Callings

One beautiful and true thing about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that sets it apart from all other denominations and faiths in the world is that the entire membership can be given tasks to aid in the perpetuation of programs, activities, and christian practices. Not only this, but that these responsibilities can, and most often are, actually callings. This means that God inspires his faithful priesthood leaders at all levels of the Church to choose specific people for specific responsibilities within a unit of the Church.

I know that this happens. The prophets and apostles call certain people, like mission presidents and missionaries, and temple presidents. Members of the seventy call stake presidencies, Members of stake presidencies call bishoprics, who in turn call leaders in all organizations within a ward or branch, and these are only a fraction of examples of callings done in the church.

I recently was called as an executive secretary to my ward. That means I get to coordinate appointments between the members and the bishopric, and help the congregation run as it should, helping dozens of people to fulfill their respective responsibilities. Such coordination and unity, and volunteerism in the church is why many leaders have tied the word deseret, from a Jaredite (civilization chronicled in the Book of Mormon) word for beehive or honey bees. Everyone in the Church works together for mutual benefit and perfection through Christ.

Many callings are accompanied by ordinations, a bestowal or transferring of keys and powers from one priesthood holder to another. Joseph Smith was called by God, and was directed by revelation to call and ordain twelve apostles in these modern times. Subsequent reorganizations of the Twelve, and the Seventy (also mentioned in the Old and New Testaments) were always done by revelation, as recorded in D&C 102:1 - "This day a general council of twenty-four high priests assembled at the house of Joseph Smith, Jun., by revelation, and proceeded to organize the high council of the church of Christ, which was to consist of twelve high priests, and one or three presidents as the case might require." [emphasis added]

God's church is living. All others are like pictures in frames, that lack a dimension to be vivid and effective without living and constant revelation that permeates God's church from the top-down at every level and location.

Fountains of Knowledge

Let me tell you about a few fountains. Many are as real as the waterfalls in the wild or the public water works. I'm not talking about the fountain of youth. Youth is in your heart. There are fountains of truth. The original, the purest, is our Heavenly Father, whose messages have flowed down through his servants, primarily through the life of the Living Water, Jesus Christ.

Some noticeable fountains for the modern Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, besides ancient scriptures, are other churches. The original Saints of the recently restored Church had almost always come from other churches. These influences aided perpetually in creating a well-rounded, intellectual church, accepting of converts from every background. And up to modern times, Sunday services in the LDS church resemble those of most Christian churches, with prayers, hymns with accompaniment, Sunday School, and frequent social activities.

To this day, the Church promotes peace between faiths, and does not ever single out other denominations or their doctrines.

To emphasize how much he appreciated and valued members of other faiths, Joseph Smith said:

"The Saints can testify whether I am willing to lay down my life for my brethren. If it has been demonstrated that I have been willing to die for a 'Mormon', I am bold to declare before Heaven that I am just as ready to die in defending the rights of a Presbyterian, a Baptist, or a good man of any other denomination; for the same principle which would trample upon the rights of the Latter-day Saints would trample upon the rights of the Roman Catholics or of any other denomination who may be unpopular and too weak to defend themselves."

As the Lord's Prophet treasured and upheld their beliefs, so do I.

Eternal Love

For members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, temples are very important. So important in fact, that details about them might be more guarded by members than secrets of national security. This is not because God is merely afraid of bad people stealing words and ceremonies from the temple to use against the church, though that is certainly an unfortunate and despicable practice done by many. The main concern for God is something very simple: God's laws are eternal. He has a plan for His children involves more than just being baptized and following Jesus. His plan involves covenants, or mutual promises, so grand and special, that only the people of His church striving to live their purest can partake in them. These are done in the Lord's house... the temple.

The words of the Lord in these ceremonies involve everything that a person needs to know and understands so that they might truly live spiritually inspired and protected in this life and live in the highest heaven with God and become like Him after one's death and resurrection. They are sacred. In fact, one might say that they are sacred, but not secret. God wants all of His beloved children to come back, to repent, and enjoy the spiritual blessings He has all set up. The importance of these blessings, though, is such that only people worthy to enter into a piece of heaven on earth (God's house, the temple) may witness and receive such things. That said, our Father in Heaven is far from happy with those who attempt to publish or expose the most holy of holy things, such as the contents of the temple and the ceremonies only practiced therein.

Many things are open to the public. In fact, every time a temple of the Church is built, there is an open house directly following its completion, where the Church publicizes and invites all respectful visitors to walk through all the rooms of the beautiful temple and learn about their general functions. After a few weeks of this, the temple is dedicated by a prophet of the Lord and its doors are closed to all but those church members that are found worthy to enter by the Lord's appointed servants. Thereafter, the importance of the temple is such that most members are encouraged to live worthily and to attend and perform saving ordinances (ceremonies) for themselves and for their ancestors as often as their means permit.

Now there are more than 120 temples in the world, scattered over every continent. We are privileged where we live to actually live down the street from one. It is beautiful, sacred, and bears the same nameplate as the others built in this modern age, just as was displayed in the ancient temples: House of the Lord, Holiness to the Lord. Though many people in many industries in the public eye seek to vilify the Church or religion in general, my family, my friends, and I seek to venerate, uphold and keep sacred the eternal truths of the temple, the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, and our very own invaluable souls.

Mission History

We had a treat this week of witnessing part of an awesome symposium on the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on the topic of preserving church history. We got to learn what efforts have been made in South America in preservation, though the Church has been growing there in most areas for less than 50 years, and those that are saving old records of special events to the members are not trained historians, but regular members and local leaders concerned about preserving a legacy.

Preserving history has always been important to God, who has mandated the recording of his revelations since the beginning. As far as we know, one of the first records of anything being written was God himself taking Moses aside in the wilderness, and writing His commandments on stone tablets, and giving them to Moses for law, but as a great example as well. And isn't it obvious that it is important for Him since have the Bible today, even though no original documents prevail? The Bible is a long history, a chronology of social, political, and spiritual events.

Just as preserving history in ancient times was important as an eternal principle, it was important to the Restored Church when in April of 1830, as one of the Lord's first directives to the newly organized church, He revealed: "Behold, there shall be a record kept among you..." (D&C 21:1). Since then, He has called historians to keep the records of everything that is done officially in His church.

Even today we are called to keep a record, write a journal, remember what's up and what we are learning in this human experience. It shows that we appreciate our experience. I know that God lives and evidence of his love is all around. Principally it's in the records that have been kept that tell us how Christ gave his life out of love for us, and in the beautiful families that God has established to raise us righteously. So in the end, remember, history means everything that's happened, and someday today's textbooks will look like memos compared with the worlds of libraries that God's knowledge will reveal to his faithful children.