You Can Read The Menu, You Just Can't Order

Not everything that leads to bad things constitutes a sin. Yet, as Christians we cannot allow ourselves to indulge in the pleasures of the world or we may end up in a place we never should have been...

Transcript

Welcome to the Verbal Motivation podcast. Where we talk about the things that motivate our lives, our religion and our relationships. My name is Nathan Vail. 

If you have an opinion about the subject matter in today’s podcast, please leave it in a voicemail at 530-876-4153 or you can send an email to verbalmotivation@gmail.com. 

This is episode number 19 called You Can Read The Menu, You Just Can’t Order 

When I was in my late teens a friend of mine, who is a member of The Church, pulled out pictures of his girlfriend in a bikini to show a small group of us. I felt this was totally inappropriate in a Church setting and I said as much. To which my friend said words that I have never forgotten, “you can read the menu,” he said, “you just can’t order.”

Those words seem innocent enough. But, if a person is not hungry, would they enjoy going into Red Lobster, amid the aroma and other diners and just reading their menu? I don’t think so because there would be no point in it. We enjoy reading a menu because we are hungry and the decision about what we would like to eat is part of the experience. Not to mention the fact that, by design, reading the menu makes us hungry.

I saw a couple on T.V. who were trying to repair their relationship after he had cheated on her. He seemed sincere when he said a phrase that I have heard many times over the years, “I don’t know how it happened.”

Well, I know exactly how it happened, he was reading the menu. It is when you read the menu that you are tempted to order.

Matthew 5:28 says, “But behold I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

That may seem a little harsh, but consider this. If it was a sin, let’s say, to be in New York City. Let’s say that the daily train that runs from California to New York is a constant party but no actual sins are committed on the train, it is only being in New York that is a sin. So we say to ourselves that we are going to get on the train and enjoy the party but we will just hop off in Denver. And maybe we do. But the more we ride the train the more we like the party and pretty soon we are getting off in Chicago or Pittsburgh, because what's the harm as long as it’s not New York. And then one day we look out the window and realize that we’ve arrived. And we say something stupid like, “I don’t know how I got here.”

I have a quote that is relevant, but I don’t know the author, “There are many who think they can visit the great and spacious building without letting go of the iron rod.  They tell themselves that they know the way back.  And indeed they do, but after entering they find their desire to return waning.”

I don't believe anyone has ever woken up and said, I am going to go out and commit adultery today. It is always harmless flirting with the coworker, that slowly goes a little further each day.

The problem with recognizing these small steps is that we often gage everything in black and white, as either a sin or not a sin. When in reality a lot of the things we do don’t constitute sin, per se. 

But they go a long way towards opening the door to things that are absolutely sins.

Let me give you just one example, I think we can agree that reading Playboy magazine is a sin. But what about the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition? How is that not riding a train headed somewhere dangerous?

The other challenge is that sin is not the same for everyone. That may not sound right at first, but have you ever asked yourself if it is a sin for your neighbor, who is not a member of The Church to drink or to smoke? I feel very confident in saying that smoking and drinking not a sin for them. 

But for us, it would  be a violation of the promises we have made to live a higher law and, as such, would result in the loss of the companionship of the Holy Ghost,  and in every practical way constitute sin.

Doctrine and Covenants section 8:3 says, “...he who sins against the greater light shall receive the greater condemnation.” Well, how can there be a greater light and a greater condemnation, unless there is also a lesser light and lesser condemnation?

This is why we cannot use the world as a standard of what is acceptable. As covenant people, we are held to a higher standard. As such, we should be separate “…and touch not the unclean thing”

Have you ever asked yourself, why don’t we see angels today, as so many others have throughout history? Besides the fact that seeing an angel would be pointless in our lives and in many cases detrimental to our progression, it is an interesting question because the answer, I think, is instructive and relevant to the point I am trying to make. So for that reason alone I would like to try and answer it.

First, seeing an angel cannot be contingent on worthiness, because Laman and Lemuel in the first chapters of the Book of Mormon saw an angel and we know they were not worthy. 

Also, it cannot be a matter of faith, because Saul in the New Testament as well as Alma The Younger in the Book of Mormon both hated The Church and were actively persecuting its members when they saw an angel. 

But if we do have faith and worthiness. What is stopping us? I think there is something else that may be even more important than both of those. It is an answer that even the secular world understands…

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

The scriptural version of that is, “...unto whom much is given much is required…” Doctrine and Covenants 8:3

There is a big difference between flash in the pan faith or worthiness and enduring faith and worthiness that increases over time relevant to the challenges and experiences we have. 

In seminary I once had a strong football player student come to the front of the class. I gave him a song book to lift and he did so with ease. I then told him to hold the book out horizontally to the ground. It was not very long before that book that he lifted with ease became too heavy to hold up. There is a big difference between a moment of faith and the ability to endure to the end.

2 Nephi 31:20 “...if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.”

The word and is significant because it makes enduring to the end a separate condition of eternal life.

So, the answer, I think, to why we don’t see angels is not because we don’t have the faith or the worthiness, it is that most of us could not live long-term under the burden of the higher responsibility that would come from such an experience. 

This is very much like in high school if you take an advanced placement class and get a B, you did a lot more work and likely learned a lot more than someone in the standard class that gets an A. It doesn’t seem fair, yet more is expected of someone in an advanced placement class.

Bishop Glenn L. Pace, Second Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric taught, “Once someone has received a witness of the Spirit and accepted it, he leaves neutral ground.” 

As covenant people, we have left neutral ground forever.

Leaving neutral ground is not a one time event in our lives. It is a constant spiritual progression away from the carnal towards the celestial. 

I watched a video recently where a minister put two very large A frame ladders on stage and demonstrated very effectively how at the bottom you can have one foot both ladders, but if you move up you have to choose one. But most importantly, once you get high up on one ladder, you cannot move laterally from the top of one ladder to the other. If you try to step over to the other side, you fall as far as you climbed.

Matthew 6:24 “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.”

Just as a practical example, if we are endowed in the temple and then commit adultery, we are much more likely to be excommunicated as part of the repentance process, than if we are not endowed.

In the principle of milk before meat, it isn’t just that meat is harder to understand, it is that once you have it, you have to live there.

Joseph Smith once said, “The Lord deals with this people as a tender parent with a child, communicating light and intelligence and the knowledge of his ways as they can bear it.”  TPJS pg 1017 

In the realm of physics and quantum mechanics, there is something called The Observer Effect. It is the principle that the act of observing a phenomenon alters the phenomenon itself. In other words, the act of measurement or observation changes the behavior of what is being observed.

As we experience spiritual events in our lives, it is like the Observer Effect, except we are what is changed as a result, in a way that alters our level of responsibility. 

D&C 67:13 says, “Ye are not able to abide the presence of God now, neither the ministering of angels; wherefore, continue in patience until ye are perfected.”

I think many in The Church and others of our Christian brothers and sisters have enough faith to see an angel, but few of us would be able to abide or live that higher presence at this point in our lives.

The prophet Jonah and the whale is a perfect example. He was a righteous man and had enough faith to be  a prophet and receive revelation. But when commanded by the Lord he feared the hand of flesh and disobeyed a direct revelation because of that fear.

How similar is that to each of us. We believe in a living prophet. We receive instruction about how to live a righteous life; yet, just like Jonah, we either fear the hand of flesh or enjoy riding the train and so we find living that higher law a difficult task indeed.

Here is another interesting perspective, at times when Jesus was being interrogated before his crucifixion, he gave no answer to their questions. Is it possible that Jesus didn't know the answers? No. He had confounded these same nay sayers throughout his ministry, Yet, he didn’t speak.  

 I don’t know exactly why Jesus didn’t answer. But just as an intellectual exercise, consider this idea, what if the “don’t cast pearls before swine” principle He taught is also for the protection of the person who is not prepared to hear the truth. What if Jesus was silent as an act of mercy because knowledge has consequences. On the cross he said, “forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Maybe they weren’t ready to hear the answers and so he didn’t give them something that would have propelled them to a place they could not live.

2 Nephi 33:14 “...behold, I bid you an everlasting farewell, for these words shall condemn you at the last day.”

What we know will have consequences, but not in how much did we know IQ test type of way, but in a “where much is given much is required kind of way.”

There is also an interesting lesson from the perspective of God’s time. 

In Genesis chapter 3. Eve explains to the serpent adversary that eating the forbidden fruit will result in her death, saying, “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 

“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die”

Ultimately, Adam and Eve did eat the fruit and they did not die. In fact Adam lived for some 930 years.

So was Satan right? The answer of course is in perspective. 2 Peter 3:8 says…be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

If a thousand years is one day to the Lord, then Adam died the same day he took the fruit, according to God’s time. 

By that standard, we are each born and die before breakfast. 

This concept of time is only useful in understanding the Lord’s perspective when He says to look upon a woman to commit adultery, because just like Adam and Eve dying as a result of eating the fruit, the train is moving so fast in the Lord’s time that when you step on, you don’t even see Denver go by.

As Christians we are required to live on a higher plane because of what we know. We don’t get to read the menu or participate casually in what the world thinks is ok. 

If we take a minute to look out the window of our spiritual lives, we might see the New York skyline on the horizon and realize that in large and small ways, we are headed to a place we don’t want to end up.

Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”

Joshua 24:15 “...choose you this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

My name is Nathan Vail and this is the Verbal Motivation Podcast