Week 6

Matthew 25: 1-13 is the story of the ten virgins. The simple version is that there were five that had oil in there lamps and five that didn't. When it was time to go to a wedding the five that didn't have oil asked the ones that did and they said, "no we can't share" then they lit their lamps and went to the wedding. When I was younger I always thought this story was unkind, "why can't they just share?" As I got older I understood different things about it; we can't share our testimonies, we need to be prepared, we need to be adding "oil" daily we can't give years of knowledge (adding to their lamps daily) to those that are not ready in just hours. But what came to me this time in reading it was how President Nelson said that we wont be able to make it spiritually if we don't have the Holy Ghost with us. Lamps= light and that's what the Holy Ghost is, so those who's lamps are dark possibly don't have the holy Ghost and in that case you can't just give your gift of the Holy Ghost to someone else. 

Gotquestions.org said this, "The overall and easily seen thrust of the parable is that Christ will return at an unknown hour and that His people must be ready. Being ready means preparing for whatever contingency arises in our lives and keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus at all times while we eagerly await His coming. As seen in the fact that all the virgins were sleeping when the call came indicates that it doesn’t matter what we are doing when Christ returns. We may be working, eating, sleeping, or pursuing leisure activities. Whatever it is, we must be doing it in such a way that we don’t have to “make things right” (get more oil) when He comes."

Week 5

So this week I thought about this scripture, Matthew 21: 19 "And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away." I had read this before and thought I was kind of weird that Christ just cursed this tree because it didn't have fruit for him to eat. So this time I decided to look it up and see what others thought. 

The website The Gospel Coalition said it best, ... "he spots a fig tree “in leaf.” At this point in late spring, most fig trees haven’t developed mature fruit (Mark 11:13). But this particular tree draws Jesus’s attention because it already has a full covering of leaves. It’s an early bloomer. Its foliage signals that it should have early figs. He is immediately disappointed. All leaves, no fruit. All expectation, no satisfaction. In a shocking turn, Jesus curses the tree and makes it wither from the roots, never to yield fruit again. We are taken aback; this seems stunningly out of character for Jesus, the child-welcomer, compassionate healer, and storm-calmer. What should we learn from this peculiar scene? There are two things that we can take away from this: The time had come for God’s people to yield fruit that would bless the world, as his own special planting, they must yield spiritual fruit as his covenant people. They did not do that.  The last point is this Christ came to restore. Israel’s fruit will now be harvested; blessing will now pour forth. While the rest of the nations—the other fig trees—are not yet in season, this one tree is “in leaf.” Except there’s no fruit. The fig tree, once again, has failed. The Passover celebration, the tumult, the crowds, the singing—it’s all a show. Jesus enters God’s house of prayer and finds it a “den of robbers” (Mark 11:17). Lots of action, lots of bustle, but no righteousness. Leaves, but no fruit."  

What do we do that is just "leaves?" As I think about this I know I can do better and have "fruit" to give back to the Lord.








https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/jesus-curse-fig-tree/

week 4

I have a couple of thoughts this week. 

Mark 10:2-5 talks about the Pharisees coming to Christ and wanting to know if they could still divorce their wives? Christ ask them what did Moses say? They answered, "He said we could." (Moses wrote a bill of divorcement) I can almost see the smirk on their faces. Then this is the answer Christ gave, "For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept." This got me to think sometimes we get what we ask for even if it's not the right thing. I think we need those dead ends or U-turns to find our right path. It may even be a life time of asking for directions and turning around but I think that's how Heavenly Father allows us to learn. 

The last thought I had this week and it may seem a little funny but I have found scriptures that have made Christ more human. I can see his humor, frustration, sadness, and love.

This weeks thoughts are; "what do we put first instead of following Christ?"

In Luke 9: 59-62 it says, "And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house. And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." 

At first read you could think these verses are mean or unkind but if you look at what it's saying is, "put Christ first". We also need to remember that the bible was written for a people that lived a long time ago. They were farmers and fisher man. Christ use things and language that they would understand. The web site becoming christians said, "For a plowman to be successful in His work, he must concentrate on the job he started. He knows that the only way is forward and not being distracted by the things left behind. In case the plowman starts to look back, his plow line would become crooked. If that happens, the field he is plowing will not yield a full harvest." I know I have put Family and tv first before something maybe I should've done instead.

Insight week 2

So this week as I was reading in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I saw or noticed that Christ taught near water or on a boat. That was interesting to me so I looked up "water and the New Testament" one of the things I found was,"The ocean, lakefronts and riversides often provide space for peace and a sense of the sacred." The thought that came to me was, that makes sense. Even though Christ knew his job and was committed to that job, even loved it, I could imagine that it got overwhelming at times and being out on a calming sea away from the crowd must have been nice. I then thought about motherhood (yes it was a jump) and I consider me as motherish. We/I love my job, are committed to it and wouldn't trade it but it sure can be overwhelming sometimes and we all could use a "boat" to go out a ways and be calm.

So I needed to take a 3 credit class to finish up some requirements for school. I saw that I could take a religion class (New Testament) for 2 and thought why not. This is my first week and already I can tell that while this started as a class of necessity it's going to change to a class of learning something. For this class I needed to make a blog post each week so here it is.

This week we talked about principles from the scriptures. One of the things that was brought up was "those who have much should give back." I'm not saying I'm prefect in any way but I try and follow this philosophy. The Lord has blessed me with a good job and money the least I can do is give back. I hope it doesn't come to this but I may need help sometime in my life as well and I would hope that someone gave like I did/do. I don't think it has to do with just money though. I think we can give time/help to others to give back. The Lord knows our heart and if we truly are willing to help someone at anytime He knows that. We may not be helping someone all the time but we need to be willing all the time. The question was asked do we know someone in our life that just does for others without complaining or you can call on them for anything? Wouldn't it be nice if we were the person someone thought of when asked this question.