For years my mother has taught me about charity. "It is not actions we do or things we say, it is actually a gift we receive. You must pray for it and desire it will your whole heart." I have thought about what she taught me...for years.
I think this week each post will be about charity because it is so important and essential! Paul says: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my good to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."(1Cor:13:1-3)
Sheri Dew has a wonderful chapter about Charity in her book, "If Life Were Easy, It Wouldn't Be Hard" so I am just going to tell you what she says because she states it so straight forward and beautifully.
"Charity is a bestowal, a gift from our Father. The gift of Charity is bestowed only upon those who follow the Son. It is the greatest of all the gifts of the Spirit. But it may be the most underestimated and even the least understood. We tend to define charity as something we do or feel, but in our Father's vernacular, charity means much more. It is the word He uses to describe the character, the nature, the very essence of His Son.
Charity is not an emotion or an action. It is not something we feel or do. Charity is who the Savior is. It is His most defining and dominant attribute. It is what enabled Him to endure the Garden and the cross for you and me. It is one of the things that makes Him God. Thus, when we plead for the gift of charity, we aren't asking for lovely feelings toward someone who bugs us or someone who has injured or wounded us. We are actually pleading for our very natures to be changed, for our character and disposition to become more and more like the Savior's, so that we literally feel as He would feel and thus do what he would do. That explains why Mormon says that when the Savior appears, those who have been gifted with charity "shall be like him," for they shall "see him as he is" (Moroni 7:48)."
-Sheri Dew, "If Life were Easy, It Wouldn't Be Hard"
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Charity literally changes us from the Natural Man to a Spiritual Man
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More to come tomorrow on Charity.
I think this week each post will be about charity because it is so important and essential! Paul says: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my good to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing."(1Cor:13:1-3)
Sheri Dew has a wonderful chapter about Charity in her book, "If Life Were Easy, It Wouldn't Be Hard" so I am just going to tell you what she says because she states it so straight forward and beautifully.
"Charity is a bestowal, a gift from our Father. The gift of Charity is bestowed only upon those who follow the Son. It is the greatest of all the gifts of the Spirit. But it may be the most underestimated and even the least understood. We tend to define charity as something we do or feel, but in our Father's vernacular, charity means much more. It is the word He uses to describe the character, the nature, the very essence of His Son.
Charity is not an emotion or an action. It is not something we feel or do. Charity is who the Savior is. It is His most defining and dominant attribute. It is what enabled Him to endure the Garden and the cross for you and me. It is one of the things that makes Him God. Thus, when we plead for the gift of charity, we aren't asking for lovely feelings toward someone who bugs us or someone who has injured or wounded us. We are actually pleading for our very natures to be changed, for our character and disposition to become more and more like the Savior's, so that we literally feel as He would feel and thus do what he would do. That explains why Mormon says that when the Savior appears, those who have been gifted with charity "shall be like him," for they shall "see him as he is" (Moroni 7:48)."
-Sheri Dew, "If Life were Easy, It Wouldn't Be Hard"
**********************************************************
Charity literally changes us from the Natural Man to a Spiritual Man
**********************************************************
More to come tomorrow on Charity.
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