Hi, I'm Joseph

I love to keep things simple, I'm a seeker of truth in all things, I'm a Mormon.

About Me

I was born and raised in the Seattle Washington area, I love learning, anything that keeps me active and out doors, as well as spending time with close friends and music.

Why I am a Mormon

The more i experience in life, the more i learn, the more i pray, and the more i study the scriptures, the more i feel and know that Jesus is the Christ, God Loves each of us, God wants to help each of us, God is unchanging, Christ Lives, there is a purpose to life, that Christ orginized His church while he was on the earth, that that church has been restored again today under the name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and that Christ still leads and guides His church through a living prophet. Just as he always has done.

How I live my faith

I live my faith by trying to live the commandments to the best of my abilities, and trying to draw ever closer to Christ. I share my testimony with others in hope that they may experience the joy that i've felt from my testimony of Christ and a greater knowledge of God's love and his plan for us. Right now i get to do that all day everyday bacause I am serving a proselyting mission in the south eastern united states.

What is the priesthood?

Joseph answered...

The priesthood is authority given to man from God to act in His name. It is the authorithy that God uses to keep his church orginized, the doctrines pure, and to make sure that men do not use the church for their own personal gain or social recognition. This authority is the same authority the Moses had and that Christ gave to his origional twelve apostles. this authority allows man to serve Gods children in performing sacred ordinances for his children such as baptism and the blessing of the sacrament, Blessing those who are sick or otherwise afflicted, and serving in different leadership roles through out His church. Because this priesthood is from God, He expects those who hold it to follow Jesus Christ's example by serving with love, gentleness, diligence, and kindness, as well as living all of the commandments to high standards
Show more of my answers Show less of my answers One Moment Please
Ethan answered...

I like to approach questions by looking at the words of things

"priest" has reference to either the concept of one who leads, one who is elder, or one who is holy I like to remember that the words 'holy' and 'whole' are linked by a common ancestry. When something is 'holy' it's essentially saying that it's complete, that it's healthy..

And "-hood" makes reference to the state of being, and not just any state of being but a state of being that's worthy or correct for it's placement. That is, that it's done properly.

So one could say the priesthood is leadership or a point of reference that's completely suited to the position in which it's been placed.

Another way to look at it is to say it's God's perfect order. That is, it's God's perfect arrangement.

In our Church we often give a definition of priesthood as being "the authority to act in God's name" and that's exactly what it means to be a part of God's perfect order. If God commands something to be done by you, and you do it, then you are acting under, and with that portion of God's authority that he's permitted you to exercise within his perfect order.

Just as with any instance where someone tries to act in the name of someone else there are bound to be those who try and do so falsely. That's why God has things ordered in such a way that one can know for certain if someone has His God's authority, or not.

What is faith?

Cary answered...

Faith is a huge topic, rarely fully understood even by people who talk about it a lot. In the Mormon conception, it's a step of confidence between mere belief and full knowledge. It's perhaps best described by contrast with these two extremes on the continuum on which they all lie. First, faith is not that passive thing we call belief because it's a principle of action. So for someone to have faith, they have to be motivated to put a belief into practice, not merely be content with keeping it in their mind. For example, we believe that Christ is the Savior, but because we have faith we ACT as if this were true, and follow His example as best we can. In fact, "acting as if..." is a fairly good phrase to define faith. On the other hand, faith is not "perfect knowledge" either. There is enough of an element of uncertainty about the thing we have faith in, that it takes an effort of conscious decision-making to test our faith's hypothesis. If we had a full knowledge of a thing, that whole test, and the faith to find out if it's true, wouldn't be necessary. Atheists will argue that faith is mere belief (and baseless, at that), but what I have described for faith here leads to a more "scientific" approach that Atheists would like to admit is operable in the minds of the faithful. The proper response to a scriptural assertion, then, becomes not blind obedience, but rather careful thought, hypothesis forming, and testing. As tests come back proven or unproven, faith will grow in the right direction until it approaches "perfect knowledge".