The talk I was given to use was from Elder Packer in the last General Conference (This talk was given the week before General Conference) on the Atonement. In his talk he stated,
"I speak today to those who may be lost and are searching for that… light to help guide them back.
“It was understood from the beginning that in mortality we would fall short of being perfect. It was not expected that we would live without transgressing one law or another.”
“From the Pearl of Great Price, we understand that “no unclean thing can dwell [in the kingdom of God],” and so a way was provided for all who sin to repent and become worthy of the presence of our Father in Heaven once more.
“A Mediator, a Redeemer, was chosen, one who would live His life perfectly, commit no sin, and offer 'himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.'”In Luke 22:41-44 it states,
As I read these verses, that Elder Packer also shared, the main them that I feel associated with the Atonement seems to be love. Elder Packer continues to explain,
“No matter what our transgressions have been, no matter how much our actions may have hurt others, that guilt can all be wiped out. To me, perhaps the most beautiful phrase in all scripture is when the Lord said, “Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.”
“That is the promise of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement: to take anyone who comes, anyone who will join, and put them through an experience so that at the end of their life, they can go through the veil having repented of their sins and having been washed clean through the blood of Christ.”As I was preparing this talk I realized that I really wanted to focus on the Savior's love for us and its association with the Atonement. Melissa's talk was more focused on the resurrection, while mine will focus more on the forgiveness of sins, but it all stems from love.
As I was contemplating this love, one scripture instantly came to mind, 1 Nephi 11:13-21. It states,
13 And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the great city of Jerusalem, and also other cities. And I beheld the city of Nazareth; and in the city of Nazareth I beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white."Knowest thou the condescension of God?" What an interesting question. As we read that question, do we ever take time to think about what is being asked? What is condescension? If we think about someone who is being condescending we think of them looking down on others. So the condescension of God would be him lowering himself, but to what? Elder Bruce R. McConkie gave some insight into this in a devotional he gave to BYU students titled Knowest Thou the Condescension of God. He stated,
14 And it came to pass that I saw the heavens open; and an angel came down and stood before me; and he said unto me: Nephi, what beholdest thou?17 And I said unto him: I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.18 And he said unto me: Behold, the virgin whom thou seest is the mother of the Son of God, after the manner of the flesh.
“What, then, is the condescension of God? As I understand the definition of condescension, it is the act of descending to a lower and less dignified state; of waiving the privileges of one’s rank and status; of bestowing honors and favors upon one of lesser stature or status.
“So if we are going to speak of the condescension of God, meaning that of our Eternal
Father, we must first know the nature and kind of being he is. We must come to know the dignity and majesty and glory that attend him, of the things that he had and is doing for us and for all his children and in all eternity among all his creations.
"When we think of him, we think of the most noble and exalted being there is. Then we read this question, 'Knowest thou the condescension of God?' and discover that somehow it is associated with his love for us, his children, his spirit children who are now dwelling as mortals here on earth. We discover in our text that he shall be the Father of a Son born 'after the manner of the flesh'; that is, he condescends, in his infinite wisdom, to be the Father of a holy being who shall be born into mortality."Now that we have a better understanding of what the condescension of God is, let's look at how Nephi answered this question. Now look at verse 22 to find out.
22 And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.
I would now like to share some examples of love and the Atonement. People who loved the Savior and allowed his love to take care of them.
The first person is a man I new on my mission, Necho. Necho lived in a small town and was known by everyone there. He had a strong reputation for drinking and abusing drugs. In this town of Benito Juarez, the gospel had made various attempts to grow, but had not been very successful. The missionaries had been there and opened a branch a couple of different times, but the missionaries would eventually be pulled and the branch shut down. They decided to try again. Necho's wife had been baptized at some point and was going to church on Sundays after Necho would leave to go play Soccer. One of his friends saw her and reported to Necho that she was leaving to go be with the Mormons while he was gone, so he forbade her from going to church again. A couple of weeks later the missionaries went to visit Necho's wife to see what had happened to her. She explained the situation and the asked her if they could meet Necho. She told them that it was a bad idea and that he would run them out of town. They said that they were not worried about it. Then her parents told them that he would run them out of town, but this did not stop the missionaries. The day came when they met Necho. Necho admitted that he was ready to run them out of town, but for some reason he sat there and listened to what they had to say. Eventually they would teach him about the Word of Wisdom. He said that from that point he dropped all of the drugs and vices he had in his life. The only thing that happened from that point was he found himself suffering from such withdrawals that he stole a canister of coffee, which he never used and eventually went back to the store to reconcile.
Once he allowed the Atonement take affect into his life, and felt the love of the Savior he fully dedicated his life to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everywhere we went in the town people were aware of his transformation to sobriety, he was always introducing us to people that he had been talking to about the gospel, at any moment either he or his wife would drop what they were doing and go with the missionaries to teach. As a family they felt the love of the Atonement in their lives.
The next example I want to share comes from the life of president Spencer W. Kimball. The story was told by the former presiding bishop, Vaugh J. Featherstone. To summarize the story, he talked about a couple that came in from CA to talk with Bro. Featherstone. He had just taught that every major transgression must be confessed in conference, the couple was there to confess. 43 Years prior they had committed fornication once before getting married. The bishop and stake president knew them, so they signed their recommends without asking any questions. They were sealed in the temple, and on their honeymoon they determined to give every particle of their lives to serve and repent. They did all they were asked and then some, they didn’t even go to the temple for a year as part of their repentance. They both served in leadership callings, they felt that they had repented, but that they still needed to confess. Usually they are referred to the bishop, but this time an exception was made by Bishop Fetaherstone. He called Pres. Kimball and explained the situation and asked if he could just close this for the couple through his common judgeship. At that point Pres. Kimball asked to see them. You can imagine what was going through everyone's mind at that point. They went to his office and he visited with them sweetly and then asked the man “have you suffered equal to the transgression?”
The man responded “We think we have suffered many times more.”“Have you prayed for forgiveness?”
“We haven’t offered a prayer in 43 where we haven’t asked for forgiveness”
“Can I have a prayer with you?”
They agreed to Pres. Kimball's request. The main thing Bishop Featherstone remembered about the prayer was that it started with, “Heavenly Father, we love thee.”
Now I must add something else that Bishop Featherstone taught about the prophet. He reminded the students that the prophet is the only person on the earth who can forgive sins on behalf of the Lord – all others judges in Israel forgive for the church.
At that point he went to the husband, shook his hand and told him to forgive himself and his wife and never think about it again, “You are forgiven.” He then went to the wife and told her the same thing.
These experiences came from love.
In 1 Cor. 6:20 it states,
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.Because we were bought with a price through the Atonement we are able to feel the Saviors love in our lives. Not only does his love provide us with security and forgiveness when we make a mistake, but his love also prepares us for the future. Melissa told you about the accident and that we lost our little girl, now I will talk about how the Saviors love prepared me for what was about to happen. Understand that you can never be fully prepared for an experience of this magnitude, but everything that could have been done to prepare me was.
About a year before the accident I felt a very strong prompting that I needed to spend more time in the Temple. I talked to Melissa about it and decided to talk to the bishop about volunteering in the temple. We filled out some paperwork, and I was soon called to serve as an ordinance worker. I was thrilled to serve in the temple. I was able to go to the temple almost every week for just under a year. Then my work situation changed I had to ask to be released. While there, I discovered multiple podcasts that were released by the church, many of them through BYU. These podcasts allowed me to learn concepts and principles of the gospel and to learn and grow in the way that I needed to in order to be there for my family after the accident.
While serving in the temple, I was able to feel the presence of others beyond the veil as I served them. This has been important to me as I have continued to go to the temple to not only feel close to those who are receiving the ordinances of the gospel, but to feel closer to my little girl and the work she is doing as well.
God's love prepares us for the trials we will face, as long as we are listening to what we need to do in order to prepare for those challenges.
Before closing, I wanted to share a new tradition in my family that we decided to start this year. Every year in our family, at Christmas time, we read Luke 2 and watch Mr. Kruger's Christmas. I realized the other day that we don't read anything special for Easter. The problem is that the story of the death and resurrection of the Savior is told differently in each gospel and they all have important elements. How could I combine them so that they could be included into one story. Then I found a talk by President James E. Faust, it was given at BYU as a devotional right after he was called as an Apostle. I thought about reading it here to all of you, but there is not enough time. Instead I would just encourage all of you to find this talk, or share a similar tradition with your family every year.
I am so grateful for the Atonement and the love of the Savior. I know that through his love we can grow and be forgiven. Through his love we can also be prepared for trials that are coming our way. He loves us and wants us to be forgiven and return with him.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
1 comment:
Lawrence, thank you for sharing your talk. I learned more about the Atonement and about you. We feel very blessed to have you as a grandson. Thank you for Pres. Faust's talk and all the others you quoted from.
Post a Comment