----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Francis Harper
wbfrmsup@iowatelecom.net


High Priest Francis Harper Message for 5/3/2019

Dear Ones,

Is anything more beautiful than the spontaneous, untarnished love of a child, fresh from the realms of pure love? When our youngest granddaughter was only two; now she is twenty-two, my wife and I had the privilege of watching some of our grandchildren for a few hours. One who was older; who is married now and they have two of their own, had misbehaved. My wife had sentenced him to solitary confinement in our basement until he learned how to behave.

A short time later, as I sat at my study table in the den, our youngest grandchild, who was barely two and learning to talk, came to me with sadness and tears, saying, as she reached for my hand “Grandpa, come, please, downstairs.” I saw pure love in her eyes. Such love could not endure being separated from her beloved brother any longer.

How could I refuse? I picked her up and carried her down the stairs, and placed her in the arms of the one she loved. This eased her aching heart. I watched the sadness leave her face, and joy return.

My heart was touched by this experience. Is it any wonder that Jesus said, “Let the little children come unto me . . . for of such is the kingdom of God?” Such love, was never meant to be as sadly lacking in our lives as it is today.

As I meditate upon our grandchild and the expression of her pure love, as a two year old, I think of my own relationship with others, and with God. There are so many broken relationships in our world today. We are so sick and are often unaware of our illnesses.

Millions of our children have aching hearts, craving for the pure and unadulterated love of their parents. This starvation for love results in all sorts of bizarre behaviors, and people ask, what is wrong with our children? Too often, parents sacrifice their children to the gods of selfish pleasures, and far too often the children slowly die with shriveled hearts. May God forgive us!

Jesus was sent to this world as an expression of God’s love for each of us; seven billion of us. Yet, the vast majority have rejected this expression of God’s love, and have forfeited a fullness of joy. How can such love, such wondrous love, be rejected? Do we have hardened hearts?

I once told a class of Jr. High students: “There’s one thing I know. Jesus wants our hearts.” Isaiah described the love of God for us in these words: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (Isaiah 49:15-16).

My Love to All,

High Priest Francis Harper

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The Pure Love of Christ

If we ever hope to be like Jesus we must love without limits. Jesus challenges us to love as he loves. He said: “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:34-35).

Our love is measured by what we do for others. “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13). We can lay down our lives for our friends in two ways: by living or dying for them. Paul wrote: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Jesus, and many others have given their lives both ways. The Lord and most of his original twelve apostles lived and died sacrificially.

Dietrick Bonheoffer, a martyr, correctly stated: “When Jesus calls a man he bids him come and die.” Another Martyr, Maximilian Kolbe who gave his life for a fellow prisoner at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in 1941, “gave his life totally to God in service to humanity long before he sealed that gift by bearing the burden of another man’s death” (A Man for Others. Patricia Treece). “Pray that I will love without any limits,” he had written to his mother when he was still in his twenties. Those who knew him say this prayer was abundantly answered. Words such as “enemy” or “unlovable” were not in his vocabulary. Kolbe simply overflowed with love so affirming, accepting, and self-giving that he was like an ever flowing spring of water for a thirsty world; like the hymn we sing: “Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise” (Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Hymns of the Restoration #10).



In his second inaugural address, March 4, 1865, just 45 days before his assassination, President Abraham Lincoln expressed this sentiment: “With malice toward none, with charity for all . . .”. In describing Lincoln, Count Leo Tolstoy, the famous Russian novelist and playwright said he was “a Christ in miniature.” “Charity for all” could serve as a motto for all Christians. Charity is defined by Moroni as “the pure love of Christ.” Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail; but charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it should be well with them. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son Jesus Christ, that ye may become the sons of God, that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is, that we may have this hope, that we may be purified as he is pure” (Moroni 7:52-53).

The Apostles John and Paul wrote in full agreement with Moroni. “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth; but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail . . . And abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13). “We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him . . .” (1 John 3:2). Will our love be pure, even as his is pure?