-Ezra Taft Benson
So, I have this new job where I have free flights. I won't say which airline. Anyway, I finally was able to get a time and day where I could use these seemingly simple benefits. Lack of planning ensued and we were off to our grand adventure. To make a short story even shorter, we ended up having to spend a lot of money we didn't have due to poor oversight.
What seemed so simple became so much of a debacle. Ended up in debt and had to keep paying overdraft fees to the bank. Our simple decision became a seemingly never ending hole of despair.
This ties to obedience because it seems to me that every time I try to "get away" with something, I end up getting in this long caught up web of consequence. When we try to do the least possible just to satisfy the letter of the law, we end up like the wealthy who threw in of their abundance and missed the better part. When we try to keep our lives from the Lord, He is unable to make that part of us better. When we withhold or try to serve and keep ourselves from the Lord, we are doing ourselves the biggest disservice imaginable.
Only when we take on our lots and tasks with full willingness is when we are blessed with added strength from the Lord. When we try to shy or shirk our obedience, we find ourselves in an ongoing stressful situation that we will eventually have to repent of and slowly get out of the debt we accumulated.
Of course, there is no time when we aren't subject or deserving of the consequences of our choices. We are helpless creatures that the Lord in perfect mercy sustains us from day to day.
King Benjamin said-
I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
Any moment we reject Christ, we are subject to justice. Justice in this case is not on our side as we are without merit to reach godliness on our own. We only receive this grace "after all we can do" and even then its still mercy through the merits of Christ.
How unforgiving Satan is of our sins as he makes his case to God against us! He does not sustain those that choose him but rather lets them wreak the consequences of choosing selfishly. While the Lord is the only forgiving choice we have and fortunately He makes sure that we do not pay for our sins ourselves. He only asks us to "sin no more" and "rejoice" because of His great love. What an astounding difference it is to choose obedience to God over our own will.
Neal A. Maxwell said-
Besides, there is more individuality in those who are more holy. Sin, on the other hand, brings sameness; it shrinks us to addictive appetites and insubordinate impulses. For a brief surging, selfish moment, sin may create the illusion of individuality, but only as in the grunting, galloping Gadarene swine! (See Matt. 8:28–32.)
I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.
Any moment we reject Christ, we are subject to justice. Justice in this case is not on our side as we are without merit to reach godliness on our own. We only receive this grace "after all we can do" and even then its still mercy through the merits of Christ.
How unforgiving Satan is of our sins as he makes his case to God against us! He does not sustain those that choose him but rather lets them wreak the consequences of choosing selfishly. While the Lord is the only forgiving choice we have and fortunately He makes sure that we do not pay for our sins ourselves. He only asks us to "sin no more" and "rejoice" because of His great love. What an astounding difference it is to choose obedience to God over our own will.
Neal A. Maxwell said-
Besides, there is more individuality in those who are more holy. Sin, on the other hand, brings sameness; it shrinks us to addictive appetites and insubordinate impulses. For a brief surging, selfish moment, sin may create the illusion of individuality, but only as in the grunting, galloping Gadarene swine! (See Matt. 8:28–32.)
Sameness is the word he chose for those that reject God's will for their own. Like that quote "Unique, just like everybody else." The Lord always brings out in us things we didn't know we were capable of and this is why we're here. To live up to our potential of being like God. Being beings of immense greatness and love. Not bitter creatures that seek only their own well being to consume it upon their lusts.
A talk I saw on BYUTV once gave an interesting point on the dangers of pornography. The speaker said that those who engage in pornography have a much more closed and desensitized view of the world. Their eyes much like Gollum, seeking wholeness in something that continually takes rather than gives. This sort of outlook is reflected in all of sin. All appeasement of our natural man appetites over the will of God is sin and keeps us in the dark. Just as Gollom or any addict that wastes away all the beautiful things of their lives for one more fix that continually breaks them down, deeper and deeper.
A talk I saw on BYUTV once gave an interesting point on the dangers of pornography. The speaker said that those who engage in pornography have a much more closed and desensitized view of the world. Their eyes much like Gollum, seeking wholeness in something that continually takes rather than gives. This sort of outlook is reflected in all of sin. All appeasement of our natural man appetites over the will of God is sin and keeps us in the dark. Just as Gollom or any addict that wastes away all the beautiful things of their lives for one more fix that continually breaks them down, deeper and deeper.
The speaker went on to describe the opposite images that open up the soul and bring light into it. She said the natural world is beautiful and keeps us in touch with our true selves. We feel a love from the earth in nature and it is a striking view to see what the Lord has done on this planet. Our souls are opened up by the natural world, but closed down by the natural man.
We must live as Christ like as possible if we are to be our true, open, loving and lighted selves and stand as a "city upon a hill".
Interesting to note that individuality and identity is achieved by giving up ourselves to the Lord while the opposite leads to sameness and darkness. One step further on that note, the Lord always wills that we serve others as ourselves because when we do that we are serving the Lord. True individuality is through giving up ourselves for others. I doubt the collective world at large will ever grasp this idea.
