The Law of Love

"Only people who live the law of consecration can eradicate poverty from the earth.  While improvements in the condition of man can be achieved by employing other methods, the law of consecration is and always has been the ultimate way by which the complete population of the poor is permanently rescued and elevated.  How is this possible?  Because beyond all other considerations,  law or covenant of consecration is a law of love."     
     
                                                                 Larry Barkdull - No Poor Among Them, p.85
                                                                 http://www.pillarsofzion.com/

The "True" and "The Truth"

Truth - Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building

 I attended a class taught by Ronald Bartholomew at BYU's Education Week.  Among the many insightful ideas he presented on the atonement was an interesting observation that Satan, the adversary, often uses "the true" to divert us from "the truth." 

Some examples:

Bodies:

The truth is that we have come to earth to get a body in this stage of our eternal progression.  Our body will one day be perfected and resurrected.  Our body is a gift from God and a temple in which our spirit resides.  Though not perfect here in mortality, one day our body will be perfected.  In the meantime it is a wonderful, useful tool to aid us in our eternal progression and our experience here in mortality. 

True statements about our body might be that it is too short, tall, thin, fat, ugly and not at all like the air-brushed version in the magazines.  These "true" statements can mask "the truth" about our bodies and focus us on spending too much time, effort, thought and money in achieving the "perfect" body in a temporal sense and in the process we forget why we are here and why we have a body.

Children:

The truth about children is that they are an heritage of the Lord.  Having children allows us to participate with God in providing bodies for his spirit children.  Children will ultimately bring us the greatest happiness and joy both here in this life and in the eternities.  Careers and other temporal achievements have their end but the family unit is eternal.  People, especially family are what life is about.  Children help us grow. 

True statements about children are that they come as babies and babies cry.  They keep you up at night.  You have to change their diapers and wipe up spit-up.  They are exhausting.  They tie you down.  Having a baby changes your body (often not in desirable ways!)  They grow up to be teenagers.  If you have more than one they fight with each other.  They are expensive! All of these statements are a version of reality and if we focus on them we may choose to not participate or limit our participation in the parenting process and forfeit the inexplicable joy that comes from having children. 

Marriage:

The truth:  Marriage is ordained of God.  One of the purposes of this life or the next is to seek an eternal companion and to develop the qualities of a loving spouse.  There is joy in the marriage relationship.  Through marriage we learn unselfishness, sacrifice, charity, forgiveness, repentance.  Marriage is the best laboratory for gospel living.  We can grow together in a companionship in ways we could never do alone. Marriage is affirming and fulfilling in the long-range perspective.

It is true that it can be hard living with another person unlike yourself.  Marriage ties you down to obligations.  Marriage requires putting your own needs aside.  Men can be louts.  Women can be nags.  Marriage is responsibility.  Single people are still having fun and you, the married person, are not!  Marriage is expensive.  Marriage can interfere with careers.  Many people get divorced.  Some people are miserable in their marriages.

Perspective can make all the difference and focusing on the eternal truths about marriage can lift us up, get us through and encourage us to make the hard choices to be a trusted marriage partner upon whom our spouse can rely.  Becoming fixated on the negative, though true, aspects of marriage is like putting a pebble up to your eye so that you no longer see the big picture and the beautiful vistas on the horizons. 

There are other applications.  What is "the truth" about an individual, a church leader, a neighbor, our job, our nation.  True is often used in adversarial ways to manipulate thinking or action.  We need to stay focused on the big picture "truth."  Interesting idea to think about.

True Happiness

  
"Elder McConkie said that true happiness 'is a gift of the spirit.  It comes from the Holy Ghost.'....
Therefore the more faithfilled, repentant, humble, and Zion-like we become the more joy we experience.  Moreover our seeking the establishment of  Zion in our own lives will serve to dispel sadness and result in a high degree of joy."  

Larry Barkdull - Portrait of a Zion Person p.12-13.  

Zion

 At BYU Education week this year (2012) I ran into a series of books by Larry Barkdull on Zion.  They caught my attention so I purchased several of them (I think there are seven in the series.)  I was not disappointed.  They are thorough, thoughtful, well documented and invite soul-searching in an insightful way.   In true Zion spirit they can be downloaded in PDF file format without charge or electronic and hard copies can be purchased. 

“Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3)

Faith That Moves Mountains....

Edward Lear -  Mt. Sinai 2

I know that faith can move mountains.  I also know that the kind of faith that moves mountains requires a spiritual labor we are not often willing to perform.  Alma alludes to this exertion when he says:


5 And I trust, according to the Spirit of God which is in me, that I shall also have joy over you; nevertheless I do not desire that my joy over you should come by the cause of so much afflictions and sorrow which I have had for the brethren at Zarahemla, for behold, my joy cometh over them after wading through much affliction and sorrow.

(Book of Mormon | Alma 7:5)

It's the wading part that often deters us.  And where other people are concerned it also involves charity and a willingness to to make sacrifices and offerings in their behalf which include our prayers, fasting, our time and an outpouring of spiritual energy in their behalf.  It means truly being unselfish.  Scott Peck in The Road Less Traveled labels laziness as the opposite of love.  How true!  I wonder what mountains we could move if we weren't so spiritually lazy.

Nephi records:

3 But I, Nephi, have written what I have written, and I esteem it as of great worth, and especially unto my people.  For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith, and I know that he will hear my cry.

(Book of Mormon | 2 Nephi 33:3)

Nephi's whole heart and soul was motivated by his love for God and his desires for the blessing of his people.  

Last night I was reading Elder Eyring's First Presidency in the the June Ensign - Called of God and Sustained by the People  The entire message is strengthening but this part in particular struck me as I have been thinking about the power of faith in our lives and it's ability to make the gospel "work" for us.

"Years ago an 18-year-old student showed me what it means to sustain the Lord’s servants. I am still blessed by his humble example.

He had just begun his first year in college. He was baptized less than a year before he left home to begin his studies at a large university. There I served as his bishop.

As the school year began, I had a brief interview with him in the bishop’s office. I remember little of that first conversation except that he spoke of his challenges in a new place, but I will never forget our second conversation.

He asked to see me in my office. I was surprised when he said, “Could we pray together, and may I be voice?” I was about to say that I had already prayed and expected that he had as well. Instead I agreed.

He began his prayer with a testimony that he knew the bishop was called of God. He asked God to tell me what he should do in a matter of great spiritual consequence. The young man told God he was sure the bishop already knew his needs and would be given the counsel needed to hear.

As he spoke, the specific dangers he would face came to my mind. The counsel was simple but given in great clarity: pray always, obey the commandments, and have no fear."

Elder Eyring used this as an example of how our sustaining influence sustains and enables our leaders. I saw it as an example of one who is using his faith to move mountains.  I believe we can all do that if we lay aside our spiritual lethargy, our doubt and labor in faith.  Doing it is not as hard as it seems.  It's the deciding to do it that is the hard part.  It's making the commitment.  

Alma talks of the price of spiritual knowledge:

45 And this is not all.  Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself?  Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true.  And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety?
46 Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God.  Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself.  And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me.

(Book of Mormon | Alma 5:45 - 46)

As we are all human and are growing in the gospel  we are also in the process of growing our faith but isn't it interesting that the new convert in Elder Eyring's story brought an active and firm faith to the table without years of "trying" to get there.  I don't think great faith is as much a matter of time (although the evidence of faith is gathered over time) as it is belief, humility, charity and desire and laying aside the things of the world..  New converts have often just taken steps of putting off the natural man, leaving their old life behind, making covenants, moving into a new life.  They are alive in Christ.  I guess the question for those of us who have been around for a while is "How alive in Christ are we?"

26 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?
(Book of Mormon | Alma 5:26)



(As you can see, I have been reading in Alma this week.)

The Book of Mormon: A Type and Shadow.

"Behold, my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ; for, for this end hath the law of Moses been given;  and all things which have been given of God from the beginning of the world, unto man, are the typifying of him."  2 Ne 11:4

I was studying types and shadows in preparation for the Gospel Doctrine lesson I taught Sunday on Abinadi.  I ran into this comparison developed by Robert Norman, (LDS Institute at the University of Utah.  Quoted in an article entitled Abinadi, The Message and the Martyr by Todd B. Parker.)  It outlines a comparison between Christ and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Nephi says all things given by God are the typifying of him,  The coming forth of The Book of Mormon —a witness for Christ—is also a type and shadow of the mission of Jesus Christ. 


"The Book of Mormon's coming forth was declared by an angel named Moroni; Christ's coming forth was declared by an angel named Gabriel. The Book of Mormon came forth in time of apostasy, to restore truth; Jesus Christ came in the meridian of time to an apostate Israel, to restore truth. The Book of Mormon was laid away in a stone receptacle; Christ was laid away in a stone receptacle. The Book of Mormon was taken from that receptacle by a man named Joseph; Christ was put into the receptacle by a man named Joseph. The Book of Mormon came forth after the stone was moved away; Christ came forth after the stone was moved away. At the Book of Mormon's coming forth, an angel, Moroni, was there to see the coming forth of the plates from the receptacle; at Christ's coming forth, an angel was there to oversee his coming forth from the tomb.  The first to see the plates, Joseph, was forbidden to touch them at first; the first to see Jesus, Mary, was forbidden to touch him.  [John 20:17].  The Book of Mormon was attested to by twelve witnesses, the three and the eight plus Joseph; Jesus Christ had twelve special witnesses. The Book of Mormon is the word of God; of Jesus, the scriptures say: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). The Book of Mormon teaches the fulness of the gospel; Christ taught the fulness. The Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion; Christ is the cornerstone. All things testify of Christ."  Todd B. Parker