{"id":530,"date":"2020-05-01T18:06:49","date_gmt":"2020-05-02T00:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/?p=530"},"modified":"2023-03-14T09:51:13","modified_gmt":"2023-03-14T15:51:13","slug":"unity-in-christ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/","title":{"rendered":"Unity In Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_1578\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-530-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2017.07.30_LT031_Unity-in-Christ.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2017.07.30_LT031_Unity-in-Christ.mp3\">https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2017.07.30_LT031_Unity-in-Christ.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2017.07.30_LT031_Unity-in-Christ.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/?powerpress_pinw=530-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/lightandtruth\/www.denversnuffer.net\/podcast\/episodes\/2017.07.30_LT031_Unity-in-Christ.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"2017.07.30_LT031_Unity-in-Christ.mp3\">Download<\/a> (Duration: 58:42 &#8212; 68.1MB)<\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/light-and-truth-podcast\/id1474389927?mt=2&amp;ls=1\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_itunes\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Apple Podcasts\" rel=\"nofollow\">Apple Podcasts<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>These remarks were given at a conference held in Southern Utah County on July 30, 2017. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Am I supposed to talk now? I assume that pause means: Get up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a concept that I mentioned just in passing yesterday at the Sunstone conference, that \u201cchosen-ness\u201d does not mean what we oftentimes think chosen-ness means. We tend to view that as something laudable, and it means we\u2019re better than someone else because God\u2019s focused attention on us, and therefore, since we get His attention, there is something great about us. There is a passage in&#8230; (I am using these new scriptures, mind you, so I have no clue where you will find it in your actual Book of Mormon).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Comment:<\/strong>&nbsp;First Nephi 20:21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Denver Snuffer:&nbsp;<\/strong>Oh, First Nephi 20 [LE]. But I am reading from First Nephi 8. This is the Lord talking to ancient Israel and he says:&nbsp;<em>\u201c&#8230;For I knew that thou wouldst deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb. Nevertheless, for my name\u2019s sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain from thee, that I cut thee not of. For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. For mine own sake, yea, for mine own sake will I do this, for I will not suffer my name to be polluted, and I will not give my glory unto another.\u201d (1 Nephi 20:8-11).<\/em>That doesn\u2019t sound like high praise for the chosen people.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have a new favorite reality show that\u2019s on the History channel. I think they\u2019ve been doing this for four years now so there are a lot of episodes out there. It\u2019s called, \u201cForged in Fire.\u201d I don\u2019t know if any of you have ever seen it. They start the show with four blacksmiths. The four blacksmiths are required to take something\u2013they provide them the something. Sometimes it\u2019s a wrought iron fence, sometimes it\u2019s a wrecked car, sometimes it\u2019s a pile of garbage. These people have to sort through whatever it is. The first stage is to fashion it in a forge into a kind of knife blade, which they inspect, and then one of the four people are sent home, and the three that have done the best job then have to finish that product and turn it into something that can be sharpened and hold an edge, with a handle on it, and then they test it. It is fairly brutal testing. Things shatter. If they don\u2019t hold an edge, they\u2019re gone. They have to qualify by producing something that is a fairly well-made knife. Then after they finish and someone gets kicked out, the two that remain are sent home to their own forge and they\u2019re given five days to build some weapon from history. It could be something that they used in France to duel with. It could be something that even the contestants don\u2019t know how to pronounce.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When they finish after five days, they come back and they present their weapons. The judges then put those through tests. Sometimes the test is to stick it into a metal holder and bend the sword 33 degrees one direction and 33 degrees the other. The people watching, that have fabricated these things, are anticipating the shattering of what they\u2019ve built. They hash coconuts with these things. They lock them into a catapult that has a controlled speed, so that every weapon gets tested consistently, and they will smash it down on a metal shield. The objective is to see if it will still hold a sharp edge after they\u2019ve done all this crap to it. Then when they have finished all the strength and durability things, the sharpness test takes over. One of the judges is a guy named Doug Marcaida. He almost invariably uses a pig carcass. He will attack the pig carcass with the weapon, and when he is done, if it succeeded, his line is: \u201cIt will kill.\u201d (He is from the Philippines and has an accent.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve learned a lot watching four seasons of that show on the History channel. There are some kinds of metal that it doesn\u2019t matter what you do with them, they will never hold an edge.&nbsp;<br>Sometimes what they require the contestants to do is to take metal that will not hold an edge\u2013for example, here\u2019s a bundle of barbed wire and here is some high carbon steel. You have to fuse together in your forge the high carbon steel and the barbed wire that will never hold an edge, and you have to produce something that we\u2019re going to put through these tests. Now if a person knows what he\u2019s dealing with he can take that incapable metal, and he can make a sleeve in which is set the high carbon steel, so that the edge of the high carbon steel is what\u2019s exposed to the force of contact. And if they don\u2019t know what they are doing\u2013they blend it together in such a way that it doesn\u2019t matter what you do\u2013it doesn\u2019t matter how much you work with it, or sharpen it, or fashion it, it\u2019s simply not going to take.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you go through and read the scriptures about the concept of chosen-ness, almost always you run into words about forging in a fire the product that God regards as His people, which means that God has a fairly realistic assessment of what people are like, and choosing them doesn\u2019t mean He\u2019s found a finished product. Choosing them means He\u2019s found something with which He\u2019s determined to work.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>High carbon steel requires iron and it requires a matrix of that carbon to be within the element. Life\u2013all life\u2013is based on carbon. We breathe oxygen. We are carbon based, all of us. In a very real sense, every breath we take, we take and burn it in our furnace. The way that we convey that oxygen throughout the body is by oxidizing iron in our blood. That\u2019s why our blood cells turn red when exposed to oxygen, because the iron element fused with the oxygen oxidizes, or rusts, and so it looks red. And then, when it drops the oxygen off where it\u2019s going to be consumed in the limbs, it loses that element and it returns and it\u2019s blue. Forging us in the fire of affliction, breathing into us the breath of life, talking about being chosen, the example of what it takes in order to fashion something that will withstand and hold an edge, all of these things are types and shadows of what it means to be chosen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Chosen-ness puts you on display in order for the Lord to either prove what foolishness is in the person chosen, or if they succeed, to put them through an ordeal that demonstrates faithfulness and commitment, desire and earnestness, so that everyone stands back and says:&nbsp;<em>This people represented God,&nbsp;<\/em>either by the shabby performance, and the persecution, and the failure, and the folly, or it represents God by the diligence, and the effort, and the faithfulness.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve been pretty hard on Latter-day Saint history because from the perspective of triumphal success it hasn\u2019t succeeded. But within the Latter-day Saint history is embedded this strain of diligence, and faithfulness, and sacrifice, and commitment that has preserved enough of what was here at the beginning so that we today have something to work with. The Latter-day Saints are an example of both folly and triumph. It has not resulted in Zion. And it\u2019s certainly headed, in fact now galloping, in another direction. But within that, there has been a preservation and a restoration of material which would have otherwise been lost; would have otherwise been forgotten.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What\u2019s rolling out now in the Joseph Smith Papers is an extraordinary blessing. Now true enough, if I had the archives in my possession I would eliminate a lot of footnotes and editorial comments and you\u2019d get more than we\u2019re getting. I wouldn\u2019t try to package it in a way that defends a story that simply isn\u2019t true. Nevertheless, they are preserving, they are perpetuating, they are publishing materials, and we\u2019re the beneficiaries of that. For that we ought to be grateful.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Within every group of chosen people there are always those who are resilient and faithful enough to pass the test, to hold the edge, to survive when the difficulties come. And when the Lord puts us through the furnace of affliction our burdens are designed to get us to be able to qualify. Our burdens are designed to make us a little more realistic about our own limitations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I want to talk about a couple of things. I want to remind you that becoming a chosen people or being chosen by God as His, is no guarantee that we aren\u2019t going to be remembered by history for our own foolishness, and an example of how to inspire God\u2019s ire and fall short. I\u2019m a little more optimistic at this point in history because of the hour, because of the signs in the heavens above, because of the things that we see on the earth. I assume that John Pratt is going to address some of the signs of the timing of what\u2019s happening now. And so, someone\u2019s going to do this. Someone\u2019s going to achieve it. The prophecies are not going to fall to the ground unfulfilled. Perhaps coming out of this group will be that example that is pointed to, not as folly and failure, but as vindication of the Lord\u2019s promises.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve taken personally a lot of criticism and I\u2019ve gotten a lot of email, and my wife will read stuff and report back to me what the latest round of nonsense contains. One of the things that gets suggested is that I am personally arrogant and haughty and that I\u2019m relatively untrustworthy because I talk with just too much confidence. Try to put yourself into the position in which God has told you something. You respect God and what he\u2019s told you needs to be delivered, and ought not to be delivered by a shaky voice, an unsound trumpet, a weak attempt. It doesn\u2019t matter how good a trumpeter you are. It doesn\u2019t matter what you think of yourself, or whether you would gladly pass that to someone else. If you\u2019re going to speak on behalf of the Lord you have to speak in a way that represents Him as well as you can, however incomplete, however unworthy, however much you may think yourself ill-fitted to the assignment. You\u2019re given the assignment, you need to do it, and you need to do it well.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The confidence with which I speak does not reckon from myself. In fact, like I\u2019ve heard so many people ask about themselves, \u201cWhat am I doing in this position?\u201d Well none of us really can come down here into this sphere and walk around proclaiming,&nbsp;<em>\u201cCheck it out, this is how you ought to be.\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;There is only one. There is only one who is the prototype of the saved man. There is only one that we can look upon and say, \u201c<em>As to Him, I have confidence in Him<\/em>.\u201d Everyone else the confidence is misplaced. But if you have confidence in Him, and He has given you something to say, then say it with the confidence that you have in Him. Announce the message that He has given with the respect that He deserves.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now I know some people were hoping that I would come down here and talk about what God released yesterday on the answer to the petition for a covenant. I\u2019m not going to talk about it for this reason: I don\u2019t believe it belongs to me. I believe it belongs to you, and I believe it is God\u2019s statement&nbsp;<em>to you<\/em>. For me to try and take up any attention is to distract you from the Lord\u2019s words to you. What kind of a fool would put themselves between you and God and say, \u201c<em>I would like to interrupt the Lord in order to tell you something that I think.\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;What I have or what I think is wholly inconsequential in comparison with the content of that document. It doesn\u2019t have my voice, it doesn\u2019t have my speech patterns, it doesn\u2019t have me in it. If some of it is a little garbled, I\u2019ll own that. But the message belongs to the Lord, the words belong to the Lord, and they\u2019re words that He was giving to you. Therefore it\u2019s yours, and you have as much right to apply the meaning of those words to yourself and to others as anyone. I have no right to get out and say, \u201cPay attention to me.\u201d There is, and they really are quite remarkable.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other thought that my wife and I kick around (and Steph any time you want to interrupt me, come up here and join and take over, if you would like) is this idea: Take any event at any time, in the Book of Mormon for example. You have the family of Lehi and what went on there, or later in time during Alma and Abinadi in the courts of King Noah. Take any of those circumstances and ask yourself: Let\u2019s assume that that was happening today. Let\u2019s assume God was doing things today similar to what He was doing back then. What would that look like? How would that unfold? What would be said? What would the response be? How would you react to that if it were going on today? How would you decide if something like that were happening now, whether or not it was authentic and of God? How would you go about deciding that in your own day, in your own time, among your own people, within your own family, what is happening is of God and not of men?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t think that just because something gets enshrined in scripture we should lose sight of the fact that it has always required faith, it will always require faith, and it doesn\u2019t matter what proofs you can muster for or against belief in something. At the end of the day either God is behind it or God is not. And if God is behind it and your heart is open to it, you\u2019ll recognize it; you\u2019ll receive it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem we have as people is we don\u2019t really believe the Book of Mormon. We believe in long ago and far way. The Book of Mormon is telling us, \u201cHey, Gentiles, among you, in your day, in your time, there are going to be things that God necessarily is going to have to accomplish.\u201d What would that look like? What would that unfold like? How would that come rolling forth? Many of the people about whom scriptures are written, and the pivotal moments in which choices have to be made before great things unfold, have remarkably humble beginnings, almost inconsequential, so much so that the biblical record entirely omits Lehi. So much so that the people chosen by the Lord to flee before the fall of Babylon, and to start a new civilization on the other side of the world, remained entirely obscure to the world from the moment they left Jerusalem until the time that the Book of Mormon rolled forth in 1830.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(You [Stephanie Snuffer] want to join me? Yeah, yeah. This is a historic moment.) [audience laughter]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[Stephanie Snuffer comments omitted at her request]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Denver Snuffer:<\/strong>&nbsp;We still have 25 minutes left.&nbsp; What are you doing running off for? [Laughter]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019ve thought some of our exchanges [between Denver and Stephanie] on hikes were the best material I\u2019ve ever recorded anywhere, and it\u2019s just in my journal.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was looking for something. I was asked to find some dates and it required me to go research through piles of journals. As I am going through (I have to skim them) I ran across a number of things where my wife was going after me on a hike and it was in the journal. It\u2019s not self-deprecating, it\u2019s spouse-deprecating. It was one of those amusing parts of the relationship. She warned me that people reading that stuff later won\u2019t know that it\u2019s funny. They\u2019ll just assume that I\u2019m not telling a joke when I say there are men living on the moon that dress like Quakers, because Joseph made a comment like that and it tells you something about his sense of humor. But there are anti-Mormons that say, \u201cHe thought there were men that dressed like Quakers that lived on the moon.\u201d It\u2019s preposterous.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yesterday while I was talking&#8230; We went to lunch with Carol Lynn Pearson a couple weeks ago and she gave me a copy of her book,&nbsp;<em>The Ghost of Eternal Polygamy<\/em>. I read her book. It\u2019s a pretty good book, but I told her afterwards I think she is being really unfair to Joseph, because the typical account of history reads&nbsp;<em>out<\/em>&nbsp;of the accounts all of what Joseph did before the Nauvoo High Council, and all of what Joseph Smith did in public sermons, to detect and to denounce and to try an put down the practice of plural wives in Nauvoo. Instead, all of that is skipped over, including the Relief Society statement taken out in the&nbsp;<em>Times and Seasons<\/em>&nbsp;as a joint statement of the women of Nauvoo condemning the practice that Joseph had inspired to take place.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Everyone reads that out and simply homogenizes Brigham Young and Joseph Smith because of Brigham Young\u2019s attribution to Joseph, so Joseph owns everything that Brigham did. After I talked yesterday, she was there and we spoke for a moment. I said, \u201cI loved the book, but I think you are unfair to Joseph, and that everyone is unfair to Joseph. No one really deals with how firmly a position he took in public and before the Nauvoo High Council in opposition to that stuff. But at a minimum you have to admit that, whatever went on Joseph kept out of the public view, and Brigham Young celebrated as something public to be practiced. At a minimum you owe it to Joseph to make that distinction and you didn\u2019t do it in the book. But having said that, the book\u2019s great, it\u2019s wonderful, loved it, and appreciate getting a copy.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the lamentations that appear in her book is how troubling and disorienting the whole concept of plural marriage is to currently living Latter-day Saint women. She did a survey and she collected comments from people in the survey. It\u2019s remarkable. She put hundreds of these comments into her book. It is remarkable how many women fear dying before their husband because their husband can go get another wife and be married for eternity to her, and then she winds up with another spouse in addition to her husband. There was some preview of an upcoming movie that we saw, while we were watching \u201cDunkirk\u201d. In the preview, it was a comedy, and one woman is talking to another woman and she is saying, \u201cYeah, I believe in polygamy. I just haven\u2019t found the right guy, and gal, and gal.\u201d That notion hangs over.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the great things that happened in the Answer was we now have a replacement for D&amp;C Section 132 that rather clearly explains that it was not so from the beginning. In one respect we should have been smart enough to figure that out on our own, because in the days of Adam&#8230; I know that Brigham Young said that Adam came with one of his wives, because to Brigham Young all things were polygamous. But there is no basis in the Bible for that. There is no basis in scripture for that. Adam received \u201ca wife\u201d. Then, in the book of Moses the children of Adam and Eve married two by two, male and female. One of the clarifications that we now have is that the divine purpose of marriage is to multiply and replenish the earth. That answers the question about relationships between the same sex because you cannot multiply and replenish the earth in any other form than that.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marriage was instituted by God in the beginning. It is an ordinance. It involves the man and the woman, and it doesn\u2019t matter what other kind of social relationship you want to form, it\u2019s not marriage. At its heart marriage is from God and confined to that relationship. When you define marriage as given by God, keep in mind the definition of an abomination. An abomination is something that you practice that is wrong, done as a religious belief. So marriage that doesn\u2019t conform to the pattern of God is, by definition, an abomination. Its result is not only to defile the definition of marriage, but it absolutely precludes multiplying and replenishing the earth. It renders the marriage bed devoid of progeny, incapable of producing offspring. It is desolate. An abominable practice that produces desolation is something that we all ought to take note of. It\u2019s not a social issue, it\u2019s not a civil rights issue. In a secular society I don\u2019t care what people do in the privacy of their own homes. But when you begin to say that that is not merely the right of privacy and the right of association, but is a religious right involving marriage, and it produces nothing but desolation, we ought to stop short of that. We ought to say: Go and do as you will do.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lot chose to live in Sodom. What\u2019s up with Lot? Maybe they had good music. Maybe it was fashion. Maybe they had great art. (I\u2019m pretty sure they had great performance art, I\u2019m just not into that.) When Abraham went to recover his nephew and the angels came and Lot bargained, it wasn\u2019t Abraham who was out to destroy the wicked, and it wasn\u2019t Lot that was out to destroy the wicked, it was the Lord. The Lord is going to take care of the abominations that are out there. Our responsibility is to invite people to see a better way, to conceive of a higher and more noble way to live life. Our job isn\u2019t to rebuke and condemn and to belittle.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are really two forces at work in all of creation. One force is generative, creative, and positive. It fabricates new things. It is ongoingly surprising and life-filled and wonderful. What\u2019s opposed to that are the forces of degeneration, decay, negativity, entropy, destruction. There isn\u2019t enough being done in order to bring that positivity, that creativity, that newness into this world. Even though children are born every day, and life starts over all new again with the birth of every new child, our minds are preoccupied by the forces of negativity and what opposes us. I could spend all day every day responding to negative arguments and negative comments, and if I were to do that I wouldn\u2019t get anything new done, covered, accomplished, or out there.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we take a message out to people about the restoration of the Gospel, the work of Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, the offering of the Covenant, the expected coming Zion, there is no reason to deal with the criticism. It\u2019s going to collapse on its own. Here\u2019s a great bit of advice: If the criticism level would condemn Jesus Christ, then the criticism is the problem, not the object of the criticism.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now understand, (this is secondhand, because I don\u2019t go there and do this) but my wife informed me that in some Facebook group there was complaining about the Prayer for the Covenant because that was \u201cpraying for to be seen of men.\u201d It\u2019s public. Okay, when Jesus taught us to pray,&nbsp;<em>\u201cOur Father who art in heaven\u201d,<\/em>&nbsp;he did it publicly. It got reduced to writing. It\u2019s the most widely read prayer in all of western society. So if you are going to condemn, on that basis, the Prayer for the Covenant, you are going to have to condemn the Lord\u2019s Prayer and in turn condemn the Lord. If you can resolve criticism leveled at you by applying the test and saying, \u201cJesus would have failed that test, too,\u201d then you don\u2019t even need to respond to the criticism. But if they level criticism at you, and you look at it say, \u201cJesus would have passed that and I would fail,\u201d then it\u2019s time to start saying, \u201cWell, okay, then I need to clean up something in my own life.\u201d Because all of us deserve some level, we merit some level, of criticism and condemnation. We\u2019re just not perfect.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s really hard to sit inside your own life and be realistic about your own personal failings. We always tend to apply tests that are given in scripture outwardly and to say, \u201cAs long as I use persuasion and pure knowledge then I can beat you into submission and never yield the argument because I am doing what was said is the criteria.\u201d Gentleness\u2014okay, I won\u2019t yell at you. Meekness\u2014okay, I\u2019ll be polite enough to let you say what you have to say, I won\u2019t interrupt. Love unfeigned\u2014okay, I love ya brother,&nbsp;<em>I LOVE ya brother<\/em>. Persuasion\u2014okay, when I get my opportunity to present mine I\u2019m going for the brass ring.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wait a minute. What if that\u2019s God trying to get through to you? What if the way in which God is trying to persuade you is by the meekness of the humble Lord who speaks to us in plain humility; who comes to us, not to try and overawe us, but comes to us saying:&nbsp;<em>\u201cYou are me in embryo. I know what it took for me to become the Son of God, and I know you can do it, too.\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;What if the Lord is your greatest cheerleader, and he wants nothing more than to try and get you to be more like Him. You can\u2019t be more like Him when the center of everything is yourself and you never self-examine. We all deserve criticism.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was asked if I would bear my testimony and I\u2019m willing to do that. I\u2019ve tried to let people know exactly what has and is going on without the need of resorting to a lot of spectacular descriptions of the Lord\u2019s direct involvement in my life.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I want you to imagine for a moment: Moses is on the mount. The setting is awesome. The Lord is speaking to him, and in that setting he is overawed, so much so that when the Spirit of the Lord withdraws, he collapses because it has drained all his strength. He comes to himself and realizes man is nothing and he\u2019d never supposed that. The adversary comes to tempt him. He can tell the difference between a merely pretentious soul whose message is dark, and the God of glory whose message is Light. And then the God of glory comes again and presents to him yet more. This is a spectacular event. He is told: \u201cTake your stick, go to Pharaoh\u2019s court, throw your stick down and we\u2019ll humble the Pharaoh.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now you\u2019ve probably got\u2013by the time you walk down the mountain, and you get ready and provisioned and make arrangements for your affairs while you are gone\u2013days before you set off for Egypt. And then when you travel to Egypt, you\u2019ve probably got a couple of weeks or more of hard trudging across the desert. You arrive in Egypt and you realize, kind of like God, the pylons of Egypt are awesome. They represent a false religion but they do so impressively. You come, with your shepherd\u2019s sandals and your homespun garments, into the courts of Pharaoh where you are supposed to deliver a message. You tell me that no matter how spectacular the circumstances were on Sinai some three weeks earlier that it didn\u2019t take faith for Moses to confront the Pharaoh and to deliver the message. As the sound of the staff is rattling into a stable position on the floor of the courts of Pharaoh, I suspect Moses was palpitating.&nbsp;<em>\u201cI sure hope He\u2019s God here, too!\u201d&nbsp;<\/em>Because everyone thought that gods were local. Everyone thought that gods were from different districts. Sinai may have been Jehovah\u2019s. Ra, Fa, who is big cheese here? I can imagine that for a moment Moses held his breath, hoping.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We sit back from our distance with the confidence that this was going to play through triumphantly, and it was going to work out just exactly as the story always works out. Moses had absolutely no such assurance. He was sent out to do, what may be to him humiliating and embarrassing things to do and to say, but he did them anyway. Not because he knew he would triumph and history would remember him. He did them because God told him to and he really, really, hoped it was going to work out.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don\u2019t know how often it is, that no matter what I\u2019ve been shown or given, taught or received, that I realize, that at the end of the day, the only proof anyone will have will be the words that I get told to deliver. From my perspective it\u2019s like&#8230;the stick rattling on the floor as it settles there, while you swallow hard and you hope that there are at least some who have hearts that are receptive, who are willing to say, \u201cGod spoke unto the Fathers in times past, and has spoken unto us by His Son, and again spoken unto us by Joseph, and God speaks again today.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s not Joseph, it\u2019s not Moses, it\u2019s the One behind that. It\u2019s the God of Heaven and His Son. It\u2019s the only sound, reliable, and true thing that there is in the universe, and&nbsp;<em>that<\/em>&nbsp;God speaks again. However unlikely it may seem in the circumstances, God speaks again.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There will come a time when there will be people among whom it will not be necessary to say, \u201c<em>Know ye the Lord,\u201d<\/em>because everyone is going to know Him. What He will put us through to get from here to there is up to Him to determine. And how He is going to accomplish that is up to Him to decide. But when we get there and the Lord is among us, none of us are going to be surprised. None of us are going to dance around excitedly because we are going to say, \u201cWe knew He was with us every step of the way anyway.\u201d It will be ever so nice to come and embrace, and to feel wounds, and to kneel, but you won\u2019t be surprised.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What it takes to get us from where we are to that point is entirely individual. It\u2019s entirely up to every single one of us. But He\u2019s willing to take us on that journey and He\u2019s willing to put us through the forge, and melt us until we are pliable, and hammer us until we are shaped. He is willing to put us through what\u2019s required in order to take people and turn them into something that is far more like Him and far less like the world.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a question He poses about the tares that are ripening and so what of the wheat? We are supposed to be godly. We are supposed to be God-like. Imagine yourself trying to be like God. Well, it almost makes you laugh out loud when you think about such proposition, and yet it\u2019s there in scripture and He\u2019s telling you that\u2019s what He wants of you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The greatest who was ever among us, knelt to wash other people\u2019s feet and did what he could to help those who were infirm. With patience and kindness He dealt with people, till the moment arrived when it was necessary for Him to lay His life down. And then He went exactly where He needed to go, and said exactly what needed to be said, in order to inspire the rage of the people who felt threatened so that they would kill Him, on time, as the sacrificial paschal lamb on the Passover that year. At the end He controlled even the moment of His death. We\u2019ve got the example in front of us.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I have always been surprised at the humility of the Lord, the meekness of the Lord, and the fierceness of His disapproval. Some of what you read in&nbsp;<em>Come, Let Us Adore Him<\/em>&nbsp;is actually taken verbatim from my journals. I tend to record incidents when they happen, exactly as they happen, and lock down the account at that moment [and] then never change it, because Joseph took criticism for writing multiple accounts of the First Vision. So I write it one time and I don\u2019t change the story, so what you\u2019re reading in&nbsp;<em>Come, Let Us Adore Him<\/em>&nbsp;is taken verbatim out of the journals. But part of the story is left out because it wasn\u2019t necessary, and it changes the focus and it didn\u2019t belong there. But, I will tell you because I have been asked to bear my testimony.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After I had seen the events in Gethsemane and recorded that in the journal, it was some time later, trying to take all that in. I saw the resurrection and what happened that day. After I had seen it, I sat down and I wrote the account. I\u2019m writing the account, and I entered\u2013literally into my journal I wrote\u2013\u201c<em>The joy of that moment made the suffering that He endured in Gethsemane seem small by comparison<\/em>.\u201d I literally wrote that in my journal. I was instantly&#8230; I couldn\u2019t write another word; I was instantly condemned. I had no right to make that comparison and it wasn\u2019t true. So I closed up the journal. I stopped writing. I went to work, and the whole day was awful.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I got back from work that evening, I drew a line at that point in the journal across the page and I explained what happened. \u201cWhat I wrote above I should never have written. It\u2019s not true, and I was condemned for writing it.\u201d Because there was nothing about the triumph that lessoned the price that was paid in Gethsemane, and to suggest that anything mitigated the price our Lord paid for us is untrue and unwarranted. When I explained&nbsp;<em>that<\/em>&nbsp;in the journal I felt back in His good graces.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Lord, when He lets you know you\u2019re wrong, lets you know in a way that\u2019s like&#8230;our dog Mowgli. She cannot bear to displease her family. She just wears it on her. Everything about her, the ears, the tail, everything about our dog droops when she has familial ire directed her way. That\u2019s how you feel when the Lord is letting you know you\u2019ve offended. I\u2019ve offended Him far too many times for me to even recount. Sometimes I\u2019ve wondered why I\u2019m still involved. I assume at some point He is just going to get tired and I\u2019m going to ignite like a match head and He\u2019s going to say,&nbsp;<em>\u201cWell, he probably had that coming.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Lord is real. He is working. The time is short. The evidence of what is going to happen and is presently underway is not just in scripture, it\u2019s also in nature. The evidence of this is written everywhere. And if some of you are lucky enough to be able to hang around for the 6 o\u2019clock fireside with John Pratt, try to keep him here long enough to let the stars come out. He\u2019ll need a laser pointer but then he will really entertain you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me end by simply saying that I know the Lord, and I respect Him enough to confine what I do to exactly what\u2019s asked of me, and leave it to Him to determine everything from content to timing. And that if He says go, we go; and if He says not yet, it\u2019s not yet. I\u2019ve learned that He has an agenda. He\u2019s known about the moment we\u2019re in right now for a long time. Work on what is underway began two years, and more than a year-and-a-half before I was involved. I didn\u2019t look at the people who were involved and say, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you include me?\u201d I looked at them and said, \u201cI\u2019m so glad you did the work.\u201d I didn\u2019t envy them, I\u2019m not jealous of them. I welcomed it. They felt called by God and they did the work. As it turns out, they were. And as it turns out, God is now calling all of us to step up and do some other things. How that will manifest it in each one of our lives is up to the Lord and you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I bear testimony to you that it is His work. And although it may seem small, great things have small beginnings. By small means the Lord brings great things to pass. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.net\/pdf\/2017.07.30_Unity-in-Christ_transcript.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TRANSCRIPT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>These remarks were given at a conference held in Southern Utah County on July 30, 2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-podcast"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Unity In Christ - Restoration Archives Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unity In Christ - Restoration Archives Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"These remarks were given at a conference held in Southern Utah County on July 30, 2017.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Restoration Archives Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-02T00:06:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-14T15:51:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brent\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"28 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/\",\"name\":\"Unity In Christ - Restoration Archives Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-02T00:06:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-14T15:51:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/240b7fe9ec41b39d12b4f4986d6a4075\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Unity In Christ\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Restoration Archives Blog\",\"description\":\"Recent developments in the preservation efforts.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/240b7fe9ec41b39d12b4f4986d6a4075\",\"name\":\"Brent\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/963cf404fd60fb26d505034e6563a627439380977d70137cc6859df5567cf437?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/963cf404fd60fb26d505034e6563a627439380977d70137cc6859df5567cf437?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Brent\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/author\/brent\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Unity In Christ - Restoration Archives Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Unity In Christ - Restoration Archives Blog","og_description":"These remarks were given at a conference held in Southern Utah County on July 30, 2017.","og_url":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/","og_site_name":"Restoration Archives Blog","article_published_time":"2020-05-02T00:06:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-14T15:51:13+00:00","author":"Brent","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Brent","Est. reading time":"28 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/","url":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/","name":"Unity In Christ - Restoration Archives Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-05-02T00:06:49+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-14T15:51:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/240b7fe9ec41b39d12b4f4986d6a4075"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/01\/unity-in-christ\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Unity In Christ"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/","name":"Restoration Archives Blog","description":"Recent developments in the preservation efforts.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/240b7fe9ec41b39d12b4f4986d6a4075","name":"Brent","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/963cf404fd60fb26d505034e6563a627439380977d70137cc6859df5567cf437?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/963cf404fd60fb26d505034e6563a627439380977d70137cc6859df5567cf437?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Brent"},"url":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/author\/brent\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9DrVi-8y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1073,"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/1073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restorationarchives.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}