Helaman 4:25 Cleaving Unto the Lord

After being delivered and protected by the Lord’s hand the church struggles because of the wicked Nephites. Many Nephites are slain and they lose all the cities in the land southward because of their wickedness and abominations, even among those who belong to the church. Their wickedness resulted from the pride of their hearts, oppression to the poor, mocking that which is sacred, denying the spirit of prophecy and revelation, murdering, plundering, lying, stealing, committing adultery, and joining the Lamanites (v. 11-12).

Even in such an awful state the Lord offers to deliver his children through his strength.

Therefore the Lord did cease to preserve them by his miraculous matchless power… and except they should cleave unto the Lord their God they must unavoidably perish (v.25).  What does it mean to cleave unto the Lord? Why is cleaving powerful enough to avoid perishing and deliver a people from such abominations?

Behold according to your desires, yea, even according to your faith shall it be done unto you

Keep my commandments. Hold your peace. Appeal unto the spirit. Yea, cleave unto me with all your heart that [I] may” become who the Lord would have me become and do that which he would have me do (D&C 11:17-19).

“That I repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto [me]. And while His arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not [my] heart” (Jacob 6:5).

Even if I am living like the wicked Nephites, on the verge of destruction, the Lord is waiting with his arms of mercy extended and only requires that I repent and cleave unto him, while promising that I not perish. Cleaving is rooted in the desires of my heart. When I desire with real intentions to cleave unto God, He will receive all my available heart and soften hard places, or unavailable parts, so I can off up more of my heart. The components of softening and changing my heart are obedience to the commandments, holding my peace, and appealing unto the spirit. Seeing his mercy in my life is seeing how He cleaves unto me, a knowledge that will enable me to more fully cleave unto Him, a process that enables me to receive both the enabling and sanctifying power of the Atonement.

A Look at Faith and Reason

Truth needs to be sought by faith and reason to create a balanced perspective. Gödel’s incompleteness theorem explains some of the limitations of arithmetic and logic. He found that any axiomatizable system, such as science, is either incomplete or inconsistent. A complete set has a proof, or rational explanation, for every truth within the given set, and a consistent set is void of contradictions. Thus to avoid contradictions, there are inherently problems with no solutions and truths with no explanation, such truths go beyond the reach of science and call for faith. Similarly, faith is just as dependent on reason, the tool used to determine the difference between revelations from God or a schizophrenic person. The pursuit of truth is merely faith and reason correcting for the limitations of the other. The need for the balance can be seen in the fact that science only accepts something that cannot be disproved, never actually proving the idea, while faith initially accepts an idea as truth and then acts. On one hand there is the extreme skeptic, and on the other hand the extreme optimist. Together they create a powerful team for discovering both complete and incomplete truths. We are to learn by study, reason, and by faith.

Since complete truths are accepted as true because their rational justifications provides sufficient evidence to cast off doubt, our understanding is limited to a set of knowledge that is considerably smaller than the set of truths without explanations, or equations without answers. Seeking greater wisdom and knowledge must be done in faith with real intentions; as explained by Michael Wesch in his address to BYU students given January 22 2013. In describing the learning process, he taught about the importance of asking questions, an act that transforms the internet and technology from an extremely distracting medium to the most powerful knowledge machine known to man. Questioning requires uncertainty, a lack of evidence, and a desire to seek after this evidence. The desire can be strong enough to carry man onward past more than 2,000 failures to find tungsten and invent the light bulb. Thomas Edison probably took each failure as a learning opportunity, learning that each element could not produce light. This process is taught in Proverbs 1:5 “A wise man will hear and will increase learning.” Wisdom is hearing and then increasing in learning. The passion derived from one’s own curiosity will drive the learner to listen (or hear) very attentively. Similarly failures can be turned into successes as they increase a person's learning. Dr. Wesch taught that asking such powerful questions requires the inquirer to experience awe, to appreciate the simple things in life with a sense awe and wonderment. In the scriptures this awe is considered to be a deep reverence for God “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (proverbs 1:7). Seeking truth requires us to go beyond reason with faith unto acquiring a deep reverence and respect for God. Such reverence combined with reason provides the evidence for incomplete truths, just as logic provides evidence for complete truths. Seeking truth by reason alone may provide knowledge, but it does not instill divine truths in the learner and denies them the joy of awe, The joy of strengthening the child’s relationship with their Father in Heaven.

Alma 41:3-6 A Look at the Imperfections of Mortality

As I pondered these verses I realized that a restoration of happiness meant happiness in this life. The spirit will be restored to a perfect body. Mortal bodies give great reason to not be happy. The biological factors that make one prone to depression, addiction, or any other mental disorder will be corrected, which will make for quit the adjustment if I let my biology dictate my desires. Having a perfect healthy body with desires of depression will make for an interesting combination. Will the next life have a new array of somatoform disorders? However, if in this life, even with genetics stacked against happiness, I learn to choose to desire happiness and rejoice in the Lord’s promises, how much better off will I be? Learning to choose happiness with the odds stacked against me will act just like a runner’s drag suit. When the resurrection removes the challenges, I will be left with my strong desires to be happy and a body capable of fulfilling those desires.

Thoughts From a Funeral

This morning I listened as a dear friend said the prayer starting the funeral service for the babe she carried 39 weeks. Rather than resentment, fear, and anger, she expressed faith filled gratitude for the Lord's mercy and wisdom and humbly asked for strength from the atonement of Jesus Christ. I also saw the fulfillment of scripture as her husband spoke about this unbearable burden becoming bearable through the grace of God (Mosiah 24:15). It is only through the atonement of Jesus Christ that a death of a child becomes an edifying experience. I now better understand what is thought in John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." May we turn to our Father in Heaven in both life and death to find peace that is not of this world. (this was a facebook post that I wanted to keep)