I immediately followed up my email to my friend (see Beating a Dead Horse) with this:
What I'm learning here...is that I'm not called of God to preach these things. I'm called to do them (the works of righteousness, if I can figure out how to). I need to come unto Christ myself and embrace Him in the flesh before I tell anyone else to do so. Then I'll have something to talk about and share with others. Then I'll have something to offer you that would be convincing.
Other than that, I have only my word. And, frankly, my word isn't good enough and ought not be believed. (We don't need another "false prophet" to follow!)
I wish "the Brethren" had the courage and conviction to do the same thing. Unfortunately, The Church™ "ropes them in" to undertaking an activity in the name of God for which they are unprepared and to which they must aspire to perform, even without the gifts. Some of them gain the gifts (to some degree), while others do not. And it is left up to us to choose whom to "follow," though there be "wheat" and "tares" among them.
But I'm getting upon my "soap box" again.
Go in peace. I'll leave you alone. And I'll work on my own salvation with fear and trembling.
I trust you're doing the same.
God bless you, brother. Thanks for the dinner.
You wrote something interesting here:
ReplyDelete"I'm not called of God to preach these things. I'm called to do them (the works of righteousness, if I can figure out how to). I need to come unto Christ myself and embrace Him in the flesh before I tell anyone else to do so."
My intuition would tell me the same thing. I think a couple of things would suggest otherwise, however, depending on how you read them (like any scripture, I'm sure they can be interpreted in many other ways beyond the apparent superficial meaning).
"...it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor." D&C 88:81 (I'm reluctant to interpret being warned as meaning seeing Christ personally; I think a more likely meaning is that you've been told you need to do so...)
The other is at: http://denversnuffer.com/2015/10/missionary-work/ (I'm sure you can recognize it as being similar to various sections of D&C...)
These were just some thoughts I had as I read your post; I'm not sure how useful they are (or even how correct they may be), but I hope you don't mind my sharing them... Best wishes!