The book that came from the dust (Isaiah 29: 4), The book that was delivered to the learned and the unlearned man (Isaiah 29: 11-12), The stick of Ephraim and The stick of Joseph (Ezekiel 37: 15-20), The fruitful branches over the wall (Genesis 49 22-26), other sheep Christ has which are not of this fold (John 10: 16). The angel prophesied about in Revelations with the everlasting gospel (Revelation 14: 6).
There are plenty of references in the Bible that talk about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. So what is the Book of Mormon? well in the first part of the Book of Mormon in the intro it reads "The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains, as does the Bible, the fulness of the everlasting gospel." so it walks hand and hand with the bible. It is not taking its place. It is another testimony of Jesus Christ. It is the evidence we have that our church is the one and only true church.
So what does the Book of Mormon talk about? Well lets turn to the book itself to find out. It says in the book of second Nephi: "we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ" (2 Nephi 25: 26.) So this book talks about Christ and his teachings! It talks about Christ and his dealings with the ancient people on this the American continent! It Prophesied about Christs birth his death and his resurrection. It prophesies that Christ will return to the earth again. What more could you want in a book? It is a second witness to prove to the world that Jesus is the Christ. Its just like in a court case. Two witnesses is always much more powerful then one witness.
How do i know that the Book of Mormon is the word of god? That it is a true and honest record written by the Prophets of old? Well in the bible it reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (James 1:5). So if you wana know the truth ask God. Its cool how it works like that.
In the Book of Mormon it gives a promise. It is given by the last man to write in it. his name was Moroni. It reads: "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." (Moroni 10: 4-5) This is a promise given to us that if we ask with an open heart really wanting to know if it is true or not. That god will tell us it is true. It may come as a warm felling, it may come as a knowledge, it may come because this church makes since. the felling is different for everyone! but i can promise you that it will come. God does answer prayers. He truly does.
Since the Book of Mormon is true what does that mean? Since the Book of Mormon is true, that means it came forth the way Joseph Smith said it came forth. Meaning that he was telling the truth when he said he saw God the Father and his son Jesus Christ. It means that they showed them selves to him and told him that none of the churches where true. It means that he was a prophet of God and that he did restore Christs church back to the earth. You see Joseph Smith had a question many of us had. He wondered which church was true. He was reading the bible and came across that scripture in the book of James that I shared early. which reads: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. (James 1:5). He took this scripture to heart. He decided if any one lacked wisdom he did so he decided to ask god which church to join. he went out to a grove of trees to pray, and in his own words he said "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!
They went on to tell him that none of the churches were true that they where going to restore the truth back to the earth threw him. He was given the Book of Mormon as evidence of this. so when people read and pray about the book of Mormon. they can know that he was a prophet of god. countless of people have done this. have you?
Take the challenge read and pray from the Book of Mormon. I know that this book is true. I know it with all my heart.
Football is not a contact sport. It is a collision sport! I love football. It is by far my favorite sport to watch. The big hits, the wonderful runs, the precision passes, a stadium filled with 70000 fans screaming their head off! It is awesome! Who couldn't like football? Anyways to my point in order to play football you got to be smart. Yes football players are not just big dumb jocks. Id be willing to say that football is one of the most complex sports. You got to make sure your in the right place at the right time because if not, the offense is going to hit you for a big gain. Or on the reverse side the Defense will hit you for a loss and the next thing you know its 3rd and 15 and your in a bad situation. So you got to be smart to play football and you got to be tough. You got to hit harder then they hit. so what does this mean?
Well lets relate this to us. We are the defense the adversary, (the devil,) is the offense. He can not "gain yards" on us unless we let him. This means what? We got to number one be smart and the second thing is we got to be tough. We got to be smart by not getting "caught out of position." we do this by not letting ourselves be put in positions where we can choose wrong. If we put our self in a position where we can do wrong its like being caught out of position on the Football field. which means the next thing you know the ball is on the other side of the field then you and you are way out of position and you get hit for a big gain. Its like saying this in our lives. "I can go hang out with those people, I just wont do what they are doing." Over time (like football) you get worn out and then boom there is the big play you where scared of. You end up doing things that there doing. I have seen multiple examples of this (including myself.) I have been caught on the wrong side of the field many times. Do not let this happen to you.
So now you have been hit for a big play. you have caught yourself falling into temptation. Now comes the being tough part. They have one yard to go before they score. You know that they are going to run the ball up the middle. This is where you got to be tough, you got to hit instead of them hitting you. This is really what shows who is tougher. You know where the ball is going but can you stop them? This is like sin in our lives. we know we are doing whats wrong but can we stop? Are we going to put forth the effort to stop doing whats wrong and began to do whats right? This is where we got to be tough.
Its a good thing that we got help from the best middle linebacker in the game (no im not talking about Ray Lewis.) We have Jesus Christ to issue the blow. He is more then willing to come in the game. we just got to let him.
I testify that Jesus is the Christ. He suffered and died for us so we can return to live with God. He knows what we are going through we just got to let him in our lives. He has stuck out his hand to help us up off the "field," to brush us off, then join us in the fight. I testify that he has restored his true church back to the earth. I testify that the Book of Mormon is true and that it came forth the way Joseph Smith said it came forth. I testify that the head of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints is Jesus Christ. This is the only church that holds the power of god on this our earth. I know that to be true. You can to.
To find out more about the Gospel and Sports Click Here
To find out more about the Book of Mormon click Here
Any ideas or inspirational stories for this Blog? Have Questions about the Mormon church? Send me a message on Facebook! www.facebook.com/max.elmer (also there is a link to my facebook in the top left corner of the blog.) or send me an email at max.elmer@myldsmail.net
Practice. Yes we are not talking about the game we are talking about practice. What does practice do for you? Well simply put practice makes the game. Every athlete puts countless amount of hours into their sport before they even have a game. Yes that means work. Practice most of the time is not something you look forward to. I remember during my football days I really did not look forward to running around with 30 pounds of pads in 110 degree weather (Im from Arizona so it was really hot). However though the more you put into it the more you get out of it. (amazing how that works.) What my coaches would always tell us is that "practice does not make perfect" (contrary to the popular saying "practice makes perfect"). They would always tell us "Perfect practice makes perfect." If you dont put your all into practice then it is just going threw the motions. You get nothing out of that. so how can we have "perfect practice" in our life?
I am going to relate practice to scripture reading. Yes scripture reading. It is something most of us probably dont look forward to during the day. However, like practice, it is very important. It is what gets us ready for the "game" we all call life. Well why do we have scriptures? In the book of Romans it says: "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." (Romans 15: 4) So there where written for our learning and our benefit. The scriptures will help us in our life. They where written for our day. many people have given up there lives so we can have these records. They gave up their lives so we can have the "practice" we need to go throughout our life with peace and comfort.
Just like in practicing for a sport we need to have perfect practice in scripture study. this means just not going threw the motions. we need to study it with all our hearts in it. it doesn't do as any good just to blow threw it and just think "well that was a nice story." we need to study it with all our strength and relate it to us in our lives today. that is what they where written for.
May we have "perfect practice" in our lifes by reading and studying from the scriptures with a full and open heart.
Any ideas or inspirational stories for this Blog? send me an email at max.elmer@myldsmail.net or send me a message on facebook! www.facebook.com/max.elmer (also there is a link to my facebook in the top left corner of the blog)
What is one of the most important things when it comes to sports? To put it simple confidence. You got to have confidence in yourself and in your teammates. If you dont have confidence and think that you will lose. You will. Having confidence does not mean however that you cant put forth the work and practice required to win. For me having confidence in sports is knowing that you worked harder then the other guy. Knowing that your hard work is going to put forth results that are required with wining. Just like in sports how hard work and confidence are connected. Its like that with every aspect of our lives.
One thing that i have learned on my mission is to have confidence. I have learned to lean more on god and trust in him. I have learned that if i am doing what i should be the results will come. I have confidence that if I choose whats right god will help me out. It is that simple. If we obey gods commandments he will bless us. when we run into trouble is when we only obey his commandments 90% of the time. Relating this back to sports its like only putting forth 90% of the effort. It would be like taking it easy when the coach isn't looking or doing one less set. It just dosnt work like that! why would god work like that? I love this scripture which is found in the Doctrine and Covenants. It reads: "There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated" (Doctirine and Covenants 130: 20-21.)
Just like how In sports we only get what we put into it. we only get from god what we put into it. does that make since? let me resay that. You want blessings from god? you got to obey his commandments. Like i said in my previous blog it is not enough to "Confess Christ" then to fall back into the ways of the world. That would be like having a one win season. thats not good.
Lets all have more Confidence in god and know that he will bless us. we just got to put forth the effort like an athlete does to his sport.
Any ideas or inspritinal stories for this Blog? send me an email at max.elmer@myldsmail.net or send me a message on facebook! www.facebook.com/max.elmer (also there is a link to my facebook in the top left corner of the blog)
So as you all should know I love Sports. NFL, College, NHL, MLB, NBA, Soccer, you name it I probably follow it. They are my passion. That has probably been the hardest part about being on a mission is not being able to follow sports like I used to. So therefore I am going to write about what I love and apply it into our lives today. It will be a series of blogs. I have no idea how many parts there will be but ill go until i run out of ideas. I will relate Sports to the gospel of Jesus Christ and give short uplifting inspirational stories from different athletes.
Here is a brief summary about the different sports I follow closely why I like them and so on..
Football: My favorite. I love football the game the people the athletes just everything about it. I love being in a packed house filled with 60,000 plus fans all screaming and cheering on there team. Nothing much beats it hands down. My favorite team for professional football would be the Arizona Cardinals on a college level it would be the Arizona State Sun Devils.
Hockey: Lately I have grown a love for hockey. I dont know what sparked this but it is an amazing sport. It is very fast pace, and someone is always looking to knock somebody's head off. My favorite team is the Phoenix Coyotes.
Baseball: Americas Pastime! I love baseball. I will be the first to admit its not really a very "exciting" of a sport but nothing really compares to grabbing a hot dog, a drink, and a bag of sunflower seads then going and watching a game. It is very chill and very fun. Favorite team: Arizona Diamondbacks
Basketball: very high scoring. Fast, up the court as fast as they go down the court. if they work as a team it can be very exciting to watch. Favorite team: Phoenix Suns.
Soccer: The worlds sport! I love World Cup time. It is a very exciting time to have nation against nation! nothing brings the world together like this sport. Wars stop to watch. Cool huh? favorite team: United States National Team.
Any ideas or inspritinal stories for this Blog? send me an email at max.elmer@myldsmail.net or add me on facebook! www.facebook.com/max.elmer (also there is a link to my facebook in the top left corner of the blog)
This is a Hymn sung by an LDS artist named Alex Boye. I love this song! It is amazing. It goes along great with this scripture: 3: Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
4: Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
5: Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
6: And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.
7: Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
It also remides me of this scripture: "Therefore, care not for the body, neither the life of the body; but care for the soul, and for the life of the soul." D&C 101: 37
Just remember if we are obeying gods commandments we dont have to worry about what is going to happen. god will take care of it. he is willing to bear our grief and pain may we all come unto him.
Jesus is the Christ I know that! I truly do! he has come so our souls can be still. he has once again restored his true church to the earth so we are not left in the dark. CHRIST DOES NOT FAIL US. I know that to be true. He has restored his true gospel to the earth. I know it. You can to.
This video shows to young boys who made a difference in someones life. One simple act of kindness put tears in this mans eyes. We really dont know what other people are going threw in their lives but if we show kindness to them it may be what they need in their life. It doesn't have to be with money it could be something as simple as a smile and a warm hello. for remember "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:40.) and "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." (Mosiah 2:17)
May we all show simple acts of kindness and service and make someones day a little bit brighter.
Anyone who knows me knows that I love sports. Here is a video of the Arizona Dimondbacks when they won the 2001 World Series. Before this they were down 3 games to 2. They won game 6 so they were tied at 3 to 3. So who ever won game 7 would be called the best team in baseball. going into the bottom of the ninth they were down 2 to 1 then they come back to win it! so as we can see the dimondbacks "endured to the end" even when the going was tough. It would have been easy just to crawl into a corner and let the Yankees win. But they did not do that! They won it all! All sports is like this. There are many comebacks that I can think of and I'm sure that you can think of. now lets relate this to our lives. What does sports have to do with out lives?
Just like in sports are we going to get that final hit? or hit that game wining shot? or are we going to crumble under pressure and lose? Are we going to "Endure to the End" by not giving into the ways of this world that we live in? For remember he that "endures to the end the same shall be saved" (Mark 13:13, Matthew 24:13, 2 Nephi 31:16). It is not enough to accept Christ have a very good moments then fall back into temptation. we need to continue on and endure to the end. we need to be followers of Christ until the day we die. When we fall into temptation we need to know what we did was wrong and not do it again. This world is hard. I know that it is. May we all "Endure to the End." If we fall lets get back up and continue on till we get the prize.
Its bottom of the ninth game 7. what are you going to do?
"I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." John 12:46
This is a wonderful video. May we follow the example of the people in this video and find Christ. he has gone threw the pains and afflictions of this world. he is the one person we can relate to in our time of struggle. he is there to wipe away the tears pick us up and carry us the rest of the way. I have felt Christs love in my life. I have felt him there during my lowest time. he has given me comfort when I needed it. Whatever struggle you may be going threw in your life i invite you to let Christ into your life. He has given me comfort i know he will give you the same. He truly is the light and life of the world. I can promise you that.
