Peter, Paul, Mark and Rome

Paul's connection to Rome is very clear considering the fact that he is a Roman citizen. He visited this place later in his ministry and lived under house arrest there before his execution. While he was there he continued to preach the gospel. As a Roman citizen he had the ability to set his affairs in order before his execution. During this time he asked Mark to come visit him before his death. Mark and Peter both came. After Paul's execution Peter and Mark remained in Rome. Mark spent this time recording the Book of Mark. The Book of Mark likely contains a lot of the memoirs of Peter in this book. Peter was martyred and buried in Rome. Later his body was moved to its current position in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

The Crandall Museum

I thought the visit to the Crandall Museum was very interesting. I always knew about Gutenberg and the invention of the printing press, but I never realized all of the work that had gone into each piece printed on it and the evolution that it undertook to bring us the Book of Mormon. I loved seeing the passion that the men who owned the place had for printing and its history. I'm not going to lie, there was a part of me that said, "If I were a boy back during these times I would totally having to go with printing for my apprenticeship-ness thing." I also thought the machine that they used to make a line of moveable type was so amazing! Watching its pulleys and levers move all over that place was fascinating. I know that there are ways which make our inventions of today very beautiful, but there was such obvious creativity that came with some of the inventions that they had during this time period.

I really would love for the Crandall Museum to be more advertised around the church. I feel as though it wouldn't have an extremely difficult time pulling in tourists considering the amount of LDS people that come to Utah to see Temple Square and the like. How easy would it be for these same tourists to take the short drive down to Provo to learn more about the production of The Book of Mormon. It definitely gained a special little place in my heart and will probably suggest my family visit it when they come out over the summer.

Paul's Final Trip to Rome

I think that it is important to remember that Acts was not written as doctrine, but merely to tell us of the journey of Paul. By showing these travels we can see that prophesy was upheld in order and the gospel was preached not just to the Jews, but to the Romans as well. I really liked the point we brought up in class last week when we discussed how we hear the story of the conversion of Paul three times. Each time the story is a little bit different, but the main points remain the same. Knowing this does not mean that it is not true simply that the minor differences are insignificant details that do not lend to the point of the story. Such things happen in our lives when we are telling stories to our friends and family. I think this helps show the truthfulness of the story. To me it is more meaningful that it is not an exact replica of itself every time the story is told because it means that he was truly testifying of his conversion and the great events that took place.

The Apostacy

I think the most interesting thing that we brought up when talking about the apostasy is how it actually occurred much earlier than the formation of the Catholic Church. We discussed how the formation of the Catholic Church wasn’t until the third or fourth century. Paul discusses how the great apostasy was to occur very soon. This very soon didn’t mean within the next five-hundred years very soon, but within the lifetime of many of the receivers of his epistles. I guess I had always thought that the formation of the Catholic Church was a formation of the apostasy, but now I see that it wasn't the formation of new churches that signaled the end of an era.

Knowing this we should be acutely aware the apostasy in our personal lives. It is quite possible that we could be walking away from the church without literally avoiding the church building. It is important for us, as members, to strive to participate in activities that will keep us from falling away from the church. WE all know what these are: read your scriptures, say your prayers, attend the temple, have FHE. Doing things like this will not only help us stay in the church, but help us to receive the full blessings that come from being a member. The more we strive to live not only by the letter of the law but the spirit of the law we will be focused on things that will bring us closer to God.

The Museum of Art

I thought that it was a pretty opportunity to go visit the Museum of Art and see all of the different ways that Christ and His sacrifice for us can be displayed. It was a good reminder to me of how everything is a testimony of Christ and the atonement. I really liked going with other members of the class and getting their take on the pieces. I went earlier with my cousin and I have to admit that I rarely understand art very well without the guidance of others. The piece that I feel I got the most out of was the first piece we looked out where a woman seems to be holding the bread towards the viewer. We discussed how her face seemed tired and worn and the long arduous process that goes into making bread from scratch. Even though I’ve heard the story of the chicken who asks for help from her friends to make bread I never really realized long process because the only homemade bread I usually had come from a bread maker. It was interesting to see how this woman’s daily work of bread making was very similar to the sacrifice of Christ. Just as she labored all day to give us this loaf, Christ labored all of His life so that we could be saved from our sins. I also could help but noticed the positioning of her hands reminded me of Christ’s hands in paintings where He is showing us the wounds on His hands from being nailed on the cross. It was a very Christ like way of the woman to display her labors just as He displays His to us. The title “Daily Bread” makes me wonder what my daily labor could be doing to bring me closer to Christ. In addition to the normal requirements of reading our scriptures, saying our prayers, etc, I think that it is important to realize that the dedication of our studies to the Lord can bring us closer to Him. I think that because we have all been taught the importance of getting an education as we strive to do so we will naturally progress closer to God as we continue keeping His commandments. I think that a lot of our education is so that we can provide a good life for our families. I think that sacrificing time and effort today so that we can give to our future children and those around us (both today and tomorrow) we will be creating our own “Daily Bread”.

The Book of Romans

Romans has always been one of my favorite books in the New Testament. In fact I chose to take the second half of the New Testament because I always really thought Paul was kind of an amazing apostle. While I am very grateful for the accounts of the life of Christ put before us in the Gospels, Paul gives a powerful testimony of the mission of Christ here on earth. He reminds us of how there is no possible way for us to make it to the Celestial Kingdom in our state. No matter how close to perfect we may feel that we are today, we have, in fact, sinned and this simple statement leaves us unclean and unfit for the Kingdom of God. So how can we receive glory? Christ has laid down His life for us. He has sacrifices everything for us so that we may feel the eternal bliss that none of us are even close to deserving. How to we take advantage of this blessing? We keep the commandments and when we didn’t we repent. That’s it. Paul addresses that there is hardly a righteous man out there who would lay down his life for a righteous man and Christ has done it for every despicable person that ever lived, and all he asks is that we take advantage of the Atonement. What an example of a perfect sacrifice. Every time that I am reminded of this incredible love that He had for us I yearn for some way to repay Him. I love the book of Romans because on days when I feel despicable and unworthy for any blessing I am reminded that there is absolutely nothing that I could have done that would make Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ not love me anymore. Whether we feel unfit for love because we do not take advantage of the scriptures like we should or because we’ve committed some unspeakable crime, Christ still loves us and will still enable us to repent of our sins. The main response I have to Romans is just a strong desire to echo the words of Paul. To acknowledge the intense love and healing power that can be felt by the atonement. When we take advantage of the atonement we can truly “carpe diem” seize the day and realize that this day, this hour, this moment is the time to start being better than the last moment, the last hour or the last day because when we have repented, those things don’t matter anymore. There will, of course, be consequences, but they cannot stop us from our renewed path that will bring us to the Kingdom of God. While this may be something we don’t understand we can remember that this is a gift. A very special gift given to us by a real man. A man who most of us have not seen in this life, but is just as real and just as living as any man sitting next to you. I wish I could be more but eternally grateful for the opportunity to live again with my Heavenly Father.

1 Corinthians 13: Faith, Hope, and Charity

Paul starts to address the importance of faith, hope and charity in 1 Corinthians 13 saying “Charity never faileth” (v. 8). He also discusses how you can have all the faith in the world but if that faith is not back up with charity it is useless to you. When I think of charity I think of how it is often called the “pure love of Christ”. Charity seems to be something that pushes you to do more. Charity causes you to look beyond yourself and consider what you can do to help other people around us. As I have been reflecting on my life I have realized how difficult it is to incorporate such a value into our everyday lives. I feel like it is far easier to wake up every morning and go to my classes, do my studying, watch some Olympics, check my Facebook, read my scriptures, say my prayers, sleep and repeat. My mind almost goes on a form of autopilot as I distract myself with Sudoku in the same classes, talk to the same people, and sit in the same seat in the bus. How hard would it be to start expressing the love I have for others at least a little bit everyday? Probably far easier than I’d like to admit. Thinking of charity as the pure love of Christ I have tried to realize how Christ lets me know that He loves me. When I feel an outpouring of the Spirit I can feel His love. When I notice blessings in my life I feel His love. When I remember His sacrifice I feel His love. In my everyday life I can try to develop a similar pattern of showing my love towards other people. I can try and tell other people how I feel about them just as Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ utilize the Spirit to tell me how They feel about me. Simply letting someone know that you like a characteristic about someone, or they are important people in your lives can really brighten up someone’s day and remind them that they are loved and important. Doing our best to be good friends to others can really bless their lives. Understanding that someone needs help and doing your best to help them when you can is an excellent act of charity. Sacrificing a little bit of time to show someone you care or to carry their burdens is something that Christ did during His life on earth on a daily basis (maybe Facebook isn’t such a waste of time afterall J). Sometimes simply realizing there are people out there who are a little bit more important than organic chemistry homework is just enough to get us to participate in the little acts that make up charity.