Make It To the Playoffs

     "And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.

  Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." (2 Nephi 31:19-20) 

   Quite simply, the "strait and narrow path" this scripture is referring to is entering into the waters of baptism and making that covenant with God. It is saying that just because we are baptized, does not mean we can put our lives on "cruise control" and chill. We must endure to the end...

   Let me put it like this. I always got to throw sports into it so it makes more sense to me. I love baseball. Every year in high school, my baseball team looked really good. We had big strong guys who could hit the ball hard and far. We had pitchers getting looked at by pro and college scouts. Every spring when the San Diego area newspapers would discuss which high school team could win it all, or at least do very well, our team was usually thrown in the discussion. We had so much potential. We would start the year off really well. We usually would win 4 of our first 5 games, and maybe 8 of our first 10. We would ride sky high. Our confidence was high. We thought that we could beat anyone without hardly even trying. The problem was, a high school baseball regular season is about 30 games long, plus a few extras maybe. So we always did well for the first third of the season. And then we got complacent. We started making mistakes, dumb plays and being lazy during practice. And we paid for it. In my years of high school baseball, we never made the playoffs. Not once. We had players in the top 10 in the county in homeruns, batting average and for pitchers, strikeouts. Yet, we could never quite....endure to the end. You see what I am trying to say? My team didn't understand the concept of enduring to the end. We must fight and strive to always improve. Our opponents took advantage of our complacency. This lesson does not just apply to baseball teams. 

   In life, once we are baptized into the Church, and head on the path that "leads to eternal life," we aren't exempt from any more work or progression.We must always work to get better and endure to the end. How do we endure to the end? We keep going to church every Sunday, we read the scriptures everyday and pray daily to our Heavenly Father. We strive to keep all the commandments of the Father.We serve our fellow men and fulfill our callings and duties with all our hearts. Easy enough, right? With God, it can be. And if we are complacent, just like my baseball team was, our "opponent" (Satan) will take advantage of us and we will fall off the path. We must always be on our toes and not be complacent with where we are. Enduring to the end is an essential part of living the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word "endure" implies that we will face challenges. We can rely on the Lord in prayer and scripture study to get us through them. We have to make it to the "playoffs," which is eternal life. We must endure. We must beat Satan. That's the only way we will make it to the playoffs.

Eternal Life: It's So Simple

   When you think on it, obtaining eternal life, which means to live in the presence of God in a state of never-ending happiness with our families, is pretty simple. There is a difference between simple and easy. I never said it was easy, but simple? Yes. Why do I say it is simple? Because we have the road map to eternal life right in front of us.

   God tells us several times in the scriptures how to obtain eternal life. In the book of 2 Nephi, chapter 31, it says 

"And the Father said: Repent ye, repent ye, and be baptized in the name of my Beloved Son. 

And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do... 

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." (2 Nephi 31:11-12, 20)

   We have that promise right there.  We shall have eternal life. All we have to do is repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, have faith in Christ, and then endure to the end. It's the only way. But how do we endure to the end? It is simple. This process called the "Doctrine of Christ" which you have seen me mention before (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end) is actually a cycle. It doesn't end once we are baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. We start over. We try to increase our faith even more. We do that by reading the scriptures and coming to church. We always need to be repenting. We are not perfect. None of us are.

 "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." (1 John 1:8-10). 

   Since we can't really be baptized again, we renew the covenants we made at baptism every Sunday when we take the sacrament. That's how we keep living the cycle. We must go to church every Sunday to fully live the doctrine of Christ. As we take the sacrament to renew that baptismal covenant, we are promised the companionship of the Holy Ghost. So you see? It all fits together. 

   This is a cycle that never ends. We must always be striving to make ourselves better. As we do that, the Atonement of Jesus Christ takes over the rest. Christ is our Advocate with the Father. In Spanish, it says that He is our "abogado." Which means "lawyer." He fights for our side, defends us and will convince the Father that we are worthy to merit eternal life and glory. The question is, are we worthy?

Not Everyone That Saith Unto Me "Lord, Lord..."

   The scripture is clear. 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." This scripture is also repeated in 3 Nephi 14:21. The first principle in the Gospel is faith in Jesus Christ. What does it mean to have faith in Jesus Christ? Having faith in Him means you follow Him. You follow His teachings and strive to be like Him. The reason I bring this up is because there are many who say "I believe in Christ, so I'm saved." That is a very broad and generic statement. What does it mean to be saved? What does it even mean to believe in Christ?
   First of all, what is the definition of saved? The dictionary defines "saved" as: to rescue from danger or possible harm, injury, or loss. In that respect, we are all saved thanks to Jesus Christ. Christ rescued all of us from the effects of the Fall of Adam and Eve. He rescued us from physical and spiritual death. So in this sense, we are "saved." But, this does not guarantee us a place in the kingdom of heaven. This does not eliminate our own personal responsibility to act. "For we labor diligently to write, to our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." (2 Nephi 25:23) After all we can do, then we are saved by the blood of Christ.
   Like I said before, having faith in Christ leads you to act and strive to be like Him. And if you have faith in Him, you believe what he taught. But part of having faith is acting on that belief. "Faith, if it hath not works, is dead." (James 2:17). How do we act on that faith? Like I mentioned in previous blogs, the Gospel of Jesus Christ has 5 components: faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. All 5 of those components involve some sort of action. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is one of action. How do we follow Jesus Christ? We do what he says. What does he say? "Now this is the commandment: "Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day." (3 Nephi 27:20). Repent, be baptized and get the Holy Ghost. That is the "action" we must take with the faith we have. It's not enough to say you "believe." Believing requires action. To play professional sports, you can't just say "Yeah, I will play for your team, sure." You must sign a contract, by physically signing your name on the dotted line at the bottom of the contract. The Lord has written a contract for us, He asks us to sign it and follow it. But no one is forced to sign this contract. But I will say this, this contract is way better than a 10-year, $250 million contract. It is a eternal reward for a life contract.

Always On My Toes

   Though I am sad to leave South Carolina, I am excited for the adventures that lay ahead for me here in Orange Park, FL. The only thing that is constant in life is change. Change happens constantly. The Lord seems to know when you start to get complacent and throws you into another challenge to keep you on your toes.
   See, God doesn't want us to get complacent. Because we become idle. An idle mind is the devil's workshop. Ecclesiastes 10:18 says, "By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through." Elder Ian Ardern of the Seventy (I posted his talk last week) said that "the poor use of time is a close cousin to idleness." We musn't get complacent with where we are. We must always look for opportunities to grow and to progress in life. Progression is an eternal principal.
    2 Nephi 31:19-20 states:
     "And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.
    Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."
  
   Once we are baptized and receive the Holy Ghost, all is not done. We can't get complacent. Just like how I cannot get complacent with an area I am serving in. I always have to be on the move, stretching myself. Making myself grow. That's how we become stronger in this life.
   I heard a story once of a man who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail, or PCT. It stretches from the bottom of California all the way to the Canadian border near Washington. It takes 4-6 months to complete this hike. He said that along this trail, there are little shelters with beds for each hiker if they wished to stop and rest a bit. He said that as he traveled, he saw many hikers enter those shelters to rest, and then become slothful and idle and stay there longer than they need to. Because it was comfortable. An easy way out. He then told us many of those hikers ended up quitting before they completed the 2,663 mile hike. They became complacent and comfortable with where they were. They wanted to be comfy and take the easy way. How many of us do that in life? We must always stretch ourselves and look for opportunties to grow. Don't be satisfied. Your muscles don't get stronger unless you stretch them out and push them to the limit. There's a saying that the Marines use to keep their troops on their toes....Complaceny Kills.

You See It Everywhere

      As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we have a very deep understanding of the gospel, or doctrine of Jesus Christ (or at least we should). When we say the "gospel" do we really know what that means? The Gospel of Jesus Christ has 5 components: faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost and enduring to the end. 
    First, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything starts with faith. When we say we have faith in Christ, we are saying we follow His teachings and trust in Him and His Atonement. Because we have faith, we come to church. Because we have faith we read our scriptures and pray. If a farmer didn't have faith that the seeds that he planted would grow into crops, would he plant seeds in the first place? No. Faith "is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1). Faith brings that hope that keeps us going. It all starts with faith. Faith leads us to change to be more like Christ.
   Second, repentance. Repentance is changing our lives in a way that will bring us closer to God. We all sin. We are all imperfect.  Repentance brings a peace and joy and freedom from the bondage of our sins. In 3 Nephi 7:24, it says, "Now I would have you to remember also, that there were none who were brought unto repentance who were not baptized with water." So in order to fully repent, one must be baptized for the remission of sins.
   Third, baptism. Baptism is a commandment of God. But the important thing is to do it by the proper authority. In the book of Matthew, we read that Jesus sought out John the Baptist to baptize him. Jesus knew that John had the proper authority to baptize. He couldn't just walk up to any man and ask him to baptize him. We also know that one must be baptized by immersion. In Matthew 3:16, it says that when Jesus was baptized, he "went up staightway out of the water.." (see Matt. 3:16).
   Fourth, the gift of the Holy Ghost. In John, Jesus says that a man must be born of water "and of the spirit" to inherit the kingdom of God. To be born of the Spirit means to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. This gift completes the baptism. The baptism of water and the spirit go hand in hand, one cannot be without the other. The Holy Ghost is given to be a companion, a guide and an influence in our lives. The Holy Ghost testifies of truth, it teaches us through our feelings and thoughts.
  Fifth, enduring to the end. In 2 Nephi 31:14-15, it says:

  

 "But, behold, my beloved brethren, thus came the voice of the Son unto me, saying: After ye have repented of your sins, and witnessed unto the Father that ye are willing to keep my commandments, by the baptism of water, and have received the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost, and can speak with a new tongue, yea, even with the tongue of angels, and after this should deny me, it would have been better for you that ye had not known me.

  And I heard a voice from the Father, saying: Yea, the words of my Beloved are true and faithful. He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved." 

In order to be saved in the kingdom of God, we must endure to the end. Which means coming to church and participating in the sacrament, reading our scriptures, praying sincerely, and repenting constantly. If we do the first 4 steps and don't endure, our journey is meaningless.

   You see these 5 steps prominently in the scriptures. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a pattern of living. It's not a one time thing. Be aware of these 5 components of the gospel as you read the scriptures and learn and grow in the church. You see it everywhere.