Patience
READ James 1:2-4 (including JST)
What
is the relationship between affliction and perfection?
Affliction enables a trial of our faith.
Trying our faith results in our gaining
patience.
“Patience’s work” is to perfect us – make
us “entire” or complete – wanting nothing in the perfection of this mortal
experience.
Some godly traits can only be learned or
attained through suffering – to become a god, one must suffer through all these
things.
In other words, the goal of this mortal
experience is to gain more light – ultimately to be sealed up to eternal life –
which requires us to be in an environment where we can be proved in difficult
circumstances to see if we will have faith in Christ and be obedient to the Way
– to see if we will sacrifice our whole souls and suffer (and possibly die) for
a cause worth suffering for (the immortality and eternal life of man – others’
and our own).
The individual who suffered the most
affliction, rose above it and obtained the greatest glory and perfection…there
is a direct causal relationship between affliction and perfection.
Ask of God
READ James 1:5-7
What
is the message of James 1:5?
You may actually ask God and get an
answer.
Implied in the verse is that God cares
about each soul, is not a respecter of persons and will reveal Himself to
anyone.
It defines the entire message of the
Restoration through Joseph Smith – the principle of continuing revelation from
God to man.
Who
lacks wisdom?
All of us.
If wisdom means understanding how truth
(things as they really are, were and will be) applies to me, then all of us
lack it unless we are filled with the Spirit and commune with God constantly.
Who
do we need to have faith in when we pray: God to answer us, or our worthiness
to approach Him and get an answer?
God to answer us.
And He will - He will give to all men
liberally.
He doesn’t care about our worthiness or
our calling in the Church – it’s about our faith in Him. None of us are “worthy” to approach Him based
on our own merits, so His extending grace to one messed up person is no
different than His extending it to another only slightly less messed up person;
if not being precisely like Christ (the prototype of the saved man) is the
requirement (and it is – see LoF 7:9) then all of us are in need of vast
quantities of mercy; and if God is no respecter of persons and has extended
that mercy to one fool of a mortal, then He will also extend it to you, if you
will just believe it.
But if we do not have faith, we constrain
His ability to answer us.
What
is the ultimate implication of James 1:5?
God wants a relationship with you.
God wants to tell you everything.
God wants you to rend the veil of your
unbelief so that you can know Him in the flesh and He can take up His
habitation again with you, as it was in heaven – which is eternal life, to know
God and Christ as we are known by them.
STORY: Read the story of the dwarves who
will not be “taken in” when thrown through the stable door into what they think
is a dark room when in fact they are in Aslan’s Country (from C.S. Lewis’ The
Last Battle, Ch. 13)
“Aslan,” said Lucy through her tears,
“could you, will you, do something for these poor Dwarves?” “Dearest,” said Aslan, “I will show you both
what I can and what I cannot do.” He
came close to the Dwarves and gave a low growl: low but it set all the air
shaking. But the Dwarves (who are still
imagining that they are in a pitch black stable) said to one another, “Hear
that? That’s the gang at the other end
of the stable. Trying to frighten
us. They do it with a machine of some
kind. Don’t take any notice. They won’t take us in again!”…” You see,”
said Aslan, “They will not let us help them.
They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet
they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be
taken out.”
Why might people not believe when God
Himself is reaching out to them to save them?
They are afraid of being “taken in”
because they’ve been burned before by charlatans pretending to be on God’s
errand; implied in this is that they don’t yet know God’s voice sufficient to
be able to discern that it is Him.
They can’t hear God because of all of the
“noise” that either they have in their own heads or the world is throwing at
them.
They actually like sitting in the dark
“stable” in the company of likeminded people; they retain control of their
lives (albeit they are sad, dark lives).
What does it mean that their prison is
only in their own minds?
The reality is that these dwarves are not
sitting in a dark stable but are actually in “Aslan’s Country” but they lack
the ability to see it because they won’t believe it; they have a set of
constraints about the “real world” and will not believe anything that
contradicts them.
Meditation teaches us that our minds or
brains IS the “veil” that separates us from God and higher states of
consciousness – that we must transcend above it to truly connect to God and
obtain revelation and nirvana (spiritual rebirth); that the prison we sit in IS
our mind and our physical senses – it is what prevents us from seeing what is
actually all around us – the reality of the spiritual realm.
READ James 1:17
Why
can we have faith in Him to answer our prayers?
He loves us – He gives good gifts, which
we can see all around us – even in the physical world.
He is the same yesterday, today and
forever – otherwise He would cease to be God (to be a saved being is to be
precisely what He is and nothing else – see LoF 7:15).
So, this means we can have faith that He
won’t change the plan on us – and that He will be around forever to ensure that
all His promises will come to pass, as He has all power to make them so.
Back to James 1:5-7…
What
does it mean to give to ALL men LIBERALLY?
He is no respecter of persons – He will
answer ALL people – regardless of their standing before Him.
It is about our faith in Him.
It is about our desire to communicate
with Him – are we “crying” unto Him for answers?
What
does it imply that God will not upbraid or scold us for asking Him questions?
God will not send you away discouraged,
telling you “don’t inquire of me, ask someone else” – some church leader or
enlightened mortal.
He will not tell you there are lines you
must not cross or things about which you must not inquire.
We are the ones who withdraw ourselves
from God, not the other way around – and that happens when we come into His
presence unprepared – but if we are truly repentant, He will forgive us and
make us comfortable with Him.
But some things ARE more important than
other things and God has an agenda for each of us – revelations for us that
will save us, if we will ask Him.
READ D&C 8:10-11
Oliver
Cowdery was on his own agenda but what did the Lord want him to ask about?
To ask to know the mysteries of God.
To ask how to walk back into God’s
presence and know Him – which is eternal life (see John 17:3).
Will
He answer our agenda questions though?
Yes.
But He’d rather we ask Him His questions.
But He is patient and will take us on our
terms, where we are, concerned with the things that bother us at the time.
And He will use those occasions – because
when He finally gets our attention, He has a lot to tell us (see Ether 3).
Why
must we ask God if He already knows our hearts and what we lack?
It is about our agency – He will not
violate it.
God will not impose upon us what we will
not willingly receive.
He stands at the door and knocks but we
must open the door – which we do by asking for revelation from Him.
READ JSH 1:10-13
What
pattern can we see in Joseph Smith’s experience that enabled him to receive an
answer to his prayer?
Desiring to know (“what is to be
done? If any of them be right, which is
it and how shall I know it?”).
Believing the Lord can make them known
unto you (“came to the determination to ask of God, concluding that if He gave
wisdom…and would give liberally and not upbraid, I might venture”).
Pondering or thinking deeply and
prayerfully - contemplating (“while I was laboring”, “reflected on it again and
again”).
See also 1 Nephi 11:1-3 and 3 Nephi 17:3.
What
is more important to your salvation, the answers and insights about God that
Joseph Smith received in the First Vision or the example Joseph Smith set to be
followed?
His example is the most important thing
to your salvation.
What he said he saw, heard or learned can
be debated, his credibility challenged, his competency argued, even his sanity
questioned.
If God spoke to Joseph Smith, then all
Joseph really stands for is the proposition that God will speak to anyone who
lacks wisdom and asks.
And we can follow Joseph’s example and
have the same experience, if we will trust James’ advice.
We can attain the level of proof in the
existence, attributes and plan of God.
Both James and Joseph assure us that God
speaks. From that bit of information WE
all go on trial. Do we ask? Do we trust God to answer? Do we seek for light and truth? Are we willing to accept the challenge and
seek God for ourselves? This is really a
test of the deepest desires of our hearts and our core faith in God’s nature
and abilities.
Pure Religion
READ James 1:27 (including JST)
What
is “pure religion”?
It is to live as Christ lived.
To have a fullness of charity.
To act on that fullness or spirit in
service, particularly to those who need it the most.
And to keep oneself unspotted from the
world.
How
does one keep themselves “unspotted from the world”?
Either they are tempted but pay no heed
to it and do not sin – to live as Christ lived.
Or they make and keep the covenant with
Christ such that He declares them clean from the “blood of this wicked
generation” (see 1 John 5:18 and D&C 88:75); so it’s more about keeping
themselves “in” covenant with Christ.
Faith and Works
READ James 1:22 and 2:14-20, 24, 26
What
does it mean to be a “doer” of the Word?
It means to do the works of Christ, who
is the Word made flesh.
It means to put what you hear into action
in your life.
How
is James defining faith?
Belief alone.
How
does Paul define faith?
Belief plus works – (He is using Joseph
Smith’s definition that faith is the principle of action in all intelligent
beings – see LoF 1:9-10; see also Romans 3:27, Romans 9:32, Galatians 2:16,
Galatians 3:2-5, Hebrews 6:1).
For Paul when he talks about “dead
works”, he is referring to the works of the Law – keeping terrestrial
commandments and outward performances and rites; so doing works alone means
attempting to be saved by living the Law of Moses without exercising faith in
Christ (which includes works or actions, but they “flow” from a place of faith,
rather than being a vain attempt to circumvent offering my whole soul to Christ
and trying to save oneself).
What
does it benefit us to believe in Christ but not seek to do His works; will our
belief save us?
No – we would be hypocrites.
Belief without action is a very weak
belief (and it is certainly not faith).
If I think the probability that something is going to happen is very
low, I will not act on it unless I have no other choice, or it is a super easy
task and I do it logically to hedge my bets.
How
do we show where our faith is by our works?
By what we do, say, think and feel – by
who we emulate and serve – by who we love.
What
works does Christ want to see, to show our belief in Him?
Covenanting with Christ and offering Him
our whole souls.
Relieving the suffering of others.
Sacrificing what we have for them, with
charity.
Doing His work (be about my “spiritual
father’s” business) – feeding His sheep in whatever ways He directs
(temporally, spiritually, etc.).
Can
we be a Zion people – be “one” – because we believe in the theory or doctrine
of equality, sharing with each other, and ensuring none among us are in
need/poor, or must we act?
We must act.
And we can’t wait for the Church - it’s
been over 180 years since the call to establish Zion and the institutional
Church is no closer to living it than it was in 1832.
We must act personally, as directed by
God.
Zion will be established one person, one
family, one group at a time, as we each conform to the requirements needed to
stand in His presence and love each other as we love Him.
