While I was being asked to speak today and being given the topic of my talk I was reminded of an experience that I had as a young man preparing to serve a mission. I recalled a moment spent in the Priesthood Session of General Conference mere months before I was to attend the MTC in Provo, Utah. I knew that leading up to the time appointed for my mission that I had a lot to do to prepare to teach the gospel, to live as a missionary, and to be a witness for the Savior. I recalled the days leading up to the Conference and vowing in my heart and to Heavenly Father that I wasn’t going to let this Conference be “just another Conference”. I remember being taught that in order to truly gain the most out of the experience that I should prepare myself …show more content…
He states that as in conversion to the gospel and to our Heavenly Father that converting a cucumber into a pickle requires 3 major steps. That these steps are critical and that they cannot be altered or omitted. They are: 1) To first prepare and clean the cucumber 2) immersing and saturating the cucumber in a salt brine and 3) sealing in a sterilized container. So to, in our conversion process we must embark on these steps. 1) First that we must prepare with the “words of faith and repentance” and to use the ordinances and principles of the gospel to receive baptism and remission of our sins. 2) Second we must be absorbed by and in the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we honor and “observe the covenants” (D&C 42:13) into which we have entered, as we “feast upon the words of Christ” (2 Nephi 32:3), as we “pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart” (Moroni 7:48), and as we “serve [God] with all [of our] heart, might, mind and strength” (D&C 4:2), then we can be truly immersed in the gospel and become changed and converted. As Elder Bednar continues he states that this change is not usually undergone in a moment, “The spiritual rebirth described does not occur quickly or all at once; it is an ongoing process—not a single event. Line upon line and precept upon precept, gradually and almost imperceptibly, our motives, our thoughts, our words, and our deeds become aligned with the will …show more content…
In His infinite wisdom and love our Heavenly Father has not only helped us to understand the importance of conversion, He has also given us a way to be continually immersed in the gospel of Christ, through the messages of General Conference. These messages and experiences will help us on our path to a testimony of the gospel and true and complete conversion. By taking advantage of these opportunities, we will move onward on our path. Elder Malm of the Seventy speaks of conversion as a process along a continuum. It includes 1) experiencing the Spirit of Christ 2) feeling the confirming power of the Holy Ghost 3) being endowed with spiritual gifts and 4) feeling the assurance expressed in the Savior’s words “Well done, thou good and faithful servant. He goes on to say that through missionaries and teachers, like our general authorities, in conference that the light of Christ Is rekindled. Our own light can and will be rekindled through General Conference. Once felt, we must seek out the confirming witness of the Holy Ghost. If we leave GC with just the feelings or impressions, we lose the last and most precious part of conversion. This part, as recorded in Mosiah 5:2 states: “And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or
To fully evaluate the role of the sacraments in the journey of the Scripture way of salvation according to John Wesley’s sermons, we must achieve a few important understandings. We must examine and work to understand Wesley’s Scripture way of salvation. We must also work to understand Wesley’s views on the sacraments of baptism and communion. Finally, after completing both of these crucial steps, we can then move on to finally understanding the relationship that Wesley has established between these two through his preaching.
"The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles." Letter. Salt Lake City: Intellectual Reserve, 2000. Lds.org. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1 Jan. 2000. Web. 15 Feb. 2012.
Without this theology, not only the believer, but the missionary has no foundation to build upon. Believers in general, but especially missionaries must prepare themselves through prayer in order to lead churches to preach and teach the Word of God. Paul tells us in 1 Timothy that those that labor in preaching and teaching” should be considered worthy of double honor. (1 Tim. 5:17) This is important because Christian’s understanding their role as a believer, or again even more importantly, the role of a missionary is extremely vital in advancing God’s kingdom. Winter and Hawthorne rightly say in our text that “If we in the West insist on keeping our blessing instead of sharing it, then we will, like other nations before us (Israel, Rome, etc) perhaps have to “lose” our blessing in order for the remaining nations to receive.” Although there are times in today’s world that may seem like the world has turned their backs on God, Christian’s should look with great anticipation for the days that are coming when God will reclaim the earth and believers will be redeemed. The reason that believers practice missions is the end result. Redemption from sin, and receiving an inheritance from God including “full rights as sons” is only part of what is in store for the child of
In COL 101 I have learned many new things about college. Since this is my first semester at college I did not really know where everything was. This class really helped me to learn new things about myself, including what resources are available to me, what my plan for the future is, and the many changes I have endured during this course.
As the semester finally approaches the finish line, I revisit my past work to compare and contrast how this class has developed me into a successful writer at the college level. Throughout the year my writing style has developed and become broader as I have learned how to incorporate more of my personal views as well as reliable, unbiased information. This portfolio is a representation of how many things I have learned along the way while being an English 102 student.
Some of you may or may not know, but I’ve decided to go on the North Carolina short-term missions trip this summer with CCPC. Since last summer, I’ve wanted to go on a missions trip and I’ve seen these trips change people and their walk with God. God has been working through my heart for the past year to do something that is out of my comfort zone in a way that I’d be able to serve others. Even though going to North Carolina isn’t the biggest mission, it’s a step closer to experience how God can work through me.I want to be able to serve God in other parts of the country that I barely know of and aren’t in the same type of community as we are in D.C. I’m not sure of what I’ll get out of this trip, but my main goal is to see God working through us to be more like Him.
Looking back over the course of the semester, I feel that I learned many new and interesting uses for technology within the classroom – both for classrooms that have a lot of technology and for classrooms that are limited with technology. For the majority of the class, we utilized William Kists’ book The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age (2010), which provided multiple modes of instruction that both utilized and/or created technology. One of the first things that I remember, and consequently that stuck with me through the course’s entirety, is that individuals must treat everything as a text. Even a garden is a text. The statement made me change the way that I traditionally viewed Language Arts both as a student and as a teacher, as I very narrowly saw literature and works of the like as texts only; however, by considering nearly anything as a text, one can analyze, study, and even expand his/her knowledge. Kist (2010) states that society is “experiencing a vast transformation of the way we “read” and “write,” and a broadening of the way we conceptualize “literacy” (p. 2). In order to begin to experience and learn with the modern classroom and technologically advanced students, individuals must begin to see new things as literature and analyze those things in a similar manner.
Becoming a Christian is considered by many to be the greatest thing that one can do in life. Praying, worshipping God, and studying His word are all valuable parts to a walk in faith. Yet, some tend to forget an important action that should take place to attest a stand for Christianity. Baptism is an act of confirming that one is a Christian while symbolizing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Through the teachings of the Bible and Jesus, it is apparent that the Southern Baptist view of baptism is the most accurate to the symbolization of Christ’s perfect resurrection and declares the public statement to necessary to affirm the relationship with Jesus. While baptism is not necessary for salvation, but does assert the example that Christ portrayed.
Over the course of this class I have pieced together many things about my own life that before went unnoticed. I am now able to see things in a bit of a different light. Now that I have been introduced to the realm of psychology I understand some of the reasons for behavior around me. I have learned that there is a reason for most everything and a lot of our behaviors and mental processes can be explained through psychology. Studies have been conducted for many years to try and pinpoint the source of our behavior and it is not something that most people think about every day. Having a better understanding of why we operate the way we do will help me to better understand myself and the others around me.
"Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion - it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ," shares Billy Graham. Subsequently, Dalai Lama states, "Conversion is not my intention. Changing religion is not easy. You may develop some kind of confusion or difficulties." These quotes show that conversion is not something that happens immediately not is it an easy decision.
Coming into speech class, I mentally and physically prepared myself for what was in store. I never really like giving speeches, especially impromptu speeches. Signing up for speech was hard for me to do because I absolutely did not want to take it and was considering not taking it in high school and wishing that I would never have to take it. My fears for COMM 101 was being judged. I am not really one to care about what people think about me, but something about public speaking gives me a fear that people will judge me if I stutter or not be able to complete a speech. I just wanted to do my best in this class and just breeze through this class and get it over with. Getting up in front of the class for my first speech, was petrifying for me
The effect of life after Confirmation unites one more firmly to Christ allowing the Holy Spirit to anoint you with special gifts, and receive a special strength from the Holy Spirit held within. The Holy Spirit spreads and defends faith by word and action as a true witness of Christ, and therefore never ashamed of the Cross. For the future of Confirmation, there are many ways to continue the future development of Confirmation with the Holy Spirit thereby bringing others closer to Christ as well as continuing out path of righteousness, once completed. We tend to get so busy in our daily lives and families that we find ourselves not making time for God and our faith; this is when the walk with Christ can dissipate. Once you are confirmed, you are making the lifelong choice to follow God, and live a life of service to your faith. We do this by working to bring our children closer to Him. There are many tools and vessels in order to create excitement and joy for the younger generations to have a successful walk with Christ. Ones such as Vacation Bible School (VBS) , camping trips, and Sunday morning kids studies. We can even gear towards the young adults, or even our single members in the congregation by holding youth group Bible studies, taking missionary trips, or creating studies dedicated for the “single” members, not
After re watching my own presentation I have noticed many different things that I didn’t think of or notice when I was originally presenting it. While watching it some of the things that I think I did well on where first my talking. This is something that I know I did better on because I did my presentation a little different from everyone else. Another thing that I think worked well for my presentation was the word to picture ratio. I felt like I did a good job not putting my entire script on the screen but enough to give the class a good summery about what I was talking about. Some areas of the rubric that I still think I need to work on is being more specific on answering the essential question making it more obvious as to what my over
I was afraid, but I continued to pray and asked God for directions. Fay states, “God has called each of us to share our faith, in obedience. He has called each of us to evangelize. If one of your excuses for not sharing your faith is, “I don’t have the gift of evangelism,” then you need to examine Scripture. You find the command of the Great Commission to evangelize, to encourage evangelism, and to urge evangelism.” I really enjoyed spreading the gospel because it gives me joy. I am willing to meet the needs of people when given the opportunity. I love God and I love people. I am willing to go where God wants me to
Christians must come to understand that in order to serve God and His people well, we need to know and live better my Catholic Faith. We must study and read about the Church’s teachings and traditions to appreciate them better, but we must also allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in our Christian lives. He will do it! God’s Spirit desires to form a close relationship with each and every one of us. Indeed, He is the Great Unknown Companion within us that we already received in our baptism to form us perfectly into God’s image and likeness. However, if in Baptism we receive the Spirit to bear Christ 's image, it 's equally true that in Confirmation we are sent by God in that same Spirit to bear true witness to Christ. With the Holy Spirit we are sent to share with others the wonders that God has done, and to share that God is alive and that God is love. Therefore, open your heart to the Holy Spirit’s presence and action in your life; always invite Him with desire, faith, and fervor to fill you completely; and pray to Him constantly for wisdom, strength, guidance, and courage. God will do it – yes, He will! God bless you