Sunday, October 26, 2014

The Law of Moses today is the LDS Church - A Millennial Definition

Today studying why ancient Israel (Saint's of the past) had the law of Moses given them and lost the fullness of the gospel - This uninvited but clear thought came to me powerfully as I read the Bible Dictionary definition of the Law of Moses - the spirit whispered to us how synonymous to us within the LDS church the law of moses very well could be in our lifetime - and the following hypothetical future millennial dictionary definition of our church today and in the coming years came to us clearly as follows: 


Millennial LDS BIBLE DICTIONARY definition of the Latter Day Church (as if we were reading the bible dictionary during the Millennium looking back considering the Latter Day Church of our time - today):
The name assigned to the whole collection of written laws and policies given through Brigham Young to the Saints in the Latter Days, as a replacement of the higher law that they had failed to obey while Joseph was alive. The LDS Church consisted of many temple ceremonies, rituals, and symbols, to remind the people frequently of their duties and responsibilities. It included a law of carnal commandments and performances as taught in manuals, media, meetings, and curriculum materials, added to the basic laws of the gospel. Faith, repentance, baptism in water, and remission of sins were part of the LDS church, as were also the Ten Commandments. Although inferior to the fulness of the gospel lost to the saints after Joseph, there were many provisions in the LDS church of high ethical and moral value that were equal to the divine laws of any dispensation. The LDS church functioned under the Aaronic Priesthood and was a preparatory church to bring its adherents to Christ and his true gospel only by the Holy Spirit. (see 1 Millennial 20:14)

One of the major questions the "wise virgin" Latter Day Saint members in the world had to decide was about the obligation of Saints to the ceremonial laws of the Church. The matter was partially solved by the conferences held by the power of the Holy Spirit within families of Zion by the Lord's strange act. The majority of the Latter Day Saint Christians in particular had difficulty giving up the rituals of the LDS Church. The saints who took the spirit as their guide, on the other hand, seemed to have had much less of a problem doing so (see 1 Millennial 20:15, also 3 Ne. 15:1–5).

The law as given through the LDS church was a good law, although adapted to a lower spiritual capacity than is required for obedience to the gospel in its fulness. However, over the years, the LDS church leaders had added many unauthorized provisions, ceremonies, and prohibitions to the original law, until it became extremely burdensome to those saints who were heeding the spirit as their only guide. These innovations were known as the “traditions of the brethren.” By pre-Millennial times among the latter day saints the LDS Church had become so altered it had lost much of its spiritual meaning. It is this form of the LDS church that is so harshly spoken against by Jesus and by David (see Millennial David - one mighty and strong, holding the scepter of power 20:18). There is no evidence that the LDS church had become as altered among the Nephites or jews as among the Latter Day Saints, and this may partially explain why the awoken saints and even the awoken jews and christians had less trouble in giving it up when the Savior began to gather his people by his spirit before the ushering in of the 2nd coming.

Adapted from the current bible dictionary under the Law of Moses.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bd/law-of-moses

Monday, July 28, 2014

The Grace Flow - God's resources Available to His Children

If you haven't read our story about being prospered by the hand of God, please do so as it relates and is the introduction to our learning of the Grace Flow.

Simply put, the Grace flow is as follows:

God gives you and I resources. Whether great or small, we have the agency to use those resources for our needs and wants, and then, in wisdom and order, the choice to share them freely with others according to their needs and wants.

When God entrusts us with His resources, and we hold onto them selfishly, not imparting to others, he stops entrusting us with MORE of his resources. We are selfish whether we realize it or not when we are given his resources and we hold onto them and impart not to others after our needs and wants are met.

Yet, if we impart to others the resources He gives us freely (allowing his grace to FLOW through us) then he can entrust us with more of his resources. The Grace Flow. Allowing his grace to flow through us to others, which enlarges our souls and lifts and enlarges others as we move through life.

The grace flow can trickle down to forever, through eternity. This woman, who was God's blessing to us in answer to our prayers, allowed God's grace to flow through her to my wife and I. When we conversed with her about this principle of truth, she had very little idea of how she allowed grace to flow through her freely to us, and how the same grace, Christ's grace is flowing to others now through us, trickling down and blessing many lives.

I look at her life, her blessings, her being prospered more and more, even beyond comprehension (marriage relationship after divorce, financial blessings you wouldn't believe, friendships, etc.), and I can't help but smile, as it seems the resources and blessings she continues to receive are amplified and grow more and more, again almost beyond belief (such that you cannot receive them all)... because of the grace she allows to flow through her life freely to others, through a simple following of the prompting she had towards us, she is now reaping what she has sewed, and what she had sewed with us is the grace flow, for which we are forever grateful.

She helped introduce us to this valuable lesson, maybe not even realizing what she was doing for us, as we shared this with her, her not even recognizing so much what she was doing for us... she was part of the answer to our prayers in our learning to be prospered by the Hand of God or better said, learning to trust him more fully.

Truly He can feed us as we are greater than "the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them", are we not greater than these? (3rd Nephi 13:26-34)

It came down to our not understanding the principle upon which these blessings were predicated (D&C 130:20,21). Man cannot be saved or blessed I would add, in ignorance (D&C 131:6). When something isn't going as you expected, blessings that should be there are absent, ask the Lord to soften your heart, open your mind and teach you what you are not currently understanding. That is our witness, only God could have given us (Mosiah 24:12-15)

Practice this principle of truth. Kneel before God in humble prayer, thank him for what you have been given by his grace, and ask him to help you to let his Grace flow through you, and watch as he entrusts you with more of his resources and gifts, as this isn't just about prospering temporally, but more powerfully the same grace flow works with knowledge, testimony, and the gifts he has given us each individually.