AT THE HELM

In 1980 President Benson spoke at a BYU devotional in which he outlined 14 Fundamentals in Following the Prophet.  Below are the headings of the 14 points:

1.  The Prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything.
2.  The living prophet is more vital to us than standard works.
3.  The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet.
4.  The prophet will never lead the church astray.
5.  The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any   subjects or act on any matter, temporal or spiritual.
6.  The Prophet does not have to say "thus saith the Lord" to give us scripture.
7.  The Prophet tells us what we need to know, not always what we want to know.
8.  The Prophet is not limited by man's reasoning.
9.  The Prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual.
10. The Prophet may be involved in civic matters.
11. The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following a prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich.
12. The Prophet will not necessarily be popular with the world or the worldly.
13. The Prophet and his counsellors make up the First Presidency, the highest quorum in the Church.
14. The Prophet and the presidency - the living prophet and the First Presidency - follow them and be blessed - reject them and suffer.

I am so grateful that I belong to a church who has a living prophet at its' head, who speaks on behalf of God through the power of the Holy Ghost and to know that if I follow his counsel I will not be led astray. 

I was reading D&C Section 21 this morning about the organisation of the Church and my admiration and appreciation for the Prophet Joseph Smith was once again renewed.  Verses 7-9 read:
"For thus saith the Lord God: Him have I inspired to move the cause of Zion in mighty power for good and his diligence I know and his prayers I have heard.
Yea, his weeping for Zion I have seen and I will cause that he shall mourn for her no longer; for his days of rejoicing are come unto the remission of his sins and the manifestations of my blessings upon his works."
When I read these two verses I so wanted to be like Joseph who wept for Zion and despite his trials and persecutions he received for his dedication to the work that was allotted to him and I wanted to receive the same blessings he received for the work he performed.  Then I read further and was so overjoyed with what came next:
"For behold I will bless ALL THOSE who labor in my vineyard with a mighty blessing......" 
That's us I thought!  We are labouring just the same but in different ways.  We all have a part in building of the kingdom but we need to always look to the head because of what comes next in the rest of the verse 9:
"....and they shall believe on his words, which are given him through me by the Comforter, which manifesteth that Jesus was crucified by sinful men for the sins of the world, yea, for the remission of sins unto the contrite heart."

Why do we need to always look to the prophet at the helm?  Because we need to believe on his words which are given him by the Father through the Comforter, being the Holy Ghost.  Tomorrow we will talk more about that.

SAFETY AMIDST THE DARKNESS

 

This week's Sunday School lesson is on importance of living prophets.  As much as I love the scriptures and as important as they are I must agree that having a living prophet is far superior as far as receiving instruction from God pertinent to us in our day.  His precepts and commandments are eternal and never change but additional instruction is needed for every age and dispensation.  This is important on two counts. 

President John Taylor pointed out that 'Adam's revelation did not instruct Noah to build his ark; nor did Noah's revelation tell Lot to forsake Sodom; nor did either of these speak of the departure of children of Israel from Egypt.....'(Millenial Star Vol 9, p.323).  In other words, each dispensation and time has its challenges and needs and require God's instruction unique to the present situation.  For this we need a prophet at the helm.  Some of the issues the modern day prophets have spoken out about that earlier prophets, even in this dispensation, had no insight about are pornography, sex change operations, abortion, homosexuality.  Can you think of others?

Another reason why we need to uphold the principle of living prophets is because we are a church that believes in continuous revelation.  If we did not have a living prophet at the helm who receives revelation for the church collectively, we could not possibly believe that God could give us revelation individually and personally.  God continues to speak to His children and he does so in both of these ways.  A living prophet is a true witness of this truth. 

When the Church was organised on 6 April 1830 and it was written in stone, through revelation, that Joseph Smith was the prophet of this dispensation, the Lord gave all those who receive his word, 'as if from mine own mouth' an incredible promise.  It is found in D&C 21:5, 6:

"For his word ye shall receive, as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith.
For by doing these things the gates of hell shall not prevail against you; yea, and the Lord God will disperse the powers of darkness from before you, and cause the heavens to shake for your good, and his name's glory".

We should all want the powers of darkness dispersed before us.  The adversary is real and powerful and we need to take him seriously.  If we yield our ears to the counsel of the living prophets, and implement their instructions, we need not fear.

ON BEING AN IMPERFECT PARENT

Children

Come to me, O ye children!
For I hear you at your play,
And the questions that perplexed me
Have vanished quite away.

Ye open the eastern windows,
That look towards the sun,
Where thoughts are singing swallows
And the brooks of morning run.

In your hearts are the birds and the sunshine,
In your thoughts the brooklet's flow,
But in mine is the wind of Autumn
And the first fall of the snow.

Ah!  What would the world be to us
If the children were no more?
We should dread the desert behind us
Worse than the dark before.

What the leaves are to the forest,
With light and air for food,
Ere their sweet and tender juices
Have been hardened into wood.

That to the world are children;
Through them it feels the glow
Of a brighter and sunnier climate
That reaches the trunks below.

Come to me, O ye children!
And whisper in my ear
What the birds and the winds are singing
In your sunny atmosphere.

For what are all our contrivings,
And the wisdom of our books,
When compared with your caresses,
And the gladness of your looks?

Ye are better than all the ballads
That ever were sung or said;
For ye are the living poems,
And all the rest are dead.

-  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


For a long time I have been troubled by the fact that I have not been a better parent to my children and also that my parents were not better parents to me.  I have agonised over the issues and hang ups that have followed me from my childhood and weaknesses and incorrect teachings and false thinking that have been passed down to me by my parents.  Likewise, I have worried about all the bad 'stuff' I have passed on to my children.  I read many years ago about 'intergenerational sins' and how easily we can pass them on to generations of our posterity, seemingly innocent weaknesses and faulty thinking that somehow end up being serious stumbling blocks to someone down the line.  In other words, how we live not only affects us but many others whose lives we impact.

I came to understand recently that this was in fact always meant to be this way.  Even before this world began it was decreed that we would be born to imperfect parents and in turn become imperfect parents ourselves.  What is more, I think we chose which imperfect parents we would be born to according to what weaknesses they could give us and what strengths we wanted to develop.  For us to be born to perfect parents from whom we could not inherit weaknesses and problems would defeat the great plan of salvation.  What would be the point of being born in a perfect world?  We might as well have stayed in our pre-mortal state. Being born into mortality to parents who are less than perfect offers us opportunities to grow from overcoming those imperfections, learning accountability for ourselves and learning how to make wise choices independent of what our parents before us have done.  Most importantly it offers us the greatest path we can ever take, the path to God. Everything in this life has been designed to lead us back to God, especially our humanity.

In the book of Mosiah, chapter 3, verse 19, King Benjamin confirms this truth and gives us amazing hope that all our stumbling blocks can be overcome and 'the natural man' in us overcome:
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

The most important point of this scripture is that it tells us we have the greatest tool through which such a tall order can be filled, the Atonement.  None of us can ever become a saint spoken of in this scripture without this tool. We do not have to do this alone, we cannot do this alone.  Calling on the power of the Atonment daily, seeking its' power through our faith in Jesus Christ can and will change the natural man in us into a saint of God.  When praying for this power, ensure that you ask for it in those words and ask for it through your faith in Jesus Christ.  Always ask for help 'through the power of the Atonement and my faith in Jesus Christ'.  Words are powerful, they have energy and carry a frequency which connects us to God and to things we seek in this life.

One thing that helps all children survive their childhood is love.  No matter how imperfect and dysfunctional the parents are, if the child feels loved he or she will survive it all and consider they had a good childhood.  Children are resilient and forgiving and submissive.  They need love, security and acceptance.  If you can provide these three, consider yourself a good parent.

Don't despair over your parental skills, you are doing the best you can with who you are but make sure you seek heavenly help constantly so you can always do better.  And one day when you have grandchildren and you are a much better person than you are now, you will be an awesome grandparent!!!  It's a time worth waiting for.

THE FOUNDATION OF SACRIFICE

"The question was asked, how Brigham Young was able to colonize a desert.  The answer came simply that by the time he said "This Is the Right Place" most of the physically weak had died and all of the spiritually weak had been left behind...(The Lord) was out to forge steel so hard it could become an instrument for his purposes.  And if the metal was flawed, sometimes it must go back into the forge." (Jerry Lund: "A Stone Cut Out", CES Symposium, August 1989)

It was this kind of commitment that the Lord needed to lay the foundation for the church and this foundation was built and secured by the amazing sacrifices of the pioneers who not only suffered greatly crossing the plains but sacrificed so much more in settling the Great Basin.  The Lord spoke of the foundation of the Church in D&C 1:30:

"And also those to whom these commandments were given, might have power to lay the foundation of this church and to bring it forth out of obscurity and out of darkness, the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased, speaking unto the church collectively and not individually".

Between 1847 and 1877, Church members established 349 communities under the direction of the Prophet.  People were called to such places as Colonia Dublan in Mexico, Raymond and Cardston in Canada, Snowflake in Arixona and Las Vegan in Nevada, Lovell in Wyoming, Rupert in Idaho, San Bernardino in California, Legrande in Washington and Kirtland in New Mexico.  I cannot imagine what it would have been like to sacrifice so much to arrive in Salt Lake, my sacrifice over, the reward of gathering with the saints finally within my reach, only to be asked to leave and settle an area I have never heard of and so far away from the headquarters of the Church, the Zion I so wanted to be a part of.  Perhaps those that were obedient to this directive understood by then that the foundation of the Church would rest upon the sacrifices of its' saints and that for the Church to prosper, it could not be insular, that it had to be taken to other communities to flourish. 

Ted Gibbons, a Gospel Doctrine teacher from Arizona, recounts how his great-great grandfather and a brother moved to Payson, Utah, shortly after their arrival in the Valley.  They built homes and established farms or ranches in the area.  One day Brigham called the two of them to leave Utah Valley and settle on the Muddy in what was then thought to be Arizona.   With the call came a promise, phrased something like this: "If you accept the call, your posterity will be as numerous as the sands of the seashore, and they will rise up and call you blessed".  One of them, recently married, found his wife and himself unwilling to follow prophetic counsel.  They remained in Payson.  He later took a second wife.  This marriage produced 2 daughters.  One died in infancy, the other never married.  The other brother's line has had a different experience.  He responded to the direction of the prophet and travelled south.  This past summer a group of his descendants met in a reunion in Utah Valley.  Genealogists in the family told them that through the first six generations, this brother now has over twenty thousand descendants. (Ted L Gibbons, D&C Lesson 36)

Something else worthy of note is that the saints were led to the desert in the west to establish the Church and its community where it's a struggle to grow crops because of lack of rainfall as opposed to the east where farms flourish without irrigation.  Just getting water and food would have been an amazing challenge for the Mormon pioneers.  All that they had been through up to that time would have prepared them for this challenge and sifted the wheat from the tares.  The Lord needed a strong people to be the foundation of His Church and those who were the strongest remained to face this challenge.  Many saints were tempted to go on to other, less demanding places and there was pressure on Brigham Young to settle California with its richer soil, its mild climate and its gold fields but Brigham Young was more concerned about the saints' spiritual welfare than their comfort.  President Gordon B. Hinckley observed of the Saints in the Great Basin: "Notwithstanding the temptation to go to the California goldfields, where the entire world seemed to be rushing, the people accepted their leader's words.  They stayed here and grubbed the sagebrush and made their way.  Brigham Young's prophecy has been fulfilled.  This is now a great and beautiful and fertile area."

THE RESCUE OF LOVE

This week's Sunday School lesson centers on the Willie and Martin handcart companies who crossed the plains in October 1855 to be gathered to Zion.  Gathering to Zion in Utah was at its peak and the Perpetual Emigration Fund provided for many to travel to Utah, particularly from Britain.  In 1850 Utah had 11,380 members, while the British Isles had over 30,000.  On somebody's ill advice some British saints left England without understanding the dangers of starting late to cross the plains.  They became the Willie and Martin handcart companies.  By the end of October they were stranded on the plains and in need of rescue.  A lot has been written about the suffering, courage and blessings that arose out of those terrible days.  Before it was through, more than two hundred men, women and children from these companies lost their lives before they arrived in Salt Lake City on November 2 and November 30. (Phillip Allred, Lesson 35: A Mission of Saving,  Meridian Magazine)
The question is who gave these saints such ill advice and why were they allowed to start from Iowa City so late in the year and as ill prepared as they were for the journey?  Nobody knows who is to blame.  The lesson that lies in this historical event for us is that the saints in Utah responded overwhelmingly with help and did not care how these companies got themselves in such a fix.  Maybe there were some who thought that they brought upon themselves their suffering and that now they should suffer the consequences.  This is the 'natural man' reaction that many of us have towards those less fortunate who stand in need of our help.  This kind of thinking enables us to judge people without knowing their circumstances or their capabilities.  King Benjamin talked extensively to his people about helping the beggar in the street and that those who pass such judgment have no interest in the kingdom of God (Mosiah 4:16-18)

The lesson also highlights the example of the Saviour who rescues us over and over regardless of how and why we got ourselves into our unfortunate situations,  His ultimate rescue being the Atonement through which he has placed himself in the path of justice to rescue us (Ted Gibbons, D&C Lesson 35, LDS Living Magazine).
 Elder M Russell Ballard related a very touching story that teaches a sobering lesson about what the Saviour did for us:

"I remember reading about a fire fighter in the eastern United States who ran into a burning house to rescue several children from an arson-induced fire.  While his colleagues battled the blaze to keep it from spreading to other structures in the neighbourhood, this man dashed into the building again and again, each time emerging with a child in his arms.  After rescuing the fifth child, he started back into the inferno once more.  Neighbours shouted that there were no more children in the family.  But he insisted that he had seen a baby in a cradle, and he dove into the intensifying heat.

Moments after he disappeared into the fire and smoke, a horrifying explosion shook the building and the entire structure collapsed.  It was several hours before fire fighters were able to locate their colleague's body.  They found him in the nursery near the crib, huddled protectively over a life sized and practically unscratched doll.

As I think about such heroism, however, I'm reminded that the most heroic act of all time ever was performed in behalf of all mankind by the Son of God.  In a very real sense, all of humanity - past, present and future - was trapped behind a wall of flame that was fuelled and fanned by our own faithlessness.  Sin separated mortals from God (see Romans 6:23) and would do so forever unless a way was found to put out the fires of sin and rescue us from ourselves. (Cited in Our Search for Happiness: M. Russell Ballard, p. 11)". 

BEING ACCEPTED OF GOD

(Relief Society Lesson 22/9/13)

"The feeling of being accepted by someone we love is a basic human need.  Being accepted by good people motivates us.  It increases our sense of self-worth and self-confidence.  Those who cannot find acceptance from desirable sources often seek it elsewhere.  They may look to people who are not interested in their wellbeing.  They may attach themselves to false friends and do questionable things to try to receive the acknowledgement they are seeking.  They may seek acceptance by wearing a particular brand of clothing to generate a feeling of belonging or status.  For some, striving for a role or a position of prominence can also be a way of seeking acceptance.  They may define their worth by a position they hold or status they obtain.

The ultimate source of empowerment and lasting acceptance is our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ."  (Elder Erich Kopischke, May 2013 Ensign, p 104)

Why does acceptance lead to empowerment?
Quantum physics tells us that we are energy and that everything around us is energy too.  This energy is vibrating and has a frequency that attracts other energies and in the process gives other energies power or takes power away from them.  We cannot see this energy because we see with our physical eyes and therefore all we see is solid form.  We live in a telestial world and all things belonging to this world has telestial energy.  Whatever god we follow in this life gives us relevant energy.  Whatever we invest ourselves in returns energy to us relevant to that investment.  For instance, if an athlete invests himself in copious amounts of training each day, he will be empowered from the energy of that training to become a world class athlete and will receive recognition and acceptance from the sporting sector of the world.  If a man or a woman invest themselves in years of study and long hours of work in their chosen professional field, they will be empowered by the energy of their profession and effort to receive success, prominence and acceptance of their professional field.  Some forms of acceptance can be detrimental to our spirits and can entice us to conform to the standards of this telestial world in which we live.  God, on the other hand, is a celestial being and we as his offspring can become celestial beings too.  If we invest ourselves into receiving His acceptance, He will empower us with celestial power so we can become like him and rise above the telestial state of being.  Proof of this concept can be found in D&C 109:22 which tells us that if we invest our time in attending the temple which generates spiritual energy, we will be endowed with His power.

What is the path to God's acceptance?
We are given a simple pattern we can follow in D&C 97:8 which tells us that God needs three things from us:

1. A broken heart
2. A contrite spirit
3. Keeping our covenants by sacrifice

When we have a broken heart we are in a state of self-reflection and can easily examine our motives and desires.  This leads to having a contrite spirit.  The Oxford dictionary defines a contrite spirit as "feeling or expressing remorse at the recognition that one has done wrong".  When we have a broken heart and a contrite spirit we can acknowledge our wrongs and shortcomings and feel appropriate godly sorrow which leads to repentance.  A contrite spirit is manifest by our willingness and determination to act and change, to invest ourselves in things of the spirit which would increase our spiritual power.  The third step to being accepted by God is a conscious decision to make every sacrifice necessary to keep our covenants which we have made with God.  Often we think that sacrifice means having to do something big or hard but in reality most of the time it refers to living day to day as true disciples of Christ.  The more sacrifices we make to live righteously, the more spiritually powerful we receive.  The more spiritually powerful we become, the more able we become to conquer the enemy of all righteousness, one of our primary purposes in life (Moroni 9:6).

How do we know that we are accepted of God?
By God granting us constant companionship of the Holy Ghost.
How do we know if we have that companionship?
In more ways than one, but the surest way to know is if you are receiving revelation.  Holy Ghost is a revelator and He will tell you all things that are needful for you to know.  He will speak to you the words of Christ and the words of Christ will tell you all things what you should do. (2 Nephi 32:2,3)

Lest we become overwhelmed by this tall order of being accepted by God, I wish to point out that there is good news!  In Teachings of Presidents of the Church, President Lorenzo Snow points out that we cannot possibly live God's laws on our own.  He says that the Gospel was designed in such a way that it would make us seek help from God, that  'the sacrifices that are required of us are of that nature that no man or woman could make them unless aided by supernatural power'. (p. 178, 179)  In other words we cannot possibly live the Gospel on our own without God's help and grace.  Even Jesus couldn't accomplish His work without divine help.  He said on one occasion, 'I can of mine own self do nothing.....' (John 5:30)

Elder Kopischke concludes his talk with a promise of blessings that will come to us if we follow the simple pattern God has laid out for us and receive of his acceptance.  His says:
"His loving acceptance will motivate us, increase our faith, and help us deal with everything we face in life."  Now, is this not power?  He goes on to say: "Despite our challenges, we will be successful, prosper (Mosiah 2:22), and feel at peace (Mosiah 2:41).  We will be among those to whom the Lord said:

"Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world, and you are of them that my Father hath given me;
And none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost".

I know I for one want to be His and I do not want to be lost.