Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." Today a young couple came into the Nauvoo temple to be married- sealed for time and all eternity, not just "til death do you part". As I looked at their sweet faces, the words "pure" and "clean" popped into my head. Free from the worldly trappings of an expensive, lavish wedding gown (today's styles are usually backless, strapless and tight-fitting) or some other attention-getting fashion statement, their beauty shone from within. Their eyes shone clear and bright and their appearance was simply pure. In the scriptures, the temple of God is often referred to as a mountain. In Psalms 24 we read, "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully." Their goal was to make a sacred covenant to God and to each other, not just have a big party.
Russ and I were having a conversation related to a recent lesson in church about seeking the lost lamb. My observation was that the "lamb" lost to the "Good Shepherd" does not always recognize that he/she is lost to Him and the fold, or doesn't care. They are interested in their own individual world and have what they want. In the words of the Lord, "They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol." Those who strive to be pure in heart are often considered naive or lacking in "street smarts" which is a deprived state in the eyes of the world. To those who might feel critical or pitiful to those who strive to be pure in heart, I would offer the perspective Paul wrote to Titus, "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled." If the lenses you look through are dirty, everything will look polluted to you. Does it matter if you have a desire to have a pure heart and clean hands? I guess it's up to each person to answer that. If you are completely satisfied with the way the world is, if you have whatever you could hope for, maybe there is no reason right now for you to look beyond your individual world. You can continue to be nice to your neighbors, hold down a job and pay your bills, take care of your responsibilities, and live according to the standards you set for yourself. However, if you deplore the world's anger, prejudice, lack of honesty, lack of moral purity or even desire for it, if you would prefer peace, unity, and purity, you might want to consider trying to contact God and asking Him about His Son and what they can do for you if you are willing to simply choose- choose to accept the atonement, choose to be obedient to all the rules which will provide a peaceful society in which to live pleasantly, choose to throw away pride and be humble, choose to serve, love, and be all He wants you to be.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Civil War
We have recently watched a history program highlighting Franklin Pierce, Buchanan, Douglas, and other politicians just before the Civil War began in the United States. They all made a concerted effort to bridge the divide between the southern states and the northern states in order to avoid the tragic war that ultimately broke out. As I listened to the policies and suggestions they made in an effort to find a viable compromise, I realized that there really was no way to compromise such strongly held and opposite beliefs. The southern plantation owners had always had slaves and were dependent on their cheap labor to financially survive. Other southerners had come to believe Negroes were inferior people and therefore justified in being placed in a subordinate class. Northerners felt that "owning" another human being, no matter what race or color, was simply inhumane. As the United States was still growing, new states were added and each side felt the new state should not be added to the current policy side of the opposition. In order to be a unified country, it just would not work to have slaves in certain states who claimed their state's right to choose when other states were so adamantly opposed. As Lincoln quoted the Bible, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
This continues to be true today. We no longer have advocates for slavery. However, we have very opposite views of other issues including LGBT rights, abortion, surrogate parenting, and a host of moral issues. In the seventeenth, eighteenth, and even nineteenth centuries, the majority of citizens of the United States had a basic belief in some higher power whether or not they attended a church. Such a belief meant there was a higher authority as to what is right or wrong, what should be socially acceptable. Over time, as we have grown in wealth and power and man-made innovations, many citizens have decided there is no higher authority. Whatever each man chooses to believe, morally, is valid. However, having such disparate, strongly held "belief systems" will destroy our country. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." There are sci-fi representations in books and movies of visitations to the planet by a superior intelligence but these are all simply the images of someone's imaginations. Sometimes I wonder if people can more easily accept a belief in the Borg or Vulcans or the Empire than in God as presented in the Bible. There are "witnesses" that claim to have heard and even seen God and/or His Son, Jesus Christ. The moral policies they present make a great deal of sense but aren't always easy to live. When people have desires that oppose the moral standard given in the scriptures, they want to find some other standard to believe in to justify themselves in living the way they desire. As was proven in the mid-nineteenth century here, you cannot maintain peace with firmly held moral views that are total opposites. You can't say, well, we'll let those who want to have slaves have them and those that don't will have laws against slavery. Today, you can't have some areas say anybody can be married and other areas say that only a man and unrelated woman can legally be married. You can't have some cities or stores that say anybody can use whatever bathroom they feel inclined to use and others limit them to specific genders. You can't have marijuana legal in some places and punishable by imprisonment in others. (And trying to limit its cultivation is impossible. It's weed!) Ultimately, there has to be a consensus of legal limitations. If we are not going to agree, at least by a majority, on the existence of a higher authority than ourselves, there is no means of establishing a standard. Chaos will be the unavoidable result. The country will be destroyed.
Jesus Christ said, "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." In the United States, we claim the legal right to make most of our choices in life. Whether or not you believe in Him, God has given all of us the freedom to choose whatever we want to choose. But we CANNOT SIT ON THE FENCE. We can't say we believe in God but not His laws. And we can't make God in whatever image we want. There are those who justify being God's judge, jury, and executioner without knowing what God truly would have them do. He has told us to LOVE others as we love ourselves. For those who choose to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we believe we are led by a prophet who speaks on behalf of God to all people. We have had direction from God, through a living prophet, on ALL of the issues currently in dispute as well as many others such as tattoos, piercing, appropriate age for dating, quality of movie and music, and modesty in living. If we have a desire (called being tempted) to live any standard other than what God has established, we have the right to choose for ourselves. The prophet will not come to your home and condemn you. In this life you will not be imprisoned. (Even in the next life you will not be imprisoned unless you want to claim that not living with those who want to follow God's laws is imprisoning you.) God loves you no matter what you choose. He wants you to enjoy for eternity whatever standards YOU would choose for yourself. You cannot embrace the standards men would embrace and ever be happy living with others who would choose God's standards. You will hate the one and love the other. You cannot sit on both sides. There is no compromise. It's okay if you feel too weak to actually live a higher standard as long as you don't justify the lower standard as being just as valid as the higher standard. There is no compromise. You either live God's standards which you can learn about through prophets, or you determine YOU should be the judge of what's fair or right. But you can't have it both ways. You can't live with people who want to live God's standards and be at peace if you don't want to live those standards. If you acknowledge God's superiority, you will want to obey His wisdom knowing He loves you and wants more than anything for you to be happy. If you don't, then you can live with others who want to live by their own standards, too. A whole world of self-appointed gods! The problem will be that they won't have the same standards you do. There won't be peace.
This continues to be true today. We no longer have advocates for slavery. However, we have very opposite views of other issues including LGBT rights, abortion, surrogate parenting, and a host of moral issues. In the seventeenth, eighteenth, and even nineteenth centuries, the majority of citizens of the United States had a basic belief in some higher power whether or not they attended a church. Such a belief meant there was a higher authority as to what is right or wrong, what should be socially acceptable. Over time, as we have grown in wealth and power and man-made innovations, many citizens have decided there is no higher authority. Whatever each man chooses to believe, morally, is valid. However, having such disparate, strongly held "belief systems" will destroy our country. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." There are sci-fi representations in books and movies of visitations to the planet by a superior intelligence but these are all simply the images of someone's imaginations. Sometimes I wonder if people can more easily accept a belief in the Borg or Vulcans or the Empire than in God as presented in the Bible. There are "witnesses" that claim to have heard and even seen God and/or His Son, Jesus Christ. The moral policies they present make a great deal of sense but aren't always easy to live. When people have desires that oppose the moral standard given in the scriptures, they want to find some other standard to believe in to justify themselves in living the way they desire. As was proven in the mid-nineteenth century here, you cannot maintain peace with firmly held moral views that are total opposites. You can't say, well, we'll let those who want to have slaves have them and those that don't will have laws against slavery. Today, you can't have some areas say anybody can be married and other areas say that only a man and unrelated woman can legally be married. You can't have some cities or stores that say anybody can use whatever bathroom they feel inclined to use and others limit them to specific genders. You can't have marijuana legal in some places and punishable by imprisonment in others. (And trying to limit its cultivation is impossible. It's weed!) Ultimately, there has to be a consensus of legal limitations. If we are not going to agree, at least by a majority, on the existence of a higher authority than ourselves, there is no means of establishing a standard. Chaos will be the unavoidable result. The country will be destroyed.
Jesus Christ said, "No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." In the United States, we claim the legal right to make most of our choices in life. Whether or not you believe in Him, God has given all of us the freedom to choose whatever we want to choose. But we CANNOT SIT ON THE FENCE. We can't say we believe in God but not His laws. And we can't make God in whatever image we want. There are those who justify being God's judge, jury, and executioner without knowing what God truly would have them do. He has told us to LOVE others as we love ourselves. For those who choose to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we believe we are led by a prophet who speaks on behalf of God to all people. We have had direction from God, through a living prophet, on ALL of the issues currently in dispute as well as many others such as tattoos, piercing, appropriate age for dating, quality of movie and music, and modesty in living. If we have a desire (called being tempted) to live any standard other than what God has established, we have the right to choose for ourselves. The prophet will not come to your home and condemn you. In this life you will not be imprisoned. (Even in the next life you will not be imprisoned unless you want to claim that not living with those who want to follow God's laws is imprisoning you.) God loves you no matter what you choose. He wants you to enjoy for eternity whatever standards YOU would choose for yourself. You cannot embrace the standards men would embrace and ever be happy living with others who would choose God's standards. You will hate the one and love the other. You cannot sit on both sides. There is no compromise. It's okay if you feel too weak to actually live a higher standard as long as you don't justify the lower standard as being just as valid as the higher standard. There is no compromise. You either live God's standards which you can learn about through prophets, or you determine YOU should be the judge of what's fair or right. But you can't have it both ways. You can't live with people who want to live God's standards and be at peace if you don't want to live those standards. If you acknowledge God's superiority, you will want to obey His wisdom knowing He loves you and wants more than anything for you to be happy. If you don't, then you can live with others who want to live by their own standards, too. A whole world of self-appointed gods! The problem will be that they won't have the same standards you do. There won't be peace.
Wednesday, June 01, 2016
Windows to the soul
Body language is one of the subtle ways a human being broadcasts sincere feelings. But it's not the only nor the most accurate means to "read" a person. Years ago, we were introduced to a man who was paralyzed the neck down after a simple but tragic fall. He could not utilize body language because his face was the only part of him he could voluntarily change. He could speak just fine and we spent many hours visiting with him wanting to give him positive things to focus on and loving attention.
Every day when I work in the temple, I am in close contact with lots of people, many of whom I don't know and most of whom will smile in a friendly manner. There is a connection which occurs with many of them, especially when I am administering sacred ordinances, that touches me deeply and I can see it touches them as well. I often feel a great deal of love from and toward someone else even a stranger, simply by looking into their eyes. It has been said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. You can tell quite a bit about a person by looking them directly in the eye. You can see if they are angry or preoccupied or sad or excited or really happy. They don't have to cry or yell or grit their teeth or use any part of their body. On the other hand, if you are feeling a distracting emotion, it's more difficult to discern someone else's feelings. If I want to try to "hide" my feelings, I will very purposefully look down so as not to allow someone else to look into my eyes.
It is no secret that I have been fascinated by what mankind has been learning about the functioning of the brain. It is so true that the brain contains who you are. Your body language may reveal your reactions but it is the thought in your brain that causes your body to display anything. We may refer to what's in our "hearts" but it's actually your brain that processes and chooses feelings- anything from love to hate and everything in between. Each human being has a "tabernacle of clay" which is a carbon based container generally with two arms, two legs, a head, and all sorts of things going on inside. But the brain is where everything is generated and processed. But what instigates your brain process? If you have ever been near a "brain-dead" person, you can sense they "aren't there". The Lord says, "For man is spirit." (D&C 93:33) Also, a favorite scripture of mine (D&C 131:7-8), "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter." Our eyes are connected to our brain directly through the optic nerve. Most of the time we consider only what data is entering into our brains through our eyes but perhaps there is a means of communication we have not yet completely understood that allows our brain (which is where who we are resides) to send out information. The Lord has also said, "The spirit and the body are the soul of man." (D&C 88:15) We are spiritual infants for the most part. We are in the process of figuring out exactly who we are and far from comprehending our potential. The most important thing we need to do during our mortal life is CHOOSE who we want to be when we "grow up". As a prophet once said (Alma 34:32-34), "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. And now.... I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed. Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."
Now this doesn't mean you are eternally doomed if you have not yet overcome some weaknesses or faults. It just means that you need to choose during mortal life whether you want to work at being like our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, ............. or not. If you do, then you simply acknowledge your imperfection and gratefully accept the sacrifice on your behalf offered by our Savior. Then we show our love and gratitude by no longer justifying our faults and sincerely trying to be like Him and following His commandments which means we have to sincerely make an effort to know just what those commandments are. The choice is simple, yes or no, but then the hard part is continuing on the chosen path or otherwise known as "enduring to the end."
Every day when I work in the temple, I am in close contact with lots of people, many of whom I don't know and most of whom will smile in a friendly manner. There is a connection which occurs with many of them, especially when I am administering sacred ordinances, that touches me deeply and I can see it touches them as well. I often feel a great deal of love from and toward someone else even a stranger, simply by looking into their eyes. It has been said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. You can tell quite a bit about a person by looking them directly in the eye. You can see if they are angry or preoccupied or sad or excited or really happy. They don't have to cry or yell or grit their teeth or use any part of their body. On the other hand, if you are feeling a distracting emotion, it's more difficult to discern someone else's feelings. If I want to try to "hide" my feelings, I will very purposefully look down so as not to allow someone else to look into my eyes.
It is no secret that I have been fascinated by what mankind has been learning about the functioning of the brain. It is so true that the brain contains who you are. Your body language may reveal your reactions but it is the thought in your brain that causes your body to display anything. We may refer to what's in our "hearts" but it's actually your brain that processes and chooses feelings- anything from love to hate and everything in between. Each human being has a "tabernacle of clay" which is a carbon based container generally with two arms, two legs, a head, and all sorts of things going on inside. But the brain is where everything is generated and processed. But what instigates your brain process? If you have ever been near a "brain-dead" person, you can sense they "aren't there". The Lord says, "For man is spirit." (D&C 93:33) Also, a favorite scripture of mine (D&C 131:7-8), "There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; We cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter." Our eyes are connected to our brain directly through the optic nerve. Most of the time we consider only what data is entering into our brains through our eyes but perhaps there is a means of communication we have not yet completely understood that allows our brain (which is where who we are resides) to send out information. The Lord has also said, "The spirit and the body are the soul of man." (D&C 88:15) We are spiritual infants for the most part. We are in the process of figuring out exactly who we are and far from comprehending our potential. The most important thing we need to do during our mortal life is CHOOSE who we want to be when we "grow up". As a prophet once said (Alma 34:32-34), "For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors. And now.... I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed. Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world."
Now this doesn't mean you are eternally doomed if you have not yet overcome some weaknesses or faults. It just means that you need to choose during mortal life whether you want to work at being like our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, ............. or not. If you do, then you simply acknowledge your imperfection and gratefully accept the sacrifice on your behalf offered by our Savior. Then we show our love and gratitude by no longer justifying our faults and sincerely trying to be like Him and following His commandments which means we have to sincerely make an effort to know just what those commandments are. The choice is simple, yes or no, but then the hard part is continuing on the chosen path or otherwise known as "enduring to the end."
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