Works of Righteousness (Hebrews 13)

Hebrews 13 is the last chapter in Paul's epistle to the Hebrews and he closes with advice about several different things. I like this chapter because it is good advice for us now as well of how we can live the gospel better in our own lives. Here are some of the things that I found:

• We should remember and have compassion on those "in bonds." We should care about people the same way that Christ did, regardless of who they are or what their background may be. We never know how we can help them or how they can help us. (Hebrews 13:2-3)
• "Marriage is honourable" and we need to be faithful within marriage because it is sacred and "the family is ordained of God" as it says in The Family: A Proclamation to the World. That is discounted more and more in the world today so we have to stand up for what we know is right. (Hebrews 13:4)
• We need to be content with the things that we have and not covet the things of others. We have all been given great blessings and it is a lot better to think of all the blessings we do have rather than the things we don't. God has promised us that He will never leave us and that is the greatest blessing of all because as long as we are obedient we will have the things we need. (Hebrews 13:5)

Source

• Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will always be there to help us and support us. His church and His gospel are always the same, the standards never change like those in the world. That is such a comfort to me. (Hebrews 13:8)

• We are sanctified through Christ. In the Guide to the Scriptures it defines sanctification as "the process of becoming free from sin, pure, clean, and holy through the atonement of Jesus Christ." We can only be made clean through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and as we strive to be obedient and live the gospel in our lives. (Hebrews 13:12-15)
• We need to obey those that are in charge of us because they are looking out for our salvation. It is hard sometimes to humble ourselves and to do what we are asked because we may not see how it will help us but our leaders are called of God to help us. They don't want to see us suffer. (Hebrews 13:17)
• Paul asked the people to pray for them, the leaders of the Church. It is important that we pray for our leaders so that they can be led by the Spirit to help us and also so that they will be strengthened to fulfill their duties. (Hebrews 13:18)

I really enjoyed reading this chapter because it was a good reminder of some of the things that I need to focus on more in my life. I invite you to read the whole chapter and think about what you might need to change or do better in your own life to come closer to the Savior.

Entering into the Lord's Rest (Hebrews 3-4)

There is an interesting phrase used in the scriptures about "the Lord's rest" so I decided to find out what is meant by that and how we can obtain that. In Hebrews 3-4 Paul talks about the children of Israel that Moses brought out of Egypt, many of them were disobedient and Paul says that they were not able to enter into the Lord's rest. In chapter 3, verse 19 he states that it was because of their unbelief and throughout chapter 3 he states other reasons like being hard hearted.

Source

In Doctrine & Covenants 84:24 it defines the Lord's rest as "the fulness of His glory" so the children of Israel were denying themselves the glory of God. In order to avoid making the same mistake ourselves we have to learn from the past and Paul helps us do that by repeating things we should avoid. The main one is not being hard hearted, we have to make sure we are doing what has been commanded of us and we have to encourage each other to do the same. We have to be obedient and follow the counsel of our leaders to lead us down the right path. In Hebrews 4, Paul gives counsel on things we should do to enter into the Lord's rest. He says that we need to do the opposite of what the children of Israel did and he also talks about how we need to rely on Christ in order to receive that rest. We can't make it on our own because we make mistakes but with Christ all things are possible. We can't just say we believe, we have to actually act on that belief like Christ says in Matthew 7:21, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." We have to be obedient in order to receive the reward, it isn't enough to just say that we believe something and not do anything about it.

Find Solutions in the Scriptures to Life's Challenges (Philippians 1-4)

One of places that I find a lot of answers to my day-to-day questions and problems is in the scriptures. Different things stick out to different people at different times but we can all find answers. In this post I am going to list a few common problems and solutions found in Philippians.

1. People sometimes argue and complain over petty matters in church meetings or throughout the week.
        This is a common problem in church, people get caught up in little things that other members do that they lose sight of the big picture. In Philippians 2:3-5 Paul says that we need to see each other as equals and be fair like Christ was. We are all working toward the same goal so we need to remember to take into account the views of others. We have to humble ourselves and think about things from another perspective.

Source

2. Many youth feel that their parents' testimony is sufficient for them. Since they have good parents, they rely on them for all of their spiritual strength.
        This is a very common misconception of youth that grow up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. When I was younger, I relied on the testimony of my parents but as I got older I had to gain my own because they weren't always going to be there. This is exactly what Paul teaches in Philippians 2:12 where he says to "work out your own salvation," it is fine to rely on someone else for a while but that will only get you so far. We each have to know for ourselves and do something about it in order to gain salvation through Christ.

3. An investigator is considering joining the Church, but his family will no longer associate with him if he does.
         This is a really tough problem that, for me, would be really hard to deal with. I love the Church and the gospel but I also love my family so choosing between the two would be really hard. One of my favorite verses in Philippians is Philippians 4:13 where Paul says "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." In chapter 3 he talks about the things that you give up for the gospel are always worth it even when they are really hard. That is why I love 4:13 because when we have Christ on our side we can do anything that we need to.

Those are just a few examples of solutions to problems but there are many in store for each of us if we "feast upon the words of Christ" as we are directed in 2 Nephi 32:3.

Live as Saints Should Live

Source

In Romans 12-16 Paul talks about the importance of living like saints and working out our salvation. In 13:11 he says that "our salvation [is] nearer than we believed" so now is the time that we have to prepare. We find more information on how to work out our salvation from Ezekiel 3:20 and Doctrine & Covenants 14:7. In Ezekiel it say that we have to avoid sin so that we can be prepared because we don't know when Christ is going to come again so we need to be living the gospel at all times. In Doctrine & Covenants it says that when we keep the commandments until the end of our lives then we will gain eternal life.
In Romans 12-13 Paul describes several things that lead to salvation. I will list some of the counsel he gave here:

• Be willing to give everything to God. Serve Him to the best of your abilities. (Romans 12:1)
• Don't conform to what the world says but do the will of God in all things. (Romans 12:2)
• Cling to the things you know are good and stay away from evil. Love sincerely. (Romans 12:9)
• Help others when they need it. (Romans 12:13)
• Don't put yourself above others. Be willing to help anyone who needs help (Romans 12:16)
• "Be not overcome with evil, overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21)
• We are all subject to the power of God, He and those He calls are the only ones authorized to lead the Church. (Romans 13:1)
• We shouldn't fear God because the people who are punished are those who don't obey. God blesses those who do obey. (Romans 13:3)
• Love one another. (Romans 13:8)
• Keep the Ten Commandments. "Love thy neighbor as thyself." (Romans 13:9)

In Romans 14:1-13 and 15:1-3 Paul talks about judging other people. He says that we need to refrain from judging others because we are all imperfect. We all need to use the Atonement of Jesus Christ in our lives so we need to be kind and patient with each other. The most important thing to remember is that we are all children of God and He sees what is on the inside. That is why He is the one who is going to judge all of us in the end. In Doctrine & Covenants 38:25-27 there is a parable that compares God to a man with 12 sons. The man doesn't put one son above another and it is the same with God. He sees all of us equally so we need to remember to see each other that way as well. Paul frequently referred to the members of the Church as saints and the definition of a saint is "a person of great holiness, virtue, or benevolence." We have to remember that each of us is special and unique to our Heavenly Father so we need to treat each other with the same respect.

Here is the link to a really good video I found on not judging others: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/international-video-contest-winners?lang=eng&id=2011-04-010-judgment#2011-04-010-judgment

Baptism

Source

In Romans 6 Paul discusses several things about baptism and why we do it the way we do in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. One of the first things that Paul teaches is that before baptism we must recognize and stop doing the things we were doing that were against the commandments (verses 1-2). He goes on to talk about why Jesus Christ was baptized the way He was and the symbolism of His baptism. In verses 4-10 Paul compares baptism to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. He says that when we are baptized we are leaving behind our old life of sin and starting a new life as a follower of Jesus Christ. That is the reason that we are baptized by immersion in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we must go completely under the water so that our sins are completely washed away and we can begin that new life. Paul also talks about how to stay on that path and maintain the "newness of life" (verse 4). He talks about being dead to sin and not going back to the things that we did before and trying our best to stay on the path. He also talks about not yielding to temptations that arise. This is also linked to Mosiah 3:19 where King Benjamin counsels the people to "put off the natural man" or those things that are tempting to us as human beings. That is what we want to leave behind when we are baptized, we want to become a new person and follow Christ throughout our lives.
In the last half of the chapter (verses 14-23) Paul talks about serving God throughout our lives. He says that we become servants to whomever we obey so if we are obedient we are serving God and if we are not than we are serving Satan. He says that we can know whom we are serving by the things that happen in our lives or the "fruit" of our lives. We will be blessed as we are obedient to the commandments of God (although sometimes those blessings don't come immediately) and we are not blessed when we follow Satan (even when it may seem like things are fine for a time. I love the last verse of the chapter, "for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." It sums up the rest of the chapter very nicely because when we are obedient and trying our best then the Lord will bless us, but if we aren't than He can't and we have to suffer the consequences on our own.

Forgiveness

Source

In 2 Corinthians 2:1-11 Paul talks about the importance of forgiving the people who hurt us. In verses 5-8 he says that rather than holding a grudge against people who offend us we should "forgive him, and comfort him....[and] confirm your love toward him." That is not an easy thing to do by any means but there are wonderful blessings promised to those who are willing to forgive. The biggest blessings is found in Matthew 6:14 where Christ says that if we forgive others then Heavenly Father will forgive us. We all make mistakes and we all want to know that we are forgiven. It is always a relief to hear someone say that they forgive us for messing up and we all need that. So we need to give that to other people, even when it's hard. If we don't forgive others we are told that we will stand condemned before the Lord because we have the greater sin (see Doctrine and Covenants 64:9). God is the one who can judge because He is perfect, as human beings who make mistakes we have to forgive everyone. That is a really hard thing to do but in order to be forgiven we have to be willing to forgive.

The Impact of Example

Source

In 1 Corinthians 4:2 Paul says that people who are teaching the gospel need to be faithful to the gospel. We also learn, in verses 9-17, that the apostles are specifically chosen to be examples to the people. But it isn't just the apostles that have to be examples. Any baptized member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has taken the name of Christ upon themselves and we have a responsibility to try and live the way He did. We should all be sharing the gospel at all times through the way we live and by our examples.
In the Book of Mormon there is a story of someone who was a bad example in Alma 39. Alma's son, Corianton, was a missionary but he didn't live the things that he was teaching. In verses 11-12 Alma tells Corianton that because of his (Corianton's) bad example the people wouldn't listen to what Alma was teaching. It is so important that we don't just know what is right and then do the opposite because people notice what we do more than what we say. Especially if we are doing the exact opposite of what we say.
There are also great blessings that come to us when we are faithful and obedient to the gospel and what we know. In 3 Nephi 8:1 it talks about a man who was faithful and the way that they knew he was faithful is because he performed miracles in Christ's name. When we are faithful in keeping the commandments people see our example and we are able to do the things that God wants us to do. When we are obedient we can have the Spirit with us and that is when people will see the fruits of living the gospel in our lives.