Building a Firm Foundation

This week has been rather crazy. With everything I had to do for school, I was also asked to speak in Sacrament meeting for today. I went camping Friday night so between getting back home, swimming with friends here, chatting online with friends (and Nanc) from high school, talking more with friends here and texting all day, it was after 1:00 when I finished my talk. Then I had to be at a meeting at 7:00. But even with all of that, I still think it went fairly well. Then this afternoon, I was thinking and realized that even though I'm not afraid of speaking in public, I'm much more comfortable with the written word. So I decided to type my notes up and turn it into my talk (with minor variations). I'm not really sure why, but I just felt like posting it on my blog as well. I won't be offended if no one reads it, but here it is!


In one of my areas on my mission in Taiwan, we had an investigator who had been around for a while. Because he had known the missionaries for so long, he already knew quite a bit about the church. He already had his own set of scriptures, English and Chinese. He even had his own hymn book. He loved the hymns, especially hymn number 85, “How Firm a Foundation”. Every time we would go to visit him, we would have to sing at least one verse of “How Firm a Foundation”. Sometimes we would only sing one verse, others we would sing all 7. Sometimes we would sing in Chinese, others in English. He just loved this hymn. I don’t know about you, but there are a lot of hymns that I know that I don’t really know. I sing them in Church every week, but I rarely think about what they are actually saying. Well, previously, this hymn was one of those. I sang it, often times without even having to look at the words, but I couldn’t really tell you what it said, much less what it means. Since then, that has changed. I’ve thought about what it was that made this man love this hymn so much. After reading it, I think I can see why. I’d like to read the first three verses for you:

1. How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!
What more can he say than to you he hath said,
Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?

2. In ev’ry condition—in sickness, in health,
In poverty’s vale or abounding in wealth,
At home or abroad, on the land or the sea—
As thy days may demand, so thy succor shall be.

3. Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

As we build our foundation upon the rock of Christ our Lord, this is what we receive. This is the same thing that Helaman was teaching his sons as they devoted themselves to preaching the Gospel. Helaman 5:12 reads:

12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Throughout the scriptures, we are promised that if we have Christ as our foundation, we will not fall. I think that is a blessing and promise that all of us would like to have. So now the question is how? How do we gain that sure foundation? If this sure foundation is centered on Christ then the obvious answer is that we must get to know Him if we are to have Him be our foundation. As we look into the Introduction of the Book of Mormon, we find:

Concerning this record the Prophet Joseph Smith said: “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”

As we look at the Book of Mormon, we find that many of the prophets in the Book of Mormon saw Christ face to face. Joseph Smith did as well. When Joseph Smith states that by abiding by the precepts taught in that great book will bring us closer to God than any other book, I put a little bit of weight in his opinion.
I remember a promise that President Hinckley made while I was on my mission in 2005. As I read in Preach My Gospel, I found the exact same promise made nearly 20 years previous. He said:

“Those who have read [the Book of Mormon] prayerfully, be they rich or poor, learned or unlearned, have grown under its power. . . . Without reservation I promise you that if you will prayerfully read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you previously have read it, there will come into your hearts . . . the Spirit of the Lord. There will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to his commandments, and there will come a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God”

When the challenge to read the entire Book of Mormon before Christmas 2005 was issued, I didn’t think too seriously about it until I found this quote and realized that it wasn’t a one time promise, but an eternal truth. Studying the Book of Mormon brings us closer to God.
Looking closer at Joseph Smith’s statement in the introduction of the Book of Mormon, we see that he doesn’t want us to merely study the book, but he wants us to abide by its precepts. Obedience is another way we build our foundation on Christ.
One of the greatest examples in the Book of Mormon of obedience is Helaman’s 2000 stripling warriors. We read that they were “they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.” (Alma 52:20) and that “they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness.” They had built their foundations upon the rock of Christ since they were young. It is evident that the Lord held up His end of the promise made throughout the scriptures that if we make Him our foundation He will not let us fall. Not a single one of the 2000 warriors were lost in the fight.
One last way that we are able to build upon the rock of Christ is through prayer. How can we have Christ be our foundation if we don’t know him? And what better way to get to know someone than by communicating with them? Prayer should not be us talking to a wall. When we start to think of prayer as a way of communicating with our God, we will find a power in our prayers previously unattainable. As we come to know Him better, we will have a stronger desire to rely on Him. We will find our will coming to align with His. We will find that Christ truly is our foundation.
As you sing the hymn “How Firm a Foundation”, the words you are singing are actually the words of God to those who have Him as their foundation. I truly love the other verses that we rarely sing. Christ promises us:

4. When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o’erflow,
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

5. When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply.
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

7. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!

I know that as we build upon Christ as our foundation, he will lift and support us. He will never let us fall. He is the one sure foundation we have to build on. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Why Death Isn't Bad

My Grandpa Willis died this past week. Enough can’t be said about what a great man he was. His funeral is this coming Thursday and I’m lucky enough to be able to hitch a ride with some of my favorite cousins back home to Missouri to attend it. Since his death on Wednesday, many of my family members have written notes on facebook or posted on their blogs about Grandpa. They have become some of my favorite things to read. My favorite is hearing or reading stories about Grandpa and things he said or did. I don’t really have a very good memory, as any of my siblings could confirm, so it is especially great to hear everyone else’s stories and memories of him. I think almost everyone has mentioned how much of Grandpa is in each of his kids and grandkids. If it isn’t his odd sense of humor, it’s his uncanny ability to fix things or to create them. Yes, Grandpa will live on in his posterity.

One of the deepest, clearest memories I have of Grandpa is him playing his harmonica while singing Alouette to us grandkids. And now after saying that, Alouette is stuck in my head. What ever memories we each have of that great man, they will always bring smiles to our faces. With such a man as Grandpa Willis was, you would be hard pressed to find anything negative about him. All who knew him loved him. He was a great example to everyone around him.

This was supposed to be about death in general, but I couldn’t resist going on about Grandpa. This just attests to my view of death. Though it is hard and sad, it is also joyous. Though talking about Grandpa before would always bring positive thoughts and feelings, after his death, those memories and feelings are more poignant than ever. Memories that haven’t been recalled in years come flooding to the forefront of my mind. Funerals should not be depressing, but a celebration of the life of those who have passed.

As I prepare to attend my Grandpa’s funeral, I think of all the people that I get to see: Cousins I grew up with, siblings, nieces and nephews, my own parents and grandparents who are still here. With the exception of my little brother who is on a mission, my whole family will be there. Such an occasion is hard to come by. I will be driving home with one of my favorite cousins who I haven’t had much of an opportunity to spend time with in over five years. I will get to see another cousin who I grew up with and went to high school with. These reunions will be happy. Though we miss our grandpa, we know that they he is now with his other loved ones who have been waiting and anxious to see him.

Much has been said about the reunions Grandpa must be having with his family, including children and grandchildren who made it home before him. How wonderful those reunions must be! Greeting a grandfather, father, brother, cousin, son who has lived a wonderful life as he passes to the next world. They must be celebrating his arrival as much or more than we are celebrating his life. One who worked so hard in this life will surly not stop to work once he has passed through the veil. Let him be an example to us, in life and death, to put forth all of the effort we can spare. Let us live as he did so that we may be able to enjoy similar reunions when our time is come and we are called home. Let Grandpa live on through us.

That Was Brutal

Well, that was the longest 'short' week of my life. School started on Tuesday. But my day started earlier than school. Why would I ever subject myself to work so early in the morning!?! I guess that the $8.80/hour had something to do with it. Luckily, they are going to give me a different job to do, thus increasing my hours. No complaints there. As far as school goes... I'm going to be busy. And that's no exaggeration. I'm taking the equivalent of 14 credits, though it is really only 7 (Spring and Summer are shorter, so you have twice as many hours of class and go through the material twice as fast as normal). My Chinese film class is interesting, it's just that it's 3 hours long, twice a week. And being at the end of the day, it gets somewhat hard to keep awake, much less focused. As for History of Utah, well, I'll just say it's not the most riveting class I have ever taken. Gymnastics and Clogging, however, are tons of fun! If only my body didn't hate me for abusing it like I have this past week. But it will eventually be all good. Even if I am nice and sore and tired, at least I'm really enjoying myself.

As if school and work weren't enough for me, I was called to be the 1st counselor in my Elder's Quarm presidency. So I'm going to be nice and busy with that. But I really like the other guys that I'm serving with. The president was my home teacher last semester and is just an all-around good guy, and I live with the 2nd counselor and secretary. I am really looking forward to working with them.

So all-in-all, I'm pretty stinking busy. Which is good. I like busy. Busy is more fun, though possibly somewhat detrimental to my health. Two nights ago, I went with some friends to a midnight showing of the new X-Men movie, good movie by the way, and I was somewhat tired the next day. Then last night, I stayed up with mostly the same group of friends and watched Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (very funny, I highly recommend it). After it was over, we sat and talked until about 3:00am. I sure appreciate the fact that I'm regaining a social life after a somewhat boring semester last semester, I just kind of wish everything hadn't fallen on me all at once. Oh well, I guess if this is what the Summer has in store for me, BRING IT ON! I'm ready for it!