More Scripture Study Quotes

And now... an old Sunday School handout!  (I am really trying to purge things, and it's a good opportunity to review and record the ones I want to store in my brain and in my heart.) Beware, it is lengthy.

Russell M. Nelson:
Truth given by revelation can only be understood by revelation.  (CR Oct 2000)

Ezra Taft Benson:
The scriptures are called 'the words of life' (D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance.

. . .
The Book of Mormon was written for us today. God is the author of the book... God, who knows the end from the beginning, told [Mormon] what to include in his abridgment that we would need for our day.

. . . 
If they saw our day and chose those things which would be of greatest worth to us, is not that how we should study the Book of Mormon? We should constantly ask ourselves, 'Why did the Lord inspire Mormon (or Moroni or Alma) to include that in his record?'  (CR Oct 1986)

Joseph Fielding Smith:
Our attitude..toward the scriptures should be in harmony with the purposes for which they were written. They are intended to enlarge man's spiritual endowments and to reveal and intensify the bond of relationship between him and his God. (Juvenile Instructor, April 1912, 204)

Bruce R. McConkie:
Each pronouncement in the holy scriptures...is so written as to reveal little or much, depending on the spiritual capacity of the student. (NWAF 1985, 71)

In the final analysis, there is no way--absolutely none (and this cannot be stated too strongly!)--to understand any Messianic prophecy, or any other scripture, except to have the same spirit of prophecy that rested upon the one who uttered the truth in its original form. Scripture comes from God by the power of the Holy ghost. It does not originate with man. It means what the Holy Ghost thinks it means. To interpret it, we must be enlightened by the power of the Holy Spirit. (The Promised Messiah, 44)

Cheryl C. Lant:
When we read the scriptures we are hearing the voice of the Savior. He is not absent from our lives. He is actively positioned in the verses of these holy books. (CR Oct 2005)

Dallin H. Oaks:
Our belief in an open canon also includes private revelations to individual seekers of the meaning of existing scriptures.  (Ensign Jan 1995, 7)

...
The idea that scripture reading can lead to inspiration and revelation opens the door to the truth that a scripture is not limited to what it meant when it was written but may also include what that scripture means to the reader today. Even more, scripture reading may also lead to current revelation on whatever else the Lord wishes to communicate to the reader at that time. We do not overstate the point when we say that the scriptures can be a Urim and Thummim to assist each of us to receive personal revelation. (id., 8)

We need ot know that the Lord rarely speaks loudly. His messages almost always come in a whisper. (Ensign, March 1997, 12)

Russell M. Nelson:
Motivation for scriptural guidance comes when important choices must be made--even between options that are equally right. The Brethren are often faced with these kind of decisions. On such occasions, we turn to the scriptures. We may read all of the standard works afresh, looking for insights relative to a specific issue.

...
Time for scripture study requires a schedule that will be honored.

. . . 
To feast means more than to taste. To feast means to savor. We savor the scriptures by studying them in a spirit of delightful discovery and faithful obedience.  (CR Oct 2000)

Boyd K. Packer:
While we may invite this communication, it can never be forced! If we try to force it we may be deceived.

. . .
No one of us survive in the world today, much less in what it soon will become, without personal inspiration. The spirit of reverence can and should be evident in every organization in the Church and in the lives of every member. (CR Oct 1991)

There isn't a major problem we face that we can't be immunized against if we know the revelations. ("Teach the Scriptures," [address to religious educators], 14, Oct. 1977, 7)

For His own reasons, the Lord provides answers to some questions, with pieces placed here and there throughout the scriptures. We are to find them; we are to earn them. In that way sacred things are hidden from the insincere. (Cr Oct. 1983)

Henry B. Eyring:
Going to the scriptures to lkearn what to do makes all the difference... We will find answers in the scriptures. The Lord seemed to anticipate all of our problems and all of our needs, and He put help in the scriptures for us--if only we seek it. (Ensign, July 2005, 24)

David A. Bednar:
The scriptures, in essence, are a written 'recording' of the voice of the Lord--a voice we feel in our hearts more than we hear with our ears. and as we study the content and feel the spirit of the written word of God, we learn to hear His voice in the words we read and to understand the means whereby the words are given to us by the Holy Ghost. (New Era, April 2006, 5)

Sheri L. Dew:
Some of the clearest promptings I have ever received have come while being immersed in the scriptures. They are a conduit for revelation. They teach us the language of the Spirit. (CR Oct 1998)

D. Todd Christofferson:
I see you sometimes reading a few verses, stopping to ponder them, carefully reading the verses again, and as you think about what they mean, praying for understanding, asking questions in your mind, waiting for spiritual impressions, and writing down the impressions and insights that come so you can remember and learn more. Studying in this way, you may not read a lot of chapters or verses in a half hour, but you will be giving place in your heart for the word of God, and He will be speaking to you. (CR April 2004)

Richard G. Scott:
There is a power that can change lives in the specific words recorded in the standard works. That power is weakened when we paraphrase or alter the actual wording. I therefore suggest that you encourage students to cite scripture content with precision. ("Four Fundamentals for Those Who Teach and Inspire Youth," OT Synmposium Speeches, 1987, 5)

I suggest that you memorize scriptures that touch your heart and fill your soul with understanding. When scriptures are used as the Lord has caused them to be recorded, they have intrinsic power that is not communicated when paraphrased. (CR Oct 1999)

Brigham Young:
Stop! Wait! When you get up in the morning, before you suffer yourselves to eat one mouthful of food, . . . bow down before the Lord, ask him to forgive your sins, and protect you through the day, to preserve you from temptation and all evil, to guide your steps aright, that you may do something that day that shall be beneficial to the kingdom of God on the earth. Have you time to do this? . . . This is the counsel I have for the Latter-day Saints to-day. Stop, do not be in a hurry. . . You are in too much of a hurry; you do not go to meeting enough, you do not pray enough, you do not read the Scriptures enough, you do not meditate enough, you are all the time on the wing, and in such a hurry that yu do not know what to do first. . .l Let me reduce this to a simple saying--one of the most simple and homely that can be used--'Keep your dish right side up,' s that when the shower of porridge does come, you can catch your dish full. (Journal of Discourses, 15:37-38)