Are you going back to fishing?

2 There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.
3 Simon Peter saith unto the, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately;.. -John 21:2-3

After Christ's death the Apostles were faced with a difficult situation, they weren't quite sure what to do with themselves. It must have been an uncomfortable situation and so Peter did what most would do, go back to something that he understood and was good at. Unfortunately for Peter, and for us, those things that we are good at and are comfortable for us, will rarely help us or others progress toward Christ. That isn't to say that they are bad for us, but to come unto God requires us to get out of our comfort zone and do hard things. We cannot shy away from our commitments behind our hobbies and passions. All of us who have are or ever have been a disciple of Christ should ask ourselves, have we gone back to fishing? If so, what should we be doing instead?

If we have gone back to fishing, consider this invitation from Elder Hales.

"To Christians who have returned to their old, less faithful ways, consider the faithful example of Peter. Do not delay. Come hear and recognize the Master’s voice calling. Then straightway return to Him and receive His abundant blessings once again."

How do we become one with God?

That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us..." John 17:21

How to become one with God the Father and Jesus Christ is simple in process yet difficult in application. It has two main steps. First, humble prayer, and second, sincere petition.

Through humble prayer we examine our souls and come to know ourselves, when we share this with God, we come to know him as he helps us with our imperfections and counsels us.

Through sincere petition we ask God for the opportunity to become one with him. As he has promised, he will always allow it to happen. However it is implied in a sincere petition that we will do what is then asked of us.

In essence it is the same process that we use to get to know anyone else. We talk to them, we share things about ourselves, and we do things together.

You have seen evidence, as I have, that we are moving toward becoming one. The miracle of unity is being granted to us as we pray and work for it in the Lord’s way. Our hearts will be knit together in unity. God has promised that blessing to His faithful Saints whatever their differences in background and whatever conflict rages around them. He was praying for us as well as His disciples when He asked His Father that we might be one. -2008–O:68, Henry B. Eyring, Our Hearts Knit as One

Neither Do I Condemn Thee

In most of my religion courses, the story of the woman taken in adultery is presented as yet another clever way of Christ turning the Pharisee's trap back on them. But there really is so much more to it than that.

Christ is Jehovah, the God of the Old Testament. He gave Moses the law that commanded that an adulterer should be stoned, so why did he not agree to have the woman stoned? One reason that is often suggested is that the conditions of witnesses as required by the law were not satisfied, but Christ wouldn't have needed any witnesses to have known if the woman was guilty. In my personal opinion I believe the reason to be deeper than that.

The Law of Moses, was a law of Condemnation. Those that committed sins were condemned to pay full price. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. But Christ came to fulfill the law of Moses and to teach the Gospel in it's fullness. This fulfillment of the Law of Moses and introduction of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a representation of the satisfaction of the Law of Justice and implementation of the Law of Mercy done by Christ's Atonement.

I do not believe that Christ decreed that adulterers should be stoned in the Old Testament because he wished for them to die, rather the Law of Moses was a representation of the Law of Justice and was supposed to point the people towards the coming of a Savior that would introduce a new Gospel and the Law of Mercy.

Jesus could avoid condemning the woman and still uphold the Law of Moses because the proper witness conditions were not met, but I believe he chose not to condemn her because as stated in John 3: 17 "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.'

What are your riches?

21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.

22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

This advice was given specifically to a young man seeking to come closer to God. He had asked for this counsel, but was unwilling to obey it. Often this scripture is used to suggest that to be wealthy is unchristian. However I would suggest that this scripture is teaching something else.

It is probable that Christ perceived in his heart, that his wealth was of great importance to him. And not unlike Isaac being asked to sacrifice Jacob, this young man was asked to give up something he dearly loved and put God first in his life. Sadly the young man did not at this time do so. 

Are we any different? That is a question we must each answer personally. Is there anything,money, work, sports, talents, friends, family, etc. that we put before God in our lives. These things are for us are like the riches of the young man. It may be that we are one day asked to give them up to do God's will. The questions that we ask ourselves should be, Is God first in my life? and is there anything that I would not give up to follow God?

Are you wheat? or tare?

Something has always seemed a little off to me about the parable of the Wheat and the Tares. Until I had an insight this week. The parable goes...

• The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
• 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
• 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
• 27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
• 28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
• 29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
• 30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
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• I mean, I understood the idea that if you pull of Tares that you will also pull up Wheat because of how the roots intertwine in the soil, but I never really understood the practical application of this. I mean life is hard enough without having a bunch of tares in it. 
• But then I thought, how and who would decide who is  tare, and who is wheat. The only reasonable answer would be that God must judge, but then why did God through Christ say to let them grow up together? I understand the farming complications, but I've never really thought it would be all that hard for God to do something about the bad people.
•  
• As I was thinking about this, I remembered that you can't tell the difference between Wheat and Tares until harvest time. So it follows logically that God will not judge the difference until the end of our lives. Certainly we can do both good and bad things now, but I suppose to God, we really aren't all that different from each other, and it won't be until the final judgement that we are judged whether we are wheat or whether we are tares. The good news is that we can choose.

Being Hypocritical?

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is within thy brother's eye, but considereth not the beam that is within thine own eye? . . . Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to east out the mote out of thy brother's eye" Matthew 7:3-5

I've often wonder, about this scripture. If I love someone, and I see them doing something that won't lead to happiness, I feel like I should help them. But I don't want to be that person with a beam in their eye... so how is it that we avoid that.

In the 1960 October General Conference, Henry D. Taylor said "Many years ago my mission president gave this sound advice: "If criticism is just and given kindly, accept it and give thanks for it. If it is just and given unkindly, accept it. But if it is unjust and given unkindly, pay no heed to it." 

Although this refers to accepting criticism, it can equally be applied to giving criticism. We need to make sure that the criticism, or help that we give is just. And we should ever endeavor to do it in a kind way. 

In order to be just, I think it is important that we do not set ourselves up as the example of proper living, but rather understand that in God's eyes, we are probably little better than the rest. But if through the spirit we feel prompted to reach out to someone, we should do it, remembering always who it is that really will pull the mote out of their eyes.

God is Good

"Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"-Matthew 7:9-11 
God is Good, it's a plain and simple truth. I think we sometimes get confused about this when we confuse God's almighty power as almighty control. God does have all power, and he does have all control over the elements and creations, except those creations unto which he gave agency. One of the greatest examples of God's goodness is that he gave unto all of us the ability to choose, and because he is good he set rules, more commonly known as commandments, that would either lead to the expansion of our agency, or the restriction of it. To each of these commandments blessings and punishments our set.

When life is "unfair" or unpleasant, we shouldn't blame God. It is not his fault that others may have chosen to use their agency against us. None of us are free from the stain of hurting others and if God was to take away the agency of those that did wrong.... well none of us would have agency. And we would never learn.

If you struggle believing that God is good I challenge you to test the scripture above. Pray. Really truly and humbly pray and ask for that which you need, not for that which you want. Bread and fish were not fancy foods and are no representations of wants but needs. Likewise if you pray for what you truly need you will find that God will give it to you. And if you start to look for the blessings, you'll notice that he gives a lot more than you give him credit for.