Deny Him Not

Today I read Doctrine and Covenants section 114, which is only 2 verses long where the Lord calls David W. Patten on a mission. It's always surprising to me how quickly the Lord would call these men in those days on missions. And later during Brigham Young's presidency it was even quicker sometimes. At least these days, at the very least even if they are a new convert they have at least a year to prepare. In the case of most young men how ever, they are well aware that they will serve their mission at age 19 and have their whole lives to prepare.

A single phrase in these 2 verses stood out to me. The Lord mentions that those who deny His name will lose their inheritance and be uprooted and others planted in their stead. It got me to thinking, what does it mean to deny God's name? There are some obvious answers that I think most Latter-day Saints have no need to worry about, but there are some not so obvious answers too that I think even the most stalwart of Saints need to be careful of.

Back when the church was young, the persecution the Saints had to endure was intense and fearsome and many good men, women and children lost their lives. There were men, evil men, that would shoot a Latter-day Saint on sight if they knew who they were. This would give the Latter-day Saints control over their own lives. They could own to being a Latter-day Saint, or deny the Christ and live. The most famous example of this is perhaps Joseph F. Smith. He was asked if he were a Mormon by a very vulgar man and he not only acknowledged it, he was cheerful about it. Then man was so impressed with how pleasant Joseph was, that he let him live. Not all Saints were so lucky and they sealed their testimony with their blood. In this day and age, there is not too much worry over this happening to us.

However, there are some non-direct ways we can deny the Christ. I don't think there are many of us that would deny being a Latter-day Saint, although there are a few out there that would. But for most of us we would happily acknowledge our faith when asked. The danger for us is much more subtle. When we were baptized we promised God we would stand as a witness for Him at all times and in all places. Are we doing that? Are we showing by our actions that we are a Latter-day Saint, or even a Christian? Or does it come as a shock when we tell people we are Mormon?

I probably should talk about being a Latter-day Saint more often than I do, but I believe it is a testimony of the way I live my life that without me having to tell people, after they have known me for awhile and have observed who I am and my behavior they can tell I am a Latter-day Saint. Now, I should probably be the one to bring it up more often, but the way I live my life shows the world that I am a Christian and a Latter-day Saint. I think that is the strongest way we can avoid denying Christ's name, is by being proud to be associated with it. We live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we have nothing to be embarrassed about. I have never understood why some people seem to be embarrassed that they live the Gospel. What is there to be embarrassed or sorry about?

If we are ashamed of Christ, then we need to reexamine our lives and find out why we are fearing man more than God. That is the only reason we would be ashamed of the fact that we are a disciple of Christ. There is no reason to apologize, or be ashamed of our lifestyle. We should be proud and unapologetic of who we are and why we live our lives the way we do. We are living testimonies of Christ, or we should be. There is nothing to be ashamed of. As Paul said thousands of years ago, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ". We need to make sure that we are not ashamed either and that we are living up to our covenant and standing as a witness for Him at all times and in all places. Until tomorrow.