The first step before we should even study about Jesus Christ is having faith in him. Me being born in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, I always had that faith and I could see it in my parents as well. But what is faith? I always like to connect faith with an orange. If we see an orange and we want to peel it, what can we hope will be inside? Of course the juice of the orange would be the right answer, even if we can't see it we know it will be inside there. Many think faith is similar to hope, but the difference is that faith is something we will know for sure will happen or has happen, hope is an expectation or desire for something to happen. It also gives us a connection with God, in the bible on James 1:5-6 it says "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed." If we truly want to have that faith and that knowledge knowing for a fact that Jesus Christ lived we must asked God. Otherwise we can be in other faiths being driven back and forth. Another reason why faith plays a huge role in the gospel is because it leads towards action.
When Jesus Christ called his apostles, being fisherman and having little experience preaching, they had to exercise their faith in following him. One of the most famous stories that played a big part in the New Testament of the bible was Saul. We learn that Saul attacked the church of Jesus Christ. He persecuted the saints until he had that change where he realized what he was doing was wrong, later on he changes his name to Paul. Another example of action by faith is in the Book of Mormon. Where it talks about a family who their father was a prophet called Lehi. He was then commanded to leave Jerusalem and go to the wilderness since the Babylonians where gonna attack Jerusalem. Their son called Nephi, in the book of Nephi chapter 17 verses 8 and 9 it says "And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto me, saying: Thou shalt construct a ship, after the manner which I shall show thee, that I may carry thy people across these waters. And I said: Lord, whither shall I go that I may find ore to molten, that I may make tools to construct the ship after the manner which thou hast shown unto me?" As we see in these scripture, Nephi having that faith and trust with God helped him have the courage to build a ship witch he had no expiriance building one before.
Because of his faith in God he managed to succeed even when his brothers did not support him, and he managed to get his family to the American continent and start a civilazation there. If we have faith is Jesus Christ then it should be natural for us to apply what he teaches. Many feel like being saved by grace is enough but in James 2: 17-18 it says "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." Many of the other topics of his gospel including repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost that will be a topic latter on in the blog, are the works James is talking about.
Another reason why faith is necessary is because it helps us see miracles.
so true i love it
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