Faith in Jesus Christ

What is faith?
How do we get it?
How does it grow?


Perhaps we understand faith intuitively better than we can put into words.  
Joseph Smith defined faith as a principle of power.  


The scriptures teach us that faith comes from hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17).  This is how faith begins.  The word of God is also vital to nourishing faith and helping it grow. (Alma 32).  Faith is part of the power that begins to flow into our lives from a careful study of the Book of Mormon as promised by President Benson.


Miracles come because of faith (Ether 12:12-8).  Faith is how we obtain every good thing (Moroni 7:20-21). And it is by faith that angels minister unto men (Moroni 7:37).  If these things have ceased it is because faith has ceased (Moroni 7:38).  Perhaps a good test for our own level of faith.


So is faith just belief?  Or is it something more?  James teaches us that the devils also believe and tremble.  And that faith without works is dead (James 2:19-20).


To me faith is our belief put into action.  Another way to say it, faith = faithfulness.


The first principle of the gospel is not just faith but more specifically faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  To me our belief / faith is two-fold:  1) faith in Christ's promises and commandments and 2) faith that He will help you.  


The problem we immediately encounter as we begin to have faith is opposition.  Our faith is tried.


Nephi's life is a great illustration of this.  It begins when his father comes home and tells the family to pack their bags cause they're leaving town for good.  I can just imagine how my teenage boys would react to this kind of news.  Nephi, too, has some doubts at first.  Unlike his brothers, however, Nephi takes his question to the Lord (1 Nephi 2:16).  He records that the Lord visited him and did soften his heart so that he believed the words of this father.  The Lord would not have needed to send the Spirit to "soften" Nephi's heart if he hadn't had doubts and concerns about what was happening.  Following this experience, Nephi then has the spiritual reassurance that they are on the Lord's errand.


When his father next receives instructions to return to Jerusalem for the plates, Nephi's answer is immediately-- I will go (1 Ne. 3:7).  He accepts that the commandment is from the Lord and expresses his faith that the Lord will help them.  


Now we all know the story of what happens.  The point is this.  Nephi and his brothers fail twice.  There is no further evidence that the Lord is with them.  In fact, the Lord doesn't intervene until it is apparent that the entire mission is doomed to failure and Nephi's brothers are beating the tar out of him with a stick.  But at that point, the Lord DOES help and the miracle occurs as a result of Nephi's faith.  This experience undoubtedly led to a further increase in Nephi's faith.


In fact we see a pattern here:


It begins with a question, confusion or doubt.  When this is taken to God, a spiritual witness or answer is received. Later the opposition shows up and often failure is apparent or imminent. This is a trial of faith.  If you hold true, the Lord intervene's, miracles occur, faith increases and you can then walk forward with increased faith.  You can also expect the pattern to repeat.


We could diagram it like this:


Question/Confusion-->Spiritual Witness-->Opposition-->Trial of Faith (Failure)-->Lord helps-->Miracle occurs-->Faith in the Lord grows-->walk forward with increased faith


We see the same thing exemplified in Joseph Smith's life in the First Vision.  He had a question.  Received a spiritual prompting when reading James.  Met opposition from Satan as he attempted to pray.  All but abandoned himself to destruction before the Father and Son appeared.


New missionaries often experience the same pattern.  A young man may receive a witness that he should serve a mission.  He may have great spiritual experiences in the MTC, but arrive in the mission field being unable to speak the language despite struggling with it for several months.  He may become discouraged (as President Hinckley).  But by pressing forward, eventually the miracles come--converts are made, the language comes, the Lord intervenes with help. 


We should expect the same pattern in our own lives.  We should also recognize one of the great challenges is that there is always a temptation during the opposition phase to turn back or to question the prompting or witness received earlier.  Elder Holland gave a masterful talk on this very issue a few years back called "Cast Not Away Therefore Your Confidence" (Ensign Mar. 2000).  It is well worth reading.

A Memorable Family Occasion

Congratulation Coulson on your mission call!  You will be a great missionary.

It is always wonderful to be in the temple.  But it was especially wonderful to be in the temple in Logan this evening surrounded by our family.  We missed Marnie who was babysitting.  But otherwise, all of dad & mom's kids were there.  What a unique blessing that is today to have all of your children worthy to be in the temple together.  As I sat in the celestial room and watched our family members enter one by one, I thought how wonderful it will be someday to all be in heaven together--and how sad it would be to have a vacant seat there.  Let's not have that happen.

It was also a momentous occasion as dad pointed out to me that there were four generations present on both sides of the family (Grandma Jensen, Dad, Chris, Coulson) and (Grandma Gwen, Mom, Chris, Coulson).  That probably doesn't happen very often.

Coulson, one of the reasons you go through the temple before leaving on a mission is found in D&C 109:22, "that thy servants may go forth from this house armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them."

It wouldn't surprise me if other members of our family, namely Grandpa Jensen and Grandpa Loveland, were present on that occasion as well.

The Doctrine of Christ

"We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost" (AF #4)


Are these principles FIRST in the sense of "okay, I've checked those off, what's next?" or are they FIRST in the sense of being the foundation, the basics, that to which we return over and over again?


These principles are not outlined this clearly in the Old or New Testaments, but they are three times in the Book of Mormon. (2 Nephi 31; 3 Nephi 11; and 3 Nephi 27).  It is worth carefully studying these three chapters.


Nephi refers to them as the "Doctrine of Christ".  In 2 Nephi 31, he refers back to his vision and adds some additional commentary that he received from the Father and the Son as explanation to the things he was seeing.  As an interesting aside, this is one of the few chapters that contains direct statements from the Father (vs. 11,15, 20).  It refutes a common myth among Latter-day Saints that the Father only speaks to men in introducing the Son.  It should also be a red flag to us as to their importance.


These principles and ordinances are the "path" that Nephi saw under the rod of iron.  This path leads to eternal life (vs. 18) and there is no other way (vs. 21). 


They are worth careful pondering and study.  I am teaching these principles in our teacher's quorum over the next few weeks and will devote the next posts to these topics.



   

Lehi the Prophet

Lehi the Prophet


Primary children learn the song "Follow the Prophet".  This is engrained from a young age.


The Book of Mormon opens with Lehi praying on behalf of his people (1 Ne. 1:5).  Despite the fact that the Lord has an "official" prophet at the time, namely Jeremiah, Lehi receives his own revelation directly from heaven.  Following this experience, Lehi then adds his voice of warning alongside the other "prophets" in Jerusalem.  His message is rejected and the Lord commands him to leave. (1 Ne. 2:2)  Today, we consider Lehi a prophet.


In our day, do we push the mantra of "Follow the Prophet" too far?  By "following the Prophet" do we absolve ourselves from the responsibility of connecting with heaven ourselves?  As long as we follow our leaders aren't we okay?  Do parents (fathers and mothers) have responsibility to receive revelation for their families?


When Moses received word that others were prophesying in the camp of Israel his response was to express his wish that all of the Lord's people were prophets (Numbers 11:29).  We are familiar with the scripture in Amos that the Lord will do nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets (Amos 3:7).  But less known is that Amos came out of obscurity--not out of the established hierarchy.  Amos states "I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was an herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit:  And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel" (Amos 7:14-15).


Now, I am not suggesting that we not follow President Monson.  I do believe, however, that our Savior Jesus Christ wants to have a direct and personal relationship with each of us and that we vitally need individual direction from heaven for our lives and for our families.  


The scriptures warn that those who feel safe simply by claiming to follow the prophets--Paul, John, Moses, Isaiah, Enoch, Monson, etc. will be damned to the telestial kingdom. (D&C 76:99-100)


What a great example we have in Lehi, right in the opening pages of the Book of Mormon.

Come unto God

"For the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved." (1 Nephi 6:4)

Here is a key to understanding Nephi that I overlooked for a long time.  Not only is Nephi trying to persuade us to come unto God, but his writings are carefully selected to show us how.

Let's keep this in mind as we study his teachings.

Welcome to my Blog

I am new to blogging.

When I was young, technology fascinated me and I eagerly embraced it.  The older I get, the more it seems that much of our progress just complicates our lives, or distracts us and wastes our precious time.  I am not against it, but am becoming slower and pickier about what I adopt into my life.  I have never tweeted or twittered or whatever you call it.  I can barely keep up with emails and rarely check Facebook anymore.  Some days I wonder whether a cell phone is a blessing or a curse.  (I remember standing on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean with my good friend "Blonde Dog" Johnson on a Harley trip when his cell phone rang for the 300th time interrupting his vacation with work once again.  As he hung up, I could tell it took all his restraint not to just throw the dang thing as far as he could into the Pacific.)

So a blog has not had much appeal.  However, in a General Conference address a few years back we were encouraged to use the internet to share the gospel.  As I have thought about this recently, it seems that a blog might be a good way to facilitate gospel discussion and study amongst our family and friends.  So I'm going to try this for awhile.  This won't be an online journal, although I may occasionally share a story or situation from my life.  I don't want this blog to be about me.  Rather, I'd like it to be a place to share thoughts, insights, doctrine and to facilitate our further study and growing understanding of the gospel.  It may also be an appropriate place to share testimony from time to time.

You are welcome to join.  Please feel free to agree or disagree with me.  Post a response if you wish.  My disclaimer is that the thoughts posted hereon will be my opinions and/or current thinking on a topic.  Feel free to invite others to participate as well if you wish.  If you would like to submit something for me to post, you can reach me via email at coryjensen@me.com.

I am very excited about studying the Book of Mormon this year.   Most of the posts this year will focus there.  With that introduction, let's begin...

P.S.  Dad & Jess -- please don't look to closely at my grammar, punctuation, etc.  I don't have your talents and abilities at writing.