Faith has a short shelf life

   Today we had a meeting with several other missionaries serving in the California Santa Rosa area.  We talked about various different things.  One thing that stuck out to me that I wanted to talk about today was that of faith having a short shelf life.

                                     


    We are told various times in the scriptures to nourish our faith and exercise our faith.  But what does this really mean? What does it mean to "nourish" or "exercise" our faith?  And what can it really do?

     I think of the scripture in Alma chapter 32 in the Book of Mormon that talks a lot about faith, and it compares it to a seed.  One verse that sticks out to me is Vs. 38-39 "But if ye neglect the tree, and take no thought for its nourishment, behold it will not get any root; and when the heat of the sun cometh and scorcheth it, because it hath no root it withers away, and ye pluck it up and cast it out. Now, this is not because the seed was not good, neither is it because the fruit thereof would not be desirable; but it is because your ground is barren, and ye will not nourish the tree, therefore ye cannot have the fruit thereof."

    Sometimes we invite people to learn about this gospel, which can produce fruit that is "most desirable above all other fruit"  The people plant the seed and it might even grow a little bit.  But then they don't take time to water and feed the plant, by reading and praying.  The seed dies and they never taste of the fruit.  Or they do get to the point where they see the fruit, but then think all is well.  Then the tree withers away and they have no more fruit. It is essential to always nourish, and water the tree.  If we let our faith sit on the shelf, it will grow old and die. 

                                                          


    The phrase "exercise our faith" sticks out to me alot as well.  Think about when we physically excersise... It takes along time to build up muscle even with daily training.  But if we were to stop for just a month or even a week, those muscles we build are weak again. We must at that point start all over.

      I know that we all must continue to strengthen and nourish our faith and never stop.  No matter where our tree is, if it is sprouting or it fills the sky.  We can never stop nourishing and exercising our faith.

Faith vs. Science

                                         


Can faith and science really o-exist together? Many people say that the two do not mix. I am here too say that they do, that you can't believe in the one without the other and that the more of one you learn the more knowledge you will have with the other. I love this example by Sergio Sanchez:

May we all have faith in the creator of this universe and all things pertaining to it!

It's true isn't it. Then what else matters?

    I wish too talk today of a situation that many people we meet face.  It is that of, fear of losing certain things for the gospels sake.  These fears go for many things:  Family rejection, broken friendships, activities not in harmony with the gospel.  Sometimes people even get to the point where they have a burning testimony of the Gospel and yet choose not to follow due to these reasons.  We as recently as last night talked with a man who faced this situation, his family did not approve of his decision to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We talked for a long time with him, then upon returning home a story from one of our prophets came to my mind.

                                                     

Gordon B. Hinckley spoke of meeting a young naval officer from Asia. The officer had not been a Christian, but during training in the United States, he had learned about the Church and was baptized. He was now preparing to return to his native land.

President Hinckley asked the officer: "Your people are not Christians. What will happen when you return home a Christian, and, more particularly, a Mormon Christian?"

The officer's face clouded, and he replied: "My family will be disappointed. . . . As for my future and my career, all opportunity may be foreclosed against me."

President Hinckley asked, "Are you willing to pay so great a price for the gospel?"

With his dark eyes moistened by tears, he answered with a question: "It's true, isn't it?"

President Hinckley responded, "Yes, it is true."

To which the officer replied, "Then what else matters?"

      What else does matter?  We know that Jesus is the Christ. He is resurrected. In our day, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, the priesthood of God has been restored. We have the gift of the Holy Ghost.  We know that the promises of the Lord are certain and will all be fulfilled.

       We all have things that do matter to us, and these things are very important.  We must have trust though that the command our Savior to follow him will bring eternal blessings, and that the things we must do or give up to follow him will all be worth it.  

                                                 

      I love the example of Peter and Andrew when the savior invited them to "Follow me: and I will make you fishers of men."(Matt 4:19)  then after this simple invitation "they straightway left their nets and followed him."(Matt 4:20).  then after this the response of James and John when the Savior called them. "They Immediately left the ship and their father and followed him."(Matt 4:22)

       These men left their careers and even family members at the simple command of the Savior to follow him, he gives us this same simple invitation.  Will we be as obedient as Peter, Andrew, James and John? 

If ye have not charity

     A subject on my mind today is that of faith, this has been on my mind because we taught it 4 times today to different groups of missionaries.  I have learned so much about faith just in these past 24 hours alone.

                                                               


       Faith is a principle of power. God works by power, but his power is usually exercised in response to faith( see Moroni 10:7).  He works according to the faith of his children.  Doubt and fear are opposed to faith.  I have seen this so much in my life, and especially on my mission.  I think about the times when I have had great faith in something, there were small miracles wrought because of that faith.  There have been other times when I felt like something was too hard or too out of reach.  Because of this doubt, they were.  Without that faith I couldn't have Gods power and thus accomplish what he needed me too.

                                                         
         
     There are many examples in the Book of Mormon of people who exercised great faith and saw mighty miracles.  Ether chapter 12 sums most of these up   "For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, after he had risen from the dead..." (vs. 7)  "Behold, it was the faith of Alma and Amulek that caused the prison to tumble to the earth..." (vs. 13)  "Behold, it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites, that they were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost..." (vs. 14) "And behold, we have seen in this record that one of these was the brother of Jared; for so great was his faith in God, that when God put forth his finger he could not hide it from the sight of the brother of Jared..." (vs. 20)
These are just a few of the miracles in the Book of Mormon all wrought by faith.

                                                              

  There is however another principle that is essential to performing and seeing the miracles of God.  In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 it says "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  And though I have the gift of  prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."  I love this scripture because it teaches us what our motives must be in order to recieve have God's power to be with us.  Our greatest motivator has to be love, without it we are nothing.  I have learned this so greatly on my mission, I have truly developed a love for all the people I serve.  Because of this love, and my small faith, I have seen miracles.  I am so thankful for the lord and his love for me.

But if not...

      Recently I have been thinking of a story in the old testament, from Daniel chapter 3.  There was a king, named Nebuchadnezzar, he created a golden image and commanded that his people worship it.  Among these people were three men named Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, they believed in the true God of Israel.   They refused to worship the king's golden image.  The king in his rage commanded them to be brought before him, and threatened if they don't worship his god's then they would be cast into a fiery furnace.  These three men then said to the angry king, "if it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.  BUT IF NOT, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image..." (Daniel 3:17-18)

     To this the king was full of fury, and commanded that they be cast into the furnace.  When the king came again to see what happened to them, he was astonished because he beheld four men in the midst of the fire.  He said, "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." (Daniel 3: 25)



        We can learn a lot from this story, but what I want to focus on is those three words: But if not...

These three men when facing a great trial, didn't have a perfect knowledge of what would happen, but they believe and trusted in god and that was good enough for them.  When they said those three words, But if not, this was not a lack of faith.  They were just simply saying, no matter what.

      Sometimes in this life we face trials, these may come from a lot of different things: fear, lack of knowledge, being unable to comprehend certain things.  We are placed in a position where we must choose faith, where we must simply be willing to trust in something we believe in but are not certain about.

      In my life I have been in this situation many times, one that sticks out to me the most is coming on a mission.  When I graduated from High School, I was not sure if I wanted to serve a mission, I decided that I would go to school instead.  While at a Young Mens event, I felt very strongly that I should serve a mission.  I wasn't sure exactly what would happen, or even if I was capable of serving.  I didn't know the scriptures, I didn't know a whole lot about the church, but I did FEEL that I should go.  Now that I am here, I KNOW that this is where I am suppose to be, this has been the greatest decision I have ever made. 

       Neil L. Anderson, an Apostle, recently said "Will we understand everything? Of course not. We will put some issues on the shelf to be understood at a later time."  In the Book of Mormon we learn that we must learn "line upon line, and precept upon precept." (2 Nephi 28:30)  Even though we will not know everything, and even may have some questions, we still can have faith that it is true.  We might not be able to understand how the Savior was able to suffer for our sins and pains, but we can have faith in his atonement.  We must choose faith, and have the attitude and trust that Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego had.  I promise that if you do, the questions that you have will one day be answered.

      

   

After the trial of your faith

                                      "Now, we will compare the word unto a seed..."  Alma 32:28
       There has been a certain subject on my mind the past couple of days, that subject is Faith.  One lady who we were teaching in my last area sparked these thoughts of mine.  It is a common thing among many people who investigate this church, initially there is a sense of excitement and curiousity, this is where that seed of faith is planted.  This sense of curiousity leads them to research, it is during these early stages that something else happens though.  The adversary is the enemy of god and "he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself." (2 Ne. 2:27)  He doesn't not want us to find the remarkable and wonderful truth of the restoration of the gospel.  It is in these early stages that he throws at us his snares and traps and doubts.  He leads us to forget the feelings we had as we read the scriptures, heard the wonderful truth of the gospel, and experienced the comfort of the Holy Ghost.  He gives unto us misinfomation, false doctrine and lies, and in this time that little seed of faith with which we have planted is at risk.  It is at this time that our trial of faith occurs, where we must decide if that seed we have planted is a good seed or not. For the honest seeker of truth, the answer will come but not until we do our part. 
 "..behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me." (Alma 32:28)

         Many people neglect the feelings of the Holy Ghost, which is the one sure answer we have.  Many people put their trust in their own understanding, or in information from others.  The scriptures teach us that "by the power of the Holy Ghost you may know the truth of all things" (Moroni 10:5)  We must put our trust in our Father in Heaven and in the feelings of the Holy Ghost.  For "everthing which inviteth and enticeth to do good is of god" (Moroni 7:16)  So for all who are still in doubt about the Gospel, read the Book of Mormon, think of the way you feel.  Go to church, and pay attention to your feelings.  Pray, and ask for comfort.  I promise as you do these things you will "Feel" that this is true.  And for all who have done these things before, I urge you to REMEMBER!!  Remember the feelings you had. 

          I would love for people to share with us there experiences of overcoming their trial of faith.  So please share!