We have been called, but we choose ourselves

Now this week's post may seem a bit excessive and it comes from the fact I'm feeling a bit fired up about something, but at the heart of it this post comes from love. And it will be a long one.

Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-29 says:

26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.

27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;

28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.

 29 But he that doeth not anything until he is commanded, and receiveth a commandment with doubtful heart, and keepeth it with slothfulness, the same is damned.

So please explain to me why I have heard from multiple sources this week, "I don't need to worry about that until they talk about it in conference" or "well the Brethren haven't said anything about that, so I don't need to change anything" or the idea that if the church doesn't have an official policy about it that it is beneath our consideration.We each have our own journey and our own path, the things we will learn from better than others, the things that will ring truer to our heart and the things we need that no one else does for our learning and growth. The Brethren can't address every issue, this church is a church made up of individuals going through their own individual, personal and unique trials they don't address everything because with over 15.7 million members from all walks of life and all over the world they just can't. But what they do do and what Joseph Smith advocated was to teach us true principles and that we might govern ourselves. The Brethren and general leadership of the church work to advocate a life style that we can feel and be directed by the Spirit in our lives, but that means we need to be seeking the Spirit to guide us.

I'm not saying we don't heed the Prophet, I'm saying we heed the Prophets so we have the Spirit that can give us individual guidance on our individual journey. We need that individual help so much.  As I sat in the temple yesterday I was struck anew by the phrase "philosophies of men mingled with scripture". My dear brothers and sisters we are living in a day when this phrase and its full meaning has indeed entered into the church. We have forgotten that we are called to be a peculiar people, that means we are different, that means we seek higher laws and a higher plain to live on, that means we are a covenant people that seek to meet Christ sooner rather than later, this means sacrifice is required, this means we seek the best things, not just the good that are only slightly different from the world. This means dear siblings that we are willing to give up the good for the best, that means that we stop seeking after darkness and wonder why our life isn't filled with light. Has anyone else noticed that Halloween is so much more popular today than it ever has been? Halloween used to be about dressing up for fun and getting candy. Now it is everywhere, freaky ads for candy showed up two months in advance. Ghosts, skeletons, witches, and jack o lanterns are on food, toys and in kids meals. I realize that all the holidays are becoming more commercialized and I realize that other than Thanksgiving (which came about later than the rest of the holidays and started as a day of prayer, though I'm sure someone could argue it represents a pagan holiday of harvest somewhere) most do come from pagan holidays. When "the church" began its work to spread the gospel to the barbarians and pagans (I'm referring to Holy Roman Empire times) they tried a frontal assault against pagan rites and religious acts and in every case they lost. People chose what they knew over what the church was offering and the church often lost converts. So overtime they tried a new tactic, placing their holy days on days of importance to pagan religions, thus instead of having to choose, people could do both, they could participate in church ordinances without forgetting their past. They never had to truly change because they were given the option to do both. (Perhaps it is time to learn the history of the things we do and celebrate without thought).

Our Heavenly Father has invited us to truly change, to leave behind the natural man and become a new creature in Christ, with new priorities and sacrificing to seek greater light and knowledge. I can't (and don't want to) prioritize anyone elses' life, I'm struggling enough with my own self to make better choices and make the sacrifices to become the person Heavenly Father wants me to be. But I will invite everyone to take a look at their life and see if there might be places where Satan has tricked us with sneaking in the philosophies of man with scripture, where he has snuck his agenda and his purpose, but because it seems like no big deal or everyone is doing it we shouldn't worry about it. But we should. Our Savior has invited us to seek Him, to avoid even the appearance of evil, He invites us to forsake the mediocre and try for the best. There are many ways to have a summer cottage in Babylon and it will be different for each of us, but the time is coming when we can't have both, we can't have one foot or even a toe in Babylon. The Lord will have a sanctified people, there have been many times throughout the generations of the earth when His truth was lost because people cared more for the world around them, than they cared about what the Lord commanded them (did you know that the name Yahweh had been revealed to Adam, Abraham, Issac and Jacob -just to name a few- but due to unbelief the name and the covenant had been lost until Moses at the burning bush, the knowledge was lost because overtime people cared more for the majority than the covenant). We are standing at just such a time. Satan through the disguise of the world is actively seeking to destroy us, but he does it by degrees, every time he can get us to say "it isn't a big deal" or "that is important, but I'll do it later" he has chipped away at our spiritual foundation. (Noah started building the ark before there was a cloud in the sky, the sky is starting to get clouds on the horizon). If the Lord from the beginning of time has called us away from the world, perhaps it is because He realizes there are some less than good things in the world disguised as the greatest. We have a choice to make, we are standing on the edge of the knife, we are in the last days when the harder right choice must be made. Our Savior needs a special people to prepare the world for His coming, we have been called, but we choose ourselves.

With God nothing is impossible

Tonight's post is a bit of a continuation of my post from last week.

 This week I was reading the account of the angel Gabriel visiting the Virgin Mary telling her that she would be the mother of the Son of God and she just accepted it, she didn't argue that she wasn't worthy, she didn't present an argument about how anatomy worked or that God could and would work a miracle in her life and for all of Israel, she simply said let it be as you've said it will be. She had faith and acted on the faith that nothing was impossible with God. Because she believed there was no impossible with Heavenly Father there was no impossible. She was named highly favored because she went with the impossible and trusted that Heavenly Father would provide away, even knowing the law, knowing being pregnant out of wedlock could mean death, even knowing it could break Joseph's heart, she trust the Lord to do the impossible, so she saw the impossible.

Heavenly Father does His best work in the impossible and that is why Satan is working so hard to convince us to be skeptics, he pushes an agenda and steady diet of doubt, questioning, misbelief, disbelief, and misinformation. This skepticism can come in many forms, sometimes it comes in outright attacks, people question "why do you need God, why would He care about you, why do you need a God, can't you do things on your own?" Sometimes those attacks come more subtley "miracles like that don't need to happen in our day, why do we need angels, we have the restored gospel?" And sometimes that skepticism manifests itself in doubt, pure and simple, " why would the Lord do that for little old me, that couldn't be a miracle?" Some of these forms of skepticism may seem more destructive than others, but I assure you they all block belief. Satan doesn't care so much which level of skepticism gets you, he just wants to keep you away from belief because he knows belief brings you to the miracles.

So often in the world today and in the world today I hear people scoff at the idea of angels, scoff at the idea of miraculous occurrences, for people who believe the heavens are open we can be rather closed minded. Why don't we believe that miracles can and will happen in our lives? I'm not suggesting for us to be sign seekers, perhaps it isn't part of our individual journey to have the angel Gabriel appear to us and tell us we are well favored of the Lord, but I do know that the Lord has so much more for us than we are currently accessing for ourselves.

We are children of the Most High God, we are children of a creator that makes us creators in training, that means we need to practice. As children of the Most High we have access to the powers of Heaven, we have the birthright to do the miraculous, that doesn't just mean it will come in the next life, the more we tell ourselves that our inheritance only comes in the next life the more we miss out on opportunities to make the next life even greater and make this life more powerful.

Satan knows that on a steady diet of self-doubt and skepticism we will always see ourselves as the "average joe" not fit for anything amazing or powerful. When we limit ourselves we also limit Heavenly Father. As Elder Holland says, He only has us, as imperfect and flawed as we are, to work with, but He makes do and He wants to do wonders. We have already entered the last days (in the year 2000 Pres Hinckley said the seventh seal had opened) as we come closer to the Second Coming of our Savior Satan has and will continue upping his game. As Latter-Day Saints we can't expect to get a free pass or say that All is Well in Zion, all is not well and Heavenly Father needs us to step up and to believe so that He can preform His work and His glory and His miracles in the world today. He needs a people who believe in prophecy and will tell Him, let it be as you have prophesied it will be, He needs a people who are and will be peculiar and who aren't limited by false beliefs about Heavenly Father and themselves. As Harold B Lee said, this is a generation of sleeping giants. We are the spiritual giants of the last days, but we must claim that power or the work needed of us will pass us by.

With God all things are possible, especially for those who believe.

A Blue Print for the Future

My post tonight is based on this question, do we really believe the Book of Mormon is true?

Our leaders and prophets frequently invite us and challenge us to read this amazing and life changing book. For those of us who have taken their challenges we have seen exactly what they promised us we'd see, a spirit has entered our lives from reading that book, a peace has come that has helped heal perspective and increase faith and has strengthened us in our daily journey. Yet as special as those moments have been in our lives and though they have helped us, this amazing book offers us so much more.  I think the Lord intends the Book of Mormon to be so much more.

Heavenly Father has given us a book that outlines our history and mirrors our future. We have been told that this book is for our day, this means we apply it to our day and not only do we observe the same patterns in our day, we look for and expect to see the same things now as we prepare for the Second as those who were preparing to see the Savior when He visited the Americas.

If we believe that the Book of Mormon is true than not only do we believe that secret combinations could happen in our day, we look for them as a sign of the times. If we believe the Book of Mormon is true than we follow what the prophets and writers of the books in the Book of Mormon did and we expect to see the same results. If we believe that the Book of Mormon is true than we expect to see miracles in our lives. At the end of the Book of Mormon Moroni teaches us that if miracles have ceased in our day it is because of a lack of belief. Notice that he says belief, not faith. We can have faith in Jesus Christ, but if we lack belief then He can't act in our lives. We must believe that not only can He do miracles and that He will do miracles, but that it is part of His plan to do those miracles in our lives. We must believe that we can become like Jacob, that we can be like the brother of Jared, that we can be like Mormon and Moroni. If we believe the Book of Mormon is true than we also believe Elder Jeffrey R Holland when he says that angels are among, they are with us.

If we believe the Book of Mormon is true than we expect the miraculous, we work for the wondrous and we believe that the Lord is active in our lives.

Here is an excerpt from the Doctrine and Covenants teacher's manual, lesson 37

"In 1939, when it appeared that World War II would soon break out, the English gentleman called Brother Brown into his office. He asked Brother Brown to defend his religious beliefs in the same way he would discuss a legal problem. In a general conference address, President Brown recalled part of their conversation:

...

The English gentleman said that he believed the biblical accounts of the Lord speaking to prophets. However, he maintained that such communication had stopped soon after the Resurrection of Christ. The conversation continued with another question from Brother Brown: “Why do you think it stopped?”

“‘I can’t say.’

“‘You think that God hasn’t spoken since then?’

“‘Not to my knowledge.’

“‘May I suggest some possible reasons why he has not spoken. Perhaps it is because he cannot. He has lost the power.’

“He said, ‘Of course that would be blasphemous.’

“‘Well, then, if you don’t accept that, perhaps he doesn’t speak to men because he doesn’t love us anymore. He is no longer interested in the affairs of men.’

“‘No,’ he said, ‘God loves all men, and he is no respecter of persons.’

“‘Well, then, … the only other possible answer as I see it is that we don’t need him. We have made such rapid strides in education and science that we don’t need God any more.’

“And then he said, and his voice trembled as he thought of impending war, ‘Mr. Brown, there never was a time in the history of the world when the voice of God was needed as it is needed now. Perhaps you can tell me why he doesn’t speak.’

“My answer was, ‘He does speak, he has spoken; but men need faith to hear him’” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1967, 117–18; or Improvement Era, Dec. 1967, 36–37).

I second both the men in this interchange, we do need our Heavenly Father now more than ever and He does speak, but we do need faith (and I might add) belief that He does. 

I testify that the Book of Mormon is true, that the Lord does speak today and that everything within the pages of that amazing book is true and does happen in our day. I invite you and myself to read with eyes of belief, to believe that the Book of Mormon is not just a record of the past, but a blue print for the future and that the Book of Mormon can change our lives.

First thought, loving kindness/A little more grace

Perhaps in this post I am speaking to the choir a bit. I know that the media focuses only on the negative and I also know that most of us really feel that love is at the heart of our response. I'm also not saying in this post that we love and support sin, Christ didn't teach that and we shouldn't live that. But He did go against common ideas of His time, He spoke for the poor in heart and He always extended mercy. Part of our purpose in this life is learning how to take the Spirit as our guide, and the Spirit can teach us how to share love and mercy, through grace and we could all use a little more grace on this earth and in this life.

We are called to be a peculiar people, to stand out from the world in new and happy ways. I used to think a whole lot about this statement and I do still think that this is a call to Zion, to take the Spirit as our guide, to embrace the things of heaven and less of the things of Babylon, but in order to do all of these things we need to embrace an attribute of Jesus Christ, the attribute of mercy. In order to build Zion, to follow the Spirit and leave Babylon we need to be merciful, for this is how we receive mercy and this is how we become like our Savior.

It seemed to me that a call to being different would require becoming perfect and that just seemed so overwhelming to me. Yet as I have pondered, read more about Christ and pondered on the work He did for us and looked at the world around us I realized that showing mercy is the major way we could be different from the world. One needs only to look at Facebook to see that mercy is not on the top of the priority list for many. So many times I see assumptions made, judgment passed and notices of condemnation go out. People who are seeking perfection only see the short comings in others and prey upon the weaknesses of others, this ought not to be. Our Savior was first and foremost a giver of love, a giver of second chances. Instead of assuming the worst of others, or placing unrealistic expectations, choose to love and choose to reach out in kindness to lift instead of reaching out in indignation.

We all want to be ready to see our Savior when He comes again, we all fear being deceived, we all fear different things that are happening in the mortal world at this time, but getting on a high horse or letting fear speak for us do not show us as disciples of Christ who trust their Lord and Savior to speak for them and to offer love to all. He is our Advocate with the Father for He is the one person who felt who we are, He understands motives and effort levels and He delights in being merciful.

Let us learn to be like our Savior and find joy in mercy instead of in judgment and to learn kindness as our first word instead of our after thought. Let us be a peculiar people, a people who's first thought is loving kindness.

It is okay to just be

For a weekend that I've been looking forward to for a month, for the opportunity to listen to conference and just have time at home to rest and recoup, it sure didn't work out that way. It was a bumpy weekend full of good things, but not what I had expected or planned on.

I find myself unfulfilled from the weekend, I feel just as raggedy as when I began the weekend, part of me thinks it was because I just didn't get enough uninterrupted conference time and part of me wonders if the answers I was seeking were actually to be found in conference. But to be honest, I'm really not sure what answers I should be or am seeking. So much of what I have prayed for in the past two years seems to have come, so why do I still feel discontented? Is it because a part of me lives in fear that it will come back again? Is it because part of me doesn't know how to adapt to this new set of good circumstances? Or is it because I still feel so overwhelmed by what is going on in the world and the things that "weren't fixed"?

I know that I should be happy, I mean come on more than half the talks between the Women's Conference and the sessions the last two days talked about finding joy in our circumstances, so why can't I find it? I do have gratitude for the good that has come into my life, I do work to pray each day grateful for the Lord's hand in my life, so why am I still grumpy?

Usually General Conference energizes me, but today after listening to the talks that I got to hear, I still feel empty, I still feel as if I am trudging through this life, doing my best to serve, but those efforts feel so limited and less than worthy. I found myself on many occasions feeling like every effort had missed and that I am still too prone to be grumpy, frustrated and selfish and I don't want to be those things.

And the real kicker of my tale is that for two weeks now the Spirit has told me to write a letter to Heavenly Father and see what He says back and I still haven't done it. I know it is Satan and his minions distracting me from this effort that has brought such peace and love before, yet still I don't do it, even tonight with the note book next to me by the couch I'm still not doing it...not from a lack of desire, but just tired out will power.

I know it is important to get sleep and have good nutrition because your soul is your body and spirit combined. I know that Heavenly Father loves me, I felt it so clearly last Sunday, but once more I feel in the dark. Just yesterday I felt okay, but once more the dark clouds seemed to have rolled in.  Perhaps tonight really all I feel I can say is, it's okay to be tired, it's okay to feel you've missed the mark and it's okay to not feel like you can take on the world right this moment. If you can't feel so now it is okay to rest, regroup and try again tomorrow. Have hope that moments of love, peace and enduring will come and know that angels are surrounding you. You have thousands of angels with you, protecting, guarding and guiding you. You do not walk this life's journey alone. Go to the temple that holy edifice where your Father waits to greet you and just be in the moment, feel the feelings and then let them wash over and away from you.

Our efforts might be less than our best, they might seem downright miserable, but remember though our efforts are far from perfect we are loved by a God who is perfect and a Savior who loves perfectly, it is okay to be less than, because He has all we need to make up the difference, it is okay to stumble and fall for He will put us on His shoulders and it is okay to just feel done because He can jump start us again. Be what you need to be, then reach out to Him because He delights to heal and He delights to help us start again, to start loving again, to start putting the frustration aside and to heal again.