God is Love

Sister Martha Purse: It’s a pleasure to be here in this beautiful building, it’s almost overwhelming, still, to my husband and my family and I to be here in this beautiful place and to just be bathe in the strength of the church and of the beauty of Ricks College here. We came out here last summer from Pennsylvania, and we’ve…we spent time in other states, and it’s a pinnacle of our life to be here at this time, and we’re so thrilled.

Brother Purse and I met many years ago at BYU as students, and it was an interesting kind of meeting. We heard…well, I heard about him before I met him from a good friend of mine who wanted me to take over paying her…for her room while she went to France to revisit the mission that she had served in previously. And I was coming out of living in the French language house, didn’t have a place during the spring and summer terms, and I thought that’d be just fine. So she prepared me and told me that she was just in the best ward at BYU campus, and she made the best friends there, and three of them were roommates: Gary, Kevin, and Dick, and I would just love. I had to meet them and be buddies with them like she was. She also particularly loved Gary and made a classical tape of music for him. He loves classical music and wanted me to hand it to him after she had left on her trip. She’d promised that she’d give it to him. And so I said, sure, I would. So I looked him when I went to the first meetings at the ward. He was teaching Gospel Doctrine, I went to that classroom. And by the end of the class, I was so thrilled I had an excuse to introduce myself. And as good fortunate would have it, he invited me to walk home with him and things went on from there. In fact, the last thing Darlene said to me was “you will just love Gary.” When she came back to BYU in fall, we were married. So I think no one was more surprised than her, maybe our parents a little bit.

Brother Purse is a convert to the church just as I’ am. In fact, we were baptized within a year of each other even though we were in different countries at the time. I’m from Canada. He was raised in Northern Virginia. He was baptized in May of 1978 after becoming interested in the church through the Washington, D.C. Visitor Center.

After serving a mission in New York City, he returned to BYU where we met. We’ve been married almost 15 years coming up in a week or two. And we have five children, Rebecca four, Katelyn six, Rachel nine, who is with us today, Natalie 12, who is also with us, and Nicholas 14, who’s babysitting.

During the past 20 years, Brother Purse has served as an Elder’s Quorum president, a ward mission leader, branch president, an early morning seminary teacher, which he loved, a priest quorum advisor, and as a Sunday school and primary teacher for several age groups. He currently serves in a bishopric here on the Ricks campus.

He’s received Bachelors and Masters Degrees from BYU and a doctorate from Ohio University. He’s been employed by the church educational system for 14 years. And his experience includes teaching seminary and institute, and supervising seminary and institute teachers in Pennsylvania and Ohio for 10 years. He has just completed his first year teaching at Ricks.

Brother Gary Purse: Thank you Sister Purse.

One thing she left out in the story is that when she walked into the room, it was kind of hard for me to concentrate on teaching that day. When you’re trying to teach the Sermon on the Mount you don’t want to be thinking about dating. So I figured a way to get to know her was to have her give the closing prayer. And obviously, she gave a good one. I was very impressed with her and offered to walk her home. And the rest is history as they say; it was a wonderful experience. I’m breaking a little rule here. We are careful not to do too much public display of affection but I want to tell you that I’m so thankful for Martha and the wonderful companion she’s been for me.

We’ve had a great 15 years; I think we’ll renew the contract August 23 if she behaves herself till then. Thank you so much for that beautiful musical number, I love that hymn. It stirs me, and I think my students love it almost more than any other hymn. And we sing it often in class, and I really appreciate your efforts and your beautiful voices. We’re so thankful for the warm reception we’ve received here in Rexburg from the administration. We love the Bednars and all those that work with them. My colleagues, faculty, staff, the community members and our neighbors have been wonderful. We had a lot of misconceptions about coming to Rexburg. One of them was we thought everybody drove a four-wheel drive pick-up truck that had a gun rack and fussy dice. Now, the thing is we found out we were wrong. There aren’t any fussy dice. And I have to first for the time, I’ve been tempted to buy a pick-up truck in my life; it seems like that’s the only commercial on television here in Rexburg. I want to buy me a Ford truck but I’ll try to resist that temptation. But it’s been a wonderful, happy experience here. We were a little stocked at that it wasn’t as green as Pennsylvania, but we were able to adjust because there’s a lot more blue. And we love it here, and we’re so happy to be here.

My heart is full today. I would…I’m so grateful for the opening hymn, “God is Love” because, really, that’s my basic message today. And I’d like to…this morning, I would like tie my remarks to some of the principles taught in the beautiful hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”. Just reviewing a few lines from that, “Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise.” And I’m going to just skip around the verses here, but these are some that I’ll address. “Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee.” “And Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God; He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood.” And finally and importantly, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love. ” I see three major themes in this hymn that I think are important.

One is that we learn about Heavenly Father’s nature and his beloved his for they are one in character and purpose.

Another is we learn about our nature, our tendency to wonder from the fold of God.

And finally, that the Savior provides a rescue mission for us, to rescue us from danger. We’ll begin with heavenly Father’s character, perfection, and attributes. I must tell you that the first time I felt that there was truly a Father in heaven was when I was 19, and I was in the Washington, D.C. temple visitor center. And I felt those stirrings that Heavenly Father was a real person, that he who was tangible, that he was literally my father. And I was so grateful for that prompting. I will tell you that I was with some LDS people, and I was so excited about the presentations because they introduced us to ancient and modern prophets; the Book of Mormon and the testimonies of people, ordinary people. I was so excited that I bought a Book of Mormon when my LDS friends weren’t watching because I didn’t want them to bug me about it. But I was very excited, impress with the message and felt the love of my Father in heaven for the first time in my life in a tangible way. So I took the book back to school with me, where I was attending, that’s Virginia Tech. And it was the old color Book of Mormon, it was light blue with sort of the gothic white writing on the binding and Moroni on the cover. And I…Virginia Tech is a typical American school where there’s some wild activities that go on in the dorms and so forth, and so I didn’t want roommates and friends to think I was a religious fanatic. So I put a piece of black electrical tape on the binding of the cover so that when it was on the shelf, they couldn’t tell what it was. And I secretly studied it. And I was impressed with Moroni’s promise when he said, “When ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye shall read them.” And thought that was for me. And I felt like I should read the Book of Mormon and study it. And then he promised me, that is Moroni promised me that if I would asked Heavenly Father in the name of Christ if it were not true that he would manifest the truth of it unto me by the power of the Holy Ghost. So I thought what do I have to lose, there’s nobody pressuring me, my LDS friends don’t know I’m interested, my roommates don’t know I’m a religious fanatic, and so I just secretly studied it and asked Heavenly Father in the name of the Son if it was true.

Well, the answer came that it was indeed, I felt the confirming feelings. So then I called the missionaries and ask them if they could me into their busy schedule and teach me more. And of course, you know, they were very accommodating. So the night that they came we discussed the Joseph Smith story and I’ve remember still the great warm and powerful feelings I had about the Prophet Joseph Smith. And they had me pray out loud for the first time. And I set a date to be baptized that night. And all was well, so I thought until I informed my family. And my poor mother, you have to understand, she’d gone through a difficult divorce, and her all-American boy…her oldest boy had gone off to school at Virginia Tech, sort of an all-American school. I was playing intramural football, I made the Dean’s list, and I was having a great, sort of all-American semester. And then I come home, and I want to join this religious cult that’s not even Christian from her point of view. And so, things became a little bumpy from that point on and, and she strenuously resisted my getting baptized; that was in November of 77’. So I had to wait until May of 1978 to be baptized because of her objections. She wanted to think it

through and make sure that it was what I wanted to do, and I understand that. She’s a wise person. But, anyway, during that time, I attended institute, attended church, and went to general conference. And wrote my first English term paper on the church, very passionately, I might add, which probably shocked the instructor. I think, I said at the beginning of the paper “I met a world of numerous Christian churches and religions creeds, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints rises above all other churches to bring forth the truthfulness of the gospel.” Rather strong statement for a freshman English paper at a non-LDS school. And as I recall, I think, she gave me a pretty decent grade on the paper. So I just want to say that, that invitation to come and partake of the love of God is there for all of us, and how grateful I’ am that Heavenly Father invited me to come and partake of his love through the restoration.

You know, that word Mormon didn’t even enter into my vocabulary until I was 15. And I was on the beach in North Carolina with my dad at Nags Head, North Carolina, and he was considering a move to Ogden, Utah. And I objected because there were Mormons there. Well, he told me there were Mormons there, and of course, I didn’t know what Mormons were. It just didn’t sound right, Mormon. And I thought, they didn’t…that Mormons didn’t play sports and weren’t interested in education and so forth. That was my mother’s major concern that we didn’t play sports and didn’t care about education. In fact, when I was baptized she made me promise I never quit playing sports. So President Kinghorn, that’s why I go down and play noon hoops down at the gym that great personal risk. But, my dad took the job in Ogden, and my parents divorced. And we went to visit my dad one time because we continued to live in Virginia with my mother. And I use to look in the stores to see what Mormons look like. And, I guess, I decided they looked alright when I was in Ogden. And there’re so much to the story, I just want to tell you that it’s been a glorious 20 years; a series of invitations to partake of the love of God and to be…to find joy and peace and sanctification and improvement.

I wanted to share with you some statements by the brethren; I wanted to focus first with a theme on his nature or the nature of God and his Son…Heavenly Father and his Son. Brigham Young said:

I want to tell you, each of…and every one of you, that you are well acquainted with God our Heavenly Father. For there is none a soul of you but what has lived in his house and dwelt with him year after year, and yet, you’re seeking to become acquainted with him when the fact is you have merely forgotten what you did know. There is not a person, here, today but what is a son and daughter of that being. In the spirit world, their spirits were first begotten and brought forth. And they lived there with their parents for ages before they came there.

So the reason we feel love for him is because we know him well. And the reason he loves us is because he knows us well. As one of my students suggested, his love for us is uninterrupted. I’ve called it relentless and persistent. Becoming reacquainted with him in this life is how we find peace and happiness, and it is how we gain salvation or eternal life. Quoting the Prophet Joseph Smith, Ezra Taft Benson stated in an Easter message to the church. In fact, I think, this was his first address to the church as prophet, officially

published in the Ensign and was called “Joy in Christ”. But he suggests six attributes that we must know about God or understand in order for us to be able to exercise the kind of faith in God that brings happiness in this life and salvation in the next.

Quality number one or attribute number one: God is the creator and upholder of all things. King Benjamin said in Mosiah 4:9, I’ll pause there for you since you have your scriptures. Get those fingers ready because we’ve got quite a few scriptures coming up here. King Benjamin said he created all things, and I’ am taking pieces of that verse. He has all wisdom and all power. That’s an important principle, our attribute of our Father in heaven and his Son. We are not here on earth because of some chance explosion, you know all…you all know the sequence of events the secular world offers you when discussing your pedigree. Big bang, green soup, creepy crawly aquatic relatives and then primates, and then here we are today; that’s the secular sequence. But we know that the story’s different, that we’re created in the image of God, that we’re, literally, his sons and daughters. You know, this has a consequence believing that God created us, we live our lives differently. Those who believe that things came about because of chance, that we’re apart or that we’re sort of unwitting victims involved in a random and sometimes chaotic experiment. They have a different view of life and the way to go about life. And I wanted to give you just one example of one the implications or one of the consequences of believing that things come about because of chance, because of an explosion rather than by an organized plan of our Father in heaven.

The secular world would teach personal choice and whatever feels right. We would teach, that is the restored gospel would teach moral agency. The world would emphasize…the secular world would emphasize individual rights and freedoms, and we would emphasize establishing Zion. The secular world would teach lifestyle choice, you’ve heard that quite often. What do we teach? chastity and virtue. And, finally, one that’s really important consequence of believing in a chance creation is the idea that’s it’s our…it’s my body. The gospel would teach our bodies are on loan, they’re temples of God. Now, let’s follow this…the logic of this it’s my body idea out a little more. In the 60’s, people said it’s my body, and I’ll do what I want with it. In the 70’s, people said it’s my body, and I’ll do what I want with it, and you’ll pay for it. In the 80’s, it’s my body, I’ll do what I want with it, you’ll pay for it, and you’ll tolerate it. In the 90’s, it’s my body, I’ll do what I want with it, you’ll pay for it, you’ll tolerate it, and you will acknowledge what I do and protect my lifestyle with legislation. Are we there? Two thousands, it’s my body, I’ll do what I want with it, you’ll pay for it, you’ll tolerate it, you’ll acknowledge what I do and protect my lifestyle with legislation, and my lifestyle is not a choice, it is a part of normal human functioning. And then I would add, maybe, the next step would be if you don’t comprehend it, you’re not a complete human being. That’s the logical extension of taking God out of the picture.

An interesting thing that happen in the 1830’s was, between 1835-1837, Charles Darwin was sailing on the Beagle around the Galapagos Island collecting data for what would become the foundation of his books and later be known as Darwinism. The main focus of that was to take God out of the picture and to say there was no purpose for humanity, other than for biological reproduction, survival of the fittest. Well, inter…interestingly

enough, between 1835-1837 he was on the Beagle. And between 1835-1837 what was Joseph Smith doing? Joseph Smith was building and dedicating a temple, having multiple visits from the Savior, visions of the Father and the Son and other visions. Visits from Moses, Elias, Elijah, Adam, Abraham, John the Beloved, Peter, and from others angels, experiences with prophesying, gift of tongues, hearing of the sound of a rushing mighty wind, and seeing a pillar of fire in the horsemen of Israel. So, he’s laying the foundation for a whole different movement. Now, what’s interesting is both Joseph Smith and Darwin came forth with their major doctrines in 1844. Darwin’s long essay came out in 1844 which became the foundation for Darwinism. Joseph Smith stood in the grove, his last general conference in April 1844 in Nauvoo, Illinois, and gave his famous King [F] address where he declared the nature and character and attributes of God and our potential as human beings as men and women. Think of those two great movements moving forward and the impact they’ve had on humanity.

Number two, attribute number two: God has perfect mercy, long-suffering and goodness. Alma taught that Christ is full of grace, equity, and truth; full of patience, mercy and long-suffering. Several modern-day prophets confirm Alma’s statement. Joseph Smith taught, our Heavenly Father is more liberal in his views, and we’re not speaking of a political affiliation here. And boundless in his mercies and blessings than we are ready to believe or receive. Another prophet Howard W. Hunter has said, “God’s chief way of acting is by persuasion and patience and long-suffering, (clears throat) excuse me, not by cores and start confutation. He acts by gentle solicitation and by sweet enticement; he will stand by us forever to help us see the right path, find the right choice, respond to the true voice and feel the influence of his undeniable spirit. His gentle, peaceful, powerful persuasion to do right and find joy will be with us so long as time shall last or the earth shall stand or there shall be one man upon the face of it thereof to be saved.

How grateful I’ am for Heavenly Father’s tender loving care in my life. I’m so thankful for his gracious character. For the pass 20 years of my church membership, I have enjoyed becoming reacquainted with him through studying the scriptures, listening to modern prophets and through the companionship of the Holy Ghost. The presence of the Father and the Son in my life has been a source of many blessings and much happiness. I agree with President Hebert C. Kimball who made the following statement about Heavenly Father. In fact, this is one of my favorite statements about him:

I’ am perfectly satisfied that my Father and my God is a cheerful, pleasant, lively and good nature being. Why? Because I’ am cheerful, pleasant, lively, and good natured when I have his spirit. That is one reason why I know and another is, the Lord said through Joseph Smith, “I delight in a glad heart and a cheerful countenance.” That arouses from perfection in his attributes. He is a jovial, lively person and a beautiful man.

Attribute number three: God does not change. In Moroni chapter eight verse 18, Mormon revealed that God is not a changeable being but he is a unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity. What I appreciate about the nature of the Father and the Son is that they don’t have to set a goal to be gracious and kind. They don’t have off or bad days, you don’t have to approach them certain days of the week when you can catch them in a good

mood. They’re always approachable, the Father’s always approachable as the hymn so eloquently states, “Dearest children, God is near you, Watch o’er you day and night, And delights to own and bless you, If you strive to do what’s right.”

Attribute four: God cannot lie. The brother of Jared declared “thou art a God of truth and canst not lie.” He keeps his promises. He’s able to do that, of course, because he knows all things from the beginning. And he’s able to prepare a way to accomplish all his works and fulfill all his words.

Attribute number five: God is not respecter of persons. Mormon testified God is not a partial God, and then that you’d want to jot this reference down, 1st Nephi 17:35. “Behold…” this is such an important attribute. “Behold, the Lord esteemeth all flesh in one; he that is righteous is favored of God.” I had a student in Pennsylvania who approached me and said “Brother Purse, can you give me some ideas on how to be more humble?” And so, I talk to her about that, but the thing that struck me was her next comment and that was she was deriding or finding fault with her non-LDS roommates or school associates that she had in college. And she was calling them some rather derogatory names. And that’s bothered me for about a week, and I got back to her. And it occurred to me that she was forgetting God is no respecter of persons. She was assuming that somehow that the Lord loved her more or esteemed her more highly than her non-LDS roommates who didn’t have the gospel standards that she’d grown up with. She was somehow forgetting that he loves them and wants to save them as much as he wants to save her but he can only favor those who turn to him.

His goodness and love are available to all. In fact, this love in part is manifest unto all persons through his creations and his sustaining power. The greater portion of his love and blessings and ultimately the fullness of what is available to us, though or however, is only assessable to the humble and diligence seekers of true. So while it’s available to all, the assessable depends on you and me and how we seek after him.

Number six, God is a God of love. Nephi wrote that “[the Lord] doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life,” 2nd Nephi 26 verse 24.

I had an experience as a branch president that really changed my life. There was a man who wanted to become an elder, and I kept putting him off because he…well, for one reason, he was always suing people. And I was a little scared of him. In fact, I think, maybe, finally I gave him an interview to avoid a lawsuit. But if you saw him, you’d understand, he was rather disheveled in his appearance and his grooming. And he was angry at everyone, everybody had done something wrong to him. And so, I thought, I don’t think he can become an elder; he’s just not the right stuff. So, finally, he persisted and got an appointment with me. And we knelt in prayer, and I felt what I called a mantel override where the priesthood leader starts to work as priesthood leader should. And I left behind Gary Purse and became the branch president.

Now, here’s what struck me. What struck me was the incredible love I felt for him. I was surprised. In fact, I could almost step back from it and say: now, wait a second here. I know I don’t feel that, that’s got to be the Lord’s love for him. And I was shocked that the Lord loved him that much. And I decided: well, maybe I better go along with this. If the Lord feels that way about him maybe I should get on board. Now, I must tell you that I had a fleeting thought that I had to repent of and that is, I thought, if the Lord loves him that much, he must really love me. Don’t worry, I got over it. Now, the funny thing is I think I’m one of the only friends on the planet that this man at this point. He still sends me Christmas cards, I ask him the questions.

The interesting the feelings that I had in the interview were, and I’m not suggesting the spirit said it exactly this way but this is the way I interpreted it. I didn’t ask…being a judge in Israel doesn’t mean you can judge everybody in Israel that was my first thought. And secondly, I didn’t ask you to assign him to a kingdom, I just ask you to ask the questions in the interview on my behalf. And so, I did that and send him off to the stake.

That was such a wonderful experience. I know that his love, the love of God, is so persistent and relentless on our behalf. And he seeks after us, and he does nothing but that which is designed to bring us happiness. No ordinance or commandment is given without the design calculated to bring us happiness of Joseph Smith.

So what gets in the way of us partaking of the love of God and enjoying the presence of the Father and the Son?

Well, this is part two of third of the three themes that I picked up and that’s our nature. We’re prone to wonder, we’re prone to decay. “Since the fall of Adam,” Elder McConkie stated, “We are prone to sin. We are in varying degrees of spiritual darkness, and we’re out of harmony and unity with God. Freedom from sin is salvation of freedom that no mortal ever fully attains; all man sin daily either in deed, word, or thought.” So that’s our predicament.

We’re the greatest danger to ourselves when the hymn says “he to rescue me from danger.” I think the danger is our fallen nature and overcoming that fallen nature.

Alma 34:9, if you could turn to that with me, please. Since we’re prone to decay and staleness because of the fall of Adam our tendencies and our own transgressions and our own sinfulness; since we go to weed so quickly, we’re in need of a gardener, a master gardener, and that’s the Lord. We’re in need of refreshment, and that’s the gospel and especially the restoration brings refreshment. Verse nine of Alma 34:

You know, this fallen state doesn’t apply to some of just…it doesn’t apply just to some of the past and present college roommates we have or wayward friends or the non-LDS folks we know that don’t keep the commandments or the less active LDS. But it applies to all accountable persons, even Ricks faculty, staff, and students. Oh, and I’ve got add administration. The effects of the fall apply to all of us, and we all need to come unto Christ and be perfected in him. “There are no person,” said President Brigham Young, “Without evil passions to embitter their lives. Mankind are revengeful, passionate, hateful, devilish, and devilish in their depositions. This we inherit though the fall and the grace of God is designed to enable us to overcome it.” And then, finally, Elder Maxwell:

There are those who reading certain scriptural descriptions about the nature of man such that as man is carnal, essential, and devilish brush by these scriptures hurriedly, even nervously, because they feel so uncomfortable upon reading them. Such offended readers may even say these adjectives do not sound like most of the people they know. There is a danger, however, in ignoring these scriptures in the profound message they contain. Through these scriptural insights concerning the natural man…[I’m sorry] though these scriptural insights concerning the nature man may seem to put a sternly in our place, when they are combined with the fullness of the gospel we are shown our immense possibilities and what we have the power to become. Are we not wiser to understand our fallen nature and then with equal attention to be taught about how we can be lifted up? Indeed, for one to ask where do we go from here, he must know where here is. We need then to view ourselves as King Benjamin peoples’ did in our carnal state or as King Lamoni’s father who said he was willing to give away all his sins to know God. Or like Lehi in his dream, we need to understand that we are traveling through a dark and dreary waste land, spiritually speaking. Remember as beautiful as it is scenery wise, the earth at best is a telestial place. Understanding our need for Christ atonement in our lives comprehending our hopelessness without him is the beginning of true self-worth. It should be the content of the ultimate self-esteem worth workshop, because as we daily acknowledge our need for the atonement in our lives, we are being to exercise our faith unto repentance. This repentance leads to a remission of sins which leads to meekness and then to the companionship of the Holy Ghost with all its fruits and blessings. Our confidence, then, begins to wax strong in the presence of God and humanity in general. The good news of the gospel is that we can repent and have the atonement work in our lives. But this process starts with always remembering him.

I just want to close by saying that I think sometimes we over emphasize his death and suffering in the way we remember him, then I think he’d rather that we remember him in the context of our need for him. And, therefore, we come unto him and allow his atonement to work in our lives.

How thankful I am for the atonement of Christ. I know that we can come unto him and be perfected in him and be found blameless and return to the presence of our Father in heaven. But we have to do two things. And that is to deny ourselves of all ungodliness and to keep his commandments.

How thankful I’ am for the restoration of the gospel and for the refreshment that it brings to my life and to the lives of all of us. I know that heavenly father lives and that Jesus is the Christ, I know he’s the Messiah. I know the Book of Mormon is a true record kept by prophets and translated by a prophet. I know Joseph Smith did, indeed, talk with the Father and the Son and opened up this dispensation. I know President Gordon B. Hinckley is a living prophet.

How thankful I’ am for the glorious message of the restoration and for the love of God in my life and for the atonement of Christ which rescues me from the lost and fallen state that I’m in. And I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.