Who is God?

When someone asks the question who or what is God, people get many things come to mind. Some people think a big guy sitting on a throne with a big lightning bolt in his hand waiting to strike whoever makes a mistake. Others think of some invisible spirit with no shape of appearance.

The view we have of God is quite simple, He is our loving heavenly father, The literal father of all of our spirits, He has a perfected physical body as tangible as you and I. He is all knowing and is omnipresent through His spirit. We also believe that God the father, Jesus Christ and The Holy Ghost are three separate beings who form a Godhead. Each with their own role but united in their purpose.

We call God our Heavenly Father. That is because He is the literal father of our spirits. (Romans 8:16) Because of this, we recognise that we have and are able to build a personal relationship with God. Knowing that God is the literal father of our spirits helps you to understand why God wants to be involved in your life. As a perfect loving father, He allows us the freedom to decide for ourselves, Even if our decisions do not result in the happiness he wants us to have through keeping his commandments. 

He has a glorified perfected physical body He can touch, taste and feel things, just like we can, And when we reach heaven, We will all be able to live with God. With our own perfected bodies. (Revelation 21:1-4) We will live in peace and joy with all sickness and pains taken away, That really will be wonderful. 

Why don't mormons drink Tea and Coffee?

Sorry about the 2 week gap between posts :)

Throughout history, God has given commandment and guidance on what to eat and what not to eat. In return God has promised his followers health benefits for following such commandments. A great example of this is Daniel 1 Here the king Nebuchadnezzar gathers lots of the greatest minds of the time together and they are given rich meats and strong wine. The prophet Daniel was one of these people, but he refused to eat the kings meat and drink the kings wine.

After just 10 days, the benefits were shown, They looked healthier (Daniel 1:15) and God also granted them greater knowledge, and wisdom. they were found to be 10 times better (Daniel 1:20).

Just like in old times, God has given us a law of health, this law was given to Joseph Smith in 1833, and is known as "The word of wisdom" (Doctrine and covenants 89). And just as with all of God's commandments he promises blessings for obeying these laws.

Over time, the things specified that we should stay away from are Alcohol, Tobacco, Tea, Coffee, and Illegal Drugs.

In addition to the guide for what is bad for us, God has also given us guidance for a more healthy diet (Doctrine and covenants 89:10-17), That we should eat these include : Wholesome herbs, in their season, Meat sparingly, all grains,and fruit of the vine.

Basically it is a diet that a good health specialist will advise, eat healthy food, not too much meat and have lots of herbs and fruit. And stay away from things that are harmful to the body like Tobacco, Alcohol, Tea, Coffee and drugs. It is great to think that God gave this health code in 1833 a long time before you had health specialists :)

As a benefit for eating these things God has given the promise that we shall; (Doctrine and Covenants 89:18-21) Health in their navle, Marrow in their bones, They shall find wisdom, hidden treasures of knowledge, Run and not be weary, walk and not faint. These are some great things, To just generally be healthier.

So really, It is for two reasons, First because God said it is what we should do, and second it is to live a healthy lifestyle and look after the great gift of a physical body that God has given us.

what happens on Sundays at the Mormon church?

Moroni 6:9 "And their meetings were conducted by the church after the manner of the workings of the spirit, and by the power of the Holy Ghost; for as the power of the Holy Ghost led them whether to preach, or to exhort, or to pray, or to supplicate, or to sing, even so it was done."

So, In the Church Of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, we attend church on a Sunday and starts usually at about 10 Am. It is a 3 hour long service. These three hours are divided up into classes and the sacrament meeting.

The first hour we call "Sacrament meeting" This can be compared to communion. This meeting starts off with a prayer and a hymn. This is the most important meeting, because here we take the sacrament, Which is bread and water, that symbolizes Christs body and blood which was given for us so that we could become cleansed from our sins. We take this in remembrance of him, and to renew the covenants or agreements we have made with God at baptism.

After this, members who were chosen by the bishop give a 10-20 minute message to the congregation, The person giving this message prayerfully study the subject they are given to talk about and write it themselves, there are usually 2-3 people who talk during this meeting. this meeting is about an hour long.

The next meeting is Sunday school, this is divided by age, so the very young children play games and learn together, the youth (12-18) learn together and the adults learn together, each learning about things that are relevant to their age group. These classes are more of a discussion and everyone is welcome to share their feelings as guided by the Holy Ghost.

 

For the final hour the men and the women separate, and the men study together and learn more about being good fathers and husbands, and helping each other learn about their priesthood duties in the church and the sisters meet together and talk about being good mothers and wives whilst strengthening each other in their faith in God.

The best thing about the church services is the spirit that comes from being there, Personally, I have had times when I have felt that I really did not feel that happy or did not even feel like going to church, afterwords I feel like weight has been lifted from my shoulders, and I feel much happier. That is the Holy Ghost lifting me up for the week :)

Why do we need prophets and apostles today?

So, This is a question i get asked by people of lots of different faiths, This comes from several viewpoints. One is that the Bible is the whole word of God and that there is no need for anything more. Another is the belief which is correct but incomplete and that is that we are able to receive personal guidance from God. And also from the idea that because Jesus has come already we have no more need for prophets.

Lets begin with how God has lead his people in the past. Throughout the Bible God has spoken to his Children through Prophets, He spoke through people like Noah, Moses, Samuel Isaiah and many other prophets all throughout history. In paul's letter to the Ephesians(Ephesians 4:11-15) he teaches why we have prophets and apostles in the first place.

Im going to pick a few things out of that verse that teach me why we need them today. "till we all come in the unity of faith" as you can see from christianity as a whole, we are not united. There are people who attack the beliefs of other christians and that is not right. If the purpose of the prophets and apostles and pastors and teachers was supposed to bring us all together in unity of faith, Why is christianity so divided?

We are divided because the basic beliefs of each church is different, there are people who believe in the trinity, there are people who believe that they are 3 separate beings, even things as basic as if we need to be baptised and if so, how that baptism is done. the list of things go on. and in verse 14 it teaches "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive:" This teaches that they were teaching one doctrine and not hundreds of different opinions because they would have been united.

This does not mean that everyone who claims to be a prophet is a prophet, Jesus Christ himself warned against false prophets (Matthew 7:15-20) notice that he did not say there will be no more prophets, but instead he taught how to recognise them, he said "Ye shall know them by their fruits." some people even thought Jesus was a false prophet. in John 7:12-17 Some people believe that Christ is teaching false idea's and Christ says "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, weather it be of God or whether i speak of myself."

If we are to find out if someone is a prophet we need to listen and than we need to act, If they are a prophet the Holy Ghost will let them know if they are or not. And so i would invite you to listen to the prophet and apostles who have been chosen by God in our time, Pray about the things you teach and act on them, by doing this you will know if they are from God or if they are not.

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/