Remaining Free

Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire. (Matt 18:9)

Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. (John8:34) 

                One of the hardest parts of true repentance is no longer committing that sin. This is hard because sin has a way of pulling us in. We want to stop but often we need to do more than just commit to stopping. For many sins we need to change our lives to keep us from that sin. That’s what this scripture is cautioning us. We are better off giving up the thing or person that we have in our lives instead of letting it/them continue to influence us to sin.

                While this is a hard principle to put into action, I know firsthand that it is essential. For a while I struggled with a pretty serous sin, one that had the potential to become an addiction. It came close there for a while. It was not something that I wanted to do; it was often more of a compulsion. I knew I needed to change. I also knew that to be successful, I would need to be diligent that it would not become a problem again. I had to change what I listened to, who I spent time with and what I did in my free time.

                Christ has told us that sinning is bondage but when you are in the middle of it, it doesn’t seem like it. But it still is. A friend that I care very much about as struggled with pornography for the better part of a decade. He has tried to end his addiction many time but each time falls short of recovery. It has ruined his marriage and has controlled his life. It has entrenched itself in his life to the point that he has threated both jobs and relationships for its sake. His need for porn has taken over parts of his life. That sure sounds like bondage to me.

                All sin does this to some extent. As we sin, we lose control over our lives, actions and reactions. If we struggle with anger, we lose the ability to react with care and love. If we struggle with drinking we lose the ability to control our action while consuming alcohol. If we struggle with judging others, we lose the ability to see them as children of God.

                Sin is more than just one action. It is a symptom of what is in our hearts. To fight it, we must change what influences our hearts. If a good friend is encouraging us to drink or break the law of chastity, we must leave them. If the music that we love is enticing us into violence and immoral activity, we must change what we listen to. Only through that can we really be able to successfully change the habits that we wish to break. We must cling to the Truth and to His words. Living free from the bondage of our sins will bring us more joy than letting those influences remain in our lives. It’s hard but worth it.

I know.

Faith for Safety

The principle that I want to talk about in this post is the idea that our salvation is dependent on our faith in Christ. Without looking only to Christ we cannot be safe and we cannot make it home to him again. We must take direction from him and look to none else. To illustrate this let’s look at Christ’s ministry.

In Matthew 14 :22-33 we find Christ sending his disciples ahead of him onto a ship. They leave without him and soon are surrounded by a storm. Christ approaches, walking across the water toward the besieged ship. He calls to the ship and Peter responds with a plea for Christ to call him to join Him on the water. Christ does and as Peter descends from the ship onto the water, but as he walks the winds blow and he becomes afraid. As his fear increases he sinks where once he had stood. He called to the Lord, who reached out His hand to steady the apostle. Peter again finds firm footing on the water and stand with Christ. Then Christ asks, “wherefore didst thou doubt?”

Peter’s faith that Christ would keep him above the water was enough to get him to leave the relative safety of the ship and to walk on the water. As he let his faith wander and be replaced with distractions, in this case fear and doubt, he began to sink. He began to struggle.  He lost his footing. It was only through returning to Christ and trusting in his grasp that Peter was able to stand firm on the water.

This is the same for us. While we may not find ourselves needing to stand on the surface of a stormy sea, many of us have felt that we are treading water or barely keeping from drowning in our demanding lives. I know that I have. It is often when I think that I can do things on my own or when I simply forget to ask for help that I struggle the most. As I keep trying to move forward, trusting that Christ will make it so that things work out, I find peace in my life.
 

My life is not easy. I am a widow and a single mother to a preschooler and a toddler at 24 years old. It’s fair to say that I have had my struggles. I have found the words in Doctrine and Covenants section 88: 67 to be so very true: “And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.” As I have looked to Christ to guide me and provide for me, I have found that I am able to understand what I need to do and how to do it. I have found that I am better able to find meaning in the things in my life.

Faith is the key. Without faith in Him each step we take lets us sink farther and farther into the sea. Each step without faith gets us that much more below the water. As with Peter, only looking to Christ to be our salvation can we find safety.

Parables

                One of the questions that is pretty often asked about the Savior’s ministry is about His use of parables to teach the doctrine. Many wonder why he would use such great lengths to teach principles when he could just tell us what they are. It seems like it would be easy to misunderstand what he is saying and get the doctrine wrong. There are some very good answers to why He taught in parables though.

In Matthew 13:11-14 Christ gives one of the reasons that he speaks in parables. He says, “…it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given…Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand” (vs. 11, 13). Christ knew that not all of those that listened to Him were listening for the right reasons. As he taught in parables those that were prepared for His words and had the Spirit with them would hear the principles that he had to share. In this manner, His words would not be twisted to evil purposes and fall of the ears of those unprepared for His gospel.

Another reason that he taught in parables was to allow us to seek for our own understanding. He wanted us to learn to search for good instead of just having it handed to us. The Gospel of Christ is filled with work and faith. Both of these principles come into play when reading parables. We must trust in the Lord and His Spirit to show us the principles therein as we diligently search for them. We cannot learn without the Spirit and the principles will not be revealed without our taking the time to look for them.

As we read through parables, it would be good for us to remember that there is a difference between the interpretation and the application of the parable. There is only one interpretation of a parable yet that interpretation can be applied to many situations. As an example let’s look at one of Christ’s parables.

                In Matthew 13: 47-50, Christ gives the parable of the net cast into the sea.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:

Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

The interpretation of this parable is that Christ “Throws” His gospel, as a net, into the world and uses it to gather people to him. As people come unto him, those that are worthy of His glory are kept and those that are not are tossed back.  

                The applications for this parable are wide. We can learn from it that we are brought unto Christ through his gospel and that we must be safely inside it. We learn that not all that are members of the church will be counted worthy, so we must act on our faith and knowledge and do his will so as to be counted worthy of remaining in His presence. We can also apply this to our lives by realizing that if His gospel is how people are brought unto Him, then we should help to make sure that others are safely inside the net as well. We must help them to come unto Christ.

Blessings and the Beatitudes

The word blessed is a word that we often take for granted. I know that I had never really given it much thought. I just assumed that it meant that I would be given the things that I want or need.  As I have been studying this week though, I have come to realize that it means that I become happy. The actual definition means to be favored, privileged, enviable, or happy and this makes sense. The Lord’s mission is to bring our eternal happiness and blessings are the way that this is accomplished. This definition brought new meaning to the declarations in the beatitudes for me.

One example of this is in Matthew 5: 4. Here Christ says “blessed are they that mourn”. President Lee offers that this means that those mourning are mourning over their sins. I have experienced firsthand how this mourning can bring happiness. All through middle and high school, I struggled with my testimony. I was in a part member family, and that part was inactive. I went to church, activities and seminary, but it was only skin deep. There was no real conversion and I was unhappy. During high school I started to deal with major depression for the first time. At one point I was so unhappy that I decided that what the gospel had to offer had to be better than what I had going for me then. I was upset with the decisions I had made and regretted so many of them . I decided to change. When I look back on where I was then and compare it to where I am now, I can see the difference. My life is rarely happy go lucky, but there is a joy in my life that I did not have then and I know that it comes from following Christ.

Another example of how I am seeing the beatitudes different is from verse 6. Christ exclaims, “blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” I have also seen in my life how actively searching for the will of God has brought me happiness. As I have become the person that I am now, I have gone through many trials. I have found myself either trying to do it on my own or seeking guidance from God. As I have leaned on him and looked to him for my answers, I have been given direction and peace. I have been able to be happy because I have known that He is in charge and that he will give me all that I need to get through this life.

My last example of how I find happiness, or blessings, from the beatitudes is in verse 7. Christ claims, “Blessed are they who are merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” Being merciful is not something that I am always good at, especially in interactions with my late husband and my children. It is easier to be merciful to those outside my immediate family. Yet one of the greatest feelings that I have felt is acceptance and understanding from others. I have known the great joy that that has brought to my life. I want, more than anything, to feel that even greater joy that will come from Christ’s mercy after my life here is through. I want to return to Him and our Father again and I can only do that through his mercy. I also want others to feel that mercy and joy.

            These specific beatitudes are something that I am working on in my life each day. More than anything, I want to be happy, both here and in the eternities. Verse 12 states, “rejoice, and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven.” This is a reminder to me that the righteous desires of my heart will bring me happiness. No matter the pain that I deal with here, I must remain true to the perfect life that Christ outlined for me in the beatitudes. Through that example I can find happiness.

Christ and the Godhead

     The verses in Matthew 3:13-17 are powerhouses of doctrine. They offer insight into the divinity and mission of Christ, the nature of the Holy Ghost as well as of the Godhead itself. It seems unreal that four short verses could offer so much information. That doesn’t make it less true.
In the first two verses Christ approaches John to be baptized. John refuses claiming his need to be baptized of the Savior. John knew of Christ’s divinity and mission. He knew that he did not have the priesthood power that Christ had. John was known for his role in baptizing others. He had standing with the people to do this. Yet he stepped back, when approached by the Savior, and asked that he first be baptized of Him. This is a great testimony of Christ’s divinity.
     Christ responds to John by saying that His baptism was needed to fulfill all righteousness. More insight is gained about this phrase and what it means by looking to the Book of Mormon. From 2 Nephi 30: 6-11 we see that there are three ways in which Christ fulfilled all righteousness through his baptism. First, He showed men that even He, who was perfect, would do all that His Father asked of him. God had commanded that all should be baptized to return to Him, so Christ obeyed. Second, He received the Holy Spirit, knowing that only through the promptings of the Holy Ghost could mortals make it back to His presence. Third, He acted in his role as the Light of the World by lighting the path by which men may find salvation. He showed men the exact steps that must be taken to achieve celestial glory.
     From these verses, specifically from verse sixteen, we learn about the nature of the Holy Spirit. In verse sixteen it says that after Christ removed from the water then the Spirit descended on him. Christ showed us that individuals must be baptized before the Spirit can remain with them.
Finally we learn about the nature of the Godhead. Most Christian religions believe that the Godhead is the same being, the Trinity. These verses, and many others, show that this is simply not true. In these verses alone, each member of the Godhead appears individually, in a manner that would not be possible if they were all one being. First Christ enters the waters of baptism. Then, immediately following His baptism, God’s voice is heard praising His son and the Holy Ghost descends on Him. These were three simultaneously occurring roles requiring three separate beings.
     All of the scriptures have some meaning for us. Sometimes you have to search for answers over many verses and sometimes you can find a wealth of information in a few short verses. In just four verses we learn about Christ mission and divinity as well as about the natures of the Holy Ghost and the Godhead. Sometimes there is more to a set of verses than we may think.

Spiritual Strength

     As I read through the account of the revealing of the conception of Christ to Joseph in Matthew Chapter 1 this time, I was struck by his faith even more than I had been before. I believe that this may be because of some of the aspects of the story that I had not recognized previously. First, I had not considered his spiritual standing before. Second, I had not really thought about his initial reaction to the news of Mary’s pregnancy. Finally, these thought lead to a greater understanding of how Joseph actually responded to the Spirit and what the promptings of the Spirit and angels meant to him as well as how I can incorporate these into my life.
     As I’ve read through this account before, I gave little though to what kind of a man Joseph was. It wasn’t until reading through this time that I thought about what kind of man he must have been before all of this happened. Heavenly Father would not have chosen him to be the earthly father of Christ if he was not a man of faith. Putting the Savior into a righteous home would have been of the utmost importance. Joseph shows this faith as he acts on the counsel of the angels that visit him and as he does all that is asked of him.
      However, it was important for me to see that even though he was a righteous man, his first impulse upon learning that Mary was pregnant was not what God wanted him to do. Even the person that was chose to be the earthly father of God, a righteous man, did not have his will always line up with what God wanted of him. None of us are perfect, obviously, and each of us can do better to have our will match His. The most important part of this realization for me was that he completely changed his mind upon learning what God wanted of him. He went from choosing a divorce to marrying Mary. Once he knew the will of God, he did just as he was asked.
     To me this shows great faith and spiritual sensitivity. Twice Joseph was led by God in a dream. Twice he listened. Joseph was in tune enough with God that he was ready to listen to Him through his dreams. God knew that these dreams would be seen for what they were and would be treated as sacred counsel. He knew that Joseph would hold dear what he was given. That speaks of great faith.
     For me, this all lead to two great attributes of Joseph that I would like to have: the ability to hear and listen to the Spirit and faith to act on those promptings. My life is in a challenging transition period. I am often asking to know the Lord’s will for me. I feel like sometimes I have to remind myself that I must be ready and willing to act on what the Lord reveals to me.   This readiness and willingness is something that I have prayed often for, for revelation is essential to navigating this life