Overcoming Temptation

     Recently I have been reading from the book Teachings of the Presidents of the Church. These books are about the life and teachings of the Latter-day Prophets of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Prophet I have been reading about it President David O. Mckay. He was a Prophet for about 20 years from 1951-1970 and many people loved Pres. McKay. I have learned a lot from the small parts that I read and I wanted to share a few things from His teachings specifically regarding Overcoming Temptation. 

     We all go through different trials and tests in life. That's a part of mortality. Along with that, because Satan rebelled and was cast out of Heaven, he wants to destroy God's plan which gives us an opportunity to return to live with God. Therefore, Satan tempts us to choose evil and make mistakes so we won't be able to return to God's presence. However, even though we all fall short and sin, we can conquer Satan and his temptations.

     Jesus Christ Himself was tempted of the Devil, found in Matthew 4, yet Christ never gave in to the temptations Satan tried to throw at Him. Because Christ overcame temptation, "he is able to succour them that are tempted" (Heb. 2: 18). That is one thing we must remember, Christ can help us overcome the temptations we face in life.

Pres. McKay tells us, "Every temptation that comes to you and me comes in one of three forms:

1. A temptation of the appetite or passion;
   
2. A yielding to pride, fashion, or vanity;
   
3. A desire for worldly riches or power and dominion over lands or earthly possessions of men." 
   
   
   He then gives some wise counsel, "You cannot tamper with the Evil One. Resist temptation, resist the Devil and he will flee from you. [See James 4:7.]"  Just say NO when the temptation comes!

One final quote that I loved from Pres. McKay and which gives me hope and courage to resist says the following

"Your weakest point will be the point at which the Devil tries to tempt you, will try to win you, and if you have made it weak before you have undertaken to serve the Lord, he will add to that weakness. Resist him and you will gain in strength. He will tempt you in another point. Resist him and he becomes weaker and you become stronger, until you can say, no matter what your surroundings may be, “Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” (Luke 4:8)."

I truly believe that the more we resist temptation, the more strength we will have when another temptation arrives. I am confident that the Lord will not allow us to be tempted above that which we are able to handle. God knows how much we can take and He knows we can resist Satan if we trust in Him enough to try and resist. Whatever you may be facing in this life, there is always hope through our Savior Jesus Christ. Just read your scriptures, pray, and do your best to keep the commandments and you will be able to resist any temptation that comes your way!

The Book of Mormon: From God or the Devil?

     Lately I've been thinking about a talk that a General Authority of the Church gave in General Conference in October of 2011. The talk was given by Elder Tad. R. Callister and the title of his talk is The Book of Mormon- a Book from God. This talk was one of my favorite talks and most of my information from this blog comes from his talk.

     Elder Callister begins by telling of an experience his great-great grandfather had. While reading the Book of Mormon for the first time, his great-great grandfather said, "That book was either written by God or the devil, and I am going to find out who wrote it." He then read through the Book of Mormon twice in the next10 days and declared, "The devil could not have written it—it must be from God."

     There is no middle ground with the Book of Mormon, it is either written from God, or not. Ultimately it is up to the person deciding who its from to actually read it for themselves and find who it truly came from.

Let me tell you more from Elder Callister used in his talk to demonstrate how the Book of Mormon relates to the Bible which proves it is in fact of God. First Elder Callister poses a question. "But why is the Book of Mormon so essential if we already have the Bible to teach us about Jesus Christ?"

He then gives us the answer, "Have you ever wondered why there are so many Christian churches in the world today when they obtain their doctrines from essentially the same Bible? It is because they interpret the Bible differently. If they interpreted it the same, they would be the same church. This is not a condition the Lord desires, for the Apostle Paul declared that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5). To help bring this oneness about, the Lord established a divine law of witnesses. Paul taught, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (2 Corinthians 13:1)".

He continues, "The Bible is one witness of Jesus Christ; the Book of Mormon is another. Why is this second witness so crucial? The following illustration may help: [now pay attention to this analogy] How many straight lines can you draw through a single point on a piece of paper? The answer is infinite. For a moment, suppose that single point represents the Bible and that hundreds of those straight lines drawn through that point represent different interpretations of the Bible and that each of those interpretations represents a different church.

What happens, however, if on that piece of paper there is a second point representing the Book of Mormon? How many straight lines could you draw between these two reference points: the Bible and the Book of Mormon? Only one. Only one interpretation of Christ’s doctrines survives the testimony of these two witnesses."
 

     The Book of Mormon, like the Bible, only testifies of Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. The Book of Mormon provides warnings against the devil and his temptations and testifies against him. Why would the Satan provide a book that completely goes contrary to his plan? He would not do that! Therefore, the Book of Mormon has to be from God. I know it is because I have read it and have been brought closer to my Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ. You too can know for yourself whether or not the Book of Mormon is from God or not. The only way for you to know that for yourself is to read from its pages.  Like Elder Callister's great-great grandfather, I know the devil could not have written the Book of Mormon, it must be from God.

Agency and The Fall of Adam and Eve

     Most of us probably know the story of Adam and Eve but their story is very important to us because their story determined our mortal existence. After Jesus Christ and God the Father created the physical earth, they created man and woman. We learn from Genesis that the names of these humans are Adam and Eve. We also learn that we were created in the image of God. Therefore, each of us here on this earth have some attributes that our Father in Heaven possesses. I think that is pretty amazing! 

     God placed man in the most beautiful of Gardens; the Garden of Eden. Here, Adam and Eve lived in a perfect place where they could walk and talk with God and Jesus Christ. In the Garden, Adam and Eve were innocent, meaning they did not know right from wrong. They didn't have any opposition. This meant that they could not experience joy or pain because they didn't know which was which. They were just kind of there not progressing at all.

     

     One of the greatest gifts God has given us, is our agency. Agency is the right we have to choose and act for ourselves, whether we choose good or evil. God gave Adam and Eve their agency. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were commanded to take care of the garden and to multiply and replenish the earth. He also suggested them to not partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For so by doing, they would become mortal and would eventually die. If Adam and Eve partook of the fruit, then they would know the difference between good and evil. They could experience pain, but also, they could experience joy.

     Eventually as we all know, God allowed Satan to tempt Adam and Eve and they used their agency and partook of the forbidden fruit and were therefore kicked out of the Garden of Eden. This was part of God's Plan. This event of Adam and Eve being kicked out of the Garden of Eden in called The Fall. Because of the Fall, we are all subject to disease, pain, sadness and suffering and we will all eventually die; so we are all subject to physical death. Also, we are all out of God's physical presence which is called spiritual death. When we sin and make mistakes, we distance ourselves from God even further. On the bright side, because Adam and Eve partook of the fruit, the rest of God's spirit children will have the opportunity to come to earth and gain a mortal body which is what we all wanted to gain in the Pre-Mortal council in Heaven. Also, we also can gain experience to learn and grow and progress to become more and more like our Father in Heaven. We can experience joy and happiness to lead us back Home. So there are some negatives that come from the effects of the Fall, but overall it was a good thing Adam and Eve fell so God's plan could continue.

 

After Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. They repented of their sins and received forgiveness and continued of the path of righteousness. They began to have children and taught them the ways of the Lord. I am so grateful for Adam and Eve and for what they did to allow each of us to come to earth so we could all gain a body and to gain experience that help us learn and grow. I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who has given each of us the gift of Agency to act for ourselves and to choose that which we desire. I hope and pray we will use our agency for good and choose to exercise good works! (That was a brief story of Adam and Eve there is more to it if you want to learn more visit LDS.org and search Adam and Eve.) Also some scripture references to look up that tell more about the story of Adam and Eve visit here:

Book of Mormon: 2 Nephi 2

Bible: Genesis 3

Up next in the Plan of Salvation:

Our Earth Life: The Purpose of Life, Why are we here?

Baseball, Carnivals and the Adversary

     Throughout my life I have learned many valuable life lessons from the awesome coaches I have had while playing sports. While serving my mission here in Montana I have learned some more valuable life lessons. Many of which came from my studies, attending District Meetings, Zone Conferences and trainings, and even when teaching people about the gospel. Who knew I would learn a valuable life lesson from an experience I had while attending a Carnival in Glasgow Montana?!

      The day was Monday August 8, 2011. The good ol county fair/carnival was in town for the weekend and my companion and I were meeting some people there for dinner. Before our dinner got there, we decided to look around a little bit to see what was going on and to be seen by people in the community. As we're walking around, I see a little game called "Break the Bottle". Yep it was a baseball throw. It was kinda like the milk bottle throw only four or five rows of beer bottles were waiting to be shattered by a baseball! Boy did I get get antsy inside, I love baseball and I haven't played for over a year and I REALLY wanted to play this game! So we stopped and looked at it and the Carnies (the people who try to get people to play) could tell I liked what I was seeing so they jumped all over me and kept telling me "You know you wanna play!" Did I ever! Finally I said 'what the heck lets do it!' I mean its was only 5 bucks and I play baseball, I could do it easily! So I pay my five bucks and take a look at the bottles and on the bottom row, right in the middle there is a big champagne bottle with a 20 dollar bill taped to it! WHAT?! Man that made me want to break it even more! 20 bucks to break a bottle, not bad. The Carnie said he wasn't gonna make it easy so you had to hit the bottle in the perfect spot to get it to break, and the spot was the size of Jefferson's head on the 20 dollar bill. No big deal, I'm getting 20 bucks! 5 baseballs later, no 20 bucks.

     Yep I failed and didn't break the bottle. Breaking the big bottle was a little harder than I thought, but I was convinced I could do it, after all the first five balls was just a warm up. Again the Carnies asked if I wanted to do it again, they said again "you know you want to" and all that to convince me to play again. Yes I wanted to and I played again. Five more bucks, five more baseballs, no 20 bucks. Darn.

     After that fail I decided to quit and it was about time for dinner so we left and met the people we were eating with and we went and had some dinner and looked around at other exhibits at the carnival. Instead of getting into too much detail, lets just say I ended up going back to play the game and I did not win the 20 bucks. I even borrowed money from a friend who trusted I could break the bottle, but I failed. Its not that I didn't hit the bottle, I hit the bottle plenty of times trust me. Either the game was rigged and I was tricked by those Carnies or I didn't hit the bottle in the right spot. It's all a mystery. Either way, the Carnies and my pride convinced me to keep playing the game when I should have quit 20 dollars earlier.

 

            Now to relate this whole experience to the gospel. The Devil and his temptations to get us to sin are exactly like the experience I had with the baseball throw. We have already established that I love baseball, so naturally, seeing the carnival game wanted me to play. Satan makes sinning appealing to us and makes us want to "have fun". Satan also has his own "Carnies" out there to convince us we "want to do it". Peer pressure is a huge factor Satan uses to try and get us to make a mistake. Just like the Carnies, Satan is persistent and will do all he can just to make that one little mistake. Satan is quite convincing too because he makes sinning look like fun! He tells you little white lies like "one time won't hurt" and "everyone's doing it". Satan is a sly, filthy snake and if we give in to his temptations once, we are more likely to give in again. Once I did the baseball throw for the first time, I was sucked in and very easily gave into the temptation another couple three or four times. Just like the Carnies, Satan is a great salesmen and he is happy when we give in and waste our "money" (or spirituality). Satan is just a big jerk and gets too many to fall into his traps, which we cannot afford to do.

 

     There is always hope though. Hope through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Jesus knows how to help us during our times of difficulty with temptation. He has suffered for our temptations so He can help us overcome them. There is no temptation that we can't overcome (1 Corinthians 10: 13). If we have messed up and have fallen into Satan's trap, repentance is the only way we can get out of that trap. I know that if we build our lives on a solid foundation, which is our Savior Jesus Christ and His gospel, then we will be able to withstand all the winds and temptations of the Devil. I'm grateful for the experience I had at the Carnival which helped me learn a valuable lesson about resisting the wiles of the Devil. I hope and pray I won't give in to sin like I gave into the baseball throw. I know I won't as long as I build my foundation on Christ (Helaman 5:12).