What is Scripture Treasure Hunting

 

Ahoy Mattes - Welcome Aboard.  Are you ready to go treasure hunting in the scriptures?  There's  treasure to be found in the scriptures and it is found at the bottom of the scripture ocean.  The 1st step to find this buried treasure is to set sail.  You set sail by getting out your scriptures, a scripture journal, and turning off distractions like your cell phone.  "The spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a heavy hand.   Rather it whispers.  It caresses so gently that if we are preoccupied we may not feel it at all." (Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, Jan. 1983, page 53) 

The 2nd step to finding treasure in the scriptures is to RAISE THE SAILS.  You do this by raising your voice to God and saying a prayer or even writing out a prayer in your scripture journal.  Raise up to God the issues you are dealing with and what you would like help with in your life right now.   Doing Step 1 and 2 signals the Holy Ghost that you are ready to learn and that you desire the help (the treasure) God is wanting you to know or feel.  

When using these steps to outline a lesson, RAISE THE SAILS means raising the interest of your students.  You do this by bringing up a relevant temptation or issue that the students are or will be dealing with that the scripture block can help with.  It is helpful to have students at the beginning of the semester come up with a class list of temptations or issues they face or will be facing.  Have even the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders come up separate list  Students pay attention and are more excited to set sail in the scriptures when they see that the lesson is going to be relevant to their lives.

Step 3 is SAILING in the scriptures to where the buried treasure can be found.  To SAIL in the scriptures first surf over the scriptures to be studied looking for the to understand the context and content of what you read.   An understanding of such information as background and story line creates a basis for discovering gospel principles and doctrines as well as providing illustration and clarification of those truths found within the scripture block.  Understanding the background and setting of a scripture passage prepares you to recognize the gospel messages it contains.  

When reading the scriptures, it is useful to ask questions like: "Who wrote these verses?" "To whom were they written?" "What is happening in this account?" and "Why did the author write these verses?"  Chapter headings provide an overview of the main events in the chapter and often answer these questions.  It is also helpful to look up difficult or unfamiliar words in a dictionary.   When a phrase or passage of scripture is unclear, referring to any available footnotes or commentary that can help you understand it better. 

Step 4 is lowering the anchor and going SNORKLING in the scripture ocean.  We do this by identifying the truths, the doctrines and principles found in the scriptures that were read.  This step is doing what Elder Holland said in his quote at the top of this blog, and that is to read slower with more questions in mind.  It is to see what is reflected and refracted at the bottom of the scripture ocean looking for buried treasure in the scriptures.  Doctrines and principles are eternal, unchanging gospel truths that provide direction for our lives.  The Lord, and ancient prophets teach us these truths through the events, stories, or sermons they recorded in the scriptures.

Elder Richard G. Scott said, "Principles are concentrated truth, packaged for application to a wide variety of circumstances.  A true principle makes decisions clear even under the most confusing and compelling circumstances.  It is worth great effort to organize the truth we gather to simple statements of principle" ("Acquiring Spiritual Knowledge," Ensign, Nov. 1993, 86). 

Some gospel principles are made clear by the use of phrases such as "thus we see" or "nevertheless."  Most principles  however, are not stated directly.  Instead they are illustrated by the lives of the people in the scriptures.  These doctrines and principles can be discovered by asking yourself questions like: "What is the moral or point of this account?"  Why did the writer include this account or event? " "What did the author intend for us to learn?" "What truths are taught in this passage of scripture?" and "What can I liken to myself or a modern context from this scripture block?"

Step 5 - Once principles and doctrines have been identified and one in particular really shines as the treasure you are feeling you should go after you are ready now to go SCUBA DIVING in the scriptures.  SCUBA DIVING in the scriptures gets you understanding, analyzing, and illustrating the principle to work your way down to your buried treasure.  The scriptures contains clarifying commentary that can help you grasp the meaning of a statement of truth, doctrine or principle.  Making a list using the scripture block, or another story in the scriptures can help analyze or illustrate the truth, doctrine, or principle found.    

Another way to understand the doctrine or principle is explaining the gospel truth in your own words or illustrating what the gospel truth looks like at home, at school, or at play.   Illustrating the principle is so important to opening up your treasure and seeing what is really there for you.  Going to other places in the scriptures for related teachings and additional insights, plus turning to the words and teachings of latter-day prophets and apostles also helps in understanding, analyzing, and illustrating the principle.  The best way to illustrate the principle and be inspired is by finding a teaching or a story from the life of the Savior that matches what is being discovered. Don't forget to pray for the help of the Holy Ghost to help you ponder and be led to the right verses, quotes, or thoughts.  Keep in mind also that SCUBA DIVING in the scriptures continues to deepen as principles are applied.

As you work your way down to the bottom of the scripture ocean floor ask questions that lead yourself to analyze and visualize the scriptures.  For example, from the story of the 2,000 stripling warriors in the Book of Mormon, we can learn the principle that if we do not doubt, God will deliver us (see Alma 56:47–48). In order to gain a greater understanding of what this principle means, consider such questions as:

• What is it that the stripling warriors did not doubt?
• What evidence is there that these young warriors did not doubt?
• How did God deliver the stripling warriors?
• What are some “battles” the youth of the Church are fighting today?
• What are some ways God might deliver them from such battles?
• What does the experience of Abinadi, Joseph Smith, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego teach us about what it means to be delivered.  

Step 6 - OPEN TREASURE CHEST.  "X" Marks the spot!  eXamples and illustrating the principle gets you to the spot where your treasure is.  Step 6 is writing out and stating what you feel your treasure really is and looks like.  Write out a personal witness or experience you have had dealing with the principle.  Here are some questions you can ask yourself: "What am I feeling, not just thinking, after doing Steps 1-5?"  "What is the sense of urgency I am feeling?" What impressions have been coming to my mind?"  "What do I feel the Lord is whispering to me and wanting me to know or do?"  "What spiritual impressions have I received to help me improve?"   "What difference can these principle make in my life?"  "What can I start or stop doing now to live according to these truths."  "How will my life be better if I do what this scripture block teaches?"  These feelings are the  buried treasure we have been after!

Step 7 - Discovering and opening the treasure at the bottom of the scripture ocean floor does not benefit you much until you bring your treasure to the surface and cash it in for change.  Step 7 is BRING TREASURE TO SURFACE, AND CASH IT IN FOR CHANGE.  You do this by wrapping a chain around your treasured impressions and applying the doctrines and principles found.  This is where you act and do CHANGE yourself because of the impressions your felt, and principles found.  

Write out a specific plan of what you are going to do to act on what you feel the Lord has been whispering to you.  Answer the question, "how are you going to take this scripture study and apply it to your daily life."  Pray if you are not coming up with anything and, ask God to tell us what he would like you to specifically know or do.  What you write needs to be specific and needs to be able to be measured, because you are going to check on our progress and the "change" you receive.  Every time you come back to your scripture treasure hunt journal look over what we you put down from the previous treasure hunts, and write a follow up on how things are going and what you need to do to keep working at applying what you felt.  If we are not satisfied with how much "change" you received then try a different approach to cash in your treasured feelings.

As you act on what you have learned, you will feel the Holy Spirit.  You will feel more confidence and peace in your life.  You will feel the Holy Ghost witness the truth of the principle to you. President Thomas S. Monson said: "the goal of the gospel teaching (scripture reading)... is not to 'pour information' into the minds of the [learners]...The aim is to inspire the individual to think about, feel about, and then do something about living gospel principles" (in Conference Report, Oct. 1970, 107).  

As you follow through with these impressions and work through these steps, I hope that you will find that your scripture study has become much more than just getting your scripture reading done, or that you learned something about the scriptures.  I hope that you feel the power in the scriptures, find direction, and hear the voice of the Lord.  I hope that you will be able to see how the scriptures can be a personal "Liahona" for you, guiding and comforting you.  In Joshua 1:8 it says that if we will meditate on the scriptures day and night, and observe to do according to all that is written therein, our way will be made prosperous, and we will have good success.  

We live in a crazy world and I am finding that just picking up the scriptures and reading a few verses before I go to bed is not enough, we need, as President Hunter said in the Ensign  Nov. 1979, p. 64, to not be haphazard in our reading of the scriptures, but rather develop a systematic plan for study. 

We need to seriously study and immerse ourselves in the scriptures like President Benson and Elder Ballard talk about here:    

“There is a power in the scriptures which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a SERIOUS study of them. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path…When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance (President Benson, Ensign, Nov. 1986, 7).

 “As I think about your schedules and the pressures you face at this time in your lives, I can understand why scripture study can so easily be neglected. You have many demands pulling at you. In some cases, just maintaining your social life is a full-time occupation. But I plead with you to make time for IMMERSING yourselves in the scriptures. Couple scripture study with your prayers. Half an hour each morning privately studying, pondering, and communicating with your Heavenly Father can make an amazing difference in your lives. It will give increased success in your daily activities. It will bring increased alertness to your minds. It will give you comfort and rock-steady assurance when the storms of life descend upon you.” (Elder M. Russell Ballard, “Be Strong in the Lord, and in the Power of His Might”)

One other talk that is so good about the importance of reading our scripture and going deep in our scriptures is Elder Howard W. Hunters talk in 1979 titled - "Scripture Reading." 

Again, Welcome Aboard.  I hope what I have here for you and for my records can be of help.  I am excited to have a place where I am encouraged to keep going deeper in the scriptures and find relevancy in my personal study and in my lesson preparation.  I have found "great success" as I have gone treasure hunting in the scripture.  God can talk to us.  Jesus is the Christ, He lives.  We are not a lone.  The scriptures are the Word of God.   I know they bring "alertness" and "rock-steady" assurance and oh, how we need that in the world we live in today.  Let us not be slothful because of the easiness of the way, but let us look and live as Alma 37 talks about.  May you discover for yourself wonderful treasures at the bottom of the scripture ocean. Blessing to you - KS