STRENGTH

BY LARRY DOYLE CRENSHAW

MeditationsInLight.Blogspot.com

Perhaps today or tomorrow a situation will arise that will require a demonstration of our strength of purpose and character.  Our increasingly complex lives require that we have strength - strength that we may derive from the Lord. Isaiah asks us in chapter 40 starting in verse 28:

28   Hast thou not known?  hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?  there is no searching of his understanding.

29  He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength...........

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31  But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

                                                                                                                                                  

There are two types of strength.

Dr. Harold Phillips, an old Baptist preacher once said it this way, “There is the strength of the wind that sways the mighty oak, and there is the strength of the oak that withstands the power of the wind.

 There are two kinds of strength.

There is the strength of the locomotive that pulls the heavy train across the bridge, and there is the strength of the bridge that holds up the weight of the train."

One is the active strength of a powerful lion; the other is the passive strength of the prophet Daniel in the lions' den - leading some to speculate that maybe, just maybe, the lions were actually in Daniel's den.

 There are two kinds of strength.

One is the active strength of a Winston Churchill in the Second World War when he rallied his countrymen and the British Empire to fight and "never surrender."  The other, a few years later, is the passive strength of a quiet, non-violent Gandhi that brought that same British Empire to its knees and won independence for India.

 There are two kinds of strength.

One is the strength of the 2,000 Sons of Helaman, who, fighting against overwhelming odds, conquer the enemy with the strength of arms and conviction. The other is the 2,000 Fathers of the Sons of Helaman who, in the strength of their convictions and integrity kept their oath not to take up arms.

I quote the old preacher again, "There are two kinds of strength.  One is the power to keep going; the other is the power to keep still.  One is the strength by which we overcome; the other is the strength by which we endure".

May we wait upon the LORD (who) shall renew (our) strength; (May we)  mount up with wings as eagles; that we may run, and not be weary; and walk, and not faint. . . .  May we reach into our souls and draw upon reserves of both kinds of strength as we work out our salvation in faith.

This week’s meditative verse explores the premise that, “There are two kinds of strength.”

Strength

And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.

Book of Mormon    Mosiah 4:27

There are two kinds of strength we are told

One passive, like trees, that withstand the storms

Another active, like storms, blowing fierce and bold

Each strengthens, builds character, and transforms

There is the passive strength of standing firm

When, on principle, we choose not to fight

And the active strength of arms we affirm

When we choose to fight with all our might

It is not requisite we run faster than our ability

Or beyond what strength or wisdom would advise

But race with diligence, persistence and stability

And thereby win the race and the winners’ prize

For the prize is not just bestowed on one

But on all, not only first or second place

The prize is won when our best is done

And we all win, if we only finish the race

Therefore, lets us find strength

In both the passive and active sense

Receiving power and glory at length

Through Christ’s atoning recompense

Larry Doyle Crenshaw

 Are We Not All Beggars?

By Larry Doyle Crenshaw

MeditationsInLight@blogspot.com

There is considerable debate in the public arena about how we respond as a society to the conditions and how to remedy the conditions of the poor and needy.  Healthcare, food, housing, employment, and education, are each vital components in the equation of poverty. 

Unfortunately, these discussions are habitually relegated to electioneering time and descend rapidly into narrow debates about politics and economics.  In the process the poor and needy become viewed less as real people and more like political pawns – losing their humanity when viewed only as a demographic group.  “Principles” for caring for the poor and needy quickly devolve into “rules” for providing assistance. The polarization of poverty into “left” and “right,” “liberal” and “conservative,” do little to add value to the discussion and often obscure the true issues and remedies.

This week’s meditative verse seeks to understand the nuances of difference between those who are poor and those who are needy.  While the verse draws lines of demarcation between the two, we ultimately come to a sometimes startling revelation: “we are all both poor and needy.”

 Day-to-day we all have needs of the body and mind and spirit - needs for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being.  These needs can generally be remedied and met by simply finding, creating, and developing the necessary missing need either by our own efforts or the temporary help of others.  These needs can and are met because we have the ability and capacity to meet them.  Hence, we differentiate between these sorts of needs versus the other innate types of long-term needs which we reserve for the term “poor.”  

There are other, usually longer-term needs –generally beyond our personal abilities or capacities to remedy without some significant changes to our thinking, feeling, and doing.  They have to do with special long-term needs, often unrecognized, or recognized but denied. Paradoxically, these matters have to do with “acquiring” the ability to “acquire.”  We will use the word “poverty” to define these needs and use the term “poor” when referring to those who have these characteristics. Thus, being needy is one thing and being poor is another.  

We may suffer from a poverty of beliefs, of feelings or emotions, or a poverty of action.  For example, if my parents and their parents, and their parents for generations denigrated or put down the need for education, learning, reading, math and science, I might be put at a disadvantage in our society through ignorance and lack of education having inherited and acquired those beliefs, attitudes and values.  If, likewise, I was told that I would “never amount to anything,” that I was “no good,” I might grow up with a poverty of ideas, beliefs and feelings about my self-worth, my abilities and capacities in many areas of life – in other words, I would be “poor.”  The poor, in this sense, are poor because of poor habits, ways, and methods of interacting with the world and with people, and with things.

Using these definitions, we might properly describe a person as one who is “poor” who has millions of dollars in the bank, and with homes and cars, and all kinds of material possessions, but who doesn’t know or have the skills to be a good husband, father, and friend.  Likewise, a person who has such skills and knowledge, but temporarily has lost a job, or been in an accident or become ill, might be “needy,” in certain temporal things but, in the sense described before, would not be “poor” – having the ability, with some temporary help to “acquire” what they “require.” Therefore, the maxim, “We can be needy and not poor, but not poor and not be needy.”

So, one may ask, “Why is this important?”  When, as an individual, or collectively, as a nation, we try to care for the poor and needy, it becomes very important.  As described previously, the basis of being needy is different than the basis for being poor.  Remedies for those who are needy involve temporary measures to help the needy acquire required goods and or services which they may or may not be required to pay back in the way of money or services.  The remedies for the poor are much more complex and longer-term. They involve changing long-held (or never-held) beliefs, feelings, and habitual actions – sometimes going back generations.  Such changes will change the culture of poverty for them and future generations.  Obviously, we are talking about an educational process with, hopefully, willing learners. 

One wonders what such a perspective would have on legislators and legislation, if they based their political and economic decisions on this point of view.  Our current “one size fits all” approach does neither the poor nor the needy a service and creates disincentives for all. 

As we reflect on these definitions and this discussion, we are led to wonder about our own individual poverty of ideation (beliefs or lack of beliefs or knowledge), poverty of emotion (feelings or ability or inability to express them), and poverty of action (what we do or don’t do because we don’t know how).  As we ponder these things, we quickly realize that, in many areas of our lives, we haven’t been able or had the capacity to “figure certain things out,” or been able to respond emotionally in a proper way to certain people or situations.  There are also many instances that come to mind of not knowing what actions to take, or taking the wrong action in certain situations.  Thus, we come to the realization that, along with our daily and routine needs, we too are also poor. 

It is in this context we present this week’s meditative verse as we recall the words of an ancient prophet and king, “…..For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind? ….And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.”  (Book of Mormon;  Mosiah 4: 19, 21)

Larry Doyle Crenshaw,  MeditationsInLight.blogspot.com

Are We Not All Beggars?

And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish…..For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind? ….And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.

Book of Mormon    Mosiah 4:16, 19, 2

Are we not all beggars without exception?

Does not "Poor and Needy" aptly apply?

To think not so, is a gross misperception

For all our needs - God doth supply

Do we not depend upon the same Being

Even God, for substance of every kind?

He sees to our wants and well-being

Regardless to what we are consigned

The Poor are poor in creeds of belief and doing

The Needy lack essentials, basic and required

A home and health and food they're pursuing

While the Poor in poor ways are often mired

As one who is Needy, I may not always be Poor

But as one who is Poor, I am always in need

While needs are always knocking at my door

My poverty of truth makes me poor indeed.

We all rely on what gifts God may give

Poor and needy applies to all His offspring

So ought we to be liberal to all who live

For we are all beggars and Christ is our King

Larry Doyle Crenshaw

Dedicated to Elder Glen L. Rudd from whom I gratefully learned I am both poor and needy. 

 Natural Man – Saintly Man

by Larry Doyle Crenshaw

MeditationsInLight.blogspot.com

We live in a day that was foretold ages ago - a time of conflicts, wars, and turmoil.  While these conflicts play out in each day’s news media, this week’s meditative verse reflects not on the battles around us, but on the ongoing war within us.  The Apostle Paul referred to these inner conflicts. “I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:  23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”  Romans 7:21-23

Most every day of our lives an inner struggle for self-mastery goes on.  The “Saintly Man or Woman,” seeking both progress and repentance, combats the “Natural Man.” This “natural” part of our natures seeks to dominate our soul by giving way to the base and carnal desires of unmanaged agency.  For the period marked by the unification of spirit and body at birth until their separation by death, finds each entity – our spirit and our body seeking dominance and mastery.  The gospel plan calls for our personal spirits to grow in light, wisdom, truth, and power so as to bring the body under its subjection – training it, disciplining it, and sanctifying it. 

It makes perfectly good sense that he who would destroy our souls would employ strategies that put wedges between body and spirit. Anything that will boost the body’s dominion over the spirit becomes a useful tactic. Anything that will subvert the divinely ordained purposes of the body and spirit will be part of the Deceiver’s master plan. Misery does love company and his aim is to make all men miserable like unto himself. “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself.” 2 Nephi 2:27

However, we have help and hope in walking the path of the Saintly Man or Woman. The son or daughter of God who seeks self-mastery can increase in spiritual power and strength and bring the body under the control of the spirit. Again we turn to Paul’s affirming faith, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. …. 26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”  Romans 8:1-2 & 26-27

We submit for your reflection this week’s meditative verse, “Natural Man – Saintly Man.” 

Larry Doyle Crenshaw, MeditationsInLight.blogspot.com.

Natural Man – Saintly Man

For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.

Book of Mormon   Mosiah 3:19

The Natural Man or the Saintly Man?

Whose journey do I choose to take?

The trail where passions are in command

Or a penitent’s path with covenants to make?

My Natural Man is an enemy to God

And has been from Adam’s fall

Unless I yield and grasp the iron rod

And respond obediently to His call

As to a father a child doth submit

Submissive and full of affection

My heart, mind and soul I commit

To Heavenly Father’s direction

But the evil one sets snares and entices

He plots and schemes and conspires

Entrapping with plots, ploys and devices

For our misery is the company he desires  

But the Saintly Man is a friend of God

And will be eternally - forever and ever

So, the path of repentance I will trod

And become a Penitent Saint forever

Larry Doyle Crenshaw

SERVICE

By Larry Doyle Crenshaw

MeditationsInLight.blogspot.com

For many years I was involved in humanitarian work in parts of the world ravaged by man-made and natural disasters. Regardless of country or culture I was frequently touched and humbled by countless examples of selfless service – often performed by those who themselves needed much help.

Through the ages service to one another has been understood to be intimately connected to service to God.  After all, Heavenly Father wants the best for His children and what better way to teach them and provide for them, than by encouraging them to serve one another.  Such service has the potential to build God-like character in those who give service and those who receive it.  Givers of service sacrifice time, effort, and/or means.  Receivers sacrifice pride. Both share in the blessings that sacrifice teaches and brings into the soul.   In the process, a divine paradox occurs in that the line of demarcation between giver and receiver begins to blur – givers become receivers of what Paul calls “the heavenly gift.”  Receivers can be transformed into consecrated givers as they move from poverty to prosperity.

In an ever-darkening and more selfish world, acts of pure love and service appear to be diminishing.  It’s ironic that service projects in communities, once common-place, now are the subject of news articles as if these were extraordinary events.  I am concerned that they are becoming so. I live in a community where community socials, activities, barn-raisings, house building, crop harvesting, prayer vigils for the sick, community home-comings, and similar social events are rather common-place. These activities are part of our “Southern Culture,” but derive more fundamentally from the deeply rooted Godly covenants of our ancestors.

In the last few years we have heard many divisive and derisive words about how best to care for the poor.   In the race to find a position on the polar extremes, many advocate unprincipled positions on each end.  The Lord’s way of ministering to the poor and the needy is neither conservative nor liberal in the political sense.  When poverty is only defined in secular, temporal terms, it loses it meaning and distracts us from applying effective remedies.  Often, the greatest poverty is the poverty of ideas and beliefs for those taught the traditions of parents and ancestors that were neither helpful nor correct. 

Remedies must include adherence to principles of work, defined as temporal and spiritual effort within each of our unique capacities.  Thus, virtually everyone, regardless of limitation, is capable of work – either temporal and/or spiritual.  Mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual effort qualifies as work and our work in helping others within our capacities also qualifies as service.  This is the Godly covenant of service of which we speak and, in which both giver and receiver are blest.

 “Service” is a meditative verse based on the counsel and instruction of King Benjamin, an ancient Israelite King who lived in the Americas 124 years before Christ.  Three years prior to King Benjamin’s death, he called his people together and encouraged them to love God and enter into a covenant with Him, to anticipate the coming of Christ, and to serve one another. There is a remarkable promise contained in his words – in that if we serve one another, and particularly, the poor and the needy – we shall retain a remission of our sins.  It is perhaps timely that we do so with greater love, focus, and frequency.

“Service” can be found at MeditationsInLight.blogspot.com

Service

And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God… Behold, ye have called me your king; and if I, whom ye call your king, do labor to serve you, then ought not ye to labor to serve one another?  I say unto you that if ye should serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants.

Book of Mormon   Mosiah 2: 17-18, 21

Service to God and service to man

Are bound together in a Godly rule

That we must learn and understand

While enrolled in this mortal school

Even though we might be King

We should labor mightily to serve

But why is it such a difficult thing

For you and me to observe?

Vanity and pride do get in the way

Of living this law to a great extent

And we keep God’s blessings at bay

When we refuse to obey and repent

He who lends us breath each day

Commands that we be dedicated

To serving others along the way

For unto such were we created

Profound is God’s service to you and me

Though we serve Him a billion years

Unprofitable servants we would be

And our debt forever in arrears

Larry Doyle Crenshaw

 THE VINEYARD

By Larry Doyle Crenshaw

MeditationsInLight.blogspot.com

One of the more detailed, descriptive, and hauntingly beautiful allegories in sacred scripture is found in The Book of Mormon, Jacob, Chapter 5.  It is beautiful in its picturesque narration of tending an orchard, and in its detail of events.  The allegory is haunting in its depiction of the history and destiny of the inhabitants of the Earth. It doesn’t take a historian, scriptorian or literary scholar to discern the cycle of events in God’s dealings with His children in every dispensation through the millennia.  The righteous of the House of Israel and the righteous gentiles who accept the gospel are grafted together in the covenant of Abraham.  The wicked who remain unrepentingly wild are destroyed.  – And the cycle of events continue through the ages – even unto today.

We can easily see the unfolding of modern-day events that are foretold in the last verses of Jacob 5.  The line of demarcation between good and evil is becoming ever more visible and pronounced.  As the Gospel rolls forth to every clime and corner of the Earth, the elect of God are being harvested or “saved” to use the familiar descriptor of the faithful.

The Vineyard’s story is also our personal story of redemption from the ways and wilds of the world.  We too, like the wild branches, are pruned, dug about, lifted up, and grafted on to the Tree of Life by our acceptance of and obedience to God’s Covenants – and therefore, we will be sanctified and redeemed in due time.  “The Vineyard” is your story and my story. 

This meditative verse is found on MeditationsInLight.blogspot.com .  If you find these meditations helpful in any way, feel free to share with your friends by selecting one or more of the “share” buttons on the site at the very bottom of each page. - Larry Doyle Crenshaw

The Vineyard

And when the time cometh that evil fruit shall again come into my vineyard, then will I cause the good and the bad to be gathered; and the good will I preserve unto myself, and the bad will I cast away into its own place. And then cometh the season and the end; and my vineyard will I cause to be burned with fire.

Book of Mormon   Jacob 5:77

A vineyard of wild and tame olive trees

Growing in the garden of the Master

Became subject to age, decay, and disease

So he pruned about to avert a disaster

It grieved Him greatly, the trees to lose

So tender branches he took from the wild

Their branches grafted to the tame to infuse

New life - like a mother nourishing her child

This the Master and servants did throughout

Digging, pruning, burning where they dared

But branches overran the roots round about

And many trees could not be repaired

So time and again in the vineyard they labored

Some years were lean with bitter fruit or tasteless

Other years, a bountiful harvest to be savored

And stored for seasons of want and distress

One day the vineyard’s servants learned

The Master’s work was ended and complete

And then the vineyard of trees was burned

And from stores of fruit the Master did eat

This is an allegory of symbols to discern

Regarding the Lord and the tribes of the earth

The plan of salvation is revealed and we learn

That all, both tame and once wild, have worth

The Lord’s Vineyard is your story and my story

We are rescued, pruned, lifted up and esteemed

And by the Savior’s power and atoning glory

We are loved, sanctified, and eternally redeemed

Larry Doyle Crenshaw