Let's Start at the Very Beginning

As part of my responsibilities in Young Men's, I've made goals in regards to a number of things, including scripture reading. Recently, my focus has been on the New Testament, but as I was praying and preparing for a study session, the spirit reminded me that I need to make time for the Book of Mormon each day as well. With that thought, Helaman 5:12 came to my mind. I began that session by reading and pondering over its words, as I felt as I had been directed.

And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirldwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Particularly, I looked at the word foundation. A foundation is of necessity the beginning of a building: Lehi and Nephi saw the great and spacious building that had no foundation, and understood that it was fated to fall. It may not sound like anything profound to think on the need for the foundation to come first, and yet this simple concept pierced my heart as I thought on it.

Many is the time I have read such scriptures as Matthew 6:33, wherein we are told to seek first the kingdom of God. I suppose I understood the message to some extent - put the things of God first. How curious to suddenly think that perhaps the scripture should be taken literally, that my day should begin with seeking to draw near to God, that my activities should first be consecrated to him in prayer, that my rest should begin with gratitude for those things with which I have been blessed (see most of Alma 34, but especially v. 17-27 and v. 37-38).

I've thought before of the symbolism of Jesus the Christ as the sure rock that we can build upon. Remembering that we are seeking to build something not of this world, but of eternity, we need a foundation that can support an eternally increasing "building". It has to last beyond our eternally significant building here to where we are added upon indefinitely. In other words, the foundation has to be perfect. It has to be able to withstand every pressure. It must last eternally.

I love the words of Jacob, teaching us that the atonement is infinite, and it will allow us to build beyond our corruption to put on incorruption. I love the words of Amulek, who tells us that without an infinite and eternal sacrifice (i.e. the atonement) we are all fallen and lost. Finally, the words of our Saviour as he tells of the Wise Man and the Foolish Man come to mind: the master teacher reminds us that there are only two types of building we can do, and only two possible results. Significantly, the rains, floods, and winds came and afflicted both buildings.

So, I guess the questions I am treasuring up as I strive to change are these: Where did I start building today? Where did I start building for what I am doing now? What do I want to build? Am I building on a foundation that will last into Eternal Life?

Discipleship

Ever since I was thoughtfully given a copy of A Disciple's Life: The Biography of Neal A. Maxwell, I've returned time and time again to pondering and praying about what it means to be a disciple, and how I can become a true disciple. (His BYU speech, 'The Pathway of Discipleship', presents many of the concepts that are brought out in his biography; the balance of those concepts can be found in conference talks and the other speeches found at the linked site.)

That discipleship requires discipline should come as no surprise; after all, the two words look similar and have the same origin. When I came across 1 Cor 9:27 recently, I read the words of Paul with joy.

But I [rigorously discipline] my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

(I've included the greek translation in square brackets, rather than the common reading found in the KJV.) This scripture brings to mind a number of scriptures, all of which help me understand discipleship. For example, when Paul writes of the works of the flesh as opposed to the fruits of the spirit (I wonder whether there is something to the use of works vs. fruits?), he gives us:

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things ye would.

Gal 5:17

This then calls to mind the scripture found in Romans 5:1-5, in which a wonderful journey of tribulation is described by Paul - for a disciple in taking up the cross remembers that we are here to be tried and tested. Perhaps, when I don't recognise what is trying or testing me, I have strayed from the path of discipleship. (I have had the thought many times lately that comfort was never the purpose of our coming here; neither, then, should I be pursuing a comfortable lifestyle, but rather that rigorous discipline of my flesh to the spirit that Paul described above.)

And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;

Abr 3:25

Of course, what I love most about the journey Paul describes in the Romans passage, is the promise of the love of God - Charity - being shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And is that not the end of discipleship?

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon us all who are true followers (i.e. disciples - see etymology of the word below the break) of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God (think of the temple); that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.

Mor 7:48

But if I had to pick the best teaching on what is required and what it means to be a disciple, then I would consider salvific ordinances - and the Endowment in particular - as the most eloquent scripture of all. Of course, I can't write about that in any detail here!

I do want to finish my musings on the counter-Endowment, though - the process by which we removed ourselves from the influence of Godliness in this world, until we are left in the end to the buffetings of Satan, 'beyond feeling'.

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Etymology of DISCIPLE

O.E. discipul (fem. discipula), Biblical borrowing from L. discipulus "pupil, student, follower," from a lost compound *discipere "to grasp intellectually, analyze thoroughly," from dis- "apart" (see dis-) + capere "to take, take hold of" (see capable).

(My note: note the correlation with studying things out in our minds, and asking of God, so that we can learn by study and by faith. Should probably throw the word "ponder" in here, too.)

The end of all things

I've been meaning, on an off, to get into blogging. I like writing, and the process "forces" me to put ideas floating around in my head into some sort of coherent form.

But I also have a number of hangups with the process. I don't want to blog and portray something that I'm not. So, if I blog primarily about spiritual things, does that portray me falsely as being more spiritual than I actually am? (I suppose it may give away what I would like to become, at the very least, which is far less of an issue!)

In any case, while visiting North Pine Ward earlier today, Bro. David Milne spoke about Pride. In it, he spoke about the type of pride where we are concerned about what others think of us, instead of worrying about what God is thinking. Ultimately, I would love to have a testimony that I please God, as Enoch did. This is a similar state, I suspect, to that described my Mormon in the book of Moroni - that when Christ comes, we shall be like him.

So, my intent in blogging needs to be about sharing what is helping me, and sharing my love of holy things. It's not meant to suggest I'm perfect or better than others. For that reason, I don't expect to make this public.

The title of this first post is "The End of All Things", and is based on the scripture in 1 Peter 4. Lately, I've been reading the New Testament backwards, and it has been interesting to kind of read about the apostasy in reverse. I'm into the Gospels now, but time and again during Revelation and the various epistles, you come across these references to the apostasy. At the same time, I've listened to and read various materials by Hugh Nibley, and some of the works of the early Christian leaders following the death of the Apostles (Clement, Irenaeus, Polycarp, etc). One of them wrote of the change in the church along the lines of "In Asia, the lights went out". Nibley has an excellent talk on it in 2 parts called "The Forty Day Ministry". Highly recommended. (On an unrelated topic, his speech "How to write an anti-mormon book" is highly entertaining and very insightful - and yes, it is about exposing the shoddy methods common to anti-mormon literature.)

Back to the scripture in Peter. It talks about the End of All Things. Nibley's study of apocryphal sources suggests that the early church knew that the church would not last, and that it would furthermore be corrupted by those of the fold within 2 generations. In light of this, consider the scriptural account following Christ's transfiguration:

10 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?

11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias shall truly first come and restore all things.

(Emphasis added.) Just as the ancient church understood that the End of All Things (speaking of the apostasy from the Gospel, loss of the keys, etc), they also understood and had Christ reaffirm that Elias would come to restore all things.

What a blessing it is to live in a time when the truth has been restored!