The Book of Mormon...

  The topic on my mind today is baptism. Baptism is one of those key saving ordnance's that we can do to show our Heavenly Father that we have faith and are truly committed to following Him and keeping His commandments. Baptism is wonderful for many reasons, but one that sticks out to me is not only is it showing obedience but it is how we can have our sins washed away. After my blog yesterday on the atonement, and what Christ went through for us what a great way to repay and give thanks, and become as a little child and be born again and be clean from our pasts. The scripture from the Book of Mormon that I feel best describes the importance of baptism comes from the book of Nephi chapter 31: 5-7 & 9.3

  "And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water! And now, I would ask of you, my beloved brethren, wherein the Lamb of God did fulfil all righteousness in being baptized by water? Know ye not that he was holy? But notwithstanding he being holy, he showeth unto the children of men that, according to the flesh he humbleth himself before the Father, and witnesseth unto the Father that he would be obedient unto him in keeping his commandments." 9 And again, it showeth unto the children of men the straitness of the path, and the narrowness of the gate, by which they should enter, he having set the example before them."

  Once again, I love the plainness of the Book of Mormon! There is just one way to read this, Christ was baptized because He was commanded, and it was to fulfil all righteousness. Then it goes on to remind us, hey do you remember the life that Christ lived? He was prefect, He never once messed up, yet He still had to be baptized! So how are you doing? Are you prefect? No, then all the more need for us to be baptized so that we can be cleansed of our sins and be put back on the path to live with our Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ.

  I also love verse 9 because it reemphasises the straightness of the path that leads us back to the Kingdom of God. The wonderful thing about that path is we are not left to wonder it alone. This verse tells us along with in the bible, in the book of 1 Peter chapter 2:21, that Christ came to be an example. Like all great leaders, He wanted to go through these things as well, so He would know exactly how hard this life is, to know what we have to go through on a daily bases. I know everyday I am grateful that Christ does love us, that He is willing to help us to over come our struggles, that He will allow us to be washed clean of our wrong doings and have the chance to repent always As much as I wish we were always going to be prefect after we are baptized we know that that doesn't happen, but we can sure try. The Lord will wash away our sins and continue to forgive us as many times as we need, but we need to be sincere. I know this to be true and I leave it in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.