Blog #81 February 21, 2024
In our time together we have discovered the full scope and authority of our covenant labor. The discovery that more is asked of us that we are able to give is offset by the knowledge that we were never meant to be alone in our effort. It was God’s design that we labor hand in hand with Him through His Spirit. The idea of fellowship is integral and foundational to the labor we chose. Our labor causes us to grow towards unity with the Father and His purpose. It is time we opened our hearts that we might grow and gain knowledge, which will allow us the unity of oneness with God and His Kingdom.
Proverbs 10:1 The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son maketh a glad father; but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother.
Beginning with the day we are born, our parents feel driven to offer us knowledge that will ensure us wealth, security, and a long life. They want our earthly life to be better, fuller, and more abundant than theirs. Their purpose is to bring to our lives all that we need to live well in this temporal world, and that is not wrong. In fact, it is quite good. The skill to live our lives honestly, ethically, and morally produces our ability to recognize the need to seek spiritual fulfillment. We soon realize that all we know, though both useful and good applies only to life in this world. We want more. Our covenant with God brings to our life a heavenly Father, which like our earthly parents wants everything for His children. He too, wants to give us all the knowledge He enjoys, but His purposes are eternal.
DC 22:23a-23b
22:23a And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying, The heavens, they are many and they can not be numbered unto man, but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine; and as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof, even so shall another come;
22:23b and there is no end to my works, neither to my words; for this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality, and eternal life of man.
Applied to this purpose is a very focused type of wisdom. A wisdom that beckons us to open our hearts, that we might recognize the needs of others. In this we leave behind the solitary lives of the natural man and trade them for the richness of unity, and fellowship in oneness with God, the people of God, and the ministry of God.
Mosiah 9:39
9:39 And now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one another’s burdens, that they may be light;
9:40 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in, even until death, that ye may be redeemed of God, and be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life:
God teaches of a time when all mankind comes to an understanding of Him and His Kingdom. Consider if you will the joy felt by our Father as we join Him in this wisdom. Christ tells us of God’s joy as we learn to live within His purpose.
Luke 15:4-7
15:4 What man of you having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine, and go into the wilderness after that which is lost, until he find it?
15:5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
15:6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, and saith unto them, Rejoice with me; for I found my sheep which was lost.
15:7 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, who need no repentance.
Our covenant with the Lord is more than just a spiritual commitment and obligations that influence our life. We must allow ourselves to become part of a process that seeks to bring the light of truth to a world trapped in the darkness of doubt and fear. As we grow in our understanding of God and His ways we begin to see clearly our need to change. We begin to recognize that who we are and the righteousness we can bring to our life in God is insufficient. We need to be more. Only our covenant with the Father through the sacrifice of Christ can bring about the change we need.
Mosiah 11:188 Yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters; and thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in no wise inherit the kingdom of God.
Yes I agree with you, one would read Mosiah 11:188 and be anxious by the limits it puts on who will populate the Kingdom, but consider what the world is and what living by its standards does to our ability to truly understand all that is the Kingdom. We have discussed before how unlike God this world is and how it trains and intimidates us into questioning the ways of God and the true usefulness of virtue. There truly is a chasm between what we understand as a natural man and what is expected of us as a child of God. To be of this world, our very nature needed to be one of pride and rebellion and in those ways we grew. To be of God requires humility and obedience. Such is our need for change.
Ephesians 2:2-5
2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience;
2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
The churches of the world attempt to effect the change needed through the use of traditions and rituals, much the same way we do very young children. In an effort to discipline them into the ways they will live as adults we keep a schedule. Wake up, at a certain time. Dress and order our days in a certain way. Our week and the activities that fill our time are most often a refection of the week before and the one after. This is the way of traditions and rituals and to the new believer in the churches of the world it brings about a great change in their lives. As an example, for many in this town Sunday means tailgating ahead of the game. The change has got to be a shock to their systems and a supreme test of their faithfulness to God. So yes, rituals and traditions can be effective, but for the Kingdom we seek, they are just not enough. Traditions and rituals cannot and will not change our hearts.
Mosiah 3:9 For behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him, and have become his sons and his daughters.
Traditions can produce righteous actions but they will not produce a righteous heart. Consider an aggressive dog. A chain will keep that dog from biting others, but what we seek is a dog that does not bite. Think back to your last years living at home. If your home was like mine, most of the mandates and rules of my earlier childhood were either fulfilled or gone. In fact, only one parental mandate remained: curfew. Looking back it becomes clear to me that my parents were trying to raise a self-sufficient, considerate citizen of the world. God seek for the same growth from us. He doesn’t want a people dependent on Him for rules and mandates. He wants a people that can willingly join Him in His labor, because it has become their labor, too.
Mosiah 3:3 And also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.
This is a promise that God makes to all His children. If we will open our hearts to God and His Spirit good works can abound in our lives, but brethren it is a process. It would be nice if we could wake up one morning and the ways of the Lord would overtake every waking thought, but it is a process. It begins when we trust God enough to open our hearts completely and show Him all the dark places. No, this is not a pity party where we stand upon our past practices and make promises that no we will never keep. It is instead a time that we give our heart to God and allow Him to change it, because we need help. We can’t do this alone and He is the only one that can supply the help we need.
Psalms 51:16-17
51:16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it; thou delightest not in burnt offering.
51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Ezekiel 36:25-27
36:25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.
36:27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them.
Growing in God spiritually is a process gradual, yet powerful. For me I can compare it to growing a garden. After being planted it is a wondrous thing to see them sprout. We see growth. For the next period of time we cultivate them and weed them a pay attention to them daily and their growth is no longer profound. Go away for a week and come back to that garden. You will be surprised and gratified to see the monumental growth that occurred while you were gone. Such is the way of growing in God.
Isaiah 35:4-5
35:4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.
35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
God through Isaiah speaks of the time when we allow God to come into our heart. This is growth we strive for. This is the change God wants in our lives. This is when we overcome the blindness that afflicts the people of the world. They fail to see the needs of others. They refuse to here the cries of the destitute.
James 1:22-27
1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
1:23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass;
1:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
1:25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
1:26 If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.
1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the vices of the world.
These are the changes God seeks in His children and if you allow them to they will happen so gradually and so powerfully that it will floor you when you finally notice them. It did me. As an example: before I had children baby’s cried and it meant very little to me. After having helped raise a couple I acquired the ability to understand what the baby is trying to communicate by the sound, tenor, and volume. Now when I hear a child cry I say to myself, “That’s a hungry baby”. Or, I tell myself, “There’s one with a dirty diaper”. It all pretty much a game until I hear sound of a child crying because they are lost, scared, or hurt. I don’t even think. I just turn and head toward the sound, because that baby needs someone and that someone is going to be me. Believe me, the changes God brings to our life as believers is just this powerful, just this consuming.
Hebrews 12:28-29
12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, should have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptable with reverence and godly fear;
12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.
This is a worthy discussion that could literally go on for days, but for the purpose of growth, I would like to leave you today with a few questions to ponder. Ask yourself these questions and realize that you probably won’t like the answers you hear. How does it get better? Pray to God and ask Him to help. I guarantee you He will be happy to do just that
Alma 3:27-31
3:27 And now behold, I ask of you, my brethren of the church, Have ye spiritually been born of God?
3:28 Have ye received his image in your countenances?
3:29 Have ye experienced this mighty change in your hearts?
3:30 Do ye exercise faith in the redemption of him who created you?
3:31 Do you look forward with an eye of faith, and view this mortal body raised in immortality, and this corruption raised in incorruption, to stand before God, to be judged according to the deeds which have been done in the mortal body?
Remember, building the Kingdom is not a one-person job. Neither then is the building of those that will inhabit that Kingdom.
FRED