Easter

     This past week our Savior Jesus Christ went through all that the Father asked of him. We cannot fathom the suffering attached to the last week of his mortal ministry.
     His suffering can only be explained by himself. With his own  words he said " Which ^asuffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might ^bnot drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and ^afinished my preparations unto the children of men."

     He bled from every pore in his body. With all the power that a God could bring to overcome such suffering, he still asked his father in heaven if there could be another way. But there could not, and his father, our God let him suffer, to bleed, for us. This was the only way we could be cleansed from sin. 

     But most important was not the suffering. We could be cleansed from sin, but we still have a mortal body that dies. 

     Today Christ was resurrected. This resurrection was not to prove that it could be done for one mortal. It was a resurrection with all power to break the bands of death for all men. Not  just for all men, but for every living creature, even the earth itself.

     Look around you. This Easter its not just mankind that celebrates. Everything you can lay your eyes on was saved from death by resurrection. Everything rejoices in the final accomplishment of the atonement. This is the marvelous cap to everything. In all anticipation we waited, And now it is finished! it is accomplished! it is done! we all may live!

     I know my savior lives. I know he will come again. I am grateful and rejoice with him.

Performance Unto the Lord

     Think of your talent. That one talent that you have that you have dreamed of become famous for. Look at the people out there that excel at that talent. If you saw them would you want your picture by them? would you want their signature? Of course you would, even if its deep down inside you. Just the other day I saw Nicholas Cage, and wanted so badly to take a picture to remember that I saw him in person checking into the same hotel as me. You could argue that he isn't even that great of an actor, but I still wanted that picture. Its because of his abilities to act that put him at the fame he has today.
     Now think of your favorite band. If you could see them today would you want their autograph? 
     Half a year ago I was a member of an all male a'capella  group called the happy jacks. It is a group of guys from the university of wyoming who sing fun songs together. We weren't big, we didn't get paid. In fact we payed to be in it because it was a class with the university. We went on tour throughout Wyoming last year. Many of the schools we performed at had never heard of us before. I would say we were pretty good though. We practiced and practiced and did all we could to perform at our best every night. and every night at every concert we had lines of people waiting to get our autograph or to get their picture with us. Why did they want a picture with some college guys who they didn't even know existed before they saw us perform? it wasn't because we were good looking that's for sure. Why did they want a signature from me? they didn't even know my name.
     I thought about this. It was because of our performance. Our performance was good enough in their minds that it equated that of one of their favorite famous bands. After each performance we were no more famous than we had started out on our tour. We were no more known to the world than any other individual in Wyoming. I'm not in the group any more, I don't think anyone even noticed. This is not a bad thing. I learned that its not about being famous. its about performing our best. If we do our best, than we are famous to the person with us at that moment. Just as we were famous to each person who wanted our autograph, no matter how brief that lasted, it happened at the time we performed. my signature was worth something to them
   You can watch general conference and see many prophets and apostles of the lord who in my view are famous to many because of the way they live their lives and serve the lord as they serve us. We can have this same fame in the lives of those we touch.
   Sometimes in our lives we feel that we are of little worth.We feel that we make too small of an effect in the lives of others. What we do feels like its not enough. 
     We don't have to touch the world to be worth it. Our name, who we are can be worth it because of our performance. we don't have to perform to the country or the world. We need to perform for God. As we do all we can to serve god by performing our lives by keeping the commandments and reaching out to Gods other children to help them in any way we can, then we are worth it.  
      “For he that is least among you all, the same shall be great” (Luke 9:48). 
     We are famous not only to the individuals we come in contact with, but we are worth it to the lord. its our performances in life that make us worth more. So lets make our performances worthy of the Lord. We are not measured by our worldly fame.

“In order to be great souls in heaven, we need to be great souls here. At every age, we should be leaders in righteousness, leaders in doing our duty, leaders in accepting responsibility, leaders in excellence, leaders in industry, leaders in kindness, leaders in obedience, leaders in example. It is just as important for a deacons quorum president to be a good leader in his sphere as it is for the President of the Church to be a leader in his. No nation would have a very good army if only the generals were faithful.”

Elder Sterling W. Sill (1903–94) of the Seventy, “A Personal Observation: The Problem Is Always the Same,” Ensign, Mar. 1973, 36.

Living Principles

     This past thanksgiving I was blessed to be able to spend it with my wives family where religion is a hot topic of conversation. Most of the family belong to the LDS church. One individual inparticular has been trying time and time again to investigate the Mormon faith. He has tried time and time again to ask God if it is true. Time and time again he has not received an answer. From a die hard Mormon perspective one might say,
       "Of course he did! The promise is right there! If you read the Book of Mormon and pray about it you are going to receive and answer! He must be denying the Holy Ghost!"
     To the anti-Mormon you may hear,
        "Proof at last! That this church they speak of is false in every way!"
From me you hear this, "He read, he prayed and he did not receive an answer." I know this individual genuinely wanted to know. I know he did not receive a strong witness of the truth as well. This does not mean that Gods promise is null and void. Lets look at every aspect of the promise from God in the book of Mormon. This is where the final prophet to write in the Book of Mormon tells us how we can know that it true, and its history is true. He says in Moroni Chapter 10,

      2 And I ^aseal up ^bthese records, after I have spoken a few words by way of exhortation unto you.

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how ^amerciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ^bponder it in your ^chearts.

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ^aask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not ^btrue; and if ye shall ask with a ^csincere heart, with ^dreal intent, having ^efaith in Christ, he will ^fmanifest the ^gtruth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may ^aknow the ^btruth of all things.

I know

I know

I had way too much fun with colors.

I used two different highlights for you. Every time he talks about "these things" its the entire book of Mormon. What many people miss is when he states that god will "manifest the truth of it unto you". he isn't necessarily telling you about the book itself. How can you pray about something you haven't even read? that's not part of the promise. We ask god if the message is true at the same time. His answer is to manifest the truth of "it". "it" is the mercies of the lord.

Now for the biggest mind blower.... You have to apply what you learn before you ask. If you learn about a commandment, you need to start living it. This is where many people go wrong.

Why do you think living something can help us learn about it?

I can read about the magnificence of the tropical islands all I want, but I won't know the true extent of the magnificence unless i actually go there.

You can read the book of Mormon all you want. You can even point out the mercies and blessings from living the principles it teaches. But without actually living those principles you cannot know of their importance and magnificence.
     This is the only way to know and understand anything good thing in life. It is hypocritical for anyone who has not lived up to the standards in the book of Mormon, to have any say in its truthfulness.  I even believe this for those who think they have true pure testimony that the book of Mormon is true. We cannot know unless we live.
     It's important, not just to live by the standards of the book, but to attribute our knowledge of them to the book of Mormon. We need to apply the standards we learn as we learn them. Someone can already be living a good life, then read the book of Mormon with the feeling that they already live their lives in accordance to all of Gods standards. This doesn't happen. There are principles to leaving a good life that we can learn and apply every time we read the book of Mormon. There are more mercies  of the lord than we can comprehend.
     I know the book of Mormon contains the word of god. I know that god is merciful to all men. We can improve the quality of our lives as we follow the teachings of God that are in the book of Mormon. 

Your Worth It!

Are you worth saving? Does God know who you are? Do you know who you are?
You are a son, or daughter of God. This is true. You can read this blog about it, but the best way for you to find out is to ask God in prayer. Ask him if you are his child. Expect an answer. Focus on the feelings of love God will put into your heart.
In Deuteronomy 14:1 it says plainly

"Ye are children of the Lord your God."

This was what Moses said to his people to help them understand that they too were worth something more. Remember, Moses was a prophet of God. He said this because God let him know.
In Malachi, the people at the time were not dealing well with each other. And to bring sense into all people Malachi says in verse 10

"have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother"

. Every person on this earth is a son or daughter of God, He created each of us. In Acts 17:27-29 We learn that God isn't far from us, everything we have is Given to us by him. We have everything from him because we are his sons and daughters.

"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: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring."

That puts it pretty plainly, "offspring". What a great word to show us how literal it is that he is our father.
It goes beyond being his children. Life did not start at our birth. There is a bigger picture to see. Fathers want the Best for their children. God is a perfect being. He wants us to be like him. In Matthew 5:48 it says

"be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which art in heaven is perfect".

God wants us to be like him. Nobody is perfect, but through Christs atonement we can become perfected. Now we know what our fathers vision for us is. He wants us to become like him. in psalms 82:6 it helps us see our divine Nature, It helps us understand what our potential truly is,

"Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High."

Our potential is to become like God. To have the same blessings that he has. We lived with God before this life. He sent us here to learn how to be better people. As any good father, he did not send us out to fail. He sent us out to succeed. If God has that much faith in us, I think we should have a little faith in ourselves as well.
God knows who we are. in Jeremiah 1:5 God tells Jeremiah

"before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, before thou comest out of the womb I sanctified thee and ordained the a prophet..."

at the time Jeremiah was having a hard time because God called him to be a prophet at a young age. He did not feel worthy. He did not feel worth it. God told him, he already knew him. He knew his strengths and weaknesses. He also knows us each individually. He knows our strengths and weaknesses. He knows how to help us overcome them. God has chosen us before we were born to live a life worth living. To become like him. Its our choice. Its up to us to follow that life he has chosen. To recognize he has a plan for us to succeed. Each of us has a glorious calling to fulfill in this life.
You are worth saving. God is waiting.

The Image of God

Over the past few weeks I have been pondering what makes a great person. As you are passing through life, you may have noticed a select few who seem to radiate goodness. Its easy to trust them, and not in a bad way. They never think about themselves, Always the first to rush to someones aid for nothing in return. These are great people.
Its hard to pick just one of these individuals out of the world to study. I sound kind of like a mad scientist. I want to study this type of behavior! I want to pick apart every part of this person, because I desire so much to be this type of person. In many movies, the hero is set up to be this person. Someone who will never fail. Goodness always Wins! Everyone can relate to this type of person, Because everyone desires to some degree to be there.
There is one person. There is an individual who actually lived his life, and had it documented. It was documented for us to pick apart this individual. A person to study so we can learn to become the same. This is Jesus Christ.
Christ lived a life to perfection. He did this for us. One of the only ways we can live close to a perfect life is to see how one was lived. So we have the Scriptures to help us learn. Without Christs perfect example, it is impossible to know how to live our lives towards perfection.Study the scriptures. There is a Road map to Perfection there.
So what does this mean? What happens when we start to live our lives like Christ lived his?
This is really quite fascinating. We actually begin to radiate goodness. I'm not talking about having a physical aura around our bodies. I'm not talking about looking good because people see our good acts. I'm talking about a feeling that we can shine from ourselves, that others can literally feel. Its us becoming a conduit for Christ to shine through.
We learn that we need to have Christs countenance to shine through us. In the Book of Mormon, Alma, an ancient prophet on the American continent spoke to his people and asked them an intense question. “Can ye look up to God … with a pure heart and clean hands … , having the image of God engraven upon your countenances?” (Alma 5:19) Imagine how it would feel, to be repentant, to know where you stand with God. To have an increased power over temptation of any kind.
This can happen. And it can happen to you. Remember that you are an actual spirit son or daughter of God. He wants you to become like him. He made it possible for you to do it. Its going to take work. It will takes lots of it. It will take practice. But as we grow closer to Christ, and radiate his spirit to others. We will have strength and JOY that is well worth the effort.
For us to truly have his countenance in us. We need to change for the right reasons. It needs to become a part of us. We need to apply what we learn in our lives in such a way that we do not deceive ourselves. We need to be true followers of Christ. In the following months I will go over what I have learned about Christ, and his attributes. I will discuss how we can apply them in our lives. These attributes have to do with us spiritually and physically. I hope this can help others in their effort to become like Christ.

What I've been up to

Well I haven't been up to updating my blog lately. I apologize, but I have my reasons. I got married! And I am a Mormon so yes I got married in a Mormon temple! I Was sealed to my spouse Shanae for time and "all eternity"! and I am so happy!
There are many things people hear about the mormon temple. many true and many false. i am not about to attempt to answer all questions someone may have. But I would like to let you know why I am so happy.
At many weddings you hear the person say "till death do you part". some people during marriage find it difficult at times and think "well thank goodness I get a break at the end!". This is sad, I love my wife and want to be with her for "time and all eternity". I know there are also many who wish to be with their Loved one for all time. God has made it possible. But as we know it takes a blissful effort from both to last for eternity.
People would need to live up to certain standards to qualify for such a great time. This could be one reason why before going into the LDS temple one needs to meet certain standards. Because the things that go on inside are sacred. sacred in the fact that they involve a lot of preparation. In fact anyone can prepare to enter the temple, Mormon or not. Although one of the preparation steps is to have a testimony that God has restored his church. If you didn't understand that God has restored his church then why would we need the temple?
So why do we need the temple? Because God has made it possible for us to live with our families as families for all eternity! In the temple we learn how to improve our lives and keep our standards high. So that when we are with our family for eternity we will have such a great time. This is another reason you find Mormons going back to the temple often.
Man and woman were meant to be together forever from the beginning of time. In Genesis 2:24 it says therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.
This clearly shows how a man and woman are supposed to be so close as to be seen as one. And I Doubt god wishes to break such a bond as that. In fact Because it is God that marries us the scripture in Eccl. 3:14 should apply which states "I know that ,whatsoever God doeth, it shall bee for ever"
I am Glad I get to be with Shanae for all eternity. And these blessings are for everyone! I hope to keep you updated an all that I learn!

The Love of God

There are many misundesrtandings of the personality of God. Many people believe him to be angry. Too many times people choose good lives because they are afraid of a God who will send them into an everlasting pit of fire. We can all agree its good to make good choices. But why should we do them? In a court of law, why don't they take a persons testimony if it was given at gunpoint? If we do something good only because we fear the everlasting pit of fire, then are we really living the truth of who we are?
God is our father, and he loves us very much. Remember that the only thing that God gets in return for all creation is our love for him and the joy he gets from watching us succeed. The only way he could get any joy in doing this is if he loved us. There is nothing but love that is in it for him. Because of this love we need to do all we can to do what he says and to trust in him. We can trust him because he has a purpose behind every commandment. Not just any purpose, it is a love driven purpose. A purpose to help US and not HIM. We can't always see the purpose, but as we look for one he will help us find one.
Prayer is an example of a commandment that is all for us. It is a commandment to pray to our Heavenly Father. To some they see this as its all for God. For us to always praise him. That he just lives off of our praise. I beg to differ. Prayer is not just praise. We should praise him, because we love what he is doing for us. Prayer is a two way communication with God. Its a time to ask for advise. Its a time to receive answers. This is the purpose of prayer. So that we can open a conduit to heaven and allow God to help us in our lives. When we don't pray, we shut out God. Without prayer we will not listen. If we don't listen to God then we won't have his guidance. We will run around lost in life and have no-one else to blame but ourselves.
There are some who will say, Doesn't the Bible say we must Fear God? so how can we do something out of love if we are always in fear? Lets understand now what it truly means to "Fear God". Fear in this sense is a "Godly fear" as found in Hebrews 12:28 "Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." Already we can see it has a different meaning. It is used along side with reverence. When we find the fear of the lord in the scriptures is is found to be equivalent to reverence, awe, worship. ways we should really act towards such a loving God.
Proverbes 3:7 states that "the fear of the lord is to hate evil" and later in 14:26 it says in the fear of the lord is strong confidence. It also states that the fear of the lord is the beggining of knowledge. If we can master to hate all evil then we can only love all that is good. We can only love God. So fear in this sense is actually a feeling of love.
The fear as we understand fear should not be in our lives. 1 jn 4:18 states that "there is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear." in the same chapter it speaks how God is Love. Look at what the angels always say. When they spoke to Mary the mother of Jesus. "fear not"
Now I know you can't just all of a sudden develop an enormous amount of love for god just from reading what I have to say. I know that God loves you and I know that you also can Love him with more love then you ever have. You first need to get to know God. Get to know what he has truly done for you. I would suggest making a list of all the blessings you have. Read the scriptures and make note of the mercy God has shown to all mankind. I would strongly suggest reading the book of Mormon and think about the mercy that he shows to all mankind throughout the book. Most importantly, talk to God. Don't just give him a speech and leave. Actually have a conversation with God. Speak to him as if he is there face to face with you. Listen carefully to what your heart tells you he is saying back. If you do this you will receive answers to your prayers and begin to realize more powerfully the great love that God has for all mankind.
So we should still keep the commandments, if we aren't we need to show our love and change. We should not follow God in fear, but in faith. We should show God all the reverence we can. Not because we fear him, but because we love him. And we should always understand that God really does love us.