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Sunday, July 14, 2013

Revelation is not a right, it’s a relationship

A right is something you are entitled to without any doing of your own.
   
We are told in Matthew 6:8 that God, “…knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” Yet we are made to ask because asking is not about what we get; it is about the relationship we build with our Father in Heaven through the process of asking and receiving.

Revelation is not a right, it’s a relationship. 

It is true that we are all children of God and as such have the inherent ability to receive revelation. But ability to do something and actually doing it are two very different things.

Revelation is as sacred to Heavenly father as it is to us.  He will not just toss out an answer that he knows will be ignored.  If you first prepare yourself to accept the answer (whether it is the answer you wanted or not) then he will give it. Every missionary has experienced this with investigators.
God intentionally creates situations in our lives that drive us to him because he wants a relationship with us.

When we die, he wants to put his arms around us and welcome us back as friends.  Not because we knew the church was true, but because in the process of acquiring that knowledge we built a relationship with him.
Doctrine and Covenants 93:45
..in other words, I will call you friends for you are my friends, and ye shall have an inheritance with me.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Why don't we wear crosses?

Margaret Thatcher said, “Power is like being a lady…if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.” If you remove the word “power” and replace it with the word “Christianity” you have answered the question we are often asked about why we don’t wear crosses.

The wearing of a cross is meant to proclaim to the world that the wearer believes in Christ. Yet, the act of living a Christian life proclaims that already. And if your daily actions are not proclaiming your Christianity, there is little point in wearing a symbol that says you are.

Rather than worrying about what other Christians think about our non-use of the cross in our daily apparel and building décor, we need to be examining ourselves to be sure we are not wearing social aspects of our church as a superficial sign of discipleship.

Matthew 7:20
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

David's Goliath

If you eat an ice cream sandwich one night, you won’t wake up fat the next day from that one decision. But over a period of time, many of these small and seemingly insignificant decisions can affect your weight one way or the other. 

Our testimonies work the same way. One “R” rated movie is not going to shake your testimony.  But over time if we allow ourselves to participate in "little things" it can eventually affect you.
We often tell the story of David killing Goliath as if it were an isolated circumstance. As if he was sitting around on a hillside somewhere working his thumbs on a Play Station when the call came to fight Goliath and on that day he became a great warrior.

It was not so. That day on the battlefield with Goliath was the accumulation of years of faith building experiences fighting lions and protecting his sheep.

Yet, how did Bathsheba defeat so great a warrior?
In the years leading up to Goliath, David was sharpening his faith and skills every day. In the years leading up to Bathsheba he was living in a palace with servants waiting on him hand and foot as the king of Israel; his skills had been reduced to giving orders and picking out tapestries.

No matter how strong your testimony is, it will eventually die if you don’t water it consistently.

Neal A. Maxwell
…too many members are sliding down the slope, though perhaps at a slower pace.

Monday, June 17, 2013

The Atonement: an eraser, not a pencil...


I once bought a hotdog at Costco and as I sat at my table alone, I offered a quick, silent prayer.  When I looked up, the man on the next row had a huge smile on his face as he looked at me.  He reached over to shake my hand and said, “I am your brother!  I go to the (censored) Church, where do you go?”  My blood ran cold as I smiled and reached for his hand because his church holds anti-Mormon classes.  When I told him, with hands still clasp, where I attended church it was his turn for shock.  His face went blank and he politely went back to his meal as though suddenly disinterested in the conversation.

Luckily, not everyone who disagrees with us is so impolite.  A few months ago I had a very interesting and enlightening conversation on the radio with a Christian minister about grace and whether or not anything more needs to be done after a person has confessed Jesus as their Savior.  It was a very respectful conversation and as I thought about it afterwards I realized that traditional Christianity has taken one central part of the gospel (grace) and made it the only part of the gospel.  Excluding therewith any requirement to keep the commandments.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is an eraser, not a pencil.

If leaving this life without sin was the only requirement, we could have accomplished the same thing by not coming.

Albert Einstein defined the purpose of this life when he said, The only source of knowledge is experience.

In fact, grace is the safety net given to us by a loving Heavenly Father so that we can gain knowledge through experience without fear of losing our reward when we make mistakes.  The great blessing of grace should never be used to excuse ourselves from keeping the commandments.

Alma 34:32
For Behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.