Sunday, March 23, 2014

Teachings for our times - lesson snippet

Sis. Kendall taught today and the conference talk her lesson was created from was Claim the Blessings of the Covenants by Sis. Reeves. 

One interested thing she brought up was she asked us,
"If you were to die today which kingdom of Heaven do you think you would go to?" 

She didn't have us answer but merely to think about the answer. She said in her Institute class lately their instructor has asked this same question in a lessons before. He would pass around slips of paper and have people anonymously write down which Kingdom they thought they would go to. Most didn't put the Celestial Kingdom. This is what he taught them: 

Covenants of Salvation: you need these 4 things -
1. Faith
2. Repentance
3. Baptisnm
4. Gift of the Holy Ghost
5. Endure to the End

How are you doing in this area? 

Then he listed out the Covenants of Exaltation: you need - 
1. Endowments
2. Sealing

To get to the Celestial Kingdom these 2 lists of things is what you have to do. 
There are degrees within the Celestial Kingdom as we know. But looking at the lists.....how are you doing now? It seems a little more attainable right? 

Joseph Fielding Smith said, "It is necessary, not merely that we believe, but that we repent," and he also taught that when we perform good works in faith until the end, we will receive the reward of the faithful and a place in the Celestial Kingdom of God."