In this past week I have been thinking a lot about the world we live in as I watch people fall and not want to change, the drive to do evil is strong and it consumes all that it touches, as long as you don't fight back. I have seen many fall away and fall into the thought that they cant back out, or feel that now that they have failed they can never return. They are half right, they can never return to where they were but they can always get better than what they were. That's what God wants for us, is to be better than we were, I love the quote from Joseph Smith, "Sometimes the Lord brings us low to build us up."
Many times evil rises up to take the liberty of those that have had a hard time and have found that they are in need in these moments. We know in the church the purpose that we came here was to receive a body and to be tempted and tested. This is good but we never know when or how we will be tested and we never know when we will have to use our liberty for good. For this reason, we must respect others choices for they are in their in their own test and oftentimes need help! We are not to take the liberty away but to help, that is the plan of God!, and if we do seek to take liberty away we are doing the work of the devil!
I look now back into my past and see many times I was not as Good as I could have been. I missed many opportunities to be better and using this knowledge, I know there is only one way to stand up to the evilness in this world. In Alma 46 is a powerful story and I love it so much. It's about an election and, well, it's not the best election. As a matter a fact the person who was going to win was planning on doing this plan of Satin - to take the freedom and liberty of the people as their new king. I love the reaction of Moroni! It is an example we can all follow. Amalickiah, the man who wanted to take their liberty, had almost won the election, many were rooting for him and, well, Moroni didn't like that so he took his cloke and tore it to make a banner. As I imagine this, it is not just any cloke, it is of precious material and he writes on it and tore it making it less than what it was. Yet, what he wrote made it so much more than what he did, more than the action or tearing it, more than writing and more than the cloke, the message was what was important. The words in this combination, in this form, had a greater value than what he had done and than the cloke itself. The odds were againstMoronii and he did this and put on his armor and took to the streets, teaching and sharing this message with everyone! With the blessings of God his actions and his words were blessed. He went willingly to stand alone, he went not expecting to win but to do all he could, he went not willing to give up. He had what I call Grit and for this he is one of my favorite heroes of the Book of Mormon! He had the Grit to do what he knew to be right and it was so strong that later it talked about how if everyone was like him the gates of hell would quake! The scriptures literally say that if we all would do as he did the gates of hell would quake! That's a promise and one I want to build upon in this time!
"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows, it's a very mean and nasty place" Rocky... We all know we are all surrounded by evil at all times! there are many temptations and forms of evil and all are founded from el diablo, the diabolical one, the father of lies, Satan, and Lucifer, the devil, a being of evilness, whose goals are founded in taking away our happiness and love. We are surrounded by a thing that wishes to take us down to his level, take away all we hold dear and obliterate any chance of us to be happy! As I continue I want everyone to think of who you are, not the face we show or even who you were or who you want to be, but who you are. I want you to also think of who you could be if everything you did had the foundation of "What would Christ do if he was in my shoes? and What would God have me do ?" as well as " What would I have me do? and What could I do to be happy?" This week I studied two talks as listed above, I highly encourage everyone to go back though and read these two again they have many good messages that can help us grow and become better!
As we are surrounded by the temptations of the world and of the enemy who wants to drag us down, we often get accustomed to the feelings of the world, and of the forces that influence us day to day! This is truly terrifying. The other day we (me and my companion) were walking and we were talking about something and a homeless man walked up to us, he smelled of crap and beer, we learned very fast that he was covered in his own crap. I relate this to us in this world, we often feel without a home, lost and truly abandoned, don't get accustomed to the life and feel worthless and dowtrodened, much like this poor man we feel covered in our own crap, and feel there is no chance to get better. This man did not ask for money or even help, he asked us to leave. I felt bad for the man and offered to help but he did not want it. Like this man, we may get covered in crap but lucky for us we know of the atonement of Christ and with this, we can always get clean. We may be surrounded by evilness but that is not a reason to hold our tongue or to stop working to be better or to stop asking for help from God. We learn from the first vision that the evilness that comes before something special often feels more powerful than us and sometimes it is but that's no excuse to stop doing the good that we are doing. Like Moroni, we must use all we have, every last bit, then when we have our testimony and our armor of God we can go out and charge forth towards the enemy forcing him back to his own home, teaching those who'll listen, and helping those in need! Elder Holland says "Satan is real, he is evil, and all his wants are malicious." This warning for us it not to turn tail and run or to be a deserter of the faith, but to put on the armor of God (Ephesians 6: 10- 18) and work with our brethren and "Stand for the right!" Elder Holland takes this talk so seriously, I feel the fire he's putting out, I feel he is doing this because of the gravity of the situation, and for this reason, also I talk. The temptation may surround us and that is why we must never falter to be willing to REPENT! Yet we can not do this without an active commitment to change! "We can't just settle back into the comfort of our seats." I don't imagine Moroni sitting down with a little flag and waving it around from his recliner, I see him running down the center of the street and shouting his message for all to hear, pulling people from their houses to see what he has to say. He understood what the magnitude of his time was. We learn that this life is a time to prepare to meet God; "Yea, behold the day of this life is the day to perform your labors." So what are the labors we are to do? Gary E. Stevenson said "In ordinances the power of Godliness is manifest." It's not for me to decide how you obey this but it's something to consider to help you start to get active in the work of salvation.
We are all in a race and our goal is to be the best that we can, so we need to think how to run our race, then when we have a plan we can't wait we must act! That is my cry, know it's never too late to start our journey. Let us all take a little hint from Bilbo the Hobbit, he might have been late and may not have wanted to start at first but he got off his butt and got to work!
I have faith in all of you and know that you all can do this! I know that Christ lives and that He loves each of us and will help us through all of our trials that we go though. It's through Him we can find true peace and grow to be who we are meant to be! I know God has a plan for all of us, it's our job to go out and accomplish it! I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ amen.
Questions for everyone
1. What is an active commitment?
2. How can I become better?
3. Do you feel the magnitude of your four minutes?
4. What are my personal labors?
I love and miss everyone and want to congratulate everyone for working harder and becoming better! Love y'all! -- Elder David Kaysen Cazier
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