On Sacrifice

    When I wrote before about Eternal Laws and the necessity of sacrifice relating to them, I neglected to fully explain the reasoning behind this. The fact is the sacrifices that He requires of us, not only in this life, but in the world to come can be very difficult at times to accept. So in order to more easily sacrifice those things that are dear to us, we need to know why it is necessary.

    The word sacrifice is defined as “the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim.” To supplement this definition I like to think of sacrifice as giving up something to which we have a person connection, which makes it difficult to give up.

    Giving up money to receive goods is not a sacrifice. In the case where we are coerced into paying money, it's not the money that is the sacrifice, but rather our freedom that has been taken. Unless we have a personal stake in that thing which we are asked to relinquish, it cannot be called a sacrifice, but it is rather a simple transaction.

    So why must we make this painful and difficult decision to cut off a part of ourselves? Why did Joseph Smith say “a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation”.

    As I mentioned previously, when the lord judges us, He does so according to who we serve. The fact is that we all serve something or another. It is in our nature to find a purpose behind all that we will, which purpose comes from that which commands us.

    I will touch more deeply upon the subject later, but one of the fundamental purposes of our life is to find our own eternal purpose, or rather to find that master whom we are willing to serve. This is precisely why we struggle throughout our lives with the choices that we do.

    It is who we serve that is the key to what we need to sacrifice, and it is this struggle that explains why. I have mentioned before many times what it is that we need to sacrifice, and even the why of the individual sacrifices. So now the question becomes why sacrifice is necessary as a general principle.

    Behind the purposes of our life, and who it is we choose to serve lies a fundamental truth. The fact is that due to our free will, ultimately we only really serve that which we truly desire. Again it says “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

    Even if we serve various masters in this life, in the long run we will throw off the yoke of one master or another. We only choose to remain yoked down to that which satisfies our cravings. Only that which fulfills our inner desires will remain our masters at the last day. So it is that we are basically ruled by whatever our souls desire.

    To quote Sydney Losstarot from Vagrant Story “Those who crave the Dark cannot control the Dark.” It should go without saying that it is impossible to command or control that which rules over us. So it is that we become unable to control that which we hunger after, whatever that might be.

    The Telestial who hunger after the lusts of the flesh cannot control the flesh. Thus it is that they are not fit to receive a perfected body. They are not worthy of ruling over such, as they cannot even rule over what they are given now. Thus in mercy God grants to them a body that is free from lust and filthiness, that they can at least be preserved and live a life free from darkness.

    The Terrestrial who serve after the will of society and the philosophies of man can never govern over many, for they are forever slaves to the mind and will of their peers. Thus it is that they cannot be entrusted with the power to create worlds or lives, for they proved unable to set aside the concerns of the world, and live for Him while in this probationary state. Thus the Lord in His mercy grants that they may serve as angels, forever in the service of a perfected society, without the burden of lordship.

    Most alarming are the Perditious, who serve the darkness within, to set themselves up as a Law unto themselves, for they crave for power and dominion and hunger after glory by ruling over those around them with an iron fist. They try to sate themselves by looking for happiness in misery, parasitically sucking the life and light of those around them, living only to satisfy their pride, and as such they are not fit to rule even over themselves. Thus it is that they cannot even be preserved, for they will not.

    Finally the Celestial, they of whom it has been spoken that they have overcome all, they are they that seek after the light and love of God. They seek after the yoke spoken of by Jesus who said “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Obviously they cannot rule over their Eternal Father, but that is an entirely meaningless point as none are able to do so.

    While God does technically rule over them, He in his goodness never dominates or controls, never imposes His will, but rather allows them to be “agents unto themselves” and act by their own volition. For in D&C it is said: “Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;”

    That is the way He rules, and it is through our being solely subservient to Him, that we are able to overcome all things. That is why His yoke is easy. The word yoke is always linked to bondage and subservience. By submitting to Him as our Lord, we take his yoke which is infinitely easier than any other yoke, for this is the only yoke where we are truly ourselves.

    Thus it is that if we are a slave to the desire, we can never rise above it. The desire and craving itself holds us back. When we sacrifice those things unto the Lord, he empowers us to rule over them. It is only they that are in complete control of themselves that are worthy of ruling over all.

    Obviously if we are to become the Fathers and Mothers of our own spiritual progeny, we need that perfection and holiness, that we might provide a perfect place to raise our own spirit children. However we can only attain that glory if we make the sacrifices necessary, by throwing away that which hinders our ability to rule in righteousness.

    That is why the Lord has written in Luke: “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” We need to fill our souls with the bread and water of Christ, for that is the only thing that truly fulfills, for all else binds us down.

    So it is that the Lord provides this probationary time for us to choose how much we wish to sacrifice, and what we wish to accomplish. He doesn't forcefully demand that we all become as Him. He grants us the privilege of choosing for ourselves, that we need not give up what we cannot part with.

    He loves all of us as His children, and thus gives us the tools to choose and empowers us to rise up as high as we wish. This is not some meaningless test of how much pain we can endure, but rather, it is a means whereby we can climb up the ladder to the eternities to the greatest happiness possible. It is only through our rendering unto Him what is in His image that we are able to become like Him. Of this I testify amen.