The Gathering of Scattered Israel...The Abrahamic Covenant explained by an Apostle of the Lord

Thanks to all for a magnificent discussion today about the Abrahamic Covenant! Aside from the challenge to revisit and reread your Patriarchal Blessings, I also feel inspired to point you to a particularly wonderful General Conference talk by the Apostle Russell M. Nelson, first given at the Sunday morning session of the October 2006 GC. Visit this link to either view the video, listen to the MP3 audio file or download the printed talk. I listened to the talk twice after I returned home this afternoon and I promise you it is well worth the 14 minutes it takes to do it.
Elder Russell M. Nelson
Elder Nelson explains the link between the Abrahamic Covenant and the LDS Church today and outlines our responsibilities to assist the Lord in the gathering of scattered Israel through missionary work and temple ordinance work for the dead.

Below I have also included the quotes that we read in class today. Have a great week brothers and sisters! Next week's reading assignment? Living righteously in a wicked world:

Genesis 13–14; 18–19

From today's lesson:

What is a patriarchal blessing?

The First Presidency said: “Patriarchal blessings [are] an inspired declaration of the lineage of the recipient, and also, where so moved upon by the Spirit, an inspired and prophetic statement of the life mission of the recipient, together with such blessings, cautions, and admonitions as the patriarch may be prompted to give. … The realization of all promised blessings is conditioned upon faithfulness to the gospel of our Lord” (letter to stake presidents, 28 June 1957; quoted in Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 558)

Elder Joseph Fielding Smith said: “The great majority of those who become members of the Church are literal descendants of Abraham through Ephraim, son of Joseph. Those who are not literal descendants of Abraham and Israel must become such, and when they are baptized and confirmed they are grafted into the tree and are entitled to all the rights and privileges as heirs” (“How One May Become of the House of Israel,” Improvement Era, Oct. 1923, 1149).

Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained:

“Abraham first received the gospel by baptism (which is the covenant of salvation); then he had conferred upon him the higher priesthood, and he entered into celestial marriage (which is the covenant of exaltation), gaining assurance thereby that he would have eternal increase; finally he received a promise that all of these blessings would be offered to all of his mortal posterity. Included in the divine promises to Abraham was the assurance that Christ would come through his lineage, and the assurance that Abraham’s posterity would receive certain choice, promised lands as an eternal inheritance. All of these promises lumped together are called the Abrahamic covenant. This covenant was renewed with Isaac and again with Jacob. Those portions of it which pertain to personal exaltation and eternal increase are renewed with each member of the house of Israel who enters the order of celestial marriage; through that order the participating parties become inheritors of all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 13).

President Ezra Taft Benson said, “The responsibility of the seed of Abraham, which we are, is to be missionaries to ‘bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations’ (Abraham 2:9)” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1987, 107; or Ensign, May 1987, 85).

Elder Boyd K. Packer made the following analogy to emphasize our responsibility to share the gospel with others:

Imagine that our bishop has appointed us to plan a picnic for ward members. It is to be the best social in the history of the ward, and we are to spare no expense. We reserve a beautiful picnic ground in the country. We are to have it all to ourselves.

The day arrives and everything is perfect. The tables are set and the feast is spectacular. Then, just as the blessing is being said, an old car turns into the picnic grounds and sputters to a stop. A worried man lifts the hood, and a spout of steam comes out. Several children climb out of the car. An anxious mother takes a box to a nearby table. She puts a few leftovers on the table, trying to make them look like a meal for her hungry children. But there is not enough.

Then one of the little girls sees our table. She pulls her little brother over to us and pushes her head between you and me. We move aside. The little girl says, “Look at that; I wonder what that tastes like.”

What would we do? Would we ignore the people or ask them to be quiet? Would we show them back to their table and give them some of the food we don’t really need? Or would we invite them to come and join us, to sit between us and share the feast, and to let us help fix their car and give them something for their journey?

Elder Packer asks: “Could there be more pure enjoyment than seeing how much we could get those hungry children to eat? Could there be more satisfaction than to interrupt our festivities to help [them] fix their car? … There are people across the world and about us—our neighbors, our friends, some in our own families—who, spiritually speaking, are undernourished. Some of them are starving to death! If we keep all this to ourselves, it is not unlike feasting before those who are hungry” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1984, 59–61; or Ensign, May 1984, 41–42).