The Burden of Sin

It was an incredibly busy  week that sped by in a blur.  I had so many balls in the air at a time this week that I felt like a juggler in a circus act.  I feel so blessed to be in the service of our God.  One thing I had to deal with this week caused me great sorrow for the sins of the world.  Even God weeps because of this kind of sorrow.  I dealt with the case of a young missionary sent home from his mission for sins he committed before his mission and kept secret from his priesthood leaders.  He had sexually abused some of his young female cousins before he entered the mission field, but he did not confess these sins to his bishop or stake president.  He learned the hard way that you can't hide your sins from the Lord and if you try to hide your sins from his servants, you can´t have the Spirit and you can´t do His work.

To my grandchildren, I want you to know that I love you with all my heart.  You are a chosen generation reserved for this most wonderful and difficult period in the earth´s appointed time.  You have been sent into the world foreordained to perform a great mission on this earth.  That mission is the preparation of your brothers and sisters for the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and His millennial reign.  It is a work of salvation.  It is the most important work on the planet.  It is God´s work to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of His sons and daughters.

Now I want to give you a warning.  You cannot do this work in the bonds of sin.  Satan wants to prevent you from fulfilling your foreordained mission.  He will seek to do that by enticing you to commit sin, because he knows that when you do, you will be under his power, and you will not be able to fulfill your appointed mission.  We cannot do the work of God under the burden of sin.  And the sad thing is that none of us will succeed in avoiding all of Satan´s enticements.  We all fall into sin no matter how hard we try not to, no matter how much we want to do good.

But there is good news, the greatest news of all time.  Jesus Christ the Son of God came to earth and paid the price of all our sins.  He suffered and died for us that we need not suffer if we will exercise faith in Him, repent of our sins, be baptized, and receive the Holy Ghost.  He will then take all our sins upon himself and put His righteousness upon us.  We will then and only then be able to do the Father´s work and fulfill our destiny.

So what is my warning?  NEVER hide your sins!  When you make mistakes, and you all will make mistakes, admit your mistakes and seek forgiveness from your Heavenly Father through the atonement of Christ.  For some sins, especially sexual sins, we must confess our sins to our bishop and receive his help in our repentance.  When the day comes that you are interviewed to serve a mission, DON´T HIDE YOUR SINS.  You will never be able to do the work required of you in the mission field if there are skeletons in your closet--unrepentant sins in your past.  Make a full and unvarnished confession of your sins and let the atonement of Christ make you clean and spotless before God.  Then you will have power over the adversary and power to do God´s work, because of Christ.

I know each of you has an important mission to perform on this earth.  Through the atonement of Christ you will be able to perform that mission if you will humble yourself, confess your sins, and repent.  I pray that none of you will find yourselves in the place of this young missionary who tried to hide his sins and was sent home in dishonor.