Posted on 04/21/2004 9:40:18 PM PDT by restornu
An honest man was being tailgated by a stressed-out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection with him.
As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up. He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a cell.
After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. The woman was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn and cussing a blue streak at the guy in front of you. I noticed the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you had stolen the car.”
The story may or may not be apocryphal. But it illustrates the challenge we all face: making sure that our behavior squares with our professed values.
Personal Responsibility
Personal responsibility is a virtue we all want in others, and most of us claim as a defining characteristic of ourselves.
That’s not a casual statement. I have hard data on it. Over the years I’ve interviewed and surveyed hundreds of thousands of people regarding the culture in their organizations. I always ask questions about performance – the performance of the respondent and the performance of others. Virtually without exception, individuals regard themselves as reliable and responsible. They believe they are held accountable to high standards. But when the same questions are applied to others, respondents usually have a different story. They believe that at least some of their colleagues provide less than robust performance.
For example, in one company where I recently did a culture diagnostic, 76% of employees agreed with the statement “I am always held accountable for performing at a high level.” Among the same employee force, however, only 9% agreed with the statement “At (name of company), people who don’t pull their fair share of the load are promptly held accountable.”
Aside from the logical incongruity of that finding, it underscores a common malady: a blind spot for one’s own foibles or mistakes.
Years ago we kept the following note on the family bulletin board:
That’s Not My Job
This is the story about four people. Their names were Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did. Somebody got upset about that, because it was Everybody’s job.
Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody didn’t do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.
The behavior described in that little ditty is painfully common. It reminds me of when I was growing up as a kid. We kept a water bottle in the refrigerator. The rules, of course, were that (1) you never drank out of the bottle, and (2) you always filled it up after using it.
In reality, of course, my brothers and I often violated the rules. It was not unusual to open the frig and find the bottle not only with just a quarter inch of water in it but with bread crumbs floating on the top. Everybody blamed Somebody when … well, you get the idea.
Living What We Profess
In a recent Gospel Doctrine class, we discussed a number of scriptures that directly apply to the notion of living what we profess:
· Nephi’s admonition that we “must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ.” (2 Nephi 31:20)
· The importance of asking God, in the name of Christ, to consecrate our performance. (2 Nephi 32:9)
· Jacob’s wonderful teachings on magnifying our callings. (Jacob 1:17-19)
Regarding that last point, we gain further insight and instruction in D&C 58:26-28. In this revelation we’re reminded that we should not need to be commanded in all things (a heavenly twist on “That’s Not My Job”), and that by our own free will we should be anxiously engaged in good causes.
In Jacob 4:10 we’re reminded that we should “seek not to counsel the Lord” but rather to “take counsel from his hand.” In an intellectual sense, that doctrine is easy to grasp. In actual practice, however, it’s sometimes a challenge. On occasion we ask the Lord to guide us, then we grab the steering wheel.
In Jacob 5 we read of Zenos’ allegory of the olive tree. A central theme in the allegory is stewardship. A stewardship is a job with a purpose. (See an earlier column, “Think Like a Steward, Perform Like a Patriot.”)
When we are faithful in our stewardships, we magnify our callings. We don’t need to be commanded in all things. We are proactive. We go the second mile. And, of course, faithfulness in our own callings is an integral part of our genuine sustaining of others in their callings. Ask any bishop how important good home teaching and visiting teaching are to the effectiveness of his service as the ward’s shepherd.
Then we studied the Book of Enos. Here we see one of the finest examples of personal religion in the scriptures. The fervent prayer offered up by Enos illustrates the expanding concern of a righteous person – first for himself, next for his own people, and finally for his enemies. Enos provides a model of humility and openness to the Lord’s teaching.
Doctrines Pure and Simple
These doctrines are pure and they are simple. So pure and simple, in fact, that they can easily be missed.
Years ago while serving as a stake president I sought out a high priest who had been completely inactive in the Church for more than a decade. I asked him why he had chosen that path. He said he was called to serve as stake mission president and he developed a plan for the calling. His stake president had a different vision for missionary efforts in the stake, and asked him to adjust his plan.
“I felt really strongly about the plan I had developed, and I resisted the stake president’s instruction,” the man told me. “When it because obvious that my approach would not be followed, I asked to be released. Then I just drifted away from the Church.”
“Well, I guess you really showed him, didn’t you?” I said. “To demonstrate your independence, you’ve estranged yourself from the faith you once defended. Meanwhile, your wife and children have been denied the benefits of your participation, and your temple blessings are held in suspension while you ignore your covenants.”
It was very straight talk, and fortunately the man came to his senses and returned to activity.
Living what we profess requires a special kind of commitment. The doctrines of the Restoration are not always easy, and the natural man frequently gets in the way. Our challenge, of course, is to emulate the strength and faith of people like Nephi and Jacob and Enos.
That's not how it was. Please start another thread if you have sincere and friendly questions about the IV/JST.
Yes.
>> If so, that's a good way of looking at it.
I agree.
From the "Living What We Profess" section of the article: Regarding that last point, we gain further insight and instruction in D&C 58:26-28. In this revelation we’re reminded that we should not need to be commanded in all things (a heavenly twist on “That’s Not My Job”), and that by our own free will we should be anxiously engaged in good causes.
D&C 58:26-28
26 For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward.
27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;
28 For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do good they shall in nowise lose their reward.
Here, the Lord Jesus Christ explains why He does not predetermine everything. If He did, there would be no learning or growth.
Is your family still in the soft drink business? Royal Crown Cola, etc.?
Is that Holy Spirit God ? Is He a part of the Trinity? I think it is important to clarify our beliefs don't you?
Is the Holy Spirit a WHO in the Armstrong church? Or is He a what ?
Truth without love destroys; love without truth deceives. The two are integrally linked, for God, Himself is both in His very nature. "Love rejoices in the truth"--1 Cor. 13:6
Understanding is indeed vital: "Go on your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and seal until the time of the end. Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand." (Daniel 12:9-10)
Daniel 12:3: "Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever."
Those who are wisest know that God speaks both through His written Word, and that He speaks directly through His Living Word without the need of a prophet: "In the past (past: Webster: "1. Pre-1820s; 2. gone by; ended; 3. of a former time") God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various various way, but(Websters: "1. Yet; still; 2. On the contrary.") in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son...through whom he made the universe." Hebrews 1:1-2
So do the Armstrong folks. They deny a trinity and believe in a BI unity
As you know that book has no authority to Christians. You also know that we believe in a different Jesus ,that was affirmed by your own prophet. That could be why we would disagree on that .
"In bearing testimony of Jesus Christ, President Hinckley spoke of those outside the Church who say Latter-day Saints 'do not believe in the traditional Christ.' 'No, I don't. The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak. For the Christ of whom I speak has been revealed in this the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. He together with His Father, appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in the year 1820, and when Joseph left the grove that day, he knew more of the nature of God than all the learned ministers of the gospel of the ages.'" (LDS Church News Week ending June 20, 1998, p.7 )
To Armstrong himself, I'm not sure. To the present Worldwide Church of God started by Armstrong, the Holy Spirit is a who. It's the only church body I know of that has repented cross-denominationally as having taught heresy and false doctrine and has moved into a historic Trinitarian position of alignment.
Even the RLDS has moved closer Biblically as a denomination; tho it still a ways off on vital doctrines.
But the WCG proves there is such a thing as corporate repentance. We may come to see a day when some church body confesses, "Lord, we recognize that we cannot be a lord, after all. As Mosiah and Isaiah both say, there is only one God--not just one God to us."
As for the RSLD.. they still hold the BOM as inspired and other questionable practices. We can all agree in prayer that those that hold false doctrine come ...
FYI
Armstrongism: The doctrines and religious movement originating with Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1986), who founded the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). Armstrong rejected such essential doctrines of evangelical Christianity as the Trinity, the full deity of Jesus Christ, and the personality of the Holy Spirit. Armstrong taught British Israelism and believed that worthy humans could eventually “become God as God is God.” Teaches salvation by works predicated on Sabbatarianism, tithing (20-30%), and keeping the Old Testament feast days and dietary laws. Under the leadership of Armstrong’s successors, Joseph W. Tkach and his son Joe Tkach, the WCG has undergone a radical doctrinal transformation. Scores of splinter groups, such as the Global Church of God and the United Church of God, continue to teach various forms of Armstrongism. http://www.watchman.org/cat95.htm#Armstrongism
The Latter Day Saints have something vaguely similar to the nicene creed (basic declaration of faith) in the articles of faith. #1 on the list is "We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in his son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." I believe that there are three beings, united in purpous and equal in love and understanding (they are all infinite), but they are nonetheless individuals.
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