In the scriptures
Christ’s followers are referred to as His covenant people. He has promised to
protect and guide them as they strive to live and keep the commandments. In a
world where so many people fear what is to come, we have that promise and
principle to rely on, that God is at the helm and will take us safely home. He
has provided security for our soul and peace as we seek His Gospel.
In
Safety for the Soul, Elder Holland, warns us that even the most sure of
foundations will be tested and tried in the last days. It is necessary to be
tempted. It is necessary to ask questions. We are not to follow blindly the
counsel given, but rather seek for a confirmation from the Spirit of those same
truths. The “enemy of truths” will always strive to lead us astray. I believe
this is a critical experience. There is something so sacred and so personal to
have your most precious truths be questioned and have to find that answer
through the Holy Ghost and personal revelation and then be able rebuild and
strengthen that foundation.
Questions
are not what bring spiritual destruction. Spiritual destruction is falling away
from the principles of the Gospel. Our Father’s plea is to stay for away from
destruction. He counsels us to stay close to the truths we know and cherish. We
are to have daily communion with Him, to always have His spirit to be with us.
Heartbreaking, it must be for the Father to see His imperfect, but loved,
children fall or walk away from truths they once knew. Holland compares this to
the vision of The Tree of Life. There are those that never even reach the iron
rod, or the tree of life and are destroyed. Others are ashamed once they are
there and partake and fall away. Lastly, those who follow the iron rod are
obedient despite the difficult and treacherous temptation and mist of darkness.
It was interesting
to hear that everyone in the vision faced the mist of darkness at some point.
Race, wealth, sex, and age are not discriminated. It was not just those who
lacked a foundation of testimony. It wasn’t only those who were the strongest
or the weakest. In this test of life, everyone will be tempted. The mist
befalls everyone because we all need that growth that comes from withstanding burdens
and trials if we are to live with God again. The Lord knows are struggles. He
knows are weaknesses and strengths. He individually has felt them.
I
love the symbolism we learned of the rod of iron in class. As we hold to the
rod we are walking hand in hand with Christ and He leads us to safety and
happiness. He is beside us the whole journey through if we choose to just hold
on and cling to Him. I can’t help but think of the fear and surely the
unknowing that must have accompanied those holding to the rod. The mist of
darkness and temptation so thick around them they can’t see, but they trust,
and they hold on “tenaciously” to Christ and His word. I have so much respect
and admiration for those that suffered the whole way but just hoped and prayed
that, “we are almost there” meant the next arms length away. The relief and
pure joy that must have been theirs as they finally reach the tree of life and
partake of the goodness of God’s undying love. His love is His Son, His love,
is His sacrifice. The most precious of all fruits is the gift of the Atonement.
“Christ
is the safe harbor” Holland states within this talk. I don’t think I recognized
that phrase as closely as I did this time watching it. In difficult times when
we feel we are being tossed and turned and the waves beat upon us, we need to
remember where are peace comes from and who we turn to for all things. Christ
is our exemplar in every aspect. He is our safety net. He is the protection and
the security in the trials of our lives. Everything we do should be to bring us
closer to Him.
We
recognize His pivotal and instrumental role in our lives because we have the
Book of Mormon. It is what teaches us the importance of the Atonement. Not just
the how it was done, where it was done, and what was done; but it teaches and
testifies of the necessity of it, how to access the eternal healing, and why
His willingness was essential. The Book of Mormon teaches us more about Christ
than any other book. Truly, that is why it is the most correct book on the
earth. If Christ is our safety, and He surely is, then the Book of Mormon is
necessary to find all the peace and happiness that this world has to offer.
When we are asked to become perfect in the New Testament surely we would be
given more guidance on how that must be. There is more, 531 more pages to
direct and teach us to become like our Savior and “be perfected in Him.”
It
is not possible, in the next life, but especially in this one, to obtain the
eternal joy that is to be ours without the truths of the Book of Mormon. In
these last days we are threatened to deny all faith and hope in humanity. We
are God’s children. We will not deny the faith. But we also will not have all
that He has to offer without having a spiritual and sacred time to read,
ponder, and pray about the ancient text of scripture. It is to be our comfort,
our support, and our liahona. We are to cherish and return, not only to the
pages of the Book of Mormon, but also the experience itself, when we gained a
testimony of its divinity. As we recount those feelings we are reminded how
real revelation is and how close He is to and for us.
The
book could not possibly be in the hands of so many without the faithfulness of
its humble translator. Joseph Smith is the epitome of diligence and faith in my
eyes. “The crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty” Holland once
stated, and surely Joseph had nothing but loyalty to His calling and
ordination. I don’t believe anyone will ever know and recognize everything that
Joseph Smith had to endure to bring forth the dispensation of times. In a
letter to his wife, Emma, He once said, “God is my friend. In him I shall find
comfort. I have given my life into his hands. I am prepared to go at his call.
I desire to be with Christ. I count not my life dear to me, only to do his
will.” His loyalty to our Father in Heaven is one of the noblest of acts I can
recall.
Joseph
and Hyrum gave their lives as a testimony and witness to all, that they would
not deny the sacred book and work, which they were called to do. This stands as
evidence to everyone, in any time, that this work is true. Like many prophets
from past dispensations, Joseph was asked to seal His testimony with His blood.
Thus proving and testifying that He would not ever dismiss His encounter with
God and Jesus Christ, reject the Book of Mormon, and His pivotal role in God’s
restored Kingdom on the earth again.
I,
like so many, have received answers to my humble, but sincere, prayers to know
if the Book of Mormon is true. I’m beyond grateful for Father’s love and mercy
to bless us with so much. I’m eternally thankful to have the knowledge of the
sanctity of the Gospel as well as the Church. I have never been asked to die
for the Gospel, and probably never will. I have, though, been asked to live for
it. My hope is to be as loyal to my testimony, my covenants and to God, as
Joseph was to the end.
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