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No poor among you

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Caring for others, particularly the poor, is a central tenet in nearly every religion. In the Christian tradition it is particularly important. Various translations of Deuteronomy 15:4 state, “there [should/need/will] be no poor among you,” and then reference the blessings God’s people will receive in the land of their inheritance, implying, in my opinion, that economic prosperity is a blessing granted from God with the expectation that His followers use it alleviate suffering and poverty. In the New Testament, Jesus several times extols the virtues of the poor and admonishes the rich for withholding from others. My own faith adds emphasis and clarity in other scripture. Alma 34:38 states, “if ye turn away the needy, and the naked, and visit not the sick and afflicted, and impart of your substance, if ye have, to those who stand in need—I say unto you, if ye do not any of these things, behold, your prayer is vain, and availeth you nothing, and ye are as hypocrites who do deny the fa
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God Is Necessary

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I recently finished Stephen Hawking’s book, The Grand Design . With one of the most intelligent scientific minds of our generation, Hawking has the ability to make modern physics almost reachable to those of us who find it interesting but well beyond our intellectual abilities. In his last popular book, A Brief History of Time , he discussed the role that God may or may not have had in the creation of the universe, but in The Grand Design he makes the more definitive statement, “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.” In interviews about the subject, Hawking clarified his point, "One can't prove that God doesn't exist," he stated, "But science makes God unnecessary…The laws of physics can explain the universe without the need for a creator." I greatly respect Dr. Hawking and am grateful for the extraordinary work he has done, as well as the opportunity I’ve had to expand my mind reading his words. In add
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Testimony

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Like many Christian churches, mine places a great emphasis on actively sharing a personal witness of our faith. In our church we call it sharing a testimony, other Christians often call it witnessing or use other terminology, but the idea is the same and stems from 1 Peter 3:15 , “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.” Our church encourages members to do this both formally and informally, and we dedicate the first Sunday meeting of every month for members to stand at the pulpit and freely share testimonies. While a testimony can take many forms, it generally is an opportunity for someone to stand in front of others and testify of truth. In our particular church culture, it often takes the form of someone saying some combination of, “I know God lives, I know Jesus is the Christ, I know Joseph Smith was a true prophet, I know…..etc.” Such a testimony is often accompanied by sharing personal experiences that helped an individua
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Faith, Works, and Feeling What We Need to Feel

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I was recently asked to teach a lesson in church based on an article by Henry B. Eyring . It was about the law of tithing , but taught important principles that I think apply to following any of God’s commandments. President Eyring stated, "…paying a full tithe in this life prepares us to feel what we need to feel to receive the gift of eternal life.” I think the same could be said of many other commandments, obedience to them isn’t an end unto itself, but prepares us to feel what we need to feel to receive eternal life. I thought this was an interesting statement because we often hear discussion about what we need to be or do, but rarely do we hear about what we need to feel. President Eyring didn’t teach any groundbreaking doctrine, but clearly expressed in a few words the process of conversion. In my personal experience, I have often made commitments to obey commandments before I truly felt what I needed to feel. I paid tithing because I was asked to before I learned to want
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For she loved much

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In Luke, Chapter 7, a woman known as a sinner visited Jesus in a Pharisee’s home. She showered the Savior with love: washing, kissing, and anointing his feet. The Savior used the woman’s example and a parable to teach a simple and profound lesson. In his parable two individuals were both forgiven a debt by their creditor, one for a much larger sum than the other. He then asked, “which of them will love him most.” The Pharisee, who had been silently condemning Christ for allowing the woman to touch him, responded “he, to whom he forgave most.” The Savior then spoke of the woman, and said, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” This lesson is reiterated later in 1 Peter 4:8, when we are taught, “charity [love] shall cover the multitude of sins.” It seems that forgiveness can come as a reward for our love, which is why we are taught, “if ye have not charity, ye are nothing,” (Moroni 7:46) and, “the greatest of
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But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins

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We had a Sunday School lesson the other day about the miracles Jesus performed during his mortal ministry. The teacher had written on the board, "Why Jesus performed miracles." As we discussed some of these events in the New Testament, the class came up with various reasons such as showing individual love and compassion, teaching gospel principles, giving witness of His divine role, etc. However, the question elicited a much different response from me. Rather than thinking of why He did perform miracles in certain circumstances, I was pondering about why He sometimes doesn't intervene with a miracle. All I could think about was times when a wanted miracle didn’t occur – when people exercised faith and God could have intervened to heal someone, save a life, or soften a heart, but didn’t. I was thinking of the few times in my life when I put all the faith I could in the promise, "ask and ye shall receive," but I didn't receive. I know this may sound like unf
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Grace

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Grace, much like other common and seemingly simple scriptural words such as faith and hope, carries much more meaning that any simple definition can convey. I’ve often struggled to understand exactly what the concept of grace really means. Some of the difficulties my wife and I went through during my recent deployment to Afghanistan gave me an increased understanding on the topic. I think my idea of grace has, for a long time, been shaped by the words in 2 Nephi 25:23, “…for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do,” as well as a popular book from LDS author Stephen Robinson called Believing Christ . His book shared what he called the Parable of the Bicycle where a young boy does all he can to save money to buy a bicycle, but comes up drastically short of the needed sum. His father, recognizing the boy’s intent, effort, and limitations, makes up the difference. This story and the scripture in Nephi build the concept that grace is what we are given as a reward
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