Cycle of Conversion

JESUS CHRIST: THE MASTER TEACHER

Receive Christ

And as many as have received me, to them have I given to become the sons of God; and even so will I to as many as shall believe on my name, for behold, by me redemption cometh, and in me is the law of Moses fulfilled.

--Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 9:17

Redemption comes through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. As we come unto Christ, we become His sons and daughters because he begets us life, even the abundant life. He gives life to us and we sally forth and seek Him. When we put away things of the world and seek for things of a better, we are putting God first in our priorities. If we seek Him and His righteousness first, then all other good things will fit it, will fall into place for us in our pursuit of the principled-filled life.

Belief in Jesus Christ is the starting point to all good things, to laying hold of those things that are good and wholesome. It is a way of life, and the style of life God hopes we all pursue. He is happy when we follow Him by keeping His commandments.

Jesus: Look-Seek-Follow

Isaiah 51:1

Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

JESUS is the Rock from which we are to be molded after. We are created in His image; therefore, we have the capacity to become as He is in personal perfection. He is the perfect example for us to follow and seek to become like. We can become more like Him if we (1) Look to Him, (2) Seek the Lord, and (3) Follow after righteousness.

1. Look to Him:  Always remember Him and His Spirit will be with us. Look to Him in every thought, word, deed, motive, and action. Look at all the marvelous creations, and realize that He is God, the Almighty.
2. Seek the Lord: Try to find the Lord through faith and prayer, through scripture study and fasting, through meditating and pondering. Search His commandments and live them.
3. Follow after righteousness: Obey all His commandments, for therein is peace and security. He is the exemplar of righteousness, and the more obedient we are the more righteous we become. Following Him is following righteous, for He is righteous.

Herein lies the formula for happy, successful living in this lifetime, and it will continue throughout eternity. Look-Seek-Follow our Savior Jesus Christ, and He will bless you forever.

Rejoice in Christ

2 Nephi 4:30

Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation.

Rejoice in Christ. Joy, peace, and happiness are found in Christ. He is our God and the Rock of our Salvation. The more we praise and sing to Him, the more rejoicing we experience. Moments while in the presence of Jesus Christ are delightful, times of gladness for He is the source of true happiness. We can succeed each day if we turn to Christ and rejoice in Him.

Each day can be a jubilation if we cry unto Him and then go about obeying God’s  commandments with exactness. Joy can come in the morning, noon, and at night as we rejoice in Christ. Praise God with all your heart, might, mind, and soul. Immerse yourself in His love and peace.

Serving others opens the door for knowledge and acceptance. “While serving others, we find Christ” (Harold Clyde).

Obeying God + serving others = Rejoicing in Christ

Jesus: His Atoning Influence

What is the most important commandment?

1 John 2:1-2

1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus is our Advocate (Helper, Comforter, Intercessor) with the Father. All have sinned and continue to sin. Disobedience to God’s commandments distances us from Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Thus, we must constantly repent and improve our souls by obeying all God’s laws and statutes and especially work on those that we are having trouble living with exactness.

President Harold B. Lee said, “The most important of all the commandments of God is that one that you're having the most difficulty keeping today. If it's one of dishonesty, if it's one of unchastity, if it's one of falsifying, not telling the truth, today is the day for you to work on that until you've been able to conquer that weakness. Then you start on the next one that's most difficult for you to keep.”  (President Harold B. Lee, Church News, May 5, 1973, p. 3)

Our disobedience separates us from the presence of God, and Jesus, the mediator, reconciles us to the Father, restores God’s peace to our hearts, since He is our Advocate. Jesus propitiates (calms and soothes) us as we repent of our wrongs. This applies to all people through the entire world and the countless worlds beyond this mortal earth. For this earth is only one of the worlds without number Jesus has created under the direction of the Father. His atonement is infinite, which means there are no ends to His atoning influence.

Seek to sin not.

Spiritually Begotten

Mosiah 5:7-8 Spiritually Begotten

7 And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.

8 And under this head ye are made free, and there is no other head whereby ye can be made free. There is no other name given whereby salvation cometh; therefore, I would that ye should take upon you the name of Christ, all you that have entered into the covenant with God that ye should be obedient unto the end of your lives.

Spiritually begotten means to have been spiritually re-born, to have a change of heart and mind from carnal, sensual, devilish and disobedient to becoming saintly, humble, submissive, and  obedient to God’s commandments. Faith in Christ begets us, makes us new creatures through Him. Christ is the head, and only through Him are we made free. His is the only name whereby we can obtain salvation and eternal life in the forever hereafter.

Three Steps for Eternal Life Assurance:

1. Covenant with God to obey all His commandments
2. Take upon yourself the name of Christ
3. Obey all God’s  commandments until the end of our lives.

The PROMISE:

“If ye keep my commandments and endure to the end, ye shall have eternal life which gift  is the greatest of all the gifts of God” (D&C 14:7).

Eternal Life is attainable AFTER we have been Spiritually Begotten through faith in Christ.

Jesus: Beside Him There is No Savior

DC 76:1

1 Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, and rejoice ye inhabitants thereof, for the Lord is God, and beside him there is no Savior.

2 Great is his wisdom, marvelous are his ways, and the extent of his doings none can find out.

3 His purposes fail not, neither are there any who can stay his hand.

4 From eternity to eternity he is the same, and his years never fail.

5 For thus saith the Lord—I, the Lord, am merciful and gracious unto those who fear me, and delight to honor those who serve me in righteousness and in truth unto the end.

6 Great shall be their reward and eternal shall be their glory.

Jesus is the only Savior, for there is no other. He is the Only Begotten Son of God in the flesh. Through His atoning sacrifice, the shedding of His blood, and being resurrected, He became our only Savior and Redeemer. No one else could shed their own blood to atone for the sins of another; Jesus only could have done such because of His divine sonship with Elohim, Heavenly Father. From eternity to eternity His gospel does not change, for it is the same.

He will reward us with eternal glory, joy, happiness and peace if we but serve Him in righteousness until the end of our mortal lives.

Jesus: The Focal Point of My Priorities

Psalms 27:1

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Jesus is my:

1. Light
2. Salvation
3. Strength

Jesus is my light, for He is light, and in Him is no darkness. He is the light that lighteth up in me, even the Light of Christ. Jesus is my Salvation, for He it is who opened the door for Salvation to occur. Only He had the power to open the Salvation door and let us in, even into the presence of The Father, The Son, The Holy Ghost, and others. Jesus is my Strength,  for my  life and energy and existence are fruits of His being, His atonement. The energy of my soul comes from Him. Within Him is no failing or flaw, no limitation, for He giveth strength to all, and added strength to those who seek Him endlessly.

Jesus gives us hope, hope for a happy and enjoyable life here in mortality and hope for eternal life in the hereafter. His light lightens up my light. His Salvation gives me Salvation. His Strength gives me strength. Jesus is the strong point inside me, the focal point of my priorities. Jesus magnifies us as we magnify and stretch ourselves in obeying His commandments. Obedience brings light, salvation, and strength, and all come from Christ, our Beloved Savior and Redeemer.

We Must Trust in the Atonement

We must trust in the Atonement. Our only real affirmation of the Atonement is our own repentance. Otherwise, we mock God. President Kimball also said, “God is good. He is eager to forgive. He wants us to perfect ourselves and maintain control of ourselves. He does not want Satan and others to control our lives.” We don’t want other people to control our lives. God doesn’t want Satan and other wicked people to lead us into doing things that are not good. “We must learn that keeping our Heavenly Father’s commandments represents the only path to total control of ourselves, the only way to find joy, truth, and fulfillment in this life and in eternity.”  In the videoThe Faith of an Observer, a documentary about Hugh Nibley, that splendid man said with the accumulated wisdom of his seventy-five years, “There are only two things we can do with distinction in this life: repent and forgive.” I would suggest that we cannot understand the one without experiencing the other.

Ann N. Madsen

“A Voice Demands That We Ascend”-Dare the Encounter: Building a Relationship With God – included in “As Women of Faith: Talks Selected from the BYU Women’s Conferences” edited by Mary E. Stovall, Carol Cornwall Madsen, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989

Salvation through Obedience and Jesus Christ's Atonement

Book of Mormon--Mosiah 4:6-7 Requirements for Salvation through Christ’s Atonement

6 I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life, I mean the life of the mortal body—

7 I say, that this is the man who receiveth salvation, through the atonement which was prepared from the foundation of the world for all mankind, which ever were since the fall of Adam, or who are, or who ever shall be, even unto the end of the world.

The atonement of Jesus Christ was established before this world was created. Thus, Christ came to this earth to fulfill the assignment of He being the Great Atoner. He came to earth knowing that He must sacrifice himself by shedding His blood so that all mankind would have the opportunity to earn and experience salvation. He set forth the guidelines and requirements for us to gain salvation for those who:

1. Trust the Lord
2. Keep all God’s commandments with all diligence
3. Continue keeping all God’s commandments with all diligence until the end of mortality. Endure faithfully to the end of mortal life.

(1) To trust the Lord is to believe in Him and to believe Him. Believe that He truly is our Savior and Redeemer and never doubt His love and power. Trust Him even more than you trust yourself. He know our hearts and desires and intentions and needs; therefore turn to Him with all faith, hope, and confidence.

(2) To keep all God’s commandments with all diligence is to (1) Learn His commandments, and they are found in the Lord’s true church, namely The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, (2) Obey them, live them, apply them. Let keeping all God’s commandments be your lifestyle, for in the end, it will be the only lifestyle.

(3) To Continue keeping all God’s commandments with all diligence until the end of mortality  means to endure faithfully to the end of mortal life, until you die and there is no more life in you.

The more obedient we are the more freedom we enjoy. Obedience doesn’t limit or restrict us, but just the opposite. Obedience frees us from bondage, sin, restrictions, and limitations.

“True independence and freedom can only exist in doing what’s right.”

Brigham Young

Obedience applies Christ’s atonement to us so that we can be clean from the blood and sins of this generation, so that we can become spotless now and at the judgement bar.

Turn to Christ and live, even the obedient life which is the abundant life.

President Thomas S. Monson: Obedience

What is the most important commandment?

“The most important of all the commandments of God is that one that you are having the most difficulty keeping today.”

President Harold B. Lee

Obedience and Freedom

Elder Boyd K. Packer

"The more obedient we are, the more freedom we have."