What Christ means to me

Image a world without knowing Christ and His gospel.  If you look at humanity’s worldly experience over the millennia, at least 90% of us have no understanding of the true nature of God, His son and their role in our salvation.  Man has had to struggle through this mortal existence without knowing the gospel plan and the happiness it brings.  Each person is born, grows up, lives and dies with a limited view of their purpose.  If they didn’t see, touch, taste, feel or smell it, it didn’t exist.  Others are lead down strange paths by the vain theories of men.  They don’t know where they came from, why they are here or where they go after this mortal realm. Hope and faith are strange to this world view.  Today, our world is caught up in such a dark place where faith is chided and hope can only be come from the government. Fortunately, God gave us prophets to guide us back to him.

One such prophet taught over a thousand years ago of Christ. From Alma chapter 34: 8-x

Behold, I say unto you, that I do know that Christ shall come among the children of men, to take upon him the transgressions of his people, and that he shall atone for the sins of the world; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

 9 For it is expedient that an ^aatonement should be made; for according to the great ^bplan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish; yea, all are hardened; yea, all are ^cfallen and are lost, and must perish except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made.

 10 For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a ^bsacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and ^deternal  sacrifice.

 Now there is not any man that can sacrifice his own blood which will atone for the sins of another. Now, if a man murdereth, behold will our law, which is ^ajust, take the life of his brother? I say unto you, Nay.

 12 But the law requireth the ^alife of him who hath ^bmurdered; therefore there can be nothing which is short of an infinite atonement which will suffice for the sins of the world.

 13 Therefore, it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice, and then shall there be, or it is expedient there should be, a ^astop to the shedding of ^bblood; then shall the ^claw of Moses be fulfilled; yea, it shall be all fulfilled, every jot and tittle, and none shall have passed away.

Now, Imagine you lived in the time of Christ. Prophets of old had prophesied of His coming:

From Isaiah chapter 7:14-16 :

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a ^asign; ^bBehold, a^cvirgin shall conceive, and bear a ^dson, and shall call his name^eImmanuel.

 15 ^aButter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

 16 For ^abefore the child shall know to refuse the ^bevil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

But what surprised God’s people was his humble beginnings. He was born in a manger to a young unmarried virgin. He was not brought to His thrown, but was threatened by the rulers of His own land.  He was a carpenter’s son in a small town in Judea.  He lived not as a king, but as a common man.  He sought out John the Baptist to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness.  He then fasted, prayed and was sorely tempted as He began his mortal ministry.

In this season as we celebrate the birth of Christ, we can now truly grasp His significance. Many thought that the messiah would come and conquer their enemies and reign in glory.

Through the scriptures and the prophets we learn of Christ’s life and purpose. His virgin birth over two millennia ago, began his mortal ministry. He lived a humble life of service. He shunned sin and chose the good throughout his life. In the end, he knelt down in an olive orchard, prayed to his father and accepted all of man kind’s sin.  He felt pain and anguish and temptation but chose to atone for you and me.  He let himself be taken, scourged and finally crucified, sealing the atonement with his blood.

Christ, through the atonement transformed our lone and dreary world, into a world ruled by a gospel that brings hope and happiness to the full extent of God’s creation.  Through His teachings we know we existed before this mortal life and we have a loving Father in Heaven. We chose to follow Christ and take the risk of a mortal life. We have an eternal soul made up of our body and our spirit both created through God’s power.  Our prophets testify of Christ and we love and follow him. He has given us his Plan of Happiness that leads us back to our father and eternal life.  Because Christ took upon himself my sins and yours and the sins of man’s mortal existence, we can partake of His atonement and be cleansed pure and white.  We can choose to follow him by walking the path he designed, guiding us through the pitfalls of mortality.

In Truth, Christ’s mortal ministry defeated our greatest enemy and through his atonement, He unlocked the gates for heaven for all of us to return to our Father in Heaven and to rule and reign in celestial glory.

Today, we have another test of our faith, instead of trying to comprehend how this normal looking man could be the son of God, we have to have the faith to believe this remarkable story of Christ’s life, death and resurrection.

Here we stand at the cusp of the greatest and last dispensation of time, waiting for our savior’s return, this time to rule and reign as was for told in the scriptures and by prophets of old.

Will man finally accept God’s invitation and fully partake of his glorious gospel?

Through the Gospel we can have a happy life on earth and eternal joy with our Father in Heaven.

It is my prayer that we can have the faith to believe in the true and everlasting Gospel. Christ did come to earth. He was the Son of God. He did take upon himself the sins of the world. He is the only being that could have done so and through him we can return to our heavenly father. I know this. This has be testified to me by the holy Ghost.  I Know that God lives. His son is my savior and he loves each of us. We can return to him through his Gospel.

Obama and our standing in the world

America may survive the current regime, but our standing in the world, our economic power and our society have taken serious hits over the last 5 years.

Our President keeps choosing to support those that have no love for us. He seeks to hurt our alliances and has alienated much of the world. Egypt, Syria, Libya are now wrecked with Islamic fanatics tearing those countries to pieces as our president sits on his thumbs or worse supports our enemies. When is America going to wake up to this guy’s real agenda?

We have been sliding down the slippery slope of failed economic policies for 5 years now. Our government has mortgaged our future for generations with its spending policies.

Our employment levels and growth are so anemic that we have millions of Americans who may never work again due to regulation, extended unemployment coverage and Obamacare.

For most of his presidency, Obama has looked to implement his agenda. He has gotten most of what he wants. Has that been good for you? Is our country stronger? Do we get along better? Are we color blind?  Which race is racist today?  What does he want for the next 3 years?  Will you be able to afford his leadership?

The best way for us to get back on the right track involves you taking responsibility for our future. Each of us need to elect those that will rebuild our country.

We have seen what the Democrats want and what they have delivered. Each policy has failed to deliver what we need. The Democrats never want to fix anything. If they fix something, what will they campaign on in the next election?  Democratic policies are designed to fail. They want to say, “the only way to fix that problem is more of their solution”.  The problem is their prescription is poison and will never cure the anything.  We need leaders that are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and fix what is broken. Economic growth, strong world leadership and strengthening our families and society are the goals.  In order to change our country we have to start now and continue to push for leadership, strength and policy that will save this sinking ship and put it back on a course that will lead to our success.

Obama and the budget

Let’s talk about who is reckless and irresponsible in our government today. Is it irresponsible to seek an actual budget? Is it irresponsible to attempt to reign in a government that is out of control, spending and taxing and destroying our great nation? I say not. It is time to put the brakes on and change course.  The president and his party cries foul when they don’t get their way, talk about a bunch of whining children! They can’t stand it when they don’t get their way. They do not care about democracy or the constitution or the rule of law.  They want what they want regardless of the cost, destruction or death caused by Obamacare. What is the goal of those rascally republicans?  Stop funding the largest, most ill planned and ill executed boondoggle in decades. When I say funding I mean stop spending what we don’t have to create another government failure. I figure that the Democrats could stand on their proposal if they had the money to pay for it, but they don’t. They want my children and my children’s children to pay for their idiotic, ill defined and destructive programs that don’t work.  Each of us is looking at our health care differently today. We no longer can choose the care we need. The government has taken that away. We can only purchase healthcare that is approved by the new Obamacare law.  They said it would cost each family less. That was a lie. Look at the premiums, take a dose of reality. This is going to increase our costs and reduce our coverage leaving us with less each month to support our families. If you can’t afford the new coverage, then guess what, you can always pay a fine to the government… What a deal! 

For those who support the president and his policies, which policy has helped you? Are you better off today that 5 years ago? How can you still be enjoying this man’s Koolaid?

I for one find the President’s handling of the budget negotiation extremely childish.  He is sitting up in his ivory house choosing winners and losers.  Closing down open area monuments in the capital, really?  Not funding food for small children, really?  Everything is politics to this man.  He has great hubris towards each of us (he hates us). There is no other explanation.  Listen to his words. Watch his eyes. The president has no love for his country or its citizens. That is clear.  He loves power.  Note how few of his policies have actually been run through congress.  This man has done most of his ruling through presidential order. His leadership or lack there of is why our country is failing. The world see’s it. I see it. Perhaps you should take a close look and see for yourself.  I am grateful to have a few patriots left in this country that are willing to stand up and attempt to stop this dictator.

So I have been quietly licking my wounds from last falls disastrous election worried about my children’s future and my survival and then I learn how the fix was in.  First, we have a government that lied, and lied and then lied some more about the death of 4 Americans in Libya. Not only did they lie about the cause, they also lied about their response and let one of our citizens die in the field of battle from blood loss instead of taking care of our own.  This was a political death. The President and his campaign didn’t want to admit that terrorism was still alive and well.  My biggest issue with this whole situation is our President’s campaign chose to put all of us at risk in order to cover up his mismanagement.  What kind of message does this whole affair send to our enemies?  Looks like the administration has painted targets on all of us.  The people inside the government and military knew exactly how to react and they were suppressed by the political leadership.  This wasn’t just a simple case of corruption, this was malevolent. The President knew it as soon as it happened and now 8 months later we finally learn what kind of leader we have. Along with the President and his administration, we have one other player in this disaster, the American press. They continue to turn a blind eye to the administration and lap up his lies and spew them back at us.  For all of those in the country that still listen to the news as covered by the big 3 networks and CNN, you need to stop this bad habit and get some real news.  In the last decade the quality and veracity of the news coverage in this country has steadily declined to the point where the information they provide has only one purpose, to extend their power and the power of the democratic party. TV news and most newspapers today are all about their agenda and has nothing to do with your freedom or providing you with honest reporting. We need to vote with our TV remotes and pick another station. Next we have the IRS attacking the tea party and right wing individuals in the media and just regular citizens.  I have been filing tax returns for over 30 years and after Obama was elected, I received my first audit. I have always been outspoken, but this whole chapter in this mis-administration is dark and foul. I was cleared (paid 5 bucks instead of thousands they claimed I owed), but how chilling was that effect on the last election? Is there no end to the thuggery of this administration?  I don’t think this was just a simple case of a few lower level bureaucrats, this can be traced back to the party in power and their desire to rule you. Finally, we have the latest, the FBI going after phone records of the AP. Can anyone say suppression of our first amendment rights? This is all very chilling and American patriots need to stand up and run these thugs out of office and take our country back.