Heads up! If you’d like a free chapter from my book, Considering the Cross: How Calvary Connects Us with Christ, you can get one here.
In 2017, speaking to young adults, President Russell M. Nelson said,
How can you increase in your discipleship? I have an invitation for you that will help—it’s an assignment, actually—if you choose to accept it. Commence tonight to consecrate a portion of your time each week to studying everything Jesus said and did as recorded in the Old Testament, for He is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Study His laws as recorded in the New Testament, for He is its Christ. Study His doctrine as recorded in the Book of Mormon, for there is no book of scripture in which His mission and His ministry are more clearly revealed. And study His words as recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, for He continues to teach His people in this dispensation.
This may seem like a large assignment, but I encourage you to accept it. If you proceed to learn all you can about Jesus Christ, I promise you that your love for Him, and for God’s laws, will grow beyond what you currently imagine. I promise you also that your ability to turn away from sin will increase. Your desire to keep the commandments will soar. You will find yourself better able to walk away from the entertainment and entanglements of those who mock the followers of Jesus Christ. To assist you, refer to the Topical Guide for references under the topic “Jesus Christ.”
Study everything Jesus Christ is by prayerfully and vigorously seeking to understand what each of His various titles and names means personally for you. For example, He really is your Advocate with the Father. He will take your side. He will stand up for you. He will speak on your behalf, every time, as you choose to be more like Him.
In the following General Conference, President Nelson mentioned this assignment:
Today I would like to speak about how we can draw into our lives the power of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. We begin by learning about Him…
Earlier this year, I asked the young adults of the Church to consecrate a portion of their time each week to study everything Jesus said and did as recorded in the standard works. I invited them to let the scriptural citations about Jesus Christ in the Topical Guide become their personal core curriculum.
I gave that challenge because I had already accepted it myself. I read and underlined every verse cited about Jesus Christ, as listed under the main heading and the 57 subtitles in the Topical Guide.11 When I finished that exciting exercise, my wife asked me what impact it had on me. I told her, “I am a different man!” I felt a renewed devotion to Him…
Think of it! President Nelson, in his nineties, and an Apostle for decades was growing closer to Jesus Christ by studying the references to Jesus Christ in the Topical Guide. President Nelson shared more about this experience in a blog post on the Church’s website.
On December 1, 2016, I obtained a new set of scriptures and proceeded to begin the same assignment that I would later extend to young adults in January. When I finished the assignment six weeks later, I had looked up and marked more than 2,200 citations from the four books of scripture….
I have devoted much of my 92 years to learning about the Savior, but rare are the occasions when I have been able to learn as much as I did over this six-week study period. In fact, I learned so much about Him from this study that I am planning to share much of it in other upcoming addresses that I am currently preparing…
Now, I realize some of you are probably thinking to yourselves that you couldn’t possibly have time to complete an assignment like this.
I know how you feel. I thought the same thing of myself—that there’s no way I can have time to do all of this. I needed to remind myself that a comment like this is not a faith-promoted comment. A faith-promoted comment would be “I know I don’t have time for this, but I’m going to make time for it. And I’ll fulfill it with what time I have.”
Each of us who takes this challenge will finish in our own time frames. For me, much of the joy of this came from getting it all done in just six weeks. This intense study over a relatively short period of time allowed me to appreciate the complementary nature of the learnings to be found in the Old Testament, the Book of Mormon, the New Testament, and the Doctrine and Covenants.
To those of you who feel you don’t have time, if you will make a sacrifice, you will be well rewarded and very, very grateful for the change of perspective, increased knowledge, and improved depth of your conversion. I know this is true because I have seen the same rewards in my own life….
I promise you that if you will study His words, your ability to be more like Him will increase. I know this is true.
In the context of this invitation from President Nelson, I want to share with you some of my experiences acting on this assignment.
In the fall of 2017 I moved to Jerusalem and decided that, given that there no nearby temples, I would dedicate my temple time to completing this invitation. Each week I would go to the Garden of Gethsemane, The Garden Tomb, or the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and spend some time going through these verses.
I especially enjoyed reading about specific aspects of Jesus Christ in a concentrated form. For example looking up “Jesus Christ, Advocate,” helped me see repeated references to the Savior’s advocacy. Seeing multiple verses all in a row helped this aspect of the Savior’s nature sink a little deeper into my heart. The same was true for many other entries.
For this study, I used the free app “Learn of Me” app created by Aaron Martinez [update: the app is currently not available, hopefully Aaron can put it back up soon]. As you can see in the below screenshots there are different ways to study and the app keep tracks of what you’ve read. Super cool!
I didn’t study all 2,200 verses in 6 weeks like President Nelson did. It took me closer to 9 months, but at the end I felt like I received the blessings President Nelson promised–specifically a deeper testimony of and connection with Jesus Christ.
About a year later I decided to take this invitation again, this time using the book compiled by Stephanie Sorenson, coincidentally also called Learn of Me. I loved having a hard copy to go through and I’m not the only one. Read the reviews on Amazon and you’ll want to get a copy too.
You can also find printouts that you can use to help you complete this invitation (one here, another here). This page shows you how to do the Topical Guide challenge over a series of Sundays, and this handout has hyperlinks that makes going through the verses even easier.
I did not feel any “diminishing returns” by taking the invitation a second time; in fact, I loved it just as much and genuinely felt closer to Jesus Christ. I will probably do this study a third time in the near future. If you haven’t yet taken this invitation , I encourage you to try it. I know the blessings promised by President Nelson are real. In October 2020, Elder Neil L. Andersen reminded us,
If a renewed study of the Savior helped prepare President Nelson, could it not help prepare us as well?
100%, Yes!!!
