30.5.10

Justice and Redemption; He Can Only Save What We Give Him

I love this scripture:
Mosiah 15:27
Therefore ought ye not to tremble? For salvation cometh to none such; for the Lord hath redeemed none such; yea, neither can the Lord redeem such; for he cannot deny himself; for he cannot deny justice when it has its claim.

At first you may think its sort of a bleak scripture that shows a God of wrath but really it shows a loving God because the Lord is telling us, constantly, that He can make us better and even perfect, but only that part of our heart that we give to Him. If we don't give Him anything then He cannot help us. Thats why He doesn't just ask for a part of us, but the whole thing; all we can give, everyday.

28.5.10

Offerings

Some things may seem good, but if they are done in a way that is not the Lord’s way, then it is evil.

And Adam and Eve, his wife, ceased not to call upon God. And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said: I have gotten a man from the Lord; wherefore he may not reject his words. But behold, Cain hearkened not, saying: Who is the Lord that I should know him?

And she again conceived and bare his brother Abel. And Abel hearkened unto the voice of the Lord. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And Cain loved Satan more than God. And Satan commanded him, saying: Make an offering unto the Lord. And in process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering; But unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect. Now Satan knew this, and it pleased him. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain: Why art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, thou shalt be accepted. And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door, and Satan desireth to have thee; and except thou shalt hearken unto my commandments, I will deliver thee up, and it shall be unto thee according to his desire.

The Lord makes offers to us as well. They are blessings and callings that we can accept or reject. When rejecting them, we reject the Lord, as well.

Its important to discern the things that are offered us from the Lord and from Satan. Satan offers us things that seem good but in fact are not. It might be something that seems harmless and good, but in fact is bad because it is from Satan. One of Satan's greatest tactics is to offer us something thats not evil necessarily but not the greatest good and thus robs us of having a greater blessing; such as choosing college or military over a mission or getting married outside the temple. The lesser choice is an evil choice just because it is not the greatest good. We must not forget that.

We must, in turn, offer our greatest good to the Lord for it to be accepted, and for it to be the greatest good it must be done in the name of Jesus Christ and not Satan.

The Repentance Dance

Repentance is difficult because you have to learn new things. Learning new things is awkward and embarrassing. Thus instead of trying we’d much rather stay to ourselves. Like dancing, its much easier to sit on the sidelines but the Lord says we must dance. There is no other way to enjoy ourselves. Sure its easy to sit on the side pointing at the believers and laughing but anyone can criticize, not everyone can dance.

27.5.10

Repenting

Every time I find myself going down a wrong road, my first reaction is to justify it by saying its not wrong. My second action (after realizing it is wrong) is to justify myself by putting on a mask of innocence. The mask wears off, the grief sets in.

Grief is to the spirit what pain is to the body. When we sin we hurt ourselves. We have two ways to remedy the pain of our spirit. By covering it with pride or by healing it with repentance.

To heal we must deal with our mistake and thus annihilating our pride or justification. The Lord is happy when are hearts are sincere and open, not hiding, withholding or in denial about our fallen state. Our hearts will grow cold, hard, unforgiving and unloving if we aren't careful. We must let our hearts be open and soft because then we are receptive to the Lord and then He can heal us of our sins. The scriptures say to "offer for sacrifice unto the Lord a broken heart and contrite spirit." Thats the only offering He will accept. He doesn't take money, objects, lies, or lip service. He wants the heart and spirit. Interesting insight into whats really valuable in life.

We must be closed to the evil influences but open to the good. Our hearts must be open, but not stupid. We must seek the Spirit for guidance, but not accept an evil spirit. Our hearts must be soft but our determination strong. Satan would have us to have hard hearts and loose morals. This is quite the contrast of the two roads we are to choose from.

The promised prizes for choosing between good and evil are similar in definition but drastically different in application-

-The Lord promises all that He has. Satan promises all the riches of this world.

-The Lord grants us complete freedom from the bondage of sin if we follow Him. Satan grants us the freedom to follow our appetites and passions as he chains us to them until we lose our free will.

-The Lord would have us realize that every hair on our heads are numbered and that we are His most precious creations; giving us a world to have joy therein through our prosperity and development into being more like Him. Satan would have us think that the world is nothing more than a place for us to use and abuse and everyone is just objects for self gratification.

Both God and Satan promise riches, freedom, satisfaction and kingdoms. But, of course one is correct and the other a liar.

Satan lies to us, tricking us into valuing falsehoods ourselves. Tricking us into thinking that we are so great, as we build houses upon the sand "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." 3 Nephi 14:27.

This is why repenting is so difficult; we want to say good is evil and evil is good. Isaiah commented and gave a warning to those that do that- "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" 5:20.

As we repent our hearts swell with love for God. When we stop repenting, we stop swelling and eventually our hearts grow hard and cold again. We must endure to the end with increasing in humility and love for the Lord.

The Lord will not tolerate our sins but He will tolerate paying for them. Often its hard to let go of our mistakes because we often want to pay for them ourselves (if at all), but thats not the Lord's way. The key to repentance is humility. He wants to pay for them, because only He can, but, only we can let Him. The Lord is mighty. He wants us to trust Him because he is the great Healer but only by our faith in Him. How do we gain that faith? By letting Him take undeserved responsibility for the sins, relieving you from them on your conscience. In return, you follow His Holy Spirit and keep His commandments the rest of your life. That is the only way to repent. It works. It gives you peace, love, hope, strength, wisdom, knowledge, freedom, and your world back.

26.5.10

The Lord's Way vs the Philosophies of Men

Capitalism and Evolution both are based on survival of the fittest. In each there are freedoms granted to the organism or organization that lets them strive to beat out others for sustenance and reproduction. They both are harsh and leave some by the waysides. They give no comfort for the weak and unable, unless it is of profit to them in ways of the specie surviving, but even then some animals are known to kill their young. One grows stronger through the conquering of others and establishing his niche. If unchecked the organization or organism will grow immensely and destroy the balance which usually results badly for life in general. These systems are generally motivated by selfishness, natural instinct, without capacity of forgiveness or charity for others. But, we are human and also carry these traits in the scriptures known as “The Natural Man” and Korihor, an antichrist, speaks of men living by their own genius, conquer by their own strength, and that life is for the “management of the creature.”

What is the opposite? The Lord’s way of Consecration.

“Let every man esteem his brother as himself.
“For what man among you having twelve sons, and is no respecter of them, and they serve him obediently, and he saith unto the one: Be thou clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the other Be thou clothed in rags and sit thou there—and looketh upon his sons and saith I am just?
“Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.” (D&C 38:25–27)

The Lord has devised a system where in men are free to develop their time and talents in service to the Lord and the resources are not dependent on the person working but of just necessity. The Lord has reassured us that this is the way to create the strongest society and lives, by the examples He has given in the scriptures. The city of Enoch was so righteous they were brought right up to heaven, “And the Lord called his people Zion, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.” (Moses 7:16, 18.)

In the Book of Mormon there are many times when the people were industrious and farmers, giving to all, serving all and being equal with all, having an abundance.
“And it came to pass in the thirty and sixth year, the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another.
“And they had all things common among them; therefore there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free, and partakers of the heavenly gift.
“And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.” (4 Ne. 1:2–3, 15.)

He says come to the land of milk and honey without price. Take upon my yoke for my burden is light. Ask not for that which ye ought. There is plenty in Zion for all. Its system is set up to not lose one soul but bring them all up, not leaving anyone behind for all are precious to the Lord. Quite the opposite of what the men of the world profess.

All He requires is that we do not turn ourselves or others into our property, that we don’t make our property our top priority, and that we acknowledge the Lord as our God for He is a jealous God. All gods are jealous, its impossible to serve 2 masters. We will love one and hate the other.

The scriptures testify of the Creation. They instruct us in how the Lord created the world for our benefit and yet we look at our world as such a burden, something to mow down, shoot the animals, chop down the natural beauty of rain forests and mine the ground for precious metals and riches.

The Lord says that he that has eternal life is rich. Yet we spend our time proving to be the most destructive animal of all time in the name of riches. Polluting and trashing the great gift of our inheritance from the Lord. He created this habitat so that we could have a place to learn the Lord’s way and yet we have incorporated the wrong ways for taking care of our gift.

Just as a sinner can repent and put his burdensome sin on the Lord, so can we change and put the burden on the Lord as to how to live on this planet. He has given us knowledge sufficient for our needs. The Law of Consecration dictates that we must not serve material things but the Lord. We must be one and not a greedy or esteem ourselves above another.

The Lord’s way is that of taking care of each other, love, abundance, and it is an eternal principle which is set up to continue during and after this life. Where in the philosophies of men are only set up for the survival of this telestial environment.

21.5.10

In the World, but Not Of the World? No, Come Out of the World

An excerpt from "How Firm a Foundation! What Makes It So" by Hugh W Nibley

Such considerations admonish me to ask whether all is well in Zion, and I find the answer in myself alone. Have I taken the message seriously? No. I have been quite halfhearted about it, and much too easily drawn into what I call the Gentile Dilemma. That is, when I find myself called upon to stand up and be counted, to declare myself on one side or the other, which do I prefer—gin or rum, cigarettes or cigars, tea or coffee, heroin or LSD, the Red Rose or the White, Shiz or Coriantumr, wicked Nephites or wicked Lamanites, Whigs or Tories, Catholic or Protestant, Republican or Democrat, black power or white power, land pirates or sea pirates, commissars or corporations, capitalism or communism? The devilish neatness and simplicity of the thing is the easy illusion that I am choosing between good and evil, when in reality two or more evils by their rivalry distract my attention from the real issue. The oldest trick in the book for those who wish to perpetrate a great crime unnoticed is to set up a diversion, such as a fight in the street or a cry of fire in the hall, that sends everyone rushing to the spot while the criminal as an inconspicuous and highly respectable citizen quietly walks off with the loot.

It can be shown that in each of the choices just named, one of the pair may well be preferable to the other, but that is not the question. There is no point in arguing which other system comes closest to the law of consecration, since I excluded all other systems when I opted for the real thing. The relative merits of various economies is a problem for the gentiles to worry about, a devil's dilemma that does not concern me in the least. For it so happens that I have presently covenanted and promised to observe most strictly certain instructions set forth with great clarity and simplicity in the Doctrine and Covenants. These are designated as the law of consecration, which are absolutely essential for the building up of the kingdom on earth and the ultimate establishment of Zion. "Behold, this is the preparation wherewith I prepare you, and the foundation and the ensample which I give unto you, whereby you may accomplish the commandments which are given you; that through my providence, notwithstanding the tribulation which shall descend upon you, that the church may stand independent above all other creatures beneath the celestial world" (D&C 78:13-14). It is all there, this law of consecration, by which alone the Saints can implement God's plans for Zion in spite of the persecution it will bring on them; this is the foundation on which they must build (see D&C 48:6). The alternative is to be dependent on baser things, for "Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself" (D&C 105:5).

But should I ask for tribulation? I live in the real world, don't I? Yes, and I have been commanded to "come out of her,. . . that ye be not partakers of her sins" (Revelation 18:4). It is not given "unto you that ye shall live after the manner of the world" (D&C 95:13). Well, then, you must be "in the world but not of the world." That happens to be a convenient para-scripture (we have quite a few of them today), invented by a third-century Sophist (Diognetos), to the great satisfaction of the church members, who were rapidly becoming very worldly. The passage as it appears in the scriptures says quite the opposite: "For [whatsoever] that is in the world. . . is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:16). The Lord has repeatedly commanded and forced his people to flee out of the world into the wilderness, quite literally; there is only one way to avoid becoming involved in the neighborhood brawls, and that is to move out of the neighborhood. There is nothing in the Constitution that forbids me doing certain things I have covenanted and promised to do; if the neighbors don't like it, they have no legal grounds against me, but there are ways of getting me to move; "the tribulation . . . shall descend upon you," said the Lord, but do things my way and "my providence" will see you through (D&C 78:14). This inescapable conflict is part of our human heritage, as we learn from dramatic passages of scripture.

20.5.10

The World is Not Enough?


Doctrine and Covenants 49:19-21

For, behold the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and that which cometh of the earth, is ordained for the use of man for food and for raiment, and that he might have in abundance.

But it is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin.

And wo be unto man that sheddeth blood or that wasteth flesh and hath no need.

What a striking thought? We are so proud of our capitalistic ideals and the trickle down economics that conservatives preach but what of the morals? We live in such a rich planet but so many are poor and dying. If you have a fridge with food, clothes on your back, and a bed to sleep in then you are richer than 75% of the world. The world is ordained for all men and we have devised it in such a way that only a few are rich while others suffer.

Doctrine and Covenants 42:42

Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer.

We often think that the poor deserve it. How sick of a perspective! There are many poor in spirit, poor in mind, poor in heart, and poor according to this money system but how many of us are poor in charity? If you are poor in charity then it could be very easy for you to be rich in money. Charity is the giving of anything that person needs, and above all what do we need more than love? We must give to those in need and we'll all live in abundance. The Lord has spoken it.

9.5.10

Satan the Great Counterfeiter

God has a way of edifying your soul while bringing down your pride.
Satan is just the opposite.

There are many ways to tell the difference between true and false prophets. These are some of my findings-

True Prophets:
Called of God
Receive heavenly riches
Receive revelations
Speak with the Spirit
Edify you but don't flatter
Faith comes from God and not themselves
Good fruit
Can come from various backgrounds
Speak to the individual
Responsible
Worker
Honest
Miracles only when necessary
The Spirit
Offers all that the Father which is in Heaven has, after this world
Teaches about covenants that bless you more than deserved
Teaches about sacred ordinances
Teaches that people are not objects but subjects to love and respect
Wants to give
Asks you to keep the commandments of God but doesn't force you
Modest


Usual False Prophet Traits:
Called of themselves
Receive Worldly Riches
Inspired by Satan
Speak eloquently
Flatter the people's pride
Faith in themselves more than God
Bad fruit
Can come from and take various forms- politics, music, celebrities, news, religion, sports, even an angel of light
Speak to the audience more than the person
Reckless
Lazy
Manipulations
Lies
Tricks
Offers all the riches and power of this world
Teaches about contracts that bind you to their will
Has secret combinations
Teaches that people are objects used for personal gain
Wants to take
Tries to force you to do their will
Materialistic


Satan is always counterfeiting God. But, the one thing he can't counterfeit is the Holy Ghost. He tries though with worldly lusts and appetites or costly apparel and pride but there is no peace of the Spirit for the wicked.

Moses 1:11-21

11 But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face, for I was transfigured before him.
12 And it came to pass that when Moses had said these words, behold, Satan came tempting him, saying: Moses, son of man, worship me.
13 And it came to pass that Moses looked upon Satan and said: Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God, in the similitude of his Only Begotten; and where is thy glory, that I should worship thee?
14 For behold, I could not look upon God, except his glory should come upon me, and I were transfigured before him. But I can look upon thee in the natural man. Is it not so, surely?
15 Blessed be the name of my God, for his Spirit hath not altogether withdrawn from me, or else where is thy glory, for it is darkness unto me? And I can judge between thee and God; for God said unto me: Worship God, for him only shalt thou serve.
16 Get thee hence, Satan; deceive me not; for God said unto me: Thou art after the similitude of mine Only Begotten.
17 And he also gave me commandments when he called unto me out of the burning bush, saying: Call upon God in the name of mine Only Begotten, and worship me.
18 And again Moses said: I will not cease to call upon God, I have other things to inquire of him: for his glory has been upon me, wherefore I can judge between him and thee. Depart hence, Satan.
19 And now, when Moses had said these words, Satan cried with a loud voice, and ranted upon the earth, and commanded, saying: I am the Only Begotten, worship me.
20 And it came to pass that Moses began to fear exceedingly; and as he began to fear, he saw the bitterness of hell. Nevertheless, calling upon God, he received strength, and he commanded, saying: Depart from me, Satan, for this one God only will I worship, which is the God of glory.
21 And now Satan began to tremble, and the earth shook; and Moses received strength, and called upon God, saying: In the name of the Only Begotten, depart hence, Satan.

Moses knew the difference.