Effects of Faith vs Agency (2019/05/30)

In Ether 12: 13-17 Moroni gives examples of how various individuals' faith affected other people and things.

13 Behold, it was the faith of Alma and Amulek that caused the prison to tumble to the earth.
     
14 Behold, it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites, that they were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost.

15 Behold, it was the faith of Ammon and his brethren which wrought so great a miracle among the Lamanites.

16 Yea, and even all they who wrought miracles wrought them by faith, even those who were before Christ and also those who were after.

17 And it was by faith that the three disciples obtained a promise that they should not taste of death; and they obtained not the promise until after their faith.

Moroni gives examples of how our faith can affect others:
Alma and Amulek-the prison walls
Ammon and brethern-converting the Lamanites
Nephi and Lehi-converting the Lamanites in the prison
3 Nephites-fulfilment of the promise of the transformation of their body

Just as light from a lamp shines on other objects and 'affects' them (making them visible), our faith can radiate onto others and help reveal what their potential can be-that is, what they will allow their potential to be. 

We know it doesn't overpower their own agency, as it says clearly in the book of Alma that many were not converted by Ammon and his brethren because of the hardness of their hearts.  Many Lamanites were not converted because of the influence of those hard hearted Nephite descenters. 

Alma 23:14
And the Amalekites were not converted, save only one; neither were any of the Amulonites; but they did harden their hearts, and also the hearts of the Lamanites in that part of the land wheresoever they dwelt, yea, and all their villages and all their cities.

Both those who were converted and those who were not demonstrates the principle of how 'affecting' and 'agency' dance together. We can shine our 'light' on others, but it doesn't force them to remove the barriers they have built up that blocks the light. People can aggrivate others and encourage them to build barriers, but it doesn't force them to build them or keep them up and refuse to let the light shine on them.

I believe this is the same as the influence of the Spirit of the Lord and the spirit of the devil.  They both encourage us (or whisper to us) to follow their particular direction, but neither is allowed to force us to feel or believe any particular thing.  They just provide the outside 'vibration' so we can see which strings inside of us resonate with them.

They reveal us to ourselves.

Priorities and Stuff (2019/05/07)

In 3 Ne 13:25 the Lord says:
Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment

I think this scripture is not only referring to not worrying about where these necessities of life will come from, it is also referring to the value and priority we put on them.   
How important is it to be stylish?  
How important is it to have the nicest or the nicest looking things or home.  
  
The things and style may not be intrinsically bad,  and there can be some importance regarding thair value and quality.
  
The issue is about the priority we put on them at the sacrifice of other more eternally weighted issues.

To Pack-rat or Not To Pack-rat (2019/05/06)

I'm reading in 3 Ne 13.  I come to verses 19 and 20.  At first I see them as distinctly telling me to stop being a pack-rat.  Then I read verses 21-22, and 23-24.  They all tell me the same thing.

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal;
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
22 The light of the body is the eye; if, therefore, thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24 No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.

I see these verses as an entire tritise on hourding stuff, being a pack-rat, not being able to let go of stuff.

I'm not sure why or from where I gained the "skill" of being a pack-rat.  I've always attributed it to the fact that my father grew up in the Great Depression, and his father lost their ranch because of it, so he was a pack-rat.  There must be some personal experience I had which made me ressonate with that quality he had and therefore become the same way. 

While I will delve into my emotional history to figure that out, in the mean time, I think I will start to use these scriptures as a template to help me learn how to be less sentimental and to go through my stuff and let it go - either to a second-hand store or to throw it away.

All three of these concepts he gives describe the same paradigm as far as needing to hold onto stuff:

1)Treasures (stuff) on earth vs treasures of experiences with the Spirit and people.  They carry over into the next phase of our lives whereas the physical things do not.

2)Eyesingle to God vs darkened by focusing on my stuff.  In my mind, my stuff gives meaning and definition to who I am and validates what activities I did or experiences I had with someone.  If I realize those experiences are not retained or lost depending on if I still have the physical reminder of them, but they exist eternally separately than their physical reminders, I don't feel I am losing them by throwing away the endless minutia I've collected to remind me of them.

3)Serving God vs Mammon is integrated by the fact that having our minds and focus free to serve God is distracted by having and wanting so much stuff.  So much stuff takes time to collect, clean (if we do), move it around to get to other stuff, keep it sorted in our mind, figure out how to get more, etc., etc., etc.  It is not just our time that it absorbs, but it is our mental energy and capacity it is using up.  We can't have as much of our mind available to God when it also has to keep track of our over-stocked stuff.

Heavy sigh..... I suppose this first awareness is my first big step in the right direction.

Personal Progression Carries Forward (05/04/2019)

I'm reading in 3 Ne 14.  Christ says 'strait' is the way.  I was writing about how we grow up with lots of target rings which create imperfections in us, but we can still be on a 'narrow' path of our own learning and perfecting and leading us to heaven, even if we are not perfect in the process.

Then a series of concepts struck me.  Our experiences and traumas give us target rings which lead to imperfections on our part.  The shock events stem from not knowing that we are valuable children of God and that He will always provide for us, no matter how rough life gets.  I have memories of understanding at non-verbal ages.  Different people have variying insights into life at various ages which, I propose, are a direct result of who they were spititually in the premortal life, not just their life experience here.  

So, Christ's great advancement of who he was spiritually before he was born was the way he was able to:

1    understand perspective that allowed him to see things in a way to not get target rings and to remain in a perfect condition.  Not all target rings come from abuse.  Many are just things that happen for which we are not prepared causing us to conclude we're on our own (no divine father helping us) or we're not OK (no divine relationship with God).  If Jesus' spirit was so much more advanced than ours are, he would have that perspective remain stronger than anyone else ever has been able to.

2 Because he was so spiritually advanced, he was in tune with spiritual revelation so well and so early.  That is why he was able to be taught by angles at early ages.  

The point is that he did not receive an  unfair advantage of being taught by angles that the rest of us did not have which enabled him to be perfect.  One may say that, 'If I had angles teach me in my childhood, I could have been perfect too.'  However, he had angles teach him BECAUSE he was that "in tune,"  NOT he was that "in tune" BECAUSE he had angles. 

This whole thing has given me such a greater awe and respect for him.  He was perfect in the permortal life. That perfection carried on into his mortal life and was strong enough to tame the weaknesses of the flesh.  How much greater my love and gratitude to him for being willing to suffer so that my imperfections can be coreccted and not hold me back for eternity.

References:

Alma 13:5 - 3
3 Ne 14:14
DC 88:40
Alma 12:10
DC 71:6
Matthew 13:12 (11-16)
Isaiah 6:9-10 (the people were not willing to)

Progression of Faith (05/04/2019)

Progression of Nephites' Faith and Converstion

Verse 2 He says he perceives they are weak and cannot understand. (Note that spiritual things are understood by the spirit of the person; the degree of the person's faith correlates to the degree they can undersstand spiritual things.)

Verse 8 He says their faith is sufficient that he should heal them.

Verse 14 He says to the Father he is troubled by the lack of faith of the House of Israel - generalized sounding terms.

Verse 15 He prays marvelous things to the Father for them.

*****
Verse 16-17 they express the internal conversion experience they had.
*****

Verse 20 He says they are blessed because of their faith, and that his joy is full because of them.

The progression of their faith did not happen after they saw the ill and lame healed, in verses 9-10.  It came after he blessed their children and prayed for them.

The point is that it was not a physical thing they saw that converted them.  It was a spiritual thing they felt that converted them.

To Be Cut Off Was Good (2019/03/09)

Alma 42: 7

And now, ye see by this that our first parents were cut off both temporally and spiritually from the presence of the Lord; and thus we see they became subjects to follow after their own will.

Thus we see - the wording shows the     second sentence is a conclusion from the first.

The only way they could have been in a position to 'follow their own will' would be if they were no longer in the presence of the Lord (cut off from his presence).  If they were still in his presence, it would be influencing them.  In his presence there would be no way to know for sure what they would do on their own away from his influence.*

This is the same function of when the Father withdrew his spirit from the Savior during the crucifixion.  Jesus said "why hast thou forsaken me?"

 

Mark 15: 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

He also had to be 'cut off' so it would be an absolute knowledge of what he would do when 'subject to follow after his own will'.

That connects to what the Saivor said repeatedly.  He came into the world not to do his own will, but to do the will of the Father.

3 Nephi 11:11

...I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.    

*It is clear we still had our ability to choose while in the Father's presence in the pre-mortal life. That would be why there are all sorts of levels of valiency among the spirit children of our Heavenly Father.     

Abraham 3:19, 22

19 And the Lord said unto me: These two facts do exist, that there are two spirits, one being more intelligent than the other; there shall be another more intelligent than they; I am the Lord thy God, I am more intelligent than they all.

22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;

    

The other evidence is Lucifer and 1/3 of the hose of heaven.  Even in the Father's presence, they chose to rebell against his plan and push their own plan.

Abraham 3:27,28

...And another answered and said: Here am I, send me. And the Lord said: I will send the first. 

28 And the second was angry, and kept not his first estate; and, at that day, many followed after him

DC 29:36

...the devil... rebelled against me, saying, Give me thine honor, which is my power; and also a third part of the hosts of heaven turned he away from me because of their agency    

Thus we see we can have and exercise our own will in his presence.  As far as gaining the power of Godhood, there needs to be a way to know that we merit the trust of all the intelligences because we will always do the good thing. A more ultimate test for that is to know what we will do when we are on our own (spiritually speaking). That is, there needs to be some way to see what we will do when we are not environmentally under his influence, i.e. in his presence. 

In mortality, while we are not under his influence by just being, as it were, in the same room, we still have the choice to allow him to influence us.  That is also part of what is revealed when we are on our own.  Do we want and allow and even seek for his influence to help us?

John 15: 26

26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me    

John 10:27

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me    

I see so much more how important it was that Adam and Eve were spiritually and physically 'cut off from the presence of the Lord.'  It was for their sakes and for ours.

From All Eternity to All Eternity - My Theory (2019/03/03)

I observed a concept while we were watching a film called Risen. This Roman Centurian is hunting for the people who stole the body of Jesus. The last time he had seen Jesus was when he crucified him. Jesus'  face had pain and misery on it from the ordeal he had just suffered through.  The film was graphic enough (but not gratuitously graphic) to give you a good sense of the pain inflicted from the tortue of being crucified.

He follows all the leads he gets to find the apostles. He bursts  into a room where some of Jesus' deciples are known to be. He sees Jesus sitting with the 12 apostles and some others. Jesus smiles at him.

It struck me that all the suffering and pain he went through doesn't matter any more because right now he is happy and painfree. This is the principle I've been exploring of "from all eternity to all eternity". When we make a growth, realization, gain knowledge, strengthen faith, etc. now, the benefit of it extends forward to eternity, but it also extends back to all eternity. So, my joy then will completely change my grief now, and it will no longer be grief.

From All Eternit to All Eternity

My theory.

The Lord says he is from all eternity to all eternity. Yet, he had a beginning. He had not always been in the state he is now. He also had to go through mortality. As I thought about that, I realized (theorized) that when he achieved his immortal, glorified status, it changes who he is to be in the future eternity, and also who he was in the past eternity. His current condition extends backwards through eternity just like it extends forward through all eternity.

When we make a growth, realization, gain knowledge, strengthen faith, etc. now, the benefit of it extends forward to eternity, but it also extends back to all eternity. His NOW is the same forward and backwards. That, I realize, also emcompases the concept in the Lord's statement, I AM as his name.

Talk in Draper Sac Mtg (2019/01/27)

Subject: How opposition in all things has helped me know better the Savior and his atonement.

Draper Jan 27, 2019

 

Does opposition in all things help you better know the Savior and his atonement?

 

Lehi introduced the phrase ‘opposition in all things’. Before we read what he said, let’s evaluate the meaning of the word ‘opposition’. The ending of ‘-tion’ means a ‘state of being. The prefix ‘op-’ is a variation of the prefix ‘-ob’, which means “against, or facing”. It can have a ‘negating’, adversarial meaning. But I want to focus on the meaning of ‘facing’. The root of ‘pose’ is to place a body in a specific form or place. Like this: pose

 

So together, we have the state of placing a body in a form or place facing another body.

 

In the late 14century, opposition was used “as an astrological term for the situation of two heavenly bodies exactly across from one another in the heavens.”

 

You and I are in opposition to each other – we are in positions that are facing each other. Except the Bishopric – they’ve got my back.

 

In 2 Ne Chapter 2 Lehi gives his dissertation on the subject of opposition in all things. I’m going to read, condense, elaborate and paraphrase.

 

2 Ne 2: starting at verse 7.

7 … [the savior will intervene for] those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit;

10…. [people will be judged by the Lord according to], the ends of the law which the Holy One hath given, unto the inflicting of the punishment which is affixed, which punishment that is affixed is in opposition to that of the happiness which is affixed, to answer the ends of the atonement—

Here he begins the details:

11 For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, … righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. [Which would make,] all things a compound in one [parapharsing: everything would be the same, which would make it ] as dead, [just like an inanimate object is ‘dead’, like a rock] having no life neither death, nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery...

12 [An then], there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. And that would… destroy the wisdom of God and his eternal purposes [which we know from Moses 1:39 is to help mankind achieve exaltation and eternal life]…

13 …no law, [means] … there is no sin. … no sin [means]… no righteousness…[without]…righteousness there [is] no happiness…[nor punishment nor misery, ie consequences for being wicked, so-chaos can reign] … if these things are not [if there is no righteousness nor happiness] there is no God. And … we are not,…all things must have vanished away.

14 …I speak for your profit and learning…there is a God, and he hath created all things,

15 …to bring about his eternal purposes in the end of man, [to achieve this ]… it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter.

16 And so, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. [which is the supreme principle of our agency] However, man could not act for himself [unless he was given a choice of]… one [thing] or the other.  

Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Simply put, if you eat this fruit, you will die.

 

The opposition choice was:

Don’t eat of the fruit and live forever as you are –

Or-

Eat of the fruit and end up dying (but that will let you have a family)

 

18…[so Satan comes and highlights the choice they have to make, with a little alteration of the truth so it seems more enticing]..Partake of the forbidden fruit, and ye shall not die,[pfh-that’s so rediculous] [instead] ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.

19 And after Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit they were driven out of the garden

20 [to grow food, have a family, live,…. pull weeds, etc.] that they might repent, [putting them in a] state of probation, and their time was lengthened,…

22 And now, behold, if Adam had not [eaten] he would not have fallen [out of immortality and into mortality], but he would have remained in the Garden of Eden. And [everything would have] remained in the same state in which they were … forever...

23 …they would have had no children; wherefore they would have … had no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew no sin…

25 [He then tells the point of our existence here] …men are, that they might have joy. [Keeping in mind Moses 1:39 that God’s intent is to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life-to be as he is. To make sure this happens, more explanation is given by Lehi…]

26 …the Messiah cometh to redeem the children of men from the fall….[which ‘fall’ caused them to] BECOME FREE forever, KNOWING GOOD FROM EVIL; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, [except] by the punishment of the law at the… last day ….

28 … [so now, we are in a position where we are] free to choose liberty and eternal life ... or … to choose captivity and death, ...

 

I hope it is clear that in order to bring about our exaltation and eternal life, we must have the opportunity to choose it. In order to choose it, we must have options to choose between. It won’t work if all your options are the same. If all your clothes are bright orange jumpsuits, you never get to choose what color you are going to wear-it would a choice prison. So we had to be in a state where we have options that face each other, are different than each other, or in other words, oppose each other.

We definitely struggle with things in our lives; I don’t want to minimize that some can be exceedingly difficult. Brother Back stated it so well last week: “Success and progression are sometimes directly correlated with discomfort.”

 

My proposition is to enhance our paradigm. Look at ‘opposition’ in your life not as adversarial, or a struggle.   Look at it as a situation in which you have the privilege of making choices that face each other.

 

Look at opposition as opportunity. We have the same prefix of op (facing) and the suffix –unity, meaning ‘a property of being one’. The root word ‘port’ is a harbor, or haven. Original Latin meaning was an entrance. So we have the entrance to a harbor or place where we bring things facing or against each other into harmony or unity within our life.

 

Without this blessing of ‘multiple opportunities’ in life, we would have no choices, and therefore no agency, and no growth. We already individually decided against that plan when Lucifer presented it to the Council in Heaven.

 

So here we are in a mortal life full of opportunities to choose. As 2 Ne 2 states, we could not know joy if we never know misery.

 

We began working on our talks 2 weeks ago. Last Monday we had an… um… ‘opportunity’ suggested to us to sell our two houses and move into a smaller third home for convenience of other people. We didn’t like the suggestion and I felt frustrated about how to approach this. My thoughts at work kept being distracted to it. Then I remembered my talk. I thought, this isn’t an adversarial situation. This is merely an opportunity to make choices. That took the pressure off my thoughts so I could concentrate and wait until the evening when Ken and I could discuss the idea presented to us. If you are curious, no, we are not selling either of our houses.

 

When I got to my first area on my mission, I was so excited. I tried to do everything my trainer told me. And, she kept telling me what I needed to change, sometimes quite critically. Four months into my mission, I realized we had a big problem. I kept doing things that made her upset.  One day while tracting on a long country road, she said out of the blue, "I hate you and everything about you!" She rehearsed to me that previous companions had all said they hated her and had asked our mission president to be transfered.

 

I wanted to do the right things. I decided I would not ask him for a transfer, and I would try my hardest to let her know she was loved by at least one person. By the time 6 months came, I was pretty worn down. Any sense of self-value I was quite demolished. She talked about the struggles in her family, and that they would frequently threaten each other with knives.  I feared that I would wake up one night to see her coming in my room brandishing a butcher knife from the kitchen. By the 7th month, I was praying she would get transferred. When she was transferred, I hid little notes in her luggage reminding her of all of our good times.

There is a secret ingredient to this story.  In the MTC, I had been so moved by all I learned and by the Spirit, I felt to repent and prayed for forgiveness and for humility. I am very grateful I did. I needed them both. The relationship with this companion was similar to a previous relatinship. I now had the opportunity to improve my way of interacting. In the process, I became aware that my 'good' self-esteem was not real but an illusion.  I saw the Lord carving away disillusions. Because I was leaning on him, he helped me correct my awareness of myself. Both of these helped me repent and purify myself.

 

I later learned this companion was bi-polar. I also learned that she told one of her following companions that I had admitted that I hated her, and I had been asking our mission president for a transfer. But, it was not in vain. Even though I didn’t know to look at it as an ‘opportunity’ as I have described today, I took the opposition and tried to make the best, most Christ-like choices. I especially appreciated opportunity for repentance and improvement.

 

The follow up on the story is I seem to have required the Lord to walk me through this process another 5 or 6 times before it took any root.

 

To summarize: Difficulties or opposition is an opportunity to make choices. As we lean on the Lord during these ‘choices’ periods, we can purify ourselves by repenting, which is the process of using the atonement of Jesus Christ, which brings us to be more like him, which is how we truly know him. John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

 

I have come to know and have deeper gratitude for my Savior. He has held my hand multiple times as I have walked through a purifying fiery furnaces of opposition, or opportunity. I can see the two opposing conditions I was in. Like Eve, I can say, “Were it not for my transgressions, I never should have known good and evil, and the joy of my redemption…”