Blessings of the Temple

D.C. 109 has the dedicatory prayer offered at the Kirtland Temple. It's very instructive about the reasons to attend the temple. I just made notes on what I thought were the main 33 messages in those verses. I'm bolding those that list blessings for attending the temple or things that the temple can do to help people. The point is, it's worth it to get there:

1) Recognizes the Lord's involvement in all lives and his commandment to build temple

2) ask Lord to accept the temple

3) Repeat purpose of temple - to help people learn through study and faith and be a house of prayer, fasting, faith, learning, glory, order, God

4) send thy glory on this people

5) people feel God's power and recognize temple's God's house

6) people taught words of widom and seek learning by study and faith

7) grow up in thee and receive fulness of Holy Ghost

8) prepared to obtain every needful thing

9) house become house of order, prayer, learning, faith, etc.

10) no unclean thing come into the house

11) when people transgress speedily repent and return and be restored to blessings

12) servants armed with power and assistance of God and angels

13) ready to bear truth of Gospel

14) no weapon formed against them shall prosper

15) no combination of wickedness shall prevail over them

16) confound those who fight against church and make their works ineffective

17) servants suffer from bearing record of God and gospel

18) deliver from yoke of persecution

19) forgive transgressions of the people

20) seal the anointings done

21) bless with gift of tongues and filled with glory

22) give servants a testimony of the covenant

23) remember the persecuted Saints

24) help the mob repent or destroy them

25) have mercy on all nations, and our nation's rulers, and establish the constitution

26) remember all people

27) help other stakes grow

28) help children of Jacob be gathered/redeemed from this hour; Judah return, and other lineage of Jacob repent

29) remember Joseph Smith

30) remember his family

31) remember the presidents of the church and their families

32) remember all the church and their families that the church may become great and fill the earth

33) help church be pure and ready for the Second Coming to be caught up to meet the Savior

Here's a few of my thoughts:

If you want to be assured that you'll repent quickly after transgressing, be a temple attender.

If you want to know that the church is God's church and the temple is truly God's house, be a temple attender.

If you want to be prepared for the "needful things" that life may throw your way, be they difficult or easy, be a temple attender.

If you want to be a great learner, be a temple attender.

If you want a testimony of the covenant of the Lord to be with his people and love his children, be a temple attender.

If you want to grow in spirituality and have the Holy Ghost as a companion, be a temple attender.

If you want to be a powerful missionary, be a temple attender.

If you want help to overcome wickedness or to be assured that you won't falter when great temptation comes your way, be a temple attender.

If you want to be ready for the Second Coming, be a temple attender.

I saw all of the above promises in those verses in D.C. 109. I have not attended the temple since moving to this area, but we have a plan in place to attend regularly starting next week, and I am excited about it.

Enjoy the temple. As President Monson said, it's worth every effort to make it to the temple.

Standing in darkness at noon day - not taking advantage of the Gospel

Joseph Smith said something very similar to, "if Saints will not live below their privileges, the angels cannot be constrained from being their companions".

This is something that Dieter Uchtdorf spoke about in Priesthood session of General Conference. Here's how he concluded that talk:

My dear brethren, may we diligently seek to learn the doctrine of the holy priesthood, may we strengthen our testimonies line upon line by receiving the revelations of the Spirit, and may we find true joy in daily priesthood service. As we do these things, we will begin to live up to our potential and privileges as priesthood holders, and we will be able to “do all things through Christ which strengtheneth [us].”

Notice that it is our privilege to serve and our privilege to bring others to Christ, and in so doing we will have joy and help from above.

The gospel provides access to great help from above. The key to having all of this help is living the gospel fully. Another verse in which the Lord talks about a similar concept is in D.C. 95:

6They who are not chosen have sinned a very grievous sin, in that they are ^awalking in ^bdarkness at noon-day.

This is a verse talking about building the temple prior to being able to "prune the vineyard" or preach the gospel. Remember from Elder Bednar's famous talk on "tender mercies" that we decide through our living if we are chosen or not.

It is important to know the Lord's stance on the temple - if we are not taking advantage of it, then we are choosing to live in greater darkness than is necessary. Certainly attending the temple is one of our privileges, and the Lord and Prophet are going to great lengths and investing much time and money into making sure that there are temples close to every people.

One other example showing how important temples are is the fact that the Prophet always opens conference by talking about the temples that have been dedicated in the last six months. Of all things he could choose to talk about, this is the one consistent item he brings up. It certainly shows its priority.

We should also make attending the temple a priority because without it we are likely standing in darkness at noon day. (I understand some may not live close and some may have difficult obstacles in getting to the temple. Just do your best. :)

Have a good day.

True Accounts

I was listening to LDS Conversations yesterday and in the Quentin Cook interview there was a section where he talked about Pres. Monson's influence on Preach My Gospel. Pres. Monson read it and said, "there's no 'true accounts' in here. Missionaries need true accounts". I'm pretty sure he might modern-day stories emphasizing the principles being taught.

That obviously sounds like him, but I was particularly struck by his point. We remember stories, and they illustrate the validity of principles. Over the last couple conferences I've tried to really think, "what is the point Pres. Monson is trying to make with this story?" For instance, his story about the lady traveling from the communist country she was in to West Germany and losing her kids along the way but not losing faith teaches us that we can all keep the faith no matter what happens. His latest story about the man who worked for 6 years away from home to send his family to the temple 2500 miles away teaches a great lesson as well. It's pretty hard for me to hear that story and not realize I can go to the temple at least once a month. It makes me want to "sacrifice" to go to the temple. (Hard to call a very good thing for us a sacrifice.)

It also makes me want to choose good true accounts to share in my talk this Sunday. It can help illustrate in a way that only saying principles can't. SAying, "you have to take on the full armor of God" is perhaps less powerful than saying, "I have a friend who didn't take on the full armor of God despite putting on some of it, and he didn't end up okay."

Have a great day. Remember the value of sharing "true accounts."