Week 14: John 20:15

In John 20:15 Mary Magdalene has gone to take care of the body of Christ but has come to discover that it is not where it was laid. As she mourns someone she assumes to be a gardener comes and asks her why she weeps and she responds "Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." She does not recognize that it is Christ who has come to her in her state of mourning and she brushes him off and almost accuses him of being the cause of her current problem. As I read this I wondered how often we do something similar. Sometimes when we are struggling the Spirit is trying to come to us and teach us something important and we ignore his message and proceed to blame God for the problem with which we are dealing. The Savior was patient with Mary though, and waited for her to realize who He was and then was able to show her the miracle that was His resurrection. I know Christ waits patiently for each of us and if we are looking for His hand in our lives, we will be able to more fully recognize the miracle of the Atonement.

Week 13: Matt 27:26

In Matt 27:26 Pilate releases Barabbas, a man accused of theft, murder, and sedition, and lets him go free while he delivers Christ to be crucified. When reading this verse we naturally dislike Barabbas and the fact that he would let the innocent Christ go to the cross when he himself is guilty. However, don't we all do the same thing? Barabbas is a representation of each one of us. We are all far more wicked than Christ and yet he suffered and died for us. While there is no record of how Barabbas responded to being set free there are two options. He could be grateful for the second chance he was given and hold Jesus near to him knowing that an innocent man died in his place or, he can go about his life forgetting the incident and acting as if he was never sentenced to death. These are the same choices we face. When we partake of the sacrament each week we covenant to always remember him and therefore need to choose the first option. We must not go about our lives forgetting the pains and sacrifice that Jesus bore for each one of us. We are all guilty of doing so but each week as we partake of the sacrament we are given the opportunity to start over and try again to do better. 

Week 12: Mark 14:34-36

This week in my New Testament class we were reading of Christ's experience in Gethsemane. In recent years, it has been consistently pointed out to me whenever I read of this that the actual account is very different than how it has been depicted in many church paintings. In Mark 14:35 it states that "fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him." The falling on the ground is emphasized to help us recognize the physical pain Christ was going through and that this wasn't an easy experience for him even as the Son of God and he wasn't just kneeling in prayer to the Father. We know that He was experiencing every kind of pain, sin, and guilt imaginable but a new insight that I gained this time that made it even more meaningful for me was that Christ doesn't actually take our sins but rather our consequences. Often times we actually enjoy the sin in our carnal state but the pain comes from the consequence. Christ receives none of the pleasure that we get from sin but still willingly took all of the suffering. He is truly the epitome of all selflessness and studying it again this week helped me to remember that once again. If you are ever feeling beyond help or hope, really study the act of the Atonement and you will feel of His love and comfort for you specifically.

Week 11: Matt 26:6

It is amazing how much the smallest verses of scripture can influence us. Matthew 26:6 reads: "Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper," and that's all it says. Is it really possible to gain something from that? It's not even a full sentence. I think it is possible. When we read this verse in class our professor pointed out that Simon was no longer a leper, he had already been healed, and yet he still is given the title of leper. This verse teaches us about the long lasting effects of previous parts of our lives. We may go through the healing process of repentance and be completely whole in God's eye but those around us may not recognize this change in us. We may still be viewed as a "leper" among our peers but we have to recognize that this isn't actually a defining characteristic of us and learn to look past it in ourselves. Simon once was a leper but was healed through Christ and because of this will one day become just Simon even if he is always considered a leper during this life. We must have faith in how God views us and not worry about what those around us may think.

Week 10: Matt 22:23-33

Often times as members of the LDS church we are shown scriptures that seem to counteract what we know to be true. These situations can make some people question their beliefs and others often just ignore the scriptural passage because they don't have an answer for it. One such verse that members often face is Matt 22: 30 that reads "For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven." Out of context this may be troublesome because it contradicts what we believe about families being sealed for time and all eternity. However, when read  it in context we realize that this answer was given by Christ in response to a question about a women who was given in 7 civil marriages and who she would be married to in the resurrection. When this is considered then verse 30 is no longer troubling but is a confirmation of what we believe about marriage. Studying this reminded me that we must always be sure to study the scriptures in context with the Spirit guiding us in order to not be lead astray and I challenge all of you to do likewise.

Week 9: Matt 21:19-20

In Matthew 21:19-20, Christ comes to a fig tree that appeared to be producing well but then notices that there isn't actually any fruit on it. He then pronounces the first curse we have record of on the fig tree announcing that it will never grow fruit. The tree immediately withers and the the disciples are surprised at how quickly the tree died. I don't know how many times I had heard this story and just moved on without much thought. It isn't one of the most discussed stories from the New Testament so digging deeper into it was a new experience for me. My religion professor pointed out how easy it is for us to be like the fig tree. Many of us live by the phrase "fake it til you make it," and go about attending our church meetings and reading our scriptures but we aren't really bearing any fruit. We have to have a strong enough testimony, our root system, that we can grow and develop the leaves like this fig tree had but we also need to become strong enough to be able to support fruit. We need to make sure we are not just at church for appearances sake but that we are actually going out and doing good because of it.

Week 7: Matthew 17

Something that was said this week in my New Testament class really hit me. We were reading in Matthew 17:5 which is one of the few times we hear the voice of Heavenly Father and my teacher asked us what one word is used every time the Father speaks. We all threw out guesses but I was still surprised by the answer. The word was beloved. Our professor then went on to point out how comforting it must have been for the Savior to hear. He was living on earth and was a real person with real temptations and whenever his father introduced him he was told again and again that he was loved. Our professor then told us quite frankly that we needed to express our love more too. This is not something that I am very good at and actually causes some angst but when he said it I knew it was something that I needed to work on. The past week has been filled with opportunities to express my feelings to those around me and as I have done so I know it has made a difference in my life as well as theirs. As you go about the next week or so, try to express your love to those around you a little bit more and see what difference it makes.

Week 6: Luke 10

This week in class we were going through Luke 10 and discussing the parable of the good Samaritan. As is often the case with parables, we decided to put ourselves in the story. The only question was, which role should we put ourselves into? We often hope we are the Samaritan, feel we are the man injured on the wayside, fear we are the Priest, Levite, or even one of the thieves but how often do we envision ourselves as the donkey that the Samaritan helps the injured man onto? It was interesting to think of the Samaritan as Christ and realize that sometimes He puts other people's burdens on our shoulders without much warning and asks us to bear some of their weight. We have the option to be stubborn and try to resist or we can continue on tackling the mountain before us as gracefully as possible. We may stumble occasionally but the Savior is still walking alongside that donkey and ensuring that nothing goes wrong on the journey.

Week 5: Matthew 9

This week in class we read and discussed more of Christ's miracles. When discussing the story of Jairus found in Matthew 9 I was struck by one of the lessons Christ was teaching me. It does no good to try to rush the Savior and get him to comply to our time table. Jairus tried to hurry Christ along and was devastated when Christ was too slow and his daughter died. However, Jairus did not curse God he remained faithful and when he really needed Christ, He came and raised the girl from the dead. Many things in this life are out of our control but as long as we rely on Christ, remain faithful to him, and trust in His timing, I know he will be there for us.

Week 4: Matthew 5

I've noticed that these blog posts have been about scriptures that don't fall in any sort of chronological order and that may seem strange to some. I am basing what I talk about in these posts on whatever I thought about repeatedly this week and that may come from my New Testament class, my personal readings, Sunday school classes, or just discussions I've had with friends. I wrote about the Sermon on the Mount already in a previous post but this week it was discussed in both Sunday school and my New Testament class. When I read the Sermon on the Mount in my personal study I read the beatitudes and moved on without too much thought. However, in both my class discussions it was pointed out that the beatitudes are much more than a list of traits we should try to have. It is more a guideline on how to live with specific direction on the repentance process. It starts with the guilt and mourning that we feel when we sin and progresses to making peace and then eventually arriving at being persecuted for righteousness' sake. What I liked about this was in verse 12 when it says "Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." When I read it there as an exclamation point after "rejoice." We know that what we are teaching is true when we have the right enemies and if I reach the point where I am being persecuted for righteousness' sake I will know that no matter how hard it is in the moment, I will be blessed. Often times it's easy to be quiet about what I believe and let people just assume whatever they want but this scripture encourages me to stand up and put myself at risk of persecution with the promise that with that comes great blessings in the life to come.

Week 3: Matthew 13

As I was reading in Matthew 13 this week I was struck by verse 25. It is in the parable of the wheat and the tares and the verse reads: "But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way." When I heard this parable as a child I always pictured someone not weeding their garden and so eventually the weeds took over but when I read this verse this week I realized the tares are more deliberate than that. The man's enemy intentionally came to the land and planted tares in the field with the intent to do harm. Later, in verse 39, we are told that the enemy in this parable is the devil and he is doing everything in his power to make sure we are not successful. It takes more than just weeding to make sure tares don't appear, we have to be constantly keeping watch to ensure tares don't get planted. I know in my own life I often get distracted and make it far to easy for Satan to sneak in and plant tares but if we try just a little harder we can limit his influence in our lives.

Week 2: Luke 2

My whole life I have sung the song "I'm Trying to Be like Jesus" and have had many many Sunday school lessons on what that entailed. This week in my New Testament class we discussed again what it meant to emulate Christ. In Luke 2:52 it reads: "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." This is a well known verse that I have always taken to mean something along the lines of "And Jesus grew up." That is an interpretation that I am confident I can handle without too much failure. However, my professor explained that this means he was growing intellectually, physically, spiritually, and socially which is a bit more challenging to emulate with perfection. Everybody grows up and that isn't much of an accomplishment but consistently growing in each of these areas is something that each of us could and should do better at. In order to be more like our Savior we need to do more than just read our scriptures and say our prayers. Christ improved in every aspect of His life as he grew up and in order to be like him we need to strive to achieve the same level of balance that he did.

Week 1: Matthew 6

The primary reason for this blog is to fulfill an assignment in which I share my insights from my scripture study with others. This isn't something I find particularly easy to do as I am typically a very private individual. This hesitation increased this week as I studied the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew 6 where we are counselled to worship in private rather than to make a spectacle of oneself. As I read chapter 6 I grew even more wary of sharing my spiritual insights on the Internet because I didn't want to come off as being hypocritical and vain like the people spoken of in this chapter. However, as I finished up the chapter I read in verse 33 "seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.." and I realized as long as these insights are authentic and attempting to build up others' testimonies then sharing the gospel on the Internet becomes a form of missionary work rather than a form of boasting. This chapter taught me that sharing the gospel for the right reasons is completely different than showing off my spirituality and I need to be better at making that effort to share my beliefs in an appropriate way.