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.

Premeditated Sin

I don't mean to sound like I'm preaching fire and brimstone, but this is a sin that is not alright. I write this in hopes to prevent someone from choosing this path. But remember, there is always hope.

Premeditated sin, also known as planned repentance, is a Great evil that has come into today’s society of religion. It’s the thought that you can sin and have fun now because you plan on talking to the bishop about it later and live your future life according to God’s will. Many people who take this path do it because they are curious and want to experience a lot before they live the proper life. The sad truth about this form of life is that the ‘proper life’ is farther away than anyone might expect.

Sometimes we think we can define what sin is and what sin is not. We fool ourselves into thinking there is a grey area. There is no grey area. And god has clearly defined sin.

              It’s true, we are all sinners. But that’s no excuse to sin. God commanded us to be perfect, but we are in a fallen state of existence. Pretty much we are the low man on the totem pole. God said we are as the dust of the earth, but the dust is even better than us because at least it is obedient to Gods commands. Obedience is a necessity from god. The only way we can return to live with God is because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Since premeditated sin is a total Mockery to the Atonement, It is definitely not the way to return to god. Instead, it will distance you.

God sent his son because he loved us. He sent his son to die. He sent his son to suffer eternally; his only begotten son. Who he loved and loves eternally more than any of us are even capable of understanding. If we make a mockery of that. imagine how that would make him feel. How hurt he would be.

Why is premeditated sin a mockery of the atonement? It’s because you think you can repent without consequence. While Christ suffered the eternal consequence. Planned repentance bypasses guilt and remorse. You have forgiven yourself before you ever sinned. With this in mind, you then confess your sins do what the bishop asks and call it good. But you did not truly repent, even if you live a perfect life afterwards. You did not repent because you make a mockery of Christ and did not suffer yourself.

President Spencer W. Kimball taught us the importance of personal suffering, “one has not begun to repent until he has suffered intensely for his sins. . . . If a person hasn’t suffered he hasn’t repented.”

We have been taught throughout the scriptures about the type of person we need to be to be worthy of the atonement. In 2 Nephi 2:7 it says “all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered”.

President Kimball further stated “very frequently people think they have repented and are worthy of forgiveness when all they have done is to express sorrow or regret at the unfortunate happening.”

You might say to yourself “what’s wrong with feeling sorrow or regret isn’t that what I should feel for my suffering? The true answer will come as a surprise to many. In 2 Corinthians 7:10 it talks about a godly sorrow that worketh repentance. It is this sorrow, and this sorrow only that can lead an individual to truly repent. If you have planned repentance then you told yourself from the beginning to repent. Here is why this was wrong.

The story of Cain and Able. Able offered a sacrifice to god from his cattle. And god accepted. Cain offered a sacrifice to God of his crops. God did not accept this sacrifice. It wasn’t because crops were less than cattle. It is because of the reason each offered their sacrifice. Able did it for the love of god. Cain did it for the love of satin. Satin told Cain to offer a sacrifice to god. He should have done it because he loved god and not because satin told him to. This applies to planned repentance. The reason you are planning repentance is because you love the sin more than you love god. So your repentance is really only happening because the devil told you to repent later. You are repenting for the wrong reasons because you set yourself up to do so.

Another reason why this sin is bad is because you are sinning against a greater knowledge. If you know you need to repent from it, then you know it’s bad, if you know it’s bad and still do it you are acting as an enemy to god. This is exactly what satin did before this life when he went blatantly went against gods plan.

            A good way to judge where you are is to look back at how you felt after you sinned. Did you have any second thoughts? Any bad feelings? If you did not feel remorse enough to change, then you are not on the right path. Remember to think of god’s love, that he did send his son for you. That there is a path back to him. Even if you have fallen into this net of planned repentance. You can still repent, the road is much harder to follow, you will need to explain your planned repentance to your religious leader (Your bishop for you mormons). You will need to feel guilt for even planning such a thing.

            There is always hope. President Kimball said “sometimes... when a repentant one looks back and sees the ugliness, the loathsomeness of the transgression, he is almost overwhelmed and wonders, ‘can the Lord ever forgive me? Can I ever forgive myself?’ But when one reaches the depths of despondency and feels the hopelessness of his position, and when he cries out to God for mercy in helplessness but in faith, there comes a still, small, but penetrating voice whispering to his soul, ‘thy sins are forgiven thee.’”

Isiah 1:18- Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” So don’t be discouraged, Just repent. Truly repent.

Some youth foolishly rationalize that it is ‘no big deal’ to sin now because they can always repent later. … The idea of sinning a little is self-deception. Sin is sin! Sin weakens you spiritually, and it always places the sinner at eternal risk” (New Era, Feb. 1994, 6).


Elder Richard G. Scott explained why sinning now with the idea of repenting later is so dangerous. “The thought of intentionally committing serious sin now and repenting later is perilously wrong. … Many start that journey of intentional transgression and never make it back. Premeditated sin has greater penalties and is harder to overcome” (New Era, Oct. 1995, 8).

Input

I am dying to write another post coming up, but I seem to be at a loss of thoughts. I know that inspiration comes from everywhere. So if you are viewing this Blog, please post a reply to any of the notes I've made. Be sure to include either a question, a concern you have about religion, or just a topic you would enjoy hearing about. I will do some research and devote my scripture study for the week to your topic/concern/question. Thank you for your help! :)

Desires!

     As you search for truth, desire plays a big role. If your heart is in the right place, then you don't have too much to worry about. Whenever someone has their heart on something, they will do anything they can to get it. Lets ask ourselves, "What is something I should desire for?".  I know one obvous answer. We should desire to do good. We should desire to come closer to Christ. In order to enter the kingdom of god, we should first have a desire to be there.
     Because of our desires, we are our own judges. We tend to be drawn to those things that we desire. God does not have us on a leash that will yank us back whenever we go too far away. He will call out to us, but the choice is ultimately our own.  If one chooses to go against the will of God, because they did not desire to come closer to him, then in the end that person will be exactly where they chose. They will be as far away from god as they moved themselves. God won't push them any further away either, because that would also conflict the the choice of the individual. The individual will be exactly where they placed themselves. If one desires to do the will of god, and strives on the path towards him, then they will end up close to God. It was their choice.
     One false concept many people have is that they have wandered too far away from god to ever make it close to him. Desires may change in an individuals life that make them want to come to God. In the Book of Mormon, Moroni chapter 6, there were many who had distanced themselves from God far enough that they could not be considered a follower of God in the least bit. After asking God what to do with them, he gave this statement which shows his mercy, in verse eight." But ^aas oft as they repented and sought forgiveness, with real ^bintent, they were ^cforgiven." 
     If our desire turns back towards God after our desire to sin, we will see a path ahead of us that is a long one. We cannot make up for our sins. We do not have the strength to walk back up the path we walked down. We never will have the strength. But, If we repent with real intent we will be forgiven. We must be sincere. God knows the intents of our hearts. He knows if we are lying through out teeth. But because Christ suffered eternally for our sins, it is possible for that forgiveness. Only through Christ, can we backtrack the distance needed to return to God. God has promised it. All it takes is a desire to repent to help us get the strength needed to use Christ in our life. We need him. I know that Gods promise of forgiveness is true, because I have a testimony of Jesus Christ. I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, it is because of this testimony that I can trust in the words found in Moroni. I share this is Christs name.