Wise People Radio Interview

I recently was interviewed for a radio program called Wise People Radio. Part 1 of the interview aired yesterday (Saturday 4/17/10) morning. Part 2 will air this next Saturday (4/24/10)morning at 8:30am.

You can hear Part 1 by clicking here.

Additionally, you can hear next week's show at www.kdkr.org by clicking on the listen live button. After Part 2 airs it will be available at the archive link above.

Quote from Brigham Young (2nd President of Mormon Church)

"We must believe that this same Jesus was crucified for the sins of the world, that is for the original sin, not the actual individual transgressions of the people; not but that the blood of Christ will cleanse from all sin, all who are disposed to act their part by repentance, and faith in his name. But the original sin was atoned for by the death of Christ, although its effects we still see in the diseases, distempers and every species of wickedness with which the human family as afflicted (Discourses of Brigham Young, p. 153).

What do you believe?

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have been stuck on John 20 recently in my bible reading. Today I read the following verses:

24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 So the other disciples were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."
27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing."
28 Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"
29 Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

John 20:24-29

Why is it so hard to believe in something that we haven't seen? I know there have been times where I thought it would be so much easier if I had lived when Jesus lived and witnessed first hand His Majesty. But would I have been one of the scoffers, or one of the believers? I hope that I would have been one of the believers, and fear that I would have been one of the multitude yelling, "Crucify Him!"

However, when I make a choice to sin instead of following Christ, or believe the lies that throw me into a self-pitying pool of depression, is that not me yelling, "Crucify Him!"? Even now, God is stripping my and exposing my sins one by one. But even through this, Christ is taking me and saying, "you are Mine!" and scouring each of the sins from my life. I use the word scouring, because He is not just removing the sins that I have embraced for so long, but He is removing them and refining me with fire.

I think the reason that I doubt sometimes as mentioned in my previous post is that I see the other possibly real Christians around me that look like they are not walking through the fires at all. They have everything that we judge to be the perfect Christian life: the kids, the home, the car, the attitude, the missionary work, the homeschool, etc... The list goes on and on.

And then I look at my life thinking here I am trying to trust in God, believing that His work will be done, loving my children wishing I could be at home with them as a good Christian mother would do... but then slowly, I am realizing am I not coveting my neighbor's life? There I go breaking the tenth commandment.

So what should I believe? That I can have my best life now? Or that if I endure, and wait patiently on God, that He will finish the work He has started in me until at last I can stand before Him and hear Him say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." I don't think I have a choice in what I believe anymore. I have to believe in Jesus Christ and the promise that He has made that "whosoever should believe in Him [Jesus Christ] should not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16. Not because it is the right thing to do, or because some preacher told me it's how I can get into heaven.

No, it is only because God told me that by trusting in Him and believing the promise of His Son, that I am His and it doesn't matter how much scouring or fire I have to endure, it is no more that I deserve from a just and merciful God who sent His Son to bear the wrath for my sins all the while hearing me joyfully proclaim, "Crucify Him!"...

What do you believe?

The art of living a Christian life

Care of Grace Gems

(J. R. Miller, "How to Live a Beautiful Christian Life" 1880)

"Whoever claims to live in Him--must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:6

We have only successfully acquired the art of living a Christian life--when we have learned to apply the principles of true religion, and enjoy its help and comfort in our daily life.

It is easy to join in devotional exercises, to quote Bible promises, to extol the beauty of the Scriptures. But there are many who do these things--whose religion utterly fails them in the very places and at the very times--when it ought to prove their staff and stay!

All of us must go out from the sweet services of the Sunday--into a week of very real and very commonplace life. We must mingle with people who are not angels! We must pass through experiences, that will naturally worry and vex us. Those about us, either wittingly or unwittingly, annoy and try us! We will meet many troubles and worries in ordinary week-day life. There are continual irritations and annoyances!

The problem is to live a beautiful Christian life--in the face of all these hindrances! How can we get through the tangled briers which grow along our path--without having our hands and feet torn by them? How can we live sweetly--amid the vexing and irritating things, and the multitude of little worries and frets which infest our way, and which we cannot evade?

It is not enough merely to 'get along in any sort of way', to drag to the close of each long, wearisome day--happy when night comes to end the strife. Life should be a joy--and not a burden. We should live victoriously, ever master of our experiences, and not tossed by them like a leaf on the dashing waves. Every earnest Christian wants to live a truly beautiful life, whatever the circumstances may be.

A little child, when asked 'what it was to be a Christian,' replied, "For me, to be a Christian is to live as Jesus would live--and behave as Jesus would behave--if He were a little girl and lived at our house."

No better definition of the Christian life could be given. Each one of us is to live just as Jesus would--if He were living out our little life in the midst of its actual environment, mingling with the same people with whom we must mingle, and exposed to the very annoyances, trials and provocations to which we are exposed. We want to live a life that will please God, and that will bear witness to the genuineness of our piety.

"Leaving you an example--so that you should follow in His steps." 1 Peter 2:21