The Law of Consecration

1
The Law of Consecration
2
President HinckleySaturday Morning

• The past decade has been a
  wonderful season in the
  history of the Church.  There
  has never been
  another to
  equal it.  There has been a remarkable flowering
  of the work.  There have been many meaningful
  accomplishments
• As we stand on the summit of these years and look
  back, we must never feel arrogant or proud, but
  we can feel humbly grateful for what has been
  accomplished in a variety of undertakings.

3
Accounting President Hinckleys Stewardship

• Membership
• 3 Million new members
• Wards and Stakes
• 500 new stakes
• 4000 new wards
• Temples
• 72 new temples
• Church Education
• Doubled

• Perpetual Education Fund
• 18,000 students helped
• Book of Mormon
• 19 new languages
• 51 Million distributed
• New Conference Center
• 8000 in Tabernacle
• 21,000, Conference Center
• Humanitarian Aid
• Hundreds of Millions

4
Joseph Smith

• "A religion that does not require the sacrifice
  of all things never has power sufficient to
  produce the faith necessary unto life and
  salvation
• from the first existence of man, the faith
  necessary unto the enjoyment of life and
  salvation never could be obtained without the
  sacrifice of all earthly things....

5
Enochs Zion

• Moses 718
• And the Lord called his people ZION, because
• they were of one heart and one mind,
• and dwelt in righteousness
• and there was no poor among them.

6
The Saints Arrive in Kirtland

• 30 And behold, thou wilt remember the poor, and
  consecrate of thy properties for their support
  that which thou hast to impart unto them, with a
  covenant and a deed which cannot be broken.
• 31 And inasmuch as ye impart of your substance
  unto the poor,

ye will do it unto me
7
Consecration

• DC 4232
• And it shall come to pass, that after
  properties are laid before the bishop every
  man shall be made accountable unto me, a steward
  over his own property,

8
Matthew 208

• 8 So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard
  saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and
  give them their hire, beginning from the last
  unto the first.

Steward one to whose care or honour anything has
been intrusted (Thayers Bible Dictionary)
9
Question

• What is the spiritual difference between
• Steward and Owner?

10

• DC 72 3 And verily in this thing ye have done
  wisely, for it is required of the Lord, at the
  hand of every steward, to render an account of
  his stewardship, both in time and in eternity.

11
Bishop Victor L. Brown

• until we feel in total harmony that everything
  we have belongs to the Lord, it will be
  difficult, if not impossible, for us to accept
  the law of consecration.
• As we prepare to live this law, we will look
  forward with great anticipation to the day when
  the call will come. If, on the other hand, we
  hope it can be delayed so we can have the
  pleasure of accumulating material things, we are
  on the wrong path
• (1976 Devotional Speeches of the Year
  1977, 439

12
Rebuilding the Third Temple

• "Renewing animal sacrifices and building
  the Temple depends on the spiritual level of
  the entire Jewish nation.
• It makes no sense to talk about it at a
  time of glaring socioeconomic inequalities in
  Israeli society,
• at a time when Shabbat (sabbath) is
  openly desecrated
• If there is no family sanctity, it is
  inconceivable that there can be a Temple. Only
  when the majority of Jews living in Israel are
  observant and God-fearing can we begin to
  conceive of rebuilding the Temple." Rabbi Ya'acov
  Ariel

13
Elder John H. Groberg

• (This note was included with a check for 1000 to
  the presiding Bishop from Elder Groberg)
• Recently, while visiting one of the far distant
  islands that is very difficult to get to, I went
  late in the day to the home of one of the good
  widow sisters there.
• When I first approached her hut the sun was
  still quite bright and I could not help but
  notice the stark poverty of her surroundings. It
  had been raining earlier. The mud and decay and
  the ever-present smell of drying fish were at
  first repulsive. But the warmth of meeting with a
  fellow Church memberespecially after years of
  separationtogether with tears of appreciation
  for the long-awaited visit, soon pushed the
  unpleasantness of the surroundings temporarily
  into the background.
• As we conversed in her fluid native tongue and
  she told of her love for and faith in the Church
  and of all the blessings she had received, I
  could not help but think about her apparently
  miserable circumstances. All sorts of ideas
  went through my mind, and I must have let my
  thoughts wander as I suddenly became aware that
  somewhere between phrases about blessings and
  poverty and service she had gone to her hut and
  was now returning with a small knotted rag.

14
Threepence

• Suddenly my mind seemed to fill with light, and
  the words fast offerings flooded in. I was so
  excited with the idea that had come so suddenly
  and so clearly, that you can imagine my utter
  amazement and unpreparedness when she took a
  threepence (a coin worth about 3) from her rag
  and said softly, Here is my fast offering to
  help the poor.
• I wanted to explain that fast offering was to
  help her, not for her to help others. The
  explanation never came, for as I looked through
  misty eyes, first at the threepence then back at
  the good sister, the whole scene changed.
• The hut was a glowing mansion and the mud was
  gold. The world seemed to stand still for a
  moment. All of nature seemed to stop and listen
  as from the heavens the whole universe seemed
  filled with the reassuring words Blessed are
  the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
  (  Matt. 53.)
• As the setting sun signaled the end of the day,
  so it also told of the approaching end of her
  beautiful life of service.
• I took the threepence, and as I write this check
  the whole experience once again fills my mind and
  I wonder,
• How many threepences to make a thousand
  dollars?