I was watching an old recording on TV of Women's Conference. It was very good. My eyes were opened with a few of their comments. I will share a few with you.Going to church, saying prayers, reading scriptures daily, wanting to be good and do all the right things, even getting baptized and having a Temple recommend IS NOT what you are here for. OK- so you know you were sent to earth [after the great war in heaven against satan] to receive a body and grow spiritually. Now there is the rub. In getting your body, you did nothing. In growing your Spirit - it is all up to you!
Growing spiritually is so vague. What it really means is to become like Christ. To know Him. To make decisions like He would. To love others because He does. Of course, we remember that ANYONE can change and repent--therefore, all can be cleansed of all their mistakes and return to Heavenly Father (without our judgments or permission).
During sacrament weekly, we bow and pray for the Love of God and redeeming grace of Jesus Christ. Oh--you forgot to remember Christ in your prayer? You were just praying for your self or family? You were praying about a problem? You were praying for something you desire? Worst case - you were fighting with another or talking.
So have you got the message? The Sacramental prayer is meant to remember Christ! To be thankful for Christ and his sacrifice--not only in the Garden of Gethsemane, death on the Cross, in the Tomb for three days, and for the resurrection (which breaks the bands of death - for us earth-living beings to be resurrected) --we are to become LIKE Him, to think like Him, to live like Him, to love like Him! We have been told that we cannot become perfect in this life, because none of us is perfect. What does that mean?
First -- we sin [big or little, it doesn't matter for this writing], therefore, we cannot return to God. That means we failed the first part - not Celestial Kingdom. Even if we try real hard and are very good. OK, we make it to the Terrestial Kingdom. There the really good go. Yet, they wanted to be perfect! Their testimony was lacking, maybe not valiant. What was missing?
The body is made of materials found on the earth. The spirit is inside the body - not part of the body. The spirit gives us warnings when we are exposed to bad things in this world -- like, swearing, rated R or X movies, magazines or Internet that have pornography in them, incorrect or pre-marriage sex experiences, bad manners, bad moods, bad thoughts...all of these things are connected to the BODY. Christ died on the cross - his body was spent for us -- because we ALL fail to be perfect on earth. We all sin. We all broke our promise. We all need Christ!
The Resurrection allows us ALL to have the opportunity to be resurrected and receive the Judgement of Christ. If it were not for Jesus, we could not be resurrected. The body would decay in the grave (as it does now) and the Spirit would be lost-- Always separated from the body and not being able to return to Heavenly Father. This is, in fact, what happened to Satan. He lost his body and opportunity to come to earth and to have Christ forgive sins. He cannot return to God. He is cast out!
The Spirit is waiting for our growth - spiritually. When we pray to God, we do so through the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit resides with us constantly WHEN we are baptized, then receive the Laying on of Hands for receiving the Holy Ghost. Only then, is the Holy Ghost with us always, unless we sin, or go forward with bad things, bad thoughts, bad actions. Then we lose the Spirit [Holy ghost] until we repent.
Second - The Sacrament allows us to receive the Blood and Water which represent Jesus Christ. His body was shed for us, His blood was spilled for us. All of this for US to have the chance to return to Heavenly Father. This is our ONLY CHANCE! Jesus Christ!
If Jesus were on the earth today, He would break the bread at our Sacrament table and say that same prayer. The difference is that we would see Him. A few of the words would be different because He would be speaking for Himself to us. We are to take the Sacrament and give thanks to Jesus for all that He has done for us. Our lives then will be centered around God and Christ, and our thoughts would be toward them.
This makes marriage a triangle shape. Christ at the top with the man and woman across each other at the bottom of the triangle. This means that the couple pray together for everything in their lives. They grow with Christ into a solid and happy marriage couple. Children are the joy of marriage - the scriptures tell us. Happy is the man who has a quiver full of children. I must add - and can afford to house and to support them, the wife and himself. Note: even during consecration and plural marriage -- only those who could afford to work for the large family got the experience.
Our lives must be centered around Christ. He was perfect! He did it ALL for us because He loves US! The ultimate for us to become - here on earth - is to become like Him, to love as He loves, to forgive others and ourselves. To know that no matter what we do, Christ has paid the price for our sins. We can be forgiven and have the sins wiped out and never remembered again - when we repent and ask for forgiveness. Occasionally, we must talk with our Bishop when the sin is big. We must overcome unrighteousness in ourselves. We must work toward being perfect, so that when we see Christ, we will know Him, we will be like Him, and we will want to be with Him forever in the Celestial Kingdom - with a continuation of the family and having a growing family. To continue to give all the glory to God! Christ did!
For without the PLAN we would all be lost forever.
I love you! Choose the right! Continue to grow to become like Christ! I'll see you again!
