Collective windows of heaven.
how covenants will change the world.
Thought
In Malachi we’re promised that the faithful payment of tithing will cause the windows of heaven to open and blessings to be poured out in so much abundance we won’t have enough capacity to receive them all.
Most of my life I have been taught and understood this commandment and blessing at the individual level; if I pay my tenth, then I will personally be blessed. Whilst I still believe this to be true, as I’ve listened to those using the Church’s wealth as justification for abandoning belief in Jesus Christ and their covenants, I have come to consider the collective nature of this promise and blessing.
Whilst we do not know the exact wealth of the church, most agree that it is very vast. What we are witnessing is not nefarious, but the result of almost 200-years of faithful men and women who kept the commandment to contribute to the building of the kingdom.
Years of many people contributing a little (my ancestors mites included), combined with wise investments, compounding interest and disciplined distributions has allowed The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to become wealthy. And what a miracle and blessing that is. In an age where just about every government and business runs on deficits and debts, how refreshing and reassuring it is to belong to a church that does things differently.
Because of these faithful donations, I and we are witnessing the windows of heaven being opened collectively in ways our ancestors and predecessors could hardly have imagined.
We are building temples at a pace the builders of those first pioneer temples could not have dreamed.
I acknowledge the argument leveled at the church that we could build fewer temples, or make them smaller and less grand and instead give that money to the poor. But I can’t help thinking how shortsighted and even naive such an idea is.
Have we not learned in our prosperous wealthy nations that money does not solve our problems? In America alone we have thrown billions, if not trillions, of dollars at poverty and social problems at home and abroad and yet they still exist in great measure. It is clear to me that the solution to poverty and the other ills of humanity will not be solved by cutting an even bigger check.
In contrast, the temple is where the windows of heaven are open and the solutions to humanities problems lie!
It is in the temple that we learn, grow and change into someone better as we make and keep our covenants. Better people create better worlds.
I have long loved this quote by Ezra Benson; “The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ would take the slums out of people, and then they would take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature.”
So in my opinion, we need more, not less temples being built. The solution to poverty and other problems is not more money, but more covenant keeping men and women who follow the Saviors example and invitation to join Him in lifting the hands that hang low, strengthen the feeble knees, visit the widows and fatherless, give all our time and talents to lifting and lighting the places we live, work and play.
Imagine a world, not filled with more social and aid programs funded by billions of dollars, but one filled with temple covenant keeping disciples of Jesus Christ. This is a world where wars cease, poverty ends, and human induced suffering is greatly diminished. We don’t need more currency, we need more covenants. And temples are where we make them.
Temples bless us individually but perhaps more importantly, the covenants we make in them will continue to bless the world collectively. Collectively each temple, and covenant made and kept in that temple blesses all of us by opening the windows of heaven.
Let us not be blind. Let us not miss the miracle and majesty unfolding before our eyes.
Quote.
I am simply arguing that if we are to have values at all we must accept the ultimate platitudes of Practical Reason as having absolute validity: that any attempt, having become sceptical about these, to reintroduce value lower down on some supposedly more ‘realistic’ basis, is doomed.
- C.S. Lewis (The Abolition of Man, p.49)
Idea.
Of all the gifts we could give this Christmas, our time is probably the most precious. People will likely forget the presents but remember our presence.