With the rededication of the Laie Temple approaching, BYU-Hawaii listened to a devotional from the Laie Temple President, H. Ross Workman, on the topic of Sacred Places.
President Workman loves to hike, backpack, sail, fish, and study the scriptures. He is always seeking to listen to the spirit and be directed by it. Before he was the president of the Laie Temple, he was a mission president in Hawaii.
“The sacred sanctifies; the profane contaminates. These are two antithetical powers. These powers must be strictly separated. One cannot take the profane into the sacred and vice versa,” said President Workman.
President Workman illustrated this through several examples. One example was Adam and Eve. When they were in the Garden of Eden they were in a Sacred Place. After they partook of the fruit, they brought profane into their lives and were driven out of the Garden or Sacred Space.
Another example was when the Egyptians took the Children of Israel captive. They were in a profane space and Moses brought them out of Israel to Sinai where they were in a Sacred Space.
“Through all ages, God has conferred sacred ordinances to his people in Sacred Space…The ordinances administered in Sacred Space have the capacity to give great power to those worthy to receive them,” said President Workman.
He shared a story of 850 missionaries serving is West Africa who were not endowed because the temple was thousands of miles away. When a temple was constructed in Ghana and the missionaries were able to go through the temple and receive their endowment. They went back to work in their same areas and they were more obedient and better able to share the gospel.
“What was the source of this great success? The missionaries had prepared themselves, entered Sacred Space and partaken of ordinances which invested them with spiritual power they did not have before. It was revealed in their success thereafter,” said President Workman.
“The glorious things obtained in Sacred Space are part of God’s plan to bring his children into exaltation. In Sacred Space are solemnized covenants which are sacred and everlasting. Entering the temple is a privilege to be earned and not a right that automatically goes with Church membership…Each person who enters the Temple and the Sacred Space therein should know that unless there is true worthiness, there will be no blessing gained, and the condemnation will fall upon the head of him or her who unworthily crosses the threshold of the House of God,” he continued.
The Laie Temple is a Sacred Place that Josph F. Smith envisioned and dedicated the land for the construction of the temple in 1915.
“In a few short weeks, this beautiful gem of the Pacific will again become Sacred Space. It will invite all who are worthy and prepared to come into its Sacred precincts and gain the blessings of the Holy Spirit. It will again command reverence and respect. The lives of the living and the dead will be sanctified again in this Sacred Space. Will your life be one of those sanctified?” asked President Workman.
Photo by Nathan Lehano.