Renewing Temple Recommends

Every two years these days we are invited to renew our temple recommends with an interview with a member of the bishopric and a member of the stake presidency. Last night I completed the process with President Wes Harris at the stake center. I was reminded once again after all these many years since my first one, that there has never been a time when I had an expired recommend. We renew our recommends, yes, but the underlying spiritual symbol is significant too.

Our temple recommend is an affirmation between three parties whose signatures are affixed to the document: Each is an independent witness to the worthiness of the individual who holds the recommend. We affirm to priesthood leaders who hold the presiding keys of the Melchizedek Priesthood that we are in agreement with all the requirements embodied in the recommend questions we have been asked. The precision is apparent, as both Bishop Edmunds and President Harris read the words from their cell phones. I was asked to bear my witness to the answers to the questions, and with each question there was a pause for me to respond. In each interview THREE witnesses gave testimony to my worthiness.

This is to be expected, as explained in scripture:

2 Corinthians 13:

1 This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

2 I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare:

3 Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.

4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

6 But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

7 Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.

8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

9 For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.

10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.

11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.

12 Greet one another with an holy kiss.

13 All the saints salute you.

14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

We are all familiar with this passage in the Doctrine and Covenants 6, granting unto Oliver Cowdery the gift of translation for the purpose of fulfilling the requirement for witnesses:

25 And, behold, I grant unto you a gift, if you desire of me, to translate, even as my servant Joseph.

26 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that there are records which contain much of my gospel, which have been kept back because of the wickedness of the people;

27 And now I command you, that if you have good desires—a desire to lay up treasures for yourself in heaven—then shall you assist in bringing to light, with your gift, those parts of my scriptures which have been hidden because of iniquity.

28 And now, behold, I give unto you, and also unto my servant Joseph, the keys of this gift, which shall bring to light this ministry; and in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

In the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 27:12-14, we read about the prophecy of the coming forth of the record in the latter days, accompanied by three witnesses:

12 Wherefore, at that day when the book shall be delivered unto the man of whom I have spoken, the book shall be hid from the eyes of the world, that the eyes of none shall behold it save it be that three witnesses shall behold it, by the power of God, besides him to whom the book shall be delivered; and they shall testify to the truth of the book and the things therein.

13 And there is none other which shall view it, save it be a few according to the will of God, to bear testimony of his word unto the children of men; for the Lord God hath said that the words of the faithful should speak as if it were from the dead.

14 Wherefore, the Lord God will proceed to bring forth the words of the book; and in the mouth of as many witnesses as seemeth him good will he establish his word; and wo be unto him that rejecteth the word of God!

I would like to underscore what we all know. Having a current temple recommend isn’t “proof” that we are perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Rather, it is evidence to ourselves most of all that we are “trying” to become something we will never be in this life - PERFECT. I’ve been working at it for a very long time in this life, and I can attest - it is my witness - that the effort to TRY day by day, week by week, month by month and year by year is what makes us true saints of the Most High God. 

To varying degrees we are all “reprobates.” Don’t become discouraged if your recommend lapses, for this or that reason. Reach higher to submit yourself to your priesthood leaders, humble yourself, and repent with the intent to do better in the future. In repentance the past is cancelled and buried deep, never to be repeated or rehearsed again. Repenting is RENEWING, and I suppose it’s the reason we do what we do every two years. I came back home last night renewed, along with my temple recommend.

Many years ago I served as a bishop. I interviewed several members of my ward who had committed serious sins, and some who were guilt-ridden over what seemed like trivial miscues. In each case, I promised a renewal, because of their contrition. In some cases years passed, and then I saw them again in some random encounter with joyful countenances. I remembered they had been in my office as a bishop, but I could never recall the reasons why. I had simply forgotten their sins, and I was not suffering from Alzheimer’s disease either. I had simply become, as His chosen servant in that moment, like Him:

Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more.

By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins—behold, he will confess them and forsake them. (Doctrine and Covenants 58:42-43).

Now, this word of encouragement. The Lord may remember our sins no more, and our priesthood leaders may likewise not remember them either, but sadly, it has been my observation that too many of us are prone to dredge up our weaknesses and the weaknesses of those we love most. We must MASTER this gift of forgetting too, especially to forget the things with which we are most familiar and continue to persist in holding on to.

Sunrise in Pine Valley

Why? Because what is past is past, and cannot be revisited with any degree of helpfulness in the present circumstances in which we find ourselves. What is done is done. The past is cancelled, dead and buried deep. Whether for good or for evil, our past deeds cannot be amended in any way. Each new day is a fresh sunrise to be lived in a forward-leaning posture determined to improve the shining moments before us.

Moonlight in Pine Valley

I was reflecting the other night with the moon shining brightly overhead, that even when we can’t see the sun at night, its reflected glory is evident in the moon, the planets and the stars overhead. Our living and loving Heavenly Father sent His Only Begotten Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to lift our burdens of sin through His atoning sacrifice. It was a freewill offering to each of us given out of love. We can know by the eternal witness of the Holy Ghost these things are true, and I so testify to each of you, my beloved Goates Kids, that these truths are self-evident.

I have renewed that witness again just last night.