Today's Favorite Verse: 2 Chronicles 29:5, 10, 36

Today's Favorite Verse: 2 Chronicles 29:5, 10, 36
"And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites, sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place.
Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the Lord God of Israel, that his fierce wrath may turn away from us.
And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people, that God had prepared the people: for the thing was done suddenly."

I kept pondering on the word sanctify. The priests and the Levites needed to be sanctified before they could even clean the temple. They also prepared their hearts to covenant with the Lord. Then at the end of the chapter I see it was done suddenly. What I realized I was seeing was the preparations needed to be a people prepared to meet the Lord

"I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God; wherefore, gird up your loins and I will suddenly come to my temple. Even so. Amen"
(Doctrine and Covenants 36:8)

"The Lord who shall suddenly come to his temple; the Lord who shall come down upon the world with a curse to judgment; yea, upon all the nations that forget God, and upon all the ungodly among you."
(Doctrine and Covenants 133:3)

"Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:
Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping."
(Mark 13:35-36)

I may not know when the Lord's second coming is, but I can see a pattern that his people must be sanctified in preparation to meet Him. In this past year I have heard many talks on this subject. It has made me reflect on the law of chastity, virtue and sanctification. As the world grows darker and unclean, there is a need for God's people to sanctify themselves. I think it's the only way we get through it.

I found this in the bible dictionary under Conversion.
"...conversion will be complete and will change a natural man into a sanctified, born again, purified person - a new creature in Christ Jesus. Complete conversion comes after many trials and much testing."

"And after their temptations, and much tribulation, behold, I, the Lord, will feel after them, and if they harden not their hearts, and stiffen not their necks against me, they shall be converted, and I will heal them."
(Doctrine & Covenants 112:13)

That makes complete sense to me that this last LDS General Conference there was much discussion on being a tried and tested people. I know what a blessing my trials and tests have been for me. Without them I would not have come to know the Lord. Was it easy, no, was it worth it, yes! Am I done? Probably not, there is so much cleansing left to do.


Day 971