The Restoration: God is Our Loving Heavenly Father

So, one thing that I love about the Restoration, is that it truly restores the true Nature of God. It surprised me when I came out here how many people don't view God as A) their Father, and B) that He loves them! The best evidence we have of this is the most common scripture that people know about! John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He loved us so much that he gave...He sent his Son to die for us. He knew that we couldn't return back to His presence, so he asked his Only Begotten to come down here to pay the price that no one else could, even if we had the eternity to do it. I'm sure he was not only saddened to see his Son on the cross, I'm sure he wept as he watched his Son and couldn't do a thing to help him, because it was the only way.  I love my Heavenly Father for that gift that is so freely given to us.

He has also given us commandments! It sounds weird that commandments are evidence of His love for us! He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what makes us happy! He gives us commandments that when we are obedient to them, we find true happiness! We find satisfaction! If we want to really find out if God loves us, put his will to the test. Try it! Just like anything else in life, we have to apply what we want to do. God is the same way. If we want to know God, we need to trust him (have faith), and follow him in doing what he asks. When we do this, not only will you be happy and satisfied with life, you will see blessings that will amaze you

(continued with: Gospel Blesses Families and Individuals!)

The Restoration: The "What" of our message

So, I've been trying to think of things that I could post and what I should talk about. It then hit me that I should do the message that we share! So, I'll talk about the principles of the first lesson! So, just a little bit about the Restoration. It's very important to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because it is what we are. In fact, you may call it the "What" of our religion! The Restoration has been under attack since it's coming because if it falls, so does everything else, EVERYTHING! But it hasn't, nor will it ever, because it's true. I hope and pray that I can talk about the Restoration in a way that you can feel and know that it is true. If you have any questions about this message, please, go to MORMON.ORG and check out the site! It's other mormons who have profiles about the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, or even Jesus Christ! If you want to see what the missionaries have to say you can also request to have them come by and share a quick message about the Restoration! I know because of it that my life has drawn closer to Christ. More than I could've imagined. I know its true and so can you, trust in God that he can help you know what we teach and believe is true! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

P.S. I'll be posting the principles in the very VERY near future, so it'll be a progressing post!

"He is risen..."

I love Easter. I have many reasons why I love it! I get to hang out with family! (not out here in the field though) I get to enjoy warm(er) weather! (again, not out here!) Ultimately, I get to think about the significant gift that Christ gave to me. He gave me the Atonement. The Atonement is the suffering Christ did in the Garden of Gethsemane, him dying on the Cross, and ultimately Him rising again three days later. It's amazing to me that Christ would do that for me. He did that so that I can enjoy eternity with my family! I will always be with them and will never leave them! All this and SO much more, because of Him, who is mighty to save. I always wonder how he could do such a thing for me. It's amazing, almost unbelievable, that he would do such a thing, in fact some choose not to believe it. The Atonement is given to ALL of us! The Resurrection is given to us whether we be good, or evil. This because he conquered the impossible. He went the farthest to get us and brought us back. I can only imagine the comfort of the phrase that the angel gave to Mary at the tomb. "He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." -Matt. 28:6. Wow. How comforting to know that the Lord lives! And because he lives, we to can live! He has prepared the way! He did it for us! For you, and for me. The Plan of Salvation could not work with out Him. Nothing could. He is the fuel for happiness, and when we follow closely to him, we get more out of it! I testify to you, as a servant of the Lord, that our Lord Jesus Christ lives! He is our Savior and Redeemer. The Holy One of Israel, the Messiah. Whom the prophets of old, and present, have testified of who should redeem his people. It makes me so happy to KNOW this! I again testify of these things, in our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Keep my Commandments

One thing that I notice in both the Book of Mormon and the Bible, is how many times the Lord has asked us to keep his commandments. A lot of people can argue that keeping the commandments doesn't bring salvation. Their right. Christ is the only one that can save us! He was the only one that knew what I've gone through, and knows what I will go through. Because of the miracle of the Atonement, (His suffering in the garden, death on the cross, and the Resurrection) we can return to our Heavenly Father! We cannot do anything for ourselves! However, it does not eliminate our personal responsibility! We are still responsible for our actions. I love this scripture in the Bible, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." -John 14:15. If we truley love Christ then we do what he asked us to do. Here's another scripture that I'd like to read, "Therefore come unto me and be saved; for verily I say unto you, that except ye shall keep my commandments, which I have commanded you at theis time, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." 3 Nephi 12:20. The beggining says to "come unto him and be saved". The only way we come unto him is if we obey his commandments! He's not going to look at our words, but our actions. Again, our works don't save us, they just show him that we are going to follow him. We do that by Enduring to the End. We keep on following him, we do what he asked and will ask us to do. This is how we follow Christ. Not by our words, or works, but works of faith. We will shortly find that as we follow Him, our faith in him will increase! whether it be Tithing, Word of Wisdom, Church, scripture reading, or even praying, it will increase our faith in Him who is mighty to save, to all those that come to him by obeying his commandments.

Our Forever Faith

So I was reading in the Book of Mormon, in Helaman. Samuel the Lamanite just finished prophesying of Christ birth, death and Resurrection! Really he taught the plan of happiness. I strongly suggest to read those chapters. In fact I encourage you to read the Book of Mormon! Well I was reading Helamen 16:13-18. A few years have passed when Samuel taught the Nephites, and a ton of miracles were fullfilled! Here's what it says:

But it came to pass in the nineteinthyear of the reign of the judges, there were great signs given unto the people, and wonders; and the words of the prophets began to be fulfilled. And angels did appear unto men, wise ment, and did declare unto them glad tidings of gret joy; thus in this year the scriptures began to be fulfilled. Nevertheless, the people began to harden there hearts, all save it were the most believing part of them, both of the Nephites and also of the Lamanites, and began to depend upon their own strength and upon their own wisdom, saying: Somethings they may have guessed right, among so many; but behold, we know that all these great and marvelous works cannot come to pass, of which has been spoken. And they began to reason and to contend among themselves saying: That it is not reasonable that such a being as a Christ shall come ; if so, and he be the Son of God, the Father of heaven and of earth, as it has been spoken, why will he not show himself unto us as well as unto them who shall be at Jerusalem?"

Wow...they didn't even believe that Jesus was the Son of God. They let their faith down so low, that they couldn't even want to believe! Even with all the signs and miracles given, they would not believe. I find this a lot out here. People will not believe anything unless it was shown to them. They expect that when they see, their faith will grow. Not so. In Ether 12:6, it says:

"And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerneing these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye recieve no witness until after the trial of your faith."

Thus we need to excercise faith in order to believe the miracle. As the story continues, the Sign of the birth of Christ was given. Everyone saw it! The righteous, and the wicked. Everyone believed! Everyone KNEW! Seems to contradict what I just said huh? lets go to Helamen 2:1, not even three years since the sign was given:

"And it came to pass that thus passed away the ninety and fifth year also, and the people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished at a sign or a wonder from heaven, insomuch that they began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds, and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen-"

Again, wow. Not three years had passed when they saw the sign of the birth of Christ, and they did not believe in it anymore. How sad...In fact, they still kept on seeing signs and "wonders" but they still fell away! what happened? They did not nourish their faith or testimony. If they had kept their faith that they had started, it would have been a total diffrent outcome. I'm sure that if they kept on going to church, praying to our Father, reading the scriptures, and keeping the commandments! That builds faith. As we do these things we SEE these things bless us! We see the blessings in our lives! I know that these things are true! I have seen how the Book of Mormon has blessed my life! I found my answer, and my answer was in a form of a blessing! When we have faith, it's not a one time deal. It is a thing that if you don't use it, you lose it. Then you have to go back and fight to get it back. It's a lot harder of a fight to get it back than to keep it. Think of it as a battlefield. Satan is trying to make you fall, or defeat you. When you have a testimony, or faith, you are like on top of a hill. A strategic postion. When we lose our faith, we lose that strategic point! Then we have to fight to get back up there. I know that if we keep on excersicing faith in Christ, we will be supported in our trials and also taht he will bless us in things that we didn't even think about! So please, keep your faith, keep up that fight with the forces of Satan, he is real and he hates you. I know that Jesus Christ loves us, and we draw closer to him by excercising faith, repenting, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and obeying his commandments. He loves you, don't forget that. I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

United in Christ

So I was reading 1 Corinthians 12:12-13. It was interesting, here's what it said: "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free;and have been all made to drink into one Spirit." The message I got out of this was that regardless of who or what we are, we are one! We are the family of God! I found when I served in the Cattaraugus area, that a lot of Natives there, kind of had a resentment towards the white people. Now, remember I'm reffering to the older generation when there was a lot of discrimination? But it made me think that if we all viewed each other as Children of God, a family, a brotherhood and sisterhood, that the world would be a much better place! We wouldn't of had the discrimination of anyone! We wouldn't have the mass genocides that have happened and that more than likely will and is happening. We wouldn't have the hate that lingers after something like that happens. There is another scripture that I would like to look at, I just read it this morning and thought it would be perfect for this post. Heleman 12:21. "And it came to pass that the seventy and sixth year did end in peace. And the seventy and seventh year bagan in peace; and the church did spread throughout the face of all the land; and the more part of the people , both the Nephites and the Lamanites, did belong to the church; and did have exceedingly great peace in the land; and thus ended the seventy and seventh year." How profound, that the church unified the greatest of enemies together to have an entire year of peace! They were unified in the Lord. This I know that if we are all trying to follow Christ in all that we do, we will be blessed with charity, and a unique love that we probably rarely felt...This I know and testify in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Come, let us listen to a prophet...

Last weekend, April 2-3, The Latter-Day Saints had something we call "General Conference". It is where we Latter-Day Saints, and anyone else who would like too, come and listen to the prophets and apostles. I Like to think of it like Paul when he teaches the people when he is traveling and instructing the ancient church the ways of the Lord. However, instead of traveling around to visit, they broadcast it to all the world! They put it on radio, satellite, and even the Internet! They instruct the church and the world at once. The prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and the apostles instruct them what the Lord wants us to know! Just like the apostles of old, they receive revelation on what the Lord wants us to know and in turn, they instruct us what the Lord wants us to know. Thus, Christ's church is run by Christ himself. It is amazing that God loves us to call prophets and apostles to direct us in what will truly make us happy in this life. Sometimes, or a lot of times, it's something that we need to work on, or what we may need to focus all of our attention(s) to. I remember one time during the Priesthood session of conference in October....2009? (a session for men to learn how to be better in the priesthood, as husbands, and fathers) my dad and I were listening to President Monson speak. He was talking about anger and that we need to control it. Of course it was a lot deeper and richer than what I described, but dad and I both resolved to control our anger better. I would say that we have! And that it has blessed ourlives in obeying the words of the prophet. It's a prophets duty to speak the word of God, regardless of how hard or how much he doesn't want to. I'm sure it was hard for Moses to tell Pharoh what to do and what God commanded. We learn from reading the Bible and Book of Mormon that when one hearkens unto a prophets voice they are blessed! Regardless of the sacrifice, big or small. I would love to direct you to LDS.org so that you can hear what a prophet wants us to know on how to be happy in this life. I garentee that you will see blessings in your life when you obey what he asks. Please excercise the faith that he is a prophet of God doing his will I testify of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.