As Christ’s traits become our traits, we exclaim and testify with Isaiah, “Jehovah is my strength and my song” (Isa. 12:2). Quite naturally, we feel a deep physical, emotional, and spiritual desire and need to express our power and joy, our fire, our love, and many other divine, transcendent feelings in song:

WE SHARE AND SING OF HIS POWER AND EXUBERANT JOY

“The Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. . . . Sing unto the Lord; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth” (Isa. 12:2–3, 5).

“The Lord is my light; then why should I fear? By day and by night his presence is near. He is my salvation from sorrow and sin . . . . The Lord is my light; he is my joy and my song. By day and by night he leads, he leads me along. . . . He is my Redeemer, my Savior, and King. With Saints and with angels his praises I’ll sing” (Hymns, “The Lord Is My Light,” no. 89).

“The righteous . . . shall come to Zion, singing with songs of everlasting joy” (D&C 45:71).

“Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth . . . and break forth into singing, O mountains . . . for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted” (1 Ne. 21:13).

“Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. . . . Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness. Let the woods and all the trees of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy!” (D&C 128:22–23).

“Joy to the world, the Lord is come; let earth receive her King! Let ev’ry heart prepare him room, and Saints and angels sing . . . Rejoice! Rejoice when Jesus reigns, and Saints their songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy” (Hymns, “Joy to the World,” no. 201).

WE SHARE AND SING OF HIS SPIRITUAL FIRE: REVELATION AND TESTIMONY

“His word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing [i.e., not saying something], and I could not stay [i.e., could not remain silent]. . . . Sing unto the Lord, praise ye the Lord: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers” (Jer. 20:9, 13).

“The Spirit of God like a fire is burning! . . . The visions and blessings of old are returning, and angels are coming to visit the earth. We’ll sing and we’ll shout with the armies of heaven, Hosanna, hosanna to God and the Lamb! . . . The Lord is extending the Saints’ understanding . . . The knowledge and power of God are expanding; the veil o’er the earth is beginning to burst” (Hymns, “The Spirit of God,” no. 2).

WE SHARE AND SING OF HIS REDEEMING LOVE

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“I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now? . . . Behold, how many thousands of our brethren has he loosed from the pains of hell; and they are brought to sing redeeming love, and this because of the power of his word which is in us, therefore have we not great reason to rejoice?” (Alma 5:26; 26:13).

“‘Tis sweet to sing the matchless love of Him who left his home above and came to earth—oh, wondrous plan—to suffer, bleed, and die for man! . . . Oh, blessed hour! communion sweet! When children, friends, and teachers meet and, in remembrance of his grace, unite in sweetest songs of praise. For Jesus died on Calvary! That all through him might ransomed be. Then sing hosannas to his name; let heav’n and earth his love proclaim” (Hymns, “‘Tis Sweet to Sing the Matchless Love,” no. 176).

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According to Daniel’s online bio, he was born in Israel as a Jew, was educated in the U.S., and has been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1950. He was a radio broadcaster in Salt Lake, St. Louis, Chicago, and New York, and was a newscaster for the “Voice of Israel.” He and his wife have five children, including Steven, with whom Daniel conducts commercial tours to Israel as licensed tour guides. By way of disclaimer, the website clearly promotes their tours.

Daniel and his family have lived in both Israel and the U.S. for many years. He served many years in the presidencies of the Israel District and Jerusalem Branches of the LDS Church. He and his wife now live in the other ward that meets in our building in Salt Lake; although I’ve talked to Daniel briefly in the hallway at church, I don’t know him personally, I haven’t toured with him, and I don’t have a financial interest in his tours. The information about the Old and New Testaments on their website includes many interesting facts and insights about the geography, history, and Jewish culture of Israel, particularly as it relates to LDS beliefs, but of course, I can’t personally vouch for the site’s informational or doctrinal accuracy, and the site is neither sponsored nor endorsed by the LDS Church.

That said, the website and their Old and New Testament materials are well worth a look. As Daniel says, he shares many of the same details about Israel, Judaism, and the gospel with readers that he does with people on his commercial tours, so you definitely get an “on-the-ground, you-are-there” feel.

At israelrevealed.com, click on the “Gospel Doctrine” tab at the top right and then on “New Testament Gospel Doctrine.” When you click on “New Testament Manual,” you’ll get the New Testament Supplemental Study Material: Holy Land and Jewish Insights, by Daniel Rona, with 46 lessons in over 200 pages that correlate with the 46 lessons in the Church’s New Testament Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual; you can find the Church’s manual at https://www.lds.org/manual/new-testament-gospel-doctrine-teachers-manual?lang=eng. (As you know, lds.org also has many other excellent teaching resources, including videos.)

Each of Daniel’s 46 lessons gives you four or five pages of helpful information, often including excerpts from the Encyclopedia Judiaca Jr. and from Elder Bruce R. McConkie’s Doctrinal New Testament Commentary. (Unfortunately, the page numbers listed in the table of contents in Daniel’s New Testament manual don’t match up with the actual page numbers of the lessons.)

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As of this writing (December 31, 2014), the two-page “Summary Lessons” for each of Daniel’s 46 New Testament lessons aren’t posted, but perhaps will be at a later date. You might want to check out the “Summary Lessons” in the Old Testament Gospel Doctrine section to see what these are like; they make a great handout if you’re teaching a lesson or just want a summary for yourself.

The tribes of Joseph/Ephraim and Judah split and reunite. In the preface to his New Testament manual, on page 1, Daniel gives an insight into his purposes in writing the manual and introducing Latter-day Saints to Jewish beliefs and the history, geography, and culture of Israel: “Understanding the Jews (basically Judah) will help Joseph [Latter-day Saints] in the prophetic mission of reuniting ‘Joseph and Judah.’” The following quotes from the LDS Bible Dictionary and Ezekiel touch on the jealousy and resulting split between the tribes of Joseph’s son Ephraim and Joseph’s brother Judah and on the latter-day reuniting of Joseph/Ephraim with Judah:

“In the reign of Rehoboam [ca. 975–957 B.C.] the dominions of Solomon were broken up into two separate kingdoms [Israel in the north, Judah in the south], mainly in consequence of the jealousy between the tribes of Ephraim and Judah. The southern kingdom included the tribe of Judah and the greater part of Benjamin and had Jerusalem as its capital” (LDS Bible Dictionary, “Judah, Kingdom of”).

“Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph [the Book of Mormon], which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah [the Bible], and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand” (Ezek. 37:19).

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“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: . . . the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

We share in Christ’s identity by keeping the commandments. C.S. Lewis explained in general terms how “Christ liveth in [us]”: “The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become . . . . It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”

As Christ totally gave up himself for the Father and for us, so we should totally give up ourselves for him: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:25). As we lose our life for Christ’s sake, we share in his identity as the covenant, adopted “children of Christ”—we “are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters” (Mosiah 5:7). (See my December 18 blog, “Five Christmas Stories of Our Birth.”)

The fundamental way in which we “let God take us over” and share in Christ’s personality or identity is, of course, by “keeping the commandments”: receiving the ordinances (most of which symbolize his atonement) and receiving his name, Spirit, power, and love; reading the scriptures; being honest; paying tithing; being clean; serving others; repenting; etc.

“It is not meet that I should command in all things.” But the Lord also specifically states that a checklist of his commandments is NOT the whole story or the whole script: “It is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness” (D&C 58: 26–27).

He requires that we seek out our innate talents and develop them AND also that we seek out additional talents (see Matt. 25:14–30), “and all this for the benefit of the church of the living God” (D&C 82:18). These talents, these good gifts from God—whether “spiritual” (healing, other miracles, discernment, etc.) or “secular” (music, athletics, languages, etc.)—are all part of the personality or identity of Christ, because he is the source of all good gifts. Seeking out and developing these talents typically involves a cost of time and resources and perhaps also some perceived risks, such as “failure,” disappointment, and embarrassment. We may be afraid.

We pay a heavy price for neglecting our talents. We may think that our talents don’t compare favorably with someone else’s, or may feel that our talent is trivial or is unglamorous in comparison to others’ talents, so we lay low and hide our talents: “I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent [which his lord had given him] in the earth . . . His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant . . . Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents” (Matt. 25:25–26, 28).

New beginnings. Each new day, week, month, and year offers us the opportunity to develop the talents God is eager to share with us, at whatever stage of life we are in. Jonathan Ellerby wrote: “Make a promise to stop getting in the way of the blessing that you are. Take a deep breath, remember to have fun, and begin.”

The following people, and others like them, overcame significant obstacles—not the least of which was their own fear—as they tried something new or something old in a new way, sometimes later in life:

—Soichiro Honda interviewed unsuccessfully with Toyota for a job as an engineer, so he started making scooters at home and finally started his own business.

—Harland Sanders was a fireman, railroad laborer, and insurance salesman, among other things, before launching Kentucky Fried Chicken and becoming “Colonel Sanders” in his 60s.

—Laura Ingalls Wilder, who began writing as a columnist in her 40s, wrote the popular Little House on the Prairie books in her 60s.

—Theodor Seuss Giesel (“Dr. Seuss”) submitted his first book, To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, to 27 publishers who rejected it, before finding one who would publish it.

—Jack London, author of popular novels like White Fang and The Call of the Wild, received 600 rejection slips for his first story before it was finally accepted.

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What would you like to do? Music, sports, language? Volunteer to be an usher at a concert hall or sports arena, join a team, take guitar or singing lessons, find a DVD course in Italian. Art, crafts? Start sketching or painting today, buy that jigsaw, join a club. “Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect,” wrote Alan Cohen. As Walt Disney said: “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

“For the power is in [people], wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward” (D&C 58:28).

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“And now, because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters” (Mosiah 5:7).

Literature has many wonderful Christmas stories that echo the spirit, love, delight, joy, and hope of the birth of our Savior. But, of course, not all the circumstances of Christ’s birth were sweetness and light. The region was under brutal Roman occupation, and Herod had all children two years old and under, in Bethlehem and the surrounding area, slaughtered (see Matt. 2:16). Likewise, some of the best fiction and non-fiction stories we associate with Christmas are set in difficult and threatening circumstances, out of which one or more characters is renewed or reborn, finding new light, hope, and resolve.

Like the story of Christ’s birth itself, we can “liken [these stories] unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning” (1 Ne. 19:23). Here are overviews of five stories associated with Christmas (not all of them are set at Christmas or even mention Christ) in which one or more of the characters, miraculously or not, finds “light in a dark place”—a shining star, a blessed rebirth:

1. “The Water Bus,” by Agatha Christie Mallowan. In this short story, Queen of Crime author Agatha Christie serves up—not the expected foul crime—but a subtle healing of the soul. As with all good mystery stories, the question is: Who dunnit?

The main character here, Mrs. Hargreaves, is no Scrooge. She is “a woman of high principle and a religious woman, and she knew very well that one ought to love one’s fellow creatures. But she didn’t find it easy—and sometimes she found it downright impossible. . . . She was willing to be just, kind, fair, and charitable to people, so long as she did not have to see, hear, or touch them.” Ever felt that way? We join good Mrs. Hargreaves in several encounters that demonstrate the “something missing” in her arms-length kindness and charity. Not surprisingly, the ending will surprise you.

2. “Angels and Other Strangers,” by Katherine Patterson. “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb. 13:2). Two urgent Christmas Eve journeys intertwine in this feel-good short story. Julia and her two young children, while driving in a heavy snowstorm to pick up her husband’s elderly aunt in the remote countryside, run out of gas and are stranded. Julia fears for their safety, but she feels even more threatened when 60-year-old Jacob—a poor man who is walking on the same highway to get help to his daughter—offers to walk to the gas station several miles away to get gas.

Happily, Julia overcomes her fear and prejudice, but it is her young son, Kevin, who really perceives the simple truth about this stranger: Kevin invites Jacob to be the Christmas angel in the church service they are driving to. But this angel has another rescue to take care of.

3. “The Christmas Gift: A Memory of Stalingrad,” by Joan Coons. It’s Christmas Eve in Russia in World War II. Six-year-old Nadia, daughter of “the great Russian flyer Petrovich,” wants to help the Christ Child find his way to the cold shack where her deceased grandmother lies, so that he can take her soul to heaven. Nadia naively accepts a treacherous gift from a stranger, whose perfect Russian language skills hide his real identity as German soldier. But Nadia’s simple faith and love thwart the soldier’s clever scheme to kill her father.

4. “A Christmas Gift of Music, Long Ago,” by Hans Fantel (The New York Times, December 21, 1980). In this true story, also set on Christmas Eve in World War II, but in a tiny town in the mountains of German-occupied Slovakia, Fantel tells of the blessed gift of phonograph music he received while he was in hiding in 1940. The “ancient and rather ramshackle phonograph” with a brass horn had to be hand-cranked, but Fantel was able to hear the beloved Beethoven violin concerto.

“As I turned the crank,” writes Fantel, “it set in motion engines of war all over the world that threw back and cut down the armies of the enemy.” When Fantel died in 2006, The New York Times quoted him: “Phonographs . . . admit no ending. . . . In the perennial rebirth of music through recordings, something of life itself steps over the normal limits of time” (May 26, 2006).

5. A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. As we accompany Ebenezer Scrooge through his long night of involuntary confrontations with the selfishness of his shackled soul, we might reflect on some of our own self-centered traits that shackle us; we might recall, with Scrooge, situations in which we might have been more charitable.

Likewise, we thrill with Scrooge when, at daybreak, he is fully repentant and reborn: “‘I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future!’ Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. ‘The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. Oh Jacob Marley! Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this! . . . He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions, that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call. He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit, and his face was wet with tears.’”

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Scrooge follows through admirably on his good intentions: “Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. . . . It was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!”

And just for fun, check out “A Hint for Next Christmas,” by A.A. Milne, of Winnie the Pooh fame.

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“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

The Church is inviting us all—Church members and everyone else—to participate in its worldwide Christmas initiative, titled “He Is the Gift” (John 3:16) at Christmas.mormon.org. The initiative consists of a website and a video, less than three minutes long, translated into 20 languages. You can participate by viewing and sharing the video at Christmas.mormon.org. By using the hashtag #ShareTheGift when you share it, you can help “share the gift” of Christ at this wonderful season. This outstanding, touching video invites each of us to “discover the gift, embrace the gift, and share the gift” of Christ.

DISCOVER THE GIFT: “Seek this Jesus with all your heart.”

“Now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever” (Ether 12:41).

“Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

These scriptures, others like them, and our life experiences teach us that our search for Christ comes at a very high cost; i.e., “all [our] heart.” If our search is to be successful, it can’t be casual, and it can’t be done “on the cheap.” Like the great quests and journeys of literature and scripture, our personal and collective quest in search of Christ is a high adventure—of the heart, primarily. As we grow by serving and loving others, we traverse the mountains, valleys, deserts, and oceans of our own strengths and weaknesses:

“If men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, them will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:27).

EMBRACE THE GIFT: “I am encircled in the arms of his love.”

“Behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love” (2 Nephi 1:15).

“If ye receive me in the world, then shall ye know me, and shall receive your exaltation; that where I ye shall be also” (D&C 132:23).

In Gethsemane and on Calvary, Christ embraced us fully and intimately by taking upon himself our sins and, indeed, our whole identities: “I am crucified with Christ,” says Paul. “Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who love me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2: 20). Through the atonement, laws, and ordinances, Paul is able to fully embrace Christ, to the extent that “Christ liveth in me.” “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed” (Romans 6:6). “I have graven thee [i.e., not just our sins, sicknesses, and sorrows] upon the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:16).

Because Christ has so fully and intimately embraced us by taking upon himself our identity, he invites us to fully and intimately embrace him by taking upon ourselves his identity and becoming the adopted, covenant “children of Christ,” “his sons and his daughters,” “his seed” (Mosiah 5:7; 15:10–13). Through his atonement and our obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel (see A of F 1:3), we receive and embrace Christ and take upon ourselves his name, Spirit, power, love, knowledge, joy, etc., and share in his identity.

We come to know Christ, day by day, and ultimately we can receive our exaltation and be with him eternally: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne” (Revelations 3:21). “He makes them equal . . . The saints shall be filled with [Christ’s] glory, and receive their inheritance and be made equal with him” (D&C 76:95; 88:107).

SHARE THE GIFT: “Declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump.”

“Stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in” (Mosiah 18:9).

“At all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength such as is not known among men” (D&C 24:12).

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Which brings us to today and to this Christmas season and our opportunity to “stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things,” “both day and night,” as we #ShareTheGift through the “He Is the Gift” video. Our sharing of the Gift of Jesus Christ—at any season—is both the strong, triumphant “voice of a trump” and the quiet, gentle breath of a Lamb.

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Grandpa died at their house over 90 years ago, in his forties, before any of his grandchildren were born. And Grandma, who didn’t re-marry, died nearly 50 years ago, in her eighties, after living in the house for over 55 years. A few years after she died, the house was torn down to make way for a small parking lot. That’s where we gathered that September night for an evening with Grandpa and Grandma, to hear their written voices and to reminisce, laugh, cry, and pay tribute to them.

What a great pleasure, education, and blessing to read Grandma’s and Grandpa’s journals and to do it with loved ones on the very site where much of the material was written and where much of their lives were lived—“hallowed ground,” as one of my cousins called it.

Compiling and scanning their journals

About 30 years ago, several of the cousins transcribed Grandpa’s many journals. The final typescript transcription of his journals, plus photos, letters, and certificates, is over 350 pages. This year we scanned the typescript of Grandpa’s journals and also over 400 pages of Grandma’s Treasures of Truth, which includes her typed transcriptions from her diaries, plus her personal history and many letters, poems, photos, and newspaper clippings. In the opening pages of her Treasures of Truth, Grandma had this well-known scripture:

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5–6).

Here are a few excerpts that give a flavor of Grandpa’s and Grandma’s writings and their lives:

GRANDPA: Family prayer, Pioneer Parade, looking back

“June 29, 1912. Weather sultry. At home for breakfast. It may be well to state here that we have our family prayers before breakfast. We are trying to teach ourselves and the children to serve the Lord. I spent the day at my office. Nothing special happened. I think I went with [name] to take an affidavit and made 25 cents. He is a real good-natured fellow.”

“July 24^th, 1912. Pioneer Day, pleasant. [My oldest son] and I went to Liberty Park to see the Pioneer Parade. He said he thought it was a fine parade. He did enjoy the handcart company, the Indians, the Ox team, the woman with a stick standing over her boy making him churn butter. The Parade was splendid. I was much impressed with it all and particularly the Boy Scouts, who had just completed a 3 days’ jaunt over part of the trail which the Pioneers followed when they came into the Valley.”

“Sept. 18^th, 1912. Weather clear, cool. Let my children remember that their father was once a humble shepherd; that I cut peaches when a boy all day for 50 cents per day; the I caught gophers from which I secured 5 cents per head; that I tended bees, for which I made a little money; that I pulled weeds for 50 cents per day; that I worked on the thrashing machine for wheat; that I worked when a boy on pipe lines in the mountains as a water carrier; that I ploughed and stacked hay and grain and did all kinds of farm work for small wages; . . .that while going to school I was obliged to work my way along under hardship and sacrifice . . . ”

GRANDMA: Horse-drawn sleighs, priesthood blessings, prayer

“We skated on the ditches; built snow houses, snow men; did lots of sleigh riding, etc. As we rode over the hard, frozen ground in one of these [horse-drawn sleighs], it gave a sensation I cannot describe. Almost a sensation of flying. Horses could go about as fast as they cared to go. There was practically no weight, and on cold, brisk nights they too were in high spirits, so it was awesome—sort of scary and altogether delightful.”

“I recall a time when [my father] sat by my sick bed with tears running down his cheeks and said, ‘My dear, I wish so much I might suffer this for you. I would gladly do so if it were possible.’ He had great faith, and his ministrations [of priesthood blessings] were comforting and very effective. He was sought after far and wide. Many could have testified of miraculous results.”

“The thought of prayer was the first thing that entered my mind when in distress. If I lost anything of value I always went and prayed, and I testify to you that seldom if ever did I fail to get relief. If it were fright, my nerves would calm down; if it were something lost, my mind would recall where I left it; etc. Always prayer has been a solace to me, and I advocate its frequent use to you each and all, and teach your children how important it is.”

Happy 110^th Wedding Anniversary

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To celebrate our grandparents’ 110^th Wedding Anniversary next February, we’re inviting all of their adult descendants to gather on Valentine’s Day to do an endowment session in the same temple where Grandpa and Grandma were married. With the help of our Stake Family History Consultants, who are experts in “descendancy research,” we’ve found the names of some of our distant cousins—born in the 19^th century—to take with us to the temple that day.

Dear Grandpa and Grandma: Thank you . . .

. . . for your work and sacrifice and for sharing your abundant treasures—your life, genes, love, faith, challenges, joys, mirth, talents, and wisdom—with your many, many descendants! Our hearts turn once again to you and to other family members in love, gratitude, and hope: We rejoice with you in Christ’s covenant promise that he, through his atonement and our faithfulness, can ultimately make us fully one and equal with him and each other, thus fulfilling our equal, divine, genetic heritage and potential as the offspring of God: “He makes them equal . . . equal with [Christ]” (D&C 76: 95; 88: 107).

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Satan denies our divine heritage and potential by trying to make us “children of the devil.”

“There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon [Lucifer]; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:7–9).

“We beheld Satan, that old serpent, even the devil, who rebelled against God, and sought to take the kingdom of our God and his Christ—Wherefore [i.e., for this reason], he maketh war with the saints of God, and encompasseth them round about” (D&C 76:28–29).

The goal of Satan’s ongoing war—both in premortality and in mortality—is to exalt himself above both God and us. In the premortal existence, he rebelled against God, saying, “Give me thine honor, which is my power.”³⁵ Satan the usurper “opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God.”³⁶ He boldly seeks “to take the kingdom of our God and his Christ”³⁷ by making us “children of the devil”³⁸ and “prey to his awful misery.”³⁹ For those who embrace his clever schemes, “Satan shall be their father, and misery shall be their doom.”⁴⁰

 Satan seeks to exploit and dominate us by tempting us to exploit and dominate each other.

Yea, [Alma] saw great inequality among the people, some lifting themselves up with their pride, despising others, turning their backs upon the needy and the naked and those who were hungry, and those who were athirst, and those who were sick and afflicted” (Alma 4:12).

“It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore [i.e., for this reason] the world lieth in sin” (D&C 49:20).  “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Tim. 6:10).

“If ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things” (D&C 78:6).

The scriptures just quoted, among many others, identify pride, greed, and economic inequality as among the primary sources of evil. In a landmark General Conference address, “Beware of Pride,” President Ezra Taft Benson said: “Pride is the universal sin, the great vice. Yes, pride is the universal sin, the great vice.”⁴¹ President Benson quoted C.S. Lewis:

“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. . . . It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone” (Mere Christianity, New York: Macmillan, 1952, pp. 109–10, quoted in “Beware of Pride,” Ensign, May 1989).

So, of course, Satan loves pride, greed, and economic inequality, and he promotes them as among the cardinal virtues and goals for his followers, his “children.” Deception and division are likewise integral parts of Satan’s clever scheme to dominate us: He seeks to deceive us with his lies, counterfeits, and decoys; to divide us by exploiting our pride, fears, and appetites and by “stir[ring] up the hearts of men with anger”⁴²; and to dominate and destroy us by tempting us to exploit and dominate each other in a vain attempt to exalt ourselves. But, says Jesus, “Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased.”⁴³

Although the Lord in 1834 postponed implementation of the law of economic equality (part of the law of consecration) due to the Saints’ failure to obey it,⁴⁴ he did not postpone the disastrous consequences of not living this law. As our economic inequality has spiraled steeply upward over the last four decades, our spiritual, social, and political culture has spiraled steeply downward. A November 10, 2014, Deseret News article by John Hoffmire cites one study that identified the average ratio of CEO-to-worker pay in the U.S. in 2012 as being 231-to-1 (another 2012 study said the ratio was 354-to-1), compared to the 1990 ratio of 53-to-1. Hoffmire, who is director of the Impact Bond Fund at Oxford University, concludes: “Whether the conversation focuses on inequality between continents or gaps between workers and executives, there is a great deal of work to be done. Our current structure is unsustainable in the long run; the time to start making necessary adjustments is now.”⁴⁵ As our economic inequality has increased dramatically—and unsustainably—in the last 40 years, so too have its attendant prophesied calamities: family dissolution, pornography, business and governmental corruption and exploitation, terrorism, wars, environmental degradation and catastrophes, and the growing threat of global pandemics, such as the Ebola virus.⁴⁶

“Beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old,” who were completely destroyed.

Korihor, a Book of Mormon Anti-Christ, says:

“There could be no atonement made for the sins of men, but every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore, every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime” (Alma 30:17).

As “the prince of this world,”⁴⁷ Satan assures us that if we want to survive and thrive in his world, his clever war plan is our only option. By fully embracing Satan’s prideful, “realistic” formula for success, the Nephites brought about their own complete destruction. The beginning of the end for the Nephites—after their 167 years of love, prosperity, and economic equality in their Zion in Fourth Nephi—was their rising pride and economic inequality:

“And now, in this two hundred and first year there began to be among them those who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel . . . And from that time forth they did have their goods and their substance no more common among them. And they began to be divided into classes; and . . . to deny the true church of Christ. . . . They did deny the more parts of his gospel . . . because of the power of Satan who did get hold upon their hearts” (4 Ne 1:24–26, 28).

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As the gruesome end of the Nephites drew near around A.D. 400, Mormon wrote to his son Moroni: “Behold, the pride of this nation, or the people of the Nephites, hath proven their destruction except they should repent.”⁴⁸ To help us avoid the deadly fate of this “fallen people,”⁴⁹ President Benson urged us to repent and heed the Lord’s clear, pointed warning to us: “Beware of pride, lest ye become as the Nephites of old.”⁵⁰

Fortunately, we can still choose our Heavenly Father’s “great plan of happiness”⁵¹ and find refuge from the coming storm and wrath.

35. D&C 29:36 ; see Isa. 14:13 ; Moses 4:1

36. 2 Thess. 2:4

37. D&C 76:28

38. 1 Jn. 3:10

39. 2 Ne. 9:46
40. Moses 7:37

41. Ensign, May 1989

42. 3 Ne. 11:30

43. Matt. 23:12

44. See D&C 105:1–13, 34

45. “Understanding executive pay at home and abroad,” Deseret News, November 10, 2014 (emphasis added), at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865615160/Executive-pay-at-home-and-abroad.html . On the steep rise in income inequality in the past 40 years, see, e.g., Drew Silver, “U.S. income inequality, on rise for decades, is now highest since 1928,” Pew Research Center, Dec. 5, 2013, at http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/12/05/u-s-income-inequality-on-rise-for-decades-is-now-highest-since-1928/

46. See, for example, Thomas Burr, “Matheson’s big fear: the outbreaks after Ebola,” Salt Lake Tribune, 17, 2014 http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/58529688-90/ebola-matheson-duncan-hospital.html.csp

47.  John 14:30

48. Moro. 8:27

49. D&C 20:9

50.   D&C 38:39  quoted in “Beware of Pride,” Ensign, May 1989

51. D&C 42:8

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“Men are free . . . to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil ” (2 Ne. 2:27).

“The saints shall be filled with his glory, and receive their inheritance and be made equal with [Christ]” (D&C 88:107).

INTRODUCTION
Every day we are faced with the gathering storm: increasing family dissolution and pornography; endless violence, terrorism, and wars; looming global pandemics; increasing economic inequality and suffering; political paralysis; and other prophesied “calamities”¹ of the latter days. And every day—just as in the premortal “war in heaven”²—each of us chooses either Heavenly Father’s “great and eternal plan of redemption”³; or Satan’s “cunning plan”⁴ of “captivity and death.”⁵ Our choice is critical, because only Heavenly Father’s plan offers us both eternal exaltation (equality with Christ) and temporal salvation—“refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth.”⁶

PART 1—Our Heavenly Father’s loving plan is Christ’s atonement and our obedience.

1. As the children of Heavenly Father, Christ, and Abraham, we share in their identity.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” (Gal. 2:20).

Heavenly Father’s plan enables us to fulfill our equal,⁷ divine, genetic potential as his literal spirit offspring.⁸ Our Heavenly Father’s plan is “the Atonement of Christ . . . [and our] obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.”⁹ Through his atonement and our obedience, we “are born of him and have become his sons and his daughters.”¹⁰ As the adopted,¹¹ covenant “children of Christ,”¹² we are “his seed”¹³ and are therefore also the covenant “seed of Abraham.”¹⁴

As the children of Christ, we “put on Christ”¹⁵ and share in his identity through the gospel laws and ordinances: We receive and bear his name, Spirit, power, love, truth, freedom, crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, joy, etc. Through the ordinances and our obedience, we receive Christ and his atonement. As Paul says, we are “crucified with Christ”¹⁶ so that he (his Spirit, love, power, etc.) can live in us. Likewise, “we are buried with [Christ] by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead . . . even so we also should walk in newness of life.”¹⁷

2. As the children of Christ, we exercise faith in him, repent, and love others equally, as he loves us.

“Love one another; as I have loved you” (John 13:34).

“Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich . . . that there may be equality” (2 Cor. 8:9, 14).

As we share in the full spectrum of Christ’s identity, both individually and as members of of his church (“one body in Christ”¹⁸), he helps make our burdens light¹⁹—he shares our spiritual and physical burdens—and he requires that we do the same for each other: We covenant at baptism that we “are willing to bear one another’s burdens.”²⁰ Scriptural examples of such love and burden-sharing abound. In Enoch’s Zion, for example, “they were of one heart and one mind . . . and there was no poor among them.”²¹ For about 167 years (A.D. 34–201) in the Zion created by Christ among the Nephites in the Book of Mormon, “there were not rich and poor,” for “they had all things common among them . . . they were in one, the children of Christ”²² In 1831 and 1832, the Lord told Joseph Smith that economic equality is also essential for our latter-day Zion:

“In your temporal things you shall be equal, and this not grudgingly. . . . If ye are not equal in earthly things ye cannot be equal in obtaining heavenly things” (D&C 70:14; 78:6).

“I say unto you, let every man esteem his brother as himself. For what man among you having twelve sons, and is no respecter of them, and they serve him obediently, and he saith unto the one: Be thou clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the other: Be thou clothed in rags and sit thou there—and looketh upon his sons and saith I am just? Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine” (D&C 38:25–27).

Although the Lord postponed the law of economic equality in 1834 because of the Saints’ failure to live it,²³ the law of tithing and the Church welfare program today prepare us to live this law at some future time. The welfare program includes both “caring for the poor and needy”²⁴ and working to be self-reliant: “Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer.”²⁵

(For more information about the history of economic equality, the law of consecration, and the United Orders, see the relevant articles in the online Encyclopedia of Mormonism.²⁶ For more about the welfare program, visit LDS.org.²⁷)

President Thomas S. Monson frequently quotes the Savior’s commandment, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself,”²⁸ which lies at the heart of the law of equality, the welfare program, and all family and Church service, including temple service. With everyone in the temple “dressed in white,” says President Boyd K. Packer, “[we] feel a oneness and a sense of equality.”²⁹

3. The inhabitants of Zion are promised both temporal salvation and eternal exaltation.

“The gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes, may be for a defense, and for a refuge from the storm, and from wrath when it shall be poured out without mixture upon the whole earth” (D&C 115:6).

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Of course, not every individual Saint will escape all of the effects of the gathering storm, but the Church as a whole, including us and our families, will be protected if we are faithful, including caring for and loving each other equally, as God loves us. Ultimately, as “joint-heirs with Christ,”³⁰ we can fulfill our equal, divine, genetic potential; receive “all that my Father hath;”³¹ and become fully “at one”³² and fully equal with God and each other: “He makes them equal . . . equal with [Christ].”³³ “To him that overcometh will I [Christ] grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”³⁴

To be continued Thursday, November 20. 2014

NOTES

1. See, for example, D&C 1:17
2. Rev 12:7
3. Alma 34:16
4. 2 Ne. 9:28 https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/9.28?lang=eng#27
5. 2 Ne. 2:27 https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/2-ne/2.27?lang=eng#26
6. D&C 115:6 https://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/115.6?lang=eng#5
7. As uncreated intelligences before our spiritual creation as the literal spirit offspring of Heavenly Father, and in our premortal existence as Heavenly Father’s spirit children, we were apparently not equal in our accomplishments and valor (see, for example, D&C 93:29 and Abr. 3:18–25). Nevertheless, as the literal children of Heavenly Father, we were all born with the same genetic heritage and potential to become like him in every way; no offspring of Heavenly Father lacks the genetic makeup to become like him.
8. See, for example, Acts 17:29 and Ps. 82:6.
9. A of F 1:3
10. Mosiah 5:7
11. See LDS Bible Dictionary, “Adoption”
12. Mosiah 5:7
13. Mosiah 15:10–13
14. D&C 84:34; see Rom. 4:11 ; Gal. 3:7, 29 ; Abr. 2:10
15. Gal 3:27
16. Gal 2:20; see Rom. 6:6 ; Isa. 49:16
17.  Rom. 6:4
18.  Rom. 12:5; see 1 Cor. 6:15
19. See Matt. 11:30; Mosiah 24:14-15; Alma 33:23
20. Mosiah 18:8
21. Moses 7:18
22. 4 Ne. 1:3, 17
23. See D&C 105:1–13, 34
24. See lds.org, “caring for the poor and needy”
25. D&C 42:42
26. See Encyclopedia of Mormonism, “Economic History of the Church”; “Equality”; “Consecration [Law of]” ; “United Orders”
27. See lds.org, “Welfare”
28. Matt. 22:36–39, quoted by President Monson in “Love—the Essence of the Gospel,” Ensign, May 1989
29. “The Holy Temple,” Ensign, October 2010
30. Rom 8:17
31. D&C 84:38
32. See John 17:20–23; 4 Ne. 1:17; D&C 35:2; Moses 7:18
33. D&C 76:95; D&C 88:107 Those in the celestial kingdom are made “equal with [Christ]” (see D&C 76:50–70, 92–96). Those who are less faithful, in the terrestrial and telestial kingdoms, are not (see D&C 76:71–91, 97–112).
34. Rev. 3:21

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Book review of The Crucible of Doubt: Reflections on the Quest for Faith, by Terryl Givens and Fiona Givens (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2014)

The title of this book by husband-and-wife team Terryl and Fiona Givens gave me some . . . doubts. Did I really want to spend time reading a book about doubts, even if was published by Deseret Book? But I read it and enjoyed it tremendously. I’m sure I’ll return to it again and again.

Why? Although not all of us may feel that we harbor any serious doubts about the Savior, the gospel, or the Church, all of us do have our faith tried—sometimes sorely—by illness, death, major disappointments, and our own and others’ weaknesses and sins. Whatever our trials or doubts may be, the Savior invites all of us to diligently pursue—as the subtitle aptly puts it—“the quest for faith.”

The LDS Bible Dictionary, under “Faith,” says: “Although faith is a gift, it must be cultured and sought after until it grows from a tiny seed to a great tree” (emphasis added; see Alma 32: 28–43). The Crucible of Doubt—rooted in Christ, the scriptures, the prophets, and the Givens’ own faith—is a wise, inspirational companion on our lifelong quest to proactively seek and cultivate the gift of faith in Christ and his atonement.

Again and again, the Givens urge us to grow our faith by exercising faith and taking positive action, especially when faced with doubts or trials of faith. Here are just three examples:

MOTHER: “Start praying with your feet.”

SON: “I’m just going to live my life as if the gospel is true.”

The Givens tell the story of a missionary (reminiscent of President Gordon B. Hinckley’s well-known “forget yourself and go to work” story from his mission) who was in spiritual agony because he hadn’t received the confirmation he’d expected to his prayers about the truthfulness of the gospel. He shared his depressed feelings in a letter to his mother, who shot back: “Enough of this nonsense. This is pure foolishness. Stop this at once. Stop praying with your knees, start praying with your feet.” The missionary said this about his mother’s rebuke:

“That was sweet relief for me. It was complete and total liberation. I took her advice and decided ‘I’m going to stop doing this thing. I’m going to stop holding a gun to the Lords’ head and insisting on a sign. I’m just going to live my life as if the gospel is true.’ . . . Knowledge [of the truthfulness of the gospel] for me has not arrived because it was beckoned, or because I said ‘give me a revelation.’ For me it has come in ways that I can barely describe, and never on command . . . But I can tell you . . . that I somehow crossed a threshold into an area that I think we can call something more approaching knowledge. . . . But it’s never come on my terms and never come to me on my timetable” (pp. 128–129).

“Imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with.”

The Givens also address the doubts and trials of faith we might experience when we confront certain difficult issues or less-than-perfect personalities in Church history or today’s Church:

“No simple formula resolves the tensions that do—and should—exist between faith in the principle of inspired leadership and personal responsibility to follow counsel without stifling conscience. Elder Dallin Oaks made a related point: ‘As a General Authority, it is my responsibility to preach general principles. When I do, I don’t try to define all the exceptions. . . . I only teach the general rules. Whether an exception applies to you is your responsibility. You must work that out individually between you and the Lord.’

“At the same time, it only compounds our consternation when we interpret the actions of Mormon leadership in the least, rather than most, generous way possible. . . . ‘Imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with,’ reminds Elder Jeffrey Holland. ‘That must be terribly frustrating to Him, be He deals with it. So should we.’ Generosity with our own inept attempts to serve and minister to each other in a lay church, charity toward those in leadership . . . and faith in Christ’s Atonement that makes up the human deficit—these could be the balm of Gilead for which both wounded disciples and striving leaders seek” (pp. 80, 82).

“Faith is lived, not thought. We believe deeply in faith as a choice. ”

In their beautifully written, moving epilogue, the Givens sum up their faith message:

“Not once, but twice, the Lord prefaced His commandment that we strengthen each other with this explanation: ‘As all have not faith’ [D&C 88:118 ; 109:7]. He thus acknowledged that even among His modern disciples, there would be—and must be—room for those who live in doubt. . . . [I]f we cannot find it in ourselves to proclaim the gospel or embrace its tenets, we can still live its essence. . . . Faith is lived, not thought. . . . As we have written elsewhere, we believe deeply in the value of faith as a choice. . . . [W]hat we choose to embrace, to be responsive to, is the purest reflection of what we love” (p. 144).

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