The Showing of True Charity

This week our class had a discussion on the adulteress woman who was brought before Jesus. In an attempt to trick Jesus. the scribes and pharisees brought forth a woman who was "taken in adultery, in the very act..." (John 8:4). As they tried to corner him in to the old testament commandments, he yet again found a way to get out. As these pharisees left, Christ asked had a short conversation with this woman. At the end of the conversation he tells her that he does not condemn but to "go, and sin no more." John 8:11. What I find so beautiful about this is how Christ is showing true charity towards this woman.
In Moroni 7:45 we learn charity "is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity..." If we truly show love to someone then we aren't going to tell them inappropriate behavior as righteousness. Elder Holland confirms this in his talk "The Cost and Blessings of Discipleship". He says "Christlike love is the greatest need we have on this planet in part because righteousness was always supposed to accompany it. So if love is to be our watchword, as it must be, then by the word of Him who is love personified, we must forsake transgression and any hint of advocacy for it in others."

As Christ speaks to the adulteress woman, he shows her love and gives her hope that she can repent. I often see myself in that situation of how I can have this rising guilt for my mistakes and Christ gives me that hope that I can change. This story has given me a better understand on how Christlike love works and how views us in our sins. 

The parable of the Soils

It just so happens that this week my BYU professor touched on one of the most intriguing parables to me thus far in my life- the parable of the sower. As it was the topic I decided I wanted to do my essay project on, I had been learning about it a lot. This last week he talked about it in class and it caused me to think about one of the soils that I find the most interesting. A sower is throwing out seeds in to the ground. Christ mentions the seeds land on 4 different types of soil. In Matthew 13:7 it says some of the seeds "fell among thorns; and forthwith they sprung up and choked them;"
One of the beauties of this parable is he actually gives the interpretation. In verse 23 it reads "He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful." I would like to compare that to the wording of the same parable in Luke 8:14. That verse says "And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection." The reason I wanted to point out this verse is because it caused me to think of the type of heart that could be included in this group- mine. Fruit has often been compared to as works. There are many times in the scriptures in which this symbolism can be connected. In this context I would like to say the same. The heart mentioned in verse 14 went and worked after hearing the word. Unfortunately, their heart was still in "the pleasures of this life" and so they ultimately brought "no fruit to perfection." This phrase is what really caught my eye. This is someone who is doing the work but with the wrong motivation or does not do the work correctly. For example they may be doing service but their motivation might be so that they look impressive to others. Another example on how they may be doing the right thing the wrong way is when they go home teaching simply so they can report that they got 100% that month. Another example is someone who likes the gospel but it is second in importance behind popularity. The reason I mentioned my heart as this soil is because I realized there has been times when I might have been living righteously but my heart desired the life of popularity. I saw the people at the high school parties. I would never go but in my heart I wish I was there. I feel, over time, my heart transformed as I yielded to the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost took that desire from me.  This is an example of a heart that started "among thorns" but transformed in to "good ground." I also feel that my heart is in different places with different principles of the gospel. For certain principles, my heart was good soil, but for others it may have started out as stony. Over time, through Christ I know my heart can be changed for every principle of the Gospel. That is the beauty of the atonement.

Confirmation to one's prayer

Confirmation to One's Prayer

This last week in my New Testament class, Brother Griffin talked to us about miracles. As he lectured, I realized he was teaching something that I had pondered for a long time. I soon realized I had come up with the same answer. I felt that maybe I hadn't witnessed any real miracle. I wanted the experience of where the Spirit prompted me to do something ridiculous that ended working out. People always talked about these feelings they received when they found out something was true. I wondered why God would choose to use a spiritual experience as a miracle, rather than something visual that we can see. The physical miracles we would consider to be undeniable, because through our eyes or ears we experienced something that could not be explained other than it was from God. I wondered why I had not yet had such an experience. I wondered if there was some way I was lacking. I would read these scriptures in the New Testament and ask "If God would do these miracles before, how come we don't see them that often today?" I would read these stories of angels appearing, people being raised from the dead,instant recoveries from sickness, being protected from massive armies and so on. I had never witnessed in my life time one of these miracles. I remember once struggling with this and was hoping I could be shown something supernatural to confirm I was in the right this Gospel was true. I remember fealing silly after nothing happened. It wasn't until much later that this experience happened to me.

When I was a missionary, I was on exchanges with a missionary with diabetes. He was a healthy boy and had done well keeping his blood sugar at the correct levels so when he had forgotten his glucose pen at his apartment he wasn't too worried. He said call 911 if anything happened. The next morning we were about leave to play basketball for morning workouts, when I turned around I saw him collapse and start having a seizure. I knelt down, placed my hands on his head and gave him a blessing. I called 911 and then the mission president. I was told the seizure was caused by his blood sugar levels being too low and he needed more sugar in his system immediately. With no glucose pen, I ran around the apartment looking for something that contained a lot of sugar. By then, the ambulence had come and this missionary had become conscious. They tested his blood sugar and it was at normal levels. They couldn't believe it. They thought that something else had caused the seizure and accused us of taking drugs. I remember sitting there and thinking "I can't believe my blessing worked!" 

I had never seen such a miracle at that degree. There is no scientific reason on how he should of come out of that seizure. Not only was it faith promoting, it helped me realize that the importance of spiritual experiences can be much more impactful. I reflected on how I felt with that blessing compared to how I felt when I felt the spirit. I remembered the Spirit confirming to truths when I was baring testimony.I remembered the time I felt the Spirit call me to repentance and I had a completely different undeniable feeling.  It also inspired change. I realized that the difference is in one we are witnessing a miracles, while the other, we are the miracle. I felt God cared more about our spiritual welfare than our temporal welfare. 

With Brother Griffin's class, everything I had been taught by the Spirit had been confirmed. It helped me gain confidence that those thoughts were from the Spirit and not my own.