[love is a gift from God]

Recently I was frustrated with myself as I was struggling to overcome one of my many weaknesses. The answer came at church on Sunday as we studied Sister Neill F. Marriott's talk. I had been trying to overcome my weakness on my own. It just doesn't work very well at all. The Savior's Atonement is there to help us. Love and change of heart are gifts from God.

I should have known this by now as I have read Stephen E. Robinson's book "Believing Christ" which teaches that we often can't do it on our own no matter how hard we try. The Atonement is the only way. Somehow we still forget this important lesson.

[washed clean]

A poem called Washed Clean,

written by President Boyd K. Packer

(from April 1997 General Conference)

In ancient times the cry “Unclean!”

Would warn of lepers near.

“Unclean! Unclean!” the words rang out;

Then all drew back in fear,

Lest by the touch of lepers’ hands

They, too, would lepers be.

There was no cure in ancient times,

Just hopeless agony.

No soap, no balm, no medicine

Could stay disease or pain.

There was no salve, no cleansing bath,

To make them well again.

But there was One, the record shows,

Whose touch could make them pure;

Could ease their awful suffering,

Their rotting flesh restore.

His coming long had been foretold.

Signs would precede His birth.

A Son of God to woman born,

With power to cleanse the earth.

The day He made ten lepers whole,

The day He made them clean,

Well symbolized His ministry

And what His life would mean.

However great that miracle,

This was not why He came.

He came to rescue every soul

From death, from sin, from shame.

For greater miracles, He said,

His servants yet would do,

To rescue every living soul,

Not just heal up the few.

Though we’re redeemed from mortal death,

We still can’t enter in

Unless we’re clean, cleansed every whit,

From every mortal sin.

What must be done to make us clean

We cannot do alone.

The law, to be a law, requires

A pure one must atone.

He taught that justice will be stayed

Till mercy’s claim be heard

If we repent and are baptized

And live by every word. …

If we could only understand

All we have heard and seen,

We’d know there is no greater gift

Than those two words—“Washed clean!”

[General Conference quotes]

[perfect empathy]

[the price that was paid]

The Garden of Gethsemane

(image via Google image search)

Something really touched my heart yesterday at church. Maybe because I had just read about how in Iraq, the parliament is discussing a law that 9-year-old girls can get married. They are talking about 9-year-old CHILDREN!! Recently I also started reading an award winning, best selling book that had horrible child pornography in it. Needless to say I stopped reading the disgusting book as soon as I got to that point. I can't believe some people praise that book with words like "breathtaking". What is wrong with people that they would support a book in which child pornography is glorified? Child abuse in any form disturbs me to my very core.

So when I heard/read this part of the lesson on Sunday, it made me think of the horrible, horrible price our Savior paid on our behalf.

This is by President Joseph Fielding Smith, who became the President of the Church in 1970.

The driving of the nails into his hands and into the Savior’s feet was the least part of his suffering. We get into the habit, I think, of feeling, or thinking that his great suffering was being nailed to the cross and left to hang there. Well, that was a period in the world’s history when thousands of men suffered that way. So his suffering, so far as that is concerned, was not any more than the suffering of other men who have been so crucified. What, then, was his great suffering? ...His great suffering occurred before he ever went to the cross. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane, so the scriptures tell us, that blood oozed from every pore of his body; and in the extreme agony of his soul, he cried to his Father. It was not the nails driven into his hands and feet. Now do not ask me how that was done because I do not know. Nobody knows. All we know is that in some way he took upon himself that extreme penalty. He took upon him our transgressions, and paid a price, a price of torment.

Think of the Savior carrying the united burden of every individual—torment—in some way which I say, I cannot understand; I just accept—which caused him to suffer an agony of pain, compared to which the driving of the nails in his hands and feet was very little. He cried in His anguish, to His Father, “If it be possible, let this cup pass!” and it could not pass [see Luke 22:42]. Let me read you just a word or two here of what the Lord says in regard to that:

“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;

“Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of the pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—

“Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.” [D&C 19:16–19.]

You can read the full lesson by clicking here.

I don't know how much of Jesus Christ's suffering other Christian churches understand. Most of them seem to concentrate on the death and suffering Jesus suffered on the cross. But the main suffering was done in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus Christ took upon himself ALL the sins, ALL the suffering, ALL the wrongs of this world. He paid the price for it ALL. The torment was so great that blood oozed from his every pore. 

I look forward to the day when everyone will know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, their Savior. Sometimes when I read about the horrible things happening in this world, I wish the day of his Second Coming would happen already. I'm so grateful that I know about my Savior and that I have learned to love and honor him. That I found his Church in which the fullness of the gospel is taught. That I understand God's plan for us, his children. That I know what the purpose of life is. That I know why we have to go through trials in this life. That I know where I came from. That I know what happens after we die. That I know that in the end, ALL things will be made right and the suffering will end. That I can hope for a better world and I know that it WILL happen.