Come Follow Me- Daily Dose

This verse teaches us an interesting aspect of agency. I think we all understand that agency is a central aspect of God's plan of salvation. But do we understand that our mistakes are also pat of that plan?

One doctrine that really distinguishes us from the resto of the Christian world is this doctrine of a universal pre-mortal existence! Just as we believe that our spirits will go on living after our death we believe that they lived before we were born. 

What does it mean to really KNOW Christ? And what are the promises made to us when we do?

I promised yesterday that we would talk more today about grace, and what it means to grow grace TO grace and grace FOR grace. 

John the Baptist seems to want to make it VERY clear here that Jesus wasn't born with a fullness at first, but that it came little by little throughout His life. Why is that so important to understand? How does it help us know Christ better when we better understand His progression? We talk about that today. 

As we approach this section remembering that it was given to us to better understand WHO Christ is and how to better worship Him, verses 3-4 teach us a powerful truth about the condescension of Christ and what it really means that He received power and authority from God, but mortality and a mortal experience from Mary. Do we understand the condescension of Christ and what it really means?

When it comes down to it, the gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple. It is just following His plan to try and become more like Him. And when we put forth our efforts, the promised blessings are immense! 

In these sections we learn that in order to distinguish truth from misinformation we can rely on the Holy Ghost to teach us and testify to us, also we are given another example of God's promise to bless and take care of those who follow Him. 

In this verse our Father in Heaven asks a few things of us, and in return promised us that all things can work together for our good. It is my testimony that when we are living the gospel, even when things don't go right, the Lord's peace that comes from us drawing near to Him can make all things good. 

In these verses the Lord is teaching the first presidency what they need to do and continue to do to lead the church. But His advice to these leaders 200 years ago is also important counsel for us today!

Peter, James and John received the keys of the gospel under the hands of Jesus Christ Himself. When they had all passed away from this earth the keys of the priesthood passed from this earth with them, until Joseph received those same keys and was able again to lead and propel the gospel of Jesus Christ forward, with His authority to do so. 

We talked yesterday about hw the Word of Wisdom is principle based, but today we will talk about how is is a principle with a promise. What are the promises of the Word of Wisdom and how can we better recognize the blessings we are being given. 

"Principles are concentrated truths packaged for application." Rather than focusing on the practices of the Word of Wisdom as often times we do, we can make the Word of Wisdom more meaningful to us in our lives as we focus on the principle of the divine creation of our bodies. 

The Word of Wisdom is a law and a principle that, much like the Mosaic law for the children of Israel was given to the capacity of the weak. Yes there are specific practices given here as part of the law that we need to follow, but what is even more important is understanding the principle behind it and adding to the law as needed for our lives. 

Here the Savior is asking all those who have been warned, to warn His neighbor. Today I share an experience I had recently that helped me understand a portion of how desperately Heavenly Father wants us to seek out and find His children. 

I love what we can learn here as the Savior is asking us to DO! To prepare, to assemble, to organize and sanctify ourselves, to know and teach the doctrine and then he reminds us that ultimately it is HIM that really cleanses and sanctifies our hearts.

As we make our eye single to the glory of God through sacrifice and though the ordinances of the gospel, we prepare ourselves to be in the presence of God!

As we read this section we are filled with the knowledge of all the amazing things our Father in Heaven has in store for us. But verse 33 helps us realize, it doesn't matter what all God has for us if we are unwilling to receive it. Which made me ask myself today, Does Heavenly Father have more for me that I am not ready or somehow willing to receive. Like in most things, we are probably living fa...

The Earth will receive its celestial glory as it has fulfilled the measure of its creation. The same, I believe, can be true for us! As we fulfill the measure of our creation and learn to turn our hearts to God, as we invite Grace to change our hearts as we strive to obey God's commandments we too can become "celestial spirits."

Christ is light, that is one of His titles. But just as important to understand is that He is the light of TRUTH. Meaning that it is by Him that we can know truth, and as we come nearer to Him truth becomes more clear to us!

Christ descended below all things so that he can comprehend all things. Do we really understand the depth of that statement? There is nothing that we are going through, no pain or sickness or grief that we experience that He can't understand. And because of that He can offer us His perfect grace and mercy to make us strong and to heal our broken hearts. 

Section 87 can be pretty heavy, it is a revelation and prophecy of death and destruction, but at he very end, the Lord has one piece of advise for us despite anything that may be going on in the world around us and that is for us to "Stand in holy places and be not moved!"

When this prophecy was given in Dec of 1832 there was unrest between the north and the south over the issue of tariffs. And I am sure many of the early saints heard this prophecy and thought, "yup, war is coming any day now." But then it didn't come...not for nearly 20 years. Often times in our lives we have things that we are waiting for, blessings that we are wanting or even expecting to be ours...

There is so much to learn as the Lord commands the wheat and tares to grow side by side. We see His grand love for ALL of His children and His desire to give His children every possible chance to repent and change. But as we try to follow Christ it becomes our responsibility to strengthen and build the tares rather than being pulled down by them. In order to do that our roots have to be planted de...

When we can clearly see the apostacy and what took place, they restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through the prophet Joseph Smith, not only becomes logical but it becomes miraculous!