CTR Can Stand for Current Temple Recommend

By Elder Allistair Bruce Odgers

Area Seventy

Focusing on Jesus Christ and becoming like Him is critical to our spiritual progression. Partaking of the sacrament and attending the temple are two ways to focus on Him. The covenants we make when we partake of the sacrament and the covenants we make in the temple are two very significant ways to show our love and to focus on the Saviour.

Today I wish to share about the sacredness and power of the temple in our lives. CTR stands for choose the right, and it can also stand for current temple recommend. The invitation for all of us from the age of 11 is to hold a current temple recommend.

Why is it so important for all of us to hold a current temple recommend? It is showing to the Lord that we are on the covenant path, and it is showing to the Lord that we are staying on the covenant path.

President Russell M. Nelson said this in the October 2022 general conference about covenants:

“The reward for keeping covenants with God is heavenly power—power that strengthens us to withstand our trials, temptations, and heartaches better. This power eases our way. Those who live the higher laws of Jesus Christ have access to His higher power. Thus, covenant keepers are entitled to a special kind of rest that comes to them through their covenantal relationship with God.”¹

You might ask what those covenants are. In the General Handbook it states:

“In the endowment, members are invited to make sacred covenants as follows:

“Live the law of obedience and strive to keep Heavenly Father’s commandments.
“Obey the law of sacrifice, which means sacrificing to support the Lord’s work and repenting with a broken heart and contrite spirit.
“Obey the law of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the higher law that He taught while He was on earth.
“Keep the law of chastity, which means that a member has sexual relations only with the person to whom he or she is legally and lawfully wedded according to God’s law.
“Keep the law of consecration, which means that members dedicate their time, talents, and everything with which the Lord has blessed them to building up Jesus Christ’s Church on the earth.”²

There are great and wonderful blessings that await those who enter the Lord’s holy house.

Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles shared some wonderful blessings that are available for us to receive when we engage in the saving work for our ancestors:

Deep and abiding conversion to the Saviour through increased faith in Him and a better understanding of His Atonement;
Greater influence of the Holy Ghost to feel direction in your life;
Increased ability to repent and protection from temptation;
Refinement and sanctification of one’s heart;
Increased joy through an increased ability to feel the love of the Lord;
Increased family blessings, no matter one’s current past, or future family situation or how imperfect one’s family tree may be;
Increased love for others, especially your family members living and dead;
The ability to no longer feel alone;
Power to discern the needs of others;
Assistance to mend troubled, broken or anxious hearts.³

President Nelson’s concluding address at the October 2022 general conference was titled, “Focus on the Temple”.⁴

In Revelation 7:13–17 it reads:

“And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

“And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

“Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

“For the Lamb which is the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

May we, in the words of President Nelson, “Find rest from the intensity, uncertainty, and anguish of this world by overcoming the world through [our] covenants with God.”⁵