Matthew G. Richmond

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  Who knew

  mrichmond 11:26 am on May 14, 2009 | 6 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: blessings (2), charity, jesus christ

  The past couple days I’ve stopped and spoken with Rick on the way in to work. Rick is a smart man, and a good guy; his home is just….nowhere.

  I’ve seen Rick for several weeks now, sitting on a bench next to Cherry Creek that runs through Denver. I had been nervous to look at him as I walked by, for fear that he would ask for money (which I never carry).

  A few days ago, My beautiful wife had made home-made wheat bread, and packed me a sandwich along with something else for lunch. That morning as I was walking by Rick, I saw that he was examining his feet, which were in poor shape. I didn’t stare — I never stare — but at a glance I could tell.

  I walked by, and tried to ignore this feeling that I had to stop and give him my sandwich. I walked a block further, and only thoughts of Christ, and the people he looked after, came to my mind. I got to the steps of my workplace and turned around.

  I came up to Rick, and politely asked if he had anything for lunch. He replied that he didn’t. I offered him my sandwich, which he humbly and gratefully accepted (and commented at being excited that it was homemade bread).

  We didn’t speak much that day, but since then, I’ve taken some time each morning, and have talked with him. He graduated from a local college, and even had taken graduate-level physics courses. He’s read all ‘the classics’ and can tell you just about anything from them — and is always reading something new. He even programmed when computers were the size of a room. He’s over 60 years old, and has been without a home for 6 years, but doesn’t mind it.

  I now look forward to my brief morning meetings with Rick, and the things he has to talk about…

  Who knew?

   

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  A thought on miracles

  mrichmond 12:12 am on January 10, 2009 | 2 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: blessings (2), healing, jesus christ

  For a very long time, I’ve wondered about why miracles from the New Testament don’t seem to happen much any more (i.e., raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, and blind to see, etc…). It’s been more of a perplexity (if there’s such a noun) than a question of my faith, so I’ve been content to ponder on it every few months for the past many years and wait patiently till an answer comes.

  I’ve been studying the New Testament for my daily scripture study (typically on the train ride into work), and have been really enjoying it.  I’ve started reading the New Testament probably about as many times as I’ve started reading the Book of Mormon, but typically haven’t made it very far before I get distracted and have to re-commit myself to read it.

  Anyways, a few weeks ago, when I recommitted to study the New Testament, I began in the book of Acts (because typically I hadn’t made it there my previous times reading it).  I really enjoyed studying the ancient Apostles, and especially learning more in-depth about Paul.  He was an incredible man after his conversion on the road to Damascus.  As I read more, it was amazing to see just how many people he healed, and how he’d go about healing people nearly every single place he went!  His faith was amazing, I guess as it should have been after such a miraculous conversion.

  I began to think to myself ‘okay, I know Christ could heal anybody and anyone as long as they had faith in him’, but I was just stunned reading about the numerous people that His apostles healed.  I thought ‘why doesn’t it happen like that very often anymore?’  I know it does happen today, I’ve been very blessed to be a part of some blessings of healing for people where a true and obvious miracle has occured, but why doesn’t it happen like that all time?

  A quiet voice spoke to my heart and my mind, and in an instant I had the clearest understanding.  “Faith precedes the miracle”….

  Now this is something that I’ve known all my life, and thought I understood completely; but a deeper understanding of it was taught to me.  The best way I can describe it is this…

  The purpose of miracles is not to help someone *gain* faith.  Faith *allows* miracles to happen.  We shouldn’t base our faith and testimony upon miracles; miracles come about because of the great faith that someone already has.

  Think of Paul, he had great faith in the Savior because of the events that happened to him on the road to Damascus, and his faith was strengthened because he changed his ways and began to live and teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Because of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he was able to perform many mighty miracles.  Notice that it was *because* of his faith that he was able to bring about these miracles; the miraculous healings, etc…, weren’t put in place to help him *gain* faith.

  Now, I know that there are exceptions to this rule (again, look at Paul and his conversion), but I do know that if want to see miracles in our life — not just healing the sick, but all sorts of miracles — we must first place our Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

  I know He lives, and Loves each one of us, and that He desires to bless our lives more abundantly than we can imagine, we just need to first learn of, and hold-fast to our Savior.  Then He can open you the windows of heaven, and you will witness miracles in your life which will strengthen the faith you already have.

   
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  Growing your testimony

  admin 7:08 pm on December 28, 2008 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: Church, conference, jesus christ, sunday, talk, testimony

  Today I was assigned to give a talk in our Ward…the subject was “Testimony as a Process” — based on a talk from general conference earlier this year.  I figure that this blog is about me, and my thoughts, and this talk was something I devoted several hours of study and prayer to, so I’ll put it up here as a post.  This is what I had written, not exactly what was said…

  “A testimony is a spiritual witness given by the Holy Ghost. The foundation of a testimony is the knowledge that Heavenly Father lives and loves His children; that Jesus Christ lives, that He is the Son of God, and that He carried out the infinite Atonement; that Joseph Smith is the prophet of God who was called to restore the gospel; that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Savior’s true Church on the earth; and that the Church is led by a living prophet today. With this foundation, a testimony grows to include all principles of the gospel.”  This definition of what a testimony is, is found from the Church’s website, lds.org.

  It’s this last sentence I will speak more on today; “…with this foundation, a testimony grows to include all principles of the Gospel.”  You’ll see that once we have the foundation of our testimony firmly rooted in Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, the restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith, and other principles of the restoration, we should not — and cannot — stop there.  The term ‘grows’ is used to describe a testimony.  The principles I will speak of today will show how a testimony is not something that we obtain once, have to it’s fullest immediately, and no longer need to maintain once obtained; but how it is a process — a life-long, and eternal process.

  Elder Carlos A. Godoy, of the Seventy, gave a talk in the last General Conference entitiled ‘Testimony as a Process.’  He related an experience that illustrated the fact that our testimonies need not be built upon a single, magnificent, spiritual experience — though sometimes that is how they are started; but that testimonies are built upon many smaller, but special — intimate — teachings from the Holy Ghost.  I quote some of his talk now ”

  As a young man in Porto Alegre, Brazil, learning about the Church from two sister missionaries, I remember looking for an answer to my prayers—something big and unquestionable. It never happened. That does not mean that I did not develop enough certainty to join the restored Church.

  Alma teaches this process of nurturing a testimony: “But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe [and I think that was my case as an investigator], let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words” (Alma 32:27).

  Since those days, for me as an investigator of the Church, and later as a missionary, and then as a father and a leader, all of these experiences together formed a set of experiences and feelings, most often small, that leave no doubt that the seed “is a good seed” (Alma 32:30).

  I must say for me, this is the case with my testimony — that there is not one event that defines the testimony I have of our Heavenly Father, His son, Jesus Christ, and the restoration of the Gospel.  My testimony is composed of many mostly small (and probably unnoticeable to others) events and spiritual awakenings throughout my life.

  If we go back to the words of Alma “…Now, if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me” (Alma 32:28).”

  Take notice of one of the first phrases in that verse “if ye give place, that a seed may be planted in your heart.”  We need to actively make room in our hearts for this seed; whether it be a seed of the truthfulness of Jesus Christ, or the Godhead being three distinct individuals (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost), of Joseph Smith being the first prophet in the Latter-Days, or of tithing, or of fast offerings; we must make room for it, otherwise we will never have a place to develop that testimony.

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  Miscellaneous Thoughts/Points/References

  1. We don’t need to have a sudden impactful event to have a strong testimony, in fact, those types of events don’t guarantee a strong (or everlasting) testimony
  2. Sincere testimony
  3. The Spirit whispers, caresses so gently
  4. say in our manner and expression … “speak Lord for thy servant heareth” (like Samuel of old)
  5. Alma 32 – faith as a seed
  6. leave no doubt that this seed is a good seed
  7. if ye give place that a seed may be planted in your heart … we need to actively make room in our hearts for this seed; whether it be a seed of the truthfulness of Joseph Smith, or of tithing, or of fast offerings; we must make room for it, otherwise we will never have a place to develop that testimony.
  8. if our hearts are too hard….there will be no space for a seed
  9. we must be clean to hear the quiet whisperings of the spirit
  10. for the vast majority of us, we won’t have magnificent angelic ministries proclaiming Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  – which might be a good thing, because quite often the people we read about having those type of life-changing events were pretty wicked to start off with.
  11. 2 Corinthians 1:12 – (Paul and Timothy writing to a gathering of saints at Corinth and Achaia(which took in most of greece back then)) – “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world…” —– I LOVE the ’simplicity and godly sicerity’