WARD CONFERENCE

This Sunday was our Ward Conference, so this hour was combined with the Priesthood and conducted by our Stake Presidency.

We did have a couple of announcements:

**Sister Juanita Rogers is in need of our prayers to help in her efforts to obtain new hearing aids that will greatly benefit her life.  We have been asked and encouraged to dedicate our fast this coming Sunday, if at all possible, to assist this sweet sister in resolving the insurance and monetary roadblocks that are in her path to better hearing and more enjoyment of life. 

**Sisters please mark your calendars for our Relief Society Thursday Night Meeting coming up on February 11th at 6:30 pm in the Cultural Hall.  Sister Groves is busy preparing fun ways to help us be creative!

President Rick Rutkowski, Second Counselor in the Stake Presidency, lead our class in a discussion that focused on the Stake Theme for 2016 which is "Come Unto Christ".

He began by asking us to think on how this theme is applicable to each of us in our own lives and whether this is a 'fair' question to ask.

To illustrate, he had us read in Matthew 19:16 concerning a certain young man who approached Jesus Christ with the question, "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" 

We, then, were asked what we know of this man. What information can we derive from the scripture?  Many of the answers were that he was wealthy; he obviously respected Christ, calling him "Good Master"; from further verses we can see that he honored and adhered to the commandments and was familiar with the Law of Moses because when asked about them he answers, "All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" In other words, I have done all that the law requires, so what else must I do?

Christ answers him in V.21: "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." 

When the young man heard this answer, he "went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions."

Christ, then, in teaching his disciples told them that hardly any rich men would enter into the kingdom of heaven. He also made a comparison that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than it is for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. In Biblical days the city of Jerusalem was surrounded by a very high, thick wall on all sides with a number of large gates for entry into the city. These gates were closed and locked at night to prevent possible attack from enemies, but in each large gate was the "eye of the needle" gate by which travelers could enter after hours. In order to get their animals and possessions through the "eye of the needle" they would have to completely unload their camel, have the animal kneel and then crawl forward on its knees to get through the "eye of the needle". Once they were inside the walls, the camel's harness, saddle, and parcels would have to be brought through one by one to be reloaded on the animal. A very slow and difficult task, but one that was not impossible to accomplish. 

This amazed the disciples and caused them to ask who, then could be saved. Christ answered that "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Our discussion lead to the admonition from the Sermon on the Mount reported in Matthew 5:48 to "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." 

Many see this as an impossibility and indeed, it may not be entirely possible in this life. But as we "Come Unto Christ" and dedicate ourselves to Him, we can work toward attaining perfection with his help and support.

The young man in the scripture was vulnerable because of his great wealth. We each have things in our lives that cause our own vulnerability and get in the way of our reaching perfection. The good news is that we don't need to become perfect in all things all at once. As we identify areas in which we need to improve, we can work toward perfection in one thing at a time. These areas will be different for each of us. For one person, perhaps there is an area of the Word of Wisdom that is a problem; for another, perhaps tithing is a stumbling block; we may struggle with scripture study or individual meaningful prayer. 

President Rutkowski posed a question about this when he asked, "How many of us could follow Christ's admonition today if it came from President Monson?  How many of us could sell all we have, leave it all behind and follow Christ? If this were truly asked of us, how many people would be in attendance at next Sunday's meetings? Something to think seriously about.

Perfection can lead to frustration, but when we have faith and "Come Unto Christ", we can call upon Him for help to get us through our struggles. We can whittle our list down to doable tasks - smaller items - and become perfect in one small area at a time. Then we can 'maintain' our standard of perfection in the task we have conquered as we move to the next small task and take comfort in the fact that we are progressing in the right direction.  Small things gradually add up to larger and even greater things, maybe slowly, but it happens.

The Lord will strengthen us in our commitment and, as we trust in Him and are diligent, we can succeed in those tasks we labor to improve. Struggle exists in every commitment, whether it is easy or in commitment when it is more difficult. We can do all things through Christ, but we need to do our part.

A comment from the class mentioned that perhaps the rich young man knew the answer to his own question, but was hoping for another, easier answer. Do we all not do this on occasion? We have a problem and pretty much know what the outcome will be, but we take it to the Lord in prayer, hoping for another, easier way.

In order to accomplish that which we desire - perfection and eternal life - we must theoretically 'sell' everything, we must humble ourselves, come unto Christ, to commit ourselves to his will and to obey all his teachings.

We also touched on the meaning of consecration, which is to do any and everything we can to accomplish God's will here on earth. We will be asked to give up those things that may prevent us from attaining perfection, just as the rich young man was asked to give up his wealth and help the poor. Even though he was committed to the Law and obeyed the Commandments, Christ was asking for him (the young man) to be committed to Him in all things.

There were many comments from the class about the true meaning of Christ's answer to the young man. Was he perhaps asking the young man to give up all and commit to follow Him as an apostle or a disciple? The comment was made that when Christ approached the twelve apostles with the same request, they immediately dropped what they were engaged in, left their homes and followed Him. What is the meaning of "treasures in heaven"? The young man went away "sorrowful", but we have no information about what his course of action may have been. There is no definite resolution given in the scriptures as to what eventually happened to the young man - is this an accident? Or was this left out on purpose so we will be inspired to make our own choices? We are all faced with the same question, either now or at some point in our lives.  It is always hard to give up things to which we may be strongly attached, things we think we cannot do without, but as we become closer to Christ and increase our faith and trust in Him, we can offer up a broken heart and a contrite spirit as we repent; we can partake in the blessings of the Atonement as we dedicate ourselves to leading a Christ-centered life. We can become more committed to Christ than we are to earthly treasures.

President Rutkowski reminded us that having a Christ-centered life is better than anything else we can ever have.  He asked us to consider the question, "What am I willing to give up to attain eternal life?"  Being at church every Sunday is not enough. There is much more to do every day and sometimes it is extremely hard, but again, it is not impossible.

Moving from the New Testament to the Book of Mormon, President Rutkowski spoke of Moroni and his unique situation. How many years did he wander and travel about alone, the only one of his people left, continuing to write on the plates and impart his wisdom and advice to us in this day? His parting words of encouragement to us are in Moroni 10:32, 

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is His grace sufficient for you that by His grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God." 

Deny yourself of all ungodliness - Leave it all behind. Do all we can to become perfect and the grace of Christ's Atonement will make up the difference in our favor.

President Rutkowski left us with his testimony that Christ is real, that He did live and He does now live.

A great lesson for each of us to ponder and act upon.

Your bloggess,

Karen