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.