Come, Follow Me: The righteous shall Prosper in the land

As I studied the Come, Follow Me material for the week 23 to 29 March 2020 I pondered the question 

What do you learn from these accounts that can help you “prosper in the land”?

As part of my tour and culture guide training that I have done recently, I have been reminded of the absolutely fantastic country in which we live in South Africa. It is suggested that the Khoisan who were encountered at the Cape by Jan van Riebeeck and other European explorers in the 1400s and 1500s are the oldest humans and that South Africa has many of the oldest mountains and life forms on Earth! I love living here.

I love the way that my father described how God, after finishing creating the Earth, emptied out His pockets and tipped out gold, diamonds and many other wonderful resources on this southern tip of Africa. Perhaps he was inspired to refer to Kirstenbosch as being part of the garden of Eden that remained intact. Maybe the four rivers mentioned in Genesis 2:10-14 that flowed from the garden and became into four heads divided what became Africa, Australia, Antarctica and America after the continents drifted... So perhaps Kirstenbosch was part of the Garden of Eden after all... It is such fun to hypothesise... But, I digress...

I suppose that the Khoisan people were prospering in the land in the Cape way back in 1653 - they had sufficient for their needs and were content. They lived in harmony with each other and with the land. 

The Khoisan were surrounded by great wealth of natural resources that include rivers, landscapes, resources such as gold, diamonds, iron and platinum, but they left these gifts or talents from their loving creator buried. However, they did live in harmony with each other and with nature, and that is highly commendable. I believe that they prospered in the land. 

Then other people came and set up a refreshment station for ships travelling between the Netherlands and their trading stations in Batavia. The Dutch and other settlers such as the French Huguenots, the British and others had grand ideas and they irrigated the landscape and extracted resources from the earth and developed infrastructure such as schools, universities, hospitals, cities and dams. They transformed the landscapes as they irrigated and developed vast tracts of land. This put pressure on the Khoisan that meant that they were no longer content and prospering in the land. Infectious diseases, philosophies, ideologies, pressures, dependencies (alcohol, tobacco), sexually transmitted diseases, all sorts of novelties were introduced. There were some definite advantages, but also some definite disadvantages. Similar impacts applied in the case of the Shoshone in northern Utah when the saints came and used the land as I read this past week in Saints Vol 2. Similarly, many other people have faced challenges as strangers entered their lands with novel customs and ideas. This has happened all over the Earth and throughout all of history.

Were the Khoisan better off without universities, hospitals, schools, agriculture, mines, technology?
The command was given to man as stated in the first chapter of Genesis, from verse 28:

 'And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth'.

Was it good or evil to transform and develop the land? Exploiting the people in the process was an evil, but does that make everything evil?

The Khoisan would hunt and take animals as they needed them, and would then use the meat, skin and everything that they could, but only what they needed. Many others came and exploited the animals for greed, status, pride, and there will never be enough to satisfy greed - the difference between sustainable and unsustainable utilisation. The Khoisan could enjoy equilibrium and prosper in the land as they utilised the resources in a sustainable manner and the land provided sufficient for their needs. 

The settlers prospered in the land because they used the abundance of natural resources to expand and develop - except that greed overcame them, and greed is never sustainable. Greed always makes one believe that there is not enough to prosper. The people who exploit the land do so in an unsustainable manner because they do not automatically make sustainable harvesting part of their mindset.

In terms of having children, the Khoisan were fruitful and multiplying, but were they being fruitful and multiplying the gifts that they had been given in the form of natural resources? A lot of people today are being fruitful and multiplying in terms of temporal things, but neglecting to have as many children as they might, and then training up those children to be the fruitful, multiplying, replenishing citizens that will exercise wise dominion over the wonderful world with which we have been blessed. Some people dearly wish that they could have children - think of Sarai, Rachel and Hannah in the Old Testament. Some, as one woman told me of her choice in 1973, choose to not bring children into this world that is filled with so much that is evil. Some choose to not have the inconvenience of children in their pursuit of worldly success. Some choose to not pass on problem genes. Some adopt or help others to nurture their children because they cannot have their own children. Being fruitful in leaving a great posterity is not the blessing that all will have.

The settlers who thoughtlessly or thanklessly exploited were being fruitful and multiplying, but failing to replenish with responsible dominion.

I believe that our Father in Heaven desires that we not just be consumers, subsisting on the land without being fruitful and multiplying - I believe that the Lord indicated that the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have the mission of being the blessing in the nations, which includes being fruitful, multiplying, replenishing citizens that will exercise wise dominion over this Earth and its resources.

I guess that each person needs to consider what he or she is doing to be, and to leave a posterity that will be, fruitful, multiply, replenish and have dominion, while being good to other people, living things, and the environment - living in harmony with nature, in harmony with each other - and in harmony with God.

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After pondering this again three days later, my thoughts turned to the greater blessings that the Lord desires to pour out on us. I propose that He wants more than for us to simply exist well on the land. I think that His desire is for us to not just double two talents, but to find the other three talents and double those as well. He wants us to make the desert blossom as a rose. He wants to rebuke the devourer for our sakes and bless our harvest. He wants us to be fruitful, multiply, replenish and have dominion, while being good to other people, living things, and the environment because of our love for and commitment to Him. That is why He could send the Israelites to Israel and the Saints to the Salt Lake Valley - because they would make more out of the desert than simply existing on the land. This includes all that is encapsulated in the ten commandments: our having no other gods before Him; not getting distracted by other things and putting them before Him; lovingly and respectfully honouring His name; making the sabbath a holy day; honouring father and mother - with a promise that our days will be long upon the land that He gives to us; respecting life, respecting sexual purity; respecting the property and rights of others; being filled with integrity; and returning to the Lord and others thanks for the wonderful blessings that we have by not coveting or being greedy. I hope that I can become all that my Father in Heaven wants me to become.

Panorama Ward conference theme 2016

We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. That is our first Article of Faith. We believe that he wants us to have eternal glory, with Him.

His Son, Jesus Christ, taught us that 'After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven...' He taught us that we are children of Father in Heaven, one who has a kingdom.

For the past ten years I have been encouraging ward members to qualify for and receive driver's licenses to improve their self-reliance. As I worked with some of them, and with my own children, it became quite evident that the objective in the minds of many driver's license examiners is to look for every reason to fail the candidate. Contrast that with what I believe is the objective of our Father in Heaven as He will examine us in the final judgement. I firmly believe that the objective of our Heavenly Father is motivated by His love for us, and His absolute wish that each and everyone of us would come unto Him in purity of heart so that He can welcome us back into His presence. It grieves Him when we choose to become unclean in thought, word or deed. He taught Moses 'Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time.' He wants everyone to pass, but every individual who passes will pass because he or she chose to repent. No one can pass while in an unclean state.

Alma taught 'And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.' As we develop these characteristics as part of our being, we repent, become clean and can  inherit the mansions prepared for us. The Saviour taught 'In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.' How sad it will be for a mansion to be prepared, but we fail to turn up to occupy it!

The Saviour also told a parable of great power.

31 ¶When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

 42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Some time ago I read about wealth creation. Robert Kyosaki mentioned hearing the Have, Be, Do relationship. In searching for this, I came across this by Tracy Corrigan 'The only way I could get a true definition of happiness for myself was to identify what it wasn’t. As in, what was absent: When I am NOT anxious, fearful, worried, scared, angry, resentful, depressed, sad, lonely, tired, jealous, greedy, lazy, hungry – I am at peace, and I am very happy. So, when I am calm, accepting, loving, kind, gentle, compassionate and empathetic towards myself, I am happy, and I can naturally extend those things to others because it is the very operating system of Who I Am. When I have let my judgments of the past, and projections onto the future go, I am fully present and happy with myself, wherever I am, doing exactly whatever it is I am doing at that moment. It is completely independent of people, places or things around me. BE happy is a state of being, not an emotion. That’s my definition of happiness for me, at least.'

In essence, as children of God, we HAVE divine potential. Sometimes we DO things that Heavenly Father wants us to DO. But, until we strive to BECOME, to BE, of a Divine Nature, we are not succeeding in Heavenly Father's vision for us. I recently heard someone comment on the term 'human beings', that we are not human doings or human knowings, but BEINGS.

Once again, to quote Jesus Christ in Matthew 22: 36-40:

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

 38 This is the first and great commandment.

 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Love the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart, soul and mind. That ALL is everything.

I am reading the book The Undaunted and was impressed that young David is so excited when approaching his 6th birthday that he can start working at the mine! He will be underground in total darkness for most of 12-14 hours each day, earning some money to help his family. That touched my heart and made me think of the divine inspiration in Jacob's words 'And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.'

In the Sunday School discussion today we have read about looking to Christ as the children of Israel were instructed to look to the brazen serpent 'And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.' I have often thought about what this meant. If you were one of the children of Israel, in a camp of hundreds of thousands, even possibly 3 million people, what is the likelihood that you were conveniently close to the serpent to be able to simply turn and look? In all likelihood you would have needed to walk at least a few minutes, if not hours, to be able to look  upon it. But the promise was there, and it was simple - look, and live.

May we set out with devotion and commitment to follow the example of the faith, hope and charity exemplified by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Once again, as verbalized by Alma:

22 And now my beloved brethren, I have said these things unto you that I might awaken you to a sense of your duty to God, that ye may walk blameless before him, that ye may walk after the holy order of God, after which ye have been received.

 23 And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

 24 And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.

 25 And may the Lord bless you, and keep your garments spotless, that ye may at last be brought to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the holy prophets who have been ever since the world began, having your garments spotless even as their garments are spotless, in the kingdom of heaven to go no more out.

Let us press forward in our duty to God being blameless, of the holy order, humble, submissive, gentle, spotless. Then we can be welcomed in to 'sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the holy prophets who have been ever since the world began' being comfortable in their presence, our confidence having waxed strong in the presence of God.

May our hearts be committed to so do, I hope and pray.

Tantrums and SDBs

(This is a repost of an earlier post. I could not sort out some issues with the labels, so I deleted the post and reposted it)

I remember my father and mother teaching me (I guess their frequent repetition meant that I needed to learn it) to drive five hundred metres ahead of myself on the road, anticipating what I would need to do rather than only reacting to the things right where I was, or being surprised by things further down the road when I got to them.

In 1981, when Sally and I went to Salt Lake City for our marriage, my brother asked me to buy him a copy of Eliminating your SDBs at the Brigham Young University Bookstore (Jonathan M Chamberlain, July 1978, ‘Are you a procrastinator? A compulsive eater? A perfectionist? Do you frequently experience feelings of inferiority? Depression? Withdrawal? Are you afraid of relationships? Of other people? Of failure? If you answered yes to any of these self-defeating behaviors so common in our society today, this book is for you.’).

I reflected a great deal on the thought of these Self-Defeating Behaviours (SDBs). For example, think of a couple who have a lovely family of four or five delightful children and how they are all looking forward to a bright future. This family is trying to follow common sense – letting common sense direct their life rather than the physical ‘here and now for me’. They are looking ahead and wanting to prepare for a brighter future, rather than being in the teenage mode where, as I am told, teenagers ‘cannot see beyond Friday night’, or the tantrum mode which is about ‘me and now’: ‘if it is in line with what I want here and now then that is right’. Common sense does not go down well with this childish ‘terrible twos’ mode. Tantrum mode is possibly the ultimate manifestation of SDBs.

Now picture the same family some years later, when their marriage has broken up and their children have grown apart, and one of the parents makes the comment that ‘I have never been happier than I am now’. Think of this situation and compare it with when the family had great capital and frugal ways. At the later time they may have exciting ways but they are eroding their capital. One could equally say ‘I have never been richer’ but the wealth is not sustainable because the capital is being eroded. Instead of a long and bright future in view, they have the ‘me and now’ in view and are happy. The happiness cannot last, however, because its base is eroding. They have lost sight of eliminating SDBs. Note that at the later time the comment ‘I have never been happier’ is not the same as saying ‘I am happier than I have ever been’.

Last Friday night, after again reading about the demise of a great civilization, which was probably the Mayan civilisation, I asked my wife, ‘Are you seeking the promptings of the spirit? Do you receive the promptings of the spirit? Do you follow the promptings of the spirit? Or has the spirit stopped striving with you?’ I think about these questions every time I read the accounts of the Mayans where an entire civilization was destroyed because they were in the throes of an ultimate ‘tantrum mode’. Common sense had completely deserted them and they were being driven purely by ‘me and now’ pride and anger, rather than being sensible and looking ‘five hundred metres down the road’ at their future and letting humility and common sense direct them. Well, I suppose that by the stage that they had reached, their future had been diminished to the lot of a bunch of grumpy old men existing with each other because their wives and children had been killed, and what kind of a future would that be? Well, let me tell their story.

The history recorded by a man called Ether and his predecessor historians indicates that this civilisation had numbered in the millions. After about 1900 years into their recorded history, during which they had had good times of happiness and prosperity, and bad times of war or famine, they reached a point where two factions – one led by a man named Coriantumr, and one led by a man named Shiz – were again at war. The historian Ether came and warned Coriantumr that he was on a path towards destruction if he continued in his war against Shiz. Coriantumr was the king over all the land. The king did not like what Ether was telling him, so Ether was cast out and had to live in exile in a cave. But he went frequently to observe unseen and record the goings-on of his people, and he witnessed and recorded their wars and eventual complete demise.

The demise of this civilisation occurred following a period when some people worked secretly to undermine the king Coriantumr. Coriantumr was cunning in warfare and fought force with force, violence with violence, but he did not employ common sense and wisdom. The death toll was high in the first year of the final period as a result of this guerrilla warfare as the enemies tried to obtain the kingdom.

Ether again warned the king to be guided by right and common sense, but the king persisted in his violent ways rather than teaching right ways. In the third and fourth years there were wars in which the kingdom was alternately taken from, and then retaken by Coriantumr. Rather than there being unity among the people, there were many bands fighting or robbing, and tyranny with people seeking their own gain. Battles prompted by anger raged in which either side prevailed, then lost ground again, and many, many lives were lost, and all the people were shedding blood and there was none to restrain them because the king was wounded and recuperating during a period of some five years.

Then, for some two years, there was a total lack of personal security as all were at risk of having their tools or weapons stolen. As tyranny prevailed, many thousands died as new contenders arose to try to take the kingdom. Families of killed leaders rose in vengeance trying to take the kingdom and, as usual, the general populace were the losers as a small minority of individuals sought for power. The last contender, who was trying to avenge his brother, was named Shiz, and the battles raged and the land was littered with dead bodies, the war being so much the order of the day that there was nobody to bury the dead. Now it was not only the warfare, but also the stench of rotting corpses that made life miserable. But Shiz persisted in his vengeance for his brother who had been killed by Coriantumr.

Shiz battled and pursued the king, but the battle turned and Coriantumr then pursued the armies of Shiz, who in their retreat killed any of the population who would not join their cause. Later, Coriantumr was in a position of advantage in a fortress, and maintained his position despite being seriously wounded. Shiz lost much ground and many people and withdrew.

At this point, Coriantumr was trying to follow common sense as more than two million of his people, in addition to their wives and children, had been killed, and he realised that he and Shiz were in a lose-lose situation. Although Coriantumr was prepared to give up his kingdom to spare the people, they were too angry and did not want to give in to Shiz. The people of Shiz were also angry and wanted to finish the war at all costs. The battle raged and progressed day by day, moving from place to place due to a continuous cycle of pursuit and retreat.

Finally, everyone was gathered into the two armies in one place for their final battle, except Ether who remained to chronicle the events. For four years each army gathered all the support that they could for this final battle, gathering men and their wives and children. Following the first day when there was no clear victor, there was great mourning and sorrow in the camps. Coriantumr again tried to make peace in order to spare the people, but Shiz and the people were blinded by rage and anger and would not accept any peace treaty. They fought day after day, out of control in their blinded state. This continued day after day until fifty two men remained to battle against sixty nine men. The next day it was down to thirty two against twenty seven.

Still they fought! I guess they had lost sight of any future because they were acting senselessly, and after all, what future was there? There were only a bunch of miserable men remaining as all of the soft targets, their wives and children had been killed. What was there left except to kill or be killed? Finally it was only Shiz and Coriantumr left, and Coriantumr killed Shiz. He was now left, a lone man, except for Ether, but he clearly was not about to welcome Ether back into his company. So Ether finished his record, and Coriantumr wandered and was eventually found by a people of another civilisation, probably either the Incas or Aztecs, forefathers of the American Indians who also discovered the record left by Ether.

But, as sad as this tale is, this other civilisation that took in the aged Coriantumr did not learn from it and they also had factions who battled with each other, until the entire destruction of one of those factions some five hundred years after Coriantumr and Shiz had their last battle. Thus were left the people who survived to be discovered by the explorers Pizarro, Cortez and Columbus some 11 centuries later.

But really – are there intelligent adults who give way to SDBs? Come now – don’t be melodramatic! Well, let me see...

We have just been all too aware of farm workers striking near De Doorns in the Western Cape in November 2012. I was among many people who had to divert their route of travel away from the N1 to bypass the action. Here are a group of labourers who want more income than they were getting. Now, that sounds reasonable, because inflation keeps on making any income become less than adequate, and labourers generally receive a pittance to start with. So, they express their wish for higher wages. But the SDBs involved are that they then burn down the vineyards of their employers. How can a farmer pay any worker if he has no vineyards from which to harvest grapes to sell in order to have any income with which to pay his workers? So, instead of higher wages, they now face no wages. Does this sound like the ridiculous story of the couple who killed the goose that laid golden eggs, or what?

And what about abused husbands or wives who remain in their abusive marriages because they lack the self esteem or confidence to leave the destructive situations?

What about the abusive partner? Marriage is between two people who, according to the marriage covenant, become one flesh. So the abuser is using self destructive behaviour because he or she is destroying that ‘one flesh’ of which he or she is an integral part of the whole.

It is unfortunate indeed that all too many people lose their perspective and lose focus on their future ‘five hundred metres ahead of them’ and just live for the ‘me and now’ and common sense leaves them. They cease seeking for common sense or guidance by their conscience, or following their conscience, or even become devoid of conscience. They do not seek or desire the guidance of the spirit, or if they receive it, they do not follow it, or even get to the point that the spirit ceases striving with them because they have become clearly opposed to that guidance.

Whatever your belief, in spirit or common sense, I hope that you can relate to these situations and can recognise the need to take a decision to not be guided by anger, despair or any Self-Defeating Behaviour and lose common sense, but to eliminate your SDBs and follow a course of common decency or common sense. Don’t get to the point where there is no future worth anything as in the case of Coriantumr and his grumpy old men. Life is worth living. There is a brighter future that is worth preparing for, and that should be our most earnest desire. This really can only come when we are in harmony with each other as opposed to when we are pursuing ‘me and now’ – being in tantrum mode. I hope that each of you may find the joy of love and harmony with a wonderful bright outlook for the future.