Cut off

And he did do justice unto the people, but not unto himself because of his many whoredome; werefore he was cut off from the presence of the Lord  - Ether 10:11

So I've see where there the phrase "cut off" has been used in the scriptures. In many cases it seems to have an ominous tone to it. It has always seemed to me that similar words to "cut off" might be words like ostracized, deposed or even eliminated. I think this phrase in this scripture better describes - at least to me - what the phrase "cut off" means to the Lord. Here is a man who is good by comparison - at least he is fair with his people - but he hasn't allowed himself to be square with the Lord.

So as a result of his whoredoms, he is "cut off" from the presence of the Lord. He has chosen the ho's over the Lord, and in so doing has cut off (he did it - not the Lord) what I will call the pipeline between him and his Savior. He is cut off, but he remains the king. He is a man who is described as doing justice, but he is still cut off as relates to his Savior.

We all do this; we all chose our own versions of whoredoms when the other choice is having a relationship with the Lord. I think if someone were asked if he wanted a relationship with his god, we'd all say yes, but do we want it more than whatever our whoredoms are? Whatever those are for each of us, based on our actions (not our words) we want those more than a relationship with our God.

Yet who can argue against a real relationship with God? Not that I am the person to describe what that is completely, as I have no idea myself. I do know that a person can be guided, can turn his life and family into an environment of love. Abundance in the material sense may or may not happen, but I suspect that if we ask for it and we don't require some form of poverty to keep us humble, why wouldn't the Lord provide us with everything that we need, and perhaps more? If the Lord knew that we would spend our time serving others and growing personally, why wouldn't he take the money issue off the table so we can focus on maximizing ourselves and our impact?

So the choice then, is our own ho's versus power, guidance from above, love, and abundance? I hate that last word by the way - it's used the wrong way in certain places. I don't think any of us perhaps see the big picture that way, and the day to day reality is that our own vices are here, now, today, while power and pipeline seem so distant.

Yet we understand that God is as close as we allow him to be. Words expressed or a momentary wish, or a claim to want His presence does not bring Him to us - he's smarter than that. He knows that his presence in our life subjects us to a higher set of laws. For example, if he were in my room tonight communicating directly with me, I suspect that he would expect me to never deny that moment, and always live the words that he spoke to me. I suspect that if the Lord knew that I might weaken and doubt that moment for whatever reason (it was a hallucination/I was dreaming/somebody spiked my food) then that moment would only condemn me. Knowing that, I think the Lord lovingly only gives us what he believes we can manage - he doesn't want to give us a gift that will only condemn us in the end.

God is the only judge, but he will judge us based on the justice we provide to others and to ourself. This king (Morianton) may get a pass for how he dealt with his people, and a fail for not doing justice with himself. I like those words: "he did do justice with the people, but not unto himself". He didn't do justice unto himself. Reminds me of a book Pele had me read- Leadership and Self Deception. When we break laws we know are true, we're not cheating the system, we're cheating ourselves - aka self deception. This was probably written by a psych who never heard of the LDS religion, but he was studied enough to have gained the gift of understanding in this area: it's self deception, and it hurts one's self.

So. Now we have a clearer choice. God and his gifts, or the land of self deception? The choice seems like it ought to be clear. Based on our actions though, it's not clear at all.