I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come, Follow Me for Doctrine and Covenants 3-5. If you missed last week’s insight, Doctrine and Covenants 2 & JSH 1:27-65 click here for it. Please share this with your friends or use this picture to save this pin to read later.
The price of complacency in the Kingdom.
“Remember, remember that it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men;” D&C 3:3
This verse contains one of the great lessons about God, His work will not be frustrated. Now when we hear this some of us may think, “It will all work out, I don’t need to worry about it!”
What we often forget is just because His work is not frustrated does not mean that we will be rewarded for apathy. If we shirk at opportunities to keep the commandments and let others pick up our slack God will not reward us with the valiant.
This idea of “it will all work out” is exceptionally dangerous when it comes to our civic duties, the Prophets have warned and forewarned us to be active in defending liberty, true God has promised that the Church will never fail, but what will we suffer if we do not follow the Prophet in defense of our God-given Liberties?
The Prophet Ezra Taft Benson warns us about being complacent with the idea that “it will all just work out.” He taught: “Have you counted the cost if our countrymen and especially the body of the Priesthood continue to remain complacent, misled through some of our news media, deceived by some of our officials, and perverted by some of our educators? Are you prepared to see some of your loved ones murdered, your remaining liberties abridged, the Church persecuted, and your eternal reward jeopardized?”
Member Missionary Work
“If ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work”
Doctrine and Covenants 4:3
The problem is not how many missionaries we have; we have doubled the number of missionaries over the past 30 years! The problem is that no matter how hard the missionaries work, they won’t be able to fulfill OUR duty as members. “Every member a missionary!” Was the clarion call of yesteryear by David O McKay, but preceding that statement was the charge that each family “bring at least one new member into the Church each year.” In the war against Satan, the call of the Lord to Hasten Salvation was truly a call for all hands on deck.; for everyone to man their Battle-stations! Enjoy these quotes to get you pumped for member missionary work:
“Missionaries will continue to do the best they can, but wouldn’t it be better if you and I stepped up to do a job that is rightfully ours?”
L. Tom Perry
“Member-missionary work is the key to the future growth of the Church.” Spencer W. Kimball
“Over the past twenty years, we have observed no correlation between the depth of a relationship and the probability that a person will be interested in learning about the gospel.”
Clayton M. Christensen
“A most significant evidence of our conversion and of how we feel about the gospel in our own lives is our willingness to share it with others.”
M. Russell Ballard
“Too much of the missionaries’ time is spent in finding people to teach. Ways must be found to increase the time missionaries spend in teaching. One of the best ways to do this is to make the ‘every member a missionary’ program work more effectively, with the members finding and fellowshipping people for the missionaries to teach.”
Franklin D. Richards
“What we call ‘member missionary work’ is not a program but an attitude of love and outreach to help those around us. It is also an opportunity to witness how we feel about the restored gospel of our Savior.”
Dallin H. Oaks
“The real goal for effective proselyting is that the members do the finding and the full-time missionaries do the teaching.”
Spencer W. Kimball
“Let us be sufficiently interested in the salvation of men to exercise a holy zeal for their conversion: that we may enjoy their eternal gratitude and love, and the appreciation of our Heavenly Father, because of our unselfish interest in His children.”
George Albert Smith
For more about member missionary work see this article I’ve written on the topic: 4 Things Every Member Can Do To Reverse The Record Low Baptism Rates.
Ask and ye shall receive.
“Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen.” Doctrine and Covenants 4:7
Often times we forget this is a promise, ask and ye shall receive. It does not mean that the only thing you need to do to receive is to ask, but that there is a promise that if you ask, seek, and knock you will receive in the Lord’s timing.
The ability to gain personal revelation is the lifeblood of the restored Gospel because it is by revelation, that we learn and gain testimonies of the truth and divinity of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.
The personal danger of pride and the power of humility.
“Behold, I say unto him, he exalts himself and does not humble himself sufficiently before me; but if he will bow down before me, and humble himself in mighty prayer and faith, in the sincerity of his heart, then will I grant unto him a view of the things which he desires to see.” D&C 5:24
The “him” referenced in this verse is Martin Harris, he was the one that lost the 116 pages of Book of Mormon. God warned Martin that his pride was preventing him from being one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Pride had shut doors in his life that he sought to have open, but God in mercy showed him that if he would but humble himself and repent those doors could be reopened.
Let Martin Harris be an example that we learn from, pride prevents our soul from having what it truly desires, pride destroys friendships, families, and marriages. Pride destroys, but if we humble ourselves in repentance, Jesus Christ will repair and heal any damage that pride has done.
Blessings denied us because of pride can be restored with humility,
That is the blessing of humility and repentance, it fixes pride. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf once taught this when he said “Pride is a switch that turns off priesthood power. Humility is a switch that turns it on.” let us turn the power of God “on” in our lives by repenting and being humble, because as Elder L. Whitney Clayton put it “Humility is the essence of repentance.”
