Governing by Inspiration with the help of the Atonement

In an attempt to digitize some of my study notes I am adding this information from a Sacrament talk I gave probably late in November 2014 based upon a talk in the October 1979 General Conference by Elder William R. Bradford called “The Governing Ones”

I wanted to speak about 3 aspects of the governing ones and then 2 tools to help us:

1. Governing Self
   1. We are agents who act, not objects to be acted upon (see 2 Nephi 2:14) (inspired by thoughts given by Elder Brent H. Nielson during the Papillion Stake Conference in November of 2014)
      1. There are essentially two creations, things which act (agents) and things to be acted upon (objects)
      2. Everything around us was created to be acted upon except we were created to act
      3. In the Great War in Heaven, Satan’s plan was for us to do nothing (not to act)
      4. The only way for the Kingdom of God to move forward is for agents to act
      5. We chose agency in the Pre-Mortal life and we chose it here by virtue of the covenants that we have made with Heavenly Father
      6. We govern ourselves through discipline and by choosing obedience
         1. “If you are obedient to God’s law, you remain free. You progress and are perfected. If you are disobedient to God’s law, you bind yourself to that which restricts your progress. You become defiled and unworthy to be an associate with those who are more clean and pure.” (Elder Bradford)
         2. For example look at Nephi and Laman in the Book of Mormon, or look at examples in your own family of those who have chosen righteousness vs. those who have not
         3. “You are here to work to govern the Lord’s affairs, not to be entertained.” (Elder Bradford) such as Social Media, Internet, electronic games, television, etc
         4. We need to choose the Best things (see Elder Dallin H. Oaks, “Good, Better, Best” October 2007 General Conference) such as establishing holy homes, hastening the work of salvation, ministering, serving, uplifting, etc
   2.  We have at least two tools to help us in appropriately governing ourselves:
      1. The Atonement (both the enabling and redeeming powers) helps us to overcome sin, pain, weakness, affliction, temptation, infirmities, sickness, and spiritual death
      2. The Holy Ghost (inspiration and direction) guides us, protects us, helps us to know right from wrong, helps us with important decisions, and to understand specifically how to implement the gospel in our lives.  The Holy Ghost helps us to obtain a testimony for ourselves especially of our Savior and our Father in Heaven
2. Governing in the Family
   1. The Proclamation on the Family helps us understand our divine roles and responsibilities in the family
      1. Inspiration is an important part of governing in the family
      2. Example: inspiration in moving to Omaha and the resultant blessings such as a good job and top-notch care for Ezra
   2. “Since the family is the basic unit of the Church, as the family is governed so is the Church governed.  The Lord expects you to govern a home- and family-centered gospel-living system. The challenge of governing the family is to so love, teach, and motivate its members that their personal decisions will be to unite one with another in the common purpose of following God’s plan.” (Elder Bradford)
      1. We need to establish home- and family-centered gospel-living system -> once a week devotion is simply not sufficient for our salvation
      2. “The pattern of a home- and family-centered gospel-living system is then established: faith in Christ, repentance, keeping the commandments, and rendering service to one another. This system meets all of the temporal and spiritual needs of the family members at every age level.” (Elder Bradford)
      3. Family devotion consists of daily personal and family scripture study, daily personal and family prayer,  and weekly Family Home Evening
      4. We govern the family “by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned; By kindness, and pure knowledge, which shall greatly enlarge the soul without hypocrisy, and without guile—Reproving betimes with sharpness, when moved upon by the Holy Ghost; and then showing forth afterwards an increase of love toward him whom thou hast reproved, lest he esteem thee to be his enemy; That he may know that thy faithfulness is stronger than the cords of death.” (D&C 121:41-44)
      5. We also know “Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities.” (The Proclamation on the Family)
   3. Again, the tools of the Atonement and the Holy Ghost help us to govern in families
      1. Atonement helps us to serve each other and help each other develop faith in Jesus Christ and to repent.  Through the Atonement we can learn to be more forgiving and obedient, we rely upon the Atonement collectively as a family as well as individually
      2. The Holy Ghost helps us with inspiration and direction in our divinely-established roles and in our service to our families as we face the challenges of the world together.  The home is a holy place, if we choose to make it so by our conduct and habits, because the Spirit dwells there.
3. Governing in the Church
   1. “The formal organization of the Church consists of a divine, orderly system by which we as individuals and as families can meet together in an organized way to be taught God’s plan for our salvation, take upon ourselves covenants, and administer the saving ordinances to one another using priesthood power and authority.” (Elder Bradford)
   2. We govern inside the Church by virtue of our callings, no matter what they may be
      1. We need everyone! Everyone needs to do their best in their callings, especially home and visiting teaching (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-26)
      2. You can make a difference in the salvation of others (for example Bruce Nelson and Bryce Schieving and their interest in me when I was only a Young Man)
   3. We govern outside the Church by virtue of our good examples and sharing the gospel every chance that we get (see 1 Timothy 4:12)
      1. We take upon us the name of the Lord during the Sacrament, we need to act as He would act if He were here personally
      2. Don’t create a chapel-centered gospel-living system where we act one way at Church and then act differently during the rest of the week when we are with our friends, at school, at work, or at home
   4. Once again, the tools that we use are the Atonement and the Holy Ghost to help us both in and out of Church
      1. The Atonement plays an important role in the Church especially as we partake of the Sacrament each week and begin to understand that no one is perfect and that we all need our Savior’s help in the life.  Through our personal and collective experience with the Atonement we learn better love and patience with each other and with all whom we may encounter
      2. The Holy Ghost plays an important role in our Church meetings and as we share the gospel with those around us.  We invite the Holy Ghost into our lives as we worthily participate in ordinances and make covenants with Heavenly Father.  We receive inspiration in our callings, in our service, and in our missionary efforts
4. The Atonement
   1. The Lord knows how to succor us in our pains, afflictions, temptations, sicknesses, and infirmities,  He has loosed the bonds of death (see Alma 7:11-12)
   2. He has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows, He was wounded for our transgressions and with His stripes we are healed (see Isaiah 53:4-5)
   3. The Son of Man has descended below all things and thereby knows how to help us regardless of what our present challenges are (see D&C 122:8)
   4. The Lord calls us unto Him for rest, His burden is light (see Matthew 11:28-30)
   5. The Savior helps us to put off the natural man and to become a saint (see Mosiah 3:19)
5. The Holy Ghost
   1. As we feast upon the words of Christ they will tell us all things we should do (general principles), then, if we allow it, the Spirit will show unto us all the things that we should do (specific application) (see 2 Nephi 32:3-5)
   2. See also my notes on Principles of Revelation

Why I Cannot Support Same-Sex Marriage

(Disclaimer: the views of the following post are wholly the authors and do not represent those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

I know this is a controversial topic and it is one that I have struggled with.  In the gospel of Jesus Christ we learn to love all of God’s children, that we need to be compassionate and loving (see 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 1 John 3:17;D&C 121:45).  We are taught to be charitable and kind and to serve others.  However, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has clearly come out against same-sex marriage.  Why would a Church that professes to follow Jesus Christ and to do His teachings, including those of loving our fellow-man, be so against same-sex marriage?  After all, shouldn’t we all be treated with equality and fairness?  I believe that the reason is because same-sex marriage undermines Heavenly Father’s plan for His children.  I also believe that regardless of what man’s laws state, either for same-sex marriage or for more traditional marriage, God’s laws are unchangeable and clear, and we should be obedient to God’s laws if we want the promised blessings.

The Plan of Salvation

Our Father in Heaven has a plan for us.  He wants us to have all that He has and to enjoy eternal happiness.  We lived with Him as His spirit sons and daughters before we came to this earth.  His plan included a means for us to obtain physical bodies and earthly experience so that we could learn to live as He lives.  We came to this earth to fulfill that purpose and when this life is through we will have an opportunity to stand before our Heavenly Father and account for our choices.  Those who choose to follow our Savior, Jesus Christ, and repent of their poor choices in this life will receive the blessing of life as God knows it.

We…solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children…We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife…THE FAMILY is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. (The Family: A Proclamation to the World)

This is how God defines marriage: ordained of God when between a man and a woman.  God has commanded His children to multiply and replenish the earth because we find joy in our posterity and it is the way He has ordained His spirit children to receive physical bodies.  The procreative powers we posses are sacred and are meant to be used, but only within the covenant of marriage as God defines it because it is essential to His plan.

I love the talk that Elder Dallin H. Oaks, an apostle chosen to be a special witness of Christ in our day, ordained to declare God’s word to the world, gave in last October’s General Conference:

We know that the marriage of a man and a woman is necessary for the accomplishment of God’s plan. Only this marriage will provide the approved setting for mortal birth and to prepare family members for eternal life. We look on marriage and the bearing and nurturing of children as part of God’s plan and a sacred duty of those given the opportunity to do so. We believe that the ultimate treasures on earth and in heaven are our children and our posterity…we believe that, as an essential part of His plan of salvation, God has established an eternal standard that sexual relations should occur only between a man and a woman who are married…The emphasis we place on the law of chastity is explained by our understanding of the purpose of our procreative powers in the accomplishment of God’s plan. Outside the bonds of marriage between a man and a woman, all uses of our procreative powers are to one degree or another sinful and contrary to God’s plan for the exaltation of His children. (Elder Dallin H. Oaks,”No Other Gods,” October 2013 General Conference)

Clearly the standard is the same regardless of who you are: sexual relations are to be employed only between a man and a woman who are married.  This is the way Heavenly Father provides for all of His children.  The blessings promised to the faithful are outstanding which includes happiness and prosperity in this life as well as eternal life, or the kind of life that God enjoys, in the hereafter.  We obtain these blessings only through our obedience.

Obedience

Our loving Heavenly Father, knowing the end from the beginning and the importance of family units in our eternal happiness declared: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:14) and “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).  Sexual transgression is a serious sin, no matter whether it is a man and a woman or a same-sex relationship.  The Family: A Proclamation to the World states “We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife.”  This is very clear: sex is good and wonderful but only when employed between a man and a woman who are lawfully wedded in a relationship that God ordains.  This has been God’s law from the foundation of the world when He created Adam and Eve.

I believe that the reason why I cannot support same-sex marriage is stated between these two principles: the principle of the Plan of Salvation whereby Heavenly Father’s spirit children obtain bodies and progress toward perfection and the principle of the Law of Chastity, including the correct and wonderful employment of sexual relations.

Tolerance vs. Love

Those who would have us accept this lifestyle choice ask for tolerance.  I sometimes believe that we can do wrong in the name of tolerance and I feel that tolerance is the wrong word here.  I tolerate my employers onerous time keeping policies.  I tolerate the weather when it isn’t ideal.  I tolerate some of my wife’s music choices.  I think love is a higher principle and love is what is required in this issue.  I can love my brother even when I don’t approve of his choices in life.  I love my mom even when I think she is crazy.  I can, and indeed should, love those who struggle with same-sex attraction.  Love recognizes that each person is a child of God with needs and challenges and they should be treated fairly, regardless of where they stand on this issue.  Heavenly Father loves all of His children, even those who struggle with same-sex attraction.  Let us be loving and kind, indeed let us follow Jesus Christ in compassion and charity, as we continue to work through these issues of our day!

For a better idea of where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints stands officially on this issue, check out these links:

• An official website which the Church runs to address this issue directly: http://www.mormonsandgays.org/
• An article by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, another apostle of the Lord
• An official statement regarding same-sex marriage
• The Church’s response to a petition
• The Church’s response to a nondiscrimination ordinance
• Some thoughts on Same-Sex Marriage from an instruction manual
• A brief filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
• The Church’s response when Proposition 8 in California was overruled