The Rest of the Lord


Carborendum
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While I've been doing a lot of doomsday predicting lately, I thought I'd try to balance it with the other side.

I heard the warnings and promises which the Prophet had spoken about.  But I was so focused on the challenge of overcoming the world that I failed to listen to the counsel about "Finding rest".

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A young boy in the family picked up on the conversation. When the tour group entered an endowment room, the boy pointed to the altar, where people kneel to make covenants with God, and said, “Oh, that’s nice. Here is a place for people to rest on their temple journey.”

I doubt that the boy knew just how profound his observation was. He likely had no idea about the direct connection between making a covenant with God in the temple and the Savior’s stunning promise:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; … and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

  -- Matt 11:28-30

I really hope all of us can take the time to go over his entire talk.  I was going to try to clarify or rephrase in my own words.  But his words are perfect.  I can't improve upon them.  His explanation is clear.  I can't improve upon it. 

How I wish I would have paid more attention to the rest of his talk a couple weeks ago.  Please PLEASE listen to his talk again.  In the coming years, I don't know if there will be anything more important to help us through the dark times ahead.

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To seek the rest of the Lord suggests that some part of Him is missing and that we need to go and look for it. 

Actually, I have been thinking about which General Conference talk I should base my Priesthood lessons on for next week, and in part because of your post I think I'll go with this one. 

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On 10/14/2022 at 8:40 AM, Carborendum said:

While I've been doing a lot of doomsday predicting lately, I thought I'd try to balance it with the other side.

I heard the warnings and promises which the Prophet had spoken about.  But I was so focused on the challenge of overcoming the world that I failed to listen to the counsel about "Finding rest".

I really hope all of us can take the time to go over his entire talk.  I was going to try to clarify or rephrase in my own words.  But his words are perfect.  I can't improve upon them.  His explanation is clear.  I can't improve upon it. 

How I wish I would have paid more attention to the rest of his talk a couple weeks ago.  Please PLEASE listen to his talk again.  In the coming years, I don't know if there will be anything more important to help us through the dark times ahead.

This rest, I believe, is one of the miracles alluded to in the other thread, a byproduct of being yoked with the Lord. Rest, describe as peace and relief in the midst of vexing problems, is the condition of being grounded and settled despite the turmoil around us: 

Colossians 1: 23, "...continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven..." and Ephesians 3: 17-19, "...Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."

We often discuss the imagery of yokes in terms of how they benefit animals, and one of these benefits is that it grounds and settles the weaker animal of the pair or gives it the rest (stability) it needs to continue the labors demanded of it. 

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Yesterday in the temple while doing an endowment I happen to be in a session where the dialogue was displayed on the wall for deaf people. This was really fascinating as it made me pay more attention to the actual words used. One of the things that stuck out to me (without trying to get too specific) is at one point, not in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve are referred to as being in the Terrestrial world where previously they were referred to as being in the Telestial world. I was always aware that part of the endowment is transitioning from Telestial to Terrestrial to Celestial but I never picked up on the fact that post-fall Adam and Eve (and I guess us by inference) existed in what was labeled a Terrestrial world. Now clearly this was not meaning the earth had changed back to paradise so it must be referring to something else. It makes me wonder if this "rest" we speak of is that world referred to, a sort of spiritual paradise that allows us to separate ourselves from the Telestial world we live in. Though I would be happy to discuss other interpretations.

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This verse seems applicable here.

Alma 40: 12 And then shall it come to pass, that the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow.

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32 minutes ago, askandanswer said:

This might be nit-picking, but its hard to see how one could be seperated from sorrow without also being seperated from love, compassion and empathy. 

I definitely don't mean to imply that we immune to the influences of the Telestial world. Until we die we are forced to deal with it. But in some spiritual sense we are able to rise above it or as Pres Nelson mentioned we overcome it as we come unto the Lord.

Though your comment would make for an interesting discussion in relation to life during the Millennium.

Edited by laronius
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13 hours ago, askandanswer said:

This might be nit-picking, but its hard to see how one could be seperated from sorrow without also being seperated from love, compassion and empathy. 

The 3 Nephites have this explained to them. They are free sorrow “save it be for the sins of the world” (3 Nephi 28:9). This sounds like the compassion you speak of. But they are separated from the sorrow of pain and death and I’ll-fortune and such.

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This topic made me think of one of my many favorite scriptures.  These verses are in Alma chapter 12:

34 Therefore, whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest.

35 And whosoever will harden his heart and will do iniquity, behold, I swear in my wrath that he shall not enter into my rest.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Doctrine and Covenants 84:23-24

23 Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God;
24 But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore, the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fulness of his glory.

Here it is plainly laid out that entering into the rest of the Lord is gaining his presence in mortality, or receiving the Second Comforter.

Alan

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