WE NEED BOTH THE CHURCH AND THE GOSPEL

Jesus Christ gave us His gospel and also organized His Church 

Much of our missionary service pertains to reaching out to less-active members of the Church who have stopped coming to Sunday services and other related activities on a regular basis. When we are able to meet with such individuals and families, Sister Lindsay and I are discovering that they often express their belief that the gospel is still true even though they aren't currently participating in Church programs.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which was organized in 1830, is structured after the pattern of the Church first established by the Savior when he performed His mortal ministry here upon the face of the earth more than 2000 years ago:

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowldege of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; (Ephesians 4:11-14)

The Church today is well-known for its worldwide humanitarian work that benefits members and nonmembers alike. With its strong focus on the family in these troubling times, the Church has programs for children, youth, men, and women. Our welfare system cares for our members and promotes self-reliance in a manner that is not duplicated anywhere. But most importantly, the fullness of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ is uniformly taught throughout the Church to members in congregations around the globe.

Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy suggested recently that we sometimes use the terms gospel and Church interchangeably, but they are not the same. They are, however, exquisitely interconnected, and we need both. The Lord wants the members of His Church to be fully converted to His gospel. This is the only sure way to have spiritual safety now and happiness forever.

It is essential for everyone to understand that the purpose of the Church is to help us live the gospel. Attending Church is outwardly visible to others who are present; however, when people stop coming to Church, it may be that they were not sufficiently converted to the gospel. The inward, less visible attributes of Church membership reflect the things of eternity especially our personal relationship to God the Father, His Beloved Son Jesus Christ, and to the Holy Ghost.

For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart? (Mosiah 5:13)

From the scriptures Jesus counsels all who would be His followers that if we truly love Him, we will keep His commandments (see John 15:10-11). Exercising faith in Jesus Christ includes praying to the Father in the name of the Son while seeking direction in our daily activities through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. In addition to our prayers, we have the constant need for spiritual nourishment as found in God's Word and a sincere desire to give ourselves in service to one another. These are the ingredients of personal conversion to the gospel, which makes our membership in the Church even more precious to us!

A LIBRARY HAS BURNED DOWN!

Someone once astutely suggested that when an old person dies, a library burns down. Knowledge that is acquired line upon line, pondered deeply, and wisely applied over an extended span of years is irreplaceably lost when the repository of that learning is gone from us. I'm sad to report that earlier this month a vast collection of knowledge, wonderfully organized, and expertly catalogued was lost with the death of Catharine Hauver Ahalt, one of the last surviving instructors that Sister Lindsay and I had as a teacher (Latin and history classes) during our high school days back in the early 1960s.

Catharine Hauver Ahalt was a local girl who was born, raised, and married in Myersville, on the western edge of Frederick County Maryland. She lived her entire life in this rural farming community. Her father and grandfather were both teachers, and it seemed natural that she would in turn follow them into the classroom. By the age of nine, Catharine's responsibilities included saddling a horse and riding to town for groceries and the mail. When she was just 16, her mother died; so she became the surrogate mother for her younger siblings while also helping her father in the home and on the farm. She was also riding the trolley into Frederick each day to attend classes at Hood College. Catharine Ahalt was a remarkable high school teacher for 37 years and also served as the postmistress in Myersville during World War II. She passed away on July 7th at the age of 100!

Saint Paul's Lutheran Church in Myersville

Attending the funeral service last weekend brought back a lot of childhood memories of people that I have known and loved who once lived in this quiet village but now rest in the cemeteries behind the Lutheran and Methodist Chuches. What a blessing it has been for me to have been allowed to grow to adulthood in such a peaceful community surrounded by so many wonderful individuals who helped to prepare me for life in a bigger and more complicated world.

Country Church 

 A. Norman Lindsay

Yes, I recall in my home town,

The belfry bells and their sweet sound;

How folks would come from miles around

To this small church to pray.

The steeple white was placed with care

Upon the roof up in the air.

From far away, you’d see it there.

The belfry seemed to sway.

With tiny plaques “In Memory Of,”

The stained glass windows, gifts of love,

Let heaven’s light in from above

How warm the sunlight’s ray.

The choir would practice Wednesday night.

Some sang off key, but that’s all right.

My, how they’d sing with all their might!

Their voices trailed away.

The minister, in robes of black,

His sermon done, would stand in back,

And love these people. That’s a fact.

Warm greetings he would say.

The congregation I knew then

Has gone out back to meet again.

With marble stones placed over them,

They’ve all come here to stay.

I visit them once in a while.

I read their names; and then, I smile.

Each face recalled from memory’s file;

And my love, I convey.

This church was built with loving care,

Constructed both by work and prayer.

May they find peace, who worshipped there,

On resurrection day.

WHAT IS MAN THAT THOU ART MINDFUL OF HIM?

When I consider the heavens . . .

As a boy growing up in rural Frederick County, Maryland, I remember being outside lying on the flat of my back on a warm summer's night and gazing up at the vast canopy of stars and galaxies overhead. It was peaceful and quiet there in the farmland of Middletown Valley that was my home, and the view of the heavens was unobstructed and breathtakingly beautiful. "Who is God," I wondered to myself, "that He could create all of this and still know me as an individual person?"

I didn't yet know very much about Heavenly Father or His beloved Son, Jesus Christ; but I had a sincere desire to believe that there was someone greater than me who knew that I existed and even cared about what I thought and worried about in my own little world. It would be sometime later when I discovered the words of David in the Old Testament of the Bible:

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: (Psalms 8:3-6)

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church, captures the feeling that I first experienced when I gaze into the heavens as a youth: "The universe is so large, mysterious, and glorious that it is incomprehensible to the human mind. The wonders of the night sky are a beautiful testimony of that truth. There are few things that have filled me with such breathless awe as flying in the black of night across oceans and continents and looking out my cockpit window upon the infinite glory of millions of stars. Astronomers have attempted to count the number of stars in the universe. One group of scientists estimates that the number of stars within range of our telescopes is 10 times greater than all the grains of sand on the world’s beaches and deserts."

Given those kinds of numbers and knowing that God has created all of this, it would be easy for each of us to rationalize that we are pretty insignificant in the overall scheme of things. But then, again, Heavenly Father doesn't look at things the same way that we do with our finite minds. He has a very different way than that of the world to weigh the true worth of a soul. 

President Uchtdorf tells us that God Himself had declared that we are the reason He created the universe! His work and glory—the purpose for this magnificent universe—is to save and exalt mankind. In other words, the vast expanse of eternity, the glories and mysteries of infinite space and time are all built for the benefit of ordinary mortals like you and me. Our Heavenly Father created the universe that we might reach our potential as His sons and daughters.

And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine. And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words. For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. (Moses 1:37-39)

So being highly esteemed by Our Creator and having been made in His image and likeness, we must begin to realize the great potential that lies within each of us even the very least of us (as we might be viewed by the world).  Compared to God, we perceive that man is nothing; yet we are everything to God. While I may have viewed myself during my boyhood as being insignificant against the backdrop of those infinite number of stars in the sky, I now understand that God knows me and all of His children by name and desires to help each of us to fulfill the purpose for which He created us.

PEACE IS NOT BLIND

As Sister Lindsay and I work with people from many different ethnic backgrounds who are struggling with difficult economic situations and various family challenges here in Baltimore, it is far too common that we find individuals who have experienced very little peace in their lives. The urban environment itself, together with continuing hard times for those seeking a better way to provide for themselves and their families, has a way of keeping people's emotions very close to the surface.

Tempers frequently flare and individuals easily become angry with each other resulting in aggressive behavior that often leads to verbal threats, physical violence, police arrests, and lawsuits.

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. (Mahatma Gandhi) 

 We plead for peace in our prayers and thoughts

Marvin J. Ashton, a former member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, once shared this true story as he endeavored to direct the thinking of a group of Church members toward the important word peace. A beautiful little blind girl was sitting on the lap of her father in a crowded compartment in a train. A friend seated nearby said to the father, “Let me give you a little rest,” and he reached over and took the little girl on his lap.

A few moments later the father said to her, “Do you know who is holding you?”

“No,” she replied, “but you do.”

Some might be inclined to say, “What a perfect trust this child had in her father.” Others may say, “What a wonderful example of love.” And still others might say, “What an example of faith.” To me it indicates a beautiful blending of all of these principles, which brought a priceless inner peace to the child. She knew she was safe because she knew her father knew who was holding her. Affection, respect, and care over the years had placed in this little girl’s heart a peace that surpasseth all understanding. She was at peace because she knew and trusted her father. 

Oh, May My Soul Commune With Thee

Lorin F. Wheelwright

Oh, may my soul commune with thee

And find thy holy peace;

From wordly care and pain of fear,

Please bring me sweet release.

Oh, bless me when I worship thee,

To keep my heart in tune,

That I may hear thy still, small voice,

And, Lord, with thee commune.

Enfold me in thy quiet hour

And gently guide my mind

To seek thy will, to know thy ways,

And thy sweet Spirit find.

Lord, grant me thy abiding love

And make my turmoil cease.

Oh, may my soul commune with thee

And find thy holy peace.

We often plead for peace in our prayers and thoughts as do many others all over the earth. But just where exactly can we find this peace that we long for as we witness wars, evil, greed, selfishness, and contention all over the world? Just as the little girl could sit peacefully on the stranger’s lap because her father knew him, so we can find peace if we know our Father in Heaven and learn to live by his principles. Through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ we can know the Father; and we can experience true peace.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)

LIVING LIFE IN A DENTED, OLD, RUSTY BUCKET

We need to bloom where we are planted

As many of you know, I love photography; and my camera is almost always nearby and ready to use. Even though we are all God's children, in many respects we may appear to be very different from each other. When I take a picture, it is nothing more than a snapshot of an individual at a specific point in time. If an individual's entire life from the moment of birth to the time of our death was represented by an extensive collection of successive snapshots, we would probably view it as a motion picture. And probably, each of us would want to remove many of those individual images, because we wouldn't like what we see!

How many times have we viewed a picture and thought how silly a person might look because of their appearance? We observe the old-fashioned hair styles, out of date clothing fashions, or perhaps the strange eyeglasses and wonder why anyone would dare go out of their house looking like that? Do we feel uncomfortable around people who don't look like us. Perhaps the individual has made poor decisions involving over-eating, alcohol, tobacco, or other problems that have resulted in the abuse of their body? It might be that the person is old or it could be that some illness or accident has left them less than attractive in our eyes. How do we really feel when another person appears to be different from our expectation of normal?

Thomas S. Monson, President of the Church, once told the story about a member of a women’s organization who complained when a certain woman was selected to represent the organization. She had never met the woman, but she had seen a photograph of her and didn’t like what she saw, considering her to be overweight. She commented, “Of the thousands of women in this organization, surely a better representative could have been chosen.”

True, the woman who was chosen was not “model slim.” But those who knew her and knew her qualities saw in her far more than was reflected in the photograph. The photograph did show that she had a friendly smile and a look of confidence. What the photograph didn’t show was that she was a loyal and compassionate friend, a woman of intelligence who loved the Lord and who loved and served His children. It didn’t show that she volunteered in the community and was a considerate and concerned neighbor. In short, the photograph did not reflect who she really was.

President Monson then asked, "If attitudes, deeds, and spiritual inclinations were reflected in physical features, would the countenance of the woman who complained be as lovely as that of the woman she criticized? Appearances can be so deceiving, such a poor measure of a person."

Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. (John 7:24)

A woman was visiting with a friend who had a greenhouse. As she looked at her friend’s flowers, she noticed a beautiful golden chrysanthemum but was puzzled that it was growing in a dented, old, rusty bucket. Her friend explained, “I ran short of pots, and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn’t mind starting in this old pail. It’s just for a little while, until I can put it out in the garden.”

The woman smiled as she imagined just such a scene in heaven. “Here’s an especially beautiful one,” God might have said when He came to the soul of a physically unattactive person who lived out his life in a less than perfect body. “He won’t mind starting in this small, misshapen body.” But that was long ago, and in God’s garden how tall this lovely soul must stand!

EVER HAD ROAST TURKEY ON THE 4TH OF JULY?

What do you do when you end up with a lemon?

I believe that it was the famous writer and lecturer Dale Carnegie (1888-1955) who first suggested that when fate hands us a lemon, let's try to make a lemonade. Well, we certainly had a lemonade moment this past weekend when a massive storm wreacked havoc across the countryside from West Virginia to New Jersey with high winds and heavy rain that left millions of people to deal with downed trees and damaged property. The Baltimore and Washington, DC/northern Virginia areas were particularly hard hit; and even now, thousands of households remain without electricity.

One of the senior missionary couples who lost power for more than four days ended up with a somewhat urgent need to do something about food that thawed in their freezer. Of particular concern was the question of what to do with a large turkey and some chicken, which could not be refrozen. The choices were to either throw the poultry into the trash or host a dinner party for some of their closest friends.

Sister & Elder Lindsay at the 4th of July turkey feast

Have you ever had roast turkey and grilled chicken together on the 4th of July? Well, that's exactly what five of the senior couples in The Maryland Baltimore Mission did yesterday. It's not all about waving the flag and watching fireworks in a lawn chair, you know! Never mind that the temperature outside was a sizzling 100 degrees . . . we had a grand old time visiting with each other while enjoying our unusual feast. After adding in some summer squash, cucumbers, and a juicy watermelon, we just might be creating a new holiday tradition.

PRESIDENT & SISTER RICHARDS HAVE ARRIVED

Elder & Sister Lindsay with President and Sister Richards

We had our first meeting with President Mark Richards and his wife, Karlan, at the Baltimore Zone Conference today. They are warm, outgoing people and easy to like. President Richards told the assembled missionaries, "We're not expecting to replace the Bellistons. That's not possible, We know that you will really miss them. They have done a wonderful job."

President Richards then announced, "You are receiving a mission president downgrade . . . you are getting a family!" The Richards, who have six children, have brought their youngest son, McKay (age 16), and daughter, Josie (age 13) with them on their mission. He suggested to the young elders and sisters in our meeting that there will be times when they might see him dressed informally and doing things as a husband and father, but he will always be wearing his name tag. This personal declaration of his joint responsibilities as a mission president as well as a father will undoubtedly be well received by the missionaries who look to him for leadership and as an example.

"We had no idea when the storm came on Friday night," he continued, "that it would be so severe. Ironically, the last question Sister Richards asked before the Bellistons drove away from the mission home was 'when do we put up the flag?' (referring to the metal flag pole in front of the house). In the morning, it wasn't a problem because the pole was broken off at the ground. (Winds in the Baltimore Friday night reached 80 mph at the height of the storm). This was the only damage on the property."

In a kind and generous gesture during the zone conference, President Richards walked up to Sister Lindsay and me and told us how grateful he and his wife are to have us and the other senior missionaries serving in the Maryland Baltimore Mission while acknowledging the sacrifice and effort that it takes for seniors to serve a full time mission at their own expense. He then told all of the young elders and sisters that they should enjoy their relationship with us and listen to our counsel because of our experience and long time service in the Church. Our district leader who was seated beside me reached over and patted me on the back with a big smile on his face.

President and Sister Richards had their picture taken with each missionary in the Baltimore Zone, including us; and then he conducted a brief individual interview with everyone who was present in the meeting.