Christ, the Sure Foundation

 Not your mother or your father.  Not your best friend.  Not the brilliant philosopher nor the scintillating professor..  Not the politically correct public figure.  Not the cultural guru.  Not the bishop, nor the religion teacher. 

12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.  (Book of Mormon | Helaman 5:12)

This morning as I was saying my prayers I began to think about how truly profound the concept is that we must build our foundation upon our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God.   We are so often tempted to build foundations elsewhere.  We look to others, friends, family, associates, leaders.  We look to philosophies, sciences, the learning of men;. We look to governments, organizations and institutions.  Even the church, as important as it is cannot be the "Sure" foundation.  All of these sources have offerings that are important but they are infallible.   Christ is the only perfect being, the only Sure way.   If our foundation is build upon Christ we can then turn to serve and lift and be a strength in our relationships, in our endeavors, in our activities.  We can further His work in the church without being dismayed at the imperfections of it's members or leaders.  We are not swayed by the philosophies of men.  We may experience fog or disorientation for a time but we will survive the storm.  Our foundation will be Sure.

How to we build our foundation upon Christ?  In my mind we study his words and teachings.  We build a relationship with him through humble prayer.  We partake of the ordinances and covenants which symbolize His atonement and bring added power of faith into our lives.  We repent of our sins.  We follow his commandments and example.  We lift and serve our fellowmen.  We seek humility and teachability.

That Ye May Be Filled With Love

This 1768 parchment (612×502 mm) by Jekuthiel Sofer emulated the 1675 Ten Commandments at the Amsterdam Esnoga synagogue

Our society has for the most part forgotten the connection between love and restraint.  

4 And also that they might give thanks to the Lord their God, who had brought them out of the land of Jerusalem, and who had delivered them out of the hands of their enemies, and had appointed just men to be their teachers, and also a just man to be their king, who had established peace in the land of Zarahemla, and who had taught them to keep the commandments of God, that they might rejoice and be filled with love towards God and all men.

(Book of Mormon | Mosiah 2:4)

Genuinely keeping the commandments of God results in personal development that turns one outward. The result is that we experience greater joy and are more likely to be filled with love towards both God and all men.  Alma’s counsel to Shiblon also connects the idea of love with reining in individual desires which is an element of keeping the commandments of God:

12 Use boldness, but not overbearance; and also see that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love; see that ye refrain from idleness.

(Book of Mormon | Alma 38:12)

Alway Before our Eyes

5 I say unto you, my sons, were it not for these things, which have been kept and preserved by the hand of God, that we might read and understand of his mysteries, and have his commandments always before our eyes, that even our fathers would have dwindled in unbelief, and we should have been like unto our brethren, the Lamanites, who know nothing concerning these things, or even do not believe them when they are taught them, because of the traditions of their fathers, which are not correct.

(Book of Mormon | Mosiah 1:5)

In Mosiah 1:5 King Benjamin uses a phrase I love,  “and have his commandments always before our eyes….”  We do need to cast our eyes upon the word of God daily or we drift and dwindle in unbelief.  That is the nature of our mortal beings.  The other benefit King Benjamin give us in partaking of the scriptures iis so we might “understand of his mysteries.”  The mysteries of godliness won’t just float into our lives.  Like the pearl of great price Christ talks about in Matthew, we have to seek them and treasure them in order to have them opened up unto us. 

I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and for the sacrifices many have made over thousands of years in order that we might have it “before our eyes.”    

Jacob 4:6 - A Key to Mighty Faith

Tucked away in Jacob 4:6 is a beautiful little formula for developing mighty faith.  

6 Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy; and having all these witnesses we obtain a hope, and our faith becometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name of Jesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves of the sea.  (Book of Mormon | Jacob 4:6)

The words of the prophets are found in the scriptures and from the mouths of the living prophets.  We don’t just hear them but we search them.   We seek greater light and knowledge and greater understanding.  Our searching provides witnesses upon which we obtain hope that these things are true.  Not a passive hope but an active motivation to reach for those things for which we hope.  The scriptural hope is much more substantive than the wishful meaning behind our daily usage of that word. 

One dictionary definition of  hope is: desire with expectation of obtainment.  I like the phrase "expectation of obtainment" and think that that expectation coupled with desire is a good description of scriptural hope.

An article in the Britannica Encyclopedia further describes Christian hope:

“Hope, in Christian thought is one of the three theological virtues, the others being faith and charity (love). It is distinct from the latter two because it is directed exclusively toward the future, as fervent desire and confident expectation. When hope has attained its object, it ceases to be hope and becomes possession…The ancient Greeks used the term hope (elpis) in reference to an ambiguous, open-ended future; but the Resurrection of Jesus Christ gave the term, for Christians, a positive expectation and a moral quality. Throughout the New Testament, Christian hope is closely tied to the ultimate hope of the return of Jesus Christ as the judge of the living and the dead. Yet this eschatological hope does not eliminate intermediate hopes for lesser goods, even for material blessings.”

John Welch wrote an article entitled The Power of Evidence in the Nurturing of Faith that is worth a read.  http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/books/?bookid=8&chapid=60  Witnesses (in the case of Jacob 4:6 we gain these witnesses through revelation by searching the prophets) help lead to hope which leads us to an unshaken faith, the kind that can move mountains and calm the waves of the sea.  If only we truly believed these words our faith would be more than a belief.  It would become a mighty power in our lives.