Relief Society Lesson 11/15/09

Chapter 44: The Restoration of All Things: The Dispensation of the Fulness of Times

What an AMAZING time we live in! This is a time in which "prophets, priests and kings have dwelt with peculiar delight; they have looked forward with joyful anticipation to the day in which we live." This is the greatest of all dispensations, when every key, power, and priesthood ever held by a mortal on earth has been restored.

Joseph Smith was so anxious for the Nauvoo Temple to be completed, because the Lord had said, "...let this house be built unto my name, that I may reveal mine ordinances therein unto my people; For I deign to reveal unto my church things which have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world, things that pertain to the dispensation of the fulness of times."

So something to think about is our role in this beautiful plan. How can we use our energy, skill, talent, and ability to contribute to the Lord's work? Each calling in the church gives us an opportunity to learn, to be strengthened and to touch certain individual's lives. Each of us was born with certain talents to help us with our mission here on earth. What about the different skills we have learned, how can we use them to build the kingdom of God? We all have a role.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland stated, "Because ours is the last and greatest of all dispensations, because all things will eventually culminate and be fulfilled in our era, there is, therefore, one specific responsibility that falls to those of us in the Church now that did not rest quite the same way on Church members in any earlier time. We have a responsibility to prepare the Church of the Lamb of God to receive the Lamb of God -- in person, in triumphant glory, in His millennial role as Lord of lords and King of kings."

It is a very exciting time to live with missionary work greater than it ever has been, temples being built all over the world and technology available to help us do family history quicker and easier than ever before. We have a great responsibility, but with that responsibility comes great blessings. I am truly grateful to live in this time.

Elisha Jones