The Power of a Single Testimony

Early on in James' Epistle, he bears testimony of the power of personal revelation. He exhorts the then-
mostly Jewish church, saying:

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." (James 1:5)

Really, he was just bearing his testimony that God answers prayers. If you need help understanding something, God will help you figure it out. Coming from the half-brother of the Savior, that is powerful. He surely knew of the reality of a loving, listening Heavenly Father.

What I don't think James knew, was the eternal impact that one testimony would have. Nearly 1,800 years later, a young boy, lacking wisdom, would come across that scripture and change the world forever.

Joseph Smith was raised in a family that looked to the Bible for constant guidance. While his family was split on which church to join, religious life and adhering to the word of God was very important to them. Joseph, though, was left unsatisfied. Knowing that God wasn't the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), and that there was "one Lord, [and] one faith" (Ephesians 4:5), he simply wanted to know which church was truly

God Doesn't Need a Plan "B"

In traditional Christian thought, God created a perfect plan. He created the Garden of Eden, and saw that it was good. He sent Adam and Eve as the first of His children, with it being their responsibility to multiply and replenish the Earth, and maintain life in this grand paradise. Unfortunately, they messed up. They sinned in the single way they could and partook of the forbidden fruit. They were no longer perfect, no longer worthy of living in Eden. God's very first children already ruined His plan. Infuriated, God had to create a Plan "B."

So, he created a law. He revealed this law to His servants, the prophets. One of the notable prophets this law was revealed to was Moses, hence the name "The Law of Moses." But Israel, God's chosen people, simply could not live up to the requirements of the Law of Moses. Unfortunately, man was fallen. We simply could not live up to the standard of the Law of Moses. On to God's Plan "C."

He sent His Only Begotten Son. This Messiah was able to pay the price for everyone else's shortcomings, because He was, in fact, perfect. When He suffered, He was paying a price that He did not owe. Now, if we do no more than accept His suffering for us, we can at long last return to our Father.

Now, how well does this fit in with the frequently found scriptural phrase, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8)? Or what about God's words to Malachi: "For I am the Lord, I change not" (Malachi 3:6)?

If we're already on Plan "C," who is to say that we are really on the final plan this time? What if people aren't able to live up to this new plan? What might Plan "D" be?

That simply would not be the way of an all-knowing God. That simply is not the way of our Heavenly Father.

Thanks to the Book of Mormon, these misconceptions can be cleared up.

Lehi makes the role of the Fall of Adam very clear. He tells his children, "Adam fell that men might be" (2 Nephi 2:25), explaining:

"If Adam had not transgressed he would not have fallen, but he would have remained in the garden of Eden. And all things which were created must have remained in the same state in which they were after they were

Do It Anyway - Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;
Forgive them anyway.

 

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

 

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

 

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

 

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

 

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

 

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

 

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

 

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

-Mother Teresa

 

 

A New Look at the Adulturous Woman in John 8, by Orson Scott Card

I found this story by Orson Scott Card in his book Speaker for the Dead to be very telling about the misconceptions in the world about the nature of Christlike forgiveness.

A Great Rabbi stands, teaching in the marketplace. It happens that a husband finds proof that morning of his wife's adultery, and a mob carries her to the marketplace to stone her to death.

There is a familiar version of this story, but a friend of mine - a Speaker for the Dead - has told me of two other Rabbis that faced the same situation. Those are the ones I'm going to tell you.

The Rabbi walks forward and stands beside the woman. Out of respect for him the mob forbears and waits with the stones heavy in their hands. 'Is there any man here,' he says to them, 'who has not desired another man's wife, another woman's husband?' 

They murmur and say, 'We all know the desire, but Rabbi none of us has acted on it.'

The Rabbi says, 'Then kneel down and give thanks that God has made you strong.' He takes the woman by the hand and leads her out of the market. Just before he lets her go, he whispers to her, 'Tell the Lord Magistrate who saved his mistress, then he'll know I am his loyal servant.'

So the woman lives because the community is too corrupt to protect itself from disorder.

Another Rabbi. Another city. He goes to her and stops the mob as in the other story and says, 'Which of you is without sin? Let him cast the first stone.'

The people are abashed, and they forget their unity of purpose in the memory of their own individual sins. ‘Someday,’ they think, ‘I may be like this woman. And I’ll hope for forgiveness and another chance. I should treat her as I wish to be treated.’

As they opened their hands and let their stones fall to the ground, the Rabbi picks up one

of the fallen stones, lifts it high over the woman’s head and throws it straight down with all his might it crushes her skull and dashes her brain among the cobblestones. ‘Nor am I without sins,’ he says to the people, ‘but if we allow only perfect people to enforce the law, the law will soon be dead – and our city with it.’

So the woman died because her community was too rigid to endure her deviance.

The famous version of this story is noteworthy because it is so startlingly rare in our experience. Most communities lurch between decay and rigor mortis and when they veer too far they die. Only one Rabbi dared to expect of us such a perfect balance that we could preserve the law and still forgive the deviation.

So of course, we killed him.

Commandments: All you need is love!

The fundamental problem with the Law of Moses wasn't the Law, itself, but rather, as the Bible Dictionary puts it, "the Law was worshipped more than the Lord." The way I see it, the Mosaic Law was intended as a minimum standard. It set the bar. The Pharisees, however, started to nit-pick every detail and made it into exact limits of what they could and couldn't do. So, instead of exceeding the expectations of the Law, they - at best - would approach its expectations and jump at every shortcut they could see. In essence, they emphasized the dos and don'ts more than the symbolism and
representations.

When Christ fulfilled the Law, he didn't scrap expectations altogether. It seems much of Christianity believes that since people were not reaching the standard of the Law of Moses, Christ instead enabled us to under-perform and still be saved.

On the contrary, he concluded the Sermon on the Mount commanding perfection. The same level of perfection as our Father in Heaven, even. Now, instead of doing everything we can to approach the bar, we have the Atonement of the Christ that helps us to "deny [ourselves] of all ungodliness" (Moroni 10:32).

Day by day, repentance allows us to stand a little taller. My first companion and I had a great conversation once about our language. We were debating for a good chunk of time what words constituted swearing. Eventually, we realized we were both missing the whole point. Good language isn't about avoiding this list of ten words, and using these five other words sparingly. Really, any word that we use that has a bad feel to it, we decided to avoid. We weren't perfect with it, but as we went, words that we hadn't even included in our conversation as potential swear words felt unnatural and distasteful. This commandment, as with all others, is not about setting the bar; it's about raising the bar every single day.

Tithing, it is interesting to note, is one of only two parts of the lower law still practiced in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And yet we still make it, more than anything else, into a list of dos and donts. "Do we pay 10% of our gross income or our net income?" "Should I pay tithing on my Social Security benefits or child support?" "Do we tithe dividends made from investments, or just real income?" All these questions simply miss the point. Quite honestly, they are all fairly Pharisaic. The higher law version of tithing is consecration, where we give all that we can. That will be FAR more than 10% of our gross income and our benefits and our investment increases, I'm sure. And you know what? I don't believe the prophet will ever announce in General Conference that it is time for us to
consecrate. I believe that will come person by person, as we forget the list-making and being truly coming closer to the Lord and becoming like Him.
These examples can be extended to Sabbath day worship, the Law of Chastity, the Word of Wisdom, personal prayer, Family Home Evening, scripture study, and every single other commandment God has ever revealed to the world. The day we live these laws perfectly is the day we are translated. If