FDL212 Week 4 Unit 2: Jesus Christ is Greater Thean Angels

According to the 'Analysis of Hebrews' in the Bible Dictionary under 'Epistle to the Hebrews', these are those points emphasizing Christ's superiority:

• Christ is greater than the angels: more excellent name and inheritance, as well as a higher calling; they are servants but he is the Son
• The word of angels' are important, but Christ's words are the most important
• Christ is greater than Moses; Moses was a faithful servant but Christ was a faithful son
• Christ's word is superior
• Christ is a high priest of Melchizedek and is superior to the high priests of the Law of Moses

In the first chapter of Hebrews, Paul teaches about Christ. The 3 main points he makes are: Christ is in the image of the Father, Christ is the Only Begotten Son of the Father, and that Christ is above even the angels.

Christ came to earth to suffer for the sins of all and redeem mankind. He came to gain perfect understanding of what we go through. "For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted" (Hebrews 2:18). When He was on the earth, Christ endured temptations. He knows what it feels like and with this perfect empathy of our trials He is the perfect one to be able to save us from our sins. Christ is the perfect example of how we should live our lives. "The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?" (D&C 122:8)

FDRL213 Week 4 Unit 1: Be Thou An Example of the Believers

"In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;" "But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works."--1 Timothy 2:9-10

Paul's emphasis on dress standards are much different than the standards that are popular in today's world. He emphasizes modesty and sobriety, not going too extravagantly fancy or worldly. Our good works help us profess our true godliness and Paul advises us to focus more on our deeds than our appearance. While in these verses he is speaking directly to women, his words apply to all members of the church. As we learn in both verse 18 as well as verse 36 in section 61 of Doctrine and Covenants, "what I [the Lord] say unto one I say unto all". Men should take Paul's counsel on dress standards.

We learn in the church that are bodies are sacred and place a lot of emphasis on respecting our bodies. As we read in Moses 6:9, we have been created in the literal image of God--our bodies were created to look like He does. In Mosiah 2:37, King Benjamin warns his people about disobeying the Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord does not dwell in unclean or unholy temples. So if we are choosing to do evil rather than doing what we know to be right, we cannot have the Spirit with us because we are ourselves. Our bodies are the temple for the Spirit to reside in. In Alma 41:2, we come to understand that when we are resurrected, we believe our soul will be restored to our bodies. From these three verses, we understand more about why we need to respect our bodies: we're created in the image of God, our bodies are temples for the Spirit to reside in, and at the Resurrection we will need our bodies to be reunited with our souls. Once we understand why we believe our bodies are so important, we don't want to exploit them or dress in ways that showcases our bodies to be less than holy. Alma 1:32 lists 'wearing costly apparel' as one key indicator that separated those who didn't belong to the church from those that did. If we believe in Christ, our actions and all that we do in our lives should reflect that belief. That includes the way that we dress.

Later on in 1 Timothy, Paul is discussing the apostasy that will happen in the latter-day times. Some of the evidences of this apostasy that he mentions are:

• Listening to 'seducing spirits'
• Listening to the 'doctrine of the devil'
• Being hypocritical 
• Spreading lies
• Very intense feelings of guilt
• Choosing not to get married

"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity."--1 Timothy 4:12

The above verse was used to as a theme for the youth of the church when I was a laurel and has been one of my favorite verses ever since. Paul is very clear: no one should scoff at your beliefs because of your age. I know several close friends who have felt very inadequate as they have gone to serve their missions. If we have strong faith in Christ at a young age, that is all the more reason to be joyful and is nothing to feel ashamed about. We should be proud of our beliefs and feel confident as we live a life that others can see and follow our example.

Paul is very blunt when it comes to money and the love of money. Many people have fallen away from the truth because they have been too distracted and preoccupied trying to get more money. We are born with no money to our name and we will have no money when we die. The love of money can be very dangerous to our eternal salvation. We must be careful to be moderate and strive more for the things of the Lord rather than for financial gain. Paul gives good guidelines that we can check to see where we stand when it comes to the desire for money. We must trust more in God than we do in money and we must be willing to help those in need as often as we are able. Good works will do more good for us in the eternal scheme of things than a fat wallet will.

FDRL 212 Week 3 Unit 2: Live as Saints Should Live

Romans 13:11 "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."

It's very easy to fall into a mindset of procrastination when it comes to thinking of salvation:"Oh I have plenty of time--I'll worry about that later".  But we're told in this verse in Romans that we should avoid that way of thinking because we don't have as much time as we think that we do. Ezekial 3:20 warns us against living righteous lives the majority of time, but sinning a little here and there. God WILL remember our sins. D&C 14:7 tells us that in order to qualify for eternal life, we have to keep the commandments and endure the end. It is a constant way of life, rather than checking off a checklist for a 1 time activity.

In Romans chapters 12-13, we are given a list of activities from Paul that he believes will help us achieve eternal life. They are:

• Give our bodies as a holy sacrifice to the Lord
• Do not conform to the world
• Renew your mind (learn a lot!) and constantly look for the things which are good
• Abhor evil things
• Cleave to things that are good
• Be hospitable; help those that are in need
• Overcome evil with good
• Subject your soul to the higher powers of God
• Do good things
• Love one another
• Keep the commandments

In chapter 14, Paul warns against judging another person. At the end of our lives, we will have to account for our actions and our lives to God--so who are we to judge how another person will live their life? That business is between the individual person and the Lord. Paul says that our responsibility is to make sure that we are not putting stumblingblocks in the way of another person. We should not be making life any harder for those around us. We should work to please those around us. Christ was very selfless and we should be equally selfless. D&C 38:25-27 give us an excellent parable about not judging others. God is no respecter of persons and therefore will not favor one person above another. Just as a parent wouldn't give one child everything while leaving the other child out in the cold, God will not treat us unfairly. If we feel that someone else is being treated either better or worse by the Lord than we are, then we obviously do not have the whole story and should not be passing judgment on the other person.

In his day, Paul frequently referred to members of the church as "saints".

FDRL212 Week 3 Unit 1: Baptism

According to chapter 6 in the book of Romans, before we are baptized we must become dead to sin. Baptism is to symbolize Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Sprinkling does not fulfill that because there is very little action involved. Baptism by immersion involves the person being baptized being lowered into the Christ and figuratively dying in our sin, and gaining new life as they are raised up to Christ in righteous obedience. We can keep this 'newness of life' by using our body as an instrument of righteous rather than that of an instrument of sin. Our bodies are gifts from God. In order to keep living a righteous life, we must dedicate our lives to living in a way that the Lord can use us as a tool to bring about his righteousness.

Mosiah 3:19 states: "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father".

According to this verse in Mosiah, ideally our natural man would die at baptisms. We would no longer want to do the things of the world and would, instead, want to do what Christ would have us do.

Romans 6 discusses knowing whose servant we are. We are given two choices: become a servant of sin or a servant of obedience. Servants of obedience are righteous and will be blessed, whereas servants of sin will find only death. It is very black and white--no grey area. Those things that we do out of faithful of obedience will cause us to be servants of obedience and righteousness. Things that detract from the Spirit and lead us farther away from Christ will leave us a servant of sin.

True freedom comes when we give up our sin, and turn to Christ as we lead lives of righteous obedience.

Disney or School?! :O

To say that is has been an interesting week, would definitely have to be an understatement. Like I said last week, I applied for the Disney College Program for the Fall 2013 semester. If I was accepted, I'd be working at a theme park in either Anaheim or Orlando from mid-August to early-January. This was my third time applying and, quite honestly, I really wasn't planning on being accepted.

Well, hold on. Let me back up to last Friday night. After moving back up to school last month, it's a safe bet to say that I've spent the majority of my time at my friend Stephanie's apartment. We're in the same apartment complex, but she's on the second floor and I'm on the first. Aside from sleeping or doing homework, I'm pretty much living at Steph's apartment. It works out quite nicely though because she has an empty bed in her room since the girl living there has left to serve a mission. So Friday night, I decided to just spend the night at Steph's apartment and then go with her up to the temple early Saturday morning.

I love being at school dearly...but there aren't many activities to choose from so we usually rely on card games. One of Steph's roommate has turned us on to playing this game called "PooHead". If you've ever played "Scum" or "Idiot', the rules are pretty similar. The game is strangely addicting! The last person to get rid of all of their cards is the PooHead. Who wants to end the night with the title of PooHead?! NOBODY wants to end the festivities with that kind of shameful name. So after about a billion times of saying "Ok wait no! One more round!" somehow we looked up and realized that we had been playing PooHead for 4 hour and it was now 3 in the morning. Blame it on the lack of sleep, but for some reason we thought it'd be a good idea to just not go to bed. The temple opens up at 6 am and we'd start getting dressed to go at about 5... Eh, why get only 2 hours of sleep? Might as well just stay up and sleep after the temple. So how do you kill 2 hours in the wee hours of the morning? Naturally, we got out Monopoly and passed the time that way.

At this point, I'd like to take the opportunity to speak out AGAINST staying up all night before going to the temple. It was fun and memorable, definitely. But probably not the wisest decision. Bless those sweet temple workers for keeping the chapel so nicely heated and warm...but I'll admit it was hard to keep my eyes open while we sat there... BUT it still was a good experience! While in the chapel, I was able to pray about the Disney College Program and I just didn't feel good about the whole situation. I wrote off my uneasiness as just being too tired and figured I wouldn't have to worry about it for a few more weeks.

To say that I was pretty surprised to see an email from Disney in inbox on Monday would be an understatement. I was accepted! They were offering me a place in their attractions department in Florida! I was stunned and excited and overwhelmed all at once. Spending a semester in Florida?! YES PLEASE! I've never been to DisneyWorld before and I was ridiculously excited!

I prayed a lot that morning, wanting so badly to just feel good about my decision to go to Florida. But I just DIDN'T. I was rationalizing and justifying and explaining over and over and over...and I just felt this empty pit in my stomach. I knew that was my answer, but I didn't want to believe it. So I called my Mom and told her. She couldn't talk long, so I emailed both of my parents and explained the program, how long I'd be gone for, what I'd be doing and the whole 9 yards. In hindsight, I think that I secretly was hoping that my parents would just talk some sense into me and tell me it wasn't a good idea. When I had told them about the program in the past, they both were pretty skeptical. But not this time! Both thought that it sounded like a great opportunity. I think my Dad emailed me about 9 different versions of an Excel spreadsheet to estimate how much money I would becoming home with. The parental units stated they would support me with whatever I chose to do.

There was no more relying on them. The decision was totally on me. Before getting the acceptance email, I had mentally made fantastic plans to be productive and get homework done...but that all went out the window as soon as Disney became an option. I had no idea there were SO many blogs written by college kids doing the Disney College Program. In case you're wondering, there are a ton. I got sucked into it. I read and read and read and read. I REALLY wanted to go.

But then I began to really think about what I would be giving up. One of my best friends will be coming home from his mission in August and fall semester will be his first semester up at school. My cousin will be home in July and he'll be up at school too. I haven't seen either one of them in 2 years! Fall semester would be my last semester with my roommate Hannah before she graduates. I'd miss out on all of those wonderful bonding opportunities watching The Vampire Diaries with her! I'd miss having weekly dinners with my cousins. I've always lived over 12 hours away from my extended family, so have weekly dinners has been a really fun tradition now that we're all at the same school. And maybe it's because so many people around me are getting engaged and married, but there are really a limited number of holiday seasons that I'll get to spend with my family before I actually move away, get married, and then have to split holidays up between my family and the in-laws I'll one day have. We went to Disneyland for Thanksgiving last year and there's really nothing more beautiful than Disney when they're celebrating Christmas...but to think that I'd miss out on Christmas morning... Was working with Mickey Mouse really worth all of that?? I've been out on my own for probably about a year and a half now. I absolutely LOVE it! I love the independence that comes with it! But I've always lived with people who have shared my faith. There's no guarantee who my roommates would be. Working 50 hours a week is a lot of stress...and to be living with people that I don't get along with? Florida would seem pretty lonely...

At this point in my decision-making, I was really conflicted. I texted my friend Sara and we went to the indoor track. Whenever one of us have something big on our mind, we go walking. It's therapeutic. I don't know if Sara necessarily tells me what I need to hear...or if it's just that she's a good sounding board to hear all of my word-vomit. But either way, I'm glad to have her in my life :) After we'd gone about a half a mile, I knew what I needed to do. Sara was full-steam Team Disney and really thought I should go for it. She kept giving me all of these reasons why she thought I should go and they were making a lot of sense. Sara said absolutely everything that she should've said in that circumstance. But my mind was going about 1,000 miles a second and I knew what I needed to do.

And as soon as the words "You know, I'm not going to go. I'm going to turn down the offer" came out of my mouth...I instantly felt at peace and totally calm about the entire thing. I expected to feel really disappointed and upset and bummed out about missing out...but I didn't. And as I write this a few days later, I still feel really good about the whole thing. It feels right. And i know it is right. I'm feeling really confident about my decision. I took a few days to respond to the email to turn down the offer...but I did. Physically clicking the "no" button was really intense. But it's done :)

The way I look at it is this: there's only one chance to experience this semester with everybody that's going to be here. People get engaged and get married all the time. People are graduating or going on missions or transferring to other schools. Disneyworld isn't going anywhere. If the timing is better in a few semesters, maybe I'll go later on. But if not... I'm pretty lucky to be going to the school I'm going to. I'll take small-town Idaho over Mickey Mouse in a heartbeat because the people I've met up here are pretty darn awesome.

FDRL 212 Unit 3 Choice #7--Gifts of the Spirit

In 1 Corinthians 12 and in D&C 84, we are given instruction intended to strengthen members who might be inadequate when called to serve in certain capacities. It is given as an analogy: each member of the church is like a different body part all working in different ways with the same goal of creating a functioning body. Some members are the eyes, some are the ears, some are the head, and some are the feet. Each member of the church has a specific role to play and the Lord gives callings because He has arranged for us to help and strengthen each other. There is a "...need [for] every member, that all may be edified, that the system may be kept perfect".

Paul says that it's good to desire spiritual gifts, but the "more excellent way" is to have charity first. He provides a list of attributes that come with charity, as well as a list of characteristics that are not charitable.

Charity is NOT:

• Envying
• Vaunteth itself
• Not puffed up
• Behaves unseemly
• Easily provoked
• Seeketh her own
• Thinketh evily
• Rejoices in iniquity

Charity IS

• Long-suffering
•  Kind
• Rejoices in truth
• Bears all things
• Believes all things
• Hopes all things
• Endures all things
• Comes with faith and hope
• Never fails

I feel the area that I could work to improve falls under the description of "behaves unseemly". While I don't think that my behaviors are necessarily immoral, sometimes goofyness and peer pressure causes me to behave in ways that might be considered unseemly. I would like to be able to smooth out some of these rough edges in order to have the Spirit more prominently in my life and have my behavior a more consistent example that reflects what I believe.

FDRL 212 Unit 3 Choice #1: The Impact of Example

According to 1 Corinthians 4:2, the servants of the Lord are required to be found faithful. The apostles were the group specifically named to be examples in 1 Corinthians 4:9-17. In the early days of the church, the members were still new and unsure how to act. They looked to the apostles to see how they should live their lives because the church was still so new and there was no precedent of behavior to follow at that time. The apostles were CONSTANTLY being looked at so the early members could follow their example. But we do not have that problem now. The church has been restored for over 190 years and the expectations for behavior has been set. Now, we the members are expected to live in a way that our behavior will be a good reflection of our beliefs and of the church so that we can set an example for non-members. In Alma 39, Alma is talking with his son about his behavior. Alma makes it very clear: his son's behavior has caused many good people to go astray from the church and that his son will have to be held accountable for that. We cannot ever be sure of who is watching our behavior or how our behavior might cause another person to justify their own sins. Personally, I would not want to be accountable for another person's sins because they fell away because of my poor example.

When we live what we truly know, people will be able to better trust our word. In the first verse of 3 Nephi chapter 8, the people know that their records are accurate because the man who was in charge of keeping them was a just man. The people all had faith and trust in him because this man was known for using his faith in Christ for completing many miracles. This man (whose name is never given) had such a reputation of faith and good deeds that people had no doubts of his integrity in keeping the records.

Online Homework, Phone Interview, and My Dishes!

While I am still taking 6 credits worth of online classes, I won't be going back to school until the end of April and going through July. After a short six week break for summer, I'll be back in school for September. For all intents and purposes, this IS my summer break. And let me tell you: I'm enjoying it!

The 6 credits I'm taking online are keeping me busy enough. I have about 2 hours of homework to do per day, and I'm working as a babysitter for one of the sweetest families I've ever met for about 10 hours a week. I'm thankful that I'm able to not completely waste time during these few months off of school, but I am liking the flexibility of being able to sleep in :)

This morning, however, no sleeping in was happening. As part of my online New Testament class, I'm required to meet every week with a group in an chat-room for a group discussion. At the beginning of the class, we signed up for what time of day would work best for us and I put morning. In my mind, "morning" was anytime after about 9:00 am so it came as a pretty rude awakening that my group requested to meet bright and early at 7 am. The meeting was good--just early--and I couldn't fall asleep afterwards.

My apartment had clean checks this morning, so I had the privilege of cleaning up the bathroom. Around noon, I had the opportunity to complete a phone interview for the next stage of the application process for the Disney College Program. I'll post more on that later--depending on if I get accepted or not. Basically, if I get accepted I'll be spending the months of August to December working in either the Disneyland (Anaheim, California) or Disneyworld (Orlando, Florida). I know of a few different people who have gotten to experience this Program---one of my roommates from my first semester of college, two girls from my church back home, and a girl I met up here at school. All have said wonderful things about it. My fingers are crossed! I did a phone interview today--which is the last step in the process before you actually are offered a role at Disney--and Nancy (the very kind lady who interviewed me) said I should be hearing back within the next 2 or 3 weeks. To say that I was successfully concentrate on homework after thinking all-things Disney for a matter of hours would be a big, fat lie. There was a lot of YouTube-ing and Google-ing and even Pinterest-ing of all things Disneyland, Disneyworld, and Disney College Program. To say I'm hopeful would be a bit of an understatement.

So maybe today wasn't the BEST day to have a lunch date with one of my friends who just got back from doing the College Program in Disneyworld because hearing how much she loved it definitely didn't dampen my desire to go. She was given the opportunity to be 1 out of 6 kids participating in the College Program to be selected to be on the team that opened the New Fantasyland. Because of that opportunity, she had some PRETTY cool stories! And by "pretty cool" I mean meeting Neil Patrick Harris, Whoopi Goldberg...and the CEOs of Disneyworld, Disney Tokyo, and Disney Paris. She definitely got me even MORE excited! So I'll try my best to remain patient for the next few weeks...but patience isn't necessarily my strong suit. I don't think I'll be too devastatingly heartbroken if I don't make it in. I have enough friends that are coming up to school next fall that it will be a good semester, Disney or no.

Anyways, after all this Disney excitement a good friend of mine was able to help me get a few more boxes out of storage. I have all my bedding now! And my dishes! I had no idea that I was so attached to my kitchen stuff until I've been living without it for a week and a half. Thankfully my new roommates have been quite gracious in letting me use their dishes, but it's so nice to have my cupboard stocked with plates and spatulas and the super cute apron my aunt made me.

I was able to finish up all of my homework before 6 pm. That was definitely an anomaly--but I'm not complaining. I was planning on going over to make brownies with a friend, but all of my energy just got completely zapped and I'm pretty confident that I can feel a pretty nasty cold coming on. I got my soft, fluffy Mickey Mouse blanket out of storage. My Mama got blankets for my sisters and I to curl up in while we watched Fantasmic at Disneyland over Thanksgiving. So for tonight, I'm gonna curl up in this Mickey Mouse blanket and eat some soup out of these newly recovered dishes of mine. :)

FDRL212 Unit 2 Choice #6: Counsel for Members

For my second Student Choice Assignment, I decided to choose option #6 which gave me a list of verses to read in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians and go over what Paul counsels the members to do. I previously had read what Paul counseled missionaries to do for my first Student Choice Assignment this week and, since I'm not a full-time missionary, I decided to take this opportunity to look at where I stand in relation to what Paul says members of the church should be doing. I made a list of the attributes Paul mentions that member should be improving upon and here is my list:

• Increase love for all men--both in and outside of the church
• Do what you know to be right
• Abstain from fornication
• Life a life of sanctity and honor
• Do not defraud your brother
• Study to be quiet
• Do your own business
• Work with your own hands
• Be honest
• Be holy
• Be a child of the light: watch and be sober
• Comfort & edify each other
• Be at peace together
• Follow that which is good
• Pray unceasingly and with gratitude
• Do not despise prophesies or prophets
• Put on the breastplate of faith & love, and the helmet of salvation
• Warn those saints who are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak
• Be patient with all men
• Rejoice! Be happy! :) 
• Abstain from the appearance of evil

 One of the principles that most stuck out to me was "study to be quiet". The other attributes I was expecting to be on a list of things that members of the church should be doing, but that one really caught me off-guard. We're often told to lead lives that will invite the Spirit to influence and guide us, but I've never really heard anyone be told to study to be quiet. It's an interesting concept and I'm sure that I don't understand all of the full meanings of it now. But it's one that has definitely stuck out to me. As I've worked on homework today, I've tried to create an environment where the Spirit could speak to my heart and help teach me. I think that's the beginning of studying to be quiet. But there's so much more to it... It's a fascinating concept and one that I really would like to study more about.

The other principle that really stuck out to me was Paul's emphasis on rejoicing. A whole verse was dedicated to it. As members of the church, we really have so much to be happy about. But are we really happy? I know that in my case, I don't think I am. There are always little things that I let effect my mood: I don't have a date this week, my roommates haven't done their dishes yet, my sister posted a picture on Facebook showing her using the purse I left at home and I just hate it when she steals my stuff----the list can go on and on. I feel like this concept of rejoicing goes hand in hand with Paul's urge to be patient with everyone. We know the truth. There is no reason why we should not be happy. But likewise, we're all still human. So we need to be patient with those around us. When I journal every night, I want to start journaling the GOOD things that happen in my day and the blessings that I receive rather than the things that are troubling me. Likewise, I want to be better about increasing my patience by serving those who I find myself becoming impatient with. 

FDRL 212 Unit 2 Choice 5: Counsel for Missionaries

This week, I chose to do option #5 for my first student assignment. For this choice, I had to read selected verses out of 1st and 2nd Thessalonians and pull out different concepts that would relate to specific actions missionaries should do in order to strengthen their message. These are some of the actions that Paul mentions:

• Be grateful and always give thanks to God
• Pray always--specifically pray for those you're serving for
• Remember that it is a labor of love and have patience of hope
• Teach by the Holy Ghost and be gentle
• Be bold in your God: speak to please God rather than men
• Don't use flattering words and don't seek for your own glory
• Let your investigators and those you serve/teach become dear to you
• Be holy, just, and unblameable 
• Realize it is the word of God you are teaching rather than the word of man
• Behave in a way so that your investigators, converts, and new members can follow your example.

I think for me, one of the most emphasized points that Paul makes is that missionaries need to behave in a way that sets a good example for those they teach. Missionaries are introducing people to the gospel for the very first time. Meeting those elders (or sisters) could be the first interaction with a member of the church that an investigator has. Missionaries have a solemn responsibility. If they do not behave appropriately, the Spirit will not be able to teach the investigators as effectively as He otherwise might be able to do. I've never had the opportunity to serve a mission and even with the change in age for sisters, I do not feel like I have been called to serve in that capacity at this time. But I have many friends who have served and as I write them letters, it has been interesting to see which of my friends have followed the rules set for a missionary with exactness...and which of my friends haven't quite hit the mark yet. Paul emphasizes over and over again the need for the missionaries to really LOVE those whom they serve.

"So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us" 1 Thessalonians 1:8

It would be one thing for Paul to just write "love those you serve", but he doesn't. He exhorts them to "impart [their] own souls". There should be a deeper and more lasting love between missionaries and those that they teach. This love should be more than compassion and service. It should be Christlike love. While I'm not called to serve in this official capacity, this is something I would like to strive for in my own missionary efforts. When I share the gospel with those I am close with, I want to have more than just compassion for them. I really would like to impart my own soul to them.

FDRL 212: Introduction Week--Acts 7 The Martyrdom of Stephen

Martyrdom of Stephen

Foundations Religion 212-11
Intro Week Acts 1-15
Choice #4 "The Martyrdom of Stephen" (Acts 7)

This is my first post for my online New Testament class and this week we were studying in the book of Acts. For my student choice assignment, I chose to read more in chapter 7 concerning the martyrdom of Stephen.

In chapter 6 in the book of Acts, we read about Stephen being called. He is said to be "full of faith and power, [and] did great wonders and miracles among the people" (Acts 6:8). In chapter 8, Stephen accuses the people of being stiffnecked and resisting the Holy Ghost just as their fathers did before them. He says that many prophets who testified of Christ were killed by their fathers. Stephen's words hurt the people and they felt guilty. One of the footnotes for this verse led me to 1 Nephi 15:2 in the Book of Mormon where Nephi has been talking with his brothers Laman and Lemuel.

"And I knew that I said unto them that I knew that I had spoken hard things against the wicked, according to the truth...wherefore the guilty taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center." (1 Nephi 15:2).

In the middle of all of this, Stephen looks up to see God the Father and his son Jesus Christ standing on his right hand. In my scriptures, I had this verse marked as one of the scripture mastery verses I studied in seminary. The LDS church is one that is unique in our belief in the Godhead rather than the Trinity. We believe that God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are 3 individual beings. Stephen's vision is a confirmation of that belief. Joseph Smith saw two personages--Heavenly Father and Christ--and Stephen saw them as two different individuals as well.

After Stephen says he sees Heavenly Father and Christ, the people throw him outside of the city and stone him to death. I knew that when Christ was hanging on the cross, He plead with the Father saying "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do". Reading Acts 7:60 was just an amazing testimony to me of how Christlike this man truly was.

"And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep" (Acts 7:60).

All of the references and footnotes in this scripture led to verses in which Christ is counseling his disciples to be Christlike towards their enemies. "Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you" (Luke 6:28). Stephen's prayer is along those exact same lines---in his final moments, he asks the Lord to forgive the men who are killing him.

In this same assignment, I'm asked to turn to the book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon to compare Stephen's death with Abinadi's. Abinadi's final words are perhaps less Christlike, but equally powerful in testimony. Stephen was an apostle and Abinadi was a prophet. Both men sealed their testimonies with their lives because they would not deny the words they had said. The testimonies of both men later led to the conversion of two highly influential men in the gospel--Saul/Paul in the New Testament and Alma in the Book of Mormon.

Stephen's testimony has an impact on me because, to me, it is the perfect example of pure Christlike love. His very last words were pleading with the Father on the behalf of his murderers. Abinadi, to me, is perhaps the most inspiring missionary in the scriptures. He gave his life for his faith and would not renounce his God---even though there appeared to be no one that was affected by his mission and his message. He was not counting his success by the number of baptisms he got--Abinadi was preaching the gospel because he loved the Lord. There's no record of Abinadi performing any baptisms---but that's not to say that he didn't. What we DO know is that because of his testimony, 450 people are later baptized with Alma. And that to me is pretty powerful.