Thursday, December 22, 2011

Be free and not entangled in sin

I can't remember how it happened but somehow when reading 2 Corinthians 5, I ended up in D&C 88.  What a cool section!  The part I was especially enjoying today was verses 86-126.  It starts : "Abide ye in the liberty wherewith ye are made free; entangle not yourselves in sin, but let your hands be clean, until the Lord comes."  Then it gives a great description of the winding up scenes of the earth and finally verse 117 starts "Therefore . . " and goes through a list of things we can do to be ready - to be free and not entangled in sin but to have clean hands until the Lord comes.
     There are many things listed a few of which include the well known verse "Cease to be idle; cease to be unclean; cease to find fault one with another; cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated."  I had never put that in the context that this is counsel for how to abide in liberty and not be entangled in sin and to have clean hands.  But I can see where it certainly works for that purpose!
     Some others include:
"Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom, seek learning, even by study and also by faith."
"Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing . . . "
"Cease from all your light speeches . . . from all your lustful desires, from all your pride and light mindedness. ."
"See that ye love one another; cease to be covetous. . ."
"And above all things, clothe yourselves with the bond of charity . . "
"Pray always, that ye may not faint until I come . . ."

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Search diligently and cleave unto every good thing

So I have been reading the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 13 was today's reading.  It's the chapter about Charity.  So when I finished reading in the NT, I decided to go to the Book of Mormon and read about Charity in Moroni 7.  I love this chapter!  There are so many great things - so valuable for the world we live in today!  But before I got to the discussion about charity, I was distracted and impressed with the discussion about how to know and identify the "peaceable followers of Christ"; they are those who have "a peaceable walk with the children of men".  "By their works ye shall know them; for if their works be good, then they are good also."  (Apply that test to the "Occupy -" people who say they are nobly trying to protect the little guy and then go about raping and tearing down and . . . )  Back to Moroni - later he says in verse 19: "Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ. (emphasis added by me but this message was written with us - this day in time in mind.  He is beseeching people in a future day to do this, not the Nephites or Lamanites of his day because he added this to the record after he had gone into hiding at the end.) His warning -  "Ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil."

The other message I got distracted by (I never made it to the Charity verses) was the phrase "lay hold upon every good thing."  He uses that phrase or a part of it in 7 out of 10 verses in a row - verses 19-28.  It is through Christ and His atonement and our faith in Him  - that's the way to lay hold of every good thing.  The thing that really stuck out to me today was in verse 28.  It says  ". . . and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing;"

My first question - Is it fair to say then that if I don't cleave unto every good thing I don't have faith?  Or maybe better said - don't have sufficient faith in Christ?  If so, then the solution for those times we struggle to cleave unto good things, when our works are not always so good, is to strengthen our faith in Christ.  Maybe that is stating the obvious - or maybe not.  And the next question is - how does a person increase their faith in Christ?  Ponder on that one - the answers are simple to state but require some pondering and planning and desire and determination to apply to the person who looks back at me in the mirror!