D&C 29:7 Godly Sorrow by Bishop Vaughn J Featherstone

GODLY SORROW By Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone

Shortly after I had been called to the Presiding Bishopric, an Arizona stake president told me he had a young missionary candidate who needed to be interviewed for worthiness.

As I invited the young man into my office, I said to him: "Apparently there has been a major transgression in your life.  Would you mind being very frank and open and telling me what that transgression was?"

With head held high and in a haughty manner he responded, "There isn't anything I haven't done."

I responded: "Well then, let's be more specific.  Have you been involved in fornication?"

Very sarcastically, he said, "I told you I've done everything."

I said, "I would to God your transgression was not so serious."

"Well, it is," he replied.

"How about drugs?"

"I told you I've done everything."

Then I said, "What makes you think you're going on a mission?"

"Because I have repented," he replied. "I haven't done any of these things for a year.  I know I'm going on a mission because my patriarchal blessing says I'm going on a mission.  I've been ordained an elder, I've lived the way I should this past year, and I know that I'm going on a mission."

I looked at the young man sitting across the desk: twenty-one years old, laughing, sarcastic, haughty, with an attitude far removed from sincere repentance.  And I said to him: "My dear young friend, I'm sorry to tell you this, but you are not going on a mission.  Do you suppose we could send you out with your braggadocio attitude about this past life of yours, boasting of your escapades?  Do you think we could send you out with the fine, clean young men who have never violated the moral code, who have kept their lives clean and pure and worthy so that they might go on missions?"

"What you have committed is a series of monumental transgressions," I continued.  "You haven't repented; you've just stopped doing something.  Someday, after you have been to Gethsemane and back, you'll understand what true repentance is."

At this the young man started to cry.  He cried for about five minutes, and during that time I didn't say a word. . . I just sat and waited as this young man cried.

Finally, he looked up and said, "I guess I haven't cried like that since I was five years old."

I told him: "If you had cried like that the first time you were tempted to violate the moral code, you may well have been going on a mission today.  Now, I'm sorry.  I hate to be the one to keep you from realizing your goal.  I know it will be hard to go back to your friends and tell them you are not going on a mission."

"After you've been to Gethsemane," I continued, "you'll understand what I mean when I say that every person who commits a major transgression must go to Gethsemane and back before he is forgiven."

The young man left the office, and I'm sure he wasn't very pleased; I had stood in his way and kept him from going on a mission.

About six months later, I was down in Arizona speaking at the institute at Tempe.  After my talk many of the institute members came down the aisles to shake hands.  As I looked up I saw this young man--the nonrepentant transgressor--coming down the aisle toward me.

I reached down to shake hands with him, and as he looked up to me I could see that something wonderful had taken place in his life.  Tears streamed down his cheeks.  An almost holy glow came from his countenance.  I said to him, "You've been there, haven't you?"

And through tears he said, "Yes, Bishop Featherstone, I've been to Gethsemane and back."

"I know," I said. "It shows in your face.  I believe now that the Lord has forgiven you."

He responded: "I'm more grateful to you than you'll ever know for not letting me go on a mission.  It would have been a great disservice to me.  Thanks for helping me" (A Generation of Excellence [Salt Lake City: Book craft, 1975], pp. 156-159).

D&C 27:15 How to put on the whole armor of God

“I like to think of this spiritual armor not as a solid piece of metal molded to fit the body but more like chain mail. Chain mail consists of dozens of tiny pieces of steel fastened together to allow the user greater flexibility without losing protection. I say that because it has been my experience that there is not one great and grand thing we can do to arm ourselves spiritually. True spiritual power lies in numerous smaller acts woven together in a fabric of spiritual fortification that protects and shields from all evil” (M. Russell Ballard, “Be Strong in the Lord,” ‍ Ensign,‍ July 2004, 8).

D&C 27:16 "Having your loins girt about with truth"

The procreative powers that Heavenly Father has blessed us with are one of the most sacred ways we can use our bodies. They open the door to the spirit world and allow Father's children to come to the earth and obtain bodies so they can continue to progress. It is the very key to their progression. Satan is damned and cannot progress anymore because he has no body. The proper use of those powers is the very thing that that will make us gods ourselves. In D&C 132:19 in the very last lines it says, ". . . which glory shall be a fullness and a  continuation of seeds forever and ever." This is referring to posterity.  Verse 20 begins, "Then shall they be gods, because they have no end..." This is not referring to living forever because everyone who comes to earth will be resurrected and live forever. This again is referring to posterity. It goes on to say, ". . .therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue. . ." Again, a reference to having posterity. In verse 22 it says, "For strait is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the lives . . . " (Note that it is the continuation of lives, plural).  The only people who will have the opportunity to use the power to procreate after this life are those who go to the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom and are gods. All others will lose that ability. You can see why Satan, the father of lies (by the way, that and the father of contention are the only ways he can be a father), works so hard to get us to misuse those powers. He knows that if he does, and we don't repent, that we will lose our exaltation. That is why he spreads so many lies saying that there is nothing wrong with pornography, homosexuality, adultery, fornication,etc. all those things strike at the very core of our existence and the reason for our being on earth. Heavenly Father safeguards mostly closely how we come into this world and how we go out. Sexual sins and murder have the most severe penalties of all other sins. The thing that will protect us is the truth about how to use those powers.

The  Proclamation on the Family is very clear-

"In The Premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their eternal Father and accepted his plan by which his children could obtain a physical  body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life.

"The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God's commandment for his children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force.

"We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. . ."

Understanding those truths is like putting on the armor of God. It is "girding your loins with truth."

(Comments on "girding about your loins with truth" Nov 2013 By Don Edwards retired S&I)

D&C 20:69 Stand out and be different from the world.

President Nelson:

My fifth invitation is for you to stand out; be different from the world. You and I know that you are to be a light to the world. Therefore, the Lord needs you to look like, sound like, act like, and dress like a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Yes, you are living in the world, but you have very different standards from the world to help you avoid the stain of the world.

With the Holy Ghost as your companion, you can see right through the celebrity culture that has smitten our society. You can be smarter than previous generations have ever been. And if you are sometimes called “weird,” wear that distinction as a badge of honor and be happy that your light is shining brightly in this ever-darkening world!  (President Russell M. Nelson, Hope of Israel, June 3, 2018)

D&C 20:60 Women are equal and yet different from men.

“We are not accustomed to speaking of women having the authority of the priesthood in their Church callings, but what other authority can it be? When a woman—young or old—is set apart to preach the gospel as a full-time missionary, she is given priesthood authority to perform a priesthood function. The same is true when a woman is set apart to function as an officer or teacher in a Church organization under the direction of one who holds the keys of the priesthood. Whoever functions in an office or calling received from one who holds priesthood keys exercises priesthood authority in performing her or his assigned duties.”  – Dallin H. Oaks (“The Keys and Authority of the Priesthood,” April 2014)

“Our Church doctrine places women equal to and yet different from men. God does not regard either gender as better or more important than the other. …When men and women go to the temple, they are both endowed with the same power, which is priesthood power. … Access to the power and the blessings of the priesthood is available to all of God’s children.” – M. Russell Ballard

D&C 121:34-39 The Value of Personal Worthiness

Elder Holland. The Value of Personal Worthiness.

Many years ago now, long before I was called as a General Authority, I participated as a speaker in a young adult conference. The conference concluded with a testimony meeting in which a handsome, young returned missionary stood up to bear his testimony. He looked good, clean, and confident—just like a returned missionary should look.

As he began to speak, tears came to his eyes. He said he was grateful to stand in the midst of such a terrific group of young Latter-day Saints and to feel good about the life he was trying to lead. But that feeling had only been possible, he said, because of an experience he had had a few years earlier, an experience that had shaped his life forever.

He then told of coming home from a date shortly after he had been ordained an elder at age 18. Something had happened on this date of which he was not proud. He did not go into any details, nor should he have done so in a public setting. To this day I do not know the nature of the incident, but it was significant enough to him to have affected his spirit and his self-esteem.

As he sat in his car for a while in the driveway of his own home, thinking things through and feeling genuine sorrow for whatever had happened, his nonmember mother came running frantically from the house straight to his car. In an instant she conveyed that this boy’s younger brother—I do not know what the age of the younger boy was—had just fallen in the home, had hit his head sharply and was having some kind of seizure or convulsion. The nonmember father had immediately called 911, but it would take some time at best for help to come.

“Come and do something,” she cried. “Isn’t there something you do in your Church at times like this? You have their priesthood. Come and do something.”

His mother didn’t know a lot about the Church at that point, but she knew something of priesthood blessings. Nevertheless, on this night when someone he loved dearly needed his faith and his strength, this young man could not respond. Given the feelings he had just been wrestling with, and the compromise he felt he had just made—whatever that was—he could not bring himself to go before the Lord and ask for the blessing that was needed.

He bolted from the car and ran down the street several hundred yards to the home of a worthy older man who had befriended him in the ward ever since the boy’s conversion two or three years earlier. An explanation was given, the older brother responded, and the two were back at the house still well before the paramedics arrived. The happy ending of this story as told in that testimony meeting was that this older man instantly gave a sweet, powerful priesthood blessing, leaving the injured child stable and resting by the time medical help arrived. A quick trip to the hospital and a thorough exam there revealed no permanent damage had been done. A very fearful moment for this family had passed.

Then the returned missionary of whom I speak said this: “No one who has not faced what I faced that night will ever know the shame I felt and the sorrow I bore for not feeling worthy to use my priesthood. It is an even more painful memory for me because it was my own little brother who needed me, and my beloved nonmember parents who were so fearful and who had a right to expect more of me. But as I stand before you today I can promise you this,” he said. “I am not perfect, but from that night onward I have never done anything that would keep me from going before the Lord with confidence and asking for His help when it is needed. Personal worthiness is a battle in this world in which we live,” he acknowledged, “but it is a battle I am winning. I have felt the finger of condemnation pointing at me once in my life, and I don’t intend to feel it ever again if I can do anything about it. And, of course,” he concluded, “I can do everything about it.” (Elder Holland, “Let Virtue Garnish Thy Thoughts Unceasingly” From a youth fireside given on December 31, 2006.)

D&C 19:15 Suffer as Christ did or overcome as Christ did.

Elder Maxwell.  “We will end up either choosing Christ’s manner of living or His manner of suffering! It is either ‘suffer even as I’, or overcome even as He overcame.” (Overcome Even As I Also Overcame. Ensign May 1987, 72)

D&C 18:10 God want's you to know that you matter to Him

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

“God sees you not only as a mortal being on a small planet who lives for a brief season—He sees you as His child. He sees you as the being you are capable and designed to become. He wants you to know that you matter to Him” (“You Matter to Him,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2011, 22).