Friday, November 24, 2000

Omni 1:26

"And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption.  Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved."
Omni 1:26


Offering our *whole souls* is a huge thing... an all-encompassing thing.  In the Old Testament they used to do sacrifices of animals, and I think that was probably more symbolic of the real offering that is taking place here than anything... Probably the closest thing that we usually experience to this in our modern world is romantic love, where even the movies tell us that we are supposed to base our lives and our worlds in the other person.  The only problem with that is when you give your whole soul to someone, it is pretty hard to get back... even when they are engaged with someone else's.  Giving our souls to someone else isn't the romantic ideal... then one person is without a soul, and the other is trying to juggle more than one.  it's tough.  Sharing our souls is more the idea... sharing our lives, our hopes and dreams... two souls together becoming something that neither of you could have become alone.
In reality, the only one who can *handle* our whole souls is he who placed them here in the first place... our Father.  He gives them to us freely, and when we give them back freely, then everything works out ... when we put the Lord first, everything falls into its proper place, or out of our lives, as Ezra Taft Benson said.  God is supposed to be part of us... he is what gives life to everything that we are in the first place, and including the engineer in the improvement process is just a good idea. :)  The thing is, we have to be willing to let go of the parts of our soul that need some reworking.  We need to be willing to give up our bad habits... our imperfections... the souvenirs of hell that we are still carrying around, for old times sake. :)  When we offer our whole souls to our father, who made them... he helps us to change and to become better, and delights to be part of our lives.  He knows how to fix anything that is wrong... and is the only one who has the ability to take care of our souls and return them to us better than when he received them.

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