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I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I start this blog in an effort to pass on the legacy of light that I have been blessed with because of the gospel of Jesus Christ to my children and their children. I hope that others will benefit as well.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

"Believest thou this?"

I am the resurrection, and the life:  he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.  Believest thou this? (John 11:25-26)

What a question!  It is a question I should be asking myself everyday as I wake up to try to "resurrect" all that is good and set aside all that is bad in my life.  Do I believe in the power that Christ has to give me life, not just after I die, but everyday as I live?  Not only will He resurrect us physically, but he can and will resurrect us spiritually if we chose to let Him.  Do I believe it?  Absolutely!  Do I live like I believe it?  Maybe not so absolutely.  It's easy for me to assert to others that Christ has the ability to change hearts that are hardened, to ease life's heavy burdens, and to light darkened souls.  However, there have been times in my life when death is knocking at the door of someone's soul--someone that I care deeply about--and I have to say, I have felt hope's bright flame start to flicker and die out.  At these times, even when all creation around me testifies of the bright hope of spring and the sunlight of a new day, I choose to shroud myself with helplessness.  Why?  Because I am subject to the pain that this life often presses upon us, as if daring us to believe in one man's power to save us.  In those times, I have a choice to make and a question to answer:  Do I believe Christ or not?  In His own words rings a challenge to us all, If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. (John10:37).  No one who has read about His "works" can call into question any of His actions.  He led a life that we should not be ashamed to follow and He gave us hope that we should not be afraid to grasp.

He and His Father have left obvious clues that all will be made right in the world, that "no matter how dark and cold the winters of our lives, spring will always come."  We never question whether or not the daffodils and tulips of spring will pop their heads out of the dry ground each year.  We may not know spring's timetable, but we know it will come.  We see a dry, once over-flowing river bed and do not wonder that one day it will be filled again.  So it is that our hearts, our souls, and our bodies will be renewed because Christ stood up to all that was evil on our behalf and then was resurrected as the glorified Son of God.  We may not know when the hope that we have will be rewarded.  We may not know when we will see our departed loved ones again, but we should not, we cannot, question the inevitability of these blessings.  Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend (Mosiah 4:9, The Book of Mormon).

I echo the words of President Gordon B. Hinckley:  When all is said and done, when all of history is examined, when the deepest depths of the human mind have been explored, nothing is so wonderful, so majestic, so tremendous as this act of grace when the Son of the Almighty, the Prince of His Father's royal household, He who had once spoken as Jehovah, He who had condescended to come to earth as a babe born in Bethlehem, gave His life in ignominy and pain so that all of the sons and daughters of God of all generations of time, every one of whom must die, might walk again and live eternally.  He did for us what none of us could do for ourselves.


Please take time to read the following articles that relate to this topic and that I have quoted from above:

Spring Will Come

The Wondrous and True Story of Christmas


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