This Christmas, Santa Claus was nice enough to give
me one of the presents I had asked for: a collection of audio talks by Truman G. Madsen titled The Presidents of the Church. I enjoyed listening to these recorded talks once on my mission, and wanted to go over them again. Madsen takes about an hour or so and recalls the lives of each prophet up to Gordon B. Hinckley. He offers insights on each president that helps you become acquainted with their characters and attributes.
Anyway, there is particular excerpt on the life of Heber J. Grant that I thought was well worded by Truman G. Madsen. I enjoyed the clarity in which he described the importance of keeping the commandments, and offered an explanation as to why so many times we choose to disregard the most basic but important commandments o
nly because they do not seem to jibe with worldly traditions or because we are afraid of others opinions. He mentioned something B.H. Roberts had said about Heber J. Grant, that “What you expect [from him] is straight forward one-liners: Keep the commandments.” Truman G. Madsen continued by stating “That is the law and the prophets. That’s exactly what needed to be said and still needs to be said. He believed that intellectual reasons either for refusing to investigate or for leaving the church are after the fact, and the fact is behavior. One has to find rationale when his life is out of harmony with the truth. There is enough of the light that he is trying to suppress it and invents plausible reasons why he doesn’t have to obey. But the truth is that we all know that our conscience does voice protest at our lives and our sins, and also kisses us as it were when we honor the core of our hearts which is truth.”
I am glad this was stated the way it was because it plainly described the course we naturally take when we REALLY don’t want to follow a commandment. I believe the major reason why this happens in our lives at one point or another is because of the lack of gospel knowledge AND the lack of desire to obtain gospel knowledge, because if we would search out the proper way of keeping with doctrine and commandments, we would stay on the correct course.
One of my resolutions this year is to gain a deeper understanding of the Gospel and the commandments so that I can not only continue on the right course, and also understand WHY I am on the right course.
This CD collection is really insightful and I highly recommend it, if you would like to borrow mine, just let me know!
8 comments:
I will definitely check that one out. I am currently listening to the 2nd lecture series he gave on the Prophet Joseph Smith. I love Madsen's audio cds. They are the bomb.com.
I have gained a new appreciation for Truman G. Madsen since being married to Kyle. He loves him. I find him intriguing to listen to because of the way he speaks. Its slow and thoughtful and very understandable. He makes everything so easy to understand.
I think sometimes people are scared to learn more because once we have the knowledge (of commandments and doctrine) we are RESPONSIBLE for it. If we break commandments knowingly we're in much more serious trouble.
I might have already said it, but congratulations on being engaged. She's beautiful.
John- I love that lecture series I have that one too! they are super informative.
Shelise- Thank you! Danielle is just plain great I hope you guys can meet her sometime. You are so right with what you said. That fear must cross everyone's mind now and again.
This is something I will have to look into. I love learning things about the prophets.
Also, totally agree with Shelise. People hold themselves back because of the responsibility. But I think the more knowledge we know the more we grow and learn spiritually. It will just make us better members.
Heather I totally agree with you. I remember having this feeling on my mission also, because I kept learning so much and thinking 'oh man I'm totally accountable for all of this I'm learning' but at the same time I think that it's made that way so we can learn more thoroughly the process of the atonement and repentance. I think progression and the atonement are intertwined, lucky for us!
Just this morning I read a great quote by President Benson that I think applies here (it was in Elder Lund's awesome book Hearing the Voice of the Lord, which I so HIGHLY recommend to any and everyone. Seriously. It is AWESOME).
Here is part of it:
"The Lord will increase our knowledge, wisdom, and capacity to obey when we obey His fundamental laws." - President Ezra Taft Benson
It is pretty simple when you think of it like that. Focus on obeying the fundamental laws while we learn and we'll be able to meet the challenges of additional responsibility/accountability. The Lord will qualify us by blessing us with greater light and understanding to be able to follow through (i.e. through greater knowledge, wisdom, and capacity to obey).
I really love that quote!
yeah that is an awesome quote, I'm going to put that book on my list to read.
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