Gifts of the Spirit

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has a unique setting. Within any organization, there are people who contribute to its inner workings and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is no different! What is unique about the Church is that all of our contributors volunteer. They are in no way compensated, except for maybe the teachers of our little ones. They often get paid in the unconditional love children can and most often do offer.

Although every one volunteers to labor in the Church, sometimes the laborers within the Church feel discouraged because their calling does not receive as much prestige as others. For example, often times a Sunbeam Teacher (Sunday School for 3-4 year olds) feel like less than the Primary President (Leader of the entire children's Sunday School). This is natural, at least I think it is. As human beings, we want to be the best. We want to achieve the most. We compete with each other. Again, this is a natural thing. But that does not mean that it is a good thing.

Like parts in a play, there is no such thing as a small calling. Every one has a part to play. Or a calling to fulfill. For instance, my calling is a Ward Historian. Essentially, I contribute nothing to a normal Sunday. Basically I am a glorified scrapbooker. I take pictures of every ward function, write short little blurbs about each ward or stake activity. But guess what? I wasn't called by a man. I was called of God. For some reason, this is what the Lord wants me to do. This is where the Lord wants me! And I couldn't be happier to be in this calling. I didn't always have this attitude. At first I was disappointed that I didn't receive a calling that commanded a little more respect, like Relief Society President or Primary President. It took a lot of pondering for me to get to a place of acceptance and gratitude for this calling. And now I love it!

When these feelings of discouragement, any member of the Church can go to 1 Corinthians 12: 15 and read, "If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body." The body of course is symbolic of the Church. So if one person looks at themselves and says, "I'm not President of anything, so I am not really important or a part of the Church."This could not be further from the truth. Paul goes on to say in verse sixteen. "If the whole body were an eye where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?" This alludes to the fact that every calling within the Church is incredibly important. And I think it wonderful that Paul took the time to go over that. Every calling is important! No matter how large or small!

Within our callings, we use different gifts. Often a Sunday School teacher or Bishop will need large amounts of patience or kindness towards there charges. There are many more gifts of the Spirit, but Paul referred to Charity as "more excellent" to me this means that it is above all the others. And I think this is because without Charity nothing else functions correctly. Charity is synomous with the "pure love of Christ," as explained in the scriptures. Charity is a pretty well covered topic in the scriptures. Lets look closer at that.

Charity is…

·      Long suffering (1 Cor 13:4, 7)

·      Kind (1 Cor 13:4)

·      Truthful (1 Cor 13:6)

·      Never failing (1 Cor 13:8)

Charity is not….

·      Envious (1 Cor 13:4)

·      Proud (1 Cor 13:4)

·      Rude (1 Cor 13:5)

·      Quick to Anger (1 Cor 13:5)

·      Evil thinking (1 Cor 13:5)

·      Something that gets joy out of misfortune (1 Cor 13:6)

Charity is not something that is easily developed for me. I need to be much more kind and much less quick to anger. This is something I am working on, continually. All I keep thinking throughout this assignment, is what more can I do in order to help myself more fully develop this attributes of Charity? One thing that I think I am going to do is to memorize 1 Corinthians 13:4 and repeat it to myself when I feel I am becoming angry or I am not being kind enough. And pray that I may see others how Christ sees them and feel Christ's love for them, like Moroni mentions in Moroni 7:48.  There is always room for improvement!

1 Thessalonians 4--The Resurrection

As time goes on, more and more people are becoming very interested in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. And I totally think that it is a warranted interest! One of the aspects of the Second Coming that attracts a large amount of curiosity is the Resurrection. What is it? Who will be resurrected? Will everyone be resurrected? How can I make sure I am resurrected?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints teaches that the Resurrection will occur in stages. First, the righteous or the people who have accepted the Gospel and are alive on the earth at the time of his coming shall be "caught up" (Doctrine and Covenants 88:98).

In order to understand the second "stage" of the Resurrection, if you will, you need to understand what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints call the Plan of Salvation or the Plan of Happiness. We believe that we existed as Heavenly Father's children, before this life (Jeremiah 1:4-5) but out of a desire to become more like our Father in Heaven we came to the Earth to gain a body and to be perfected through trails. Because no unclean thing can enter into Heavenly Father's presence, one must live a sinless or perfect life. Of course nobody can life a perfect life, which is why a Redeemer was needed and that Redeemer is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the only one who was able to live a perfect life! And he Redeemed all of us through the crucifixion on Calvary and his suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, so all of us could return to our Father in Heaven triumphant. In order for this to happen, we need to complete certain things, such as baptism, receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and take part in temple blessing. The thing is  all of these things need to be done on the Earth as they are Earthly ordinances. What about those people in remote areas and far back in time that never had the change to receive the Gospel or even her Jesus's message? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints believes that doing proxy work such as baptisms for the dead (1 Corinthians 15:29) in temples allow our ancestors the chance to accept the Gospel. Back to the second "stage" of the Resurrection. Those whose work has been done while they were dead will be resurrected next (Doctrine and Covenants 88:99).  While all men, women, and children will be resurrected, not all will resurrected at the same time (Revelation 20:5-13). The righteous will be resurrected first, followed by unrepentant sinners.

We often hear or read the phrase "caught up" in scripture. Now I have always had a slight ambiguous idea as to what this meant. I mean where exactly are we going to be caught up too? As I was doing research for this, i came to the conclusion that there would be a few stops along the way to our ultimate destination, one of the glories (1 Corinthians 15:40-41). First according the Moroni, a prophet in the Book of Mormon we will be caught up "to the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah." (Moroni 10:34).

Joseph Smith, the first Prophet of this dispensation and the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, translated the Book of Mormon by the power of God! Not only did he translate this entire book (around 500 pages) in less than two months, he started working on a translation of the bible that shed greater light on what was actually meant. When the Bible was being put together years ago, things were left out or even changed, so Joseph Smith went back to fix that. For example in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, what is the King James Bible states, is marginally different than what the Joseph Smith translation states. The JST clarifies that all of the righteous who are alive at the Second Coming may be caught up.

Paul's First Mission

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a huge emphasis is placed on missionary work. So much so that we encourage our young men and women to go serve a mission for two years or eighteen months respectively. This is not a new practice! Paul, was called on a mission for the Lord. He started his mission in the city of Seleucia. He then went on to teach in Salamis, Paphas, Antioch, and Attalia. Our missionaries also get assigned to a certain mission, and serve within several different areas within the boundaries of that mission!

Often, missionaries feel discouraged. Sometimes the discouragement comes from disappointment in themselves, feeling unworthy to serving the Lord in this capacity, lack of people investigating or people who are willing to hear the message they are presenting, or lack of progress of the people that are investigating! Missionaries having these feelings of discouragement is not a new occurrence either. Even missionaries in the early Church felt discouraged. While not speaking on discouragement, in the book of Acts, chapter 13, three principles to help those who are feeling discouraged are touched upon.

Acts 13:2 states, "As they minister to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." Paul was called of God. Not of man. The Lord called him to this work. Not the Emperor of Rome. The Lord called him. He didn't call Bartholomew to this particular mission, he called Paul. There is a reason for that! And that reason is that only Paul could have done that work! The same thing applies to our missionaries today. Sally is called to serve in France because that is where the Lord needs Sally! How incredible is that!

Acts 13:3 states, "And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away." So often in life we feel helpless, we feel that there is nothing we can do to help ourselves or others. This could not be more wrong! This verse gives us two things that we can do to help ourselves and others. First, we can fast. Fasting means a lot of things to different people. In the Bible Dictionary (p. 671) Fasting is defined as "a voluntary abstinence from food…for developing spiritual strength." What could be better for feeling discouraged than spiritual strength? The phrase spiritual strength insinuates a building up, whereas discouragement insinuates a tearing down, in my opinion. So, when a missionary is feeling discouraged they should fast! This verse goes on to say that they not only fasted, they prayed! Prayer of course is simple to define but also complicated. Should one stand? Should one sit? Should one speak as if to a friend or formally? The Bible Dictionary (pp. 752-753) defines prayer as "the act by which the will of the Father and the Will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other." It also states that "Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." Being discouraged often is rooted in some key part of your life lacking. What else could ease this lack except for the Lord's love and understanding, given through earnest prayer!

So to summarize, when a missionary feels discouraged, they should remember why they are where they are, more importantly who placed them there, they should fast to gain spiritual strength and they should pray to attain the blessings that they need!

Missionaries in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are not sent out in solitude. Much like Paul was sent with Barnabas, our missionaries are sent out with a companion and may in fact have more than one companion during their time in the mission field. Barnabas was a man who was originally named, Joseph, a Levite who sold his things and gave the proceeds to the Apostles. That action by itself is amazing, but Barnabas went further and gave the Church of the Lord not only his money but also his time. As mentioned before Barnabas served as Paul's mission companion and although he was not one of the Twelve Apostles he was considered to be an Apostle of the Lord. Barnabas is described as a bold speaker (Acts 9:27). To me this means that he was not afraid of the peoples reactions to the Gospel. He was excited and wanted to share with others the happiness he had found. I wish I was more like him! I have often had people ask me why our missionaries go out in two's  teaching, instead of just one person teaching. I think that this can be answered really simply. The testimony of two is much more powerful than the testimony of one. As a convert, I saw several people testify of the Book of Mormon and Prophets for example. How wonderful it was to see two people who agreed and worked in accordance with each other.

When Paul and Barnabas were teaching together in Iconium, Paul healed a cripple man, after receiving a witness that he (the cripple) had the faith to be healed. He spoke to the man, telling him, "Stand upright on they feet." (Acts 14:10). The people who witnessed this assumed that Paul and Barnabas were the Gods Jupiter and Mercurius, because they had healed the man. They brought them gifts and "would have done sacrifice with the people." This of course upset Paul and Barnabas. What they had done was through that power of Jesus Christ, the power of the Priesthood, not the power of false gods! They used the opportunity to teach the people about the "living God (Acts 14:15)" and his marvelous power.

In the beginning of the experience in Iconium the people fawned over Paul and Barnabas, as I mentioned before. But after they began teaching of Christ and Heavenly Father they (the people) turned against them. Paul was stoned and dragged out of the city! He was only dragged out of the city because the people thought he was dead. But as the disciples of Christ were around him, he got up and went back into the city! The next day he and Barnabas left. He taught the disciples that even through all the challenges and movements against the Gospel, they must move forward with faith. Because it is "through much tribulation  [we] enter into the kingdom of God." I think this is a marvelous principle. Because the righteous road is not always the easy one. Sometimes you have to stand alone and on dangerous ground!

The Martyrdom of Stephen

In the Book of Acts, the Apostles choose seven men to assist them. Of these seven a man named Stephen was chosen and martyred for spreading the message of Jesus Christ. Stephen was described by Paul as a man that was "full of faith and power" (Acts 6:8). Because of his faith and power Stephen was able to work "great wonders and miracles amount the people" (Acts 6:8).

Before Stephen was martyred he told the people that they were not truly converted to the Lord. When he stated, "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart…" (Acts 7:51) he was actually saying that the people know and hear the word of God but find no love or "have no delight in it" (Jeremiah 6:10). He then goes on to tell the people that they have betrayed and crucified their Lord and Savior (Acts 7:52). As the people heard these things about themselves they because offended and subsequently, drove Stephen out of the city. While they did this they were stoning him.


As Stephen was being stoned he was calling out to God, only to have his testimony sealed with his blood, much like Abinadi in the Book of Mormon. As he lay there dying he called out to Heavenly Father, "Lord lay not this sin to their charge." When I read this, it made me think, how often have I called out for the justice when I have been wronged? I have never been stoned to death (obviously) but I have had some things occur in my life that made me feel I deserved some form of justice. Was this the right thing for me to do? As I pondered this, I thought of another scripture, Matthew 5:44. In this scripture the Savior is speaking and he says, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." How often do I bless those that curse me? Or do good to them that hate me?

Throughout the last words of Stephen we also learn something about the Holy Ghost, Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ. As Stephen was speaking out, he saw that the people were becoming more and more offended (Acts 7:54). Often offense leads to violence. The scriptures don't mention this, but I imagine he was scared of what was to happen next. Something happened next to change Stephen's attitude about the situation he was in. "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." Stephen was able to exercise enough faith to allow the Holy Ghost to strengthen him in this dangerous situation, and because of this he was able to see God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ before his martyrdom. From here we not only learn about a function the Holy Ghost has but also we are shown that Jesus and Heavenly Father are separate and distinct beings! How awesome is that?!

I mention a man name Abinadi earlier in this post. He was a disciple of Christ, a missionary who was sent to teach the people of King Noah and subsequently King Noah himself. Abinadi like Stephen spoke against the people, listed there sins, told them what they needed to do and what they had done wrong, again just like Stephen. But unlike Stephen he was not stoned. He was burned alive. As he was dying he called out to God saying "O God, receive my soul." Stephen also called out to the Lord in his anguish and was taken home.

Both of these men leave me questioning how strong my faith is. They motivate me to become a better disciple of Christ and to learn more of him.