Rich vs. Poor

I still need to talk about sacrifice, but I didn't have a ton of time today, so I read section 56. In this verse, a previous mission call is rescinded because one of the companions gets too mixed up in the temporal problems going on (mentioned in Section 54 - Leman Copley is rich and gives his land to the Lord/church. A ton of members from NY move onto the land and make improvements. Then Leman kicks them all out after he quits the church.). So, the Lord gives a new companion to Thomas Marsh and gives a couple other commandments. At the end he addresses wealth:

16Wo unto you ^arich men, that will not ^bgive your substance to the^cpoor, for your ^driches will canker your souls; and this shall be your lamentation in the day of visitation, and of judgment, and of indignation: The ^eharvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved!

17Wo unto you ^apoor men, whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men’s goods, whose eyes are full of ^bgreediness, and who will not ^claborwith your own hands!

18But blessed are the ^apoor who are pure in heart, whose hearts are broken, and whose spirits are ^bcontrite, for they shall see the^ckingdom of God coming in power and great glory unto their deliverance; for the fatness of the ^dearth shall be theirs.

The poor and the rich can easily have problems. I was so struck by what the Lord teaches here. It isn't that he likes rich or poor better; each of these groups has their problems. He wants them to be righteous and overcome the challenges they have. I see this as a stark contrast to how much of the world writes about topics. Oftentimes these topics are written with a bias towards one side or the other or are colored by being politically correct. The Lord however teaches with authority and addresses the problems/issues that exist for both groups of people. Very inspired writing.

Reading these verses, especially when I know a little about the context, convinces me that this is definitely God's word.

Trust in God then Go and Do

So, I taught in EQ today and it didn't go that great. I didn't prepare well enough (i.e., I didn't discuss it with Jamie - she would have helped me focus thoughts better), I didn't teach anything particularly insightful, and I didn't use enough or really any scriptures. Lots of stories, not enough scriptures. Bad move. (I actually finished the lesson by saying, "sorry I didn't do well enough" - it's true. Those Elders deserved a better lesson to help them in some way in their lives.)

The lesson was on Pres. Eyring's talk which was excellent. The title of the talk was "Trust in God, then Go and Do.'' The purpose was to increase our trust in God and in his servants, the prophets.

I believe those guys 100%. Everything I have seen from them in my limited interactions with them or those who are close to them makes me believe their words. Additionally, I know God answers prayers. That's been made very clear to me.

Here's a verse I like regarding trusting in God.

Alma 58:37

But, behold, it mattereth not—we trust God will deliver us, notwithstanding the weakness of our armies, yea, and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies.

Those strippling warriors sure trust in God. I think it's because of the experiences they had had earlier made it clear to them that they should trust in Him. They mention in particular that they knew their mothers knew God would deliver them. This is an interesting point. I believe true faith is having enough faith that others' actions are influenced by you. The strippling warriors were clearly influenced by their mothers. Jamie and I were talking with some new friends of ours tonight, and I asked them how they gained testimonies of the church. Both of them spoke about how good their families were. She had a family that was very committed to the church. They read scriptures every day and prayed every day as a family, and she often heard her dad bear testimony. This all helped a testimony develop along with her time really diligently studying the scriptures while her future husband was on his mission. He said that there was a lot of trust and love in his family, and he thought, "if they're so great and I trust them so much, I'm pretty sure there's something to this church thing." I really love both of their comments. I hope to have a family in which our kids trust us and can be certain that the church is true because it is so obvious that it affects our lives for good. (I also want my kids to ask questions and figure it out on their own, but these two desires can both exist.)

Anyway, I hope I trust in God. He has always come through for me in every way. I also believe it's only if I stop trusting in him that the miracles will cease (as described in the following verse.)

Mormon 9:20

And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.

Have a good week.

Callings - How to magnify?

I still need to write about sacrifice (and finish my lesson for tomorrow), but here's a couple thoughts:

C0ncerning magnifying our callings - Here's something President Monson said in 1999 - What does it mean to magnify a calling? It means to build it up in dignity and importance, to make it honorable and commendable in the eyes of all men, to enlarge and strengthen it to let the light of heaven shine through it to the view of other men. And how does one magnify a calling? Simply by performing the service that pertains to it. An elder magnifies the ordained calling of an elder by learning what his duties as an elder are and then by doing them. As with an elder, so with a deacon, a teacher, a priest, a bishop, and each who holds office in the priesthood.

So how do we do this? I think we consider how we will affect the most people in each of our callings and then do things that will affect them. That sounds simple, but here are some examples:

1) Sunday school teachers usually think their calling is to teach the lesson on Sunday. It is, but I think it's also to know the names of the people in the class and reach out to those who aren't there but should be. I believe most, if not all, would appreciate a phone call from a Sunday School teacher who missed them in class.

2) I once knew a chior director that emailed the ward with the songs before Church on Sunday to let them know why those songs were chosen and something about their meaning.

3) Home teachers need to ask real questions such as how is your family prayer and scripture study and perhaps even, do you guys like each other? How are dates going? Any family activities occurring?

4) Visiting people and getting to know them is pretty worthwhile. Most of our callings could give us reasons to do that.

I'm not saying I'm the best at these things. Truthfully, the most important thing is to ask God what he'd like us to get accomplished (or come up with the plan ourselves and then asking him if that's right) and do it. I just think we could do a little more than we think sometimes, and it might not take more time, just more thought and faith and care.

But is it true?

I just had a marvelous discussion with my good friend at work. I really like him.

He happens to be quite smart (for instance, got interviews at all of the top 5 business schools in the country). He takes a very logical approach to life and to religion. He explained that he sees Christianity as a crazier set of beliefs than even Greek mythology because Greek mythology teaches lessons that are very applicable to real life whereas Christianity sets up absolutes that are difficult to reconcile to a world with shades of grey. He's a believing, though not practicing Hindu. He mentioned that it's tough to believe that there's a God who is our Father. Quite presumptuous. Pretty unlikely. Also, this thing about Jesus dying for our sins and now we only need say we believe and be saved is also pretty ridiculous.

So, I pretty much agree with his points. It is ridiculous to think that just saying, "I believe" will save one person that isn't as good as another person who doesn't. I understand his concerns. However, I also think someone could just try to talk to God and see what happens. Maybe try to live the way he asks which does have some definite rights and wrongs and see what happens. And then, maybe, if He is real, he'll let you know. So, as crazy as all of it is, it's actually true. And I know because he's let me know. And he'll let anyone know it's true, but they have to do it his way; ask him, live the way he asks.

Concerning the Savior's actions: I can't think of a "why this was necessary" except for 2 points, neither of which I believe other Christian churches would state are true, in general.

1) If we didn't need to return to dwell with God again after this life and also become like Him, it wouldn't be so necessary for someone to take away our sins. The "and become like Him" is important. Because I could see it being okay for someone with sins to be allowed to come into God's presence. Seriously. Satan has been allowed to at times (Job mentions this, and more importantly, Satan was an enemy to our Heavenly Father in the premortal life.) However, if we're supposed to become like our Heavenly Father, but we've made mistakes, some serious and some not so serious, then we all fall short of the glory of God and could never become like him without some major help. That help is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It's harder to understand the true need for the Atonement without understanding the plan of salvation.

2) Relates to number one - people have terrible things happen to them and these things could/should affect them forever unless there's a power that can wash this away. That power is the Atonement. God needed to do something to help us for our sins (#1), but he also needed to do something to take care of all the bad stuff that happens on this Earth that should affect people forever. It doesn't have to though, and that's because of Jesus' Atonement. It's the power to help what can't be helped without some "miraculous force". The thing is, the miraculous force is an earned force. It's earned by Jesus.

2a) God has the right to be involved in our lives because his son came to earth and earned the right to be involved in life. We can heal people through the priesthood and faith in the Savior because the Savior earned the right to have power through the Atonement. That's why faith in him is necessary to be healed. It's his power, earned through the Atonement, that makes it possible. Once again, he came to earth in part to be able to affect things that couldn't be affected without him earning the right to do so.

So, as I said, I understand my friend's points. I could easily be just like him because his viewpoints are actually pretty reasonable. However, he's wrong about God. God is our Father and loves us and cares enough to be involved in our lives. More experiences than I can name (literally, hundreds of subtle experiences along with a couple of life-changing experiences) have absolutely convinced me there is a God that is actually our Heavenly Father who loves us and has called a prophet and established his church in these days. I am very lucky to know this. It's a little crazy, I admit, but it's also completely true.

Sacrifice

How would you define sacrifice? Does the lord or a servant in his kingdom need to command/ask/etc. in order for something to qualify as sacrifice?

My good friend Travis sent me this question a couple days ago. I haven't thought about it long enough, but I'll comment on it over the next few days.

We're asked to sacrifice. I think the question put another way is, "who comes up with the sacrifice's that count as far as the Lord is concerned?" For example, does sacrificing something during Lent count for anything? What if I am a "swearer" and decide to sacrifice my swearing? Does that count as sacrifice? Additionally, if the Lord's servant asks, is this a sacrifice I have to do?

All I have time for right now is to paste the Bible Dictionary's definition of Sacrifice and then comment.

In all the animal sacrifices of the Mosaic law there were six important acts: (1) The presentation of the sacrifice at the sanctuary door by the sacrificer himself, as his personal act. (2) The laying on of hands (cf. Lev. 16:21; Num. 27:18, 20; Deut. 34:9) dedicated the animal to God and made it the sacrificer’s representative and substitute (Num. 8:10; Lev. 1:4). (3) The slaughtering of the animal. The sacrificer himself slew his sacrifice (at the north side of the altar), and thus carried out actually the dedication to God that he had ceremonially expressed by the laying on of hands. A later custom was for the Levites or priests to slaughter the victims. (4) The pouring out or sprinkling of the blood. The priest collected the blood of the animal in a vessel, and applied it in various ways and places to make an atonement (Ex. 30:10; Lev. 8:15; 16:18; 17:11). (5) Burning the sacrifice on the altar. After the priest had properly prepared the sacrificial victim he offered it (the whole or the fat only) upon the altar of burnt offering. This act symbolized the consecration of the worshipper to Jehovah. (6) The sacrificial meal (in the case of the peace offering only). The fat having been burnt and the priests’ pieces removed, the rest of the flesh was eaten by the sacrificer, his household, and the poorer Levites at the tabernacle.

Notice how much of this process involves the individual making the sacrifice acknowledging what he's doing. Sacrificer can't send someone in his place, he has to do it himself. He had to kill the animal himself. Also, there were a lot of symbols that connected the sacrifice to the Atonement Jesus would later perform.

It sounds like sacrifices in that time were made to help the sacrificer invest time and thought in the Atonement (it's a tool to do this).

Last comment - It sounds like sacrifices were made for man and not man to sacrifice.

More tomorrow. Thanks Travis. You think of the best practical questions.

Favorite Verse when I was a kid

Alma 5:16

16I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye^ablessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?

I think this would be a good day. Can you imagine if he said this to you? I hope I care enough to make that happen.

Have a good day.

Endure to the end

Short post today - D.C. 53:7 - to Sidney Gilbert - 7And again, I would that ye should learn that he only is saved who^aendureth unto the end. Even so. Amen.

That's our job. Can be a little tough sometimes, but truthfully, the path the Lord teaches is actually the simpler, happier path. I learned this on the mission. We generally have good marriages, aren't complicating relationships with sex outside of wedlock, don't have problems with addictive substances, spend time with one another at church and during FHE, and at other times. Our life is a simpler life, and that's a good way to live. It's on the mission that you get full access to the lives of some of those you are teaching and usually their lives are needlessly complicated. So, enjoy enduring to the end. It's actually better that way.

As if for years.......

This is something taught to me by Brother Esplin in his D.C. class (which was so good I took it twice; I'm not even kidding; I learned so much the first time in fall 2006 I took the exact same thing in summer 2009. He taught the gospel the way it's meant to be taught: lots of class participation, humble, great context around the verses to help us understand; and always with a message that could be applied to our lives, always)

In May 1831 the Saints received Sections 50, 51, and 52. They were just moving to Kirtland, Ohio from the New York region. They also knew that a Zion existed and that they would be asked to move there, and that Kirtland wasn't Zion. Certainly, a tendency could be to not invest much into their work, neighbors, or church in Kirtland. However, here's what the Lord told them in D.C. 51:17:

17And the hour and the day is not given unto them, wherefore let them act upon this land as for years, and this shall turn unto them for their good.

Act on the land as if you'll be there for years. In the strict farming sense, clear the same amount of land to plant fields as if you were going to be around for years. Also, build relationships with people as if you'll be around for years.

Think about how much a better job you'd acted as if the place you worked would be the place you would work forever and that if you did poorly today you'd probably always be stuck in the worst job in the company rather than moving up.

This principle applies to so many of us. For instance, when we're in college, it's temporary, so maybe we think we shouldn't get to know people extremely well, particularly if we know we'll be moving to a new apartment soon or that we'll be getting married soon. Or, at our first job, perhaps the same applies. Or perhaps on a mission if we only have 6 weeks left in an area. Or, perhaps I shouldn't work as hard in this ward since I'll likely be going to grad school in a couple of years.

That isn't the right approach. It's important to always, "act upon this land as for years, and this shall turn unto them for their good."

Also, I went to church today. It was very good. The two speakers were very honest about some struggles they had had in the past, and that was very refreshing. Sometimes we're scared to talk about our struggles, but I think it really helps someone around us when we do. I always admire that. Our church just continues to improve and improve (as Jesus said it would in D.C. 1:30)

30And also those to whom these commandments were given, might have ^apower to lay the foundation of this ^bchurch, and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of ^cdarkness, the only true and living ^dchurch upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well ^epleased, ^fspeaking unto the church collectively and not individually—

Living means it'll grow, improve, meet the demands of its development/members, etc. I like it :)

Have a good week!

What's not learning by the Spirit then?

I wrote about learning by the Spirit a couple times lately. A fair next question would be, "how can I tell if something is coming from God or from some other way?"

D.C. 50:15-16

15And then received ye ^aspirits which ye could not understand, and received them to be of God; and in this are ye justified?

16Behold ye shall answer this question yourselves; nevertheless, I will be ^amerciful unto you; he that is weak among you hereafter shall be made ^bstrong.

Contrast verse 15 with verse 22.

22Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are ^aedified and ^brejoicetogether.

A critical component of having the Spirit in teaching and learning is understanding. This is something I have come to know.

I believe it is good to ask questions and try to find answers. May I highlight, "trying to find answers." Questioning for questioning's sake does little good. At times I have gone down lines of questioning that has involved scrutinizing church doctrine or positions, which can be fine. Often in moments when negative thoughts about the church have come to my mind, I've had to think, what is this helping me understand. If thoughts only cloud my thinking rather than redirecting me towards a more clear outcome, then those aren't from God. For me a good barometer of the spirit is understanding.

Another verse - here's Alma 32:34,35 (focus on 35)

34And now, behold, is your ^aknowledge ^bperfect? Yea, your knowledge is perfect in that thing, and your ^cfaith is dormant; and this because you know, for ye know that the word hath swelled your souls, and ye also know that it hath sprouted up, that your understanding doth begin to be enlightened, and your ^dmind doth begin to expand.

35O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is ^alight; and whatsoever is light, is ^bgood, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good; and now behold, after ye have tasted this light is your knowledge perfect?

I like the phrase "discernible" here. It makes me think of analogies. Perhaps you've been hit in the eye before and it makes your vision blurry for a while and tough to tell what you're looking at. Contrast that with clear vision. Or, for the glasses wearers: the difference between having glasses and not having glasses.

Better yet - if you thought of all the knowledge in the world represented as a painting that had to be uncovered. Imagine that the painting is covered by black cloth. As you learn something and understand something, a little bit of that cloth is replaced by a light gray cloth that you can see through but the painting is still a little tough to see clearly. Eventually, when you have a full knowledge, that portion of the painting is uncovered and another portion of the black cloth becomes this light gray see-through cloth. Interestingly, knowledge can move the other way. Things that were covered by the see-through cloth can become covered by black cloth.

I think our learning is like this. God wants to teach us things that can be understood because it allows us to change behavior and continually act better and improve. If we're taught things that can't be understood or confuse us more, that's not knowledge from God or from the Spirit.

I don't think I'm explaining this stuff incredibly well, but hopefully there's something useful there.

If you have a thought or someone teaches you something that only leads to more and more confusion, that's probably not from God.

Finally, here's how the Savior says it in D.C. 50:23-24:

23And that which doth not ^aedify is not of God, and is ^bdarkness.

24That which is of God is ^alight; and he that ^breceiveth ^clight, and^dcontinueth in God, receiveth more ^elight; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.