2 Tips of the Mount

If you search "perfection" on dictionary.com, it will define it as, the highest proficiency, skill, or excellence, as in some art. Typically, when we think of Christ, we think of him as the only perfect being who has walked this earth. While we take Him to be our perfect example, He excluded Himself as being perfect during his early earthly ministry. 
In Matthew 5:48, it says, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" Notice that He immediately referred to Heavenly Father as the only perfect being. 

You may be wondering, "But Jesus never sinned! How can He not be perfect as well?"
Jesus had a different definition of being perfect. To be perfect, you had to be complete. Think of it as a download. You start at 0% and climb to 100%. Until you are at that 100%, your "mission" is not complete and it will fail. Often times, during our download, we have hiccups, bugs, buffers, etc. that make hinder us from completing our task. However, Jesus did not have all these blemishes, instead He had the task of completing the Atonement before he could become 100% complete. There was still more for Him to accomplish, so He wasn't considered perfect. Luckily for us, Jesus gave us steps to erase our imperfections...THE BEATITUDES!!! 

Seriously though. If you look at it, the beatitudes could be an outline for us to follow and become perfect like him. It's not just each group of people receiving blessings, it's Him wanting us to receive all the blessings by gaining each attribute! So cool.

Another thing we talked about was in Matthew 5:29-30, they say, "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast in from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." "And if they right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of they members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell."
Reading these, I first thought, "Oh, that would be really painful to pluck out your eye or cut off your hand. Better not offend God if it will be worst than that! Yikes."
But there is so much more to learn! The particular selection of the eye and the hand is actually quit interesting. Think about it.

The eye is a major source for input in your life. The sight your eye gives you, puts in a large portion of knowledge into your brain. Your eyes help create the world around you. What is the counsel here? If whatever you are inputting into your life offends God, PLUCK IT OUT! There is no other way. God is telling us it is much easier to be half blind and get to heaven than have full vision also being swallowed in sin.

The hand is a major output for your life. You use your hands to effect the world around you. Your hands were given to you to do good in the world. What is the counsel here? If we are using our hands to offend God, CUT IT OFF! This could mean harming others, denying the gospel, or even being idle in our time. We were placed on this earth to do good with our time. If we are so caught up in playing games, watching shows, etc... in other words doing NOTHING, how offended will God be when we come back to heaven so much wasted potential? It would have been better to fully cut off whatever wasted output we have than lose the potential bonds/love we could have experienced otherwise.

The virtual addictions have to stop (this also includes pornography). I cannot even begin to describe how much wasted time goes online. Sometimes, the only way to get rid of the addiction, is to do exactly what Jesus says, and pluck/cut it out of our life.
"But not having a smart phone/tablet/laptop is super inconvenient! We need these things today!"
...yeah well so would be losing an eye or hand. This is what Jesus counsels us to do. I suggest we do it.

Don't forget to be awesome!

Rebuilding OUR temple

 This year I am taking New Testament as my religion class at BYU. For part of it, we are required to write a reflection each week about something we have learned. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to put those writing/thoughts onto my blog. So, here ya go :) 

This week we read in Matthew 4. This is the story of Jesus fasting for 40 days and then is tempted by the devil. One thing that stuck out to me was that Satan and God have different ways to make us happy. Satan will appeal to us in instantaneous gratification. Instantaneous gratification is to experience the pleasure of something you wanted without delay. Basically, we get whatever we want at that moment without thinking about the past or future, a.k.a always living in the now. God, on the other hand, tells us to trust him. He even tells us that if we follow him, it won't be easy. That alone can cause others to stray from the light of Christ. Today, our world is so used to getting things instantaneously. We have lightning fast internet, ovens, light, phones, etc. If there is any sort of delay, we easily become frustrated and fussy. This is a huge advantage for Satan. If we are down and distraught, it is easy to fill the agony with drugs or being some place we should not be...something that will fix the pain immediately. While this indulgence will last for hours, or maybe days, it is not eternal. God wants us to follow him, step by step, until we are perfected by Him. The joy we will feel at the end of the journey to Him, will be far greater than any instantaneous gratification we would ever experience. 

It would have been so easy for Jesus to fall into the enticings of instant gratification. In Matthew 4:6 it says, "And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: an in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash they foot against a stone."

It was not easy for Jesus to gain followers in the beginning of his ministry. Many mocked him, thought him to be a fraud, and cast him out. If he were to through himself off the pinnacle and an angel to come and catch him, all of the people below would witness miracle. Witnessing miracles is a quick way to convert someone. Jesus would have had an instant following, a lot less work for Jesus. However, as we know, witnessing miracles is not enough to convert souls forever. Moses's people witnessed many, many miracles. The plagues, parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, etc. Yet, they were not strong enough and strayed from Gospel of Christ. The best way to convert people, is by small and simple things. 

We also covered John 2. This chapter covers Jesus cleansing the temple. In verse 19 it says, "Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." This can apply metaphorically to our lives as well. In church we learn that our body is a temple. Jesus can come and clean inside our "temple" just as he did for the temple in Jerusalem. Our temples are blemished with sins and temptations. If we let him, Jesus can cleanse our temple through the atonement. However, just as it was for the temple in Jerusalem, it is not a pleasant process to go through. He will "pour out" parts of us that we have held onto for so long. He will "overthrow" our habits and "drive away" anything that is not inline with heaven. This is so powerful. He can rebuild us and make us as pure as himself and our Father in heave. The Atonement can do this for all of us. 

Don't forget to be awesome(: 

To be a "Y's" man is to be a wise man

I never thought I'd be the typical blogging Mormon, yet, here I am. I'm beginning my Sophomore year at BYU. It has already been a whirlwind of crazy adventures and learning opportunities. This year I am taking New Testament for my religion class. As part of it, we are required to write a reflection each week of something we have learned. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to put those writing/thoughts onto my blog. So, here ya go :) 

This week we celebrated Christmas as we studied the birth of Christ. I love the story of Christ’s birth, but more in particular, the story of Mary and Joseph.  The amount of faith that Mary had to have after being told that she would be in charge of the life of the Son of God, would be incomprehensible. Could you imagine being told as a very young virgin, that not only were you going to have a baby, but a baby that would be the redeemer of all mankind? The pressure would have overwhelmed me, as I would suspect it would for most of us. Luke 2:19 says, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” Ponder in the footnotes means to study, pray, and meditate. What an example Mary is to us. When the impossible happened, she turned more unto the Lord for guidance. On the other account, Joseph would have had to have an incredibly compassionate heart to obey the Lord’s command and go to Mary. Put in his shoes, I would have so many doubts. How could this even be possible? I would like to testify that the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves. He will qualify us in whatever we are called to do. Whether that is be a Primary teacher, a Bishop, the parents of a disabled child, or even a student, he guide us with angels on our left and our right, as long as we put our faith in Him first.

My professor, Brother Griffin, made this really great analogy of the wise men. As students of BYU we are all “Y’s” men. For us, it is not enough for us to hear about God, we need to earnestly seek him as the wise men did. Like the wise men, we offer him gifts. Not expensive physical gifts as the wise men did, but expensive spiritual gifts of a broken heart and contrite spirit.  With the title of being a “Y’s” man, we are the wise men of today. What an amazing comparison!

In closure, I’d like to leave you with my favorite scripture from this week. Luke 2:52 says, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” If you pay attention to this verse, he progressed in four different areas: wisdom, stature, God and man. In other words, he is expanding his mind (intelligence), body (physically), spiritually (God) and socially (family/friends). Is this not the areas we are to better ourselves in as well? What a perfect example for us to follow. If we are to become like Him, this verse gives us a basic outline of what we are to do.