January Week 5 - Becoming a Disciple of Christ

The Yoke of Christ

- read Matthew 11:28-30
- what is a yoke?
- designed to carry burdens
- weight distributed between two animals
- more work done; efficiency
- can be custom fitted
- "you don't have to face life's burdens alone"

who would you rather be yoked with?  a big strong, battle-tested person or someone who lacks experience and who may flee at the thought of difficulties?

read and discuss the following:

D&C 76:107 - trod the wine press along, faced fierceness of God
Alma 7:11-12 - faced and overcame pain, afflictions and temptations of every kind

All that Jesus asks is that we learn of him; take upon us His name; keep his commandments.

This is ultimately the process we must pursue to become "perfected in him" (Moroni 10:32) and become his disciple.

Becoming a Disciple of Christ = Expanding our Capacity
- what is the definition of capacity?
(1) 'the maximum amount that something can contain'
(2) 'the ability or power to do, experience, or understand something'
(3) 'a specified role or position'

When Christ laid down his law - his commandments - for us to follow and then asked us to follow him, he did so with a love and charity that seeks to truly make us better than what we currently are.

C.S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity, “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

every week we learn; but are we translating that into action?
the true path of discipleship is in the doing.

Neal Maxwell said, "One mistake we can make during this mortal experience is to value knowledge apart from the other qualities to be developed in submissive discipleship. Knowledge—discovery, its preservation, its perpetuation—is very important. Yet, being knowledgeable while leaving undeveloped the virtues of love, mercy, meekness, and patience is not enough for full discipleship. Mere intellectual assent to a truth deprives us of the relevant, personal experiences that come from applying what we profess to believe. There were probably orientation briefings in the premortal world about how this mortal life would unfold for us, but the real experience is another thing!

Thus, while knowledge is clearly very important, standing alone it cannot save us. I worry sometimes that we get so busy discussing the doctrines in various Church classes that talking about them almost becomes a substitute for applying them. One cannot improve upon the sobering words of King Benjamin, who said, “Now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them” (Mosiah 4:10). Such is still the test. Deeds, not words—and becoming, not describing—are dominant in true discipleship." (Becoming a Disciple Ensign June 1996)

Discipleship is a daily battle
... requiring us to pick up the cross daily, and carrying it all day, at all times in all places.  It is no easy task.

At all sides, we have temptations and the tugs and pulls of friends and family and school and fame and ease and rest and pleasure.

Often we see people praise Jesus on Sunday, but will not worship him with their actions.  These too, we must forgive and have no ill-will toward.

Discipleship requires daily introspection.  Have I done any good in the world today?  Have I helped others?  Have I raised the hands that hang low?  Have I encouraged others?  Have I been temperate?  Have I been courageous?  Have I been just in my dealings with others?  Have I been wise in my actions?

Discipleship requires mindfulness; awareness; openness to correction; humility, understanding, charity, work, pain.

Discipleship requires the development of all the virtues, ensuring we are not swayed to either side (see Virtue Continuum).  I like this perspective because it fits so well with the "straight and narrow" path.  As Maxwell states, "The ravines on both sides of that narrow path are deep and dangerous. Moreover, until put off, the shifting, heavy, unsettling burden of the natural man tilts us and sways us. It is dangerous."

Suggestions and Conclusions
- do you know the commandments of Christ?
- when you know them, do you follow them?
- do you have a list of virtues to follow?
Integrity, Discernment, Love, Respect, Humility, Diligence, Temperance, Courage
- do you set aside time each day to review your progress?
- do you welcome feedback from others?

use a journal to track your progress.  my daily journal consists of writing about something for which i'm grateful, describing how my day would be great; an affirmation to help me focus on a virtue.  and then at the end of the day, i review my attitude and recognize what things I did well and where I could have done better.  I don't "criticize" myself, rather I provide counsel and advice for improvement.

Gospel Topics and Essays
none

Quotes, Thoughts and Gems (QTG) Oct 1 to 7 2012

As I read and learn and do more to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ, I find snippets and quotes that spur me to action or help me in time of need.  As I find these gems, I'll consolidate them into one post and then publish the post at the end of the week.  I think this method will be better than calling out specific quotes from Maxwell or Allen or others.  I can simply encapsulate all these quotes under one banner.  Then in the label section, I can tab quotes from individuals.

We bind the adversary and his mortal minions only as we bind our appetites. - Maxwell; Ensign May 1975.

The act of becoming a man or woman of Christ is an act of will and sustained desire. - Maxwell; Ensign January 1992

Actually, everything depends—initially and finally—on our desires. These shape our thought patterns. Our desires thus precede our deeds and lie at the very cores of our souls, tilting us toward or away from God (see D&C 4:3). God can “educate our desires” (see Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed., Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1939, p. 297). Others seek to manipulate our desires. But it is we who form the desires, the “thoughts and intents of [our] hearts” (Mosiah 5:13). - Maxwell; Ensign November 1995

In reading much more James Allen material this week, I've concluded that he emphasizes over and over again this key concept: watch your thoughts as they will become your actions.

Consider this passage: The whole journey from the Kingdom of Strife to the Kingdom of Love resolves itself into a process which may be summed up in the following words: The regulation and purification of conduct. Such a process must, if assiduously pursued, necessarily lead to perfection. It will also be seen that as the man obtains the mastery over certain forces within himself, he arrives at a knowledge of all the laws which operate in the realm of those forces, and by watching the ceaseless working of cause and effect within himself, until he understands it, he then understands it in its universal adjustments in the body of humanity. (from All These Things Added)

This quote above reminded me of King Benjamin's address:  But this much I can tell you, that if ye do not watch yourselves, and your thoughts, and your words, and your deeds, and observe the commandments of God, and continue in the faith of what ye have heard concerning the coming of our Lord, even unto the end of your lives, ye must perish. And now, O man, remember, and perish not. (Mosiah 4:30)

While reading some articles on the Internet this week, I came across a picture (see picture to the left) - obviously it was staged - but it does a great job of showing the beginnings of a broken heart and a contrite spirit ... or at least it shows a person with the option of choosing to have a broken heart and contrite spirit.

When I saw this picture, I remembered another quote from All These Things Added.

This feeling of "helplessness" is the prelude to one of two conditions—the man will either give up in despair, and again sink himself in the selfishness of the world, or he will search and meditate until he finds another way out of the difficulty. And that way he will find. Looking deeper and ever deeper into the things of life; reflecting, brooding, examining, and analysing; grappling with every difficulty and problem with intensity of thought, and developing day by day a profounder love of Truth—by these means his heart will grow and his comprehension expand, and at last he will realize that the way to destroy selfishness is not to try to destroy one form of it in other people, but to destroy it utterly, root and branch, in himself.

Engaging, Capacity to Act and Feeling Love for Others

This selection comes from this talk.

6. We need always to make allowance in the kingdom for the fact that this is a divine church full of imperfect people! Indeed, “the net gathereth of every kind.” For instance, some members among us have an unfortunate and exclusionary condescension toward others, while other members have a quiet certitude that causes them to assert their testimonies humbly because the Spirit has witnessed to them; they witness to others to maintain their integrity; they tell others the truth of salvational things “as they were, as they are, and as they shall become.” These two kinds of members read the same scriptures, but one disengages, Jonah-like, almost with delight, while the other will not leave his post in “Nineveh” so long as there are any souls to be saved. Probably the differing response is rooted in the differing capacity to love. The presence of absolute truth or apocalyptic insights in one who lacks the capacity to love is likely to produce some behavioral anomalies. Love leads us into—not away from—Nineveh: into the fray, just as Jesus was involved with mankind, for as G. K. Chesterton observed, He carried his five wounds in the front of the fray.

Some want involvement without giving themselves. Some want the wonders of religion without the work—there is no way. Others want the thrills of theology without the hard doctrines—there is no way! When we are serious about change, it is “not enough to merely leave Egypt: one must also travel to the Promised Land!”

commentary: the above speaks of commitment and engaging others.  you either engage in service and the cause of helping others, or you don't.  the gospel is about action.  and what causes you to act?  keep on reading.

7. We must make place for the gospel and the Church more generously in our lives if we are to grow in our capacity to both feel and to act. Education, the media, and what we know from the scriptures have enlarged our circles of concern and feeling. But within each of our circles of concern, there is a much smaller circle of competency, and it needs to grow too.

C. S. Lewis observed, “The more often a man feels without acting, the less often he will be able to act, and in the long run, the less often he will be able to feel.” In countless ways the Church not only enlarges our circles of concern, but it also helps us to carry out the concerns we have. Significantly, Nephi, Paul, and Moroni—cultures and centuries apart—each observed that individuals and whole cultures can, by sin, reach a point where they are past feeling. Ironically, lasciviousness, which exploits sensuous feelings, results finally in a loss of a capacity to feel. In our own society the sad consequences of too much exulting in feeling—of sex divorced from love, and the emptiness of emotion without principle—will wash over us for generations. In the declining society of Moroni’s time, citizens were described as being without order, without mercy, without civilization, and past feeling after they had “lost their love, one towards another. …” (Moro. 9:5.)

commentary: love brings about wanting and desire.  love and desire should spur us to action.  but when we disassociate love and action, we begin to lose the capacity to feel.  when we don't feel, we don't care, when we don't care, we don't act and when we don't act evil triumphs.

8. We must be more quick to realize the enormous implications of the doctrine of immortality and how our knowledge of that reality will set us apart in this era. One can’t help but admire the cosmic heroism of those decent people who persist in goodness in spite of their agnosticism, but we still should see others differently because of this doctrine. Ours is no mere biological brotherhood with life as a brief encounter, but ours is a brotherhood that is fashioned in the realization that relationships will persist a million years from now, and more. Where we do not so relate to each other, we diminish the credibility of our commitment to this doctrine in the eyes of others. For a peculiar people, our friendships should be peculiarly rich.

commentary: to me, the above really hits home and answers the question - why the gospel?  if mankind is to become immortal, do we want immortal evil or immortal goodness running the universe?

In summary, we see the world, life, and death differently. This is not a random, mutant planet with people who will be enveloped in nothingness; it is a special place, a planet with a purpose, for, as Isaiah observed, the Lord created it to be inhabited. (See Isa. 45:18.)

We are all stewards, and we ought to approach this planet and its resources as carefully as Adam dressed the Garden. In seeking to establish dominion over the earth, it ought to be a righteous dominion. Still, this earth is not a place we need to be so reluctant to leave. As G. K. Chesterton wrote, Christian courage rests on a love of life that may need to take the form of a willingness to die; it is not the willingness to die that reflects a disdain or disaffection for life.

Without immortality there can be no real and lasting meaning to life. Jesus has not only immunized us against the lasting sting of the grave, but his teachings can also help us not to “look upon death with any degree of terror.” (Alma 27:28.) The same Jesus promised us, through one of his prophets, that if we could live according to his word, we would have, in this life, a knowledge of what is “just and true and render every man his due” (justice and discernment); we would live peaceably with others (peacefulness); we would rear our families without fighting and quarreling, teaching them to love one another (the capacity to love learned in happy homes); and we would care for the needy (a program for poverty). (See Mosiah 4.) In a sense, while others have the slogans, we have the solutions that, if applied, will carry us to “a state of happiness which hath no end.” (Morm. 7:7.)

"A Cup of Maxwell" Series

I can't remember when it was - maybe when I was a recently returned full-time missionary - but I had this desire to read and study all the talks by Neal A. Maxwell.  The way he articulates the gospel clicks with me can causes introspection.
And so I decided to start a study series call A Cup of Maxwell in which as I read all his talks, I will copy some of the most thought and action provoking passages.

Now, all his talks deserve to be read in their entirety, and therefore, I invite the reader to click on this link or this link.

Let me kick off this series from one of his first talks ... one that I read today.

Referring to the gosple, he closed this talk with: With such a great message, can we afford not to be articulate in our homes and wherever we are? Passivity and inarticulateness about this “marvelous work and a wonder” can diminish the faith of others, for as Austin Farrer observed, “Though argument does not create belief, the lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced, but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it nourishes a climate in which belief may flourish.”

This is the main reason to read his talks: he articulates the "why" of the gospel so well ... and in the above quote, he articulates why we need to be able to articulate the why so well.

Meeting Challenges

In Elder's Quorum today, the teacher used a quote from Neal A. Maxwell about foreordination.

This is what Elder Maxwell said, "When in situations of stress we wonder if there is any more in us to give, we can be comforted to know that God, who knows our capacity perfectly, placed us here to succeed. No one was foreordained to fail or to be wicked. When we have been weighed and found wanting, let us remember that we were measured before and we were found equal to our tasks; and, therefore, let us continue, but with a more determined discipleship. When we feel overwhelmed, let us recall the assurance that God will not overprogram us; he will not press upon us more than we can bear (D&C 50:40).

The doctrine of foreordination, therefore, is not a doctrine of repose; it is a doctrine for the second-milers; it can draw out of us the last full measure of devotion. It is a doctrine of perspiration, not aspiration. Moreover, it discourages aspiring, lest we covet, like two early disciples, that which has already been given to another (Matthew 20:20–23). Foreordination is a doctrine for the deep believer and will only bring scorn from the skeptic."

The parts I underlined really got me thinking about how each of use face and respond to challenges. According to this doctrine, we know we've been foreordained to the callings that are being extended to us today. We were foreordained to these callings according to how we exercised our agency in the pre-existence. Armed with the knowledge of these two things, we know we accomplished much before this life and we know we can accomplish much in this life. Consequently, we know we can meet and beat any challenges given to us in this life. And knowing that, at least for me, gives me great comfort and motivation.

Source: "Meeting the Challenges of Today" by NEAL A. MAXWELL