Christmas gifts - what's in store for us?

[TheTanakas]

I had a question on this section of the manual. 

416 - Christmas is a natural time to think about receiving gifts. Perhaps family members could 
wrap gifts for each other that represent the "gifts of God" mentioned in Moroni 10:9–16.

What Christmas gifts from family members can we earn by our own merits and which we cannot?

Pete

[InCognitus]

1 hour ago, TheTanakas said:

I had a question on this section of the manual. 

416 - Christmas is a natural time to think about receiving gifts. Perhaps family members could 
wrap gifts for each other that represent the "gifts of God" mentioned in Moroni 10:9–16.

What Christmas gifts from family members can we earn by our own merits and which we cannot?

Pete

The manual goes on to say, "These gifts could also represent other good gifts that come from Christ that they see in one another."

The manual is referring to the gifts of the Spirit that people are either born with or that they may receive from God later on.  Sometimes these gifts are either given or made known to us by God in a priesthood blessing, like in our Patriarchal Blessing.  But the use of these gifts are sometimes predicated on our obedience to principles of the gospel.  Moroni 10:9-16 discusses some of the gifts of the Spirit.  The gift of healing (verse 11), or the gift of prophesy concerning all things (verse 13) may only be available to individuals who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, for example.  So it's not a matter of meriting the gift, but of being worthy of its use and purpose.

[Ahab]

17 hours ago, TheTanakas said:

I had a question on this section of the manual. 

416 - Christmas is a natural time to think about receiving gifts. Perhaps family members could 
wrap gifts for each other that represent the "gifts of God" mentioned in Moroni 10:9–16.

What Christmas gifts from family members can we earn by our own merits and which we cannot?

Pete

Hmm. I don't think there are any "gifts" from other people that we can earn by our own merits.  The things we earn by our own merits are considered to be "wages" rather than gifts.  A gift is something someone gives to someone else just because the giver of the gift wants to give it while hoping the one who gets it will use it for a good purpose.

[theplains]

19 hours ago, TheTanakas said:

What Christmas gifts from family members can we earn by our own merits and which we cannot?

Pete

Hello Pete,

I cannot earn or do I deserve any gift that my parents could buy for me.
 

Living Truth has a great devotional today to explain this.  Merry Christmas to you and your
family.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith––and this is not from yourselves, 
it is the gift of God––not by works, so that no one can boast.” —Ephesians 2:8-9

Our culture has propagated the story of Santa coming into our homes the night before 
Christmas to drop off gifts. But there is one stipulation: we have to be good. All of 
us are familiar with the song “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town.”

Growing up, some of us may have shared that same perception of God, believing God is 
always watching us, so we ought to put on our best behaviour. Our Santa Claus perception 
of God is that somehow, by our good behaviour, we could earn enough favour and He would 
be pleased with us. But in reality, we have the message backwards.

When Moses presented the Ten Commandments to the Israelites, it was to make us aware of 
our condition––that nothing we do can earn our salvation. All of our life, we could have 
come to church and thought that Christianity is a list of non-negotiable rules that we 
had to follow. We strive to be good, just for goodness sake, as though somehow, by our 
efforts and by our best try, we might earn God’s favour. Yet, keeping the law and rules 
was never intended to save us, it was only intended to reveal our need of God. The Old 
Covenant was to make us aware of our need of grace. In fact, God’s grace is what actually 
changes people.

The message of Christmas is that God clothed Himself with humanity and extended grace 
towards us so that the relationship that was fractured between us, because of our sinful 
choices, could be satisfied by His finished work on the cross, and not by our best efforts. 
On Christmas day, when we sit down with family and loved ones, we may have a tradition of 
exchanging gifts. When someone gives us a gift, what do we do? Do we say, “Oh no, I’m not 
worthy!”? Of course not! We take the gift and rip the wrapping paper to see what we got. 
Once we have opened the gift, we respond with two simple words to the giver: “Thank you!”

God has extended a gift towards humanity in the person of Jesus Christ, not because we 
deserve it or because we have earned His favour. Instead it is a favour and grace from 
Him towards humanity; a gift offered to us free of charge. The only caveat is we have to 
acknowledge that we need it. If we have never extended our hands to receive God’s gift of 
grace towards us, will we choose to receive it today and tell Him, “Thank You!”?

[InCognitus]

6 minutes ago, theplains said:

I cannot earn or do I deserve any gift that my parents could buy for me.

If God gave you the gift of prophecy (which was the topic of this thread), could you use that gift to win the lottery or for gambling or other nefarious purposes?  Or would there be conditions attached?

[Ahab]

2 minutes ago, InCognitus said:

If God gave you the gift of prophecy (which was the topic of this thread), could you use that gift to win the lottery or for gambling or other nefarious purposes?  Or would there be conditions attached?

A correct explanation or definition of what prophecy is could be helpful here.  I could provide one but a lot of people don't seem to appreciate my explanations or definitions so maybe you or someone else can provide a more popular opinion.

[InCognitus]

4 minutes ago, Ahab said:

A correct explanation or definition of what prophecy is could be helpful here.  I could provide one but a lot of people don't seem to appreciate my explanations or definitions so maybe you or someone else can provide a more popular opinion.

Yes, but I was referring to the gifts of the spirit noted in the lesson manual quote above.  Those are gifts given to us freely by God.  One definition is foretelling of future events.  Another is to speak the word of God concerning a matter.  Both involve tapping into divine knowledge.

I was about to edit my prior post to make that more clear, but you beat me to it  

Edited December 24, 2020 by InCognitus

[theplains]

On 12/24/2020 at 3:42 PM, InCognitus said:

If God gave you the gift of prophecy (which was the topic of this thread), could you use that gift to win the lottery or for gambling or other nefarious purposes?  Or would there be conditions attached?

Yes. If he gave me that gift, I could use it.  But I could not earn that gift by my own merits.

[InCognitus]

42 minutes ago, theplains said:

Yes. If he gave me that gift, I could use it. 

Are you saying you could use the gift for evil purposes?  That was my question, remember?

"If God gave you the gift of prophecy (which was the topic of this thread), could you use that gift to win the lottery or for gambling or other nefarious purposes?  Or would there be conditions attached?"