“Your spirits when they came to take [earthly] tabernacles were pure and holy. There is no spirit among the human family that was begotten in hell; none that were begotten by angels, or by any inferior being. They [are all the children of] our Father in heaven. He is the Father of our spirits; and if we could know, understand, and do His will, every soul would be prepared to return back into His presence. And when they get there, they would see that they had formerly lived there for ages, that they had previously been acquainted with every nook and corner, with the palaces, walks, and gardens; and they would embrace their Father, and He would embrace them and say, ‘My son, my daughter, I have you again;’ and the child would say, ‘O my Father, my Father, I am here again.’” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 4:268)
Showing posts with label church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label church. Show all posts
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Eyes on the goal
Sometimes you stumble across a quote that reminds you of things forgotten. Things unbelievably important but somehow swallowed up in the day to day. For me, this is one of those quotes. It's Brigham Young:
Sunday, 19 July 2009
Dad gives a talk...
Dad gave a talk in church today on "the law of the harvest". And in case you are interested, you can read his notes below:
Intro
It has been said that there is a lot of perspiration before the inspiration, but I don't know if DK knew about our garden when he asked me to speak on the “Law of the Harvest”.
“[Gardening] will bring satisfaction … and remind us all of the law of the harvest, which is relentless in life. We do reap what we sow.”
President Spencer W. Kimball
I have found that my attempt at gardening this year has reminded me of the law of the harvest, and hopefully given me some inspiration for today's talk.
Consequences
The law of the harvest is a law of consequences.
'The law of the harvest is simply that you don’t get something for nothing in life. The scriptures tell us the law of the harvest is that as ye sow (plant), so shall ye reap (harvest). “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”' (Gal. 6:7).
Robert D. Hales, “Channeling Your Creativity,” New Era, Feb 2004, 5
It is an unbreakable law.
Alma 3: 26
"...that they might reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one."
Doctrine and Covenants 6:33
"Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward. "
Choosing to sow good, even during trials, when we may literally be sowing in tears, will bring great blessings.
Psalms 126:5
"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. "
Alma's son Corianton was a missionary, but he allowed himself to follow the natural man and commited a serious sin. Pehaps as is common to the natural man he seemed to feel some of the consequences of his sin were unfair.
Alma explains the law of consequences to his son Corianton in this way:
Alma 41:10, 14-15
"Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.
"Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again.
"For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored; therefore, the word restoration more fully condemneth the sinner, and justifieth him not at all. "
What we sow, we will reap, we cannot escape the consequences of our actions.
Vicious or Virtuous Circles
The law of the harvest is one of cycles. Vicious cycles or virtuous cycles, according to what we sow.
Because what we sow bears its own fruit the seeds will reap further crops when they are sown. Each year I will get more and more weeds if I do nothing about them, as they seed themselves. On the other hand we can also choose to plant more seed from our good crops. A brother in my ward where I grew up, EP, was well known for his tomato plants, and prepared his own seeds from the fruit of the year before by drying them out and then planting them.
Vicious Cycle - Job 4:8
"Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same."
Virtuous Cycle – Doc & Cov 50:24
"That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth clight, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day."
Understanding the law of the harvest can help us break vicious circles and turn them into virtuous circles- Elder Robert D. Hales says:
“The law of the harvest offers a pattern for making decisions. Prepare the soil through prayer, knowing that you are a son [or daughter] of God. Plant the seeds by counseling with those who will give sound advice; then seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Let the seeds of inspiration grow. The budding ideas need tending. They need time to mature. The light of inspiration will bring the spiritual harvest which will come when we ask our Heavenly Father in prayer if we have made a correct decision. As we follow that light, the darkness will vanish and the light will grow “brighter and brighter until the perfect day”10—that day when we are in the presence of our Father in Heaven.”
Robert D. Hales, “To the Aaronic Priesthood: Preparing for the Decade of Decision,” Liahona, May 2007, 48–51
The law of the harvest works in many areas of our lives, whether spiritual or temporal.
We have been urged over recent years to get out of debt:
'Sometimes we are urged to buy now and pay later.
“This is not the order of the law of the harvest,
“The planting must come before the harvesting. President Gordon B. Hinckley has told us to avoid unnecessary debt. But this is not the message we hear from other sources.
“We should be careful not to look for the harvest before planting the seeds. It is unwise to make commitments to pay at a future time, assuming that we will have the money to pay. If we do not have the money now, then we should be aware that there is a chance we will not have it later. We should keep our economics in the proper order of planting and harvesting.”'
David Lusvardi of the Palo Verde Ward, Las Vegas Nevada Redrock Stake, “Taming the Debt Dragon,” Ensign, Oct 2004, 50–53
Planting Nothing Allows Others to Choose What Grows
One thing we can be certain of, whatever we choose, we cannot choose to sow nothing and reap nothing. For if we are not sowing into our soil, someone else is.
When was the last time you saw a patch of ground with nothing growing into it?
A freshly ploughed field perhaps? Some freshly dug over allotment or garden maybe? It has to be fresh, because if it is left any length of time very soon crops of one sort or another begin to appear without any effort on the part of the land owner.
And so it is with us.
Our back garden makes a wonderful example. This year I have the following crops:
To change things in my garden, so I can grow more crops that I really want will require a great deal of effort. For the grass it may be merely a case of cutting and edging, but for other things more drastic methods will be needed, like digging out the roots. Even when the earth is cleared to bare soil, the potential for the old crops to re-grow is high because the seeds may still be present in the ground. It will take several years of vigilant weeding to undo the effects of neglect and allow better things to grow in their place. And there is a lesson here about repentance.
One thing is certain, if I do want to grow better things, I will have to make this effort and prepare the ground.
In the parable of the sower Jesus likened our hearts unto types of ground:
Luke 8:5-15
"A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.
"And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.
"And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.
"And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
"And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?
"And he said, Unto you it is given to know the amysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in bparables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not cunderstand.
"Now the parable is this: The aseed is the word of God.
"Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
"They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of atemptation fall away.
"And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are achoked with bcares and criches and dpleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to eperfection.
"But that on the good ground are they, which in an ahonest and good bheart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth cfruit with patience."
Do we need to clear some ground so that we can sow the crops that we are being instructed to sow?
“If a seed can multiply thirty, sixty, or even a hundredfold, what then is my potential if I would but cast out the stones, clean out the thorns, cultivate deeply into the soil for a good seedbed, irrigate, and nourish? It is then that I realize there is no limit to my potential so long as I conform my life to the Lord’s law of the harvest. Let me encourage you to draw close to the soil. Have your own experience in planting a garden. Then make application in your own life of this great principle of the law of the harvest.”Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “The Law of the Harvest,” New Era, Oct. 1980, 4.
Repentance works just as well for sins of omission as it does for sins of commission.
We must choose to clear our ground, our hearts, of anything preventing us from being fruitful in the Lord's eyes.
Hosea 10:12
"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you."
For some, there may only be a little weeding required, as we turn our attention from the good, or the better, to the BEST.
For some, like my garden, more drastic clearing out and chopping down may be needed, to repent of and overcome more deep rooted problems.
“There is so great a need for repentance and forgiveness. When there has been wrongdoing and then there has come repentance, followed by forgiveness, then literally the offender who was lost is found, and he who was dead is made alive.”
Gordon B. Hinckley, “Forgiveness,” Liahona, Nov 2005, 81–84
Whatever our situation, whoever we are, however many times we have tried and failed, the Lord promises, and has already fulfilled his part of his promise through the Atonement, that through sincere repentance we can be healed, we can be forgiven and made whole, our soil can be cleared of weeds and prepared to grow the crops He would have us grow.
But remember, no bare earth remains bare for long. As we clear our ground, or repent, and prepare our hearts, we must sow good crops as we go, we must replace bad with good, good with better, and better with best.
Following Instructions to Plant Crops
Sometimes we are told which crop(s) we should plant. As with the law of the harvest we will reap according to our planting.
Some scriptures are examples of what I call spritual algebra. They contain formulas like if else statements familiar to computer programmers. If we do A then we get B, the law of the harvest in action.
It is true for this verse:
"My son, give ear to my words; for I swear unto you, that inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land." (Alma 36:1)
In this verse we receive first an instruction on what to sow and then a promise of the fruit we shall reap IF we sow it.
What are we to sow? Obedience. What will we reap? Prosperity.
It does exactly what it says on the packet.
(Interestingly, sowing what we are asked to sow will only reap that which is good for us).
We can find out which spiritual crops we should plant from the following sources:
Or we can disobey and sow something else, and reap something else.
Recently we have been reminded by out Stake Presidency of some spiritual crops we should be planting.
I have not always been spot on in all areas of this, and so this talk is for me as much as anyone, I am not preaching, but I feel prompted to talk about the 4 Areas of Focus identified by our Stake Presidency:
These are our staple crops:
Conclude
Brothers and Sisters, what we sow (or allow to be sowed through inaction), we will reap. For good or bad. So let us follow the promptings we have received today, let us consistently put into action the 4 areas of focus, let us read our Patriarchal Blessings and learn what we should be sowing in order to reap the blessings the Lord has for us. And let us repent and sow and reap good so that it can be true for us as it says in:
D&C 50: 24
"...and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day."
Intro
It has been said that there is a lot of perspiration before the inspiration, but I don't know if DK knew about our garden when he asked me to speak on the “Law of the Harvest”.
“[Gardening] will bring satisfaction … and remind us all of the law of the harvest, which is relentless in life. We do reap what we sow.”
President Spencer W. Kimball
I have found that my attempt at gardening this year has reminded me of the law of the harvest, and hopefully given me some inspiration for today's talk.
Consequences
The law of the harvest is a law of consequences.
'The law of the harvest is simply that you don’t get something for nothing in life. The scriptures tell us the law of the harvest is that as ye sow (plant), so shall ye reap (harvest). “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”' (Gal. 6:7).
Robert D. Hales, “Channeling Your Creativity,” New Era, Feb 2004, 5
It is an unbreakable law.
Alma 3: 26
"...that they might reap their rewards according to their works, whether they were good or whether they were bad, to reap eternal happiness or eternal misery, according to the spirit which they listed to obey, whether it be a good spirit or a bad one."
Doctrine and Covenants 6:33
"Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward. "
Choosing to sow good, even during trials, when we may literally be sowing in tears, will bring great blessings.
Psalms 126:5
"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. "
Alma's son Corianton was a missionary, but he allowed himself to follow the natural man and commited a serious sin. Pehaps as is common to the natural man he seemed to feel some of the consequences of his sin were unfair.
Alma explains the law of consequences to his son Corianton in this way:
Alma 41:10, 14-15
"Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness never was happiness.
"Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge righteously, and do good continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again.
"For that which ye do send out shall return unto you again, and be restored; therefore, the word restoration more fully condemneth the sinner, and justifieth him not at all. "
What we sow, we will reap, we cannot escape the consequences of our actions.
Vicious or Virtuous Circles
The law of the harvest is one of cycles. Vicious cycles or virtuous cycles, according to what we sow.
Because what we sow bears its own fruit the seeds will reap further crops when they are sown. Each year I will get more and more weeds if I do nothing about them, as they seed themselves. On the other hand we can also choose to plant more seed from our good crops. A brother in my ward where I grew up, EP, was well known for his tomato plants, and prepared his own seeds from the fruit of the year before by drying them out and then planting them.
Vicious Cycle - Job 4:8
"Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same."
Virtuous Cycle – Doc & Cov 50:24
"That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth clight, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day."
Understanding the law of the harvest can help us break vicious circles and turn them into virtuous circles- Elder Robert D. Hales says:
“The law of the harvest offers a pattern for making decisions. Prepare the soil through prayer, knowing that you are a son [or daughter] of God. Plant the seeds by counseling with those who will give sound advice; then seek the guidance of the Holy Ghost. Let the seeds of inspiration grow. The budding ideas need tending. They need time to mature. The light of inspiration will bring the spiritual harvest which will come when we ask our Heavenly Father in prayer if we have made a correct decision. As we follow that light, the darkness will vanish and the light will grow “brighter and brighter until the perfect day”10—that day when we are in the presence of our Father in Heaven.”
Robert D. Hales, “To the Aaronic Priesthood: Preparing for the Decade of Decision,” Liahona, May 2007, 48–51
The law of the harvest works in many areas of our lives, whether spiritual or temporal.
We have been urged over recent years to get out of debt:
'Sometimes we are urged to buy now and pay later.
“This is not the order of the law of the harvest,
“The planting must come before the harvesting. President Gordon B. Hinckley has told us to avoid unnecessary debt. But this is not the message we hear from other sources.
“We should be careful not to look for the harvest before planting the seeds. It is unwise to make commitments to pay at a future time, assuming that we will have the money to pay. If we do not have the money now, then we should be aware that there is a chance we will not have it later. We should keep our economics in the proper order of planting and harvesting.”'
David Lusvardi of the Palo Verde Ward, Las Vegas Nevada Redrock Stake, “Taming the Debt Dragon,” Ensign, Oct 2004, 50–53
Planting Nothing Allows Others to Choose What Grows
One thing we can be certain of, whatever we choose, we cannot choose to sow nothing and reap nothing. For if we are not sowing into our soil, someone else is.
When was the last time you saw a patch of ground with nothing growing into it?
A freshly ploughed field perhaps? Some freshly dug over allotment or garden maybe? It has to be fresh, because if it is left any length of time very soon crops of one sort or another begin to appear without any effort on the part of the land owner.
And so it is with us.
Our back garden makes a wonderful example. This year I have the following crops:
- Potatoes
- Swedes
- Courgettes
- Rhubarb
- Blackberries
- Nettles
- Grass
- Thistles
- Dandelions
- Rosebay Willow Herb
- And a variety of other weeds...
To change things in my garden, so I can grow more crops that I really want will require a great deal of effort. For the grass it may be merely a case of cutting and edging, but for other things more drastic methods will be needed, like digging out the roots. Even when the earth is cleared to bare soil, the potential for the old crops to re-grow is high because the seeds may still be present in the ground. It will take several years of vigilant weeding to undo the effects of neglect and allow better things to grow in their place. And there is a lesson here about repentance.
One thing is certain, if I do want to grow better things, I will have to make this effort and prepare the ground.
In the parable of the sower Jesus likened our hearts unto types of ground:
Luke 8:5-15
"A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.
"And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.
"And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.
"And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
"And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?
"And he said, Unto you it is given to know the amysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in bparables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not cunderstand.
"Now the parable is this: The aseed is the word of God.
"Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
"They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of atemptation fall away.
"And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are achoked with bcares and criches and dpleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to eperfection.
"But that on the good ground are they, which in an ahonest and good bheart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth cfruit with patience."
Do we need to clear some ground so that we can sow the crops that we are being instructed to sow?
“If a seed can multiply thirty, sixty, or even a hundredfold, what then is my potential if I would but cast out the stones, clean out the thorns, cultivate deeply into the soil for a good seedbed, irrigate, and nourish? It is then that I realize there is no limit to my potential so long as I conform my life to the Lord’s law of the harvest. Let me encourage you to draw close to the soil. Have your own experience in planting a garden. Then make application in your own life of this great principle of the law of the harvest.”Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, “The Law of the Harvest,” New Era, Oct. 1980, 4.
Repentance works just as well for sins of omission as it does for sins of commission.
We must choose to clear our ground, our hearts, of anything preventing us from being fruitful in the Lord's eyes.
Hosea 10:12
"Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you."
For some, there may only be a little weeding required, as we turn our attention from the good, or the better, to the BEST.
For some, like my garden, more drastic clearing out and chopping down may be needed, to repent of and overcome more deep rooted problems.
“There is so great a need for repentance and forgiveness. When there has been wrongdoing and then there has come repentance, followed by forgiveness, then literally the offender who was lost is found, and he who was dead is made alive.”
Gordon B. Hinckley, “Forgiveness,” Liahona, Nov 2005, 81–84
Whatever our situation, whoever we are, however many times we have tried and failed, the Lord promises, and has already fulfilled his part of his promise through the Atonement, that through sincere repentance we can be healed, we can be forgiven and made whole, our soil can be cleared of weeds and prepared to grow the crops He would have us grow.
But remember, no bare earth remains bare for long. As we clear our ground, or repent, and prepare our hearts, we must sow good crops as we go, we must replace bad with good, good with better, and better with best.
Following Instructions to Plant Crops
Sometimes we are told which crop(s) we should plant. As with the law of the harvest we will reap according to our planting.
Some scriptures are examples of what I call spritual algebra. They contain formulas like if else statements familiar to computer programmers. If we do A then we get B, the law of the harvest in action.
It is true for this verse:
"My son, give ear to my words; for I swear unto you, that inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments of God ye shall prosper in the land." (Alma 36:1)
In this verse we receive first an instruction on what to sow and then a promise of the fruit we shall reap IF we sow it.
What are we to sow? Obedience. What will we reap? Prosperity.
It does exactly what it says on the packet.
(Interestingly, sowing what we are asked to sow will only reap that which is good for us).
We can find out which spiritual crops we should plant from the following sources:
- Scriptures
- Conference
- First Presidency Message and Church Magazines
- Stake and Ward Leaders
- Holy Ghost
Or we can disobey and sow something else, and reap something else.
Recently we have been reminded by out Stake Presidency of some spiritual crops we should be planting.
I have not always been spot on in all areas of this, and so this talk is for me as much as anyone, I am not preaching, but I feel prompted to talk about the 4 Areas of Focus identified by our Stake Presidency:
These are our staple crops:
- Daily Scripture Study
- Daily Prayer
- Regular Temple Attendance
- Family Home Evening
Conclude
Brothers and Sisters, what we sow (or allow to be sowed through inaction), we will reap. For good or bad. So let us follow the promptings we have received today, let us consistently put into action the 4 areas of focus, let us read our Patriarchal Blessings and learn what we should be sowing in order to reap the blessings the Lord has for us. And let us repent and sow and reap good so that it can be true for us as it says in:
D&C 50: 24
"...and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day."
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Anyone can Create...
As a teacher of design I am often charged with deciding who has the potential to do well on the courses we run at college. In essence, it means finding out about the drawing ability, creative thinking, and motivation (among other things) of each candidate.
But let's not make the mistake of thinking that just because a person is not suited for art & design, that it also means they are not creative. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf says it so well:
But let's not make the mistake of thinking that just because a person is not suited for art & design, that it also means they are not creative. Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf says it so well:
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
Clone Wars, Clo-o-o-one Wars, Clo-o-o-one Wars, Clo-o-one Waaaaars
The Young Men's activity tonight was a trip to the Cinema, and, being a Young Men's activity they chose to see the new Clone Wars animation, the Star Wars spin-off. And as the group were short of a leader - lucky old me got to step in, and see it too.
Actually, before I went to see it I did check the review on Common Sense Media (an excellent review site if you really want to know about the film's content, and suitability for the audience). I have to say, the review wasn't that great, and made it sound really lame. After seeing it however, I didn't notice many of the criticisms, but do agree that some of the violence, albeit animated in a cartoon-esque style, is unsuitable for younger kids.
It started off in a rather hurried way, with none of the build-up you normally get with a Star Wars movie. I was a little disappointed by this, as I like to be warmed up into the action. As it was, it took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on. But once the movie was going and the plot became a little clearer I thought the story was fair - though a little childish. Think of this as the Monsters Inc. equivalent of Star Wars, only not so fluffy.
From a technical point of view I found the animation a little disappointing. It appeared to use a lot of Motion Capture to animate the characters, which has been used successfully in such movies as Monster House and The Polar Express. However in this case the captured movement didn't appear to be fine-tuned to a great degree, and movement looked unnatural and was much like the animation in the Bionicle movies.
Motion Capture for The Polar Express
Most importantly, J enjoyed it. And surely that is the main thing.
Saturday, 16 August 2008
Return of the J
For the last 3 days J has been at Deacon's Camp, at the Church owned campground in Norfolk. Dad drove him, a friend from another ward (KB) and Nathan on Thursday and collected him today.
He had a great time, including falling in the lake twice (one of the times being when his canoe capsized). A 2 Km run was also part of the activity (impressive I thought). But I will let J fill you in on the details tomorrow. Right now he needs to get clean.
He had a great time, including falling in the lake twice (one of the times being when his canoe capsized). A 2 Km run was also part of the activity (impressive I thought). But I will let J fill you in on the details tomorrow. Right now he needs to get clean.
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