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A friend of mine emailed me this and I had to share. It is very touching.
Nick Vujicic is from Australia and was born with out arms or legs. He is now a world-wide motivational speaker and a devout Christian. His tesitmony is amazing and after seeing this you will come closer to Jesus. I’ll share a few links and videos that I watched.
For some reason my video wasn’t working on this site, so I’ll just provide you with the links. This first video is Nick presenting to some gradeschool and is called “Are you Going to Finish?”
http://www.maniacworld.com/are-you-going-to-finish-strong.html
The next video shows Nick in his day to day life as well as a presentation to a church group:
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=9bc6025b51155e26f6ce
I sincerely hope this touches you as it did me. We are all truly created by God for a purpose and if we seek Him, He will lead us no matter what our limitations may be.
I was reading the blog “The Vissisitudes of Life” this morning about Gay Rights vs. Civil Rights.
He brings up a point that for some reason I’ve never thought of before in that when God creates man he creates them male and female and commands them to have children. This scripture is common to Jews, Muslims and Christians and therefore a majority of world religions.
This led me to ponder the question of if one is gay can they truly believe in not only the Bible, but other scriptures from the aforementioned faiths as well.
As I thought about this I can see how people can feel strongly in a variety ways.
1. One may argue that they are gay because they are born that way. If you truly believe that you can be born gay, please explain how you can still believe in the Bible.
2. Others will probably come from the camp that you choose to be gay. Please support your opinion on this as well.
3. I can also see how one could say you can be gay and believe the bible, but that being gay is a sin since God commands against it.
What are your thoughts?
Today in church some words from the Hymn “In Humility our Savior” stuck out to me. The verse is the end of the second verse and reads as follows:
…Then, when we have proven worthy
Of thy sacrifice divine,
Lord, let us regain thy presence;
Let thy glory round us shine.
“When we have proven worthy” stuck out to me. I thought to myself how none of us are really worthy of Christ’s sacrifice, but he did it for us anyways and it is through his Grace that we are saved. I decided to look at the scriptures and see what they have to say.
I looked in Romans, chapter 10 verse 4 to start with, which reads:
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
According to this scripture alone it appears that all one needs to do is believe in Jesus since he’s the end of the law to be saved.
The next scripture that came to mind was James 2:19 that states the devils also believe in God.
So if the Devil believes in God and belief is all that one needs why then isn’t the Devil saved?
The answers are found in the Bible and the Book of Mormon.
Later in Romans 10:10 we read:
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
It appears that there is a difference between merely believing in God and believing with one’s heart.
In the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 2 we read how our hearts should be in order to have the type of belief that will result in salvation. Verses 6-10 read as follows:
6 Wherefore, aredemption cometh in and through the bHoly cMessiah; for he is full of dgrace and truth.
8 Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, asave it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who blayeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the cresurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.9 Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God, inasmuch as he shall make aintercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved.10 And because of the intercession for aall, all men come unto God; wherefore, they stand in the presence of him, to be bjudged of him according to the truth and choliness which is in him. Wherefore, the ends of the law which the Holy One hath given, unto the inflicting of the dpunishment which is affixed, which punishment that is affixed is in opposition to that of the happiness which is affixed, to answer the ends of the eatonement—
Verse 7 is the one that stands out to me as what the real difference between believing in Jesus is and how our hearts should be to have belief unto salvation. Broken hearts and contrite spirits. In other words, humility.
So to answer the question of why isn’t the Devil saved even though he believes I would say the scriptures are pretty clear. The Devil doesn’t have humility and doesn’t believe with his heart.
I pray that we can all have this type of humility to accept Jesus into our hearts, which will result in salvation.
Today I was listening to a great sermon delivered by Dr David Jeremiah entitled “Giving in the Grace Zone.” If you have the time I recommend listening to this excellent sermon. During the sermon he discusses the term he calls “grace giving.” Grace giving is giving back to God because of the love that we have for Him. He discusses how if we’re giving back to God because of the love we have for Him in our hearts we will offer sacrifices and selflessness.
As he delivered this sermon, I thought about the church I attend and the various opportunities it provides for me to give. I attend the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has a lay ministry. Due to this fact, I have had the opportunity to serve in many different capacities commonly called “callings” within the organization throughout the years.
The way callings are issued are through prayerful consideration of the church’s leaders of each congregation. They then present the opportunity to the members of the church and the members then have the chance to accept or reject a calling.
During Dr Jeremiah’s sermon, he mentioned the scripture in Acts chapter 5 where Annanias and his wife act as if they are giving to the Lord, but then keep back a part of what they said they would give. He (Dr Jeremiah) says the sin wasn’t that they kept back the part of the Lord, but that they had let the church believe they were selling their land to give to the church and then went back on their word.
During my 20 years of active membership in the LDS church, I’ve heard of people who have chosen to not accept church callings. My personal feelings are that these people are better off than those who accept a calling grudgingly similar to the example of Annanias in the Bible.
Some may argue that we should accept the calling regardless of how we feel inside and just work at it and it will “grow” on you because when we serve our hearts are opened. Others will argue that one needs to get their hear right first. I’d love to hear what you think.
Just to have some fun I’m going to add a poll.
Feel free to share your comments below as well.
Grace for Grace 
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