Hank Smith:                      00:03                   Welcome to followHIM Favorites. This is where John and I are sharing a single story to go with each week’s Come, Follow Me lesson. John we are in sections 133 and 134 this week. You’ve told me that you have a story.

John Bytheway:               00:16                   Yeah, and it’s one of my dear friends whose name is Bob. Bob’s dad was a temple president in the southern United States. Bob loves to golf. You love to golf too, right? Hank?

Hank Smith:                      00:26                   I do enjoy golf.

John Bytheway:               00:27                   Your dad was a golf pro.

Hank Smith:                      00:29                   He was.

John Bytheway:               00:29                   Bob and his dad were golfing one day. All of a sudden, his dad, the temple president, his phone rang. The firemen were calling, the fire department. We’ve got a fire alarm at the temple. Now we respect the building. We’re here, it looks okay, but before we leave, somebody’s gotta go through the building and make sure everything’s okay. They had to quit the golf game, run to the temple. My friend Bob says, I was wearing a blue shirt and black Bermuda shorts, if I remember right. He said I had to go through the temple and said, dad, we’re not really dressed. Hey, we’ve gotta do it. We’ve gotta make sure. He told me the feeling he had walking in the celestial room, dressed like that. Just even thinking about it kind of makes me ahhh.

Hank Smith:                      01:19                   It was a little off.

John Bytheway:               01:20                   Little bit.

Hank Smith:                      01:20                   It felt off. Yeah.

John Bytheway:               01:22                   Yeah. It felt off he said. But everything checked out. We’re so grateful. The fire department came and let us just go through the building. So it was a false alarm of some kind. He said I got back in the car with my dad and I said, dad, that felt really, that was tough going in the celestial room dressed the way I was, and his dad said, yeah what do you think that means? It was a great learning moment. I’m reading this verse that says, be clean that bear the vessels of the Lord, in this case, it’s be appropriately dressed.

Hank Smith:                      01:52                   Well, it was probably a great lesson for him.

John Bytheway:               01:54                   It was an awesome, it’s a lesson for me. I’m just thinking about it going, ooh, I understand how you would feel like, I’m in this holy place, I should dress in a way that reflects that. But he had to go in and check it out. So it was one of those ox in the mire type things. It teaches me something. Yeah, you wanna be appropriately dressed.

Hank Smith:                      02:14                   I definitely would feel uncomfortable if I’m in my shorts

John Bytheway:               02:17                   Oh man.

Hank Smith:                      02:17                   and my golf shirt, and I’m just gonna, hey, can you just walk around the celestial room? Go check things out?

John Bytheway:               02:22                   Ugh.

Hank Smith:                      02:23                   And John, obviously the Lord’s not offended. This has to be done. Reminds me of Isaiah 61. He has clothed me in the garments of salvation. He has wrapped me in the robe of righteousness. It’s not about how you’re dressed, but there is a feeling of being covered. Like you would say, the appropriate clothing for the sacredness of the place.

John Bytheway:               02:47                   Yeah, this scripture. Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. If I remember right, Hank, he was talking about carrying the implements of the temple, the vessels of the Lord. But here, it just made me think of how we wanna feel clean as we go into a place like that and just simply appropriately dressed. There’s something to say for feeling like, I’m going to the presence of the Lord. I want to be appropriately dressed.

Hank Smith:                      03:12                   Yeah, it was a clothing lesson, but more it was a spiritual lesson for him. I know Bob. He’s a great guy. He’s wonderful. John like I said, we are in section 133 and 134 this week on followHIM. We’re with Brother Alvin Jackson. A lot of them call him President Alvin Jackson out in Washington DC. He’s wonderful. He’s going to take these sections apart in ways that you and I had never seen. So join us over there and then come back next week, we’ll do another follow HIM Favorites.