Becoming a Disciple of Christ

How does one become a disciple of Christ?  What does it entail.  Today, many people believe that if you accept Christ as your Savior that you are saved.  But, what are we saved from or what are we seeking?  Is it all about heaven and hell?  I suppose I have something that I was born with deep inside my soul.  Being saved just isn't good enough for me.  I want to be saved - don't get me wrong.  I mean I do not want to go to hell - or basically since the world as a whole really doesn't know exactly what hell is anyway, but.... that's a totally different conversation.  Anyway, basically, I know what I want.  I want to live with my family eternally with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and all others who I long to be with eternally. But, that isn't all I want.  I want everyone else to be there too and I want to be a disciple of Christ.  I want to share this knowledge and love that I have.  I want to not only Follow the Savior, but I want to become like the Savior.

The New Testament teaches us the way to become a disciple.  Again and again we hear the message to "forsake" all that you have and all that you are.  This is the trouble.  How do we do this?  Mosiah 2:34 reminds us that we are indebted to God.  We always will be.  The way I figure it - is that the only thing that is really ours to give is our agency or will.  He calls to us to follow Him.  And asks that we give our whole selves.  The natural man is so inclined to have appetites and passions.  Our weakness prevent us from giving our whole selves.  Matthew 13:44-46 tells several little parables of men who give all they have.  And why wouldn't we?  Luke 12:24 reminds us that we need not fear giving  ourselves to the Lord.  The Lord will always provide for us.  It says, "Consider the ravens; for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them; how much more are ye better than the fowls?"  So, what is our problem?  Why do we not give all that we have to the Lord? 

I know I need to do this.  I know in many ways I have given my time and talents to the Lord.  I serve in callings, I have children and I serve in my ward and community.  But, what I recognize is that I could do more.  I need to more fully give my whole self to God, to His work and to His glory! 

I wanted to share a sweet example of where I think I am on the path to discipleship.  I know there are times I have gotten off the boat and followed the Lord.  But, I seem to wonder back to my old ways and my own life.  I just always think of this great talk and I have to share the whole thing!  I couldn't even pick out the best part because I love this whole talk! Please take time to read this great talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland given in October 2012 at General Conference.

"There is almost no group in history for whom I have more sympathy than I have for the eleven remaining Apostles immediately following the death of the Savior of the world. I think we sometimes forget just how inexperienced they still were and how totally dependent upon Jesus they had of necessity been. To them He had said, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me … ?”¹

But, of course, to them He hadn’t been with them nearly long enough. Three years isn’t long to call an entire Quorum of Twelve Apostles from a handful of new converts, purge from them the error of old ways, teach them the wonders of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then leave them to carry on the work until they too were killed. Quite a staggering prospect for a group of newly ordained elders.

Especially the part about being left alone. Repeatedly Jesus had tried to tell them He was not going to remain physically present with them, but they either could not or would not comprehend such a wrenching thought. Mark writes:

“He taught his disciples, and said unto them, The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.

“But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask him.”²

Then, after such a short time to learn and even less time to prepare, the unthinkable happened, the unbelievable was true. Their Lord and Master, their Counselor and King, was crucified. His mortal ministry was over, and the struggling little Church He had established seemed doomed to scorn and destined for extinction. His Apostles did witness Him in His resurrected state, but that only added to their bewilderment. As they surely must have wondered, “What do we do now?” they turned for an answer to Peter, the senior Apostle.

Here I ask your indulgence as I take some nonscriptural liberty in my portrayal of this exchange. In effect, Peter said to his associates: “Brethren, it has been a glorious three years. None of us could have imagined such a few short months ago the miracles we have seen and the divinity we have enjoyed. We have talked with, prayed with, and labored with the very Son of God Himself. We have walked with Him and wept with Him, and on the night of that horrible ending, no one wept more bitterly than I. But that is over. He has finished His work, and He has risen from the tomb. He has worked out His salvation and ours. So you ask, ‘What do we do now?’ I don’t know more to tell you than to return to your former life, rejoicing. I intend to ‘go a fishing.’” And at least six of the ten other remaining Apostles said in agreement, “We also go with thee.” John, who was one of them, writes, “They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately.”³

But, alas, the fishing wasn’t very good. Their first night back on the lake, they caught nothing—not a single fish. With the first rays of dawn, they disappointedly turned toward the shore, where they saw in the distance a figure who called out to them, “Children, have you caught anything?” Glumly these Apostles-turned-again-fishermen gave the answer no fisherman wants to give. “We have caught nothing,” they muttered, and to add insult to injury, they were being called “children.”⁴

“Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find,”⁵ the stranger calls out—and with those simple words, recognition begins to flood over them. Just three years earlier these very men had been fishing on this very sea. On that occasion too they had “toiled all the night, and [had] taken nothing,”⁶ the scripture says. But a fellow Galilean on the shore had called out to them to let down their nets, and they drew “a great multitude of fishes,”⁷ enough that their nets broke, the catch filling two boats so heavily they had begun to sink.

Now it was happening again. These “children,” as they were rightly called, eagerly lowered their net, and “they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.”⁸ John said the obvious: “It is the Lord.”⁹ And over the edge of the boat, the irrepressible Peter leaped.

After a joyful reunion with the resurrected Jesus, Peter had an exchange with the Savior that I consider the crucial turning point of the apostolic ministry generally and certainly for Peter personally, moving this great rock of a man to a majestic life of devoted service and leadership. Looking at their battered little boats, their frayed nets, and a stunning pile of 153 fish, Jesus said to His senior Apostle, “Peter, do you love me more than you love all this?” Peter said, “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.”¹⁰

The Savior responds to that reply but continues to look into the eyes of His disciple and says again, “Peter, do you love me?” Undoubtedly confused a bit by the repetition of the question, the great fisherman answers a second time, “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.”¹¹

The Savior again gives a brief response, but with relentless scrutiny He asks for the third time, “Peter, do you love me?” By now surely Peter is feeling truly uncomfortable. Perhaps there is in his heart the memory of only a few days earlier when he had been asked another question three times and he had answered equally emphatically—but in the negative. Or perhaps he began to wonder if he misunderstood the Master Teacher’s question. Or perhaps he was searching his heart, seeking honest confirmation of the answer he had given so readily, almost automatically. Whatever his feelings, Peter said for the third time, “Lord, … thou knowest that I love thee.”¹²

To which Jesus responded (and here again I acknowledge my nonscriptural elaboration), perhaps saying something like: “Then Peter, why are you here? Why are we back on this same shore, by these same nets, having this same conversation? Wasn’t it obvious then and isn’t it obvious now that if I want fish, I can get fish? What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world. So, Peter, for the second and presumably the last time, I am asking you to leave all this and to go teach and testify, labor and serve loyally until the day in which they will do to you exactly what they did to me.”

Then, turning to all the Apostles, He might well have said something like: “Were you as foolhardy as the scribes and Pharisees? As Herod and Pilate? Did you, like they, think that this work could be killed simply by killing me? Did you, like they, think the cross and the nails and the tomb were the end of it all and each could blissfully go back to being whatever you were before? Children, did not my life and my love touch your hearts more deeply than this?”

My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: “Did you love me?” I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest commandment of them all—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.”¹³ And if at such a moment we can stammer out, “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,” then He may remind us that the crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.

“If ye love me, keep my commandments,”¹⁴ Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it. It was this truth, this reality, that allowed a handful of Galilean fishermen-turned-again-Apostles without “a single synagogue or sword”¹⁵ to leave those nets a second time and go on to shape the history of the world in which we now live.

I testify from the bottom of my heart, with the intensity of my soul, to all who can hear my voice that those apostolic keys have been restored to the earth, and they are found in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. To those who have not yet joined with us in this great final cause of Christ, we say, “Please come.” To those who were once with us but have retreated, preferring to pick and choose a few cultural hors d’oeuvres from the smorgasbord of the Restoration and leave the rest of the feast, I say that I fear you face a lot of long nights and empty nets. The call is to come back, to stay true, to love God, and to lend a hand. I include in that call to fixed faithfulness every returned missionary who ever stood in a baptismal font and with arm to the square said, “Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ.”¹⁶ That commission was to have changed your convert forever, but it was surely supposed to have changed you forever as well. To the youth of the Church rising up to missions and temples and marriage, we say: “Love God and remain clean from the blood and sins of this generation. You have a monumental work to do, underscored by that marvelous announcement President Thomas S. Monson made yesterday morning. Your Father in Heaven expects your loyalty and your love at every stage of your life.”

To all within the sound of my voice, the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while there is time, “Do you love me?” And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul, “Yea, Lord, we do love thee.” And having set our “hand to the plough,”¹⁷ we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Becoming as Little Children

What do you think of when you see this picture of 11 little kids?

"Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."  - Matthew 18:3

Now what are you thinking?

Children can bring feelings of joy and anxiety - excitement and exhaustion.  

Children can bring feelings of love and feelings of frustration.

Many people in the world today see kids as burdens.

Many people don't understand why they do what they do.

 I know a lot of people that complain that kids are just bratty, annoying, mean and whiny. They can often be careless, difficult and hard to please.  On the other hand, I know people that see how sweet and innocent children are and absolutely love life with little children, if fact they couldn't imagine life without them.  Depending on your experiences in life you might feel like I did that kids are a mixture of both!

 So, why would the Lord want us to become like children....and what does that exactly entail?  When we read the Book of Mormon we can gain further insight into the attributes of children that we are to emulate.

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been since the fall of Adam, and will be forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticing of the Holy Spirit and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." -King Benjamin, Mosiah 3:19

Why do some kids act like this ...

And some kids act like this.....

"Our Heavenly Father knows children are a key to helping us become like Him.  There is so much we can learn from children."  

- Jean A. Stevens, April 2011

This week as I studied my scriptures I found some new treasures I would like to point out.  First of all, in Matthew 18:3, it says, "Except ye be converted and become as a little child."  We must be converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ and become as a child.  The cross reference found in the footnotes was 1 Corinthians 14:20 Which says, "Brethren, be not children in understanding; howbiet in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men."  This says to me that we need to be understanding and mature but adopt that great attribute that children possess which is to not have malice.  Jean A. Steven, First Counselor in the General Primary Presidency said, 

"These precious children of God come to us with believing hearts.  They are full of faith and receptive to feelings of the Spirit,  They exemplify humility, obedience, and love.  They are often the first to love and the first to forgive." 

             



"And moreover, I say unto you, that the time shall come when the knowledge of a Savior shall spread through every nation, kindred, tongue and people.  And behold, when that time cometh, none shall be found blameless before God, except it be little children, only through repentance and faith on the name of the Lord God Omnipotent."  Mosiah 3:20-21

This may surprise you - especially if you know a little terror or two!  But scriptures tell us that children are innocent and cannot be tempted of the devil until the age of accountability. So, then why are there mini little minions running around this world?  I would submit that it is a result of the example set around them.  They do not have to be subjected to satan to be naughty.  They see us being naughty and copy what they see - whether it be a parent, sibling, friend, TV show, school mates, etc.  Influence is indeed strong.  Children watch, listen and copy.  

 The following is snippets from a talk back in 1994 by MERLIN R. LYBBERT in a talk entitled "The Special Status of Children."

In a day when one of “the greatest problem[s] in our society is the abandonment of children through the abandonment of parental leadership” (Richard Lloyd Anderson, Understanding Paul, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1983, p. 354), the First Presidency has asked that “we reemphasize the need for all adult members to focus on our children in an ongoing effort to help them learn to follow the teachings of the Savior.” Also they have asked each of us to “rededicate ourselves to nourish and bless them temporally and spiritually” (First Presidency Letter, 1 Aug. 1993; see Ensign, Jan. 1994, p. 80).

Parents in Zion have the special responsibility of teaching and training their children in righteousness. They are to be taught “to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old.” Otherwise, the Lord declared, “the sin be upon the heads of the parents” (D&C 68:25). This teaching is to be done before a child reaches the age of accountability, and while innocent and sin-free. This is protected time for parents to teach the principles and ordinances of salvation to their children without interference from Satan. It is a time to dress them in armor in preparation for the battle against sin. When this preparation time is neglected, they are left vulnerable to the enemy. To permit a child to enter into that period of his life when he will be buffeted and tempted by the evil one, without faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and an understanding of the basic principles of the gospel, is to set him adrift in a world of wickedness. During these formative, innocent years, a child may learn wrong behavior; but such is not the result of Satan’s temptations, but comes from the wrong teachings and the bad example of others. In this context, the Savior’s harsh judgment of adults who offend children is better understood, wherein he said, “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones” (Luke 17:2).

We offend a child by any teaching or example which leads a little one to violate a moral law; causes him to stumble, or go astray; excites him to anger; creates resentment; or perhaps even leads him to become displeasing and disagreeable. Certainly, in the context of the Savior’s harsh indictment concerning anyone who “offends” a child, one guilty of such conduct is in serious jeopardy.

I have a little quote that hangs in my house that says, "When we try to teach our children about life, they teach us what life is really all about."

I know that we must become childlike not childish.  I know that Jesus Christ loved little children.  I have seen first hand how quick they are to forgive, how quick they are to trust, love, serve and have faith.  I have seen children that resemble angels upon the earth.  I have had children warm my heart, fill my eyes with tears and pray words I could never have expressed better.  I am so thankful for my Savior who reminds us to be as little children - submissive, humble, patience and kind.  

Thank you to Lds.org Media Library for the use of these pictures!!