January 2009
25 posts
Beginning of repentance
The beginning of repentance is honesty. When you’re honest with yourself, brutally honest, without an ounce of pride and honest with others and God, that is the beginning of the difficult and satisfying road of repentance.
Clean Hands - Take 2
An absolute must read. The segment below is a portion of the “Clean Hands and a Pure Heart” article. Note the link above for source.
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The gospel of Jesus Christ encompasses much more than avoiding, overcoming, and being cleansed from sin and the bad influences in our lives; it also essentially entails doing good, being good, and becoming better. Repenting of our sins and seeking...
Pure hands and a clean heart
This theme seems to be coming up in a lot of the studying that I’ve been doing. Alma 5:26 comes to mind also:
“If ye have experienced a change of heart… I would ask, can ye feel so now?”
To recognize in ourselves that we need to repent and cleanse our lives of “worldly desires” is probably one of the most disregarded, despised, avoided and hated of all things...
If ye love me...
…keep my commandments.
Every idle word
Matthew 12:36 - ”…every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”
Do Facebook comments count?
Wisdom
When your questioning turns from cynicism to seeking wisdom and truth, you may find you’ll get somewhere.
True characters
I’m studying a bit about Martin Harris and his involvement with Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. In Joseph Smith History (JSH 1:61-65) it relates Martin’s travels to New York with a manuscript of characters copied by Joseph Smith from The Book of Mormon. The manuscript was well received by Professor Anthon and he noted they were “true characters” until he learned that...
By this shall men know...
…that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Changing our mind about changing our mind
Repentance means change. Primarily change from the desires of the natural man. What can root out those desires is the Spirit of Christ and eventually a proper giving way to the will of Christ, as laid out in His Gospel, by worthily maintaining the Holy Ghost on a daily basis.
A commitment to the purifying effects of the refiner’s fire is nothing short of daily striving to live...
The Family - A Proclamation to the World
Read it here.
Come and see who we are
A few years ago I had the opportunity to work with Gladys Knight and the Saints Unified Voices Choir. That choir, above all else, testified of the divinity of the Savior. I still think back with fond memories of those trips and those feelings of the Spirit of God as the choir collectively sang their devotions to Christ.
I visited the “SUV” Choir website just this evening for the...
D&C 109
I’m giving the lesson tomorrow on Elijah and just read D&C 109, the prayer offered by Joseph Smith, at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple. Some pretty amazing promises and prophecies are recorded here. Take some time to read it.
Unseen power
A promise given by Elder Packer about reading the Book of Mormon — ”An unseen power will hold your hand as you hold to the iron rod.” I’ve felt that power. We are amazingly blessed to have the Book of Mormon.
It parallels our times.
The more we read the Book of Mormon, the more clearly we see the problems of our times. We also recognize that the prophets had close...
A nugget of wisdom
Mosiah 2:17 - And behold I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God.
Adversity
It is not our lot to be absolved from trial and affliction in our life. It is our responsibility to know that the nature of our existence absolutely requires that we are tested. The Lord says, “I will try the faith of my people.”
Wishing away problems in our life is simply wishful thinking, if we understand this truth that we *will* be tried. Spending time thinking that our life is...
Transcendent atonement
Christ’s transcendent atonement makes everything right… if we are faithful to Him.
The Law of Increasing Returns
An absolutely brilliant talk given by Elder Eyring - The Law of Increasing Returns.
Not just another talk by Maxwell
A More Determined Discipleship is another gem from Elder Maxwell and given the circumstances of our day, it might as well have been given yesterday.
Speaking of irony...
My sister told me about this talk a few nights ago and it is probably one of the best conference talks I’ve ever heard/read. It seems that we will pass through, in part, many of the same tests that the Savior passed through or else what point would the Atonement have been, if he couldn’t relate directly to us, each one of us personally. THAT is amazing. Christ descended below all...
Vision of the Savior
Read the account by Elder David B. Haight here.
A serious study
I woke up this morning and this thought came to me, “a serious study” and I found this:
“There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. … This is my prayer,...
Sensibility among chaos
My life has had its share of chaos, of frustration and of what seems like dashed hopes. It has also had moments of amazing peace and joy. We can truly only know the good after we’ve known the bad.
There is only a true understanding of faith through genuine discipleship of Jesus Christ. I love this scripture:
“The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they...
Family is everthing
Family IS everything. I don’t know that truer words were ever spoken.
Age
No one likes to be seen as dumb but way too many people don’t mind being foolish. Let’s be wise and learn from our mistakes.
Jan. 1, 2009
Alma 31:5 — “It had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them.”
A recommitment to daily study the scriptures and write about what I read so it sinks a bit deeper.