The Reason Behind Conversion

D&C 88:22

For he who is not able to abide
the law of a celestial kingdom, 
cannot abide a celestial glory.

 

A new mormon message came out from a 2006 talk by Richard G Scott about rock climbing. He likens how some people go soloing, and it's very dangerous, versus people who go in groups or together with the right equipment, which is quite safe.

Just like rock climbing alone can be dangerous, living your life without the help of the Savior can have disastrous consequences. We all don't want to be 'that guy' who tells people that without the Savior they cannot truely be happy. They can be very happy people, you can indeed live your life just great without the Savior in it at all. I wasn't there, but I can safely say there were many happy and fulfilled people all throughout time in non-christian areas of the world, and will continue to be.

What is the truth though, is what we cannot see from our side of the veil. It is the fact that we cannot live in happiness for eternity without the Savior, Jesus Christ. His atonement ransomed us from sin, and his atonement allows us entrance to the Celestial Kingdom of God.

Dallin H Oaks put a very good point across which can be found in Preach My Gospel:

"We do not preach and teach in order to ‘bring people into the Church’ or to increase the membership of the Church. We do not preach and teach just to persuade people to live better lives. … We invite all to come unto Christ by repentance and baptism and confirmation in order to open the doors of the celestial kingdom to the sons and daughters of God. No one else can do this"

Rock climbing alone can be dangerous,
when we go prepared, we can be safe. 
This is like salvation.
When we want to be safe, and
return to God, we need Christ.

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The Grain of Mustard Seed

Matthew 17:20

If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
ye shall say unto this mountain, 
Remove hence to yonder place
and it shall remove;
and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

I think in our lives we have changing levels of faith displayed. For every moment we have an amount of faith in a person or a thing or a principle based on our experiences with it. The above scripture declares that all we need to move mountains is faith as a grain of mustard seed. The picture above shows just how small that is; the seeds are usually 1mm or 2mm in diameter.

For me, the size isn't really what makes it, it is the fact that it is physical, and an object. Most likely used because in Christ's time that would likely have been the smallest conceivable object to the people, and yet they don't even have that much faith.

It says a lot to me that our faith isn't quite a tangible object, and we might think that we have a lot of faith, but in actual fact, we don't have as much as we had hoped. Joseph B Wirthlin (one of the Lords apostles in our day) says something similar, he likens it to a fire. Some people may feel like their testimony is strong, their fire is powerful, when actually it is only a candle flame compared to another person's roaring bonfire. This is applicable to faith too, we may feel like we have enough faith to overcome challenges, or to receive inspiration and revelation, but in actual fact it is not much at all.

When trials come, we need our faith to be as strong as possible.

The girl in this video learns the truthfulness of
the Book of Mormon, by asking and praying 
to God in faith. Her faith helped her find a crucial
answer; what can your faith do for you?

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Fear Not What Man Can Do

Moroni 8:16-17

I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear.

And I am filled with charity, which is everlasting love

I was shown this scripture yesterday and I thought it was such a great scripture! It really helped me to reflect about just what our potentials in life can be. We can often get dragged down by the negative things, dwell on them too long and then fear. Many times in the scriptures and in modern revelation we are told that God is almighty and can overcome all things (because he created them!!) If we have faith then we can see this be fulfilled in our lives.

A little bit of faith can change any situation for the better, and allow healing and happiness for our souls.

Watch a video which teaches how faith can overcome
all fears and doubts we may have in this life.
God's love can surround us and make us better
and stronger individuals, who rely on Him.

Click to watch, and please share with friends!

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The Family is of God

Something I wanted to share about this week is the family. I think it's very important to consider the lesson taught by 'The Family: A Proclamation to the World'.

When we think about the way we are as people, we cannot help but think that it is the way we were raised that has one of the biggest influences in our behavior, our attitude, even our thoughts. It's a good thing to live positively and happily, and that starts by how we think and act. If we want to be happy, we can do a lot to get there. There's a lot to be said for people who go through life looking at the downside of things rather than the upside; glass half-empty people.

I think about the way I was raised as a kid. I know that my parents reflected upon the words taught in the referenced proclamation. It teaches how we are all created in God's image and we are all his children. It teaches how we can inherit eternal life; in fact it is our destiny to do so. It tells of how important every single human life is. It shares the importance of marriage and having a husband and wife lead the family.

I am grateful for my parents example of sticking through it even during hard times, and their teachings supporting this proclamation that I personally had divine worth. They never gave up on me, and always supported me and encouraged me to do good things with my life. I felt love as they told me that I had a Father in heaven that loved me more than anybody else, and more than I could possibly imagine. This has caused me to always reflect back on what they have said, and be able to link that concept and fact to every decision I make.

I know that I am not just someone, but everything, to God.

Watch this video talking about the important 

responsibility of raising children in Faith.

Parents need to work together to bring the best out

of their children, and help them reach their full potential.

Click to watch, and please share with friends!

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God Raises us by Miracles

Here's a great scripture I found in the Bible. 

1 Corinthians 6:14 - "And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power." 

I think this is remarkable, and there are two parts to this scripture, the first addressing the raising up of the Lord, the second of us. 

God raised Christ in many different ways. He raised him in righteousness, literally teaching him and instructing him. He grew in strength, maturity and spirituality, all to become our example. He was raised in an environment of spirit, because the role of the Savior is completely key in eternal life for all living people. 

He knew he was a man, and physically surrounded by negative influence which could make him stumble like we all do, but because of this, God sent angels and teachers to Him from birth so that he would be able to withstand any influence of evil, which he did many many times. 

Because of the Father's constant watchful care of the Savior, his Son, he became the Messiah who saved us all. 

He cares about his all of his children. He raises us up through inspiration, scriptures, prophets, angels (including those mortals around us), action of service and so forth. All of these are ways for us to grow and learn and develop, and he nurtures and nourishes us all. 

If you have children, you could understand better the scope of Heavenly Fathers love for us. If you don't have children, try imagine what it would be like to have a child you love unconditionally, and the desires and wishes you would have for that child. It's something that I can only imagine, and for me it seems like a rewarding prospect spiritually for personal development. 

I think that the powers by which God works by, as stated in this scripture, are miracles. He provided a Savior for us all that we can be saved, and he provides that we can all return to live with him in peace and happiness which lasts forever. There were many miracles in the life of
Jesus, and there are many miracles in our life too. We ought to seek these out, and thank God for the many miracles he provides for us daily. 

Watch this video comparing the role of this father 

on earth to that of our Heavenly Father. He believes

his children teach him lessons which he

can relate to his personal relationship with God.

Click to watch, and please share with friends!

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Choose the Right

In our Church, there is a phrase that has become very common and well known over the years - "Choose the Right". It's so well known, that many people wear rings with "CTR" on it (standing for Choose the Right), a small reminder that impacts decisions to live better daily.

As a child I remember getting really angry with my parents at an LDS shop which sold lots of churchy things, including lots of styles of CTR rings. I thought they were awesome, and particularly liked the look of one of them. Being the child I was, I would not quit until I got it (never mind it was an adult size, and about £75!), and so I blew the store down whining for about 20 minutes. They said I couldn't have it, tried to show their case, but I wouldn't give up until we left the store, and I had nothing at all, despite my brothers and sisters getting stuff.

Just a year ago I went to a similar shop down in the south where I live now, looking at these rings again. I was reminded of this story, and chuckled a bit! Despite not getting the ring I wanted, I got a different one later; and I always remembered the phrase, Choose the Right, which I know this impacted my life.

I now understand that each day when I choose the right, I am getting closer and closer to happiness, and our Father in Heaven. It's not about setting a goal of perfection and then striving to do it, it's about improving a little each day, and being happy with reaching the goals set.

Here's a great video about Jeremy. He believes
each persons life is important to God, 
and it's important what we personally do each day.

Click to watch, and please share with friends!

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God Lifts Us Up

In the April 2013 general conference of the LDS church, Preisdent Dieter F. Uctdorf provided and suggested three ways of 'opening our eyes to the hope of God's light'. He informs us that once we have found where we are, found our bearings in the path of the Lord, that we simply must 'walk in the light'.

I made a graphic (which you're welcome to share) from what he instructed us, which said "he desires that you rise up and become the person you were designed to be". I think this is a great thought we can all draw help from. When we remember what God has done for us, all that he has provided, (quite literally everything!) we can hardly be grateful enough. All he wants in return, is for us to use it all to rise up and be happy! He wants us to follow the Savior, Jesus Christ, and be good. He wants us to see His expectations for us, and try our best to meet those.

Much like the graphic above, we need help to rise up. It's not enough to desire to just rise up, we won't get much higher than we ever have been! We need tools, much like the hang glider. The hope of God's light is the hope we need to lift us higher. If we want to become great, we cannot do it on our own! We must rely and trust on the instruments the Lord provides for us, and they can lift us as high as we want to go. 

I hope we realise in our lives that the tools are there, we can rise high, but we cannot do it on our own. He wants to help us through our mistakes, and help us indeed to be the person we were designed to be.

The Will of God is an inspiring video about how 

God cuts us down, but he will lift us up each time.

Click to watch, and please share with friends!

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Open the Door

On LDS.org, finding Revelations chapter 3 has the header, right before it begins with scripture: 

He who overcomes will retain his name in the book of life, reach godhood, and be with Jesus as He is with the Father.

This is good information to remember, as Christians we know that we will be saved because of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. To overcome in this sense we can take to mean overcoming temptations, sin, all things negative and indeed things evil. Google provides with suggestions of what the word "overcome" might mean:

• Succeed in dealing with
• Defeat; prevail

What do these mean? I understand them to mean that through overcoming sin, which of course is only possible through the Savior, we are succeeding in fulfilling God's plan and vision for us - to become happy, to gain eternal life. Also to defeat sin is interesting visually, in our lives we can defeat sin through prayer, scripture study, and all the good stuff we've been taught from being young, and even are still being taught today.

20 verses in there is a very informative scripture:

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him...

I find this part of the verse very important - back to what I said a second ago about defeating Sin, we must first open the door (so to speak) between us and the Savior, before we can be with him. Letting him in is very important, it is essentially allowing change in our lives, and helping us to overcome troubles and trials we have every day. Until we open the door, as a famous painting by Warner Sallman and many others have depicted, we cannot overcome the mountains in our life that are too often too hard to climb.

I know that strength comes from an unseen source, when we humbly open the door to the Savior in our lives.

Mountains to Climb is a humbling video about how the Savior 

gives strength through all of our hard times, if we open to him.

Click to watch, and please share with friends!

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