Hi friends, and welcome back to Primarily Scripture. This show is especially for anybody who is new to studying the scriptures. Especially for big kids and teens, but I've also been told that it's super helpful for people who've been away from the church for a while, for new converts, or for anybody who's a little bit overwhelmed by the idea of studying the scriptures. We do just a little bit at a time. We go nice and slow, and I show you how easy it can be to do that scripture study. So easy, a kid can do it.

 We follow Come Follow Me, which means this year we are studying the Book of Mormon. And this week we are in Alma chapters five through seven.  So I don't know if you guys remember, but a few episodes back, it was back in April, one of the tips that I had for you was to determine if what you're reading is a 📍 story or a sermon.

And not every tip can be used every single week, right? Not every verse or every chapter will have things like lists, but this tip of determining if it's a story or a sermon is definitely one that you can use every single verse, every single chapter, every single time. And it can help you. Don't forget that stories have   📍 people and places, the things that they did, what they felt. Whereas sermons will have the   📍 teachings, the doctrines. Maybe there'll be a to do list, warnings, promises. Things like that. So this week we're going to have both and we even have a sermon that has stories inside of it.

So that's super exciting. So watch for that as you read and that can help you to understand a little bit better.

 What's happening in these chapters is that the Nephites are starting to get a little bit prideful. And so Alma the Younger decides that his calling in the church, being high priest, is more important than his regular job of being the chief judge.

So he gives his job over to Nephihah, and Alma goes out to preach to the Nephites to help them to overcome some of these trials that they are experiencing.

 And one of my very favorite study tips is absolutely perfect for this week. Are you ready for it? 📍 Answer the questions you find. Okay?  There are sometimes questions in the scriptures that prophets will be asking the people to help them get thinking. So as you read, you get to find those questions and then answer them for yourself, too. So let's open up to Alma chapter five.

And we are in verses 27 through 31.  And these are the exact same verses that are included on one of the pages of the worksheets this week. So hop onto the website ,  PrimarilyScripture.com/Resources and you can get those for free. Okay, so as we read here, please be looking for those questions.  And I am going to mark them as I find them.

And because I like to be extra, I'm going to mark every question with a different color and it'll help me differentiate that it's different things I'm looking at.  You ready to read? Starting in 27, watching for those questions. "Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God?"

Oh, question mark. That is a question. I'm not going to mark every single word. I'm going to try to shorten it. So  have ye walked blameless is our first question. All right, let's keep going. And I'm going to get a new color ready.  "Could ye say, if you were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble?" That's another question, but it's worded a little bit strange, and so let's read that off of the worksheet.  "If you were going to die today, could you say to yourself, that you had been humble enough?" Oh, that's a good question.    "Could ye say... ye have been sufficiently humble." There we go. Those are the key words of the question. Could you say, you've been sufficiently humble.  "That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins?"

Again, there's a question mark there at the end. We know it's a question. So let's read it off the worksheet again.    "Or that your life has become clean and pure because you have relied on the sacrifice of Christ?" Okay, in one verse, we have found three questions. Three questions. At the beginning of verse 28, it says, "Behold, are ye  stripped of pride?" Let's mark that one now. And just in the interest of time, I'm going to skip down to the beginning of verse 29. 

"Is there one among you who has who is not  stripped of envy?" Let's mark that one. Stripped of envy.  And remember, stripped means everything is taken away. So if we're stripped of envy, we will have not any envy at all. And verse 30.   "Is there one among you that doth make a mock of his brother, or that heapeth upon him persecutions?" 

Let's read that off the worksheet. What does that mean?   "Do any of you make fun of other people? Or do you pick on people or treat them badly?"  Oh, that's a hard question. I definitely have made fun of people at one time or another. I try really hard not to do it, especially now as an adult, but I can't say that I never make fun of anybody. Okay, so just in those verses, we found a couple questions.  So what is the point of asking questions?

First of all, let's remember  WHO he's asking and WHY he's asking these questions. Do you know? If you don't know, you can go back to the beginning of the chapter. And look at the chapter heading and see if it tells you there, or on the first page of the worksheets, I've got a column over here that's titled, What's the Story? And that tells us what's going on as well.  

So, these are  members of the church that Alma is talking to, and they are becoming a little prideful and so   he's trying to help them. What does that mean for you?  If the members of the  church in Alma's day should be asked these questions, then maybe the members of the church in our day should be asked these questions, which means you and me. 

But why ask questions? Of course to make us think about the answers. So let's look at them and see if we can come up with any ideas.      The first question we found was,    Have ye walked blameless before God? 

There's actually none of us on the whole earth who can say we are completely blameless. Can we? We've all made mistakes. So when we look at this question and then we  look at ourselves, then we can start to make a plan. Am I perfect?  No, I'm not. So now what? Now I can make a plan for what I can work on. 

 Could I say that I have been sufficiently humble?  Oh, probably not. Maybe I need to work on that. Do you see how asking the questions to yourself helps you to find things to work on? 

 Now, as you think about these things, if the spirit whispers to you, um, you probably need to work on this one a little bit more. I don't want you guys to get discouraged. It doesn't mean you're a bad person if you have something to work on. It means you're normal, right?  All of us have things that we need to work on and  we won't know to work on them if we never look at ourselves and think, Hmm, how can I be more like Jesus?

So these questions can help with that. There have been several conference talks about this, even about how the questions in Alma chapter five, give us an opportunity to look at ourselves and see how we can do better.  And isn't that what scripture study is for?  We want to get to know Jesus Christ. We want to learn his gospel,    and we want to become like him.

 And we can't become like him if we don't start getting rid of some of these little things that creep in,  like pride,  and envy, and  being mean to each other.  So, as you find the questions, say a quick little prayer and ask the Lord to help you know what you can work on. 

 The whole lesson for this week is called,    Have Ye Experienced This Mighty Change in Your Heart? One of the things Alma talks about is how he and his father and other people have had that change of heart.

They felt the spirit and then they wanted to change and be better. And that's what the gospel is all about, is changing ourselves.  So this week as you study, find the questions, ask the questions, see what you can do to be better. And don't be afraid of change because we're all trying to change for the better. 

 There's a quote from General Conference, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, that I love. And I put it on the front page of the worksheets. I'm going to read it to you right now.  It says, "there is divine help for every one of us at any hour we feel to make a change in our behavior." Isn't that awesome?

There's help for us. If we want to change, he will help us.  "Clearly the possibility of change and living at a more elevated level has always been one of the gifts of God to those who seek it."   Heavenly Father wants to help you change. So have you experienced a change in your heart, feeling the Holy Ghost and wanting to be better?

If you have, fantastic!  What are you doing about it? Alma's questions can help you find things. And there are a few more activities on the worksheets, as always. As a matter of fact, there are extra bonus activities this week because there were so many good things in here. I could not pick just a couple.  So you can use those worksheets for study ideas. 

There are a lot of ways that you can study the gospel. Worksheets is one of them, right? Videos and podcasts, all super great. But don't forget, your gospel study should be primarily - most importantly, mostly - scripture. 

I'm Cindy Young. Thanks for joining me. I'll see you next time. Bye bye.  

  📍  Thanks for tuning in to Primarily Scripture with Cindy Young. Don't forget you can subscribe to the newsletter and download free worksheets on the website PrimarilyScripture. com. And if you like the channel, be sure to subscribe, like, share, and leave a review. See you next time!