Step 2 of 14He just makes you forget home

Don't Give up Heaven

Before this world, in the courts on highThe Father laid His plan before our eyesWe'd go down to earth where we'd walk by faithFree to choose our road and be saved by graceAnd the Firstborn Son stepped out from the throne"Father, Thy will be done — the glory's Thine alone"

Then a son of the mornin' rose up proudWith a plan that sounded perfect to the crowd"I'll save 'em all, not a soul will be lostJust give me Your honor" — but the choice was the costNo choice, no sin, no need for graceNo Savior and no God, just him in God's place

There was war in heaven, and we chose the ChristAnd the dragon fell like lightning, cast out from the lightNow the war's come down to the dust and the boneAnd he don't swing an axe — he just makes you forget home

Don't give up Heaven for this worldDon't sell your crown for a pile of goldWhat's it profit a man to gain it allAnd lose his soul when the Father calls?Hold your shield and hold your groundDon't give up Heaven for this world

He's been at this war since before the world beganAnd he's gotten good at turnin' hearts of menHe whispers, "All is well, a little sin is fineThere ain't no hell, no devil, and you've got time"He calls the evil good, he calls the good a lieAnd he fills your days with noise till the years go by

He don't need to make you wicked — he just needs your eyes down lowAnd the years'll take themselves, son, and you'll never see 'em goHe can't take your body and he can't undo your choiceSo he takes the only thing he can — your hours and your voice

Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stewJudas sold his Master, and he kissed Him tooYou're a child of God — your birthright is His throneThat's the crown he wants, so don't forget your home

This life's the proving ground — the Lord laid it plainTo see who'll keep His word through the fire and the rainWe're learnin' here the ways of the halls aboveThe ones who make it home are the ones who learned to love

Don't give up Heaven for this worldDon't sell your crown for a pile of goldWhat's it profit a man to gain it allAnd lose his soul when the Father calls?You chose the Christ before you came, so hold your groundHold it to the end, and go home to receive your crown

He'll try to make you forget homeBut you know where you belongDon't give up Heaven for this world

The story

We talk about the war between good and evil like it's a figure of speech. It isn't. Before this world was organized, our Heavenly Father gathered His children and laid out His plan. Abraham records it: we would go down, receive a body, and be proven, "to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them." That's the purpose of this life in one sentence. But a plan like that requires agency, and agency means some of us will fall, and falling requires a Savior. The Firstborn stepped forward and said, "Father, thy will be done, and the glory be thine forever."

Then another rose up with an offer. Moses records it: "I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor." Listen to that offer carefully, because it's the most seductive thing ever proposed. Everyone you love, saved. No risk. But the Lord tells us what it would have cost: he "sought to destroy the agency of man." No choice, no sin, no need for grace, and no growth either. Safe, and stunted, and his. There was war in heaven over it, and you didn't follow him. You chose the Christ. That's why you have a body. That's why you're reading this.

He lost that war, and he has never stopped fighting it. But he can't take your body and he can't undo your choice, so he works on the only thing he can reach: your attention. Nephi saw our day. The devil will "pacify, and lull them away into carnal security," whispering that all is well in Zion, that there is no hell, that there is no devil. Notice that none of that tells you to be wicked. All of it tells you to relax. As the song says, he don't swing an axe, he just makes you forget home.

That's why the title says give up and not trade. Nobody sits down and signs their soul away. Esau came in from the field exhausted and sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. He wasn't being evil. He was tired, and the moment felt urgent. That's how it happens to us, one tired evening at a time. Jesus asked what it would profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul. Most of us aren't even gaining the world. We're losing our hours.

So here's what you're actually holding. The family proclamation teaches that each of us "is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents." Not a creation the way a potter makes a pot. A child. Paul said that if we are children, then we are heirs, "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." An heir doesn't receive a gift; an heir receives what belongs to the family. That's the crown the song is talking about. When Satan came at Moses, Moses answered him from that identity: "Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God." Identity was the shield then, and it still is.

President Russell M. Nelson invited us to think celestial, to let eternity shape the decisions we make today. That's the answer to forgetting. Remember who you are. Remember whose you are. Remember that Jesus Christ has already paid your way home, and that there is nothing in this world worth what it would cost you to give that up.

Sources

Think about it

The adversary doesn't need your hatred of God, only your forgetting. Looking honestly at the last month, what has he been using to make you forget home, and what would it look like to remember?

Tonight

Take an honest inventory, not of your sins but of your hours. Pick one hour this week that will belong to something eternal, put it on the calendar tonight, and protect it.

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