I had always known about the Bible--it had always been apart of my life. My parents had me read the Four Gospels before I got baptized when I was eight years old; however, I was not all too educated on the book. My education of the Bible began on my Mormon mission. I was serving in the Bible Belt and a very prominent leader named Elder Andersen came and visited us during my first week. He told us to get to know our Bible and that it would basically be our biggest asset to us as missionaries. I would soon learn how right he was! After I finished the Book of Mormon, I began to read the New Testament. In my family, we always give gifts to Jesus every year and I decided that I would get to know Him more by reading the New Testament by Christmas as my gift. On December 19, 2013, I accomplished my goal and was able to write this bit on a blank page in my Bible:
"Recently, I finished the New Testament for the first time in my life. It was a wonderful experience for me to learn about the life of Jesus and to really feel like I can say that I know my Savior. I learned so much! I became inspired on every page. This experience allowed me to learn scriptures that help and support our teaching of the Gospel as missionaries. My favorite biblical character is Paul (Saul). To me, he represents someone living the "Doctrine of Christ" (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, Enduring to the End) and he is a great example to me in that. I know that these teachings are true and correlate with that of the Book of Mormon. I write that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. --Me"
My goal here is to put some perspective on the Bible for both the non-Mormon and the Mormon.
Matthew 1
In this chapter, I like to take a look at Joseph, the father of Jesus. Well, we know that he was only the father-figure to Him in this life. I find Joseph's character truly amazing. In verse 19 we learn that he is just and that he did not have the heart to humiliate his fiance. Furthermore, in verse 24 we see that he is obedient and "[does] as the angel of the Lord had bidden him". On a figurative note, there are many angels around us in every form--our next door neighbor, our teacher, our leaders, and the person who just lands in our path, many of whom were meant to be there for us and are our angels on earth. How willing do we head the counsel of these angels?
Matthew 2
This chapter is an introductory chapter that proves the legitimacy of Jesus as his own upbringing meets the expectation of the prophecies made about him. Looking forward, we know that the people did not recognize him as their Savior. They were expecting someone physically greater, not some mere carpenter's son. They did not take Him at face value and turned a blind eye on His Greatness when the prophecies alone proved that He was the One. If we lived in that time period, would we have seen Him for who He was? Do we recognize Him and His servants on the earth today? Or are we being blind?
Matthew 3
Here, Jesus Christ is baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus walked miles and miles to be with John and to be baptized by him. John had a special authority called the priesthood which meant that he could baptize. Baptism is a symbol of becoming clean of our sins; it is a spiritual washing. We know that Jesus was perfect and yet it had to be "suffered" (verse 15) that he partake of this ritual. Why? In this act, He did two things. First, He proved His obedience to His father, our God. Second, He showed us the path by which we must follow as He is our ultimate example. By accepting baptism, we are demonstrating our obedience to our loving Heavenly Father as we are baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God and we are promising that we will follow Christ and His example for us. If God was so pleased (verse 17) that His perfect Son would be so obedient, then how pleased is He when we, His imperfect children, choose right paths, choose baptism, choose obedience, and choose Christ? I promise you that that makes Him pleased. He loves us and when we make those right decisions, He is there cheering us on.
I love the Bible! Thank you for reading this and for sharing a moment in the good book with me! God bless, ya'all!
