Queen Esther

Queen Esther
And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? ~ Esther 4:14

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Righteous Conditional Love

"There are many ways to describe and speak of divine love. One of the terms we hear often today is
that God’s love is “unconditional.” While in one sense that is true, the descriptor unconditional appears nowhere in scripture. Rather, His love is described in scripture as “great and wonderful love," "perfect love," "redeeming love," and “everlasting love.” These are better terms because the word unconditional can convey mistaken impressions about divine love, such as, God tolerates and excuses anything we do because His love is unconditional, or God makes no demands upon us because His love is unconditional, or all are saved in the heavenly kingdom of God because His love is unconditional. God will always love us, but He cannot save us in our sins." ~D. Todd Christofferson

Once again, I feel the need to stress the importance of who we are and WHOSE we are. We are sons and daughters of a King - a King who loves us so much, He sent His only begotten Son, the Prince of Peace, to atone for our sins, to pay the price we cannot pay.

Yes, our Heavenly Father loves His royal sons and daughters beyond belief . . . however, His love is not unconditional. And if you believe that, you are sorely mistaken.

God cannot love us unconditionally. That is not possible.
It isn't possible because, as we are taught in the scriptures, “For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance; Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven; ~D&C 1:31-32

What this means is when we are striving to live good lives and be good people yet still give in to weaknesses, if the Lord can't overlook that, what in the world makes us think we can willfully sin and disobey and have Him accept it? We CANNOT be saved in sin. It is impossible. And I say this as much for myself as everyone else. We can argue this subject until we are blue in the face (and believe me, many do, even at this very moment,) it will not change the truth, because God's laws will not change. They CAN'T change. This is why I spend so much time emphasizing the importance of spiritual preparedness. We must come out of the world, my brothers and sisters. WE MUST!

Satan is wreaking havoc left and right, and deception abounds. We must not let ourselves be deceived. We must immerse our minds, hearts, and souls in a great quest to know the Lord and become one with Him. Truly knowing the Lord and allowing Him to know us is the only way to avoid deception.

Every day, my heart just weeps, because the number of souls rejecting the truth is ever-increasing. If you don't believe me, just spend a few minutes on Facebook (a few is all it will take.) As I've said before, the war that began in heaven continues on today. It never stopped, and we, who were once some of the righteous hosts of heaven, continue to perpetuate it, only our weapon of choice is words, just as it was in the preexistence. The question is, what spirit do we listeth to obey when we do speak?

"The premortal war was fought with words, ideas, debate, and persuasion. (Revelation 12:7–9, 11) ~Larry R. Lawrence

The Lord truly does love us. It was His love and His obedience to the Father that prompted His atonement and sacrifice for us. But His love IS conditional, and when we willfully sin and refuse His precious gift of repentance, we turn our back on the Lord, and He, in turn, cannot know us.
I pray that we can remember this.

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