will you let him in?

We believe that the Atonement was a necessary sacrifice performed by Jesus Christ. During the Atonement, Christ took upon himself all of our sins so that we could return to our loving Heavenly Father one day, because none of us are perfect. In the New Testament, Acts 13:39 it reads “And by him all that believe are justified from all things...” This scripture can more easily pertain to us if we compare the Atonement that Christ suffered to any type of trial. The defendant’s attorney walks up to the jury, audience, witnesses, plaintiff, and judge and claims that the crime in which the defendant is being found guilty of has already been justified, meaning that the law has already been satisfied. The penalty for the crime has already been paid, by the attorney, so the defendant no longer has to pay the price for their own crime or crimes. In this analogy, we are the defendant. We are the ones being accused of sinning while Satan is the Plaintiff who is bringing all of us to trail against all of the sins we have committed. Christ plays the role of not only our attorney and mediator, but the witnesses, the judge, the jury, etc. Through the Atonement Christ paid for all of our sins and although we are guilty of committing many sins, he has already served our sentence for us so we don’t have to go through that pain. We just have to be willing to come unto Christ and believe. Let him be our lawyer because we can’t defend ourselves  against the law on our own. We need Christ and we need his Atonement. I believe in the Atonement of Christ, it is real and he personally paid for the price of my sins as well as everyone's inhabiting the earth. He is begging all of us to let him defend us against the forces of evil. 

my decision to serve a full-time mission

I have been called to serve in the California Anaheim mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I am to report to the Missionary Training Center on April 10th, exactly 2 weeks before the end of the Winter Semester at BYU. On Monday my Bishop approached me about my decision to try and finish the semester early and informed me that I could extend my call six weeks to finish out the semester and spend some time with my family before leaving. It surprised me how much I felt that he was implying that maybe that was something I should do. I called my dad and told him how conflicted I was because I still didn’t know if most of my professors would even let me take the finals early, one had already said no, and I was trying to decide if it was worth it to move my report date back although I felt really confident in finishing out a semester before my mission. I was pretty discouraged. My dad simply told me that moving my date back was something to seriously consider and look into. Honestly, I couldn’t understand why I would feel so good about putting my availability dade to lave on my mission earlier when submitting my papers to later feel so confused and stressed-out about it now. It didn’t even hit me until after I had received my call that maybe my professors wouldn’t let me take my finals early. Why would the leaders of the church feel inspired to put my mission date on April 10th while at the same time so many people were informing me about pushing my date back. I knew that God had a plan and that everything was going to somehow work out but it currently wasn’t when I had felt so good about my decision. Then in my New Testament class we read Acts 1:7 which explains that it is not for us to know the timing of things, God knows the reason and timing behind all things. My professor explained that this scripture was an answer from the Lord about questions of timing.  I had literally been sitting though that whole lecture worrying about my other professors and what I was going to do. That scripture brought me so much peace knowing that right now, I don’t understand why I am supposed to go to California on April 10th, but I was called to serve a mission on April 10th so I am going to work as hard as I possibly can to get to the MTC on that date. Maybe it won’t make much of a difference if I postpone my mission for six weeks, I would have more time to prepare and could spend more time with the people I love before I left but the time that I am called to go is in April. I am excited to serve and although I won’t be able to go home again before my mission, I feel SO MUCH peace about that date to report. I know that is when I am supposed to go. I don’t have to question the timing of my mission call, the Lord and the Lord’s servants know that my date to report is April 10th. I don’t know why, but the Lord does and that is good enough for me.