thou shalt be

So I have covered this subject before a bit in one of my previous posts, but when I run into something that grabs me, it just grabs me. Don't matter if I've been there before - I write about what grabs me with no filters. Maybe if you happen to run across the two - or more - posts that cover this subject, you'll gain something different from each. At least I hope so.

I'm doing research on spiritual gifts, and ran across a verse in doctrine and covenants 3, verse 11. The precision of the language - especially in the doctrine and covenants, always interests me.

So here we are in verse 11 and the lord talks about how if Joseph doesn't properly honor his gifts, "thou shalt be delivered up and become as other men; and have no more gift".

First this tells me that the Lord, the provider of all gifts, has the ability to, and I'll be less precise than the Lord's words here, take away a gift. It might be more precise to say that he doesn't do it, but that we throw our gift away. I suspect the latter is the case more often, as it just makes more sense to me, but in any case a gift can be lost by not valuing and developing it.

But what struck me here is the third person language that the Lord uses. He doesn't say "I'll deliver you up to Satan", although I think that's what nearly everyone interprets when they read such a verse. Instead he says that he will be delivered up. He's not involved. And that may be why the delivering up happens.

The key here to me is that when we fail to grow, we slide, and we through our own actions and choices send ourselves to the pit. We deliver ourselves - but to the wrong place. It also occurs to me that man can deliver himself only to the pit, while only God can deliver us from it, or deliver us to heaven. This means to me that if a man is trying to rely only on himself, there is only one delivery destination he can send himself to - and it's not the one he wants.

I go to other scriptures I remember reading. A person can "be damned" if he does x or y. This again is very precise language.  It doesn't necessarily mean that the Lord does it, but the destination is clear. We do it to ourselves, then blame the Lord for damning us, when he was out of the picture the whole time - we kept him out.

May we keep our gifts. May we develop them. May we find joy in learning about these gifts provided to us by our Creator. May we use them to learn faith, and learn of our God. May we use them to gain greater insight in who we are, and how our Master sees us. May we use them to follow Him more clearly.