We live in a tumultuous time, when wickedness abounds, and confusion reigns. Except drastic changes in morality are made, we are facing a future which government cannot solve, for it is part of the problem. That drastic changes should take place is no frivolous concern; it has become an absolute necessity. Throughout the land, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is spurned, and His teachings rejected. As we have seen, throughout the course of history, the price paid for such rejection has been bloodshed and war.
What is to be done? We can each of us, as individuals, repent of our sins and follies, and determine to make our lives better, that much you and I can do. How do we go about this?
“Thomas saith unto him, Lord…how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life…” (1) In this regard, a beginning step would be to keep holy the Lord’s day, reserving it only for church worship and the carrying out of good deeds.
Indeed, in the Old Testament, Isaiah prophesied: “¶If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” (2)
Is that not clear enough? If not, ought not this get your attention? “Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase…And ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give [you] peace in the land…neither shall the sword go through your land.” (3)
In these, the last days, He has again stressed the importance of the Sabbath Day: “And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day; For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High; But remember that on this, the Lord’s day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord…” (4)
We have made the Sabbath Day a day of sport and diversion. With hypocrisy rife, we make pretense that an hour or two in the church of our choice on a Sunday is devotion enough to our God, and then we make mockery of Him in the loud company of others as foolish as ourselves, in pursuits anything but reverent on day He has declared holy; a day He has promised, (among other things) that obedience to will “give [you] peace in the land…neither shall the sword go through your land.”
Yes, a good place to start on our path to repentance, and toward finding our way, is a simple one: keep the Sabbath Day holy.
(1) John 14:5-6
(2) Isaiah 58:13,14)
(3) Leviticus 26: 2-6
(4) Doctrine and Covenants 59:9-12
(5) Leviticus 26:6