Wisdom in choosing to serve a mission

The scripture that really stood out to me in class this week was James 1:5 which says, " If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." I love this scripture because it is the scripture that Joseph Smith read when he was having serious questions about which church to follow. Luckily, he was in tune to the spirit's promptings and knelt down to ask the Lord which church he should join. That is what we need to learn, to read the scriptures and apply their words to our lives, so that our actions are directed by the words we read in the scriptures. When we ask God questions he has three ways of answering us. One, with a yes answer. Two, with a no answer. Finally, the third answer he will give is silence. This third answer tells us that we can make our own choice. God will not ever let you get too far down the wrong path without telling you that it is not the right thing; if it is the right thing then God will make it clear and confirm the path you have chosen as the right choice. This process of asking the Lord has been monumental in my life. I have used this system in my life many times to make decisions and it always works. This is what I did with deciding to serve a mission. I pondered it out in my mind and made my decision because I had great desire to serve the Lord and I felt like it was the right thing for me to do. I prayed and asked if this was the right thing. I didn't necessarily receive a "yes" answer, but I did feel good about my decision. I proceeded to start my papers and along the way the Lord has made it clear to me that I am to serve a mission and that I have chosen the correct path for myself. I am so grateful that I have been able to apply the teachings of the gospel to my life just as Joseph Smith did to find out which church to join.

Nothing comes and nothing leaves

1 Timothy 6:7 says "For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out of it."
This scripture truly touched me this week during class because it brought back an interesting phrase that I heard my Judaism professor, Professor Wood, use last fall in my class. He said, "The only things you take with you after this life are your knowledge and your relationships, so don't waste time on worldly things that you won't even be able to bring with you after this life." This thought came to my mind because we cannot focus on worldly things for we cannot bring them with us after this life and they will only give us temporary happiness. There will be no everlasting, eternal happiness if we choose the things of the world over the things of God, like money,  pride, our reputation, popularity, and other pride-invoking things. Our relationships with people and the knowledge, more specifically the knowledge that we gain in the gospel is what will bring us true and lasting happiness. The more knowledge we gain our this gospel, the closer we can draw to our Savior to be closer to him. Also, the relationships that we have in our lives are so important. The relationships we have with our families and with our future families, most importantly our spouses and children, the people we are sealed to are the most important and will bring us the most happiness.

Paul warns

Acts 27:9-14
Paul speaks the truth in these verses. Paul has been called as an apostle of God and he has been specific authority to receive revelation from Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father above. These verses talk about Paul's journey on a ship to Rome where he is to be tried and judged for his teachings in Jerusalem. He will go before Caesar, but first they have to get there alive. In verses 9 and 10, Paul begins to tell the crew that if they don't slow down and go another way then a heavy storm is going to come. The crew did not listen to Paul, but instead listened to the captain who assumed everything would be fine. In verse 14 it says, "But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon." This verse signifies the changing tides of the sea from a calm water to a "tempestuous storm" and that is when the crew began to fight for their lives. Paul received direct revelation from the Lord and he warned the ship's crew that something bad was going to happen, but they did not heed the words of the apostle and paid dearly for it.
Just like in Paul's story, we receive commandments and direct revelation from the Prophet and his apostles who in turn receive this revelation from the Lord. If we choose to heed their warnings and keep the commandments then we will receive many blessings and be much happier for doing so, but if we do not listen to the words of the Prophet and his apostles we have many consequences. We need to honor the Prophet and his apostles because they are the spokespeople of Jesus Christ to his Saints on the earth.

Baptism

The power of the priesthood

1 Corinthians 1-11
The Jews and Gentiles were both being taught the gospel at the same time by Paul and the other apostles, yet  there was some conflict about the power of the priesthood to baptize. Some people felt like if they were baptized by Paul then it was not truly being baptized through Jesus Christ. What the people had to come to understand was that no matter if you were baptized by the Savior himself or if you were baptized by one of his apostles on the earth, the priesthood is the same for whoever bears it as a worthy member of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Paul baptized many people in the name of Jesus Christ through the power of the priesthood and this is equally as good as any other apostle or prophet. I was baptized when I was eight years old by my father through the power of the priesthood. I remember feeling so happy and warm for choosing to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was my choice and I felt very happy when I chose it. The water was very warm and  my father's arms were so comforting as they held me and baptized me.
The blessings I made at baptism have stuck with me throughout my life and they have helped me to be a better me.
There are three promises we make when we take the sacrament every Sunday and these help us to remember the covenants we made at baptism. They are a willingness to take Christ's name upon us, to always remember him, and to always keep him commandments.

Paul is lead by the spirit

Paul is led by the spirit

Lead, Kindly Light is one of my favorite hymns and this week in class we sang it and it was one of the most powerful renditions of that song that I have ever heard. The spirit was so strongly in that room that is greatly touched me. I was impressed that Brother Griffin felt the same way and had us sing the third voice just so that we could continue to feel that sweet spirit. After singing that song, Brother Griffin proceeded to give the class some very wise council. He asked the question "When you are praying or reading your scriptures does your mind sometimes wander off and you don't remember anything that you read?"
We all sheepishly nodded our heads and looked around. He then said when your mind wanders off, take a second to pause and think about what your mind wandered off to. More often than not our minds wander to something of great importance and that is of concern in our lives. Focus on that thought and then go back into your scripture reading or prayers and ask the Lord to direct you to inspiration or an answer to the problem plaguing your life.
I think this principle applies to everybody in their lives, but especially it should have applied to the Jews and Gentiles who were being taught at the time of the apostle, Paul. In 1 Corinthians 7:22, the Jews make it clear that they only care about seeing signs before they are willing to believe. The thing we have to realize is that hardly anybody sees huge miracles, has a vision, or has a thunderbolt strike them as a sign that the gospel is true. More often than not, we receive answers through prayer and scripture study and those answers are often very soft and simple.
It is apparent in the scriptures that the spirit speaks through the "still, small voice" and he will not speak loudly  if we are in tune to the spirit and being quiet in our hearts. It is a shame that the Jews were so caught up in the signs and that they couldn't feel the truth with their hearts and minds.

2/3/13 Neat Facts from Acts

February 3, 2013

I am taking the Second half of the New Testament and I have learned some extremely neat things that have helped me to better understand the scriptures and Jesus Christ. It is truly amazing to me that the Lord has planned for every insignificant detail and it will all be taken care in the end. The Bible is true as far as it is translated correctly, so on occasion you have to dig a little deeper in different verses of scripture to completely understand what is being said. I learned of one such occasion in the scriptures in Acts 17:24 which says, "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temple made with hands." This scripture is often used again the LDS church  as trying to prove that God says himself he cannot dwell in a temple made with human hands on the earth when the Church has built temples all over the earth in this dispensation. The answer to this question is with the word temple. 

The problem is with the English word, temple. It is an incorrect translation of the Greek word that was used before the Bible was translated into English. The word that was actually used in the Greek translation is "naos" which means idol, shrine, or small structure. God actually dwells in our body or shrine; he is part of us and if we allow him he will dwell in our "temple" or our naos. Another scripture where naos was used is the phrase "I will destroy and raise the temple in three days." This scripture does not refer to the griheeron, the large temple, but it refers to Christ as a person. Jesus Christ died and was resurrected three days later.  

The world that actually means "large temple" in Greek is griheeron. The griheeron is the large temple in Jerusalem and was the temple cleansed by Jesus Christ.

The neat part of learning this is realizing that for Christ to dwell with me I have to choose to let him in. I have to allow the light of Christ to be apart of me and abide in my life. 

Gordon B. Hinckley applied to the scriptures

Class #3

Acts 13: 43-44

In these verses of Acts, the apostles Paul and Barnabas are teaching the Jews in the synagogue and when the     congregation breaks up the Gentiles that had been listening outside ask Paul and Barnabas if they can be taught outside the synagogue. The exact verse is "many of the Jews and religious proselytes follow Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God." Paul and Barnabas then teach the Gentiles who are not Christians, but they want to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ. This event was so unique to me because the night before I had read a talk by Gordon B. Hinckley about revelation and sharing the gospel with those in times of need. Gordon B. Hinckley shares a unique experience where he was at the London, England temple open house where he met a couple that was not LDS. The couple was going through the open house and the heard mention of our knowledge of families being together forever once parents are married in the temple. This couple was sitting outside the temple and they asked Gordon B. Hinckley for more information. This experience that Gordon B. Hinckley had is very similar to Paul's experience of teaching the Gentiles who did not know about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I appreciated this event being addressed in class because I feel like it taught me a lot about missionary work. People, in general, are very willing to listen to my beliefs and I enjoy answering people's questions. I just lived in Jerusalem for four months and unfortunately we were unable to talk about the gospel to the people in Israel. I am realizing just how precious of a gift I have and how I need to share it with others who don't know the same truth that I do.