Joseph Smith-Mathew. The Savior Taught about Future Events

After reading the passages listed on the table headings, I filled out the table with the events and promises.  I like this section because it talks about the second coming of Christ.  A lot of people think of the second coming as something scary, but only the ones that disobey will suffer because the obedient ones will be saved.  It comforts me to know that the second coming is something to look forward to and not something to fear.

	Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (JS-M 1:5-20)	The Second Coming of Jesus Christ (JS-M 1:21-55)
Events to Occur	6-Many will come in the name of Jesus Christ and it is him and will deceive many. 7-Jesus followers’ will be persecuted, hated, and murdered for His name’s sake. 8-Many will become offended and will betray  and hate one another.  9-There will be many false prophets that will deceive many. 18-The Jews in Jerusalem will suffer many tribulations.	22-There will be many false Christs and prophets that will show signs; they can possibly even deceive the very elect. 23-There will be rumors or wars and we’ll hear of rumors of wars.  25-If people tell you that Christ is here or over there, don’t believe it, it’s not true at all. 29-Nations won’t get along and there will be famines, pestilences, earthquakes, and divers places. 31-The gospel will be preached everywhere around the world.
Promises to the Righteous	11-The ones that remain steadfast will be saved. 20-For the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened.	37-Who ever keeps Christ’s gospel will not be deceived. 39-When the elect see all the signs happening they will know the second coming is near. 49-The faithful will be made rulers over the unfaithful.

From what I studied in 1 Nephi 22:16-22 and Doctrine and Covenants 97:22, 25, an obedient person that lives the gospel of Jesus Christ to the best of their abilities should not be afraid of the Second Coming of Christ.  Those that obey will be saved from what the disobedient will suffer. 

Mark 12:41-44. The Widow’s Mites

Jesus Christ was watching all the rich people throwing a lot of money into the treasury.  He then noticed a poor widow that put two mites into the treasury.  The significance of her gift is that it was given with a sincere intent.  Her two mites came from her heart, while many of the rich people cast in because they had much.  I bet if they didn’t have that much money they wouldn’t be in the treasury showing off how rich they were.  The poor widow had something more valuable than all the riches thrown into the treasury by many of the rich men.  She had sincere love for the Lord.   She indeed loved the Lord with all her heart, mind, soul, and strength.  This was shown by the simple action of giving all she had. 

The widow gave less money compared to many others, but she gave everything she had, “Even all her living.”  The Lord is not looking for a monetary amount when we give an offering; he is looking at our intentions, in our hearts, the reason why we are giving that offering.  When we give an offering because we love the Lord, we show him our intentions.  Yes, that offering will help many people in need, but the most important reason for giving an offering is simply because we love the Lord.  In 2 Nephi 25:23 we learn that we are saved by grace, after all that we can do.  She was saved by grace because she gave everything she had with a sincere love for the Lord.   


Asides from donating money to show sacrifice and obedience to the Lord, I can do other things that will show the same concept.  For example, at one point I had a job that used to pay time-and-half on Sundays.  However, I gave up the extra money in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.  If the same situation was presented to me again, I would do the same thing because I love the Lord.  

Matthew 19:16-30; 2:1-16. Earthly and Heavenly Rewards

These are my thoughts on the story of the rich young man.  


After the Lord told him that the last thing he needed to do to enter into the Kingdom of God was to share his riches with the poor, he got sad because he had a lot of earthly material riches that he didn’t want to give away.  The Lord explained that it would be easier to for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.  I remember from my seminary classes, my instructor explained that the eye of the needle refers to a narrow entrance at the beginning of Jerusalem, where camels had to be unloaded in order to pass through.  Now imagine a rich man trying to enter through the eye of a needle with so many possessions?  He would never finish.  This is why the Lord said that.  


The Lord promised to those that follow him eternal life.  To those that decide to give up material things in order to have a Christ centered life will receive blessings in return.  How can we put Christ first in our lives?


Well, there are a lot of things that we can do to have Christ first in our lives.  From reading the selected passages in the scriptures, the first thing we need to do is obey his commandments.  He has said that if we love him, we will keep his commandments.  To anyone that wants to keep Christ first in their lives, obeying the commandments will show our true intentions.  The second thing we need to do to have Christ first in our lives is to serve others.  When we give of our tithing, offerings, and fast offering, we are essentially helping someone in need.  We can also serve others with little things.  For example, giving someone a call to check on that person, cooking a family dinner, and there are other things that we can come up with.  


This if from the parable found in Mathew 20:1-16

From this parable we learn that when serving in the Lord’s kingdom, we will all be rewarded the same.  In this case we are talking about eternal life.  This parable can comfort our converts in the church with assurance that they will be rewarded with eternal life as long as their live righteous lives according to the gospel.  I know that there might be people that feel is unfair for each of the laborers to be paid equally.  I would tell this person that God is fair.  We are all working for eternal life, and it doesn’t matter when we started.  What matters is the work put into that goal from the day we started.  There are people that are born in the church and others that are converts later after adulthood.  If they are both worthy in the end of eternal life, they will have it regardless of when they started it.