Always

Imagine a good baseball coach who teaches a young boy how to swing a bat. While there are hundreds of coaching points that lead to the perfect swing, a wise coach does not overwhelm a boy by asking too much of him too soon; rather, he begins by building upon his students strengths and then builds upon those strengths as fast as the student progresses. He will move along a path of progression with the boy at a pace that does not confuse, frustrate, and lead to failure. Great coaches know how to pace progress; they know exactly when to challenge a student further and when to maintain current focus.

Now imagine being invited by the world's best coach to come unto Him and to be perfected in Him, not just to swing a bat perfectly, but to perfect your whole soul. That is exactly the invitation the Jesus offered to each of us. Moreover he commanded saying, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." As the Master of truth who cannot lie or deceive, He would not invite, nor would He command such unless He was sufficiently capable to coach, and guide us unto perfection.

As the Master coach He knows how to customize our progression in a manner that we can continually advance, stretch, and grow--without becoming overcome by frustration, failure, and despair. He asks much of us to be sure, and as we heed His voice we grow line upon line and we bring the power and influence of His Spirit from behind the veil into our physical world to help shape and mold us into His perfect image. Each step we take is designed by Him to enable us with greater light, knowledge, and faith until we attain sufficient faith and knowledge to lay hold upon eternal life, the greatest of all God's gifts.

The greatest decision we can make is to accept His invitation to be perfected in Him. We do this by choosing to live so that we can enjoy His perfect influence always. How do we enjoy his fellowship and influence always? In ancient Israel the Law of Sacrifice was introduced to help prepare Israel to enjoy continual fellowship with Jehovah. Then, the law of sacrifice included three types of blood offerings:

• First, a sin offering of an animal was made to atone for a person's uncleanliness or sin. 
• Second, burnt offerings of the flesh of animals were made every morning and evening and the smoke from these offerings ascended continuously to heaven. This continual offering symbolized complete surrender and total devotion to God, paralleling the process of justification and sanctification, or the process of always retaining a remission of our sins. 
• Third, the peace offering indicates that the sacrificer of an animal was at peace with God and could therefore enjoy His fellowship.

The Sin offering preceded the burnt offering, and the burnt offering preceded the peace offering. This order symbolized the atonement, sanctification, and ultimate fellowship with the Lord.

Christ became the last great sacrifice that called for the shedding of the blood of animals. All former blood sacrifices pointed to this last great sacrifice. On the eve before Christ offered Himself as the great sacrifice for mankind He instituted the Lord's Sacrament to replace blood offerings. He then taught that the sacrifice required of us today is not of blood but is an offering of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. Let's review the covenants we make during the Sacrament that lead us to enjoy His Spirit and fellowship always which is the prerequisite to becoming perfected in Him:

1. Remember: When He instituted the Sacrament, Jesus broke and passed the bread to His apostles and said, "This is my body which is given for you; this do in remembrance of me...." Then He passed the cup for each to drink and said, "This cup is the new testament (a new covenant with Israel) in my blood, which was shed for you" (Luke 22:19-20) The Sacrament is a time to ponder and remember with gratitude the life, teachings, atonement, and perfect ministry of our Lord. The bread is a reminder of His body and the physical suffering He endured for each of us upon the cross. It reminds us that through His mercy and grace we will be resurrected and are given the opportunity for eternal life. The water or wine is a reminder that the Savior shed His blood and suffered intense anguish for us. This began in the Garden of Gethsemane, which suffering led Him to say, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death" (Mattthew 26:38). Submitting to the will of the Father, He suffered more than we can comprehend: Blood came from every pore, so great was His anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of His people. We covenant to remember His sacrifice and our indebtedness to Him. He suffered for our sins, sorrows, and pains, providing remission of our sins if we repent and live the gospel. Remembering Him obligates us to a life of goodness as we serve and bless others. It requires that we live without hatred, enmity, immorality, selfishness, drunkenness, jealousy, dishonesty, and that we ultimately become perfect as He is perfect--attribute for divine attribute. 
2. Witness: As we partake of the Sacrament we witness to God our willingness to live the gospel and to take upon ourselves the name of His Son, even Jesus Christ, to surrender our will to His Son, and to live in such a manner that our thoughts, words, and deeds always reflect our covenant to be like His Son.  
3. Obey: We covenant to always keep the commandments, including what is taught in the gospels, as well as what He asks of us through His Spirit in our daily walk, and it also includes our willingness to live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God. We covenant to obey Him whether it be directly through His voice or through His authorized servants.

Christ commenced his earthly ministry with an ordinance--baptism--and ended His ministry with and ordinance--the Sacrament. Our personal reward for being properly baptized and for partaking of the weekly Sacrament with a sincere heart, with real intent, forsaking our sins, and renewing our covenants with God is the Lord Jesus provides a way whereby we can be forgiven from week to week of our sins and whereby we also discern those things which we need to improve. Simply eating the bread and drinking the water will not bring forgiveness or remission of sins, nor will it qualify us to enjoy the constant companionship of the Lord's Spirit. To maintain this sacred relationship, we must take time to examine our lives and strive with real intent to repent of our sins. As we approach the sacrament prepared and with His divine life ever in mind, we are to come before Him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, which is caused by recognition of our dependence upon His power and grace to become perfected in Him. As we remember His tender mercies and the many gifts and blessings received at His hand, our remembrance leads us to love Him purely, which occurs best as we serve the real needs of others. As we do so we become even more purified through His attending Spirit until at last all impurity is overcome.

Summary
Similar to a young boy who needs a good mentor and coach, in order to obtain the ultimate prize of a perfected soul we need our Savior, even Jesus Christ. The weekly Sacrament is the path of spiritual rebirth through Christ that takes away our sins, and the stain of sins, as bit by bit temptations lose their appeal and we become holy as Christ and the Father are holy--attribute for divine attribute. His all-searching eye is upon us and He refines us as silver and gold until at last He can see His perfect image within us. As long as some vestige of sin remains within us and we retain some disposition to do evil we must continue to offer up our continual sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit and continue to recognize our dependence upon Him to guide and prepare us until we lay hold upon sufficient faith and knowledge to part the veil and to take up our abode with Him. Only then does He becomes our Second Comforter and as such He comforts, succors, leads, and finishes our faith by helping us become fully cleansed and made worthy to be introduced to the Father and to become a son or daughter of God's Eternal Family, which is the greatest gift of all. This is the entire meaning of receiving eternal life. We enter and remain on this path by "always" remembering Him.

The Sacrament is a sacred key to this great process, because only through keeping our Sacramental covenants to always remember Him, to always be a witness of Him, and to always obey Him do we qualify to always enjoy His divine and perfecting influence, which is necessary if we are to successfully accept His invitation to be perfected in Him, and if we are to be made ready by Him to pass from faith to a perfect knowledge of Him and His Father. He is indeed, both the author and the finisher of our faith and only through Him  can we come to know the Father, to see His face, and to receive eternal life.