[Teachldsseminary] Request Help: D&C 64

[Barb]

The Doctrine and Covenants Annotated Scriptures have several quotes from the
recent General Conference, helps for the Teaching Emphasis on verses 9 & 10
and also this story from Corrie ten Boom on forgiveness. Hope this helps...

I’m Still Learning to Forgive,” by Corrie ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie had been arrested for concealing Jews
in their home during the Nazi occupation of Holland in World War II. They
had been sent to the concentration camp at Ravensbruck. There Corrie saw her
sister die from the inhumanly cruel treatment they received.

Following the war, Corrie returned to Germany “with the message that God
forgives.” Everywhere she spoke, she explained that when we confess our sins
and repent, “God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever.”

After one of her talks, a man came up to speak to her. She recognized him as
one of the guards from the concentration camp. He stood in front of her,
thrust out his hand, and said: “A fine message, Fräulein! How good it is to
know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!”

She recalls her reaction:

“I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather
than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course—how could he
remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?

“But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. I was
face to face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.

“ ‘You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk,’ he was saying. ‘I was a guard
there.’ No, he did not remember me.

“ ‘But since that time,’ he went on, ‘I have become a Christian. I know that
God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to
hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein,’—again the hand came out—’will you
forgive me?’ ”

“I stood there—I whose sins had again and again to be forgiven—and could not
forgive. Betsie had died in that place—could he erase her slow, terrible
death simply for the asking?

“It could not have been many seconds that he stood there—hand held out—but
to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever
had to do.

“For I had to do it—I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior
condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. ‘If you do not forgive
men their trespasses,’ Jesus says, ‘neither will your Father in heaven
forgive your trespasses.’

“I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience.
Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi
brutality. Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able
also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what
the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It
was as simple and horrible as that.

“And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But
forgiveness is not an emotion—I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the
will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

 ‘Help!’ I prayed silently. ‘I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You
supply the feeling.’

“And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out
to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in
my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this
healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

“ ‘I forgive you, brother!’ I cried. ‘With all my heart!’

“For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the
former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely, as I did then”

(excerpted from “I’m Still Learning to Forgive,” by Corrie ten Boom;
reprinted by permission from Guideposts Magazine; copyright 1972 by
Guideposts Associates, Inc., Carmel, New York 10512).

-----Original Message-----
From: teachldsseminary-bounces at latter-dayvillage.com
[mailto:teachldsseminary-bounces at latter-dayvillage.com] On Behalf Of BRIAN &
PAIGE BALLARD
Sent: Monday, January 01, 2007 11:08 AM
To: teachldsseminary at latter-dayvillage.com
Subject: [Teachldsseminary] Request Help: D&C 64


Hi all:

Just was asked to substitute teach for D&C 64 and wondered if there were any

creative ideas out there.  I've not got the materiels yet, but I do see that

it is a two day lesson.  If any of you have some ideas, please pass them 
along to me.

Thanks...PB



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