump already. The man giving the lecture is one of my heros: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3894389451#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thank you Durangout and Cowell. The talk went well, but interestingly enough it was a totally different talk than I had previously planned. It is my hope that I delivered the talk that the Spirit wanted delivered today.

Also, thank you Cowell for the link to David Ray Griffin's presentaion and following interview. The 9 myths of 9-11 investigations, were very succinctly presented and well done. Most of this information was not new to me as I have read several 9-11 truth sites to date, but several points were made that I was not aware of. One of the almost laughable moments was the presentation of the US Investigation's planting of evidence in the rubble of the twin towers - the passport of one the supposed hijackers! It is totally unbelievable that the commission expected the public to believe that tons of steel were turned to molten metal and dust, yet a passport was salvaged from the wreckage!! Unbelievable!!!