I'm back in school---again! This is the third time I've attempted to finish my Bachelors degree. They say the third time is the charm. I'm into week three of my studies. It's amazing to me how my old brain can still rise to the challenge when I, er, challenge it. It's been an experience, that's for sure.
I'm doing online school through BYU-I at the moment and one of the classes I'm taking is the Book of Mormon. I know for all you non-LDS people out there, this may seem odd and strange to you. That's perfectly all right. No one takes the same path in life, and isn't that wonderful? How very boring it would be if we were all carbon copies of each other!
In my class I was required to watch six different video clips. I wanted to share one of the messages that struck me as particularly important. It's from a talk by Elder Bednar, one of the 12 living apostles we have today. (Note-that link does not take you to his talk but to another where he speaks about his apostleship) His talk was entitled, 'That we may always have his spirit with us.' He reminded us that when we were baptized, it was only half of the important ordinance. Our first baptism is by immersion by someone that holds the authority from God to preform that ordinance. Our second baptism is by fire and the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit. We are given the gift of the Holy Ghost. We are reminded weekly during the prayer on the sacrament of our covenants made with God and His promises to us. We promise to keep our covenants and He promises that the Holy Ghost will be our constant companion.
God doesn't break his promises, but we often do. Elder Bednar said in his talk that we must recognize when what we are partaking of in entertainment via movies or books or music causes the Holy Spirit to withdraw from us and to stop doing those things. The spirit of God cannot abide vulgarity, immodesty, or anger. The spirit of the Lord provides direction, instruction and spiritual protection.
Couldn't we all use spiritual protection? I know I could. What does spiritual protection mean to you?
In my class I was required to watch six different video clips. I wanted to share one of the messages that struck me as particularly important. It's from a talk by Elder Bednar, one of the 12 living apostles we have today. (Note-that link does not take you to his talk but to another where he speaks about his apostleship) His talk was entitled, 'That we may always have his spirit with us.' He reminded us that when we were baptized, it was only half of the important ordinance. Our first baptism is by immersion by someone that holds the authority from God to preform that ordinance. Our second baptism is by fire and the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit. We are given the gift of the Holy Ghost. We are reminded weekly during the prayer on the sacrament of our covenants made with God and His promises to us. We promise to keep our covenants and He promises that the Holy Ghost will be our constant companion.
God doesn't break his promises, but we often do. Elder Bednar said in his talk that we must recognize when what we are partaking of in entertainment via movies or books or music causes the Holy Spirit to withdraw from us and to stop doing those things. The spirit of God cannot abide vulgarity, immodesty, or anger. The spirit of the Lord provides direction, instruction and spiritual protection.
Couldn't we all use spiritual protection? I know I could. What does spiritual protection mean to you?
Amen. :)
ReplyDeleteRight? I know that having that spiritual protection is important, especially in the world in which we live currently.
ReplyDelete