Brutality
reigns where Christ is banished. Kindness and forbearance govern
where Christ is recognized and his teachings are followed.
Sunday
7/2 How are you doing on your Teachings of Presidents of the
Church Gordon B Hinkley? Brutality reigns. . .is from the end of
lesson 8. Pretty bold statement wouldn't you say? I did two of his
lessons today: Chapter 7 The Whisperings of the Spirit\Chapter 8 We
Look to Christ. What a daring teacher! So powerful. So thorough! So
opinionated! So fun! I love it when prophets can be so bold. Plus
in his boldness he is reassuring. Get a load of this:
Of
course we believe in the cultivation of the mind, but the intellect
is not the only source of knowledge. There is a promise, given under
inspiration from the Almighty, set forth in these beautiful words:
“God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the
unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost.” (D&C 121:26.)\The
humanists who criticize the Lord’s work, the so-called
intellectualists who demean, speak only from ignorance of spiritual
manifestation. They have not heard the voice of the Spirit. They have
not heard it because they have not sought after it and prepared
themselves to be worthy of it. Then, supposing that knowledge comes
only of reasoning and of the workings of the mind, they deny that
which comes by the power of the Holy Ghost.\The things of God are
understood by the Spirit of God. That Spirit is real. To those who
have experienced its workings, the knowledge so gained is as real as
that which is acquired through the operation of the five senses. I
testify of this. And I am confident that most members of the Church
can so testify. I urge each of us to continue to cultivate a heart in
tune with the Spirit. If we will do so, our lives will be enriched.
We will feel a kinship with God our Eternal Father. We will taste a
sweetness of joy that can be had in no other way.\Let us not be
trapped by the sophistry of the world, which for the most part is
negative and which so often bears sour fruit. Let us walk with faith
in the future, speaking affirmatively and cultivating an attitude of
confidence. As we do so, our strength will give strength to others.15
@
Wasn't that clear! Did he have an opinion? Did he rip on logic and
rational thought as the only source of truth? Man did he ever! But
those of us who are so caught up in the world we start to think that
way. And we forget the way it really is! Thank you HF for GBH who
dared to remind us so forcefully. Now if we could only keep that in
our minds all the time then we would be set! @ I would really really
love my son Michael'92 to internalize this next next long part:
Resurrection\But
that was not the end. On the morning of the third day, Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary returned to the tomb. To their utter amazement,
the stone was rolled away and the tomb was open. They peered inside.
Two beings in white sat at either end of the burial site. An angel
appeared to them and said, “Why seek ye the living among the
dead?\“He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you
when he was yet in Galilee,“Saying, The Son of man must be
delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the
third day rise again” (Luke 24:5–7).\These simple words—“He
is not here, but is risen”—have become the most profound in all
literature. They are the declaration of the empty tomb. They are the
fulfillment of all He had spoken concerning rising again. They are
the triumphant response to the query facing every man, woman, and
child who was ever born to earth.\“His message was the gospel of
peace. His teachings were those of generosity and love.”\The risen
Lord spoke to Mary, and she replied. He was not an apparition. This
was not imagination. He was real, as real as He had been in mortal
life. He did not permit her to touch Him. He had not yet ascended to
His Father in Heaven. That would happen shortly. What a reunion it
must have been, to be embraced by the Father, who loved Him and who
also must have wept for Him during His hours of agony.\He would
appear to two men on the road to Emmaus. He would converse with them
and eat with them. He would meet with His Apostles behind closed
doors and teach them. Thomas was not present on the first occasion.
On the second occasion, the Lord invited him to feel of His hands and
His side. In utter wonder he exclaimed, “My Lord and my God”
(John 20:28). He spoke with 500 at [another] time. …\And there is
another witness. This biblical companion, the Book of Mormon,
testifies that He appeared not only to those of the Old World but
also to those of the New. For had He not at one time declared, “Other
sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and
they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one
shepherd”? (John 10:16).\To those of this hemisphere He appeared
following His Resurrection. At His descent through the clouds of
heaven, the voice of God the Eternal Father was heard again in solemn
declaration: “Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in
whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him” (3 Ne. 11:7). …\And
if all of this is not enough, there is the testimony, sure and
certain and unequivocal, of the great prophet of this dispensation,
Joseph Smith. As a boy he went into the woods to pray seeking light
and understanding. And there appeared before him two Personages,
whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above him
in the air. One of them spoke to him, calling him “by name and
said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”
[Joseph Smith—History 1:17].\This same Joseph declared on a
subsequent occasion: “We beheld the glory of the Son, on the right
hand of the Father, and received of his fulness; …\“And now,
after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the
testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!” (D&C
76:20, 22).6\To all who may have doubts, I repeat the words given
Thomas as he felt the wounded hands of the Lord: “Be not faithless,
but believing” [John 20:27]. Believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, the greatest figure of time and eternity. Believe that his
matchless life reached back before the world was formed. Believe that
he was the Creator of the earth on which we live. Believe that he was
Jehovah of the Old Testament, that he was the Messiah of the New
Testament, that he died and was resurrected, that he visited the
western continents and taught the people here, that he ushered in
this final gospel dispensation, and that he lives, the living Son of
the living God, our Savior and our Redeemer.7\2-Each of us can know
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world,
resurrected from the grave.\There is a … battle being waged for the
faith of men, but the lines are not always … clearly drawn, for
even among the forces of Christianity there are those who would
destroy the divinity of the Christ in whose name they speak. They
might be disregarded if their voices were not so seductive, if their
influence were not so far-reaching, if their reason were not so
subtle.\… Multitudes will gather on a thousand hills to welcome the
dawn of the Easter day and to remind themselves of the story of the
Christ, whose resurrection they will commemorate. In language both
beautiful and hopeful, preachers of many faiths will recount the
story of the empty tomb. To them—and to you—I raise this
question: “Do you actually believe it?”\Do you actually believe
that Jesus was the Son of God, the literal offspring of the
Father?\Do you believe that the voice of God, the Eternal Father, was
heard above the waters of Jordan declaring, “This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased”? (Matt. 3:17.)\Do you believe that
this same Jesus was the worker of miracles, the healer of the sick,
the restorer of the infirm, the giver of life to the dead?\Do you
believe that following his death on Calvary’s hill and his burial
in Joseph’s tomb, he came forth alive the third day?\Do you
actually believe that he yet lives—real, vital, and personal—and
that he will come again as promised by the angels at his
ascension?\Do you actually believe these things? If you do, then you
are part of a shrinking body of literalists who more and more are
being smiled at by philosophers, who more and more are being
ridiculed by certain educators, and who more and more are being
considered “out of it” by a growing coterie of ministers of
religion and influential theologians.\… In the eyes of these
intellectuals, these are myths—the birth of Jesus as the Son of God
of whom the angels sang on Judea’s plains, the worker of miracles
who healed the sick and raised the dead, the Christ resurrected from
the grave, the ascension and the promised return.\These modern
theologians strip him of his divinity and then wonder why men do not
worship him.\The resurrected Savior walked with two men on the road
to Emmaus.\These clever scholars have taken from Jesus the mantle of
godhood and have left only a man. They have tried to accommodate him
to their own narrow thinking. They have robbed him of his divine
sonship and taken from the world its rightful King. …\… I give
our solemn witness that God is not dead, except as he is viewed with
a lifeless interpretation. …\… There is needed something more
than a reasonable belief. There is needed an understanding
of his unique and incomparable position as the divine Redeemer and an
enthusiasm
for him and his message as the Son of God.\That understanding and
that enthusiasm are available to all who will pay the price. They are
not incompatible with higher education, but they will not come only
of reading philosophy. No, they come of a simpler process. The things
of God are understood by the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. 2:11.) So
declares the word of revelation.\The acquisition of understanding and
enthusiasm for the Lord comes from following simple rules. … I
should like to suggest three, elementary in their concept, almost
trite in their repetition, but fundamental in their application and
fruitful in their result. …\The first is to read—to read the word
of the Lord. … Read, for instance, the Gospel of John from its
beginning to its end. Let the Lord speak for himself to you, and his
words will come with a quiet conviction that will make the words of
his critics meaningless. Read also the testament of the New World,
the Book of Mormon, brought forth as a witness “that Jesus is the
Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations.”
(Book of Mormon title page.)\The next is to serve—to serve in the
work of the Lord. … The cause of Christ does not need your doubts;
it needs your strength and time and talents; and as you exercise
these in service, your faith will grow and your doubts will wane.
…\The third is to pray. Speak with your Eternal Father in the name
of his Beloved Son. “Behold,” he says, “I stand at the door,
and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come
in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” (Rev.
3:20.)\This is his invitation, and the promise is sure. It is
unlikely that you will hear voices from heaven, but there will come a
heaven-sent assurance, peaceful and certain. …\… Shining through
all of the confusion of philosophy, so-called higher criticism, and
negative theology will come the witness of the Holy Spirit that Jesus
is in very deed the Son of God, born in the flesh, the Redeemer of
the world resurrected from the grave, the Lord who shall come to
reign as King of kings. It is your opportunity so to know. It is your
obligation so to find out.8\ @@
My
crud! How can he be so sure? There is no doubt in that approach of
his is there? Do you remember me saying how grateful I was for
Thomas? I love Thomas. Here are the 10 apostles and sisters
witnessing to him that they have seen and visited with JC and Thomas
has the gumption and the courage and the self confidence to say: That
is all fine and good. I'm glad you guys believe that and had that
experience but you are crazy if you think I am going to believe it
and witness Christ's resurrection to the world! I haven't seen him.
How am I supposed to believe this thing that has never ever happened
before if I haven't seen it? You guys might all have been delusional
at the same time for all I know. I will not believe unless I see with
my own eyes! Brandon, how could he turn down all his brothers in the
gospel? Didn't that take courage? You guys are crazy and I will allow
you your craziness but I, for goodness sake, am not going to join you
unless. . . I have experienced it too!! @@ Hugh Nibley points out
that none of the apostles had been taught by Jesus with enough force
to believe in the resurrection before it happened. It did not make
any sense to them. It would be nice but man have you heard the crazy
stuff he has been saying? He says stuff all the time that we can't
figure out nor understand! Hugh Nibley points out that we can read
every single one of Jesus' recorded words in a half hour. We only
have a tiny portion of what he actually said. Where is the rest? What
we have was recorded 50-100 years after he was dead. There is another
book called the testament of Thomas that the catholic church did not
like so they stopped including it in the New Testament after 300 AD.
Does that mean that there are writings just as important as what we
have with new/ different teachings of the Savior? Yep! @ This
afternoon as I was praying and pondering our SS lesson I realized
that the message of the sealed 2/3rds portion of the gold plates is
that we do not have it all! Revelation is on going! Moses compiled
his 5 books but what about all the books before that? Missing. What
about the prophets after Malachi, 400bc in the old testament?
Missing. What about all the teachings of the 11 apostles? 90%
missing. Brandon we only have tiny portions! @ I have whined that the
Old Testament doesn't even have baptism! I have thought that guilty
men removed true and precious portions of the scriptures. Hugh Nibley
points out that the uninitiated only get the outside teachings. Once
they believe and commit they get the rest. Milk before meat! The
saints kept their precious truths from the swine. They did not tell
everyone everything. They just told the basics and afterwards comes
the rest. @ So how much do I value revelation? Do I read and study
what we have? Do I listen to and study the 100's of General
Conference talks? Man do I ever. Why are they so important to me?
Remember how our weaknesses can become strengths? My weakness is
deceit. I was deceived as a child. My weakness is lack of trust. I
don't trust hardly anyone besides the 15 apostles. I desperately want
to know the ultimate truths! The gospel from the mouths of his
apostles is credible. They witness of its truthfulness and they are
alive, with nothing to gain from deceiving. So it probably makes
sense that I value their words more than most the saints I know. @@
Our theme is service this month in sacrament meeting. Last
month was the Sabbath day. Today was Fast n Testimony day. Get a load
of this: Since Aaronic priesthood AP are on vacation they asked for
MP to help with Fast Offerings today. No one volunteered in
priesthood opening exercises! Absolutely no one. FrankH suggested the
priest help. Today in HPG VaunB asked for someone to partner with him
to Hometeach at 4 pm today. No one volunteered. Absolutely no one.
Since no one would step up to the plate our high priests group leader
offered. CharlieM. He already set up the chairs before the meetings,
he already came to choir practice and he is the only one willing to
go as a companion to Vaun? In this church all you have to be is
willing!!! CharlieM is the ONLY one willing. Do we need a month of
addresses to inspire us to serve? It sure looks that way! @@
