God’s Not Dead

Yesterday I watched the movie “God’s Not Dead”. It was a fun movie and one that I would recommend to everyone. It is about a college philosophy professor that starts his class asking the students to write God Is Dead on a piece of paper and sign it. If they will all do that then he tells them that he will not waist the classes time explaining why God is a myth and never has been real. One student, Josh Wheaton, refuses to do it and the professor says that if he won’t sign the paper or quit the class, then he must prove that there is a God to the class during the next three class periods. Josh feels that God want someone to defend him and believes C.S. Lewis’s statement “only a real risk tests the reality of a belief”. Josh goes to his minister about his situation and the minister has him look up two scriptures.

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33)

For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. (Luke 12:48)

When Josh asks the minister why he feels the need to do this, the minister says: “that it is the still small voice in you. That is the way the Holy Ghost communicates to us. All you have to do is decide if you will listen. It’s not easy, but it is simple”. Josh accepts the challenge even though it is against his girlfriend and parent’s wishes and the prospect of losing his opportunity for law school. At one point Josh asks the professor “What happened to you? Why do you hate God?” Continuing to press the professor reveals that when he was twelve years old his mother died even though he prayed to have God save her life. The professor says: “All I have is hate for God” to which Josh replies: “How can you hate someone that does not exist?”

The movie includes the stories of others that are struggling with their own questions of faith in God and trials with cancer and relationships. There is even a cameo from Willie Robertson from Duck Dynasty when a reporter asks a question about his faith he responds:

“All this stuff we have, fame, money, even this life is temporary. Jesus is eternal. Jesus said: “whoever will acknowledge me before men, I will acknowledge before the Father in Heaven and whoever will deny my before men, I will deny before the Father.”

Throughout the movie there are two basic themes that the atheist professor pushes: 1) The Big Bang Theory that the universe created itself and 2) if God did exist, why does he allow evil? In the end Josh wins over the class and the professor is silenced.

Can anyone prove that God does or does not exist? The answer to that question is no, you cannot prove absolutely either way. If someone could prove that God does exist, then faith would be dead. There would be no need for faith, we would all know it. What about all the witnesses in the New Testament and the Book of Mormon that said they saw Jesus Chris? I believe that they are telling the truth, but there is no one that was there that is alive today (except the Apostle John and the Three Nephites, but until they appear in public they don’t count). What about Joseph Smith’s first vision? I believe he also is telling the truth, but no one else was there. We have to take his word and those in the scriptures to the Lord to gain our own testimony and when we do, all we can do it testify of what we know, others will still have to have faith in our word and then  get their own testimonies.

Our Heavenly Father has given all his children agency and that includes the ability to believe in God or not. He will never force anyone to believe. But the promise is there that if we will ask with sincere faith, he will answer us (James 1:5-6). Once we have gained our own witness that God is real our faith is replaced by knowledge; however, even when we testify of what we know others still need to have faith and try it for themselves.

There is an account in the Book of Mormon of Korihor, an Anti Christ, that was preaching that there was no God and Christ would not come. Alma, the head of the church, questioned Korihor:

And now what evidence have ye that there is no God, or that Christ cometh not? I say unto you that ye have none, save it be your word only.

But, behold, I have all things as a testimony that these things are true; and ye also have all things as a testimony unto you that they are true; and will ye deny them? Believest thou that these things are true? (Alma 30:40-41)

At one point in the movie, Josh says to the professor: “It is not enough that you don’t believe, you want everyone here to not believe as well”. This is the problem with most atheists, they are not satisfied until they destroy everyone’s faith and our ability to worship God openly and freely. One of the problems I occasionally deal with as a bishop of a student ward is a member that is questioning their faith because one of their professors, like the atheist professor in the movie, has challenged their belief in God. There are a few professors that feel the need to question a student’s faith, their belief in traditional marriage, and moral standards. Fortunately, these professors are a minority and there are many who are strong individuals of faith that help build their students, not tear them down. One of the reasons we have student wards and stakes is to help strengthen our member’s faith and combat the philosophies of men that are taught as truth on our campuses.

I did disagree with one principle in the movie and that was that an expression of belief in Jesus Christ can save us from a life time of sin and wickedness. Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, all mankind will be resurrected. The Apostle Paul taught: "for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). Though the resurrection is a free gift to all, what glory we are resurrected to is dependent on the gift of the grace of Jesus Christ and how we live our lives. The Book of Mormon teaches that we are saved by "grace, after all we can do" (2 Nephi 2:23). There is too much to discuss this week what this means, so this will be my topic next week.

At the end of the movie the lead singer of the Christian rock band, The Newsboys, challenged the 10,000 people at their concert to text everyone of their contacts with the message: “God’s Not Dead”. He said if everyone had at least 100 contacts, that would be 1,000,000 testimonies that God is not dead.

I want you to know that I have gone to the Lord in prayer many times to know if God is real and if Jesus Christ died and was resurrected as the scriptures say and I have my own witness that God does live, Jesus is the Christ, we have living prophets on the earth today (Thomas S. Monson), the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, was translated by the prophet Joseph Smith, and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the restored Church of Jesus Christ. One day Jesus Christ will return to the earth and at that day all shall see him and every knee shall bow and everyone will confess that he is Jesus Christ. Until that day comes everyone will have to have faith and gain their own witness.

Spread the word – God’s Not Dead. I welcome your comments and questions. 

Motherhood - A Divine Calling

Today in the United States, and 80 other countries around the world, is Mother’s Day a day for us to remember and express appreciation for our mothers. Nearly all countries celebrate Mother’s Day, some today, others on days other than the second Sunday in May. This holiday began here in the U.S through the efforts of Anna Jarvis when she wanted to recognize her mother’s efforts in caring “for wounded soldiers on both sides of the Civil War” in 1908:

“Due to the campaign efforts of Anna Jarvis, several states officially recognized Mother's Day, the first in 1910 being West Virginia, Jarvis’ home state. In 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed the proclamation creating Mother’s Day, the second Sunday in May, as a national holiday to honor mothers. In a thank-you note to Wilson Jarvis wrote of a “great Home Day of our country for sons and daughters to honor their mothers and fathers and homes in a way that will perpetuate family ties and give emphasis to true home life.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother's_Day)

The greatest example we have about the importance of our mothers is shown by the Lord Jesus Christ and the love he had for his mother. As he hung on the cross his mother was there with others and she was weeping. In the midst of his own pain and suffering he wanted to make sure his mother was cared for. The scriptures show how much he loved his mother:

 26 When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!

 27 Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

Jesus loved his mother and was concerned about her welfare after he was gone and made sure that she would be cared for. What have we done to make sure that our mothers have their needs provided for or are we still thinking what our mother is going to do for us?

My mother is 88 years old and most of her day is spent serving her grandchildren and great grandchildren. He whole life is still spent serving others when she really deserves to be pampered and taken care of. Her selfless service exemplifies the Savior’s love and I appreciate and love her for it.

  

Sister Julie B. Beck, Relief Society General President in 2007, spoke about mothers. She said:

“Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distraction, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children—more time eating together, more time working together, more time reading together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all. Their goal is to prepare a rising generation of children who will take the gospel of Jesus Christ into the entire world. Their goal is to prepare future fathers and mothers who will be builders of the Lord’s kingdom for the next 50 years. That is influence; that is power.” (“Mothers Who Know”, Julie B. Beck, General Conference, October 2007)

I would like to share a short video that typifies what guys think of the job our wives have as mothers of our children. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

Even though it was humorous, the father at the end was honest in his feelings for the hard work it is to be a mother. Being a full-time mother at the same time as being a full-time wife and often supporting a full-time job is not easy and we need to recognize what we can do to lessen the stress and contribute equally in our duties in the home and be a full-time father that she will appreciate and your children will know of your love as well. Speaking of the impact a righteous mother has on her family Elder M. Russell Ballard said:

“Sisters, we, your brethren, cannot do what you were divinely designated to do from before the foundation of the world. We may try, but we cannot ever hope to replicate your unique gifts. There is nothing in this world as personal, as nurturing, or as life changing as the influence of a righteous woman.” (“Mothers and Daughters”, M. Russell Ballard, General Conference, April 2010)

Here is another two-minute video titled “Every Time a Child Is Born, So Is a Mother”

Here is another two-minute clip about the divine calling of motherhood:

Not only am I grateful for my mother, I am grateful for the mother of my four children. I am grateful for the sacrifice she made to bring our children into this world, to teach them to love God and the power of prayer. I am grateful that she is still making those sacrifices with our nine grandchildren. There is no other calling greater than that of a mother. In “The Family: A Proclamation To The World” is states:

“Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. “

I would like to wish my mother, my wife and all mothers a happy mother’s day. I hope it will be one filled with love and gratitude for all you do. I would like to share one final video. It is a Mother’s Day Special program of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s Music & The Spoken Word from May 11, 2014.

  

Today was the last Sunday many of the members of the student ward that i serve as Bishop will be in our meetings. This next week is graduation and over the next couple of months about half our ward will be moving and going on to graduate school, getting jobs and beginning their lives all around the world. I spoke in sacrament meeting and would like to share the talk I gave. I hope you can learn from it as well. I invite your comments and questions.

Preparing for the Final Final

About half of our ward will be moving from the ward during the next month or more. Many of you are graduating and now will be looking for employment and an opportunity to really begin your lives together somewhere in the world. This is something you have been looking forward to for you entire lives and it is finally here. Next week are your finals all of the cramming for those exams is about done. If you have been diligent in attending your classes, taking notes and fulfilling all the class requirements you will do well because you are prepared. The Lord said: “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear” (D&C 38:30). There maybe some test that you do not feel prepared for and you do fear; however, in almost every case you will be ok. You will complete your classes and graduate. You will eventually, be accepted to the graduate program or find the job that you want and will be able to provide for your families.

Our mortal lives are similar to your time here at USU. You know what your goal is and what you need to do to succeed. Everyone here will eventually die and stand before the judgment bar to be judged of our works here in this life - the final final. While here at the university, most of you knew when you would be finished and graduate; however, none of us know when we be called home and face that ultimate final exam so we must live prepared to stand before the Savior at any time. When you take a class here at the university, you are given a syllabus and are told what you need to do to pass the class. Throughout the semester you have a teacher, teacher’s aides, study groups and a text to help you learn everything you need to succeed in the class. Our lives are similar. The scriptures are the syllabus and the church leaders are our teachers that guide us through this mortal class. Some of the teachers include the Prophets and Apostles, the Stake Presidency, the Bishop, Quorum or Relief Society President, Home & Visiting Teachers and Instructors. Each of these individual have special callings to help us understand how to live and what we need to do to be prepared for that final exam.

I would like to suggest four things that will help us prepare for that judgment day and at the same time provide you and your family a rich and abundant life.

1.              Understanding and following “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”

2.              Loyalty to the brethren

3.              Making and keeping temple covenants

4.              Personalizing the Atonement of Jesus Christ

First – Understanding and following “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”. Every time I read this inspired document it increases my testimony that we have living prophets here to show us the way and warn us when we stray off the gospel path. When President Hinckley presented that document to the Relief Society in 1995, the family was still regarded as an important part of a successful society. Now governments, the philosophies of men, and society, are threatening the family in general. The world is trying to teach women that they are worthless unless they have a career, that men are not important or even needed, that children are a burden that is no longer valued and that traditional marriage is not important or even necessary. Satan is using everything he can to destroy the family because that is the way he intends to destroy us and make us as miserable as he is.

As members of The Church we must understand and live the principles taught in that proclamation. We must defend it in our legislatures, in congress and in the courts. We must not allow these sacred principles to be defeated and we will be held accountable at that final final for the way we have honored God’s pattern for marriage and the family.

Second – Loyalty to the Brethren. We must be loyal towards the leaders of the church, from our quorum presidents, auxiliary presidents, bishops, stake leaders and general authorities. We should not speak out against the brethren either in public or in private conversations. I am not suggesting that we blindly follow our leaders and never question things. Questioning is good if it is for the intent of gaining a testimony of something or trying to understand what they are teaching. Asking the right questions and seeking to understand is the very foundation of the restoration of the gospel in this dispensation.

When we question we should not do it in a way that criticizes or disrespects the Lord’s anointed. When we seek answers to our questions we should always turn to the scriptures and the writing of the brethren and not to the groups that are trying to tear down the church or turn us away from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We must be careful when posting comments on social media that in any way disagrees with established doctrines and church policies. Keep your comments to yourself. Be careful not to align yourselves with any person or group that is in opposition to the brethren and the church. The first step on the road to apostasy is criticizing our leaders.

I want to make sure you understand what I am saying. There is nothing wrong with questioning what our leaders are asking us to do. But you need to go to the scriptures, the writings of the brethren and to the Lord. If you ask with real intent the Lord will tell you what the brethren are doing is right. He will never tell you to go against them. He has called them and they are his representatives here on the earth.

The third principle is to make and keep temple covenants. Before we can go to the temple and make the covenants there we must be worthy. To be worthy of a temple recommend we must keep God’s commandments to pay a full tithe, and keep ourselves pure and clean. We must sustain the First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve, the other general authorities and our local leaders. Those individuals that opposed the sustaining of the general authorities this past general conference (April 2015) are no longer worthy of a temple recommend and have broken the covenants that they have made in the temple if they have made them.

Once we have made those temple covenants, we must live each day to be worthy of entering the temple. We must be totally faithful to our spouse and never put ourselves in any situation that would compromise those sacred covenants. Brethren you must be constantly on guard against the temptations of the world and Satan to enslave you with pornography or any thing else that would have you break those covenants and destroy your family. This is a daily choice that we need to make and it will always come down to the choices in what we watch on TV, the Internet and the movies we go to. It will be in the choices we make in our music and other entertainment. It will determine the character that will govern our lives each day.

I encourage you to make attending the temple as often as you can a priority in your lives. Attending the temple at least once a month is the minimum and more often is the goal that we should all strive for. Where ever you live, especially in the U.S., you should be close enough to a temple to go once a month. The more you go to the temple the better chance you have of keeping those covenants and living a life that will always qualify you for a temple recommend and you will have peace and harmony in your home. As your children see the value of the temple in your lives, they will want to live lives that would qualify them to go and receive the covenants for themselves.

The fourth principle is to personalize the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Atonement is not a group thing, but is done by developing a one on one relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ. We will never live lives that are perfect so that we do not need the atonement. We all sin and we do it many times. Simply acknowledging our need or dependence on the Savior does not save us, nor are we saved by working our way into heaven. The scriptures teach that “it is by grace that we are save, after all we can do” (2 Nephi 25 23).

What does this scripture mean? To be saved by grace means that there is nothing that we can personally do that will save us. We can keep the commandments the best we can all our lives; we can serve in every calling, do our home and visiting teaching, and even attend the temple every day and yet this would not be enough to overcome our sins.  We must individually go before the Savior and acknowledge our weakness and inability to overcome our sins without him. Like Alma the Younger, we must cry out “O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.” (Alma 36:18) Once we do that we will be “harrowed up by the memory of our sins no more” and we will be filled with the marvelous light of forgiveness. (Alma 36:19-20). Jesus Christ has already paid the price for anything and everything that we could possibly do to commit sin that is the grace of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Once we feel that exquisite joy of forgiveness, we live our lives according to the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We keep the commandments, not because it elevates us to a higher degree of righteousness, but because we love God and choose to keep his commandments. We want to live our lives so that we will be worthy of the Kingdom of God here on earth and in heaven and feel comfortable to live among others that are striving for the same thing. We set ourselves apart from the world while living in the world. We are clean from the blood and sins of this generation.

As we adopt these four principles and do the best we can to follow them, we will live “after the manner of happiness” (2 Nephi 5:27) that Nephi described. Our children will see the joy the gospel brings and want to be followers of righteousness (Abraham 1:2) and have the blessings of the fathers in their lives as well. I am not saying life will be easy, it is not intended to be. You will have difficulties and challenges that will test you to your limits. I can testify that if you keep the commandments and your temple covenants you can get through anything that Satan will throw at you.

Sisters remember there is no nobler calling that you will ever have than that of a mother. I encourage you to talk to your husbands about when you should have children and when they come where possible stay home and nurture and teach them to love the Lord and his prophets. There is no day care or other family member that can do what you have to offer them. Get as much education as you can so that you can teach your children in all things. There maybe situations that do not allow mothers to stay home with your children, but that should be the exception. Brethren provide for your families and live so that your wives are able to be home with your children. I am not talking about times where your wives may need to work while you are finishing your degree, but when you are finished make sure you talk about these things and find a way for your wife to be home. When you should have children is between you and the Lord, but we have heard our prophets and apostles talk about the blessings of having children even while still in school. I encourage you to make this a matter of prayer and do all things in faith.

I testify that these things are true, that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the restore Church, that Joseph Smith did see God the Father and Jesus Christ, he did translate the Book of Mormon, Thomas S. Monson is the Lord’s prophet on the earth today. God is our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ is our Savior and God and Christ live today. I leave you my blessing that if you follow these principles you will be blessed and if you will strive to do all the Lord asks of you, you will prosper and be blessed with everything you need to provide a comfortable living for your families.

I ask that Heavenly Father will bless you all, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.