*** tried to post this several days ago but Blogger and/or Firefox was having issues and I didn't even try to fight it.***
I've been meaning to do a CC review for a while, alas time is not on my side. Naturally, a perfect time to finally do this is after staying up a wee late to write a paper (that's not even due until Wednesday- go Me!!!).
I captioned this address mid-Novemberish and I frequently find myself still thinking about it. There is a great power that comes with knowing that you can and will make it through whatever currently ails or troubles you. That knowledge is found through the Savior, Jesus Christ, and his atoning sacrifice for all. Because He lives we too shall live, and we too can endure and overcome any obstacle before us. Hopefully you can understand the relevance of that, my thoughts, and the following from the address. Without further ado, here we go:
(main points only; not every sentence; copy and pasted from the time stamp captions = why they are spaced so and I don't want to take the time to fix it right now)
Elder Ronald J. Hammond,
an Area Seventy, October 2, 2007.
In courts of law, a first-person witness
is always preferred.
The testimony of one who was there,
saw it, heard it, and remembers
is a powerful witness.
So too in matters of faith.
Second-person faith is good.
For instance, "You know God will help you."
Third-person faith is also good.
For example, "They know the Lord will bless them."
But, however good they may be,
second and third-person faith are not enough.
Faith in God, on the first-person level
is essential now and will be
increasingly so in days to come.
You may know.
He, she, or it may be sure.
But, unless I know and until I am sure,
I remain vulnerable to doubt and despair.
To the Master, one of the multitude
brought his son, his only child, who was
afflicted with a dumb spirit.
The father explained to Jesus that this
evil spirit had often cast his boy into the fire
and into the waters to destroy him.
Then, with all the tenderness of
an emotionally wrung out parent, the father pleaded,
"If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us,
and help us."
Note that he said, "us."
This was not simply an issue with the lad.
No, this was en entire family in distress.
Can you even begin to imagine the stigma
levied against this boy and his parents?
Neighbors warning their children not to go
near that house because that is where
"you know who" lives.
Ostracism and exclusion everywhere they went
and biting remarks on every hand.
We don't know where the mother was
on this occasion; maybe she had
had all she could take.
Perhaps she simply could not bring herself
to face one more glare of scorn
or one more word of derision.
We don't know those details but we do know
that the father was not seeking help
for the boy alone but for "us,"
the whole little family of three.
Jesus said, "If thou canst believe,
all things are possible to him that believeth."
And, "Straightway the father of the child
cried out, and said with tears,
'Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.'"
I have pondered much on this
father's cry of the soul.
It is a paradox.
"I believe; help thou mine unbelief."
What does it mean?
While I am sure there are other ways
of explaining it, it has been helpful to me
to think of the father's reply in terms of
"generalized" versus "personal" faith.
"Jesus, I believe thou art all-powerful.
Thou canst make the blind to see,
the deaf to hear and the lame to walk
and thou hast done so.
Thou canst calm tempests, command the elements,
and raise the dead to life
and thou hast done so.
Thou art the sovereign God of the universe
and canst do all things for other people
in other circumstances.
But Jesus, I know my boy.
Can you really pull this one off for us?"
Like so many then and so many now,
the father of the boy had generalized faith
in Jesus' love and unlimited power.
He knew that the
"Master of ocean and earth and skies"
could, generally speaking, command and calm
in order to bless the general masses;
but could he really, might he actually,
deliver this seemingly insignificant
little threesome from a life of perpetual despair?
Progression from "I believe-"
generally speaking to, "Help thou mine unbelief-"
personally speaking, is the substance
of our devotional walk together this afternoon.
A walk on the path called,
"First-person faith in God."
It is a worthy and timely subject for our discussion.
Our faith must grow steadily
and it must be personalized- my faith in my God.
May I share with you four principles
regarding the development of
first-person faith in Christ?
Principle Number One: Developing First-Person
Faith in God Refers to a Process.
The oil of first-person faith is added
to our lamps drop by drop.
It is a process not an event,
and if you understand and really believe this,
then you will move with surprising serenity
through life's experiences that do not turn out
as you had planned.
What happens, for instance, when you desperately
want to be delivered from a trial,
and you pray and fast and ratchet up your worthiness-
but nothing?
At such times, brothers and sisters,
knowing that faith development is a process,
will let you let the process take its course.
Otherwise, impatience might persuade you
to make some well meaning but very foolish
demands of God.
Consider, for example, the
"Parable of the Impatient Expectant."
The woman learned she was going
to have her first baby.
She and her husband were overjoyed
with the prospect of becoming parents.
With each passing day, the young wife became
more anxious for the baby's arrival.
During the day she would imagine
and during the night she would dream
of how it would be to hold and love
and nurture her little one.
Two months into the pregnancy she went
to see her doctor.
She explained that she simply could not stand
the waiting any longer, and insisted that
he deliver the baby that very day.
The doctor kindly refused explaining that
were he to do so, it would be abortion,
not delivery.
The woman understood, continued to wait,
to learn, to grow, and in due time
her baby was born.
Your delivery from trial is important
to Heavenly Father but so too is the growth
you make while awaiting that relief.
If all deliveries came immediately upon demand,
the process of developing first-person faith
would be aborted.
To the impatient mother-to-be
and to all of us who want God to deliever
according to our terms and timing,
Paul wisely counsels, "For ye have need
of patience, that, after ye have done
the will of God, ye might receive the promise."
Understanding that faith development
is a process gives staying power
in times of adversity.
The natural man is an enemy to God
as well as to God's plans for our development.
God is working to develop the man's faith-
here a trial, there an adversity-
but all the natural man sees is God
repeatedly picking on him.
True disciples on the other hand
know that "charging God foolishly"
will abort the faith development process
and so meekly allow the process to continue.
They understand that as long as they obediently
seek the Lord's will, seeming setbacks can
actually be steps forward in their faith development.
Like the man who is asked to move back one seat
in a bus that is speeding forward on the freeway.
Inside the bus, it looks like a move backwards,
but observing the bus from a distance,
the man's forward progress is clearly evident.
Naaman, the leprous captain of the Syrian host
was insulted when the Lord's prophet told him
to dip seven times in the River Jordan to be healed.
Persuaded by his servants, however,
Naaman relented and obeyed.
Healing did not occur with the first dip,
but Naaman did not let the disappointment
of the moment abort possibilities for the future.
And so, he continued the process.
Naaman's objective was to heal his skin.
The Lord's objective was to grow his faith.
And, for Naaman, both objectives were met.
The now healed Syrian became also
the now converted Syrian exclaiming,
"Behold, now I know that there is no God
in all the earth, but in Israel."
As he did with Naaman, the Lord will invite you
to experience life's challenges in order
to grow your faith.
Your objective is to get through the trial.
The Lord's objective is to grow your faith.
Principle Number Two: Developing First-Person
Faith in God Requires Personal Involvement.
Faith without works is dead-
and the works cannot be vicarious.
Even for Nephi of old, whose very name
many of us equate with faith in God,
first-person faith could only be developed
through first-hand works.
With heaven expecting him to build a ship,
Nephi's faith in God could not have grown
with him in a hammock and Sam and Jacob
doing all the work.
Nephi, himself, had to be personally involed
in building the ship-
sunburn, wood splinters, and all.
Surely the Lord could have had a fine
ocean-worthy ship waiting for Lehi's family
when they came to the ocean shore.
But He did not.
Then, as always, personal faith needs
personal involvement to grow.
Note in the following verses,
Nephi's generous use of first-person pronouns:
"Now I, Nephi, did not work the timbers
after the manner which was learned by men,
neither did I build the ship
after the manner of men;
but I did build it after the manner
which the Lord had shown unto me.
And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft,
and I did pray oft unto the Lord;
wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things."
Nephi's faith grew with each construction problem
that was solved and with every step
of progress that was made.
That is the essence, the very essence,
of the Lord's drop by drop,
line upon line pattern.
The end result was not just
a sea-worthy ship of inspired design,
but a disciple of Christ with faith equal
to escalating stewardship demands.
Brothers and sisters, you will hear
faith-promoting stories about others.
That will inspire you.
You will see the Lord's hand working wonders
in the lives of others.
That will encourage you.
But, I witness that the saving kind of faith
in Christ is a very personal, sweetly private,
first-person kind of faith developed only
"in the process" of personal involvement
in life's challenges.
To those who went before us,
we owe so very much.
What strength is ours today
because of the faith of our fathers
and our mothers too, for we do not doubt
that our mothers knew it.
Now, may your individual demonstrations of faith
be such that when your relatives in yet to come
generations sing, "Faith of our fathers,
living still," they will be referring to you
and your steadfast "first-person"
faith in the Savior.
Principle Number Three: Developing First-Person
Faith in God Involves Remembering Jesus Always.
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints are under covenant
with the Father to always remember His son,
Jesus Christ.
One of the many compelling reasons for doing so
is that it is essential to an ever-growing
first-person faith in the Lord.
Again, we turn to the Book of Mormon for examples.
Who can forget Nephi's extraordinary demonstration
of faith when his murderous brothers
tried to throw him into the ocean?
Unflinching, Nephi stood his ground and said,
in so many words, "Touch me, you die."
And then this unparalleled expression
of first-person faith literally saturated
with first-person pronouns:
"And I said unto them; If God had commanded me
to do all things I could do them.
If he should command me that I should say
unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth;
and if I should say it, it would be done."
How did Nephi do that?
Where did he get such great faith?
Brothers and sisters, he did it in the very same way
that you have and will yet do it.
He remembered Jesus.
When Nephi's brothers refused to help him
build the ship, he began to speak to them.
Now, he did not know that Laman and Lemuel
would try to kill him just 25 verses later,
but the Lord did and he bolstered Nephi's faith
so it would be sufficient when the crisis came.
One after another, the Holy Ghost brought
to Nephi's mind a virtual cascade
of past experiences wherein the Lord
saved and strengthened those in need.
Israel delivered out of bondage,
the Red Sea parted, Israel saved,
Pharaoh's armies drowned, manna from heaven,
water from a rock, day cloud, night pillar,
cure for fiery serpent venom, and on and on,
one faith-building memory of Jesus after another.
Then, when the moment of need came,
Nephi and his bolstered faith were ready.
Please note however, that something happened,
had to happen, in Nephi's mind to connect
God's involvement in ancient Israel's lives
to Nephi's, then, present circumstances.
This was the connection,
"And now, if the Lord has such great power,
and has wrought so many mighty miracles
among the children of men, how is it that
he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?"
Nephi went from remembering what God
did for others, all the way to trusting
He'll do the same for me.
When life's challenges bear down upon you,
it is not enough to know that Jesus
saved ancient Israel and Nephi
or that He helped your classmate or roommate.
I know that you know that your Redeemer lives
must progress to, "I know that my Redeemer lives!"
Then, when you hear Jesus say, "Peace, be still,"
you will know He is talking to your own
personal storms and not just in generalities.
But there is another very compelling reason
to remember Jesus always, and it has everything
to do with the inner peace for which
every one of us, whether we know it or not,
is yearning.
Principle Number Four: Developing First-Person
Faith in God Matures Into Doubt Not,
Fear Not, Only Believe.
Alma counseled his son Helaman,
"Look to God and live."
"In essence son, on a first-person level,
look to God in every thing, every thought.
Turn your life and everything about it over to Father.
Look to Him, doubt not, fear not, only believe."
I have pondered much about why Alma
would say to Helaman, and not his other two sons,
"Look to God and live."
It seems significant that this is
the same Helaman who, just eight years or so later,
would lead a little rag-tag band
of 2000 believing boys to war.
Each boy would survive because of first-person faith.
Each had to know that God would preserve him
if he looked to God and did not doubt.
Each had to know he must obey with exactness.
And when he, scarcely knowing one end
of a sword from another, lunged into battle,
each boy had to yield his fears to God.
It was just that literal- "Look to God and live,"
or look elsewhere and die.
And who was their leader?
Who helped them develop first-person faith in God?
It was Helaman who was looking to God
in every thought, doubting not and fearing not,
because the prophet had told him to.
When we look to God, we yield to Him everything-
our fears, our doubts, and our own stern preferences,
with the meek entreaty, "Thy will, not mine be done."
And brothers and sisters, it really should be
a cheerful yielding of the heart.
Our submission should not be a grumpy
"giving up" to the universal superpower
who is going to win the arm wrestle anyway.
But rather a joyful yielding because we know
that what God wants is truly the best thing
that could ever happen to us.
Therefore, when grappling with life's
heavyweight trials, don't yell, "Uncle"-
just pray, "Father!"
This comes easily, even naturally, when the steps
ahead are well lit and clearly marked.
But, for faith to grow, some things must,
for now, remain unseen.
What then, do you do when the next step
of the trial as well as the duration
and outcome of the trial are hidden?
You obey God, doubt not, fear not, only believe.
The scriptures are filled with experiences
wherein prophets and disciples struggled
to develop first-person faith in God
in the face of stifling unknowns.
How much easier it would have been
had they known, while in the furnace,
how things would eventually turn out.
For example, look with me down
the long corridor of time.
We see Father Abraham preparing,
as God had commanded, to sacrifice his only
begotten son, Isaac- hot tears matching
the heat of the fiery trial.
Then, as he raises the sacrificial dagger,
you and I call to him down through the millennia,
"Abraham, O Abraham, don't worry.
It's all going to be just fine!
See, I have the book!
I know how this story ends!
Abraham, hang in there, don't give up!"
But Abraham, in the thick of developing
first-person faith cannot, must not, hear us.
It must be just Abraham and God.
Then, after the fiery trial of his faith,
the miracle occurs, we sigh with relief,
and Abraham becomes not only the father of millions,
but the father of the faithful as well.
And what about those 2000 Lamanite youth
under Helaman's command?
The most powerful army of the Lamanites
pursues them for a couple of days, then silence.
And then the terrible questions must be answered.
Questions like: "Do we turn back to help Antipus?
And, is it an ambush?
And, could you show me again
how to hold a cimeter?"
Back they go, this little band that
had never before fought an enemy.
And we call down the corridor of time,
"Hello! You are going to win
and not one of you will be killed!
Here, read Alma Chapters 56 through 58.
We love you! Thank you for your examples.
Remember, your team wins!"
But again, they cannot, must not, hear us.
It must be each youth and his God.
Only after the trial of their first-person faith
was it written, "And now, their preservation
was astonishing to our whole army,
yea, that they should be spared while there was
a thousand of our brethren who were slain.
And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous
power of God, because of their exceeding faith
in that which they had been taught to believe."
This is a marvelous but simple faith,
an unquestioning conviction that the God of Heaven
in his power will make all things right
and bring to pass his eternal purposes
in the lives of his children.
We need so very, very much
a strong burning of that faith
in the living God and in his living,
resurrected Son, for this was the great
moving faith of our gospel forebears.
"When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o'erflow,
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress."
As it was with Abraham,
with Helaman's 2000, and with so many, many others
of whom we read in scriptures and journals,
so it will and must be with you.
In your own wine press encounters,
you must do as Elder Henry B. Eyring
counseled missionaries in Reynosa, Mexico:
"Trust the Lord, get some sleep,
and wake up happy."
Sooner or later, and better sooner than later,
you will learn to "trust in the Lord
with all thine heart and lean not unto thine
own understanding" and to let him direct your paths.
And when life's trials become
particularly challenging for you, then listen.
Can you hear you- talking to you?
From a point years in the future,
you call back down the corridor of time
to you here in October 2007. (or 2013)
"Hey me, that's right- you.
Pretty tough right now is it?
Oh, don't give up.
Hang in there.
Trust the Lord, get some sleep and wake up happy.
It will all work out.
See! I've got the book!
I know what happens next.
My past is still your future and I know
everything will be just fine.
Believe you me!"
Here and now in the thick
of first-person faith things,
you are not allowed to know how or when
things will turn out, just that they will.
For now, it is enough to submit eagerly
to Him whose ways, ideas, and power
are higher, brighter, and mightier than your own.
"Where can I turn for peace? Who can understand?"
The Lord is very concerned about how
we answer these hymnal questions
and so should we.
Our first-person faith depends on
our answering them correctly.
"He only" is the only right answer.
Developing first-person faith in God then:
one, refers to a process;
two, requires personal involvement;
three, involves remembering Jesus always;
and four, matures into doubt not,
fear not, only believe.
"In a world where sorrow ever will be known,
look up my soul," is very good advice.
Look up to God and live.
Faith in Jesus Christ is the
first principle of the Gospel.
And it is the first, "first-person" principle as well.
First-person faith in God will move you past
His generalized interest in humanity
to an assurance of His first-person involvement
in all of the first-person ups and downs of your life.
Wasn't that great??? You can watch it at www.byui.edu/devotionalsandspeeches
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