Faith

 Alma 32:21 And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true.

 

  Faith is easy to describe in words but it is very hard to gain in our lives.  Its a life long quest for those of us that want to gain true faith in our savior Jesus Christ. We can help our faith and others as we "Serve Him"

The Holy Spirit

Galatians 5

 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

  

  This is how the Spirit fells but when do we feel it?

 

Moroni 10 

4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

 

  When we keep an eye out for the Spirit we will notice that he is in our lives a lot more then we currently realize.  What is the spirit trying to tell us?  By the power of the Holy Ghost we may know the TRUTH of all things.  That is when we feel the Spirit, when God is telling us something is True. 

Salvation through Christ

Mosiah 3
 17 And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.

Matthew 7
 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

 Helaman 5
 9 O remember, remember, my sons, the words which king Benjamin spake unto his people; yea, remember that there is no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, who shall come; yea, remember that he cometh to redeem the world.

Revelation 20
 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.

 

    As we read these scriptures we can tell very clearly that we are only saved through Christ.  Our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ expect us to do what they have asked while we are here on the earth, but our salvation is through our savior Jesus Christ.  We need to do what they have asked to enjoy the blessings of eternal life.  We will all fall and sin every day, but through Christ we can be clean again once we ask for forgiveness. Through him change our lives.  Lets all hope that we have good things to read with our Heavenly Father when He opens our Books on Judgement day. (Revelation 20:12-13)

   

What is Most Important in Life?

 This is a little life lesson that I've been learning over the past two or three years that I wanted to share with everyone!  I hope you enjoy!

 Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

 26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

 27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

 28 Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

 Helaman 5:8 And now my sons, behold I have somewhat more to desire of you, which desire is, that ye may not do these things that ye may boast, but that ye may do these things to lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, yea, which is eternal, and which fadeth not away; yea, that ye may have that precious gift of eternal life, which we have reason to suppose hath been given to our fathers.

Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

If we forget about our own "things" in this world and just think about helping others through their lives, we will find so much more enjoyment in this life and the life to come!  I have only caught a glimpse of this over my last two years but its okay! I have a life full of service left in me!

Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon

Matthew 7 "...wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."

 13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

  

   As we read here in St Matthew Chapter 7:13-14 Christ teaches very clear that the road that leadeth unto life (eternal life) is a strait, narrow road.  He also teaches that there will be few that find the road and the gate. 

 15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

   Christ teaches very clearly that there will be false prophets that look great on the outside (sheep's clothing) but rather they are misleading and very dangerous (ravening wolves.) 

 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

 21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

   As we study these words we realize that we can know if there are true prophets on the earth.  This passage of scripture teaches us how to tell peoples' intent by there actions.  We need to look at the "fruits" then we need to pray about them and see if they are good or bad.  The scriptures are true, "wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."

Works in Salvation?

   I was reading in Philippians 2 and I was reading about that saying "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."
   As I read that a thought came to mind. I thought back on my life when I was doing one thing bad that was worse then the rest and God helped me realize that problem. Then together I worked with my Heavenly Father on fixing that problem and through Christ I was forgiven. Then a few weeks down the road God helped by showing me another problem I have in my life and again we worked on it together and Christ worked with me to be forgiven.  In my head that helps me understand that scripture about working out our salvation.  Alone we can do nothing for our self but with him we can do all things. Our Heavenly Father is the guide and His Son Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.  That is how we can change and "work out our own salvation" like Paul directs in Philippians Chapter 2.

 

  Another incite that was shown to be by a dear friend was the words "fear and trembling." These are the words he used to explain what was being taught in this scripture.

 

"...I think the "fear and trembling" is not out of being afraid of God but rather it is our recognition of how truly awesome He is. Because I believe that all scripture is inspired we need to study it all out so that where there seems to be a discrepancy we can look for a clear preponderance of evidence. Hence, if we look through the entire Bible, I believe it is clear that salvation is a free gift from God through Jesus Christ."

 

 

Sabbath Day

  I have often wondered why there is a Sabbath day, I have always wanted to spend each and ever day of my life working and doing what I want to do.  I ask myself, why does our Heavenly Father need us to spend a day off and think of him, go to church, and read the scriptures? As I read the scriptures and learn from the great messages I come to remind myself of these small but important principles.
      St. Mark 2:27 "And he said unto them, the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath."
  I was able to remind myself today that the Sabbath day was for us to have a day to grow closer to God so that we can keep him in our lives and have a happy life.  We need the Sabbath and that is why out Heavenly Father gave us the day to think about him and our Savior Jesus Christ.

Foot Prints in the Sand



I've always loved this poem and I would ask everyone today to stop and look back on their lives and picture the days or even years that you had "Him" carrying you.

"Daily Thought"

Today I was reading in the Bible and I wanted to share what I learned about. 
Matthew 4:18-22

 18¶And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

 19And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

 20And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

 21And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.

 22And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

   What I really like about this section of scripture was how these great men didn't ask any questions, they didn't need a reason why, simply they followed the Savior.  I'd like to hope that I would have dropped everything and follow.  That in fact is the question that we should all ask. If Christ asked us right now would we drop our lives and follow.

The Restoration

   What are some thoughts that come to mind when you hear the word Restoration? Maybe you think of fixing up a old abandoned house, even bringing back to life an old painting. Today I would like to talk about two of my favorite restorations.  First the restoration of an old car while second talking about the restoration of Christ's Church on the earth.

   I would like to start off by some simple things that are needed in a Full car Restoration; First you need to get down to the frame. You need to make sure that the frame is fixed to the specifications that the manufacture required at the time of making the car. The frame needs to be strong enough to withhold any wrecks that might occur during the life of the car on the road.  The same Restoration needed to happen with Christ's Church here on the earth. When things are lost or weakened by time and eroding they need to be fixed to the specifications that Christ has asked.  Just like the frame of the car the foundation of the Church must be the same as Christ has asked. He formed the Church. That is why we need to listen to his commandments.
  The next major part in a car Restoration is making sure all the body is accounted for and ready for paint.  Some things that can go wrong with car parts over time and bad weather are rust and decay.  When the rust is spotted it needs to be removed and fixed so it is exactly how the car came originally.  The best way of doing this is by buying and replacing the old worn out parts with new parts from the factory.  This will ensure you to have the correct parts to make the car look exactly like it was new off the dealer's lot.    
How this compares to Christ's Church on earth is simple.  Over the years of bad weather and the dark ages a lot of simple truths were lost and forgotten about. The only way to bring back the lost or neglected truths is through a Prophet called of God.  God is like the car dealer and the car parts are like the truths that needed to be restored.  After all pieces of truth are back in place the Gospel really starts to look like the same gospel that was founded by Christ 2000 years ago. (Amos 3:7 "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the Prophets.")

  


   After the are parts are assembled and the car is repainted show time follows.  After a lot of work on a car show time is a very fun and rewarding part of the restoration.  Its time to have the critics look over the car making sure that the car is exactly how is was years and years ago.  This can be hard for the shops that may use lesser quality parts, this may be hard for body men that don't make the car look like new, but when the car is finished and 100% restored to its originally structure it is such a good feeling!!!  The same occurs to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Once it was restored it was questioned by many and torn apart by all... and like that 100% restored car it stood and still stands to show the world that it is the truth, and it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Just how it was 2,000 years ago.

BAD WEATHER IN OUR LIVES?

Do you ever feel like you have a day of just bad weather? I know I feel like my life has its days or even weeks of bad weather.  What can we do to help protect us from the weather???

   Helaman 5:12

    And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

I know that if we place our lives on Christ then even when our lives come crashing down because of the harsh storms that come our way Christ will not let us fall because of the foundation on which we are built

 Doctrine and Covenants 122

  7And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.

 8The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

I also know that Christ went through all of our struggles, he can help and he is our best friend and he is there for us!!!



Be Still and know...

God is our refuge and strength—He dwells in his city, does marvelous things, and says, "Be still and know that I am God..."
Psalms 46


He is our father and He loves us! 

Treasure in Heaven: The John Tanner Story - Trailer

Just one man of millions that have already helped the work go forward!  If we could give our all just as John Tanner did... What kind of work would go forward?

Japan

As humans we cant always be in the right place at the right time, we cant always be of service in the place where we wish we could be of service.  Although we have these problems of not being able to help physically we can always help our loved brothers and sisters though prayer.  Among our prayers here are some things that are being done by those who can help physically.
Updates in Japan