THE PATH OF CHARITY

President Howard W. Hunter condensed our mission in life in three words: to save, build, and exalt (Teachings of Presidents of the Church, p. 255). This, he pointed out, is accomplished through travelling the path of charity. We often relate to charity as blessing the lives of the poor or doing good deeds of service. Whereas these are important, charity entails more than that. Charity is a two part concept: LOVE and SERVICE. Love is the feeling part, service is the easy, doing part. Service, however, if not born out of proper motives, profits us nothing. Therefore love is the more important part. Charity is defined in the scriptures as "the pure love of Christ" (Moroni 7:47). It is the purity of this love that makes it different to any other love because it enables us to serve others without selfish motives. It is defined thus: "At its' core, charity is all about 'purity of motive'. Moroni defines this purity of motive as the 'pure love of Christ'. Christ's pure love is simply this....It is His perfectly pure desire to bring each of us to His own station of character, glory, power and dominion. This is His only motivation (D&C 76:94-95, Moses 1:39). His love is pure because it is free of any ulterior motive or hidden agenda. Charity, therefore, is not an act, but rather the pure motive which prompts or inspires the act" (Larry D. Keeler, "I Do Always Those Things That Please Him", p 2). This kind of love is not easy to develop. In fact it is impossible for us to do so. We are told in Moroni 7:47,48 that this pure love is a gift bestowed upon the true followers of Christ. If we follow Christ in all things, aspiring unto righteousness, we will become more and more like Him and acquire His attributes, including charity, the most most crucial one for us to have. We must want it and we must have it. To what end? To build, save and exalt.

"The world in which we live would benefit greatly if men and women everywhere would exercise the pure love of Christ, which is kind, meek and lowly. It is without envy or pride. It is selfless because it seeks nothing in return. It does not countenance evil or ill will, nor rejoice in iniquity; it has no place for bigotry, hatred, or violence. it refuses to condone ridicule, vulgarity, abuse, or ostracism. It encourages diverse people to live together in Christian love regardless of religious belief, race, nationality, financial standing, education or culture" (President Howard W. Hunter, "Teachings of Presidents of the Church", p. 263).

"Out of the abundance of His heart, Jesus spoke to the poor, the downtrodden, the widows, the little children; to farmers and fishermen, and those who tended goats and sheep; to strangers and foreigners, the rich, the politically powerful, as well as the unfriendly Pharisees and scribes. He ministered to the poor, the hungry, the deprived, the sick. He blessed the lame, the blind, the deaf, and other people with physical disabilities. He drove out the demons and evil spirits that had caused mental or emotional illness. He purified those who were burdened with sin. He taught lessons of love and repeatedly demonstrated unselfish service to others. All were recipients of His love. All were 'privileged the one like unto the other, and none were forbidden' (2 Nephi 26:28). These are all expressions and examples of his unbounded charity." (President Howard W. Hunter, "Teachings of Presidents of the Church", p. 263).

I asked God to take away my pride;

And God said "No"

He said it was not for Him to take away,

But for me to give up

I asked God to grant me patience,

And God said "No"

He said that patience is a by-product of tribulation

It isn't granted, it's earned.

I asked God to give me happiness,

And God said "No"

He said he gives us blessings;

Happiness is up to me.

I asked God to spare me pain,

And God said "No"

He said suffering draws you apart from worldly cares

And brings you closer to me.

I asked God to make my spirit grow,

And God said "No"

He said I must grow on my own,

But He will prune me to make me fruitful.

I asked God if He loved me,

And God said "Yes"

That's why He gave me His only son to die for me,

And I will be in heaven someday because I believe.

I asked God to help me love others

As much as He loves me.

And God said

Finally you understand what you truly need.

-Author Unknown

TO LOVE AND BE LOVED

"A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said: 'Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.' The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man's mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful but because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths. The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. The Lord said: 'You have seen Hell.'

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said: 'I don't understand.'  'It is simple', said the Lord, 'It requires but one skill. You see, they have learned to feed each other.'

- Author unknown

When the Saviour comes again, the saints who will be ready to meet Him will be a Zion people. They will be the people who have learnt to feed each other, care for each other, carry each other's burdens and who have shown and given love. In latter-day scripture the Lord admonishes the Church to  '......succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down and strengthen the feeble knees' (D&C 81:5). The fact that there are people in the Church who are weak and whose hands hang down and who have feeble knees would suggest that the Church is full of members who are struggling. It also suggests that the Church is not perfect for the Church is US. We, the members who make up the Church of Christ live at many different levels of moral development and spiritual awareness. Our tendency, however, is to act as though everyone has a common understanding of the gospel and an equal ability to live its principles. This leads us to criticism and judgment of our fellow brothers and sisters who we believe should live by our personal view of what the Church should be. This view tends to make us believe that we should exclude from our fellowship those we do not consider worthy of our elevated circle. Included in the group we deem 'unworthy' are also those we consider 'different' from 'normal' church members, those who do not fit the so called 'Mormon mould'.

I fear that instead of working together to make the Church a more charitable institution some of us are ostracizing and even persecuting those who are different and do not conform to our way of thinking, desiring to prove them wrong. I have heard of many such cases over the years, instances that have driven people away from the Church and that have left them expecting a higher level of Christian behaviour from its' members. Even though we are in the Church primarily because of the covenants which we have made with God, acceptance is something we all need to feel a part of the body of Christ. Even though some of us may have different opinions, passions or ideals "....the Church includes all of us who have taken upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ and given our allegiance to His restored gospel. The Church includes the limitations, weaknesses, and prejudices as well as the faith, hope and charity of all of us who call ourselves Mormon, from the apostles and prophets in Salt Lake City to the latest converts in New Guinea, Nigeria, and the Ukraine." (Robert A. Rees, Forgiving the Church and Loving the Saints: Spiritual Evolution and the Kingdom of God, Sunstone Magazine, February 1992)

How can we come to the point of total acceptance? The answer is simple: love. When Nephi wanted to know the interpretation of his father's dream of the tree of life the angel that came when summoned asked Nephi if he knew what the tree represented. Nephi said it was the love of God. The angel confirmed this truth and as soon as he did Nephi was given the vision of the Saviour's ministry among men. Why? Because Jesus is the embodiment of God's love for us. The Father cannot show his love for us in a greater way than to sacrifice His Only Begotten Son for the sake of the rest of us. Jesus is our mediator between us and the Father. We cannot go to the Father but through Him and so the exchange of love between us and the Father passes through Christ. How can we show the Father that we love Him as He has loved us? Jesus himself gave us the answer: "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15)  What is the very first commandment? To love God with all our might, mind and strength. And the second? Like unto it, to love our neighbour as ourselves. In other words, first love God and second, love that member in your Ward that you think is slightly weird. When we enter the Celestial Kingdom, we will not enter it alone. We will walk through those pearly gates with our families first and then with those we have saved. The trick is, we never know which member of our Ward needs saving because we are not in a position to completely know the heart of another. A former bishop came to realise after many years of counselling people that some of us due to some trauma or excessive hardship have an impaired ability to live certain commandments and are feeling it is beyond them to develop into morally responsible adults. Of the more stronger of us, it is expected to 'succor the weak', not drive them away by our judgment, criticism and intolerance. He recounts the following story:

"Two years ago an attractive woman moved into our ward. She dressed and carried herself in a provocative manner. She attracted men quickly and was openly flirtatious, even with me. Through a series of interviews her troubled history unfolded. I discovered that she had been born out of wedlock, abandoned by her mother at an early age, sexually abused by a grandfather and uncle while still a toddler. She was taken into several foster homes in which sexual abuse continued. She was promiscuous in her teens. She was taken in by an LDS family where the father made sexual advances toward her. Yet when she was twenty-one, she served a successful mission. One would have thought that her life had changed completely. Following her mission she became engaged to a fellow missionary with whom she later became intimate. Her self-esteem crumbled and the engagement was broken. Six months later she was working as a prostitute in Los Angeles. This woman was given a new beginning when she began to work with a psychotherapist. It was clear that it would be very difficult to overcome the burden of such an abusive and troubled past. Through long hours of counseling with me and with her therapist, loving attention from home and visiting teachers, financial assistance, and various other forms of fellowship, we supported her efforts to break the pattern of her desperate and self-destructive need for male attention. After some time, she made a carefully planned move to be near her mother in another state. Unfortunately, I learned recently that she was back in Los Angeles working as an escort for rich businessmen. While she was in our ward, this sister was the subject of criticism by other ward members who only saw the surface of her behaviour. Being aware of her history, I knew it was completely unjust to judge this woman by normal standards of morality, and yet I couldn't betray her confidence by telling others why she should be treated with greater patience and charity." (Robert A. Rees, Forgiving the Church and Loving the Saints: Spiritual Evolution and the Kingdom of God, Sunstone Magazine, February 1992)

To feel God's love, we must first experience love of other human beings. It is extremely difficult for people to feel the love of a person whom they cannot see when they do not feel loved by people that they can see. Those who doubt God's love are usually those who doubt the love of their parents and others. These are they who feel unlovable. It is our responsibility as fellow saints and disciples of Christ to make the Church fulfill its' central mission - to bring love to every human being by bringing them unto Christ. The Celestial Kingdom is reserved for those who have learnt to love God, themselves and their fellow beings. We cannot abide in the presence of Father's pure love if we have not learned to love purely ourselves. To live with Him, we have to be like Him. In the process of striving to be like Him we never know whom we can rescue from some dim corner of the chapel. 

It is true that no unclean thing can enter the kingdom of heaven (3 Nephi 27:19) and therefore we need to live righteous lives. However, keeping ourselves unspotted from sin alone will not ensure eternal life. The real deciding factor on judgment day will be whether we have learnt to love through our faith on Him who has beloved us. We who carry His name should be beacons of God's love. We are the light by which suffering hearts can find the shore. We must reach out to the unloveable, the different, the downtrodden, the weak. We must provide the shelter from the storm and put our loving arms around each other for we are all broken, afflicted, weary and tempest tossed. May we find the love of God in each other's arms and may we keep those arms ever open and our lights ever burning to light the way for those who are lost.

Brightly beams our Father's mercy

From His lighthouse evermore,

But to us He gives the keeping

Of the lights along the shore.

Dark the night of sin has settled;

Loud the angry billows roar.

Eager eyes are watching, longing,

For the lights along the shore.

Trim your feeble lamp, my brother;

Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed,

Trying now to make the harbor,

In the darkness may be lost.

Let the lower lights be burning;

Send a gleam across the wave.

Some poor fainting, struggling seaman

You may rescue, you may save.

- Philip Paul Bliss, 1838-1876

TO RESCUE AND TO SAVE

 

After a few of the usual Sunday hymns, the church's pastor stood up, walked over to the pulpit and, before he gave his sermon that evening. briefly introduced a guest minister who was in the service that evening.  In the introduction, the pastor told the congregation that the guest minister was one of his dearest childhood friends and that he wanted him to have a few moments to greet the church and share whatever he felt would be appropriate for the service. With that, an elderly man stepped up to the pulpit and began to speak:

A father and a son, and a friend of his son were sailing off the Pacific coast when a fast approaching storm blocked any attempt to get back to the shore. The waves were so high, that even though the father was an experienced sailor, he could not keep the boat upright and the three were swept into the ocean as the boat capsized. 

The old man hesitated for a moment, making eye contact with two teenagers who were, for the first time since the service began, looking somewhat interested in his story. The aged minister continued with his story.

Grabbing a rescue line, the father had to make the most excruciating decision of his life - to which boy he would throw the other end of the life line. He only had seconds to make the decision. The father knew that his son was a Christian and he also knew that his son's friend was not. The agony of his decision could not be matched by the torrent of waves. As the father yelled out. "I love you son!", he threw the life line to his son's friend. By the time the father had pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells in to the black of night. His body was never recovered.

By this time, the teenagers were sitting up straight in the pew, anxiously waiting for he next words to come out of the old minister's mouth.

The father knew his son would step into eternity with Jesus and he could not bear the thought of his son's friend stepping into an eternity without Jesus. Therefore, he sacrificed his son to save the son's friend. How great is the love of God that he should do the same for us. Our Heavenly Father sacrificed His only begotten Son so that we could be saved. I urge you to accept His offer to rescue you and take a hold of the life line He is throwing out to you.

With that, the old man turned and sat back down in his chair as silence filled the room. Within minutes after the service ended, the two teenagers were at the old man's side. "That was a nice story", politely stated one of the boys, "but I don't think it was very realistic for a father to give up his only son's life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian."

"Well, you've got a point there," the old man replied, glancing down at his worn Bible. A big smile broadened his narrow face. He once again looked up at the boys and said, "It sure isn't very realistic, is it? But I'm standing here today to tell you that story gives me a glimpse of what it must have been like for God to give up His Son for me. You see, I was that father and your pastor is my son's friend."

- Author Unknown

The Father gave us the perfect example of sacrifice when He sent His only begotten Son so that we might through Him be saved. Such a sacrifice might be unfathomable to our finite minds but to Him, sacrificing the one that all might be saved was worth the momentary pain. Imagine as a parent standing to lose all your children to eternal death never to feel their presence again. By not sacrificing one, the Father stood to lose us all. This was unthinkable to Him who desires not only to save us but to make us equal to Him in might, power and glory. As a parent you want the very best for your children; the best house, the best job, the best companion, the best situations in life, and most of all you want them to be happy. Does your heart not break when your children are suffering? You want to save them from the dangers and harshness of this world and so you want to give them everything to ensure their well being and happiness. What we can give our children though is not even a tenth of a tenth compared to what the Father can give us. Paul said to the Corinthians that "....eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)

If God so loved us that He would sacrifice his only begotten Son, should we not love one another "...for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law" (Romans 13:8).  This law was decreed by Him who has also loved us with a perfect love which enabled His sacrifice for the souls of men for "greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). The Son, "having finished his preparations unto the children of men" (D&C 19:19), having saved them from the depths of the deep, has charged us to love and save one another, for if we labour all our days and save even one soul, how great shall be our joy with him in kingdom of our Father (D&C 18:15).

Brightly beams our Father's mercy
From His lighthouse evermore,
But to us He gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.

Dark the night of sin has settled;
Loud the angry billows roar.
Eager eyes are watching, longing,
For the lights along the shore.

Trim your feeble lamp, my brother;
Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor,
In the darkness may be lost.

Let the lower lights be burning;
Send a gleam across the wave.
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
You may rescue, you may save.

- Philip Paul Bliss, 1838-1876