Gospel Thoughts

Thoughts from my gospel doctrine class at the Cascade First Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Also, general gospel thoughts not related to any particular lesson. Subject to revision at any time.

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Location: Orem, Utah, United States

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Old Testament lesson 6 - reaching heaven

The lesson conclusion talks about ways not to reach heaven, and ways to reach heaven.

This brings up an observation I've had for many years. Why do we want to reach heaven? That question can only be answered when we find out what lifestyle qualities are worthwhile. I once had an inspiration to lookup scriptures that mentioned the word "light", and see what else was mentioned in that verse with light. Spiritual light comes from the Lord, and supposedly brings some kind of happiness. The result was quite enlightening (pardon the pun):

Truth, also known as knowledge.
Love.
Light itself, a spiritual warming influence.
Life.

Based on that, I made a list of desired lifestyle qualities and their opposites, as well as some observations.

Observtion: The gospel of Jesus Christ is designed to maximize the variety, quality, quantity, and duration of lifestye. However, it is patently impossible to achieve that lifestyle by sitting on your fanny and expecting others to do the required character and value system change (mighty change of heart) for you. You must bust your tail at it yourself. If you do so, then exaltation inherently has no limit to variety, quality, quantity, or duration of lifestyle.

Here is the list of desirable lifestyle qualities from the Lord and their opposites from Satan:

Light/Darkness, Effort (work)/Laziness, Truth/Lies, Knowledge/Ignorance, Love/Hate, Peace/War, Happiness/Misery, Order/Chaos, Life/Death, Simplicity/Complexity, Free agency/Compulsion, Permanence/Temporariness, Cooperation/Selfishness, Confidence/Fear.

Which do you want? Are you willing to work to achieve that?

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