Day 151 - Alma 9:7-18

Alma 9

Our Perpetual Debt
Joseph Fielding Smith
General Conference
April 1944

OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO PREACH THE GOSPEL

Now there are many debts which we owe to the Lord. There is the debt of preaching this gospel to a wicked and a perverse generation (Alma 9:8), and those are the words of the Lord, so do not accuse me of calling the world wicked. It is. I can testify to that from what I have seen of it, and I have seen of the wickedness but a small part, I assure you. But the world today is filthy, drunken, saturated and stinking with tobacco. The world is full of immorality. It is a fallen world; it has been a fallen world since Adam was driven from the Garden of Eden, and yet we are in it, and the Lord has given us the mission of assisting Him, of being His agents in this world, to regenerate it, as far as it is possible to bring to pass that regeneration. It will never be fully accomplished, so far as we are concerned; we are not going, by our preaching, to save very many souls. 

The Lord has given unto men their agency. They may act for themselves (2 Ne. 2:26), they can choose to do good, or they can choose to do evil with the rewards which are coming, and most men choose to do evil. The Lord said that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil (John 3:19). Yet our mission, I say, is, so far as it is within our power, to regenerate, to bring to repentance, just as many of the children of our Father in heaven as it is possible for us to do. That is one of our debts; that is an obligation the Lord has placed upon the Church, and more particularly upon the quorums of the priesthood of the Church, and yet this obligation belongs to every soul. 

It is the duty of every member of this Church to preach the Gospel by precept and by example. Brother George F. Richards quoted from the scriptures this morning, where the Lord said it is our duty to warn the world, and it is the duty of every person so warned to warn his neighbor, and if he will warn the neighbors, then they are left without excuse, and their blood is upon their own heads (D&C 88:81-82). It is our mission to warn. That is one of our obligations, and we owe this debt to the world.

Day 150 - Alma 8:18-32 & 9:1-6

Alma 8

Alma teaches and trains his new missionary companion:

27 And Alma tarried many days with Amulek before he began to preach unto the people.

Alma 9

The words of Alma, and also the words of Amulek, which were declared unto the people who were in the land of Ammonihah. (Comprising chapters 9 through 14.)

Day 149 - Alma 8:1-17

Alma 8

"Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice,for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you."

Day 148 - Alma 7:14-27

Alma 7

A video from a great website, Prepare to Serve, where there are lots of video interviews of recently returned missionaries talking about their experiences to help new missionaries prepare.

Day 147 - Alma 7:1-13

Alma 7

The Healing Power of the Atonement

Day 146 - Alma 5:53-62 & 6:1-8

Alma 5

And now I say unto you that the good shepherd doth call after you; and if you will hearken unto his voice he will bring you into his fold, and ye are his sheep; and he commandeth you that ye suffer no ravenous wolf to enter among you, that ye may not be destroyed.

Alma 6

The children of God were commanded that they should gather themselves together oft, and join in fasting and mighty prayer in behalf of the welfare of the souls of those who knew not God. 

Day 145 - Alma 5:43-52

Alma 5

And now, my brethren, I would that ye should hear me, for I speak in the energy of my soul; for behold, I have spoken unto you plainly that ye cannot err, or have spoken according to the commandments of God. 

For I am called to speak after this manner, according to the holy order of God, which is in Christ Jesus; yea, I am commanded to stand and testify unto this people the things which have been spoken by our fathers concerning the things which are to come.