"God came to Abimelech in a dream by night" parallels "the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night."
Abimelech's dream, like Solomon's two dreams, are visitations of the Lord. The dreams are straightforward with no symbolic elements reported. The Lord speaks in his own voice. The dreamer is able to respond as his own true self. The information imparted, the promises made, the warnings given are direct and reliable - as they would be spoken by the Lord himself. The dreamer is able to speak and choose as himself.
We will call this kind of dream Type 1.
Monday, May 30, 2016
Saturday, May 28, 2016
TG Mortality 14 - Romans 6:12
Chapters 6 and 7 in Romans spell out a good deal about our mortal condition. To fully understand this odd place it is useful to look forward to a chapter we will not reach for some time: 2 Nephi 2. There we are told how the Lord carefully balanced the forces of opposition - grace and sin, the atonement and the fall, the law and temptation - to give us freedom. Within that context, Paul tells us how that drama of agency plays out.
First of all, it is not simply a situation of being enabled to make a straightforward choice between good and evil. Our fallen natures complicate that choice immensely - "the good that I would I do not: but the evil that I would not, that I do" (7:14-24). The choice isn't so much between good and evil as it is between sin and grace. Our way out isn't so much to try to strengthen by our own exertions the good side of our warring nature, but to accept the atonement "through Jesus Christ our Lord" who can "deliver me from the body of this death" which I, strive though I might, cannot do.
Within THAT context, we have an ongoing daily choice between Grace and Sin (Chapter 6).
On the one hand we can
"continue in sin" (v. 1)
"live therein" (v. 2)
"serve sin" (v. 6)
"let sin reign in our mortal body" (v. 12)
"obey it in the lusts thereof" (v. 12)
"yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin" (v. 13)
"yield our members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity" (v. 19)
On the other hand we can
be "dead to sin" (v. 2)
"walk in newness of life" (v. 4)
"reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (v. 11)
(this one is done by dwelling on the significance of the symbol of the ordinance of baptism)
"yield ourselves unto God and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (v. 13)
"obey doctrine from the heart" (v. 17)
"be made free from sin" (v. 18)
" become a servant of righteousness" (v. 18)
"yield our members servants to righteousness unto holiness" (v. 19)
In both cases it is a matter of surrender. As Bob Dylan once sang, "everybody's gotta serve someone." We yield our body to be used by God or to be used by sin. One or the other will have Dominion over us (v. 14). "Know ye not that to who ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness" (v. 16).
No matter what some of our Protestant brethren say, you can't come to know Christ once, and then be automatically delivered for eternity from sin. Coming unto Christ opens a door through which daily grace can enable us to choose to yield ourselves to God and become obedient through the power of the atonement. After that door is opened we can still (Paul warns us) choose in our daily walk to yield ourselves to sin and be not deceived, if we continue on that road (he warns) , the wages of sin ARE death (v. 16, 23).
First of all, it is not simply a situation of being enabled to make a straightforward choice between good and evil. Our fallen natures complicate that choice immensely - "the good that I would I do not: but the evil that I would not, that I do" (7:14-24). The choice isn't so much between good and evil as it is between sin and grace. Our way out isn't so much to try to strengthen by our own exertions the good side of our warring nature, but to accept the atonement "through Jesus Christ our Lord" who can "deliver me from the body of this death" which I, strive though I might, cannot do.
Within THAT context, we have an ongoing daily choice between Grace and Sin (Chapter 6).
On the one hand we can
"continue in sin" (v. 1)
"live therein" (v. 2)
"serve sin" (v. 6)
"let sin reign in our mortal body" (v. 12)
"obey it in the lusts thereof" (v. 12)
"yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin" (v. 13)
"yield our members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity" (v. 19)
On the other hand we can
be "dead to sin" (v. 2)
"walk in newness of life" (v. 4)
"reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (v. 11)
(this one is done by dwelling on the significance of the symbol of the ordinance of baptism)
"yield ourselves unto God and our members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (v. 13)
"obey doctrine from the heart" (v. 17)
"be made free from sin" (v. 18)
" become a servant of righteousness" (v. 18)
"yield our members servants to righteousness unto holiness" (v. 19)
In both cases it is a matter of surrender. As Bob Dylan once sang, "everybody's gotta serve someone." We yield our body to be used by God or to be used by sin. One or the other will have Dominion over us (v. 14). "Know ye not that to who ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness" (v. 16).
No matter what some of our Protestant brethren say, you can't come to know Christ once, and then be automatically delivered for eternity from sin. Coming unto Christ opens a door through which daily grace can enable us to choose to yield ourselves to God and become obedient through the power of the atonement. After that door is opened we can still (Paul warns us) choose in our daily walk to yield ourselves to sin and be not deceived, if we continue on that road (he warns) , the wages of sin ARE death (v. 16, 23).
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Wisdom - First Synthesis
We've followed all of the scriptural references available in the LDS version of the Bible for our first "Wisdom" passage from the Syntopicon (1 Kings 3:5-14). From here we will take advantage of the footnoted subjects from the Topical Guide. Over the next months we will be looking at Dreams; Understanding; Heart; Spiritual Discernment; and Divine Guidance - all of which promise to shed some very interesting side lights on Wisdom.
Before we take our long detour, however, I want to take some time to look over and summarize what I have learned so far.
First, the foundation of wisdom is humility - a sense of one's own lack, an recognition of one's dependence on God, and an acknowledgement of the need to walk with God, in the path God has laid out. Both Solomon's archetypal gift of wisdom and the wisdom Joseph Smith received as he began the Restoration of the gospel were rooted in a deep recognition on the part of the recipient - "I am but a little child," "how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know." Whatever our circumstances, the responsibilities and opportunities available to us in which we might do good or evil, influence and affect others are so much beyond our natural abilities and vision that we all, whether we can see it or not, need the gift of wisdom. The first step in wisdom is to be able to see that.
Second, wisdom must be desired. It comes to those who seek God to obtain it. Both Joseph and Solomon verbally sought the gift from the Lord as a result of a deep inner desire to obtain it. "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God" (James 1:5).
Third, the desire for wisdom has a series of potential competitors in the heart of man. Selfish desires for riches, fame and recognition, power, pleasure and the wants of the flesh can all put the heart of a man in a position where it is not prepared to receive the gift of wisdom. There can only be one ruling passion in the heart, and it subordinates all others. The Lord gave Solomon only one request at Gibeon. He had to decide what one thing to ask for and had to put all other possibilities aside. Joseph's search for wisdom began to consume his mind and energy - a search marked by "serious reflection and great uneasiness... deep and often poignant feelings." His "mind at times was deeply excited." He "often" rolled his doubts and questions around in his mind, which labored "under extreme difficulties." When he encountered the promise in the epistle of James he "reflected on it again and again."
Those who find themselves hijacked by the search for riches are especially singled out in scripture as being on a path that is in opposition to wisdom (as well as to salvation). "Seek not for riches but for wisdom." Like Solomon, we have to choose between them.
Fourth, wisdom includes the following components
Seventh, a key component of maintaining the integrity of our relationship to God is again, Humility. We often begin to seek wisdom at moments of being "compelled to be humble." As we gain wisdom it is possible to lose sight of that deep need. As the Lord responds to our humility and repentance with grace and blessings we have a tendency to lose our willingness to submit ourselves to his direction and guidance. We no longer desire that God rule us or guide us. It is not easy to "always retain in remembrance...your own nothingness" to continually "humble yourselves in the depths of humility" (Mosiah 4:12), and continue to remember in the times when we are not in trouble that we are still comparatively "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked" before God (Revelation 3:17). Here, Jesus set the ultimate example, submitting his own will and judgment to the Father's in all things.
Eighth, wisdom in its widest and deepest sense includes being wise in our use of our mortality - the sense that Jacob invoked in his exhortation "O be wise; what can I say more." Here wisdom involves not wasting the day of our probation, not resisting the spirit's enticements, not rebelling against God. Instead it is wisdom to become as a little child - to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit, to repent, come unto Christ, and take advantage of the atonement, enter in by the gate and continue on the straight and narrow way by cleaving unto God.
Ninth, wisdom (especially viewed in this widest and deepest sense) seems to bring with it a train of blessings - physical needs met in abundance, a "larger heart" - the increase of sympathy and understanding, and peace.
Before we take our long detour, however, I want to take some time to look over and summarize what I have learned so far.
First, the foundation of wisdom is humility - a sense of one's own lack, an recognition of one's dependence on God, and an acknowledgement of the need to walk with God, in the path God has laid out. Both Solomon's archetypal gift of wisdom and the wisdom Joseph Smith received as he began the Restoration of the gospel were rooted in a deep recognition on the part of the recipient - "I am but a little child," "how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know." Whatever our circumstances, the responsibilities and opportunities available to us in which we might do good or evil, influence and affect others are so much beyond our natural abilities and vision that we all, whether we can see it or not, need the gift of wisdom. The first step in wisdom is to be able to see that.
Second, wisdom must be desired. It comes to those who seek God to obtain it. Both Joseph and Solomon verbally sought the gift from the Lord as a result of a deep inner desire to obtain it. "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God" (James 1:5).
Third, the desire for wisdom has a series of potential competitors in the heart of man. Selfish desires for riches, fame and recognition, power, pleasure and the wants of the flesh can all put the heart of a man in a position where it is not prepared to receive the gift of wisdom. There can only be one ruling passion in the heart, and it subordinates all others. The Lord gave Solomon only one request at Gibeon. He had to decide what one thing to ask for and had to put all other possibilities aside. Joseph's search for wisdom began to consume his mind and energy - a search marked by "serious reflection and great uneasiness... deep and often poignant feelings." His "mind at times was deeply excited." He "often" rolled his doubts and questions around in his mind, which labored "under extreme difficulties." When he encountered the promise in the epistle of James he "reflected on it again and again."
Those who find themselves hijacked by the search for riches are especially singled out in scripture as being on a path that is in opposition to wisdom (as well as to salvation). "Seek not for riches but for wisdom." Like Solomon, we have to choose between them.
Fourth, wisdom includes the following components
- an understanding heart - there are two phrases in Hebrew translated thus: first, a heart that listens; second, a heart that discerns.
- the ability to discern between good and evil
- the ability to judge and decide in those areas and for those people over which we are responsible - the ability to "discern judgment."
- it includes the ability to gain knowledge that accumulates over time
- to walk before God in integrity and uprightness
- obey God's personal commandments to him; to "follow" him
- keeping Gods statutes and judgments
- not to go after other Gods to follow or worship them
Seventh, a key component of maintaining the integrity of our relationship to God is again, Humility. We often begin to seek wisdom at moments of being "compelled to be humble." As we gain wisdom it is possible to lose sight of that deep need. As the Lord responds to our humility and repentance with grace and blessings we have a tendency to lose our willingness to submit ourselves to his direction and guidance. We no longer desire that God rule us or guide us. It is not easy to "always retain in remembrance...your own nothingness" to continually "humble yourselves in the depths of humility" (Mosiah 4:12), and continue to remember in the times when we are not in trouble that we are still comparatively "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked" before God (Revelation 3:17). Here, Jesus set the ultimate example, submitting his own will and judgment to the Father's in all things.
Eighth, wisdom in its widest and deepest sense includes being wise in our use of our mortality - the sense that Jacob invoked in his exhortation "O be wise; what can I say more." Here wisdom involves not wasting the day of our probation, not resisting the spirit's enticements, not rebelling against God. Instead it is wisdom to become as a little child - to have a broken heart and a contrite spirit, to repent, come unto Christ, and take advantage of the atonement, enter in by the gate and continue on the straight and narrow way by cleaving unto God.
Ninth, wisdom (especially viewed in this widest and deepest sense) seems to bring with it a train of blessings - physical needs met in abundance, a "larger heart" - the increase of sympathy and understanding, and peace.
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