{"id":1375,"date":"2014-03-03T07:06:33","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T14:06:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/?p=1375"},"modified":"2014-03-17T08:28:50","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T14:28:50","slug":"the-naming-of-john-the-baptist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/?p=1375","title":{"rendered":"The Naming of John the Baptist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Charles Dickens\u2019 A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge vowed \u201cI will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.\u201d I am going to keep Christmas all the year by remembering my Savior and studying His life each week. Scrooge isn\u2019t the only one who can\u00a0<a title=\"Vision Climb\" href=\"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/?page_id=55\" target=\"_blank\">make a change for the better<\/a>. I can and you can. Elder Richard G. Scott promised, \u201cThe best way to make a permanent change for good is to make Jesus Christ your model and His teachings your guide for life\u201d (<a title=\"A Personal Study Plan\" href=\"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/?page_id=238\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cHe Lives! All Glory to His Name!\u201d<\/a>). Please join me and invite your family and friends to join us in keeping Christmas all the year.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YUVvTYLgoBM?rel=0\" height=\"315\" width=\"560\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Now Elisabeth\u2019s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.\u00a0And her neighbours and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed great mercy upon her; and they rejoiced with her.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; and they called him Zacharias, after the name of his father.\u00a0And his mother answered and said, Not\u00a0so;\u00a0but he shall be called John.\u00a0And they said unto her, There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.\u00a0And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><\/em><em>And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed,\u00a0and he spake, and praised God.\u00a0And fear came on all that dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Jud\u00e6a.\u00a0And all they that heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><\/em><em>And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Blessed\u00a0be\u00a0the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,\u00a0And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;\u00a0As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:\u00a0\u00a0That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;\u00a0To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;\u00a0The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,\u00a0That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,\u00a0In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a name=\"76\"><\/a>And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;\u00a0To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,\u00a0Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,\u00a0To give light to them that sit in darkness and\u00a0in\u00a0the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lds.org\/scriptures\/nt\/luke\/1.57-80\" target=\"_blank\">Luke 1:57-80<\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Points to Ponder:<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<ol>\n<li>Why do you think it was important for someone to prepare the way of the Lord?<\/li>\n<li>What was John the Baptist&#8217;s message to the world?<\/li>\n<li>How can you prepare the way of the Lord (see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lds.org\/scriptures\/nt\/matt\/3.3?lang=eng#2\" target=\"_blank\">Matthew 3:3<\/a>) and be a light to those in darkness (see\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.lds.org\/scriptures\/nt\/luke\/1.76-79?lang=eng#75\" target=\"_blank\">Luke 1:76-79<\/a>) that all may receive the Savior when He comes again?<\/li>\n<li>What is your message to the world?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Click\u00a0<a title=\"New Testament\" href=\"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/?page_id=673\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>\u00a0for additional New Testament posts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Charles Dickens\u2019 A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge vowed \u201cI will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.\u201d I am going to keep Christmas all the year by remembering my Savior and studying His &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/?p=1375\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,16,25,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jesus-christ","category-mission","category-new-testament","category-zion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1375"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1427,"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions\/1427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountaintopmentoring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}