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.