Excerpts from the October CES Devotional
with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
...Lesson number one for the establishment of Zion in the
21st century: You never “check your religion at the door.” Not ever....
...My young friends, that kind of discipleship cannot
be—it is not discipleship at all. As the prophet Alma has taught the young
women of the Church to declare every week in their Young Women theme, we are
“to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places
that ye may be in,” not just some of the time, in a
few places….
...Having said that, I remind us all that
while reaching out to and helping back a lamb who has strayed, we also have a
profound responsibility to the 99 who didn’t—and to the wishes and will of the
Shepherd. There is a sheepfold, and we are all supposed to be in it, to
say nothing of the safety and blessings that come to us for being there. My
young brothers and sisters, this Church can never “dumb down” its doctrine in
response to social goodwill or political expediency or any other reason. It is
only the high ground of revealed truth that gives us any footing on which to
lift another who may feel troubled or forsaken. Our compassion and our
love—fundamental characteristics and requirements of our Christianity—must never
be interpreted as compromising the commandments. As the marvelous George
MacDonald once said, in such situations “we are not bound to say all that we
[believe], but we are bound not even to look [like] what we do not [believe].”
