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.