Go Forward with Faith

As we study the scriptures and come to know the steps to eternal life we learn how we must have Faith. In THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS we believe in the Articles of Faith from modern revelation. The fourth Article of Faith states, "We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost." As it states here that we must have Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

What does having Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ mean?

"Having faith in Christ includes having a

firm belief that He is the Only Begotten Son of God and

the Savior and Redeemer of the world. We recognize

that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father

only by relying on His Son’s grace and mercy. When

we have faith in Christ, we accept and apply His

Atonement and His teachings. We trust Him and what

He says. We know that He has the power to keep His

promises. Heavenly Father blesses those who have

faith to obey His Son.

Faith in Christ leads to action. It leads to sincere and

lasting repentance. Having faith causes us to try as

hard as we can to learn about and become more like our Savior. We want to learn what

His commandments are and then obey them. Even though we will still make mistakes, we

show our love for Him by striving to keep His commandments and avoid sin.

We believe in Christ, and we believe that He wants us to keep all His commandments.

We want to show our faith by obeying Him. We pray in faith for strength to conquer

temptation. We can also develop faith in a particular principle, such as the Word of Wisdom

or tithing, by first believing in Jesus Christ strongly enough to obey His commandments.

As we live a specific commandment, we learn the truthfulness of it by experience (see

John 7:17). We also grow in faith by hearing the word of God (see Romans 10:17) and by

reading the word of God (see Helaman 15:7–8).

As we obey God, He blesses us. He gives us power to meet life’s challenges. He helps

us change the desires of our hearts. Through our faith in Jesus Christ, He can heal us,

both physically and spiritually.' (Preach My Gospel, pgs. 61, 62)

Faith has to be nurtured just as a flower. If we just buy a seed from the store will it grow? NO we have to plant it into the ground. We have to water it. We have to make sure it gets adacuate sun. There is more than you think necessary. With faith we need to be continually repenting. We need to continually studying the Gospel and learning more. We need to work to get our faith and increase it. We need to pray for faith. After we gain that faith we need to exercise it and trust in God. Once that flower is planted and starting to come up you need to continue helping it grow. It is a continual process. Never ending.

'Each individual will make his or her way in a constantly changing world—a world of competing ideologies. The forces of evil will ever be in opposition to the forces of good. Satan constantly strives to influence us to follow his ways and make us miserable, even as he is. And the normal risks of life, such as illness, injury, and accident, will ever be present.

We live in a time of turmoil. Earthquakes and tsunamis wreak devastation, governments collapse, economic stresses are severe, the family is under attack, and divorce rates are rising. We have great cause for concern. But we do not need to let our fears displace our faith. We can combat those fears by strengthening our faith.

Start with your children. You parents bear the primary responsibility to strengthen their faith. Let them feel your faith, even when sore trials come upon you. Let your faith be focused on our loving Heavenly Father and His Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Teach that faith with deep conviction. Teach each precious boy or girl that he or she is a child of God, created in His image, with a sacred purpose and potential. Each is born with challenges to overcome and faith to be developed.

Teach of faith to know that obedience to the commandments of God will provide physical and spiritual protection. And remember, God’s holy angels are ever on call to help us. The Lord so declared: “I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” What a promise! When we are faithful, He and His angels will help us.

Why do we need such resilient faith? Because difficult days are ahead. Rarely in the future will it be easy or popular to be a faithful Latter-day Saint. Each of us will be tested. The Apostle Paul warned that in the latter days, those who diligently follow the Lord “shall suffer persecution.” That very persecution can either crush you into silent weakness or motivate you to be more exemplary and courageous in your daily lives.

How you deal with life’s trials is part of the development of your faith. Strength comes when you remember that you have a divine nature, an inheritance of infinite worth. The Lord has reminded you, your children, and your grandchildren that you are lawful heirs, that you have been reserved in heaven for your specific time and place to be born, to grow and become His standard bearers and covenant people. As you walk in the Lord’s path of righteousness, you will be blessed to continue in His goodness and be a light and a savior unto His people." (Elder Russell M. Nelson, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles)

When Jesus Christ was on the earth the miracles He performed was because of the faith of those. An example is the woman who said, "Just if I can touch His clothes I will be healed." And surely she was healed. Jesus Christ told her that because of her faith she was made whole. Faith is an important principle in life. We must have Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We must exercise Faith in His Atonement and repent.

I know that when we trust in God and act in Faith doing everything we can, He will help us. We can accomplish the righteous desires of our heart. God wants us to be happy. We just need to let Him help us, because true happiness comes from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and living its teachings.

 For a free copy of Finding Faith in Christ call 1(800) 443-9911. It contains the life and ministry of our Savior Jesus Christ founded in the New Testament.

The Ministry of Angels

Welcome back to the new post. Well we all hear about different cool experiences about unknown people helping out. Sometimes you even hear about Heavenly Messengers coming to people. I am here to tell you that these truly do happen. 


Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke about these angels. If you follow the link it will take you there. 
http://lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/the-ministry-of-angels?lang=eng&query=Ministry+Angels


Elder Holland Said,

"From the beginning down through the dispensations, God has used angels as His emissaries in conveying love and concern for His children. Time in this setting does not allow even a cursory examination of the scriptures or our own latter-day history, which are so filled with accounts of angels ministering to those on earth, but it is rich doctrine and rich history indeed.

Usually such beings are not seen. Sometimes they are. But seen or unseen they are always near. Sometimes their assignments are very grand and have significance for the whole world. Sometimes the messages are more private. Occasionally the angelic purpose is to warn. But most often it is to comfort, to provide some form of merciful attention, guidance in difficult times.Has the day of miracles ceased?

“Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?

“Behold I say unto you, Nay; for … it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men. …

“For behold, they are subject unto [Christ], to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness.

I ask everyone within the sound of my voice to take heart, be filled with faith, and remember the Lord has said He “would fight [our] battles, [our] children’s battles, and [the battles of our] children’s children.”  And what do we do to merit such a defense? We are to “search diligently, pray always, and be believing[. Then] all things shall work together for [our] good, if [we] walk uprightly and remember the covenant wherewith [we] have covenanted.”  The latter days are not a time to fear and tremble. They are a time to be believing and remember our covenants.

I have spoken here of heavenly help, of angels dispatched to bless us in time of need. But when we speak of those who are instruments in the hand of God, we are reminded that not all angels are from the other side of the veil. Some of them we walk with and talk with—here, now, every day. Some of them reside in our own neighborhoods. Some of them gave birth to us, and in my case, one of them consented to marry me. Indeed heaven never seems closer than when we see the love of God manifested in the kindness and devotion of people so good and so pure that angelic is the only word that comes to mind.

Matthew records in his gospel that after Satan had tempted Christ in the wilderness “angels came and ministered unto him.” ⁸ Even the Son of God, a God Himself, had need for heavenly comfort during His sojourn in mortality. And so such ministrations will be to the righteous until the end of time"

As Elder Holland spoke here there are truly angels all around us. Some may be your friends some maybe your family and others well you just may not known them. You may never know them. I have had many angels in my life. Their examples have kept me going on the right path. They have helped me in the hardest times of life and decisions. I couldn't imagine life without the angels therein. I could not imagine not having Gods help in my life. His help has come through some of these angels. That is why it is so important that we are all doing our visiting and helping other people. When we need someone we can have help. When you may not expect it God may send someone into your life or just put something in the mail. I have been a recipient of these blessings before in my life. He has sent me people to strengthen me. He has sent me trials to build me stronger. He has sent me my family to continually help me in all that I deal with. I know that He has sent families and they are meant to be eternal not till death do we part. This is one of the greatest messages in life. 

Another message in life that is more important than anything is Heavenly Father sending His Son Jesus Christ to atone for the sins, infirmities and weakness of all mankind. The Atonement is the central message in the Gospel. Everything is focused around the atonement because if it did not happen then we are doomed for life. It is so comforting to know that God still today sends angels to us to help us just as He did in the Old and New Testament times. Because of the sacredness they may not be spoken of but I testify that God does send them. I testify God lives and loves each one of us. I know that we are each a part of His Plan. We each have a huge part of it. We need to figure out what part we have and the way to do that is through humbling ourselves and asking God. 

Remember the words of our Heavenly Father in the Book of Mormon. (2 Nephi 31:11), "Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son."

Lets Shout Out in Gratitude for Mothers

Well lets have a shout out to all of the women in the world who make a difference. Let us remember them always but especially at this time around Mother's Day. Whether they are mothers or not they are important. Whether married or single the women in the world make a difference and are an example to the next generations.  Lets refer to a story in the Book of Mormon when the 2000 stripling warriors went off to battle and they were young and not experienced. 

Alma 56:47-49

47 Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them.

 48And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it.

 49And it came to pass that I did return with my two thousand against these Lamanites who had pursued us. And now behold, the armies of Antipus had overtaken them, and a terrible battle had commenced.

See here in this story we see that a mothers example is so important. These boys followed their mothers teachings. Another example is well look at my mother. From childhood she taught us about our Heavenly Father. She taught us that we need to go on a mission. I followed my mothers counsel after I had a hard time. I was not as obedient as these boys but guess what I eventually did come around and followed that counsel. I had to humble myself. I would recommend going to lds.org and looking up the talk, "Mother Told Me by Bradley D. Foster." This talk is so awesome and again shows the effects of a mother in a childs life. The prophets have counseled that when we are able to the mothers need to be in the home and raise the children. I saw a perfect example of that in my life. When I was really young my mom was at home with me. But then my mom had to go to work and the next brothers and sisters missed out on having a mother with them. I firmly believe that a mother in the home teaching the children will do much more than us men in the home teaching. Another example of someone being taught by their mother was Jesus. Jesus Christ learned about His Heavenly Father at His mothers knees. That is a perfect example. I know not all times mother will be able to be at the home because of financial problems and different things. Some mothers have to go to work to help support the family. 

Lets refer to Elder Jeffrey R. Holland "Because of Your Faith" where he says, "I am grateful for all the women of the Church who in my life have been as strong as Mount Sinai and as compassionate as the Mount of Beatitudes. We smile sometimes about our sisters’ stories—you know, green Jell-O, quilts, and funeral potatoes. But my family has been the grateful recipient of each of those items at one time or another—and in one case, the quilt and the funeral potatoes on the same day. It was just a small quilt—tiny, really—to make my deceased baby brother’s journey back to his heavenly home as warm and comfortable as our Relief Society sisters wanted him to be. The food provided for our family after the service, voluntarily given without a single word from us, was gratefully received. Smile, if you will, about our traditions, but somehow the too-often unheralded women in this church are always there when hands hang down and knees are feeble. They seem to grasp instinctively the divinity in Christ’s declaration: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these … , ye have done it unto me."

"I say to you mothers, if you ever have sons and daughters who amount to what they should in the world, it will be in no small degree due to the fact that your children have a mother who spends many nights on her knees in prayer, praying God that her son, her daughter, will not fail. I remember at the foolish years of my teenage life, my mother came to me with an intuitive impression and warning which I brushed off as foolish teenagers do. “Oh, mother, that’s silly,” I said, then within only a month, to stand face to face with the temptation about which mother had warned. I never had the courage to go back and tell her how right she was, but I was on guard because someone warned—my mother." (Harold B. Lee, President of the Church, The Righteous Influence of Mothers)

Along with all that has been wrote I know how much a mother makes a difference in the life. There are times where mothers are taken out of the home because of divorce, death, work or just left home. I know that their are times where fathers are wifeless and mothers are husbandless.  Lets show our mothers and wives and daughters how much they really mean to us. It doesn't matter if they have ever been a mother. The difference they make in our lives is huge. Let us remember that God created them and they are all Daughters of God. They are important in the home and in our lives. I have always heard the closest love to our Heavenly Fathers love is our mothers love. The pain they go through not only physical but emotional. The stress we cause them. My poor moms hair is all going grey because of me. HAHA! I LOVE HER!

I love my mother like none other. I would do anything for her. I am so very grateful for the things she has done for me. For raising me with the Gospel, for teaching me how to work and for taking care of me as a little brat. If she didn't love me then I know she wouldn't have dealt with me as a kid and then as a teenager. The patience and charity she has is definitely God given. No one could deal with us guys unless they loved us. I love my mother. One day I will be married and have a wife to take care of me. Thats how it works right? Just kidding! But so honored we are to be given the Daughters of God to raise our children and us as well. Lets be honest here. How many men are grown up. We all grow old but we never grow up. I know of this to be true. If you love your mom tell her you love her. Not just tell her but show her. Do the same for your wife.  
Always respect our mothers and all the females who make a difference in our lives. God Bless you Mothers and Daughters of God!