Area Presidency Message
The Warmth of the Gospel
It is June, and in Kenya we can certainly feel the drop in temperature. Mount Kenya has a few snowflakes on it to remind us that the chill of winter has arrived. While a young boy in my Te Aroha home in New Zealand, nestled so quaintly beneath an evergreen mountain, the kitchen fire would be started each winter’s morning to heat the kitchen and cook a hearty and warmly welcomed pot of porridge for breakfast.
I have reflected on what else can keep us warm, and not just in the winter months, and have settled on the warmth that emanates from the gospel.
Gospel teachings help us to understand who we are, which gives us a warm sense of belonging. I am, as you are, a beloved child of God. He wants me to return to live with Him once more. At all times, and especially in those moments of desperation, we can feel the warmth of a loving Heavenly Father.
An added warmth comes as we make and keep sacred covenants made possible through the restored priesthood of God. No matter what the trials might be around us, and there are many, we have the reassurance that as covenants are made and kept, we can live again in the warm embrace of the Lord.
As cold as a Sunday morning might be, we feel warmth as we enter the chapel, be it made of bricks or tin, and are warmly welcomed by fellow members. None of us is perfect but all of us want to be better and we see that desire radiate from each other. Members attend Church meetings to share their insights, give an encouraging smile and to testify, if by no other means than by their presence, that we belong with them in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us always be sure in our branches and wards that there be ‘no more strangers and foreigners, but [only] fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God’ (Ephesians 2:19).
Our hearts are further warmed as we sit in our weekly sacrament service and partake of the emblems of the sacrament in remembrance of the Lord’s sacrifice of His flesh and blood which He gave for each of us. To be loved so much by Jesus Christ that an atoning sacrifice would be made by Him for us, certainly warms our hearts.
The scriptures also lighten the way and warm the souls of all who will consecrate a little time each day to learn of Him. To learn of the teachings of Christ pushes back darkness and lets in the warming light of Christ into our souls.
We enjoy an increase of peace that the Saviour promised us and are enlightened by the words of the prophets as we hear the guiding voice of the Lord.
How very grateful I am for a little wooden house under a mountain that reminds me that even on cold winter mornings, you and I can have the warmth of the gospel in our lives.