1000th Blog Post and Lesson Outline

I have some exciting news, and a reason why that news isn't actually all that exciting.

THIS IS MY 1000TH PUBLISHED BLOG POST!!!

However, that figure includes blog posts from before, during, and just after my mission, not just the blog posts I've written since I've decided to blog daily. If we include only the blog posts after and including "Blog," this is my 892nd published blog post. However, there are plenty of other post-mission blog posts that are pretty blogworthy, such as Happy Father's Day and Battle for Freedom, which I should probably add to the 892 "recent" blog posts. Though, having reviewed my post-mission blog posts, it seems clear to me that not all of them make the cut. For course, not all of my post-"Blog" blog posts have been bloweorthy either. If I subtract those from the total, and add the blogworthy, pre-"Blog," post-mission, blog posts, the math gets a lot more complicated, so I'm not going to deal with all of that. This is my 1000th blog post, and that's pretty exciting.

Given that I only have a few hours left before I give me lesson, I think it's time I wrote an outline for it. The manual starts by talking about the Great Apostasy and the Restoration of the church. My lesson will start there, too, but I'll put more of an emphasis on how much of a miracle it was that the Restoration was even possible. Religious freedom was not something that was universally available at the time of our nation's founding, and we had to win a difficult war to earn it.

Then, I think, I'll transition to the three main things that we got back during the Restoration and that set us apart as a church today: Modern Revelation, Priesthood Authority, and Restored Truths. I'll talk about how much we need modern revelation to guide us in circumstances and conditions that differ greatly from those described in the Bible. Revelation is an expression of God's love. As long as He still loves us and we're still listening to Him, He'll keep speaking to us, both through His Spirit and through living prophets.

I may transition to Priesthood authority the same way I did on my blog, by saying that even a perfect knowledge of saving ordinances wouldn't help us much without the authority to perform those ordinances. I'll explain (for anyone who may not already know) that the Priesthood is passed from one person to another by the laying on of hands, and can only be given to those who are worthy and ready to receive it. In the latter end of the early years of Christianity, we started to run out of people like that, and eventually those who held the Priesthood died before they found someone they could pass it to, and the authority was lost from the earth. Thankfully, God restored it through John the Baptist, Peter, James, and John, Joseph Smith, and Oliver Cowdery. The authority was passed from Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery to others in a line (more like a chain, really) that extends to every worthy, ready, male member of this church.

The trouble is that it'll be difficult to transition from Priesthood Authority to Restored Truths. Maybe I'll use baptism for the dead to make the connection between the Priesthood and things that are taught in this church (and in Jesus' original church) but not in others. If there are converts in the class this afternoon, and I'm sure there will be, I'll invite them to share teachings that were new to them that they learned while investigating the church. Depending on what and how many responses of that kind I get, we may also look at the brief list provided in the manual.

I'll conclude with my testimony that the church is true, that it was a miracle that it was restored, and that I was blessed to have been born in it. I'll express my gratitude for modern revelation, Priesthood authority, restored truths, and all other blessings that we get from the church that we couldn't get anywhere else. This is a great church, and we receive great blessings as members of it. We should try to share those blessings more frequently than we do.