Sustain Your Leaders

Today I read 1 Corinthians 9. I'm not too sure what Paul is driving at in this chapter. He starts off by declaring his Apostleship and talks about his authority. I can only surmise that some of the Saints have started questioning his authority to preach to them. I have often wondered just why it is that so many Saints over the years seem to call into question the authority of their Priesthood leaders and their "right" if you will to lead them and give them directions. It seems rather silly to me that someone would object to the Lord's anointed giving them direction. But then again, such people are probably not humble enough to take direction from anyone.

I have met several people who put their salvation on the line because they have a problem with the bishop. I have generally found that such people, while it is true they might have a problem personally with the current bishop, the real problem is actually sin on their part. Such people generally are not keeping the commandments in the way they should. If they were, they would not let something like someone else's worthiness, even a priesthood leader, keep them from attending church. It goes back to allowing yourself to be offended. It is a choice, make no mistake about it. I don't really want to go back into the topic of being offended as we just covered that a few weeks ago. However, it is important to point out that every member of the church who has been to the temple for themselves and performed their own saving ordinances has made a covenant to sustain their priesthood leaders, and I don't know about you, but I take my covenants with God very seriously. My advice would be that if you have an issue with your priesthood leader you should take it to God and ask for help. I would also suggest going to the next priesthood leader above him so that you can get help. That is what I would do. I would never put my personal salvation on the line just because I didn't like my bishop!

Now, this also begs the question, what does it mean to sustain your leader? Well, to me it means that we will do as he asks us to do. When he extends a calling to us, we accept it. When he asks us to give service, we do it. We do what we need to do in order to make his job easier and run more smoothly. This also includes doing as those he has called through revelation has asked us to do. When we sustain someone in the ward, that means we are promising to do all that we can to make sure that person succeeds in their calling. I promise you that if you ever have questions about it, your bishop will be more than happy to help you understand it better. But it is that important and we need to make sure that if we raised our arm to the square when asked, then we follow through on that commitment. Because God will hold us to it. Until tomorrow.