My
brothers, sisters, and friends, when the First Presidency invited me
to speak at this conference, I asked myself: “What message do the
people of Europe most need to hear?” These conference messages will
be broadcast and this is my opportunity to speak to them. At the same
time it appeared to me that their most basic need might well coincide
with the fundamental need of people all over the earth.\The
basic need in Europe is for the people to be taught true principles
of love. I speak of love as meaning a lack of personal selfishness.
True love is the exact opposite of the present philosophy of
selfishness which seems to permeate the world. Selfish interests
color people’s dealings with each other and even color
person-to-person contact within the family.Monday
8/7,9pm, Hello Brandon, This talk was so awesome it needs to be
diluted! Way too true and too strong to read all at once. After
hearing a truth like this it takes your ears and mind to regain their
equilibrium before you can comprehend and feel any further. @ I feel
for you Brandon. I can't imagine being tucked away for a decade or
so! I always feared that would b e my lot in life. I just knew I
would be stuck in a prison camp or jail somewhere. It looks like it
might not happen to me but it has happened to you. @ Hal Demke lost
his cool in hpgroup yesterday. It was over something I said to help
get the lesson going. It sure got him going. I shared how frustrated
I felt having the Saviour (English spelling) expect us to live the 8
beatitudes and that I felt such reassurance last year to realize they
were a blue print/ a road map to the celestial kingdom. He declared
he disagreed and that they are the law! Etc.. I couldn't help but
point out that those were the words of an apostle. “I don't care
whose words they are. He was just watering it down. These are the
demands of the Savior.” Boy,
did he turn red. As
I pondered the interaction last night I considered a come back of:
“why is it he didn't say them in the tone you are expressing it?”
@ You may remember Art Jones fell victim to anger with me also last
week. @@ So
what did I do next? I pulled away from the lesson. I tried to focus
on writing in my journal. Yep, I was hurt, but it really wasn't me he
was attacking, and, AND when people respond like that it is because
of personal issues. So, water under the bridge. He has two CD's I
gave him. One, of GC, I noted he return. He also believes in
competition in heaven and that was a huge concept I had to reformat/
abandon/ paradigm shift with my Mark Clayton 5 years of therapy. I am
so much happier now. @ Haynie's brought me an 8inch steak sandwich
and potatoes and avocado and strawberries and watermelon to break my
fast yesterday. He said eat it now while it is hot. I effused
gratitude but I put it in the fridge. I ate it tonight and I have
never tasted a sandwich like it. Quite a novel experience. Delicious.
If I still had kids I would love to exchange a meal with them so my
kids could experience some variety unknown to them. I had already
eaten my homemade cold pizza pie and apples. I brought home 10 more
apples from the temple apartments tree again today. They are just
going wasted. The pruners really knew what they were doing when they
formed that tree! Perfect head height apples all around you when you
stand under it. Once again something I have never seen before. @ I
have a brother on his death bed -Scott'77 and a sister who asks me to
fast and pray for her because she is so ill-Gayelinn'72. Argh! I am
so glad I can pray and leave it in HF's hands. Tyhf. @True
love is based on personal unselfishness, but our modern world does
not seem to understand this. Modern man has lost his capacity to
love. Jesus warned us that one of the principal characteristics of
the last days would be that love among the people would gradually
die. Jesus said, “Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many
shall wax cold” (JS—M 1:10; see also Matt. 24:12). My thesis is
that the iniquity of which he spoke is based on personal selfishness.
That is the reason why love among the people is dying.\Jesus
warned that iniquities in the last days would become so great “that,
if possible, they shall deceive the very elect, who are the elect
according to the covenant” (JS—M 1:22; see also Matt. 24:24). I
understand this to mean that eventually even the most faithful of the
Lord’s covenant Saints will become contaminated and threatened by
modern-day philosophies. I believe it is for this reason that unless
these days are shortened none of us could long remain unaffected by
such trends.\It
may well be that the present attitude of personal selfishness is the
cause of most of the unhappiness with life among the people of the
world. It shows up even in our daily occupations. For instance, when
a person is offered a job, he seldom asks what
opportunities the job offers to be of service to others. His first
question is “What is there in this job for me?” The salary
offered is too low. Having to move to or live in a given city is not
convenient. He does not want to travel. He does not want to be
confined to a desk, or he does not want to work such long hours.
Before he even begins to work he asks, “What retirement benefits
will I receive?” He is not interested in challenges, but only in
security.\May
I first speak to young people about personal selfishness in
courtship? Actually, what is the main purpose for dating? Isn’t it
to get to know another person well enough to know what kind of a
partner that person would be? Isn’t it to learn to know that other
person’s character, interests, talents, and abilities? Or is dating
merely an opportunity to satisfy one’s passions? Each person will
have to answer that question for himself. However, a sure guide would
be to follow the words of the Savior: “Again I say unto you, let
every man esteem his brother as himself” (D&C 38:25).\@Tuesday
8/8,2:20 pm Good afternoon Brandon, I get to watch anything I want on
Youtube at night. That is my playtime. I watched the career, 32
years, of a forensic autopsy investigator from New York or back east
last night. It reminded me of my family, my parents. Have you ever
been choked or knocked out? Somehow or other as a little kid I
figured out how to put a choke hold on someone using one arm. Weird
huh! See what watching those kinds of shows can stir up from your
memories? When you are a kid and playing in a gully like the one we
had you never know who you will run across. There was this extremely
mean kid we saw down there a couple of times and he would leave his
cave digging in the cliff and come and fight anyone who irritated
him. All these years later I realize he was probably mentally ill.
But as a little kid you can’t tell. In fact as an adult I look at
all these young special service missionaries who don’t qualify to
go out in the field and wonder what restricts them to Familysearch as
missionaries. Elder D. Ricketts is part of the FM group. Facilities
Management and Elder Wade said he worked with him yesterday scrubbing
out a baptismal font. We have a bunch of special service missionaries
at FS. And then if you add to that the special old folks who come in
who eventually lose all their faculties. . . we have the strangest
profile of people here! You won’t believe this next story. My 3rd
school was PVMS. I taught there from ‘87-’99. I started teaching
in ‘80, Niwot HS, Longmont CO, biology n chemistry. Brandon, I was
not raised to be a teacher. I had none of the natural teacher skills.
I just learned on my mission what a thrill it was to teach the gospel
and wanted to come home n teach seminary like my 1st mission
president. I had never experienced such satisfaction and excitement.
I hated junior high. Ugly, awful, mean, disoriented place! And after
2 years of HS that was where I got stuck, because I didn’t coach.
Coaching is the most important if you want to teach HS. I did not
think I was up to college or university but to tell you the truth I
think I would have fit there a million times better. College
professors have to publish. I had no idea that I would enjoy
publishing. That seemed way too scary and beyond my ability. Hugh
Baird was my BYU hero and science teaching advisor my last 2 years at
BYU. He became my next role model. I wrote him spread over a number
of years after I started teaching school wishing to maintain a
relationship and connection but he never responded. HF knew my
atrocious background and emotional handicaps because of it. Watching
forensic evidence last night reminded me of a time I should have been
fired. Handicapped students are hard to work with at times,
especially behaviorally handicapped. Johannes would misbehave
regularly. After writing his initials on the board and giving him
check marks I called home for him to make up time before or after
school. Sort of like Jail. It was difficult to call parents. They
didn’t know what was wrong with their crazy 8th grader and
oftentimes couldn’t believe or accept they needed discipline.
Doesn’t this sound like a fun part of teaching? Johannes’ mother
brought him in early before school to do his half hour. He earned it
in 10 minute increments. Here I was a teacher trying to maintain
control in my classroom with this technique taught by the district.
Assertive discipline. No problem for most kids, it made sense to
them. Behaviors had consequences. No big deal. Sounds right. But
Johannes was BD, behavior disability and defiant. After his mother
brought him in he refused to sit in a desk or to wash tables or desks
as was his assignment. He left. . . I chased him down and argued with
him and tried to physically force him to go back to the classroom. He
fought me back. A janitor heard the scuffle and I realized I had over
extended my boundaries. I was the oldest child in my family and had
always been able to dominate physically and be in control. I was
dominated by dad, I could dominate them. Learned pattern. So when the
principal came to me commenting to me that he couldn’t see the
professed marks on Johannes neck, I was in la la land, and waiting
for the guillotine to fall. It never did. No one gave him any
credibility! Man did I dodge the bullet on that one. Thank you for
trusting me Principal Dale Barlow, even though it was only by God’s
grace that I deserved that trust. Tyhf. So have you figured out how
to protect yourself? Everyone does somehow. To me it meant being out
of control and I hated that. To some girls it means developing an
ugly mouth, a mean vocabulary to repel others. To James Langston it
meant becoming a black belt in karate and beating the crap out of his
nemesis. James spent many of his hours in the counselor’s office in
his tiny HHS as he was bussed from Cane beds, AZ and his dad was a
bus driver. He was an abused younger brother and a neglected child.
Argh, this world is full of us walking wounded, isn’t it.\@The
necessity to practice unselfish love in courtship becomes imperative
in marriage. Persons interested only in romance soon find the
realisms of marriage too much to cope with. Yet in magazines and
books emphasis is placed on romance and material pleasures. This is
almost the exclusive appeal of advertising. It is demonstrated over
and over again in moving pictures and on television. It is the
exclusive appeal of pornographic literature. People become
conditioned by this exposure and grow up expecting only personal
gratification in marriage. Personal selfishness is the main reason
for the present high divorce rate throughout the world.\This
desire for personal gratification results in disharmony in marriage.
Couples interested only in themselves don’t communicate. Lack of
communication then becomes a major stumbling block in developing true
love. Lack of communication coupled with the postponement of children
is based on selfishness, as is the greater evil of abortion. We
shudder as we read in Leviticus of the sacrifices of idol worshipers
of that time who fed their children into the fiery maw of the iron
god Molech. Is personal selfishness which results in abortion any
less repulsive to God, as modern people through abortion offer the
sacrifice of their children to their idol of selfish materialism?\In
Europe families are limited to a point where couples are more or less
ostracized by neighbors and friends if they have more than two
children. Some European nations are even now beginning to decline in
population as birth control and abortion become a way of life. Far
too many wives are working in order that the couple may have its own
home, a car, colored television, or extensive vacation trips.
Children for such couples are an unwanted handicap and a needless
expense.\
Wednesday 8/9, 5:33pm hello Brandon, Let’s see if writing you can
wake me up. 1- After thinking about arbitrating Spanish I decided to
go for it even though I will have to learn new skills. I am good at
cursive as long as it is on a certificate. What if it were written
freehand on lines? Can you imagine trying to find each bit of
information hidden in a paragraph or two? At first I was boggled. I
decided to try to index one so I could learn. It was miserable. I
was lost. But bit by bit I figured pieces out and then I noticed I
had done the dates all wrong. There was a clue I had ignored.
Serendipity or Providence helped me figure out all the spots for
everything. I did make 4 full page copies so I could number where to
find everything and yippee, now I can do it with confidence. Part of
my issue after hearing that Spanish arbitrating was hundreds of
thousands behind was finding where? Where was a city that needed the
help? When I heard it was Guatemala, my mission country I was
pleased. I have never done freehand before. But I love riddles (that
have an answer). I told an old missionary/ teacher friend yesterday
that playing 20 questions with riddles is a blast. She agreed that
puzzling the pieces together is satisfying for her as well. So
Brandon, I did something new today! And variety is good. Now I can
choose how I want to help, both in needed ways: II or Spanish
arbitrating. I whined yesterday about not finding Spanish batches to
do to Art Jones. He said he calls Elder Howard Chenney. I asked for
his number. I hate to bother administration but if I am going to help
I need to know where my help is needed. Sister Bolivia forwarded to
me his last update and it was fascinating. Now I know all kinds of up
to the month information! Exactly what I needed. Friends can be so
helpful! I have forwarded that email to Terry Hawks and David L
Morgan as well, valuable. @ Yesterday I went out when I couldn’t
stay awake any longer n napped in the sun on a flower garden stone
wall in the courtyard. I heard a voice asking if I was asleep. I
answered half-way. Then he wanted to know if I had fainted or was
worried about getting sunburned or heat stroke. I guess some of the
people / patrons saw me and it was unique and worrisome. They sent a
missionary out to check on me. By that time I was ready to go back to
work. @ EricY updated me on my car. It looks like the head is really
warped and is 3 thousands out of round/level. I told him, fine let’s
just get a new one. He said that wouldn’t work because the bottom
half of the block might be damaged and putting on a brand new one
might be stupid. Fine, do what you think is best! @\Why
bother to marry when children are neither wanted nor expected? Why
burden oneself with marriage when couples expect to change partners
when they tire of one another? What is the need for virtue when one’s
goal is only self-satisfaction? If ever there was a need for the
restoration of truth in a world where man is only interested in his
own pleasure and self-gratification, it is now!\As
I see how many people, not only in Europe but everywhere, quarrel and
antagonize one another, I understand better why Jesus continually
emphasized the need for love. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel
of love. A life of love is not an easy life to live, especially when
one lives in a world where strife with neighbors and strife within
one’s own family is so common. People have been hurt so often in
the past that they are constantly on guard one against another. They
have drawn a defensive circle around themselves so tightly it is
difficult to penetrate. Yet they need to be taught love.\Strife
in families leads to wife abuse and child abuse. This, too, comes
through personal selfishness. It is so common in the world that we
even find it creeping into the Church. As the Church grows rapidly we
must teach love with increasing effectiveness. This is why our Church
leaders continually caution home teachers to care for their families
and “watch over the church always, and be with and strengthen
them;“And see that there is no iniquity in the church, neither
hardness with each other, neither lying, backbiting, nor evil
speaking” (D&C 20:53–54).\Jesus,
out of pure unselfish love, gave his life for our sakes. Had he been
as selfish as people are nowadays, there would have been no
atonement. We would have been cut off from the presence of God
forever and left to be carnal, sensual, and devilish. But Jesus was
not selfish. He prepared a way whereby every man and every woman may
find personal happiness and great joy in life. That joy, however,
must come in the Lord’s way through unselfish love.\I
understand now why Jesus always spoke out so strongly against
disputations and contention. Contention is of the devil and not of
God. I see the need for modern prophets to be in communication with
God. I see their strivings to lead God’s children toward truth and
righteousness. Their message may be unpopular, but it is needed, for
it is the only way to happiness. O people both within and without the
Church, please realize that we are living in the last days. It is a
day when love is waxing cold. People who will not listen to these
warnings are preparing themselves for destruction. Jesus Christ will
soon come in power and glory. When he comes only those will be spared
who have learned to love God and one another with all their heart,
might, mind, and strength.\APRIL
1979 | The Need for Love\The Need for Love\Theodore M. Burton\I
testify that God lives, that Jesus is the risen Christ, and that God
speaks to us today in the only way he can, through divinely called
prophets who know the truth of these things. Please listen! In the
name of Jesus Christ, amen.\@
bps, can you see why that one seemed to potent to swallow all at one
sitting? Pretty courageous wasn't he? Speaking of courageous and
maybe just plain stupid I posted the whole letter I sent you last
time, magazine order and all. 7 days I sent Kjane the first page and
a question. No response. 2 out of 3 ain't bad. She responded briefly
to the first 2. I extracted a promise for 5 so I wouldn't feel
guilty, and rather I would be able to feel entitled/ deserving, after
all I got permission/ agreement. So I checked to see if the address
was right and sent it again. The address was the same as she had
responded to. I repasted the one question I wanted her to answer on
the forward so she could find it more easily. @@ FedEX has left a
notice on my door Monday, Tuesday so I wrote a note asking when I
should be home to receive the package. Another notice today,
Wednesday. I called: 800-463-3339
and spent too long trying to talk to an answering/ responding
machine. I was so perturbed. By the time I finally got a human being
to help me my patience was gone and I was short tempered/ abrupt. I
laid down in bed to read and eat but I always pray first. As I prayed
I realized that it was the machine that disturbed me not the guy who
answered the phone in New Jersey. The guy found a solution eventually
and I was pleased and cheered so I'm sure he knew I was satisfied.
But I called back before praying further to apologize for being less
than human and patient to begin with. I wanted to explain and say
sorry. Christ would have been much more patient and I try to be
Christlike at times. I got a different human and my patience was
almost gone again after dodging around the stupid computer answering
machine. But I explained and the guy finally seemed to understand the
second or third time through. “No Problem” he said, “I am at a
call center and that is the norm. We field lots of calls like that.”
Poor guy! @@ I went back to read and as I prayed I felt better. I had
done what I could. :) @ I did not walk the dog last night. Got home
late and felt too tired. I really don't want to walk Molly tonight
either but I am a “Man,” I am tough, I can force myself to do it.
Good night Brandon.@
@@@He
Means Me\Marion D. Hanks\My testimony today is one of gratitude.\At a
family gathering a few nights ago, we discussed the fact that today
is the anniversary of our mother’s birth.
I
thought that night how much the generations owe each other, how much
we learn from each other, how we should love and appreciate each
other. One of mother’s grandsons said he had watched with
wonderment as his tiny daughter paged through her storybook,
moistening her first finger to turn the pages as she had seen her
daddy do as he read his books. Actually, she was moistening the
finger on her left hand and turning the pages with the finger on her
right hand! But that only served to emphasize both the power of
example and the fact that she, like all the rest of us, is yet
learning.
As
I observed two of our lovely grown daughters that night an incident
from the past came to mind that forms the burden of my brief message
today. I still think of it with a tendency to tears. Another little
girl had joined our family and was of course much loved. Occasionally
I had called her older sister “Princess,” but had thought about
that, and, since the second young lady was equally deserving of royal
treatment, had concluded that it would be well for her to share the
title, if it were used at all.
So
one day I called to her, “Come on, Princess. Let’s go to the
store for mother.” She seemed not to hear. “Honey,” her mother
said, “daddy is calling you.”
“Oh,”
she answered, with a quiet sadness that hurt my heart, “he doesn’t
mean me.”
In
memory I can still see the resignation on her innocent child face and
hear it in her voice, when she thought that her father didn’t mean
her.[I was already tearful, so a few more came.vj]
I
am one who believes that God loves and will never cease to love all
of his children, and that he will not cease to hope for us or reach
for us or wait for us. In Isaiah it is written:“And therefore will
the Lord wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will
he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you” (Isa. 30:18).
And
yet over the earth, across the years, I have met some of God’s
choicest children who find it very difficult to believe in their
hearts that he really means them. They know that he is the source of
comfort and pardon and peace and that they must seek him and open the
door for him and accept his love, and yet even in their extremity
they find it difficult to believe that his promised blessings are for
them. Some have offended God and their own consciences and are
earnestly repentant but they find the way back blocked by their
unwillingness to forgive themselves or to believe that God will
forgive them, or sometimes by a strange reluctance in some of us to
really forgive, to really forget, and to really rejoice.
The
plan of the Lord and his promises are clear in the teachings of the
scriptures. The heart of that plan, as I understand it, is announced
in verses of scripture which were so movingly sung by the choir this
morning:“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.“For God sent not his Son into the world to
condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
(John 3:16–17.)
Christ
came to save us. His plan was called, by a prophet who understood it
very well, a “plan of redemption,” a “plan of mercy,” a “plan
of happiness” (Alma 42:13, 15–16). The Lord taught the
letter-bound Pharisees the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin,
and the prodigal son to impress the worth of all of God’s children,
to emphasize, as he said, the “joy [that] shall be in heaven over
one sinner that repenteth.” And to teach us the nature of a father
who, when his son came to himself and started home, had compassion
and ran to meet his boy. (Luke 15:3–32; italics added). In this and
many others of his teachings, he manifested the intensity of his love
and of his expectations of us in our treatment of each other and in
our responsibility to him.
Reverently
I remind you of the incident of the woman who, in the home of the
Pharisee, Simon, washed the feet of the Lord with her tears and dried
them with her hair, and anointed them with ointment (see Luke
7:37–39). The Savior taught the critical Simon the story of the
creditor and the two debtors: “The one owed five hundred pence, and
the other fifty.[It seems like I am a 500 pencer to me.vj]
“And
when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me
therefore, which of them will love him most?
“Simon
answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he
said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.” (Luke 7:41–43.)
Then,
speaking of the woman, he said: “Her sins, which are many, are
forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the
same loveth little.
“And
he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.
“…
Thy
faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” (Luke 7:47–48, 50.)
There
is here, of course, no encouragement or condoning of sin. She had
been converted by the Lord and sorely repented, and would obey his
commandments and accept his forgiveness. And there would be rejoicing
in heaven and should be on earth.
The
story of Alma, the Book of Mormon prophet, was discussed yesterday
and is well known. He taught these principles with courage and
compassion perhaps never excelled. Himself the son of the great
prophet, he and other youthful companions were guilty of serious
sins. Through angelic intervention, they were turned to a better way;
and Alma, repentant and restored, became a strong leader for the
Lord. “Wickedness never was happiness”—he declared, and
gratefully testified also of the “plan of mercy” that brings
forgiveness to the truly penitent (Alma 42:10, 15). As the leader of
his people he was uncompromising in defense of righteousness, and
warm and compassionate with those who had repented and turned from
unrighteousness. With his own children, including one son who had
been guilty of serious moral error, he shared the anguish that
follows transgression and the unspeakable joy that accompanies
repentance and forgiveness:“Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there
could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea,
and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can
be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.” (Alma 36:21.)
This
man of great integrity and no pretense became the first chief judge
of the people and high priest over the church. He who had cried out
unto the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy, “in the most bitter pain and
anguish of soul; … did find peace to [his] soul” (Alma 38:8) and
thereafter taught the people with such power and love that multitudes
of them turned to the Lord, obeyed his commandments, received that
“mercy [which] claimeth the penitent” (Alma 42:23).
The
message is consistent through scripture. The noble young
prophet-leader Nephi wrote the sweet psalm of contrition and faith
that is so encouraging and edifying and can be read in the fourth
chapter of the second book of Nephi: “Notwithstanding the great
goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my
heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth
because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.
“I
am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which
do so easily beset me.
“And
when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins;
nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted.” (2 Ne. 4:17–19.)
Nephi
understood that true remorse is a gift from God, not a curse, but a
blessing. True remorse involves sorrow and suffering; but the sorrow
is purposeful, constructive, cleansing, the “godly sorrow” that
“worketh repentance to salvation,” and not the “sorrow of the
world” (2 Cor. 7:10).
Through
the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord taught us that he has no “pleasure at
all” in the suffering of his children through sin. His joy comes
when the sinner “turneth away from all his transgressions” for
such an one shall “save his soul” (Ezek. 18:23, 27–28).
The
Apostle Paul was disappointed with certain behavior on the part of
the Corinthian saints, and wrote them a letter chastising them. They
repented; and when he learned of it, he wrote them again, saying that
he was comforted in their comfort: “I rejoice, not that ye were
made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance” (2 Cor. 7:9).
Alma
summed it all up in magnificent instruction given his wayward son
Corianton. He concluded that powerful lesson with these significant
words—they could be saving words for some:“And now, my son, I
desire that ye should let these things trouble you no more, and only
let your sins trouble you, with that trouble which shall bring you
down unto repentance” (Alma 42:29).
Almighty
God has promised to forgive, forget, and never mention the sins of
which we have truly repented. But he has given us the gift of remorse
to help us remember them constructively, thankfully, and humbly: “Do
not endeavor to excuse yourself in the least point because of your
sins, by denying the justice of God; but do you let the justice of
God, and his mercy, and his long-suffering have full sway in your
heart; and let it bring you down to the dust in humility” (Alma
42:30).
Corianton
was sent to preach the word.
As
leaders, we deal with the most sacred and sensitive creation of
God—his children.
We
need to consider this as we carry out our duty to keep the Church
free from iniquity.
“Holocausts,”
it has been written, “are caused not only by atomic explosion. A
holocaust occurs whenever a person is put to shame.” (Abraham
Joshua Heschel.)
It
is good to remember what Joseph Smith wrote a long time ago to the
Saints scattered abroad:“Let everyone labor to prepare himself for
the vineyard, sparing a little time to comfort the mourners; to bind
up the broken-hearted; to reclaim the backslider; to bring back the
wanderer; to re-invite into the kingdom such as have been cut off, by
encouraging them to lay to while the day lasts, and work
righteousness, and, with one heart and one mind, prepare to help
redeem Zion, that goodly land of promise, where the willing and
obedient shall be blessed. Souls are as precious in the sight of God
as they ever were; and the Elders were never called to drive any down
to hell, but to persuade and invite all men everywhere to repent,
that they may become the heirs of salvation.” (History of the
Church, 2:229.)
My
child at first did not understand that my invitation was meant for
her. She thought it was for someone else. “He didn’t mean me.”
If any within the sound of my voice today need assurance that God’s
call to repentance and his invitation to mercy and forgiveness and
love is for them, I bear you that solemn witness, in the name of
Jesus Christ, amen.
The Power of Reading Holy Writ (Sunday Thoughts)
Trash
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Aug 6 (3 days ago)
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I am a big believer in the power of reading and studying holy writings.
There are many holy writings from many religions containing wonderful truths.
One of those is the Book of Mormon, a translation of God's dealings with his people in the ancient Middle East and in the Americas.
Whether or not you have a belief in the Book of Mormon, I found these nuggets cleaned from an October 2016 LDS conference talk "There is Power in the Book" by LeGrand R. Curtis Jr. enlightening and powerful.
Perhaps you will too.
The Book of Mormon
Power and Promises
LDS President Monson has encouraged: “Read the Book of Mormon. Ponder its teachings. Ask Heavenly Father if it is true.”
Here are 6 strong gifts that emanate from the Book of Mormon:
1. You will feel the Spirit of God in your lives
2. It will help you resist temptation
3. It will stand as a sure anchor
4. It will be a rock-solid foundation
5. You will be able to discern truth from error
6. You will feel the assurance of the Holy Spirit
Also, the spirit of that great book will permeate our homes and all who dwell therein (and I'll add - or visit) when we read it prayerfully and regularly.
Power
The great power of the Book of Mormon is its impact in bringing us closer to Jesus Christ:
• It is a strong witness of Him and His redeeming mission.
• Through it we come to understand the majesty and power of His Atonement.
• It teaches His doctrine clearly.
We see and experience Him loving, blessing, and teaching those people and come to understand that He will do the same for us if we come to Him by living His gospel.
Promise
“I promise you…that if you will study the scriptures diligently, your power to avoid temptation and to receive direction of the Holy Ghost in all you do will be increased.” Current LDS President Monson
“I promise you…if we will daily sup from the Book of Mormon’s pages and abide by its precepts, God will pour out upon each child of Zion…a blessing hitherto unknown.” Past LDS President Benson
These are powerful promises of which I intend to take advantage.
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Aug 7 (2 days ago)
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Look how professional!
Beautiful job and absolutely worthy concepts.
I do conference talks everyday. I do BoM class every Thursday. This is my favorite hobby!
v
I have to share it with my sister whose favorite hobby is the same as mine. Gayelinn'72 born.
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Aug 7 (2 days ago)
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This format was spectacular. After responding to you a minute ago I decided to include you. v
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Aug 8 (1 day ago)
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Nice. I think you should print a copy & I'll run off some extra copies this Thursday to hand out. Thanks for sharing.
