The Gift of the Holy Ghost is the baptism of the spirit. It gives us the right, as long as we liver worthily, of the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.
His role is to be a witness to truth, and a witness of the Father and the Son. Thus, the surest testimony a person can receive is through the influence of the Holy Ghost. A person can see miracles and still not be converted - only the Holy Ghost can do that.
He also serves as a guide, who can be relied upon to direct us right in our choices and actions, and to warn us of error and sometimes of danger.
In order to receive these blessings, we must keep ourselves in tune with the spirit. If we are not worthy, he will not stay with us. We must also obey and follow his promptings if we expect to continue to receive them.
It is by this gift that I know that Jesus is the Christ, the only source of salvation. It is by this gift that I know that Thomas S. Monson is truly the Lord's prophet, and that the church is true.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Thoughts on the Lord's Followers Being a Light to the World, and Saviors of Mnn
Today at church a speaker based his talk around the idea that Christ has asked us to be a light to the world. He started with Mathew 5:14 and also quoted D&C 103:9, which not only says that we are to be a light unto the world, but that we are also to be saviors of men. The emphasis was that Christ is the light of the world, and we are to show his light to all. We are to do as He would do in bringing all who are willing to salvation.
Another scripture quoted in this talk was Luke 4:18, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set a liberty them that are bruised." Here Jesus describes his role on earth.
When we are baptized and make covenants with our Savior, we promise to be his witnesses and his servants. His work should be ours. So...
It should be our goal to share the gospel with love to all who will hear, as He would and did and does. It should be our goal to bring his spirit into people's lives where it can heal the brokenhearted, deliver captives from their captivities of illness, sin, error, and other things that bind men. It should be our goal to help everyone see truth, and set them at liberty through his gospel.
Into my mind, though our speaker did not mention this, came the Lord's statement of his mission and purpose from Moses 1:39, that his work and his glory is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." It came to me that if this is the Lord's goal and the purpose of all that He does, and if I am sincere about being his servant and furthering his cause, then the most important goal that I have should be to do whatever I can to contribute to this goal. My mission statement in life should reflect that my highest goal is to help bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
I, of course, can do nothing compared to Master, and very little compared to many of his authorized servants who are so much more capable than I. But what I can do, I should do; and I can love those around me. I can comfort them when they sorrow, I can bless them through my service. I can testify to them of Jesus and so let the spirit teach them the things of eternal life. These things should be my highest goals. I hope that I can do better at keeping these goals in mind, and acting accordingly.
Another scripture quoted in this talk was Luke 4:18, "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set a liberty them that are bruised." Here Jesus describes his role on earth.
When we are baptized and make covenants with our Savior, we promise to be his witnesses and his servants. His work should be ours. So...
It should be our goal to share the gospel with love to all who will hear, as He would and did and does. It should be our goal to bring his spirit into people's lives where it can heal the brokenhearted, deliver captives from their captivities of illness, sin, error, and other things that bind men. It should be our goal to help everyone see truth, and set them at liberty through his gospel.
Into my mind, though our speaker did not mention this, came the Lord's statement of his mission and purpose from Moses 1:39, that his work and his glory is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." It came to me that if this is the Lord's goal and the purpose of all that He does, and if I am sincere about being his servant and furthering his cause, then the most important goal that I have should be to do whatever I can to contribute to this goal. My mission statement in life should reflect that my highest goal is to help bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
I, of course, can do nothing compared to Master, and very little compared to many of his authorized servants who are so much more capable than I. But what I can do, I should do; and I can love those around me. I can comfort them when they sorrow, I can bless them through my service. I can testify to them of Jesus and so let the spirit teach them the things of eternal life. These things should be my highest goals. I hope that I can do better at keeping these goals in mind, and acting accordingly.
Sunday, January 5, 2014
What Baptism Means to Me
Baptism is the gateway ordinance by which one enters the kingdom of God.
We covenant to serve Him and one another, to bear one another's burdens, to obey his commandments, and to remember Him always. In return, He promises that we can have his spirit to be with us.
In the performance of this ordinance, we are immersed in water. This is symbolic of several things, such as being washed clean from our sins, or burial of the old sinful self and resurrection as a new-born child of God.
Jesus said, "Except a man be born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
Once we are baptized and confirmed, we are officially members of the Lord's church, and we have begun the path of ordinances that will lead us back to Him.
Baptism is incomplete if not accompanied by the gift of the Holy Ghost, which will be next week's subject.
What does all of this mean to me? It means that a loving God has provided a way for me to be cleansed of sin, enter his church, and begin on the road home to Him. It means that He has provided authorized agents who hold his priesthood, and who can perform the ordinance of baptism with his full authority and backing.
It is yet another evidence of his love for us.
We covenant to serve Him and one another, to bear one another's burdens, to obey his commandments, and to remember Him always. In return, He promises that we can have his spirit to be with us.
In the performance of this ordinance, we are immersed in water. This is symbolic of several things, such as being washed clean from our sins, or burial of the old sinful self and resurrection as a new-born child of God.
Jesus said, "Except a man be born of the water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
Once we are baptized and confirmed, we are officially members of the Lord's church, and we have begun the path of ordinances that will lead us back to Him.
Baptism is incomplete if not accompanied by the gift of the Holy Ghost, which will be next week's subject.
What does all of this mean to me? It means that a loving God has provided a way for me to be cleansed of sin, enter his church, and begin on the road home to Him. It means that He has provided authorized agents who hold his priesthood, and who can perform the ordinance of baptism with his full authority and backing.
It is yet another evidence of his love for us.
Sunday, December 29, 2013
What Repentance Means to Me
I don't know that I can deal with this subject adequately, because it is a central issue. Along with agency and the atonement, it is a main part of the plan of salvation.
God gave us our agency, which is an essential part of the plan. We must choose to be like Him, if we want to truly develop those characteristics. They cannot be forced upon us.
However, agency gives us the opportunity to to make our own choices, and being mortal, we all make at least some wrong choices. The atonement provides forgiveness and course corrections, if we will only repent.
True repentance is the process of becoming more like our Heavenly Father. We discard behaviors that are not like his, and replace them with behaviors that are Christlike.
Some tend to think of repentance as a sort of punishment, where we have to change our ways. This is not correct. It is an opportunity provided by a loving Father to allow us to recover from our mistakes and still progress to become like Him even after our errors.
There are steps to repentance: recognizing error, feeling a desire to change and a sorrow for having done wrong, confession, making it right where possible, by making what restitution we can, and forsaking the incorrect behavior permanently. None of this is easy. None of it can be done without the Lord's help. Some errors also require confession to and help from a Bishop or other authorized servant of the Lord.
The wonderful miracle is that, when we sincerely repent, the Lord forgives and forgets our errors, remembering them no more; and that He then applies the atonement to us, which literally cleans us of our stains and changes us for the better. The entire plan of salvation, the entire goal of the "immortality and eternal life of man" would fail without this process.
I am very grateful for repentance in my life. I am now a better man that I used to be, thanks to this privilege. And, if I continue to repent as I should, my progress and improvement will continue until I am blessed with eternal life and exaltation.
God gave us our agency, which is an essential part of the plan. We must choose to be like Him, if we want to truly develop those characteristics. They cannot be forced upon us.
However, agency gives us the opportunity to to make our own choices, and being mortal, we all make at least some wrong choices. The atonement provides forgiveness and course corrections, if we will only repent.
True repentance is the process of becoming more like our Heavenly Father. We discard behaviors that are not like his, and replace them with behaviors that are Christlike.
Some tend to think of repentance as a sort of punishment, where we have to change our ways. This is not correct. It is an opportunity provided by a loving Father to allow us to recover from our mistakes and still progress to become like Him even after our errors.
There are steps to repentance: recognizing error, feeling a desire to change and a sorrow for having done wrong, confession, making it right where possible, by making what restitution we can, and forsaking the incorrect behavior permanently. None of this is easy. None of it can be done without the Lord's help. Some errors also require confession to and help from a Bishop or other authorized servant of the Lord.
The wonderful miracle is that, when we sincerely repent, the Lord forgives and forgets our errors, remembering them no more; and that He then applies the atonement to us, which literally cleans us of our stains and changes us for the better. The entire plan of salvation, the entire goal of the "immortality and eternal life of man" would fail without this process.
I am very grateful for repentance in my life. I am now a better man that I used to be, thanks to this privilege. And, if I continue to repent as I should, my progress and improvement will continue until I am blessed with eternal life and exaltation.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
What Christmas Means to Me
Today we had our annual Christmas program during Sacrament meeting. It was wonderful. Janet and I were in the choir. We sang several songs, and there were scripture readings and two talks. The talks were really good, and emphasized not only Jesus' birth, but also his mission in life and the purpose of his coming into mortality. This was made more poignant by the circumstance that yesterday a beloved member of our ward passed away at age 79. I joined his children and grandchildren in tears off and on through the meeting. This made it all the more wonderful that the speakers emphasized all that Christ has done for us.
Because of Jesus, our friend John's story is not done. He is reunited with his parents and siblings, and his beloved Norma will join them when her time comes. Because of Jesus all of our mortal loneliness and sorrow and illness and frailty has an end. Because of Jesus we can be reunited with or families in joy for eternity. Because of Jesus we have comfort and hope.
This, to me, is the bottom line about Christmas. It's great to celebrate the new-born babe. But it is even more wonderful to give praise and thanks for the mission this baby boy performed for his Father and for us. I am awed by the whole concept that He would suffer for me personally and for each of you personally. What an amazing love and grace He has for us!
I testify that it is only through this baby Jesus, and the adult Jesus that He became, that we have any hope of salvation, peace, hope, happiness, or eternal life. To provide these things for us is the reason He chose to come to earth. This is why it is so important to me to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, and to love and worship and obey him.
Because of Jesus, our friend John's story is not done. He is reunited with his parents and siblings, and his beloved Norma will join them when her time comes. Because of Jesus all of our mortal loneliness and sorrow and illness and frailty has an end. Because of Jesus we can be reunited with or families in joy for eternity. Because of Jesus we have comfort and hope.
This, to me, is the bottom line about Christmas. It's great to celebrate the new-born babe. But it is even more wonderful to give praise and thanks for the mission this baby boy performed for his Father and for us. I am awed by the whole concept that He would suffer for me personally and for each of you personally. What an amazing love and grace He has for us!
I testify that it is only through this baby Jesus, and the adult Jesus that He became, that we have any hope of salvation, peace, hope, happiness, or eternal life. To provide these things for us is the reason He chose to come to earth. This is why it is so important to me to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, and to love and worship and obey him.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Dickens and Van Dyke: Recommended Reading for the Christmas Season
Charles Dickens wrote The Life of Our Lord for his own children. It was very personal to him and to his family, and so was not published until many years after he passed away. It is a treasure, explaining Jesus' life in terms a child can understand. It shows the strength of Dickens' testimony of Christ.
This little book contains one of my favorite first paragraphs from all literature: "My dear children, I am very anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived, who was so good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in anyway ill or miserable, as he was. And as he is now in Heaven, where we hope to go, and all to meet each other after we are dead, and there be happy always together, you never can think what a good place Heaven, is without knowing who he was and what he did."
Highly recommended. I found it on line at The Life of Our Lord.
The other short book that I like to read during this time of year is Henry Van Dyke's The Mansion. This is a sort of parable about our reward on earth vs. our reward in heaven, and is a good reminder of what our real priorities should be. Though Van Dyke did not word it this way, he clearly teaches in this story that "when you are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God."
I also like it because one of the characters is named Harold. Not that this should make any difference...
I found it on line at The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke.
I hope you enjoy these books. I think they would be well worth your time.
This little book contains one of my favorite first paragraphs from all literature: "My dear children, I am very anxious that you should know something about the History of Jesus Christ. For everybody ought to know about Him. No one ever lived, who was so good, so kind, so gentle, and so sorry for all people who did wrong, or were in anyway ill or miserable, as he was. And as he is now in Heaven, where we hope to go, and all to meet each other after we are dead, and there be happy always together, you never can think what a good place Heaven, is without knowing who he was and what he did."
Highly recommended. I found it on line at The Life of Our Lord.
The other short book that I like to read during this time of year is Henry Van Dyke's The Mansion. This is a sort of parable about our reward on earth vs. our reward in heaven, and is a good reminder of what our real priorities should be. Though Van Dyke did not word it this way, he clearly teaches in this story that "when you are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God."
I also like it because one of the characters is named Harold. Not that this should make any difference...
I found it on line at The Mansion by Henry Van Dyke.
I hope you enjoy these books. I think they would be well worth your time.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
What the Privilege of Serving a Mission Has Meant to Me
I served a full-time mission for the church from 1974 - 1976, in Minnesota while waiting for my visa, and then, starting in July 1975 when my visa finally came through, in the Sao Paulo Brazil South Mission.
It was a great time in my life, a wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord by sharing in his goal to bring to pass the exaltation and eternal life of man. It was great to share the gospel with those who did not know of it, in its fullness.
It was not always easy. There were times of discouragement, illness, and even not getting along as well as I should have with my companion. There were many who rejected our message, most often without even beginning to listen.
Though the stated goal was to serve others, there was a great deal of growth that occurred in me. I learned to be more reliant on the Lord, to be reliable in my service, to get along better with others, to honor my priesthood, to recognize the promptings of the spirit, and many other lessons that have been a great blessing to me since that time.
These lessons and this growth has provided a base or foundation for the rest of my life. It has enabled me to serve better in family, church, and career.
More recently, two of my children have served and been blessed in many of these same ways. I see it as a great blessing that my children love the Lord, and act like they love Him.
In the future, if circumstances allow, after I retire, Janet and I plan to serve a mission together.
It was a great time in my life, a wonderful opportunity to serve the Lord by sharing in his goal to bring to pass the exaltation and eternal life of man. It was great to share the gospel with those who did not know of it, in its fullness.
It was not always easy. There were times of discouragement, illness, and even not getting along as well as I should have with my companion. There were many who rejected our message, most often without even beginning to listen.
Though the stated goal was to serve others, there was a great deal of growth that occurred in me. I learned to be more reliant on the Lord, to be reliable in my service, to get along better with others, to honor my priesthood, to recognize the promptings of the spirit, and many other lessons that have been a great blessing to me since that time.
These lessons and this growth has provided a base or foundation for the rest of my life. It has enabled me to serve better in family, church, and career.
More recently, two of my children have served and been blessed in many of these same ways. I see it as a great blessing that my children love the Lord, and act like they love Him.
In the future, if circumstances allow, after I retire, Janet and I plan to serve a mission together.
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