I don't plan on posting everyday. I just can't sleep so I figure I would post regarding the workings of my mind today. I've been throwing shifting around so many things in my head lately. (For note, I am a natural insomniac, meaning I've never used caffeine to stay up. It's the classic my mind and body wont let me sleep type of insomnia.)
Of all these, one things stands out to me the most lately.
"Do you know what it is that you believe?"
As I have studied I have realized something that troubles me, not just about my own religion, but about people in general. They know about what they profess to believe, but they do not know what they profess they believe.
There is a big difference between these. I will simply use the term Christian for example. Lets say you claim Christianity, but the only things you know are that Jesus died for your sins, and that He is the son of God. What then do you know about Christianity? Not really anything, because even the non-Christian can tell you that without thinking. Now, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The about would be this:
-Joseph Smith is a Prophet
-He translated the Book of Mormon
-We have a prophet here today on the earth
-We believe and follow Jesus Christ
-Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are distinct and separate individuals
So if that is the "about" then what is it that we believe? That these things are true, that they happened. There is a difference in knowing about something, as I said, and knowing it. John 4: 23 "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." Think about the words here spoken by Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to worship "in spirit and in truth?" And if we believe in Christ, and in God, why is the Father seeking such to worship Him? These are questions I have been pondering a lot lately. First, even then while the majority of the people in the time of Christ had fallen into a habit of rote worship, there were still people who truly believed in God and worshiped Him even if they were not Christian. This has not changed in our time among those who profess a belief in Jesus Christ. This is why the Father "seeketh such to worship Him."
And this is what He seeks: Those who will worship Him because they have first come to the knowledge of the truth of these things, and then seeks more understanding of them, and will do them because they truly know it will bring them happiness to serve Him.
In Spirit: Opening our minds and hearts so that we can be taught by the Spirit of God. Allowing ourselves to truly replace our will with His. In truth: Accepting His will, and doing it. Of this Jesus Christ said, "... and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit AND in truth."
What does it profit a man to only know about what he claims to believe if he knows not what he claims to believe? Whatever you claim to believe, you have the responsibility to know it, not just about it. If you claim to be Christian, it is not enough to know about Christ, you must know Christ, and His doctrine and gospel that He came to teach. And you must live it. And I do mean live it. That is why He gave it to us, to live it, so we can indeed know, and come unto Him
And I do know the things that I know. I have made place for the Spirit of my Father to be ever present in my life, and the more I learn the more I work to do so. As I study the Gospel of Jesus Christ, His Spirit confirms to me, my heart, my mind, my being, that these things are true. But it is as I study these things that I may know them. For it is in the studying, the learning to know, that the testimony through His Spirit comes. You cannot gain a testimony founded on nothing. You have to have a foundation for that testimony of truth and to be built on, that testimony is knowledge. Learn of your beliefs, and take them before God. I know what I know, and it is because I have do so. The Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith is a Prophet, we do in fact have one on earth today, and above all, Jesus Christ is the very son of God, the Savior and redeemer of all mankind. And through that atonement we can return to live with our Father in heaven, because by that atonement is the justice of God met. By the atonement and through the atonement are we able to move from our present state of being, and gradually move forward as we learn to take on ourselves the attributes of Jesus Christ. He truly said, "Be ye perfect as your Father who is in heaven is perfect." And as God is not a liar, and "I know the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save He shall prepare a way that they accomplish the thing which He hath commanded them." And the way to take His attributes upon us, and to become perfectly obedient unto the Father, is through the atonement of Christ.
I have called this blog "Path of the Ancients" because the truth is this, I walk the path that Christ has walked before me. He said, "Come unto me..." and so I seek to do that. And how will I do that save I shall walk His path?
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