Good morning Brothers and Sisters! For those of you I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is sister Miller. I have been asked to speak on becoming converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. When brother horner first told me the topic I thought of David A Bednar's talk comparing conversion to the process of pickling. For some reason that talk and analogy have always stuck with me, because I can't think of the word conversion without thinking about pickles. :)
in preparation for today I listened to his talk and was trying to figure out how we can truly be converted to the gospel. Somewhere in the middle of it I came across a quote by Marion D Hanks that sidetracked what I thought would be my sacrament talk. He said, " Conversion as a principle, impersonal conversion, is no more useful or virtuous than impersonal repentance, impersonal faith, and so on" So, going back to elder Bednars talk, we learn the steps to conversion (& pickling ;) (1) First, preparing and cleaning: humbling ourselves to recognize our dependence on our Heavenly Father (2) Complete saturation and immersion → elder bednar says: " just as an occasional sprinkling or dip in the brine cannot produce the necessary lasting transformation to a cucumber, likewise an occasional dip or commitment to the gospel will not either (3) Purifying and Sealing: the steps we take to preserve and protect the product, which is enduring to the end But In of itself, these steps make up a principle. Impersonal conversion.
So, the million dollar question, HOW DO WE MAKE IT PERSONAL? I think it comes down to how well we know our Heavenly Father and Jesus christ. Neil A Maxwell said, " one cannot have adequate faith in a christ whom he does not adequately know" Like most missionaries serving right now, I was able to do the Home MTC, which is an experience I wouldn't trade. On about the third night, my teacher gave a devotional that has kept with me during my mission. It went something like this: In italian there are two verbs that mean the same thing but are used in two different ways. The first verb is SAPERE it means to know and is used when talking about a fact or piece of information. The second is the verb CONOSCERE which also means to know but is used when talking either about people or something that you personally know very well. Well, my 3rd day in the MTC I was all kinds of confused but the question he asked us solidified the difference between the two verbs in my mind. He asked, " when you are talking about the Savior and your relationship with Him, which verb would you use." In essence he was asking the same question that Elder Robinson asked in a conference address in 1992, " DO you believe IN Jesus Christ or do you BELIEVE CHRIST?" Do you believe that Christ came to earth and atoned for all mankind as a point of doctrine or do you believe that Christ came for you individually and that he can do everything that He claims He can in your life? At the front of my Italian scriptures, I wrote, "I want to CONOSCERE Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ." I want to know them personally, I want to have a relationship with them, and I want it to influence the way I act. Which puts you on the door step if true conversion.
There are a lot of ways we can strive to strengthen our relationship with Them. What we often refer to as the primary answers are in fact big stepping stones to reaching this goal. We can (a) communicate with our Heavenly Father daily through prayer, talk to Him, I promise anything you want to say, be is eager to hear (b) read the scriptures every day! Quality conversations are not one-sided, allow Him the opportunity to talk to you (c ) the third stepping stone is explained beautifully by Jeffrey R Holland. He says, " I think coming to participate in the sacrament, is the most dramatic, weekly thing we can do to show that we want to identify with Him and in fact there will be a reciprocal gift and power that comes back from that" Elder Holland also says, " but the truth of the matter is, everyone of us aspires to live a more converted life than we are currently living!
Everyone of us reads 3 Nephi 12:48, when God tells us, " ye should be perfect, even as I" and feels overwhelmed if not completely defeated." It is so easy to beat ourselves up. We do the snowball to ourselves, one slip up in trying to grow our relationship or not immediate progress and pretty soon we are all the way down the hill. One domino after the other. Brad Wilcox said it perfectly: "worthiness is not flawlessness" Our Heavenly Father already loves us more than we will ever understand, the gap in our relationship is not from His end, so any step, any desire we have to come closer to Him, He accepts. There is a scripture in Matthew 5:6 that says, " blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled" Elder Robbins says, " we frequently misinterpret this verse to mean blessed are the righteous. It does not say that! When are you hungry or thirsty? When you don't have the object of your desire. It is to those who don't yet have the righteousness that God has, OR THE RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM that is necessary for true conversion, BUT THAT DESIRE AFTER IT ! for if it is the desire of their hearts, then God will help them achieve it." How merciful is Heavenly Father that he would accept our earnest desire and best effort even when it comes up short EVERY. SINGLE.. TIME. I hope you can feel the love He has for each of us.
I love the well-known scripture in 2 Nephi 25, " for we know that it is by Christ that we are saved after all we can do" is evidence that it is enough to be an imperfect Saint, hungering and thirsting after righteousness striving to be converted, made perfect through the grace of God and the atonement of Christ, who we have come to know in the process. My invite for all of you is to ask yourself how well you feel you know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Would you use the verb Sapere or a Conoscere to describe that relationship? How can we all improve from believing IN christ and BELEIVING CHRIST?
I want to leave you with my testimony, I know Heavenly Father loves each of us perfectly and infinitely. If you ever doubt that, reflect on the sacrifice of His son on our behalf because of our worth in His eyes. I know Christ is not only our judge but our advocate. He is on our side, and sees us for who we can become. I know that as we strengthen our relationship with our Heavenly Father and our Savior, we will find ourselves more deeply converted to Them and this gospel that lead us back to Their open arms. It is my prayer that we will all strive to be able to say, CONOSCO IL MIO PADRE CELESTE E GESÙ CRISTO. Because when we truly know them, we are more like them. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Comments
Post a Comment