Life before birth

Abraham 3:22-23 is today's scripture mastery verse.  It reads:

22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;

 23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.

Our existence does not begin at birth, nor does it end at death.  Our spirit is eternal.  God made the earth for us, and He made our bodies for us to dwell in while we are here.  God knows us each better than we know ourselves!  He told Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5) those truths:

5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Those that have been or will be leaders in life have been "called" for those roles before they were even born.  God knows what our talents and capabilities are.  He knows what good we can accomplish here in life. 

Now, I have mentioned in past posts about the importance of our "agency," or our ability to choose.  Just because we have been called to be able to do certain things in life, doesn't mean that we can't choose for ourselves.  That, I think, is one reason why God is angry when we choose to "hide our talents" as the wicked servant in Christ's parable of the talents (found in Matthew 25:14-30)  He has given our talents to us to help and serve others in this life. 

God is angry when we use our gifts and talents to suppress or hurt others.  Joseph Smith teaches us the difference between being called and chosen in Doctrine and Covenants 121:39-40:

 39 We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and disposition of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion.

 40 Hence many are called, but few are chosen.

Remember, you are very important to God!  He loves you, and knows you better than you know yourself!  He wants you to make the choices necessary to return to His presence.  That is why he provided the Atonement.  That is why we must have faith in and follow Christ.  For it is only through Christ that we will be able to return to the presence of God.

Zion

Here is another verse found in the Pearl of Great Price, written by the prophet Moses.  It is found in Moses 7:18:

 18 And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.

The Lord wants his people to be united in righteousness.  When we do that, and when we freely give our time and money to helping the poor and needy, we become a Zion people.  The Lord has defined what Zion means in Doctrine and Covenants 97:21:

21 Therefore, verily, thus saith the Lord, let Zion rejoice, for this is Zion—the pure in heart; therefore, let Zion rejoice, while all the wicked shall mourn.

King Benjamin taught his people that it is important to help the poor and needy(Mosiah 4:26):

 26 And now, for the sake of these things which I have spoken unto you—that is, for the sake of retaining a remission of your sins from day to day, that ye may walk guiltless before God—I would that ye should impart of your substance to the poor, every man according to that which he hath, such as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and administering to their relief, both spiritually and temporally, according to their wants.

Christ taught us the importance of being unified in Doctrine and Covenants 38:27:

27 Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.

If we can be unified as a people in righteousness, and if we can do that, and serve others by helping the poor and the needy, we too can become a Zion people.  It is not easy to overcome our natural desire for selfishness.  But that is what we must do.  We must overcome these selfish desires we each have, and learn to be a Zion people.  Let us follow Christ's example in this--he was always unified with the Father in his desires, and he always helped the poor and needy around him.  Let us do the same.

The work and glory of God

The first of the scripture mastery verses that the youth of the church study along with the Old Testament is actually found in the Pearl of Great Price.  It is a verse written by the prophet Moses, and is found in Moses 1:39:

39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

In this verse, Moses learned from Jehovah (Christ) that His work is two fold:
1)To bring to pass immortality for mankind
2)To bring to pass eternal life for mankind

What?  Aren't those the same thing?  No, there is a definite difference between the two.  Christ has given as a free gift to all who have ever lived, or who will live here on earth the gift of the resurrection.  It does not matter if they even believe in Him or not.  They do not have to repent, or do anything other than be born to receive that gift.  We will all be resurrected, and receive a glorified, immortal body.  That is the gift from God of immortality. This will happen sometime before the final judgement. (We believe that those who are righteous and believe in Christ will be resurrected first, and those who are not will have to wait until much later to be resurrected)  There is a good summary of the first and last resurrections in the Guide to the Scriptures:

All people will not be resurrected to the same glory (1 Cor. 15:39–42; D&C 76:89–98), nor will all be resurrected at the same time (1 Cor. 15:22–23; Alma 40:8; D&C 76:64–65, 85). Many Saints were resurrected after Christ’s resurrection (Matt. 27:52). The righteous will be resurrected before the wicked and will come forth in the first resurrection (1 Thes. 4:16); the unrepentant sinners will come forth in the last resurrection (Rev. 20:5–13; D&C 76:85).

The second great work of Christ that is mentioned is eternal life.  Christ gives eternal life only to those that repent and follow Him.  Eternal life is defined as returning to His presence to be able to dwell there eternally.  That is the greatest gift that He has for us.  Christ defined for us eternal life in his great intercessory prayer to the Father while he was in the Garden of Gethsemane (John 17:2-3):

 2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Alma teaches his people who were preparing to join the church by baptism what is need in order know God as Christ taught, and to receive eternal life (Mosiah 18:8-9):

 8 And it came to pass that he said unto them: Behold, here are the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;

9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life—

Let us help Christ with his great work.  Let us strive to live our lives in such a way that we can receive from Him both immortality and eternal life!  Let us serve others, and comfort and help them, just as Christ would have us do!

Moving on to the Old Testament

I have now finished discussing the 25 scripture mastery verses from the New Testament--Now I will share my thoughts on the scripture mastery from the Old Testament.  Again, for those of you who don't know, these verses are what every young adult member of the church studies during the year (they are encouraged to memorize these verses) in the seminary program.  This is a program where they study one of the 4 books of scripture, known as the standard works(The Old Testament and New Testaments in the Bible, The Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants) each year.  By the time they are done with High School, they have studied all of the standard works of the church.

Judgment Day

Today's scripture mastery is found in Revelation 20:12-13:

 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

John teaches us here that when we are judged, it will be according to what has been recorded in the books that are kept.  The things that are written in those books are the works we have done.

We are also judged according to the thoughts of our hearts (Doctrine and Coventants 137:9)

 9 For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.

Christ is the Judge of this final judgement.  He will righteously pronounce judgement upon all of us who ever lived here on earth.

I hope to exercise my faith in Him, and obey His commandments, and serve my fellow man, so that I may be found worthy at the judgement day.  I know that if I am found worthy, it will not be because of my works, but rather because the Lord knows my heart, and makes up the difference.  He will do that for anybody who sincerely repents of his/her sins, and has a firm faith in Him.  I hope that I can continue to exercise my faith in Christ throughout my life, and not waver in my dedication to Him.

The everlasting gospel to be restored in the lattter days

Today's scripture mastery comes from the book of Revelation 14:6-7

 6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

 7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

The book of Revelation has a lot of prophesy in it that will happen in the "latter days."  This is one of those things that John prophesied would happen.

We believe that this is one prophesy that is mostly complete.  The angel has already come to restore the everlasting gospel to the world.  We have again on the earth the "fullness of the gospel"  I said that this is mostly complete, because the gospel is not yet being freely taught in all countries (though there are more and more of them each day), and there are members of our church in every nation around the world.

It is amazing to see how the hand of the Lord works in bringing forth his Gospel to those countries that have in the past been closed to it.  It is not very long ago that the "Iron Curtain" fell, and the Berlin wall came down.  We now have missionaries in countries that many thought would never be there.  My brother in law served his mission in Russia for example.  China is starting to open up little by little.  I was living in Rochester, MN a few years ago, and while I was there, there was a doctor from China that was on a medical exchange at the Mayo Clinic.  While he was here, he learned of Christ, and the church.  He joined our church, and has since returned to China.  The Chinese government has allowed him to practice his new faith, though does not yet allow him to share it with anybody outside of his immediate family.  I believe that it won't be long before this faithful man will be allowed to freely share what he has learned with those around him.

Faith and Works

Today's scripture mastery is James 2:17-18

17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

 18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

James here teaches what the correlation is between faith and works.  There are some misunderstandings between our church and other Christian faiths over our understanding of the importance of faith and works.  Some churches believe that faith only is necessary, and some claim that since we emphasize that we must have works, that we are somehow diminishing or denying the Grace of Christ.

Here is a verse that seems to teach that(Ephesians 2:8-9):

 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

I think that we sometimes talk past each other on this issue, based on our understanding of the scriptures.  I hope to explain what we believe in a way that doesn't do that.

We absolutely believe in the Grace of Christ.  Through his atoning sacrifice in Gethsemane and on the Cross, He made it possible for any of us to return to His presence.  Without His Grace, NONE OF US will be able to return to God.  We are all imperfect, and we have all sinned.  That is not something that we can overcome by ourselves, no matter how many works we do.  We absolutely need Christ.  Without question, we need Him!

The works in the gospel comes naturally in our lives when we believe the gospel.  When we have faith in Christ, we naturally desire to do what He wants us to do.  Christ himself taught this: "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15)

We teach the importance of works(works meaning keeping the commandments, and serving others,etc), because Christ himself taught that.  We know that any works that we do does not make up for our shortcomings.  But we do it 1) to show our faith as James taught, 2) to show our Love and gratitude to Christ, and 3) to try and bring the blessings we have received through the gospel to our fellow man.

Faith and Works go hand in hand.  It is very difficult, I would say impossible even, to really have one without the other.  If we don't yet have faith, but we follow the commandments, our faith will develop and grow.  If we really have faith, we will be restless and uncomfortable unless we DO the things that Christ has taught.

I really like the parable that Alma taught about faith.  He compared faith to a seed.  It is found in Alma 32:28-43.  I don't have room here to quote the whole thing, but Alma teaches that if we don't yet have faith, we can test it by "planting" the seed of faith, watering and nurturing it(i.e. works), and waiting for it to grow.  If it grows, we know it is a good seed, and we now have faith.  He continues to say that we must continue to water it and nurture that seed of faith (i.e. continue to do works)--because if we don't the seed will wither and die (our faith will diminish and die).  This is not because the faith was not true faith, but that without the works, our faith cannot be sustained.