The Church is just a vehicle >>> To Christ



Weds, 7/28/2021

I was tired from staying up late today, working very hard (calls, selling, invoicing, follow up calls, pricing, customer services, monitoring CTM calls, texts, labeling CTM calls, monitoring jobber Texts, rescheduling etc, doing the workout (235 lbs sumo deadlift & leg day).

I decided to list to a Classic BYU Speech and at first was bored listening to this one: 

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/george-w-pace/developing-personal-relationship-savior/


But an urging, my conscience and the holy ghost told me to keep listening, because I needed to hear this. (After moving the Cardenas, 4.5 hrs sweating my butt off, cleaning the kitchen, mowing the lawn, just was exhausting). I was feeling depressed and mentally, spiritually drained. I was feeling some resentment toward the Cardenas that they rarely come to 2nd hr and don't seem engaged in the 'wrestle' with Christ. I don't want to feel that resentment and frustration. 

I'm grateful I listened to that urging, I'm grateful the holy spirit is talking to me!

This is what I needed to hear:


Every ordinance in the gospel is a channel of power to us if, as we function in those ordinances, we develop a ever-increasing personal relationship with the Lord. But those ordinances won’t change our lives unless we know who he is. They can’t touch us in the manner they ought to do unless somewhere along the line he really comes alive. The power of redemption isn’t in the ordinances per se; the power of redemption isn’t in the Church per se. The ordinances and the Church are a means to an end, channeling the power that can flow from the Master. The degree to which you and I know him and relate with him and give our lives to him is the degree to which that power will flow through the ordinances and principles. Oh, brothers and sisters, I know that’s true. I know we’re finally saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, but we must have the ordinances.

We have a divine organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If we’ll see the Church as a means to an end and simultaneously look to the Lord with all of our hearts, then every ordinance that we participate in will be a blessing, will lift us, will change us, will qualify us to become more and more like the Lord. However, some of the time we find ourselves getting caught up in the machinery of the Church. Some of the time we get caught up in the theology of the Church, in the programs. Some of the time, because we get caught up in those things, we fail to realize that, unless somewhere along the line the image of the Savior becomes emblazoned on everything we see and everything we do, then the great purpose for that divine organization and its divine principles will be nullified.

Let me liken membership in the Church to the possession of a beautiful, powerful car. In fact, it’s the finest car money can buy. We love to get in it and drive around; there is a great deal of satisfaction in just owning it. We obtain so much satisfaction in possessing the car that we fail to realize the car was given to us as a means to an end, not an end in itself. It was given to us to make the most important journey in our lives. SO it is with the Church. It’s a beautiful, successful organization capable of bringing many blessings into our lives, but the main reason we were given the Church is so that we might make the journey from where we are to where the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is, that we might learn who he is and exercise a mighty faith in him!

What a challenge to make sure we realize the Church must be a divine launching pad to Christ, that the Church is a means to an end, that it may be possible to be converted to the Church without being converted to the Lord.


Cliff notes:

What is the best vehicle in the world?

What if there was a car that guaranteed your safety no matter what? 


The best vehicle in the world 


https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/george-w-pace/developing-personal-relationship-savior/

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