Someone very wise once said that in comparing faiths/religons, there should be three rules followed:
1) When you want to learn about a faith, talk to those who practice it. Don't talk to their critics.
2) Compare best with best, not best with worst.
3) Leave room for "holy envy." (Look for something that you like about the other person's viewpoint.)
I've been transferred from Clearlake to Cloverdale. Recently, I had a very nice conversation with a young man who is a practicing seventh-day adventist. He asked some questions about my faith, my background. I answered his questions calmly and gladly. We then asked him some questions about his faith, which he gladly answered. Of course, since we're both Christians, we both cited passages from the Holy Bible in discussing our beliefs. This 22 year old man is very strong in his faith. He is acting according to the knowledge that he has. The thing that I loved about this meeting was that neither me, my companion, or this man, who is around my age, were contentious. None of us were trying to prove each other wrong, no one was contentious. Simply put, we were believers of the Lord Jesus Christ discussing our opinions on various topics.
This was a pleasant, although rare occurence. Unfortunately, a large portion of my mission has had those who are staunch in their faith trying to argue or contend with me and my companion at the time. There's a passage in The Book of Mormon about this: 3 Nephi 11:27. When talking with others, or considering their views, don't get argumentative or contentious. The devil does not want anyone to learn, but knowledge truly is power that can be used against him. Therefore, he will try to get us irked and angry, so that we are blind and unable to see the truth that the other person has. Every person, no matter what their religious background, has at least one piece of genuine, from God, truth. Truth is truth, no matter the source.
If you have a strong opinon about topics of faith and belief, please remember that others will not necessarily share your beliefs. If you feel that your position is defendable intellectually, be careful. Something that needs to be kept in mind is that, no one person knows everything. Remember also that learning comes piece by piece, and if we have have an attitude of "I know it all" or "I know enough", we are unable to learn anything new and we begin to lsoe that which we had. (2 Nephi 28:30)
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Agency
My purpose as a missionary is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. The three verbs of that sentence are invite, help, and receive. Those words describe how a missionary is supposed to work with others and how I strive to teach.
Invite means to ask or request that one attend an event or do something. Whenever I meet with someone, I intend on inviting them to live some principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The specifics of what I invite them to do depend on the person, on what they need at that time. A person given an invitation is free to accept or reject: the choice is theirs and the consequences of that choice likewise belong solely to them.
Help means to provide assistance, to make easier or less difficult. Change can be a very difficult thing, especially if it is a change in worldview or lifestyle. Anyone that gets baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has embarked on a major life change. They are giving up their old ways and embracing a new life as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Naturally, there is going to be some opposition to that decision. It is part of a missionary's calling to render any assistance they can to the people they are working with. Most of the time, that assistance comes through study and prayer. What I try to do is to help people understand how they can study the scriptures for themselves, and pray to God for specific help with their challenges. Sometimes, the assistance that missionaries render is more physical, such as helping someone move or do yard work.We try to help people in whatever way we can.
Receive means to accept for one's self. Conversion to the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a decision on the part of the person meeting with the missionaries. At some point, they have to make a conscious decision to believe. What missionaries do is invite people to live a gospel principle, such as a living a life of virtue. The person meeting with the missionaries makes the decision. They will continue to look into the church based on their experiences resulting from their decision. We ask people to live gospel principles because each missionary knows that living those principles brings blessings. We are doing so in our own lives, we are aware of what we receive as a result, and we want to share that.
Missionaries share the gospel with all who will listen because they want those people to be happy. God wants us to be happy, and it is my experience and my testimony that applying the principles of the gospel into our daily lives will make us happier than any other choice of lifestyle. We impart knowledge and then it is up to the investigator (one who is looking into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) to act on that knowledge. We can not force a true conversion. A true conversion is the result of choice and one having a witness from the Holy Ghost.
It is up to the individual to choose whom they will follow. "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6:24) It is impossible for us to serve both Jesus Christ and the devil. We have to make a choice. That opposition exists so that we have an actual choice. If there was only one option, we wouldn't have a meaningful choice at all. Having agency would then be pointless. By having opposition we are able to meaningfully exercise our ability to choose. There is opposition in all thing (2 Nephi 2:11), so we are to exercise our agency, makes decisions, in all things. We are responsible for acting according to our moral conscience and understanding.
Every choice we make has consequences. Anytime we receive a blessing from God, it is because we were keeping one of the commandments. When we choose an action, we choose the consequence of that action. Action and consequence are inseparable. We are "free to choose liberty and eternal life" through Jesus Christ or "captivity and death" through Satan. (2 Nephi 2:27) When exercising your agency, we all (myself included) need to remember this counsel: "wickedness never was happiness." (Alma 41:10)
Invite means to ask or request that one attend an event or do something. Whenever I meet with someone, I intend on inviting them to live some principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The specifics of what I invite them to do depend on the person, on what they need at that time. A person given an invitation is free to accept or reject: the choice is theirs and the consequences of that choice likewise belong solely to them.
Help means to provide assistance, to make easier or less difficult. Change can be a very difficult thing, especially if it is a change in worldview or lifestyle. Anyone that gets baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has embarked on a major life change. They are giving up their old ways and embracing a new life as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Naturally, there is going to be some opposition to that decision. It is part of a missionary's calling to render any assistance they can to the people they are working with. Most of the time, that assistance comes through study and prayer. What I try to do is to help people understand how they can study the scriptures for themselves, and pray to God for specific help with their challenges. Sometimes, the assistance that missionaries render is more physical, such as helping someone move or do yard work.We try to help people in whatever way we can.
Receive means to accept for one's self. Conversion to the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a decision on the part of the person meeting with the missionaries. At some point, they have to make a conscious decision to believe. What missionaries do is invite people to live a gospel principle, such as a living a life of virtue. The person meeting with the missionaries makes the decision. They will continue to look into the church based on their experiences resulting from their decision. We ask people to live gospel principles because each missionary knows that living those principles brings blessings. We are doing so in our own lives, we are aware of what we receive as a result, and we want to share that.
Missionaries share the gospel with all who will listen because they want those people to be happy. God wants us to be happy, and it is my experience and my testimony that applying the principles of the gospel into our daily lives will make us happier than any other choice of lifestyle. We impart knowledge and then it is up to the investigator (one who is looking into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) to act on that knowledge. We can not force a true conversion. A true conversion is the result of choice and one having a witness from the Holy Ghost.
It is up to the individual to choose whom they will follow. "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Matthew 6:24) It is impossible for us to serve both Jesus Christ and the devil. We have to make a choice. That opposition exists so that we have an actual choice. If there was only one option, we wouldn't have a meaningful choice at all. Having agency would then be pointless. By having opposition we are able to meaningfully exercise our ability to choose. There is opposition in all thing (2 Nephi 2:11), so we are to exercise our agency, makes decisions, in all things. We are responsible for acting according to our moral conscience and understanding.
Every choice we make has consequences. Anytime we receive a blessing from God, it is because we were keeping one of the commandments. When we choose an action, we choose the consequence of that action. Action and consequence are inseparable. We are "free to choose liberty and eternal life" through Jesus Christ or "captivity and death" through Satan. (2 Nephi 2:27) When exercising your agency, we all (myself included) need to remember this counsel: "wickedness never was happiness." (Alma 41:10)
Friday, February 3, 2012
Charity
As I mentioned earlier, one of my favorite hymns is A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief
The reason why it is one of my favorites is because of the message it gives. The song tells the story of a man who comes across a stranger and helps him with him physical needs. This is not just a one-time occurrence, but it happens repeatedly. Every time the man helps the stranger, he finds that his own problems are not as bad, and that his capacity to love and be loved increases. Verses 6 and 7 are, in my opinion, the most powerful of all 7 verses.
The reason why it is one of my favorites is because of the message it gives. The song tells the story of a man who comes across a stranger and helps him with him physical needs. This is not just a one-time occurrence, but it happens repeatedly. Every time the man helps the stranger, he finds that his own problems are not as bad, and that his capacity to love and be loved increases. Verses 6 and 7 are, in my opinion, the most powerful of all 7 verses.
Verse 6 reads:
In pris’n I saw him next, condemnedTo meet a traitor’s doom at morn.
The tide of lying tongues I stemmed,
And honored him ’mid shame and scorn.
My friendship’s utmost zeal to try,
He asked if I for him would die.
The flesh was weak; my blood ran chill,
But my free spirit cried, “I will!"
Verse 7:
Then in a moment to my view
The stranger started from disguise.
The tokens in His hands I knew;
The Savior stood before mine eyes.
He spake, and my poor name He named,
“Of Me thou hast not been ashamed.
These deeds shall thy memorial be;
Fear not, thou didst them unto Me.”
The theme for the entire song is expressed in the last two lines, spoken by the Savior: "These deeds shall thy memorial be; Fear not, thou didst them unto Me." Whatever we do to someone else, it is as if we were performing them to the Savior directly, which the man did unknowingly throughout the song. Each hymn in the hymnbook has scripture references listed at the bottom of the page so that you can start a study of the theme or topic. The references for hymn #29 are found in The New Testament (Matthew 25:31-40) and in The Book or Mormon (Mosiah 2:17).
What we do for others is an evidence or expression of how we feel about them. If we are motivated by unselfish love, our actions will likely be to the long term benefit of those we affect. If our motivations are primarily self-serving or worse, antagonistic, our effects will be negative and damaging. In the Church of Jesus Christ, we teach that the love that Christ had for each person is totally unselfish. His love is totally for our benefit, and it cost Him and continues to cost Him immensely. We also teach that charity, defined as the pure love of Christ, can be had in some degree by every person. This is the type of love that continues to love another person, even when that love hurts and is unacknowledged. People are still imperfect, and they will be imperfect their entire lives, so their love will likely be imperfect, but we seek for it, strive for it, and pursue any way of improving our own love, in order to emulate Jesus Christ, who is the example for all of us to follow. Our charity is intertwined with faith and hope: by affecting one attribute, you affect all three. This is demonstrated in The Book of Mormon: Moroni 7:40-48. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul speaks about this pure love of Christ, saying that if we don't have charity, any other spiritual and/or religious attainment, any other benevolent action, is pointless. He describes charity and says that by having charity, we increase in understanding and are able to grasp more and more of what the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ means for each of us. This is found in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 13.
When I talk with people about the gospel of Jesus Christ, my main motivation is to share with them what has brought peace and happiness into my life. I try to treat everyone with respect and courtesy while still maintaining a comfortable attitude and atmosphere. Of course, I am not anywhere near perfect. Can not stress that enough. I sometimes have difficulty maintaining a respectful attitude and a comfortable atmosphere. Those times where I have specifically sought for charity have helped me become a kinder, less selfish man. It is my hope that any and all who read this (or meet with me in person) will look past my flaws and imperfections, keep an open mind, and begin to understand what I am trying to convey.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is understood best by studying the scriptures for yourself and praying to God the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, about a concern or question. God does answer prayers, especially if we mean to act on the answer we receive. If we want to be more charitable, more loving to others, study the scriptures about that topic, and pray for an increase in love. God will grant you understanding and that increase, but will take time and effort on our part before we fully recognize the answer we receive. Understanding and having charity comes the same way. It is a lifelong pursuit.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is understood best by studying the scriptures for yourself and praying to God the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, about a concern or question. God does answer prayers, especially if we mean to act on the answer we receive. If we want to be more charitable, more loving to others, study the scriptures about that topic, and pray for an increase in love. God will grant you understanding and that increase, but will take time and effort on our part before we fully recognize the answer we receive. Understanding and having charity comes the same way. It is a lifelong pursuit.
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