"He was There"

One thing that has been on my mind lately is Trials. We all face trials in our lives, some more of a serious note. As for me I think of all my trials that I am face with, it gets me down at times, as we all do. I have always been a big fan of the poem, "Footprints in the Sand", especially with trials that I face. I love this poem because, when we are faced with trials in life, we tend to forget about our Lord, and ask "Where are You". This poem shares with all of us that He is there, He will always be there. Sometimes we just don't notice him. As you read this poem, think of all the hard times in your life that you have only noticed one of the footprints and then think "Who was there", was it just me walking by myself or was it Him. I can testify to you all that "He was There", He will always be there to lift us up when we are down. I will be eternally Grateful for that.

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most, you have not been there for me?”

The Lord replied,
“The times when you have seen only one set of footprints in the sand,
is when I carried you.”

The Gospel of Jesus Chirst

Today I want to rap The Gospel of Jesus Christ by concluding off with something that a lot of people forget about and don't do. Well I know I tend to forget to do. That is Endure to the End or Keep on Keeping on. Never give up, always follow the example of Jesus Christ and strive to stay on the Path that our Heavenly Father wants us on.

As we go through life, and we make these wonderful steps that our Heavenly Father wants, such as Having Faith, Repenting, Being Baptized by proper Authority, And receiving The Gift of the Holy Ghost; the question often comes up, "What do we do know? Am I saved now? What else?" These are some of the questions that I tend to ask myself as I continue to grow up and grow. And we all know that that is not it, there is more that we have to do in this life to return to be with our Heavenly Father.

In the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 31: 19-20, it clearly addresses just that. It states, 19And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.

 20Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

That is truly what we have to do. As I read these verses it shows me what I have to look forward to as long as I live worthy of it. We can all receive Eternal Life, As we gain that faith, we repent of our Sins, follow the Example of Jesus Christ and be Baptized and receive the Holy Ghost and also Endure to the End. 

ITS THAT SIMPLE!!!

We all wish it was that simple though huh? Life is Rough but I know that as we continue to look forward to that end goal, praying for the protection and guidance of that Gift that we have, The Holy Ghost. We can all Gain that ultimate Goal, Eternal Life with our Heavenly Father and our Loved ones.

I know this is True!!! 

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

As we enter the waters of Baptism, we make those sacred convents with our Heavenly Father. As we make those promises with Him, He gives us a special gift. And it is what I am going to talk about today. It is The Gift of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is the 3rd member of the God Head, He is a personage of spirit that can reside within us, to Comfort us, teach us, and direct us. While we go through this life we face many of challenges and difficulties. God has given us a special gift as we live worthily and have been Baptized and received the laying on of Hands with one having the proper authority. We can have the Holy Ghost a member of the God head to be with us at all times. What a wonderful gift that our Heavenly Father has given us.

The Holy Ghost is there to keep us on the Straight and narrow path that our Heavenly Father wants us on. As we heed to the council of the Holy Ghost, we can make right decisions and do what our Heavenly Father wants.

It is great to know that we can have a special member of the God Head to be with us at all times, in all places as long as we live righteous lives and are in tune with the Spirit, and listen to its promptings. I am greatful for the Gift of the Holy Ghost, it has helped me make many difficult decisions that I did not know how to make. It is a Gift that all should have in there lives at all times and could have by the proper authority.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

I wanted to continue on with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We've talked about Faith and Repentance so far. And those are great steps that we need to have in returning to our Heavenly Father. The next step to doing such that is we all need to be Baptized.
In the Bible in John 3:5 it states, "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." So it clearly states that we need to be born of the water. Its really interesting as you think about Baptism. What is it?

Of course it is the opportunity to be born again and have our sins washed away. That is a special privilege that our Heavenly Father has set forth for us to becoming like him a little more. We are not perfect, none of us are, but our Savior Jesus Christ is and you might be wondering, Well if Baptism is what it really is and Christ is perfect why was he baptized. Well the Book of Mormon has the answer for you, In 2 Nephi 31: 5-7 it says, "5And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water!

 6And now, I would ask of you, my beloved brethren, wherein the Lamb of God did fulfil all righteousness in being baptized by water?

 7Know ye not that he was holy? But notwithstanding he being holy, he showeth unto the children of men that, according to the flesh he humbleth himself before the Father, and witnesseth unto the Father that he would be obedient unto him in keeping his commandments."

Christ, Himself was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. It is a commandment of God, so everyone that comes to this earth needs to be baptized.

Now how are we baptized? Some people think that anyone can baptize, but that is not the case, Jesus Christ was baptized by John The Baptist who held the Priesthood Authority of God. So we need to all be Baptized by someone holding the right authority from God. Its that simple, we need that authority and God has reached out to His children and has placed His authority back on the earth. This brings up another topic that I would love to talk about in another post someday.

But as we are baptized we make some covenants or promises with our Heavenly Father. They are; Taking the name of Jesus Christ upon us, Always to remember Him, and To keep His commandments. Three basic promises that we make but sometimes are so hard to keep. That is why each week we partake of the Sacrament to Re-new those promises and strive to live them to the best of our ability.

But i know that Baptism is an essential part of us returning to our Heavenly Father. It shows our commitment, desire to follow our Savior Jesus Christ and to live as He has lived.  

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

Well today I would like to talk about something that happens after we have faith in Jesus Christ. It is called Repentance.

When we have the faith in Jesus Christ that we need, it makes us strive to be more like him. With us all not being perfect we need something to help us out a little with it all. That is why Repentance is so importance. In Romans 3: 23 it says; "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Pretty direct and bold statement that is told to us. But its a fact of life. Like I have mentioned many of times, we make mistakes, we sin, cause we are not perfect. But our Savior Jesus Christ has come into the World to Sacrifice His life as a ransom for all, as it also states in the Scriptures.

So He has sacrificed His life so we can have repentance. So what is Repentance? I like to think of it as CHANGE!!! The most simple way to put it. Changing something bad into something good. As a missionary I like to teach repentance in a five step thing, or its also called, "The a,b,c's of Repentance".

A: Acknowledge.
         So we first have to acknowledge that we did something wrong.
B: Be Sorry.
         We have to feel bad that we did something wrong.
C: Confess.
         We all have to go to our Heavenly Father and tell him of our wrong mistakes and ask for forgiveness.
D: Don't Do it again.
         In other words, we need to Forsake that sin. Turn away from it and never do it again.
E: Enjoy the Blessings.
         Once we have truly repented of our sins and turned away from them, God will bless us for our effort.

Now a lot of us, well at least me, might be saying why can't E be first and then everything else. Well sorry to say, life would be to easy if E was first cause then we wouldn't have to go through A-D. But I know as we practice our faith in our Savior Jesus Christ and we Repent of all of our wrong doings then we can truly feel the loving hand of our Heavenly Father and the Blessings that He has in store for us.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ

So a few weeks ago I addressed our Heavenly Fathers Plan for all of us. My question for all of you is How do we recieve that highest Kingdom of Glory. I talked a little about how we can but today and the next couple of days that is what I would like to focus on. How can we return to be with our Heavenly Father in The Celestial Kingdom?

We all do great things in this life that of course will help us get to that point of returning, in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we believe that there are five things that we need to do and follow to continue to do the correct things to return to our Heavenly Father. 

They are; We have to have Faith in Jesus Christ, We have to repent, We have to be Baptized, We have to recieve the Holy Ghost, and the last thing and one of the most important things is we have to Continue that process again, in other words we have to Endure to the End. All of these are called The Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So the first thing we have to do is have Faith in Jesus Christ. Most of us as Christians can say, "Ok i got that one down. I have had faith in Him since I was a kid". And I totally agree, as Christians we have grown up to believe in Christ and learn of him. We all have faith in him.

Well what is Faith? Faith is a principle of action. In the Book of Mormon it says, Alma 32:21, And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true. That truly is what faith is. We know something to be real or true without seeing it. If we saw it, it would be knowledge and so that is why we have faith in Jesus Christ. Not all of us have seen Christ, Himself, and so we have to excierce our Faith and believe on Him. Who He is, What He did when He came into this World and everything.

We all have to exercise our Faith in Jesus Christ, that is the first principle in the Gospel. Without Faith we would not be able to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the fullest to return to live with our Heavenly Father. I know that we all need faith to progress to that great blessing.

Walk on!!

Well today I would like to post on something that is oh so dear to me. I came into contact with a sweet old lady that loves to do poetry and she gave us some copies of her poems and said that we could share them with those that could us it. So this poem is from sweet old Allena Austin from Worland, Wyoming.

WALK ON

Life can be tough,

The road can be rough.

Walk on

Walk on

What seems forever to you and me,

Is but a second in eternity.

Walk on

Walk on

Long may be the road,

Heavy may seem the load.

Walk on

Walk on

Whether it be on sand or stone,

We will never walk alone.

Walk on

Walk on

Our Heavenly Father showers us with

Blessings from above,

He will always send us His love.

Walk on

Walk on

When our journey's at an end,

We will meet our Savior, our Friend.

Walk on

Walk on.

This poem is so amazing. As I was reading this poem it stuck a scripture in my mind. It is found in 2 Nephi 31:20; Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. I've often asked why do we need to continue to keep moving forward, in other words Endure to the End? Well this poem and this scripture shows us why we need to. We need to continue to Walk on or Endure to the End. We don't know how long we have in this life but if we look forward to what our Heavenly Father has in store for us we can receive the Ultimate Goal, Eternal Life.

I hope this poem and scripture helps all of you out to never give up, to continue to press forward, to walk on and to endure to the end, the outcome is so great that we all have in store waiting for us all.