Last clas

Today in class we talked about Jesus Christ and His resurrection. We talked about a lot of cool parts of the story straight from the scriptures. We read in John chapter 20. Some of my favorite scriptures in all of holy writ are found within this chapter. They are the verses where Jesus Christ speaks to Mary Magdalene after he is risen from the dead. We learned that the original translation indicated that Jesus meant "hold on to me not" or "let go of me." Usually, we read this in English and think that Mary has not yet touched him. When we read the JST version, we see that this scripture is not implying that Mary has not yet touch him. I had never thought of these verses in this way. When I learn new things when reading the scriptures, I feel so inspired. I have read these stories so many times and yet I still have the opportunity to learn each time I open the scriptures. We talked about how special it is that Christ's first resurrected word's were to a woman. That woman, Mary Magdalene, was then told to go tell the other apostles about his resurrection. This was interesting for this time because a woman's voice was not even allowed to be used to testify in court. I hope that through your own personal scripture study you can learn to find new things. I am happy I am able to share my thoughts with you. This was a really special class to end the semester on! 

This week we talked about the Savior's atonement. In my New Testament class, we specifically discussed the events leading up to Christ's death on the cross. One part that was of particular note to me was that Jesus Christ was sent to so many people to be judged of them. He was judged by three Jewish leaders. They said him to Pilate. Pilate sent him to Herod. They all wanted to pass around the blame for the situation. No one wanted to stand up for Jesus or take any blame for condemning him. We can read about this account in Matthew 27. When the crowd chants that they want Jesus to be crucified, Pilate "washes his hands of it." I have always wondered about how the doctrine of repentance and accountability applies to Pilate in this situation. Not that we have a place to judge, but I wonder if Pilate was committing a sin of omission, rather than a sin of commission. I am so grateful that I need not worry about the judgement of others, but it can't help but pop into my mind. What I do know is that because Christ was willing to sacrifice himself in this selfless way, we can be free from sin. We can repent. This is amazing doctrine! I hope that you have a good week and apply this! Don't let temptations bring you down! Repent! :)