Come Now, and Let Us Reason Together

(First, let me quickly apologize for being so behind on my blogging. I was in the process of blogging about Thanksgiving a month ago when I had some issues with downloading photos, that I have not had the time to try to resolve. As soon as I do, all the picturey posts will come. But until then, I can still write the un-pictured posts. Hope that's OK and you all don't stop reading because my posts have become less, well, colorful.)

Have I mentioned that I LOVE teaching seminary? I do! I love it. I love the opportunity to study everyday and share my love of the Savior with a bunch of fun teenagers every morning! (I don't know how they feel about having to see my face first thing, dark and early every morning, but like it or not, there I am... every morning.) :)

It is such a gift to me to be forced to open my scriptures every day, and to really study the word of God, and to ponder on the wonderful messages that they contain. This week I read these profound words which really struck my heart!

And now come, saith the Lord... and let us reason together, that ye may understand;

Let us reason even as a man reasoneth one with another face to face. Now, when a man reasoneth he is understood of man, because he reasoneth as a man; even so will I, the Lord reason with you that you may understand. D&C 50:10-12

This is the Lord speaking directly to his church leaders who had come to Him with a question. This is the Almighty God who says, in essence "Come here, my son. Lets have a chat." I can almost see Him pulling up a chair beside Himself, patting the empty seat, as an invitation to sit down with Him and have a real face-to-face conversation. It is so personal. So beautiful! And this invitation speaks VOLUMES of who our God really is and the kind of relationship he craves to have with each of us.

Christ is not a tyrant, not a distant and unapproachable being who makes his declerations from his golden throne high in the heavens and expects all to obey his demands or be thrust down to hell.

That is NOT the God I am coming to know. These words reveal a God who wants a personal relationship with me. With ME! A God who is my elder brother and wants desperately to be my friend, my mentor, and my confidant. He loves me, he always has, and he misses our face to face "chats" we had in a time before this life. He reminds us here that we can still have our little chats, our two-way personal communication. In fact, he is pleading for us to come and converse with him again.

On Monday morning, when we studied this, I had two students sit on the floor, back to back, and I dumped an identical pile of wood blocks in front of each of them. I told one he was the "architect", and the other was the "builder". The architect was to build a structure with the blocks, and as he went he was supposed to tell the builder exactly how to build his structure. The builder could only listen and obey. He was not allowed to look or ask questions or for any further clarification - just listen and follow.

Even though the architect did a good job of describing the structure he wanted built, the builder tried his best, but was not able to build his structure to the architects' specifications. I asked him what would have made his job easier. He said that if he could only ask questions that would really help.

So i let them try again. This time the architect gave his step by step directions, and the builder asked clarifying questions, "Is the long block vertical or horizontal?", "Exactly how far apart are the two cubes?", etc.

The results were two identical structures. The builder was able to exactly copy the architect's plans.

I explained how the leaders of the church were able to build Christ's own church here on the earth in the same manner. Christ is the architect of his church, and the church leaders are the builders and they want to build His church according to His specifications. For centuries man has be attempting to build His church using only the instructions provided in the Bible, but without clarification from the Lord, different builders have come up with various interpretations of what Christ's church should look like - none of them were just like His - not until he restored his gospel to the Earth in it's fulness to his prophet, Joseph Smith, by the power of revelation. That is what the Doctrine and Covenants is - it is the record of the clarifying questions Joseph and others leaders had as they attempted to build His church, and the specific answers that the Lord gave in reply. It is the record of this "reasoning together". The Lord did not just hand Joseph a thick instruction manuel on how exactly to build his church. Every revelation came only after a specific question was asked of Him, and this often after some trial and error. But look what it has built! This is the church that Christ himself has designed. It's divine design is evident in all aspects of the organization of this church - down to every last detail, and he is the head of it. Absolutely.

But the Lord's way of communicating, of reasoning together, is also how he hopes to help each of us, individually to build our own lives into what he has planned for us. He wants to be the architects of our lives, and what a master architect He is! Who would want to try to clumsily put together their own abode with the pile of blocks life throws at us when the great Architect is offering to design a mansion for just for us? Not me. I have seen His work in the lives of great men and women, and I am eager to turn mine over to the master as well! But it will only work if we, the builders, are in constant communication with the Lord - only if we pull up a chair and "reason together", really talk things out. The Architect's blueprints are the scriptures. We, as builders, need to study them carefully, and then if we have any questions, or need any clarification, or additional information, even encouragement, we can go to the architect in prayer. He in turn, will give is further instruction to answer our questions through the words of the prophets, ancient and medern, and through personal revelation via the Holy Ghost. If we do this, I think we will be amazed at what we each can build out of the pile of blocks that have been dumped in front of us!

I think that if we can remember this, that he wants to reason together with us in a two-way communication, that our prayers will become more meaningful as we come to him with those tricky spots in our lives that need clarification, and that in studying the scriptures and listening to the words of the prophets and the sweet voice of the spirit we will pay closer attention, because we know that is the only way the great architect can give us the instructions we need.

I am so grateful that our Lord is a loving, tender, and merciful god who's greatest desire is to spend a little one on one time with us - to sit and chat - to have a personal relationship with us. He loves us, and misses us, and waits for us to come to him in prayer and ask him to help us build our lives. After all, that is his work and his glory - we are his work and his glory - and the greater the buildings we build with our lives, the greater the architect He is.