The Cross Did Not Hold Him/Reflection

This week was the final week I had of my New Testament class. As we went through this class I don't think that my heart has every felt more hurt for the story of the crucifixion as it did in these two days. I will not go into the details that were revealed in class of the process of the crucifixion. But I will say this, I now understand, to a degree, that the Savior being crucified was more painful than any of us can ever imagine. After hours of suffering outside of Calvary the Savior was required to suffer on the cross. His body broken by the scourges and the nails in his arms and legs. His spirits extremely low as the full intensified weight of the atonement He was required to feel in Gethsemane was placed back on His shoulders for a time on the cross. With all of the pain, sorrow, and heart break the Savior must have been feeling at this time it completely blows my mind that He was still willing to go through all of this for imperfect beings like ourselves. At the heighth of the Saviors suffering He says something out loud that I have always, sadly, looked over. In Mark 15: 34 it says "And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama ssabachthani? Which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" In class we were brought to the realization that Christ must have felt abandoned. He had to endure all of the pains of the world and suffer death all without the comfort and presence of His Father. At this point, If I were in the Saviors shoes, I would not want to perform my duty any further. Christ had the power to say "You know what, I don't want to do this any more. I am miserable, upset, hurting and I don't want to do this anymore." However, He did not do that. And why is that? Do you think that the thing that was keeping Christ on the cross was the nails that pinned Him to it? The supreme being that created the world and the elements that made up the nails piercing His body was not held to the cross against His will. Even though He was suffering in agony spiritually, mentally, and physically He was being obedient. Even though He felt that all signs of His Father had disappeared from His life.

 In class my professor brought up something that brought this experience of Christ's obedience close to home. He told us about something that CS Lewis had written called "Screwtape Letters", or, as some people know it as, "The Law of Undulation." For those of you who are not familiar with it here is an explanation passage found under an article I found (I hadn't heard of this book till class.)

"For those who don’t know, Screwtape is a demon writing to an apprentice demon named Wormwood. Thus, all that is said is said from the perspective of the demon. When you hear about the Enemy, it means God."

So in this book at some point Wormwood writes to Screwtape with "good news" saying that their client, the person they are trying to drag down away from the "enemy" (God) is in the deepest pit of dispair at the moment and feels that God has left him alone. Screwtape response was brought up in class and I love it. This is what Screwtape says to Wormwood:
"Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger, than when a human, no longer desiring, but intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."

This passage explains exactly what was happening on the cross. Jesus Christ had felt completely forsaken and still obeyed His Fathers will. Regardless of the fact that Satan must've been releasing all of His power on Christ still obeyed and completed His mission. We will never have to endure the things the Christ did. He suffered them so that we would never have to. However, there will be times in our lives that we will feeling miserable, depressed, angry, and we may even find ourselves wondering where God is even in our lives. It is at this time that we must continue to obey regardless of our loneliness. Whether it is days, weeks, months, or even years, we must continue to obey and endure. Our loving Savior suffered everything for us so that we can have another chance every single day to become more perfect so that we can live with our Heavenly Father. And we cannot give up this just because life can get hard. 

This semester I have learned so much. And I just want to bear my testimony of how important the gospel is to me. It makes my life so much happier. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know that He died for us and that He lives to this day. I cannot wait for the day that I get to see Him. My testimony has grown so much over the course of this class. I am so grateful for the atonement. I know that if we ever are suffering there is someone who loves us dearly who understands exactly what we are going through. I know that our Heavenly Father exists and loves us.And I know that we are not alone. I know that Christ lives and loves us. He is the ultimate example and I can not express how much He means to me. But i know that He does live and loves us. I can't express that enough.

 I am so grateful for this semester and I wanted to add that after some thought I have decided to continue to blog with this blog. With the help of this assignment I have seen the Lords hand in my life more clearly and been able to reflect on the gospels influence in my life.

Such Sacred Suffering

How can I possibly cover everything that I learned this week in a blog? How can I explain the feelings I had in my class this week? This week I was able to tread on very sacred ground in my class. This week we dove into the process of the whole atonement and the suffering Christ went through for all man-kind so that they could live again and not suffer as He did. I was filled with heart ache and love for my Savior this week. I am extremely grateful for Him, His love, and His sacrifice.

After Christ's last supper He traveled with His disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane where He would suffer for three hours the most unimaginable pains. In my class we related the atonement process in Gethsemane to an oil press. To explain in short; an oil press squashed the oil from olives by using a very huge stone circle. With this comparison in mind, my teacher drew a large circle on the board that was representing the stone press. We started to put in all the things the Savior had to suffer in this garden. Loneliness, broken hearts, doubt, guilt, fear, shame, stress, depression, regret, worthlessness.... This list of emotional sufferings was almost endless. Then we had to come up with another list of sufferings that were physical, things like sickness, disabilities.... We could've spent the whole class coming up with social, physical, mental, and spiritual sufferings and we never would have gotten them all in that circle. And the Lord had to experience it all on His shoulders. In class we also learned that the Savior may have experienced something even more painful that no one on the earth will never have to feel. My teacher sent us back to John 16:32 which says "Behold, the hour cometh, year, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me." My teacher pointed out that the Savior may have thought that through His whole suffering from the Garden to the Cross the Lord would be with Him. But this was not the case. During the time Christ needed His Fathers presence the most the Father had to withdraw Himself so that Christ would know what it felt like to be out of His presence; in other words, Christ had to feel what Hell would feel like. Christ suffered all of our afflictions and even more than we would ever feel.

With this in mind, think about this: We were not on the earth at the time of Christ. We were still living in the spirit world. Is it possible that we were allowed by our Heavenly Father to watch this sacred suffering? I am not going to preach and say that this is true. However, in my heart and mind it makes me feel closer to my Savior thinking that I was allowed to watch the process of the atonement from afar. So imagine this: We are watching the Savior walk into the garden. He leaves His disciples and goes on alone. All of a sudden we can sense and see that there is a problem. In Matthew 26:39 it says "And He went a little further, and fell on his face."Pause. From wherever I was watching this I know what I would do in reaction to that. I would probably gasp and question what was going on! In the 33 years of the Saviors life on the earth did He ever show signs of physical weakness? Did He ever show any acts of clumsiness? No, He didn't. And now He has fallen to His face in agony with the burden of all our sufferings and sins on His shoulders. As the verse goes on it says " and [He] prayed saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me:" Pause! We all know that in the beginning of the creation it was necessary that we had a perfect volunteer for someone to be the great sacrifice for all man kind. The Savior obeyed His Father and took that position. Now, the greatest of all was crying out in pain asking for this burden and responsibility to be taken away from Him. If I really did watch this in the spirit world I know exactly what my reaction would be. I would probably start to worry. I would probably cry out and weep. Because I know that If the Savior didn't perform this great work there would be no way for me to get back to my Heavenly Father. I could never become more perfect through His atonement if He didn't fulfill it. However, if we continue with the verse, the Savior says the sweetest and most unselfish thing humanity would ever hear- "nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

Our Savior was perfect. And yet He had to suffer everyones sins. I am not perfect, I am not even close. And it hurts me to know that someone so perfect suffered so much for my mistakes, my sufferings, my heart aches. It also warms my heart to know that even though the Savior could've backed out, He could've walked away saying "This is too hard, make it stop, I don't want to do this anymore." He didn't. He endured all so that we could have another chance. And I will be forever grateful for this.
I know that our Savior bled, suffered, and died for us. His love is so large that He went through all things, even the feelings of Hell, for us. I know that He lives. I know that He cares about us. And I can never repay Him for this infinite and perfect love.

Christ and His Character

In my New Testament class we are drawing very near the end of the semester. This means we are getting closer and closer to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. As i attended class this week I realized there wasn't any monumental moment to write about because we are just reading about the events that lead up to the Saviors suffering in the garden of Gethsemane. However, this week was filled with very powerful scriptures that gave me a better insight of who my Eldest brother and Savior really is.  In John chapters 14-15 there were a few scriptures that taught me about the character of Jesus on a deeper level.

The Savior is hours away from what will be the most painful and unbelievable suffering anyone would ever endure. If I was in the position of the Savior I would most likely be focused on myself. I would be concerned about the pain I was moments away from enduring, I would be worried about how the last few days of my mortal life would be like, and I would probably just want to seek comfort from the disciples at this moment. However, in John 14:1 Christ reveals where His thoughts were.
14:1" Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me."
Let not your heart[s] be troubled.... At this point of His life Christ's heart must have been troubled and yet He is trying to bring comfort to His disciples. I think this says a lot about the Savior. To me this shows how much He loves us. He is always concerned about how we are feeling and He genuinely wants to comfort us.

The other verse that really stuck out for me was in John 15:12-15
14:12- "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you."
14:13-"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
14:14-"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."
14:15-"Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."

Christ doesn't just look down upon us as some random things that happened to be created durring the creation of the earth. He loves us not as one would love a servant, but as a man loves his friends. This to me makes it easier to accept Christ even though I have never seen Him. It makes me understand why Christ endured the atonement. I love that it compares that a man would die for his friend and then Christ reminds the disciples that He views them as His own friends. This can be related to the atonement. Christ laid down His own life for us out of love. Not just because He could but because He views us as His friends. And because He knew we couldn't return back to Heaven without the atonement He threw down His own life for us, His friends. The fact that there is someone who died for me and everyone else because He loved us is just mind blowing.

These two chapters have strengthened my own testimony and have made me realize that Jesus Christ is not just a supreme being that views us all as puny insignificant beings. He cares about our troubled hearts, our concerns, our worries, fears..... He loves us, and He is our friend. He died so that we may have a chance every single day to return unto Him and become more perfect. And I will always be grateful for His selfless sacrifice and matchless love.

Lamp Oil and Ups and Downs

I can honestly say that this weeks class was "for me." So many parts of the lesson I was able to relate back to my life. There were so many good points that I wish I could bring up but because I don't want this to be too long I can only pick one. The one I have chosen is the parable of the 10 virgins found in Matthew 25:1-12. I was able to learn more than one thing from this simple parable.

We all know this parable (if you aren't familiar with it just read it :) ) When we first read it we often think of the message from the parable just simply being "be prepared" This is a good message, but as we as a class dove deeper into the parable we found much more to it. Who were this 10 women? They were virgins, the were holy women. They were, in a sense, disciples of God. However, 5 of these disciples had oil for their lamps and were able to go to the wedding feast and 5 of these disciples didn't have oil and weren't able to participate in the wedding feast. If these 10 women were all disciples how is that only half were able to participate in the wedding celebrations? Just because someone says they are a disciple does not mean they will be "saved a spot" with the Savior when final judgement comes.

These 10 virgins had lamps. Some with oil some without. These are very symbolic. The lamp is the symbol of a testimony. The oil is a sign of conversion. What is the difference between the two? Someone can go to church, say they're a disciple, and do all the outwardly things that would lead one to view them as a disciple of Christ. But just because someone has an outward appearance doesn't mean they are sincere. The oil, or the conversion, is the action that is filled with faith. Conversion means that you are true in what you believe, all the way. Half of these women didn't have true conversion that would've led them to act in preparation for the bride groom. The other half had the conversion that led them to preparation for the up coming events. We need to make sure that we not only have a testimony but oil as well. If we have oil we will be more able to make faith filled choices that will lead us to becoming more like Christ, and that will bring us closer to Him.

After this lesson our professor mentioned that when we have lamps full of oil we will be able to make our big choices in life better. He then drew a line full of ups and downs. He told us that in life we are going to have big choices whether it's getting married, taking a large step by doing a big service, going on a mission, and so forth...If we address these choices with fear and make a choice with only fear contributing to our decision we will have made the wrong choice. For example, if someone wants to get married but fears they aren't financially stable so they decided to not get married this is a bad choice. Our professor told us we need to pray for our "lamps to be filled" so we can be filled with faith, and have courage with our Saviors help. Only then can we make choices about these big steps of life. This really effected me. The day I was in this class I was struggling with a big choice in my life. This choice is going to cost a lot of money and i was starting to have doubts and fears. I was a step away from pulling the plug. But after this I realized that I can apply this to my life. We need to allow our testimonies to go past just saying "we have one." We need to truly be converted (have oil) so when we are faced with life's choices we can make the right ones based on faith instead of fear.

In, Out, and All Around

One of the things that I have learned from studying the New Testament is that Christ has little patients with hypocrites. The Pharisees were very guilty of this characteristic. This week in Matthew 23 Christ actually calls out the Pharisees and scribes for being hypocrites.  Because Christ was talking to these groups in the scriptures that means that we don't struggle with this today, right? Because the Pharisees and scribes don't exist in our culture today, right? Wrong. We can apply and learn from these teachings directed towards the Pharsisees and scribes.

Christ used many analogies to help portray what the Parisees and scribes were struggling with. Three of which stood out to me. In Matt 23:24 it says "Ye blind guides, which strains at a gnat, and swallow a camel." While reading this on my own, I will admit, I looked over it without a second thought. However, when we went over it in class i realized how significant it actually is. When you strain liquid you try to get out every particle that you possibly can. Picture this: if you were trying to strain out some freshly squeezed juice and you found a very large bug along with a few small pieces of leaves which would you rather have strained out? In my opinion the bug. However, this analogy is saying that the Pharisees are straining out the little things (the gnat) but are allowing themselves to swallow a giant camel. What this is getting at is that these men were so focused on picking at the little things, accusing those around them of not keeping "simple commandments" such washing their hands before a meal or healing on the sabbath. But because they were so focused on picking at the little things they were allowing themselves to "swallow camels," meaning, they were neglecting the bigger commandments such as those that demanded others to judge not your neighbor, being honest with others, and so forth. Sometimes I think i do the same thing. I will get so caught up with "doing my visiting teaching" or "paying tithing" that I forget that I should be focusing on bigger commandments like "loving my neighbors as myself" and "judging not."

The other thing I really liked was Matt 23:25-26:
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites? for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the paltter, but within they are full of extortion and excess."
"Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also."
This analogy is pretty self explanatory. Christ is reminding the Pharisees that they may look polished and good on the outside but their hearts and desires are not righteous or clean. Are we the same way? Do we make ourselves look like "good people" on the outside because our appearance is "clean cut" and we have the appearance of being a "good religious person." How far does this outward appearance really go? Are we really as good on the inside as we are on the outside? Christ in the scriptures is always spending time with the sinners rather than the Pharisees and the people who are higher in society. That is because those considered sinners were more humble and righteous than they that claimed to be. We need to work to make sure the outside of us matches the inside. If it does not we ourselves are being hypocrites. And as we have seen Christ does not tolerate hypocrites well.

I am setting goals for myself that i focus less on little things and more on the big picture. I am going to try and make myself "real" all around so that the "Kelsey Wood" that people see on first glance is the real "Kelsey Wood" on the inside. I believe that that is how the Savior wants us each to be, as genuine and real "through and through."

Sonder and Serving

One of my best friends is extremely intelligent. He finds joy in many things one of which being the written word. A while ago he introduced me to a word: Sonder.  Sonder is the term used for the following definition-" the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own" Basically what this means is we need to realize that those around us have a body with a mind that has its own thought processes, emotions, and each person has their own lives that they are living with their own points of views, families, problems, etc... I love this word, but I would always get frusturated with my friend when I would start to vent about someone I disliked or had a problem with and all he would say was "sonder." Reminding me that there are people with lives and worries outside of my own (for the record, he was right to do so... but because I am still human it still frustrated me!)

This word was brought to mind and helped me ponder what I learned about in class this week. In John 12 Jesus is abiding in Martha, Mary, and Lazarus's home. While waiting for dinner Mary appears and uses a pound of ointment of spikenard and uses it to anoint the feet of Jesus. She then proceeds to wipe the oil off of His feet with the hairs of her head. At this act of service Judas Iscariot, a disciple, points out that this oil is very costly; 300 pence, and the money for this oil could've been used to help the poor. The math done in class for this story was that 300 pence during this time was equivalent to 40,000 dollars today! So yes, this oil was costly, and yes, this money could've been used for many other things. Regardless of this Christ gets after Judas and says in 12:7 "Let her alone, against the day of my burying hath she kept this" So the Savior defended this young woman for the service she did, she didn't side with Judas even though he had a point.

Sometimes we judge those around us based on their actions. Different people serve in different ways. But for some reason we expect others to serve as we would. In other instances we see people serving and are quick to judge with reality. For example, someone may give all they have to a less fortunate person but in consequence for this may not have the funds to support themselves. We as realistic humans may look at this and judge it as irrational, dumb, or silly. However, the Savior doesn't want us to do this. He is the ultimate judge of people and their actions. If people are willing to serve who are we to condone them? Like the word "sounder" states, we need to realize that people are living separate lives from us, which means they may have different ways of serving Christ. But it is not our place to judge others. Instead, we should be willing to support those who are willing to serve. Our Savior will not condemn someone for serving Him, and we shouldn't either. 

Spittle and Growth

John Chapter 9 tells the story of Christ healing a man who was blind since birth. In the New Testament we are always reading about the blind receiving their sight from the Savior. However, this encounter with this certain man is a little different than the others. When entering the temple Jesus and the disciples notice the man. The common belief during this time is if someone was born with an infirmity, such as being blind, it was because they sinned or their parents sinned. So the first thing that the disciples as Christ is "Who sinned, the man or his parents?" (9:2) Christ informs the disciples that the man wasn't cursed by sin but instead was made blind to manifest the works of the Lord (9:4) After this, Christ approaches the man. This is something that I found very interesting pointed out by my teacher. The man didn't ask Christ to heal him, Christ goes to the man. Christ approaches the man and He doesn't say anything. Now, if I were blind and heard someone approaching me I would really want someone to announce themselves. However, Christ doesn't. Instead, he spits on the ground (9:6) At this point if I heard someone approaching me and then heard them spit I would tense up. After this Christ makes clay with the dirt and spit and anoints the mans eyes! This, for me, would be something I wouldn't appreciate. Especially if I was blind. In my perspective I would feel like the person was insulting my condition. After this Christ just tells the man to go wash in the pool of Siloam. Which the man does and is healed.

While reading this, and having the connection of emotions brought to mind, If someone spits and then puts a spit mixture on my face i would lash out. However, my professor reminded us that maybe the man realized the person approaching him, that being Christ, had a difference about Him. Maybe this man was able to feel Christs power in the form of the spirit and allowed the Savior to do what he needed to him.

This story can be just viewed as "the Savior being kind by healing someone in need." This is a nice idea, not something to dismiss. However, we were asked to apply this story to ourselves. Sometimes Christ allows odd things to happen in our lives, things we don't expect, maybe even things that make us uncomfortable. This is paralleled to the spit-clay being applied as something unexpected and a bit uncomfortable. This was applied to the blind man and despite the uncomfortable and, possibly not understandable, thing the Savior did to Him he allowed it to happen and was blessed for it.

 We may not understand why Christ does things we don't understand. However, we need to not thrash out, or question Him. Instead we should allow these things to happen. If we do so in faith and take the necessary steps to do what He has asked us to do we will find that He can bless us more than we can imagine.

A Debt we can never Repay

This week I was tied between two stories. It was between the encounter with the Savior and the woman of Canaan (Matthew 15:22-27) and the parable of the servants debt (18:21-35) If you get curious check out Matthew 15:22-27, but I decided to do my reflection on the parable of the servants debt.

How this story starts off is with a question from Peter- 18:21 "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?" The first thing that my professor pointed out was this: Peter is asking a personal question. At first I didn't understand what he meant but then it became clear. Each of the apostles were not super humans. They were people with problems and imperfections. It is quite possible that Peter had been offended by someone more than once and was coming to Christ for justification of being unforgiving. He uses the term "brother" which could be used for his actual brother, one of his fellow apostles, or maybe just an acquaintance. We are not sure. However, we can assume that this question came from Peter's personal life.

In response to Peter's question Christ gives the parable of the servant and his debt. If you are familiar with this story you know that there is a servant in a kingdom that owes his Lord 10,000  talents. In class we did the math and 10,000 talents equals about 15 billion dollars in gold! Oh my word. This is a lot of money! We can imagine this debt is not possible to pay off. The servant seems to understand this and he asks his Lord to have patience with him and he will pay it all. The Lord then has compassion on him. That's pretty nice, so the servant should be pretty grateful right? Well instead of this the servant goes and seeks out one of his fellow servants and demands him to pay him back a debt that he owes him. This dept is a hundred pence which equals about 15,000 dollars. This is quite a bit of money, don't get me wrong. But when the fellow servant asks for compassion from this man the man gives none and allows the man to be cast into prison till the debt is paid. As the story goes on the Lord finds out about what this servant did and is upset. In 18:33 it says "Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?"

As we read this parable the first time we all felt good about it, thinking this was a parable of forgiveness. However, in class we were reminded yet again that all of Christs parables can have more than one meaning. This story is one of the atonement. A servant has an unimaginable debt that needs to be paid to his Lord. Instead of being unmerciful, the Lord shows compassion unto the servant and clears the debt. The Lord would have been willing to do the same for this man who only owed hundred pence. Our Savior has taken upon all of our sins and mistakes, he has paid our debt. We can never repay Him, it's not humanly possible. And we are not expected to be able to pay the debt (only by doing all we can and repenting...) However, we are expected to forgive those around us. These two servants were under the same Lord, the Lord who would forgive both of their debts. It is not our job to inflict justice upon those who have wronged us. We have to forgive people regardless of how many times they sin against us. Our Savior has paid for everyone's debts and it is His job alone to deliver justice.

A Touch of Leprosy

This was one of my previous blog updates! It was lost due to complications with my past blog site! 

Among one of the more famous stories of the New Testament is the story of the Savior healing the leper. This story found in the scriptures is very small, it spans hardly four verses. However, this week I was able to gain a deeper understanding of this small but powerful story. In Matthew chapter 8:1-4 it tells of the leper coming unto Christ and asking to be healed. The first thing I noticed about this story was how this man asked to be healed. In 8:2 it says "And, behold, there came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean." I love that this man didn't demand to simply be made whole. He first asked the Savior if it was His will to heal him. The other part of this scripture that reads "thou canst make me whole" was something that stood out to me as well. This man knew who the Savior was. He knew that Christ could heal him. His faith, paired with his humble question brought him his restored skin.

In this story we learned that back in New Testament times being a leper had many meanings. Leperacy could include any skin condition (any blemishes, imperfections of large variety, exc.) or it could include the severe case of leperacy we all think of. Being a leper meant that you were not only sickly but "unclean." By unclean, it meant that the people viewed the skin disease as "a punishment given to someone by the Lord." Not only did people not want to associate with lepers because their disease was extremely contagious but the lepers were, in a way, considered sinners or unrighteous. So the "clean" people would not have anything to do with lepers.

As we discussed this in class I was able to ponder how this relates to all of us. Each person on the earth is not perfect, that is not possible. We all have blemishes in our lives. Some are more extreme than others. While other people in this world may choose not to associate with those of us who have more obvious "blemishes" or "cases of leperacy" we have one person who we can turn to no matter what. The Savior does not care what we have done. If we are willing to come to Him He can heal us. But we need to reach out to Him and ask with submission for the help that the Savior can provide

Fear not, and Come Unto Christ

This was a past blog update that was lost due to complications with my other blog site! 

"Fear not Zacharias."  "Fear not Mary."  "Fear not: For I bring you good tidings of great joy."

 This week in class we discussed the birth of Jesus Christ (yes, we had Christmas in September.) And something that stood out to me was the term "fear not." It was told to numerous people throughout these chapters. Each had something different to fear. The people that were instructed to have no fear were Zacharias, Mary, and the shepherds ( all these stories can be found in Luke chapters one and two.) All of these situations were amazing and inspired me. However, one of these stories really stood out to me. It was that of the shepherds.

Imagine these shepherds that are out in the fields one night. They're minding their own business, just spending time with their sheep when suddenly a bright, angelic light shines all around.  And in the middle of the field appears a holy being; an angel. This alone would be enough to throw anyone off guard! Aware of the shepherds fear the angel announces "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." (Luke 2:10) After this the angel tells the shepherds about the sign of Jesus's birth and where to find him. Now this is the part that I really love: after the angel leaves the shepherds are discussing what they have heard and decide to go find the Savior. The verse I love is Luke 2:16 "And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger."

The shepherds didn't wait! They didn't just take their sweet time to get to Bethlehem, they came with haste! They dropped everything they were doing and went to the baby that was born in the lowly stable. From this I learned so much. These humble shepherds had jobs to do, families, obligations, and I am sure the list goes on. Disregarding all this, they go forward without any fear to find the Savior. I know this can apply to us all (myself included) in our daily lives. How many times have we been faced with situations where we have an opportunity to come unto Christ?  Whether it is by serving someone you know, fulfilling a church calling, doing something right, or simply getting down on your knees to pray, we have all have opportunities to “make haste” and come unto Him. But when faced with this do we shrink back with fear? Do we place our worldly obligations before that which is most important?  We shouldn't! We should do as these humble shepherds did and quickly go to our Savior. He is the one we should seek out most often in our lives, then why should we do it slowly? I know that if we (again, myself included) "make haste" to find the savior in our day to day lives we will be truly blessed.

 

Woman at the Well

This was a past blog update that was lost due to complications with my other blog site! 

 

This week in class we were able to read chapters 3 and 4 in the book of John. Both of these chapter speak of Jesus Christ teaching a singular person more about the gospel and calling them to come unto Christ. In chapter 3 Jesus has an encounter with Nicodemus, a Jewish ruler popular in the society. And in chapter 4 Jesus talks with the woman of Samaria; an outcast and a resident of a "rival" town in the sight of the Jews. Both stories are amazing but I wanted to focus on what I learned from chapter 4 with the woman of Samaria. Christ seeks out this woman. She is an outcast amongst her own town. She has had five husbands and is currently in a relationship with a sixth man who is not even her husband. This woman is minding her own business, enjoying the solitude she receives from going out to get water from the local well. Regardless of this woman’s position of society He seeks her out to call her unto Christ. The Savior talks to her about the gospel and calls her to come unto Him. As I read this story I feel as if He is not only teaching her but reminding her. Christ is reminding this woman how important she is. He took time out of His day to spend time just talking to this woman. He reminded her that no matter where she was in life; no matter how dark of a place she was currently in she could make it better and come to Him.

I feel like sometimes we get too busy in life. We get caught up with spending time with the people we know, the people who "are our type," and those we have things in common with. However, i feel that we should be doing the opposite. We should be looking for opportunities to be like the savior. We shouldn't brush off those who don't fit our "ideal type" or those who we find "beneath us." Our eldest brother, Jesus Christ, as well as our Heavenly Father love each of us. We should treat each other as such. Regardless of who a person is, what they look like, or where they reside in the "social pyramid" we each should be striving to reach out to those who need it. I know that I am guilty of not always reaching out to those in need. But from reading this I realize that if we truly want to follow the savior and His example we need to stop putting our desires first.

On the flip side of things I feel there is another lesson to learn from this story. From the perspective of the woman at the well she felt the love of Christ heal her life. She was able to go forth from that moment on as a new woman. No matter what we have done in this life, whether it is extreme or minimum damage, our Savior loves us. He is looking after us and wants us to be with Him. I know that we can always find a way to come back to our Savior if we allow ourselves to do it.

We the Prodigal's Son

This week we read about the parable of the Prodigal's Son found in Luke chapter 15:11-32. Most of us know this story already but as I attended New Testament I was able to look at the story from a different perspective.
In the beginning of the story (15:12)  we find out that the younger son of the father asks for his inheritance. The problem with this is that one normally doesn't get their inheritance till their father is passed away. As we pondered this we realized how rude this was! This son is practically telling his father "Hey, give me my money, you are pretty much dead to me. I don't want to wait around for you to physically die, I just want my money."  Then, as we are familiar with, the son proceeds to go waste all of his inheritance on riotous living. This struck me as some pretty harsh actions from this young man, however, what struck me even harder was the fact that we act the same way towards our Heavenly Father sometimes. The parallel here is sometimes we do things that aren't right. when we sin it is as if we are going to our Father in Heaven and saying "Look, you have given me the power of free agency. I am going to take it and disregard all that you have given me and I am going to make wrong choices. I don't need you any more, I will do this on my own and I don't care about my consequences." Well, as the story goes on we find that this young man really struggles and finally realizes what a terrible mistake he has made. He was able to be made humble due to his experiences. So one day on his own he makes his way back to his Fathers house with intentions of becoming a servant for his own Father so that he can at least feed himself. My favorite part of this lesson is 15:20-22. As the son approaches the house it says he was "yet a great way off" but his Father sees him and runs towards his son to embrace him. The Father wasn't just minding his own business just working as he sees his son. It is impliedc that the Father was diligently watching for his son. The young man didn't even have to walk all the way to his Father because the Father met him, in a sense, he met him "half way." Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that he watches and waits for the day that we will return with Him, especially after we have sinned or made mistakes like this young man did. He won't even make us come all the way to him on our knees. He is willing to meet us half way and help us. We are His children no matter what we do. And he loves us. The last point that I loved about this story was the compassion this Father has on his son. During the time period of Christ it was filled with belief of Greek and Pagan gods who were believed to have no compassion for the people that worshiped them. It was even said that the thought of one of these gods ever weeping for one of the mortals of earth was ridiculous. We worship a God who's made himself vulnerable to us as individuals. Just like the Father of the parable, Heavenly Father loves us and has made it so we are part of Him. I can't imagine how He must feel whenever we do something that distances ourselves from Him. On the other hand, I can only imagine the joy He feels whenever we make choices that draw us nearer unto Him. I love this parable and hope that I can keep it in mind whenever I consider making a choice that could draw me away from my Heavenly Father. But I know even when I make mistakes I have someone who will be watching and waiting for me to return to Him again. 

The boat will rock, but have no fear!

Have you ever been on a boat in the middle of a lake, ocean, or river when the weather conditions were terrible? If you have, can you recall the feelings you had at that moment? I know I have been boating while weather conditions were cloudy and the water had erupted with large waves. My feelings at this time could be summarized under the term "frightened." This week in class I feel I connected to the lectures more than ever. This week we covered my all-time favorite story found in the New Testament. The story is found in Mark 4: 37-41. This tells of when Christ calms the stormy sea with the simple phrase "peace, be still."

I have always read this with great curiosity towards the disciples. Christ’s disciples are in this boat with the Savior after a long day. The Savior must have been extremely tired and fell asleep. Shortly after a storm occurred. As I read this story i notice that as the great storm started the waves started to become so monstrous that the boat actually started to fill up with water to the point that it started to sink. What i notice is the disciples seem to have waited till the absolute last moment possible to ask for help. The boat had started to sink before they called upon the master to help them. And when they finally ask for help they do so by crying out "Master, carest thou not that we perish?" (4:38) Immediately the Savior rises and simply says to the sea "Peace be still" (4:39)  After this the Savior gently but firmly questions why these men were so afraid? Where was their faith?

There are so many things we can take from this lesson, so many things that I personally take from this lesson and relate to. In this life we will have our storms. It is just something that will happen. The Savior has the ability to not only calm those storms but the storms that rage inside us. All of our fears, insecurities, stress; our Savior can calm them. And He does. I know he does. I have felt so many times His love for me in the feeling of peace that falls upon me when all seems to be going wrong. However unless we call upon Him as soon as we start to struggle He can't help us as easily. We have to call upon Him always instead of just waiting around until we are waist deep in trials.

When Jesus Christ said "Peace be still" he wasn't only saying it to the raging sea; He was telling this to His disciples, His friends. He knew that they were frightened and He wanted to bring them peace.

But one thing I think we should consider is this: why were these men afraid? His disciples spent more time with Him than anyone on earth. They should've known what manner of man He was. Then why were they so scared that they were going to perish? They had the Son of God on the ship, the Savior. Yet they allowed fear and doubt to creep in when the waves and storm got to be too much. I believe we all are the same way. The world gets extremely scary. Sometimes the fears and doubts from our personal storms get too close. They become to be something that seems to be drowning us. But if we are in the "Savior's boat" we will not sink. We need to keep close to the Savior by following Heavenly Fathers will, obeying the commandments, drawing closer to the Savior, and allowing the Spirit into our lives so that we can have the Savior there to "calm our seas" every time we need Him.

I know that our Savior lives. I can't see Him or my Heavenly Father. But I know that there is someone there that cares so much about each of us. I know that if we call upon Him in our time of need He has the ability to comfort us by bringing us peace. And i am so grateful for that every day.