- Guarantee heightened spiritual development (“Step right up, and get your Calling & Election / Second Comforter”)
- Guarantee temporal salvation (“Here’s where the future tent camps are going to be” or “You don’t need personal revelation about the future. Just wait ’til the prophet says to head to the hills!”) or
- Promise a better way to worship, based on a foundation of dissatisfaction with the church and its leaders.
- Worshiping of Images (including images that “turn away” people’s heart from God, such as images from television, movies, and videos).
- Violence and Sex (the legitimizing of carnality in our culture…especially in our own homes via our choices of entertainment). This carnality now makes itself apparent — and is legitimized — in places where you’d least expect to find it.
- Rock Music (how many forms of music corrupt our souls and encourages us to descend from the divine to the carnal).
- Organized Sports (ancient Romans devoted so much exorbitant resources to sports, that charitable programs rated a poor second. Today, our devotion of time, money and fanfare to sports is a replay of ancient Rome).
- Human Idols (when you revere, venerate, stand in awe of, extol, put on a pedestal or idolize anyone — or those who don’t dissuade/stop people from doing the same).
- Imaginations of the Heart (studies or desires that draw us away from God).
- Nature Cults (a preoccupation with parks or gardens to escape devotion toward God and humanity).
- Babylon (the manufacture, promotion, and sale of the works of men’s hands which constitute idolatry). Babylon also makes itself apparent — and is legitimized — in places where you’d least expect to find it.
- The Arm of Flesh (trusting in any other mortal for temporal or spiritual salvation).
- Elitism-Pharisaism (participation in, or legitimizing, a group which places itself above, instead of equal to, another group of people. Where authority is a badge of man-made superiority).
- Pollution of the Temple (by entering it unworthily).
- Mammon (the lure, promise or extolling of riches).
- Not Keeping the Sabbath Day holy (we seek out and do many activities which do not bring us closer to God on this, the Lord’s day).
- Our Emotions (greed, envy, jealousy, selfishness, an unforgiving heart, magnifying small imperfections, unfavorably comparing ourselves with others, etc).
- Busy-ness (being so preoccupied with the flurry of daily life and your church calling that you fail to immerse yourself in the gospel of Jesus Christ).
- Not seeking spiritual knowledge (which will get you a lot further in the eternities than the NFL, NBA, NHL, NASCAR, MLB, Facebook or Instagram ever will; see Hosea 4:6).
“Satan tempts us with alluring distractions, attitudes, and circumstances, which appear on the surface to be harmless; but as one partakes of them, the spirit slowly suffers, creating a weakened condition which can produce eventual alienation from God. Jesus told his disciples in ancient America to ‘watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat’ (3 Nephi 18:18).” (Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate, Jr., eds., “Second Nephi: The Doctrinal Structure,” p. 302).
“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)
- They don’t fit our paradigms
- We get tired of waiting for a response which should come on our timetables (not God’s) and
- We put God in a box, or recreate Jesus in our own image. We dress Him up in the clothing of our own culture, knowledge, biases, preferences and prejudices, subjecting a limitless, omnipotent God to our mortal “omniscience” and even our expectations (which He regularly delights in far exceeding). We say we really want to be like Jesus, but in reality, we often want Him to be like us. We don’t give Jesus a chance to reveal Himself, as He really is. All. The. Time.
“for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever.” (2 Nephi 26:22)
“Who has not heard and felt the enticings of the devil? His voice often sounds so reasonable and his message so easy to justify. It is an enticing, intriguing voice with dulcet tones. It is neither hard nor discordant. No one would listen to Satan’s voice if it sounded harsh or mean. If the devil’s voice were unpleasant, it would not entice people to listen to it. Shakespeare wrote, “The prince of darkness is a gentleman” (King Lear, act 3, sc. 4, line 143), and “the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose” (The Merchant of Venice, act 1, sc. 3, line 95). As the great deceiver, Lucifer has marvelous powers of deception. As Paul said to the Corinthians, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14; see also 2 Nephi 9:9).” (Elder James E. Faust, “The Great Imitator,” October 1987 General Conference)
“The nearer a person approaches the Lord, a greater power will be manifested by the adversary to prevent the accomplishment of His purposes” (The Prophet Joseph Smith, in Orson F. Whitney, “Life of Heber C. Kimball”, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1967, p. 132).
- Whether we’re aware of it or not, we’re influenced by a cacophony of spiritual sounds every minute of our lives.
- Just the sheer diversity and attractiveness of these sounds makes it nearly impossible to focus on what’s right.
- Further complicating the situation: Satan is highly motivated and extremely adept at drowning out these loud, colorful, enticing signals with his own counterfeit subtle signals.
- Naturally, it’s difficult for us to make heads or tails out of what is right and what is wrong.
- Some of the best and brightest among us have been led away by these sounds in hopes of better spiritual or temporal statuses for themselves.
“Jesus set the example for us. As soon as he was baptized and received the Father’s approval—”This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). Jesus repaired to what is now known as the Mount of Temptation where, during forty days of fasting, he communed with himself and his Father and contemplated the responsibility of his own great mission. One result of this spiritual communion was such strength as enabled him to say to the tempter: “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matt. 4:10)
Before he gave the beautiful Sermon on the Mount, he was in solitude, in communion. He did the same thing after that busy Sabbath day, when he arose early in the morning after having been the guest of Peter. Peter undoubtedly found the guest chamber empty, and when he and others sought Jesus, they found him alone. It was on that morning that they said: “All men seek for thee” (Mark 1:35-37)
Again, after Jesus had fed the 5,000, he told the Twelve to dismiss the multitude. Then Jesus, the historian says, went to the mountain for solitude; and “when the evening was come, he was there alone” (Matt. 14:23) Meditation! Prayer!” (Pres. David O. McKay, “Consciousness of God: Supreme Goal of Life”, April 1967 General Conference).
“And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them.” (Luke 4:42)
“And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.” (Luke 5:16)
“And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.” (Luke 6:12)
“And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him: and he asked them, saying, Whom say the people that I am?” (Luke 9:18)
“And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray.” (Mark 6:46)
“And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.
And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed” (Luke 22:40-41)
“I think we pay too little attention to the value of meditation, a principle of devotion. In our worship there are two elements: One is spiritual communion arising from our own meditation; the other, instruction from others, particularly from those who have authority to guide and instruct us. Of the two, the more profitable introspectively is meditation.
Meditation is one of the most secret, most sacred doors through which we pass into the presence of the Lord.”
“In this fast-paced life, do we ever pause for moments of meditation – even thoughts of timeless truths?” (“The Race of Life,” April 2012 General Conference)
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