Card of the Week - Receive Me

Verse: DC, D&C 84:35

Text: “And also they who receive this priesthood receive me, saith the Lord.”

Verse Rule: ABILITY: When you play this verse or another priesthood verse, you may draw a verse.
Sacrifice Cost: 2
Markers: Priesthood
Icons:  S, W, F

There are many things that make Mormonism (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) different from other religions, even unique among Christian sects. Many of them are cultural, some are political, others are doctrinal.

One difference between us and other Christians that I feel is key is the priesthood authority that we claim. We believe that the early church organized by Jesus and the apostles fell into apostacy over the years. We believe that as the apostles, who were chosen and ordained by Jesus Himself, were killed or died, that priesthood was lost.

We also believe that this priesthood was restored to Joseph Smith and others as a part of the overall restoration of the Gospel in the 1830’s and 1840’s. There are many revelations explaining the priesthood and documenting this restoration, but the best one to read is D&C 20.

This week’s featured verse is all about receiving that priesthood. It allows you draw a verse everytime you play a verse with a priesthood marker.

This verse doesn’t have a thematic marker. I thought it would be a little interesting to have a verse with just the priesthood marker, but to give it three different icons instead.

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the Week - Rememberance

Verse:  NT, Luke 24:8

Text: “...And they remembered his words.”

Verse Rule: Quote OR DISCARD: Play after chosen player fails to quote a verse. That quote attempt succeeded instead.
Sacrifice Cost: 1
Markers: Wisdom
Icons: W, H

So, this is kind of a fun and useful verse.

In the context of the scriptures, it’s quite joyous. This is when the women returned to the sepulcher to tend to the body and encounter the angel. He tells them that Jesus has risen, and quotes them the things Jesus said about the resurrection.

...And they remembered his words.

Then, they rushed off and told the apostles.

In the context of the game, I had a little bit of fun with it. I kinda ripped it out of context and just thought of the text, and of remembering the words. First of all, it had to be a Quote verse, because that’s all about remembering the words. Then, what if you flub a quote? What if you mess up and don’t remember? It seems to me that you should be able to have a “gimme” card that lets you succeed anyway. That’s what this one does. If you fail a quote, either for a verse’s ability, or if you get challenged, you can discard this verse, and treat it like you had quoted it perfectly.

It’s nice for some forgiveness, right? Like someone’s got your back.

Other than that, it’s a nice way to drop a W or H icon for free, because the quote itself on this verse is really easy. Also, it’s a nice cheap throwaway verse in case you have to play some powerful 3-drop pearl verse!  Like I said, a fun, useful verse!

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the week: My Holy Day

Verse:  DC, D&C 59:9

Text: “Thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;”

Verse Rule: none
Sacrifice Cost: 1
Markers: Strength
Icons: S

There have been times in my life when I just didn’t want to go to church. I think everyone goes through that a time or two. At those times, I often would try to talk myself into staying home by telling myself that I didn’t have to actually GO to church, I could just stay at home and study on my own, and that would be just as good.  Maybe even better, on a day when the High Councilman was speaking.

Even at the time, I knew that was wrong. I knew I was rationalizing. I knew that I would go back to sleep or get distracted or something and not end up studying.

I also knew that I would miss out on the connectivity, the camaraderie of church. I know that church should be a personal spiritual experience, and we don’t go to just to socialize, but interacting with each other and strengthening each other is a very important thing, too.

I think that’s why we’re commanded, in this verse, to go to church.

Now, this particular verse, in game, isn’t particularly powerful. It only has one icon, Strength, and it has no verse rules. I think it’s very important to include a lot of these kinds of verses in a constructed deck. It’s nice to have cheap verses to fill in a chapter and allow you to close up a book. It’s also good to have sacrificial fodder. If you want to play something really big and cool, it’s good to have small, weak verses to sacrifice to play it. If your hand is filled with power verses, you’ll be less eager to sacrifice any of them.

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the week: The First Vision

Verse:  PGP, Joseph Smith History 1:16

Text:  “I saw a pillar of light, exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun...”

Verse Rule: Unique. ALSO, Quote. ALSO, EFFECT: Search your deck for up to two chosen Histories verses, and set them into the same chapter as this verse.
Sacrifice Cost: 3
Markers: Histories, Epic Event, Testimonies
Icons: W, F, HH

This verse, in many ways, is the key to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It describes the moment that God, the Father, and His son, Jesus Christ, appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in the woods near his home in Palmyra, New York, in a place we now call, “The Sacred Grove”.

This one moment expresses so many of our core doctrines and beliefs.

• That God wants to communicate with his children, and does so through prophets, in all times and ages.
• That God and Jesus are separate individuals that work together as one.
• That God and Jesus are both physical beings with omnipotent reach.

Such a defining event expressed on a game card should be huge, right? it should be a game changer. So, to be able to drop a bunch of histories icons on single chapter in one turn can really change it up. That’s plenty powerful, to be sure. Then, to be able to quote it and play it for free, well, that just takes it over the top. That’s why it’s also Unique. It only happens once in a game.

Just like the event itself.

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the week: The Sealing Power

Verse:  NT: Matthew 16:19

Text: “Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven”

Verse Rule: None
Sacrifice Cost: 2
Markers: Wisdom, Priesthood
Icons: W, W, F

This one is interesting to me. I pull these out of my deck box at random, and then start writing. But just this last week, I’ve been musing a lot on how blessed I am to have a wonderful wife to whom I am sealed for time and all eternity.

We were married in 1987 in August (so our anniversary is coming up). We’ve had a wonderfully rocky marriage, especially the first three to five years. There were many times when we were working things out that we were each very upset at each other. And yet, at no time did I ever consider divorce as an option. As we’ve talked, she’s expressed this as well. We were committed to the idea of being committed to each other. We had promised ourselves to each other for eternity, so that meant we had to work out the problems we were facing.

Well, as we did that, it kept getting better and better. Now, we’re looking at our 28th coming up next month! 28 years together! I can’t imagine life without her.

This verse card has a very stunning graphic, I think. I tried to capture the thought of something being both earthly and heavenly at the same time. This arc shot of earth from space fit the bill very nicely, I thought!

Thanks so much, Jodi, for all these terrific years!


Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Card of the Week: Perfected in the Resurrection

Verse: NT, Corintians 15:42

Text: “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption;”

Verse Rule: EFFECT: Exchange a chosen verse in one of your personal chapters with a chosen verse in your discard (its abilities are applied).
Sacrifice Cost:
Markers: Trials
Icons: W, F, T
Basic verse, Learning game

This verse, in its context in the New Testament, is teaching us about the Resurrection. It talks about how we all, being corrupt and mortal, will rise again, resurrected, perfected, and immortal.

This whole chapter talks about the reality and universality of the gift of the Resurrection. Verse 55: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

In the game, I worked the verse rule so that you could "resurrect" a verse and swap it out for another verse in your tabletop. The abilities of the verse thus brought forth are then applied.

This is particularly cool if there's a combo you've got going and you need a verse from your discard to trigger it.  Maybe you've already done the combo, closed the book, and now you want to do it again in another chapter. For example, what if you've got The Work of God and The Glory of God in a chapter. You close it up and receive your blessings. But now those two key verses are in your discard. If you get another copy of one of them in your hand, you can use Perfected in the Resurrection to swap it out from the graveyard and there you have another quick book!

In addition to this, It's quite flexible with its icons, and it's only a 1-sac cost to play it. Quite a useful card!

Seeker’s Quest! It’s the most fun you can have with your scriptures! To get the game, and get in on the fun, go to https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/seeker-s-quest-scripture-mastery-set

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

General Authority Trading Cards

http://www.thebunyion.com/2013/07/17/general-authority-trading-cards-unveiled

I had to chuckle a little when I saw this article. Obviously, from the name of the site, I can tell this is a parody, but it sure is a sweetly done one. A while ago, someone had made some other GA trading cards that looked a lot more like sports cards, and they were pretty cool, too. http://www.nine-moons.com/?p=594

I kind of liked that these new ones were based on Pokemon, both in design, and in the way the rules text was laid out and written. Pokemon is kind of a fun game, and how my kids got introduced to the whole concept of collectible card games. Later came Yu-Gi-Oh, and Magic.

What's kind of funny about this is that I had imagined something kinda similar early on in the life of Chapter and Verse. I had thought about a sort of promotional mini-set of, maybe a dozen or so cards that could come out after each conference, based on quotes from the talks. I think it would be cool to be able to intermingle the words of the current prophets with those of the ancient and even the historical Latterday ones.

I think it's really cool to see how fast the stand-out quotes from each conference show up as meme pictures on facebook, as fast as that afternoon.

I thought that there might be copyright and trademark issues involved. Those might get sorted out under either "Fair Use" laws or through negotiation with the church's intellectual reserve. In any case, I thought it was a kind of fun idea!

Check out Mark's other blogs, like Mark's Black Pot - Dutch Oven Cookbooks, and Mo'Boy