Last Sunday...

Today was an interesting day in sacrament meeting.  Sun spoke.  She did a great job!  Our second speaker struggled to find a coherent line of reasoning.  It was super hard to follow.  And our third speaker  brought up some interesting ideas that sent my brain off on a major, but enlightening, tangent.  Wanna hear it?  I thought you might.

He spoke about Alma 46, specifically, Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty.  I know!! Awesome assignment, right?!!

He kept saying that he was wondering what these verses had for us today.

Then, he read these verses to us:

 11 And now it came to pass that when Moroni, who was the chief commander of the armies of the Nephites, had heard of these dissensions, he was angry with Amalickiah.

 12 And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it—In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children—and he fastened it upon the end of a pole.

 13 And he fastened on his head-plate, and his breastplate, and his shields, and girded on his armor about his loins; and he took the pole, which had on the end thereof his rent coat, (and he called it the title of liberty) and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land—

Then he said how cool it was that after Moroni had fastened on all of his armor, he bowed to pray-- and that, my friends, is where my brain took off.

I recognized immediately that just like Captain Moroni, our civilization is at war too.  In some places we are participating in physical wars, but more significantly, our civilization is participating in a war of ideologies and philosophies.  We are obviously continuing the war in heaven where Lucifer declared that he would be the chosen one and return all of us to the presence of our Father.  He only wanted a few things.  He wanted all of the glory and he wanted none of us to have our agency--righteousness or wickedness would not be our choice.  Those things would be decided for us.

Read Moses 4:1-4

 1 And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying—Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor.

 2 But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and Chosen from the beginning, said unto me—Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever.

 3 Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down;

 4 And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice.

And, just like Captain Moroni who fastened on his physical armor, the Lord asks us to fasten on our spiritual armor.  Check out Doctrine and Covenants 27:15-18:

 15 Wherefore, lift up your hearts and rejoice, and gird up your loins, and take upon you my whole armor, that ye may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all, that ye may be able to stand.

 16 Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, which I have sent mine angels to commit unto you;

 17 Taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked;

 18 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of my Spirit, which I will pour out upon you, and my word which I reveal unto you, and be agreed as touching all things whatsoever ye ask of me, and be faithful until I come, and ye shall be caught up, that where I am ye shall be also. Amen

I have this one hanging in my family room

And in Paul's comments to the Ephesians, Chapter 6:

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

 14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

 15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

 16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

 18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

I really liked this image!

And Paul, and Captain Moroni have the same responses after girding on our armor, to pray.  Moroni prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren.  Paul says that we should pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.  We should pray also, for the blessings of liberty to rest upon us and upon all people of the earth, that they may have the blessings to worship how, where, and what they may, as our 11th article of Faith states:

 11 We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

In Paul's comments, it is only by taking and putting on the WHOLE armor that we will be able to withstand in the evil day.  That day, my brothers and sisters, is today.  If we are not fastening on the entire armor of God--every day, and then praying mightily for our religion, our liberties and freedoms, and for our families, just like Captain Moroni, we may not be able to spiritually withstand the evil of our day and save ourselves and our families.  And what my dear friends is our Title of Liberty that we are fighting for across the globe?  Would it not be The Family: A Proclamation to the World?

Have we not all made covenants to support and sustain those leaders who brought us this document?  Is this not the very basis for some of the major discussions and discord happening right now in our nations and even within the Church itself?  When it came out, we all thought, 'Well, of course, I agree with that.  Why exactly do we need to spell it out?'

And now we are seeing why our Prophets and Apostles felt the Divine Hand of Inspiration leading them to spell it out.

We are the warriors.  We are the same people of the church Captain Moroni awakened when their lives and liberties and families were very much temporally on the line.  He awoke them to their duties and responsibilities and they made an oath and a covenant that they would be loyal and true to the cause or suffer death because they would not unite with their brethren.

And Moroni said to them:

 18 And he said: Surely God shall not suffer that we, who are despised because we take upon us the name of Christ, shall be trodden down and destroyed, until we bring it upon us by our own transgressions.

 19 And when Moroni had said these words, he went forth among the people, waving the rent part of his garment in the air, that all might see the writing which he had written upon the rent part, and crying with a loud voice, saying:

 20 Behold, whosoever will maintain this title upon the land, let them come forth in the strength of the Lord, and enter into a covenant that they will maintain their rights, and their religion, that the Lord God may bless them.

 21 And it came to pass that when Moroni had proclaimed these words, behold, the people came running together with their armor girded about their loins, rending their garments in token, or as a covenant, that they would not forsake the Lord their God; or, in other words, if they should transgress the commandments of God, or fall into transgression, and be ashamed to take upon them the name of Christ, the Lord should rend them even as they had rent their garments.

 22 Now this was the covenant which they made, and they cast their garments at the feet of Moroni, saying: We covenant with our God, that we shall be destroyed, even as our brethren in the land northward, if we shall fall into transgression; yea, he may cast us at the feet of our enemies, even as we have cast our garments at thy feet to be trodden under foot, if we shall fall into transgression.

They covenanted to be true to God and be obedient to His commandments or to be physically trodden down by their enemies!  We have to be just as true to our God and His commandments or we will be spiritually trodden down by our enemies---across the world, some people are being trodden down physically because of their beliefs in Christ!!  We must awaken our resolve!!  We must fight the evil of our day by waving our Title of Liberty--The Family: A Proclamation to the World!  We must hold true to those values, teach them to our children and stand by our Prophets and Apostles, who teach us the way to follow after the Lord!

We must never forget who we are, what we are fighting for, and praying for God's help in how we wage the battle, recognizing always that we are at war, fighting for our religion, our liberties, and our families.  And we must be willing to be true to the covenants we have made!!

That is where my brain went!
Have a great day!!