THE TEN COMMANDMENTS TODAY - PART 10

TENTH COMMANDMENT:  Thou shalt not covet.

This is the last commandment and if you covet, you are open to breaking any one of the other nine commandments. 

All of the commandments work together and complement each other and go side by side with the scriptures, and all of them come from God.

When we ignore the Ten Commandments or the Scriptures we are open to Satan’s influences because he seeks to destroy the Plan of Salvation and he is determined to gain control of the sons and daughters of God and bring each under his power.   Do not take them lightly.

When it says “Thou shalt not covet” does not mean that we should not try to improve our situation and have a righteous desire for obtaining a better life. 

We are here to enjoy life and family and to make life better for them also.

We may see our neighbor have some better things in life but it does not mean we cannot have an honest ambition to have some of those things and not to covet the things he has. 

The Lord said the earth is full and has enough for all. 

If we want those things, it is good for us acquire them by honest effort and lawful means.

When men set their hearts too much on obtaining the things of the world and his ambition gets to the point that to obtain them he places his allegiance to the Lord and the principles of the Gospel second in his life or discards them altogether, he has gone astray.

When the material things of the world become that important to that person where it is placed in the place of God, those things are being worshiped and that is idolatry in the eyes of God.

In modern revelation the Lord said this about Idol worship:

Doctrine and Covenants 1: 16

16 They seek not the Lord to establish his righteousness, but every man walketh in his own way, and after the image of his own god, whose image is in the likeness of the world, and whose substance is that of an idol, which waxeth old and shall perish in Babylon, even Babylon the great, which shall fall.

In the Old Testament, Samuel told King Saul that sin was also idolatry and the Lord has rejected Saul in being king because he had rejected Him:

1 Samuel 15: 23

23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

IN SUMMARY:

The Ten Commandments were in operation before we left the spirit world.  The prophets have taught that civilizations needed to use these laws as a foundation to build on. 

Peace and happiness would come from obeying the Lord.  These laws would help each individual to develop and live their lives in a peaceful and fulfilling way.

The first prophet of this, the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times and the Restoration of the Gospel, the Prophet Joseph Smith stated:

“Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the commandments of God. But we cannot keep all the commandments without first knowing them, and we cannot expect to know all, or more than we now know unless we comply with or keep those we have already received. That which is wrong under one circumstance, may be, and often is, right under another.” (Teachings, pp. 255–56.)

This sacred law has been reiterated though out the scriptures and the modern revelations we have received from the prophets the Lord has placed back on the earth in our day, to guide us to peace and happiness. 

The Lord is not silent in our affairs today.  Have Faith and Trust in Him.

For more research on the scriptures, go to www.lds.org

Comments are welcome.

THE VALUE OF THE SCRIPTURES TODAY

What are Scriptures?

Any message that comes from God to man, whether written or spoken, by the power of the Holy Ghost is scripture.

Doctrine and Covenants 68: 2-4

2 And, behold, and lo, this is an ensample unto all those who were ordained unto this priesthood, whose mission is appointed unto them to go forth—

3 And this is the ensample unto them, that they shall speak as they are moved upon by the Holy Ghost.

4 And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation.

Scriptures are here to guide us in our earthly test or journey. 

They teach us how to live according to Eternal principles and laws.

Living Prophets Are Not Usually Listened To.

Here is a summary of the parable of the rich man and the beggar.  Luke 16: 19-31

The Savior gave a parable about a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus, who laid at his gates, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. 

Lazarus died and the Angels took him to Abraham’s bosom, and the rich man died also and was buried.

The rich man was now in Spirit Prison or Hell and looked up to Abraham and asked him to have mercy on him. 

Abraham told him that he had received the good things of life and Lazarus received evil things, now it was reversed.  He said there was a gulf fixed between them which neither could pass.

Then the rich man said that he had brethren still alive and asked that they be sent a warning so they would not end up like him.

Abraham told him, they have Moses and the prophets, who are living, let them hear them. 

The rich man said they would not listen to Moses, but if someone from the dead came from the dead and told them, they would repent. 

Abraham said, No, if they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, who are with them, they will not listen to those who rose or spoke from the dead.

Today.

The world is in that situation today.  There is a Living Prophet Today; he is President Thomas S. Monson, President and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

The Lord has restored His church and His Gospel in its fulness to the earth.

The Book of Mormon is that restored gospel. 

The writers of the Book of Mormon were all prophets.  

Each writer was a descendant of Lehi who was a prophet who lived in Jerusalem in 600 B.C. and with Jeremiah, another prophet, had called repentance to the people of Jerusalem.

They were angry with Lehi and Jeremiah. 

Jeremiah left to Egypt with some of the righteous. 

Lehi being warned of danger was instructed by the Lord to leave Jerusalem and was told that he would be led to a Land of Promise in the Americas. 

They were instructed to keep a record. 

It was kept from 600 B.C. to 421 A.D. of the wars and the sacred things that had happened to their civilization during this thousand year period. 

It was made on gold plates.  Gold was plentiful in that day, so they used it to record the records.  This would insure that the record would last through a long period of time to come out of the ground for us today.

The Lord sees the end from the beginning and prepared this record for us in the Latter Days.

This record was not recorded specifically for them, but was written by inspiration from the Lord to prophets during that time period, who are now dead, to come forth, in this day to us.  

This makes it scripture.  It is a companion with the Bible, not a replacement.

Those prophets are saying to us, listen to us and learn what we went through so you do not have to repeat our mistakes. 

It also tells us of the many blessings that they received from the Lord.

This is especially true when the Savior, just after His resurrection, appeared to the people in the Americas and gave them His gospel.

He told them they were the “Other sheep” he had mentioned to the Jews during his ministry, that He would go to.

In Jerusalem He said:

John 10: 16

16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

And He told them in the Americas as recorded in the Book of Mormon:

3 Nephi 15: 21

21 And verily I say unto you, that ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

This living prophet spoken of above receives revelation from the Lord for the direction of His church and the world today.

The Lord has revealed that President Thomas Spencer Monson is not only the prophet of this church, but is the prophet to the whole earth. 

The mission of Latter Day church is to spread the Restored Gospel and gather Israel again from the four quarters of the earth before the Lord’s Second Coming.

For further research go to www.lds.org

Comments are welcome.