Service

Moses 1:39 says that God's work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Mosiah 2:17 says that when you are in the service of your fellow men you are serving God. When I serve others, I am helping them in a small way towards eternal life, so I'm literally serving God because I'm helping Him with his work. Pretty cool way of looking at service.

Analogy for grace, faith, and works

Let's say I want to go to Japan. There is literally no way to get myself there using my physical body. There is an ocean between my destination and I can't swim across it. Someone tells me there is a plane that can fly me there. So I buy a ticket and get on the plane. It then flies me to Japan. I didn't get myself there, but if I hadn't believed the plane could get me there and boarded the plane, it would have gone there without me.

Grace through Christ's Atonement is the plane. Faith is believing that the plane can get me there. Works is buying the ticket and getting on the plane. All three parts are absolutely essential. However, it's clear that Christ is the only way we have any chance to return to our Heavenly Father. He does the heavy lifting.

How I'll Be Judged

In school, students are often given a rubric. It lays out the expectations for the assignment and what needs to be done to earn a certain grade.

In the scriptures, God tells us what He expects of us. He also tells us how He will be judging our performance in life. In the New Testament He says if you forgive others, He will forgive you. I'm the Doctrine and Covenants (section 1) He says that He will  "measure to every man according to the measure which he has measured to his fellow man." I know there are other examples, but I can't remember them right now. Basically, I take this to mean that God will judge me based on the way I treat other people. So I get to write the grading portion of my eternal rubric. If I want an A, I better be kind, forgiving, non-judgmental , helpful, etc. If I want God to overlook some of my failings, I need to overlook them in others. If I want Him to show love to me, I need to show love to everyone.

What a generous, loving, and yet demanding principle.

Living bread

I was just reading Jesus the Christ. There is a passage of scripture quoted where Jesus compares himself to manna, saying thatched the living bread. My mind started to expand on that thought. Manna kept the children of Israel alive in the wilderness by feeding them daily. So how can Christ be like that to my spirit? I need to be nourished, but how do I do that? Eating is easy. Spiritually feeding ourselves is trickier. But the parallel can help. In order to eat, you have to get the food. I need to have access to knowledge of Christ. I have scriptures, church magazines, prayer, church meetings, friends who share their faith with me, etc. But good does no good in the pantry. You have to eat it. I need to always remember Christ. I need to read and study His words. I need to listen to His prophet. I need to ask for His help and use the help that He gives. Yes, Jesus is living bread. But I have to eat it for it to do me any good.

Having Jesus with me

When Jesus comes to Mary and Martha after the death of Lazarus, Martha runs out to Jesus and says "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." I have always thought of that as simply an expression of faith, but another way to learn from that verse occurred to me during the sacrament on Sunday. I was remembering how I had lost my temper with Emilee and Sarah while we were doing chores on Saturday and said a prayer asking for forgiveness. All of a sudden, this phrase came to mind, except it was "Lord if thou hadst been here, I wouldn't have lost my temper." And why wasn't he there? Because at that moment I hadn't invited Him. How many things in my life would be different if Jesus were there? He had the power to stop Lazarus from dying. He has the power to give me patience and understanding. He has the power to lift my spirits. He has the power to help me say the right thing or do the right thing. If He is always with me, I won't have to say that mournful lament, "Lord if thou hadst been here..."

Parables Gift Exchange

In seminary we had a parables gift exchange. The only guidelines were that the gift couldn't be too expensive, less than $3 or something brought from home, and that they had to think of a parable to go along with what they brought.

We had a fun time opening the random stuff they brought.  4 kids forgot to bring something, so I was glad I had been prompted to bring extra presents.  I brought 3 and then randomly wrapped up a box of snacks that I had brought to share.  We had several presents wrapped in scratch paper from the library, but despite the minor hurdles, it went really well.

Hand sanitizer #1 - Jesus cleansed the lepers and some of them expressed their gratitude for what he did for them. When we clean our hands with the hand sanitizer, we should think of being grateful for all Jesus does for us.

Hand sanitizer #2 - Hand sanitizer cleans our hands and gets rid of the germs just like repentance cleans us from sin.

Pencil sharpener - When your pencil is dull, you sharpen it so you can draw pictures and use them to #lighttheworld.

Beanie hat - When you wear the hat, it protects your head from the cold and rain. When we have faith in Christ, he can protect us from the bad things in the world.

Penny - the penny is like the widow's mite and can remind us that every gift we give is important to the Lord

Unlit candle - the candle has the potential to make light, but there were no matches. If we want to light the world, we need the right tools.

Glasses cleaner - The glasses cleaner gets the dirt off your lenses so you can see, just like repentance can get rid of the effects of sin.

Soap - Sometimes people buy pretty soap and put it in the bathroom to look at. Sometimes they don't even unwrap it.  And it's useless that way.  The gospel sounds pretty great, but if we don't use it in our lives, it is pretty useless for us.

Mints - Mints make your breath nice like the gospel makes things better.  Alternate parable - mints make your breath smell good, but they don't take care of the problems in your mouth. For that, you need to brush your teeth. When there is sin in our lives, we need to take care of the actual problem, not just do things to cover it up.

Pocky sticks - The biscuit stick is pretty good by itself, but when you dip it in chocolate, it is really yummy. Our lives can be pretty good, but when we have the gospel they are even better. Also, we can share the gospel with others so their lives can be better too.

Orange - The peel of an orange is gross. You have to take it off so you can get to the good stuff inside. We have things in our lives that we need to get rid of so we can become better people.

Can of mandarin oranges - Mandarin oranges are really yummy, but not that nutritious on their own. But when you put them in a salad, you have all the ingredients together making it really good for you. If you take individual parts of the gospel, like baptism, or going to church on Sunday, they are not going to do enough for you on their own, but when you do all the stuff, you are blessed.

Sugar cubes - You put a sugar cube in something to make it sweet. Sometimes life is hard and when you turn to Jesus, he can help make it sweet for you.

Remote control - You use the remote control to make the projector work and it shows you lots of infomation. The gospel shows  us what is right and helps us know way to go.

Strategem

I have been reading about the wars between the Nephites and Lamanites in Alma.  There are various times that strategy comes into play.  Moroni and his captains use strategy repeatedly to conquer their enemies and retake cities that have been taken by their enemies.  Amalekiah uses strategy to try to become king of the Nephites and when that fails, he uses strategy to become king of the Lamanites.  Also, at various times, the Lamanites unsuccessfully uses strategy to try to conquer the Nephites.

It is interesting that Moroni feels it necessary to defend his use of strategem in defending his country.  He says that he only uses it because their enemies have attacked them.  He only uses it in a time of war to defend himself, never to vanquish an opponent.

How does all this use of strategy apply to our lives, specifically in the fight against the forces of evil that are attempting to conquer us at every turn?  Amalekiah's strategy worked against the wicked and the unaware, but did not work against the righteous.  When we are actively turning to our Heavenly Father and following His Son, we will be made aware of the strategies used against us and will be less likely to fall for them.  If by chance we do fall, we have the Lord as our strength to conquer again.  We can turn to Him and He will provide the guidance and strength we need to overcome our weaknesses and temptations.  And as far as using strategy ourselves, we should actively seek to find every advantage we can against our enemy.  Moroni dressed his men in armor, fortified the cities, used every bit of his military knowledge, asked the prophet for guidance, and thought creatively to outmaneuver his enemy.  We have so many tools available from the Lord to help and strengthen our army. We would be foolish not to use them all.