In my daily life I have the opportunity to work with Computers. My job is to go around and help those that have an interest solve their computer problems using an Apple Computer. sometimes the solution that is needed will require them to write some software or a computer program.
A computer program is no different than a business plan or travel plan or any other kind of plan. It first requires an overall knowledge of everything that needs to be accomplished. In otherwords someone must individually or collectively as a group understand the processes that needs to be accomplished and the processes needed to complete each step. Next the individual or group will prepare an outline of each step in the process. This is called the design document, it spells out the reason for the program (why it needs to be done), and then what it will look like when it is complete.
This design document will now be shared with each and every person that will have a part in completing the program. Different segments of the program will be given to different programers to complete. The design document is not so specific that it tells the programer what to type in, but rather suggests how his portion will be tied into the overall function of the program. The programer is then left to himself to determine the best way to solve his individual protions of the problems at hand.
There are many simularities between the plan that a programer must take and our Heavenly Fathers Plan of Salvation. As you may recall, well probaly not I don't but we are told that we all met in the grand council in heaven before coming to this earth. We were all witnesses that our Father in Heaven had a body of flesh and bones and we so desired to be like him in each and everyway.
In his wisdom he said that if we desired to be just like him we would need to learn many things, we would need to prove to ourselves and to him that we could learn and obey the laws of god. We all responded Yes Yes.
so then just as programmers do now a design document was prepared. It was suggested that:
An earth would be organized so that each man could obtain a body of flesh and bones with the power of procreation. Provisions would be made for each person to be ressurrected and then have that body forever. THe design documnets states: "Every person who lived or who will live upon this earth will be resurrected and will receive a degree of glory (except the sons of perdition) according to his faithfulness in keeping the commandments of God. The order of body received will be determined by the type of life lived upon this earth."
While the design document will allow us to see the broader strokes and get a better idea of the whole picture it does not usually handle every minute detail. As a result, even the best of planning and design however will create some flaws. Programs that will not function as planned. Our Heavenly Father knew that we too may not always function as we had planned. So he provided a saviour which would allow us to be able to make mistakes and recover from them.
We are here then to learn to think and act for ourselves. To prepare ourselves to become as Gods. We are to acquire proper knowledge of how to do things.
There is an example of both how to and how not to acquire proper knowledge: A young newly wed mother was preparing a meal for a large family gathering. The husband had brought home a large ham for the wife to cook. She sat the ham on the counter then proceeded to cut about 4 inches off of the end, placed it in the pot and then into the oven. The husband was somewhat puzzled as to why see was cutting off the end and ask her to which see replied: "that is how my mother always did it". A few weeks later when visiting her mother the young husband decided to ask his mother-in-law why she would cut four inches off the end of the ham and she responded "I am not sure other than that is how my mother alway did it". The young husband was really curious as to the reasoning behind removing the end of the ham an it continued to bother him to the extent that he decided that he would call his Grand mother-in-law and ask her if she knew the reason behind cutting about four inches from the end of the ham to which she replied "it is very simple I have a small roasting pan" .
As Alma told his son "O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God.",(Alma 37:35) but sometimes it is difficult to learn and destinguish between secular wisdom and the wisdom of God of which Alma speaks.
Another option that the programmer has is some flexiblity to make decisions. You see as we mentioned earilier not every little detail is spelled out as to what to do, however all the guidelines are there that he must follow in order for the program to be able to come back and work with the other pieces written by the other programmers. Like the programmers we too in in this experience called life, have many opportunities which require us to make choices and choices depend on agency. A major reason for our mortal existence is then to see how we will exercise our God given agency.
Agency for use on a daily basis requires us to determine whom we will serve.
Where shall I serve today
Where shall I serve today I said and my heart flowed warm and free.
Where shall I serve today I said and then the call came to me.
Here my little one tend this little spot, tend this spot for me.
Oh no, Oh no I said no not that spot for me
No matter how well my work was done no one would ever see
No not that little spot for me.
And then the question came art thou serving them or me?
Nazereth was just a little spot and so was Galilee.
With that agency we must then as Joshua said "Choose you this day whom ye will serve;...as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)
How do we choose to serve the Lord: First we must develop Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second we must Repent; Third we must be Baptised by immersion by one who has the authority; Fourth we need to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by one who has authority; Fifth we need to endure to the end of our mortal probation in righteousness., In addition; there are certain Priesthood ordinances, including celestial marriage, which are essential for exaltation, eternal life, or godhood-the kind of life that our heavenly father lives.
Our design document must contain some exception handling. In other words what would happen if a non-standard or the planned occurance did not happen? In this case death before they had the opportunity to receive the gospel. If the design document requires that man in this life is to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ, which comprises all the laws, ordinances thereof. As the Fourth article of faith states. Then proper exceptions need to be made for those who did not have a chance to receive the gospel while on this earth.
Such provisions are part of our Heavenly Fathers plan. Those who die without hearing the Gospel in this life will have the opportunity to hear the gospel in the post-mortal spirit world and thus become potential heirs of salvation and exaltation. Provisions are made in the plan for ordinance work for the dead to be performed in the temples of God, and will continue in the millennium until every worthy soul has the opportunity of receiving all the blessings of the fulness of the gospel.
Not only must the program be balanced but the size of the computer must be balanced for the task at hand. One can waste alot of money to buying a big computer system and only use a very small portion of it, just as it can be very frustrating experience to buy a computer system that is just to small to complete the task at hand. Balance then is another important aspect that needs to be weighed when developing the system.
We like the designers of the software application are here to learn to achieve balance in our lives. It is not always easy to achieve balance in life in this world that requires us to serve the Lord, raise a family, earn a living, show civic responsibility and do each one perfect. However; the Lord never said that it would be easy and it is because that it is not easy that we all grow.
Life can resemble the computer program in another aspect, both are built one character at a time. The computer program is built just one character at a time until there is a complete line, a sentence so to speak. That sentence is then tested to see if it works as planned. If it does then another sentence is added to the program. If it does not work then it must be rewritten until it performs as anticipated. This process is repeated hundreds of thousands of time until the program is then completed. We to must grow by accomplishing a little bit at a time line upon line as the scriptures say.
After the computer program has been completed it will go into a testing period. After the testing period it will be decided that the program either:
1) Operates as desired and no further work needs to be performed, it is complete.
2) It functions well but still needs some additional changes in order to accomplish the desired end results. In otherwords, it did not live up to the all of the requirements that were decided upon in the design document. 3) It does not work at all, it was a waste of time it does not live up to any of the requirements of the design document.
Here again our Father in Heaven has a provided a judgement at the end to determine how well we lived up to the design document that we developed in the grand council in heaven.
A degree of salvation will come to all who have not forfeited their right to it and exaltation is given only to those who by righteous effort have won a claim. Of all those that are amoung the saved, not all will be exalted to the higher glories. Rewards will not be bestowed in violation of justice. Punishments will not be meted out to the ignoring of mercy. No one can be admitted to any degree of glory, in short, no soul can be saved until justice has been satisfied.
Through the direct word of the Lord we learn of varied kingdoms or glories.
These kingdoms as the revelations of God have defined have degrees of glory, as prepared through Christ for the children of men.
1. The Celestial Glory &emdash;There are some who have labored to obey all the divine commandments, who have accepted the testimony of Christ, obeyed "the laws and ordinances of the Gospel," and received the Holy Spirit. They have overcome evil by godly works and are therefore entitled to the highest glory. They belong to the Church of the Firstborn, unto whom the Father has given all things; they are made kings and priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchizedek. They possess celestial bodies, "whose glory is that of the sun, even the glory of God, the highest of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament is written of as being typical"; they are admitted to the glorified company, crowned with exaltation in the celestial kingdom.
2. The Terrestrial Glory &emdash;We read of others who receive glory of a secondary order, differing from the highest as "the moon differs from the sun in the firmament." These are they who, though honorable, failed to comply with the requirements for exaltation, they were blinded by the craftiness of men and unable to receive and obey the higher laws of God. They proved "not valiant in the testimony of Jesus," and therefore are not entitled to the fulness of glory.
3. The Telestial Glory&emdash;There is another grade, differing from the first two higher orders as the stars differ from the brighter orbs of the firmament. The Telestial Glory is for those who received not the testimony of Christ, but who, nevertheless, did not deny the Holy Spirit; who have led lives exempting them from the heaviest punishment, yet whose redemption will be delayed until the last resurrection. In the telestial world there are innumerable degrees comparable to the varying light of the stars. Yet all who receive of any one of these orders of glory are at last saved, and upon them Satan will finally have no claim. Even the telestial glory "surpasses all understanding; And no man knows it except him to whom God has revealed it." Then there are those who have lost all claim upon the immediate mercy of God, whose deeds have numbered them with Perdition and his angels.
In light of these truths we must ask ourselves What is our plan for salvation? As well you might ask yourself What is my plan for salvation?
We have discovered what each of us must do to prepare for the highest degree of glory. We must live lives that will allow the just judgements of of God to find us guilty of being on the Lords side in all aspects of our life. Each and everyone of us must develop our own plan for salvation. Each of us must determine for ourselves and know for ourselves the answer to these questions:
Why am I here?
Where did I come from?
And the final question that as a teenager I seemed to get ask alot by my parents. Where am I going?
However, It is through the testimony of the answer to these questions that will drive us to live our lives as Christ would suggest. If we really know that we are a child of God. If we know that we have the opportunity to live in his presence throughout the eternities. Then we sit down and determine what that really means to us. Most likely we take a different view of our time here on this earth.
But like the computer program we cannot just think it done, we must set up our own design document our plan for salavation so to speak. Then after we have established our plan for salvation we must put that plan into action. We must insure that we receive all the ordinances of the gospel. We must live our lives according to our design documents, that our lives will turn out as we have planned that we will receive the degree of glory to which we subscribe.
Now I would like to in the next few minutes bear you my testimony of Who I know that I am, Why I am Here, and where I am going when this life is over.
First, Who I am?
I am a child of God, literally a spiritual son of my Father that resides in Heaven.
D&C 20:18 "He [my Father in Heaven] created man, male and female, after his own image and likenesss."
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and have made sacred covenants with the Lord. (D&C 18:28; 20:29, 37 ) At baptism I took upon myself the name of Jesus Christ. I promise each week that I will always remember him, and keep his commandments. In turn he grants his spirit to be with me. (Moro 4:3; 5:2; D&C 20:77)
Second, Why am I here?
some of the best answers to this question comes from my partiarcial blessing.
I am here to learn faith, faith that I could not achieve while in the presence of my Father in Heaven. I have been blessed with faith in the prophet Joseph Smith and the fact that he did restore the church of Jesus Christ to the earth. I am here to learn to control the phyiscal emotions that come with my phyiscal body. In addition, I am here to learn to serve my fellow brothers and sisters, and I know that great blessings come from that service.
Third, Where am I going?
I know that beyond a shadow of doubt that I will live after this life. That if worthy I too may return to the feet of my Heavenly Father and again learn from him. That if worthy I too may be able to thank my saviour Jesus Christ for the gift of repentence that this may all be possible. And it is in his name that testify to you.