Christ's Early Disciples

I was able to learn about some of the early disciples of Christ this week.  The assignment seemed to focus mostly on John the Baptist.  I thought it was interesting that in John 1:29 and 1:36 he kept calling Christ ‘the Lamb of God.’  When I thought about it, I thought about how lambs are considered pure and innocent animals and how the Israelites sacrificed their first born and purest to be cleansed from their sins.  The more I thought about it, the more fitting I thought it was that Christ was referred to as ‘the Lamb of God.’  He was pure, innocent, and the first born of the Father, and lambs were sacrificed in the similitude of the sacrifice that Christ performed for us.

I enjoyed reading about how many of Christ’s disciples recognized Him as the Lamb of God rather quickly.  John, James, Philip, and Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saw Christ walking by and followed Him because they realized who He really was (and still is).  Andrew went and told Peter, who then told Nathaniel, that the Messiah had come, and they followed Him also.  When Christ found Philip, he told everyone he could find.  It reminds me of the missionary work that we should be accomplishing. 

I was watching tv one day, just flipping through channels, and I came across some random show that was talking about different faiths.  The host went around a college campus, asking students if they share their faith with their friends.  Most of them answered that they didn’t because they were worried about offending one or all of their friends.  The host asked them if they were offered a thousand dollars for every person they shared their faith with, would they be so hesitant?  Everyone said that they would take that deal in a hear beat.  The host’s point was to help people see where their heart is, with the Lord or somewhere else.  It made me wonder where my heart is.  Where are my priorities?

The disciples who chose to follow Christ had chosen to give their heart to Him, and are perfect examples of how we should be.  When they saw or heard about Christ, they dropped everything to go to Him.  How many of us would do the same?  They also told as many people as they could find about Christ, which is I think what we should be trying to do, also.

Most, if not all, of my friends and family know that I’m a member of the Church.  They know that they can ask me questions, and they know that I will never force them to join the Church or choose between our friendship and being baptized.  Every now and then, I’ll mention the Church.  My friend told me over facebook one night that she wanted to read something, but she wasn’t sure what to read.  I semi-jokingly suggested that she could read the Book of Mormon.  She laughed and declined the offer.  Another time, I was in a CES choir a few years ago, and I somehow convinced my mom to watch it so she could see and hear me sing.  I also asked my mom if she wanted to go to General Conference with me.  She knows how much I love it, but she declined that offer.

I’m rarely successful, but I hope that one day the little things I do and say will lead somewhere.  I know how happy the gospel has made me, and I want my friends and family to have these blessings too.  I guess they’re just not ready yet.  I think that as long as I’m patient and continue to not make others feel forced into it, they might want to know more someday.  It might be next week, but it might also be 50 years from now.  I just need to keep loving and being patient with them.

John 1:1-14 and 17:1-5, the Premortal and Mortal Christ

For my New Testament post this week, I decided to look up John 1:1-14 and 17:1-5.  I thought it was interesting that they both refer to Christ as being ‘Light.’  I thought about why He would be referred to that way, and it made me think about what light is.  It gets rid of darkness, and if you’re inside a room or building, it helps you see where everything is.  It helps you understand where things are, which is kind of what Christ does.  He helps us understand different things we are going through and He gives us guidance, as do headlights on a car.

In these verses, I learned that Christ was called ‘the Word of God’ because of Heavenly Father’s promise to send Him as our Savior.  Christ, in the premortal existence, lived with God in the beginning, had the same glory that God had (and still does have), and created everything under God’s direction.  He was called ‘the Light’ because, like I said earlier, He gives understanding and direction.  He was selected in the premortal existence to be sent to Earth to glorify God.

In His mortal life, the Savior was raised among the Jews, who didn’t recognize Him as who He really was: the Messiah.  Throughout His entire life, Christ was honest, graceful, and very deliberate in all He did.  God gave Christ power over everything.  He was also given the power to grant eternal life to those worthy of it.  With this power, He successfully glorified the Lord here on the earth.

Through this assignment, I learned a little bit about some of the different names/titles for the Savior from the Bible Dictionary and the New Testament institute manual.  ‘Christ’ and ‘Messiah’ are the Greek and Hebrew versions of each other and have identical meaning: ‘the anointed.’  ‘Jehovah’ refers to the premortal Jesus Christ, is the proper name of the God of Israel, and denotes “the Unchangeable One” and “the Eternal I AM.”  In its original form, it literally meant “Help of Jehovah,” “Savior-Deliverer,” or “Jehovah is Salvation.”  I find it especially interesting that the name ‘Jehovah’ was not spoken in ancient Jewish practice for fear of incurring divine wrath.

The name ‘Immanuel’ or ‘Emmanuel’  means “God is with us” and was given as a sign of God’s deliverance. In reference to Christ, it’s expressive of His divine origin and Godship.

Christ is also referred to as ‘The Word,’ which I’ve always thought was interesting.  He is called this because God delegated the responsibility and power of creation to Jesus Christ.  Christ then became the one through whom God’s word was put into effect.  I’ve never thought of it that way before, but it makes sense to me.