These things I know

I know there is a God. I know this because I have prayed and had my prayers answered. In my earliest recollections, I knew there was a God because my Mom and Dad knew it. Today I know there is a God because I can feel his presence as I read the scriptures that testify of Him.

I know God is a perfect being. The scriptures say, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matt. 5:48)

I know that He does not change. We read, "For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?" (Mormon 9:9) The Bible describes this beautifully. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." (James 1:17)

I know He has a body of flesh and bone. I know this because of the revelation given to the prophet Joseph Smith, "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us." (D&C 130:22)

I know that God will never die. I know this because I believe this scripture: "According to that which was ordained in the midst of the Council of the Eternal God of all other gods before this world was, that should be reserved unto the finishing and the end thereof, when every man shall enter into his eternal presence and into his immortal rest." (D&C 121:32)

I know that He will always do what is right. I know that He will never sin. I know He experiences perfect joy and happiness. I know He is my Father.

I know I am His son. I know I am his son in the spirit. I know God loves me. I know God wants me to be like Him so I can experience his perfect joy and happiness.

I know that before this earth life, I lived with him and there He taught me about good and evil. He gave me the power to choose for myself. In order to progress further, I needed to leave my heavenly home and experience good and evil for myself. This was a terrible risk, but the only way to progress. So, God created the earth.

I know that He sent me to the earth to experience good and evil. He wants me to learn for myself what is good and what is evil. God wants me to learn to choose good over evil. I know that to live with God, I must be pure. When I choose evil, knowing the good, I sin and become impure. I’m physically impure and I have sinned. In this state I can not be in His presence. In this state I cannot progress. In this state I am dammed from becoming like Him.

Knowing that I would make mistakes, sin and become impure, unable to return to God’s presence, He prepared a way for me to return to his presence clean and pure.

The way God prepared for me is this: Christ will suffer for my sins and make it so I can return to live with God. I do not know how this works, but I know it does. In order to have Christ suffer for my sins, I make a covenant with Christ. Christ promises to help me to change by sending the Holy Ghost. Christ promises to suffer for my sins so I can return the Father. Christ promises to resurrect me so that I will be able to keep my physical body forever, and never die. Christ promises to honor and seal my marriage with my wife so that we remain man and wife forever. For all this, I promise to repent and keep God’s commandments.

I know that on this earth I must:

1. Learn God’s commandments
   
2. Obey God’s commandments
   
3. Repent when I don’t obey.

Because God loves me, He helps me to learn His commandments. He teaches me His commandments, that is, His way of life through: personal revelation, by the teachings and example of Christ, His First Son, and by others who learned from either revelation or Christ himself.

As I learn the commandments and keep them, I become more like God and feel greater joy and happiness and have a further witness that God exists, that He loves me and that He has a plan for me.

Given all the forgoing, learning and obeying the commandments of God is huge part of this life's experience. The scriptures have for me been a major source for learning, understanding and help with obeying the commandments of God. As I've obeyed the commandments, my joy and happiness have increased. For these reasons I am so thankful for ancient prophets like Isaiah, John, Moses, Abraham and the 12 apostles called in when Jesus walked in Judea. I know what is recorded of what they have said has helped me. I love the Bible. Similarly I am so thankful for the ancient prophets of the American continent like Nephi, Jacob, Alma, Ether, Mormon and Moroni. Their recorded words in the Book of Mormon are true and have helped me understand and live better the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I look forward to the day when I will be able to read the writings of other holy men, inspired from God to help is children in other lands through out the world.

More presently, I know that God has called a Prophet of God in our day, even Joseph Smith, to restore the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth. Since the time of Joseph Smith, God has called new prophets and apostles in an unbroken chain down until today. Today, God has called Thomas S. Monson as the prophet to the world. I know he speaks the word of God like Adam, Noah, Moses or Abraham. All this, so I could learn what to do, and do it. All this so that I could become like my Father in Heaven. God loves me, so He sent His Son.

These things I know.