Lift Up Those Who Have Fallen

In John 8:1-11, we read the story of the woman caught in adultery, or having sexual relations outside of her marriage. It is important to note that adultery is one of the "thou shalt not's" commanded against in the Ten Commandments and had very severe punishments according to the Law of Moses. Therefore the scribes and Pharisees, who were very strict in following the law, brought this woman before Christ to be condemned. They brought her before Christ while He was teaching in the temple, which was a very public place. These men were trying to publicly shame the adulteress for her sins as well as potentially use her as a means to make Jesus look bad. If He forgave her, they could accuse Him of disobeying the law. But if Jesus condemned her, that would go against all that He had previously taught about love, forgiveness and repentance. However, Christ does something they were not expecting. He tells them, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone" (John 8:7). 

All of them left, with none to accuse her. In His most merciful way, Christ explains "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more" (v. 11). 

This story has great applications for us today. Every single person we meet, including ourselves, commits sin in one way or another. None of us are perfect yet. Yes, you may have issues with temptations that do not bother me, and vice versa. But, this does not make any one person better than the other. We all struggle and we all feel the despair of sin at times. It is our responsibility not to judge one another, but to lift up and love those around us. A particular application of this that all of us can apply has to do with those who struggle with addiction. There are addictions of every kind running rampant in the world today, and many people struggle with them every day. Some addictions are more visible than others, but all of them hurt. They cause pain in the lives of the addict and their loved ones. It can be hard to accept it when someone we love struggles with an addiction or temptation. But, through the atoning power of Jesus Christ, I KNOW that they can be healed and move forward. A big factor in this healing process is helping them to feel the pure love of Christ, which is charity. We can be instruments in the hands of the Lord to love, support, encourage, and accept those we love for where they are now and see the infinite potential that they have. Judgement only opens wounds; it is pure love that heals them.

Answers to our Prayers

In Matthew 15, we hear the story of the Canaanite woman pleading for Christ to heal her daughter. This was pretty significant for the time because she was not a Jew by birth or religion, but instead a Gentile. Christ's ministry on Earth was specifically to the Jews, as He explains in Matthew 15:24, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel [the Jews]." At first, Christ completely ignores the woman's pleading for help and does not answer her at all. However, this silence does not deter her, as she then goes to the disciples and asks them to get her help. They refuse her and Christ tells her He was not sent to help Gentiles. But, she is evermore persistent and shows her faith in Christ as she asks for just the smallest bit of help that He could possibly give. Finally, Christ sees her faith and heals her daughter.

This story is a great metaphor for the ways in which we can receive answers to our prayers. The woman first was faced with silence. Often times, we may feel that our prayers are going unanswered because we have not received a specific "yes" or "no". This seems to happen especially when we are praying for help to make a decision. We may feel lost, confused, or like God isn't there or isn't listening. But, I know that this is just a chance for us to prove our faith, like the Canaanite woman. When we receive silence as our answer, we have to move forward according to our own choices and feelings and trust Him to catch us if we fall. We each are blessed with the power to choose, called agency, and the point of our life on Earth is to learn how to use this power correctly. So it only makes sense that God would not "spoon feed" us the answer to every single decision we have before us. If all you're getting is silence to a question, take heart! It shows that the Lord trusts you to decide for yourself and that He will guide you if you go the wrong way.

Many times, we are given a "no, not yet" or even a flat-out "no" for our answers. This can be disheartening when you really wanted to hear a "yes". But again, it is an opportunity to exercise your faith and trust that the Lord just has something better in store for you! Finally, we can also receive "yes" answers. Even these require us to stretch our faith by going outside of our comfort zone to act on the answer we receive. All in all, the purpose of God's responses to our prayers are to help us to trust Him and to exercise our faith in some way. We never know exactly what is coming our way, but as we seek the Lord's help and trust in our ability to follow it, we will never be steered wrong.

"The Tree Is Known By His Fruit"

Recently in my New Testament class we have been talking a lot about the miracles that Christ performed during His earthly ministry and what we can learn from them. This week, we spoke about how He would perform miracles even on the Sabbath, or holy, day. He was often criticized by the Pharisees for doing this, since they thought He was doing some form of work on the Sabbath day. They even went so far as to accuse Christ of healing people and casting out devils by the power of the devil himself. Christ explains, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? (Matthew 12:25-26). In other words, Satan cannot be a cause for goodness because it would contradict his very purpose and mission. He would fail to be the devil and would instead be following God if He were to encourage or give power to good actions. Therefore, Christ must have been working through the power of God.

This principle is applicable to our daily choices as well. As Christ said, "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit" (Matthew 12:33). We are constantly bombarded with opposing voices, influences, and decisions in this world. Sometimes it is hard to tell which one we should choose. It is important to consider the consequences and results of each option we face. Will it bring goodness to us? Will it help other people, or take away from their happiness? Does it make us grow and improve, stagnate, or fall backwards in our progression? The merit of an action is measured by its fruits. In the same way, we can decide what kinds of people are good influences in our lives based on the fruits that they bear. This does not mean that we use these "fruits" as a sign and remain paralyzed in our action until we receive such a sign. But, as we begin to see the results that may come from a choice, we must move forward and trust in the Lord to guide our path.

Stay in the boat!

36. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.
    

36. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
37. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
38. And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
39. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?
40. And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

This is a story found in Mark 4 in the Bible that teaches us a lot about faith and trusting in the Lord. If we place ourselves in the position of the apostles, we can understand how this message applies in our own lives. Often, we experience challenges or struggles in life that overwhelm us or go beyond what we feel like we can manage. These “storms” beat on us until we may feel like we are sinking in the tumultuous “waves”. I can imagine how frightening it must have been for the disciples – their ship was filled completely with water and their Lord and Savior was asleep. Here they were, presumably, in a state of panic, confusion and fear. They could see the problem but had no idea how to get themselves out of it. The one person they relied on did not seem to be aware of or care about their struggle. However, we see that the Savior was aware of them the whole time. He knew that everything would be alright. The ship wouldn't sink, the storms would eventually calm, and they'd make it through. But, He still calmed the sea, stopped the storm, and showed the disciples His power.

We are not capable of understanding all the reasons for our struggles and challenges. In the middle of them, we may not recognize a way out. We may not see “the light at the end of the tunnel”. Sometimes we may even begin to question God, wondering where He is during these hard times and why He doesn't just make it all go away and be calm again. Christ's two penetrating questions can help us to reconsider our trust in the Lord: “Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?” Although it can be easy to give in to fears and doubts, this is not the Lord's way. He is not setting us up to fail, but instead to learn and to grow from our experiences. He knows the end from the beginning and that it will all work out. I know that as we put our trust in God's will and timing, everything will turn out alright. Even when the winds beat down on you, and the rains and storms seem unending, there is always hope in the light of God's love. The disciples had no reason to fear – Heavenly Father would not let a ship with Christ on it sink. Therefore, as long as we stick with Him, we won't either! The key to “staying afloat” during our struggles is quite simple – just stay in the boat!

"Be ye therefore perfect"

In His teachings to the people during the Sermon on the Mount, Christ admonishes the people to "be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). What a daunting task! How are we as human beings supposed to be perfect? Even more, how could we possibly hope to attain the level of perfection of our Father in Heaven? A closer look at the translation of this verse gives some insight and comfort. The word translated to "perfect" in the English translation of the Bible is actually τέλειος (téleios) in the Greek, which means "complete" (www.blueletterbible.org). So, Christ is not telling us that He expects us never to sin, make a mistake, or mess up. What He is saying is that we must be whole and complete in our growth and progression. In this section, Christ also gives us the "beatitudes," which can be thought of as a list of spiritual steps to repentance. We must be humble and teachable, recognize our wrongs and feel sorrow for them, desire to become better, forgive ourselves and others, teach righteousness to other people, and be willing to stand up for what is right no matter what persecution may follow. There are also ordinances (spiritual acts that we do to symbolize a promise with God) that we must receive in order to become whole. Christ showed us the example as He was baptized and given the gift of the Holy Spirit. He was free of sin and did not need to be cleansed, like we are when we are baptized. So, there must be some other reason that baptism is a requirement besides just the cleansing effect it has. The ordinances of the gospel signify promises and commitments we make with God and they allow us to be fully prepared to meet Him someday. This gives me a lot of comfort to know. I am certainly not perfect in the sense of never doing anything wrong. But, that is not what the Lord asks of us anyways. He knows that we make mistakes. He accepts that we have weaknesses and wants to help us improve. What He wants from us is commitment and earnest effort to change. By following His commandments and laws and receiving the proper ordinances of the gospel, we will be able to achieve completeness like God asks.

Look up!

This week, we learned a lot about the beginning of Christ's life and His preparation for His mortal ministry. My instructor shared an interpretation of part of Luke 2 that really clicked with me and I would like to share it with you all. In Luke 2:41-52, we read about when Christ and His family traveled to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover when he was 12 years old. After spending their time there, the family packs up and leaves. Jesus stays behind, unbeknownst to Joseph and Mary. After a day of traveling, they finally realize that Jesus is not present in the group. They first go to their other family members who are with them to see if anyone knows where to find Jesus. Nobody does. Then, they go back to Jerusalem and seek for Him in the city. After three unsuccessful days looking in the streets of Jerusalem, they find Him in the temple of God. When Joseph and Mary ask why He has done this, Jesus responds, "How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke 2:49).

Joseph and Mary were seeking for Jesus, just as all of us do. Sure, not everyone may claim a belief in Jesus Christ, but we all seek for what He brought to the world. We all seek for peace, love, happiness, acceptance, and a better life. Whether we know it or not, we need what He can bring to our lives. We need to be cleansed, to be forgiven, to be strengthened, and to be saved. But Joseph and Mary didn't find Christ in their search around the city, in the worldly places created by man. They ultimately found Him in the temple, the house of God. This is where we too will find Christ. As we seek out the good things in life -- church, scripture reading, selfless service, love, eternal families -- this is where we find Christ. And as we seek these things, we gradually improve. Just as Christ did, we too will increase "in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (v. 52). When we put sacred things at the center of our lives, we become smarter, stronger, and more spiritual. We have better relationships with others, including our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I know that it is easy to get distracted in this world. But, I testify that as we seek after the good things of God, we will find peace and happiness.

"Remember Who You Are"

So, I haven't posted too much on the blog recently...but I've decided to start it up again! I am taking a New Testament class at BYU and will be posting my thoughts about our reading weekly here! :)

There is one question that all of us has pondered or will eventually confront at some point in our lives. It is the question of our identity, or in other words, "Who am I?" We yearn to know our purpose, our potential, and how to direct our lives. In the scriptures, these questions are answered in powerful ways. In the LDS version of the scriptures, in Moses chapter 1, we read of Moses' interactions with God and with Satan. We learn that God has a body that is glorified and perfected; we learn that He is infinite and almighty (v. 2-3). He tells Moses, "...I will show thee the workmanship of mine hands; but not all, for my works are without end, and also my words, for they never cease. / Wherefore, no man can behold all my works..." (v. 4-5). The expanse of God's creations are so vast that we are not capable of seeing or comprehending them all. Yet, He is personally and perfectly aware of each and every one of us. He repeatedly refers to Moses as "my son" and tells him "...this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (v. 39). I find it incredible that the almighty, infinitely powerful and glorious God of the universe finds His purpose in helping us -- the weak, imperfect, small creatures He created -- to become better and ultimately to receive eternal life in His presence. As children of God, we have a limitless potential to become like Him. Satan, however, is stuck. Because of the decisions he has made, he cannot progress or reach any higher potential. Therefore, he will do everything in his power to lead us astray and tempt us to choose the same fate. He lies to us about our worth, striving to drag our self-esteem down and demotivate us from reaching our noble dreams and goals. He flashes doubts and fears past us and makes us question our potential, our capabilities, and even our own identity. He wants us to feel like we cannot and will not grow and improve, when in all reality we are infinitely capable of this with God's help. I know that each of us has an individual mission here on this Earth. God has sent us here to learn, grow, make mistakes and improve. He wants us to feel His love and be motivated by it. No matter where we're at or where we've been, it is never too late to get better.