“You Are Invited,” New Era, Jan. 2014, 9
You Are Invited
Who doesn’t love to receive an invitation? When we receive an invitation to attend a birthday party or wedding reception, we feel happy to be able to celebrate with others the significant events in their lives. The Mutual theme for 2014 also contains a joyful invitation of eternal significance: “Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness” (Moroni 10:32).
Many invitations require a response—an RSVP—to show whether or not we accept them. Have you responded to this invitation in your life? Coming unto Christ means that we are keeping the sacred covenant we made at baptism. It means that we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Redeemer. It means that we recognize and believe what Alma taught his son Shiblon: “There is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ” (Alma 38:9). Accepting this invitation means we have committed to follow Christ’s perfect example by living virtuous and consecrated lives and by loving and serving others.
This invitation is not a one-time-only event; it is a process. We are invited to follow a pathway that will lead us to the temple, where we make additional covenants with our Father in Heaven and participate in ordinances essential to our exaltation. This pathway may include serving a mission. It will include temple marriage and becoming righteous men and women in the kingdom of God. It also means enduring to the end. As the invitation states, when we come unto Christ, we can be perfected in Him. Christ makes it possible to stay on this covenant pathway through faith in Him and through repentance. This process of becoming perfected can begin today; the Atonement of Christ makes it possible.
This invitation asks us to deny ourselves of all ungodliness—to be different from the fashions, standards, and practices of the world. We are invited to “lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better” (D&C 25:10). We testify that accepting the invitation to “come unto Christ and be perfected” will lead to happiness in this life and to eternal life in the world to come. You are invited to respond today!