Returning Momanhood to Godhood

The following thoughts are dedicated and inspired by my angel mother who demonstrates perfection in motherhood on a daily basis. Love you Mom!
When Eve was brought to Adam he gave her the most sanctified and glorious of all designations; he called her Eve. In Hebrew “chavah” or the mother of all living. He did not distinguish her as wife but simply mother, mother of all creatures. In this one complementary title consists the glory and most precious adornment of women.
Paralleling the historic heritage of heroic prophets is a stream of remarkable women of God. Greatness is not measured by publicity in popular magazines or scriptures for that matter. Therefore, the story of the women of God is an untold drama in the gospel production.
Kingdom workforce consists of men and women equal without envy of each other, for fear that by political purging of familial purpose a wilderness will become generated.
When the final chapter is written in the history of the world, we will see nations saved by cradles and kitchens not haggling congresses quibbling! the everlasting family will still be standing, because it is a celestial society, created outside telestial time.
Two women came first to the empty tomb of the risen Christ. Mary was the first mortal to see the resurrected Savior.
In Christ’s contemporary kingdom, it is no accident that the Relief Society, assigned compassionate service. So often the service of women seems instinctive. The daughters of Zion are so scarce and priceless that they suffer adversarial antagonism.
We express undying gratitude the daughters of Israel. When we kneel to pray, we kneel hand in hand When we kneel at the altar of the holy temple, the same. And we will approach and faithfully enter the final gate where the Master keeps the key covenanted in togetherness.
Women are the gems of the world, in the same sense as the stars are the gems of heaven, lucid, light-giving, congruent with celestial lights that guide the destines of mankind.
“Woman” the very word ignites life’s dearest hopes and memories, love, adoration, and earth’s cursed Eden restored in the mist of Babylon in the heavenly home.
God has placed the genius of woman in her heart, the outward results of this genius is God’s love and tenderness towards humankind.
We learn volumes about the inherent astuteness devotion of women as we read the scene at Calvary, “And many women were there beholding afar off.” (Matt. 27:55.)
It was the women who were last at the cross and earliest at the grave. When we return to our real home, it will be with the “mutual approbation” angels reigning in the “royal courts on high.” There we will enjoy exquisiteness that “eye hath not seen”; we will hear sounds of matchless melodies that “ear hath not heard.” Could such a royal return be possible without the eager preparations of a Heavenly Mother?

Eternal Amazment

Amazed feelings in my soul assemble
Amazed at Golgotha to cause me to tremble
Amazed at His life and Love
Amazed at His Grace preceding from above
Amazed at His condescension from a throne divine
Amazed as He rose from dark death to eternally shine
Amazed at rough hands pierced to bleed
Amazed at selfless death enabling life to see His seed
Amazed as I worship on bent knees through mortal years
Amazed at feet’s wounds drenched in my tears
Amazed at wonderful care from Father to Son
Amazed at His devotion eternal life for me He has won

Divine Indebtedness

Scriptural mentors who possess great power demonstrate that we are in the moment of our greatest strength when we are in total acknowledgement of our weakness. They are eager to tell the Lord how weak and worthless they are therefore, they live in constant divine indebtedness, and are enabled with divine power. One classic illustration is the Brother of Jared “we know that thou art holy and . . . we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually.” (Ether 3:2 see also 2 Nephi 4). When we appraisingly stand in relation to Christ “we do not stand at all, we kneel!” (Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign Nov. 1981 p. 8) Therefore true humility is not an abject self-despising attitude; it is the right estimate of ourselves as God sees us. Without divine humility we keep our defects; but they become encrusted with pride, which disguises them from personal examination.
King Benjamin teaches us: “If ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath. . . and even supporting you from one moment to another--I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. (Mosiah 2:21)
This is not humiliating but it is humbling! The very moment I am righteous, the Lord blesses me and instant indebtedness besets again. Accordingly constant gratitude to the Lord must permeate personal prayers. King Benjamin continues that God “doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you.” (Mosiah 2:24) King Benjamin implies retrospective realization of blessings not automatic appreciation. It is unrealistic and ungrateful to accept heavenly blessings without accountability. Through thankful prayer our blindness will be healed and we will see the blessings of the Lord instantaneously.

Man Is Not Alone

“It is not good for man to be alone.” As the primal parent of our race, Adam began life alone. Christ was also alone (Isaiah 53:2-3) and therefore following the example of our fathers, we are alone as well. Everyone is alone in their own way, Adam was alone in the expectation of another person, Christ alone because only He loves the other person perfectly, because He is the way by which we return to our Creator. We are alone because we push others from us. Adam alone in hope, Christ alone in the fullness of Godhood, and we are alone in evil and hopelessness. Adam’s isolation is the single creation segment decreed “not good” (Moses 3:18).Therefore God creates an helpmeet for Adam. He brings His only Begotten home to His presence to reign with His Father as King of kings and Lord of lords. And for us He has given His Only Begotten so that in our aloneness we can be at one again with the Gods. The Lord be thanked for the perfect Atonement wrought by the Perfect Son and Uniter of us all.

Wholesale Grace

The Lordship controversy has me pondering lately. This controversy is a teaching among Christians that one can be saved by the grace of Jesus without accepting Christ as Lord and God. This doctrine erases personal accountability. Grace has gone on sale to the lowest bidder and the best offer is the lowest amount possible, completely free. People desire to pay as little as possible and still receive the greatest reward possible: salvation in His Kingdom. The devil is cheapening Christianity and thus destroying the agency of mankind (Moses 4:3). If grace is God’s answer, the gift of a Christian life, then we cannot, for even a moment, dispense with following Christ; I must set out and live a Christian life. Cheap grace allows me to live a life of sin and be forgiven for free allowing one to cling to a secularized life and enjoy a Sunday sermon free of guilt or responsibility. The Christian life has come to mean nothing more than living in the world as the world, being no different than the world. In fact it seems that the Christian has been forebiden to be different from the world for the sake of grace. Therefore, cheap grace has become the bitterest enemy of discipleship, for true Christian discipleship has been eliminate in the name of economical grace. Discipleship must be a radical protest against the world. The only man who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ (2 Nephi 10:20).Those who use grace as justification from following Christ are self deceived. Acquired knowledge cannot be separated from the existence in which it is acquired.
Is there a more evil abuse of grace than to sin and rely on the grace which God has given? This apostate doctrine of “Pecca Fortiter” which translated means “sin without fear” or “sin bravely” is an old heresy that teaches the greater the sin the greater the forgiveness; thereby encouraging some to commit greater sins so Christ’s mercy might be magnified. True it is that the followers of Christ soon learn that they can never become sinless. But t grace is gifted to those who from the bottom of their souls make a daily renunciation of sin. Grace at a low cost brings neither help nor freedom. To pay for grace I must walk the road of discipleship that leads to a personal Gethsemane. While others swarm around the carcass of cheap grace and drink the free poison destroying discipled life. Cheap grace is truth perverted into self (deceived free salvation, a doctrine almost as damning as self -propelled exaltation) and the devil is happy as the world makes grace available on the clearance table of self indulgence. Those who are trying to follow Christ as true disciples are now labeled heretics as they try to follow Christ. By condemning the devoted they condone the deception. Wholesale grace is certainly not in line with the teaching of Christ that the path is “narrow” and “few there be that find it”! On the every broadening path of free grace salvation is becoming a courtesy ticket on a carnival ride. And cheap grace has shown to be merciless to the Christian world for with cheap grace comes free sinning. Partakers have become so hardened in disobedience that the no longer hear His voice, thus agency is destroyed, for they are no longer free to enter into His life and partake of His glory and goodness; they are only free to wallow in the mire of sin and degradation. Thus the devil has stopped the progress of many seducing them to the ordinary level of the world, quenching the joy of followership by leading them to believe that they were following the path of free choice but in reality destroying all we fought in heaven. Laying hold of cheap grace bars one from the joyful knowledge of costly grace. This is dangerous because deceived and weakened, men think they are strong and independent; but they have lost the power to live. The doctrine of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any act of disobedience.

Light and Salt

“Ye are the Salt”: First we understand that the salt is the covenant (D&C 101 39-40; Lev. 2). Second, Jesus does not say: “Ye must be the salt” this is not for the covenant follower to decide, they are whether they like it or not. Covenant holders have been made salt by way of participation in covenant relationships with the Lord the disciple becomes the covenant. Again Jesus does not say “Ye have the salt” either. Jesus is speaking of the disciple’s entire existence as their lives are rooted in Christ and His gospel; it is the burden of the beatitudes in one simple statement.
The other option is for salt loses its savor and therefore is good for nothing and must be thrown away because it stopped working. Salt can’t loose savor with age only with contamination and mixture. Similarly, the covenant does not wear out or loose power with age only by worldly contamination. That seems to be a peculiar quality of salt, everything needs to be seasoned with it but once salt has lost the savor, it can never be used again. Everything else can be saved by salt however bad it has gone; only salt which loses its saver has no hope of recovery. This is the judgment hanging over the covenant community, whose mission is to salt (“covenantize”) the world. The Church has the covenant responsibility to save the world. The stone cut out of the mountain (Dan 2) is huge and rolling fast; either we push the stone by following the call or be crushed beneath it.
Then the call of Christ goes to the next level and makes the covenant family the light of the world. Their activity becomes visible. “Ye are the light” and that light is seen of men. Covenant holders do not become the light; no, they already are the light for Christ has made them so through the covenant relationship. The light is not an instrument placed into their hands such as the standard works or even the spoken word, it is the disciples themselves. Covenant bearers are the light in their entire existence. The disciple must remain true to the covenant and not contaminate the salt which is the conductor for the light. Because the disciple is the light hiding is no longer an option. The natural property of light to shine; therefore the city set on the hill cannot be hid. Again "cannot" implies even if the disciple wills it otherwise, it is not possible to hide that kind of light, the light of Christ through the covenant. A city with that kind of wattage can be seen for miles by everyone. Flight to the invisible is against the call of the covenant. Too many covenant holders have a bushel made from the fibers of the fear of men and worldly conformity. The covenant man and woman must learn to stand alone in a crowd of peers, stand alone for Christ and His eternal covenant.

Sensationalized Rumors

At times (every year) we hear of statements supposedly spoken by someone holding the Apostleship stating some strange doctrine given at a random private meeting or family gathering. It has happened again.

I have received an email (five times) quoting a talk President Packer supposedly gave at someone’s sacrament meeting. The Brethren have ways to communicate with us through proper channels. General Conference, official writings and official correspondence with those who hold keys i.e. Stake Presidents and Bishops are the most prominent. We believe that there is no salvation in believing false doctrine.

Why do we need a statement from a private meeting when we have General Confernce where the Brethren spoke about the finical crisis and how to be safe, in plain language: LIVE THE GOSPEL! We are like the covenant people in the Book of Mormon who got this warning because they were a “stiffnecked people and . . . despised the words of plainness. . . by looking beyond the mark and must needs fall; for God hath taken away his plainness from them. . . “(Jacob 4:14)

We don’t need to sensationalize the gospel. The message Christ has given is exciting enough in its plainness to hold our attention and study for a lifetime. Joseph Smith taught that truth cuts its own way. (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 313.)

We received the following letter from Church Headquarters:

Letter:
Talk given by President Boyd K. Packer on Sunday, October 12, 2008

Forwarded from the CES Administrator’s office in the Central Office in Salt Lake City:

President Boyd K. Packer’s Office has indicated that the report of his talk of Sunday, October 12, 2008, that is being distributed is not accurate. President Packer has not approved the report of his talk or authorized it’s distribution.

It is recommended that individuals follow the instruction, counsel, and spirit of his recent October 2008 General Conference talk.


We also need to consider that The First Presidency issued a letter May 13, 2004 which is now quoted in the new general handbook of instructions and provides official instruction: “…members of the Church [are] to never teach or pass on… statements without verifying that they are from approved official sources… Any notes made when General Authorities, Area Seventies, or other general Church officers speak at regional and stake conferences or other meetings should not be distributed without the consent of the speaker. Personal notes are for individual use only.” (Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 1 (2006), pg. 173.)