Practice makes progress; Jesus makes perfect.

Last week, we reviewed how Jesus told Nicodemus that every man and woman must be born again (see John 3: 3-8). Now, this rebirth is not something that we have power to make happen ourselves. None of us can give birth to ourself.

And while “born again” as a term refers to a likeness of our physical birth into mortality, I believe that it alludes more specifically to our being born the second time spiritually. We are already our Father’s spirit children by birth before this earth life. He sired us. We were spiritual beings then, and relied on our spiritual senses to guide us. But by our coming to earth, receiving a veil of forgetfulness, and due to the effects of the Fall of Man, our spirits have fallen “asleep.” They don’t naturally see and feel, or communicate and do as they once did. Their magnificence and power have been forgotten, confined, and somewhat restricted to what these earthly bodies are capable of doing. But this is the way God wanted it. We have things to experience and learn here in this spiritually harsh environment that we could experience and learn in no other way. (And that’s a whole other topic for another day.)

So, being born again—meaning being born of God again—born spiritually again—is necessary for every one of us…but it is not accomplished in the same way. (We don’t enter again into the spiritual womb, so to speak.)

Therefore, even though we are already God’s spiritual offspring, because of the fact that we fell from the nobility of His eternal world and lost our spiritual connection with Him, we must become spiritually alive sons and daughters again. Each one of us must be spiritually awakened to a “newness of life” (Romans 6: 4), “quickened [or made alive] in the inner man” (Moses 6: 65). Each of our spirits—our inner self—having forgotten all, was now no longer “alive,” or spiritually awake—no longer steering the ship. We would each need to be roused from our spiritual slumber through this second birth.

And who has our Eternal Father chosen to be the doer of this great work in us? None other than the Lord, Jesus! Through His grace and the provisions of His atonement, we are blessed to eventually leave the ranks of natural men and women by becoming the spiritually awake children of Christ! Jesus, who is the only One commissioned of the Father to baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, also becomes the Spiritual Parent. We become His sons and daughters. (See Mosiah 5: 7.)

JESUS AS MOTHER
Now, it is pleasing to think of Jesus as being so personal as to be the Father of our individual rebirth…but, He is also the beautiful image of a mother.

“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49: 15-16; 1 Nephi 21: 15-16).

A woman who has given birth to her child by cesarean has a lifelong reminder of her baby—the scar on her abdomen. For, every time she notices the scar while showering, getting dressed, etc., she is reminded of her child. Likewise, Christ has reminders of us graven in the palms of His hands.

But obviously, a woman doesn’t need to give birth by cesarean, and have its accompanying scar in order to remember her babies. Her entire body is a receptacle of vivid memories due to the alterations it underwent during those nine months when she carried the child within her. Think of it: the surprise and discomfort of morning sickness; the stop of menstruation; the inconvenient need for frequent urination; the persistent expanding abdomen; the swollen ankles and feet; the strain in her lower back; the shortness of breath; the irritating heartburn; etc., all imprinting mental and physical reminders of the child’s approaching birth. And, what about the remarkable sensation of feeling another living human being move inside you? This is something a man will never experience and a woman will never forget. Then, the birth process itself: the breaking of waters; the emotional anticipation of what’s coming, along with the fear of the unknown (for, each birth can be different); the deep pressure and pain of the contractions; those fatiguing, arduous hours of labor; all culminating in the actual delivery, when the baby comes through the birth canal, crowns, and finally transitions out of its mother to breathe those first breaths. Can a woman really forget any of this? Perhaps the acuteness of the events will soften, just as any pain and difficulty are lessened with time. But she will remember, for it is all indelibly imprinted in her body. And the mother’s care for this child is certainly not over—it only continues to magnify: the persistent need to adequately nurture this completely dependent newborn; the ongoing fatigue due to being up at all hours of the day and night; the physical and emotional bond that occurs during breast feeding, as well as changing diapers, giving baths, etc. Can any woman really forget any of her children, when her own body that carried them is so presently her constant companion?

And so it is with our Savior. He doesn’t need scars in His hands and feet and side to remind Him of His carrying us. I would suggest that His scars are there for our benefit, to remind and assure us of what He did, and His unwavering commitment to each one of us.

Like a mother, He has so much more than scars to remind Him of His spiritual family. He has felt within His own body the twisting and turning of our struggling, writhing spirits; the profound contractions of our personal temptations, failures, humiliations, and disappointments; our exquisite pains and paralyzing sorrows; our suffocating sense of worthlessness, self-loathing, and despair; our repetitive guilt and shame, along with the septic toxicity of our anger, desire for revenge, and hardness of heart. His bowels have been filled with compassion for our loneliness, brokenness, robbed innocence, dashed hopes, and soul-crushing rejection and betrayal. He has felt it all moving within Him, and remembers it in perfection, all the days of our lives. He has carried it all while carrying us. And He will not ever—no never—forget!

And just as a mother, through the process of pregnancy, birth, and beyond, forges an eternal bond with her child, so Christ has forged one with us. And those among us who will take the time to consider and ponder it, will instinctively rejoice and spontaneously fulfill the prophetic word:

“And now…they shall mention the loving kindness of their Lord, and all that he has bestowed upon them according to his goodness…forever and ever. In all their afflictions he was afflicted. And…in his love, and in his pity, he redeemed them, and bore them, and carried them all the days of old” (D&C 133: 52-53).

(to be continued…)

Practice makes progress; Jesus makes perfect.

I have heard it said by some in this Church that Christ will “help us turn our weaknesses into strengths.” But, when we read the scriptures, we see that Christ does not phrase it that way. He declares that He will turn our weaknesses into strengths, not help us to do it. He claims the credit for it. “…if men come unto me…if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12: 27). If Jesus, who cannot lie, considers Himself responsible for our advancement from weakness to strength, then perhaps we should cease taking any credit unto ourselves.

Nephi told us that he had been “highly favored of the Lord” (1 Nephi 1: 1). How many of us have had the spiritual favors granted to us from the Lord that Nephi had? Mighty visions, miracles, seeing the Savior, visits from angels, etc.! And yet, nowhere do we see Nephi boasting of his spiritual goodness. Instead we hear him boasting of “the great goodness of the Lord.” When it comes to his own goodness, Nephi exclaims: “O wretched man that I am!” (2 Nephi 4: 17-19).

Ammon speaking of himself and his fellow missionaries to the Lamanites said: “there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began” (Alma 26: 35). How many of us have seen the magnificent results Ammon saw? Thousands and thousands of faithful, unshakable converts! And yet, Ammon isn’t boasting of himself. “I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak” (Alma 26: 12). Instead he remembers the Lord saving him from hell: “Who could have supposed that our God would have been so merciful as to have snatched us from our awful, sinful, and polluted state?” (Alma 26: 17).

Or what of the brother of Jared, who lamented his evil nature and unworthiness before the Lord (see Ether 3: 2)? He’s not boasting of himself and his righteousness. We see all through the scriptures that the Lord knows how to teach humility to those who will listen, just like He taught Moses “that man is nothing, which thing [Moses] never had supposed” (Moses 1: 10).

So, according to the scriptures, if there is anyone who does good among us, he or she does it by the power and gifts of God (Moroni 10: 24-25). And, if the power and gifts of God are done away with, there shall be no one who does good. All good comes because of Christ (Moroni 7: 24). If we believe the scriptures, then how can we think that any good comes because of us?

The apostle John, speaking of Christ, said: “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4: 19). Well, can’t the same be said about goodness? If we are good in any way, is it not because Christ was good first?

Thomas S. Monson and all other prophets back to Adam know that they owe their goodness to Christ, just as Christ owes His goodness to the Father.

I think of President Gordon B. Hinckley, whose mortal life has been memorialized as a good, well-lived life. According to the scriptures, Gordon B. Hinckley was good because of Christ and His grace that came upon him. We can even see it. Remember when young Elder Hinckley was serving his mission in England, he became a bit discouraged due to the lack of success. He wrote a letter to his father, saying, “I am wasting my time and your money. I don’t see any point in my staying here.” He was considering cutting his mission short and going home. But after some time, he received a short letter back from his father that said: “Dear Gordon. I have your letter….I have only one suggestion. Forget yourself and go to work. With love, Your Father.” President Hinckley said of that moment: “I pondered that, and the next morning in our scripture class we read that great statement of the Lord: ‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it’ (Mark 8: 35). It touched me. That statement, that promise, in conjunction with my father’s letter, prompted me to go upstairs,…get on my knees, and make a covenant with the Lord that I would try to forget myself and go to work. I count that as the day of decision in my life. Everything good that has happened to me since then I can trace back to the decision I made at that time” (Our Heritage, p. 140, emphasis added).

The letter from his father which was inspired by the goodness of the Lord, along with the grace of God to see the message of that letter with spiritual eyes put Elder Hinckley in a position to receive more good from the Source of good. It is the Lord’s grace that moves us to prayerfully ask, that humbles us to listen, and that strengthens us to act.

Nephi tells us that when he was young, he did not rebel against his father, Lehi, like his brothers had, because God visited him with His Spirit and softened his heart (1 Nephi 2: 16). Notice, Nephi did not say: I was a good person, a better person than my brothers, so I did not rebel. He gives the Lord the credit.

I have no doubt that Gordon B. Hinckley, Nephi, Ammon, and a host of others are now in heaven, and will be given all that the Father has to give. But they are not in heaven because they were good…and I believe they were good! They are in heaven because of Jesus. In fact, they were good because of Jesus. If it had not been for Jesus, “there could no good thing come unto them” (Moroni 7: 24).

Please, make no mistake about it, it is not our repentance that gives us a remission of sins. It is Christ’s redemption! It is not our baptism that washes us clean. It is Jesus’ blood. He requires our repentance and our baptism, but He is the doer of the atonement’s redemptive work. And He is the source of all good that flows to us!

Let’s give credit where credit is due.

(to be continued…)

Practice makes progress; Jesus makes perfect.

Have you ever noticed how words carry different shades of meaning for different people, depending on their individual experience and upbringing? In fact, it’s like this with names. A husband and wife may struggle to come up with a baby name for the simple reason that a name which one of them likes is a name that brings up an unpleasant memory for the other. And so it is when it comes to words with multiple definitions. Although used in the same context, a word or phrase can feel harmless to one person, while being displeasing to another. The word qualify is one of these words for me. I’ve been trying to figure out why, and I believe I’ve come to the conclusion that I must not see the word in the same way that others in the Church are using it. In the past ten or fifteen years I have been noticing our Church leaders voicing more and more frequently the idea that we qualify ourselves for eternal life. Therefore, I would like to scrutinize this word a bit, so that I and whoever reads this might come to see more clearly what our leaders might mean, as well as what they could not possibly mean.

I do not know what the word qualify means to you. But here are some definitions:

“In some sporting events, to demonstrate required ability in the trials, in order to qualify for, and advance to the finals.”
In the Olympics, many events in track and field, swimming, skiing, and other categories have preliminary matches, where contestants compete to qualify for the finals. And this is for the simple fact that there are more people competing than there are spaces available in those final, deciding races. So one may have to finish under a certain time, or be within the top eight best performances overall to continue competing.

“To fire a rifle or pistol on a target range with a score high enough to qualify for a rating of marksman, sharpshooter, or expert.“
My nephew, Jacob, is just finishing up his basic training with the National Guard. As part of this training, he with all the other soldiers had a weapons qualification—a practical rifle test—to ascertain their level of marksmanship. Each of the soldiers were given 40 rounds of ammunition to hit 40 targets that popped up randomly from a distance ranging from 50 meters to 300 meters away. The targets would only stay up for three to nine seconds, depending on the distance. To qualify as an expert, the soldiers had to hit 36 out of the 40 targets. Jacob hit all 40, receiving the title “Hawkeye.”

“To be fit or competent for something, as in qualifying for a job.“
When applying for a professional job, very often one is expected to have the right credentials. The appropriate amount of schooling, as well as hands-on training and/or job experience are required in order to qualify as a possible candidate.

Those who qualify themselves in each of these defined situations are successful, capable, even exceptional, in their accomplishment and expertise.

So…qualifying for eternal life?…ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

But I guess qualifying isn’t always about being on the better side of things. It can also go the other way. When one has had a tough year or more financially, they can qualify for outside help in the form of tax breaks, educational grants, food stamps, Medicaid, etc. Therefore, not doing as economically well can qualify someone for help that can subsidize or enhance their income. But that financial assistance doesn’t just show up out of the blue. One has to appeal to the powers that be and apply for it. And so it is with the gospel. We have to spiritually recognize our need—our lack of celestial qualifications—and then believe in the Savior, appeal to Him for increased strength, and take the steps He has outlined in order to receive His salvation. So if we qualify ourselves in any way, it’s by taking those required steps.

THE LORD QUALIFIES
When it comes to positions in the Church, regarding any one of us who doesn’t feel adequate to fill the calling, I’ve heard President Monson say: “Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.”…Well, I believe that it is the same when the Lord calls us to heaven. It is the Lord who will qualify us to get there, not we, ourselves.

Jesus told his apostles in the upper room, just before going to Gethsemane: “In my Father’s house are many mansions….I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14: 2). Well, Jesus could have rightfully added: ‘But, I’ll come back to prepare you for that place.’ He’s getting heaven ready for us, and He’s getting us ready for heaven.

Here is another definition:
“To get authority, license, power, etc., by fulfilling required conditions.”…like qualifying for citizenship in a country. (I would venture that this must be the way our leaders are using the word.)

We use our agency to qualify ourselves for baptism and temple ordinances by meeting certain requirements of conduct, and affirming our belief. But entering the Lord’s holy house, and being holy ourselves are two different things. It is the Lord who qualifies us, and gives us holiness. We give our will, our agency. He changes our nature.

Look at D&C 4: 5 – “And faith, hope, charity, and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.” These are sublime attributes. Where do they come from? Can we will ourselves to have them? Is not faith a gift that comes from God? We know that charity is. What about the others? So how can we qualify ourselves with that which we know God must give? If God does not give it, it is not ours to have. Therefore, God qualifies us for His marvelous work (v. 1) when He gives us these attributes. Then His work will happen freely. Divine attributes come from a divine source. Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies. I could no more qualify myself to sit in the bishop’s chair than I could qualify myself to sit down in the kingdom of heaven, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the holy fathers.

The prideful Nephites were guilty of believing that their temporal prosperity was brought about by the hand of their own industry. Are we guilty of believing the same regarding our spiritual prosperity? That we are the ones doing it? Please hear me…this is not just a good philosophy to help keep our pride in check; this is truth. This is the way things are for us, and the way things were for King Benjamin and Alma, and the way things will be, even unto the end of the world.

David B. Haight said: “All my callings have been beyond my grasp, so I’ve had to develop a longer reach” (Church News, Sept. 7, 2002). And how did he develop this longer reach? God added cubits to his stature. Elder Haight, by taking thought couldn’t do it. It had to be the Lord doing it for him. Oh…Elder Haight desired it, chose it, gave the energy he received from God to it, but it was the Lord that added the cubits. It was the Lord who qualified him.

So, because of our Savior’s infinite atonement for all mankind, Jesus now has power from the Father to bring about our salvation. He will qualify us for heaven, and He will give us the gifts that will qualify us for His work here and in eternity. He is the Great Qualifier! Praises be to His holy name!

(to be continued…)

Practice makes progress; Jesus makes perfect.

“…it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”

This phrase in 2 Nephi 25: 23, has been the cause of some curious thinking and interpretation among us in our Latter-day Saint culture and theology. See if this sounds familiar: ‘After we do everything in our power to be good and try to make it to heaven, then Christ will come along and take up the slack, doing that part that we can’t quite do ourselves.’ This is what I was taught as a youth (and have heard often since). I trusted my teachers back then and accepted the notion, until a broader reading of the scriptures, the reasoning of the Spirit of God, and my own life experience convinced me of its error.

The Spirit of God brings with it a spirit of industry, and productivity. Speaking of the Church collectively, we are a people of action, a community of doers. So it is not surprising that we would latch on to the second half of the phrase and let that be our focus instead of the first half. We want to know what our part is, and that’s what we’ll give the majority of our thoughts, energy, and preaching to (we’ll discuss in a future post how we’ve also done this to our view of the sacrament). But are we missing the beauty of the gospel by focusing on us, rather than on Jesus?

It would be unwise for any of us to use this single scriptural phrase as the sole basis for our belief in the matter of our salvation without consulting the rest of scripture. All of the scriptures have to find harmony with each other if we are to see them in their true light.

Even in this chapter which surrounds “after all we can do,” we see that Nephi’s thoughts and focus are on Christ, not on Nephi. “After all we can do” appears almost as an afterthought. The thrust of Nephi’s message to his people (which includes their future posterity) is: ‘Christ saves us by His grace! And, notwithstanding our belief in Him and His salvation, we will still keep His commandments because He has asked us to, but He alone is our reconciliation to God, and in Him we will rejoice! Glory be to Christ!’

Another possible reason that we, as a people, might have come to focus more on “all we can do” is our fear of what might happen if we only focus on the saving grace of Christ. It is the tendency of the “natural man” within each of us to be attracted to that which is easy rather than that which is difficult. Therefore, the “saved by grace alone” teaching might potentially become the catalyst for many in the Church to rationalize and stop striving to keep their covenants. So to counteract that possibility, we stress and underline all we can do.

But, let’s look at the reality of it. Do any of us actually believe we can do all we can do? I know I can’t do it. Can you? Can our current President of the Church accomplish it? Was Joseph Smith able to do it? In fact, let’s go straight to the top. Did Jesus do all He could do? With the greatest respect and adoring love for Him, I propose to you that He did not. Consider it. Could not Jesus have ministered to one more person? Could He not have given up five more minutes of sleep to do one more good deed, or forgone one more bite of His meal to give away to someone who was hungry, or refused any kind of alone time in order to testify with His amazing spiritual power to more searching souls? Yes, He could have, but did not. Therefore, Jesus did not do all he could do. And if Jesus didn’t do it, then none of us here can do it either; so let’s get that notion out of our head (and let’s be nicer to ourselves when it comes to self-expectations). But then, we must ask why Jesus didn’t do all he could do, and what it was that He did do? Answer: Jesus did what He was led by His Father to do, whether in that moment, or during that day, etc. He did what He was supposed to do, according to His Father’s will.

What about you and me? Are we doing what God wants us to do today? That may be quite different from all we can do. Remember, every one of our lives has different seasons for different things. And it is our privilege to find out from our Father what our season is…what we are to focus on right now. None of us are like Jesus, but if we are patient, He intends to make us more and more capable…more and more in tune with the Spirit…more and more like Him in every way until eventually, we can do all He can do. Patience. I think that day is very far off!

Finally, here is the absolute truth: It is by the grace of our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we are saved unto eternal life; and it is also by the grace of Christ that we can do anything at all down here, let alone all we should do!

Therefore, I will talk of Christ, I will sing of Christ, I will rejoice in Christ, I will preach of Christ, I will testify of Christ, and write according to my testimony, that my eternal brothers and sisters on this earth (and those in the world of spirits) may be reassured as to what source they must look for a remission of their sins, as well as their only hope for life eternal!

(to be continued…)

Practice makes progress; Jesus makes perfect.

“…when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated” (D&C 130: 21).

Curious. The Lord tells us that each blessing received from Him comes as a result of obedience. But He doesn’t specify whose obedience. What I mean is this: We can receive blessings because of our obedience…or—and we must consider this—because of someone else’s obedience. Think of it, our efforts at obedience here can be the catalyst through which the Lord grants blessings to others.

The angel told Alma the younger—who had been anything but obedient—that it was because of his father, Alma, that this angel had been sent by God to bring young Alma to a knowledge of the truth (see Mosiah 27: 14). Now, young Alma could refuse the blessing offered. He could have still rejected the angel’s message and continued on in his ways of sin and rebellion. But he humbled himself and saw in this blessing of divine warning, something he was completely undeserving of—“not of any worthiness of myself” (Alma 36: 5)—but something he would now take advantage of. After three days of the most bitter anguish of soul, he called upon Jesus Christ for mercy. And he received that mercy! And these blessings were offered to him, in part, because of another person’s faithfulness…that of his own father!

Now, looking at young Alma’s father, it was the obedience of Abinadi—allowing himself to be taken by King Noah’s men—that paved the way for blessings to come to Alma, Sr. For he, himself “was caught in a snare, and did many things which were abominable in the sight of the Lord” (Mosiah 23: 9). But Abinadi’s faithfulness and preaching were the means the Lord used to bring father Alma to repentance, and a mighty change of heart; Alma, Sr. then in turn preached to others, “and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts” (Alma 5: 11-13). How many souls were eventually blessed and saved because Abinadi suffered himself at the Lord’s command to fall into the hands of Noah’s people! (See Mosiah 13: 2-4; 17: 9.)

Or, what of the brother of Jared, whose obedience brought great pleasure to the Lord! When he prayed for his brother, Jared, and their friends and families, “the Lord had compassion upon Jared” and “upon their friends and their families also” (Ether 1: 34-43). These many souls were blessed through the instrumentality of the brother of Jared’s faithfulness—because he was “a man highly favored of the Lord.”

Now, these are just a few examples, but history is filled with accounts where God blesses some individual or group of people because of the obedience of someone else. In fact, we don’t have to look beyond our own lives for such stories. What blessings have you received because of the faithfulness of a family member, or friend, or church leader? What blessings are others enjoying from God’s hand because of your obedience?

Finally, all of these are types of Christ, for ultimately, every blessing and good thing that comes to any one of us comes because of His obedience; “otherwise…there could no good thing come unto [us]” (Moroni 7: 24), and we’ll talk about this in depth at a later time. But for now, how many blessings do we get, because of Jesus’ obedience?

The prophet Zenos declared that the Lord was merciful to him when he prayed in the wilderness concerning those who were his enemies, “and thou didst turn them to me….when I did cry unto thee in my field…thou didst hear me….when I did turn to my house thou didst hear me….when I did turn unto my closet…thou didst hear me….when I have been cast out and have been despised…thou didst hear my cries….and it is because of thy Son that thou hast been merciful unto me…for thou hast turned thy judgments away from me, because of thy Son” (Alma 33: 4-11). Glorious truth! Here, a prophet of the Lord is saying in essence: ‘I deserve the judgments of God to come upon me; but the Father has turned those judgments away from me because of His Son!’

We practice and often fail in our obedience; but in our practicing, we are tutored and taught by the Spirit of the Lord. At first we might think: I’m doing such and such, keeping this commandment and responding to that duty, so I deserve, I deserve! But God is going to eventually get through to us and we will then realize that what we really deserve (because of our sins) is the judgment of God upon us. And yet—glad tidings of great joy!—our all-wise and loving Father has designed and engineered a plan that can bring mercy upon us rather than judgment, and all because of His Son!

Look at Jesus and His obedience. If any one deserves blessings, it is Jesus, who was perfectly obedient. And yet, one of the things that Jesus gets because of His absolute obedience is the power to claim his “rights of mercy” in administering blessings to the rest of us (see Moroni 7: 27). He deserves…so we get.

“Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased…Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life” (D&C 45: 3-5).

What an overly generous universe we live in, and all because of the Son of God!

(to be continued…)

Practice makes progress; Jesus makes perfect.

Last week, we looked at the error in thinking that any of us, while in mortality, could earn, merit, or deserve an inheritance in God’s heavenly kingdom. This week I’d like to go a step further and show how we mortals cannot really earn any of God’s blessings down here.

First, we must understand the true nature of blessings. In this telestial realm, societies are structured in such a way so that individuals can work and earn. We give a certain effort, and that effort equals the pay we get in return for it. But not when it comes to God. God doesn’t call what He gives us earnings. It’s almost always called gifts, partly because the value of what He gives us is always much greater than the work He requires for us to receive it.

A gift is not something one earns. When is the last time you earned your birthday or Christmas presents? And who can earn the gifts of God?

Think of the wide variety of God’s gifts to us. I will touch on a few.

Who can earn birth? Who can earn the sunrise? What farmer can earn photosynthesis? What mother can earn the right to choose the gender and personality of her baby? Our bodies, our talents, our individual traits in which we naturally excel are all gifts from God, not payments due. And God is a very generous giver.

Who can earn the gift of the Holy Ghost? Can an eight year old—or an eighty year old for that matter—come to live life so completely sin free and in such perfect harmony with the will of heaven, so as to earn the continual companionship of one of the Godhead?

Who can earn the priesthood? No amount of works done by someone could make God owe him the priesthood. In the days of the early apostles, after the resurrection of Christ, a man named Simon observed Peter and John using the priesthood to give the gift of the Holy Ghost.

“And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money” (Acts 8: 14-20).

Money can’t buy it. What we do cannot earn it. It’s called a gift. Prayer is a gift—to communicate by voice or silent thought with a Being whose dwelling place is galaxies away. And on top of that, who can force God to hear and favorably answer any prayer? His communing with us is a gift.

Who can earn the gift of healing—to repair an unseen disease or deformity with a word or a touch? Who among mortals can develop the ability to heal on their own? Even if a wonderfully skilled physician (and this world has many for which we are so deeply grateful) were to perform a lifesaving surgery, that would still not complete the job. It is by the power of one of God’s gifts, that the body then uses the mechanisms He has placed within it, to go on and fuse the tissues, close the wound, and form the scar tissue to seal what was severed. Physicians study and work for many years to be healers, but they can never, by their own power, make a body regenerate. They can never put life into that which is not alive. What doctor would claim this power? None would dare. Our bodies are gifts. Life is a gift. The scriptures are a gift. Living prophets and a living Church are all gifts. No man can justly earn any of it. Nothing we receive from God will ever be a rightful exchange of our good works or time or money for that which He graciously hands over to us in return. Everything God gives to us is worth so much more than that which we have been asked to do to receive it. He always outdoes us on His end of things.

The Atonement of Christ is a gift. The resurrection is a gift. Salvation is a gift. We are saved by His merits, not ours. “Relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save” (2 Nephi 31: 19). Being extremely good can’t remove the bad we have already done. Stopping at all red lights from now on doesn’t erase the one we ran. Forgiveness of sin is a gift. Oh, we might even keep quite a number of commandments in our lifetime, but that doesn’t earn us eternal life.

We say that by the grace of God we all receive immortality, that the resurrection is a free gift for every one of us. But we insinuate that we get eternal life without grace, and that it’s not free, as we focus on our obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. But is it not also by the grace of God that we receive eternal life? Who could possibly earn it—the blessing to receive all that the Father has? It too, is a gift. In fact, the Lord calls it “the greatest of all the gifts of God” (D&C 14: 7).

God is the best gift giver. He knows what we need to become like Him, and He is so very willing, so powerfully desirous to give us all of those gifts which will put us in the path to eventually receiving His greatest gift of all.

(to be continued…)

Practice makes progress; Jesus makes perfect.

Last week’s blog was an intro of sorts; I tried to set the stage for this series by stating clearly that we cannot perfect ourselves. Only Jesus can do this for us. And He intends on doing it. So I would invite you to count on Him partnering with you.

Now, this series is meant for three groups of people. The first group are those who are frustrated to varying degrees because they believe they just can’t do it—they can’t make themselves good enough to get to heaven—because they feel they lack the internal qualities—they’re just not faithful enough, or gifted enough, or consistently disciplined enough. To them I say: You are right; you cannot do it! But to them I also say: Don’t despair; you’re doing it was never the plan. Jesus, on the other hand, can do it for you, and wants to do it. And that was the plan from the beginning! Jesus is faithful enough, and gifted enough, and consistently disciplined enough to finish the job and make you and me into celestial material. But we must recognize this and look to Him alone for this.

The second group are those who think they can do it…that they’ve somehow got the smarts and the energy and the persistence to work on their weaknesses one by one until they, by their sheer will power and effort, become like the Savior. To these I kindly say: Wake up, search the scriptures, and repent. The prophet Nephi said: “I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh” (2 Nephi 4: 34). The arm is a symbol of power and strength. Nephi is saying ‘I will not trust in the power and strength of the flesh.’ He knew that relying on man’s strength was contrary to what God intended. Nephi continued: “Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.” And for Nephi, that included his own arm. We know that Nephi was frustrated that he could not remove certain weaknesses and tendencies of his flesh that kept him, in his own eyes, from being the godly man he so passionately wanted to be. Well, if the great, obedient, faithful, and miraculously gifted Nephi didn’t consider himself capable of uprooting the weakness that was in him and his flesh, then why would any believing Latter-day Saint think they could somehow do better?

And the third group are those who are somewhere in between the other two camps…not entirely new and naïve on the road of discipleship, but not yet to the exasperating, heart-breaking point of trying, and yet falling short day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

I personally have spent time in each of these three camps…and I say to you that only one of them in this life offers good news. As Nephi said: “O wretched man that I am!…I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me….nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted” (2 Nephi 4: 17-19). That was Nephi’s good news. And it is yours and mine as well.

Only Christ can bring us to perfection. All of our repetitive efforts in this world will never do it. The gospel (good news) for those whose internal self yearns for and desires to be good and perfect rests in Christ. He is the means whereby this is accomplished for us. And as I declared earlier, He wants to do it! So I say we let Him.

Now, this does not mean that we carelessly sit back and stop trying. Anyone who has spent any time reading our blessed Savior’s words knows that. He wants our efforts (and we’ll talk about that as we go). He has asked us to “practice virtue and holiness” before Him (see D&C 38: 24; 46: 33), and there is purpose in our practice. But as I said last week, Christ is the One that will bring about our inward transformation to real virtue and real holiness. Count on it. And let that give you some peace.

Jesus keeps His word. And if we are in a covenant relationship with Him, He has great and marvelous plans for us. He even has great and marvelous plans for so many others who are not yet in that covenant relationship with Him. So keep your spiritual eyes open and your spiritual ears attentive. Who knows…He may guide you to one of those searching souls, and you may just be the means of bringing them to His salvation.

(to be continued…)

I think we’ve all heard the phrase: “Practice makes perfect.” It’s a phrase meant to encourage consistent effort towards a goal. Whether you are trying to improve your capacity to master that difficult piano concerto, or be able to keep your balance true and your momentum consistent as you do fouettés in dance class, or steadily increase the percentage of foul shots you make in basketball, “practice makes perfect” is a compelling motivator to keep at it. And certainly, since the adults in our lives have repeated it so often, it must be true that if we do keep at it, the day is coming when we will perform—whatever it is we practice—perfectly and according to our deepest wishes. At least we subconsciously believe that to be the case, and we pass on the idea to others whom we want to encourage in the same way. BUT…is it really true? Will practice be the thing that eventually brings us to consistent perfection?

And what about when it comes to our deepest spiritual longings, will practice make us perfect? I can see how any of us could carry the “practice makes perfect” line of thinking over into our view of spiritual things. If practice could really make us perfect at the piano, then it would make sense that it could also be the way we become perfect in patience, or in humility, or in love. But, again I ask, is it really true? Will practice bring us to ultimate perfection?

A young man who was speaking in our sacrament meeting about perfection said: “I can be perfect for about a couple of hours is all,” insinuating that perfection is what you do and not what you are. The truth is: Because of the fall of man, we can’t be perfect for even a second in this imperfect world.

This new blog series investigates what I feel is a more accurate statement regarding perfection of any kind: “Practice makes perfect progress; Jesus makes perfect.”

And since this blog has always been about the things of God, I will be sticking to spiritual matters.

The scriptures tell us this about Christ: “…being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him” (Hebrews 5: 9). So, Jesus was made perfect by His Father, and now desires to make us perfect.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf said: “Christ-like attributes are gifts from God. They cannot be developed without His help” (Ensign, October 2008, pp. 4-9).

Just as our Savior developed what we call “Christ-like” attributes through His Father’s blessing and help, so must we do the same with our Savior’s blessing and help (see D&C 93: 11-20). Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Matthew 28: 18), and “all power” includes the power to bring us to perfection…to make us perfect. Those that will end up living in God’s celestial world are described in this way: “These are they who are just men made perfect through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant” (D&C 76: 69). “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him” (Moroni 10: 32). So we see that Jesus is the power through which perfection comes to us. God has given Him this power and this charge. Not only is perfection possible because of Christ, and in Christ, and through Christ, but Jesus, Himself, is very involved as a hands-on participant in the process of our perfection. It is His great desire and pleasure to one day present us to the Father, spotless and without blemish, complete and fully developed, finished and perfected.

These are the good tidings of the gospel of Jesus Christ: that all sin can be abolished, and that all our weaknesses and imperfections can be taken from us! And it is through Jesus that this happens.

You may have thought that your eventual perfection was up to you and your practicing the different traits of godliness. Well, while you need to be a willing player in the process, I tell you it is Christ who will oversee and bring about the divine work of your perfection. Not you.

“I WILL DO IT”
How many times does Jesus say He will create a new heart in us, and He will make us clean? (See Ezekiel 36: 26-29.) In Jacob 5, the Lord uses the words “I, me, my, myself, or mine” some 177 times, telling us that He will do the work. “I will prune the vineyard. I will sweep away the bad. I will preserve the fruit unto mine own self.” Even though He has His servants helping Him, He says “I” have done this. Now, this could be thought of as taking too much credit for other people’s efforts. But would our Lord do that? No. Apparently He wants us to see that He is the source behind what is happening, even though He has us helping Him. Every good thing that comes, comes because of Him. Otherwise men are fallen, and “there could no good thing come unto them” (Moroni 7: 24).

And so it is with our individual perfection. We may be doing things, keeping commandments, practicing virtue and holiness, but Christ is bringing about our inward transformation to real virtue and real holiness.

Isn’t it absolutely beautiful how our Savior wants us to see how present He is through our life’s journey, to be continually reminded how un-alone we are! He wants us to know that He is sending us power, and courage, and direction from one moment to the next. Because of the veil we have forgotten Him, but He wants us to know that He has not forgotten us!

The young son of one of my friends asked him a while back: “Dad, why do people call me ‘crazy baby’?” My friend replied: “Well, maybe it’s because you are a crazy baby. Why do you think people call me a father?” His son then said: “Because you’re made out of Jesus and you can see in the dark.”

Isn’t that great…to be “made out of Jesus.” I love that! It is the Father’s intent—if we will go along with His plan—that each of us will be made into “a perfect man [or woman], unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4: 13). Jesus wants to transform us into beings that are eventually made out of the same stuff He’s made of. And…as for us being able to “see in the dark”…well, that will just be a bonus. :)

(to be continued…)

JEFF OLSEN
On the drive home from an Easter weekend visit to his wife’s family, Jeff Olsen, his wife, Tamara, their seven-year-old son, Spencer, and their one-year-old baby son, Griffin, were in a single-car accident that killed Tamara and little Griffin. Jeff’s injuries were very severe, eventually resulting in, among other things, the loss of one of his legs, but he later explained, “No physical pain could even come close to the spiritual pain of knowing that half of my family had been killed. My mind was tortured with thoughts of it. I could not escape those thoughts, not even with all the morphine [they were giving me].” Immediately after the accident, and over the course of the ensuing weeks, Jeff had multiple near-death experiences that strengthened his soul, and helped him get through the months and years of recovery.

“As they wheeled me into the [second] hospital and began to make arrangements to lift me into another hospital bed, I could feel myself slipping. I could feel all that darkness closing in on me for a second time. I was blacking out, passing in and out of consciousness. I could hear my mother begging me to hang on. I heard my brother trying to get the nurse’s assistance. I began to vomit violently.

“It was almost as if I was watching the whole scene from another dimension. Then the grief of the emotional loss hit me again deeper than ever. It felt like pure panic, and I wanted in the worst way to get out from under it all. I’d had enough. At my core, I simply could not take any more. The despair felt like a lead blanket of blackness over my soul.

“How could God allow this to happen to me? How could a God whom I believed was a loving father put me, or anyone, through such an ordeal? I knew at some level that others had gone through worse things, but the sting of what I was experiencing was exquisite, and I could find no escape, no comfort. I had attempted to turn to God through silent prayers, but he didn’t appear to be home.

“My mind was in a constant argument between faith, knowing there must be purpose in this somehow, and blame—blaming myself for the crash that caused the death of two of my family members and maimed me beyond repair….

“I had always thought I was such a tough guy. I thought I had learned to handle pain: working on the farm, riding bucking horses, training with the wrestling team, and bearing the impact of football. But those pains were nothing compared to this. And the emotional grief was indescribable. They had buried my wife and baby, and I hadn’t even been there. I felt so empty, so alone….

“The room began to close in on me….and it was like I was looking at the whole scene through a thick, round, glass portal. I became tiny lying on the bed…. 

“I continued to rise above the scene as my body became smaller and smaller. It was as if I were high above the room, looking down on myself. Everything was dark except my quivering body on the bed….my convulsing physical form, which continued to become smaller and smaller as I rose….

“I heard a hissing sound, and I was suddenly swept away from the horror of looking at myself to a more peaceful place outside in the still night. I didn’t hurt anymore, but I found myself observing an even darker scene. It was like I had broken through a time barrier somehow and was now standing in a garden, but it was no heavenly place. I could feel despair coming from an isolated spot. There I saw another man shivering and convulsing in tremendous pain. I heard his pleas and whimpers as he asked for his cup to pass. I watched from a distance, but I could actually feel his anguish, and watched as he trembled and bled. I heard the words: ‘The Son of Man has descended beneath it all. Are you greater than He?’

“I knew the man’s sorrow and grief. I could hear it, taste it, and feel it in the core of my soul. I shuddered. I was standing there, actually watching and feeling something awful yet sacred. I wanted to rush to him….I witnessed the suffering of this soul and knew I was not separated from it. The feeling of being connected and one with everything and everyone rushed over me….

“My consciousness raced back to my hospital room and into my body. Immediately I began to vomit violently again. However, something about what I had seen gave me higher perspective. I now viewed my situation differently. I no longer felt so sorry for myself….I was willing to fight, I decided. I had been sent back, and the suffering I was experiencing was mine alone to bear. Somehow, peace filled my soul. I began to feel calm and comforted. I found renewed strength. A new courage filled my heart, a knowledge that Jesus himself understood what I was going through personally. I was not alone. He knew me and was totally familiar with my pain, in the body and in the spirit. He had hurt. He had lost. He had suffered. He begged to have the bitter cup pass from him, and yet he accepted his life and his experience with childlike meekness. I now had the perspective to do the same.

“What if God’s hand had played a part in this whole ordeal somehow? What if there was a purpose in this madness? What if this was what I came here to experience in some way? Would this refine me and teach me things I could learn in no other way? The reality hit me. I’d been sent back to learn something. I too must rise again, having been made more whole by all of it….

“I was suddenly embraced by calmness that felt like a warm, soft blanket wrapped around me. I lay there, still quivering with pain but calmer in my heart. I was going to live!” (I Knew Their Hearts, [Cedar Fort, Inc, 2012], pp. 41, 48-53)

(to be continued…)

The popular motion picture “Star Wars” had a powerful sequel titled, “The Empire Strikes Back.” Near the beginning of the movie, Luke Skywalker has been out exploring the ice planet Hoth’s surface and by early evening hasn’t returned to the protective shelter of the base. Meanwhile, the outside temperature is dropping quickly. Luke’s friend, Han Solo, feels anxious for him at the door of the shelter and will not rest until Luke has come in safely. So, Han goes out into the freezing, deadly cold to find Luke, at the risk of his own life. Now, I wish to liken this image to our beloved Savior. He won’t rest until the last one’s in. By His suffering and dying for our sins, and His rising again, Jesus has seized the keys of death and hell. He also holds the keys to the gate of heaven. Many jokes have been made about Saint Peter standing at the pearly gates, but the scriptures point us in a different direction. Jesus is called “the keeper of the gate” and “he employeth no servant there” (2 Nephi 9: 41). He waits to let us in.

Jesus has called himself “the first and the last.” (See Revelation 22: 13.) Now this has many possible connotations, but, for my purposes here, I’d like to look at “the first and the last” as follows:

Jesus is like the one in charge of an activity: He’s the first one there to make sure everything’s in order and prepared for those who come; then, when the event is over, He’s the last one to go home, staying to make sure everything’s cleaned up, put away and back in order.

He’s like the last one out of a burning building, or the captain of a sinking ship, making sure everyone else is safe first. As a great Christian writer likened it—the world is the ship, and while most of the world thinks they’re sailing off into the sunset, Jesus knows that the ship is sinking.—Now, Jesus, being the captain, will stay on board to try to save every last one possible of saving…“so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved” (Moroni 7:36).

Jesus is the first—the one most worthy to be at the front of the line for reward, and yet, He came to earth and made Himself the last or lowest of all…of no reputation—as another translation of Isaiah 53: 2 says: “he had no distinguished appearance, that we should notice him.”—He walked among men, meek and lowly, doing everything His Father asked of Him with zeal and singleness of purpose. He, alone, is worthy of inheriting all His Father has to give. And yet, He desires that we might share His reward. “Therefore” says the Father, “will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong” (Mosiah 14: 12). We, the Father’s prodigal children have gone and wasted our inheritance on unrighteous living. So all that the Father has belongs to the Son who stayed close to Him and was faithful. However, this Son doesn’t want to keep that inheritance to Himself. He intends on dividing it with all of those prodigals who will repent of their sins and return to their Father humble and ready to be servants.

All of this reminds me of a beautiful story I heard some years ago. A certain woman’s oldest son came into this life with an extremely strong body, and yet his mind was handicapped. In his teenage years, this boy participated in the Special Olympics and was projected to win the running events due to his amazing strength and speed. During one of the races, he began with such quickness, that he soon left the rest of the field far behind him. Then, suddenly, he realized that he was running by himself. He was alone. Stopping, he turned himself around to see where everyone else was. Visually locating them, he smiled, and then raced back to the other runners. He began to encourage them in their running, and continued to do so until the last of them was across the finish line. Then he crossed the line himself.

Our Savior has said: “I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (Joshua 1: 5).

At a General Conference of the Church in April of 1853, Elder Parley P. Pratt said of the Prophet Joseph Smith, “Did Joseph, in the spirit world, think of any thing else, yesterday, but the doings of his brethren on the earth?…if I were to judge from the acquaintance I had with him in his life….The spirit of his calling will never suffer him to rest, while Satan, sin, death, or darkness, possesses a foot of ground on this earth. While the spirit world contains the spirit of one of his friends, or the grave holds captive one of their bodies, he will never rest, or slacken his labors” (Journal of Discourses, 1: 15).

And if such could be said of Joseph Smith, how much more could be said of our dear Savior? Yes, when it comes to our rescue, He will never rest or slacken His labors!

Over the course of our marriage, I have told my wife, Kathy, quite often that I love her. And she has often very quickly replied: I love you MORE. I, then, have immediately followed it with: I love YOU more. She would then insist that she loves me more. It’s kind of this playful, competitive thing. She has done this so much that you’d think I would have begun to expect it. But I never have. It has always caught me off guard, perhaps because I don’t for a minute really believe it. I’m certain that she couldn’t love me more than I love her. However, when likening this to Jesus, I think of the words that John the Beloved wrote, speaking of Christ: “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4: 19). I guess at those times when I feel love so powerfully for the Savior and say to Him in my heart: “I love thee Lord, Jesus,” He could very rightfully say: “I love you more.” After all, He proved it by the life He lived, and by the death He died. And yet He would never say it to be one up on me, or to hold it over my head. He would only be speaking the truth. That’s why I feel motivated to continually increase my love for Him and do everything I can to bring Him greater joy—to help Him have more of His Father’s repentant prodigal children to share His inheritance with.

Hear the voice of the greatest of all, who trembled because of pain and bled at every pore and suffered both body and spirit for you and for me:

“I am the first and the last; I am he who liveth, I am he who was slain; I am your advocate with the Father” (D&C 110: 4).

Listen to Him who is pleading for us before our Father saying:

“Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life” (D&C 45: 3-5).