A verse from the Old Testament warns us not to be a talebearer, but instead to be faithful and conceal the matter. How good are we at keeping confidences and not spreading gossip? Prov. 11: 13 "A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter."
In the Book of Mormon I read about the awful consequences of knowing the right things to do, but going against what we've been taught. Indeed, we withdraw ourselves from the Spirit when we do this. Isn't it interesting that WE are the ones to withdraw, not the other way around. And when we do this, we're in open rebellion against God and are listing to obey the evil spirit and we become an enemy to righteousness. If we allow this to open to us, our eternal fate will be terrible. Mosiah 2: 36-38 "And now, I say unto you, my brethren, that after ye have known and have been taught all these things, if ye should transgress and go contrary to that which has been spoken, that ye do withdraw yourselves from the Spirit of the Lord, that it may have no place in you to guide you in wisdom's paths that ye may be blessed, prospered, and preserved— I say unto you, that the man that doeth this, the same cometh out in open rebellion against God; therefore he listeth to obey the evil spirit, and becometh an enemy to all righteousness; therefore, the Lord has no place in him, for he dwelleth not in unholy temples. Therefore if that man repenteth not, and remaineth and dieth an enemy to God, the demands of divine justice do awaken his immortal soul to a lively sense of his own guilt, which doth cause him to shrink from the presence of the Lord, and doth fill his breast with guilt, and pain, and anguish, which is like an unquenchable fire, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever."
Some verses with a thought booklet kind of go along with this same idea--saying that if we hear the voice of the Lord, we will be His people and His sheep, but if we harden our hearts when temptations come, we will evoke the wrath of God and not enter into His rest. Ps. 95: 7-11 "For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest."
No comments:
Post a Comment