The principle of the knock

The principle of the knock

This dispensation was ushered in by a small boy who wanted to know which church to join and had the temerity to believe that he would get an answer to a prayer.

You are well acquainted with the scripture in James, so I will not repeat it here.

There is also scripture that goes something like this, seek and you shall find, ask and you shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you[1].  Many years ago I wrote a little piece when I was stake president. It was before I had a computer, so I have no copy of that document. 

I will try and remember the gist of that.

One of the reasons that more people do not gain knowledge or a testimony is because they do not ask with real intent, if they ask at all.

The Lord works by principle. If we go back to Adam and all the prophets, they all had to ask before they received the knowledge they were seeking.

I think that when we are given things, whether it be material goods or knowledge, without any effort or sacrifice on our part, there is no appreciation of the gift that is given.

President Packer once gave a talk about advice. The sum and substance of the talk was if you ask for advice from a prophet (or any one else for that matter) and then decide not to follow it, you have wasted both his/their time and yours.

People cannot resolve problems by sweeping them under the rug and running away.

The scripture instructs us to meet together in private and resolve the issue that we are not esteemed to be enemies.

On May 2 2014 I wrote on my Letters from Grandpa Blog the parable of the father and the child. This details what happens often in our society.  We expect to have all our problems solved with little or no effort on our part.

I have made it my policy not to interfere with anyone’s agency. (I have written about this before.) If they seek counsel I will give considered insight, but will not do so unless they put forth the effort to ask and to act.

This is what I call the principal of the knock.

We often have a tendency to blame ourselves for our children's failures and shortcomings and do not realize that in spite of our imperfections and lack of good judgment, which we all have at some point, the individual is an agent unto themselves even at a very early age. They are the captains of their fate and the masters of their souls and through the atonement of Christ will overcome all things by obedience.

So knock, ask, and seek.  That is the principle of the knock.

Love,

Grandpa

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[1] Matthew 7:8  Say unto them, Ask of God; ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Sin like illness is best treated early in its course.

Sin like illness is best treated early in its course.
I have been learning about and associated with illness for fifty-six years. I have learned that in most cases early intervention is the key to a cure, or if not, at least an arrest in the progression of the disease.

I am usually able to make a diagnosis by listening to the symptoms and their progression through time.  In many cases I can make a diagnosis and prescribe treatment by listening to the patient describe the symptoms and their progression and ask pertinent questions. In some cases intervention of a surgical nature or hospital treatment needs to be instituted in order for the patient to return to some measure of health.

The earlier the treatment is instituted, the better the outcome. In some cases the patient waits too long and debility or death is the result.

Sin is much like disease. It, in essence, is spiritual illness. Sin is a transgression of the laws of God. Like physical illness, spiritual illness has symptoms and may result in spiritual death.

There are many times when we see someone who exhibits the symptoms of spiritual disease. Although there are many symptoms, I will enumerate a few that I have observed recently. One of the most prominent is outrage. It seems like when things do not meet our expectations; people demonstrate, riot, say nasty things on social media and generally act out their frustrations.

I was struck by a headline in the paper today with a national organization calling for a federal investigation of a local police action resulting in the death of a young man. The mother understandingly was upset, but would not let it alone.  She acted out to the point where she was charged with a transgression of a statute outlining how one should properly behave in polite society. It is possible that because of her actions she could be fined or serve time in jail to recompense her actions.

How utterly stupid to allow frustration or outrage to govern our actions. Although one can understand people’s reactions, they can never be justified. Our example, Christ, suffered far greater indignities, but paid them no heed.

By reacting to such injustices we separate ourselves from God because of our spiritual illness. There are those that would argue that He would understand how things were and look the other way. It was Christ who said, love your enemies and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us. Christ never condones sin.

Why? Because it renders us unfit to associate with our Father who is perfect and cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.

The gospel of Jesus Christ and the Father is one of healing to make us, his children, whole and well again, freed from sickness and iniquity.

Thus outrage and acting out is a symptom of a deeper problem or in other words spiritual illness. Elder Boyd K. Packer once gave a talk on letting things go. If we are whole spiritually we may have the feeling that things did not go like we would have desired. We may be anguished, but we would never act out or seek retribution. We would leave it in the Lord's hand and say, as He instructed, "Let The Lord judge between me and thee and reward thee according to thy works."

How do people get spiritual disease or sin?  They fail to do rather simple things: keep the commandments, pray earnestly, and immerse themselves in the scriptures so they can be acquainted with his voice.
We all come short of the mark, but it is the true saint who recognizes his errors and accepts correction and changes his behavior. This spiritual illness must be addressed early and often. If repentance is procrastinated then rationalization appears and we are bound in fetters, which may require major and painful extraction.

Another symptom of spiritual disease is dishonesty.  This includes lying and stealing. If a person has a pure testimony of The Lord Jesus Christ they will not rationalize their integrity. They know who they are and what God expects of them.  They will quickly correct any deviation from that spiritual plane that will bring them closer to God.  Lying and dishonesty are like a rapidly progressive disease.  If not treated it becomes a way of life and eventually the individual has their conscience dulled and they become past feeling and spiritually die even though they are physically alive.  The treatment must be administered early and in most cases is very painful.

Thus lying is not the disease, but a symptom of our lack of faith and conformity to God's will and commandments.  We have nothing to give to God but our obedience to His commandments. If Christ submitted His will to The Father, how much more are we in need of submission to the Father?

The cure for illness is varied and depends on the disease. There is no universal cure. Sometimes an antibiotic will take care of the problem or it may require surgery to make the person whole again or at the least be restored to some measure of health. In some cases chemotherapy or radiation may halt it for a while or provide a remission, but a person is never really restored to a pristine state.

In contrast, the cure for sin, if truly instituted is all-encompassing and total. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white.."

There is no universal antidote for poison, but there is a universal antidote for sin.  It is simple faith in Christ and true repentance. There is no substitute magic potion that will cleanse sin.  There is no substitute for Christ and his commandments.  To paraphrase an oft-quoted scripture in the Book of Mormon, I rejoice in Christ, I talk of Christ, I prophesy and testify of Christ and I write of Christ and hope that my posterity will look to Christ for their eternal happiness and salvation and remission of their sins. That they may know that it is only through the grace of the Holy Messiah that they will come back into the presence of their Eternal Heavenly Father to dwell.

Christ has the healing in his wings to heal all sin, but it can only come through the healing balm of true, sincere repentance. Therefore; my grandchildren, please repent and keep the commandments fully and completely and be whole.

Love,

Grandpa

Thoughts on ordaining Philip to the office of High Priest

Thoughts on ordaining Philip to the office of High Priest

When I was a young man my father conferred upon me the Aaronic Priesthood and ordained me a Deacon, Teacher and Priest.  This was the pattern that I grew up with and one that I expected to continue.

I do not remember what my priesthood line of authority was when my father was an Elder. Just prior to moving to Lander my father was called to be a counselor in the bishopric and as such it was necessary for him to be ordained a High Priest and set apart as a member of the bishopric. At that time this was only done by a general authority. Elder Joseph Francis Merrill of the Council of the Twelve was assigned to the Denver stake conference and was given the assignment to ordain my father to the office of High Priest and set him apart as a member of the bishopric.

Elder Merrill was the son of my grandmother Gee's grandfather Marriner W. Merrill. Thus he was her uncle. He came to dinner at our house. That is about all that I remember.

Between my freshman and sophomore year in college I came home for the summer to work. My father was the branch president and he interviewed me to receive the Melchizedek priesthood and be ordained to the office of Elder. Since we were in the West Central States Mission, I had to be interviewed by the mission president, Sylvester Broadbent.

My parents and I went over to Riverton to meet with President Broadbent. He had some business to do, so he gave me the assignment to read the 84th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. He then brought me in to the branch president's office and laid his hands upon my head and conferred upon me the Melchizedek priesthood and ordained me to the office of Elder. I was expecting my father to do this. I am sure that he was disappointed as well. I got President Boadbent's line of priesthood authority. I wrote it down and then copied it later into my missionary journal.

At that time it was not the practice for people to follow the patriarchal line of priesthood authority. Although there are still some priesthood leaders in the church that are of the opinion that it really doesn't matter and that the priesthood is the same, I have always thought that, if possible, the father, if worthy, should ordain the son.

After I came back from California l was called to serve on the high council. As a result it was necessary for me to be ordained to the office of High Priest. My father was, at that time, serving as a counselor in the stake presidency. He ordained me to the office of High Priest and thus my priesthood lineage was again through my father's line of authority.

All of my sons were ordained to the office of Elder by me so their line of priesthood authority followed mine.

While we were serving our mission in Frankfurt Clark was called to serve on the high council. He obtained permission from his stake president to fly to Frankfurt for me to ordain him to the office of High Priest. We were able to accomplish this.  I was pleased that they would allow him to be ordained by his father.

During the time that we were home from our first mission John was asked to be the secretary of the high priest's group and he asked me to come down to Provo and ordain him to that office. I was then able to honor that request.

While we were on our mission to Russia Joseph was called to serve in the bishopric and wanted me to ordain him to the office of High Priest. He arranged for a flight to Frankfurt and we obtained permission from the area presidency to fly from Moscow to Frankfurt as well.  Marcus came to Frankfurt and we all met together in a hotel room and I ordained Joseph to the office of High Priest.

Philip also wanted me to ordain him as well and knew that I was getting older. He visited with the stake president and asked him if that were a possibility. There was no reason for him to hold that office and so nothing was done about it.

I recently received a call from Philip asking if we would not come down to Dallas. He had been released as a seminary teacher and called to be a member of the bishopric and wanted us the fly down and for me to ordain him to the office of High Priest, which was done on August 16th.

I feel honored and humbled to be able to have had this singular opportunity granted to me. I think of all those who I have ordained as Elders and High Priests who carry my line of priesthood authority. I think of those whose fathers were worthy to perform this ordinance and were not given the opportunity.
Although it doesn't really matter who does the ordaining, I believe that in the beginning that The Lord wanted the priesthood to go from righteous father to righteous son whenever possible. I take this from the book of Abraham, where he "Sought for the blessings of the fathers, and the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same; having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God, I became a rightful heir, a High Priest, holding the right belonging to the fathers."

I am humbled and honored to be able to pass on my line of authority to my sons. It is a privilege to be able to do that sacred ordinance.

Do not take this opportunity lightly.

Love

Grandpa

The articles of faith revisited for my grandchildren.

The articles of faith revisited for my grandchildren.
Recently it was brought to my attention that one of the first definitions of the word faith in the English language was loyalty. With that in mind I would like to refer to the articles of faith to include loyalty.

We can call this the articles of loyalty to God.

First we are loyal to God the Eternal Father and to his son Jesus Christ and to the Holy Ghost.

We are then loyal to the doctrine revealed by God to the prophet Joseph Smith.

Each of the statements in our Articles of Faith delineate our commitment and loyalty to those principles which make up the core doctrines of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Both James E. Talmage and Bruce R. McConkie have written books about the Articles of Faith. You should know and do what these principles espouse. You probably learned to repeat these (The Articles of Faith) by memory in primary. It takes more than being able to quote them. If you do not believe them and practice them in your life, they will be as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals signifying nothing.

Ask yourself do you really believe in being honest? Are you not only a truthful person, but are you true to God and his commandments? One of the questions asked in an interview for a temple recommend is; are you honest in your dealings with your fellow men?

Are you chaste? This refers to thoughts as well as actions.

How many of you know what being benevolent means? How can you be benevolent if you do not understand what kind of attribute it is? Look it up in the dictionary.

The scripture admonishes us to let virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly so that our confidence will wax strong in the presence of God. We need to know what virtue means; otherwise we only pay lip service to this characteristic. As an example: advertisements and TV programs that invite us to shun virtue and become worldly in our attitude surround us.

Do we do good to all men? We are to treat our friends and our enemies the same. This is hard to do, but if we are loyal to God, we will treat them as He would.

The next statement is about belief, hope and endurance. A runner that does not finish the race has not endured. The actual thing we want to do is endure in faith and loyalty to God to the end of our mortal existence.

We must the constantly seek for good, that which is lovely or worthy of praise by righteous people. We need to be comfortable in the presence of the kings and queens of the world, because you my grandchildren are destined to become the kings and queens of the king of heaven. He is refined and you might want to read Elder Callister's talk on our refined heavenly home at this link.

By loyal to the royal in you.

Love,
Grandpa

An escatological moment

An eschatological[1] moment

This was written on 2 November 2011.  This is obviously a letter to someone, which I have edited now in 2014 and expanded.

I hope that my ramblings will make some sense to you.  You asked what advice I could give to you.  I have pondered a lot about that.  The advice of men and particularly my advice is probably not worth much.  It is the gospel of Jesus Christ that gives us the insight that we need at times like this.

I will only relate here a few disjointed observations.  You can, with a gentle breath, blow the chaff away.

A number of years ago, I took a class from Hugh Nibley.  He talked about eschatology.  That is; the pondering of life, death and what he described as the “terrible questions”.  We are only forced to think about them when we have an eschatological moment.  That is some event in our life that forces us to look hard at the future in terms of our mortality.  This happened to me in 1991 when I discovered that I had a brain tumor.  I was fifty-seven years of age. It was the size of a billiard ball and had been growing slowly over a number of years.  The surgery lasted 8 hours and I came through without any sequelae.  Although I had always been a good member of the church and read the scriptures and had felt that I was literate, I realized that my outlook needed to change.  I suddenly realized that I was mortal.  I took a hard look at what I was doing and decided to change. 

Things that had been priorities were not that important anymore.  Although change is not easy, I think that it requires more effort than we realize.  What happened is that it changed my priorities.  I knew that I could not be everything to everybody.  My family came first now more than ever.  It has been a slow but steady process for me.  Fortunately I have had 20 years to do this.  As I have grown in years, I have found new challenges and new things to do.  I have tried to do things that my father, grandfather and great-grandfather had not done.  I have documented my family history and now I am writing a blog called “Letters from Grandpa”.  The reason is; I want to, in someway, connect to my posterity in a personal way. 

When we get to the age when we turn our thoughts to our posterity, we are usually to old to make any impact in their lives.  You have grandchildren who will remember you and what you have done for them. That is important. The relationship with people and in particular family members is the most important of any relationship. Our impact on people and society in general will long be forgotten as in the case of Ozymandias,[2] a poem written by Percy Shelly which ends:

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Most of us will not have the impact on civilization that Ramsesses II had, but unless we do something to develop the relationship with our posterity, it will be like the “lone and level sands”, of no consequence to those who follow after.

I suppose that writing letters in my ancestor’s day and doing blogs and writing published writings is a way of connecting to our posterity through the ages.  I think of Mormon’s letters to his son Moroni that have echoed through the centuries and are relevant to us and to his posterity who do not even know the connection to their patriarch.  Perhaps by leaving our observations on life and putting in our “two cents worth” we can connect by the spirit to those yet unborn who will never know us personally. 

Family reunions have a place in developing relationships, but in most of the ones that I have been to, the age groups connect, but the youth only develop a superficial knowledge of the elderly.  Rarely does the teenager sit down and have an in depth conversation with the grandparent. 

My Aunt Alta had a remarkable way of connecting with her grandchildren. She was in close proximity with her grandchildren.  She only had two children and her sons lived in the same city.  They came over for sleepovers and sugar cookies. Later on they found in her someone that was interested in what they were doing and encouraged their creativity. A couple of them even started a business in her basement. Proximity can foster these types of bonding.  In my case the only grandparent that really was around me was my grandmother Stucki, because she lived in our home for some of the time.

Now that I am older, I wish I had talked more in depth with her.  I only have a short history of her life and a written testimony, nothing more about her feelings and her desires.  These are the things that can bond the generations.  We never think that our ancestors had similar problems and challenges in their life, although logic tells us that they must have gone through like experiences.

So, because I cannot sit down and give pony rides on my back to my great grandchildren and rarely did for my grandchildren, I write the thoughts of my heart.  Perhaps some day they will connect in a way that will have some eternal significance in their life. Reading the scriptures and listening to general conference will help to guide them on the path to eternal life, but if the same instruction came from grandpa, it might sink deeper into their memory and spiritual brain to instruct them more perfectly in the things of eternal worth.  As I wrote at the beginning, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that gives us the insight that we need at times like this. 

The times and challenges that await my posterity will require that they be rooted and grounded in the gospel as at no other time in history.  I hope, in some way, to light their path in times of darkness and despair.

Love,

Grandpa

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[1] The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "concerned with ‘the four last things: death, judgment, heaven, and hell’".

[2] In antiquity, Ozymandias was an alternative name for the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II. Shelley began writing his poem in 1817, soon after the announcement of the British Museum's acquisition of a large fragment of a statue of Ramesses II from the thirteenth-century BCE, and some scholars consider that Shelley was inspired by this. The 7.25-ton fragment of the statue's head and torso had been removed in 1816 from the mortuary temple of Ramesses at Thebes by the Italian adventurer Giovanni Battista Belzoni (1778–1823).

Distraction

Or the story of the Cinnamon toast

I was making cinnamon toast for breakfast the other morning. I put the buttered bread and sugar and cinnamon into the broiler. Because there was something on the computer that needed to finish I went over to the computer and did not watch what was happening. As a result I burned the cinnamon toast. I could smell it burning from my station at the computer. The smell of burnt toast filled the entire house. There was no hiding my mistake. My good wife remarked,  "It looks like you have burned the toast."

Of course I had to sheepishly admit that I had made a great mistake. Fortunately all the damage that was done was burnt toast, which I promptly disposed of in the garbage.

I thought this might be something that I could enlarge upon as an object lesson for our lives.

Living here upon the earth we are constantly surrounded by distractions. There are all kinds of distractions to divert us away from our true purpose for which we were sent here. There are so many distractions here that one would have difficulty delineating them all.

Just as trying to multitask cooking cinnamon toast and checking a computer problem result in burnt offerings the distractions that are present in this life can lead to a much more disastrous outcome . We could lose eternal life and the blessings of this life,

Let me just mention a few distraction that I have observed that keep our attention diverted from those things that will enlarge our souls and expand our understanding of the eternal principles of knowledge.

Video games.

There is nothing inherently wrong with recreation, but when the recreation becomes the dominant time consumer in our life it ends up being a major distraction and waste of precious time.  My mother used to say,  "Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."[1]

There are many young people who let the video game distract them from homework, household chores, sleep and exercise.  It may even go so far as to interfere with service to The Lord. I recently heard of one young man who said he could not take the time to go on a mission for he was so important to his on- line video game partners that he could not take the two years out of his life to serve a mission for The Lord.

Sports

The pursuit of sports is a diversion when we let it interfere with our observance of the Sabbath day, our attendance to the temple, our family home evenings and reading of the scriptures. It may begin quite innocently, but if not properly monitored, it can divert us from our goal of obtaining eternal life.

Television

I have been told by someone that the home teachers could not come to visit because it would interfere with the family's favorite sit com program on television. This seems to me in contra distinction to the mandate to seek first the kingdom of God. I realize that many visits from the home teachers lack the spirituality that is necessary to bring people to God, but that is no excuse to yield to this distraction.

Social media

Is being abreast of things on Facebook or Twitter more important than learning the things of God?

Look at the things that you post. Are they uplifting and bring a closer relationship or are they full of complaints? Who wants to hear about your ingrown toenail or pimples on your face or an ill fitting dress?  I read about people's frustrations and negative experiences. What good does it do? Who does it lift and make a better person? This is a distraction from the mandate to love one another, mourn with those that mourn and comfort those that stand in need of comfort and stand as a witness of God in all places, yea even the Internet.
 
Satan wants us to be diverted from our quest to return to our Father. If he can provide enough worldly distractions, he will then bind us with his awful chains and lead us carefully down to hell.

Keep your 'eye on the ball' and do not be distracted or you too may do more than burn the cinnamon toast.
Love,
Grandpa

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[1] Benjamin Franklin

Of Light and Darkness

1 John 1:5 ”God is light and in him is no darkness at all.”

The other night I was going to make sure that there was a stamp on an envelope to go out in the mail the next morning and I did not turn on the light in the room. As I walked into the living room and tried to find the stamp in the dark, I had difficulty in seeing and I wanted to make sure that I did not stumble over the furniture.

I left the lighted bedroom and found my way in the dark and that was the part that was difficult. As I turned around, suddenly I could see much clearer.  I could see all of furniture although it was dark, because the light from the bedroom illuminated things (although very dimly), but I could now see the furniture and my way through the room.

When we wander away from the light of the gospel and the light of Christ and the light that our Father in Heaven sheds upon us, then we do not see very clearly.

This gave me the idea for this blog.

When we turn around and go toward the light then we see more clearly and are able to avoid the obstacles that are placed in our way. To quote another scripture in D&C 50: 24 That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

Those who do not actively seek to know and understand the gospel are turning their back on the light. It is akin to the vision of Lehi. Many people lost their way in the mists of darkness and wandered on forbidden paths and were lost, because they let go of the iron rod and turned their back on the light.

We sing the song,” Teach me to walk in the light of His love”. The next time you sing this song think of turning from the dark into the light and being able to see your way more clearly.

Remember that this is not a passive activity.  It requires work and study and diligence on your part. You cannot seek light by sitting and wishing. You must actively study and pray or the light will never come.  We must keep the commandments and love our neighbors and all fellow men.

1 John 2:11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

The gospel and the Savior are the light of the world.

Please walk in the light.

Love,

Grandpa