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(6:17) Drawing Closer: What is the Opposite of Holiness? · Filled with His Love

• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Filled with His Love.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: On a perfect September Sabbath, and I'm telling you, it was beautiful weather that day.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: I took a stroll around the Provo Rock Canyon Temple, now under construction.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: I peered through the gate with my binoculars, these little small binoculars I just got, to check out the stonework.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Above the door, as is the case with all temples, I could read the inscription Holiness to the Lord, the house of the Lord.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Holiness.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a Christ-like characteristic that somehow seems out of reach for us as humans.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: But that's why three hundred and eighty-five temples are either operating under construction or in the planning phase.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: These are visible symbols of our divine origin and destiny.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: As we drive by them, they silently say to us, Bring whatever measure of holiness you now possess and come to serve, come to worship, come to gain a little more holiness.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: I was reading the other day about a Pulitzer Prize winning author who recently passed away, Annie Dillard.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: She had her ups and downs with religion, but she once described how she saw holiness and particularly interesting to me, the opposite of holiness.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: She said I know only one thing for certain there is holiness.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there is a divide between people who honor holiness, who bow down before it, who pray on their knees, and people who don't.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: The opposite of holiness is selfishness, egotism and pride.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to say that last part again.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Andy Dillard said the opposite of holiness is selfishness, egotism and pride.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure how you would describe the opposite of holiness, but I might have said irreverence or perhaps ungodliness.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I would have said selfishness, egotism, and pride.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: But if you think about this contrast, it's powerful.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Selfishness, egotism, and pride, I believe, are the polar opposite of holiness.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's one reason the temple is important.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Temple service, whether as a worker or as a patron, must be an unselfish act, void of egotism and pride.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: The temple is where we consecrate ourselves to the Lord and his children.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: The brethren speak often, and it seems like more often all the time, about a higher and holier way.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't be surprised if we hear this phrase in general conference.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: They are trying to help us think and act with more holiness.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: So next time you go to the temple, you might have a prayer in your heart that you will experience holiness, embrace holiness, and leave the temple with a little more holiness than you brought with you when you entered through the doors with that inscription, Holiness to the Lord, the house of the Lord.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and until next time, let's draw a little closer to God and to each other.