February 6, 2012

Here is a story for you.
When everyone came home from church on Sunday mom asked Joey what, "What did you learn at church today?"
Joey replied, "I learned about Moses."
Mom asked, " What did you learn about Moses?"
Joey explained, "Well, Moses, he was sent in behind enemy lines on a special mission to save the Israelites. When he had them all together they got outta there. When they came to the Red Sea they built a pontoon bridge and got everyone across. Then he radioed in for a bombing squad to fly in and blow up the bridge when the Egyptians were on it. And all the Israelites were safe."
Puzzled, mom asked, "Is that really what your teacher taught you?"
Joey said, "No, but if I told it the way she did no one would believe it."

I liked that one. Brother Thompson in my ward began Priesthood meeting off with that one. This week I learned a lot of stuff. But there is not enough time to tell it all. Probably the most important thing I learned about this week was grace. The grace by which we are saved. There is a great article in BYU Magazine about it. I'll explain briefly. Are you saved by grace? Yes, you are. We are all saved by grace. Jesus satisfied the demands of justice when he suffered for us. We could never satisfy the demands of justice on our own. So what Christ did for us can be likened unto a mother paying for her child to take piano lessons. She pays the teacher in full. All she asks of her child is practice. Practice will never pay mom or the teacher. The important thing about grace is not to ask are you saved by grace, but are you changed by grace? We are not earning heaven by our works, we are learning heaven by our works.

Sorry that's not the most well constructed we have to go!

Love y'all

Elder Fagersten in AZ