The Throne of Grace

Hebrews 4:16 says

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

I've thought on this verse a lot recently. Why does Paul say that we will receive mercy when we come to the throne of grace? It seems like we should be receiving grace. Is he just trying to pack multiple positive traits of Christ (whose throne it is) into one verse? Probably not. The following is my interpretation of this verse.

If I am coming to Christ for grace (which the LDS Church defines as the enabling power of Christ), I am making a personal admonition that I need him, and believe he both can and will help me. And because I make that admonition, because I try to work with him rather than by myself, he not only grants me grace in time of need, but also is merciful in the long term.

A great example is when a man with the palsy is brought to Christ, and Christ both heals him of the palsy and forgives him of his sins (Mark 2:1-12, and video below). Seeking Christ for healing is approaching the throne of grace; having the palsy cured is receiving grace in time of need; and receiving a forgiveness of sin is mercy.

It's my belief that if I seek Christ's grace, he will help in my time of need. And additionally, he will have mercy on me through the long run because I sought him.

Forrest
--Who needs all the grace and mercy he can get.

Ponder the Path of Thy Feet

"Ponder the path of thy feet" (Proverbs 4:26). 

Do you ever have moments when everything feels surreal? And you wonder how you ever came to be where you are. And for a small moment, you feel like the you from 15 years ago, and as you look at your life it just amazes you (in a good way or bad way or both). I have those moments from time to time and they are a bit jarring for me. Sometimes it is in a loud or quiet moment at home and I look at my husband and think "I can't believe I am married...and have been married for almost a third of my life....and it just feels funny." Or I look at my children and think "when did this happen? Are these kids really mine?" Like I am looking at everything with fresh eyes. Or the other day, my friend (who is 5 or 6 six years younger than me) emailed me a picture of us she took when we were out together and I looked at myself and thought "Who is that? I look so old!"

These moments don't occur very often, but when they do, they usually lead to some reflection about where I am in my life and what I am becoming. This life is a tricky one. It is so easy to get caught up in all the everyday things that have to happen. You know what I mean: meals, sleep, school, diapers, work, cleaning ourselves, the house, the yard, the cars. And so hard sometimes to remember why we are really here and who we can become, even while doing all the necessary, everyday things.

We are reading the New Testament for our Sunday School study this year, and the phrase that keeps getting caught in my brain is this: come, follow me (Luke 18:22, John 21:22, Matthew 16:24, Numbers 32:11, Omni 1:26, Moroni 10:32).

The video I posted at the beginning of this post gave me new insight into the story of the rich young ruler who "comes" to Christ and asks Him what he needs to do to have eternal life.  The young man had faith enough in the Savior to come to Him. The fact that He sought Jesus out shows that he believed He had answers. But after the young man affirms that he has kept the commandments throughout his life, and is then counselled to sell what he has and follow Jesus, he cannot make the commitment. So he turns around and goes his way, and Christ and His disciples (those who follow Him physically and are attempting to follow spiritually) go another way. 

That visual image of the young man turning and walking away is poignant to me. It doesn't mean that the rich young ruler was never able to give up his material wealth and follow the Savior. But in that moment, he could not commit. So he walked away from the one person who could show him what it means to reach your true potential--what it means to really love someone--what it means to know yourself and to know God. 

So this week, I am going to try a little harder to "follow Him", even while I walk through the everyday necessities. I can't physically walk beside Him and watch the way He interacts with people and love them and heals them. But I can read about it and try my best to do things the way He would. Doing this, I believe, will help me know myself better and to know my Heavenly Father better.

-elin

Who is going to have a hard time "following Him" while I plan out meals for this week. I actually enjoy cooking...but I hate having to plan out meals and think of new things that are not only tasty but actually healthy...grrrrr...And I hate ironing clothes....

"My Yoke" and My Yoke

Yoke is a weird word when you say it repeatedly.

Recently I have been considering this passage of scripture from Matthew 11 in the New Testament:

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

I think I have trouble distinguishing between my yoke and "my yoke," or Christ's yoke. I think if someone asked me a few weeks ago what it means to take Christ's yoke upon me, I would have said something like doing what Christ has commanded, living as He lived. I would have understood it to mean assuming Christ's yoke, or burden.

So what are some of the things Christ commanded me (and everyone) to do? Usually pretty easy stuff, right? Like this gem: love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matt. 5:44; 3 Nephi 12:44). And easiest of all: be ye therefore perfect (Matt. 5:48). When I consider these requirements I usually fail to see how they are compatible with verse 30 above. Christ says His burden is light and the yoke is easy! Something must be lost in translation!

The error is in my understanding of these scriptures and how they apply to me. Too often I forget that a yoke isn't simply a burden put on my shoulders, but is a tool to help share a burden (here is a good explanation). If I take the sum of Christ's commandments and make every effort to live them, I will fail. And that is a heavy burden. If I share the yoke with Christ, I will succeed, because I am yoked to an Omnipotent Being. There is no burden He can't carry. He makes the burden light and easy. A great example of this comes from the Book of Mormon, where a righteous people are being oppressed. When they pray for deliverance from the Lord, this is the response they get:

13 Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

At that point the burden was still there, the people still oppressed. But the yoke was being shared with Christ, and the burdens became light (spoiler: eventually they are delivered completely).

In summary, taking Christ's yoke upon me does mean doing as He would do and living as He lived. But it also means doing it with His help.

Forrest
--Who is beginning to understand this principle, but still struggling in the application of it.

Entropy, 2 year-olds, and the Lord

From dictionary.com:
 
entropy
2. a statistical measure of the disorder of a closed system expressed by S = k log P + c where P is the probability that a particular state of the system exists, k is the Boltzmann constant, and c is another constant

3. lack of pattern or organization; disorder

 
Basically what entropy means is that everything breaks down, becomes disorganized, scatters, and decays over time. Order is lost. And, after a week at home watching our 2.5 year-old daughter, I am convinced that children are the greatest entropic force in the universe. Just kidding. But seriously.
 
If we look around we see that entropy is a legitimate force. Our bodies break down, as do our automobiles, buildings, roads, etc. The same things happen in nature. One might argue that over time plants and animals destroy or take over man-made creations, but those same plants and animals also break down and die and others take their place. Even schools of thought, ideas, philosophies, and morals break down over time. Here is another definition from the source above: a doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration. Almost all societies from the past have gone through this, and ours certainly is at the moment, whether we acknowledge it or not.
 
The idea of entropy is kind of scary, actually. Is there anyway to fight it? Yes, of course. At least temporarily. Entropy is combatted by putting work or energy into a system. For example, my house is usually pretty clean at the beginning of the day. Through the day it gets messier and messier, and to reverse the entropy, I have to exert energy on the house; in other words, I have to clean it up (or convince someone else to). With a house we can do this over and over, but eventually we run out of energy, and something has to put energy into us (food, sleep, medicine, etc.). And in the end there is nothing left to put into our system, our bodies, that can keep us going, and we die. The whole known universe operates this way. Our Earth depends on the sun to provide most of the energy (light, and to some degree, heat) to fight entropy. But the sun itself is subject to entropy as well.
 
Fortunately for all of us, there is a power or energy that is not subject to entropy (I don't know how, so don't ask me) and ultimately reverses all disorganization, decay, and ruin. And that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Here are some passages of scripture that say this same thing in various ways:
 
Matthew 5:48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
(3 Nephi 12:48 Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.)

John 14:16 Jesus sayeth unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
 
John 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

John 10:10 I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Moroni 10:32 Come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him.

Doctrine and Covenants 132:8 Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.

And a great talk about life and light by President Henry B. Eyring, The Light and the Life of the World.

 

Forrest

--Who was glad to go back to work after a week of entropy!

Resolution #1: Finisher



After an extensive blogging hiatus, we are back. At least I am. I'm sure the others are right behind me. Holidays throw off routines, as do births of babies, so we missed some days. This post would have been ideal for last Thursday.

Finishing has been on my mind for about a month; the need to finish what I start. It began with the desire to finish books that I had previously started. Now it has extended to the only "New Year's Resolution" that I currently have and goes beyond books. On my literary list is "The Brother's Karamazov," "Mere Christianity," "Leaning Forward" (the autobiography of my thesis advisor that I picked up at a campus bookstore), and a couple others. I've been working on "Karamazov" off and on for a couple years. Other things I mean to finish are wood-carving projects, physical wellness goals, and going completely bald. Time I finished that one off.

What is the value in finishing what I began? For one thing, I can feel the relief of having it done. For another, I began these readings or projects for a reason; there is something of value in the book or the wood-working that led me to originally start, and it is still worth obtaining. Finally, it is good training for the things in life that require that I finish in order to obtain all that is in store for me. Especially according to the gospel of Jesus Christ. In gospel terms, "finishing" is referred to as "enduring to the end." Here are a couple of scriptures that make clear the importance of this principle:

2 Ne 31:16 And now, my beloved brethren, I know by this that unless a man shall endure to the end, in following the example of the Son of the living God, he cannot be saved.
 
3 Ne 15:9 Behold, I am the law, and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live; for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life.
 
D&C 14:7 And, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.

I want to say, like Paul was able to, that "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith," and thereby merit the greatest of all the gifts of God.

Forrest
--Who already knocked out a couple books before the New Year began but still faces Karamazov.

Great article called "Finishers Wanted," by President Thomas S. Monson (before being president).

Ye Have Done it Unto Me

Yesterday I received an email with instructions for serving in the peanut butter cannery in our area. The Church operates the factory to provide peanut butter for low-income families and as emergency food for times of, well, emergency (an example: I once listened to a talk regarding the response to the Teton Dam flood in eastern Idaho back in the 70s. The speaker mentioned that one of the emergency foods supplied came from the Houston peanut butter factory). Initially my name was put down as a "back-up" in case someone else couldn't make it. When I got the email indicating that my service was wanted, I admit to not being pleased about it. I don't even really like peanut butter.

While reading the New Testament last year, I took note of the Savior's methods of serving. Matthew basically starts with the Lord preaching the Sermon on the Mount, and then the rest of the book is dedicated to Him demonstrating how to live those things He preached, starting with chapter 8. I am listing some things I learned in chapter 8 about how Christ served, and therefore how I should serve (this isn't all inclusive).

He served without qualifiers or conditions. Man, woman, child, Jew or Gentile.
He served despite having other pressing duties.
He served without physically being present.
He served without being asked.
He served with the intent to teach proper principles.
His service was not limited to physical actions.
He served regardless of whether those receiving the service would receive Him or His message.

As a Christian, I am trying to emulate Christ. And one of the ways that I can do that is through devoted service to those around me. Including accepting the assignment to make peanut butter.

Forrest
--Who does like peanut butter in puppy chow (or muddy buddies, to some)

P.S. Anybody can volunteer at the peanut butter cannery, including companies and organizations. Details here.