Blueprint to Christ

In class this week we discussed Moroni 7-9 and had a great discussion on the chapters. One of the things we discussed in class was in chapter 7, where Brother Griffin gave us a cross-reference to Matthew 25:14-30. These verses talk about the parable of the talents and how, if you sacrifice your best, the Lord returns it right back. But, if you are like the brother who does nothing with his talents, you receive no reward. Brother Griffin stressed the importance of seeing God as merciful and not mean. He judges us with a righteous judgment and we must always remember that.

Another cool thing we talked about was messages and how we share them with one another. When the Lord  opens the veil and endows us with a message, it is our responsibility to share it. Both testimony and agency together is how we spread faith to those around us. The resulting outflows and blessings of faith are miracles and angels, like we can read in verses 27-28 and 29. The first is 27-28: "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men? 28: For ... he claimeth all those who have faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing[.]" In verse 29 it says "And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men." In verse 30 we see again that all of these things come as result of having "strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness."

We also discussed how interesting it is that time and time again, the scriptures emphasize having a soft heart but a firm mind. A firm mind leads to busy hands and standing for righteousness, but a soft hard brings humility and charity. In verse 31 we can understand that doing all of these things (having faith, experiencing angels/miracles, and having a soft heart/firm mind) helps us become "chosen vessels of the Lord, that [we] may bear testimony of him." A vessel is a carrier of something--in this case, a carrier of testimony. Pretty cool.

In verse 40-42 we read about a pretty cool cycle about faith and hope. Sometimes we think hope comes first, but these verses make it very clear that they are dependent upon each other. Verse 40 says "How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?" Then verse 42 says "Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope." These attributes go in a circle and are necessary for each other.

Verses 45 and 46 are great too. Verse 45 lists what charity is, and Brother Griffin suggested that this is a perfect blueprint for becoming like the Savior. We can replace the word "charity" with the word "Christ," and we have an exact idea of what the Savior is like. In verse 47 it says "Charity is the pure love of Christ" so we know it's a literal part of Him. It is what He is and if we follow verse 45 we can become like Him.

We talked about lots of other great things, but I'm out of time. Thanks for reading!

Kelsey