Religion, Relationship and God

God uses religion to put us in relationship with him. God had a covenant people in the people of Israel. Baptism is part of the new covenant God revealed in the New Testament.

We can bind ourselves to God through covenants. Weekly communion is a renewal of our covenants. It allows us to declare before God and our community neighbors that we want to live after the manner of happiness that God directs us to do. We can be renewed every week.

We can privately renew our relationship through prayer each day. We can ask for His grace, His strength to live after the manner of happiness, following God.

Will God Reject Me If I Don't Go To Church?

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You have a friend named Lauren who has not come to church for several months. You and some other members of your Sunday School class decide to visit her at her home to encourage her to attend church this coming Sunday. When you tell her that you’ve missed her at church, she replies, “I’ve been going on hikes on Sundays instead of coming to church. I feel closer to God in nature.” When you try to tell her about how it will bless her and others if she attends church, she says, “I don’t need the Church in order to be a good person. And I don’t think God is going to reject people from being with Him just because they don’t go to church and do all the things the Church tells them to do.”
(“Ordinances and Covenants, Part 2,” Doctrinal Mastery Doctrine and Covenants and Church History Teacher Material (2017))

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The lesson refers to this quote from  D. Todd Christofferson

“If one believes that all roads lead to heaven or that there are no particular requirements for salvation, he or she will see no need for proclaiming the gospel or for ordinances and covenants in redeeming either the living or the dead. But we speak not just of immortality but also of eternal life, and for that the gospel path and gospel covenants are essential. And the Savior needs a church to make them available to all of God’s children—both the living and the dead” (D. Todd Christofferson, “Why the Church,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2015, 110).

I recommend the whole talk.

If we are to receive all that the Father has, we must be willing to follow what he asks of us. We bind ourselves to act in according to His will when we accept the covenants of the Lord through the authorized servants of the Lord.

If we are to improve each week, we need to recommit to the Lord in a way that brings power into our lives. I like this example from "Missionary Preparation Teacher Manual, Chapter 8", lds.org

Show a blank check, and tell students that you would like to financially reward one of them for attending class. Hand the check to a student and ask him or her to write a check for a student sitting nearby. Remind the student to sign his or her name to the check before giving it to the recipient. After the check is written, show it to the class and ask if the student who received it will have any problems
lawfully cashing it.
• Legally, how important is the proper signature on a check?
• Why must one have proper authority to perform a legal transaction, such
as writing a check?
• How might this relate to the need for proper priesthood authority?
• Why is authority necessary in dealing with the things of God?

The check in this example is like the key to the power God want to give us. The power to effect the most good in the world. M. Russell Ballard tells us how to obtain and keep that power:

Sometimes we are tempted to let our lives be governed more by convenience than by covenant. It is not always convenient to live gospel standards and stand up for truth and testify of the Restoration. It usually is not convenient to share the gospel with others. It isn’t always convenient to respond to a calling in the Church, especially one that stretches our abilities. Opportunities to serve others in meaningful ways, as we have covenanted to do, rarely come at convenient times. But there is no spiritual power in living by convenience. The power comes as we keep our covenants.
(Emphasis added, "Like a Flame Unquenchable", M. Russell Ballard, General Conference, Apr 1999, Video Clip of this quote)

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Abraham wanted more righteousness, more happiness. Being in a covenant relationship is required to receive all the blessing the father desires to give us.

finding there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me, I 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.
(Abraham 1:2)

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See also https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/authority-in-the-church

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Covenants of the Endowment

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“The ordinances of the endowment embody certain obligations on the part of the individual, such as covenant and promise to observe the law of strict virtue and chastity, to be charitable, benevolent, tolerant and pure; to devote both talent and material means to the spread of truth and the uplifting of the race; to maintain devotion to the cause of truth; and to seek in every way to contribute to the great preparation that the earth may be made ready to receive her King,—the Lord Jesus Christ. With the taking of each covenant and the assuming of each obligation a promised blessing is pronounced, contingent upon the faithful observance of the conditions” (The House of the Lord, James E. Talmage, rev. ed. [1976], 84).

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“We are a covenant people. We covenant to give of our resources in time and money and talent—all we are and all we possess—to the interest of the kingdom of God upon the earth” (Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple, 35).

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See also “Lesson 4: Receiving Temple Ordinances and Covenants,” Endowed from on High: Temple Preparation Seminar Teacher’s Manual (2003), 16–20

Power of Covenants

What is the power of covenants?

It is that we have made a promise to God.
- We cannot lie to God
- We know that God is perfectly merciful
- We know that God is perfectly just

What covenant is the most powerful? Is it the sacrament?

Easily Bondable

Is is interesting that most compounds contain carbon. That is because its valences allow it to easily bond with a variety of elements.

Being able to bond with other things around you is valuable. Computers became exponentially more valuable once they were connected in networks. Synergy comes about because the interactions of people add up to a much greater value than the sum of their indivudual results. 

Maybe this is God's way of telling us that our greatest value comes from our bonds with those around us. This is an evidence to me of the teachings of family bonds, temple sealings, and other covenants with God that bind ourselves to Him. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P1HkloLKyvs

All My Strength

His father watched for a while, then came to his son and said, “You need to use all your strength to move a rock this large.”
The boy responded, “I have used all my strength!”
His father corrected him: “No you haven’t. You haven’t had my help yet!”
They then bent down together and moved the rock easily. 
("Drawing Closer to God" Elder Terence M. Vinson, Oct 2013)

This quote from Conference reminds me that all my strength includes those around me that willingly offer their strength to me in doing good. I can call on them and they will happily give their effort and heart and soul to my cause. And me to them.

Maybe this is what the Savior was referring to when he said, "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." (Matt 17:21) We must draw our will to His through prayer and fasting. Tap into power beyond our our own. Then we can cast out the demons in our lives.

It also means that we take the following kind of oath.

Art thou a brother or brethren? I salute you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in token or remembrance of the everlasting covenant, in which covenant I receive you to fellowship, in a determination that is fixed, immovable, and unchangeable, to be your friend and brother through the grace of God in the bonds of love, to walk in all the commandments of God blameless, in thanksgiving, forever and ever. Amen. (D&C 88:133)

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Why I Believe in Organized Religion

On Friday I had an awesome talk with my mechanic. I asked him if he was religious. He said that he believed in God but that his family does not regularly go to church. He told a story of a customer that he had that said that he seemed like a good person that he must go to church.  They "agreed" that you do not have to go to church to be a good person. The conversation always ended up in a "but".  The customer really thought that a person should go to church. My mechanic does not believe you need to go to church.

This post is my way of saying why I go to church. Why I believe in organized religion in general and in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in particular.

People generally want to do good, to be good. Sometimes the worse part of our selves get in the way. Most people relate to making some kind of resolution only to have it fall to the way side sooner or later. Being a part of the Mormon church is my way of making an open commitment to do Good and to be Good. Others I join with help me along that path.  Help me keep my commitments.

There is power in making and keeping sacred covenants. I believe that God can bless me more when I make promises to Him in front of my community. It is a way of saying "Here is where I will stand".  This is the program of goodness I vow to bring to the world. It is not my goodness I bring. I only reflect the goodness of Christ.

I believe that God has authorized servants on earth to make promises in His behalf. That is the priesthood. So when I am baptized, I am making a promise to God and He is able to bless me with the Holy Ghost in ways he cannot otherwise. The second half of the baptism of water is the baptism by fire, or by the Holy Ghost. In the Mormon church, that mean that I have men lay their hands on me.  I am asked to "receive the Holy Ghost".  That means that I must offer up to God my broken heart.  My willing heart to do what I feel He is prompting me to do.  I must seek His Spirit.  To be guided by what the Lord prompts me to do.  This is the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost.  It the most sacred gift given to men.  We can increase in the light of God. We can be guided more and more by Him.  To do the good Jesus would do if He lived our life.

Each week, I take the sacrament.  That is the bread and water that represent the body and blood of Christ. I remember the sacrifice Jesus made to overcome death and sin. Each week I get to review my week to pause and remember and recommit to the vows I made at baptism.  If I do, then I get to always have the Spirit of God with me. I can remove from my heart any darker design. And replace it with a desire to do and be good always.

The gospel of Jesus Christ frees me.  It frees me from the consequences of my sin.  It frees me to live a life pleasing to Him.  I get to add the thread of my life to the tapestry of God. The gift of my life is given back to God and it returns to me a hundred time more.

I went to the baptism of my nephew today.  I felt the power that there is in the ordinances, or the covenants that are made in my church.  I felt the purifying influence of the Holy Ghost today.  I want to feel it always.
That is why I believe in organized religion. That is why I am a Mormon.

Giving Ourselves in Love

I read a good article today on the difference between covenants and contracts.  In it, Jeffrey Thayne points out that covenant is not a word in regular use today.  Sometimes an economic contract is used to try to explain what a covenant is.

A contract is formed when two parties, each with particular needs or wants, make an agreement to supply the other’s wants in exchange for their own... If conditions change significantly so that one member of the contract can no longer hold up their end of the deal, the agreement is dissolved.

One example he gives to contrast the meanings of covenant and contract is how I approach my marriage relationship.  If I am consumer-oriented or if I approach my marriage as primarily about personal fulfillment, I may take a 50-50 approach.  I expect my wife to contribute 50% and I the other half.  On the other hand, if I treat my marriage appropriately, as a covenant, I think of what I may do to serve her.  My focus is on her and not myself. I like the quote he gives from David Lapp:

In courting and choosing whom to marry, we would do well to focus on the person and to remind ourselves that marriage is about giving ourselves in love to another person, and not primarily about individual fulfillment. … Marriage isn’t necessarily a ticket to our own version of individual fulfillment. What if your future wife becomes severely paralyzed? What if your child has Down syndrome? I suspect we have not adequately wrapped our minds around the meaning of marriage until we have considered the possibility that at any moment, whether during the honeymoon or in mid-life or in old age, tragic circumstances could call us to give up almost everything—our dream career, our comfort, our “happiness” — for the sake of the beloved.

I love the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego and the phrase "But if not, … we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up"*  Jeffery concisely put this principle as,

The only blessings that are unequivocally promised us in this lifetime for strict obedience are peace of conscience, companionship of the Spirit, and discernment.*

The sermon of King Benjamin describes very well how our covenant relationships are not always profitable.  There is something of a pay it forward principle that is not included in a strictly contractual relationship.

I covenant because I am grateful to God and his mercy and his generosity.  I trust that He will continue to bless me in His own time and in His own way to my eternal benefit.  I love the way Jeffrey closes.

When we truly understand the nature of a covenant, we will realize that the first solution to difficulties in our covenantal relationships is not renegotiation or even communication (which connotes a two-way contractual agreement). It is to realign our hearts towards service, compassion, commitment, forgiveness, and love. Each of these terms connote a one-way submission of the self to the Other, which is what I believe covenants are all about.