The Bible & The Temple...

I only had two more chapters to read in my Old Testament. The last two chapters in Malachi. Since were we going to be at Casa Marx for the next two days, I figured I would finish it when I returned home.

However, Friday morning Claude and I went to the first session at the Louisville, Kentucky Temple. We dress in white while in the temple and then back into Sunday clothes when we leave. I finished changing into my Sunday clothes faster than Claude this time so I sat in the foyer to wait for him.

Laying on the end table was the Bible. I picked it up and thought, "Maybe I'll finish those two chapters before Claude comes out." I opened to Malachi chapter 3 and began to read.

Malachi 3:1  "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts."

It caught me thinking I was in the temple and it is a place the Lord will come! It just felt so powerful.

I continued to read and got to Malachi 4:5-6  "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

"And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

What a set of verses to end my reading while sitting in the temple! 

We believe the temple is a place to make covenants with our Heavenly Father that need to be made with a physical body and as part of the earth experience. Because of this belief and the understanding that Heavenly Father is a just and merciful God to all of his children, he wants everyone of them to have the opportunity, if they so choose, to have the ordinance performed for them. We do this as proxy for our deceased kindred giving them the opportunity to accept or reject that work. We believe this is turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. I had gone through the temple as proxy for one of my own relatives that very day.

I'm grateful for having the Louisville Kentucky Temple so close. I'm grateful for those wonderful moments when we have a confirming witness of the truthfulness of the things we are doing. For me, reading Malachi's words about temples at the beginning and the end of those two short chapters was just a most uplifting start to my weekend and a confirming witness of temple service.