"Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

Though I probably have said it before, it's worth repeating: the short church meeting in the 3rd floor auditorium her at the PCMC each Sunday is such a blessing.

The medicine they give Talitha prior to a blood transfusion makes her very sleepy. So, while she was sleeping through her two-hour blood transfusion, I slipped out to go to church for a half hour.

So soothing. So strengthening.

Renewing in every way.

A teenage boy and girl played a heavenly violin duet. (Could've listened to that for the full half hour.)

The speaker shared his favorite stories of Jesus. He spoke of what it means to be rescued by Christ and that after we've been rescued by Him--usually rescued many times by Him--we feel a desire to help in the rescue of others.

One of the best ways we can help in the rescue is to first allow Christ to rescue us. I've learned the hard way in life that this rescue really has to happen on a very personal level. I don't know why I fought it for most my life other than that--I'm ashamed to say--I thought it was everyone else that needed rescuing and not me.

I've been wrong about a lot of things in life; but nowhere so much so as with my lack of understanding of my personal need to be rescued.

There's a really clever saying my dad used to tell me to drive home an important point about how much money we all make. I'll take the liberty of changing that saying and applying it to our universal need for Christ:

"We've all done exactly the same amount to qualify for eternal life. Exactly not enough."

Is faith important?

Essential.

Do we need to repent?

Absolutely.

Is baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost required?

Yes, of course.

The good news and essence of the Gospel of Christ is that if we do those things, then Christ has the power to save us.

But make no mistake about it. It is Christ that is doing the saving. And because He is the one doing the saving from death and hell, He gets to set the terms.

It says in the scriptures:

"Reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved." (2 Nephi 10:24)

We often hear quoted the scripture that says "it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." (2 Nephi 25:23) Unfortunately, I thought the all-we-can-do part was what did most the saving. Now I understand that the all-I-can-do part is only about getting reconciled to God through faith, repentence, and baptism. He then does 100% of the saving.

Well I could go on and on (as my wife well knows and patiently endures).

Let it suffice to say that I am gratefully being rescued. Like the father in the bible who came seeking Christ to heal his son, I too am seeking Christ to heal my daughter. And to heal me.

The words of Christ and the father's response then seem as real and relevent to me today as they were 2,000 years ago:

"Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." Mark 9:23-24