For those of you not of my faith, I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- I am a mormon. In our church there is no paid clergy, and practically every member of the congregation has a responsibility (a calling). My current calling is as a member of the high council of the Bothell Stake. A Stake is what we call a number of congregational units or wards. In our Stake there are 8 wards, and part of my calling is to give a talk/speech at each of those wards once a year. Tomorrow I will be speaking in the Woodinville ward. I was assigned the topic of "Agency and Obedience". which I share below.
If you would like to learn more about my faith or if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me -- or check out www.mormon.org.
Why do I post my thoughts here? Mostly because I know some (both members and non-members of the Church) find them useful. It also helps me formalize my thoughts. Note that what I try to align my writings with the teachings of my faith, but they are ultimately my understanding and/or my own thoughts.
Ok, so here we go...
Agency and Obedience
So lately the best souls have been sent to Earth and it started getting harder for Satan to be effective at keeping people from doing the right. He finally decided he would have a conference with all his minions, and asked them to provide ideas on how to improve his evil plan.Minion 1 said: "What about we increase the number of temptations...". "We already tried that " -- rebutted Satan, it is not as effective as we thought. Minon 2 said: "What about we tell people that there is no hope for them to get back to Heaven". "Hmmm... that sounds more interesting" -- said Satan. Minion 3 had an even better idea: "Let's just tell them that they are OK as long as they are a bit better than the average person" -- and to that Minion 4 added "... also, we can tell them that they are already saved... so they can let their guards down!" Satan by this point was very excited, and formed a committee to implement these ideas.
This is my own fictional story, but it does outline some of the deceptions that the adversary uses to keep us from returning to live with Heavenly Father. Let's take a look at the last few. Before that let me explain what we mean by free agency or simply agency. Agency is the freedom we have to chose between good and evil. We all, no matter our circumstances, have the ability to make decisions about our thoughts, our attitude and our actions.
Let's take on each of Satan's deceptions...
The idea that there is no hope in our lives denies the power of Christ and His atonement for each of us. The thing is, we all fall short of the perfect expectations that our Heavenly Father has for us. We all sin. Some more than others, but in our ability to chose between good and evil, we don't always chose good. Sometimes we succumb to temptation, and we chose incorrectly, we sin. Fortunately for us, there is hope. This hope comes is the miracle of forgiveness. Thanks to Christ, we can be forgiven from our sins, as long as we honestly repent from our sins. (More on repentance here)
The prophet Isaiah said:
“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18)
Then there is the idea of relativism. In order for us to be chose the right we need to understand the difference between right and wrong. In other words we need to understand the Law of God, so that we can obey it. Relativism denies the law of God. Let me explain what I mean by relativism. Relativism has to do with thinking that we are OK as long as we do better than the world standard. We may think, "if I am obedient relative to the rest of the world, I must be OK". The problem with this is that the world has shifting standards, and they can decline. What the the rest of the worlds was an abomination and illegal 50 years ago, may be the norm nowadays. So, in order to obey God, first we need to seek to understand His will.
In Matthew 22:36-40, Christ was asked which were the greatest commandments:
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
So the question then is how do we show our love for God?
In John 14:21, Christ told us how to show our love for Him and Heavenly Father
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me:
and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him,
and will manifest myself to him.
Obedience is a demonstration of our love for Heavenly Father.
Another technique that Satan may use to keep us from being obedient is to tell us that there is no need for us to do more, to somehow make us believe that we are already saved. This idea denies that Heavenly Father actually wants us to grow and progress, that by actually following his commandments, we are actually improving. In a sense, this idea denies the efficacy of agency.
Sometimes people believe that there pure belief in Christ is sufficient for them to reach exaltation.
While Chris's grace is necessary for our salvation, it is not sufficient. God requires us to do the best we can.
Moroni, said in his closing remarks in the book of Mormon.
“Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
“And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.” (Moro. 10:32–33.)
[A really good explanation on the importance of grace and works in our life here]As a father to two kids, I have come to appreciate a bit more the importance of agency. As your children grow and mature you start giving them a bit more freedom, and even though it's a bit hard, sometime you have to let them fall. If you want your children to learn to walk you have to literally put them into vulnerable situations where they may fall. But children learn and grow!
I have two kids now 10 and 8 -- and I love both of them very much. Sometimes my wife and I hear them argue. Sometimes, it is tempting to interject and stop the discussion (and sometimes we do)... but at times, we also realize the importance of letting them learn to deal with one another. They may or may not make the right choices, and they may even have to suffer the consequences of their actions, but that is part of growing.
So it is with our Heavenly Father. He give us the freedom to succeed... and to fail. We have the freedom to chose our actions and thoughts today. That said, I should point out that we don't get to chose the consequences of our actions. And sometimes, those consequences as rough as they may seem, are there to teach us as well.
One thing I should point out is that sometimes people may think that commandments may be restrictive. But in reality they liberate us. Let me give you an example, we follow a commandment that we call the "Word of Wisdom". As part of that, we are told that we should not drink alcohol or smoke. Even though I am free to smoke or drink alcohol, I choose not to, and by doing that I obey this law. Also, because I am obeying this law, I am entitled to the blessings from obeying those laws. For instance, my health is better than if I drank or smoked. Also, who knows, maybe if I started drinking or smoking I would be addicted any of those substances. I have had relatives and friends who have been addicted to these, and I can tell you that they do not feel free when trying to stop consuming them.
So it is with all commandments, they are for our good. To be honest, we may not always understand right away the reason for a given commandment... but in my experience I have noticed that eventually it becomes very clear why Heavenly Father wants us to be obedient to each of them. We gain a testimony of the specific commandment... but sometimes a bit of faith is required.
Heavenly Father's plan, is known as the plan of Salvation, or the plan of Happiness. The main reason is that if we are obedient to His commandments, we can gain Salvation in the life to come, but also learn to live happy lives here on Earth.
I am not sure if my children always understand why I tell them to do what I tell them to do; but as they grow and mature, they also tend to understand the reasoning behind our house rules.
In closing, let me enumerate five ways that help us increase our obedience.
1. Remember obedience is our way to show our love to Heavenly Father.
2. Seek to understand God's will. In order to be obedient to his commandments, we need to understand them first. Remember God gives us commandments because He love us.
3. Seek to gain a testimony of the commandment you are trying to learn... by living it.
4. When you fail, and often you will...Remember the miracle of forgiveness. Remember that Satan wants you to give up and feel like a failure... but Christ wants you to trust Him, and trust that you can be forgiven -- so that His sacrifice/atonement can be effective in your life.
5. Obeying God's will is not always popular, but that's ok. Don't look around you for approval, look up instead.
I have really enjoyed putting this talk together, because it reminded me of the love that God has for each us. I know He is aware of our individual needs, that He knows us personally, and that even though it may seem challenging at times, choosing the right is also what will bring us more happiness, fulfillment; and personal growth. I marvel at the love Heavenly Father has for us, and the 1ove His Son has for us. I know Christ is our Redeemer, and say this in his name. Amen.
