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/

What is the purpose of Baptism?

Baptism comes from Greek and it means to dip or immerse.When Jesus Christ was on the earth, at the start of his ministry He was baptised, by John the Baptist. (Matthew 3:13-17) John at that time was baptising unto repentance, (Matthew 3:11) Jesus Christ himself of course did not need to be baptised for repentance, He was perfect. So, Why did he get baptised?
 John even recognised that Christ was superior to him when he said "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?"  and in a humble response Jesus responds "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness"  So A perfect man felt it was necessary to be baptised to fulfill all righteousness How much more greater is our need to be baptised?

Okay So there is a need to be baptised, But why? What does baptism even do? At baptism we make a covenant with God. A covenant is an agreement where God tells us what the reward will be and we agree with God what we have to do in order to get that reward.

So, The prophet Alma, In the Book of Mormon, taught what this covenant involves (Mosiah 18:8-10). In this promise we make with God, is that we will help and try to uplift those around us, promise to keep His commandments and stand as witnesses of him at all times and in all things, Or in other words show people that you are trying to follow Christ by trying to be like him in your actions and the things you say.

By being baptised you agree with God to keep his commandments, And you are basically saying that you are putting your past behind you and are going to follow him and keep his commandments. When you do this, you enter into the fold of God and become one of his people.

In return for you doing this He promises to give you his spirit in more abundance. That he will forgive you of your sins and wash them away, That you will be resurrected and live with him.

In closing, Late one night Jesus Christ was conversing with a Pharisee called Nicodemus, He was a ruler amongst the Jews. Jesus Christ taught him that no man can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again. This confused Nicodemus, and so he asked how can you be born again?

"Verily, verily, i say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:1-5)

The Gift of the Holy Ghost.

In my previous post I talked about what the Holy Ghost is and that we are all affected by his influence. Although everyone can feel the Holy Ghost testify of truth to their souls, There is a unique gift that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints has to offer and that is The Gift of the Holy Ghost.

The Gift of the Holy Ghost is different to feeling its influence. First because when someone who has received this gift they are entitled to the feelings and guidance of the Holy Ghost constantly so long as they keep the commandments of God. In the Bible, the apostles, after the Holy Ghost descended upon them preached right away, And after they preached  the people felt the Holy Ghost as a prick in their hearts, they then asked (Acts 2:37-38) "What shall we do?" The Apostles than declared that they should "Repent and be baptised everyone in the name of Jesus and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost"

The Prophet Nephi in The Book of Mormon,  taught that once you "receive the Holy Ghost, it shall show you all things what ye should do." (2 Nephi 32:5) Personal guidance from God really is a great gift. This is the gift that Jesus Christ called The Comforter, in John 14:16.

And yet, Jesus Christ said (John 14:17)"Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." So how can we receive this gift if the world cannot receive it? The answer is through the laying on of hands. There are a few places that teach this but my favourite story is of simon the sorcerer. (Acts 8:12-25) Here, Philip went and preached the Gospel in Samaria, They were all being bewitched and fooled by a man called Simon who practised sorcery. 


When Philip preached to these people he showed them miracles and taught them about Jesus Christ. Even simon believed his words and they were all baptised. The apostles Peter and John heard that they were baptised and they travelled all the way from Jerusalem to Samaria and in verse 17 the apostles laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost.

Simon saw that when they laid their hands on peoples heads they received this gift and he wanted it for himself. He was even willing to offer money for it. But peter rebuked him and told him that the gifts of God cannot be purchased with money and he told him to repent of this evil.

This is something that was so important that the apostles travelled all that distance just to give them this gift, The role of this Gift is to cleanse our spirits of guilt, to guide us in our every day lives, to testify of the truth and to provide comfort to us in times of need.

I hope this helps you as much as it has helped me in my life.

What is the Holy Ghost?

So, The Holy Ghost is God's messenger to our souls, He has many names, like The Spirit, The Comforter, The Holy Spirit, The Spirit of Truth, and many more. His role as the third member of the Godhead is to teach and testify to us what is true and from God.

Since the times of Adam, The Holy Ghost has guided the followers of God. The Apostle Peter (2 Peter 1:20-21) Teaches all the prophecies and scripture in times of old (Or in other words the Old Testament) was written through inspiration of the Holy Ghost. And of course all of the New testament was written in the exact same way, The Holy Ghost inspiring the Apostles what to write and how to guide the followers of God.

Everyone on the Earth can be influenced by the Holy Ghost, As the Holy Ghost inspires scripture, It also testifies to our souls of truth. An example of this is Romans 8:16 Here it teaches that The Spirit witnesses to our spirit that we are the children of God.  And this is because this is truth, All truth that is sent from God is testified by the Holy Ghost. and anyone who will not harden their heart can feel it whenever someone teaches truth.

There are many ways that the Spirit teaches us, Mostly we get feelings. The other day, we were in the chapel, and a man who had never been here before walked in, we gave him a tour of the building showing him what it was like, At the end of the tour he said that it feels "Different" in here. That it felt good. The feelings of comfort that come from the Holy Ghost are unique, Indescribable in some cases. It can feel like peace just washes over you. In Galatians 5:22-23 It describes "The Fruit of the spirit" Or in other words, The feelings that come from it. These are definitely feelings that all of us could do with more in our own lives. "Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance"

 Or it comes as the apostles described in Luke 24:32, When Jesus appeared to two of them, and they did not recognise Him, He talked to them for a while and read to them from the scriptures. The way they knew who he was afterwards was because they felt "our hearts burn within us while he talked" This is a very powerful occasion and is more rare than is common. Another occasion is when the Apostles were teaching at the day of Pentecost when they themselves received the Holy Ghost. (Acts 2:37-38) "They were pricked in the heart" And after that the apostles gave everyone The Gift of the Holy Ghost.

In the Book of Mormon, in Moroni 10:3-5 Moroni teaches us all how we can find our own answers from God, The promise given here is for the Book of Mormon specifically but can apply to anything we want to know from God. He instructs us that First we must "ponder it in our hearts." Or in other words, Think about them for ourselves. Than we need to Ask God, in the name of Jesus Christ if it is true. If we do this and are willing to act on the answer that God gives us, Believing that he will answer you. You will feel the guidance through the Holy Ghost on what you should do.

The Holy Ghost has really blessed my life and has bought me great comfort when i have been feeling low, He can help anyone so long as we ask God for help.

The Resurrection.

Because of Adam and Eve, we will all die, this is a promise that God gave them when they ate of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. When they ate of it they would die in two different ways Physically and spiritually. Physical death is where our body is separated from our body. Spiritual death is separation of us from God. (Alma 42:9)

Because of Jesus Christ we will all be raised from both physical and spiritual death. The prophet Alma, in The Book of Mormon, explained to his son that Resurrection is when our body and spirit are joined together again, but our body will be made perfect.(Alma 40:23)

After we are resurrected, we will all be brought into the presence of God to be Judged of what we have done here on the earth, (Revelation 20:13-13)and we will be judged by Jesus Christ (John 5:22-23). As we will be judged according to our works, It seems a little unfair that God would have only two options, like If you make it this far you get to heaven, if you fall short you go to hell. And you do not need to accept Jesus Christ in order to be a good person, So what happens to them?

well, Lets first establish that there are more than two places that you can go, There is more than just heaven or hell. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul is explaining to the Corinthians that there will be a resurrection, and in (1 Corinthians 15:40-42) Here it compares the types of body to the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. This is what it refers to when we receive according to our works. 

Those who follow Jesus Christ, strive to keep his commandments and are Baptised will receive this "Glory" Now it dost mean they will become the sun but they can be compared to the sun. for example in Revelation 1:16 it compares the countenance of Jesus to the sun. Those who are compared to this glory will live with God, and they will live in a state of perfect joy and peace. I love how in psalms 16:11 it teaches that in Gods presence is a fullness of Joy. 

The glory of the Moon, Is for people who lived a good life, but for one reason or another chose not to follow Jesus Christ. They will have some amount of happiness. But they will not live with God, and as a result will never be as happy as those who have been cleansed through Jesus Christ.

The lowest of these three places is compared to the stars. Just as from our perspective the stars are almost nothing in compared to the moon, and you cannot even see them compared to the sun. The Glory of these people will be almost nothing. This is because they did not live good lives and did not want to change. God has prepared somewhere for them to live.

This was something that God revealed to Joseph Smith through divine revelation. And is one of the many fruits that God has given to us through prophets who live today.