Part One:
“God is our Heavenly Father. We are His children. He has a body of flesh and bone that is glorified and perfected. He loves us. He weeps with us when we suffer and rejoices when we do what is right. He wants to communicate with us, and we can communicate with Him through sincere prayer.” (PMG) One might say that it is hard to understand God and who He is, but I know that this describes Him and prayer is one of the key elements that we have to use if we want to know Him and how He feels about us, talk to Him and ask Him.
"That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:" Acts 17:27
As we look at this scripture and we ponder what we want to know we are given directions on how we can come to know and better understand God's love in our life. First we must seek. Seeking for God is done through a prayer of faith. Then we learn that we will feel after Him. The feel part is the Holy Spirit letting us know that He, our Heavenly Father is truly there. Every day as we move through life we face different trials and struggles and as we are going through those events often we feel alone, but if we take time to look back we will see where our Heavenly Father has sent and given help to lift us. We move forward by feeling (faith) and we look back with sight (experience).
“He has given us this experience on the earth so we can learn and grow. We can show our love for Him through our choices and our obedience to His commandments.” (PMG) Following God’s direction is vitally important and shows the desires of our hearts.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Life of the Savior
Out of all the days of the year, Easter weekend is still one of the best times of year. Jesus Christ lives, the tomb is empty! I enjoy this time of year more than that of Christmas because there is no rushing around searching for gifts and toils of the holiday season. Rather, we have the arrival of spring emerging forth from nature's winter sleep. It is a quiet time to think of the Savior and His life.
"Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you—that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me. And my Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the cross; and after that I had been lifted up upon the cross, that I might draw all men unto me, that as I have been lifted up by men even so should men be lifted up by the Father, to stand before me, to be judged of their works, whether they be good or whether they be evil—"(3 Nephi 27:13-14).
I often like to ask myself: How well do I know the Man who died for me? He gave his life so that we can live again. As I think of this question, I realize that there is still so much about His life that I do not know. However, every time I read his words I get to learn more about Him. The scriptures teach us so much about the Savior. They teach us of His humble birth and life. They teach us how He views the works of His hands. They teach us of His attributes and how we can gain them. They teach us how He heals our hearts and makes our burdens light. They teach us of His gospel and how we can return to be with Him and His Father. The list of what the scriptures teach us can continue forever. Why? Because Jesus Christ lives, and so do His words as the Holy Spirit brings them to our hearts.
"And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good."(2 Nephi 33:10)
I know that Christ lives today, I know that His gospel is true, I know that His atoning sacrifice is real, and I do know that He can heal our hearts if we let Him. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Who Do We Hear?
"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge that we have lost in information?"
~T.S. Elliot
Every day there are so many people that just walk around with headphones in their ears, some even so much as to only have one side of the headphone in and the other side out so they can attempt to be involved in the world around them. For the sake of explanation, I'm just going to call this being "Plugged In". This plugged in idea is an influence that has seemed to overwhelm the youth and young adults in our times today. Now, please don’t take this the wrong way, I love my music and iPod, but in observation of others you can see the extreme that I'm getting at. In away, one's dependency on being plugged in has gone to new extremes and watching this has caused me to raise some questions as of what is going on and when did music become so infectious. Of course many would argue that they just love their music or they are not really listening to anything, that it might be educational, or the most ridiculous of all, that they can multi-task. Have you ever tried talking to someone that is plugged in? Your conversation results in, what?, hold on, and un-plugging one side of the head so you can only be paid a slight amount of attention. These are all very good ideas and observation, but there is more behind the scene than we often like to think.
We live in a world today where there is an increasing onslaught of distractions and temptations. We learn in the scriptures how to listen to the Spirit and how His voice comes, "And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul—." (Helaman 5:30) There is so much noise in the world, and with in all of that noise how do we ever think that we can hear the still small voice of the Holy Ghost? We can't, no one can. Every time we plug our mind in and seek after the fads and trends of the world, whether it is headphones, cell phones, texting, or just being worldly, we disconnect ourselves from that perfectly mild voice of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost communicates with us by feelings and thoughts in our hearts and minds, but when we give in to worldly influences our hearts and minds are no longer available to the Spirit. These vital communications usually come as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, temperance, gentleness, goodness, faith, and meakness just to name a few. With this line of communication we are able to better judge choices and action in our day to day lives and most often these acts that we do are to bless the lives of others. So in all, take time to smell the roses, un-plug your mind of the worldly things and seek for a better and I do know as one does this that they will be able to bless their lives and even better, bless the lives of others.
~T.S. Elliot
Every day there are so many people that just walk around with headphones in their ears, some even so much as to only have one side of the headphone in and the other side out so they can attempt to be involved in the world around them. For the sake of explanation, I'm just going to call this being "Plugged In". This plugged in idea is an influence that has seemed to overwhelm the youth and young adults in our times today. Now, please don’t take this the wrong way, I love my music and iPod, but in observation of others you can see the extreme that I'm getting at. In away, one's dependency on being plugged in has gone to new extremes and watching this has caused me to raise some questions as of what is going on and when did music become so infectious. Of course many would argue that they just love their music or they are not really listening to anything, that it might be educational, or the most ridiculous of all, that they can multi-task. Have you ever tried talking to someone that is plugged in? Your conversation results in, what?, hold on, and un-plugging one side of the head so you can only be paid a slight amount of attention. These are all very good ideas and observation, but there is more behind the scene than we often like to think.
We live in a world today where there is an increasing onslaught of distractions and temptations. We learn in the scriptures how to listen to the Spirit and how His voice comes, "And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul—." (Helaman 5:30) There is so much noise in the world, and with in all of that noise how do we ever think that we can hear the still small voice of the Holy Ghost? We can't, no one can. Every time we plug our mind in and seek after the fads and trends of the world, whether it is headphones, cell phones, texting, or just being worldly, we disconnect ourselves from that perfectly mild voice of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost communicates with us by feelings and thoughts in our hearts and minds, but when we give in to worldly influences our hearts and minds are no longer available to the Spirit. These vital communications usually come as love, joy, peace, longsuffering, temperance, gentleness, goodness, faith, and meakness just to name a few. With this line of communication we are able to better judge choices and action in our day to day lives and most often these acts that we do are to bless the lives of others. So in all, take time to smell the roses, un-plug your mind of the worldly things and seek for a better and I do know as one does this that they will be able to bless their lives and even better, bless the lives of others.
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