Mormon Direction

We all know of what God said about faith and what diminishes it. The most common thing is sin, or to be wicked, to abide in Satan’s rule or influence and so forth, but what many people do not realize is there are other things that also diminishes faith, such as the act of remaining in fear or fear based thoughts, choices and actions. Allow me to explain.

Everyone has shortcomings, personal faults that affect their life. God gave us shortcomings so that we may be made humble by them (Ether 12:27), but also by them, through faith and enduring, God can help us make these weaknesses into a strength when these shortcomings or faults are overcome in the right way (2 Nephi 3:13 / 2 Corinthians 12:10 / Hebrews 11:34).

What many do not realize is that by these inward personal faults, a person can easily diminish his or her faith instead of increasing it and this is all by their own doing, in how they use free will and choice and the manner of beliefs they carry and choose to live. This speaks of two sides, the good and the bad.

When a person chooses to overcome their shortcomings or personal faults, this is the good side, but only if they choose the help of the Holy Spirit and that person allows the Spirit to humble them. Then that person’s faith is increased, made deeper and more rooted and he or she gains an inner spiritual strength that withstands negative spiritual influences. This is a process that takes time if a person perseveres, abides in the Spirit, journals, prays, repents, remains obedient, that person will overcome their fault, made stronger and faith surer.

When a person chooses not to overcome their shortcomings or personal faults, ignores the Holy Spirit, whether or not they pray, chooses to forsake humbleness as part of the process, gives in to their faults or justifies them in any way to keep them, ignore them or both, that person’s faith is diminished, and the scriptures say so.

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IN the scriptures, it is said that if we deny Christ, he would deny us (Matthew 10:33,Luke 12:9,2 Timothy 2:12) and those who deny Jesus Christ are also denying his power thereof (2 Timothy 3:5). It was warned for these latter-days that many will deny him even though they profess to be with him. When hearing all the claims by Christians, one may wonder how this can happen, well it already has.

I was reading a magazine published by the Seventh Day Adventists named “Adventist World”. In it was an article titled, “Adventists and Muslims: Five Convictions – How to build on what we have in common”, written by William G. Johnsson. This article appeared OK until I came to a paragraph at the bottom of page 26. What William G. Johnsson said surprised me. In light of the intensity that most Bible only believers call themselves Christian, his paragraph on page 26 addressed the usage of the name “Christian” when interacting with Muslims. In the context of that article, William G. Johnsson wrote about how he chose to interact with those of the Muslim faith. Mr. Johnsson said,

“In meeting Muslim leaders, I emphasize from the outset that I prefer to be known as an Adventist rather than as a Christian. For Muslims the name “Christian” carries such negative associations—associations that do not belong with Seventh-day Adventists—that I would rather avoid the term. And “Adventist” captures well the driving pulse of who we are—our hope in Jesus’ return and sense of divine calling to tell it to the world.”

On-line URL: http://adventistworld.org/article.php?id=708

As I re-read that paragraph and then again the remainder of the article, I understood Mr. Johnsson to say that he does not want to be identified as a Christian because of the negative reputation it has and the negative reaction by the Muslims. Was I incorrect in reading this? To get some clarification, I emailed the magazine asking for clarification and I received an answer from William Johnsson himself and is as follows.
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I spoke of self-esteem and a relation with God ( see “Self-Esteem and Faith” ). Now I wish to speak of what self-esteem means to me and what works.

The world provides a lot of advice about boosting self-esteem, but the main problem with worldly advice that it does not work well for the faithful, those who abide with God and want to keep themselves spiritually healthy. When I spoke of self-esteem and a relationship with God, I spoke against worldly opinions, ideas and thoughts because they work contrary to gospel principles and faith. I understood what self-esteem meant in regards to faith and from that I understood what it meant to myself in life, both spiritually and temporally

Not long ago, I thought I had good self-esteem, until the Lord led me to see I did not. When I spoke of self-esteem to another, I was also seeing myself and when the Lord turned the light bulb on, I realized that my self-esteem was not what it should have been. In this I realized that God does care about self-esteem and he does teach that low or lower self-esteem is bad for faith because it hampers the person from actually giving their best to God. Sure, God loves us either way, but God loves to see that we perceive ourselves rightly and his love cannot work for us when we allow ourselves or give excuse to lower our self-esteem. Simply, when we reject ourselves, we reject God also because we are in his image and the rejection is of his own image. It is the same as a loving parent feeling rejected when their son or daughter, who are born in their image, rejects themselves. Thus, God loves us to learn to love ourselves in the right way.

What then can we do to raise self-esteem and include our faith in it?

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When researching the word “adultery” in the scriptures a person will normally see that the word is associated with sex outside the union of marriage. Other scriptures that do not specifically refer to adultery against marriage, speak in a more general sense as to the nature of some people, as the reference, “adulterous people”, such as what is found in Jeremiah 9:2 and Mosiah 1:13. In reading these references, one wonders if God speaks of these people as all having sexual affairs. Since that does not show a sensible application of the word “adulterous”, then God must be applying that word to mean something else. So what does he mean?

We know that sexual adultery corrupts marriages and in turn, families. It is the affect of the act carried into a marriage or relationship that causes the corruption. As easily as the children suffer the sins of the parents without having committed the sin themselves, so shall the sin of adultery bear onto the members of the family in the same way.

What then can be the definition of adultery in order to understand its application in life and spirit?

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Everyone deals with shortcomings about their self-esteem or self-image. How they perform at work, at home, in relationships, in their personal or public performances, whether they feel worthy or unworthy. At one time or another, if not repeatedly, everyone has some issue with their self-esteem, but in this struggle, has there been any concern about self-esteem versus faith?

When it comes to faith, it is a matter where each person must take account of themselves and evaluate the nature and degree of their self-esteem and then see how this affects their faith.

Faith is the expression and act of love, devotion and obedience to God and for him. It is the trust in his will and trust that he will help and bless. Faith is also the expression of oneself to God, the who and what we are. In this expression of oneself comes the value of oneself. This personal value is the gift that we, as sons and daughters of God, give to God.

IN the scriptures God speaks about the value of how we give a gift where he said, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” (1 Cor 2.9:7). Gods speaks of the value of the heart and mind in things that we give to him and to others. Giving our faith grudgingly, is not faith at all. To exercise the commandments of God because you believe you have to, what value is this to God and his kingdom?

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