God's Love & Commandments

Until we, as human beings and, more importantly, as children of God, understand and allow ourselves to feel Our Heavenly Father's love and Our Savior's love for us, we are NOT likely to follow Their commandments!

As was said in General Conference:

God never loses sight of our eternal potential, even when we do!
- Carol M. Stevens

JPS

You gotta have faith... Just gotta have faith...

Why is it that we, as human beings and more importantly, we, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ (unless you are not a member of the LDS church, but you are still, at least, a human being [and so this applies to you just the same...]), hear the prophets say something or give us a promise--like Moses prophesying to Pharaoh, "free my people or all of the first born of Egypt will die"--and we still doubt it, still continue on doing what we were doing before, still are naysayers, or even admitting that we know we shouldn't but keep doing it anyway?  Why don't we always do what is right when we have been asked to do it?

Why can't we liken the scriptures to ourselves, as Isaiah and Nephi tell us to?  Why can't we put ourselves in someone's shoes and trust that our outcome will be the same or similar to other people's?

When it comes down to the nitty-gritty, why can't we hear what Our Lord and God is telling us, and believe Him?

Why do I feel like Alma when he wishes that he were an angel in Alma chapter 29?  Am I sinning in my wish?  I am content with the things given to me...really...I am!

JPS

Will you have lived in such a way that God can work His miracles through you (or will you be cut to pieces)?

President Dieter Friedrich Uchtdorf gave a world-class talk (as usual) in the Priesthood Session in October of 2015 called, Be Not Afraid, Only Believe.  The talk begs the question: What would you do if an opportunity or challenge appears that you are not ready to take-on or accomplish?  Really, the talk speaks of Daniel, who becomes kidnapped and forced to walk 500 miles to his new home live in the land of Babylon where he would be taught to live with and around those who practiced a foreign religion.  Daniel was a follower of the Hebrew God, Jehovah, and he stayed true to his faith.

That foreign religion would have been, to Daniel, the worship of a false God.  Their rites and prayers would have all been vein.  The kicker, though, was that Daniel could and would been burned in a fiery furnace (think of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego who miraculously survived a fiery death!).  In fact, Daniel and his colleague students taken to Babylon were under a threat from King Nebuchadnezzar to perform he seemingly impossible: Recount a dream that the king had had and reveal it's interprettation!  Who could do such a thing?  Impossible, right?

Daniel, however, did not doubt that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God that he had worshipped his entire life, could and would reveal it to him.  In fact, He did.  "Daniel believed.  He did not doubt."  The fact that he did, saved the life of not only Daniel, but all of all the soothsayers, astrologers, astronomers, priests, counselors, magicians, and wise-men whom Nebuchadnezzar had charged with the task or they would be cut into pieces!

My question, then, is similar to President Uchtdorf's and applied to each of us: Will you have lived in such a way that God can work his miracles through you?  What if Daniel had eaten the food offered to him by the King, what if Daniel hadn't kept his covenants and commandments he'd entered into. and culminating in question: what if Daniel hadn't lived in such a way that God can work His miracles through him?

What if we don't?  Are we fulfilling every promise made to us by our Stake Patriarch?  Are we living the way we should?

JPS

What barriers has God placed along your life's pathway for your protection?

God's laws and commandments create our freedom
or
We are free BECAUSE of the laws and commandments that God has given us.

It is only because we keep God's commandments and adhere to His laws--when we act within the framework of God's laws--that we are kept free and safe.  For without the protection and safety that we have from the fact that we keep His laws and commandments that we can remain free--otherwise we are left fighting against Satan or the natural repercussions of our own choices, which is to not be free but to be in bondage or slavery!

"As you and I walk the paths of life and pursue our dreams, God’s commands and standards—like the barrier—can sometimes be difficult to understand. They may appear rigid and unyielding, blocking a path that looks fun and exciting and that is being followed by so many others."

"But He who “comprehend[s] all things” knows exactly where those dangers lie. He gives us divine direction, through His commands and loving guidance, so that we may avoid the dangers—so that we may set a course in our lives that is protected from spiritual predators and the gaping jaws of sin."

"We show our love for God—and our faith in Him—by doing our very best every day to follow the course that He has laid out for us and by keeping the commandments that He has given to us. We especially manifest that faith and love in situations where we don’t fully understand the reason for God’s commands or the particular path He is telling us to take. It is relatively easy to follow a course inside the barrier once we know there are sharp-toothed predators swarming just outside of it. It is more difficult to keep our course within the barrier when all we can see are thrilling and tantalizing waves on the other side. And yet it is in those times—times when we choose to exercise our faith, put our trust in God, and show our love to Him—that we grow and gain the most."

"Put another way, the Lord’s commands do not constitute some grueling underwater maze of barriers that we must learn to grudgingly endure in this life so that we might be exalted in the next. Rather, the barriers established by the Lord create for us a safe harbor from the evil and destructive influences that would otherwise drag us down to the depths of despair. The Lord’s commandments are given out of love and caring; they are intended for our joy in this life just as much as they are intended for our joy and exaltation in the next. They mark the way that we should act—and more importantly, they illuminate who we should become."

"The barrier offered protection, safety, and peace."

"True obedience, therefore, is giving ourselves entirely to Him and allowing Him to chart our course both in calm waters and in troubled ones, understanding that He can make more of us than we could ever make of ourselves."

Elder Vaughn G Keech (Oct 15)

This is the only true freedom that we can experience--when we choose to obey God's commandments--or when we place our choices in God's hands and He can give it right back to us accompanied by the freedom that He grants unto His children and the consequences of that choice.

JPS

Chastening, again, really?

We find in the Book of Mormon--Another Testament of Jesus Christ, in the book of Mosiah (one of 15 sections in that book of scripture), 23rd chapter and 21st verse: "Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith."

Are you kidding me?  You're telling me that after all the malarky that I have to go through in this life from friends, family, work, school, etc. that The Lord Almighty can't see how and what I will do from that alone?  Now He's got to try my patience and my faith?

Hold on...  I thought that He was not only an all knowing and a benevolent God.  So, what's the angle with the "trying" and "testing"?

Wait, wait, young son...  God is not only Kind and Loving and Patient and Long-suffering, but He is also infinitely charitable and doing what He does out of Love!  For He has told Moses, "For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (1:39)"

In His love, we, His children don't and can't become all that we are to become without His testing-and-trying out of endless Love.  Not only do we have to meet a certain level of righteousness and spiritual stature and obedience through Christ's grace, but we have to know (not just a matter of confidence, but pure and unadulterated knowledge) that we can do anything with God's help; become anything with God's help; become like God with God's help.

That's what the scripture says, right?  Let's hear that again: "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."  In the Holy Bible it says something almost exactly like it: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."  Christ didn't give us any commandments that we couldn't do...  Did He?  Why even say it if He knew we couldn't do it?  Fact is: Jesus Christ never said or did one single thing that was inauthentic or misleading or deceitful, therefore, He knew that we could become perfect just like His and our Father--A God.

What?  Hold on!  You've gone too far...  Just wait a second...

But it says it right in the Bible!  Not only that, but in a verse of scripture read hundreds upon thousands of times by any bible-reading-person!

There it is...

JPS

The Golden Rule Revisited

Haven't we all heard the Golden Rule?  I mean, it has it's own special name that everybody (in the West [civilization--as opposed to the Eastern Civilization]) recognizes and understands and could tell it to you in some way shape or form.  The Eastern World says it differently than the Western World, I'm sure, but every person on Earth knows the same things because we were all taught them by the same Man or I could say God, or to pay homage to Søren Kierkegaard I could write, the God-man.  Every man and woman should love his neighbor as himself and herself.

Let's dig a little deeper though, into this phrase that is more often than not treated as a pithy fortune-cookie idiomatic phrase!

What would happen if everybody treated everybody else as themselves?  Would you get mad at yourself for your own poor driving down the highway?  Think about it...  Do you excuse others for the way they drive, reminding yourself that he or she might have had exactly the same poor night's sleep as you have, or telling yourself that when you have a headache your reflexes might not be as sharp as they would be otherwise.

Would you get do mad or even irate at yourself for having said that?  If you think you just might have, then you should be mad at yourself quite a bit more than you already are, right?

Another way to understand the rule is to know that the reason it is so easy and natural for you to "forgive" yourself every day (and all day long maybe...) is because you think you know yourself pretty well and know all the reasons, problems, tendencies, illnesses, history, education, and family that you have, right?  Well, why not treat others as if you are just as intimately acquainted with their reasons, problems, tendencies, illnesses, history, education, and family as you are with yourself.

Can't you give him or her a break at least as often as you wish someone would give you a break?

What would happen if everybody treated everybody else as themselves?  Let's think about it but then let's do it!  Who wouldn't like to be treated the same way that they treat themselves?

JPS

Love one another as I have loved you...

Elder Dallin H. Oaks gave a talk last October in General Conference about loving other's as Christ loved his flock.  He said, during the talk that the reason why this is so hard for us to do, is because members of His church and believers in His Gospel have to live with those who don't share those same convictions.  This is true, but, I believe that it's not conclusive to say, "this is why."  Also, I am not saying, that elder Oaks was saying it was conclusive or the only way that it "is why" (he was a judge and a Supreme Court justice, after all!  I don't pretend to have the logical skills or writing skills or thinking skills that he has and am therefore not in any way challenging anything that he wrote--I am simply making an off-shoot comment--that is all!).

Case in point: I don't even love my family as Christ loved His flock or His disciples!  Sure, I try to love everyone as Christ loved, but I fall short.  Christ never fell short.  Add to that "falling short" my wife's falling short, and you've got two imperfect people imperfectly loving each other and making imperfect decisions every single day.  The result is: we are incapable of loving as He did or does, without His Grace (and that should but doesn't come every second of every day, but it comes 'grace for grace' 'here a little and there a little.'  But we try our hardest nonetheless...

It's easier for me to love complete strangers or friends or colleagues more perfectly than it is to perfectly love those those closest to me...  Don't misunderstand me!  I am absolutely and totally in love with my wife.  We just have all day long to have interactions where the wrong things that I've learned can come out.  All day long she has interactions with me where wrong things that she's learned can come out.  Yet, there is a wrongness to me saying that I can love a stranger better than those closest to me--I suppose that even with less of a chance of being irritated or offended, there is likewise no chance of me loving a stranger the same way I might love my child or my wife or even my parents--that's impossible!

Strangers simply don't know me well enough and aren't aware of and familiar with my defects and past wrongs.  Therefore, I said that it's easier.  I am wrong, though, and must explain.

With each and every wrong thing that's done,  the chances of me or her responding in the way that Jesus Christ would have responded is less and less (given our fallen natures/sins of our fathers/misunderstandings).

The only safety or security in this wrongness is that at any time, every time, every one of us can respond in the way that our Savior would have responded.  That is the only way to save us from falling down a dark and dreary tunnel of wrong-doings.  We don't have to respond the way our natural man or natural woman tells us to--we can respond meekly and humbly and in a Christlike manner!

That's our only saving-grace.

JPS

Levels of praying...

Reading 1 Nephi 1 and came upon the account of Lehi, praying to The Lord and then having a vision.  What caught my attention was the fact that he was praying for his people or brethren, just like Enos right after he is pardoned by The Lord Himself and his sins are forgiven him, and only then is he given a vision.

I know that I am mostly only worrying and praying about myself.  I pray for my family; my individual children, my wife, and for us as a couple, but I haven't risen to the point of pouring out my soul to God for anyone but myself.  Yet, I remember pouring out my soul for my son Addison, after my divorce and for him, that he would remain true to the Gospel and be baptized (he was...), or for my son Quentin, that he would remain true and be baptized, and I'm sure I will for Calvin and Samantha too.

I pour out my soul for my brother and sister, Garrett and Andrea (and for her family, who have not baptized Jefferson...).  

Re-thinking about this, I suppose I am focused on my immediate family only until and unless there are special circumstances!  I suppose that's the way it should be anyway, for almost everyone...  

JPS

An unthinkable change or event

...  I was listening to a talk given in Spring of 2014 by D. Todd Christofferson, called The Resurrectionof Jesus Christ, where he talks about Jesus telling His apostles and disciples for almost three years that he would be tried by unrighteous men and then die, but then would be resurrected.

"Despite what the Savior had repeatedly said of His death and subsequent rising again, they had not understood."  Even Mary Magdalene, who was the first to see the Risen Lord, walks into the tomb where Christ's body laid and saw the napkin and linen clothes folded and wrapped together "in a place by itself" and her initial gut-wrenching reaction is, "They have taken the Lord's body."

Just thinking about their reactions (neither John nor Peter understand or fully believed [these are two from the original first presidency!] till John finally understands and writes that “he saw, and believed,”) after seeing the seeing the empty tomb, whereas all the others, to that point, “knew not the scripture, that [Jesus] must rise again from the dead.”


My reaction to Elder Christopherson's talk was to ask myself, what, if any, or how many things am I just not understanding because I have had no experience with that thing or possibility of it happening.

Christ's resurrection was completely and totally unprecedented.   How many things in the Latter-Days, though, are going to be unprecedented?  How many things are we all not understanding right now--for three years the Lord was telling His disciples and apostles that He would be resurrected after He was killed, right?  How many thousands of years was it known that He would atone for our sins and then be killed (Isaiah 53)?  In many chapters in the book of Isaiah and also in the Book of Mormon (not to mention the New Testament and the Book of Revelations) it talks about the last days, and yet, do we really believe the scriptures?


It was a matter of the quality of experience with the Resurrection (and not the quantity...), as it had never been done---ever---anywhere!  Is there, then, something comparable to the Resurrection (no, there is not, as it is half of the effect of the Atonement, which is not comparable to anything...), or at least, if not to the Resurrection itself, just to the incomprehensible idea that was so vital to each of us.  Is there something so crucial to our salvation and yet misunderstood?


JPS

Why obey the commandments?

Why?

President Uchtdorf reminded me in a concise way of something that I already knew:

God gives us commandments so that we can qualify for blessings based on our obedience and faith!

When we qualify for blessings, we gain the things we truly and most want.  "There is a law irrecoverably decreed before the foundations of the Earth, upon which all blessings are predicated, and when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated” (D&C 130:20–21)--if you want 'B' you must do 'A' and if you don't do 'A,' then don't expect 'B!' If you want to be happy, you have to live in the way of happiness.  Luckily, Jesus Christ has shown us all the Way of happiness.  The commandments aren't there to hold us back or hold us down or hold us away from the "fun stuff," but are actually given to us so that He can bless us.  The more blessings you want, the more righteous you'll need to be.  The more righteous you are, the more light you'll be given and the more commandments you'll be able to obey.  If you want to be the happiest you can, you'll have to obey all the commandments you can.  In the same way that commandments make freedom possible, we are able to be joyful and happy only because we obey God's commandments first!

God wants us to be happy.  How many times did Jesus Christ say something to the effect of, "Be of good cheer" or "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them" or as Jehovah (when Christ was a pre-mortal spirit) "happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom" or "happy is that people, whose God is the Lord" or "but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he."


We want to be happy!  That is what everybody wants to be, and why everyone makes the decisions they do--to be happy!  So, just take the short-cut to happiness and obey as many commandments as you are aware of right now!




JPS