Business and financial gurus wisely tell us to not put all our eggs in one basket, but I violate that advice regularly in other areas of my life. Marriage: one basket. Patriotism: one basket. Religion: one basket. Favorite ice cream flavor: ..... okay, maybe that one does branch out .... frequently .....
I'm digressing. Let's go back to the religion basket.
We might say that in this basket, the eggs are various points of doctrine along with personal life experiences. My basket is my testimony, or in other words, my time-tested conviction that the gospel, as taught in the LDS Church, is true. In addition to a lot of logical evidence, woven into my testimony are .... spiritual reinforcements and communication from God in its various forms, via the Holy Ghost who is often referred to as the Spirit of God.
Plain and simple, it just never stops feeling right.
(Note: If you adhere to a philosophy, belief-system, or life style that has not exposed you to such feelings of comfort and ... right-ness .... I humbly offer the suggestion that you are missing out and that you take a look here.)
I know that many non-LDS Christians are dubious at best, about such feelings. And their argument has merit.
Some say, "I feel that the doctrine which I follow is correct, and you feel that something different is correct .... therefore one of us must be wrong ...... therefore you cannot trust feelings and ALL answers must come from the <Bible>." (Feel free to <insert> whatever spiritual resource you choose.)
Makes sense. And we NEED that reminder that those answers usually DO come from something God has already said ..... a lesson we LDS tend to forget and then get impatient when God doesn't just TELL us already! (As in ... you mean I have to study??)
Therefore, it seems to follow, that all feelings must be suspect.
And I would agree. Caution definitely has its place.
So should I toss out feelings all together?
Heavens no. The Bible, which centers on the mission of Jesus Christ, promotes those feelings. In the Book of Luke, chapter 24, Christ is resurrected, meaning after death his body is again united with his spirit and he rises from the grave. Word of this miraculous event naturally spread and some time soon thereafter, his uncle and another man were walking along and talking about what had happened. Unrecognized at first, Jesus joined these two men on their walk and the conversation continued. Later that day they realized who he was and at that moment, he vanished from their sight. Their words then say it all as they marveled at not recognizing him sooner:
"Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?" (verse 32)
Hence ...... feelings. The Holy Ghost, who testifies only of truth, is doing his job.
So can the Holy Ghost confirm one thing to you, and to me something different?
There are several possibilities here:
1. One of us is wrong and one of us is right.
2. We're both wrong.
3. We're both right.
Numbers one and two are pretty obvious. They happen. But number three? Let's look at it .....
I firmly believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only religion on earth with the God-ordained power to administer the ordinances needed by all for exaltation. Repeat .... needed by all. "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." (Ephesians 4:5) But there may be different roads getting there.
IF the Lord confirms your quest to find Him in another religion then, in my opinion, go with that. By all means! We have many, many converts in the LDS Church who came to us from other faiths and they bring an invaluable wealth of freshness and perspective. Their road was right for them. I was born into this religion and the Lord tells me to stay put. That's my road and it's right for me. Some .... in fact a huge, whopping MOST, will never receive those above mentioned saving ordinances in this life and the Lord in His loving wisdom and mercy, has provided a way for them. In the meantime, and for now, they may be a blessing to the world right where they are. There are countless individuals and organizations who set the bar very high by their charity and other contributions to our unsettled world. Truth can be found in more than one basket and we should never be afraid of finding and acquiring more eggs.
That said ...... we have been commanded in the last few verses of the Book of Matthew to share what we have, so share we must. Eternal principles are just that .... eternal .... and there are people who are ready to return to those truths that they embraced before birth veiled their pre-mortal memories. That "veil", so to speak, keeps us from remembering our past and seeing our future thus causing us to develop our faith*. (*See previous blog post.) We must find those people and they must find us. But again, there are others who, perhaps, still have things they need to do or to experience elsewhere ... on their own road .... before coming home. And we must respect that. The Lord is your Father and my Father and He loves us all. If we turn to Him in full trust and humility, He will direct each of us on whatever road we need to bring us safely to the one and only gate that leads back to Him. No one wants that end result more than He does.
So back to those feelings. Are you right? Or am I?
I cannot speak for you nor for anyone else. I cannot claim to know what God has told you to do. I can only speak for me and ....... I am where I belong .... holding the door open, ready to welcome anyone who might want to share my basket of eggs.
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