Post # 66 –‘Come, Follow Me’ –January --week 2

Dear Family and Friends

For this post I wanted to continue in the ‘Come, Follow Me’ program with lesson two – January 7 -- 13. If you have not had the chance to look at the manual – “Come, Follow Me—For Individuals and Families” one of the questions there is Why did the Savior nee to be born of a mortal mother and an immortal Father? President Russel M. Nelson explained that the Atonement of Jesus Christ “required a personal sacrifice by an immortal being not subject to death. Yet He must die and take up His body again. The Savior was the only one who could accomplish this. From His mother He inherited the power to die. From His Father He obtained power over death” (“Constancy amid Change,” Ensign, Nov. 1993, 34). Week Two: Matthew 1; Luke 1 – “Be it unto Me according to thy Word”

In this week’s reading we are learning about Mary (Luke 1:26–56) Joseph (Matthew 1:18–25) Elisabeth (Luke 1:5–7, 24–25, 40–45, 57–60) Zacharias (Luke 1:5–23, 59–64).

Zacharias and Elisabeth learned that the blessings we receive are in the Lord’s time and not on our time schedule.  Jeffrey R. Holland promised, “Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don’t come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come” (“An High Priest of Good Things to Come,” Ensign, Nov. 1999, 38). Zacharias and Elisabeth remained faithful throughout the years by keeping the commandments of God and faithfully trusting their lives to the Lord and doing His will each day. Luke 1:5–25, 57–80

I am sure that they said their prayers, and studied their scriptures daily, as we should. Zacharias and Elisabeth are good examples for us if / when we may find ourselves waiting on promised blessings from the Lord. We must remember that the Lord will always keep His promises to us. Elisabeth and Zacharias are perfect examples of this, look how long they waited for a son. And what did they do while they were waiting on their prayer for a child to be answered – they remained faithful and trusted in the Lord. This is just one of the any examples in the scripture of things we should do.

Our Heavenly Father is mindful of us – He knows what we are going through every minute or every day, we are His children and He loves us. He knows of our needs before we realize that we have the need. He answers our prayers, but we must remember that the Lord doesn’t answer our prayers on our time table. He always answers our prayers though most 0ften not in the way that we think or feel that He should. Just as we love the children in our lives and look out for their best welfare, our Heavenly Father is looking out for ours as well😊

Mary and Elisabeth discovered as have I, that all things are possible with God. Mary is a very good example for us to learn that we can overcome the seemingly impossible things in life when we trust and rely on God. I mean these two ladies conceived children at unconventional times in their lives – Mary had never known a man and Elisabeth was barren and past the child baring age, yet they both had a son. The Angel Gabriel told Mary in Luke 1:37 “With God nothing shall be impossible” and Mary’s response to him is found in Luke 1:38 “Be it unto me according to thy word” Mary trusted in the Lord and was desirous and willing for the will of God to be done.

This talk was reference in the lesson for this week and I loved the way President Russell M. Nelson has explained about the constancy amid change in our world. This talk was given at the 1993 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In his talk he is answering the question of a couple of youth about our changing world. He is teaching them and us with his answer that there is some constancy amid the changing world. He reminds us that the prophet throughout the ages have told us about the many unchanging constants. It is wonderful to know that there are some things that remain the same in our ever-changing world.

Constancy amid Change

Russell M. Nelson

Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

I echo President Monson’s compliments to Brother Peterson, Brother Komatsu, and Brother de Jager. They have earned our greatest commendation. And I, too, join with others who feel a debt of gratitude to this wonderful chorus of youth from Brigham Young University. They’re wonderful.

Our youth are wonderful and especially able to ask thoughtful questions. Recently I had a conversation with “Ruth” and “John.” Ruth opened the discussion. With a sigh, she lamented, “Our world is constantly changing, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” I replied, “ever since its creation—geologically and geographically. And its populations are changing—politically and spiritually. You might ask your grandparents about life when they were your age and discover their thoughts.”

“Oh, I already have,” Ruth continued. “My grandpa summarized his opinion with a clever quip: ‘Give me the good old days—plus penicillin.’”

Then John expressed deep concern. “Continually changing conditions make the future shaky for us,” he said. “It’s kind of scary. We seem to be standing on shifting sand.”

Together they asked, “What can we trust? Is anything constant that will not change as we grow older?”

To that question I responded with an emphatic, “Yes! Many things!” Because Ruth and John are typical of many today who seek for unchanging constants in a changing world, I would like to address that subject, titling my remarks “Constancy amid Change.” Through the years, prophets and Apostles have spoken of many unchanging constants.¹ To facilitate this discussion, I will group some of these constants into three categories: heavenly personages, plans, and principles.

I have thought about the many, many things that have changed just during my life time and it still amazes me. What, from the party-line phones to smart phones; from carrying heavy books to having a chrome book in school; from having a market for each thing (like getting meat from a butcher, bread from a baker, sewing supplies from the singer store, clothes from a clothing store, etc.) to having a super Walmart in just about every neighborhood; ovens to microwaves; percolators and teapots to coffeemakers etc.,  to name just a few. Then there are changes in the things for a baby – oh, don’t get me started on this one – I could go on about all those changes😊

I. Personages

Our Heavenly Father has a glorified body of flesh and bone, inseparably connected with His spirit.² Scriptures state that He is “infinite and eternal, from everlasting to everlasting the same unchangeable God” (D&C 20:17).³

His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, is our Savior and the chief cornerstone of our religion.⁴ “He is the life and the light of the world” (Alma 38:9).⁵ “There shall be no other name … nor any other way … whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent” (Mosiah 3:17).⁶

Another personage is the Holy Ghost, whose enduring influence transcends time. Scripture assures that “the Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever” (D&C 121:46; emphasis added).

Brothers and sisters, these Heavenly Beings love you. Their love is as constant as is the greatest love of earthly parents.

But there is another personage about whom you should be reminded. Satan also exists and seeks “that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2 Ne. 2:27).⁷

II. Plans

I speak now of category two—unchanging plans. A great council in heaven was once convened, in which it seems that all of us participated.⁸ There our Heavenly Father announced His plan. Scriptures refer to this plan of God⁹by many names. Perhaps out of deference to the sacred name of Deity, or to depict its broad scope, it is also called the plan of happiness,¹⁰ the plan of salvation,¹¹ the plan of redemption,¹² the plan of restoration,¹³ the plan of mercy,¹⁴the plan of deliverance,¹⁵ and the everlasting gospel.¹⁶Prophets have used these terms interchangeably. Regardless of designation, the enabling essence of the plan is the atonement of Jesus Christ. As it is central to the plan,¹⁷ we should try to comprehend the meaning of the Atonement. Before we can comprehend it, though, we must understand the fall of Adam. And before we can fully appreciate the Fall, we must first comprehend the Creation. These three events—the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement—are three preeminent pillars of God’s plan, and they are doctrinally interrelated.

The Creation

The creation of the earth was a preparatory part of our Father’s plan. Then “the Gods went down to organize man in their own image, … male and female to form they them.

“And the Gods said: We will bless them” (Abr. 4:27–28). And bless us they did, with a plan that would give us physical bodies of our very own.

Adam and Eve were the first people to live upon the earth.¹⁸They were different from the plant and animal life that had been created previously. Adam and Eve were children of God. Their bodies of flesh and bone were made in the express image of God’s. In that state of innocence, they were not yet mortal. They could have had no children,¹⁹were not subject to death, and could have lived in Eden’s garden forever.²⁰ Thus, we might speak of the Creation in terms of a paradisiacal creation.

If that state had persisted, you and I would still be stranded among the heavenly host as unborn sons and daughters of God.²¹ “The great plan of [happiness] would have been frustrated” (Alma 42:5).²²

The Fall

That leads us to the fall of Adam. To bring the plan of happiness to fruition, God issued to Adam and Eve the first commandment ever given to mankind. It was a commandment to beget children.²³ A law was explained to them. Should they eat from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:17), their bodies would change; mortality and eventual death would come upon them.²⁴ But partaking of that fruit was prerequisite to their parenthood.²⁵

While I do not fully understand all the biochemistry involved, I do know that their physical bodies did change; blood began to circulate in their bodies. Adam and Eve thereby became mortal. Happily for us, they could also beget children and fulfill the purposes for which the world was created. Happily for them, “the Lord said unto Adam [and Eve²⁶]: Behold I have forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden” (Moses 6:53). We and all mankind are forever blessed because of Eve’s great courage and wisdom. By partaking of the fruit first, she did what needed to be done. Adam was wise enough to do likewise. Accordingly, we could speak of the fall of Adam in terms of a mortal creation, because “Adam fell that men might be” (2 Ne. 2:25).²⁷

Other blessings came to us through the Fall. It activated two closely coupled additional gifts from God, nearly as precious as life itself—agency and accountability. We became “free to choose liberty and eternal life … or to choose captivity and death” (2 Ne. 2:27). Freedom of choice cannot be exercised without accountability for choices made.²⁸

The Atonement

Now we come to the third pillar of God’s plan—the Atonement. Just as Adam and Eve were not to live forever in the Garden of Eden, so our final destination was not to be planet earth. We were to return to our heavenly home.

Given that reality, still another change was necessary. An infinite atonement was required to redeem Adam, Eve, and all of their posterity. That atonement must enable our physical bodies to be resurrected and changed²⁹ to a bloodless form, no longer liable to disease, deterioration, or death.

According to eternal law, that atonement required a personal sacrifice by an immortal being not subject to death. Yet He must die and take up His own body again. The Savior was the only one who could accomplish this. From His mother He inherited power to die. From His Father He obtained power over death. The Redeemer so explained:

“I lay down my life, that I might take it again.

“No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again” (John 10:17–18).

The Lord declared that “this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). He who had created the earth came into mortality to fulfill the will of His Father³⁰ and all prophecies of His atonement.³¹ And His atonement redeems every soul from penalties of personal transgression, on the condition of repentance.³²

This last sentence gives me great reason for hope in this life and in the life to come.

Thus, we might speak of the Atonement in terms of the immortal creation. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22).

I have recounted the importance of the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement, knowing that parents are accountable to teach these precepts of God’s plan to their children.³³

Before leaving our discussion of unchanging plans, however, we need to remember that the adversary sponsors a cunning plan of his own.³⁴ It invariably attacks God’s first commandment for husband and wife to beget children. It tempts with tactics that include infidelity, unchastity, and other abuses of procreative power. Satan’s band would trumpet choice, but mute accountability. Nevertheless, his capacity has long been limited, “for he knew not the mind of God” (Moses 4:6).

I speak now of category three—unchanging principles.

III. Principles

Unchanging principles are so because they come from our unchanging Heavenly Father. Try as they might, no parliament or congress could ever repeal the law of earth’s gravity or amend the Ten Commandments. Those laws are constant. All laws of nature and of God are part of the everlasting gospel. Thus, there are many unchanging principles. Time will permit consideration of only a few.

Priesthood

One of them is that of the priesthood. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “the Priesthood is an everlasting principle, and existed with God from eternity, and will to eternity, without beginning of days or end of years” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 157).³⁵

We know that “the Priesthood was first given to Adam; he obtained the First Presidency, and held the keys of it from generation to generation. He obtained it in the Creation, before the world was formed” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 157).

Scriptures certify that the priesthood has continued and will continue “through the lineage of [the] fathers” (D&C 86:8).³⁶ Ordination to its offices has timeless implication as well. Tenure in priesthood office may extend into postmortal realms. For example, scriptures declare that one ordained as a high priest may be a high priest forever.³⁷Promised blessings of the priesthood extend to men, women, and children throughout the world and may endure forever.³⁸

The use of the priesthood is carefully controlled according to conditions established by the Lord, who said:

“No power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood, only by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned” (D&C 121:41).

“That [the rights of the priesthood] may be conferred upon [men], it is true; but when [they] undertake to cover [their] sins, or to gratify [their] pride, [their] vain ambition, or to exercise control or dominion or compulsion upon the souls of the children of men, in any degree of unrighteousness, … the Spirit of the Lord is grieved; and when it is withdrawn, Amen to the priesthood or the authority of that man” (D&C 121:37).

While the priesthood is an everlasting principle, those privileged to exercise its authority must maintain themselves daily as worthy vessels.

Moral Law

Another unchanging principle is that of divine or moral law. Transgression of moral law brings retribution; obedience to it brings blessings “immutable and unchangeable” (D&C 104:2). Blessings are always predicated upon obedience to law.³⁹ So the Church teaches us to embrace the right and to renounce the wrong—that we might have joy.⁴⁰

The Savior and His servants⁴¹ do not speak words of complacency but teach what people need to know. Through the ages, history attests that contemporary critics have pressed Church leaders to modify a decree of the Lord.⁴²But such is eternal law, and it cannot be altered. Not even for His Beloved Son could God change the law that required the Atonement. Divine doctrines cannot be squeezed into compact molds to make them fit fashionable patterns of the day. Nor can they be fully expressed on a bumper sticker.

Judgment

Another unchanging principle, brothers and sisters, is that of your eventual judgment. Each of you will be judged according to your individual works and the desires of your hearts.⁴³ You will not be required to pay the debt of any other. Your eventual placement in the celestial, terrestrial, or telestial kingdom will not be determined by chance. The Lord has prescribed unchanging requirements for each. You can know what the scriptures teach, and pattern your lives accordingly.⁴⁴

Divine Commandments

Other unchanging principles include divine commandments—even those that seem to be temporal. Tithing, for example, is not temporal (or temporary); it is an everlasting principle. The Lord said:

“Those who have thus been tithed shall pay one-tenth of all their interest annually; and this shall be a standing law unto them forever” (D&C 119:4; emphasis added).

We know that tithe payers shall not be burned at the Second Coming.⁴⁵

Truth

Another unchanging principle is that of truth. Scripture reminds us that “the truth abideth forever and ever” (D&C 1:39).⁴⁶ Even though one’s understanding of the truth may be fragmentary, truth itself does not change. Everlasting truth and wisdom come from the Lord. The first truth ever taught to man came directly from Deity. From generation to generation, God has given additional light. Whether truth comes from a laboratory of science or directly by revelation, truth is embraced by the gospel.

Family

May I mention one more everlasting principle—the family. A family can be together forever. Though each of us will pass through the doors of death, the timing of that departure is less important than is the preparation for eternal life. Part of that preparation includes service in the Church. It is not to be a burden but a blessing to a family. The Lord said, “Thy duty is unto the church forever, and this because of thy family” (D&C 23:3).⁴⁷

Ruth, John, and each of you will more fully understand that concept in light of this scriptural promise:

“If a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them … [they] shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, … exaltation and glory in all things, … which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever” (D&C 132:19).

A promise like that is worth your personal effort and endurance.

Constancy amid change is assured by heavenly personages, plans, and principles. Our trust can be safely anchored to them. They provide peace, eternal progression, hope, freedom, love, and joy to all who will be guided by them. They are true—now and forever—I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Wow! That was a lot of learning wasn’t it? I love learning new things and reviewing things that I have learned or became acquainted with before, like when I study the scriptures, I am always finding things that I didn’t seem to notice before, as I am sure you have found as well occasionally. So, I challenge you to use this talk to explain these three constants: heavenly personages, plans, and principles. President Nelson as explained them so well, that even I have been able to understand the explanations. Our lesson for this week January 14 – 20, is Luke 2; Matthew 2. Until my next post, as always, I hope and pray that you have enjoyed our time together and you have learned something new. Remember to make it a great week!