ZION AWAITS 1

It would be extremely difficult to put a date of initial input on when I became aware of and interested in the concept of a Zion Society.

I do remember in Junior High or maybe it was in High School wondering how much more wonderful those Happy Days (1950’s) would be if Garden Grove, California, weren't plagued with racial bigotry and people who felt that bullying was normal and acceptable.

I don't think that while I was doing my Army basic training at Fort Ord, California, that the thought of a Zion Society entered my thoughts very much, if at all. I was too busy learning the ‘Spirit of the Bayonet’ and learning how to kill efficiently. I suspect if any such thoughts did enter my mind they would have been along the line of ‘Zion will not be anything like this.’

I do remember while I was in Northern Mexico on my mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that I came to realize that people can still treat one another with love and kindness regardless of their economic, cultural or racial backgrounds. It was also the first time I was really affected by the concept of everything not having to be labeled as mine or yours. I was introduced to the wonderful principle that another’s needs are always more important that my personal comfort.

Even though I had been raised by loving parents, I don't think it was until I married Kathleen and we started to raise our own children that I began to understand the amount of love needed in people’s hearts in order for them to be able to think of others as being as important as themselves. When I encountered the beginning of the love, which I would have, to extend to all mankind if I were ever to be able to be a candidate for membership in a Zion Society the realization of the difficulty of the journey started to be a reality.

Once I started my 50 plus years of teaching for the Church Education System, (which included time as an Early Morning Seminary teacher, decades as a full time employee of the Church Education System and as a volunteer Adult Religion teacher,) I doubt there were many days during half a century that I wasn't thinking and teaching about the principle of a Zion Society. Sadly, most of those thoughts and lessons were aimed at how far we were from putting the principles into effect in our daily walk.

During my retirement years and after I finally left the classroom, which at this writing has rapidly sped through five years, I have been writing these weekly Thoughts for a Sabbath Day as well as a collection of week day thoughts called Life’s Lessons Learned. Even though few, if any, of these writings have been titled ‘Zion Society Principles’, I suspect almost all of them were about these principles.

And my point would be?

After this life expectancy exhausting period of life and all the experiences I have had, I still find that when the subject of Zion comes up in a discussion, it is usually about how close the inhabitants of the world are to being wicked enough for the Lord to intervene with the prophesied destruction preceding His introducing His millennial reign.

News Flash!

The world had already risen to a qualifying level of wickedness during those Happy Teen Days of my youth.

The world was definitely wicked enough when I was being prepared to kill all the evil people who lived anywhere but on the chosen soil.

The world was certainly wicked enough as I served among the citizens of Mexico, who only a short time before I had been prejudiced against.

The world had arrived at high levels of wickedness as we raised our family during the nuclear bomb stock piling years.
Even though we think that there has been a continual rise in the collective wickedness of the world during the last 50 years, I believe the Lord could have chosen any time along the continuum for the ushering in of His reign.

In fact if we go back to the history which even predates geezer’s like me, the world was ready during the days of Sodom, the days of Alexander, the days of Caligula, World War I, the Roaring Twenties, World War II. I think you get the idea.

Put the timeline of the history of the world on a wall, throw a dart, where it hits, the world had probably reached the necessary qualifying level of wickedness.

So what is the Lord waiting for?

If my understanding is correct He is waiting for a people who are entrenched in the principles of a Zion Society, so that he will have a Zion people to dwell among.

He is waiting for me, not just my neighbor, to know, understand and live these principles.

(TO BE CONTINUED)

THOUGHTS FOR A SABBATH DAY – WILLIAM L. RILEY

EDITED BY – KATHLEEN W. RILEY