A Special Connection

This last Sunday my wife and I were going through some of the new Come, Follow Me manual and in the third lesson for January there is a video that focuses on how Joseph felt as he helped raise The Messiah. As I was watching and read about it and I was dumbstruck by the portrayal of how he felt when Jesus was missing on their way back from Jerusalem. I don't know how to explain this very well, but it was as if all of the sudden I could feel Joseph's love for his step Son, his understanding of who He was and the resulting overwhelming anxiety he felt, knowing who Jesus was and that they had lost Him. I could feel so strongly the enormous responsibility he felt for keeping this Holy Boy safe and teaching Him, the best he knew how, the righteous traditions of his forefathers.

I felt in that moment an empathy for him like I had never felt for any other mortal father. I could feel the urgency in his efforts to get himself and Mary back to Jerusalem as fast as possible to make sure Jesus was okay. When I watched the video and saw the look on Joseph's face when Jesus said "wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" realizing what he meant, I felt like Joseph's expression almost yelled "how could I have forgotten that? I am only His mortal guardian. I need to be more humble about this. I should have known."

The contrast I felt between a) his absolute and intense sense of love duty to provide for and protect his wife and the Son of God and b) his realization that his role in Jesus' life was only temporary was so overwhelming for me that it got me thinking about the parallels in my own life that seemed to fit this moment of clarity for me like a brand new lock and key.

Joseph instinctually acted with an urgency the totally rocked me. Finding Jesus was of pivotal importance to him. I began asking myself: Are my actions mirroring the faith, love and loyalty I say I feel for my God, my wife, my family and friends? How can I better transfer how I feel about what matters most into my habits?

I see the example President Nelson is showing of following the Lord's counsel without regard to what is convenient or what others say about him and I wish I was doing better at that myself. Well, my readers, I don't know about you, but today I have felt a huge but gentle push from God to go against the grain of my natural instincts and replace more of my unholy habits with Godly ones.

I was recently listening to a podcast with Chad Daybell where he was talking about what will be required of today's youth and he said the following: "[our youth] will have to be stronger than the stripling warriors, and the reason I say that is because the stripling warriors only had to worry about one side of that kingdom, the physical side, because they were raised in a Zion-like society. They didn't have the problems with pornography, [] multiculturalism, [] drugs, gender-identity, [] socialism, they didn't have all these... just bombardment of satanistic attitudes that are coming at our kids left and right."

I see a great irony in this. We perceive, and justly so, these amazing examples of faith and endurance from saints and prophets from long ago. We have songs that say things like "I'll have faith like brother Joseph [Smith] and the strength of the pioneers. I'll be brave as the stripling warriors and, like Nephi, persevere." Yet there is that statement by Chad Daybell which is spot on.

How many of those anciently who we look up to are watching us today in both utterly unanticipated horror as well as dumbfounding wonder and joy with the levels of wickedness and righteousness they see in humanity today? My own patriarchal blessing says my heritage (which is rich with faithful examples in church history) will guide me in my determination to do everything within my power to be faithful and obedient to the Lord's will.

That... connection I guess you could call it, that I felt from Joseph was a huge reminder to me that my desire to be faithful in everything the Lord has asked me personally to do needs to increase exponentially. And I'll will going about that just the way the Lord told me to in my patriarchal blessing, by focusing on carrying on my family legacy of faith and loyalty to my God, my wife and my covenants. And I hope this has inspired someone else to do the same.

How To Not Be A Chicken - About A Parable By A Modern Prophet

President Monson wrote an article in the September 2014 where he said the following:

"In the vicinity where I once lived and served, the Church operated a poultry project, staffed primarily by volunteers from the local wards. Most of the time it was an efficiently operated project, supplying to the bishops’ storehouse thousands of fresh eggs and hundreds of pounds of dressed poultry. On a few occasions, however, being volunteer city farmers meant not only blisters on the hands but also frustration of heart and mind.

For instance, I shall ever remember the time we gathered the Aaronic Priesthood young men to give the project a spring-cleaning. Our enthusiastic and energetic throng assembled at the project and in a speedy fashion uprooted, gathered, and burned large quantities of weeds and debris. By the light of the glowing bonfires, we ate hot dogs and congratulated ourselves on a job well done.

However, there was just one disastrous problem. The noise and the fires so disturbed the fragile population of 5,000 laying hens that most of them went into a sudden molt and ceased laying. Thereafter we tolerated a few weeds so that we might produce more eggs."

Our prophet, like the Savior whom he represents, teaches many times in parables.  The meaning few saw around this comment was that, as one blogger said, "he is caught between the need to warn us  about preparing for the future, and the sensitivity of the saints to be alarmed that something bad is on the horizon. He could use words of “destruction and fire,” but that would be counterproductive; the “fragile population” of members would stop living their lives in a productive, one-egg-a-day kind of way. Once some chickens get it into their minds that the sky is falling, their lives will become unbalanced and fearful."

Many people, when I share these kinds of thoughts, say I'm paranoid, but that's just a word used by those who are uninformed when they finally see something that has been sitting under their very noses for the first time as it truly is.  So, if you're one of those who hasn't clicked out of this article or dismissed me as just some "nutball conspiracy theorist", feel free to to read on for my perspective of how to not be a molting chicken when poo hits the fan in the next few years.

First, President Benson gave us a powerful reminder of why the Book of Mormon was written for our day: "Now undoubtedly Moroni could have pointed out many factors that led to the destruction of the people, but notice how he singled out the secret combinations, just as the Church today could point out many threats to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God’s work, but it has singled out the greatest threat as the godless conspiracy. There is no conspiracy theory in the Book of Mormon —it is a conspiracy fact."  There's no doubt about it, evil men have been conspiring for years to destroy the U.S. from within.  There's nothing else that would have or could have brought what I now call the "Divided States" of America to it's currently dismal and putrid state.  A house divided cannot stand on it's own and it's not a question of if  their government and economy completely collapses, but when.

Next, I repeat what prophets and apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ have been saying for several millenia: "come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness...".  If you want to have peace and joy amid the horrors that are to come, they will be readily and easily available if you make the choice to turn full force to the Savior in everything you do.  No, this does not mean sell everything you have right now, go off grid and hide in a bunker until nuclear warfare destroys the rest of the population (that's not even going to happen).  It also does not mean I support getting overly obsessive and becoming the boy who cried wolf.

What I am saying is that there is a poisonous attitude many, even among the Latter-day Saints, of an apathetic "I have my religious life and my regular life and I need to keep balance between the two." Please don't misunderstand.  Balance is a good thing to be sure, but to mentally separate our commitment to Christ from every day activities is not only missing the whole point of Christ's invitation to follow Him, it is deadly to our spiritual progression.  As Elder Holland said, "Never check your religion at the door."  Discipleship is not something we go should be going about casually, thinking that, because perfection doesn't come overnight, we can just "do things at a comfortable pace" and avoid anything that makes us uncomfortable.  Do you think Christ was comfortable when He was in Gethsemane?  When He was on the cross?  When He was rejected and spit upon and betrayed while totally unwilling to do anything contrary to His Father's will?  Not a chance!

While this doesn't mean that we have to look for hard things or pray for trials (although I do know of at least one person who had the courage to try that), I'm just using that thought to emphasize that becoming Christ-like in an ever increasingly evil world means that staying in our comfort zone is never going to cut it.

The divide between true disciples of Christ and those who aren't is getting ever wider.  If we don't want our faith to break with changes like church's recent policy regarding the LGBT community, we had better make sure we are far enough over on Christ's side of that divide that when such a chasm makes a shift to grow wider we not are so close to the edge that we fall in.  Elder Bednar once suggested that we ask ourselves with each trial "Is the load I'm carrying creating sufficient spiritual traction so I can get safely home to my Heavenly Father?" Similarly I would suggest that we also ask ourselves regularly, "Am I far enough over on the Savior's side that changes toward perfection in the church will push me toward Christ?"

It's impossible to be too Christian, so don't worry about that, but please, believe me when I say following the prophet and aligning our hearts with that of the Savior which prophets convey to us is the safest way to stay on His side and have His peace with us always.

Word(s) of Wisdom: Going Beyond Health and Semantics

Several discussion groups out there among the LDS church have tabooed conversation about the Word of Wisdom because of how heated and contentious it gets.  I know this is a sensitive subject for many but in light of recent observations, I feel the need to address something regarding this revelation from God that perhaps many members of the church (let alone the world as a whole) don't think of or possibly don't understand.  For those who are not members of the church and have not heard about this yet, it's a code of health and respectful treatment of our bodies.  Short disclaimer, too: I'm not writing this to give a hint to or take a subtle cheap shot at anyone with whom I have had these discussions.  It's just something that is on my mind quite heavily.

Now, I know that there are certain things that are quite clearly spelled out in church doctrine (not just word of wisdom).  For example, Latter-day Saints choosing to drink any type of alcoholic beverage, coffee, non-herbal teas, consume tobacco in any way, shape or form, use illegal or harmful drugs or abuse prescription drugs or get a tattoo cannot worthily retain a temple recommend until repentance is complete.  Some other things are not quite as explicitly spelled out.  For example, General Authorities of the church have encouraged members to be cautious of and/or avoid energy drinks, follow the Holy Ghost and personal inspiration as to what type of general diet to follow and more without any persistent and direct statements saying "don't ever do this" so as to avoid a law of Moses approach to the gospel.

We should not need every little tiny thing spelled out in painstaking detail.  That would leave little to no room for our God given gift of moral agency.  But there is so much more to living in wisdom than making a list of do's and don'ts, not that that's always a bad thing.

I've been a part of conversations where questions are was posed about consuming coffee flavored things, such as ice cream, shakes and so forth, cooking with rum extract without actually drinking any coffee or rum, or whether or not a certain drink has tannic acid and other things are not explicitly spelled out for Latter-day Saints, but, is always posed as a serious question by honest inquirers.

The first crucial thing I want to address is well prefaced by a story from the Aaronic Priesthood Manual: "...a man was interviewing new drivers for his transportation company. The route was very dangerous and went along several steep cliffs through a mountain pass. The interviewer asked each man how close he could safely drive near the edge of the cliff. The first man responded, “I could drive within six inches of the edge.” The second man responded, “I could drive within two inches of the edge.” The third man responded, “I would stay as far away from the edge of the cliff as I possibly could.”  You can probably guess who was hired.

The point is that rather than see how close we can get to drinking coffee (or any other aspect of the subject at hand) without actually drinking it, staying as far away from sin as possible is always the best option.  Does this mean I can never go to Tim Horton's and get hot chocolate there again? No, because for me, it's not even a temptation.  I hate the smell of coffee.  For others this is not always the case and they should be more careful if the smell makes them want it or something that is like it.  Bottom line with this point, please just stay as far away from the edge as possible.

The second point I want to discuss is why we should be avoiding those things in the first place.  I've heard so many arguments about the benefits vs. downfalls of so many things we consume it would be outlandish of me to try to list them all, but I know that arguments about caffeine, sugar, what constitutes an unhealthy energy drink, how many piercings are acceptable have been a few points of contention over the years.  This is all utter nonsense to me.  Why are we arguing about semantics?  This is the very reason the Lord taught a higher law that clearly condemns every single, little, minute, obnoxious detail and reason for every commandment being handed to us on a silver platter.

What ever happened to "I have faith that our modern prophet is lead by God so I'll just do it, period"?

What ever happened to "I don't need to know why coffee, alcohol, etc. etc. are so bad to avoid them when God says to"?

What ever happened to "I simply love the Lord so I'll take the safest route without second guessing, back pedaling or doing research to see what the 'professionals' say"?

These questions, and my whole point with this entry, goes far beyond health, beyond coffee, tea, alcohol, tattoos, dress standards, what is appropriate to do on the Sabbath, the language of prayer, what movies, T.V., and music is appropriate, and all that stuff.  It all boils down to two questions we should be asking about which we should be downright uncomfortably honest with ourselves.

Would the Lord do it? and Would Jesus offer this to me Himself?

Now I know none of us are expected to be like God right now or even during mortality, but that should not be a reason to make excuses, however insignificant or small they may seem to us, to justify something that, deep down, we know is wrong.

I can say with confidence that I am absolutely sure Christ would not partake of or offer us coffee flavored anything or cook with rum extract.  I am certain that He wouldn't drink - heck - probably anything that's not water or 100% pure fruit juice or be comfortable with his wife in public wearing almost any of the bathing suits that are popular today... do you see where I'm going with this?

I'm not saying we have to go all stir crazy and become like the Mennonites or anything like that (though I give kudos to Mennonites for sticking to their standards).  Becoming like Christ is a life long pursuit, a step by step process that requires one small step at a time with huge spiritual leaps scattered along the way.

What I am saying is that if you have to ask "is this wrong? is it too close to the edge of spiritual danger?"  If even a shadow of that thought crosses your mind, the safest route is to always err on the side of caution.  Just because something may not keep you out of the temple if you were to tell your bishop doesn't mean its always okay in the Lord's eyes.

The world is more wicked than it's ever been.  The devil is more sly, more deceptive, more smooth in his sweet talk, more effective in his methods than he ever has been.  He has control of more souls than he ever has before and is better at getting you to make small mistakes than you think he is.  I think of Harry Potter and his occlumency lessons when Harry asks if he can rest for a moment and Snape responds "The dark lord isn't resting!!"  The same applies here.  If you think that there is room to slip up a little when somewhere in your mind or heart the Holy Ghost is saying "are you sure that's a good idea?", get ready for a harsh wake up call when Jesus comes again.

I'll start wrapping this whole thing up with a promise of happiness.  It comes from Mosiah 4:11-12: "And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.  And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true."

To me, in a nutshell, what this is saying is that the more we acknowledge how little we know or even can know compared to God, the more we stop caring too much about the whys and let God show us those why's on His time, the more we desire to stay as far as possible from the edge of sin, the more likely we are to "always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God."

I know I'm not anywhere near where I want to be in this respect, but I'm not going to knowingly make excuses to do something that 'could be' questionable even if it won't keep me out of the temple. Those little things that aren't "spelled out" as bad that we think are not a big deal? They're going to become a big deal the longer we take to get them out of our lives.  I know this from personal experience.  Our hearts and minds need to be willingly and lovingly focused on putting them off for bigger, more divine and rich blessings from our Savior. *edit 2018* We also need to be as unified as possible in our effort to ask "how good can I be" instead of "how good do I have to be?" As Bruce R. McConkie said, "As long as we disagree as to the simple and easy doctrines of salvation, how can we ever have unity on the complex and endless truths yet to be revealed?" We are stopping ourselves. It is your and my responsibilities to shoot for higher ground and until we do and become unified in such, spiritual progression will slow until it comes to a halt for those who refuse to elevate their thinking to higher spiritual planes. *end edit*

As Elder David A. Bednar said: "Discernment is so much more than recognizing right from wrong.  It helps us distinguish the relevant from the irrelevant, the important from the unimportant and the necessary from that which is merely nice."

If you want to really make it to the ultimate goal of salvation and exaltation, the little things that "aren't really that bad", even from a Latter-day Saint perspective, but which are unnecessary or edge even the smallest amount away from the iron rod, have got to go.  Whether or not your bishop or other priesthood leadership refuse you a temple recommend for it, if it could possibly taunt you to loosen your grip on the rod or look like it could or even just serve as a distraction that doesn't push you in either direction, it will only end up being a hindrance to you; and trust me, it's better to prepare and prevent than to repair and repent.

And it's not as hard as we think!  All it takes is exertion of faith.

(Part 2 of this can be read here)

Jesus Christ = Protection

Face it.  Incident to the human condition is a test of character, the dangers of human flaws, sins and weaknesses.  Sometimes it can seem overwhelming if we focus on it too much but thanks be to God for providing His Son, Jesus Christ, as a means of protection.

As the third in the current series of articles:

#3 Jesus Christ = Protection

I'll present this concept in three parts, what, how and why.

What

What I'm referring to with "what" isn't about "what is protection" but rather the question "from what does the Savior protect us?"  It's easy to think of protection as a lack of trial or difficulty or peaceful and pleasant circumstances, but that's not always the case, nor does it need to be.  I am reminded of what Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, "Of course Jesus noticed the tremendous temptations that came to him, but He did not process and reprocess them. Instead, He rejected them promptly."  Though Jesus was entitled to perfect protection from His Father through His perfect obedience, that protection did not serve as an exemption from affliction or relief from the pains of a mortal body.  Rather, it protected Him from the ignorance of forgetfulness, being quickened by the Spirit at all times, and from fear of neglect from on high among other things.  His perfect obedience acted as a shield to Him by rendering Him impervious to the consequences of mortal weakness and sin for Himself.  He did not yield to the chemical, carnal inclinations of the mortal body in heart, mind, word or action and, therefore, of Himself, was not subject to the effects of succumbing to those things.

So how do we get the same kind of protection?  Asking anyone who is not He to live in completely flawless obedience to all of God's laws all the time is obviously ridiculous, but this is where Jesus' atoning sacrifice, made in love, comes into play.  Since He paid the compensatory price for all of our weaknesses, suffering and other ungodly conditions of mortality, He is now in a position to provide us relief from the effects of mortality when we obey Him.  As our Mediator with the Father and His justice, Christ can match our level of obedience and commitment to Him with a balanced level of His love and a measure of the Holy Ghost in our hearts that negates the long term effects of our suffering on our mind and heart, even right in the middle of it.  He paid the price for it, so, because He deserves it, He can provide is with that protection.

How

How does it work?  I love what Elder D. Todd Christofferson said, "I don't think everyone realizes that when we do sin, when we turn away from God, it does something in us, and when we repent and turn to Him, that effect in us is taken away. With [Christ's] Atonement, we become different people than we would be without it and it's power is infinite, truly infinite, and can reach down and sanctify and make holy any soul."  When we seek to change and obey Jesus more faithfully and consistently, His atonement takes effect in our lives and, for His sake, we are provided a protection perfectly balanced with our burdens.  Consider Doctrine and Covenant 3:20, "And that the Lamanites might come to the knowledge of their fathers, and that they might know the promises of the Lord, and that they may believe the gospel and rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ, and be glorified through faith in his name, and that through their repentance they might be saved...".  That part where it says "rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ and by glorified through faith in his name" is key.  I wrote a song a while ago for which a few of the lyrics are "His Son is Jesus my Savior, Redeemer of mankind. One in purpose with Father, His reward is me if I but follow Him."  That's exactly how it works.  He lived a perfect life and, therefore, His merits are really the only merits that have eternal significance for our salvation.  Because He did not need to suffer for His own salvation, the price He paid for us warrants our protection, re-balancing the scales of justice in His favor to the degree that we follow Him.

Why

Oh, that universal question, why?  Why are we alive?  Why do we suffer?  Why does the universe behave the way it does?  Why does religion matter?  Why should we obey God? In my opinion, the reason is the same for all those questions.  Love.  Why do the elements obey Him?  Because of His love for His creations.  Why do we get His protection?  Because of His love as shown through the person and atonement of Jesus Christ.

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In short we are protected, as with an eternal shield, from the eternal effects of our mortality on our mind and heart by means of His merits, mercy and grace, because He loves us; and the way to activate that protection is by obeying His laws as fearlessly as possible and acting in faith and love to Him.