Email to Family and Friends
We have lots of good service opportunity a this week. We painted an old school house, we stained a fairly large ramp for an elderly lady before the cold weather hits, and we also put in 1500 feet of posts and on Tuesday we'll go do a little more and put all the barbed wire up! It was so fun, I felt like I was back at the ranch. My hand were all sore and blistery, I loved it. We also had to help ( I didn't do it, and I never want to do it) pull the placenta out of a new mama Low Line. Her new baby calf is half buffalo, half Low Line, it was the cutest thing! I got to hold it and play with it. I didn't have my IPad or I would have taken a picture. I had a great time I felt like I was out with the DeWitt/ Porter family again.
This Tuesday we had the first snowfall of winter!! It's a comin!
"We Can Receive Grace For Grace"
This is a talk I had the privilege of giving in the most recent sacrament meeting of the Thermopolis Ward.
What is salvation? What dose it mean to be saved and have eternal life? We know through the Bible and other modern scripture that eternal life is not only with God, but like God.
Dose not the Psalmist tell us that "[we] are gods, and all of [us] are children of the most High." (1) Dose not Paul write "And if [we are] children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (2) Christ told us to "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (3)
But, we can only do this if we "come unto Christ, and be perfected with him, and deny [ourselves] of all ungodliness." (4) That one day "we may be purified even as he is pure." (5)
Christ is perfect! “All power is given unto [him] in heaven and in earth.” (6)
But did not John see “that [Christ] received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace; And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness; And thus he was called the Son of God…"
“John, [bore] record that he received a fulness of the glory of the Father;..
And we know that “if [we will] keep [his] commandments [we] shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in [Christ Jesus] as [he is] in the Father; [and now we] shall receive grace for grace." (7) And “possess eternal life, and be crowned with celestial glory” (8)
But we must be “cleansed by blood, even the blood of [the] Only Begotten; that [we] might be sanctified from all sin, and enjoy the words of eternal life in this world, and eternal life in the world to come, even immortal glory; For by the water [we] keep the commandment; by the Spirit [we] are justified, and by the blood [we] are sanctified;” (9) We “must.. be sanctified from all unrighteousness, that [we] may be prepared for the celestial glory;” (10)
“We know that justification [or forgiveness of sins] through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is just and true;"
"And we know also, that sanctification [or purification from the effects of sin] through the grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is just and true, to all those who love and serve God with all their mights, minds, and strength.” (11)
If we love God, we will “keep [his] commandments.” (12) And “if [we] keep [his] commandments and endure to the end [we] shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.” (13)
Now that we understand the doctrine of salvation, I cry unto all w/ in the sound of my voice “that [we] must repent or [we] cannot be saved!” (14)
We know that “repentance comes to mean a turning of the heart and will to God, and a renunciation of sin to which we are naturally inclined. Without this there can be no progress in the things of the soul’s salvation, for all accountable persons are stained by sin and must be cleansed in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. Repentance is not optional for salvation; it is a commandment of God.” (15)
Repentance is essential to receive grace for grace. As missionaries we cry repentance, we do so by helping those we teach keep their commitments.
Preach My Gospel states “Commitment[s are] an essential part of repentance. It is the act of obligating oneself to a course of action and then diligently following through on that decision. When [we] are genuinely committed, [we] have real intent, meaning that [we] fully intend to do what [we] have committed to do. [We] make an unwavering and earnest decision to change. [We] become devoted to Christ and dedicate [ourselves] to His gospel. Keeping [our] commitment[s] is how [we] 'truly manifest by [our] works that [we] have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of [our] sins'. (16)” (17)
I speak unto all who have taken upon themselves the baptismal covenant, and especially to those of you who have entered into the holy covenants of the temple. I speak by way of commandment to these people, that you “serve [God] with all your heart, might, mind and strength,” (18) and in turn I can promise you, with the authority of a personal representative of Jesus Christ, which authority is above that of the kings of the earth. That you will be able to “look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands… having the image of God engraven upon your countenance.” (19)
For you will “ be sanctified from all unrighteousness, [and you will].. be prepared for the celestial glory” (20) In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.
Elder Philip R. Bredsguard
917 Amoretti St Thermopolis, WY 82443
Notes
1. Psalms 82:6
2. Romans 8:17
3. Matthew 5:48
4. Moroni 10:32
5. Moroni 7:48
6. Matthew 28:18
7. Doctrine & Covenants 93:12-14, 16, 20
8. Doctrine & Covenants 101:65
9. Moses 6:59
10. Doctrine & Covenants 88:18
11. Doctrine & Covenants 20:30-31
12. John 14:15
13. Doctrine & Covenants 14:7
14. Alma 5:31
15. Bible Dictionary, Repentance
16. Doctrine & Covenants 20:37
17. Preach My Gospel pg 195
18. Doctrine & Covenants 4:2
19. Alma 5:19
20. Doctrine & Covenants 88:18
