How can I help with this? Alma 16:16-17

How can I help with this? Alma 16:16-17

Alma and Amulek start to preach the gospel to the rest of the Nephites. The people are described as having no inequality among them, with the Spirit of the Lord poured out among them to prepare their hearts to receive Jesus Christ when he would come for the first time. Specifically, they were being prepared so as not to harden their hearts, but to receive the message of the gospel with joy, and become like a grafted branch into the church.

Clearly, this kind of stuff is still going on today in preparation for Jesus Christ's second coming. In fact, it is kind of the very point of point of missionary work.

Sometimes I imagine what it would be like if all Christian churches could unite into one "tree." If we could all agree on points of doctrine, if we could all share the same hope, faith, belief - how powerful and amazing would that be? And I'm not talking about subsuming groups into my own, but more like...

When Jesus Christ comes again, won't it be so much simpler for us to all unite and come together? We would not longer be "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" but just, well, "the Church of Jesus Christ." All of our meetinghouses everywhere could be used to worship him in a united, joyful manner. It would be a time of unity rather than division. 

Daydreams.

Answer:

The way that I can help is probably twofold:

1. I can help share my testimony. This is sometimes not so easy for me. 

2. I can make sure my own heart is soft and able to listen to what God wants me to hear. That means being humble. Submitting my will to his. Trying to understand the message that he is giving me in the little, daily things (in our most recent general conference, an encouraging message included that God often speaks through small parables of daily life). I can try to receive the message of the gospel by learning more about Jesus Christ. That means reading the scriptures. It means a daily practice of prayer and service. It means choosing to believe. I do a lot better with this second aspect than the first, unless doing temple work for the dead counts. I think it sort of does, but, well...