TEMPLES — Going through the temple and having the temple go through us!
by Larry D. Crenshaw
. Joel H. Johnson was a lumberman in Mill Creek Canyon years ago. He spent his time sawing prime lumber and delivering it to the tithing office. As he made his wagon trips up and down the steep canyon, he often saw the flag, the standard of Old Glory, that had been placed on Ensign Peak. In 1850, inspired by this vision and this flag, he wrote the following lines: “For God remembers still, His promise made of old, That He on Zion’s Hill, Truth’s standard would unfold! His house shall there be reared, His glory to display, And people shall be heard, In distant lands to say: We’ll now go up and serve the Lord, Obey His truth and learn His word.” In these sacred places that we call temples we are figuratively transported to where God dwells. We are propelled through the six creative periods concluding with Adam and Eve’s spirits being placed in their new physical bodies. We figuratively participate with Adam and Eve as they are ‘taught from on high’. What they experience, we experience; what they covenant, we covenant; what blessings they are promised, we are promised.
. Recently, I needed to go to the temple. Halfway there, street workers were putting in a huge pipe across the road just past the high school. The road was closed and barricaded. So, I turned east toward Cedar Hills then down to the Manila turn off. Halfway down that road, I ran into another barrier. While not completely closed, the long line of cars persuaded me to find another route by turning even further south toward Pleasant Grove, then to backtrack north to the Temple. Would you believe it? I ran into yet another road closure, stopping me from going to the temple. By now I was thinking, “Somebody doesn’t want me in the Temple today!” On the fourth road to the Temple, I finally made it, I didn’t make it to the session I had planned on, however. I had another appointment later in the evening, so once there I rushed to get ready, and I rushed to the Chapel waiting room in the temple, thankful that a session was just starting. Now, here comes my confession. As I proceeded through the endowment session, I found myself looking at my watch, wondering how the temple endowment could be more efficient. I could easily see ways to reduce the 1 hour and 45 minutes per session to an hour and 15 minutes. My mind drifted as I thought about other things also. I am afraid that I wasn’t’ too attentive to the grand and wonderful things that surrounded me there. Later, it became clear to me that I had not only encountered barriers in getting into the temple that day, but that I had created my own barriers in Ietting the Temple get into me. Truman Madsen put it this way: “We often talk of ‘going through the temple’, but rarely do we refer to the ‘Temple going through us’.”
. There may be some here today who may have encountered personal barriers in getting into the temple. Unlike road construction barriers, these barriers to temple attendance are usually self-created. They may include postponement of our becoming worthy, anger against God, against his leaders or ourselves, or our judgement of others who feign righteousness and enter the Temple unworthily, waiting for a reluctant spouse, waiting for a period of mental, emotional, or spiritual turmoil to subside, so that we can ‘better feel the spirit’. For others, there is no particular reason, other than ‘it hasn’t been convenient’. Which one of the barriers is standing in your way today? I testify that there is no barrier so big, no chasm so deep or wide, no evil so thick that can keep you from receiving the ‘heavenly embrace’ of Our Father in Heaven that occurs in temple worship. The personal price required to remove your barriers may be considered high, but it is small in comparison to the blessings that await. Like the father of King Lamoni said upon his conversion, “I will give away all my sins to know thee…” (Alma 22:18) Might we also, give away our sins, our pride, our distractions, our procrastination, our protestations, and our fears, whatever it is that is keeping us from getting into the Temple. There is a bishop who loves you and will help you. There are the Father and His Son, our Brother Jesus, who await you in that Heavenly embrace.
. Now for the second consideration, ‘letting the temple get into us’. Preparatory to the building of the temple in this dispensation, the Lord revealed, “Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God…” If the temple is to get into us, if the temple is to ‘go through us’ rather than us just going through the temple, then we must understand and apply this revelation. We only have time to discuss a few of these things. 1) The Temple is a house of prayer — Melvin J. Ballard once said, “When you have problems, look at them, deliberate, make a tentative decision. And then pray, and you will receive impressions confirming or repudiating your decision. And if you do not get your answer, I will tell you where to go. Go the the Temple. While there, in the silent moments, in a place where you are entitled to revelation, the answer will come.” Temple worship is prayerful. 2) The Temple is a house of fasting — The scriptures teach us that prayer, when combined with fasting can “loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, free the oppressed, and break every yoke” (Isaiah 58:6). Temple worship sometimes requires us to fine tune our spiritual awareness through both prayer and fasting. 3) The Temple is a house of learning — Therein we learn about the most important things We learn about God. We learn about how to change ourselves to become like Him, we learn the law of the Great Elohim. We learn that sacrifice is an important part of God’s laws, that the consecration of our time, talents, and all we have should be focused on Him and His kingdom. We learn that the laws and ordinances of the gospel are given to us to bless ourselves, our families, and those not of our faith. And, we learn that the sacred powers of procreation and all behaviors associated with them are to be used only in the bounds of virtue and chastity as set by the Lord. With each law learned, a covenant is made to live it, and a blessing is pronounced. This learning, offered in simple language and in a straightforward manner, unfolds to the learner in ever-increasing power and layers of meaning as one returns again and again to probe the breadth and depth of understanding. 4) The Temple is a house of glory — The Bible Dictionary speaks of glory as having to do with a divine presence. The Temple can be a house of glory for us personally when we worship in such a way that our physical being is brought into harmony with the spirit. When we bring our physical self, washed and anointed, under the subjection of the spirit, we experience sanctification and our light of Christ becomes less restrained. In other words, we experience truly the Glory of the Lord. President Lorenzo Snow said, “…that is the only way that the knowledge locked in our spirit can become part of this flesh.” In this manner, in this House of Glory, we obtain knowledge, glory, and power to overcome this world and prepare for the next.
. Brothers and sisters, may we get into the Temple, and once there, may the Temple get into us. may we go through the Temple, and may the Temple go through us. Remember these sacred words, “His House shall there be reared, His glory to display, And people are heard, In all lands to say, We’ll now go up and serve the Lord, Obey His truth and learn His word.” I testify that God is our Father, Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. We can come to know them and thus know our true selves through Temple worship. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Click here to return to the Uplifting Stories Menu page
Click here to return to the Scriptural Jokes Menu page
Click here to return to the Main Menu page