What is Discipleship? How do we get there?

In order to find discipleship, one must give it first. You cannot expect discipleship if you don't give it in return. (Though most would say that's the Christlike thing to do). When we interact with people w establish a medium of trust. That trust can either be increased to friendship or it can drop to where someone feels bitterness and heartache. Most of the time this pain is circumstantiated where no harm is meant to be done. However, in the cases where harm is meant, we are told to forgive anyway. This is hard to do. I struggle with forgiving my enemies.

Brigham Young said "He who takes offense when offense is not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when offense is intended is a greater fool."

I mention this as there have been people which I have felt robbed me of my trust in them. At first, I was sad, then I became mad and those emotions have festered in my heart. It destroyed me and my anger rose as it became deeply rooted within me. I have come to this conclusion. Those who offend others shall be judged, I will also be judged for not forgiving them. God forgave Israel many times. Am I greater than God?

No, I am not. If that is the case, how much more is required of me in this short mortal existence I live? As an imperfect being, I experience many emotions. It is okay to be angry. It is okay to be sad. It is okay to feel the multiple emotions we have. God definitely felt them. In this test of life, we may not like fools but even fools can see they're foolish. As we are imperfect and we all get offended we are all fools. We must not be fools.

I know this is preaching to the choir. We all know the basics of right and wrong. This is why we need each other as much as we need God. We ultimately all want the same goal: to be happy. Unfortunately, we know that happiness through sadness. One may ask, ""How can we be happy when someone has done us wrong?"

The answer is simple. The flesh is weak and applying it is difficult. Treat them with kindness and let it go. The next question could be, "How can I be kind but firm?" The answer is not letting our anger to fester. We can have righteous anger but we must present the facts, use "I feel" statements and give the other party a chance to respond and to listen without blocking them out. Another discovery I have made is that the other party suffers injustice by not treating them well. Those people will think they'll never achieve happiness whether they do right or wrong. If we think in that perspective that's unfair to them.

The Scattered Have to Gather

We descend from the Children of Israel. However, there are some of you that made descend from Abraham through Ishmael's line. Regardless, we are all brothers and sisters. We have an obligation to treat each other as such. Being brothers and sisters means we keep the commandments and treat each other as family. We love them and because we love them we want them to be happy. Unfortunately, there are times where our family, our friends' sin and some leave the fold and lose their way. However, in Jesus's parable of the shepherd, he left the 99 and went to find the one that was lost. The righteous don't need repentance but there are times where the righteous start to wander. They're puffed up with pride. As part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I see other members who do not live perfectly. I don't live perfectly. No one lives perfectly. The church is there to heal people each week because ultimately the week leaves us spiritually sick and having a day where we can give our attention to Christ helps.

There are people who believe that religion is not needed, that we can connect to God without it. We could, to a point. But do those people honestly believe that they could read their scriptures, pray every day and follow the commandments to the best of their ability without having church? Why would Christ command for us to meet together oft if the church wasn't necessary? Why would Christ teach the principle of the Sacrament being passed with authority if church wasn't necessary? I must ruffle feathers when I say: because of the things Christ commanded church is necessary. Without Church we would forget and those people who say they do just fine they do not have the Spirit with them.

With this logic, if church is necessary then being descended from the scattered tribes have the obligation to share our religion with the world. We have so much to share so why don't we share it? There's nothing wrong with sharing our beliefs even if the world thinks its wrong and we have to open to that.

O God Where Art Thou?

There are many times where we have asked this question in our lives, "O God where art thou?" I'm sure many prophets of olden time have asked this question. The two I'm going to discuss specifically is Abraham and Joseph. Both Abraham and Joseph had interesting parallels in their suffering and both were a type of the suffering that the Savior would suffer.

Let's talk about Abraham. To give a quick overview, Abraham (Abram) marries his cousin Sarah (Sarai) but unfortunately she is unable to bear children. Much later Hagar, his servant is given to him to wife to bear Ishmael. Then Abraham is given the promise that Sarah will bear a son. (Abraham and his son Isaac's story is in Gen. 21-22 for those who are curious).

Okay that was a quick overview now let's get into the parallels. We know that Abraham loved Ishmael and Isaac both. However, Isaac was his favorite as he was born of his first wife whom he loved dearly. It is much later that Abraham is commanded to sacrifice Isaac. That must have been heart wrenching for Abraham. How could he give up his son which he been waiting for? Nevertheless, he went and took his son to Moriah.

Here's where the parallel comes in. In Gen. 22:6 it reads, "And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together." Just as Isaac carried the wood that would be used to sacrifice him, Christ also would carry the wood that would be his demise (John 19:17). Just as Abraham's heart broke when he had to sacrifice his son, our Heavenly Father's heart must have broke when Christ gave his life.

Joseph in Egypt faced a similar issue. Joseph was Jacob's favorite son. He was the first son of his beloved wife Rachel. Also because of Rueben's folly (Gen. 35: 22) Joseph was the birthright child, (Also refer to 1 Chronicles 5:1-2) As a token of this he was given a coat of many colors; couple with his visions and dreams these things made his brothers very angry. Acting on their anger they sold him into Egypt for 20 pieces of silver (Gen. 37:23). Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver (Matt. 26:15). Both was the price of a slave in that day in age.

Fast forwarding the events in between to when Joseph because the ruler of Egypt he was 30 years old (Gen. 41:46). Likewise Jesus started his ministry when he was about 30 years old. Both served ministries of saving. Where Joseph provided for the physical needs of the people affected by the famine, Jesus provided for the spiritual needs. 

Many have cried, "O God where art thou?" There's certainly nothing wrong with it. When we pray we want an answer and almost all the time we want it solved. In all cases, in my opinion, the prayer is answered, but it is certainly not answered in the way we expect. It's hard. It's difficult and we certainly don't want to hear an answer that conflicts with what we want. With Abraham and Joseph they eventually had happy endings but the events before were not so joyful. A wise person once told me, "We don't have to be happy all the time, but we must try to be joyful in our afflictions." I wondered for a long time what that meant. My understanding of it now is that though our afflictions are hard we must make the best of them. Afflictions don't get better by sitting and moping but by being a genuine trier.

Reflections on Sorrow

Because of mortal life we have sorrow. Each of us are granted life through the sorrow of our mothers or the women who gave birth to us (to not offend those who may bear resentment). They shouldn't bear that sorrow alone. That's why we have fathers. Fathers also bear sorrow through work, the lack thereof or the knowledge of support for a family and in many cases; worry of being unable to do so. That is why mothers exist. I know that not all situations allow for this. Some are single parents, some have two mothers or two fathers and some have no parents at all. In this deary world our sour is multiplied. At times our closest companion is unsympathetic. It hurts. Know its for thy experience and own good.

If we feel alone, know we were made in the image of God. We came from God. However, we are made to wander in this place for a long time. In fact, we are told that everyone that was born on this earth chose God's plan to return and live with him. The time we wander is short to God. But to us with a limited view of the blessings we have the journey seems long. I agree with Joseph Fielding Smith when he wrote his poem, now in the LDS hymn book, "Does the Journey Seem Long?" The journey does seem long and sometimes I want to stop. I wonder at times why can't I? or can I make it back by taking this easier path?

We are told that the path is straight and narrow. It doesn't say the way is straight, narrow and flat. The trials we have are our hills. Life is like a hot summer's day. When we climb those hills we get hot and sweaty and lose our strength. In spite of this pain we have the Atonement. It can manifest in many ways; sometimes it's overcast, the wind is blowing and it may drizzle a bit. Doesn't the scene seem perfect in the summer? In contrast, we may just be granted a pair of sunglasses. These tow situations may not seem fair.

They're not. Each person cannot be granted the same amount of fairness. Why? Each life is different. However, we have the same commandments. We're expected to follow them. Because we are human we are like a broken vessel seemingly unable to return to our Father in Heaven. How can we get back if God doesn't allow one clean thing? I'll tell you how. If we do our best, utilizing the Atonement we are saved by Grace. Grace in simple terms is the ability given through the Atonement to all people to repent so they can return. In essence they are made clean. Isn't that amazing? To be told we can be clean and all we have to do is live a good life and repent? That's all we have to do. The hills of life can be climbed and if we struggle we have Christ as a guide to pull us through the difficult terrain. The summer days can be joyous days. Then, when we pull through our trials, we can shout at the top of the hill, "I did it!"

My Thoughts Go Out to the Worried

A couple days ago in preparation for my religion class I had many thoughts. The day afterward as I was getting ready for the day I heard some depressing news. It was hard to keep up my happiness aura as it were. However with teachings that were taught by my professor and help from my wonderful girlfriend I was able to pick myself up and continue to walk forward. However, I still feel I am darkness as I'm still walking in the unknown. But that's where faith comes in. Walking with just enough knowledge to move forward. We may trip. We may even fall. It may be hard to dust ourselves because we are wallowing in self pity. My girlfriend has said to me, "It's okay to be sad. It's okay to not always be happy." That struck a chord with me.

We may feel that we are alone. It's human nature to comfort those in need of comfort. It is also human nature to avoid strangers who seemed depressed or down on our luck. I feel this is a bit of an oxymoron. But it happens. Like this picture, when we are sad our worries are like the sea, never ending and never seem to have a bottom. That if we to fully immerse ourselves in that worry we would never be able to get out.

To God, the worth of souls is great in the sight of God (D&C 18:10). In Heaven. a plan was presented saying that the children of God would go down to the Earth that had been created and experience all manner of experiences.He would also provide a Savior which would provide a way to return. Jesus Christ, our brother said, "Here am I send me!" I imagine we were excited but also afraid. We had lived with God for eons and being separated from his presence was frightening. Praying on that fear, Satan, the father of lies said that he would save  everyone. That not a soul would be lost but his condition would that God's glory be given to him. Unfortunately, a third of the host of heaven followed him and consequently was thrust out. We can imagine how our Heavenly Father must have felt. He felt heartbroken when he had so much to give us. He must have loved each one of those children. But God has divine laws which he must keep and so sadly he had to cast them out. (Moses 4:2-4)

After this somber event the Lord proceeded with his Plan and the "noble and great ones" went down and created the Earth which we inhabit. In this Earth we are separated physically from God's presence. Thankfully we can pray for help. We can receive guidance, comfort and direction. But we are not home. In the song "O My Father" Eliza R. Snow puts it wonderfully, "You're a stranger here." In this test we endure we rent our mortal life here on Earth. It's difficult. Going back to what was expressed previously, when life gets tough we feel like we're drowning. That's where the Savior comes in.

When we, like Peter, when he walked on the water cried, "Lord save me!" He immediately grasped him and pulled him back of up to his feet. (Matt. 14:29-33) Later Jesus kindly said to Peter: "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" There are times in that moment of drowning we become scared. I don't think Jesus was angry at Peter for being scared, rather he was reminding him that because he was there next to him he would not be harmed. I'd like to think in my trials I am bruised, I am maimed but I am protected because my scars are reminders that God is there. Not once did God say that this life would be easy. But God did send a Savior and so we should use him more. Because Christ is our brother he should be our most trusted companion. True, he's not with us physically, but he understands. I once had the experience in one of my depressive moments that someone not there was giving me a warm hug and that it was going to be okay. I didn't see it then, but life became okay. 

Again, yesterday in my pit of despair, my girlfriend Wendy comforted me and held me in her arms telling me it was going to be okay. I still feel that I'm swimming in that sea of worries but I'm not drowning and that's okay for one day I'm going to be pulled out when I cry, "Lord. save me!"

-Credit goes to 1. Lukas Rychvalsky and 2. Morgan Weistling for the beautiful pictures-