What do ye desire?

When the risen Lord visited the Nephites and organized his Church upon this continent he asked his disciples one by one saying, “What is it ye desire of me after that I am gone to the Father? And they all spake, save it were three saying, We desire that after we have lived unto the age of man, that our ministry… may have an end that we may speedily come unto thee to thy Kingdom. And he said unto them, Blessed are ye because ye desire this thing of me. Therefore after that ye are seventy and two years old ye shall come unto me in my kingdom and with me ye shall find rest. ” (3 Nephi 28:1-3)

Isn’t it interesting that we get to choose our plight. Of course, daily we make many choices that either draw us near to Christ or distance ourselves from him, but in the end we have kept our promise or we haven’t. The important thing is that if we have kept our promises we are able to come unto Christ in his kingdom and with him find rest.

Washed in the blood

“And no unclean thing can enter into his kingdom; therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their faithfulness unto the end.” (3 Nephi 27:19)

How humbling. We are all living in this pig pen and yet to stand before the king we have to be clean, spot, by spot, by spot, by spot. Woops, you missed a spot.

 In FHE we talked about judging others and maybe that is why this hits me this way this morning. It is so easy to see other’s sins and miss our own. The good news is that there is plenty of cleaning opportunities. As a child this scriptural quote of being “washed in the blood” seemed contradictory. In the old days women used to but bluing in their rinse water to whiten clothes. Being washed in the blood is not like that. It’s more like owning the spot.

“Oh, there is a big glob of mud on me! Lord, do you have a drop of blood that paid for this glob? I’ve been washing it with water and it’s just getting bigger and bigger. What am I going to do?”

“Yes, my child. Here it is. I am so glad to get rid of that one. ”      

The Lord is my light

“The Lord is my light then why should I fear? By day and night his presence is near. He is my salvation from sorrow and sin. This blessed assurance the Spirit doth bring. The Lord is my light. He is my joy and my song. By day and by night he leads me, he leads me along.” (Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Words by James Nicholson)

God shall wipe away all tears...

“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

“And then shall it come to pass that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their problems and from all care, and sorrow.” (Alma40:12)

I like the Book of Mormon version because it says, “The spirits of those who are righteous.”   Maybe it is implied in the Bible version, for certainly Christ taught repentance continually. The fact is we cannot have peace, and rest unless we let go of all those things that drag us down and keep us from Christ and from having the Holy Spirit with us.      

The blessing of the Lord hath rested upon us

It depends on where we are on the spiritual ladder how we understand and accept things. I’m reading this morning about Amulek. He says, “I never have known much of the ways of the Lord.” Yet he did see and know of the marvelous power of the Lord, but he went his way and hardened his heart. Nevertheless the Lord blessed him by sending Alma into his life. Not only did he bless Amulek but he blessed his entire household, his mother and father and all his kinsfolk, he says, “Yea, even all my kindred hath he blessed, and the blessing of the Lord hath rested upon us according to the words which he spake.” (Alma 10:11)   

That mighty change of heart

The book of Enos is short but powerful. Only 27 verses long it begins by giving thanks that his father had taught him the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It’s true we don’t all have the kind of earthly father, or mother for that manner, who will teach us the nurture and admonition of the Lord. However, the Lord will provide someone at some point in our lives to show us the light. Some of us were born into abusive, and difficult situations, but at some point there will be an opportunity for us to make that decision to come unto Christ.

“I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before the God before I received a remission of my sins.”  (Enos 1:2)

He’s not complaining here of what someone did to him and whose fault it is. He’s looking at what is good in his life and giving thanks. He also looks at what is not good… what he himself needs to repent of.  I am so grateful for a father who taught me that anger over what someone else did would canker my soul and destroy me. The focus is on what can “I” do? I cannot change anything that has already happened. All I can do is changed how I feel about it.

Enos went to hunt beast in the forest, and he remembers what his father said about eternal life and the joy of the saints. And he says, “My soul hungered, and I knelt down before my Maker and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul…All day long and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens, and there came a voice unto me saying, Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shall be blessed.”  (Enos 1:4-5)

This reminds me of the night in a little Baptist Church when I walked down the aisle and accepted the invitation to be Saved. I need to say here that there has been nothing in my life that has ever discredited or diminished that experience in that little Baptist Church. Every religious experience I have had since that time has only added to that original decision to be Saved.

The thing I did not realize at the time was that, being saved is not just a onetime thing.  There is that life changing moment such as Enos had when you realize the big picture and accept the atonement of our Lord Redeemer and Savior, but repentance is a daily thing. At least daily and most likely many more times than that we repent of the daily infractions.

From that momentous moment of accepting Christ our life can be changed and we have an opportunity to exercise outward tokens of our inward change with covenants and ordinances such as baptism and taking of the sacrament and so on. I say can because it is up to us what we do with the wonderful gift of repentance and salvation. Then when the time comes for us to depart this life, and if we have stayed on the path, we can say as Enos did, “For I know that in him I shall rest. And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me; Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansion of my Father. Amen.” ( Enos 1:27)