Tag Archives: Jesus Christ

What Is Grace?

13 Wednesday Oct 2021

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“The only time I had turned to God in the past was to ask for forgiveness, but now I also asked for grace—His ‘enabling power’ [Bible Dictionary, “Grace”]. I had never done that before. These days I spend a lot less time hating myself for what I have done and a lot more time loving Jesus for what He has done.”–Bradley R. Wilcox, Second Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency, October 2021 General Conference.

The LDS Bible Dictionary has a clunky explanation of what grace is and does. It is by Jesus Christ’s grace that we are saved. We are saved because of who He is and not because of who we are or what we can do. But the Greek word χάρις (Charis), or grace, is more than just favor or goodwill, though indeed it is by Jesus’ favor and goodwill that we are saved. Like Nephi in the Book of Mormon, I glory in plainness. I spend years pondering a subject so that I can simplify it in the most fundamental terms so that a child might understand it. After you finish reading this entry, you might understand grace better in your mind, but you must still learn to understand it in your heart and this only happens through a process.

So what exactly is grace if not favor and goodwill? There is more to it than that. Grace is also the condition of possessing light and truth. In the simplest term, it is the condition of being godly.

D&C 93:6 And John saw and bore record of the fulness of my glory, and the fulness of John’s record is hereafter to be revealed.
7 And he bore record, saying: I saw his glory, that he was in the beginning, before the world was;
8 Therefore, in the beginning the Word was, for he was the Word, even the messenger of salvation—
9 The light and the Redeemer of the world; the Spirit of truth, who came into the world, because the world was made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men.
10 The worlds were made by him; men were made by him; all things were made by him, and through him, and of him.
11 And I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us.
12 And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace;
13 And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness;
14 And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at the first.

Before Jesus Christ resurrected clothed in glory and power like the Father, he was a mortal man clothed in a tabernacle of clay, subject to all the weaknesses and infirmities of the flesh and subject to mortal death. And before He was born into this mortal world, He was clothed only in spirit and not yet a tabernacle of clay like the rest of us today. But Alma gives us a little clue about our existence before Satan was cast down to the Earth as we read in Isaiah.

Alma 13:1 And again, my brethren, I would cite your minds forward to the time when the Lord God gave these commandments unto his children; and I would that ye should remember that the Lord God ordained priests, after his holy order, which was after the order of his Son, to teach these things unto the people.
2 And those priests were ordained after the order of his Son, in a manner that thereby the people might know in what manner to look forward to his Son for redemption.
3 And this is the manner after which they were ordained—being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling, yea, with that holy calling which was prepared with, and according to, a preparatory redemption for such.
4 And thus they have been called to this holy calling on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds, while, if it had not been for this they might have had as great privilege as their brethren.

It was the Father’s foreknowledge of their individual capacities for good that men were called after the Holy Order of the Son of God. Before we were born to this Earth, some of us had already demonstrated our capacity for good and were called after the order of His Son who had already been ordained as our Great High Priest and Savior because of His great and infinite capacity for good and because of His great and infinite capacity for love and because of His great and infinite capacity to suffer more than all of us put together when that distant future hour would arrive and He would carry His cross and all our sins. Our Father had the foreknowledge of Jesus Christ’s capacity to love the world by being the instrument of our salvation with the capacity of tungsten steel to do what clay never could.

Joseph Smith once said, “Here, then, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.”–Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp.346-347.

So what does it mean to grow from grace to grace? When we grow from grace to grace, we grow in light and truth by degrees, line upon line and precept upon precept, possessing greater light and truth and that comes from our diligence in obedience to God in this life. This can be likened to making iron into steel through a certain process. We are willing to suffer the trials by fire that our Father sees fit to inflict upon us so that by growing from such trials, we develop the qualities produced by the intense heat and flames. Such qualities are patience, longsuffering, charity, etc. It is a process of growth wherein we change from being less god-like to being more godly. This typically happens through our suffering on behalf of others because of our love for them. The less willing you are to suffer to be a light to your neighbor, the less godly you are or will become (and perhaps the less faithful you were before the foundation of the world). You may possess a much greater capacity to love than you realize if you are willing to experiment and grow. God gives to us family members, neighbors, and various people in our life’s paths to challenge us and to provide us opportunities to express our love in different ways. Too many Christians are willing to do little more than their religious duties or perform rote tasks, but such performances do not make them more godly. It just makes them dutiful and task oriented. Machines and robots can be task oriented. Slaves can be very task oriented. God does not want slaves. He wants a family.

This, then, is grace and to be saved by grace: it is the condition of godliness and also God’s favor and goodwill because of His godliness that we are saved. Growing from grace to grace is a process whereby we change from being less godlike to being more godly. The heed and diligence we give to God’s instructions allows us to accomplish that growth. Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice makes possible the sins that we commit along the way to be forgiven so that we are able to grow without being damned by the errors that we wish to abandon through repentance. And becoming more and more godly also means our capacity to love others increases accordingly. The more godly we become, the more we are willing to suffer to elevate those who cannot elevate themselves, such as the poor and infirm. Jesus Christ, who is more godly than us all, has the greatest love and thus the greatest capacity to suffer all things for all of us with His condescension (1 Nephi 11:16), Latin “con” meaning with, which means the same in Spanish and “descend” which Christ did and does for us, below us, and WITH us all, He being full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

Have Miracles Ceased? Part One

09 Thursday Sep 2021

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I have witnessed too many people ask this question lately. My answer to this question is no. That’s the easy answer. Miracles abound in my life. I am not sharing this to boast of my own strength because I am nothing. I am less than dirt and less than rocks. Dirt and rocks are greater than me because even dirt and rocks obey God. When God says to the mountain move, it moves. Whenever God tells me to do something, I don’t always listen or I don’t always hear, though I am sincerely endeavoring every day to become better and to become complete. But in Christ, I know I can do all things. I have seen too much to doubt and to doubt it all would be to look straight up toward the sun at noon day and declare in defiance that there is no light. But that isn’t so much denial as it is blatant rejection. Through Jesus, I have caused the lame to walk, I have healed the sick, I have escaped death, I have been God’s instrument in preventing the death of another, and I have been given a vision, just to name a few examples. And I acknowledge that it is only through Jesus that I have been able to partake in such events because of a genuine and sincere desire to be obedient to Him in all things and at all costs. That is a scary notion!

I have spent a lot of time sharing the teachings that Jesus taught in His sermon on the mount. They are not only teachings, but commandments. Jesus summarized his teachings by saying, “Be ye therefore perfect.” That wasn’t a suggestion. It was a commandment. “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Our love for Him is measured by our willingness to obey Him and our obedience to Him is measured by the things we suffer for His sake. The Greek word for perfect, τέλειος or Teleios, means complete. Jesus desires us to be complete in Him. Jesus obeyed His Father perfectly, or in other words, completely, by all the things He suffered for us.

Hebrews 5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; 
9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him…

If you’ve read this far, then maybe you really are interested. Now I’m going to throw you into the deep end. Too much is at stake in the world right now.

Moroni 7:27 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased because Christ hath ascended into heaven, and hath sat down on the right hand of God, to claim of the Father his rights of mercy which he hath upon the children of men?
28 For he hath answered the ends of the law, and he claimeth all those who have faith in him; and they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing; wherefore he advocateth the cause of the children of men; and he dwelleth eternally in the heavens.
29 And because he hath done this, my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay; neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men.
30 For behold, they are subject unto him, to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness…
35 And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that these things are true which I have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you, with power and great glory at the last day, that they are true, and if they are true has the day of miracles ceased?
36 Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men? Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon the face thereof to be saved?
37 Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for it is because of unbelief, and all is vain.

I am going to give you an example of true discipleship. His name is Liu Zhenying and is known as Brother Yun. He learned obedience by the things he suffered in China and through him, Jesus Christ worked marvelous works. But does God expect all of us to suffer as brother Yun did? Probably not, but we should be willing to suffer whatever God requires of us in our individual lives to bring to pass the salvation of others, whether they are your neighbors, total strangers, or even your worst enemies. The Bible is filled with examples of people working mighty miracles by the things they suffered because of their obedience to God’s commandments. But this is Brother Yun’s story. I hope his experiences encourage you to seek Jesus Christ with the same zeal that Brother Yun sought Him until he found Jesus. Did Brother Yun embody Christ’s teachings in the sermon on the mount? Absolutely!

By A Thread, Kindle Edition

26 Saturday Jun 2021

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The Kindle Edition of my paperback book is now available for purchase to download to your digital device. I have set the price at $0.99 cents. I had hoped to make it available free of charge, but it was not possible. On December 24, 2020, I felt deeply inspired to begin writing a series of essays, which I knew I would have to convert into a published book. It was a very daunting task to organize all my thoughts onto paper, or rather, into my computer. After I had finished and began the process of formatting it, I was prompted to write an additional two chapters. After I finished publishing it, I awoke about 3 am and I heard “well done” spoken to me. I believe with all my heart that the Lord wants people, especially elders in the church to begin to rise up and prepare to redeem Zion. Now that this digital edition is also finished, I can move on to other things. Please click the link to order your copy:

By A Thread

This is an excerpt from Chapter Eight: What’s The Big Deal?

Is liberty really essential? Maybe the Constitution is outdated and obsolete! What’s wrong with a government that wants to keep us safe? We should just trust our leaders, right? From George Orwell’s book, 1984, we read the following excerpt where the main character Winston is being tortured and questioned by O’brien, a member in INGSOC’s inner party. Winston had been caught in the act of independent thought and behavior:

“I don’t know—I don’t care. Somehow you will fail. Something will defeat you. Life will defeat you.”

“We control life, Winston, at all its levels. You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do and will turn against us. But we create human nature. Men are infinitely malleable. Or perhaps you have returned to your old idea that the proletarians or the slaves will arise and overthrow us. Put it out of your mind. They are helpless, like the animals. Humanity is the Party. The others are outside—irrelevant.”

“I don’t care. In the end they will beat you. Sooner or later they will see you for what you are, and then they will tear you to pieces.”

“Do you see any evidence that this is happening? Or any reason why it should?”

“No. I believe it. I know that you will fail. There is something in the universe—I don’t know, some spirit, some principle—that you will never overcome.”

“Do you believe in God, Winston?”

“No.”

“Then what is it, this principle that will defeat us?”

“I don’t know. The spirit of Man.”

“And do you consider yourself a man?”

“Yes.”

“If you are a man, Winston, you are the last man. Your kind is extinct; we are the inheritors. Do you understand that you are alone? You are outside history, you are non-existent.”1

O’brien then ordered Winston to remove all his clothing and look at himself in a three sided mirror across the room. To his horror, Winston sees someone that he does not recognize: a figure of a man reduced to skin and bones, whose hair can be removed by a simple grasp of a tuft, and who is so emaciated that O’brien’s thumb and forefinger can meet around his frail bicep. He was grimy, filthy, and smelled so awful that he had to wonder how long he had been held captive. One can summarize this story in a single phrase, one which O’brien had succinctly explained to Winston during his torture, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever…and remember that it is for ever. The face will always be there to be stamped upon.”

While O’brien was well educated and knew about God, whatever he believed about God was irrelevant. INGSOC was God for all intents and purposes. That is all that mattered. The fact that Winston did not believe in God in the story is noteworthy. Oceania, where the story is set, may as well be a Godless society. But what was their atheistic moral compass? They had none. The spirit of man without God in the story proved to be self destructive.

Karl Marx considered religion to be nothing more than the opium of the masses. The communist hatred of faith is a feature, not a fault. Since the days of Marx, the communist goal has been the creation of a “new man.” The communist Chinese re-education camps in Xinjiang have employed political brainwashing of millions of Uyghur Muslims with the goal of making them suitable for the Chinese socialist system. Tibetan monks regularly face arrest, imprisonment, or death. Christians are being detained and forced to renounce their faith or be tortured. Falun Gong practitioners have their organs forcibly harvested for the benefit of party leaders. But what exactly is communism? Or better yet, what is the communism of Mao Tse-tung? What is the communism of Ho Chi Minh? Or Fidel Castro or Marshal Tito?

In keeping with the fact that almost everybody seems to have his own definition of Communism, we are going to give you ours, and then we will attempt to prove to you that it is the only valid one. Communism: AN INTERNATIONAL, CONSPIRATORIAL DRIVE FOR POWER ON THE PART OF MEN IN HIGH PLACES WILLING TO USE ANY MEANS TO BRING ABOUT THEIR DESIRED AIM—GLOBAL CONQUEST.2

Why does it matter whether the term is communism, socialism, fascism, or even capitalism when the desired result of the conspiring few is totalitarianism? Why does it matter whether it originates from the far left or the far right when the conspiring few use both sides to obtain their desired result of absolute control? In Orwell’s 1984, it can be argued that all the proletarians were atheists because all the practitioners of faith had already been slaughtered wholesale. The rest were easy pickings. But we are operating on the premise and understanding that there is a God and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to Earth on a rescue mission, and whose unimpeachable character and attributes offer us a clear view of what a heavenly being looks like. For any believer to be saved as a heavenly being requires that he or she becomes exactly like Him, nothing less, and nothing more. But to become like Him requires that we freely surrender ourselves. It means voluntarily giving up all our worldly ways—all our materialistic, covetous, lustful, greedy, oppressive, despotic, carnal, devilish attributes—and take upon ourselves His godly attributes and His character.

To be like Jesus Christ is to be someone who exercises no control over anyone else’s freedom to act and to make choices. Instead of forcing us to do good or to be good, He says, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). He is persuading us to love Him by becoming like Him. This is because all heavenly people are also like Him. Thus keeping His commandments teaches us to be like He is, which is a being who does not lie, steal, covet, lust, murder, etc. There is a vast difference between simply doing something and becoming someone whose character motivates him or her to do it. His two greatest commandments cover all others, for if we love someone as Jesus does, we would forever pose no threat of harm whatsoever to another person in any way, shape, or form because we are motivated purely by Christlike love. Furthermore, if we love as Jesus loves, we would be willing to sacrifice as He did, even to the laying down of our lives for another. What good parent would not lay down his or her life for a dying child? So if we, who are fallen creatures, are willing to sacrifice ourselves for the betterment of our children, even for the preservation of their lives, how much greater is the love of our God in heaven?

Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

23 Thursday Jul 2020

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While studying King Hezekiah’s relationship with the prophet Isaiah, I realized something else. Without God to uphold our hearts, we tend to fail every time He tests us. In other words, when God withdraws His Spirit and we feel abandoned, we discover the true nature of our own hearts.

2 Chronicles 32:31 ¶ Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.

He had put his trust in God during the Assyrian invasion and was given an additional fifteen years of life. But when the Lord withdrew to test him, Hezekiah ultimately became accountable for the Babylonian captivity. When we feel abandoned, we all stray. Some of us become monsters.

“Well, if God doesn’t care, why should I?”

But He does care. That is why he steps away periodically. Like a parent who teaches her toddler to walk, He must step away. I remember when one of my sisters was a toddler and still learning to walk. My mother set her at one end of the living room on her wobbly legs and walked to the other end. My sister began to cry because Mom appeared to abandon her. Desperate to be near my mother, my sister began to take one step and then two. Crying and striving to reach Mom, she inched her way forward one wobbly baby step at a time. She has been walking and running ever since. What is the solution?

Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

William Gurnall wrote that all our strength is fetched without doors, or in other words, outside of ourselves:

“Reason Second.  The second reason may be taken from the absolute necessity of this act of faith above others, to support the Christian in the hour of temptation.  All the Christian’s strength and comfort is fetched without doors, and he hath none to send of his errand but faith; this goes to heaven and knocks God up, as he in the parable his neighbor at midnight for bread: therefore, when faith fails, and the soul hath none to go to market for supplies, there must needs be a poor house kept in the meantime. Now faith is never quite laid up till the soul denies, or at least questions, the power of God.  Indeed, when the Christian disputes the will of God, whispering within its own bosom, will he pardon? Will he save? This may make faith go haltingly to the throne of grace, but not knock the soul off from seeking the face of God.  Even then faith on the power of God will bear it company thither: ‘If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean;’ if thou wilt, thou canst pardon, thou canst purge.  But when the soul concludes he cannot pardon, cannot save, this shoots faith to the heart, so that the soul falls at the foot of Satan, not able more to resist; now it grows more listless to duty, indifferent whether it pray or not, as one that sees the well dry breaks or throws away his pitcher.”–William Gurnal, The Christian in Complete Armor.

The strength to flee temptation comes only from God. And that strength comes only through prayer. Without prayer, we fail. How strong are we when God steps back to test our hearts?

Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the night hour.
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Jesus Christ suffered intense agony for six hours nailed to the cross while the effects of countless lashes had ripped his flesh, thorns had pierced his brow, spikes had pierced nerves in his extremities, hunger and thirst afflicted his body, and gravity made it all the more unbearable. But He did not waver from his mission. He had spent the entire night before in Gethsemane praying and also suffering. Prayer was His constant companion. He was no stranger to an entire night of prayer. He was no stranger to forty days of praying and fasting. But imagine for a moment, if He had stepped down from the cross, being abandoned or, rather, forsaken by His Father to become a monster and to smite the Romans who inflicted so much pain on Him and to make all the high priests wither as dried reeds, or to become as chaff that disappears in the wind and to strike down all those who mocked Him while He suffered intense agony. Only a monster would do such a thing. But Jesus was not a monster. Though capable of destruction of cosmic proportions, as demonstrated by the great flood during Noah’s day, or the pestilences inflicted upon Pharaoh in Moses’ day, Jesus Christ, the God of all creation humbly, meekly, and willingly suffered all things of His own will. Without His Father to uphold His heart, Jesus Christ upheld us all. He, and He alone carried all our guilt.

agony

Returning to Hezekiah, consider finally the following commentary:

“God left him to himself in it, to try him, v. 31. God, by the power of his almighty grace, could have prevented the sin; but he permitted it for wise and holy ends, that, by this trial and his weakness in it, he might know, that is, it might be known (a usual Hebraism), what was in his heart, that he was not so perfect in grace as he thought he was, but had his follies and infirmities as other men. God left him to himself to be proud of his wealth, to keep him from being proud of his holiness.

It is good for us to know ourselves, and our own weakness and sinfulness, that we may not be conceited or self-confident, but may always think meanly of ourselves and live in a dependence upon divine grace. We know not the corruption of our own hearts, nor what we shall do if God leave us to ourselves. Lord, lead us not into temptation.

3. His sin was the his heart was lifted up, v. 25. He was proud of the honour God had put upon him in so many instances, the honour his neighbours did him in bringing him presents, and now that the king of Babylon should send an embassy to him to caress and court him: this exalted him above measure.

When Hezekiah had destroyed other idolatries he began to idolize himself. O what need have great men, and good men, and useful men, to study their own infirmities and follies, and their obligations to free grace, that they may never think highly of themselves, and to beg earnestly of God that he will hide pride from them and always keep them humble!–Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 2 Ch 32:31.

In our individual journeys to seek His face, we must pray and pray often. Yesterday’s prayers are not sufficient for today, for as the Apostle Paul declared, we stand in jeopardy every hour! And when that sweet Spirit of the Lord deliberately withdraws from our hearts, which leaves us feeling empty and desperate, in order to test us, it is then that we truly discover who we are without Him. It is imperative that we learn to be godly without Him to uphold our hearts, else we might find ourselves, like that son of morning, fallen from heaven and cast down to Earth because of our pride and lust and vanity.

Isaiah 14:11 Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of the viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou has said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

 

 

Worship: Spirit and Truth

17 Sunday May 2020

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In light of so many empty chapels across the globe today and the problem of having a “place” to worship isn’t new. The ancient Samaritans once had a similar problem.

According to the Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible (McGraw Hill) by Louis F. Hartman, C.SS.R., feelings of ill will probably went back before the separation of the northern and southern Jewish kingdoms. Even then there was a lack of unity between the tribes of Jacob. After the separation of Judah and Israel in the ninth century, King Omri of the Northern Kingdom bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer (1 Kings 16:24). He built there the city of Samaria which became his capital.

It was strong defensively and controlled the valley through which the main road ran between Jerusalem and Galilee. In 722 B.C. the city fell to the Assyrians and became the headquarters of the Assyrian province of Samarina. While many of the inhabitants of the city and the surrounding area of Samaria were led off into captivity, some farmers and others were left behind. They intermarried with new settlers from Mesopotamia and Syria. Though the Samaritans were condemned by the Jews, Hartman says they probably had as much pure Jewish blood as the Jews who later returned from the Babylonian exile. When the Jews destroyed the temple where the Samaritans worshiped on Mount Gerizim about 111 B.C., it left their “apostate” Samaritan brothers and sisters with no place to worship the Lord. This sets the stage for the discussion between Jesus Christ and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.

Samaria._Jacob's_Well,_75.Holy_land_photographed._Daniel_B._Shepp._1894

John 4:7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)
9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
27 ¶ And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

I take issue with verse 24 where it says that God is a Spirit. While I agree that God is Spirit, I do not subscribe to the translation saying He is a Spirit without flesh and bone. There is a difference between being Spirit and being a Spirit. But that is a discussion for another day. The point of the discussion between the mortal Messiah and the woman at the well was to teach her that a physical location to offer up oblations would become obsolete and that worshiping the Lord involved offering up a broken heart and a contrite spirit instead of burnt sacrifices and that it could be done anywhere, especially in secret. Considering the temple at Jerusalem would soon be destroyed by the Romans, this revelation would prove to be paramount.

In the Book of Mormon (Alma chapters 31-34), there were impoverished Zoramites who were not allowed to worship in the very synagogues that they labored to build with their own hands. Because they did not dress like their wealthier fellow Zoramites, they were looked down upon and were not fellowshipped by their wealthier brothers and sisters who enjoyed worshiping in their synagogue by going up to a “holy stand” to declare loudly that all present might hear just how special and chosen and elect they were compared to everyone else. When many of these social outcasts approached Alma and Amulek, while they were preaching, they asked what they could do. They were then taught beautifully about faith and exhorted to worship anywhere and everywhere, that they did not need a physical building to worship the Lord.

Alma 34:37 And now, my beloved brethren, I desire that ye should remember these things, and that ye should work out your salvation with fear before God, and that ye should no more deny the coming of Christ;
38 That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.

We may go to a building with others to be instructed or listen to someone give witness, whether on a holy stand or in a classroom or some other location, but to worship, or in other words, to honor and to praise the Lord can be done anywhere. It can be at home in your closet or on a mountain top. So what does it mean to honor and praise the Lord in Spirit and Truth? How do we show Him that we love Him? Jesus Christ taught us precisely how in His sermons, especially His famous sermon on the mount. He taught us how to be perfect (Greek: complete). Very simply, if we love Him, we keep His commandments. His commandments teach us what it is like to be like Him and like His Father in heaven and all who dwell in such a celestial society. Jesus declared:

John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
22 Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

To love God is to worship Him in Spirit. It is to deny the flesh or as Paul said:

Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

We must die as to the flesh. We must crucify the carnal appetites that we might die unto Christ who lives in us.

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

But returning to John 14 above and Jesus manifesting Himself to those who love Him and keep His commandments, Joseph Smith had this to say about it:

D&C 130:3 John 14:23—The appearing of the Father and the Son, in that verse, is a personal appearance; and the idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false.

There have been many people today who have shared their story of being personally visited by Jesus Christ. He is no respector of persons and will manifest Himself according to His own will to them. In summary, I offer the following revelation given to Joseph Smith:

D&C 93:1 Verily, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am;
2 And that I am the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world;
3 And that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and the Father and I are one—
4 The Father because he gave me of his fulness, and the Son because I was in the world and made flesh my tabernacle, and dwelt among the sons of men.
5 I was in the world and received of my Father, and the works of him were plainly manifest.
6 And John saw and bore record of the fulness of my glory, and the fulness of John’s record is hereafter to be revealed.
7 And he bore record, saying: I saw his glory, that he was in the beginning, before the world was;
8 Therefore, in the beginning the Word was, for he was the Word, even the messenger of salvation—
9 The light and the Redeemer of the world; the Spirit of truth, who came into the world, because the world was made by him, and in him was the life of men and the light of men.
10 The worlds were made by him; men were made by him; all things were made by him, and through him, and of him.
11 And I, John, bear record that I beheld his glory, as the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even the Spirit of truth, which came and dwelt in the flesh, and dwelt among us.
12 And I, John, saw that he received not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace;
13 And he received not of the fulness at first, but continued from grace to grace, until he received a fulness;
14 And thus he was called the Son of God, because he received not of the fulness at the first.
15 And I, John, bear record, and lo, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove, and sat upon him, and there came a voice out of heaven saying: This is my beloved Son.
16 And I, John, bear record that he received a fulness of the glory of the Father;
17 And he received all power, both in heaven and on earth, and the glory of the Father was with him, for he dwelt in him.
18 And it shall come to pass, that if you are faithful you shall receive the fulness of the record of John.
19 I give unto you these sayings that you may understand and know how to worship, and know what you worship, that you may come unto the Father in my name, and in due time receive of his fulness.
20 For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace.
21 And now, verily I say unto you, I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn;
22 And all those who are begotten through me are partakers of the glory of the same, and are the church of the Firstborn.
23 Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit, even the Spirit of truth;
24 And truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come;
25 And whatsoever is more or less than this is the spirit of that wicked one who was a liar from the beginning.
26 The Spirit of truth is of God. I am the Spirit of truth, and John bore record of me, saying: He received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth;
27 And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments.
28 He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things.
29 Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be.
30 All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence.
31 Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light.
32 And every man whose spirit receiveth not the light is under condemnation.
33 For man is spirit. The elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy;
34 And when separated, man cannot receive a fulness of joy.
35 The elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man is the tabernacle of God, even temples; and whatsoever temple is defiled, God shall destroy that temple.