Scott,
Discussion of the Day:
Both my wife and Batman's girlfriend would disagree with you and the so called softer approach some say the church is taking.... Batman's girlfriend said: "It is not who you are that defines you, but what you do."
Of course you could say it is both......but Batman's girlfriend would say that what you do....is who you are. Period....There is no difference. If what you do defines you, then that must be true.
One of the Grumpest men I knew, died a few years back. He was so cantackerous, that in my fairwell speech in Calif to the ward I said "I will even miss Jim Johnson." It brought the house down. This man was a man of little words, and all work. He generally did not like what people did and did not greet people. He would not accept any church callings, but ward financial clerk. He was clerk for forty years. He always said what he felt and disregarded the outcome, or so it seemed. but.....He was a better man than me.
I think, it is what you do that defines you....Hopefully treating people with respect and kindness will count also as doing. So doing the numbers on good deeds, may be the defining factor, not the fact you are a nice guy and have become Christ like in your behavior.
Or if you are Christ like in your behavior, maybe you are always serving people in different ways. Can you serve with a bad attitude and it still be good?
If you are a Billonaire and give away millions and travel around helping people are you better off than the billionaire that gives away his billions to the poor and only keeps a few million for himself. Do you have to like people and be friendly to enter the kingdom of God or just keep the commandments. Can you love one another and not want to be around people? Can you treat people like shit and enter the kingdom of Heaven, if you do good deeds constantly? What da ya think? Is not being a people person ok? Is being a Jerk ok?
Doug
Doug,
Here are my thoughts.
Everyone has the right to believe what they want. I do not judge. Everyone is at different places on their journey back to God.
I think the discussion boils down to doing good works vs. the development of Christ-like qualities. And how does personality play into it. And is a person always showing their faith when they do good works.
I don’t see in the discussion below any references to scripture, only what you might refer to as practical application. Can you back up your arguments with scripture? Please do.
There are a preponderance of scripture that say both: the development of Christ-like attributes and doing good works.
It is my belief that one generally follows the other. It works the other way too but not as well. Gaining a hope in Christ or reconciling yourself to Christ is one’s first ‘work’. Permitting Christ to dissolve our anger, our discontent, our lust, our desire for retaliation, our intransigence – is the first step and also a lifelong process. It is called faith in Christ. Since we will never be perfect, we need Christ’s grace as long we sojourn on this earth. Now, let’s reverse the order: works first and then faith. It doesn’t work as well. One always exercises faith first or they would never to the work. So, it boils down to what we prioritize as most important. Is the first step releasing all our burdens to the Lord or is it just jumping into good works?
I tried the works approach for 30 years. And I received the results, some good some bad. I blessed the lives of others grudgingly, I did all the Church laws, but much of the time faith and love were not attached. I focused on outward works, being a good ‘faithful’ Mormon but didn’t focus on the inward. The results: I didn’t curb my bad habits until the last ten years. The outer vessel looked all clean and white but my inner vessel (lack of what you call being ‘soft’) was still full of refuse and unhappiness. Now, this was mostly due to growing up in a dysfunctional home environment developing and internalizing bad habits. It is the fallen man.
Mormon says, “For behold, if a man being evil giveth a gift, he doeth it grudgingly; wherefore it is counted unto him the same as if he had retained the gift; wherefore he is counted evil before God. And likewise also is it counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such. Wherefore, a man being evil cannot do that which is good; neither will he give a good gift. (Moroni 7:8-10)”
If I choose to believe the scriptures, they seem to indicated to work on the inner vessel first. Giving with a bad attitude means nothing to God.
Christ’s commandments are the inner commandments (3 Nephi 15:10). See chapters 12-15 for Jesus’ commandments. See also 3 Nephi 12:20. Doug, when you refer to commandments, I’m not sure what you are referring to. Christ’s wants to heal the billionaire just like he wants to heal you. Jesus did talk in very specific terms about the rich, having to give it all up (you interpret this as keeping his millions for himself – and I don’t judge the interpretation). The rich must give a whole lot and do it because they want to – to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. That is what the scriptures say. Again, the key is to work on gaining a hope in Christ.
Good works flow from all ‘soft’ people that have sought the kingdom of God first. Works flow from faith. The inner changes that we must make are the main work, at least at first. Let me know if you would like more scriptures to show this to be the case.
Scott
No comments:
Post a Comment