Getting Us Into the Temple – Getting the Temple Into Us – Part 2

“Getting the Temple Into Us”

Last week’s meditation discussed the need and the necessity of doing whatever is necessary to “get ourselves into the temple,” or as we sometimes say, “go through the temple.” This week, in part 2, we discuss “getting the temple into us,” or we might say “get the temple to go through us.” 
When the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored in the 19^th century, the Lord revealed the following,  (Doctrine and Covenants Section 88:119) Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God.  In every age since the days of Adam, this has been the clarion call of God to His people.  It was so then. It is so now.  If the temple (meaning its ordinances and covenants)  is to “get into us” --- if the temple is to “go through us”, rather than us just going through the temple, then we must understand and apply this revelation. 

The temple is a house of prayer.  Melvin J. Ballard once said, “When you have problems, look at them, deliberate, make a tentative decision.  And then pray, and you will receive impressions confirming or repudiating your decision.  And if you do not get your answer, I’ll tell you where to go.  Go to the temple.  While there, in the silent moments, in a place where you are entitled to revelation, the answer will come.”    Temple worship is prayerful. 

The temple is a house of fasting.   The scriptures teach us that prayer, when combined with fasting can “loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, free the oppressed, and break every yoke” (Isaiah 58: 6).  Temple worship sometimes requires us to fine tune our spiritual awareness through both prayer and fasting.

The temple is a house of learning.  In the temple we learn about the things that have the most worth – eternally important things.  We learn about God --- we learn about how to change ourselves to become like Him --- we learn what it means to be truly obedient to God’s will.  We learn that sacrifice is an important part of God’s laws, that the consecration of our time, talents, and all we have should be focused on Him and His kingdom.  We learn that the laws and ordinances of the gospel are given to us to bless ourselves, our families, and those not of our faith.  And, we learn that the sacred powers of procreation and all behaviors associated with them are to be used only in the bounds of virtue and chastity as set by the Lord.   With each law learned, a covenant is made to live it, and a blessing is pronounced.  This learning, offered in simple language and in a straightforward manner, unfolds to the learner in ever-increasing power and layers of meaning as one returns again and again to the temple to probe the breadth and depth of understanding. 

The temple is a house of glory.   The Bible Dictionary speaks of glory as having to do with a divine presence. The temple can be a house of glory for us personally when we worship in such a way that our physical being is brought into harmony with the spirit.  When we bring our physical self under subjection of the Spirit, we experience sanctification and our light of Christ becomes less restrained --- in other words, we experience truly the Glory of the Lord.  President Snow said, “that is the only way that the knowledge locked in our spirit can become part of this flesh.”  In this manner in the temple --- in this House of glory --- we obtain knowledge, glory, and power to overcome this world and prepare for the next.

 Thus, like no other place, the temple is the place where earth and heaven meet and in its covenants and the ordinances thereof we find our true divine identity and divine destiny.  It is my prayer that we may get into the temple --- and then, most importantly, may the temple get into us.  May we go through the temple and may the temple go through us.

For God remembers still

His promise made of old

That he on Zion's hill

Truth's standard would unfold!

Her light should there attract the gaze

Of all the world in latter days.

 His house shall there be reared,

His glory to display,

And people shall be heard

In distant lands to say:

We'll now go up and serve the Lord,

Obey his truth, and learn his word.

 For there we shall be taught

The law that will go forth,

With truth and wisdom fraught,

To govern all the earth.

Forever there his ways we'll tread,

And save ourselves with all our dead.

LDS Hymns

Text: Joel H. Johnson, 1802-1882

Music: Ebenezer Beesley, 1840-1906

I testify that God is our Father --- Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer.  We can come to know them and thus know our true selves through frequent and regular temple worship.

Larry Doyle Crenshaw