So I kind of took a little bit of a hiatus from writing here because a) I realized that I was only writing my answers to the futurist for the sake of having something to write (not ideal) and b) I have been VERY busy with a few things that have taken up too much of my time to sit down and focus on posting something worth writing (not just for the sake of posting).
But I have found something in the Book of Mormon that got me thinking about the limits we impose on ourselves and what can truly have and do if we are simply willing to have/do it.
The verse is Alma 33:23. It says this. "And now, my bretheren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then, may God grant unto you that your burdens may be made light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will. Amen."
Almost the same thing is said in Alma 41:8. "Now the decrees of God are unalterable; therefore, the way is prepared that whosoever will may walk therein and be saved."
One more quote to lead into how I want to approach this idea. It's by Cecil B. Demille. "We
are too inclined to think of law as something merely restrictive...
something hemming us in. We sometimes think of law as the opposite
of liberty. But that is a false conception... God does not
contradict himself. He did not create man and then, as an
afterthought, impose upon him a set of arbitrary, irritating,
restrictive rules. He made man free and then gave him the
commandments to keep him free. We cannot break the Ten Commandments.
We can only break ourselves against them or else, by keeping them,
rise through them to the fullness of freedom under God."
This may come off as a little blunt to some, but the thought of "Oh that's just the way I am" is a cop-out. Even from a non religious point of view, the concept of entropy in the second law of thermodynamics shows us that anything that is not in a constant state of change will eventually decrease in energy, become stagnant, useless and die. In order for something to become something else, often something better, or at least constantly giving off energy or influencing something else in some way, change must be a constant. This applies to people as well.
The beauty of that principle's application to us is that God has given us the ability to choose to change, to initiate the process on our own. The irony of that gift, however, is that we may also use it to diminish the quality of the gift itself. Yes, we actually have the ability to choose to render ourselves unable to choose as weird as that sounds. Satan knows that and he exploits that truth at every chance he gets. Just look at the porn addict, the alcoholic, the gamer who never sees daylight, the chain smoker, the drug dealer. They have, as Cecil B. Demille said, 'broken [them]selves' against the commandments of God, against their own agency.
The great part about Alma 33:23 and Alma 41:8 is that they clearly show us that we have every ability to choose whatever we want. And because of Jesus Christ, we can even choose to break out of addictions and things that limit our ability to choose. We can do "all this... if [we] will".
I like how Elder Holland said it: “You can change anything you want to change and you can do it very fast. It is another Satanic falsehood to believe that it takes years and years and eons of eternity to repent. It takes exactly as long to repent as it takes you to say “I’ll change”―and mean it. Of course there will be problems to work out and restitutions to make. You may well spend―indeed, you had better spend―the rest of your life proving your repentance by its permanence. But change, growth, renewal, and repentance can come for you as instantaneously as it did for Alma and the sons of Mosiah.”
That's true! Often it takes the course of action recommended by President Russell M. Nelson "reach[ing] up for the Lord’s power in your life with the same intensity that a drowning person has when grasping and gasping for air", but that actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it. What happens when you hit a racquetball off a wall with very little force? It drops to the floor, possibly bounces a few inches off the ground a few times and then just rolls away. What happens when you hit it as hard as you possibly can? It's going to respond by flying off the wall with a force proportional to how hard you hit it. It's the same with this concept. If you reach out for divine help as if you are drowning the heavens can respond with proportional timing and power.
It's also the same with the raw power of our own independent choices. You can do almost anything you want to. The only exception is in Alma 41:10, "...wickedness never was happiness." You cannot be truly happy in sin.
Do you want to have the constant urge to view pornography or do drugs or satisfy that constant superficial craving for whatever else just can't seem to get enough of? You can do that. Do you want to make your life the same every day and never change anything you do? You can do that, too. Do you want to constantly improve yourself and become the very best version of yourself? You can do that as well. The variable in the matter is your willingness.
I've seen a good number of piano students come to my home and insist that they want to become talented pianists, that they really want to push and work hard and master the instrument. Only one has ever had the drive to prove it and they unfortunately had to move away. I don't know if they found another teacher willing to push them like my wife and I are. Every other student here has come up against some kind of barrier to which they responded something to the effect of, "Oh wait a minute! I didn't realize it would be that hard! Maybe I can't do this." Usually I try to re-emphasize [paraphrasing], "I told you this would be hard, that piano is the most difficult instrument to master. I told you I would ask you to do things that I guarantee you didn't think you could do, that would push you to your limits and past them. But I also told you that you will be able to anyways if only you are willing to keep trying." None of them believed me except that one student and she proved me right.
If you really want to do it, if you can truly say, like Elder Holland suggested, "I'll change", and mean it, then you can do it. You just can.
I am reminded of Green Lantern. I'm more of a Marvel fan than DC, but I still loved that movie. For those who are not familiar with it, the Green Lantern Corps in DC comics is an army of intergalactic protectors who wield the green light of will power. Their rings enable them to turn their very will into reality, using hard light constructs to create literally anything. The only limit to their power is the strength of their will and their imagination. The same applies to us, conceptually. The only limit to your changing for the better is your own will power. Not even God or satan can stop you or force you to act against your own will. Satan isn't allowed to and God won't. In fact, if anything, God seeks to enhance your ability to choose, He just respects your desires enough to wait until you show Him you want Him to do so and following His commandments, as He has said, is the key to unlocking that.
Coming from me - especially having Aspergers, making me particularly prone to repetitive and addictive patterns - this is saying a lot. It may even make me look like a walking contradiction to those who know me, but if there's anything I have faith in when it comes to change, it's that Jesus Christ is the key to it. I have experienced that kind of change, perhaps on a smaller scale than I would like, but those changing experiences have had a powerful enough effect to motivate me to just keep trying. His atoning sacrifice was made so that we can keep our agency and escape the negative consequences of it if we will, because of Him.
One last point, from a slightly different angle to hopefully really make this hit home. I have noticed an attitude that permeates our modern world that has merit in certain situations and from a certain perspective, but all in all, of itself is not healthy. It is the attitude that it's okay that we're not perfect. Now to anyone with a sound understanding of doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, hold on a minute before you think "umm.. no way.. you've got it all wrong." I am well aware that the purpose of life is to progress from one evil temptation to the next but getting better at rejecting them in favor of the Godly in life. I am aware that our imperfection was an inevitable, unavoidable part of God's plan, so in one sense, because of Christ's atonement, it's okay for now that we are not perfect. But what is the point of seeking everything Godly? It's to make us perfect, eventually, right? Yes, yes, I know, the key word there is eventually.
But think about this. Would the Book of Mormon and God's prophets today tell us to not procrastinate the day of our repentance if there were not a point where "eventually" wasn't good enough anymore? Because I promise you that day will come and I do not plan on being one of those who based their repentance on "eventually". I have heard many people look at spiritual giants among us with awe, think "wow, how did they become so good?" and then have their minds blown when they find out that many of them had some pretty hefty bad things they overcame or even still needed to overcome in their life. The response I usually have heard from those people is "really? You? You struggle/struggled with that?? Well if you struggled with it and you are as amazing as you are, then I definitely have a chance to be amazingly spiritual and good, too." And that's a fantastic motivator. I see nothing wrong with that kind of thinking if used to get from one level of faithful obedience to the next. But there's a line that's too dangerous to get close to when going down that road. What if I were to rephrase it like this: "It's so comforting that [so and so] has those weaknesses. Now I don't feel so bad." Umm... wait a minute. That directly contradicts what Elder Maxwell said: "The moment of gravest danger is when there is so little light that darkness seems normal!"
As good as it is to find motivation in seeing how even the greatest spiritual giants overcame some of the most heart wrenching difficulties, finding comfort in our own weaknesses because "oh well they struggled with it too so I don't have to worry so much" is, indeed "the moment of gravest danger." Yes, they struggled with it, but what resulted from that struggle? They overcame it! They did not procrastinate. They could do it because they will. Honestly, it seems kind of stupid to say "it makes me feel better knowing that they have problems." It's ridiculous and almost comical, really. Don't find long lasting comfort in weakness, your own or someone else's. Use it as a temporary motivator. Become better not because someone else was imperfect first or as well, but because you willed yourself to do it, to use the power of Jesus' Atonement and choose better, just because it's your will.
"All this can ye do if ye will" and re-emphasized by Elder Holland "...change, growth, renewal, and repentance can come for you as instantaneously as it did for Alma and the sons of Mosiah."
So the question remains for us all, will we?
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Friday, July 21, 2017
Sunday, March 12, 2017
The Song of the Righteous: Part 7
Now in the last few "Song[s] of the Righteous", hymn 7 on the list is #240, Know This, That Every Soul is Free.
"Know this, that ev'ry soul is free to choose his life and what he'll be;
For this eternal truth is giv'n: that God will force no man to heav'n.
He'll call, persuade, direct aright, and bless with wisdom, love, and light,
In nameless ways be good and kind, but never force the human mind.
Freedom and reason make us men; take these away, what are we then?
Mere animals, and just as well the beasts may think of heav'n or hell.
May we no more our pow'rs abuse, but ways of truth and goodness choose;
Our God is pleased when we improve His grace and seek his perfect love."
Though this one is relatively short, it is packed with wonderful messages about the second of two forces that make God's plan possible. The first is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the next is our Agency, our ability to choose.
This concept goes all the way back to the reason I began blogging in the first place. I gave a talk on agency in church, I think... 4? 5 years ago? Preparing my comments changed my perspective completely on the importance of agency in relation to the Atonement of Christ and helped me want to be like Christ enough that preparing that talk wasn't enough. I had to do more. Since I can't give a talk in sacrament meeting whenever I want, I thought I would just write about my thoughts elsewhere and just share them with the world. Doing so has been such a huge help to me and I hope to my readers.
The most profound thing to me about agency is that it is the gift that will either damn us or, because of Christ, save us. Not even God in all His mighty power can intervene with that. As the hymns says "God will force no man to heav[e]n." Instead He "call[s out to us], persuade[s us], and direct[s us] aright, ... bless[es us] with wisdom, love and light." In other words, He follows the very word He gave us in Doctrine and Covenants 121:41-43, to lead by "persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge,"
Choice is part of what makes us children of God. He entrusted us with the same ability that makes Him God, the power to choose. Of course, the reason it makes Him God is because He uses that ability perfectly, but, it's value is still incalculable. "Freedom and reason make us men; take these away, what are we then? Mere animals..." We humans are the race of God and in order for us to become like Him (note that "become" is a verb) we must choose so and coupled with the Savior's power, granted us because of His atonement, we can!
But only if we learn to use it perfectly, like He does. "May we no more our pow[e]rs abuse, but ways of truth a goodness choose." Citing Cecil B. De Mille, "[God] did not create man and then, as an afterthought, impose upon him a set of arbitrary, irritating, restrictive rules. He made man free and then gave him the commandments to keep him free. We cannot break the Ten Commandments. We can only break ourselves against them or else, by keeping them, rise through them to the fullness of freedom under God."
Do you know why God called Christ His "Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"? Well, of course there are many reasons why, but one of them for sure is that He was totally obedient to His Father. There is a part of the missionary manual Preach My Gospel where a story is told by one missionary of a man who had "hemmed and hawed" about baptism, delaying it as much as possible for fear of what everyone else would think of him. Eventually the missionaries read the account of the Savior's visit to the Americas as the resurrected Lord in 3 Nephi, where the Father uses that phrase, "well pleased". According the the manual, conversation was as follows. "...he looked up at me and said 'Heavenly Father was really proud of His Son, wasn't He?' 'Yes,' I said. [The man] looked back at his book again and stared at the open pages as if in deep thought. Finally he said, 'I would want Heavenly Father to be proud of me too. I wonder how He would introduce me. I guess, if I ... well, if I want Him to be proud of me then I had better do what He wants me to do.' 'Yes, I think that would be important,' I replied. 'Well', [the man] continued. 'I think I've been worrying too much about what everybody else thinks and not enough about what God thinks.' After a brief pause [the man] nodded and with a determined look said, 'I think I had better be baptized.'"
No wonder the hymn ends with "Our God is pleased when we improve His grace and seek his perfect love." He is pleased when we use our agency correctly because it brings us closer to the happiness that He enjoys. Using agency the way God asks us to is the best way to happiness, no matter what anyone else says.
"Know this, that ev'ry soul is free to choose his life and what he'll be;
For this eternal truth is giv'n: that God will force no man to heav'n.
He'll call, persuade, direct aright, and bless with wisdom, love, and light,
In nameless ways be good and kind, but never force the human mind.
Freedom and reason make us men; take these away, what are we then?
Mere animals, and just as well the beasts may think of heav'n or hell.
May we no more our pow'rs abuse, but ways of truth and goodness choose;
Our God is pleased when we improve His grace and seek his perfect love."
Though this one is relatively short, it is packed with wonderful messages about the second of two forces that make God's plan possible. The first is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the next is our Agency, our ability to choose.
This concept goes all the way back to the reason I began blogging in the first place. I gave a talk on agency in church, I think... 4? 5 years ago? Preparing my comments changed my perspective completely on the importance of agency in relation to the Atonement of Christ and helped me want to be like Christ enough that preparing that talk wasn't enough. I had to do more. Since I can't give a talk in sacrament meeting whenever I want, I thought I would just write about my thoughts elsewhere and just share them with the world. Doing so has been such a huge help to me and I hope to my readers.
The most profound thing to me about agency is that it is the gift that will either damn us or, because of Christ, save us. Not even God in all His mighty power can intervene with that. As the hymns says "God will force no man to heav[e]n." Instead He "call[s out to us], persuade[s us], and direct[s us] aright, ... bless[es us] with wisdom, love and light." In other words, He follows the very word He gave us in Doctrine and Covenants 121:41-43, to lead by "persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge,"
Choice is part of what makes us children of God. He entrusted us with the same ability that makes Him God, the power to choose. Of course, the reason it makes Him God is because He uses that ability perfectly, but, it's value is still incalculable. "Freedom and reason make us men; take these away, what are we then? Mere animals..." We humans are the race of God and in order for us to become like Him (note that "become" is a verb) we must choose so and coupled with the Savior's power, granted us because of His atonement, we can!
But only if we learn to use it perfectly, like He does. "May we no more our pow[e]rs abuse, but ways of truth a goodness choose." Citing Cecil B. De Mille, "[God] did not create man and then, as an afterthought, impose upon him a set of arbitrary, irritating, restrictive rules. He made man free and then gave him the commandments to keep him free. We cannot break the Ten Commandments. We can only break ourselves against them or else, by keeping them, rise through them to the fullness of freedom under God."
Do you know why God called Christ His "Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"? Well, of course there are many reasons why, but one of them for sure is that He was totally obedient to His Father. There is a part of the missionary manual Preach My Gospel where a story is told by one missionary of a man who had "hemmed and hawed" about baptism, delaying it as much as possible for fear of what everyone else would think of him. Eventually the missionaries read the account of the Savior's visit to the Americas as the resurrected Lord in 3 Nephi, where the Father uses that phrase, "well pleased". According the the manual, conversation was as follows. "...he looked up at me and said 'Heavenly Father was really proud of His Son, wasn't He?' 'Yes,' I said. [The man] looked back at his book again and stared at the open pages as if in deep thought. Finally he said, 'I would want Heavenly Father to be proud of me too. I wonder how He would introduce me. I guess, if I ... well, if I want Him to be proud of me then I had better do what He wants me to do.' 'Yes, I think that would be important,' I replied. 'Well', [the man] continued. 'I think I've been worrying too much about what everybody else thinks and not enough about what God thinks.' After a brief pause [the man] nodded and with a determined look said, 'I think I had better be baptized.'"
No wonder the hymn ends with "Our God is pleased when we improve His grace and seek his perfect love." He is pleased when we use our agency correctly because it brings us closer to the happiness that He enjoys. Using agency the way God asks us to is the best way to happiness, no matter what anyone else says.
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Jesus Christ = Freedom
Bondage: "restraint of personal liberty by compulsion; involuntary servitude; slavery; captivity."
I think it would be safe to say that when most people think of the idea of bondage, they picture slavery via human trafficking, sexual crimes, hostage situations and such. However, bondage goes much broader than that. In 2 Nephi 2 says: "And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon... Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself."
This is one of the most effective and all encompassing summaries of the God's definition of freedom I know. So bondage, if considered in contrast with this definition, would mean anything that inhibits our ability to act for ourselves. That opens up a whole different can of worms as to what it means to be in bondage.
Whether it be bondage to sex, power, money, games, drugs, alcohol and other substance abuse, social status, materialism or even the self (narcissism), it destroys the freedom of choice.
For this entry:
#2 Jesus Christ = Freedom
Now let's go back a bit. According to the scriptures, the plan of God, our Heavenly Father, was to send us to earth to "prove [us] herewith, to see if [we] will do all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God shall command [us];". We loved Him like we loved nothing or no one else before this life and the plan was to send us here to see if we would still make choices that show our love for Him while on earth. However, God knew that we would not do so perfectly, that we would fall short and therefore render ourselves permanently incapable of returning to His presence, being unclean before Him, so He said He would provide a Savior for us to enable us to return. Two ideas were presented. Jesus Christ said: "Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever." The other idea was presented by Lucifer who said: "Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor."
Whoa! Hold the phone! Did you see the problems with idea number two?
There was an investigator the missionaries had been teaching here in our area about whom I heard an interesting thought. As best I remember being told about it, this individual was asking what we believe about grace and the conversation veered towards divine potential. The missionaries said that our God given potential is to become like Him, to which the investigator responded something like: "Whoa! Whoa guys! That's what Satan wanted, remember? And look what happened to him!". Their response was that while Satan didn't end up well, what he wanted was not to be like God. He wanted to be God. He wanted the glory of the Father all to himself. The missionaries are quite right.
Satan said it quite directly, "give me thine honor." That's why Satan became a son of perdition. He didn't want to share it. He wanted it all to himself because his mindset was "I will make sure not one soul of God's family is lost by forcing them to obey without any option to choose for themselves. Therefore I deserve the glory because I'm going to be the one to do it." On the contrary, God, in all His love for us, wanted us to be able to choose. Said He: "Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;"
Satan wanted us to become mindless, thoughtless drones, bound and subject to his every whim and will. One thing he refused to acknowledge is that the freedom to choose God has given us was the only way whereby we could become like Him. Notice that word, become. I have written a whole different article previously about this subject matter and you can read more about that here. But God's plan was to make us truly free and allow us that gift of choice and that gift could only be preserved and still allow us a chance to return to our Father in Heaven through Jesus Christ.
Satan, of course, tried his hardest to persuade us to misuse this gift and do things that our loving Father has told us will bring us misery because he is jealous of our freedom to choose. The power of God, granted more liberally to us as we obey His commandments, keeps us free. He knows what choices will keep us free to use our ability to choose and which ones will enslave us and destroy that gift. His power and love are infinitely greater than all things evil and wrong. Any time we give in to temptation and indulge in ungodly things and behaviors we become a slave to them.
I can add my personal witness of the dangers of pornography. It nearly destroyed my marriage. Ever since I cut it out of my life completely I have continually felt a greater and greater amount of self control and greater personal freedom. How often do you hear someone say "I get to go have my coffee now" as opposed to "I GOTTA have my coffee!!!"? Honestly, I don't even think it's worth compare. Coffee is addicting and enslaving. So are alcohol, smoking (no matter what you're smoking), energy drinks, gambling, and maybe innumerable other things. Heck, things like gaming, food, socializing, alone time, reading, facebook (I have to work on that one), work, travel, working out, dieting, studying, photography, T.V., music, research and any thing that is not evil in and of itself - and even really good things - can become an addiction that robs you of your ability to choose if used in excess. Even thought patterns can be addicting if we choose to entertain the wrong ones.
Now don't get paranoid. Don't be ridiculous and think "Oh man! Everything I'm doing and thinking could be destroying me inside". That's crazy. The Lord doesn't want you to be so hyper analytical of yourself and your circumstances that you enslave yourself with an addiction to ridding yourself of addiction itself. That's just stupid and really self defeating. What He does ask you to do is take things one day at a time, even one hour, one minute or 10 seconds at a time if you must and work on making yourself a little more free every day be holding tight to the gospel of Jesus Christ and living by it a little better every day.
God continually and lovingly reminds us of the benefits of following His Son, Jesus Christ. As we willingly, joyfully and lovingly choose to follow Him our ability to choose will be magnified; more of the rewards He has in store for us, purchased with His own flesh and blood, with His own soul, will become ours and our freedom will be enhanced more than we could ever imagine in this life.
I can personally promise you, in the name of the mighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, that as you follow His word, as you live by it more consistently, completely, lovingly and willingly every day you will become truly free.
I've heard some people talk with an attitude of "God's commandments are so restrictive and limiting. I want to be more free." Those people have completely misunderstood. Think of this. When you follow the norms of society or the media, are you not obeying them? When you see a commercial for a product or an online advertisement that tells you to do or buy something and you do so, are you not obeying them? Even when you do something that you just want to do, entirely of your own accord, are you not obeying yourself? The point is, whether you're obeying God, obeying trends set by society, ads on T.V. or the internet or something said by a friend or acquaintance or anyone at all, you're still obeying something or someone. Since everything we do is in obedience to something or someone anyways, why not show obedience to Someone - Jesus Christ - who can and wants to give you and help you become more, through faith filled obedience to Him, than anyone or anything else ever could and be truly set free in the process?
Picture yourself in a room where you have an someone representing each of the following speaking to you in this manner.
You in your head: "Go do that one thing that makes you feel good."
T.V. "Don't go anywhere, stay tuned for what happens next!"
News Station: "This person did something bad! Don't be like them and certainly don't love them!"
Your friend: "You need to relax, just focus on you."
Politicians: "Vote for me because look how awesome I am."
and then off in the background you here the Holy Ghost: "I love you. I want you to be free. Would you like to [insert commandment here]? I promise you true freedom and peace if you choose to do that."
Some huge differences there are a) all the other voices are more demanding, b)the voice of the Holy Ghost asks/invites, not demands and c) only the Holy Ghost actually offers you something of eternal worth for obedience to Him.
One last note to finish this off. I'm referring to Jack R. Christianson's The Mortal Christ again. He mentions in that lecture the symbolism of the Jews having Barabbas released at the Jesus' expense. Do you know what the name Barabbas means? Bar = "son of". Abba = "Father". Barabbas = "son of Father". The sons and daughters of the Father go free because of Jesus Christ.
You want to be free? Follow the Savior. Live like Him. Work every day to become as He is with faith in Him and His atonement for us. Then, regardless of your circumstances, you will still truly become free.
I think it would be safe to say that when most people think of the idea of bondage, they picture slavery via human trafficking, sexual crimes, hostage situations and such. However, bondage goes much broader than that. In 2 Nephi 2 says: "And now, my sons, I speak unto you these things for your profit and learning; for there is a God, and he hath created all things, both the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are, both things to act and things to be acted upon... Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself."
This is one of the most effective and all encompassing summaries of the God's definition of freedom I know. So bondage, if considered in contrast with this definition, would mean anything that inhibits our ability to act for ourselves. That opens up a whole different can of worms as to what it means to be in bondage.
Whether it be bondage to sex, power, money, games, drugs, alcohol and other substance abuse, social status, materialism or even the self (narcissism), it destroys the freedom of choice.
For this entry:
#2 Jesus Christ = Freedom
Now let's go back a bit. According to the scriptures, the plan of God, our Heavenly Father, was to send us to earth to "prove [us] herewith, to see if [we] will do all things whatsoever the Lord [our] God shall command [us];". We loved Him like we loved nothing or no one else before this life and the plan was to send us here to see if we would still make choices that show our love for Him while on earth. However, God knew that we would not do so perfectly, that we would fall short and therefore render ourselves permanently incapable of returning to His presence, being unclean before Him, so He said He would provide a Savior for us to enable us to return. Two ideas were presented. Jesus Christ said: "Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever." The other idea was presented by Lucifer who said: "Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor."
Whoa! Hold the phone! Did you see the problems with idea number two?
There was an investigator the missionaries had been teaching here in our area about whom I heard an interesting thought. As best I remember being told about it, this individual was asking what we believe about grace and the conversation veered towards divine potential. The missionaries said that our God given potential is to become like Him, to which the investigator responded something like: "Whoa! Whoa guys! That's what Satan wanted, remember? And look what happened to him!". Their response was that while Satan didn't end up well, what he wanted was not to be like God. He wanted to be God. He wanted the glory of the Father all to himself. The missionaries are quite right.
Satan said it quite directly, "give me thine honor." That's why Satan became a son of perdition. He didn't want to share it. He wanted it all to himself because his mindset was "I will make sure not one soul of God's family is lost by forcing them to obey without any option to choose for themselves. Therefore I deserve the glory because I'm going to be the one to do it." On the contrary, God, in all His love for us, wanted us to be able to choose. Said He: "Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;"
Satan wanted us to become mindless, thoughtless drones, bound and subject to his every whim and will. One thing he refused to acknowledge is that the freedom to choose God has given us was the only way whereby we could become like Him. Notice that word, become. I have written a whole different article previously about this subject matter and you can read more about that here. But God's plan was to make us truly free and allow us that gift of choice and that gift could only be preserved and still allow us a chance to return to our Father in Heaven through Jesus Christ.
Satan, of course, tried his hardest to persuade us to misuse this gift and do things that our loving Father has told us will bring us misery because he is jealous of our freedom to choose. The power of God, granted more liberally to us as we obey His commandments, keeps us free. He knows what choices will keep us free to use our ability to choose and which ones will enslave us and destroy that gift. His power and love are infinitely greater than all things evil and wrong. Any time we give in to temptation and indulge in ungodly things and behaviors we become a slave to them.
I can add my personal witness of the dangers of pornography. It nearly destroyed my marriage. Ever since I cut it out of my life completely I have continually felt a greater and greater amount of self control and greater personal freedom. How often do you hear someone say "I get to go have my coffee now" as opposed to "I GOTTA have my coffee!!!"? Honestly, I don't even think it's worth compare. Coffee is addicting and enslaving. So are alcohol, smoking (no matter what you're smoking), energy drinks, gambling, and maybe innumerable other things. Heck, things like gaming, food, socializing, alone time, reading, facebook (I have to work on that one), work, travel, working out, dieting, studying, photography, T.V., music, research and any thing that is not evil in and of itself - and even really good things - can become an addiction that robs you of your ability to choose if used in excess. Even thought patterns can be addicting if we choose to entertain the wrong ones.
Now don't get paranoid. Don't be ridiculous and think "Oh man! Everything I'm doing and thinking could be destroying me inside". That's crazy. The Lord doesn't want you to be so hyper analytical of yourself and your circumstances that you enslave yourself with an addiction to ridding yourself of addiction itself. That's just stupid and really self defeating. What He does ask you to do is take things one day at a time, even one hour, one minute or 10 seconds at a time if you must and work on making yourself a little more free every day be holding tight to the gospel of Jesus Christ and living by it a little better every day.
God continually and lovingly reminds us of the benefits of following His Son, Jesus Christ. As we willingly, joyfully and lovingly choose to follow Him our ability to choose will be magnified; more of the rewards He has in store for us, purchased with His own flesh and blood, with His own soul, will become ours and our freedom will be enhanced more than we could ever imagine in this life.
I can personally promise you, in the name of the mighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, that as you follow His word, as you live by it more consistently, completely, lovingly and willingly every day you will become truly free.
I've heard some people talk with an attitude of "God's commandments are so restrictive and limiting. I want to be more free." Those people have completely misunderstood. Think of this. When you follow the norms of society or the media, are you not obeying them? When you see a commercial for a product or an online advertisement that tells you to do or buy something and you do so, are you not obeying them? Even when you do something that you just want to do, entirely of your own accord, are you not obeying yourself? The point is, whether you're obeying God, obeying trends set by society, ads on T.V. or the internet or something said by a friend or acquaintance or anyone at all, you're still obeying something or someone. Since everything we do is in obedience to something or someone anyways, why not show obedience to Someone - Jesus Christ - who can and wants to give you and help you become more, through faith filled obedience to Him, than anyone or anything else ever could and be truly set free in the process?
Picture yourself in a room where you have an someone representing each of the following speaking to you in this manner.
You in your head: "Go do that one thing that makes you feel good."
T.V. "Don't go anywhere, stay tuned for what happens next!"
News Station: "This person did something bad! Don't be like them and certainly don't love them!"
Your friend: "You need to relax, just focus on you."
Politicians: "Vote for me because look how awesome I am."
and then off in the background you here the Holy Ghost: "I love you. I want you to be free. Would you like to [insert commandment here]? I promise you true freedom and peace if you choose to do that."
Some huge differences there are a) all the other voices are more demanding, b)the voice of the Holy Ghost asks/invites, not demands and c) only the Holy Ghost actually offers you something of eternal worth for obedience to Him.
One last note to finish this off. I'm referring to Jack R. Christianson's The Mortal Christ again. He mentions in that lecture the symbolism of the Jews having Barabbas released at the Jesus' expense. Do you know what the name Barabbas means? Bar = "son of". Abba = "Father". Barabbas = "son of Father". The sons and daughters of the Father go free because of Jesus Christ.
You want to be free? Follow the Savior. Live like Him. Work every day to become as He is with faith in Him and His atonement for us. Then, regardless of your circumstances, you will still truly become free.
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