In this stained glass art piece, Jesus, the supreme shepard, clutches a sheep to his chest. There is a look of content on his face. Perhaps because he knows that in His loving arms, His little sheep is safe.
Won't it be wonderful when our Shepard comes again to gather His sheep. He will seek out those who are lost, then clutch them close to Him, along with those who have already been found, and those who were never lost at all. In the words of Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, it will be a majestic and magnificent event.
But the time is not yet. And until that day, we have been given the charge, from the Good Shepard, to find and feed His sheep in His stead.
President Ezra Taft Benson has said,
"Our mission as a Church is to preach the gospel to all the world....To appreciate the accelerated progress that the Church has made in the last few decades, consider that it took 117 years for the Church to reach its first million members (1947); 16 years to reach its second million (1963); and 9 years its third million (1972). But during President Kimball's administration as President of the Church, over two million people were added. [This General Conference address was given in April of 1985. There are currently 14,782,473 members of the Church; an increase of 9 million members over the last 28 years.] Yet there is much to do before the work of God can be pronounced completed. Hearts of leaders of nations must be softened, doors of nations opened, false ideologies overcome, and the gospel presented to all our Heavenly Father's children.
As members of the Lord's Church, we must take missionary work more seriously. The Lord's commission to 'preach the gospel to every creature' (Mark 16:15) will never change in our dispensation. We have been greatly blessed with the means, the technology, and an inspired message to bring the gospel to all men....Where 'much is given much is required.' (D&C 82:3)....Membership in the Lord's Church is a gift and a blessing which the Lord has given us in mortality, and He expects us to share that blessing with those who do not have it."
May we do our best to act in the Savior's stead by bringing our neighbors to a knowledge of Him until the day when He returns and gathers us all in His safe and loving arms.
No comments:
Post a Comment