Update.
So...living at home and commuting to PROVO and SALT LAKE every week. Every other day I head a different direction.
That's just plain ridiculous.
But it's working.
I'm grateful for public transportation.
It makes it possible for me to get to Provo and Salt Lake when I don't have a car.
Don't get me wrong, I hate public transportation. But I'm grateful for it.
I'm grateful that I get the chance to ride with the crazies, the stinkies, the smokers, and the trash talkers. Why?
Because it keeps me real. It reminds me that there is a world outside my own.
School is so time consuming. I underestimated this semester with all its philosophy, ancient history, literary theory, and business concepts. But you know what? It's all going to work out. I might get my worst GPA ever, but it is going to work out.
I'm grateful I have the chance to go to school. There's a lot of people who can't.
I'm grateful for a job. There's a lot of people who don't have one right now. I'm grateful it is flexible. I'm grateful I am a saver and not a spender. I'm grateful that in the next month, I will be finished saving for a mission.
I'm grateful that when I decided to take a laid back approach to church God said, "nope, that's not for you right now" and gave me a calling that required me to get to know lots of people, to serve, and to love.
I'm so blessed by my calling. When we serve God, His rewards are so much more than we deserve. What we give is so small compared to what he gives us in return.
I'm definitely struggling with some things right now.
But there are so many blessings.
So the golden question...Is Angela going on a mission?
Hmmm, well, there's not really a set answer for that right now.
Life is good though.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
NT 5: The One Thing That Never Fails
A lot of things in our lives are going to fail.
Money fails. Banks fail.
Relationships fail.
Our efforts fail.
We may fail to get a job, or we may fail to keep one.
Often our foresight fails.
Sometimes our hearts fail.
But even if we feel like we are failing or if we are having trouble enduring the storms of life, we don't ever need to give up.
Because charity never fails.
All things must fail.
But charity endures forever.
It never fails.
Charity doesn't stop things from failing, but it does mean that even when things fail in our lives, which they surely will, the pure love of Christ will never fail us. It is something we can depend upon when our world is shaking.
Maybe though, we don't feel like a failure. Maybe we realize that we are doing pretty good. But we all feel at times that we need something to keep us going, to give us hope, and endure the seemingly impossible and weighty journey ahead--in the next day, or the next week, or maybe the next year.
Christ's pure love can carry us through and it will help others carry through.
We need charity in ever aspect of our lives--in our relationships, in our families, with our friends, at work, and in our church callings. We will feel the love of the Lord as we seek for that in our own lives and use it to bless others.
This love will help us suffer long--and help others to suffer long.
It will help us to feel the loving kindness of the Lord and share that kindness with others.
It will help us to envy not, to not vaunt ourselves, to not be puffed up.
It will help us behave.
It will help us to seek out others needs, rather than our own.
When others provoke us, it will help us not be provoked.
And it will keep us from thinking evil from another.
Faith, hope, and charity. Why is the greatest of all charity? Because it gives faith and hope meaning. Even having the faith that moves mountains is nothing without charity. Without the pure love of Christ, we are nothing.
I love the talk Broken Things to Mend, in which Jeffrey R. Holland said, "Soon, with that kind of love, we realize our days hold scores of thoroughfares leading to the Master and that every time we reach out, however feebly, for Him, we discover that He has been anxiously trying to reach us. So we step, we strive, we seek, and we never yield."
I love this. With charity, we realize that even with our smallest efforts, the Lord will pour His love over us so that we may continue on. Instead of looking at life as impossible, we can look at it with hope.
So even if banks fail, relationships fail, our sight or our hearts fail--
His pure love never does.
Money fails. Banks fail.
Relationships fail.
Our efforts fail.
We may fail to get a job, or we may fail to keep one.
Often our foresight fails.
Sometimes our hearts fail.
But even if we feel like we are failing or if we are having trouble enduring the storms of life, we don't ever need to give up.
Because charity never fails.
All things must fail.
But charity endures forever.
It never fails.
Charity doesn't stop things from failing, but it does mean that even when things fail in our lives, which they surely will, the pure love of Christ will never fail us. It is something we can depend upon when our world is shaking.
Maybe though, we don't feel like a failure. Maybe we realize that we are doing pretty good. But we all feel at times that we need something to keep us going, to give us hope, and endure the seemingly impossible and weighty journey ahead--in the next day, or the next week, or maybe the next year.
Christ's pure love can carry us through and it will help others carry through.
We need charity in ever aspect of our lives--in our relationships, in our families, with our friends, at work, and in our church callings. We will feel the love of the Lord as we seek for that in our own lives and use it to bless others.
This love will help us suffer long--and help others to suffer long.
It will help us to feel the loving kindness of the Lord and share that kindness with others.
It will help us to envy not, to not vaunt ourselves, to not be puffed up.
It will help us behave.
It will help us to seek out others needs, rather than our own.
When others provoke us, it will help us not be provoked.
And it will keep us from thinking evil from another.
Faith, hope, and charity. Why is the greatest of all charity? Because it gives faith and hope meaning. Even having the faith that moves mountains is nothing without charity. Without the pure love of Christ, we are nothing.
I love the talk Broken Things to Mend, in which Jeffrey R. Holland said, "Soon, with that kind of love, we realize our days hold scores of thoroughfares leading to the Master and that every time we reach out, however feebly, for Him, we discover that He has been anxiously trying to reach us. So we step, we strive, we seek, and we never yield."
I love this. With charity, we realize that even with our smallest efforts, the Lord will pour His love over us so that we may continue on. Instead of looking at life as impossible, we can look at it with hope.
So even if banks fail, relationships fail, our sight or our hearts fail--
His pure love never does.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
NT 4: Ready for Him
Christians have looked forward to the coming of Christ since the time he left.
We want to see Him again.
We are told that He will come as a thief in the night.
Yet those who are prepared would never have to fear.
There were many things stopping the early church from preparing. Fear, idleness, whatever it was that was stopping them had a disastrous effect. Paul teaches that the day would not come "save there should be a falling away first." That falling away happened as apostasy destroyed the church.
We had better heed Paul’s warning, for while apostasy will not come to the entire church again, it can come to us personally. Regardless of whether Christ will come to the earth in our lifetime, each of us will meet God face to face and account whether or not we gave all our efforts to His work.
How did apostasy come to the early church? Paul told that it would happen as the devil was revealed, as one who "exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."
This is what we have to fight--a being that calls himself God, puts himself above God, has the audacity to sit in the very temple of God, and makes every claim that he is God.
It may seem removed from us, but not when we realize that what we spend our time with, our efforts thinking about, and our hearts set on is our god. If it is not the true and living God, what are we worshiping? When we remember that our bodies are temples of God, the warning that the devil will sit in the temple of God is chilling. If His spirit is not within us, what is?
What will make the difference for us?
Light.
Paul teaches that those who are children of the light need never fear his coming. One of the most distinguishing characteristics of children of the light is that they have faith.
They don't face his coming with fear. They look forward to his coming, no matter the time, and their "waiting" is an active waiting.
Christians wait, yet they do not wait idly.
They pray, they work, they become more and more like God, and they never give up.
If they are children of light, they are children of Christ, who is the light of the world. They love truth, they live truth, and they rejoice in righteousness.
After all their efforts, they wait for His coming. And they will be ready!
There is no need for fear or trembling because they have the very God of peace to be with them, "to sanctify [them] wholly." Their whole spirit and soul and body will be ready to meet Him again--and how joyous it will be.
We want to see Him again.
We are told that He will come as a thief in the night.
Yet those who are prepared would never have to fear.
There were many things stopping the early church from preparing. Fear, idleness, whatever it was that was stopping them had a disastrous effect. Paul teaches that the day would not come "save there should be a falling away first." That falling away happened as apostasy destroyed the church.
We had better heed Paul’s warning, for while apostasy will not come to the entire church again, it can come to us personally. Regardless of whether Christ will come to the earth in our lifetime, each of us will meet God face to face and account whether or not we gave all our efforts to His work.
How did apostasy come to the early church? Paul told that it would happen as the devil was revealed, as one who "exalted himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."
This is what we have to fight--a being that calls himself God, puts himself above God, has the audacity to sit in the very temple of God, and makes every claim that he is God.
It may seem removed from us, but not when we realize that what we spend our time with, our efforts thinking about, and our hearts set on is our god. If it is not the true and living God, what are we worshiping? When we remember that our bodies are temples of God, the warning that the devil will sit in the temple of God is chilling. If His spirit is not within us, what is?
What will make the difference for us?
Light.
Paul teaches that those who are children of the light need never fear his coming. One of the most distinguishing characteristics of children of the light is that they have faith.
They don't face his coming with fear. They look forward to his coming, no matter the time, and their "waiting" is an active waiting.
Christians wait, yet they do not wait idly.
They pray, they work, they become more and more like God, and they never give up.
If they are children of light, they are children of Christ, who is the light of the world. They love truth, they live truth, and they rejoice in righteousness.
After all their efforts, they wait for His coming. And they will be ready!
There is no need for fear or trembling because they have the very God of peace to be with them, "to sanctify [them] wholly." Their whole spirit and soul and body will be ready to meet Him again--and how joyous it will be.
Monday, February 8, 2010
NT 3: The Written Word
President Spencer W. Kimball once said that perhaps the most important word in the English language is remember.
We write and make records so that we will remember.
As I visited BYU's Special Collections in the bottom floor of the library, I was in awe at the records that have been kept and preserved over time. The effort that has been put into books in the past is incredible. Looking at the perfect calligraphy of a Bible from the 1400s, I thought back to the hours and hours that monks spent forming each and every letter of the Holy Scriptures. They would sew pages together made out of animal skins. Only 2-3 sheets of paper could come from one animal skin, usually from a small or unborn calf. The parchment created from those skins was the most valuable piece of the book. Each line of writing is carefully executed, and the illuminated manuscript contains beautiful gold engravings and pictures. This bible took eleven years to complete.
Eleven years.
I don't know about you, but I don't think I would want to dedicate eleven years of my life in inscribing print on a bunch of animal skins in a darkened room while wearing an itchy robe. Not my cup of tea.
But they did, they worked day after day to create this book. They created something beautiful, something meaningful, something to remember the word of God by.
The work, the time, the effort--for the purpose of remembering.
It made me realize I should be listening to the word of the Lord to me personally, and taking the time to write my impressions down. If it seems difficult or I am too tired, it might be helpful to think of the monks who spent years preserving the word of the Lord. I can take five minutes. Elder Scott said taking the time to write down our impressions invites more revelation. Who doesn't need more of God's word in their life.
It is easy to see that the real value of the Bible isn't in the expensive hides, the beautiful illumination, the gold letters. The true value for us is in the ability the words have to bring us closer to God.
We find strength through the scriptures and through personal revelation because they testify of the Savior. The scriptures, the word of God, will carry us through all the storms of life because it will bring us to Him. And truly, what could be more valuable to us than that?
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
NT 2: Paul and Circumcision
O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
What would cause such a biting criticism against the Galatians from Paul as we read above?
The issue was circumcision.
Circumcision was a big deal to the Jews in Paul’s time. It set them apart, they felt, as the righteous people of God. When Gentiles had desire to join the Church, the Jews insisted that they must be circumcised so that they might be “gloried in the flesh.”
Paul vehemently opposed the idea that circumcision was the way to being accepted as followers of Christ. He didn’t oppose or support circumcision, but the idea that the act of circumcision would save them was wrong.
Paul taught that it is by faith that we find ourselves worthy to enter the Kingdom of God. To live the Law without faith is to deny the very reality of the Atonement—that it is Christ, not our works, that will save us.
Without realizing that every bit of the law is meant to point to Christ, we deny Christ himself.
Our acts become empty and meaningless.
And yet—we know we are to keep the commandments. How do we reconcile this idea with the fact that the Law ultimately will not save us?
Paul explains, “Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law…But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.”
Then he explains what the role of the law is. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”
The entire point of any commandment, any law, is not to justify us—it is to bring us to Christ.
The idea that circumcision was no longer required was so difficult for so many people to understand because they still depended on the Law for their salvation instead of Christ who died for them.
This is the reason for Paul’s passionate rejection of the idea that all must be circumcised; It was leading them to deny Christ, instead of bringing them to Him.
What would cause such a biting criticism against the Galatians from Paul as we read above?
The issue was circumcision.
Circumcision was a big deal to the Jews in Paul’s time. It set them apart, they felt, as the righteous people of God. When Gentiles had desire to join the Church, the Jews insisted that they must be circumcised so that they might be “gloried in the flesh.”
Paul vehemently opposed the idea that circumcision was the way to being accepted as followers of Christ. He didn’t oppose or support circumcision, but the idea that the act of circumcision would save them was wrong.
Paul taught that it is by faith that we find ourselves worthy to enter the Kingdom of God. To live the Law without faith is to deny the very reality of the Atonement—that it is Christ, not our works, that will save us.
Without realizing that every bit of the law is meant to point to Christ, we deny Christ himself.
Our acts become empty and meaningless.
And yet—we know we are to keep the commandments. How do we reconcile this idea with the fact that the Law ultimately will not save us?
Paul explains, “Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law…But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.”
Then he explains what the role of the law is. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”
The entire point of any commandment, any law, is not to justify us—it is to bring us to Christ.
The idea that circumcision was no longer required was so difficult for so many people to understand because they still depended on the Law for their salvation instead of Christ who died for them.
This is the reason for Paul’s passionate rejection of the idea that all must be circumcised; It was leading them to deny Christ, instead of bringing them to Him.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)