Easter Morning

 Well Easter, what comes to mind when you think of Easter? Do you think of bunnies, and eggs and chicks? Do you think of candy and more candy and presents and easter egg hunts? Or do you think of Christ, do you think of his atonement? Do you think of his pain, death, and resurrection?

Well when I was younger I thought of the candy and the bunnies, and then at church they would remind me what it really is about but as a kid I didn’t care much about it I liked it but I would rather of had candy and stuff, but as I grew older my understanding grew and I grew to appreciate that Easter Morning.

Christ’s atonement is a very important thing, it is something that I love to use, and when I do use his atonement I feel so much better and I feel that weight lifted from me when I know that he has forgiven me when God has forgiven me, I do so love it.

And as for the Atonement my favorite Part is knowing that Christ was resurrected, and that means we too get to be resurrected, and that is an exciting thing.

St. John 11:25 “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that beliveth in me, though he were dead, yet he shall live:”

 Please Click on the link and watch the Video.  http://bcove.me/qqhb44t8 .

Many Deceivers. Find the Truth!

In my favorite Disney princess movie, “The Little Mermaid” Ariel wants to go on shore and talk to the humans from where all her neat trinkets come from. Then she sees Eric, and falls in love with him. She then goes to Ursula the sea witch and has Ursula give her legs in exchange for her own voice. As two parts of the song goes:

My dear, sweet child. That’s what I do. It’s what I live for.
To help unfortunate merfolk like yourself.
Poor souls with no one else to turn to.

I admit that in the past I’ve been a nasty
They weren’t kidding when they called me, well, a witch
But you’ll find that nowadays
I’ve mended all my ways
Repented, seen the light, and made a switch…

Now it’s happened once or twice
Someone couldn’t pay the price
And I’m afraid I had to rake ’em ‘cross the coals
Yes I’ve had the odd complaint
But on the whole I’ve been a saint
To those poor unfortunate souls…

So to tie this into the Gospel we as humans want something better, something that will make us happy. Like Ariel we sometimes get tangled up into something that is not so good, and we’ve paid the price and it made us sad and regretful. But we can avoid the deceptions as much as possible with direction from God and his son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, and the tools they have given us to use to avoid things like that so that we don’t pay a price and that we can be happy and live with our family forever, and those tools are Scriptures, Prayer, and Church attendance! So make the right choice and choose God.

Make a room For Christ in your heart!

There is this television show called “Sabrina The Teenage Witch” and on one of the episodes Sabrina go into her own heart to see where her new fiancée is in her heart. She gets a Tour and finds out that her Ex-boyfriend named Harvey has a room in her heart, but not this new fiancée named Aaron who is in the hallway in a peta-stool. So she sets out and literary makes a room for Aaron in her heart so that he doesn’t have to sit out in the hall.

We as people make rooms in our heart for many different things, but do we have a room in our heart for Jesus Christ? Or is Christ in the hallway on a  peta-stool for a temporary amount of time? I know we all have to make and find room in our heart for Jesus, because he is our savior and redeemer, our only way back to live with our Father in Heaven.

Jeremiah 31:33 “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

The Blue Print! Part 2

This “Blue Print” God made for us, the Plan of Salvation, it is very important! So lets look at this a little closer. When you have no knowladge about before you were born and what is to come after you are born, then it is like looking at a blue print with only a middle third of it and trying to make a awesome firm building with just that. Can you do it? I wouldn’t expect that you could do it!

So that Middle part of the Plan is our life here on Earth. We are sent here on Earth to learn to grow to gain a body, we wanted a body in a pre-earth life and all the people here on Earth who have who will and who once recived a body Chose to come down here, chose God’s plan and to walk by Faith rather then by sight. Because here on Earth we don’t remember our lives with Heavenly Father. We have this veil placed before our minds that we can’t remember the life before now. This life here is a Test. So imagne this. You the parent in a room with a little child. The child is behaving and minding, that is because the child knows you are in the room with him. Then you leave the room, you can still see the child and know what he is doing but the child does not know you are watching and sees that you have left the room, what will he do? Will that Child behave or will he misbehave? That is like us, we can’t see God, we at times don’t think he is there with us watching us and so forth but what kind of actions will we take?

We want to be with Heavenly father and we want to show that we love him, so we do our best to show our faith in him and that we have faith or try to have faith to show we want to be the best we can be. 2 Nephi 2:21 “And the days of the children of men were prolonged, according to the will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh; wherefore, their state became a state of probation, and their time was lengthened, according to the commandments which the Lord God gave unto the children of men. For he gave commandment that all men must repent; for he showed unto all men that they were lost, because of the transgression of their parents.”

The Blue Print! Part 1

Well have you ever got to see a Blue print or a lay out for a house or a barn or anything of that sort? Well, when you would look at a blue print it shows what the house is going to look like and where things are and what materials will be used and how long/wide/tall the thing your using is going to be and so forth. It gives that Idea on what to start with and what you’re going to do and how it is to be finished. That is Important because you want to be happy with it and not things to be Hodge podged together!

God’s Plan is called the Plan of Happiness or the Plan of Salvation. It tells us where we were, why we are here and where we are going. Where we were before earth is call the pre-earth life,  we Lived with God, we walked with him and talked with him and learned and grew, we were spirits and he being God has a perfect Body of flesh and bone, and we wanted that so he prepared a way for us to get a body of flesh and bone, we in the pre-earth life had Agency (Read previous blog). So Jesus Christ through the direction of Heavenly Father created the earth within seven days so that we can receive a body and to walk by faith rather than by sight because it is a test to be obedient when you can’t see or hear God telling you what to do face to face all the time.

But before we could all come down here we needed someone to be our first Parents, and our First Parents are Adam and Eve, they lived in the Garden of Eden and was still in God’s presence where they were in a state of innocence and they knew no good for they knew no evil, they knew not happiness for they knew not pain. So they were given two commandments, one to multiply and replenish the earth and two not to partake of the Fruit of knowledge of good and evil. So in order for them to Procreate, they were to Partake of the Fruit, so they were kicked out of the Garden and the presence of God.

And so in 2 Nephi 2:22-24 says “And Now, behold, if Adam had not Transgressed he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were created; and they must have remained forever and ever, and had no end. And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy , for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin. But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things. Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.”

Agency, is that a Secret Agent Man or something?

What is the first word or thought when I say the word Agency? Do you think of the FBI? Or do you think of James Bond? Secret Agent? Well The meaning of the word Agency is nothing of that sort. It is in this case referring to our free ability to choose. That is the topic today, Agency. So lets say you are placed in a spot you had to make a hard decision and they are both sounding good, but one in reality is sugar-coated sin and the other one is of God. Well we have our Free Agency to choose one or the other, there is also the choice to pray for guidance!

Ever since the beginning of life as we know it and before then we have something called agency, what is agency you ask? Well simple, is the ability to choose, to make your decisions. Why is that important to know? Well simply it is Important to know because in life we are all given choices to choose from like what shirt to wear or what route to drive to work or should I smoke or not or should I help the little old lady out or not? Things like that! So in the long run as humans we are placed here because we chose Gods plan, and so now we are here and we are to follow Christ or not, and our choices show that we do or do not follow him, and we try our best to follow him, making the choices that will get us there.

For us to willing choose to follow God and his commandments then that is showing him that we are using our agency to show we love him and choose to obey his commandments. We want to be saved by his love and grace, but we have the option to choose to have faith and act on that faith to be saved by his love and grace. So choose to do good for God placed you here on earth because he trusts you to do good and to follow him, I know that I am doing my best to use my agency to follow Christ, what about you?

2 Nephi 2:27 “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.”

(Next Blog Will Talk About God’s Plan For Us!)