My Relationship with God

I've had a strong desire lately to enrich my relationship with my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. As I pondered what to study in the scriptures in order to facilitate a deepening and strengthening of that relationship I was led by a couple of thoughts:

• I can learn of God by reading His words
• I can study His attributes and characteristics
• I can emulate Him
• I can make my prayers deeper and more meaningful
• I can make an effort to reduce the "noise" in my life to better hear Him
• I can serve my fellow men

The list actually goes on and on. There are so many ways that I can come closer to God. It's actually a beautiful thing that He has provided so many ways for us to get to know Him. How I come to know God may be different than my friends and family. How I come to know God right now in my life will be different than how I knew Him in my past or how I will know Him in the future. 

In the October 2016 General Conference President Uchtdorf said: 

"In our efforts to help our loved ones experience the voice of the Spirit and the vast, eternal, and profound beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ, telling them to “listen harder” may not be the most helpful way. Perhaps better advice—for anyone who wants to increase faith—is to listen differently." (October 2016)

I think for me right now the injunction is not to listen in a specific way, but just make more effort to listen in the first place. 

In 3rd Nephi 11, the Nephites heard the voice of the Lord three times, finally understanding Him the third time. The Lord is very accustomed to repeating Himself when He speaks to us and often it's not until we make an effort to hear that we finally understand what He's saying.

Lastly, this scripture in Ether always strikes a chord in me.

"... Jesus showed himself unto [the brother of Jared] in the spirit, even after the manner and in the likeness of the same body even as he showed himself unto the Nephites. And he ministered unto him even as he ministered unto the Nephites; and all this that this man might know that he was God..." (Ether 3:17-18, emphasis added)

Christ ministered to a large multitude of the Nephites one by one over the course of several days. He did the same for the brother of Jared. Why did He do this? His purpose, according to Mormon, was "that this man might know that he was God." That's absolutely beautiful. God wants us to get to know Him. To know Him for who and what He is. 

"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent." (John 3:17)

Keep Pushing On

Andrew

Weekly Thoughts, "He Taught Them as One Having Authority" (Feb 25-Mar 3)

Thoughts for this week:

• Themes in the Sermon on the Mount
• Take no thought for the morrow
• God's will on earth and in heaven
• How to judge
• Worshiping for show

Themes in the Sermon on the Mount

Through the Sermon on the Mount Christ emphasizes putting God first, being genuine in our individual worship, and striving to follow God's will without recognition or praise. After putting God first (ch 6) then our interactions with others will naturally follow. We are not to see ourselves as being "above" or "better" than others.

My little sister recently competed in the Little Miss Lindon pageant. It's a competition for girls 10-13 that involves a service project, talent, interview, etc. and the top 5 contestants are the Little Miss Lindon Royalty for the next year, participating in all sorts of community events. My sister competed last year and was not selected for royalty, although she did get the Talent Award. This year, after substantial effort and preparation, she was selected as one of the royalty. It's a surprisingly intense competition and emotions run very high, both for the winners and the other participants. After the presentation all the parents and friends mobbed the stage giving their congratulations and hugging the participants. My sister, after giving me a big hug said, "I'll be right back, I have to go to the dressing room and make sure no one is in there crying alone." She then rushed off to bring comfort she could to whatever sad soul needed her help.

That was such an example to me of Christlike love and caring for others. 

Take no thought for the morrow

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." (Matt 6:34)

I've read this passage a lot. I'll spare you the standard interpretation and just share a new little thought I had. 

Don't procrastinate.

Interesting huh? When I procrastinate I usually think "I'll do it tomorrow." I'm quite literally "taking thought for the morrow" when I push back things that I should do today.

What does Christ say? "You already have a lot to do tomorrow!" "for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." And in one way He also says, "You're pretty full tomorrow anyways." "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." 

I know I know, it's not perhaps exactly what Christ meant with what He was teaching. But it's what I needed to hear. Put God first. Don't procrastinate.

God's will on earth and in heaven

"Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." (Matt 6:10)

It's implied that God's will is already perfectly executed in heaven. It's the earth, however, that struggles with God's will. As we follow the template given by Christ for how to pray we should first, remember that not everything that happens to us or around us on the earth is the will of God. Second, we should offer ourselves up as willing agents to enact God's will on earth inasmuch as it is possible. 

How to Judge

Christ instructs that we should judge as we wish to be judged. So I made a list of how I would want to be judged!

• Given the benefit of the doubt
• Being understood completely - maybe I was in the wrong. Chances are I was. But at least understand where I'm coming from
• Judge the act, not the person - Condemn the sin, not the sinner
• Love me - Even if I stand in need of correction, which I do, all the time, continue to show me you love me and truly want the best for me

Also, on judging, just because something isn't the way I would do it doesn't mean it's wrong. "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." (Matt 7:20). Judge by the fruits and let the actions speak for themselves. People will surprise you, let them!

Worshiping for Show

"Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matt 7: 22-23)

All of those things done by those professed followers of Christ were good things! There are prophets who prophesy and do wonderful miracles and are sincere followers of Christ! So what's the difference here? 

In this passage, those people represented are using their public displays of power as proof of their faith. A sincere follower of Christ would say something more like "Lord, in thy name I have prayed and in thy name I have served my neighbor. Lord, from thy words I have read and from thy promptings I have acted. Lord, to the poor have I given and to the lonely I was a friend." 

It's not the miracles we work in Christ's name that will prove us to Him. It's how we've changed and become like Him that will bring us to know Him.

Keep Pushing On

Weekly Thoughts, "Ye Must Be Born Again" (Feb 11-17)

Quick Intro
Well, it's been a hot second since I last wrote an article. I've had many thoughts that I should write again. Sometimes life throws you a curveball, and other times you take an unexpected line drive to the face. I am going to start writing again, mostly for myself and for my own healing.

I've decided to approach my articles a little differently. In the past, I would isolate a particular topic, study it for a time, and then write down some thoughts. It was a fantastic way to study, but very time-consuming to write. With the introduction of the new Come Follow Me resource I've had the thought to change my method of writing. I'll merely articulate a few simple thoughts from my study, topics discussed in church, or my discussions with my peers. I hope that with this new method of writing my little messages become an impetus for further individual study and pondering. With that introduction, here are my thoughts from this week.

February 11-17 
John 2-4 
"Ye Must Be Born Again"

1) Water to Wine
2) Faith, Hope, and Charity
3) Living Water in Imperfect Vessels

Water to Wine
In John 2:1-11 Christ turned water into wine for a wedding feast. As I was thinking about the process of turning water into wine, I had the thought that the real miracle here is the Lord's control over time. If they needed juice or even more food, people could be gathered and the juice prepared or the food made. They would've just required manpower and supplies. But the process of creating wine takes, above all, time. Wine properly aged takes years, decades. Even cheap wine takes months at least. We know from the reaction of the governor at the feast that Christ created the best wine, the type that would've taken years and years to properly age.

Some processes in our lives also take years.

• Growth
• Change
• Repentance
• Healing
• Learning
• Forgiving

These are just a few. 

Christ has the ability to "quicken" these processes through the Spirit. Sometimes He allows us to spend longer than we desire in the process of change. That's inevitably for our benefit. But He has the power to hurry those along when the time is right, but only if we genuinely turn ourselves over to Him. He will not intercede without us allowing Him access to our lives.  

Faith, Hope, and Charity

In sacrament meeting this last week the topic was Hope; a principle of which I sorely needed to be reminded. As I pondered the messages I thought of an analogy that helps me understand the relationship between faith, hope, and charity. It's simple, and you're welcome to poke it full of holes, but I like it.

Let's say we're all lost in mists of darkness. Welcome to mortal life, right? Our journey through the darkness is our life. 

• Faith is the belief that there exists a glorious destination because of the covenants we have made with God and our living worthy of those blessings. We cannot see the destination itself, that's when faith turns from belief to perfect knowledge. But we believe it is out there somewhere. Faith leads us to action, we would not move through the darkness without the belief that there is a glorious destination. 
• Hope is the belief that we can make the journey. To have faith is to believe there is a destination out there, but we can get weighed down by the adversary telling us that we can't make it. Hope is what keeps our feet moving forward toward the blessings and light promised us.
• Charity is how we act along the way. If we believe in a destination, believe we can get there, move towards it, and then treat our fellow brothers and sisters like dirt along the path then we have lost sight of the reason behind the journey in the first place. "[B]ut the greatest of these is charity." 

Living Water in Imperfect Vessels

Christ said to the woman at the well, "whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."

We can "drink" of this water by reading the scriptures, listening to the words of modern prophets and apostles, seeking personal revelation, etc. It then becomes a "well of water" inside of us as we regularly ponder those words and messages, continually blessing us and allowing God the opportunity to give us more of His word directly into our hearts via the Holy Ghost.

Why then do we need to continually drink? Because we are imperfect vessels. Sin, apathy, mortal forgetfulness all poke holes in the vessels of our spirit. Without regular replenishing the living water we internalize slowly drains out of us. Going to church, daily personal scripture study, regular repentance, prayer, temple attendance, etc. all serve to keep our internal wells "topped off" with living water. We access that inner well through pondering and seeking regular guidance from the Spirit.

Keep Pushing On,

Andrew

Searching the Scriptures

Unintentional Jokes in the Scriptures

You know how sometimes when you read a passage in the scriptures then suddenly you see it differently and in a way that it was definitely not intended by the prophetic author? Here's a few:

1- Like when Nephi writes "wo, wo, wo be unto them" you can read it like he's trying to slow down a horse named "be unto them."

Preeeeettttty sure that's not what Nephi was talking about, but it's a funny read.

Yes, I'm writing this on fast sunday.
Why do you ask?

2- Did you hear about the food-fight in heaven? "Then I [Zechariah] turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll."

Duck! Hahaha. (But seriously, he describes how big it is in the next verse and if that was the size of a dinner roll flying at me you'd better believe I'd be sprinting outta there.)

3- Or the motorcycles in the Book of Mormon? "round tires like the moon; The chains and the bracelets, and the mufflers;" (2 Ne 13:18-19)

There are loads of those little unintentional jokes in the scriptures and any seminary student could point out half a dozen others as well. 

(Perhaps) Unintentional Lessons

I had a moment like that the other day myself, but instead of drawing unintended humor from it I was instead taught a unique lesson.

I was in Pocatello Idaho at the time staying with a cousin of mine and lounging on the guest bed while reading the scriptures on my phone. At the time for my scriptures study I was reading through any scriptures that mentioned the word "love" and I hit upon Jacob 7:23

"And it came to pass that peace and the love of God was restored again among the people; and they searched the scriptures"

I was intrigued by the link between loving God and searching the scriptures. I wanted to see if this particular pairing happened elsewhere in scripture where loving God and searching the scriptures had such a direct link.

So I opened a new page in the gospel library app in my phone and searched the scriptures for "search the scriptures."

See what I did there?

Let me explain again. 

In the Gospel Library app there's a search bar where you can type in whatever word or phrase you wish to find and it will bring up all the scriptures (and any other church materials) that have that word or phrase. 

So what I did was typed "search the scriptures" into the search bar and the app then ran a search through the scriptures to find any verses that said "search the scriptures."

(Do you feel like you're in Inception yet? Cause I sure do. I had to read that paragraph like four times to make sure I said all that right.)

Now at the time then I got a good laugh. Isn't it funny that with as many times as the scriptures tell us to "search the scriptures" we literally have a function on our phones that literally allows us to do just that! And with very little effort on our part!

I'm gonna go on a limb here. I'm gonna say that when the ancient American prophets were scratching the "search the scriptures" Book of Mormon verses onto metal plates they probably didn't fathom that we could search the complete standard works and other gospel sources in seconds using our phones. 

I'm gonna go on another limb here and say that God probably knew exactly what kinds of resources we were going to have available to us and directed those prophets to write accordingly.

Searching the Scriptures

For the majority of my life my scripture study has consisted of reading chronologically. I start in 1st Nephi and quit halfway through 2nd Nephi.

Nah I'm kidding. But I do tend to just read straight through; beginning to end, start to finish, and then do it all over again.


Understand that in no way am I saying reading chronologically through the scriptures is not an effective way to study! It's treated me well for many years and I'll keep studying like that till the day I die (and probably after that too to be honest!).

But maybe we can switch up our normal study habits with a little bit of searching. 

In the scriptures themselves the phrase "search the scriptures" is found 48 times. Said by everyone from Christ in the New Testament to Alma in the Book of Mormon. Now you can study the scriptures without "searching" them, but usually the two go hand in hand.

"Studying" the scriptures doesn't have to be anything huge. We don't have to be preparing a sacrament meeting talk or engrossed in some intense probing of the depths of human understanding to make a "study" of the scriptures. But studying is definitely more involved than just "reading." After all, reading, studying, and pondering are three very different things. President Eyring said it like this in the October 2010 General Conference.

We read words and we may get ideas.

We study and we may discover patterns and 

connections in scripture.

We ponder and we invite revelation by the Spirit.

I have found that a great tool in helping me study and ponder the scriptures, instead of just merely reading them, is using the search function on my phone or on lds.org to read scriptures by topic. 

Some people think that using this search function would be a waste of time unless you're going to be making an intense study of the scriptures or preparing a lesson or a talk. But let me show you how easy it can be. Even if you don't have much time for your scripture study a few verses can always be read and thought about during the remainder of the day.

Here's a quick tutorial to show you how easy it is to "search the scriptures." 

1) Here's a search for the word "love." I selected to search in the scriptures in the Book of Mormon and then it will just give me all the verses in chronological order. If I select the first verse it will take me to it.

2) Now I'm seeing the verse with the word "love" highlighted. It's also telling me at the bottom of my screen that there are two more instances of "love" later on in the chapter. If I tap the arrows in the blue bar at the bottom of my screen it will jump to them automatically. Once I'm finished then I tap "Done" and then tap the magnifying glass again to go back to my search.

3) Now when I look at my search results I can see that the first result is in gray instead of black. That's telling me which search results I've already looked at.

What to Search For?

When Alice, in Lewis Carol's Alice in Wonderland, comes to a crossroads she has an interesting discussion with the Cheshire cat:

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
'That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
'I don't much care where -' said Alice.
'Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
'- so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.
'Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, 'if you only walk long enough.”

I really REALLY hated this movie as a kid.
Still do in fact.

(Sidenote: I thought the last two lines of that quote were particularly interesting. I've heard the first four lines a lot, even in general conference and such, but the last two were new to me. In order to get somewhere, even if we don't know exactly where we're going, we have to walk; and sometimes for a long time. I've felt like that in my life particularly as a young adult. I don't know exactly where God it taking me all the time, and that makes for very fretful moments of decisions when I reach these Wonderland crossroads. But the longer I walk the more clear the path becomes.)

Sometimes I feel like this when I go to search the scriptures. I've been reading chronologically for a while and I want to shake up my scripture reading with a search on some topic, but I'm not sure what to study. The low hanging fruit, of course, is anything to do with Christ, Christlike attributes, basic principles, and doctrines.

All in all I've never done a search that I thought afterwards was worthless. These are the words of God after all; you're going to get something good out of them if you're looking for it!

All in All

I want to keep this post relatively short. Another day, perhaps, I'll write on pondering and how vital that is. Sufficeth to say that when I'm "searching" the scriptures and studying by topic the pondering comes much more naturally and fluidly than when I'm reading chronologically. But maybe that's just me!

Whatever you're doing for your scripture reading/study then just remember to do it consistently. You can't run a marathon if you're only eating a couple times a week, and this life is so much more than just a marathon.

Keep Pushing On

Andrew

Charity- A Relationship

A New Idea

I can't take credit for this concept.

I wish I could! I first heard this when I was sitting in my Doctrine and Covenants class at BYU. Brother Sweat (name not changed, his last name really is Sweat) was talking about faith, hope, and charity.

I can't remember how it was introduced, but it was something like this "Charity is the pure love of Christ" (Moroni 7:47).

Hearing this idea about the meaning of charity was one of those moments when you suddenly see something you've been looking at your whole life in a completely new light! It was mind-blowing!

You're probably sitting there like, "I don't get it..."

Let me try to read this a different way.

Let's say one day I tell you "I have a love of dogs." Would you think I'm saying that the way I love other people is similar to the kind of love dogs express toward people? No, definitely not. You would just think that I love dogs and I'm just phrasing in a funny way.

So in the scriptures when it says "charity is the pure love of Christ" does that mean that charity is loving people as Christ loves? Or does it mean that to have charity we love Christ with a pure and perfect love?

You might want to read the last two paragraphs again a few times.

So what I'm saying is that charity can be interpreted as a pure loving relationship between us and Christ rather than just an imitation of Christ's love toward others.

A Different Interpretation

Now I don't want to tread on any toes here. I've had people quote to me my whole life that to have charity means to have pure love in my heart as Christ loves. Prophets and apostles have spoken of charity as pure love in general conference. Even on the LDS website in the topics section it says "Charity is the pure love of Christ. It is the love that Christ has for the children of men and that the children of men should have for one another."

All that being said, I firmly believe that there is no one single right way to interpret a scripture. Haha there are definitely wrong ways to interpret scriptures, I have heard plenty of those on my mission! But when people read a verse of scripture it's going to mean something different to each of them.

This way of looking at charity, as a relationship between us and Christ rather than an imitation of Christ's love, is simply a new way of looking at an old scripture that we've all heard a bajillion times.

And we do hear it a lot. I mean, when someone says they're going to teach/talk about charity you can pretty much watch the youth methodically open up to Moroni 7 and immediately begin drooling onto the pages as they pass out with their heads in their hands.

Hopefully this will provide a different perspective and save those pages a bit of moisture.

Scriptures about Charity

Thinking about charity as a relationship between us and Christ seems to make other scriptures fall into place.

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth."

Christ will never fail us. If we have a relationship with Him then He will never forsake us. The greatest act of charity is the Atonement. If charity for us means a relationship with Christ, then charity for Christ means His relationship with the Father. Charity never faileth. When Christ was in the garden of Gethsemane he turned to His relationship with the Father to sustain Him. "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt." (Mark 14:36)

"... he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity."

The first great commandment is to love God. Without a love of Christ we are truly nothing because in the eyes of God we have not fulfilled the greatest and most important commandment.

"And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." 

Now, instead of this being a list of the character traits we need to live in order to have charity, these all come as natural "side-effects," if you will, of our personal relationship with Christ.

Looking at all these scriptures with the idea in mind that charity is, first and foremost, our relationship with Christ lends a slightly different meaning to each of these. Tie together these three scriptures:

- "If ye have not charity, ye are nothing" (Moroni 7:44, 1 Cor 13:3)
- "But the greatest of these is charity." (1 Cor 13:13)
- "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."  (John 17:3)

It becomes obvious that Charity is so much more than just love of others. It truly means having a relationship with Christ. However, that's not to say it doesn't have to do with also loving our fellow man.

Loving Others Will Come As A Natural Result Of Loving Christ

Have you ever been so excited about something that you just had to share it? I know I sure have! I'll learn some cool new thing in school or be introduced to some new food that I'll immediately fall in love with.

What's the first thing you think of doing? If you're like me you think "Who can I share this with??"

I'll be super excited to share that cool new fact with my family or have them try whatever food I've just gotten hooked on! Usually they just roll their eyes at me as I excitedly talk about some new bit of human physiology, but they tolerate me well. But that's what we like to do! Once we love something we want to introduce others to that same thing.  (Funny side-note, guys will also do that with things that are gross. Have you ever heard this before? "Oh that is gross!! ... Hey dude come smell this!")

One funny example of this is when a friend of mine had pretzel-bites for the first time. I think I heard about pretzel-bites at least every few minutes for... hours... Until finally that evening we went and had these world-stopping pretzel-bites! Hahaha they were good! Not mortgage-my-house-to-get-them-every-day kind of good, but they were alright!

John 17:3

That's how charity works as well. Once we begin to establish that pure loving relationship with Christ then we are bound to begin expressing that same love for others. It's a natural consequence. You cannot love Christ, with that pure love He has for us, and yet hate your neighbor! (And if you're trying to do that then I recommend you hop off the fence. I'm sure that's beginning to chafe.)

When we begin to love Christ then He blesses us "that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son." Have you ever felt this? When you're truly striving to follow Christ then he is able to work through you and your capacity to love others increases.

I noticed this most on my mission. Every person I taught and passed on the street (or in the jungle) I felt a love for. Even a yearning that they would someday come to know the truths that I knew. Because of my relationship with Christ He was able to bless me with a love for others that I didn't even know.

You cannot love Christ, with that pure love He has for us, and yet hate your neighbor. 

Unfortunately the opposite is possible.

Loving Christ Is Not Necessarily A Natural Consequence Of Loving Others

I've known some very kind and tenderhearted atheists/agnostics. And no, I'm not being sarcastic.  They love and serve their fellow man, perhaps better than some of us that profess a love and knowledge of Christ and His gospel, but they have no belief in, knowlege of, or love of, Jesus Christ.

Would we say that someone who has no belief in God but treats others with kindness has charity? In the colloquial non-religious sense, yes! They are very charitable by the world's standards! But what about in the true meaning of charity?

Would we be able to say that their "charity," their kindness toward others, is more important than faith and hope in Christ? As it says in 1 Cor 13:13 "Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity."

I would tentatively suggest that someone who loves God with all his/her heart, but struggles having good relationships with others, is probably better off on judgement day than someone who loves others, but, of their own volition (choice), has absolutely no belief in, or relationship with, God.

Neither one of those are necessarily good situations to be in. Perhaps someone may struggle having healthy relationships with others because it's difficult for them to trust people. Perhaps in their childhood they were raised in a situation that has made it difficult for them to freely love. God has promised to fill us with His love as we pray for charity, a love for the Savior.

Now, if we are striving to have a relationship with Christ then certainly increasing in love for our fellow man can help us come to love Christ more. I feel like I've come to know Christ more as I've enriched my relationships with my parents, my family members, etc. They've all taught me things and helped me in ways that have drawn me closer to Christ.

So I don't mean to say that loving others can't help us love Christ. It's just that loving others will only bring us closer to Christ if that's already something important we've established in our lives.

Perhaps that would be an interesting way we can evaluate our relationships. Think of someone in your life. How has your relationship with Christ influenced your relationship with that person? And how has your relationship with that person influenced your relationship with Christ?

The Word Charity

Google's definition of charity leaves out
any religions connotation at all.

I'm afraid that the word "charity," along with so many other words defining fundamental gospel principles, has become watered down and has lost it's significance. What used to mean a pure relationship with Christ, or unadulterated love, now means "the poor house" when we hear of people giving to "charity," or people being able to write off "charitable donations" in their taxes.

Doesn't that sound just like Satan? To take a word that means something so significant, that if we aren't "found possessed of it at the last day" we are "nothing," and then water it down to the point of being nearly synonymous with simply "kind" or "generous."

"And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

But charity is so much more than all of that. I'm not suggesting that we take to the streets with signs trying to change the meaning of charity back to its scriptural definition. But in our scripture study and in our gospel conversations think of charity as more than just

This Is All Very Nice... So What?

I've shared a lot about charity. If you've made it to this point then I congratulate you. Hopefully you've enjoyed this different view of charity as much as I have. But what now?

Moroni said it best, and it would be a poor substitution if I were to try and paraphrase his words.

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure." 

I love the fact that praying is the prerequisite for charity. One of the greatest blessings from God, a relationship with our Savior, is available to us. It's is simply contingent on our asking for it.

I love talking about prayer. It's so beautiful and simple. I won't spend any extra space here writing about prayer (I wrote a different post about it a while back that has a few of my thoughts). But just pray. It's that simple. As my mother says "You can never err on the side of prayer."

Charity

Pray for charity. Establish a relationship first with Christ by loving, serving, and coming to know Him.

Remember, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (Matt 22:37-39)

Everything else will fall into place if we can keep those two commandments.

I know God lives. I know Christ atoned for my sins. Because of that, nothing is impossible.

Keep Pushing On

Andrew Davis

Phayth (A different look at a familiar topic)

It's embarrassing how long I've been feeling prompted that I needed to write this post and yet I've been procrastinating it. I don't know exactly why either. For one, I was a little intimidated at the subject matter. How do I approach a topic that's the bread and butter of every sacrament talk, sunday school lesson, and seminary discussion? How do I properly convey the thoughts and feelings that God has put in my heart about this matter?

But God put a burr under my saddle recently when I received a challenge from a friend of mine to write this article by Sunday night. So here I am.

A few weeks ago I was preparing a talk on Elder Neil L. Andersen's talk Faith Is Not by Chance, but by Choice. It made me start to wonder. If faith is a choice then how do we chose it?

Choice

Let's say you're on some sort of show like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and the question is this:

"If you're going through a rough time in your life what is the correct course of action?"
A) Wallow In Self-Pity
B) Blame Others
C) Have Faith
D) Eat Your Sorrows Away
E) A, B & D

What in the world could the correct answer be?? (I'll give you a hint, it's faith. It's always faith.)(We end up picking E though a lot don't we?)

It's never that simple though is it? If life were a series of game-show choices one of them would always come out the clear winner.

"You're about to go to bed and haven't read your scriptures. What do you do?"
A) Go to bed, duh. You read your scriptures yesterday!
B) Get up and eat ice cream. Can't go wrong with ice cream!
C) Read your scriptures.
D) Pull out your phone intending to read scriptures and check facebook on your phone real quick. Suddenly it's an hour later and you're finally going to bed, still without reading your scriptures.

Overly simplified examples? Maybe. But the point here is that "faith" in and of itself is not an option for choosing.

Options

We really only have three categories of choice in our life and they're beautifully stated in Mosiah 4:30

But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not.

It's so clear here that we really only have power over three things in life. That's it! 

We choose our thoughts. 

We choose our words. 

We choose our actions.

Within each of these categories we can choose faith or we can choose doubt. Often our actions will follow our words, which will follow our thoughts. But admittedly not always. That's why I'll treat them as three different things, even though they are quite interconnected.

Actions

I'll start with actions because that's probably the most visible choice towards faith that we can make. James 2:17 "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."

Faith without works is dead.

But let's be careful here. I've heard plenty of experiences of people outwardly living the gospel, going to church, fulfilling callings, etc. and then suddenly falling off the bandwagon because, although they were going through the motions, their actions were empty. Void of true intent. Void of faith.

It works are the ores then faith is the boat.
You're not getting anywhere without both.

We must then assume that the reverse is true.

Work without faith is dead.

Read that a few more times. I'm serious. This is something that we may not realize as a church.

You can go to church all you want but unless you're doing it in faith, even a modicum of faith, then it won't benefit you. This is why cynics and sceptics of the Book of Mormon can read it cover to cover and not benefit from it at all! They're not reading it with any amount of faith. Work without faith is dead.

I'll admit that occasionally I'll go to the temple and not get much out of it. Is that because the Spirit wasn't there? It is because there wasn't anything for me to learn? Certainly not! The Spirit is always there and there's so much I have yet to learn it's embarrassing. It's because I didn't go with faith as my motive.

I realize that approaching faith as a motive might seem a little abstract to some. But in my mind it fits rather naturally. Think about it and see if faith in Christ and His promises isn't the ultimate foundation for your obedience to His commandments.

We must choose faith with our actions as well as choose faith in our actions.

Words

How do we choose faith with our words?

I'll give you a hint. It's not to walk around muttering "faith, faith, faith, faith..." under our breath. That wouldn't be very helpful and we would probably get people worrying about us.

It's simple and beautifully phrased in Ephesians 4:29 and For the Strength of Youth
"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good."

If you would, follow the link and read the council on language in For the Strength of Youth. It's three very short paragraphs and I literally couldn't say it better myself.

All of that being said, I would submit that choosing faith in our communication and merely having uplifting conversation are different, though very similar.

Rather than delimiting exactly what I believe the differences are between the two I would invite you to ponder this yourself: What does it mean to me to choose faith in the words I say?

Thoughts

This is a favorite topic of mine. The mind is so powerful! I'm quite excited about a topic I'm thinking about writing on soon that deals a lot more with thoughts and the power of a single thought. But for now I'll confine myself to how we might choose faith in our thoughts.

Choosing faith in your thoughts is, I think, the best part of this topic of choice. Everything stems from our thoughts. If we can exercise self control in our thoughts, driving them toward God, then we will find the confidence spoken of in D&C 121:45 "Then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven."

Because our thoughts are so private then we tend to guard them less than we might guard our actions and our words. We trick ourselves into thinking we can let ourselves dwell on pessimistic or depressing thoughts without repercussion.

How do we choose faith in our thoughts? First we understand the relationship we have with our thoughts. Some people are inclined to think that we have little to no control over our thoughts. They just sort of happen and we are just along for the ride as passengers to our thoughts. I hope as you were reading that then you, like I did while writing it, thought "No, that's ridiculous. We choose what to think about." 

Yes! Exactly! We choose what thoughts dominate our mind and what thoughts are pushed to the side. Now I understand that some times it's easier than others to control our thoughts than at other times. Someone who has recently experienced some great tragedy will not consciously be able to simply stop thinking about what happened. But in all circumstances the way our thoughts are "tinted" is what we control most of all. We can choose to view our thoughts through the lense of pessimism or the rose-colored glasses of optimism. Just so we can choose faith.

I don't mean to imply that choosing faith in our thoughts will always result in a happy-go-lucky attitude, or that a facade of all-is-well-in-Zion should be adopted. That would honestly be counterproductive in some circumstances. How would we possibly "mourn with those that mourn" if we see mourning as faithless? No, choosing faith in our thoughts means that although we may be sad, or hurt, or frustrated, or hopeless, that we consciously choose to trust God.

Personally I've had experiences lately to choose faith in my thoughts. Satan has tried so hard to get me to doubt myself. He knows that if he can win the war in my head then he wins the war in my life. There have been times, when I'm at the very end of my emotional rope, when I have reached a critical point in my mind and very literally prayed/spoken: "Lord, I choose faith. Please help me." When I make that conscious choice to have faith in God then He inevitably steps in and I can feel an almost immediate easing of whatever burden I am feeling weighted with.

Ergo

When you come upon a situation in which you have a choice to make I would invite you to choose faith. Your actions, your words, and your thoughts are the choices you have.

It's helped me immensely in my life at least. I believe it will help you too.

Keep Pushing On

Andrew

If faith isn't the seed then what is?
What does that mean for us?

PS: Faith is like a little seed... or is it? 
I didn't have time to go into this point, but I still want to make mention of it. Faith, as described by Alma 32, is not like a seed. Read that chapter carefully and see what the "seed" we plant in our hearts really is. Then see what role faith plays in that process. Interesting isn't it?

Why I Will Not "Leave Well Enough Alone"

Before I tackle this weighty subject matter I should establish some fundamentals:

Beliefs

1) I am an active, practicing, faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, sometimes referred to as the "Mormon" church.

2) I believe the the Book of Mormon is the word of God as well as the Bible. I also believe in continuing revelation through living prophets and apostles.

3) I believe in the eleventh Article of Faith which states: "We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may" (emphasis added).

Overview

I will not be addressing specific arguments for, or against, matters such as abortion, same-sex marriage, legalization of recreational marijuana, gender "reassignment," etc. I will instead be addressing this pressing question:
"Even if you believe that ________ is wrong, why must you force that belief on everyone else legally by voting and campaigning against it? Why can't you just leave well enough alone and let people make their own choices?"

I've heard this question rephrased many different ways and asked by many different people from all walks of life. Even members of the church ask that of each other: "Why must we oppose _________? Of course we won't participate in that, but can't we just let people chose for themselves what they're going to do?" It's a fair question. The LDS Church has taken very strong stances in political matters in times past such as Proposition 8 in California and in some other circumstances as well.

Why the strong stance on the political scene if we believe so much in personal responsibility?

The "Voice of the People"

In the time of the Book of Mormon there was a government established much like our current government today. There was a "chief judge" and system of "lesser judges" to keep the power in check. Everything was established by the "voice of the people."

Mosiah the prophet-king who established this system of government gave this warning to the people: "And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land." (Mosiah 29:27, emphasis added)

Now, we have to make an important distinction between the "voice of the people" and the individual choices of people. Every time "voice of the people" is mentioned in scripture it refers specifically to voting, such as electing officials, establishing laws, establishing policies, military actions, petitions, and trials. Therefore, a very clear and important distinction is drawn as to what people vote for and what actions they make personally.

I want to reemphasize the warning given by Mosiah, in that if the voice of the people chooses iniquity (sin), destruction and judgments of God will fall upon the land. If I then, vote to legalize something I know to be iniquitous then I have aligned my political "voice" to something which will bring down destruction and the judgements of God on this nation and country. 

There are those who chose to not vote on issues such as this. Perhaps they wish, as Pilate did, to "wash their hands" of the matter and sit comfortably in their arm chairs, choosing not to intervene as the "voice of the people" releases Barabbas and crucifies Jesus. I have many things to say about these types of people, but I'll say merely this: Choosing to not vote, or otherwise contribute your political voice, does not abstain you from the responsibility and the consequences of decisions you might have influenced.

This is why I choose, on a legal and political level, to oppose those things which I know are "wrong." This is not very popular in a time where anything other than complete tolerance, no, complete acceptance, of every opposing value and belief system is practically forced upon us. I do this because I want myself, and most of all my future children, to live in a nation not condemned to destruction and the judgements of God.

I fully realize this concept might be very uncomfortable, and perhaps offensive, to those reading this. How dare I imply that by merely voting for one thing or another has the potential to bring our entire nation under condemnation? First of all, it wasn't implied, it was stated. Second, it wasn't me. I believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God to us in these latter-days as a type and shadow of what is to come. I'm just quoting His word.

Click here to read the full text.

In addition to politically opposing certain movements we have this stern warning from our modern prophets about sustaining the sanctity and importance of families: "We warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets" (The Family: A Proclamation to the World, paragraph 8).

Again, in order to protect our nations and communities from the disasters prophesied we must take a stand politically, not just lie down and "let what may happen happen." The warning and call is for us as responsible citizens to "promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society" (The Family, paragraph 9).

Enough shrugging shoulders and occasional comment about how "the world's going downhill" while doing nothing about it. Enough thinking that we can have no influence on the outcome of political issues! Enough standing idly by as the vocal minority tells us what will be in our country! Or, gosh, even if the opposing view is the vocal majority! We already know that the numbers of those supporting Christ will be few, outnumbered by far by those who oppose us! But we will be given power if we are worthy of it.

"And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of God, and its numbers were few... nevertheless, I beheld that the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth... And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory." (1 Nephi 14:12-14)

We will receive great power from the Lord to combat the evils of our day, but we will not be given this power until we prove ourselves worthy of it by taking a stand today. Here. Now.

The Elected

When was the last time you went and voted on an issue? Like went and voted on what should be done on certain matters. Probably never. Or at least very seldomly. With the structure of government we have in the USA we mostly vote on elected officials, and then let them vote on specific issues. While this has a lot of upsides, there are also some significant difficulties that arise.

The most obvious problem here is that if we choose to elect someone to office whose policies we
don't really know. In this day of easily digestible headlines and caring more about celebs than our representatives it's easy to follow the "fluff" advertizing and elect someone based on their charisma rather than their morals.

Don't let advertisements provide the
basis of your political knowledge.

When we let the smiling eyes of candidates dictate our political voice we are ignorantly allowing ourselves to be deceived. The time quickly comes when those elected officials begin to enact policies contrary to our beliefs. We might aloofly condemn their decisions and "wash our hands" of them all with the sickening feeling in our stomachs telling us that if we had listened more to our hearts and less with our eyes we wouldn't have supported them into office in the first place.

The other problem we might face is the possibility of those officials changing where they stand on issues after being elected into office. This is on them and they will face the consequences of misrepresenting their constituents, hopefully sooner rather than later. We should fight against this kind of deceit so as to ensure that those elected officials correctly represent our ideals.

This is a unique time when the presidential election begins to come onto the national scene. The speeches and tours begin, the clouds of advertizing des
cend, and everyone is talking about their "favorite" candidates... Or so you'd think.

I recently asked a few handfuls of people I've come in contact with (people my own age, early 20s) about which candidates they support and why. Only three of them could even name more than two current presidential candidates, much less specific stances candidates take on certain issues.

That's sad. Like really sad. Is my generation really just going to give up their agency and right to representation that easily? If Satan can keep us ignorantly in the dark concerning politics and national issues then he doesn't have to even fight another battle there! Wake up saints! All is not well in Zion. The world is in turmoil and our ignorance and apathy will be our downfall. We must get informed, and make a stand for what we know is morally right, and oppose what is morally wrong.

Love

"Tolerance" has been preached and stretched to the point of unrecognition. I won't speak of tolerance, I'll speak rather of love.

There is a saying "You can't please everyone" and it's more than true. There will always be people who oppose you no matter where you stand on any given issue. The thing we must do is be able to love them without condoning those actions which are wrong.

Christ gave us the commandment to love one another. As well we should. But let us not take this commandment out of context either from the Lord who physically cast the moneychangers out of the temple. No one would say that Christ loved those merchants any less, but it was their actions and their desecration of something sacred that caused the Lord's actions against their craft.

Steering into this topic of how to appropriately show love and acceptance of people without accepting and/or condoning their beliefs or life choices is not the purpose of this particular article. Perhaps another day I can address that topic, but for the time being I'll leave it to your personal study and pondering.

Purpose

Let me clarify a little bit on the "fire and brimstone" destruction bit as well as the purpose behind this article.

I don't mean to be a doomsdayer here. I don't want anyone reading this to walk away thinking the world is minutes away from armageddon. I also don't want anyone to think I'm telling them what to vote for and threatening them with destruction if they don't.

I tried to state very clearly at the beginning of the article what question I was here to answer. I am not here to side with one issue or another. This is not the venue for individual political battles. I have tried to keep this blog as free from those as possible, spending time devoted to the scriptures and words of living prophets and church leaders.

Conclusion

So here's what I hope you get from this:

- Understanding of why I, and others like me, oppose so adamantly legalization of things which I/we see to be wrong.

- Motivation to get involved and informed politically.

- Courage to stand for your beliefs and to vote accordingly. Not to believe one thing and vote/support another. This includes electing officials that represent your beliefs.

- Seeking and anticipating the power promised you of God as you make a stand in what and whom to support.

We live in unique and challenging times. The temptation is to curl up and not share our opinion for fear of being ridiculed or lashed out at. Well the time for apathy is past. You will find, as you make a stand, that there are those on both sides of the veil who are ready and willing to support you and stand by you. But first you must stand.

Keep Pushing On

Andrew