An Amazing World

I recently finished my Physical Science class and, when taken in conjunction with religion classes, it really makes me think about the world we live in and the laws governing it. I find it really interesting how most all of my classes--no matter how spiritual or secular they are--have correlations with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I've noticed especially in science classes and lectures I've gone to (the subject that the world sees as almost a religion of its own) coincide so well with what I've learned through the gospel. It's amazing how everything in this world works so perfectly--from the solar system to the development of a new baby. Everything has to work out perfectly for those to work out right, and yet they do. It's very hard for me to believe that life was just an accident. God created the world we live in and the laws governing it. The picture I added to this post is just a representation of this beautiful, amazing world. It was taken from my front porch and it just stands as a testament that you don't have to go far to witness the perfect world created for us. Everything testifies of the truthfulness of the gospel. I wish I could go in to all of the technicalities of various theories I've learned about because the simple truths that I've learned through the technical things are harder to see without them. I'll just say this about one of the theories that I think is better than a lot of the other ones out there--the string theory is amazing. It takes the four "laws of nature" and combines them into something so simple and yet so complicated--and that has reinforced my testimony more than many other things. While I'm not a scientist and I don't know the mechanics of how hardly anything works, I know enough to understand that God created this amazing world for us to live in and gave us a way to gain eternal--literally eternal--happiness. I'm sorry if this is really confusing to read, but it's hard for me to write too.

"Father"

When Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane he used the Aramaic word "Abba" to address His Father in Heaven. "Abba" simply means "Father" in the informal sense of the word. He didn't say "Thou master of the universe" or anything like that to distinguish the greatness of God, it was just a simple father. This way of speaking bypasses the formality of prayer and allows him to simply converse with the father. We all should strive to have this type of relationship with our Father in Heaven. We need to become as little children and trust in God the way little children trust in and look up to their parents. When we have this kind of trust we can pray for our daily needs with the assurance that whatever the father gives us will be good. We are all already spirit sons and daughters of our Father in Heaven, but we have moved away from that relationship. We need to reclaim our relationship with God--to return to God--and trust Him with our lives.

Christmas Symbols

At this time of year the world is re-decorated. We are greeted with images of Christmas wherever we go and it's easy to forget what they represent. I just want to go over a few of my favorite symbols--Christmas lights, presents, and the nativity. As I am a huge fan of Christmas music, I have come across some songs which describe the meaning of these so much better than I ever could.

The first (Christmas Lights) is talked about in Lonestar's song called "Christmas Lights". In the beginning of the song it simply talks about Christmas lights the way we think of them when we think of Christmas--flashing, on houses, in the shape of rudolph, etc. But the last verse brings out the meaning behind why we have all of these lights on our houses at this time of year. It says, "It all started long ago / In Bethlehem a night so cold / Three wise men looked up in the sky. / A blessed miracle occurred / A brand new star began to burn / And on that night / We saw the first Christmas light." (If you don't know the song and want to hear it you might have to come to me to listen to it--I couldn't find it anywhere online but I have a copy) The star that guided the wise men to where Jesus was born is what the Christmas lights symbolize.

The second, while it is talked about in many songs, I haven't found a song that talks about what they symbolize--although they symbolize the most important part of Christmas which is Christ himself. He came into this world to bring us all peace and joy. He is the true present we receive at Christmas which is a celebration of His birth. Presents also symbolize the gifts the wise men gave to Jesus when they visited him. We need to give Christ gifts of ourselves--give him our obedience and love. Every year my family gets together to "give" Christ a gift. We write down what we are going to do to follow him on a piece of paper and put them in a stocking with Jesus' name on it. We display that stocking in a prominent place in our house to remind us of what we are going to give Jesus on His birthday.

The last goes right along with presents. The Nativity directly symbolizes Jesus at His birth. In my New Testament class I learned that in Jesus' day his disciples didn't even realize how Jesus was going to save the world. As my professor told us, traditionally the Messiah wasn't someone who dies. It's a contradiction of terms. But that is exactly what the Messiah came here to do for each one of us. The song that I feel says this the best is Brad Paisley's "Born on Christmas Day". Near the end of the song it says, "We expected a soldier to save us from our plight / All dressed in shiny armor, ready for a fight / But instead He sent a little baby boy / All filled with love and happiness to bring the world joy." Jesus wasn't what the world was expecting. Instead of coming as a solder, he came as a baby--the most humble, insignificant form. But this humble birth is the most significant that has ever and will ever occur. He didn't have to come in shiny armor to accomplish His atonement for all of us.

A Sacred Covenant

I recently learned in my New Testament class that in the days of Jesus dining with people was like making a covenant with them. If you dined with someone it was like you would promise to protect them if they would be loyal to you. This type of a covenant was created at the Last Supper. Jesus made a covenant that he would always be with them if they would keep His commandments and always remember Him. Soon after this, His disciples betrayed/deny Him and the covenant was broken. But after His betrayal and crucifixion and resurrection, he came to His disciples again and renewed this covenant. During this meal, Jesus asked Peter, "Lovest thou me?" three times. Peter is grieved because he knows he has been disloyal and Jesus had to ask him three times before he realized that the obvious answer isn't enough. He replied, "Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee." It was hard for Peter to face the fact that he had been disloyal to one he loved as much as he loved Jesus. It's like that with us as well. When we sin, it is hard for us (at least it is for me) to acknowledge our mistakes and repent. But we need to be like Peter and come completely unto Jesus and forsake our sins. He gives us plenty of opportunities to do this and plenty of opportunities to renew our covenant with Him. The Sacrament is a sacred covenant between us and Jesus. He will not forsake us if we will not forsake Him. We symbolically dine with Jesus each week when we partake of the Sacrament and we need to remember that and keep our end of the deal.

Fishers of Men

When my older brother served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints he and some of the other missionaries (he served in the Nashville, TN mission) made bracelets which represented being fishers of men. The bracelets were made by linking fishing swivels together in a chain around the wrist. He, along with others in my family who have since made bracelets of their own, still wear the bracelets to remind them to always be fishers of men. After Christ's resurrection he went to his disciples at the sea of Tiberias. At first they didn't realize who he was and when He asked them if they had caught anything they said no. He then told them to cast their net on the other side of the boat and they caught 153 fish in the net--so many that they marveled that the net hadn't broken. This scene is a reminder of when Jesus first called Simon, Peter, and Andrew to follow him. He said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19). Being a fisher of men means bringing people to the joy that is Jesus Christ. As said in my last post, there is room for everyone in His kingdom. The net will not ever break--no matter how many fish--or people--are brought unto Him. Bringing people to the gospel of Jesus Christ not only brings joy into the lives of those it is shared with, but also (as it says in D&C 18) to those bringing them the joy of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Following Christ

In reading and studying the New Testament I came across this scripture in John 20:31 which says, "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." This scripture really stood out to me when I read it and when we talked about it in my New Testament class. I had never really paid that much attention to it before. My thoughts, while I'm sure were not consciously acknowledged, probably went something like this: yep, believe in Christ--that's good. Now that I have studied His life in more depth than I have before this verse takes on a whole new meaning. We need to not only have faith in Him, we need to hearken to His teachings--hearken meaning hear and follow. It's not enought to just believe in Him because when we truly believe, we will understand that though him we can have eternal life and in order to gain that eternal life we need to live His teachings now. And we need to have hope that when we do mess up, we can be forgiven through His everlasting atonement. He gave his life for every person in the world--on a personal level that we can't really understand. He loves each of us and wants us to follow Him and believe in Him and His atonement. He knows each of us better than we know ourselves. He knows that we mess up in our lives--he knew that when he suffered and died for us. His love and atonement are unconditional when we truly follow Him. In class we talked about how Jesus (at the Last Supper) told each of his disciples what they would do to betray Him. They didn't believe Him, but all along He knew them better than they knew themselves. His knowing us better than we know ourselves--knowing what we will do before we do it--gives us hope. Hope that even though we do bad things He is still willing to die for us because He loves us. All we have to do is love Him enough to follow His teachings and repent of our sins and He will welcome us openly into His kingdom. He said in John 14:2, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." There is room in this kingdom for everyone. There is not limited space which would cause anyone to be turned away. As long as we follow Him he will prepare a place for us.

Enduring to the End

I was reading my cousin's blog one day when I came accross this poem which my great-grandfather had written. I didn't know he had written any poetry and I love it! I thought this one applied to my life right now--as pathetic as that is! I have been extremely stressed out with school lately. So much so that I almost felt like quitting after this semester. I love learning and the atmosphere, but all of the stressful busywork significantly deters any pleasure I feel in it. I always did well in junior high and high school, and I loved it. It gave me a sense of accomplishment and I was proud of myself. That has not been the case since I came to college. I've feet like everyone around me is doing better than I am and I hate the feeling that I know I could do better. So now that I have less than a week of classes left, I have really stepped it up a knotch. I'm working harder than the rest of the semester so that I can try to get back to how I was in high school. So that I can rest when the semester is finally over!

The same thing can be applied to our lives in a spiritual sense. We do the things we don't want to do--we do the busywork--so that we can have true rest in the end (although when applied to our lives in a spiritual sense, it's not really busywork). Our Heavenly Father knew it would be hard. He knew that we would make mistakes and get discouraged. So He provided a way for us to conquer our hardships. Through His son Jesus Christ, we can overcome our hardships and find our final rest after we do our duty. "To conquer first, ere he may rest."

Gifts of Love at Christmastime

Yesterday my mom read a talk to my family about the gift of love and how it is the most important gift we can receive. Love shown between family and friends encourages us and uplifts us as we face our trials in life--I know this from personal experience. I was going through a really tough time last year and through the help of my family and friends I was able to keep a positive outlook and make it through that particular trial. But I think the most important source of love comes from our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ. Whether or not we have any family or friends to love and help us, we always have theirs. Today I was reading through a news article on Elder Wirthlin (because he died yesterday) and I found a quote in it which he had said in General Conference. He said, "Not even death can take us from the eternal blessings promised by a loving Heavenly Father." Though we face trials of all kinds (like death), we will always receive the blessings promised to us by our loving Heavenly Father because he loves us. He wants us to succeed in this life as much as we do--and more, but sometimes we don't realize it. He helps us through the trials instead of eliminating them so that we can grow and be able to withstand more situations and help others with our experiences--showing our love to them.

When my mom read that talk to our family yesterday, she encouraged us to give gifts of love this Christmas to those around us. It's that type of giving that will ultimately help us and those we love to return to our Heavenly Father someday. The material presents, while they do make us happy in some ways, don't bring the kind of joy to our lives that comes from truly giving of ourselves to someone else.

Tithing

Tithing has always been something that has been emphasized in my house growing up and is still emphasized. I haven't always been the best at paying my tithing, but I do try. There was one time when I was in ninth grade and I was trying to pay for our ninth grade Lagoon Day. I had enough money to go, except for my tithing. If I paid my tithing I wouldn't have enough to go to Lagoon, and there wasn't enough time for me to make more money because we were going the next day. I finally made the decision to pay my tithing and after I had prepared the money I owed, I found five dollars in my room that I had forgotten about. I felt really blessed for paying my tithing--even though the blessing was simply having enough money to pay for the trip to Lagoon. Since then, the power of paying tithing has been manifest many times in my life. Recently I have been having money problems because of unexpected school expenses and losing my job. My last paycheck was all that I had to cover any food I needed while at school and I didn't (and still don't) know how long it will be until I find a new job. But I decided to pay my tithing and I ended up getting approved for an overdraft on my bank account whereas before, when I still had a job, I wasn't approved. A lot of my money problems have come from having to pay insufficient funds fees to the bank when a forgotten about insurance payment of $1.10 came out of my account unexpectedly and I didn't have the money to cover it. Really pathetic, I know, but such is my life at present. Now that I have the overdraft protection I will no longer have to pay the $15 dollar fine every time I go negative. I know that I could avoid that anyway simply by being a little more concious about my money, but I have proven to not be very good at that so this has relieved a little stress from my current situation. I love having lessened stress! And I know that this lessening of my stress in many times, not just what I have said here, has come from paying my tithing.

Thoughts on Christ

As I said in my last blog, I'm taking a class on the New Testament and one on C.S. Lewis. I really love both of these classes individually, but I especially love it when the two subjects collide. Currently in NT we are studying the gospel of Mark and in CSL we are reading Mere Christianity. In the second book of Mere Christianity, What Christians Believe, it talks about Christ and the culture He lived in. It was really interesting to me that in Jesus' time, no one would ever say God's name. I never knew that fact before and it really struck me in both of my classes when we talked about it. In Mere Christianity, Lewis says that when Christ said it, it either had to be true or He was basically crazy. Since the Jewish context in which Jesus lived had many conventions like this which Christ broke, it makes it a little easier for me to see how He was rejected by them. I love looking at things like this in historical context. It really helps me understand the events that occurred--better than I've ever seen them before.
Another part of this that I really loved was how Lewis went on to say that Jesus was so "down to earth" or something to that extent. That in spite of all of His convention-breaking He still accumulated followers and believers which has continued to this day. People were willing to get over initial shocks at His behavior and believe in Him throughout history. I thought this was really interesting and worth sharing. It really changed the way I look at the New Testament.