Grace

When I look up the word “grace” in various dictionaries, the meanings of the word are multitudinous. Sometimes a dictionary will include archaic or obsolete definitions, and one of those that comes up occasionally is “ready willingness to help”.

This relates strongly to a theological concept that was a part of early separatist (Puritan) theology in the 1600s in England.  David Clarkson (1622-1686), a well known separatist minister in England, wrote and preached and described God’s grace as a great willingness of the part of God “to do  good freely, willing to help in time of need”, going on to discuss the throne of grace and the  mercy-seat of God as description of a God full of both grace and mercy, writing “And what is  mercy but a willingness to pity and relieve? And what is grace but a willingness to do it freely, a free willingness”.

His writings were widely published and studied for the next two centuries, including during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. You can find this subject outlined in volume 3 of his works which was published by a group of Presbyterian scholars in 1865 in Edinburgh. (Works of David Clarkson, volume 3,  p. 140-141)

In the LDS Bible Dictionary, as well as in many modern Protestant glossaries, the focus of the definition of grace is on the divine means of help or strength given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ, It is portrayed as the means by which we receive divine assistance or it is portrayed as as the enabling assistance or power itself.

However, by Clarkson’s definition, what that Bible Dictionary is describing as grace is actually not grace, but rather it is the result of grace in a believer’s life. To Clarkson and others grace is God’s great willingness to extend His powerful help and strength to us.

I find that when I read the scriptures with that more obsolete definition in mind, my understanding of God takes a slight change, and I read the passages of grace reflecting more in the very nature and willingness of God to help, instead of simply the majesty and power of that help which He bestows.  It transforms my relationship with Him and my understanding of His approachability.

I think it not unlikely that Joseph Smith would have been familiar with that Clarkson/Presbyterian definition of grace as he translated the Book of Mormon, considering his various family members who had been “proselyted to the Presbyterian church” and had joined it.

And considering the huge plethora of situations outlined in the Book of Mormon where good people face very difficult and often fearful personal or community problems that they plead to God for help with, it seems fitting that this older definition and understanding of grace would be appropriate for its translation as well.

Instead of Praise to the Man

Praise to the Lord. Our Savior, Redeemer,

Praise for His love which removes our doubt and fear.

Blessed by His grace, we receive hope and mercy.

His name forever and ever revere.

Chorus:

Jesus, our Savior, Hosannah forever!

Forces of darkness will fight Him in vain.

We love His teachings, His plan of salvation,

And His atonement which heals our grief and pain.

Great is His power and endless His glory;
Son of the Father whom prophets foretold.

Blessed by His gospel, we follow our Savior.

May we be counted the sheep of His fold.

Chorus

Praise for His mercy.  He offers salvation.

Faith, hope and love are the essence of His plan.

Grateful, we join now with all who adore Him,

Speak of His gospel, and serve their fellow man.

Chorus

I have never been fond of goals

But that is likely because I do not have a very healthy relationship with them.

This week I found the following written by Leo Babauta.  I think this is good advice for me as I contemplate making that relationship more helpful and healthy.

The Usual Way of Working With Goals

The first way to work with sailing to a certain port is the traditional goal-setting way:

• You fix your sights on that port (the goal) and map a route to get there.
• But things don’t go as planned (maybe you didn’t work hard enough, got distracted, or other things came up) and now you feel discouraged.
• You can either give it up entirely, because the goal is making you feel pretty bad about yourself … or you can hold firm to the goal and resolve to do better.
• A storm hits you, then your boat starts falling apart, and you get sick during the journey. You start using your lack of progress towards you goal to beat yourself up more, feel shame, think of yourself as a failure, get frustrated with the world.
• Maybe you give up, or maybe you firmly stick with the destination and get some new resolve.
• But maybe you learn more about this destination as you travel toward it, and learn that it’s not really what you want. Maybe you find other ports that would actually be better to sail toward, that you didn’t know about before.
• Nope! You have to stick to the port you originally chose! No flexibility, the goal is the most important thing.
• Maybe (if you’re tenacious and also lucky) you get to your port. You feel a momentary happiness at your accomplishment, but this destination isn’t what you envisioned it to be. It’s not the solution to all your problems, not the joy you hoped it would be, and you feel let down.
• You immediately start thinking about your next destination, and barely notice the one you made it to.

As you can see, there are a lot of elements here that aren’t helpful:

1. Using the goal to beat yourself up and create shame, guilt, disappointment.
2. Sticking firmly to the goal even when you learn about better opportunities along the way, with no flexibility.
3. Thinking that there’s something magical about reaching the goal that will change your life in some way (rarely true).
4. The forward looking mindset (instead of looking at the present) will not end when you reach the goal, but will cause you to look toward the next goal immediately (maybe even while you’re heading toward the first goal).

So what’s a more helpful way? An intentional, conscious way of working with goals.

An Intentional Way of Working with Goals

Imagine instead that you aimed for sailing for that port … but worked with that aim in a more intentional, conscious way:

1. You think of this goal as an intention that you’re setting as you start out, a way to guide your direction in the current moment, not a fixed path.
2. You don’t think of the port (the goal) as a fixed outcome that you need to hold onto tightly, but rather just a way to guide yourself right now.
3. When you do notice yourself attached to the fantasy of your goal, you practice loosening your grip on it, and focus instead on the present moment. What action can you take right now that’s aligned with your intention?
4. Regularly check in with yourself, “What’s the most loving act I can take right now? What action right now would be aligned with my intention? What can I appreciate about this moment?”
5. Allow yourself to be flexible — if you’re not tightly attached to the goal, you can shift as you learn more, as you sail on your journey and understand the journey more, as you find new opportunities that might be more aligned with your deeper purpose.
6. If/when you do arrive at your destination, stop and be present with it, appreciating your journey, appreciating where you are, without immediately turning to the next thing.

This is a more flexible way of working with goals, and a more present-focused way of working, more intentional. The goal doesn’t become the most important thing — though it is helpful — the present moment and your actions and appreciation in the moment become the most important things.

zenhabits.net/intentionality/

FDR’s second inaugural address, 1937

Some quotes from that address that seem particularly pertinent to us now and in the coming years:

“To hold to progress today, however, is...difficult. Dulled conscience, irresponsibility, and ruthless self-interest already reappear. Such symptoms of prosperity may become portents of disaster! Prosperity already tests the persistence of our progressive purpose.”

“We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics. Out of the collapse of a prosperity whose builders boasted their practicality has come the conviction that in the long run economic morality pays.”

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

“Government is competent when all who compose it work as trustees for the whole people. It can make constant progress when it keeps abreast of all the facts. It can obtain justified support and legitimate criticism when the people receive true information of all that government does.

“If I know aught of the will of our people, they will demand that these conditions of effective government shall be created and maintained. They will demand a nation uncorrupted by cancers of injustice and, therefore, strong among the nations in its example of the will to peace.”

You can find the full address at the web site below.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5105/

“...and we shall be brought to stand before God” Alma 11:43-44,45

No matter what your politics, or whom you believe, the following is true.

When we desperately hope that the actions we took and the practices we indulged in did not cause us to do something stupid and that someone might find out about them...when we we fear that our actions may have led to harm to ourselves more than we fear that they may have harmed others...when we obfuscate in order to avoid discussing the things we did that might have led, with without our intending to, to harming others or ourselves, whether or not they actually did result in harm, we are on the very human, but very slippery and soul killing slope of fear, pride, dishonesty and loss of integrity.

It takes immense courage and nobility of soul to avoid that slide and face the loss of power, the derision, the sense of shame and and the terrifying sense of personal failure that will result if we speak the full truth about ourselves.

Almost all of us are not fully capable of instinctively rising to that level of courage and honesty.  For almost all of us, our first and strongest instinct is preservation of our sense of ourselves and our actions being acceptable, or at least, excusable.

But we whether we choose to speak the truth about our stupid habits or our awful actions, or our fully consciously chosen sins now, and suffer the frightening, ominous consequences now (and experience the freedom that comes from that truth speaking as well), or not, we are guaranteed that we will be irrevocably required to fully understand the truth about all of those things and that they will be, at a completely unavoidable time, fully, and completely publicly known.

We may choose: now or later.

Those who understand the freedom to change and the freedom from fear that comes from full self-knowledge and acknowledgement of stupidity, thoughtlessness and sin will choose it sooner, in spite of the immediate and sometimes extreme pain and difficult consequences it causes to themselves and to those who hoped they were better than they are.

Those who do not will continue to add to the pile of destructive speech and actions that haunt them, consciously or subconsciously, and the obfuscations, and the misplaced hope that nothing bad resulted, until that final, guaranteed, irrevocable unveiling of the full truth and all its consequences happens.

No wonder Zeezrom trembled when he began to see.*

There are two questions that come to each of us from this truth.
Which path will we choose?
And how will we teach the rising generation?

*Alma 11:43-44, 46

Watching a perfect parent. Matthew 5:48

If God, our Father, is the model for parenting a child, it is good to consider what kind of a parent we have noticed that He is.

A father who:
answers our requests and questions,
provides watchcare over us,
helps us to overcome our challenges,
is patient with our incomplete understanding,
is willing to forgive,
responds with welcome when we turn to Him,
comforts us when we are sad,
has patience with and compassion for our weaknesses,
is ready and willing to help us,
encourages us and expresses appreciation for our imperfect efforts to do good,
is completely and compassionately honest and worthy of our trust,
gives wise guidance and parameters,
asks honest questions,
provides books that teach truth and offer thoughtful guidelines

That looks like a good list of characteristics and actions to carefully try to incorporate in my own parenting and grandparenting.

  This is one of my very favorite photos of a listening  parent. I love the look of careful attention in the adult's face.

I don't know who took it, but you can find it on this web page:

http://blog.themancompany.com/how-to-be-a-friend-to-your-kid/attachment/2219/

Reading "Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood", by George MacDonald

“I am now getting old—faster and faster. I cannot help my gray hairs, nor the wrinkles that gather so slowly yet ruthlessly; no, nor the quaver that will come in my voice, not the sense of being feeble in the knees, even when I walk only across the floor of my study. But I have not got used to age yet. I do not FEEL one atom older than I did at three-and-twenty. Nay, to tell all the truth, I feel a good deal younger.—For then I only felt that a man had to take up his cross; whereas now I feel that a man has to follow Him; and that makes an unspeakable difference.”



“I love a parson, sir. And I'll tell you for why, sir. He's got a good telescope, and he gits to the masthead, and he looks out. And he sings out, 'Land ahead!' or 'Breakers ahead!' and gives directions accordin'. Only I can't always make out what he says. But when he shuts up his spyglass, and comes down the riggin', and talks to us like one man to another, then I don't know what I should do without the parson....

“I resolved to try all I could to be the same man in the pulpit that I was out of it. Some may be inclined to say that I had better have formed the resolution to be the same man out of the pulpit that I was in it. But the one will go quite right with the other. Out of the pulpit I would be the same man I was in it—seeing and feeling the realities of the unseen; and in the pulpit I would be the same man I was out of it—taking facts as they are, and dealing with things as they show themselves in the world.”

Becoming

“I was not making much progress at all.  The problem did not lie in my objectives.  My objectives were lofty—never stooping to dishonesty, not compromising my principles, standing forward to defend the right and make corrections when things didn’t go as they should....

“The problem was that pursuing these objectives was a project too much in behalf of myself.  ...My worries about myself [and my progress] led me to slight others or use them for my purposes...

“How then shall we come unto Christ so that everything will be different from what it could possibly be otherwise?

“By sacrificing all taking of offense.
By giving up criticism, impatience and contempt, for they accuse the sisters and bothers for whom Christ died.
By forswearing vulgarity and pornography which diminish both the user and the used.
By putting aside, in short, every practice that bears the image of murder, obliteration of souls, discord, and death.
By giving these practices their true name, violence, and abhorring even their first appearance.
By renouncing war in every form and proclaiming peace. (Doc. & Cov. 98:16)

“... in the long term, and often in the short one, people respond more energetically, think more clearly, work more joyfully, and build more wisely when they put one another ahead of self;

“when they welcome the interruption brought on by another person’s need;
when they do their work in ways that enhance each other’s work;
when the forget about getting credit [from God or man or self];
when they renouce in their hearts all sense of belonging to an elite company, even a company of the brightest or best trained or the most doctrinally pure;
when they reach out to and embrace those who are violating all of those principles.

“I am here this day because of those who treated me graciously in spite of my frequently making things worse by trying aggressively to make them better when patience would have been much the wisest way.”

C. Terry Warner, “Honest, Simple, Solid, True”

“I, the Lord, forgive sins unto those who confess their sins before me and ask forgiveness,“

“God will forgive you.”

That sentence often left me perplexed.  I appreciate it when someone forgives me for something I have done that has hurt them or made their life more difficult.  I appreciate not only the forgiveness that lightens my burden but I also respect the forgiver’s unselfish, generous, or peaceful nature that allows him or her to forgive the hurt, or dismay or difficulty that I have caused in his or her life.

 But, growing up, I couldn’t fathom God being emotionally hurt, or dismayed or thwarted by my sins.  God is love.  God is justice.  God is mercy.  And he’s all about agency.  He expects us to mess up.    I mean, God is not so small that He is so focused on obedience to his commandments that he feels personally offended or hurt  when I fail to obey.  He has no ego wrapped up in our compliance with his mandates. Nor does my disobedience make his eternal life more difficult.  Certainly he loves me and cares about me, but my personal recalcitrance or failures to avoid sin do not mess up his divine existence, or thwart His work, nor cause him great anguish over my ongoing imperfection.  Our God is a God of love, not a God of anguish or unhappiness over every mistake made by each of his billions of children. (What a miserable eternal life that would be)  His stand against sin is firm, but his emotional health and well being is not tied to my exact compliance or lack thereof this week.

I believe that most of the run of the mill sins we continually make don’t make God feel personally offended or thwarted, neither do they surprise Him.  Instead his response to our everyday sins that we recognize is more along the lines of consistent encouragement to get our act together better and, with His help, change.  So, forgiveness offered by God must not mean being excused and forgiven for emotionally injuring him or disappointing him by our not yet being perfect.

Yes, I know there are Old Testament and Pearl of Great Price references to God weeping or being angry.  I am not saying that He never does feel strong negative emotions.  But when He does, it is not because I or someone else failed to do something like remember to fast on Fast Sunday last month.

If I am right, and God is not personally, or physically, or emotionally, or spiritually, hurt or thwarted when I engage in less than perfect behavior, then it must mean that there is something other than personally offending Him or causing Him difficulty or disappointment that my plea for forgiveness must be about.

Lately I have been studying the topic of the mercy of God, which is a fascinating and lovely subject.  And I have found that you cannot study His mercy without also running into a lot of statements and discussions about His sense of justice and what makes Him angry.  And do you know which one thing, throughout the scriptures, always makes Him angry or sad?  It is you physically, emotionally or spiritually hurting one of his other children and not caring about it, or worse, thinking it’s cool or admirable.  THAT makes Him angry and doubles his sorrow, once for you, and the other for the person you hurt.

As a mom, I totally understand that.  In my current calling I can understand that.  I can remain pretty calm and unmoved by your messing with me, but if you willfully or ignorantly and/or arrogantly hurt one of my “kids” and don’t care enough to think twice about, or, horrifically, enjoy it,  I am mad.  I can keep my cool.  I can treat you with civility, I can even continue to try to help you, but I am furious.  Mother bear furious underneath my calm efforts to work for change.  Angry at the opportunities you had to do good in which you willfully chose to do something that hurt someone else.  And sad for you.  I am so, so sad for you.

And it will only be after you have not only changed, but also after you spoken to me about that change and your regret about the damage you did to people I love, that you will begin to feel at peace in my presence and will we be able to start to rebuild trust.

So I think that helps me understand better why the scriptures discuss confessing to and receiving forgiveness from God.  It’s when we understand not just the damage we’ve done to ourselves, but, more importantly, the callously inflicted damage, great or small, that our sins cause, or will cause in the lives of our brothers and sisters who He loves as deeply as He loves us, that we begin to understand more clearly why we seek His forgiveness as well as theirs.

“Obedience is the first law of heaven.” Where did that come from?

There is a sentance that is sometimes quoted by members of my faith, though few know where it came from.  It is this:

“Obedience is the first law of heaven.”

It was spoken by Joseph F. Smith in a conference talk on October 7, 1873. *

It is often used to advocate for compliance with laws that one does not see the reasons for, and therefore is disinclined to obey, intimating that if you don’t agree, or don’t understand, then just obey anyway, because obedience is that important.

But.   In that same talk.  Joseph F. Smith explains what he means by obedience.

“We talk of obedience, but do we require any man or woman to ignorantly obey the counsels that are given? Do the first Presidency require it? No, never. What do they desire? That we may have our minds opened and our understandings enlarged, that we may comprehend all true principles for ourselves; then we will be easily governed thereby, we shall yield obedience with our eyes open, and it will he a pleasure for us to do so.”

He is advocating an obedience that is very different from obedience for the sake of obedience.  He is speaking of an obedience that is based upon an opened mind and the understanding that we have aquired of the heavenly principles behind the law and how they play out when we live them and a clear desire on our part to live those principles because those principles are ones we want to make a part of who we are and part of the world in which we live.   It is an obedience that is totally different from “obedience just because obedience is super important.”

* https://scriptures.byu.edu/#:t27123:p565

Numbers 20:8-12 Thoughts on the saying “Obedience brings blessings and exact obedience brings miracles”

I’ve already posted on the origin of that saying that was quoted in a talk given by Russell Nelson several years ago at the MTC.   He clearly thought it was a helpful way to look at things, but he was not the author of it.  Which is actually reassuring, because it’s problematic for the following reasons.

1.  When is a blessing not a miracle?    When you get right down to it, a huge percentage of the blessings we receive are pretty miraculous in and of themselves considering the nature of the universe and the state of mankind.   I believe that delineating a difference between a blessing and a miracle is simply a matter of subsets, not a matter of two different things.  Blessings are good things that happen .  The scriptures teach us “that all good things cometh from God”.   Miracles are a subset of those good things; they are the good things that come from God that are unexpected, surprising and inexplainable to us.

2. If exact obedience was required for a miracle (an amazing, unusual blessing) to occur, then when Moses struck the rock in Numbers 20: 8-12, no water would have come out of it.  His action on that occasion was not exactly obedient (and God points that out to him) and certainly the Israelites were not exactly obedient at that time either.  Hence, this story belies the assertion that exact obedience is required for miracles.

I think it’s an excellent idea to try to obey God.  But reducing the possibility of miracles to situations where our exact obedience comes into play as an essential prerequisite to the unfolding of the miracle is not a spiritually healthy way to view our relationship with God.  It is a pattern of thinking that reduces our sense of His amazing mercy and long-suffering towards us, and can reduce our view of His interaction with us to an earned merit system, which it is definitely not.

So yes, seek to know and love and obey God and his commandments and to work daily under the guidance of his Holy Spirit, but don’t believe that His love and power and will to do amazing things are dependent upon your exact obedience.  They aren’t.

Just for the fun of it.

The Mistake Waltz

Excellently done.

https://youtu.be/wDP2c2FCHAM

Meek, Matthew 11:29

I read Elder Bednar’s Conference talk today.  It is a well constructed treatise on the quality of “meekness”.

I decided to look into the way the word "meek" has been understood and translated in recording what Jesus said in Matthew 11:29, “for I am meek and lowly in heart”.

So I looked up the translation of that verse in a the few languages I know.  The variety in the translations was interesting.  And I looked it up in an English dictionary.

One entry in the latter caught my eye.  It was an “obsolete” definition; a definition that was understood long ago, but has been dropped long since.  It was “gentle, kind”.

That made sense to me.  That definition of meek in the context of that verse would make a great deal of sense.  Probably more sense than the other traditional definitions in religious discourse: submissive, obedient, humble, inclined to righteous responsiveness or given to restraint.

“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am gentle and kind and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your soul.

So I looked up the that passage in Greek.  The word there is  “πραύς (praus)
And that word is defined in three different Greek dictionaries as “meek, gentle, kind, forgiving, mild, benevolent, humane”

You can find that same word also in Matthew 5:5,  (The meek shall inherit the earth.) Matthew 21:5, (Where Jesus describes his final entry into Jerusalem as “meek”) and 1st Peter 3:4. (the quality of meekness and quietness of spirit being highly valued by God)

Being gentle, kind, forgiving, benevolent, humane qualifies you as trusted by God to inherit the earth.

Kindness, forgivness, benevolence and a humanitarian response were the qualities of Christ at the time when he received the loudest acclaim and could have been, instead, proud and pleased and flattered.

When you are gentle, kind, forgiving, benevolent and humane, you are acting in a way that is highly valued by your Father in Heaven, the amazing Father who will be our ultimate judge

Obedience that comes from a way of being that includes kindness, gentleness, benevolence, forgivness and humane response (meekness) is different in quality and depth from the obedience that comes just from the other linked attributes of submission or humility or willingness to do good or self-restraint.  There is a power of goodness that is profound when the lost definitions are restored to the existing one.

I think that the contraction of and change in the word “meek” over the centuries has robbed us of something valuable in our reading of scripture.

Interestingly, I think that the men that Elder Bednar referred to in his talk,  Amulek and Pahoran, did incorporate some of those elements; Amulek in his willingness to take in and feed and help Alma when Alma was being persecuted, Pahoran's amazing response to Moroni's scathing remonstrance.

Elder Bednar didn't cover that though, perhaps because the language has changed.  I think that our language has left us with a loss.

Sometimes a spoken paragraph or two leaps out at you and you always remember it.

There have been a few times when someone has said something in a General Conference address and it has stayed with me for the rest of my life.  Something I needed to know and remember.  Here are two of them.  Nearly two decades old in my brain and my brain cells continue to bring them up into my consciousness on occasion.

“The adversary will attempt to thwart your mission, and you will face spiritual and physical danger. But if you will focus on the assignments [that the Lord has given you], if you will heed [His] voice, and if you will refuse to reduce mortality to a sight-seeing or a shopping trip, you will return safely home...

“The adversary is delighted when we act like sightseers... or shoppers...preoccupied with the vain things of this world that suffocate our spirits. Satan baits us with perishable pleasures and preoccupations—our bank accounts, our wardrobes, even our waistlines—for he knows that where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also (see Matt. 6:21). Unfortunately, it is easy to let the blinding glare of the adversary’s enticements distract us from the light of Christ.”

Sheri Dew, “We are Women of God”, October 1999

“Measure whatever anyone else asks you to do, whether it be from your family, loved ones, your cultural heritage, or traditions you have inherited—measure everything against the teachings of the Savior. Where you find a variance from those teachings, set that matter aside and do not pursue it. It will not bring you happiness” 

Howard W. Hunter “Counsel to Students and Faculty,” Church College of New Zealand, 12 Nov. 1990), quoted by Richard G. Scott in “Removing Barriers to Happiness”. April 1998

I suspect that those struck me because I, personally, either needed them then and/or needed them later.  Either way, they have been very helpful counsel to me over the years, and I am glad that they were said in my hearing.

Parental Praise and Finding Fault

What I have learned about what can happen when parental praise is both superlative and also accompanied by faultfinding:

The bar for being acceptable to the parent is set near perfection.

In your mind, your sense of being worthy of love becomes dependent upon having performed at a high level of what is expected.

If you believe the superlatives, there is a sense of being exceptional.   If you believe the fault-finding there is a real sense of distress at failing to live up to what is expected.   Believing both parts of the dichotomy creates a confused feeling of both pride, and also an enduring sense of dissatisfaction with self.

The combination of being regularly told that it is anticipated that you will be intrinsically amazing but also regularly being reminded that you have been in the past, and still are, annoyingly flawed reinforces the sense that you have failed.  It creates distress at the thought of having those flaws discovered and increases self-recrimination over them.

You become unwilling to express personal feelings that are less than perfect, believing that they will be dealt with judgmentally.

Praise from others ultimately becomes hollow and meaningless to you.

And appreciation, when received, though pleasant, and well meant, ultimately just triggers private dissatisfaction with self because of the past automatic coupling of both praise and fault-finding in the communication patterns that you heard so often as a child.

Moroni 7: Characteristics of actual faith

“Wherefore...[a man] cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek and lowly of heart.  If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God save the meek and lowly in heart;

In the New Testament, when Jesus says that he is meek and lowly, the words there are  “πραΰς” (praus) and “ταπεινὸς”  (tapeinos)  Which translate as “gentle” and “lowly”.

I think that means that there is no room for assumption or cockiness in the kind of faith and hope that God desires.  I think that means that whenever our faith becomes focused on achieving certain, hoped for outcomes or recognition of the rightness or our desires, to the detriment of our gentle awareness and treatment of others, our faith is not of God.  And whenever our faith fails to include humility and a willingness to receive, graciously, something that is given that is not what we wished for, we’ve got some learning to do.

Positive mental attitudes and focused confidence on desired outcomes, can be helpful sometimes to some people.  
But they are not faith.

I believe that you can save yourself a lot of confusion if you understand that.

When help is offered

Every offer or attempt I make to assist Christ with his work here is intrinsically inadequate or flawed or unnecessary when compared to what he can and does do.
Yet He graciously accepts it and consciously appreciates whatever is good about my offer or efforts even though He has already got everything and all eventualities planned for and covered.

Such is a model of gracious appreciation that I should follow more carefully.

Grace for grace

Grace is sometimes defined as the power beyond our own that God gives us. But that is not grace. That power given is the result of his grace. Grace is an attribute of God's character; his ready, open-hearted willingness to assist.

Webster’s 1828 dictionary points to the understanding of the word “grace” nearly 200 years ago.  In that dictionary the following definitions are found.
1. Favor; good will; kindness; disposition to oblige [willingly assist]; as a grant made as an act of
grace
2. The free unmerited love and favor of God
3. Favorable influence of God; divine influence or the influence of the spirit, in renewing the heart
and restraining from sin
4. Virtuous or religious affection or disposition, as a liberal [generous] disposition, faith meekness,
humility, patience, etc. proceeding from divine influence
5. Favor, mercy, pardon

God is full of grace (that generous good will, kindness and desire to assist etc) . When grace is presentin a being who is omnipotent and omniscient as well as fully good, the result in your life when you are a recipient of his willingly given help can be powerful and wise and good beyond comprehension.  (for a prime example: the Atonement on our behalf performed by Jesus Christ; a nearly incomprehensible act of love which he did for us due to his grace)

Understanding this definition of grace helps me to understand a phrase that shows up in scripture: "grace for grace"

For example:  "Therefore, blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; for these are they that shall be saved.  And may God grant, in his great fulness, that men might be brought unto repentance and good works, that they might be restored unto grace for grace, according to their works.

The above scripture we are called upon to repent, and turn to the voice of the Lord, which repentance changes the way we behave, becoming more involved in "good works". (Good works are "charitable acts").  In other words, as people repent they become more like God, more open-hearted, more loving, more willing to assist, ie. more full of grace. They change how they treat others, are more often aware of others’ needs, and are more often, therefore, in a place where they are consciously trying to help and bless others. They have incorporated grace (generous good will, kindness, desire to assist) more fully in their lives.  The grace that they have incorporated into their lives and into their responses to others puts them in a position where they respond to others more like God does.

This can become a continuing pattern: repentance (changing the desires of your heart so that they more closely align with God) leads to more communion with Him which leads us to respond to others with grace, which leads to our receiving greater divine understanding and assistance (grace) from Him and further repentance and communion and engagement with God, which increases our capacity to respond and act with grace, etc….

So, as we turn to God, repent and increase our commitment to acting in grace (ready, willing to wisely respond and act towards others with love) that, in turn, causes us to be in a position to receive and recognize and put to good employ the blessings that he, with great grace gives us to assist us in that work.  His grace becomes manifest in is his ready willingness to wisely and lovingly respond and help us with our efforts to, readily and willingly and wisely and lovingly respond to others.

It is a continual pattern:  God, who is full of grace, freely gives us greater capacity for grace in our own character and interactions with others as we welcome the invitation and seek to respond with grace to others in a manner that is similar to the way He responds to them, and to us.

We receive grace for grace.

Try reading these verses of scripture with this definition for the word “grace” inserted for clarity.

                                   

32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall
deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, [a life of
repentance] then is his ready, wise, open-hearted willingness to assist (his grace) sufficient for you, that by his ready, open-hearted willingness to assist (his grace) ye may be perfect in Christ; and if due to God’s ready, wise, open-hearted willingness to assist (his grace), ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.



15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
16 And of his fulness have all we received, [His powerful] ready, wise, open-hearted willingness to assist (grace) for [our imperfect] ready, wise, open-hearted willingness to assist.
17 For the law was given by Moses, but divine ready, wise, open-hearted willingness to assist (grace), and truth, came by Jesus Christ.

(If I think about the change in understanding from the Mosaic law which people tended to interpret as
the law of a God focused on justice and performance, which was the understanding when John the
Baptist said the above, and contrast it with the message of Christ’s forthcoming gift to all of amazing atonement which is an epitome of willingness to assist, this passage is profound to me.)


9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the
church of God.
10 But through God’s powerful ready, wise, open-hearted willingness to assist (grace) I am what I am: and his ready, wise, open-hearted willingness to assist (grace), which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the ready, wise, open-hearted assistance (grace) of God which was with me.
Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth ready, wise, powerful open-hearted assistance (grace) unto the humble.

So now try reading these two with that understanding of what grace is.  What do you think they teach us about the meaning and purpose of grace?

29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.


11. And I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us.
12 And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace;
13 And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace , until he received a fulness;


In that last one I  think that John is trying to describe Jesus' early life, a process, as he learned about the Father and His ways, of experiencing, learning from, and choosing to live a life that was epitomized by choosing to have grace be the essence of his interactions with others, and in that process, receiving willingly given and powerful divine assistance and increased comprehension (a gift of grace) from the Father as he did so.

I believe that such is the kind of life that we are also called to choose.

One thing I know.

This one thing I know: Great love or respect in a marriage or in a family is not anchored in seeking to create a standard of high performance in a mutually agreed upon worthy endeavor. That is not what ultimately makes that relationship become all that it can be. Rather great love is fostered and grows when there is “an anxious concern for the comfort and well-being of one’s companion”* combined with a deep, true and unwavering mutual appreciation and gratitude for all that is good in the other, regardless of challenges, or weakness, or “level of performance” as we seek, as individuals or as a couple, to simply do the good we can. 

A love thus fostered is the kind of love that will endure, with peace, to the end, long past the time when we are “performing at peak capacity” and far beyond the time in life when an elusive ideal of perfect seamlesss synchronization seemed mentally or physcially possible. It is a love that frees us to become, together, a union that is far beyond the measure of performance and rests simply and wholly in the realm of pure and heaven orchestrated charity. I choose that kind of love. I choose a love that simply is. I do not do it perfectly. Sometimes I forget. Sometimes I fail. But it is what I choose. That is one wall upon which I choose to lean my life’s ladder.

“Great beyond comprehension is the love of God. He is our loving Eternal Father. Out of His love for us, He has given an eternal plan which, when followed, leads to exaltation in His kingdom. Out of His love for us, He sent His Firstborn into the world, who, out of His own divine love, gave Himself as a sacrifice for each of us. His was an incomparable gift of love to a world that largely spurned Him. He is our great exemplar. We should let love become the lodestar of our lives…Let that divine love, shed on us, be reflected from our lives onto others of our Father’s children.” ~ Gordon B. Hinckley, April 1989

*G. B. Hinckley, “What God Hath Joined Together”, April 1991

The basics: The Sermon on the Mount

Sermon the Mount. Making it more accessible. Here's the first draft for the first chapter, Matthew 5, starting with verse 16:

When you know a good and right way to live, live that way. That helps other people to see goodness and recognize the goodness of God.

You may get angry sometimes and that anger may make you want to do stupid or bad things. Anger can cause you to make very bad choices Be very wise. Be sure your reasons for anger are good ones. And no matter how much anger you feel, do good things because of it, not bad things. And certainly do not ever let your anger cause you to put down other people, no matter who they are.

Just don't make fun of other people, period.

So...instead....when you have a disagreement with someone or you are mad at them, work hard to find a solution that works for both of you. Working on that will make it much easier for you to hear and understand God's words when you worship at church.

Keep your thoughts focused on what is good, not on what feels exciting and pleasurable, because your thoughts are important as well as your actions.

Repent.

Speak the truth plainly.

Don't swear.

Don't try to make things right by getting even.

When someone makes you give away something or to do extra work, be nice about it and generous too.

Love your neighbor.

Love your enemy.

Be good to people even if they are nasty to you.

Pray for people who are mean.

Do your good deeds quietly. Don't feel like you need to get other people to praise you for doing good things.

Pray privately.

When you pray, say what you think and be respectful.

Be thankful.

Ask Heavenly Father for help and for forgiveness and for the things you need.

Forgive others.

When you fast, don't complain and groan about it.

Be focused on being and doing good, not on getting stuff.

See life clearly and recognize goodness.

Put God ahead of money in your heart.

Be merciful.

Don't judge unkindly.

Worry about your own sins, not other people's sins.

Treat sacred things with respect and share them wisely and with wise restraint.

When you need God's help, ask for it, seek it. You will find it.

Treat others the way you like to be treated.

Seek to live the way God wants you to live and to do what he wants you to do. Doing that leads to eternal life.

Watch what happens when other people make choices and do stuff. That will help you to tell whether or not they are honest and true and good and whether or not their ideas can be trusted.

Be sure that when you are doing something in Jesus' name that it really is what he wants you to be doing.

When you learn Jesus' teachings don't just listen to them, actually do what he teaches.

So, what brings miracles to pass?

Miracles are things that happen when God's power creates a good event that we could not have created by ourselves with our current knowledge and understanding.  Some are big and some are small.  Each one is good.

So, is exact obedience really the thing that brings miracles?

I studied in order to find out what the scriptures say are the things that make a miracle possible.

This is what I found.

Real miracles are possible 

• When God commands them to happen.  (1 Nephi 17:50-51, Mormon 9:16-31))
• According to our faith in Christ (2 Nephi 26:13 and Mosiah 8:18, Alma 57:26, Helaman 4:25, Mormon 9:16-31, Ether 12:8-22, Morni 7:33-42)
• By the power of God (Alma 23:6, Alma 57:26, Helaman 4:25, Mormon 9:16-31)
• When the one who performs the miracle is repentant (3 Nephi 8:1)
• When our hearts are open to understand the Lord's words and we desire to communicate with Him (3 Nephi 19:24-35, Mormon 9:16-31)
• When they are done in the name of Jesus, among a group of peaceful, just, and generous people (4 Nephi 1:25)

And finally (and I think this is important) being able to perform miracles is a gift.  We do not earn the ability to do them.  They are a divine gift.  (Moroni 10:12)

So, no, it seems that exact obedience does not earn or bring miracles.   But God can command them to happen.  And our faith in Christ and his teachings, and our willingness to work with him with a repentant heart helps.

So, once again, we are back to the basics: 

God's divine power 

Faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ (not faith in a specific wished for miracle), 

Continuing repentance, 

Honest and willing hearts engaged in communication with God

Continuing to learn about, and live, a Christlike life 

Those bring miracles: events (both large and small) where you see the help or influence of God creating good situations or events that you cannot do yourself.  

Actually, that makes a lot of sense to me. 

3 days ago

Details

Obedience brings what?

So what do the scriptures say are, in reality, the anticipated results of obedience to the commandments of God?

It’s interesting how catchy sentences are so easy to remember.  But there is one problem with catchy phrases in the gospel.  They can oversimplify things.  

I have been thinking about this sentence that was put together by a young missionary several years ago.  So I went to the scriptures to find out what the scriptures really say can be the blessings that come from obedience.

Of course, none of us are perfect in obeying commandments of God, but happily, He does not require perfection before we start seeing some of the results. He freely gives to his children who are trying to do good.  And I think you are. 

Here are a few things I found:

Obedience is sometimes referred to as being “faithful and diligent”. (Doctrine and Covenants 59:3)

Obedience (being faithful and diligent) to God’s commandments helps us

• to know whether or not the commandments are from God (John 7:17)

• to abide in Jesus’ love (John 15:10)

• to love our brothers and sisters with true charity (1st Peter 1:22)

• to become worthy to enter heaven (Matthew 7:21)

• to be unshakeable in times of trouble (Mathew 7:24-25)

• to be prepared for celestial glory (Doctrine and Covenants 88)

• to experience "blessedness" (the happiness that comes to those who find their purpose and fulfillment in God. (Luke 11:28)

• to receive the good things of the earth, good harvest, blessings from above, and more commandments and revelations (Doctrine and Covenants 59:3-4)

That’s an interesting list of specific blessings to consider.

So, being obedient, if it’s done wisely, doesn’t necessarily result in you getting what you want, or being “successful” in your current work.  Instead, it can result in some different distinct blessings that are pretty amazing.

Something to consider: As we look at that list, do we recognize some of those blessings and results unfolding in our lives as we are faithful and diligent? Or are we so focused on other blessings that we want, and that we think we can “earn” with obedience, that we miss the blessings that he so freely gives?

They are amazing.

Where the couplet "Obedience brings success; exact obedience brings miracles" came from

According to Tanner Skousen, the phrase in question was spoken at an MTC talk given by Wendy Watson Nelson (not Elder) in May of 2011.

http://www.missionsite.net/eldertannerskousen/viewletter/105446

Elder Nelson’s use of the same phrase shows up in a talk there four months later and then again in an MTC talk given in 2013.

But it seems that the phrase did not originate with them.

Sister Nelson used it a second time in a Boulder Colorado Stake Fireside on Feb. 3, 2013. 

According to an article written about that talk Sister Nelson said that the phrase came out of a conversation between a mission president and a missionary. And it was the young missionary who coined the couplet.

https://communityblogconsiderthis.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/how-to-obtain-miracles/

So why is this couplet still being bandied about in regards to the gospel?

I think this is another case of a catchy phrase being picked up because it’s catchy and arresting and then getting out of hand.

Moral of the story: think very carefully before you use a catchy phrase in a talk.

Our Father's love, justice and mercy. Doing the best we can with what we have been given.

“…the Lord doth grant unto all nations, of their own nation and tongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he seeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.” (Alma 29:8)


“We believe in what was revealed to us and in what was revealed to you; our God and your God are one and the same” (29:46) “We have assigned a law and a path to each of you [Muslims, Jews, and Christians]. If God had so willed, He would have made you one community, but He wanted to test you through that which He has given you, so race to do good: you will all return to God and He will make clear to you the matters you differed about” (Qur'an  5:48)


“But while one portion of the human race is judging and condemning the other without mercy, the Great Parent of the universe looks upon the whole of the human family with a fatherly care and paternal regard; He views them as His offspring, and without any of those contracted feelings that influence the children of men, causes “His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” He holds the reins of judgment in His hands; He is a wise Lawgiver, and will judge all men, not according to the narrow, contracted notions of men, but, “according to the deeds done in the body whether they be good or evil,” or whether these deeds were done in England, America, Spain, Turkey, or India. He will judge them, “not according to what they have not, but according to what they have,” those who have lived without law, will be judged without law, and those who have a law, will be judged by that law. We need not doubt the wisdom and intelligence of the Great Jehovah; He will award judgment or mercy to all nations according to their several deserts, their means of obtaining intelligence, the laws by which they are governed, the facilities afforded them of obtaining correct information, and His inscrutable designs in relation to the human family; and when the designs of God shall be made manifest, and the curtain of futurity be withdrawn, we shall all of us eventually have to confess that the Judge of all the earth has done right.” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 218)

Great and abominable What? 1st Nephi 13:6-9

 “group”, “organization”, “assembly”, “church”, “cohort”, “network”, “support group”, “circle”, “band”, “clique”, “opinion leaders”, “insiders”, “movers and shakers” .... whatever term is used...their designation as “great and abominable” is manifested in their desires and motivations, conscious or unconscious:

“And the angel spake unto me saying [these] are the desires of this great and abominable...”

Wealth, 

expensive fashion, 

self-indulgence, 

objectification of others, 

sexual pleasure,
a deep emotional appetite for praise that overrules any sense of compassion

Sobering.  Very sobering.

“Church” in the New Testament

In the New Testament there are two words that early translators encountered that have an interesting history.  The two words are kuriakos and ecclesia.  The vast majority of those encounters were with  the word “ecclesia”.  A handful of other times, it was the word “kuriakos” or “kuriakon”.

The two words in Greek have different meanings.

 The meaning of "Ku-ri-a-kos" is understood by its root: "Ku- ri-os," which means "lord." Thus, "kuriakos"  means "pertaining to the lord." It refers to something that pertains to, or belongs to, a lord. The Greek "kuriakos" eventually came to be used in Old English form as "cirice" , then "churche" (kerke), and eventually "church" in its traditional pronunciation.

You can see that etymological history in this common this etymological notation:
Church [Old English cirice, circe; Middle English chereche, chiriche, chirche; whence churche, cherche, etc.: -Greek Kuriakon...]

However, “kuriakos” only turns up twice in the New Testament.
1 Corinthians 11:20
Revelation 1:10

In both cases it is translated as “the Lord’s”

The vast majority of times that the word “church” shows up in the New Testament, the Greek word translated is not “kuriakos”,the word that developed into our modern English “church”, it’s “ecclesia”.  For example, when Jesus told Peter “upon this rock I will build my church”, the word used was “ecclesia”.

"Ecclesia" appears in the New Testament approximately 115 times. That's just in this one grammatical form. It appears also in other forms. And in every instance, except three, it is translated as "church” in the King James Version. Those three exceptions are found in Acts 19:32, 39, 41. In these instances the translators rendered it "assembly" instead of "church." But, the Greek word there is exactly the same as the other 112 entries where it was translated as "church”.

It turns out that the Acts 19 translation is closest to the actual Greek meaning.  It means a civil body or other organized group of what, in public affairs parlience, is called “opinion leaders”; people whose personal convictions sway that of others.

In Acts 19, "ecclesia" is a rather like a mondern town council: a civil body in Ephesus. Thus, the translators chose to use the word “assembly”.  However, the other 112 times they translated this word, that means “an assembly of people with convictions and power to change people’s opinions and decisions” they translated it as  "church."

Interestingly, The Greek word "ecclesia" is when disected is defined as: "The called-out (ones)" [ECC = out; KALEO = call]. Thus, you can see how this word was used to indicate a civil body of select (called) people.  And could also be used to indicate a group of believers “called” to the work and organized and meeting to do so.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica:
In the New Testament, "ecclesia" (signifying convocation) is the only single word used for church. It (ecclesia) was the name given to the governmental assembly of the city of Athens,duly convoked (called out) by proper officers and possessing all political power including even juridical functions.

Quoting from the Oxford Universal English Dictionary on the word "ecclesia":
Ecclesia [mediaeval Latin, and Greek - from : SUMMONED] -A regularly convoked assembly, especially the general assembly of Athenians. Later, the regular word for church.

So, it seems, there is a broader meaning to the word “church” when it is found in the New Testament.  It does not just mean an organized, christian religion, or the building in which they meet, or a particular denomination or organanized group of Christian believers.  It means a group of people with a common purpose, any common purpose, that meets to discuss and works to further that purpose.  An “ecclesia”.

Try using that definition when you find that word in the New Testament.  I think you will find it enlightening and sensible.
“Upon this rock I will build my people who are gathered together with a common purpose.”  Matthew 16
“And great fear fell upon all the assembled people at that gathering, and upon as many as heard these things.”  Acts 5
“He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the assembly of people called and gathered together.”  1 Corinthians 14
Etc. Etc.

The Book of Mormon uses the word “church” as well.  It is generally used the same way there.   And if you understand it there the way it is understood above in the New Testament, it also elucidates the nature of “the great and abominable church” that is discussed in 1 Nephi 13.  With this understanding, this phrase is not restricted to meaning a religious organization, but to any organization or assembly of people who are united in a common focus.   Which actually makes more sense.

(Side note: in the first half of the 19th century, the word “organization” did not yet carry the definition of “a group of people organized to do something”. — see Websters Dictionsary 1828 edition.  That came much later.  Therefore the English words used for such in the Book of Mormon translated in that era are “church”, “band”, "assembly", “combination” etc.)

The above is interesting to me (which of course, is why I wrote what I had learned), and perhaps a bit of additional support to the generally accepted notion that   when we restrict our definition of “the great and abominable church" to entities or people gathered within a religious structure we are missing quite a bit of the whole.

1 Nephi 12 War really IS hell

”And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the people of my seed gathered together in multitudes against the seed of my brethren; and they were gathered together in battle.  And the angel spake unto me, saying, ‘Behold the fountain of filthy water which thy father saw; yea, even the river of which he spake; and the depths thereof are hell.”  (vs. 15-16)

The battles he saw in vision were nearly 1000 years in the future.   And like every war before and since, they met the description of  “the seed of one brother gathered against the seed of another brother”,  “filthy water”, and the depths thereof were hellish.  Every. Single. Tragic one.  

Why does that description fit?  Because we are all brothers and sisters.  Children of God.   And because warring requires “hard hearts”, which are created when we succumb to “the temptations of the devil, which blindeth the eyes, and hardeneth the hearts of the children of men...” (vs. 17).  The devil deals in distrust coupled with fear that hardens hearts, which hearts, because of that distrust and fear, become prone to lash out in hatred or violence in words as well as deeds.

As Dieter Uchtorf said, when he described a study made of  two different combinations of groups of people in conflict, “They discovered that “each side felt their own group [was] motivated by love more than hate, but when asked why their rival group [was] involved in the conflict, [they] pointed to hate as [the other] group’s motivating factor. *

“In other words, each group thought of themselves as the “good guys”—fair, kind, and truthful. By contrast, they saw their rivals as the “bad guys”—uninformed, dishonest, even evil.  They silenced those they did not like. They shamed and demonized them. They considered them inferior—even less than human. Once you degrade a group of people, you are more likely to justify words and acts of violence against them.“ **

So, I must be watchful of my heart, to turn it to the Lord and to charity, and not to overpowering fear, nor hate, nor worry, nor anxiety, nor indulgence in disdain or disregard for “the seed of my brother” no matter how horribly he is behaving, both in my daily interactions as well as in large scale conflicts in society.  Turning to charity and the Lord frees me to act wisely, and taste the fruit, and share it, and not drown in hellish depths.  Hopefully even when they swirl around me.

“...and the LORD swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided. The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.”
~ Exodus 14:21-22

Towering waters on either side, and yet passing to safety on dry land.



* Boston College, “Study Finds Intractable Conflicts Stem from Misunderstanding of Motivation,” ScienceDaily, Nov. 4, 2014, sciencedaily.com.
** Dieter Uchtdorf, “Three Sisters”, October 2017