"And verily, verily, I say unto you, he that receiveth my gospel receiveth me; and he that receiveth not my gospel receiveth not me."
Doctrine and Covenants 39:5
I find this interesting just because sometimes I think we want God to accept us on *our* terms. Exactly the way we are, no changes and no work necessary. And, you know, in a way he does. He loves us the way we are, but because he cares about us, he wants us to improve. I think the key here is not God's acceptance of us, but OUR acceptance of HIM. God can be close to us outside of church, I think we all know that... but can *we* be close to *him* when we reject his gospel? I don't think that we are going to have any problems, in the end, with God not caring about us or wanting the best for us. I think our problems are going to come if we can't accept God and his ways. Whether we can manage to live by them or not, there are rules and there are guidelines that God has set forth to help us to learn and become better than we are. If we reject that help, or refuse to acknowledge that we need it, then we aren't going to become the people that we can be, and we aren't going to learn who God really is. God loves us, no matter what, no matter where, and he asks us to come to him. That requires movement on our parts... and acceptance of and obedience to his laws. It's the PhD program that he wants us to pass so that we can help him with his advanced work... but if we can't even learn to sit still or raise our hands in kindergarten, we will never never get there. Sometimes God asks hard things of us, and we bristle and think that we have to choose fascism in order to get to heaven... I know that my nephew feels that way whenever we tell him that he has to come inside the house. If he were offered complete freedom, I think he would stay out there all the time. As we are children, sometimes we don't always understand why God asks us to come inside, or why we can't play with dangerous things... but he is wiser than we are, and someday, if we accept the guidelines, we'll avoid getting blown up or run over by a car, and we'll graduate from high school, and college, and grad school, and we'll stand beside him, knowing everything that he knows, and be able to have some real conversation with him. I look forward to that. :)
Doctrine and Covenants 39:5
I find this interesting just because sometimes I think we want God to accept us on *our* terms. Exactly the way we are, no changes and no work necessary. And, you know, in a way he does. He loves us the way we are, but because he cares about us, he wants us to improve. I think the key here is not God's acceptance of us, but OUR acceptance of HIM. God can be close to us outside of church, I think we all know that... but can *we* be close to *him* when we reject his gospel? I don't think that we are going to have any problems, in the end, with God not caring about us or wanting the best for us. I think our problems are going to come if we can't accept God and his ways. Whether we can manage to live by them or not, there are rules and there are guidelines that God has set forth to help us to learn and become better than we are. If we reject that help, or refuse to acknowledge that we need it, then we aren't going to become the people that we can be, and we aren't going to learn who God really is. God loves us, no matter what, no matter where, and he asks us to come to him. That requires movement on our parts... and acceptance of and obedience to his laws. It's the PhD program that he wants us to pass so that we can help him with his advanced work... but if we can't even learn to sit still or raise our hands in kindergarten, we will never never get there. Sometimes God asks hard things of us, and we bristle and think that we have to choose fascism in order to get to heaven... I know that my nephew feels that way whenever we tell him that he has to come inside the house. If he were offered complete freedom, I think he would stay out there all the time. As we are children, sometimes we don't always understand why God asks us to come inside, or why we can't play with dangerous things... but he is wiser than we are, and someday, if we accept the guidelines, we'll avoid getting blown up or run over by a car, and we'll graduate from high school, and college, and grad school, and we'll stand beside him, knowing everything that he knows, and be able to have some real conversation with him. I look forward to that. :)
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