Daily Closer to Christ » Blog

Exodus 37:11 – Leviticus 1:14

My friend has an old milk barn.

This year he started working on fixing it up.  He has great plans for it.  Someday it will be a little cabin for his family.  I love to watch him talk about the vision of what it will become.

But it’s going to take a lot of work.

So he spends a lot of time there.  Much more than you might imagine.  And he’s gathering a lot of stuff.

One day, when it’s finished, it will be a blessing to his family.  Because of the sacrifice.  Because of the time.  Because of his vision of what it could be.

It will become a place of refuge.

 

I am reminded of the story of John Moyle.

The chief superintendent of masonry for the Salt Lake Temple.  He worked on the temple for over 20 years.  Every Monday he would walk 22 miles to the temple site.  And every Friday he would walk home.  22 miles.  Twice a week.

Building the temple required a lot of work.  So he spent a lot of time there.

One weekend a cow bolted and kicked John in the leg breaking every bone beneath the knee.  The leg would have to be amputated.  So they got the bucksaw from the front yard, strapped him to a wooden door, and sawed it off.

When against all medical likelihood his leg began to heal, he carved himself an artificial leg. He practiced walking around his home, then around his yard, and finally around his property.  When he thought he could stand the pain, he strapped on the leg and walked 22 miles to the Salt Lake City temple.  He was 77 years old.  Once he arrived there he climbed up the scaffolding and chiseled the words “holiness to the Lord” into the stone.

Now the temple is finished.  Every time I look at that stone I think of John Moyle’s life.  The sacrifice.  The time.  The sanctification.  The consecration.

The sermon of John Moyle’s life was “Holiness to the Lord.”

I am reminded of that sermon every time I visit that place of refuge.

 

The story of the people of Israel building the tabernacle matches this pattern.  Moses was much like my friend.  The Lord gave Moses a vision of what his people could become.  But it was going to take a lot work.

And a lot of time.

First Moses taught his people what it meant to be obedient.  He spoke of repentance.  And they became sanctified.

He asked them to give, to keep back nothing.  And the people brought much more than enough for the service of the work. (Exodus 36:5)   “For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work, and too much.” (Exodus 36:7)  Within the giving, his people learned what it meant to become consecrated.

On the very last day, after the ark and the mercy seat had been built, and the curtains had been sewn, and the garments completed including the hand made golden bells, and the pomegranates, one final thing took place…

After the sanctification.  After the consecration.

“And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like to the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD.  And they tied unto it a lace of blue, to fasten it on high upon the mitre; as the Lord commanded Moses.  Thus was all the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation finished.”  (Exodus 39: 30-32)  It wasn’t until Holiness to the Lord had been fastened upon the mitre that the work was finished.

And for Israel it became a place of refuge.

 

I wonder to myself, where am I in this process?

Because sometimes my life looks like the old milk barn, and I hope Someone has some great plans for it.  A vision.  Even if I can’t see it right now.

I am willing to work hard.

To give much more than enough.  Sufficient…and too much.  To bring my finest.  A willing and a wise heart.

To sacrifice.  To consecrate.

Because when I am finished, when I have walked the last mile, and chiseled the final stone, I want my life to be holiness to the Lord.

I want to find in Him my refuge.

Exodus 33:13 – Exodus 37:10

I have to admit that the first time I read the word wise hearted I was immediately intrigued.  I wanted to know more about that.  I prayed that the Lord would teach my heart that principle ––I really wanted to understand.

The Lord has this way of teaching us that I am slowly coming to recognize.  It requires prayer.  It requires scripture study.  It requires each of us to act on promptings in behalf of another.

Today the Lord has taught my heart.

The lesson was contained in a pound of butter.

As crazy as it seems, that pound of butter taught me what it means to be wise hearted.

Perhaps you wouldn’t mind if I shared the learning with you.

Last night I had the opportunity to discuss sacred topics with a group of women.  We spoke of hope, trust, faith, optimism, and prosperity.   As the topic turned to prosperity one of the women asked, “What is prosperity?  What does it mean in your life?”  I said the first thing that came to mind, “Prosperity is when you go to the grocery store and you don’t have to spend time looking at the price of every brand of butter to find the cheapest one.”

That might have been a trivial description, but each of us could relate to having financial burdens.  We spoke of all the things we would focus on if money, and professions, and expenses didn’t have to occupy so much of our minds.

This morning I felt like having warm bread and butter for breakfast.  I pulled out the bread and then opened the fridge only to realize I was completely out of butter.  I couldn’t help but be reminded of our conversation the night before.

I put butter on my list of things to do.

Within the hour someone knocked on my front door.  It was one of the women I had been with the night before.  She stood there on my porch with a pound of butter tied up in white tulle.  “I just felt prompted to bring this over this morning,” she said simply, “and to say the Lord wants you to have prosperity.”

I was momentarily speechless.  And then I said, “How did you know I needed butter?”  Which was as ridiculously trivial as the definition of prosperity I had given the night before.  “I didn’t know,” She said, “I just woke up at 4:00am this morning and felt a prompting that you needed butter.  This morning.  Before I did anything else with my day.”

The funny thing is, I could have totally made it through the day without the butter.  I would have picked some up this afternoon. I tried to figure out the urgency of the 4:00am prompting and then I realized…it wasn’t about the butter.

It was about the lesson.

Because just after the butter came I read this description of the wise hearted people found in Exodus…

“And they came, every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord’s offering to the work.”  (Exodus 35:21)

And I followed the footnote for the word offering, and it said, generosity.  “And they brought the Lord’s generosity.”

“And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted…”  (Exodus 35:22)

“Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart…”  (Exodus 35:35)

“Every wise hearted man, in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it.”  (Exodus 36:2)

And I thought about my friend.  The one whose heart had been stirred up.  The one whose spirit was willing.  The one who brought the Lord’s generosity.   The one who the Lord had filled with wisdom of heart.

She who had a willing heart.

Who didn’t think it might be odd to drop off a pound of butter to someone who was perfectly capable of obtaining her own, but took the wisdom of the Lord in her heart and then acted.

Through her willing and wise heart I learned an extremely powerful lesson today.

…and through a pound of butter.

In a very simple way it was a very powerful lesson in consecration.

Perhaps right now, this very moment, you could ask the Lord for a wise heart.  Maybe you could ask that you might be the means of extending the Lord’s generosity to someone, somehow, today.  It doesn’t have to be outlandish.  A stick of butter can be life changing.  Trust me.

Maybe today you could ask to be made wise hearted.

And then let your heart be stirred up, and let your spirit be made willing.

 

Exodus 29:31 – Exodus 33:12

Do you find yourself asking how could this have happened?  Really, how hard could it be?

Oh, Israel, are you so quick to forget the bondage, the plagues, the parting of the red sea?  The cloud and the pillar of light?  The crossing of the river bed on dry ground?  How about the manna, or even the pigeons?

Because it seems like the manna would have kept appearing every morning of the 40 mornings Moses was upon the mount.  Did it become too commonplace, these miracles in the midst of the ordinary?

Is it so hard to walk forward, to follow the Lord, to obey?

“Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:  They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.”  (Exodus 32:7-8)

I can’t help but focus on one phrase, “they have turned aside quickly out of the way.”

And I am discouraged by Israel’s choice

Until

I take a good hard look at my own life.

And I realize, I do that.  Sometimes I turn aside quickly out of the way.  Because moving from where I am to where I need to be is often harder than I thought.  I make the choice for the better.  I feel the confirmation as I press forward. But then the stretching becomes painful.  Staying the course becomes exhausting.  I look at where I was before and it seems familiar, and easier, and more comfortable.  And so I turn aside.  Just for a little break.

It can happen so quickly.

For just one moment I can understand Israel’s fear that their prophet has disappeared and isn’t going to come back.  I can understand the disappointment in the eyes of a brother as he asks, “What did this people unto thee, that thou brought so great a sin upon them?” (Exodus 32:21)  I can hear Moses begging the Lord to give Israel one more chance. Another try.

I know that fear, that disappointment, that discouragement, that plea.

And then the Lord answers.

“I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.”  (Exodus 33:17)

And my thoughts fill with grace, and how it applies to sanctification.

The Bible Dictionary explains that grace is a divine means of help or strength, an enabling power after we have expended our own best efforts, assistance that we otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to our own means. Immediately one thing becomes clear to me ––I do not have to move from where I am to where I need to be alone or by my own means. The Lord will press forward with me.  When the stretching becomes painful He will be my help and my strength.  When staying the course exhausts me, He will become my enabling power.  He knows me.  He knows my name.  I am not alone.

There is comfort in that knowledge.

Therein I find strength.

So I will move forward with the Lord by my side…

“…having not the smallest desire to go one step backward.”  (Mary Fielding Smith)

 

Exodus 25:39 – Exodus 29:30

Today as I read my thoughts are filled with beauty.

Blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen.

Chains of pure gold and wreathen work.

Silver and brass and precious stones.

“Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.  And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.”  (Exodus 25:2 & 8 )

I am reminded that they are in the wilderness.

And I ask myself, Can beauty be found in wilderness places?

And I realize the offering will require sacrifice.

Giving up.  Giving all.

It will require them to bring their finest to the Lord.

I recognize that through this bringing of their finest, there is a process of sanctification taking place.  A process of consecration.

I study sanctification in the dictionary:  To make religious.  To free from sin.  To set apart.  I see that it comes from Latin sanctus, which means ‘holy.’

And I realize that sanctification includes giving up in the sense of letting go.

Next I study consecration:  To make sacred.  To devote something exclusively to a particular purpose.  To dedicate.  I see that it comes from Latin consecrat, which means ‘dedicated’ or ‘devoted’ and from Latin sacer, which means ‘sacred.’  ‘Dedicated sacred.’

And I realize that consecration includes giving all in the sense of giving everything.

This bringing of their finest would require Israel to become dedicated.  Devoted.  Through the process it would become an experience that was sacred to them.  One that would make them holy.

Today I consider this path toward sanctification, toward consecration, toward holiness.

I want to understand what it means to bring my finest as an offering to the Lord.

We can’t underestimate the lesson we learned this weekend ––of laws, of judgments, of statutes.  Israel has been asked to walk in obedience in preparation for the covenant they are about to make with the Lord.  It is hard work, this walking in obedience.  In tomorrow’s reading that will become abundantly clear.  But, remember, we believe in a God of second chances.  He knows walking in obedience includes making mistakes.  He has provided One to plead in our behalf.

It is through the process of obedience, of repentance, of giving up and letting go, we become sanctified.

And as we bring our finest ––our offering willingly with our heart, giving all, we become consecrated.

Dedicated Sacred.

Holy.

For the rest of this week our reading will teach these two principles ––sanctification and consecration.

The importance of walking in obedience.

The reason for bringing our Finest.

In preparation.

For when Israel arrives at that place of sanctification, that place of consecration the Lord has given a promise:

“And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee.”  (Exodus 25:22)

 Exodus 21:27 – Exodus 25:38

In our home when we speak of obedience it always includes a tag line, “Are you above the law?”

For instance, when my kids ask, Why do I have to drive 25 miles an hour? or Can I go to the dance before I am 16?

The answer consists of the same five words… Are you above the law?

It is a quick reminder that the law given to the whole must apply to the individual.

Sometimes living within the law feels like a sacrifice.  But we must remember that there is safety in obedience.  Ever more important, we must remember that blessings from God are predicated upon our obedience.  (D&C 130:21)

 

 Yesterday afternoon as twilight began to fall we left our home and gathered with the Saints in the Conference Center so we could listen to an apostle of the Lord.

He asked us not to lie, cheat, steal or act immorally.

He reminded us to pray, to take care of our body, to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

He counseled us not to fill our mind with unholy things.

He said, “In order to be happy you must pay the price of obedience.”

Through him the Lord gave counsel with a promise; Learning to listen to the Holy Ghost is the quest of a lifetime.  When you learn how to do that you can live in enemy territory and not be deceived or destroyed.

He gave us one way to obtain safety.

 

One way to obtain a priceless blessing from the Lord.

In the time of Moses, the people gathered together so they could listen to a prophet of the Lord.

He asked them not to follow a multitude to do evil. (Exodus 23:2)

He reminded them to keep far from false matters, to rest on the Sabbath, to care for the widows and the fatherless.  (Exodus 23:7 & 12, Exodus 22:22)

He counseled them not to oppress the heart of a stranger, for they knew the heart of a stranger because they had been strangers in the land of Egypt.  (Exodus 23:9)

And the people said, “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.”  (Exodus 24:7)

Through Moses the Lord gave counsel with a promise; “Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.”  (Exodus 23:20)

He gave them a way to obtain safety.

A way to obtain a priceless blessing from the Lord.

Tonight my thoughts are centered upon obedience.

The laws.

The blessings.

For it is the same today as it was in times of old. The Lord speaks through His prophets ––sending counsel, requiring obedience, extending promises.

In this there is safety.

In this there is peace.

“As we walk in obedience to the principles and commandments of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

we enjoy a continual flow of blessings promised by God…

In times of distress, let your covenants be paramount and let your obedience be exact.

Then you can ask in faith, nothing wavering, according to your need, and God will answer.

He will bless you in “good measure, pressed down, …shaken together, and running over.”

(Elder D. Todd Christofferson, The Power of Covenants, April 2009)