Hello everyone! I’m so excited to
be in front of you today as a future missionary! I was asked to talk on M.
Russell Ballard’s talk, “This is My Work and Glory”. It is a really beautiful talk, So I felt prompted to speak on the direct
title, which comes from Moses chapter 1 verse 39.
but it doesn’t
talk directly on this is my work and glory that first comes to mind.
Moses 1:39 For behold, this is my
work and my glory- to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
I absolutely love this scripture because it says exactly
what Gods number one priority is. It’s for us, his children, to return to
him. He wants to bring men eternal
life. All he wants to do is save us! And
when I say us I mean everyone. He wants
everyone to come back to him. So if this is Gods purpose, then what shall our
purpose be? The world thinks that this is the greatest question of all time? I’ve
watched so many people try to “find themselves” try to find their purpose in
this life, when the answer is the simplest one of all. Our purpose is to come back to him; our
purpose is to find Christ. As a
background for some of you who may have forgotten this sweet thought, before we
were born on this earth we were spirit angels in heaven with a heavenly father
who loved us. It was planned that a
magnificent earth should be created and that everyone who wishes should come
down to earth and gain a body and through this body would grow, learn, love and
fulfill our greatest potential. Now when
this plan was announced a great war broke out in the heavens. There were two
sides to this war, the side that followed Satan’s plan, which was that of no
pain and no sorrow, but also of no happiness or freedom and through which Satan
would get all the glory and be a merciless dictator. The other side was that of Jesus Christ, his
plan was to die on the cross for each and every one of us so that we could feel
pain and sin, and know good and evil, but also have eternal life and the
greatest joy imaginable and have ALL the glory go to God the Father. One-third of the
hosts of heaven followed Satan and now dwell among us only as evil spirits and
deceivers. The rest of the host of
heaven chose to receive a body and come down to earth and reach their full
potential. The rest of those wise hosts are you and I. How wonderful are you. You stood on the side
of the savior of the world! You looked into his eyes and recognized the truth
and love in his soul and knew he was right.
The hard part is over! We have chosen the winning side, we are here on
earth! Each of you picked Christ! I remember sitting in class one day and I
looked around and realized that every person in that classroom once knew Christ
personally and chose to follow him. It
changed my life. It changed everything about my soul and everything about the
way I look at people. From then on I looked at everyone from the soul out. A soul that is made from God. A soul that is
good and wise. A soul that is a child of God. We have all made the right
decision to come to earth and live the test of life all that is left to do is
come back to him, which in the end is Gods Work and Glory.
Now while
we are on this earth there are some things Heavenly Father has asked us to do
so that we can join in in his Work and Glory.
I am going to focus on two of those things.
1. Love.
He wants us to have love in our hearts at all times, love for this earth, love
for our enemy, and love for every human that we encounter. God is made of love and when we have love in
our hearts then our hearts are made of God.
2. Give
up every fiber of your being to the savior, Jesus Christ. That way your soul is more his than yours and
in this way you become who you were made to be.
When we do these two things we become in harmony with God,
and his work and glory (to bring souls unto him) becomes our work and
glory. We are here to love, serve, and
give everything to Christ. In Mosiah chapter 2 verse 34 it says,
Moaish 2:34 …Ye are eternally
indebted to your heavenly Father, to render him all that you have and are…
What a powerful statement, he created us, he saved us! We
owe him everything. And when we give him everything we become an instrument in
his hand and can help him in all his work.
Alma 29:9 I know that which the
lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory
in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that
perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to
repentance; and this is my joy.
When we are loving one another and giving ourselves to
Christ we are instruments in his hand and help to bring souls unto him. Now, no
unclean thing can dwell in the hand of the Lord. So we must be righteous to be
a tool unto him. However even if we are not living like we wish we could be or
going through trying times, we can still love others, feel God’s love, and
serve others.
For those
of you who were unaware the missionary age limit for girls used to be 21,
meaning as a girl you had to be 21 to serve as a full time missionary like I am
about to do, where as a young man served at 19.
It is less common for girls to serve a mission because it is not a
requirement from the Lord like it is for the young men. When you serve as a missionary you have to be
worthy to be an instrument of the Lord, you have to be living the commandments
to be clean in his hand. Last October I was sitting in my apartment watching
general conference with my roommate. The President of the church, Thomas S.
Monson, stood on the pulpit and began his announcements. He started talking
about missionaries and how there have been several missionaries that were
allowed to serve at the age of 18 and were great attributions. He then announced that the age limit was officially
changed for men of the church to 18. I was silent, in shock. He then said, “Concerning the young women of
the church…” With these words my heart stopped, I sat silent completely
overwhelmed as to what I was about to hear, “Woman are now allowed to serve
missions at the age of 19.” That’s my age. A whole two-year difference. And the
first thought that popped into my head was, I am worthy to serve him. The lord has called on me, called on many,
and I AM WORTHY. I couldn’t believe in that moment that I was worthy to serve
the lord, that I was living my life accordingly that I could jump right in and
serve the lord. I have never had such a humbling experience. The lord calls on
us to help him at unexpected times and to be ready when he calls you… that is
the most joyess feeling I have ever felt. No matter your age, situation,
trials, be prepared to be called.
Because we don’t know when or what, but the Lord will call on us. We must stand in the light of righteousness
and be worthy at all times and in all things and in all places. He knows we are
not perfect, but he knows what we are capable of, so we must try each day to be
a little better, be a little more worthy to serve him. Repentance is our
greatest gift and the Lord gives it to us so willingly. I am so grateful in that moment that I had
previously taken advantage of repentance, I was so glad that I did not put off
the repentance process, I did not procrastinate and I was ready. He is so
merciful because he loves us and needs us to serve him. Being righteous, taking
full advantage of the atonement and repentance has given me more opportunities
to serve, grow, learn, and live then I could have ever imagined. Because I live
in the light he guides me on the path that I was always supposed to be on. I
have seen and done things I could have never imagined or appreciated without
him. I look at my life and am so grateful that I put it in the hands of the
lord because he made it better than I ever could.
One of my
favorite singers, this angel, sings a song called Kings, Queens, Beggars and
Thieves and it is so beautiful, it has become my theme for my mission. There is
a line that goes, “I stood in the heated halls and I played for the king and
the queens, I went out in the blistering cold and I played for the beggars and
thieves, I saw the pain in their eyes fade away as they listened to me, and I
will carry that weight back home.” He plays for the kings and they are blinded
by pride so much so that they don’t care about his message, he then plays for
those who have nothing, they have nothing blocking them from hearing his sweet
message, so they listened and he eased their pain! That’s what the gospel does,
when you are humble and listen it eases your every pain! It lifts your every
burden! How dare us not share that sweet message with our brothers and sisters.
We should carry that weight of those less fortunate to not have the gospel. Our
job as members should be to bring souls to heaven. That is Gods Work and Glory
and so should it be ours. In D&C 42:45 it reads,
45 thou shalt live together in
love, insomuch that thou shalt weep for the loss of them that die, and more
especially for those that have not hope of a glorious resurrection.
Here Christ is saying that we should morn with those that
morn, yes that is easy for us, we naturally get sad when we lose a person or
when someone else looses someone. But
here he says MORE ESPECIALLY then that, weep for those that do not have a hope
of a glorious resurrection. He is saying that sadder than the saddest thing we
can imagine, which is loosing a loved one, is a person that doesn’t believe in
Christ. To all of us it should hurt more,
give us more grief, to know that there are people out there that don’t believe
in their savior and brother Jesus Christ. To me I agree that is the saddest
thing. But how wonderful that we can fix it! We can fix it today, tomorrow and
everyday we are on this earth.
Now not all
of us are missionaries and none of us will be full time missionaries forever,
but we can be missionaries at home and we can do something very simply that is
totally in line with Gods Work and Glory and that is loving thy brother as thy
love thy self. Love is my favorite
thing.
In a
wonderful booked title, “Mans search for meaning.” Victor Frankl, the author,
is telling the story of his survival through life in a concentration camp
during the holocaust. He describes the
misery of the camp and if you read it… well it is true misery. At one point something simple happens to him
and he says this, “The truth- that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to
which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that
human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart. The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understand how
a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a
brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved… For the first time in my
life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, ‘the angels are lost in
the perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.’… Love goes very far beyond
the physical person of the beloved. It
finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Weather or not he is actually present,
whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance.”
Love is not
a person or an object love is in us.
It’s a spiritual feeling, a spiritual understanding. When we feel love within us it is because we
understand something, we realize we are different, we are created for a higher
being. We are meant for other worlds. We are the only creature on earth that
love. We are made of God. I know this because I feel it all the time. Every
time I listen to a beautiful song I love it so much, I feel it deep within my
soul and it hurts because I cant love it enough and I know that I am meant to
love it more. I can’t wait to get to heaven and love the way we were supposed
to, we are so restricted here but when we give ourselves to Christ he opens our
spectrums.
John chapter 13 is one of my favorite
scripture stories. It is the last supper before Christ goes to die on the
cross. After he partakes of the last
supper with his disciples the savior of the world gets down on his hands and
knees and washes the disciples feet. After he does this he says to them,
John 13:34 A new commandment I give
unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one
another.
35 By this shall all men know that
yea are my disciples, if ye have loved one to another.
The way to be a disciple, the way
to show that you are of God is to love one another. We must love everyone! We
cannot have any ill feelings and gossip filled sentences toward anyone. Why
would we want to? Why would we want to hurt our brothers? We were not made from
hate therefore we are not made TO hate!
Hating is not our nature. We learned to hate and this is why we do it,
but it is not who we are. We are made from love.
Now all
these things that I have talked about are wonderful. Love, service, finding
Christ, but above all the most glorious, most rewarding thing we can do is give
up every fiber of our being to Christ. I promise you wont regret it. Once you find Christ you will want to be with
him more than anything else in the world, he will be your everything and you
his. C.S Lewis says in his book Mere Christianity, “The Christian way is
different: harder, and easier. Christ says ‘Give me All. I don’t want so much
of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want
you. I have not come to torment your
natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to
cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I
don’t want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out.
Hand over the whole natural self, all desires which you think innocent as well
as the ones you think wicked - the whole outfit. I will give you a new self
instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’”
I know that believing in God, believing in
something that you have never seen before is scary I know that following his
commandments and giving up your favorite sin or favorite temptation is hard. It’s
kind of like jumping off a cliff. You
are literally taking a leap of faith! When you look over the edge your thoughts
may consist of, “This is terrifying, I am satisfied up here, why would I jump!”
But we are not made to be confined by a ledge. When you jump you will find that
you do not plummet down into the darkness or to your death, no, you fall
quickly into the arms of the lord. When you jump for him he surly will catch
you and he opens your eyes to everything you were meant to be. I promise you if you take the leap of faith
you will understand things you never thought you could. You will feel more yourself
than ever possible before.
One of my
favorite thoughts comes from C.S Lewis, “It is when I turn to Christ, when I
give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real
personality of my own… give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose
your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and
favorite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with
every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing.
Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that
has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will
find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay.
But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown
in.” I felt prompted the other day to obtain a Book of Mormon, highlight it and
address it. I still have no idea who I
am supposed to give it to, but I know it is for someone special and I cant wait
to find them. I would like to leave with
you my testimony that I wrote to this mystery person on the front page.
“Dear
_____, this book has brought me more joy and more comfort than anything else in
my life. I know that the words written are from the mouth of God and directly for
you and I. I know that every word is saturated in the love of the Lord and is
complete and total truth. I know that as you read these words with an open mind
and a soft heart you too will find them to be true, as they were made for you.
The gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was made for all mankind. It is perfect for us because it is who we
are. Christ is apart of our souls. We
are forever and always have been children of God. There is no sin too great for God to
forgive. No wound to deep for God to
heal. No person to far for Gods love to
reach. Look to God and all your
questions will be answered, you will find everything you were looking for. Because of this gospel life has more purpose,
the world is more beautiful, colors more vibrant, love is deeper, and happiness
is everlasting. A piece of heaven is
within us, a piece of home is calling.”
I know that
God exists, he loves us. I know that
Jesus Christ died for each of us so we may return to him. He died for us as if each of us where the
only person who ever existed. I know that this is the true church on earth
because it does not hate. It does not talk ill about anyone else nor any other
religion. It does not have literature on why other religions are false or
wrong. The church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints focuses on God and that is why it is true! Because it does
not need to put others down to look right.
And I know when a religion does speak wrongfully about other religions
it is because they do not have the full truth. When something is true all it
needs to focus on is Christ and that is enough. I owe my savior my life and I
am honored to give fully 18 months of my life to him. Everything is for him. If I died and no one knew who I was, but they
knew that I loved Christ that would be enough.
I am a child of God. I am a servant of the Lord. I am nothing compared
to him, but I am everything to him. I
love love, I love being in the presence of love, and I love my family. Every night I get on my knees and pray and I can’t
believe that I have such a beautiful family.
My mother is my light, my father is my hero, and my brother and sisters
are my greatest friends and supporters. I love them and more importantly I know
that Christ loves them. I know that Christ loves you. I am grateful for ever
breathe I take, every song I hear, every person I meet, and ever day God freely
gives me. God has a plan, faithfully
follow Him.
I save
these things in the name of Jesus Christ, The Light of the World. Amen.
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