One of my favorite chapters in the scriptures is 2 Nephi 9, in which the prophet Jacob speaks to the Nephites about the plan of salvation. Here are some of my favorite verses:
"Behold, my beloved brethren, I speak unto you these things that ye may rejoice, and lift up your heads forever, because of the blessings which the Lord God shall bestow upon your children.
For as death hath passed upon all men, to fulfil the merciful plan of the great Creator, there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; and the fall came by reason of transgression; and because man became fallen they were cut off from the presence of the Lord.
Wherefore, it must needs be an infinite atonement—save it should be an infinite atonement this corruption could not put on incorruption. Wherefore, the first judgment which came upon man must needs have remained to an endless duration. And if so, this flesh must have laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more.
O the wisdom of God, his mercy and grace! For behold, if the flesh should rise no more our spirits must become subject to that angel who fell from before the presence of the Eternal God, and became the devil, to rise no more.
And our spirits must have become like unto him, and we become devils, angels to a devil, to be shut out from the presence of our God, and to remain with the father of lies, in misery, like unto himself; yea, to that being who beguiled our first parents, who transformeth himself nigh unto an angel of light, and stirreth up the children of men unto secret combinations of murder and all manner of secret works of darkness.
O how great the goodness of our God, who prepareth a way for our escape from the grasp of this awful monster; yea, that monster, death and hell, which I call the death of the body, and also the death of the spirit.
O how great the plan of our God! For on the other hand, the paradise of God must deliver up the spirits of the righteous, and the grave deliver up the body of the righteous; and the spirit and the body is restored to itself again, and all men become incorruptible, and immortal, and they are living souls, having a perfect knowledge like unto us in the flesh, save it be that our knowledge shall be perfect.
O the greatness and the justice of our God! For he executeth all his words, and they have gone forth out of his mouth, and his law must be fulfilled.
O the greatness of the mercy of our God, the Holy One of Israel! For he delivereth his saints from that awful monster the devil, and death, and hell, and that lake of fire and brimstone, which is endless torment.
O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it.
And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam.
And he suffereth this that the resurrection might pass upon all men, that all might stand before him at the great and judgment day.
Behold, my beloved brethren, remember the words of your God; pray unto him continually by day, and give thanks unto his holy name by night. Let your hearts rejoice."
(2 Nephi 3, 6-10, 13, 17, 19-22, 52)
I just love this reminder about who God is, what He does for us, and how much we need Him. In his book The Infinite Atonement, Tad R. Callister talks about how without Christ we would suffered a sort of negative atonement--rather than becoming one with our Savior, we would all become one with Satan instead. (I think that's what he said; my copy of the book is currently packed in a box somewhere in my new apartment.) Jacob discusses that as well--without the Savior, we would be subject to the devil. There is no other option without the Savior. It is truly wonderful that He did what He did, that He atoned for us and was resurrected so that He can give us the grace and mercy that we need to be able to overcome the effects of the fall and to be redeemed from death and hell. Truly, as Jacob says, O how great the goodness of our God! Truly, we have reason to rejoice.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Broken Things to Mend
In the April 2006 General Conference, Jeffrey R. Holland gave a fabulous address, Broken Things to Mend. This has become one of my all-time favorite talks, and when I get discouraged, it's definitely one I fall back on to remind me that no problem is too big for the Savior to solve--and no problem is too small for Him to care about. Here are two of my favorite snippets from the talk:
"I testify that the Savior’s Atonement lifts from us not only the burden of our sins but also the burden of our disappointments and sorrows, our heartaches and our despair.(14) …There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life. Nevertheless, the soul that comes unto Christ, who knows His voice and strives to do as He did, finds a strength, as the hymn says, “beyond [his] own.”(15) The Savior reminds us that He has “graven [us] upon the palms of [His] hands.”(16) Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now. When He says to the poor in spirit, “Come unto me,” He means He knows the way out and He knows the way up. He knows it because He has walked it. He knows the way because He is the way…"
"If you are lonely, please know you can find comfort. If you are discouraged, please know you can find hope. If you are poor in spirit, please know you can be strengthened. If you feel you are broken, please know you can be mended.
'In Nazareth, the narrow road,
That tires the feet and steals the breath,
Passes the place where once abode
The Carpenter of Nazareth.
And up and down the dusty way
The village folk would often wend;
And on the bench, beside Him, lay
Their broken things for Him to mend.
The maiden with the doll she broke,
The woman with the broken chair,
The man with broken plough, or yoke,
Said, “Can you mend it, Carpenter?”
And each received the thing he sought,
In yoke, or plough, or chair, or doll;
The broken thing which each had brought
Returned again a perfect whole.
So, up the hill the long years through,
With heavy step and wistful eye,
The burdened souls their way pursue,
Uttering each the plaintive cry:
“O Carpenter of Nazareth,
This heart, that’s broken past repair,
This life, that’s shattered nigh to death,
Oh, can You mend them, Carpenter?”
And by His kind and ready hand,
His own sweet life is woven through
Our broken lives, until they stand
A New Creation—“all things new.”
“The shattered [substance] of [the] heart,
Desire, ambition, hope, and faith,
Mould Thou into the perfect part,
O, Carpenter of Nazareth!”'(19)
14. See Alma 7:11–12.
15. “Lord, I Would Follow Thee,” Hymns, no. 220.
16. 1 Ne. 21:16.
19. George Blair, “The Carpenter of Nazareth,” in Obert C. Tanner, Christ’s Ideals for Living (Sunday School manual, 1955), 22.
"I testify that the Savior’s Atonement lifts from us not only the burden of our sins but also the burden of our disappointments and sorrows, our heartaches and our despair.(14) …There can and will be plenty of difficulties in life. Nevertheless, the soul that comes unto Christ, who knows His voice and strives to do as He did, finds a strength, as the hymn says, “beyond [his] own.”(15) The Savior reminds us that He has “graven [us] upon the palms of [His] hands.”(16) Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion and Atonement, I promise you He is not going to turn His back on us now. When He says to the poor in spirit, “Come unto me,” He means He knows the way out and He knows the way up. He knows it because He has walked it. He knows the way because He is the way…"
"If you are lonely, please know you can find comfort. If you are discouraged, please know you can find hope. If you are poor in spirit, please know you can be strengthened. If you feel you are broken, please know you can be mended.
'In Nazareth, the narrow road,
That tires the feet and steals the breath,
Passes the place where once abode
The Carpenter of Nazareth.
And up and down the dusty way
The village folk would often wend;
And on the bench, beside Him, lay
Their broken things for Him to mend.
The maiden with the doll she broke,
The woman with the broken chair,
The man with broken plough, or yoke,
Said, “Can you mend it, Carpenter?”
And each received the thing he sought,
In yoke, or plough, or chair, or doll;
The broken thing which each had brought
Returned again a perfect whole.
So, up the hill the long years through,
With heavy step and wistful eye,
The burdened souls their way pursue,
Uttering each the plaintive cry:
“O Carpenter of Nazareth,
This heart, that’s broken past repair,
This life, that’s shattered nigh to death,
Oh, can You mend them, Carpenter?”
And by His kind and ready hand,
His own sweet life is woven through
Our broken lives, until they stand
A New Creation—“all things new.”
“The shattered [substance] of [the] heart,
Desire, ambition, hope, and faith,
Mould Thou into the perfect part,
O, Carpenter of Nazareth!”'(19)
14. See Alma 7:11–12.
15. “Lord, I Would Follow Thee,” Hymns, no. 220.
16. 1 Ne. 21:16.
19. George Blair, “The Carpenter of Nazareth,” in Obert C. Tanner, Christ’s Ideals for Living (Sunday School manual, 1955), 22.
Sunday Will Come
In October 2006, Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gave a talk in General Conference that I really enjoyed, called Sunday Will Come. In it he talked about the Friday of the Savior's atonement and death and how dark and bleak that day was and how evil men rejoiced at the Savior's suffering and death and those who loved Him despaired.
He says, " I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest." However, he continues, "But the doom of that day did not endure. The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind."
And then he relates this to our own lives, and this is the part that I like the best, "Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come."
I can't say it any more eloquently than Elder Wirthlin did, but I'd like to add my own voice in saying that there is always hope of a glorious Sunday, of an end to the bleakness and darkness and despair that the world tries to engulf us in, because we do have a Savior who brings light into the world and into our individual lives, and I am grateful to Him for that.
(And you can check out a brief video clip here.)
He says, " I think that of all the days since the beginning of this world’s history, that Friday was the darkest." However, he continues, "But the doom of that day did not endure. The despair did not linger because on Sunday, the resurrected Lord burst the bonds of death. He ascended from the grave and appeared gloriously triumphant as the Savior of all mankind."
And then he relates this to our own lives, and this is the part that I like the best, "Each of us will have our own Fridays—those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We all will experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays.But I testify to you in the name of the One who conquered death—Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next, Sunday will come."
I can't say it any more eloquently than Elder Wirthlin did, but I'd like to add my own voice in saying that there is always hope of a glorious Sunday, of an end to the bleakness and darkness and despair that the world tries to engulf us in, because we do have a Savior who brings light into the world and into our individual lives, and I am grateful to Him for that.
(And you can check out a brief video clip here.)
Monday, January 17, 2011
It Will All Work Out
"It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers." --Gordon B. Hinckley
This is one of my favorite quotations, and I usually refer to it when I'm discouraged or going through a trial or something, but for some reason, even though I'm pretty happy right now, it popped into my head. And even in good times, it's a great message to remember--we're never going to be forsaken. The Lord isn't going to give up on us or be too busy for us or whatever. His whole purpose is to help us be happy, and I just really love the reassurance that He is always there for us and because of that, it does all work out.
This is one of my favorite quotations, and I usually refer to it when I'm discouraged or going through a trial or something, but for some reason, even though I'm pretty happy right now, it popped into my head. And even in good times, it's a great message to remember--we're never going to be forsaken. The Lord isn't going to give up on us or be too busy for us or whatever. His whole purpose is to help us be happy, and I just really love the reassurance that He is always there for us and because of that, it does all work out.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Tender Mercies
In April 2005, Elder David A. Bednar, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, delivered a General Conference talk ("The Tender Mercies of the Lord") which I think will end up being one of the classic talks of the Church and also a classic talk in the lives and hearts of many of the Church members. That talk popped into my head last night, so I just wanted to share my thoughts in relation to it.
Elder Bednar defines the tender mercies of the Lord as "the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ." Throughout his talk, he mentions some tender mercies that he has experienced himself or seen in the lives of others:
Many years ago, I read a quotation that said, "Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous." I thought it was an interesting quotation, but years later, I realized, it's not exactly right. Coincidence is man's way of making God anonymous. God never intended to be anonymous. He wants us to recognize the tender mercies in our lives and know exactly Who has given them to us.
Why, we might ask, does God not want to be anonymous? He commands His people to do their alms in secret, so why does He want His to be done openly?
As with all else that He does for us, God wants us to know that the blessings in our lives are not merely coincidences but are the tender mercies of a kind and loving Father not because it benefits Him but because it benefits us. God does not cease to be God if we don't recognize Him; He's not any less important or any less perfect if we dismiss His tender mercies as coincidences. However, if we recognize that God is bestowing His tender mercies upon us, that helps us recognize that we have a Father who loves us, who wants to help us, and who is very aware of us. He wants us to know that we can turn to and rely on Him. He wants us to know that we aren't alone, that His whole purpose is our salvation and our happiness, and that He is aware of the needs of every individual--including you and me!
Don't make God anonymous in your life. Recognize the tender mercies as gifts from your Father in Heaven who loves you beyond your comprehension. As Elder Bednar noted, the timing of these tender mercies is designed to help us recognize them as being tender mercies, so pay attention and witness the Lord's love in your life.
(Check out this brief video with snippets from Elder Bednar's talk, because he says it way better than I do.)
Elder Bednar defines the tender mercies of the Lord as "the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ." Throughout his talk, he mentions some tender mercies that he has experienced himself or seen in the lives of others:
- Just before he had to deliver his first Conference talk, the intermediate hymn, although selected weeks before he was called to be an Apostle and therefore assigned to speak in General Conference, was his favorite hymn
- A family whose father/husband had been killed in the military received a tender Christmas card from him, mailed prior to his death and given extra meaning by its timely delivery after he had died
- A priesthood leader who had a dream about a young man in his stake; through the dream the young man was able to know that the Lord knew who he was
Many years ago, I read a quotation that said, "Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous." I thought it was an interesting quotation, but years later, I realized, it's not exactly right. Coincidence is man's way of making God anonymous. God never intended to be anonymous. He wants us to recognize the tender mercies in our lives and know exactly Who has given them to us.
Why, we might ask, does God not want to be anonymous? He commands His people to do their alms in secret, so why does He want His to be done openly?
As with all else that He does for us, God wants us to know that the blessings in our lives are not merely coincidences but are the tender mercies of a kind and loving Father not because it benefits Him but because it benefits us. God does not cease to be God if we don't recognize Him; He's not any less important or any less perfect if we dismiss His tender mercies as coincidences. However, if we recognize that God is bestowing His tender mercies upon us, that helps us recognize that we have a Father who loves us, who wants to help us, and who is very aware of us. He wants us to know that we can turn to and rely on Him. He wants us to know that we aren't alone, that His whole purpose is our salvation and our happiness, and that He is aware of the needs of every individual--including you and me!
Don't make God anonymous in your life. Recognize the tender mercies as gifts from your Father in Heaven who loves you beyond your comprehension. As Elder Bednar noted, the timing of these tender mercies is designed to help us recognize them as being tender mercies, so pay attention and witness the Lord's love in your life.
(Check out this brief video with snippets from Elder Bednar's talk, because he says it way better than I do.)
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Rock
"And now my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." (Helaman 5:12)
That was one of my favorite scriptures when I was growing up. I really like how it shows the strength of the Savior--He cannot be beaten by anything that the devil throws at Him, and when we build our lives on the Savior, then we tap into that strength. I especially like this verse when paired with the words of Ammon:
"Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them. But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest, and they are his; and he will raise them up at the last day." (Alma 26:6-7).
I get this image in my head of a rock with hands emerging from it, wrapping around and protecting and whoever is standing on the rock. And maybe a rock with hands is a strange image, but when you switch out the rock for Christ, and you picture His arms wrapped around you, supporting you and protecting you, that's a beautiful picture. And the true beauty is that it isn't just a picture--it's reality for anyone who will come unto Him and build on the Rock.
That was one of my favorite scriptures when I was growing up. I really like how it shows the strength of the Savior--He cannot be beaten by anything that the devil throws at Him, and when we build our lives on the Savior, then we tap into that strength. I especially like this verse when paired with the words of Ammon:
"Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them. But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest, and they are his; and he will raise them up at the last day." (Alma 26:6-7).
I get this image in my head of a rock with hands emerging from it, wrapping around and protecting and whoever is standing on the rock. And maybe a rock with hands is a strange image, but when you switch out the rock for Christ, and you picture His arms wrapped around you, supporting you and protecting you, that's a beautiful picture. And the true beauty is that it isn't just a picture--it's reality for anyone who will come unto Him and build on the Rock.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)