If you love Me

John 14:15  “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

Prophet Joseph Smith taught

"Obedience is the first law of heaven… without obedience there could be no union or order, and chaos and confusion would prevail…for it is on this principle that the designs and purposes of God are accomplished.”  (Journal of Discourses)

Cecil B. DeMille, director of the epic biblical film The Ten Commandments, told the student body at Brigham Young University:

“We are too inclined to think of law as something merely restrictive—something hemming us in. We sometimes think of law as the opposite of liberty. But that is a false conception. That is not the way that God’s inspired prophets and lawgivers looked upon the law. Law has a twofold purpose. It is meant to govern. It is also meant to educate . .

“. . . And so it is with all the Commandments.

“We must look beneath the literal, the surface meaning of the words. We must take the trouble to understand them; for how can we obey commands that we do not understand? But the Commandments too have an educative function—which you can see in the life of anyone who keeps them. They produce good character. The Ten Commandments are not rules to obey as a personal favor to God. They are the fundamental principles without which mankind cannot live together. They make of those who keep them faithfully, strong, wholesome, confident, dedicated men and women. This is so because the Commandments come from the same Divine Hand that fashioned our human nature.

“God does not contradict Himself. He did not create man and then, as an afterthought, impose upon him a set of arbitrary, irritating, restrictive rules. He made man free—and then gave him the Commandments to keep him free” (“Commencement Address,” in Commencement Exercises, Brigham Young University Speeches of the Year [31 May 1957], 4–5).

Obedience is the first law of heaven.

There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. D&C 130:20-21.

When the Plan of Salvation was presented we shouted with joy and volunteered to come to earth to prove our willingness to obey our Heavenly Father.

But obedience must be voluntary.

Helaman 14:30–31

And now remember, remember, my brethren, that whosoever perisheth, perisheth unto himself; and whosoever doeth iniquity, doeth it unto himself; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free.

He hath given unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death; and ye can do good and be restored unto that which is good, or have that which is good restored unto you; or ye can do evil, and have that which is evil restored unto you.

“Half obedience will be rejected as readily as full violation, and maybe quicker, for half rejection and half acceptance is but a sham, an admission of lack of character, a lack of love for Him. It is actually an effort to live on both sides of the line.” (Mark E. Petersen, in Conference Report, Apr. 1982, 21; or Ensign, May 1982, 16).

Commandments where given to us because God loves us and wants us to become like Him. Our obedience to God’s commandments is an expression of our love for Him.

“There is not a man of us but what is willing to acknowledge at once that God demands strict obedience to his requirements. But in rendering that strict obedience, are we made slaves? No, it [strict obedience to God’s commandments] is the only way on the face of the earth for you and me to become free, and we shall become slaves of our own passions, and of the wicked one, and servants to the Devil, if we take any other course” (Brigham Young, Discourses of Brigham Young, 225).

The Lord chastens us because He loves us. He wants us to return back to Him, He wants us to be successful, to have joy.  He wants us to reunited back with our Father in Heaven.  The Lord promises temporal and spiritual blessings to those who obey His commandments. He promises peace, hope, and His spirit. The Lord provides a way for us to obey all His commandments because obedience to divine law makes us free. This is the purpose of the Plan of Salvation, this is the reason He came to earth, this is the reason He suffered in Gethsemane and the reason He hung on the cross.

Matthew 18: 1-6

At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

In dealing with our faults, short comings, and addictions we must first above all be honest.

Always remember that there is hope; no matter how bad we think it is because with God all things are possible.

Trust in god.  We must trust God because if we could overcome the issue by ourselves it would have been done already. Realizing we cannot do it alone is a step in the right direction.

Be truthful about your problems when you talk to God.  You can lie to your spouse, boss, and church leaders, you can even lie to God but He knows. He looks straight into your heart; He knows.  Be truthful and honest.

If the sin is of a serious nature or one that you just cannot shake seek out the assistance of the Bishop.  He cannot forgive you but he can guide you.

Become as a child; become humble and seek the Lord in forgiveness. Don’t let your bull headedness and adult attitude stand between you and peace.  Be humble and admit to God that you need His help.

As part of the forgiveness process we must make amends for our sins and seek reconciliation.  This is hard. This is part of being humble. To admit to someone you made a mistake and to try to repair the damage is not easy.  Depending on the issue restitution and reconciliation could take a long time.  When you break trust, confidences, and damage relationships it is not just a matter of admitting a mistake.  It takes work.  Breaking trust and discarding covenants is a serious matter. We are commanded to forgive all people if they ask but repairing damage takes effort and unconditional love. Sins are never committed alone. Everyone connected with us is impacted.

Next is daily accountability – this means prayer and checking in with you sponsor; your wife, bishop or counselor.  Nothing is worse than the same problem happening day after day. You need to “kill” the problem so that they do not come back. You must forsake the sin and fix it but on this journey must you must also improve your overall righteousness. Nothing is ever separate it is all intertwined.

Mark 9: 43-48

And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:

Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire:

Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

The Lord does not want us to maim ourselves but He does want us to do whatever is necessary to rid ourselves of our addictions and our sins. If that means disconnecting the internet, then do it.  If it means cancelling cable or satellite then do it.  Stay out of bars, don’t sit in a room alone in the dark, and maybe you have to change friends.  Whatever it takes the Lord expects us to do it.

 

Finally a day will come when you realize that you have been forgiven.  It will come through personal revelation.  What a joy. What a lifting of burdens and sorrows and cares.  You will cry.  You will cry again each time you partake of the sacrament. Elder Packer taught that you may never be fully free from the temptations. You may have to submit to them till the day you die. But being tempted does not mean you have to give in to the temptation.  You must stay humble. You must maintain daily accountability.  You must be honest.  You must stay clean. The best way to assure this is to serve others.  Lose yourself in the service of your fellowmen.

In closing I would like to quote from Hebrews 12: 1-5;

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

Given in the Rincon Ward July 8, 2012

Church and Government

Our nation has begun the process for selecting presidential candidates for the upcoming election.  This ritual happens every four years, but elections are held every year but we seem to get real worked up for presidential campaigns.  And as I read the news and review the candidates I asked myself the question: What is the relationship of the church with governments?

We must understand that the church does not support or endorse any parties or candidates. Although the church does from time to time publish position papers, such as the ones on pornography, gambling, and the family, the church does not support or endorse candidates or political parties.

Elections are left to us as individuals to make your own individual choices.  It is our responsibility as citizens to exercise our civil duties.  We have the right to participate and we need to exercise our rights as citizens to vote.  We should pray, study the issues and choose the best candidate that fits our particular needs.   We should elect good men and women who hold the same principles as us and whom we believe will represent us in the government.

Do not forget that the church is global; it is not a church only here in the United States.  Being global means that there are members of the church living in countries with all kinds and types of governments; some countries might be a republic or a democracy.  Or it could be a kingdom, ruled by King or Queen or a principality run by other royal families.  The government could be communist, socialist, a country with a state religion, a theocracy, or an atheist state.  The country could be ruled by dictator, tyrant, or criminal gangs and thugs.   In each of these countries the rights of citizens varies and what you can and cannot do as citizens varies in every country.

There are almost 29,000 congregations like ours meeting in the world today with a membership of just over 14 million, most living outside the United States, in 184 countries with 170 languages.  The language spoken by the majority of Mormons is now Spanish. There are over 52,000 people serving missions, with 134 operational temples with another 32 in some stage of construction.    A chapel is built every other day.

The 12th Article of Faith states - We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

Doctrine and Convents Section 134 discusses the role of governments and their relationship to God.  In verse 5 it states; “We believe that all men are bound to sustain and uphold the respective governments in which they reside, while protected in their inherent and inalienable rights by the laws of such governments; and that sedition and rebellion are unbecoming every citizen thus protected, and should be punished accordingly; and that all governments have a right to enact such laws as in their own judgments are best calculated to secure the public interest; at the same time, however, holding sacred the freedom of conscience.”

One of the interesting things about governments and the church is that they both share the same core element; they both share the same smallest unit of government – the family.

In a recent publication the First Presidency stated –“The family is ordained of God. It is the most important unit in time and in eternity. Even before we were born on the earth, we were part of a family. Each of us “is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents” with “a divine nature and destiny”. God is our Heavenly Father, and we lived in His presence as part of His family in the premortal life. There we learned our first lessons and were prepared for mortality.”

Adam exercised his rights as a father and as recorded in the Doctrine and Convents Section 107 three years before he died he called together his family to the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman and gave them a blessing. 

Noah was called by God to build an ark and the only ones saved during the flood were Noah and his family.

Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, whose name was change to Israel, who had 12 sons, today known as the 12 tribes of Israel; were great leaders of the church but these are families. 

Father's rule their families as patriarchs.  Fathers, with other men who hold the priesthood, provide the ordinances the sacraments needed for families.  Many times these are the same man, as in the examples of Adam and Noah.  Abraham for example, even though he is was the great patriarch paid his tithes and offerings to the great high priest Melchizedek. 

Worthy fathers have the right to the priesthood. As Abraham states in Abraham 1:3 “It (the priesthood) was conferred upon me from the fathers; it came down from the fathers, from the beginning of time, yea, even from the beginning, or before the foundation of the earth, down to the present time, even the right of the firstborn, or the first man, who is Adam, or first father, through the fathers unto me.”

Lehi and Nephi and others are examples in the Scriptures.  God worked with these fathers, warning them and helping them lead their families to safety and the security of the gospel.  And it still happens today as fathers join the church, receive the Melchizedek priesthood, take their families to the temple to be sealed.   These fathers are taking their families out of Babylon, out of the world.  They lead their family as the patriarch and a priesthood leader of their homes to create a sacred and spiritual refuge within the walls of their homes. 

The family is the core elemental unit of both government and the church. The church exists to provide sacraments and ordinances but the family is the key organization.  The auxiliaries and classes are here only to support the growth and development of families.  The work in the temples is sacred but homes are to be as sacred and holy as temples, with fathers and mothers ruling, homes being a place of solace and refuge from the world, a place of comfort filled with the spirit of God, safe from the evils of the world. 

When the children of Israel left Egypt and went into the Sinai they were taken away from a government structure that had been provided by Pharaoh.  Even though it was an oppressive government it was an organization that provided structure and when they found themselves in the desert they found themselves without the structure.  Moses attempted to rule the people.  One day, as recorded in Exodus chapter 18, Moses father-in-law, Jethro, said to him “The thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.”  So Jethro taught Moses how to organize the children of Israel. So the tribes were divided and within the tribes there was an organization established an organization built based on families, priesthood and judges.

Many years later the prophet Samuel was approached by the children of Israel and asked for the system to be replaced by a king.  When Samuel asked why they told him they wanted to be like their neighbors.  Samuel was unhappy but he went to the Lord and asked for guidance. In 1 Samuel Chapter 8 Samuel gives the people a warning from God.  

“And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. 

And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.”

But the people insisted that they have a King.  “And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.”

This was not the first time the children of Israel had reject the Lord as their King.  The first time is recorded in Exodus while Moses was on the mount receiving the commandments of God, then as God sent prophets to Israel to warn and teach, they killed them.  Finally when Christ was himself among the Jews He sat on the Mount and as recorded in Luke 13 Christ states “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!”

Christ was taken to Pontius Pilate and the people asked for him to be crucified. Pontius Pilate realized that the Jews were crucifying their King.  Pontius Pilate had a plaque nailed to the cross that, in three languages, read ‘King of the Jews’. Jesus was King of the Jews, not only in this physical world through royal linage of Mary and Joseph but also in the spiritual aspect as their Lord and Savior. 

Jesus Christ will return and we are told that in that second coming every individual, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is their Savior and mediator, and King.   Not only will individuals confess and submit to His rule but governments must also yield to the power of Jesus Christ as King of this world.  Those governments that will not yield will be destroyed.

And in that day there will be two great cities erected; Jerusalem and New Jerusalem.   And in these two cities there will be two great temples and there will be a great gathering as recorded in Revelations chapter 7  “I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”

Brother Nibley notes that “politics as practiced on Earth, belongs to the ways of men; it is the essential activity of the city – the city of man, not the city of God. The governments of men and their laws are completely different from those of God.” 

President John Tyler said “earthly rulers exercise their authority illegitimately; that the only legitimate authority upon the earth is that which is founded and recognized by God, whose right it is to rule. It is the priesthood that should rule.”

The righteousness of God's people is a blessing to their community.  We need to do everything we can to ensure our community adheres to God's laws even if were the only ones to do it.  We need to elect men and women and enact laws which help us keep the commands of God and become a spiritual people.  Our righteousness is extremely important to our community

In Genesis chapter 8 the Lord confides to Abraham that He is going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities of the great plain. 

“And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?  And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.  

And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:  Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.  

And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty’s sake.   

And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.  

And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty’s sake.

And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.”

But the Lord’s servants did not find 50, or 45, 40, 30, or 20.  Nor did they find 10. Even Lot’s family was not righteous but God did warn Lot and he fled with his family and the cities were destroyed.

We see that the righteous, even if they are a great minority within a community, are extremely important.  These righteous men and women bring blessings and safety to their communities.

So in summary what is the relationship between God and governments?  Governments are man-made and they all fall short of the ideal government which God would want us to create and have on this earth but we need to exercise our rights as members of our nation.

But remember that government should be based on the priesthood, centered on the family with mothers and fathers leading their families in righteousness, with Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and as our King.

Families are the key.  With mothers and fathers ruling together, sealed in the Temple, worthy.  Having kneeled at the alter and making vows to God and each other; having common principles, trust, purity and love through this life and eternity.  Having their homes a heaven on earth with their homes being equal in sanctity and sacredness and in peace and love as the Temple, raising righteous sons and daughters in Zion.

In Isaiah Chapter 33 it reads “Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken. But there the glorious Lord will be For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us.”

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Rincon Ward, Savannah Stake