by byustudent | Apr 25, 2013 | About Mormons
As you can tell from the title, I have come to the conclusion that we are all rock climbers.
Our goal in rock climbing is to become strong and in shape. As we start climbing, some people are wonderful at it. They begin climbing and just keep on going and going and going — reaching incredible heights. And others are not so wonderful at it. They start climbing, and then they fall. And they start again, and fall again. And again they start, and fall. And it seems like they are making no progress at all. But the goal was never to climb the highest — the goal was to become strong and fit. So even the people who fall and slip and mess-up can reach the ultimate goal — as long as they try again. The only way they will be unsuccessful is if they become discouraged by their falls and decide to give up.
The plan of salvation isn’t a grand-total tally where we get positive points for doing good things and negative points for doing bad things and there is a certain point threshold that you have to meet to be granted access to Heaven. This life is about becoming better. Heavenly Father wants us to succeed. He wants us to go rock climbing so that we can become stronger and better and happier than we were before. And at any point along the way we can say: “Heavenly Father, I’m sorry I haven’t been doing so good. I am going to be better starting now.” And Heavenly Father says, “Okay, this is your new starting point.”
Of course, there is a bit more to it than that. (more…)
by byustudent | Apr 24, 2013 | Mormon Reflections
Hey, everyone. So, I wanted to share a cool insight that I got from the Book of Mormon this week. Just a little background for anyone that’s interested: The Book of Mormon is a record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas; it also testifies that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world and contains the fulness of His gospel. There are two main groups of people it discusses: the Nephites, who are usually righteous, and the Lamanites, who are usually wicked. This week I was reading in Mormon chapters 1-6. At this particular time, the Nephites have become exceedingly wicked and have “willfully rebelled against … God.” Mormon, a righteous Nephite, is appointed to be the leader of the Nephite armies and gives an account of their wickedness and their wars against the Lamanites.
In Mormon 3:12, Mormon says, “Behold, I had led them, notwithstanding their wickedness I had led them many times to battle, and had loved them, according to the love of God which was in me, with all my heart; and my soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God all the day long for them.”
I think that Mormon is an amazing example of having charity, or the pure love of Christ. Despite all the wickedness of the Nephites, he tries to preach the gospel to them multiple times. Despite their rejection of the gospel, and their refusal to repent, he leads them to battle and “deliver[s] them out of the hands of their enemies.” Even when he knows that his people are past hope and “the day of grace was passed with them,” he continues to lead them. After the great, final battle, when all of the Nephites have been slain except for 24 people, Mormon says, “My soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people.” As he stands on a hill and views the destruction, he cries out, “O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you! Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen.” Mormon showed unconditional love for his fellow man. (more…)
by byustudent | Apr 24, 2013 | Mormon Reflections
The people of the Book of Mormon teach us many important lessons through their experiences. One of the purposes of the Book of Mormon is to help us discover and learn from the mistakes of these people in ancient America.
In Mormon 5:18, the fallen Nephite people teach us a very important lesson. They show us that when we forsake God and neglect to follow His commandments, we fall under Satan’s power. When we fall under Satan’s power, we have no foundation or guiding light. Satan does not love his followers. He does not care about their lives nor does he try to guide them like our loving Heavenly Father does. The path of wickedness is one of loneliness and confusion.
When the Nephites decided not to follow God’s commandments, they made the decision to take this path. The scriptures say they became “as a vessel…without sail or anchor, or without anything wherewith to steer her.” Choosing wickedness meant giving up their rights to surety and the power to direct their lives. So it is with us today. Satan persuades people to choose wickedness by advertising ideas of absolute freedom and self-government with no rules or restrictions. But this is false advertising. When we choose Satan’s way, we choose the way of bondage and unhappiness. We choose to be tied down with guilt, loneliness and, often, addictive behaviors. (more…)
![Earth Day: Celebrating God’s Creation]()
by Keith L. Brown | Apr 22, 2013 | About Mormons
Each year, 22 April is set aside as the day for the observance of Earth Day, a day on which people around the world through different events and venues demonstarte their support for environmental protection. Earth Day is celebrated in more than 192 countries, and is coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. Individuals view the significance of this day, and celebrate the day in various ways. For members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (inadvertently referred to by the media and others as the Mormon Church), Earth day becomes another day to celebrate God’s magnificent creation.
History of Earth Day
The following information was obtained from Wikipedia.
The date of 22 April was officially designated as International Mother Earth Day by a consensus resolution in 2009 which was adopted by the United Nations.
The name and concept of Earth Day, however, is credited to John McConnell who pioneered the idea in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, California. He proposed that the 21 March 1970, the first day of Spring in the northern hemisphere that year, to be designated as Earth Day. A month later another Earth Day, first held on 22 April 1970, was founded as an environmental teach-in by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson. Although the United States was the focus of this 22 April Earth Day, Denis Hayes, the original national coordinator in 1970, took it to an entirely different level. In 1990 the observance of Earth became an international event in 141 nations. (more…)
by Gale | Apr 16, 2013 | About Mormons
Many people think of sacrifice as an old-fashioned thing. In the Bible it seems to be something confined to the Old Testament, done away with in Christ’s “new law.” When the ancient Israelites failed to qualify to “enter into God’s rest,” He gave them a “schoolmaster law,” which was a law of outward ordinances. Rituals, and practices, and patterns of religious behavior were all symbolic of the Christ, a preparation for the higher law to come. When Jesus was offered up, He became the great and last sacrifice by the shedding of blood, and asked us to come unto Him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and to place our sins upon the altar. As we progress, we are also able to place our will upon the altar, and to surrender our lives to His service.
What then of sacrifice? Sacrifice means giving up something for a higher good. When one considers the two levels of priesthood, the Aaronic or lower priesthood, and the Melchizedek, or higher priesthood, sacrifice couples with repentance as Aaronic principles. They are foundational—the floor of the eternal, precious edifice that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Upon them, we build on a sure foundation, adding the Gift of the Holy Ghost, our desires to reconcile with God, and our surrender to His will.
In Mormonism, which is the Church of Jesus Christ restored in it’s fullness in these last days before His Second Coming, Latter-day Saints exercise the principle of sacrifice in many ways.
Tithing
Tithing is by definition one tenth of one’s increase, and has always been a law of the gospel. A person who pays tithing in the proper spirit realizes that all he or she has comes from God, and that all He requests is one tenth in return as an offering. By living this law, followers of the Savior reap the blessings He has promised to the obedient. In fact, He blesses us so much, that we are again in His debt. The paying of tithing is ennobling. Tithe payers increase in humility, sensitivity to the Spirit, faith, and patience, even as they are blessed line upon line with the doctrines of the kingdom, and even with worldly sustenance. This is not a prosperity gospel, but a sustenance promise. Those full-tithe-payers who have faced financial emergencies have been rescued time after time by miraculous means. (more…)
