The Gifts of Christ
During the
month of December, the Christian world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and
according to their beliefs and teaching, they honor him in various ways. I have noticed in the past two years that the
true and living church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, the
theme has been “He is the Gift” and this year it is: “Light the World”, meaning
that we can light the world by adopting 25 suggestions each day from December 1
until Christmas day which will help us “light the world”. For example, on the 10th day,
which was last Sunday, “Search the Scriptures”, (John 5:39.) was the
suggestion. Today on the 17th
day, the suggestion is to “Meet together Of”.
You can go
to lds.org and help light the world by
those daily suggested actions. The Christmas message given by the first
Presidency was of the same message.
I would like
to focus our attention upon last year’s message: “The Gifts of Christ”.
It is a
great honor to write about the living Christ, the creator of this world upon
which we live. I pray that these
thoughts, even though you are well acquainted with them, will remind you of
that which He has given us.
I believe
that at Christmas time we need to honor His coming to earth, born of a virgin, called Mary, His Father
being Elohim, the Father of us all; raised as a boy, He being about His
Father’s business of coming to earth and subjecting himself to wicked men, having a love for all of the
descendants of Adam so much so that He was willing to make a sacrifice and
atone for the sins of those who follow Him.
We call Him
our Savior. To remind us of what the
term Savior means, we need to remember that Satan , he who was cast out because
of rebellion, beguiled Eve into partaking the forbidden fruit by saying “thou
shalt not surely die , but shall become like the gods knowing good and evil and
you’ll have knowledge. Adam knowing the
other commandment, to multiply and replenish the earth and be with his wife,
Eve, also partook of the forbidden fruit so that men might be. We
know this occurrence as the fall of Adam where death of the body and the spirit
would occur for all men.
Read:
2 Nephi 9:6-12
Read:
2 Nephi 9: 18-19
This is the
greatest gift of a redeemer given to us as Saints of the living God and this
why we call Him our Savior. It is true
that the Christian world’s definition of “Savior “ means the gift of the
resurrection which is for all mankind, whether wicked or righteou. But, as true followers of Christ we
know that His invitation involves more than a resurrection and a simple belief
in Him. “ come, .. every one that thristeth, come ye to the waters, and he that
hath no money, come buy and eat; yea come buy wine and milk without money and
without price.”
This
invitation from His only true and living Gospel (Church) is an invitation to
all the descendants of Adam on the face of the earth, “ come unto me, all ye
that are heavy laden ..” “Come follow
me”. Each of us is given the opportunity
to make that invitation. Those who believe in the scriptures contained in the
Holy Bible will be led by the Holy Ghost to believe in the words of these who
teach the plan of salvation.
By
entering the waters of baptism for the remission of our sins we embark upon the
road of repentance so that a remission of sins becomes a reality.
When
we repent of our sins, He takes from us the suffering we must otherwise endure
because of our wickness. “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for
all,that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not
repent they must suffer even as I” (D&C 19:16–17).
Obeying
the sacred covenants and all the commandments qualifies us to receive the
remission of our sins, allowing us to live clean and pure lives in the presence of God
as resurrected and exalted beings.
Jacob
truly gave us a better understanding of the true gift from Christ. It is the greatest of all gifts and we
appreciate that gift as we celebrate his arrival on earth so that we may recieve
the true meaning of salvation.
Yet,
Why does life seem so difficult? Why does there seem to be so much sadness,
hate, and unhappiness in the world? Why are there so many unhappy people? Many
are unhappy because they do not know the plan of salvation; others do not
believe the plan of salvation; and others, although they believe, are not
willing to pay the price for happiness now and for all eternity.
As
we quoted earlier from Jacob: “Behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy
One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have
endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall
inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of
the world, and their joy shall be full forever” (2 Ne. 9:18).
Our
Heavenly Father wants each one of us to receive a fullness of His blessings.
Will we become discouraged because of the adversities of the world? No! Let us
be optimistic. Let us be grateful for the gift of redemption and have faith in
the future, knowing that the plan of salvation is true. Let us trust the Father
and endure to the end. Let us never forget that we are children of Heavenly
Father and t hat each one of us has the potential to become like Him. Let us
have faith in Jesus Christ; let us have faith in ourselves. Then we will have
joy in the gift that our Savior has given us and we will have joy and happiness
in life and throughout eternity.
There are many gifts that we all receive
because of our savior, but the second most important gift is the gift of
becoming, Saviors on Mt Zion.
From
Alma we read:
“Now,
concerning the state of the soul between death and the resurrection— … the spirits of
all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body … are taken home to
that God who gave them life. …
“… The spirits of those who are
righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called
paradise. …
Now the spirits of those who are not
righteous, the spirits of the wicked, are cast into spirit prison until the
resurrection where there is no chance to receive this redemption of which we
have just discussed. Amulek taught:
“For behold,
this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea,
behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform
their labors.
And now, as I
said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I
beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until
the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity,
behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh
the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.”
The night of darkness is a time when repentance is not possible,
unless the Saints of God looks with upon their kindred dead and save them through
vicarious baptism for the dead so that they may receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost and repent and become worthy of a remission of their sins through the
Holy One of Israel.
To bring our ancestors the saving ordinances of the Gospel is truly a great gift and in a sense we
become saviors ourselves. Because, we
can only do the work for our own families it causes us to turn our hearts to
our fathers.
Oh, the merciful plan of happiness and the plan of our God from
the beginning. How grateful we should be
for his coming to this earth and teaching us the way to eternal life with our
Father who dwells in the heavens above and become the son and daughters of
Christ the father of this world.
Lastly the gift of the Priesthood of God. This gift is a gift whereby all the sacred
holy ordinances are given to us to help us to return to our heavenly
parents. The Aaronic and Melkezidick
Priesthoods, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, Endowment, Gifts given to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob., patriarchal blessings, power to anoint and heal the sick, His gifts are
endless!
This is my testimony.
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