Today I got to teach Relief Society on the talks by Elder Bednar "If Ye had Known Me"and Elder Christofferson, "Abide in my Love." I highly recommend that for Family Home Evening, you listen and study this two talks, they are amazing!
I started by asking the women what is love? And after getting a few to answer I read what Elder Bednar said as he began his talk: "The Bible tells us that God is Love.. God's love is there for you whether or not you feel you deserve love. It is simply there."
The next question I asked was: "How do we describe God's love or divine love? I responded by reading the next section of his talk " One of the terms we hear often today is that God's love is "unconditional" While in one sense that is true, the descriptor unconditional appears nowhere in scripture. Rather, His love is describe scripture as great and wonderful love, perfect love, redeeming love, and everlasting love. These are better terms because the word conditional can convey mistaken impressions about divine love, such as, God tolerates and excuses anything we do because His love is conditional, or God makes no demands upon us because His love is unconditional, or all are saved in the heavenly kingdom of God because His love is conditional. God's love is infinite and it will endure forever, but what it means for each of our depends on how we respond to His love.
Jesus said: As the Father hath love me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. To continue in or abide in the Saviors love means to receive His grace and be perfected by it. To receive His grace, we must have faith in Jesus Christ and keep His commandments, including repenting of our sins, being baptized for the revision of sins, receiving the Holy Ghost, and continuing in the path of obedience. God will always love us, but He cannot save us inner sins."
From the Book of Mormon we learn that the intent of Christ's suffering, the ultimate manifestation of His love was to bring about the bowels of mercy... that they may have faith unto repentance. Blessings are conditioned on obedience...to abide in God's love in this sense means to submit fully to His will...What precious gift is devine love! Will you not love Him who first love you? Then keep His commandments. Will you not be a friend to Him who laid down His life for His friends? Then keep His commandments. Will you not abide in His love and receive all that He graciously offers you? Then keep His commandments.
Next we got right into the next talk by Elder Bednar. He began by saying; " As the Savior concluded the Sermon on the mount, He emphasize the eternal truth that only by doing the will of the Father is the saving grace of te Son obtainable. He declared: " Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, ave we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name have done wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. We understand from the inspired revision of this text that he actually said: Ye never knew me." The same thing with the five foolish virgins.
Do we only know about the Savior, or are we increasingly going to know Him? How do we come to know the Lord? Jesus said: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comet uno the Father, but me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. We come to know the Father as we come to know His beloved son...We are to be doers of the word and not hearers only...Pray to the Father. .. And he said unto Peter, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. The Savior has admonished us to become as He is.
Lehi's dram in the Book of Mormon identifies the path we should follow, the challenger we will encounter, and the spiritual resources available to assist us in following and coming unto the Savior....He declared: For I will be before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up. He ended by saying: "On a future day, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ. On that blessed day, we will know He knows each of us by name. And I witness and promise we can not know about the Lord but also come to know Him as we exercise faith in , follow, serve, and believe Him. I so testify in the Sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen."
Con amor,
Vero
No comments:
Post a Comment