Following the Lead of the Church

I was reading in Alma 45: 23-24 last night.

23 And now it came to pass that after Helaman and his brethren had appointed priests and teachers over the churches that there arose a dissension among them, and they would not give heed to the words of Helaman and his brethren (underlining added);

24 But they grew proud, being lifted up in their hearts, because of their exceedingly great riches; therefore they grew rich in their own eyes, and would not give heed to their words, to walk uprightly before God.

Then I read in the news media as well as on Facebook about the Church's warning about the Medical Marijuana Initiative, urging people against it.  This was their second warning, and it was a legal description of the problems with the initiative.  What surprised me was the people who were trying to find fault with the warning as being "shallow," "poor reasoning," and on and on.  Most of these were politically active, so-called conservatives, some of whom were even calling upon their conservative philosophy to justify their opposition to the Church's warning, and saying that it was "causing" them to support the initiative!

Boy, if the Church thinks it is so important that they issue the warning twice, I'm all for listening!  I couldn't understand why those who claim to be on "the Right" politically, in Utah, would really bad-mouth the Church's warning voice!  But then I remembered that in this day "...that man of sin (will) be revealed...." (2 Thessalonians 2:3).  The scripture is referring to Satan being revealed in the last days, but I think there may be more to this, namely that those who claim to be saints, for the gain it gets them politically, financially, or in social standing, will be shown to be what they are in this time of trial and temptation.

I can tell you, my family, that if we do not continually nourish our testimonies by reading the scriptures and prophets, keeping the commandments, repenting regularly, and giving real service, we will be vulnerable to being led about by that man of sin until we cut ourselves off from the Lord.  We do not have to be perfect to be saved from this calamity, but we DO have to be repenting and striving to become perfect - continually washing our garments in the blood of the Lamb, as the scriptures put it, to take away the stains of the world from our hearts.

Please be humble (teachable), avoiding contentions, working to wash our souls, that the blood the Lamb of God shed might purify us eventually, allowing us to come back to the Father of us all, whom we so loved while in His presence, and with whom we would be eternally pained to be shut out from.