Not to be acted upon

Lately, something has been consuming my mind. Many people in the city that I serve in, are not happy. We come into their life, and we are able to help them have hope. But some do not act upon it, allowing themselves to passively fall into misery, and a mindframe of hopelessness.

I have seen people who are totally reliant upon welfare, and upon others to do everything for them, who give their agency away freely because of a lack of desire to work.

Jesus Christ suffered and died so that we would be able to choose for ourselves what kind of life we can live.

In a talk given by President James E. Faust, entitled "Acting for ourselves and Not being acted upon" President Faust quotes from the Book of Mormon, "And because that they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good from evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon.” and then he says this, "Being acted upon means somebody else is pulling the strings. We live in a time when many want to avoid the responsibility for their acts." and then he shares this story

"When I was a young lawyer, I was appointed by the judges to defend persons who were charged with infractions of the law. One time I was assigned to represent a young man. As we approached the bench, the venerable old federal judge looked down at both of us and asked, “Which one of you is the accused?” From these experiences, I learned that some individuals did not think they were responsible or guilty in any way even though they had violated a law. They felt they were not to be blamed. They had abdicated their consciences. They may have committed the wrongful act, but they felt it was really their parents’ fault because they were not properly taught, or it was society’s fault because they were never given a chance in life. So often they had some reason or excuse for blaming their actions on someone or something else rather than accepting the responsibility for their own actions. They did not act for themselves but were acted upon."

May we all take account of our own actions, may we be less critical of others, or our circumstances, and do as the Prince of Pop suggests, and look at the Man in the Mirror. I know that as we do that, we will, will have greater joy. We will have greater control in our lives, and we will be able to help others who need it.

High Day 420

Tomorrow is 4/20.

Some of you may not know why that is significant, others of you could know exactly what it means.

It is what is called a "counter-culture" holiday. In really simple terms, this is a holiday for people to smoke pot.

Many things have been revealed about consuming these negative substances into our bodies, by prophets of old, as well as modern prophets. Click here to learn more about God's health code for us.

However, I am not here to talk about that. I want to change this holiday. This holiday is for people to take substances into their bodies, to take them out of reality and into a place where everything seems okay. So instead of pretending we're happy, and taking us further from our Heavenly Father, what I want to do, is have this holiday a 'Spiritual High' day, where we take in as much spiritual substance as we can.

Just imagine, if we had the world taking in scripture, or pondering about 'What their purpose is on earth?' or many other kind of things that draw us closer, (in our actual world) to God. Would this world be a much better place? So invite your friends, and go out and do this!

Visit Mormon.org to view, listen, read and watch spiritually uplifting material.

I know that as you do so you will be able to feel greater peace than anything worldly can promise.

 27^aPeace I leave with you, my ^bpeace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be ^ctroubled, neither let it be afraid.

V-day!

Have you seen all the red lately?

It always seems like holidays control the color scheme of our world.

In an odd parallel our lives seem also to be controlled by the events and plans in the world surrounding us.

So in this world where we seem to be carried along in the current...
Where do we find security?
Where do we find an anchor?
Where can we turn for peace?

We visited a wonderful lady last week, she fed us tacos and Diet Pepsi. 

A Chance to Change

Start as a seed, brittle and small,

Worth really nothing, nothing at all.

Bring me a caterpillar, ugly as mess,

Now, try to give that thing a caress.

But give these some time, some nourishment too,

And see, just see if they surprise you.

Put that seed into some dirt,

Give it some water, down in that earth,

Shine in some sunlight, make it to grow,

Pick up the caterpillar too, oh I don't know,

Give him some leaves a twig, or a branch,

and let that poor thing a bigger chance.

A chance to grow, a chance to become,

A chance to change, and to overcome.

Overcome the expectations, overcome the fears,

And continue to change throughout all their years.

One soars as a companion to the beautiful sky,

The other the earth, it stands close by,

Both so beautiful, and graceful a testimony of God,

But they started limited, ugly, and closed off.

Both had potential though it seems strange,

They just needed a chance to change

Jesus Christ is waiting for us to reach out and accept His help. Wherever you are at in your journey of faith, I urge you to once again and accept the reaching hand of our Savior, and Grow!

A Rock

 Another Guest Writer: Elder Epps, He is from North Carolina. He is an incredible missionary, and is an inspiring person. Read carefully his words. 

 Well I'm not a very creative person, never have been but I would like to share something with you that has been on my mind as of recent. The thing that I have thought a lot of about is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Sometimes I think I do not deserve the great sacrifice that our Savior Jesus Christ made for us as he, the perfect Son of God, humbled himself before our Heavenly Father and willingly accepted to pay for every single little and big mistake we make in our lives. Sometimes I get down because I know the mistakes I have, do, and will make added on to that pain He felt. I have often thought that I am not deserving of that great sacrifice He made for us.

   As I have continued to study, pray, and feel, I have come to realize those feelings and thoughts that many of us have of inadequacy or worthlesness only come from the opposition, who is Lucifer. We need to completely turn over our lives to the Lord and see what he will make out of us. Someone that helped me a lot as I grew up once compared us to a rock. Yes a rock. We have many weakness and we make many mistakes throughout life and we just look like an ugly good for nothing rock. For example this one...

     Now we can compare Christ to a river. As we hand our life over to him and the things he taught and he did and allow the river (Christ) to take us where it is going we will change. Along the way we might hit bigger rocks, and harder places to get out of (our trials), but these bigger rocks, and rough currents that we hit will shape us and form us into something more pure as we continue to allow the river to take us. Our rough edges and not so attractive things (our mistakes) will go away. We will turn into something more pure and with less defects. The product will look something like this....

    After a long, rough and difficult process we are perfected. We are without blemish. We are pure. Only through the river carrying us down that long and difficult path we can become like this. Only through Jesus Christ our Redeemer we can become pure and without blemish. I encourage all of us to leave those feelings of doubt and inadequacy behind and hand our lives over to our Savior and see what he can make us. No matter the trials or difficulties we have, lets not stop. Just keep going forward with faith and we will one day stand before our loving Heavenly Father withouth blemish and he will warmly welcome us into his arms as well as his perfect loving son, Jesus Christ.

Elder Epps

Charity, the Journey of a Lifetime

I don't know how many of you get frustrated with yourself, when you aren't developing Christlike attributes quickly. I am pretty impatient with myself. I expect a lot, in a short amount of time. Recently I have been really trying to have more charity, and while I do well some days, I draw blanks others. This quickly gets frustrating to me, and starts to discourage from my original journey.

I wonder how many people find this point, and start to lose hope.

I am here to give you that hope.

"He Denieth None"

Another guest writer: I asked my Zone Leader Elder McBride To share something that he felt inspired to write about. He is one of my favorite missionaries out here, and I will be sure to forward any comments to him.

As of late I have been doing a lot of pondering upon the Savior and His sacrifice for each of us.  I have stared at picture after picture of Jesus Christ and remained speechless at the thought of that act which was performed out of an unconditional and perfect love.  I have thought about why the Atonement is so important in my life and the difference it can make in the lives of those that surround me.  I wondered how it is that I might come to better understand God's love. 

I was reading in the bible, and came across this scripture in John 10:17-18, that says, "therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.  No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.  I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.  This commandment have I received of my Father."  This scripture hit me with a greater force than it had previous.  I started to think about how the Savior came willingly to do this for the Father, to show His trust and His love.  It started a reflection of my life and how willing I was to do things for the Lord, and I came to this result; Our willingness to do what God asks of us, is a measure of our love for Him. 

That pulled my mind to even greater reflection and remembrance; God willingly gave His Son, and watched him suffer all pains, stand rejection, and be mocked.  God withheld all power to save His Only Begotten Son of these troubles to give me the opportunity to return to his presence.  How convenient was it for the Father to watch his Son suffer?  How convenient was it for the Savior to suffer, bleed, and die for my mistakes, sins, and rebellion?  These questions came to my mind quickly as I thought of times I had placed things aside that God has commanded me to do, because they weren't always convenient.  I wondered how much love the Savior had to have for not only me, but for my family and friends and even those I don't know, to lay down his life so that we may return to our Father in Heaven. 

All of these things brought my focus back to the Atonement, back to why the Savior is so important in my life.  I am inadequate.  I do make mistakes.  I have placed other things before God in my life, and loved things other than Him first.  I am grateful for the willingness that Christ shows in forgiving me of these mistakes and if it were not for His love, and His Atonement, I would not be as happy as I am today, or as thankful for the things I am given, by His hand.  So, I am brought to this scripture from the Book of Mormon, "for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him..." (2 Nephi 26:33).  I am not denied by him, none will be, if they come unto him.

Change

For most of us, Change is hard.

We get comfortable. We are happy where we are at. We have "enough". This is exactly how I felt. Recently, I was transferred from Vacaville to Santa Rosa, and I had a huge change! I had been in Vacaville for 7 months, and I loved the people there. We were teaching many, and I loved each of them. Then, I found out I was being transferred.

For me and for the people I was teaching, this was difficult. We were comfortable. I even had one wonderful lady threaten to not come to church if I left. (We talked her down from that lofty threat, explaining that this change is necessary.)

In a lot of ways, 'mission life' mirrors 'normal life'. In normal every day life, we get comfortable where we're at. We go to church every week, have the same schedule, and we are happy with our family, and happy with our life. Sometimes we get so comfortable, that we don't change. We know it would be better for us, but we justify it in our own minds.

Already in Santa Rosa, we were able to meet a wonderful man, who accepted to be baptized on December 5th. Would I have gotten this incredible opportunity to invite someone to follow the example of Jesus Christ, if I hadn't been willing to change?

We grow when we are uncomfortable. One of my friends back home wrote a poem, about a flower. I can't recite it off the top of my head, I wish I could it's a gorgeous poem, but it says that the flower was put in a box, and there it died, because it could not grow.

Think about our lives, if we don't force ourselves outside the box how are we going to grow? So today, I'm going to give you a challenge. Go outside your box, bear your testimony to someone, and if that is inside your box, leave them with a challenge. Only you know where you have placed your limits, find them break them, and Grow your Faith!

Why do we forget God?

I find it so amazing the things that cause us to lose faith in our creator, and why we lose such faith.--If you are one of those who has lost their faith, don't stop reading. This isn't going to throw punches at you. Just read with an open mind.--When we are children, we believe in the

miraculous. People can tell us anything, and we are drawn to the things

that sound exciting and fantastical. We believe the things our parents, our teachers, and others tell us. Our knowledge is basic.                                                                                     

As we grow older, we seem to grow wiser, putting away childish beliefs, and try to find truth. But, some seem to set aside God and his miracles, as a part of that childishness.

If you have met me, I am a doubter. I have the reasoning behind things, or I won't accept it. I need several references for me to even accept your point. There needs to be more evidence supporting you, than that which is supporting me. Plain and simple, that's how I like it.

So maybe, if you have given up on God, you might be asking, "Why then does this kid believe in God? He sounds intelligent (you can tell I wrote this), Why would he believe such a fairy tale?" Without the intelligent part, many people actually have asked me this. There is nothing harder to explain, than how you know God exists. But, luckily there are wise men who have given it a shot.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews Paul Talks about the evidenciary support God gives of his own existence. Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

"What? That proves nothing, you just tricked yourself into believing, with this stupid term Faith." Whoa! Hey now... There's no need to get upset, let me explain. I was born in to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  All my family for generations back are LDS, and we are termed "pioneer stock". So I have quite a tradition of Mormonism in my family. But, is that why I believe the way I do? Would I simply accept a way of life, because that is how my family has lived?

The simple answer is No.  I didn't.  I didn't hold true to what my family had taught me. I was prodigal, as the scriptures refer to those wayward sons. I left what my family taught, and I didn't have a testimony. Even after all those years of attending church, Sunday school, seminary, young men's, scouting, firesides and every other organization that the church offers. I attended them regularly. But, I didn't have a testimony. My testimony of the truth of this church, and the reality of our Savior Jesus Christ, and God the Father of our spirits, came when I started to live the way that all of these organizations were teaching.

I knew when I exercised faith. I started to live the standards, which was not easy. When I did so, Joy entered my heart. I felt of the power of the atonement of Jesus Christ, and I knew that what I have been taught was all true. Since then, I have strengthened my testimony in every area. It has not been easy. I think that's why it is called a Testimony, those are the things that we know, through the Tests we put it through.

So, what is my concluding remark that ties this all back to the title? Don't forget God. If something tragic happens in your life, it is not because there is no God. Start doing the things that the scriptures teach to do, and you will have peace enter your heart. You will learn of the great mercy God truly has for each and every one of us. I love my Heavenly Father, and I pray that you too will get that way. Pray to him, act on the things he tells you, and Grow your Faith.