From Fasting to Feasting

In Doctrine and Covenants 11:21 we read: "Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea the power of God unto the convincing of men." Why did the Lord say obtain here?  Why not learn?  Why not understand?  Why not study?  Why not ponder?  Why obtain?  What does obtain mean?  To make it your own, yes?  How do you make His word your own?  How do you obtain it? To obtain something you must know it, understand it, be able to replicate the principle in entirely unrelated situations.  It must become yours.  It must be, as Elder Bruce R. McConkie said in his final testimony in General Conference before he died, "In speaking of these wondrous things I shall use my own words, though you may think they are the words of scripture, words spoken by other Apostles and prophets.  True it is they were first proclaimed by ...

Today I want to share with you the why  behind this path of living.  It is the hardest thing you'll ever do, so to understand why you're doing it is essential. It is also important to build our common foundation so you will understand what I'm saying in future posts. In the parable of the talents, as related to us in the book of Matthew in the New Testament, there are three servants who are each given a sum from their master.  This amount was their responsibility and stewardship.  No one was there to tell them what to do with it or how to use it.  You know how the story goes.  Those with 5 and 2 talents were able to double them into 10 and 4.  The servant who was given 1 talent buried it and returned that which he was given.  The master then called the last an unprofitable servant and said to "cast that unprofitable servant into outer darkness" - which is one of only 9 times the term "outer darkness" is used in the entire Bible and one of only 2...