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Posts Tagged ‘Jesus Christ’

LDS_baptismIn part 4 of my series I’m going to address the 5th question asked of new converts at their interview to be baptized into the Mormon Church. The question in its entirety goes as follows:

5. You have been taught that membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints includes living gospel standards. What do you understand of the following standards? Are you willing to obey them?

a. The law of chastity, which prohibits any sexual relationship outside the bonds of a legal marriage between a man and a woman.

b. The law of tithing.

c. The Word of Wisdom.

d. The Sabbath day, including partaking of the sacrament weekly and rendering service to fellow members.

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‘TIS THE SEASON for Smithmas

Joseph or JesusIn recent weeks the Church has produced a lot of material promoting the idea they want the Saints to be focused on Jesus because it is after all the Christmas season. I noticed a theme that kept running through each of the articles they produced and it had little to do with Jesus, but a lot to do with the praise and adoration of their founder, Joseph Smith. I thought it’d be good to re-post an article I wrote a few years back that outlined just how wonderful Mr. Smith was. The following was originally posted in December 2008.

     Here we are with another Thanksgiving and Christmas season upon us!  I love this time of year for the changing colors of the trees, the air smells like the season’s cold is getting ready to lay itself down upon us, and of course for the food.  Yum!
     Alas, I would be remiss if I were to go about my day in this glorious time without giving my favorite reason…Jesus!
     While December 25th may not be the actual date of Jesus’ birth, it serves as a great reminder for us as to why we celebrate to begin with!

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flowers-cartoon-8Because the November issue of the Ensign contains all the General Conference talks from October it doesn’t provide a Visiting Teaching message. Women are encouraged to “prayerfully select” one of the conference addresses to use as their message this month with those they visit.

I choose Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf’s talk “Come, join with Us”.

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“Seeking learning is a lifelong pursuit and one that increases our ability to serve the Lord.” – LDS.org

stickman thinking 3As I came across the above message put out by the Church I couldn’t help but think of those who are disabled.  Many of us either know of people or take care of those who aren’t able to function or live on their own because of an impairment.  Their intellectual capacity won’t ever meet the high demands of a secular society as they seem to be held prisoner behind the invisible bars of physical and mental “handicaps” they’ve been born with or that’s been imposed upon them by disease or accident.

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LDS_baptismDuring the next couple of weeks I’ll be presenting a short series on the six questions people are asked before they’re baptized into the Mormon faith.

As I read over the questions I wondered if people going through the interview process felt more like they were interviewing for a job than coming to faith in Jesus Christ. As you’ll see the questions are more about what the convert is committed to do, and what they believe about Church leaders than a testament of what Jesus has done in the life of the believer.

That’s what our conversation to Jesus should be about; it should be about what he did for us on the cross. We were once lowly, wretched sinners and He picked us up out of the muck and mire, washed our sins away with His blood and saved us.

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Mormon ScripturesThis morning I came across a Facebook page titled “I Love the Book of Mormon”. My question to Mormons is why do you love this book? What’s so special about it?

The mormon.org website describes the Book of Mormon as “another witness that Jesus Christ really lived, that He was and is God’s Son. “ As I read that statement alone a couple of questions came to mind such as:

Why is another witness needed?

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The visiting teaching message for October 2013 is titled The Divine Mission of Jesus Christ: Creator. The message this month gives a very vague, and watered down view of what the Mormons believe is the mission of Jesus Christ. In this brief article I hope to fill in the gaps, and address things they choose to leave unspoken.

Council-Heaven-MormonAs I investigated the Mormon Church one of the lessons the missionaries taught me was about the origins and mission of Jesus Christ. I learned that he was the first born spirit child of Heavenly Father and his goddess wife. I was told there was a great council in heaven to determine who would be sent to be the savior of the world and who help create the new world under Heavenly Father’s direction.

At this meeting both Jesus and Lucifer (who is also a spirit child of Heavenly Father) stepped forward to be the savior. In the end Jesus was ultimately chosen to be the savior and creator of the world.

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(EDIT: I wanted to let our readers know I made a small change in this article. I posted the wrong month for the message. It should have been July and not August.)

Romans 1:16 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

flowers-cartoon-8The Visiting Teaching Message for July 2013 is Teaching and Learning the Gospel. It’s so important to know the gospel of Jesus Christ and to share what you know with others. There are many false gospels, beliefs and teachings in this world that will lure you away from Jesus Christ if you let them.

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Hello, soon I’ll be launching my new blog designed especially for the LDS woman. Using various LDS resources from the Visiting Teaching Message to the lessons in Relief Society on Sunday morning I hope to offer insight that will draw the women who read my blog closer to Jesus Christ.

There are many challenges and expectation LDS women face daily whether they’re young or old, married or single. One thing in common with all the internal and external battles they face is perfection. Although I’ve heard many Mormons deny it the sad fact is with membership in the church comes the desire and command to be perfect.

I hope and pray that through my blog I will be able to offer the women who come there some encouragement, and help them replace the negative dialog going in their heads with God’s truth. And know the love of the real Jesus Christ.

The new blog is titled LDS Sister’s Corner, web address is  http://ldssisterscorner.wordpress.com/

In Christ,

Melissa Grimes

melissa@lifeafter.org

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Pursued by the One True God: My Journey Out of Mormonism

by Carla Mickelson 

I was born and raised in the Mormon Church and was a faithful member for over 39 years. In May 2012 I left the Mormon Church for Christianity. For me, leaving Mormonism was spurred by something a dying pastor said to me at work one night. I was his nurse and I thought I was doing him a favor by letting him hold my hand and talk about Bible stories, but the pastor really blessed me by opening my eyes to Christ’s grace.

He told me that when Jesus was dying on the cross, He had taken upon Himself the sins of the world. He explained that all sin was judged once and does not need to be judged again if we accept Christ’s sacrifice for us. All other men will be judged by their works, but those who accept Jesus do not need to stand at the judgment seat because their sins were already paid for. This really affected me because it clarified for me how our sins were “nailed to the cross.”

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Lies and Confusion in the Book of Mormon

Mormon Decisions 102 Nephi 25:5-8;

“5 Yea, and my soul delighteth in the words of Isaiah, for I came out from Jerusalem, and mine eyes hath beheld the things of the Jews, and I know that the Jews do understand the things of the prophets, and there is none other people that understand the things which were spoken unto the Jews like unto them, save it be that they are taught after the manner of the things of the Jews.”

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 Glory of God

Mormon Decisions 10Gospel Standards, pg. 160; “We, of course, seek after knowledge, light, and intelligence and to inform ourselves upon all matters of importance. The glory of God, we have been told by the Prophet Joseph, is intelligence; and we desire to gain knowledge and to become as intelligent as we possibly can…—Era, 24:866.” – Heber J. Grant

Hebrews 1:3; “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

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The other day I read an article in my local paper about the impact Romney’s run for the White House is having on the general public, and Mormonism itself. The article interviewed two Mormon missionaries serving in the church I attended as a Mormon. The article confirms the concern many Christians have had from the moment Romney started to gain momentum in the race and as he gets closer to being the GOP nominee their concerns aren’t without merit.

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September 27 – Jude 1:24-25; “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”

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August 9 – Luke 8:9-11; “And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.”

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Threats, intimidation and fear

I didn’t grow up in the Mormon Church but converted to the church in my early twenties, so I never had the opportunity to attend any of the youth firesides or activities as a young woman. When I came across this quote by a leader in the Young Women’s organization of the Mormon Church it broke my heart. It makes me feel such sorrow for those who were in attendance during this fireside or for those who will hear this quote in one of their classes. The quote reads as follows:

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As I was reading through a discussion board dedicated to Mormonism today I ran across a thread started by a Mormon on the topic of morals. This individual gave glowing comments about the youth in his church, attributing their obedience to the Mormon gospel to be what makes them so unique when compared to their non-member peers. His assertion is nothing new, in Mormonism someone’s goodness or lack thereof is always measured by how closely they seem to be following the Mormon gospel. Keeping yourself “morally clean” is a huge thing in the Mormon Church especially for the youth.

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When I hear songs like the one above by Casting Crowns I can’t help but flash back to a time when my view of Jesus was very different from what it is today. As a Mormon the Jesus I believed in was my elder spirit brother, he was also a created being and the one we choose to follow in a pre-earth life and who atoned for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane.

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Jesus is the Only Way

By Melissa Grimes

      I recently come upon this quote by Gordon B. Hinckley:

 “Just as our Redeemer gave His life as a vicarious sacrifice for all men, and in so doing became our Savior, even so we, in a small measure, when we engage in proxy work in the temple, become as saviors to those on the other side who have no means of advancing unless something is done in their behalf by those on earth” (“Closing Remarks,” Ensign, November 2004, 105).

     The idea that we have the power to save someone, in the eternal sense is blasphemy. We don’t have the power to do that, only Jesus does. You don’t need someone to do Masonic temple rituals for you in the LDS temple.

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March 14 – Ex. 3:14, John 8:58; “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM”.  “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am”.

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What an amazing set of scriptures to give to a Mormon!  Ask them why they think the Pharisees were so angry with Jesus after reading these two verses to them.  Then share their own scriptures with them and ask them what it means.

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Introductory page of the Book of Mormon, 2nd paragraph:  “JESUS IS THE CHRIST, THE ETERNAL GOD”.

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