Parkerville

I delivered the remarks below on March 12 th 2023 during our Ward Conference. I was trying to make two points, first, regular (that is daily or almost) study of scripture combined with prayer is required to understand it's function, that is how scripture works. I make this point by sharing an exchange I had with a friend that had lost his faith where it became clear that as he had lost his faith, he had also forgot what the purpose of scripture is and what it does, reverting to the secular idea that scripture is essentially a collection of wisdom sayings considered sacred by a specific group. In short, he wouldn’t know scripture from the proverbial “hot rock”. The second point is the flip side of the first, that is, those who do study and pray regularly, find that their relationship with God deepens as they do so. In fact, the difference between being a cultural Christian and having personal faith in God is a direct function of this practice. This is true of any scripture (wri