Cessation of Posting

          There is a time for things to start, and there is also a time for them to end.  The purpose of this blog has been to help people come closer to Christ.  In fact, that is the great objective of my life.  I have learned a lot from the posts I have written, and I hope and pray that they have touched the lives of those who needed them the most.

          What I feel in my heart is that the purpose of this blog has been completed.  I accomplished what I set out to do.  It is time to move on.

          Elder Scott once said, " We need not worry if we can’t simultaneously do all of the things that the Lord has counseled us to do. He has spoken of a time and a season for all things. In response to our sincere prayers for guidance, He will direct us in what should be emphasized at each phase of our life. We can learn, grow, and become like Him one consistent step at a time."

          I know that that is true.  There is a time for everything under the heavens.  And there is also a time to end.  I pray that each of you that have read this blog will go forward in faith and accomplish all that your Father in Heaven knows that you can do.  I hope that you will arise and shine and be like Him.

          The time has come for me to focus on other projects.  I trust that with the Lord's help, they will be even greater tools in His hands to bring to pass His righteousness.  Know that I love you, and that I have written what I have written for your sakes.  Not mine.  I hope that my words will help you in your quest to follow the Savior.

          Finally, I want to acknowledge the Lord's help in anything good that has come from this blog.  It is His work.  He is the one who performs the miracles.  With His help, we can do great things.

          I would like to share with you my testimony that I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.  He did in reality die for us.  His Atonement extends beyond the immensity of space and to eternity.  He is intensely concerned about each one of us.  Joseph Smith was His servant in initiating a work that will sweep the world and ultimately save it.  I know that Thomas S. Monson is a literal prophet and that his words are God's words.  The Book of Mormon is true.  The Plan of Salvation is real.  Zion will come.  All of these things I know for myself, independent of all others.  It is true, and it is wonderful.

Your Fellow-Servant,

Gavin Chatterley

"Sunset," no changes made, by sunny_mjx, "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode"

Litmus Test

          This week I'm taking a break from the normal format of my blog posts.  The following is an email that I sent to a close friend of mine:

Dear Xxxx,

    I've been thinking about how putting our hearts into anything that isn't God is wrong.  The scriptures teach that we should love God with all our "heart, might, mind, and strength."  That was true in the mission, too.  We knew that we had to serve God with all our hearts.  We learned that anytime we put our hearts into something else, like ties, food, writing home, etc., it compromised our ability to put our hearts into our missions.

    I believe that normal life is the same way.  We are required to spend our time on things that take our effort or attention that are  secular in nature, but if we put our hearts into those things, we compromise our ability to put our hearts into God.

    It's much easier to live life with our hearts placed on other things around us.  Giving our heart only to God is painful.  Caring about others more than ourselves is also important and does not compromise our ability to give our hearts to God.  But so many other things that seem good really do compromise our ability to give our all to Him.  Sometimes we think that we are doing something for others when we really aren't.  Sometimes we are really doing it for ourselves, and when we try to force it into a shape that benefits others in some way it seems to work for a little while, but ultimately leads us away from what is most important.  That is because the nature of our engagement with the activity is self-centered.  Because the activities are not inherently evil and seem to have the potential to really help people, it is easier for us to be deceived by it or even lie to ourselves about the nature of what we are doing.  We may feel like there is heavy opposition against us, when in reality it is just ourselves making a mess of things.

    A rule that have I developed for myself is that if any activity makes it more difficult to place my family in the center of my life I will cut it out of my life immediately, not matter how innocent or even good it may seem.  It has struck me that there are some people who I greatly respect that at times in their lives have had to repent and course correct in order to make their families the most important thing.  I think to myself:  "If I love and respect these people so much, and even THEY had to repent, I will have to exert every effort to avoid the same mistake."

     I never want to make that mistake, Xxxx.  I want my family never to doubt that I value them more than anything else in my life.  I want to be true  to them from the very beginning of my family until the ends of eternity.

     Here is a question:  Has your opposition of the idea that a prophet can never lead the Church astray made it easier or harder for you to make your family your top priority?  Has your work and schooling choices made that harder or easier?

    Remember that God said, "Yea, and cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever."  and "Look unto me in every thought."

     Does following the Prophets and Apostles as completely as if hearing the Lord himself make it easier or harder to make our families the highest priority?

     I know what my answer to that question is.

Love,

Gavin

          A litmus test is a question that is asked to determine, in a black or white manner, if something is good.

           Here are some of mine:  Does the activity make it easier or harder for you to care about another person's happiness  more than your own?  Does the activity make it easier or harder for you to genuinely help others when they need it?  Does it increase your ability to love?  Does it make it easier or harder for you to follow the Spirit?  Does it invite clarity or confusion?  Does it  bring you closer or farther from the promises in your Patriarchal blessing?  Does it put a piece of your heart into something that is not God or His children?  Does it make it easier or harder to make your future or current family your first priority?

          I believe that if we as we honestly evaluate our lives on the premise of these questions and act accordingly, our lives will truly be pleasing to God.

Givers and Receivers

          What is the greatest gift you can give to another?  Is it your time?  Your concern?  Sacrificing something that means a lot to you?  Certainly which gift is best depends on the situation.  There is one gift that the Savior often gave that may not be obvious.

          "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).  Because so much happiness comes from being able to make a positive contribution for others, sometimes the best thing we can do for them is to be helped by them.

          When we help others there is often a tendency to think of ourselves as above them, at least in some sense, even if we love and respect them.  It takes humility, and true love, to let others serve us so that they can feel happy and elevated.  To be clear, that does not mean that we should be selfish.  It simply means that when others try to do nice things for us, and we let them, we are giving them a key to happiness.

          Why is it so intuitive to us that we should accept Christ's sacrifice for us, and yet so difficult for us to allow others to do the dishes for us, give us rides to the grocery store, or any other small thing?  Zion is to be of one heart and one mind.  I do not believe that that can occur without a constant flow of giving and receiving between all of the saints.  I am not saying that we should limit the amount that we help others.  What I am saying is that we should pair out willingness to serve others with a willingness to be served.  From experience I know that sometimes the latter is harder,

          The following comes from the life of the Savior:

          "And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment" (Luke 7:37-38).

          I think that most people in Christ's situation would feel a little embarrassed about amount of affection the woman was showing.  But instead of pushing her away, the Savior gave her the priceless gift of the opportunity to serve the Son of God.  Sometimes the best way to rescue the damsel in distress is to let her rescue you.  The word "let" doesn't mean that you didn't legitimately need rescuing.  It may be as simple as acknowledging something beneficial that she did for you that she might not have thought was important.  It may be that you could have turned to someone else but chose her instead.

          Balance is difficult, but when the most important principles are in our hearts they emerge naturally in our actions.  So serve others.  Love them, help them and sacrifice for them.  But among all that, let others love you back.

"Coupelle opalescente Etling - Etling opalescent dish," no changes made, by Etienne https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode

Agency and Good Gifts

          Human beings are capable of amazing things when they work together with God.  It is amazing to me that considering how much God knows about our lives, circumstances, and what will make us happy, how little we understand the same, and how high the stakes are, that God lets us forge our own path so often.  Even when we follow His inspiration completely, our lives in so many ways are still up to us.

          If I were in God's position, it would be very tempting to micromanage us, especially as we navigate the most important decisions, such as education and marriage.  It would be natural to want to control all of our decisions so that we would never get hurt unnecessarily.  But it is more important to Him that our path be uniquely ours.

          My favorite part of the Meet the Mormons movie was the story of the Candy Bomber, the man who, during the USSR blockade of East Germany, airlifted candy for the local children in addition to the food that the US was supplying the country.  The part that stood out to me the most was how the Lord inspired him.  He was at the end of his first run to East Germany when he happened to talk to some German children standing near the fence.  As he turned to go, he felt a clear impression to go back to the fence.  Upon returning, he gave the children a stick of gum.  They enjoyed it so much that he decided that he had to do something to help them.  And that was when he decided to begin airlifting candy.

          Now what strikes me the most about this story is what God didn't do.  He didn't sit him down on a stump somewhere and say, "Listen, son.  These German children haven't so much as smelled candy in a very long time.  Even just a small piece of candy would lift their spirits.  I want you to start airlifting candy to them so that the East Germans will maintain enough good morale to withstand the Soviet blockade."  If He had, no doubt that the Candy Bomber would have obeyed.  But God didn't do that.  Instead, He merely whispered, "Go back to the fence."  He knew what the result would be.  He knew the man's heart.  But He wanted it to be his own decision.  Because that is precisely what makes the story so beautiful.

          The Candy Bomber may have chosen a myriad of other ways to help the children that would have been equally impactful.  But he chose this one, and that was what made it special.

          It is interesting to consider that Jesus may not only give us blessings because the Father commands Him to, but also from His own initiative because He has compassion on us.  For example, from His visit to the Nephites, we read, "And it came to pass that when Jesus had thus spoken, he cast his eyes round about again on the multitude, and beheld they were in tears, and did look steadfastly upon him as if they would ask him to tarry a little longer with them.  And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you" (3 Nephi 17:5-6).  And then He healed their sick.  He didn't say it was because the Father commanded Him to, but rather because of His own compassion.

          It is true that God blesses us in response to our agency.  But it is also my experience that His blessings far outweigh our requests.  We might ask for an angelic visitation to confirm the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and He gives us the even greater witness that comes through the Holy Ghost.  We might ask for a miracle, and He responds by strengthening us so that we can change our circumstances.  Think about it; whether the miracle comes through us or through some impressive outside means, our request has been granted and our circumstances changed.  But by changing us, God not only answers our prayers, but also gives us something more: a strength of character that we can use and carry with us the rest of our lives.  Often even His "no" answers are but the segue to an even greater "yes."

          Agency is one of the greatest gifts that God gives.  Not only our own agency, but His.  He chooses to help us, guide us, love us, and protect us.  No one commands Him to; He does it of His own volition.  And, in the end, that is what makes it so beautiful.

"Gift Giving Just Around the Corner:-)" no changes made, by Kasla. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode

"Waterfall", no changes made, by Sudipto Sarkar. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode

The Greatest Gift

          God is a great giver of gifts.  They are timely, powerful, and personal.  They teach us, help us feel loved, and change our lives forever.  But not all gifts are created equal.  There is one gift that prophets have long said is greater than any other that we receive in mortality.  It is the gift of the Holy Ghost.  President Wilford Woodruff said the following, "Now, if you have the Holy Ghost with you—and every one ought to have—I can say unto you that there is no greater gift, there is no greater blessing, there is no greater testimony given to any man on earth. You may have the administration of angels; you may see many miracles; you may see many wonders in the earth; but I claim that the gift of the Holy Ghost is the greatest gift that can be bestowed upon man."

          The first time I heard of this concept, I didn't quite accept it at face value.  I immediately began thinking of other great blessings that seemed even more powerful.  But when I chose to accept this idea to its full extent in faith, faith that Wilford Woodruff was a prophet, and that he spoke for God, great power came into my life.

          In a talk about the Holy Ghost, Elder Bednar counseled missionaries not to worry so much if a specific prompting is from the Holy Ghost or not.  "Be a good boy, or a good girl," and you will be guided by the Spirit, whether you recognize it or not.  Such confidence could only emerge from faith in God, not in ourselves.  It sometimes matters a great deal if we are doing God's will as dictated by the Holy Ghost, following our own judgment, or being deceived by a less-altruistic source.  The faith that we have is that God is powerful enough to help us do His will even though we are not 100% sure what it is, that He is powerful enough to help us even though we do not consciously discern that help.  It is faith that as we follow Him, we will arrive at the correct destination, not matter how convoluted, surprising, or confusing the journey may be.

          We can have the same faith in God as we follow the prophets.  There are those who do not believe that we can trust every word that comes from a prophet because he is mortal and makes mistakes.  But people who believe that are not actually lacking faith in prophets; they are lacking faith in God.  When has God ever set up anything for the benefit of His children that we can sometimes trust and sometimes not?  Are there times when paying tithing does not open the windows of heaven?  No.  One ironic thing about people who believe the scriptures, but not all of the words of living prophets, is that the scriptures were written by prophets identical to the ones speaking in General Conference.  Ancient prophets had just as equal a propensity to err as modern ones.  Moroni even said, "Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his imperfection, neither them who have written before him; but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been" (Mormon 9:31).  It's ludicrous to think that prophets have been perfectly guided by God for thousands of years and then, in modern times, suddenly began to spout out intermittent bursts of false doctrine. 

          As with the Holy Ghost, our trust is not that prophets are perfect, now or in the scriptures.  They are not.  But God the one being in the universe who can create something perfect from something imperfect.  Isn't that one of the most fundamental truths of the Plan of Salvation?  Isn't that exactly what he is doing with each one of us?  To say that we cannot trust that a prophet will never lead us astray is to lack faith in the omnipotence of God.  In saying that, we are also saying that God cannot use imperfect beings to guide us perfectly while at the same time honoring their agency.

          It all comes down to faith.

          Christ said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 7:17).  As I have followed the prophets' council and have chosen to believe their words above my own understanding of the Gospel, I have been blessed.  My explanation of things is not airtight, but the testimony of action is.  I promise that if you follow the words of the prophet as if from the mouth of God Himself, you will know that the doctrine I have talked about today is true.  In fact, it is the only way you can know.  For this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, through Jesus Christ, and those He hath sent.

"Ice Water" by Pink Sherbet Photography, no changes made, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode

"Icelandic landscape #20," by Alexander Shchukin, no changes made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/legalcode

Light and Law

          Last week I talked about seeing spiritually.  Today I will discuss what exactly it is that we see.  That is, the nature light itself.  Firstly, spiritual light is the same as spiritual law.  "The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed..." (D&C 88:13, emphasis added).  The light that illuminates our spiritual eyes enables us to judge between right and wrong (see Moroni 7:16-18).  We see that there are certain things in our lives that are not in harmony with God.

          Herein is the great moral contradiction that each man or woman must deal with thousands upon thousands of times in their lifetimes, the mismatch between what we did and what we should have done.  There are only two options that a person can take when they discern a contradiction between themselves and divine law:  They may acknowledge that they are in error, or they may deny the integrity of the light by lying to themselves about its identity, existence, or authenticity.  The first option is more humbling because it requires us to accept that we are wrong and that we must repent, but the second option shuts off the indicated person from further light and truth.

          The greater a person's ability to see, the more light they receive.  Thus any contradiction between that person's actions and divine law will be more pronounced, as will the lie they would have to tell themselves in order to avoid incriminating themselves.  Therefore, "he who sins against the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation" (D&C 82:3) because the rejection of the truth is greater.

          Jesus Christ is the light.  He said,  "I am the light which shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not" (Doctrine & Covenants 10:57-58).  In other words, He is the light that we receive or reject.  For this reason, spiritual light is called the Light of Christ.

          With this understanding, even decisions that seem to have no bearing on Christ personally, such as whether we accept Thomas S. Monson as a prophet, seer, and revelator, are fundamentally reducible to a choice between accepting or rejecting Christ himself.  The Light bears witness that President Monson is His authorized servant on the earth today, and if we reject that truth we reject Him because He is the light.  That is why He can say, "He that receiveth you receiveth me" (Matthew 10:40).

          Those that reject the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in favor of another church that purports to worship Him are ironically rejecting Him.  It is my opinion that many times, if not always, those who do so have first lied to themselves about a standard of righteousness that they have not kept but have excused themselves from for some reason.  If Christ is the light, and light is spiritual law, then Jesus is literally the spiritual law by which all things are governed (see 3 Nephi 15:9; D&C 88:5-13).  Consider what this means in terms of the following scripture:  "That which breaketh a law, and abideth not by law, but seeketh to become a law unto itself, and willeth to abide in sin, and altogether abideth in sin, cannot be sanctified by law" (D&C 88:35).  Those that reject the light, and abide not by spiritual law, seek to become a law unto themselves through self-deception and cannot be sanctified by Christ.  They seek to create their own standards of morality and truth instead of accepting those of the Savior.

          Deep down, all of us know what is true and what is not, but depending on the amount of light we have accepted, our spiritual eyesight might not currently be strong enough to tell the difference in some cases.  Those that sin against light and knowledge damage their own ability to perceive light.  The only remedy is repentance, or acknowledging the hidden sin and turning the heart once more to God.

          On my mission one of my favorite scriptures was 3 Nephi 7:24, "Now I would have you to remember also, that there were none who were brought unto repentance who were not baptized with water."  In other words, all those who truly repent embrace the Gospel and are baptized.  This is because all those who repent clear their vision, accept the light, are redeemed by the Lord, and can once again see what is truth and what is not.

         I know that as each of us learn to repent and fill our lives with light, we will become more like it.  We will become conduits by which the light can shine into the lives of others.  Person by person, we can begin to cast darkness out of the world around us, bathing those we love in the iridescent gleam of life and truth.

"The One Light in the Dark," by Patrick Brosset. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode 
"Night Light," by Susanne Nilsson. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode

The Beautiful Thing Is That It's True

          There are a lot of well-thought-out ideas in the world.  For centuries there have been men who have spent their entire lives thinking about their own existence, dissecting it various ways, and coming up with theories about what exactly it is.  They tried to tackle life at its roots, taking nothing for granted and having no assumptions.  All their powers of reason were focused like an arrow on the single objective of understanding.

          But the one assumption they never broke down, the one stipulation they never considered, was that the way to discover truth about life was not through reason at all.  We know things in our hearts, not in our minds.  The entire functionality of our lives is based on using knowledge that cannot be proven.  We know that the sun will come up, that oxygen will still be breathable, and that our watches will continue to tell time properly.  If we follow our train of logic far enough into its foundations, however, we inevitably find that our knowledge is based on assumption.

          The thing that makes the way that the universe functions superior to other ideas is not its logic, poise, or presentation.  It is the fact that it's true.  If it weren't true, it wouldn't be of more use to us than any other idea we could come up with.  Truth is like this line:

          A person might feel like they have all the logic under the heaven that tells them that the line is really a square or a squiggle or a rectangle, but all that can never destroy its truthfulness or identity.

          Throughout my life, the barrier between myself and the line has grown more translucent.  Things that were once legitimate questions have faded into obscurity.  Although I am not perfect and do not have a perfect understanding, there are things that I believe, not because they are logical or because I have been brought up that way, but because I can discern their existence.  I can see them. 

          I think it is interesting how Christ phrased a description of discovering truth, "For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear" (Matt. 13:15-16).

          Jesus never once asked his disciples to logically probe the Gospel.  Rather, He asked them to open their spiritual eyes and look.  What naturally fell onto their retina was the truth.

          The idea of eternal families, of opportunities to help others with great power, of happiness and joy, and of the great change in our natures brought about by the Lord Jesus Christ are not just great ideas.  What makes them beautiful is that they are true.  And that truth is discernible.

          President Ucthdorf once said, "Today we can see...distant galaxies.  We know that they are there.  They have been there for a very long time.  But before mankind had instruments powerful enough to gather celestial light and bring these galaxies into visibility, we did not believe such a thing was possible.  The immensity of the universe didn’t suddenly change, but our ability to see and understand this truth changed dramatically. And with that greater light, mankind was introduced to glorious vistas we had never before imagined."

       I can see that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that there really are prophets in our day and age, and that the power of the priesthood is real.  I have used that power.  It is the power that makes all that is important in life binding and legitimate.  I know that through that power, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true and living Church by which we may be saved.  Everything that it stands for embodies truth which is eternal.

I see it with every step I take.

"The Light that Failed," by Bart https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode