There are so many things I love about the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of these is how so many principles overlap, complement and enhance each other; and how things that we might have heard many times before can suddenly take on new meanings, or sometimes just become so much more important than they once were.
I was struck a few months ago by something someone said. I don’t remember where I came across it – it might have been a blog post, or a Youtube video, or a General Conference talk or something else entirely – so I apologise of the lack of attribution. I don’t even remember the actual quote, but I remember the reference and the impact.
Many years ago in another part of the world, I was serving in a calling that required me to be in contact with many church leaders around the Stake. On a particular Sunday evening, I needed to make contact with several individuals and picked up the phone (this was before the days of mobile phones, text messaging and the internet). I specifically recall ringing one house, where the Bishop I spoke to was very polite on the phone. In the background, however, I heard a member of his household say, ‘What’s he doing ringing you now? Doesn’t he know the World Cup final is on?’
This continues the series discussing the LDS ordinance of the sacrament. To see the previous posts in the series, see here
As we continue our pondering of the Sacrament prayer wording, it’s important to pause and consider in some detail the Name of Christ. In the prayers, the Priest asks, ‘God the Eternal Father … in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ…’ to bless and sanctify the sacramental emblems. It’s easy to overlook this, because in the LDS Church we close every prayer, every testimony, every talk/sermon, every lesson, ‘in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen’. It’s become a custom, one could almost say a habit.
That’s unfortunate, because there is great power in the Lord’s Name, and we miss out on that when we’re not deliberate and reverent. Indeed, we may well be breaking the third of the great commandments given at Sinai, ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain…’ (Exodus 20:7). It’s this commandment I’d like to focus on in this post.
Those who are of the LDS faith will know what I mean when I say that yesterday was our Fast and Testimony meeting at church. For those who are not of our faith, Testimony meeting takes place once a month and is an opportunity for any member of the congregation to go to the pulpit and declare their faith – their testimony – about Jesus Christ.
I don’t usually take that opportunity to stand and speak, but yesterday I felt that I should do in order to speak about an experience I hadn’t previously shared with anyone. I’m going to repeat that here, with perhaps one or two added details I had left out yesterday.
Earlier this year I had the amazing opportunity to go ‘home’ to Australia and spend a little over two weeks with my brother and his family. I hadn’t seen Tony in over 40 years and I’d never met any of this children, so it was really special to be able to do so. Tony and I are practically polar opposites in almost every way, but spending that time with him and his family allowed me to really get to know him and it was so very hard saying goodbye when it was time to leave. He and his family are now well and truly embedded in my heart and I hope and pray I have another opportunity to visit some time.
Towards the end of my stay in Australia, I had a short dream which had a significant impact on me then, and continues to do so now.
In my dream, I found myself standing above the earth and looking down upon it. God had completed the earth’s creation, but man wasn’t yet upon it.
As I looked at the earth, I found that I could truly comprehend it in a way I had never been able to previously. The word ‘comprehend’ isn’t the right word, but I’m not sure there’s a better one. I saw the mountains and hills; valleys, rivers, streams and oceans; I saw the animals finding joy in their creation; beautiful flowers, trees and much more. But I didn’t just ‘see’ them with my eyes. I somehow could see into their being and truly understand them. It was marvellous. It came to my understanding that the work of creating this beautiful sphere had been long and arduous – and that God had invested a huge amount of Himself into it. The sheer breadth and depth of creation was awe-inspiring.
At that point, I realised that the Lord was standing next to me and also looking down upon His creation. It was then that He spoke these words to me, ‘I created all of this for you.’
At that moment a wave of love washed over me, overwhelming my senses to the extent that I began to cry. I then woke up. That same sense of love endured with me for some time, and even now I feel a portion of it when I think back on the experience.
Those who know me know that I have suffered from depression for much of my life, and since that experience there have still been ups and downs. But since the visit to my brother I have never forgotten that feeling.
For most of my life, I’ve had quite high self-confidence, while simultaneously having very low self-esteem. I’ve always know that God loves His children, but usually struggled to feel that for myself – perhaps you know how that feels. To a great degree, that changed with this dream.
Of course, God’s greatest act of love for us was in the sending of His Only Begotten in the flesh, Jesus Christ, to atone for our sins, pains, and suffering of every kind, and to overcome death. But next time you see a rainbow; or feel the beauty in a clear, crisp day; or marvel at the autumnal colours decorating the trees in many parts of the world at this time of the year, please remember: He created that for you.
P.S. I’ve been absent on this blog for several years as I’ve struggled with illness of one form or another, not to mention ‘life’ in general. God willing, I hope to be a little more active again now.
I don’t like to talk about what it’s like to “have a chronic illness”, because everyone’s illness affects them in different ways. I only know what it’s like for me. My diagnoses are ME/CFS and FND. Both of these are somewhat ephemeral in that there is no solid diagnostic test that confirms that you have the condition – it’s more a case of ruling out what you don’t have and then fitting your symptoms into what’s left. My suspicion is that there are actually a number of things that cause the condition and as our medicine gradually becomes more advanced, we’ll slowly start to identify these causes.
When I was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago, my wife and I were actually quite excited that I finally had a firm diagnosis of something. There was treatment, things we could try, tests we could perform. In contrast, when I was diagnosed with FND, the consultant neurologist basically said, “You might become bed-ridden for the rest of your life, you might get better, who knows. No idea what might help. Goodbye.”
When I was in my teens, my Dad was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. I was born in Perth, Western Australia where we lived for many years – a city that has the unfortunate tag of “skin cancer capital of the world”. Melanoma has a high mortality rate if not caught early, but when caught early can usually be easily removed. Fortunately, Dad’s melanoma was caught early, his cancer was completely excised and he’s been fine since.
A few years ago, I noticed a mole I’d had on my arm since my youth had started to grow. My wife had long been telling me to get it checked, but my response was always the same, “I’ve had this mole for years. There’s nothing wrong with it.” But when the mole began to rise, peel off, and rise again, I became concerned and made an appointment with the GP. Continue reading →
Twice a year, members of the church from the wider area where we live gather together for what we call ‘Stake Conference’. The conference is held over Saturday and Sunday, and I was asked to speak at the session held last night. I share it here in the hopes that it provides some hope and understanding for others.
***
Many years ago, I served my mission amongst the beautiful people of Chile. For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking about a particular experience I had while I was there.
I was in a small town called Coihueco. And my companion and I were teaching a single mother and her daughter who I’ll call Juana, who was about 12 years old. They lived on the outskirts of the town in a small makeshift house of dirt floors. Continue reading →
This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for a good long while, probably about 2 years. Originally, I was going to write it as we approached a General Conference of the Church – and I might still do that sometime – but for this article (and the next couple) I’m going to focus on the sacrament.
For those who have been following, this is the 11th article in my series on the sacrament of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was going to discuss taking the name of Christ a bit later in the series, but the phrase is referenced in both of the sacrament prayers – twice in the first – and it’s worth thinking about throughout the ordinance.
Let’s look at the prayers again, this time focusing on where the name of Christ is referenced. Continue reading →
This post continues my series on the Sacrament. And don’t worry, I’ll get to it. But there’s something important (and surprisingly relevant) I need to discuss first.
As you might know, I’m LDS. If you’re not LDS – or perhaps don’t even know what that means – you might know members of our church as Mormons.
When the church was newly organised back in the early to mid 19thcentury, the term Mormon was used first by enemies of the church and was considered derogatory. But over the years, the word became more widespread. Continue reading →
The Sacrament is such a beautiful ordinance. In previous posts, I’ve already talked about how each element of it reminds us of Christ. In so many ways it draws us to Him. The bread, broken that we might eat; the water/wine, poured that we might drink. These things remind us of His body willingly broken, and His blood freely spilt, that we might be made whole.
Likewise the table, the cloth, the priests, and more, all remind us of Him and the grace He so fully offers us. The prayers themselves are no different, and offer us a far greater opportunity to ponder His wondrous sacrifice than perhaps we realise.
In the next couple of posts, I’ll be sharing my thoughts and feelings on that short phrase appearing early in both prayers, “to bless and sanctify”. Continue reading →
When I was in my teens, my Dad was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. I was born in Perth, Western Australia where we lived for many years – a city that has the unfortunate tag of “skin cancer capital of the world”. Melanoma has a high mortality rate if not caught early, but when caught early can usually be easily removed. Fortunately, Dad’s melanoma was caught early, his cancer was completely excised and he’s been fine since.
Many years ago, I served my mission amongst the beautiful people of Chile. For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking about a particular experience I had while I was there.
This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for a good long while, probably about 2 years. Originally, I was going to write it as we approached a General Conference of the Church – and I might still do that sometime – but for this article (and the next couple) I’m going to focus on the sacrament.
This post continues my 
The Sacrament is such a beautiful ordinance. 
All Things Witness 