President Joseph Fielding Smith--In my judgment the sacrament meeting is the most sacred, the most holy, of all the meetings of the Church. When I reflect upon the gathering of the Savior and his apostles on that memorable night when he introduced the sacrament, when I think of that solemn occasion my heart is filled with wonderment and my feelings are touched. I consider that gathering one of the most solemn and wonderful since the beginning of time.
The partaking of the sacrement (the breat and water) constitutes one of the most holy and sacred ordinances in the Church, an ordinance which has replaced the slaying and eating of the paschal lamb which symbolized the sacrifice upon the cross of our Redeemer.
The person who absents himself from a sacrament meeting week after week and month after month, and nothin prevents him from coming, is not loyal to the truth. He does not love it. If he did, he would be present to partake of these emblems--just a little piece of bread, a little cup of water. He would want to do that to show his love for the truth and his loyal service to the Son of God.
As we come to church each week and show to our Savior that we are fighting the fight and doing the best we can and taking the sacrament, we can and will receive blessings. It's Satan that wants us to get discouraged, telling us we are not worthy, we have made too many mistakes to even try. THAT IS SATAN!! He wants us to stay home. He wants us to get down on ourselves.
Read the Sacrament prayers--remind yourselves what we are taking upon us as we partake. Also read the promises that are given too. (D&C 20:77)
Tanleigh referred to a talk by Brad Wilcox that she so loves. It had such great insight about the Atonement and the Sacrament. May of the stories are in the book he wrote--The Continuous Atonement. GREAT BOOK...One of my favorites.
We are learning heaven not earning it. There is NO way we can repay our Savior for all He has done for us. NO WAY!! But we need to realize that he doesn't expect us to pay it back. He expects us to except the gift and then use it. Use the Atonement in our lives.
Tanleigh told of a story about a college student who sought a better understanding of the Atonement. "I know," she said, "I have to do my part and then Christ does the rest, but the problem is that I can't even do my part." SHe then went on to list the many things she shoud be doing, but wasn't. "I know Christ can fill the gap between my best efforts and perfection, but who fills the gap between the way I am and my best efforts?"
Brother Wilcox pulled out apaper and drew two dots on it---one at the bottom and the other at the top. "Here is God," I said, labeling the top dot. "And here we are," I said, indicating the bottom dot. How much of this ditance does Jesus fill and how much is our part?" he started to mark a line at the halfway point and then thought better and marked a line much lower. I said, "Wrong." "Is the line highter?" she asked. "No," I responded. "The truth is, there is no line. Christ has already filled the whole distance." "Right!" Like I don't hae to do anything? "Oh, no. You have plenty to do, but it is not to fill this gap. Jesus filled the gap that stands between us and God. It is done. We are all going to go back to God's presence. Now the question is how long we hope to stay there. That is what is determined by our boedience to Jesus.
GREAT STORY!!!
It is our privilege to thoughtfully consider the covenant we make when we partake of the sacrament. The word privilege was actually "Duty" but Tanleigh wanted to change it. Because it is a privilege to be able to covenant with the Lord during the sacrament.
This was such a wonderful lesson. Thanks Tanleigh. There was much more discussed but we just wanted you to get the main idea. If you weren't there, we missed you!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment