Today I'll be talking about John 14 and John 15.
First, I'd like to denote Jesus's character just moments before he goes to Gethsemane.
In verse 1, he tells his apostles "let your heart not be troubled"
If anybody should be worried, it's Jesus. He's about to suffer for all mankind! Yet, he tries to ease others before himself. I think this is a great example for all of us. We all have troubles and things to overcome. We're all busy. But! If we focus on others...even if their problems aren't as significant as ours, it actually does help. This is where service comes in :)
Service takes your mind off of yourself and puts love and focus on someone else. Service - also known as charity- is the pure love of Christ. So, if you are serving, you are focused on Christ.
Yay! Good job!
If you are focused on anything else but Christ i.e. yourself, television, games, websites, you are going the wrong direction. Whatever you are truly focused on, you will turn to in your spare time. So ask yourself, what are you doing in your spare time? That will give you the answer.
In John 15 Christ talks about cutting the branches off of a tree.
One of my absolute favorite message over this was given by Elder Christofferson. It is titled The Will of God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr8xvw0cgw0
I don't think you can get a better explanation that.
Sometimes we are given trials and setbacks when we think we are doing so well.
The purpose of God "cutting" us down is so that we can refocus our energies to what will bear more fruit for the Kingdom of God.
So thank you Mr. Gardner for cutting me down, and loving me enough to hurt me.
We all need love-inspired correction.
Don't forget to be awesome!
Monday, November 24, 2014
Sunday, November 16, 2014
Talented in Sufficiency
I think everyone who has a basic knowledge of the bible knows the story of the 10 Virgins - found in Matthew 25.
There is a TON of of symbolism in this story.
For starters, did you really ever think about why they were all virgins?
Virgins are clean and without major sin.
You NEED to be a virgin of sin to get to Jesus.
... but you need to be more than that.
Even though all of them were virgins, only half of them actually got into the wedding.
Being clean of sin is necessary, but not sufficient.
We need to be double prepared.
Anyway, more symbolisms!
We are betrothed to Jesus.
Guess who betrothed us? Heavenly Father.
The price for the bride (us) was paid for by the Atonement.
The comparisons are endless!
Moving on -
Also in Matthew 25 is the parable of the talents.
I want you to think of every major decision you have ever had to make.
Every major decision is based out of faith or fear.
Which ones were yours made out of?
5, 2, and 1 were the amount of talents given to three different people.
I mean, that has always kind of bugged me. How was that fair?
Well, as it was explained to me, they all had different capacities and they received what got according to their ability.
This makes me feel better anyway.
Anyway, the guy with 5 talents acted in faith of the master's request and doubled his earnings as a reward. The guy with 2 talents did they same and doubled his reward to 4. - BOTH acting on faith.
The guy with 1 talent acted in fear and had his taken away.
Poor guy.
So have faith in what you're doing. I'd hate for your talents to be taken away.
Don't forget to be awesome!
There is a TON of of symbolism in this story.
For starters, did you really ever think about why they were all virgins?
Virgins are clean and without major sin.
You NEED to be a virgin of sin to get to Jesus.
... but you need to be more than that.
Even though all of them were virgins, only half of them actually got into the wedding.
Being clean of sin is necessary, but not sufficient.
We need to be double prepared.
Anyway, more symbolisms!
We are betrothed to Jesus.
Guess who betrothed us? Heavenly Father.
The price for the bride (us) was paid for by the Atonement.
The comparisons are endless!
Moving on -
Also in Matthew 25 is the parable of the talents.
I want you to think of every major decision you have ever had to make.
Every major decision is based out of faith or fear.
Which ones were yours made out of?
5, 2, and 1 were the amount of talents given to three different people.
I mean, that has always kind of bugged me. How was that fair?
Well, as it was explained to me, they all had different capacities and they received what got according to their ability.
This makes me feel better anyway.
Anyway, the guy with 5 talents acted in faith of the master's request and doubled his earnings as a reward. The guy with 2 talents did they same and doubled his reward to 4. - BOTH acting on faith.
The guy with 1 talent acted in fear and had his taken away.
Poor guy.
So have faith in what you're doing. I'd hate for your talents to be taken away.
Don't forget to be awesome!
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
For Elect's Sake!
The Pharisees always thought they were extremely righteous. That's why they didn't like it when Jesus told them what to do. For example, the Pharisees prayed all the time!
...except it was in public for excess amounts of time.
If they were really trying to make a connection with God, they would pray one on one in a meaningful manner, not in front of everyone to show how righteous they were.
No one likes that person who drags their prayer over the pulpit for five minutes.
In verse 13 of Matthew 23 it says they were "shut up from the Kingdom of God" Yes, they followed rules, but they were following so many that they were missing the point. Not only were they missing the point, but they were condemning people who weren't following the rules they made up.
You know how we have these rules that we are never to break?
So we create other smaller rules and boundaries for ourselves so that we don't break the big rule.
It's the same thing.
Which isn't a problem until you start judging people who don't follow the rules you do.
Not everyone has the same issues you do.
Relax.
The Second Coming has always been an interesting topic to me. Matthew 24 talks all about it. The signs and warnings can be both terrifying and interesting.
We've got wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes.
Next, we have persecutions, murder, betrayal, hate, false prophets, and iniquity.
Not to mention the darkened sun and moon ... plus the stars falling from heaven.
So that can be kind of scary.
Except Jesus didn't tell us all this stuff to scare us. He didn't want to scare us into righteousness so we wouldn't be burned or whatever.
Time and time again he says "for my elect's sake" - meaning he is telling us this so we won't be taken by surprise and be afraid when this stuff happens. He's telling us that these wars, earthquakes, etc. are going to happen and that we need to prepare ourselves.
Don't you love a good heads-up? I do.
Don't forget to be awesome :)
...except it was in public for excess amounts of time.
If they were really trying to make a connection with God, they would pray one on one in a meaningful manner, not in front of everyone to show how righteous they were.
No one likes that person who drags their prayer over the pulpit for five minutes.
In verse 13 of Matthew 23 it says they were "shut up from the Kingdom of God" Yes, they followed rules, but they were following so many that they were missing the point. Not only were they missing the point, but they were condemning people who weren't following the rules they made up.
You know how we have these rules that we are never to break?
So we create other smaller rules and boundaries for ourselves so that we don't break the big rule.
It's the same thing.
Which isn't a problem until you start judging people who don't follow the rules you do.
Not everyone has the same issues you do.
Relax.
The Second Coming has always been an interesting topic to me. Matthew 24 talks all about it. The signs and warnings can be both terrifying and interesting.
We've got wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes.
Next, we have persecutions, murder, betrayal, hate, false prophets, and iniquity.
Not to mention the darkened sun and moon ... plus the stars falling from heaven.
So that can be kind of scary.
Except Jesus didn't tell us all this stuff to scare us. He didn't want to scare us into righteousness so we wouldn't be burned or whatever.
Time and time again he says "for my elect's sake" - meaning he is telling us this so we won't be taken by surprise and be afraid when this stuff happens. He's telling us that these wars, earthquakes, etc. are going to happen and that we need to prepare ourselves.
Don't you love a good heads-up? I do.
Don't forget to be awesome :)
Monday, November 3, 2014
Being a Donkey
If you read my most recent post, you should now understand the relationship between Martha and Mary. If you haven't read it, go read it :)
Picking up a new Martha and Mary story in John 12, Jesus returns to Bathany where Martha and Mary lived.
Again, Martha was busily making supper while Mary was sitting dumping costly ointment onto Jesus's feet. This ointment costs 300 pence...which translates to 300 days work That's pretty much a year!
Judas then complains in verse 5, "why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" (haha, as if that's his worry)
So here it goes again, finger pointing at Mary.
And Mary, probably feels bad, AGAIN.
Jesus rebuttals this accusation in verse 7 saying, "let her alone."
Jesus does not like it when we accuse or judge others, so stop it.
The story of Jesus riding on the donkey on Palm Sunday has never been one of very much interest to me, much less a miracle.
But think about it, how easy is it to ride a donkey?
Probably not.
How easy is it to ride a random donkey?
Probably even harder.
The fact that the apostles were able to find a random donkey, drape clothes over it, and that the donkey allowed Jesus to ride it's back surrounded by multitudes of people is pretty amazing.
Did you realize this is your story?
You're the donkey :)
The donkey was probably scared out of it's mind. It had never done this before. Being thrown into something like this would be extremely overwhelming.
Don't you feel that way sometimes?
Thrown into a new calling? Into a new job? A new parent?
No worries!
Everything turned out okay for the donkey, everything will turn out okay for you too. As long Jesus is on your back and directing you where to go, trust him, you will be okay.
Don't forget to be awesome!
Picking up a new Martha and Mary story in John 12, Jesus returns to Bathany where Martha and Mary lived.
Again, Martha was busily making supper while Mary was sitting dumping costly ointment onto Jesus's feet. This ointment costs 300 pence...which translates to 300 days work That's pretty much a year!
Judas then complains in verse 5, "why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" (haha, as if that's his worry)
So here it goes again, finger pointing at Mary.
And Mary, probably feels bad, AGAIN.
Jesus rebuttals this accusation in verse 7 saying, "let her alone."
Jesus does not like it when we accuse or judge others, so stop it.
The story of Jesus riding on the donkey on Palm Sunday has never been one of very much interest to me, much less a miracle.
But think about it, how easy is it to ride a donkey?
Probably not.
How easy is it to ride a random donkey?
Probably even harder.
The fact that the apostles were able to find a random donkey, drape clothes over it, and that the donkey allowed Jesus to ride it's back surrounded by multitudes of people is pretty amazing.
Did you realize this is your story?
You're the donkey :)
The donkey was probably scared out of it's mind. It had never done this before. Being thrown into something like this would be extremely overwhelming.
Don't you feel that way sometimes?
Thrown into a new calling? Into a new job? A new parent?
No worries!
Everything turned out okay for the donkey, everything will turn out okay for you too. As long Jesus is on your back and directing you where to go, trust him, you will be okay.
Don't forget to be awesome!
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