Posted by Baxter Bruner on 8:48 AM with No comments
2 Nephi 32: 9 "But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul."
Do not perform anything unto the Lord SAVE in the first place ye shall pray.
And why do we do that?
Because our performance will be consecrated...
Definition of Consecrated: Make or Declare (something, typically a church) sacred; dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose.
If we do everything unto Christ by first praying it will have the divine purpose of being welfare for our souls.
Definition of Welfare: The health, happiness, and fortunes of a person or group.
Our Actions, under prayer will be dedicated for a divine purpose to help our health, happiness, and fortune be blessed under his name.
Posted by Baxter Bruner on 9:43 AM with No comments
Finding the will to live the gospel, serve a mission, give up an addiction, it all is based on our past experiences and our relationship with God.
My whole life I've planned on serving a mission, I just always expected it of myself. Growing up my biggest worry was how long it was. Could I really give up all of this to serve? Could I give up music? Could I give up movies, video games, my family, friends, etc.?
As I got closer to my mission I really started preparing for the experience and I came to realize that I wasn't asking the right questions. I should be asking myself, Could I serve the Lord for two years? Could I gain the blessings that are promised to missionaries? Could I help people come closer to Christ for two full years? Those questions are a lot easier to answer, YES!
When we come closer to Christ we have a desire to serve him and change our life to come in harmony with his gospel. We read of this in the Book of Mormon in Alma 22. King Lamoni desires to serve the Lord and enter into his fold. He first says he will offer up his kingdom to know him (Verse 15) And then after a process says he will give up all of his sins to know thee. (Verse 18)
This story in the scriptures represents the point perfectly. King Lamoni didn't want to give up his sins, he didn't ask himself if he could give up his sins, he asked himself if he wanted to know Christ. Those are the questions we need to be asking ourselves. Do we want to come unto Christ? Do we want to receive the blessings that are promised to the faithful?
Then you will find the will to change your life and come unto Christ.
Posted by Baxter Bruner on 11:50 AM with No comments
I was listening to Elder Hollands MTC talk and he talked about how the missionaries need to become converted before they can convert others, so I went to the scriptures to figure out what true conversion was.
Laman and Lemuel came to mind and thinking of their story I realized they had some pretty awesome spiritual experiences.
First, they had a prophet of God as their dad.
Second, they had their little brother beat them up by the power of the Lord (1 Nephi 17:53)
Third, they saw an actual angel of the Lord! (1 Nephi 3:29)
Fourth, Their little brother, without ever building a ship before, makes one and then proceeds to boat across the whole ocean.
The list goes on and on! How do they not have a sure knowledge of the Lord their God? They have had incredible miracles happen right in front of their eyes!
I got in to thinking about their testimony and if it was strong or not. I bet after they saw an angel they had a testimony of angels. They could testify that angels were real. Yet after the angel leaves they still aren't willing to do the will of the Lord. (1 Nephi 3:31)
Laman and Lemuel had a testimony, but were not converted. Alma describes this knowledge as a seed that has sprouted. The seed is good and we know it at that point! But if we do not keep nurturing the seed it will not grow anymore and that seed will die. (Alma 32)
As we find ourselves having tender mercies in our lives and find our testimony growing, allow it to add to your conversion also. Let it affect the way you act and live. Allow it to change your direction and head towards Christ. Allow it to change YOU.
Posted by Baxter Bruner on 12:33 PM with No comments
Alma 32 is one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon for two reasons:
1.It has profound doctrine on faith
2.It teaches it in a simple way!
I'll share my thoughts and hopefully inspire! I challenge you that as you read you read the chapter yourselves and share your insights also! Every verse can mean something different to every person and thats the magic of the scriptures.
To explain the setting before we dive in to the doctrine, Alma has been trying to teach the Zoramites and have found that they aren't willing to accept God's word. Now Alma is approached by a group of Zoramites who were poor and were cast out of the churches because of how poor they were.
Alma, as found in verse 6, "turned him about, his face immediately towards him, and he beheld with great joy; for he beheld that their afflictions had humbled them." Alma, a missionary called of the Lord, is pumped that he found those that the Lord has prepared to hear his message!
First, let's look at how they were prepared. The people were outcasts, hated and seen as not worthy of worship. God put a trial in their life so he can humble them to hear his word! God loves us enough to bless us with what we need and not just what we want.
In verses 10-17 he commends them for being humble in heart. He states that they are willing to listen and believe without being compelled or need to have physical evidence. That's when Alma dives into his lesson on faith.
"Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true."
I have found when teaching Christ's doctrine the people that truly accept it are those who are hoping that the message we're sharing is true. That hope is where faith is born, which Alma taught so clearly here by stating "faith ye hope for things."
Alma in verse 27 then starts with a commitment and asks everybody to excersize a little bit of faith and just try out what he is about to say. He asks them to "give place for a portion of my words."
He starts to outline an expiriement on how to come to know if what he is teaching is true. These are the steps:
1. Plant the seed in your heart.
2.Pay attention to the feelings that accompany the seed.
3.If "swelling motions" are felt then it is a good seed.
Easy enough right? "And know behold is your knowledge perfect in that thing? Yea your knowledge is perfect in that thing, and your faith is dormant."
Now you know! The expirement worked! It now is growing inside of you! However, Alma continues with the most important part of the message.
"O then is not this real? I say unot you, ye, because it is light; because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good; and now behold after ye have tasted this light is your knowledge perfect? Behold I say unto you, nay."
Wait. I thought he just taught that we did have perfect knowledge. Re-analyzing I found that we have a perfect knowledge in a specific thing, but not a pefect knowledge. Will we ever be able to come to a perfect knowledge on this earth? Of course not! Our minds can't process a perfect knowledge of this world. This is why faith is so important.
"Neithe rmust ye lay aside your faith, for ye have only exercised your faith to plant the seed that ye might try the experiment to know if the seed was good."
I like to compare this to a person who has just recently been baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. They know that being baptized was the right choice. They know it for sure and know that they have come unto Christ's true church. Just like Alma stated they had a perfect knowledge of the truety of the church. Is baptism the end?
Christ's Gospel is faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and ENDURING TO THE END. We cannot lay aside our faith because we know one thing is true. We still have to endure to the end! Alma states it as nourishing the tree (which came from the seed of faith.)
"Let us nourish it with great care, that it may get root, that it may grow up, and bring forth fruit unto us. And now behold, if ye nourish it with much care it will get root and grow up..."
When one is baptized they have a tree inside of them, symbolically of course, but they haven't allowed it to take root. The more we endure the more the tree will sink it's roots into us. That is why God gives us trials, so we can sink our trees deeper into our soul.
Enduring is essential to God's plan for us. Keep your faith and endure. Then in the end you will be able to "pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious, which is sweet above all that is sweet."
As we excersize faith in Christ he will allow it to work in us. He will assist in any way he can without taking away our agency to help us grow that faith inside of us. I know that Christ lives and atoned for our sins. If you haven't tried the seed, try it! Read the Book of Mormon and ask God, in Christ's name, if the book is true, and I know that as you do it sincerely and with real intent he will give an answer unto you, just as James 1:5 promises. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Posted by Baxter Bruner on 9:48 AM with No comments
This study comes from one of my favorite scriptures, and that is Helaman 5:12,
"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your bfoundation;
that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts
in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty cstorm
shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down
to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye
are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build
they cannot fall."
This scripture really answers how we make it through this life. This life is anything but easy. However when we build upon the rock of our redeemer, the devil will have no power over us. None. Zero. How promising is that? Will we feel the affects of him? Yes. But will he have power over us? Absolutely not. After we're asked to build upon the rock of the redeemer it tells us more in depth how to build upon the rock, and that is to make the Savior our foundation.
Every building has a foundation and the whole building depends on that foundation. In the video above, if you watch closely, right before it falls there are small explosions towards the bottom of the building. To take down the building they had to place dynamite on specific parts of the foundation so when they blow it up the whole building, no matter how tall or strong, will fall. Satan has had a lot of practice on finding where he can place dynamite to bring us down. No matter how how strong we are he can take us down, however now is where the previous scripture comes in. Satan will not be able to place the dynamite if we build our foundation on Christ.
"Therefore, fear not, little aflock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are bbuilt upon my rock, they cannot prevail." -Doctrine and Covenants 6:34
Basing our lives on Christ and basing our lives on his example and teachings ensure that our foundation is secure. Along with feeling the security we also can feel of the joy that comes through following Christ.
"And in fine, wo unto all those who tremble, and are aangry because of bthe truth of God! For behold, he that is built upon the crockdreceiveth it with gladness; and he that is built upon a sandy foundation trembleth lest he shall fall." -2 Nephi 28:28
If you really have built upon rock you will feel gladness! Joy! Happiness! and what if we aren't built upon the rock? We will tremble lest we shall fall. We will be scared because we know that without that sure foundation Satan has already planted those explosives and are waiting to detonate them one by one. Satan never detonates them all at once, rather one here and one there, so discreet that unless we are paying attention to building our foundation we wont even know until we fall, and as quoted throughout the scriptures, great will be the fall.
What happens after we have secured our foundation? Build upon it! As obvious as the answer is a lot of times people don't take the initiative to build upon their foundation. Compare it to building a building, would you stop after you build the foundation? No! So why do we? We tend to only read the scriptures or pray when we are going through trials. In the Book of Mormon we read of Captain Moroni preparing for war in time of peace:
"And behold, the city had been rebuilt, and Moroni had stationed an army by the borders of the city, and they had acast up dirt round about to shield them from the arrows and the bstones of the Lamanites; for behold, they fought with stones and with arrows." Alma 49:2
The enemy isn't attacking, it's peaceful, so why would Moroni be thinking how to secure the land?
"Now at this time the chief acaptains of the Lamanites were astonished exceedingly, because of the wisdom of the Nephites in preparing their places of security." -Alma 49:5
How did their enemies react? They were astonished exceedingly! We need to take this story to heart and build up our lives and our selves right now in moments of peace. Then, when Satan will come he'll look at the preparations and be "astonished exceedingly." Don't stop building yourselves up! Towards the end of Alma we read of the wars among civilizations. Without fail, the civilization that is righteous always won. Along with that, without fail, that civilization always turned wicked and that is because they became prideful. As we build up our fortifications we need to always remember that it is through Jesus Christ that we become the best we can become. It has nothing to do with our own power. Be Humble! and then Stay Humble!
This is a picture taken from above Chicago. In the upper right corner of the photo is full of sky scrapers. Now, with no previous knowledge of Chicago, could you tell me which building is the tallest one? Which building took the most materials to build? No! They all appear the same. You only see the tops of the roof and nothing beyond that. As we build our lives upon a sure foundation we need to appear as these buildings. We shouldn't be flaunting our preparations, our glass siding, or tinted windows for everybody to see. This is where humility comes in again, and that is realizing that your preparations are between you and God. Not something to show off. Be humble and stay humble.
Our purpose on this life is to prepare to return to live with God. We are asked to prepare for the final days to build up our building/life so we can be worthy in the last days.
"And said to the amountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:" -Rev 6:16
If you do not prepare correctly with a secure foundation you will use the rocks/mountains/buildings to hide yourself from God and Jesus Christ. As we prepare correctly this is what is promised:
"And the Lord said: Blessed is he through whose seed Messiah shall come; for he saith—I am aMessiah, the bKing of Zion, the cRock of Heaven, which is broad as deternity; whoso cometh in at the gate and eclimbeth up by me shall never fall; wherefore, blessed are they of whom I have spoken, for they shall come forth with fsongs of everlasting gjoy." -Moses 7:53
Our buildings will allow us to climb up with Christ on the Rock of Heaven. Let us prepare so in the last days we may all "come forth with songs of everlasting joy."
Posted by Baxter Bruner on 5:35 PM with No comments
I first decided to make this the topic of my study when I was in a lesson where they told the story of Enoch. Being a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints I read it in the scope of being a missionary. Enoch was commanded to go and teach the people but he felt he had many shortfalls. He was weary about teaching and prayed to God. He was commanded to go and do and along with it was given a promise, this promise can be found in Moses 6:34, and this is my favorite part:
"Behold my aSpirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the bmountains shall flee before you, and the crivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore dwalk with me."
The promises given are amazing and it gave Enoch the strength to go and do! However the last part of the verse stuck out to me: "therefore walk with me." To receive this promise of strength, to get through the trials that Enoch was facing, he had to walk with God. How can we walk with God to receive the blessings needed to get through the trials that we face in our life?
Turning to the scriptures I looked up what it meant to walk with God in the Index. Right at the beginning it stated: See also: Act, Do, Live. I find that so significant! There's my answer! To walk with God we Act, Do, and Live! However I quickly realized that I didn't know what to Act, Do, or Live. With those three goals on my mind I dove into the scriptures.
Act. When I think of act I think of physical actions. How do I act in a way that results in physical actions that allow me to walk with God. Mosiah 6:6 describes how King Mosiah in the Book of Mormon walked with God.
"And it came to pass that king Mosiah did awalk
in the ways of the Lord, and did observe his judgments and his
statutes, and did keep his commandments in all things whatsoever he
commanded him."
He walked in the ways of the Lord. He acted in the ways of the Lord. How did the Lord act? One of reasons why the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth was to leave us with a perfect example to follow. So to act with God we have to first become Christ like. In the book of 1 John chapter 2 verse 6 we read how we can become Christ like in our actions.
"He that saith he aabideth in him ought himself also so to bwalk, even as he walked."
If we want to become Christ like we need to walk, or act, even as he walked, or Christ walked. We need to first let him abide in us! Open our hearts and let him in! How do we open our hearts to let him in? He has laid out a path for every one of us and that is through faith, repentance (or change for the better), baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then enduring to the end! As we follow the path the farther we walk down, not only will we find ourselves changed, but our physical actions will start resembling as if we were walking with God. But what does enduring to the end entail? Exodus 18:20 states it very clearly:
"And thou shalt ateach them bordinances and claws, and shalt shew them the dway wherein they must ewalk, and the work that they must do."
Christ and Heavenly Father have taught us the ordinances and laws through Christ's ministry and modern day prophets. This verse shares that it teaches us the way we can walk, or act, and the work that they must do. The word do means more than just act. Do is more mentally and physical actions. It's not a passive word, it's an action word both mentally and physically to Do without thinking is to become. So how can we Do with God? Nephi shares the first step in 1 Nephi 16:5,
"And it came to pass that they did ahumble
themselves before the Lord; insomuch that I had joy and great hopes of
them, that they would walk in the paths of righteousness."
Humility! We need to not only act humble but to become humble! As we do this our reactions to situations, are split second thinking, will come in harmony with God and we will be able to walk with him in day to day life, not just when we decide to make a correct decision. In the beginning Adam walked with God. When he chose to partake of the fruit he lost that benefit of being that close to our Heavenly Father. We can't literally walk with God but through Jesus Christ and his atonement we can metaphorically walk with God. A story in the book of Alma outlines this concept so well! The people that are being written about have made a covenant to God to bury their weapons and to stop bloodshed. It goes on to say in verse 16:
"Now they did not suppose that asalvation came by the blaw of Moses; but the law of Moses did serve to strengthen their faith in Christ; and thus they did retain a chope through faith, unto eternal salvation, relying upon the spirit of prophecy, which spake of those things to come."
They did RETAIN a hope through faith. Did they choose to be faithful? Did in that moment they made a decision to in that one time be faithful? No! They retained their hope through faith! As we find these humbling experiences we need to retain what we learn and not just apply it to that one trial. As we do this we can build up walls against the adversary to ward of future attacks! Imagine if you were walking with God, do you think Satan would even dare come close? I think he would be pretty scared! We can walk with God as we retain the things that God teaches us through the trials in our lives. As we retain these lessons through trials, we start to live or become as if god was walking with us, we start to Live With God.
The question isn't how do we live with God, but rather how we live through God. In fact, by living through God we can live with him in the end! By Acting and Doing we can live with God. However this wasn't always possible. God demands a pretty high charge for us to return to him, he demands perfection. Are you perfect? I sure am not! So how can we meet this charge? The answer is Jesus Christ. In the book of Isaiah 2:5 it reads:
"O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us awalk in the blight of the Lord."
WALK in the light of the Lord. Without Jesus Christ we cannot even metaphorically walk with God! Jesus Christ is our savior. How do you feel about Christ? How should you feel about Christ? The Bible outlines it perfectly how we should feel in Isaiah 12:6:
"Cry out and shout, thou ainhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the bmidst of thee."
Cry out and Shout! Do you feel that same joy? I know that there is a special joy that can be felt through our Heavenly Fathers love, but that can only be felt through Jesus Christ. Walking with God is not a dull walk down a highway, it's a walk down a beach with a rising sunset or a walk through a wooded area right as fall has changed the leaves to hundreds of different colors. Walking, Acting, Doing, and Living through God is a walk of rejoicing. Humility+Rejoicing=Walking with God. Strive to Walk with God in all you do and as you do you will feel the Joy that is promised to us as we do.
